It took Johann all of ten minutes to find another Participant, though it was more the other way around. He was busy hiking through the forest when his barely developed Mana sense alerted him to a sudden spike of Mana from behind. Acting on instincts honed by the demon trainer he leapt to the side, tucking in his shoulder and rolling as a small bolt of fire passed through the space where his heart was moments earlier.
Coming out of the roll he immediately moved to the side, barely dodging another Firebolt. Taking cover behind he called out. “You know, sneak attacks are pretty rude, especially for a Mage. Where’s your pride?”
“Pride’s useless to the dead.”
Johann grimaced, he’d actually been hoping for a lack of answer. He’d figured there was a 50/50 chance that the attacker was a person but he’d really hoped it wasn’t. Monsters were mindless, easy to trick or trap.
Granted, there were plenty of people who were even dumber than Monsters, but rarely among the Mages. Magic required intense concentration, visualization and a decent grasp of the concepts present within each spell, all of which required a modicum of intelligence.
Johann closed his eyes and concentrated, attuning with the plants around him. Before he had mastered the skill he had thought that Plant Attunement was simply a way to connect to the embodiment of the concept of Plants. Nice, and certainly helpful for using spells like Grasping Roots, but ultimately useless in a fight.
It was only in mastering it that he realized just how blind he had been. The uses for the skill were as numerous and varied as plants. For instance, Johann had recently discovered that he could attune to a specific group of plants, like the ones within fifty feet of him, and with a bit of focus he could use that to detect any disturbances, like someone standing on some tree roots.
“Hey, random dumbass!”
“Who you calling a dumbass you hornswaggle!”
Johann was momentarily speechless, his confusion overriding the speech centers in his brain. He had absolutely no idea what on Terra a hornswaggle was. He was pretty sure it was an insult but he had no idea exactly how much he should be insulted by.
“Okay, no idea what a hornswaggle is so I’m just going to ignore that for now. As for your question, I’m calling you a dumbass. After all, only a dumbass would fight a Druid in a forest.”
“Oh yeah, I’m- wait, what? A Druid? Oh sh-”
Roots burst from the ground, thick as an ogres leg and twice as gnarly, and crushed the would be assassin under their weight, making them less grasping roots and more entombing roots. The difference between a spell cast on some small unplanted seeds and trees that had grown over years was frighteningly evident.
Johann calmly stepped out from behind the tree and walked over to the buried mage. With a careful manipulation of the spell he pulled back enough roots to uncover the captives head.
“YoumotherfuckingpieceofdurincrapIswearI’mgoingtokillyou-” Johann knelt next to the Mage, a human judging by the look of him, and poked him. “ARGGH YOU BASTARD WHY’D YOU POKE MY EYE!?!?!?!”
“Shut up or I’ll poke the other one, got it?” Johann asked, his voice even and devoid of emotion.
The mage apparently got it as he said nothing further but gave Johann a glare that would have been terrifying if it wasn’t coming from a one-eyed man wrapped in roots.
“Good. Now, since you are so gloriously stupid I’m going to guess you’re another Participant.”
The glare intensified, surprising Johann who would have sworn that wasn’t possible.
“Yeah, figures. Alright, next question; How’d you find me?” he asked.
“Saw you walking through the forest like a stupid prick and decided the world would be better without your ugly ass in it.”
Johann paused a moment, taking in the nameless assailant’s answer, before shrugging. “Well, that answers that. Oh, one last question; What’s your name?”
The ugly glare turned into an even uglier sneer. “Johann Dominial, of the noble Dominial family.”
Johanns eyes widened in shock, utterly unprepared for the helpless idiot to have the same name as him.
The prone Johann’s sneer turned triumphant as he completely misread his captors shock.
“I see you have heard of us. Good, that will make this a lot simpler; release me, keel down and beg me for mercy and I may… what are you laughing at, you bloody imbecile!”
Johann wiped his eyes with the hand not holding his staff. “Oh, nothing. I’m just happy to cross that off the bucket list, thought that one would take forever.”
The entangled Johann’s face creased in a look of pure confusion and he opened his mouth but before he even got a word out he disappeared, a [Basic Mana Bolt] slamming into the ground where his head had been a moment earlier.
Johann blinked, the sudden teleportation surprising. He wasn’t too surprised though, he knew the guild had to have some way of protecting the participants, he was just a bit startled at the suddenness of the spell.
Standing up and dusting himself off Johann continued on his way, a lot happier than he was before, but also more cautious.
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Torin did not find another person for a full day. He also did not find an end to the damnable desert. Every time he crested a dune he saw that smidge of green on the horizon and yet it that seemed no matter how much he trekked it never grew closer.
The one thing he had met was monsters. So far he’d met dozens of scorpions, snakes and lizards, and one confused looking Glacier Crow but that one was probably just lost. All the monsters were level one and easy to kill but that meant absolutely nothing to Torin.
With no wood to burn he couldn’t cook any of the meat and with most of them being venomous he wasn’t going to take his chances eating them raw. Worse, since they were artificial monsters they had about as much survival instinct as a brick so he couldn’t even follow one to a water source.
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
At least he was getting some decent experience. None of his skills had gained a new level but he could feel himself getting close. Better yet, even though his skills hadn’t leveled, his class had. With zero hesitation he had placed the Attribute point, or AP, into his Perception. Perception had the odious combination of being one of his most important attributes as well as one of the most difficult to increase via training.
Status
Name: Torin Alltud
Age: 18
Race: Mixed (Elf/Elemental)
Class: Ranger lvl 2
Title: None
Health: 120
Mana: 55
Stamina: 170
Attributes
Strength: 14
Agility: 23
Vitality: 12
Dexterity: 15
Perception: 15
Control: 9
Power: 11
Skills
General:
-Basic Footwork lvl 4
-Basic Mana Manipulation lvl 2
-Empty
Class:
-Basic Archery lvl 8
-Basic Inspect lvl 1
-Simple Animal Bond lvl 1
Traits
-Heritage of the Elven Ranger
Torin was a tad annoyed that his skills hadn’t progressed but even he had to admit he hadn’t really been using them enough to warrant levelling. Basic Footwork had levelled after the first round but since then he’d basically just been a turret, standing still and bombarding monsters with arrow after arrow.
Admittedly he did look amazingly awesome doing so, and the feeling of staring down impending doom with an iron will and balls of steel was rather addictive, but it did absolutely diddly squat for skill levelling.
Torin sighed, such was the burden of the endlessly awesome.
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Gloria found absolutely nothing. She’d been delving the depths of the ocean, which was only about five hundred meters deep, for over four hours and she hadn’t seen anything interesting. The waters contained plenty of fish but was completely devoid of any monsters, the organizers apparently feeling the seemingly endless ocean to be enough of a threat to those who wished to cross it.
In a way, they were right. After hours of monotonous swimming Gloria had damn near died of boredom. With a sigh (a distinctly weird sensation when you’re underwater) she swam towards the surface to see if how much further she had to go.
As her head surfaced she blinked away the water until she could see clearly. Looking over she was pleased to see that the glimmer of land she had first spotted had turned into a far closer and clearer image.
She wasn’t pleased to find that the land she’d spent the last four hours swimming towards was a desert. Everything she could see was just pale white dunes, as monotonous as the sea she was currently bobbing in.
Sighing, and almost choking from the air entering her gills, she dove back down and continued on her way.
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Johann dropped under a strike, trying and failing to dodge the claws that raked across his shoulder. They barely broke the skin but still left trails of fiery pain. With barely more than a stumble Johann kept on running. After all, what was one more injury compared to the patchwork of cuts and scratches that used to be his skin.
He’d been cocky, he knew that now. After beating the other Johann, along with a few monsters after that, he’d come under the false assumption that he was unbeatable. The combo of Plant Attunement and Grasping Roots made it easy for him to immobilize any enemy and [Basic Mana Bolt] or two was enough to take most out.
It was all too easy, right up until it wasn’t.
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[Excerpt taken from the Adventurers Guide to What Just Killed You]
Shadow Stalker
A quadruped roughly the size and appearance of a large house cat. Pitch black fur covered every part of it other than its three inch long razor sharp claws and its cruel abyss-like eyes. At first appearance it might seem like it has no mouth, but this is very much not true.
When feeding a large mouth like opening appears, stretching from the bottom of its stomach to the base of its throat. Few living have ever seen this gaping maw but those that have describe it as a blender of teeth, tongues and pure horror.
Just from what has already been described the creature would already be considered dangerous but it seems that when the System dreamt up this abomination it went the extra mile as the creature is also capable of travelling from one shadow to any other shadow within fifteen feet at will.
The Shadow Stalker is a first Tier monster but is not to be underestimated. Their speed, razor sharp claws and shadow travelling abilities make them incredibly difficult to hit or defend against.
Recommended party of 4-6, levels 10 or above. Heavy Armor absolutely required! Monster is designated as a mage killer and has been know to tear through standard leather armor with ease.
Known weaknesses: The Shadow is weak to almost any attack, though light -based spells cause increased damage and temporarily disrupt its shadow teleport abilities. Attacks to its mouth deal massive damage.
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Johann had no idea what was chasing him. He’d only caught glimpses of a black shadow that disappeared as soon as he saw it. Whatever it was it was fast, deadly and seemed to have a short distance teleport.
His spells were useless, even if he managed to get one off without the monster attacking him he wouldn’t know where to aim it.
So he was running, dodging as best he could and hoping he got to a river before the administrators pulled him out. Whatever this monster was he doubted it would enter the river to fight him, and he literally had no other options.
He got several more cuts before he heard the sound of his salvation, running water. Sadly though, it seemed that the old saying was true, with opportunity came danger. Actually, it was the other way around, but not in this case. As soon as he was distracted by the sound of water the monster struck, its claws raking across the back of Johanns leg.
He dropped like a sack of bricks, his leg collapsing under him. Agony flooded his mind but Johann gritted his teeth and rolled over, swinging his staff wildly to ward off the monster.
Surprisingly, there wasn’t a follow up attack. A baleful stillness descended, like the calm before the storm if the storm was made of claws and spite and the end of all things nice. Johann strained his senses to catch the monster and his mind to come up with a plan.
He couldn’t think of anything though. With his leg hobbled and bleeding the best he could do was limp towards the river, but it was suicide. He couldn’t even fully dodge with two legs, how could he do it with one?
His thoughts raced as he desperately sought a straw to grasp on to, anything that could help. He frantically went through every one of his skills, trying to think of a way in which any of them could be helpful. [Basic Mana Bolt] was to slow, as was [Grasping Roots]. [Mana Barrier], despite its name, proved not to be a barrier to the monsters claws.
Mana Manipulation was useless. Even if it could be used on any mana that wasn’t his own, the monster wasn’t made of mana, it was made of flesh and blood and stupidly sharp claws. Animal Taming was out the metaphorical window as well, monsters weren’t animals. Being created by a dungeon they were technically artificial creatures, devoid of soul and driven to kill all living creatures.
[Nature Attunement] was shockingly unhelpful. The creature was light, fast and teleporty, which isn’t a word but should be. Weather Attunement was unsurprisingly unhelpful. Maybe, maybe, if he had mastered the skill and used it to attune to the wind he might have been able to use it, but that was highly unlikely.
[Animal Attunement] … Johann didn’t know about [Animal Attunement]. He’d never really managed it before and it was unlikely to work but A; what other option did he have? He was screwed either way so might as well go nuts and B; the attunement skills weren’t exactly normal. Each one touched on a Concept, something that was so far beyond mortal understanding that even with the skill it was like a mouse trying to understand a galaxy.
A skill couldn’t bridge the gap between animals and monsters, but a concept might. After all, monsters might not have souls, but they were at the very least animal shaped. Laying on his back Johann tried to access the Animal Attunement skill like never before. Unfortunately, claws ripped through the air and embedded themselves in his shoulder, distracting Johann from his attempt as they tend to do.
The good news was that Johann finally got a good look at the monster that had been steadily demolishing him for the last three minutes. The bad news was that he still had no idea what it was. The worse news was that it now had him pretty much at its mercy and therefore it was the obvious time for a giant mouth to open were its stomach should be.
Johann froze for a second at the sight, which he would later unerringly describe as a blender of teeth, tongues and pure horror. In that moment, staring at the near literal jaws of death, something primal awoke in Johann. A deep, desperate need to live at any cost.
A need so basic and animalistic that it allowed him for the first time ever to Attune to the wild nature of Animals. For a brief instant Johann connected to the utterly alien yet impossibly familiar concept of animals and, more importantly, the monster about to devour him.
The slavering maw paused as the Shadow Stalker felt … confused. The meal that it had been about to enjoy after working up such an appetite suddenly felt … familiar, as if it was an old friend. The very idea was so utterly alien to the Shadow Stalker, who’s name by the way was Glen, that it momentarily froze in complete confusion.
As the old saying goes, sometimes a moment is all you need. In the brief moment that the creature was frozen Johann pulled his Mana at his fastest speed, using Mana Manipulation to sacrifice power for speed, and launched a [Basic Mana Bolt] at the very obvious, and very toothy, target right on top of him.
The bolt that left his hand was small and weak, but the reaction from the monster was not. With a shriek that sounded like nails-on-a-chalkboard and fork-on-a-plate had a baby, the creature leapt backwards, its claws ripping from Johanns shoulder in a fresh wave of agony.
The damage was already done though. Stumbling as it landed the Shadow Stalker released a keening warble before collapsing. The spell had hit it in one of its most sensitive and vital spots, the damage rupturing several of its organs. With the last of its energy it reached out a paw towards the thing that had hurt it, still trying even now to understand what it had felt.