The World of Tactics

Chapter Ten I: The Quest To The Capital

"The peaceful world was just the calm before the storm. The force of darkness has already crept its way back into the world. When the sipping darkness erupts, the land will be ravaged by war and destruction. For now, the darkness was just sharpening its claws, and when the claws were sharp enough. The world will be gorged and ripped by those claws. Never rust your weapon skills and shoulder the holy light that will pierce through the darkness. Beware, future descendants. Beware, future heroes. Beware... The darkness approaching..." An excerpt from an aged-old book. Authored by an anonymous hero.

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John Smith was journeying. It was now afternoon and the persistent kid named Mike was still following his trail from behind. Due to riding for a few hours on top of Dork. Dork had gained five experience points. It was not a lot, but Dork would eventually be able to level up as well. However, looking at the sweating Mike behind him. He decided that it was time to settle down for a short break. Just enough for Dork to graze some grass and ensure that Mike has enough stamina to catch up.

At first, he had been tempted to leave Mike and went on ahead. However, seeing how persistent Mike was while walking, without complaints. He could not bear to leave Mike alone and enact such an action. This was also good for Mike's growth, anyway. A while back, when Dork started to gain experience, he also noticed the 'EXP +1' on top of Mike's head as well. As for Mike, it usually pops up once every thirty minutes or so. While Dork has the same rate as his, once every hour or so. Mike has nine points of experience.

That was quite good as well. He did not start a fire nor did he know how to anyway. The whole morning to the afternoon was quite stuffy with the sun high above. However, the black cloak did a very good job of diverting the heat from the sun. He was just under the shade of one of the nearby trees and not far away was Mike sitting down to recover some strength. He observed and only saw one leather bottle filled with water. With the amount that Mike was gulping down. He believes that it will not last till tomorrow evening. The only things that Mike was munching on were the plain strips of dried meat.

Meanwhile, in his hand were some piping hot kebabs. His inventory is quite interesting. The items inside seem to be fixed in the same conditions that they were put in the inventory. His stomach was already full after finishing the second kebab that had veggies in between the meats. It was not a good diet, but he had to make do with what he had for now. The other ingredients were also hard to acquire within the village unless it was the specialty product that the village focused on growing. Otherwise, the spices would come from traveling merchants with such goods to trade periodically.

He did not take out his cup of water leaflet. Instead, he directly drinks from one of his newly bought canteens. He plans on leaving the leaflet cup of water as emergency water while his main source of water comes from his canteens. Once, he made sure that the time exceeded one hour or so. He hopped back on Dork who was munching on the greens. Dork calmly finished munching on the greens before trotting a few steps forward as practice. Mike also walked up from behind him as well, with the usual serious face and the silent treatment. He rubbed Dork's head for a bit before moving on.

The afternoon was uneventful and the only eventful thing was his butt getting sore from sitting on top of Dork for an extensive amount of time. The other event that he saw along the way was when they got into the intersection. He reads the wooden sign on top of the wooden pole and compares it to the leather map. Just like this, he was able to follow southward toward the capital. The map was a bit off, but everything worked out when the intersection sign also showed the way.

His legs were shaky the moment he landed on solid ground and his waist was calling for soreness. Evening came and he decided that it was the right time to settle down to make a camp. He knows personally that the outside at night is cold and he plans on trying a way to make a fire like Lawrence and the others. He gathered up something that looked and felt like it could be used as tinder, some small dried twigs, and finally a small batch of fallen branches. The very first try was a crippling failure. Even with all of his might, if he did not do it right, then the fire would not start anytime soon.

He did it again and again. Before the sunlight went out, he finally was able to get some hot coal by rubbing two pieces of wood together. It was not an easy task at all. It was especially so after he managed to get the hot coal. He carefully put the hot coals into the dry tinder and ensured that there was oxygen to keep the heat up. After the smoke, the tinder within his hand was quickly devoured by the fire. The fire was strangely orange with a tint of red before it became a normal fire. He added more tinder to the burning tinder. Laying some smaller dried twigs and finally, the fire grew enough to burn on the branches. He could not believe that making fire would net him three experience points. That is just how hard making fire was.

What he had to thank for was his high strength, which enabled him to put more pressure during the spins, and his high defense to protect his skin from being scraped while he was quickly spinning the piece of wood. Otherwise, without the two. He might not have been able to make a fire. It was unbelievably refreshing and rewarding when he managed to keep a fireplace going. Nothing from before could compare to achieving the feat of making fire just from rubbing two pieces of wood together.

While he was setting up camp, looking for dry wood, and making a fire. Dork already had it filled with greens and wild berries it had found. Dork sat beside him and a bit away from the burning fireplace. This time, Mike was finally willing to get closer to him. Well, to be accurate, Mike was sitting right on the opposite side of the fire. He did not mind since he had just made a fire. He is still feeling good about it. He will just be generous this once.

Just as he was about to take out the last two meat kebabs with veggies. Mike finally calls out to him, "Hey, how did you do that?" While pointing at the raging fire.

He could not resist imagining how starry-eyed Mike had become and calmly asked back, "Want to learn?" Even though he tried to sound mature, his kiddy voice came out quite calm and rusty.

He had forgotten how many days he had been out without using his voice now. Even when he does use his voice, it sounded quite rusty compared to the way before he left the mansion. Well, he could not do anything about his voice. For now, it's important to hear Mike's answer. However, he did not hear anything from Mike at all. He only received a nod and that was it. His smiling face cracked, he had wanted to talk a bit longer to familiarize his voice again.

It was okay, he took the bunch of dried wood to the side and showed Mike how things like friction work, etcetera. Mike did get the concept of making fire, but the concept of friction and stuff. He is better off explaining it in simple terms like 'rub wood' fast and hard, equal 'heat.' Then 'heat' becomes 'hot' and finally ends with 'hot' burning 'wood.' He even had to use the fireplace as examples. Like how 'fire' gives 'heat' and they are creating 'heat' to make 'fire.' Too bad, tonight was not a good night to teach and this will continue if they make camp again.

He had also assigned a night watch for both of them. He allows Mike to go to sleep first, while he will be the one who watches the night first. Dork was not that bright, but after the accident, after bumping into stalls. Along the way, Dork did not attract anything unlucky at all. He was a bit confused because the previous owner had already warned him a multitude of times. Just as he was about to gaze at the night, something unbelievable happened. It was the gridlines that he had not encountered for the last two or three days. It was just before Dork and Mike went into a deep sleep as well.

Luckily, he was the one awake during the night watch. The grid line stretches quite far away. Their campsite was situated at the end of the map. The middle was the grass plains that Dork grazed on. At the other end were roughly around five or so pairs of red eyes. Before the tab showed itself, he gets an interesting notification message that reads:

[Party member, Dork, innate skill activates!]

[Nightly Monster Magnet - Passively pulls nearby monsters during nighttime. Only activates at night. Nothing happens when there is no monster nearby. Automatically gains experience when the pulled monsters are defeated.]

It was no wonder how Dork has been called an unlucky miniature donkey. This also means that if there were an army of goblins nearby, then that means that the two with him might not survive the night. But then, how did Dork survive every single time? He looked behind him and Dork was awake and Dork was within one of the yellow squares. It was the [Escape] option. It seems like everything in the world is gifted in something. At least for Dork, it was the will to escape and initiate battle anytime at night.

He swiped away the notification message and moved on to the [Select Units] tab and selected Goon. Goon Two is just too weak and he is not planning on using Goon Two any time soon. There was no reason for him to go into the [Inventory] tab since his and Goon's default items within their inventory had defaulted from their previous battle. There is also nothing in the [Skill] tab. He moved on to the [Conditions] tab and saw [Route] or [Escape]. Nothing important with the tab, since he is going to clean up the enemies if they are much weaker than him.

Now he was in the important tab, the [Map] tab. He truly follows the saying that if he knows the enemy and knows himself. He would be able to battle one hundred or so battles and would remain victorious throughout. As for enemies, who were one or two times stronger than him. He would not win no matter what, stats-wise. However, in this case, he would win if he were stronger. He made sure to check the average levels of the enemies.

From what he had gathered, the enemy was the wolves. Almost all of them were at the same level at level ten and the last one was level eleven. Stats-wise, he and Goon are also much superior. He also noticed one major difference between the enemies that he faced before compared to the wolves. For goblins, goblins can equip weapons. Meanwhile, all of the wolves do not have weapon mastery. The only thing that the wolf has as a weapon is claws and jaws. It does not make sense, but it takes two inventory slots for all of the wolves and it seems to be locked with unlimited durability. The information about the wolf's claws and jaws is listed below:

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

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

[A natural self-grown weapon of a predator (wolf). Because they are grown, they will be harder to replace when broken. Abled to regrow over time. Abled to become stronger using it over time. (Innate)]

Wolves are nothing to scoff at. It was especially so when all five of them were adults and the size is also not looked down on. With their natural firepower, they are a lot stronger than a goblin at the same levels. Even stats-wise, they were a lot stronger than goblins. The important thing was that the wolves could move seven squares at the same time. They could easily ditch the hobgoblin without a doubt. This pack of wolves also has interesting weapons that could become stronger when used over time.

He checks their total strength and their highest might. He was just in luck. There were no wolves that had a total of eleven or over when strength is combined with their innate weapon might. The wolves had a speed stat limit that was much higher than humans by two points. The general sample of one of the wolves is listed below:

[Status]

[Name: N/A][Race: Wolf][Level: 10/20][Rank: 1][HP: 17/17]

[STR: 5(9) / [1][2][3][4][5][][][][] ]

[MAG: 0(4) / [][][][] ]

[SKL: 5(9) / [1][2][3][4][5][][][][] ]

[SPD: 6(12) / [1][2][3][4][5][6][][][][][][] ]

[LCK: 1(10) / [1][][][][][][][][][] ]

[DEF: 3(8) / [1][2][3][][][][][] ]

[RES: 0(4) / [][][][] ]

[Hidden: [CON: 8][MOV: 6+1][SKILL: Pack Buff][EXP: 0/100][WEA: Innate: D]]

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

Just this kind of status screen and he realized why the goblins would never be able to overthrow the wolves. That is under the condition where the goblins and the wolves were at the same levels. Unless there is a huge disparity in levels and stats. Then it is understandable that the goblin may be able to overpower the wolf. The wolves are much superior to the goblins, stats-wise, and movement-wise. This is what makes them scary. Regarding the wolves, he could not help but think of the large head of a bear on the back wall of the old man's office. He wonders how a bear is compared to the wolves here.

The current wolves are not able to penetrate through his and Goon's defense. Comparing the wolves' strength and their innate weapon's might. He realized something, no matter how high his defenses are. As long as there were weapons that had a much higher amount of might. Even then, his high defense stat that he was proud would also be of paper compared to a weapon sharpness. This meant that he had to achieve a higher level and higher limit. Only when he truly achieves true impregnability would he be able to stand up against anything.