Chapter 20: Explosive Conclusion

Chapter 20: Explosive Conclusion

And then I was back, wandering the forest alongside Erani. I was apparently in the middle of saying something, as I found myself with a word in my throat and my mouth hanging open as I shuddered my way into consciousness.

Erani took a step back, clearly on guard at my strange display. “Uh... are you alright?”

I blinked, still getting used to the sudden transfer. “Yeah, yeah. I’m fine. Listen, I know where Akinsoft is. Northeast, this way,” I pointed. “She has an invisibility potion and three armed guards, two sword-wielders and a... mace-wielder, I think. We need to hurry and stay quiet.”

Erani squinted at me, clearly confused. “What? How do you... Why didn’t you... What?”

“I can’t explain now. It has to do with my Class.” That would have to do. “Now c’mon, we need to hurry.”

I took off in the direction of the bandits. Thankfully, Erani was quick on the uptake, and ran along with me as stealthily as possible to where I knew Akinsoft’s camp was.

We quickly arrived in the familiar area, this time with our prey unsuspecting. We crouched by the treeline, staying unobserved by the criminal group. Akinsoft was sitting on a stump, speaking with one of the three bandits she had with her. The other two were standing nearby.

“Holy shit, you were right...” Erani muttered when she saw that the camp was where I said it was.

“Okay, now see that pouch on her side?” I pointed it out as I spoke. “That’s where the invisibility potion is. I’m going to rush forward and attack, and she’s going to try and drink it and escape. I’ll need you to snipe it out of her hands with a Firebolt when she does.”

She breathed. “Okay, sure. But I’m going to need you to explain all of this afterward.”

I pursed my lips, saying nothing. I wasn’t sure how I’d explain it. If I told her the truth, would she even believe me?

Erani closed her eyes, readying her hands to fire off the Spell. “Let me prepare my Mana. I haven’t gotten much practice with the Upgrade I chose for Firebolt when it got to Rank 10 – it isn’t one I can really use in the middle of town – so it’s been taking some time to get used to casting.”

“Well, I’m happy to give you the opportunity to practice it,” I nodded. “Alright, let’s go.”

I rushed forward through the clearing, casting Crippling Chill as I ran.

You have cursed Level 4 Human Swordsman with Crippling Chill. For the next 15 seconds, it loses 5.51 Health and 4.41 Stamina each second, and its Dexterity score is lowered by 11.

47.3 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 168.

You have cursed Level 5 Human Swordsman with Crippling Chill. For the next 15 seconds, it loses 5.51 Health and 4.41 Stamina each second, and its Dexterity score is lowered by 11.

47.3 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 120.

You have cursed Level 3 Human Paladin with Crippling Chill. For the next 15 seconds, it loses 5.51 Health and 4.41 Stamina each second, and its Dexterity score is lowered by 11.

47.3 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 73.

I cursed the three bandits, but left Akinsoft unhindered. She was Unclassed, so her Health would only be 100. I didn’t want to kill her.

My targets stumbled as frost covered their bodies, sapping their energy and abilities away. One of them – the Paladin – even fell to the ground. His Dexterity was probably low to begin with. If it was 11 or below, his Dexterity would be dropped to 0, and he’d be completely paralyzed for the duration of the Spell. But even if it was a bit higher, getting one of your Stats dropped down to 1 or 2 would be enough to make anyone collapse.

Stats only added onto one's abilities, sure, but everyone had those additions since they were children, and had gotten quite used to them. Going from 10 Strength to 1 would feel like having a fundamental part of your body taken away, and the surprise combined with the loss of something they'd relied on for so long would often be debilitating. And, of course, once a physical Stat reached 0, the System would artificially paralyze them, so it would be a sure thing there.

The other two unfallen Swordsmen stood guard – obviously weakened, but still ready to fight. They were both a higher Level than me, and I’d have to engage them in hand-to-hand combat due to my limited choice in Spells. However, taking them down wasn’t my objective. Akinsoft was.

Having been alerted to my presence, Akinsoft quickly reached into her bag for the invisibility potion. I knew I was too far to stop her, still about twenty paces away. But that was what Erani was for, and just in time, I saw a large Firebolt soar over my head, aimed directly at the woman.

I watched as it collided with her hand, but where I just expected a mild force to hit the bottle out of her grip and singe her skin, instead the Firebolt blasted against her in a fiery explosion, launching her entire body back into a crate and knocking her unconscious. A second Firebolt followed the first, launching forward and hitting the higher-Level Swordsman. He blocked it with his sword, but that didn’t do anything against the resulting explosion that blasted him back, sending him tumbling over himself.

I stumbled to a stop at the surprising show of force, eyes wide. That was the power of a Rank 10 Spell? I knew it was a big deal when they got to that level, but still. Seeing it with my own two eyes was something else.

The Bandits seemed to agree, suddenly seeming hesitant in their convictions to defend the unconscious Akinsoft.

“I am Level 9,” Erani shouted in a powerful voice as she walked from the treeline. “You have no chance of beating me and my partner. Surrender now, and we will spare your lives. We aren’t here for you, anyway. All we want is the woman.”

The only bandit left standing glanced at his two other partners – the Paladin that collapsed from Crippling Chill and the Swordsman who was blasted away by Erani – and quickly stood down.

“D-don’t hurt us,” the standing Swordsman stuttered through the shivering cold of Crippling Chill. “She just hired us as bodyguards, we aren’t with her!”

Honestly, he was probably lying. They didn’t seem like simple bodyguards, and they were obviously standing around in a camp full of stolen cargo; they had to at least know what was going on, if not be the ones that were helping her steal the stuff in the first place. But, frankly, I didn’t really care. They weren’t hostile, there wasn’t a bounty for them, and it wasn’t like I could prove anything in the first place. Besides, they seemed intimidated enough by Erani’s Firebolts that they wouldn’t try anything.

I was intimidated, too. Something about being so close to such a violent explosion really instilled a sense of mortality back into me, especially since I’d already survived being killed a couple times. It really did highlight just how much of a difference there was between our Levels. I’d been fully prepared for a tough fight, but, well, Erani was right; there was no way someone could compete with a Classer that was twice their Level, especially not when they had me cursing them on top of it all. It made sense that the bandits would act with basic self-preservation.

I walked forward and lifted Akinsoft to her feet as she sputtered back into consciousness. Part of me wanted to fish through some of these Enchanted goods and see if there was anything that interested me – or that I could sell – but it'd obviously not go well for me. At least, as long as the fact that I was currently in the middle of apprehending the previous owner of said stolen goods as something to be noted. The guard obviously took this type of thing seriously, and I couldn't risk getting thrown in jail or slammed with fines this soon after getting back to civilization. Besides, I'd ideally be able to legally buy this type of thing after getting the reward from the researchers in Carth.

We were also pretty deep into the forest, at this point, and the less time I spent out here, the better. I was already beginning to feel anxious, glancing around and feeling like I was hearing monsters crawling behind every tree. I was fine on the roads, where I could clearly see the path back to civilization, but out here... I felt like I was totally lost again.

“I, what’s... you can't...” Akinsoft muttered, breaking me out of my thoughts. I dragged her away from the camp, ignoring her protests. Her potion had been knocked out of her hand by the blast, so I wasn’t too worried about her escaping anymore.

Erani came up and helped me drag her away as she finally seemed to realize she was caught.

“Okay,” I opened up the window for Time Loop and read it off to her.

Time Loop – Rank 3

Type: Activated

Go up to 4 minutes back in time, resetting your Health, Stamina, Mana, and other Talent cooldowns – as well as the rest of the world – but preserving your memories and the rest of your Status.

This Talent activates at will, or automatically when you would die.

This Talent may only be activated once per day.

“...” Erani stared at me after I finished reading it. “Yeah, I don’t believe you.”

“I told you!”

“Okay, but I just thought you were talking about a particularly strong Divination Spell. Not... this.”

“Well, that’s what it says. I don’t know what else to tell you.”

“I’d prefer the truth.”

“It is! Just don’t tell anyone, okay?”

“What, don’t tell anyone that there’s some crazy guy running around claiming he’s some god of time? Damn, that was the next item on my itinerary.”

“I’m not claiming I’m a god of time,” I laughed. “If you don’t wanna believe me, fine. But that’s what the Talent reads.”

“Fine. I guess whatever impossible powers you claim to have, you did get the information somehow. So at least I have confirmation you’ve got some sort of interesting Class abilities for my sister to document.”

I just shrugged. “Why are you so focused on doing your sister this favor, anyway? Didn’t you say you don’t have a good relationship with your family?”

“What, are you trying to convince me not to get you free money?”

“No, no. Just curious.”

‘Well, it’s not like I have a bad relationship with my sister. I have a bad relationship with my parents because of my sister. I don’t want to get too much into it, but she’s a researcher for the college in Carth, right? Well, my parents obviously think that sort of intellectual profession is much more valuable than one that’s more hands-on.”

“You sure they aren’t just worried about you? Adventuring is a job that’d make any parent a bit worried.”

“Oh, no. In fact, my dad even said he hopes I have some sort of near-death experience. Said it’d put the fear of the gods in me and pull me back to reason, into doing something that isn’t so ‘brutish.’ Almost dying is what I deserve for choosing to try and help people, apparently,” she rolled her eyes. “He took it back when I confronted him about it, said he just wanted to make a point, but... well. Still hurt.”

I nodded sympathetically. “Well, if there’s anyone that can prove adventurers don’t have to take the ‘brutish’ way to solve their problems, it’s you. I thought I was taking research seriously by asking about my mentor’s build and looking into some general Leveling principles about Stat allocation, but you...”

“...I probably spend more time in the library than my own home, yeah,” she laughed.

A bell suddenly began ringing throughout the building, causing us both to jump.

“Ah, shit, that’s the lunch bell, right?” Erani asked. “The Burning Flagon Inn rings it whenever they have lunch ready, pretty sure. I remember it from when I used to stay here.”

“Yeah. You need to go?”

She nodded, standing and straightening her clothes. “Yeah. I was supposed to be doing a job for Alfo Arcian. I should probably go back to doing that.”

“Yeah, you’re only, what, a couple hours late?”

“Luckily it isn’t time-sensitive,” she sighed. “But thank you for the pleasant morning.”

“Yeah, we should hunt some criminals again sometime,” I chuckled. “Y’know, technically, since you didn’t end up accepting any payment for your help, you could call today our first date,” I winked.

“Um,” Erani flushed. “Yes, I suppose we could. Thank you again for the nice... date,”

With that, she left, red-faced.

I laughed once she was out of the room. Things seemed to be calming down. No monsters hunting me as prey, money troubles were going away soon. It was looking up.

I sighed and lay back on my bed, fingering the coins weighing down my purse. In total, I had about five and a half silver, more than enough to buy a Spell Crystal. Honestly, I was a bit ahead of schedule in that regard. Noxious Grasp’s Rank was still only at 7, and its Spell XP was hovering around 30/94 after the practicing I’d done through the day. I was glad I wasn’t going to end up sitting around at a roadblock forever, though.

So with that, I headed to Alfo Arcian’s to buy the crystal. It was a relatively simple process, telling him what I wanted and then waiting for him to retrieve it from the back. Once it was in my hands, I looked down at the small orb. The Poison Spell Crystal was small, fitting easily in the palm of my hand, but surprisingly heavy. It was mainly black, with a green, smokey sheen to the inside as though the Mana stored within it was tangible.

I placed the dense ball into my pack, smiling as I stepped out of the door.

Mission complete!