I had sixty-five available points that I could freely distribute, and without overthinking it any further, I committed all of them to Intelligence.
If mana was the fuel behind authority, then Intelligence was the reservoir.
The numbers shifted the mont I confird the allocation.
[Stats]
Strength: 112
Stamina: 132
Agility: 114
Intelligence: 100 65
Perception: 95
(Available Points: 0)
The change wasn't just nurical.
It was physical.
A faint pressure built behind my eyes before spreading inward, not painful, but dense, like my thoughts had gained weight and structure. My awareness sharpened further, not in the sense of spotting distant movent, but in processing speed—connections forming quicker, calculations settling cleaner, distractions fading faster.
And then I watched my MP adjust.
It surged from 1335 to 2203.
A massive jump.
For the first ti, my MP exceeded my HP, and Intelligence now stood as my highest stat. That felt appropriate. My strength was no longer just physical. It was structural. Conceptual.
With this increase, abilities like Absolute Lock and Absolute Phase no longer felt like reckless expenditures. I could layer skills. I could afford mistakes. I could maintain pressure.
And going forward, I knew where my priority lay.
More Intelligence.
More mana.
Because the greater my reserves, the longer I could dictate the pace of battle. And the longer I dictated the pace, the closer I moved toward becoming truly untouchable.
With that done, I closed the window and shifted my focus to the faint seal I had placed on Gork before sending him away.
I locked onto it.
Warped.
Space folded.
I reappeared behind him, high up in a tree a safe distance from where the behemoths had been.
Gork jolted violently at my sudden presence, nearly losing his footing on the branch before catching himself.
He spun around, eyes wide, only to relax the mont he recognized .
"You're alive," he breathed, relief flooding his expression.
I raised a brow.
"Were you expecting otherwise?"
It looked like he was about to say sothing, his mouth parting slightly as if words were forming, but then he stopped himself. Whatever he had intended to say was swallowed back down, and instead he simply turned his head away.
"Let's get going," I said calmly.
He nodded without hesitation.
He didn't need to speak for to understand what was running through his mind. He had felt the shockwave of that fight from afar. He had seen the herd. He had sensed the level of that matriarch. And now I stood here without a scratch.
There were so realizations that didn't require words.
With a few asured warps—shorter distances this ti, careful not to disorient him—we covered the remaining stretch of forest.
And then we arrived.
Right ahead of the base.
The sight of it made inhale sharply.
The first thing that caught my attention wasn't the buildings inside.
It was the wall.
A massive defensive wall constructed from dark red bricks stretched across the entire periter, easily ten tis my height. It wasn't hastily assembled either; this was deliberate construction. The bricks were uniform, tightly set, and reinforced with thick mortar that had hardened into a near stone-like bond. The surface bore visible signs of reinforcent—tal braces bolted across stress points, stone plates embedded at intervals to absorb impact, and faint lines along the structure that suggested layered strengthening techniques.
This wasn't so hastily thrown-together barricade built out of panic and mud.
It was engineered.
The brick wall didn't end in a simple vertical edge, the way most crude fortifications did. The entire top had been reinforced and flattened into a continuous stone walkway that ran along the periter. It was wide enough for several goblins to move shoulder to shoulder without crowding, which ant it had been designed with coordinated defense in mind, not just height.
The outer edge rose slightly higher than the inner platform, forming a thick defensive lip that allowed defenders to crouch behind cover while maintaining sightlines over the surrounding wilderness. From below, it presented the image of a solid, impenetrable fortress wall. From above, it functioned like a military rampart.
I could see goblins patrolling along the platform, their movents disciplined rather than idle. So scanned the treeline with spears resting against their shoulders. Others stood beside mounted ballista-like contraptions constructed from reinforced timber and salvaged tal brackets. The machines were crude but functional, their arms thick, torsion cords tightly wound, bolts stacked in organized bundles beside them.
Crates of javelins, arrows, and spare weapons were arranged neatly along the inner side of the walkway, not scattered carelessly. Soone here valued preparation.
"We should be careful when we approach," Gork murmured beside , keeping his voice low. "If they sight us, the entire clan will be on alert."
"That doesn't bother ," I replied calmly.
Alert or not, it wouldn't change the outco. It would only change the order of events.
Without waiting for further debate, I warped upward, placing myself high enough to get a clearer vantage without imdiately breaching the barrier's threshold.
The air bent around , and in the next instant, I hovered high enough to see over the wall.
A faint shimr stretched across the sky above the entire base, and at first it looked like heat distortion, but when I focused, the shape beca clear.
A barrier.
A translucent do arched over the settlent, shaped like half an oval placed over the entire base. The surface humd faintly with energy, ripples of pale blue light flowing across it like slow waves moving through water.
Even from where I floated, I could feel the magic, and it wasn't weak.
There was density and structure to it, pressed outward, stable, and layered.
No doubt an effect of the Garnets I sought.
The barrier wrapped completely around the settlent, sealing it from above and rging seamlessly with the brick walls below to form a full defensive enclosure that fended off aerial threats as well.
My gaze then dropped inside, and I gasped on seeing the settlent.
Rows of brick buildings spread across the interior in organized clusters, connected by dirt paths that looked worn from constant traffic. Smoke curled from chimneys, drifting lazily toward the barrier above before dispersing along its surface.
Goblins moved everywhere.
So hauled lumber across the pathways. Others carried baskets filled with ore and monster parts. Groups of goblins worked near construction sites, laying bricks and reinforcing structures as if expanding the settlent even further.
The entire place felt alive.
Compared to our base…
This was an entirely different level.
Near one corner of the settlent, I spotted sothing else.
Mounts.
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