All of Leo’s senses seemed to fade away and come back one by one. As his vision came back into focus, he spotted wooden floors, the interior of a building lit by candlelight. The smell of aromatic incense filled his nose, and shuffling from nearby drew his attention. He was still crouching, but now he could see that he was in a sort of bedroom instead of the woods, with a massive bed that would put any king sized mattress on Earth to shame, and someone lying atop it.

A woman with copper colored skin and shoulder length, silvery gray hair, wearing a very comfortable-looking white nightgown with a purple sash. She had one of her eyes covered by her hand, and appeared as if she was simply staring off into space, until she glanced in his direction, noticing his movement. “Oh? It brought you all the way here, did it? You must have some half-decent Luck.”

Almost instinctively at this point, Leo went to Appraise.

The difference in Ranks is too high. No information available.

He immediately wished that he hadn’t. His eyes widened in surprise at the screen that appeared. He managed to Appraise that kitsune earlier, even if he only got the fact that her rank was A. For him to not be able to get absolutely anything from this woman had to mean that her rank was S at the very least.

Leo suddenly felt incredibly small next to this woman, who gave him a wry smile, likely noticing his ill-fated attempt at appraisal. “How rude. I’ll give you a pass, though, for letting me borrow your body to monitor the situation with the darklings.”

“Did it have to be me?” He asked.

“You and your friend are the only sentient beings I’ve observed in the area for a good while now. As I’m sure you might have seen, the darklings have stripped this little section of the woodlands clean.”

“There have been other people in these woods than us, though.” Leo replied, and then his thoughts caught back up to him afterward.

“Oh, have they now? Pray tell, just who have you seen out there other than yourselves?” Of course, she seemed to become very interested in the topic, but Leo’s mind flashed back to the encounter with the kitsune, particularly the gesture she gave to keep quiet. He couldn’t figure out whether she meant to keep the encounter to himself or to stay quiet in general, but he was starting to get an idea of what she wanted.

“I’d rather not say.” Leo replied. The cat was only partially out of the bag, he could try to keep any other relevant information to himself.

“Bold of you to say, especially to someone who has active control over your body at this moment.” Her nonchalant look toward him turned stern, and the candles lighting up the room flickered violently for a moment. Leo swallowed hard. For a moment, he considered lying about who he saw. He might piss off this woman if he didn’t tell, but if he did, he might piss off the kitsune. The kitsune never even saw his face, from what Leo could tell, but he had no idea whatever magic or skills that A ranks had access to, let alone the at-least S rank in front of him.

Fortunately, she seemed to lose interest in the topic. “No matter, knowing someone else is keeping an eye on it is good enough, I suppose. In return, why don’t you tell me your name? Surely you can part with that much, between laborers.”

Leo still hesitated for a moment before speaking. Although, supposedly she already had control of his body, he didn’t see the harm in telling her his name. “Leonell Bolden.” He answered. “I go by Leo.”

“Wonderful. Perhaps I’ll even remember it. In any case Leo , I’ll return your body to you now, the situation has changed a bit.” She moved the hand covering one of her eyes, but the eye still remained closed. “Stand for me.”

He did, relieved at the prospect of her dropping the subject. “If you end up living through this, perhaps we’ll speak in the future. No, raise your right leg as if you were about to lunge, and bright your right arm forward.”

Mildly confused but more than a little concerned, he did as she asked. “Wait, live through what? What’s happening?”

The wry smile returned, as she gestured yet again. “You’ll find out soon enough. Now, bring the leg down as if you’re lunging, and do try not to fall.”

He still had no idea what she was trying to do, but he followed her instructions, and brought the leg down while leaning forward on it. To his shock, his foot hit dirt and leaves with a heavy crunch, and he found himself being pulled forward, nearly falling at the sudden shift in momentum.

“Come on Leo, I need you to run!” Rize said. He was back, running, sprinting through the forest as fast as their legs could manage. He wanted to ask what happened, but Rize would probably be under the impression that he’d been there the entire time, so he didn’t want to confuse her, instead he glanced back. He could barely see anything, but he could hear the sound of multiple shapes moving through the undergrowth, along with guttural grunts and cries, they were being chased.

“How did they notice us?” Leo asked. He thought back to the massive crowd of darklings, imagining them swarming over the two of them like ants. He didn’t even think their bones would be left behind.

“The wind changed briefly, I think a few of them caught our scent. It’s just a smaller pack, but there are still many of them compared to the two of us.” She was right. Thankfully, it was only a few of the darklings chasing after them. If that entire horde went running after them, they’d definitely feel it.

At this point, they zigged and zagged through the forest, dodging past trees and leaping over bushes. Leo could just tell that he was slowing Rize down. He wasn’t slow by any means, but he wasn’t any kind of athlete either. As they continued to run, Leo nearly ran into Rize and knocked the two of them over when she stopped abruptly, jerking him to the side and changing direction as she pulled Leo out of the way of a falling tree that threatened to crush the two of them. “What was that?” He couldn’t see anything behind the tree that might have knocked it over. The entire area was illuminated in moonlight. He couldn't see very well, but if anything was behind that tree then he would have seen it.

“Don’t know! Keep running!” Rize shot back. Leo could feel his heart pounding in his chest, but his pursuers weren’t far behind. As he focused on watching the ground to avoid tripping on a root or a stone hidden in the shadows of the trees, a screen appeared for him, and he struggled to focus on it while he was running for several seconds before he finally managed to read it.

Quest Title

Darkling Elimination (Urgent)

Objective

Eliminate the Darklings before they discover the path to Normouth. (0/6)

Reward

D-Rank Unrestricted Karma per darkling killed.

“Shit. Rize, I just got a quest to kill these things!” A quest with the highest reward he’d seen since starting, probably proportionate to the difficulty, since he couldn’t imagine fighting six of those things. Rize glanced back, and cursed under her breath as they crashed through another clearing and nearly fell over again.

It was the same clearing that they came across earlier, with the corpse of the pangler lit up by the moonlight. Passing that, the gears in Leo’s head started turning. “Rize, lets get to another open space, and then you hide. Maybe we can set up an ambush.” Rize gave a grunt of acknowledgement, and kept pulling him along until they moved into another suitably wide clearing. Leo suppressed the urge to fall to his knees when Rize finally let him go.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“I’ll hide, but what are you going to do?” She asked, panting.

Leo took a while to respond, he could hear the sound of the darklings crashing through the undergrowth. They hadn’t lost them, but it seemed like they managed to get a considerable distance. Leo definitely wouldn’t have been able to keep that up for much longer, though. “I’ll be bait.” He told her. As he did, he went to Combine the Luminous Mote in his inventory with the Windblown feather.

Witchlight (Rank E) Created!

A small luminous orb that hovers in place, or follows the creator for one hour.

The orb shone as if he’d turned on a high power flashlight, clear and white, and he willed it to hover a few feet above him and shed light on the entirety of the clearing.

Rize didn’t seem excited at the prospect of Leo’s plan. “What do you mean, bait?” She said, “They’ll tear you apart, and I’m likely to roast you if you’re in the way.”

“We’ll just have to play it by ear. I’ll keep them distracted, just try to get as many as you can. Hurry up! They’re almost here!” The sounds were much, much closer now. If Leo had to guess, they’d come across the pangler again, and had likely noticed the glow from the witchlight. Begrudgingly, Rize moved and crouched behind bushes, while Leo accessed his Storage once again and pulled out an empty vial. He hated to use up one of the Oovina immediately after getting it but he’d certainly use it over dying. Hoping this worked, he combined the blooming Oovina with the Pangler plating.

Critical Combine!

Stoneskin Potion (Rank D)

Channel the defensive properties of the Stone-Plated Pangler. For five minutes after ingestion, make your skin as tough as stone.

He wasn’t sure how much it helped compared to the last critical combine, but he was grateful that it bumped up the rank from E to D. He remembered Zumra’s warning about the abilities being unwieldy, but Leo figured this would be fine since this was a passive ability anyway. Hearing darklings rapidly approaching the clearing, he quickly downed the potion before pulling out his sword and shield. He felt an odd tug at the pit of his stomach as the potion took effect.

Inwardly, he didn’t feel any different, but on the outside he could see his skin take on a pale gray hue and gain a stony texture. He didn’t have time to truly feel the difference, and the most forward of the darklings rushed into the clearing and came skidding to a stop. It immediately noticed Leo, who just stood in the middle with his sword and shield at the ready, but it paused to glare up at the light. Leo couldn’t quite tell with its eyeless head, but it didn’t seem to like the light at all, almost fearing it. The others followed suit, also briefly glancing up at the light, but with all six of them there to back each other up, they seemed to resolve their rush onward and ignore the light’s glow. The first of them lunged at Leo, practically flying through the air. Leo ignored the rising urge to cut and run and instead bashed it with his shield. The impact rattled him, but not nearly as much as he expected, and he started to think that the potion had actually made him a bit heavier, too.

The darklings quickly started to surround him, and he tried as best he could to stay out of range of their slashing claws and snapping jaws, swinging out with his shortsword on the ones that got too close. At one point, one of them lunged before Leo could react, and raked its claws across his back. Leo hissed in pain. It’d definitely torn his clothes, and probably drew blood, but Leo only felt a stinging pain that suggested that the cuts were shallow. Without the stoneskin potion, that darkling would have probably just slashed his back open.

“Leo! Dive left!” He heard. Turning toward the source, his vision filled with yellow and orange as a torrent of flames rushed his way.

Name:

Leonell Bolden

Stats

Title

-

Fortitude: E- (0/10)

Class

Mixer

Reflex: E (0/10)

Element

-

Intellect: E (0/10)

Total Rank

E

Intuition: D- (0/10)

Status

Health 85% Mana 50%

Will: E- (0/10)

Skills

Combine, Auto-Loot, Appraise, Storage

Luck: D (0/10)

Skill: Combine

Mix different raw materials into a new item. You choose the shape of the form. Final form is affected by rank and element of materials.

Store Combine results into a mental guidebook that grows based on Intellect rank.

Skill: Auto-Loot (Mixer)

Automatically separates mixable materials from slain creatures. If the [Storage] skill is active, automatically places loot into storage space.

Skill: Appraise (Mixer)

Look at a creature or material and gain information on them. Information includes: Rank, Element, Class, Statuses, Titles. May have difficulty appraising creatures of higher rank, or creatures hidden by another skill or effect. Skill affect boosted by Intuition Rank.

Skill: Storage (Mixer)

Creates an inter-dimensional storage space that only you can access. Storage increases with Total Rank

Storage

Animated Bone (E-Rank, Dark)

D-Rank Mental Karma 2x, E-Rank Unrestricted Karma 2x

Large Shell (E-Rank, Water)

Basic Short Sword,

Drowned Heart (C-Rank, Water)

Basic Shield

Scorched bone (E-Rank, Fire)

Sigil of the Drowned

Petrified Bone (E-Rank, Earth)

D-Rank Healing Potion 2x

Deepgold Coin (E-Rank, Metal)

Soul Husk (C-Rank, Aether)

-

Darkling claws 4x (D-rank, Dark)

Blooming Oovina 3x (E-rank, Aether)

Moonlit Blooming Oovina 2x (D-rank, Aether)