Hey everyone! I'm looking forward to more feedback from everyone. I would also like to thank you all for continuing to support me and my ff. The story is beginning to take shape and I have a better idea of where I would like to go with it. If you have any advice please leave it as a comment. Please know that I read all of them each time they pop up. Well enough talking from me. Enjoy the new chapter.

Chapter 19

Early in the morning Hiro woke up and began his morning training routine. He completed over 1000 reps of each of his calisthenics. He then meditated for an hour.

Your training caused your strength, agility, and vitality to increase by 5 and wisdom to increase by 5

Warrior’s body improved to novice level 1. With the improvement of your warrior’s body skill, you gain plus 10 to agility, strength, and vitality.

"Over 1000 reps of each and I only got 5 points of increase! This is starting to get too time consuming. I hope my idea works."

It was time for his new training method. First he opened his weapon skill menu and found the hammer weapon skill. It was colored so it was available for him to learn it. “I guess this should be good. When I learned sword mastery I gained agility, when I learned spear mastery I gained strength, what will I gain with the hammer weapons? Well let’s find out.” He clicked the bubble for hammer weapons master.

You have learned the skill hammer weapon mastery.

Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:Blunt weapon MasteryBeginner0100%This will give you proficiency with hammer weapons. As you increase you will do increased damage with blunt weapons and you will gain 5 points towards you vitality for each level of increase.

“Vitality huh. That is good. I need to have a lot of health if I’m going to fight the enemy from the front lines.”

Next, he pulled the troll’s hammer from his bag. It was so heavy that it immediately made him fall to the ground. “This is insane! How strong was that troll that could wield this so easily with one hand?” Hiro could not lift the hammer at all. He decided his first day of training would be to drag the hammer as far as he could. He grabbed the handle with both hands and began to pull. The hammer barely budged even with Hiro putting every last ounce of strength he had into it. Finally after all of his struggling, the hammer moved about 10cm. Hiro fell down in exhaustion. Every single one of his muscles was screaming.

Your strength increased by 1.

“I got a point to my strength for only moving this thing 10 cm?!”

His idea worked his with one try his strength had increased. He took a few moments to catch his breath and then he tried again. He continued to do this same cycle for about an hour. He had completed 100 tries and ended up moving the hammer about 25 meters.

Due to your training your strength has increased by 11 points.

His strength had also gone up 12 points. This was the biggest increase in strength he ever had. Hiro decide to end his physical training there for the day and meet up with his army so that they could go to the woods and secure wood for the rebuilding process.

Once in the town Hiro met up with Snow and the army, Korin, Rain, and Foria were also with them. They discussed the plan to return to the forest and build a logging camp so that they could chop wood to bring back to the town.

Foria said, “The area east of the town had become a large farm where the farmer began grazing the plains cows and growing crops to feed the people of the village.”

Hiro was pleased. Several villagers had joined up with them. The brought an enormous cart. This presumably was to carry the wood from the forest in. The group set out led by Snow, Ora, Hiro, and Leo. Kaura went ahead of everyone to scout the area for enemies. The group of 30 people consisted of 12 villagers, and 10 soldiers Kaura, Rain, Korin, Foria, Snow, Hiro and the 2 pets Ora and Leo.

After walking for a few hours, the group decided to rest then they ate some fruit that they had brought along with them. Kaura returned and said that they were about 2500 meters from the forest and there were no signs of orcs ahead. The group finished their fruit and set back out on the road. After another 30 minutes they came upon the forest. The villagers came out with their axes and began chopping down some trees. Hiro told the soldiers to remain vigilant because the noise might attract some predatory animals.

The villagers quickly chopped down about 15 trees. With their tools they began to build a small structure that looked similar to a fort. The trees they had cut down became the walls and they cut a hole in it that was big enough for 2 soldiers to look through. They continued building the structure well into the afternoon. As the sun went down Hiro looked at the structure in awe of how efficient the villagers were at building. In less than 1 day they had built a structure that could easily be defended from its high tower.

“Now all it needs a set of stairs to get up to the top of the tower”, said one of the villagers.

“You guys are impressive”, said Hiro. The villagers smiled. While they sat around a few villagers cut up a portion of one of the downed trees and made a fire. Others pulled out meat that they had brought from the town. Foria and Hiro cooked the meat while the others sang songs and danced around the fire. Snow continued to stay vigilant as he new all too well that this is the type of situation where orcs would invade. As he kept watch the smell of the food began to permeate through the group. The villagers were each given several pieces of the meat that was cooked. Everyone gave thanks for the food and ate until they were full.

“Snow, let’s take shifts with the soldiers and watch out for any dangers", said Hiro.

“Agreed", replied Snow

“I’ll take the first shift.”

“I’ll stay with Hiro”, said Foria.

"I figured that"said Korin.

Snow smiled and sent two other soldiers with them to patrol the camp. Everyone else laid down and quickly fell asleep. Hiro and his small group began to walk around the camp checking for any signs that there might be danger approaching. They walked around the camp over and over surveying the area. Hiro was totally comfortable in the dark as he now possessed the night vision skill. However for the others who were not so lucky, he made torches from large fallen branches.Then he lit the torches using his fireball spell. Hiro’s group continued to search around the camp but nothing came. Soon it was time for the guard to switch.

Just as Hiro leaned down to wake Snow up, he sensed the presence of several energy signatures coming fast from the east.

“Wake up everyone! Battle positions! Something is coming!”

Snow and the others who had been sleeping quickly woke from their rest and grabbed their weapons.

“What’s going on Hiro?”

“I sense something coming from the east. There are 6 of them and they are moving fast.”

“Get ready!”

Just then 6 large wolves jumped from the trees. They were like the silver wolf that the beast master had. These looked a little different though. All of these gave off a strong aura but they did not look like they had eaten in a while.

“I won’t kill an opponent who is in poor condition to start the fight. Everyone please stand back I want to try and settle this without any bloodshed. Leo, come here.” Leo moved forward as the wolves continued to growl and snarl. “Roar!” yelled Hiro.

Leo opened his massive jaws and roared. It was so loud that it seemed like it shook the very forest. The soldiers had to grab their ears as the sound was deafening. The aura that Leo was exuding was tremendous. Once he stop his roar he leaned down and bared his fangs showing that he was going to attack. The wolves lost their will to fight and began to back away. Leo took a step forward and continued to intimidate the wolves. The army stood their breathless as they watched Leo force 6 wolves to back away solely with his aura. Leo took another step and the wolves turned and began to run away. The soldiers cheered as Leo scattered the wolves.

Leadership increase by 5 points

“What could have caused them to attack in such poor condition?” asked Snow

“I don’t know. Are we infringing upon their territory?” replied Hiro

“You two are thinking too hard. It was the food”, said Foria.

“What do you mean?” asked Hiro

“Man you didn’t learn anything reading the books in the library. You are still as dull as ever”, said Korin. “We cooked delicious meat and the smell made us hungry and we ate breakfast. How do you think those wolves were feeling when they smelled that meat cooking in the near starving condition they were in?”

“I see. Yeah that does seem pretty obvioius when you take the time to think about it.” Hiro and his patrol group lay down as there were still a few hours until day break. Snow, Kaura, Korin Ora and a few soldiers took the next shift. The rest of the night was uneventful as Snow and his group patrolled around the campsite.

Once day break came the group awoke and ate breakfast cooked by Hiro and Foria. Everyone had plenty of food to eat and then got back to work. The villagers quickly built the steps of logging camp so that soldiers could maintain a defensive position in the tower. Finally they constructed walls around the tower and a door that was large enough to bring trees in.

The logging camp was finally complete.

The villagers went back into the forest and cut down almost 2 dozen more trees. Once the trees were downed, the group assisted by Ora and Leo were able to load the trees onto the giant cart. The logging was complete. The mission was a success.

“Snow can you escort the villagers back to the forest along with the rest of the soldiers?” asked Hiro.

Snow nodded in agreement. “What are you going to do?”

“I’m going hunting with Leo”, replied Hiro.

Hiro said his goodbyes to everyone and went into the forest. Hiro’s detect presence ability allowed him to see numerous enemies within the forest. He decided that he and Leo should fight until their hearts were content in order to increase their strength for his eventual showdown with his 3 rivals Foria, Snow, and Korin.

They found the first group of enemies which was 6 night vipers. The raised their hoods and hissed but their icy stare no longer was effective against Hiro or Leo. Hiro made quick work of them with his claymore.

You gained 6 weapon skill points.

Hiro took all of the snakes and stuffed them into his magic bag. They continued into the forest where they found an enemy that looked like a lizard but walked on 2 legs like a man. Hiro was intrigued. It was not an enemy he had seen before so he used his inspect ability.

Lizard manType:HumanoidHealth:1,000 / 1,000Mana:0/0A strong warrior known for his discipline in training. They are very fast and agile as well possessing an impressive ability to heal. Nearly any wound that is not fatal is able to be healed. They can even regenerate limbs that have been lost making them a difficult enemy to defeat.

Hiro decided to attack the Lizard man. It didn’t have much equipment and its weapon looked feeble. Hiro used his hide ability and told Leo to stay back. Hiro was able to sneak up on the enemy without being notice. Once close he used his dashing slash ability and struck the enemy severing its head from its body before it noticed what was happening. Hiro called for Leo to eat the body. Leo ate the Lizard man down to his bones.

You learned the lizard man language. You can now communicate with lizard men

Due to consuming the lizard man your swimming skill as increased to advanced level 1. Now you are able to hold your breath for several minutes and your swimming speed as increased dramatically.

You and Leo have learned the passive ability of regeneration. This ability cannot be increased. Physical healing and regeneration of tissues has been increased. Like a reptile you will now be able to regenerate limbs that have been severed.

You gained a weapon skill point.

“That is awesome! I can swim like that well now? I may be almost ready to fight that guardian beast, Rocodile. Hiro decided to test the skill out. Hiro held out his hand and cut himself with his Claymore. The wound started to heal instantly. The blood stopped and his skin began to mend itself. “This is even better than I imagined.”

Hiro looked around and his tracking skill let him pick up the tracks of several other lizard men. They were heading away from his present position towards the east. Hiro began to follow the tracks. Leo began to sniff the air.

“Did you catch the scent of something?” Hiro asked

Leo only arched his back and began to show his fangs aggressively. Hiro was confused. He could not detect anything with his sense presence ability but Leo was definitely on edge. He decided to trust Leo’s instincts and got ready for battle by readying is blade. Hiro moved forward slowly as Leo followed behind him. The trail they were following continued ahead of them but the trail went cold as the came to a lake with a waterfall. Leo continued to growl at the lake.

“What is it? Is something in the water?”

Just then a harpoon like spear shot out of the water impaling Hiro through his leg.

“AAAHHHHH!!!!” screamed Hiro as he fell to his knees.

You are now bleeding. Until it stops you will lose 10 points of health per second.

Leo jumped in front of him to protect him from the enemies who came out of the water. There were 4 lizard men. Two of them were wearing nothing but a loincloth and the other 2 were wearing some sort of leather armor but it looked more like the hide of a crocodile or a snake. They were all wielding spears except one which Hiro assumed was missing his because it was now lodged in his leg.

They began to slowly walk towards Leo who roared. This time the roar had no effect. These guys were seriously tough. “How did my prediction not see that attack? Why did I not sense their presence? Could they be able to mask their presence?” Whatever the case is I gotta get this thing out of my leg.” Hiro pulled the sharp end of the spear from his leg and wrapped as his enemies were taking their time. Leo kept them at bay but they had now spread out slowly around them. They were encircled by the 4 enemies. There was no way of escape. Hiro and Leo had to fight.

Hiro pulled out one of his potions and drank it.

You are no longer bleeding.

Now it was time to fight. Hiro began to call forth his ki. The wind began to blow softly as Hiro began be covered in a shroud of red energy. He had not gone out in a while so he had not realized how much stronger he had gotten. His ki made his body feel as if he was floating. The pain in his leg was no longer an issue.

He looked at Leo and said, “Get them!” The both launched simultaneous attacks at the lizard men.

Leo slashed one of the lizard men. The lizard man was unable to avoid the claw attack and Leo hit him causing him to take major damage. While he laid on the ground, another lizard man attacked thrusting his spear at Leo. His new passive skill of thick skin stopped him from taking any real damage. The blow did do some blunt force damage but it could not break through Leo’s skin. While taking the blow from the lizard man Leo countered by breathing fire at him. The lizard man was set ablaze and jumped into the lake to extinguish the flames.

The other lizard man he was facing was breathing heavily. This was probably due to internal injuries he sustained from Leo’s first attack. The lizard man was struggling to breathe and bleeding from his snout and mouth but he ran at Leo and tried to attack with his spear. Leo tackled the lizard man knocking him down and pinning him to the ground. Then he tried to bite the lizarard man. The lizard man stuck his wood spear out horizontally to stop Leo from biting down on him but it was to no avail. Leo crushed the spear in his powerful jaws and the bit down on the lizard man’s head killing him. Leo looked around but the other lizard man had not yet emerged from the water.

Meanwhile Hiro was battling the other 2 lizard men. They were both coming at him from either side with their long spears. They were both very fast and their attacks seemed to be well coordinated. “I’ve got to do something. Each time I attack they cover for each other. I’ve got to separate them somehow. That’s it!” One of the lizard men thrust his spear at Hiro who dodged it by just a hair. Instead of using his blade this time Hiro cast his spell of windcutter. A quick gust of wind came out and the lizard man flew back from the force and Hiro noticed he had a few cuts on his torso presumably from the wind as well. While they were separated Hiro cast his bind spell on both of them. The familiar chains came out and stopped the movement of both the lizard men. Hiro quickly attacked the on closest to him. Hiro swung his blade with all of his might but instead of meeting the torso of the lizard man he realized that it had brought its tail up to take the attack. The tail was cut clean off but the rest of its body was unharmed.

Hiro jumped back as his spell had worn off. He decided to finish this without using anymore spells. He activated his Hiro’s Courage skill and ran at full speed to attack. He unleashed a flurry of slashes that the lizard man was only able to defend itself against. The slashes did little damage but they stopped the lizard man from mounting any offensive actions. Hiro jumped up and came down with a slash. The lizard man lifted his wood spear to stop the attack but Hiro’s claymore cut right through it and cleaved the lizard man in two. Hiro turned around and dashed towards the other one who’s regenerative ability had allowed him to recover completely from Hiro’s windcutter spell.

It let out a scream and dashed towards Hiro. Its strikes were quick and very accurate. if not for his prediction ability Hiro would be in serious trouble. Hiro parried some of the strikes with his sword but a few times the monster was able to get in a few good strikes. Hiro lost about half of his health and about 60% of his mana defending himself from the lizard man’s attacs. Slowly but surely Leo was able to get acclimated to the speed and distance of the lizard man’s attacks. Then Hiro started to fight back. He slashed and parried. The battle was heated. It was a war of attrition that neither could pull ahead on because both of them were able to regenerate so fast.

Soon Hiro’s ability to avoid the enemy’s attacks began to show. He began to dodge all of the piercing thursts and then it happened. He found an opening. The lizard man’s strike missed as Hiro timed his dodge perfectly. He dodged under the sweeping strike and came up with a rising strike with his blade severing both of the lizard man’s arms off. They both fell down to the ground still holding onto the blade. Blood squirted out as Hiro spun around and slashed the lizard man across his waist severing his body into two pieces. The legs dropped to the ground immediately followed by the torso. It screamed out in agony! “It isn’t dead yet. I guess that regeneration ability is really something.” Hiro then took his blade and slashed the monster across his neck killing it instantly. The fight was tough but together they had made it.

Level up

Sword Mastery increase to level 6

Toughness increased to level 5

Windcutter increased to level 2

You gained 3 weapons skill points

Hiro went up to Leo looking for the last of lizard men but it did not return. “Maybe he was afraid of you Leo.”

Hiro looked at the corpses of the 3 lizard men to see if there was anything worth salvaging. He noticed that the tails lit up. He cut off the tails and he also looted a wood spear from them. Finally he let Leo eat the corpses in hopes that he might learn something else. Leo gorged himself on the lizard men but he did learn anything new.

After resting for a bit Hiro and Leo continued their hunt. Soon they came upon 4 forest panthers. Hiro decided to let Leo take them on. Leo let out his liger’s roar and the panthers were all frozen in place. Leo then breathed fire using pyro kinesis on 2 of them burning them to a crisp. The next one he crushed its head with a blow from its paw. Finally the last one Leo bit it across the neck causing it to bleed out and die. Leo was truly frightening with his overwhelming strength. Hiro skinned the 2 bodies of the 2 forest panthers that he did not burn. He then looked at them to see if anything was worth scavenging. “Nothing on these is glowing. Maybe it is like that because Leo destroyed their vital parts with his attacks.” Once he saw that there was nothing usable, Leo ate them.

You gained 2 light leather hides. Leather hides can be used to make stronger leather armor.

You gain 4 weapon skill points.

Hiro wanted to continue hunting things in this area but his detect presence ability was showing that most things in the forest were now moving away from he and Leo. He guessed that he was too overpowered for this area so he decided to go back to the town. He mounted up onto Leo and began to leave the forest.

Before they got to the edge of the forest they heard a familiar drumming sound in the distance. Hiro stopped Leo and told him to go towards the drumming sound. Leo quickly moved as he was asked and soon the came upon a small orc encampment. Hiro detected about 15 orcs. “What do you think buddy? Want to have some fun?” Leo purred in agreement and immediately they charged into the camp. The orcs were stunned as the large beast rampaged into their camp. Leo used his Liger’s roar and 10 of the orcs were immediately paralyzed. Hiro slashed them with his claymore. His blade was so long and powerful that several of the orcs were cleaved in two pieces when he slashed them horizontally. Others he decapitated.

While he finished off the paralyzed ones, Leo was making short work of the ones that could still fight. Their pitiful weapons were no match against his thick skin. Many of their attacks he repelled simply with his fur. The other attacks he simply dodged and then clawed the beasts with his razor sharp claws. Finally, the last orc remained. It tried to run away but Leo quickly chased it down and hit it with his paw knocking it to the ground.

“Wait!” Hiro yelled.

Leo paused as the orc lay on the ground motionless frozen in fear knowing that death was only moments away.

“Where are you from?”, Hiro asked the orc in his language.

The orc was stunned, “How does a human know the language of the orcs?” it replied.

“Don’t worry about how. You should answer my question as my hungry friend here would definitely like to eat you and

your friends. Now I will say it again, where are you from?”

“My home is an area to the east of here. We live in a large mountain full of tunnels that we have dug.”

“I’m going to let you live so that you can return home to your friends and deliver a message.”

"I am no slave to a pitiful human."

"Crack!!" Hiro slammed his fist into the face of the orc.

The orc spit blood out from his mouth along with one of his teeth that Hiro broke. “What is your message human?” the orc said with hatred in his voice.

“Tell them never to come to the village of Kaito again. They will know it because it is the home of the man who rides the liger. Do you understand?”

“Yes I understand.”

“Now get up and go before my friend decides to eat you anyway.” Leo growled and showed his fangs. The orc got up on his feet and began to walk away as it was still suffering major injuries it received from Leo.

You gained 14 weapon skill points

Hiro went back to the rest of the dead orcs and looted their bodies finding some weak weapons and some tattered cloth and leather armor. He decided to try repairing them with his whetstones and patching the holes with his thread. As he worked the weapons began to shine like new. The rust and blood was removed from the weapons and their original metallic shine returned. They were made of iron. He then noticed that the cloth and leather armor no longer had holes and its defensive capability had returned. He placed all of it in his bag and decided to take it to the store and sell it as he was beginning to run low on supplies.

Armor making increased to novice level 1. Agility increased by 5

Weapon making increased to novice level 1. Strength increased by 5

Hiro told Leo that they were returning home. Quickly Leo began running back towards the town. He made it back to the town just as the sun began to go down. Leo laid down at the entrance to the town and he went to the town store to barter the weapons and armor he looted and repaired today. Matsuro gladly took his trade and gave him more whetstones and coarse thread. The Matsuro said, “I see your leather working and blacksmithing skill is improving. Have you tried making anything new lately?”

“No, not yet. I don’t have any metal yet to make any new weapons or armor. I haven’t found any place to get the ore I would need like copper.”

“You can find that stuff in mines or even in deposits around the sides of hills” said Matsuro. Hiro thanked the shop owner and decided he would go out and look for some when he next went out to hunt. He left the store then gathered some wood from in the town and brought it back out to make a fire in front of where Leo was. After placing the wood in a pile he asked Leo to breathe fire on it. Leo breathed in and blew out fire lighting the firewood. Hiro took out the night vipers that they had killed earlier. Hiro cooked 1 of them over the fire. He ate a portion of one of the night vipers and gave one of the uncooked ones to Leo. Leo ripped it apart and devoured it in a flash.

Leo has learned poison creation. Leo can now coat his claws with poison as well as inject poison into a victim with his fangs. When he bites or scratches an enemy they will be poisoned causing them to take damage over time.

You and Leo have gained lesser poison immunity.

Skill Name:Skill Rank:Skill Level:Skill Experience:Lesser Poison ImmunityBeginner0100%Weak poisons will no longer affect you and Leo and stronger poisons will have their effects diminished.

Hiro thought today was a good day. He curled up with Leo and told him good night. Leo growled and wrapped his tail around Hiro as they both drifted off to sleep.