An almost infinitesimal sense of wrongness had been niggling at Jonathan for the last few hours, and as he struggled to fill the runes in time, pushing himself beyond his limits in terms of Divinity expenditure, he finally found what had been bothering him. A tiny rune was floating on the back of his head, in a place where his mundane sight could not detect it. However, with enough Divinity usage, he was able to see all the runes in his area, and not just those in front of him. It took up a good chunk of his stock, but he eventually figured out what it was.
The rune was, at a glance, just as inscrutable as the rest of them, but as he peered into its depths, he felt a strange urge to draw closer to it, almost as if it was beckoning to him. The more he focused, the deeper into the rune he could see, until he eventually found a thin strand of power that led from its center off into the distance. Heading straight for the monster.
Cursing, Jonathan slammed the remainder of his Divinity into the rune, cracking it in half. Unlike the Rune of Hatred, this one was far less durable, as its purpose had been to remain unseen, rather than stand up to assault. However, even with the rune gone, the monster was still coming. He tried to imbue another of the runes in front of him, but the pain that ensued forced him to stop. Four Runes of Hatred would have to be enough. Now that the tracking rune was gone, perhaps he had a chance of escape.
He jumped up and down on the top of the wall, screaming at the top of his lungs. The monster snorted, blowing up a cloud of ash from the plain, and changed trajectory, heading for him, and the runes. Jonathan ducked out of the fight and leaped off the side of the wall, hiding in the shadow of the castle. The thirty foot drop caused his legs to twinge painfully, but nothing more. His durability was more than up to the challenge. As he began running for another ruin, he heard the monster slam into the castle wall behind him. There was the sound of shattering stone, and then a deep, sonorous chime as the runes went off. A blast of red energy tore across the monster’s flesh, burning it severely. The blast petered out after reaching to the creature’s heads, but it had served its purpose. Jonathan had reached safety, or rather, a place to hide. The monster bellowed in rage and pain, shaking the earth with a thunderous stomp of anger. It charged off into the distance, unable to find Jonathan now that the rune was gone. With a sigh of relief, he sank backwards, letting the embrace of sleep take him. He had over extended his Divinity one too many times. When he awoke, he was greeted by the welcome sight of notifications on his System interface.
Truesight has reached Novice 6!
Runecrafting has reached Novice 9!
Unfortunately, he had been too busy with the Hatred runes to be able to memorize the new rune that the System had used on him, but it was alright. He was almost at the next rank of his Runecrafting skill, and he was looking forward to seeing what sort of bonuses he would get from it. It had already proven its power many times over, and even though he had been unable to inflict any serious damage on the monster, just the fact that his runes had been able to hurt it had been enough. He had felt a heavy weight on his soul when the monster came near, almost as if its presence was resonating with some part of him. He was sure that it would have killed him in an instant, as sure as he was of his own existence. In any case, he had survived. Another notification waited under the first two, and this one was even more welcome than the first two.
You have gained one point in Divinity!
If he had to guess, his overextension of his abilities had led to this. Now he had enough to make more runes. Jonathan slowly rose to his feet, feeling as good as new, and made his way out of the ruin he was hiding in. The monster was long gone now, and the only trace of it was a set of gargantuan footprints leading off towards the horizon. If not for those, it could have been nothing more than a dream. The only thing that Jonathan had learned from that encounter was that he needed to get stronger, and quickly at that. His leveling speed was diminishing, and he needed to find a way to rectify that. The only way he could think of was through extreme danger. All of his greatest gains had come from fighting monsters beyond his level, sometimes by more than double. Jonathan clenched his fists in his gauntlets and prepared himself for the task ahead.
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A few hours later, he was standing in front of the tell tale hole of another nest of Waste Goblins. This hole was a bit larger than the last, and hopefully that meant that there were more monsters inside. Jonathan stepped forwards, and descended through the tunnel, using his mana as a light. He was inordinately grateful for his boots, which protected him from the filth on the ground.
As with the last burrow, all of the monsters were waiting in a cavern at the base of the tunnel. This time, he did not give them a chance to attack first. He was both stronger and faster compared to the last time he had taken out a nest of these foul creatures, and these ones were only marginally stranger; However there was one main difference, which was that next to the broodmother, there was a much larger version of the regular goblins. It was dressed in tattered leather armor, and held a long spear. Scars crossed its face, and it was covered in rippling green muscles. When it saw Jonathan ripping into the smaller goblins, it roared, and charged, flying across the ground. In between smashing one goblins head into dust, and breaking another one’s arms, he analyzed the new creature.
Waste Goblin Stud(Elite)
Level 25
Well, that solved the mystery of how exactly the broodmothers were impregnated. It seemed that one of these creatures came around every now and again to add to the litter. However, it was not just some breeding partner, and the creature actually seemed to have a degree of sapience to it. When it reached Jonathan, it made sure to avoid the goblins on the ground, which were presumably its children, and barged into him.
The creature was far stronger than he had expected, and Jonathan was sent flying backwards into the wall of the cavern. He raced forwards, and ducked under the spear as it came whistling towards his head. Jonathan reached up and latched onto the weapon, trying to wrest it out of the stud’s hands. The monster grinned and kicked Jonathan in the stomach, driving the wind out of him. He did not let go however, and he used the momentum to pull the spear out of the goblin’s hands. Reversing it in his own hands, Jonathan stabbed forwards, but he missed. He had no experience with a spear, and the unwieldy weapon was like a deadweight in his arms. Instead of discarding it, where the goblin could reclaim it, Jonathan instead broke it over his knee as the monster charged him. Throwing the pieces into its face, he rushed forwards, punching towards its gut.
His spiked gauntlet landed with the force of a gunshot, tearing through the skin and organs of the monster. It howled in agony and lashed out wildly, catching Jonathan in the face with a blow. Some of his teeth cracked, but he ignored the pain, simply spitting out the fragments before they could become a choking hazard. Jonathan tore his gauntlet free, and channeled mana into his other hand, creating a mana ball. His new Mana Drill skill made sure that it was far more powerful than it had been the last time he used the ability in combat. Punching forwards with the skill in full swing, he drove a devastating uppercut into the monster’s jaw. Superheated mana ate through the flesh and bone, boiling blood and sinew away. The stud gurgled and grabbed Jonathan’s hands with its own, forcing them down. Now Jonathan was in trouble, as the monster tried to force the mana into his own skin. Jonathan banished the skill before he injured himself, and bent his knees, throwing the monster over his shoulder. Using his Redirection skill, he imbued even more power into the movement than was there previously, and when the goblin landed, bones broke. Jonathan followed through with the attack, driving his fists into the monster's face and head. Bones shattered, and brain matter spilled out onto the floor as he killed the beast, sending a wave of essence into him.