Upon being reminded just how well Nookhaven was defended, he once more realized how dire his situation would be if the guards turned any sort of suspicion towards them. Vol had no illusions about his ability. He wasn't good at talking his way out of things, as evidenced by his situation with the lawmen. And now there was his charisma stat of -3 to contend with.
He ducked back inside the trees to review his options, which turned out to be pitifully few.
It was either enter the town now, or enter the town later. Either way, he needed the supplies and change of clothes that the town offered. He could skip Nookhaven, if he wanted to, but with another few days, his food supplies would be completely gone again, and no matter how far he travelled, his bloodied clothes wouldn't earn him any less suspicion.
There was a new option though, one granted by the System. He had the option to get stronger, if only by a little.
He'd already completed the running portion of his Path to Strength quest. He only needed to perform the axe swings that accompanied them, and he would be delivered the stats that the quest offered, along with the stats offered by the Reach Nookhaven quest, once he entered the town itself.
He had no illusions about being able to hold off the entire town's garrison if things went awry – what were even the chances of things going poorly, just because of the blood on him? – but with so few options available to him, he decided that it was better to go into a terrible situation stronger than it would be to go into that same situation weaker.
He began to swing his axe before he could get any more caught up in his thoughts. Thinking and strategy were what his brother Jok had been blessed with. He'd taken all the thinking genes, Vol told himself. It was useless for Vol to tire himself attempting to solve his situation cleverly as his brother would. His only true virtue was strength, and so far, that was working out remarkably well for him.
!! SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT
AXE SLASH – BASIC MASTERY INCREASED: 2/3 CONDITIONS SATISFIED BEFORE EVOLUTION
That announcement rang out as he swung, with more information than it had before. Now it mentioned an evolution. That seemed significant, but he wasn't sure why yet. He put it to the back of his mind, until the System was merciful enough to give him a full explanation.
!! SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT
QUEST: THE PATH TO STRENGTH COMPLETE
REWARDS DELIVERED:
STRENGTH: +2
AGILITY: +2
STAMINA: +2
WEAPONS SKILL: +2
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: WEAPONS PROFICIENCY STAT NOW EXCEEDS GATHERED WEAPONS SKILLS BY A LARGE MARGIN. BASIC WEAPONS SKILLS WILL BE GAINED AT DOUBLE THE RATE UNTIL AN EQUILIBRIUM IS REACHED.
"Hoh…" That brought a smile of surprise to Vol's face. He'd expected his progress to slow down with each stat he gained, from the conversation with the System yesterday. To have his skill acquisition be doubled of all things was outside his expectations, but he certainly wasn't complaining.
He pulled up the interface to see where his stats were overall.
!! SYSTEM ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: STATS PRESENTED
STATS
STRENGTH: 44
AGILITY: 16
STAMINA: 19
CHARISMA: -3
WEAPONS SKILL: 14
STRATEGIC SKILL: 1
GENERAL KNOWLEDGE: 2
It felt good to see them right in front of him like that. Better than good, even. It was an elation with progress that almost approached the elation of the thrill when he was in battle. His agility had tripled in a mere two days, as had his weapons skill. His stamina had nearly quadrupled, and even his strength had shown a 50% improvement.
It was maddening. He'd progressed in two days nearly as much as he'd progressed in his entire life before that. He ought to have been distraught, having his home town burned down, having lost all connections he had left to the physical realm.
He'd lost his mother, and people that he might have called friends at one time. But he was never particularly close to them. There was always a distance between them. People interpreted it as being Vol's slowness. They assumed from his quietness that he must be dim-witted, but that wasn't entirely true.
Seeing progress presented so clearly in front of him as he was now, Vol felt he might have recognized what the sensation was, what the distance meant. It was a gnawing want for more. A dissatisfaction that he could not share with anyone but his brother Jok. That longing for strength, that desire to be greater. The hunger for stories of the great warriors like Gorm, and the resolute will that he would one day surpass them.
He'd waited and waited for that day. He'd trained with the axe until his hands bled. His efforts had been rewarded. He was impossibly strong for his age, even before the System. But never strong enough to rival Oliver. Not even strong enough to rival even a one-time Blessed Individual.
But now… It had all changed. Someone had flipped the table. Vol finally had his Blessing, at an age even younger than Jok, who had been heralded had a genius, who people had even come to fear because of the rate at which he got stronger, and how much he had achieved at such a young age.
This Blessing from an unknown God. He was sure it outmatched Varsharn's. The System had assured him that it had, and now with the stats in front of him, seeing the results of his progress, he was beginning to believe it.
Confidence surged through him. He was still in unknown territory, but it was the sort of unknown territory that he had searched for his entire life. The road to greatness. He was on it. And in time, he would surpass his brother Jok.
The sky was threatening to darken by the time Vol left the trees again. The guards were still on duty, watching the gate, but the small line of travellers had dwindled to nothingness. No one wanted to be caught outside when it got dark.