Before the goblin could finish casting, I lunged forward with the tip of my sword streaking toward its throat. In a surprising show of dexterity, the Shaman managed to knock the blow aside with a bare, now bloody hand just enough for my weapon to gouge its shoulder instead of kill it.
Abandoning all pretense at casting, the creature resorted to sheer primal instinct. Drawing its sword, the Shaman chopped at my side in a movement that I was hard pressed to block. "Time for death, human!" It screeched, pulling its sword back for another strike.
I stepped backward, well clear of the Shaman's reach, and launched a Force Spear through its skull. "Damn it!" I muttered as I felt a trio of hits land across my side and back. I shouldn't have let that bastard take so much of my attention.
(A Level 5 Goblin Brute strikes you for 10 damage!)
(A Level 5 Goblin Brute strikes you for 12 damage!)
(A Level 5 Goblin Striker strikes you for 17 damage!)
"Gah!" I shouted in pain and rage as I turned, putting everything I had into a massive, cleaving strike that disemboweled one of the Strikers before slamming into and breaking a Brute's wooden shield.
The Brute screeched as its main point of defense and part of its arm were hacked apart. I quickly reversed the momentum of my swing into a rising diagonal slash that cut across my enemy's chest and caught the side of its neck.
Greyish blood spurted from the wound as the goblin went down, with another Striker quickly following him. No more arrows flew at me, which I found odd until a Bowman's knife found its way into my thigh.
I smashed the pommel of my sword into the offending Goblin's skull, sending it into a permanent dirt nap, but even more took its place. I began powering up Force Slash with my left hand, barely keeping my enemies away with the right.
(You do not have enough mana to continue empowering Force Slash. Available mana- 0)
Oh, shit. It wasn't near powerful enough yet- I had only put 5 or 6 mana into the attack. Still, I let it fly.
The goblins nearest to me were killed outright, having already sustained wounds from my sword. Almost all of the ones farther back survived, save a few Bowmen and previously injured Strikers. All in all, there were still seven goblins left. Two Bowmen, a Striker, and four Brutes.
"Well?" I said, motioning with my sword, "Come and get me." I portrayed as confident of a figure as I could while being dizzy with blood loss and pain. The taunt worked, sending the already angry goblins into a frenzy of grayish-green flesh and crude copper weapons.
I met the first Striker one on one, thanks to it being faster than its bigger Brute counterparts. The Striker's sword streaked toward my stomach in a quick, light slash that I barely deflected in time. Another few attacks followed up, but I parried them easily and countered with a brutal slash to the thing's thigh.
I made to finish the goblin off, but a Brute stepped in to block my killing blow with its shield, simultaneously hacking at me with its axe. I sidestepped and brought my sword down in a heavy cleave that nearly severed the Brute's arm.
Ignoring the now mortally wounded Brute, I finished off the Striker just as the rest of the Goblins arrived. The bowmen were bloody wrecks, my Hunter's Sight indicating that they only had about 4 Health left. I charged a quick Force Slash with what little mana I had recovered, and watched with satisfaction as they were both blown lifelessly to the ground.
The Brutes forced me to backpedal as all three of them attacked at the same time in an uncoordinated but nonetheless effective assault. Seeing one of them prepare for a particularly powerful strike, I stepped forward inside of its guard and slammed my fist into its nose with a bloody crunch.
The Brute instinctively started to stumble backward, but I grabbed it by the wrist and pulled it onto my sword. The other two finally broke and ran, seeing the violent destruction of almost a score of their kind. They didn't get far before I cut them down.
When the two were dead, I made my way back to the spot I left my water skin, not realizing that I was fully recovered until I checked my notifications. It was mostly a mass of messages about damage and kills, except for one displaying that I had earned a new Level and a few more displaying updates in skills and abilities. There was also one that had appeared right at the start of the fight, letting me know that my second water skin was done crafting.
(Your skill Force Slash is now Level 2!)
(You have earned 20 Exp for Leveling up a skill!)
(Your skill Force Spear is now Level 2!)
(You have earned 20 Exp for Leveling up a skill!)
(Your skill Hunter's Sight is now Level 2!)
(You have earned 20 Exp for Leveling up a skill!)
(Your skill Warrior's Sight is now Level 2!)
(You have earned 20 Exp for Leveling up a skill!)
(You have learned the ability Swordsman!)
Level 1 Swordsman- Your continued use of a sword has taught you how to better wield all manner of single and double handed swords.
(You have earned 15 Exp for learning a new skill!)
(You have earned enough Exp to Level up!)
(Congratulations on reaching Level 8!)
I instantly put 3 points into Intelligence and 2 points into Wisdom. I sure as hell didn't want to run out of mana in the middle of my next fight like I did this time. If my enemies had been any stronger, or even slightly better coordinated, I would have been history. The additions brought my mana capacity up to 68, and slightly increased my spell damage.
With a sigh, I bent down to collect my water skin and take a quick drink from the pond. When first one was filled, I put it into my Inventory and began filling the second one. After that problem was settled, I used 5 mana to deconstruct all of the goblin blood and filth that covered me and my sword before putting it into my Inventory.
After the serious business had been taken care of, it was time for every gamer's favorite part. Loot! Which was, unfortunately, probably going to be more than I could carry. After scavenging what I could from the goblins, I took stock of what all I had collected.
(You have collected a Crude Copper Axe (x8)!)
(You have collected a Sharpened Crude Copper Sword (x8)!
(You have collected a Crude Wooden Bow (x4)!)
(You have collected a Crude Wooden Arrow (x40)!)
(You have collected a Crude Copper Dagger (x4)!)
(You have collected a Tarnished Hide Scrap (x30)!)
I disregarded the hide scraps, knowing that even the rat leather I collected was higher quality than what they wore. Between the fact that they were built for someone of considerably smaller stature than I was, and that they were very poorly made, I didn't bother with the bows or arrows either.
That left the copper weapons, which were a veritable treasure trove for someone with my talents. The first thing I did was start deconstructing the daggers, as they had the lowest mana cost. Deconstruction was almost Level 2, and hopefully the added bonuses that it brought were enough to help out with the others.
I'm finally going to have some metal to work with. I grinned as the knives finished deconstructing, with an extra notification that deconstruction had reached Level 2. I started three of the axes right after, almost entirely depleting my mana pool.
(Your skill Deconstruction is now Level 2!)
(You have earned 20 Exp for Leveling up a skill!)
You know, it's useful to know when I Level up something, but I still have no idea what exactly it does. It took a couple hours to deconstruct everything, giving me 36 copper ingots and about 40 wood.
I had no idea what to do with all of my newly acquired metal. I definitely didn't have enough carrying capacity for all of it, and I wasn't going to leave it behind either. Sooner or later I was going to have to find civilization.
"Or you could make one. My powers stretch beyond what your feeble mind is capable of grasping."
"I can do that?"
"Of course you can. All you need is materials and mana. And you've got plenty of materials right at your fee
t."
(You have learned the skill Spark of Life!)
(You have earned 15 Exp for learning a new skill!)
Spark of Life- By replacing the soul of a mortal being with mana, you can reanimate their body and mind. For additional mana costs, you may reprogram their body and mind to suit your purposes.
You have learned the skill Creative Spark!)
(You have earned 15 Exp for learning a new skill!)
Creative Spark- Using mana to channel Shard's power, you can create beings limited only by your imagination... and crafting materials.
"Holy shit, Shard. This is pretty badass." Obviously, the first thing I did was try to resurrect one of the goblins.
(Reanimating Level 5 Goblin Striker requires 5 mana. Do you wish to reanimate?)
Holy fuck! Only 5 mana?! That's so badass! I selected yes, and watched as the sputtering thing pushed itself to its feet. Then, with a soft gurgling croak, it collapsed to the ground.
(Your Level 5 Reanimated Goblin Striker has died!)
Huh. I probably should have fixed the enormous tear in his throat first. After a brief moment of experimentation, I realized that it took 10 mana per pound of flesh I moved from one creature to another. The torn throat, while fatal, wasn't exactly a huge wound. It only took 3 mana to fully repair the little bastard.
I almost chose to reanimate the goblin as it was, but stopped myself. The limits of my imagination, huh? I could have some fun with this.
Chapter 6
Between planning, designing, and actually putting together my creation, it was over a day until I made it back to the clearing. My thing was carrying all of the scrap resources and remaining metal I had collected through the fight. With a slight grin, I turned back to the massive creature to take a look at its stats for the umpteenth time that day.
Name- Goblin Bark Spider (Large)
Level- 5 (Experience to next Level 0/500)
Health- 683/683 (2% regen every 10 seconds)
Stamina- 795/795 (2% regen every 10 seconds)
Mana- 50/50 (2% regen every 10 seconds)
Strength-98
Endurance- 86
Dexterity- 57
Perception- 96
Intelligence- 15
Wisdom- 15
Luck- 47
Skills- None
Abilities- Silent Level 5, Climbing Level 15, Natural Defense Level 10
Its abilities were fairly obvious. Silent made it quieter, Climbing let it climb (thanks to the six-inch copper claws it had on the end of each leg), and Natural Defense gave +5 to all forms of defense per Level.
I had used most of the goblin flesh and bone that was available to me after the battle, about 700 pounds out of the half ton or so worth of bodies that I originally had. From there, I had added copious amounts of hardened tree bark to meld into its skin, making the thing have an odd, greenish brown coloring. It was also the reason it had its Natural Defense ability. Between the bark, metal, and flesh, it probably weighed about 900 pounds.
Out of the rest of the bodies, I made 4 smaller spiders that were about 50 pounds each, and left 2 dead goblins for future use.
Name- Goblin Bark Spider (Small)
Level- 5 (Experience to next Level 0/500)
Health- 123/123 (2% regen every 10 seconds)
Stamina- 175/175 (2% regen every 10 seconds)
Mana- 50/50 (2% regen every 10 seconds)
Strength-20
Endurance- 32
Dexterity- 87
Perception- 84
Intelligence- 15
Wisdom- 15
Luck- 40
Skills- None
Abilities- Silent Level 5, Climbing Level 1, Natural Defense Level 4
I didn't have access to venom or web spinning capabilities for my spiders unfortunately. Still, they would prove invaluable to my future defense. The larger spider couldn't do much on the ground, at least not in the forest, but it made excellent progress in the trees. The smaller ones, not quite big enough to bridge the gaps between some of the trees, scuttled behind me on the ground. The only downside was using so much copper, but what did I really need that much of it for anyway?
"Ahh, home sweet home." I said to myself as the clearing finally came into view. I may have stormed off from the place when I was pissed at Shard, but to be honest I wasn't sure where else to go.
I've got an efficient way to make use of the bodies too. The boar wasn't too decomposed as of yet. The rats were looking pretty bad, but there was probably something I could end up using them for.
There was one little problem though. The bodies were literally just meat and bone. I had either physically skinned them or deconstructed their pelts for resources. That being said, I did have some leather left that could be used for now.
Another thing I had going for me was the shaman's body. I quickly spun together a short, extremely compact creature with dark, barky brown skin and pitch black eyes. I used both goblin bodies, and as much of the rat meat I could salvage to make it extremely dense, along with a bit of boar meat here and there.
Even though it was barely five feet tall and had the stature of a normal human (if a bit hunched) it weighed probably a good 300 pounds.
Name- Goblin Bark Shaman
Level- 7 (Experience to next Level 0/500)
Health- 540/540 (2% regen every 10 seconds)
Stamina- 438/438 (2% regen every 10 seconds)
Mana- 560/560 (2% regen every 10 seconds)
Strength-72
Endurance- 70
Dexterity- 124
Perception- 91
Intelligence- 132
Wisdom- 156
Luck- 15
Skills- Blinding Flare Level 8, Stealth Level 5, Fireball Level 2, Unearthly Growth Level 1
Abilities- Silent Level 6, Climbing Level 3, Natural Defense Level 12
Using what little mana I had left, I made the thing pants. I was most definitely not into that sort of thing.
I sent all of my creatures but the large spider out to look for prey that was strong, but still within their capabilities. They were to bring anything they killed back to the clearing and arrange it from weakest to most powerful, with a separate pile for magical enemies. Any of my own that died were also to be brought back to me.
Now, what to do? The obvious long term goal was rescuing the planet. That being said, that was way more than just a few months, or even possibly years off. No, what I needed now was a home. I didn't have the mana capacity to put together a building with magic alone. I would need a few more humanoids to aid with construction, as well as a steady supply of food and eventually some form of irrigation from the river or lake.
But first the home. Then food and irrigation; maybe a farm of some sort. I would also need housing and training facilities for my humanoid troops. And a smithy. And so, so many more things that spiraled into such a complicated mess that I was starting to get a headache.
Lord of Creation Page 11