Chương 60: Chapter 61: Goblin riders

As I follow the trail, it gets older. I have no way of knowing when I'm going to come to the end of it, which is a bit problematic. I have to just assume that I'm getting close, and start sneaking with Camouflage, unsure if I'll be using it for a few minutes or for hours at a time. Thankfully, it's not long before the trail leads me back to an encampment. I see guards on patrol. Shadow wolf rider. Advanced rare monster, level 10. HP: 1000/1000.

I move slowly closer to the camp, counting the number of guards and trying to get a count of the figures inside the encampment. It's not a large encampment, which is unfortunate. There are enough of them that I'm going to use Mab's Rage, and their hit points are low enough that the spell will be all I need.

I just have to make sure that I can get all of them inside it at once, which might mean that I need to take the guards out first, unless I can be sure that they'll come charging in to the middle of a spell that will absolutely kill them. Better safe than sorry. These are more powerful than shadow wolves by themselves, but not by enough that I'm all that concerned. The encampment is a clearing with some very basic huts set up around a large fire pit. There isn't a generator in there, that I can see.

These guys are just here, and aren't going to increase in numbers if I wait on them. Which kind of sucks; I can probably kill these guys fast enough that I could just hang out by the generator and take them out as they come. For a thousand experience each, that's not a bad deal. I need almost seventeen of them to get to level twenty four, but if there were a generator, I could just sit here and camp it out, grinding through levels until I hit thirty one.

I might be late getting back to Elmspire, but I'd at least get my next talent. No use crying over something that isn't there, though. And there are plenty enough of them to get me a level killing the ones that are here. I just have to take out the guards first, which shouldn't be a problem. Sniper Shot almost kills them outright, and they bleed to death after the first second, so there really isn't even time for them to call out for help. Even if there were, that wouldn't delay things all that much.

I Sniper Shot the first guard, then Rapid Shot at the next closest one to me. Rapid Shot does 1325 damage, more then enough to stop that guard from calling out. With two guards dead, I sneak over to where I can get a line on the next guard, and take him out with another Sniper Shot. I'm not entirely sure how one arrow kills both the wolf and the rider, but I'm not questioning it.

Maybe the arrow goes through the leg and of the rider, nicking a major artery, and then goes through into the wolf's chest and punctures a lung or something. It makes more sense with the Rapid Shot, when one of the arrows at least hits the rider and the other four hit the wolf. But I'm not going to argue with the world that it can't have the wolf and rider both die when I only hit one of them. The system says they're dead, and that means they're dead.

Once I've taken out five guards that are roaming around the camp, I draw my sword and creep closer, using Camouflage to keep me will hidden. My spellcraft increases to 27, and Camouflage goes up to level 5, allowing me to move at 70% of my maximum speed without breaking the spell. That's as high as it goes, unless I decide to upgrade it with magic crystals. Which I might do after this battle. Might as well see what it does. First, though, I creep up to the edge of the camp, ready to cast Mab's Rage.

I'm about to do something incredibly stupid, and I have to hope that my defense, my dodge, and my sword skills are high enough to keep me alive long enough for Mab's Rage to make the difference. I step out of the woods and break my concealment by charging at one of the shadow wolf riders, swinging for the rider over the shoulder of the wolf and screaming at the top of my lungs. I hit the rider with Bleeding Strike, doing 284 damage. With bleed, that'll be worth half of his hit points.

Then I slice my blade across the wolf's face, doing another 210 damage to the unit. I don't cast the spell yet. I have to wait until I'm surrounded. I have to wait until it does the most good. I need them to crowd around me. I need them to start hitting me no matter how fast I move, just getting bitten by the wolves because they can crowd me a lot deeper than other groups of swordsman or monsters. They can surround me and attack six at a time. And I can't avoid every strike when they're coming from every direction.

The best I can do is try to dodge and deflect as many blows as I can, using Stinging Defense against the wolves as they bite me, doing 69 damage to each wolf as they attack me, taking single digits of damage from them in rapid succession. I cast Mab's Rage, sure that I can survive a minute a half of these attacks better than they'll be able to survive the spell. I don't need a minute and a half. I don't even need a full minute. In just over twenty two seconds, every one of the shadow wolf riders is dead.

The spell is still going, but there's no more monsters. Once the notification comes in, I cancel the spell. You have defeated shadow wolf rider x22. You gain 22, 000 experience. You have gained a level. You are now level 24. You have eight points to distribute. Two each into strength, agility, vigor, and awareness. Hit points at 1368, mana at 960, stamina at 1080. Time to loot the stronghold.

I harvest the furs from the shadow wolves, then clean the bodies and start roasting some of the meat over the fire, not quite earning me another point of survival. I'm so close I can taste it. Once the meat is smoking and turning into jerky, I start to go through the goblin pouches for anything of value. I don't know why goblins have money. I don't think they're welcome in Elmspire to do any trading, and they don't seem like they're really all that advanced technologically to have their own mercantile system.

They seem like they'd be barterers at best, based on the primitive huts and weapons. But regardless, I manage to get my hands on 71 silver coins and 4 gold coins as I go through all their pockets. None of their weapons are worth taking back. They're mostly stone axes and spears; these guys didn't even have metal weapons. There really isn't much worth taking, unless I want some more furs and a few strips of leather. Actually, I think I do want that.

Those are crafting materials, and I may end up doing some crafting tonight after all. There is the question of Camouflage. It's a really useful spell, and it's at its maximum level. I can upgrade it to the uncommon version for just five magic crystals. Which means I can upgrade Shell as well, in theory. I have twenty five magic crystals. And if upgrading them does what I think it does, then Shell will just get more powerful than it already is. And it's already awesome.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. I haven't done it yet because I haven't be sure what upgrading does. What if it changes the wording of the spell? What if it changes the way the spell works, and loses its old functionality? Shell might advance into some other defense that blocks damage from other sources, but isn't based on my hit points anymore. What will I do then? I needed a guinea pig spell to see how it changed first. And Camouflage is my chance.

I take the five crystals in my hand and focus on the spell. I call it into my mind, and I focus on the crystals, and I think about upgrading it, making it more powerful. It takes a few minutes, but the magic crystals stop glowing and crumble to sparkly dust in my hand, and I get a notification. Spell upgraded! Camouflage becomes Blur. Blur. Uncommon spell 5/10. MP cost: 1/second. Casting time: instant. Cooldown: instant.

Hide your presence, doubling the effect of your sneak skill, provided you move no faster than 70% of your maximum movement speed. Okay. Nothing changed but the name of the spell. That's good. That's fantastic. If Shell goes the same way, I'll be able to upgrade it every time it increases. That means it'll eventually provide protection equal to many times my maximum hit points. I might be able to survive a strike from Thrax, even if I don't take the toughness talent.

And if Shell gets that much better, then I won't need to take the toughness talent. I'll be able to spend that talent point somewhere else, on something else. That could be very useful. I put five more magic crystals in my hand and focus on Shell, ready to upgrade it. I focus on the crystals, think about upgrading Shell to make it more powerful. I do all the same things I did with Camouflage. Eventually, I get a notification. But not the notification I was wanting. Upgrade failed. Spell cannot be upgraded. Damn.

I guess wanting a shield that provided 500% health protection was too much to ask. It's only considered a common spell because it has only five levels. It can't go any higher than that. I don't feel right complaining about that. I mean, it would've been awesome, but it would've also made combat a slog. If everyone could get access to that spell, and everyone could raise their hit points by a factor of five or six, then battles would take for fucking ever. Imagine if Wrex got his hands on that spell.

He could increase his hit points effectively to half a million for the cost of a few mana. No, that would be game breaking. Still. I should go back to Elmspire. The question, though, is whether or not to turn in my quests. I have enough completed that I could level up to 25 just by turning them in. But if I do that, then I'll have no backup if I die again. Then again, I'm not planning on dying again any time soon. Maybe, if I run into Thrax. But I'd like to get to level thirty before that happens.

He's not going to come all the way to Elmspire looking for me. I should really go back and turn in the quests. I should get the extra experience, the extra nine points of stat increases, and be that much more ready for when my friends come into town. They should be there in a manner of hours after I get back. There isn't time to go and complete any other quests. I should just go back to Elmspire and turn in what I have. Maybe get a few more if there are any worth getting.

I head back to Elmspire, not bothering to use Blur to hide myself, and just move quickly through the woods, letting my general awareness of the directions that things grow to help me navigate. When there is a break in the canopy, I use the stars to help make sure I am heading in the right direction, somehow knowing the constellations and which ones should be pointing me back to Elmspire. I trust in my abilities to guide me, and I move as fast as I comfortably can.

It's close to midnight now, but I can still see everything around me in sharp relief thanks to dark vision, and my nose is doing a good job of keeping me up to date on whether there are any animals or monsters nearby. I do get accosted by a bear, but one shot from my bow kills him before he can get too close. Four hundred experience gets me a little closer to my goal, but not fast enough for me to turn and hunt down to see if there are any other bears that I can slay.

I barely take the time to retrieve my arrow and the bear's claws and pelt before I reorient myself and continue on to Elmspire. During my trip, my alertness increases to 22, my tracking to 21, and, most importantly, my survival finally hits 10. Suddenly, I am qualified to be a scout or a ranger, and I can pick which one I want the next time I level up. If nothing else had, that would've convinced me to hand in my quests.

So when I get back to Elmspire, I go to the adventurers guild, glad to see that it's open all night. I hand in my quest for the bandit ambush and then trade in my leather token for a steel one. I can trade in my renown points for something from the adventurers guild, but all they have that I can afford are weapons that are not as good as what I have. The scout guild is much the same, though I have more renown for the scout faction. And there, in the ledger for the scout faction, I see something that I want.

It's a spellbook for a spell called Light Step. One more spell and I qualify for spellsword. Do I want something that will, from the looks of it, help me with stealthy movement? My sneak is already really high at 26. Is it worth 150 renown to get something that will make it even higher? I should go check shops for spells first. I have a bit of money now. I can probably get a decent spell. Maybe another offensive one. First, I want to deal with this level.

This level is very important, because I get to finally see what a ranger is and does. So I put two points into strength, agility, and vigor, then three points into willpower. Then I take a look at my sheet, so that I can see it proclaiming me a ranger with my own two eyes. Caleb Strong, level 25 wolf blood ranger. XP 10, 700/36, 000. HP: 1475 MP: 1000 Stamina: 1200 Defense: 143 Magic Resist: 36%. Strength: 46+5 Agility: 106+4 Vigor: 59 Manipulation: 35 Presence: 40 Willpower: 48 Charisma: 60 Awareness: 36.

Skills: Animal Harvesting 16, Alertness 22, Bow 30, Climbing 4, Cooking 3, Dagger 7, Detect Traps 3, Disarm Traps 2, Dodge 23, Haggling 3, Intimidation 1, Meditation 10, Negotiation 6, Pick Lock 14, Riding 2, Scrounge 10, Shield 10, Sneak 26, Spellcraft 27, Subterfuge 1, Survival 10, Swimming 2, Sword 28, Throwing 12, Tracking 21, Trap making 7. Secondary skills: Armorer 15, Bowyer 4, Fletcher 5, Scrapping 10, Smithing 17. Talents: Darkvision, Exemplar (Agility), Polyglot, Regenerate (stamina), Fast Reflexes.

Hunter (steel): 180, Adventurer (steel): 120, Scout (steel): 195 An impressive sight. I have a lot of skills now. Three hundred of them, in fact. And respectably high stats, especially for my level. This trick that gets around the death penalty definitely works. When I go to grab more quests, I run into a problem. While there are new quests posted every day, there are only so many slots for each level of quest. And I'm apparently now right in the middle of the pack of where everyone else is when looking for levels.

I'm at the same level as two thousand other players who are all trying to do as many adventuring quests and scouting quests as they can. And those other people have taken all the slots for all the quests in my range. I go to the hunter guild and trade in bear claws and shadow wolf furs for a pair of quests, but they only get me 5 renown and a thousand experience between them. There are a few quests they still have, so I take those. Collect Dire Bear hides. Progress 0/10. Rewards: 20 renown, 15, 000 experience.

Retrieve dragon scales. Progress: 0/25. Rewards: 40 renown, 30, 000 experience. That last one I figure I can get from Wrax. If he wants me to go through with his whole plan, he can probably spot me twenty five scales at some point. I bet they're all over his lair, just lying around waiting to be collected. Dragons molt, right? They shed scales? Probably. It would make sense, especially as they grow. And Wrax is growing, especially if we do the death penalty trick multiple times.

He'll be getting the other half of the experience needed to get me to level thirty every time.