Instead of approaching directly and heading toward the south gate, Lucas and Harry circled around a ways until they were walking abreast the small river from which the village sourced most of its water. From there, they followed it upstream.
Once they reached the edge of the tree-covering–past which the forest had been entirely beaten, burnt, and uprooted–they had to slink across the remaining distance. For Harry, that wasn’t really a problem. At level 100, his [Stealth] Skill had evolved into [Predator’s Prowl], and it made him very good at remaining unseen until he was ready to strike.
However, Lucas had ditched his own [Stealth] Skill over a year ago, so sneaking across those last hundred or so paces wasn’t really an option. At least, not in the same way as his companion.
“Wait for me at the grate, will you?” Harry asked.
Lucas answered wordlessly with a nod as he settled into his angled crouch. Harry waited patiently for him to go first, so he made sure not to take any more time than he needed. Once he felt he was ready, Lucas took a breath and shot forward.
[Fulgurous Mantle] activated without any outward manifestation, though Lucas certainly felt its effects immediately as his physical stats shot up dramatically. [Quick Step] multiplied the insane amount of momentum he’d already generated after the first step, and his speed rose to a level that someone without particularly high stats or relevant Skills wouldn’t be able to process. To a lesser extent compared to his other Skills, [Sprinting] also served to augment his pace, and the result was that Lucas chewed through the distance to the wall in a flash.
Without [Stealth], sneaking around was a challenge for Lucas–but with enough speed, it became trivially easy to avoid an unsuspecting observer’s notice just the same. Dropping that Skill had been a difficult decision to make, but once he’d realized how horribly it synergized with the rest, switching it out with [Sprinting] had been easy. At least with that Skill, there was a chance it would merge with [Quick Step] sometime in the future.
[Stealth], in the end, had proven to be more or less dead in its slot. It had no real hope of evolving, so the right choice had been to switch it out. Lucas mourned its utility for a time, but he had no lingering regrets in this matter.
Once he could see the grate the river passed through on its way out of the village and he’d covered all but the last ten paces, Lucas killed his sprint and pushed off the ground directly backwards. In the air, he used his active movement Skill one more time to boost the force generated by that step, in a maneuver that he’d discovered recently. The conflicting forces of his Skill and the momentum that carried Lucas to the wall in the first place pushed against his body from both sides, and for a moment, he felt as if he might be crushed.
Lucas weathered the sensation with his Skills and vitality for as long as it lasted, and when it was over, he stumbled to a stop at the foot of the colossal stone fortification–from an all-out sprint to a dead stop in the span of a second, then he pressed his back to the wall and limited how much of himself could possibly be seen from the top.
Harry must have started crossing moments after Lucas did, but he could only perceive the [Hunter] when he finally came within twenty paces three minutes later, and even then it was only as an indistinct blur in his senses until Harry dropped his Skill.
“No one looked over the top when you moved,” Harry whispered. “We should be good to go.”
Lucas nodded and approached the river grate. The bars it was made up of were thick and covered the majority of this vulnerability in the wall, but even though Lucas had grown in the last two years, he was still small enough to pull himself through them after entering the water. He twisted carefully so that the sword on his back didn’t clang against the metal, and on the other side he carried on by pulling himself forward with the handholds carved into the small tunnel’s ceiling.
Harry, lanky as he’d become in the time since Lucas had known him, had no difficulty following behind him. Together, they fought against the current and infiltrated the village. But before they fully exited the tunnel, Lucas searched the area just outside for anyone nearby. Only when his search came up empty did he give the signal to move on.
If this happened two years ago, someone would have been guarding this spot at all times, Lucas thought as he dragged himself out of the water. He didn’t entertain that consideration any further though. It was late and it would do him no good–and to be fair, the walls were only expanded to include the river in the last two years anyway, and the river had only been a large stream back then. There was no point in comparing now to then in this way, with so much changed.
Still, Lucas couldn’t help the sigh that escaped him.
Harry exited the river channel behind him and proceeded to shake himself off, flinging water everywhere before looking to Lucas. “What’re your plans for the day?” he whispered. “Will we sneak out again tonight?”
Lucas considered for a moment, then shook his head. “No,” he whispered back, “not tonight. I’ll need to stay around the clinic for the next couple days, and we’ve gone to the Dungeon for the last three nights in a row, anyway.”
Harry tilted his head back and groaned. “Ugh…ok. Let me know when you’re able to go out again, then. I’ll probably be conscripted for watch duty in the meantime.”
“I’ll let you know,” Lucas confirmed before saying goodbye. The two of them went off in different directions then–each returning home to get as much sleep as they could before they had to rise with the sun.
Lucas took the flagged path leading back to his house silently. The entire way, he didn’t see any signs of anyone else up and wandering around, though he hadn’t expected to. These days, people stayed in the security of their homes at night unless they were specifically assigned to watch duty by the Elders’ council. There were a few exceptions, but it was only in the light of day, when all threats could be plainly seen, that the villagers felt safe enough to move about alone.
Stolen novel; please report.
No monster had gotten past the walls in the last two years, but the memory of the goblin raiders and those they’d taken from the villagers had not been forgotten. It hung over everyone, and even if it was paranoid, few were willing to risk their safety by wandering the night when a monster might approach unseen.
The sad truth was, it didn’t get much better in the day. The people mostly felt safe and protected behind the walls then, but the world outside remained a dangerous place. The cost of protection was that no one really left the village unless they were part of an officially council-sanctioned party, on some specific duty. They holed up together and did their best not to think about the monsters beyond the walls.
Life in the village was not what it used to be.
Some things hadn’t changed, however. Lucas let those dark thoughts go as he finally approached his house and made his way inside. The front room that usually served as the healing clinic was clean and orderly, and the kitchen was not in too much of a mess. He glanced at the papers cluttering the dining table for a moment, but he was quick to move on.
The rest of the house was taken up by a single room and another small space shooting off from the kitchen, one that might have served as a large pantry for someone else but currently held Lucas’s bed and few belongings. That was where he’d go in a moment, but before then he took a chance to crack the next room’s door open an inch and peek inside. In the dark, he spotted two slumbering forms tucked into bed, then quickly shut the door.
He didn’t want to disturb their rest–he knew for certain they needed it, and he should see them in the morning anyway. Lucas quietly went to his own room and put his sword away before stripping out of his sopping wet clothes. He climbed into bed, and it wasn’t long till sleep took him.
----------------------------------------
Is that how you think combat works, Cadet? Are you trying to piss me off?
No, sir!
Then follow my movements closely.
[*ding [Arclight Destruction] has reached level 87!]
[*ding [Eternal Vigil of the Sentinel] has reached level 87!]
Lucas woke up abruptly, shooting out of bed at the sound of the System’s notification and falling into a fighting stance before his mind really caught up to his body’s actions. When it did, he let himself slowly relax and exhale his tension.
It happened again…
He’d dreamt of another time, a memory–and one where he was learning to fight this time. That was happening more and more frequently, although the contents of each dream were quite inconsistent and didn’t always stick around the next day. But they kept coming.
And sometimes, with the ones he could remember, Lucas might be offered new Skills, or else his existing ones might grow. The new ones were always strange and relatively useless to him, and they were never for his Class, so Lucas always appreciated the levels more–but even that was never his focus.
Lucas was starting to truly remember his past life, when he’d gone by the name of Adam. It both terrified, and excited him.
Just then, a knock on his door disturbed him from his thoughts, and Lucas remembered that he’d gone to bed without being fully dressed the previous night. Before the door could be opened, he [Quick Step]ped forward and pressed his full weight against it, causing a sharp thud to sound out.
“Woah!” Eugene’s voice exclaimed from the other side. “I take it you’re in there, then. You ready for breakfast, kid?”
Lucas sharply cleared his throat. “Yeah, I’ll be right out! Just let me get changed real quick!”
“Right,” the man acknowledged, “it’ll be ready for you when you come out.” He knocked twice on the door before the sound of his carried away.
Thanks to his Limited Sensory Enhancement, Lucas could still perceive Eugene in the room beyond as the man managed a few dishes, so he quickly realized that the food was already ready and waiting. Lucas hurried to get dressed before it cooled.
“Thank you for the food!” he preemptively said once he got out and joined Eugene at the table. The papers from the night before had vanished, but Lucas noticed there were only two plates made. His mother was nowhere to be seen.
“Ah, it’s just a scramble,” Eugene rubbed at his neck as he told Lucas, “nothing special. Your mother already ate.”
He caught the man’s eye. “She already leave for the council?” he asked, mostly just to be sure. His senses extended into a large portion of the rest of the house, after all. He knew she wasn’t here.
Eugene nodded.
They both set conversation aside for a bit and tucked into their food, and Lucas made sure to show his appreciation for Eugene’s efforts. The scramble was good–satisfying and filling, with a nice amount of spice to it. He finished quickly and went to take care of the cleanup on his own, but Eugene insisted on helping out as well.
“What’s your plan for the day?” the man eventually asked him as they tackled the dishes at the sink together.
Lucas hummed. “I’ll stick around the clinic today, in case anyone comes by. What about you?”
“I’ll be working with a few of the guard trainees again,” Eugene said, “but if you need anything, I’ll be around.”
“I know,” he smiled and nodded. “Do you want me to pack a meal up for you before you take off?”
“Nah, I’ll be ok. I’ll see Belinda for lunch, anyway.”
They finished up soon enough, and Eugene was quick to grab his things. Lucas bade him goodbye at the door and watched the man disappear down the path to the village center.
It had been two years since they’d come back from the goblins’ camp, and since the last sign of the corruption. But not everyone had come back entirely in one piece. The survivors that Lucas helped rescue, including Eugene, still couldn’t use their Skills without the threat of their mana channels coming undone and killing them. In all that time, neither Lucas nor his mother, or anyone else in the village, had found a cure for the survivors’ plight.
This world was built on the use of Skill, and the System played an important role in everyone’s life–without it, the survivors’ were practically crippled. By the order of the Elders’ council, Eugene and some of the others helped train the villagers that were allowed to take combat Classes for the new guard, but otherwise they now held a somewhat precarious position in the village.
In their community, everyone pulled their weight and contributed to the rest of the village in some way, primarily through their Class. Eugene couldn’t truly do that anymore, and though he had others that could provide for him, and he now lived happily with Mary and Lucas, it was plain to see that the man was somewhat lost.
It wasn’t right. The unfairness of it all grated at Lucas near constantly, and so he was determined to find a cure for the survivors’ condition no matter how long it would take him. Once Eugene disappeared from sight, he shut the door and settled into the clinic. From a shelf against the wall, he pulled out his own healing tome and flipped to the last place he’d filled in.
…the structure of a person’s mana channels is fluid before their unlock, but after…
Lucas knew he’d find a cure. It was only a matter of time.