“Warriors, forward!”

The fruits of our harsh training regimen were now showing. We quickly changed formation from a long row of archers standing behind a tanky row of warriors, into smaller squads with balanced ranged and melee class distribution.

Hunting big game served the dual purpose of allowing us to get in some mock combat while securing some fresh game meat for dinner. Each squad engaged an injured buffalo. Our squad was about to get some action against these super sized cows.

“Books, attack! Go my slave!”

Books groaned. “I’m not a slave anymore, technically…”

“Then attack, minion!”

[Rose] laughed. She was the cleric assigned to our squad, making up our backline alongside [Nora] the sorcerer and [Solar] the archer.

I charged forward with the rest of our front line, which consisted of myself and Books on the left, [Aeric] the shield bearing knight in the center, and [Donovan] the hulking juggernaut along with [Felix] the thief to the right.

Actually, Books was considered a flex role, alternating between frontline and backline. He provided a ton of sustain to Nora and Rose in the form of mana potions from his [Potioneer] drops, but he could easily fight in the front lines with a good potion roll while tossing some health potions over to the other front liners.

Thwack.

I lashed at the buffalo, getting a nice hit in right across its torso. I was still getting used to fighting in full armor, but my sky high dexterity allowed me to mitigate some of the mobility penalties from wearing heavy armor.

The buffalo turned and tried to charge at me, but Aeric stepped in and planted his body length square shield on the ground. The buffalo slammed into our shield knight, knocking him to the side.

“Leave this to me,” Donovan said. He was a muscular black man with a towering physique at 196 cm and 98 kg. No wonder he was given the [Juggernaut] class. He wore a large chainmail vest that gave him a balance of defense and decent mobility, and attacked with his bare hands.

I asked him earlier why he used only his hands, and his reply was that he was a former judo practitioner in college, and the only weapon he ever needed was his bare hands.

Donovan grabbed the buffalo by its horns and wrestled his grip around its neck, pinning it to the ground with a combination of technique and a heavy grip.

“Now!”

“Fireball!” Nora shouted, walking closer in her flowing robes.

[31 damage]

The fireball connected with the buffalo’s lower body, inflicting a fair amount of damage, although it was nowhere near how much I would be able to deal with magic cast with my S tier intelligence growth.

Solar dished out consistent dps from the backline. She was a normal archer class, but the generic classes shouldn’t be underestimated, and they were not necessarily worse than rarer classes. Case in point, the oaktree longbow that I bought earlier sat unused in my inventory. I tried it out earlier today, but the [1 damage] and [2 damage] damage numbers weren’t all too encouraging.

What surprised me most was the strength an average buffalo possessed in Jagged Dorsa. It had an impressive amount of bulk and damage threat that required an entire coordinated squad to take down. The equivalent large wild game beast I encountered in the past, the wild boars near Talos, were nothing compared to these buffalos.

A single one of these buffalos could be considered a horde boss when compared with Talos boars. But what was a horde boss to a cat?

Meat Shield blinked on top of the buffalo and scratched its neck, dealing insignificant damage. The buffalo looked mildly annoyed, but couldn’t really concentrate on it much when Dononvan had him in a chokehold.

This was Meat Shield’s specialty–dealing mild psychological damage with annoying attacks. Too bad she was just as effective at dealing it against enemies as she was at dealing it against her master.

“Whoa, your pet can do that?” Donovan exclaimed, surprised that the cat just blinked into existence above the buffalo’s head.

There was no point hiding it at this point. “Yeah, she’s a summon from my unique skill.”

I wanted to keep the extent of my abilities hidden, because I learned the hard way last time that it wasn’t wise to advertise possession of interesting abilities. For example the telekinetic properties of Love Whip, or the fact that I could use magic as a supposed thief class, were things that were better kept under wraps.

But, this dumbass cat really didn’t want to fall behind in xp, so here we were. The cat’s out of the bag. At least I could explain away one anomaly with the unique skill excuse.

“Donovan, turn him this way!” Felix shouted.

Felix turned invisible momentarily, reappearing next to the buffalo.

“Backstab.”

Sssshhhhhkkkk.

Felix’s dagger glistened with blood as it quickly entered and exited the buffalo’s back.

[20 damage]

[4 damage]

[4 damage]

[3 damage]

This was my first time seeing the infamous [Backstab] ability be used. It dealt some upfront damage, but the real crown jewel of the ability was the large amount of bleed damage it dealt over time.

The buffalo recoiled in pain and managed to toss Donovan off its neck, its horn impaling Donovan in the leg.

“Aghhhh!”

As Aeric and Felix and I kept the buffalo busy, Books rushed to Donovan’s side, uncorking a [Lesser Potion of Health] and pouring it down his throat and over the wound.

Donovan’s body began to glow as he received dual healing from Rose’s [Heal] spell and the potion. He got back up and cracked his neck, his injuries mostly healed.

“That was a good wakeup call,” he said, rubbing the spot on his leg that was just healed.

I continued to lash at the buffalo when I had a clear shot. Before long, the buffalo fell to its built up injuries.

“Get the next one!” Aeric shouted. We ran towards another injured buffalo with multiple arrows sticking out of it.

...

For dinner that night, we had the most delicious slow cooked buffalo meat stew with wild mushrooms and vegetables.

A few soldiers were badly hurt by the buffalos but recovered after being healed by healers. All in all, a successful day in Jagged Dorsa, and the memories of the distant roar on the first day faded. Under the commander’s orders, we spent the remainder of the day scouting the perimeter of the mountain for any concealed dwarven tunnel entrances.

No tunnels were found quite yet today, and so we picked a quiet spot to camp for the night, and I logged out.

---------------

“Check over the trial balance again, I think you need to recalculate their receivables with the new aging schedule. And send me the file once you’re done.”

“Tell the intern to print two copies of the audited invoices as well, thanks.”

Work was hectic the next day, and I scrambled to finish the work by the filing deadline. I didn’t get much of a chance to check the Eclipse forums. At 7pm, it was finally time to head home.

Today I was going to treat myself, so I headed to a local japanese ramen shop and got a seat at the booth.

“Can I take your order?”

“One tonkatsu ramen and a side of takoyaki please.”

The waitress smiled and headed to the back. I put my head against the table, exhausted from work. This was the first time I was at this joint. It had some pretty good reviews on yelp and was about fifteen minutes walking distance from my apartment.

My head pulsated with a migraine, although the lively chatting from the other customers kept me in good spirits.

The waitress came back with a steaming hot bowl of ramen and a plate of takoyaki.

“Here’s your food~”

“And a beer, please. Extra large,” I said, looking up at her.

“Okay~.”

Wait.

Wait a second.

Our eyes locked. Her straight, dyed blonde hair and dark eye makeup looked familiar.

“...Spoon?” she asked softly.