We watched the spectacle from a distance. Anyone observing us from the outside would have described us as an unlikely trio. Two young men accompanied by a bloody old veteran, just watching the horizon.
It could've been a sentimental moment. Cerion and I could have talked about our affinities, families and life before our awakening, but instead, we simply sat in silence, enamoured by what a tier 4 could achieve.
Cara and Emer were giving the bandit chief Kazach hell. Gouts of flame that reached the sky, tornadoes and wind blades that tore the surrounding cliffs and hills in two, they were clearly not going easy on him.
Occasionally we would see a large golden hammer fly through the sky and slam back down, causing shockwaves that we even felt at this distance, but the frequency of these counterattacks made it clear to us that he was losing and losing badly.
I turned to the old man, who had told us his name was Damar.
"Looks like your boss is losing, Damar."
"Previous boss, but yes, it seems so.", he replied emotionlessly.
I had tried to get a rise out of him for the past little while, but had had no such luck. Damar seemed tired, he wouldn't respond to my taunts or jeers, just answer our questions. It was strange. Bandits didn't usually reach old age, unless they had reached a high tier and were very experienced, like Bor. Yet Damar claimed he had been a bandit for as long as he could remember, and had served in Kazach's gang for about five years.
I had always envisioned bandits as rowdy barbarians that couldn't hold a conversation without swearing to save their life, but Damar broke that stereotype. He seemed to me like a man who had seen it all, and couldn't be surprised anymore.
My musings were interrupted by another fireball lighting up the evening sky, the rumbling sound of the blast reaching us a moment after the blast.
It seemed the battle would finish any moment now.
Right as I was about to have another crack at our prisoner, another blast appeared. This one reminded me of the combo spell Cara and Emer liked using. Some kind of flaming tornado appeared, giving off immense heat and distorting the air in the sky.
After a few moments, the spell abated.
The noise it produced drowned out whatever I was about to say and caused strong winds to erupt, pulling my hair into my face. I waved it away and looked at it.
Over the past few months, I had let my hair grow out, to the point that the jet black locks reached my neck. My mother had cut it for me shortly before my awakening and I didn't know how to do it myself. Besides, it looked rather nice.
Once more, my thoughts were interrupted, this time by a system notification.
Ding! Combat finished. Congratulations on reaching [Overloading Death Knight] level 42!
Reach level 50 to advance to tier 3.
Stat points allocated. 5 free stat points per level up awarded.
I smirked at Cerion.
"How many levels did you get?", I asked smugly.
"I just reached level 43!"
"Looks like I nearly caught up to you. I'm at 42. Eight more and we'll both be level 50."
"Just a little more!", he replied with a big smile.
We hadn't reached our goal of 'level 50 at the end of this quest', but we'd gotten close, with another week to spare.
While we were stuck waiting for Cara and Emer to show up, I took some time to invest some of my free stat points into wisdom. I intended to save 25 points so that I could decide on whether or not to invest in intelligence to get the second milestone before the tournament. I didn't want to make such a decision haphazardly, because the possibility of a caster class remained a threat.
Name: Arthur Titles [Dark prodigy] Class: [Overloading Death Knight] LVL 42 Strength 272 Constitution 268 Dexterity 268 Intelligence 75 Wisdom 223 Affinity 463 Free stat points 25
Skills:
Passive: [Dark radiance core](27%), [Dark sight](53%), [Berserker Swordsmanship](48%),
[Growing lifespan](N/A), [Mental palace](N/A), [Fast processing](N/A), [Dark Form](19%), [Overload Aura](24%)
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Active: [Ghost apparation](8%), [Flexible senses](N/A), [Curse mark(guide)](51%), [Overloaded orb](47%), [Overloaded sword](36%), [Dark Blade Maelstrom](21%)
I looked at my stat points in satisfaction. They had grown nicely, as I had expected. The third milestone was in sight for my physical stats, which would hopefully also replace the now merged [Mana physique] with something new. Unfortunately, wisdom was still a long way off from the third milestone, intelligence even more so.
What frustrated me the most about my progress was that with all the easy questing, my skills hadn't grown much. This latest bandit conquest had done wonders for some of my lower-tiered skills, but I was still at a severe disadvantage if I wanted to tier up my class skills before I tiered up my class itself. My one saving grace was the tournament, which went on for a while and would force me to stall at the peak of tier 2, giving me time to increase my skill progression. It didn't help that I still needed to create a new movement skill before the tournament, to replace the versatility that [Shadow apparation] had. Despite my rough experiences with [Ghost apparation] lately, I was still confident I had made the right choice. So far, most of my issues with the skill had been due to me not understanding its nature and not using it properly. If I used it smartly and got a few skills that could combo well with it, [Ghost apparation] could become one of the cornerstones of my build at higher tiers, even if it remained as it was now. If I could utilise the skill using overloaded mana, allowing me to seamlessly go from skill to skill, I would become nigh-invulnerable. Ambition was the name of the game in this case.
As I turned to my companions to see what they were up to, Cerion pointed at the sky.
"Look, there they are!"
Sure enough, Cara and Emer appeared, riding on Cara's sparrow. They noticed us waving at them and landed near us, revealing Emer carrying Kazach's large body.
I stood up to meet them.
"Is that bastard finally dead? He did a number on me with that sneak attack. Made the following battle quite a bit riskier."
"Sorry 'bout that laddy! This fella took us by surprise. He was a fair bit more skilled and higher-levelled than the guild 'ad him measured at. That bein' said, he still died in the end.", he said cheerfully.
"I see you two defeated your opponents when your mission was simply to hold them off for a time. Well done.", Cara added.
"It wasn't an easy battle, but we were victorious. They both created ambushes to kill us after their deaths, but thankfully my father gave me some equipment to deal with situations like that.", Cerion replied.
"Good thing he did, too. I would not 'ave the guts to break the news to him if you 'ad died. The guild master convinced us to take you two along by talkin' about your equipment, in fact. Just be careful not to rely on it too much, laddie. It'll make ya' soft."
"I try not to, thank you for the advice.", he replied politely.
"Who's this person accompanying you?" Cara, intervened.
"This is Damar, a bandit we've taken hostage as a witness for extra evidence."
She nodded appreciatively.
"Good thinking. I can't share too much, but considering the severity of this case, we'll need all the evidence we can get to make anything stick."
I patted Cerion on the back.
"Cerion thought of it, thank him. Anyway, guys, let's go. We need to start looting some of these corpses so we can sell their stuff at the guild."
As I stood up to leave, Emer held his hand out in front of me.
"Yeah, 'bout that sonnie. Most of these bandits' equipment will be stolen, meanin' we can't legally pawn it off, the guild has to return it to remain in good standing with local businesses and the kingdom. Well, as 'good' as our standing could ever be, I suppose."
I sighed. No loot? Really? I had looked forward to getting my hands on Ueron's stuff. I wouldn't have been able to use it, but money is always nice. I still needed to buy a new sword too!
"Oh. Well, that's a shame. I didn't nab anything yet, because I thought Ueron might have had more tricks up his sleeve and trapped his possessions. As for Bor, he blew himself up. Good luck finding his stuff.", I said, trying to hide my disappointment.
Emer must have picked up on my feelings, because he patted my shoulders.
"Good man. Don't be too disheartened, Cara and I will give back the stolen goods, but a lot of the stuff probably can't be traced back to its rightful owners. We'll pawn that off and give you two a 25% cut, including on Kazach's own gear, how does that sound?"
This sum wasn't a big deal to Cerion, but I was actually elated when I heard that offer. While Cerion and I had been the ones to take care of the majority of the bandits, their gear couldn't hold a candle to tier 4 equipment. Higher tiered items increased in price exponentially, after all. Emer and Cara were doing us a favour by sharing half of the profits with us. If even one of Kazach's items could be sold at auction, I would be able to afford a nice tier 3 sword. I could even get one ordered to be made by the guild blacksmiths in the capital, who could keep my dark-alignment secret until after the tournament. Guild-sponsored blacksmiths were more costly than unaffiliated ones, but the quality of their work was guaranteed.
"That sounds awesome, Emer! Thanks!"
"Hah, no biggie! Now then, why don't we split up? You two can escort this fine gentleman to our little hideout while Cara and I clean up here."
Cerion and I agreed. Cleaning up could take a while, because it involved more than just looting the bodies. They would have to be buried, and all traces of the corpses would have to be removed, so that no other faction could track the witch hunters' guild's movements too easily. Luckily for Emer and Cara, they had skills and items that could make this much easier, which made calling guild professionals as I had done after my first quest unnecessary.
Because of that, we took our sweet time walking back to our cave, enjoying the scenery for once. Thankfully, the local monsters had left us alone, despite the noise we had made that evening. Those that did approach us were quickly taken care of by Cerion or me, and no tier 4 monsters would come out during the day, barring exceptions like elementals, who didn't have any animalistic instincts that would cause monsters to be nocturnal in the first place.
An hour of travel later, we arrived.
"So this is where you guys hid?", Damar asked.
It was rare for him to initiate conversation, so I answered his question.
"Yes indeed. Why, did you know we were in the area?"
Damar hummed.
"Kazach had had a fight with his son Nareo about profits for some smuggling they had done and split up a few weeks ago. A few days ago, the boss came out all upset, talking about how intruders entered the hills and had killed his son. He wanted us to search the entire area during the day, while the lieutenants would patrol during the night. Eventually, he realised what you were up to and set up an ambush. We were just the grunts that would have to help out Bor if things went wrong."
"Why weren't you ordered to play a more active role in the fight?", I asked.
He took a moment to deliberate his answer.
"I'm not sure, but Kazach was a smart man. I figure he knew that the intruders weren't large in number, which meant that they must have out-tiered Nareo. The boss's son wasn't a pushover for his level and tier, after all. In a fight between multiple tier 3s like you two and Bor, us weaklings can't really do anything, beyond setting up an ambush as we did."
Cerion and I shared a proud smile. Our advantages had indeed catapulted us to a level of strength where we could comfortably contend with weaker tier 3s, even winning against more experienced ones. All hail the rare classes of the world, and the stat points they granted us!