Final Preparations

The giant boar squealed, ducked its meaty head and charged. Razor sharp tusks gleamed in the evening light, and a rumble reverberated along John’s spine as the boar’s hairy body thundered towards him.

He might have been intimidated if he hadn’t already slain hundreds of its brethren already.

Tsuki and Hoshi flared in blue light as John channelled his mana through them, before unleashing it all in a cross slash that streamed through the air and connected cleanly on the boar’s forehead. The beast died instantly, and so it was only a matter of using Evade to sidestep out of danger while its momentum carried it into the wall of the arena.

Moira clapped her hands from the stands. “It’s amazing how much stronger you’ve gotten in such a short amount of time,” she commented. “I’m a little jealous.”

“Well, it’s partly thanks to you I’m able to use my mana so liberally,” John replied with a warm smile. It was true. One of the biggest hurdles he’d faced in grinding was mana regeneration. The relatively slow rate at which it recharged meant raising the level of magic skills took much more time than his physical skills. Moira’s present had changed that. “That case of mana potions was a godsend.”

Reaching level fifteen had been fairly easy. In fact, he’d hit level sixteen half an hour ago. John’s magic skills had received a major boost during the grinding session. Most of his skills had reached double digits now, giving him several options for skill evolution, and he was getting the hang of combat with two blades. He had always preferred Evade over Mana Shield due to the expensive cost of the latter, making the loss of his defensive arm less troublesome. Not to mention that in emergencies he could still cast Mana Shield to reinforce his blades.

The other thing of note was that Beast Slayer had levelled ridiculously fast since John had switched to the boar dungeon. Not only that, but it seemed to John that he’d made several dozen more iterations of the dungeon than Gaia normally permitted. Given that wargs were considered Beast type enemies, John figured Gaia was playing favourites to his benefit — again.

It had been a long six hours, but as John gazed upon his stat sheet now, he was understandably pleased.

Saccharine, meanwhile, yawned sleepily from Moira’s lap. The damn fae couldn’t even be bothered to stay awake while John worked to make them both grow stronger. In her case, a whole two levels stronger.

Last was Moira. Like Saccha, John had her just sit on the sidelines, but she still levelled up by way of party EXP. So far, she was the highest level in John’s party, at 20.

John frowned as he read their relationship bio. Uncomfortable was the last thing he wanted her to be, though envious of Red or Saccha came pretty close. ‘I’ll have to talk with her later,’ John decided. He didn’t want those feelings festering for too long. Yet at the same time, the idea of convincing her that his promiscuity was acceptable behaviour sounded both intimidating and a douchey thing to do.

Putting that aside for now, John had decisions to make, namely where to put his 21 Stat Points and 2 Skill Evolution Points. He addressed Stat Points first, since he knew roughly how he wanted to distribute them. First John put 12 into Agility to make it a nice 45, his reason being his weapons scaled primarily in the stat. ‘God, those swords were a good purchase,’ he grinned as he watched his attack rating jump up to 231. That smile quickly turned to a frown as he compared it to his measly 30 defence rating. ‘Note to self: fix that ASAP.’ For now, the best he could do was invest in Endurance, which he really needed to anyway. So, he put his remaining 9 points into the stat and that was that.

Now for the Skill Evolution Points. ‘Man, it feels like ancient history since I got that first one for defeating the Broodmother,’ John thought as he looked over the skills that were above level 10. He very quickly became irked that he couldn’t view what the skills would evolve into without confirming that it was where he wanted to spend the SEP. This meant he’d have to make his choice based on limited information and guesswork.

On the other hand, clicking on the SEP revealed that passive skills couldn’t be evolved and that on the active skills side of things the I.D. spells were greyed out. That left him with a choice between Mana Power Attack, Evade, and Counter. With two SEPs available it became a decision of which skill he needed to evolve the least. Sure, he could save one or both of the SEPs, but given that he would soon be facing Vulpis, he wanted to be as strong as possible.

First to consider was MPA. It was his only offensive magic spell and gave him range where his blades couldn’t. That being said, compared to Tsuki and Hoshi, MPA was incredibly weak. He really needed to diversify his offensive spells, but for now, evolving the skill would have to do.

Mana Rend was out instantly; without any other arcane spells, it was useless to him. The prospect of having swords with variable lengths through Mana Blade was tempting, but ultimately it was still much less range than what Mana Arrow afforded him. So, without any more deliberation, John selected Mana Arrow. It was a very unceremonious affair; one second it was MPA on his stat sheet, the next it was Mana Arrow. The only thing of note was that MPA’s level carried over to Mana Arrow.

Out of curiosity, John selected his remaining SEP to see if he could apply it to Mana Arrow. He couldn’t. The skill apparently needed to be level 25 before he could apply another one. That left him with a choice between Evade and Counter. He relied heavily on both, the former for defence and the latter for damage. But damage was a front John had no issues with right now; he felt like a low-level glass cannon, which is why he chose to invest his second SEP into Evade.

This was a much tougher choice; they were all good in their own respect. First out was Evade+. It was cheap, sure, but while the damage reduction was nice, the other two were just better. Freeflow focus was expensive now, but at higher levels it could become amazingly powerful, while with Blink John could potentially change the tide of an unfavourable battle in an instant. He hesitated over Blink, before his hand shifted to select Freeflow Focus. The skill paired nicely with John’s close combat style, and something told him he’d need the extra edge if he wanted any chance at taking Vulpis on.

With that sorted, John closed the I.D. as he turned back to Moira and Saccharine. “You two feeling any stronger?”

“I feel like I just ate a six pack of donuts,” the fae complained.

“Probably because you’re growing so fast,” John guessed. “According to my Observe you’re about three centimetres taller.”

“You’re powers can truly influence others to such an extent?” Moira blinked before turning to face herself in the mirror, as if to try and spot any noticeable changes.

“Well, when I first met you, you were level 17,” John offered. “You’re level 20 now.”

“You’re powers truly are astounding,” Moira smiled in reply. After all she’d seen, she had no reason to doubt his words.

“They’re bullshit is what they are,” Saccharine snorted.

“Yeah, well… you lost your right to complain when you started benefitting from them,” John retorted, just as a soft knock rapped on the door to the sparring room.

Shortly after, Reginald entered the room, bowing politely. “Warden, Master Newman, the two of you are requested in the war room. It seems that the target has been located.”

A lump suddenly formed in John’s throat, and he found it hard to swallow. It was time.

‘We’re getting her back,’ John told himself. ‘By tomorrow morning all this shit with Vulpis will be over, and mom’ll be safe.’ He felt Moira’s gaze on him and turned to face her.

She smiled reassuringly at him; her green eyes were warm but resolute. “Don’t worry, John, the Lady watches over us. Together we can do this.”

“Right,” John agreed. “Together.”

Side by side (and with Saccharine taking a vantage on John’s shoulder), they followed the butler out the door. Moira’s hand snuck into his own and squeezed tightly. Despite the tense atmosphere, John couldn’t help but lean into her a bit, the comforting contact being exactly what he needed.