Noah activated [Shrouded Presence]. From his feet, a black, trailing smoke emerged from underneath, and expanded into his nearby surroundings like a smoke grenade filled with ink. Krall, whether he understood the desire of Noah wanting to remain silent or not, charged through the shadows without making a noise.
Upping their speed increased the sound of their footsteps drastically, but it still wasn’t enough for the occupied kobolds to turn around.
The archers were about to fire their arrow when Noah rapidly approached. He used [Thrust] as the entire spear penetrated the kobolds skull. Keeping their momentum, Noah yanked back the spear from the kobolds head. With his extra strength, he whipped it back in front of his body to be used again.
Noah made it to the other archer without a moment to look back. Without using [Thrust], he focused on his aim this time.
The other archer panicked and spun in their direction at the sudden footsteps. It loosed its arrow straight for Noah’s centre mass, but with a deflect of his shield, he rammed the spear into the kobolds throat. Returning his spear, the other kobolds hadn’t a clue of what happened. Their attention was still focused towards the towering lizardman high up in the tree line.
Thraz boomed a laugh and yelled, “Now I can split these stupid corrupted!” He let go of the tree. Gravity dragged his body down and he landed onto the archer kobold that he had killed, then tossed to the jungle floor.
As his body made contact with it, his enormous weight crunched its bones into powdered mush. Blood scattered from every orifice of the dead kobold. The others recoiled back at the booming thud. They heard stomping from behind them, but it was a fatal mistake to look away when a battle-hungry dragonborn was in front of them.
Thraz raised his axe and with one fell swoop split one of the unlucky kobolds in two.
Noah made a quick realisation during his charge. There was a high chance of losing his spear during the attack. Maybe it was because of adrenaline, but he had forgotten the optimal way of using a spear on–well–horseback.
For him, a full frontal charge was incorrect. He had to attack from the side so that he could ready his spear in haste. He couldn't be caught in the middle of a group of beasts that wanted nothing but to rip him to pieces. Noah also had to make sure that he remained the perfect distance away so that he could kill and take back his spear without extra energy. In other words, he had to be efficient.
Noah charged once more, but this time they bolted to the kobold on the far left of the formation.
Their speed had picked up a lot now with the extra Strength stats, and buffs from the Skills. Noah reached the kobold in just a few seconds and used [Thrust]. He aimed for its chest. It pierced straight through. With Noah at the peak length that the spear could reach, returning it to its kill position was much easier than before.
Krall turned once more and allowed Noah to attack to his heart's content. When the kobolds got closer, Krall would step out of range so that his master could reap the lives of their enemies with efficiency.
Every attack, Noah used [Thrust]. The overpowered attack killed with one move of his spear–if he was accurate enough, that was. He also noticed that the attack caused the wound to be larger than usual. It helped him take back his spear without any struggle.
Soon, all the kobolds were dead. With the last attack, Noah could feel that the stamina within his body was much less since he had overused his Skill. However, that wasn't the only downside. There was a deep pain in his spear arm.
Moving his attention away from himself, Noah noticed a cut on Thraz’s forearm, but it wasn’t anything serious. With a quick check to his System, there weren't any changes. With them now being level seven, it would take a lot longer for them to level up–especially against Level two to Level five kobolds.
Rubbing his dominant arm from the pain of overusing [Thrust] he gazed at the process of the Skill.
Thrust - level 1: Thrust your spear forward with increased momentum.
| Current Progress to Level 2: 13.63%
Even without using it to kill, he could still level it, but it was inefficient.
Noah spent some time filling up the waterskins with the water purifying tablets within. Then he created a bigger bag from all the loincloths of the Kobolds to stash them in. The smell, surprisingly, wasn't bad. Though, maybe that was because he didn’t smell any better, and had quickly become nose blind to such things. Maybe it was for the best.
Thankfully he wasn’t hungry just yet, so there was no need to harvest the kobold meat. But he imagined it wouldn't be long before he started thinking about his next meal. Well, he would come to that when it arrived. The need for food was far less than that of water.
Although there was a higher energy expenditure with the introduction of Skills, he estimated that he could survive quite a while without food. Longer if he didn’t use his Skills, or expend much energy during the day. Of course, that was unlikely. He needed food to fuel his body.
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“Noah,” Thraz said, “do you think there’s other survivors?”
“Of course there is.” Noah tightened the bag around Krall. “It’s just a matter of when we’ll encounter them.”
“That sounds exciting!” Thraz nodded like a child. “Oh, I wonder if there would be any of the Herengon race from my world here?”
“Herengon?” Noah asked in confusion. Sounds oddly like he’s setting me up for a joke… but It must be another race I’m not familiar with, or maybe it just has a different name?
“They are a tall and slender humanoid race with big fluffy ears,” Thraz said, then his head dipped. “I have a life partner from one of their tribes.”
“You have a partner?” Noah raised his brows.
“I do–” Thraz paused. “Well I would if she said yes.”
“So, that’s a no then.”
“That’s a not yet then,” Thraz glowered.
Noah put his hand up and grinned. “Who knows, she might be here.”
“You think?” Thraz said in excitement. “Oh I do hope so. She has a perfect, round–”
Noah slapped Thraz on the chest. He could hear something from the tree-line.
Survivors? Noah thought as they retreated behind a thick tree. He was surprised that they hadn’t run into any of them yet, but he supposed It just meant that this tutorial was much larger than the last one on Ubos.
Thankfully, it was another group of kobolds.
Noah counted six in total–an easy number to slaughter with no archer. The kobold at the front was larger than the rest, but it shouldn’t pose a problem.
I should kill it before Thraz gets his hands on it. The further I can get in Levels, the better. Noah thought.
The System knew they were part of a party and experience was usually counted together. But not when there was someone that wasn’t pulling their own weight. The Dark Feline was the perfect example. Thraz couldn’t hit it a single time, whereas Noah killed it on his own without help, so he received the full amount of experience.
However, a group fight was different. Even if Noah killed the higher level on his own, but Thraz finished the rest off–he would receive a high contribution for helping thin the herd. If he wanted the experience, he had to kill the leader before Thraz was able to cut through the majority. It was a risk, but the risk takers often took the best reward–if they didn’t die–that is.
A boiling heat filled Noah’s insides. His heart sped up and practically smashed against his chest with every beat. He couldn’t help but smile. This was the life he wanted.
Krall snarled at the other kobolds as if they weren’t his own kind. It seemed like this place truly was the epitome of survival of the fittest. There was no love between races.
“Support me, Thraz,” Noah said without any other information and immediately charged straight for the chunky kobold.
The kobold quickly pulled a thick shield from its back as Noah arrived in front of him. The shield was much larger than Noah thought, it was made from a thick piece of bark, but it had no other weapon. It held the huge piece of wood by the edges.
Krall stopped right in front as Noah aimed straight for its fingers, and lunged his spear. As the spears tip cut straight through its fingers, the kobold screamed and dropped it to the floor.
However, the other kobolds wouldn’t sit idly by. Blood thirst filled their eyes as one from Noah’s right struck at Krall with a dagger. Noah decided to trust Krall as he retained his focus on his original target. Its shield lowered. Noah grit his teeth and used [Thrust] once more. His spear penetrated the kobolds skull as it was blindsided with the rapid attack. Noah used the tall shield as a blanket of obscurity. It's defence worked against it.
With a quick glance to his mount, Krall swatted the dagger to the side and clobbered his weapon against its hand. While that was happening, Noah blocked a sword attack from the left with his shield, and killed the monster with a quick stab to its throat.
Then Thraz arrived. Like a rampaging bull, his axe tore into one, while his shoulder barge smashed the other into the ground. Just like that, the kobolds were quickly wiped out. Krall stood over his prey with glee in his eyes. He had won.
Thraz smashed his foot through one kobolds skull and shouted, “You are crazy! I like it!”
Noah shook his head with a wry smile. Maybe only someone with intellect would be able to see why he had done what he did. If it was anyone else, he wouldn’t be praised–but scolded. It was why he didn't wish to work with others. Politics, and social barriers that were nothing but restrictive. No, he wouldn’t subject himself to such things. It was one of the reasons he wanted power in the first place.
Noah smiled in delight as the air above the lead kobold crackled and popped. Soon, a Skill Essence with dull white veins entered his sight. He grabbed hold of it.
You have obtained the Common - Strength - Skill Essence - Strengthened Body.
Strength based Skill - Strengthened Body: Fills one's muscles with increased Strength.
Do you wish to accept it? Y/N
| This will take up a Might Skill Essense slot.
It was just a basic body strengthening skill, but as the basic form of the more advanced Skills in its evolution path, it had a lot of room for growth. If only it was Uncommon, or Rare, it would make Levelling a whole lot easier. Noah sighed at his lowly luck, even despite receiving a Rare Skill not long ago. It was easy to focus on the negative.
“Yes,” Noah said as he felt the extra strength run through his body. The spear and shield within his hands now felt almost trivial. He waved the spear around dexterously in one hand as the one weakness of his weapon was now removed. Along with his [Spear Proficiency] and [Weapon specialist], his spear was now truly comfortable.
He moved onto the next System messages and was happy to discover he had finished the second part of the Monster Taming mission set.