Chapter 33 The Warlord

I stared up at my character portrait. He seemed pretty pissed I hadn’t levelled up. To be fair, he had a point. I’d never ignored it for this long before. But I wouldn’t ignore it any longer.

Who are you?

I’d never felt this question more than I did now. My avatar and I stared at one another impassively. Outfitted in hide armour, I looked two inches taller now than I had when I’d first levelled up. I’d long since accepted the muscle and definition that came with my stats. At first it had made me feel…self-conscious. Like it wasn’t me. I was a nerdy gamer from the suburbs, not some roided out gym rat. And even though every line of definition, every muscle, every drop of endurance came from stat levelling rather than working out, I knew. I’d bled for every stat point. Every ounce of strength and dexterity I had.

Who are you?

I looked to my levels. My overall level was seven right now, going on eight. I had six levels in Hunter and two levels in Beastmaster. Whilst Beastmaster had been helpful, it had felt brutish to just Beast Fury my way through everything. I had used it twice now, once to save Ayla and the others of her tribe, and once during the Gate encounter. Both times had left me almost dead, though they had won the day. I paused, my mind going back to both those points.

I had a choice now. Lean back into being a Hunter, or continue down the Beastmaster path. The only reason I’d actually gone for a more strength frontline orientated build was because Miggy was a Hunter and we needed a tank. I didn’t know what fights were ahead, but this was bigger than Miggy and I, or even Larry.

I made my choice, before looking over the achievements.

[Achievement: A Stone’s End – Triumph over the stone colossus guarding the Stone Gate. Reward: an increase of three stat points to all stats whilst remaining in the Stone Epoch. One permanent stat increase of two stat points in the Bronze Epoch.]

Bronze Epoch. The words tantalised me, and judging by the hungry void that seemed to exist within my avatar’s eyes, he felt just the same. I’d come so close. I couldn’t help but wonder what the Bronze Epoch would involve. My mind went to chariots and great warships, but I pushed those thoughts aside. This was the dirt and mud. The stone, the beginning of human civilisation. And unless I found the next Stone Gate, I’d remain here.

I had forgone the Beastmaster class, to focus on the Hunter. That was more me, and whether I fought alongside others or on my own, that felt more natural. Didn’t mean Beastmaster was a waste. Having Larry’s strength within me was always going to be a real plus, and there had been more than a few times when mobs had closed the gap. Being able to fight well in melee was well worth it.

Besides, it synergised well with my increased spear proficiency, which was currently level eight, granting me a bonus 30% damage.

I put all the free stat points I had into dexterity and saw I had also unlocked a new ability and feat.

My ability options were:

[Ricochet Arrow – Requires mana. You may fire an arrow that will ricochet to the two nearest opponents, doing 80% damage. Ignores resistance.]

[Spectral Arrow – Requires mana. Your arrows are imbued with shaman’s essence, doing increased damage. Does an additional 12 points of earthen damage.]

Looking at the mana requirements, I saw that for every Ricochet Arrow I could fire about three Spectral Arrows. I grinned. Finally, a use for my mana. I picked my option and moved on to perks.

The only perk I had was the Alert Feat. I thought back on my last few encounters. To be honest, they hadn’t gone the way I’d wanted to. I was still alive, just. It had felt really under-optimised. The one level of Beastmaster I could neither help, nor was a negative. It was an extra multi-class unaffected by my level. I kind of regretted taking that second level of Beastmaster. Multi-classing was an advanced thing, that required deep knowledge of the system. Something I didn’t have. I hated that feeling, that I was under-optimised.

It was only one level, but I knew from here on out, it was Hunter or nothing. I picked my feat.

[Archer’s Instinct – You may take a reaction shot against any opponent that comes within three meters. You must be holding a bow in hand. You must have arrows. Arrows fired have the Point Blank property. They do 150% damage. They cannot critical strike.]

That would help if anyone managed to close the gap. I looked at my overall stats.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

[Reaver – Level 8] [Hunter – 7] [Beastmaster – 2]

[HP – 850 (+100)] [Mana – 130 (+20)] [Stamina – 520 (+50)] [Regen – +1/sec]

[STR – 26] [DEX – 26] [CHA – 16] [CON – 18] [INT – 10] [WIS – 11]

[Armour Class – 16]

[Perception – +5] [Cooking – +1] [Nature – +2]

[Alert – Cannot be ambushed, +5 Perception.] [Trapper – 10% passive trap detection.] [Archer’s Instinct – Reaction shot against enemies entering 3 metres. Requires bow and arrows. Point Blank property: 150% damage, cannot critically strike.]

[Unyielding I – +20 Stamina.] [Unyielding II – +50 Stamina, +1/sec regen.]

[Beast Bonding – Mental link with bonded beast (50m range), may issue commands (beast may resist).] [Beast Fury – 1/Day. You and your beast gain 100 temporary HP. All your attacks are critical strikes for 20 seconds. All attacks against you are critical strikes. Health cannot drop below 0 during effect.]