56 Clash of destinies

The members of the group did not notice any strange part within this argument, but if someone who had prior knowledge of them saw this scene their hair would stand on its end. The adventurer group had their personalities pushed to the extreme and tweaked; as if they had changed to different people overnight. Otherwise, how would a group who had been through many critical situations, make such elementary mistakes.

While the group was suffering through infighting the initial culprit was nowhere to be found; it was as if John had never existed. John was using this opportunity to quantify the data he had received, his intense experiment on his targets had been going smoothly. He categorized all the data derived, cross-referenced them to make sure of their authenticity, gave them numerical values based on his prior research, cleaned it up and made many conclusions and theories. He was focusing on the techniques in the beginning, since they had the accumulated knowledge of generations, they gave a good overview of power systems. However, he was not planning to use any of them, as trusting a cultivation method without comprehensive research was incredibly risky; how would one know if their path was correct?

There were many instances when a cultivator would regret their choice, trusting the social norm; unless they were from an impeccable background, where their predecessors had poured their blood and sweat into the expansion of their base. Yet, the system of family support also shackled the subjects, tying their fate to that of their backing. Many had been buried under cold ground, due to their familial ties; those in prominence had domineering foes, as the stakes of the game were higher the catastrophe would be multiplied. Big families were similar to bullies, ruthless in dealing with weaker opponents, but if they were attacked by a stronger force, they would not mind compensating and punishing the responsible parties involved.

The vessels acquired by John had no sponsorship, which was great for him as they posed no future complications, but they had no treasured knowledge with them either. He had to comprehensively go through their minds finding skills or shadowing the people they had encountered to derive their methods. This way coupled with his superb medical expertise as well as his energy manipulation; made him develop his own system for proper training. However, he needed clear, uncorrupted data in order to understand soul better, he suspected this round of test subjects would help him support his future progress to some extent; then it was time to find stronger lab rats.

He had left the group to be on their own as the experiment was on a crucial juncture, yet he kept observation ongoing. He would simply read the mind of any creature in his domain and occasionally suck them completely dry, destroying their mana imprint to act a distraction while he stole some of the damaged soul fragments and pure mana. Otherwise, how would a small team of five members survive this long inside the dungeon?

This process continued until an interesting development occurred, a hobgoblin with high luck status led an army to attack the group.

John was deeply amused as the flow of the battle unfolded, it defied logic in all sense; first, she deflected the attack of two charging warriors, with her wooden shield and stats, even a good style could not completely save her. Yet, she lightly bumped into a goblin beside her, changing her angle slightly which made a miracle happen, she charged on with some flesh cuts.

Then the grey monster jumped over a dead carcass, making herself an optimal target for ranged attacks, as she would not have control midair. But at that time Dahlia and Link did not pay attention, only Betsy fired an arrow, that was evaded purely on accident. The monster fell, the dart passing over her head, towards another goblin, where surprisingly, it landed on goblin's beating heart, effectively stop it from ever doing so. Then stone that the female hobgoblin slipped on, was thrown towards Link where it broke his forehead, stopping his spell casting midway, as he was attempting to attack her.

After so many strokes of good fortune, some bad luck was only natural, it was time for Betsy to show off her stat. Three arrows were fired by her, all caught easily by the monster, a moment later two flying knives penetrated her back, heavily injuring the beast. Then the angry apprentice mage threw a low-level spell of acid, which was successfully blocked by her, but a small amount bounced off the shield splashing on her face. However, due to the weak nature of this acid, it could not kill the monster, simply corroding and disfiguring her face and affecting her vision momentarily.

Then Beryl attempted to behead the weakened enemy, only to be blocked by her fast reaction, but the wooden shield was damaged due to the continuous attacks made on it; thus, the top of the cover was broken scattering throughout the battlefield.

Suddenly a certain skill was activated by the defeated leader, calling for the assistance of her army. John found this art very interesting as it was directly linked to her soul; meaning it would affect others spiritually. Furthermore, she could not willingly activate this process, rather it would start working once she was in fatal danger. Upon closer inspection, John found charisma, luck and spirit to be the stats affecting this specific skill.

He rescanned the crowd, looking for any abnormality affecting their spirits.

[Name: Kol

Titles: N/A

Race: Hobgoblin

Class: Warrior

Level: 7

HP (Health Point): 40 / 120 (CON*8 + 8)

MP (Mana Point): 10 / 74 (INT*12 + 2)

SP (Stamina Point): 30 / 144 (CON*10 + DEX/2)

Attributes:

Strength – 10

Dexterity – 8

Constitution – 14

Intelligence – 6

Wisdom – 5

Charisma – 7

Luck – 9

Spirit – 2

Skills:

Parry technique (Basic): increased the chance of successful block and parry of attacks

Lady luck (Basic): high fortune when working under dungeon authority, tied to luck and mana imprint

Lead (basic): 10% chance of success in rallying troops, tied to spirit attributes, cannot influence targets with higher spirit points, the limit is 3 members

Lifeline (Locked): boosts the morale of the nearby allies, leading them into a murderous rage (can be activated with the assistance of the system, tied to the symbol charm, luck and spirit stats; range 30 meters, duration 5 min)

Condition: Heavily injured, mental instability

XP (Experience Point): 6 / 1200]

[Name: De

Titles: N/A

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Race: Goblin

Class: N/A

Level: 4

HP (Health Point): 50 / 59 (CON*8 + 3)

MP (Mana Point): 26 / 26 (INT*12 + 2)

SP (Stamina Point): 42 / 72 (CON*10 + DEX/2)

Attributes:

Strength – 6

Dexterity – 4

Constitution – 7

Intelligence – 2

Wisdom – 2

Charisma – 1

Luck – 1

Spirit – 0.5

Skills: N/A

Condition: Healthy, under hypnosis (lost complete control)

XP (Experience Point): 8 / 400]

[Name: Wel

Titles: N/A

Race: Goblin

Class: N/A

Level: 3

HP (Health Point): 35 / 49 (CON*8 + 1)

MP (Mana Point): 50 / 50 (INT*12 + 2)

SP (Stamina Point): 53 / 61.5 (CON*10 + DEX/2)

Attributes:

Strength – 5

Dexterity – 3

Constitution – 6

Intelligence – 4

Wisdom – 5

Charisma – 2

Luck – 0.5

Spirit – 1

Skills: N/A

Condition: Healthy, under hypnosis (lost complete control)

XP (Experience Point): 50 / 300]

[Name: Ninoo

Titles: N/A

Race: Goblin

Class: N/A

Level: 4

HP (Health Point): 50 / 51 (CON*8 + 3)

MP (Mana Point): 10 / 14 (INT*12 + 2)

SP (Stamina Point): 42 / 62 (CON*10 + DEX/2)

Attributes:

Strength – 7

Dexterity – 4

Constitution – 6

Intelligence – 1

Wisdom – 1

Charisma – 1

Luck – 3

Spirit – 1.5

Skills: N/A

Condition: Healthy, under hypnosis (lost complete control)

XP (Experience Point): 8 / 400]

[Name: Zill

Titles: N/A

Race: Goblin

Class: N/A

Level: 6

HP (Health Point): 69 / 75 (CON*8 + 3)

MP (Mana Point): 40 / 40 (INT*12 + 4)

SP (Stamina Point): 71 / 92.5 (CON*10 + DEX/2)

Attributes:

Strength – 9

Dexterity – 5

Constitution – 9

Intelligence – 3

Wisdom – 3

Charisma – 3

Luck – 0.25

Spirit – 0.75

Skills:

Power throw (Basic): boost of 10% to any object thrown, consumes 10 SP per kg

Condition: Healthy, under hypnosis (lost complete control)

XP (Experience Point): 300 / 1000]