Langa stared at the prompt in disbelief. What the hell? Was he infusing lightning discipline mana into the orb right now? Was it thanks to the reward he'd chosen from the Deiwos Tower Karma Store, his full lightning affinity? He’d never thought that gaining full lightning affinity would have negative consequences for him like this. So, it wasn’t just skills, then? Even weapons and items not containing lightning discipline mana would be affected by his affinity? He knew that this meant that using Thunderbird's Stunning Strike would cause 100% more damage since it was a lightning discipline skill. Also, hadn't his attribute mentioned something about skills being more effective if they were in his affinity discipline?
Damn, why was he having all these distracting thoughts right before a fight? He took a deep breath, pushing everything to the back of his mind, and regaining his sense of calm. One of these days all this compartmentalisation in his brain would backfire on him. But for right now, he had only one thought in his mind, and that was wondering if he had fucking wasted a whole silver coin buying these orbs for nothing?
“SHIT!” he wanted to scream, but he only screamed it in his head because he was still in hiding and did not want the red NPCs to hear him.
[Multiple deities of water and lightning are both appalled and amused by your stupidity.]
"I'm from a lost world," Langa whispered through gritted teeth. How was he supposed to know that his affinity would screw him over like this? “Nobody taught me about affinity disciplines. With all due respect, oh great deities, like I said before, if you have nothing constructive to say, just watch me quietly. Or, I don't know, change the channel or something?”
[Multiple deities of various alignments look at you in pity.]
Langa took a deep breath and reminded himself not to be annoyed, that this much attention from deities was actually a good thing. He reminded himself that he was only getting this much attention from them because he was in the top ten. Right, if he made a fool of himself in this fight, they would probably stop paying him any attention. He sighed, calming himself down. If he continued berating himself, he would just keep on looking stupid to the deities. He would have to find a way to make sure that the Guardians cut out this part before uploading the video to the Dent.
[The Kwara Orisha Clan goddess: Mother of The Nine Winds And Storms, quotes from a famous Relgte; 'My people perish because they lack knowledge']
[The Deiwos Clan god: The Lackadaisical Herald of The Lightning Storm, advises you to visit a library in your spare time, to learn more about affinities and resistances, among other things.]
If he didn't know any better, he'd think that the gods were treating him like he was dumb. He was not dumb; he was just unprepared. Sure, he'd wasted the little money he had, and he doubted that the merchant would accept him returning the orbs. He couldn't even sell them for the gods' sakes because the enchantment would expire tomorrow. There was one more thing that he wanted to try before attacking the red NPCs head-on. He infused a little bit of his mana, this time into the Exploding Wind Orb.
[You have 100% lightning affinity, 7% air affinity and 2% air resistance! Lightning and air have a synergistic relationship! +7% extra air damage, + minor lightning damage applied to Exploding Wind Orb]
Finally, at least something good came out of this. He heaved a happy sigh of relief. The wind orbs would help him out, so he decided that he would only use one at the moment and save one for the actual voidents. This was his moment to make a good first impression on the Dent, like Liv and Vos Kindaro II. He wanted to enter the forums of the Dent with a bang and make an impression that would resonate throughout the entire 1st Floor. That way, Khaya, Neo, his sister, and his brother-in-law would know that he was safe, and they would be able to follow his movements and know where to find him. If he couldn't find them, he would stand at the highest place and have them come to him. His debut would have to be explosive. Literally.
Langa stepped out of the trees, hurling the Exploding Wind Orb towards the three red NPCs, and it landed at their feet, and the air coming from it surrounded them, causing a distortion. The orb unleashed a powerful blast of wind in all directions, sending the three of them flying in different directions. The goblinkin and one hawkkin were thrown into trees, while the third one fell hard onto the ground.
The blast also tore apart the bags that the five goblinkin teenagers were carrying, causing lucent stones to fall all over the ground. The blast of air would have injured them too, if not for the older goblinkin with them tackling the teenager to the ground hurriedly to keep them out of the line of fire. The older goblinkin received a few cuts and bruises, however, since he was not as close to the blast as their captors, he was not as badly hurt as they were.
There was only one fighting plan in Langa’s mind today; to strike fast before his opponents even knew what hit them. He wanted to feel the speed driving him on the inside, the way that he used to feel when he first started running. He wanted that rush of adrenaline to course through his body, mixed with the lightning that now felt like a part of him. He hoped that lightning speed and the fire from the fight would send his mind into overdrive, and wash away his worries about being a nameless nobody in a new world. He wanted it to wash away his worries about losing his family, worries about his curse fuelling that fucking prophecy, and worries about whether any deities would choose him or not.
Speed would be the theme of his debut video.
As soon as the blast hit the NPCs, Langa emerged from the trees, armed only with his glaive, and rushed towards the fallen red hawkkin that had been hit by the Exploding Wind Orb. He quickly slashed him twice in the ankles before he could get up. He was not going for kill-shots since the NPC had only one life and would not respawn upon death. He then drove the glave deep into his wings, and the hawkkin cried out in pain, slumping on the ground. This way, at least, he would not be able to move.
This all happened in an instant, and then he ran towards the red goblinkin, who was wearing more armour than his companions and had recovered slightly from the wind blast. Langa thrust his glaive towards him, but the glaive was stopped by the wooden shield that the goblinkin raised. He stepped back as the goblinkin also stood up, taking a defensive stance.
Right now, Langa needed to make a choice, he'd been holding back, not using his full strength because, unlike monsters, mortals had lower HP, and he could easily kill these NPCs with a single strike from Tonare. Their HP was around 200, as they were all level 7 to 8. They were honestly not strong opponents for him, but there were three of them. Still, he could not afford to be reckless right now, as the goblinkin sent a blast of black goo from his hands at him, and he dodged it. When the goo fell to the ground, it started eating away at it.
“Who are you? Why aren't you affected by the void veil?” the goblinkin asked.
Instead of responding, however, Langa ran straight at him, using Flash Step this time, and stabbed Tonare hard into the shield. This time, he used as much of his strength as he could. The shield broke into splinters of wood like butter, and the spear continued on, stabbing straight into the goblinkin’s abdomen. Since he had used the extra damage he dealt with Flash Step, the chainmail offered very little resistance against Tonare, and the spear cut flesh. A unique weapon that carried a Legacy going against common rank armour was very unfair. There was no competition at all.
The goblinkin coughed blood and fell to the ground, bleeding. Langa could only hope that the wound was not too deep and that he wouldn’t die. Shit, maybe he should have held back a little.
“Dvarinda is going to warn the others!” One of the goblinkin shouted, and only then did Langa turn to look at his last opponent, only to find her unfurling her wings and taking to the sky.
“Damn it!” Langa cursed. He'd hoped to end this quickly and easily, but no matter how fast he could move, there was no way to catch up with a hawkkin flying in the sky.
Langa narrowed his eyes, watching her fly away. She was about 50 metres high up in the air, and maybe 90 or so metres ahead of him, and flying quickly away. He bent his knees slightly and held Tonare in his left hand. He was going to do something reckless, and if he failed, he would look like a laughing stock in the video. The captive goblinkin teenagers and their older companion watched in awe as Langa assessed the distance, and he closed his eyes, envisioning himself back home, standing in the field, about to take part in the javelin throwing competition. With all his power, he threw Tonare hard into the air, aiming just a bit of distance ahead of the hawkkin.
He was worried that it wouldn't work as Tonare was a glaive, not a javelin, and glaives were not really spears made for throwing. The glaive flew diagonally, not struggling against the wind, and struck Dvarinda deep in her shoulder. She screamed loudly and fell gracelessly from the sky to the ground.
Phew, all those years of javelin throwing had not been a waste after all. Langa had been aiming for her wings, but a shoulder was good enough. He ran towards her as fast as he could, as he could not cover the entire distance with Flash Step. She was struggling on the ground, twitching in pain, and trying to pull Tonare out of her shoulder. Langa pulled out an inferior health potion from his inventory.
“If you answer my question, I’ll give you a sip,” he promised. “Where’s Grion Fidser?”
The girl laughed, and then grimaced in pain. “You fool! Are you a Guardian? Do you have any idea who we work for? You've just made a big mistake, buddy!” Were the Accari Crows such a big deal that she thought they would scare a Guardian? He had not seen that guild in any of the top ten lists yesterday, though. She had to be bluffing.
Langa walked up to her and pushed Tonare deeper into her shoulder. “I’m not going to repeat myself. Where is Grion Fidser?” It brought him no pleasure to cause her pain, but he figured that she deserved it. The Accari Crows were holding innocent people hostage after all. They kept the villagers slaving away for them for fucking scraps.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“Go to hell," she sputtered, and then she fainted from the blood loss.
Well, that was unproductive. Langa pulled out the spear, causing the wound to bleed even more profusely. She was going to bleed to death at this rate. The children gasped when he tore open a section of her robe, but he wasn’t doing anything illicit. He wrapped the cloth around her injury like a bandage to at least ensure that she did not die. After that, he also fed Di Etta’s paralysis potion to the unconscious goblinkin. The last hawkkin that could not move because of how he'd slashed his ankles and wings, watched Langa approach warily.
“You have two choices. You can tell me where Grion Fidser is, and how many people he has with him and I’ll knock you out once and for all, or I can stab you and watch you bleed out until you're unconscious like your friends,” Langa informed him. He really hoped the guy sang because he did not know if he could stomach torture.
The goblinkin’s lip trembled, and he glanced at his unconscious comrades. “He’s inside the mine, he has only two guards,” he said looking away from Langa.
“Alright, thanks,” he said and then hit him on the head with Tonare’s shaft. Once he was knocked out, Langa fed him the paralysis potion as well.
“He lied,” one of the goblinkin said, even as the others tried to shut him up.
Langa turned to the captives, and they were huddled together watching him. He figured as much since he had seen how heavily guarded the mine was. "Do you know where they are?"
“They are in the caves, that's where he and his girlfriend live, close to the mine," The one who answered was the older goblinkin. "Fidser has three red guards and another voident with him.”
“What's in the mine?” Langa asked curiously, wondering if he should be on the lookout for threats.
“Corrupted kobolds, hundreds of them. Fidser controls them with the Void Pearl to do the mining, and then he forces us to collect the lucent stones for him," he responded. "The other Accari Crows are all in the mine, supervising our people. You'll want to be quiet so that you don't alert them.”
So, the hawkkin had been trying to set him up then. Langa nodded to the goblinkin. “Thanks,” he said, and for good measure, he kicked the unconscious hawkkin's head.
Langa then bent down and picked up the sack that was half full of lucent stones and stored it in his inventory. There were 268 lucent stones in there, so thanks to the stacking function, they only took up 3 slots in his inventory.
“B-but those are ours! We need them to buy food for the village,” another one of the captive goblinkin said.
“Boy, I’m fighting against red NPCs and voidents all by myself to save your tiny little village. If there is one thing the unemployment crisis in my country taught me, it is that I don't work without pay. You're lucky that I didn't take all three bags,” he said, starting to turn away.
[The Deiwos Clan god: The Lackadaisical Herald of The Lightning Storm, finds your behaviour amusing and laughs heartily]
[The Kwara Orisha Clan goddess: Mother of The Nine Winds And Storms, is conflicted. She disapproves of taking from suffering children, but she also believes that appropriate compensation should be given for work done.]
[Multiple deities of justice are unhappy, and they wonder if they have misjudged you.]
[The high-tier constellation: The Unreasonable Ambitious Swordreader, encourages you to take everything.]
Langa snorted, checking his map for where the mine and the caves holding Grion Fidser were. He would not do charity for these people, not when he needed money to buy new armour and potions, but he also wasn't heartless enough to leave them with nothing.
”Go hide in the village; it's a safe zone, right? Once the void veil goes down, call the Federation Police. I'm sure they'd be happy to teleport to the nearest teleportation wheel and take care of the rest of the Accari Crows,” Langa instructed the older goblinkin.
He nodded, and unlike the children, this goblinkin did not seem to blame him for taking the stones. After locating what he was looking for on the map, Langa ran that way.
*
Langa ran through the forest until he reached the edge of the trees. About 500 metres away was the mine, and about 10 or so metres away from him, was the cave.
On the exterior, nestled near the forest, broken rocks littered the narrow entrance to the cave, partially hidden behind a large tree. There were two hawkkin guarding the entrance, and Langa watched them from the forest. Both of them were at level 8. There was only one thing for him to do, he had to strike before they even had time to react to his presence.
He breathed and ran the short distance towards the cave entrance before activating Flash Step. They never even saw him coming. He thrust the glaive into the hawkkin's side, shattering his shoddy leather armour, and with the bonus damage from Flash Step, he fell down to the ground, screaming. Langa, however, spared no attention to his defeated opponent, turning instead to his fellow guard. Since Langa had appeared out of nowhere, the other guard was still muttering an incantation, readying his magic.
Langa kicked him in the chest as hard as he could, causing him to fall and interrupting the casting. The backlash damage from the interrupted spell was heavy on the guard, and he knelt down on the ground in pain, blood pouring out of his nose and trickling from his mouth as well. Langa kicked him once more, on the head this time, and the hawkkin toppled over on the ground, unconscious.
It seemed Langa preferred his fights quick and easy, before the opponents got their bearings back. He was glad that he'd taken some lessons from Liv because, a week ago, he would not have been able to move like that. It was tiring though, and his stamina was steadily becoming lower.
“Tion? Gale? What's going on out there?” A voice asked from inside the cave, and Langa stood still, hiding right outside the cave entrance. A few seconds later, a goblinkin came barging out of the cave, sword raised. Langa pounced on him immediately, stabbing him in the side, just like his friend, and then kicking him to the ground. He fed the last of the paralysis potion to the three of them.
Langa was annoyed. He had expected a good fight that would help clear his mind of the unfortunate encounter with the Seer this morning, but no such luck. These fights had been too easy. He'd watched the red NPCs for a bit and then struck them with his quick speed, and they were down. There was no challenge at all.
"Dear gods, please let me have an actual fight today. Ngiyabonga," he muttered. They didn't send any messages through, but he felt the amusement of the deities.
He tentatively stepped inside the cave. The tunnel was so dark and narrow that it made him hesitate. This was quite possibly one of the worst places for a claustrophobic person to be walking into. As he walked slowly through the tunnel, he discovered that it led to multiple different chambers of the cave. The cave itself was dark, illuminated only by a few lucent crystals hanging off the rocky walls. He passed by a chamber that was full of wooden goblets and plates, as well as the remains of a recent fire. He tensed up, holding Tonare in both hands warily.
The hair on Langa’s neck stood up. That prickling sensation at the back of his neck alerted him to the fact that something was wrong, and he instinctively raised one of his arms to protect his head. Sure enough, the moment that the arm went up, there was this scorching pain that hit his whole arm and hand, as a fireball burned straight into his hand. The pain ripped through him like a knife and it was awful. All he could do was try and duck to the side to avoid the magic, but before he could even do that, a claw slashed into his chest from the front, causing blood to start pouring from the wound. He didn't even have the chance to cry out in pain, either.
Crap, there were two opponents.
He Flash Stepped 5 metres away from them so that he could create some distance between himself and his opponents. He also wanted to get a good look at who was hunting him. They had known he was coming, and they had probably watched him from the moment he entered the cave. They seemed to have waited to ambush him with the fireball as soon as his guard was down. Since the fireball had failed, the other person had slashed at him with his claws.
Langa did a quick scan of the two opponents; there was an eaglekin with black feathers, wearing metal plate armour all over his body, except for his wings, who was level 9. This was the one who had used his claws to slash Langa. The other opponent was a goblinkin who was holding a large red crossbow, she was level 10, and her name (Garlina) was black. She was a voident.
His comcer beeped when he scanned her.
[Wanted: Dead or Alive
Name: Garlina Sikhones
Designation: G-rank voident
Class: Ranger
Affiliation: Accari Crows
Last known level: 10
Bounty: 7 Silver.]
Well, more money was always welcome.
“You are either brave or stupid to come here alone. Who sent you?” the goblinkin asked.
“I heard you guys found a C-rank skill. I’m broke, so I figured why not take it for free and make some money,” Langa said with a smirk. Garlina’s face contorted with fury, and she raised her crossbow.
It was better if they thought Langa was no more than a passing thief trying to steal their skill, not someone working for the Guardians.
Two crossbow bolts flew at Langa in rapid succession from Garlina and he dove to the ground. The eaglekin was not standing still either, and he began to transform. His mouth sharpened, turning into a long beak, and his claws hardened. The wings on his back unfurled as well. Langa barely had time to register any of this because Garlina was sending another fireball flying towards him, and he had to dodge. Seeing that Langa had created some distance for himself, the eaglekin used his momentary lack of balance to initiate an attack and flew straight at him.
Thankfully, the space inside the cave tunnel was narrow, and he could not use his wings effectively in this scenario. Langa rolled out of the way, and the eaglekin crashed into the cave wall. The moment that his beak collided with the wall, it shook and was pierced through, the beak driving deep into the rocks. It made Langa shudder to think of how his body would have fared against that attack. The eaglekin's beak was stuck to the cave wall for now as he struggled to free himself, and in this momentary distraction, Langa quickly pulled out and downed the remaining half of his inferior health potion from his inventory. His hands started to heal, and more than ever before, he lamented his lack of a self-healing skill.
He was forced to run again when, this time, the crossbow bolts that Garlina discharged at him were flaming, and he had no desire to get burnt again. She threw out a few more fireballs at him, and he was annoyed. She had already displayed three fucking skills, but he only had two, yet the two of them were of the same level. He was getting frustrated, and since she was a ranged fighter, she was keeping her distance so he could not reach her with Tonare.
“I don't suppose you can just tell me where Grion Fidser is and end this fight quickly?” Langa asked as his dodging skills were put to the test against both her flaming arrows and her fireballs. He had his hands full with her when, all of a sudden, he felt a terrible pain in his back as a sword grazed him. Langa Flash Stepped away the moment he felt the graze of sword, and it did not manage to stab him too deeply.
“Who are you, and why are you looking for me?” the person who had stabbed him, said.
Langa balanced on the cave wall and watched the third opponent. He was a goblinkin in leather armour, holding a broadsword in his hands as he watched Langa. It was Grion Fidser, but Langa’s title did not work on him as he had a Shroud. That meant that he had a deity. All that Langa got was that he was a voident, and level 12. He cursed inwardly. His information had said that Grion Fidser was level 11. Those fucking Guardians had shitty information.
The eaglekin had manged to free himself and was starting to get up as well, and Langa laughed, his heart starting to race. He had to fight three opponents, one of whom was two levels higher than him.
How strange! In a situation like this he should have been afraid and looking for ways to escape, but not right now. This was it—what he'd come here for. Something to distract him from that godsawful prophecy, something to calm his unstable mind, a challenge to stimulate his monotonous life. Would he be able to defeat three opponents all on his own? He could feel his heartbeat picking up, whether it was in fear or excitement, he was not sure. Either way, he took another deep breath, it would not do for his heart rate to rise right now, he did not want to use his attribute as of yet.