Day 60

It had been two weeks since the change. 4 Waves and 14 days of grueling training for everyone in camp along with a pylon upgrade wave. Everyone came around and realized what needed to be done.

At first, when I was only training for myself, I thought I would get strong enough so they wouldn't have to go through this. Now that I was looking back on it, it was sheer arrogance to think that.

There was no way I could have gotten strong enough to protect my family throughout the whole tutorial. I was just glad that we changed in time. If we had waited any longer the gap would have been too large to overcome. The pylon upgrade was useful experience to catch up. The level 25 orcs weren't that helpful to me, but to my family, they were walking experience.

We weren't so far behind that catching up was unfeasible, just difficult. There was a lot of complaining and rough days to be had, but everyone powered through.

Evolutions started becoming common in this last wave and now the majority of the camp was in the F-rank. Fighting higher-level enemies gave a lot of experience compared to same-level enemies.

Most were catching up to my level and I was beginning to suspect that class rarity determined how much experience was needed to level up. After getting my Rare class I had only leveled up 4 times and still sat a single level away from my new skill.

The changes were large and were extremely gratifying to watch. We were starting to look like an army of old with the added benefit of magic. Like Lord of the Rings made real.

The rogues evolved out of close-quarters fighting with one even becoming a poison specialist. The nasty smell was easily outclassed by the sheer impact that the poison had. Turning an area into a cloudy smog that the monsters had to run through. Alchemists were having a competition to see who could make the most potent poison.

Another rogue leaned more into the trap-making route and made quite the devastating traps. Our rangers got more powerful and Carrie could now produce a substantial amount of cover fire with her skills.

Hal was more of a sharpshooter and kept his skills for powerful single-target attacks that mostly targeted the boss. Rachel evolved into some sort of pyromancer and she truly had a way with fire.

Austin was the biggest surprise. After seeing that gaining a law was possible he refused to evolve until he had one. He was going for the Law of Light and it took some construction to make it easier.

Information on laws wasn't that expensive to purchase and now that I had one, the information populated the store. I thought it was stupid to only provide the information after I had obtained one but that was the way the store worked.

To aid him in gaining a law I used my profession to build a huge structure of glass. It was more difficult than working with metal but I wasn't making anything extremely complicated.

I solicited Vinny's help and we got it done in a few hours. The...structure was essentially a giant magnifying glass. Using the curvature of the glass we made the focal point of all the walls and roof concentrate in one spot.

It took a long time for Austin to pull it off but he only had to delay his evolution by a wave. Being capped out in experience made it so he had more time to meditate on it. He funneled all the time he would have spent hunting into trying to comprehend his law.

Seeing me do it, his competitive spirit was roused and he didn't wish to be left behind. I couldn't fault him for trying but if it went on any longer I was prepared to get him to stop. He needed to evolve to help me during the waves and putting it off was making me shoulder more of the load.

The family increased their contribution but the weight only got heavier. The 18th wave was especially hard. That was the wave where every monster evolved and had the power of an F-rank.

It went just as badly as the first time this happened. The rank difference was too much to handle. Even with the traps Allison, the trapper, made and the poisons Connor threw out, it still ended in tragedy.

We weren't able to kill them fast enough and the monsters clawed their way through the gates. I did my best to stymie them and block as many as I could. I planted myself in the gateway and was the rock the tide broke against.

Even with my extensive strength, droplets got through. Droplets in this case were monsters that wreaked havoc inside the wall. We were prepared for such a scenario to happen and had plans to mitigate the damage, but the chaos of battle still claimed a life.

Another faction member, another funeral.

That was what got most of the complainers to stop. The mandatory hunting trips became a little less mandatory and became desired. I didn't have to force anyone anymore.

It was also the last time most of us laughed. Our wounds were deep and something that healers couldn't fix.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

I knew something new was coming for the 20th wave and that there was a change afoot before the wave even started.

Wave ten doubled the difficulty increase, wave 15 made it so two directions were attacked, and wave 20 kept with tradition.

As the wave started, the obvious change was easy to spot. A third direction was added. In three directions did the monsters swarm at us. I took one gate, Austin another, and Jonathan the third.

The family was strong enough to supplement our defense but direct confrontation would be unwise. If the unfortunate were to happen, that would be one less defender for the waves to come.

They sat behind the gate, ready for anything that got by me. With this many monsters, the gates just delayed the inevitable. They would get through regardless.

The second change was more subtle and took a while to notice. The boss of the wave, firmly 7 levels above me at the time, had a law.

All of my advantages of fighting previous bosses were nullified and the fight was a knockdown drag-out brutal affair. The 7-level gap was difficult to overcome and I wasn't certain I could have done it if I was alone.

We had to use another trap to finish it off, which was unfortunate, but better than the alternative. I couldn't afford to waste time healing.

As my stats continued to rise, healing took longer and longer. With more people active during the fights, it wasn't me alone that needed to be healed anymore.

[Meditation] worked wonders but it was beginning to take most of the day to fix me up. Two days wasn't enough to stay ahead of the waves.

I brought up my status sheet to give it a once-over for all of the changes.

Name: Christopher Zalenski

Race: (F) Human

Class: (F) Champion of Niflheim(Rare) – Level 29

Profession: (G) Novice Blacksmith(Common) – Level 20

Affinity: Ice

Faction: Zalenski Family (Temporary) (Faction Head)

Strength - 211

Agility - 105

Perception - 34

Fortitude - 101

Endurance - 112

Vitality - 60

Intelligence - 24

Wisdom - 41

Acumen - 26

Free Points: 0

Laws: Least Law of Ice

Class Skills: Heavy Blow(Uncommon), Fortified Body(Common), Throwing Weapon Proficiency(Beginner), Identify(Common), Frostbite(Uncommon), Sweeping Slash(Common), Ice Fortress(Uncommon), Heavy Armor Proficiency(Beginner), Heavy Weapon Proficiency(Novice), Body of a Barbarian(Uncommon), Barbarian's Rage(Common), Hail(Common), Ice Manipulation(Common), Meditation(Common), Ice Arrow(Uncommon), Shatter(Uncommon), Frost Armor(Rare)

Profession Skills: Sense Metal(Common), Create Weapon(Crude), Create Armor(Crude), Metallurgy(Common), Forging Proficiency(Novice), Mana Engraving(Common)

For reaching level 20 in my profession I received a new skill. Forging proficiency seemed like the smartest to take at the time and I already improved it to the novice tier.

There were other skills I could have taken but the boost to everything I made was better than anything else I could have taken. The beginning-tier blacksmithing profession didn't have the most outstanding of capabilities.

Now the next skill, that was something that I was giddy about. The price to buy it made me wince but it was well worth it. Finally being able to dive into the magical side of things with runes and enchantments was something I was eager to do.

Getting the skill also opened my eyes to the major flaw that I should have seen coming. I could now engrave but I had no idea what to engrave.

I had no runes nor enchantments that I knew and the skill was largely useless without those. For whatever reason that aspect of becoming a Runesmith fled my mind.

Buying the schematics was just another leach to my dwindling funds. Every wave I gained a massive amount only to spend it all before the next wave. It took the adage you have to spend money to make money personally.

The runes were expensive and after buying the skill book for enchanting and the skill, I had to budget how much I spent on them.

I was raking in the points every wave but everything was getting more expensive. Skills cost 25,000 now and would only increase after my next purchase.

I could have commandeered some of the community points but I didn't want to do that. Taking from others to empower myself didn't sit right with me.

Engraving was... strange. It took such precision that I had yet to make a successful rune. I had only gotten the skill a few days ago and still hadn't had the time to delve into it too deeply.

It was also what I currently found myself doing. I was surrounded by failed works and half-finished runes. The previous few days were spent drawing the rune on paper before I moved on to actually engraving.

Vinny was kind enough to pound out some swords for me to practice on. They were rough around the edges but I destroyed most of them anyway and making quality swords would be a waste of time.

I needed to practice and ruining good swords wasn't the best idea. On the off chance I succeeded, the finished product would be useless but that was worth it in my opinion.

The rune I purchased was a Least rune of Durability. Runes followed the same tier system that laws did.

Least

Lesser

Common

Great

Greater

Master

Supposedly, there was a Grandmaster rune but that was often thought a myth. It didn't concern me and was a long way away so I didn't care about that. Right now engraving the worst tier was my only priority.

I went with durability because that was what I would have wanted. The thought of my weapon failing me and sometimes actually failing pushed me toward it over any of the others.

Centering myself for another attempt, I activated the skill. Using the skill took practice and control which took time to master. It required a steady flow of mana through the carving tool and any fluctuations would diminish the final product.

The loops and curves were second nature to me by now and I could probably draw it in my sleep. A curve here leading into a sinuous shape there before crossing over and entering into a swoop.

Precision and experience guided my hand before it all came crashing down.

The alarm went off and a loud crash was heard, causing my attention to falter and ruin the engraving.

What the fuck!

The wave was tomorrow and we were all taking it easy to rest up for it tonight. What could possibly be so important that the bell needed to be rung?

"What is it, Hal!" It came out more angrily than I intended but he answered all the same.

"A group of men are approaching." He yelled down from the watch tower.

"Ok and? Why the alarm? I was in the middle of something and that rui-" Hal cut me off before I could finish.

"A hostile group," Hal said grimly.

Oh

Nerves come to bear. I knew it was a possibility but I didn't think it would be so soon.