“It’s more than I could wish for. Now, who are you, might I ask?”
“I’m Rood, but fear. I’m the one who made the designs for all the new buildings. It’s my profession, after all.”
“Thank you for that, but what exactly is your name? I don’t want to keep thinking of you as the cute little dog girl.”
“Thank you for calling me cute. I’m almost thinking of not telling you my name just so you–”
“Her name is Ann, and yes, she does talk a lot.”
“That’s not nice, Emma. I was just having a bit of fun.”
“You were being an idiot.”
“Now that we have reached an agreement, there are a few more things I need to burden you with.” The first is a question I was asked. Would you like to be part of the council as a representative for me? Second, do you have an idea on which of the new human members would be a good pick to join the council? And the last one, I think I may have forgotten more things. But what is with all the people downstairs?
“They’re prospective members of the Demon’s Hand Mercenary Group. And yes, I will join the council. You need a voice there. As for the last one, no, I have no idea. I have a problem with a few things here that I need your help with, though. First, you need someone to run this branch. Second, I need your approval for the badge design. And third, we need to find them jobs to do.”
“Well, the third one is relatively easy to do. There should be a stockpile of weapons in storage. Use them as payment and make job postings for settlement defence, monster hunting, and resource gathering. After making those postings, don’t forget to leave a note for the next person to assign tasks to the members. Once the members get stronger, send them out to spread the word that the Demon’s Hand Mercenary Group is looking for work, and the payment will be in whatever material gains the client can afford. We don’t work for free, but we aren’t here to rip people off. Now, for the second, I approve, Jake. Finally, for the first one, that’s a tricky one. I’m going to have to ask you: who is the strongest in the settlement other than yourself and me, and who is most politically minded?”
“Eric is probably the strongest, and Kiki has a good mind for politics.”
“Then there it is. From now on, I want two people to run a branch: one with the power to stop trouble fast, and one with the knowledge on how to stay out of trouble. Done. What’s next? Oh yeah, I need to find someone for the council.” As he said that, a notification popped up in front of Emma, asking her to be part of the council. Jake left just before she accepted. “Bloody hell, so that’s why.”
“What is it?”
“Emma showed the bonuses the settlement gets and what she will get for doing her job, not to mention, as the job request came from Jake himself, her profession will be increasing.”
“That’s too good to pass up. Can you ask him if I can be a part of the council, too?”
Jake had left the building and was heading down the street when he heard a voice he couldn’t forget. It was a man that tried to kill him once. Jake turned the corner to see Matt helping out with manual labour. “What are you doing here, and where is Jess?”
“I’m here, and we’re here because it’s safe, nothing more.”
“Well, as the rules state, as long as you are not here to cause trouble, you can stay. Actually, you two could be a good pick to even out the council. First, I need to know, would you stand up for the humans in this settlement so that they wouldn’t get mistreated by the other races? And would you stand your ground if I wanted something done that would harm the citizens of the settlement?”
Matt and Jess looked at Jake like he had grown a second head or something. “Yes, we would. But what has all this got to do with us?” A notification popped up when Jake said, “Will you accept?” The two were stunned even more so when they accepted the offer. As Jake smiled and went to leave. “We’re sorry for what we did to you in the tutorial.”
“Don’t be stupid. You both meant what you did back then. We’re not friends, and we never will be. Regarding offering you this job, well, other than my desire to make the politics in the settlement fair, I simply can’t find the motivation to do it myself. Jake walked back to the meeting hall, telling the two old council members about their new members and that they would most likely go against anything Jake wants, so it would be best if the two of them and the two humans do the governing of the settlement and only use Emma if there is a tie in the votes. After telling them all that, Jake decided to go hunting to see if he could gain some levels, as killing all those people only gave him one class level.
“Taking on those humans was just too easy for me, I guess.” Jake was creeping through the bushland, looking for an adequate target for his tests. Jake had felt ever since his class evolution that he had cheated by using the safe zone to pass the quest, so this hunting journey’s goal was to defeat a monster ten levels above his own. So Jake was looking for targets with ranks higher than his to fight and leaving the rest for the mercenaries. Jake passed off a large group of level 90 birds, as going up against something that could fly seemed like a bad time. Jake continued with his hunt as he dashed from shadow to shadow. Two hours went by without Jake finding anything of note. Jake sat down as he had enough of randomly searching for prey. Clearly, Jake was no hunter, but he couldn’t go back empty-handed now, could he? So Jake sat there as he thought over everything he knew about hunting from when he was younger. Back then, Adam was the one that tracked the prey, not Jake. So Jake thought about the actions that Adam took.
“I remembered him checking the ground for footprints in the soft undergrowth as well as broken branches and rub marks on the trees. And once he found what he was looking for, he would use the terrain to his advantage. Instead of walking through the valley, he would take the Ridge line or something, making sure the wind was blowing in his face the whole time.” Jake put what he had remembered into practice. Slowly and methodically looking for tracks left by animals. Once he started looking, Jake noticed that many different animals had passed through this area. Jake caught on to one that looked familiar to him and started following as he looked for fresh signs. As Jake continued, he heard it: a deep chest-rattling honk. It was a deer, and to Jake’s dismay, it had spotted him. But what really surprised Jake was the notifications he got.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
New skill
Hunter’s eye (common)
A hunter must be able to find their prey. Illuminate the pathway to your target. uses mana to enhance your eyesight and your perception stat to find your prey.
After Jake got this new skill, he realised something that he had been doing that was severely hindering his fighting potential. Jake simply had too many skills to use them all he needed to find a way to combine them or expand his ability to remember things. Which he had never been good at from the start. Deciding on what he had to do, Jake sat down and brought up his skill list.
System skills
skill
(Universal translate. Common) as newly integrated, you were given the skill to understand the language of all humanoid life forms.
skill
(Identify. Common)
the ability to identify basic information on objects and other life forms.
skill
Hunter’s eye (common)
A hunter must be able to find their prey. Illuminate the pathway to your target. uses mana to enhance your eyesight and your perception stat to find your prey.
Profession skills
skill (Arcane hammer rare)
Use your Arcane energy to reshape items
skill (Arcane flame rare)
An explosive flame contained within a mana barrier.
skill (small mana shield common)
You can produce a small physical shield of mana anywhere on your body
skill (empty-minded common)
Enter a state of meditation to help regenerate lost stats and help split your focus on multiple tasks
class skills
skill
teleporting shadow (common)
Teleport from shadow to shadow. Shadows must be in visual range. Will cost mana to use.
skill
(Bezerka form common)
Once activated, you will enter a state of mindlessness. Only the death of your enemy is your concern.
skill
(Fighter’s sight common)
Your enemy will cower at your sight. Cost of use health points in proportion to the targeted enemy.
skill
(rebirth of the exploding body unique)
Will passively heal the user. Stamina is converted into temporary units of integrity to provide healing at a 100 to 1 ratio. Warning the system recognises that you have a tendency for self-harm. The system recommends you seek medical advice.
skill
(Shadow strike. Common) upgraded
To strike from the shadows is your business. Gives 5% to damage if the target is unaware of your attack < (path of shadows rear) you hide in the shadows and strike fast cost of use, arcane energy and stamina. Create a barrier around yourself to hinder vision and dash from shadow to shadow. Gives 5% to damage if the target is unaware of your attack.
Skill
(Steady aim. common) this is a basic trooper skill that gives a passive stat boost of 5 to agility strength and perception.
skill
(Summon projectile. common) as a mage, you can use mana to summon projectiles. Note that the summon projectile does not include any ability to launch the projector. The mana cost is determined by the projectile size.
skill
(Transmute powder. Common) requires a pre-existing object to be turned into powder before transmuting can commence. Transmuting the powder requires knowledge of what you wish to transmute into. The mana cost is determined by the quantity of powder being transmuted and the rarity of the power.
Arcane skills
skill
(Arcane bomb uncommon)
A bomb of arcane energy. destruction output is equal to the amount of energy put in. Warning in this form: the bomb can not be thrown, so the same destructive force will impact the user.
Skill
(Arcane boost Rare)
Provides a powerful boost to your physical body. Uses Arcane energy to keep operating. A backlash will occur when deactivated.
skill
(Arcane Time dilation Unique)
Slows time in the localised area around the caster this skill will only activate in times of the caster’s greatest need. A backlash will occur when the skill deactivates.
Jake came up with a list of skills he could merge as they seemed to complement each other well.
Jake thought that combining Hunter’s eye (common) with Fighter’s sight (common) was the obvious choice because he wasn’t much of a hunter. He hoped that his target would be frozen in fear by the word “cower”. But if it made them flee, that would be a pain, but the risk was worth it.
path of shadows (rear) with teleporting shadow (common) this one was hard for Jake to come to terms with as Jake really didn’t like the effect teleporting had on him but the outcome of not combining them would mean Jake would lose the bonuses from path of shadows if he kept using teleporting shadow.
Arcane boost (Rare) with Arcane Time dilation (Unique) and Bezerka form (common) the last one was a combination of skills that Jake didn’t want to use because of the side effects so his theory was if he combined the two arcane boost and Bezerka form with a skill like arcane time dilation it would activate by itself only when he needed it the most. This Jake could live with.
After figuring out what he was going to combine, Jake had one more thing to do with his skills and that was to make a note to activate.
skill
(rebirth of the exploding body unique)
Will passively heal the user. Stamina is converted into temporary units of integrity to provide healing at a 100 to 1 ratio. Warning the system recognises that you have a tendency for self-harm. The system recommends you seek medical advice.
Any time he was entering combat as not activating it would be a waste. “I wish it would remove the word passively as it gives the constitution that the skill is passive, which I misunderstood even when the system was trying to help explain it. The skill is not passive, but rather, once activated, it works without my input, so yes, I guess it can be considered passive.
“As for the 100 to 1 the live test told me the answer to that 100 stamina to 1 integrity. This with the current conversation into health points, 100 stamina would be 10 health not a great conversation but enough to keep a person alive.”