The one who spoke was Hilbert. He pushed through the healers and onlookers and approached Sol.
“Don't 'Huh?' me. You know exactly what I mean. They chose to run in there to stop the orcs alongside you. If they didn’t join the battle, I can assure you that you would be dead right now.”
Nataly was about to interrupt him as she felt he was going too far, but a hand fell on her shoulders, holding her back. She turned back to see it was Olfred who silently placed a finger on his lips.
“But if I was just strong-”
“But you're not. You're weak, I'm weak, most of us in this room are weak. But you know what you did even though you are weak. You warned us, moved us to a safe place, and then proceeded to protect us. Even when some of us were resistant to your help.”
Hilbert was clearly referring to himself, but no one pointed that out.
“I know your type. You know what you should do instead of wallowing in your self pity? You could stand back up, go thank the men and women who died for us and train harder so it doesn't happen again.”
While Hilbert’s words were rude, they resonated with Sol.
“Ha… You're right. I'm such an idiot.”
“Glad you understand, now if you will excuse me, I have to get back to work.”
He then turned around without hesitation and returned to his patients to tend to them, not caring what the other healers and onlookers do or think.
Sol watched as he left before chuckling to himself before turning to face the rest of the onlookers.
“Alright, everyone, I’ll be fine, so you all should get back to your duties as well.”
The healers nodded and left to return to their tasks. Olfred stayed as he wanted to ask Sol a question.
“Sol, right? Have you seen Diana anywhere?”
Sol shook his head, “She said we could handle this on our own and left to join the first healer group on the frontlines.”
“Haha! Did she now? Sounds just like her.”
“Did you not see her there?”
“No, I don’t doubt she is there though. But I won't get a chance to see her unless I seek her out.”
“Why?”
He grinned at Sol with an expression that told him he was asking a very silly question.
“Because I doubt the orcs are strong enough to make me fall back for healing.”
“Ah…”
Sol was very curious about exactly how strong Olfred was but did not dare to use [Analysis] as he already learned from his mistake with Diana. Instead, he decided to ask upfront.
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“Umm, sir-”
“Just call me Olfred. I don't care about formalities.”
“O-Olfred, if you don't mind me asking how strong are you?”
Olfred, not bothered by his question, answered.
“Hmm, if I had to put an adventurer's rank to it, I would be in the upper levels of A-Rank.”
“Really?!”
A-Rank adventurers are very rare. It is not a simple matter of leveling up and having high stats, but one also needs to train their skills and talent skills to a very high degree. The reason for this is that monsters tend to be inherently stronger than people of the same level for a variety of reasons. There were a lot of B-Rank adventurers who managed to get to a high level but were unable to reach A-Rank because of the limitations of their skills and talents making them unable to fight against monsters of similar levels. That is why people who reached A-Rank tend to have unique or even legendary talents; not only do they have an advantage with better skills but their growth tends to be faster as well.
That meant it was very likely for Olfred to have a unique talent at the very least.
Olfred nodded at Sol, “Yup, anyways I need to go. I will leave half of my unit here to help secure the fort, we can spare that much at least since the battle is almost over. By the way, kid, I saw a bit of your performance holding them off on your own, impressive. So chin up, I know you're gonna go far.”
Olfred gave Sol one final pat on the back, this time knocking him off the bed.
“Haha! My bad, you should take this as a sign to gain some weight and build some muscle. Defense and vitality won’t help against force like this; you should keep that in mind for the future.”
Getting up from the floor in pain, Sol nodded.
“Will do…”
“Good, see ya around.”
Olfred casually waved as he walked away without a care in the world.
Seeing him finally leave, Sol sighed in relief.
“Phew, I am glad he is easygoing, but I swear if I hang out around him, he might just accidentally kill me.”
Sol looked at his status page and saw his recently healed health drop by 100.
‘He didn’t use any skills and yet he did that much damage when I had [Natural Armor] and [Physical Resistance]...’
Finally left alone, Sol climbed back onto the bed and saw the many notifications on his status page. When Olfred killed the remaining orcs, Sol used [Siphon], gaining a lot of skill levels and a few new ones as well.
Name: Sol
Race: Human
Talents: [Siphoner]
Level: 35
Exp: 14,380/165,000
HP: 902/1000
MP: 500
Str: 40 (+60)
Vit: 30 (+70)
Agi: 30 (+20)
Int: 30 (+10)
Wis: 40 (+10)
Available Stats: 0
Talent Skills:
[Siphon] Lv 3, [Analysis] Lv 3
Passive Skills:
[Intermediate Swordsmanship] Lv 5, [Basic Trapmaking] Lv 7, [Silent Steps] Lv 7, [Parry] Lv 9, [Quick Cast] Lv 5, [Agility Up] Lv 4, [Foraging] Lv 10, [Intermediate Throwing] Lv 1, [Intermediate Unarmed Mastery] Lv 1, [Gargantuan Strength] Lv 1, [Basic Bowmanship] Lv 7, [Intermediate Axemanship] Lv 2, [Iron Stomach] Lv 4, [Tracking] Lv 10, [Endless Vitality] Lv 2, [Increased Mana Regeneration] Lv MAX, [Physical Resistance] Lv MAX, [Mana Perception] Lv 6, [Natural Armor] Lv MAX, [Wisdom Up] Lv 2, [Increased Health Regeneration] Lv 3, [Intelligence Up] Lv 2, [Basic Spearmanship] Lv 8
Active Skills:
[Cross Slash] Lv 3, [Leap] Lv 9, [Basic Wind Magic] Lv 4, [Intermediate Fire Magic] Lv 4, [Snap Punch] Lv 2, [Sprint] Lv 10, [Harden] Lv 9, [Power Shot] Lv 4, [Concealment] Lv 4, [Wide Swing] Lv 7, [Basic Water Magic] Lv 5, [Intermediate Earth Magic] Lv 1, [Earth Hammer] Lv 5, [Rock Throw] Lv 4, [Burrow] Lv MAX, [Heavy Blow] Lv 8, [Crippling Strike] Lv 7, [Charge] Lv 6, [Rage] Lv 5
A lot of skills leveled up, and a few even gave Sol a prompt to evolve them. Without hesitation, he selected yes to all of them.
[Foraging] evolved into [Nature Sense]!
[Tracking] evolved into [Pursuit]!
[Sprint] evolved into [Blurry Steps]!
[Nature Sense] Lv 1: Vast experience in foraging allows you to easily find anything mother nature can provide. You are also able to sense the general direction of any foragable as long as you have enough knowledge about it.
[Pursuit] Lv 1: Nothing can escape you when you are on the hunt. With a variety of tracking methods and experience, you will know the best way to track someone. If the trail runs cold, there is a small chance to intuit where to go next.
[Blurry Steps] Lv 1: Your legs have adapted to the strain from high bursts of speed. When activated, your movement speed increased by 300%. Duration: 5 minutes. Cooldown: 30 minutes.
Although Sol felt stronger, he didn’t let it go to his head. Today clearly showed how weak he was for many reasons and he needs to work much harder to improve. Finishing with his status page, Sol closed it and lay back down in the bed hoping to get some rest.