Chapter 15 - Trapped

Before embarking on the journey to obtain the real inheritance, Kiel stopped by the City Lord Hall to bid farewell to the Lord. 

While searching for the inheritance, he plans to make good on what he promised. 

The beasts were ready. About 20 cows.

Along with a scout, Kiel made his way to the mountain pass.

He planned to go pass the mountain and release the goats on the other side.

The slow journey took about 2 weeks before Kiel crossed the mountain, and reached the grassland on the other side. After another three days of roaming the grassland, he found traces of the orcs.

He set the cows free and headed back with the scout. 

When they were climbing the mountain, they came across 3 Orc Scouts.

The Orcs were feeling confident. They were bigger and had more in numbers. 

The scout the City Lord dispatched next to Kiel were trembling like a falling leaf. 

Kiel simply told him to stand back and watch. In the past two weeks he had learned two additional skills to add to his arsenal

"Spell Casting(B): Proficient in Spell Casting, reduce mana cost by 50% and casting time by 50%"

"Life Drain(B): Drain life of enemy attacked, 10% of damage dealt."

Walking calmly toward the incoming Orcs, he pulled his Standard Miao Dao out of his ring.

Seeing the sword came out of nowhere, the Orcs grew wary but they kept their pace.

As the Orcs entered his kill zone, Kiel's explosive burst of movement caught all three Orcs by surprise and he managed to behead one of his right.

"Orc Scout Killed, 55 Experience gained"

Instead of being afraid, the Orcs' eyes turned red, they had gone into "Berserk" state, ah this would no longer be fun. They had just turned to a mindless killing machine now. 

"Instant Step" Kiel moved behind the Orc on the left and cut its head off.

"Orc Scout Killed, 55 Experience gained"

T/N: Can gain XP, just not level up

As the last Orc standing was still confused. He lowered his sword and stabbed towards the Orc's heart. It pierced through his side with the tip of the blade coming out of the other side of his chest.

The Orc raised arm fell down limply.

"Orc Scout Killed, 55 Experience gained"

Kiel proceeded to cut the head of the last Orc off. He then dug through the left chest of the Orcs and found no mana cores in all three. 

What a waste of time.

Kiel carefully dug a huge pit and buried all three corpses. Then wrapped the heads of the 3 Orcs together and gave them to the Scout who had come to his side. 

"You carry this" the man summoned all his strength just to shove the heads into his rucksack and carry them on his back.

Wiping out the rest of the trails of their fight, Kiel and the scout headed to the mountain pass. 

As they reached the mountain pass. Kiel told the Scout he will go out to hunt and had the scout returned to the city, walking away, his voice drifted with the winds:

"Pass my trophy to the Lord, remind him to not forget to pay me for this."

The scout hurried back to the City.

Upon returning to the city, the Orc heads created a big commotion and now everyone was working harder than ever to speed up the defense construction.

Meanwhile, after a week of treading the bitter cold mountains, Kiel had arrived at his destination.

He had learned another skill

"Steel skin(E): Steel like skins, able to resist weapon with basic level sharpness"

Finally, he got this skill, without this, there would be a penalty of casting time x2 and mana cost x 2 when casting spells.

It was situated in the mountain side and if Kiel doesn't have the guide from the Inheritance Orb, he would never have found it. It was hidden by an outcropping and was high up on the mountain wall. 

He rested for a night. The next morning, It took him 4 hours to get into the cave. As he entered, the cave opened into a beautiful valley and there was a hut in the middle of the meadow. However, there seemed to be a membrane that covered the entire valley.

The membrane was watery and Kiel easily passed through it. 

Immediately after he passed through.

"Candidate has entered an Inheritance Trial Ground. You can not leave until the Trial is cleared."

Wait, what was that? Horror dawn on Kiel.

Kiel tried to leave but found that he could not.

Kiel sighed, such a typical inheritance setting.

He heard a swoosh and he hurriedly turned around raising his sword. 

A young man had sneaked up on him and attacked. The attack was fierce and efficient. It was brutal yet elegant. 

As he parried and pushed the young man away, he noticed his opponent was very muscular, angular face with crew cut hair. His swordsmanship was definitely of way higher grade than his.

Not only that, the young man started to cast spells while they fought, Basic Fire Blast and Basic Electric Shock. Fortunately, it seems that he could only use two spells.

However, the ingenious timing and angle still got Kiel everytime and surely Kiel was losing ground.

In 30 minutes, Kiel was defeated, bruised, burned and shocked beyond recognition, strangely there is no killing intent in the attacks. Looked like the young man had vented his frustration. 

"How did you get here?"

Holding a sword to his neck, the young man asked.

"I got an Inheritance Orb and was led here."

Kiel answered

"Did you lose your level, mana and stamina when you activated it?"

The young man asked.

"Wait?? How do you know?? Did you set that up??"

Kiel was belligerent.

The young man sighed and turned to head towards the hut. Suddenly the young man seemed to grow much much older than he looked.

Kiel struggled to get up and approach the hut cautiously, scared to be burned and shocked again.

The door opened and Kiel could see the young man sitting on a table with two cups, one in front of him and another across the table. The meaning was clear.

Kiel didn't hesitate. He entered and sat down after bowing to the young man.

"Drink" 

The young man barked.

"Tell me what is happening outside."

He commanded.

Kiel calmly drank the tea and then he recounted what happened outside. The Orcs were coming and the City Lord named Damien was making best efforts to defend the city.

"It has been so long, looks like it's my turn to leave the stage."

The young man lamented, his eyes seemed to peer into his past.

He then looked at Kiel pitifully and started to narrate what the situation was.

His name was Thorgen Angvil, he was an illustrious swordsman of the past. 

He had once saved the city from an evil mage who wanted to sacrifice the whole city to attain immortality. 

That was how he obtained this Inheritance Orb and eventually got himself trapped in this place.

T/n: from here on mana and casting time displayed will show effect from the Spell Casting which reduce cost and casting by 50%