Axi jumps forward to attack. Anastasia draws her bow, and the rest of the goblins follow Axi, leaving me and Anastasia in the back. Wait! This may be my opportunity to kill her!The wolves are taken by surprise. I guess they are the apex predators in the area, and nobody is stupid enough to attack their den.
Axi jumps forward and chops one of the wolves. It tries to escape, but Axi uses earth magic to trip the monster. The rest of the goblins attack as well. I prepare my Mana Orb, though it’s more of a Mana Oval these days. After learning more about vitality, I understood that I needed to somehow inject isolating mana deeper into my enemies. I began to experiment with the Structured Orb perk to achieve that.
I wanted a Mana Arrow or something like that. What I achieved is an oval construct that punches into the vitality and then unloads the isolating mana. Thanks to this upgrade, my spell hurts a few times stronger, especially when I can aim at vital points.
I shot my ‘Orb’ at one of the weaker wolves, and it hit the wolf in the head. Mana partially blocks the connection between the soul and the rest of its vitality flow, resulting in paralysis. This is another trick I learned. Another shot in the head should be enough to kill that wolf. I don’t, since a nearby goblin steals my kill. The system still counts my spell as a debuff to total health, denying me any contribution.The situation changes quickly, though. Wolves start to emerge from their pits. We've achieved rather limited success so far, killing a few wolves without any losses, but I can already tell it’s not going to be easy. Several 2nd tier wolves attack and two goblins die quickly. We need to retreat. Axi is our only fighter capable of fighting them one-on-one, and they have a serious numerical advantage. My thinking is interrupted as four wolves run towards me and Anastasia. Great, we don’t even have any guards.
“Help!” I shout towards Axi and activate the Moment of Clarity.
Four wolves, two big and two smaller. I can maybe seriously wound one of the smaller ones with Orb, and then they will be here. Maybe Anastasia can kill or wound another, but then it would be one-on-one with a 2nd tier wolf. It will be hard to win, but I probably just need to wait for Axi.
I start to shape Mana Orb, and the Moment of Clarity imminently breaks. However, 2nd tier wolves are faster than I expected! I shot Orb at it, just as the wolf is about to chomp on me. I hit it in the head. The 2nd tier wolf has stronger vitality, so this hit just stuns it for a second. Good enough. I take a peek, and one of the weaker wolves is dead, Anastasia’s arrow sticking from its head.
The second smaller wolf attacks me, and I defend with my spear while charging another Orb. Anastasia draws her primitive bone spear and tries to fight the bigger wolf, but she has already been bitten. I need to be fast. It’s not like I want to save her, but I don’t want to fight two wolves at once.
I bait the smaller wolf and shoot the Orb. I don’t hit precisely, but it’s enough to stun it for a moment. I use the chance to pierce the monster with my spear, killing it. I move my head to look at Anastasia’s situation, but I suddenly feel pain in my right shoulder. The previously stunned bigger wolf recovered and is currently ripping apart my shoulder. Damn! I watch as it brings me down.
I want to stab the bastard, but I lose strength in my right arm, and the monster is also lying on my body. I try to punch it with my left arm, but the wolf lets go of my shoulder and tries to bite my left hand. I jerk it back, but that’s a mistake. It chomps on my throat. I choke. I can’t breathe. I feel my vitality is going awry. Is this my end? The wolf starts to yank my throat.
I can still do something. I start creating Orbs with my mind. They are going to be of limited usefulness, but they're better than nothing. I shot it in the monster’s head, only stunning it again. The wolf doesn’t let me go. It doesn’t matter, actually; I won’t recover from my current damage naturally anyway. I take the chance, grab my ritual dagger, and start to draw runes on the wolf’s skin. I cut them so many times on monsters that I could do so in my sleep. It’s still a bit awkward to do so due to the angle, but I manage.I need to. I feel a desperate urge to breathe. I cast another Orb in the meantime and renew the stun. The monster’s vitality is damaged more and more, so stuns are a bit longer each time. I start stabbing the bastard. I use the Infusion spell for more strength. I cast Orb again. The bastard has a hard skin, and I’m doing limited damage, but I’m digging deeper. I start to lose vision—only blackness. Just a bit more. I hit it again with the crude Orb and again with the dagger.
I feel it. The notification and warm flow. My vitality suddenly overflows. It pools in my throat and my shoulder, healing me quickly. I push back the wolf’s teeth from my neck with my newfound vigor. It starts to mend, just a bit more.
I take a deep breath! I cough blood. Transfer stops. I’m full of vitality, but it’s getting depleted fast since I’m still bleeding and my wounds are mending. Damn! It wasn’t enough. I need to find another sacrifice. I had two rabbits with me; hopefully, they are alive. I push back the carcass, but imminently another wolf attacks me. Damn again! I can’t fight it now!
I don’t, as an arrow hits the monster in the neck. I look over and see a heavily bleeding Anastasia running in my direction, with Axi just behind her. Anastasia grabs me and throws me on her shoulder. They start to run. I look behind me, but there are only wolves.
I grab the first rabbit and stab it. More vitality flows into me. The second rabbit seems dead, but I try anyway. Success! It was still alive! I throw the animals back, hoping they would interest wolves. No such luck.
I try to activate the Moment of Clarity. The perk doesn’t want to at first, but with some push, it activates. I won’t be able to activate it again for a while. I look around.
I look inward first; disturbances in the flow of vitality show injuries rather easily. I’m mostly fine. I’m still bleeding, but it’s nothing serious, and I will recover in a few hours, faster if I can sacrifice something else.
Next, I look at Axi. She is a step behind Anastasia. She must have figured wolves would attack from behind, so she is using her soil armor to protect Anastasia. On the other hand, she has a clear view of any monster trying to strike Anastasia before her. Axi looks fine, but I can’t tell what’s beneath her armor.
Anastasia looks the worst. Her left arm is mangled and bleeding, but she still holds her bow in it. She holds me with her right hand. She has several cuts and gashes on her body from claws. She needs healing to survive. Well, good for me.
The Moment ends, and I start preparing an Orb.
“Let me go!” I shout and jump down from Anastasia’s arms. I start to run alongside Anastasia. There are dozens of wolves remaining. I bet there were pups in the pits. This means only a fraction should be pursuing us now. Hopefully, they will give up soon.
In the meantime, a wolf jumps on Axi’s back. The wolf claws and bites dirt, and then Axi elbows it to the ground. She has an awkward angle to swing her ax. Another wolf goes from the front, but I fire Orb and stop it for a moment, which is enough for us to run forward and take its chance away.I take a look at Anastasia. She is pale and, hopefully, will collapse soon. She helped me, so I’m now reluctant to kill her, but... Damn, my nice personality! Nice people die first! I need to be a cold-blooded bastard!
Another wolf jumps on Axi, but this time, she grabs it and breaks its leg.“Smag! Heal Anas!” She shouts and holds the wolf. I groan. I have no choice now. I slow down, but I quickly realize a problem.
“I can’t draw runes while running!”
Soil detaches from Axi’s armor and grabs me. That works. It’s just that Axi now carries a lot, so she seems to slow down. I start the work. It’s relatively fast, plus Anastasia already has a receiver mark on her.
“Done. Anastasia, come here.” She hugs the trashing wolf, and I stab the monster. Axi helps by holding it down. Wolves attack to use the chance, but Axi creates a small dome of soil above us. Anastasia heals.
“I’m nearly out of mana,” Axi says. Great. This is going to be ugly.
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“I shot them. Not many. We do it.” Hopefully, that would work. I somehow doubt it.
I shake my head. I don’t have anything to say now. Axi collapses the dome and we start running again. Anastasia shoots on the run, which deters wolves quite a bit. Her aim is bad at long distances, but she can still hit closer targets. I help with my Orbs. Axi gives up on most of her armor and now only maintains it on her back. We run for a few minutes with an occasional wolf attack, until Anastasia kills one of them. After that, one of the wolves howls, and they retreat. Probably due to too many losses.I fall down and start to laugh. I’m still alive! To my surprise, Anastasia joins me in both. “I did think we dead.”
“Yeah. Me too.” I reply. “Stupid. I told you it was a bad idea.”
“Sorry,” Anastasia replies. Axi sits down. Anastasia looks at her and then kicks her.
“You too.”
“What?”
“Your fail.”
Axi grumbles. “Sorry.” She says it offhandedly. I don’t think it’s the main problem here.
“Axi, you are mostly fine, but we both nearly died. You can’t jump into crazy fights.”
“We are fine. Tell him, Anas.”
“No. Smag right.”We return to the tribe. I kill a few more sacrifices and top off our health.
You have killed 8 1st tier monsters. You have earned 520 Experience Points.
You have killed 1 2nd tier monster. You have earned 600 Experience Points.
Your Tracking skill has advanced to level 11!
Your Mana Infusion skill has advanced to level 13!
Your Leadership skill has advanced to level 14!
Your Rune Basics skill has advanced to level 9!
Your Tactics skill has advanced to level 37!
Your Mana Manipulation skill has advanced to level 30!
Your Transfer Vitality skill has advanced to level 17!
Your Plotting skill has advanced to level 4!
After a few days, Axi gathers most of the tribe. We march on the wolves’ den. I agree with her. It’s best to kill them off now. In the meantime, I pick my new Mana Manipulation Perk. There are two new additions.
Rune Casting
Become better at creating runes from ambient mana.
Mana Bomb
Violently explode stable mana construct
I pick the first option. These days, I mostly use marks and my orbs. Explosion seems neet, but in practice, it’s still just neutral mana. According to the perks description, I can also explode constructs of other mana types, but this is a very niche ability because I don't have access to any other mana types.
The battle against the pack is brutal. I and Anastasia remain in the back, but with a dozen guards. Axi is in the vanguard, brutalizing the wolves. The main battle lasts for half an hour, and then the remaining wolves retreat to the pits. I and Anastasia pick them off. Then we throw burning stuff inside. We kill all of them.
You have killed 11 1st tier monsters. You have earned 760 Experience Points.
Your Transfer Vitality skill has advanced to level 18!
Your Mana Infusion skill has advanced to level 15!
Your Mana Orb skill has advanced to level 19!
Your Rune Scribbling skill has advanced to level 12!
I think I will give up on killing Anastasia. Ultimately, she doesn’t have a reason to kill me or Axi now. Sure, she can escape and tell humans about our location, but we would be able to escape then. It’s a bother, but probably a lesser bother than trying to assassinate her without Axi noticing.
[Diego’s POV]
“Sir.” I lazily move my eyes up. The leader of the local adventurer guild. Greedy bastard. I know for sure; I was once an adventurer too.
“What do you want?”
“It’s about the commotion a few weeks ago. I believe this is a matter that needs the governor’s attention.”
“Sure, go ahead.” I sigh. Hopefully, it’s not problematic.
“My adventurers found the carcass of Greater Saiter Snake. We believe it’s the reason for the commotion.”
Greater Saiter Snake is a 4th tier monster. That’s something unheard of at our location. A few weeks ago, my guardsmen noticed a commotion in the forest with many monsters moving out and attacking villagers. It wasn’t a very big problem, but there were losses.
“And it’s dead? What killed it?”
“That’s the problem, sir. We found a 3rd tier Armored Carapace Spider with it, also dead. Snake died to its poison.”
“So they killed each other. Why?”
“Let’s not jump to the conclusion. We found them both underground. You know spiders had a den in underground tunnels. The snake attacked it and died inside. It seems the stupid spider evolved inside as well and cut itself off. As for why the snake attacked, I believe it was over an earth treasure.”
“So we have an earth affinity monster. Somewhere.”
Guildmaster smiles. “Yes. And I believe it’s an orc!”
“Orc?” I ask.
“Yes. We found some goblins' tools at the side.”
“You believe that an orc killed both a 4th-tier snake and a 3rd-tier spider," I say this with sarcasm oozing out of my tone. Guildmaster ignores it just like always.
“Yes! It may be a very rare variant. Now it even has earth affinity, so it’s even more dangerous. I believe a bounty for goblin tribes is in need.” I sigh. I wonder, what will be for dinner today? I just want to go home and hug my wife. When I reached 3rd tier I thought I had won my life. Then, I noticed how hard leveling had become and decided to retire. The local marquis let me become governor of this town. I’m the only 3rd tier human here.
At first, I thought it would be easy for me. The town is, in large part, for adventurers. Sure, there are farms and even one mine, but most craftsmen use monsters’ parts. How naive I was. I jumped into politics without any understanding.
“Mr. Ferdinard. This could be an adventure. The remaining tools might just be what's left over. Spiders hunted goblins, after all. This isn’t conclusive evidence.”
He naturally protests. “This orc can be very dangerous. You can't just let it go.” I snort. That 4th tier snake would be really dangerous. 3rd tier? Not really. We can just surround it and pelt it with arrows and magic. A goblin tribe is a bit more dangerous, but not by much. We can shoot them from horses. Sure, I don’t have any true mounted cavalry, but that is not a problem. They can just ride closer, stop, fire, and increase distance. It’s not like goblins have any strategy to prevent it. No, they don’t use strategy at all.
“You are right. I will place a bounty on a sighting of an Earth affinity goblin.”
“Sighting?”
“Yes, we need to gather information first, right?”
“But…”
“No buts. It’s a proper strategy. Now, I’m just happy that 4th-tier monster is not going to be a problem.”
Guildmaster Ferdinard leaves. I know his problem. He is old. The only sure way to increase longevity is to tier up. There are some dark ways to live longer, but they are either incredibly expensive or have very nasty side effects. To tier up to 3rd tier he needs at least a rare skill at level 50. To achieve that, he, in turn, needs either experience to recycle his perks, money for high-tier teachers, recognition from nobles, or at least an adventurer's guild. Ultimately, he wants achievements and money, and he wants them fast.
I sigh again. It’s just rubbish. I once thought we could win. Kill all the monsters. How stupid I was. No, I wasn’t stupid. Just ignorant. I just had time and money to read more about history. It’s just a constant battle. There are no winners. It’s the same as it was hundreds of millennia ago. Enlightened people push, and then monsters push.
I could lead the charge. Kill monsters in the forest and build farms. History is clear. Some dark kingdom would invade. Rather than goblins and hobs, I would fight ogres. No chance. I quit.Our zone has a low mana level. This means not many treasures and low-tier monsters. 3rd tier is the limit. After that, you either stay here and stagnate or leave for greener pastures. That’s the reason I don’t care about the orc. It will probably leave on its own, just like always.I believe it’s the function of our area. It’s to produce fighters for stronger zones. Enlightened races are all born weak, but the offspring of two 5th-tier monsters can reach that tier without killing a single creature. They just grow up.
I’m not planning to fight against goblins as well. There’s no point. I can destroy one, two, or three tribes—how many I want. Some goblins will escape. Then, maybe a hunting party of another tribe deeper in the forest would capture a female adventurer and start a new tribe. You can’t kill off goblins. I know the locations of all the nearby tribes. As long as they behave, I would rather keep things stable. This way, I know where to look for trouble.For example, I know where to look for that hypothetical orc now. I’m not going to, though. There’s no point. The guildmaster wants me to intervene because goblins’ body parts are not precious. It’s all about money.
The Bright Gods may not approve, but I don’t care. It’s all rubbish. I stand up and prepare to leave. There’s no point in overthinking. The eternal war is going to remain. I’m just a small cog in it. I’m just going to relax with my wife and try to be happy.