149. Development - 44

149. Development - 44

As I charged toward the summoned creature, I let the golden glow cover my sword. The more I could give people the impression that my abilities were linked to the mysterious sun god I worshiped, the less uncomfortable questions they would ask if they dared to ask in the first place.

It was good, since I had doubts that I could afford to hold back against the monster in front of me. Well, not entirely true. Against this one, I probably could. I could see four thin lines of red mana that connected it to a summoner, their strain visible even from a distance.

Their control was tenuous enough that I could snap it off easily. And, once that control was gone, I could easily bait the creature away from me.

An even more important aspect was the morale of the troops. I was still maintaining the hold of the Charisma over the whole line, but expanding it to such a great area meant that I could do little more than block the aura of fear. Their inherent confidence was much more important.

By taking down the monster in a showy manner, I could target their cultural inclination to celebrity-worship high-leveled and rare-classed individuals, adding a false sense of security. Not the nicest thing, but I needed them to fight bravely until Zolast could arrive with the rest of the army.

All while clinging to the hope that whatever trap the cultists had wouldn't be triggered until then.

I had to take a few sharp turns as I covered the distance, as more than one mage from the cultist side attacked me as I approached, showing just how much of a personal insult my earlier achievement had been.

Excellent. The more they focused on me, the more reckless they would become. Hopefully enough to ignore whatever plan they had. Avoiding their attacks and their attempts to destroy me was easy. They were nowhere as strong as the cultist I had assassinated, their spells were easy to read and even easier to avoid.

Their attacks ceased once I stood in front of their monster, simply because its huge bulk created an excellent cover for me.

Excellent but dangerous, I thought as I dodged a lightning-fast swipe of his claw, taking a step back to test its reflexes. A good choice, as it followed up with another attack, far faster than any creature with that bulk had any right to move.Read latest chapters at novelhall.com Only

I dodged and slashed to his side, carefully watching both the speed of its recovery, and the depths of the crater its attack created, doing my best to estimate its strength.

Its abilities were above the capabilities of the Lord Beasts I had fought against, but not high enough to deserve a new classification of its own. Its Agility was similar, but the summoned beast was both stronger and more resilient as far as I could measure.

Then, there was the cloud of destruction mana that followed, one that would have been very devastating if I wasn't able to read its unique flare better than most of their mages.

One crucial difference: we weren't underwater, allowing me to move and attack unencumbered. After all, as much as my stats allowed me to remove the problems that came with underwater combat, against sea creatures, I was still at a disadvantage.

That didn't apply to fighting on the surface. With my feet on the ground, I was able to put a much better momentum on my swings, making my hits far more devastating.

Still, it was barely enough to qualify as flesh wounds, rapidly recovering.

It was time to tap into my stat point reserves once more, which I did without much concern as the siege was already pushing me towards my next level up.

Making it a good investment.

[+20 Attunement]

[+20 Strength]

[-40 Stat points]

I dumped a bunch of Stat points into my Attunement, not because it increased my reserves which was only a side benefit at the moment but because it helped improve the fine control I had over mana. And, with better control, came the ability to create a thicker mana layer around my sword.

Another sign of their lack of discipline, making me glad that I had assigned Baron Maell to the defense of the dungeon. I could easily imagine him rushing out, dragging the bulk of his army with him.

After all, I had already seen him doing exactly that about an hour ago.

I was happy to see that none of this was an issue for the section that was occupied by Takis' band.

"That was an impressive showing, my lord," Mahruss said as I arrived at his side, using a fancy title to keep my fake identity going, though he didn't need to fake his shock. After all, even with all the abilities that I revealed to them, it had been shocking.

One advantage of shocking them again and again with new abilities was that it didn't take long for Mahruss to update his expectations once more. It was not as smooth for the other soldiers, who gawked at me instead of spending their valuable time aiming.

"Keep your eyes on the attackers," I shouted, warning them to continue attacking while I observed the cultist army, waiting to see if they would make another move.

But it seemed that, after their leader's order, they were happy to wait and keep the town under constant monster attack.

I was equally happy with it. "Stay on the wall, and make sure nothing goes wrong," I said, tasking Mahruss with the command, loud enough for the surrounding soldiers to hear, ignoring their chain of command completely.

Ordinarily, it wouldn't be a good idea, even with the command of the town given to me by the Baron, but after the earlier display, no one was in the mood to question me even if I left the walls momentarily.

One advantage of having a fake identity that could openly use Speed, I didn't need to waste my time as I went back to the inner town, toward the dungeon, and found the Baron. "Is there something wrong, holy crusader?" he asked.

"No. I just need someone to guide me to your strongest leveling ward," I said.

His eyes widened in excitement. "For someone else or " he started.

"For me," I cut in, but let him enjoy the moment for a while. After all, the benefit of leveling was enough to justify his excitement.

"Let me lead you to my private wards, my lord," he suggested.

"No, you need to stand here and defend the dungeon," I ordered. I let him enjoy his second-hand excitement, but not enough to drag him with me.

"You, come here," he said, pointing at one of the guards who was wearing a pattern that marked him as a sergeant. "Lead the holy crusader to the private leveling wards," even passing him the key to the wards which I grabbed before the sergeant could.

There was no harm in having unlimited access to Maell residence.

Just in case.

"Run as fast as you can," I ordered the sergeant. Receiving an order from the man that his liege lord treated with excessive respect, the sergeant started running, showing that he had Speed as well. Probably the reason Baron Maell chose him.

I kept up with him easily as we darted along, passing through the corridors that were familiar from my last visit.

He stopped at the top floor, right at the entrance. "It is be past here, my lord," he said, and I used the ward key to open the door, parting the wards that were supposed to keep away dangerous individuals open.

Pity I didn't have the time to poke around.

I had another level to receive.