Edited by: KenChi死
I have spent my well deserved break treating my wounds (even if not serious one) regenerating my stamina and meditating, the last one allowed me to boost overall regeneration skill while heavily reducing mana consumption. Well, and core growth, but for now it’s bit more a side effect.
* “Berserker or a combat master?” I heard a question.
* “Pardon me?”
I opened one of my eyes to see who approached me. Well, it was more a courtesy of mine, in the end I already knew who has stopped by. Once again – Oni. I recognized because… I couldn’t feel her presence at all. She has big, surly heavy body, she wears that weird hybrid armor, but all those chains and links should ring each time she moved. Yet each time she made a move the only thing that followed was silence.
* “Warriors may have many… specializations. You have brawlers, which jump into the fight, focus all attention on them allowing their teammates to make their moves, yet still are deadly on their own. Provocateurs, heavily armored, usually slow, but thanks to extraordinary strength can wield huge weapons that could allow them to sweep multiple enemies with single blow… The list go on and on, but you… you have predispositions to be either a berserk or combat master.”
* “One of?” I asked in joyful matter “Why do you think I can’t master both? I am a genius! A prodigy!”
A cold gaze. Either she doesn’t like jokes, didn’t hear the joke in my tone, or hate people thinking highly about themselves. Or all combined.
* “Mostly because you can’t be both at the same tame. Berserkers use there inner rage to reduce their ability to feel pain and use there muscles over the possible limits, while master wields the power that are the reverse of a berserks: the inner peace. You can call them meditating warriors. Both of them fight in trans. And both of them are extraordinary lone fighters. You have to consider which style would represent your soul.”
* “And then what? You would take me as disciple? Travel through the world? I will be forced to do push-ups over the fireplace or meditate under a waterfall? May not be that bad.”
* “… you have a weird sense of humor…” Well, at least she knew I was joking “…yet for the future… do not joke of such matters around my kin, we treat self-improvement in the art of war… seriously… And not, being anyone’s disciple in mastering there path is out of question. Every warrior has to do it by himself…”
* “Ah, you may show me the path, but you can’t walk it for me… understood.”
And now she looks a little less… pissed off? Further note for myself: If I would meet Oni in the future, quote Sun-Tzu for self-defense.
Umm… but my main class is mage, would I still be able to follow those paths? I still have possibilities to mix classes, steeping out of pure mage path and taking warrior sub class may not be the worst idea.
But there is no time nor sense to keep wondering about that matter, to pick another class I would have to gain 4 more levels. And I am [1749/10 000] to level up. From last fight I have gathered 339 experience point, thus to level up I would have to win the exact same battle 25 times more. Yes, to level up once. Fight against small army 25 times. To be level 17. Who the hell put such sick experience requirement?!
* “Indeed. You are not half-bad. Start acting like a warrior and who knows? Maybe with a 100 years of harsh training you could become a somewhat splendid warrior.”
100 years you say? And how strong are you? Huh? Acting all high n mighty!?
[Appraisal] skill is in use
[Appraisal] skill failed
Partial [Appraisal] results
An icon of a violet skull was put in the place where normally a health bar of a boss monsters would appear.
I tried to appraise it too.
!!!Warning!!!Individual is over 25 levels stronger than [User]
… okay, I will give you that, you may be just a little bit stronger, and thus I may have some problems defeating you, still nothing I should be conc…
~Again, you are making retarded jokes and start talking nonsense each time you got stressed.
Are you implying my magnificence wouldn’t be enough to get rid of that pest?
~… she is 64.
Years old?
~no, she is about 300 years old. Her level is 64.
… it said 25 level stronger…
~OVER 25. Last time I checked 47 is over 25. If she would be 3 levels stronger you would get a black skull. Not that it would make any difference to you.
… I may consider reducing number of my bad jokes. B..b…but she told me a chundred of years and Sebastian was telling… he promised… he swore! That reaching 50 would take 2-3 years!
~One – you are a freak of nature. The stronger you get the harder it will be to push your limit even more. Do you remember? Up to level 10 you needed 100 exp to be lvl 2, then 200, 300, 400… as you reached 10 then number changed. 1000, 2500, 5000, 7500… as you hit 20, 30, 40, the patter changes. And at 50 it gets hellish. Oh, one more thing. Sebastian indeed told such thing, but he also said that you would need to train and grind seriously. Do you do so? Mr. Herb collector?
I…I started doing harder quest…
I said in my mind while pushing my index fingers against each other. Bad excuse. Please, make something happen! If nothing will happen Book-chan will keep nagging, and in this particular case, I would have no possibility to fight back! And the very idea of giving her any kind of satisfaction simply annoys me! And then she will keep reminding over and over and over again that she once won a word-battle! And then…
Arena bell rang saying all around that new wave is about to start
HALLELUJAH! Whatever you are: angel or devil, whoever made this bell ring, from the depth of my heart: THANK YOU.
~tsh.
Oh, you may keep tshing to your heart content. But now pardon me, I have a battle to win, so if you could stop distracting me…
~Jerk
Moron.
~Asshole
Bitch
With the last word I shut the connection between us and started preparing for the battle.
Another swarm of enemies was released. No knights around, but the numbers is somewhat bigger. 15 of them? And among of those poor bastards…
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Kobold Acolyte Level8Hp[60/60]Sp[28/30]Mp[89/90]SkillsNigh vision [passive] [Level 7]
Core cultivation [lowest monster core] [Level 2]
Primal Fire magic [passive/active] [Level 4]
manifestations:[Fire breath] [Fire blessing]
Frail body [passive]
The cast of [Mages] among Kobolds in the most sophisticated. Sophisticated here means that you can't stab someone "above" you in hierarchy to get his position.
Everyone can become acolyte here, it is a rare ability of this kin, that via cultivation each of them can obtain magical powers. Yet, as those creatures are only partial intelligent and cultivation is more o a instinctive dependent, mages are still pretty rare among these monsters
… mages… really? Two of them. Probably while breathing fire they would scorched their own lips, but still. Those are mages. It’s unkind of you. First you bring friends to brawl with you, and now taking guns to knife fights. Not nice at all.
I wanted to train my martial arts a little… but if you guyz are going to use magic... well, I am more than justified to use it by myself?
You little poor bastards… I almost feal bad for you.
…
The smell of burning flesh. Here and there ashes. The next four fights were finished quickly. More than quickly.
Before me another wave was being released. 15 monsters. 4 scouts, 2 rangers… yes I saw them for the first time too, just your average kobold with a crossbows and 8 brawlers. No matter how much time I wouldn’t count, one was still missing.
And then I saw him. Well, that is a bit an exaggeration to say that I saw him. Barely part of him, yet as my [Appraisal] was turned on, I gathered piece of information
Kobold AssassinLevel14Rest of informations were hidden thanks to high level of [Presence hide] skillTrue assassin of Kobolds. Nothing to laugh at. His relatively fragile body was rewarded with insane swiftness and precision.
He can hide well both in cities, villages and in the wild. If you are fighting against the assassins and you know that, you can already consider yourself lucky.
Do not get distracted by your surroundings.
And. Watch. Your. Backs
Great. I can already tell how they are going to fight. Brawlers will do only thing that they know. Mindlessly charge and throw blows and punches that will dry them out of stamina in few minutes, scouts would wait for some openings and will try to jab me from the sides. Rangers will simply irritate me, I will have to literally count the time between their shots to know how long it takes for em’ to reload.
And then there is this sneaky bastard. Whatever he is doing, he is good at it. Maybe not master class assassin that can/will be in a different town as your body is discovered, but still I keep seeing and then losing him out of sight over and over again.
I will have to systematically take em one by one, till only the assassin is standing.
That’s the plan. I am pretty sure it’s not going to work.
Let’s start with those damned rangers.
Weapons I choose for this very particular wave, are those of my own creation. My palms and forearms were covered in multifunctional gauntlets-like creations. Mostly I armored my hands to be able to deflect blows faster, but to not be completely thrown to defense, I allowed myself to add about 15 centimeters long blades that were sticking out over my fists.
I rushed right in the mass of monsters. The scouts moved to my sides and the brawlers did there best to literally cover me with their bodies. Shadow moved around them.
I hope, that you are not too attached with this weird formation of yours? I once, once again, dropped on my knee and hit the ground unleashing mana shock wave. The bodies were sent up in the air and then pushed back. Everyone, but one. The assassin as soon as he saw me doing the move, get on all fours, hooking his claws in the ground, it took him lots of efforts to not get blown away, but in the end he managed to do that. Wasting no time he ran behind one of the other kobolds taking cover. Apparently he is not the type of guy that will rush mindlessly seconds after seeing an opening. I used that time I charged at the rangers that were standing a couple of steps behind. The blow of my shock wave made the dust rise and thus reduced their sight.
Using the dust like a smoke cover I jumped at one of them and grabbed him by the hand that held the crossbow. I used his as a living shield covering myself from the second ranger, forced his hand with the weapon to point at his comrade and then I made him release the bolt.
It flew a short distance and buried itself in the beasts chest, then I pushed my hostage forcing him to take a step or two, and then I stabbed him in the back with the blade which was attached to the gauntlet on my left arm.
My position was not exactly comfortable, but I thought that I still had some time.
Then he jumped, completely out of nowhere. Right from the left, the very same left that I had unprotected, for my arm was still occupied with finish life of the ranger.
I kneeled a little trying to hide my whole body behind the armored arm. Somehow I succeed. Maybe because while pouncing the assassin performed a over head slash. If instead he would have stabed, I would have two beautiful holes in my corpus.
I shifted the way I held the body of the already dead creature, and threw the corps on the assassin, he jumped over the body, and in very next seconds we were trading extremely swift attacks. I slashed from the side, he parried it with him small curved dagger, in the very same time he stabbed with his other hand as I made the blow slide of my other armored arm.
I could barely keep a pace with him. At the same time one hand attacked, another parried, and then we tried to use the weapon which just parried to attack, and the one that attacked to parry. I was never good in doing manually a, few things in same time. Each time I tried to juggle something, after a few moves the juggled object ended up on the floor.
Now, being not able to follow would mean having as many holes in my body as cheese.
I broke the pattern and tried to stab his body by performing X stab with both blades, yet before my hands reached the target, he took a fast step yo my left and kicked me, forcing me to take a few steps back. But instead of attacking he jumped back.
It was the moment when the rest of company managed to rise up and once again tried to jump at me.
I have had enough. You remember the part when I said something about killing them one by one? The part about slow, but successive walking step by step to victory… well, as the battle was over I remembered about that too… yet at that very moment…
* “BURN YOU LITTLE FUCKERS! BURN!”
Yup. More or less that. Those were words I yelled into the air a second after I clasped my hands and unleashed the fire storm from my hands. The stronger my magic become, the more my fire was gluing itself to the targets.
As the raging inferno was devouring the next creatures I saw the very assassin jumping in at the last possible time from the fiery embrace. some of the kobolds, together with a scouts, were trying to take me from the sides.
I clasped my hands again, and by pointing them in each direction once again I wasted my precious mana, that I promised myself I’d keep for as long as possible.
Mana allowed me to regain strength between fight, it allowed me maintain any weapon I could imagine. But it also could allow me to change the fight into a BBQ party, which I was doing right now.
* “Where are you, you little fucker?”
Once again, as I am thinking about it now, I have some serious problems with my anger management.
I forcibly put the fire down in order to cut the mana consumption.
I saw him, with his deathly cold calm eyes and part of his cloak burned.
He started approaching me. Well, not that he had any choices left. Normally he would probably retreat and then he would wait for another chance to attack. In closed space like arena it was impossible.
Shifting in process [Casual shift]Body parts: Muscles and bones formation of wolfs, panther and bat will be selected radomlyDEX+12RFL+7STR+3END+2Skills obtained[Blood sucking]
[Enchanted hearing - echolocation] [lowest]
Predator's sense
Prey's sense
Nimble Body [passive] [Level 1]
I felt my ear are becoming bigger, my fangs are getting bigger, and after a few seconds I couldn’t cover my mouth, as my eyes are turning into cat-like, claws getting sharper and my whole body frame becoming bit more hunchbacked.
* “Mousy, mousy, mousy…”
Predator’s sense allowed me to more easily locate the enemies, not that he wanted to hide anywhere, on the other hand Prey’s sense allowed to me to react to blows, and this will be more than useful.
We stopped walking toward each other, leaving a three meter gap between us. But after a few seconds of watching, we once again throw our bodies into a deadly dance of blades.
This time I was faster! I saw him moving more clearly. You are not a fighter. You may be fast, but in the end, you are far more used to backstabbing your enemies, aren’t you?
His stamina was low. Each time our blades met, he was losing some ground, which I greedily took.
And then I pushed him into the corner. Immediately I dropped my defense and unleashed a hailstorm of blades. As one of my hands was aiming for his vital organs, the other one was taking the place to perform thrust.
He couldn’t keep with me. After a few blows the first cut his skin making him flinch a little and as the outcome lose his balance a little. Another attack made the skin over his eyes bleed, reducing his sight.
And he couldn’t stop the next blow. And next. And next.
His body gushing blood from a few new holes fell lifeless on the floor.
I won another time.
Knight, assassin. Another one will be shaman? It will be shaman, will it? I am pretty sure it will be shaman…
…
* “AAAND HERE HE STANDS BEFORE THE 15TH WAVE BEING UNLEASHED! NOONE BELIVED IN HIM, YET HERE HE IS ABOUT TO CHALLENGE YET ANOTHER WAVE BOSS! REWARD THE CHALLNGER WITH YOUR APPLAUSE!”
It is a shaman. How predictable.
Shaman, 2 mage apprentices, 2 healers. And once again lot’s of canon fodder. Get the shit going, I have about an hour and something before the event is over. And I am going to finish this bloody tournament no matter what. So, can we?
….
I am dead tired. but in the end I am here. Waves from 16 to 19 where once again different formation leaded by either assassins, warriors or shamans. Pain in the fucking ass. Made only to exhaust you before the last wave. And did I mention that after 15th wave there was 20 enemies in each next battle? If not, then I am doing it now.
I healed myself for as much as I could. What now, will you release 25 enemies? Or 30? Doesn’t matter, I found a perfect pattern to deal with those half-brains. Bring as many you want.
* “The final challenge! As I recall this is the first time we will be able to witness the 20th stage of our arena, each of you may be wondering what kind of monsters will our challenger have to kill! SURPRISE! There will be only FOUR of them!”
… something smell fishy… that smelly smell… don’t like it.
~Stressed again?
Shut up. Not now. Codex, my love, we will have of plenty time to talk in a second, so may you be quiet? Please?
The cages were opened.
Knight. Great, we already know this gentlemen.
Assassin… wait, what? Both of you!?
Shaman… now you are shitting me. Who the 4th?
… what the fuck is that?! Kobolds are small! You are definitely not a Kobold!
Kobold KingLevel21 [Elite]Hp[321/350]Sp[127/200]SkillsNight vision [passive] [Level 10]
Poison resistance [passive] [medium] [Level 5]
Royal aura [passive]
Spear mastery [passive/active] [regular [ level 13]
You were unlucky enough to witness the Kobold King
No, seriously! How did you do that? Did you walked into a city under fiery mountain and slaughter your way to the royal chamber, just to look at him?
We have no idea what you wanted from this beast, but here he is. Take a good look at this fucker.
He is strong. He is fast. And he is angry. No, he is not angry now. He is simply angry all the time
Good luck
Kobolds are smaller than human! Stop cheating, you… bloody… 2 and half meters tall… ugly… toad! And put aside this gigantic spear that is taller than a small building and fight like a men!
His roar made the ground shake.
Okay, you are the men. Now will you…
But what would be the event without wonderful dues ex machine?
Something jumped from the sky and with one blow and cut the King in half.
It was the Oni girl.
Three moves. It took her three moves to completely get rid of the monsters that I probably couldn’t beat. And one of the moves took her on the stage, Rescue? Am I a damsel in distress? Well, thank you, my brave
* “Change of plan.” She said in completely calm voice “I will be your opponent.”
Oh. Well. Fuck
(ED: rest in peace)