XXXII

  The familiar sight of a single road greeted Kaz as he passed the gates of Sarus. He flashed his new Wood Adventurer’s Badge, which allowed him to get by the Guards with no trouble. He almost felt giddy from the feeling of another adventure and realized this is what he was meant to do, and for the first time, he was glad he didn’t attend an Academy.

  The environment was harsher than what he was used to, as the path veered more to the northeast, which resulted in a drop in temperature, and the trees were still more widespread, with the rocky terrain taking over. He pulled the edges of his robe closer together, trying to shield himself from the cold breezes that blew right into his bones from time to time.

  Pulling out his map, he carefully checked his route, which seemed to angle towards the northeast, but then drastically dripped downwards to avoid a small mountain range. The edge of the mountain range is roughly the area where the new unidentified monsters were located, but he noticed something that piqued his interest.

  There was a small path that diverged from the main path, looping up further and then came back down to rejoin the main path. He wondered why such a path existed, and his curiosity won out in the end. He knew that when he came across the path, he would definitely take the small detour to explore.

  Putting his map back in his new bag, which felt very good on his shoulder, fitting very well to his frame, he gripped his glaive in one hand and began his small trek.

  After walking for several hours, he ran into his first monster, which felt like it was too long for him, as he was already itching for a fight after his encounter with Nahan and his group. It was similar to the Timberfang Wolf that he was used to fighting, but this variant of the wolf was gray instead of the previous brown/beige he ran into before.

  The wolf noticed Kaz just as soon as he was almost finished casting his [ Mana Burst ]. He felt a small tingle of bliss as the mana coursed through his body, leaving his mana core and going directly to both of his hands, as his mana construct formed between his hands. Although, something felt a little off, he realized his mana was not flowing perfectly as it used to. It would occasionally pulse, which almost made him lose his concentration. After focusing deeply and taking steady breaths, his usual forked shape of silver mana flew towards the wolf, who began charging towards him.

  With a small whimper, the wolf slightly recoiled when the mana construct hit it, causing it to stop its charge. The wolf started circling Kaz, wary of his mana constructs. This prompted Kaz to get into a stance with his glaive, his body automatically squatting slightly, planting his left foot forward, and squaring against the wolf.

  After a small stare down, the wolf began charging again, the speed already twice as fast as the previous Timberfangs he encountered. Kaz braced himself, mentally reaching out to his [ Evasive Step ], which he knew would activate as soon as the wolf completed its charge and attack on him. With a snarl, the wolf pounced on him once he got within six feet of Kaz.

  He felt his [ Evasive Step ] guide him to the right, causing his body to take a small step and his whole body slightly twisted, and he felt himself arc his glaive above his head, ready to swing it down towards the now flying wolf.

  With a sickening squelching sound, he felt his glaive vibrate slightly as it impacted to the side of the wolf’s neck, instantly sinking in deep. Unfortunately for him, the wolf’s claws managed to catch him across his forearm, but the wolf whined out in pain as Kaz removed the glaive from the side of its neck, blood gushing out.

  Labored breathing came from the wolf, as it barely stood there, its legs wobbly as it tried to overcome the injury it sustained. As he has seen from his previous encounters with all the monsters, perhaps except the slimes since they didn’t show emotions, the wolf went into a last ditch frenzy.

  Kaz, knowing this was going to happen, already cast [ Mana Burst ], the Ability channeling unsteadily as the wolf was entering its frenzied state. Just as the wolf was about to make its chaotic lunge, a silver forked construct struck it straight into the head, causing it to lose consciousness. Kaz waited for the wolf to disappear so he could pick up its crystal, but after waiting for a couple of minutes, the body never dissolved.

  With a slight grin still on his face, he drove his glaive into the wolf’s head, causing the wolf to jerk slightly, and after a few moments when he pulled his glaive out, the wolf dissolved into the air, a gray glowing crystal appearing. He picked it up, and threw it in his bag, happily walking away, his bloodlust fading slowly.

  Walking a bit further down the path, using his glaive as a walking stick, he wondered how people fought with glaives, especially Mages, if they didn’t have any Skill Abilities that guided them through the encounter. If he had to assume, he was doing anywhere from five to ten damage to his opponent’s Health Points, and it was unfortunate he wasn’t able to get a specific number as he did with his [ Mana Burst ]. He had a percentage increase to direct damage and bleeding damage from the Battlemage Glaive, but that didn’t help him analyze his damage output.

  The thing that bothered him as well was that he felt too clumsy using the glaive. His strength was improving with his Passive Skill, [ Glaive Novice ], but it was still at a lower level. But strength was not the only thing needed for him to wield the glaive, he was also given an increase to his dexterity, which was essentially how precise his movements were, to his understanding. With all these boosts to his stats, he was missing one thing that was most important to wield it.

  He was missing actual proper instructions on how to wield it. Kaz wondered if he would be able to receive instructions from someone back at the guild. He knew that glaives were not a common weapon in this Realm, as stated by Elder Aelon and the blacksmith, but even learning the basics of a spear could provide enough insight for him to have a set foundation of his glaive wielding abilities.

  As he was contemplating his ability with the glaive, a pair of Stonerock Goblins popped into his vision slightly deeper off the path. Both of them wielded rusty and worn swords, but they were equipped with bits of leather armor, but they still weren’t the size of the Elite version he ran into. He decided to only use his glaive in this fight, hoping that he will be able to familiarize himself more with it, and also earn a few more Ranks.

  Strolling up to them, making sure that he made enough noise to hopefully draw their attention, he gripped his glaive firmly in both of his hands, remembering to keep his hands near the middle of the shaft. He pointed the bladed tip towards the two goblins, who had noticed him approaching and began charging at him, raising their swords above their heads.

  Kaz tensed up, putting his left foot forward, and using his right foot as his anchor in the back, and kept his glaive at waist level. When the first goblin came within reach of his glaive, he didn’t wait as he swung his glaive, sweeping it with most of his strength from the left to the right. He grinned when his glaive connected, slicing into the stomach of the goblin, causing it to shriek in pain, immediately taking a step back and going into a defensive stance.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  Before he could relish his first hit, he had the other goblin reaching him, and it swung its sword at his exposed left side, as his first attack caused him to overextend. He reflexively cast his [ Mana Shield ] as the blade connected with his side, bouncing off of his body. He heaved his glaive into another sweeping motion, but due to the goblin being so close, he only managed to hit the goblin in the arm with the wooden part of his shaft, causing the goblin to stumble back, not injured in any way. It sneered at Kaz, also circling him, joining the other goblin who was bleeding profusely.

  The same goblin who was uninjured charged again at him, but this time, he decided to try slashing his glaive downwards, starting from his left shoulder down to right knee. With a bit of luck on his side, his glaive managed to sink deep into the goblin’s shoulder, causing the goblin to cry out in pain and drop his sword, clattering into the dirt.

  Fueled by anger at his companion getting struck, the other Stonerock Goblin charged, waving his sword recklessly. Kaz stabilized himself, and decided to go for another overhead swing, this time going from his right shoulder as the blade was already on his right side. Due to his lack of experience and technique, his hands were positioned off, causing his swing to be awkward, striking against the goblin’s sword weakly. Due to the weight and length of the weapon, it managed to throw the goblin’s sword off course, the sword cut into his forearm, his blood spilling out into his robe.

  Using the tip of his glaive, he managed to poke the goblin in the stomach area, near its previous wound. The goblin took a few stumbling steps back, which Kaz used to his advantage, gripping the glaive tightly and exerting more strength, sending it straight into the goblin’s chest. He felt slight resistance as the blade cut through the leather armor, but the glaive slightly vibrated as it hit bone. The goblin fell to its knees, barely hanging on to its life, trying to grab the glaive impaled into its chest.

  As Kaz stood there, breathing heavily from the exertion of the fight, he got caught up in the moment, and forgot about the other goblin that was a part of the fight. His [ Evasive Step ] kicked into action, causing him to loosen the grip on his glaive, stepping to the side. He felt his robe get pulled, and then he saw a rusty blade stick through his robe, mere inches away from his stomach.

  The glaive impaled goblin fell over, the weight of the glaive dragging it down. The other goblin ripped its sword out, but due to the thickness of his robe, it didn’t tear a bigger hole. Kaz instinctively pushed the goblin back, putting his full strength into it. The goblin went crashing down onto its back, crying out in pain as its injured shoulder hit the ground.

  Kaz grabbed his glaive, and had to tug it out of the goblin, blood splattering as the goblin fell unconscious. He secured his glaive, and stood over the other goblin, who was trying to pick itself with one hand while still holding on to its sword. Kaz flipped his glaive, pointing the bladed tip downwards, and drove it into the goblin’s chest.

  The goblin shuddered as the blade entered its chest. In a last ditch effort, it swung its sword at Kaz, and managed to nick his lower leg, causing Kaz to hiss in the sharp pain. He pulled out his glaive and drove it down again into the wound, the blade squelching with the blood that was pouring out.

  He repeated this process until the goblin stopped breathing, and when the body disappeared, Kaz hunched over, trying to catch his breath. He side eyed the other goblin, who hasn’t risen yet, still laid out on the dirt, breathing unevenly, blood spilling freely from right below its vest area. Kaz stumbled over, unable to put too much strength into his legs, as they felt like they were on fire.

  Standing over the unconscious goblin, he drove his glaive into the goblin’s head, ending its life in one attack. He watched the body dissolve, and a few Copper Tokens appeared. With a slight chuckle, causing him to choke as he was trying to catch his breath as well, he sat down, his glaive falling into the dirt next to him.

  Not bad, he thought. He was still very clumsy with the glaive still, especially when he overcommitted to his wider swings. Due to the size and weight of the weapon, it was easy for him to be thrown off balance, exposing his sides to attackers, as was apparent from the first attack of the other goblin, who attacked at his open flank. After taking a small break, drinking some water from his flask, he got up and continued on his journey.

  He experimented with various combinations of fighting over his next few encounters. He mixed his mana Abilities with his glaive, the mana constructs still feeling off to him. Abandoning his use of [ Mana Burst ], he decided to mostly fight with his glaive, as the Timberfang Wolves and occasional Stonerock Goblins posed no threat to him. It was disheartening to be unstable with [ Mana Burst ], as that was his Ability, the Ability that began every Mage’s Calling. On the bright side, he was growing accustomed to his glaive, but one thing was pestering him in his mind.

  The one thing that caused him some concern was if the mana poisoning affected him more than what the Cleric mentioned. His [ Mana Regeneration ], which allowed him to regen his Mana Points after each fight, wasn’t working correctly. Kaz went into his usual sitting pose, and tried to channel his Passive Ability, and it wouldn’t spark. He would focus and frustratingly, he didn’t feel his mana respond to anything. Pairing this with his unsteady channeling, he felt slightly worried about his mana.

  Was his mana core damaged? But why didn’t Karios say anything? He decided that there was nothing he could do about it for now, and just to monitor his situation, thankfully though, he was able to rely on his glaive.

  For his troubles of trying various styles of fighting, he was eager to check his Abilities to see if any of them have Ranked. Rubbing his hands together, he opened his [ Archive ], and saw that his Resonance hadn’t gone up, which immediately deflated his mood. He checked his [ Skill Abilities ] page, and it rolled out, displaying:

  — [ Skill Abilities ] —

  [ Mana Burst ]

  Rank 19

  [ Mana Shield ]

  Rank 11 > Rank 13

  —

  Kaz wasn’t all that surprised that his [ Mana Burst ] did not Rank up, as he was having difficulties keeping it under control. Thankfully, his [ Mana Shield ] went up a couple Ranks, which was nice to see. Although, it still irked him that his last Skill Ability slot was still empty, but hopefully on this adventure he will be able to unlock that last Ability.

  Next, he opened the next page of his [ Archive ], with [ Passive Abilities ]. To his delight, he already saw massive improvements:

  — [ Passive Abilities ] —

  [ Mana Regeneration ]

  Rank 12

  [ Evasive Step ]

  Rank 16 > Rank 17

  [ Glaive Novice ]

  Rank 4 > Rank 8

  He wasn’t shocked to see that his [ Mana Regeneration ] hasn’t improved, just as his [ Mana Burst ], due to his current troubles with his mana core. [ Evasive Step ] was a small delight to see, although he didn’t necessarily feel any progress in that area. But his progress with [ Glaive Novice ] excited him, as he managed to jump up four Ranks after just a few hours of combat. With a little skip to his step, he continued on his journey, throwing the crystals and Tokens into his bag, his collection growing to seven crystals.

  After traveling for over a day, with him sleeping in the trees like he did previously, he reached the small path that diverged from the main path. He almost missed it, as the path had grass regrowing in patches, obviously not used as much anymore. Something urged him to ignore the new path and continue on his journey, but he decided to take a chance on the side path.