Over the cause of the next two weeks he had been beaten, burned, frozen, electrocuted (fortunately not enough to cause permanent damage despite his negative resistance. He had had to fight tooth and nail internally not to revert to his base form), had acid dropped into his skin.

It was fruitful as John had received another 11 points in VIT, 4 in STR and 13 in END. He had also gotten up to level 7 in swordsmanship, level 2 in blood manipulation and level 5 in Elemental magic from having to clean and heal himself so much. He’d also gained various increases in resistances and had ensured no-one could see that he could cast magic.

He also received the skills shieldwork and spearman that worked the same as swordsmanship but shields increased endurance and vitality.

John was willing to kill the instructor but he had learned over the course of the training that he was a much higher level than John and had a hell of a lot of vitality and endurance, so it was set aside for a future opportunity. The upside was that he had gained a lot of skill levels and stat points in the two weeks. More than he thought was possible but he had been pushed to exhaustion every day.

They were going to be stationed at the edge of a woodland on the very edge of the city along with a few dozen others and some of the clans lower mages, the area had been relatively quiet with monsters recently and the monsters that did show up weren't high levelled so it was a pretty safe assignment.

He had heard from some of the guards that there was a bit of an uproar further in the city, apparently, some girl had ripped off the mages guild and her and her supposed sponsors had vanished overnight. The city guard had been despatched in force to try to find her and was combing the city, though since she was a reasonably powerful mage only the higher levelled guards were out, not greenies like them.

He had been relieved that they were still looking for Kelly and hadn't figured out anything about him but he felt he should try to keep his head down as much as possible and try his damnedest not to get caught casting magic.

A week into the assignment something happened. There had been small attacks by weak monsters all week but not really anything worth getting worried over, however, this was different. The ground was trembling as something very large and very heavy was heading towards them. Everyone rushed into formation, getting ready to hold back whatever it was. Not long after they had formed up, the trees started bending and several were knocked over.

An enormous Hippo with tusks as long as spears lumbered out of the forest towards them, it was walking but as soon as it saw them it stopped and let out a fierce roar that tore through the air and vibrated their chests. Several people wet themselves, other baulked and ran. The movement from the running guards seemed to anger the Hippo and it put it's head down, pawing the ground, getting ready to charge.

When it finally started running it was unreasonably fast, it was like being charged by a freight train. Those that tried to hold their ground were immediately impaled on the horns or flattened underfoot. nearly a third of their ranks were killed in the first charge, however, the Hippo was struggling to stop its momentum and rand straight into earth spikes that had been raised by some of the mages.

The spikes caused some minor wounds but it's hide was so tough the rock shattered before it could do any real damage. Not even slowed, the hippo turned and was ready to charge once more. This time, nearly everyone managed to but some were too slow and now they had nearly half their number. Recognising that this was a losing battle, the mages changed plans. They created pits slightly larger than it's feet between them and the Hippo.

This time when it charge, one of its feet was caught in a hole and it tripped with a loud cracking sound, sliding up to the guards who started hacking at it with wild abandon. The hippo thrashed and rolled and managed to crush another dozen guard. John had killed another 4 guards in the confusion. When it finally stopped moving there was barely a third of the force left. Two dozen guards and 2 mages.

Everyone slumped to the ground.

Notice Skill [Swordsmanship] has reached level 8 Notice Skill [Swordsmanship] has reached level 9 Notice

Level Up!

You have 5 undistributed stat points

+2 INT +2WIS

Notice

Level Up!

You have 10 undistributed stat points

+2 INT +2WIS

He put the 10 points into INT, bringing it to level with WIS and about the same as END. The single mage that could heal was going around the battlefield, trying to reduce casualties but most of the people who had been injured had died almost immediately.

The dead were gathered and prepared to be returned to their loved ones, the Hippo was taken off into the forest and left for the animals to deal with.

Later that night, after he had been relieved from the watch, he snuck off into the woods.

Skill activated [Assimilate]

Prolonged contact with a recently made corpse has activated this skill

Your skill [Assimilate] successfully activated. A portion of the targets recent memories and skills have been absorbed. Effect weakened due to deterioration of the target.

Skill Gained NAME: Thick skin You have abnormally thick skin, capable of withstanding the hardest blows.

Effects- incoming damage is reduced by 1 for every 2 skill levels

MP cost- NA Activation Time- Passive Level 6

John felt himself becoming significantly heavier. He didn't change outwardly but he could feel the skill take hold. It was a little awkward, making his movements very slightly slower and more awkward. This was the first time he had felt a downside from a skill but it seemed decently strong enough to make up for it.

Turning away from the spot that the HIppo monster had been, a glint caught his eye. Immediately turning towards it he saw a couple of piercing blue eyes and the white face of a young male gnome, one of the other guards. As soon as John noticed him he sprinted away back towards the barracks.

"Fuck"