“Goddammit, Brad. They have collapsed the tunnel entirely.” Complains the earth mage to me.

“Can’t you just make a new one?” I ask surveying the little outpost we were building near the silver mine.

“Not one this long. We will have to use the golems to dig it all by hand. That is a very slow process.” The mage says pointing at one of the two foot tall earth golems he just made to replace the ones stuck on the silver mine and the ones crushed in the collapse.

“Well, at least they will have to pay the penalty for their destruction of our property.” Says Walter’s representative.

“I doubt they would collapse the tunnel if they haven’t found a way around the reparations. They must have found a loophole of their own.” I ask.

“They missed so much about the contract, how can you say if they didn’t miss the fact that the reparations clauses would apply even if this tunnel used to be theirs?” Asks Walter’s representative.

“I still can’t believe they were stupid enough to allow a loophole like this!” Exclaims the mage exuberantly.

“Have you seen the size of the document? It’s like 30 pages long with so many intricate and interlinking clauses that I got a headache just from thinking about it.” I say. After a moment, I go back to the concrete actions we can take to salvage the situation. “Why do we even need to rely on the tunnel?”

“Mostly, it is about bringing back the ore.” The mage explains “I ran a few tests at night and any time a golem goes to the surface carrying a chunk of the silver ore, it gets attacked by the beasts instantly. Even if we somehow managed to work something, it just sound’s like a bad idea. We are too close to the HLZ to be poking the tiger as it were.”

“You have been running side experiments without telling me?”

“I’m not from your village.” He says defensively. “And it was just a few quick tests. They didn’t delay the work for even a minute.”

“You should still have run that by me. I don’t like surprises,” I say.

The people from Walter’s village don’t respect me quite enough, but in time they would learn as had the people from Max’s village.

I walk off thinking of what I was accomplishing here. And the cherry on top was to know I had taken one of Nash’s mines. Technically they called it a shared venture, but I knew he was involved and a good portion of the silver went in his pockets. The couple of spies still in the village told me that much. Too bad they were neither highly placed nor very interested in a deeper relationship. Just a few coins here and there for whatever information they could scrounge. Unless we wanted to send someone like the golem maker, or a talented Earth Mage, they would never agree to the trade of people for us to get a spy in the village. Also, someone showing up ‘without a prior village’ showing up also didn’t work with how tightly each of the villages was holding onto their ‘citizens’. That would be too suspicious.

The golem maker is an absurdly rare subclass and to my knowledge, he is the only one that had it. He might be lying about it, possibly even to others of his own village, but for our purposes here it didn’t matter, all it mattered was that he continues to mine effectively.

-----------------------

Nash’s POV

After over an hour, I get up and finish writing everything I learned, even a few tidbits I managed to learn after setting up a few ‘directional microphones’ around the camp. The only impediment is the change in the weather patterns over the last couple of weeks which increased the background noise a lot and made the effort much more frustrating. Not discouraged I pass the connection to a pair of comm operators in the comm’s room near the Command center.

Over the day, they might learn something, if none of their mages discovered the sound capture and comm runes just a hundred meters away pointed straigh at their camp.

I had no idea anyone had something as cool as golem making capabilities, but as I saw him creating it, all my hopes were dashed.

If most system skills had hundred of runes, several times what even Merlin could sustain simultaneously, then this consisted of thousands surpassing even Ludmar’s healing skill. It was the most elaborate and complex magic display not reliant on runes or multiple people to hold it together that I had come across.

After breathing out until my belly disappears pushing my organs upward and even hunching my shoulder slightly to get every smidge of air out, I take a full breath puffing my chest out to the extreme. Fresh air.

The conflict with them is a nuisance and I would have to come up with a better solution for the long term, but hearing Brad cursing is so satisfying.

I walk into the smithy to start my rounds of the day. Something that I had skipped over the last few days as I was in meditation, but sitting on the spot with my name on it beside the forge is as easy as ever. With the increase in stats, there is a decent chance to improve my best creation. Though an hour later I find out that today will not be the day to improve my control again as Blackwood takes both of the weapons to the grindstone. At least I no longer have to worry about failing to get +7 weapons like on the first few times.

About an hour after that, I finish talking with everyone in the village that I needed and setting things up, authorizing new payments on the bank, looking at how the enterprises I had a hand in were developing and giving my two cent’s on how they could take them to the next level and dozens of small and quick actions that were almost automatic for me now.

As the rounds finish, I find myself in front of the book shop.

Not yet. I would extract every single of the secrets in the books inside but now isn’t the time.

I turn, sit in the central square and find the book I bought there a while ago. Placing it in the inner world before mentally paging it as my perception field goes through it. I still can’t read it well or quickly, but I can almost make out the differences between each of the letters, though as I look at it now, I don’t restrain the bubbling happiness inside me. With each moment, the increase in perception seems sharper as I get used to the fine detail of my most recent improvement in the stat.

Elation hits me.

I am finally making progress that went beyond taking small tortuous steps in the road up the mountain. I’m leaping ahead in a few moments as much as what had taken me days or weeks previously.

Settling comfortably and entering a light meditation, though taking care to not allow myself to go too deep like last time, I search all the improvements to my perception.

After a couple of hours, I start to feel back to myself. Soon I may not even be able to tell my marrow was sucked dry to fuel the increase in my stats, but this seems a superficial change rather than truly restoring what was taken from me. To recover completely would take a while longer and I would even skip the stat training regime for the next couple of days.

Moving back and forth with my perception field I start reading a word here and there. Just like trying to focus a lazy eye, I sometimes fail, sometimes I succeed. As the hours pass, my succeeses become more frequent until it becomes almost my natural mental state.

As people arrive around me, finally I have reached the summit of the first mountain peak.

Now I just had to climb the next two.

To be able to read while outside the inner world, and eventually with the very similar, but ever so slightly distinct remote version of the perception field that I could summon with Aspen’s help. Those are my next challenges in this arena.

But the greatest and more daunting leg of the mountain climb was now conquered and anything thoughts of Brad and company seems so unimportant in my mind. Simply replaced by something much more fulfilling, something that came from me. Something that I would be able to have for the rest of my days, for it had nothing to do with the system and I wouldn’t let anyone say otherwise.

I wait until the time to depart improving my ability to take the fuzzy shapes and recognize them as letters and words like I was learning to read all over again.

Or perhaps it could be better described as learning to read upside down. With each of the letters and words that I see, the next one is easier and easier, though soon the same group as last time rushes into the flying craft already out and resting comfortably beside me.

Coming back to their world I ask:

“Where is the beast?”

“It’s the black panther.” I open my eyes hearing Alex’s words.

“The black panther?”

“Yep, you old friend near the small cabin you made.”

“Well, at least this time we are a little more familiar with the opponent,” I say trying to find a silver lining to the situation.

“Not that that is much consolation. The Black Panther seems to be one of the stronger mobs around.”

“And the beasts are taking longer and longer before they return to the other side of the HLZ.”

“How long?” I ask concerned.

“About 16 hours,” Richard responds solemnly. “And they are getting better at finding villages and other concentration of people.”

“Or they have some way of communicating with each other and have started to ‘map’ our territory .” Says Merlin.

“And if all this crap wasn't enough for us to deal with, Lord Max's village is causing trouble,” Alex says.

“Let’s focus on the beast for now. If they leave the place or other groups start to poking around, the operators will warn us,” I say

“I still can’t believe they would be so stupid as to mess with the detection grid. If the next beast came for them, they are screwed. Worse of all, they may drag along as well.” Alex complains.

I nod absentmindedly. Charlie was handling that and we needed to focus on the immediate threat. Even if it was very dangerous, we were saving dozens, hundreds of people by confronting and driving off these beasts. I had yet to see the images of the affected villages, without the small groups and even single people working outside it that ran into one of the beasts.

Come next time, so many would choose to go back to Earth, except perhaps a few people on the outer circles of villages. That is unless we managed to find a more permanent solution.

The next few hours are just like we expected. Each minute approached with the beast ever closer and our next confrontation just beyond the horizon.

What we find when confronting the Black Panther is beyond anything we had done until now.

Not in overwhelming power, but in sheer speed and the much more liberal use of mana to move around the battlefield, along with decent mana disruption capabilities. Not quite up to par with our last two encounters, but enough that neither I nor Merlin could do more than singe its fur with our attacks or stop it for more than an instant with shields.

With the improvements in stats, the feedback through the mana connection was less damaging, but still present. Everyone else’s frantic pace of improvement is enough to hold our own in some aspects better than the last times, but in the end, the beast’s higher agility is too troublesome.

Injuring one of us at a time. Generally in small ways, but enough that we had to reduce we had yet to see it get frustrated. Just like the last few times, it started on the attack and we were on a downward trend. Except the beast was just playing with us and keeping a pace that it could sustain for a long time.

“Press forward, it will run out of steam eventually.” Says Richard.

Hearing that, I realize the mistake.

“No, the beast still isn’t using its full power, it’s still conserving its strength.”

“What?” Greg asks, just as he changes the beast course with a well-placed thrust of his spear.

“I said, it is still just playing with us.”

Everyone turns silent and I can almost see the worry wafting off everyone with my perception field.

I throw everything on my arsenal against the Panther to no avail. Roots spread all around to ensnare it, shields, attacks and growing runic formations underground try to catch the beast unaware, but nothing comes even close. It plays coy and always hold a little of its strength back which makes it able to keep going for much longer than any of us.

Our number starts to go down until we only have 6 fighters including Alex and Greg in the front lines. The others wait outside with relatively small injuries, but deep enough that they can’t reliably fight.

Twisted ankles and wrists. Arms with cuts that sap the dexterity needed to keep pace. Knees that can’t take the strength needed to move around the beast.

The lesser number gives more movement freedom to Alex, but it also puts more pressure on everyone.

Seeing the trend and with no other choice, Richard orders a retreat

“Everyone retreat to the flying craft. Nash, try to hold it back long enough with shields for everyone to evacuate. Alex and Greg, go full out.”

They both activate their skills at full power along with the single spear wielder that had held back so far and that gives us a small reprieve.

As everyone enters the flying craft, I throw a few more formations around the beast and activate all the shielding around it as I can just as the last fighters move back.

I pump a good 15 thousand mana in the shield and my and Aspen’s entire will along with the much weaker, but still helpful shield that Merlin interweaves with my own.

All I feel are the blows through the magical connection with my work.

One second. Three blows. Over 2000 mana points gone.

I turn and infuse my body exploding mana down to the ground with each of my steps at top speed. Getting on the door, I push the craft forward like it was an old car with a bad battery or a skateboard trying to squeeze a little more speed while trying to keep my will on the shields behind for as long as possible.

The blows over the next second as the craft start picking up speed and altitude deplete the shield’s mana stores even more and a slight breach appears in the interlinking between two of the formations. With a single more attack, the beast manages to squeeze out.

“Damn, it was a rush job, but the beast managed to pass before the shields were even at half power.” Says Merlin withdrawing his will from the shield and reinforcing the one around the flying craft.

I let myself lay back and cough blood as we gain altitude and ever so slowly accelerate forward.

“How the hell you don’t even feel the feedback from its attacks?” I mumble.