After our little break, Grifith and I headed deeper into the forest. We veered a bit further west since that’s the direction the Wolves were coming from.
How many are hiding in the Den? We’ve gotten at least 40 kills so far. Surely there can’t be too many more?
I say that, but the Skeletons had close to a thousand spawns in their territory.
So far, I have yet to look at the quest information a single time to check we made our quota. I’ve been focused more on just killing a shit ton of monsters than anything. So I don't know the exact number of kills we have. But I know we’ve gotten plenty for each of us. I just really want to get to the den and take it out.
We killed another group of 3, Grifith taking two out by himself. It seems to be his current limit for a single battle. I don't fault him, given he can’t make ranged attacks. The Detection skill makes him more than useful.
We Kept going until Grifith called for a stop for dinner. I had started to get a little hungry, but I could've gone for a few more hours killing Wolves without needing another break. I stopped all the same, and erected a 300-point Barrier. I could have made it a 600 point one, but I also wanted to have some mana gain for the break.
I pulled out a sew from my storage and took a look at my basic status.
User: Claff:
Health 340/340 (374*/hr)
Stamina 247/340 (34/hr)
Mana 298/960 (697*/hr)
SKILLS
PASSIVE
Enhanced Body Lv 12 [20%]
Increased Mental Capacity Lv19 [21%]
Regeneration Lv19 [83%]
ACTIVE
Arcane Magic Lv 15 [86%]
Barrier Magic Lv 14 [97%]
Game-like Storage Lv14 [12%]
My Increased Mental Capacity has really been boosting in levels since I got Projectile Split, and went even further since I started using Multicast. And edging my Regeneration right along the 800-mana line has really helped it level, though the increased cost of Exploding Bullet means I've had to decrease from 800 to 600. This break will definitely help me when we get to the Den though. I’ll be at mostly full mana and with a full Arc of Exploding Bullets. Though I'm tempted to switch back to Mana Bolt, since they’re a third of the price.
Grifith dealt with a pair of Wolves that attacked the Barrier when he was done with his food. After that, he sat back down so I could finish my little recharging moment.
When I was back to having a full mana pool and an Arc of 10 Exploding Bullets, we left our breaking area and continued our hunt for the Wolf den.
It turns out that Wolves hunt in a radius of over 50 miles from their dens. Grifith found that out when his information skill leveled up. So we started debating on what to do.
I wanted to cause a bit of a commotion, and do something similar to what we did with the Skeletons. It would make for easy kills, and since Wolf monsters were known for good hearing, we’d end up with a good number of kills, at least that was my argument.
Grifith on the other hand suggested that since we had enough kills to complete the quest, we should just call it good and start to head out of the forest and back to Silface.
I countered with the argument of money.
Grifith counter-countered with the argument of sleeping in an actual bed and getting a warm meal.
He almost won right there, but I brought up that this was a Promotion Test. We’d make a better impression if we had more kills under our belt.
“Besides, we’d basically be relaxing on top of the trap Barrier in a safety Barrier of our own. I know it’s not exactly the most glamorous way to rack up kills, but you could honestly sleep if you wanted to while I deal with it. I’m not saying you don’t provide help or anything, but you wouldn’t be in any risk of danger.”
He grumbled and agreed. I made the trap Barrier to be about a 300-foot square, 10 feet tall, then added 300 points of mana to it. I included a floor in the trap, to make sure the monsters would always be in contact with the Draining Barrier. After the initial Barrier was set up, I made sure that Grifith and I wouldn't count as targets for the draining effect, then made a set of stairs to lead us to the middle of the top of the barrier. Then Grifith set his camping equipment up and fell asleep right there.
I put the safety barrier up around us then double checked that everything was set. I added 500 points to it, and made sure it was soundproof.
With all my preparations made, I cast a series of Arcane Explosions outside of the Barrier. This should be the bait to draw in as many Wolves as possible. Then when they saw us, they’d enter the Trap Barrier™ and slowly be drained of their health, stamina, and mana pools over the course of less than two minutes until they turned into loot.
The first Wolf entered the trap. It hadn’t spotted us yet, but it was still inside the effects of the barrier. It looked around for a few minutes, sniffing at some trees that I included in the trap. It looked around again and then up at the Ball of Light that was the only source of light in the forest. It was then that it spotted us. It looked to howl, but sensei had made the Safety Barrier™ soundproof, I could only assume.
Sure enough, more and more Wolves gathered by the minute. As they saw the Ball of Light, they took turns howling and then running directly under Grifith and I, jumping and snapping at us, yet not being able to reach us.
The Wolves looked quite like the gray wolf from the nature documentaries I saw when trying to fall asleep back in my old world. They were a bit bigger though, now that I was able to see them for long enough without them dying to my Exploding Bullets. These seemed to be about 4 feet tall at the shoulder, and their fur looked to end in sharper points.
Maybe it wasn’t the ground I scraped my hands on last time. Maybe I scraped my hands on the Wolf’s fur.
The Wolves gathered under us and kept jumping, trying to get high enough to reach the two of us. Eventually, the first Wolf passed out, then a few seconds later it turned into loot. The Wolves seemed to be saddened by this and they all looked to howl in unison.
More and more Wolves entered the trap and ran right up to us. I spent the whole time watching, as the loot started to increase in numbers. Very few Wolves even attempted to escape the Barrier, the rest spent the entirety of their time in the trap trying to eat Grifith and I.
Grifith only slept or at least pretended to for the first few minutes. It was new to him, since we watched the same thing happen with the Skeleton. Except this time, I made the Trap Barrier a lot wider. If I had made the Skeleton trap as wide as I did this one, we would have finished a lot sooner. I learned my lesson and implemented it here.
“It’s really working. I wasn’t expecting such high results. How many have fallen in there?” Grifith asked.
“18 have died so far, add that to the 6 that are in there now and we’re at 24. Oh look, another Wolf came in. 25.” I pointed to the western side of the Trap Barrier.
A large Wolf at least as tall as I was if not taller just walked in the Barrier. It froze as the last of its tail passed through the one-way wall. It seemed to tense itself and snarled a bit.
If it were two feet to either side, my view would have been blocked by trees, but I had a perfect line of sight for where it was.
The Wolf turned around and tried to leave the Barrier but saw no success in its attempts. As it turned, Grifith and I saw it had a large black stripe running along its side.
“It’s close to evolving into a Dire Wolf. I assume that’s either the pack leader, or one of the stronger Wolves from the group.” Grifith said.
I nodded along and kept watching. About 20 minutes had passed since the first Wolf had entered and I had gained 230 mana. I prepared to add it to the Trap Barrier’s pattern, but when I looked at it, it had over 5,000 points in it, so I went back to relaxing.
Not even Bran could break through this Barrier as it is right now. I’ll wait and see what it does though. At the worst, I'll pepper it with Exploding Bullets.
The ‘almost Dire’ Wolf scratched and snarled at the Barrier. I flung its whole body at it a few times before giving up and howling for the remainder of its life. When its loot dropped, it dropped a Wolf Pelt and a chunk of Wolf meat. The whole thing felt very underwhelming. It didn’t even try to attack the pair of us.
Grifith and I continued sitting up here for the next 20 minutes, with not a single extra Wolf coming.
“I’m disappointed. Is that really all the Wolves over here? Should I throw out a few more Arcane Explosions or something to see if anything else comes?”
Grifith shook his head and just said that we should spend the rest of our night up here.
“More might be coming. For all we know, that last Wolf sent out a distress howl. We have the soundproof barrier up, so we don’t know how loud it really was. I’d rather not risk letting the Barrier drop just as the entire Den shows up and have to fight our way through that. Besides, there might be more Wolf drops in the morning. So just relax and get some sleep. I’ll shake you if I sense any monsters under us so you can watch.”
I nodded and brought out my camping gear. There wasn’t any wind since the barrier was up, but I still felt the cold. I wrapped myself tightly in my sleeping bag, packed the remainder of the mana into the Safety Barrier, and turned to sleep.
I couldn’t even get 10 minutes before Grifith me awake.
“Good thing we waited.” He pointed downwards. I moved my sleeping bag and placemat out of the way so I could get a better look at what he was talking about.
There were easily a hundred Wolves in the Trap Barrier, all snarling and snapping and trying to reach the two of us. The few that stood out were directly underneath us. They looked to be the most vicious of the group and they were pitch black.
“So, these are Dire Wolves, huh?” I asked Grifith. He nodded confirmation.
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“Dire Wolves are black, and they’re bigger and stronger than regular Wolves. Regular Wolves are already tier 2 monsters, and on the high end of the tier as well. When they get closer to evolving, they are considered tier 3 monsters. But when they fully evolve, the resulting Dire Wolf is labeled as tier 4.”
Grifith continued with, “I feel I should also warn you. The differences in tiers only increase as the tiers increase. So, a tier 1 and 2 monster are a lot closer in strength than a tier 9 and 10 monster. Hobs are closer to regular Gobs than a Hog is to an Ogre.”
I nodded along, drinking his words in. I wanted to learn as much about the monsters of this world as I could, although a lot of it seems pretty similar to what I know from video game monsters.
The Dire Wolves lasted a full minute longer than the regular Wolves. There were a few Wolves that were close to evolving that also took a good bit of time, but in the end, they all fell and turned to loot.
I fired a large Arcane Explosion at either end of the Trap Barrier, then went back to looking for more monsters.
I’m sure those will attract something. Hopefully another pack of Wolves. I’d love to get as many pelts as possible.
I waited another hour before deciding to go down and gather the pelts and meat that had dropped from everything so far. I had enough waiting on my ass for now, so I turned the barrier to be fully solid and not allow anything in and gathered it all up. I didn’t want the meat to go rancid.
After I gathered the loot and stored it, I went back up to the Safety Barrier and turned the trap back to fully functioning. An hour later we got a different monster group in our little trap. I had refused to sleep, hoping to see more monsters come in and get turned to loot. I got my wish.
I pointed it out and asked Grifith, “Is that what I think it is?” He gasped and said, “Only if you think it’s a Troll leading a small army of Orcs.”
The first and biggest monster stood at 9 feet tall. If I had made the Trap Barrier any shorter, it wouldn’t have even fit inside. It looked to be an ugly, giant, green man with warts all over its back and top side of its arms. The arms were long enough that the monster’s claws scraped across the bottom of the barrier. Its neck hunched forward, with the head hanging level with its shoulders. If it wasn’t hunchbacked the way it was, its head would be out of the barrier.
The Troll had no weapons, most likely opting to use the 5-inch curled, yellow claws at the end of its fingers. I was just glad that it had a thick loincloth on, as it also didn’t have any armor, which contrasted with the small army of Orcs at its back.
Every Orc stood at 6 feet tall, though the pig-like ears made them appear slightly taller. The monsters all carried cudgels, either dragging them along or draped across the back of their necks. They looked like thick wooden bats, but with a strip of metal at the end, some with small spikes sticking out too.
The Orcs had humanoid faces, though the pig-snouts and tusks sticking out really ruined the facade. I’m sure if I made the Safety Barrier not soundproof, we’d be hearing a harmony of oinks.
Some of the orcs had chest pieces to go with their leather loincloths, but most just had a shoulder piece covering the arm that carried their weapon. Their green skin oddly complimented the brown of their underwear.
After I looked at the 200 pigmen under us with their giant leader, I realized Grifith was still and pale as a sheet.
“You okay there bud? It’s not going to get us up here. The barrier between us and him holds over 65,000 resource points from all the Wolves it’s drained. And it’ll only increase as it drains these guys too.”
Grifith still looked pale, so I handed him my water skin. He looked at it for a second before taking it and taking a long drink.
As he handed it back to me, I looked back down. The army or Orcs had fully entered the trap, and the Troll stood right under us, looking confused as to how we were up there more than interested in eating us. It reached a vomit green finger up to poke us, but it was stopped by the barrier. It was small, but I could tell the barrier took a point of damage.
The monster looked even more confused and reached its whole hand out to grab at us. The Barrier stood firm, though it took a few more points of damage. The damage was repeatedly healed many times over as the Trap Barrier drained the Troll and Orc army of their resource pools.
The Orcs already seemed to be feeling lethargic, as many of them looked to be yawning. I never wanted to see that sight again, but I couldn't help but laugh at the hilarity of it.
Grifith looked towards me the whole time, refusing to even glance down at the Troll after it reached for us the second time. I kept my eyes on the Troll, now that most of the Orc had started falling. The Troll seemed to look fine though. At least for now.
“Do you know what the regeneration rate for Trolls are? This guy doesn’t seem as affected as the Orcs are by the Barrier.” I asked Grifith, hoping that conversation would help calm him down.
“It’s crazy high, something like 50 per minute. That’s just their health though. Their stamina is more basic at like 300 points an hour. Still higher than normal, but not near as ridiculous as their health is. And they don't have mana or mana regeneration. Trolls are strictly brute force. Orcs have a small mana pool and minor mana regen with average sized health and slightly higher stamina pools and regeneration.”
“Good to know. So, it’ll be a waiting game then. I’m draining his health pool at a rate of 60 points per minute, so we’ll be fine in a while. It’s just a battle of attrition.” I patted his back” And we will win this battle, my friend.”
I looked around and saw that the Orcs had started falling to the ground. Their health and stamina pools were all mostly empty now. They had mere seconds left to live. The Trap Barrier had just gained another 40,000 resource points added to its pattern. There was no way that it would fall before the Troll would. I’d be making sure of that.
The Troll started pounding on the Barrier, each hit shedding the Barrier of 30 points. It could only attack very slowly though. Its stamina pool was also getting drained too.
I decided to move things along by sending Exploding Bullets at the giant monster. I aimed for its head, but after the first one hit, it started to guard itself with its left hand. This worked to halve the attack rate the Troll could enact.
3 minutes. That was how long it took for the Troll to finally fall to the ground unconscious due to a lack of stamina. After that, I put all my effort into making sure this monster died quickly.
Unfortunately, it had fallen in such a way that prevented me from getting access to its neck or head. I experimented with my Arcane Explosion, aiming to flip the monster so I can hit its vital points. When that didn’t work, I decided on a death by a thousand cuts.
I kept myself at just under 800 points of mana. Every time I reached that magical number, I'd fire an Exploding Bullet at the monster in my trap. This led to many holes being put into the Troll, and none of them closed up as I'm sure they normally would.
It took a ridiculous hour for the Troll to succumb to its wounds, and at that point, it was little more than a pile of meat. Its backside had been completely brutalized, yet it refused to die to my Exploding Bullets.
When the Troll finally exploded into motes of white energy, I made the Trap Barrier fully solid again so I could grab the loot. I encouraged Grifith to come down with me, but he still seemed shaken up.
The orcs had all dropped a chunk of meat, and a few dropped their cudgels. My storage still had 3 empty slots, these filled 2 of them. It took me 5 minutes to gather all the Orc drops, but I finished and went to see what the Troll dropped.
It had left 5 claws. All that time, and it left 5 claws.
Are you kidding me? They even stack with the goblin claws! What the hell?!
Despite being severely annoyed, I went back up to the Safety Barrier and crashed for the rest of the night. Grifith went to sleep at some point, since when I woke up, he was still fast asleep. When I woke up, I saw that there were a few more Wolf pelts and meat chunks, so I went down to grab them then went back up.
I let Grifith sleep for as long as he wanted. The poor guy seemed out of it after the Troll appeared. Even seeing it had died did nothing for his mental condition.
He slept for a few more hours after I woke up. I had been practicing my Arcane Magic the whole time. I made a smaller barrier inside the safety one so I could practice firing the Exploding Bullets. I was hoping to see what I thought was missing during my alone time but found nothing until I gained the next level.
During my barrage of the Troll, my Arcane Magic skill leveled. I didn’t realize it until I was waiting for Grifith to wake up, but it had reached level 16. I guess the danger bonus XP rally kicked in too, because I was already halfway through the level.
I guess Trolls really are strong. Maybe I really was a dumbass for how casually I was acting while dealing with it. It doesn’t change the fact that it was a cakewalk though. Maybe I should hunt for more Trolls to power level all my skills? Although Barrier Magic also leveled, I think I could probably do more for it by making the Barriers into a sort of Labyrinth for added XP. That would be AWESOME!!
I looked at my basic status and saw that more than Barrier and Arcane Magics leveled. I also gained half a level in Regeneration and Increased Mental Capacity.
SKILLS
PASSIVE
Enhanced Body Lv 12 [30%]
Increased Mental Capacity Lv 19 [83%]
Regeneration Lv 20 [39%]
ACTIVE
Arcane Magic Lv 16 [26%]
Barrier Magic Lv 15 [47%]
Game-like Storage Lv 14 [22%]
Okay, note to self: fight high tier monsters. I will NEED to come back so I can grind some more on stronger monsters.
I figured now was as good a time as any to learn the next level in my magics. I wasn’t going anywhere until after Grifith wakes up on his own. He needs the rest.
As is customary, I started with Barrier Magic first.
Improved Barrier Effects have been learned.
OOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHH THIS IS GONNA BE AWESOME!!!!
The level essentially doubled the quality of my Barrier Effects. So instead of draining, siphoning, and leeching 1 resource point per second of contact, it was now 2 points per second of contact. And now my Barriers treated 1 point of charge the way it used to treat 3. If I kept getting that one improvement for the rest of my levels, I'd be as happy as could be. In fact, I can't think of any other ways to improve the Barrier Magic.
Meh, I’m sure it’ll still improve with levels. Regardless, I'm extremely happy with that outcome.
The improved effects wouldn’t count towards the current Barriers I have active, but it will be applied to future barriers. Which is good, since I’ll be releasing this Barrier when Grifith and I head out.
I switched my focus to Arcane Magic.
Hagrid, I don’t quite know what part of Exploding Bullet has been bothering me, but please let this level show me what’s been missing. It’ll drive me crazy if I have to wait for a whole new level or even longer to figure it out.
With my prayer said, I learned the spell.
Explosive Trigger has been learned.
THIS IS IT! That’s what’s been missing! The explosion’s trigger!
The spell used to explode on impact, and I can toggle part of the pattern to make it do that anyways. But now I can set a Trigger word by accessing the pattern and basically recording myself. When I launch the spell next time, the bullet will imbed itself into my trigger but won’t explode until I give the command word. It basically acts as a delay, allowing me to optimize the explosion by waiting until the bullet is deeper in the monster, making better use of the explosion and dealing more damage. That would have come in handy when I was dealing with the Troll.
Oh, that’s been bothering me for what feels like forever. I know it’s only been a couple of days, but still. I needed that sweet release.
I decided to wait until after Grifith gets up to set the trigger word for my spell.
What should I use though? Would “EXPLODE” be too obvious? Maybe “POW!” or “NOW!” or “KABLAM!”. No, those all feel too comic book-ish. I want something simple. I think I'll just go with “Boom.” Not loud, not extra as hell. Just simple and to the point.
Happy with my choice, I nodded and went back to playing with my magic. I took a swig from my water skin, as just as I put it away, Grifith awoke.
“Morning sleepy head. You feeling any better today?” I asked with a small smile.
“Yeah, I'm feeling better. Did you really defeat a freaking Troll last night? There’s no way that actually happened, right? Oh no. Look at that. I gained 3 whole levels in detection just from sitting up here scared shitless.” He deadpanned the last part.
“I think you’re forgetting something important. We lived!” I put emphasis on the last part. “It wasn’t like we were in any actual danger with my Trap Barrier™ up. I checked its charge when I got up a few hours ago, and it still has over 100,000 points of energy in it. We were always going to be safe.”
He nodded along, but it didn't look like he believed me.
“Okay, use your Information skill and check out the Barrier below us. See for your own eyes the sheer strength that is I!” I played the role of the Arrogant King, trying to cheer him up some.
He looked at the Barrier below us and gasped. “Dude. What. The. Fuck. According to my skill, not even a dragon could get through this in one go. How the hell did it get so damn strong?”
I beamed in arrogance. “That’s just how good I am, my dear friend. Stick with me, and I'll show you just how awesome Barrier magic and Arcane Magic can be.” I crossed my arms and puffed out my chest.
“If you’re serious about taking me along, then yeah, I’ll go,” he said. “But no abandoning me at the Dwarven continent. I’ll accept the Elven continent, cause at least the girls there are my size. And honestly, I'd flourish in the Beastmen continent. I love a fine ass fox girl.”
“As long as you leave the cat girls to me, you have yourself a deal.” I grinned and we shook hands.
“Alright, if you’re feeling better, let's go get the drops and we can go home. I’m ready for that bed and warm meal you mentioned yesterday.” There were two more wolves that fell to the trap since I grabbed the loot from last night. It was only 2 pelts and a chunk of meat, but I wanted every copper we could get our hands on.
We hurried out of the forest, not stopping for a single spider on our way out. We had to kill a Wolf though.
When we crossed the imaginary line that separated the Dark Forest from the rest of the world, I took a second to pull up the map and fix our heading towards Silface.
It had been a long week, but it was certainly a fruitful week.