Chapter 68

A second day of hunting saw Luke rise up to level 23. He was frustrated though, because he’d wasted a lot of his time discussing skill options with System. Trying to pry useful information out of it was always annoying, but not getting anywhere after hours of going around in circles had him ready to tear his hair out.

As far as Luke could tell, what he was trying to do just didn’t work with a heavy mace. Never mind the fact that his strength was so high that he could probably hurl it at major league fastball speeds, there was no skill that was the agility equivalent to [Power Strike] that used a mace. He could do it with a sword, or a dagger, even a whip or flail, but not a mace. It was complete bullshit.

He technically had sword mastery, but he’d just dumped almost all his money on a bitchin’ mace that was supposed to be able to handle his strength without blinking. He wasn’t about to throw that away just because the stupid system didn’t have a skill that did what he wanted.

Hitting multiple opponents at once was out, but that wasn’t the point of Curt’s build. He just hadn’t bothered to leave any notes justifying his skill choices and Luke didn’t get it himself until he saw it all in action. The build was designed to keep Luke in the fight, keep him dodging attacks, and to let him overpower even the toughest opponent, but only one at a time. It excelled at close range single combat and endurance fights. The only reason his fights tended to end quickly was because of how liberally he relied on [Life Surge] to finish things, which he was starting to think wasn’t a great idea.

Myla knew roughly what the skill did, even if she didn’t actually know its name. She would plan for that when she took another swing at him, and that meant Luke needed to develop some new tricks before then, something she hadn’t planned for. He’d thought an agility-based trump card would be the way to go, but that wasn’t happening, not with his current weapon choice at least.

The closest skill he could find to something that would take advantage of his agility to keep him in the fight against multiple opponents was something called [Tactical Foresight]. It synergized with [Unarmed Martialist] to read the flow of battle, or some shit like that. Luke didn’t really understand what it meant, other than that it was supposed to make it easier to predict how enemies were going to move so he could defend against attacks and exploit openings in their defenses. For some reason, it hadn’t been on Curt’s build list.

It was 15 AP for the first rank of the skill, which felt kind of high, but Luke had learned by now that expensive skills were usually worth it. He would have bought it then and there except that, for the first time, he was considering a skill that had prerequisites, and he didn’t meet them. He needed a 40 in agility, which he had the extra AP to push the stat up 4 points to meet that, but he also needed rank 4 [Unarmed Martialist], and that was another 15 AP just to get to rank 3, plus however many he needed after that.

With 23 AP to spend, there was no way he could afford it now. [Unarmed Martialist] also wasn’t his first pick for a skill to sink AP into, but it wasn’t the worst possible decision. If he went after [Tactical Foresight], it was going to be an ongoing project that he invested AP into for the next few levels while he acquired the needed prerequisites.

What it really came down to was how much time Luke had to get stronger before someone caught up with him. If he could gain four or five more levels, it would be fine. If Myla found him tomorrow, it could be a problem. So far, most of his choices had been driven by a need to be stronger right now, not in the future, but the one skill he’d saved up AP for, [Life Surge], had easily become his most important skill.

It wasn’t like [Unarmed Martialist] was a bad skill either, but if he was going to put 15 AP into something, he would have prioritized [Mace Mastery] instead. Luke had been hoping that either or both of those skills would gain a new rank on their own, but it hadn’t happened yet. There was always the final option of just sitting on the AP until something changed and hoping he could make a better choice with more information, but Luke really wasn’t a fan of that.

In the end, he decided to meet as many of the prereqs as he could with the AP he had. Agility got bumped up from 36 to 40, [Unarmed Martialist] went up to rank 3, which revealed a cost of 30 AP to reach rank 4, and the final 4 AP were split evenly between strength and stamina. He’d have to bank all of his AP on his next level up, and then once he had two levels worth in hand, he could upgrade [Unarmed Martialist] again and pick up [Tactical Foresight].

It was already evening by the time he reached level 23, and though he killed a few more monsters, Luke wasn’t going to make the push the rest of the way unless he found another swarm of mosquitos or something. He wasn’t eager for another fight like that, especially since he’d utterly failed at acquiring a new skill to help him deal with swarms, so he resigned himself to a slow, but relatively safe, grind.

On the bright side, [Unarmed Martialist] was now very, very good at getting him into positions to dodge potential incoming attacks. It was so good, in fact, that [Twitch Reflexes] barely triggered at all anymore, and [Counter] was working overtime trying to point out all the different ways he could ruin some monster’s day.

Luke returned to the outskirts of Landston and once again spent an hour or two surveying the town. It was his third time doing so that day, and though he wasn’t expecting to see Zea, he was hoping she’d prove him wrong. Once it got fully dark, he even took the risk of sneaking around to where the inn was and trying to feel out if anyone inside was about the same level as her.

There were a few of them that were possibilities, but it didn’t take long to get a glance through shutter slats or hear their voices and confirm they weren’t who he was looking for. Luke wasn’t interested in what they had going on, and besides, it seemed rude to just casually spy on them, so as soon as he confirmed Zea hadn’t taken a room at the inn, he left.

That didn’t mean he gave up his search though, because there was also a strong possibility that she wouldn’t go to the inn. Inns cost money, something she had little enough of on the best of days. There was every chance that she’d set up a forest camp much like his. The abrupt nature of their departure hadn’t left them with a lot of time to make concrete plans, something that was extremely frustrating now that he was dealing with the aftermath.

The third day continued much like the second, with Luke venturing miles and miles into the forests to hunt for monsters that would push him up to level 24. Most of what he found was only around level 8 or 10, and he didn’t go out of his way to attack anything that minded its own business. Animals that fled on contact were also left alone.

But frequently, something predatory would find him, and if it wasn’t too low of a level, it would attempt to ambush him. Luke quickly found himself appreciating the 10 AP he’d put into perception, which made it much, much easier to detect and locate monsters with things other than his eyes. Considering how many monsters had coloring or skills that let them blend in and hide, being able to hear them or, in some cases, smell them, made it much harder for them to pull off ambush tactics.

Luke was on his second lap around Landston that day when he spotted a short woman with long strawberry blonde hair walking down the street. His heart leapt in excitement, and maybe just a bit of relief at the sight of her, but Luke restrained himself from rushing in. Zea was walking openly, without even the hood of her cloak pulled up. He was pleased to see that the clothes he’d bought had been put to good use as well.

Less pleasing was the man following about five hundred feet back. It took Luke a second to figure out why he seemed so familiar, but then it clicked. It was the guy who had been pretending to read a book when Myla had poisoned him. He appeared casual enough, like he was just out enjoying an afternoon stroll, but Luke wasn’t fooled.

Five hundred feet was nothing with a high enough perception, and could be closed in seconds with enough agility. The man was definitely keeping an eye on her too, which probably meant there were other church agents lurking around that he didn’t recognize on sight. He wondered if Zea knew she was being followed.

Luke skulked around the edge of town, trying to make sure he kept out of sight of Zea’s stalker, and waited for an opportunity to talk to her. He just needed her to go into a shop, or turn a corner where he could meet her without the man seeing. He saw his chance when she passed through the town square and slipped onto a side street. If she kept heading the direction she was going, she’d pass an alleyway in a few hundred feet.

As long as Luke was in that alley, he could flag her down without the church spy seeing him. The angle of approach was good, he just needed to be quick. He sped towards town, [Stealth] activated, and slipped into the alley without being seen by anyone. If he had any sort of luck at all saved up, there wouldn’t be anyone else from the church following Zea, or, if there were, they didn’t see him either. His skill didn’t react as if he were about to be spotted, so he was hoping it worked.

“Zea,” he hissed as she walked by. She looked over at him, eyes wide, and pivoted smoothly to walk into the alley.

“Get out of here,” she said in a low, harsh voice. “I still haven’t shaken these inquisitors.”

“How many?”

“I don’t know. At least three. Probably more. They’ve been handing me off for hours on the road.”

“Damn. Okay, I’m going to set up a campsite outside of town on the west end. You find it tonight, and I’ll take care of them.”

The two of them moved while they talked, but he knew he didn’t have much time left. Luke dashed off before she was halfway down the alley, hopefully well before the inquisitor turned the corner and noticed anything unusual. He would just have to hope Zea was able to lead them into the trap and that there weren’t too many for him to handle.

It seemed like XP suppressing skills were a standard part of the inquisitor toolkit, and Luke hadn’t been able to get a good read on a single one of them yet. His best guess was that they were all at least low 20s in level, and he hoped none of them were up in the 30s. Otherwise it wasn’t going to matter how well he prepared for the fight. They’d slaughter him.

There wasn’t much time to prepare, and he had a lot to get done.