2025-12-14 17:00:34I forced my eyes open even as I swung my sword, cutting down the approaching beast before I could even get a sense. I didn't want to take the risk of getting damaged, not when my reserves of Health had already dwindled.
《+33 Experience》A small gain, but not useless. I swung my arm again, even as I calculated my capacity to hold my breath, my free arm enough to keep me down underwater. Several more fish rushed forward, immediately after the first one, forcing me to swing my arm again.The benefits of the stats were the only reason I could treat the river as a liquid highway rather than the mortal danger it was supposed to represent. The violent pull of the water was easily counteracted by one-arm swimming thanks to my enhanced strength, and the aggressive rush of the carnivorous fish was easily detected by my Perception.Still, I was glad for the enhancement I had received from that Ability. Without it, I doubted the experience would have been as smooth.That did
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#31: Duel Deception
Jertann was a good fighter; and based on the limited interaction, a good brother and a friend as well. But observant, he was not, as evidenced by the way he walked forward toward the beast that the group had just downed, uncaring of the large group of rivals that was walking toward us, their weapons raised to make a point – and not a friendly point. I looked at Karak, who just shrugged in resignation. Clearly, it was not the first time. I sighed, ignoring my desire to complain even as I could see the growing chaos. I was the one that picked Jertann as my access to the growing militia-gang situation that was going on, which meant I wasn't in a position to complain. Silas proved to be more observant of two, and halfway onto the beast, she poked Jertann's side, getting his attention. "It's going to be fun, right," I said to Karak as I took a step forward. Karak didn't say anything, but he wasn't good enough to hide his surprise as he wa
#30: Gang Tricks
I was quick to realize that, moving as a part of a huge group had its own challenges. Speed was one. Alone, using the river as a highway, I was able to rival a car, and even without cheating, I was moving at a speed that would kill a thoroughbred horse due to overexertion.However, the moment the first large beast, some kind of mutated tiger, overgrown to match an elephant in the size appeared, rushing forward at a speed I could never match, I was reassured about my decisions.The people with ranged abilities, from all three groups, held the beast under the rain of arrows, easily hitting the tiger despite its size. Even Karak stepped forward, using his precious arrows as Jertann and Silas guarded him.Halfway in, I could already see the beast slowing down due to its wounds, its vitality not enough to prop it up when its skin was filled with arrows.While they continued to deal with it, I turned back and looked at the horizon, toward the Duskwood I had left behind, wo
#29: Frontline Reds
Fighting as a part of the group was different than fighting alone. It had some challenges, like more monsters targeting the larger group. That was a disadvantage, but not a huge one — especially since the bonfire was still burning bright, holding the attention of most of the flying monsters, leaving us to contend with the land-based variety.But I had to admit, the advantages were impressive. The biggest one, I didn't need to deal with all monsters myself. I walked behind the group, not contributing much at the beginning, to get a sense of their fighting prowess. My first impression … not bad.Jertann and Silas stood at the center, fighting against the monsters with a smooth coordination that I hadn't seen displayed by most of the other groups I had watched earlier. They took turns dealing the first blow, sometimes Jertann, delivering a huge blow with his hammer, sometimes it was Silas delivering a deadly swing from her axe.Their weapons might not be as well-made as my
#28: Advance Patrol
"So, what's next," I asked even as I glanced at the camp of the Reds. The first thing I noticed was a number of carts and wagons, several people loading boxes, while others were gathering some large, pavilion-like tents."It seems that we have our next job, scouting the path and creating an advance line," he said. "We don't want any monster to directly attack the camp.""Naturally," I answered. I didn't ask any questions, as, while I tried to avoid the huge crowd, I had already other caravans using a similar strategy while moving, probably to make sure there were no ambushing beasts on the way — especially with my own experience with the huge ambushing monster that came from the deep.Instead of asking questions that would keep my newest ally distracted from his job — and, on the off chance, trigger his suspicion — I stayed at the edge of the camp while he walked inside. I used the opportunity to examine the camp more in detail.The state of the tents and carts was c
#27: Secret Warrior
We didn't talk much for the rest of the way. After finished bragging about his martial potential, he fell silent, mulling on my offer. And, I was lost in my thoughts, wondering whether the mention of a familiar divine name meant anything.My conclusion, it probably did, but nothing that would actually matter in the short term. Instead, I turned my attention to his mention of the Promotion.His offhand mention of gods and being chosen implied that they believed that it was some kind of divine process, where people needed to prove themselves to gods, and in return, they received some abilities.And, since I didn't actually believe gods to be some mysterious altruistic beings — even as I started to realize they existed, even in a different concept than what I defined it — I immediately assumed that they were getting some kind of benefit from the process.Probably some kind of cost for them as well, if they were as selective as the explanation of my young friend implied.
#26: Red Bands
After that disgusting — but very Healthy — meal I walked around the camp for another hour, spending most of the money I had managed to steal to buy various food items. I had five more meals, buying them from different vendors, though none of them granted as much experience as Master Qimir's little painful recipe, which gave me thirteen total points.《Health (42/225)》The food wasn't without its problem, of course, I could feel the damaging energies from the food sticking to my bones, but I didn't care much about that. It was nothing against the corrosiveness of that cursed red energy.More importantly, I could feel it dissipating almost as quickly as it settled; which wasn't supposed to happen if the snippets I was hearing from people as they discussed — replenishing their Health was a rather important part of their combat strategy, especially since they were much less capable of avoiding damage with their weird combat pattern.They were talking about that energy sti
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