Ingram turned his head skyward as he rested his head against the wall. The slowly brightening sky didn’t register in his mind at the moment. ‘So, the path of effort is a dead end for mortals. I mean ninety-nine percent isn’t bad but just knowing that I can’t obtain that last percent is kind of annoying. When a forum for this game appears, I’ll make an account and tell the others. This way I can repay all the future gaming gods that wrote all the guides I used in other games. To settle my karma if you would.’ Ingram finally noticed the sky had slowly begun to change and jerked up right.
“Wait a second, didn’t the sun just set?” Ingram muttered to himself as he watched the drifting white clouds get dyed that familiar golden crimson. “Just how long was I exposed to the wilderness?” Ingram felt a wave a fear wash over him, even more potent than the fear he felt from standing atop the town wall. This fear was a primal fear, the fear of barely brushing past death. Ingram tried to swallow the lump in his throat but failed. Ingram stared up at the slowly brightening sky in a daze for almost ten minutes before the sounds of the early birds of Yonder woke him up. Ingram’s breathing became rapid as his pupils dilated, and his heart felt like it was trying to burst out of his chest. ‘That was the closest I’ve been to death, aside from my encounter with that Ancient Spirit when I first arrived. My goal in this game is to find the rest of my inheritance and be the longest living original player. If I die, that dream is as good as dust.’
Ingram finally calmed down after a few minutes of shaky breathing, even though it happened so long ago. ‘I’m okay now. I need to distract myself. Here’s the plan: Enter the Adventurer’s Guild a few hours earlier that everyone else, take a gathering quest, leave while visible, wait outside for Blazing Blades to leave, follow them and protect them, and finally defeat the source of the anomaly, hopefully. I have a feeling that there’s something important to me in that forest. Is this a Mage’s Intuition?’ Ingram wondered as he started on his way to the Adventurer’s Guild after deactivating his Barriers.
However, once he got to the main doors, he saw they were still closed. Before he could turn around to leave, the Guild Master suddenly opened the doors, that barely missed hitting Ingram in the face. Ingram’s sudden appearance just outside the doors made her freeze for an instant before she blurted out, “Guild’s Open.” They both just stood there in awkward silence for a few seconds until Ingram quietly answered, “Okay.” The Guild Master slightly blushed out of embarrassment as she realized what she said before retreating into the guild hall. Ingram felt like laughing, just a little bit, but he felt that would be rude, so he bit his tongue and held it in as he walked in after her.
Ingram walked straight over to the E Rank Quest Board, and randomly grabbed a gathering quest, it just so happened to be one that asked him to find five One Leafed Antidote Herbs. He barely read the words before taking it and walking over to the three receptionists, who were quietly chatting to each other as they entered work mode, “Do you think the expedition will have any results?” The female receptionist on the far right asked and the other two fell silent. “I browsed through the guild’s records yesterday because I was curious. I learned that usually, the first expedition is only to survey the magnitude of the anomaly, things like the size of the anomaly, whether it spreads, if any other anomalous traits, like poisonous miasma appeared within it, things of that nature. If the initial party is up for it, they can measure how strong the Beasts within the anomaly have gotten, whether monsters could be born within, and what precious resources, if any, are born within.” Answered the receptionist in the middle, it was the receptionist who helped Ingram register as an adventurer, Ruby.
The unfamiliar male receptionist on the left remained silent and silently stared blanking into space. When Ingram approached, he only heard a bit of the end of Ruby’s explanation, but it made him realize he might have to stay in Yonder for a lot longer than planned. His face didn’t reveal his realization, instead he had a blank expression as he approached the leftmost receptionist out of an irrational fear that he might disturb the other’s conversation. When Ingram stood in front of him, he snapped out of his daze and smiled as he greeted Ingram, “Hello, welcome to the Adventurer’s Guild. How may I help you today?” Ingram silently slid the quest onto the desk as he spoke, “I’d like to accept this quest please.”
The male receptionist took the quest and looked it over before subtly glancing at Ingram’s frail figure before a hint of disdain appeared in the depths of his eyes, but his mouth was still polite, “May I see your Adventurer’s Badge?” He placed the quest down on his side of the desk as he carelessly held out his right hand. Ingram ignored the disdain in his eyes and reached into his right pocket, and by extension his Magic Pouch before pulling out his Adventurer’s Badge and placing it in his hand. Before Ingram even had the chance to let go, the man snatched it and started going through the familiar procedures. The man quickly copied Ingram’s Adventurer’s Badge’s Data from the silver slab and stamped the quest before placing both on the desk in front of Ingram.
Ingram didn’t say anything about his manners, but he silently memorized his face before picking both up and leaving the Adventurer’s Guild. “Peter, why didn’t you hand it to him? According to the manual, it symbolizes the Adventurer’s Guild’s trust in the adventurer by personally entrusting them with the job. By not handing it to him, that’s basically saying that the Guild doesn’t believe he can complete the job.” Ruby asked with a hint of anger on her face, but the male receptionist, Peter, only smirked, “He’s just an E-Rank Adventurer, a weak one. Going out right after a Beast Tide is basically asking to be eaten. Why should I personally entrust him with a job I know he can’t complete within in a timely manner? How long do you think it will take him to find five antidote herbs? Three days, or maybe a few weeks. Ruby, face it, that quest has been on the board for a few months now. Now you tell me, would you think such a frail adventurer can do what others can’t?”
Ruby opened her mouth to say something but closed it with a sigh when she watched Ingram’s frail body disappear past the doorway. Peter only smirked again before yawning and blankly staring off into space again. As for the rightmost female receptionist, she had disappeared into the back at some point.
Outside, Ingram had put away the quest, after folding it a few times, and his badge as he continued to follow the plan, so he headed for the front gate. However, man plans and heaven demands, he ran into a familiar face, Leon. The polite old man stopped him, “Hey, Ingram wait a sec.” Ingram mentally sighed, but he walked over to Leon with a faint smile. “Good morning Leon. How are you today?” Ingram greeted when he got close enough. Leon eyed him up before muttering something Ingram couldn’t make out under his breath. Just as Ingram was about to say he was in a hurry, Leon spoke, “You don’t have a decent set of armor. With your… constitution, I doubt you could wear leather armor. I know a tailor that can make you a set of cloth armor for cheap. Do you want to go?”
Ingram mentally complained, ‘Why are you so pushy today of all days.’ But he gently shook his head with a solemn expression, “I don’t want to owe you any more favors.” Leon’s face seemed to cramp slightly but he had a look of reluctant appreciation, “You’re exactly like they were. Stubborn to the core, refusing free help.” The old man sighed as he looked up at the drifting clouds. As Ingram waited from him to continue, he quickly realized it was like he was frozen in stone, just blankly staring up at the sky as if searching for something. Curiously, Ingram followed his gaze but only saw the clouds rapidly drifting through the sky. Suddenly, Leon spoke, “It’s going to rain.” Ingram scanned the barely cloudy sky before asking, “Are you sure?”
Leon’s voice spoke from his right, “Want to bet on it?” Before Ingram could respond, he got an unexpected quest,
{[Character Quest (A): Bet]
The Life Level 151 NPC Leon Lion has challenged you to a bet to when it will rain.
Reward: NPC’s Innate Skill: Intuition and NPC Favorability Maxed
Failure: NPC Favorability +5 and you have to let him help you unconditionally}
Ingram’s expression remained steady, but his heart was in turmoil, ‘What is this Quest? A Character Quest? What’s that? Character as in my Character as in personality or Character as in my Avatar, Ingram? There are no demerits to this quest, but I really don’t want to owe him any more favors. It will eat away at my conscious if I keep taking without doing anything in return. My mother always told me to repay every favor tenfold. I can’t besmirch her teachings, that’s why I’m going to help with the forest expeditions. I have to win.’
Ingram removed his gaze from the sky and confidently answered, “Sure. What do I get if I win? What happens if I lose?” Leon confidently smiled as he responded, “If I win, you have to let me help you. If you win, hmm, how about you can ask me to do almost anything. If were in agreement, my bet is, it is going to rain.” Ingram immediately complained, “That’s not fair, of course it's going to rain eventually. You need to set a time limit, like it's going to rain within the hour or something.” Leon’s smile grew, “Oh, you caught that did you. Fine, fine. I bet it is going to rain within,” Leon looked at the sky before deeply inhaling through his nose and thinking for a few seconds before giving his final verdict, “Twenty minutes from now. Your turn.”
Ingram looked at the blue sky and felt like it wasn’t going to rain at all. ‘Leon said it will rain within twenty minutes from now. I could do the scummy thing and say, “It’s going to rain twenty-one minutes from now.” but I won’t. What should I say? First, I’ll mimic Leon.’ Ingram deeply inhaled through his nose and surprisingly, smelled the scent of rain. Ingram’s expression slightly changed, ‘This might be bad. It might actually rain, which direction is it coming from.’ Ingram watched the clouds rapidly drift westward, while Leon watched with an amused smile as he pulled out a pocket watch from his pocket and watched the seconds tick by.
Ingram turned his gaze east and tried to observe the horizon, but the buildings got in his way. ‘Strong western winds, dense scent of rain. It’s going to rain for sure, but when is the real question.’ Ingram gave it a bit of thought before shaking his head and admitting, “I don’t know when it’s going to rain. I’ve never been good at prediction. I’ll leave it to chance, I bet it will rain within, uh,” Ingram harshly exhaled as he watched the clouds rapidly fly through the sky, pushed by the wind, as he said the first number that popped into his head, “fifteen minutes.” Leon was slightly shocked, but he hid it well, “Oh, you think it’s going to rain five minutes earlier than me. I thought you’d say something like, “Twenty-One minutes from now.” or something like that. That’s what Tod used to do when he was younger.” Leon reminisced as he stared at the sky, Ingram didn’t know what to say, so he remained quiet.
Just as he relaxed, Ingram realized he had gotten distracted, ‘The plan of not getting linked to the mysterious mage is going to fail at this rate. But this is a rare chance to get another Innate skill. It should be fine; it’s only twenty minutes. I doubt the expedition is going to leave… actually they might. To safely explore an anomaly of undetermined size and strength, I’d leave as early as possible to ensure I have sunlight to illuminate the way back. Although, they might have to camp if the size is too big, either way leaving early is a must. Hurry up and rain.’ Ingram’s wish for rain seemingly went unheard as the minutes ticked by with only white clouds drifting up above.
At the ten-minute mark, Ingram saw a very dark grey cloud just behind the area of the horizon he could see. “Oh, it’s getting closer to fifteen minutes. Are you feeling stressed yet?” Leon teased as he watched the seconds tick by. He was so confident in his guess that he wasn’t even looking at the sky. Ingram felt a knot form in his stomach as two more minutes passed with the movement of the clouds seeming to slow to a crawl just outside of Yonder. ‘Am I that unlucky?’ Ingram mentally sighed as he prepared to accept his defeat. Just as he thought about admitting his loss, the dark grey clouds suddenly surged forward and covered Yonder. With them, a chorus of raindrops cooling the condensed earthen roads.
“Oh, would you look at that. Fourteen minutes and thirty-seven seconds. You win, what do you want as a reward? I can do almost anything, as long as it doesn’t cross my bottom line.” Leon admitted defeat gracefully, and Ingram wonder what caused the clouds to suddenly surge forward a few miles, until he saw a silver dot dive into the center of town. “What was that?” Ingram wondered aloud and Leon gave a bitter smile, “You mean, Who was that. That was the one person I can’t seem to predict. The Lord of Yonder, he must have returned early. If I knew he was out, I would have guessed lower. Sometimes, life is unpredictable. Especially a man who comes and goes as he pleases.”
Ingram looked at Leon’s bitter smile, but had a different thought, ‘I think you didn’t have enough information. It’s nice I got a free skill, but I have to get going now.’ Out loud, Ingram cautiously responded, “I don’t know what to ask for right now. Sorry, I’ll have to think about it.’ Leon sighed, “You know where to find me when you decide on what you want.” Then he walked away, his back looking even smaller somehow. Watching him walk away made Ingram sigh and he felt a bit bad for not letting the old man help him. He quickly shook his head as his mother’s voice echoed in his mind like a curse, “Always repay the help of others tenfold. Otherwise, you will be tied down by your conscious.”
Ingram suppressed the memory and quickly made his way out of Yonder. When he walked out of the gate, the two guards only glanced at him before they returned to their duties. Ingram sighed as he looked up at the bright sky and mentally calculated the time before coming to the conclusion, “It’s been roughly an hour since the sun rose, with most of this time being spent obtaining a quest and on my bet with Leon. I saw the time on Leon’s Pocket watch before he put it away. It should be almost seven in the morning.” Ingram looked up at the sky to relax before he walked into the forest, activating his Physical Concealing Barrier, instantly vanishing from sight the moment he was sure no-one was observing him.
‘And now, I wait for the expedition to leave Yonder. This is the boring part… I just had a thought. As they are right now, my barriers block all damage from all directions. That’s really going to break the flow of battle. I need to learn the other types of permeability, Exit and Enter. I might have enough time to attain basic control over them, as long as I’m fast enough. I have nothing but time to burn right now anyway.’ Ingram realized and immediately sat down, staring at the front gate from the forest’s edge before closing his eyes. As he entered the Magic Circle Space, he first opened his system panel, before opening the Learnable Magic Circle Components and glancing at the Permeability: Enter. It was a perfect circle with an arrow entering the circle. ‘Looks easy enough to replicate.’ Ingram released a sigh of relief before he looked at Permeability: Exit, a perfect circle with arrow exiting the circle.
Ingram nodded to himself before he got to work mentally replicating the symbol for Permeability: Exit first. This was so his allies could attack through the barriers from their side, and their target can’t return the favor. Ingram slowly drew the symbol with his mind, while occasionally glancing over at the still open system panel to compare the two. His first attempt had reached an accuracy of thirty percent, to Ingram’s shock. ‘That felt much easier to do. If I compare it to before, it’s like my mind was trapped underwater as I drew the lines, but now I’m out of the water so it takes less effort. I guess that Class Enlightenment buff is working extremely well.’ Ingram celebrated before he started making a new one. He repeated this process ten times, on the third he didn’t even glance at the template before he finished it with an average accuracy of forty-five percent.
‘Alright, this will do for now. Next.’ After he got the hang of the first, he moved on to the second. This time, with the experience from the one before, his first attempt resulted in an accuracy of fifty percent. It was just flipping an arrow, so it wasn’t hard. After ten more iterations before making six Absolute Block magic circles, three Two Meter Plate Barriers and Three Two Meter Spherical Barriers, for a total of 3,648 MP. Ingram opened his eyes and watched the guards silently stand guard next to the front gate before peeking up at the sky to observe the sun’s current location. Ingram compared the location with one he remembered and realized that if it had changed it was barely noticeable. As soon as he came to that realization six system prompts and Magic Circle appeared in front of him. The first three were for the Spherical Barriers with the latter three being the Plate Barriers,
{Judgment x3: Magic Circle is 91.5% accurate. Barrier strength is decreased by 8.5%.
Perfect Barrier Strength: 5,834.64 | Penalty applied, New Barrier Strength: 5,338.69
9 Proficiency Points gained.}
{Judgment x3: Magic Circle is 91.67% accurate. Barrier strength is decreased by 8.33%.
Perfect Barrier Strength: 5,834.64 | Penalty applied, New Barrier Strength: 5,348.61
9 Proficiency Points gained.}
Ingram sat for a minute to feel how much his mana drops by and came to the conclusion it was a small amount and when he looked at his status board, he realized it dropped by 128 MP. “One-Hundred and Twenty-Eight MP a minute is manageable with my mana pool. I can keep this up for, uh, roughly, six hours. Oh, I forgot, if I get rid of that Physical Repelling Barrier and the two Physical Block Barriers I used as makeshift steps, I should be able to last for a bit longer.” Ingram quietly calculated before glancing at the ten magic circles before mentally crushing two of them. After waiting for another minute to pass by, Ingram saw his MP drop by 198. ‘Much more manageable. With this rate, I can maintain all eight for, a little over eight and a half hours. Much better than before.’ Ingram breathed a sigh of relief and focused on the front gate, only to see four people leaving, with all of them being people he knew of. The three members of the Blazing Blades and that black-haired Blue-eyed man that was talking to himself earlier.
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‘Finally, now I can truly begin.’ Ingram smiled as he stood up before slowly approaching them. When Ingram got close, he realized they were talking about the mysterious mage, in other words, him, “It’s a shame my notice didn’t work. We could really use their absurdly strong defensive magic with the expedition. Even if it only blocked a target for a second, it would be an additional second that we could save one another. New guy, you’re on the weaker side, but you have mapping skills, so were relying on you to map out this forest so we can safely make our way out. For the first time, we’re not going to enter too deeply. This is so we can see if your mapping skills are enough to meet our needs.” Liz somberly spoke to the black-haired blue-eyed man before sighing as she looked over that the anomaly in the sky over the mutated forest.
The man smiled, but before he could answer, Tony spoke, “Don’t worry about your safety. I’ll keep you safe, so just focus on making a map. Although, because we’re going to be working together, I’ll need a name to call you by.” Once again, the man opened his mouth, but Isaac spoke up, “Yeah, I’ll do my best to help us avoid as many creatures as possible.” At this point the man felt speechless, so he quickly spoke up just in case Liz decided to start talking again, “Thank you. As I’m sure you know from the Guild Master, my name is Adams and I am the only person in Yonder with mapping skills at this time. My teacher is too old to go on this expedition, but I’ll do my best to make the best possible map for future expeditions.” Adams spoke with a serious expression, but Ingram saw a hint of smugness flash across his eyes.
Liz turned her gaze away from the starry sky in the distance and continued forward in silence. Seeing her silence, Tony and Isaac followed suit, making Adams feel a bit awkward and a flash of ferocity flashed in his eyes, but he quickly suppressed it before anyone saw it. The silent observer saw it and felt that this Adams person wasn’t a kind man. ‘I’ll have to keep my eyes on him. Now I have a dilemma, do I stay true to my word and protect Adams, or do I break my word and ensure his safety so the expedition can proceed. Decisions, decisions.’ Ingram mentally struggled as he followed behind the expedition party.
It took them twenty-six minutes to reach the edge of the anomalous forest. The only reason it took this long is to preserve as much of their strength as possible. Adams had a solemn look as he observed the dark forest, while Ingram was fascinated by the changes the trees had undergone. ‘The tree bark seems to be like a starry sky. Black with white specks, but I have a bad feeling when I look at it. It feels like looking at a bush you know a snake is living in.’ Ingram decided against take a piece of the bark as a souvenir. At this point Liz quietly spoke up, “From this point forward, no loud sounds if you can help it. We don’t know what still resides in this forest and we don’t want to alarm any mutated beasts or monsters. If we need to fight, we need to make it quick and decisive. I’ll leave that role to you Tony. Isaac, don’t scout too far away from us. Adams, just do your best to ensure we don’t get lost. I don’t care if that means slowing down the expedition, just inform me if we’re moving too quickly. Okay?” Tony nodded as he pulled his large white spear off his back, Isaac subtly nodded as he pulled his long bow off his shoulder, and Adams nodded with a forced expression, on that Ingram thought looked a bit fake.
As they slowly entered the forest, Ingram who was at the very back of the party, thought he saw the edge of the forest where they walked in shake slightly, like they passed through an invisible curtain. With a deep expression he followed them, but he also silently accepted his reward for winning his bet against Leon.
{Congratulations Host, You have obtained the (Temporary) Skill: Intuition. Due to an error, you are not connected to the main server, so the skill cannot be inherited from the NPC Leon Lion. Instead, a temporary skill has been put in its place after analyzing the Innate Skill of the NPC Leon Lion from a close distance. As an apology for this major inconvenience, the system will reward you with one [Mission Completion Card]. It has been placed in the {Missions} tab of your system panel.}
{(Temporary) Skill: Intuition- Sometimes you instinctually know what to do to get what you want. (Uses 1/1)}
{[Mission Completion Card]: Any Mission can be completed, even if you haven’t met the requirements.}
Ingram was surprised that his systems disconnection from the main server still hadn’t been resolved, but he didn’t have any way of bringing attention to this problem, so he ignored it. ‘That’s a bit of a bummer. I can’t inherit Leon’s absurd Intuition Skill, but I did get a Mission Completion Card, that’s going to be extremely useful. What if I get another impossible quest that might ban me for life, I can instantly resolve it. I’ll hold on to it, although, I’m tempted to use it on the quest of finding the rest of that legacy, but where’s the fun in that.’ Ingram mused as he walked into the anomalous forest, not noticing that the rippling effect didn’t happen when he walked in.
The party of four, plus one, slowly made their way into the eerily quiet forest, there wasn’t even a slight breeze. It was like everything was in a vacuum, completely still while the trees looked like mini universes, at least from Ingram’s biased perspective. Suddenly, a shadow behind Liz rippled as a large black wolf silently jumped out without even a bark. As it bared its fangs towards Liz’s back, Ingram silently erected two plate barriers that the lunging wolf slammed into as Ingram received a system prompt while the other realized there was an attack,
{Absolute Block Barrier blocks 2,517.5 points of physical damage from a [Life Level: 51] Common Night Wolf.
Judgment: Barrier strength is higher than the damage dealt, Physical Block Barrier remains intact.}
{You gained 252 Points of Experience.}
Silently the three fighters all grouped together and quietly spoke as the Night Wolf shook their head after slamming their head and fangs into the Barrier, surprised that it didn’t hurt in the slightest. “Careful, we didn’t see this wolf at all, there might be others. Wolves are pack animals so there has to be more around.” Isaac whispered as he drew an arrow from his quiver and shot at the wolf, as Tony stood protectively in front of the party. Isaac though that Ingram would see his arrow and deactivate the barrier, so he was surprised to see his arrow had easily flown right through it. “They’ve improved.” Liz whispered to herself as Adams had a confused expression and softly muttered, “This didn’t happen before. Liz was supposed to get pounced on before getting dragged away and killed by the rest of the Night Wolf Pack. She was supposed to die here, and the leader of the Blazing Blades would destroy this forest in a fit of anger. Who is this person protecting her? Did this happen last time too?”
Ingram heard a bit, but he was too busy trying to keep an eye on the adventurers to completely listen to him. ‘Last time? Is this a scripted event?’ Ingram spotted another shifting shadow and erected another barrier behind Isaac,
{Absolute Block Barrier blocks 2,517.5 points of physical damage from a [Life Level: 51] Common Night Wolf.
Judgment: Barrier strength is higher than the damage dealt, Physical Block Barrier remains intact.}
{You gained 251 Points of Experience.}
The quiet sound of the wolf falling, attracted Isaac’s attention and he paled slightly but his hands were still steadily firing arrows at the first wolf. Ingram saw this second would be a problem, so he encased the second Night Wolf in a Spherical Barrier and forced it to bare the mana cost while he took back his Plate Barrier. Ingram’s expression was serious because he knew if he was even a second late, someone might die. Soon Liz got anxious that if she waited any longer, they might get surrounded, so she acted. She grabbed the wand hanging on her waist and quickly drew out a magic circle that blazed a fiery red.
The red magic circle was encased in a small fireball that rapidly flew towards the bloody wolf. The Night wolf tried to dodge, but the fireball was too fast, and the two men had injured its hind legs, so it was hit directly on the head and died after a small whimper. The smell of burning fur made Adams wrinkle his nose, but the other three were used to it. She turned her attention to the trapped wolf that was attempting to push its way out of the thin barrier but didn’t attack it.
Liz quickly walked over and realized she couldn’t hear the wolf’s fur rubbing against the barrier and clicked her tongue before muttering, “Whatever this magic is, is pretty amazing. It even blocks out sound.” Suddenly, it lunged at her, only to hit the barrier and Ingram saw a familiar system prompt appear in the corner of his vision,
{Absolute Block Barrier blocks 2,517.5 points of physical damage from a [Life Level: 51] Common Night Wolf.
Judgment: Barrier strength is higher than the damage dealt, Physical Block Barrier remains intact.}
{You gained 252 Points of Experience.}
Liz tried to touch it like she did before, but her hand passed right through. Just as she was slightly stunned from the new experience, the Common Night Wolf tried to bite her hand. If not for Adams suddenly pulling her back, she might have gotten her hand bitten. She was slightly pale as she looked over at Adams, feeling a newfound respect for him as she meekly expressed her thanks, “Thank you.” Adams acted like it wasn’t a big deal, but Ingram saw a hint of smugness appear in his eyes. Adams was pushed to the side as Tony and Isaac quickly rushed over to her side. “Are you okay? That was dangerous. If something happened to you the leader would…” Tony harshly whispered before trailing off as Isaac looked at her hands to ensure she wasn’t accidentally bit and didn’t feel it. He nodded and began to carefully scrutinize the Night Wolf trapped in the Barrier, that was silently staring at the four people with a hint of weariness in its eyes.
“It’s no wonder I didn’t see them. These wolves are perfectly camouflaged in this dark forest. There fur doesn’t seem to be shiny in anyway, if anything I think it subtly absorbs light.” Isaac analyzed before getting an idea with a strange smile on his face. When Tony saw his expression, he nearly face palmed, “Not this again. Isaac, no.” Isaac ignored him and slowly reached out his hand towards the wolf in a show of friendship as a strange energy rippled out of his body. When the invisible ripples landed on the wolf, it seemed to resist as his took a few steps back, forcing itself against the barrier as it bared its teeth at Isaac.
Isaac had a disappointed expression as he lowered his hand while Tony silently laughed until Isaac glared at him. “Isaac, Tony, Adams, and our mysterious protector what do you want to do. We can retreat here for the day and prepare a few magic items to detect these wolves in advance, or we can continue forward to learn a bit more about the anomaly taking place here. What do you think we should do?” As she spoke, Ingram silently surrounded them with the three plate barriers in the shape of a triangle in order to protect them from all sides. The others naturally saw his actions, “Thank you.” Liz whispered but got no response, so she subtly looked at Isaac who imperceptibly shook his head.
Tony scratched his head as he gave a careless answer, “I don’t mind either way. It’s up to you two.” Issac scanned the insides of the small triangle as he answered, “I think we should go back. Safety first, we can slowly make our way into the depths of the forest to find the source of this anomaly using the knowledge we gain from each expedition. This time we learned, there are almost imperceptible wolves wandering around the shadows.” Adams fell silent for a while before carefully answering, “I believe we should keep going. We only just entered, and it would be a bit wasteful to just leave after being attacked once.” Then the rest waited for Ingram’s response, but he was more or less siding with both sides, so he had a bit of a dilemma. ‘Wait, why am I acting like I’ll answer? Am I stupid? I remember my youngest sister saying that the best way to keep a lie intact is to speak less. So, I’ll do just that, no response is coming from me.’ Ingram relaxed and he even felt a bit smug for his youngest sister’s cleverness.
After waiting for a while, the group of four realized they won’t get an answer from him. Liz quietly sighed before making her decision, “I guess I’m the tie breaker. I think we should leave for now. I’ll ask the Guild Master to commission some alchemists to make some Night Vision Potions to aid with our exploration. Also, our mysterious protector, can we move his wolf along with the barrier?” Adams felt it was a pity but quickly perked up as a cruel smirk formed on his lips when he heard something large was slowly getting closer. Naturally the others noticed the slight quake of the earth beneath their feet. “Let’s leave before whatever is causing this rumbling gets any closer. Show me the map you have drawn so far.” Liz said, with her deep blue eyes locked on to Adams’ own blue eyes.
Adams pretended to panic as he scrambled to hand her the map he had made. Liz took it with steady hands and after reading it for a while, she nodded in appreciation. Silently she began following the exact path drawn on the crude map. When they started to leave, Ingram silently removed the barriers around them, even though they would have walked through it without a problem. Unfortunately, the rumbling got closer and closer, making most of the group start to prepare for the worst. The shaking lasted until a large bear head covered by a white helmet of some kind. The helmet itself looked like some kind of crude armor that was fused to the creature’s skin. When it poked its head out of an overgrown bush, it saw the party of four and a fierce light flickered in its yellow eyes. The Armored Bear stood up on its hind legs and violently roared at the four, it’s roar echoed throughout the quiet forest and the forest seem to come alive with movement. A pack of Night Wolves appeared in the distance, silently staring at the party before quickly hiding themselves in the shadows of the large Star Trees.
Ingram reacted as fast as he could and two plate barriers appeared in front of the Armored Bear as the rest of the party quickly fled with Liz not caring about trying to be silent anymore as she yelled, “Retreat! We don’t know what else lives in this forest. Defensive Mage if your listening, retreat as soon as possible. When you leave, try to regroup with us by giving us a sign your still alive.” Ingram ignored her words, instead focusing on the system prompt that had appeared when the Armored Bear finally hit the Absolute Block Barrier,
{Absolute Block Barrier blocks 1,987.5 points of Physical damage from a [Life Level: 51] Common Armored Bear.
Judgment: Barrier strength is higher than the damage dealt, Absolute Block Barrier remains intact.}
{You gained 199 Points of Experience.}
Ingram breathed a sigh of relief, ‘It’s only a common… does that say armored?’ Ingram looked closer at the bear, but it was a bit difficult due to the only lighting in the forest being the scarce starlight that barely makes it to the forest floor from the forest’s canopy and the tiny bit of light the white specks on the trees give off. ‘I just thought it was a white bear. Either way, it’s too weak to break my barriers. Armored Bear, you should be strong enough to be my test subject. Time to see how living creatures react to my barriers, well some of them… I’m going to reverse you now.’ Ingram moved as he thought and encased the Common Armored Bear in a Spherical Absolute Block Barrier before closing his eyes to quickly enter the Magic Circle Space to fill on of his prepared Physical Reversal Barriers with 1,358 MP.
This all happened in an instant, so when Ingram opened his eyes, he could still hear the sounds of the party of four escaping the star-lit forest. He smiled a benevolent smile as he spoke to himself, “I’m so kind. Defending the rear while… the subjects of my protection escape. I should follow them out, just to be sure. I wouldn’t want anything to happen to them while I’m around. I’d be bad for any future business if it got around, I couldn’t protect them despite being able to do so.” Ingram looked up at the tree’s foliage and sighed, “I’m such a softy.”
Ingram quickly chased after the party of four, leaving the poor Common Armored Bear trapped in the barrier. He also ignored the system prompt that resulted from it attacking the edge in an attempt to escape. Buried in those system prompts, his Two Meter Spherical Physical Reversal Barrier had appeared,
{Judgment: Magic Circle is 99.83% accurate. Barrier strength is decreased by 0.17%.
Perfect Barrier Durability: 5,834.64 HP | Penalty applied, New Barrier
Durability: 5,824.72 HP
9 Proficiency Points gained.}
Ingram did his best to catch up, but his stats just weren’t up to snuff. After a few minutes of chasing, he was panting and had to stop to catch his breath as his limited stamina ran out. ‘They’re so fast, even that other mage is keeping up with them. Am I the weird one? I guess my class has more than a few weaknesses. I really need to figure out how to fix my mobility issue. If I had the money, I’d buy a magic item or something, but I don’t nor do I have any idea where to buy magic items. I’m so poor in both knowledge and wealth. Whatever, if they can run this fast, they’ll be fine.’ Ingram complained before deciding that it wasn’t worth the trouble.
He slowly made his way back to the trapped bear, until he realized he wasn’t getting anymore system prompts. ‘Did it escape? How?’ Ingram was confused, so he looked at the last system prompt and frowned,
{Absolute Block Barrier blocks 5,834.64 points of 6,760 Physical Damage from a [Life Level: 51] Uncommon Armored Bear.
Judgment: Barrier strength is lower than the damage dealt, Absolute Block Barrier shatters.}
{You gained 102,185 Points of Experience.}
Ingram had to do a double take for the amount of experience he had gained. ‘Hundreds, thousands… That’s a lot of Exp. If I could level up, I would grow exponentially, well, until the next Advancement Quest appeared. I need to quickly clear these Advancement quests, preferably all of them. I want that sweet free exp.’ Ingram felt like his eyes were glowing with greed, so he did his best to reign his enthusiasm. ‘No, caution is the mother of safety, and patience is the father. My second eldest brother used to say that, though I think he made up that second half on a whim and refused to admit it when I asked. No matter, I need to take this one step at a time.’ Ingram took a deep breath and began to reflect on his Advancement Quests.
‘First, I need to use all of my Barriers in certain way for my Life Advancement and for Class Advancement I need to do things related to my Class Skills simple enough. Not, I’m still unsure where I’m going to find a source of Spiritual Damage. I should have kept Alan’s ghost alive, for just a bit longer.’ Ingram silently sighed before slowly walking through the danger filled forest, looking for targets to forcibly experi… help with his Life Advancement Quest. Ingram’s eyes scanned the dark forest, like a predator hunting for prey. As he walked through the overgrown bush, a small gelatinous creature jumped out at him. Ingram’s instinct forced him retreat, but his foot caught an exposed tree root and tripped. He barely dodging the sudden attack and, in this moment, he was glad he was invisible because if anyone that that they might laugh at him.
