Once I was certain that the slater-like monsters we had been fighting either weren’t going to catch up to us anytime soon or had just given up on chasing us I came to a halt and sat down at the base of a nearby tree to meditate and recover both my Stamina and my Mana.

My minions were keeping watch so I knew that it was unlikely that we would be caught unawares. While I was meditating, I went over the previous fight to see if there was anything that I could improve upon. For now, I decided I was pretty happy with how things were going. The speed at which I used up my MP was still a problem of course but there wasn’t that much that I could do about it until I Levelled Up again.

My acid spells had basically worked the way that I’d hoped that they would. I mean it would’ve been nice if they had been a bit more powerful, but they would Level Up and become stronger eventually. I was also really lucky that my scorpion minion had been able to hold back one of the monsters by itself which allowed the amoeba to attack it from behind.

Opening my eyes, I decided to have a look at my Skill Levels and see what I had earned from the last fight.

Skills increased!

Observation increased to Lvl 9

Minion Control increased to Lvl 11!

Create Primitive Scorpion increased to Lvl 4

Caustic Bomb increased to Lvl 2

Acid Arrow increased to Lvl 2

Axe Mastery increased to Lvl 6

Knife Mastery increased to Lvl 6

Growth Rate increased by 1 Coordination

Stab increased to Lvl 3

Meditation increased to Lvl 9

Available Aspect points increased by 11

Total Aspect Points: 11

Quickly I placed the 9 points that were needed to complete the Aspect of Wisdom into the Aspect and confirmed my decision.

The world faded around me until I was surrounded completely by water. In the distance I could see the silvery scales of a school of fish that had formed a ball flickering in the light. I frowned slightly when I saw this since fish usually only really did this when there were predators nearby, but I couldn’t see anything. Then suddenly a massive shape shot past me at high speeds and practically dove into the ball of fish. As the fish scattered away a beam of light shot down on the area and I finally saw the familiar terrifying shape of a large shark. Then the world moved around me until I could I reached the ocean floor where the remains of another large shark rested. Different scavengers swarmed all over its body ranging from things like starfish to small fish. The body moved and I almost retched as an eel-like creature slowly slipped out of the shark corpses open mouth and slowly swallowed a chunk of flesh before slowly swimming off.

Blinking as my internal world faded away to reveal the forest once more, I quickly looked around to make sure that we were still alone before turning my attention to the notifications that had appeared in front of me.

Aspect of Wisdom 1 has been completed!

Having great Wisdom can allow you to recall events and details that no one else could which in turn can aid you in many situations where others would fail to succeed.

Wisdom increased by 1!

Perception increased by 1!

Intelligence increased by 1!

Wisdom is a particularly important trait for those who wish to be leaders. A foolish leader will usually find themselves on the wrong end of a knife wielded by those that they had trusted but those with wisdom will be much more likely to pick loyal people who they can trust and rule over their people fairly and well for many years.

Growth Rate increased by 4 Wisdom, 1 Perception, 1 Intelligence and 2 MP regen/Lvl.

For completing this Aspect, you may choose a Skill from the list below. (Some Skills may combine Skills that you already have into a new one)

Calm Mind

Increases MP regen by 20% while you remain in a calm state and allows you to increase your Elemental Affinities. You my move while using this Skill.

Or

Overcharge

You can use more MP when casting a spell to increase its effects.

Remaining Aspect Points: 2

Soul Aspect increased to Level 225!

Sharks have appeared in your internal world. These dangerous predators are known for their speed and power as well as their remarkable ability to track injured prey over long distances. Along with these new predators’ new scavengers, strange eel-like creatures known as hagfish have also appeared and spend their days cleaning up the messes that other creatures have left behind.

Strength increased by 2!

Agility increased by 2!

Perception increased by 2!

Coordination increased by 1!

Vitality increased by 1!

Okay so this is interesting. I was guessing that the Calm Mind Skill was actually the upgraded version of my Meditation Skill which actually seemed like a pretty good option to me. Overcharge was also really interesting but actually seemed like a Skill that I could work out easier than I would be able to work out how to get Calm Mind.

Having made my decision, I brought up the information on my new Skill.

Meditation upgraded to Calm Mind! (Rare)

Increases MP regen by 20% while you remain in a calm state and allows you to increase your Elemental Affinities. You my move while using this Skill.

Growth Rate increased by 2 Wisdom and 2 Willpower.

“Well I was right about Calm Mind being the upgraded version of Meditation,” I sighed. “Well I’d better check my Status one last time before I head out.”

Status

Level 3

Exp: 22%

HP: 278/278

MP: 611/611

HP Regen: 25.7 per minute (+1)

MP Regen: 38.6 per minute

SP: 201/201

Essence: 21

SP Regen: 21.7 per minute

Control Points: 40 (10)

Str: 32 (+13/Lvl)

Agi: 48 (+14/Lvl)

Con: 41 (+ 6/Lvl)

End: 34 (+9/Lvl)

Tou: 44 (+9/Lvl)

Int: 81 (+42/Lvl)

Coor: 32 (+8/Lvl)

Vit: 37 (+8/Lvl)

Wis: 54 (+21/Lvl)

Will: 50 (+37/Lvl)

Per: 46 (+18/Lvl)

Cha: 27 (+11/Lvl)

Additional Growth Rate: +16 Unassigned Stat Points/Lvl. +40 MP/Lvl. MP regen increased by 1.4/min per Lvl +5 Control Points/Lvl.

Unassigned Stat Points: 0

I frowned slightly as I noticed something about my Status Screen. I hadn’t been paying much attention when my Identify Skill had been upgraded to Observation but apparently, I kept the increase to my Growth Rate from Meditation as well as getting the increase from my new Skill.

Once I had come to terms with that I got to my feet and checked my knife for damage with my Observation Skill. It had lost another couple of points of Durability but at least it was in better condition than my axe was.

“Alright then,” I said as I looked at my two minions. “Let’s get back to it.”

We made our way back to where we had left the slater-like monsters, which I had decided to call Scourge because of their tendency to destroy the surrounding forest. Once were could see the burrow I came to a stunned halt.

“That one is a lot bigger than the ones we’ve already killed,” I muttered as I stared at the massive Scourge that was now standing guard over the entrance the burrow.

“Indeed, it is,” Tane agreed suddenly making me glad that I could sense it when the tree was going to talk to me with Telepathy o I would’ve given my location away completely. “That one’s fully grown so it will be able to fire those sticky threads that I warned you about.”

“Oh, right,” I replied. “I almost forgot that they had that ability since none of them used it last time.”

“Those were too young to use that ability,” Tane explained. “Usually the ones that guard the burrow are fully grown. That wasn’t the case this time because the burrow is new so this one was doing most of the work digging it out because it’s stronger then the others.”

“Ah, I see well I guess that we’d better get into it,” I decided before falling silent as I came up with a plan.

Once I was happy with the plan that I had come up with I ordered my two minions into motion. The giant Scourge turned towards the scorpion and amoeba as they charged towards it and hissed menacingly. Immediately I stepped out and launched a Caustic Bomb at the thing while it was distracted by the two enemies.

The glob of green acid splashed over the thing causing it to immediately start smoking as the liquid started to eat through its shell. Some of the acid must have seeped in through the gaps in its shell because the thig suddenly screamed in pain and started bucking in a futile attempt to get the viscous liquid off of its body.

The scorpion came to a halt and simply sat there waiting while the amoeba slid past it on its way to attack the oversized slater. Now that the Scourge was covered in acid it couldn’t touch the scourge or it might get some of the acid on it so I told it to wait and attack any other Scourge that exited the burrow while the amoeba and I continued to wear it down. The amoeba on the other hand already had caustic liquid inside its body so there was a pretty good chance it would be able to resist the acid that I used. If it couldn’t then we’d find out pretty quickly and I would have to deal with the giant Scourge on my own.

Unfortunately, the Scourge hadn’t moved away from the entrance to the burrow so I couldn’t do the same thing that I had done earlier and block it with a pool of acid. I was guessing that they had eventually covered the pool of acid that had already been there with dirt so that they wouldn’t be affected by it.

As soon as I was close enough that I was sure that I could hit the giant slater-shaped monster in close to the same place with my Acid Arrow spell I came to a halt and started casting the spell at the creature which had stopped bucking and had turned its attention to the amoeba which was now only about a meter away and sprayed a milky white liquid at it. This liquid started to harden as soon as it touched the amoeba but was quickly dissolved when the amoeba brought it inside of its body.

Seeing this a grin crossed my face. So far things were working out just fine. While the caustic liquid from my Acid Arrow spell started to eat away at the slightly thinner armour that protected the things face I fired several Mana Blades at the things legs in the hopes of making it easier for the amoeba which didn’t really have a good method of dealing damage to an enemy that was this much larger than it.

As I’d expected the spell didn’t really do a lot of damage and after about 4 casts, I had only managed to cut part way through its leg. During this time the Scourge was trying not to move from its position in front of the burrow. Which made sense since it was trying to protect its fellows but unfortunately for it that also made it a really easy target to hit. Meanwhile my amoeba was simply moving in and out of range of its pincers but not really doing much other than distracting it enough that it wasn’t able to get a bead on me with the sticky liquid that it could shoot from its mouth.

Eventually I managed to chop one of its legs off with my Mana Blade and it decided that it had had enough of sitting there while I attacked from range and charged at me, completely steamrollering the amoeba in the process which didn’t do anywhere near as much damage to my minion as it would’ve to me but I still tossed a quick Heal Minion its way just in case as I dove out of the way of the massive Scourge.

By now the acid from the Caustic Bomb that I had fired at it was no longer an issue I ordered my scorpion to attack and it did paying extra attention to its wounded leg but much like the amoeba doing very little damage to it. Not that I really seemed to be doing much better.

Taking the chance, I fired a Caustic Bomb at the ground in front of the entrance to the burrow before turning my attention back to the Scourge that we were fighting which had just fired its sticky fluid all over my scorpion completely preventing it from moving from the spot that it was in.

I cursed loudly and fired several more Acid Arrows at the Scourge in the hopes of attracting its attention but to no avail. I was getting pretty low on MP as well at this point, so I decided to try and use the same technique that I had used to take out the first Scourge that I had killed. If I was a normal human, then leaping on top of the Scourge’s back would have been a lot more difficult. Even the smaller ones had come up to my waist but this one was about the same height as I was and unlike the other one that I had used this technique against I had chosen not to cast Sticky Bog so it was still moving around.

Leaping into the air I threw my leg over the things extremely wide body and landed on its back. I grunted in pain on landing as I squashed some rather delicate parts underneath me, but I gritted my teeth and got a good grip on the thing before it could toss me off. As soon as I landed the thing started bucking to try and throw me off but my Strength and Coordination allowed me to hold on and my Perception allowed me to read what the Scourge was going to do next, so it was unable to dislodge me.

Drawing my kunai, I tried to slip the blade between the gaps of the Scourge’s shell. I wasn’t yet confident that my attacks had damaged the shell enough to be able to penetrate it even if I used both Stab and Mana Edge.

While I was doing this, I had the amoeba go and try to destroy the sticky stuff that was preventing the Scorpion from moving. The scourge snapped at the scorpion with its powerful jaws several times. The scorpion was able to deflect the first couple of attacks with its claws, but the third time the Scourge’s jaws clamped down on its left claw causing the scorpion to hiss in pain as its exoskeleton gave way under the immense pressure.

Ignoring this for now I started bashing the end of my kunai with my other fist as I tried to push the blade in deeper. Once I was sure that it was deep enough, I braced my feet against the shell of the Scourge and started levering the kunai upwards. This was extremely difficult even with my recently increased Strength Stat but eventually I had levered the shell up enough the I could put my hand inside the shell. Sweat ran down my face as I cast first Gravel Shotgun and then Stone Shot before finishing it off with a Mana Bolt.

Immediately the Scourge screeched in pain and I leapt off of its back before I was thrown off as its body started writhing. Rolling as I landed, I quickly came to my feet and turned to look over my shoulder at the Scourge which was still writhing in pain from my attack. I didn’t know if I had hit anything important, but it was pretty clear that I had definitely done something.

After making sure that it was just going to continue attacking me or my minions for the moment, I turned my attention to the injured scorpion and grimaced. Even before I looked at the scorpion, I knew that it had been badly injured, but I didn’t expect to see that the scourge had completely ripped off the claw that it had gotten hold of.

After quickly checking my MP levels I decided that it would be worthwhile to at least stabilise the scorpion and cast my Heal Minion spell. The Scorpion immediately perked up, but it was pretty clear that letting it continue to take part in the fight would be a bad idea, so I ordered it to back off. While the scorpion backed away, I ordered the amoeba to come over then quickly bent down, picked it up and hurled it on top of the still bucking Scourge. When it landed it immediately found the point where I had levered the shell up and slipped in through the still slightly enlarged gap.

I wasn’t sure what happened once it had slipped inside, I was too busy trying to calm down so that my Clam Mind Skill would take effect while keeping an eye on the smaller Scourge that were currently pacing at the entrance to the burrow while they waited for the pool of acid to drain away. However, what I did know was the large Scourge was extremely unhappy about it and a couple of minutes later its legs collapsed underneath it and it slowly fell still.

About a minute after that the amoeba oozed out of its open mouth and I breathed a sigh of relief as I quickly used my Essence Drain Skill on whatever remained inside the shell before ordering my minions to follow me as I retreated once more. While I ran, I checked in with Tane who confirmed that the Giant Scourge that we had just killed was the most powerful one in the group which meant that things should be a bit easier once we had all recovered. Hopefully my Heal Minion spell would be able to fix the scorpion’s claw but if it couldn’t then I might have to think about summoning a new one. Hopefully, it wouldn’t come to that though.

I was pretty sure that the remaining scourge would all be waiting to ambush us the next time that we returned but that was okay. Even if something went wrong and I was forced to retreat all the way back to Tane’s base I had dealt a pretty hard blow to this group of Scourge and I was confident that I would be able to finish them off at a later date if necessary.