I reached into my inventory and pulled out three rusted goblin axes. It was the only thing I could think of. We needed to find a way to get the truck past the huge crater Bell had created and the only way forward that I could see was to cut down some trees near it and drive around.
I’d looted the goblin weapons after nearly dying on a cliff during my first-ever Adventure Society quest: The Goblin King Coronation. Literally, thousands of goblins had swarmed me like a herd of zombies and I fought them off… mostly. I may have had some life-saving help from Director Lucas towards the end.
I pulled out the three axes and handed one to Reggie and one to Bell, keeping one for myself. I had to assume that Jamie was down for the count on account of his mana brain issue. Panda was too busy ringing slime condensate out of his fur to help, or at least that’s what he said… yup that was the reason, and definitely not because he’s a damn tiny panda who is useless at physical tasks.
“OK guys, if we’re going to get the truck past this ditch we’ll need to cut out a road around it.” I began. “I think if we cut two trees deep all the way around one side of the hole we should be able to drive around without risking falling in.”
The other two nodded and we began work clearing the trees. It wasn’t too difficult, to be honest. With increased stat skills and the trees being burned partly to ash already, we moved at a much faster pace than a normal human could.
And, speaking of normal humans, it occurred to me that all the examinees in our little cohort were human. There wasn’t a single lycanid or catonid, excluding Sally but she was the examiner so she didn’t count.
Both of those races were more numerous in Havar, so it struck me as being a little odd. It’s surprising what random thoughts come into your head when you’re chopping trees.
I had to take a break after felling the first one to refill my stamina coil. I’d used up most of my stamina already by fighting the dhur, and chopping wood was hard work.
I dropped into a meditative pose, with my index finger and thumb touching in a circular shape, and dived into my soul view.
My health rope seemed to be doing pretty well. It extended through my extremities, into my limbs and all around me. It was a thick, healthy, crimson rope.
That was how I interacted with my HP and stamina stats in my soul view. I had to visualise them as something tangible so I could mould and strengthen them.
However, as I learnt after defeating the slime queen, I couldn’t strengthen them too much or the system would get mad.
I switched views and checked on my stamina coil. It was emitting a weak yellow glow. I expected as much.
My coil started in my core itself and it swirled out from there to my muscles. It looked a bit like a curly straw, especially when I pumped fresh energy into it, which was exactly what I was about to do.
I breathed in deeply and visualised the oxygen which filled my lungs as a white, neutral energy. I then focused on guiding that energy into the core of my stamina coil. From there it would naturally take a ride on the curly straw slide and refill my stamina.
Once I was done, I woke myself from the meditative trance and rubbed my eyes. The forest was bright compared to the backs of my eyelids and it took me a moment to get used to the change.
I looked around and realised that most of the trees were gone. Had I really meditated for that long? Maybe Bell and Reggie were just really fast lumberjacks.
I stood up and saw them dealing with the last few trees. I almost went over to help, but they hadn’t cleared any of the stumps yet and that needed doing before we could drive through.
I noticed that they’d dumped the felled trees into the pit itself. I wasn’t so sure that was a good idea since they were tall and it almost gave the ditch the appearance of being a funny-looking bush. Still, I had stumps to clear so I let it slip my mind for now.
I didn’t really know how to remove tree stumps, but I figured with my enhanced strength I could find a way. I smashed the axe into the earth immediately next to the closest stump and worked on pushing it underneath the stump itself.
Then I pushed the handle down as a lever and it… snapped. I was hoping the stump would pop right out of the ground but I guess it’s not that easy.
Sally snickered from her perch, leaning against the hood of the truck, and I scowled at her.
“Kaleb, you don’t need to do that.” The friendly voice of Bell chimed from across the newly cleared patch. “I can just burn them out.”
“No more forest fires! I don’t have any more slime condensate.” I chided back.
“I won’t start any fires.” She jogged towards me and then bent down and whispered: “For now.” Then she touched the stump of the tree with the tip of her index finger. “Fireball.” She whispered.
A tiny, pinball-sized fireball moved slowly from her finger and pushed into the centre of the stump which smouldered slightly, then the roots began to singe. After a moment they disintegrated and all that was left was a blackened stump with nothing anchoring it to the ground.
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Bell picked it up and tossed it over her shoulder into the pit.
“See.” She smiled. “I told you; fireball is the only spell you need. It’s the Swiss army knife of spells..”
“How come you have so many types of fireballs, but no other spells,” I asked her, following behind as she got rid of the stumps one by one.
“It’s my class.” She giggled. “I’m a Fireball Wizard.”
“I thought they called them mages around here,” I replied.
“They do, but my that’s my class name. When I picked it the system made some bad joke about an old British band called The Who, but the class itself is perfect.”
I was a little worried about the naivety she was showing by sharing so much about her powers with me. I’d tried to play my class close to my chest since I’d gotten it. I didn’t know what anyone else’s class was either now that I thought about it.
The conversation also reminded me that Bell was an outworlder too. I really needed to talk to her about that properly when we could get a moment of privacy.
Bell looked up at me when I didn’t reply after a few seconds and continued the conversation by herself.
“What kind of class did you pick? I saw your green arrows; might I assume the system made a Green Arrow joke when you picked it?” She giggled. “Is that why you’re wearing that superhero costume?”
“No, it just told me it thought I was going to become a stealth archer. The system insults me as much as it makes jokes.” I replied. “And it’s not a superhero costume!”
The joke is on the system though. I thought. Once I get my stats high enough to properly use my armour, I will be a stealth archer.
I chuckled to myself and Bell pulled a funny face at me.
Thinking about my class, I pulled it up on HUD and had a quick read-through.
Apex Predator (unique)
Well, would you look at that, your fighting style has been so varied so far I’ve had to create an entirely new class for you. Before you start feeling too special I’ve already had to do this for over 500 of the 10,000 players brought here.
So far you’ve used a bow, a dagger, a vat of acid and a truck to slaughter your way through the countryside. This class is the amalgamation of those styles.
Besides, in the beginning, I thought you were going to become a bog-standard stealth archer and that’s way too mainstream to entertain me
Selecting the Apex Predator Class unlocks the following skills:
Acid Arrows – Every projectile you shoot from a bow will cause acid damage to the target.
Acid Dhampir Dagger – Gain 10% of inflicted damage with a dagger as HP. Daggers inflict acid damage.
Environmental Hazzard – Killing enemies using the environment awards bonus experience.
Selecting the Apex Predator class will award the following stat points per level:
+7 strength / +5 vitality / +3 perception / +3 agility / +1 intelligence
I still hadn’t gotten any bonus experience from the Environmental Hazard skill yet, but I was sure that there would be plenty of time.
Bell finished up with the last stump and we rejoined the group at the front of the truck.
“Took you long enough.” Panda huffed.
He was sitting on the hood of the truck, apparently trying to use the engine’s heat to dry off - though I was pretty sure that’d only work if Sally was plugged into the mana-sucking armband that powered it.
I ignored his comment and looked towards Sally.
“We’ve cleared a path around the crater, so shall we move on?” I asked hopefully.
“I suppose. It’ll get dark in a few hours and we’re behind schedule for our first stop so there will be no more fights today.” She announced, pushing off the hood with her powerful arms. “Jump in.”
I grinned at her and made a beeline for the back of the truck. Jamie was sitting in a meditative pose right at the back, near the cab. He must have been regenerating his mana.
We all piled in and the truck rumbled to life and began trundling around the massive hole in the ground we’d made.
“Oh shit! I didn’t loot the boulder.” I gasped as we moved away from the clearing. I’d been so busy that I’d forgotten to do any of that adventurer stuff.
“I already did it,” Bell said casually, her hair blowing around her as Sally picked up speed.
“Oh, at least someone did,” I replied.
I was pretty sure that was my kill by rights, I’d done all the damage. All Bell did was cause a forest fire by trying to burn a big old rock to death. Not that I was bitter or anything.
“Yeah, it only dropped something called an elemental core though. I don’t really know what it is.” She said, producing the item in her palm.
It was a glowing brown orb. It looked a bit like a shiny marble. I had a much bigger slime core in my own inventory, which I also currently had no use for.
“Cores are used in crafting,” Panda said lazily as he rubbed at his head trying to use the wind as a hairdryer. “Hold onto it, if you ever want any custom armour or weapons made they can be pretty handy.”
“I thought you weren’t talking to Bell.” I teased.
“I’m not, I was talking to you.”
Bell dived on him and there was a lot of swearing and yelling as he tried his best to get away from her clutches. The girl really had a thing for cute animals, or maybe it was just Panda.
Whilst that happened I opened up my notifications.
Congratulations! You have defeated:
Dhur (lvl 38)
Bonus experience awarded due to level disparity.
I didn’t level up from the kill, but that was to be expected. Gaining levels was a lot harder now than it was in the early days. Phase two was a different ball game.
I sat back and stretched my arms out on the uncomfortable side of the truck. I was exhausted, something that rarely happened to me anymore. Working with these people was going to suck.
Who’d have thought that I’d have to be the leader? A guy who’s only been in this world for a couple of months. How our ragtag little group were going to slay a dragon was beyond me. I could see Bell’s use, even if she was a fire hazard, and if Reggie was a healer that’d definitely come in handy.
Jamie though, not so much. So far he seemed like dead weight. I’d have to see what he could do in a solo fight. Then, somehow, we’d need to learn to work as a team. Devising strategies was too much work for my tired mind though, so I figured I’d leave it to the morning.
Luckily, it didn’t take us that long to get to the closest village, and what I saw when we arrived woke me right the fuck up.