The situation is chaotic. Axi is crawling back, while most of the goblins start running. I grab Zerenek’s disciple and throw him back with all my strength. He keeps running. I hope Asaru will rescue Axi. If not, Axi’s constitution should save her from the bomb, while the explosion should save her from kobolts.
Zerenek is stunned by Rike’grak’s death, but he recovers quickly and looks at me with hatred. I wink at him and throw the bomb. Then, I jump behind a nearby tree. It should be enough.
I observe how the fire explodes and fills the surroundings. Most goblins managed to escape a bit, so our losses are not that big. Kobolts are much worse. I’m not sure about Axi and Zerenek. On my side, I cover my head with my hands. The fire initially splits on the tree, but fire mana burrows inside the wood and sets it on fire. I observe how the wood is slowly being burned. Did I pick a too-small tree?
The explosion ends, and I sigh in relief. My skin is burned, but it’s only the first and a bit of second degree burns. It's not good, but I can still fight. I numb the pain with my vitality mana and come out from behind the tree. Axi is gone. It seems Asaru has taken her away. Good. Otherwise, I would have to grab her soul first. Axi should survive for some time. The forest burns, though. Regardless, I need to get out of here, or smoke will kill me.
I frown. Kobolts' losses are less than I expected. Their magic resistant scales are really useful. I need to run. They may chase after us. I’m just about to run away, but I notice something moving. Zerenek raises his head. He is burned even more than me, but he somehow survived. How? Even if he lied down in time, it should still kill him. Maybe he has some defensive skills. Whatever, I just need to finish him off.
Roar! The Kobolt chieftain shouts something. He is burned pretty badly, but his 3rd tier warrior vitality keeps him standing. Kobolts start charging after us. Shit!
“Invitar! This soul for eternal conquest!” Zerenek chants something, and he visibly recovers. He starts running away, too. I charge at him, but he notices and throws a few knives my way. I fail to dodge and block two with my arm, while the third one pierces my shoulder. I rip them off and use enough vitality to stop the bleeding. I conjure a few Mana Orbs and throw them at Zerenek as well. That slows him down a bit.
I’m already buffing myself, so I will catch him in a few seconds if nothing else happens. Kobolt warriors are faster, though. Their chieftain is behind me and is going to strike. Damn! Should I sacrifice a hand? If I can injure him a bit…
He fails to swing. Asaru appears behind him and stabs him in the biceps. He drops the club and tries to punch Asaru. She fails to dodge, but the punch hits her armor. I ignore it and keep going. Zerenek managed to make some distance. Asaru, looking at what’s going on, sprints after me.
“Axi is dying! You have to save her!”
If the poison is weak, I will have to give her enough vitality. If it’s strong… I can only resurrect her later. I make a snap decision. “Brink her to me! Zerenek is the one who ordered her death! I need to kill that traitor! Give her this!” I give Asaru the health potion I once looted from an adventurer.
Asaru runs away, and I notice I have lost Zerenek. Damn! I ran in the direction he did. The forest no longer burns here, and I notice goblins and hobs. Nearly all of them are wounded, and they are slow. Some of them are dying. I make sure there’s no Zerenek among them and continue running. Soon, I hear moans of pain and cries of despair. Kobolts made it here.
Two of them run at me. I grimace. Kobolts here are at the peak of the 2nd tier. Even when I’m buffing myself, their physical stats are still higher. Their fighting skills are at least as good as mine. The first kobolt lunges his spear at me. I dodge and close the distance. The second kobolt thrusts his spear as well, while the first one abandons it and swipes his claws. I plunge my dagger into the first kobolt and send clots in while enduring my skin being split by his claws.
I block the spear of the second kobolt with my hand. It pierces my flesh but lodges in my vambrace. The kobolt pulls the spear back together with me. I scratch him with my dagger and jump back. I look around and continue to look for Zerenek, while two notifications sound in the back of my head. I check my pools.
Health:48/190
Stamina:59/154
Mana:221/460
I stem the bleeding. A few more kobolts, and I will need to escape. I doubt kobolts will pursue us for long, but if they do… I will have to fight for my life. Damn it! I didn't plan this enough!
I notice a hob escaping a kobolt to the side. Zerenek! I rush forward. The kobolt looks at me warily. I chuckle, wink at him, and throw my spear at Zerenek. He looks back in time and dodges, though he falls to the ground in the process. Eh, my throw sucked anyway. The kobolt hesitates, but ultimately pounces on Zerenek.
“Holy Strike!” Zerenek intones, and the kobolt shouts in pain and kneels beside him. He still lifts his claws against the priest, but he’s too slow. Zerenek grabs his short sword and pierces into kobolt’s head through his eye socket.
I grab the spear lying to the side and approach Zerenek cautiously.
“Holy Strike!”
Pain! But I know it. It’s the same as when human priests used their abilities on me. This one is significantly weaker, though. Is it because Zerenek is weaker, or because we are both monsters? I check my HP and curse. I convert more vitality mana from my core into vitality and charge at the priest.
He mumbles something again and faces me with a short sword in hand. After two exchanges, I grimace. His fighting skills are better than mine, though I’m stronger right now. I keep him at a distance and keep wounding him. I pierce his shoulder after another exchange. He grabs the spear with a wounded hand and slashes the spear with his sword.
I take out my dagger. Just one more wound. I charge at him, and we fight. He slashes my arm. He wounds my leg. I scratch his hand.
Zerenek falls down. He loughs. “Fine. We both lost, then. I killed your woman. The poison is too strong; you won’t be able to do anything.”
“Do you think I can only resurrect recently deceased?” I walk forward and stab the dagger into Zerenek’s chest. I add more clots to make sure there won’t be any accidents. “My limit is around a day. I will have her back, while you will remain dead.”
Zerenek dies with hatred in his eyes.
What now? I need to actually save Axi. If she dies, how am I to find her soul here? I can see a few of them flying here and there. Even if I can recognize her soul, finding it is nearly impossible. I need to find Axi before she dies.
Where to look? Where did Asaru take her? Maybe I should have grabbed Axi’s soul first. Zerenek would have attacked me back then, though. I don’t know. I only know I would hate myself if I lose Axi.
Something runs toward me. I raise my dagger, but it’s Asaru. She has Axi on her shoulder. My heart goes cold. I find no vitality in her. Just as I’m about to drown in despair, they enter my soul's perception range. Axi’s soul is still there!
“Smag! I’m faking her being alive. I can’t continue for long!”
Stolen story; please report.
There’s no vitality in her, but Axi’s soul is still in its place. It’s eerie. If not for the fact that I know it’s Asaru magic, I would think Axi is undead. “Let your magic go.”
Asaru nods, and Axi’s soul is released. Asaru goes pale. “I got notification.”
“And I got her soul.” I smile. “Don’t worry. I can resurrect her. We just need to wait two weeks.”
She looks at me. “Are you sure?” She asks with an absolutely serious expression, to the point where I stop smiling.
“Yes. I’m sure.”
She nods.
“Let’s go back to the tribe,” I order. “Kobolts are unlikely to go that far, but we still need to regroup and prepare.”
I make a small incision and dig out Axi's core before leaving. We encounter a few goblins on our way, and they join us. Several hours later, just as dusk approaches, we arrive back in the village. There are many goblins around; around half of them are wounded or burned.
Anastasia approaches us. "Dead,” I say, pointing at Axi’s soul hovering near me.
Anastasia grimaces. “Again?” She sighs after a while in defeat. “Do you want me to help you again?”
“You or Asaru. Nancy and Samantha are both pregnant currently.” While I couldn’t do it before, I can now abort the babies and stimulate women’s bodies to be ready for another pregnancy. It’s pretty complicated, though. I continue. “Asaru, can you assume the position of chieftain for the time being?”
“Me?” She asks, surprised.
I roll my eyes. “Yes, you. You are the only orc in the tribe right now. Obviously, you are the strongest. Nobody will even question it.”
“That’s…”
“Just until Axi comes back.”
“Fine.”
I nod. That would stabilize the tribe. I go with Anastasia to my house. After a minute, we end up in bed.
“You have been lively today.” I poke her after the deed. “You always have been more resigned.”
“I got used to doing it with goblins, I suppose.”
I laugh silently. I bet she has been sexually frustrated. I don’t say it, though, but wait for souls to appear in Anastasia’s womb. I replace one of them with Axi’s soul, and it’s done.
Asaru stabilizes the tribe the next day, and we resume hunting. Kobolts give up after taking some of our hunting grounds. That’s what I expected. Their tribe would have to split to control such a large territory. They probably don’t have enough fighters to do so, especially after our short war. Continuing the war would also only decrease their manpower. It’s not worth it.
I tally our losses. My tribe mostly consists of hobs right now, as regular goblins are mostly useless in this region. Most of the goblins either didn’t participate or stayed in the back and only supported the fight from a distance, so none of them died. 40% of hobs died, though. The causality rate is even higher among elites. This has a good side as well, since I will be able to nurture elites loyal to me now.
I also lost the fire core. Rike’grak’s water core has been lost to Kobolts as well. After giving the order core to the new priest, I only have chaos, water, fire, and two air cores in my possession. Getting rid of Rike’grak and Zerenek was worth it, though. The tribe as a whole is worth a lot more.
I summon the new priest to my house. “Sit. Drink the tea.” The goblin nods and shyly sits and looks at me. I smile amicably. "Your former master was killed by acursed kobolts. If you don’t mind, I will take care of you.” He nods.
I want to learn about priests' powers, but he is too stupid right now to form proper sentences. I feed him the remaining Exp for him to evolve. He eats the core and attunes to order mana. After that, he evolves.
“Master!”
I smile. “You can call me Master Smag. Come. I don’t know much about priesthood, so you will need to explain this to me first. Also, since you are now my second disciple, I will give you a name. Prisham.”
“Thank you!”
Prisham explains to me the powers of the priests. Priests have several skills that are directly granted to them by their god. Most of the skills are the same for all priests, especially those at the lower tier. Stronger priests get stronger skills, some of which are unique to their god.
First, priests have a unique resource called Faith Power. They are accumulating it by prying, proselytizing, converting others, and killing infidels, especially of opposing aligment. Additionally, they gain Faith Power by doing stuff in the domain of their god. For Invitar, that would be looting and conquering. For praying, they even have a dedicated skill: Pray.
Faith power is then converted to a number of uses for their skills. A priest has a maximum number of skill uses per day, depending on the skill's level. They fill in that using Faith Power the next day, so it’s possible they won’t be able to do that due to lacking Faith Power.
Common skills are Identify, Bless, Cure and Holy Bolt. Identify gives a priest part, or at higher levels, all of the status screen of the target. Bless simply gives you a buff. Cure restores HP and can negate negative conditions, like disease, on higher levels. Holy Bolt deals damage to HP. This skill is strengthened when used against opposing alignment, which makes sense now that Zerenek Bolts weren’t that strong when he used them on me.
Next are versions of Consecrate Ground. Zerenek uses Dark Conquest, which is basically the same, but with a different name. This skill is for fighting opposing alignment armies. You can’t use it to attack your own alignment, and it’s necessary to counter the enemy's version. This skill can only be used once a day, at least on lower levels. I find this skill annoying, since it makes having a priest practically a must have for any sizable army.
The next skill is Miracle. This is what Zerenek used to rapidly heal himself. This skill uses all your accumulated Faith Power to strengthen your next holy skill. The effect can be comparable to a small miracle, like Zerenek healing deadly burns with the Cure skill by using Miracle as well.
Then, there are new skills Prisham got from evolving. Shield of Faith upgrades Mana Shield. You still need to create Mana Shield, but layering Shield of Faith on it makes it significantly stronger and easier to maintain. That must be how Zerenek survived the initial explosion. Shield of Faith completely stopped fire mana, so he only got surface burns from regular fire.
Excommunicate gives a cursed title to the target, similar to the titles Anastasia got. There are a lot of conditions, though. In practice, the target must already be close to receiving a cursed title for their actions.
Imbue Faith is an enchanting skill. It can be used to seal the system for the target. The skill enchants an object for a specific purpose. At his tier, Prisham can enchant manacles to seal the system or a weapon to sear those of opposing alignment.
The last two skills available to Prisham are Blessing of Invitar and Trade EXP. His first skill allows him to give someone the blessing of Invitar. There are barely any conditions; the recipient just needs to have the same alignment. Getting a cursed title changes your alignment, though. Anastasia is no longer aligned with the Bright Gods, but also not completely with the Dark Gods, being somewhere in the middle. If she can completely align with the Dark Gods, Prisham will be able to even give her this blessing.
Other than that, a priest can only give a limited amount of such blessings. To give more, the priest needs to level up, or the blessed need to die to free the slot. Prisham can only bless one monster right now. According to Prisham, Zerenek gave one blessing to himself and another to Rike’grak.
Blessing has two benefits. The first is that you can assign EXP manually. Your earned EXP is stored and can be assigned to skills or the race at any time. It can also be traded, which is facilitated by the Trade EXP skill of priests. While it’s called trade, in practice, a priest can just take your EXP if you agree to that. Actual trade is outside of the scope of this skill.
The second benefit is that hostile holy skills have a lesser impact on you, regardless of alignment. The priests of that god who blessed you are the only exception to this.
Now that I know it all, I can think about ways to deal with priests. The assassination or hit-and-run tactic seems the best. Killing them before they can use their skills is the best, but that’s always true for everyone. Priests actually have quite few options about allocating stats, so they can fight either physically or as mages. Hit-and-run should be able to force them to waste their skill usage and prevent them from praying.
Time passes, and Axi is born again.
“How are you?”
“Fine.” Axi sighs. “I died again. I need to figure out how to counter poison.”
I think for a moment. “We could try raising your resistance.”
“What do you mean?”
“I can poison you a bit and allow you to recover. Then poison you with a stronger dose, and so on. Your body will become better at metabolizing poison with time. Maybe you will even get a trait.”
“Let’s do it. Say, can you guarantee a successful resurrection now?”
“Yes.” At first, there was a chance of rejection. I got better over time. There’s still a chance of rejection if I were to mishmash the races of mother and reincarnate, but I can reincarnate goblins with a 100% success rate right now.
“Then, I’m going to kill myself when I become a hobgoblin."
“What? Why?” I don’t want to lose Axi.
“To collect mana types. I can eat another mana core right now. That would give me three elements. I just need three more cores and I will have all the basic elements. Anastasia said that enlightened often aim for a skill that consolidates their control skills over basic elements into one skill. I want that.”
I sigh in relief. Axi’s doesn’t want to die. She just wants to become stronger. “That’s fine. We lack an order core for that, though. I gave it to Prisham, Zerenek’s disciple.”
“Have you succeeded? Is Zerenek dead?”
“Very dead. Rike’grak is dead too. Prisham is on my side now, though we will have to kill him for your plan.” I shrug. “I can always resurrect him later. He just can’t know he died because of us. Are you planning to become a mage?”
“A bit. I’m still planning to be a front fighter, but since I’m going to kill myself anyway, I will go for a mage path for now. By the way, who is the chieftain?”
“Asaru for now. I told her you would take over.”
“Impossible. Given how much EXP your scheme is producing, I will become a hob before I even come of age.”
I sigh. “We will have to figure out something else, then.”