It was extremely tiring to run like this I was probably carrying twice my body weight if not more and my body weighed quite a lot. Over time I have put on quite a lot of muscle and whatever traits affected my muscles have made their weight even more. What this meant was that I needed to take breaks more often. Even my ability to make myself weigh less wasn’t able to help that much. If I would push the ability, I would be using up too much energy.

While coming to the raid dungeon was more like heavy exercise now it felt like a gruelling march where the enemy was just behind you and if we stopped, you would die. I needed to manage my energy a lot more and this caused me to walk a lot more. I also kept my energy reserves a lot higher because I was too over-encumbered to fight properly so I need everything in case I had to run away.

This routine cost me a lot of time but also allowed me to notice that something was off. I was crossing a bridge that was quite high up spanning across a steep valley where once there might have been a river running through. While walking across it I smelt smoke.

This made my hair stand up and I used some of my energy to quickly move across the stone bridge. It was a nice sunny morning, so everything was painted in a warm light. When I looked underneath the bridge I did not find any bandits instead I found something a lot stronger.

Sitting around the fire cooking some sort of meat were seven trolls. Two of them were quite young probably still children. They were one of the fallen minor races of this world but probably the most well-known of them all simply because of their strength. While some other fallen races can cause more damage in greater numbers like the goblins or orcs in an individual basis no fallen race was stronger than the trolls.

On the older ones I could see how their skin was starting to turn into stone and how they had grown a lot larger than any human should be. Eventually, their skin and flesh will change into stone. It’s a long process which will make them unable to move.

It’s the only way for a troll to die peacefully. Until that happened, they have strong regeneration and resistance to mana which make them extremely hard to kill. The most effective way to neutralize their regeneration is natural fire but getting enough to break through the older troll's rock skin is difficult.

I wasn’t planning on attacking them simply because I wasn’t willing to lose any of my gathered wealth. What surprised me was how normal they were acting. The stories I have heard described them as monstrous beasts with no brains left only savagery against anyone they come across, but here they were for some reason living under a bridge around a campfire cooking what looked like some sort of deer-like beast.

I kept standing there out of curiosity and also taking a long-needed break. It didn't take me long to understand why they were underneath the bridge when one of the older ones went away from the shade of the bridge. I could see a little bit of discomfort in the creature’s movement and soon its skin started to smoke a bit. I have no idea what experiments or curses did this to the troll race but whatever it was it certainly changed a whole lot in them.

I had watched for over half an hour and thought that it would be a good time to leave before they noticed me, but I was a bit too late. I was completely dumbfounded when one of the children started to wave shyly at me like a greeting any other child would do when they noticed someone interesting. I was so dumbfounded that I waved back the same way but the child’s actions didn’t go unnoticed.

One of the bigger trolls looked curiously towards the younger troll and then towards me. Then I heard the bellowing rage fill yell and one by one all the older trolls look towards me and did the same and started to rush towards me.

They were a lot faster than I expected but I didn't wait to find out how strong they might be and just went back running down the road. I wonder if the reaction is something that will happen because of their biology or because of the constant interactions with other people that always ended up in a fight.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

While I was slowly making my way back home, I felt something interesting. The closer I got to home the more I need to make it home. Sometimes I even catch myself pushing myself too hard and I had to rein myself back in. This effect became harder to ignore but I believe my stubbornness was strong enough to withstand whatever force was pulling me.

There was a benefit to feeling this way as time went by fast and while it probably took twice as long to get back, I watch finally able to see the village. But before the village, I could see some of the farmlands that we had worked on and I was glad to see them all planted ready to bring us food before the winter.

I couldn't stop at the village like I originally planned something was calling me back and now it was physically hard to resist. Perhaps it was my new ability and I needed to reconnect with my land to make it truly active. Whatever it was I let myself go and pushed a bit harder to get back home.

I already know that around the dungeon some of the younger people including Arthur occupied the small house and delved into the dungeon whenever they could. I didn’t mind it, but we probably needed to make a firmer schedule so everyone could better use this resource. Of course, that would have to wait until I read the dungeon book and probably finished all my farm work for this spring.

I was glad that the lookout they had posted noticed me coming and I felt an incredible rush when I crossed my land boundary. Incredibly vitality started to flow into me, and my mind and body felt refreshed. It felt even better than before, and I probably had to thank my new abilities for that. But then that feeling of euphoria changed into pain.

The pain was so strong that I was falling to the ground before I could notice. I was able to gain a modicum of control and managed to stop my fall just before putting one of my knees to the ground.

Something wanted me to surrender to beg for my life. Was it my land that was attacking? It was hard to think to understand what was going on but whatever it was, I would never kneel, so I pushed through the pain and got back up.

I was breathing heavily. Sweat was running all over me and all my muscles were shaking from the effort of keeping myself standing. I could see some people approaching and trying to yell at me, but it was all so muddled. Everything was so slow, yet I knew one thing something was trying to make me submit and the more I struggled the harder it became.

I don’t know how long I stood there fighting it. It might have been milliseconds, or it might have been hours, but my slow mind finally started to use some abilities which will hopefully help. I decreased my weight, and my situation became a bit better but not for long as I could feel myself getting heavier even as I fought to make myself lighter. But I could also feel some force trying to help me. I tried to look around but the people who had approached before were now backing off, so they probably weren’t the problem or the help.

For some reason it still felt like the land itself was fighting me so I thought perhaps my new ability might be fighting against me, so I tried to use it but instead of making it worse it helped. The support that I was getting was from my land but the thing attacking me was something bigger something ancient and something that was testing me to see if I was worthy.

Thanks to my own land's help my mind was able to think a bit better helping me figure out what was happening. The planet itself was testing me. When I figured it out it was even harder to stand up, but I still pushed through it.

It was quite late in the night, so I was surprised that everything was bright. I figure it out. It was because I was burning my energy so brightly that everything around me was illuminated. That startled me as I looked into myself and saw that I was almost empty there was almost no energy left. I need to finish this quickly.

But I didn’t even know why I was being tested. What else had happened that might have caused this? The new trait Baron could that be a cause for a test. Was the land testing if I was worthy of nobility in its eyes?

I remembered what I read about nobility. While once kings were true nobles granted their sovereignty by the land itself most of the kingdom's nobles nowadays weren't recognized by the land their titles are held by the strength of the ancestors who claimed those titles.

When I figure this out the pressure on me lessened by a lot but then a sudden burning in my side almost caused me to lose focus. At first, I thought that I was shot there by some sniper but soon I figured out it was the tattoo of the land-claiming token.

I moved the tattoo to my hand noticing they weren’t holding anything. I probably dropped my sword and shield a long time ago. I grabbed hold of the token now in its original form and I knew what I had to do. I needed to claim land and announce myself worthy.