Chapter 016: Rake Quell❤

The next day, we were following the small stream of water we had found in hopes it would feed into a river.

People have always settled near rivers for practical reasons, we knew finding a river would lead to our success.

However it was raining again.

Giant worms were digging their way out of the dirt and fought with us from time to time.

Assuming our group would still be together in the following trial, I decided to help Claire get more points.

Her use of Holy Blessing was extremely effective against the undead but useless against beasts.

However there were more divine power abilities she could choose to be more effective.

“Claire, you probably have the least amount of points. I’ll weaken it, so go ahead and finish it off!”

I send off an Ice Spike which flies and puts a big hole in the worm, going into its stomach from the side.

The ice cools down the worm, making it uncomfortable and slower as it takes damage from the dissipating cold.

Claire gets on the side of the worm and stabs it repeatedly with her spear.

The worm attempts to throw its stomach at her but fails, only partway vomiting it out and having blood drip from its mouth.

It seems my ice spike had also crippled its strongest attack.

Claire finishes it off.

She smiles at me and waves.

We continue walking by the stream or close to it when denser vegetation grew riverside.

The rain lightens up.

The stream of water is quite muddy and flows rapidly.

But soon we find that stream hiding within thick vegetation.

And behind that vegetation the chaotic noise of flowing waters rumbles our ears.

“We did it! We found the river!” Danielo exclaims happily.

“That’s great!” Says Raquel.

“That we did. It’s a matter of time before we complete the trial.” Replies Lin Hao.

I watch on as I detect any and all energy signatures around us.

There are signatures beneath the waters.

“Careful around the water, I think there are beasts in there.” I warn them.

Claire replies with a wry smile. “Thanks Edward, but I think everyone kind of guessed, hehe.”

Suzabeth also smiles wryly after hearing Claire.

“… Alright. Anyway, the rivers goes North. Let’s follow it!”

…

The river had thick vegetation made out of small trees and vines on both ends.

As we walked where we could hear the river but couldn’t see it, we could advance at a speed close to when we walked in the middle of the rainforest.

I detect three decently strong mental power signals in front of us.

“Three enemies in front of us. Nothing special.” I remark.

But after crossing a bush closer to the foes I had warned about, Danielo immediately froze his feet in place.

“Guys… Gorillas…”

I look over his shoulder and see huge three meter tall orange-furred gorillas.

Their bulging muscles and fearless looks make them terrifying.

The biggest of the three gorillas hits its chest repeatedly with its arms as it shouts.

WAAAAAAAAOH

It charges over with great power, moving with all its limbs.

But what it didn’t know was that it could take severe damage from arcane spells just like any other animal.

I launch a single two-times overcharged arcane bullet. It hits it right in the chest and disappears.

The gorilla stumbles and falls to the ground, sliding over vegetation until it’s two meters away from Danielo.

Its arms try to lift its body back up but Danielo lifts his hammer high up and swings it down on its skull.

The last two gorillas seem to freak out and one starts fleeing while the other gets angry.

Raquel sprints up to the violent gorilla, dodges a swing and stabs its elbow between the bones. The gorilla swings another arm, almost catching her as she retreats.

As I’m frustrated to not have gotten the kill, I send a three times overcharged bullet to the fleeing gorilla, which dies instantly.

(16 points. I have a total of 35, enough for my purposes for now.)

I send a weaker magic bullet to the last raging gorilla. It receives it and trembles in place.

Claire runs up to it with her spear high and stabs it in the chest.

GAO GAAOO

The gorilla starts moving again and grabs Claire’s spear with an arm and manhandles her grip over the weapon before swinging it to the ground.

SNAP

This breaks the spear in half with a snap.

“Water Arrow!” A water arrow flies into the gorilla eye, which bursts apart in gore.

The gorilla’s rampage doesn’t stop then.

Lin Hao shoots an arrow to its chest which explodes and makes gore fly off everywhere, staining Claire’s gown.

“Yuck!” Claire exclaims as she takes her distances from the gorilla.

Raquel runs up to the gorilla’s back and stabs its vertebrae. The gorilla’s legs starts shaking uncontrollably as it falls down on its back.

Raquel dodges in a hurry.

Danielo comes over and enchants Raquel’s dagger with his fire enchantment.

“Go on, Raquel. Get the kill!” He encourages her.

At this point the gorilla can’t do much. It lost an eye, it’s severely injured, it’s losing blood and it’s half-paralyzed.

Raquel gives a look to Claire, who nods back in approval.

Raquel uses her special footwork, making her accelerate very quickly and slow back down close to the gorilla’s head, with her dagger pointing at its last working eye.

Stab Boom

The fire enchantment adds effect to her stab and flames burst through the gorilla’s eye.

I sense its mental power decline to zero quickly.

“All clear!” I announce.

I take my slate and start buying new passives.

I buy Enhanced Strength 1 and Enhanced Charisma 1 for a total of 20 points.

The strength enhancement puffs up my muscles and I feel the muscle fibers painfully extending in length, before leaving a satisfying sensation behind.

The charisma enhancement makes my skin red hot for a few seconds and I feel a tingle down my spin. I feel an aura of confidence emanate in my default poses, whether they be my facial expressions or my standing pose.

(Alright, charisma is quite something.)

This was the last of the attribute enhancement passive skills, though there were more levels to them and other enhancement skills I would get.

Claire comes over and looks towards my hands and at my face.

“Edward, what did you buy…? You look weird?”

(Huh…? What? Is my face now alien-looking?)

“… I got a strength and charisma upgrade. Not sure what the charisma does…?”

“Oh, then go wash your face a bit, some dead skin is peeling off.”

I take a cloth and dampen it with some water and rub my face. A whole lot of dead skin falls off.

It must have happened while my skin got hot.

Claire comes up to me and rubs her thumbs on my cheeks.

“It’s all gone!… I think you’re even more handsome now. Your skin is also clear and smooth…”

Claire’s tone went from admiring to slightly jealous, but I place my hands over hers and give them a squeeze.

“Don’t be jealous, you’re beautiful too.”

Claire’s cheeks redden and she looks down.

“Not fair…”

She lets go of me and looks at her broken spear nearby.

Suzy comes over and looks at me with narrowed eyes. I smile at her and say “Your eyes are lovely whenever I see them,” which makes her expression relax.

I take my apostle slate to buy Ellabizina’s apprentice apostle copper staff. It teleports above the apostle slate and starts falling down.

I grab it with my free hand. It has a small weight to it.

(Though that’s clearly thanks to my new strength. My own body feels like it’s lost 30 kilograms.)

The description says the staff can channel mana and divine power within it as well as boost all types of regeneration, from health to mental power.

I look at Claire who picked up the two pieces of her spear with a sad look, then back to my apostle slate.

(If it only costs one or two points…)

I sadly couldn’t afford to give away Gungnir or Gae Bolg to Claire.

I click on Steel-Tipped Spear and see the same spear Claire used to own, with its wooden shaft.

(Alright, I’ll get you the 3 point upgrade.)

The Spring Steel Spear had a metal shaft and a similar arrow-like tip.

I buy it and the spear appears.

“Oh…” Suzy is surprised, but not just her, to my embarrassment.

“Damn, are you alright Edward?” Says Danielo in an ironic tone as comes over with a worried frown.

Brother Hao and Raquel snicker in response.

My frustration steadily increases toward them.

“Grr… Come on! I’ve lent my bow to brother Hao this whole time! Don’t look at me like I’m stingy! CLAIRE!”

“Ah, yes!” Claire exclaims in surprise.

“Take it!” I throw the spear over on its side.

Claire catches it with both hands and stops herself with a step back. She looks over the spear as she comments on it.

“Wow… It’s a bit heavy, but it won’t break easily… Thanks a lot, Edward.”

“… You’re welcome.”

…

Claire tested out her new spear which seemed sharper and sturdier overall, though her old spear was probably quite out of shape instead.

She used the spear’s weight to block better and stab deeper. It was quite obvious she needed enhancement skills for her strength and dexterity however.

In the evening we made camp and gathered around.

We exchanged email addresses and phone numbers, promising to call each other after the trial.

Night watch was decided and I took two out of the four turns since I don't need to sleep much.

Raquel and Danielo took the first two shifts, so I went into my tent with Suzy and got to massage some plumper parts of her body as she hugged me back.

Suzy and I fell asleep in each other’s arms.

…

I wake up some two and something hours later.

I hear faint sounds coming from the outside.

I look towards Suzy and she’s still there, sleeping peacefully.

Activating my mana sense, I see two signatures near one another some twenty meters away from the camp, as if facing off something.

(What’s happening… Could it be a new monster?!)

I open the tent slowly and get out, holding my staff.

I walk closer to the sounds which suddenly muffle down.

(Has a monster that can evade my senses appeared?)

A few steps later I see Raquel and Danielo naked and kissing, with Danielo’s dick inside Raquel’s hairy pussy.

(Huh…)

I immediately squat down.

Their kiss stops and the sounds, now clear to the ears, resound around the woods.

“Ahn ❤! Ahn ❤! Harder ❤! Fuck me with your strong dick ❤❤!”

Raquel’s voice had never sounded this sweet and hot before.

“Yeah baby! Power fuck coming up!”

Danielo places Raquel near a tree. Raquel bends down and holds onto the trunk with her palms.

It’s doggy style.

Danielo places his dickhead inside and starts pummeling her.

Slap slap slap slap

“HAH ❤! YES ❤! HARDER ❤❤… POR FAVORRR ❤!”

Raquel rolls the last R like she’s purring.

As my own cock gets hard peeping at them, numerous thoughts go through my head.

(I thought the rape had given her a trauma… And since when did those two get so close?!)

I honestly didn’t want much to do with Raquel as she wasn’t my type.

But seeing her bending down and taking it, I couldn’t say I’d refuse her if she asked me to have sex.

Raquel continues moaning and speaking Spanish to Danielo, egging him on.

Danielo soon stops mounting Raquel. “It’s coming out, baby!”

Raquel bends over and sucks on his dick, pumping up and down her head.

Her fellatio brings Danielo to a stop as he cums.

Raquel looks at his eyes as she removes her head from his dick with a pop.

She opens her mouth wide to show him and swallows the ejaculate.

“Good girl. Ride me for a while, alright?”

Danielo lies on his back to let Raquel walk on all fours above him.

She inserts the dick inside her and starts moving her hips.

(I need to sneak out of here…)

I wait for a good moment to sneak away.

After a few minutes of Raquel enjoying Danielo from the top, Danielo warns Raquel he’s going to cum again.

Raquel flips over and sits on top of his face before bending down and sucking on the dick.

I take step after step to return to my tent and pretend I didn’t see anything.

“Ah! Danielo! I’m coming ❤!”

Both come around the same moment, making more sounds.

This leaves me a good opportunity to escape as I make full use of my dexterity to walk away soundlessly, placing each foot on the ground very gently.

…

Two days later.

We were still walking along the river, this time on the river bank.

The vegetation had diminished and short grasses grew by the river.

We had encountered a jaguar, anacondas, goblins, wolves and deer, none of which posed a big problem.

We could advance quite quickly on our way.

After a while we saw a family of giant alligators heating up from the sunlight on the river bank.

These beasts were 10 meters long with their thick tails.

I could see them looking towards us.

Worst of all, I could see eggs here and there.

The dozen of alligators start growling. Three start sprinting toward us.

I shoot a 3 times overcharged Magic Bullet at one, which stops it in its tracks. The alligator trips and its huge body slides over the grass, making deep grooves in the dirt.

8 points.

These monsters were almost as strong as the orange gorillas even if they gave substantially less points.

In the water, they were probably stronger, but unfortunately for them, they fought us on land.

Danielo and Raquel team up to take on an alligator.

Lin Hao uses his chi and starts shooting the last three modern arrows he has before switching to simple wooden arrows he made in his spare time.

This makes others alligators run over to us.

Claire gives me a look and we team up to take one down together.

I plant my staff in the dirt, grab my blunt short sword and approach a giant alligator.

Its maw opens wide as it runs up to me.

I kick the dirt to side-step the charge, and kick the ground again to charge towards the beast’s head. I stab into its eye and feel my sword cracking through a bone and going deep in the reptilian head.

The pain makes the alligator’s head jerk around which makes me lose grip on my sword that’s stuck deeply in its skull.

Claire comes over from the alligator’s other side and stabs her spear into the beast’s neck.

A strong spurt of blood flies over to Claire’s legs.

“Eww! Goodness! Why me?!”

The alligator falls down and slowly dies while other reptiles sprint over to our group.

Raquel and Danielo go fight another alligator after killing theirs.

Lin Hao killed four alligators on his own and grabbed his gun, waiting for a pinch before firing it.

I count four last alligators to take care of.

I blast two Magic Bullets, getting two kills and 17 points.

Claire takes on an alligator on her own, fighting safely and using her range to her full advantage.

Seeing Suzy looking at me, I try something new to impress her.

I sprint toward the last free alligator, dodge a bite and a swipe before I jump up high, using my telekinesis to propel me further up.

I end up at least five or six meters high and then I push myself down to drop-kick the alligator.

The alligator looks left and right, confused. By that time my foot hits the reptile’s spine.

CRUNCH CRACK

Two loud cracking sounds resound, one from the alligator’s spine and one from my foot.

“AOW! Fuck me!!!”

The alligator cries in pain alongside me, which brings me some comfort.

I fall to the ground and start healing my foot.

“Heal!”

The alligator is in great pain and paralyzed from the waist down.

Thanks to that it doesn’t attack me.

Raquel appears and slices the alligator’s neck.

Danielo helps Claire finish off her alligator.

With this the fight is over.

Suzy runs over with concern over her face.

“You okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” I had used up a third of my divine power and my foot was back to normal.

I quickly thank my Goddess Ellabizina.

“Anyway, I’ll need a new and better sword. And also the bone strengthening passive. Holy mother of hell, I didn’t think my leg would break from that.”

If it was either a normal alligator or a normal drop-kick, without any telekinesis, I would’ve been fine.

“That gator had a strong back.”

The team laughs out loud.

I take my slate and buy Bone Strengthening 1 and then I look through swords I can purchase with my 49 points.

Looking at the list made me want a Sword of Mana that I didn’t know I needed until now.

After deciding for a while, I decide on taking an enchanted long sword.

Since Danielo has the fire element covered, Claire the holy element, Raquel water and myself Ice and Arcane, I decide that my best shot is either poison or death attributes.

If I have to fight a horde of goblin mages, as long I nick them with the blade I would have the advantage.

I’d love to see a goblin mage block my sword and Magic Missiles simultaneously.

An anti-magic enchanted sword would also have been a great choice, unless for this message…

A magician could not use an anti-magic weapon, at least not of this type.

I decide to buy the Pain Elven Long Sword.

It’s a one or two-handed steel sword enchanted to inflict additional pain.

Although the enchantment is useless against the undead, it ought to help against most foes I face.

The long sword appears and I quickly grab it before it starts falling down.

From blade to handle, it’s about my height.

The weight is just right. It’s two kilograms but with my strength and speed it feels like the proper weight of a sword.

The sword is decorated with leaf motifs on the pommel while the guard looks like it’s made of metal vines and thorns. The handle has crisscrossing leather strips. The blade shines.

Brother Hao looks at my sword and whistles.

I need to test the enchantment.

I gently run my finger over the blade until it cuts it a little.

“Ouch!” Not unlike an electric shock, pain sears into the wound and continues burning up my finger even after it has left the sword.

With the tiny prick I made to my finger, it felt like I had cut my finger in half.

Danielo looked at me and giggled.

(Bro, this isn’t just a normal paper cut!)

I quickly whispered a “heal” to soothe my finger. The wound closing helped with the pain, but only halfway there.

Sensing with mana sense, it seemed the enchantment injected mana into the wound.

(It’s a spell that works on direct contact.)

Sadly, this meant the pain would only go away with time.

I try circulating my mana around my finger, this makes the pain-infused mana disperse throughout my body, relieving the pain by disseminating it.

It doesn’t feel as bad like this and the pain gradually goes away.

This sword is longer than the previous one and self-inflicted wounds need to be avoided.

I spend two points for a green soft to the touch resin scabbard and a leather belt to attach the sword to my hip.

The sword rests quite high up and diagonally across the ground.

It was time to go on our way as our break was long enough.

…

After another battle with a family of warthogs, the afternoon sun shines its light upon us when our steps bring us closer and closer to the deafening sound of a waterfall.

The girls in particular become excited about it. Claire quickens the pace and beckons us forward.

“Come on! It sounds like it’s huge! We’ll probably see a rainbow!”

I walk quicker with my sword sheathed and my staff resting against my shoulder.

We start seeing the end of the river and the mist of the waterfall rising up with the sunlight.

A number of rainbows shine left and right. Lin Hao comments on the sight.

“… It’s gorgeous. It finally feels like this trip was worth it.”

We walk a bit closer to the waterfall to see where it lands.

In the distance, beyond the fog, I start seeing geometric shapes about a kilometer away.

Then I notice smoke coming out of them. Chimneys.

“Wait, that’s a village!” I exclaim.

“Huh? You’re right!” Exclaims Danielo.

That very second, time seems to stop.

The noise of the waterfall stops.

Giant white screens appear and box in our entire group.

A hologram screen appears.

The screens close in on us, engulfing us within and my vision shifts back to the white room.

Suzy is there and sits on the ground, removing the tent bag she had on her shoulders.

I decide to keep the points since 18 is too little for anything good.

I take off my own bag and go through it slowly, unveiling one last pack of beef jerky, a few cans of meat and some pieces of wild meat from the jungle.

“I’ll have to restock for the next dream…”

Thirteen days since I stepped foot on Earth.

(Though I stepped on dirt the whole time, I will give my parents a call.)

If I did not purchase the Enhanced Memory upgrade, I would definitely be at a loss once I returned.

(I didn’t even have time to say goodbye to them… The white room just forcibly brought us here.)

But that didn’t matter since I remembered their emails and phone numbers.

I’ll contact them in the morning.

There’s also the matter with Alice, I can try my hand at healing her from her cancer and therapy’s side effects.

I should still make some cookies for her.

I don’t really need to distract her if I use the Mental Suggestion spell, but I’d rather not use it on her.

I look towards Suzy who looks relieved at the lack of heat and humidity.

I walk to her and sit down. I cast my healing prayer to relieve any last residual discomfort.

“Thanks Edward.”

“No problem… Suzy, I’m about to go. When I return I’ll spend the night with you and we’ll go on for the next trial.”

“Un… See you in a second?”

“Yes, yes.” I grab her face with both hands and kiss her. “Return.”

I wake up in my dorm room.