Magnus woke up feeling as if run over by a truck. And he wasn’t exaggerating, he knew how that felt. He was currently tending to his wounds while leaning on a tree. Thankfully, when he woke up, his freshly bleeding arm was already wrapped in a kind of soft bark. Apparently, the Mage tended to the worst of his wounds after it regained some of its Mana. Most of the injuries except for the mysterious bleeding he got after tearing out the Assassin’s arm were only superficial. With the poison purged out of his system, the wounds were already slowly closing up. The Mage seemed to have gained a Level after the Assassin died. It wasn’t the only one to get a power-up either as Magnus examined the numerous notifications he didn’t notice when he was in the heat of the battle.
[You are now Level 8. 2 Stat Points gained]
[Common Skill gained – Internal Mana Manipulation]
[Internal Mana Manipulation - Common] – Level 1
Allows greater control of Mana in your Body. Control scales with Focus and intelligence.
“This Skill has potential,” Magnus immediately thought. The increased hardness of his Body he used at the end of the fight must have been only. Speaking of toughness…
[Common Skill gained – Toughen]
[Toughen – Common] – Level 1
Temporarily flood a part of your Body with Mana, gaining increased hardness. Prolonged usage may cause Mana saturation. Saturation threshold increases with Endurance. Toughness increases with Intelligence.
He finally had a way to use the core of Mana sitting inside under his chest. So far he only had passive Skills or the only active one he had used stamina. However, he would have to be extremely careful with the Skill usage. At the end of the fight with the Assassin, he only activated it for fifteen seconds at most and it already did such damage to his arm, due to what he suspected was Mana saturation. Magnus would have to train with it as much as he could to get used to how it felt. Activating it in his uninjured arm just to test how it felt like without the adrenaline and poison coursing through his veins, he marveled as the cool energy flooded out from his core and into his arms. While it felt refreshing, it also prickled like needles. It felt somehow unnatural. As if his Body was not supposed to handle such a high amount of Mana flowing through it just yet. Putting the test on hold, careful not to saturate himself again, he turned his attention back to his notifications.
[Rare Skill gained – Slashing Resistance]
[Slashing Resistance – Rare] – Level 1
Any slashing attacks hitting the user are dulled, lowering their damage.
Now this was what he was waiting for. Despite its seeming simplicity, the Skill deserved the Rare tag. With how broad this Skill seemed to be Magnus couldn’t imagine a situation where it wouldn’t be useful. While he didn’t encounter very many things which used slashing attackis in this cave (Except for the Assassin.), he suspected that the usefulness of the Skill would rise when he left the underground. Who’s to say that at a point in the future, he wouldn’t have to fight against other people?
Yes, people in the modern age usually didn’t fight with cold weapons very often but the System doesn’t seem to care about that overmuch. If the surface looked anything like this forest, the people would inevitably get in a fight with monsters and as humans tend to do they would probably rely on guns to solve their issues. Though how long the bullets would last, Magnus had no idea. In the chaos of the Integration regular production of ammo has probably stopped. The people would have to rely on something else when ammo ran out. And that was good. What was a gun compared to magic, after all.
The rest of the notifications buzzed into his Mind.
[Mana Perception is now Level 6]
That probably happened when he got [Toughen] and [Internal Mana Manipulation].
[Vicious Blow is now Level 9]
No wonder this was his highest Level skill considering he used it nearly constantly. Endurance was really good for leveling this Skill considering it used stamina which was probably heightened by Endurance. He could feel that something was going on with the Skill. It felt bloated. As if trying to stuff clothes into a bag that was too small for them. Yet he could still feel a little space for more.
Stolen story; please report.
Putting that issue aside he knocked on his head to see if any more notifications would pop up and after not getting any response he climbed back up on his feet and dusted off his clothes. Or at least tried to. Trying to move his injured arm brought with it a burning pain. Cursing he let it fall next to his body, uselessly. Realizing there was no way to safely get out of the bark acting like a bandage he walked over to the Mage who was looking the other way and tapped it on the shoulder with his other, relatively healthy arm.
It suddenly shifted its head to look at him and it was… different. A hole resembling the mouths of some of the other Ents was slowly opening up. Thin strands of wood snapping, it twisted its horrifying mouth into what Magnus assumed to be a mockery of a smile.
“Hello,” it said, in the familiar bubbly voice, „It’s me, Cardys.”
Magnus scratched the top of his head, perplexed,” But how? I thought that you couldn’t see or hear through your Ents much less talk through them.”
Cardys giggled and answered,” With normal Ents I can’t. However, Curt here is a normal Ent no more. He managed to reach Level 10, so I empowered him.”
“What do you mean by empowered? And Curt. Really?” Magnus asked.
Cardys in the body of Curt tried to frown, failing miserably and opened his mouth again,” Curt is a nice name,” all remnants of laughter gone, “And by empowering I him I gave him the option to evolve into a better form. Just as Caridus the spearmen did. Though this is the last Ent I can empower at Level 10 which I gained right now while both Caridus and Curt live.”
Magnus used [Identify] but didn’t find anything different from the last time he identified Curt. He gave off quite a different feeling though. The smell of the ancient forest glimpsed during the fight now sometimes lingered on the wind every now and then. Curt also felt more solid. Like a mighty oak.
Continuing, Magnus said,” If you can empower Ents so can the Matriarch, can’t she?”
“Yep. That’s what the elite Assassin was. As for how many are left. 2 or 3 more not counting the Assassin you just killed. Matriarchs get bonuses compared to normal Dryads. Also I just noticed, but why is the Assassin’s torn out arm just leaning against the tree,” Cardys asked and motioned with its head toward the sharp arm.
It took a while for Magnus to recall what he meant to do with it but he got it after an awkward while,” I am getting tired of just punching with my hands. It’s about time I get a weapon. Also could you remove this bark from my hand, it’s starting to itch,” he requested while scratching his arm.
Curt moved his hand swiftly and the bark split down the middle, both halves falling to the ground. The flesh beneath was not quite what he was expecting. The veins visible on his skin as well as in the wounds glowed Mana blue. He hoped for the wound to be healed at least a little but something was wrong. Maybe Mana saturation was a much bigger deal than he thought before. Magnus would have to wash the wounds sooner than later, but he had a promise to uphold before he could do that. If he waited any longer the Matriarch wouldn’t send just one Assassin like this time. And either way the rest of his body was in a mostly good condition.
But before confronting the Matriarch he still had to destroy the last corrupted Dryad, so he asked Cardys, “Could you return Curt his body?”
“Sure, sure. I’ll see you later,” Curt’s mouth closed again and Magnus picked up his new club. Before they went for the corrupted Dryad, Magnus put 2 of his Stat Points to Vitality for his arm to recover. It wouldn’t do to fight the Matriarch with one of his arms useless.
Killing the last corrupted Dryad was a cakewalk. They rushed through its Ents like a freight train with Curt’s enhanced power. Magnus’ arm even healed a little. The blue light of Mana slowly dissipating. He was even able to move it somehow. The upcoming fight with the Matriarch was one which he dreaded the most. Not the Dryad herself, but the 3 elites that may be even more powerful than the Assassin. They could always wait for Magnus to recover but it was better to strike while the iron was hot and before the Matriarch managed to empower another Ent.
Cardys described Magnus the place where the Matriarch located. Her host tree stood on the highest hill on the Dryads’ side of the forest. Even without the description, the 30-meter tree was quite hard to miss. Magnus climbed up a tree quite far away and observed the Matriarch. The tree, while seeming majestic due to its size, looked wrong. Green threads of something wound around its trunk, pulsing every few seconds. That was probably the poison getting absorbed from the ground and corrupting the Dryads. It was a shame really that it had to be this way. Magnus would much rather solve this peacefully, but he was what kind of evil spawned the poison and if there were ways to cleanse the Dryads he didn’t know any.
Turning his attention to the Ents surrounding the tree, he counted 17 of the in total. Information rushed into his head as he identified the 2 meanest looking ones.
[Corrupted Ent Sentinel – Level 11] – Tier 0
[Corrupted Ent Mage – Level 10] – Tier 0
Even from this far away Magnus saw they weren’t really the basic forms of a Sentinel and Mage but the empowered ones. The Mage looked normal enough, but the Sentinel held in its hand a sword and shield. This would be quite a difficult fight. Plus, he had to look out for possibly a third empowered Ent. He hoped it wouldn’t be any nasty variant.
Climbing down from the tree and picking up the dismembered Assassin arm he told Curt his plan. Magnus didn’t know if Curt understood him but the Ent had glint of intelligence in his eyes. Considering there were only two of them to fight 15, they would have to take this fight a bit slower.
Magnus’ plan took into account his injured arm and leveraged the empowered Mage. While his arm was injured, his legs were not. So, he decided to act as bait. He would lure a group of 2 or 3 Ents deeper into the forest where Curt would wait and strike when the time was right. Quite a simple plan all things considered. It hinged on the fact that Dryads didn’t know the precise location of their Ents once they left a certain radius. He hoped that Cardys was right and that the Matriarch didn’t have any bonuses.
Ready as ever, Magnus cracked his neck and ignoring the loud protests of [Danger Sense] he rushed towards the Matriarch.