“Everyone, you know the drill. Stop the most critically injured from dying. Kaylie, our only healer is on the bottom floor in the last room. Go get him. I’ll start finishing off any enemies, just in case,” Jack said, his eyes suddenly locking onto mine. “What the hell? I saw you go down.” He hesitated, then shook his head. “I don’t have time for this now. Help out. I don’t know what to do with these kids. They don’t speak our language. See if you can get them to help. Mime if you have to,” Jack added, gesturing to the Dwya.
“I don’t have a full vocabulary, but I can get your meaning across using similar words,” Rabbit said in my mind.
I tried to speak their language actively and said, “We need to treat the most wounded. Can you help?”
“You speak our language,” the Dwya said as a statement. “Yes. We help.” They all scattered, checking on Humans and Dwya the same.
One of the Dwya barked a loud noise, and another came running up to a Human. I decided to watch to see what was happening. The injured human was in bad shape, unconscious, and gravely wounded. The second Dwya arrived and began to chant an incantation while performing a complex spell form. A soft glow surrounded the injured human as the healing magic took effect. Gradually, a hint of color returned to their pallid face, but they remained unconscious. Satisfied with their magical intervention, the healer Dwya moved away, leaving the other to attend to any remaining wounds that continued to bleed.
“I didn’t realize they had healers,” I muttered to no one in particular. Snapping out of my idle contemplation, I realized I needed to be proactive. I dashed back below deck to the mess hall, where I knew of a severely injured man. Despite the risk of exacerbating his injuries, I heaved him onto my shoulders and carried him up to the top deck. “Over here!” I shouted before hurrying back down to fetch another wounded villager.
By the time I returned with the second, less critical villager, the situation on the deck had stabilized. All those who could be saved had received aid. Jack approached me, “We lost one Human and two Dwya. If the Dwya had been armored, we might not have lost them, but Dwya-sized armor wasn’t exactly on board.”
I found myself marveling at the outcome of the battle. The transformative power of healing was nothing short of astonishing. It meant that as long as you survived the battle and your side won, you could be healed and ready to fight again. This revelation would surely necessitate a rethink of all existing military strategies.
“How did that Human and those two Dwya die?” I asked.
“The Dwya were darting in and helping out when they could. If they had had appropriate gear and weapons, it would have been a fairer fight. Unfortunately, due to their lack of armor, even just one or two bad stabs proved fatal for them. As for the Human, you know that mage Kaylie was fighting? It seems like he was pretty powerful and iced someone to death once the battle started up here. He was important and also the strongest fighter,” Jack explained.
The whole thing got me thinking. Jack was clearly our most formidable fighter, but perhaps warriors weren’t as effective against mages, or maybe I had underestimated Kaylie’s prowess. The opponent she battled didn’t seem to possess any magical abilities when I had encountered him. However, Kaylie had been nearly drained when I crossed paths with her. Could it be that she had expended all her magic on that mage? Or had he exhausted his magical reserves in his duel with her? One thing was for sure: I was glad Kaylie was on our side, especially if Jack thought her opponent was a tough one.
“How can you tell he was important?” I asked.
Jack looked at me, and I would guess he realized I still didn’t understand the basics and explained, “His markings. He was of a high caste. He was a direct representative from the Wind's house. I am not sure what he was doing on this particular ship, but as it is a Wind ship, I am not that surprised. Just wondering why someone of such a high rank was on a merchant ship.”
It was odd that the person had a high ranking, as he didn’t have as complex tattoos as Jack did. This could be because the complexity might depend on the caste you were assigned, or it might not matter at all. I would have to learn more to figure out where Jack stood, but at this point, I was guessing.
“Merchant ship?” I said, looking around for cargo.
“I know you see some slavers or soldiers or sailors, but to my people, this is a merchant ship collecting cargo. The slaves, in this case, are the cargo to be sold, and the governments and the houses have everything to do with it.” It seemed like he was done talking about his people because he was purposely trying to distance himself emotionally. Jack looked around, averting my gaze, and continued, “As of this moment, I am not a lot of help, so I’m going to steer the ship before we start going the wrong way. There are three sailors I left alive over there. I have disarmed them, and they aren’t going anywhere. Can you bring them to the cells in the cargo hold?”
I nodded and grabbed the least injured of the prisoners. I started lugging him downstairs and began to think. I couldn't believe this wasn’t even a military ship, given all the fighters on board. The fact that they considered slaves as cargo, like they were some type of property, was disgusting. Jack also seemed a little blind to some things. He called the jail cells a cargo hold. I’d guess that when you grow up, your language often sticks, but it was frustrating to see how this world worked. The fact that the leader here refused to surrender to what he perceived as ‘slaves’ spoke volumes about the prevailing attitude toward our group, particularly among the higher caste.
By the time I got the first person loaded into the jail cells below and locked up, my anger had diminished a little bit. Rabbit started to speak, “You have plenty of prompts that I minimized while you were fighting. I’m pretty sure you didn’t want to see a level-up prompt when you were in the middle of your battle.”
“I leveled up?” I asked, excited. It was like being a kid in a candy shop.
“Did you level up? You leveled up a lot. The prompts were all jumbled up, so I have adjusted them so it’s simpler,” Rabbit replied.
Experience
One Level 7 Human. You have gained 538 experience points.
Four Level 12 Humans. You have gained 13,728 experience points.
Two Level 13 Humans. You have gained 4,368 experience points.
Three Level 14 Humans. You have gained 13,650 experience points.
One Level 15 Human. You have gained 3,360 experience points.
Two Level 16 Humans. You have gained 16,320 experience points.
Congratulations, you have leveled up! As a Grey Elf, you received 1 ability point in Agility, 1 in Intelligence, 2 in Constitution, and an additional 2 points to distribute each level in any category. You have reached level 11 and received a total of 14 freely distributable ability points.
You have gained levels 2 through Level 4 in Swordsmanship.
“Hey, Rabbit, I don’t think these numbers make any sense. How can I get 3,000 experience points from killing a level 15 Human and 13,000 experience points from killing three level 14 people? This is way more people than I killed.”
“The level 15 Human, you didn’t kill. Remember how you moved around the mess hall, absorbing people? He was one of them. Experience seems to depend on several factors. First, the level of the person seems obvious, as the more experience they have fighting, the more you get when they die. Second, whether you killed them, but this matters less in smaller groups. For example, in the mess hall, you gained experience when Kaylie killed someone with a fireball, and above deck, when you distracted Jack’s combatants, you still gained experience. It seems tied to being actively engaged, contributing to the fight, and the party’s size. When reinforcements joined the mess hall battle, you stopped gaining extra experience, likely because the group became too large, so your presence contributed less to the kills.” Rabbit paused, letting me process this information.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
“The third thing is the Soul Absorption.” He kept talking. “If you absorbed the soul, then you would get experience even if you didn’t fight. That experience is less if you killed the person and absorbed their soul. Also, it seems to be more pronounced if you absorb their soul while they're dying, which is odd altogether. Maybe there’s a hidden multiplier that affects how much a creature is a threat to you. You know that kid you killed first?” When Rabbit mentioned that, I felt cold. I didn’t want to kill him. Do the ends justify the means? I mean, it turned out well, but I had to do something terrible to make that happen. I don’t know. It’s better not to think about it.
“You received less experience based on his level compared to everyone else, and that snake you killed when you got here gave you much more experience than these equations suggest. I think it has to do with either size or some threat factor. I believe that if you kill a Godzilla monster that is level 1, you will receive a ton of experience. While if you killed a level 100 fly, you wouldn’t be celebrating,” Rabbit finally finished.
“So what you are saying is kill things that are likely to kill me?” I asked.
“Not if you want to live. My suggestion is to do what you did in this battle and ride other coattails,” Rabbit replied.
“Ride other coattails? I almost died several times out there. I was a killing machine,” I replied with pride.
“You? Ha. Let me break it down a couple of different ways. If you didn’t have your Soul Absorption, you would be a level 8 right now. If Jack hadn’t killed those two level 16 people, and you hadn’t had your Soul Absorption, then you would be level 7 barely. If you keep your Soul Absorption and Jack didn’t kill those two level 16 people, then you would be level 10. The people you killed by yourself were either weak or disarmed. Trust me when I say riding the coattails is the way to go.”
When I helped Jack kill one of those level 16 slavers, it earned me around 8,000 experience points, whereas killing that level 7 teen only got me 500 experience points. It seemed like experience points were exponentially harder to get when fighting people at your level. You had to fight people stronger than you to gain more power. I would guess Rabbit was right. The best way to do that was to have stronger people backing you up. It might not help them level up, but it would certainly give you a significant advantage.
“What will also help is absorbing all the bodies you can. It won’t boost your healing because you are already in perfect condition, but it should help your level,” Rabbit said.
“Sounds good to me. Let me drop off this last slaver.” By this time, I had picked up the last one from above deck and started to bring him down to the jail cells. “What do you think I should do with my attribute points?” I questioned.
“Let me show you the relevant parts of your character sheet.”
Stats
Max Health: 300
Max Mana: 200
Attributes
Strength: 12
Perception: 10
Constitution: 30
Charisma: 14
Intelligence: 20
Wisdom: 10
Agility: 20
“Wow, my stats went through the roof!” I exclaimed.
“It sure was creeping up while you were fighting because you only get two distributable ability points per level. If your abilities weren’t automatically increasing, you would have run out of health in that last fight. You ended up getting lucky,” replied Rabbit, and it was scary how close I was to being dead. Choosing the wrong room first and not having proper backup turned against me fast.
“Where do you think we should put the points in?” I asked Rabbit who would be the best to respond to this type of question.
“I would say since you already get such a big bump to Constitution, we should just ignore that stat completely. It seems that as a Grey Elf, you can already take a beating. Your Perception would be helpful if you didn’t have me, but as I help out sometimes, you can probably ignore that for now. I would suggest Wisdom because I want to see what would happen. I figured the increase to your intelligence would increase how smart you are, but it still seems impossible to underestimate you.”
“Then…” I spoke but pulled back partway and said, “Hey. Did you just insult me?”
“Exactly, so while in that fight, you were a lot faster. To be able to cope with attacks, you need more speed and strength!” Rabbit exclaimed as if his insults didn’t matter. I knew from experience I wouldn’t get anywhere trying to argue with him. Instead, I continued back to our original conversation.
“But I already get points in Agility on every level automatically. Wouldn’t that be a waste like Constitution?”
“No, not at all. You are not as fast or as strong as others by a long shot. Don’t forget that the extra points into Constitution just saved your life. My final recommendation is eight in Strength, four in Agility, and a final two in Charisma.”
“Charisma?” I questioned.
“Yeah, if you haven’t noticed, the people around you have helped you level. Extra points in Charisma might help keep it that way,” Rabbit explained. I hadn’t really thought about it like that before, but he had a point. I’d been riding their momentum pretty hard up until now. Adding to Charisma might even get me extra rewards when we got back to the village.
After those thoughts, I decided to adjust Rabbit’s recommendations slightly. I put seven points into Strength, four in Agility, and three in Charisma. It wouldn’t change much, but might let me live when I got back. The stats were as such:
Attributes
Strength: 19
Perception: 10
Constitution: 30
Charisma: 17
Intelligence: 20
Wisdom: 10
Agility: 24
Oddly enough, I didn’t feel any stronger or faster when I made these changes. My muscles looked the same, and it was more than disappointing.
Apparently, Rabbit could tell my mood and why it was that way, so he said, “Why not try and do a backflip?”
“You serious? I don’t think I could do a front flip. Like ever in my life.”
“Even so, you should try it,” he said, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on his tone. Since Rabbit thought I could do it, I decided to give it a try.
I bent down to my knees and breathed in and out for a second, then popped up, trying to lean backward. My feet hit the ceiling of the room, stopping my momentum just enough for gravity to take effect again, and then I landed face-first on the deck floor.
Immediately, Rabbit burst into a fit of laughter. Clearly, he knew what was going to happen, and he just smacked some knowledge on my face. Literally.
Although it was embarrassing and unwelcome, it was pleasant to see that my jump was bigger and that I was indeed stronger. My increased Constitution helped me not break my neck on that landing, so I wasn’t that upset.
When I got the last slaver in chains, I was off to find some more souls to absorb. I first went to the man on the bottom floor, who got an ax to the face when he interrupted our group. I tried absorbing his soul, but it didn’t have any effect.
“That’s odd, it’s not working,” I said to Rabbit.
“Maybe it’s been too long, or because you weren’t engaged in fighting when this person died. Let’s go check others,” Rabbit concurred.
I then went to the sleeping chambers, but only found two bodies in there. There should be a lot more people in here since half our forces entered this area. But considering how many people were in the mess hall, I would guess that made sense. Jack was wrong about that, but at least they were mostly unarmed and weren’t within reach of their weapons. It might have been a different story if they had been in the sleeping area and could have reached their arms quickly. It still wouldn’t have saved them, but it would have been far more difficult. Perhaps that was the tipping point that could have cost us the game. By no means was this victory ensured.
Those two bodies didn’t give me any results as well. I then went through the ship, checking everybody and not even caring if anyone saw me. Not a single body would give me experience.
“Well, it could be any number of reasons. Maybe you absorbed too much, maybe it’s been too long, maybe it’s because you aren’t battling people. I don’t know. Next time, we are going to have to absorb them quicker to see why and when it stops working,” Rabbit suggested.
It was frustrating, though, because I was missing out on good experience. I had leveled up considerably, so I didn’t think it would have made that much of a difference. I would ask Rabbit about that. “Hey, it’s harder to level up the higher I am in level, but how hard is it?”
“I’m pretty sure you’re asking a math question because answering ‘hard’ isn’t going to help you at all. Although…” Rabbit paused with mischief in his voice. “I know something hard is the only solution you want.” I rolled my eyes, and Rabbit continued when I didn’t argue back. “If you took all of your experience from right now to the beginning, then you would only get to 14 from your current level of 11. On your first level, you only needed 200 experience points, and now you need around 13,000 to level up. I think that is why the villagers only get their kids to level 10. While getting to level 10 is relatively easy, getting to level 20 would take around 8 times as much experience. It would be either dangerous or time-consuming. The fact that Kibi is level 14 is highly impressive. Her dad must be a high-level person and probably spent a lot of time helping her reach that point.”
Well, my days of easy leveling up were over. I wouldn’t have called this a piece of cake or not dangerous, but it was effective and fast. I almost died several times today, and I didn’t want that to happen again. With my attribute increases, I was sure to be much more of a match when fighting.
