Lee stood upon the battlements. He gazed across a bloody battlefield as his fury was brought down from righteous indignation to a low simmering anger. He was angry not only at the thought process of the Dark Elves but at himself as well. He had celebrated his new levels without thinking of the cost, and it irked him. How could he be so dumb? How could THEY be so dumb?
Lee did not know much about war, monsters, or even this new world, but he knew that what had gone down was wrong. He felt it in his very bones and soul, which is apparently a real thing here. He looked upon the battlefield overrun with corpses and wished the world was different.
It was different from Earth in many ways already. Magic, levels, new races, but bloodshed stayed true. Lee thought himself incapable of bloodshed back on Earth. Yes, he had hated people, a very select few, but he had. Would he have killed them? Would he have brought physical punishment upon those select few? No, he would not. He didn’t even think about it as being an option.
Here though? Here he had power. Everyone had power. He could walk through a busy street with Healer’s Beacon and Antithesis of Healing activated and deal 10.5 or 21 if his Genesis of Healing title applied, damage per second to everybody around him. He could kill someone with his amount of HP in less than ten seconds—a sobering thought.
Lee never thought too deeply about a lot of things, and he cared deeply for a few as well. One thing he cared deeply for was health. He took his for granted often back on Earth. He remembered the days when he could walk through a park, smell the fresh air, and see the sights. He also remembered having a stuffy nose from a cold, where you never knew how much you cared for smells or breathing easily until it was taken from you.
He remembered the day his world came crashing down. The day he was told he had heart cancer. ‘What?’ was his first response. Sitting on the hospital bed, thinking everything was just going to go back to normal, just like a stuffy nose. It never did.
His anger quickly fled and was replaced by depression. He regretted his last statement in front of the medical tent. It was said in anger and frustration. For their faults, they didn’t deserve to be trapped in this forest. They are people, people who hope for the return of something they took for granted, freedom.
Lee took a deep breath and let out a shaky exhale. He checked his status, looking at the 45 unused stat points.
Name: Lee Barnes
HP: 165/165
MP 215/215
Level: 21
XP 2458/10000
Titles:
Genesis of Healing*
Miracle Worker*
Class: Miracle Worker.
Profession: Otherworldly Academic
In Magic's Favor.
STATS:
Strength: 8
Dexterity: 10
Constitution: 13
Wisdom: 13
Intelligence: 17
Luck: 10
Unused Points: 45
Skills:
Spells:
Abilities:
Skills:
Identify, Mana Sense, Stealth, Mana Manipulation, Speed Reading, Mana Dispersion, Medical Attention, Miraculous Return, Healer’s Beacon, Hidden Miracle, Alter Status, Dauntless Will, Antithesis of Healing.
Spells:
Basic: Earthen Strike, Gale burst, Wall of Winds, Orb of Light, Darken, Conjure Water, Blind, Swiftness, Water Wave Wall, Wall of Earth*.
Advanced: Mend Wounds, Icicle Spear, Touch of Remission, Purifying Light, Void Sphere, Bulwark of Ice.
Expert: Glacial Cascade.
Master:
Synthesized:
Abilities:
Language Comprehension, Healer’s Touch, Hidden Cache, Arcane Synthesis.
He didn’t even know how to allocate his stat points correctly. He’s just been picking on a whim. He had no plan. If he put all his points into strength, would he be unable to control his body because of his low dexterity? What if he put them all into intelligence and couldn’t move as fast as his brain thought? He just didn’t know these things. These are things that someone living on Pallesia probably grew up learning. The knowledge they took for granted.
He heard footsteps coming from the stairs as he looked out across the battlefield. He didn’t turn to look at whoever it was; he was afraid it would be Anya.
“I heard that you are upset.” Came a masculine voice from his back, semi-familiar to Lee.
“I think I have the right to be. I do not agree with how the monster siege was handled.” Lee replied.
The footsteps ended a few feet behind him, and the figure spoke again. “You didn’t seem to have any objections before the battle. Why now?”
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Lee closed his eyes slowly and sighed; he leaned across the wooden battlements on his elbows. “It was sudden. One moment, I’m lecturing, and another, I’m preparing to fight for my life and the lives of others. I am not perfect; nobody is. I’ve never participated in anything like this.” Lee waved a hand, indicating the whole battlefield. “I… I just think that you treat your lives carelessly. Those who died had families. What will you say to their families when you know that none of them needed to die?”
Silence was the only response he got, but he still felt the person's presence behind him.
Lee asked another question. “Have you all done it this way forever? Is it the only way you have ever known? Nobody across the hundreds or thousands of years has ever thought of a different way? I refuse to believe that.”
“There are threats in this world you know nothing about. You’ve read about levels in the consortium, but those low, medium, and high-level brackets are for people. They do not mention the levels of sapient monsters. The sapient Troll that leads these mindless goblins and others? Low level. This was a monster siege that could be dealt with by Nitis alone. On that, I agree with you. If the sapient Troll was level 200? 300? 600? He could not. It would be up to us to defend against the weak so that he could defeat the strong. We strengthen the majority on the weak because the weak won’t help against greater foes. We are not the ruling force of the land Lee. There are foes out there who could end us in but a moment. They are few, but they exist.” The figure said.
Lee took that information in and filed it away for later. He asked another question. “Why do monsters seek people out? Why do they want to kill and slaughter?”
“The mindless seek a mind. Some of those who obtain their mind want to free their brethren. Others seek levels to strengthen themselves. Monsters do not gain levels from monsters. They gain it from people and slowly gain experience over time. Some may even…” The figure trailed off with uncertainty. Lee waited patiently.
“Some may even become people.”
Shocked, Lee stood and turned to face his conversation partner. He was leaving. Lee stared into Jud’s back as he traveled down the stairs. He shouted after him. “Which ones?!”
Jud didn’t even turn around to reply. “Any of them.”
—-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Neia exited the room after equipping herself for her battle. She was gonna make her father proud. She’d been leveling slowly as a monster hunter, and her class quests helped quicken the pace. Even though a lowly goblin only gave single digits of XP, it all added up. Soon, she could finish her newest set of paths, unlocking another branch.
Path of the Frost Monarch. 5/5
Evolve your class.
0/1
Reward: Unique Class Skill.
Path of the Seeker. 5/5
Evolve your class.
0/1
Reward: Skill Enhancement.
Repeatable Class Quests.
Frost Maiden.
Deal 5000 Damage with Ice, Cold, Or Glacial Damage.
1023/5000
Reward: 500 XP.
Blade Dancer.
Deal 5000 Damage with blades.
4287/5000
Reward: 500XP
Moon
Slay 100 monsters under the moonlight.
48/100
Reward: 500XP
Spellweaver.
Cast 250 Advanced or Higher spells.
172/250
Reward: 500XP
As she closed the door, she heard her father speaking to someone else, only catching the end of the conversation. “.... I will talk to him when this is all over. Go back to the healer's tent for now.” Her father seemed worried.
She walked forward, nervous that maybe a complication had arisen. This was her chance to prove herself; hopefully, nothing has changed. “Is everything okay? I am ready.”
Nitis turned and smiled warmly. “Nothing on the battlefield has changed. Let us hurry. We have waited long enough.” Nitis turned and began his exit. Neia followed.
Her nerves were reaching their peak as she followed her father up the battlement stairs. This is her moment. Chances like this are few and far between. She gave a small prayer to every single god or goddess on her way up.
She nearly ran into her father's back as he stopped at the very last step. She looked to see why he had stopped and saw Lee staring at the battlefield.
She poked her father. “Well? Are we going up?”
Nitis jumped from the poke. She looked up at him and saw emotions she had rarely ever seen on her father's face: sadness and worry.
He quickly transitioned it into a smile and spoke. “Yes. Let us prepare.”
Nitis made his way up onto the battlements. Neia made it to the top and was about to make her way over to Lee to talk about her upcoming role when she saw him turn his head and stare at her father. She froze.
She expected a lot of things from Lee—sadness or perhaps depression. This was his first real taste of bloodshed on a large scale. He was a healer who wanted to save lives. He had to have seen some death out there. She even thought about him perhaps being happy. He was at a very low level, he should be much higher now, and the risk of death was definitely there. He had survived and came out ahead.
What she didn’t expect was disgust. Such a visceral emotion she had rarely seen, but it was clear as glass upon his visage. He turned his eyes to Neia, and the disgust was replaced with worry.
Apparently, she had missed something important. Important enough that Lee, who she had thought was on very good terms with her father, was now disgusted with him. She was about to ask Lee why when Nitis spoke from behind her.
“Let him be. We will speak once this is all finished.”
She hesitated. Lee treated her as a normal person. Most elves just saw her as Nitis’ daughter. He was the first race she had ever met other than themselves, and they were…. Friends. She didn’t want there to be bad blood between them.
In the end, she listened to her father. She nodded and walked up with him to overlook the battlefield. She noticed that Nitis avoided Lee’s general area on the battlements.
Nitis glanced over the battlefield, his eyes moving back and forth rapidly. He spoke. “12 Giants, roughly level 40-50’s, 23 Trolls, 30-60’s, and their leader, Level 87. Plan your attack.”
Neia took that information in and added it to her Task List—a mental notepad of information.
She began to plan.