Last Day on The Road

At dawn the caravan moved out again, everyone was as vigilant as ever, because of what happened yesterday. Lena's adventurers couldn't find a shred of evidence or a power core because the mages turned the area into glass. Nothing will grow there again unless someone or something breaks that glass. Lena instructed one of her fastest riders to ride ahead to town and report what happened yesterday, their location, and their estimated time of arrival. As the rider rode off Lena turned to Van and gave him some verbal instruction on the use of sword and shield.

Van only halfheartedly listened to Lena's instruction, because he was working with Alice to clean up his stat and skill lists.

~~ Alice please order my active skills by these parameters. Weapon type, Alphabetical, only show the first letter of the stat they require and get rid of the description. Then spells, sort by type tier then MP requirement. Don't display the soul status or the passive skills unless I acquire a new one or upgrade one. Also, I want my Main stats to be displayed at all times.

~~ {It is done. Until we get a Grimoire, we won't know the MP requirement for the spells except for Immolate.}

~~ Thank you, show spear skills

Spear Skills: (Assassinate D.I.) (Backstab D.S.) (Charge Strike D.S.) (Flying Strike, D.L.) (Impenetrable Defense D.S.) (Javelin S.D.L.) (Heavy Strike S.D.) (Hidden Strike D.I.) (Power Thrust S.) (Quick Thrust D.S.) (Vault D.)

~Alright I will use these skills this evening, well the ones that I can at least. I saw that Immolate has a requirement of MP. I would venture to guess these skills have a requirement of stamina, or maybe the stats they listed. Come to think about I have not observed my stats decreasing during the day, even when I am tired my stamina never went down. I have only watched my HP go down due to Lena punching me, she healed me and brought my health back up to only 50. I will have to pay attention to my stats this next sparring match to see if my stats drop.

Van then moved his stat display to the upper left of his vision and made them so they were almost transparent.

The rest of the day went smoothly, not many bandit groups would attack a caravan as well guarded as this one. That afternoon the caravan stopped by one of the larger lakes in the kingdom.

"The lake is named Red Lake because every spring, the rivers feeding it turns the entire lake a rusty red. It stays that way until the spring melt in those mountains to the north is done." Lena explained to Van.

Van looked at the lake that stretched almost to the horizon directly across from him. The lake was roughly egg-shaped. They were on the west side of the lake, and he could see the city on the north side. At least he could see his destination now, even if it was still a day away. He looked north to the mountains and could only see the summit of the tallest.

Van helped set up camp like he did the other two nights, but as soon as that was done, he walked down to the lakeshore with a group of people that were going fishing. When he got to the lakeshore he walked through the waist-high grass to the north just to get some peace. He stopped in what he figured was a good enough spot as any and took off his boots and socks. He rolled up his trousers and waded into the lake. The bottom was soft and muddy. He watched the minnows and frogs swim away as he walked around. The water was clear this far from shore and his walking stirred up the water with silt. He stopped, to enjoy the sound of the bugs, frogs, and the distant splashes of fish breaking the surface of the water.

-1 HP

109/110 HP

~What is causing me to lose HP?

He looked around and didn't see anything. He looked at his display to see if he had any status effects and he saw that he was taking bleed damage. 1HP every 5 minutes.

~What the hell?

He looked down and he saw that there were multiple leeches attached to his legs. He bent down to pull them off but stopped himself.

~The fishermen may like these as bait. They will be easier to transport attached.

Van then started to walk towards the people fishing to drop off his live bait.

"You guys want some live bait?" He called out.

"You volunteering?" A large man with a magnificent full beard called back

"In a way, yes," Van said as he lifted a leg out of the water. He noticed even more leeches had attached themselves to the free meal.

"Well thank you, come on up and we will take them off of your hands… well legs."

As Van was putting the leeches into a bucket, he heard Lena calling his name so they could start their sparring session. Once the leeches were removed, he ran back up to the center of the camp where there were quite a few people gathered around in a circle. In the middle of the circle was Lena with a wooden sword and shield and a wooden spear. Van announced his arrival and a path opened, leaving him a clear path to the middle. As he reached the middle of the circle Lena threw the wooden spear to him and told him to take a position.

Van caught the spear and walked to the center and got into the ready position.

"Attack me" Lena ordered.

~Time to try my skills out.

Van and Lena started to circle each other, he kept his center of gravity low and kept his footwork slow and steady, while he moved into striking range.

~Quick Thrust.

Stamina 130/135

~~ {Five points} Alice said as she updated the skill.

The tip of the spear raced towards Lena's abdomen just to be blocked by her shield.

~Power Thrust.

Stamina 115/135

Again, Van aimed for her abdomen, this time she knocked the spear to the side with her sword causing it to barely miss her. Van pulled the spear back only to where the tip was between the shield and her body and used quick thrust again. Pushed aside by the shield.

"You've learned a couple of skills I see. You just don't know when to use them. Good try with that last thrust though." Lena praised him.

~Okay, let's try a combo.

Van dashed forward in a charge striking at Lena's face, she blocked with her shield pushing the spear up and out of the way. He pushed forward until his shoulder hit the shield, upon contact he started to spin his body to his left while tightening his grip. He aimed the butt end of the spear for her ribcage. As he felt a sharp pain in his lower back as she shoved the tip of her sword into his right kidney causing Van's follow-up attack to fail to even touch her.

Van reeled forwards grimacing with pain. He spun around to face Lena just to get struck in his left collar bone. His left arm was now tingling with numbness and his grip loosened. He heard the crown flinching in pain as if they felt the hit also. He heard people calling in their won bets the cursing of those that had lost.

He was down to one good arm and down to 90/135 Stamina and took 20 points of damage. What surprised him was that his dexterity also dropped to 30/57.

~ Damn, well it makes sense why my dexterity dropped. But now I must think of what to do. I wonder, if this will work, I doubt it, but the hell with it. might as well try.

Van used Javelin to throw his spear at Lena's face, then used Rush to run past her as she lifted her shield to deflect the spear. Once he was behind Lena, he caught his spear and used backstab hidden strike, and quick thrust at the same time. He thought he felt resistance as he completed that combo, but he wasn't too sure since her sword met the right side of his face with a very loud smack.

When van woke up, he was still in the ring and one of the mages was casting Greater Heal on him to speed up the process.

~~ Alice, what happened at the end, did I get a hit in or not?

~~ {Yes, you got a hit in. Granted it wasn't even enough to bruise her, but you made contact. She has a health pool of 500 even. Do you want any other information?}

~~ Just what the skills I used to cost.

~~ {Spear Skills: (Backstab D.S. /10SP) (Charge Strike D.S. /15 SP) (Javelin S.D.L. /10SP) (Power Thrust S. /15 SP) (Quick Thrust D.S. /5 SP) and (Dash D /5 SP) Hidden Strike wasn't used since she saw you so IDK what that would've costed but you were at 0 Stamina anyways. You need to work on that stat if you plan on fighting with skills. That fight lasted a total of 4 minutes and a few seconds, and that was because she was waiting for you to attack.}

~Well at least my stats are back up to peak due to Greater Heal.

"Get up kid we aren't done," Lena said as she took a fighting stance once more.

Van got up and grabbed his spear. He took his fighting stance as was about to launch a new offensive when Lena rushed forward on the attack this time. He shifted the spear to the side to slow her advance just to have her use her shield to push it out of the way. he took a step back and to the side to try and maintain distance. He retracted the spear and used her shield as a guide for the tip as he thrust it towards her face. Her shield went up with it protecting her head from the attack he withdrew the spear and quickly activated 2 quick thrusts one at her feet the other back up to her face, trying to get around the shield. Lena sidestepped the first thrust and blocked the second with her shield. She was then in range of attack thrust with her sword at his stomach. Van turned his waist and the thrust missed but with a flick of her wrist, the sword hit his spine.

"Hit" Lena said as Van was repositioning himself, for the next attack.

Van kept looking at Lena's sword arm's shoulder to watch it move, and the round shield that covered almost have of her body. He was watching for the next attack and looking for an opening. Due to Lena's short stature what Van saw from the ground up was feet, shins, shield, and her head from the nose up. He had never seen her cast her spell.

Too much of his surprise, his feet were stuck in a trap. He could no longer move, and Lena was not wasting any time.

~Impenetrable Defense!

His arms started to move seemingly of their own will using the spear to block all of Lena's thrusts and slashes. This continued until Van ran out of stamina which wasn't long, but it was long enough for the crowd to go wild. When his stamina hit zero, he felt truly exhausted, his arms were extremely heavy and his legs were jelly. He was covered in sweat, and he was breathing heavily. He was falling even before Lena swung.

"Ah, I see used a defensive skill and ran out of stamina. Good try kid. But that skill, still seems a bit too much for you."

Van didn't hear a word. He was unconscious before his head hit the ground.

Van awoke the next morning, extremely sore and feeling like he was hungover from a night of drinking heavily with his college buddies in his old life.

~~ {Good morning sleepy head} Alice's voice boomed in his head.

"SHHHHH…." wincing in pain he shushed Alice. For some reason even her voice caused him to get a migraine.

~I guess this is what happens when you run out of stamina and don't get healed afterwards.

~~Alice Please bring up my stats and the info on Impenetrable Defense… Quietly please and thank you.

Level: 27

HP: 110

Strength: 60

Magic: 1

Stamina: 90/145

Intelligence: 285

Dexterity: 60

Charisma: 30

Luck: 20

Skills: 41

Skill Points Available: 72

(Impenetrable Defense D.S. /10SP/s until deactivated or Stamina hits zero)

~ Holy Fuck, 10 a second? How am I supposed to sustain that?

~~ {How about today you run next to the wagons instead of riding them. See how long you can make it. You probably should've been doing that for this entire trip.}

~~ Goddamnit Alice, speak quieter won't you?

~~ {I can't, I am in your head, I am as loud as your own thoughts. Why is my voice causing you pain, but your thoughts aren't?}

~~ I don't know, but please stop talking until this goes away. But thank you for the advice I will run next to the wagons once this headache goes away.

Van got up and crawled out of his tent. He covered his eyes due to the sun reflecting off of the lake. His decision, yesterday, to put his tent there because he thought a sunrise on the lake would look beautiful was biting him in the ass today. As van stood up and turned his back to the lake he was greeted by a thunderous round of applause…

~This is hell… I died and this is hell… Fuck me, I am going back to sleep.

"Good morning sleepy head" Li said as he smacked Vans back and grabbing his shoulders to lift him up. Li then commenced to give Van the roughest massage he had ever experienced in two lifetimes. Li brought him into the crowd of people and, each and every single person patted Van on either the shoulders or head. They also talked to him right next to his ear in what seemed to be their loudest non yelling voice possible.

~I am going to kill each and every one of them. I swear to god.

Lena and a mage walked up to him when he got to last night's fire, "Welcome to the club of stamina depletion. It feels worse than a hangover and lasts twice as long unless you are healed back to full health." Lena gestured to the mage to go ahead and heal the poor boy.

"Greater Heal"

Instantly the depletion hangover was gone. He then turned and thanked the mage, and Lena for putting and end to his suffering.

"You did a good job defending and you are learning fast in the attacking department also. You got a graze in on me yesterday and defended yourself nicely. Although recklessly because after the skill you used, depleted your stamina a child with a handful of dirt could've killed you. I didn't heal you last night because of a couple of reasons. One I wanted you to experience this so you don't do it again unless you are sure you can win and be safe afterwards. And two, I lost money because of you."

"I plan on running next to the wagons for today to see how bad my stamina really is. If that is fine with you?" He asked.

"Perfect, I am glad you volunteered because I was going to make you do that anyways. But you will be fully kitted out with your weapons, and you will have a travelers rucksack also."

The rest of the day when by extremely slowly for Van. At first, he would run to try and keep up with the second wagon, but he would inevitably fall behind. It only took him the first time the caravan had to slow down for him to devise a different strategy. He would jog until the last wagon was next to him, then he would run up to the first wagon, just to slow down to a jog once again to rest and catch his breath. He was allowed to ride the wagon for lunch and for the last hour to the city.

150/175

~30-point increase not bad.