Compensation

Colt had already crossed half the distance between himself and the woman who escaped before she realised that she had a new problem. The wolves had been hounding her during the entire time she had been running from the battlefield. She had thought that she would get away in time.

Colt roared as he reached the nearest wolf and slapped its jaws aside as it tried to take a chunk out of him. The woman looked ecstatic as the wolves turned their attention on Colt instead! She turned to make a sprint for it. There was no way that he would be able to catch her while he was dealing with the pack!

A shiver ran down her spine for a moment, forcing her to glance back. 'Damn!' She ducked just in time as Colt's axe passed where her neck had been. The sudden ducking movement threw her off balance as she turned it into a roll instead.

Colt smiled smugly as he shield bashed another wolf while viciously kicking out at her. The woman grunted as his foot connected with her abdomen. However, the blow dealt no damage and just gave her a shock from the suddenness of it.

"Wait! We don't need to fight! I just went along with those guys. There's no need for any grief between us!" The woman yelled frantically as she kept glancing behind Colt.

'Usually, I'd agree, but she definitely seemed to get along well with those other two. If I leave her alone, then the three of them may ambush me later. It's better to weaken her now.' Colt had also picked up on the fact she kept looking behind him. Which meant that Beans and Donna were most likely on their way over to them.

Colt activated Minor Grace to give himself a health shield worth 7 HP. It would have been a waste to heal himself since he was not far off of having a full health bar anyway. Colt dove forward and slashed with his axe in an obvious manner. Which the woman dodged easily, but she had fallen for his feint. Colt's shield met her gut as she was focused on the axe, causing her to double over.

[You have dealt -2 HP]

Colt raised an eyebrow as he digested the combat information. From the damage number, he could figure out that the woman had an Endurance rating of 4 at least. Colt chuckled to himself lightly as he proceeded to bash her again. She was doing her best to avoid his axe, but Colt now knew that he would not be able to deal any damage to her with it.

The woman was so panicked that she probably was not thinking clearly, which led to one mistake after another. Her head exploded into motes of light as Colt dealt the finishing blow. At the same time, he heard fighting going on behind him. The sounds of wolves dying one after the other entered his ears as the player's Divine Orb appeared.

"Hey, Beans! She's dead! He actually managed to do it!" Donna chuckled as she walked up behind Colt. "Isn't that great? Now you get one too!"

"Serves them right!" beans chuckled as she followed a short distance behind her friend. "I can't wait to absorb… What!"

The two women looked on in shock as Colt absorbed the Orb first without saying anything. He eagerly waited to see what he would gain from it.

[You have permanently received +2 Strength, +3 Endurance]

[Congratulations! More than 20 points of Divinity have been detected! You have reached Level 3!]

"Hey! What's the deal? Why didn't you leave that Orb for Beans?" Donna stormed towards Colt with an angry expression on her face.

"What's there to say? Did you help to kill her? Would you have killed her if I didn't involve myself?" Colt replied with a carefree tone and a shrug. "Take it as my compensation for turning those Players into enemies. I doubt they'll let me off the hook if they see me again."

Donna frowned at his reply. It made a lot of sense, but well, it would have been better for them if Beans absorbed it. That way, they would have an easier time grinding for levels. After all, it was not like Colt was likely to hang around and help them.

"Donna, it's fine." Beans interrupted her before she said anything else. She knew what Donna's personality was like. "Thanks for your help. I'm BeansNtoasT. Beans is fine. This is my friend and fellow streamer, DonnaThaGreat."

Colt studied Beans' expression for a moment and realised that she really was not angry. Her short brown hair contrasted with her bright blue eyes as she stared at him. She was one of those regular girls that seemed to have a friendly personality. Which made her appear more attractive than she really was.

Colt's eyes then fell on Donna. Her black hair fell down to her waist and framed her tanned face quite nicely. Her waistline was slightly slim for Colt's liking, but she made up for it in the chest area. It was just a shame that Colt was not much of a chest person either.

"I'm Exile," Colt replied after a brief pause. "Are there any other players here already?"

He was definitely curious as to how the situation in Valheim had progressed. Since he had quickly run into five players, that told him that quite a few people must have ascended not long after him.

"There's a few. Maybe around sixty?" Beans tapped her chin as she tried to figure out the exact number while Donna glared at Colt. "But you should already know that, right?"

"No. There was nobody else in the city when I arrived." Colt sighed, and the two women gasped.

"Doesn't that mean you were the first player to ascend? Wait! You absorbed two Orbs, right? So, aren't you already level 3?" Donna suddenly cut in excitedly.

Colt raised an eyebrow at the question before nodding to confirm it. Donna seemed to have something in mind as she stared at him with a glint in her eyes…