The World of Tactics

Chapter Nineteen III: Dear John, Off-Road, From Dork

Chapter Nineteen III: Dear John, Off-Road, From Dork

"The best way to find a thug was the slum. The slum consists of the poorest, dirtiest, smelliest, and starved place in a town, city, or capital. To survive the slum, becoming a thug of a g**g was the easiest. Thus, seeing a thug or two within the slum is quite common. However, what many did not realize was that 'thug' is a base class that could change class to become many other terrible classes.

Three examples were the thief, bandit, and pirate classes.

A thug, naturally, not avoiding the fact that they would steal from others for a living, and changing class to a thief was a natural course of action. They would be able to [Steal] from others on a battlefield, use picklocks to open doors, loot chests full of valuables, and have the natural ability to see far under the cover of darkness. A thief usually has quick feet and is swift in battle. However, they fall behind in regards to strength because their main goal is to quickly lockpick, loot, and steal before running away with the valuables. As for fighting and such, it was not worth their precious lives.

A thug when part of a g**g would have a higher chance of becoming a bandit. A bandit is usually called a mountain bandit. A bandit could easily travel through high mountains like it was on flat land. Any high cliffs are not a barrier that could stop their ability to travel. Likewise, they would usually have a secretive base in a mountain. Their motive in stationing a few bandits in a town, city, or capital was to gather information about any valuable merchants that were going on a long trading expedition. Hence, bandits would be a common headache for the soldiers and guards.

A thug near a port will most likely become a pirate and sail the sea. A pirate would similarly operate like bandits, but they target and halt merchant ships mid-sea. Occasionally, a pirate g**g would work with a bandit g**g. In cases like this, the military and the navy would work hard to wipe out such connections because leaving such growing threats like this would become a huge headache as it was left alone.

There are also special cases where the army would actively seek out thugs to go undercover. Hence, some thieves, bandits, and pirates are not what they seem to be. This would allow the military and navy to gain precious information to get rid of any g**g that crops up. As for thieves, for the most part, thieves usually intend on minding their own sneaky business. The most common time when a thief was hired to steal was when there were schemes involved.”

---

He badly wanted to sell off all the meat in one single sitting, but he did not want to do so because he realized early on with the encounter with the butcher a year ago that it was not a smart thing to showcase his rare ability to have a warehouse-like inventory. He decided not to reveal such flaws again like that. So, the only ones that he sells once he reaches the village within his father's fief are the direwolves' and wolves' hides, along with one or two carcasses. Things would become easier if he said that his father was the lord of this land. Then the hide that he is selling fresh off would not be as suspicious.

The other reason why he is only selling the hide was that it was lighter and was quite valuable. It was especially so during the winter. A good quality hide would fetch a high price. However, since it was still early summer. Such mediocre fur prices would be much lower. He believes that each hide could still fetch somewhere around fifteen to twenty gold coins, depending on the willingness of each shop. Usually, the general shop and the leather shop would be able to offer a price. He had to see which of the two would be willing to buy them at a good price. After all, he could use some gold coins to buy something useful, but useful things come expensively.

As for the soul cores, he would think about it after he found a magic shop first because a magic shop would provide the best price for such commodities as soul cores. It was best if there were a magic shop as well because he wanted to buy high-level soul cores that could help him increase his experiences. He was not able to do so during the year because his experience points were capped and he would not budge no matter what. He was quite helpless about it until he changed his class to a higher grade class. So, the soul cores were not as useful during that time.

He moved on to the second wolf's carcass. He got a surprise for this second carcass because he got one hundred twenty meat strips of the same size as the first wolf's carcass. However, there were still some leftovers and he planned on making some soup for tonight's dinner. He even plans on making Dork find some wild herbs for the soup while they travel along the road. He could even smell the soup just by thinking of it. So, he quickly turns the remaining portion of the wolf's meat into small cubes before storing it in his inventory.

Just before he could continue to the third wolf's carcass, he saw the familiar battle grid line forming. He has also pushed away from the trees as if the world was growing. On the familiar option tabs, he found himself surprised by what was going on. But, he quickly cleared out his mind and put away all of the tools and materials on the ground. He then stood up as his metallic metal plate armor clamored. Even without his active participation, he was geared up almost instantly.

From the vague shadows within the meadows were two beaming green eyes. He could barely make out the shape of the monster. Even so, he guessed as to what that monster was. It was neither a wolf nor a goblin. The shape looks slightly bigger than a standard direwolf compared to the three that he encountered last night. Beyond that, his vision is blocked by the thriving greens. Whatever is beyond that, he had to make some preparation first before anything.

He first moved to the [Select Units] tab and [Select] both Goon and Uzi. It was no surprise that there were three more unit pixelations listed behind Goon and Uzi. Once he saw that he began to hesitate. He decided to [Deselect] Goon and Uzi, then re-[Select] the weakest remaining hobgoblin. He wanted to test something out and now was the right time to do so. He wanted to know what attracts the monster so much that the monster frantically tried to kill his summons instead of running away when his summons was almost undefeatable. This time, he determined that if the monsters were not that many, then just this hobgoblin would suffice.

Once he had decided to use the weakest hobgoblin as testers, he felt a bit regretful that he did not leave one or two goblins or wolves. Even so, he felt that finding the answers to this would do more good than harm in the future. He moved on to the [Inventory] tab and made sure that the hobgoblin's item slots were completely blank. Then move on to the [Skills] tab and also make sure to remove all of the skills as well.

On the [Conditions] tab, he only found two options. One was the [route] option and the last one was the [Escape] option. Other than that, there were no changes at all to the [Conditions] tab. Moving along naturally to the [Map] tab. It was obvious to him that the map was small, but he did not expect it to be this small. The map was a five by eight square tile and he also expected the number of enemies to be a few. However, it turns out that there was just a single monster on the map. The way the pixilation design of the monster, it looks similar to a lizard.

Upon closer inspection, he found out that the coloration of the lizard was not something that a land lizard could have. Not only that, he guessed that this might have been an evolved land lizard. He had once read that a land lizard would evolve into an earth draco lizard. He became serious because an earth draco lizard has destructive strength along with being able to use earth magic. Observing that most of the terrain here has the earth's attributes. This situation is not good at all. He plans to reorganize after looking at the status of the earth draco lizard. The earth draco lizard's status reads:

[Name: N/A][Race: Earth Draco Lizard (Grade 2)][Level: 25/35][Rank: 0][HP: 34/39] +10

[STR: 13(20) / [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][][][][][][][] ]

[MAG: 3(10) / [1][2][3][][][][][][][]

]

[SKL: 4(10) / [1][2][3][4][][][][][][]

]

[SPD: 4(10) / [1][2][3][4][][][][][][] ]

[LCK: 3(20) / [1][2][3][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] ]

[DEF: 13(20) / [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][][][][][][][] ]

[RES: 3(10) / [1][2][3][][][][][][][] ]

[Hidden: [CON: 12][MOV: 5][SKILL: [Dragon Blood][Innate Sharpness][Earth Affinity]][EXP: 0/100][WEA: Innate C]]

[Draco Claws: Might +5, Hit +75, Crit +5, Weight=0.1, Durability: N/A]

[Draco Fangs: Might +8, Hit +75, Crit +10, Weight=0.1, Durability: N/A]

[Draco Tail Talons: Might +12, Hit +80, Crit +15, Weight=0.1, Durability: N/A]

*Spells*

[Swamp Mire: Turns the ground into a swamp-like mire trap that slows down those within it. Range: 1~4. Area of effect: 3x3 Square (or +).]

[Earth Spike Spell: Might +3, Hit +90, Crit +5]

[Attack a target with a condensed spike(s) from the ground. Earth spikes disintegrate back into loose soil after the bout. Range: 1~2.][Spell Cost: 2HP]

He was quite surprised at how strong the earth draco lizard was along with his [Dragon Blood] skill. It directly increases health points by ten points, which is very significant and propels the earth draco lizard's health points close to forty points. Another surprise was the fact that it was injured. Not only that, the earth draco lizard can use earth magic that can attack and control the battlefield. He was not too worried about the earth draco lizard's earth magic because he had enough magic resistance to not care about the small damages. What he was worried about the most were the earth draco lizard's draco tail talons.

The physical might reach twelve points along with a high hit of eighty points and a critical of fifteen. In addition to the earth draco lizard's [Innate Sharpness] skill and base strength, he was sure that his current defense stat was not enough to take on such a mighty. From a brief estimation, he realized that he would have at least seven damage even with a max-out defense stat. For his current defense, he would take twelve damage. He would not die, but the pain would be massive and he would not want to taste that much pain.

Helpless to survive this encounter, he had allocated all of his remaining points to his defense stat. This would ensure that even if the earth draco lizard manages to land a critical hit. He would still have enough health points to survive such a blow. He also found something else that made him happier. It was the defense boost that came from his [Defense Up] skill that could still exceed its original value. Right now, his defense stat reads: [DEF: 21(20) / ...]

Still, even against the earth draco lizard, he felt passionate because he could obtain the soul core of the earth draco lizard after the battle. After a few increases in levels, he could max out the earth draco lizard's strength stat. An innate weapon that has twelve might plus twenty points of strength means that it is possible to unleash an attack that could potentially deal thirty-two damage if the intended target does not have any defense. Even at the same level as Goon, this earth draco lizard is no doubt much stronger.

However, he made up his mind. For this battle against the earth draco lizard, he will contend against it since his defense stat was the highest along with a decent amount of magic resistance. The most important part was that the earth draco lizard lost some health points already. If he were cautious and kept his health points well above eighteen points. Slowly grinding this earth draco lizard is possible. The only other thing was that he would be taking in loads of damage. As for his summoned hobgoblin, he decided that it would be bait.

If anything fails to take down the earth draco lizard, he will escape firsthand. He had not started the battle yet because he needed to do something else. He went back to the [Inventory] tab and made sure that he got all of the last herb batches into his inventory along with the single-use healing vulnerary. This time he also had to ensure that Dork escaped first before anything else, because Dork would be dead with just one single swing of the earth draco lizard's draco tail talon.

Since equipping his iron lance and ensuring that there was only one summoned, who was the weakest and lowest level hobgoblin. He hovers his finger over the [Start Battle] tab along with the [Start] option and presses the [Yes] option afterward. The time came back again and the surroundings went into motion. The wind blows and he begins to sweat. He saw the familiar [Player's Turn][1] and turned toward Dork. He [Command] Dork to move into one of the three yellow squares within the map and made sure that Dork would [Flee].

With that done, he moved closer to the earth draco lizard. He wants to see how an earth draco lizard looks, which is why he moves right next to the earth draco lizard. Once he got close, the earth draco lizard had some semblance of a komodo dragon in regards to skeleton structure. However, the difference was the head, tail, legs size, and earthly features. The earth draco lizard has an underbite fang that protrudes upward three to four inches long. The head had a forty-five-degree angle, a rough brow overhead the two beady eyes with intensive brown veins.

The claws were three inches long but were quite stumpy and big. Supposedly, the claws were not used much in battle and only used when required to move. The tail tip at the end curved upward like an eagle's talons and was two meters long. He bet that a single flick would seriously injure an average person. He believes that the tail talon would be used to puncture, grab the limbs, and either take a chunk of flesh or limbs. It was quite deadly and he got a bit nervous.

The body was also gifted with a rigorous muscular frame that came with many old scars suffered from many previous fights. The leather-like scales were covered in brownish-black coloration that was covered with a type of glossy condensed soil. There was no doubt that this was a defense comparable to thick metal sheets. To the right, a huge chunk of flesh was exposed to the air. A trail of messy blood stained the stomach and was moderately fresh. This is supposedly the reason why the earth draco lizard has lost some health points already. Just from the wound, he realizes that this earth draco lizard must have been attacked by another earth draco lizard.

It was now or never, he did not hesitate anymore and chose to [Attack] because the weapon that the earth draco lizard was currently equipping with the draco fangs innate weapon. He will not suffer any damage while inflicting some damage to the earth draco lizard in the process. Everything was within his expectations and he suffered no damage from the immense might of the earth draco lizard's fang attack. His arm was intact and he easily attacked twice. Each attack dealt three damage. It was not a lot with only one attack, but two attacks made up the difference (John Smith, EXP+20).

The experience was substantial and the outcome was favorable. Now, it was time that he moved the hobgoblin closer. Once the hobgoblin's turn ended with its movement. It turns to [Neutral's Turn][1] and Dork did as he commanded. He did not turn back to watch as Dork escaped, but he did hear the hew-haws of Dork before Dork vanished into thin air. Dork escaped, but it was fine. [Enemy's Turn][1]. The earth draco lizard just suffered two b****y holes from his stab, but he was barely within the attention of the earth draco lizard.