Short summary of the last chapter:

Spoiler :

Voice tricked a group of people into signing a contract. He traded the contracts with a group for some gold, and an enchanted quiver. He started experimenting with his squirrel suit, and created a safe house.

Also, let me know if anything is wrong with the chapter! Be sure to comment!

And if you like a character in the chapter let me know! I can add them to later chapters if they are popular enough. Although I might add them later anyway!

Light streamed through my eyelids. I forced my eyes open. I felt groggy. I shook I my head, trying to clear it.

The last thing I remembered was telling Moro and Sol to seed the area around my hut. I got up from the loosely packed dirt, and took a peak outside.

Outside of the hut was a vast tundra of common weed and green healing herbs. Tear, Sol, Moro, and Eli were all pouring mana out at an outstanding rate.

I blinked hard a few times, clearing the sleep from my eyes. I created a bit of water mana, and splashed my face.

I stretched and walked outside. “*Yawwwwwn* What are you guys doing?” The group didn’t respond, but Ancestor did.

“While you were asleep those four were producing a massive amount of those plants you seem to like so much. They seem to be doing some sort of pattern they thought of.

While Moro and Sol were growing the plants, Tear decided to help out. Giving the plants extra water while they grew. That made them grow even faster.

Not to be forgotten, Eli decided to raise the nutrients under the ground to the surface. The plants are more powerful after Eli helped out.”

I was stunned by the idea. Why hadn’t I thought of that? It seems like that would have been a perfect way to increase the population and power of my plants.

While I contemplated the ability of my fictional creations to outsmart me, they seemed to be working extra hard to sow the entire area with as many plants as possible.

Kretchof was nowhere to be seen, but Drake, Golem, and SparrowHawk were all gathered around the campsite. They seemed to be doing various activities.

I have 34 days to kill off as many other people as possible. What if this entire thing is some sort of test on human morals though? I wouldn’t put it past EDITOR…

I would definitely be on guard for tricks.

“Attention!” The various fairies halted what they were doing. They ran, and flew, to get into line.

Deciding to go with the flow, I adopted a stern drill sergeant pose.

“You did good work last night. But! From now on it will only get harder! We must prepare!” With every sentence my voice grew louder. “We will be taxed to the utmost! We must prove ourselves better than any that throw themselves against us!”

The fairies were rigid with attention.

“You must all prove your worth! If we are to win this war *Cue dramatic patriotic music* we must be better than the best. We must be better than ourselves! We are facing some of the best! The most powerful! The strongest! people that have ever been a part of this world!”

My eyes slowly scanned the group. “For this we must train! You will all have to learn! Learn to fight! Learn to kill! Learn to live! Continue your duties. Tomorrow we train!”

There were various levels in the success of the salutes I was given. They scampered off in a frenzy. Each trying their best to impress me more than the others.

I gained a leadership point from that little speech. I called Golem, my metal fairy, over to me. “You and I have some business to take care of.”

I pointed to the moat. “Many people will be coming here soon. I want you to find enough metal mana and create metal spikes facing the moat. After you are done with that, report back to me.” Golem nodded, and set to work.

Next I called over Drake. “The biggest weak point in a forest is fire. I want you to go around the surrounding area, and absorb as much fire mana as you can. Whenever you can’t absorb anymore, return to me.”

Drake too set off to do my bidding. After thinking for a while, I came up with a decent plan SparrowHawk.

I created a thin bag out of loose leaves and grass that I quickly dried. How did I do this? I had Moro help. Moro threaded the grass through the leaves, and secured it all.

I filled the bag with a large amount of common weed seeds. “I want you to go over the entire forest, pouring these out as you go.

My plan was simple. I’d gather the weakest common weeds and scatter them. That way, people would have to pay high dollar for any healing ingredients.

I gathered the weakest of the common weeds, and put them into a pile. I used these to refill the bag SparrowHawk had.

The potency of the plants never exceeded a certain level, but that was because we weren’t genetically enhancing them. We were just giving them the best environment to work with.

It took SparrowHawk about ten minutes to empty one bag. The plants would be full grown in about an hour each. That was much quicker than they should have been, but not quick enough.

Since they group had been planting all night, there were enough plants to sustain the rate we were going. We could only keep it up till that night though. Then we’d have to quit and let the other fairies increase the plant count.

When I wasn’t collecting the seeds, I was practicing my flight meditation. Even until that night, I could only hit the meditation mark for a moment.

Drake returned to me several times during that day. I took a large amount of fire mana, and poured it about many feet under the ground. I used Eli to help me dig a small hole in the area above the heated rocks. We then hardened the earth inside the hole, creating a sort of misshapen empty pond.

There I concentrated a large amount of water mana. After filling the pond to the brim, it began to steam. The heated rocks below it making the temperature high.

I created a large reservoir of water under my property. The water fed directly into the spring. That way the spring would have a nice supply of water. I frequently rested in my new hot spring. It helped to soothe me.

When it became nighttime I asked the group. “So do you guys ever get tired or anything?”

Sol, of course, was the one to answer. “No master! Fairies run on pure mana! As long as there is mana in the air we will get the effects of being fed and rested. Since you gave us the ability to manipulate mana directly, we can be even more efficient!”

For once I actually paid attention to Sol. I already knew fairies fed on mana, but it was interesting to note that they actually never got tired. It was like an infinitely powerful workforce. I made a note to myself to take advantage of that as much as possible.

I went to sleep that night, happy about the progress of the seed factory, but unhappy that I still couldn’t maintain my meditative mode while flying.

Over the next few days, I continued this cycle. I had to increase the mana consumption of my metal stomach once though. I hadn’t eaten anything in a while, so I was a mite bit hungry.

I asked Moro to find me any edible plants in the area. When I received them I scanned the mana in them. One mushroom was poisonous.

Moro almost looked disappointed when I threw it out. If I didn’t know better I would have thought Moro wanted me to eat the poisonous substance.

After that I made sure to check everything Moro fed me. I only needed to eat once every few days, but I wanted a large amount of mana regen to test my meditation idea.

During that time I found out what Kretchof was doing. He was setting up various traps and making it so that anyone that entered my clearing would receive a powerful debuff.

He also had summoned several undead, but told them to stay inside the ground. That way they would be ready at a moments notice.

It was a decent setup. That is until Ancestor noticed a path being cut in the nature mana around us. “Voice, I think that someone is cutting through the trees. The nature mana signature is slowly disappearing in a straight line.”

I was glad at that moment to allow Ancestor to have use of my skill.

I recalled all of my fairies. I changed my disguise to that of an elderly man. I stashed my heavy armor, but kept the staff.

I hunched over. Just to make it seem more real. I cast the minor petrification on myself. That way it’d seem like more an elderly hermit.

Three men cut through the trees. One was a muscular swordsman, another was a woman with a bow, and the last was a robed figure. Ancestor said it had a 80% chance of being a male.

I waved my cane after they stopped just before the moat. “What are you doing!?” I shouted in a crotchety way. “Trespassing on an old man’s land! First it’s that damn flying fool, now you! Go away! Go away I say!” The group stood, watching me.

The swordsman spoke up. “Old man, you seem to have a lot of those healing herbs.” His tone was entitled, and aggressive. “Why don’t you” The robed man beside him cut him off. Whispering into his ear.

I closed my eyes, and took over inspect. “an NPC. He might be part of the test. If we kill him we might lose points or something. We should just try to make a trade with him instead. I heard there was a secret merchant, this might be him.”

He stepped forward. “Hello. We are sorry to intrude on your lovely home, but we are in dire need of some healing supplies. The only thing we found was a large amount of common weed. We have many pieces of gold, perhaps we can trade?”

I waved my hand dismissively. “And what would I do with gold? If you haven’t noticed, I don’t exactly welcome company. I have some supplies, but only what I need.” I ‘thought’ for a minute.

“Well, I do have one small problem. If you can take care of it for me I might be willing to trade.

I want you all to go gather a large supply of food for me. I usually use my eagle, but he hasn’t been by in a while. I’ll give you some of my herbs as a reward.”

Gaia has been watching you since you paid for the protection of her children.

Pleased with you, she has given you the ability to give out quests while in the ‘hermit area’ you have built. You can only give out quests that can be completed in the immediate area. You may only give out quests if you have the means to provide the promised reward.

Gaia can take away your ability to give quests in Rand.

You can only give out one quest to each person, until they forfeit the quest or complete it.

The three exclaimed. “WOW I GOT A QUEST!” “I WAS RIGHT! SEE?” “Shut up you two!”

The warrior was the only one to keep calm. I had never specified how many healing herbs. The robed man caught on to that.

“So how many green healing herbs are we going to get for this? It only says we will get some.”

I rolled my eyes. “Obviously that depends on the type of food, and the amount, you bring me.”

The three ran off. Presumably to go get their group, or just to get the food.

I had Moro, Tear, Sol, and Eli, all go and plant trees that the group had just destroyed. I wanted to remain as hidden as possible.

The fairies took a few hours, but returned after they succeeded. The line of nature mana had mostly returned. Not quite to the degree it was before, but enough that it would be able to given time.

I was surprised that Gaia like me enough to let me grant quests. Although that did add to the illusion that I was an NPC.

The group got back to work, harvesting the plants, planting more, and spreading the common weed throughout the forest.

Drake continued to absorb the fire mana in the area, and I continued to heat the spring. The reservoir was depleting very slowly, which made it easier to maintain.

The fairies continued their jobs, and I continued to soak in my hot spring. I was content in the knowledge that everyone was moving along nicely.

I had decided to keep the minor petrification on, that way I would actually move to avoid the pains I might have. It would make the entire thing much more authentic.

The day after I gave the quests, the three people returned. By this time I had amassed enough green healing herbs to actually sustain a group to ten for quite a while.

Ancestor pointed them out when they approached. I made sure I was turned the other way when they approached. When they arrived I shook my staff. “Can’t you keep from cutting down my trees every time you come here!? It’s really annoying to have an opening where people can see me!”

Of course I was in my old man disguise. When they arrived I had recalled my fairies, and began to soak, naked, in my hot spring.

I got up and turned towards them, while slowly putting on my tattered robe. There were three additional people this time.

“Are you all multiplying or something!? Why are there more of you? Stop that! I just want some peace. That’s why I came all of the way out here.”

My con artist skill kept ticking with exp.

“What are you doing back here anyway? I thought I told you to get lost!”

The robed man stepped forward. “You told us to bring you delicious food. You said you would exchange the leaves of the green healing herbs for it.”

I sneered. “Oh did I now?” I bobbed my head as I said that.

I looked in the distance for a moment. “Ah, I think I might have said something like that. Well? What are you waiting for? Show me the food you brought.”

A slender woman stepped forward. I immediately recognized her as one of the six calculating people from the first night. Dealing with her would be a problem.

They poured a large surplus of food on the ground. Looking at it, I saw that it was a large amount. “How did you get so much of this?” I narrowed my eyes as if I realized something.

“Did you hurt the plants to get this? DID YOU!?” The group looked lost. Either they had, or they didn’t understand what I was on about.

“You did! First you destroy all of the trees, then you go and destroy plants for food!? What is wrong with you lot!

Gaia is going to put a curse on you! You are all evil!” I was going for a mostly senile old man archetype.

I asked Ancestor, Which of these foods can be easily harvested?

I picked up only the harvested food. “I’ll take these. You better ask Gaia for forgiveness for stealing her bounty!”

The swordsman stepped forward. “You told us to get you food! You senile ass! Let’s just kill this guy!” The calculative woman glared at him.

I scowled at him. “You dare!” I created a large earthen prison in only a moment. He was taken by surprise, and didn’t react quickly.

I used that time to solidify the earth mana into stone. “Fool boy, before you start a war you need to know who you are fighting. I won’t do business with him around.” I released the stone mana, and threw a large gust of wind at him at the same time.

He was easily lifted off of the ground, and thrown past several trees. He collided with one with a soft thump. It wasn’t enough to cause any real damage, but it was enough to get my point across.

‘Attacking the crazy old man is bad’.

“You.” I pointed to the girl I assumed was the leader. “You look like you’re in charge. Or at least you should be. Get him away and I will talk about trading. And if you think about attacking me…” I raised earth spears at several of her group.

I could only hold three at a time, but it was enough to persuade her. She motioned with her head. One of the group went to take the swordsman away.

The leader approached as close to the moat as she could. “How did you know I was the leader? Wouldn’t you normally assume a man as the leader?” She squinted at me.

I shrugged. “You look like the best to be in charge. The only thing gender matters in, is which gender you can manipulate better.”

She half smiled. “Alright. Well, I’m terribly sorry about the forest. We did not have a way to get to you, since the plants regrew so quickly. We didn’t know that some plants are bad to harvest. From now on we will only harvest the ones you took.”

“*Hrumph* Fine. As long as you remember that.”

She seemed to be trying to be as diplomatic as possible. “I do believe you said you’d pay for the food though. Of course not the food you won’t be eating though.”

I threw a bundle of thirty green healing herb leaves to her. “That is for the food, and for getting rid of the rude boy. Next time make sure it doesn’t happen.”

The group started to clamor once I gave them thirty leaves. With a quick glance, the leader, Elliot, quieted them down.

“Thank you,” She curtsied, “Are there any other tasks you would have of us? We were transported her with no knowledge of the area. Anything you could give us will help.”

Since I liked the way she was trying to play me, I decided to give her something to help. “Fine. I know these forests pretty well. How about this? You go and get me something pretty. I’ll give you a nice map of the area if you do.”

The group seemed to turn into hyenas. I could see the lust for the small map in their eyes. Elliot smiled. “That sounds fair, but what exactly would you like?”

“Surprise me, but if I don’t like it you won’t get anything from me.” After that I ignored the group, and went into my stone cabin. They’ll either bring me a nice item, or something else that is worth way more than a map.

I knew the worth of knowledge, but I could make an infinite amount of copies once I had even one map. After I was sure they had left, I began the next step in my plan. I created a small tunnel under the bedroom area. The hole led a few yards from the moat.

I walked through the tunnel as I made it, and covered the entrance up. When that was done, I began to explore the surrounding area. I spent about four hours walking through all of the trees. I made sure to constantly pump mana into my stone tablet to speed the map making process.

After only four hours of walking I had several tablets worth of maps. I went back through my tunnel, and closed both ends for about six feet.

I suspended my flight capabilities. When I had returned to my home, Ancestor notified me of two life mana signatures that were big enough for humanoids in the area. So they stationed someone here to watch me? Fuckers. Fine, I’ll play.

It was a good thing I had made a secret tunnel to check the area around my hut. I went about my daily ‘hermit’ rituals.

I bathed naked, harvested my many plants, and planted the new ones. All of the harvested common weeds were separated into two groups. Those I planted, and those I would give SparrowHawk for distribution when the two people stopped watching me.

During the day that they were gone, I also studied the enchantment on the quiver I had received. I could only detect a 15% of the mana used. The other 85% was somehow blocked from my view. I knew it was there, but the flavor was invisible.

It had 10% wind mana, 5% fire mana, and 85% of some mysterious mana. I made it a short term goal to figure out this new type of mana. It might even point me to the type of mana that the space looking god controlled.

After about a day the six people returned. The calculating woman spoke. “We’ve gathered up some interesting items you might like. If any of them strike your fancy, please, trade us what you think is fair.”

I Hruphed, but looked through the items.

There were several ores, a few gems, many food stuffs, and two enchanted items. One was a sword that allowed the user to automatically resurrect anyone the killed with it. The other was a pair of shoes that increased running speed by 10%.

I don’t know where they got them. I didn’t ask. While I was studying them though, Ancestor spoke in a worried tone.

“Voice, the two signatures are still there. You should make sure they are part of this group. If not this group might take care of them for you.”

“I’ve noticed that two others have been watching me for the past day. Are they yours?”

The leader’s eyes went wide. “No!” She shook her head rapidly. Obviously she didn’t want the NPC to think she had betrayed them.

I gave her a disbelieving look. After a moment I nodded as if I did believe her. “Alright, well if they are not part of your group you’ll have no problem bringing them to me. Do that and I’ll give you a copy of every map I still have after all these years.”

I had made a nice amount of maps, so the bargain wasn’t exactly weighted in my favor. If they killed the two I wouldn’t get the points though. “Make sure they are alive. Although I don’t mind them being ruffed up a bit.”

The group mobilized instantly, after a command from Elliot. She stayed though. “So you can sense people from far away? That is a pretty nice ability you have there. Is there any way you could teach it to me?”

Ancestor scoffed in my mind. “As if some lower breed could understand our magic!”

“I’ll teach you, but everything comes with a cost. The gods have told me that the people in my forest are here to play a game of life and death. I don’t want to be involved. You will personally be responsible for watching over my hut. If you do this I’ll make sure you know a way to detect people from far away.”

She seemed to click on a notice. I didn’t mean to give her a quest, but it happened anyway. I motioned for her to stay still, as I hobbled back into my hut. I summoned Kretchof.

“Master. There are intruders in your dungeon. Soon they will make it to the first mini-boss’ room. You will not be able to summon me if they make it to the boss room.”

I didn’t care about that right then. All I needed was a quick paper made. “That’s fine, I just need another Soul Binding Contract. Also, do you know of any repercussions for disbanding the contracts, without fulfilling them I mean.”

“Well, the party that invalidates the contract will lose their life, as well as several levels and items, the exp from those levels gets sent to the other party. For the ones you had other people sign, you won’t have anything bad happen to you even if you stopped giving mana to them.

Although I don’t know what will happen to the ones that signed it.”

That was good enough for me. After Kretchof summoned the contract, I dismissed him. I wrote on the contract. ‘Elliot, x, x, x, x, and x, will not knowingly cause, or allow, harm to befall the hermit with which Elliot, x, x, x, x, x, have signed this contract. Further more Elliot, x, x, x, x, and x will protect the hermit’s land to the best of their combined abilities until such a time as the ‘game of death between other-worlders’ is over. Any infractions upon these demands will be considered as the entire afore mentioned group invalidating the contract.

If Elliot, and the afore mentioned group, manage to stop all harm from befalling ___, and my land until the ‘other-worlder death game’ is over, I ___ will make sure Elliot knows of a way to detect others from long distances.’

The x’s were all the members of Elliot’s group, and I signed ‘Hermit’ where I had to put my name. That was the alias I was going by at the time.

I had a plan on how to get out of teaching Elliot anything.

When I returned the group had come back, loaded with an additional two unconscious bodies.

I smiled as I unsteadily walked over to them. Through the metal spikes I handed her the contract. After reading over it she asked why I thought they would abide by this contract.

“Well, the young fella that came through here earlier explained it to me. This is a Soul Binding Contract. Anyone that disobeys what they signed on here, will immediately die, and the other half of the contract signor will get a bunch of exp and items from them.”

She read over the contract. “Fine but change this part then.” She pointed to the part where I wrote ‘make sure Elliot knows of’. “Make it say ‘teach Elliot’. That way we are both satisfied with it.”

That was why I hated intellect types. They were always the harder group to manipulate. Still, my gambit had worked. I changed it and the entire group of people, minus the two unconscious ones, signed it. Now if any of that group attacked me, they would all die.

My plan was simple. I made her look at a fairly well hidden trap, but she overlooked a slightly more obvious one. The contract never said I couldn’t attack them.

If they attacked back though, that would spell the end for them. Not only that, I also ‘forgot’ to put a time limit on when I would teach her the skill.

I ordered the group to disarm, and disrobe the two villains. They did as I bade. “Now that that’s out of the way…” I used a bit of wind mana to pick up the two unconscious bodies. It took a lot of mana, and concentration, to keep the two objects floating at a perfect speed and balance.

When I had used about three quarters of my wind mana increment, I finally let them fall. I had positioned the two spies above my hot spring. They landed with a large splash.

I could always diffuse my other types of mana and use them for wind, as I did when I flew in the suit, but it felt awkward doing that now. It was like using the restroom, but only cleaning your hands with murky water.

My face became even grumpier. “Well you little shits, it’s time for you wake up.”

I chain both of them down by gathering metal mana around their bodies. I make sure that only their heads are above the water.

I sent a flash of fire into the face of the two offending parties. They awake in agony. I heal them, and do it again. I repeat this a dozen times. My mana was close to zero, even with my regen rate.

To finish them off I created several metal mana spikes that thrust into their bodies. Without armor for protection, they quickly died.

Elliot’s group stood in stunned silence. When I was done I got two alerts.

You have killed a rank 6 person. You have gained 16 points. You have a total of 16 points.

You have killed a rank 6 person. You have gained 16 points. You have a total of 32 points.

Oh! And here I thought that each person was a rank. I’m glad I’m not worth an octillion points though. That would have sucked.

I paused for a moment, wondering how I could calculate 2 to the power of 100 so quickly. Must have been the calculate skill.

I turned to the group, which no doubt regarded me as at least a bit dangerous. “You’ve kept your end of the bargain. Here, take these maps.”

I tossed the group my collection of stone tables. I hid my smile as I watched them scramble to catch them.

“Now, if you don’t mind I’d like to get some rest. These old bones aren’t what they used to be.”

I went inside my house. I closed my eyes, and took over inspect from Ancestor. I focused on listening to the voices of the people outside.

Using my replenishing wind mana, I amplified the sounds of the group. Coupling that with my enhanced hearing, I heard them as if they were standing next to me.

“Was that ok? He just wasted a bunch of our points. We could have made some serious gains from those two.”

“No, it’s alright.” Elliot was speaking. “We only wasted a few points. We got maps of this entire area! That is worth way more then 16 to 32 points. I will patrol this area, you all copy those maps down, and try to add anything the old man might have missed.”

She said the last part dismissively, and it sounded as if she walked off after that. Ancestor seemed amused. “So what exactly will you teach the girl? It will have to be something at least semi-decent. Otherwise word might get to Mar that her ‘chosen’ is breaking his vows.

It was time to sleep, so I called out SparrowHawk. I had accumulated enough seeds to cover a vast amount of forest land. I told SparrowHawk to use them to sow the land with weeds.

Throughout the entire night SparrowHawk went about sowing the seeds of my labor. In the middle of the night Ancestor woke me. “VOICE GET UP! TROUBLE!”

The shouting made me sit up instantly. Fuck! Why are you so loud? What’s happening?

“A group of 19 people are headed this way. They are moving at extremely high speeds. They are each coming from different sides, but should be here about the same time. They seem to know right where we are.”

I guess letting the eagle do the job wasn’t a good idea after all. Oh well, time to fight. How long do we have?

“About ten minutes, no more.”

I quickly equipped my armor, and donned my helmet. In my battle gear I prepared for battle.

I slammed the stone door open. “Rise and shine! We got incoming!” I shouted at the most likely sleeping figures outside of my moat. It was almost pitch black out, but with my skill enhanced vision, I had saw it as only a heavily clouded night.

It was still dark enough to hinder me, but it would be much worse for the ones that were going to fight me. I hoped anyway.

At that moment Elliot came running. “Hermit! We have a prob-“ She cut herself off after seeing me already mobilizing her troops. I turned to her. “Well don’t just stand there like a potato! Get ready! We are about to be attacked!”

Just loud enough for the group to hear I mumbled, “Damn pesky other-worlders. Can’t even get any goo sleep around here anymore. They need collars, the whole lot of em.”

I drew a ‘summoning circle’ in the dirt. It was a star that was inside a perfect circle. It was simple, but that was all I could think of at the time. Let the phony incantation begin!

“Spirits of the departed! Hear my plea! Lift yourselves up, to kill for me! Fight my enemies until their last dying breath! The last warmth they shall know, Sweet Mother Death!”

Kretchof I need the undead to help me out now.

Without getting a reply the undead began to crawl up from the ground. Skeletons, zombies, even a ghost showed up. I smiled a wicked smile.

“My brothers! Tonight we fight to defend our home. Let all who trespass here know your wrath! To your stations!”

They shambled about as if there really were battle stations. I cast off my debuff, and buffed myself with the buff that correlated to the minor petrification debuff.

Instead of moving 25% slower, and having my movement impaired by 25%, I moved faster, and with more ease. Elliot looked my way when I activated the buff. I guess she could sense the sudden change in my physique.

The undead seemed to unnerve Elliot’s group. Not that it mattered to me. I was about to have a little fun. My buff took all of my light mana, and a chunk of the rest of my mana.

I only had about 240 in each of my other slots. Although water and wind mana had slightly less than that since they were actually part of the buff.

I kept my disguise of an old man on though. With my imposing heavy armor, and increase in both agility and speed, I gained a nice bit of fighting power. Although my mana was dramatically lower than I wanted it to be.

I had Eli go underground with Moro. Together they would pick all of the plants in my garden as quickly as possible.

The people came running from the directions Ancestor told me. “Watch out though Voice. Two people from each team have broken off from the groups. And It’s impossible to tell if the teams are working together or not.”

I had to take Inspect back from Ancestor. I held my staff at the ready, blood rushing through my veins. “Let the battle begin!” I shouted as I jumped the metal spikes. I landed just as the group in front of me broke through the trees.

“Gonna have ta fix those again, damn!”

I swung my staff at the closest enemy, connecting with a loud *Thwang* of metal. “COME ON!” I shouted at the group tasked with keeping me safe. The sounds to the south told me they were fighting the other group.

My undead swarmed the enemies in front of me. I could see all of the enemies were under a debuff stat. Curtesy of Kretchof.

I attacked the same enemy by hitting him with the butt of my staff. My undead guardians protected both of my flanks. Without them, I’d have been in deep trouble.

I pushed myself into the air, and casted a large fireball at the enemies ahead of me. TEAR! DRAKE! Make sure no fire breaks out!

I got a notice, but didn’t pay it any mind for the moment.

As soon as the fire mana hit my opponents, Drake absorbed all of the mana that was not attached to them. Tear was watering the nearby plants to give them extra defense against the flames.

Luckily it was too dark for most people to actually see my fairies. Unless they had some sort of enhanced vision.

The ‘rain’ perfectly hit the most vulnerable areas around me. I sent word to Golem, my metal fairy. I need you to temporarily coat my entire staff in metal mana. I need more power!

I summoned him in the tunnel beneath me. There was a reason I chose to defend at this exact spot. Drake, Golem, Sol, Eli, Moro, even SparrowHawk, were all inside the tunnel that ran under my entire house, and into the woods.

Tear was the only one above ground at the moment. Kretchof was watching over the dungeon. I got confirmation that Eli and Moro had picked the last of the plants. Guys, I need you to cause a little havoc among the enemies. Just don’t get hit by anything.

Eli, create small holes in the ground that the enemy can trip on, then fill them up after someone does trip. SparrowHawk! I need you to help push the enemies back whenever they are about to hit me. Drake whenever you are full on mana, burn a single enemy at a time.

Sol, keep me healed! If you have the mana heal the group fighting for me as well. Moro, I need you to make some snares. Try to trap some of the people with vines or something.

For some reason Moro was REALLY into that idea.

While I was sending this message to all of my fairies, I was battling the intruders. The guy I had been attack suddenly tripped.

I smiled as I activated the switch in my staff, and cut through the poor fool’s neck. The additional metal mana flowing around my staff-blades was enough to almost double my actual attacking damage.

The natural armor the man possessed wasn’t enough to hold against a fully buffed master player, and his buffed up sword.

As the head rolled to the ground another person stepped forward. A man in full plate armor, with a heavy two handed sword.

“You bastard!” Hey you invaded my home.

He sent a downward pointing thrust with his two handed longsword. I easily parried it, using my reconnected staff accompanied with just a bit of wind mana.

I struck him under the chin. I didn’t know a lot about pressure points, but I did know that a blow under the chin was dangerous.

I activated the spear tip as the wooden staff met flesh. I spun the staff in a counter-clockwise direction. Blood sprayed from the wound below the man’s chin, but his HP only decreased by about half.

His eyes turned red. The undead to my right were holding up, but the ones to my left were being slowly killed. If I didn’t do something I’d be in a tight spot.

Suddenly the ground began to tremble. Thorny vines sprung up from the ground, ensnaring many of the warriors on the left, and a few on the right. They were struggling hard to free themselves.

The undead were attacking while the group was helpless. Moro! When the vines are about to break tell Sol to heal them! Sol when you get to half mana from healing them tell Drake to catch them on fire!

With the new instructions relayed my mind snapped back to the battle. One person, possibly a mage, was being burnt alive. Good job Drake.

The fire wasn’t spreading. I decided to pump it up a notch. The man with half HP charged at me. A hole suddenly appeared and tripped him. As he caught himself, I used a debuff on him. By using an additional 151 mana, I took away his ability to see.

I jumped on him, and aimed the head of my staff where a bright red line indicated a weak point. I used the spear function, to stab his armor twice.

The first stab cracked the plate slightly. The second pierced his heart. His life was draining fast, but he managed to stand up; throwing me off in the process.

His deep voice reverberated, “You’re a tough old man, I’ll give you that!”

Even without his eyes he charged right at me. I casually made a spear of earth, and let him impale himself on it. Stupid. Very stupid. At least make sure you know all of your opponents moves before ‘blindly charging in’. Heh

The battle was going a lot better on my side. The vines were holding up, but people were managing to escape from them. The vines they had just escaped from would try to ensnare them again though.

Suddenly the entire area was lit up. Everyone in the area shielded their eyes, even me. Several screams were heard as Drake’s flames consumed the vines. After the fire died down, only a single tree had caught.

Tear quickly put it out. Drake! No more using fire for now! Send excess to the pool or something. Tear! Gather all of the water mana inside your body for now. Tell me when you can’t hold anymore!

Two people managed to break through the skeletons to attack me. One of the zombies closest to them exploded as they decapitated it. Covered in burns, and some grotesque fumes, they came at me.

The undead army was doing a good job at stalling, but couldn’t actually manage to kill anyone. Even with the vines and fairies helping them.

I held my staff at the ready. I wasn’t used to fighting multiple humanoid enemies at once. Usually I outnumbered the enemy.

One had two daggers, the other had a short sword and a shield. They ran at me, and I decided to use an old ability I hadn’t made use of in a while. Enhancing my voice with wind mana, I roared.

The roar was loud, loud and vicious. Only a handful of the enemies were paralyzed, the others just looked shocked for a moment. The double dagger guy was one of those that was paralyzed. I ran at him. I noticed the metal mana in my staff was dying out.

Golem must have been using a large amount quickly. That would explain why it was so easy to cut through one of the weak points of the plate armor though.

I sliced at the double dagger guy, only to be intercepted by the sword and shield guy. I didn’t mind, as long as I knew I would soon bathe in their blood.

I gave a command to Eli. The shield man was completely focused on protecting the dagger dude while he was paralyzed. We played a quick dance of cat and mouse. I would attack him once or twice, but before he could counter I’d step back.

It was great that the super powerful inspect actually told my the suggested amount of space to take back to be out of his reach now.

Whenever the red lines went from his body, to his sword, I’d step back like it told me. With my buff activated it was a lot easier to follow the movements inspect told me would be best. Some of them still exceeded my abilities though.

The shield guy shouted, “Triple Slash!”

His horizontal slash made a ripple in the air. The blade of wind was soon followed by two more, making an x behind it.

When the attack got within a foot of me, it dissipated. I hadn’t noticed it, but the attack seemed to be using wind mana. I’d have to learn that. Oh wait. I had the technique steal thing!

The man with daggers came at me as soon as the triple slash was deflected. I pushed myself back as inspect told me, but his dagger suddenly extended slightly.

I received a small cut on my cheek, dealing 32 damage. Shit. If I take another couple of those I’m fucked.

The damage instantly went away. Sol was correctly doing the job assigned. Both men I was facing seemed to be able to avoid the pot holes now. Any time one popped up, their feet seemed to avoid it naturally.

I put my swords back as the two circled me. My staff would be much better suited to what was about to happen. Tear had given me the signal. Now! Like the worms make an orb!

Tear understood what I meant. My half of the battlefield was suddenly covered in a large orb of water. The eight remaining fighters on this side were slightly floating around in it.

Everyone but the shield guy instantly started to swim to the outer edges of the water. Drake, heat the water! There was a slight hesitation, but the water started getting hotter.

Eli followed the command I gave earlier. An orb of earth surrounded the entire water ball. The water began to get notably hotter, and many of the ‘warriors’ that invaded my home began to suffer because of it.

The undead seemed to not have any problem fighting in the water. They didn’t need air, and didn’t have any real weapons to speak of.

The shield man somehow pushed himself to me. While the others were busy holding their breaths while fighting, this guy seemed fine. Guess he can breathe too.

The aquatic fight wasn’t as much to my advantage as I’d have liked. The undead were actually winning, but the shield guy was too powerful in the water. It was like he chose an aquatic race or something.

I saw his hands slowly begin to web. Gills sprouted from his neck. So he really IS an aquatic race.

I de-summoned, and re-summoned Tear. This time Tear was in the water with us. Tear darted toward the shield man in jellyfish form. The guy attacked me several times, but with inspect I was barely able to avoid taking damage.

His movements had been hindered a lot less than mine. If my body didn’t have the streamlined effect I’d be dead already. I had to push myself by moving the water mana in order to not take damage.

Tear finally made it to us, and latched onto the man’s body. You might ask where Tear was latched onto? Well the shield guy wouldn’t have any more in-game children. As Tear stung him, I activated my blessing from Gaia.

I used the microscopic barbs in my skin, to attack. I grabbed the man by his slightly exposed throat, and stung the shit out of him. He cried out in pain. That actually gave me a good idea.

The heated water stopped when it got too uncomfortable for me, as if Drake knew it by instinct. I began fusing the water mana with darkness mana. First the out edges, then closer to me.

One by one the people let out screams of anguish. The pain inducing water was too much for most to bear. Unfortunately it also came with a tragic side effect.

As the darkness mana reached me I closed my eyes, it didn’t help. I cried out in agony. The only thing keeping me alive was the fact that I could breathe underwater.

I blacked out from the severe pain. When I woke I was still in the orb. The undead were roaming around it. I had them act as if they were dead.

Judging from my mana bars, I had been out for about a minute. I absorbed the earth mana around me, and walked out.

The battle field was quite. I looked over to see four people standing. I approached with my staff at the ready.

Elliot’s POV

As soon as I noticed the army approaching I ran to tell the Hermit. Did he know there would be an attack? I didn’t know if he did or not, but sending me out on a patrol was the right choice.

When I got back to camp he was already getting my troops ready. It irked me to see them obeying someone else, but it wasn’t like we were friends outside of this death match.

The battle was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. There were nine people versus our six. Technically their group was just as powerful, but they had better maneuvers than we did. The fewer members you have the less varied your tactics can be.

The battle went on for only a few minutes. We traded deaths with the enemy team. For every one we took down, they took one as well.

When we only had four people left, my team decided to kick it into overdrive. By pushing the enemy to the moat, we were able to force them into the low ground. Wait, wasn’t there water here?

A quick glance showed all of the water floating into the sky. More specifically it was all being sucked towards one point near the Hermit and his undead army.

We finished them off easily enough, but when we looked for the Hermit, all we saw was a large earthen orb. After a couple of minutes of waiting, the earthen orb started to crumble inwards. Water sprayed the ground, only to be somehow sent to the moat.

Out of the orb fell several dead bodies, and undead. The bodies flowed towards the moat as they were dragged by the water. Only one person walked out of the orb. It was the Hermit.

This Hermit was suspicious. There was no way one NPC could have this much power. I’d have to wait for my chance to act though. Attacking him would kill off my entire team.

Voice’s POV

It was just Elliot. My time as the Hermit was quickly coming to an end though. Since three different teams found me, there was no telling how many more would come.

I smiled at her. The suspicion in her eyes told me she at least suspected I was lying about something. “Sadly you have invalidated the contract.”

She looked at me as if I were mad. “And how is that!? We didn’t willing let you come to harm! We didn’t-“

I cut her off. “AH! You see… I need your points.” I undid my disguise. None of her men attacked me. What great discipline.

“None of us will attack you, we know that means we lose the contract.”

I smiled at her again. “That’s true, but also this. I’m going to stab myself.” I stabbed myself with a shard of metal mana I had created.

She ran towards me to stop me, but it was too late. As soon as the shard broke the skin, she and the remaining team members turned to dust.

I recalled all of my fairies, and made them undo everything we had built around the cottage. The hot spring was made into earth, and the moat, house, and spears were all sent back to the way they were.

As they did this I looked over my new messages.

You have caused a rank 9 person to die. You have gained 2 points. You have a total of 34 points.

You have caused a rank 9 person to die. You have gained 2 points. You have a total of 36 points.

It went on like that for a while. I gained a total of 18 points from the entire force of the nine people. I also gained points from the woman’s 4 people for some reason. I guess since I tricked them into dying. In total I had 114 points. On top of that I gained a few items from them, and even a large amount of levels!

Spoiler :

Stats WindowNameVoice0fReasonClassMana EnchanterLevel 45Health: 100Mana: 2700Stamina: 350Current Title: SurgeonHealth Regen: 1/sMana Regen: 22.9(17.9)/sStamina Regen: 5.1/sStrength41Agility34Wisdom229Intelligence270Endurance51Dexterity44Luck0Vitality35Charisma35Compassion95Leadership66Logic22Piety89Unused Stat Points70Fame1535

Skills WindowAutomated Novice Level 9 Exp 25.00%

Speed Reading Novice Level 9 Exp 00.00%

Auto Read Novice Level 20 Exp 50.00%Group Skill: Key to Self-Sustained Alchemy Novice Level 24 Exp 10.46%

Group Skill: Long Distance Inspection Expert Level 75 Exp 00.00%

Group Skill: Automatic Nursing Novice Level 12 Exp 50.00%

Group Skill: Con Artist Novice Level 20 Exp 23.05%

Group Skill: Magical Mastery Apprentice Level 50 Exp 00.00%

Group Skill: Skill Mastery Adept Level 50 Exp 21.23%

Group Skill: Tactical Survival Adept Level 50 Exp 00.00%

Group Skill: Tactical Combat Training Adept Level 50 Exp 00.00%

Group Skill: Breakdown Novice Level 12 Exp 46.64%

Group Skill: Harvesting Mastery Novice Level 3 Exp 11.11%

Group Skill: Crafting Mastery Novice Level 5 Exp 00%

Affinities WindowLight70%Water75%Wind25%Nature75%Metal50%Earth45%Fire25%Darkness100%