-Chapter 5-
Mia Wilson was terrified. Even though she would argue with her older sister anytime they watched a horror movie at home, refusing to admit she was scared even when she made her sister walk with her to the bathroom, she couldn’t possibly deny it this time. She was beyond terrified.
She couldn’t run away, even if nothing was blocking her path, her legs refused to budge no matter how hard she screamed at them in her mind to move. The ice cold pit in her stomach made her feel like vomiting, but at the same time refused to let her, trapping her in a state of vertigo inducing nausea. The tears forming in her eyes wouldn’t fall, as if they too were scared to move even an inch, and her traitor of a tongue was likewise too cowardly to even cry out for help. Trapped in this wretched state, Mia could do nothing but stare at the small green demon that was slowly stalking towards her with a vile grin on its face.
Oh, god. It’s over. I’m going to die here. Mia’s thoughts were in disarray as she faced down the disgusting creature. I’m sorry Katie, I’m so sorry for yelling at you before I left that morning. I’m sorry for always taking your clothes without asking. Oh, god, I’m so sorry. Mom, Dad, please, I’m so sorry.
Mia was on her knees on the forest floor, so even with their short stature, she had to look up to see the face of the monster that would kill her. It had a vicious sneer on its ugly face, as if it was enjoying her torment more than the act of killing her. Mia couldn’t even bring herself to close her eyes, and that’s why she was able to see the moment it happened. The moment he appeared in front of her for the first time.
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Morgan walked as quietly as he could through the open forest, surrounded on all sides by trees that were so large, they seemed unnatural. The black bark covering their trunks just further enforced the eerie feeling of the forest; however, such things didn’t bother Morgan too much. Mostly, he had already gotten used to it, although it was a little different now that he was alone.
When he had pitched his idea, him going out alone into the monster infested forest to search for survivors, he had been met with hard rejection from everyone in both his own group and Josh’s. He thought Jason might actually hit him for once, that was how much the large youth hated the idea of sending his best friend out alone on such a dangerous mission. Even Kyle had yelled at him, something that had never happened before. Josh had frowned at him and asked him why he would do something so dangerous, and Derek and Cassidy had both vigorously questioned his mental health.
In the end, however, Morgan was able to convince them, although it hadn’t been easy even for him. Morgan had been accused many times since he was a young kid of having a silver tongue, or as his mother liked to say ‘you’re a hell of a spin doctor kid, just like that no good bastard father of yours’.
Ah, that’s not good, Morgan thought, it’s best not to think about useless shit, especially when monsters might be nearby.
Clearing his head of unwanted memories, Morgan instead thought back to three days ago, when he had explained his plan to the group. After going over all the details, and vigorously outlining the need for him to go alone on this mission, he was finally able to leave after a few days of preparation. Although he himself didn’t like the idea of going into the forest alone, the group already lacked combat power, and he couldn’t afford to reduce their strength even further when he had no idea what might happen at any given moment.
That said, there was a definite need to find out if there were other survivors, and bring them back to the group if he could. Therefore, he thought it would be best to send one capable person to look for survivors, and there was no way he would try to send either Jason or Kyle out on such a dangerous mission. He also couldn’t send Josh out, he had become the pillar of support for the minds of the other survivors over the past few days, and Morgan thought it would be best if he stayed there to watch over them. Although Derek, Cassidy, and even Henry could hold their own, he couldn’t entrust such an important job to them. There was also one other crucial reason why it had to be Morgan on this mission.
I can’t just bring back people who would be a burden on the group.
Yes. As Morgan had mentioned a few days ago, what the group needed was able bodied people, specifically people who could fight in the case of more monster attacks. Morgan didn’t consider himself heartless, he cared about his friends after all, and he loved his younger sister Misha deeply, even now the only reason he was working so hard was so that he could go back home and make sure she was doing ok, he had to watch over her as she grew up.
That being said, he wasn’t someone who would risk his life or safety for anybody and everybody. No matter what Jason thought, Morgan wasn’t like him, he didn’t want to save every person he saw who was in trouble, and in most cases wouldn’t bother with most people if it was anything beyond common courtesy. That was the biggest reason why he had fought so hard to come on this mission alone, if all he found were useless survivors that would be a burden like Kyle described, then he planned to leave them to their own devices.
After walking due west for about seven hours, Morgan stopped to take another break. He sat down, fishing some dried meat and a water bottle out of the backpack he had been carrying. The dried meat was made in a primitive smoker that the freshman girl Jess had made.
Man, that girl really can do anything. Morgan thought. If I can find someone like her, we’ll be a lot better off.
Over the past few days, Jess had proven to be by far the most important person in the group. Everything from tracking animals to find clean water sources, to setting traps for small game, to cleaning and even smoking the meat, Jess was a wonder girl who could do it all.
I’ve absolutely gotta make sure she survives.
While thinking so, Morgan finished his small meal, and began to steady his breathing, focusing on the energy that now flowed through his body. Although he wasn’t brave enough to close his eyes and completely lose focus when a monster could ambush him at any time, there were still meditation techniques that could be done with your eyes open, and didn’t require him to shut out the world around him. Ever since the first day he awakened his mana, Morgan had been practicing moving it any chance he got, and was now rather proficient. He had even seen a change in his status window.
-Status-
Morgan Shaw - Human/ Male - 17 years old
-Attributes-
Mana Lv. 1 - Legacy Lv. 1 - Magic Affinity Lv. 1
-Skills-
Body Strengthening Lv. 1
As Morgan focused on moving his mana throughout his body, he had discovered that he could will his mana to soak into his muscles, bones, and even skin. When he did this, his bones became harder, his muscles exerted greater strength, and his skin became tougher. At the same time as he noticed this, he had received a notification from the System.
-Proficiency increasing-
-Proficiency has reached the required level-
-Skill Body Strengthening has been created-
-Body Strengthening-
-Uses attributeless mana inside the casters body to enhance physical strength and durability-
Morgan could also guess from the notification that Skills would be created when he got good enough at a certain technique, and the level would rise as he became more proficient in using the skill. He had discussed his theory with Kyle, and he agreed that was a likely explanation.
Just as Morgan had begun to focus on circulating his mana, he heard a very faint sound, and couldn’t quite make out what it was. Standing up and drawing his sword, Morgan began moving cautiously towards the direction the sound was coming from. As he got closer, Morgan could clearly hear the sounds of a fight, and intense screaming.
Remembering what it had been like when he first woke up here, and the horrific nightmare from that first day, Morgan’s breath began to quicken and his pace slowed. As his vision began to tunnel, and a cold sweat ran down his back, Morgan quickly tried stirring up his mana, imbuing strength into his body. His breathing slowed back down, and his senses widened again, the comforting feeling of mana flowing through his veins calmed him down.
Damn it, I can’t lose my cool here. Morgan thought to himself. He wasn’t sure why he suddenly felt nervous at the thought of facing that carnage again, when he had been fine the first time. Nevertheless, he had to once again push onwards towards the blood curdling screams of people dying in pain, the nightmare inducing laughs of those vile goblins, and the stench of blood that hung heavy in the air.
A few moments later, Morgan was greeted by yet another scene straight out of a horror movie. A group of young humans was being hunted down by a gang of around 15 goblins. Many of the humans had already been killed, and their mangled corpses were strewn around the clearing, soaking the earth in crimson. Around 9 humans remained, but they had been separated from each other and were being toyed with by the goblins.
Morgan thought for a moment on whether it would be worth it to rescue these people, but quickly made up his mind when he saw a pair of a boy and girl who looked a little bit older than him. The two were armed with short swords that they had obviously taken from the goblins, and were facing down a group of 5 goblins on their own, with 3 of the monster's corpses already laying around them. There was another group of people likewise facing down goblins, but they were having a harder time, and neither group was likely to last long on their own. Morgan began running towards the clearing.
The first person he reached was a blonde girl, who was kneeling on the ground, seemingly too afraid to move. Just as the goblin in front of the girl was raising its sword to cut her down, Morgan jumped in between them, blocking the surprised monster’s strike and running his own sword through its head. Glancing back at the girl, Morgan shouted at her to run for cover in the trees nearby, before rushing off towards the sword wielding couple. The girl slowly stumbled to her feet and made her way towards the trees, tears running down her face.
Morgan cut down another monster before it had a chance to react, and continued running towards the two in front of him. Even though he had blocked the monster’s strike head on earlier, he felt no pain in his sword hand, and was able to cut through their bodies almost effortlessly.
Body Strengthening is basically cheating. Morgan had this thought had he approached one of the goblins encircling the sword couple, kicking the things shield and sending it crashing to the ground. I somehow feel calmer now too, like that feeling I had on the first day.
As soon as he had the thought, a System notification popped up in his field of vision.
-Attribute Legacy Lv. 1 is responding to your environment-
-Strong emotions have been temporarily suppressed-
What the hell?
Morgan was momentarily distracted by the contents of the notification, and that mistake proved to be nearly fatal. A goblin took advantage of Morgan’s opening to thrust at him with a long spear. Although he managed to dodge to the side in time to avoid a hit to his vitals, the spear blade still cut open his side, sending a searing pain through his torso.
“Arghh, fuck!! That fucking hurts!!”
Cursing out loud from the pain, Morgan knocked aside the goblin’s follow up thrust and jumped back to gain some distance.
I can’t lose focus here, I could’ve died there. Although he was thinking this, and he was bleeding from the long gash in his side, Morgan still didn’t lose his calm. This must be the effect of the Legacy Attribute.
Morgan decided to look into the Attribute a little more later, and put it out of his mind for the time being. Two of the goblins had broken away from their encirclement of the sword couple and came rushing towards him. Morgan ran towards the first goblin, dodging its spear thrust, but instead of moving in closer, he grabbed the shaft of the monster’s spear.
Activating Body Strengthening, Morgan yanked on the spear, throwing the monster off balance, and causing it to fall forward in between Morgan and the second monster. As a result, the second goblin had to pause its attack for a moment. Taking advantage of this moment, Morgan ran his sword through the side of the first monster’s neck, but he didn’t stop there; using his enhanced strength, Morgan kept pushing his sword forward, taking the first monster’s skewered corpse with it, and stabbed the stunned second monster with the same blade.
Undoing his goblin skewer, Morgan turned towards where the other goblins were, only to see that the sword couple had already taken care of the remaining three goblins.
“Damn dude, what was that crazy move?”
“Forget it for now, Maria. Thank you for saving us, would you mind helping us rescue our other classmates as well?”
The girl, who looked to be about a year older than Morgan, was the first to speak. After chastising the girl, the tall asian boy turned to Morgan and asked for his help. The urgency was evident in his voice, so Morgan didn’t waste much time.
“Of course, it’ll be better if we move together.”
Morgan quickly turned towards another group of students who were barely holding off the goblins with a single shield and a few spears. After making their way to the other students, Morgan and the sword couple immediately jumped at the monsters. Morgan was surprised, he would admit that he was abnormally calm in these situations, but these two seemed to be utterly fearless, especially the girl. She would recklessly attack the monsters, seemingly not even thinking about her safety. Normally this would get her killed before long, but that was where the tall boy beside her came in. He was less aggressive in his movements than his companion, but he blocked every attack coming towards her, not letting a single one through.
While Morgan was stunned at their movements, the two older students were equally impressed by his movements. They watched from the corner of their eye as he calmly dodged or blocked every attack that came his way, finding the most opportune time to strike. Every monster that came at him died in a single blow, and before long, the three had helped the other students slaughter the monsters attacking them.
Unfortunately, they were too late to save the remaining group of students, the goblins had already hacked them open with their grotesque, glee filled expressions. The monsters started making their way towards the remaining humans, Morgan’s group. Before the monsters could get far, Morgan shot forward towards them, bloody sword in hand.
“Hey, hang on!! It’s better to fight together!”
Morgan ignored the boy yelling at him from behind, and continued closing in on the monsters. Although Body Strengthening didn’t use up his mana, his body did get fatigued rather quickly from using it continuously. Morgan wanted to end this fight before he hit his limit, and the fatigue overcame him. Thanks to the use of his Skill, Morgan quickly closed the distance to the monsters, bringing his sword down towards the first goblin.
The monster brought its shield up to block Morgan’s sword, however, his enhanced strength allowed his sword to easily smash through the hardwood shield, and cut the monster nearly in two. With the first goblin taken care of, Morgan leapt at the second goblin, who brandished its sword at him. Sidestepping the goblins sword, Morgan swung down at the creature’s sword arm, easily severing it. He then grabbed the flailing monster by its throat and pivoted in place, moving its body into the path of the other goblin’s spear. Ensuring that the last monster’s spear was firmly lodged in his makeshift meat shield, Morgan let go of the second goblin’s body as it writhed in pain, rushing the final monster and putting it down with a sword through its throat.
“Holy shit man, that was fucking insane. Who are you anyway?”
The group of survivors he had saved approached at a fast run. The sword girl called out to him, and the others just stood there, mouths open in shock. Morgan had moved so fast they barely had time to comprehend just what was going on, and next thing they know, all three monsters are dead like nothing.
“Hah, hah. Please..hah…just give me.. a moment.”
Morgan responded as best as he could while kneeling on the ground, trying to catch his breath. The exhaustion from using Body Strengthening for so long when his body still wasn’t entirely used to mana yet was pretty heavy. He’d need more than a few minutes to be back to one hundred percent.
“Hey, are you ok man?” The girl seemed concerned as she asked, and knelt down by his side.
“I’m fine..hah..just need to catch my breath for a while.” Morgan responded while looking up. “Can one of you grab my backpack, it’s next to that tree over there.”
The sword boy looked in the direction Morgan had indicated and saw someone walking over. It was a classmate he was very familiar with.
Morgan also spotted the person walking close, holding the backpack he had borrowed from one of the survivors in his group. It was the blonde girl he had saved earlier, she looked pretty shaken.
“Mia, are you ok?”
“Thank god we thought you were dead!”
“I’m so sorry we got separated earlier, it's all my fault.”
The other survivors let out cries of joy when they saw her, and one apologized profusely once she arrived where they were. The girl put on a weak smile and tried to assure them that she was fine, but her face was still extremely pale. Suddenly, the girl turned towards Morgan, and walked closer to him.
“U-um.. this is yours..right?”
“Yeah, thanks for bringing it to me.”
“U-um, thank..you..for saving me earlier.”
“Don’t worry about it, you guys probably haven’t eaten in a while have you?”
Morgan conversed back and forth with the girl as he rummaged around in his bag, pulling out dried meat and water. He hadn’t known how long he would be gone, so Jess packed lots of food and water for him. The survivors thanked him profusely as he passed the food and water around.
“Oh fuck, man, I never thought jerky could taste so good. We haven’t eaten since we ran out of Jimmy’s snack packs two days ago.”
The sword girl, Maria, was especially vocal in her thanks, and although he was more subdued in his thanks, the sword boy, whose name is apparently Daniel, was equally grateful. Once everyone had eaten a bit and had some water to drink, Morgan figured it was time to make his sales pitch. Even the sword couple would make it worth bringing the whole group along with him, and it seemed like most of the others were at least semi-capable fighters.
“I appreciate the thanks, but there is a way you can repay me.”
At Morgan’s words, Daniel gave him a suspicious look, and the blonde girl, Mia, looked at him with a curious gaze. The others also turned to look at him when they heard his words. Morgan explained that he was from another group of survivors nearby, and that he was looking for others to recruit. He explained that they had managed to secure food and water, but were lacking in capable fighters to defend themselves from monsters.
“So, that’s why I’d like you to come back to our camp with me. I don’t think it’ll be a bad deal for you either.”
Maria was the first to reply.
“I’m down, with all these monsters around, the safest place has got to be next to a crazy dude like you, right?”
“I also agree, it would be safer to stay together with a larger group.”
Daniel also gave his assent after thinking for a moment. It seemed that Daniel and Maria were the de-facto leaders here, as the rest of the group readily agreed to come as well. After a brief rest, and bandaging up his wound, Morgan began leading his new companions back in the direction of the camp.
Once they arrived at camp, Morgan noticed something was off, everyone seemed tense, and he could see Josh holding a meeting with the other fighters across the clearing. When he asked the guy on guard duty what was going on, he heard something he never expected.
“We sent some people out to look around the area not long after you left, apparently they found a pretty big village of those goblins not far from here.”
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