Duskbound

Originally, Velik had been looking for something to give him a bit of range to help with hunting, but really, that wasn't his style. If he absolutely needed to, the [Shape Shifting] enchantment on his spear let him reshape it into a javelin to throw, though that left him with nothing but a skinning knife as a backup weapon. His other idea was to fill a hole in his toolkit by finding a skill that would make it easier to kill whole packs of monsters all at once.

Having spent two weeks in the deep wild fighting monsters with high physical stats, he could comfortably say that neither of those were what he needed most. No, he needed armor penetration – a skill that would let him drive his spear through a sheet of one-inch-thick steel. Too many times, he'd been forced into harrying an enemy he couldn't actually hurt, trying to get it to open its mouth at just the right time so he could stab his spear into it.

He was sick of trying to hack through thick, shaggy pelts and even thicker leathery skin. If he'd had a skill that could just stab through all of that, he'd have reached level 30 days ago. That was definitely the way to go if he was going to keep fighting monsters that were a higher level than him, especially since physical attacks were the only real way he had to hurt something.

Selecting a skill wasn't a complicated process, but it was a decision with a lot of options. For the most part, it was a safe bet to just skim the general skills lists the system presented him with. There were new options that had been unlocked by upgrading his stats repeatedly since his last skill slot at level 20, but his class skills were almost always far, far better. The only reason to take a non-class skill was to merge it into a class skill, like he'd done with [Identify] and [Ambush Tactics]. Both of those had quickly folded into [Predator's Visage], and he was still hoping to add [Stealth] to that combination soon.

Class skills, on the other hand, were much, much harder to merge together. Even so, he'd worked diligently to combine the various spear skills his unique class, [The Black Fang], offered him. Despite how many people seemed to think it was a title, it was so much more. Someone had used [Identify] on him back when he'd first gotten the class a decade ago, and somehow, it had spread from there.

The class focused on melee combat, wilderness survival, and monster hunting, which suited Velik just fine, as those were all things he cared about. A bit of ranged offense would be nice, but the truth was that he didn't want to carry around some bulky longbow or a quiver stuffed full of arrows anyway. He preferred to travel light; that was why he'd only brought a week's worth of rations in the first place.

His class skill options focused around that trinity, but he'd long ago picked over what he thought would be useful to him with an eye on selecting skills to merge. Thanks to that, he had ten skills filling three slots, and he saw no reason to switch up the strategy now.

So, I need something that will fold into [Spear Warden] that gives me better penetrating power. [Serpent Strike] helped a little bit by bumping up my speed and accuracy, but that's more for exploiting vulnerabilities, not for stabbing through armor. What can help me with that?

He found a skill called [Venom Slash] that promised to inflict agonizing poisons that seared his target's flesh, but while it might help eat through fur and hide, it felt more like it was designed to destroy muscle after he'd already made contact. Worse, it was reliant on mystic, which was by far his worst stat. He kept the skill in mind, but he wasn't excited about it.

A better choice was something called [Burden of the Beast], which also used mystic, but which claimed to make a victim's body heavier with each successive hit, regardless of whether it drew blood. The drawback was that it only worked if he was fighting a beast. The definition felt a bit loose when he considered it, like maybe the skill lumped reptiles, birds, and fish in as well.

It wasn't quite what he was looking for, but if he could slow an enemy down enough, it'd be easier to get his spear into the spots that weren't well protected. He hadn't fought anything yet that had no weaknesses, but he was aware that it could happen, especially as the monsters kept going up in levels. So while [Burden of the Beast] was again a possibility, it wasn't quite what he was looking for.

Finally, he found what he was looking for, a skill called [Kinetic Charge]. For the cost of adding a small bit of resistance to his movements, he could save up power to be unleashed all at once. The conversion ratio wasn't great, requiring at least a few minutes of constant movement to get one good shot off, but that was once again the fault of his low mystic stat. It wasn't worth sinking his free points into it, not when he could simply build up the charge before battle and open with a devastating blow, then proceed to dismantle the monster like usual.

Perfect.

[You have gained the skill: Kinetic Charge.]

Velik swung his spear a few times to get a feel for the increased resistance. It was a bit harder to control, almost like it was poorly balanced with the extra weight on the bladed end, but nothing that he couldn't handle. The extra points in physical helped compensate for it, not that he needed them. He'd been using this spear since his physical was less than half what it currently was.

Once he'd fully charged his new skill, Velik went looking for a target to test it on. He quickly found a stone paw rabbit, which was far less docile than its name suggested. The little buggers were fast and conjured up rocks that they kicked with frightening accuracy and speed. They weren't particularly hardy, but Velik had killed plenty of them over the last week. He knew what a normal strike felt like.

[Kinetic Charge] hit with at least three times that amount of power. It flashed through the air so quickly that a flash of pain shot up his shoulder from the movement, and his eyes had trouble aiming the attack. The rabbit, swift as it was, didn't stand a chance of getting clear in time.

[You have slain a stone paw rabbit (level 23).]

"Well," Velik said, looking from the tip of his spear to the tree now painted with fur, blood, and guts, "I guess that works."

It was tempting to extend his stay in the deep wood, but he was completely out of food and foraging was a pain. More importantly, it had been two full weeks now and he'd only stayed that long because of that monster hunter that had shown up with his apprentice. He was trusting them to hold things together since they'd proved competent enough to handle the weaker monsters near town, but he needed to get back and confirm everything was still standing with his own eyes.

Before that, he needed a few hours of sleep. Velik arrived at the den he'd claimed for himself, slipped inside, and dragged his tangle of scrub brush in front of the hole. Sleeping in the dirt was another facet of the expedition he wouldn't miss, even if his real bed was barely more than a few layers of cloth wrapped around a board.

Two weeks was long enough.

* * *

The last two weeks had been hell. Jensen hadn't realized how lenient his master had been with him, not until they'd had their little heart to heart and Torwin had decided to start taking things seriously. Worse, the monsters seemed to have doubled in number practically overnight. They were up before dawn every day now, and Torwin no longer accepted excuses. Jensen had tried to catch an extra hour on the third day, only to wake up to a bucket of cold water being dumped on his face.

They'd just finished yet another night and were wearily marching back to the Raven's nest when Torwin said, "That bow is something else. I'm sure it was expensive as hell, but I think I might get one just for the arrow generating ability. I've got two fletchers working full time just making me new ones and they're struggling to keep up."

"It's actually the bracer that makes the arrow," Jensen said. "And it wasn't that bad, only thirty thousand decarmas."

"Not that bad," Torwin repeated with a chuckle. "That's more than a lifetime's savings for most people."

"Is it?" Jensen asked, surprised. He peered down at the bracer, which was made with some sort of leather he couldn't identify and banded in what looked like systilver. It wasn't even in the top three most expensive pieces he was wearing.

"You get a decarma once every… what… four kills? Five? You're not even level 20 yet, but how many monsters have you killed? Imagine doing that for years and years. Maybe by the time you're level 25, you have enough for just that bracer. Not the boots. Not the ring or the necklace. Definitely not the bow. Just the bracer."

"Oh, I… suppose I never really thought about it."

"Just don't flaunt it around people and you'll be fine. Now let's get this hike over with. I want a warm meal and a cold beer before we head to bed. It'll be another early day, tomorrow."

Jensen just sighed. When will this nightmare end?