New Story -- Chapter 33

Chapter 33

“How is he moving so quickly? Isn’t he a Support Class?”

Sarah ignored the grumbling coming from Diallo as she tried to keep up with the rest of her party.  She could understand where he was coming from, however, as the strange Support Class was moving rapidly through the town, forcing them to practically run to keep him in sight despite the fact that he was technically only walking.

“And what’s with that robe? It makes me want to look away from him in disgust for some reason.”

Again, she understood what the Apprentice Fire Mage was talking about, because the black robe with silver stitching on it was decorated with images of bones and skulls, making her immediately think “Necromancer”, but he didn’t seem like the type. She remembered partying with some during training that had been a Necromancer Acolyte, who had been able to construct a flimsy skeleton pet to attack with, but they had been a Mage Class, not a Support.

Whatever it was, she could only assume that it somehow decreased his Personality stat, because she hadn’t remembered feeling her current dislike of him when she saw him before. She hadn’t seen anything with detrimental effects like that in the Training simulation, but if there were items that increased her Mentality, Celerity, or Physicality, she was sure there were ones that decreased them as well.

As he slipped around a corner, heading toward a gate in the wall, she couldn’t help but think about the surprise she and her party had when he had come back downstairs just a minute or so ago. Level 35?! He was just Level 21 less than an hour ago!

Sarah had no idea what was going on with this guy, but she wanted to find out. Not because she wanted to steal whatever secret he was using to Level-up so quickly, though she wasn’t going to lie to herself by not admitting that it was certainly a motivating factor; rather, she saw it as a way to save everyone she cared about.

Sure, she was only one person, but even a single individual could make a huge difference.

And this man, whoever he was, could be the key to that. The more she saw of him, the more she concluded that he wasn’t from Earth and hadn’t come with the rest of the Contenders; in fact, he probably wasn’t even a Contender, but some sort of special individual that wound up on the world of Tarth for a purpose she didn’t know. That didn’t matter, though, because the Assimilation System and its Assimilators had put each of the Contenders from Earth through hundreds of strange tests during Training, and while very few of them made any sense, she knew that in order to succeed they had to go out of their comfort zone and push the boundaries of what was possible. That might just include following a Level 35 unknown individual wearing a creepy black robe who had an expression on their face that promised murder to anyone that got in their way.

It was only when they passed through the gate in the town wall that they were able to finally catch up to the powerful man, as he slowed to a walk as he saw what was going on outside. She could tell from his body language that he was amazed at what he saw, which told her that he wasn’t used to all the Contenders running around killing monsters; she could well believe it, because from what she knew of this world, monsters were plentiful but people were sparse. While Sarah and her party had gone out earlier, it had been so crowded and the weaker monsters were so difficult to find that they had gone back inside to come up with a different game plan.

Which led to what they were doing right now.

They kept their distance from Mr. E, which was what she had mentally nicknamed him because #32599999-E was a mouthful and hard to remember, as he continued walking along the road leading out from town. While observing him from a safe distance, staying far enough that he wouldn’t thing they were following his path, she noticed he looked at the different Contenders with an obvious sense of curiosity and possibly even wonder, as if he’d never seen anything like it before. Is he that sheltered that he isn’t familiar with destructive magic spells and Scout Class abilities? That seems hard to believe based on his Level. Then again, if she was correct in what she remembered, he had been Level 1 that morning, so anything was possible.

It wasn’t until they passed the Level 1, 2, and 3 monsters along the way, along with dozens of different Contender parties, that someone actually paid attention to Sarah and her own party. Chad, the misogynistic Fighter that everyone couldn’t help but notice just after they arrived on Tarth, was out fighting a pack of Level 4 Grass Wolves with his party, but the man was just finishing off the last of them when Sarah’s party passed by.

“Did you lose your way, little girl? The monsters suitable for weaklings are back that way,” Chad, who was already somehow Level 3, shouted at her. He knew that he was shouting at her and not at any of the others, because there was no mistaking Rayana for a little girl, and Aki was practically hiding behind the others.

That, and Sarah was only 5 feet tall and 19 years old, a bit younger than the others in her party – so much so that she probably did look like a little girl compared to her companions.

She ignored him, as she didn’t want to get into anything with him or his party, who she noticed were all women. Attractive women, in fact, though they appeared to be capable Contenders; still, the way they looked at Sarah and got close to Chad showed that they saw her as a threat to whatever thing they had going on there.

Look, I don’t want anything to do with whatever crazy stuff you got going on between you. She didn’t say that, though, but she hoped to convey that with her expression and lack of response.

It didn’t work.

“What are you even doing out here, girl? This is no place for a Level 1 weakling like you.”

She grit her teeth and bit her tongue to prevent herself from responding, but it was hard. Instead, Sarah continued looking ahead, glad that the one they were following didn’t seem to have heard the shouted conversation behind him. All they needed to do was get just a little further out of town, where none of the other Contenders – and especially Chad – could see them approaching the powerful Support Class, and they would be able to plead their case with him. They all knew that it was doubtful that the man would agree to help them immediately, but they had to try.

And if asking once wasn’t enough, then they would keep trying until he said yes. They needed his help to get stronger, but they also didn’t want to call attention to the guy so that every Contender would be harassing him for help; that would surely lead to there being no help for any of them.

“Hey, I’m talking to you! What are you doing out here? Did you find a good Quest? Wait, are you following… who is that?”

As much as she knew it would probably be a bad idea to look at the man they were following, she couldn’t help but glance at him – and so did everyone else in her party.

“Level 35? And he’s Human? I don’t know what’s up with his odd name, but there’s no way I’m going to let someone beat me on the Rankings,” Chad said, before he made to move after the strangely powerful man.

“Wait, he’s not a Contender!” Sarah shouted back, finally engaging with the strong Fighter despite her reluctance. They couldn’t have the musclehead interfering with their plans, after all. Thankfully, the individual they were talking about seemed oblivious to their shouted conversation, as he hadn’t shown any sign that he even heard them, let alone knew they were following him.

“Well then, who is he? I’m going to challenge him, see who’s really stronger.”

Imbecile. That man, despite being a Support Class, is over 30 Levels higher than this dumbass. He must have some sort of special items that let him survive traveling out by himself, otherwise he wouldn’t live for that long.

She was hoping that they would be able to catch up to him before he got to his party, wherever they were, so that they could ask for his help – or at least share the secret of how he had Leveled-up so quickly. Now, though, this Chad bastard was ruining everything.

Whether it was the world or the System giving them a helping hand, before Chad and his party had taken a few steps away from where they had slaughtered the Grass Wolves, another pack of them appeared and suddenly attacked. Their Mage was suddenly taken down from behind at the abrupt assault, landing on her face as the Wolf launched itself at the back of her knees. She didn’t get a chance to scream as her throat was ripped out, but a few seconds later she was filled with a healing energy as the Support member of the group desperately healed her.

Sarah knew from experience – thanks to Training – that even a grave wound like getting ones throat torn out wasn’t always an absolute death sentence, because it all depended upon Health. A fatal wound like that would bring someone down to a single Health, and they had a very limited time to be healed before they died; therefore, the healing that was being performed by the Support member was keeping her alive while her throat was being repaired.

Of course, if her head had been entirely ripped off her body, there was no healing that could save her.

As Chad turned back to help his party, not even his inflated ego being able to ignore the plight of his injured companions, Sarah knew it was their chance to move on and leave this moron behind. Just as her party realized the same thing, hurrying their steps to put some distance between them and Chad, a low growl to her left was all the warning she got before she threw herself forward to narrowly miss having her own throat ripped out. Keeping from being too hurt had to be a priority, because they didn’t have anyone that could heal, and the Weak Health Potions they received as part of their Coalition kit were only good if they could actually be ingested – which would be hard to do if one’s throat were ripped out.

Thankfully, it was only that lead Wolf that was close to them, as the other trio of Wolves that were part of the pack were still emerging from the grass. Her party was already turning to face them as soon as they heard the growl, and Rayana immediately engaged the Wolf that had nearly killed Sarah, stabbing it in the side as it recovered from its missed opportunity.

Knowing that any hesitation could mean their deaths, as these monsters were 3 Levels higher than her entire party, Sarah used her Weak Root Snare to ensnare one of the incoming Wolves, trapping it in place for what she saw was only 10 seconds based on the Level difference between them. Even as that was done, she blinded another one with Weak Blinding Leaves and snared the third, keeping it from attacking for a few seconds while they dealt with the rest.

Just like that, with those three spells being cast, Sarah was out of Mana. Her Mana regeneration – thanks to her Mana Management Competency – would give her 1 Mana per 3 seconds, but most likely the fight would be over one way or another before she gained enough to cast another spell.

Thankfully, despite only being a party for less than a day, each of them were veterans of many fights during their Training, and that experience paid off as the others took advantage of their blinded or snared opponents. Rayana took a bite to her leg that she was unable to avoid, but the strike also allowed her to finish off the Wolf that had attacked her, leaving a bloody mess to her calf that looked painful – but the Soldier Class didn’t even seem to register that she had been wounded.

Aki moved in quickly to Weak Backstab the Wolf Sarah had wounded first, while a Weak Fireball slammed into the blinded monster, who couldn’t avoid the flaming ball of death to its face. Neither attack killed their targets immediately, but they were also damaged enough that it wouldn’t take much to finish them off.  Aki took a bite to her knees, causing her to stumble and nearly fall, but she managed to take advantage of the attack to mimic Rayana and stabbed the wolf through the eyes with her knives, killing it near-instantly. The blinded and burnt Wolf took another Weak Fireball to its shoulder as it thrashed about wildly from the pain it was experiencing, which unfortunately didn’t kill it, but it was basically out of the fight as it couldn’t move quickly on its injured side.

Rayana was just arriving to attack the last Wolf when it broke away from Sarah’s Weak Root Snare, and it rushed at the Novice Druid with a speed that he Soldier couldn’t match. Already having gotten to her feet, Sarah held out her wooden staff in front of her just in time for the Wolf’s lunge, and she barely managed to stick it inside of its jaws as it flew at her. She was pushed backwards off her feet at the monster’s momentum as it bit down on the wood, shattering it as they landed, her head hitting something hard on the road. Dizzy and disoriented, she could feel a wetness on the back of her head that indicated that she had been hurt, but processing anything in her current state was nearly impossible.

She brought her arm up reflexively to block bite from the Wolf that had landed on top of her, but it never came. Instead, she saw a flash of a red robe as Diallo threw himself on her attacker and knocked it off of her, and he screamed as his arm was bitten by the stronger beast.

Sarah lost track of everything after that, but the messages she received showed that they were successful in killing all the Wolves – but how their party fared was still a mystery until Rayana helped her up from the ground, and she got to her unsteady feet.

They were all alive, but each one of them was wounded. Thankfully, the way the world and the System worked, as soon as they were out of combat, they would begin to heal from minor wounds, and even the bleeding cut on the back of her head had stopped – though her Health was still at about half of its maximum. That blow must’ve been worse than I thought.

“Come on, we need to go,” Rayana said, practically carrying her along as her vision started to stabilize and the dizziness faded. It would take about 10 minutes for her wounds to fully heal without drinking one of the Weak Healing Potions they were given, but only Aki drank one to help her move, as he kneecap had been nearly ripped off during the attack. Diallo was holding his bloody arm as they ran, but the bleeding had already stopped, while Rayana continued to not seem to care about her own wound on her calf.

Looking back as they ran, she saw that Chad and his party had recovered from the surprise attack on them and had already killed the initial pack, but a second one had engaged them from nowhere, putting the entire party on the defensive as they were beginning to run out of Mana just like her own party had. Looking at her own Mana, she now had enough to cast another spell, but that wouldn’t do much good if another entire pack attacked them.

Hey, at least we earned enough to get to Level 2 finally. Their brief excursion outside the town earlier had netted them some PICK, but they hadn’t been able to farm enough to get to Level 2 – but the Grass Wolves had pushed them over the edge. She barely looked at the Level-up message as she spent all of the PICK she had accumulated, happy that she had gotten some more Mentality to increase her maximum Mana pool, but more fixated on leaving the area before they got attacked again.

Ahead of them, she could just barely see the figure of the man they were following in the distance, the strange Support Class having traveled quite a bit even in their brief fight. Unfortunately, with how wounded most of them were, they couldn’t move too fast, but she could see that they were slowly catching up. It still took over an hour before they were at the same distance they were before behind him, as their healing finally finished, which allowed them to move a bit faster.

It was at this point that the landscape changed from the open grassland to the edge of a forest, but it was unlike any forest she had seen before.  Even in their Training, she hadn’t seen what looked like the sickly, dead trees they encountered, and the Druid part of her Class – as if it had imparted some of its very nature to her – ached at the lack of anything living within the eerie forest.

It was made even creepier when a light, low-hanging fog seemed to be dispersed throughout the trees, despite the late afternoon hour. It wasn’t filled with heavy moisture, however, but something different, like a smoke that wasn’t smoke; she couldn’t explain it, but she didn’t like it.

Almost as soon as they entered the trees, they collectively decided that now was the time to speak to the man, as they were far enough away from anyone else that they wouldn’t be seen or overheard. There also hadn’t been any sign of Chad and his group following them, so they were in the clear.

Unfortunately, just as they were about to call out to the powerful Support Class, her party froze in their tracks as a low moan from their left caused them to paralyze in fear. Out of the fog came what could only be a zombie, which was revealed to be exactly what it was a few seconds later when Sarah was able to see the tag above its head.

Zombie Shambler – Minimal

Level 8

Oh, shit.

“We shouldn’t be here. Let’s go,” Diallo said quietly, beginning to back away from the approaching zombie. Fortunately, the Undead monster was relatively slow with a shambling gait, so they could escape if they turned around now.

Unfortunately, a spine-chilling rattle of bones alerted them to something behind them, and she turned around to see a trio of Brittle Skeletons, all of the Level 6, blocking their route out of the forest. Out of the fog to the left and right came even more of the Zombie Shamblers, along with two pairs of what turned out to be Ghoulish Crawlers at Level 7, which appeared to be a cross between a zombie and a skeleton as they crawled quickly over the ground.

Well, we’re fucked.

“RUN!” Rayana shouted, and they all shot toward a gap in the encircling Undead behind them, but it was already too late. As the Soldier valiantly attempted to engage the Brittle Skeletons, her sword barely damaging their bones as she swung, the Ghoulish Crawlers swiftly cut off their escape route.

Of all the stupid ideas….

Sarah screamed as something ripped at her back, sending her tumbling to the ground, only for it to be cut off abruptly as decaying fingers flashed over her face and blackness descended upon her in death.