It had been almost ten minutes since the emergency quest had been issued.
Silence had descended on the field outside of the gate, as all of the gathered adventurers were tensed up, staring towards the outermost trees of the forest that were only a few kilometers away.
Many were squinting as hard as possible, trying their best to look for any movement past the tree line. Some adventurers continued to come through the gate every now and then, but for the most part all of Guild Post #14's forces were in formation.
"The horde should be appearing within the next minute or two, I'm sure you know already but be prepared to move to the area where the Stone Rank monsters are. We want to be as effective as possible without endangering ourselves."
Brad continued to instruct and reassure his impromptu group, and I surveyed the crowd around me as a whole.
In total we had about 100+ Stone Rank, 20~30 Geode Rank, and 3 Jade Rank.
The Jade Ranked 3-person party stood at the front, with the Geode Rankers spread out around them in a wide arc. Off to either side were various groups of Stone Rank adventurers, who would be avoiding the 80~120 Geode monsters and making sure the Stone Rank monsters couldn't surround or interfere with the main force.
Brad had put together our own miniature formation, with him and a warrior who used a one-handed sword and a shield at the front. While two pairs of adventurers were on the left and right, one who used a bow and knives and another who used a longsword in both groups. I was positioned in the middle with another mage.
The idea of the formation was that it protected and placed everyone according to strength and battle style, while also giving everyone a partner to work more closely with in case either needed immediate help.
It was easy to assume the kind of skills the four sword users would have, but I wasn't so sure about the two ranger/scout looking people. Since they used bows and knives it could go in a few directions, possibly even utility, and we hadn't really had time to get to know each other. Other than listening to Brad's instructions of course.
I turned towards the mage next to me, a short girl with light electric blue hair and dark eyes. She was actually slightly shorter than I had been before being rebuilt by the system, and I towered over her despite my now average height.
"What's your skill? Mine's Fireball."
"eeek! ah, eh, uhm... its L-"
"THE HORDE IS HERE, MAIN FORCE CHARGE OUT TO MEET THEM NOW! STONE RANKERS SPREAD OUT AND FLANK!"
A loud bellow from the main group cut her off, and I turned to see a massive figure at the very front of the main force. He was heavily bearded and covered in full body armor made of some material I had never seen, it was one of the Jade Rankers. All he held was a large tower shield as tall as he was, and he charged forward with surprising speed.
Looking towards the forest, I could see a wave of creatures many times larger than our Guild Post's force breaking through the forest's edge.
clawed goblins, giant chipmunks, and long haired wolves made up the most common of the Stone Rank monsters that trailed behind a more concentrated group of larger and more deadly looking beasts. The Geode Monsters.
The monster that gave me the biggest impression was a large centipede around three meters long that had multiple sharp appendages around its face. It was situated in the crowd of Geode Ranked beasts and was luckily no where near where my group would be holding off the lesser monsters.
I turned back towards Brad as he yelled to our group, "Alright guys! Let's move!!!"
And without further ado, we charged.
one kilometer.
half a kilometer.
a quarter kilometer away and my nerves started to get to me, this would be my first time in real combat, and to be honest I felt fear. The clash was imminent as both sides rushed forwards at once and made it all that much faster.
Fear. Dread. Doubt.
and...
Excitement.
I wildly swung my arms around as if to shake off my hesitation, and let out a war cry of my own.
"WAAAAH!"
I had been slightly worried about the girl next to me being able to keep up, but her small size didn't really matter since as long as she wasn't a level zero she definitely had higher stats then I did.
I held out my hand towards an oncoming group of goblins, with a motion as if I was trying to grab at them. They were only a hundred meters away now, and I figured by the time I was close enough the skill would be done casting.
This time around I let the arcane energies flow freely, pushing as much as I could into my outstretched right hand, forming a fireball about the size of a grapefruit. I didn't exactly know my range, but I decided to hold the spell in place until the nearest goblin was about twenty meters away.
WRIIII! WRIIIIIIIIIII!
I could now hear the strange screeches as a group of goblins twenty strong headed directly at Brad and his partner.
'That's about twenty meters right? I think it is... oh the guys with the bows are already shooting.'
CLANG!
The sound of Brad's sword clashing with the goblin's surprisingly sturdy claws rang out, and I took that as my sign to attack.
[Fireball]!
FWOOSH... BANG!
My fireball left my hand as soon as I willed it forward, adding my own momentum to it by throwing it like I would a rock. The fireball narrowly missed its target, but I had aimed at three goblins who were extremely close together. It hit one of the others, and the fireball exploded into bright red flames along with a small explosion.
The goblin I had nailed was knocked backwards onto the goblin behind it, experiencing painful burns, mutilated flesh, and broken bones all from the explosion. The two goblins that had been on its side had gotten showered with flames, and even without the explosion affecting them the fire was enough to cause them notable burn damage.
I began forming another fireball, encouraged by my affective attack, but I instantly felt fatigued as a new fireball formed. I realized I had probably used all I had in that attack, which made sense as I was a level zero attacking monsters who were very likely above that level, and I probably should've managed my energy expenditure more efficiently.
This time I made adjustments to my aim, and went for a goblin Brad was fighting, his previous opponent having fallen sometime between when I shot my first fireball and now. I caught glimpses of the others in our group holding off goblins as well, but I didn't think about them and focused on my own fight.
My new fireball was the size of an orange, significantly smaller, and I felt fatigue burning in my arms as I pitched this one like the last.
[Fireball]
The goblin Brad was currently fighting had just lost its left arm, and was trying to escape from him while others came in to attack, but my fireball stopped its retreat.
POW.
The fireball landed directly on the fleeing goblin's head, explosively knocking it to the ground head first.
[User Slayed Level 3 Entity - Clawed Goblin]
[Accumulated Experience Has Reached The Required Threshold]
[Level Up]
[New System Function Unlocked]
It seemed like the two part attack on its head had instantly killed it.
"Status!"
I was in a hurry, so I skimmed through the messages, pleased to learn I had leveled up as I missed a message that looked rather strange.
-
[User: Einer]
[Rank: Stone]
[Level: 1]
[Stats: >]
[Skills: >]
[Unique: >]
-
I navigated directly to the stats menu the moment the window appeared, in order to increase my firepower as soon as possible. In the process, I missed something that shouldn't have been there.
-
Stats:
AP: 1 [+]
Force: 10
Agility: 10
Vitality: 10
Wisdom: 10
Sorcery: 10
[Hidden Stats...]
-
I mentally 'tapped' on the [+] icon next to my available stat point, and quickly added it to my sorcery stat. A few more notifications popped up as well, but I closed them all along with the menu without reading them, not bothering to check my updated stat page either.
Looking back towards the fight, I noticed one of the pairs had received more goblins than the others, and the bow guy had switched to his knives already as he tried to support the long sword user as much as he could.
However, the fight was two on ten, and they were receiving quite a few injuries.
I prayed that my new sorcery point plus whatever energy I had left was enough for an extra cast, as I started gathering the arcane power once again. I closed my eyes and grit my teeth while drawing out as much energy as I could, and packed it together with all my mental might.
The swirling energy seemed different than I remembered, but the change was completely ignored as a brightly glowing red grape of a fireball appeared above my pointer finger.
I decided to flick the tiny fireball towards the goblins in front of the struggling pair, hoping that it could injure an enemy or provide a distraction.
…
[Fireball]
The energy left my body and I fell to my knees while my body cried out in pain. I ignored the draining sensation and looked on as my little fiery grape sped away at insane speeds, completely shattering my expectations.