Soul of the Warrior

“Why. Are. These. Guys. So. Tough?!” Teilon panted as he slashed the throat of another goblin. The strike to the throat wasn’t itself enough to kill it, but it had suffered enough damage already that it became a fatal strike regardless.

The goblin collapsed to the ground with numerous wounds across its body. Teilon and Kimberly both stood over it, catching their breath. All around the Party, dead goblins in various states lay. Despite all of them being covered in wounds, there wasn’t that much blood pooled on the ground.

“These are naturally evolved creatures,” Refix answered. He stood next to the pair, keeping an eye out for any more goblins coming there way.

Every encounter they from the first fight in the plains, goblins would spring up all around them and come at them in waves. Only Kefira and Ameliyn working together with their magic prevented them from getting overrun each time.

“As opposed to what?” Teilon asked, looking at Refix askance.

“As opposed to Dungeon monsters,” Refix said. “You and I gained our Levels and experience fighting Dungeon monsters. Those guys are created by the Dungeons, so they’re not naturally evolved.”

“Ok, I get that, but what does it mean?”

“Dungeon monsters will have fairly even Stats. Not only that, but their bodies aren’t tempered by living their entire lives in a Tier 5 Mana-rich Region.

“These creatures,” Refix gestured to the dead goblins with his sword, “have the same overall number of Stats as Dungeon monsters, but they’re not going to be evenly distributed. Their Physical Stats far outweigh their Mental Stats.

“Their Health and Stamina Points are much higher than their counterparts in a Dungeon, and their natural defense is bolstered by their higher Stats and the environment. It’s the same principle as trees and other plants found in the different Regions. A non-magical plant found in a Tier 4 Region is much more Mana-dense than the same kind found in a Tier 3 Region.

“Up until this point, the difference between Dungeon and natural creatures hasn’t been such that it’s noticeable. Tier 5 is a watershed, not only because of the Mana density, but the sheer number of Levels’ worth of Stats as compared to a Tier 4 creature. 150 Levels of Stats heavily in favor of Physical Stats, and Stats that are growing at a faster pace than previous Tiers, will make a difference.”

“That… makes sense,” Teilon conceded.

“Of course it does,” Refix nodded sagely. “It’s not all bad news, though. Have you noticed that none of the goblins have used any Mana Skills or Abilities? Creatures in a Dungeon will use Mana Skills, Abilities, and Spells, because they’re artificial. Even though Mana is unlocked for all lifeforms at Tier 4, these goblins are monsters. They’re not going to practice these new abilities except for the rare variants that were born with Mana.”

“Like that shaman goblin we saw in the beast tide during our conscription,” Reivyn pointed out. “Come to think of, that’s the only magic-wielding goblin I’ve ever seen.”

“I would say it’s probably one in a thousand goblins are born with Mana,” Ameliyn chimed in. “Different species of monsters will have different rates, but goblins are among the poorest. On top of that, any Caster Goblins that survive are going to be protected in one of their tribes. We won’t run into one out in the wild like this.

“It might be possible for the leadership caste to have Mana Skills and abilities, though they won’t be Casters unless they were also born with Mana - a probability so low as to be non-existent.”

“So basically what you’re saying is, we’re safer fighting these guys because they’re not good at combat, but we’re going to have to exhaust ourselves and make sure we don’t get overrun every time.”

“That’s the gist of it,” Refix nodded.

“I have a question,” Reivyn called out. Refix turned and nodded for him to go ahead. “Is everyone getting Experience from killing these guys?”

Everyone shared a look between each other. They all nodded and turned back to Reivyn with a puzzled expression.

“Yeah, everything’s normal,” Refix said.

“Huh.”

There was a slight moment of silence before Refix followed up.

“Why? What’s going on with you?” Refix asked.

“I’m not getting any Experience,” Reivyn revealed. “In fact I haven’t gotten any Experience since I woke up in bed after the Dungeon delve.”

“Wait, what?” Refix asked, concern in his voice and expression. “Why haven’t you mentioned anything up until now?”

“You know my unique situation,” Reivyn said. “I’ve kind of gotten out of the habit of paying attention to it. It just came to mind for me to check it, and I recently found out about it.” Reivyn shrugged. “I have no idea what’s going on, but it’s apparently me and not the monsters.” ꞦÄΝȏʙĘs

“Do you have some sort of System Notification?” Ameliyn asked.

“I’ve checked everything, and I’ve gone back through the most recent Notifications over and over, and there’s nothing in there about Experience. There’s one thing that stands out, but I don’t want to jump the gun until I can figure out more evidence.”

“Hmm, it’ll make things a bit more annoying in the short term as long as your Experience gains come back, but unless it doesn’t come back any time soon, it shouldn’t be too much of a problem. We were going to use the expedition to get you to max Level over time, and we were counting on your improved Stats and Skills to gradually make things faster and easier while we’re here.”

“Yeah, well, it really shouldn’t be too much of a hindrance on that front,” Reivyn said. “I’m only one person in the Party, and I’m not even acting to my full capacity. Skill gains are still there, so it’s not like I’m not getting any improvement. I’m just not Leveling right now.”

“Keep us posted. There’s not much we can do other than what we were already planning on doing without heading to civilization. If you’re still not getting Experience by the time we get back to Wispan, we’ll have to make that the number one priority. Until then just keep an eye on it and let us know when it comes back, or if you figure something out as to the cause, let us know so we can help you.”

“Will do,” Reivyn nodded.

Like he had said, he had long gotten out of the habit of constantly checking his Experience gains and Status Page. Some of it was maturity, but some of it was also getting out of the practice while he had his siphon ability turned on. His Bloodline was an endless well for Experience to disappear down.

He poked and prodded at his Status Page and Notifications. He got the occasional Helpful Hint about a Stat, Skill, or Notification, but there was no “Help” or “Search” function built into the System., What it gave is what one got.

The System has been very good about detailing exactly what it’s doing up to this point, Reivyn thought. Every time something unexpected happened, the System was very clear in how it handled finding the solution. Either it doesn’t think anything’s wrong, or it’s given me all of the information I need already.

With that thought, Reivyn’s mind wandered to the Notification he thought might have something to do with his situation.

System Alert!

Divine Mana and Spark of Providence from the Subspace have been absorbed.

Dungeon is shutting down to recover.

Recovery period: 765:23:59:59.00

Reivyn was fairly certain that particular Notification held the clue. It was really the only unique Notification he had received before. Everything that came after was a derivative of this message, and all the things prior were the same or similar to Notification he had received in the past that didn’t alter his Experience gain.

Either the Divine Mana or Spark of Providence needs to absorb a certain amount of energy, or it’s somehow tied to the timer for the Dungeon recovery, Reivyn mused. Let’s hope it’s the former and not the latter. If I just need to accumulate energy, I have direct control over that. Simply waiting a year and a half is quite passive.

Reivyn snorted to himself.

I say that now, but what if the amount of energy I need to absorb takes longer than a year and a half? If that’s the problem, I have no idea how much I need to absorb. At least if it’s a waiting game, I have a definite answer.

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One way or another, two things that will definitely confirm my guess: If I regain my Experience acquisition after killing a bunch of monsters or if I regain it at the same time the Dungeon reopens. If I go past the timer for the Dungeon, that will really only confirm it’s not a waiting game, not necessarily that I haven’t acquired enough energy yet.

“I think we should go out of our way to kill more monsters,” Reivyn said.

Teilon gave him a sharp look.

“Are you out of your mind?!” He hissed. “Do you not see the state Kimberly and I are in? And I would bet your mom and girlfriend are getting low on Mana, too. We have enough on our plates dealing with the minimum as it is.”

Reivyn chuckled and clapped his friend on the shoulder.

“Yes, but Serilla and I would take turns switching out with you and Kimberly,” Reivyn explained. “You’ll both still be in the Party and participating in the battle, so you’ll get full Experience, though you might end up working on auxiliary Skills. As it is right now, we’re basically just standing around.

“Sure I’m pelting them with stones from my sling, and I plan on getting a good bow in the Adventurer Outpost to further augment my ranged capabilities, and I hit them with my Spells, but stepping up as a frontline fighter is the perfect solution.”

“I’ve been meaning to find time to work on my Javelin Skill,” Kimberly spoke up. “I know I’m 90% a melee fighter, but throwing a spear or javelin is part of my repertoire.” She glanced at Teilon. “So is throwing daggers part of yours.”

Teilon stroked his chin in thought.

“You know, on second thought, that’s an excellent idea,” Teilon grinned. “I’m glad I thought of it.”

“Mhmm, me too,” Reivyn nodded along. Teilon just gave a charming smile as he winked at his friend.

“I notice there was no mention of rotating out with me,” Refix quipped.

“You’re barely breaking a sweat,” Reivyn rolled his eyes.

“Barely means I am sweating,” Refix pointed out, cocking an eyebrow at his son.

“You love it, don’t lie.”

Refix stared at his son for a second before shrugging and smiling.

“True. I wouldn’t want to take a step back, but I can always engage with my Ethereal Arsenal if need be.”

“Oh yeah, I almost forgot you have that Skill,” Teilon said. “Why don’t you use it more often?”

“My ability to wield the weapons is directly correlated to my Weapons Skills. Gaining Levels in Ethereal Arsenal doesn’t make me a better fighter with them, it just let’s me concentrate more and summon more of them.

“If I want to improve my actual ability to fight with them, I need to get up close and personal. For whatever reason, I’ve found that gaining Skill Levels in my Weapons is about ten times slower through the use of the Skill.

“But believe me, if I need to step back to take a breather, I will.”

“What’s the lowest your Stamina’s gotten so far?” Reivyn asked, curious.

“Eleven percent,” Refix gave an immediate answer.

Teilon’s eyes nearly bugged out.

“And that’s you barely breaking a sweat?”

“What can I say? You know how I train, and I’ve been training like that since before I unlocked my Tier 1 Class.”

Reivyn had fond recollections of his time training with his father before he was conscripted.

“Come to think of it,” Reivyn said with a slight frown, “You always did run me into the dirt before practice drills even after I had exhausted my potential and reached the maximum of my diminishing returns. I never really thought about it then, and I had just grown so used to it recently that I never put it together that you’ve always trained me like that from day one.”

“Yep, work hard play hard,” Refix said.

“Except your idea of ‘play’ is just more work,” Teilon grumbled.

“What was that?” Refix tilted his head like he had a hard time hearing Teilon’s complaint. “Did you say we haven’t been working hard enough to justify play?”

“No no no no no,” Teilon shook his head vehemently.

“I can fix that.”

“NOOOoooooo,” Teilon let out a dramatic wail. He didn’t raise his voice too loud, though. He was still cognizant of the fact they were in dangerous territory in the Wilderness.

Reivyn could perceive the closer Honor Guard soldiers smiling at Teilon’s antics, but they kept their vision pointed outward. The group continued walking through the open fields, now into the rolling hills they had spied in the distance earlier.

Despite traveling a considerable ways to reach the hills and then even further into them, the mountains still seemed no closer on the horizon. Reivyn didn’t know how far away they were, but from the context he had gleaned, they must have been massive.

That mountain range puts the one we discovered the Revenant Dungeon on to shame, and that mountain range was huge.

The group only encountered two more roving bands of goblins walking about the hills. Reivyn was true to his word as he and Serilla stepped up half way through each encounter to let Teilon and Kimberly get a break. It made more sense to rotate during the fights instead of off and on per fight as Teilon and Kimberly would exhaust themselves in each fight, not just the aggregate.

After the second encounter, they didn’t run into any more goblins. They still kept a lookout, but there was just no monsters in the vicinity. Eventually they discovered why.

A couple of hours before dusk, Refix pointed into the distance to one of the hills. The first place Reivyn looked was the skyline, but he didn’t see anything against the backdrop of the horizon. He activated his Eagle Eye Skill and scanned the hill below the ridge. He immediately spotted movement with his sharper vision.

Ten people clad in armor were walking along the hillside just below the top where they could be easily spotted from all around. A sound tactic, Reivyn nodded his head in approval. He recognized they were quite experienced from that one little detail.

“Patrollers in the distance,” Refix said. “Let’s alter our course to run into them.”

The Honor Guard didn’t say anything in response. They just altered their trajectory slightly so the group would intercept the ten people walking in the distance.

At about the same time Refix pointed out the ten individuals in the distance, Reivyn noticed one of them lift their hand and point in their direction. He raised his hand to wave to them and indicate they weren’t a roving band of monsters. He wasn’t worried they would be hostile, not this close to the Adventurer Outpost.

There were many competing influences within the Upper Regions headed by various groups and empires, but one thing that was made clear in all the journals he had read was that the closest outpost was friendly to all humans regardless of which territory it was closest to or sponsored by.

It was guaranteed that Wispan would have the biggest influence amongst the Adventurers in this particular outpost, and most of them would be loyal to the Wispan Empire and not the Adventurer’s Guild. The Adventurer’s Guild maintained all the outposts found in the Upper Region, but that didn’t mean they were the biggest fist in each outpost.

By unspoken agreement in the entire Local Cluster, the border outposts were considered safe havens for both travelers to and from the Wilderness. Those entering the Upper Regions through the Wilderness would have been traveling for over a month and would be road weary, and those traveling from deeper within the Region would be physically and mentally taxed from the challenges found there.

Just because the goblins appeared in hordes every time the group stumbled upon any of them did not mean they were considered one of the challenges of the Tier 5 Region. They were the “nuisance” monsters. They almost didn’t even count.

Further inside there were ferocious beasts that would eat a goblin horde for breakfast, orc tribes that enslaved the goblins just like was found in the Tier 1 Regions, goblin tribes lead by evolved or “higher-order” hobgoblins and goblin shamans, and all sorts of dangerous environments born out of the Mana density itself: Miasma, poison swamps, gravity wells, just to name a few.

The ten people in the distance likewise altered their course and made to meet with Reivyn’s group. With the Stats of everyone involved on both sides, it only took a couple of minutes before they converged with each other atop a small hill.

“Greetings, travelers,” the man in the lead of the ten man squad said, lowering his helmet.

Each of the ten were wearing impressive armor. It wasn’t uniform like they were a military unit like the Honor Guard soldiers and mercenaries, It was just very high quality. It was clear they were a group composed of Adventurers to Reivyn. They didn’t have a military bearing about themselves, and he would expect to find the areas near the outpost patrolled by Adventurers anyway.

“Greetings,” Refix replied back, also removing his helmet.

The man gave a small smile.

“If you see a group of ten people like us wandering about in these foothills, you can simply call us ‘Adventurers,’” the man explained. He saw that Refix wasn’t entirely sure how to properly address him, so he gave the answer unprompted. “That being said, my name is Lukeas.”

“Well met, Lukeas. My name is Refix. Do you happen to know how long to reach the outpost from here? It’ll be dusk in a couple of hours, and it would be nice to know if we need to make camp or if we can make it to the outpost in time.”

“Certainly,” Lukeas bobbed his head. “It’s only about an hour away. That’s standard distance for us out on patrol, so if you run into any of us, you can bet you’re only an hour away.”

“Excellent. Thank you.”

“No problem. I’m guessing you folk are traveling from the Wilderness? You have that look about you.”

“Is it that obvious?”

Lukeas chuckled.

“To seasoned vets such as us, yes, but not so obvious as to anyone being able to tell.” He shrugged. “It really shouldn’t pose any problems either way at this outpost, but some of the interior outposts have people that prey on those that look new.”

“That’s good to know. Thanks for the warning.”

“Your welcome. You guys don’t look inexperienced or weak or anything. That’s not what I was saying. Just putting things together it seems like this is your first trip into the Upper Regions through the Wilderness.”

“Guilty,” Refix said with a half-smile.

“Then let me be the first to welcome and congratulate you. In the future, you can just use the gates.”

Reivyn and the others in his group all shared a confused look with each other. Lukeas laughed out loud at the response and the other nine adventurers chuckled.

“It’s the same expression every time,” he said. “It’s a rite of passage to travel to the closest outpost through the Wilderness the first time, but we still have Space Magic.

“The Wilderness does something funky with Space Magic traveling to and through it from outside, but as long as the portals are both within the Wilderness, it works just fine.

“As you know, teleport circles are quite costly and rare. Only Tier 4 empire capital cities have them, but each Tier 4 empire leading to the Upper Regions also has a corresponding gate through the Wilderness. They don’t lead anywhere else but straight through, and there’s no teleport to the outposts, but those gates cut a month of dangerous travel time off for anyone entering or leaving who’s already been here.

“It’s an unspoken rule that nobody mentions them in the Lower Regions. Part of the whole rite of passage thing, actually. When you get to the outpost, you can take an Adventurer Guild Badge to the local branch and have them put a special stamp on it. It will turn your badge into a compass and key for the gate closest to that outpost.”

Lukeas glanced at the Honor Guard and noted their military appearance.“

If you don’t have an Adventurer Guild Badge, you can substitute it for any kind of token you want.”

“That’s great news,” Refix said. “Again, thanks.”

“Don’t mention it.” Lukeas extended his hand and Refix grasped it in his own. “Welcome to the Upper Regions.”

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