After about 10 minutes walking in the forest, Michael gave a sign for all of them to stop. He had a unique skill called Darksight. It made him able to see in darkness. A skill that was too rare to be studied, so there were only suppositions about it. But the main theory is that Darksight allowed the adventurer to see more light wavelengths than a normal person, like infrared or ultraviolet and thus being able to see in the dark like night vision googles.
Matthew put an arrow on the bow’s string, pulled it and imbued it with Mana. He shot at a tree and a piece of its bark fell to the ground.
Matthew soon realized that it was a trunk spider. He smiled. Feeling the thrill of the hunt, he charged forward with his machete. He was advised to not use his gun unless necessary, because the sound would scare away their prey.
The spider was on the floor, already agonizing because of the arrow that pierced its head. Matthew killed it clean with a single strike taking its head away. He felt unfulfilled. It was not enough.
Then his system screen popped up:
"Congratulations!
You drew a tier 2 class!
Summoner!"
He then decided to even out his stats leaving his total as:
"Matthew Lordstone – Level 6
Doctor – Level 1
Warrior – Level 1
Gunner – Level 1
Plague Doctor – Level 1
Ranger – Level 1
Summoner – Level 1
Stats
HP = 14/ VIT = 10
MP = 15/ MAG = 10
STR = 10/ AGI = 10
MIN = 13/ CHA = 9
Skills (1): Anesthesia (E), Imbue Mana (E), Boost Gunpowder (E), Resist Disease (E), Animal Companion (E)"
Another class with low synergy with his classes. Perhaps he could pick the Summon Spirit skill, it allowed him to draw spirits from the Primordial Realms, but without enough Charisma, the spirit would not obey him. He didn’t have a pacted creature or spirit to pick Summon Pact. The last skill it had was Resist Uglify, which allowed the Summoner to resist spells that reduced Charisma.
He decided to pick Summon Spirit, it might be useful if he could use Animal Companion on the spirit he summoned. However, summoning a spirit wasn’t easy. Unlike all the skills he got until now, with the exception of Animal Companion, that were instinctively and just needed a bit of understanding of Mana circulation to use, Summon Spirit was a complex skill that needed knowledge of the Primordial Realms and how cast the spell to summon. He studied Mana circulation before he turned into an adventurer, but as Summoner wasn’t on his plan, he never studied how Summoning magic worked. He would need to seek help with it.
While Paula very reluctantly put the spider body in her inventory bag, Vanessa approached Matthew and said:
"What you doing there looking at the void?"
"Oh, Vanessa. I leveled up."
"With 1 spider?!" Vanessa scread.
"I did fought an army of demons in Hell before coming here..." Matthew reminded her.
"What happened?" Michael ca running after Vanessa scread.
"Matthew leveled up." Vanessa said.
"Cool!" Michael smiled genuinely. "Are you going for Warrior or Gunner?"
"I..." Matthew got a bit awkward. How was he going to explain?
"Don’t pry into other people’s builds Michael." Paula ca forward cleaning her hands with a water bottle. "You know so people don’t like to talk about it."
"Sorry, Matthew." Michael said. "I just got a bit curious, since you carry guns, but also a shield."
"I just use what I can at the mont. My build is a bit hard to explain..." He answered. "But it’s ok. I also get curious about other people’s builds."
"Oh!" Michael got excited. "Mine is no secret. I want to be an Archer, since I’m good with the bow. So I got 5 levels in Scout, 1 level in Warrior and 2 levels as Mage. Here let show you." Michael then got a ring from his pocket and put on. The ring then made a screen that everyone could read.
"Michael Auror – Level 8
Warrior – Level 1
Mage – Level 2
Scout – Level 5
Stats
HP = 8/ VIT = 7
MP = 20/ MAG = 14
STR = 12/ AGI = 22
MIN = 16/ CHA = 0
Skills: Imbue Mana (E), Project Mana (E), Lingering Mana (E), Boost Hearing (A)"
"That’s a great build. But why did you pick Boost Hearing with scout and not Sense Traps or Sense Secret Doors?" Matthew asked as they resud walking.
"I mostly hunted in gates like this. There aren’t traps or secret doors. Being able to hear a creature far away is the most effective way to hunt in these places. Next, I’m taking Hide Mana."
"I envy you. My unique ability doesn’t allow to make a build like that."
"Oh yeah? How so?"
Matthew explained his Gacha Leveling skill and then put on the ring and showed every one his stats.
"Ranger?!" Paula, who was pretending not to listen to their conversation suddenly exclaid. "That’s a tier 4 class. You’d need to be level 40 at least to pick it. That’s incredible!"
"Yeah, but without having a pacted creature or any kind of companion, its skill was useless. The stat boost helped a lot tough." Matthew explained.
"Your build is all over the place." Michael observed.
"But you are in no way weak." Vanessa complinted him. ’You’ve been holding well in the dungeons."
And after those words, Michael told everyone to stop and make silence. Paula sent Lumi flying to explore ahead. And soon ca back to the woman. Through the pact, they could understand each other without words.
"Lumi says that there’s a big Roth feeding ahead." She explained.
"Roths are tough. Let’s get this one and go back to base." Vanessa said taking out a gun and a knife.
"Then guns?" Matthew asked taking his out.
"Yeah."
Laura made a hand movent, and all of them felt their bodies becoming stronger.
Michael put an arrow on his bow. And stepped forward. "I’ll shoot first. Then you guys jump in."
The arrow flew straight to the Roth’s side. It would be a kill shot if it were a normal animal. But the arrow stopped, too shallow to reach his heart.
Vanessa and Matthew then charged in shooting, their bullets barely grazing its skin. Michael shot it again taking a loud low from the Roth. It soon charged at the adventurers trying to hit them with his tal horns.
Paula, who was farther away, connected to Lumi transforming her Mana into Ice and holding the beast in place by freezing its feet onto the ground.
Vanessa threw two daggers on its neck, but the damage was too shallow and just left it bleeding.
After another arrow from Michael, Matthew stepped in dodging the beast’s horns and delivering a heavy blow from his machete. The blood flew on his face and upon feeling its warmth, he smiled.
Matthew entered in a frenzy. He started to hack his blade into the Roth with no regard of were his companions were. The other 3 were unable to help him as he kept close to the beast.
"Fall back kid!" Vanessa scread.
It fell on deaf ears. Matthew wasn’t himself anymore. The Roth freed himself from the ice, quickly turned and slapped him with its horn. The blow was strong enough to fling Matthew towards a tree and dent its bark.
Paula rushed to help him, but he didn’t wait. He applied Anesthesia on himself and charged again.
Michael’s arrow almost hit him and Vanessa had to stop herself from shooting in fear of hitting him.
"What are you doing Matthew?!" Michael scread angry.
Matthew had a creepy smile on his face. His Mana, imbued on his weapon, turned red, instead of blue. His slashes beca stronger, and his disregard for his life beca greater.
The Roth, covered in cuts didn’t stop to fight for his life. It kicked, stepped and threw Matthew away. But as a rabid raccoon, Matthew didn’t give up. He was relentless in his attack and eventually the big creature fell to the ground.
Even after death, Matthew didn’t stop hitting it. He hacked off its head laughing like he just heard a good joke. Then the legs. And then he looked back.
Vanessa, Paula and Michael were horrified. Their faces frozen in terror.
Matthew looked at himself. Covered in blood. Dancing while butchering. He looked exactly like the imps and dretches he fought against.
He let go of his machete like it was burning his hand. He desperately tried to clean off the blood from his body and face, but he was so covered in it, that he only managed to get himself more dirty.
What was he doing?
Why was he enjoying it?
He searched Vanessa with his eyes. Hers were as wide as a plate. Her mouth opened. She was scared. All of them were.
"I shouldn’t have co." He said out loud. Scared of himself. Scared of hurting the others. Scared that he wanted to hurt the others. "I’m still in there, aren’t I? I never left, did I?"
"W-where?" Vanessa reluctantly gave a step forward.
"In hell. This is not real. You’re not real. They got , didn’t they? I’m still there."
Then it hit Vanessa. He was not well. He wasn’t crazy, he was sick.
She hurried to him. Held him in her arms overlooking all the blood and allowing herself to get drenched in it.
"It’s real Matthew. I’m real. It’s all real. You are out. You are safe. It’s ok."
Matthew started to cry. All the images from hell ca back to him. The terrible singing, the carnage, the rape, the torture... He saw himself doing them. He saw himself wanting them.
La la la la la... The song the imps sung was repeating in his head as if he were there. He hugged Vanessa back with all his strength. He cried loudly.
"It’s ok Matthew. It’s all right." Vanessa said while petting his head.
"I want to go ho." He cried like a child.
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