The World of Tactics

Chapter Eighteen I: A Nightly Battle

"Humans are so unique, yet, distinguishably the same as us. Before, humans were not the sovereign of the land. Listen, little mermaid, if you encounter a human. Remember to run away, they had this horrifying nature called insatiable greed. Beware of humans who will rob you of your things and sell you away to other rotten humans (This mermaid is talking about pirates that roam the sea. Side note, she has encountered a few detestable incidents with pirates before).

Remember, the only distinct similarity that we, mermaids, have with humans is just the crest. This is why humans are barely qualified to conquer the land above. For the sea, it is our home ground and a human would never be able to penetrate the ocean floor or have such ability as ours. If there is one day when you encounter a human, remember to swim straight downward and swim away little ones." Said a teaching mermaid to the other smaller mermaids deep underneath a small part of the sea.

---

John Smith had just stepped out of the gate from the eastern gate of the Kabridge Capital. There was nothing else to say since he had already said his goodbyes to Kevin and the others that were standing on top of the walls. He had already hopped onto Dork. It had been a long year since he bought Dork and this miniature donkey did not even grow one bit.

Luckily for him, he was able to put Dork into doing hard labor within the barracks. Otherwise, Dork would have already been thrown out because feeding a freeloader like Dork with fodder is not even worth it. Even though the fodder to feed Dork is not a lot, over a year would be significant. Likewise, Dork also benefited from having worked hard. Dork manages to gain enough experience points to level up. Dork's current status screen is listed below:

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

[STR: 2(4) / [1][2][][] ] +1

[MAG: 7(10) / [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][][][] ] +1

[SKL: 2(5) / [1][2][][][] ] +0

[SPD: 2(5) / [1][2][][][] ] +0

[LCK: 0(10) / [][][][][][][][][][] ] +0

[DEF: 6(6) / [1][2][3][4][5][6] ] +1 G

[RES: 2(10) / [1][2][][][][][][][][] ] +0

[Hidden: [CON: 8][MOV: 6][SKILL: N/A][EXP: --/100][WEA: N/A]]

[Growth Rate][HP: 35][STR: 14][MAG: 56][SKL: 21][SPD: 19][LCK: 3][DEF: 30][RES: 20]

For some reason, Dork can take quite a beating before dying. Right now, even goblins and wolves are barely able to penetrate Dork's defense. He could not help but think about whether Dork was able to evolve someday. Dork would be the very first magical miniature donkey that spits out magic. If so, then Dork would become a valuable miniature donkey. Likewise, if such a day comes. He will make sure to milk Dork as much as possible. He can not help but imagine what he could make Dork do. He felt that it was quite funny and gave off an almost inaudible chuckle. This is just a small side thought for him since he is on the journey home and with nothing interesting to do.

He shakes his head and watches the darkness going down quickly with time. He stopped Dork when he found a good clearing to make camp that was on the offside of the main road. A quick few fallen branches, dried wood, and some tinder to make fire with. He took out the tinderbox and opened it up and took one piece of char cloth before closing it. With the flint and steel in his hand. He easily caused a spark to land on the char cloth that was on top of the tinder bundle. Fire easily blooms when the hot sparks finally catch the char cloth on fire. Unlike his experience, Sam's tinderbox was much more effective than the experience he had while rubbing two dry pieces of wood like crazy.

The branches were soon laid on top of the burning tinder. When the branches were burning, he finally added some dried wood that was much bigger to the mix. Soon, the lights from the fire lit up the surroundings. He took out some dried bread along with some dried strips of meat and put them close to the fire to warm it up. He would not be able to sleep out in the open without being able to eat a warm snack. Ever since he came out of the capital, he had been feeling the outside atmosphere of the wilderness and the natural air was quite refreshing. Just as he was about to take a bite of warmed bread and meat strips. He smiled at the incoming grid lines in the air. He was very familiar with these grid lines and he knew that they got company and company meant experience bags. A familiar message pops up as well.

[Party member, Dork, innate skill activates!][Nightly Monster Magnet!]

He watches calmly while the gridlines do their thing. Then the cloudy mist covered up the surroundings and afterward were the same tabs that went missing last year. Even while the grid world is coming into being, he can feel that the mana from within his body automatically activates and forms heavy layers of metallic armor over his body. It was such a fascinating thing as he automatically geared up. Just when the battlefield was completely formed, a heavy shield that had similar cravings as the badge appeared on his hand, and in his right hand was his bronze lance. His comfortable outlook completely changes.

The very first tab that he visited was the [Select Units] tab. He realized that there were some small, but distinguishable changes. The number that he could select to help him in battle had increased by one. That means that he could summon both Goon and Uzi out to battle at the same time. He also knows that this must have been related to his class change from a grade one to a grade two class. If this is true, then he can tell that after he changes class to grade three that he will be able to summon one additional unit in battle.

He selected both Goon and Uzi before moving on to the next tab. The next tab was the [Inventory] tab. He gave Uzi two slots worth of herb batch and left Goon as is for the moment. Just as he was about to put away the magic scrolls that were taking up three slots of his item slots. He remembers that there was someone, no, a miniature donkey that had a lot of magic points. In the end, he decided to put away the mini ignition magic scrolls in his inventory. After all, the mini ignition spell and the ignition fire spell do not distinguish between allies and enemies. It is best not to use it since it can only provide a limited amount of help at that moment.

After that, he quietly puts the iron lance away as well, since he had already got a bronze lance along with the wooden lance made from magic hardwood. These two should be enough for him at the moment and he moves to the next tab. In the [Skills] tab, he was glad to see that there were obvious changes to the first slot within his skill slot. The first circular slots were filled with an obvious shield while there was a 'Def +2' right next to it. The same goes for Goon since Goon also has a skill, but the picture was of a general ax figure with a 'Might +2'. Without reading the description, he already knows what the skill is.

Just a curious experiment to see what he could do with the skill within his skill slot. He presses his pixelated figure which was bulky with armor. Except for his familiar head showing without the helmet on, the rest of his body is covered in armor. The moment after, his five skill slots were enlarged and the pixelated skill icon more, much more, defined with details. It was obvious what he would do next, so he touched the enlarged skill icon. To the side of the side pops out two options that he could play, which were [Equip] and [Remove]. He did not dare to choose the [Remove] option because it might cause him to lose the skill forever and it was not worth the risk of losing the skill.

So, he went with the [Equip] option, which also opens up a listing right beside the screen of the enlarged skill slots. There was already one skill within the listing. The skill reads [Lancer], it was the skill that his father had. He did not select the [Lancer] skill to equip it because he did not know if it would replace his original skill within the first skill slot. With another thought, he quickly exited out of the [Equip] option and returned to the enlarged skill slots. He decided to equip the [Lancer] skill for the second slot. Unless he has a desirable skill and there were not enough skill slots. He would not easily replace any skill that he got. Of course, that is 'if.'

The icon of the [Lancer] skill within his second skill slot was of a general lance figure like Goon's skill and the same note to the side which says 'Might +2.' He had a small little guess as to why he got this skill and it might be from his weapon mastery that reaches rank C. As for the reason why the skill was not automatically added into this skill slot, he got no idea. However, it was good to know that he got one more skill and it increased his might by two. From his guess, 'Might' might have meant an increase in attack damage. For now, this battle will be his first test.

With that, he moved to enlarge Goon's skill slots. What he got was that Goon does not have any additional skills that he could equip Goon with. He also made sure to check Uzi just in case Uzi got a skill, but he realized that gaining skill and having skill is not easy. He was not disheartened by the lack of two additional skills and moved on to the [Condition] tab. The two options that he got were [Route] or [Escape] with nothing special. Which he had expected. Since there are only two conditions, he moves to the [Map] tab. He was shocked at how huge this map was and he knew why it was set so big.

Within the bushes and intersecting trees, there were two groups of the enemy. One group consists of wolves while the other consists of goblins. Another thing was that the number of the two groups was quite even and each group was led by three leaders. There were three direwolves along with three hobgoblins. Using numbers, the two are quite even. However, he could tell that the goblins were not a match for the wolves with the same number of units on each side. He felt that if he were to summon both Goon and Uzi.

The four of them would have attracted the attention of the two groups. He had an unconscious thought of getting a better view of the face between the two and the map zooms in while turning the map world into a three-dimensional low poly model. Even the position facing each monster, trees, bushes, and others are mapped out. He was quite surprised at this new function of the map because this might have been due to his class grade of two.

With a slight touch on one of the random square tiles on the three-dimensional poly model. He got a strange smell, but a long rectangle information box which reads [Grass: Miss +0, Shield +0, Heart +0][Earth]. This also brings up the question of what those three represent. Not only that, he is quite curious about the attribute that was attached at the end. It might be some sort of bonus that he did not notice before or was caused by his class change to a higher grade class.

Otherwise, he would have already discovered this when he checked on the status screens of those goblins and wolves that he fought a year ago. For now, he could faintly guess that every square tile has some sort of terrain bonus when occupying the square. He tested it on the bush next to the grass tile. As expected, the first information box disappears and the new one appears a bit to the side of the first one. It reads [Bushes: Miss +5, Shield +0, Heart +0][Movement -1, next turn.][Earth].

Just like this, he felt that having a good position and making use of it provides unimaginable benefits that he should keep track of because it might become a crucial thing in the future. He also took mental note of this bit of information. Before attacking, he will consider the terrain and whatnot before enacting any random actions. This would prove useful and fatal at the same time since good terrain would provide critical benefit. While it is possible, being in bad terrain, he could end up killing himself. It would have been better if he had known about this early on. Moving on, he found a few other terrain square tiles that did have some sort of effect on the map. What he found was listed below:

[Ground: Miss +0, Shield +0, Heart +0][Earth]

[Trees: Obstruction][Cannot move into square unless destroyed.][Earth]

[Road: Miss +0, Shield +0, Heart +0][Earth]

[Campfire: Miss +0, Shield +0, Heart +0][Fire]

After a quick check of the map layout, he found no other terrain square tile of interest. Otherwise, the other key point was the size of the map, which was twenty by thirty and their campsite sat close to the middle edge of the thirty square tiles. After positioning Goon and Uzi, he also made sure to confirm the status and number of enemies as well, which equals twenty-eight possible enemies. The strongest that could be considered a threat are the three direwolves and the three hobgoblins. The two of the strongest of the direwolves and hobgoblins' status screens are shown below:

[Name: N/A][Race: Hobgoblin (Grade 2)][Level: 28/37][Rank: 2][HP: 32/32] +5

[STR: 10(16) / [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][][][][][][] ]

[MAG: 0(8) / [1][][][][][][][] ]

[SKL: 4(12) / [1][2][3][4][][][][][][][][] ]

[SPD: 7(16) / [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][][][][][][][][][] ]

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

[DEF: 9(16) / [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][][][][][][][] ]

[RES: 2(8) / [1][2][][][][][][] ]

[Hidden: [CON: 9][MOV: 6][SKILL: [Thick Blood]][EXP: 79/100][WEA: Axe: D]]

[Equipped: Bone Axe][Bone Axe: Might +4, Hit +71, Crit +10, Weight=10.0, Durability: 28/40. (Axe D)]

[Thick Blood - Health points +5.]

[Name: N/A][Race: Direwolf (Grade 2)][Level: 29/38][Rank: 2][HP: 25/25]

[STR: 9(18) / [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][][][][][][][][][] ]

[MAG: 1(8) / [1][][][][][][][] ]

[SKL: 8(18) / [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][][][][][][][][][][] ]

[SPD: 14(24) / [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][][][][][][][][][][] ]

[LCK: 4(20) / [1][2][3][4][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] ]

[DEF: 6(16) / [1][2][3][4][5][6][][][][][][][][][][] ]

[RES: 2(8) / [1][2][][][][][][] ]

[Hidden: [CON: 11][MOV: 8+1][SKILL: [Pack Buff][Innate Sharpness]][EXP: 33/100][WEA: Innate: C]]

[Pack Buff - Movement +1 when there are five or more wolves in the pack.]

[Innate Sharpness - All innate weapons, might +2.]

[Wolf Claws]->[Wolf Claws (Strong): Might +6, Hit +55, Crit +5, Weight=0.1, Durability: N/A]

[Wolf Jaws]->[Wolf Fangs: Might +5, Hit +95, Crit +10, Weight=0.1, Durability: N/A]

~[Wolf Claws: Might +4, Hit +50, Crit +1, Weight=0.1, Durability: N/A](Reference)~

~[Wolf Jaws: Might +3, Hit +90, Crit +5, Weight=0.1, Durability: N/A](Reference)~