When I checked my interface, I was met with an unexpected sight.
[Experience (0/106,305,696)]
For once, my reaction wasn't caused by the exponential growth of the required experience, rather the opposite. I was absolutely sure that, when I last checked my leveling requirements, it was just above a hundred and eighteen million.
A drop of ten percent.
Curious.
I was pretty confident that this was about Authority rather than anything else. Curious, I tried to use my mental touch to somehow reach Authority and see if I could expand it further. But I didn't expect much. I had tried that trick before, and it hadn't worked.
However, as I attempted, a frown covered my face. I had failed once again, but this time, it felt different. The last time, it felt like I was trying to tap a wall and waiting for a response. There was nothing to be addressed.
This time, I felt like I was trying to play with a poorly maintained toy. There was a button that could be pressed, but it was jammed, not giving in despite the pressure. No matter how much I pressed, the feedback was barely enough to feel imaginary.
I knew too much to assume it was imaginary. Nonetheless, I stopped playing with it.
I had a siege to attend.
[Level up!]
[Stat Points +10]
[-106,305,696 Experience]
Another level gained, just like that.
As I moved out, my gaze fell on the wall, particularly a portion that held some old weapons, either belonging to older generations of Maell or trophies from enemies, though their magic nature was clear even from the other side of the ward that protected them.
I didn't take anything yet, but I took note of the spear on the wall.
Since I was planning to visit the area again for more levels, I didn't waste my time examining the arsenal. I avoided the dungeon as )I left, not giving the key back to the Baron.
Before returning to the outer walls, I made a couple of stops. First, a small detour by Karak and Limenta in order to confirm that they were in good condition and didn't need a rest. Both of them had the habit of pushing themselves too much.
Normally, I would be in favor of letting them make their mistake and suffer the pain — which was the greatest teacher nobody wanted and everyone needed — but the current siege was too dangerous.
The line between being strict and cruel wasn't thin enough to leave any doubt about the right move in these circumstances.
I found them on a roof, silent — not exactly shocking, considering Karak was one of the parties. Limenta was laying on the ground, resting, while Karak was perched on the roof, carefully watching the streets. They stayed like that for half a minute more, then Karak stood up.
Limenta followed wordlessly. They moved to their next observation point, careful, steady, and without hurrying up. Just like I had taught.
I was proud.
Pity I didn't have time to watch them any longer.
My next stop was the outer town, though not the walls yet. I observed Takis from afar, watching him as he split his attention between giving orders and keeping track of everything. He was micromanaging everything, which would have been a problem if it wasn't for his Stats, a combination of Intelligence and Wisdom, allowing him to keep track of everything while multitasking.
He was still relying on it too much, which probably made his squad too dependent on him, worrying me about some very dangerous long-term implications.
Maybe I should bring him closer to the fold, more than just supporting him with a few disposable skill stones. He had the performance and the attitude required. In the end, I walked away. While it was harsher than I preferred, the siege would push him to his limits, showing me whether it would make sense to take him into our inner circle.
Assuming we all survived, of course.
With that, I returned to the walls, which were still under constant beast attacks, with no more summoned creatures.
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"Give me a bow," I ordered the nearest soldier, and he passed me one. My bow danced even faster than others, releasing an arrow once every second, each arrow glowing with mana as it landed on the head of the beast, destroying the brain and giving me the kill.
The experience I received from those kills didn't matter — mostly because I was receiving far more experience from the rest of the army as I maintained my Charisma connection — but the same wasn't true for Authority.
Now that I had discovered it had the important benefit of reducing the Experience required to level up, I was even more enthusiastic to collect more.
My efficiency was a great contrast to the other soldiers who invariably consumed at least a dozen arrows for each kill, sometimes even reaching a hundred.
Luckily, the town was well-stocked with arrows, considering that was the primary way of taking down the larger beast. Of course, things would have changed if the siege lasted more than a couple of days.
But I very much doubted that it would be the case. At most, we had hours.
A few minutes later, there was another summoned creature, this time from the opposite side. I darted toward it, and took it down, once again not taking more than five seconds. A great improvement compared to the first time I had tangled with such a monster.
[Invader Slain]
[+2,581,044 Experience]
[+23 Authority]
Another welcome boost, and since I was already all the way out here, I decided to stay there for a while to kill the corrupted beasts rather than retreating directly, dancing between the attacks as I cut them down repeatedly, allowing me to accumulate Authority far faster than with ranged attacks.
I was unable to use my Charisma to gather the monsters around me, as the task of covering the outer walls already stretched my abilities to its limit, making it impossible to multitask unless I was willing to give up that sweet flow of Experience.
And I certainly wasn't willing to give that up, not when I had already gathered enough experience to level up again. A perfect opportunity to push myself more.
Five minutes later my Authority reached over five hundred, and it would have been even more if it wasn't for the cultist mages, taking my success as an affront and attacking me with their spells. I dodged them easily, but annoyingly, they killed their own beasts.
Depriving me of some precious Authority.
I wanted to stay, but the longer I fought, the more I would reveal about my fighting style. And, while I could always upgrade myself, it was good to give them some impression of weakness.
Like, exhaustion.
It was an interesting balance. The first trick was the blows. For the last few hits, I deliberately kept my Strength controlled, trying to give a listless impression — as far as one could give while still bisecting monsters with one blow.
As I returned to the walls, I kept my glowing sword raised, earning endless cheers from the soldiers. However, at the same time, I made sure to add a few subtle missteps, the kind that required a high Perception – fifty, or even higher based on their location – to catch.
They had a whole army. It was fair to assume their commander had at least one person with high Perception, tasked to observe me. I wanted them to convey that, whatever empowered me had a time limit, ultimately making me an easy adversary for an army of their size.
If they didn't believe me … well, it wouldn't matter much. Not like I was making a huge sacrifice. Slowing down Authority gain was the only real drawback that I cared about, but it was a good tradeoff to make the enemy think I wasn't as big of a threat as they might think.
Therefore they didn't need to hurry up with their plan.
Once I arrived at the walls, I took a bow once more and joined the attack, but also moved around the different sections, making sure everyone could catch a glimpse of me.
Keeping their confidence up was important.
With that, things had turned into a deadly routine, monsters attacked the town while I continued to collect a shocking amount of Experience and Authority. Occasionally, they sent summoned beasts against the town, but only one at a time.
At the same time, I took several breaks, visiting the leveling ward, reaching level fifty-two.
An incredible progress, further helped by the fact that, once Authority had surpassed a thousand, my leveling cost dropped by another nine percent.
Almost two hours later, Takis arrived at my side, kneeling in greeting. I didn't like being treated like that, but the role I played wouldn't have minded, so I kept my mouth shut. Still, I gestured for him to stand up after a second.
"The evacuation is complete, sir, and everyone is temporarily placed in the inner town, and the security around the dungeon is not allowing anyone to approach."
"Very good," I said as I looked around. "Now, tell me. How would you have organized a retreat from outer walls to inner walls?"
"I wouldn't presume to —" he started, but a gesture from me was enough to stop him.
"I asked because I want to hear your ideas, not pointless postulating," I said. A little harsher than usual, but he reacted better.
His attitude made a great contrast to our last discussion, but it was understandable. Those times, I was disguised as a steward who had been sent to handle the aftermath, which, while still above where Takis saw himself, was not high enough that he would be afraid of his every word. Not like a high-ranking knight — certainly not one that earned declarations of loyalty from other nobles in the middle of a town.
And, I doubted the glowing armor helped any. It was certainly far more intimidating than an affable old man joking around.
Still, once he pulled a detailed map of the town, his nervousness melted away. He looked at me again, asking for permission, and I nodded. "First, we need to factor in the shape of the main roads and the buildings. These three roads are the biggest avenues to pull back soldiers in an emergency, to prevent a bottleneck, we might need to demolish some buildings…" he started.
I continued to shoot arrows as he explained, though I did ask a few questions about some thorny details, some to remind him about important details that he had missed, some just to show him I was listening carefully.
"Pause for a moment," I cut him off just as he was explaining his opinions about the ideal composition to ambush some cultist forces as they stepped into the town and pulled my sword.
The cultists were summoning once again.
This time, three monsters at once.
Interesting.