Amelia held Ty’s broken arm straight as she activated her Heal skill. His shoulder was also dislocated and many of the tendons were torn. In total, it took about five minutes to mend with the second tier of Heal. The first tier would have taken twice as long, and it wouldn’t have fixed the broken bone or dislocated shoulder.

That’s just how first tier skills are: Bad.

“It would have been much worse without at lid,” Amelia claimed, pointing over at the piece of now-scrap metal.

“Motherfucker still did thirty damage in that hit,” Ty said, “All my stat points are going into Endurance, by the way.” The man winced as his shoulder popped back into place.

“That’s probably a good choice. Don’t forget about vitality though,” Christopher replied. The professor claimed to have gotten sixty-seven percent contribution for the Support category, which would have leveled him up twice. Not bad considering how he hadn’t done any damage himself.

“Speaking of good choices,” Camila began while swishing the ogre’s club around. “Are you going to get a real skill now?”

Christopher sighed, but it was a sigh of acceptance rather than annoyance. “Indeed,” he began. “I put both points into Arcane Manipulation. I can mess with the flow of mana now, to an extent. The skill is really only useful with Mana Sense, which is why I picked that first.”

“If you say so. I’m maxing strength and wisdom then,” Camila said. “Also putting two points into Rage, which is fucking useless at tier one… and another point into War Cry.”

Christopher nodded.

In the meantime, Allen was looking over his own status. He put five points into vitality, five into wisdom and five into focus, rounding things out nicely.

Status:

Jeremiah Allen Durand

Human – Rogue – Level 4

XP: 488/1286 (3054)

Stat Points: 0, Skill Points: 3, Job Points: 0

Jobs:

Assassin

Basic – Tier 1

Stats:

HP: 100/100

Regen: 6/min

SP: 60/60

Regen: 10/min

MP: 70/70

Regen: 15/min

Primary:

STR: 6

INT: 7

VIT: 9 (10)

WIS: 11 (10)

END: 8 (10)

FCS: 15

Secondary:

DEX: 10 (9)

PER: 14

RES: 11

STB: 7

SPD: 9 (9)

LCK: 6

---

“Strength is lagging a bit, but I can make up for that with the assassinate skill for a while,” Allen thought. “A fourteen for perception is worth it though.” Turning his attention to his skills, he had three points with which to take another skill or upgrade an existing one. First, he pulled up the list of available skills.

Skills available to job: Assassin

Tier 1 – Active: Slip Step – Category: Martial Arts – Quickly evade with superhuman movements befitting an assassin.

Tier 1 – Active: Surge of Pain – Category: Channeling Magic – Channel damaging mana into an enemy on contact.

Tier 1 – Passive: Dead Calm – Category: State of Mind – Become like a true assassin: Dead inside.

Tier 1 – Passive: Silent Step – Category: Martial Arts – Stalk quietly on your feet, unheard until it’s too late.

Tier 1 – Passive: Disappear – Category: State of Mind – Regulate your body and your mind to become harder to perceive when staying still.

Tier 1 – Meta: Piercing – Category: Enhancement Magic – Piercing attacks partially ignore enemy resistance.

Vital Strike was gone, unfortunately, but Silent Step was still there. Surge of Pain would do extra damage and justify his MP being there, so it was also a good choice. After a few moments of deliberation, Allen decided to take both, and upgrade Assassinate once.

Skill: Silent Step

Stalk quietly on your feet, unheard until it’s too late.

Category: Martial Arts – Type: Passive – Tier 1

Effects: Reduces sound caused by normal walking; proportional to dexterity.

Cost: 1SP/s while in use.

Skill: Surge of Pain

Channel damaging mana into an enemy on contact.

Category: Channeling Magic – Type: Active – Tier 1

Effects: Send a burst of painful, damaging mana directly into the target on contact.

Cost: 5MP.

Skill: Assassinate

Deal more damage when your enemies are unaware.

Category: Martial Arts – Type: Meta – Tier 2

Effects: 200% base damage when attacking while unnoticed by the target. 110% base damage when attacking while unseen by the target.

Cost: None

“Dead Calm is definitely coming next. It’s one of the coolest skills in the Assassin job… and it’s useful I guess.” Allen’s thoughts continued along as he read through the skill cards. As for Assassinate, well now he didn’t need to wait in a tree to get a damage bonus. 10% wasn’t much, but it was something.

Amelia finished healing some scrapes on Camila before turning back to Christopher with a smile. “I got 97% contribution for healing,” she said.

“That’s great, what skills did you get?” Christopher asked. He seemed happier to talk to the girl… woman.

“Um... I leveled up Heal once, then I got Diagnosis and Focused Healing. That’s how I was able to heal Ty efficiently.”

“That’s so stupid,” Camila groaned. “She didn’t even touch the ogre, but she gets more experience than me.”

Allen pursed his lips. “That’s what all the people who fight alone always say. They never understand the value of a healer until they’re dead,” he said to himself.

Similarly, Christopher took a deep breath before glancing over at the indignant Camila. “Healers need experience too. That’s why they’re a completely separate class. Besides, you leveled three times too, so don’t get upset. If you and Ty had been filling the same role then you both probably would have gotten less experience overall. That’s just how it works.”

Camila didn’t say anything back. She had a distant look, but it was not one of disagreement.

“Complaining for complaining’s sake,” Allen figured, “Some people are like that.”

“A’ight then,” Ty began, “That’s one ogre dead and we’ve got plenty more to go. Quit bitching around and let’s go fuck them up.”

Allen smirked, looking down at the lifeless ogre lying in the dirt. He used his brick to break off the monster’s tusks. They were both sharpened to a point; probably the only form of grooming the ogres ever engaged in. He held them in a reverse grip, each about as long as a ten-centimeter knife.

“I’m ready,” Allen said, brandishing his makeshift weapons. He received mixed reactions from the group. A subtle shudder from Amelia, calm indifference from Christopher and amusement from the other two.

“Wow,” Camila snorted, “are you roleplaying a rogue or are you really that edgy?”

“I don’t know. Are you roleplaying a berserker or are you really that angry?”

Ty chuckled a little, but quickly looked away when his eyes met Camila’s stare. “I guess you got me, kid. Well done,” she said, waving an arm dismissively. She actually had a somewhat pleasant smile on her face for probably the first time since they had met each other.

“I guess she can appreciate sass then?” Allen wondered.

Over the course of the next few minutes, the group of five wandered slowly though the forest, making sure to stay on the lookout for the ogres and their camp. It was decided that they should stay away from any that they came across in the woods, lest they alert their brethren. Ogres weren’t too smart, but they could be loud.

Progress through the trees was slow and quiet, inevitably leading to it being very boring. Allen found himself drifting off into thought. He wondered why the town nearby hadn’t already sent a team out to slaughter these ogres. If they were being terrorized then it made sense, but of course, towns get terrorized by monsters every Tuesday. The bureaucracy mostly likely couldn’t be bothered to deal with a bunch of level twentyish monsters.

Eventually, his thoughts wandered to his newfound group. It had only been a few hours since they had met, yet they already felt like real people to him, albeit a bit archetypical. Still, they actually felt like his friends. That idea was frightening in a way. After so many years of living alone yet surrounded by people he couldn’t stand, had it actually become easier to make friends?

“Fuck me, I’m twenty-seven years old and I’m having a middle school moment,” Allen thought.

He mentally scoffed at himself, yet in the back of his head, he still wondered if he could actually open up to them. Maybe there would be nothing but cynical humor and existential nihilism left inside, but even that would be something.

In the end, Allen decided to try, just once. If they beat him down like all the others, then so be it.

“Everybody, eyes on,” Ty whispered, “Camp’s right out ahead.”

Allen shook himself back into the moment. He had a present from Andy to look forward to. Sure, it was at the expense of the ogre’s lives, but that was a sacrifice he was willing to make.

Camila peered over the brush and between the trees. She looked to be itching for a fight, the heavy club clutched in both her hands.

“Definitely a solo battle nut.”

Allen followed her gaze and narrowed his eyes. The commotion and smell of the camp was unmistakable, but they needed a better read on numbers and levels. The forms that were passing into view between the leaves and structures went too fast for him to make out any nametags though.

“I’ll go check their levels,” Allen began, nodding to Christopher, “I’ll be right back.” Then he set off ahead.

Using Silent step allowed him to walk hunched over across the dry leaves and coarse dirt with the same amount of sound that one would expect from tiptoeing. It did eat up a lot of stamina though.

Once he reached the outskirts of the camp, he was able to deactivate the skill and crawl under a bush. The camp itself was bordering the copse of trees on one side and open to the grassy hills on the others. Together, there were about ten or so extremely crude tents made from sticks and animal hides. Then, of course, there were two or three dozen ogres milling about, doing whatever it was that ogres did in their spare time.

“Insert Shrek joke here…” Allen thought to himself.

The closest ogre was about fifteen meters away, picking at its toes near the edge of the camp. Allen was close enough to make out its facial features and, more importantly, its nametag.

Name: Ogre Brawler

Ogre – Monster – Level 18

Looking around at a few other ogres, he failed to find one over level twenty. If Ty had a real shield, then they could probably try for a frontal assault. He might be able to snag one from the camp, but for now, he needed to report his findings back to the group.

Allen put a friendly smile on his face as he quietly made his way back to the others. “Okay then, the operation is a go.”