I wasn’t laid in the dirt long before Sally and Panda found me. I heard their voices and called to them in a hoarse whisper.
Sally ran to me, kicked the books out of the way and looked over at me from above. She was covered from head to toe in blood and gore. She looked more like a monster than the goblins.
“I thought you’d died.” She said with a fangy smirk.
“Not yet, though I can’t move and it’ll be an hour before I can take another potion.” I replied feebly.
Without a word she knelt down and picked me up in a princess carry. She carried me back into the clearing which by now was a cesspit of blood, gore, and corpses.
She set me down against a tree and Panda walked over to me, looking utterly disgusted at his blood stained paws as he trapsed through the carnage.
“I’ll loot the goblins whilst you heal, it should help with the smell.” She said grimly.
She moved away and began the looting process. The goblins exploded into confetti this time, rather than silver bits.
In the middle of the clearing laid the eyeless corpse of Gertrude. Now I got a better look at her, she definitely did look more like a troll than a goblin.
Her lifeless husk was gigantic, standing at least 20 feet tall. It was no wonder she threw me away so easily, and so powerfully.
She wore nothing but a loincloth and her saggy green breasts were sliced open savagely. Her corpse was covered with deep cuts, meaning Sally had to slash her a few times to finish her off.
Panda finally reached me after treading as carefully as he could across the battlefield.
“You look like shit.” He said with a smirk as he sat next to me.
“When did you become a red panda?” I asked.
He gave me a poignant look.
“Are you going to check your notifications or what? I bet you’ve levelled like crazy after that,” he said.
I had been about to check them when Sally found me and since I needed to rest before I could take another potion I figured I may as well sort through the notifications.
It definitely had nothing to do with my child-like excitement for the coming levels.
You have defeated Goblin Spearman:
(lvl 12) x13
(lvl 17) x9
(lvl 24) x2
(lvl 31) x1
Bonus experience awarded due to level disparity.
Wow, that was a lot of goblins. I was surprised I’d killed so many. I hadn’t stopped shooting for the whole fight and their corpses were piling up but that was still a lot of bodies.
“This is why I told you to pick the Apex Predator class.” Panda said, “unique classes are always super powerful. You wouldn’t have had a chance of killing that many without the bonus acid damage.
“They were also quite weak, or at least most were so that probably helped.”
“Most of them were above my level so I’ll take it.” I replied back cheerily. Honestly I was just happy to have survived. “I wonder if I got anything for helping to beat big Gertrude over there.”
You have assisted in the defeat of a unique monster:
Gertrude The Giant Goblin (lvl 35)
Bonus experience awarded due to level disparity.
Experience decreased due to lack of damage inflicted.
“She was that tough?” I asked breathlessly.
“You should have seen Sally fight her. It was insane. She didn’t take a single hit, scoring slash after slash. That big goblin didn’t know what hit her.” Panda replied animatedly.
I was happy to have done any damage at all to a monster that far above my own level. If I’d have been alone I would have died for sure.
It was time for the good part, I wanted to check my new level.
Congratulations! You have advanced to lvl 15
Congratulations! You have advanced to lvl 16
…
Congratulations! You have advanced to lvl 27
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Holy crap! I’d gone up 13 levels in that fight. That was insane. Though considering the sheer number of goblins I’d killed I could see that the levels were starting to come slower.
Still, I was super happy. I now had 90 free points to allocate including the 25 I’d got from killing the first goblin solo. I’d also gained 247 stat points from my class. That was a huge boost.
Even with that huge boon the notifications weren’t done.
Bow has advanced to lvl 7
Bow had advanced to lvl 8
…
Bow has advanced to lvl 10
Due to Bow advancing to lvl 10 you can now choose a new combat skill.
Pick 1/2
Perfect, I needed a new bow skill. Well, at the very least I really wanted one.
I noticed that my bow skill seemed to level a lot slower than my actual level. I wondered if it gained experience based on different parameters. Maybe it was linked more heavily to how I used the bow rather than the experience I got from defeating monsters. I couldn’t be sure though.
There was still so much about levelling up and the system that I didn’t understand.
Putting that aside for now, I greedily asserted yes and the notifications popped up.
I only got two choices this time though, but one of them did come with a rarity marker.
New Skill:
Power Shot
Charge up an arrow before releasing to increase damage. Charging heavily consumes stamina.
That one seemed like a pretty standard gamer bow skill. It didn’t come with a rarity but I was certain it would be pretty powerful.
Stamina was my highest stat so it would be a good choice.
“If you choose that one you’ll finally have an active skill.” Panda observed.
It was tempting, an active skill would be useful in combat. Panda had said before that they were usually more powerful than passive skills.
But as I read the second notification, my decision became clear.
New Skill:
Perception of the Apex Predator (rare)
Slow down time for a period determined by the amount of stamina you use on the skill. Cooldown is determined by the amount of stamina used on the skill.
That was the one. There was no competition. Slowing down time seemed super OP. It also had my class name in the title so it had to be good right?
“What do you think?” I asked Panda.
“Get the rare one. Always get the rare one.” He replied, imparting his sagely wisdom.
I agreed, so I mentally asserted yes.
I felt dizzy for a moment as an innate knowledge of how to use the skill flooded my mind. It wasn’t like knowledge I’d actually learnt; I couldn’t explain how to use it or the details.
But like muscle memory, I felt that I could tap into it and call on it without a struggle.
Despite my injuries I wanted to try it out. The notification said nothing about exclusive combat use and I had the feeling I could use it whenever.
I decided to tread lightly for the first time so I poured 10 stamina into the skill.
I looked towards Sally who was only a stone’s throw away and as she took her next step her footfall paused. Then it hit the ground less than a fraction of a second later.
I could have blinked and missed the time change. This was going to take some practice and probably an insane amount of stamina to be useful.
I wondered how much I’d need to pour into it to get a full second. Judging from my test I was betting a lot. Possibly more than I currently had.
Still, it was a useful skill that would grow as I did. By the time I was Sally’s rank I’d probably be able to get a few seconds out of it and that was nothing to sneeze at in a battle.
The battle in the clearing had only lasted about three minutes and I’d killed countless monsters and been thrown into a tree by Gertrude. So a few seconds had the potential to seriously affect the outcome of a fight.
“Where do you think I should allocate my free points?” I asked Panda.
“Well, you’ve got like 90 of them right? I’d probably put it all into vitality. You’re an ok fighter but being taken out by one hit is a quick way to die.
“You don’t want to be a glass cannon in this job. I know you probably want to throw it all at stamina, but your stamina levels up faster than your health anyway. Also, if you add all the free points to your health you’ll gain 90 HP right now.
“That’ll save us some time since your basic health potions won’t put you back to full health. And, you know, it’ll be almost an hour until you can even take one.”
Considering his words I decided to trust his wisdom. He was my daemon after all, I had to take his advice at least some of the time, otherwise what was the point in summoning him?
I threw all my free points into vitality and immediately felt warmth flooding through my body. It was similar to the feeling I got when I took potions.
With a painful click that made me gasp, my dislocated leg clicked back into place. A few equally painful cracks and my ribs healed too.
My health was still pretty low and I was covered in deep purple bruises on my chest. But nothing was broken anymore and the residual pain went away almost immediately.
My torn shirt was starting to thread itself back together as well thanks to self-repair. It was like watching a scab growing on your skin.
It was oddly therapeutic, if a little odd.
Before I got back to work, I decided to check my stats screen.
Status Sheet:
Name: Kaleb Akabane
Race: Outworlder
Class: Apex Predator (unique)
Adventurer Rank: Temp
Level: 27
Map Pieces 2/10,000
HP: 97/271 (293)
Stamina: 73/255
Strength: 215
Agility: 103
Perception: 99
Vitality: 221 (243)
Intelligence: 34
Personal Skills: Speak English Damnit!, Eat Anything
Class Skills (Passive) Skills: Bow (lvl 10), Apprentice Bowman, Dagger (lvl 4), Acid Dhampir Dagger, Acid Arrows, Environmental Hazzard
Active Skills: Perception of the Apex Predator (rare)
Blessing: Blessing of Wealth
Familiars: Panda (Daemon)
Admission: Pentagram [Right hand (Morningstar Hotel and Spa)]
The improvement was immediately apparent. HP was now my highest stat but my stamina was nothing to scoff at either.
I’d used quite a lot of it in the battle so ideally I’d need to take a few potions or rest up before we got into another one.
The 10% vitality buff I got from my Boots of Resit Environment were really starting to show their worth now. They gave me an extra 23 HP, that was quite literally the difference between life and death in the last battle.
I’d been at a measly 7 HP before I allocated my free points. If it wasn’t for the boots I’d be dead right now.
I also noticed that I’d gained a new section down near the bottom of the stats. The active skills section had finally unlocked with my new, rare, time slowing skill added into the mix.
All in all I felt like I was starting to become useful. Hopefully I’d be an even higher level by the time we finished the quest.
Sally had told me that most noob adventurers were around the level 30 mark, give or take. So I was hoping to hit that by the end of this quest.
All temp adventurers had to undertake three quests before they qualified to take the exam. If the other newbies were all thirty when they started, then I’d have some catching up to do.
Assuming they each gained a level or two in each of their three mandatory quests, I’d need to be at least level 33 before the exam.
Ideally I’d be closing in on level 40.
After checking my stats I heaved myself up using the tree I’d been leaning on for support. Sally had just finished turning the last goblin into confetti and she walked towards me.
“You seem better, free points?” She asked.
I nodded. She was a seasoned, silver rank adventurer. Of course she knew exactly how I’d healed so fast.
“Good, then let’s get moving. I expect to be at the summit of the mountain by night fall. If we don’t get there in time then we’ll be spending the night in the jungle and this jungle gets scary dangerous at night.”
“Ok, let’s move.” I replied.
“Also, I have some loot for you. You need a new bow since your other got smashed by the tree don’t you?” She said with a fangy smile and a wink.