Chapter 3: Prowess of the Zerran
Like usual Ray was working hard At Oliver's merchant stall. there seemed to be a never ending line of Carriages entering the village for him. yet for the first time. Ray and Jacob had Finished hauling everything.
The duo glanced at each other, then the long road leading to the villages gate. "well? what now?" Ray asked, as he's the newcomer in comparison.
"I-i don't know, let's go find Oliver" Jacob stuttered. This was a first for him too, and he'd been working here for years.
The duo headed over to Oliver's stall and mentioned the situation. but Oliver just waved his hand. "you two can head home for today, good work. It seems the roads are becoming a little unsafe."
Ray headed out first, whilst Jacob stood back to talk.
"well what do i do now?" He glanced up at the sky, both suns were directly above him. "still got quite a few hours left till night." for a moment he was confused.
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Bodybuilding: requirements lift 5 times your strength limit everyday 122/1000
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"No, i should see if i can learn another skill during this time. But what skill" Ray had seen quite a variety of skills during these few months. everything from Maid training to scholarship to military training.
"pretty much every job can be turned into a skill at a certain level of work. so what's the easiest thing for me to learn?"
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Name: Ray
Health: 50/50
Strength: 5 (+1 natural growth)
Vitality: 5
Agility: 6
Mind: 5
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"Agility is my highest stat, maybe i could learn something related to finesse or dexterity like a crafting-trade? leatherworking or sewing perhaps?
Or maybe i can try to balance my stats. since Bodybuilding will increase my strength and Vitality. I could go to the public school? maybe learn to read?" Ray was feeling overwhelmed by choice.
deeply lost in thought he subconsciously wandered the town. He took in the sights with a different lens than before. When Ray with still a street rat he only focused on the next meal, but looking around now...
"i feel.. suffocated." his eyes naturally went to the towering walls surrounding the village. "why do we even need such walls" he muttered aloud.
"well to defend from the monsters of course, we'd be dead if not for those walls." Ray looked up in surprise, hearing someone speaking besides him.
Standing next to Ray was a knight. covered in Patchwork metal Armor with leather being the majority, on the Knights back was a great shield half his size and a long spear.
Ray's gaze fell downwards where 2 hunting knifes rested in sheathes on his waist. and a third on his thigh, but the third one was much longer, taking up the entire right thigh.
"Want to go see?" the knight looked down at the boy with a sense of pride. looking at Rays face as he admired the knights Armor filled him with joy.
Rays gaze met this Knight's and he felt the Knight felt familiar, 'Observe'.
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Name: Robert Silverskin
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"Yes sir Robert." Rays face was still shocked and confused. 'monsters? what does he mean?'
This duo walked side by side up to the village walls.
"Robert, its not time for your guard-shift yet. what are you doing here?" another knight blocked the staircase up. Ray looked over to the village gate itself and saw a large group of knights and soldiers doing checks on every carriage that entered or exited.
"Overheard this young'un talking about the walls. seems like he's not been taught about the dangers outside. so i thought I'd show him. Its not against the rules is it?".
"of course not go ahead" said the other Knight with a hint of respect in his voice. Ray cast Observe on him.
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Name: Ferias
Strength: 14
Vitality: 13
Agility: 11
Mind: 10
Skills:
Military training: having trained in the military for a long time your body became accustomed to high stress. +2 Str +2 Vit +2 Agi
Bulwark Training: your body is trained in withstanding heavy attacks in bulwark formation +1 Vit
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Knight Ferias wore Armor similar to Robert's yet with noticeably less metal and embellishments.
'even though he's got less skills than Robert he has almost identical stats. why?' Ray was confused with this new development.
But soon enough Ray put this thought behind him as he took in the beauty of the wilderness outside.
Flourishing grass fields as far as the eye could see, Tree-lines so dense and tall it could blot out the sunrise. but as he turned around he could see the majesty of an Endless mountain range spanning across his entire horizon.
"Its beautiful". he muttered subconsciously. having grown up in a dense townscape. and surrounded by stone walls on all sides. Ray never knew how beautiful the outside world could be.
Robert pat Ray on the back. "yes it really is. But its not only beauty, come with me." the duo followed the walls alongside to the northern border, facing directly into the endless mountain-range. "look down there kiddo, that's the problem. the monsters."
The Knight pointed down just below the wall edge. Ray was momentarily mesmerised by the clawed gauntlet razor-sharp nail-like claws jutted out from the knights fingertips.
He shook himself out of it, before Setting his sights down the wall, His eyes bulged open in shock immediately.
Directly below was two-dozen knights all surrounding one creature. That's right one single creature was battling over 20 men just as strong as Ferias and Robert.. 'i-is it winning?' Ray thought in fear.
"W-what is t-that thing?" he stuttered, a sense of fear welling inside him.
"that, well that Ray is a Zerran, a species of scaled jaguar"
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Name: Zerran (lightning variant)
Strength: ???
Vitality: ???
Agility: ???
Mind: ???
skills: ??? (you must have at least one stat visible to see its skills)
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Ray stared in shock. Watching the creature charge through the soldiers around it like they were but paper dolls and not heavily trained men. Faint arcs of blue lightning travelled across its scales. and through the inside of its scales too.
Each time the beast would try to claw at a knight all the surrounding knights would band together, their shields connecting magnetically to help withstand the blow. the fight was akin to dancing on a wire—One wrong move, a knight to far away from reinforcements and it would all collapse.
Ray watched on in abstract fear, when suddenly a massive arrow flew by Ray followed by a volley of 3 more.
8 Trained soldiers were raining great arrows down from the walls. they worked in duo's, one knight holding the great bow in place and aiming, and the second pulling the rope-like string, each arrow was massive in size, almost the same height as Ray.
Ray's mind was in shambles. This reveal was too stunning for him, "well what do you think. understand why we need these walls now?" Ray merely nodded.
after nearly a hour of watching the fight. The Zerran, exhausted and lightly wounded fled. however the soldiers weren't so lucky.
Ray did a quick headcount and found to his horror that 3 knights were dead. and the rest exhausted completely.
This battle was a absolute loss for humanity.