1744

  I thought we’d start to leave when it got dark, but instead Deacon just threw down some magic stones that shone bright enough that we could see outside. The number of bugs kept rising, but I was starting to get tired of it all. It was just mindless killing and recasting the same spell over and over again.

  1929

  A few adventurers almost got caught in the Gravity Field spell as Deacon and I were swapping out. I had to cancel it quickly and I helped to drag their heavily armored friend inside the barn as Deacon played something fast and harsh that seemed to act as a wall of death to the insects. The guy with a bow thanked me while his small friend with a staff was busy bashing at her clothes with her hands, small bugs falling out as she did.

  I shivered but helped her by guiding her over to an empty room where we took her robes off and I made sure to shake them out well as she tried to make sure nothing got stuck in her shirt or shorts. Peaking out of the room, I noticed the door was shut and Deacon was talking with the bowman.

  The girl tapped me on the shoulder and I held the robes out to her. “Thank you.” She said, huffing as she pulled them back on, making a mess of her dirty blonde hair. I was actually surprised that she called them robes, since while the cloth covered the important bits, it exposed her shoulders, back, midriff, and thighs, before flaring out to cover her calves when the robe was just resting on her.

  “...is that comfortable?” I asked, eyeing it up and down.

  She let out a deep sigh, “Honestly, no, but it gives a 100% bonus to wind manipulation and wind spells are cheaper.” She shrugged, and had to readjust the robe so it wouldn’t fall down, “Besides, it keeps getting me invited to go out.”

  I managed not to roll my eyes, but we went back out to meet with the other members of her party. Even with the revealing outfit, I felt annoyed, since she was a little taller than I was. It was something I’d get over, but between having been bored and this minor irritation I was grumpy.

  “...it’s not like you two are taking up a lot of room.” I tuned into the conversation Deacon was having with their bow user. “We’ll stay for only an hour or two before moving on.”

  Deacon was considering it, and he looked at me, “What do you think? Let them rest a bit while we keep doing what we were doing?”

  I checked Gravity Field. It had upgraded to Tier 1. The upgrade let me change the size of the field based on Mana Control, which would be helpful. I didn’t feel particularly drained, since we had been taking breaks inside the barn when both of us were tired. “Sure. More people might be nice.”

  2395

  My idea for the Gravity Field made me feel pretty silly at first. I’d initially considered making it go wider, but then figured out that I could make it taller. The base for only went to about two meters tall, but I could stretch it to a little over four if I shrank the sides a little. I’d thought it wouldn’t work as well… but then they started hammering into the ground.

  Then I realized that I didn’t have to attach the field to the ground.

  I began to stretch and shrink the field in various ways and eventually found a sort of ‘net’ that could get a large amount of the bugs quickly. More survived impact, usually, but I was more interested in stomping them than letting the field kill them by itself, mostly because I was bored. I still had to slash some out of the air that the ‘net’ missed, but after a few turns I got the hang of shifting the field around to act defensively. I couldn’t ‘move’ it, but I could stretch one end and shrink the other so…

  It worked.

  2670

  The three adventurers took a turn after seeing what were up to. The girl used wind spells to form a downdraft that slammed bugs into the ground. Her two friends would go out and start stomping and stabbing and she’d gather a bunch more.

  What I noticed that they probably hadn’t was the amount of bugs that got shredded to bits before making it to the ground. Her kill count was likely triple what they were getting, which was fair. She was doing most of the work.

  Deacon watched over me as I took a nap, and then I did the same as he rested. I spent most of it reading a book and keeping an ear out for a change in the constant screaming of the insects and occasional loud gust of wind that told me the other three were still alive. As they fought, I checked my progress.

  Name: Danielle Rosecrest

  Age: 18

  Race: Human

  Class: Royal Sneak 19

  Total Level: 70

  Class EXP: 40,170/21,000

  Experience Bank: 2,153/128,000

  Unspent Attribute Points: 45

  Statistics

  Physical

  Strength: 30 (Set: 25)

  Dexterity: 49 (Set: 25)

  Agility: 60 (Set: 25)

  Endurance: 43 (Set: 25)

  Constitution: 41

  Mental

  Intelligence: 46

  Insight: 44

  Charisma: 39

  Perception: 61

  Magic

  Mana: 40

  Mana Control: 35

  Mana Power: 30

  Skills

  Assessment: Tier 2, Rank 4

  Cheap Shot Tier 1, Rank 4

  Dancing: Tier 1, Rank 8

  Deception: Tier 0, Rank 3

  Gardening: Tier 0, Rank 1

  Fire Manipulation: Tier 0, Rank 4

  Freerunning: Tier 1, Rank 1

  Light Armor: Tier 0, Rank 4

  Mana Sense: Tier 3, Rank 14

  Mathematics: Tier 2, Rank 13

  Riding: Tier 0, Rank 2

  Small Blades: Tier 0, Rank 3

  Speed Reading: Tier 1, Rank 2

  Sprinting: Tier 1, Rank 2

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  Staff Combat: Tier 1, Rank 2

  Swords: Tier 1, Rank 6

  Throwing: Tier 1, Rank 6

  Tonfas: Tier 2, Rank 7

  Traction: Tier 1, Rank 7

  Two-Weapon Fighting: Tier 2, Rank 2

  Wind Manipulation: Tier 0, Rank 5

  Unarmed Combat Tier 2, Rank 6

  Traits

  Attentive Student

  Aura of Authority (Disabled)

  Backpacking

  Bullet Hell

  Experience Absorption

  Experience Conversion

  Extrinsic Mana Manipulation

  Flight or Fight

  Honor thy House

  Intrinsic Mana Manipulation

  Juggernaut Charge

  Mana Bank (.67 EXP per hour)

  Mana Conduit

  Mana Control Range Increase

  Misdirection

  Moderator’s Veil

  Monstrous Force

  Night Vision

  Noble Birth

  Noble Pursuits

  Overcharge

  Personal Armory

  Personal Library

  Regeneration

  Second Chance

  Second Wind

  Seven League Gait (Disabled)

  Spatial Closet (Tier 1)

  Treasury (65 EXP/Day)

  Spells

  Gravity Field: Tier 1, Rank 1

  Healing: Tier 1, Rank 7

  Piercing Flame: Tier 0, Rank 1

  Scan: Tier 1, Rank 2

  Shadowbolt: Tier 0, Rank 1

  Functions

  Calculator

  Encyclopedia

  Inventory

  Local Map

  Map

  Notes

  Quests

  Classes (Total: 70)

  Noble - 30 (Max)

  Outdoorsman - 20 (Max)

  Sneak - 19

  Trainee - 1

  Titles

  Royal

  Insecticide III (Levels Acquired: 26)

  I’d managed to keep the EXP totals from overflowing into the bank, but I was starting to think about the crystals I would owe to the blacksmith. I need what, around 100,000 for the tonfas? It wouldn’t even take a full day to get that much during this event. It was actually ridiculous how easy this all was.

  I should not have thought that.

  I got up to check on the three adventurers when the sound of the insects stopped. Even as I opened the door, I knew something was wrong. “Deacon!” I shouted back, even as I heard something enormous land in the field before the barn.

  As I opened the door, a loud screech hit me with an almost physical force, followed soon by a thunk as the guy with the bow impacted the wall next to the door. I swore and rushed out, ready to take on whatever had decided to interupt.

  I was not ready for the monstrous bug that was currently hammering at the shield of the third member of the adventurering party. It was larger than the carriage Samuel drove, and covered in numerous spikes. While the other bugs were all shades of black or brown, this one was a deep blue. It had barbed spikes on its head and smaller ones scattered along its shell. What was especially concerning were the pincers that looked incredibly sharp on the insides, looking like they were made of steel instead of chitin.

  I looked around to see where everyone else was. The girl was conjuring wind, holding back three bugs that were as big as I was still flying around. A fourth was on the ground, hurdling towards the stunned bowman.

  With reflexes I didn’t deserve, I intercepted the charging creature, slicing my blade in an overhand swing, catching it before it could impact the man. The blade cracked the chitin, but didn’t penetrate, but a swift kick did launch the thing away, it’s legs scuttling in a frenzy as it’s wings tried to work, failing as it bounced over the ground.

  I took one look around and swapped from the sword. It wasn’t going to give me the impact I’d need against bigger targets. Instead, I pulled out the warhammer, willing to give it another chance. The logic was sound, hammer goes into the big bug to make a big splat. And as I went to head for the wounded insect to finish it off, that’s what was on my mind.

  Then there was a significant crunch from the warrior holding off the massive bug. I turned and saw it lifting the man in a set of pincers that I did not remember seeing. Two of it’s front legs looked suspiciously sharp, enough to puncture through the man’s armor. I was too far away to intercept it.

  I raised my hand, palm facing the bug and launched a Shadowbolt. I cast another as soon as the first lauched, and a third as I ran towards the creature. The first one connected with its head, knocking it to the side. The second hit the carapace as it started to buzz its wings, turning to face me. The third bounced off it’s carapace, which I did not take as a positive sign.

  It started for me, lifting off the ground as it’s wings buzzed, the sound creating the usual screaming cacophony of the swarm, but tenfold. If I hadn’t already grown numb to the sound, I’d have covered my ears, but it only made me wince in pain. Instead, I shot another Shadowbolt before grabbing the hammer in both of my hands and lunging forward.

  The thing was fast for its size, which was not something I liked as I adjusted my movements to get me to it’s side. I used my momentum to swing down and impacted the carapace of the creature. The hammer bounced off and almost vibrated out of my hand, even as the creature itself dipped down low enough to impact the ground and skid across, leaving a shallow trench.

  I held onto the hammer and flipped it so the spike would lead the next blow, though I was worried how effective that would be. I checked on the armored guy out of the corner of my eye and he was limping to go put himself between the girl and the other bugs. He nodded at me, gratitude in his eyes, but that was all I had time to acknowledge.

  Faster than a carriage sized insect should be capable of moving, it charged at me again, pincers wide as it tried to use them to take my head. I didn’t want to see just how much the brigandine I was wearing would protect me, so I dove to the side, rolling up in time to intercept the thing’s horn with my hammer. I grit my teeth and dug my heels in as I let out a loud grunt of effort.

  Then the head of the hammer flew off into the night. The horn moved and cut me from my cheek and across my nose as I leaned back and away from the thing. It would probably have gotten my eye if I’d kept my head there.

  I dropped the remnants of my hammer and called up the iron knuckles, feeling my heartbeat rise as I felt truly in danger for the first time since I’d woken up. I was surprised at how much enjoying it, even as I backed up to try and put some distance between me and the pincers and horns.

  It gave chase, slashing and chomping at me, but I was able to keep ahead, barely. I didn’t even have to activate Flight or Fight, though I was tempted to. That and Juggernaut’s Charge, but I wasn’t quite there yet. I wasn’t tired, and the extra mass wouldn’t help. Thinking about my options, I did remember one that I hadn’t used a lot. So, I unsummoned one of the knuckles and held a spell in my hand as I used Overcharge.

  After one particular lunge, I whipped my hand forward and pointed it at the center mass. “Piercing Flame!” I shouted, launching what looked like a lance of fire straight at the creature, the light from which impacted the shell and seemed to push the creature back, even as it nearly blinded me from the bright flash. I backed off, even as I started to charge up a second blast.

  Then there was the clear sound of Deacon’s guitar as a faint shimmer appeared around me. I looked over and saw Deacon groggily strumming on his guitar as the bowman leaned against the door, trying to steady themselves. He said something to Deacon I couldn’t hear, and I noticed he had the same kind of glow around him. Is Deacon shielding us?

  Grinning, I returned my attention to the massive insect, rushing forward with more confidence now that Deacon was providing some background music.