The World of Tactics

Chapter Eighteen V: A Nightly Battle

"Natural treasures! Within the world, there are many natural treasures that are waiting to be found. There are fruits that could increase strength. Godly spring water that increases health and longevity. The most important of all was that such treasure are rarely found and luck is key in finding such treasures. Without luck, no such treasures would be found. There are also many other kinds that directly increases the potential of a person to a greater height.

However, many natural treasures does not always means that it would allow a person to become the strongest with just a swallow. Many times, natural treasures give some benefits and take some from the person in returns. A natural equivalent exchange. So, beware of the natural treasures. Like me, for example. I have gain such strength after reducing my luck. Now, I could not hope to gain such opportunities again." Explain a lucky veteran adventurer that gains great strength in return for the adventurer's own luck.

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However, the first goblins were not even a match for Goon at all (Goon, EXP +2). The second goblin also manages to get through to the gap and attack Goon. He shakes his head at the second goblin's pointless death (Goon, EXP +2). The third goblin was the final goblin to be able to move into Goon's open gap. The result was the same as the previous two and the third goblin was sent into the thereafter with Goon's mighty fist (Goon, EXP +2, Level Up). Even with such a low amount of experience points, Goon still manages to barely be able to gain a level.

He was quite envious of Goon's fast growth in levels. However envious he was, he could still not change that fact and allocated three points into Goon's speed stat. With this kind of speed, Goon should be able to double attack an early evolved direwolves. That is unless the early evolved direwolves were to have insane speed stat like Uzi. However, the chances for that to happen was very little especially for those in the wild because potential growth rate does not equivalates to survival chances. So, he did not worry about such a monster coming out from the wild because he felt that the chance encounter with them is rare.

Moving on, only partial of the remaining goblins were able to move a few squares over. Other than that, some of the remaining goblins were stacking within the stack which made it harder to navigate around. Likewise, it helps knowing that there were some goblins that would not be able to move in and attack Uzi. After the last goblin moves, the enemy's turn finally is over. He took a deep breath knowing that everything went according to his plan smoothly.

The [Player's Turn][6] finally left him more confident. The first thing that he did was to heal up Uzi with the second herb batch. Uzi had already finished using the first herb batch in the previous turn. It was time for Uzi to heal up, to ensure that Uzi completely patch up. He made Uzi eat up half of the herb batch. This was completely enough for the Uzi to survive against the remaining leading hobgoblin and the goblins stacked behind.

For this turn, he first [Command] Dork to cast a fireball spell to the goblin right in front of him. After doing so, he turns to attack the remaining hobgoblin that is barely hanging on with just six health points. This would be a nice amount of experience points for him and he really misses the feeling of leveling up. It has been a long year now and the feeling of improvement still lingers within his mind. He wanted that increase in level because he had broadened his horizon. He saw how weak he was compared to those outside. He yearns to have the same strength or at least the capability to escape when encountering those that were stronger.

He rushes to attack the second hobgoblin. It must have been due to his rashness that he had missed on the first attack during this bout. The hobgoblin counter attack that barely did any scratch on his heavy metallic amour. Although surprised at his first attack being dodged, he did not give the second hobgoblin any more chances because his second attack came swiftly and punctured a large hole through the second hobgoblin. A red negative eight number was enough to clear out the last remaining health points of the second hobgoblin (John Smith, EXP +60, Level Up). He finally levels up.

He was happy, but he was even happier knowing that he actually got three unallocated points to allocate into his stats. His current unallocated points actually went up to seven points. He decided to add one point into his skill stat because he wanted to validate something. Using three points might be a waste now, but if he was right then the higher the skill stat the more effective parry becomes. He just did not know the base amount of points were needed into the skill stat to be able to parry.

For sure that he knows that parrying requires at least eight points of skill and two is the minimum amount of points needed to be able to start parrying. That is why he would slowly increase the skill stat by one point after each bout. This would ensure that he knows the minimum amount of skill stat needed in order to parry. He also considered adding some of Goon's and Uzi's skill points, but he did not have concrete evidence right now and he could not afford to lax on the strength, speed, and defense of the two.

Once again, Goon was the only movable unit left. He was confident that no other goblins attack could deal any significant amount of damage to Dork because Dork's current defense stat was one point higher than Uzi's. Dork has a grand total of seven points in the defense stat. It was by no means low and most of the goblins could not have an attack that could deal over eight damage except the hobgoblins. However, the leading hobgoblin is stuck within the stack while the other hobgoblins are completely dead. Cold on the ground. Likewise, it was not as if the goblins would target Dork either way since they prefer the tantalizing Uzi and Goon more.

Goon was set to move one square in front and attack the goblin that was a square adjacent to another goblin that he assigned Dork to attack. Two fist attacks and a meager counter attack from the goblin in front. It was uneventful and the goblin was quickly eliminated (Goon, EXP +2). The amount of experience was also meager as well. The only reason why he would watch was because of the high damage Goon could inflict with a fist was over ten points of damage. That was just how effective a ridiculous amount of high strength and speed represents during a battle. If he could pair Goon with an iron axe then that would have been much better.

[Neutral's Turn][6], Dork was quite shaky after he opened up the formation because the goblins would attack Dork with the single opened gap. He even saw that Dork took a couple huffs at him, but Dork did not back away. Dork did as he commanded and fling a fireball at the assigned goblin. Dork's attack landed true on the chest of the goblin and the firework of the fireball even knocked the goblin down on it's back (Dork, EXP +20). A single attack gives Dork quite the amount of experience. He had some intention of increasing Dork's levels, but Dork can not contend against any high level nor was able to deal a fatal blow that could completely kill off the leading hobgoblin. Which is why he commanded Dork to target the goblin right in front of him. Dork manages to deal ten damages.

Nothing was as important now that Dork's turn was over. What is important was considered and done. Now it is time to see how the enemy reacts. [Enemy's Turn][6]. The first to move was yet again the leading hobgoblin. It was surprising how the leading hobgoblin to be the only one that was still alive after the passing of the first three direwolves and the two hobgoblins. He applauded how useful the leading hobgoblin's skill [Thick Blood] was. A direct boost of health points by five points was amazing after all, he got a troll’s vigor ring that only boosted three health points after all. That was a lot already because it was at least an increase of ten percent to his current health points.

The leading hobgoblin's target was still Uzi. The leading hobgoblin was still as hell bent as the moment the leading hobgoblin attacked Uzi. He had hoped that Uzi would miss at least once, but Uzi's claws were much more accurate than he had thought. The last remaining health points of the leading hobgoblin were directly drained to zero. Sixteen damages and sixteen health points, the leading hobgoblin had no chance at all (Uzi EXP+0). A high level hobgoblin was turned into zero experience points for Uzi. The trade off was not good at all, but Uzi at least survived this ordeal. In fact, he still has a hidden worry for Uzi because he was afraid that one of the three hobgoblins still had a slight chance to land a critical attack on Uzi.

The injured fifth goblin had no way to attack Uzi, so Goon became the prime target. The fifth goblin feeds Goon some experience points as a result (Goon, EXP +2). Goon's level was high, sitting at twenty-five now, a maxed out strength stat at sixteen, and a defense stat of ten points. The fifth goblin was nothing compared to Goon. There was also the comparison of levels as well which Goon outright surpasses the fifth goblin's level by ten levels. This is why the fifth goblin could only be considered as experience points.

The sixth goblin attacked Uzi like he had expected. It was as if the monster knew that out of Goon, Uzi was the weaker one out of the two of them. He concludes that it might have been an instinct of sort for all monsters. Well, the other fact was that the sixth goblin could not reach Goon at all. However, he still wonders if Uzi and Goon were still attractive to undead monsters as well. For now, the sixth goblin's attack against Uzi has concluded. Uzi's current defense was able to completely nullify the attack of the sixth goblin. In return, Uzi quickly claws two times before the goblin goes to the thereafter (Uzi, EXP +0).

The same goes for the seventh goblin (Uzi, EXP +0), the eighth goblin (Uzi, EXP +0), and stops at the ninth goblin because Uzi's first counter attack misses (Uzi, EXP +0). The tenth goblin were the same as the ninth goblin. Surprisingly, the first counter attack of Uzi's also misses as well (Uzi, EXP +0). The gaps of Uzi was blocked off and the other prime target of the remaining goblin was Goon. There was nothing to describe the bout between Goon and the eleventh goblin because Goon just counter attacked twice with two hard fists. The eleventh goblin could be nothing more than dead and experience points for Goon (Goon, EXP +2).

The end of the enemy's turn left two goblin standing on top of the accumulating corpses on the ground. [Player's Turn][7], he finally could smell the smelly blood that lingers in the air. He was to focused on battle with realizing that the air near here are completely filled with the lingering blood soaked ground and grasses. It was quite strong, much stronger than the time when he fought off the wolves from the previous battle a year ago. He got used to it, but it did not really means that he like it. His face scrunch up ugly-ly to while trying to breath from his mouth. Although not afraid, he really did not like the nasty smell blood.

He first [Command] Dork to [Attack] the ninth goblin with a fireball. This would ensure that Dork gained some experience from it. As for the tenth goblin, Uzi was the one to deal with it. He was a bit lazy and did not want to move nor think at the moment because he had to clean up the aftermath later on. Just the crazy amount of corpses is enough for a headache and he did not want to spend the night cleaning it up. After Uzi finishes off the tenth goblin (Uzi, EXP +0), he ends their turn without enacting an action nor instructing Goon. He wanted Dork to have the honor of dealing with the last standing goblin, ninth goblin.

Once Dork fling the fireball at the ninth goblin along with the experiences hovering above Dork's head, the familiar gridline finally faded and the misty edge of the battlefield also faded away (Dork, EXP +60). Goon and Uzi also fade out of existence while Dork is starting to receive experience points from the defeated wolves and goblins (Dork, EXP +140). He was quite surprised to see that Dork could get more than one hundred experience points because he had never seen it before, but the other thing was that Dork was glowing in the shine of leveling up.

Dork was undergoing levels up and it was not just once, but twice at that. He saw the spectacular multi leveling up again and it came from Dork again. Once was from the previous battle with the wolves. It was not as special as the first one, but leveling up twice was already miles away from the trainees months of training. Dork's status screen after leveling up was:

[Name: Dork][Race: Fire Miniature Donkey (Grade 1)][Level: 11->13/20][Rank: 1][HP: 9/13->10/14] +0 +1

[STR: 2(6) / [1][2][][][][] ] +0 +0

[MAG: 12(15) / [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][][][] ] +1 +1

[SKL: 5(8) / [1][2][3][4][5][][][] ] +1 +1

[SPD: 2(8) / [1][2][][][][][][] ] +0 +0

[LCK: 1(20) / [1][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] ] +0 +0

[DEF: 8(9) / [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][] ] +1 +0

[RES: 5(15) / [1][2][3][4][5][][][][][][][][][][] ] +0 +0

[Hidden: [CON: 9][MOV: 7][SKILL: [Fire Affinity]][EXP: 95 -> 35/100][WEA: Fire E]]

It was so strange to see that Dork's magic is getting stronger and stronger with its poultry growth rate. Dork was much stronger than he had expected after it had evolved into a fire miniature donkey. Sooner or later, he had to be careful to not mess with Dork. Likewise, Dork is practically going toward a tanky mage. The saying that what the master becomes, the servants would follow. Goon and Uzi were proof and Dork is showing the same potential as well. Without doubt, Dork deserves to follow under him.

[Direwolf - A fearsome beast that evolved from wild wolves. They were known for their incredible speed and skills. However, what truly makes them more fearsome was the fact that they were never alone. Usually, a pack with an alpha male direwolf contains no less than ten wolves. The alpha male direwolves with a pack over twenty are the most dangerous. An alpha male direwolves that lead a pack that numbered more than thirty along with a few other direwolves is just a few steps away from becoming a fablewolf. A direwolf by itself only has a danger rating of two stars. However, it becomes three stars to four stars when the pack reaches more than twenty to thirty. (The number is just a standard, but it has no direct relationship with the evolution stages of a wolf.)]

[Fire Miniature Donkey - Among a herd of miniature donkeys, over half would usually have some sort of combat abilities that associates with magic. A fire miniature donkey is quite rare while earth miniature donkeys were much more common within the Kalamar Kingdom. Usually the environment is the cause of the miniature donkeys evolutionary routes. Due to the docile nature of the miniature donkeys, they are usually reared as agricultural laborer. However, those lucky donkeys that manage to evolve. They are commonly sold to nobles for a high price because of its ability to use magic. History proves that evolved donkeys are not considered as threats even during battle. (There are exceptions like Dork who had a ridiculous high magic growth rate. A few generations later, magic casting miniature donkeys (wild) are a viable way for tamers to gain access monsters that could uses magic)]