For the past few years, I've had a hard time getting to sleep. Thoughts of old age often keep me awake at night. Now, in my private tent, I was seriously considering how to distribute my attributes and where to go next with my progression.
Lately, I've been thinking a lot about acquiring new skills. Of course, E-rank skills are simply out of my price range. The cheapest, and also most useless, skills start at 100 SP. Something useful, like the Steel Bone or Regeneration skill, costs around 200 SP or even more. A combat skill like Accelerated Reflexes, which increases perception by +3, costs about 300 SP. Ranged skills suitable for mages with the Magical Affinity cost about the same.
For junior officers like me, it's more realistic to buy an F-rank skill, but there was nothing truly valuable among them. Maybe only the weapon proficiency skills and the Magical Affinity itself are worth any attention among the F-ranks. But weapon proficiency skills weren't very relevant to me. Every warrior who enters the Lord's army is given a standard set of proficiencies: sword, shield, or axe, as well as spear and bow. A goblin is supposed to be versatile, both in defense and in offense. In practice, of course, cowardly goblins are bad at everything. But that doesn't stop us from handling almost all our assigned tasks.
So, back to the Magical Affinity. Even though it's an F-rank skill and filling it costs only 10 SP, our merchants sell it for a full 200 SP. So, there are only two paths to becoming a mage: being born with a mana source or being at least a distant relative of an aristocrat who will invest no less than 1,000 SP in you from childhood—for the affinity, and for the spells. And that's not counting the SP for leveling up. Therefore, the Magical Affinity is an unattainable dream for me, as it is for many other mortals. Because even with a weak healing spell, using it on yourself every day can raise your Vitality stat to the maximum. And by spending SP to break the limit, that attribute will continue to rise even further. Yes, it takes years, but to increase an attribute by 5 or even 6 points for free—isn't that a dream come true?
After a little reflection on my long-held, unattainable dreams, I returned my thoughts to the truly important decisions. The rewards from this mission would definitely be enough to break the limit on the Strength attribute. If I put in the 2 free points, as I had planned, my body size would increase significantly in both width and height. And that would make my medium armor unusable. There would be no way to resize it. The armorer in my town certainly wouldn't be able to do it for any amount of money. And what to do in this situation was unclear. It was obvious that I would most likely have to sell the armor. And then an idea came to me.
About ten years ago in a tavern, I heard a story about a goblin who took a risk and learned the E-rank skill Chitinous Armor. There was no demand for the card, and there was a high risk of death during the learning process. But, in the end, the goblin's skin became covered in chitinous plates. Even his eyes were covered by tough scales. According to eyewitnesses, the warrior's appearance was quite formidable. But the defense was on par with steel armor, and it was always active, even when he wore classic armor over it.
Of course, I never saw him myself, and it was just drunken tavern talk, but it stuck in my mind. Therefore, to make a decision, I first needed to get back from the mission and get a description of the F-rank card Chitinous Hide from a merchant. What if the whole story turns out to be a fabrication, and the skill has many hidden pitfalls, and body modifications will kill creatures like goblins with 100% certainty?
The entire next week, we didn't come across anything of value, either in terms of loot or enemies. No matter how much Zhurek encouraged me and my squad, it didn't affect our chance of finding another arachnid clutch. And I was even happy about that. My squad had calmed down a bit and started following orders with more enthusiasm and zeal. Because of this, we were almost professionally exterminating small groups of five or six arachnids.
For the last few days, my goblins had been looking forward to returning to our home world. In just three miserable days, they could forget about the battles and the horror of the fights. Some had a family waiting for them, others the passionate embraces of venal priestesses of love, while old warriors like me usually returned to our favorite tavern. Not out of great love for such places, but in favor of certain superstitions that had formed over many years. And they no longer drowned their souls, wounded by fear, with youthful bravado and alcohol, but more out of habit.
In recent years, it had stopped bringing any satisfaction or peace. Nothing much changed when you got home—the same patrols, guarding the walls or gates, and sometimes escorting merchants. Over the years of service, it all gradually turned into a routine and the realization that change was impossible. Only a few managed to save up money for old age and spend it in peace. Those like me, who spent all their savings on equipment or increasing existing skills, could only hope for a glorious battle at the end of their days.
Today's sortie was no different from the last one, except that yesterday we had completely checked Sector 134. And now we were heading to the next ring of ancient ruins.
Lurion Zhurek had designated Sector 245 for scouting. It was just past the dried-up riverbed of a fairly large river that divided the ancient city into two nearly equal parts. Moving along the bottom of the shallow river, we covered about three-quarters of its length. It was pleasant to walk on the soft sand, and the wind here was much weaker and didn't fill our eyes with dust.
The squad was in high spirits. Chikir was jovially joking with Raum, discussing one of the new brothel workers. My soldiers were too relaxed, having lost their previous focus. They were all distracted, listening exclusively to the conversation of those two, as if they were already a step away from their favorite tavern.
I, on the other hand, with every heartbeat, was looking more and more closely at the sand around us and couldn't understand what was making me so wary.
"Everyone stand still, form a circle around the mage!" I commanded loudly. "Leur, deploy the magical barrier!"
For a couple of heartbeats, the squad looked at each other in confusion until the fighters realized it was not a joke. We huddled together in a defensive formation, peering into the surrounding sand through the light haze of the magical barrier. But one minute passed, then a second, and nothing happened. The soldiers started whispering, trying to figure out what was going on. Something about the whole situation was definitely wrong. I felt it, but I couldn't understand where the danger was coming from.
"Maintain formation, stay alert!" I snarled.
The magical shield had a diameter of 11 meters. The fighters were crowded around Leur, and there was plenty of free space within the protective barrier's hemisphere. I stepped out of formation and slowly began circling my soldiers. I made three full turns and stopped. The warriors were already starting to smile, thinking their Decurion had made a mistake and was scared of his own shadow. In any other squad, the mage probably would have dropped the magical shield on his own. And he would most likely have laughed at such a coward. But the soldiers, and even the mage, were not eager to voice their opinions to Decurion Irchin the Malicious, simply because they were afraid of his brutal punishment.
"Get ready! Shoot at my target!" I said loudly and confidently.
An arrow landed 30 paces away from me. A heartbeat later, 12 more flew after it. No one could have said for sure which arrow landed a little to the right and hung suspended two elbows above the ground. And the general shock of what happened was hard to describe. But I didn't let my warriors linger on what they had just seen.
"Ready, on the flying arrow, FIRE!" I screamed and shot a well-aimed arrow myself, after which there were two of them.
The invisible creature rushed to the right, but more arrows flew into its body. Then it charged straight at us. There were no less than 20 arrows stuck in it by this point. You could already see some of our enemy's outlines. But it was an arachnid using mimicry, and there was no longer any doubt that it was an arachnid. The twitching run of its many legs was now clearly visible. In a desperate attempt to save its life, the spider decided to circle around us and escape, as getting close to our protective barrier was even more dangerous for it.
At that moment, something pushed me to an ill-considered step—either greed or perhaps an excess of self-confidence in my strength—and I ran out from under the magical barrier and charged after the invisible creature on a parallel course. But you can't go back under a one-way barrier.
"Everyone stay in place! Do not drop the magical dome until I return!" I commanded. To be honest, after what they had seen, no order would have driven my goblins out from under the barrier.
At least 10 more arrows, shot by my soldiers, hit the arachnid in the back, and it started to limp badly and slowed down. But it still had enough strength to climb the slope to the riverbank and disappear from my sight. I stormed after it, just two heartbeats behind. A terrible sight opened up before me.
An E-rank scout arachnid, Level 17, was lying on its side, covered in blood, with at least three arrows sticking out of its head. Its whole body was twitching, and its lower limbs convulsively scraped at the rocks. An E-rank spear lay beside it; it had held onto it until the very end. The sight was terrifying because no less than 40 small worker spiders and one large arachnid warrior were approaching us. They were about 200 paces away from me. On pure reflexes, I grabbed the scout's spear and thrust it into the open mouth of the defeated spider.
[Notice] You have gained 170 SP. (186/130)
[Notice] You have reached Level 14. (56/140)
You have 4 free attribute points available.
From the SP energy that passed through my body, my knees buckled slightly, and my hand let go of the spear. But that didn't stop me from grabbing the card that appeared without looking at it and rushing back to my goblins. As I ran up to the magical barrier, I even managed to give out commands before the damn bugs appeared on the riverbank in front of us.
"Attention! Break into pairs! Shoot to kill!" I barked. "Leur the Menacing, prepare a Fireball immediately! The arachnids are moving in a tight group, but only fire if it's a sure hit, and only at the arachnid warrior!"
I didn't have time to say anything else. A whole wave of spiders, scrambling quickly on their legs, moved toward us along the slope. I stood a little to the left of the magical barrier, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw the whole squad curse in unison. But they weren't the ones who would have to fight without the protection of the magical barrier.
Arrows flew almost immediately. Just two volleys, and the enemy had already covered half the distance between us. If we were lucky, four had fallen dead. One more shot, and then I finally saw the system information on the unusually large spider: D-rank arachnid Defender, Level 4. It was significantly larger than the warriors and had a much stronger shell. With most of the surviving subordinates, it charged directly toward me. I couldn't wait any longer.
"Leur, fire!" I commanded loudly, straining my voice. "Left half of the archers, attack my targets!"
The fireball struck no slower than an arrow. A huge fiery flower covered more than 10 meters around the arachnid defender. The wave of heat scattered the worker spiders. Those who were closer to the epicenter of the explosion continued to burn intensely. For a moment, the bugs froze, and that was enough for our arrows to hit them in the heads—not all of them, of course. And I continued to sink one arrow after another into the side of the arachnid defender that had been torn open by the fireball, while the smaller spiders froze, stunned by the magical attack.
But the success was temporary. Half a minute later, a dozen spiders began pounding the magical barrier with their blows, and the goblins involuntarily started shooting arrows at them instead of trying to save my precious life. Because almost a dozen bugs—wounded, but still mortally dangerous—moved toward me, and then the defender started to rise from the sand covered in its blood and, limping, charged after me.
Instantly assessing the situation, I rushed in a curve around the barrier, hoping that some of the bugs would start attacking the main group of goblins. I had no doubt that my soldiers would handle it. Judging by the color of the magical shield, its durability hadn't even decreased by half during this whole time. And as a last resort, Leur could strike the particularly quick arachnids with lightning, using the magical attack as a final argument.
To be honest, I was surprised that he had used a fireball exactly as I ordered him to, since it's a system skill that doesn't require mana but has a three-day cooldown. Therefore, mages usually save such a trump card to save their own lives.
Speeding up to my maximum, I was able to get 200 paces away from the arachnids pursuing me. Then, from my bow, I was able to kill the fastest one and seriously wound the one that was following it. But repeating such a successful maneuver was no longer possible. Although the lesser arachnids aren't known for their intelligence, they definitely had enough brains to form a semicircle and rush the one closest to me. Or perhaps it was the influence of the wounded arachnid defender.
So, I took out my shield and short sword and rushed at the closest spider, which had blocked one of my flanks and simultaneously my path of retreat. I struck the F-rank worker arachnid, Level 3, with all my might, knocking it off its eight legs onto the loose sand, while simultaneously delivering stabbing blows to its cephalothorax. One blow, a second, a third.
[Notice] You have gained 6 SP. (62/140)
A blow to my left leg, which wasn't covered by the shield. The spider's chelicerae firmly grabbed my leg and tried to bite through it. The armor didn't give way, but the pain was terrible. Its front legs hit my torso, trying to strike my head. Holes appeared in a couple of places in the bone plates on my chest, but they weren't deep. I wildly struck its cephalothorax with my sword, splitting a couple of its eyes. The pale blood flew everywhere, and the arachnid, in pain, for a moment, loosened its grip on my leg.
With a sharp jerk to the side, I limped, trying to get away from the wounded one. I looked back. Five lesser ones were wounded, and one nearly-dead defender was falling behind more and more, but it didn't lack persistence. And it was exactly the E-rank spider that was still controlling its younger brethren.
In a small arc, I tried to return to the barrier and its defenders. We were less than 500 paces apart. They had done their part, but they weren't even trying to leave the magical protection. With all my remaining strength, I rushed to the elevated riverbank, hoping that the height advantage would give me some kind of edge.
Three spiders with more serious wounds fell behind me by about 50 paces, while two attacked as soon as I stopped and took my spear. I struck one, then shifted to the other. They weren't in a hurry. They were just buying time, because reinforcements were close. But I understood that too.
I made a quick lunge, piercing the abdomen of the one on the left. The blow wasn't accurate, but the spear went a good elbow deep into its body. A blow from the second one, and I fell to the ground. But the sword was already in my left hand, and I was covering my head with my right. The spider was ferociously trying to pierce my armor despite my blows. The blows were strong; each one felt like it was breaking my ribs under the armor. But we exchanged blows. A breath, another, and the spider lost its right attacking leg, and then its left. It tried to bite me with its chelicerae, but I plunged the short sword straight into its insatiable maw.
[Notice] You have gained 4 SP. (66/140)
Despite the pain, I got up and finished off the spider that had been crawling all this time with my spear still in its body. It didn't even flinch. A sharp blow cut its neck.
[Notice] You have gained 2 SP. (68/140)
I put the spear into a card directly from the dead bug's body. There were 20 paces between the three wounded spiders and me, but they weren't moving as confidently anymore. I shot. The arrow hit the first one. It even stopped. Then the next one, and one more shot. But no matter how wounded they were, they still flinched and rushed me. I didn't even bother putting my bow into a card. I just dropped it. Shield and sword. In the last few steps between us, I rushed at the one that was faster and less wounded. I hit it with a strong backhand. Hundreds of battles didn't let me miss its head. I split it almost in two.
[Notice] You have gained 2 SP. (70/140)
I took one blow on my shield, then a second. I lunged and cut off the next spider's right leg. I hit it with my shield and finished it off in the head.
[Notice] You have gained 6 SP. (76/140)
And immediately, a blow hit my helmet. Everything swayed in front of my eyes. I raised my shield higher with my right hand. The next blow hit it. A step back and a sharp straight sword thrust into its cephalothorax as it lunged. The arachnid's counterattack knocked the shield out of my hand.
[Notice] You have gained 2 SP. (78/140)
Meanwhile, the arachnid defender almost stopped crawling toward me. There were 50 paces between us. It looked at me with its black, irisless eyes and breathed heavily. Blood flowed profusely from the wound on its side. I held my bow at the ready. The spider started to open its maw, about to say something. I shot. The arrow ricocheted off the chitinous plates on its head. It flinched slightly. I shot its right leg, at the elbow joint. It hit. The spider hissed and lunged at me. I shot its front leg, then another. It fell over and let go of its weapon. Ten more arrows, but it continued to hiss and say something quietly, on the verge of hearing.
"You won't escape. You won't escape," it said with a note of joy in its voice.
I had already approached, and we were only separated by 10 paces. I took my spear and threw it into the wound on its side. It went in a full elbow deep. Ten more arrows. I struck its head. I carefully approached and touched the spear.
[Notice] You have gained 112 SP. (190/140)
[Notice] You have reached Level 15. (50/150)
You have 5 free attribute points available.
How stubborn. They want to take at least one of us down, but they don't give up even in the most losing situation. Incredible persistence. Our Centurion Otsev once told me that it's because of the Instinct attribute. If it's greater than Intelligence, such creatures have practically no fear. And their hierarchy is strict. The order of a higher-rank creature is followed without question or doubt.
The arachnid defender was actually Level 14. The skill card that appeared after its death, I think I grabbed it before it fully manifested and put it in my Bag of Holding. Most likely, my squad couldn't make out much from this distance. I think right now, their heads are occupied with completely different thoughts. Because if it weren't for the fireball, the arachnid defender would have wiped out the entire squad, and the magical barrier wouldn't have been able to stop it.
Energy passed through my body, and the moment of vigor disappeared. I just wanted to fall down, but these hellspawn were still standing under the protection of the magical barrier. I don't know where I found the strength. I ran up to them, almost touching them, and hissed quietly and calmly.
"Leur, drop the shield, then be ready to heal me until we get back to camp. Moresh and Uler, guard the mage. The rest of you, collect the SP and weapons. And you, Chikir, go to the other bank for the invisible one. Collect everything from it, and I'll be watching."
The first wave of healing passed. For a moment, the pain subsided, but it immediately returned.
"Leur, keep going. I said 'heal when ready'!" He wanted to say something, but didn't dare. I didn't even turn in his direction, as if I knew better than him how much mana was left in his reserve.
A wave of coolness passed through my body again, and the pain did indeed become weaker. Now I could take stock of this battle, but taking out the cards here in plain sight would be extremely stupid. And the most important thing: the arachnid defender didn't have a Bag of Holding, but because of the brevity of my acquaintance with the scout, I didn't have time to notice if it had that player attribute. What if there was something useful in there?
"Leur, I'm going to check on Chikir. When you're done with the corpses, come up to me," I said and stood, watching him. He hesitated for a moment, but then realizing what I wanted to hear, he said, "Yes, sir, Decurion," in a slightly trembling voice.
Goblins are still cowardly, and it's quite difficult for them to overcome this weakness, especially after such shocks. It's not every day a squad fights one-on-one against so many bloodthirsty spiders. To some extent, my soldiers' cowardice is understandable. But not forgivable. When we return to camp, I will definitely punish a few of them harshly to maintain discipline in the future.
When I climbed the ridge and saw Chikir, I was unpleasantly surprised. First, he had only cut out about a quarter of the arrows, and second, he didn't notice me until I called to him from 10 paces away. What a lucky goblin. He was just sitting there like he was at home on the steps. A bloodthirsty thought even flashed through my mind to just kill him, but that's probably just greed talking.
"Chikir, get your spear and lift that carcass from the right side. I want to take the Bag of Holding off this arachnid."
The goblin jumped up about an elbow high in surprise. Even the green of his skin suddenly paled and turned almost white.
"Decurion Irchin," he cried out in fear.
"Do it," I repeated viciously.
Chikir awkwardly pushed the dead body with his spear. And yet I had to cut off the arachnid's hand myself to get its Bag of Holding.
"What are you doing?" I asked irritably. "Are you a complete moron? Any scout knows that the first thing you do is cut out the heart on the left and the gland on the right in the lower part of the chest and immediately place them in a Bag of Holding, and only then do you take out the used arrows. Well, answer me, why?"
"Decurion, sir," he mumbled quietly, "I don't know."
"Because a heart that hasn't gone bad is worth no less than fifty arrows, and a gland is worth even more," I hissed viciously. "Now don't waste my time, and hurry up."
I walked about 50 paces away from Chikir and sat on a large rock, but so that I could keep him in my sight. First, I looked at the cards in my bag. I expected to see at least an E-rank Invisibility skill or even a D-rank Chitinous Carapace, but the System doesn't care what gifts we're counting on; reality has its own plans for that. Both were blank E-rank skill cards. This was a bit disappointing, of course, but even they had a high price, no matter how you look at it. But I'm just trying to comfort myself, because while I was walking, I had fantasized a lot. But the spider scout's Bag of Holding was a surprise. In addition to 4 F-rank weapon cards and one with an E-rank spear, which was exactly the one it was holding, there were several skill cards in the bag. Two allowed me to learn spear proficiency, and the next two were not as simple as they might seem at first glance.
Skill Card - Venomous Stinger (1/5)
Rank F
Description: A hidden stinger grows into one of your limbs. It is capable of striking the enemy with a venomous stinger with great speed and force. You also get a separate organ that produces a weak neuroparalytic poison that can immobilize a target for some time. The duration and final effect depend on the strength of the target's body.
[Notice] Your species is not well-suited for this change. Severe, permanent poisoning is possible.
Chance of success when learning: 73%.
Chance of death: 51%.
Saturation: 3/10 SP
At first, I thought this was a useless skill suitable only for bugs and didn't even think about learning it. But after taking out the next card, I became pensive. Things didn't seem so clear-cut anymore.
Skill Card - Minor Regeneration (1/5)
Rank F
Description: Weak regeneration, which, however, allows missing body parts to begin to slowly grow back.
Saturation: 7/10 SP
Despite the weakness of the skill, perhaps my right ear, which was half torn off, or maybe the huge number of scars all over my body, would be able to regenerate. Apparently, arachnids don't have an innate protection against poisons, so a combination of these two skills is necessary. It's not for nothing that the spider scout carried these two cards together. This means that at some stage of improvement, minor regeneration makes it possible to resist weak poisons, and then they learn the poisonous stinger. And that could be interesting. If you smear the tips of your arrows with poison, it could really surprise an enemy. Another question is where would this stinger appear? For arachnids, it's obviously on their front legs, but for me, where?
[Notice] Learn the skill Minor Regeneration (10 SP)?
(47/150)
Yes/No
I'm definitely not turning down this gift from fate. The card dissolved in my hand, and a slight wave of cold ran through my body, making me grimace. Otherwise, I didn't feel any other changes in my body.
[Notice] Do you want to improve the skill Minor Regeneration (1/5) (20 SP)?
Yes/No
Rank increased. Skill power slightly increased.
Choose the direction of development:
1. Slightly increases body regeneration but significantly increases the consumption of nutrients in the body.
2. Slightly increases skin regeneration.
3. A slight resistance to poisons appears.
4. The body's need for nutrients is slightly reduced.
(27/150)
I choose option 3. After improving the skill, I didn't notice any changes in my body. A slight cramp lasted only a couple of minutes and passed almost painlessly. Now let's see how the chances of learning the second skill have changed.
Skill Card - Venomous Stinger (1/5)
Chance of success when learning: 93%.
Chance of death: 11%.
Saturation: 3/10 SP
I added the missing experience, and in the end, I had (20/150 SP) left over. It might seem premature and dangerous, not only from the point of view of poisoning my body, but also the possibility of getting caught when I submit SP and trophies at the camp. That's true, but I've never seen such cards for sale, which means I will most likely never get such a hidden trump card in the future. But I'm counting more on Zhurek the Slippery's greed. When he sees the trophies from this battle—both E-rank weapons and E-rank cards—the main thing is that he doesn't start salivating to death in anticipation of his personal share of this wealth. All this is just my nerves acting up after the fight, and stupid thoughts appearing in my head. In reality, no one will count the SP. They'll just use the Appraisal skill to check that my internal SP reserve is empty after submitting it to the accumulator, that I don't have new skills, and that my level is in order, and after that, no one cares.
I've been in the lord's army my whole life, and this rule is unshakable. Besides, I've resolved, looking at the strength of the arachnids, that I will change my body, trying to pave my way to future power with special skills.