A horrifying creature slithered out of the darkness. It was at least 25 feet long and 2 feet wide. It had jagged spikes running along its upper body. Its head was a bit wider than the rest of its body at closer to 3 feet. The razor sharp fangs dripped with some kind of clear substance. That was the nopest nope rope of all nope!
When my eyes locked with it I felt something rock through my body. I instantly went rigid and I stood frozen only able to breath and move my eyes. I couldn’t move anything else a single inch. What was happening? Even my lungs only allowed for shallow breaths. I was completely frozen in place.
I couldn’t see Penelope from the direction I was facing, but since I didn’t hear any movement behind me I suspected she was just as affected. Riza however paused for only a moment before she relaxed again in a ready stance. Whatever the basilisk did didn’t seem to affect her much. The effect must be magic, and neither Penelope nor I had enough Animus and Vitality to resist its Magic.
I watched as Riza Charged forward at the creature, a blur of movement. Despite its massive size the basilisk was almost as fast. It dodge out of the way of her strike, but Riza activated some Earth type skill as the ground beneath her feet sent her flying toward the creature.
Her blade impacted its side, but could not cut through the scales. She swore and danced back from the basilisk. It swiped its tail toward the reeling knight catching her in the side sending her stumbling to the side.
The basilisk lunged, getting its deadly fangs dangerously close to Riza when her body began to glow a soft white light. She moved faster than she had previously and appeared to the side of the creature. The white light coalesced toward the tip of her blade and she stabbed it down at the creature. This time the blade pierced the monster’s scales stabbing deeply into it.
Riza attempted to wrench the blade free but it held steady there. She repositioned and pulled again. It came free but the delay cost her. The tail once again slammed into the same side it did last time and she went hurtling into a nearby tree.
Even as she hit the ground, the basilisk was already lunging at her. I needed to do something! I felt my hand clench around the hilt of my Sukeshi. I just needed to move.
Riza rolled as the white light surrounded her again, and she bounded forward. Every time she moved the white aura left her blade. She didn’t seem to be able to enhance her body and her blade at the same time. This time, now nursing obvious injuries, she kept the aura on her as she danced around the basilisk moving much faster than it. She was clearly waiting for a moment when she condense her aura around her sword again to attack.
Even if all I could do was be a distraction, throw rocks, something, I had to help. I don’t think Riza was winning this fight. Riza needed an opportunity to attack, and despite her speed she just couldn’t muster it on her own.
My hand spasmed again and I knew the paralysis was slowly fading. Just a moment more. I just needed to focus! I concentrated on moving my body, just one step, just an inch forward. I burned with concentration, then I felt my leg lift and move forward.
I had Penelope’s still frozen body running through the forest. I came up short. What was I doing? When did I get here? I could still hear the sounds of battle behind me. I whirled to see that the glade was still right behind me. For an instant I saw a battered and bloodied Riza flash through the opening in the trees at an injured basilisk.
A ragged memory of Riza telling me to take Penelope and run came back to me. I must have done that. I shook my head trying to decide what to do now. Penelope was more or less safe here, and I could already feel her muscles starting to overcome the paralysis.
Did I run? Did I fight? My mind raced. All I had to do was distract the creature, Riza just needed a chance to strike at full force without reprisal. “Shit!” I swore. I put Penelope down, her body becoming more slack. “Go and get help.” I told her then grabbed a nearby rock and ran back toward the glade.
I got to the clearing and I saw Riza, fighting with one arm dangling behind her. A gouge in the limp arm. The basilisk however had not come away unscathed either, there were slashes all over its body. It was bleeding heavily, enough that its current wounds might eventually kill it from blood loss alone.
I waited for the right moment holding the rock ready to send it flying. The basilisk was facing away from me. Riza was dancing around it evading the occasional lunge or tail swipe.
I watched it, every time it lunged the head returned to the same place it had been. They were quick movements forward then back. I prepared a maximum power Radiant Step and the rock. The moment it lunged forward I began to throw the rock and activated Radiant Step just as it was about to leave my hand. I shot forward and the rock went with me gathering momentum, then it released from my hand.
It smashed into the back of the basilisk’s head just as it came back up from its lunge. A single moment passed before Riza took advantage of the moment of distraction and launched herself forward stabbing the basilisk in the eye.
Then something hit me in the side and before I could even react I smashed into a tree. Blackness took me before I even hit the ground.
I didn’t know how long it took me to wake, but as the world came back into focus I knew three things. My ribs were broken, I had a concussion, and something was still fighting nearby. I tried to sit up, but the world spun and I vomited instead. Correction… I had a bad concussion.
I slowly moved my head to the left and I saw it, the basilisk still moving despite the fact that more of its blood had to be on the outside than inside at this point. A few feet from it was Riza, staggering, her arm still limp, but her other held her blade firmly. Light still shone from her, but she didn’t seem to be moving. The basilisk lunged, much slower than it had been, and only when it was inches from Riza did she blur a single step to the side to evade it.
While the basilisk was returning its head to its starting position I realized both of its eyes had been destroyed. The monster had been blinded yet it still fought. Both the combatants were terrifying to be still upright. One was blinded, yet could still sense its opponent, the other was half dead, with venom likely tearing about her body.
I tried to get to my knees and dry heaved. Once the horrible retching subsided I stayed on my knees and saw my Sukeshi hilt poking out of the moss. I grabbed it and felt the bond between it reassert itself. I breathed in deeply a few times trying desperately to pull air into my aching lungs, each breath a cacophony of agony.
Only once I felt more centered did I stand. I wobbled smacking into and leaning on a tree, but I did it, I was standing. I watched as Riza just barely dodged another strike. Her eyes were sullen and she was barely focusing on the battle. She staggered and almost fell, but caught herself.
Goddesses she was as bad off if not worse than I was. I glanced at my mana, I still had about 200 left. Enough for one more strike. I groaned as I moved. Taking a single step forward. I stumbled forward taking several quick steps and righting myself before I face planted. I was hunched over and staring down at the tail of the basilisk.
All the creature had to do was snap its tail back and it could easily impale me. I glanced up, to see it lunge forward again. Riza evaded it, once again by a hair’s breadth. It returned to its position, and I could see that the thing was swaying slowly as well. The creature was starting to feel the full effects of their prolonged battle.
I raised my sword, taking it in both hands so that the tip was facing right toward the back of the basilisk’s head. I activated Radiant Blade and concentrated it just on the tip of my sword. Then I waited. I just had to hope Riza could dodge one more time.
The tense moment seemed to extend into eternity as the three of us stood as still as any of us could muster. Then I saw it, the basilisk’s head began to go forward, I kept my eyes trained on the spot it had just left. I let a moment pass then activated Radiant Step with everything I had, flying forward.
My body screamed at me as pain coursed through every part of me. My vision grayed out, but the point of my focus still remained true. Nothing was there and for a brief moment I worried I had mistimed, or the basilisk had not come back up. Just as the blade tip got to the point of my focus the back of a spiny snake head appeared there.
I felt resistance. I screamed. Then the blade buried itself into the back of the head of the basilisk. My momentum sent me and the basilisk tumbling down but I was still moving faster than it was. I went flying past its head and I lost my grip on my sword. I smashed into something and collapsed to the ground in a heap.
I felt breathing on my hair, slow and steady. My eyes focused on the Halcroft family emblem, the eagle that haunted my dreams. I rolled to the side off Riza, groaning in pain every inch I traveled. Suddenly I was staring up at the sky, one of the moons just barely visible in the waning day.
I reached into my pouch and pulled out the emergency potion I had been given. My head flopped to the side to see Riza, breathing in and out slowly. She was bleeding badly, and I was fairly certain she had been poisoned by the basilisk’s venom. The potion wouldn’t help with the venom, but it might keep her alive long enough to get her to a healer.
Alternatively I could take the potion and finish her here and now. She was an enemy after all. I laid there for a minute, watching her breathing begin to slow. It was the right choice to let her die, if she knew about our escape attempt she would stop us. I could finally reduce the number of people that could end our attempt rather than just increase the list.
I laid there staring at her for another long moment. Unbidden, her daughter’s happy face came back to me. Fuck… I can’t do it.
I forced myself up and over the knight. I uncorked the potion with my teeth, spit it out then tipped the potion into her mouth. She gurgled the liquid then began to swallow. I poured almost all of it in then took the last tiny bit for myself, hoping desperately it would at least help with the pain.
I threw the empty vial away and flopped back onto the ground. There the two of us laid for minutes? Hours? I didn’t know.
“Over here!” Penelope yelled as she ran toward us.
“Gods above… she did it…” A male voice I vaguely recognized said. The voices kept coming closer.
“Get over here! We need to get them to a healer!” Someone ran over and came into view. It was a man I had never seen before in the guardsmen uniform.
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“Riza… poisoned… needs Dark healer…” I murmured.
-------------------
I came to groaning my hand immediately going to my ribs. That definitely still hurt. Someone came rushing up to my bed. “Alea!” My mother was suddenly standing over me.
“Hey…” I let the word escape my lips more than spoke it. “Did Riza make it?”
Mother put her hand on my cheek. “Yes, my far too kind daughter, she did.”
“Kind… I thought you’d say stupid…” I did my best to grin at my joke.
Then I saw it in the upper left of my vision. I had 1,355 mana, almost double what I had before. I had leveled up a lot. I would need to check through my notifications soon.
“Where are we?” I didn’t recognize the ceiling, being made of thatching.
“Healer Helen’s clinic.” Mother said.
“Where’s Pen?”
“Outside, I’m not sure what she’s thinking about…” Mother sighed. “You are are stupid by the way… Penelope told us you could have ran.”
“I… just couldn’t leave her fighting alone.” I tried to get up and groaned at the pain falling back down.
Mom put her hand on my shoulder pinning me needlessly. I wasn't going to try that again. “Helen only gave you emergency treatment, she had to use all her mana on Riza even after a local Dark healer cleared the poison.”
There was a pregnant pause and despite not being able to see my mother I knew she was scowling at me. “I understand why you think you have to do this…” She trailed off.
I didn’t know who was in earshot so I kept to our ongoing lie. “I probably should have ran… but I couldn’t. Not just because I need to prove myself, which I do, but…” Why had I helped Riza really? Not once but two different times I put myself in mortal danger to save the life of someone that will kill me the moment Halcroft gave her the order. I was an idiot. I could have just not given her the potion at the end, taken all the experience from the basilisk and still been rid of an enemy.
Fuck… I was an absolute total moron. Yet still I can’t bring myself to think what I did was wrong. I knew even if I became a ruthless killer I wouldn’t be as bad as Halcroft, he imprisoned, murdered, and enslaved innocent people. He was a manipulative asshole and I wasn’t entirely convinced there was a worse person in the world than him. Yet… I just can’t. I want to save people, and sometimes that requires taking lives, but that has to be a last resort.
“I just can’t watch someone die if I can save them…” I finally finished my thought.
Mom leaned over and I felt a tear hit my cheek before she laid a gentle kiss on my forehead. “Just like your father…” Oh… oh… I felt the tears welling up. Now I was crying too, we hadn’t done this together in some time. We both sobbed, the world just being too much at that moment.
-------------------------
An hour later Helen came and healed me up good as new. She apparently started the process with Earth healing since one of her skills with it will set bones automatically. Then all she had to do was use her light healing to finish the process. It didn’t completely fix my concussion, but I guess Earth healing increasing natural regeneration helped a lot with that too.
I was feeling pretty good, after being in such misery. “Now, I’m just going to check you for any basilisk venom.” Helen said, her voice a soothing balm. She was an older lady but had fierce eyes and a runner’s body. She wore her dusky blonde hair in a ponytail.
She cast another spell, based on the brown energy that emitted from her I had to assume she was some kind of Earth element skill to check for poison. She probably wouldn’t be able to remove the poison, but it was interesting to know that other Earth healers got diagnostic skills. “The skill didn’t get any purchase, so you dodged that at least.” Helen stood. “Rest a bit more to be sure your head is alright.” She said kindly.
“I was supposed to watch you do some healing, not be the one healed.” I laughed, finally sitting up and feeling pretty well.
“Another day perhaps. I had to heal that idiot of a knight quite a bit.”
“I heard that.” Riza's voice came from the other room.
Helen smiled knowingly. “I know you did, you dolt. Honestly a basilisk…” She shook her head. “I’ll leave you be for now.” She said more softly to me.
“Thank you.” I gave her a genuine smile.
Mother, Farva, and Penelope had returned to the manor. Gregg was going to return to pick the two of us up.
I decided now was the right time to turn my notifications back on, but before I did I attempted to condense them. I knew I could do this because Mathis told us how, you can change how the system gives you information to some extent. Like with my mana and mana regeneration always being in the upper left of my vision.
I made the system just give me kill notifications first.
*You have defeated a level 85 Acid Hog.”
*You have defeated a level 93 Acid Hog.”
*You have defeated a level 65 Acid Hog.”
*You have defeated a level 77 Acid Hog.”
*Your party defeated a level 313 Spined Basilisk, 145 Warrior.”
Wow, that basilisk even had a class! That thing was a real monster. Monsters with classes were massively more powerful than monsters without even taking into account the total level advantage. A monster with a class is about doubly as strong as a monster without a class even after considering their total levels. So, a monster like the basilisk with a total level of 458 could match a monster without a class that was around level 900.
A person’s total level had to generally be equal to a monster’s level to be able to fight them safely. However with proper tactics, expertise, experience, and gear a person could close that gap significantly. All that meant I now had a better idea what Riza’s total class level was. She probably had at least 700 total levels to be able to fight a basilisk as well as she did.
The only reason I could hurt the basilisk at all was my skills. If it had enchanted armor or natural magical protections my Radiant Blade wouldn’t have ever been able to pierce it. Really it was best at fighting flesh and blood, since my Magic needed to beat the enchantments Magic to even do anything to someone with an enchanted weapon or armor. Which is why I still wanted a good sword underneath my skill.
Alright next I’d check just my levels in classes.
*Level up. Elven adolescent level 12. You gain 1 physical stat, 1 mental stat, and 2 free stats.*
…
*Level up. Elven adolescent level 16. You gain 1 physical stat, 1 mental stat, and 2 free stats.*
*Level up. Radiant Redeemer level 22. You gain 2 Free stats, 3 Strength, 3 Agility, 2 Vitality, 2 Animus, 3 Magic, and 3 Manipulation.*
…
*Level up. Radiant Redeemer level 52. You gain 2 Free stats, 3 Strength, 3 Agility, 2 Vitality,2 Animus, 2 Magic, and 2 Manipulation.*
Level… 52. In a little more than a week. That was… absolutely crazy. With this one encounter I was basically assured that I would make it to level 100 in 3 months. Now onto skills.
*Identify has leveled up, level 16.*
*Training has leveled up several levels, level 16.*
*Noble has leveled up several levels, level 8.*
*Dodging has leveled up several levels, level 12.*
*Radiance Affinity has leveled up several levels, level 19.*
*Radiance Resistance has leveled up several levels, level 7.*
*Radiant Blade has leveled up several levels, level 26.*
*Radiant Step has leveled up several levels, level 28.*
*Sukeshi Chakra has leveled up several levels, level 47.*
*Titan Slayer has leveled up several levels, level 16.*
*Sukeshi Mastery has leveled up several levels, level 23.*
*Minor Radiance Conjuration has leveled up several levels, level 11.*
Well a lot to take in there. It was nice to see Training keeping up with my species level. No idea why I got 2 levels in Noble. Was it because I performed a noble action? That seemed weird to me. Dodging those Hogs got me 4 levels there.
My species skills were more or less keeping up with my level, but my Radiant Redeemer skills were absolutely not. All the skill levels were nice, but I was level 52 in the class, and most of my skills weren’t above level 30. I really needed to take the time to work on my skills.
I had also run out of stored experience on Sukeshi Chakra, that was good because the skill got super high level, but bad because I needed to start adding meditation to my regime again. Of course being level 47 meant it probably gave me more mana regeneration from that then all my other skills cost me in total. That was absolutely awesome. My mana regeneration without my sword was 0.86 per minute, with it I bet it will be close to 1.5.
Then there was Titan Slayer, that skill was really hard to level. I was pretty sure the best way to do it was fight things higher level than you, and I had been doing that basically nonstop. It was still only level 16. Even at that level it was super strong. It gave me 23 Strength and Agility and 16 Vitality. That was the equivalent of 8 extra levels for those stats. That didn’t even take into account the extra 16 stats boost to all my stats when I was fighting someone higher level than me.
The last thing I had to deal with was my 80 or so assignable stats. I brought up my stats.
*Unspent Stat Points: 5 physical, 5 mental, 76 free
Mana: 1,355/1,355
Mana Regeneration per day: 1,863 (-621) (0.86)
Strength: 176 (+23)
Agility: 176 (+23)
Vitality: 127 (+16)
Animus: 172
Magic: 124
Manipulation: 124*
I needed to start working on my Manipulation and to a lesser extent my Magic. Those stats were what Bioshift Curist was focused on, so increasing them will give me a higher chance of a better grade starting class.
I started with the easy choice, my Vitality has been falling behind my Strength and Agility, so I put all 5 physical stats into it. With how close I was to dying during my last fight if I didn’t have as high of Vitality as I did I would have died. If I was going to be a fighter, which I entirely planned on being, I needed as much Vitality as I could so I would actually survive that.
I assigned my 5 mental stats to Manipulation. Now with the remaining 76 stats what would I do? I had 8 more Radiant Redeemer levels coming before I unlocked my second class. I wanted my Manipulation to be at 200 when that happened. If something was going to unlock it made sense it would be that. That meant I needed to put 55 free stats into Manipulation. I could try to delay doing that for a bit and use other free stats to get there, but I decided to just bite the bullet and assign free stats until Manipulation was at 184. With the 16 automatically coming to it for my next 8 levels that would make it 200.
I had 21 free stats left. With my Sukeshi Chakra being such a high level I think increasing my mana pool as much as possible will actually allow me to train my skills faster than more Animus. I could expend all my mana on skills then meditate for about 40 minutes and do it again. The stat that gave the most mana was Magic. That had the added benefit that the Bioshifter class seemed to like that stat too. I decided to pump all the remaining stats into Magic.
I closed all my notifications. A few minutes went by as I sat in silence.
“Lady Alea.” Riza said from the other room.
“Yes?”
“I owe you a debt for what you did today.” She said, bluntly.
I didn’t know what to say to that. I mean great she owed me a debt, but in 3 months I would tell her lord to fuck right off. Then we would be enemies regardless of what she owed me. Plus the only reason I was there is because I forced her to let us tag along. It all worked out in the end, but this was all still partially my fault. I decided to just let it go for now.