Chapter 79

Luke knew he sucked at sneaking around, that he lacked the skills to hide his XP, and there was only so much agility and [Stealth]could do to help. His current strategy was just to get as close as he could and then close the distance without giving a target more than a second to react. But that didn’t mean he was going to shy away from a new opponent just because they’d seen him coming.

The cook stood there, cleaver in one hand, his other hand empty and held out to the side, and his feet solidly set beneath his bulk. It kind of reminded Luke of a wrestling stance, like the cook was expecting someone to come charging in and that he was going to get a good grab on it. Even without considering stats, the man’s arms were enormous, and though they jiggled as he moved, it was obvious it wasn’t all fat.

Perhaps most importantly, the cook was obviously there of his own free will. He was just as much a bandit as any of the rest Luke had killed, even if he didn’t personally drag himself down to the road to ambush travelers. Luke liked to think he was nothing if not thorough, and it was just dumb to leave an enemy alive behind him, especially one who knew he was there.

He walked into the kitchen, mace in hand.

“Who’re you?” the cook asked.

“Traveler who got jumped by some dumbasses who thought they’d win because there were more of them.”

The cook snorted. “I fucking told him not to put all the idiots in one group. Does he listen?”

“Yeah, I’d love to have a word with whoever’s running this place,” Luke said. “You think you could take me to him?”

“I can do that. Course, you’ll be tied up and I’ll have to beat the piss out of you first.”

“You can try.”

The cook lumbered forward, the cleaver coming around in a wide arc and aimed at Luke’s shoulder. He stepped backwards out of the way and brought his mace up to smack against the man’s enormous belly. To his surprise, the cook took the blow without flinching, barely even letting out a grunt as his fat rippled. “Oh,” Luke said, blinking in surprise. “That’s new.”

The cook flashed him a gap-toothed grin, grabbed hold of the mace just below the head, and jerked the weapon up and back. Luke tried to resist the pull, found himself getting dragged forward, and needed to release his hold on the weapon in order to avoid having his face split open by the cleaver.

Luke slipped backwards outside the cook’s range and scowled as the man casually tossed his mace deeper into the kitchen. He mentally kicked himself for being cocky; he hadn’t expected anyone to match his strength and felt extra stupid because he’d even noted how big the man’s arms were before the fight had started.

The cook felt like he was level 13 or so, maybe just a bit weaker than the guy in charge of the first camp Luke had hit. There was more to it than simple level of course, but that did introduce hard limits to how much AP a person had, how high their stats could go, and how strong their skills were. So either something funky was going on, or Luke was way off in his estimate of the cook’s level.

Whatever it was, the man knew how to fight. He pushed Luke continuously and worked hard to control their brawl. Luke found himself being forced into a corner, his mobility options sharply limited within seconds, and nothing but his knife left to use as a weapon. That was more of a tool than something he fought with, and he felt more comfortable allowing [Unarmed Martialist] to work its magic than he did trying to engage in a knife fight.

Luke ducked, dodged, and weaved his way around the slashing cleaver. He threw punches at the cook, focusing on vulnerable joints in the man’s arm when he could in an attempt to disarm his opponent. The cook was too canny though, and he recognized when he could turn his arm to take a hit on the meaty part of it and when he needed to pull back.

The fight came to something of a standstill, with the cook unable to match Luke’s agility and variety of combat skills, and Luke having problems landing a solid hit in return. He kept looking for the opportunity to put a [Power Strike] infused punch between the cook’s eyes, but the man was too aggressive in his own attacks for Luke to get in.

The amount of sheer power in the cook’s arms was unbelievable. Luke had fought literal giants and felt less overwhelmed. The man took punishment like it was nothing too. He’d ignored every shot Luke had managed to tag him with, and just kept coming back for more. If the cook managed to grab hold of Luke, the fight would turn against him very, very quickly.

“Come on, hold still!” the cook growled as he tried to clamp his free hand down on Luke’s arm. Luke jerked backwards and his back bumped up against the wall. The cook sneered at him and added, “Nowhere left to run now, you little shit.”

That was true. He’d been backed into a corner and the cook’s arms were thrown wide to block him from darting either way. Fortunately, a fort had higher ceilings than the average home, and when the cook lunged forward to pin Luke down, he simply jumped straight up and over. He sent a [Power Strike] down through his leg and let his foot crack down hard on the top of the cook’s skull, then pushed off to land in the middle of the kitchen near his mace.

Luke scooped it up and spun in place, expecting to see the somehow indestructible man already coming at him, but was surprised to find the cook’s back to still him, one hand on the wall to brace him while he swayed on his feet. Whatever durability he’d displayed in his arms and torso didn’t seem to extend to his skull.

There wasn’t a chance in hell that Luke was going to give the cook time to recover. This wasn’t an arena match with spectators where he had to fight fair, and this guy had been a tougher fight than just about anything else he’d ever faced. While the cook was dazed and trying to recover, Luke unleashed a second [Power Strike] through his mace and caved in the man’s skull.

[You have slain Ogrimun Bandit (lvl 12). 147 XP awarded.]

Luke’s brow furrowed as he read the notification. “System, what is an ogrimun?”

“That is the term for a crossbreed of an ogre and another species.”

“Well, that explains why the bastard was so damn strong, at least.” Luke couldn’t imagine the logistics of exactly how that particular pairing happened. Hopefully the ogre was the mother, otherwise there had to be a lot of tearing involved.

The cook had been an ugly bastard, and he was pretty tall, but Luke would not have put him at not-human levels of physical stature. Maybe ogres were smaller than he thought. “Is there any way to tell if someone is an ogrimun just by looking?”

“They are universally large. The smallest of them push the upper boundaries of what the other parent’s species is capable of growing to. They generally have more jagged teeth, and it is not unusual for the skin and hair colorings to tend towards dark greens, browns, and other earth tones.”

Other than the cook’s size, Luke didn’t think any of those other signs were present. He just looked like a big, fat, burly guy who’d been crazy strong. Hopefully there weren’t any other bandits like that, or, if there were, they looked more obviously not-human so he could pick them out of the crowd.

More importantly, that fight felt way harder than a level 12 should have been. The system giving him the same XP as he would have gotten from a random goblin or earth elemental, or any of the weak bandits he’d crushed in a single blow, did not feel fair to him. It needed a rules update to account for more values than just level.

“Could I change how XP is calculated?” Luke asked.

“Theoretically, you might be able to someday. Right now, that is beyond your abilities.”

“Well… Theoretically, good. The system does not give out fair rewards.”

“No,” System agreed. “It was not designed to be fair. The Pantheon structured it to suit their need: to cycle XP quickly and prevent too much of it from building up in any individual being.”

“Of course, right. Because fuck all the mortals. The only thing that matters is what the gods want.”

“I am not able to speculate on-”

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Luke cut him off. “It wasn’t a question.”

He was wasting time now. Luke had learned what he needed to know: what to look out for in future ogrimuns. “Is there anything else that might help me spot someone who’s not fully human just by looking at them?”

“Of course. It would depend what the other parent’s species was though.”

“And is it likely that there will be anyone like that here?”

“I can’t give you that information at your current access level.”

“Whatever. No surprise there. Okay, back to work.”

The fight hadn’t been particularly quiet, but nobody had showed up to investigate. Luke counted himself lucky that the keep was so big and that the bandits didn’t feel the need to huddle up in a few rooms right next to each other. It made it harder to search for them, but easier to take them out in small groups once he found them.

Someone would show up eventually, if for no other reason than to find out what was taking so long with their dinner. If Luke had gotten lucky and come through five minutes later, he might have missed the cook entirely. Now he had an unknown deadline before the alarm was raised, and nothing he could do about it. Removing the body wouldn’t clean up the bloodstains, and besides, the cook would still be missing.

Speed was the name of the game now. He needed to find and take out the rest of the bandits before they started clumping together. If nothing else, he was at least going to take out that group near the front door and get that opened up. Luke knew roughly which direction he needed to move, and if he encountered any roaming bandits, he’d have to silence them quickly.

His build really wasn’t designed for this kind of work. A tracking skill would help. More ranks in [Stealth] would help. Whatever skill the church agents all used to reduce their XP presence would help most of all. None of them had ever felt like they were anything other than an average, unremarkable level for the populace. System, of course, wouldn’t tell him what the skill was, but he was guessing they had at least 3 ranks in it to get coverage that good.

It took longer than he thought it would, mostly on account of getting lost a few times, but eventually Luke found his way to the front of the keep. There were only four bandits there now, but that was fine. It would be easier to take them out quickly and hopefully silently. That was probably wishful thinking on his part, but he’d do his best.

The three that were playing dice would go first. They were closest to where he’d enter the room. Then he’d go for the one remaining guy by the fire, get the door open, reevaluate his position depending on how much noise the fight made.

Plan of attack decided, he sprinted down the hall and burst into the room.