PenguinKills
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Chapter 40 - Bad Guy
🕑 Added 2024-06-03 21:46:20 +0000 UTCAfter the 11th wave the days went on and we went through with the pylon upgrade before the 12th wave arrived.
The pylon upgrade went smoothly and it was another wave that we dealt with cleanly. The first time spawned level 5 goblins and this time wasn't much different. Level 10 Kobolds. Nasty little creatures that looked like a lizard gone wrong. It was a step down from the intensity of a normal wave and not much of note occurred. I didn't even get a level. Since they had weapons and were more organized, it was decided not to risk injury fighting in front of the wall. The 12th wave was coming soon and I couldn't afford to be hurt for it. This wave was the less threatening of the two.
The upgrade gave us more land under our ownership and expanded our shop. New skills were added to the list and better gear as well. More information was available in the store but we hadn't used any points on that yet. The first thing we were going to buy was a better wall.
We took that lesson to heart and weren't going to be caught lacking again. The wall's price increase was another five-fold multiplier from before. 50,000 points for our current wall turned into 250,000 for the upgrade.
This one was going to be made out of stone, though, and would be a lot better than our current one. The description went on about better enchantments and the stone being significantly more sturdy than the wood.
The pylon upgrade changed the two-floor wooden cabin that we had at the center of our camp into a proper stone abode. It had more amenities in the structure but it was still bare bones compared to a modern house. It was a nice last line of defense that we could now use and we had multiple contingency plans revolved around it.
The stone was extremely sturdy and would hold up well against any monster that would try to get in. I used a full power swing to test the structure and left little more than a dent.
After seeing what my full power swing did, my confidence in the structure rose significantly. It was a building that I could put my faith in, unlike the wooden cabin that needed to be repaired after the 10th wave.
Seeing the damage to the cabin after that wave made me re-evaluate the durability of the center structure.
It appeared after we upgraded our pylon to the outpost tier and only changed when we upgraded to a village. It seemed future upgrades would improve it further.
Forging, hunting, and fighting off the waves. My life fell into a rhythm. I was doing great and we didn't have any more close calls or deaths in our camp. Jonathan got a little too confident on wave 13 and took a nasty wound to the chest, but nothing I couldn't save him from.
He was a lot more timid in the next wave, though, and it almost led to the same conclusion. He regained his confidence throughout the fighting and got back to normal, but learned his lesson about being arrogant.
Even though I was climbing in power at a steady rate, I couldn't help but notice it wasn't enough. Three people couldn't fight a wave by themselves and every consecutive wave made everyone else less and less effective.
It would be wrong to say that they weren't doing anything, but I also couldn't say they were doing much. With wave 14 just finished the other day, people's levels were getting farther and farther behind.
It was beginning to show with how many beasts made it to the wall. As the numbers increased, the monsters that ignored the three of us increased. They went around and focused on the wall. Nothing detrimental happened yet, but we had to spend points to repair the wall a few times. We would have to change our strategy here soon. We still didn't have the points for the wall upgrade and would only get enough after the 15th wave. 250,000 points was a lot to save up.
The three of us who fought in the thick of it were still ahead, but everyone else was behind. They took the easy way out and took potshots from the wall, barely injuring monsters with the little strength they had. Most had more profession levels than class levels at this point.
The average level in the camp was level 12 or 13, somewhere between the two if decimal places were allowed. They had completely gotten behind the curve of the beasts. Even if the waves still went up by a single level, they would still be behind.
There were some outliers, obviously, like Hal and Austin's Mom, Carrie, who were our two remaining rangers. Austin was really pushing for her to get stronger. I tried to do the same with my dad but he was intent to focus on his profession. Builder was a generic profession and gave his a lot of leeway to work on anything. We always needed something constructed. He recently built me a new forge that helped make my job easier.
I didn't want to force him so I left it at that. Hal and Carrie on the other hand, both evolved into potent long-range damage dealers. Sadly, there were also outliers in the other direction. Diana hadn't done anything since her son died and hadn't even evolved yet, she was the lowest level in the camp.
It was sad to think about and there was nothing I could do about it. I saw Abigail try to talk to her but she just wasn't well. After the pylon upgrade, there was an option for therapeutic help with coping, but we couldn't afford to buy it right now. It seemed even the System knew some therapeutic help was going to be needed for people to get through their grief and trauma.
I dismissed those thoughts and moved on to happier ones, the good outliers.
Austin's Mom went for a more area of effect class which upgraded her [Splitting Shot] into [Arrow Rain]. It greatly increased the amount of arrows she could produce every shot and even though they were lacking in the damage department, the sheer amount made up for it.
Hal went more for a single target damage class. He had [Power Shot] and [Imbue Arrow] mixed with a few other skills I didn't know about. He could only do a few full-power shots, but when he did, they were noticeable. Especially with his wind affinity aiding in the speed of the projectile.
Even I didn't think I would make it through unscathed being targeted by his most powerful attack and fortitude was my third highest stat. My armor would blunt some of the damage but it was still in the crude tier. Steel helped, but it wouldn't be enough.
He and Carrie both were ahead of the curve and higher level than the others. Rachel was up there with them and after her evolution, she could throw around some potent fire spells that were aided by her affinity with the element.
Abigail continued to rise in level as well, keeping her title of highest-level healer. What made her increase in level faster than the others was the fact she was buffing Jonathan.
Any monster that Jonathan killed while buffed counted her as a contributor in the fight and not only did she get tutorial points from that, but she also shared in the experience.
It was also Abigail that healed Austin and me the most, giving her even more experience. It felt wrong to specifically go to her for healing, but we needed to focus all of the experience from healing us into one healer.
It wouldn't be a good idea to diversify who we were healed by and have four below-average healers with none good enough to heal us quickly. One powerful healer was better than four mediocre ones.
I thought about asking one of the other healers for a buff during a wave, to essentially power-level them, but thought better of it. Splitting the experience I received would do more harm than good.
I needed to keep my lead over the beasts if I wanted to be a better protector.
The new skills I got helped a lot toward making sure the waves went smoothly. When I reached level 19 I picked up [Hail(Common)]. I needed a better area skill that didn't rely on my swings. [Sweeping Slash] was great, but it was only effective in the small radius around me.
[Hail] created a downpour of ice depending on the amount of mana I sent into the skill. I could make the area it affected as big or small as I wanted, within reason. It would change the density of the ice coming down but that was to be expected.
It created an area where all the monsters coming at me had to be wary of the ice falling down on top of them. The bosses completely ignored my ice like it wasn't even there, but it wasn't meant for them.
Friendly fire was hard to ignore when I dropped a rain of ice where I was standing, so Austin and I had to separate while we were fighting. He had skills of his own that were starting to interfere with me as well so it wasn't just my new skill.
Over the waves, I had to worry about Jonathan less and less. After evolving he got some potent defensive skills that aligned well with his affinity. His earth affinity was a great match with his class of [Shield Warrior] and made him hard to take down. He was still a few levels behind, but he was keeping up with my pace.
The skill I got at level 22 took a while to get the hang of, and I was still working out the kinks. I just reached the level after the 14th wave yesterday and hadn't had time to work with it much. I also hadn't had a wave to test it on but I could already see its potential uses.
[Ice Manipulation(Common)] wasn't like the other skills I had gotten. It had no immediate effect like [Heavy Blow] or [Hail]. With those skills, you put mana into them, and out came the effect.
[Ice Manipulation] was a channeling skill that required a specific medium to work on. Ice in this case. It couldn't create ice from thin air and could only work with what was already there.
At first, it was difficult to make the ice do what I wanted it to, but like all things, practice prevailed. I could shape it, somewhat, and send it where I wanted it to go, kind of.
It was difficult to get a full grasp of and the skill had a wide range of applications that I was just starting to wrap my head around. It would take a long time to fully master but I was looking forward to when I could control icicles with ease.
Maybe with the use of [Hail], I could create a blender of sharp ice revolving around me while I fought. I had many fantasies I wanted to try out.
It was during my practice with [Ice Manipulation] that I was interrupted when Granddad walked up. Wave 14 was yesterday and the next wave wouldn't happen for two more days. It wasn't my turn for watch tonight nor was it my turn to cook. My thoughts cycled through the possible reasons why I was being interrupted but came up with nothing.
"Chris, I need you for a second," Granddad said.
I knew he wasn't one to waste time so I quickly followed him to where he needed me.
As we walked through camp together we picked up a few more people here and there. Austin from where he was training his new skills, Rachel from where she was. Hal had to climb down from the guard tower from where he was on watch.
All of the strongest people in the camp.
Something was up.
It didn't take long to finish collecting the people that Granddad needed and we made our way out of the camp and into the forest. '
I heard them before I saw them. People.
Over the past few days, and as we got closer to the halfway mark, we received more notices and messages from other settlements and factions. More factions were sending out messengers and scouts than in the beginning and meeting them was not as uncommon as it once was.
But this was different. This was a group of over 20 people and all of them were carrying bundles of stuff on their backs and carried an assortment of stuff with them. This wasn't a scouting group.
They looked bedraggled and run down. They had dirt covering them and their clothes were in desperate need of repair. Their eyes... their eyes looked hopeless. It was unsettling to look at.
They looked like refugees fleeing a warzone, and that's exactly what they were. The scouts spotted them heading west and they were going to come close to our camp. After notifying Granddad, he selected a party to go talk to them, which was where I found myself currently.
The group sent out a man who looked to be in the best shape to be their spokesperson. He had the most torn-up gear and looked like the leader of the group.
I used [Identify] on him to see what level he was.
[Human โ Level 18]
Four levels below what I was, but still impressive. He was stronger than most of the people in our camp.
He and Granddad both met between our two groups and started to talk. I was too far away to hear exactly what they were talking about, but it was clear what they wanted. They sought refuge and wanted to join our camp for sanctuary.
They talked for longer than I thought they would before Granddad walked us back into camp. He gathered all of us up to discuss what he learned from the man.
The group was made up of two different factions initially, but they both disbanded after they lost the pylon they claimed ownership of.
After hearing their story it was confirmed that the more people in a camp, the more monsters spawned in the waves.
The first faction, the Gavin's, was all but wiped out after the 10th wave and had to leave their camp in search of shelter and the second faction, the Rothburn's, was the one who took them in.
After the sudden increase in citizens, the next wave, wave 11, caught them all off guard by the amount of monsters they had to contend with. The combined faction wasn't able to handle the pressure and they were forced to abandon their pylon while leaving a few people behind.
It was a tragic story and had a lot of us understandably upset. It made my heart ache to think about what had happened to them. In my mind, it was hard to ignore the lack of children. There were a few women in the crowd who looked particularly despondent and I didn't want to think about what could have happened. There were still some small ones in the group, but it was obvious that some were missing.
The refugees from the Gavin's faction the Rothburn's took in weren't much help in fighting off the wave. Their strong fighters died when they lost their pylon initially and it was only the stragglers that were left to migrate toward sanctuary.
A few of my family wanted to take them in and give them shelter, but I put my foot down. It felt wrong to be the bad guy and force them away, but we wouldn't end up any better if we allowed them in.
It hurt my heart to be the bad guy, but I couldn't afford to be generous when we were already teetering on the edge. We were barely keeping our head above water as it was, we didn't need to attach a boulder to our back and make it worse.
The crestfallen faces of the people when we told them to move on stung, but there was nothing I could do. They put my family at risk if they joined and that was something I couldn't abide by.
Over the last few waves my authority in the family had risen and they heeded my decision. Austin and Granddad backing me up helped matters.
We still aided them as much as we could. Let them use our pylon to purchase what they needed, like food and water. The ones with professions repaired what they could.
Vinny and I serviced their weapons and even gave them a few more, Sam and Ashley repaired their armor and we replenished their stock of arrows.
Watching them go was difficult. The world was cruel and not always fair. Hearing that and seeing that were two separate things.
It took a while to clear my head of their faces, but I worked through the feelings. My responsibility was toward my family, not to strangers. If I was in a better position things would be different, but I wasn't.
Their group wouldn't be the last we turned away.
Comments
Alexander C Hyde
Builder was a generic profession and gave (him)his a lot of leeway to work on anything.
Gus
It does feel like we are skipping a lot of stuff such as what was fought for the pylon upgrade (stronger goblins?). Although I do understand since it would just get relatively. But at least some Info like "it seems i was right about the waves going up in levels of 2 bla bla bla." Anyway thanks for the update ๐
PenguinKills
For sure, I know that it doesn't look good to have an MC who refuses to help people. He won't stay that way but right now is a critical time when he can't afford that luxury. He will not be a bad guy.
Jamal Cheatham
Iโm looking forward to when heโs done turning people away like this. Thank you for telling this story
