Reaching level thirty tonight was basically impossible and entertaining such a thought was foolhardy. Yet Kent hoped. Starring at the slowly dimming and breaking up clouds.

Equipped with Effect: Temporal Fitting most monsters on his level posed little threat. The only ones to look out for were either ones that were tough to hit in a bind, such as turrls, or the monsters with a greater focus on toughness or vitality. Lastly – though it was unlike he would come across any – there were the monsters with a significantly larger size. Stompers and similar types weren’t common in these parts, thankfully. He’d only heard of the headaches that were caused by monsters of the higher size grades.

At least he had a counter for toughness in the form of Penetrate. And turrls weren’t a big worry either, with their simple attack patterns. As long as they charged straight at Kent or ideally didn’t detect him – allowing him to strike first – they weren’t an issue either.

That second option – of not being noticed by monsters – wasn’t as likely as it had been just weeks before.

That was the issue that came with growth in level and pool capacity. His growing mana reserves were certainly impressive for his level and somehow, they were leaking out. Not more than other people’s mana, as that was how it usually was, but they were noticeable to monsters.

At least that’s how Tehana had explained it to him.

He had gained some insight into the interactions of monsters, mana, ambient mana, and related topics during his education in the institute. The likelihood of monsters finding you grew as your respective health, stamina, and mana pools grew. Health and mana were – according to Rinah, the apprentice who had taught him – the most important factors when it came to how aware monsters were of you. Stamina being a purely internal energy somehow didn’t leak as much.

That answer was a far cry away from satisfying Kent, as health should be internal as well and stamina had obvious external applications, but supposedly it held up to intense academic scrutiny.

That meant that monsters in his level range and close to it would be drawn to him from further away – which was useful when you wanted to fight them. And would be a huge issue if he didn’t want to fight.

The trees that were the base of the zones of civilization worked on a similar principle. They somehow were able to absorb the energies that humans diffused into the air around them, leaving low energy densities behind.

Keeping monsters away by making an entire region undesirable or even uncomfortable, scholarly debate was still out on that.

As his thoughts had drifted his sight had been drawn to the sky. He tore his gaze from the first appearing stars, considering the current conundrum.

To stay or to head back inside. There were several good reasons for both.

Kent considered running back to the city, to acquire a torch. Or he could just stay in the city and take an early rest. Or he could stay here and see what he could do without. He had another way of escaping now and if he should see trouble approaching, he could always head deeper into the zone.

If he didn’t come up with an answer soon, he would be forced to stay outside anyway. Kent liked the second option more anyway.

The clouds that had previously obstructed the sun were colored in beautiful reds and oranges by now, scattering the last rays of sun onto the world. Slowly giving way to the few rays of star- and moonlight as they began extending their tendrils toward Kent’s home.

Kent enjoyed the beautiful sight from the lake shore, laying there, just looking up at the sky.

As it grew darker he became firmer and firmer in his conviction to stay outside the town’s walls. It would be excellent training for his mana sense, in many ways. The burdgioning skill didn’t have a large range, but might be able to pick up on the disturbance monsters impressed on the ambient mana by now.

Previous experimentation had shown him, that through straining himself, he was able to make out monsters that were close by, within a few strides. His Senses part of mana sight not high enough to permeate the occlusion of ambient mana further than his own mana extended into the environment but that might be enough to see if he could take one of the many first steps into improving mana sight.

Even though he was interested, the ability of sensing monsters in the dark further way wasn’t really important ever since getting Effect: Temporal Fitting above rank five or so. As long as he could get a dagger between himself and whatever monster attacked him, before they crossed the five strides mark, he was fairly safe.

And a torch would cost money anyway. And he had none after buying his harness.

Seems like I really am doing this, he smiled. Looking forward to a night outside. And potentially overturning his monetary issues at the same time.

He waited some more time as the sun slowly dipped further and further down. Only the rustling of the leaves and the ripples on the pond giving him company.

He thought about many things in the time, from how he had potentially hampered himself by not investing more senses which could bring all sorts of wonderous abilities, to what he should focus next on in his training, and if he could somehow get someone with a more sensitive mana sight to come out of town with him and look at monster corpses.

The fact that the ability existed for people was unquestioned though. Apparently, a few of the journeymen of the institute spent some of their years categorizing spell cores in specific regions.

The most reliable way of getting funds right now would be going back to harvesting turrl saliva. But at five styca per flask was just too little to make it worthwhile. It would require twenty to fifty of the monsters to fill up a single flask which was as many encounters as he could reasonably expect to have in a night. Harvesting other monster parts would result in more money... If he were trained or traited in that.

He lamented the shortcomings of his youth in terms of education and stopped dreaming of things that could be.

Until he suddenly wasn’t anymore.

Standing upright on both his feet he readied his knives, listening to the sounds of the forest. He’d heard something snap.

Leaves rustled and nothing happened for four deep breaths.

Not even on the fifth did anything change.

All of a sudden an impact reverberated through the woods. Hard enough that Kent not only heard it, but actually felt it ahead of his other sense.

With Kent’s musing interrupted, and the decision of what to do next was made for him he focused all his attention on the incoming threat.

Within a count of one he had determined the threat to be a drop-pig and where it was currently located. The monster type rarer in this region, yet still annoying as ever. Though, if his guess was right, they were becoming more abundant again.

It was one of the great laws of balance he’d learned about at the institute. Monster populations always stayed steady in count. Humans could influence the type and power, but that was it. And with the turrl population slowly dropping… Something else had taken it’s place.

Kent grinned. Contrary to what he’d told himself, he liked being out here, even at the expense of sleep.

Almost as much as leveling up itself. He didn’t know when his thoughts on the matter changed, but at some point, in the last week, he had begun looking forward to proving himself against the monsters out there.

Two daggers at the ready he waited for the next impact.

He heard the signature drop from another spot further into the woods. The impact reverberated through the forest more than he was used to.

This could be bad, they are usually not that heavy.

Kent repositioned himself and approached the second drop location, fully aware that the monster would change its location, and would do so again before he got to close. He grasped one of the knives on his harness. Readying himself for the next sound of impact that was sure to come.

Instead, he heard scuttling.

He was momentary surprised.

Yet he had the presence of mind to shoot the dagger off towards the sound. With a single cast-combination of Accelerate Metal and Effect: Temporal Fitting the piece of metal was sent off into the distance. Accelerated to its top speed in the fraction of a second.

Penetrate, an interaction allowed by Metallic Extension, suffused the blade with a light shine which made it easier to follow with his eyes.

The sound of metal flying through the air stopped within a second as the blade nicked a tree. Almost the same moment an impact came from Kent’s right. He’d already grasped a new dagger and shot it off in that direction.

Drop-pigs were infuriating opponents until you managed to injure them or somehow managed to affect them with lingering energy. Either of that alone was enough to hinder their jumping ability for some time Kent had learned. Both through experience, through other adventurers, and books in the institute.

The squeal he had hoped for didn’t arrive. Instead, the dagger crashed into the ground further away. He hadn’t quite managed a perfectly ground-parallel cast yet, but he was getting closer.

All that happened was still easily within the expected events. What was a bit unexpected was that after the fourth thump there was more scuttling which confidently came closer. Drop-pigs usually took their time, sometimes jumping twenty times before actually attacking.

Two daggers flew forward, impacting nothing.

Kent prepared another two throwing daggers.

Something begun nagging him about the short encounter thus far. Encouraging him to use his better blades.

But reason told him, that wouldn’t help. Only cripple him, for when he really needed them.

The monster had seemingly anticipated and dodged his dagger-shots. It almost felt like an ammunition exhaustion technique. Which was silly because lower-level monsters were instinctual by the virtue of their existence. They didn’t try to exhaust certain aspects of people, instead looking for a direct advantage. They wanted to kill, caring little for their own lives as long as they could get some of that delicious human energy.

Kent wasted three more daggers until he managed to lay his eyes on the drop-pig. And a fourth hit.

Drop-Dead-Pig – Level 43

Frustration had grown until now. But the moment Kent realized what his Identify told him he changed his entire approach.

His thoughts wirrled as he tried to come up with an appropriate tactic.

Should I try to get away? Through the forest? If it realizes I’m fleeing it might attack me… Can I use that as a tactic. No, I can probably take it. Not if it gets reinforcements.

Making his mind up quickly Kent turned his back to the monster, for just a glance. In the moment he laid his eyes on the lake and turned them back and had almost lost track of the monster. Barely catching the behind a tree disappearing silhouette.

Then it crashed into the ground behind him.

Shit! Shit! Shit! How did it do that?

He dashed ahead, further into the forest. With two daggers at the ready he turned and pointed them towards the new direction. The moment he spotted the monster again, it would get pinched by two daggers.

It didn’t come out behind its tree. Not even as he began rounding the tree after a count of thirty.

Kent could still hear the occasional scuttle from behind the very same tree. Which made him wonder how the monster hadn’t appeared in front of him. Sound-illusions were an obvious answer, but unlikely as they didn’t fit with the base monsters’ abilities.

Neither did the ‘dead’ modifier in its name indicate something of the sort.

The other, less worrying, option was that it was somehow observing him. Sneaking around the tree mimicking his pace.

How does it know what I’m doing. He was at a clear disadvantage due to that alone, and the level difference would surely be an issue as well. Not only due to Drop-Pigs having good vitality and toughness scaling, but the chances of this one being an evolved version were high by the virtue of name alone, making it more likely that it had other aces down its sleeve.

Just as he considered trying to use Accelerate Metal’s new effects, gained from reaching past rank eleven, as the wood began cracking.

Kent’s thoughts came to an immediate halt as the tree in front of him basically split in half a stride above the ground. The crack a lot quieter than what one would expect.

The next instant Kent realized what was going to happen. It was going to be hurled at him. Because that was the most outrageous thing he could think of.

He threw himself to the side and dodged the suddenly flying tree, leaves, and stem. Its shattered trunk ahead, it flew at an insane speed towards him.

The first dash had done enough to get him out of the way of the trunk but not the rest.

He stood up from his roll but by his first step he knew that there was no conceivable way for him to outrun the greater area of the tree branches. Most likely leaving him vulnerable if he got caught in the assault, if he managed to not get impaled by the continuously splintering wood.

There was no conceivable way of escaping through mundane matters. Even with his harness he was bound to trees eventually. This was the situation he needed Metallic Mastery for, but Kent had decided on more power instead. There wasn’t much of an option. Either let him get hit and torn apart by the tree or accelerate himself away.

The tree crashed closer, and he wasn’t sure whether he would be able to actually get away if he started accelerating his harness now.

The odds were slim at best. And if he did, he would probably not wake up, being paste somewhere on a tree or the earth.

Or he could trust his uncle’s stories one last time.

He made his choice the instance he didn’t accelerate away. His only other option now being his cloak, but he was still worried about its sustained-usage effects. It was his only option though. With just a few meters distance between him and the flying tree he activated the structure in his mind.

The sensation of cool calm, embracing him tightly just barely brushed over him as the cloak laid itself over his shoulders. The next moment he felt a horrible retching sensation as something elemental to his being was torn outside and being shredded. The time it took for the tree to pass through him felt exceedingly long, but it turned out that his uncles’ words were true even in that regard. He hadn’t been dragged along by the trees’ flight. He didn’t glance at his mana, experience told him that it was not the only price he’d paid, to know that at least two hundred were missing now. Only by having a bunch of leaves and branches pass through him.

As the retching sensation passed, he dropped the cloak’s effects and immediately felt even worse. A terrible sensation overcame him as many things inside him shifted and broke. It made no sense. There was nothing interacting with him. The tree was long gone. His abdomen and hip felt terrible, making him struggle to support himself. As he fell, he only had one thought. He would have to defeat the monster, or he would die anyway.

Thankfully the monster was now fully within in sight, he had a clear path of attack. Its dark black stood out again the grey hues of the forest.

His arms seemed fine as he caught his upper body, and they were all he needed. He reached for new daggers laying on the ground slowly losing consciousness.

The drop pig was still where it had been a blink ago and it seemed to require a few moments to recover from the strain. Which was good because Kent needed the time as well.

Barely preventing himself from trying to hurl them he instead steadied himself on one arm and as quickly as possible, aimed, and sent the individual daggers off. Five throwing daggers zipped away in rapid succession.

A howl after each from the other side of the forest told him that his counteroffensive had been effective.

He tried pushing himself up to gain a better vantage. And he kept going, almost loosing consciousness then and there, the pain taking away his ability to properly think. He sunk down again. It wasn’t a priority anyway. He ignored his plight and kept firing throwing dagger after throwing dagger at the monster. A quick glance confirmed that the monster was still roughly where he had last seen it.

After he had exhausted his entire dagger supply and still wasn’t charged by the monster, he considered his options. A cast of Metallic Presence told him that the daggers were in fact lodged into a non-ambient mana signature and they were still in place roughly where he had sent them off too.

He also hadn’t yet received a notification about the monster’s death, so he had to keep going.

But the daggers were clearly not doing enough besides hindering the drop pigs movements to a degree. He could propel his more expensive daggers off, effectively disarming himself without a guarantee of being able to finish his opponent off. I need to ask Alexus to increase the amounts of sheaths in this thing if I make it. And upgrade the dagger length to the maximum the skill will allow.

Instead, he had to facilitate an ability he had been too worried about thus far. But with the recent gains of Accelerate Metal he should be able to pull it off without injuring himself.

There was one option, he could take, one action that might just manage to give him the the win he needed.

Kent kept up his barrage of daggers until he was only left with his main three. Just to be safe.

Then in an effort of thought he'd not tried before he pushed at all the daggers he felt in that direction. Slightly to the ground and away from him. The rapid acceleration from Temporal Fitting was bound to at least do something. If only lodging the daggers further inside. Or so he hoped.

His ears registered what was happening faster than his eyes were able to gleam what the shadows were doing.

Something huge was thrashing through shrubbery and trees alike.

A final thump followed, not a hundred strides away and a tree crashed to the ground.

He heard a notification appear and breathed a sigh of relief. Checking his status saddened him a little as he had only gained five percent level progression from this single kill. Any traited would have gained a lot more fighting such a difficult foe. He had little doubt about that. Fighting and winning against a monster of a level fifty percent larger than his own was a great accomplishment that the other system rewarded.

Usually.

After he felt himself remotely secure, he checked over his injuries. His uncle’s words held true to some degree.

There was a minor immaterial aspect to the cloaks ability which made sense. Night wasn’t really a solid, instead it could be classified as an absence of stuff. Maybe. Kent wasn’t entirely sure about that, but it had worked for the most part.

Yet he couldn’t explain why his body had suffered the way it had. His health was in the single digits, and part of his hip felt terrible, and the lower insides didn’t feel good either. Putting weight on his left leg wasn’t an option either. Not only was the pain borderline unbearable, but it felt distinctly wrong.

Not being able to afford new health potions had certainly never been more of a bummer than it was right now, then again there was little guarantee that they would be able to fix what had happened to him. The effect of those could only repair stuff that was attached to the body in a major way and shattered bones were one of the major hurdles they couldn’t overcome.

The options available to him weren’t pleasant but he decided not to ignore his potential reward. Monsters above level thirty almost always had spell cores in their bodies and he was sure this one had at least one.

He didn’t bother looking for the other daggers around the forest, even though Metallic Presence would be quite helpful here. The pain he was under was enough to make him ignore those in favor of his own safety and gain.

He tried getting up again, jumping toward the drop-pig’s carcass but quickly learned that this wasn’t a viable option. Instead, he laid down. His eyes closed he fell into a light sleep that would wake him up the moment he heard anything.

Unless he passed out for real.