Everyone began panicking at the delivery of the message, meanwhile, Murata was in deep thought.
'That makes more sense now, why they came back in these states!'
Murata put his hand on his mouth, 'But that creates another question. How? How and why is a boar stampede happening now? If I remember correctly, then this usually only happens when a much stronger monster has appeared….'
Murata processed the situation in his mind before being snapped out of it by Audren, who pulled on his shirt.
"Aniki…I'm scared…" Audren looked at him with a trembling gaze.
Murata smirked, standing up before ruffling Audren's hair.
"Don't worry, Audren. I have no plans of leaving this place behind anyways."
He placed his hand on Audren's shoulder, "Take care of mom for me, okay?"
Audren looked up at him with concern, hesitantly nodding before Murata patted him on the shoulder. Murata swiftly ran off into the distance his father came, the forest beginning to shake as the trembles increased in intensity.
"Ugh…I should've placed some points into speed.."
'I have to invest either of my points into wisdom or intelligence. Investing my points into intelligence would be nice, considering it increases my total mana pool and increases the power of my abilities. However…'
[Stringing]
Murata shot out his green strings onto a branch, using the branch to slingshot himself forward and gain some speed.
'Investing my points into wisdom would be a much better option for me. Not only does it increase my mana recovery speed, but it increases the efficiency of mana manipulation, which in turn also affects my skills too.'
Murata landed on a branch.
"Alright! Let's test this out!"
[[Wisdom: 3.3 ------> 8.3]]
Instantly, Murata could feel an increase of mana flow inside his body, becoming more fluid and bigger in size for increased intake and outtake.
'My blood vessels are pouring with mana!' Murata looked at his arms in wonder.
[Puppeteering]
Murata jumped down as a boar digitized into existence under him, landing on the boar with no resistance.
"Come on! Let's go!"
[Would you like to name the puppet?]
"Huh? Who cares! Name it whatever just go!"
Thanks to the skill levelling up, he was now able to change the name of his puppets, but he could care less about that right now.
[[Puppet 'Boar' has been named 'Bora']]
"Talk about originality…"
Bora shot forward with great speed, a gust of wind picking up behind it. Due to the combined effects of [Puppeteer] and wisdom, controlling the puppet became significantly easier. Though the most of the movements were still being controlled by Murata, the puppet seemed to be able to move a lot more freely now.
'Originally, I would've planned to do what father had said. But, with this boar, I have a chance!'
It was thanks to a special effect of [Crimson Rage]. To explain it simply, the skill also acted like a Crowd Control skill, aggroing every animal that hears the war cry. Every animal except for anything of higher status to it. Murata stopped in his tracks as the hooves of the animals now filled his ears and the trembles were intense enough to nearly knock him off of Bora. The stampede finally revealed itself, rushing blindly towards him.
'Here they come!' Murata gulped before activating Bora's skill.
[CRIMSON RAGE]
Bora took in a deep breath of air before roaring with all its strength, its roar echoing throughout the forest. Bora gained the same crimson-filled fiery red eyes similarly to before, a red aura outlining its form. It seemed to had work, the stampede's focus on Murata.
"Score! Now let's get out of here!"
Bora quickly dashed to the right, the stampede following after it not soon after.
'The plan seems to be working so far…I'm just worried if some of the monsters didn't get aggroed. Hopefully, they'll be able to handle that when it comes down to it.'
Murata slightly turned to look at the stampede, which had seemed to had gotten faster thanks to the effects of the aggro.
'They're starting to catch up. I probably only have enough mana to go for a couple more minutes, even with my increased mana recovery speed. I have to do something soon!'
[Stringing]
[Due to the effects of wisdom, manipulation of the skill, 'Stringing' has improved.]
['Stringing' has risen by one. A new function has been unlocked.]
Just then, knowledge of the new function flowed into his mind, giving him an extremely uncomfortable feeling. However, it was a great time for the skill to level up right now. The new function of [Stringing] allowed him to steal the life force of any living being wrapped by the green stringing, allowing him to convert the stolen life force into mana. It wasn't quite viable against humans, but was perfect for monsters such as these!
Murata leaped off of Bora, canceling his skill and using [Stringing] to slingshot himself forward. He rolled onto the ground, getting a slight cut on his arm.
"Huff…alright, it's time to run. I have to save some mana otherwise!"
Murata sprinted forward, not knowing exactly where he was going but hoping that eventually an opportunity would come and reveal itself. Of course, his running speed was much lower than Bora's, so the stampede quickly began catching up with him.
'If I run out of mana here, I will die. Both of my skills are continuous use, and my mana recovery isn't fast enough to replenish what I've already spent and what I will have to spend later.'
Sweat dripped down Murata's face, his legs already beginning to tremble from the strenuous activity.
[[Stamina has risen by 0.02]]
'They're much faster than me. So I have to continue running full-power or else I'll be swept up in the stampede.'
Suddenly, Murata was just able to dodge a sudden charge of an Elk, nearly tripping on his own feet. Murata quickly adapted, using [Stringing] to grab on one of the legs of the Elk, a green erratic aura wrapping his form. Using all his strength to spin the elk around before throwing him towards the center of the stampede. It seemed to had work a bit, knocking some of the animals over and overall slowing down the stampede.
'Huff…I had to pour more mana into my body in order to do that.'
Murata continued running, not having more than a second to take a break, even if his muscles were aching.
'Fortunately, I was able to sap a little of the life force in the short time I had grabbed the Elk, so I recovered some of the mana I just lost.'
[[Stamina has risen by 0.01]]
"Huff…huff…huff!"
Without warning, his legs gave up on him, causing him to fall face-flat into the ground. Murata groaned in pain. His body had reached his limits.
'Damn it…! My body is so…heavy….!'
[Puppeteering]
Bora appeared in front of Murata again, coming together into existence with digital green squares. Murata struggled to climb on top of it, hurting with each movement. Bora rushed off again, but the movements were much more sloppy.
'I need to find something like a cliff, or a mountainside that could take down the stampede.'
Just then, it had felt like his heart was struck with a blade, a painful feeling of vomiting filling his entire body and giving him a headache.
[['Puppeteering' has been canceled.]]
"…Ah. I ran out of mana."
Bora faded away without warning, causing Murata to tumble forward on the rough rocky ground, landing harshly.
'Stand up. STAND UP!!'
Murata grit his teeth, pushing himself up with bruised arms. He swayed, barely able to stand straight.
'You can't die here. You have a little brother waiting home. I refuse to die here!'
Murata panted heavily as the stampede got ever so closer. He swiftly held his hands out, holding back the thrusts of boar in front of the stampede, being pushed back. With a roar, he mustered all his strength and sinked his fingers into the boar's flesh, before throwing the boar into the air.
[Stringing]
He jumped back while latching his strings on the still-airborne boar before subsequently slamming the boar into the ground.
[You killed a juvenile male boar. You gained 1,320 experience points.]
Given no time to recover, he was immediately rammed in the chest by a bull, coughing up a bit of blood as he was sent flying into the air before subsequently crashing into a tree.
"Huff…huff…I can't…" Murata gasped for air.
Murata's body buzzed with an uncomfortable heat, his muscles aching in pain from overuse.
'It's over.'
"Aniki!"
Just then, Murata's ears perked up as he heard the sound of Audren calling out to him. He turned to face him, analyzing the concerned expression etched on his brother's face. Murata weakly smiled, not a comforting smile, but one of hopelessness. Audren slightly opened his mouth in shock, he didn't like this expression on his brother's face at all.
'This is what I get for trying to go and be a hero. Maybe in my next life, if there'll be a next life…I'll be…' Murata sighed.
Audren's lip quivered, his hands beginning to ball up into fists. Tears beginning to well up in his eyes as he realized the harsh truth.
"Leave…" He said, his voice just above a whisper.
[['Audren' is undergoing a transformation!]]
Murata's focus changed to him in surprise.
'This can't be. An awakening?'
Audren sprinted forward, "LEAVE MY BIG BROTHER ALONE!!!"
[PRIME POTENTIAL]
[[All stats ------> 50.00]]
Audren reeled his arm back before striking the closest animal right in front of him, sending the poor animal flying into the stampede and killing it with one blow. The pressure from the blow pushed the surrounding animals back and picked up pieces of the ground.
Murata looked at Audren wide-eyed, 'What….what is with this skill!?!?'
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[Directories]
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[Bulls: Bulls have just a little bit more stats overall than male boars, regardless of their gender. Due to this, their stats can occasionally be in the 40's.]
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[Awakenings: All classes have awakenings, each with different conditions to activate them. Sometimes, the awakened might gain new skills. Other times, the awakened might gain increased mastery over their class and an additional stat boost. However, these vary for each class.]
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[Origin of Mana: Mana is generated in the brain, coming together as the culmination of the person's intelligence. This has nothing to do with the INT stat.]