Book 2: Chapter 37 (Patreon)

After breakfast… and the horrible abomination that Daniel called coffee… the group started back on their northward path.

“This trail is acceptable for another three days and then I shall lead.”

Leanthun didn’t speak much to the party after his cat-and-mouse duel with Daniel. Orrin appreciated this. He could tell his friend wanted a rematch. Orrin had to stop himself from trying to figure out the elf’s level. His curiosity at what heights Leanthun had reached was tempered only by the knowledge that the elf could easily destroy him.

The elf had a habit of drifting off into the grass only to return after ten or twenty minutes, acting as if nothing had happened. Orrin thought he might be scouting until Madi pointed out some blood on his boots. He was hunting while guiding them forward. Whether the prey was monsters or humans from Odrana was anyone’s guess.

During one of Leanthun’s forays, a murder of crows pivoted in the air in front of the three of them. Orrin wasn’t paying attention to the flock and only glanced up when something glinted in the sky.

They weren’t crows.

The birds were black but had an iridescent sheen sparkling across their feathers. They were also getting much larger as they approached.

“Incoming, straight ahead,” Orrin said, putting his friends on guard. He made sure to cast [Ward] on both of them and himself. He drew himself a sword out of magical ice and got ready for the battle.

As the twenty horse-sized birds of prey squawked and dove at them, something flashed from the grass and bounced between the different birds. Six of them fell to the ground lifeless before the rest realized they were under attack. Four more lost wings and spiraled to the hard ground before the remaining half took flight.

Leanthun landed in front of them. His khopesh was dripping blood. In his left hand, he held his other weapon. The wooden handle was separated from a spiked ball by a chain. Orrin watched as the chain retreated into the shaft, pulling the ball taunt against the handle again.

Magical, like Madi’s spear.

Two of the giant birds thrashed in their death throws, still fighting against the inevitable.

“If any of you desire it, the kills are yours,” Leanthun said, pointing at the remaining monsters. “The experience isn’t much to me.”

He left, disappearing back into the tall grass.

“Seriously, who the fuck is this guy?” Daniel moaned. He turned to Orrin and Madi. “I’m pretty early into my current level. Are either of you close to leveling?”

Madi nodded. “Just a few hundred. I almost asked if we could hunt something on the way.”

Daniel looked at Orrin.

“Same, to be honest. Madi can kill one first. If she needs both, she can have it. I can wait.”

Madi shook her head. “We’ll each take one.”

For all the back and forth, the actual killing was more difficult. Madi approached one and tried to stab it with her spear but the one-winged bird snaked its head around and yanked the weapon from her hands. It then let out a screech that left her ears bleeding and required Orrin to cast a healing spell on her.

“Sonic attacks,” Madi said, working her jaw as she tried to pop her newly healed eardrums. “I’m going to blind it, Orrin can I borrow your sword?”

Hitting the bird with her spell was easy. Rushing forward to hit the beast’s neck before retreating out of range multiple times was not. By the time Madi finally ended the beast’s life, she was sweating. She perked right back up when she killed it.

“Nine hundred points,” she murmured. “You guys, they’re worth nine hundred points of experience.”

With her level confirmed, Orrin made his way toward the other bird. Daniel and Madi went to retrieve her spear.

“Sorry about this,” Orrin whispered to the wide-eyed monster. It had lost half of each wing and was clawing at the ground, trying to right itself. Orrin wasted no time and debuffed its dexterity and strength. The monster slowed by half but still clicked its beak toward him each time he approached.

“Screw this.” Orrin used [Identify].

[Greater Shadow Stormhawk] HP 204/1,500

“I’m not spending two thousand mana to kill you with [Lightstrike].” Orrin read through his different spells and skills. He wasn’t going to throw swords at the monster either. That seemed like a massive waste of time.

Orrin considered [Toxic Touch].

[Toxic   Touch]- your touch becomes Toxic. MP cost variable to toxicity.

He hadn’t tried this spell yet. He wasn’t even sure if it was a one-time attack or if it would make everything he touched become ‘toxic’ for a certain amount of time. Orrin studied the ground around the Stormhawk. With [Way of the Water], he was relatively certain he could dodge in and touch the beast once.

“What’s the worst that can happen? I can always heal myself if I get hit.”

He decided to spend a hundred points of mana. I’ll regenerate that in an hour and a half anyways.

He cast the spell and felt the power build in his hands. A timer also appeared in his vision. Ten seconds.

Shit.

Orrin scrambled toward the bird. His approach was perfect if a bit hasty. The Stormhawk swung a talon at him and he dodged underneath. The bird overcorrected its attack, forgetting the loss of its wings, and fell on its back.

Orrin placed his hand on the bird’s chest and prepared to jump back when he heard Daniel yell.

“What the hell are you doing?”

Orrin turned his gaze toward his friend in instinct. The Stormhawk pushed off the ground using its wing nubs, let out a screech of pain, and snapped its beak on his leg.

Damage Taken!

HP 100/120

Orrin’s [Mind Bastion] clicked on at the pain and he assessed the situation at lightning speed. His [Ward] had been completely destroyed. He hadn’t reapplied his [Utility Ward] this morning, so that was only a [Ward] of three-hundred and eighty points. That meant the Stormhawk and done four hundred points of damage with its beak. The talons were traveling toward him now and with his leg being held, he was going to take another hit. His hand had left a green putrid scab against the beast’s chest that was slowly spreading but he didn’t have time for another attack.

Just as the bird’s talons were inches away from his stomach, Orrin threw his body back, wrenching his leg. He dealt damage to himself, in the form of a sprain to his ankle, but he kept his insides… inside. While the Stormhawk tried to right itself, Orrin had time to blast another hundred points of mana into another [Toxic Touch]. He placed his hands directly on the bird’s head.

It screamed inhumanly and thrashed for a moment before going still.

“Orrin! Orrin? Are you alive? Please… Madi? Get a healing potion. His leg is clamped tight in this thing’s mouth. Fuck! What did you do? I’m so sorry. Orrin?”

Daniel’s screams seemed so far away and pointless. Orrin knew his health was fine. He could heal himself and everything would be all right. He was more interested in the new notifications.

Experience   Gained: 900 XP

Level 15 Obtained!

+10 AP

Daniel was trying to open his mouth and Orrin sighed.

“I’m fine, just open this thing’s mouth.”

Daniel paused and stared right into Orrin’s eyes. “It’s over. Drop it.”

Orrin nodded and let go of [Mind Bastion]. He promptly passed out from the pain.

When he awoke seconds later, his jaw hurt and he was missing another few points of health.

“Daniel, that was completely unnecessary and—”

“Orrin, heal yourself. Right now,” Daniel cut off Madi.

His leg hurt so much. He looked down and noticed the bone was sticking out. Daniel was covered by his breakfast as Orrin threw up.

His friend didn’t even try to wipe away his sick. “Heal it. You can do it.”

Orrin pushed his mana into the spell and felt some of the pain retreat. Like someone dehydrated coming across a glass of fresh water, he pushed more and more healing spells into his body.

“That’s enough, Orrin. Don’t overdo it.” Madi’s voice was behind him. He recognized her hands on his shoulders. She must have pulled him back while Daniel pried open the strong beak of the very dead Stormhawk.

Taking a peek at his leg, Orrin moaned in relief. His flesh was still closing but the bone was gone, reset inside the muscle and sinew his healing had fixed.

He checked his status.

Orrin

Utility   Warder Level 15 (786/6,000)

AP: 29

HP: 120/120

MP: 56/380

Strength: 9

Con: 12

Dex:11

Will: 28

Intelligence:   11

“Thank you both,” he sighed falling back into the grass. “Daniel, next time I’m beating up a big dumb monster, please don’t distract me.”

Orrin needed to keep his eyes closed for a minute and rest. He heard Daniel stomp away but Madi crawled closer.

“You realize what you did was stupid, right?”

“Yep. Don’t go near the half-dead big bird thing.”

“You know he was terrified for you?”

Orrin nodded.

“You know you’re an asshole for blaming him?”

Orrin opened his eyes. Madi was kneeling and bent over, so her head was upside down to him. “He yelled right as I was fighting it. It distracted me.”

Madi flicked his forehead. “You turned away. If you are going to walk into the middle of a fight, don’t let us distract you. Don’t let anything distract you. You just got very lucky. If I hadn’t blinded that thing and Daniel hadn’t hacked half its body off, you’d be dead.”

Orrin frowned. “You guys attacked the dead monster?”

Madi’s brow furrowed. “It wasn’t dead.”

“Did you get experience?”

Madi’s vision glazed over as she checked her own status. Her grip on his shoulder tightened. “You killed it? What did you even do? We just saw you dodging and standing near it.”

“I tried out [Toxic Touch]. I’d say it was super effective against bird types.”

“What does that mean?”

Orrin kicked himself. “Nothing. Just that the poison worked really well against that monster, I guess. I hit it twice but the second time was straight to the face.”

Madi stood up and moved around him. He sat up on his elbows. She inspected the bird’s corpse.

“That… is disgusting, Orrin.”

Orrin rolled over and pushed himself up. His leg was tender, the freshly healed skin stretching and itching. He made his way over to Madi. He had to agree. The sight was not pleasant.

The spot around the bird’s chest was hard to make out, as Daniel’s sword had bisected the avian’s middle. The head was a mess. Sunken flesh on either side of the beak was bubbled, rotted, and puss-filled. The smell alone would have driven the Orrin of Earth away. Now, he just admired his handiwork.

“I think I can see its brain.”

Madi left him, muttering something that distinctly sounded like ‘boys.’

Leanthun didn’t appear again on the first day until near nightfall. No more monsters appeared on their path and after Orrin apologized to Daniel, the party had made good time. As they sat around the small heater box, Daniel was trying to get Leanthun to tell him about the ongoing war response to no avail. Most of Leanthun’s answers to any questions were a variation of ‘you’ll find out later.’

Orrin was pondering something different. Ever since their first day in this world, he’d purchased skills and spells as a reaction. He had tried a few times to plan things out, but circumstances always conspired against him. He had wanted to take up [Alchemy] and maybe even convince Brandt to do so as well. He had wanted to increase his level in [Teleport], the exclamation point always blinking next to the skill on his status to let him know he could, but spending the ten ability points for it was an entire level of skills he’d miss out on.

Not to mention the possibilities of [Merge]. The skill that Madi had claimed had been lost for centuries. It was the one skill on his original list that he still hadn’t purchased. It was the most expensive skill he had ever considered. He had never had the twenty ability points to spare. He inspected the number of points he currently had. Twenty-nine. He’d known the moment Madi told him it was a lost skill that he had to have it. Something he could use to make himself stronger.

Merge: Combine   Spells/Abilities for new effects. Caution: May lose original Spell/Ability   (20 AP)

Would you   like to buy [Merge] for 20 AP?
 Yes or No

Yes.