Accidental Reaver

Dead, ghastly grass surrounded Luke as he spawned into the Ruined Realm.

The signature half-illusion bridge chain drew down to allow him into the medieval castle awaiting him on the other side. Both undead guards acted as if he did not exist. Xera's crystal lit up, "What are we doing here this time? Are you going to sword fight the bone guy again? Let me wand him some more this time."

"If the opportunity arises, I might. The real goal is to get the last two levels out the way and funnel the rest of the experience into you, Xera. It's been a while."

"I'll be sharp enough to cut magic soon enough. And more useful too," A hint of stress pierced through the cherry words from the sword wand.

Speaking of cutting magic, Luke reviewed his most recent duel. When Essence Bond was altered by Elementalization and applied to Xera, she could cleave through magic. Without thought, he attempted to do so when a wall of mana came his way from the monic Mage. At the time, it felt like something accomplishable.

Lo and behold, Xera cut into the mana fueled attacks like regular solid material. Rubbing a thumb over Xera's hilt, Luke said, "You've always been useful, Xera. Don't think of yourself like that. We clash from time to time, but even best friends do that."

The Sword Wand's crystal seemed to hum in happiness, but she didn't speak.

"The three of you and Sooty mean more to me than I'm able to express."

Crossing the drawbridge, Luke came up the dual sided entryway stairs up afterward and pulled the double doors open with a rotting creak. A puff of dust wisped past him as Luke came into the Foyer. Red browns to the vampiric side, and the ghastly green on the spectral side. The chandelier above happened to be twirling slowly, with no source as to why.

As always, various adventurer teams stood within. From the sounds of it, plenty had second thoughts about going in. Lately, the Vampiric Wing's first two subsections, the garden and the courtyard, were overfilled even compared to the usual congestion.

The Blood Forge tended to be too deadly for middle grade and below hunter teams. They could combine teams, but at a certain point, the gains would be horrendous splitting between ten or more. Interface logistics were an issue as well. In dungeons, when you grouped up with more than six people, it automatically converted to a raid. Which held a whole host of drawbacks in return for the ability to team together to counter otherwise unbeatable threats.

For most of the current hunter's goal, the biggest drawback was reduced experience gain, and the inability to complete dungeon quests. Not to mention having to split already scarce loot among more competitors.

Vaulting into the red mist swirl representing the dungeon entrance to the Vampiric Wing, Luke's senses blanked for a moment before he saw the blood themed gardens. The hunter density was high enough that he failed to catch sight of a single monster.

Luke thought, Thankfully, I don't need this dungeon section anyway.

Following the central path further into the dungeon, Luke encountered a similar scenario in the courtyard. Admittedly, the density started to drop as he got further into the courtyard back ends, but no gargoyles had the luxury to attack him like before. Each died mid-spawn. Every minute or so, one hunter party would clash with another, arguing over who could claim what area, which monster, and for how long.

In the safe point arena that crowded around the cavernous entrance to the Blood Forge, Luke spotted a familiar party—The Blue Tigers. The party seemed to have a gloom settle on the air around them. Deciding he could spare a minute, Luke strode on over to their corner, where they set up a simple resting site.

Terga saw him first, her blue spotted tail swished as she held up a mug with an unidentified liquid to him, "Why, if it isn't Elnora's seducer. What brings you here, Luke?"

At the term of address, Luke merely rolled his eyes, while Elnora, who sat next to Terga, blushed furiously. The monic twins were in a meditation session, but both opened an eye synchronously, acknowledged Luke, and resumed their practice.

Confused at the missing fifth, Luke scanned again to be sure. Kite, one of the front liners to the party, a human Knight, appeared to be missing. Asking about the discrepancy, Luke said, "You know, some Vampire slaying, where's Kite? Usually, I always see him within a foot or two of you, Terga."

A scowl broke upon Terga's face as she clutched her free fist, "Kite's on break for the next two days. With everyone pushing and competing lately, we took on too many Red Watcher packs at once. While we scraped through, Kite lost an arm while dropping below ten health at the worst point. It'll take time for the guild healers to regrow the arm, and the mental damage took a toll on the guy."

Elnora suddenly burst out, "It's my fault. I overestimated my healing, and we relied too much on my Treant summon, Enwald. I'm a stupid, selfish Druid who puts her teammates at risk."

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Luke saw Elnora wrapping her arms around her knees. Terga put a hand on the druid's upper back, and reassured her, "All the parties are pushing to their limit, Elnora. As party leader, it was my failure—not yours—for asking too much of you."

An outsider to internal party distress, Luke offered platitudes, "I hardly knew Kite, but he seemed like the sturdy sort. Better him needing a break to recover than in the ground permanently."

Terga's tail flicked, "I've been trying to tell this stubborn elf that all day long, and she won't hear it."

Knowing staying on the subject would do little good, Luke tried to alter the conversation flow, "Do you guys plan to keep on for the day, or you'll rest here before going to the city?"

Elnora sniffled, "I'm afraid to make the same mistake again." The elf finally set her eyes on Luke, "You've changed a lot since we last met, Luke. Someone like you wouldn't get their party members almost killed." Her eyes lingered on Luke's empty right shoulder, "Where is Sooty? She would've liked some of the fruits I keep on me."

Luke's face lightened, "She's training with a friend. If I let up, that hardworking bird might pass me by."

While the Reaver felt sorry for their team's recent troubles, he could do little to help. So he said, "I'll be in the Blood Forge. If there's something I can do, contact me."

He took out his sigil stone and offered it to Terga. The tora lazily used it to push up Elnora's face, trying to get the elf to stop being depressed. Upon that failure, Terga said, "You've known the Defier the longest," the tora winked, "If anyone's going to best take advantage of him, it's you, Elnora. Connect your sigil stone to his."

Elnora connected the two stones and threw one back at Luke. Finally trying to smile, she said, "Go give them some extra pain for me, Luke."

Turning his head back, Luke said, "I will." As he entered the red pulsing cavernous space.

Around the black obsidian, and bloodstone walls remained piles of Red Watcher, Vampire Smiths, and Quill Beasts, all stacked one on top of the other.

The Blood Forge, once a center of heat, assisted by Blood-Fire Elementals, sat dead, the blood pumps slowed to a crawl, forges covered in layered frost. Compared to when Luke first entered here, three hours ago, half the parties left.

The reason was him, of course. The Reaver had checked to see if the Shadowed Sanctum had been cleared, and a swirling black mist at the entrance across the white marble bridge confirmed it well enough for him.

Aiming to make the most of his visit down here, he occupied the central Blood Forge location by his lonesome. A suicidal act for all but the most veteran hunter parties, oftentimes Luke would become surrounded by twenty or more monsters spawning on top of him. Quantity rarely meant a thing to him once the quality was low enough. None of the monsters could grow him, outside of experience gain and drops.

His luck so far on the loot front had been horrendous. Not a single rare had dropped, and the amount of Armor Tokens, and Beast Crystals were less per hour than the last time he visited. He counted his blessings where he could. Luke reached level fifty about half an hour ago. Now, he decided to grind another hour for Xera's sake, hoping to get the last Armor Tokens he needed.

As for Beast Crystals, he wanted hundreds more, so thinking of getting them all in another short grinding session would prove greedy—even for him. Plus, no matter your desire, chance could be a cruel lady.

When he checked his notices, only three were worth mentioning.

[You have stolen 513 HP, 31 Agility, 0 Intellect, and 52 Strength from four challengers, affecting each with sin. The four are now slightly influenced by you]

The zero intellect gain likely had to do with his hitting the maximum limit under tier 2. That slight loss barely bothered him. Learning that stealing attributes from other members of the four races—and leaving them alive—would bring them under his influence proved essential to focus on. Luke had yet to decide if that would be a card he'd play in the future, but it couldn't hurt to have.

Gaining attributes always took off the edge to the pressure building all around him. If your problems were too much to handle, what did you do? Either get help or improve enough to handle them yourself.

Luke trusted the second method more. Attribute gain was like that to him. Moving on, he pulled up the other notices.

[You have reached level 50. Gained 4 skill points, unable to go up in tier until a suitable feat is achieved]

[Your companion, Sooty, has reached level 50. Gained 2 skill points. Companion is unable to go up in tier until their owner has achieved a suitable feat]

Suitable was a damning work. You couldn't convince Luke he failed to achieve what many other hunters would claim as a feat by now. Whatever controlled or empowered, the Interface found him lacking, however. This was Luke's new ceiling until he could undeniably achieve a 'feat' for a Reaver or Defier.

Well, not entirely. He could try to hoard more attributes, upgrade his skills, hone techniques, level Xera, or Wayfinder—a myriad of avenues to growth. But in terms of level and tier, he was stonewalled.

Clearing his head through movement, Luke continued to dominate the Blood Forge spawn location. Monsters would appear frosted over before they could blink, backed by techniques, abilities, and overly elevated attributes. The Reaver often cleaved such lackluster monsters in pairs or greater. After an additional hour, Luke confirmed Armor Token drops and the coveted Beast Crystals had all but evaporated.

Xera's edge continued to sharpen. The weapon was coated in blood so thick it blackened. She shook in enjoyment, "That should be another one, master. I'm getting sharper, although…I'm tired of the same tasting blood. Let's go somewhere else."

Checking the Interface, Xera's level skyrocketed, going from twenty eight to thirty six. Xera needed less experience per level than he did, and the Authoria's golden mark gave him triple experience in the Ruined Realm. The boost to physical and magic damage the Sword Wand offered came well welcomed.

"We could stay longer to get you those other levels, another hour or two and-"

Xera denied Luke, "Nope. Don't you need to go see the ghost lady anyway? I'll take all the experience on that side while we blast by and visit. I'm getting shy with all these hunters looking at my crystal."

Overlooking his shoulders, Luke beheld several hunter groups glaring at him in undisguised envy, and disgruntlement. The piles of monster corpses around the Reaver gave off a good enough warding effect. The slighted hunters snatch what little monster flow they could without causing a scene.

Swinging Xera over his shoulder, blood dripping down onto the Black Ice Mantle, Luke said, "Nearly forgot about Authoria. Sure, two birds, one stone, let's get going."

"It's going to be invigorating!" Xera said.