Sneaking as quietly as I could to camp was an easy task, my aura didn’t allow sound to escape its borders. I got as close as I possibly could to the camp without setting off any perception skills. From a tree 200 meters away, I sat down on a tree limb in a meditative position and opened my aura as far as it would stretch. Throwing my hearing to the very edge of my aura, I listened carefully. Most of the camp lay as silent as the grave but in one tent that looked like several tents sewn together, I heard the buzzing of a crowd of voices.
“Samael is the chosen of the gods, Samael is the king of humanity, Samael is the best human. Samael, Samael, Samael.” The voices continued in that fashion and from what I could see using Ballads Bows scope ability people were replaced every hour or so. As I listened, I noticed that the aura flowed out of that tent and started heading toward me. It was as if it was tracking me, it wanted me. I pulled my aura back with a snap and ran the other way.
Once I was far enough away, I opened the leaderboard. Sure, enough, there was his name; Samael sat comfortably at number 10 on the list. Throughout the day I watched as his level ticked up to 46. “If I don’t put him down soon, he’ll grow even more powerful at 50.” If I attacked the camp right now, I could probably kill him, but that aura hunted me. He would be aware if I was that close, and he’d already proven he would use my friends as shields.
“Shit!” I whispered under my breath and then punched the tree. If it meant saving them, I wouldn’t mind hurting them to incapacity, but they had Autumn on their side and the others on the top of the leaderboard. Hurting them wouldn’t do any good if I couldn’t take down Autumn first, and she would most likely be guarded as well. “I only have one option.” I only ever had one option. Get stronger, strong enough that I could take them all down. “I need a dungeon.” The thought sent a shiver up my spine because this time I wouldn’t have any teammates to help me.
None of the dungeons in the city would be open to me anymore, not with Damien being under Samael’s control. So, I would need to find another one. Remembering an item, I saw in the system store; I made the decision about my next step. I’d go back to the school and use every credit I had to help me get my friends back. Without having to stay with a group and the new ability I’d been training for the last month, I could make it in just a few hours.
I didn’t waste any time. Keeping my aura active I jumped into the air. Once I made it above the tree line, I sent out a strong pulse of sound and propelled myself forward. Every time I felt like I might be slowing down or sinking in altitude I would pulse to adjust. I couldn’t use it as a weapon while fighting on the ground unfortunately, my body was too light and I wound up getting thrown into a wall, or it was too weak and didn’t do anything to whatever I was fighting. The ability to fly well made up for it though, and I was sure I’d figure out how to weaponize it eventually.
The scenery of the treetops raced by as I flew, but I didn’t bother with them. Instead, I kept my face forward and my sword out. Every now and then a bird monster or giant bug would try to attack me, but at this point, I was a good enough flyer that I could avoid most of them. Those that I couldn’t avoid I cut them to ribbons and continued my flight.
In total, the trip took me around four hours. Keeping the pulse ability active for so long had exhausted me though and by the time I was knocking on the doors to the school, I was falling asleep. I tried to keep myself awake but when the doors to the school opened, I fell forward into the arms of whatever guard had let me in. When I woke up the sun was streaming in through the windows and some small floating lights flitted around the room. I looked up and saw the only other person in the room.
“Hey, Nurse Robbin, how have you been?” Sitting up a gave the woman a kind smile. She looked much younger than the last time I saw her.
“Little Natey, you’ve been getting in fights again!” She gave me a jokingly serious look but then softened and smiled at me. “The principal and the families wanted to talk to you when you woke up.” I nodded fully expecting that. Nurse Robbin led me down the hall to the principles office and several people were in there waiting for me. The principal of course, then Josh’s mother, Susan’s father, and the twins’ parents.
“Sit down Nathan.” The principal motioned to the seat in front of the desk, but I didn’t feel like having a bunch of worried parents hovering over me. “I’d probably have a panic attack.”
“I’m ok for now thank you,” I responded. She nodded as if she understood.
“What happ-“ The principal started but she was interrupted by Susan’s father.
“Where is my little girl?” Each of the parent's worried looks bore into me and I felt as if the weight of them might make my legs buckle. Even so I began my storytelling them everything I knew about the current situation and Samael. By the end of the story, each of them looked as if they were ready to fight.
“We’ll mobilize the guard immediately, to go retrieve them.” The principle began.
“Screw the guard we’ll go ourselves!” Susan’s father exclaimed in a confident voice, and he did look like he was about to march all the way to Seattle right now. Josh’s mother raised her hand to stop him. “Get out of my way.” He growled but she just rolled her eyes and sighed.
“Have you checked Nate’s level on the leaderboard recently? He might as well be a monster compared to the rest of us and that guy, Samael is only a very few levels under him. We’d be nothing but a weight around his neck if we went with him.” She finished her argument and sat down as if she had no energy left.
“Then why are you here Nate?” The twins’ mother asked me, and an angry expression spread across Susan’s dad’s face.
“That’s a good question! If you're so powerful then why are you here instead of rescuing our kids, your friends!” A surge of anger sparked inside me, but I pushed it down. I explained what I was doing there and why it was impossible for me to rescue them right now. “So, your plan is to maim our children, so that you can save them?” It looked like he was going to get angry again, so I continued.
“The best healer in the entire world is in that camp. I pulled my pants down showing off the thin circular scar on both sides of my thigh. “She healed that wound in minutes, and she brought Tony back from the dead!” I knew I shouldn’t have said that last part because it just sparked an entirely different set of questions. “Can you guys just shut up!” I finally got annoyed with them and couldn’t push it down anymore. “If you want me to save your kids I need to get moving because that asshole is gaining more power by the day, and I need to get much stronger. If you want to come to a dungeon with me, fine. You’ll probably die because I’m probably going to die, but the more the merrier!”
There was a long pause, and every face in the room looked at me with shock. I’d never spoken to any of them disrespectfully before let alone yelled at them. This was too important for me to stick around for hours though so I did what was necessary.
“You’re sure you can save them?” Josh’s mom asked me.
“No. But I’m sure that I’m going to try.” She nodded. “Ok. Go.” That was all she said, and I didn’t wait for her to change her mind. I strode out of the room and immediately went to the system store in the gymnasium. I bought two advanced stat fruits each, a couple of different sets of armor, another sword in case something happened to mine, a glaive, a fighting style for the glaive, an upgrade for my system map that allowed me to see nearby dungeons, and a horrifically expensive spatial bag. By the time I finished my shopping spree, I had a grand total of 52 credits left.
It wasn’t possible for me to buy more stat fruits and use them. If I ate too many of them in a row without cycling out the impurities, they placed in my core then I would ruin all the work I’d already done on my core. Each fruit provided +5 to the stat it belonged to, and it would take me at least two days to fully cycle them. At the end of those two days, I opened my eyes and I felt amazing. I checked my stat screen one more time before it was time to leave the school again.
Nathan Schute: Bard of War
LEVEL 50
STRENGTH: 28
The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
CONSTITUTION:25
AGILITY:39
DEXTERITY:176
INTELLIGENCE:35
WISDOM:54
CHARISMA:160
PERCEPTION:22
0 Free Stat Points
Each of my stats had grown by 10 points and 12% and I felt that with these stats and my aura, I might not die during the next phase of my plan. Opening my map, I found a dungeon only 35 miles away. I flew as fast as I could past the marshlands and then I saw it. A disgusting tower, of grey goo that looked like it was undulating towered just a few more miles away. An army of Flesh Mongrels was in my way, but they wouldn’t stop me.
I’d read over the glaive fighting style before I’d left the school. My wisdom and intelligence now allow me to make connections between the fighting styles and the way I’d seen fighters and warriors use similar weapons. Because of this my sword fighting and glaive wielding felt much easier to learn. These weren’t the weapons I used for the army first though. Instead, I pulled out Ballad's Bow, and activated Amplify, Up the Octave, and 12 Major scales targeting myself.
With improved memory, I could recall 6 of the scales, and by the end of it, I felt like I could take the entire army on by myself. So, I did. Many of the monsters were only level 20 to 25, but there were thousands of them. I felt like I might be overwhelmed many times, but any time I felt like that was happening I pulsed upwards to get a better point of attack. It only took me 2 hours to clean up the entire army.
I stood directly in front of the entrance of the dungeon. Having gotten an area quest when I got into the area I re-read it trying to still my nervously pounding heart.
“Area Quest: Flesh Tower, traverse the dungeon, kill the boss, and take control of the spawn point. Reward: Control of the dungeon entrance.”
With a deep breath, I shook my shoulders out and went inside. Once I was in the dungeon the flesh tower closed behind me with a schlurping sound that made my stomach turn. There wasn’t any light in the tower, and I was kicking myself for not buying a floating light while I’d had the money. “Too late now.” I thought and blasted out my aura.
Just because there wasn’t any light didn’t mean that I couldn't see. My sonar warned me any time a new monster moved around me. It also helped me climb the slightly squishy and damp stairs. The staircase was too narrow for my glaive so I switched to the sword. If the enemy was still farther away I would use my bow, with my new statistics I blew large holes in the monsters with my arrows. If they got too close my sword would cut them down quickly.
I climbed the stairs as fast as I could, and once I reached the top, I found myself in a humongous chamber of sickening grey flesh with no ceiling. Across from me was the largest Flesh Mongrel I’d ever seen. It bulged with muscles standing at 70 feet and swinging around a large chain that looked like it belonged to an anchor.
“Level 50 Flesh Mistress.” We were at the same level, but she was a dungeon boss meaning that she would be more powerful than an average level 50 monster, and I was by myself. I replaced my buffs again then I pulled an arrow and started the fight. My arrow struck the Flesh Mistress in the shoulder, and I could see it had twisted the skin around the entrance but hadn’t done much else to it. Nonetheless, I kept firing.
As I did, she swung her chain and snapped it out like a whip. The attack was faster than I expected it to be, but I still managed to avoid it by leaping through one of the chain links. By the time I rolled to my feet, the chain was already speeding back toward me. “Shit!” I said while dodging again. “She’s not letting me get another shot off!” If I couldn’t use my bow, then I’d use my sword. Leaping into the air I sent a pulse out of my back and flew toward the Flesh Mistress bypassing the chain. I found myself flying into her face and stabbed forward sinking my sword deep into her cheek. Attempting to pull the blade out I was backhanded. The force cracked my collarbone and sent me flying toward the far side of the chamber.
Slowing myself with a couple of pulses I came to a skidding stop halfway across the room. The chain was already on top of me, and I had to roll to the side to avoid it. My collarbone seared in pain, but I didn’t have time to stop and try to soothe it. Replacing my weapon once more, I played Tonal Torture. The chain immediately dropped to the floor as the Flesh Mistress grabbed her head crying out in pain.
I walked toward her consistently playing the same note repeatedly. It didn’t cause any damage, just a lot of pain. My mana would run out soon, so I pulsed forward through another portal and pulled my glaive out of the spatial bag. I reached for her foot and lashed out with the long blade putting my entire body into it. The best that did was open a long scratch in her flesh.
The polearm was a good purchase, but this would still be a long fight. I felt a shockwave from the Flesh Mistress stomping her foot and I flew back again. As soon as my feet touched the ground I was back. This time I sliced the ankle of the boss gaining another line of blood. I swung the glaive over my head crossing the blade over the other wound. Then I caught a toe to the ribs.
I blasted back again feeling the pain of broken ribs. It was difficult to breathe now, and I’d barely even damaged her. The monster was reaching down for its chain, I couldn’t let that happen. Blood was pooling underneath her foot and that made me have an idea. I dropped the glaive and pulled my bow once more. Aiming carefully, I fired a concussive shot directly into the “X” shaped wound I’d opened in that ankle.
The arrow hit its mark and then pulsed. If my ribs didn’t hurt so much, I might have even laughed at the sight of the flesh mistress slipping and falling in her own blood. She smacked the ground with a loud crack. The Mistress tried to stand back up, so I put another concussive shot into her wrist causing her to slip again and making her head snap against the floor.
I was upon her again in an instant and slashed one of her eyes. She bellowed in pain and continued to lash out at me. My movement was slower, now because of my injuries, but I was still plenty fast enough to avoid her clumsy flailing. Watching the monstrous thing continue to perform what I could only describe as a “Three Stooges” show I did let out a small chuckle, which I regretted immediately feeling the sharp pain in my side.
I never let her get up, any chance I got I slashed at her, the more she bled the more she fell. The more she fell the more I slashed her. This went on for a long while until the Flesh Mistress stopped attempting to get back up. She was breathing heavily and looked at me with her one good eye. I saw hatred in her eyes, and I couldn’t blame her. This had to be one of the worst and most embarrassing ways to die, but I wasn’t sure that it could feel embarrassment.
Still, I wanted to put her out of her misery as fast as possible. Carefully I positioned myself at her neck and aimed a stab where I expected one of her arteries to be. I buried the blade as deep into her as I possibly could, then I ripped the blade back toward me. As I expected, in the next second, I was sprayed with arterial blood. It smelled worse than a sewer and it must be karma because I began my own performance slipping and falling in the blood pool.
I eventually stopped trying to get up and just laid there playing the song of healing the best I could with a broken collar bone and ribs. With my wounds mostly fixed, I now just felt extremely sore, and I had very large bruises that covered the entire front of my torso. My natural healing would fix it within a few hours. The boss must have taken its last breath because I finally got the kill notification, and quest completion with a single level up, but one more notification popped up that made the entire expedition worth it.
“Congratulations! You have unlocked a hidden reward! Reward Hidden Title: Solo Killer (1). You have cleared a level 50 dungeon by yourself! +1% to all stats.” Then another.
“Congratulations! You have unlocked a hidden quest chain. Solo Killer Part Two: Clear two-level 100 dungeons solo! Reward Hidden Title: Solo Killer (2) +4% (Stacking).” At that moment I rushed to my status screen.
Nathan Schute: Bard of War
LEVEL 51
STRENGTH: 33
CONSTITUTION:29
AGILITY:45
DEXTERITY:199
INTELLIGENCE:41
WISDOM:61
CHARISMA:182
PERCEPTION:26
1 Free Stat Points
I placed the free point in my lowest stat perception and chuckled quietly. It was funny to me that my perception was my lowest stat when my aura made me the most perceptive person I knew. Still, though I’d like to get my last stat out of the 20s. I looked at the quest notification again, and I felt an almost physical hunger for that stacking title. Taking off from the disgusting fleshy tower I checked my map for the next close by dungeon. The next one took me 50 miles to the south, and I was tired as I got there.
Not as tired as when I’d gotten to the school the night before, but enough that I needed to rest before I went into another dungeon. There was another army outside the mountainous hill of dirt called “The Hill.” The army consisted of giant ants that carried earth and food items with some kind of magic. I checked the level of the ant monsters and decided this was not the dungeon for me just yet. The average level of the worker ants was between 60 and 75. “I’m desperate, not suicidal.”
I groaned loudly at the thought of having to bounce from dungeon to dungeon and hoped that I had a chance at it. “I guess I could just wait for the Flesh Mistress to respawn again.” I heard my bitter thoughts say. That would take days though at least one for it to respawn and another for it to regain strength. It wasn’t a feasible idea. I needed to get strong enough to take down an entire camp of zombie groupies that I couldn’t kill, and I needed to do it fast. “Bouncing it is.” Groaning once more I took back to the skies.
The next dungeon I went to was more my speed, the outside forces' average level was between 35 and 45 and consisted of some kind of large cats with snake hindquarters. In a way, I didn’t want to hurt these things I privately thought they were cute, but they were a means to an end, and they wouldn’t hesitate to hurt humans. I sighed and decided I’d just kill the boss. It’s not like I had an enormous amount of time to fight every single force outside the dungeons. So, I just flew over them and entered the mountainous cavern.
I still killed any creatures that got in my way while I traveled through the dungeon toward the boss, but watching my essence I realized that even if I killed the entire army outside the essence gain wouldn’t get me close to leveling up again. The 20% gain to essence gained by combat was great but killing the lower-level creatures meant next to nothing. I arrived at the boss’s chamber and entered. The boss towered over me yet again and I wondered why all the bosses had to be this huge.
It looked like the monsters outside but instead of a cat forebody, it was that of a lion with sharp curved horns. As I walked into the chamber the lion bared its teeth at me in a facsimile of a smile. I felt my chest vibrate as the boss let out a low resonating growl. Once more I placed my buffs and prepared for battle. Narrowing my eyes, I glared at the creature while we stared each other down. I saw the level and name of the monstrous animal “Level 55 Tatzelwurm Giant.” With the speed of a striking snake, the giant was upon me I dodged the clawed attack, but the tail came swinging at me next.
I jumped into the air and finally saw the whole body of the Tatzelwurm. It had large sharp spines down the back of its snake portion. The spines shimmered with a thick viscous fluid. “Venom.” I thought while hovering in the air. Pulling my bowstring back, I released arrow after arrow at the lion portion, but I couldn’t tell if they were doing any damage through the thick golden mane. “Time to trim the kitty.” I thought while pulling out my sword.
Pulsing forward as fast as I could my sword flashed as fast as lightning as I trimmed the lion’s mane. Fur fell to the ground, and I smiled as I saw that my arrows had indeed pushed slightly into the body. The Tatzelwurm was incredibly fast though and I felt the whip of its tail crack against my back. I flew forward and crashed into the cave wall. Blood flowed down my face from a gash in my head, but I couldn’t stop to deal with it.
I felt blood run down my back as well and knew that I’d just been cut open back there as well. Then I felt an even more painful burn flowing through my veins. I wanted to scream but instead, I cycled my core attempting to focus on the fight instead of the pain. Dodging every attack, I could, I continued to attack with fury. I changed my weapons multiple times and used anything I could. In the end, the boss succumbed to its wounds faster than I did.
It didn’t matter though the venom had done its work. I continued to cycle to deal with the pain, but I couldn’t move my arms or legs anymore. I couldn’t use the Song of Healing; all I could do was cycle and try to hold on. My vision eventually went dark though, and I faded from consciousness.