That night, Colin walked back to Scutch Town with nothing to show for it. Other than a dimensional bag filled with body parts and a couple more skill levels, at least. His tumble skill, Aligned Strike, and Perception skills all increased over the last few hours. Colin only returned to Scutch Town when it was getting dark enough that he was tripping over roots and had gotten his arm gnawed on by a hairless squirrel.

When he walked past the Rye fields and to the first building, a middle-aged woman who was walking by stopped and stared. It got to the point that Colin started wondering if he had something on his face. He raised his arm to wipe his face and found something clinging to his forearm.

The squirrel that had attached to him earlier was still there, trying to get through the leather of his jacket. He brought the little freak of nature up to his face to get a better look and was unable to with the lack of light. It wasn’t dealing damage currently, so Colin decided to leave it there until he could get a better look. This was the weirdest and funniest thing he’d seen all day, and he wanted a better look.

“Could you point me to where Elder Chevy is right now?” Colin asked, dropping his arm.

The woman pointed towards the center of town, unable to speak with the weirdness in front of her.

“Thanks,” Colin said, walking away.

He hurried to the center of town, jogging to avoid giving the little monster a chance to decide it wanted to let go and scurry elsewhere. The smell of cooking meat preceded the bonfires glow as Colin rounded a corner and found just that. A small fire with a medium-sized pig impaled on a spit. Half the village stood around with pieces of meat between bread and eating.

Colin quickly spotted the Elder cutting the bread for people to use. Everything smelled surprisingly delicious, and Colin approached, hoping to get some of these sandwiches.

“Ah, Walker! You live!” The Elder proclaimed. “I’m glad. I hope you managed to solve our scarecrow problem.”

“Not yet, I was going to try again in the morning when I can see where I’m walking,” Colin told him. I killed a lot of those monsters it made though,” he informed him, raising his arm and showing off his new arm ornament.

“Oh my Gods, doesn’t that hurt?” Elder Chevy asked, taking a quick step away.

“Naaaah, its teeth aren’t even breaking through the jacket,” Colin said, taking a step away from the food. He drew the Mythic Xiphos and carefully swung it through the squirrel.

He got the same prompt he’d been getting all day about how it had no experience but how he got bonus skill experience. Again, he got annoyed but only for a moment as he picked up both pieces of the squirrel and tucked them into his dimensional bag. He waited a moment for the Elder to calm down before approaching again.

“They’re all gone,” Colin said, gesturing to his arm as if he’d just performed magic.

Looking relieved, the Elder got back to work on the bread as he continued to talk. “Hopefully, that means tonight will be easier,” he said nonchalantly.

“What?!” Colin said, higher-pitched than he meant. “I mean, what do you mean by that?”

“Didn’t I tell you, Walker? These things have been coming by every night since the beginning. We’ve managed to avoid getting slaughtered by these things, but we’ve lost some people. They usually show up near midnight, so we have some time,” he said, finishing his current loaf. He looked up at Colin and smiled at the hungry expression on his face, “would you like one?”

“Yes, please,” Colin said, grabbing a couple slices of bread and hurrying over to get some of the freshly cooked meat. With his sandwich in hand and a mouthful going down his throat, he returned to the Elder, “I need a place to stay tonight. You have an inn or something that I can use?”

“Oh no, we don’t have anything like that. We are small enough that we even offered that bastard AidenBrand a spare bed in Mr. Edrun’s house. He’s dead now, so it’s free for you to use if you promise not to take anything,” Elder Chevy said.

The man’s attitude was practical but had no heart in it for the deceased. Colin could understand that his priority was the living since they could be helped, but it still felt cold. For the moment, Colin was just glad that he would be able to sleep on a bed tonight and not have to wonder if something would finally get him in his sleep.

“I promise,” Colin agreed readily. “Where is it?”

The Elder turned around and pointed at a group of homes not far from where they two stood. “Do you see those houses over there? One of them has a garden gnome next to the front door. That’s the one.”

Colin nodded and made his way there.

As soon as they were away from the crowd, Colin started talking to his shadow. “What do you think?”

“Unclear, golems shouldn’t have that kind of exact pattern. If we knew what the creators’ levels were, maybe we could come up with a working theory of what he could have done. Just too many unknowns,” Nox said, Colin, being able to hear the shrug. “Not that it matters. Let’s just say that it might be better to avoid fighting it at night, just in case.”

Colin decided to mention the only thing he could think to refute him. “Might make tomorrow easier if we manage to follow it back to its lair.”

“Might end up killing you too. But do what you will, DevilWalker,” Nox stated. “I will not tell you what to do.”

Colin shook his head as he approached the houses Elder Chevy had pointed out. It was a small bunch of houses that sat near the edge of the town, they all were roughly the same size and made from the same dark wood. A few houses down, Colin found one that had a garden gnome statue that stood up to Colin’s waist and leaned against the side of the house.

He pushed open the door and stepped inside.

After a moment of fumbling to find the lamp sconce on the wall and lighting it with a match, he observed the room while walking around. Trying to light the rest without wasting his small supply of matches.

It was roughly the size of a standard apartment in New York and furnished about as well as one. A couch sat near the door, filled bookshelves sat against the nearby wall, and a small kitchen sat next to a door that must have led to a bedroom. Overall, the house looked rustic and warm that carried a dry, stale smell.

Nox stepped out of Colin’s shadow and walked over to the couch. He slid up into it and wiggled his ass into the seat until he was comfortable. “This is more comfortable than I would have guessed. Lucky us,” Nox said, a contented sigh escaped him.

Colin walked over to the bookshelves and started perusing the book selection. “Sure, lucky us,” he said, reading the titles on the spines while he thought. “Lord of the Bands, The Dragon Princeling, The Witchling, The Bard and the Moth, The Beginner’s Guide to Bardic Lore, The War in Christmas Village… looks like the late Mr. Edrun was a bit of a reader. These could not have been cheap,” Colin commented as he pulled out one of the titles that sat next to a vase with dead flowers and murky water.

“Why do you say that?” Nox asked, leaning into the back of the couch.

“We are in a town that sits in the middle of nowhere, these are farmers and craftsmen who don’t have time for intellectual pursuits, and I doubt many people here know how to read. Most of these probably were bought from the occasional merchant that passed through,” Colin said, remembering details that McKenna told him from her Dungeons and Dragons game.

“I can see that,” Nox agreed after a moment of thought. “What did you get there?”

“The Art of Instrumental Magic, a Bard’s guide to their early levels,” Colin told him as he opened the book.

“Oh, looking into that Bardic Magic skill of yours?” Nox asked, the toothy grin evident in his voice.

“It’s the only skill that I know nothing about,” Colin said, taking the other half of the couch as he cracked it open and started reading.

It was actually kind of fascinating and a lot more free-flowing than any spellcasting skill that Colin had heard about yet. According to the book, all Bardic abilities required skill levels in an instrument or vocalization and the Bardic Magic skill. For a Bard to use an ability, it had to use the instrument and channel his magic into it to link it to his mana. Then he would play the instrument to project the spell and then speak or sing some lyrics to create intent.

Early Bardic Magic primarily created buffs or debuffs to themselves, party members, or their enemies depending on the lyrics. Some examples include speed boosts, strength enhancements, luck increases, and even minor temporary enchantments like shock damage. It continued to say that a bard was considered a jack-of-all-trades class because its abilities could vary so wildly do to the variety of their songs. The book even detailed a legendary bard who had a strength and build attribute equal with his charisma. He was said to be part of the last hero’s party that helped kill Colin’s Antagonist Predecessor, Ari.

The early Bard had only one way to deal damage themselves. First was through a subskill that the Bardic Magic skill usually gave immediately called Bleeding Ear. It was an area of effect magic that dealt damage to anyone within a defined radius. The damage dealt was small but increased with the Bardic Magic skill, the Bleeding Ears skill, and their charisma Attribute.

If a Bard decided to leave the prescribed path, he could write his own lyrics and apparently that had its own benefits and dangers. If used correctly, custom songs could cause elemental effects and even create more conceptual anomalies if your skill level gets high enough. If you go too far out of your skill level or channel your magic incorrectly, the best-case scenario is that your spell simply fails. The worst-case scenario is that you create an uncontrolled effect. The book even detailed one that ended up creating the first Slime-type monster

After finishing the first few chapters, Colin stood up and stretched with a groan. They had been very informative and told him that he definitely wanted to work up this skill. Unfortunately, there was one part that was mentioned early on that had him stymied. He needed an instrument proficiency skill and an ability called Musical Link. The first one was obvious, and the second was what allowed a bard to link his magic to his instrument for his spellcasting. That was the one thing he couldn’t just go without if the book suggested.

To get it, he’d have to find some bards and kill them until he unlocked their class in his Hubris Ability.

Then a thought struck Colin. His Hubris Ability allowed him to bypass the rules of this world that forced one to pick a class and stick with it. Maybe he could learn the musical link skill? He already had a skill that allowed him to connect his magic to items, Imbue item. Perhaps he could use it to similar effect?

He walked into the only part of the house that he hadn’t been into yet, Mr. Edrun’s bedroom, and smiled at his fortune. In the room, against the far corner near the disheveled bed, sat a banjo that had a thick coat of dust on it. Walking past the small dresser and a pile of musty smelling clothes, Colin picked up the banjo and instantly sneezed several times as the dust hit him.

He was surprised he didn’t get some kind of weird allergy based debuff, but after the small fit subsided, he looked over his find.

You have found an Unkempt Banjo. You do not have the appropriate Knowledge skill to learn more about this item.

It wasn’t anything fancy, just as the prompt said, it was a dirty banjo that must not have been used long before AidenBrand came to town. Based on some of the books he found on the shelves, Mr. Edrun must have been trying to be a Bard. Whatever the case, this was a useful find, and maybe he could get some quick use out of it.

“What. In the world. Is that?” Nox asked, his sentence clipped and incredulous as Colin carried the backwoods instrument to the couch.

“A banjo,” Colin asked simply, returning to his seat next to Nox. While Colin did have some musical training, it was mostly in the form of piano lessons he took in his youth. At least until the age of seventeen when his parents had let him quit. He did have a little knowledge of guitar and hoped that what little he knew would translate over.

Colin placed his hands on the four-stringed banjo and adjusted them until it was roughly in the spots he remembered them being. Then taking a deep breath, Colin started imbuing the instrument.

“What are you doing, DevilWalker?” Nox asked, watching his companion curiously.

Instead of answering, Colin felt his water mana travel into the instrument and bond with it. For enchanting, Colin would have started carving the runes needed for permanency. For Musical Link, Colin kept the connection and moved onto the next step of his impromptu plan. He looked at the small flower vase that sat on one of the bookshelves behind him.

He strummed on the banjo and tried to channel the subskill, Frost Shaping, through the music. The vase shook for the barest of seconds, and Colin noticed that his mana points dipped a little with the attempt. He thought about it and tried to play the banjo for a few extra notes. He stopped imbuing the banjo and tried playing the first few notes of one of the only songs he remembered, ‘Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door’ by Bob Dylan.

He botched the notes a few times on banjo but eventually figured he got it close enough to try again. He imbued the banjo again and started playing the song for a few seconds while trying to channel the Frost Shaping through the banjo.

It took another few tries, but he jumped as the vase he was targeting suddenly exploded with jagged ice shards pointing everywhere. Even Nox had hit the deck and sunk into the couches shadow when the vase finally did something besides sit there.

“What the fuck!” Nox yelled, the top half of his head poking out from the shadow a moment later.

Player DevilWalker, the system is deciding what actions to take given you recent efforts and your Hubris Ability. Please wait a moment. This process may take up to a minute. You have gained a new skill, Instrument Mastery (Banjo) level 1. Your understanding, playing speed, and mastery of this skill are at the lowest level of understanding.

“Sorry about that,” Colin said, smiling at the banjo. If nothing else, the fact that he could do this was a neat trick, and he wondered what else he might be able to do if he channeled Kinetic Magic through it. “I was testing a theory.”

The Goblin squinted his eyes in irritation at Colin, “what theory? How high can a Goblin jump?”

“No, I wanted to know-” Colin started, stopping only when a new prompt appeared.

The system has come to a ruling and has looked favorably at your creativity and ingenuity Congratulations! Though the skill ‘Imbue Item’ is a very different skill from the Ability, Musical Link, you have managed to channel your magic correctly through an instrument as if you had the Ability anyway. Together along with your Hubris Ability, you have successfully unlocked the Bard Ability, Musical Link. Musical Link Ability - You can now connect your mana to your instrument to use the Bardic Magic skill. Unlocking all the needed prerequisite skills and abilities of Bard class, you have gained the subskill for the Bardic Magic Skill, Bleeding Ears. You can deal damage to everyone within a radius around you, friend or foe, as long as you are casting Barding Magic with this Ability. Damage equals your Charisma Attribute (12) plus your Bardic Magic skill level (1) every ten seconds. Currently, you can only maintain this effect for a number of seconds equal to your Instrument mastery skill for the used instrument and costs 15 mana per second used. By using ingenuity, you have unlocked the Bard class within your Hubris Ability without the need to kill a player or use points. For this act of going against the will of the universe for personal gain, you have been granted 5 Pride Points.

Colin continued a second later, his voice quiet as if he couldn’t quite believe what he had just read. “-if I could learn another class. Nox? I just unlocked the Bard’s low-level abilities,” Colin said, his surprise breaking into a smile.

Nox’s grin matched his own as he looked at the vase turned frost grenade, “Aren’t you full of surprises.”

To make sure he unlocked everything, Colin opened his mouth to speak the words needed to see his Hubris Ability menu.

A sudden howl, screech, and unearthly yell broke through the night and shattered the happy moment Colin was having with his newest acquisitions. The sounds amplified as new voices joined the chorus of wails that called to the village. Colin stood and waited as he tried to count how many creatures he recognized.

Wolves, humans, maybe some goats, but a tone that Colin didn’t recognize broke through all the others and silenced them all. It was a maddened scream that spoke of insanity, hatred, and a lust for death that resonated with Colin’s very soul.

You have resisted the fear effect.

While unnerving, the prompt was correct, he wasn’t afraid of it. But neither was the opposite true. He was simply nervous that Nox was right, maybe he couldn’t take this thing when it was within its plausible natural element. There were just too many unknowns to be sure.

So Colin did the one thing that might yield some results. He doused the lamps in the room and stealthed outside.

The moon was out in full force, giving the entire area around the village an eerie form of dim illumination. Colin closed the door behind him and kept crouched as he tracked the single howl of the pissed off creature. He moved closer to the sound, keeping close to the walls of the houses he passed to avoid as much notice as possible.

When the noise stopped, Colin hurried up a little and stopped at the last house before the Rye fields. He peeked his head around the corner and cursed at the silhouettes he could see.

There were at least around two to three dozen shadowy forms that stood just beyond the Rye fields but just before the tree line. One of the forms stood taller than the rest with two pinpoints of sickly green light visible even from his distance.

“Damn the heavens,” Nox swore quietly from within his shadow. “That is not a good sign.”

He grunted quietly as he continued to watch. The largest dark form started moving forward towards the village, and the rest followed suit at their own speeds. Most easily outstripped their leader and bound into the fields with the Rye swaying with their movement.

“Well, shit,” Colin muttered. “What do you think?”

“As long as they don’t swarm you, I think you can take them,” Nox said. “But I wouldn’t suggest trying it. If you are the only one outside, they will likely do just that.”

So immediately, Colin did one of his favorite tactics. He crouched, leaped, and scrambled up the house he was using as cover. Once on top, Colin laid flat and watched as the Fleshwarped wolves and bucks broke through the fields first.

It was immediately apparent that Nox had been correct. If he had tried to fight, he would have most likely, and quickly, been overrun and killed by their pure numbers. The fastest of the creatures easily numbered at least twenty with more animals coming through the fields. He looked out and saw the one he was most curious and nervous about entering the Rye Field. Whatever it was stood over the golden fields by around four-ish feet and stalked forward towards the town.

He kept his eyes on it, hoping that it wasn’t his main target, the Scarecrow Golem, but that hope was dashed quickly. The Golem did indeed look like a Scarecrow, if a Scarecrow could be constructed to scare birds from hell itself. It wore a soot-covered, sackcloth shirt and pants over its main body, giving the construct a somewhat bland style. Straw poked out from the joints and anywhere else the sackcloth clothes didn’t cover. Its arms ended in sickle tipped fingers that glowed with a disconcerting grey light. The head was a medium-sized pumpkin, carved into a traditional sharp-toothed smile.

It’s eyes though, its eyes and mouth were filled with a glowing neon green flame that gave Colin the willies to stare at.

On the ground around him, Colin could hear the Fleshwarped creatures running about and bumping into walls, growling at houses, and not staying in more than one place for a moment or three. Colin was nervous that one of the wolves might smell him, but he figured that he was out of their reach for the moment.

As it exited the field, It screamed again, its entire body reared back with the intensity of its howling.

A wooden crunch from across the small town met Colin’s ears and screams, both feminine and masculine. The Scarecrow stopped its howl of rage and was close enough that he could hear it start into a low maniacal chuckle as it lumbered towards the other side of town.

“Shit,” Colin muttered. “Nox, what would it take for you to go get me some waterskins?”

“A promise of four measures of Grinner Ink,” Nox said immediately.

“Deal,” Colin said, standing from his spot on the roof. He activated Kinetic Vigor and sprinted towards where the screams occurred, using the boost to his physical attributes to leap from rooftop to rooftop. If the distance between them was prohibitive, but Colin would just land on the ground when needed, and go back up onto the roof to avoid the roving fleshwarped animals.

It was on one such landing that Colin was tackled by a hairless adolescent bear that saw an opportunity and took it.

You have taken 36 points of damage and now have 219 health remaining.

It roared at Colin, and its high pitched tone was a little saddening, but there was nothing to be done. Colin drew his Mythic Xiphos and cursed as a wolf appeared to the bears right. He drew the Steel Dagger of Lesser Chill and threw it at the wolf in one smooth motion.

It sunk into the Fleshwarped Wolf’s flank, and immediately, the skin started to turn a pale blue. Colin did not wait to see that result, he activated his new spell, Lesser Knockback, on the bear and charged as it was thrown onto its back several feet away. He leaped onto its chest and immediately started stabbing down into its chest with the Xiphos, over and over until he was sure it had expired.

He looked at the wolf with his dagger sunk into it and smiled in grim joy at the sight. The Fleshwarped wolf had its entire leg and about half its chest frozen enough that it was having a hard time even limping towards him. He approached the wolf and, with a single Aligned Strike, ended the creature’s life.

An unknown source has already drained all the EXP from these twisted creatures. You still have 1017 /6075 Experience needed to attain level 10 In accordance with the bylaws of the world, skills used in the battle gained a small amount of extra experience Your Mythic Xiphos has gained enough experience to attain level 4. The minimum and maximum damage has increased.

Colin didn’t have the time to even attempt to unpack that oddity. If there was no level experience to gain, then how did the sword?

Retrieving his dagger, Colin put both away and apologized to himself for not cleaning them first. Now he’d have to clean the scabbards too, he groaned as he resumed his journey.

A short minute later, Colin was standing across from the village square where five of the naked Fleshwarped Humans were holding three of the townsfolk in full-body holds. The Scarecrow was approaching the trio and walked up to the one on the farthest right. A woman, who couldn’t have been older than thirty, was held in place with her now tarnished nightgown in full display.

Colin watched for only a moment before he started towards them again, watching as he moved from building to building.

The Golem stood just before the woman, its carved mouth mere inches away from her face as it spoke something. It wasn’t loud, but somehow he heard it clearly as it echoed through his mind and soul. “Your body for the cause, your heart turned against our foes, your soul to fill my emptiness.”

It took a step back, and Colin watched something unearthly and frightening happen. A second pair of arms, these ones were humanoid and were made of translucent green light, fell free from the golems frame. Both moved towards the woman, the Scarecrow’s golem arms toward her shoulders, and the second ghostly arms reached for the side of her head.

Colin tried not to think. He drew his simple unenchanted dagger and threw it at the Scarecrow. The blade impacted its arm with a wooden thunk, and it released the woman who now had gouges in both shoulders from the sickle claws of the Golem. She was immediately grabbed by the Fleshwarped human from before and held as blood-stained her nightgown.

Colin jumped off the roof and drew his Mythic Ziphos again. He wasn’t sure if he could beat this thing, but he knew he had to try.

Nox appeared next to him, and anger was flashing through his expression. “AidenBrand, that son of a Nerco-loving whore. He bound the core of that abomination to a Horde Wraith.”