Jack’s eyes watered as he squinted through the perpetual darkness. The voidlands were aptly named. This place was dead. Everything in it was dead.
I wonder what that says about me, Jack thought with a dark grin.
He looped his thumbs inside the straps of his borrowed backpack and pulled up his quest screen.
╔══════════════════════════════╗
║ QUEST OBJECTIVES ║
╠══════════════════════════════╣
║ ║
║ ? Discover the secret fortress ║
║ of the orcs within the ║
║ nearby voidlands. [0/1] ║
║ ║
║ ? Kill a majority of the Orc Army [7/350] ║
║ ║
║ ? Slay the Orc General Flakerash [0/1] ║
║ ║
╠══════════════════════════════╣
║ Difficulty: INFERNAL ║
╚══════════════════════════════╝
╔══════════════════════════════╗
║ QUEST REWARDS ║
╠══════════════════════════════╣
║ ║
║ ? Legendary Item ║
║ ║
║ ? 200,000 EXP ║
║ ║
║ ? 1,000 Gold ║
║ ║
║ ? Player Unique Skill ║
║ ║
╚══════════════════════════════╝
“Okey-dokey,” Jack muttered, cracking his neck. “Let’s go find some orcs.”
The shroud was, in a word, shroudy. He hadn’t been able to appreciate the true scope of the swirling eddies of gray mist before, as the buildings of Titanhold had given structure and edges to its otherwise unbroken murkiness. But, out here in the wild, it was nothing but debris, dead bushes, and an endless expanse of gray.
He could barely see the moon overhead, much less draw strength from its glow. His Phoenix Blood made the damp chill to the mist manageable, but that didn’t make it pleasant by any stretch of the imagination.
Only an hour had passed, and already the initial thrill of entering the shroud had faded into a dull vigilance. He couldn’t relax. Not out here. But at the same time, nothing save the wall leading out of the shroud remained visible. For long. He couldn’t even make out Titanhold from where he was currently roaming.
Jack’s enchanted boots crunched against a few dried twigs snapping them in half. He tightened the straps of the leather pack across his shoulders, coming up with a list of goals now that he was facing his first true challenge as the Banisher head-on.
First step, kill orcs. I need levels if I stand a chance at storming their fortress.
Next, I need to find their fortress. My best guess is that it’s hidden somewhere in the Titanhold ruins. But seeing as I’m in the shit-end of nowhere, I’ll need to either find a way inside from the shroud, or head back through the slums to get in that way.
Jack grimaced.
The only way I know of in the slums is through an entire battalion of bleeders. I’ll leave that as a backup option.
Jack vaulted over a crumbling stone wall. Nothing moved out here, at least so far as he could tell. Distances were hard to gauge in the ever-shifting fogs. His best guess was that he could see about twenty feet ahead clearly, and approximately fifty feet total before the silhouettes of shapes were entirely obscured.
That would make hunting orcs rather difficult. He would literally have to stumble on them.
Or do I?
Jack came to a stop, an idea forming in his mind.
He reread his quest’s description. It said ‘a majority of orcs.’ While, on part, it was horrifying to consider that there were even more orcs out here than that, on the other, it meant that they probably had monsters to spare to roam, scout, and raid these outskirts. Hell, that was probably what happened when Olric’s farm had been raided.
Still, something about that didn’t add up. Why were they sending out raiding parties to small farms when they had over 350 orcs to rally? Surely, they could just storm the south gate leading into the slums. The bleeders were strong, sure, but there were only so many of them.
What am I missing?
Jack would deal with that later. First, he decided that instead of searching through the blinding shroud for his prey, he would instead invite them over.
He picked up his pace, limbering up as he went. He had no idea if this would work, but it would certainly be worth a try. And if it did, he could farm levels with ridiculous speed. He just had to find the right spot.
Eyes squinted against the dark, he ventured ever deeper into the shroud, every sense on high alert. After about twenty minutes of searching, he found what he was looking for.
“This will do,” Jack said appreciatively.
Before him was the dilapidated remains of what might’ve been a cottage, barn, or possibly even a quaint inn on the road. In the darkness and shroud, it was nothing more than a heap of dead wood and the cleaved remnants of a brick chimney on one side. He stepped through the shattered frame of the doorway, taking in the damage.
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It was perfect.
Jack got to work. He piled up the lumber, enjoying how easy it was to move the heavy four-by-fours, crossbeams, and other shards of this old home. It took him a little over an hour, but when it was finished, he couldn’t have been happier.
“God, please let this work,” Jack prayed, cracking his knuckles. “Skill activate: Furnace Heart.”
Flames exploded around him, licking across the dead and dried house. He held the skill as long as he could, but he needn’t have bothered. The fire consumed the pyre with a ferocious appetite. Within a minute, the heat and smoke choked the air.
Jack backed away, watching as his handiwork became a beacon in the darkness.
“If orcs roaming about don’t see this through the mist, nothing will work,” he commented to himself.
Without another word, Jack slipped the bag off his shoulders, tucked it behind a large stone not too far from the house, and readied himself for what came next.
He didn’t have to wait long.
Ten orcs shambled into view of the raging bonfire. He Inspected them, and each present ranged from levels 7-14.
Perfect.
All of them were scouts, raiders, and a few archers. None had the sorcerer or berserker class, thank God. He would happily kill those, but not in such a big group. Not yet.
Jack stepped out from behind the boulder.
Let’s begin.
***
Dungpint, the orc raider, had scrounged for this position. He had killed no less than four of his brethren in order to be a contestant for roaming out of that damned city. It was dangerous out here, to be certain, but this was far preferable to what Master Flakerash was forcing upon his fellow orcs.
Dark things. Cold things. Hungry things.
No, it was far better to comb this countryside for stupid flesh wandering where they should not. Stupid flesh was tasty. He bathed in their screams. He exulted in their warmth. He’d already caught two, and barely had to share with his raid captain. He loved it out here.
Until now.
He had been the one to first spot the fire, and was rewarded for his efforts with a cruel bonk to the back of his neck for speaking out of turn. The captain had used the special stone, which had all sorts of nasty edges to it.
But, sure enough, the raid captain had pointed their vanguard in that direction, sending one back to warn the others out here.
Still, fire meant stupid flesh, and stupid flesh meant tasty levels and tastier food.
Raid captain told them to spread out and ambush the stupid flesh, but when they neared, Dungpint couldn’t spot anyone. Worse, the smoke was so foul that he couldn’t sort out if any stupid flesh was nearby through his sense of smell.
His eyes strained against the dark with relative ease, but as he’d spent too long studying the edges of the massive bonfire, his dark vision was spotty.
He turned to see if his comrades were faring any better, but he couldn’t spot them either for some reason. He blinked hard and jolted back. He thought he saw something dragging one of his friends away in the darkness, but that couldn’t be right.
Dungpint glanced around, feeling his chest heave in thick lungfuls of air.
He yelled for his comrades. He even yelled for his captain. None answered.
Then Dungpint saw him.
The demon came out of the night, stalking through the smoke like it belonged to him. He was little more than a silhouette. He moved like shadows. Dungpint whirled to face this demon, but he was already too late. The demon’s arms burst into flame, and Dungpint felt unwelcome heat crash into his jaw, his sternum, his spine.
Green ichor spewed from his mouth as he fell to the ground. Darkness of a whole different sort from the shroud collapsed the edges of his vision. He was dying. Warm blood pooled around him, and he lay motionless on his back as he watched the demon stand over him.
He had fought and scraped for each of the eight levels he had. They were his pride. They were proof that he was real. That he was strong.
Now, in less than two heartbeats, they were going to feed this beast. This fire wearing flesh.
A boot filled his vision. It rushed down, and Dungpint was no more.
***
[Congratulations! You have reached Level 12! AP allocated. 4 free AP available.]
[Congratulations! Through effort, your skill, Pugilism, has leveled up!]
[Pugilism: Level 14?15. Rank: Novice]
Jack lifted his foot from the collapsed skull of the orc raider, grimacing at the sight. Most of his body was covered in the green ichor of his recent kills. It had been too easy to lure each of the ten orcs out one by one, slaying them within mere seconds. Only the level 14 orc had given him some trouble.
The creature had wielded a strange mace with a crystal attached to its head. The crystal was impossibly clear, and the weapon itself had runes arcing up and down the metal haft. It was far too nice compared to the rest of the rusty iron tools the orcs used. He decided to hold onto it for now.
Jack pulled up his character sheet and allocated his free attribute points, dumping one point into Perception and the remaining three into Dexterity. He’d been fairly conservative with his class skills, finding it easy to kill the lower-level orcs with a quick overclock of his Strength to cave in their necks with a single punch or kick. He’d used Smoldering Fists on the final orc in the hopes the fight would spark the interest of other orcs nearby.
His intuition was rewarded with the sound of a dozen pairs of clawed feet and quite a few screeches.
Looks like more are coming to join the party, Jack thought, feeling the fresh wave of attributes bolster his body. Now that his Perception was at ten, that meant that he could see with the peak clarity of someone with at least 20/20 vision from back home. Though that wasn’t entirely fair. He felt like he could see even better than that.
It wasn’t anything supernatural yet, like his Strength and Resilience stats were becoming. But the effect was noticeable. And it didn’t just affect his vision, either. His sense of smell was sharper, and he could pick out the disparate sounds of the approaching orcs better.
He held up the strange lever. He briefly wrestled with using it, but knew that relying on it too much would only get him into trouble. Still, if the thing barely had a scratch on it after being owned by an orc, then there was hardly anything Jack could do to it. Besides, Jack had plenty of skills he wanted to practice with.
For he wasn’t just out here to gain class levels. He was here to get skill levels.
Twelve orcs rushed him from the side, weapons raised as they shouted something in orcish. He glanced down at the crystalline lever. A grin formed on his face.
Jack cast Law of Inversion, selected the lever, then threw it. He didn’t invert its color, nor did he make it float. No, this time he utilized the density inversion. The object whistled through the air, aimed directly at the biggest and bravest orc leading the charge. He held up a large iron shield dented from countless battles.
Jack activated the skill right before the mace collided with the raised shield, and immediately felt the drain on his Resilience. Metal tore apart, and the orc leader’s head simply ceased to exist as the lever, now several times heavier, burst through the other end of the shield, through the monster’s face, and embedded itself several yards away into the dirt.
Yes, Jack had thrown it with all his might, but this…
This was going to be a game-changer. He risked quickly pulled up the notifications, confirming his hopes.
[Congratulations! Through effort, your skill, Blunt Weapon Mastery, has leveled up!]
[Blunt Weapon Mastery: Level 3?5. Rank: Novice]
[Congratulations! Through effort, your skill, Law of Inversion, has leveled up!]
[Law of Inversion: Level 4?6. Rank: Novice]
Jack smiled. Now that was some progress.
Eleven orcs came to a jumbled halt as their leader died before them. Jack picked a second victim and activated another of his newer skills, focusing on how to cast this without speaking. He really wanted to get better at that, so it took him an extra few seconds to cast. It gave the remaining orcs a chance to spot his location and rush him, equal parts fear and outrage propelling them forward.
His patience, however, was rewarded.
[Skill activated: Cinder Step]
Jack rocketed forward. This was unlike when he accidentally overclocked his Dexterity. This was far more controlled, and the skill let him witness his rapid passage through the night. He was a comet, dashing twenty feet forward in mere heartbeats. And where he moved, an inferno followed.
He’d aimed at an orc that was near the center of the rushing pack, and so nearly all of them were struck by the collateral effect of the spell. As it turned out, the fire was merely a fun add-on. It was the burst of wind and force as he exited the skill that really did the most damage.
With a grunt, Jack slammed into the orc, hands outstretched. Metal and leather dug into his palms, but the orc had it far worse. It flew backward, its head whiplashing at a violent angle.
[Level 7 Orc Scout slain - 900 EXP gained]
Cinder Step didn’t skid him to a halt. It thrust him forward, burning all along and around his path, then stopping him at exactly twenty feet away. It was stupidly fast too. If he had to guess, he traversed the twenty feet in under a second.
I’ll have to be careful gauging the distance. The last thing I want is to accidentally run through a wall and break every bone in my body. But maybe if I level this skill up enough, I’ll be able to control exactly how far it takes me?
Jack dodged under a wild swing from one of the remaining ten orcs. More howls and roars filled the night.
He let everything else fall away. He would continue to work out the kinks to his class skills as he went. Right now, he needed to fight. The Banisher had a lot of work to do. And the next thing on his docket was to try out his final class skill.
It was time to use Flameborn Edict.
