Status Screen:

Name: Clover Hills

Class: Blank Lvl 14 600/2625 Exp

HP: 310/310

SP: 110/110

MP: 340/340

Strength: 8

Endurance: 1

Recovery: 1

Vitality: 21

Regeneration: 17

Dexterity: 14

Agility: 1

Perception: 27

Intelligence: 25

Mana: 26

Magic: 24

Myth: 9

Stat Points: 0

Skill Points: 0

General Skill: (4/8)

Track Lvl 8 (Common) – Cost 5 SP

Follow your target's tracks to the ends of the Earth. Current range limit: 75 meters. Track Clarity depends on the quality and recency of the trail.

Sculpting Lvl 28 (Common) -

A simple sculpture can be worth more than its base materials. Passively increases sculpting ability.

Sub-Skill: Hardening Lvl 10 (Common) - Harden your sculptures. Max size: Moderate. 5mp for small. Increased cost for larger sizes.

Sub-Skill: Minor Tactile Terrakinesis Lvl 10 (Common) - Variable MP Cost

Shape the earth to your desires. As long as you are touching what you wish to shape, you can slowly change its structure.

Driving Lvl 5 (Common) -

The need for speed. Passively increase handling and efficiency while driving.

Meditation Lvl 20 (Uncommon)

Still your mind and catch a fleeting glimpse of what lies beyond. Minorly increased Mana Regeneration and Mental Clarity while in a meditative state. Skill effects will immediately cancel upon distraction or movement.

Class Skills: (3/8)

Mana Bolt Lvl 25 (Common) - 5 MP

Fires a ball of Mana out of your hand. Deals 135 Base Damage.

Sub-Skill: Barrage Lvl 8 (Common) – Unleash multiple attacks at once. Increase Mana Cost with each additional Bolt. Current limit: 4

Sub-Skill: Metamagic Lvl 0 (Uncommon) - Variable MP Cost.

Shift and twist, changing [Mana Bolt] to your desires. Minor changes available: Shape. Mana Cost scales with the severity of changes.

Golem Creation Lvl 20 (Uncommon) - 25 MP

Create and control a maximum of 15/20 Small Golems within a range of 420m. For 5 Small Golems Slots, a Moderate Size golem can be created for an increased Mana Cost.

Sub-Skill: Golem Control Lvl 10 (Uncommon) - Lead your golems with a deft hand. Passively grants more control over your golems.

Sub-Skill: Golem-Link Lvl 17 (Uncommon) – 5 Mp, 5 Sp.

Track the ephemeral tether to its end, gaining insight into your golems surroundings. Passively grants more awareness of what travels through and along the tether.

Magical Gardening Lvl 0 (Uncommon)

Tend to the forest, and perhaps it will tend to you in your time of need. Accelerate and facilitate the growth of plant life, bestowing a slight chance for it to develop magical capabilities.

Yesterday, he had claimed that he would be able to beat the crap out of his past self. Well, that was doubly true now. With all the progress he had made, he wouldn’t be surprised if he could win with both his hands tied behind his back.

The van jolted as they drove over a bump in the road, drawing him back to reality. Only his team was in the vehicle - they would reach the meet-up point in a few minutes. Till then, a tense silence would remain, nerves stealing the words from their mouths.

He nervously read over his [Status Screen] again. [Mana Bolt] definitely didn’t do 135 damage; there must have been a resistance or damage mitigation system that the System failed to mention. Other than that, he didn’t find any surprises. Nothing to take his mind off what was about to happen.

He swallowed - his throat dry. “Back in the meeting, did you hear any leaves blowing around unnaturally?” Clover trailed off, not sure how exactly to phrase the question.

“No, what are you talking about?” Claire said. None of them had heard it. Which meant he was the only one who knew.

Clover paused. He had to tread carefully; he still did not fully understand the situation.

“Have you felt like you have made decisions you normally wouldn’t have lately?” Clover asked.

“None of my decisions these last few days have been normal. Before all this happened, there wasn’t enough money in the world to convince me to fight monsters, yet here I am - hopelessly out of my depth, fighting monsters,” Ron said. “I think I’ve lost my mind.”

“Don’t worry, you didn’t lose much,” Claire said. Ron turned with a wide-eyed look of betrayal. “Sorry I had to say it. You walked right into that one,” she said, quickly apologizing.

Clover nodded but didn’t say anything else. He hoped and prayed it wasn’t true - that the doctor hadn’t mind controlled them – that it was all one big coincidence, but he made preparations nonetheless. Still, it was difficult. He didn’t know the extent of the doctor’s abilities, so he couldn’t act overtly. They were unable to properly defend their minds. If he told them more, he’d be at risk of inadvertently revealing what he knew.

Even more troubling, he didn't see an alternative to going along with the plan. He knew there had to be one - he just wasn’t smart enough to find it.

“What’s up with all the questions? I thought I was supposed to be the one asking them.” Claire said.

Clover shrugged, using his expert-level acting abilities to look clueless. It worked. “I just have a bad feeling about this. All I’m saying is that we should be careful and keep an eye out in case the Giant Grasshoppers have any strange abilities.”

The van stopped, signaling an end to their conversation. It was show time. They unloaded out of the vehicle and sneakily snuck around the back, entering a seven-story glass building at the edge of an overgrown field of grass. Well, overgrown was a bit of an understatement.

The grass was massive, individual stalks reaching up to 8 feet tall. Interspaced within the sea of green, similarly, large flowers colored the field. The terrain formed a perfect natural camouflage for the Giant Grasshoppers. Here, at the edge of their territory, they could be lurking in the field, and he wouldn’t have any way of knowing. There was simply too much blocking his view.

Additionally, the strange house that had been the center of the time-stopping phenomenon was only a couple hundred feet away in a less overgrown section of the grass. This definitely wasn’t the first place he would choose to stage an ambush.

They passed through a shimmering barrier and entered the main lobby. There they reconvened with the other groups. To Clover’s surprise, he could detect all the quiet conversations scattered across the room. His 27 Perception wasn’t just for show.

“The traps have been set,” a pudgy man wearing a camouflage color outfit said. He hadn’t spoken particularly loud, but Clover could hear him without much difficulty. Really, the hardest part was ignoring the background noise.

Dr. White nodded, waving the man away. “Good, we’re all here now. Prepare yourselves. The scavenging group should get here in 15 minutes. We need to be ready to act the second the boss monster shows its face.”

A pair of men carrying big guns shifted around the room, presumably looking for a better angle to shoot from. Similarly, everyone else prepared for the coming battle.

On high alert, Clover found an isolated corner of the room and activated [Meditation]. The world shifted, then sharpened into focus, feeding him more raw information than ever before. At the same time, he reached out along his golem link, touching his surroundings with a pair of mental hands, grasping in a different but similarly effective way.

Clover inspected the doctor with his burgeoning magical senses. He wasn’t sure what he was looking for, but he assumed something would jump out at him. Nothing did. It wasn’t a deep or precise scan, so he couldn’t be sure, but nothing appeared to be out of the ordinary. He looked closer, letting the minutes tick by.

As a line of Mana looped through the air, spelling out gibberish, he finally saw something strange. Hidden by the glow of magic, he had failed to notice a thin glass thread connecting him to Dr. White. At first, he panicked. Was this the mechanism by which the mind control operated?

But then, upon closer inspection, he noticed that the connection was already destroyed. It looked like someone had taken a sledgehammer to the delicate glass structure. Cracks marred its surface, and broken shards of material swirled around the thread, kept in its orbit by a gravity of some sort.

Even in its damaged state, radiant phantoms of energy traveled down the path. Reminded of his golem tethers, Clover closed his eyes and listened - interpreting the song the energy created.

At first, he heard nothing more than static, but as he focused deeper, the sound of rushing blood revealed itself - a heart beating in stops and spurts. The back of his neck tingled. The glass thread cracked further.

“Get ready; they’re here,” Dr. White said, unaware of whatever Clover had discovered.

Clover’s eyes shot open, and the apparitions of Mana faded away. Outside, 2 men, a woman, a pale child, and some golems wandered, drawing dangerously close to the grass.

Shit! What’s Adam doing here?

He was only Level 1 - in no way was he prepared for what was to come.

In the distance, a cluster of grass gently swayed, setting his nerves on edge. The Giant Grasshoppers were here. It was only a matter of time till they struck now. He scanned the field, trying to pinpoint their position - searching for even the slightest edge that would allow him to react faster.

With growing frustration, he was unable to track their movements. He clenched his fist tightly. More than anything, he wished the grass wasn't blocking his vision. Then he could have a clear shot. Then he would have a real chance of saving his friend.

On that completely windless day, the grass parted, bending out of the way in a long line to reveal a Giant Grasshopper. Shaking off his surprise, Clover readied himself to fire off a barrage of Mana. Not a moment later, the wolf-sized monster pounced forward, using its strong legs to burst out of the grass.

The members of the scavenging group stumbled back, taken by surprise. Like most rational humans, their first reaction wasn’t to fight. Running away was a much more realistic survival plan against man-eating monsters. However, in this case, it was the wrong decision.

“What are we waiting for? Those guys are about to be sliced up like a cake. Let’s go,” Paul said.

Clover was inclined to agree. If they waited much longer, the situation would turn ugly.

Doctor White clenched his jaw, pressing his lips tight. His throat moved, but no words escaped his mouth. At that moment, a gentle rustling of leaves distantly echoed. No compulsion assailed his mind. In fact, to his magical senses, the doctor was the only one who seemed to be affected.

Was the doctor under the control of the tree? It didn’t make sense, but that’s what Clover wanted to believe.

He unclenched his jaw. “No, we can’t act yet. This will all be for nothing if the intelligent monster doesn’t show up,” he said, confident but mechanical in tone.

Now, almost visible as Clover watched closely with [Mediation] and [Golem Link] active, a leafy green branch connected the doctor to those who heard his words. Similar to his golem tethers, a command or compulsion echoed down the link, violently rattling its leaves. Before the words could affect him, Clover cut the link with his willpower, copying some of the techniques the corrupting ice that plagued him commonly used.

Unable to dwell on the matter any longer, but with many ideas on how to counteract the Skill now that he had seen it in effect, he returned his full attention to the battlefield.

While they had been talking, the overgrown insect had closed the distance in a series of quick hops, quickly catching up to them. In a panic, one of the men stumbled, falling to the ground. He could only watch in horror as his death approached. Before he could suffer a terrible death, Adam, covered in sweat from the short run, stopped his escape and ordered his golems to attack the monster.

The mixed material sculptures didn’t last long, but they gave the man enough time to crawl to his feet and put some distance between him and the monster. Now, without his primary means of defending himself, the monster set its sight on Adam.

Led by a Giant Grasshopper the size of a kitchen table, more of the green abominations exited the field, ready to feast on an easy meal. All thirty of them had Levels in the double digits. And Clover was willing to bet his life savings of 2.47 Dollars that there were more hiding in the overgrown grass. By no means would this be an easy fight.

As a small conciliation, they could act freely now that the boss monster had shown its face.

“Attack,” Doctor White said simply.

Without the need for mind control, they all burst into action - a mess of Skill’s being activated.

Bullets tore through the glass wall, shattering it and creating a quick entrance into the fight while also peppering a few unlucky monsters with lead.

Magical landmines activated, kicking up small chunks of stone in compact explosions.

Those with melee weapons charged in. Clover’s golems followed.

Still, it was not enough to protect the scavenging group. They were doggedly chased by the Giant Grasshoppers even as the monsters sustained serious damage.

Shovel-guy hefted his dented shovel and raised a series of walls, cutting off the ravenous monster’s approach. However, due to the poor visibility on the chaotic battlefield, Adam ended up on the wrong side of the wall. Three were saved by the maneuver - one was doomed.

Clover fired off [Mana Bolt]s as quickly as he could, trying to keep the monsters away from Adam.

Congratulations! Mana Bolt has reached Level 26.

There were too many - an attack slipped through. A glass ball sailed through the air, forcing the pale child to slump to the ground to avoid getting hit. The ball shattered against the stone wall, raining shards down upon Adam. He laid on the ground with his hands covering his head for a moment, trying to hide away from the fighting.

Seconds later, the boss monster launched another glass ball, this one with a hollow interior filled with a sickly green fire. Before it could reach its target, Paul shot it out of the air with a well-aimed curving [Mana Bolt]. Flames licked the ground, continuing to burn with no fuel.

Spurred on by the burning heat, Adam picked himself up and desperately ran away, sprinting toward safety while screaming something Clover couldn’t understand.

A Giant Grasshopper with wings as sharp as swords followed, chasing down the child.

Clover fumbled for a moment, finding the right angle, then used [Mana Bolt: Barrage], sending 4 blue bolts out to intercept the monster.

Congratulations! Mana Bolt has reached Level 27.

Congratulations! Barrage has reached Level 9.

Congratulations! Barrage has reached Level 10.

The grasshopper reached out only a body’s length away.

[Mana Bolt] wouldn’t make it in time. He was too slow.

Adam screamed.

If this was the price of their plan, it wasn’t worth it. His thoughts a jumbled mess of self-hatred and concern, Clover pushed the [Mana Bolt]s to move faster - to make it in time. They responded, burning through the magic available to them. Still not fast enough.

Congratulations! Mana Bolt: Metamagic has reached Level 1.

As the monster jumped forward, eating through the remaining distance, it seemed to slow in midair, rapidly losing momentum until it moved slower than a normal person’s walking pace.

Clover’s hair stood up as a bone-deep cold reminiscent of a lonely winter's day danced on the edge of his senses.

After a moment, the effect faded.