Day 26 (Continued):
Ruto POV
That's when I heard it.
It was a whimper of an imp, not too far away from them.
Followed by a squeal of an orc.
I brandished his two looted and rusty weapons, and leapt towards the sound.
I jumped over a bush, and landed in a small clearing... where a orc was hanging upside down with an imp barely holding up a rusty iron dagger. The orc was still alive with some harmless cuts on its neck.
"Ah, Shirou."
The imp jumped and turned to me.
"E-Eeeek, a troll!" she gabbled, and tried to hold the knife between himself and me.
I sweatdropped. "It's me, Ruto." I gave the orc a look before walking up to it. "Led one of these guys into my own trap, did ya? Smart."
Shirou blinked for a second before dropping the knife and falling on his knees. "Damn it, why didn't you come faster!" he complained.
Shrugging as I cut the rope holding the now dead orc, I looted the body. Shirou had already taken the knife, but it had a belt. I held it up in the air before shrugging once more and tying it around myself.
"I was busy rescuing the evacuating the colonies," I replied. "Let's go, others are waiting and orcs are not."
At the mention of the orc, Shirou nervously glanced at the dead orc. "T-There's more of them...?!"
"Yeah, about a whole hundred. We need to get out of this forest, and fast."
"O-okay."
New Skill!
Runnning (LvL 1) Passive
Run Forrest, run!
*+5% per LvL increase in movement speed when status [Running] applies.
+(END3 + AGI) seconds of sprint.
"Some things don't change, it seems," I muttered to myself, looking briefly at the new skill's description. "And why the hell didn't I get this before?"
And I also realized that he hadn't noticed a small question mark at the bottom right corner of this screen.
I clicked on it.
[Running(Passive) is a secondary evolution skill. First evolutionary tier version of this skill is sprint.]
So, just because I had never sprinted -thanks to flying- that I never got the skill? What a load of bullshit.
"Uh, Ruto? Who are you talking to?" Shriou asked me, obviously concerned about my lack of conversation partner.
I shrugged. "Just talking to myself, that's all."
I looked around for a bit before tossing the imp into my hand -surprisingly, Shirou fit like a oversized doll on my hand- and ran back towards the group.
I burst out into the forest clearing, and I saw my imps there still.
"Oh good. I found Shirou."
There were some cheers for another survivor. "Time ot get moving though. I don't think those orcs are not too far behind us."
Shirou, after I let him down, looked around. "T-This is all that's left?" he asked me.
I sighed. "Yeah. The orcs came out of nowhere and ate most of our kin in the area," I replied sadly. "But thank whatever gods that exist because these orcs weren't properly trained. If they were, you and I and the rest of us would be in their stomach right now."
With that, I gave no further reply. I moved forward at the head of the group. "Someone go up and check for me how far the end of the clearing is!"
One of the imps nodded vigorously before flying high up and above the treetops. "Uhhhhh..." he looked back. "About the half the length as we just came by!"
I gave him a thumbs up, and the imp came down. "No no no, I need you up there still. I just realized that we had no look out. You can do that, right?"
The imp nodded hesitantly. "Y-you won't leave me behind right?"
I raised an eyebrow. "No, you'll be right above us the entire way. Why would we leave you behind?"
The imp let out a sigh of relief. "Okay, I'll be up there."
Ruto gave the imp another thumps up. "Keep yourself safe, too. Yeah?"
Day 27
We made it out of the forest just in the morning, and we came face to face with a mountain range.
"Well, shit."
I had thought it was odd that the forest had been continuously becoming more and more vertical until finally, they had come across a cliff.
And it was there that they saw the world beyond their little forest.
Well, they were kind of in a hurry, so they would admire the view later.
Back to the point, orcs behind them, and a cliff in front of them.
...
Well... I do have fairy flying imps.
"Yeah, I'm going to need five or more of you flyers to help me get down. I can't fly anymore."
We kept up our pace until it was noon.
I looked around, and I determined that we had fled far enough.
We were safe.
But now we were hungry.
"Time for me to hunt, I guess," I said as I stood up. Before I moved out though, I turned to the Vesta Nereda, the pirahna of the air. "...Can you sniff out any deers around here, or is that out of your ability?"
Vesta Nereda were odd creatures. By appearance, they had nothing but a shadow. But it was a shadow cast by nothing. That alone was scary. What was more scarier was that it was not a single individual but a swarm. I would have to look into it.
And because it was not an indvidual, it's voice was ...
"We can."
A chorus.
"Find me a herd, if you can."
With that, the shadow on the ground disappeared.
I cracked my neck. "Hunting again, eh?"
"Take me with you!" Shirou jumped at the chance to join.
"No. I'm going to be finishing this fast."
LvL Up!
+2 STR
+2 DEX
+2 AGI
+1 INT
Well, I wanted it to be fast, but by the time I got the amount of meat I had intended to, it was already dusk. Thankfully, the imps had stayed put where I had left them.
"I got our food," I said as I slung forward the deerskin bag I had stitched together, and laid out a deer leather mat. Then I dumped the meat out from the bag. "Dig in."
Everyone jumped in for a piece of meat, and I couldn't help but pity them. They were so weak and so fragile. Even if they were caught off guard with the orc attack, three colonies had been wiped out in an instant. And I had been one of them.
Hell, it hadn't been even a day since I had ranked up. Evolved. Whatever.
"They need to be trained to survive," I realized as my eyes widened at the realization.
I turned to look at Shirou, and it looked like he had heard me, because he was very, very scared.
"You're not going to have us run away from wolves like before, are you?"
I let out a laugh. "Oh, no no no. I don't think the rest of the guys here will survive," I said, gesturing to the imps feeding on the deer meat. "No, I have something more routine in mind. It'll also be slower... But say, why aren't you evolving yet?"
Shriou looked downtrodden. "I want to, but I don't know how."
"...Say, have you been hunting lately? I mean the few days before this happened."
Shirou nodded excitedly. "Yeah! I caught rabbits and squirrels and -!"
"Okay, okay, I think I know why you aren't evolving yet."
"You do?"
"You aren't in danger."
Shirou looked as if he had been slapped. "B-But rabbits! They're dangerous! You felt how strong their kicks are!"
I had to agree. When I had been an imp, I had been struck by a particularly vicious rabbit. This was perhaps two or three weeks ago. The rabbit hadn't gone down as I had planned, and as soon as I opened one of the traps to check for a kill, it lashed out hard. Its hind legs struck me in the chest, and I saw my HP drop by a tenth.
A motherfucking tenth.
"I know it hurts as an imp, but I highly doubt it'll hurt me anymore."
"...I don't have to this training, though, right?"
I scoffed. "Heavens, no."
Shirou let out a sigh of relief.
"I'll be sending you to the wolves."
Shirou froze.
I only grinned maliciously.
I would have to hold the training off for a bit, though. I had my own stuff to do.
I sat down next to a tree slightly apart from the imp and Veshta Nereda conglomerate. With the food stacked high over their heads, it seemed like the group was going to be happy. "Our" Veshta Nereda, as it seemed to be content with staying with us, would most likely keep other scavengers away.
So I now had my own work, namely, the changes that took upon myself.
I had gone over the stat changes right after I evolved, so that was no biggie, but one of the alerts had involved a quest.
[To be More] to be precise. The quest that "threatened" to give me a 50%-50% suicide ratio.
So, it was time to see what happened to it.
And I opened it up.
Quest Aborted!
Necessary Component [Trait:Depressed] has been removed.
No consequences.
New Quest!
Becoming Stronger: Part 1
No longer [Depressed], you have become more energetic and lively. Your goals don't seem so far ahead -or so monumental- and that gave you some breathing room.
Requirements:
*Reach LvL 20 before Day 30.
*Have a total of 390 points.
*Do not die.
Bonus Objective:
*Ambitious Trait - Have a total of 450 points.
Success:
*?
Failure:
*?
...I thought it was not supposed to be depressing. Now, I don't even know what the failure consequences are. Ain't that stressf-.
I blinked.
Stressful.
It was stressful.
Oh god.
This was the effect of [Stressed] trait?
... Well, as long as I'm not dying.
So how many points did I have?
-A few minutes later with a stick and number of calculations on the ground-
"Huh, I'm only one levels away from safety."
I grinned. I supposed that wasn't as stressful as before though, when I had a looming death sentence. Perhaps the evolution helped. After all, it had given him a full hundred points. If I hadn't evolved, I would have had to LvL Up ten times and then some to just reach the safe line.
Ow. Headache. Too much thinking.
Guess I'm going to sleep then...
Day 28
The first thing I did when I woke up was to find a way to make ourselves a more suitable colony. Or rather, a fort.
I intended to have every single imp and other creatures under my command -because they seemed to be referring to be all the time- evolve to at least their second stage. I'm imagining at least half of them turned to humanoids of similar size to mine, so we'll need a place where we can stay safe.
But first, I needed labor for that. I could only provide so much of it by myself, and imps weren't likely to do so.
I could ask the Veshta Nereda to gnaw off the wood, but it'll be matter of minutes before they are full and unable to do so. Not to mention the fact that they aren't exactly herbivores.
...
Shirou, on the other hand, was less than a few days away from evolving.
I turned around, looking for the small, red imp before I found him.
"Shirou, we're going hunting! Bring those rocks your sharpening with you!" I shouted -as he was on the other side of our camp- as I stood up.
Shirou was also odd. For an imp, he was outgoing and brave. Most of the other imps in the camp was whiny, tired, and cowardly. I hoped that some of those traits would change after they evolve. Anyways, Shirou was an odd imp. Hell, he was just ... like ... me.
Just like me.
He didn't have one of those stupid one vowel names. He didn't associate himself with any of the other imps much. He was constantly trying to improve himself.
'Was ... he a Gamer, just like me?'
Why hadn't I realized this before?
[Your deduction of observations have increased your WIS by +1!]
New Skill!
Observe (LvL 1) (Passive/Active)
Linking observation with observation.
*Allows you to observe more of your environment's details passively.
*+(your WIS + your INT - target's Complexity - target's Magic Resistance)% of accurately analyzing target.
I blinked.
Finally! That useful as fuck skill was finally here!
Immediately, I used it on Shirou.
[Calculating... Calculating...]
[Calculation complete: +41%]
'I knew it! He was different. My INT and WIS were 54 points together. I don't think imps have much magic resistance nor complexity, which means...'
[Observation Failed!]
Argh.
...
'Well, I do have more than a hundred points.'
I pulled up the Character Status by mentally calling to it, and added 15 points each to my INT and WIS. Then I tried again.
[Observation successful!]
Character: Shirou
Race: Red Forest Imp
LvL: 14
HP: 44
MP: 700
STR: 11
DEX: 20
AGI: 13
END: 7
INT: 25
WIS: 20
CHA: 8
Power: 13
Magic: 17
Spirit: 16
I stared in surprised at his INT, WIS, and mana stat. For his level, those were pretty high. But what got me was what came after. And that was ignoring the mana reserve. That was much more than I had.
Traits:
Reincarnation, Brave, Quick, Anti-Hero, Sword-Affinity, Proud, Master Chef, Honest
Reincarnation plus Anti-Hero? Someone must have had some pretty shitty life before they came here.
Master Chef, on the other hand...
I cackled mentally. I could use that in a subordinate.
"Anyone else?" I asked the groggily waking crowd of imps. I got one or two imps hesitantly walking up to me.
See? General population of imps are whimps.
Character Status by the end of Day 27
Naruto [Imp Ruto] [Troll Ruto]
LvL 21
The Gamer
HP: 83 (+1.5 Max HP per day until a month old)(+1.5 HP per hour regen)
Mana: 590 (+5.9 per minute regen)
STR: 44
DEX: 25
AGI: 20
END: 27
INT: 41
WIS: 43
CHA: 8
Unused Points: 112
Spirit: 35
Magic: 24
Power: 24
Traits Taken + Earned:
Ambitious, Quick, Genius, Weak, Cynical, Stressed, Content, Teacher[Neutral] (Unavailable)
Focus:
Growing
Racial Traits:
Beast Slaying (max)
Troll Blood (max)
Skills:
Ambush (LvL 4)
Baiting (LvL 11)
Blade Mastery (LvL 2)
Charging (LvL 4)
Clairvoyance (LvL 1)
Fishing (LvL 2)
Intimidation (LvL 3)
Leadership (LvL 2)
Listening (LvL 7)
Running (LvL 3)
Throwing (LvL 8)
Trapping (LvL 13)
Check out my Patreon for Advance Chapters
patreon.com/BIGBRAINJOSHUA