Ruthless ~ 40!

~ 40 ~

Joe left the dungeon a six hours later, having finally defeated the full one hundred Neigh-Bears required by the quest. In total, he had slain one hundred and thirty-six of the creatures on this trip, and he had gained good rewards for doing so. After confirming that he had only gained four dexterity -three for the challenge, and one for the uninterrupted twenty-seven minutes of training - Joe counted all the Cores he had gained, pleased with the amount.

“Twenty-two common Cores, a summoning token that can be used once every five days so long as I kill a hundred Neigh-bears after each use…” Joe looked at his notifications and read the information there, nodding before continuing with muttering to himself. “Between the quest and the kills, seven thousand two hundred and twenty-two experience. That’s not bad at all for a night of fighting. Less than four thousand to level eighteen!”

Joe started on his way back to the guild, cheerfully skipping along as he thought over the other gains. The highest increase for him was Retaliation of Shadows; which rose three skill levels. Sure it meant he had taken dozens of hits, but… worth it? Fighting against another hundred opponents had allowed him to raise most of his combat skills twice; Cone of Cold, Polearm Mastery, Acid Spray, Corify, and even Exquisite Shell. Next, Dark Lightning strike had only increased to Beginner IX, but Joe was sure that it was getting close to the threshold. Even his Jump skill had undergone serious refinement, though he was certain that it wasn't about to rank up.

He was now casually feeding mana into every small jump and skip that he made, making every step take him about three meters before he touched the ground again. While this helped him cross distance quickly, Joe knew that it also made it really hard to change course. This was for travel or fast escape, certainly not for close combat. At least… not yet. He had plans to change that if it ever became a viable option. There were all sorts of things he could do with this skill if he could get creative enough, and creativity was one of his stronger points.

Joe was moving fast along the road, easily double his previous movement speed. Even so, when Towney McTownface appeared in the distance, he sped up to the maximum that his body and mind could handle. The reason was simple enough: the attack had arrived early. Way too early. It was currently dark out, making Joe rethink the amount of time that he had spent in the dungeon. He had been having a really good time of it, which made him think that he had been in there for over half a day. Whoops. He had thought it was six to eight hours, tops.

However, as Joe approached the town, he noticed that the intermittent flashing lights and explosions were coming from traps and the rituals that had been attached to rocks. The only sign of an attack were all the bodies strewn around, and none of them were wearing the Wanderer’s Guild insignia. To be fair, Joe didn’t wear it either, but most of the guild displayed their sigil proudly. It helped with reputation quests and gave access to certain NPC run areas. But, the sigil was a winged shoe that had a triple triangle on the side of it. It made sense in the context of ‘Wanderer’, but Joe much preferred the holographic book sigil that showed his ties to Tatum; so that is what he displayed.

“What happened here?” Joe called up to the gate guard. “Wait, Jay, is that you?”

“Son of a… Joe? You don’t have Jaxon with you, do ya? I’m not opening the gate if you do!” Jay called back playfully.

“Let me in, or I’ll tell him that you lifted a dungeon boss by twisting your back harshly!” Joe shouted with a laugh. If Jay was making jokes, then the situation probably wasn't too bad.

“Gonna be about twenty minutes, Joe.” Jay was serious this time. “Guild is on lockdown, something’s got their tighty-whities in a bunch.”

Joe looked at the wall, then up at Jay. “Any issue if I come in without you opening the gate?”

“Please don’t knock the wall down, Joe. I know you built it and all, but-”

“What sort of reputation do I have with you, Jay!” Joe wasn't sure if Jay was joking, but it sure didn't sound like it. “Just watch out!”

Joe retreated about fifty meters, then started running at the wall. With every step, he poured more mana into the bottoms of his feet, and each footfall became faster and moved him further. When he was ten meters from the wall, he released a huge burst of mana and jumped. Joe soared up, and up, and… not quite high enough. The metalic-black wall loomed closer and closer. “Jay, help!”

Jay tossed a rock straight down off the wall, it had been placed there to throw at attackers. It was a good throw, shooting down directly in front of Joe. He managed to get his feet in position, and another burst of mana later… Joe reached up and grabbed Jay’s extended hand. Jay wasn't at all happy about this situation. “Two leaps, and you are suddenly almost forty feet in the air? How the aabyss are we supposed to defend these walls if people can just get to the top of them?”

“Pull me up first, please!” Joe was still dangling, but with a heave and a grunt, Jay yanked him over the edge of the wall. “Whew! Thanks, man. Also, I have a Master ranked jump skill, that exact thing isn't something you really need to worry about someone else having. But I’m sure there are going to be a ton of different ways to invade towns and cities, the walls are really only ever going to keep out land-based monsters and low-leveled people.”

Jay grunted, still clearly unsatisfied with that answer. “You should get over to the Guild Hall. Big meeting going on, I know they like you there for that.”

“Can do, but first, what happened?” Joe waved at the blood-soaked field.

“Exactly what we were warned about.” Jay shrugged. “Just a huge mob of new players. Most of them didn’t even get in shouting range before our rangers and mages cut them down. But, it was classified as an invasion, so we all got rewards for defending our guild.”

“Gotcha.” Joe waved and went to find a ladder. He got off the wall and hurried to the Guild Hall, which seemed almost deserted. Joe made it to the outside of the war room, only to find two guards blocking his path, when they saw who he was, they let him through. Joe opened the door, and was hit by a wall of noise. Literally hit by it? No. Still, the damage to his eardrums was enough that Retaliation of Shadows triggered. Suddenly every person that was screaming got smacked in the face by a shadow-Joe. They didn’t take damage, but it was confusing enough that the room went quiet.

Deciding not to waste the opportunity, Joe stepped into the silence and pitched his voice as he often had to do back in his military days. “What is happening in here? Have you all lost your abyssal minds? Do I need to remind you that the people in this room are responsible for the lives and livelihoods of thousands of people? Get your act together!”

“Now, you listen to me, Joe.” One of the people at the huge table stood up and released an imposing aura. It didn't seem to be a skill, more a combination of charisma, anger, and strength. “You’re not gonna get away with treating us like children. We’re powerful team leaders as well as-”

“Stop.” Joe demanded in return, the area around him darkening enough to be seen by the naked eye. “I could only hope that if I were acting like a child, I would be called out on it. Especially when I was in a public place, even more so when it was in front of my fellow leaders, who I need to respect; and who I need to respect me. So, I say again, stop screaming, and have a civil discourse. What has everyone so riled up?”

“Tch.” The man sat down heavily, his plate armor making the chair creak in protest. “All of that, and you don’t even know what’s happening?”

Aten smoothly joined the conversation from the head of the table. “Joe, thank you for joining us. Your group was instrumental in fending off the invasion, so thank-”

“That’s part of the issue, though, isn’t it!” Another person slammed their hand on the table, and several other voices joined into the conversation.

“Enough… please and thank you.” Aten’s voice was sharper than Joe’s Taglock needle. Joe winced and reminded himself to put that back on his staff; he had taken it off to train with the polearm. “Joe, the issue is simple. We fended off an invasion perfectly, but almost everyone that attacked was under level five. Because we defended ourselves so… vigorously, there is a huge public outrage. Not a single one of the people that attacked us survived, and most of them were hit by attacks that would have killed them a dozen times over.”

“They are calling us war criminals.” Aten finished grimly. “We even have a new guild title, which I’m not exactly happy about. Though, frankly, it does offer a really nice bonus. Take a look.”

Joe looked at his ‘Guild’ tab to see what Aten was talking about.

New guild title gained! As it is the only title your guild has gained, this is automatically displayed!

‘The Wanderer’s Guild: Utterly Ruthless.’