The weight of the hammer dug into his shoulders, and he trudged forward. Wasps were enraged when they saw him and dived to attack and got immediately fried. As he had guessed, once he closed in on his target hive, the number of wasps decreased to almost nothing. It made sense: Most of the workers had died the day before, and the other wasps probably avoided getting too close to the competition.
Tom grimaced. His legs were already hurting. Touch Healing activated, and three mana was sucked out. One to each of his quads and the last to heal the bruise on his shoulder.
This was going to be hell.
With a grunt of effort, he swung the hammer. What he had mentally rehearsed was to swing it over his head like he would an axe, but the moment that he started the motion, he knew it would never happen. The thing was too heavy; and instead, he swung it to the height of barely getting the weapon over his hip.
Crunch.
Shards of resin went flying, and the area he struck crumpled. He had blown a hole the size of a shopping trolley into the side of the massive hive.
Outraged buzzing came from within.
With a gasp, he yanked the immense weapon out. Back muscles screamed in anger at him. Two more mana drained away to fix them and his arms.
Tom stumbled forward a step and swung again. This time, he aimed higher and tried to avoid embedding it within the hive structure.
Shards went flying. The damage he did was less, but he spun a three-sixty and repeated the blow.
This time, his control was not good enough, and a chunk of hive the size of a jet ski broke off the top as its supports were knocked away and the hammer got caught. Tom saw the block. He threw himself backward to avoid getting crushed.
Lower-case skill let him tuck his legs up and roll. The ground shuddered as the gigantic mass of resin crashed into the dirt. Tom came to a rest on his back on top of the rough grass, looking up at the stars and the single moon currently in the sky.
His heart was thumping.
The scratchy grass annoyed his neck.
There was the crackling of electricity as some wasps roused from the destruction of their home found him to attack.
Too close!
The crystal material that the hive had been built from was too fragile. Instead of turning a section to dust, the blow had sent cracks radiating throughout the mound. In moments, the entire structural integrity had failed.
And it had almost squished him.
He would need to be even more careful with his swings from now on.
In his ears, he heard laughter from where the other waited for him.
Everlyn!
She had almost certainly seen everything. He really did not want to look in their direction and give them an excuse to tease him like he knew they would.
Sheepishly, he returned to retrieve the hammer that he had abandoned in his desperate scramble to escape. He was not at all surprised to find it almost buried.
Wasps buzzed up. Soldier, worker, a new type that, while marginally smaller than the soldier, felt significantly stronger.
Tom guessed it was something like royal guards.
Zap.
Zap.
They might have been stronger, but vulnerable to lightning, they died quickly.
Touch Heal.
He yanked hard on the hammer, and it shifted slightly backwards and got stuck. He reversed the pressure, ramming it deeper.
Crunch.
The resin gave way as the weapon went an inch deeper. He pulled back, and this time, there was extra room, and it got extra momentum.
Crunch.
He reversed the pressure. Crunch. Then back and forth
Zap.
He wiped sweat off his forehead. He jiggled the heavy hammer. There was enough movement, and only small crystals were between him and it. He yanked it out and only barely avoided falling on his bum.
Thank god for small mercies. That would have definitely guaranteed a session of merciless teasing. Maybe his acrobatics to avoid getting crushed wouldn’t draw any remarks. But he doubted it. Internally, he promised himself to be more careful and not swing so hard that the war hammer was going to get stuck. Tom rotated to the side and swung again, targeting the other side, but pushed higher so it wouldn’t become trapped.
Crunch.
Crunch.
No more defenders were coming out, and his mana was down to two points. The hive now only came up to his waist, and he was puffing.
He shut his eyes to duck into the system room.
“Summary update.”
No ranking points assigned 10 Royal Guards killed 18 Soldiers 146 workers
With a blink, he was back, looking at the crumbling mess in front of him. The queen was still alive. Hopefully, it would not be so deep in the ground that he couldn’t reach it.
Crunch.
Crunch.
Back into the system room.
No ranking points assigned 2 Royal Guards killed 5 Soldiers 1417 Larva
Crunch
Crunch.
Now he felt like he was hitting a sand pit.
Back into the system room. 1 Ranking point 1 Queen killed 250 Larva 1913 Larva alive but life no longer sustainable Experience: 2102 (+ 566)
Tom opened his eyes. He had used six mana from his crystal.
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It was still dark, but he could see the familiar figures of Everlyn, Michael, and Harry waiting thirty metres away.
He waved them over.
“It’s cleared, but there are almost two thousand larva in there that are still alive. I’d assume that they’ll be tastier than fried adult. And Harry,” he smiled at the ritualist, “can I get a mana boost?”
Harry started setting up the mana ritual, and he could see Everlyn shifting on her feet… preparing to say something.
“Everlyn,” he warned.
“What?” she answered innocently.
“You know what.”
There was a moment of silence.
“Did you really fall over while fighting an inanimate object?”
“Everlyn,” he snapped even as the rest giggled.
“I’m just stunned that Jeffery was that perceptive.”
“Evie!”
“You know, with the name and all.”
He sprang up and tried to cover her mouth. She fought back, and they fell back on the grass, and he landed on top of her, but she bucked her hips and flipped him off. Her hands pinned his wrists.
“And a little girl can manhandle you.”
Tom tried to get his hands up to stop her, but it was futile, and he wasn’t going to cheat with Spark even though she sort of was with her attributes.
She leant down right to his ear. “I know you’re not Useless,” she whispered and smiled brightly. Slowly, she released him and shifted to the side so her head rested on his shoulder and they both lay facing upwards.
Tom was not sure what to think. His heart was thudding, he had enjoyed the mock fight and what she said had not been malicious; however, the words had hurt a little, and now her head was resting on his shoulder, his arm under her.
He squeezed her side, and she didn’t pull back.
“Yep, he’s Use… Use… Useless,” Sven crowed.
“I wish I still had my silence spell from the trial,” she whispered.
Tom laughed, and they lay together looking up at the stars and listened to Sven being a goose.
The mana ritual was completed, and six minutes later, Tom was ready for the next hive with his own mana and crystal refreshed.
“Wish me luck.”
“Break a leg,” Sven quipped.
“That’s inappropriate,” Tom responded.
With a grunt, he hoisted the hammer over his shoulder and set off to his new target.
Tom fell into a routine. Twenty minutes of intense work out with the giant weapon. Chat and recover and then stumble on.
Breakfast was brought over to him after the third hive. It was fried larva, and after the crap jerky and fried adults, they were lovely.
Almost like crab meat.
Four hours later, as he stepped into the pre-prepared ritual circle, and he was a handed a bowl.
“A bowl?” It was filled with steaming liquid. “Soup?”
“You’ve opened up access to trees.” Everly was grinning when she said. “A couple of sets of serving bowls have been created. They’re being shared around.”
“Why are you so happy?”
“We’ve already eaten your first bowl.”
“You did what?” Tom mock complained.
“Don’t worry, you’ll get your second bowl after the next hive.”
“Slave drivers!”
He went back to work.
Tom paused, dropped the hammer, and stumbled over to where the mana circle lay. He sat down within it. He felt bone-dead tired, even though physically his healing had kept him in perfect condition. There was a psychological impact that was not so easy to ignore, or possibly some second-level attribute that Tom knew nothing about.
“This is hard.”
Sympathetic noises greeted him.
Everlyn patted him on the shoulder. “Do you want any food?”
“Not now. Can you watch me while I check my progress?”
“Of course, we can.”
He entered the system room.
The standard display was there. 1 Ranking point 1 Queen killed
“Display progress for the entire day, please.” 25 Ranking points. 27 Queens 359 Kings 858 Soldiers 110,856 Wasps
The discrepancy between Queens and Ranking points was expected. Harry had received the other two. The system was apparently smart enough to determine contributions beyond just straight battle ones. Given GODS were overseeing things, that was not that surprising.
“And status gains.”
Attributes
Strength: 41 (+4 natural strength)
Vitality: 51 (+2 natural vitality)
Magic: 15 (+1 natural mana)
Mana Pool: Mana * 2 = 30
Spells
Touch Heal: (95) (+1) (tier 0)
Lightning Skin: (17) (+1) (tier 2)
Skills
Elastic Regenerating Skin: (30) (+2) (tier 1)
Tom frowned after reading that his strength had only gone up by four. He had been hoping to be at about six by this time. To get the same title as he did for vitality, he needed to get nine points in total, so he guessed all he could do was carry on.
“Next.” Ranking Points: 277 Position on human ranking ladder: 19 Experience: 13813 (+ 11711)
Enmity
Trodaga Wasps (VII)
The Trodaga Wasp Enmity had increased a level. “Show Enmity details.”
Trodaga Wasps (VII): All Trodaga wasps within 64 measures (82 metres) will target you unless specifically aggroed with a skill. All damage you deal is 32% more against them, and the effects of their damage and venom are reduced by 32%. This enmity applies to sub species 19,723, 19,184, and 19,678. The further away from this subspecies of Trodaga Wasps the less impact your Enmity will have.
In addition, subspecies 17,153 has an enmity level of V.
The only surprise was the set of changes to enmity. While his range had increased for the original sub-species, it was clear that his more recent enemies were a new sub-species. It meant in practice he probably continued to be a magnet for any of the nearby wasps if they got within 41 metres of him, but for those three specific types, the higher range applied. If he was going to leave the immediate area, where he had slaughtered the wasps in large numbers, the range his enmity reached would be reduced.
He also didn’t know what sub-species 17,153 was, but if he just relied on the decayed enmity, it would only have had a level IV. Basically, his direct enmity with that species exceeded the indirect amount he got from his principal enemies. For all other subspecies, the indirect enmity exceeded the direct mutual hatred.
He guessed that was how he expected it to work, but the new pieces of information didn’t change anything apart from the fact that he now had a significant amount of experience to spend.
“Buy Low Light Vision”
Spell acquired: Low Light Vision (1) Experience: 10813 (- 3000)
Tom sighed again.
He once more had a low light vision spell with a dismal skill level of one. It was nothing like the almost fifty skill levels he had gotten it to in the trial. Well, Tom figured he would just take time to build the skill back up and this was a long-term addition to his tool kit, or at least till he had re-earned his levels. After that, if he was offered an evolution, he would take it. There were better Spells out there than Low Light Vision.
His dream was to one day upgrade his vision skill to a high tier. Maybe something like,
Fate Illimitable Revelation (Tier 8)
Perfect vision unencumbered by line-of-sight considerations. Can perceive and influence flows of fate.
Cost: 7,100,000
It would probably be a hundred years till he got the skill, and it wasn’t even the cost of seven million experience, though that was a consideration. Instead, it was the pre-requisites which were crushing.
Pre-requisites Legendary Fate Aligned Class Legendary or above Fate Title Metaphorical Fate Weight of Rank 256 Tier 0 skill level equivalent of at least 256 in a vision skill Tier 0 skill level equivalent of at least 256 in a divination fate skill
Tom was not sure which of those pre-requisites would be hardest to obtain. It was more than possible that in a hundred years, he might not meet a single one of those requirements. When getting a legendary class or title was the easiest of the conditions you had to meet… Tom shrugged internally. Providing humans got ranked in the top three, he didn’t care if he never got one of the premier abilities and it was unlikely he would get this particular vision upgrade before the competition finished. After forty years of grinding, he had only raised his Spark level to a hundred and thirty, which was a long way from two hundred and fifty-six needed to hit those pre-requisites.
Not that it mattered. Any tier above two was an unrealistic consideration at the current point in time.
Along with low light vision, there were other sensible Skills and Spells he was interested in acquiring as soon as possible, potentially even before he classed up significantly. They included Enhanced Hearing, Hound Nose, Stealth, Rapid Movement, Balance, Air Steps and of course his martial skills, Unarmed, Bow, Spear and Axe. They would all be nice, despite all of them being tier two or below. Collectively, they would cost over fifty thousand experience… and that would need to be balanced against buying classes and then class levels and physical items.
He shook his head. It was going to be a long slog.
Tom studied the other Skills on his immediate purchase list. While ten thousand was not a lot of experience, it was enough to make a purchase but… “Not today,” he whispered. None of them would help immediately, nor would any of them be trained passively when he was killing the hives. It was better to wait to see if the enemies he faced changed, in order to ensure he had the experience to shift his build if they did.
It had been about five minutes, so his mana should have regenerated.
Tom opened his eyes and wiped his mouth with his hand, hoping no one noticed.
“You’re cute when you drool.”
“Damn it.” he snapped and glared up at Everlyn who was grinning at him, unapologetically.
“I think handsome,” Michael said with a wink.
“Sophisticated,” Harry suggested.
“Screw you all.” He pushed himself to his feet. “I had to check my progress and buy some skills.”
“Oh, which ones. Tom?” Everlyn asked playfully. She stepped right up to him. “You can whisper them in my ear?”
His heart hammered.