Honour Rae
patreon
B2 Ch 38: Truncated Grinding
🕑 Added 2022-12-23 06:10:53 +0000 UTCArthur almost wanted to ask, "Are you sure?" but he didn't want to give Penn the chance to take it back.
So he moved to stick it in his card anchor.
Quick as a striking snake, Penn caught his wrist before he could complete the movement.
Their eyes locked. Penn's gaze was hard.
"Tell me you're not crossing us."
"If I was," Arthur said evenly, not looking away. Not even daring to blink. "I wouldn't have told you about my escape card."
Penn held him there for another moment, clearly at war with himself. Then he nodded once and released Arthur's wrist.
Arthur added the Steel Fists card to his temporary deck.
At once, his hands felt... different. Like he was wearing invisible gloves that coated his skin up to his elbows. Yet when he rubbed the tips of his fingers together, there was no loss of sensation. That must be the card's mana protecting him.
Above, one of the white dragons roared out a command to the others. They turned on a wing, falling into an arrow formation.
An indefinable something passed over Arthur's mind like the brush of winter wind. It left him with the feeling of being searched and found... not good enough.
Penn shuddered and Echo let out a squeaked breath of surprise. The princess stepped forward, holding out a dipped hand to Arthur.
"You have my permission to... to store me. And be assured, if I am saved, the Kane barony will be rewarded."
That was not the incentive she thought it was.
Nevertheless, Arthur took her hand and she vanished into his Personal Space.
Penn grumbled, "I can't believe I'm doing this," under his breath, but held out his hand as if to shake with Arthur.
A moment later, he, too, was stored.
Arthur took a deep breath, turned in place so that he faced directly west to the setting sun -- the direction between the town walls and the distant eruption cone.
Then he ran.
After his Running enhancement skill hit level 10, he had received a 5% bonus to all stamina and a 10% speed bonus to the first fifteen seconds of a sprint.
His feet dug into the soil and the wind rushed past his face as he ran flat out.
He grinned into the wind. The skill was currently at level 12, and he wanted to level it as much as possible.
It seemed since he had added his Master of Body Enhancement card, he hadn't had time to really see how it worked. He wanted to level everything.
May as well do it while he was running to put as much distance as possible between himself and the scourgeling eruption.
He'd leap over anything, climb a tree, balance on the edge of a rock -- anything he could do to level up his skills because if this mess had taught him one thing it was that he needed to get stronger.
Arthur knew he was taking a risk, but not a dire one. He kept a firm mental hand on his Nullify card, ready to deactivate it the moment he met something he couldn't handle.
Then the next magical attack -- whatever it was -- would send him back home to the hive.
He'd have to explain how he returned there, but he doubted many of the noble scions stayed within the town once the dragons started leaving. Likely, they'd bribed their way out too.
Arthur kept to the flat fields which both allowed him to avoid obstacles and kept him at a decent speed. His running skill hit 13 in short order. With it came an extra boost of stamina. It was as if he had just come off a twenty minute breather and drunk from a refreshing water skin at the same time.
His Running skill wasn't the only thing getting a workout.
Skill Level Gained: Empathic Resistance
Level 5
He slowed at that and looked around. The field he'd been running through was bare with churned mud and the remains of sprouts all stomped down from fleeing people and scourgelings.
It was incredibly ordinary. But it would be impenetrable to someone still lost in the fog.
Had he run through another illusionary trap? One minor enough that he hadn't even noticed?
Arthur closed his eyes and looked inward, trying to see if he sensed anything out of the ordinary.
It was a little like waking up and hearing the songs of chirping robins -- a sound he'd only been dimly aware of while asleep.
There was a feeling in the air. A suggestion to turn and walk to the north end of the field which was closer to the scourge eruption. The farmers had diverted a small stream there and the area around it was thick with vegetation.
Arthur started following the suggested path. Not because he was caught up in its net, but because he wanted to see where it led.
It turned out he was not the first to stumble across the trap.
A team of four people lay unmoving by the canal's edge, their bodies hidden from easy view by tall grass.
Arthur vaguely recognized them as hopefuls for the Legendary egg, though none of them made a strong impression on him. Well, not until now.
All of them had gaping holes in their chests.
It's like the scholar's guild all over again, he thought. Hot bile rose up in his throat and he had to turn away and breathe deeply to keep from throwing up.
Adrenaline and disdain for the scholars had kept him from being so affected last time. Now... These were people his age. Innocents. And he, Marion, Echo, and Penn would have likely shared in their fate if they hadn't been able to break free from the illusion in time.
Now these people were dead and... wait, where were their cards?
Arthur's head snapped back, and he stared in renewed horror at the corpses. None of the ruined chests had the glow of unharvested cards. On the contrary they were scooped out as if something wasn't satisfied with what they found and had wanted every last drop.
The scourgelings had Legendary cards.
Arthur turned to the sky. The white dragons had arranged themselves into several arrow formations and seemed to be doing a search in a grid-like pattern.
Were any of them Legendary? Arthur doubted it.
If they were slaughtered that would be proof the King would need to raze part of the land.
Arthur cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled, "The scourgelings have Legendary cards!"
New Skill: Voice Projection (Leadership/Politician/Merchant Class)
Due to your card’s bonus traits, you automatically start this skill at level 3.
The white dragons were too high up to hear. Likely, too high up to see him clearly. He'd be like an ant waving its forelimbs to get the attention of a man.
White dragons, stupid! He thought. They're mind mages. They aren't searching the area with their eyes.
He focused on the closest arrow formation and thought as hard as he could at them, projecting the danger they were in, the images of the dead Legendary recruits, Marion's warning.
His thoughts hit a brick wall.
It was a sensation Arthur had never felt before. He staggered back in place as if had been physically struck.
Did the dragons have a mental shield up? Or--
The notes of a song, half-forgotten and much treasured, drifted into his mind. Arthur couldn't help but listen. It was like being called in for a warm dinner at the end of a long day. The sound of festival bells. Of someone finally telling him, "You've done enough, Arthur. I'll take over from here. Let go."
Arthur knew it was a lie -- knew from the first note it was the Mind Singer.
At the speed of thought, he went to deactivate the Nullify card. The moment it was off, his Return to Start would whisk him away...
And the white dragons would never be warned.
Arthur hesitated.
In that split second pause, the Mind Singer snared him.
Comments
Thaldor
You got me here with this cliff hanger you devious son of a gun. I discovered your story via a shout-out and enjoyed the audio book while I worked. It's been one of my favourites to see new chapters for on RR since. Thanks for creating such an interesting world and letting us experience it through your words 💜🙏
Flopmind
Welcome aboard!!
neco
He would teleport immediately as the smoke is still present. Not sure what he really planned
Maplanic
How can Arthur break illusions with empathic resistance? The suggestion to leave town seemed pretty emotionally charged so i'm guessing most of the illusions are similar in that they power themselves through emotion E.G the endless pit trap was harder to break out of because their emotions kept them anchored in the moment, i feel like there is some emotional effect on the fog aswell but i can't put my finger on it.
Aaron Weingrad
Things look bad for our hero. Stuck between cleansing dragons of the king and the mind singer powered by legendary cards. Gonna be awesome to see him thread this needle.
Honour Rae
Thank you and welcome!!!
Waterhobit
I picked up the audiobook 2 days ago. Now I'm here, and I can't get enough!
Victor
Haha, it was an idiotic move from Arthur. But I’m guessing it’ll work out in the end
Flopmind
Thanks for the chapter! Sidenote: The empathic resistance skill should level up to 6 here. It was mistakenly leveled to four a second time instead of 5 when encountering the Prince with the charisma card.
Undead Writer
Thanks for the chapter!
Scrigast
Thank you for the chapter! Happy holidays! This is a big ‘ol cliffhanger
Gio
Why didn't he deactivate the nullify card immediately? Is there a conceivable situation where someone would use a skill on him in the current situation without warning and he does not want to teleport? Why not deactivate it and reactivate it when/if it's not needed? Maybe add an explanation, otherwise it seems kinda like an idiot ball moment.
Gopard
Thanks for the chapter! Another cliffhanger! Just what I need to be absolutely unable to enjoy Christmas! Jk I am pretty sure Arthur will be fine so it is more a question of how he gets out of this one!
RedEyeLordofFire
I did not realise he was using empathic resistance to break the illusion. I thought he broke it because of his experience with empathic resistance giving him an idea of how to break spells that affect his mind and it ended up working.
Yashakami
More like predicting peoples minds
Yashakami
I meant math lol
Nooo!!! Let’s see if he can get out of this one!
Honour Rae
Maybe that'll explain one of the reasons he became so good at gambling... accidentally reading people's minds... ;)
Honour Rae
Yeah that's a facepalm moment. I started calling it mental resistance skill in the narrative (one of the dragon riders says he has an affinity for that) and it grew legs. But yes, EMPATHIC Resistance skill. Not mental resistance. (But wait! (I imagine you say) How can Arthur break illusions with empathic resistance? That'll be explained.)
RedEyeLordofFire
When did Arthur get a Mental Resistance skill? Is it different from his Empathetic resistance skill? Is it the same as his Mental Resistance AoE skill? Did he get it when he first broke out of the illusion?
Yashakami
Excited to see where this goes. Mind related stuff has always been Arthur's secondary affinity after kleptomania. You know, in oblivion I'd always jump while running to level jumping and running. Maybe he will learn how to power game eventually. I bet he could even get a good rolling ability out of it too.
wilfredo zurita
It's still 2 am here, the wait wort it, thank you for the chapter.
