Are You Capable?

While Ethan was busying storing the food, Grant had exited the hospital and was currently wandering around the camp to get a better idea of the scale of the impending relocation.

He had a relatively good idea of the number of people in the camp just based on how many people had shown up to his speech but he wanted to get an even clearer picture by experiencing the camp's size firsthand.

At the moment, if Grant had to wager a guess, he assumed their were close to a thousand people within the camp.

And that number could actually be higher based on the fact that there was bound to be people that were unable to attend the speech because of weakness or illness.

While Grant was wandering the streets, he would occasionally be stopped by people who recognized him, so he spent a fair amount of time conversing with people of all age groups.

Grant heard many different stories from many different people, but the prevailing sentiment was that every single person was happy that Grant had shown up and taken control.

On more than one occasion, people tried to give Grant gifts of all different kinds to express their gratitude for what he had done, but Grant would politely decline and tell them that he was simply doing what should have been done.

After an hour walking around and talking to different people, Grant had found himself back in the square where he had given his speech so he walked over and sat on the edge of the stage to relax for a few minutes.

While he was sitting there, Grant decided to check out his status since it had been so long since he had even bothered to check.

[Status]

{Status:

Name: Grant Holmes

Level: 36

Race: Human

Path: The Unbound

Title: Unbound

Strength: 341 | Agility: 388 | Health: 401 | Stamina: 451 | Mana: 672

Random Rolls: 11

Credits: 1000

Available Free Stats: 74

Skills:

Unbound Stats (Active: Level N/A)

Jack of All Trades (Passive: Level N/A)

Overclocked Perception (Passive: Level 5)

- To increase to the next tier: Dodge 100 enemy attacks without taking any damage. (38/100)

Terrorize (Passive: Level 5)

- Force ally or enemy alike to do your bidding for more than an hour without losing control. (0/50)

Basic Swordsmanship (Passive: Level 5)

- Master one aspect of the sword (0/1)

Heavy Strike (Active: Level 1)

-Kill 5 Enemies with Heavy Strike (0/5)}

Grant just sat there for a few minutes reading through everything before he noticed one glaring difference from what he remembered seeing the last time he checked his stats.

[Hey Shitlock, why the hell did my quest for Basic Swordsmanship change?]

{Well that's a rather rude way to address someone. Even more so considering you are the one who gave me my name in the first place. You really need to work on your attitude young man...

To answer your question however, it appears as if the skill is on the verge of evolving. Based on my understanding of skills such as that, depending on the aspect of the sword that you master, the skill will evolve accordingly.

The Path must have changed the quest in order to facilitate your growth.}

[Well how kind of The Path... how the hell do I master an aspect of the sword though? I don't know the first thing about swordsmanship. Other than what the skills have shown me.]

{As always, through hard work is the key to completing the quest.

Of course, you could always find someone who is a master swordsman, but based on what I have observed about your world, I doubt that there any many people who were capable with such a weapon before The Path's emergence.}

[Makes sense.. humanity abandoned cold weapons such as swords and spears long ago. Guns have been the popular weapon of choice for people basically since their inception.

I guess I could find someone from another planet to teach me? Skit is obviously out of the question since he focuses more on mana manipulation, but their might be someone out there who would be willing to teach me.]

{I would advise against that, unless of course you capture them and force them to teach you. But are you even capable of that would be the question?

And the answer, absolutely not.

You are still weak compared to other existences on The Path.

I must point out, that you were extremely lucky meeting someone such as Skit.

Most visitors from other planets will not even bother to converse with you unless they see value in doing so.

Skit is banking on your future contributions but that will not apply to most races.}

[As always, you have a unique way of making me feel worthless Sherlock.

That's what I appreciate about you, you don't even bother to sugar coat things.]

{Well I do what I can to make sure you are aware of your situation.}

[I was being sarcastic dumbass...]

Grant and Sherlock ended up bickering back and forth for a few minutes before Grant's peaceful moment was shattered.

In the distance, the sound of gunfire began to ring out endlessly.

Grant scrambled off his ass and onto his feet before he immediately began heading in the direction of the gunfire.

[What the fuck is it now?! Can't a young man enjoy a conversation between himself and a robotic guide from God knows where, without being rudely interrupted?!]

{You were enjoying that?}

[I WAS JOKING SHERLOCK! For fucks sake man! Let one go will ya?!]

With Grant's speed, it only took him mere moments to reach the area where the gunfight was taking place.

While running, Grant had run through different scenarios in his mind on what he would find when he arrived, but he was surprised by what he actual saw.

In the middle of the road, just inside the open gates, were a group of what appeared to be oversized ants fighting against the guards.

Looking past the initial group, Grant could see a massive swarm of ants just beyond the gates that extended into the street and out of sight.

Grant could only wager a guess at the sheer number of ants, but based on his Overclocked Perception, he could tell the number was well past a thousand.

[Never a dull moment in the apocalypse I guess...

Though this did come at the perfect time, I was starting to get bored with all this diplomacy crap.

Plus, any opportunity to raise my level is a good thing.]

Without wasting another moment, Grant burst into action.

He charged towards the small group that had already broken through the gate and withdrew his trusty sword from his back.

With sword in hand and a massive grin on his face, Grant skidded to a stop in the middle of the group of ants before pulling off a move from one of his favorite video games when he was a kid, although he didn't have to, he even shouted the name of the skill to add a little flair too it.

"Whirlwind!"

Using the weight of the sword to spin his body in circles, Grant spun on the spot, cleaving any monster in half that was unlucky enough to get caught.

After a few spins, Grant forced his body to stop and quickly dispatched the remaining ants before facing the gates where even more ants were rushing into the camp without pause.

"Guards, go find Ethan immediately and bring him here!

Also, tell Tom that we need everyone he can spare to contain this! They won't focus their invasion purely on the gate for long!

I won't be able to contain them all by myself!

Yell at the citizens to evacuate to the hospital building as quickly as possible while you're running!"

Not waiting for a reply, Grant immediately dove head first into the oncoming horde and began to swing his sword with reckless abandon trying to dispatch as many ants as he could.

Notifications were streaming down his peripheral vision but he had no time to even check what level of strength the ants possessed because a millisecond after he killed one ant, another one was on top of him.

Inevitably, an ant or two managed to slip past Grant and run into the camp, but he had no time to concern himself with that because if he stopped his assault for even a moment, the swarm would overwhelm him and spread out into the camp.

[Mother fucker! I know it's only been a few seconds but I feel like I've already killed a hundred of these things! Yet it feels like I haven't accomplished anything! I really fuckin hate swarm type monsters...]

Knowing that he needed to become even more efficient in his killing, in the middle of swinging his sword Grant activated a skill that he had considered worthless just to see if it was capable of increasing his efficiency.

"Heavy Strike!"

Immediately following the activation, Grant felt the weight of the sword increase significantly before it came crashing down on a group of ants in the swords path.

When the sword struck the ground however, something completely unexpected happened.

A shock wave shot out from the point of impact in a conical shape, instantly killing everything in its path.

{Congratulations on discovering a new Skill.

Combining the latent power of the Sword of the One True King with that of Heavy Strike has created the skill Tectonic Slam.

Skill: Tectonic Slam

Skill Type: Active

Skill Tier: Unique

Mana Cost: 10

Skill Description: Tectonic Slam creates a shock wave in the shape of a cone that travels outward from the point of impact. Damage caused is based on the users own Strength stat +200. Current Damage: 541. For every 100 Strength, area of effect and ability to influence the terrain is increased. Current maximum travel distance: 15 feet.

The skill cannot be used without the Sword of the One True King.}