Chapter Eighty.

(Luca)

I'm so happy that we're not so far apart. Braden and I can't actually hang out, but since we're both here for lunch, we're eating lunch together. He's sitting by me, devouring his food while grumbling about how mean the scary guy is.

I can tell he's happy to be with me again, though. It felt so weird, being separated from him. Like part of me was missing.

After we finish eating the sandwiches prepared for lunch, Travis has me follow him around as he talks with others. I'm not comfortable being separated from Braden again, but at least I know he's nearby.

A few hours of stuff I can't understand later, Travis takes me off the flat area. He explains that they did, indeed, use magicians to level off the area. Now, we're on the curved slope down, and my feet are unsteady. I keep sliding around, and right now, we're just walking.

At least, until my legs give out. The scary guy carries me a lot because I'm not that strong. I mean, I'm strong, but not that strong. If that makes sense? My body gets tired easily.

"Are you alright?" Travis asks, and I nod. I just need to rest for a bit. "I suppose this is as good a spot as any. Not as far from the town as I was hoping, but this will work."

For what?

Travis holds up a hand, aiming somewhere in the distance.

"Holy Arrow," he says.

An arrow of light appears in his hand. It's just the shaft and the pointed tip, none of the feathers on the end, but it's there. The arrow flies off into the distance, disappearing into the crater.

"Holy Arrow," he sits next to me. "Is one of the few offensive Skills for Priests. Yes, you can learn many of the regular combat Skills, but since most pure Priests focus on support, they usually don't. In addition, this is one of the rare Skills that are locked into a Class – only those of the line of Priest can learn it."

Why do Priests have the ability to learn an attack Skill?

"It's costly," he says. "But it's also more potent than a regular, basic spell Skill. Your brother's Wind Spike is weaker at base as a result. However, the spell only affects creatures weak to the light, such as undead and Fallen Adventurers. According to Zack, you have nearly 200 Mana, is that correct?"

I have 190 Mana, so that's correct.

"The Skill costs 100 Mana," Travis tells me. "Try to visualize a bolt of light, imbued with the power of holiness. Draw on your connection to your center, to the Crystals."

I don't really know how to do that, but I do know I've got a holy power. I use it while snuggling Braden, because he gets all bruised up during the scary guy's training. It's a golden glow around me, but there's no Skill that accompanies it.

But I'm pretty sure it's holy, and it heals Braden, slowly.

I imagine that light as I hold up my hands, willing the light to form and shape into the Holy Arrow. It takes me several minutes, but I manage to make the glow form around my hands, and it then spreads out between my palms, taking on the form of the arrow of golden light.

New Skill! Holy Arrow Active Fire an arrow of holy light at the target; only affects things weak to light. Damage: 20% of combined Intellect and Willpower per Level of this Skill Cost: 100 Mana

It launches as soon as I will it to, which I did because if I remember correctly from the scary guy's lessons with Braden, spells dissipate if they aren't used immediately or constantly fueled with magic.

The arrow travels a few feet before fading away.

"Good job," Travis ruffles my hair, startling me. "That was an odd way of doing it, I've never seen a glow like that before, not for this."

Yeah, I noticed you didn't have that glow, too. Maybe I just have a holy glow? That's cool. I have something the scary guy doesn't have, I'm sure of it. There's no way he's got holy anything. And he can't even learn this Skill, since it's locked to Priests and he's not one, even if he can learn Skills he shouldn't be able to because of what Classes he does have.

"Once you have regenerated enough Mana to cast it again," Travis tells me. "Cast it again. Keep doing that every time you're at 100 Mana. Constantly draining your Mana is one way of increasing your Wisdom, and thus, your amount of Mana. At 250 Mana, there's another Skill that will be useful. I want you to try to get to at least 500 Mana before I teach it to you. If you don't manage that by the time we're getting ready to leave but you're at the necessary amount of Mana, I'll teach it to you, okay?"

I use Holy Arrow again. This time, there's no glow around my hands, the arrow just forms and shoots off. That's probably because I used the Skill to cast it.

"Alright," Travis says. "I want you to practice that until you're exhausted, okay? I know it's mindless, but can you do that for me?"

I lean my staff against my shoulder and wait for my Mana to regenerate. If the other Skill he's going to teach me will help me help my brother, then I want to learn it. I'll exhaust myself if that's what it takes.

Maybe I'll do it for the scary guy, too.

I exhaust myself casting the spell, which I know because the next thing I know, I wake up in my hammock at the camp, staring into the face of a boy with a collar around his neck. He's my age, and is wearing just a loincloth, and he…

Is that a tail? It's like a monkey's. He has sun-tanned skin and sandy-blond hair, his tail the same color as his hair. Other than that, he looks like a normal person. He's really dirty, and has a few bruises on him.

As soon as I look him in his brown eyes, he stands and quickly leaves the room, moving swiftly.

Did I imagine that?

A few minutes later, Travis enters the tent, asking me how I feel. Okay, I guess. Just a bit exhausted, but I think I'm fine. I guess I was practicing too hard. But hey, my Wisdom went up by two! So that's good!

Travis takes me out, and I realize it's already past sundown. He leads me over to the dinner tables, where only a few people are left. I don't see monkey-boy anywhere. Did I hallucinate that? The scary guy hasn't mentioned any monkey-people to us.

(Zack)

The second Fallen Adventurer I'm to face here wears some light armor. It won't really be a problem for me, since my sword can cut right through it. The only thing I have some worry about is its strength, since this was clearly a knight.

That, and Louise apparently knew him in life, judging by the gasp she just let out. I'd have put him around seventeen in life.

"You knew him?" I ask.

"Yes," she answers. "He was the son of a friend of mine, before the fall of Talorn. He'd yet to take on Squire because he wanted to work on increasing his Stats without a Class, first."

Not an uncommon thing, apparently, for those freshly thirteen, freshly able to acquire full Access. I don't understand the logic behind it, but there's apparently a little bit. Whatever, that doesn't really matter.

"So his skill comes from actual training?" I ask. "From before he died?"

"Correct," she nods. "He might be closer to a Class 2 Fallen Adventurer than a Class 1, though without having had a Class, he won't have retained as much of his ability with the sword."

I don't think that really matters, here…

"Well, that's okay!" I say. "I'll kill him anyway! Time to go in! Demon Form!"

I feel my body shift, and I give myself the two-minute countdown before taking off with a burst of speed. The Fallen Adventurer was facing off to the side, walking, but as I draw near, he swiftly turns, bringing his sword up to block mine. Our blades clash as he strikes the flat of mine, and his strength is enough to push mine back.

Bastard. You should've let the edge of my sword cut through yours, rather than deflect my blade on the flat. I let myself grow furious at that, allowing my Rage to increase my Strength. My next attack isn't blocked so easily.

Snarling at the Fallen Adventurer as he blocks my sword again, I send it back into my Inventory, resulting in me falling forward as I pull out my Zack's Blood knife, swiftly cutting through the bastard's sword. Doesn't look like this fucker has Counterstrike.

I send my knife back into my Inventory as I reach forward and rip through his armor, though he manages to lunge back, my claws dripping with his black blood, which dissipates into nothing after only a few moments.

By that point, however, I'm already moving again. With my Rage-fueled Demon Form, the Fallen Adventurer and I seem to be around the same Strength, but I'm just a little bit faster. I grab his left arm with my right hand and push against his body with my left, letting my rage power my might as I pull and push, his arm ripping off.

It starts to dissolve away as the thing howls in pain, its blood of darkness fading as it leaks out. As the thing howls, I swiftly step behind it and thrust both hands through its chest, ripping out its heart and acquiring my Experience.

This one was too easy. But I need to get a little more practice in before I fight a Class 2 again.

A few goblins came to investigate the brief sound of combat, so I slaughter them, then spot some Chocolate Slimes and kill the trio, before promptly biting into one of the chocolates I got as a reward. This stuff is delicious.

"That's terrifying," Sam says.

"Chocolate Slimes?" I ask. "What, you're scared of chocolate, Sam?"

"No," he answers. "The fact that a demonic-looking thing is just cheerfully eating chocolate. That is what's terrifying."

"I still have around a minute before it's over," I shrug. "And you guys freaked out when I just went on a rampage. Plus, there's a Class 3 that lives right over there, and according to the goblins, he's on his way and is planning on ripping us to shreds."

"What do you mean, 'according to the goblins'?" Eric asks.

"I mean," I point at one of the corpses, a rather well-fed goblin. "Chunky Green Guy cackled as he said that before I ripped his heart out."

"You can… understand the goblins?" Liam asked.

"Ooooh!" I exclaim as I remember something. "Right, you guys weren't around for that. Like, all of the natives to Maelnor already know I can understand the beasties. Word kind of went around about how I knew where the Spook Master would be. Pretty fast, too. I'm pretty sure Jesse intentionally let it leak out, since he and Bryce were the only ones who knew."

"Who?" Liam asks.

"My brother," I answer as my form reverts. I pull my sword out of my Inventory, cutting through the air a few times, before spinning and throwing it through the air. "Who was killed by the bastard you're planning to kill in Kaelmar in a few days."

Tch. My sword only got the thing in the shoulder. Oh, well. Zack's Blood has a powerful Bleed effect.

"Guess there's no easy Experience there," I shrug as the Class 3 Fallen Adventurer lands, snarling as he starts to pull my sword out of his shoulder. It's a knight, based on its rusty equipment. "Might want to avoid that sword, guys, I had it blessed by a god so that it damages the unliving just by touch, and anyone crazy enough to fight Fallen Adventurers can't possibly be alive."

"What?" They ask in unison.

The Fallen Adventurer's grip on my sword, then howls, ripping my sword out and tossing it to the side.

"Tag, you're it!"

I jump back and let them attack the thing as I retrieve my sword, flicking it a few times to quicken the stuff sliding off of it. With my sword safely back in its sheath, I jump up onto a building.

Yeah, totally knew the thing would git rid of the weapon as soon as it heard me. With the wound bleeding abnormally, it would assume I was being honest, even if its undead brain was able to determine I was only teasing the hunters.

I watch as they work as a team once more. The Paladins provide support and ranged attacks, while the Dark Knights attack up-close. The Paladins use those golden missiles again. What makes them special as opposed to a regular Magic Missile? Those things are using up more Mana than a Magic Missile should.

Some sort of anti-Fallen spell? A few times, I watch as a shimmering golden barrier is summoned to stop an attack from the Fallen Adventurer. They only seem to summon those when the thing is going to pass through – its weapon is unaffected by it, and the Dark Knights pass through them easily, too.

The Fallen Adventurer seems to burn in contact with the barriers, jumping back almost as soon as it comes into contact with one.

After almost ten minutes, they slay the thing.

I wish I could be more helpful, but I nearly gave that thing a powerful weapon that would've caused the team to be slaughtered. Just a little more to my Fallen Adventurer Level, just a few more Levels, and I shouldn't be so useless against the stronger ones.

Not for the first time, I wish I'd thought a bit more decisively when picking my next Class. If I'd taken on a Rank 1 Class, I could've probably already been Level 10 twice over by now.

Sighing, I sit on the roof as I dismiss the notice that Fallen Hunter went up a Level. I can't change the past, only work towards reaching Level 25 Demon so that I can take on something that will boost my stats faster.