Orrin ignored the cascade of dings that rang through his mind, focusing on the dying men and women around him. He signed in relief as [Diagnosis] and [Identify] confirmed everyone had been kept in a stasis of near-death, with his earlier castings of [Heal Small Wound] giving him a chance to save lives.
Arvin’s spell had frozen everyone in time and Orrin had hoped they wouldn’t die until released. It was a risky bet but he trusted Daniel. His friend told him not to move. He valued Daniel’s life and his own over anyone else in the room. With the enemy down and the spell broke, cries of pain and shouts for help rang out.
Orrin glanced at the nearest body. Lord Palmer’s back rose as he inhaled ragged breaths, freed from Arvin’s spell. [Diagnosis] gave him specific injuries, including broken bones and a punctured lung. Nothing immediately life-threatening, as Arvin had missed the strike to the heart.
To the right, Niels held a ripped piece of Lady Tonsa’s dress against her neck, trying to staunch the blood. The wound was deep and the cloth was turning dark fast. Finley held his stomach in a grimace but the multiple stab wounds didn’t appear to require immediate attention. He was in pain but not dying yet.
Lord Wellan reached a hand weakly up to his face but missed as he struggled to grab the knife still embedded in his eye. Blood poured from under the man’s helmet, coursing over his chest in a steady stream.
“Lord Wellan, don’t touch the knife,” Orrin ordered as he ran forward. The statuses from [Diagnosis] worried him more than the others. [Perforated Optic Nerve] and [Prefrontal Cortex Laceration]. Orrin remembered enough anatomy to know Maeve’s dad had a brain injury. He’d seen enough pop culture movies about lobotomies to worry about the man wiggling the knife. “Daniel. Rhys. Hold him down. I need to heal him and remove the knife as carefully as possible.”
“Heal my mother, Orrin,” Rhys demanded. “Lord Wellan can wait.”
Orrin blasted nearly two hundred points of mana at Lady Tonsa as he ran, closing her sliced neck in a few seconds. “She’ll survive. Niels, give her one of these.” Orrin pulled a healing potion from his [Dimension Hole] and tossed it to the man. He snatched it from the air and gently poured it into Lady Tonsa’s mouth. Her coughing fits eased a bit.
Lord Wellan was strong but Rhys and Daniel held his arms tight as Orrin dumped as many [Heal Small Wounds] as he could. He cast a few [Purify] spells for good measure. Orrin was glad the man wore a helmet. The grating screech of the knife against the eyehole as Orrin removed it slowly drowned out the squishing sounds behind the mask.
“You both stood back and watched this happen,” Rhys accused. “If my mother or Lord Wellan die—”
“It’ll be because you didn’t shut up and help,” Orrin snapped. “Daniel saved us. You got your revenge. Arvin is dead. Stop being a dick, Rhys, and hold him down.”
Orrin focused his mana behind the eye, willing things to knit themselves back together. Lord Wellan’s breathing evened out and he stopped struggling after a minute. Orrin kept healing until the man spoke.
“Take care of the others, son. I’m through the worst.”
Orrin nodded and checked on Lady Tonsa, making sure to heal the puckering, red scar along her throat. Niels’s hand was atrophied but moving, so Orrin moved to Finley.
“You never really tried in Battle Class, did you?” Finley choked out, coughing some blood on Orrin. “I demand another match.”
Orrin rolled his eyes. “You’re lucky that asshole sucks at killing people. He missed everything important.” Orrin focused on letting the magic spread across the deep stab wounds, finding the mana move a little easier to the places he willed it. All this healing is good practice, I guess.
“I have to apologize again. It doesn’t matter why you stood still. All that matters is you saved everyone,” Rhys said gently.
Daniel was searing the room and was close enough to overhear. “Rhys, right? I told Orrin not to move. My spell takes a minute to spread out. We moved when we could and not a moment sooner.”
“I’m going to want to hear all about this new spell later,” Orrin sighed at his friend. Daniel dragged Arvin’s body to the side of the room.
“Nothing to tell really. [Space Domain]. I can—”
“Later, D. Stop telling everyone your secrets.”
A moan from the side of the room pulled Orrin’s attention away. “I better heal him, too.”
Lord Palmer reached a hand toward Orrin. His earlier search for what was wrong with the man had shown injuries but nothing life threatening. A yank on the buried wooden shaft just to the left of Palmer’s spine brought the arrow out of his lung. Two [Heal Small Wounds] with Orrin’s still boosted will closed the bleeding hole, with his light concussion cured by [Purify].
“Thank you, young man,” Lord Palmer slowly moved to his knees and stayed sitting on the ground. “I owe you a—”
“Daniel, what are you doing?” Orrin ignored Palmer.
“What does it look like? I’m tying up the prisoner,” Daniel said, holding a rope he’d found over Lady Sanerris’s unconscious form.
Orrin double-checked to make sure Anabella was alive and actually out cold. Daniel’s punch was backed by his fully buffed strength, but with her high level, Orrin was worried she might have recovered already. She wasn’t faking but ropes were not going to hold Anabella Sanerris. He considered for a moment before pulling something from his [Dimension Hole].
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
“Lady Tonsa, do you know how to work one of these?” Orrin held up his slave collar. He’d picked it up after Professor Wren deactivated it, thinking he would study it later to figure a way out. He was never going to let someone collar him again. However, this would be the best solution to control the woman for now. He had no idea how she would react when she woke to find out her son was dead.
“They are not hard to use,” the woman replied with a soft voice. “I will accept responsibility for her imprisonment.”
“That okay with you, D?” Orrin nudged his friend.
“Hmm? Yeah, sure.”
“Daniel?”
“Shut up, I’m reading.”
Orrin handed the collar to Lady Tonsa and opened his own notifications.
Quest Complete
Stop the war in Odrana
Reward: 200,000 XP and 3 Stat Points
That is a stupid amount of experience but we did almost die. Extra stat points are always nice. I don’t remember that as the Quest reward. Orrin’s eyes widened as the levels came in. Holy shit, I did the math wrong.
Experience Gained: 200,000 XP
Level 20 obtained!
+10 AP
Level 21 obtained!
+10 AP
…
Orrin scrolled to the bottom.
…
Level 31 obtained!
+10 AP
Another blue box appeared immediately after he closed the last one. He continued reading.
Congratulations on Obtaining Level 20!
10 Stat Points have been awarded.
Congratulations on Obtaining Level 30!
10 Stat Points have been awarded.
Usable Stats for Utility Warder:
Strength
Constitution
Dexterity
Will
Intelligence
I miscalculated. I just earned twelve levels and a hundred and twenty ability points. I need to figure out some things and spend these points before we fight the demons. And another twenty-three stat points? I could put them all into my will and have a base of fifty-one. Maybe I should even my stats out a bit, though… or should I put everything into constitution? I can’t buff that and having a larger health base could let me get into the fight without too worrying as much. Orrin pushed the thoughts aside for now.
Quest Complete:
Obtain Level 20
Reward: [Hero Kit Level 3] Unavailable Reward
More? Oh, shit. Not this again…
Quest Reward Unavailable
Debug
Error
Administrator Access Override
Reward List Patch
Select your reward:
Upgrade one spell or skill
Increase Strength Stat +5
Increase Constitution Stat +5
Increase Dexterity Stat +5
Increase Will Stat +5
Increase Intelligence Stat +5
+10 Ability Points
Change Class
Orrin looked at his status and whistled. “Daniel, now I know why you’ve been quiet. This is crazy.”
Reward List Patch is new. Maybe the System remembered what I did last time?
Orrin looked over his selection. With the ability points that he had before, he now had a hundred and thirty-eight total to spend in the Store. The points that he had scrimped and saved for so long were now a drop in the bucket. He felt rich. I would buy a bunch of spells for new wards but after what happened with Sanerris… Maybe I should save these for something better. I can get a sword skill!
He also had twenty-three stat points to assign or twenty-eight if he picked a stat increase reward. The level twenty Quest rewards were the same as they had been when Orrin hit level ten. He was already flush with ability points and saw no reason to add another ten on top. There was no way that Orrin was changing his class. Upgrading a spell or skill might be useful but his build was unique already. He was never going to find someone who could tell him the possibilities that upgrading [Increase Will] or [Ward] would bring.
Picking where to assign the points wasn’t easy. He looked at his Status.
Orrin
Utility Warder Level 31 (15,918/23,000)
AP: 138
Administrator Points: 23
HP: 140/140
MP: 954/1,100
Strength: 9 (100)
Con: 14
Dex: 11 (100)
Will: 28 (100)
Intelligence: 11 (100)
As much as he wanted to put one point into strength to round it out to a double-digit number, Orrin refrained. Strength doesn’t help me. I can boost it. It’s going to be between will and constitution.
Intelligence would reduce the cost of his first spells but Orrin didn’t care about a negligible amount of mana when he could max his intelligence out with buffs and wait a minute for [Meditation] to cap his MP again. Dexterity would let Orrin move quicker, but if he couldn’t use his [Increase Dexterity] spell with the speed of his mind, the extra speed of his feet wasn’t going to make a difference.
Will was the sexy stat to Orrin. It made his spells and buffs better. It gave him a bigger mana pool to draw from, which could come in handy if he needed to blood cycle. He hadn’t needed to use the combination of healing and using [Blood Mana] for a while but every bit of help would be welcome when they fought a Demon Horde.
Orrin remembered the orc teacher, Professor Hugh, arguing the merits of a higher constitution. Enemy spell attacks would do less damage overall with a higher con score. Someone in the class had also mentioned keeping the spellcasting stats near the same number for greater synergy. Orrin wasn’t sure about the reason behind that. Anabella also mentioned to Orrin that a higher constitution would help a person acclimate quicker to his buffs. A higher constitution would mean he could use the full power of a level one hundred strength or run faster than the wind with a maxed-out dexterity.
Orrin selected the plus five constitution for the level twenty Quest before he could talk himself out of it. He put two points into will to bring it to thirty and eleven into constitution. Part of him wanted to split the remaining ten between strength and intelligence for nice clean numbers but he resisted.
Should I split them or go all in? The logical thing to do was go all in on constitution. It was the only stat that Orrin couldn’t buff. Orrin went with his gut and put the last ten into will.
HP: 300/300
MP: 991/1,100
Strength: 9 (100)
Con: 30
Dex: 11 (100)
Will: 40 (100)
Intelligence: 11 (100)
“We need to complete more Quests,” Orrin muttered. “That was insane.”