Chương 253: Chapter 244

For a while, there was only chaos. People ran around, reinforcing the walls and gates, bringing out supplies, like arrows, spears, and such, so the defenders would have an easier time reaching them. There was a small medical station being set up with walls made of the colorful material that everybody seemed to use in the settlement. The rest of the civilians were milling about anxiously, waiting to know the battle's outcome.

There were no children, as those were the first who were taken away by the older generation, right down into the shelters. There was a lot of crying, screaming, and begging from the older children that the adults should allow them to join the defense. Thankfully, the elders managed to convince them to seek shelter after some heart-wrenching conversations. Sam was only paying attention with half an ear as he was focusing his attention on the mana in the air.

When the diminished scouting party arrived, he couldn't really feel anything, but now at the very edges of his senses, he could feel the disgusting presence of the blood magic. Blood magic usually wasn't disgusting, and it wasn't really forbidden in most kingdoms – except for those where there were a lot of vampires – but as it was prone to abuse and could get very quickly out of control, most people abstained from using it.

Sam knew several skills, spells, and tools that used blood magic that would have made his gaming life much easier – and richer – but as he didn't really want to spend his time improving his blood magic to go toe to toe with a pair of brothers who had no qualms of sacrificing entire villages in brutal blood magic rituals to enhance their powers, he didn't go after them. Even if they were 'just' NPCs he didn't really have the stomach for that kind of thing. Better leave it to psychopaths…

"How long do you think until they reach us?" he asked, his eyes still on the horizon, to the person next to him. The older guard squinted, then grunted.

"Half an hour maximum." Then he pointed toward the source of disgusting mana.

"See there? You can see the dust cloud." Sam also looked and indeed there was a rising dust cloud heading towards the settlement of Groundwater. He considered what to do. He could hide who he was and let the settlement suffer while he helped in the defense hiding his full powers, or simply go all out from the beginning and spare the people of Groundwater from any suffering due to psychopaths playing around with things they had no true understanding of. In the end, the decision was easy to make.

Standing on the wall, he was finally able to spot the approaching monsters. They looked like emaciated wildebeests, their horns black as the blackest night, the veins under their skin pulsing not unlike a malignant nightclub as they stampeded toward the settlement walls. The surrounding mana churned with disgusting blood magic that seemed to cling to their skin like some kind of oil, dripping on the ground and contaminating it as the herd headed toward them.

Thankfully, the blood magic was directionless, simply the bloodbeests nature attracting the free-flowing blood mana in the air and causing devastation. Meaning it was just the system fucking with him and not a player.

'I'm relieved…' he mused as he unsheathed his sword.

"Lucky!" he called out and initiated the skill that allowed his loyal familiar to transform. His barely-used desert gear transformed into an armored one, with the wolf's head displayed on his shoulder blades.

"By the winds! What is happening?" one of the people, anxiously clutching their subpar spear, exclaimed as they watched as the black shadowy substance flowed over Sam's body to solidify into armor. Sam ignored the surprised people around him, simply reveling in the power boost provided by the new armor and the knowledge that Lucky was protecting him. Then he turned toward the approaching beast horde.

Raising his sword – Moonlight shining with a much stronger light than usual, probably trying to prove something – he began channeling his own magic. He wanted to obliterate the incoming horde by instantly channeling his mana into one massive attack, but he wanted to make use of the chance to experiment with blood magic. He wanted to see how certain spells interacted with the disgusting mana clinging to the desperately rushing stampede.

Usually, when he did something like this he was face to face with his enemy, so it was also a good chance to figure out a few things when acting over a long distance. Calmly, he summoned a gust of wind, compressed down to a ball, ready to be released, located at the tip of his sword, aimed directly at the incoming herd. Then ever slowly he began to infuse the compressed gust with cleaning mana, focusing on purification.

'Man…I always forget to pick up that stupid skill…' he grumbled to himself as he completed the spell. Then as people began to gather around him, equally curious about and wary of his actions, he let go of the spell construct. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. WHOOOOMP The compressed ball of pure wind and cleanliness expanded instantly in the direction of the incoming herd with a muted thump, sending visible ripples through the air.

"What is happening?"

"What is that?" People around began to yell and exclaim, wondering what was happening while he was inspecting the results of the experiment. The conjured wind reached the beasts within seconds causing the first beast – arguably the biggest of the bloody menaces – to slow down a little, but otherwise the monsters weren't affected. However, it affected the environment around the monsters much more.

The gathered dust cloud that was kicked up by the stampede was blown away, revealing the true size of the herd, unfortunately demoralizing the people of Groundwater even more.

"Look how many there are!"

"That's too many! We can't keep them out!" That was an unintended result of his experiment, but the others were much more fruitful. For example, now that the dust cloud was momentarily dispelled it allowed him to discern the true power of the encroaching monster horde. The result of that caused him to smile a little. The last result was what his senses told him. As the clean mana-enhanced gust of wind swept through the herd, Sam felt and saw the dirty and fel blood magic being dispersed by his cleaning magic.

Not all of it, the mana directly clinging to bloodbeests was almost unaffected, but the cloud of mana tainted by blood magic hanging around them was washed away.

'Hah! I knew it! Advanced Clean to the rescue!' he celebrated silently. Then, as the beasts began to come even closer, he shook himself and began to gather more mana. It was time to put down those mad beasts while putting the locals at ease. Slowly, but surely, he began to conjure his favorite wind spears up in the air, two for each approaching monster, leaving them hanging there, simply spinning in place.

There were a few more cries from the watching crowd, but for now, Sam ignored them and focused on the monsters. As soon as he had enough spears conjured to skewer all the attacking monsters, he began phase two. First infusing them with cleaning mana, turning the usually yellowish magic into light blue, then enveloping them with shadow mana, causing streaks of black to show up on the spinning spears. Following that he reached out with his mana and tagged each and every one of the maddened animals with it.

"Traveler! What are you doing?" came a concerned question from one of the guards. Sam absently recognized him as the one who let him into the settlement.

"Cleaning up!" he replied while simultaneously letting go of all the spears he had conjured up. WHOOOSH The spears flew off, causing some disturbance around him which caused more than one person to yelp in fright. Meanwhile, Sam watched as the spears flew true and skewered all the stampeding monsters, causing them to stop and simply fall while skidding forward, the remaining momentum carrying them forward.

He swept through the corpses with his mana one last time, making sure that he took out every last one, then stepped back from the rampart and dusted his hands.

"Well, I think that's that…" The people around him just stared, openmouthed at him. Though, personally, he thought that one person who fell to their knees and began to openly weep was a little too much.

"Great messenger of the wind! Take this drink!" a rather fetching young lady, incidentally only covered by the least amount of clothing necessary, offered him a drink with a great smile on her face as she bowed low for a suspiciously long time. He didn't really mind the view…

"Thank you," he replied gently, dismissing the girl and taking the offered drink made from the purest water the people of Groundwater could find. She huffed good-naturedly and left with a wink and sashay. After people got over their shock, they instantly began to celebrate. Unfortunately, most of that was directed at him. Especially after one of the more knowledgeable residents figured out that he used wind magic. Then they started calling him the messenger of the wind. Pretty awkward if you ask him…

But at least they were much nicer to him. Instead of casual indifference, he was treated with hero worship and poorly hidden fear. They were sitting in the main square on everything people could find. Everything from stools made from bone to well-worn carpets. There was a party starting up, food and drinks being introduced, but Sam was only waiting for one thing. Finally, based on the celebratory sounds, it happened.

On the opposite side of the main square, a small crowd parted and Sam watched as an older man, with scarred and sun-worn skin, hobbled toward him relying on a crutch, his arms still bandaged. Around him, the rest of the people were celebrating, but the old hunter only had eyes for Sam. He motioned toward the empty place next to him on the thick carpet and the old man nodded and began to hobble over. It took old Garen a minute to move over and when he sat down, he let out a very relieved sigh.

"Aaah, it is nice to rest…" he said softly as he accepted the cup from Sam.

"Thank you, youngster." Sam smiled and raised the cup before taking a sip.

"To your health!"

"I'm going to need that!" replied the old man then chugged the contents of the cup down with one smooth motion before letting out a satisfied burp.

"Nothing better than fresh water…" Sam nodded but said nothing and the old hunter joined him as they both watched the settlement come together and celebrate. Most of the guards were absent as they were currently dealing with the corpses. Sadly, they couldn't eat them as they were tainted by blood magic gone haywire, but Sam gave them some money to collect the tainted blood. He would need it for later… After a few minutes of silence, the old man finally spoke up in a gruff voice, casting a suspicious glance at Sam.

"Heard you were looking for me?"

"Yes, elder, I did."

"And what does someone with your… skills want with little old me?"

"I was told you have a relative in Sunspot who keeps you abreast of the happenings. I wanted to get some information about the place before entering."

"Scouting, huh?"

"Something like that, elder," Sam replied while handing the man another cup of water, this time from his own reserves. Based on the look on the man's face, he instantly recognized that it was not local water when he took a sip.

"Good water. What do you want to know?" Sam smiled and offered a refill.

"Oh, just the basics. Who is in power? Who are the important people? If anything interesting or weird happened recently?" One would think that he could have gotten the same information from an online forum, or in a worst-case scenario, from paying someone on Shadowland. But asking the NPCs had a distinct advantage over talking with players.

They had a different view of the events, so sometimes people could uncover clues to quests that were already in progress, and most importantly, the system liked to sprinkle in information that the player may need or want. Or sometimes the system would simply add a few interesting tidbits and derail whatever plans the player had as they hunted after shiny… Sam really hoped the system wouldn't do that to him.

"Well…" the man began after considering for a while. Probably the system working out what to say and what not to.

"I assume you're aware of the blood cultists, right?" When Sam nodded silently he continued.

"Aside from that the biggest news I could share would be that they're planning to launch a new expedition into the depths of Sunspot. Rumor has it that someone found some clues for a pocket dimension that belonged to some grand mage." Apparently, he didn't hope hard enough.