Young Writers Society

Day 26

Today Ash asked me to teach her how to read.

Something she had been working up the nerve to ask since she could speak.

Even I noticed.

But since she never really asked, I never really offered.

I hardly can read myself, so I doubt I can teach. Much less when we are constantly under attack. But since she worked up the nerve to ask finally.

I said yes.

Like me, she picked up the basics quite quickly and seemed obsessed with the monster bestiary. I imagine it’s her blessing that filled in the blanks more then any teaching method I gave her. Same as my gifts that helped me learn how to speak from the moment I was born. After a few hours of me explaining the symbols and some basic rules of grammar I decided to let her have the day off so that she could practice.

While normally I would like a few minions by my side, I haven't really needed her help today. Every party that reached us seemed so full of openings and so slow that I was able to kill them all by myself. While Ash praised me, it felt like they were letting me kill them.

For example a group of four:

A Female Human Knight Templar, dressed in thick silver armor, a massive shield in one hand and a long silver sword in the other.

A Male Elf Fire Mage, hidden in a mess of red robes, a metal staff decorated in runes in his right hand.

A Male Elf Healer, wearing poorly patched leather, holding a broken staff, his only quality object a massive hat that with a slightly brim turns into a bent cone.

And a Female Gnome Archer Thief wearing a complicated network of black fabric attacked, they slaughtered their way through my mid boss and various monsters like they were nothing. It was a party of level 25’s, so it was not a surprise, but it was still frustrating.

My minions could do nothing to them. So when they finally came to my throne room I asked Ash to prepare to dump as many skills as possible at their Healer as quickly as she can while I try to take said Healer out through a [Charge] and [Cleave].

But…

Rather then charging, or looking around carefully they walked in.

Just...walked in.

“That’s the ‘child’?” asked the Knight Templar. “He looks like he’s just a weird hobgoblin to me.”

“Look at those runes on his cheeks, and his grey skin.” the Elf Healer said. “In fact all the monsters here have that grey skin. Look at the themes flowing into this place. This hobgoblin is blessed, and his status is effecting the other monsters here!”

“Doesn’t sound all that convincing to me.”

“Just stick to the plan!”

“Fine.” the Knight Templar said with a resigned tone.

Weird Hobgoblin…

Huh.

Offense was taken.

While the conversation felt like an important hint at something, Ash and I didn’t care, we were planning to kill them and ask question later.

The traditional way to handle hard questions.

So Ash quickly used [Rapid fire], [Skill Shot], [Battle Rage], and [Pin] a skill that can lock an enemy in place, all at once in order to completely destroy or at least hamper the enemies Healer. But their Archer Thief ran in front of the healer, pulling out a dagger, and used an unknown skill, drawing in all her arrows to her dagger, allowing her to easily stop them all.Even at the speeds Ash was firing this Archer Thief cut down every arrow that got close, simply because the arrows curved towards her dagger.

I wanted that skill so I told Ash to keep firing until I learned it.

Meanwhile the Knight Templar charged at me, not using the skill, but I used it myself [Charge] was activated as I jumped and I launched myself at the Knight Templar, activating [Cleave] as I got close. She knocked back my attack, her shield almost impacting me before I countered it automatic.

[Counter Strike], ranked up to [Counter Break], making it’s countering chance much higher. A nice boost, but for that battle my auto counter ability had effectively reset until I leveled up the skill. So I no longer had any automatic counter ability for now.

“Lets see if this works” I heart the Knight Templar mutter, her sword glowing as she swung.

“His blessing isn’t darkness based!” The Elf Healer yelled.

Thanks to my passive [Double Self], I avoided the attack while my own [Cleave] was blocked by the Knight Templar’s shield.

[Smite] Learned.

A light magic imbuing effect? Not all that useful.

I attempted [Bind] on him as I used [Double strike], my sword blurring as I swung. However she easily resisted, and while I hit her, the wounds were minor. So I used [Charge] intentionally slamming myself into her metal shield, knocking her off balance I jumped back before firing off [Freeze Ray] followed by [Lightning Strike]. Frying the Knight Templar after coating her in a layer of ice. I wasted mp by cutting the [Freeze Ray] short, but I was simply trying to get her covered in a layer of frost.

“Dang this little weirdo is relentless. I see where he got the name [Warcraze].” The Knight Templar said.

For some reason the other then blocking Ash’s arrows his party wasn’t doing anything. They must figure this girl can handle me alone I thought.

While observing my environment two alerts popped up.

[Third Eye], Ranked up into [Fourth Eye], a useful change, making it so I can actually see as if I had eyes all around my head, rather then feeling out the location of things. The view is limited now but it will get stronger as the skill levels.

[Vortex Slash] Learned.

A skill that causes anything I want to gravitate towards what ever weapon I am using as I swing, which would make it much harder to dodge.

Useful. Since I finally learned the skill from that Archer Thief I quickly put it into action. Pulling the Knight Templar’s shield at my sword which I waved off carelessly to the side. She seemed confused until her weight shifted. I took this chance to punch her in the face, but was blocked easily.

Useful but still a weak skill.

Using my new skill I started fighting the Knight Templar in a proper duel, exchanging blows and skills as we tried to kill each other. After what felt like a half hour of fighting she finally died. Following that, I quickly slaughtered the other party members who hardly reacted at all.

Following more parties showed up, each one only fighting me one at a time, refusing to fight me other then one on one, and their parties seemed to refuse to help their ally even if they were about to die. After I fought off the first of the party the rest almost jump on my sword.

Because of that, I decided to let Ash read. Figuring that I would have a chance to learn more skills if I was left to fight them alone since they seemed to avoid actually killing me. Always giving me a chance to recover.

Happily I learned three more.

[Menacing Wave] A skill that boost my natural intimidation factor when I activate it. As I’m not all that intimidating to an adventurer given I am an oddly colored Hobgoblin, I can’t imagine this skill would be useful. But once I rank up, this might have plenty of uses.

[Lesser Regeneration] A pretty self explanatory skill that passively heals me over time. Not all that useful now as it hardly heals me at all, but given how often I get hurt, I am sure I can get this ranked up to a faster version quite quickly.

[Pledge of Protection] A skill that directs a lot of the damage an ally of mine takes to myself, spreading the damage all across my body, reducing even fatal damage into a bunch of minor scratch. Mixed with [Lesser Regeneration], this skill will have it’s uses.

I learned five skills today, and ranked up two from this weird mass of free experience, until I can get more information on what these adventurers are doing, I’ll just accept the free meal.

Day 27

Just as I woke up, a mass of level 10 adventurers lost everything they had to Felix, and then were slaughtered by Brook who I had patrolling the maze like first level today. The resulting experience gave me a pleasant alert. I couldn’t see it personally but the happy report by Felix made me laugh.

“Level 100 reached.”

“Do you wish to rank up?”

[[Yes]][[No]]

While still tried from waking up to this, of course I picked [[Yes]].

“The following hidden achievements have been acquire.”

“[Tactician], [Skill Eccentric], [Master of Carnage], [Solo Crowd Control], [Friends with Enemies]”

“Additional rank up possibilities unlocked.”

- Ogre

- Gnoll

- Navier

Unlocked By [Maser of Carnage]– Mad Shadow

If picked following bonus skills unlocked:

[Friends with Enemies] unlocks – [Bloody Link]

Unlocked By [Skill Eccentric]– Lux Historia

If picked following bonus skills unlocked:

[Solo Crowd Control] unlocks – [Guiding hand]

[Tactician]unlocks – [Momentum]

Hm, achievements? I couldn’t interact with them, so not quite sure what they mean or what they do other then unlock these new species and skills I wouldn’t have had otherwise.

Oh well, I figured I could ask Alex later, so I looked into my choice.

Ogres are a lot like the Orc’s from my previous choices, except much more powerful, and slightly more intelligent. The were massive lumbering creatures with glowing red eyes, patchy skin and thick tusk.

While being powerful is nice...

No.

Just no.

Gnolls are a savanna tribal sort of humanoid in shape monster covered in coarse brown spotted fur with a dog like face. High stamina sort of creature that works in groups to take down monsters stronger then themselves.

Interesting, but I’d like to keep a level of my self sufficiency, as a boss monster, I need to stay well above the top, even if I could as a Gnoll, all they really have going for them is stamina, speed wise they are pretty average.

Navier is a simisolid with a core of glowing ice that takes on a humanoid form. High resistance to all magic and slash damage in general, but by themselves they lack much in way of power. While I would love a few of these for my dungeon, I don’t see it as all that nice to become.

While I can say those were all potential choices, as I read through them, my head was more set on the last two.

Mad Shadow seems to be a humanoid version of Cursed Shadow, a dark silhouette in the shape of a humanoid with six glowing red eyes. All it has going for it is the same things Cursed Shadow has.

Lux Historia is a extinct species of lower ranking guardian monsters. Human in look with incredibly pale skin, long grey hair, spiral orange eyes, and sharp features.

Like a immortal scholar.

Luckily all the options seem to fit my preferred shape.

Anyway.

They are a species who used to protect and organized old skill libraries where countless intelligent monsters studied to keep up with the rising power of humanoids. In the end they failed, the libraries burned, and humanoids took over the world. But even their lowest ranked species was powerful.

Rather then powerful in stats they had a natural skill called [Scitis Eyes], which allowed them to read, and appraise the nature of anything they picked up. With it they could study well used weapons and learn lost skills and find the use in long forgotten tools. In it’s first form I doubted I could even read the information the iron sword I’ve been using. But another method to learn more skills and figure out this world is always welcome.

Decision made.

I felt a shift, like I had been moved, a loud rip noise, bubbling, and then finally an alert.

“[Scitis Eyes], [Guiding hand], [Momentum] Learned.”

[Guiding hand] allowed me to directly control a single minion in my dungeon for three minute. In that time, I can only use their skills, but their stats will be boosted for those three minutes to mine. Each level raises the time, with the max being a full day. A interesting way to save one of my minions or surprise hurt a adventurer.

[Momentum] allows me to keep a percent of a motion’s built up speed even after stopping once or twice. Meaning if I ran up to max speed, and then stopped, the moment I try running again, a portion of that speed I reached will already be added. If I punch, a portion of my previous speeds punch will be added to my next. A incredibly useful passive skill.

My stats were halved, but then boosted by the nature of the species, which meant I was stronger at level one of this new species as I was at level 100 as a hobgoblin. According to the information I was given however, I was only slightly stronger then a normal Lux Historia would be at level 1.

Huh.

Hobgoblins are surprisingly weak.

After my change I noticed I was sitting on my throne, nobody was there but the place felt changed.

After a bit of stumbling around I realized I had gotten taller.

Looking in the mirror I found a entirely different monster, the same as the summery described and showed me, but with gold tinting my eyes, those runes from my hobgoblin form seem to have gotten more complex but are still in the same place, and I still have my grey skin, which matches my now grey hair. Given my new size and power I decided to use two swords, both the same iron swords I had a massive collection of, I had more powerful weapons, but unless I really need them, I rather not risk loosing them just because I can’t keep my hands shut if I get killed.

Wanting to try out my new form and level up some of my skills I gave everyone, including Cerberus and Ash a break, telling them to do what ever they like in the throne room on stand by.

The first fight of the day was a single adventurer, a male Human Knight Venerater. A venerater, based on the skills he used, is a self buffing sort of class. The first thing he did was activate several skills that seemed to boost his speed and raw power. I saw him pull out several potions and down them, likely some sort of boost.

As I realized he actually feared me, a smile sneaking onto my face.

I used [Menacing Wave], the Knight Venerater stared at me for a couple seconds before downing another potion.

Good.

Not enough to scare him away, but enough to make him wary of me.

I suppose I could have just killed him while he was distracted boosting himself, but I wanted a good one-on-one challenge.

Rather then attack I waited for him to attack me. Which after boosting himself he didn’t waste any time doing. He charged at me, the almost flight like pattern implying he was using a skill, the boost allowing him to reach me in a matter of seconds, with the obvious intent to spear me with his sword. So I used [Vortex Slash] yanking his sword towards my right side, parrying it, and while doing that used [Lightning Strike] while stabbing at him, with my left. His armor broke my iron sword but it still cut in enough that I fried him from the inside. However his momentum kept going, slamming him into me, knocking me to the ground, with the heavy knight laying on me, dazed.

He seemed to use his movement skill as soon as he could, rather then to escape, to try to squish me. I could feel my bones crack, the pain causing me to spit blood in his face.

While still worse for wear he grinned and grabbed my throat with his left hand, aiming his sword at my skull with his right. The stab he did before I realized then must have been a skill given he seemed to be waiting. One powerful enough to have a cool down. Rather then let him kill me I looked to my right and used [Charge] the skill yanking me away and narrowly allowing me to avoid what ever move he had prepared. His sword had stabbed deep into the white stone of the first floor, deep enough that it was stuck.

He only hesitated for a moment before pulling out another sword.So was easily able to avoid my attempt to use [Cleave] on him. As he tried to attack me I again used [Vortex Slash], yanking his sword at my own, easily blocking his attack with my still unbroken right sword. I pointed my broken left hand sword at him and used [Ice ball], which slammed into his face, breaking what little focus he had. Using this moment I finally cut off his head, yanking his extra sword from his grip moments before he died.

The back up sword was just as good as my iron swords, but the one stuck in the ground was a hand-and-a-half sword with a Strength buff skill on it called [Minor Strength], according to my [Scitis Eyes] anyway.

A pretty self explanatory passive skill that can’t be ranked up.

Mixed with my [Skill Learn], I picked it up instantly. I replaced my iron sword and sent the new weapon into my [Armory] figuring it might be useful later.

After a long day of incredibly easy fights, leveling up five times, a pair of adventurers worth my attention appeared.

A female elf Archer Fire Mage, and a female elf Archer Water Mage. The moment they entered the room they attempted to attack me, mixing their arrows with magic forcing me to dodge rather then block. Using [Fire ball] and [Menacing Wave], I attempted to distract them and close the distance before they could do anything.

They hesitated from the sudden fear enough that they were forced to dodge out of the way even though the Archer Water Mage at first seemed like she was going to counter me. I used [Charge] to close the distance, missing as the Water Mage used a ice spear skill, the attack bouncing off my chest plate, leaving a sizable dent, and bruising me as well. If not for my passive, [Momentum] I probably would have stopped entirely, but I still had enough speed left to finally reach them.

They tried to use arrows on me, but using [Vortex Slash] I easily blocked them. I then used [Ice ball] on the Archer Fire Mage, before trying to use [Flail] on the Archer Water Mage. They both jumped out of the way, far enough that it seemed to be a passive skill. They were split up, a disadvantage to me since they were both range, and I am more of a up close fighter.

I used [Charge] at the Archer Fire Mage, while also using [Freeze Ray] to counter anything she might try to use on me. She used a skill that I ended up learning as she used it, [Sun Flare] a skill that shot out a wave of concentrated fire, the skill was clearly a rank above my own, so my [Freeze Ray] was overpowered quickly, it reduced the damage I took, but I still ended up charging through a beam of fire.

My half roasted form most have scared the Archer Fire Mage as she screamed, wetting herself at the sight of me, I used [Charge] again, slamming myself into her while pointing my weapon at her, my iron sword broke in her heart. Killing her instantly. I tried to take her bow, but she died too quickly.

While I happily killed one of them, the Archer Water Mage started yelling insults at me, while I might have happily named off a few, she yelled while activating a powerful water skill, submerging my head in a ball of water, muffling what ever she was saying. I attempted to [Charge] my way at her, hoping the water would simply come off, but it didn’t, my lungs screaming at my exertions without the fresh air.

I used the skill [Sun Flare] that I just learned, pointing it at her, figuring the solution was to kill her before I drown. But she must have been used to this skill, blocking it with a wall of ice, which I through my own momentum slammed into.

Shamefully I died on impact...

Other then that I either died quickly, or killed quickly, so nothing else was learned.

I lost ten iron swords, purely because of my own power mixed with the skills I used throughout the day before finally deciding to switch to the hand-and-a-half sword I had earned off the Knight Venerater, as well as another hand-and-a-half Felix had stolen from a adventurer the day before. Both of them were much better made, more so the Knight Venerater’s sword which was in perfect condition despite being stabbed into solid rock.

I like this species I’ve become, and through the days fights I have mostly gotten used to it’s various advantages and disadvantages. As far as I can tell anyway.

Day 28

Nothing new happened today, Ash is focused on her book, and seems to be trying to learn to write as well.

Alex and Anna still haven’t shown up, despite claiming they would come back soon. Since Ash is busy I had nobody to talk to.

Boring.

At the end of the day however I did get a alert.

“[Minion Class] Ash has reached level 100. Rank up pending.”

‘Good for her’ I think before I go to sleep.

Day 29

When I woke up, I got a alert.

“[Minion Class] Ash has reached level 100. Rank up pending.”

Huh.

I remembered getting this yesterday, why ‘hasn’t she ranked up yet?’ I thought.

I opened my eyes to Ash staring at me. Recently she stopped doing that, preferring to sleep in her room, and often times only waking up after I’ve already woken up myself.

After a few awkward seconds of silence I finally asked, “...Yes?”

“Oh!” She quickly averted her eyes. “I-I did it master! I can be more useful to you now. I can rank up like you did!”

“I know, I was alerted to it yesterday. Why haven't you ranked up?”

Nervous...she’s normally a lot calmer.

“W-well, since my options are not as grand as master Zeno’s I-”

“Decide for yourself.”

“What?” She said, clearly confused.

“While it’s nice that you want to be useful to me. It’s best you pick what ever you’re comfortable with. That book you started reading a few days ago should give you plenty of ideas on which is best.”

I’m sure I sounded wise and benevolent.

“I only started reading that book master Zeno, and I can hardly read. Forgive me, but even with your kindness I will still need guidance.” She said, frowning slightly.

Oh...

Oh right!

‘Most monsters need to learn things slowly’ I thought.

“But don’t you have some sort of messages telling you what your options are? Those should have been designed so that you can understand them even if you can’t read.” I say.

“They give a summery. But that isn’t enough to decide what to change into master. It’s not like I can change my mind later. Since I don’t know as much as master, I want you to decide even if you are kind enough to give me a choice in the matter.”

I....

I’ve just been deciding based on the summery...

Sorry Ash, I’m not as clever or smart as you think.

But I tried my best not to let her down.

“I rather avoid directing your choice. So let me see the bestiary and tell me what options you have. I’ll read off their explanations so that you get a fairer understanding.”

She smiled. “Thank you master!”

She ran off, got the book, and in between fights with adventurers I read off the details for all of her options. It took a while but she finally decided on a monster called a Krodh, it’s a red skinned, glowing white eyed, long red haired humanoid in shape, covered in deep engravings that outline the various bends and joints of it’s body. On it’s back is a network deep lines that when willed work as ribbon like additional limbs, four in total, and capable of extending as far as 25 feet, with about a quarter of the power of the monsters normal arms. Unlike normal limbs they re-grow as long as the monster in question is healed enough, so they can easily be used as a last resort shield without worrying much about crippling themselves. It’s natural skill is [Arms of Rage] which cause the four ribbons to network together into an additional pair of arms which have the same amount of power as it’s natural arms.

I can’t really see the use in that given it would take a outstanding amount of time to get used to the temporary arms and they seem like they would get in the way. But she was excited by it’s potential skill and natural stats.

So I didn’t say anything.

It’s obvious but she didn’t really look anything like she did before, her slight curve became quite noticeable, her features much more appealing to the eye. Of course rather then the red skin of her new species she was grey, her hair still red, but grey skin. Her runes from before in the same places.

Shortly after changing into some better fitting clothes, and examining herself in the mirror I bought a week or more ago, I challenged her to a sparing match.

We needed to find out just how strong she became and see how well she could handle her extra arms.

So like when I ranked up everyone except for the ranked up member got a day off. Of course I didn’t plan to leave her entirely alone, I hung around as well, but all of the fighting was on her, with me only helping if she looked like she was going to die.

She was...

Scary to be honest.

While she lost more then she won, when she won, she won brutally.

Heavily dismembering her enemies before killing them.

Breaking bones rather then delivering fatal blows.

Throwing the corpses of just defeated Adventurers at their allies in order to distract their attention.

I can’t really discourage her, seeing as she learned these tactics from me.

But her smiles while covered in blood are a little worrying.

Just a little.

Day 30

After sending everyone to their proper place I spent the day learning how to write with Ash, I picked it up pretty much instantly, fast enough that I spent more time teaching Ash.

Not as many adventurers as usual today.

A portion of my mind says today is the first full month that I have existed. To celebrate that I decided to upgrade my throne. The ugly stone turned into something cleanly carved, filled with details and curves like some artist had spent months on it.

While it looks nicer it’s still a lump of stone, so I can’t really call it a improvement, but it’s at least a little more imposing when Adventurers see me sitting on it. 

Which fits with my new look.

Sort of...

I'll worry about an actual celebration if I last a year.