Another week had passed since their retreat from the Vorathid nest.
Lena spent the days resting. Reidar, for his part, used the time. While Lena recovered, he turned the forest into his personal grinding ground.
His army swept through monster nests and ambushed roaming packs.
The routine became mechanical. Dawn would break and they'd mount their wolves to seek new prey.
Packs of mutated beasts, lone predators grown massive on ambient mana, clusters of lesser monsters that had wandered too far from their territories, all fell before Reidar's endless army.
Unfortunately, what he received from each monster wasn't a lot given the level disparity, especially because the monsters weren't as many compared to the Vorathid Ants.
Yet the C.L.A.S.P. points rolled in, altough slowly.
His level climbed steadily. Sixty-two. Sixty-five. Sixty-nine. Each kill brought diminishing returns, but the sheer volume made up for it. By the end of the week, he'd reached level seventy-one and laid waste to the monster population in Havenwood's surroundings. If nothing else, those guys would have it easier for the time being.
By the end of the seventh day, he got a new notification.
[LEVEL UP! You have reached Level 71.]
[You have gained 0.5 attribute points to distribute.]
He allocated the points automatically; his mind was elsewhere. With the level up came a more complex decision: where to allocate his perk points.
He had banked a few, and the choice of how to spend them felt heavier than any he'd made before.
—[«STATUS»]—
Name: Reidar Miller
Level: 71
Health: 670
Mana: 4873.83
C.L.A.S.P.: 13140 / 139800
Available Attribute points: 0
Skills: Summon Primal Pack, Summon Guardian Shade, Summon Bone Militia, Mending Touch, Group Rally, Root Grasp, Circle of Renewal, Void Javelin, Elemental Storm, Summon Razor-Gill School, Summon Spectral Knights, Summon Rift-Sprite Contubernium, Wind Barrage, Granite Shard, Aqua Cannon, Fire Bolt, Summon Murk-Fin School, Stone Skin, Chitinous Carapace, Hive Mind Echo, Formic Acid Barrier, Corrosive Demise, Summon Vorathid Foragers
Equipment: Shepherd's Crook of the Wild, Summoner's Cowl, Summoner's Mantle, Summoner's Leggings, Summoner's Handwraps, Summoner's Treads, Summoner's Bracers, Summoner's Cloak, Summoner's Sash, Aqua Sprite Pendant, Ember Sprite Ring, Stone Sprite Ring
Proficiencies: Basic Combat (100%), Velia's Regional Map (35%), Velia's Monster Compendium (39%), Fundamental Spellcraft (45%), Combat Instinct (31%)
Attributes: (S.H.I.E.L.D.: 6,7), (A.C.U.M.E.N.: 32,3), (F.L.A.I.R. : 6,5), (F.L.I.P.: 5,7)
Minions: Primal Pack
Survival Points: 720.676
Trait: Skill Sharing
Perks: Arcane Potency (6/6), Mana Attunement (5/5), Mana Font (6/6), Focused Mind (5/5), Rapid Learning (1/5), Arcane Resilience (4/4), Empowered Effects (5/5), Arcane Leech (5/5), Spell Control (5/5)
Perk Points: 0
Titles: The First Killer, The First Apprentice, The Pioneer, Creature Slayer IV, Rift-Sprite Hunter IV, The Exterminator, Guardian of the Innocents, Adept Learner, Abyssal Caller
Profession: Tailoring (LVL 11), Woodworking (LVL 11), Enchanting (LVL 11)
—[«END»]—
Reidar had spent considerable time choosing his next perks. The temptation to focus purely on offensive capabilities had been there, especially after he fought Silas, but experience had taught him the value of sustainability.
In the end, he chose to maximize Focused Mind and to use a perk point in Rapid Learning.
Focused Mind made it so that Reidar would need five percent less mana from his skills per point invested. He maxed it out, making it so his skills would cost twenty-five percent less.
He learned how important mana management was for a mage, and especially for someone with his combat style, so heavily reliant on it.
Though, having met Silas, Reidar also understood how important it was to not focus just on that, so he placed some points into S.H.I.E.L.D., F.L.I.P., and F.L.A.I.R. It wasn't much by any means, but he could see its effects clearly.
S.H.I.E.L.D. made him faster and stronger, F.L.A.I.R. increased his agility and coordination, his ability to tract fast moving targets and his overal dexterity. F.L.I.P. had the most obscure of the effects, but there was no doubt the effects were there. it was just that Reidar had no idea what they were.
Next, Reidar put his remaining perk point into Rapid Learning. Each point boosted his skill proficiency gains by five percent, though he only had one to spare. This let him finally upgrade his basic elemental skills, who reached 100% proficiency.
Wind Blade grew into Wind Barrage, turning the skill into a spinning blade of compressed air that cut through several enemies at once.
Stone Bullet turned into Granite Shard, firing a sharp rock that could punch through armor and weaken defenses.
Aqua Pistol developed into Aqua Cannon, blasting a high-pressure jet of water that knocked enemies off their feet.
Fireball became Fire Bolt, condensing flame into a tight sphere that exploded on impact.
Reidar also got Basic Combat Proficiency to 100%, which then unlocked Combat Instinct. The higher-tiered version of Basic Combat.
It increased his attack speed and dodge chance and reduced stamina cost by 5% among the other things, and boosted his battle understanding quite a bit. It was a sort of intermediate skill, which gave Reidar bonuses rather than knowledge, as Basic Combat proficiency did.
Though because of how much he used offensive skills during these weeks, he got something that, in truth, Jorik had for a while.
Another proficiency called Fundamental Spellcraft improved Reidar's control and precision when using skills and allowed for better targeting and focus during combat.
But he didn't want to compare himself to Jorik.
Regardless, the monsters they'd run into for most of the week weren't strong enough or numerous enough to bridge the level gap with the Vorathid Ant Queen.
However, Silas's case was different. He was at level eighty-three while Reidar reached level 71. It meant there were only 12 levels of disparity.
With an army of level seventy-one creatures, he could make that gap disappear.
The real question was whether he'd get that chance.
Lena stirred from her bedroll nearby.
"What time is it?"
Reidar looked at the sky. "It should be around 12:00."
"This late already?"
He nodded. Lena decided to rest for a couple of hours during the morning since they had been farming for quite a while.
"Is there news?" She asked.
His Vorathid Foragers scouts had been monitoring Havenwood from a distance.
For the entire morning, things were relatively normal, with people going in and out of the city and harvesting as much as they could from the surroundings.
But since an hour earlier, there was not a single trace of movement. Complete stillness.
Lena placed her bedroll away and jumped onto her wolf. The week of recovery had done her good. Color had returned to her cheeks, and her movements were far better. "How long since the last sighting?"
"The same. An hour ago. Before that, everything was normal. Guards on rotation, workers heading to the lumber sites, smoke from the forges."
He gestured toward the settlement's direction. "What do we do, Lena? I bet something happened."
She remained pensive, trying to figure out what had happened and to get a good plan to deal with it. Yet nothing came to mind.
"It could have been an attack," Lena said.
"They wouldn't have reason to do that. Martin thinks the church is good now, or something similar. I wonder what Mara told him." He paused.
"Regardless, an attack doesn't make sense. They want control, not death. Besides, the Vorathid Foragers would have seen an army attacking, which means I would have too."
The skill allowed him to see through the monsters' eyes. It was confusing most of the time, and Reidar only checked one creature at a time.
Regardless, the summons didn't see a single attack on the city. No one and nothing approached the place.
Lena nodded.
"Then I have no idea. Your scouts can do nothing about it?"
"No."