Allen held his breath as he spent a point on Killer Instinct. He already knew what it did, but he couldn’t remember exactly what the first tier had done on its own. If it was good enough at tier one, then he could put the other point into Surge of Pain so it would actually deal damage on its own.

At the moment, that skill said “painful damaging mana,” but he could tell that it wasn’t really dealing any damage. Maybe it would do a little damage to something so weak that the pain itself was damaging, but that didn’t apply to the ogres at all.

For now, Killer Instinct was the best choice.

Skill: Killer Instinct

Estimate the success of your moves before you make them.

Category: State of Mind – Type: Passive – Tier 1

Effects: Vaguely predict the amount of damage an attack will deal before making it.

Cost: None

Allen glanced over the skill card. No cost was fairly common for low tier unmagical skills. Instead, what really interested Allen was that skill specified that he could predict the amount of damage an attack might deal. For whatever reason, he had assumed that effect was only available at a higher tier.

Even if it was a ‘vague’ prediction, it would still be exceptionally useful, perhaps even more so than a simple stat boost from Dead Calm. Still, Killer Instinct was rather unreliable at such a low tier. Dead Calm almost certainly would have been a better choice if Allen weren’t confident enough in his state of mind already.

In a good mood from his delightful discovery, Allen decided to put another point into Killer Instinct. “It’s not just because Amelia told me I should stay safe. My instincts are already good.”

Skill: Killer Instinct

Estimate the success of your moves before you make them.

Category: State of Mind – Type: Passive – Tier 2

Effects: Vaguely predict the amount of damage an attack will deal before making it. Vaguely foresee when an action might be dangerous.

Cost: None

“Again, it’s not very dependable, but a vague sense of danger is better than none at all.” Allen thought, “I guess we’ll see if this skill is as good as I remember.”

He quickly glanced at his status, confirming that his dexterity and speed had gone up with his strength while his resistance had gone down. It was just as he had expected.

Status:

Jeremiah Allen Durand

Human – Rogue – Level 6

XP: 862/1805 (6283)

Stat Points: 0, Skill Points: 0, Job Points: 0

Jobs:

Assassin

Basic – Tier 1

Stats:

HP: 100/100

Regen: 16/min

SP: 160/160

Regen: 10/min

MP: 70/70

Regen: 15/min

Primary:

STR: 16

INT: 7

VIT: 9 (10)

WIS: 11 (10)

END: 8 (10)

FCS: 15

Secondary:

DEX: 28 (24)

PER: 14

RES: 4

STB: 7

SPD: 26 (24)

LCK: 6

---

“I definitely need to increase intelligence and endurance next, a four is pretty low.”

Allen watched as Ty grunted in pain while Amelia healed his broken shoulder back into place. He was still bruised and burnt, but the girl was healing the worst parts of it first.

“Just don’t get hit,” Allen mused. “That’s his job.”

Camila shifted slightly and groaned. The worst of her burns were healed but the damage on her skin still ranged from a mild sunburn to medium rare. She certainly felt it too, given that her groan quickly shifted to a hiss of pain.

“Motherfucking fuck,” she cursed, flopping over onto her unburnt side. “Hey, why does my eye feel like shit!” she continued, blinking and wincing.

“It got, um… it exploded a little,” Amelia stuttered, looking up from Ty. “I healed it mostly but the tissue around your eye is probably still damaged.”

Camila reached to her face and cringed as her hand brushed across the blistered and hairless side of her head. “It’s always my fucking hair,” she said, more resigned than angry.

Ty laughed through his pained expression as he shot Camila a grin. “Damn gurl, you look like gender-bended Mexican Two Face,” he said and laughed again.

“I’m Cuban you bitch,” Camila replied, still wincing in pain.

Amelia sighed through a smile at the group. “I can’t heal hair, teeth or nerves until I take Reconstructive Healing… I’ll probably do that actually.”

Allen smirked a little. He looked over at Christopher while Amelia continued her healing. The professor was either deep in thought or keeping track of their surroundings through his skill. Possibly both.

“Do you have a plan?” Allen asked him. He knew they could just level up some more before coming back and easily slaughtering the ogres, but what would be the fun in that? They wouldn’t get nearly as much experience either.

They all knew that an immediate reward was always better than long term safety, at least when it came to the System.

Christopher returned Allen’s look. “You should probably remove the fire mage from the situation first,” he began in a gruff voice. “What was its level, did you see it?”

“Level thirty-one Ogre Pyrokinetic,” Allen replied. He let his head fall back onto the tree he was still leaning on. “And the boss is level thirty-eight.”

Christopher winced. “That will be difficult. Those two aren’t moving too far away from each other. We should probably think about leveling up again before taking on those two. Use the same strategy as before and leave when the boss and the pyrokinetic show up.”

“The Ogre Chieftain will probably level each of us five times by itself if we can split the categories well enough,” Allen said. “We should at least try.”

Christopher repositioned his wheelchair, expression pensive and distant. “The problem is how we separate the two while keeping the normal ones out of the way,” he mumbled.

“We could just kill all of them first,” Camila said, still struggling with the pain of her burns despite Amelia’s healing.

“There are still thirty-five regular ogres and a few juveniles,” Christopher replied swiftly. “If our previous attempt showed us anything, it’s that there are too many of them to take that approach. The chief and pyrokinetic will show up too quickly.”

Allen pursed his lips. He wasn’t really the strategic type; most of that had been left to the handlers or some one more competent than he was. Of course, he could still shoot some theories around and hope they went somewhere.

“I should have thought things through more… Or at least shared ideas a little.” Allen thought. His brief respite of introspection was abruptly cut off by Amelia walking up to him from the side.

“Here, let me heal you,” she said. Her hand was already outstretched and softly settled on his shoulder.

“Wha– oh, thanks.” Allen fumbled with his words as the girl’s healing magic flowed through his burnt shoulder. Allen attempted to control his heartrate but only halfway managed. The fact that Amelia’s mouth seemed to twitch into a faint smile didn’t help his nerves either. “She’s close… She’s touching me… I’m twenty-seven years old, not seventeen.”

The pain eased away after a few seconds, and then she was done. “Hmm, maybe I should get hit more often… How’s that for strategy?”

“Just some burns,” Amelia said softly.

“Alright then,” Camila started, pushing herself to her feet and stretching. Her injuries were healed, and her hair had been regrown only a minute ago. “Why don’t we just attack the chief one head on and get it to rampage away from the fire one. Seems simple to me.”

“Simple doesn’t always imply easy,” Christopher immediately retorted, then he was silent in his thoughts for a few seconds. “Although, that could work if executed properly.”

Camila harrumphed in satisfaction while Ty chuckled quietly.

“Amelia and I should follow behind you three. It will be dangerous for us to be here by ourselves with the ogres running around,” Christopher began, looking over the other four. “I will guide you to the chieftain, Camila will lure it away, and then Allen will go and kill the pyrokinetic. I can probably fight its fire enough to create an opening or at least a distraction.”

“A’ight, an’ what about the other ogres?” Ty asked, rolling his shoulder around before reaching for his tower shield.

Christopher smirked reluctantly and ran his hands through his silvery hair. “Indeed, them,” he started. “If I recall correctly, ogre chieftains can dominate their minions to a certain extent. Try to enrage it; that might trigger the ability.”

Ty smirked. “Camila’s on it,” he said.

“Stay safe, above all else,” Christopher added. Amelia nodded in agreement as she moved behind the professor and took hold of his wheelchair.

“Yeah, sure thing old man,” Camila replied. The Berserker hefted her claymore onto her shoulder with a grin on her face as she turned towards the ogre encampment.

Allen only smirked knowingly.