CHAPTER 128

Finally, Tom’s mana reached seventy percent full, and he started redirecting the regeneration to healing.

With the waves of agony striking every time he breathed, the choice to focus on the largest sources of pain was easy. His lower arm was by far the worst and when Healing Tranquillity allowed him to view the damage, he winced internally. Shattering a bone was one thing, but then repeatedly knocking it against things and moving it erratically was another.

The best he could say for it was that the skin was still intact. Now that he was examining it, Tom could see how lumpy his arm was and this was from a fall… Ten vitality was shit, but then again it had gained him a valuable skill. Carefully, he engaged Touch Heal. Mending a mangled arm was nothing new, and there were various tricks to aid the process. He prodded the outside of the skin while flexing his magic to reinforce sections of muscle and to adjust blood flow. Only the extra mental fortitude Healing Tranquillity provided stopped him from passing out in pain, but the external prodding and his internal manipulation to create channels free from debris combined to shift small pieces of bone. One by one each of the fragments were pushed back into their initial position and all of them with only a miniscule expenditure of mana.

Tom didn’t want to think about the cost if Touch Heal had been released without him first manually mending the bone. It would be many times more mana than he possessed at least.

As the first few pieces clicked into place, he bonded them together with the minimal amount of mana needed to hold them in position. A sharp movement would re-break them so the approach was risky but getting rid of the agony was important to his state of mind. Then he continued with his massage down the arm. Each squeeze with his fingers provided the external force to shift the shards. They moved easily because his magic had already shifted the blood out of the way, creating little pockets they could move into. Instead of the process being two steps forward and one step backward those tiny temporary pathways meant that each jolt of momentum created by his fingers had the two steps become five forward with no backsliding. It might have been his bone, but he imagined this was like putting together a mosaic.

It was complicated.

A chip from the middle of his arm had ended at his wrist and it took seven squeezes to get it there. Another had somehow rotated to the wrong side of the arm and he had to guide it all the way around the rest of the mended bone till it could be slotted in correctly.

He sighed as he pulled his good hand away. All the large chunks had been returned to the correct position, but Healing Tranquillity told him that the job was not great. Ten percent mass was missing, which would be costly when he completed the restoration.

Tom paused and frowned at his mana levels. He had been so engrossed in his task he had let it drift down to below forty percent. If doing so wouldn’t literally re-break his bones, he would have hit himself in annoyance. He needed to be more disciplined than that, but he had got lost in his healing and pursuing pain reduction.

His mana regenerated, and he re-triggered Healing Tranquillity and went about completing his healing. The weak bonding he had put in place was strengthened; the tears left by the shards of bone were healed and the bruising reduced. His mind kept moving, ensuring each area that had been hurt got the same treatment.

He sighed in relief at his pain-free existence.

His next step was to set up the ambush for when Everlyn cycled through.

That meant he needed to get out of the blocked off cave he was in.

He glanced back toward the previous entrance. There were tonnes of solid rock between him and it.

No longer an option.

If he wanted to, he could follow this tunnel out and then return overland, but that was stupid and Everlyn would find out and metaphorically skin him alive in response. The simple fact was that he lacked the supporting abilities to travel overland against the enemy they were fighting.

His eyes studied the rockfall. Stone from above had filled the tunnel. He had tried to preserve the skin of rock visible to the sky to hide his magic. If the rock was down here, it meant that there had to be a void in the stone above him.

It was a thread for him to exploit.

With Remote Earth Manipulation, he explored and mapped the situation. He had been rushing to collapse the tunnel, so it was no surprise to discover that his half-hearted attempt to preserve the surface of the ravine had failed, at least in part. There was a section, a kind of oval shape, about forty centimeters wide at its longest, which had collapsed. The rest of the two metre area had been preserved. Of course, anyone investigating the strange hole would find that the surrounding stone would crumble when they touched it, which would reveal everything. But it was a space to dump excess stone and if he did it right that very visible hole would be smoothed over.

Remote Earth Manipulation and his title Earth Friend both activated.

Tom did not actually need to move a heap of rock just enough that if he needed to, he could dive head first down it like he did when escaping that last longjoule.

The rock shifted, not soundlessly but with barely any noise and he had his exit back to the ravine.

After his mana had recovered, he carefully climbed the narrow tunnel. The foot and hand holds he created vanishing the moment he no longer had a use for them to leave perfectly smooth surfaces behind him.

Finally, he cautiously poked his head out.

The ravine was abandoned, but signs of violence were everywhere. Shattered rock, burnt spots, the ice was melted, but the cuts those ninja stars had caused remained visible for everyone to see. Even the upthrust of rock he had splintered added to the Armageddon feeling covering in the area. The broken bodies of the insect/mammal cross breeds also contributed to the impression.

There were no noticeable enemies, but he felt like he was on the clock.

First, he planned out his approach.

He would collect his tools and then set an ambush. It had worked last time, so the site he chose was another one that was protected by a large boulder creating a wall that separated it from the rest of the ravine. The other advantage it had was that it was right near the exit with the moss curtain, which meant he could wait safely there and if she brought back over three he could flee without ever being at risk.

Tools first.

Unfortunately, his spear appeared to be thoroughly impaled into the creature and he didn’t have the time to butcher it. An idea occurred to him and he snatched up a large rock and sprinted across to the corpse that his spear was in. It was clearly stuck and when he seized his weapon and lifted, he almost stumbled under the abrupt weight as the entire monster moved with it.

Time to cheat.

The large rock he had grabbed was pressed against where the weapon had gone in. Earth Manipulation caused thin spears of stone to dig into the dead monster along the path of the spear. They hit bone and then pushed through it till they had extended forty centimetres deep into the monster. Then Tom changed his focus. Instead of going deeper he made the stone push outwards. Each of the prongs separated from each other.

Crack.

He smiled as he saw the carapace around the spear split. He sent through another round of energy. There was the sound of splinting and the hard armour of the creature had been bent out by the stone, which had effectively doubled the width of the weapon. Tom tugged the spear.

It wiggled slightly. The weapon was still trapped by something further in it had to be lodged between bones deeper into the body.

More Force.

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Magic surged into the stone as he increased the width again and instead of being as thick as his arm it was closer to his thigh. Chunks of the creature’s hard insect like armour went flying and there was a rush of blood out of the now gaping wound. He pushed the spear sideways and then the other way. Furiously wriggling it back and forth. At first it only moved a centimetre, then he must have got the angle right because abruptly it moved a few inches.

It vanished into his inventory.

With a satisfied smirk at his ingenuity, he jogged over to grab his cloak and then retreated to his ambush spot. The moss wall could be lifted from the bottom to allow him to slip through. He did so and when he released the moss; it fell back to its previous position. The living curtain seemed almost designed, then Tom pushed the thought from his mind.

Convenient spots like this were everywhere in the tutorial, and he assumed it would be the same here. You just needed to learn what to look for and Earth sensibilities would not help him survive.

Tom settled into his ambush position to wait for the force that Everlyn would bring next still annoyed at the fact that it was necessary for him to hide like this instead of actively hunting. He remembered where he had been at the end of the tutorial.

Powerful, strong and able to sneak and fight against things far stronger than himself.

I’ll get there again, he promised himself.

This weakness, where he needed to rely on others, chafed. His inability to dominate in the wilderness against monsters with a rank only forty percent higher than his own was almost intolerable. Once he would have been an unstoppable force against these things, but his lack of diversity in his skills hurt him.

Earth Sense tweaked in his senses. It was human footsteps, but this time they paused at the top of the ravine. It was only the slightest hesitation, but his boredom meant he was hyper focused, so he picked up on it.

“You’re an idiot,” he heard her declare through party chat. “I told you there were too many?”

“Didn’t have a choice.” he whispered back using the same functionality. “Their tracker got my scent”.

“What?” There was shocked surprise in her tone. “It shouldn’t be able to do that.”

“It did.”

“Sorry. I didn’t… um.”

“I lost my line of retreat. It’s why I’m here now. I can run if necessary.”

“Six! You could have died.” He could hear how upset she was.

“How? Did you? Don’t answer that. Fuck six!”

“It was challenging.”

She was still running through the ravine.

“What’s coming?”

“Sorry. I’m just… six… um…” Her voice switched to profession. “You should be able to fight these easily, as there are only three. Tom, I…” Her speech stuttered… “Thank god you survived. If you hadn’t… I’m so sorry. Please forgive me. I’m a scout. I shouldn’t make those types of mistakes. Maybe it’s too dangerous for you.”

“No. You’re forgiven. Stick to the plan. The faster we kill them the less chance the crafters have of dying.”

Everlyn kept going this time disappearing over the edge of the ravine using none of the tunnels that were available.

Tom tensed as the monsters entered his perception. The impact their weird feet had on Earth Sense amazed him. He pushed through the growing headache and sorted out the sensations. Three just like Everlyn had promised. Providing he hit them from ambush this should be an easy fight. They’d be dead before they even knew they were in danger.

Above him, all three paused at the top of the ravine. Tom guessed they were observing the signs of the battle and their dead down below.

What would they do?

Tom felt the abrupt shift on the other side of the moss wall. His Spark expertise screamed at him to counter the crackling energy that he could feel just beyond the curtain of moss that separated him from the open air.

What would they do? They would do that. Tom thought to himself. Lightning washed against the moss and was rebuffed by its living nature. It was like a concentrated thunder storm to his senses but Tom had more than Spark domain with its three metre max range to view the world with. He focused on Earth Sense. First, he focused on what the rocks just outside his hiding spot where the lightning definitely existed. The electricity storm was not going unnoticed, but what was deadly to anything living it caught was only an itch to hard stone. While the impact on them was subtle, it was there.

Tom spread his focus and looked beyond his hiding spot for the feeling.

The entire ravine. It was all filled with crackling deadly electricity, which was a relief because the paranoid part of him had been worried that the spell had focused on him personally. Instead, it was everywhere and the energy expenditure for rank fourteen monsters even ones specialising in magic was immense. He was impressed that they could do it.

It was their solution to prevent an ambush. An overpowered area of effect spell with sufficient kick, according to his Spark proficiency to outright kill most humans if they were caught within it. Luckily Tom was tucked away beneath the ground outside the range of the spell. Not that the lightning elemental could have killed him. His internal Spark domain would have protected him, but the less energy he used on defence the more he had to kill with.

Above on the ridgeline a longjoule collapsed onto its knees. Then a second joined it a moment later.

Exhaustion? Given the amount of energy that spell must have taken it made sense. Or Something else?

If it was magical exhaustion, then now was the time to leap out and exploit the opportunity.

You’re an idiot. He told him furiously as he stopped himself from making a stupid decision. Even if the two of them were out of action, if he leapt out while they were on the ridge, he would lose all the advantage of his ambush. It was better by far to wait for them to get close, until they had conceded the high ground and then launch the attack from their blind spot, or at least be in the midst of the strike before they registered him.

His new ambush spot only worked if he could slip out past the moss without them noticing. A process that would only take seconds and would be easy enough to achieve once they were down at his level and the rock that ringed this spot would prevent observation. Right now, because of their height advantage he would be spotted immediately.

The first that had fallen got to its feet, then the second and then all three marched down the ravine.

Tom smiled.

They thought they were safe.

They thought they had flushed the space and ensured that there were no enemies to threaten them.

They were wrong.

They would walk past him and then…

He stopped and focused on the timings he needed. Last time, he had been nestled under a simple camouflage cloak, which had made the transit from hidden into attacking trivial. This time, he was behind the moss, so there were larger demands on accuracy in his timing.

They followed Everlyn’s trail precisely, and he hadn’t noticed at the time, but she had deviated from the straight path to run right near his ambush spot.

Thank you Everlyn, he thought.

His spear created a gap at the bottom of the moss layer and he focused on silence as he rolled through the narrow opening and out into the air. The rock shielded him from their view and the tread of all three of the monsters did not change.

He knew where they were.

Earth Sense meant he had their exact positions at all times. The engagement would occur on his terms, not theirs.

A rock in each hand.

They were right under him.

He surged over the protecting wall that barely came up to his waist. Both rocks were thrown with his last step from the top of the boulder and then he was flying towards them.

Two rocks blasted forward in front of him both of them travelling at near the speed of sound. Then his spear was in his hands, thrusting with a blue glow covering it.

His eyes identified all three of the enemies and he wished he had a more traditional metal worked spear with a long-bladed head versus the piercing instrument Sonya had crafted for him out of wood because that would allow him to do slashing attacks instead of being limited to penetrative.

He targeted the closest one with his spear and the one beyond it with a clump of lightning spears. They were the two he had launched his stones at. He maintained his philosophy that quick deaths beat efficiency. It was better to overspend now and end it quickly than trying to compete with their mana regeneration.

Boom!

His spear almost twisted out from his grip when it hit the partially cracked shield. The blue light pulsed and a sizeable chunk of the Power Strike energy was expended but it did its job and the shield failed where he was striking. The spear slipped through the hole it had created and Tom was jerked to a stop as his spear plunged through the enemy’s skull and hit the back of it without going through. Tom rotated the weapon like he was mixing a cake to ensure his weapon did the maximum damage

Its brain stem destroyed, the creature collapsed.

Tom glanced at his second target and internally congratulated himself. Its head and upper body had been reduced to scraps of armour carapace, and random chunks of flesh and bone by his lighting spears.

Then Tom’s feet were firmly on the ground and he left the spear in the corpse, not willing to delay the moment it would take to extract it.

Without hesitation he leapt sideways, trying to get behind the third longjoule.

There was a flash as a light spell ricochetted through where he had stood.

He felt the impact when it hit the boulder beyond that point. Chunks of rock the size of his fist were chipped off it.

Tom was already throwing his own stones. One, two and a third as he powered in an arc around his opponent. He landed bent his legs and leapt again. He was directly behind the giant insect and it was turning, but he was currently moving fast enough that it couldn’t quite target him.

Throw, jump, throw, jump, throw.

The shield broke.

He stopped his lateral movement and transitioned into a lunge. Knife and axe flashed down together. The antenna’s were lobbed off before the spell formed. The creature rocked backwards in shock, but he remembered exactly how fast they could charge. It was still rank fourteen even with its magic crippled.

Throw Rock.

He relaxed as it collapsed and then spun around to check his surroundings and confirm the other two enemies remained dead.

His eyes saw nothing alarming.

He confirmed the dead bodies, and that there were no enemies on the top of the ravine targeting him from outside the range of Sense Earth.

With a thought, he was back in his system room and experience notifications for three kills were displayed.

Then, with less than a blink of time having passed he returned to the real world. Accessing the system room mid combat was dangerous but not confirming completed kills was even more so.

“Success.” he whispered happily.

With efficient movements he recovered his spear. It was in loosely enough that he didn’t need to resort to his rock trick and then jogged through the tunnels to his next destination.