Despite the sudden motivation to go slaughter the whole forest, luck was not with Alden on this matter.
He did spend the next few hours hunting, earning 0.3 points more until his streak was broken by a certain death flag.
===Status===
Race: Blood Wolf (Variant)
Status: Healthy
Overall Rank: D-
Strength: 31.003 / 100
Dexterity: 35.1 / 100
Stamina: 39.73 / 100
Intelligence: 26.014 / 100
Mana affinity: 22.641 / 100
Luck: 44.37 / 100
Instinct: 52.54 / 100
Active skills:
[Claw of Blood - E]:
- Effect: x1.5 strength for one strike. Mana-fusing is possible.
- Cost: 5 stamina.
- Cooldown: 10 seconds.
Passive skills:
[Wolf's Instinct - E]:
- Effect: All senses are sharpened. +2 points to agility when pursuing prey.
- Evolvable.
[Leader of the Pack - D]:
- Effect: Gain +1 stamina and +0.5 strength for every 2 members of the pack. (Current: +6 stamina; +3 strength)
Remark: A variant dire wolf. It is highly not recommended to engage in combat with your current strength.
==========
As mutation is fairly common in Pridevion, it's also the same case for monsters. They can either follow the common evolution path or mutated into something else completely, people call the latter case a 'variant' monster. They are pretty rare and often far stronger than monsters of the same rank, with the blood wolf being an example.
Alden stumbled across this mutated beast, along with his whole pack of wolves. It was very fortunate that they were resting and not currently hunting when Alden found them, or else he might already be dead. Even the system confirmed that he had no chance of winning, so needless to say, the sweaty Alden immediately gave up on poking any further and tip-toeing away as fast as he could.
Surprisingly, he has a 37.49% chance of victory if it's a one-on-one fight and he got the first hit on the Blood Wolf. But against the whole pack, that is simply courting certain death.
Maybe a challenge for another time.
It was already dark by the time he got far away enough from the death zone, so he decided to end it for the day.
Currently high up in some random tree, the 6 years old is nibbling on his jerky for dinner.
'First time away.' Alden looked up at the barely visible sky while, feeling a bit homesick. 'I wonder what they are doing?'
***
At the same time, in the Drukas' manor.
*BAAMM
The house kitchen's wall was destroyed in an instant. From the aftermath, you could see tree roots wiggling around in the space that was previously solid walls, gradually wilting after fulfilling its purpose.
"I will start counting down from 10," Said a solemn Sylvia. "If everyone is not out of my way until then, I will create a path by force."
The rest of the household member's faces paled at her words. They have been going at this all day but this is the first time Sylvia had actually threatened to use her power, and everyone believes it just by looking at the huge hole in the wall.
A profusely sweating Liam was the head of this resistance force, he pleads in a desperate voice.
"Honey, please calm down and talk about this. Maybe Al is playing hide and seek somewhere in the forest, you never know! Children can sometimes be very random and pull pranks lik—"
"Shut it, Liam." Sylvia interrupted, her hand slightly raised, obviously gathering mana. "No need to lie, we all know that SOMEONE in this house suddenly decided to let Al go out traveling ALONE."
"Don't be like that, beside, he is not alone. There is always the reliable Idril!"
"You know what I am talking about, Liam! The trial can only be taken alone!" Veins started to pop up on Sylvia's delicate face. A seedling sudden pierced through the paved floor, standing alone innocently between them while everyone's faces twitched. The hole in the wall was also caused by a single seedling.
Charles fainted out of fright, this was also not the first time she did.
"STOP!" Liam screamed.
"THEN GET OUT OF THE WAY!" Sylvia responded the same.
"Honey please, we are heroes, we can't just go to places randomly like this!" Liam tried reasoning. It was not like they haven't gone through all of this already, but he has no cards left to play. "Besides, Al should already be in the tower by now, we can only wait!"
"Tch, we retired, Liam. If doing meritorious deeds in the past got me so shackled up that I can't even go see Al, the world must have gone crazyyy!"
"No no honey, that is not my point." Seeing the sapling wiggle, he immediately fixed his words. "Ummm, but you agreed he is already in the tower, right? Even if we are there, we can only stand outside waiting! There is no point!"
"Yes, you are right…" Sylvia nodded her head sadly, only to flare up once again. "Then we can only destroy the tower!"
""NOO!"" Everyone screamed.
Even downhill in Dreycott, people could hear the non-stop screaming resounded from their lord's house, but everyone just smiled wryly. They are all very familiar with the household liveliness, a few explosions and screams are nothing out of the norm.
***
Trial of Dominion - Day 2.
After a very sleepless night, Alden was on his way again with dark circles under his eyes.
'I have underestimated the trial.' He yawned for the unknown times. 'It was a race again times from the start.'
Although he did foresee and prepared for almost everything, Alden had overlooked the most basic stuff. The 'no time-limit' thing in itself was a part of the trial, not at all a blessing as he had previously thought.
The moving part is already very exhausting, but it is more mental rather than physical as you have to keep guard all the time, even at night as there is no taking shift to sleep. At first, Alden's solution to this was to just keep traveling, maintaining his schedule of resting regularly as substitute for a full night's sleep, but he failed to take into consideration the forest's condition. Because of the dense foliage, there was already limited sunlight to begin with, so after 8 it was simply pitch-black. Without night vision or some special ability, it was nigh impossible to travel safely.
'Let's just finish the damn trial,' Alden grumpily thought. 'There are plenty of beasts outside too, maybe try hunting in the forbidden domain?'
[That is highly not recommended.]
'Yep, just talking to myself here.'
But it was not even an hour since he started walking again before troubles came knocking on Alden's door by themselves.
It was the iconic goblins.
There were two of them walking together with an ugly expressions, or maybe they are just simply ugly. Small features, even shorter than the young Alden, with scabrous and mottled green skin. Their face is disgusting at best, and their yellow teeth protruding outward compelling Alden to pay more attention to his own dental care.
Just by having more than one nearby, they turned the whole atmosphere smelly and unpleasant. But Alden was more intrigued rather than repulsed, he didn't mind having a go with such iconic weak beasts! His eyes shined even more brightly seeing their status.
===Status===
Race: Goblin.
Status: Hungry.
Overall Rank: G-
Strength: 10.03 / 100
Dexterity: 19.46 / 100
Stamina: 10.17 / 100
Intelligence: 37.014 / 100
Mana affinity: 5.691 / 100
Luck: 12.09 / 100
Active skills:
[Cowardice Sprint - G]:
- Effect: A chance of confusing the pursuer when activated. The success rate is based on the 'Luck' attribute.
- Cost: 5 stamina.
- Cooldown: 12 hours.
Passive skills:
[Troublemaker - F]:
- Effect: Prone to causing trouble. Temporarily increase all normal attributes based on the magnitude of the trouble caused.
- Evolvable.
Remark: A bottom-of-the-food-chain goblin. Very smart compare to monsters of the same rank.
==========
It was pleasant seeing some very weak beast.
'According to the encyclopedia, goblins are weak but very sly, so catching one off guard is considered lucky. ' Alden smirked as he quietly pulls out the blue dagger. 'Well, I am indeed fortunate.'
Their stats are weak enough for the buffed Alden to test his skills, so he was planning to engage in close combat. But he was not careless, two on one is too much for his first fight, so Alden quickly makes short work of the left one.
*PUCK
A swift one-shot-kill in the back of the head, nothing unusual. Now that his current physique stats was doubled that of the goblins, even if it wasn't a critical hit, it would still be a sure kill.
"KUKU!?" The right one screamed, making an awful sound befitting of its appearance. "KHUH,KACAC—"
But before the goblin was able to alert any of its kin, Alden charged forward with his moon dagger, moving smoothly like he had practiced hundreds of times.
By no means was he lightning fast nor ridiculously strong, but Alden moved perfectly with no unnecessary movement and frightening accuracy, aiming at his opponent's neck.
It was something trained by Liam through their martial art sessions.
A fact unbeknown to Alden, very early on in their training, Liam has already found out that his son was not gifted in martial arts. Genius was not made, they were born along with their talent already intact, while Alden was born with an innately weak body accompanied by a bad sense of spatial awareness. He was destined to be bad at fighting.
But just like any other parent, Liam did not give up, he tried harder in his mentoring. Instead of forcing his son's nonexistent talent to manifest by itself, Liam practices his arts in front of Alden, allowing him to analyze and memorize. Instead of training for speed, they focused on training the body's reflexes to block and avoid getting hit. Rather than working on hardening the body, Alden was trained to find and follow the optimal movement path, aiming for his opponent's weaknesses.
Although he thought he was just practicing normal martial arts, what Alden has been doing all these years was actually following a custom-made fighting style created by Liam just for him. His foundation itself is miles away from the normal martial artist, it was actually more similar to the art of assassins.
*Crack
The goblin's neck snapped in an instant.
[You have gained 0.07 points, distributed randomly to the 'Dexterity' attribute.]
"... is this counted as close combat?" Alden titled his head, feeling a bit disappointed with the situation.
[Alden, there is only one more hour until 'Titania's Protection' wears off.]
"Nevermind then, let's just aim for the finish line."
Unlike the forest blessing, Idril's op buff only lasted for 12 hours and Alden has already wasted half of it on being idle throughout the night. Once the effect diminished, he will be much weaker without the additional +5 points for his physique, so Alden couldn't afford to leisurely hunt anymore.
"Lead the way, partner."
He started walking with wide strides.
[The destination is at your 6 o'clock direction.]
Only to make a whole 180-degree turn right away with an embarrassed expression. It is very lucky that Alden was not left alone.
***
6 hours later.
"Are we there yet?"
[According to the information and your walking speed recorded, it is possible to assume we will arrive shortly.]
"How short is shortly?"
[It is within the range of 15 to 45 minutes.]
"So not short." Alden grumbled.
The journey here was not smooth at all.
Titania's protection has already worn off a long time ago, and immediately after it did, strength left his body and a wave of fatigue washed over Alden. Not having enough sleep proves to be very tough for a sheltered 6 years old.
Also, despite traveling as quietly as possible, there was nothing peaceful about his trip. He encountered 10 more goblins. The first 3 were when Alden still have Idril protection, so it went pretty smoothly, but from the fourth one onward was a battle.
There were also some locals that Alden couldn't dare to confront at all, including some wild bears, an ogre, and a herd of bicorns. The encounter with bicorns is especially a close call, Alden mistakenly thought they were some kind of unicorn, only to be chased half-to-death when he got a bit closer for a look.
Alden even ran into a treant, a high-ranking creature. They were said to be neutral monsters that is indifferent to everything unless someone provoked them first, but Alden was too nervous to test that theory out, so he simply made a detour through.
Nearing the finish line, he is currently both physically and mentally exhausted.
Yet, Alden's hardship was apparently not over.
All of a sudden, he trips on some tree roots and fell.
*SWOOSH
Only to witness a sharp wooden stake passed right through where Alden's head was a moment ago.
"Kukuku!" A sinister and ugly laugh resounded.
Alden's eyes quickly dashed, catching a glimpse of the assailant while swiftly picking himself up to hide behind a nearby tree.
*PUCK PUCK PUCK
Three more projectiles were immediately pinned to the tree trunk.
'Damnnn ittt!' Alden cursed inwardly, his face pale white.
He had only caught a glimpse of his opponent, but that was enough to see the small figure wearing a crimson color hat.
His opponent is Redcap, a vicious Elite-rank monster.