Varamon swamps was a gloomy place. The trees were mostly thin and tall, distanced by couple of meters. There were also those older trees with thick trunks and roots, which extended above ground like vines. The ground was filled with dirty, muddy water, where aquatic plants were growing. Some of them were dangerous poisonous plants. There were also dry land protrusions, but mostly travelers had to risk going through dangerous muddy water.

Due to terrain, one's agility was greatly obstructed, so this was not the popular hunting place.

Dung and Elise had trouble finding the footing as they advanced at turtle's pace.

To their dismay, it was also raining.

- Careful

Dung instructed as he sensed dangerous plant in his domain range.

Elise stopped and looked back

- That plant is dangerous, let's take another route

Elise was secretly astonished. She never hoped for level 1 Dung to be useful. She was scared of being alone in this dangerous place and needed somebody to talk to. Since Dung was also a survivor from beginner village, she pitied him and didn't want him to die helplessly. Never did she think he would be this perceptive, which greatly helped them in travel.

- Ok

She obediently took another route. Dung followed behind. His agility was lower and his boots weren't that fitted for going through this place, so he was always lagging behind. Elise would always wait for him though and he was grateful for that.

- Are we going the right way?

Elise asked with concern. Getting lost here would be a big trouble.

Dung stopped and inspected the map, saying

- I think so. We need to walk for a bit more and we'll reach the small lake, where we can take a breather.

Elise sighed

- I hope so, otherwise I...

* Whoosh

Before she could finish, Dung pulled her back and activated his domain.

The flying dart flew through the air. Dung's domain couldn't reduce dart's durability to dust in time.

Dung felt piercing coldness on his shoulder.

[ Received 8 damage

You have been poisoned

You will receive 1 damage every 30 seconds for 10 minutes ]

,, The dart was poisoned ''

Dung thought grimly and had a rough idea about approaching enemies.

- What's happening, Jake are you alright?!

Elise panicked

- Hide!

Dung didn't wait for long and pulled her behind relatively thick tree trunk.

* Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh

Three arrows flew past where they had been standing a while ago.

- It's the wild aborigines

These were human residents of the swamps. Their population was very low. It was their ill fate to encounter them. Dung didn't know how many of them were here, but they couldn't be more than 20 by his estimate.

* Bang

A small shock wave dealt 3 damage to both of them as they were thrown forward a little.

Dung felt hotness from his back

It was the fire ball spell.

- There are fire shamans too

Dung spoke grimly

- I'll get you out of here

Elise grabbed Dung, wanting to drag him and escape. His agility was low and he wouldn't be able to escape on his own.

Dung resisted and shook his head

- It's no use, we are surrounded

Elise's face paled as she watched couple of tanned heads popping out from nearby bushes. They had weird tattoos on their faces and held either spears, darts or wooden bows in their hands.

- When did they...

Elise squealed in low voice

Dung sighed. His perception was merely average outside his domain range.

If their enemies were dumb rattan lizards, it was fine, but aborigines had higher intelligence and were hard to deal with.

,, It's time to use 3 SP I gained from merging vampirism domain ''

Dung made up his mind and chose the skill, which was the most suitable in this situation.

[ Skill learned: Irregular movement (E) for 3 SP ]

This was one of the few skills, making up for shaman's low agility, but toll on MP was very high. The skill allowed person's body to blur and appear anywhere near 2 meters range. The cool down was also low, 3 seconds. The shamans both loved and hated this skill at the same time. Loved for its usefulness and hated because of high, 20 MP consumption per use.

- Don't worry about me, try to survive

Dung instructed. He wasn't really worried about Elise for a short term since she had higher level, equipment and HP.

He eyed the place about 15 meters away, where 5 aborigines were crouching.

Dung ran at their direction a little clumsily, but vigorously. Muddy ground didn't deter him.

- Don't!

Elise shouted, but an arrow flew at her direction. She had to dodge and worry for her own life. Other aborigines were approaching her from other side.

Meanwhile, 4 arrows and 3 darts flew at Dung's direction from where 5 aborigines were hiding.

He used irregular movement without hesitation, appearing 2 meters closer to them. Before they could shoot another wave of ranged attacks, he had gotten a bit closer. The distance between them reduced to 8 meters.

Sturdy aborigine jumped out from bushes and thrust his spear at Dung. With his low agility, he wouldn't be able to dodge in time, otherwise he had to dodge uglily, showing an opening.

- Shadow bind

Dung delayed the spear-using aborigine. The effect lasted a little less than 2 seconds. Meanwhile he was already standing closer to 5 aborigines.

- 18

- 13

[ You have been poisoned, the poison effect has stacked to 2X

You will receive 2 damage every 30 seconds for 10 minutes ]

- 19

Dung grinned and activated vampirism domain

Suddenly domineering aura spread around 5 aborigines.

+ 12 MP, + 12 HP, + 12 stamina

+ 14 MP, + 14 HP, + 14 stamina

+ 14 MP, + 14 HP, + 14 stamina

+ 13 MP, + 13 HP, + 13 stamina

+ 13 MP, + 13 HP, + 13 stamina

Dung recovered around 60 hp, MP and stamina in a single second, while aborigines were being drained at the same time as they were all in range.

According to amount of damage they received, they should have around 10-20 willpower, so the skill was very effective on them. Still, they would not die soon and Dung was stuck in the middle of 5 of them.

[ Varamon swamps Aborigine

Level 17

Class: Ranger

HP: 434/460 ]

[ Varamon swamps Aborigine

Level 14

Class: Spearman

HP: 362/390 ]

...

- A' hyan kii'n roosa!

- Saluuaemoooon!

Aborigines spoke. They had language of their own.

Humans weren't ranked like monsters, but had classes unlike them. There were also monsters with classes too, but most of them had humanoid form and were related to humans in some way.

For them to receive damage, they had to be in Dung's vampirism domain range for around half a minute or more, but surviving that long under the barrage of aborigines would be hard, despite recovering 60 HP, MP and stamina every second.

Unfortunately excess amount would be wasted and his attributes couldn't go beyond capacity

* Swoosh

The spearman finally broke shadow bind and swept his spear at him fiercely

- Shianoaa!

Aborigine roared

Fortunately, Dung's perception was higher in his domain. He managed to react in time and ducked.

Meanwhile, he couldn't avoid other ranged attacks. Fortunately, he healed back in a second, but poison effect had been stacking on him as more darts hit him and if he allowed this to continue, he would surely die, because the poison lasted 10 minutes and there was limited amount of potions one could take in a day without backlash. Also, potions had cool downs of their own. If 50 ''poisoned'' effect stacked on him, every outbreak of poison attack would deal 50 damage to him every 30 seconds. When he ran out of enemies to absorb his HP from, he would surely die.

,, I need to keep an eye on darts.

He split his attention and took more precaution against darts. He avoided them if possible while fighting off the spearman, trying to not get entangled and restrained too much. It was a bitter struggle. Dark bolt did limited amount of damage, about 25 per shot, but it was a great help and he used them on spearman from time to time, because he possessed the highest threat to him.

Meanwhile, Elise was fighting off about 12 enemies. There were also two fire shamans in the dozen, but her situation was better than Dung's, at least for a moment.

Unfortunately, Dung had no time to split his attention and see her outstanding performance.

He had no antidotes for that poison, so if he allowed himself to get hit a lot, he would surely be screwed.

The rain was constantly pouring down and was making loud noises as they fell into muddy water.

- Eeeah!

Spearman aborigine let out a beastly roar, flexed his muscular body and pierced with high speed and great accuracy. He put high amount of force in this attack, but it shot nothing but shadow of Dung.

Dung was constantly using irregular movement too, aiding in his evasion. He didn't have to worry about MP as he was constantly absorbing them from 5 aborigines.

- Alnuebu, el tuaaba

- Amues!

About 15 seconds have passed in this high pressure battle and 5 aborigines had their hp reduced below half. They finally felt fear and retreated several steps.

- Shit!

Dung cursed as 2 of them escaped his vampirism range by half a meter. He could only use irregular movement earlier than intended and lock them in his range, while escaping spearman's entanglement at the same time.

Unfortunately shadow bind had longer cool down and couldn't be used in this situation, otherwise the toll on him would be much lighter.

Finally the spearman also felt fear as his HP was reduced to 114

Others had around below 200 hp too.

Seeing their intentions of fleeing, Dung's face revealed angered expression

If they wanted to flee, it would be really difficult to kill them all, but he was not going to let them go.

- If you've come to this daddy, then... stay!

Dung had frightening smile plastered on his face.

The battle was reaching climax. Something about him was changing. He was going to go all out despite repercussions that might follow.