The nature spirit didn’t take long to find its quarry. Upon entering the new universe, they’d planted a seed of Sylvaen Order into the rock. During the following months, it’d sprouted, and most of their surroundings inside the gorge had already gained greenery that should’ve been impossible to grow. Ferns and trees had popped up like weeds, grass and vines lining the walls of the hidden paradise. There was even a waterfall now, with the light somehow reaching the bottom of the ravine shining more golden than normal. The sapling sat in the middle of it all with Nature’s Champion nearby, cheerily pushing a wheelbarrow full of fresh corpses.
The nature spirit approached but didn’t communicate immediately. Spirits couldn’t speak, but those attuned to their various attributes could understand their intent as a sort of language of its own. Normally when two races spoke different languages, the System would auto-translate it via System Common, but spirits were an exception to this rule. They were unable to communicate outside of intent and resonance between minds.
Mazikarn whistled, dumping the bodies onto the healthy grass before regarding the being of root and vines before him. “Well well, hello there, little fella. What brings you here?”
The nature spirit shifted about, but stayed silent. Mazikarn stopped for a moment, genuine surprise on his face.
“The whelp is dead, you say? Weeeeeeell now that’s a surprise! I didn’t think the natives had it in them!” He checked the Raid panel, and sure enough, Ragoth’s name was grayed out. “I told him not to choose one of those transmuting Obelisks! The structures they make here are too weak, too easily exploited! I bet the first thing he had his monsters do when he got attacked was destroy that useless thing!” He laughed, despite the death of his comrade.
The nature spirit shifted again, vines dragging across the soft grass.
“No, I’m not worried. With the power levels around here, it probably took a lot of people to kill him, and that’s a weakness we don’t share. Besides, it was his own fault for continuously making stupid decisions.” Mazikarn dragged a body off the wheelbarrow and onto the ground next to the sapling. Fresh blood dripped from the edge of the wooden cart, staining the rocky yet lush terrain.
“Humans are funny little things, don’tcha think?” The creature’s tone was light and jovial as he slit the corpse’s jugular, following up by cutting open both armpits. He then stabbed the dagger into the back of the neck, puncturing the organ formed in humans for mana control.
“We’ve been to many Quine Events and humans always seem to do the same thing. They think that staying together and forming a society will help them survive, like herd animals.” He slid the knife side to side, ensuring as much leakage as possible as he continued.
“There’s always humans who think they can go back to what their lives were before the System, staying behind their feeble walls without gaining a single level. Yet they’re always so surprised when someone like little ol’ me comes around to harvest their little ol’ sack of Quine rewards!” Mana rich blood seeped from the back of the corpse’s neck, seeping into the soil surrounding the sapling.
“Thanks to these fine gentlemen, we already know where the closest settlement is and how many humans are there! And here you thought they wouldn’t be able to talk after watching me guzzle the marrow from their bones!”
The nature spirit cocked its head to the side.
“Oh… I guess that wasn’t you, then? Man, you vine guys all look the same ANYWAY, thanks to them we already have eeeeverything we need to know!” The creature made a large, rictus grin. “Now… all we have to do is screw around until there’s more of them to harvest.”
“You were supposed to help us!”
Gideon and Ema made their way out of the house their party had accommodated for the night. After the remainder of the monsters had gone inert, those who survived the attack had finally made their way off campus. They’d looked for Arthur for hours, but were unable to find him. Although the Tuskborne Bull had left a trail of destruction, he’d left a trail of destruction in a destroyed city, and no one had seen where the Bull had charged with Arthur on his back.
Deciding to look again tomorrow, they’d secured some abandoned houses and turned in for the night. Aurora had noticed something going on outside and had gone out to look, so she was already there when Gideon and Ema came out to see Arthur in half-destroyed armor, being confronted by a shorter woman. She looked furious.
“You promised to protect us!” she yelled into his face. Arthur’s helm was in his hand, with both his arms hanging limply at his sides. He was looking down, unable to meet the woman’s eyes.
“What happened with all that big talk earlier?! All that talk like you’re some golden messiah! When it was time to put your money where your mouth is, not only did you fail, but you ran too!!”
“Now hold on,” Sherman said. He’d also been there before Gideon and Ema. “You know that it wasn’t that simple. He-”
“Not that simple?!” the woman shouted at Sherman. “Dennis died because of him! Explain to me how that isn’t simple! Pleeeease, tell me the details about… about why he’s not coming back! He promised to protect him, but-… I…” the woman’s voice broke, tears flooding from her eyes with shocking speed. Aurora caught her in a hug as she broke down anew, uncaring of the audience her screaming had accrued.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Arthur stood, still as a corpse. He couldn’t bring himself to meet the woman’s eyes, or the eyes of those around him. Shame, dismay and mourning filled him to bursting like an overflowing dam, joining the fresh blood on his hands in painting his mind black and blue. He finally looked up at his friends, who were taking in his ragged state. His armor was caved in several places and entirely ripped into in others. His helm had a huge hole in it, and both articles of armor were covered in blood. Ema stepped forward, but stopped after seeing the look in Arthur’s eyes. Gideon didn’t have the same hesitation.
“The building we’re all sleeping in is over there. There should be an empty room for you.”
Arthur nodded and walked towards the door, trying to block the woman’s crying wails from his already thousand-ton mind.
Arthur sat down on the freshly dusted bed. He’d unsummoned his rent armor, wearing the less destroyed yet still dingy clothes beneath.The room was mostly intact but for miscellaneous fallen items. It seemed to previously belonged to a woman, judging from the clothing, makeup and… other items he’d found. He once again tried to put the rubber stick under the bed out of his mind.
After a long time of sitting in silence, he opened his notifications for the first time.
Congratulations!
You have slain
[Tuskborne Bull]
Calculating rewards…
Congratulations!
You are 1st on your planet to slay a [Raid Captain]
Rewards will be adjusted according to your accomplishment
Adjusting rewards…
Rewards successfully acclimatized!
Level Up x4
You’ve reached level [38]
Your stats will be allocated appropriately for your class
You have [2] levels until you are allowed to allocate your free points
You have [12] free points
After scrolling through the newest notifications, a chest appeared in the middle of the room with a light blue flash, the same color as the System screens. It looked like it came from a jungle, wood interlaced with vine and ferns growing out of it. Arthur got up and kneeled in front of the chest. The last time he’d opened a chest like this, he’d gotten the Aged Blade and his trusted shield, while Mira had gotten a glut of overpowered equipment. He pushed open the lid numbly.
Raid Captain Chest of the Sylvaen Order
Capacity: 1 ? 0
Rewards received!
[Arthur Lindow]:
2M Credits
x1 [Skill Bolus]
x1 [Free Point Allocation Bolus]
x1 Equipment Chest
x1 Accessory Chest
x1 New Feat
x1 [Tower Shield of Aspects]
x1 [Soul Restore]
The items funneled into his Vault instantly. Choosing to study his new feat first, he focused on that line in the rewards list.
- You’re the first on your planet to defeat a [Raid Captain]. [Unlock 1 skill]-[Unflinching Will]
[Unflinching Will]: Grants the user resistance against damage over time effects. Grants the user resistance against immobilizing effects. Can be broken by an enemy higher level than you. If [Champion’s Mantle] is active, resistances are slightly enhanced and grants a diluted version of this skill to allies within area of influence.
It seemed to be a sister skill of Ironclad Will, as even the names were similar. They both also gave extra effects if his Mantle was active, drawing further similarities between the two. The basic effects the skill gave were as helpful as its sister skill, and imagined that as a tank type class, it would be of great help. Being able to grant his allies the same skill would also be helpful, even if it was a lesser version.
Arthur moved on to both of the Boluses. He wondered if he could just eat both at the same time. To be safe, he only did one at a time, starting with the Free Point Allocation Bolus while bringing up his Identity Screen at the same time. It still tasted like grass.
Identity Screen
Name: Arthur Lindow (Viridian)
Title: [Heart of Devotion]
Class: [Audacity Knight]
Level: 38
Stats:
STR: 231
VIT: 378
DEF: 312
DEX: 172
INT: 64
Accord: 1 – [Fallen Angel of the Gordonian Court]
Link Mates: N/A
Feats: 9
Free Point Allocation
Points: 12
Arthur waged war with himself on which stat to increase, sitting down fully in thought. Part of him wanted to continue enhancing his dexterity, but until he had a percentage amplifier to put into it, only 12 points wouldn’t help him much. He wondered if he should’ve saved the Bolus for later when he leveled up some more, but he wasn’t sure when he’d gain another level. He also didn’t know if the Boluses had expiration dates, so using them immediately until he knew for sure or not was likely the better option.
As it was, the only stat that was not in the running for the free points was intelligence. Strength was a good choice because it was the stat that decided how much damage he could do, with vitality and defense not needing an explanation of their effectiveness for his build. Dexterity was, on paper, of lesser importance, because of his high defensive stats. The battle he’d just had begged to differ with that assumption however.
The only thing that kept him alive in his battle with the Bull was his greater dexterity stat. If he wasn’t faster than the invader, then he would’ve died far too soon to make any difference. The Bull had been better than him in almost every other way, from technique to overall strength. The only thing Arthur had over him was his defensive stats and better quality skills. There was no masking or running from it; his choice to boost his dexterity previously had saved his life.
Arthur thought about it long and hard, but eventually came to a similar conclusion he’d come to a long time ago in the Undersea Redoubt dungeon. He wasn’t a damage dealer; he was a tank. He came to the realization that despite that fact, he’d never invested anything into his defensive stats. He completely relied on the massive boost that the True Heart of Devotion gave him, not doing anything else to actively augment his defenses. If he had, he might’ve been able to tank the Bull’s blows more directly, giving his party members the chance to actually hurt it.
Arthur sighed, lamenting his continued stupidity. With a thought, he deposited all his points into his vitality stat.
VIT: 378 ? 400
Arthur blinked. Since he’d put 12 points into his vitality stat, he expected it to simply go up by 12 points. What he’d failed to account for was the fact that as he invested into a stat with free points, the percentage boost would grow alongside the stat itself. This made the stat grow by more than just the amount of points one put in. His vitality stat was only supposed to grow to 390, but because of the percentage amplifier, it’d gone up to 400 instead.
Arthur once again groaned at his idiocy. If he had invested in his vitality from the start, there was a chance he could’ve stopped the Bull right at the start. He wouldn’t have had all the time he’d had to increase his stats over and over, and been overwhelmed right away. If he had just held the line. Like he was supposed to.
Arthur tried not to sink too far into that thought process. Instead, he opened up his Vault, inspecting the items within. He currently had 2 Equipment Chests, 2 Accessory Chests, a Skill Bolus and 2 other new items. Deciding to get right into it, he would start with the Skill Bolus, then finally open the chests he’d left in his inventory for so long. Afterwards, he would inspect the other new items, and among all the new things, he hoped he’d find something to lift his mood at least slightly.