Chapter 5 – Future Glories
By the time they were done with the Nookhaven guardsmen, the men were barely left with the boots on their feet. Some weren't even left with that. Those men howled their complaints, saying that they'd be dead trying to get back through the snow with so little clothing. They'd only earned further beatings for such remarks. Blackbeard had promised not to kill them, after all. That was as far as the raiders' honour was willing to extend.
The guardsmen were sent back into the blackened forest without even torches to light their way. It seemed to be an especially cruel thing to do, and seemingly needlessly. But Vol thought he could see the sense in such a decision. Blackbeard sought to slow the pursuit. News of their robbery of the Nookhaven guardsmen would certainly spread, and whatever agreement Blackbeard had in place with the Earl would be called into question.
Realizing that, Vol also realized that it wasn't as though he'd suddenly escaped pursuit, or that he was now protected. Instead, he'd just joined a larger group of outlaws. Somehow, though, that was enough for him. Blackbeard's men were far more terrifying than anything the local guard could muster. They'd likely need two hundred ordinary guardsmen to stand a chance, or so Vol judged, based on their levels.
They began their march with haste after that, with a lucky few others getting access to the last of the mules, whilst the rest of the men trudged ahead on foot, bearing torches to light their way. Vol hardly took note of his surroundings. He was too busy focusing on the mule for that.
Luckily, the beast seemed content to plod slowly, matching the pace of the walking men. If not for that, Vol was sure he would have ended up flying off of it. He felt terribly out of place on the back of it. Too large for such an animal, or so he told himself.
But the real issue was his lack of experience. Trying to cling to the mule's flanks with his boots, whilst also sitting himself comfortably enough in the saddle that each step didn't send him bouncing. That was near impossible to do, and that was without even trying to control the animal. He held the reins, that was true, but he wasn't yet capable of actively trying to control it. It was more the mule's benevolence, and its willingness to just follow the other mules in front of it that earned Vol his brief respite.
After nearly an hour of struggling with the animal, he finally settled into something approaching a steady rhythm, but by that point, he was already far more exhausted than he would have been just walking.
!! SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT
NEW SKILL DISCOVERED!
HORSEBACK RIDING – BASIC. MASTERY 1/5
A sigh of relief met that announcement, for it made his struggle just slightly more bearable, and he was able to relax into the ride just the tiniest amount more. In that moment of quiet, as the conversation of the raiders echoed in the night around him, he pulled up his stats window, to review the results of the day.
!! SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT
STATS DISPLAYED
STRENGTH: 50
AGILITY: 20
STAMINA: 25
CHARISMA: -12
WEAPONS SKILL: 20
STRATEGIC SKILL: 1
GENERAL KNOWLEDGE: 3
His fight with Usar and his men had resulted in his stats being rounded out. He wondered whether that was intentional by the System, or whether it was the result of mere coincidence, using laws that he did not have access to. He thought coincidence to be unlikely.
One thing was for sure though, as he looked at them: he was getting stronger. Much stronger. His weapons skill especially had soured, as had his stamina and agility, and his strength was still progressing, despite being the far superior stat in the first place.
Not only that, he was also gathering skills at an unbelievable rate. He'd been able to evolve his Basic Axe Slash skill into the more general-sounding skill Axe Wielding – Intermediate. He hadn't been able to extensively test what results that evolution might bring, but the final few moments of his fight had at least shed some light on it. He'd felt faster, and his axe had moved with less delay.
It was strange to consider. There were so many skills that he was gathering as of late that it was hard to keep track of them all. He expected a wall or a plateau to hit him again, asi t had before, because he really didn't understand the System as much as he needed to. And his fight with Blackbeard in the store had made another thing abundantly clear: he was as strong as one blessed by Varsharn yet.
!! SYSTEM ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: IRRITATION. VARSHARN IS AN INFERIOR GOD. VESSEL HAS BEEN GIVEN BUT A SINGLE BLESSING, YET RETAINS THE ABILITY TO SURPASS – IN TIME – WARRIORS WHO'VE RECEIVED FOUR, FIVE OR EVEN SIX OF VARSHARN'S BLESSINGS.
VESSEL'S COMPLAINT SEEMS OFF.
'I wasn't complaining,' he assured the System in his head. He noted that it grew especially testy when he mentioned other Gods to it, as though eager to assert its superiority, or simply appalled to be compared to another inferior being.
Whatever it was, it left Vol wondering just which God had blessed him. He wondered if knowing that would offer him more chances to understand the System, for there was clearly so much to it that he had yet to access, like today's introduction of the levels System…
That thought reminded him of levels with a start, and he scrambled to check his own. It was there, amongst his stats, right at the top of them. Level 14, it told him. He mulled on that number. Blackbeard was level 25… The highest numbers he had seen amongst his men so far were level 11. Did that put Vol as the strongest amongst his raiders, aside from the man himself?