The Grind-Two

New Barrier Created
Type: Suburbs
Enemy type: Grass Samurai
Population: 25
Boss Monster: Toggled On

He quickly double-checked his current mana: 150/287. He had made it a point to meditate at least a little during and in between each Barrier, so this should be more than enough for the last one. John cracked his knuckles and then cast Soul Weapon.

Soul Weapon lvl up
Lvl 2 → lvl 3
Conjuring cost has been reduced to 16 MP. Upkeep cost has been reduced to 0.40 MP per second.
Damage formula has been increased to 7 + (INT x 0.40) + (STR x 0.80)

In his head, John tried to quickly do the math on how much each attack would do now. If his attacks had previously averaged 20 points... now he had plus one base damage and a slight increase to the stat ratios. By his math, it should now do somewhere between 22 and 23 points. It wasn’t a huge jump, but he knew each bit would matter over time. It would definitely be appreciated for this full population Barrier and the subsequent boss fight.

“Alright, John, game time,” the Gamer mumbled to himself. And just as the words left his mouth, he caught a rush of movement in the corner of his vision. A Grass Samurai lept towards him from the side, its grassy blade raised into the air.

John quickly raised his scythe to block the strike with its blade. As the monster leaped into his weapon, he felt himself buckle slightly from the momentum. His shoulders tensed as he pushed away the creature. The moment it touched the ground, it immediately retreated back out of sight. But not before he was able to cast Observe.

Grass Samurai
Lvl 5
HP:48/50
A being made of toughened, knotted blades and roots of grass. Its body is that of a fully armored samurai from the feudal age of Japan.

It was the same as before, just a lower level and with less health.

’Right, I’m already in the Barrier, can’t waste time doing math and thinking about anything else,’ he thought as he silently reprimanded himself. These were the most active and aggressive type of monsters he had experienced. It was the same as when he was with Blair, except this time he couldn’t rely on her firepower.

Cover, that was the first thing he needed. Otherwise, he was just a sitting duck if he stayed in the open. He had opened the Barrier in the street right in front of his house, so the inside of the building would make a good spot to camp. John surveyed the front yard between him and it. The samurai had come from a different direction, and it seemed there weren’t any others that hid there, so he should be good to go. John swiftly made his way to the front door. However, the moment he pulled his keys from his inventory to unlock it, they attacked.

A trio of samurai rushed him. Two of them sprinted across the ground while the third leaped through the air. John quickly turned around to meet his attackers. He swung his weapon in a wide arc; the demonic scythe whistled through the air as it hit the midair monster dead in its center. The blade cut halfway into it before the creature was knocked back from the blow.

Critical hit!
42 dmg

However, as he did so, the other two were able to reach him. One ran around behind him, and thrust its blade straight into the back of his right knee, right in the gap in his steel leggings. The other slid to the side of his foot and began to hack and cleave away at his ankle. Though that one failed to get through his armor and do any damage.

-10 HP

John screamed profanities as the red-hot pain shot up his body. His knees buckled as he had to **** himself to stay upright. He kicked his leg out to try to shake them off as he then pivoted around with his other foot. He managed to knock one away as the other leaped back.

4 dmg

John jumped back and was successful in his attempt to create a little distance. He grimaced as blood trickled down from the small blade still embedded in his leg. With a deep breath, he tried to focus and regain his calm. He glanced around; there still weren’t any other samurai around, or at least none that he could immediately spot.

John tightened his grip as he carefully approached the two monsters. He had the advantage when it came to reach, just as long as he could prevent them from getting past his blade. One of them was weaponless, so he let himself focus mainly on the one still armed.

The grass monster crouched down as it readied its sword. It seemed to have the same idea as him; John had only a tight window of range when it came to the blade of his scythe. Past that, there was only the relatively harmless handle at most.

With a sudden start, the samurai sprinted towards John. It moved in a zigzag pattern, as the other ran to the side. His eyes darted around as he tried to keep track of both of them at once. He backed himself against the wall, on the assumption that the second monster would attempt to retrieve its own weapon while the other distracted him.

He waited for just the right moment for his timing. John raised his scythe above and behind his head, and swung down directly onto the samurai. His weapon cleaved through its head and sliced clean through its entire body.

Critical hit!
42 dmg

He quickly moved to intercept the next samurai. But instead of it being on the ground, it was already midair and headed right towards his face. It intercepted the falling blade of its ally and grabbed it as it flew towards him.

“Oh fuck!” John yelled as he quickly tried to think of something in the seconds he had. It was already past the range of his scythe, and making a swing at it with his hand wouldn’t make it in time. As it was only a foot away from his head, he suddenly remembered to open his inventory. And just as the knife he had stored materialized in his raised hand, the samurai gored itself on his blade.

Critical hit!
16 dmg

The monster dropped its sword as it weakly grabbed the edge of John’s knife. Dark green sap oozed from its chest and dripped onto the grass. His heart thumped rapidly within his chest. He grabbed the samurai and pulled out his weapon. In one motion, John dismissed the knife and gripped his scythe tightly as he sliced his opponent apart.

Critical hit!
42 dmg
+50 exp

John looked down at the cut in half but still alive samurai on the ground. He closed his eyes and put a hand on his chest. He took a deep breath, and finished it off.

+50 exp

He opened his eyes again and dismissed his weapon. With a wary glance around for any more enemies still hidden, John went back to the door. He unlocked it and went inside the Barrier duplicate of his house. It was an imperfect copy that matched mostly just the overall structure of his home. It came with no furniture, only the carpet. He sat down on the floor and began to use Meditation.

Mediation lvl up!
Lvl 2 → lvl 3
Meditation now increases mana and health regen by 300% when not in combat.

It would technically be a waste of mana if he didn’t at least regenerate 16 mana. Since that was how much it would cost to recast Soul Weapon. He kept his eyes closed and quietly did the quick math as another way to calm down. His mana regen was currently at 5.62/minute.

Increase that by 300%, which gave him a new total of 22.48/minute. For the sake of simplicity, he rounded that up to 22.5. His mana had drained down to 64/287 after he had kept up Soul Weapon constantly for the last few minutes. So to get his mana back to full… he would need to maintain Meditation for just under 10 minutes. As for his health, he had just lost 10 points so it would take him about 5-6 minutes to get that back to 100%.

’Okay, that’s fine. I’ll just stay here for 10 minutes, get everything topped off, and then head back outside. I defeated three samurai so far, so just 22 more to go before the boss. I can do this, I just need to think of a plan while waiting,’ John thought to himself as he meditated.

Ten minutes later

John stood back up to his feet. As for his plan, he did have an idea.