“Haa… haa… haa…”

What… what was that?

I didn’t know that 5 more Arcane.Power would result in quite a difference in my death bolts, it used to only scratch and burn the top layer of the orc’s skin before, but now?

Every time my bolt hits, a chunk of its flesh was carried along with it, resulting in the orc flinching and wailing. There was enough firepower from my magic to stop its advances, enough damage to kill one of them if I piled on enough death bolts. Although, I wouldn’t say that this method was efficient, in both mana and time spent.

The changes did not end there either, I couldn’t deal with the orc’s strikes before, collapsing after a few strikes and falling under its pressure, which was a real problem that a supposed tank was tasked to handle. And while I wasn’t even close to being able to handle the orcs with my physical attributes on their own, I was proud to say that I could last maybe three times as long as I used to before I crumbled from its assault. A slight difference, sure, but it was enough to ensure that I distracted them enough for my friends or summons to do their job.

Those changes didn’t mean that the usual rapid deaths didn’t happen this time. It just took longer for me to die.

Once the orc was dead, I lay on the charred ground and opened my status page.

STATUS

HEALTH

78/78

MANA

54/54

RANK

-

Level

4

POINTS

210

RACE

HUMAN - 1

ACTIVE CLASS

Death’s conscript (2)

SUB CLASS

none

FREE ATTR. PTS

14

ATTRIBUTES - BODY

ATTRIBUTES

Class Bonuses

Total Attr.

STRENGTH (12%)

8(+1,+5)

4

18

SPEED (54%)

3 (+5)

-

7

TOUGHNESS (8%)

10(+3, +5)

4

22

VITALITY (33%)

8(+3, +5)

2

18

RESISTANCE (0%)

0 (+5)

-

5

ATTRIBUTES - MIND

ATTRIBUTES

Class Bonuses

Total Attr.

ARCANE (2%)

3 (+10 +5)

4

22

ARCANE. POW (24%)

3 (+6 +5)

4

18

ARCANE. DEF (10%)

0 (+2 +5)

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

2

9

WILLPOWER (10%)

1 (+5)

-

6

AFFINITIES

SOUL INTEGRATION

Equipped soul

Orc Mage.

Skill

-

Attribute bonuses

Arcane + 5, Arcane. Power + 5, Arcane. Defense +2

CLASS

Name :

Death’s conscript

Level

2

Attribute bonuses :

+2 Strength, Toughness, + 1 Vitality | +2 Arcane, Arcane. Power, +1 Arcane.Defense

??? - unlocked after clearing the trial

I didn’t have these numbers back in my last life. The bonuses from the Souls and the buff from the Hand of the King alone were enough to surpass the attributes I had prior, but with both combined, and with the efficiency of how I trained and focused on my growth, I believed I had achieved the most amount of attributes I could possibly attain within a day.

Seeing the numbers go up didn’t do much justice compared to how much stronger I felt, it was night and day, the lightness of my shield — which now felt like I was carrying a light piece of metal — and how nimble and agile I was, all of them were deterministic factors that would decide whether I would survive in the future.

With this growth, defeating the Hobgoblin didn’t feel like an impossible task anymore; It was still difficult, and I’d even say a little suicidal. But with enough planning—and even more so, the 10 free attribute points to spare—I was confident in at least clearing the first two missions. The orc chief, however, was a question mark at best. I hoped that I’d be able to find a party against them, otherwise…

I may need to skip that mission.

[Returning to the nexus]

The atmosphere of the nexus had returned to its former, sparsely populated self, filled with those who were awaiting their party members to get ready or were just hanging out and about. I used this moment to re-orient myself; the effects of my rapid deaths were prominent in my mind. But that didn’t mean that I would waste my time doing nothing.

My first order of business was to purchase enough potions of both kinds to ensure I could survive the first two missions. I was still debating on taking the Orc mission — It was a decision that I could make only after acquiring the armor set — and drew up a plan in my mind to tackle the Hobgoblin first.

Then, after acquiring the potions, my next plan was to allocate my 14 free points to the right attributes. In my case, there were only three plausible decisions; Arcane—for my max mana, Arcane. Power—for the damage of my bolts, and…

Arcane defense.

The last one wasn’t as important as the others. In fact, it was a last-minute decision that popped up inside my thoughts, largely due to me witnessing the gargantuan spell that the Orc mage had launched at us. I wasn’t able to deflect such a bolt with my spells and ended up almost ending our party’s life instead—a mistake that I couldn’t forgive myself for—so Arcane. defense ended up being quite high on my priority list since.

But… killing things faster would always take priority over that. Besides, I knew to not do the same mistake again.

In the end, I allocated another 5 on my Arcane attribute, and well, the rest was funneled into my Arcane. Power. One might say it was a rash decision, but for me, the effectiveness of my death bolt was essential in the first two missions.

Of course, there was always the spell upgrade book, but that was a decision I’d save until I acquired the other Spellbook.

It didn’t take long before I was ready to embark on the mission. The Nexus had lost even more people as the parties were already inside at this point, and as I took a last look around the hall, I noticed Asuka and her father beside the obelisk. They were arguing with each other in a language I’d heard before but I couldn’t understand. Japanese? Regardless, it was none of my business.

I closed my eyes and entered the Hobgoblin mission.

The nostalgia of the foggy, yet different scene hit me like a truck as I stepped foot into the field. The dark dirt and light patches of grass crumpled under my weight, as I planted my staff and summoned the orcs all around me. There was little to no time before the-

Zip.

-The arrow came. Since none of this was new so far, I shrugged the arrow off by shifting to the side, then fired one of my bolts in the direction where Maria had instructed me to shoot at.

But then, I paused. The bolt I fired wasn’t the normal bolt from before. It was bigger, for one, and its previously murky, desaturated green was replaced with a strong, emerald light, and the shrill it generated was… several magnitudes worse. Even the caster himself wasn’t able to keep his face straight.

The bolt I just fired was very similar—no, almost a carbon copy—to the one the Orc mage had launched at us.

It then collided against where the archers were positioned. The explosion that happened after was so big that the goblins were sent flying away in multiple directions, and the ones closer to the center were splattered into pieces. It was the most brutal effect that I’d ever seen happen from my bolts, far surpassing the face-melting which happened to the first goblin I had ever used my spell on.

However, I didn’t have the luxury to study the atrocities I had just committed.

Next, a speck of footstep was planted on the surface right before a blade appeared, well on its way to strike my bare chest. This happened twice before, one of them managed to sneak past Maria and paralyzed her, and the next one was after she taught me how to deal with these sneaky goblins.

I slammed its dagger away with my shield, then ordered my orc spearman to deal with the nightblades in my stead. The spearman was fast and tough enough to handle them on its own — goblins were several steps below them in terms of strength and speed — and then ordered the rest to move along with me as I retreated bit by bit.

Phillip wasn’t here with me this time. Before, he was in the front lines, dealing with the initial wave of goblins before we decided to book it towards the walls. Back then, we didn’t know the propensity of the Hobgoblin toward anger, a piece of info that would’ve made this mission a whole lot easier.

But now that I do…

As expected, the Hobgoblin showed up. Its massive figure—relative to its counterparts, revealed itself in the distance, surrounded by more of its kind. Spending no time to waste, I launched a bolt right in its direction, and with another explosion, recovered all my mana back since the kills I had accrued were enough.

This was another side-benefit of the upgrade in my spell power. A benefit that had escaped my mind since it has been quite a long time since the effects of my mana recovery were this apparent.

With its brethren dead, the hobgoblin was free to enter its enraged state. I had half-expected to finish it off with a single bolt, but…

Hmm? Wait… Something’s off.

[The observer had elevated the difficulty of this mission due to the hand of the king’s buff. The rewards are increased to compensate.]

What the hell?

An ugly cry erupted within the field. My eyes were stricken in horror as the hobgoblin’s body contorted, muscles bulging outside, and it grew in size. Not only was it angry, but now, it was way bigger than the orcs I had at my side.

It then leaped, high, high up in the sky, its deranged face was still under the effects of my death bolt’s residue, but I didn’t think it cared about its wounds in the slightest.

Fuck- Armo-

Another eruption happened. My orcs were flung away into different directions, their lives saved for now, but I couldn’t say the same about me. I felt the same lack of sensation that used to be on my shield arm—it was broken. Again.

The hobgoblin’s strength and size far surpassed my expectations. As its club was wedged between the crevices of the dirt it had dug with its slam—with me in the center—it pushed me deeper with its feet, gnarling with its lips who had turned purple from my bolt.

I couldn’t push or consume any potion in this state. Firing my spell would be a death sentence to me due to the proximity…

Then it came. An arrow zipped from the right, boring a hole through its left shoulder. It wasn’t strong enough to deal fatal damage, but it was enough to divert its attention. The rest of the orcs came after, some losing their shields and their weapons were chipped. With our numbers advantage, they slammed against the hobgoblin, attempting to push it off from where I stood. However, none of them was capable of doing so.

Another arrow smalled against the head of the hobgoblin, resulting in a scream and a speck of purple blood sprinkled in the air. The sudden attack caused an imbalance in its stance and enabled the other orcs to topple it over, a miracle, one might say, but I needed all the openings I could get, no matter how or why.

I used the opportunity to get up, reeling in the pain from my broken bones, and scrambling myself to safety. It was at this moment that I was able to consume a potion, regaining the use of my arms, and my eyes were able to see the hobgoblin in its full, gory details.

[Lvl. 8 Evolved Hobgoblin]

Evolved? This must’ve been his doing…

He mentioned it before; The observer talked about things moving too quickly for us, and he planned to make things fun. This looks fun to him?

We knew that The Observer was planning to do something, but to change the parameters of a mission while we were already inside of it wasn’t within my predictions. This also me-

A loud shrill erupted as I watched the bodies of my orcs being flung away. They might stand a chance against the Hobgoblin if it was the normal one, but what they were fighting against was way, way beyond their capabilities.

For the first time since I’d acquired Death’s apparitions, my dearest orcs were dead.