"Arg!" Herhail said himself, after getting shanked. He fliched from the non-fatal, non-aorta stab, then stabbed with his dagger into the aorta of the person who dared attack him.
[You have killed a human (Tier 3, lvl 4); 720 exp.]
It seems a shanked one got killed from blood loss, it seems they just couldn't stop the bleeding, Herhail doesn't understand why they didn't put at least something on the wound, even dirt just to get a chance for survival.
It was just a thought though, who would care about their life, they were actually worth more to Herhail in every possible way as experience. Follower? Exp could buy a better one! Weapon maker? Just buy a weapon with the exp!
No one values their lives beyond that of a dog, Herhail even heard that they were popular snacks when they died, for some people, who were weird as hell. And that was still a better way of use, than keeping them alive.
Herhail took a few steps back since he had a stab wound, to get some time and let the blood clot the wound. But then Herhail smelt something burnt, and quickly the light of the sun had dimmed and the smell of fire grew. As Herhail saw his shack burned to ashes.
Herhail's hand became a fist, he was obviously angry, from the blood vein on his face popping out, and his strained and blood shot eyes.
The grip on his dagger became firm as he ran at the man that dared to burn down his house, and was dumb enough to use an ember on a single house.
The world turned red to Herhail as the man without a shank out, since he was doing his best to keep the ember safe, got stabbed in 3 place of his aorta, then his throat, then his heart, then his lungs. All in quick sucession.
[You have killed a human (Tier 3, lvl 2); 450 exp.]
"I will kill them, all of them!" Herhail was mad, very, very mad "You know how hard it is to get a house here that isn't filled with decade old shit?! Even if I gave all of you god damned shits as slaves, I still wouldn't be able to get one! The only reason I got this one was because it was abandoned due to people thinking it was cursed!" This time it wasn't some petty rage because they hurt his face.
It was pure hatred for destroying something of value to him, he rushed to the side and picked all of his creations.
He threw one of the two spears at the best hoodlum, it was long enough to be considered a spear to adults.
Then he threw the other at another who the one who didn't have a weapon anymore, since it was around the size of a sword with only a sharp tip.
Then he took the bow and the arrows and did his best to aim and shoot, though it failed completely. So he threw it to someone else.
Then he took out his dagger again, now very bloody "No mercy! Understood!" He yelled out with crazed out "Tear out their heart! They're worth more dead than alive!"
These words had little effect since everyone already knew this, on his side. On the other side they were in shocked a kid could say such dark words, just a few, since they came from outside.
Right now there were 4 blood banners, and 5 hoodlums+Herhail.
It was pretty obvious which one won in the end right, though Herhail wasn't done "I will kill at least 300 of them!" Because that's how much it costs to get a house without decade old shit. And he would do his best to get intrest too.
[Due to strong emotions, motivation, and a hard goal, you have generated a quest.]
"What's that?"
[Avenge the home;
Kill 321 or more people from the bloody banner gang, the more the better.
Each day 1 kill is taken off the count, you can only hand in the quest if you have 321 or more kills on the counter.
Quest type; overflow-time sensitive quest.
(Minimum) reward: 100000 exp, soul bound item creation.]
"God bless the me! So much! So much! E! X! P!" The yells caused weird stares from the living hoodlums.
[Due to strong emotions, motivation, and a hard goal that were mentioned previously, has catalyzed another part of you, as such you generated a quest.]
'So Gengerous!'
[Future through destruction
Destroy the slums themselves, and bring about a future greater than before through destruction. You being the catalyst.
First destroy the foundation of it's stability; the bloody banner.
Quest type; chain quest.
Reward: magical soul-bound item; Umbral catalyst.]
'Another soul bound item!? What's that?'
If you didn't know, soul bound items were in the slums, rarely, but... That's over every single slum that exists in the kingdom, because they come from fallen-nobles, and since unless the owner of the item prepares to cut off the connection before they die, the item dissapears too, you can't steal them, so not many people know of them.
Herhail was happy with his accomplishments for the day, and did not accept working for the hood. They weren't at 'The level' he was looking for.
Herhail took off for the hills and sat still and quietly chopped his logs for a month, slowly losing his sanity. Slowly, very slowly.
Until he finally got rid of that rust.
After a few days he started to get a hang of throwing an axe, a blood banner came to the abondoned house Herhail squated in.
"You see, this is one of our premier unused houses, only with 34 year old shit!"
"Wow! That's amazing! Why hasn't been taken up yet?"
"Well... First there was a housing boom, remember the slummer-builder? Yea, he got a few children younger than 10 years old and taught them to be builder, so they all made a lot of shacks to level-up."
"Is there another reason?"
"Yea, recently, when the housing boom stopped as two of those builders died from the rat-attack, a squatter took up this place."
"A squatter, is he strong?"
"No, we've just let him be since he doesn't make the house dirty, he seems to have a really big fascination with shitting in holes and then covering them up. If you choose to buy this home we'll make sure to get rid of him, he's just some lvl 1 loser."
"Then me and my partner would like this home, we've got a baby on the way."
"Oh really? Well, I've got a deal for you! Blah blah blah blah blah...."
"We'll take i- arg!"
Suddenly one of the two men, a little less well off in the rags department, got a wooden stick with a smoothed out stone lodged in it, like an axe, against his balls. Since it was a make-shift axe it would never be able to get lodged in the body of a level 3-4 tier 2+
Then someone, Herhail fell from the roof, which the two men didn't look at the entire time they were inspecting the home, since they were almost always leaky and flawed.
From above he held his axe high and chopped down and split the head of the slightly better-ragged man.
Rag quality is an indicator of wealth, if you couldn't tell.
Herhail took out the now bloodied 'best axe in the Irial baronet's capital city Yaras's slums', flipped it because it was cool, it landed back into his hand as planned, and then he threw it at the man in agony on the floor.
[You killed a human (Tier 4, lvl 4); 110 exp.]
[You killed a human (Tier 3, lvl 5); 120 exp.]
[You have gained the skill
"Real world practice really is the best."
[Normal axe, lvl 2
-conditions for lvl-up; be used to spill the blood of a tier 4.
Sharpness level; 12
-To increase sharpness level; be used by someone with the
Durability level; 12/12
-To increase durability; Soak in overall 2 liters of blood
Duration; 7 minutes
To increase duration; be equiped 10 times, 0/10]
[Level up (lvl 1) reward;
Ice-born;
The axe shall gain an extra 1 point of ice damage on each hit, and will show signs of ice at all times.
Fire-born;
The axe shall gain an extra 1 point of fire damage on each hit, and will show signs of fire at all times.
Unattural-sharpness;
+1 to sharpness.
Unattural-durability;
+1 to durability.
Long-term;
All timers based on the axe will take twice as long to run out.
Kinetic-stores;
Store kinetic energy within the axe with impact, and then release it back whenever you wish.
Magically attune;
Increases ease of mana flow within axe.
Magically averse;
Increases defence against magical elements.]
Herhail looked at his options, and remembered that he just didn't care, and chose the one he liked the most at that particular moment.
[You have chosen
Suddenly the axe became extremely cold, causing the body it was still stuck in to freeze close to where the axe was sitting. Shards of ice started to form on it, by the hilt, on the wooden handle. And snow flakes formed around it.
Herhail walked up and picked it up too, but mysteriously, it only felt slightly cold. Unlike the freezing of winter, or the chilling cold of having rags on when a strong wind attacks, just slightly colder than normal, and not of any concern.
[Level up (lvl 2) reward;
Frost born;
The
Song of ice and fire;
...
kenetic channeling;
Put in mana for 1 second or more with 1 mu (Magical unit)/second, and add on kenetic damage based on the time it had been channeled.
ice channeling;
Put in mana for 1 second or more with 1 mu (Magical unit)/second, and add on ice damage based on the time it had been channeled.
Kenetic injection;
All attacks will gain +1 kenetic damage through mystical forces of a higher plane.]
Herhail had already put his money into an ice based axe, as such he pushed through until the end of this path.
[You have chosen
This time the axe head got weird engravings, where cold air originated from. On both the hilt and axe head ice formed in non-important places/places where there would usually have contact with an opponent.
"Well," Herhail said "That's.. Unique."
Herhail waited for his mana to regen, then he walked to another shack, this time not abandoned.
He watched a woman with a child, then suddenly rushed forwards and held the woman's neck with his hands. Now, I believe everyone knows what he did.
[You have killed a human (Tier 2, lvl 2); 70 exp.]
[You have killed a human (Tier 3, lvl 1); 50 exp.]
Herhail started to carve up some meat with his dagger, definently not human meat though, that'd be... Uhh, gross. Yes, not like this was the slums we're talking about.
In the middle of his artistic process, Herhail heard footsteps, those of the father of the household. Which was very surprising to Herhail, most men don't keep wives, they cast them off the moment they're pregnant.
Filled with happiness that he had an attributeless mana saved up, he summoned his axe and threw it at the empty door, the moment that the form of the man was shown.
Herhail quickly took out his dagger as he rushed forward, as always, the man, unsuspecting, got hit in the leg. Then got rushed with a dagger to the gut, then a punch to the jaw. He was quickly disabled, then hacked with a frost axe.
Herhail finally finished his creation after a few hours, a crucified woman, the insides of her and her child decorating her, the childs face on the belly. The husban's ribs and head decorating the room.
This was the first try of Herhail's theory "If the slum residents are in great fear, or something, I'll be able to easily kill more people since they won't fight back, and I'll be able to predict where blood banners will appear too." More commonly known as 'Fear tactics', and is sometimes used in prolonged sieges.
How you may ask? By catapulting heads of captives into the city, sometimes it's just firing cannons constantly so that people feel like their under constant threat.