Chapter 21

  [You have gained Novice Athletics Proficiency]

  [You have gained Novice Acrobatics Prociency]

  [You have gained Novice Combat Sense Proficiency]

  The notifications rolled in at a surprising rate for Eve. Unlike Ben, she paid close attention to her notifications and actively experimented with her new changes.

  The changes were amazing. It was like her body had gained muscle memory from months of practice, in a single instant. When she got the athletics proficiency, she could feel her muscles developing in real time. She could move faster, turn and pivot more smoothly, jump higher. Blocking attacks from the orcs even hurt less.

  With her new acrobatics proficiency, she was much more nimble on her feet. She was still knocked down from time to time, but she was able to roll with the knockdown and rise to her feet faster.

  Dodging became much easier as well. It seemed like her Athletics proficiency was being mixed with her other proficiencies, like the dodging, blocking, acrobatics and Combat Sense proficiency. After unlocking the Athletics proficiency, she became notably better at the rest.

  Ben and Eve were tearing their way through the Orc Valley. It was a barren landscape that clearly used to be a forest, but the orcs had chopped down almost every tree to create their camps.

  Unlike prior zones, the level 10 Orc Valley was much more saturated with enemies. It was like they were assaulting a series of military outposts. They faced dozens of orcs at the same time. They could have aggroed the orcs in smaller quantities, however, Ben didn’t bother.

  He summoned his entire cherub army to go forth and slaughter any orcs they came across. He ran forward at a brisk pace and also engaged multiple orcs at once with his halberd.

  Ben’s damage was still low, but with his excellent skills and focus on striking weak points, he was able to significantly impact the clear speed. The lifesteal allowed him to easily sustain himself, even without Eve’s healing. Since Eve didn’t need to worry about healing, she focused on refining her fighting technique.

  She fought only one orc at a time. Despite her improvements, she couldn’t handle two. Ben made sure she never fought more than one. A cherub warrior stayed by her side to ensure her safety.

  Eve also gave up on trying to attack. Her damage was simply too low. Instead, she focused on practicing her defensive technique, including her footwork. The dodging proficiency heavily improved her footwork. It was like memories flooded into her brain. It was a little unsettling but she tried not to think about it.

  She still continued to get hit, but the hits hurt less and the hits didn’t disrupt her rhythm as much. She was able to weave her healing magic into her movements, so she could dodge, heal, and block smoothly.

  [You have gained Intermediate Casting Proficiency]

  [You have gained Intermediate Healing Proficiency]

  The notifications continued to trickle in. Eve supposed that constantly fighting creatures that were so challenging to her, along with her maximum Pain-Setting, was greatly accelerating her growth.

  The fighting was non-stop. Ben kept pressing forward. Despite her Novice Athletics proficiency, she had to continue to drink stamina regeneration potions. She had plenty, especially since the orcs dropped Mid-Grade Stamina regeneration potions.

  The orc valley was huge. Even though they knew exactly where the dungeon was, because Eve marked it on the map, they still had to fight their way deep into the valley. In addition, the respawn rate was very high. That was a double edged sword. It meant that they had a high density of monsters to farm, but at the same time, their advance was delayed by a constant wave of reinforcements.

  If Ben wanted, he could sneak past many of the orcs in order to go straight to the dungeon, but he intentionally chose to fight. Not only was it great experience and loot, but he also looked back at Eve. He could see how rapidly she was improving under his controlled guidance.

  He made sure that a few orcs slipped past the line that he and his cherubs made, in order to give Eve a constant stream of enemies to fight. He knew she would not be strong enough to act independently. He just wanted her to be as strong as possible, within the specific context of her support class.

  Strength came in many different forms. She didn’t need to be able to kill hordes of enemies like he could. If she could survive relatively well on her own, he would need to use less resources to defend her, and she would need to use less resources to defend herself.

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  Ben kept one cherub warrior by her. It acted as her sword and shield. While she dodged and blocked and healed, it stabbed the enemy in the back and made up for gaps in her defenses. It was a perfect synergy.

  Despite how competent she became, Eve gained a sinking sense of dread. The feeling only grew as time went on.

  The more they fought together, the more she realized just how powerful Ben had become.

  He seemed much more powerful than just a few hours ago when he fought the Eagle players. It was like his body had adjusted to all the proficiencies that he just found out about. He was even more of a monster.

  It wasn’t that he was necessarily more strong, physically, he was just better at fighting. Not just fighting by himself, but coordinating with his cherubs. Ben and his cherub seemed to move as one single organism. They had near-perfect coordination. It was so perfect that Eve thought it was impossible for Ben to be commanding them each individually.

  The cherubs were smart, coordinated, and skilled. It was like the cherubs also had the proficiencies that Ben had. Like Ben’s Combat Sense proficiency.

  They covered each other’s backs and made up for any weaknesses. Ben and the cherubs got so good at fighting the orcs that they barely took any damage.

  That made Eve come to a terrifying realization.

  “He doesn’t need me,” she thought.

  Even as she improved, she began to feel the futility of her efforts. What little damage that the group collectively took within the soul link primarily came from her taking damage. But it was more than that. Even if she was perfect and never took damage, her presence would still be negligible. Specifically, her active abilities.

  Soul link was still invaluable. She was confident in that. She had read Ben’s character sheet dozens of times by now. She knew his strengths and weaknesses. The soul link was a great compliment to him and she couldn’t imagine that would change anytime soon.

  But that was it. Outside of her Soul Link, Ben didn’t actually need her to fight. In tougher fights, she would probably get in the way by denying Ben the use of one of his cherubs so it could stay back and defend her. Her heals were simply not necessary.

  Then something happened that made her heart sink. Ben leveled up. His body glowed a familiar radiant light.

  Even though they had been grinding efficiently for hours, Ben was pleasantly surprised by the notification. Eve’s experience buff was still paying dividends.

  Ben smiled in satisfaction and stopped to analyze his new stats and abilities. Ben immediately noticed that he gained new summons.

  Eve watched Ben summon three more cherubs that she had never seen before. These cherubs looked like mages. They wore mage robes and hoods. Red, Blue, purple. They all had matching staves.

  [Level 10 Cherub Fire Mage]

  The fire mage raised its staff and suddenly unleashed a gigantic fireball onto the battlefield. It sailed off into the distance and made such a large explosion that it nearly knocked Eve off her feet.

  Eve saw about a dozen experience notifications pop up in her combat log.

  [Level 10 Cherub Ice Mage]

  The ice mage was next. It raised its staff and sent a hail of ice spears down on the battlefield. Each spear skewered an orc, one-shotting them.

  [Level 10 Cherub Lighting Mage]

  The Lighting mage sent a large bolt of lighting forth that bounced from enemy to enemy. It was the chain lighting spell. It also one-shot each orc it touched.

  After the cherubs finished casting, they began to swing their staffs to bombard the battlefield with ranged energy attacks that matched their elemental specialty.

  The cherub mages’s basic attacks didn’t do as much damage as the cherub archers, but every few seconds they unleashed powerful elemental magic that wiped out entire groups of orcs.

  After a few minutes of testing, Ben summoned a different group of three.

  Eve noticed a few things about Ben’s abilities. First is that the amount of cherubs he could summon had risen. He now had 18 cherubs, an additional 6. Eve knew Ben’s talents well enough to understand the math.

  His class progressed twice as fast as the normal summoner class. So instead of gaining a 3rd summoner slot at level 10, he gained his 6th summoning slot.

  His summoning necklace increases his summoning slots by an extra 3, for a total of 9 summoning slots.

  His hidden talent essentially doubled his amount of summons, which brought his total count to 18.

  18 summons at level 10 when a normal summoner would usually just have 3. Eve was overwhelmed by the sheer brokenness of Ben’s class and talent.

  Secondly, Ben could summon three cherubs with a single cast. Ben had a talent that gave him an extra cherub with each cast, but the third cherub wasn’t part of that talent. Eve figured it out. Ben’s summoning mastery allowed him to summon an additional creature with each cast. It didn’t actually increase the maximum amount of creatures he could summon, but his mastery made summoning more efficient for him.

  Eve imagined that his spell mastery would have many effects that would be revealed as he leveled up.

  Finally, every time he cast a spell, he could summon three different cherubs. So instead of summoning three cherub fire mages, he summoned a variety of mages.

  This time, he summoned a cherub mage in brown robes, a mage in green robes, and a mage in white robes.

  [Level 10 Cherub Air Mage]

  The Air mage manifested wind blades that sliced through the horde.

  [Level 10 Cherub Earth Mage]

  The earth mage caused earth spikes to erupt from the ground and impale its victims.

  [Level 10 Cherub White Mage]

  This was the cherub that filled Eve with the most anxiety. The white-robed cherub raised its staff and unleashed healing magic that mended what little wounds the group had. It didn’t just provide healing either. It pointed its staff towards Ben and engulfed him in several waves of light.

  [Minor Haste]

  [Minor Frenzy]

  [Minor Holy Weapon]

  Ben immediately noticed the benefits. He sped forth at twice his usual speed. When he engaged a group of enemies, he no longer had to take them down one at a time. He slashed with the axe portion of his halberd and beheaded a group of orcs in one sweep. Not only were his attacks faster, but they hit harder, given the frenzy buff and holy blessing on his weapon.

  Eve froze and watched the carnage with a feeling of helplessness. She barely even registered the golden light which suddenly engulfed her, which was accompanied by a triumphant ping.

  [Congratulations. You have leveled up. You are now level 10]