The World of Tactics

Chapter Ten II: The Quest To The Capital

"There are times when you will encounter monsters and such during a trip, but it is unlikely to happen while traveling during the day on the main road. However, do not let your guards down because some heinous monsters will purposely lay ambushes. It may not happen today, but watch as it happens in the next few days. For those random encounters, it would not be as dangerous, while it could be dangerous if you are unlucky.

For monster ambushes, be tight on your guard because those are moderately more dangerous than those random encounters because they have some kind of strength. Some kind of strength to have the confidence in contending with those who are traveling on the roads. The strength could be quantities, qualities, or something much more fearsome with both quantities and qualities. That's why we should be cautious even during a peaceful errand while going along the main roads.

Caverns traveling together with mercenaries are also not without risk. The roads are not just about the monsters here and there. There were also horse bandits, thieves, cutthroats, and pirates to watch out for. None of them are good to encounter during long journeys or expeditions because they are more brutal than monsters and are equipped with weapons that are unlike monsters' crude weapons.

So, young man. Be cautious and keep your eyes sharp during the journey. We won't have enough hands to keep protecting a new sellsword like you around. Here, a sip to calm down. Wait... what's that? Bandits! Bandits attack!!!" A veteran mercenary advising a new youngling who had just become a sellsword.

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Even if he might not be able to take out the other side, the same goes as long as they were not able to take him out as well. He had to become an armored knight like his father and have at least the same defense stat as his father. Only then, would he not be afraid of anything. With another determination, he moves on to the [Start Battle] tabs and presses on the [Start] and [Yes] respectively. This time the map was ten by twenty.

At least the fireplace was able to light up the darker side of the grass and it became much harder to see. The [Player's Turn] blinked to life and his other options were readily available to him. This signifies that the battle has started and that there is no other option other than to fight. He moved four squares ahead and Goon also did the same. There was no fancy strategy and he planned to keep it that way until something else cropped up. He ended their turns.

As for [Neutral's Turn], Mike was deeply asleep and Mike's turn ended right away. Dork, as always, was munching on some grass while paying attention to the wolves in the distance. He did not doubt that he and Goon were not moving toward the wolves. Dork would have been the very first to flee from the battle. For now, Dork's turn has ended while still standing in its original spot.

It was now [Enemy's Turn] and the moves of the wolves were also plain obvious. Their targets are Goon. For this battle, he plans on maxing out Goon's level. For this, Goon is the one that will usurp up the experience from the level eleven Wolf. This way, Goon's purpose as a meat shield would become greater. Later down the line, he might have to change Goon for a stronger monster. If a wolf does have a soul core as well, he might swap to a wolf because Goon has reached its potential limit. Unless he possesses the ability to evolve the soul core of Goons. Then nothing could be said about developing Goon into a fortress.

The first and foremost wolf seemed to be the leader and had the highest level out of all of the wolves. Just after the last Wolf ends its turn, the [Player's Turn] quickly flashes into his view. He moved Goon to attack the nearest wolf, which was the leader of the pack. On a closer look, he could see the sharp teeth and wrinkled face along with the blackened tips of the wolf crouching on the ground. Goon had no feeling of fear and moved on to club the head of the nearest wolf. An amazing negative five flashes red on top of the wolf right afterward. It indicates that the wolf has taken five damage.

However, what came after was not within his expectations. The wolf did not just do one attack nor was it three attacks. The wolf manages to attack two times with its jaw. The only proof of the two attacks were the two white numbers that came up on top of Goon's head. It was two negative zero in white. One was just about to fade and the other was quite freshly white. He knows that it is real, considering that it was nighttime and the plain obvious of the two negative numbers were clear. He checked the leader's speed and it was seven points, while Goon's speed was just two. It was quite sketchy, but the result is reflective of the two status screens.

This leader had one more defense than the rest and sits at four defense rather than three defense. It was nothing major since Goon got no damage whatsoever while the nearest wolf had close to one-third of its health gone (Goon, EXP +20, Level up). The experience was not that bad either, since Goon was able to level up from it. He allocated the point to Goon's health. Goon's current levels and maximum health points were nineteen and eighteen respectively. He is quite proud of Goon's high health points, strength, and defense. Just one more level and Goon would have reached its potential, statistically.

While Goon's turn ends, he quickly dashes forward and attacks with his fist. The feeling of using his hand against flesh feels very uncomfortable. His fist just happened to land on the wolf's neck and the painful howl of the wolf was startling (John Smith, EXP + 34). A red negative number appears on top of the wolf while fading away slowly. He also can not believe that a four or five-point difference and the result would have been this disastrous.

Nothing was as good as this night to grind for experience. He grins knowingly that this was only possible because of his high level. He was pumped for this nightly and timely battle because he was also close to leveling up and had discovered the uses of the speed stats. For now, he concludes that as long as someone's speed is four or five points higher than their opponent's. They could attack twice during the bout. The reason why he got such a conclusion was that he currently has four points in speed and a difference of three speeds did not allow the leading wolf to attack him twice.

Adding one to one, he concluded that because there was a difference in five-speed stats between Goon and the leading Wolf. That is how he learned the uses of the speed stats and what the difference between the speed stats implies. He realizes that having high speed is quite effective when clearing weaker monsters. Essentially, it helps inflict two times the damage to the enemy per turn. The only requirement was having four or five points in speed higher than the enemies. He finally found where to put his remaining level's unallocated points.

[Neutral's Turn] ended quickly without any events while the turn phase was passed on to [Enemy's Turn]. The leading wolf attacked Goon again even though it was obvious that it would not be able to cause any damage. Goon inflicts another solid negative number in red on the leading wolf (Goon, EXP +10). Even though the experience was good, the health points of the leading leader were down to only two health points left. The remaining four compete to attack Goon, but there are only three adjacent side squares that are available to attack Goon (Goon, EXP +1, EXP +1, EXP +1). As expected, the experience was pathetic.

He had originally wanted to max out Goon's level, but the experience points given were not even worth a dime. The other good thing was that he was finally able to confirm something regarding the speed stat. Having just four more speed points and having five more speed points does matter. In the end, a difference of four points can not enable the second attack. The minimum requirement for a double attack was a difference of five points in the speed stat during the bout between the opponent and the attacker. It was quite the amount, but in comparison, it was only logical that higher speed would net a benefit of double attacking. If not, then there is no point in having the speed stat. Otherwise, there will be some other uses for it.

He readied himself for the final wolf's attack. The wolf bit his arm, but in return, he gave a good heavy blow to the wolf's face. Just his punch and he dealt seven damage to the wolf (John Smith, EXP +34, Level up). Nothing is better than punching a punching bag that gives such a huge amount of experience as the wolves here. His status screen looks quite better after having his speed reaching six points after putting two points into his speed stat. Likewise, his speed was at the same level as the wolves that he is currently facing now except for the leading wolf, who had seven points in speed.

It was back to their turn again, [Player's Turn]. He was tempted to give the leading wolf's experience to Goon but considering that it barely helps give much experience to Goon. It was better for him to take all of the experiences and reach the max level first. This way, he would be able to maximize all of the benefits from this single battle. Nothing is strange about this situation. After all, they could grind experience another time.

So, he enacted on the current situation. He attacked the low-health leading wolf. He directly burst the leading wolf's head. He was also shocked by the gore that just happened before him (John Smith, EXP +50). He looked at his b****y hands and wiped them down on the knee-tall grass below him. Coincidentally, he saw that the smaller critters below were able to move freely. Since they are not affected, then that means that there are restrictions that are limited to only stronger beings during battles. It was a fun discovery, but it was kind of off to him.

He moves Goon next to him to ensure that Goon is being attacked only by three wolves and the last wolf will attack him instead. Not only that, he made sure that Goon did not have a weapon equipped. This is to ensure that Goon will not be able to deal a significant amount of damage that could directly kill the wolves. Both of them ended their turn just like that.

The bland [Neutral's Turn] came again. There was such a commotion over there and yet Mike was able to sleep at such a time. As for Dork, Dork was unusually calm and munching on the grass nearby. What was interesting was that Dork was nowhere in range of the wolves' attack range nor their movement range. However, what was important was that Dork could easily escape in one turn. Other than that, the two's turn ended just like that and the [Enemy's Turn] quickly came.

Just like he had expected, the first three wolves did attack Goon. However, this time Goon manages to inflict one less damage on each of the attacking wolves (Goon, EXP +1, EXP +1, EXP +1). Nothing could compare to that one less damage, because that one less damage made a two-turn attack into a three-turn attack before the wolves died. He calmly waited for the last wolf to attack him. Since he knew that the wolf would not cause any damage at all. He baited the wolf to attack his left arm and quickly struck back.

This time he did not throw a punch. Instead, he smashes down with his right arm. He heard from his grandfather that the most important structure for humans and animals is their spine. So, without further ado, he put the knowledge to the test. He smashes the wolf on the spine. He heard a sickening c***k that made his right arm shiver and he saw the amazing 'CRITICAL!' that flashed red on top of the wolf's head along with a double-digit negative number in red. He deals an amazing twenty-one damage to the wolf. It was an instant kill (John Smith, EXP +50, Level up).

He was sure that this double-digit critical damage would have instantly killed him too. The critical was too shocking along with the awkward-looking wolf that lay dead on the ground right before him. He quickly brushes this event away and turns his attention to the words that cross his view, [Player's Turn]. He quickly adds two more points to his speed and begins moving to the nearest wolf that has low health points. He knew that he had enough strength to instantly kill it with only one attack.

He moved in for the attack and rushed to smash down on the spine of the wolf, but the damage was normal (John Smith, EXP +50). A red negative number and there was no critical like he had expected. Just another dead broken spine wolf-like the previous one. He thought that he had found the secret of critical hits and that was to attack the weak spot. However, reality shows him that this is not true. What is true was that he did manage to deal with a critical hit by a fluke and nothing else afterward. He was a bit disappointed, so he quickly ended Goon's turn as well.

The disappointing [Neutral's Turn] ended like before and it was quickly the [Enemy's Turn]. Goon was the punching bag again (Goon, EXP +1, EXP +1). The [Enemy's Turn] was quite short in comparison to the beginning of the battle. This might have been one of the quickest battles that he has been in. The moment when it flashes [Player's Turn], he had already been moving. He targeted the closest wolf to him and gave a solid fist to the neck of the wolf and that ended his turn (John Smith, EXP +50, Levels up).

He did not expect to reach his max level so soon. Compared to the ten-long years he had to wait and those last few days. It was just crazy how much his level had improved. His experience had two dashes before it and his level was twenty out of twenty, which signified that he could no longer improve. He had reached his first bottleneck. It was an unimaginable achievement and strange thought as well. However, he was happy and that is what matters the most. He put two points into his speed and it finally turned green, like his strength and defense stat. With three green stats across the whole board, he felt that his status was looking great.

As for the last wolf on deck, he made Goon deals with it (Goon, EXP +2). The experience was nothing and quite meager. As for Goon's current wooden club, there were only four durabilities left and there were cracks all over. It was better off than the first wooden club, but this current wooden club will be scrapped later on. Just when he finishes checking on Goon's wooden club. The grid line had disappeared and the dark fog that surrounded the battle also disappeared.

He was used to the disappearance of the fog, so he was spooked out. The moonlight was hanging up high above and he finally remembered the disgusting smell of blood. He was not in a hurry to go back to warm up at camp, he had to do something first. Since the wolves were monsters, he felt the need to dissect the wolves and stocked up on food. He covered his sharp nose with a cloth and went to business.