The plan was to split them up: most of the party would take one, and Alex would take the other. He felt confident he could handle one with no issues if he went all-out. When Derek charged his target, he went for the other.
Channeling wind magic for speed and fire magic through his sword, he went after the troll. Out of curiosity, he started with a fire rift. He hadn’t tried his rifts on the trolls yet, because they would have hit his team. But fighting a troll of his own? That left him plenty of space.
Swinging his flame-wreathed blade, a rift of fire shot out and sailed towards the troll. Even Alex felt the heat from the fire he hurled towards the creature. So it was no surprise for him that the troll recoiled from the fire before it even hit him.
When the rift impacted the monster, it exploded. His fire rifts weren’t designed for cutting, like the wind ones were. Fire expanded out when it hit, large enough to completely cover the troll, hiding it from Alex’s regular sight, but not his Eyes of the Cosmos.
He saw through the fire mana. The fire burned and seeped into the troll's body. However, it didn’t look as devastating as he'd hoped. The troll's skin was too thick, and it had no open wounds.
Alex chuckled, expecting nothing less of the tough-ass troll. But that was fine. He wanted a more exciting fight than killing it with a single rift. When the fire cleared, he saw the true extent of the damage he had caused. The troll bore burn marks all over its body and a chunk of burnt flesh at the point of impact.
It roared at him in anger and pain, charging towards him with its big lumbering steps, eating away at the distance.
“Come on, big guy, let's have some fun!” He said and summoned wind blades to launch at the troll. The wind projectiles made only minor cuts, but they broke the skin, which was good enough for him. Next, he tested something he hadn’t used in a while.
When the troll closed into melee range, it brought its club down, trying to flatten him. But with his wind magic boosting his speed, the troll was far too slow. The impacts from its weapon created large divots in the ground, causing Alex to be wary of his footing while he danced around the massive creature.
He attacked with his sword a few times. Still imbued with fire, it wasn’t able to penetrate its skin with casual slashes. He needed to stab the blade in or switch to wind. While he danced around, he created something with his wind magic in the air behind them. He wanted to recreate the wind lance he used to kill the Iron-Hide Bovicus.
When he used it before, he had been unranked and less experienced. This time around, he knew what he was forming and what he needed to do. Not to mention his stats were much higher.
It didn’t take him anywhere near as long to create the wind lance this time. Right before the attack was ready, he turned the troll around, away from it, so it didn’t see it coming. The wind gave off a loud hum, like driving down the highway with the windows down. When it collided with the troll, it created a grinding noise that wouldn't sound out of place in a factory. The wind lance spun and dug its way into the troll's flesh, like a screw from an electric drill. It burrowed into the creature.
The troll let out a piercing roar of pain while the lance dug deeper and deeper. Alex pumped mana into it; he fed and forced it to keep its rotation. The mountain troll flailed about, trying to get the wind mana from its back, but it was futile. It was too deep, and the troll couldn’t reach it with its burly arms.
When Alex felt the lance was deep enough, two feet into the troll's back, he ran forward. Sword still flame-imbued, he lunged forward with it, stabbing it into the same spot the lance was. His own wind threatened to harm him, but he kept a tight rein on it with his control ability, not letting it bite into him. He pumped flame into the sword, allowing the fire to be absorbed by the lance. This carried the fire into the troll's wound, burning its internals. The smell of cooked meat filled the air.
After a few seconds, he released the wind mana, causing the lance to dissipate while the fire remained. He stoked the fire with more mana, igniting the troll's insides.
Silence fell, and the troll collapsed in a smoking heap.
Well, that was fun. That wind lance is still a bit mana hungry, though. Just that single wind attack took a quarter of my mana. I might need to try the arrows instead. I could create multiple smaller ones, maybe? I wasn’t able to before evolving. Alex thought to himself as he watched his team fight the other troll.
“Sam, more fire!” Derek called out.
“I’m working on it!!” Sam screamed back.
The troll looked haggard at that point. They had been whittling it down, attacking in melee to open wounds, fire to burn them, and preventing its regeneration. But it wasn’t foolproof; the fire also closed the wounds. Unable to bleed out, this made the fight last longer than it would have with a normal monster.
After a wide swing that rolled off Derek's shield, the troll grew frustrated at not doing any damage. In anger, it kicked him straight in the chest. The kick sent him airborne and several feet away. Luckily, Sarah caught Derek with her [Barrier of Protection], keeping him from crashing to the ground.
Dazed and injured from the blow, he wasn’t able to rejoin the fight immediately. The troll had turned on the others, taking swipes at Rykos and Korgrith. While Rykos dodged using his speed, Korgrith struggled to deal with the troll's assault.
He deflected a few using his axe and took two of the strikes across his stone armor, shattering it. But his strength waned; he couldn't stand against the trolls' might much longer.
"Need," he huffed between words, and grunted from the strain of parrying the troll's attack, "help," he finally finished.
Following his plea for help, Rykos and Sam went all out. Rykos, using his boosting skill, combined with his speed one, attacked the troll in a frenzy, while Sam channeled a massive amount of mana. Alex could see it in the air and feel it rolling off of Sam’s body.
He must be putting everything into his next attack. That’s probably almost all of his remaining mana.
He knew his team and knew they wouldn’t want his help. They liked to pull their own weight. But just in case, he was ready to help if needed. Alex didn’t care if they got angry from the assist. He would protect them if he needed to.
Alex could see the focus on Sam’s face. The concentration took everything he had, but he also saw the resolve in his eyes. He will kill the troll, no matter what it took. In that moment, fire bloomed above him and rapidly expanded, turning into a massive fireball.
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When the large fireball finally stopped growing, Sam clapped his hands. This shattered the fireball, splitting it into smaller pieces. There were now over 30 of them in the air, and all were enhanced versions of a normal one.
Oooo, that’s impressive.
Sam made it rain like the Fourth of July in Washington, D.C. He lit the sky up and rained hellfire down on the troll. The rest of the team had wisely gotten far away, while the troll stared up into the sky, mesmerized by the lights.
Alex saw what was happening inside the fire plume. Each fireball that hit the troll was devastating. They burned and seared away chunks of flesh each time and then burned the wound so it wouldn’t regenerate. By the time the final fireball struck, the troll was a bag of bones with barely any flesh left on it. Sam had incinerated most of it.
He collapsed to the ground afterward, drained of mana, but uninjured. Channeling that much mana and controlling that many fireballs had been exhausting.
Alex walked over and rested his hand on Sam’s shoulder, “Good job, man. But wasn’t that a little overkill for a single, regular troll?” he asked with a smirk.
Sam shrugged. “Eh, I was testing some things out and overdid it a bit. But it was worth it! I learned some things, and it’ll be easier next time, for sure,” he said with a wide grin, proud of what he had done.
Derek was back on his feet, and the party stood around Sam, praising him for a job well done. He was eating it up, loving the praise, and happy with how it turned out.
The party rested and waited for mana before continuing forward. An hour passed as the group traveled up the mountain path, still fighting the trolls. They had engaged several more pairs and even a trio. That fight had been brutal for them.
They did the same as last time, but they had Rykos take one of the trolls away from the group and keep its attention. He was quick enough to keep it busy without getting hit. After Alex killed his, he took Rykos’s monster, letting the beastkin join the party to finish the other.
It took a bit of coordination, but they got it done.
Once they neared the top of the mountain path, things began to change. The trolls became more dangerous and ferocious.
They wore a few random pieces of armor—nothing good—but it still slowed down the damage they did. Their weapons also got better. Instead of wooden clubs, they began using metal ones. It was a minor difference, but the blow from a metal one was much more damaging.
During their ascension up the mountain path, everyone had reached level 11, even Alex. Though he grumbled about it, he was not happy that he was leveling so slowly. That’s some bullshit. I need so much more experience than the others to level. I know my stats are much higher than theirs, but it still sucks. I hit level 10 before they did and have killed way more!
You have slain Mountain Troll (Level 10)
Experience and SP gained
Congratulations, you’ve reached level 11!
+15 free stats points gained
With Alex’s racial ability, all of his stats got boosted based on Willpower. It made sense for him to put all the points into Willpower for now. Though in the future, he knew he might need to specialize a bit more.
New stats allocated, he pulled up his whole character sheet to see the latest, beautiful numbers and to browse over it all.
Alex Everett
Race: Progenitor
Level: 11
Profession: Progenitor’s Path
Class: Progenitor’s Path
Stats
Strength: 53 (55)
Agility: 53 (57)
Endurance: 44 (47)
Toughness: 48 (55)
Perception: 41 (46)
Wisdom: 44 (50)
Intelligence: 44 (54)
Willpower: 69 (73)
Free points: 0
Essential Skills: Basic Skinning, Language of the Universal System
Skills: Stealth, Earth Magic, Power Strike, Fire Magic, Wind Magic, Dimensional Storage
Racial Abilities: Eyes of the Cosmos, Celestial Control, Will of the Universe, Space Magic
Achievements: Fighting up I (+5% stats) , Ahead of the Pack (+5 to all), Planetary Powerhouse I (+5% stats)
Equipment worn: *Sword of Alex Everett(+2 all), Ring of Intelligence(+1 int), Ring of Wisdom(+1 wis), Armored Leather leggings, Boots of the Kobold Kings(+1 agi, +1 per +1 End), Cloak of Zhiva(+3 int +2 tough +2 per), Knight's Halfmail(+1 tough +1 agi), Warrior Gloves, Amulet of Spell Control(+4 int +3 wis +2 will), Vambraces of Deflection(+2 tough),
Ah yessss. So beautiful. Those stats are rising nicely. They all increased by at least 6 or 7 points each, plus all the points I put into willpower. It's kind of broken to put 15 points into my one stat and then get an extra 40+ for free, spread across my other stats because of it. Love it.
Reading over his full character sheet, including skills and gear. He hesitated when he read his sword's name.
What is that? He questioned. That asterisk by the sword's name wasn’t there when I first got it.
He focused on the sword’s name and the asterisk, trying to see if he could get any additional information.
Sword Evolution quest is available
Oh, son of a bitch! I completely forgot the sword said it would get stronger with me!
He pulled up the sword information to reread it.
Sword of Alex Everett
This sword was explicitly made for Alex Everett, the Progenitor, by the Universal System. It is soul-bound and will grow with him. This sword has extremely high mana conductivity. +2 to all stats.
The sword is still unranked! Dammit. It didn’t rank up with me; I assumed it would have automatically, so I never checked.
He searched the information again to find the evolution quest it mentioned. When he did, he pulled it up at once to read.
Evolution Quest - Sword of Alex Everett (Unranked)
- -Heart of a Bronze ranked monster killed solo
- -Kill 1000 unranked with the sword
- -Channel space magic into the blade at least once
Oh? That’s not too bad, he said in relief. I can easily get the heart now, space magic is already completed, and I’ve probably already killed over half of the 1000 unranked needed. I should be able to finish that after this dungeon.
“Hey, quit daydreaming. You coming?” Sam shouted back to him. Alex realized he had been standing there for a bit, and his party went on ahead.
Disposing of the last trolls on the path, the party crested the top of the plateau, finally able to see what awaited them.
There, in the middle of the plateau, stood a massive troll, the size of two combined, covered in several pieces of plate armor. Chest, helmet, hands, and boots. Its weapon, luckily, was still a metal club, but it had two of them. One in each hand.
Three others surrounded the large troll; they were like those at the top of the path: metal clubs and random, poor-quality armor.
Mountain Troll (Level 11)
Mountain Troll (Level 11)
Mountain Troll (Level 11)
Mountain Troll Patriarch (Level 12)
“Not good,” Korgrith whispered as everyone peered over the ledge, looking at the targets.
“Yeahhhh, that's going to be a tough fight, bro,” Sam added.
Nodding, Derek said, “Agreed, it won’t be easy.”
“Can we even do this?” Sarah asked.
“Looks fun,” Rykos said, the glee of combat in his eyes.
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