(10) Improvise, Adapt and Survive
The sun was about to rise.
Owen looked up at the sky and his surroundings with a keen eye. Even though he was sure that the bandits let him go, he wasn't sure if they were tricking him to have a false sense of security.
So to somewhat delay their plan, Owen ran like the wind.
From what he saw when he killed Ledasdore, the bandits are just like humans. So it made sense that they also get tired.
But because he didn't need to rest at all, he made use of his advantage to the fullest.
Also, he leveled up from killing a few rabbits, so that's that.
==========
---[Status]---
[Name: Ivory11 - Level 2]
[Class: Debuff Knight]
[Health: 23/23]
[Soul Energy: 5/10]
[Energy: -15/23]
[Hunger State: Starving]
[Thirst State: Dehydrated]
[Body State: Terrible]
[EXP: 65/200]
==========
"Terrible? How am I doing terrible?" Owen subconsciously touched his chin with his left hand and answered his own question by doing so.
"Oh."
With a cough, Owen hid his embarrassment and called out his attributes panel.
==========
---[Attributes]---
[Strength - 5]
[Speed - 2]
[Defense - 4]
[Intelligence - 2]
[Fortitude - 3 + (0.75)]
[Detection - 2]
[Luck - 2]
Available Points: 5
==========
Owen didn't think too much about where to assign the attribute points. All he knew was that his speed isn't up to par.
Now some of you folks who are keen on small details might be thinking that if there isn't much of a point difference between classes, why are they there to begin with?
Simple! It's not the attributes that differentiate classes. It's the crystal paths that do.
The [Jade Mountain Crystal] isn't something that an Assassin class could get. Nor is the [Shadow Cloud Crystal] something a Knight class could get.
In that regard, the Warrior class is special because it can get well rounded crystal paths from every melee class. But it's very evenly distributed, so getting your desired build takes some skill and adaptation to the paths you have.
To explain each attribute in detail, [Strength] focuses more on [Armor Bypass], [Critical Damage] and [Base Damage] which I'm sure is obvious enough to understand.
[Speed] has two subcategories, [Movement Speed] and [Attack Speed]. Leveling up [Speed] upgrades both of them. But some equipment may only enhance one subcategory. This applies to all attribute subcategories.
[Defense] has four subcategories. [Soul Defense], [Physical Defense], [Block Effectiveness] and [Ailment Defense].
The soul in GOTG has a special twist lorewise. The soul is the mind and it is also a magical aspect of nature. This means that [Soul Defense] will shield against psychic, magical, and soul damage.
[Physical Defense] negates all physical damage and [Ailment Defense] weakens the effects of debuffs.
[Intelligence] has two subcategories which are [Learning] and [Soul Vigor]. The former helps learning new skills and acquire sub talents like forging, farming and cartography. [Soul Vigor] strengthens the soul and increases Soul Energy capacity. Which is like the magic energy of this world.
[Fortitude] also has two subcategories called [Vitality] and [Endurance]. [Vitality] is for the amount of health points, the other one is for stamina. A lot of things in this world consume stamina, so Owen is a very valuable asset to a lot of sub talents.
[Detection] is split into [Clear Sight], [Sensitive Senses], [Intuition], and [Stealth]. All of them are self explanatory except for [Intuition] which works in a special way. It helps the character sense enemies even though they aren't in the line of sight and it can even help looking for buried treasures, creatures, people, secret entrances etc.
[Luck] is simple but it also has on of the most unique subcategories out of all of them. They are called [Drop Rate], [Block Rate], [Critical Rate], and [Success Rate].
All of them are easy to understand, but if you need help what [Success Rate] is, it is applicable to persuasion, crafting, alchemy, translation, and many more.
Folks, if you're still here, I applaud your attention span. Keep it up.
Anyway, back to the subject at hand.
Owen finished applying all of his points and looked at the panel with a contemplating look.
==========
---[Attributes]---
[Strength - 5]
[Speed - 4]
[Defense - 4]
[Intelligence - 2]
[Fortitude - 4 + (1)]
[Detection - 4]
[Luck - 2]
Available Points: 0
==========
Now that his attribute points have been applied, his status now appeared as,
==========
---[Status]---
[Name: Ivory11 - Level 2]
[Class: Debuff Knight]
[Health: 20/30]
[Soul Energy: 5/10]
[Energy: -15/30]
[Hunger State: Starving]
[Thirst State: Dehydrated]
[Body State: Terrible]
[EXP: 65/200]
==========
Owen closed his status panel and checked out his inventory.
In the seven inventory slots, he has two iron hatchets, a belt, leather pauldrons, a scarf, boots, and a knife.
Owen focused on the two iron hatchets and summoned them out of the inventory.
*Vhoom.* *Clank!*
The two iron hatchets appeared in front of Owen and fell on the ground. Since he could only use one of the hatchets, Owen wanted to throw the first one away.
However, he also saw that he had a belt on his inventory.
He had an idea.
He took the belt and the scarf from their slots and put one of the hatchets to his left forearm. He secured the hatchet tightly with the scarf and the belt.
Owen stood up and swung his arm to test out if he could use it effectively.
Turns out, he can. He just had to be cautious when scratching his face or his hair.
"I'll have to bear with this for a while… So far, it doesn't seem too uncomfortable to wear." Owen smiled at his work and noticed the panel next to his head.
"Huh?" Owen turned to look at the panel and realized why he didn't feel any kind of irritation.
[Discomfort]
"That actually explains a lot." Owen praised his class ability once again in his mind.
He took the other stuff in his inventory and began putting them on.
Since one of his shoes was damaged, the boots were great to have. Ledasdore's feet were slightly smaller though.
And even though the leather pauldrons weren't that good as armor, it was better than nothing. Beggars can't be choosers.
Currently, even with his efforts to leave the forest, it was too big for him to even leave. Owen was wondering if he was going deeper into it or leaving the forest.
"That's a problem. I don't know where to go… Maybe those bandits knew a thing or two…. Sadly, with the sun rising, I don't have the night as cover and they're probably wary of anyone approaching at this moment." Owen concluded that it was safer to stay away from the bandits.
"…"
Meanwhile, in the same forest…
"Huhh! Huhh! Everyone's dead! Everyone's dead! Even boss Drulg didn't stand a chance!"
Yuhmbir, a bandit who followed Drulg back to the campsite, ran away as fast as he could.
What happened some time ago was just the bandit group returning to their campsite.
— 20 minutes ago…
After chasing down Owen and deciding to return to camp, that's when they saw her…
Ixie sat down in front of the campfire with her back facing the returning bandits.
She was eating a cube of cooked meat stabbed on a knife. Ixie ate in such a carefree manner that you'd forget there's a bunch of dangerous armed men behind her.
"My my, where did you guys get this meat? My tongue feels like an unsatisfied wife expectantly seeing her husband come to her room… It's delicious, you should really get more of these." Ixie turned to look at them before taking another bite without a care in the world.
A bandit clenched his teeth as he pulled out his sword.
Drulg stopped him by using his arm to block his way. He then looked at Ixie.
"Where is our men?" Drulg had a stern look on his face. As he looked at the ground, he could see traces of blood but no bodies. He knew his men followed a terrible fate.
Ixie appeared confused.
"Hmm… I'm not sure. Maybe up there? I don't quite remember where I put them." She pointed up in the middle of her sentence. Ixie then faced the bandits as she sat on the log.
Drulg felt a little apprehensive.
He lifted his chin into the air and his pupils shrank the moment he saw the horrifying scene. The bandits who looked up were so shocked that some of them dropped their weapons.
On the tall pine trees were two dozen men with decapitated heads, severed limbs and sliced jaws. Their swords, daggers and axes nailed them to the trees as drops of their own blood fell down like it came from a leaking pipe.
Some of them had their intestines hanging out like ropes, some had their limbs mismatched, making them look like some freakish work of art.
One of them was even stabbed through their foot as they hung on the tree bark. Their headless bodies were for everyone to see.
The moonlight somewhat amplified the horror that the bandits saw.
Ixie looked up as well.
She whistled in amusement. "I know it's not my prettiest work, but I just didn't want you to see them as you got back." Ixie picked up her sword that was leaning on the log she sat on.
Standing up, she took one step towards them and looked at their defensive stances.
The pressure she exuded made them take one step back for every step she took.
She revealed a wide grin. "Sooooo…. To make my job easier, can you guys just line up neatly so I can slash your heads off? It'll be quick and painless, I can assure you on that."
None of them replied.
Although they were despicable people, they had brains.
If someone is this nonchalant after killing over two dozen men without a scratch, you just know that they're dangerous.
It was unfortunate that their silence didn't sit well with Ixie though.
"No one? Too bad then, I really thought you guys would oblige." Ixie sighed.
Drulg held his sword tightly. He anticipated any kind of movement Ixie would make. He glued his sight to her sword that was hanging low, held by her left hand.
But at this moment, Drulg saw his field of vision get lower and lower until it fell and reached the ground. Right now, all he could see was her boots.
"What… happened…" Drulg said to himself in his final moments.
The bandits were terrified.
One bandit even squealed when Drulg's head fell to the ground.
Another bandit was sprayed in the face with blood by Drulg's headless body. This understandably traumatized him.
Ixie's right mechanical arm was flexed towards the crowd, her hand was flatly positioned in a chopping motion. She merely waved her hand as if to slice the air, and a thin, bright blue arc flew out of her hand, decapitating Drulg in one move.
That was what killed him. Not the sword.
"I really don't like wasting my soul energy. But I'm feeling lazy today so I just want this to be over." Ixie raised her sword and started walking towards the remaining bandits.
For every step she took, they were all oppressed by a bloody aura.
One scar faced bandit couldn't take it anymore and shouted. "Run!"
This one signal was the catalyst for them to start their escape.
All of them scrambled and turned tail. The only thing in their mind was to run.
Ixie frowned. Her displeasure was very observable. "Really now? How pathetic… skittering away like rats." She bent her left leg and shot forward to the nearest bandit, slicing his head clean off.
After killing one bandit, she turned her attention to another bandit who had a lot of throwing knives tied to his leather tunic. He saw her fast approaching and threw as many knives at her as a reflex.
Ixie used her right hand and caught all the knives. She spun counterclockwise and used that momentum to throw the knives to his face.
*Shwick!* *Shwick!* *Shwick!* …
The knives precisely struck his eyes, mouth, nose and neck. Ixie finished him off with a downward vertical slash, slicing his head in two. His brain, skull and many other bloody messes like his intestines, lungs and liver could be seen before he fell down.
After getting another kill, Ixie picked up a knife from the guy's face and chucked it at someone's ankle.
"Agh!" The bandit fell down.
He tried to get up, but his head was stabbed before he could do so.
Geryt, one of the most athletic bandits in the group, ran away as fast as he could. He controlled his breathing to run with maximum efficiency.
"Wow, you're fast for a bandit. Have you tried being one of the city knights? They pay well." Ixie said as she ran next to Geryt.
Geryt was struck with fear. "How did she catch up?" He was even more fearful when he saw that she wasn't even using her full speed.
He tried to knock her back by swinging his arm, but all that did was give her the opportunity to slice it off and his head in a short timeframe.
And the moment he died, Ixie looked at the other escaping bandits and easily caught up.
In summary of this battle, it was a one sided bloodbath.
And when there was only one left, she tripped him on the soil and stabbed her sword to an empty spot next to his head.
"Why do you look so scared? It's not like I'm going to kill you." Ixie showed an amused expression on her face.
The bandit is Yuhmbir. He was hyperventilating and he couldn't make a clear response due to fear.
"That's bad, I may have gone too far." Ixie pulled her sword from the ground and took one last look at Yuhmbir before walking away. "Alright, you're good to go… I'm sparing your life."
"Hehh??" Yuhmbir was surprised. He didn't know if she was joking.
But just like what she said, Ixie went to the camp and carried the valuables with her and left.
She didn't care if her back was turned in front of him.
That's how weak she regarded Yuhmbir.
It took some time before Yuhmbir was sure that she left him completely. He looked around the camp littered with dead bodies.
The body next to him was dead, but the eyes still moved to look at him.
"Yieek!" Yuhmbir stood up and ran away from the campsite as fast as he could.
— Right now…
Yuhmbir was still running with all his might and came across another person.
It was Owen.
"Huh?" Yuhmbir paused. The moment he saw Owen, Owen also saw him.
"You…. You're that scum worm who killed Ledasdore, aren't ya!?" He pointed at Owen with his finger quivering in anger.
Owen responded by holding both hatchets against him.
Yuhmbir's eyes flickered with malicious intent. "So that's how it is…" He unsheathed his sword with one hand and said, "Although you are a man, I don't mind tasting new dishes from time to time…" Yuhmbir licked his lips.
Owen uncomfortably shivered. With a messy sneer, he spoke with a revolted tone, "I'm not going to hesitate giving you a free lobotomy."
"Tch, alright then…" Although Yuhmbir didn't understand what Owen was babbling about, he ran forward and slashed his sword at him regardless.
*Whoosh.*
Owen quickly stepped back to avoid the sword.
Yuhmbir wasn't just going to let him dodge it though. He followed up with a downward vertical slash that nicked Owen's shoulder, but was guarded by the pauldrons.
Seeing that Owen wasn't going to stay in one place, Yuhmbir looked down and swiftly stepped on Owen's foot.
Instantly, Owen realized that he couldn't move out of the way. His pupils shrunk as Yuhmbir thrusted his sword towards his abdomen where his liver was located.
*Tsschk!*
Blood rose up from Owen's throat. The same crimson liquid was spat out from his mouth.
"Kuh!"
Even though he was stabbed, Owen raised the hatchet from his right hand and swung it towards Yuhmbir's face.
But Yuhmbir was no idiot. He used his left hand and curled it into a fist to knock the hatchet off Owen's hand. His legs pushed and ran, forcing Owen to walk backwards into a tree.
*Bam!*
Owen's back received the impact and the blade made its way through his body because of it. He felt furious and helpless. He swung his left arm to chop down Yuhmbir's head, but all the latter had to do was switch his grip onto the handle of the sword and catch Owen's forearm, preventing the hatchet from moving any further.
"Whew…" Yuhmbir exhaled. "And from your performance last night dodging arrows, I thought you'd have some ability to fight…. Turns out that you're weaker." He was disappointed that Owen didn't reach his expectations.
Owen's blood was boiling with anger. He looked at Yuhmbir hatefully without saying a word.
"You got stabbed in the liver.. Do you feel it? You can't control your body that well anymore right?" Yuhmbir chuckled seeing how Owen couldn't even muster the strength to fight him anymore.
Yuhmbir believing that he already won wasn't grounded on empty reasons. After all, for him Owen was just a human with limitations that would normally apply to him as well.
But that's where he was wrong.
*Vhoom…*
[Shock]
*Vhoom…*
[Internal Bleeding]
*Vhoom…*
[Bleeding-4]
*Vhoom…*
[Weakness-3]
Owen grabbed Yuhmbir's shoulder. And before Yuhmbir could react, Owen used his grip on Yuhmbir to pull his body towards him to deliver a strong knee blow to Yuhmbir's crotch.
*Crack.*
Because of this, the pair of eggs were no more. The remaining egg would have to go solo from now on.
"AAAAAHHHGHG!" Yuhmbir had to let all of his pain out through his scream.
Owen didn't stop there though. With his right hand, he delivered a hook right up to his face, making Yuhmbir lose balance.
Owen kicked his legs against the tree which made Yuhmbir fall over to the ground. And once he was on top of Yuhmbir, he grabbed his neck and started strangling him.
Yuhmbir, with gritted teeth, grabbed the sword that was still stabbed through Owen's body.
*Twchk*
He twisted the blade inside Owen, as an attempt to damage his organs and to take it out.
Owen winced in pain. His mouth leaked two streams of blood. It was painful, But Owen wasn't having any of it. He raised his forearm and swung it at Yuhmbir's face.
But like earlier, Yuhmbir caught his forearm. The hatchet was only a few centimeters away from his nose. Yuhmbir's face was flushed red as he channeled all his strength to try and get the hatchet away from slicing his face.
Slowly, he was able to move it away. He couldn't use any hands to try and grab the sword because he was holding Owen's forearm with both hands.
"Damn you! You thought that would be enough to kill me?? You're still too weak!" Yuhmbir saw that the hatchet was unable to advance any further. He was even pushing it away.
Veins popped all over his forehead while trying to get rid of the hatchet, but he wasn't expecting Owen to be so ruthless.
Owen smashed his forehead against his forearm, giving it enough momentum for the blade to chop Yuhmbir's face!
The hatchet landed on Yuhmbir's eyes, blinding him as his eyeballs were sliced messily.
"@##$@$# YOU!!!!" Yuhmbir raged out.
With no choice left, Yuhmbir abandoned trying to defend his face. He gambled on the fact that Owen still has his sword stuck in his body, so maybe, just maybe… he could use this to kill him before Owen could kill him.
Byt sadly, the moment he did so, he was vulnerable to the hatchet's mercy.
Owen raised his arm and began hammering the hatchet down Yuhmbir's face. Chop after chop, it was relentless.
Yuhmbir couldn't bear it and tried defending using one hand, only to get it chopped into chunks of bone and flesh.
With a non-stop amount of chops Yuhmbir received, he also began to lose blood. Yuhmbir gradually lost strength as his face began to look more mangled than before.
His teeth were lodged out of his mouth, still attached to his dismembered gums. Deep gashes were in his face, freely pouring out blood. Whatever made his face appear human was no more.
His gamble failed.
"I… can't die here… why didn't he go down? Why did he still have the strength?" Yuhmbir's last moments were a mix of regret, confusion and pain.
*Vhoom...*
[+ 80 EXP - Yuhmbir: Level 8]
[EXP: 145/200]
Owen looked at the panels and complained internally, "Hah- This scumbag.. almost killed me…"
Even in death, Yuhmbir wasn't spared from insults.
Owen looked at the sword lodged in his abdomen and took it out.
"Ngh! That f*cking hurts!" Owen's breathing was labored from the pain.
He inspected his wound, although gnarly to look at, it was healing considerably fast. The bleeding was gone too.
He sat down to recuperate. This took a while.
Owen's eyes looked lost. Until now, he didn't really register the fact that he killed a person.
He told himself that it was just a game.
"Just… a game…" Owen mumbled to himself.
"…"
"Yeah… It's just a game… Nothing I do here matters."
Was it a deliberate attempt to avoid reality? Or was it a lie told to himself because he knew his mind wouldn't be able to accept the truth?
Only Owen knew the true answer to that question.
After resting for a bit, Owen took his other hatchet back and decided to take Yuhmbir's stuff.
Since Owen saw the kill notification, he was sure that Yuhmbir was dead. So of course, he began looting his corpse.
He had some good armor that Owen liked. Although he only found a sword with no other weapon than that, he was satisfied because Yuhmbir wore chainmail and that is a good kind of armor in the early game.
Owen went ahead and wore the chainmail. It only covered parts of his arms and torso without ever reaching his head or his upper thighs.
Yuhmbir owned leather leg greaves with some knee guards, so Owen also put them on without hesitation.
The durability of the armor were as follows:
==========
[Level-8, Old Class Hauberk (Common) - It is enough to keep you alive for a number of attacks. Just don't fall off a cliff for this old armor will not save you.
Additional Effects: N/A
Durability: 47/50]
==========
[Level-7, Forager Leg Greaves (Common) - Leather for your shins and calves. It is best used to forage.
Additional Effects: N/A
Durability: 23/50]
==========
[Level-6, Leather Knee Guards (Common) - Provides protection and a good way to hit if you use your knees to strike foes in the face.
Additional Effects: N/A
Durability: 45/50]
==========
"..."
"These will work for now." Owen glanced at himself and gave his gear a nod of approval. He seemed to forget about what he just did to Yuhmbir earlier.
Owen also discovered that he can either equip armor from the inventory and it will be worn like how it's supposed to, or just by putting it on manually. It was convenient, but he still put on the armor like normal because he did not want to be too reliant on the inventory.
He continued to rummage through Yuhmbir's body to see if he still had anything useful.
All he had were a handful of different spices and some fruits. For Owen, these were useless. But one thing was quite useful.
After looking at the contents of Yuhmbir's pockets, he found a map of a long route in the forest with different landmarks that he remembered that he ran past when he was chased by Drulg and his men.
He stored it in his inventory and stood up.
"So there's a nearby town… If I go there, the chances of finding a city would be high." Owen's eyes began to gleam.
His main objective was to get back home no matter what. To achieve this, he knew that he must take care of his current predicament.
Currently, he needs to be strong enough to wander around safely to get anything that would help him leave this place.
And finding a city would be the first step in doing so.