Chapter 20

Ever since he’d started putting AP into stats, Luke had stopped getting tired. No matter how much he worked or how heavy the load was, he just didn’t get exhausted. He might get worn out for a few minutes after doing something strenuous, but he bounced back almost instantly.

So even though it was an inconvenience, he walked over to the trail before the sun was even up and killed seven earth elementals. He didn’t want to push his luck since he planned on coming back later in the day to take out another batch. Unlike everything else, the elementals didn’t seem to care about his level. As soon as they sensed him, they moved in to attack.

[You have slain 7 creatures between levels 9-12. 699 XP awarded.]

“Just think of it as morning exercise,” he told Red when he noticed the bird watching him. “You want some breakfast now?”

He roamed the forest for another hour, trying to spot something to eat. It wasn’t the best time of day for it, but he persevered with a mental note to start everything an hour later tomorrow. By the time he was done with the earth elementals, the sun would be up and it would be easier to find something.

One thing about [Survivalist] was that it was a very generalist ability. It had a little bit of knowledge about a lot of different topics, but didn’t make him an expert in anything. Still, that was more than enough for him to notice something unusual. “There sure are a lot of goblin tracks in the woods,” he told Red, who tilted a head at him in response.

“Right? It’s strange. They don’t usually go this far in, at least not this many of them.”

Maybe he’d get some good XP off the patrols. Those were usually easy to take out anymore, even if they got the jump on him. They lacked the quality of level that the earth elementals had, but they made up for it in numbers. At least, if there were as many as all the footprints implied, they would. He just needed to be careful about any of their strong warriors accompanying the patrol.

Luke kept an eye out as he moved, but never actually found a single goblin. He arrived at his forest camp half an hour later, and stopped, stunned. Everything was destroyed. The hides he’d stretched to dry had been torn down and slashed apart to uselessness. The frames he’d built were little more than kindling. He’d been carving a big wooden statue of Red out of a tree. That had been torn apart. His smoking hut, version four, was gone. Just gone. There was no sign it had been destroyed. The goblins had just picked it up and carried it off, possibly along with the meat he’d had inside. They’d also taken his bag of woodworking tools.

“What the fuck. They smash-and-grabbed me back!”

Red let out an ear-splitting screech and took to the air, swiftly gaining altitude and disappearing past the canopy. “Get back here, you lazy bird!” Luke called out. “Help me clean this up!”

A harsh cry rang out through the forest, something that was obviously words but not in any language Luke recognized. Goblins sprang up all around him, most with crossbows pointed his way. “What the hell… how?”

His perception had never let him down like that. It was impossible for almost anything to just sneak up on him, let alone over twenty of them. There was just… no way. He shook his head. Never mind how it had happened; he needed to escape.

[Twitch Reflexes] proved itself worth the AP to upgrade it as the goblins unleashed their first volley of bolts. In under a second, Luke spun four full revolutions, twisting past bolts and in three different cases, catching or deflecting them in mid-air. For all that, he wasn’t quite fast enough. Two pierced his coat and sank into his back.

“Son of a bitch!” he screamed as he lurched forward. There was no time to hesitate though. Unlike the ones at the camp, these goblins were not only better shots, but they understood the idea of firing in waves. Only half the goblins had unloaded, and while they were getting ready to fire another shot, he was faced with the other half.

The second volley hit harder than the first had. Luke was slower and perhaps just less lucky. One bolt sank into his arm, another hit his back, and a third pierced his foot, actually pinning it to the ground. Luke tore himself free, an action which broke the bolt in two and left it stuck in the top of his foot. He didn’t even consider fighting back, just darted off as fast as he could into the trees.

Running full speed wasn’t possible, even if he was in perfect condition. The forest was too densely packed for that. That was more to the goblins’ advantage than his, since even wounded, he was willing to bet he could outrun them. As soon as he ran though, even more goblins that he’d somehow missed popped up around him.

That was where the thick forest worked to his advantage. As long as he avoided any of the clearings, glades, or fields scattered through the trees, the crossbows got a lot less useful. In close combat, he still dominated any goblins he ran across. There were a lot of dings that he ignored as he limped along, knowing full well that there were dozens more goblins behind him.

Luke thought he still had a good chance to outrun them and find a new place to bunker down until he ran across the first goblin with a dog. “Oh shit, of course,” he hissed out. The dog howled and leaped forward, but it was too low a level to be a serious threat. He pulped it, then pulped the goblin with it for good measure. Two more dings sounded.

Luke had been about 300 XP short of leveling when the goblins popped up. He’d probably killed enough of them to hit that threshold already, but he hadn’t checked since he was busy running for his life. 14 more AP would be handy right now though, so he triggered the notification while he limped along.

[You have slain 11 creatures between levels 5-8. 492 XP awarded.]
[Congratulations! You have reached level 14. 14 AP awarded for use.]

One more level until he could upgrade [Mace Mastery]again. [Survivalist] and [First Aid] were both skills he could take, and he suspected he’d probably need the enhanced ranks when he started pulling the bolts out of his body and things got bloody. On the other hand, buffing his stamina now could help him survive.

“Why do I feel like I made this same choice the last time I got shot too?” he muttered.

[First Aid] needed 5 AP to rank up, which left him with 9 free. Luke pumped six of them into stamina to bring it up to an even 20, then grit his teeth and started ripping the bolts out. He’d already lost a lot of blood, probably more than enough to pass out back before he’d started gaining levels. Now he just felt a little light-headed.

Pulling the bolts out was a whole new level of pain, worse than when that lightning-fast goblin had sliced open a line on his stomach. Luke took a minute and leaned up against a tree while he recovered. Probably thanks to his stamina, the bleeding wasn’t as bad as it could be, but he still needed to do something. He didn’t have the tools to stitch them closed, nor did he have any medicine.

In hindsight, not preparing some sort of salve or ointment to put on wounds like this was a mistake. That was something he could have made, but it took time to find the plants and more time to process them. He had too many holes to put pressure on them, especially the one in his foot, which had been steadily pumping blood into his shoe and thoroughly soaking his sock.

Screw it. He wasn’t waiting to get [Life Surge]. He’d save 9 AP from his next level up, then add it to the full 16 from the one after that so he could buy the skill. He’d just have to put up with having unspent AP for one level. He needed that health regeneration ability.

“Actually, now that I think about it. System, are there other options for healing than [Life Surge]?”

“Certainly, Luke. Though, if you’re interested in magical healing, I’m afraid 9 AP is too low for the cheapest spell, and you are lacking prerequisite skills to use magic anyway.”

“What the hell, magic? Why did no one tell me that was an option?”

“I’m afraid I’m unable to help you with a build.”

“I know that,” Luke snapped. He heaved himself back upright, then winced as pain shot through his foot. “Shit, this is a problem. Okay, walk me through this. Let’s say I want to use magic to heal myself. What are the prerequisite abilities?”

“You would need at minimum [Mana Manipulation]. Without that skill, it’s not possible to shape mana into a spell. That is the only required skill before you could purchase the cheapest healing spell, [Sustain]. Givien your current condition though, I suspect you are more interested in a spell such as [Minor Heal], which would actively work to convert mana into flesh and muscle tissue.”

“Okay, great. How much is [Mana Manipulation] to buy?” Luke asked. He limped around a tree and onto a game trail, fully aware of the risks.

“5 AP for the first rank.”

“And [Minor Heal]?”

“15 AP.”

“Jesus, for just the first rank? I guess it is magic though. Fuck.”

“Is there anything else you require assistance with?” System asked.

“Not unless you’re willing to smite a few goblins for me.”

“I am not able to interfere.” System hesitated, then added, “If I may though, you should consider activating the status ailment section of your status. You might be surprised by the information there.”

“The fuck does that mean?” Luke asked. Before System could answer, a long, baying howl went up behind him. It was only a few hundred feet away, and it was quickly answered by many, many more. Luke needed to move faster. “Look, just turn it on so I can see it, okay?”

“As you wish.”

A ding announced a new notification, which Luke opened right away.

[Status ailment has been toggled to ON. Change back to OFF? Y/N]

Luke selected ‘no’ and willed the notification away. He checked his status and found, right under his stats, a new line that read [Condition: Curse of Obliviousness (2H24M)]. He stumbled in surprise and grunted painfully when he smacked into a tree branch. There was no explanation about what the hell that curse did, but Luke could take a guess.

That explained how two dozen fucking goblins had gotten the drop on him. They’d planned their whole assault out far too well. Obviously, they were smarter than he’d given him credit for. That meant they were a threat, and that he needed to be far more proactive in hunting them if he was going to be stuck in Tenebrous Valley. It would even have the side benefit of giving him the thing he needed most: more XP.

Luke was through screwing around, with waffling back and forth between ideas. It had never been a game, but he’d been going about it half-assed, wasting far too much time relaxing, letting himself get pulled in different directions as new random ideas popped into his head. He had a build plan, he needed to follow it. It was time to give these goblin fuckheads hell.

But first, he needed to survive today. As more hounds started howling around him, Luke wondered how he was going to do that, exactly. Well, he did still have 8 AP. That had to be worth something. If he was going to counter this curse, he could dump it into perception and hope that helped. If he was going to accept that things were going to sneak up on him, agility would be a better route to go. Or he could just keep ahead of them until the curse wore off.

“Fuck it, even split. 3 strength and perception, 2 agility. Sorry Curt, I know it’s not the ratio, but it’s kind of an emergency and I need more of everything. I promise I’ll fix it later.”