Proofrearder: Vaanouney
Note: The original chapter 07 disappeared, I must have accidentally deleted or something. Anyway re-uploaded it again.
Power and Humility
Smoke and his private army of Hunters started their journey back to Nanahuatl Village. While traveling, Smoke was acquiring the knowledge from the book entitled ‘The History of Ancient Zectas’. The progress bar indicated that it would need twenty-four hours to finish.
Before, he used to find traveling to be really tedious, but now that he has learned about ‘acquiring knowledge’ from books, he finds the long distances to be pleasant and therapeutic. Because the most destinations takes a couple of days, he has already absorbed a number of books.
As the progress bar for the book ‘The History of Ancient Zectas’ indicated that it would be completed in one minute, Smoke called for the party to stop, rest, and start preparing a meal. He wanted to be in a focused state when the absorbed knowledge window pops up.
| + The History of Ancient Zectas
During the time when the great gods ‘Tlaltezin’, ‘Chalchizin’, ‘Tezcazin’, and ‘Cuezaltzin’ left the world alone, the reptilian race being smarter, stronger, and faster than the other races ruled the world. They had enslaved all the other races. The orks were strong but they weren’t too smart. The elves were smart but they were few in numbers. The dwarves were stout, but they were simply overpowered. Many other races tried to rebel against the reptilian race, but all of them ended with the same result. They were all enslaved. Within the reptilian race, there was also a hierarchy of power. From lowest to highest were the Lizardites (lizard people), the Chameleonese (chameleon people), the Crocodilians (crocodile people), and the Draconian (dragon people). The reptilian race divided the world of Zectas amongst themselves. The Lizardites took the West, the Chameleonese took the South, the Crocodilians took the North, and the Draconians took the East. The leader of the Lizardites, High General Vinceretus, wanted to rule all of the reptiles. He was sick of being the lowest ranking High General. Together with the High Generals of the Chameleonese and the Crocodilians, they planned a rebellion. High General Muttus of the Chameleonese and High General Stultus of the Crocodilians both thought the same thing. They would use the Lizardites as bait. Once the campaign against the Draconians is over, they would just fight it out amongst themselves. Chameleonese versus Crocodilians. With the three reptile races united, they faced the Draconian Empire. However, even with their combined forces they still couldn’t defeat the mighty Draconians. Realizing that victory wasn’t possible, High General Muttus and High General Stultus defected back into the Draconian fold. They told Supreme High General Ultimus that it was all Vinceretus’ doing. They were just coerced into joining the rebellion. High General Vinceretus was prepared for their treachery. For some time he has been studying the forbidden dark arts. Using his gained knowledge, he summoned the fallen reptiles from their rebellion. This time with his army of undead reptiles, High General Vinceretus launched a counterattack on all the three reptile races. Their war lasted for years. But High General Vinceretus’ source of power in summoning the undead was running out. He was using the lives of his people. In sacrificing 10,000 lizardites he was able to produce one blood invoker stone. Able to reanimate 100,000 conscripts of undead. Yet because of the great world war of the reptiles, the whole population of the reptilian race decreased drastically. No matter what reptilian race it was, they were barely in the thousands. Seizing this opportunity, the other races joined forces. They fought the weak and dying reptiles. The enslaved races were united with one goal: freedom for all. And so the joint army of the enslaved races gained victory. This is how the reign of the reptiles ended. |
+ Your total ‘Acquired Knowledge’ has increased your Intelligence by 1.
Smoke was thrilled. It has finally happened. He had learned from one of the books, that if you acquire a certain amount of knowledge you can gain Intelligence stats.
It took 10 points of Intelligence before the maximum mana capacity increased. Smoke estimated that the increase would be around 12%. Deducting Igniz’s 10% symbiosis would mean that he would still gain 10.8%.
He had to acquire the knowledge of 50 books before he got that 1 point Intelligence stat. Yet he was not discouraged. For he has also learned from the book ‘An Introduction to Stats Part IV’ that acquiring a book’s knowledge could be hastened if you can gain the ‘Wisdom’ attribute.
However, the exact procedure to gain the Wisdom attribute still eluded him. It was supposed to be in the book entitled ‘Stats and their Secrets’. Sadly, Darius’ library didn’t have that book.
Now that he has completed that previous book, he picked up a new one to start the process of gaining knowledge once more.
After they were done with their food, the party proceeded towards Nanahuatl Village.
Back in Nanahuatl, the Hunters returned to their homes and their families, while Smoke hurriedly looked for Adder. He went to his house were Adder was supposed to be recuperating, but he didn’t find him there.
He went to ask Darius if he knew where Adder was. Darius coincidentally just stepped out of his to greet Smoke.
“Hello, Smoke, I take it that you’ve slain the iron golem with ease? But what’s this? Is that a dark ember sprite hovering around you?”
“Hi, Darius. Yup! He’s called Igniz. I’ve named him after Ignizoc Forest. He was squashed by the iron golem, and I accidentally made him my symbiote as I tried to save his life.”
“Hmm, I’ve thought about making a symbiote myself. But the drawback of it diminishing my maximum mana was too much for me. You see, I’m very much dependent on Mana.”
“I would guess that as well. Seeing as that you have the appearance of an ArchMage.”
“ArchMage? Well I guess I do look like one. But let me tell you now that I’m not an ArchMage.”
“Yes, yes, I know. I’ve already figured out what the hidden basic job is, and let me tell you that I like it. At first I wasn’t really sure of how I felt since I was expecting a different kind of job. But then after realizing that it was the same as your job, I knew that I would grow to like it.”
“Really? So it’s because of me that you like the hidden job that I have to offer? Most people would reject it as soon as they hear it. I’m glad that I was able to inspire you in some ways, Smoke.”
“Also, after acquiring the knowledge of countless books, I knew that I would love being a librarian.”
“Librarian? What do you mean librarian?”
“You know, the hidden job. It’s the hidden job of a librarian right? Drop the act Darius. I already know that the hidden job is a librarian.”
“No, you’ve guessed wrong it really isn’t. I’m not trying to pull your leg or anything, but I really thought that you had figured out what the hidden job was. I guess you will have to wait and see until you complete the quest.”
“Classic Darius, always sticking to the ‘You’ve guessed wrong’ act. Well, alright, I’ll play along. I sure look forward to knowing what the hidden job is.”
“No, it really isn’t a librarian. I don’t know where you got the idea that I’m a librarian but I’m not. I just love reading books. That’s why I have a decent private library.”
“Okay, okay. Anyway, can you tell me where I can find Adder? I want to see if he’s feeling better.”
“Oh, right, about that. Adder asked me to give you a message. It states that until he has mastered his new weapon, he won’t be coming back. In other words, he left the village to train.”
“New weapon? What’s his new weapon? When did he leave?”
“He left a few days after you did. He asked me to forge a special sword. He had already asked me to craft the weapon while I was still healing him. He also told me not to tell you what kind of sword it is. Just in case he couldn’t master it. But knowing Adder, I’m sure he’ll return here after accomplishing the impossible.”
“I was hoping that he was well enough to join on us against the murlocks. I wanted him to see every last one of them dead. I wanted to show him how sorry I am for losing his arm.”
“Well, I’m sure he knows that too, Smoke. Anyway, before you head out raining vengeance against the murlocks, I want you to meet a couple of people.”
“Who? Don’t tell me that Adder was just hiding inside your house all this time, Darius?”
“No, no, no, Adder went away to train. Deal with it. Just come inside and meet them.”
“Oh, okay.”
Once inside Smoke saw two well built men. They were part of the eight archers that Darius trained.
They look to be at least six and half feet tall. They have forest green skin and pointy ears. They also have identical faces. They looked to be elves but Smoke has never seen an elf with forest green skin before.
Smoke thought that they must be brothers just like Vijaya and Sharanga. He just realized that he didn’t really remember much of the eight archers when they were introduced for the first time.
“Smoke, I’d like to re-introduce to you Sharur Attrayant and Jinggu Attrayant. After they became archers they took on the advance job of Range Siegers.”
“Hello, Sir Smoke, I’m Sharur. A pleasure to meet you once again. We are deeply honored to be in your presence. We have heard of your recent accomplishments from everyone in the village.”
“I am called Jinggu, Sir Smoke. We’re sorry we couldn’t come sooner.”
“No problem, you don’t have any obligations to come to me at all. Also, I wouldn’t call losing miserably against the murlocks as an accomplishment. The stories you heard must have been exaggerated.”
“I don’t think so. Didn’t you single handedly free Condortl Village? Jinggu doesn’t like to talk much but both of us idolize you, Sir Smoke.”
“You guys can drop the Sir. I prefer Smoke. Do you guys really think I’m great? Let me tell you that the first member of my private army lost his left arm. Because of my foolishness, we failed our first mission. So do you guys still think I’m great?”
“I’m sure that you were placed in a very difficult situation. Yet despite that, you were still able to bring back Sir Adder alive right?”
“Yes, he’s still alive. But right now he’s training far away . I know that he’ll come back stronger. I have to be stronger too so that no one in my private army will die.”
“Smoke, we are not afraid of death as long as we know it is right and just. We also know that when we follow you we will find what we are looking for.”
“So, Smoke, will you accept these two into your private army?”
“It is my honor and privilege to accept both of you into ‘our’ private army. I’m reminded of my own brothers whenever I see brothers as brave as you two.”
| + Sharur Attrayant has joined your Personal Army. Sharur Attrayant is one of Darius’ students. He is one of the eight teens who stepped forward as they were moved by the heroic actions of Smoke. Level: 68 Abilities: Cooking Ability: Able to cook simple meals. + Jinggu Attrayant has joined your Personal Army. Level: 68 Abilities: Cooking Ability: Able to cook simple meals. |
“Wow, you brothers have the same abilities. Are you guys twins? Also, you guys have the features of an elf but I’ve never seen a green elf before. What kind of elves are you?”
“Yes, that’s right. We are twins. Our mother was an elf, while the person who raped her was an ork… We are called Orkelves. However neither orks nor elves would take us in. Mother had to seek refuge here in Nanahuatl as she was shunned by the people of her village.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that. I didn’t mean to pry. I’m sorry if I’ve brought back some bad memories.”
“No, you haven’t. Our mother was the bravest person we knew. She brought us to be respectful and strong. She loved us both with all her heart. Before she died she made us promise to be protectors of the weak and to be true to her teachings.”
“I’m sure your mother would be very proud of you two. I hope I won’t lead you astray. However, there may come a time where in I have to perform some shady acts. My number one priority is my vengeance against a certain person, and I have vowed to do whatever it takes to achieve that. If ever you feel that you are not following the teachings of your mother, please tell me. I don’t want you to compromise your promise with her.”
“Of course, following the teachings of our mother has always been our way of life. But both Jinggu and I feel the same aura that our mother emitted coming from you. Looking at you, we somehow feel at home.”
“Umm. I guess I’ll take that as a compliment. By the way this little guy here is called Igniz. I’m sorry for not introducing him earlier. He’s a dark ember sprite. He’s also my symbiote.”
“Yeah, we have been wondering about him for a while as well. I thought areas near ember sprites are really hot?”
“Oh, he’s mastered how to suppress his heat. Now he’s just a floating light show.”
“Now that you guys are done with the introduction. Sharur, Jinggu, would you two perhaps like to show Smoke your abilities?”
“Of course! Master Darius, can we please ask you to use your abilities?”
“Sure, as long as it’s inside the village then I can help you.”
The twins carried the same weapon as well. Two heavy ballistae. The ballistae were almost all tall as them, at around 6 feet in height and 200 pounds in weight.
Smoke was impressed to see them carrying such heavy range weapons. The ballistae looked like mini catapults. He wondered just how strong these Orkelves were.
For safety purposes, they went to one of the remote part of the village, the grounds before the entrance to the coal mines. Here, the twins asked Darius to create a strong fortress-like wall. The wall had to be about 40 meters in width.
Darius complied with their request. He used his ability ‘Earth Wall’ to create a sturdy wall. Afterwards, they asked Smoke to examine the wall. He found that the wall passed their requirements. It was about 40 meters in width and had a thickness of about 2 meters. He was then told to go to their side to see the target from the distance they were standing at.
When they were roughly 500 meters away from the wall, they asked Smoke to try and hit the target from there. Promptly, Smoke answered that he couldn’t hit the target since it was out of his range. He didn’t bother to try.
The twins nodded at his answer. They then took out the heavy ballistae from their backs. The ballistae had a foldable tripods. They unfolded the tripod and placed the piercing bolt into the slider. The total process for setting up the ballista took less than a minute.
Seeing that Smoke was watching them in anticipation of the results, the twins released their bolts in an interval of two seconds.
Jinggu’s spinning bolt smashed the earth wall that Darius built. A few seconds later Sharur’s bolt completely destroyed the wall.
Each of their damage against the created wall was above 7,000. Smoke was grinning broadly as he saw the high damage.
“Wow! So that’s what a range sieger is capable of! You can most definitely break down a castle wall with that much damage. But how long does it take you to reload?”
“On an average it takes about 10 seconds. But Jinggu’s best time is at 5 seconds while mine is at 6 seconds.”
“This is perfect! This is what I’ve been looking for. Come on, we have to find everybody else. I want to tell the rest of the members.”
It took about 30 minutes for Smoke to explain his plan against the murlocks. After sharing his plan, he then told everyone to start doing their assigned tasks. It should take them at least 3 days to accomplish everything.
No matter what Smoke was doing inside the village, you could always catch him carrying a book with him all the time. He wanted to acquire as much knowledge as he could.
The seven party group headed towards the mouth of Murray River. Smoke led the way as he was already familiar with the terrain.
Before leaving, Smoke and his private army practiced drill exercises for silent missions. Smoke had everyone equip their specialized earmuffs made by James Jackal.
They were inside the territory of the powersaw crickets. Sensing the crickets near by, Smoke ordered the party to stop. He used Igniz’s special ability and enchanted everyone’s arrows and bolts with fire enhancement.
Using his hands, Smoke signaled Thyrsus to instruct his falcon to check further ahead for the locations of the other powersaw crickets.
Thyrsus has the ability ‘Falcon Vision’ which enables him to see what his falcon sees. After confirming the locations of the powersaw crickets, he plotted them out in the map that Smoke brought out.
As Smoke had anticipated, the powersaw crickets had distance of about 15 meters from one another. This was their defensive formation. If one of them got attacked, they would create loud sounds indicating to fire at its location.
They positioned themselves behind the blind spot of the first powersaw cricket in the outer defensive wall. Smoke and the rest of the Hunters fired simultaneously.
Because the powersaw crickets were not particularly weak against fire, the arrows and bolts enhanced by Igniz only gave them a 15% increased damage. Thanks to the the Hunters ability ‘Scourge of the Beast’, they also had a 15% increased damage as the powersaw crickets were classed as beast type monsters.
Their combined attack resulted in an accumulated damage of over 24,000, which gave them an overkill bonus exp since the powersaw cricket only had a maximum HP capacity of 12,000 HP.
While they dealt with the powersaw crickets in the map. Sharur and Jinggu were the ones targeting the powersaw cricket of out everyone elses’ range.
The twin Orkelves followed protocol and attacked the same target. Their accumulated damage was around 14,000. Just enough to kill a powersaw cricket at once.
Employing the same strategy, Smoke and his party continued on hunting the monsters. In less than an hour, the powersaw crickets in the area were all wiped out.
After passing the territory of the powersaw crickets, they then entered the lands of the thorny devil lizards.
Here, Smoke signaled for Jinggu to join him. While Sharur joined the Hunters, Smoke divided the twin Orkelves with good reason. The armor of the thorny devil lizard was so thick that ordinary arrows couldn’t penetrate it directly.
They would have needed to find its weak spot and aim there. This strategy was time consuming and needed a tank for it to be effective.
However, now that Smoke has the defense piercing abilities of Sharur and Jinggu, they could aim for the thorny devil lizards from the front.
The twin Orkelves were instructed to make the first shot against the thorny devil lizards. After an opening has been made, Smoke and the Hunters would shoot at that created weak spot.
+ Atk hit. +ARMOR BRK. FIRE DMG. Jinggu damaged thorny devil lizard for 7126.
+ Atk hit thorny devil lizard. FIRE DMG. CRITICAL HIT. Damage 1379.
+ Atk hit thorny devil lizard. FIRE DMG. Damage 563.
+ Atk hit thorny devil lizard. FIRE DMG. Damage 559.
+ Atk hit thorny devil lizard. FIRE DMG. CRITICAL HIT. Damage 1382.
+ Atk hit thorny devil lizard. FIRE DMG. CRITICAL HIT. Damage 1379.
+ Atk hit thorny devil lizard. FIRE DMG. CRITICAL HIT. Damage 1375.
+ Atk hit thorny devil lizard. FIRE DMG. CRITICAL HIT. Damage 1386.
+ Atk hit thorny devil lizard. FIRE DMG. CRITICAL HIT. Damage 1379.
+ Atk hit thorny devil lizard. FIRE DMG. CRITICAL HIT. Damage 1379.
+ Atk hit thorny devil lizard. FIRE DMG. CRITICAL HIT. Damage 1382.
+ Atk hit thorny devil lizard. FIRE DMG. CRITICAL HIT. Damage 1379.
+ Atk hit thorny devil lizard. FIRE DMG. Damage 562.
+ Atk hit thorny devil lizard. FIRE DMG. CRITICAL HIT. Damage 1385.
+ Atk hit thorny devil lizard. FIRE DMG. CRITICAL HIT. Damage 1386.
+ Atk hit thorny devil lizard. FIRE DMG. CRITICAL HIT. Damage 1389.
+ Atk hit thorny devil lizard. FIRE DMG. Damage 558.
+ Your party has dealt a fatal blow to the thorny devil lizard.
+ Your party has killed the thorny devil lizard.
+ Your party has gained 8,000 exp.
The thorny devil lizard had a total HP of 24,000. With their combined attacks they were able to dish out 25,948 damage points, enabling them to kill the armored beast around ten seconds.
Smoke checked on the progress of the Sharur and the Hunters. He saw that they were able to deal with their own target about the same time.
At this rate, the 60 members of the thorny devil lizards pack no longer threatened Smoke. The monsters tried rushing them, but the traps that Sharanga placed in advance held back the advancing beasts.
The party targeted the ones that were not caught in the trap. Moving like well trained soldiers, Smoke’s private army dealt with the thorny devil lizards in under 30 minutes.
Smoke asked everyone to gather their projectiles and the loot that the lizard had to offer. He also asked Thyrsus to send his falcon in advance to look for other packs of thorny devil lizards. He needed them to hunt at least ten packs of those beasts.
As the party had finished their sixth pack of thorny devil lizards, they travelled towards the next location that Thyrsus indicated. Smoke saw a familiar scene. A lone thorny devil lizard was drinking near the black part of the river.
Immediately he told his private army to ready their weapons and wait for the monster that would come out. He had told them in their strategy meeting about the monsters that they would encounter in this quest.
Everyone knew what to expect. As the giant alligator snapping turtle came out and chomped at the thorny devil lizard. Smoke and his private army of range specialists released their projectiles at the same time.
All of them aimed for the giant alligator snapping turtles’ neck!
+ Atk hit. +ARMOR BRK. FIRE DMG. Jinggu damaged giant alligator turtle for 6822.
+ Atk hit. +ARMOR BRK. FIRE DMG. Sharur damaged giant alligator turtle for 7181.
+ Atk hit. +FIRE DMG. Thyrsus damaged giant alligator turtle for 1228.
+ Atk hit. +FIRE DMG. Sharanga damaged giant alligator turtle for 1218.
+ Atk hit. +FIRE DMG. Vijaya damaged giant alligator turtle for 705.
+ Atk hit. +FIRE DMG. Ichaival damaged giant alligator turtle for 1396.
+ Atk hit. +FIRE DMG. Ichaival damaged giant alligator turtle for 1388.
+ Atk hit. +FIRE DMG. Ichaival damaged giant alligator turtle for 1395.
+ Atk hit. +FIRE DMG. Ichaival damaged giant alligator turtle for 1397.
+ Atk hit giant alligator turtle. FIRE DMG. CRITICAL HIT. Damage 1389.
+ Atk hit giant alligator turtle. FIRE DMG. CRITICAL HIT. Damage 1392.
+ Atk hit giant alligator turtle. FIRE DMG. CRITICAL HIT. Damage 1389.
+ Atk hit giant alligator turtle. FIRE DMG. CRITICAL HIT. Damage 1395.
+ Atk hit giant alligator turtle. FIRE DMG. Damage 586.
+ Atk hit giant alligator turtle. FIRE DMG. Damage 581.
+ Atk hit giant alligator turtle. FIRE DMG. CRITICAL HIT. Damage 1389.
+ Atk hit giant alligator turtle. FIRE DMG. CRITICAL HIT. Damage 1392.
The black giant alligator snapping turtle revealed its lifebar, indicating (37,767/70,000 HP).
It became angry as it took a tremendous amount of damage. It started to lift its body out of the river.
Luckily for Smoke and his group the only thing agile about this monster was its neck! Since they were out of range of the monster’s neck, all it could try to do was slowly move outside of the river in order to take a snap at them.
But Smoke and his private army didn’t give the monster a chance. They fired two more rounds of their arrows, and the gigantic monster fell dead.
+ Your party has dealt a fatal blow to the giant alligator snapping turtle.
+ Your party has killed the giant alligator snapping turtle.
+ Your party has gained 24,000 exp.
They collected the gigantic shell that the turtle had left them. With the weight of the giant carapace added, they became encumbered as the thorny devil lizard’s armor was also heavy. They had about 300 pieces of that monster’s armor.
Smoke decided that they should proceed with phase two of his plan.
Using the thorny devil lizard’s armor, they started crafting out a barricade wall. They used the electro stone on the thorns sticking out of the wall and also on their bolts and arrows as well.
After the barricade was completed, Smoke and his private army headed towards the mouth of Murray River. On the shallow part of the river, they saw an army of murlocks about 500 strong.
With Smoke signaling Sharur and Jinggu to start firing from their current position, the murlocks started falling down one at a time.
With the murlocks being weak against lightning and the electro stone being an intermediate form of lightning enhancement, the Orkelf twins dished out around 15,000 damage points each.
The murlocks only has a total HP of 14,000, making them single shot targets for the Range Siegers.
The slimy murlocks, not seeing their enemy, started using the siren’s song. But the monsters saw no one coming. All they saw was their fellow murlocks falling down beside them.
The slithering monsters recognized that it was time to escape. They immediately started to withdraw into their cave behind the waterfall.
This time, Smoke didn’t give chase. Once he saw that the last murlock was inside the cave, he signaled his private army to execute phase three of his plan.
Immediately, the private army broke into two groups. One group ran towards the entrance of the murlock’s cave. Swiftly, they created a perimeter barricade around the waterfall.
At the same time the second group made a perimeter barricade around the river where the exit of the whirlpool that Smoke used to escape was located.
They used the barricade made out of thorny devil lizard’s armor. Smoke had also constructed a mobile archer tower. On top of the tower was the carapace of the giant alligator snapping turtle. It would serve as a shield against water attacks from the lamias.
While his private army was setting things up, Smoke ran inside the cave all by himself. He gambled that he wouldn’t meet any monsters near the passageway.
He strongly relied on his ‘Cunning of the Dire Fox’ to detect the presence of any monsters. Seeing the exit of the passageway, he got out some special arrows. These arrows had small canisters with a wick attached to them. He lit up the canisters and targeted the wall at the far side of the exit.
After firing his eight special arrows, Smoke ran outside of the cave with all his might. Since his movement speed has also increased a bit, it only took him 3 minutes to get out of the passageway.
With everything in place, Smoke sent the signal to the hunters to call their falcons to drop the special packages on top of the waterfalls. The top of the waterfalls had hints of small red smoke coming out.
The red smoke came from Smoke’s special arrows. This red smoke would guide the falcons into the holes that gave sunlight into the murlock’s cavern.
The falcons were trained in Nanahuatl Village to detect the red smoke and to start dropping the small bags into the holes that the red smoke was coming from.
The bags contained dried mandragora flowers. The bags would only start to burn as they got in contact with the red smoke.
From one of the books that he read, Smoke had learned about the special properties of the mandragora flower, particularly its chemical reaction against smoke made from ember stone dust.
Once a falcon had finished accurately dropping the bag into the hole, it would return to the tree where another bag filled with mandragora flowers were waiting for them. The falcons kept on repeating the process until all the bags were delivered into the hole.
Smoke stood on top of the mobile archer tower. It was situated so that it could see the exit of the cave as well as the exit of the whirlpool in the river.
He had divided his army into two groups, one side defending the exit of the whirlpool and the other defending the exit of the cave.
Everyone outside was waiting in anticipation. They have been waiting for almost 30 minutes. The smoke coming out of the holes from the cavern was now black. That indicated that the mandragora flowers were still burning inside the cavern.
Smoke was about to give a command when Igniz motioned for him to look at the exit of the whirlpool. The river started to bubble. Like a flood, the murlocks and lamias came out. Their arrows enhanced by the electro stone gave out almost 3,000 damage points.
The murlocks and lamias coming out only had about 7,000 HP left. They must have been fighting amongst themselves inside the cavern.
The electro bolts from the ballistae of the Orkelves gave an instant kill as it continued to deal 15,000 damage points.
Just a few seconds after the monsters came out from the whirlpool, a torrent of lamias and murlocks came running out of the cave.
They couldn’t even touch the electro enhanced barricade. All of them were shot dead as they came stepped outside of the waterfalls.
They had been shooting down murlocks and lamias for almost two hours. The monsters coming out of the exit stopped. However, the monsters coming out of the cave continued on. So they focused their attention on the monsters coming out of the cave.
While everyone’s attention was on the exit of the cave, a group of two medium sized lamias and one giant sized lamia jumped up high out of the whirlpool’s exit.
Igniz was the first one to notice them, but it was too late. The three lamias targeted Smoke. They already released their glacial spikes.
Smoke was able to dodge the attacks by hiding behind the giant alligator turtle’s carapace, all thanks to Igniz’s warning. Immediately, he took out a bag and threw it up in the air. Igniz released a fireball, exploding the bag.
The bag was filled with yellow powder. It indicated that there was an enemy behind them or that they were surrounded.
Smoke had come up with the idea to use hand signals and smoke signals. Since they were wearing the specialized earmuffs that completely canceled out all external sounds.
The private army immediately understood. The group assigned to guard the exit of the whirlpool knew that they had made a mistake. They soon turned their attention towards the river.
They shouldn’t have let down their guard. Jinggu aimed for the lamia boss.
+ Atk hit. ARMR BRK. LIGHTNG DMG. Jinggu damaged Matron: Aquaria for 6822.
The lifebar of the lamia boss indicated to be (113,178/120,000 HP).
Aided by their falcons Thyrsus, Vijaya, and Sharanga focused their attacks on one of the medium sized lamias. The targeted medium sized lamia indicated to have (19,000/30,000 HP). After another round of their attacks the first medium size lamia fell down dead.
But the lamia boss and the other medium sized lamia kept on firing out their glacial spike and water ball attacks. The four of them had a hard time getting a clear shot as they kept on dodging.
Smoke released his eight arrows dealing around 24,000 damage points against the medium sized lamia. After taking damage. the medium sized lamia looked at the direction of the source of the arrows only to see that there were another eight coming straight for him.
All that was left on riverside was the lamia boss. She was somewhat dextrous as she was able to release glacial spikes from both her hands and managed to dodge most of the attacks that they were firing at her.
Her lifebar indicated that she still had (105,211/120,000 HP) left. Smoke was furious. He thought that he could eradicate her in an instant!
He jumped from his archer tower and switched his weapons to the old dual knives. He knew that they had smaller damage since he no longer invested in the Strength stat.
Yet somehow his anger got the better of him. He wanted to get up close and personal with the monster who severed Adder’s arm.
He was confident that they could still shoot the lamia boss even if he was in their way. He thought that he had to distract her long enough for her to stay in place, giving them a steady shot at her.
+ Atk hit Matron: Aquaria. +LIGHTNG DMG. CRITICAL HIT. Damage 426.
+ Atk hit Matron: Aquaria. +LIGHTNG DMG. CRITICAL HIT. Damage 434.
+ Atk hit Matron: Aquaria. +LIGHTNG DMG. CRITICAL HIT. Damage 443.
+ Atk hit Matron: Aquaria. +LIGHTNG DMG. CRITICAL HIT. Damage 428.
+ Atk hit Matron: Aquaria. +LIGHTNG DMG. CRITICAL HIT. Damage 426.
+ Atk hit Matron: Aquaria. +LIGHTNG DMG. CRITICAL HIT. Damage 432.
+ Atk hit Matron: Aquaria. +LIGHTNG DMG. CRITICAL HIT. Damage 433.
+ Atk hit Matron: Aquaria. +LIGHTNG DMG. CRITICAL HIT. Damage 441.
+ Atk hit Matron: Aquaria. +LIGHTNG DMG. CRITICAL HIT. Damage 422.
+ Atk hit Matron: Aquaria. +LIGHTNG DMG. CRITICAL HIT. Damage 433.
+ Atk hit Matron: Aquaria. +LIGHTNG DMG. CRITICAL HIT. Damage 441.
+ Atk hit Matron: Aquaria. +LIGHTNG DMG. CRITICAL HIT. Damage 422.
+ Atk hit Matron: Aquaria. +LIGHTNG DMG. CRITICAL HIT. Damage 448.
+ Atk hit Matron: Aquaria. +LIGHTNG DMG. CRITICAL HIT. Damage 429.
+ Atk hit Matron: Aquaria. +LIGHTNG DMG. CRITICAL HIT. Damage 445.
+ Atk hit Matron: Aquaria. +LIGHTNG DMG. CRITICAL HIT. Damage 421.
– Attacked by Matron: Aquaria. Miss damage. 0.
– Attacked by Matron: Aquaria. Miss damage. 0.
– Attacked by Matron: Aquaria. Miss damage. 0.
– Attacked by Matron: Aquaria. Miss damage. 0.
+ Atk hit. ARMR BRK. LIGHTNG DMG. Jinggu damaged Matron: Aquaria for 6822.
+ Atk hit. +LIGHTNG DMG. Thyrsus damaged Matron: Aquaria for 2428.
+ Atk hit. +LIGHTNG DMG. Sharanga damaged Matron: Aquaria for 2418.
+ Atk hit. +LIGHTNG DMG. Vijaya damaged Matron: Aquaria for 1215.
+ Atk hit. +POISON DMG. Falcon Vij damaged Matron: Aquaria for 828.
+ Atk hit. +POISON DMG. Falcon Aya damaged Matron: Aquaria for 839.
+ Atk hit. Falcon Thyr damaged Matron: Aquaria for 421.
+ Atk hit. Falcon Ranga damaged Matron: Aquaria for 411.
After the exchange, the lamia boss still had (82,905/120,000 HP) left.
Smoke retreated a bit as he tried to catch some of his breath. He wasn’t used to fighting melee anymore and realized it wasn’t as easy as he has remembered.
When Smoke retreated the lamia boss returned to use her glacial spikes instead of her claws that she used when Smoke was near her.
He knew that he had to go back into her space once more. He had to do it to disable her from using the glacial spikes and reduce the potential damage that she could inflict on his private army, as well as increasing the damage that his private army could inflict on her.
Smoke was about to rush into her again when he noticed that the lifebar of the lamia boss was decreasing rapidly.
+ Atk hit. +LIGHTNG DMG. BACK ATTACK. Adder damaged Matron: Aquaria for 8612.
+ Atk hit. +LIGHTNG DMG. BACK ATTACK. Adder damaged Matron: Aquaria for 8598.
+ Atk hit. +LIGHTNG DMG. BACK ATTACK. Adder damaged Matron: Aquaria for 8602.
+ Atk hit. +LIGHTNG DMG. BACK ATTACK. Adder damaged Matron: Aquaria for 8609.
It was Adder! He was carrying a really thick, double bladed sword. It looked like three mantis blades were fused together, creating one end of the sword while the other end had the same three mantis blade fused together.
At the center, where the two handles of the composite mantis blade sword were welded together, was a shimmering stone that emitted a shade of light yellow. It was a spark stone!
Smoke couldn’t believe his eyes. Adder came back stronger than ever. Adder has done the impossible. Double bladed swords were classified under Two-Handed Swords yet there he was using only one hand.
Adder was swinging the double bladed mantis sword effortlessly. He even managed to make a four hit strike with that huge weapon.
The lamia boss turned around to see who was causing the damage. The moment she exposed her back to Smoke and everyone else was the moment of her death.
+ Your party has dealt a fatal blow to Lamia Matron: Aquaria.
+ Your party killed the Lamia Matron: Aquaria.
+ Your party gained 180,000 exp.
He sprinted to pick up the item drop of the lamia boss.
+ Acquired rare bracelet: ‘Armband of the Water Lamia’.
Smoke looked back at the entrance of the cave to see if there were still murlocks and lamias coming out. Seeing as that there weren’t any left he threw another bag up into the air which Igniz exploded.
The bag blew up into a cloud of purple dust, Calling everyone to gather at the mobile archer tower. While the rest of the private army were heading towards the archer tower, Smoke walked towards Adder with a big smile on his face.
He noticed that Adder was also wearing the specialized earmuffs so he knew Adder couldn’t hear anything that Smoke was saying. Smoke just motioned for him to join them under the archer tower.
After gathering under the tower, the rest of Smoke’s private army bowed before Adder. They have deep respect for him. They had heard the story of how he sacrificed his left arm to protect Smoke.
Smoke waited for thirty minutes to see if there were any stragglers left from the cavern. After waiting for the self imposed time, the DarkElf checked to see if there was any smoke left from the mandragora flowers. From on top of the waterfalls, he saw that the smoke had already dissipated.
He then signaled for Adder and Ichaival together with his falcon to follow him into the cave. The moment they were inside the great cavern they saw that it was littered with lamia scales, murlock scales, and a few murlock spears.
Smoke motioned for them to start collecting the item drops. Before Ichaival started, Smoke asked him to attach the note to his falcon and send it outside. The note indicated that the battle was over and that the members outside should start collecting the loot as well. It took them about 30 minutes to finish up inside.
After returning to the surface, Smoke gave a quick glance at his private army to check if anyone had any serious injuries.
He then removed his earmuffs, which everyone followed. At a lost for words, he then gave a triumphant roar!
“RAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!”
Everyone joined in and screamed at the top of their lungs to celebrate their victory.
On the way back to Nanahuatl Village, Smoke started interviewing Adder on what he had been doing all this time and how he came up with that epic weapon.
“Well, I was thinking that I should carry some sort of shield in order to be a proper tank. But then I realized that I’m a warrior of Condortl. We don’t carry shields. We wield giant swords. So I thought, why not make a sword that was thick enough to be a shield?”
“And that’s how you came up with this humongous weapon? It’s really impressive and where did you get that spark stone?”
“The moment I regained consciousness, I asked Darius about how to increase my damage against the lamias. He told me about the spark stones. As we were discussing things, I came up with the idea of making the composite mantis blade. Apparently, he was excited at the idea. He wanted to try making another composite weapon after he made your composite bow. He then told me to ask James Jackal about the spark stone.”
“James Jackal had a spark stone?”
“Apparently. So I asked him to give me the stone, which he gladly did. Darius then started crafting this magnificent weapon. He called this double bladed sword ‘BlitzTod’.”
“Wow, he gave it a name. So there aren’t any penalties? Like -30 Strength?”
“Nope, none at all. Aside from the Lightning enhancement from the spark stone, it even has +20 Strength.”
“What?! Oh, I guess Darius must have gotten better at making composite weapons. Maybe I should ask him to make me another bow.”
Home-bound, Smoke and his private army continued on their journey, listening to Adder’s story on how he managed to gain the ability ‘Grip of the Silver Gorilla’ which enabled him to master his weapon ‘BlitzTod’.
Unknownst to Smoke and his private army, there was a pair of cold yellow eyes with black slits watching them. As they faded into the far off distance the figure hiding on top of the trees removed her hood.
She took out her magical golden plate of communication from her bag. She nicked her fingertip with her knife and dropped a few drops of her blood on the magical plate.
“High General Lizardo, the trap that we’ve set up against Smoke has failed. Most of the packs of thorny devil lizards were killed. Matron Aquaria and her army of lamias are all dead as well.”
“What?! I thought that Aquaria was more than enough to dispatch an insignificant bug like him. I thought that he lost an arm during their last fight? Did he come back with an army?”
“No, High General Lizardo. It was one of his men that lost an arm. After his last defeat he brought four Hunters, two Range Siegers, and the man who lost an arm.”
“My army of lamias were dispatched by just eight bugs?! This is beginning to annoy me! Spyteria, I want you to tell me where he’ll be going next. We must prepare a better trap to torture him in.”
“As you command, High General Lizardo.”
Finally back in Nanahuatl Village, Smoke dismissed his private army as he headed towards Peitro Fischer’s house.
Only Adder stayed with Smoke as he was about to complete his river monsters quest and gain the last family token.
“Hi, Peitro, I’ve come to inform you that I’ve defeated all of the murlocks and the lamias that blocked the river ways. You can now safely reach the sea that you love so deeply.”
“Thank you very much Smoke! I knew I could depend on you. But I didn’t see any lamias when I encountered the murlocks.”
| + Completed Quest: Wipe out the River Monsters
You have cleared the river ways towards the open sea by killing of all the monsters attacking everyone in the river. Rewards: |
“Oh, they were sneakily hiding inside their secret hide out behind the waterfalls.”
“Ahh. No wonder I couldn’t see them. Though it’s still strange that lamias would coexist with murlocks since they mostly compete for the same food source.”
“Really? I didn’t know about that. Well, anyway all of the monsters blocking the river are now dead.”
“Great! Just give me a couple of minutes while I gather everyone.”
Smoke had hoped that he would just give him the family token instead of the whole official process of calling his whole clan.
As the whole clan of the Fischers were gathered, Thyrsus included. Peitro stomped his foot to signify the start of the family token ceremony.
“Everyone, we are gathered here today to give honor and praise to our village hero, Smoke. He has taken it upon himself to get rid of the river monsters blocking our way to the sea. As such I, clan head of the Fischers, deem him worthy to be our next clan head. I hereby give our family token to our new clan head, Smoke.”
Peitro handed Smoke a small wooden sculpture of a man fishing.
+ Received Fischers’ family token
| + Family Token of the Fischers
You have cleared the river ways towards the outer seas. Family Tokens Count: (5/5) |
| + Intimacy with the Fischers has risen to ‘Blood Brothers’
For your heroic act of clearing out the river monsters. |
“Thank you, everyone. I think I’m now the clan head of all the main clans in Nanahuatl. Hopefully I can guide you all to properly. Please feel correct me if you feel that I’m not doing it right…”
Applause filled the room. Everyone felt that with Smoke’s guidance their village could return to its former glory or maybe even become a town or a city.
With all five family tokens, Smoke went to see Darius. Finally the long awaited hidden basic job of Nanahuatl will be his.
Darius was brimming with happiness as he saw Smoke approaching. Darius asked Adder to stay behind as they were going to a place that only the Smoke and Darius could enter.
Darius led Smoke to the house in front of the fountain, the biggest house in Nanahuatl, the house that they have given Smoke. Smoke was wondering what they were doing in his house. He thought maybe they had to get something else.
“Before going any further, may I ask you to leave Igniz behind. He is still a being with consciousness and that may cause a problem as we proceed with the ceremony.”
Smoke asked Igniz to stay behind and play around the house or outside the fountain. Darius then led Smoke downstairs towards the cellar. Smoke had only been there once. He was just curious as to what was down there but saw nothing.
He did find that the cellar was not your typical cellar as it had 5 walls. The fifth wall was the one furthest from the stairs as it was completely on the opposite side.
As they entered the cellar, the walls began to glow. The cellar was illuminated by a sky blue light. Continuing further into the cellar, Smoke saw that the wall furthest from the stairs had changed. Instead of a plain wall there were five placeholders on the wall.
Darius then raised his right hand and pointed to the placeholders. Smoke understood that he should place the family tokens there.
As he placed each family token, the placeholder went down a couple of inches. It seemed as if the place holders were a lever of some sorts.
After placing the last family token, Darius pulled Smoke back a bit. The fifth wall started to shake as it began to sink down into the ground, revealing a hidden room.
The hidden room was surrounded by black stone walls. As they entered the room Smoke felt cold. At the center of the room there was an elevated circular platform that had rune carvings on its outer circle.
“Smoke, please step onto the platform.”
Smoke obeyed his instructions. He was so excited to finally get the hidden job. He stepped onto the platform. As he did the runes surrounding the platform started glowing.
“Smoke, having presented the five family tokens of the main families in Nanahuatl Village. I, as the guardian of the village, find you to be a worthy person to gain Nanahuatl’s hidden basic job.”
Smoke thought that this was it. He was finally gonna be a Librarian. He thought what could be the possible advance jobs of a Librarian? Could it be a Scholar? Or perhaps a Sage?
But then he realized that all those jobs focused on Magical Side. He wanted a job that was more on the side of Physical Strength. He thought to himself that he’ll just have to come up with something.
“Smoke, rise into the stars and witness its magnificence.”
Smoke was still lost in thought about the advance form of the hidden job when he was immediately teleported to outer space.
He was floating outside the world of Zectas. He saw how huge it was. He also noticed that the seas and oceans that divided the continents were not that far apart.
Zectas looked more like the earlier time of Earth. When it still had the super continent called Pangea, except that at the center of the continent there was a big ocean that separated the kingdoms.
He thought that this must be what they called the great lake. They should have called this the great ocean surrounded by the kingdoms.
As he was watching Zectas he was teleported once again, and he was made to see the galaxies. Stars and planets were passing by like flashes of light.
A lot of things came to his mind as he saw the marvelous universe. The comets, planets, and the stars. Everything was too much for words that he couldn’t describe the emotions that filled his being.
He felt powerful yet insignificant at the same time. He was but a speck of dust in this infinite universe. But from watching everything he also felt like he had the power to be its protector.
A bright light flashed and he was instantly teleported back onto the platform inside the hidden room of his cellar.
“How was the view? Empowering and Humbling, right?”
Smoke thought that this virtual reality world was too real to be more than just a game, but Darius had sensibly described what he was feeling as he saw the grandeur of the universe.
“Smoke, it is with great delight that I welcome you into our brotherhood. Our brotherhood of Beggars!”
| + Job Change!!!
You have successfully changed your job into a Beggar. HP has increased by 10,000 HP STR has increased by 20 ————————————————— * Armors and accessories will appear shabby, even if you use a mithril armor crafted by GodHand Dwarvius. * Players get fame points by spitting on you or by feeding you, depending on their alignment. * Players will not turn into ‘Killers’ if they kill you within Kingdoms that promote the killing of beggars. * Earning Charisma is twice as hard. ————————————————— Beggar’s Adaptation: * Can bypass job requirement on items/weapons/abilities/quests/events Beggary: * Can ask NPC to give gold, information or favor. |
Smoke was astonished at his hidden basic job. He got the hidden job of a Beggar! As he checked out his black modified dexterity armor. It now looked like a black shabby armor. He truly looked like a beggar.
Even though his armor became tattered, he was still very happy with his job. He could now equip the item drop that he got from the Fecund Lizard Matron, the green dual knives, ‘Tails of the Virile and Fecund Lizards’.
He could also read the books that he couldn’t read before because of specific job requirement. The possibilities were boundless.
In the midst of his excitement, Smoke noticed that there was another placeholder inside the hidden room. He wondered what it was for. His curiosity got the better of him.
“Darius, what is this placeholder for?”
“Oh… That is for the sixth family token.”
jawzpublications 
lol. That’s a funny class.
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Thanks for the chapter.
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