Chapter Twenty-Three: Outpost B

A pitiful heap of fur sat down on the ground, its back heaving with every extended breath it took into its battered and bloodied body.

Sparse rays of sunlight began to shine through the treetops.

"Looks like your time's up. It's been. Educational." Drake said.

The now bloodied Commander looked up at Drake with one unswollen eye, with hate and fury in it. It opened its mouth to bark something, but Drake didn't care to indulge the sickening monster, and blew its head off with a Mana Bolt. He truly felt no remorse this time for someone who couldn't even respect their own soldiers and workers.

[You have defeated Squad Commander Kobold Level 17] [20,000 Experience and 7,000 TP has been awarded]

[2 of 5 Squad Commander Kobolds Subjugated]

Drake was astonished by the level of the sad excuse for a Monster. It was higher level than the last Commander, but was pitifully weaker than it.

After last night's rampage, Drake had allowed the Commander to live until morning, handing it swords for it to fight him with. But the monster was not much better than Drake, and the practice was only minimally beneficial. He had used the beast to train his reflexes and awareness, doing his best to counter the monster's swings. He had even managed to break the iron sword with a sword break strike a few times, making him give the horrified beast another sword to continue.

Drake's strength had become monstrous, but what helped the most was the set bonus he now had. The last roll of for the completion of the Miner Quest had given him a new amazing weapon.

[Martial Artist's Ring Tattoos [F Grade] [Rare] [Set Piece ⅔]

400 to 422 Physical Damage

350 to 378 Magic Damage

1% Increase to Critical Strikes

+10 to Strength, +15 to Dexterity, Reduces consumption of Mana for spells by 1%

By constantly infusing mana into the Rings you may produce Magic Ink Tattoos of the Martial Artist. Base 1% for activation of tattoos, with the increased infusion of mana increasing the durability and damage of the tattoos by 0.5% per every 1% of total Mana infused.

Set Effect: Increases Flat Defense Proficiency and Dexterity by 10%

Requires a minimum of 2 Set pieces to activate Set Effect.

The Martial Artist's Tattoos are a special tool used by initiates into the halls of the furious Asurans. They are forged by skilled craftsmen so that the Mana Infused Ink may take shape for the fighter. By design they are perfect for mana control and manipulation.

He smiled again at the amazing things he had gained over the night. The Garb he had obtained from the Rangers quest were also a welcomed boon, they covered himself in an elegant robe of black and gold. A black montsuki kimono replaced his leather chest piece underneath the robe down to just above his ankles, tied at the waist by a golden obi, and covering up his leather pants and parts of his steel boots. Finally placed on his right shoulder, was a gold plated shoulder guard that fit perfectly, and was attached by a bright steel chain that crossed his chest and back.

If Drake had to say, he looked pretty snazzy in his new outfit. And the Magic Tattoos added an angsty emo teen flare to the fit that Drake was surprisingly ok with.

Drake had already tested numerous things out with the new weapons during the night with the monster. He had found out that the description on the Rings were accurate, and while he had the weapons activated he would be constantly using a small amount of mana, and the specific consumption was not affected by the reduced consumption mentioned in the description like his Mana Bolt spell had been.

He had also played around with the increased infusion of the rings. When he had put around 50% of his remaining Mana about 20% of his overall pool, he instantly noticed the density of the blue light around his arms grow. And while fighting the monster, the Tattoos were able to deflect its swings with no problem even with the minimal amount of consumed mana, but with the increase. It was no longer deflected with sparks of flashing mana as the blade screeched across the tattoos. The blade that hit was stopped by a metaphorical rock, and snapped in half.

While he had continued to 'practice' with the Commander, Drake had allowed it to hit him a few times to test the defense ability of his new garb. And Drake would be lying if he hadn't flinched as he deliberately took a blow from the Commander to his side, but he was relieved to find that it only felt like the force of the blow hit him without pain. Like when a person tapped you on the shoulder, he could tell something had hit him but there was little to no damage. It looks like Drake wouldn't have to worry about most of the small attacks for now, but he wasn't sure about a Commander that wasn't -looking down at the headless Commander- this thing.

Regardless, Drake had made strides in ways that felt surreal to him after all that had happened. But he wasn't complaining, in fact he was so excited he didn't even feel tired. Or was that a side effect of his increasing Endurance?

He digressed. Drake began picking up the loot from the fight, and going through his notifications. He had defeated a total of 56 monsters yesterday, including the Commander racking him up 300,000 Experience and 30,000 TP. This also included the two quests he had finished and the monsters he had picked off in the towers. Bringing him up to level 8.

[Drake Wallen]

[Race: Human]

Tutorial Alias [Shot]

[Base Class: Mage x Warrior] [Unique] Level 8

[Vitality] 179

[Strength] 207 (20)

[Dexterity] 155 (30 + 10% Base)

[Intelligence] 329

[Wisdom] 195

[Endurance] 105 (5)

[Free Points] 56

[Skills] Basic Mana Bolt [Level NA] Basic Heavy Strike [Level NA]

[Titles] First Blood, Two versus One, One vs Many, Monkey Slayer, Living on the Edge, Close Call, Dead Man Walking, Dual Class, Punching Up, Improbability, Dog Hater, Rounded, One Man Army, Dog Killer.

[One Man Army]

[Fight against 50 enemies at one time, and survive, +5 to all stats]

[Dog Killer]

[Defeat more than 50 Kobolds. +10% damage to Kobolds]

Drake's stats had once again exploded, and he was confident that with his new upgraded gear he could probably kill something around level 20 or higher now.

He bent down finally to pick up the loot the Squad Commander had dropped, and smiled with glee when he noticed another small bag next to a stone. He had picked up another Weapon Master Sub-tree stone and a storage pouch.

Drake quickly equipped the extra pouch now taking up 2 of his 4 bag slots, and became even more jubilant at seeing it was filled with even more supplies for him to use, and some sinister looking torture equipment but Drake quickly threw those out and blasted them to pieces. It just wasn't his hobby to use those types of things.

With the sun firmly in the sky, Drake was ready to start his plan of taking the outpost. After moving the bodies from around his trapped area, he moved back to the treeline to take stock of how the outpost was fairing.

What he was surprised to see was a force of Miner Kobolds as large as yesterdays if not larger, were now holding shovels and building a ditch around the outpost. Warrior Kobolds moved around with spiked pieces of wood, and laid them in the ditches slowly forming a spiked wall.

"Are they doing that for me? Or someone else?" Drake wondered aloud, scanning the rest of the area.

After getting a good look of the outpost, and moving around, as he had been spotted several times and had Rangers fire arrows at him, with small companies of 10 going out to fight him. But as Drake was, the smaller Kobolds stood no chance in taking him down without more numbers or a competent Squad Leader.

Drake thanked them for the meal of experience.

After observing the outpost for a few hours now he saw that the progress on the Kobolds ditch was steady and would take possibly a couple days to complete. What he also observed was that besides the companies of Kobolds they sent after him, there were also packs now roaming back and forth from the gate, running out into the other side of the forest and returning back to the outpost around half an hour later.

Drake moved to the direction the groups had been traveling from and found a small dirt road going through the forest. After a new group passed him, he followed them to another outpost, albeit much smaller. The outpost looked like it could only be called a slightly larger camp, as the wooden walls around it only came up a few meters instead of the towering walls of the outpost by the mountain.

Drake made his way to a tree and climbed it to look inside what he would now call Outpost B. Looking inside he was surprised at what saw, a large expanse of tents, fires and Kobolds. There were hundreds of them. And Drake was in awe at the sheer number of the monsters.

He looked again to the swinging gate as it let the new arrivals inside and a few groups left. It looked to be a staging area but Drake ran the entirety of the encampment to make sure.

After a few minutes of running, and snuffing out some wandering isolated Kobolds in the forest, Drake had seen the entire camp, and a plan formulated in his mind.

Once Drake had scouted out the camp and he found out that there were 2 entrances to Outpost B, one East and one West. He paid attention to how many groups came and left for an hour, finding that it was usually groups of two both ways, but sometimes a random group would enter looking wounded and with loss of members.

Drake was glad to see only two groups, or 40 Kobolds in total leave every few hours. Now that he knew where they were going and that after scouting Outpost B from the treetops there were no signs of a Squad Commander traveling to and from, he had a unique opportunity to farm some experience and items.

Drake licked his lips. This was just the kind of power leveling scenario he needed with the massive amounts of experience he now required to level up. It would be a battle of attrition, would Drake be worn down and hunted, or would the Kobolds run out of bodies.