Eritance - Chapter 22
No wonder killing one or two spine bears would give me all the energy I could handle. At the very least, I would be able to beat dire wolves and other lower level beasts without a problem now. On the other hand, I would be able to defend myself against people too, should they attack me.
Excellent! I thought to myself. The only problem I had now was how to make money. I could of course sell the stat boosting items after imbuing them with my power, but I wasn’t comfortable doing that yet. I had put in all this work so far and didn’t want to risk it yet.
If I could get strong enough to start killing spine bears though, that would make things a lot easier. With my current progress that meant I had to kill around one hundred more dire wolves. At this rate, I won’t be strong enough for another 6 months at least, and that’s assuming I could find 100 dire wolves or beasts with a similar power.
I could of course kill anteleer, but the power absorption from them, or from horned rabbits was really quite low. I might have to kill 1000 anteleer, and maybe 10,000 horned rabbits to get to my goal strength. That would take a lifetime for the current me.
There had to be a better way of doing things, plus money really would be an issue eventually. The world was a lot more expensive than I thought it was initially and I needed a way to make money while I got stronger.
My list of things that I needed to do was growing quite large indeed. I need to find a teacher, a trainer, a source of income, and a steady source of beasts to kill. I wasn’t sure how I was going to find a position that fit all of those needs.
I wasn’t really good at planning far in advance, so I decided to think about it at a later time. After all, worrying about it too much now wouldn’t solve anything. “Orin” Ciara said. “What?” I responded. We had been getting along better as time went on, we didn’t spend much time speaking together, but traveling for these past few weeks together let me gain a new image of her in my mind.
Although she grew up in the lap of luxury, it seems like she was still human inside, unlike her father that only cared for money. “I just wanted to say thank you. We’ll be at the village soon and I know you don’t like me very much, so I’m sure you’ll find away to disappear” she said slightly red in the face.
“Ah, it isn’t like that. I mean, I don’t dislike you. At least, I’ve seen that you aren’t the same as your dad” I said somewhat awkwardly to her. “Listen, I have my own dreams that I want to follow, but I do wish you the best. I’m sure you’ll have much better guards than me on your next trip” I said jokingly.
“It’s just that I-I don’t want a guard. I want a friend. You may just be a field worker, but I can tell you are somebody trustworthy. It was always so lonely in the mansion. I wish I could convince you to stay on as my personal guard forever” she said.
“Well, how about this? After I gain my own power and independence, I’ll come visit you. I may even write you a letter after I learn to read and write!” I laughed.
Ciara laughed back and said, “I think I would like that”. Just as we started laughing together for the first time since we began traveling, we saw smoke rising from the direction of the village. “That’s odd” Ciara said. “Father must be throwing some sort of a feast outside, although I’m not sure why”. “Well, anyway reason is a good reason to eat meat!” I exclaimed.
Just as soon as we got past this last hill we would be able to see Hallen. I was beginning to drool as I thought about being able to eat more meat. However, what we saw shocked us instead. Hallen was on fire.
The driver immediately halted just as we got over the hill and left the forest. We were still some distance away from Hallen but we could clearly see buildings and fields on fire. What was worse, was that we could see many goblins and orcs running through the streets attacking people. There must have been 50-100 of them.
Even worse than all of that, a familiar roar could be heard in the distance. It was the roar of a certain orc chieftain. The sound echoed from near the lord’s mansion.
A struggle was being made by the people of the village and the lord’s guards. “We have to help them” Ciara screamed as she jumped down and ran towards the burning village. I immediately chased after her and tried to stop her. However, by the time I caught her, we had been noticed by some of the goblins that were close to the front of the village.
“Guoooo” they yelled as they saw us and pointed. There was around five of them and they were equipped with clubs and spears. “Ross, how strong are the goblins?” I quickly asked.
Goblin Strength 0.8 Stamina 1.3 Speed 1.1
They weren’t very strong but there was still more of them than there were of us, plus I wasn’t confident in being able to protect Ciara at the same time. Goblins tended to work well in numbers.
“Okay, listen, run back to the carriage, I will stop them and catch up soon” I yelled to her. However, Ciara charged at one of the goblins as they bore down on us.
This goblin had a large club made out of wood, he growled and swung his club at Ciara. I saw the club coming down at her and I realized that I wouldn’t be able to make it on time to stop the club.