Exactly five minutes after the General died, a system message appeared before Alex and everyone else in the tutorial.
—
Event Update:
The first General has fallen.
The Berserker General was slain by Alex Everett in single combat.
The other Generals have been notified of their fellow generals' death and have become more aggressive.
Generals slain 1/5
Berserker
Generals remaining 4/5
???
???
???
???
Good luck, gain power, and above all, survive.
—
“Well… that's not great. I’d prefer people didn’t know my name and that I killed a General. Even worse, the other Generals know now, too.” Alex muttered while he continued to half-stumble and half-jog towards camp. He knew if he stopped moving, he would probably fall unconscious. Honestly, he wasn’t sure if he was going to even make it there.
It was labeled as a Berserker General, too. I wonder if all the Generals are berserkers also or if maybe they're all different. He wondered, trying to take his mind off the pain he was in. To distract himself more, he pulled up his notifications.
You have slain Goblin Warrior (Level 6)
Experience and SP gained
You have slain Goblin Warrior (Level 8)
Experience and SP gained
You have slain Goblin Raider (Level 7)
Experience and SP gained
You have slain Goblin Skirmisher (Level 5)
Experience and SP gained
You have slain Goblin Shaman (Level 9)
Experience and SP gained
You have slain Goblin Raider (Level 9)
Experience and SP gained
You have slain Goblin Assassin (Level 7)
Experience and SP gained
You have slain Goblin Commander (Level 10)
Experience and SP gained
You have slain Goblin Raider (Level 8)
Experience and SP gained
You have slain Goblin Commander (Level 10)
Experience and SP gained
…
…
…
The kill notifications kept going and going; hundreds of kills went by.
Too bad most barely gave me any experience. Only those commanders and the General would have given me a good amount.
Warning, Progenitor, you have overdrawn your [Space Magic] beyond what your Bronze body can handle. You have suffered a backlash from the strain. As this was your first time, your body has not suffered any permanent damage. But if you do it again, you may not be so lucky.
Your body has been weakened and will remain so for the next 18 hours. During this period, your resource regeneration has been reduced by 50%, and all stats are reduced by 20%.
Shit. That explains why I’m feeling weaker than normal, and my health and mana aren’t regenerating much. I’ve had to lower my wind enhancement because my mana wasn’t keeping up. Looks like I won't be doing that again anytime soon.
You have slain a Goblin General (Level 12)
Experience and SP gained
Of course, no level up. Leveling is going to be a pain in the ass now.
Alex continued half jogging, half limping his way back to camp. He didn’t really remember most of the trip, his mind zoning out and threatening to slip into an unconscious state. Focus was fixed solely on his feet, one step at a time.
He didn’t know how long it took him to return to camp. Twenty yards from the gate to their camp, his body gave out, and he collapsed. Before his vision faded to black, he saw the guards running toward him.
Good, they see me. Let’s hope Sarah is around to heal me up. He thought as he stopped fighting to stay conscious. Darkness took him.
***
Derek and the rest of his party were sitting around the fire, eating some food. They had patrolled the nearby forest during the night, while Alex had been out hunting goblins. The last thing they wanted was another surprise attack from them.
While resting in between patrols, they all saw the notification.
Event Update:
The first General has fallen.
The Berserker General was slain by Alex Everett in single combat.
The other Generals have been notified of their fellow generals' death and have become more aggressive.
Generals slain 1/5
Berserker
Generals remaining 4/5
???
???
???
???
Good luck, gain power, and above all, survive.
---
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“He did it! Alex killed one of the Generals!” He called out in triumph. His friends all had that glazed-over look on their faces, clearly reading the system message too, so they already knew, but he didn’t care. Derek felt hope reading the message. Hope for their future, hope that they’ll all survive, hope for his family… He would never admit it to the others aloud, but he had been feeling a lot of doubt recently.
Derek had been deployed in the military a few times... but this was different. Fear was a normal thing for him. He was used to it. But it was fear for himself that he was used to, not fear for his family. He wouldn’t just get to go home after, assuming he survived, his home was changed, and going through this also. His family was currently fighting for their lives, too, as far as he knew.
But this was good news. It meant Alex was strong enough, and they might be too if they could hit Bronze rank. Strong enough to keep themselves and their loved ones safe.
“Should we go find him? See if he’s alright after the fight?” Sarah asked, clearly worried Alex could be injured.
She really is a great healer. It fits her well. Derek thought to himself before replying. “We can’t. We don’t really know where he is, and could easily miss him in the dark, since he’s the only one with nightvision.
“Derek is right. We must wait. He is strong and will be fine.” Korgrith said.
“True true. He’ll return if he needs help.” Sam added, popping a piece of meat into his mouth.
Over an hour passed while they sat there, waiting for something else to happen. And then it did.
They heard guards shouting out front, near the gate. Assuming it was goblins attacking, they all quickly grabbed their weapons and ran towards the gate, preparing for battle.
They weren’t quite expecting what they saw when they arrived. Alex was passed out on the ground, bloody, injured, and barely alive. Sarah took off running, her healer instincts kicking in.
When the rest of the party caught up, Sarah was already kneeling over his body, casting her healing spell.
“How is he?” Derek asked her.
“Terrible. Honestly, he shouldn’t be alive at all. He’s lost so much blood, he has more cuts across his body than should be possible unless he fell into a wood chipper, and he has some kind of debuff that's inhibiting his own regeneration. I’ve never seen it before and have no idea what is causing it. His Willpower is the only reason he would have made it here.” She said in awe, clearly understanding and respecting what Alex went through to make it back.
“Someone please carry him into his bed while I’m healing him. And Korgrith, can you go get one of your people's healers too? He will need more. Just me won’t be enough.” She added, focusing back on Alex.
When Alex awoke, he found himself in his room in the cave. He lay there looking around the room for a few minutes before sitting up. He could still feel his space magic overdrawn debuff, but his body felt healed.
Well, if I still have the debuff, then it hasn’t been 18 hours yet.
He sat there for a moment, just breathing, then he stood up and stretched out his muscles. It was something he used to do every day before the integration, so just standing there and stretching felt nice.
When he finished, he went outside his room entering into the cave. He didn’t see any of his friends, but there were some beastkin around. Most avoided eye contact with him, and those few who did bowed their heads to him.
Outside the cave, Alex searched for some food. He felt pretty hungry, which told him he had definitely been asleep a while.
Grabbing some of the freshly cooked meat from the cooking area, he sat near a fire and enjoyed the warmth while he slowly ate. It felt good just to do something else normal for a moment. He always enjoyed camping and eating near an open fire. It was relaxing.
Thirty minutes passed, and then he saw his friends returning through the gate.
Looks like they’ve been out scouting and saw some action. Fresh blood on their equipment.
“About time you woke up. You have a habit of taking naps in random places. Last time was on top of a goblin commander, and this time it was the dirt outside camp.” Sam said with a smirk.
Not responding, Alex used his Earth Magic skill to raise a large rock in front of Sam’s path, which tripped him and caused him to fall onto his face.
“I hate you,” Sam mumbled through all the dirt in his mouth.
“I love you too, bud,” Alex said back to him.
His team laughed at Sam as they all walked over and sat by Alex.
“How are you feeling?” Sarah asked immediately.
“Pretty good, actually. Almost 100%. I assume I have you to thank for that?” Alex replied.
“I’m a healer, you don’t need to thank me. I’m just glad you're doing all right now. You were in bad shape, Alex. You’re lucky to even be alive.” She added.
“Yeahhhh.. I don’t really remember much. The whole journey back to camp is a blur. After the fight with the General, I couldn’t risk fighting anything else. I knew I needed to get back here to be healed.”
“Was the General that tough?” Sam asked, still picking dirt out of his mouth.
Alex nodded. “He was. We both underestimated each other badly at first. He was strong, fast, and felt no pain. That Berserker was no joke.”
“We saw that on the system's notification. It showed he was the Berserker General, whatever that is.” Derek added. “What weapons did he use?”
“See for yourself,” Alex said as he pulled out the General's body and axe. He didn’t have his dual axes, but he did have the big one. “He used dual axes at first, but when they broke, he swapped to this two-handed one.”
Korgrith's eyes went wide as he looked at that axe with a deep longing. Alex chuckled and said, “Korgrith, I think you're the only one here who could even use that axe. So if you want it, it’s yours.”
Korgrith looked at Alex a moment before asking, “Are you sure? That weapon is strong and valuable. Even if you wouldn’t use it, you could sell or trade it, I am sure.”
Alex realized he hadn’t even inspected the axe and quickly did so.
Berserker’s axe of Bloodlust (Rare) (★★)
A large two-handed axe imbued with the blood of fallen foes. This axe was created with a Berserker in mind. While wielding this weapon, the user feels a stronger bloodlust than usual, and with each kill, the weapon and the user grow stronger for a brief moment through the enemy's blood.
Wielder gains 1% attack speed per 10 enemies killed. Kill stacks and attack speed buffs last for 10minutes.
+8 Strength +4 Toughness
Alex gave them all a sincere smile. “Its definitely a good axe, and it's true I won't use it.”
Alex looked around at each of them. “I want all of you to get stronger. Whether that's gear or levels, I don’t care. The stronger you all are, the better off we all will be.” Looking back at Korgrith, he added, “So yes, I am sure. Take the axe and get stronger, Korgrith.”
“I would be honored to wield this weapon. Thank you, Alex. You do me a great service.” Korgrith said before reaching down and picking up the axe. He grunted as he lifted it, not expecting the heavy weight.
He stared at the weapon for a moment, “Hmm, I think the weapon is too heavy for me to wield. While technically I can swing it and kill things, the weapon seems unwieldy weight-wise. I may need to be Bronze rank for it to feel more normal.”
Derek nodded and added, “Makes sense. The General looks to have a few armor pieces intact, too.”
“Help yourselves. You three warriors are the only ones who might want that heavy armor. And Rykos is speed-focused, so that would just leave you and Korgrith. I’ll pass on the armor, but if you see any accessories or other things, I'd like to take a look.
Korgrith, do you want me to hold your axe in my storage space for now? Might be a bit awkward carrying it around on your back while fighting.” He chuckled, imagining the sight of it.
Korgrith nodded. “Yes, that sounds much easier.” He handed Alex the axe.
“Speaking of Bronze rank. Think we can get there today?” Sam asked the group.
“It looks like you're all level 9 now, so it should be doable, or at least a few today and the rest tomorrow. It will mainly depend on how many goblins are in our area. I’m not sure what happened to the remaining ones after I killed the General. I assume you're pretty close to level 10, Derek?” Alex asked.
Derek smiled and nodded. “I am. It feels like I am about 75% of the way there. We spent the morning hunting goblins in the forest, while you napped, and we were able to gain a large amount of experience. We even fought another commander.”
Sam snickered a bit at the mention of Alex napping. Everyone else also smiled at the comment.
“Yeah, yeah. What can I say, I like my beauty sleep.” Alex said, dramatically flipping his black hair behind him, causing everyone to laugh a bit.
“Not used to the black hair yet, Its weird not being silver. You still have those freaky eyes, though. Black iris, speckled with white… stars? I dunno, but then there's the gold outline around the pupil and iris edges. It's crazy. I hope I get some badass fire eyes,” Sam said.
“Yeah? Sounds kind of cool. I’ll need to find a mirror at some point and check them out. And you might.. who knows.”
“Tell us about your fight with the General. We are all curious about the battle.” Rykos chimed in, finally adding to the conversation.
And Alex did just that. He told them about his goals and what he wanted to do. How he went to where he had seen their camp previously, snuck into the middle of the camp, and went on a rampage– killing hundreds.
Then, after leaving the goblin camp and returning, when he was going to leave again, he heard the horn, announcing the arrival of the general.
How their short conversation went, and how the fight progressed. The General’s strength and abilities, and how Alex finally killed him. He didn’t tell them about his space magic usage, but just said he stabbed him in the stomach and channeled his magic into him.
It wasn’t that Alex didn’t trust them enough to discuss his [Space Magic] ability; he was realizing that he trusted them a lot. It was that he knew where the conversation would lead if he brought it up. They would ask about how he has it. Which would lead to his race and other things Alex didn’t want to discuss. Not yet, anyway. It would be a long conversation. But he did promise himself that he would tell them all, even Rykos and Korgrith. He had only known these five for a short time, but every day that passed, he trusted them more and more.
Is this from fighting together? I’ve heard of soldiers building trust in battle. I’ll have to ask Derek about that.
“Soo.. I’m just going to talk about the elephant in the room that everyone else seems to be ignoring. But that General has a giant hole in him. His entire torso is missing, and he looks like a goblin donut.” Sam said, staring at the goblin's corpse.
Alex laughed loudly. “I said the same damn thing, he does look like a donut.”
“Great minds,” Sam replied, tapping his finger to his head.
They spent another thirty minutes there, talking, eating, and enjoying each other’s company. In their new reality, they knew they wouldn’t get many moments like this to relax with new friends.
Shortly after that, they left to go find some goblins to kill. Alex wasn’t too worried about leaving the camp undefended. The beastkin and even some of the few humans decided to start leveling up more, and his team would periodically check in. The attack last night really spooked a lot of the survivors, giving them motivation to grow. Rykos had formed dungeon groups from the new volunteers and had some of the more experienced fighters taking them through to level up. The average level of people in their camp had risen rapidly over the past 12 hours.
They spent the next few hours running through the forest hunting goblin patrols. None of the groups they found were very large and were easily dispatched. Alex didn’t even have to join in for any of the battles. He was fine with letting them gain the experience for now, especially since he still had the debuff.
While searching for another group, they heard fighting off in the distance. His group waited outside of line of sight, as Alex went ahead in stealth to see what was going on.
But what he saw quickly spurred him onward to warn his friends.
He sighed and shook his head as he ran. Always more drama, one thing after the next. We couldn’t just have a peaceful goblin murdering trip.
