Waking up, I pulled up the training notification to check the results from yesterday.
Increase from training.
Strength 25->26
Endurance 18->19
Vitality 18->19
Wisdom 10->11
Intelligence 8->9
It was less impressive than yesterday but it was still a huge increase compared to before. I even got my first increase in intelligence, now the only stat that I hadn't increased so far was perception. I felt once I could sense mana better and the different mana types that's when I'd get the increase in perception.
I still couldn't differentiate between the different mana types, but Rachel said that they were there and the mana used in fire bolt and ice bolt were strikingly different.
It made sense since the elements were complete opposites but I still couldn't tell the difference between them with my mana senses, they both felt like magic to me. Mana had this fleetingness to it that made it hard for me to see it, the ice bolt was easier to sense than the fire bolt but they were both difficult. It was much easier to tell visually from the effects mana had than to sense the mana directly.
I'd been working on it trying to get better but the main problem was I didn't understand it. It was like walking up to a random car opening the hood and being quizzed on what each part did when you were unfamiliar with it. If someone could teach me what it actually was it would make it so much easier.
I didn't do well learning from the feelings others got when sensing it and having them describe it in more detail was unhelpful. I could sense mana the best when I was getting hit with it from our mock fights where a mana bolt would strike my body.
After the mages got better at controlling their skills and weakening them, they were allowed to use them during the training time. They still hurt to get hit with but they did little more than aggravate. It was way more painful to get hit with a weapon blunted with wood than the weak magic bolts.
Still, I was determined to get better at it. There was no way that magic was introduced to Earth and I was not going to learn it. I may not have picked the mage class but that didn't mean I wouldn't be able to fling fireballs from my hand, it would just take longer and be more work.
I closed my notification and rolled out of bed to get ready for breakfast that I could already hear being prepared. It was Day 13 and time for the fifth wave to come. Having a wave coming today Austin and I decided to take the day off to be at 100% for the battle. It wouldn't be good to be tired and mana-drained going into the fight, especially after the last wave.
Everyone was nervous and all had different severities of grim faces during breakfast, but seeing the wall helped with that. If we still had to rely on our makeshift defenses there would be a lot more worry about today than there was. The wall was sturdy and we trusted it to do its job.
Plans were drawn up on how to fight the wave and thrown out just as quickly and it took a lot of discussion before one was settled on. Having the wall, people assumed we would just hunker down behind it while the rangers or mages in the guard tower killed everything. I and many others were against that idea for different reasons. I didn't like the idea because I wouldn't be able to kill anything to level up, others didn't like it because it involved trusting the wall to hold while it took forever to kill everything.
It might be sturdy enough to stop the boar's charge from last time but how well would it hold up to sustained damage while it took time to kill everything? What if the wave was bears this time and they had free reign to claw through the wall? What if it was something that could climb the wall given enough time? We tested to make sure that wasn't possible but what did we know? There could be a magic beast capable of doing it anyway and we couldn't rule that possibility out.
The trench was not even close to finished circling around camp, but we started at the east gate for this specific reason. There was about a 20-foot-long section that was completed, spikes and all, that was prepared for today and we were confident in what we built. It wasn't like the spike wall that could be broken, the only way through it was to jump over it or be tough enough to ignore the spikes and climb out.
Nothing we had seen so far would be able to fall in and be capable of climbing out without grave wounds but jumping it was a different story. It was wide enough that we ourselves had a hard time doing it, but that said nothing of the variety of animals that possibly could.
We built the trench 10 feet out from the wall to leave room between the two for this specific reason. The plan was to fill it with traps so anything that jumped the trench would trigger them, but we hadn't gotten that far yet, but the distance between the trench and the wall was a perfect place to put melee warriors who wanted to fight.
Depending on which direction you were facing, your right flank was covered by the trench and your left by the wall, or vice versa if you were facing the other direction. We would have people facing both directions so your back would be covered and the only thing you had to focus on was what was in front of you.
It was a perfect place to fight and the gap only being ten feet, it was a natural choke point that limited the amount of beasts that could attack you at once. Austin and I were both advocates of putting warriors out there to gain experience and we argued hard to be able to do it.
Austin was under the impression that no one else's opinion mattered and basically told everyone who are you to stop me, that went over about as predictably as it could. Eventually, Granddad made the executive decision that it was their choice and they could do it if they wanted to, only if they agreed to certain conditions.
The conditions were that if the wave had anything that could charge through you it wouldn't be allowed and if we were ordered to come back we had to no questions asked.
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It was a good condition and we all agreed to it. If it was another wave of boars they would just charge through us and instead of the gap being a natural choke point, it would turn into a runway the boars used to trample us.
The plan already was to start in front of the wall and keep the gate open in the beginning so that didn't change matters, it only changed the fact we had to keep them open. We had leftover defenses to put in the opening we could use but that would hinder the ability to close the gate. So not only did we have to have enough volunteers to actually fight in front of the wall, there had to be people to hold the gate so nothing got through.
At first, there weren't enough people who wanted to do it but we managed to convince a few who were on the fence about it so we had enough. Austin and I were both for it and wanted to fight in the gap, along with my uncle Mark and Scott. Two on each side was enough for five feet of movement and adding a third would make it cramped so there was enough willing to fight.
Jonathan and my Dad both were hesitant to volunteer but I convinced them to participate in holding the gate. It wouldn't be as hard as fighting in the gap and with their shields it would make it easy to block anything from getting through. Jonathan didn't want to risk being in any danger because he had to take care of his kids but I convinced him that contributing to more kills would make him stronger and increase his ability to protect them. After Jonathan agreed my Dad followed suit and with a few extra people we had our gate blockers.
The gate being able to close quickly was an issue. If someone got injured or we got pushed back we would need to enter the gate quickly and be able to close it. It helped that the gate opened outward but we would need to hold the monsters off long enough to get everyone through before closing it. We hadn't practiced a fighting retreat, but I was certain we would be rehearsing that before the next wave.
Convincing everyone took time but we managed it with a few hours to spare and the plan was finalized. We would start in front of the wall and launch a few volleys of javelins before everyone would retreat behind the wall except for the people who volunteered to fight. The Rangers would be up in the guard tower raining down arrows the whole time while the mages rotated through people to fire off their spells.
To keep the mages from running out of mana they would rotate who was in the tower with the rangers so everyone participated and so that they could contribute their skills. They were told to save at least half of their mana for the boss so Rachel could do the same as last time and combine their skills to blow it up.
Noon arrived and everyone was set and ready for the wave to come. The notification chimed as usual and after a minute the wave started. Kyle was confused at first but eventually yelled out what the wave was and all of us were a bit confused when we heard. It was a mixture of every wave we had faced so far. There were rabbits, squirrels, deer, and a few boars. There wasn't even a boss monster but the sheer number of them made up for that deficit.
After getting the Identify skill I could see the monster's levels, the same as Kyle, but his was better. Not only did it do what Identify did, but it also increased his vision. He could Identify things from much further out than the people with just Identify. I was kind of jealous about it.
The levels were what we expected, being levels 5 and 6, but the numbers were not. There were double the previous wave of boars and the mixture was all different sizes. As they took the time to charge toward us, they started to separate based on speed. The deer were the fastest and would reach us first, followed by the rabbits and squirrels, and then the handful of boars would be last.
It made our volleys less effective but it was easier to handle than them hitting all at once. The deer were easiest to hit with the javelins and we couldn't delay long enough to use them on the boars, so the deer were our targets. They went down much the same as they had previously and after everyone shuffled through the gates Austin and I were left to face down our side of the gap alone.
Arrows whizzed by overhead and magic bolts exploded occasionally but with only four ranged attackers it didn't do much. Austin had the side closest to the wall and I was closer to the trench and both of us had fought enough together not to get in each other's way. The same for the two brothers on the other side.
I used my shield to stop the leading deer and before I knew it, we were fighting off the horde. I was hacking and slashing every chance I got and pushed the occasional deer into the trench with my shield. A few got past me but I trusted the people holding the gate to finish them off. Nothing got past me uninjured and it wouldn't be hard to complete the kill.
The deer fell quickly and soon it was the wall of rodents that I had to chop through. My fortitude had increased so much that the squirrels didn't do any damage and the rabbits could only injure me if they hit somewhere unarmored. Without the risk of injury, I fought way more aggressively and the mound of bodies around me could prove it. I stomped them into the ground, bisected them with my empowered axe, crushed them with my shield, and did it all again. It was a fight, a brutal display of carnage and it was glorious. It was fun.
It was a test of my skill like none other. Me versus the mass of bodies, a battle of who was better, and I wouldn't lose. I needed to get stronger and these monsters were my path to strength. Every one I killed was experience toward my next level, every chime signifying a kill was one closer to my next skill.
It passed in a blur and soon the only ones left were the boars. We had made an agreement to retreat when told and I was severely tempted to ignore it when I heard Granddad's shout, but ultimately I didn't want to lose the opportunity to do this next wave so I followed Austin through the gates. Both of us were covered in blood and out of breath but with smiles on our faces.
Fighting like that gave me such a rush and it felt better than any drug, even though I had never done them. I sat down to catch my breath and watched them slam the gate closed before sliding the brace in place. I couldn't see what was on the other side but the sounds of battle didn't last long and the thuds colliding with the wall petered out after a few minutes.
The boars having no way to get to the archers made it like shooting fish in a barrel. As soon as the last fell the notifications rolled in.
You have contributed in slaying {White-tail Deer: Level 5}. 25 Points earned.
You have contributed in slaying {White-tail Deer: Level 5} 18 Points earned.
You have contributed...
You have contributed in slaying {Forest Squirrel: Level 5}. 25 Points earned.
You have contributed in slaying {Forest Squirrel: Level 6} 30 Points earned.
You have contributed...
You have contributed in slaying {Horned Rabbit: Level 5}. 16 Points earned.
You have contributed in slaying {Horned Rabbit: Level 6} 22 Points earned.
You have contributed...
You have successfully defended your claim! Extra experience awarded. 250 Points to all who participated.
Congratulations! You have leveled up.
The list was longer than any I had received so far and there were more than 30 monsters I contributed in slaying. Less than half I slayed single-handedly and the points made it easy to tell which. I didn't expect to get a level-up so soon after getting one yesterday, but the brutal fight made it easy to get another.
It was with great satisfaction that I looked over the notifications that it didn't even register that Abigail was healing me. I was just glad that I made a difference, I didn't hide behind the walls the whole time. I fought and would continue to fight and it made me excited. I put my free point from the level up into fortitude to bring it up to 17. It was lagging behind my other stats and I aimed to fix that.
Some people were still confused that this wave went so smoothly but I didn't care. It made me stronger and that's all that mattered.