Hanze nearly collapsed to the ground, breathing heavily before he spoke up
"Joey and his team are pinned down by the orcs on warg back," he stated.
"Oh god fucking dammit," Tom seethed.
This shit was fucking endless.
"You know what, this is fine. I can make this work. Someone round-up ninety-nine people for a raid. You've got five minutes before we go."
"You're seriously thinking of going?!" Alex asked. "What about your soul?"
"Alex, I'm going. Help me or stay out of the way." Tom said
Alex bit her lip, but she didn't argue with him. She would strap him to bed later until he recovered, but she wouldn't interfere in the moment.
"Does anyone know where Joey is then?"
"Fraser Highway and 189 St," someone said.
Tom nodded as Major Adams rose to come with him, but Tom nipped that in the bud.
"Not you. You're staying here to keep the training going. The officers need to learn how to fight with the system, not just the guns. Only people who are going on the raid are coming with us."
Tom used his far-sightedness to send his vision towards Joey's position. His vision changed as if he were seeing the world from a drone as he flew through the air towards his target. It was about 2 kilometres out, and his vision could move at around 1 kilometre per second. It took him about twelve seconds to find Joey's group.
It didn't look good. His high perception let him count the orcs quickly enough. They had 36 people, and their levels were in the 13-19 range, with the leader being at level 17 [Mercenary] and level 3 [Warmonger]. Even still, Tom could tell the orc's actual level was 29. That orc was suffering from massive soul damage, artificially lowering his level. He would need to investigate that later.
Tom cut the vision and turned to his assembling party. Gareth, Alex, that Lt. lady with Major Adams and another guy in turnout gear were front and center.
"Levels 13 to 20. If you do not feel safe coming, don't; everyone else, join my party now," Tom said as he sent out the invites.
Soon, his party reached its maximum capacity of 99. Normally, he wouldn't bring such a large party to fight so few enemies, but the orcs were more experienced in combat and were all riding wargs, so they had a 1.5 to 1 advantage in terms of numbers.
"Alright, anyone who can fly gets in the air. Everyone else, get in one of the cars. We're moving out now." Tom ordered as his paper wings emerged from his back, his [Paper Armour] quickly moving to cover his body.
People looked at him, stunned. Tom rolled his eyes. Leaping into the air, he shouted.
"Now people move, move, move!" he ordered as he hovered there.
DING!!!
Congratulations!!!
You have Acquired the Skill: [Flyte] - Rare
[Flyte]: Your chances to avoid attacks or hitting targets while you are in the air increase by 3% per skill level. The bonus also applies to flying mounts or vehicles you are currently riding.
Tom felt his eyes bug out of his head. Apparently, there was flight skill now. Or flyte? Dyslexic system. It didn't matter. He would combine it with [Paper Wings] later. Regardless, Tom ignored the notification and finally, everyone started moving towards the vehicle. Alex pulled a broom out of thin air and hopped on. Immediately, she floated a dozen feet into the air. Then she wobbled and nearly fell off the broom.
"Holy crap, this is harder than it was in-game," Alex said as she floated back down as she stabilized herself.
"I think it's the fact that it's real," Tom said as he tried to stop himself from wobbling.
Tom waved his arms and legs like he was trying to swim through the air. It didn't work, and he felt himself slip from the sky, crashing into a snow drift with a Womp.
"Ow," Tom groaned before leaping back into the air. This time, he focused on the magic and not his balance.
After all, the giant paper wings coming out of his back weren't actually keeping him up, at least not with aerodynamics. The wings were magic with a specialized flight spell to take full advantage of his new appendages.
With his high will stat and hours spent in the game, Tom should have near-perfect control over his flight. Despite that, the moment he was back in the air, he struggled to keep himself airborne. Flying should have been easy. Why did he keep needing to make micro-adjustments to stay in the air to stop himself from slamming into something?
<[Flyte] has Reached Level 2>
<[Paper Wings] has Reached Level 2>
"I think the devs updated the flight system," Tom muttered.
"I think they never bothered to put in the real one." Alex counted as she held onto her broom for dear life.
"Does it really matter?" Tom asked as cars started moving out of the parking lot. "We can learn in flight."
<[Flyte] has Reached Level 3>
<[Paper Wings] has Reached Level 3>
Tom's wings flapped as he started moving forward, his paper-white form rising into the winter air with Alex flying right behind him.
<[Flyte] has Reached Level 4>
<[Paper Wings] has Reached Level 4>
Then, he caught a down draft and nearly crashed into someone's pool. He managed to turn his crash landing into a bad landing, belly-flopping onto the diving board.
"Jesus," Tom swore as he clutched the diving board, making sure he didn't fall into the swimming pool.
Pushing magic into his wings again, he launched himself back into the air.
"How do birds make this look so easy!!" Tom swore.
"For them, it's biology. For us, it's magic!!" Alex said as she landed on the roof before taking off again.
"Did you get a level in [Witch]?" Tom asked, trying to be conversational as he did his best to remain airborne.
<[Flyte] has Reached Level 5>
<[Paper Wings] has Reached Level 5>
"Just the one," Alex said as she adjusted how she sat on her broom. "I'm going to upgrade [Wizard] to [Arcanist] with my next level. Or maybe I'll grab [Nobel] to help deal with all this bureaucracy."
<[Flyte] has Reached Level 6>
<[Paper Wings] has Reached Level 6>
<[Paper Wings] has Reached Level 7>
"Did you see the new flight? Sorry, flyte skill?" Tom asked as his flying stabilized.
"Yeah, something to add to the list." Alex joked as they spread over the buildings. The snowy landscape quickly started to speed past them as they moved.
The cars were making almost as good time as they were, with no one currently on the road. For the first time, it really struck Tom just how empty his hometown was. Smoke stacks decorated the landscape. Tom recognized most of them as settlements they had helped establish, but so much of it was just empty.
His musings were interrupted when they came up on Joey's party. The orcs were slaughtering them.
They arrived just in time to see Joey shooting one of the lower-levelled orcs in the head with his rifle. The hunting party had been reduced to only six or seven people. Everyone else was already dead.
Tom pulled a dozen magic scrolls, each carrying an explosive magical payload, such as a fireball, Thunder Bomb, Water Bomb, etc.
"Are you sure you still want to use those?" Alex asked. "Your aims are not all that good,"
"Well, you're not wrong," Tom admitted. "But I don't really have a choice. My bloodline is kind of banking on the whole Paper Angel build. I just need to power-level my magic skills."
"But you got [Shape Paper] Right?" Alex asked.
"Yeah? I got it to improve my armour, so what?" Tom asked, confused.
"Magic Kamikaze Paper Airplanes," Alex suggested.
For a second, Tom just stared at her dumbly.
"Oh my god, that's genius," he muttered.
Tom activated [Shape Paper] instantly. With a wave of his hand, the sheets of paper began to fold and twist, transforming the ungainly sheets of paper into sleek suicide bombers.
Within moments, a dozen paper airplanes circled in the air around Tom, their wings perfectly angled and ready for flight.
<[Misalliance Crafting] has Reached Level 4>
<[Misalliance Crafting] has Reached Level 5>
<[Misalliance Crafting] has Reached Level 6>
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
<[Shape Paper] has Reached Level 11>
<[Shape Paper] has Reached Level 12>
<[Shape Paper] has Reached Level 13>
"You must feel really stupid that you didn't figure that one out on your own, huh?" Alex jibed.
"I would have figured it out eventually." Tom protested.
"Yeah, keep telling yourself that," Alex said with a wink.
"Ha ha," Tom rolled his eyes at her as he sent his new plane's dive bombing towards the orcs. His new planes were easy to maneuver and zipped and darted through the air faster than he could have hoped for. The orcs didn't even notice them until they bumped into them.
BOOM
The Orcs screamed, and the wargs whelped in pain as they were sent flying into the air. Their formation was disrupted as they were scattered.
"Okay, now I'm feeling very stupid for not figuring this out before," Tom muttered as he sent his second wave of eight planes forward.
Tom noted that he could currently only control six airplanes, and the extra two kind of just went with the wind, exploding harmlessly off to the side.
"Well, that's what you have me for," Alex said smugly.
Then Alex followed up as overcharged lighting bolts arced from her hand, hitting the orcs with pinpoint accuracy and enough amps to kill on contact.
"Well, this might turn out easier than I had feared," Tom muttered.
Alex looked at him in horror.
"Don't say that you'll jinx it," Alex almost screamed.
"Oh, come on, Alex. That's just a superstir—" Tom's following words were cut off as he dodged an arrow—or he thought he had dodged it. The arrow missed his body but struck his wing. Instantly, Tom felt the magic holding him become distorted, and he was sent into a tailspin.
"Shit!!" Tom swore as he tried to correct his flight.
Some part of his brain pointed out that targeting your opponent's wings wasn't a viable tactic in the game. He had checked. While they took damage, he hadn't managed to cripple their in-game flight by using their wings; apparently, that had changed—stupid real-world physics.
"Feather Fall," he said, activating the spell scroll mid-fall. It wouldn't help his fall, but he wouldn't take any damage when he hit the ground.
His next thoughts were interrupted when he crashed into the ground with a thump and landed in a snow drift. He was uninjured, but now he was surrounded by orcs.
Tom pulled out his iron sword as he tried to fix his wings.
The orcs didn't give him more than a second to breathe as they charged at him.
"Bull Strength, Feline Grace, Indomitability, Sensor Boost, Draconic Power, Magic Ward: Physical, Perfect Warrior: Swordmaster, Haste," Tom chanted, causing each of the buff scrolls in his armour to trigger and burst into ash.
Tom felt his body shudder as his physical stats jumped up a full 25 points, and his speed doubled. Time seemed to slow as his own perception sped up as the Haste spell took effect, giving Tom a perfect view of the oncoming sword, the cream metal blade slicing through the air at an almost glacial pace.
Taking in the weapon's path, he realized that there was no chance of evading the attack, even in his heightened state. Gritting his teeth at the pain to come, he threw up his arm to intercept the blade, the sound of metal hitting paper drawing itself out into one long, crackling sound as it impacted his armour with bone-cracking force. The blade cut through his armour and left a light cut into his arm but failed to even cut through his muscle. Tom considered that a win. Despite that, he really needed to spend some time improving his [Misalliance Crafting] skill so his armour wasn't as crap.
Twisting his body to face the attacker, he thrust out his iron sword, turning just in time to guide its length deep into the armpit of the snarling orc. Wrenching the sword viciously within the orc's flesh, he yanked the blade free, his legs already working to carry him past the guy, who had yet to even register his failed attack, let alone all the blood pouring out of him.
As quickly as it had begun, Tom's Haste's spell ended, and with it, his ability to pull off fancy moves like that one, back to hitting the other guy with the pointy end.
"Urk!" a pained gasp echoed out from behind Tom, and the sound of a body hitting the snow echoed outwards.
"Git gud scrub," Tom whispered quietly to the fallen as he healed his arm.
Tom shot forward, bringing his sword down on the next orc. His arms reverberated as the orc blocked his attack, but that didn't stop him from kicking the orc in the groin.
The orc crumpled, but Tom was already having to back up as two Wargs attacked him in unison.
"Earth Wave," Tom chanted. Instantly, the ground under their feet rose up like a wave, sending the three orcs rolling backward.
Then, the others arrived.
"Attack!" Gareth called out as the other residents of Hopkins charged onto the battlefield.
Tom shot off another six exploding paper airplanes, softening up the orcs before his people slammed into their ranks. Gareth slammed into the side of one of the wargs, his spear skewering the canine with ease.
Taking a moment, Tom properly analyzed his wings, or more accurately, the akashic record of the [Wings of Paper] skill, and grimaced. His repair speed was based on his crafting skills, which were almost non-existent at the moment. He would have to dismiss and then recreate the wing with new paper if he wanted to repair them at any reasonable speed.
Pulling his wings back into his inventory, he marched forwards to join Gareth.
"Hey, what's the matter? Did your flight not have peanuts?" Gareth asked as he finished his warg.
"Apparently, my wings are not made for rough use," Tom grunted as he slashed at one of the wargs with his mana blade.
The person next to Gareth wasn't so lucky as he was impaled on the tip of an orc's sword.
Tom launched dozens of paper airplanes towards the orcs. These weren't the explosive planes he had already used but debuffs and curses. Slowing and weakening the orcs and wargs as the residents of Hokins clashed. The sound of gunfire echoed out as Orcs were sent sprawling to the ground. The wargs, unfortunately, were much more resistant to the gunfire, only being injured but not dying outright.
The humans immediately had the upper hand, partially due to the debuffs and partially due to the element of surprise.
Tom immediately took a step back from direct combat and switched to healing. He moved over to someone who had had their leg crushed by an orc. Tom tossed out a water blade, leaving a deep cut on the orc's side. Before the spluttering orc could recover, Tom slammed his mana blade into its side, cutting into the orc's stomach. Tom twisted and pulled his sword out, disemboguing the orc in one fluid motion.
<[Basic Swords] has Reached Level 15>
<[Paper Armour] has Reached Level 2>
<[Paper Armour] has Reached Level 3>
<...>
<[Paper Armour] has Reached Level 9>
"Who said video games don't teach you life skills?" Tom chuckled before he applied a cocktail of healing magic to the man's leg.
The look of agony on his face faded as Tom pulled him towards the back of the group, and his magic went to work to repair the man's leg.
"Thank you," the man cried out as his leg snapped back into position.
Tom didn't even acknowledge the thanks before he dove back into the fight.
Unfortunately, after the initial surprise, the orcs regained their footing as the fight dragged on and clashed with the residents of Hopkins. It wasn't a question of stats; the Orcs were currently weaker with the debuffs, but they all outshone the amateurs of Hopkins.
Tom watched as the orc pushed his own people backwards despite their superior numbers as he planned his counterattack.
"Mass Mend, Mass Haste," Tom said, activating two of his more powerful spell scrolls. Unfortunately, these specific scrolls didn't contain the power of the spells; they only contained the magical formation. He was supplying the mana himself.
The effect was immediate. Everything around the Hopkins group seemed to slow down as their injuries started to knit themselves back together. Some of the people were stunned. Gareth didn't even stop to acknowledge the difference.
"ATTACK NOW, YOU FOOLS," Tom ordered as his mana started dropping rapidly.
Everyone lept at the order, slashing, stabbing, and shooting the orcs. Blood seemed to explode out of the bodies of their enemies as they cut them down.
Then Tom dropped his spells and grimaced. The mana drain was around a thousand per second for those two spells, and he had already burned three thousand of his five thousand wide mana pool for that one channelling.
<[Art of Life] has Reached Level 27>
The orc lines collapsed as most of the orcs closer to the front lines dropped dead.
"Alright, now we just need to push through and ---" Gareth's words were cut off by the lead Orcs' words.
"[Parlay]!!" The massive orc called out.
Immediately, Tom felt the skill wrap around his body, inhibiting his attacks. Shit, he had to do something, or they were dead.
"Everybody stop!!" Tom shouted, "Nobody move, nobody attack anything!!"
You may skip to the next chapter.
Name: Tom Bruner
Race: Half-Elf ()
Type: Humanoid
LVL: 20
SubRace: High Elf / Caucasian
Age 18
Health: 1000
Stamina: 1400
Mana: 4000
Health Regen: 14.0 per hour
Stamina Regen: 18.0 per min
Mana Regen: 24.0 per min
Titles: Beta-Tester, First, Awoken Myths, Guild Master
Immune
None
Resistances
Mental 67% Soul 43%
Weakness
None
Bane
Manslayer
Classes: Augur 10, Tactiction 3, Exorcist 7
Total
STR: 40
AGIL: 40
DEX: 40
CON: 80
END: 40
PER: 220
INT: 200
WILL: 180
SPIRIT: 60
EGO: 40
CHA: 140
LCK: 40
Base
STR: 40
AGIL: 40
DEX: 40
CON: 80
END: 40
PER: 220
INT: 200
WILL: 180
SPIRIT: 60
EGO: 40
CHA: 140
LCK: 40
Personal: +4 PER +4 WILL +3 INT +3 CHA
Racial: +3 WILL +2 CON +2 CHA +1 SPIRIT
Bloodline: +5 PER +5 INT
Level Bonus: +2 to all Stats
Bloodline:
[Bloodline of the Keeper of Akashic Records]—Forgotten: Through your vein runs the blood of the forgotten Keepers of the Akashic Records. These monks, scribes, and scholars helped create the system, and within their blood are the keys to its secrets.
* [The Pen is Mightier than the Sword] - Level 32
* [Words Will Always Retain their Power] - Level 26
* [Library of Akashic Records] - Level 21
* [Universal] - Level 20
* [Wordsmith] - Level 27
* [My Mind is My Temple, My Soul the Altar] - Level 43
* [Thirst for Knowledge] - Level 18
* [Visions of Akashic Records] - Level 11
* [Soul Forge] - Level 30
* +5 PER per level
* +5 INT per level
Skill Slots: 25/60: Skill Points: 1
Personal Skills
* [Analyze Person] - Level 25
* [Best of Both Worlds] - Level 13
* [Art of Water] - Level 15 >> Level 16
* [Art of Earth] - Level 15 >> Level 16
* [Teacher] - Level 15
* [Misalliance Crafting] - Level 3 >> Level 6
* [Mana-Infused Weapon] -Level 6
* [Basic Swords] - Level 14 >> Level 15
* [Flyte] - Level 1 >> Level 6
Augur 07/16
* [Augurs Eye] - Level 7
* [Bright Arts] - Level 32
* [Art of Life] - Level 26 >> Level 27
* [Prophetic Meditation] - Level 44
* [Far Seeing] - Level 17
* Capstone: [Hand of Mercy] - Level 48
* [Quest Giver] - Level 12
Tactician 05/6
* [Nascent Guild Leader] - Level 22
* [Leadership Ⅱ] - Level 24
* [Raider Ⅰ] - Level 20
* [Coordinate Ⅱ] - Level 21
* [Logistics Ⅲ] - Level 19
Exorcist 05/11
* [Spell Trap] - Level 4
* [Karmic Contract] - Level 4
* [Shape Paper] - Level 10 >> Level 13
* [Paper Armour] - Level 1 >> Level 9
* [Paper Wings] - Level 1 >> Level 7