Langa ran past the rocky forest at a sprint. He did not want to fight against the corrupted wolves here, they were beneath him now that he was level 6. His high agility made it easy for him to evade them without fighting. He contacted Liv on his comcer since it was getting dark, and he wanted to catch the others before they returned to the safe zone.

”Hey, Langa. Did you finish your quest?” Liv asked him when he answered.

“Yeah, I’m done. Where are you guys?”

”We’re at the red zone to the north of the safe zone. We just finished our last fight against a level 6 corrupted fox. We were just about to return,” Liv told him.

Langa took a breath, “Can you guys handle one more battle today? We’re fighting against that maestril tomorrow, and I haven’t had a chance to practice with the team. I don’t want to hold the team back.”

Liv was silent for a moment, “Alright, that’s a fair point. Be here in less than five minutes, that’s when the monster will respawn.”

”Okay, thanks,” Langa said, ending the call and he shut his comcer. He picked up the pace, running towards his teammates.

Once he got to the red zone, he saw his teammates resting in the shade. He scanned them, only to discover that they were all level 5, except for Liv and Kindaro who were level 6 now.

”Langa!” Makoto shouted in joy and rushed over to hug him. Langa let him, after all, he did almost get shocked to death by a bunch of lightning bolts. It was nice that someone appreciated that he was still alive. "How did it go? Was it hard?"

"It was okay," Langa said with a shrug, there was no way he was telling the kid that he had almost died in that cave.

The others turned to look at them, and Liv nodded at him.

“How the hell did you get to level 6 already?” Ghol asked furiously as she watched Langa in disdain. “We’ve been here farming level 5 corrupted foxes all day and most of us are still only level 5!”

Langa ignored her and walked over to Liv. He heard Kindaro speak behind him, “Easy Ghol. He obviously found his Calling. Care to tell us what it is?”

At this, Langa hesitated. He turned to Kindaro and remembered Liv’s warning. There was no way he would tell everyone here about his Legacy. They weren't exactly rare in the Tower, but obtaining one during the tutorial was not usual. “Yeah, I did find my Calling. It is a unique weapon. This one.” He pulled out Tonare from its sheath and extended it for them all to see.

”Oh my gods! That’s so cool, brother!” Makoto marvelled.

”That’s a mutable weapon if I have ever seen one! Is that... is it made from elechorichum? Damn, if I was a fighter, I’d love something like that,” Kindaro said eyeing the glaive greedily.

Langa shrank the weapon and sheathed it once more, warily glancing at Kindaro. Liv rolled his eyes, “It’s his Calling. It’s bound to him, so you couldn’t steal it even if you wanted to.”

Kindaro sighed wistfully. “That’s true. And I wasn't gonna steal it. It's just that unique weapons are fascinating to me. They can be complete trash or legendary. ”

”Sure, anyway, now that Langa’s here, can we do this? It’s been a long day of fight after fight. I’m beat, I wanna go to sleep,” Sigurd complained, and Eniche shook her head at him. Langa noticed once again that she would not meet his eyes.

Liv stood up and clapped Langa on the back. “I’m glad you made it. Alright, people, the fox will respawn in about a minute. Now that Langa’s here, we just need to adjust our party play a little bit. This is good, it’ll help me complete my quest.”

The seven of them all gathered around Liv and he continued, “While Langa was not here, I’ve been playing as the primary melee damage dealer, but my damage is not that high, it’s mostly internal attacks, so I’ll be switching roles and joining Eniche as a secondary tank. Langa, you take over as the primary melee DPS, and Ghol will be the secondary. I want you in stealth as much as possible Ghol, get those extra crits. Kindaro, you’ll be the magical/ranged DPS. Makoto, Sigurd, I want you guys on pure support,” Liv said.

Langa was surprised that he wasn’t making Makoto a ranged dealer. “Sigurd, tomorrow you’ll be using your skills to heal and buff us, all the time. But for right now, I need you to buff the monster because level 6 is too weak for us. Finally, Makoto, your job is to refill everyone’s mana. It must be refilled all the time, especially for Sigurd and Kindaro. You have the most important job, and I’m sorry, but you won’t have enough mana to use your arrows. Only use them in case of an emergency.”

Having heard their instructions, no one complained. Langa guessed that this speech was mostly for his benefit, everyone else had already been practising their roles.

The fox appeared a few seconds later.

 

Corrupted Fox

Level 6

HP: 600/600

 

Liv and Eniche stood in front of the fox, and Ghol disappeared into thin air. Kindaro, Makoto and Sigurd stood in the very back, and Langa stood in the middle, between the front-line and back-line fighters.

Sigurd started chanting something as the large fox approached, and then something changed in its eyes, and it growled, leaping forward. When Langa scanned it again, its description had changed.

 

Corrupted Fox

Level 6

Status: Enraged

HP: 1000/1000

 

It was still a far cry from the 3000HP of the maestril, but it was the strongest monster on this side of Farguya Ghetto. So, Langa gripped Tonare as Eniche slammed her shield into the fox, halting its charge. Undeterred, it lashed out with its paws, and she dodged backwards, causing the fox to try charging towards Langa. However, Liv kicked it hard in the gut, and it was pushed back, whining in pain. Before it could get back on its legs, ten knives coated in a dark mist flew through the air, cutting deep into the howling fox.

That one telekinetic attack from Kindaro took out almost 100HP at once, as the knives were also magically pulled out of it, returning to Kindaro. His attack had drawn the aggro of the fox, and it tried to limp forward in pain towards him, but Eniche taunted it, and it focused on her instead.

From his periphery, Langa saw Makoto rush to quickly fill up Kindaro’s mana.

Focusing on Eniche, who tried to keep the monster at bay with her shield, Langa Flash Stepped in front of the monster, swiftly embedding Tonare deep into its side and pulling it out before he retreated. He did not do as much damage as Kindaro, only taking away 75 of its health. It roared in pain using all its strength to hit Eniche and sending her flying, then falling onto the ground.

Sigurd immediately ran towards her and started healing her. Meanwhile, the monster chased after Langa, and, while he was fast enough to dodge, Liv hit the monster on the back of the head with his buckler, turned around, and punched it in the wound that Langa had given it, before stepping back and kicking it once more. It was a beautiful combo with no wasted movements, no flaws, and quite precise targeted hits. It reinforced Langa’s suspicion that Liv was well-versed in martial arts. His attack immediately shifted the fox’s focus away from Langa and to Liv.

As the fox tried once more to stand, growling at Liv, it howled out in pain once again as Ghol came out of nowhere behind it, and stabbed a dagger into its neck, scoring a critical hit. The fox suddenly froze in place, and Langa recognised Kindaro’s mind-freezing skill, and he once more held his glaive in hand and stabbed the monster’s side along with Ghol.

”Stop!” Liv shouted when the fox was now at 125/1000 HP. “Sigurd, heal it, let’s do this one more time. Makoto top up Kindaro’s and Sigurd’s mana.”

They did this three times until Liv was satisfied with the way everyone worked together. Then they put the poor fox out of its misery. Not once did Langa use Tonare’s skill. There was no need. This monster was too weak for their party to practice on.

”So, you were holding out me when we trained the other day, huh?” Langa said casually bumping Kindaro’s shoulder on their way back to the safe zone. Ghol glowered at him.

Kindaro laughed, “My telekinesis has stages to it. I can make my weapons deal death-draining damage on whoever they touch. That was just practice, and we were in a safe zone. I wasn’t trying to kill you,” he kept on grinning, “Besides, you used a wooden spear too, and you got me like 20 times. If it was an actual spear, I’d be dead.”

Langa smiled, “Fair point.”

Kindaro gazed at Makoto who was walking next to Langa, “Your attribute is amazing. I seemed to never run out of mana. Does it have a limit?”

Langa tensed, watching Kindaro closely, but he seemed to only be curious.

Makoto shrugged, “It’s limited by my maximum mana. I can’t refill more than I have.”

Kindaro sucked a breath, “If we could get you a mana elixir, you’d be an unstoppable support, even better than my brother’s attribute…” his eyes on Makoto were full of longing, and Langa reflexively stood in front of Makoto.

The look on Kindaro's face was quite off-putting, and it gave him the creeps.

”Your Highness!” Ghol said sharply, and Kindaro blinked and turned to her. “We’re here.”

Right, they had arrived at the safe zone, but Langa was still frowning. “I don’t want you alone with that guy. Ever,” he said to Makoto once they had parted from the other two. He did not like the way that Kindaro looked at Makoto, as if he was something to be consumed.

Makoto, seeing the serious look on Langa’s face, nodded.

 

*

The following morning, Langa went to meet the Elder

“Thank you, young player. You have saved our deity’s shrine from being corrupted by those loathsome maestrils. Surely, the strength of your existence has increased!” The Elder said, taking Langa’s hand in gratitude. “I am pleased to see that one of our world’s Legacies has been given to you.”

 

[You have completed the quest (Side Quest #1).

Completion Grade: S

+100 Karma

+Final tutorial boss level will be fixed at level 10, instead of level 12.

+You have already received the rest of your rewards

Due to your completion grade, you received an S-ranked skill.]

 

Right. His new spear skill was actually S-Rank, even though the quest reward had said he would receive an A-rank skill. Being struck by all that lightning and not dying probably helped him out, he thought, still bitter about the experience.

“Thank you, Elder,” he bowed slightly.

“Please do come and see me before the final tutorial quest. I will have a final request for you,” the Elder told him.

As he went to meet his teammates, Langa wondered if this side quest was a chain quest. Still, he put all that aside and sat down next to Makoto at the table. Instead of tutorial rations, there was some kind of stew on the table, and Sigurd served a portion to everyone on their plates. They all ate in silence, no doubt worried about the impending battle.

“Do you think we can still get into the top ten first teams to defeat the mini-boss?” Ghol asked once they were done.

“Is that likely? I mean we waited until the very last day of the time limit to complete the quest. I’m sure others went for it long before we did,” Sigurd answered her.

Kindaro, however, shook his head. “We don’t need that achievement. Going in unprepared would have been suicide. Everyone knows that in order to fight a maestril, you need a party of 5 players at least at a level or two levels lower than the maestril. Let’s just aim for the top ten in the quest completion grade. There’s no sense in waiting any longer, Liv’Kungsadu, can we go now?”

Liv stood up and addressed everyone. “I know we practised hard yesterday, but honestly, it’s still not enough. The maestril may only be level 7, but we all know that it’s a whole different tier of a monster compared to the child’s play which is the corrupted wolves and foxes. Maestrils have magic, they have skills, and they are sapient creatures. This will be a difficult battle for all of us. Has any of you ever fought against a maestril?” he asked.

Everyone shook their head. Langa was surprised. He was fairly certain that Sigurd had said that in natural worlds and lost worlds, the maximum level that mortals could reach before being integrated into a Tower was level 5, while in abandoned worlds, cursed worlds and blessed worlds, the maximum level was level 10. Granted, upon being sent to the tutorial, their levels were reset, but Langa had always assumed that they had all had the chance to fight against maestrils before they came here. However, now that he thought about it, maestrils only appeared from the Void, so there was no way these people from natural and blessed worlds would have had Void eruptions in their worlds.

Sigurd raised an eyebrow looking at Eniche. She was the only one in the group who had been in the Tower before, and hence she was the most likely to have experienced this.

Eniche, however, shook her head. “I know what you're thinking, and I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I was an NPC, I never left the safe zone alone. Yeah, I’ve seen maestrils in the Tower, I've seen the footage of players fighting against maestrils through the comcer too, but I’ve never fought against one, I was not stupid,” she explained.

“Oh, that's alright,” Liv said, and then he continued his speech. “So, it’s a first for all of you. We don’t know much about our opponent except for what Langa and his team saw. The maestril's name is Calpu, he uses broadswords, has an HP of 3000, and possibly has full mental affinity. To be safe, we should not look him in the eyes, which sounds easy enough to say, but will be difficult to actually do in the middle of a fight. Especially for our front-line fighters."

"Sorry, there's one more thing that I forgot to mention. When I scanned him, it said he was a shadow maestril. I'm not sure of what that means," Langa said.

"That just means that he either uses light or darkness magic as well. This will be troublesome," Sigurd said with a frown.

"It's fine. I have a skill that can break through the shadows. And luckily our battles yesterday helped me to complete my hidden quest. As long as I’m the party leader, any party I’m in will have a 10% extra damage to critical hits,” Liv said, looking around.

Kindaro whistled, “That’s a really huge boost. Is it a title or a blessing? No, don't answer that, I don't want to hate you any more than I already do. Still, this will be a great addition to our party play.”

Langa nodded as well. So, that was Liv's reward for completing a hidden quest, huh? He wondered what kind of benefit he would get once he finished his own quest. It was almost done too, he was at 5/6 completion, and Liv was the only one left to complete that damn quest.

“One last thing. Three people in our party must not die today, no matter what-“

“Let me guess, one of them is you?” Ghol asked disdainfully.

“No,” Liv continued. “It’s Eniche, Kindaro and Langa.”

Langa tensed up at those words. Not again. If Liv was placing so much importance on his life, that meant he needed him. Obviously. That meant people had expectations for him. Damn it. Had he not worked hard his whole damn life to shake off all those expectations? Now, even here, he had to live up to other people’s expectations. He hated it. He clenched his fists but said nothing.

“Not Sigurd? He’s the healer,” Makoto asked, puzzled. Langa was just surprised that he made the list.

“He’ll stay at the back, along with watching that his mana is always full, Makoto, I want you to protect Sigurd. But Eniche is our main tank. I don’t have a taunt skill, so I can’t hold the aggro that well,” Liv explained.

”But you’re an all-rounder. You can both tank and deal damage. And you’re stronger than me. I think if there’s anyone we need to keep alive, it’s you,” Langa tried to argue, to work his way out of having to do too much.

”I’m not a master at either of those things. I can keep the monster off you, and deal some damage sure, but it takes time. A few decisive hits are better than many small hits that add up with time. We can’t out-endure a maestril. Besides, it's your last life,” Liv told them. “Langa and Kindaro are our main damage dealers, if we lose them, we lose the battle. I don’t care what happens, those three cannot die. I’ll die in their place if I have to. We all know our roles, so let’s do our best. Suit up, and let’s meet outside in five minutes.”

There was no getting out of this. Langa put on his leather armour, it protected him, yes, but it also slowed him down a bit. He felt trapped, suffocated, even. He sighed, there was nothing he could do about it. Before going out to meet the others, he checked his status.

 

 

 

 

Compared to when he first got here, his status was decent. He made sure that he had his three health potions in his backpack, the mana stone that Makoto had given him, and that Tonare was secured on his belt before he went out. Makoto was waiting for him outside his room. He wore a long ranger’s coat and held his bow in his shaking hands.

“You heard Liv. You can’t die today,” the boy said, following Langa outside.

Langa sighed in frustration, why was he stuck with babysitting duty? “You know that’s not really up to me. Of course, I don’t want to die, but… that maestril will be strong. It will be a difficult battle for everyone. We just need to do our best.”

”I know that. And I know that it’s the best use of my attribute to make sure our Mages are never short of mana, but I still wish I could be doing more to help out,” he sighed.

”Don’t be stupid, it’s like Liv said, our entire back line depends on you. You can use your arrows if we’re in danger, but I think what Liv has you doing is great,” Langa told him.

He only mumbled slightly in response, unconvinced, and it irritated Langa how much it reminded him of his niece, Khaya. She was also stubborn like that, always telling him how to live his life, and looking out for his best interests, despite him pushing her away.

He closed his eyes to steady himself and spoke again. “Makoto, don’t leave the back line. If it looks like we are gonna wipe, run! Okay, if we wipe... you will get my karma. I have over 600 karma, you have like 200. You can go to the forest in the east and hunt some level 3 and 4 foxes and wolves to get you to 1000 karma, and you can leave this godsforsaken place.”

“Stop saying shit like that!” Makoto pursed his lips, barely containing his anger. “You’re not gonna die. I won’t let you!” he said, and pushed past Langa, to the outside where the others were waiting.

They were all suited up, and ready to go. Ghol wore leather armour just like Langa and held her daggers at the ready. Sigurd wore a long red robe and kept checking his backpack nervously, while Kindaro wore a black robe and a strange white skull mask that covered half of his face, holding a staff. Eniche had her mace and shield and still had on the heavy chain mail armour from before. Liv, however, had a unique set of armour. It looked like a bodysuit made from the scales of a green snake, and it was stuck to his body very tightly. He carried his buckler and had on some brass knuckles in his left hand.

Yeah, everyone was ready to go. No one said anything, and they began their march into the woods. Thoughts of how badly the battle could go filled his mind, and Langa was afraid that he would have to use Tonare’s skill. Yesterday it had really hurt him, and he hoped that it would not be necessary for him to use it. His heart tightened in his chest. He had managed to block any and all thoughts regarding the maestril, but now, all he could think about were those cold black eyes seeing through him, freezing him in place.