Chương 11: Chapter 10

Corin stared at the stat readout feeling a growing sense of glee. He had no idea how - maybe it was just seeing the messages, or using them, or exploiting them - but whatever he was doing, Foresight was improving. He had no idea what the next level would bring, but couldn't fucking wait to find out. Corin spent the rest of the day practicing his new skills, noting his spell cooldowns and mana recharge rate.

Tether definitely seemed the most useless of the bunch, though perhaps he had some epic death-defying swings in his future. After a double serving of gristle he returned to his hamster hole and eased into it, preparing himself for whatever epic vision he would receive that night. The date of debt payment was looming ever-closer, but now he actually had a decent capability of taking advantage of it. Now all he needed was sleep and time, though he had precious little of each.

Sleep eventually reared its head, and subsequently, so did the message: [Gi▒at's Va~c Bite: +2% lifes~] Corin jolted awake, writing down the message before it fled from vision. He quickly began deciphering it, giddy from the excitement. This time, it came a lot quicker to him, either from growing competency, or the skill itself improving... or it simply being pretty damn easy to work out:'Giant Bat's Vampiric Bite: +2% lifesteal.' Corin stared at the text, as if willing it to become more useful, more profound.

This is fucking useless. He'd encountered a couple giant bats in his time, and they had a nasty bite that drained HP and gave it some amount of the damage. However, +2% was so marginal and incremental a change, that the knowledge of it thereof was just about pointless. For the first time since discovering his talent, he realized that not all knowledge of the Turn will actually be useful. Most Turns were relatively insignificant, aside from the month, tri-month, and especially yearly marks.

His debt day was looming, he finally had an actual class... and he had absolutely nothing to use it with. Corin lay back down on the hay, looking up at the ceiling as the snores around him engulfed his mind. I do have a class though... Corin was the first one at the bounty board, unable to sleep from either excitement or stress, or more likely some potent combination of both. Through bleary eyes, he looked over the available quests, trying to work out which one he could actually pull off.

He could go clear rats for two copper apiece again, of course, but he figured he could no longer just subsist and survive with his impending doom looming over him. Instead, he raised his eyes higher, above the usual low F-rank quests, to the ones with creatures that actually fought back. He combed through them, quickly discovering that mortal combat felt a lot less appealing now that it was an actual option rather than an abstraction.

He eventually found a quest he thought he'd be more or less (likely less) capable of pulling off: [BOUNTY: GIANT BATS] Giant bats have taken residence in a noble's aviary. They do not seem intent on delivering any messages. Extermination required. Bounty: 1 silver per kill Bonus 1 silver for every 5 kills Recommended minimum level/tier: 10/E Might as well kill them before they get their 'massive' +2% lifesteal. The quest-accept pinged, the notification briefly popping up in his periphery before disappearing.

He turned to leave, bumping into Perrin at the door.

"No frothfrenzy that I need to worry about, right?" Perrin asked, his tone somewhere halfway between joking and sincere.

"None that I'm aware of, but you are looking a lot more tasty than usual," Corin countered, and Perrin let out a half-laugh, his hand drifting toward his copper mace all the same. Corin left without further comment, heading off to clear another noble of their woes, and hoping this one wouldn't end with anything on fire. He arrived at the aviary after about 15 minutes of walking, the crisp morning air proving a fine companion. The place seemed awfully familiar - then he saw the charred remains of the royal garden.

Oh, fuck. He was greeted by the falconer at the door, Hollis, who seemed a little dismayed at his presence.

"You come to clear out those bats?" he asked, and Corin nodded.

"Correct." Hollis looked him up and down." You?"

"Correct," Corin repeated.

"Well, it's your life," Hollis replied, ushering him indoors.

"Plenty of those bastards flapping about, and they're a lot hungrier now that they've finished sucking all my birds in there dry. You think you can handle them?"

"Only one way to find out," Corin muttered, as Hollis led him through the back entry of the castle, grabbing a torch from the wall as they neared a large, spiraling staircase.

"How many would you say there are?"

"Must be over a dozen," he replied, walking ahead as they ascended the staircase, the torch casting two long, dancing shadows with every step.

"At the least." Corin did the mental calculations. It wouldn't be a particularly profitable endeavor, certainly not for the risk he was taking, but he had little choice.

"Remember," Hollis continued, gesturing at the door.

"Knock thrice once you want to get out, and thrice again after exactly a minute. I'll open the door after that."

"Why won't you just open it on the first knock?" Corin asked."'Cause you might still have a dozen bats attached to you," Hollis replied.

"Either you kill all of them and you get out, or they kill all of you and that door stays locked." Corin couldn't argue with the logic, though he certainly wanted to.

"Fair enough," he said.

"See you soon."

"Doubt it," Hollis replied, taking out a large, rusted key and unlocking the door.

"But I respect the gusto." He handed Corin the torch.

"Make sure you don't burn down the place. Some idiot set the entire garden alight a few days ago - Lord Ashvale said he'll have his head." If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. Corin suppressed a gulp.

"Sounds like a real menace to society," he replied, meaning it. Then, he pushed the door open, entering the dark, dreary interior as the door shut and locked behind him. The space was surprisingly large: perhaps the size of a small barn. No bats were visible just yet, but the torchlight only went so far, the ceiling still entirely bathed in shadow. He would not be able to reach them. They'd have to come for him.

Corin was not excited about the prospect, but with the door locked and the drop out the only window being particularly fatal, he figured he'd have to accept it regardless. He readied his hammer, and soon, dust blew up all around him, as dozens of wings all flapped in unison. It would have been a rather beautiful sight, if not for the fact that the wings were attached to giant, blood-sucking bats: [Giant Bat - Lv. 4 {Common}] HP: 20/20 Threat: Low (dangerous in packs) They all eagerly descended on him as if he were sent there to specifically feed them, their flurry of movement immediately blowing out the torch in his hand and casting the aviary in almost complete darkness. A quick cast of Spark briefly illuminated the place, hitting at least seven of the bats, though doing little to assuage their attacks. Corin slammed his hammer into the first bat he could see, but soon he could not see at all.

His entire vision was now just squirming, hungry bats. [Spark - cooldown: 4s] Corin swiped as rapidly as he could, hammering away in every direction as the bats engulfed his entire body. [Spark - cooldown: 2s] He was already feeling lightheaded, their bites draining the life from him. He was pretty much entirely covered, save for his groin - and when a bat went for that opening, he swung down fast and hard, catching it clean and nearly taking something rather important off in the process.

[Spark: Ready] He cast it without hesitation, immediately and painfully finding out that he was not immune to electricity. The shock sent them briefly scattering, wings beating away from him, all illuminated by their accumulated Charges, before turning and descending on him once more. Just one more. He cast Minor Heal just as his HP dipped below half, the renewed vigor giving him some semblance of hope. Again, the bats converged on him, finding any opening they could to drain him dry.

That proved particularly effective, his vision blurring as he swiped and smashed away without pause. [Spark - cooldown: 3s] Corin glanced at his HP, hoping that he wouldn't kill himself in the process as he watched the impending cooldown finish. He tried to hit every bat at least once (nicking himself a few times in the process), watching the cooldown tick down until it finally finished. [Cast Spark!] [Cast Bolt!] For a brief moment, the entire aviary was cast in a bright, white light, as a sharp lightning bolt bounced from bat to bat to Corin to bat. Then, one by one, the giant bats fell from him, collapsing onto the ground with heavy thuds, sending clouds of dust dispersing through the air. Corin himself stood amongst them, feeling decidedly singed, the Charges accumulated on him activated by Bolt sending him to just under 20% of his HP. [You have leveled up! 11 → 12] [+2 stat points available] Fuck me, I'm not sure I'd have survived at all if not for the stats I put into Vitality. I'll put the next extra 2 stats in Vitality again, now that I'm fighting things that can actually kill me. [VIT: 9 → 11] His new max HP ticked up to 125 accordingly, though at barely 20% of his current pool, the actual gain was a pittance, a fraction of what he'd have gotten at full health. He filed that away for later: level up while wounded, and Vitality only pays out proportionally.

Corin took a few more haggard breaths, then briefly checked if the bats had dropped any decent loot. Aside from two Bloodguts that would fetch some modicum of coin, the rest of his search came up bare. He sighed, then walked to the door and knocked thrice, counting to 60 in his head before knocking again. After a moment, the door opened with a slow, deliberate motion, Hollis peering around the tiny gap.

"You get all those bastards?"

"Indeed."

"You burn down the place?" Corin briefly glanced back, suddenly not entirely convinced that he hadn't.

"Not this ti- no, no I didn't."

"Thank god," Hollis said, finally opening the door wide enough for Corin to exit. He peered into the darkness, holding up the torch in his hand trying to confirm Corin's words but not really being able to see anything.

"Can we do a quick check?" Corin walked the man back into the aviary, kicking a few of the scorched bats scattered across the stone once they reached the pile of them. Hollis gave one an experimental prod with his shoe, then nodded in satisfaction.

"Nicely done," he said, then briefly glanced at Corin.

"Didn't know they knew fire attacks, though." Corin was briefly confused, then realized he looked like he'd just sprinted through a bonfire.

"Bit of friendly fire." The falconer looked at him for some time.

"Literally," Hollis said to himself, then gestured back towards the door.

"Let's go." Corin left the aviary with a slightly heavier coin pouch, and after a second Minor Heal once the cooldown had finished, somewhat less injury to show for it. Overall - not half fuckin' bad, since without his class skills there'd have been less than zero chance of surviving that encounter. The passive XP boost had also provided a solid chunk toward his next level. His walking slowed to a stop, something occurring to him. That XP change. What exactly is it going to be?

Bringing up his parchment, he stared at the notes once more: [~ur▒udy: passive XP ▒ewor▒ +1% per un▒in] He knew it was Journeyman's Quick Study: 'passive XP something'. The rest made little sense, but the "+1% per something" struck him as very, very important. Currently, the passive gave a flat 15% XP boost. But the "+1%"... could that mean the bonus was about to start scaling? Instead of a flat 15%, something that climbed: 16%, 17%, 100%, more? He didn't know what it would become.

But if it was anything like that, it would be huge. Corin shook his head. Whatever it becomes, that's next week's problem. He peered up at the sun, noting that it must be just past noon. The perks of early-morning aviary execution had paid off, as he still had more time to take another bounty. All the good ones would likely be gone as they went out fast, but he would maybe be able to find something of some value.

He headed back to the Guild, pushing the door open and making direct eye contact with none other than Lionel.

"Journeyman?" Lionel asked after a brief glance at Corin's readout.

"Why are you spending my money on such a stupid, weak class?"

"Technically wasn't your money," Corin said, trying to ignore him.

"So Guild credit then," Lionel replied.

"You know, you only have a few days to pay off your debt. I don't think taking on more debt is the wisest decision." Corin ignored him and stared at the wall instead, the paltry bounty offerings providing little hope.

"You know, I hear that your sister Mira works as a maid," Lionel continued, Corin immediately turning towards him." She could pay off your debt, if she works for me instead." Corin felt a flash of anger rush through him. He knew that was exactly what Lionel wanted, but he felt happy to oblige." Leave my family out of this," Corin said, his voice shuddering.

"My debt is between you and me."

"Come now, Corin," Lionel said, mock-sincerely, "you know every debt has collateral. You're stupid, but not that stupid." Corin's fingers felt electrified. He realized he was starting to cast a spell without even intending to.

Lionel's level and his absurd stats flashed in whatever small, rational corner of his brain still clung to self-preservation, desperately trying to remind himself that regardless of attempted homicide in a Guild hall not being a good idea, trying to fight a man who so severely outclassed him was a much, much worse one. Corin clenched his hand shut, a spark fizzling out between his fingers.

"You'll get your money," he said simply. Lionel smirked.

"I know. I always get what I want." With that, he returned to his back-corner seat, where someone instantly approached him for either begging or repayment, Lionel's attention already fully elsewhere, Corin apparently having ceased to exist the moment he turned away. Corin breathed heavily, trying to quell the rage burning inside of him. Lionel had made a direct threat to his family. To his own sister. I made the loan. I'll pay him back.

Corin stared at Lionel's face; that ever-present smirk sending a fresh wave of rage through him. And then, I'll make him pay.