Leveling through Lust

However, before cutting loose, I first wanted to make sure I had an actual observer.

Luckily, the increasing number of warriors gave me the excuse to make a ‘mistake’. One of the new warriors charged from behind while I was busy parrying the ax of the first warrior, ‘failing’ to notice his presence until too late.

I jumped off the air elemental to avoid him, but that only made me lose my mobility while I rolled on the ground, making the six surround me.

“No,” I shouted desperately, with a beautiful acting that would have earned me a leading role in a theater troupe even as I pointed toward my fake elemental mount.

[-182 Mana]

I didn’t spend much mana, but with all of the elemental mana already in the structure of my mount, the results were still truly spectacular. A storm exploded, dispersing the ones that surrounded me like the leaves in the wind.

I wasn’t an exception.

[-72 HP]

Rolling on the ground was not a pleasant feeling, though the damage it created was little more than a mosquito bite for me. Of course, the same applied to my enemies as well, showing they received a negligible damage and a temporary mobility effect.

What a waste of three thousand mana I sank into creating that elemental.

Luckily, damaging them was not my aim was in the first place. The reckless explosion was just an excuse to disperse my mana, and three thousand mana was enough to create an ever-expanding circle until it reached the barrier.

Enough to turn it into a detection spell as I maintained my connection.

Yet, the result was enough to put a frown in my face. I sensed almost another two dozen warriors rushing toward me, and another dozen that felt like mages were already closing in from south.

They were really prepared to take me down.

Yet, the presence of that impressive army didn’t alarm me what I felt from Northeast side. Or, more accurately, what I didn’t feel.

There was absolutely no feedback, like my mana suddenly disappeared. It wasn’t that they were strong, as the other dozen mages had the sufficient strength to accomplish that as well.

But they didn’t care about that, uncaring of the outcome, while the unknown at the Northeast didn’t share their lack of concern, suggesting something more than a near-berserk warrior.

I couldn’t help but frown even as I started building the initial nodes of a defensive ward. It was clearly a trap to push myself to my limits, and I needed the time given to me by the wards.

I needed to decide which abilities to reveal first, and I needed to see if I could save myself without confronting the others. I hoped that, if I could display a sufficient level of ordinary ability, they might decide that I was harmless.

Was that likely? Certainly not, but compared to revealing my more dangerous abilities, like teleportation, it was still the better option — at least, as far as I could contemplate while constructing a ward that could temporarily hold back two dozen warriors around level forty.

Even the speed of thinking boosted by Intelligence and Wisdom had its limits.

The first warrior had already arrived at the edge when I managed to establish the first layer of the ward, and it was the same warrior that initially charged forward, putting his speed advantage to great use.

Since the environment was already blanketed with my mana, I decided to take a risk and reach to his soul space, though I kept the mana stab very weak.

[-9 Mana]

Only to be rebuffed, finding their soul space protected. Maybe I should have been surprised too much by the result, as I knew for a fact the Eternals were aware of the full potential of Soul Space. It only made sense for them to try and protect it.

I ignored that, and focused on the dangers of his immediate rush, and its dangerous tactical implications.

Or, from a strategic view, a terrible use, as it once again left him alone without support, though that didn’t change the fact that every swing of his ax was damaging the ward greatly.

I was considering the best way to handle him when my gaze fell down to his weapon, its handle filled with Eternal gems.

Delivering me the perfect excuse to set up a truly impressive ward.

He swung his ax once more, hitting the ward squarely, breaking through its protection with a single solid attack as I stopped shifting the ward to minimize the damage. Yet, as he toppled forward, he didn’t expect the ward to close on him, immobilizing it.

Meanwhile, I flared my mana once more, enhancing my sword to the limit with earth mana well past its limit, enough to ruin it completely.

[-1307 Mana]

Yet, it gave me one empowered swing, which resulted in a devastating effect with my opponent’s overextended state.

When he pulled back, he didn’t have any arm.

I smirked as I kicked his arms away, and grabbed my real target, his ax. I let my mana invade the ax, giving myself a second to examine the weapon, expecting it to be the most exquisite weapon I had ever touched.

[+5 Craft ]

It was wondrous, the complicated yet robust at the same time, showing many enhancements that was actually above my current capability to even understand, let alone actually replicate.

At least not without months and months of effort.

It was filled with many intricate abilities that made it a legitimate threat against me if it had been used by someone that used it as a club — which was an exaggeration, I admitted, as while my enemy was berserk, he still had enhancement of at least one legendary skilll.

But without strategic thought behind to leverage some of the situational abilities hidden in its structure, it wasn’t enough to truly threaten me.

Amusingly, I still felt that it was somehow lesser than Aviada’s sword, which was rather interesting. Unfortunately, since I had been lacking Craft when I last used that sword, I wasn’t sure whether it was the fault of my memories.

I would have loved to spend days examining intricacies of the weapon, confident that it would bring me to a new height of understanding with craft.

Which was the reason of my feelings of pity as I destroyed it with a flare my mana, dislodging all the Eternal gems studded along its structure. Destruction was always easier than creation, especially when it came to such a weapon.

[+10 Craft]

The great boost to a master level skill it generated just by dismantling it showed the true intricacy of the weapon, which made its eventual fate an even bigger pity.

As I destroyed it, I felt a flare of mana at the Northeast, one that carried tinges of anger, which contrasted interestingly with the non-reaction when I managed to cut the arms of his soldier. His sense of priorities was rather interesting.

Of course, it wasn’t a huge reaction, one that I could never feel if it wasn’t for my mana, still dispersed along the field covered by the ward, giving me superior detection.

I wished that I had the time to focus enjoying my mysterious ambusher’s misfortune, but I had a more important thing to focus on first.

The ward around me. I was reluctant to push for a more defensive strategy, but I noticed my attackers slowing down after the initial burst of anger I felt from the distance, showing sudden signs of organization.

I didn’t need to wonder about the reason, as I could feel the subtle connection extending from the Northeast.

Breaking the weapon was clearly a bigger deal than I had expected.

As I started constructing the first ward over the initial protective layer I created, I paid attention to the unlucky warrior with no arms, expecting him to join the rest. Although he had been harmed greatly, he just required the assistance of a healer to join the battle fresh.

Yet, he didn’t join, as there was no thread of mana toward him. I wondered whether my mysterious enemy just wrote him off.

Or maybe, I thought as I turned to the distance, and noticing the mana strings didn’t connect directly to the warrior but their weapons instead, he had a different reason for that anger.

I decided to pull another trick, and took the risk of reaching to the soul space of the unfortunate warrior.

I didn’t find anything I didn’t expect. His soul space was strong, filled with many achievements, and skills, all exclusively focused on melee combat, but the thing that took most attention was the borders of his soul space.

Tethering on the edge of a ruin, about to collapse, and actively degrading, showing that the weapon was not just protecting the soul space, but possibly healing.

No wonder my mysterious enemy didn’t care even the slightest about their lives. If left unattended, it was inevitable for their border to crack in a few months, if not in several days. And, everything I had seen from them suggested that they lacked the ability to repair it.

I wondered if they suspected my ability to repair it, but I let that doubt fade.

The situation in front me showed that it was a great problem for them, and I doubted that they would send such a small force — though even thinking them as small gave me a sensation of abandon — if they even suspected that part.

Which made my next move risky, but I needed every second I could get under the situation.

[-16 Mana]

With his attention weakened, and bereft of the protection of his weapon, it was easy to for me to give the necessary push to hasten the inevitable collapse, triggering his berserk.

And, with my ward reducing my presence, he rushed toward his previous allies to distract them.

Giving me the precious seconds I needed to establish my ward.

[Level: 36 Experience: 631374 / 666000

Strength: 46 Charisma: 63

Precision: 40 Perception: 42

Agility: 40 Manipulation: 45

Speed: 39 Intelligence: 49

Endurance: 39 Wisdom: 51

HP: 7022 / 7334 Mana: 7631 / 9000 ]

SKILLS

Grandmaster Tantric [118/140]

Master Melee [100/100]

Master Biomancy [100/100]

Master Elemental [100/100]

Master Arcana [100/100]

Master Subterfuge [100/100]

Master Craft [100/100]

Expert Speech [75/75]

PERKS

Mana Regeneration

Skill Share

Empowerment (0/1)

Teleportation

COMPANIONS

[Titania - Level 35/38]

[Cornelia - Level 22/26]

[Helga - Level 22/26]

[Marianne - Level 21/29]