I startled awake as a boom echoed across the city. It was morning but I could still hear the occasional fighting in the distance. Bella was laying down on the other side of the room, looking at me. I stood and stretched my sore muscles. I had to stop as my side gave me a twitch. I reached down to feel the spot Obidiah had hit me. My new armor was dented in, and my armor was not providing nearly as much in the way of protection as it should.

The gem still held a charge, but the power could no longer flow along the runic pattern to provide the shield. I carefully removed the armor to inspect the damage.

There was a fist-shaped imprint in the lower right by the rib cage. Three plates were cracked. How the man had managed to crack mithril with a punch, through multiple barriers and a damage ward was beyond me. I checked the armor's stats to see how bad it was.

Mage-Bane Brigandine

Quality: Fair - Damaged

Armor: 25

Slashing resistance: 50%

Stabbing resistance: 65%

Blunt resistance: 15%

Magic resistance 25%

Elemental resistance 15%

I sighed after seeing the status of the armor. With the damage, it wasn't much better than the Trubar armor I made. And in some cases, it was worse. I decided to store it in my ring for now and switch to my other armor.

I also took this time to look at my notifications. And there were a lot of them. In total, I had 46 kills. A few of the names I recognized as slaves, but no sign of Obidiah or Mr. Cotton. Dammit! I did get another notice though.

Congratulations you are the first person on your planet to deal over 100000 damage with one attack 150000 XP awarded

It all added up for enough to bring me to level fifteen. I looked at my stats before I decided on where I wanted to put my new attribute points.

Paul Fuller | Mantra Enchanter | Level 15

Strength: 12(+2) modifier x16

Endurance: 16 modifier x34

Agility: 15(+2) modifier x16

Perception: 15 modifier x16

Intelligence: 19 modifier x34

Wisdom: 14 modifier x16

Charisma: 11 modifier x16

Luck: 14 modifier x16

HP: 544(598)

Mana: 646

Mana Regen(M): 224

I was starting to see a need to bump Endurance up again. At this level one spell or attack was devastating. It was no wonder Obidiah was so damn powerful. Even though he survived I doubt he or Mr. Cotton made it out unscathed. I knew Obidiah had lost his arm, I saw the limb fly off when he impacted the building as I was falling.

I didn't see a real big need to bump up Wisdom, I was getting almost four mana a second back right now. Maybe at level twenty, I would increase that stat. The same held true for Charisma and Luck. I didn't see any point in spending points in those stats right now. I sure as hell didn't care if people like me anymore. And my luck seemed to be worse if anything.

This left me with Strength, Endurance, Agility, Perception, and Intelligence. I could dump a point in each but I wasn't sure that was the right road to take. I still had my buffs for Strength and Agility to raise their stats. So that left the other three. I seemed to gain the most by increasing my magical damage and mana. Mostly mana, since only two of my abilities improved from an intelligence increase, Earth Fist, and Healing Touch.

I placed the points, or I tried to. There was some sort of wall at twenty points preventing me from adding any more. There must be a way to overcome this limitation? There was no way Obidiah or Mr. Cotton had less than twenty points in strength or dexterity. I would have to talk with someone about this issue later. In the meantime, I added the last point into a different stat.

Paul Fuller | Mantra Enchanter | Level 15

Strength: 13(+2) modifier x16

Endurance: 18 modifier x34

Agility: 15(+2) modifier x16

Perception: 16 modifier x16

Intelligence: 20 modifier x34

Wisdom: 14 modifier x16

Charisma: 11 modifier x16

Luck: 14 modifier x16

HP: 612(673)

Mana: 680

Mana Regen(M): 224

It would do, for now, the extra mana and health would be important. I couldn't leave this area until I killed those two, or at least verified they were dead. I would also make sure to kill any Black Dragon stragglers that I came across. I owed it to them to see that they would never rise to prominence again. I looked at my available skills. I had three points to spend.

Level fourteen didn't give me any buffs to my already existing spells. I had kind of expected it to but maybe those spells had already reached their maximum. Instead, I was given two options.

Disruption: Causes a wave of rock that shoots from the ground in an arc in front of you, causing weapon damage. 30% chance of disrupting any active ability of targets hit. Max range 10m, max-width 8m, Cost 100 mana, cooldown 10min

Syncopate: Your strike has a 20% chance to stop the target's heart. Each point of endurance above yours reduces this chance, Cost 60 mana, cooldown 5min

Syncopate sounded nice until you read the second part. I didn't think it was worthwhile for a possibly less than 20% chance of it working. I took Disruption instead, the fact that it said it causes weapon damage meant it would incorporate my elemental imbuement as well.

Level fifteen didn't buff any of my existing abilities either.

Shroud: A misty veil covers an area 10m3 x Int and lasts for 10 minutes obscuring all vision, Cost 80 mana, cooldown 2 hours

Calcifying Strike: Your attack slowly converts the target into stone. Spreads 2cm2 x Int per sec until cleansed. Lasts 5 min, Cost 50 mana, cooldown 5 min

Air Blade: Produces a sharp blade of air that can cut through most armor, causing weapon damage. Cost 45 mana, cooldown 2 min

As much as I would like another ranged attack, especially one that would improve with Imbue, I decided to go with Shroud and Calcifying Strike. Shroud would give me something I have been sorely lacking, a way to escape a fight. Calcifying Strike sounded like a good way to disable an opponent or kill them, depending on how the ability worked. I did some quick math. It wasn't enough to cover an entire person, let alone turn an entire human into stone. I would have to test it and make sure to target important body parts.

I packed up my gear and Bella, it would be easier to exit the house with her in storage. I buffed myself and headed out the back door. Halfway down the back steps, I heard clapping. I whipped around, staff appearing in my hand. Lounging on the roof over the porch was a man in black. Wait I recognized this man, it was the one who killed Gregorio.

The clapping faded as the man replied, "That was quite the party you threw for us last night, congratulations are in order. You can relax, if I wanted you dead I would have killed you while you slept. Cute pet by the way."

The man disappeared into a puff of smoke, reappearing on the ground. I still kept my staff ready.

"Fine, whatever. I just came to let you know the work isn't done. Somehow the surviving members managed to fight off the freed slaves. We also believe that Harold, you might know him as Mr. Cotton, and his right-hand man Obidiah survived. It wasn't without injury though. We need to push the remaining forces before they can recover their strength."

"I did my part, why should I help you?"

The man laughed, "Yeah, like you weren't going to go back in to finish the job. You're an open book kid. Besides, wouldn't Fiona want you to finish seeing this through."

I lunged at the man but he turned into smoke.

"Don't you dare bring her up, you know nothing!" I growled.

The man appeared again a few feet back, "Touchy, touchy. Fine, I won't mention your old flame. Just thought you might like some assistance with the cleanup. Mutual self-interest and all that. So, you in or not?"

The man was an ass, but he had a point. I decided to scan him, to see what I was dealing with.

Jacob Moore | Shade Scout | Level 13

The man lifted his eyebrow as I scanned him but didn't say anything. I didn't know these people or trust them. Hell, I didn't trust anyone anymore. Still, his plan had merit. I could use some backup. It just galled me that this man seemed to know everything that was going on but their group only did hit and run tactics. It seemed to me that they could easily get in and out of the compound while killing off high-level members. A few might pose an issue for them. Obidiah especially. I had a feeling if that man ever got free he would hunt me to the ends of the Earth, just on principle.

"Did all the slaves die in the fighting?"

"Hmm, no, most just ran at the first sign of trouble. It's probably the reason the rest fell in the fighting. They took a good number with them though."

So most did what I did and got the hell out as fast as they could. Can't say I blamed them for that.

"Fine, where do we start?"

"That's the easy part. We will dispatch any patrols, killing off any members, while you go in and do, whatever it is you did to free the slaves. Then rinse and repeat. Eventually, they won't have enough members or slaves to send out."

"Ok, and when should we start?"

"Now works for me."

The man pulled his bow and shot a glowing arrow right past my head. The wet splat I heard made me whip around. A man appeared as he stumbled backward, an arrow jutting from his eye and a surprised look on his face. He reached up to try and pull the arrow out, but he was already dead. I recognized the man as one of Sharla's assassins. His body collapsed to the ground, his blade bouncing away as it hit the sidewalk.

"Well, that was quick of them. I thought it would take another twenty minutes for them to pick up your trail."

I glared at the cavalier man as he strode past and pulled the now inert arrow from the man's skull, "No point letting a good arrow go to waste," he said waving it in the air. He flicked the blood off of it and returned it to his storage ring.

"Shall we go? Or would you like to stick around and play with the others that are likely closing in?"

The man didn't wait for my response. He started walking down the alley, either I followed him or I didn't. I ground my teeth but chose to follow him. I also put my Talisman of Shuma on. It may have limited uses but I wanted something to see through cloaking and illusions if I came across others like the assassin. Which seemed likely at this point.

These assassins attacking me also told me something important. If Obidiah or Harold Cotton were in any condition to come after me, they would have themselves. They had healers, so this meant the loss of at least one limb. Even with healing, these took days or weeks to grow back unless you had the original to reattach. This might be my only chance to eliminate the threat unless I found a way to level at least five more times in two days. This seemed unlikely, considering I dropped a building on almost fifty people and only gained a level and a half.