The 500’s passed the same way the 600’s did. Instead of five overseers it was now eight and they were again slightly stronger. Marci and Van could take down two of them one at a time, I could take two at once and Arthur and Rocks could each handle one. It was non stop fighting with no breaks in the waves. We were all reaching our exhaustion point and it greatly worried me that we hadn’t hit the halfway point yet.

We crippled two of the overseers this time to try to buy more time for rest. I longed for my bed above us in the town. There were several notifications waiting to be acknowledged so I started the tedious process.

Congratulations! You have reached level 31!

Congratulations! You have reached level 32!

Congratulations! You have a new title!

New Title! Lord of Destruction II! Kill 1500 beasts! Grants 5 Gold Item Boxes, Grants 1 Ruby Item Box, Grants 5% increased damage to non-intelligent beasts!

The damage modifier was great, it was the first universal modifier I had seen. Most of the beasts I had fought were non-intelligent excluding the deep forest ape. Combined with my stats and hallowed light multiplier I was doing some serious damage now. I dumped my skill points in Empower. I pulled up my interface to look at the changes.

I opened my item boxes to see if anything would be useful. The first gold box contained the ingredients to make 5 more hallowed light potions. The next two gold boxes gave me one hundred arrows each. Ten more major health potions followed to finish out the gold boxes. The Ruby Item Box held a great prize, it was a potion bandoleer to match the one for holding bombs. It would hold 10 potions that could be used instantly without having to drink them. I could still physically hand them to someone else for them to take as well.

Sylar Till

Age

18

Race

Human

Class

Friend of the Forest

Level

32

Strength

42(40)

Stamina

73

Agility

45

Intelligence

43

Wisdom

77

Charisma

-1

Luck

4

Armor

115

Health

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

219/219

The biggest changes had happened with Marci and Van. They had both hit level 20 and got new skills. Marci had a new skill called Paralyzing Shriek that would temporarily paralyze nearby enemies. How long it lasted and who it worked on would depend on the level of the skill. Van gained a new skill called Taunt which let him attract the attention of nearby enemies and force them to focus on him.

Arthur had reached level 22 and chosen a new class called Commander. He had two new skills, the first one Stronger Together gave a 10% boost to stats of allies within 100 feet of Arthur. The second one was Strength From Order which gave a 12% boost to armor and health regeneration if an ally was following an order from Arthur. It didn’t have to be a hard order, just saying “fight” was enough to trigger the bonus.

Camile was level 20 and chose to keep her class Beacon of Hope. It was a powerful supporting class and she liked her skills. Her level 20 skill was called Defy The Odds and it gave allies a 50% armor bonus and increased health regeneration by 10% for one minute. It had a long cooldown of six hours.

Rocks had also reached level 21 and chosen a new class called Wall of Steel. It was a defensive based class that gave him a flat 50% bonus to armor rating and 100 health points. It came with a skill called Hold The Line that gave him and allies a boost to all stats of 20% when fighting together in close quarters.

I knew many of the miners had also leveled and chosen classes but I left that to Arthur to coordinate. He was creating a verbal system to keep up with the skills that boost stats or armor to keep them spread out and always active. He was made for this kind of thing and morbidly seemed to be enjoying himself, at least a little bit.

The framework decided our rest was up as the ghouls died and the next wave spawned. Instead of multiple beasts it was one massive one forming at the center of the room. It was so large it was almost forming over the hole that led downwards. I triggered Identify rapidly waiting for the framework to finish spawning the beast.

Antorak - Intelligent Beast - Level 40 - Health 2100/2100 - Armor 200 - Antorak are native to the world of T’uh’lin. They live deep underground and battle for territory with denizens of the world below. Intelligent and resourceful, these beasts have large health pools and high armor rating.

The beast was massive and looked like a large ant with a shell like a beetle. It finished spawning and let out a strange sounding cry from where I assumed its mouth was. My heart dropped to my stomach when I read its description. I repeated it out loud to the group nearby, shock and silence followed.

“We need to hit it with everything we have. It will demolish the barricade so no point in hiding behind it. Fighters! We need to keep it away from the non-combatants. Everyone remember the code word for each type of your skills. We will need to keep them staggered.” Arthur stated and turned to look at the gathered fighters. He took a deep breath and turned, charging towards the massive beast.

“Camile, hit it with every arrow you have!” I shouted as I followed her father. The rest followed along behind me. Marci let out one of her defiant shrieks and flared her wings from my shoulder. She radiated anger at the beast threatening us and love for me. Tears formed in the corner of my eyes as the emotion caught me off guard.

I sent a thought to both of my companions to do what they felt was best. We had no strategy for something like this. I closed the distance until I was in bow range and started firing off arrows rapidly. Wishing fruitlessly for a thousand more arrows, I only had a little over two hundred to work with. Checking the combat log showed I was hitting for about 12 damage with each arrow due to the high armor. No unholy bonus this time decreased the damage.

“Don’t engage! We can whittle it down with arrows! I have enough! Stay defensive!” I shouted out over the sounds of combat.

Camile was firing as rapidly as I was, she must have received some more arrows as well. It would take all two hundred arrows to kill this thing but it should work. I had to hit it in its softer flesh under the shell to get the full amount of damage. Arthur and Van had closed to melee range and were dancing around the large insect shaped legs trying to score hits.

The Antorak flailed its legs wildly trying to hit the elusive ape as Van roared at the beast. I used my empower skill on the ape, increasing his stats. He used his taunt skill but it didn’t affect the much higher leveled beast. It scored a hit on Arthur and sent the big man flying backwards, health dropping near half. Marci darted in and out trying to score hits on any exposed flesh but the beast could move fast enough to almost hit her. One hit would be fatal, I pleaded with her to be safe over the bond.

Fifty arrows in and the Antorak was down to 1500 health. It roared in frustration and charged the barricade. The miners scattered but there wasn’t enough time for everyone to get out of the way. I saw a few bodies lying in the wreckage of the barricade turned death trap. Continuing to pour arrows in the beast as it turned and stomped around. Arthur and Camile were limping over to my side of the mine, Rocks was on his back, he must have been hit during the charge.

One hundred arrows from me and some dozen more from Camile peppered the beast's sides, my agility allowed me to stay out of its way as it tried to scramble after me. Van still danced around but couldn’t score a hit that did any damage. Marci hovered above the Antorak waiting for opportunity.

The Antorak turned faster than expected and charged at me after I shot it with another arrow. I turned to run but the entrance to the mine was behind me, the only way was down. I jumped over the edge and crashed fifty feet below, turning to look up. I saw the body of the Antorak falling down towards me.