The rest of the horde went down in time, leaving the patrol tired but unharmed. They continued the first half, conserving their mana and stamina. They only faced one small horde and stray monsters, giving them plenty of breathing room. Halfway through their route, they stopped for 15 minutes. Since it had only been two hours since they had started, the tiredness was minimal and the horses would be ready to go again soon.
Everyone was sitting in the carts, meditating on the recent fights or working on something else. Lev was focused on making his short swords less demanding. The rest of the group had their eyes closed with their backs leaning against the carts. The hunters were relaxing and replenishing their stamina and mana when the iron team’s warning reached them.
“ORCS! Ranged hunters! Take your positions!”
The hunters, including Lev and his friends, scrambled to get up. He took his position in ranged attackers. Looking at the approaching Orc raiders, Lev felt a chill go down his spine.
20… 30… 50… almost 70. That is too many. Far too many.
Lev identified a few of them, along with the leader.
[Orc - Level 58]
[Orc - Level 58]
[Orc - Level 70]
“Prepare your attacks! Hold nothing back!” The iron team’s warrior’s voice brought him back to reality. The Orcs had crude armor and wielded wooden spears and rusty swords. Lev scanned the monsters for any ranged variant, but there were none. Forming six barriers, he looked at Kayla.
“How long does your buff last?” Lev questioned once he had her attention.
“If I buff two of you, 10 minutes. Less if I need to keep casting my other skills.” Her eyes kept darting from Lev to the approaching horde, fear apparent in her posture.
“Calm down, if something goes bad, we can run away on my barriers. Besides, we aren’t alone,” Lev comforted her. She took a few deep breaths to steady herself. It didn’t completely remove her hesitation, but she looked considerably more determined. To improve the moment even further, he gave her a thumbs-up, making her roll her eyes. Her expression clearly said ‘be serious for once, idiot’.
The patrol was already moving back to Windkeep in an arc, changing their direction once the Orcs showed up. Now, they were going there directly at full speed. The Orcs were faster still, catching up but very slowly. The horses were bred to be faster and stronger, and it showed.
When the horde was less than a hundred meters away, the order to launch long-range spells came through. Many fireballs, lightning bolts, earth bolts, and various elements were launched. One of Kayla’s wooden projectiles also flew through the air. Someone had even launched a ball of acid. Most of the attacks landed due to the high number of targets, but only a few of the orcs fell. Most of the kills came from the iron hunters. The barrage did manage to slow the horde slightly.
Most of the Orcs continued forward unimpeded and soon were in range of Lev’s barriers. Foregoing the notion of killing them, he aimed for any weak spots that would impair the movements or outright cripple the monsters. But that proved fairly difficult as the monsters had enough perception to react to his barriers. A lot of them were stomped or destroyed, some of them were dodged, and only a select few hit the intended target. Even then, the monsters were much more resilient than normal orcs, also running faster than they should be.
For the next 5 minutes, they focused on slowing the Orcs as much as they could. The thumping of the orcs running after them was audible over all the skills and explosions, not letting anyone rest for even a moment. A dozen of the orcs died to their constant attacks, but dozens were still chasing them. Lev and Amelia launched their attacks when the monsters got too close to the cart, focusing on impairing their movement.
They were a few minutes away from Windkeep, just barely ahead of the Orcs. Lev was about to harass them with his barriers again when his perception told him something was happening. The attribute was not high enough to tell him any more than that, so he looked around before he focused on the wall. He blinked, thinking he saw something blue above the walls. Not finding anything, he gave up and turned around when something fell in the middle of the monster horde. There was a blinding flash of light and a loud boom of an explosion, disorienting everyone on the carts for a few seconds. When Lev got back his bearings enough to open his eyes and focus, all he saw was carnage.
No orc survived the explosion, and the land was charred black. The ring formed by the explosion stopped just five meters shy of the patrol carts. His dazed mind tried to come up with any clues about what may have happened, and it finally clicked in Lev’s mind.
Someone launched this attack from atop the walls and destroyed the entire horde.
That thought made him chuckle before it turned into a laugh. His friends looked at him oddly, so he explained.
“I’m pretty sure someone launched that from atop the wall.” Lev pointed his thumb toward the said wall. His friends looked at him with expressions of disbelief and … a different kind of disbelief.
Amelia was star-struck. “What Level does one need to do something like that?”
Jack was not faring much better. “Definitely above level 250. We are almost a kilometer away from the walls.” He looked at the mess left behind by the attack, making sure it was still there and not a dream. Lev was also suitably impressed, wondering if his barriers would ever be able to imitate attacks like that. Kayla just looked happy to be done with the nightmarish chase.
The iron team was pestered with questions as soon as the awed silence wore off. They motioned for everyone to quiet down before the mage spoke up. “That was most likely an attack from Galvanic Sniper. I am sure all of you will hear about them and more in the upcoming days.”
****
Lev walked up to the iron team’s leader and waved to get his attention. “Hey, I just wanted to ask why the orcs were stronger than usual.”
His words confused the leader for a moment before understanding dawned on him. “You mean compared to orcs of a similar level?” He continued at Lev’s nod. “It’s because of the orc leader. The raiding party is strengthened overall depending on the number of orcs and the leader’s level. This was one of the bigger ones I have seen so far.”
“There are even bigger ones?” Lev was shocked. The horde had felt like a mini-wave in itself.
“They can get far larger during waves. Like in the hundreds.” The leader replied with a serious tone before excusing himself. Lev slowly walked back to his friends, lost in his thoughts.
Waves are composed of many different monsters. If just the orcs are numbered in the hundreds, just how many goddamn monsters are there in a 7-rated wave by Windkeep’s standards?
Pondering about how nightmarish a wave with a rating of 10 would be, he almost ran straight into Jack. Lev was about to ask if they wanted to go for another patrol but stopped himself. Observing his friends more closely, he could see signs of fatigue just from how they stood together. Kayla’s were the most obvious, relief apparent on her face. Jack was still gripping his hammer rather tightly. Amelia and Lev were the most composed, but he was sure she was subconsciously pushing past the tiredness. Just like him.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
We have more than enough time to work on improving our skills and techniques. No need to push ourselves too much.
Happy with his decision, he nodded to himself before addressing his friends.
“I think this was enough excitement for one day. Since there’s still half a day left, how about we explore the city?”
Contrary to his expectations, none of them agreed instantly. Amelia was the most surprised, already ready for another. Kayla and Jack looked thoughtful.
“The chances of finding a similar horde are supposed to be low. I think we can go for another if the mages pace themselves. Don’t want to be completely tapped out.” Jack expressed his opinion first, looking at Kayla for her’s.
“I don’t think we should do another, but I’m also fine if we do. Why do you want to stop?”
Lev rolled his eyes at the implication, looking at Amelia to see if she had anything to say. When she didn't, he replied. “I want to look into enchanted gear and retain enough stamina to train with my short swords. So far, I have only used them once.”
Amelia agreed easily, and they made their way toward the inn they had rented the previous day. Getting the same rooms again, they gathered in Lev’s room for some reason. Lev checked his progress before speaking.
[
Your group has slain [Goblin - Level 32]
…
Your group has slain [Orc - Level 60]
Arcane Barrier Manipulation has reached Level 7
Incisive Edge has reached Level 6
Whirling Rim has reached Level 6
Barrier Armor has reached Level 3
Opportunity has reached Level 6
Swiftfoot has reached Level 5
Heavy Lifting has reached Level 5
Needle Precision has reached Level 5
Bladewalker has reached Level 47
…
Bladewalker has reached level 50
20 Free attribute points
]
The class levels were slowing down, and that made Lev breathe out a sigh of relief. While the decrease in leveling speed was annoying for most, it worked out in their favor. They had been forced to fight a lot of monsters in a short amount of time, resulting in their class levels being far ahead of their skill levels. Skill levels also slowed down the higher they went, so it was necessary not to rush the class levels. It was common knowledge that evolutions depended on how high your skills were and how you utilized those skills.
Lev distributed the points like usual, five into physical attributes and the rest into the others. He checked his stats once he was done.
[
Strength: 38
Dexterity: 47
Constitution: 45
Intelligence: 130
Wisdom: 94
Perception: 66
]
This is already getting addictive. Lev frowned, the recent blunder still fresh on his mind.
By then, his friends, similarly checking their status, were also done with their inspection. Lev broke the silence.
“Any of you close to the 2nd rank?”
“Nope, Level 7 is the highest,” Kayla responded, and the other two nodded along. “I can buff three people now, but it uses all of my mana in five minutes. Higher after the last few levels.”
“Can you buff yourself?” Lev asked, suddenly getting an idea.
“Yeah? Oh, I see what you mean. It would increase my mana regeneration considerably during combat, huh,” She hummed, nodding to herself after going over the idea again. Before now, she could only buff one or two people, making it much more effective to use the skill on Lev or Amelia. Now, she could buff herself to keep it going for longer, especially when she would be able to buff Jack as well once her skill leveled up.
She tested it, and the self-buff barely broke even with the mana consumption. It would only get better with increasing wisdom and the decrease in mana cost afforded by the higher skill level.
That led to a discussion about their skills and how they performed during the patrols. Jack suggested trying to form thorns on her vines, making them even more crippling. Kayla tried it, but the durability of the thorns left much to be desired. It took minimal effort to break them despite her best efforts. Giving up on that idea, they started planning on how to spend the rest of the days until the wave finished forming. Lev suggested taking it slow, trying to seem natural, faltering under Amelia’s stare.
“What?” He muttered in a low voice. Jack and Kayla were smiling.
Amelia kept staring for a few seconds before replying. “We aren’t stupid, Lev. What happened?”
“Well… I have been warned indirectly several times to slow down already, and the last attack from the sniper made me realize just how long the road is. Slow and steady wins the race, and my mindset was the exact opposite.” He added as an afterthought, “Besides, it would be unfair to drag you all with me. My vaster mana pool does not excuse my behavior.”
Jack decided it was an opportune moment to interrupt. “It’s not like you’re taking a break. We are just moving from one exercise to another.” It was clearly a joke if his grin was any indication.
After resting for another fifteen minutes, the group decided to visit the market first. All of them needed to look into enchanted gear and supplies eventually, so it would be prudent to gather information early on.
Windkeep was built with citizens in mind. Unlike WhiteFall’s straightforward and efficient city planning, Windkeep was filled with twists and turns. The group had to ask for directions multiple times, as their inn was close to the gates and the market was on the other side. A solid 45 minutes of walking later, they stood in front of the open market. Different quality stores were mixed together, and most of the fame was allocated to the shop’s name instead of the location. Lev saw two stores that stood out from the rest, each a branch of the same larger store. They were obviously far beyond their reach, so the group passed them without a second thought.