Returning to my room with my new dagger in tow, I sat down and took out some of the bandages I scavenged today. To my surprise the injury on my forearm was scabbed over and looked to be near healed. The deeper wound on my bicep hasn't fully scabbed over yet, but it was no longer bleeding at all, as my bandages weren't bloody. I decided it would still be good to clean and dress the wounds with proper supplies, though I didn't rebandage my forearm. After I was done, I started taking the extra food and water I picked up out of my backpack, I decided to keep the full med kit I picked up with me in case anything happened while we were away from the building. With my extra supplies put away it was time to go out and kill some more Night Stalkers.
Deciding to keep my Energy Control skill active the entire fight, I successfully brought down my first abomination of the night. I still decided to take breaks in between killing Night Stalkers, because even with my new stats and thus upgraded energy reserves, it still cost a considerable amount of energy to activate and maintain my Void Tainted Cowl. I didn't want to be below half when engaging these apex night predators in case there were more groups patrolling close enough together to endanger me. Something I thought about now that I was more used to killing Night Stalkers, were the energies I received when I killed one of them. First was the amount of class energy I gained from their deaths, they gave me anywhere from five to ten times more energy than a barbed panther, which in and of itself was interesting that I gained a varied increase from Night Stalker to Night Stalker. All four other monsters gave a static amount of class energy, no matter how many I've killed each type of monster gave out a certain level of energy, and each one of that type I kill gives out the same. While the different monsters give out different amounts, it's extremely odd for the same type to vary at all.
The second thing I noticed was less surprising but interesting nonetheless. The amount of Void energy I'm receiving is growing at a steady yet exponential rate. I think this is merely a continuation of the tainting of my energy with Void attuned energy, perhaps someday I will only use Void energy, or maybe my energy and the Void energy will find an equilibrium, or perhaps something else I just haven't thought of yet. Something else interesting, though again not surprising, is that increasing the amount of energy I have to use to harm something also increases the Void energy returned on the scale it would normally, even though my energy is encountering less mass. I believe this has to do with some sort of energy density within the monster and therefor my energy is in fact encountering the same level of energy just compacted over less mass, and therefor is returning the same Void energy levels at the same rate it would for the other monsters. It's entirely possible and even likely, this has occurred with the other monsters, but it's just been on a small enough scale I haven't noticed it until now.
I realized after a few more kills that the Night Stalkers actually weren't just hunting close together but varied in group size unlike the static groupings of the other monsters. First of all, it took me far too long to figure out. I had engraved the fact that monster groupings were static into my mind like it was some new law of the universe or something, and failed to grasp the fact that even if the previous instances held true that doesn't mean something is impossible. At least with such a small sample size, and considering the new reality we live in I'm not sure I should ever truly accept anything as impossible. What finally made me realize this fact was my continued consideration of the variance of class energy I gained from each kill. So, as I watched a group of three Night Stalkers pass by, which I had previously been assuming were just three separate groups travelling close together. I asked myself, why couldn't their groupings be just as varied as the amount of class energy they gave me.
After coming to this conclusion, not only did their spacing make much more sense, but the circumstances of my injury became clear as well. I must have attacked a group of two Night Stalkers, which is why the second one attacked my general vicinity without me being visible or attacking it. The monster was merely defending its group to the best of its ability, which tracked with everything else I've learned so far.
After about three and a half hours of killing Night Stalkers, I could feel the threshold for level 4 approaching. I decided to stay until I leveled up, even knowing I'd need to start early tomorrow morning. It would be good for my ability to use the knife I planned to use as a weapon with our allies tomorrow if I had the extra stats.
A group of two Night stalkers and two separate groups of one later and I reached level 4.
Congratulations, you have reached Level 4.
For reaching level 4, you have received stats according to your class.
+5 Intelligence, +4 Wisdom, +4 Agility, +3 Dexterity, +4 Free stats
With that I opened my status.
Name: Cassius Heart
Titles: Primus
Class: Void Tainted Spell Blade (Lvl 4)
Unallocated Stats: 4
Strength: [10] +20% effectiveness
Vitality: [15] +20% effectiveness
Endurance: [13] +20% effectiveness
Dexterity: [22] +20% effectiveness
Agility: [24] +20% effectiveness
Intelligence: [32] +20% effectiveness
Wisdom: [30] +20% effectiveness
Stolen novel; please report.
Skills:
Energy Blade
Energy Control
Burst
Void Tainted Sight
Void Tainted Cowl
This time I decided to put 2 points into Endurance, 1 into Vitality, and 1 into Strength increasing Endurance to 15, Vitality to 16, and Strength to 11. I plan to continue with the same free stat distribution until my Endurance and Vitality are on the same level again. With my Wisdom and Intelligence surpassing triple that of an average human without even including my bonus stat effectiveness, I can feel my energy pool grow to absurd levels compared to where I started. Even as the level increases become less potent individually it's still early enough that I feel like I'm making massive leaps every time I level up.
With my fourth level secured I decide it's time to get some sleep before I have to begin the day again tomorrow.
It's only 7:00 AM when we set off for the agreed-on meeting spot with our allies. During the trip I take the time to practice using my blade to kill monsters. With a 150%+ increase to my Agility compared to an average human I'm able to kill all four monster types, though it's much more difficult, and I have to take my time with the Saber Wolves to not get overwhelmed.
After 45 minutes of practice, I notice that we've slowed down and decide to just kill everything with my skills so that we can actually make it to the meet on time. I'm sure I'll be able to handle myself, and practice more when I'm not the only one killing the more powerful monsters. On our way Andy reaches level 3, as I suspected he would.
With 5 minutes to spare our allies come into the range of my Energy Control skill, and they're alone. My judge of their character holds true with my confirmation there's no one else in my skills range as we close the final few yards to the four people sitting in front a familiar gas station.
"Good morning" Iyana says as we walk up to them.
What follows are multiple greetings, waves, and handshakes.
"It's good to see you guys." I greet them.
"I was hoping to head northwest into that town today if you guys are okay with that." I explain my plan for the day to them.
"Sure, sure, that's not a problem for us." Gideon says as they all stand up.
"Wonderful, shall we head out to the plains for a straight shot into the town?" I ask the group.
"Yeah, that would probably be the best way to travel." Sam agrees.
"How are we going to handle monster fighting?" Rick asks.
"Well, I was thinking that Iyana being the ranged combatant of the group would start us off by picking off as many monsters as she can before they reach us, and then we would have Andy, Lilly, Rick, and Gideon as our front line, with me and Sam on the edges." I had been thinking about what kind of formation we would use when we grouped back up, and explained to them what I had come up with.
Everyone looked a little surprised, even my companions, but they accepted quickly after thinking it over for a few seconds.
"Great, lets head out to the plains then." I smiled and started walking.
It didn't take long before we got our first test of our new fighting formation. It went rather well in my opinion; Iyana started us off by taking out the first Saber Wolf, quickly followed by a second before the remaining eight closed with our front line. Sam and I only got 1 kill each, picking off two wolves trying to flank the line, before the fight was over. Gideon and Andy each got two wolves, while Lilly and Rick got one.
I hadn't thought about it, but as I congratulated the group on killing a pack of Saber Wolves, our allies looked at me with incomprehension for a moment before they realized I was speaking about the wolves we just killed. It only took them a second to understand, but they had just been calling them wolves until now. They liked my name for the wolves after I told them I named them that because they reminded me of Saber-Toothed Tigers. After that I told them about my names for the other three monsters, they had just been calling the beetles giant bugs, and the raptors, well ... raptors, but they also liked my name for the Barbed Panther.
With communication cleared up, and a victory under our belts we made good time to the plains. From there it was just an hour walk through monster infested lands to the razor edge of the town.
"We made it." Lilly announces dramatically to all of us.
"How could you tell?" Sam asks, though not in a harsh way.
We all share a quick chuckle before entering. Right off the bat, I can tell there's more people in the town than what I've seen from the city. I can feel five different people in their homes, and this is just the outskirts, there were only that many people in my entire hunting area closer to the center of our zone, and there are even less now than a few days ago. It's extremely surprising to me, as I'm sure the city had many times more people in the beginning, I'm not sure why there's so many people left out here, or maybe there are just so few back in the city. Hopefully my zone was just hit harder than the others for some reason and there's more humans left than I assumed.
"Let's head further in." I tell our group. I want to see if there's a higher density of people the further in we travel.
The group assents and we walk into the town continuing our monster slaying along the way. We pass another ten or so people before we see anyone outside. When we do, it's two guys and they go back the way they came as soon as they see us. Even as we wave to them, they don't give our group a second glance. A little surprised but not worried we continue. The next group we meet are four men in casual clothes killing monsters with axes a hammer and even a shovel, they kind of just bash the tools into the monsters until they die.
"Hello there." Gideon hales the new group as we close the distance to them.
Two of the men turn around and stare at us until the other two have finished killing the remaining beetles. We wait until finally the bigger of the two men with axes speaks.
"Who are you with, this is Breakpoint territory and you're trespassing, are you fucks trying to start a war?" The man questions with disdain and anger in his voice.
"Woah there man, we're new to the area we're not trying to start anything." Gideon responds quickly as we all put our hands into the air.
"New to the area? Are you trying to tell me you came from that god forsaken city, because no one has seen anyone come from there." Big axe guy says disbelief in his voice.
"We know, that's why we're here, there weren't many people in the city, so we decided to come check out the town hoping to find more people." I take over for Gideon.
"Hmm, so you're telling me you're not one of them Kontrix fucks looking for trouble again?" Big axe guy questions us.
"Nope, we don't even know who those guys are, we're simply here to find people." I reaffirm.
"Is there some way we can prove to you that we're not with this Kontrix group?" Rick asks the four people in front of us.
The big axe guy thinks on this for a second before talking with the rest of his group.
"I suppose since you're talking like this and aren't trying to kill us on site we can give you the benefit of the doubt, but we're going to have to ask you to come with us." Big axe guy tells us after conferring with his group.
Our group takes a second to talk about it, but we're excited to meet new people and decide to go with them.
"All right, that's fine with us, lead the way." Gideon responds for the group.
The group of 4 men apparently belonging to the Breakpoint group, whatever that was, lead us further into the city, thought it took so long for them to kill off the monsters we encountered that we finally offered to help them. They were hesitant at first but after a few more groups of monsters they gave in and allowed us to help. After that it was only a half hour until we stopped. The closer we got the more groups of four we saw out patrolling, killing monsters, therefor we had less groups to kill ourselves and the last five minutes were made without us having to stop once.