Book 1. Chapter 40

Book 1. Chapter 40

The undead pulled the sword from his stomach, and he grasped it in a vain attempt to keep everything in, feeling the warm sensation of blood spilling through his fingertips. He staggered under the expectation of pain, but none came. He felt heat, burning hot and glorious, urging him to action.

He raised his head and met the rotting eyes of his would-be assassin. The undead flinched back into a guard.

The System had some things to say. He didn't have time to read millions of messaged, and luckily, the System seemed to realize that.

Abridged messages activated. Level up! Level 1 -> 6 Combined attributes from your Class and achievements: +20 Strength, +20 Vitality, +10 Dexterity, +5 Mental Control, +5 Will, +5 free attributes.

Congratulations! You have upgraded achievements. Disciplined I -> II, Dexterous I -> II

He threw all his free points into Vitality. Right now, his survival depended on healing and durability and not much else.

Congratulations! You have earned a new Skill! Please select from the following three choices.

He selected on instinct, not even reading the choices. He knew what he needed to stay alive.

You have selected: [Mana Scarring]

The blood seeping through his fingers slowed to a trickle, then stopped, and he felt the strange sensation of his internal organs sliding back to their original places.

Hogg recovered from his shock, and grabbed a brass handle from a pocket on his forearm. He swung it, and a whip of golden fire sprung from the handle. He twirled it in one long circle, somehow leaving Brin untouched but burning straight through all circling the undead.

All but one. A tall figure in dark blue armor was also unharmed. His helmet covered his eyes, but when he grimaced Brin saw white, healthy teeth. Not an undead; a human leader.

Hogg disappeared, his illusion magic rendering him invisible, but the armored figure thrust out his sword and a noxious wind cut through the forest to cling on Hogg, rendering him visible.

Suddenly there were hundreds of Hoggs and hundreds of wounded Brins all of them running in every direction. One of the Hoggs was real, though, and that one grabbed Brin by the collar of his leather armor and threw him over his shoulder.

Hogg ran at full tilt, blisteringly fast, but not as fast as that time Lumina had hastened him. Brin could see undead rising from all around, cutting at all the mirror images.

"[Scarred One], huh?" asked Hogg.

"Self-healing tank. Only way to survive," said Brin from atop his back.This chapter was first shared on the Ñøv€lß1n platform.

"Take [Inspect] yet?"

Brin checked.

You have 1 free general Skill. Please choose from the following list: Animal Husb-- You have selected General Skill - Inspect.

Suddenly a bright and pure light erupted throughout the forest, and Hogg's illusions faded away. The Eveladis, what Hogg had described as the death of [Illusionists]. The alchemical reagent was in the air now, there was no stopping it. The undead had come prepared.

Hogg changed course, aiming away from the rapidly expanding circle of anti-illusion alchemy, but another one exploded in front of them, then more from the sides.

Of course. Hadn't he just told Tawna this? None of this was about him. The undead army was trying to sneak through the Boglands, and the one thing standing in their way was an irritatingly persistent [Illusionist].

All this time, it was Hogg whose existence doomed the town. Yes, Brin had been the start of it, because without Brin’s Quest, Hogg never would have learned about the existence of the army. But then Hogg had returned here and spent all his days desperately combing the Boglands with his illusions.

In their eyes, all they needed to do was kill Hogg, and the army’s secrecy would be secure. They'd drawn him out, and now they meant to destroy him.

This wasn't a war. It was an assassination.

Something black slammed into Hogg, and they both skidded to the ground.

Hogg was on his feet an instant later, smoking slightly from the back. His hands blurred as he quickly picked items from places in his pockets and activated them.

Magical bolts, blazes of fire, streaks of lightning, and sparks of light all flew from him in a dazzling array of destruction. Each of them burned through dozens of undead.

Gold flowed like water as Hogg unleashed his consumables. That wand, 20 gold. That stone, 2 gold. That crown, 30 gold. More and more came from his pockets, and each of them wreaked destruction.

More undead arrived to replace the fallen each second, and some of them started to survive the attacks. A huge, armored undead with a shield larger than a barn door blocked a shimmering flame in the shape of a phoenix.

An ugly, shriveled, robed undead threw a handful of powder at a group of neon butterflies, causing them to go dim and turn to ash.

An archer shot an arrow through a ball of lightning, making it explode. Then he changed his aim and-- Oh no! Brin tried to dodge out of the way. The arrow punched into him, lodging itself in his thigh.

Level up! You have reached level 7. +4 Strength, +4 Vitality, +2 Dexterity, +1 Mental Control, +1 Will, +1 free attribute. Congratulations! You have upgraded achievements. Lively II -> III

The archer nocked another arrow. The robed undead turned to Brin, and the armored brute lifted his shield.

He turned to run again, but to his surprise, something rose from the ground. The undead hadn't evaporated in the flame. Oh, this one was tough. That should alarm him, but for some reason he felt oddly excited.

The undead lurched forward, stumbling and awkward but persistent, the way all good undead should be.

Brin should've run. He didn't want to.

He charged the undead, and went into the combo Hogg had told him definitely wouldn't work. Right, left, up, down, lunge. The undead parried the first two blows, but the second two left deep gouges, and with the lunge, Brin pierced its monstrous heart.

During the short fight, the mist of the tunnel had disappeared. He was back in the forest, back in regular-moving time.

He must've outrun most of the army, but there were still a few undead within sight, already moving towards his area.

They hadn’t seen him yet. Brin bent over and lit the body of the undead on fire with his lighter. Luckily, now that it was dead, whatever had been protecting it from flame stopped working and the corpse caught easily. He kicked it over towards some tall grass and then ran.

The undead converging on the scene were drawn to the flame. He could hide, for now. He took a moment to check his messages.

Alert! You have defeated: Undead Assassin [26] Due to level disparity extra experience will be rewarded.

Level up! Level 9 -> 12. +12 Strength, +12 Vitality, +6 Dexterity, +3 Mental Control, +3 Will, +3 free attributes.

It looked like the third threshhold was at sixty-five. He'd already gotten that for Strength and Will, and he wasn't close to that for anything else. He put one into Mental Control, and the rest into Strength.

Congratulations! You have upgraded an achievement. Controlled I -> II

Four undead had arrived, and they stood in a circle around the burning corpse. The fire spread into the grass. None were looking towards him, so he figured he had the chance to keep reading his notifications.

Congratulations! You have earned a new Skill. Please select from the following three choices. Upgrade - Pain Resistance

Pain will feel even better, like pleasure instead of simply heat and energy.

Upgrade - Ugly On the Inside Increase healing speed of internal scars. New Skill - Bloody Vengeance

Increased power and speed proportional to the amount of wounds received.

The increase to [Pain Resistance] was easy to rule out. His wounds already felt kind of good. He didn’t need to turn into a full-blown masochist. It was already going to be hard enough trying not to let himself get hurt on purpose for the free levels.

As for the other two? What he should take sort of depended on what he wanted to do. He was back to that age-old question. Hilarious, that he was back here again.

Hide, or flee?

Flee was the obvious answer, but they’d be expecting that. They probably had the route home swarming with undead. Right now while he was hidden near a fire, the undead couldn’t use their heat sense to find him. He had some time. Not a lot, but maybe enough.

Enough for what, though? Whether it was two minutes or twenty, the flames would go out and his hiding spot would be useless. Hide wasn’t an option.

But flee wasn’t either. He was going in circles. There didn’t seem to be a best option.

How much of this had Tawna foreseen? If she’d known about the army, she would’ve told someone, right? Even she couldn’t be that obtuse. That meant she probably only knew the beginning and the end; the action she could take, and whether or not that brought doom closer or further away from the town.

He ran the scenarios in his mind. He was glad [Scarred One] hadn’t made him dumber. He could already feel his emotions shifting in subtle ways, but his mind was the same as ever.

Scenario 1: Brin does the smart thing and goes home after killing the easy spiders. He wouldn’t have learned about the undead army. He would’ve taken [Illusionist] on System Day. Hogg would’ve kept scouting. Nothing would’ve changed.

Scenario 2: Brin dies in the fight with his undead father. Hogg would’ve gone to investigate. He would’ve killed Cadwy easily, but the ambush afterwards would’ve still happened without Brin to take the first blow. Hogg would’ve died, and the town would never have learned what happened. The undead army sneaks by. The town is unharmed. This was probably the most likely scenario, but that ship had sailed. Brin had survived.

Scenario 3: Brin dies in the ambush, but Hogg survives. Hogg would probably get word to Lumina in time for her to send a rescue. The town might still be attacked, but most would survive. This was the second-most likely outcome.

Scenario 4: Hogg dies holding off the undead, but Brin survives. In this situation, the whole town would find out about the army, and Arcaena would have no choice but to massacre them all. Frankly, this outcome wasn’t very likely. Brin would almost certainly die trying to get back alone.

And why should he try? He could hide again, maybe survive, but why would he want to? He pictured Hogg, Davi, Zilly, Perris and everyone else, all shambling along with the horde while he hid in cellars again. Him, hiding in the cold again with his memories and some new scars. Is that really what he wanted?

No, that wouldn’t happen. The army didn’t know this, but Hogg had already succeeded in spreading word. Rescue would come either way. In the real Scenario 4, only Hogg would die. Brin would be fine.

The choice was smaller. Would he let Hogg sacrifice his life for a beat-up, angry, evil-Classed little jerk?

No. Logically, that was a bad move. This was logic, right? This wasn’t just him trying to justify something he wanted to do anyway?

Brin checked his sword. The magic was gone, but it should still serve to kill some stupid undead. There was no choice, right? No choice at all.

You have selected: [Bloody Vengeance]

With the wounds he already had, [Bloody Vengeance] hit him like a tidal wave. The burning wounds across his body felt like limitless batteries, pumping a sick and intoxicating energy into his soul.

He would try for Scenario 5. Tawna's plans could burn, and so could the rest of the town for all he cared. He would save Hogg, or die trying.