Adel wanted to take the lead on this ‘giant hunting operation,’ claiming he had significant experience of killing them. I wasn’t so sure – but I wasn’t a wellspring of new ideas myself. I allowed him to [inspect] myself and Cali so he could formulate a strategy.

His face twisted as he read my stats, “That’s strange.”

“What?”

“Your HP. When a person levels up, you receive a very, very minor increase to your health. Not enough to make much of a difference versus a well-crafted weapon.”

“And?”

“You’re already over one-hundred. Not even my mentor back at the inquisition had health like this. Is it another side effect of Stigma?”

I hadn’t really thought about it before he pointed it out, “Possibly.”

“To be more specific, each race has a multiplier that effects how many health points they receive. Humans and Ashmorn have the lowest multiplier of all the sentient races. But your multiplier seems to eclipse even some mid-level monsters.”

“Cool. So that means I can take a hit and keep going.”

“Well, I wouldn’t allow myself to become overconfident. A solid hit from one of these giants would put you in serious trouble.”

“What are we going to do?”

Adel smiled, “You both have a versatile set of skills. An ambush will allow us to get the initiative against the foe, we can use your stealth to get an easy first strike. Depending on the power of our attacks, we could focus on felling one at a time, or split up and try to kill all of them as quickly as possible.”

“Cali can probably kill a giant in one shot,” I said, thinking back to our fight with the lich.

“Using a huge reserve of magical energy,” she added, “Though that would render me untenable for any further combat. Having to protect my unconscious body while multiple giants try to kill us will make things more difficult. I approve.”

“We’re not going to do that.”

Adel dusted off his tabard, “You said that a small group of them are nearby?”

“Yes. Twenty minutes’ walk out of the gates.”

“They should still be here. As long as you two feel you are capable of moving still.”

“…Sure. Let’s go.”

Adelbern followed us as we retraced our steps to where the giants spotted us. The plan was to launch a surprise attack on them. According to Adel, the giants roaming around were level fifty to sixty. That, combined with favourable stat modifiers made them an extreme threat to any human trying to fell one in combat. I was still stuck at level 33. He estimated that consuming one of them and taking twenty-five percent of their experience would rocket me into the late forties easily.

“The highest-level creature ever recorded was 152,” he explained, “An elder dragon who slept on the southern pole. Though it is commonly believed that the creature was defeated by a coalition of heroes.” The amount of experience needed to raise your level to that extent was unimaginable. An immortal dragon could only reach 150 before being slain. Each extra level needed more and more experience. The upward curve of that process was more like a sheer cliff-face.

With Stigma, things were different.

Being able to siphon another person’s abilities and experience was an incredible power. In a world of enforced structures, restrictions and social norms, being able to learn a rare and important skill just by finding a dead body was invaluable. It couldn’t be overstated just how good it was. People would dedicate years of their lives honing a craft in craft or combat, just to gain one or two levels in them. Techniques were few and far between those levels too.

My ears caught the sound of a distant rumble. They were still out there.

The problem that faced us was simple. We’d be fighting on their terms. Launching an ambush at a specially chosen location was effective against human opponents, but giants weren’t intelligent. They wandered from place to place. We couldn’t force them to head in a certain direction so we had an easier time. That meant we were doing it the hard way, as if slaying a gaggle of giants with three people wasn’t hard enough.

We gathered on the ridgeline and peered over into a small crevice that ran through the rock. The three giants from earlier were taking shelter inside. They have bad situational awareness, we were only caught last time because we were out in the open. I could look straight down at them without worry because their necks didn’t work correctly.

“There they are,” I whispered to Adel, who was laid prone on the ground beside me, “How good are you at fighting?”

“…Pretty good,” he smiled, “I can handle a giant. If we split the three between us, we can kill them before they have a chance to react. I’ll take that one there,” he said, pointing out one of the lumbering beasts. His skin was a dull yellow and he had a profound underbite, exposing a row of sharp teeth. “Cali, you can fire on the one in the middle. Ren, the last one is close to that side of the wall, you should be able to sneak up on him.”

“Got it.”

“When you finish them off, consume them right away. It will make killing the others easier.”

I was interested in seeing what Adelbern could do. He struck me as someone with a few more brain cells than your average inquisitor. I didn’t want to trick myself into finding him agreeable or friendly though. I was fully expecting him to stab me in the back the entire time. I backed away from Cali and Adel and started climbing down the steep incline that led into the ravine.

I activated my stealth skill and faded into the shadows. It would be very effective against non-sentient creatures like giants. They didn’t have an exceptional sense of smell or hearing like some animals. The terrain was wet and windy, a strong wind was blowing through the underground channel - knocking me off balance slightly as I hugged the left wall.

Getting into position wasn’t difficult with my skills. Killing them was another matter. Cali and Adelbern would be doing a lot of the heavy lifting. Both of them had moved to the opposite side of the giants ‘camp.’

I looked down to the glowing blade with a grimace, “Ready for this?”

“You shouldn’t concern yourself with me, Master. This ashen steel is much stronger than you think.”

I mustered the maximum extent of my courage and moved. As the giant slowed to a still, I charged at him and swung in a heavy arc into his knee. A thick gush of blood flowed from the wound. The giant roared in pain and began to move reflexively. I backed away and reopened a gap between us. As I did, a fireball emerged from the tip of Cali’s halberd and struck her dance partner in the face, engulfing it in an unnatural flame.

There was no time to admire her spell craft. The giant swung an aged log like a humungous club, attempting to splatter me against the wall. I found myself wishing I had the Stormsteel armour that Medalie was offering to make, because the chest plate was restricting my movement at the worst possible time. I ducked under the first swing. The trunk cracked and shattered, sending splinters into my face.

Luckily my eyes were safe. While the giant tried to pull it back up, I dashed in and delivered a vertical slice down onto its wrist. The beast cried out again and dropped it to the floor. Sensing that I wasn’t going to allow it to use the crude weapon against me again, it reverted to swinging its lanky arms in an attempt to catch me. Again, I backed away and opened a gap between us.

The giants had long legs, but they were clumsy. Two strides would carry the monster to me but on unsteady ground like this there was no guarantee that it could move at speed – especially now that I had disabled one of its legs with my opening strike. The giant bound its hands together into a wrecking ball and slammed down onto the ground in front of me. I used my agility to slip around him and attack the other, uninjured leg. The giant fell back as it became unable to supports its own weight.

The violent thrashing that followed forced me to reconsider my approach. I quickly looked over to see what Adel and Cali were doing. The giant Cali struck with her magic was a hideous sight, with horrid scarring across it’s face. Without the use of it’s left eye, it was struggling to maintain its balance versus Cali’s agile movements. She dipped on one knee and poked it in the thigh with the tip of her spear.

Adel was a blur. He wielded his blade in one hand with exceptional talent and grace. His speed was even greater than mine, and he was wearing a full set of inquisition armour. It wasn’t a surprise that his giant was looking the most beat-up of the three. That just motivated me to go even harder. I wanted to beat him at his own game.

Wishful thinking.

With the giant rendered unable to stand up, it started to resort to flailing around. A maelstrom of limbs and feet that threatened to catch me at any moment. My hopes of it tiring itself out were fading fast. Sensing that it would be easier to help Cali finish off her target, I decided to move past him and give her a hand.

I charged at the beast while it was distracted and sliced the back of its leg clean open. As it fell down onto one knee, Cali leaped into the air and brought the tip of her halberd down into its head. The sharp end slipped through its left eye and into the brain, killing it. It seized up and fell back down with a heavy thud.

“Finish that other one off!”

Cali nodded and reloaded her halberd for another bout of spellcasting. I moved quickly to consume the remains of the first felled giant. I impaled its chest with Stigma’s blade and used [consume] once more. I didn’t have time to check, but it would be worth several levels of experience. Cali pulled the trigger on her catalyst and fired a bolt of frost at my injured foe, impaling it through the chest and pinning it to the ground with a wicked sickle of ice.

I turned back just in time to see Adel delivering the finishing strike to the last one. He deftly dodged another blow from the giant and leaped up, slicing clean through the artery in its neck and causing it to lose strength. Looks like he didn’t need a hand after all. Him beating one alone demonstrated his strength compared to us…

I returned to my original dance partner and consumed him too. I reached down into the canopy wrapped around his waist and felt something cold to the touch. Just as Medalie had said, he was carrying steel. I withdrew my hand and held it up to the sunlight. It was black like coal, but when refined it would forge armour worthy of a warrior.

“Stormsteel…” Adel mused as he approached us – he wasn’t even winded. “I suppose someone told you of its value?”

“A blacksmith in town.”

“An excellent choice. If you’re ‘moving up’ in the world, good armour will serve you well.”

“Moving up?”

He shrugged, “You were a thief, now you’re a giant killer.”

I ignored his jibes and loomed over my final meal. I took no small amount of pleasure in repeating the same process again. Consuming its life and pillaging the steel it held. While to the giants these nuggets of rock and metal were mere trinkets, in the hands of a normal sized man like myself, they were large enough to require both arms to lift. Thankfully Medalie hadn’t lied about its unusual lack of density. I could conceivably carry them back to town.

“Why don’t the other mercs use this stuff if it’s so amazing?”

Adelbern was quick to respond, “Arrogance. They’d rather cash it in for a quick payday than use it for weapons and armour. They don’t know that a Stormsteel blade or plate is worth the effort; not to mention the rather profound difficulty in finding a smith talented enough to use it.”

“Medalie made it sound easy.”

“People with the right skills tend to do that. Would you call killing one of these easy?”

“…I could probably handle it now. Let me [inspect] myself.”

I had to stop my jaw from dropping. All of that from three giants? I had caught up to their level after a single battle! I was beginning to properly understand just how dangerous Stigma could be.

“And… you’ve earned a seven month stay of execution,” she whispered into my ear.

“Wow.”

Adelbern bowed his head, “May I?”

“Sure, go ahead.”

Adelbern’s eyes glowed a subtle yellow colour as he spoke the word, “[Inspect.]” He studied my growth for a moment with a pleased grin on his face, “Interesting. Very interesting. It seems that our problem may soon becoming finding prey capable of providing enough experience.”

He didn’t mean to stick around, did he?

“Our?”

He laughed it off, “Sorry, I mean your.”

“What are you getting out of this exactly?”

“Like I said, I want to help out a fellow outworlder. Don’t worry, I’m not going to join your little party or even shadow you like I did here. I have other things to do.”

“If you say so.”

“Now, let’s not keep your friend waiting, shall we? I’d much rather we have this discussion back in a warm building in town.”

That was something we could agree on.