Time until the arrival of the <> left : 9 minutes 01 seconds

I would be lying if I say that I’m not relieved when I heard that the subjugation force will arrive in 10 minutes. Just imagining the loots that I would be getting after they exterminate all those mermen, sent goose bumps throughout my entire body!

I rubbed my palm together, not because it was cold. I was only exercising my palms a little bit so I won’t feel any cramp when I’m looting the items later. Just imagine how many lottery tickets I can buy with the money I earned from this quest.

To be honest the reward’s sucks, but considering that I’m going to get my hand on all of these loots after the war, it might not be that bad after all.

“So, what do we do now?” I asked Sheldon.  The plan was to hold the Mermen down until the Subjugation Force come, but that doesn’t sounds like a plan at all. I mean, hold them down? Using what, our hand?

“I think we need to regroup with captain and the others.”

“… …” I was rendered speechless.

I clearly said that No Hair and the others are fighting with the Mangdora Creeps. You yourself had stated that we would only become a hindrance if we were to get there. Now you’re saying that it would be better if we regroup?

“..or not, gosh! I forgot that we would only become a hindrance if we get there.” Sheldon said flustered.

I said nothing but nodded in agreement.

I knew it, Sheldon does not have anything good up to his sleeve when it comes to fighting and battle tactic. Not that No Hair or Sheldon has any but, at least No Hair knows how to distribute a task that doesn’t cost my life. I just experienced my first death trying to protect Sheldon from dying.

Now that I got reminded about it,

“How did you survive the Mermen Spell Caster anyway?” I asked.

“After you were heavily injured, the Spell Caster came towards me. By that time I had enough mana saved up and activated <>. I lift you up and brought you to the treatment tent.”

“Phantom Step?”

“Yeah, Phantom Step… Surely you know how to use it right? As I saw you already knew how to use Invisibility.”

“In fact I don’t, enlighten me please.” I locked my sight at Sheldon.

“W-well, even though we don’t have time for this, I will explain the details to you.” Sheldon said.

His lips were trembling and he was cowering behind me, he made sure to scan the surrounding are before he settled down on a box and began explaining.

I was going to do that, but seeing he was the first one to move. I found it was unnecessary for me to look out for any potential danger. We were hiding behind the mountain of boxes 100 meter away from where No Hair and the others were located.

Sheldon opened his mouth, but there was no voice came out. He looked to his left and right, and rolled his eyes wildly as if he was looking for something.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“I-I’m just feeling a little bit thirsty.”

Indeed, after trembling and sweating that much of course your body is asking for water to replace the one you had discard from your bodily fluid. He finally found a water container that was made out of leather and sucked clean the water. I mean, he drank it all up.

“The very foundation of Invisibility came from phantom step. Invisibility is a high level technique where you turn transparent, enough to disappear into the thin air; it let you move from one place to another without being spotted by anyone as long as they don’t have the ability to counter your invisibility skill.

On the other hand, Phantom Step is the very basic form of Invisibility. Phantom Step is a skill where you move from one place to another with a very fast speed.”

“Fast speed? Like what, mach level of speed?”

“I don’t really know what does ‘mach’ meant by but I think you’re right.”

“If you don’t even know what ‘mach’ means how you can know that I’m right?” was what I felt like saying out loud but I’ll hold it in for the mean time. Now is not the good time for a witty comeback.

“The thing is, you just move from one place to one place in a really high speed movement that you look as if you’re almost invisible or teleporting, in short instantaneous movement.”

“I see… I see,” I replied.

I don’t understand ANYTHING at all.

“So, how do I do that high speed movement thingy?” I asked.

“You just do this… and this!”

Sheldon just teleported from the box that he was sitting on, to behind my back! I don’t think I can learn this technique.

Anyway, I won’t know it for sure if I don’t try it.

“I’ll try doing it…”

I first set on my travelling distance, it was 5 meters. I put forth my strength into my right legs, bent my body down and straighten my field of vision onto my path. Sheldon mention that Invisibility is a higher level technique than Phantom Step.

The essence of Invisibility is to calm myself down and do not do any sudden movement. But opposite to invisibility, Phantom Step is one where I have to in high speed movement which can be considered as sudden movement.

The foundations between these two skills are definitely contradicting with each other. I don’t see anything that can be considered as foundation to Invisibility from this Phantom Step.

Or was it like what I thought it would be?

There was a story in Chinese Era where there was a chef who mastered the way of knives. He was cooking a living fish; his hand movement was so fast and his slicing speed was superb that the fish didn’t even know that it was already dead. The chef hand was deem invisible when he was conducting the act.

Or at least that is how the story goes.

If I were to follow that logic then,

First, get into my stance. Second, calm myself down. Third put forth my energy into my legs for explosive movement and lastly …

Whoop!

+New Ability Learned

+Phantom Step

By putting forth your strength into your muscle, you had summoned the explosive energy within your limbs. You can move instantaneously from one place to another.

*The ability to travel over distance will be influenced greatly by the amount of player’s Agility.

*The accuracy to travel over distance will be influenced greatly by the amount of player’s Dexterity.

Skill Proficiency : 1%

I knew it! I managed to do it in one try (LOL)

I moved instantly about 7 meters forward. So I need to increase my accuracy in order to land correctly.

“W-wow! You   had done it in one try!” Sheldon exclaimed in amazement. His eyes were widened and he was half stood up.

I was surprised myself. I was just going with the flow but it seems like the flow brought me into the right place. I learned a new <>, never thought that it would work exactly as I imagined it. Though I still need to work out on my accuracy rate, but heck… The accuracy is greatly influenced by my dexterity. I need a lot of dexterity to make sure I stop where I wanted to.

Apparently there are 4 branches in the <>

I accessed my skill menu, or interface, or whatever it was called as.

SkillTechniqueAbilityPassive SkillTalent Skill

I clicked on the ability box.

Ability

+Invisibility

The action of slowing down your breathing and being in a relaxed condition had caused your presence to diminish.  

*The effective range is equal to your [dexterity stat].

*Ability is canceled when a player starts attacking, or attacked or disturbed while being in a state of invisibility.

*Increase your agility and chances to deal critical strike.

Phase 1 |Stealth Normal (46%)

+Phantom Step

By putting forth your strength into your muscle, you had summoned the explosive energy within your limbs. You can move instantaneously from one place to another.

*The ability to travel over distance will be influenced greatly by the amount of player’s Agility.

*The accuracy to travel over distance will be influenced greatly by the amount of player’s Dexterity.

Phase 1 |Phantom Normal ( 1%)

Hmm… My stealth proficiency is now 46%. It has been bothering me for quite a while now but what does that ‘normal’ supposed to mean? Is it supposed to be some kind of ranking like in RPG where there was a difficulty level that goes from beginner, intermediate and advance?

If that is the case then how will my skill proficiency level rose when I reached 100%? I wonder what happened when I reached 100% of my skill proficiency. But wondering about that now won’t give me any benefits.

I activated my Invisibility once again and use Phantom Step to travel 10 meters forward, passing through the opening through the boxes. No Hair and the others were still fighting the Mangdora Creep. I opened my <>, Eden is still alive. I was feeling a little bit unrest as I did not see Eden’s figure fighting with the Mangdora Creep. I bet he got his hand full dealing with the Mermen from interfering No Hair’s fight with the Mangdora Creep.

5 minutes had passed.

Great, I wasted 5 minutes learning a new ability instead fighting the Mermen, which is good in its own essence. I didn’t get hurt, and instead gained a new ability. I knew that we already planned to hold down the mermen until the Subjugation Force arrived. Well, what can I say, we can always make a plan but we don’t always have to follow it.

Now how should I waste another 5 minutes of the time remaining? In all honestly I really want to fight the Mermen, but I seriously don’t want to get myself  killed by those Mangdora Creep!

“Ichiroku…”

“Yes?” I answered turning my attention from the warzone that was in front of me to where Sheldon was.

Sheldon was staring deep into my eyes. His lips were no longer trembling and his legs were firmly rooted on the ground. With his back straightened up, he opened his mouth.

“Let us…”

BOOM!

I don’t know what happened. All that I knew that that time was I was in the mid-air, frantically trying to stabilize myself and regain my footing. Sheldon on the other hand, had his mouth wide open. It looked like as if he was screaming while riding a jet-coaster.

The boxes that was kept us hidden before was nothing but debris now. The debris flew throughout the mid-air. It was as if the time was slowed down, I moved my limbs in frantic motion trying to  evade the incoming fragments of the boxes . I got a few cut on my body when I finally reached the ground with a loud thumping sound.

“Uuuuuuurghhhhhhhhhhhh……” I tried to spoke out and ask Sheldon if he was okay, but apparently that was the only voice that I can squeak out. I sounded like Loki when Hulk smashed him onto the ground in the movie that I watched last year. I don’t know what the movie title was but it was something about heroes’ vengeance.

I coughed a few times as I was having a hard time to breathe.

Once again I found myself looking at Sheldon as he was lying down on the ground limp.

“Seriously dude, had it become your habit to lose consciousness whenever we were blown away?” I screamed out my dissatisfaction. Sheldon who was passed out didn’t budge even a little bit when I finally let out my complaint. Well, that is a given as he could not hear a thing about what I was saying.

BOOM!

Another sound of explosion could be heard.

Is it what I think it is?

There was a big ass merman with a big ass spear. The merman was 5 meter in height and it was as large as a truck. By the look of its appearance, it was a Mermen Mage. There is no doubt that if I were to say that it was the last boss of this quest, The Mermen King. I can do nothing but pray for No Hair and the other safety. Though I am more concerned about my well being, I will be dead if I got hit even once by the fireball that it casted.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

I activated my Invisibility; stealth would work against Mermen Mage so I got nothing to worry about. I then proceed by moving slowly and pick Sheldon up, I tried activating Phantom Step to flee instantly from the danger range but it seemed like the instantaneous movement only work on me.

BUMP!

Sheldon dropped down like a rotten apple.

Once again I moved instantly toward Sheldon and picked him up. I was left with no choice but to run for my life with Sheldon behind my back. I felt like I was running naked when I was fleeing the warzone without Invisibility activated.

I laid him down on the bed inside the treatment tent.

I activated my invisibility and exited the perimeters.

I don’t know what is going to happen next. But I surely don’t want to miss this one out. The Mermen last boss is already here. There are definitely going to be some kind of raid from the Subjugation Force. The exp going to be huge! More additional Stat Points, the luckier I get!

***

The time left for the arrival of the Subjugation Force around 2 minutes.

A sudden notification popped out, it was a warning that a party member is in a critical condition. It was No Hair, his HP already turned red. I rushed out to the battle field, disregarding either I was in stealth mode or not.

The distance left for me to reach where No Hair was at was 25 meters. I activated my Instantaneous Movement and reached where No Hair was in a blink of an eye.

The Mermen breathe out fire at No Hair. I picked up No Hair weakened body and threw him away that he slammed with Eden. The breath of fire hit me mercilessly. My HP went down less than 1%, thankfully I took a few <> from the treatment tent and recovered my HP in no time.

“Ichiroku!” Eden and No Hair screamed in unison.

“Gahhhhhh!!!” I screamed out as the pain began to get the better of me.

I can feel my back getting cooked as if I was the highest grade of beef that needed to be cooked in intense heat. I drank 3 Great HP Potions.  I glad that I took twice the amount of leafs that Sheldon asked me when I was running on the quest under his demand.

I was unable to learn the secret to medicine processing as I don’t have enough Intelligence to read the book. In the end I asked Sheldon to process those leafs instead and were given 25 Great HP Potions.

I was not able to take it with me when we were destroying the Mermen Base because Sheldon was still processing the medicine by that time. But thankfully I managed to get my hand on it now. Though I wish I grabbed it earlier before I was killed by the Mermen Spell Caster.

The Mermen King finally stopped its attack.

Had I not drank the Great HP Potion, I would’ve experienced my second death in this game. I activated Instantaneous Movement and get to where No Hair and Eden were. I was pretty much crashed landing when I got there as the intense pain still lingered throughout my body.

“Here drink this.” I had over 3 Great HP Potion to No Hair. No Hair only retrieved over half of his HP. Seriously, how much HP does he have?

“Thank you lad, it really helped me.” No Hair said.

The Mermen King saw us and we immediately activate our Invisibility. The villagers who were deemed unable to fight had fled inside the room that they made underground. The only human that can be spotted on the warzone were me, Eden and No Hair. No Hair killed so many of those Mangdora Creeps, I never realized it until I saw my level when I was checking the Party interface.

From level 15, I jumped to level 38! I gained 115 additional points.

I’m having a huge dilemma either I should spend it on Stamina and strength to survive in this war or invest it on luck.  In the end, I invested it on a completely different stats then what I had planned to.

I invested 20 points to wisdom for mana which I might need when No Hair taught me his ‘Finishing Technique’.  50 points to agility and 45 points to dexterity, the only way I can survive this war is by utilizing the ability that I have to its maximum. It sadden me that I can’t invest it on luck, but I’ll get my chance to level up when this is all over and invest those points on luck!

I took a quick glimpse on my character profile.

Player InfoNameIchirokuLevel38RaceHumanProofessionGamblerStat Info:

Strength : 25

Stamina : 12

Dexterity : 50 (+25)

Agility : 73 (+25)

Intelligence : 0

Wisdom : 20

Endurance : 1

Luck : 135

Additional Stat Point : 0Attack : 120 ~ 125 (+10 – 19)

Health : 600

Mana : 500

Defence : 75Enhancement

N/A

We were overpowered, we were surrounded, and we were most definitely cornered. Mermen King, Defenders, Mages, Spell Casters, Warriors and normal henchmen!  The whole Army of the Mermen race was present in front of us. To make it worst, the Mangdora Creeps are here too.

“Why the hell are those Mangdora Creep doing here anyway? They were not here when we arrived earlier!” I whispered in a voice that was audible to No Hair and Eden.

“They were not… but they are now.” Eden said in a gapped voice.

“Those Mangdora Creep were summoned by the Mages.” No Hair said.

“We were busy exterminating the Mermen when of the Mage raised up its staff and began enchanting. It opened a portal 10 meters above the ground and began spitting those Creeps onto the ground.” Eden exclaimed.

“I don’t have any problem fighting with those Mermen as I can already overpower them. Those Mangdora Creeps however, is a different story. They are leveled 40; the difference in our level is small. I can handle it easily if it was around four or five creeps, but the Mages kept on summoning creep that it felt the spawning creep rate is endless! I had to use my <> skill to keep healing myself.”

“I was fighting off the Mages with a few other villagers. But the Mangdora Creeps attacks were way beyond what the villagers can handle. Most of them were inflicted with heavy injuries. We were lucky there were no death causalities.” Eden said as he tried to catch up his breath.

“Certainly, it weren’t for the villagers help. I would’ve died fighting the Mangdora Creeps as the number was too many. I was left with a very little mana when the Mermen King made its appearance.” No Hair added.

“What the hell…just how strong is that monster?” I asked.

“I don’t know lad, this is the first time I’ve ever seen something like this.”

“That monster is stronger than what we had seen before; it’s even stronger than the kraken that we fought Captain. The Mangdora Creeps were quite troublesome but this Mermen King is on a whole different league.”

“I attacked it using my Silver Palm, and launched a consecutive Navy Punch that would normally blow a sea creature to bits. But it seemed like there was something that was protecting it, it was almost like a shield.” No Hair said, he was staggering as he tried to stand firm on his feet. Dissatisfaction was clearly shown on his looks as his attack didn’t left any impression against the Mermen King.

“We are doomed if we failed to figure out how to deal with this Mermen King.” Eden added.

“I don’t think we have to worry about that…” I said.

Both Eden and No Hair turned their attention towards me.

I don’t know why but they looked at me as if I have cookies to give away. But no I don’t have any cookies!

“The Subjugation will be here any minutes now.” I continued.

“Is it true?” A clear voice could be heard from Eden.

“Yeah, Sheldon told me that they scout had reported that the Subjugation Force is coming. They should be here by now.”

“Well you hear that Eden? We might have some chance after all. Gha ha ha!” No Hair laughed out so loud that his voice resounded throughout the village. Both me and Eden who was ‘startled’ by No Hair sudden laugh got our invisibility cancelled.

No Hair stopped laughing and had his eyes fixated at the sigh behind my back.

“Do you by any chance still have the Great HP Potion lad?”

I don’t like where this is going….

“Split out!” Eden shouted out loud!

I didn’t bother to turn around and look what was their looking at as I already knew what was behind me. I activated my Instantaneous Movement and got away from the Mermen King fire breathe range.

Seriously, I think there is something wrong with a Mermen King which has a high affinity with water to breathe out fire instead of water blast from its mouth! It’s like a Magic Carp who can execute the skill ‘Ember’ instead of ‘Splash’.

“I don’t think I can fight for a while.” No Hair said and looked at my direction; he was unable to escape from the fire breath. His legs were still weak from the damage that he received.

“Human…” The Mermen King spoke out with a hoarse yet golden voice, it sounded like those men who narrated the action preview movies.

I was no longer surprised at talking mobs. To be honest, I was never surprised seeing a monster talk. In online games that I’ve played before there would be always some sort of text in above the monster head. There were times when I killed a monster, the monster let out a dying cry in message form.

The reason why I was surprised at the sight of Mangdora Creep talking was due to its ability to trash talk. In all honesty, the fight against the Mangdora Creep when I was doing the herb quest was the first time where I seen a trash talking mob.

“Humans… You have soiled my race’s water. You have poisoned my children, and you have killed my brethren and you dare say that we are the Evil one?”

The Mermen King stomped its feet onto the ground. Cracks were made open by the strength of the stomp. The Mermen King had the appearance of the Mermen Spell Caster. But what The Mermen King was holding was neither a spear nor a trident. It was an old stick usually seen as a tool to chase away dogs in Chinese historical martial art drama and movies.

The Mermen King was moving about the area, not

“Only because my race had fins but not ears, had claws but not nails, had rough scale but not smooth skin, you humans labeled us as impurity, filth and devil! You invaded our sea and killed our children, you cooked them and eat them and threw their remains back at the sea, and you dare call us as heartless murderer who killed a human child?!

While you caught my brethren and kill them mercilessly without heed to our pleading you dare call us as vicious demon?! Dare me now for I am about to release my wrath that long had I kept caged inside my heart! Dare me now for I won’t plead for mercy but a word for death!

Know your place human! You are nothing but a small existence in this vast world! The world that you know is only amounted to a speck of dust then what it was actually in reality! I had enough of your foolish conducts human! I shall burn you to no more but a dust, and spread your entire body in the sea as an offering to my dead brethren that you have killed!

<>!” The Mermen King screamed. Its eyes were colored in darkish red color. Steam was being released from his entire body and afterward sent a shockwave throughout the village surface.

-You’re within the enemy <> effective Range, as long as you’re inside the enemy effective range these penalty are applied.

* Maximum HP decreased by half.

*All Stat decreased by half.

*You cannot activate any Ability.

*33% Chances to be stunned by The Mermen King’s Stomp!

“… …” The three of us who were present at scene were unable to let out a sound. The menacing effects from The Mermen King skill were disastrous!  

Eden had already distanced himself from the Mermen King by 50 meters.

“Lad...” No Hair said in a trembling voice… “Please tell me the Subjugation force is here!”

I would love to say so, but my eyes were fixated at the sight of angered Mermen King.

I think I just shat myself.