Arkbridge Ruins - Plan
Osirus finally moved as he walked over to Elisa and began quietly talking into her ear. Shortly after he looked at her, her surprised face quickly responded with a nod, turning to the others, he then explained their roles in the plan.
As soon as he saw their confirmation, Osirus and Simon used the still relatively dark surroundings, as the sun had only just started to rise, to sneakily flank the behemoth without it noticing.
After about 30 seconds, he and Simon were both behind and to either side of it, however in that time, exhaustion had rapidly caught up with Reinhardt as he was constantly on the backfoot, defending against its momentous strikes.
However, while fighting the creature, Reinhardt was able to catch a glimpse of Osirus' figure behind it, who realising he had caught his attention, began to quietly attempt to signal his plan to Reinhardt, Osirus could only hope he understood.
With everything set in motion, he lifted his fingers so that everyone except the beast could see and began counting down from three.
'3'
'2'
'1'
'Now!'
{Flame}
Almost at the same time, a blazing fireball formed above Elisa staff and fired towards Reinhardt's back, as he dodged to the side without even looking, giving the beast no time to prepare as the blazing ball of heat hit it square on, exploding into a cloud of heat, almost entirely consuming it.
As soon as the scarlet sphere exploded, Osirus and Simon both rushed from their hiding spots, using the explosion as cover as they rapidly closed in on the shocked creature.
Both wielding their respective weapons, Simon simply sliced while Osirus activated {Quick Slice}, yet both of the attacks had similar target, the cold hard blades connected with its achilles tendon, however instead of Osirus's vision of a clean cut, both weapons only made it about halfway before getting stuck, its thick, tough flesh proving much more durable than he had assumed.
Seeing it had failed, Simon exerted his strength as he yanked it from its ankle and quickly retreated since his cover was blown, however Osirus was much more determined as he similarly retrieved his blade before attacking once more, '{Quick Slice}.
The green hue returned as the blade sliced through his previous cut, this time going all the way through, completely severing the achilles tendon, almost immediately its legs buckled as it collapsed onto one knee.
With decisiveness reflective of his immense experience, Reinhardt didn't delay for a moment as he had already shot up from his previous dive and swung his axe at the shocked creature, its blade wedging into its throat, shutting off any screams as blood poured into its lungs.
Moving out of the way, Osirus watched the creature collapse in front of him, its life quickly dissipated, deciding not to waste the opportunity, he emotionlessly lifted his sword and thrusted it through its eye socket into its brain, instantly ending its life.
Watching its life finally end, the 5 felt an invisible tension disappear from their exhausted bodies, it was finally over.
1 hour later.
A heavy atmosphere weighed on everyone's shoulders as they sat on pieces of rubble, having just buried a friend, only Osirus looked unaffected, though this was only because of {Analytic Mind} blocking any and all emotions.
Reinhardt spoke first, "Thank you…".
"Osirus".
"Thank you Osirus, without you it would be unlikely we would have survived.".
"I was just saving myself.", and Osirus wasn't lying, although he wouldn't mind saving the others, his main goal was survival, if that happened to help the others, great, if not, he wouldn't care, at least while {Analytic Mind} was active.
The spoils were soon spread out, with the hammer going to Reinhardt as he had done the most and it wasn't like anyone else could use it anyway, while Osirus got to pick the first weapon for himself, he ended up picking a relatively refined longsword, it was about 1m long and about 5cm wide.
Simon, Annie and Elisa ended up not taking anything as nothing was better than what they already had, just as they were about to leave, Osirus watched Reinhardt walk over to the Warrior Moss Trogg and hack of its ear before placing it in his pocket.
Osirus just assumed it was likely a battle trophy of some sort so he didn't think much of it, thus with everything sorted, they began the short journey out of the Arkbridge Ruins.
While walking, Osirus finally checked the messages he had been receiving the whole time:
{User Killed 4x Grunt Moss Trogg - 12SP Gained}
{User Contributed To The Death Of 1x Grunt Moss Trogg - 1SP Gained}
{User Killed 1x Warrior Moss Trogg - 25SP Gained}
These new messages revealed an important fact: he didn't necessarily need to kill a creature to gain SP, so long as he contributed in some way, he would gain SP, albeit much less.
He also realised that this most likely worked in the reverse, even if he killed a creature, if someone else contributed as well, he would gain less SP.
With this new information in mind, he then opened his {Status}, which now read:
{Status}
{Name:Osirus}
{Age:16}
{Race:Human}
{SP:73}
{Body Cultivation:Lv.3(0/30SP)}
{Mana Cultivation:Lv.1(0/10SP)}
{Active Skills: {Quick Slice Lv.2 (5/20 Proficiency) - Beginner}}
{Passive Skills: Analytic Mind Lv.~(Temporary) }
He was very pleased with his spoils from that battle, with his SP over 70, it gave him a few options on what to do next, his main target being to become a mage, however, he had already done a few tests, and the cost of Skills that relay on Mana that are actually capable of decent damage were just not worth it for the current him as he would still need to level up {Mana Cultivation to a decent level to even use them.
Thus, he was only left with improving his physical strength and Skills, first he decided to save 30SP to reach Lv.4 of {Body Cultivation}, while he would use the remaining 43 to create a new Skill.
While walking, Osirus began designing his new Skill using his thoughts, he had previously discovered that others couldn't see the black interface, so he didn't worry about anyone seeing what he was doing, this time the Skill was relatively simple and didn't have any flashing effects, so it wasn't long before he finished designing it.
{Threat Detection : Within a 5m circumference, the User is able to detect any immediate, life-threatening danger towards himself.
Cost : 40SP}
After seeing Liams demise, he had decided to create a Passive Skill that would warn him of any danger, he had realised Liam most likely had a detection skill as well, which was the reason he was able to notice Osirus in his hiding spot before, however it also seemed to have quite a large weakness, when he was facing many enemies, he wasn't able to accurately pinpoint their locations, which was why he was able to be sneak attacked and killed.
Thus he decided to make a similar Skill, the only issue was his limited supply of SP, which forced him to make compromises.
One such compromise was that even though he would be able to detect the danger, all he would know was that it was within 5m, not its specific location, the only way he could think of trying to circumvent this issue was by making it warn him specifically of any life-threatening danger, so that he would only be warned at truly dangerous times rather than being overloaded by any thing that wished him harm, which would hopefully make it easier to identify where it was coming from.
With all of Threat Detections parameters set, he finalised his creation, immediately he watched his SP plummet to 33 as he felt an odd sensation, it was similar to gaining another sense but also not because he couldn't actively use it.
The only way he could describe it was like how if you lifted your hands in the empty air, you know you can feel things but you're not, his new Skill was very similar, he knew he had a new sense, but he couldn't use it, it was certainly an odd feeling.
Unfortunately he wouldn't be able to test it just yet as they didnt come across any Moss Troggs or other creatures for the entire journey back to the city entrance.
Looking at the grand city wall that now lay in ruins, Osirus felt relieved to finally leave this hell hole where his life was constantly on the line, however this left him with a dilemma, what should he do now?
He didn't know where he was, nor where to go, luckily is seemed that Reinhardt realised he might not have anywhere to go with his whole group dead, thus he offered to let him join them on their journey back to the nearest town, Invon, which is known for its large percentage of mercenary visitors.
It didn't take much consideration for him to agree, thus they set of once again, on foot it would take about 2 days to reach Invon, including rests, so Osirus decided to design some useful Skills since he discovered there was a save function, allowing him to keep as many designs as he wanted without having to actually create them.
The group headed north of Arkbridge city, which mostly consisted of open flats and a few hills.
36 hours later.
It was currently the second day of travelling and they only had a few more hours of walking, the final stretch mostly consisted of a thick forest with a road cutting through, showing it was a regularly used path.
During the last 36 hours, they had come across a few other mercenary groups, which they made sure to stay clear from, however they didn't come across any creatures as they picked a path that made sure they didn't come across any trouble.
However it seemed that streak was about to come to an end.