Unconquered Tower

EIGHTEEN

The sun broke the horizon to match the burning remnants of the two villages lost to the night’s fighting. It rose higher and higher and soon the faint glow of the fires was lost, only greasy, black smoke trails showing where the two villages had been.

Roan rubbed at his bloodshot eyes with the heel of his hands. Even with the life energy flowing through the amulet and his tempering, he was tired. The race through the forest and subsequent fights had been brutal and he wanted nothing more than to lay down and take a nap.

There was too much to do. With the armed mobs walking down from the walls and retaking their positions, he had bounties to turn in. He hadn’t been desperate enough to take goblin ears, but others had. Piles of the bloody trophies were stacked around, ready to be turned in for sweet credits. Roan hardly paid attention to them as he looked over the notification that had come at the end of the night.

ENEMIES SLAIN

GOBLINOID: 32

OGRE: 13

SHAMAN: 4

HOBGOLIN: 1

CREDITS EARNED: 6,240

QUEST BONUS MULTIPLIER: X2

FINAL CREDITS EARNED: 12,480

Roan couldn’t help but feel a flush of pride at the massive amount of credits that had poured into his account from fighting through the night. It amused him that the ogres were his biggest earners, the slow, powerful monsters easy prey to his methods. They were also the group taking the worst amount of casualties, over sixty percent of their number dead already.

LEVEL QUEST

FIND THE NEXT PASSAGE

TIME REMAINING: 2 DAYS 20 HOURS

LEVEL 2 CLEARANCE RATE: 32%

HORDE OFFICERS SLAIN

LIEUTENANTS: 645/1,000

CAPTAINS: 81/250

MAJORS: 8/25

GENERAL: 0/1

HORDEMASTER: ???

Even with the heavy losses the ogres had taken, the survivors hadn’t managed to increase the rate of kill percentages. They’d even killed the same amount of hobs in both nights, but now there were two spare hobs to come out tonight with only the two villages left. Seven hobs spread across two villages with a dragon coming was too much. It just further reinforced Roan’s opinion they had to be proactive, they couldn’t just sit and wait out the horde.

In the four hours since the night had ended he’d been busy. He’d gone and turned in all of his bounties he’d collected through the night to get the rest of his pay. The total of all of the bounties, thirteen ogre pendants, four shaman, and the hob’s own necklace, had amounted to a staggering fifty-six thousand credits.

His loot had been donated to the Association, at least the stuff he didn’t want to carry around. A few nice daggers had been added to his arsenal along with a second short sword. He now had six shaman staffs collecting dust, but he refused to sell them for a pittance, even if nobody could actively use them. There had been a few potions in the mix, all healing, and they’d gone into his rapidly filling storage ring.

CURRENT BALANCE: 103,311

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Roan couldn’t help but stare at the number, mind trying to process how quickly his bank account was swelling. The heavy bounties on the Horde officers was the deciding factor. Just turning in the ogre bounties had been more than he’d earned from doing the nightly quest.

“Not everyone can farm powerful monsters like we can,” the voice whispered in his ear. Roan had to agree with that, only Taoya and a maybe a few others had the skillset, weapons, and physical abilities to slaughter ogres like he could. Even a powerhouse like Tyler didn’t have the endurance for marathon battles like they were going through. Taoya’s mana core had leveled the playing field and taken away what Roan had thought was his only advantage, his prodigious endurance.

ROAN

STRENGTH: 18

ENDURANCE: 21 (+1)

SPEED: 15

DEXTERITY: 17

PERCEPTION: 13

INTELLIGENCE: 11

KNOWLEDGE: 17 (+2)

MANA CORE: N/A

SOUL TEMPERING: N/A

BLOODLINE: PURIFIER (INFERIOR GRADE)

Roan couldn’t help but grit his teeth when he reviewed his stats. The explosive growth was starting to slow down. He felt for the amulet on his neck and rubbed his finger over it. He hadn’t had time to confirm if it had been the key to his success, supplying his body with a continuous amount of vitality to keep moving, but if it was, it had reached its limit.

“Add it to the list of needed upgrades. Need to buy a better weapon so Jerry’s enchantment doesn’t go to waste,” he reminded himself. He checked over his skills and was delighted to see some growth in them.

PASSIVE RECOVERY: TIER 2

MANA FLOW WILL INCREASE YOUR PHYSICAL RECOVERY BY 20%

SYNERGY FOUND WITH BODY TEMPERING

MENTAL RESISTANCE: TIER 2

RESIST INFERIOR-GRADE MENTAL ATTACKS AND INCREASES WILLPOWER

LEARN TIER: 3

BODY TEMPERING: TIER 1

ENCHANTING: TIER 1

SKILL SHAPING 40/65

ARBOREALIST TOUCH: 0/80

The jump in his skills was nice. Especially the mental resistance. The upgrade from passive to inferior-grade was pleasing to see, but he wanted to have more concrete numbers about the difference. A ten percent increase of passive healing was in line with the skill increases he’d seen from other Learn. As the potential only made it to tier five, if it continued the way it did, he’d max his recovery at fifty percent. The synergy note kept his eyes locked on it along with how his skill shaping had crept up a bit more.

“Need to unlock the two skills and investigate the synergy when I get a bit of breathing room. Hopefully the next level is not so hectic,” Roan thought to himself as he walked toward the temporal chambers. They were running constantly, bodies going in and out in a stream as everyone tried to get what advantages they could.

“ROAN!” Taoya’s welcoming voice pulled Roan’s attention to where the giant was standing in the shade of the buildings. He looked tired, bags formed under his eyes and he was slumped to the side, resting his weight on the side of a wall.

“You didn’t get any sleep did you?” Roan asked as he got closer, not wanting to shout.

“I’ll be hopping into a chamber and taking a nap in a bit. Ironic, they’re meant for us to learn, but they’re our best defense against the time crunch out here,” Taoya said.

“Is that irony? I always miss the mark on it,” Roan said as he stood next to Taoya.

“Maybe? I don’t know, my brain is mush right now. Need another steak and some sleep.” Taoya reinforced his words by rubbing at his face and yawning loudly.

“I got a quick nap but that’s a good idea. Just so much to do,” Roan complained.

“Darren is in the middle of his training session, but when he comes out we’re doing a planning session in there. Just waiting on the survivors from the last village to get here. Be another hour or so,” Taoya said.

“I need one of those communication glasses,” Roan grumbled.

“Buy one then. I know how much I got paid, so I have a decent idea about how much you earned,” Taoya said with a sly grin.

“It was a nice haul. Going to upgrade my weapons though, need to get Jerry to teach me how to do weapons enchantments and don’t want to waste it on something cheap,” Roan said.

“Going to be pricy, but could be worthwhile. I completely destroyed my guards, they need some type of reinforcement for them,” Taoya complained.

“I’ll help you with that,” Roan offered.

“How much?”

“For you? I’ll do it because I owe you and we’re teammates. Everyone else is twenty-five hundred,” Roan said. With the five hundred he’d have to pay Jerry, that would give him a clean two thousand per enchantment he created.

“I do love a discount,” Taoya said, his tired smile widening.

“Who doesn’t? I’m going to go get a steak and look over what weapons I can buy. Meet me there when Darren gets out?”

“Sounds good. We can all eat before going back into the chambers to plan. See you in a bit,” Taoya said, waving good-bye as Roan headed to the restaurant only hoping they still had more of the lion-cub steaks.