Chapter 45 - Chapter 45 - Another Bat Massacre

The next day we returned to where we had found the giant bats. As expected, they had returned. Now that Alsvartr and I had a long rest, we were ready to fight. However, now that the battle was about to begin, I was starting to have second thoughts. The more I thought about the plan I had made, the more I was worried about killing the giant bats fast enough.The problem was that the giant bats had a lot more health points than the smaller bats. With the smaller bats, I was able to kill dozens of them with a single twilight breath attack. Since I was level five, my breath would do ten damage, five of which would be permanent due to the Avatar of Death title. Ten damage wasn't enough to kill a giant bat. They generally had twice that number of health points.While I had hoped to come up with a better plan by the time I arrived, I just couldn't come up with any good ideas. Absently, I stuffed a dried bug into my mouth, crunching away while my mind worked. Initially, the plan had been to use Shape Magic to learn an area of effect attack such as fireball. Then I would use twilight breath to attack the survivors.Unfortunately, the giant bats were not bunched up enough and there were stalactites in the way. Therefore, I needed another spell instead. I did have a couple of alternatives to Fireball, but I decided to try something else instead. I needed some type of spell that I could concentrate on for a while. This spell would also need to deal constant damage. I had several spells in mind for it, but I was curious to see what Hyggiandi would say.Interrupting her lecture on the mating practices of shadowcats, I asked, "What spell would you recommend I use to lower the giant bats health by at least half so that my breath weapon will be able to finish them off?"I could almost hear her eyes rolling at being interrupted for such a "stupid" question. "Why are you asking me? Are you an idiot? Any area attack that lasts for a minute or two would be fine, such as Sleet Storm or Zone of Death. Now then, please don't interrupt me again. You need to know these things." With that, she started droning on about how to tell the age of a shadowcat.Ignoring her, I nodded to myself. It looked like she and I had the same idea. I was leaning toward the Zone of Death. It lasted longer and dealt just as much damage with the same range. Sighing, I sat down and started meditating so that I could prepare the spell. After I memorized it, I had Alsvartr hang from the ceiling far behind me, ready to swoop in case of an emergency.Taking a deep breath, I cast Zone of Death and directed it at the giant bats hanging overhead. It was as if I stirred up a hornet's nest. They didn't immediately notice where I was hiding behind a stalagmite. Because of this, a few of the bats succumbed to damage before they even noticed me. Of course, I had to stop concentrating on the spell a moment later since all the giant bats had left the zone.I then cast it again on my location. Whether because of luck or great planning, the giant bats had to slow down so that they could swerve around the stalagmite to reach me, at which time they entered the new Zone of Death. I hadn't even been forced to use my twilight breath attack. Unfortunately, nothing good lasts forever.Before long, I was feeling the pressure and starting to second guess my choices in life. While I was raking in the experience points, I was also continuously getting injured. A high armor class and the Death Bringer feature were life savers. They kept me alive despite the repeated wounds. I suppose I also had to attribute some of my survival to my size. I was small enough that only a few of the bats could attack me at the same time. This enabled Death Bringer to heal me every time I was injured.The most annoying aspect of the fight was that it was difficult to maintain my concentration on the spell. I ended up having to cast the Zone of Death spell multiple times because I couldn't maintain concentration on the spell. I was being hit too many times and despite the damage being minimal, the sheer volume of attacks was enough to disrupt my spellcasting.After fifteen minutes, those bats who hadn't already fled finally fell at my feet. I immediately slumped down, exhausted by having to maintain high vigilance, concentrating on the spells, and dealing with the pain of my injuries. Despite the fact that I hadn't lost a lot of health points, I had been injured more times than I could count.Closing my eyes, I stuffed some "beef" jerky into my mouth, reminding myself that despite it looking like a dried up worm. "Wow," I muttered out loud. "That was intense. Although I wasn't in a lot of danger, things could definitely have gone another way."Yes," Hyggiandi said, "it could have gone in a different direction. You're an idiot. Can you imagine what would have happened to me if you died? I would have been in the stomach of a giant bat until he pooped me out into a pile of guano. Do you know the probability of someone locating me in a pile of bat guano in this cave?"Hyggiandi continued complaining, and even started explaining the statistics to me. However, I stopped listening and tuned her out. This time, instead of thousands of bats being killed, I had only managed to kill a couple hundred bats instead. I was quite curious to see how many experience points I would earn.I sent a mental request to the system, "Show me the experience I gained," wanting to see just how much experience I had gained. I wondered if I would get more or less experience than I received with the first batch of bats.Experience Gained: Killed 221 Creatures: 221 x 25 xp = 5525 xpAfter seeing the experience points, I had to smile, despite the fact that I only received a quarter as much experience. If I continued earning as much experience each day as I did today, I would be able to level-up within three days. While it certainly wasn't the explosive growth I experienced with the small bats, I was still very happy. The first set of bats was tailor made to level-up when combined with my overpowered class features and draconic breath.Smirking, I felt quite pleased with myself. With the right choice of class features, spells, and circumstances, leveling-up was actually quite easy and fast. If I continued doing this for a few more days, I would rapidly increase my level. In just one day, I was able to level up from fifth level to sixth level. If anyone else were to make such a claim, no one would believe them.Although the impulse was certainly there, I resisted and decided not to level-up to sixth level yet. I didn't want to risk losing out on experience points like I did with the small bats. Speaking of bats, I needed to activate the Beacon Ring so that my kobold minions knew where to find food for the hatchlings.While I waited, I started working my way through the bags of food I brought. There was definitely something wrong with my appetite, I finally decided. There was no way normal kobold hatchlings could eat as much food as I did. Was I also feeding the system? Did I have some type of special metabolism since I was a feathered dragon? Then again, I was also growing faster than normal kobold hatchlings too.In fact, now that I thought about it, I was growing too quickly in every way. My level was advancing quickly, far faster than was believable. While I hadn't realized earlier, I was also taller than I had been yesterday. Was it because I had the system? Why did I have the system? In fact, why was I reincarnated with memories from my past life? Was it because the system didn't believe that someone without memories of a previous life could handle the accelerated growth period?Was there a reason the system wanted me to grow up so quickly? Did the system have an agenda? As for the system, was it self-aware? Was it the boss or was there someone behind the system? What was the system? Did the system, or the entity behind the system, have an agenda, and what was it? I had a lot of questions. Was I the only person with a system? Were there other reincarnators on Guthheimr? I thought about these types of questions while I waited on the kobold tribe members to arrive.