The sun hadn't even risen before Mike woke up. His high constitution made him feel fully rested, and he even felt like an entire night had passed, but seeing it was still dark outside proved that wasn't the case. As he exited his home, he noticed that the village seemed to be a lot more lively than usual, especially considering it was the middle of the night.
“Something going on?” He asked a passerby.
“A night raid is happening.” The man said, before darting past him. Mike walked over to the outer walls after hearing that. Village ranked night raids had happened twice since they became a village, but he had yet to be present for one. They had always happened when he was out doing something else. With a quick use of Blast step, he rocketed past many of the mages and archers who were sprinting up the steps that lead to the top of the wall. His single use of the skill hadn't quite been enough for him to reach the top, so he used it again, deftly landing on the wall soon after.
The first thing he noticed was how densely packed the raid was. Mike had seen settlement ranked raids, which were packed dense enough that you could maybe run through it if you were fast. Here though, Mike didn't see a single path that somebody could safely run through unless they were a god of dodging or faster than Mike. He sent out a few hundred identifies, noting the levels of the monsters. Most were around level 20 to 24. Fewer but still quite a few were above that and reached levels 25 to 30. Fewer still reached levels 31 to 40. Anything above that was rare, and were boss monsters that lead weaker versions of their race.
Mike knew from experience and some stories he had been told around the village that as the night progressed the levels would steadily rise, and a very strong boss would appear that people were calling a raid boss. In the last raid, it had been reported to be level 55, and it was expected to be quite a bit higher this time. Mike didn't see any point in joining the fight, as he was a significantly higher level than just about every monster down there.
In fact, Mike noticed quite a few other people on the wall around him also sitting the fight out, including some he recognized. Nema and Lila were both on top of the wall watching the fight and occasionally shooting an arrow or casting a spell to save somebody who was about to be killed. A few identities revealed them to be a similar level to Mike.
He grimaced a bit as he remembered the surprise of seeing that people had caught up to him in levels after his month-long outing to Dune. He knew some of the strongest had also significantly out paced him, as shown by Roots being level 63 when Mike killed him. He wanted to see just how strong these people were for their level now, so he watched patiently and waited for the raid boss to appear.
Several hours later Mike was starting to get bored, and he could see that the others on top of the wall were as well. He walked over to one of them, trying to strike up a conversation.
“So, how long does the raid boss usually take to show up?” Mike asked a woman leaning on a large staff.
“A few hours typically.” She responded, not looking at him. “I think we may get a large wolf or fox as a boss tonight.”
“What makes you say that?”
She pointed at some of the enemies on the ground. “There are a lot of wolves and foxes. Duh.”
“I guess that makes sense. Sorry, I haven’t fought in any night raids since we were a settlement.”
“Well then go down there and do some killing. Seriously if you aren’t here to level up then why are you he-” She stopped talking as she turned to look at Mike. She clearly recognized him as her face when pale and she started talking more frantically. “Oh- uh, sorry. I didn't realize you were- I mean. Sorry sir, I thought you were just a low level guy too scared to go down there and fight.”
Mike felt like he had just been slapped in the face by two major red flags. He didn't at all appreciate how she had talked to him when she thought he was somebody who didn't want to go kill things for levels. Sure, he enjoyed fighting, but many people didn't, and they preferred not to kill. Thats why so many in the village had specialized in their profession, like Mateo or Otto. The second red flag was one that he felt needed addressing right away.
“Please, don’t call me sir. I know I am the leader of Thudfall but I’m really not one for constant formalities.”
“Yes si-,” She stammered. “Ok.”
Just then, a loud howl could be heard from the forest, and many of the people on top of the wall began to hop down, landing in nets that had been set up at the bottom to catch them. He did notice that neither Lila nor Nema had jumped down, instead staying to watch. The group who had jumped rushed towards the source of the noise, and a massive wolf at least 20 feet tall sped forward past the treeline.
Forest Wolf Alpha (level 60)
20 more wolves circled around it, each at level 55. It was at this point that most people fighting monsters retreated, as very few could deal with such a high level threat. Mike assumed that the fight would be finished pretty quickly, as there were at least a dozen people who stayed and began fighting the wolves. He was surprised to see that it was a much closer fight than he’d anticipated. The wolves kept the warriors on their feet, while the alpha circled around to target the ranged attackers. Mike watched while one by one, the wolves fell. The alpha wolf was the final to go down, with it needing the combined effort of the entire group to kill.
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“That's it?” He muttered.
“That was a tough fight.” he heard someone say from nearby.
“They nearly lost Antonio.” Another said.
Mike heard more and more people praising the strength and power of the people who had fought the wolf, and he was getting more and more confused. ‘That wolf barely deserves to be called a raid boss.’ he thought. ‘I probably could have soloed that thing and it’s whole posse.’
The people began walking back into the village, cheers reaching them as they entered through the gates. “I must be really out of touch.” He said.
“Yeah, there is a lot going on in your village that you seem to have no idea about.” Lila said, walking over to him.
“How much did I really miss while I was gone? I mean seriously, it was only a month.”
“I didn't want to be the one to have to tell you, but you were gone for far longer than a month.” She said.
“Whats that supposed to mean? I know I didn't lose track of time that bad.”
“You spend a lot of time outside of the village, and the time you do spend here is mostly spent buying materials, crafting in your workshop, or talking to people you know.” She pointed a finger at him. “You haven’t taken much time to just walk through your village. If you did, you would probably hear much more about what's going on.”
“I guess that's true, but you can’t say I haven’t done much for the village. I did just save 20,000 people and bring them here after all.”
“I didn't say you were doing nothing, I said you haven’t been much of a leader. I have talked with much of the council, and it sounds like you have delegated most of your responsibilities away.”
“Once again, true.” Mike failed to think of an argument against that. He did spend quite a bit of time outside the village. Maybe it was time to spend some time getting to know his people better. “Thanks for saying that. It was a bit of an eye opener.”
“Yeah, well most people are too scared to tell you. You are kind of a living legend at the moment.”
“I am?” Mike said, raising an eyebrow. “Even so, why would people be afraid to talk to me?”
“People heard the boom made from you blowing up that tree even across this massive distance. The people who evacuated even saw the explosion since they were still close enough to see the tree. Most people assume that you are just strong enough to do that whenever you want.”
“So it's just because of a bunch of rumors?”
“Well, not entirely. You are strong enough that you might as well be able to do that. You can kill anyone in this city as effectively as that explosion could have, and people are beginning to get afraid of that kind of power.”
“Is that why that one girl was scared of me earlier?”
“Who?”
“It was a mage who leapt down to fight that alpha wolf. I never got her name.”
“Oh, you must be talking about Roxanne. I’m gonna be honest, I am not a huge fan of hers.”
“Yeah, I didn't like her much either.” Mike said. “She thought I was some low level warrior at first, and she was pretty harsh right up until she realized who I was.”
“That is unfortunately the kind of reality we have now. The same people who are afraid of power are also the ones who dislike those who are weak. Don’t worry though, most of her group isn’t like she is.”
“That's good at least.” Mike said. The two of them talked a bit longer before Lila went off to do some hunting. Mike offered to go with her, but she declined, saying that he would just crush whatever they were fighting while she watched. He tried to pretend he would go easy, but he knew he probably wouldn’t.
He walked through his village, trying to think of where he should go first. He was on a mission now, and that was to learn all there was to know about his own village. There were a couple places he had in mind that he could go to, namely Otto's restaurant or the shopping district.
He went to both of those places, but he didn't learn anything useful from either location. Otto had made him a spectacular meal, and when people saw him shilling out so much money for a meal, they gave him a wide berth. Ok, so maybe showing that he was rich and probably strong was not the best way to get people to trust him.
That is how he found himself trying to fiddle with some enchantments while the sun was rising. He had a rare rarity shirt that he was trying to enchant. It was the best thing he could find to try his idea out on, and had been fairly cheap to buy in the shopping district. It was made from some silk that came from silkworms that an adventuring group had defeated, and he could tell when he first saw it that it had high mana conductivity. He tried several enchantments, going through an hour of trial and error before finalizing his desired enchantment.
Silk Thread Shirt (Epic)
A shirt made from the silk of a silkworm. This shirt has been enchanted to deceive any identifying spells cast on its wearer. This enchantment can be configured to show the wearers desired level. Strong identifying spells or skill may pierce the enchantment.
He quickly slipped the shirt on, also putting on a pair of comfortable pants. He left his armor in his home, as he didn't see a need to wear it around his own village. Setting his displayed level to 30, he walked around until he found the one place that he knew he could get all the information he needed. He entered the building and sat in one of the waiting chairs. After a few minutes, he was called over to one of the spinning seats that was in the room, and he sat down in it. It was time for him to get a haircut, and he would be gossiping the entire time.