[Three hours before dawn of the next day]
Solangus and the rest of the berserkers had an uneventful evening and peaceful sleep inside their tents the previous night.
They all woke up a good while before the sun began to raise, the time they used to eat the leftovers of the previous night and prepare their equipment for today's hunt.
As a ranger, Solangus' favored method of combat was two-weapon fighting, so his main hand weapon was a bronze longsword while his side-hand weapon was an iron shortsword, weapons that he double-checked once again to verify were in good condition before storing them in their respective sheaths.
Since both his weapons were still unenchanted and the berserkers occasionally encountered game that simply wouldn't be felled down by regular weapons alone, he uses the 2nd-tier divine spell [Blades of Fire] to set his weapons ablaze with magical flames at a relatively great cost to his limited mana pool every time they face a particularly dangerous monster.
Despite being the highest-level member of the group, his limit was still just 2nd-tier spells since rangers were only a half-caster class, unlike the druids who were full-casters. Basically, ranger and paladin classes did give access to spellcasting progression, but the boost to magic stats and MP was quite small when compared to full-caster classes like clerics, druids, and mages, yet the MP cost of spells remained the same. And what's more, rangers and paladins get access to a higher tier of magic every 14 levels, twice as many levels as full-casters need to reach higher tiers. They also only get one new spell per level, and they stop raising through tiers once they reach level 70 just like full-casters do, which means that the limit of half-caster classes by the time they reach level 100 are merely 5th-tier spells and a total of 100 spells. Also, they're unable to add super-tier spells to their arsenal.
So Solangus' spell list as a mono-class ranger is laughable when compared to that of a druid, but his magic and the magic of the other rangers in the group are the best that the berserkers have available since no full-caster has been interested in joining them. At least, until now, that is.
"Hello! I'm here!"
That voice came from above them. Turning their heads upward, they saw the image of the white wild wolf using [Spider Climb] to run downwards towards them from the stone wall.
He then jumped towards them with a relatively slow fall and a quite soft landing.
"Sorry I'm late, but I'm here now."
"I'm glad you could make it." Said Solangus. "But...you seem a bit tired, are you alright?"
"Of course I'm fine. You can all just ignore me, I will be following your lead and contribute in any way I can."
"Okay, I trust you."
"Hold on Solangus, this wild wolf has no weapons."
Since the berserkers technically lived just outside city walls, no law prevented them from storing their weapons inside their tents and using them every day.
"It's alright." Replied Rhemurus with clear confidence. "I know quite a few attack spells, so I can defend myself just fine."
"You use magic stuff as a weapon? If you say so, softskin."
"If he dies, we can keep his things. Right, Solangus?"
"Come on now, everyone. Why don't you wait to see him in action? There's a reason we call Rhemurus the white wild wolf."
- What? Do they actually call me that?
"Fine by me, as long as he stays out of the way."
With nothing more to say, Solangus commanded the berserkers to follow him into today's hunt, and once they began to walk away from the city walls Rhemurus trailed them a small distance behind, with Zahur also trailing him from an even larger distance.
They kept walking for a good while, the player made himself extra sure to never lose track of them since Solangus was right, Rhemurus was extremely tired.
Just the night before, the hard-headed player spent the entire night trying to backtrack the steps that Solangus' group made to hunt the achaierai, but no matter how hard he looked, how far he ran, he couldn't find anything. He even purposely avoided the use of the [Hide from Animals] and [Pass Without Trace] spells in hopes that any nearby monster may pick his scent and try to hunt him, but that didn't work either.
Before he realized it was starting to become daytime and he learned that he was absolutely and irrevocably lost. If it weren't thanks to the [Locate Object] spell he used to visualize the exact location of the stone-wood armor located in the inn's chest room where he was currently staying, he would still be trying to find his way back to the human city.
So basically, because of his stupidity, Rhemurus didn't sleep nor ate anything at all since he barely returned to Breizen to pick up his armor and helmet before hurrying back to catch up with the berserkers. However, since he was a level 29 human, fatigue and hunger aren't that crippling to him when compared to a lower-level human, but he was still quite tired and hungry nonetheless.
- Noted. Never try something so stupid ever again.
What an idiot, this player is.
The berserkers kept walking for a few hours more until a marshland that led into a swamp could eventually be seen in the distance.
It was known as the Froghemoth Swamp in honor of the apex predator species of the same name which terrorizes the entire swamp and sits at the top of the food chain in said environment.
"So the plan remains the same as the one we discussed last night, Solangus?" Asked a member of the berserkers to their leader.
"Yeah. We look for a chuul with a sufficiently strong shell to make proper armor, and if there are other things we can hunt and collect, the better. Oh yeah, and don't forget to avoid alerting any froghemoths."
Truth be told, all the berserkers perfectly knew what today's plan was. It was simply that the specific member of the group who made that question was one of the select members who didn't have [Berserker] job levels and was thus invited to the hunting games where he spent time with Rhemurus and the other participants, so he wanted to make sure that the white wild wolf was on the same page the others were.
Said member knew that the player wasn't only a competent spellcaster, but that he could even use druid spells that nobody in Argland had ever seen before, so he and the other berserkers who saw him in action in the hunting games knew what he was capable of.
Only the berserkers who actually had levels in that job class of the same name and were thus not invited to the hunting games as a result are the ones who have doubts about the player. They need to see him in action first.
- So, that swamp we're walking into has chuuls, huh? That's totally not creepy at all.
Chuuls are magical beasts that resembled a horrible mix of crustacean, insect, and serpent with large pincerlike claws, mottled armored carapace, tentacles dripping from its mouth, and small dark eyes. Their favored environments include jungles, subterranean caves, or swamps like the one they're approaching, basically any place with large concentrations of water would do for these ambush predators who always wait submerged underwater for any unfortunate creature who passes by.
What worried the player a bit, however, weren't only the paralytic abilities of the chuuls themselves, but also the other potential creatures that may inhabit the swamp.
- Froghemoths are obviously much worse than chuuls, but if those amphibians are the top predators of that particular swamp, then it's unlikely that there aren't any monsters that are more dangerous than them. But still, can't be too careful.
Swamps could be quite unforgiving places, like a marsh that had the poisonous and venomous creatures that inhabit it upped to 11 because of the abundance of trees in it.
And as a justification of the player's fears, once they got somewhat near the marshland they all began to take out their weapons as if preparation for combat ahead.
- Ah...of course, how foolish of me.
If a world like this has monsters in swamps, then why wouldn't it have monsters in nearby marshlands as well?
"Prepare yourselves." Solangus gave his comrades a heads-up, the warm-up session was about to begin.
Once they stepped into the wet parts of the marshes the berserkers were first ambushed by nearby hetfish; tiny-sized monsters that resembled piranha with reddish scales but lacked any razor teeth. Instead, the hetfish attacked by heating up their surroundings up to 350 degrees Fahrenheit - or 180 degrees Celsius - which turned the waters they were in into steam and made their tiny bodies akin to superheated bullets since they had the ability to propel themselves forward at high speeds.
However, to the berserkers, they were just a nuisance.
So easy it was for them to hack and slice up the hetfish without even looking at the direction they were coming at. But to be honest, hetfish were quite low-level monsters in the first place, so Rhemurus would also be able to easily slash these 'mobs' if he had a blade in his hands.
- These hetfish may not even scratch me as I am, but just to be sure.
Rhemurus cast [Hide from Animals], [Hawkeye], [Omen of Peril], [Barkskin], [Delay Poison], and [Resist Energy] to grant himself [Fire Resistance I].
He does have an overall level of 29 so it will be quite tough for the creatures of this marshland and swamp to seriously injure him, but since he decided to put his armor on to have that extra drop of protection and to don't slip up any arcane spells in front of others, his spellcasting ability will be limited to that of a level 15 druid.
Also, he isn't exactly on par with a proper level 29 druid or level 29 mage, his stats are those of a level 15 druid with a level 14 mage stacked on top which wasn't exactly the same since stat increase always scales more at higher levels. Still, he can definitely hold his own against an opponent of level 20 or a bit higher, so he isn't completely useless.
- Mmm, on second thought.
Once again he cast [Resist Energy] but four more times to grant himself [Acid Resistance I], [Cold Resistance I], [Lighting Resistance I], and [Sonic Resistance I] to have an overall resistance to most forms of energy.
As a 2nd-tier druid spell, casting [Resist Energy] five times was a bit costly to Rhemurus as he was at that moment, but thanks to the extra MP from his other 14 arcane levels, he could afford to spend more mana in druid spells since the other half of his spells were sealed by his armor and he has no intention of using them during this particular hunt.
Since he was trailing the berserkers, most nearby hetfish were already slain by the time he reached the same path the hunters passed through before him. And while it would've been easy for him to use [Creeping Cold] and freeze the remaining fire fish monsters for EXP, they were so low-level even in Yggdrasil that it wasn't worth expending the MP.
If he had a weapon, then he would've gladly killed each individual small fry for drops of EXP, but no such luck.
He will have more opportunities deeper in the marshland, seeing how the next ones congregating near them were aquatic oozes of varying sizes, though the biggest ones were still medium-sized.
Since oozes, slimes, and puddins weren't exactly 'animals', the [Hide from Animals] spell didn't prevent Rhemurus from being detected, but that was just fine since the closer they are, the more get caught in the area-of-effect.
"[Sandblast]."
The hail of superheated sand instantly destroyed most of the oozes nearby, while the biggest ones just needed another hail of hot sand to go down. It was a good thing that [Sandblast] was an evocation spell so it could be passively buffed and have its MP cost reduced by his [Evoker] job class despite being from the druid spell list.
Dual-casting does have benefits, after all.
Berserkers instead used large amounts of lye they made from wood ashes to quickly melt the oozes that weren't burnt by the player's spell. Clever, since weapons and all forms of melee attacks just get stuck on the oozes' bodies and quickly begin to dissolve.
- Mmm, no surge, just the premonition of a surge. I reckon these oozes are too low-level to give me enough EXP.
Rhemurus was aware that he literally needed only two more levels to finally become an arcane hierophant, so he was actually quite anxious to make the most of this hunting trip.
Even though the EXP he obtained from the bulette lords got him close to reaching level 30, these low-level creatures were a pale comparison, so he will have to kill lots of these to reach the next level and then even more still to reach level 31 and get [Arcane Hierophant] at last.
- Do I have enough MP to even attempt that? It's not like I can ask a berserker to lend me a weapon. I guess [Produce Flame] and [Sandblast] remain my most trustworthy weapons since they're from the evocation school.
Still, the only thing that will make him abandon this trip will be him running out of MP, and considering how he spent over a decade as an arcane spellcaster who banked on his ability to economize his spells, he's at least confident in lasting long enough without a weapon.
In any case, the berserkers tailed by Rhemurus kept walking deeper through the marshlands into the swamp, and then their ranger leader gave the signal to command them to stop.
"Heads up, a viper freak."
After that warning from Solangus the berserkers got into their combat positions, so Rhemurus likewise became alert and attuned to his [Nature Sense] to see what he could detect.
- Some large-sized creature is moving, seems serpentine. A so-called viper freak, so it must be an ophidian monster.
Right on cue, the berserkers were almost ambushed by a creature that resembled a giant pit viper of around 13 feet - almost four meters - of length with two heads, one at each side of its body.
"An amphisbaena!"
"So the wolf knows about this snake monster, eh? At least you're aware of that much."
Whether the hiding spell of Rhemurus worked against the amphisbaena, or if the giant snake simply considered the berserkers easier prey - which seemed unlikely - it was hard to tell since the creature completely ignored the player in favor of attacking the berserkers who were closest to its heads.
The first thing Rhemurus did was make a good distance with [Longstrider] and use [Produce Flame] to strike the serpent from afar.
His hiding spell was dispelled since he made an aggressive action, but it appeared the amphisbaena was too preoccupied clashing against the berserkers who were making quite quick work against the ophidian beast.
So fast the berserkers felled the amphisbaena that the player didn't even get the chance to throw a second flame toward it before it died.
- So fast! They didn't even use [Frenzy]!
And the rangers didn't even use their spells, either. But in either case, Rhemurus couldn't focus much on admiring them since it appears the amphisbaena was packing enough EXP to allow the player to reach the next level.
- At last, 3rd-tier arcane spells!
With the fifth level in [Evoker], Rhemurus could add the following spells to his arsenal:
[Fly] allows the mage to fly at high speeds with good maneuverability.
[Haste] buffs the mage and those surrounding the mage in a 30 feet radius to make them much faster than normal, multiplying the attacks and increasing dodging ability.
[Clairvoyance] creates an invisible magical sensor at a specific location that allows the mage to both see and hear up to 400 feet - almost 122 meters - away as if the mage were present there, and an extra 20 feet of distance is added per effective arcane level.
Now he has 90 spells perfectly split between divine and arcane, and he just needs one more level to be able to advance both systems simultaneously and use all his spells without armor and shield restrictions!
He really, really wanted to learn an attack spell like [Fireball] or [Lighting Bolt], but he figured that those can always wait for future level-ups. Magic is far more than just attacking, after all.
- Oh right, 30 overall caster levels mean a third metamagic skill! Let me see...
Rhemurus should choose these wisely since he can only learn a new one every 10 levels, a max-level spellcaster can't have more than 10 metamagic skills known.
- Whatever, I'll just learn [Twin Magic] and call it a day.
With [Twin Magic] Rhemurus will be able to cast two of the same attack spell simultaneously. Even with the extra MP cost, thanks to [Evoker] the price to cast twin evocation spells still won't be that high.
"This white wild wolf is not so bad, he got rid of these tedious oozes in a snap."
"Maybe bringing him with us was a good idea."
"I for one think-...wait, in the air!"
"They're coming from the nearby swamp trees!"
"Alguduirs!"
- Huh? Swamp dragons?
The alguduir - or swamp dragon - was a medium-sized avian monster with thick scales and feathery wings, both the scales and the wings' feathers were covered in an oily substance that allowed the creature to immediately take flight after it re-emerged from the water in which it could stay indefinitely thanks to a set of grills it had around the neck, under its beak.
However, the most troublesome aspect of the alguduir was its abnormally high spell resistance that doesn't match its level.
A rough example to compare them to are the skeletal dragons who have a similar but still fundamentally different form of spell resistance; the skeletal dragons have complete and absolute immunity to any spell of the 6th-tier and lower regardless of how powerful the spellcaster who throws spells at it is. In contrast, even the weakest spellcaster capable of using 7th-tier spells is capable of bypassing the spell resistance of a skeletal dragon, even if said spellcaster throwing spells at it has the most unoptimized trash build.
Meanwhile, the alguduir has a form of spell resistance that's entirely dependent on the raw MAG stats of the spellcaster regardless of the maximum tier of magic said caster can use. Like for instance, a plain unbuffed 1st-tier spell of a min-maxed spellcaster who focused on firepower has better chances of hurting an alguduir than a buffed 10th-tier spell of a spellcaster who never bothered to min-max.
- So how high-level are these alguduirs? Are my stats enough to bypass their resistance? [Omen of Peril] shows that they're still weaker than me, so no harm in trying out.
His hand still had the [Produce Flame] spell active so he threw a flame at the first swamp dragon he saw.
"Wait! Rhemurus! No!"
Solangus sent that warning too late since the flame that the player threw at the flying creature bounced off, being redirected right back toward Rhemurus.
"What!?"
The player was way too startled to react or dodge, he simply tried to block the redirected flame with his arms which didn't actually reduce the damage at all. But thanks to [Barkskin] and [Fire Resistance I], Rhemurus wasn't seriously hurt.
- Is that spell reflection!? Swamp dragons have spell reflection in this world!?
Spell reflection is a completely different monster from spell resistance.
It isn't calculated on anything. No matter the level disparity, the attack stats of the spellcaster, the defense stats of the monster, the tier of the spell, none of that stuff matter. Spell reflection means that your attack spell will always, ALWAYS, be redirected back at you, without fail, 100% of the time.
Only way for a spellcaster to defeat a monster with spell reflection is to use spells that aren't direct attacks, like the ones that give stat penalties, or level drain, or apply a curse, or - the most reliable - inflict instant death.
- I don't have instant death spells. How could I have predicted that I would face an enemy with spell reflection so soon!?
Now that he thinks about it, it's not like this world was custom-made to make sure that the threats he faces would keep escalating accordingly to his own progress as if it were an RPG world. How many times will he keep forgetting that this is a real and breathing world?
He didn't even have time to berate himself since it was also at that very moment when his [Nature Sense] kicked in to warn him about dangerous movement near the shallow waters where he was standing.
"Huh? There are more serpent monsters below us!" Warned Rhemurus to the other berserkers as he dodged the melee attacks of the flying alguduirs.
"They must be skulvyns! Everyone!"
"Yes, Solangus. We got this."
Even though the berserkers were slicing through the flying swamp dragons, it seems that their senses and reflexes were quite honed since they could also react in time when streamlined lizards with broad clawed feet that were almost like flippers jumped from the waters in an attempt to bite them.
The most dangerous aspect of the skulvyns besides their [Slow Aura] passive is their [Wounding] ability. The former can be easily resisted, and even if it's not, the slow effect only lasts four minutes, while the latter is an ability that causes even the slightest wound received from a skulvyn to bleed profoundly, and accumulative wounds either from the same or another skulvyn always stack, making a pack of these creatures a nightmare even at higher levels if you're not prepared.
"[Hide from Animals]."
Rhemurus instinctively knew that - without a weapon - he would have no chance of fending off the flying alguduirs and dodging the attacks of the swimming skulvyns at the same time, so even if it would seem cowardly, the player decided to hide his presence from the monsters to calm his mind and see what he could do.
With the pale-skinned human suddenly out of their sight, all the nearby monsters now focused entirely on the berserkers who were actually quite competent and capable against large numbers of weaker beasts, easily slicing through the creatures' bodies and parrying their attacks with a grace that would make a layman wonder if they were really 'barbarians'.
- If only there was a metamagic skill that allowed me to only target enemies, I would've been able to entangle all nearby monsters.
Not to mention that being able to consciously decide who gets affected by your spell and who doesn't would do wonders in the long run. He wouldn't have to worry about throwing fireballs against enemies who were in melee with his allies, or even about said allies being in the area-of-effect of instant death spells either, but the reason Yggdrasil didn't have a metamagic like that was simply that there was no need since friendly fire wasn't a thing in the game so no player ever had to worry about harming their comrades in the crossfire thanks to the party system.
The funniest thing, however, was that the natives of this world were always painfully aware of the lack of friendly fire protection and thus they did, in fact, develop a metamagic skill that didn't exist in Yggdrasil; [Selective Magic]. But just like [Over Magic], that's one of the abilities that Yggdrasil beings will simply never be able to obtain no matter what.
"Okay, I think this is the last aggressive one. The remaining ones are going back to where they came from."
"Alright, not so bad for a warm-up."
"I remember these things to be more fierce."
"Guess we're just getting better."
The berserkers casually continued on their paths toward the swamp after the surviving monsters retreated. Rhemurus half expected that they would berate him for his lackluster performance, but it seems like they simply didn't care that he couldn't do squat against the alguduirs and skulvyns.
If anything, even though it's true that they are still a bit wary of him, they've been mostly ignoring the player most of the time since he hasn't been getting in their way. Which, he feels, is most likely for the best since he feels a bit bad about the fact that Rhemurus is simply using them for his own convenience.
- I reckon I will need much more than the EXP of a single chuul to reach level 31, so perhaps I could return later some other day.
For today he will just trail the berserkers and get as much EXP as possible from their kills.
The humans eventually reached the swamp area where the trees were dense and sunlight was quite limited as a result. It was a pity that [Low-Light Vision] and [Darkvision] were arcane spells Rhemurus couldn't cast in armor just yet.
- Should I have worn this armor in the first place? As an effective level 15 druid, my [Barkskin] is already on par with the defensive abilities of an unenchanted low-class light armor.
And had he remained as a mono-class druid, then his [Barkskin] would now be on par with low-class medium armor.
- Mmm, no. I don't want to risk using arcane spells in front of others. I'm already a freak as I am.
So his other option was to see if it would be alright for him to illuminate things a bit more, considering how his only source of light was the flame still burning on his hand.
"I was thinking, would it be alright for me to use [Daylight]?" He asked the berserkers walking in front of him.
"Huh? What's that?"
"It's a 3rd-tier spell that makes a light as bright as the sun." Answered Solangus who was the most knowledgeable member of the group.
"We won't be able to hide with so much light around."
"It's already bad enough with that fire on your hand. Don't be near us when the monsters follow that shiny light you're creating."
Of course, the darkness of the swamp actually helps the berserkers in better hiding their presence and making a source of light will only impair them.
Yet another thing that Rhemurus should've figured out.
"Right, how inconsiderate of me. [Dispel]."
With that, [Produce Flame] was dispelled and the darkness around them became deeper.
- It's not that dark around here, I can make do with the little sunlight leaking through the leaves.
The swamp itself wasn't anything crazier than what he saw beforehand in the realms of Yggdrasil; besides the flora one would normally see in a swamp, he could also spot the occasional basidiron, a type of almost sentient fungi that could expel spores that either clogged the respiratory system or caused severe hallucinations, but as long as one left them be, the basidirons remained mostly harmless.
Moving a bit further in the distance he also saw treant-like creatures that were actually smaller than actual treants and resembled withered leafless trees. He believed he had a rough idea of what those tree creatures could be, but he wanted to ask beforehand to be sure.
"Those things in the distance, are they bog blokes?"
"Yeah, they are. Today we aren't hunting bog blokes though, we have no immediate need for their wood, so we decided to leave them alone for now."
For a fraction of a second Rhemurus considered the idea of blasting them from a safe distance with a fire spell in order to take advantage of the tree monsters' elemental weakness, but immediately remembered that they were in a swamp with countless trees and vegetation around them.
He imagines that the berserkers would be quite upset with him if he were to burn down one of their hunting grounds, so he, too, decided to leave the bog blokes be.
- Not having a weapon really sucks, so bad!
There was always the option to use [Animalistic Power] to increase his physical stats to the point where his punches and kicks were strong enough to inflict damage, but without [Monk] levels, his own unarmed attacks will not only be super lame, but he will also be hurting his own hands and feet in the process.
- Maybe use [Creeping Cold] with [Reach Magic] to eliminate monsters from a safe distance?
[Creeping Cold] was a transmutation spell, not an evocation spell, so it wasn't passively buffed nor had its MP cost reduced by his [Evoker] job class, and adding metamagic on top would drain his mana even faster. So even if that was indeed a good attack choice in a dense swamp, he couldn't spam it nilly willy. Economizing druid spells is not the same thing as economizing arcane spells, it turns out.
Rhemurus was starting to get anxious for anything he could kill for EXP, but the only things he could see even with [Hawkeye] were low-level trash, like meenlocks which were grotesque tiny-sized fey that had several easy-to-resist abilities and were just annoying rather than dangerous. As well as some grungs, small-sized bipedal amphibians that resembled poisonous frogs and used rudimentary weapons but always began to run away when they saw the size and number of the berserkers.
Even as a mere level 30 with a split build, the player was more than capable of making quick work of small fry like that if they're milder than the Yggdrasil versions, the issue was that he would be wasting his limited MP for meager EXP, and they hadn't even reached the chuul they're hunting in the first place.
- Does this world have MP potions? Or, any form of MP recovery items or methods? Things would be so much easier for me if I had a way to cast spells beyond my natural limit.
That would indeed be perfect, but unfortunately, no. Both the sorcerer emperor and the king of kings have been working on something like that for a good while though, so even if they haven't had any success so far, maybe in the next century or two a mana-recovery item may indeed be created?
Maybe.
Who knows.
Probably not.
Anyhow, the berserkers and the tailing player kept walking deeper into the swamp where they passed through other forms of aggressive fauna and swamp fey; catoblepas, adders, muckdwellers, unseelie, felldrakes, deep bats, even vine horrors. Also, were those little lizardling creatures running around and catching bugs miniature linnorms?
- That's ridiculous, linnorms were creatures that sometimes surpassed dragons. No way they're this small in this world.
Rhemurus did take the opportunity to snipe from afar with [Produce Flame] any large aquatic or grey ooze he could find, mainly because the oozes were among the creatures that wouldn't alert any nonexistent comrades, don't make too much noise, and - thanks to being composed of liquid substances - have very low chances of setting the swamp ablaze.
All other monsters could simply be kicked away by the player who reached the conclusion that casting [Hide from Animals] over and over again wasn't mana-effective at all, so he had to either annoy the lower-level monsters enough to make them lose interest in him or had to somehow lure them into the other berserkers so that they could kill the monsters for him.
But as expected, only the expectation of a surge could be felt inside the player, no actual surge.
That first level in [Arcane Hierophant] was so close yet felt so far away.
- I should see if I can familiarize myself with a noteworthy landmark or tree I can visualize later, for [Locate Object].
That way he will be able to return to this specific swamp later anytime he wants, hopefully with a proper weapon to grind without expending much of his MP.
- Sacrificing one of my levels in [Weaponsmith] would've at least made me able to make the most basic spears, or slings.
But as he was now, he couldn't just make himself a weapon druids were proficient in out of thin air.
Unless-
- Wait...if the description of the [Blockade] druid spell was right, then it simply stated that the limit of the wood piece enlargement was a five feet diameter. Never it was stated that I couldn't just stop the enlargement before hitting that size cap.
Not to mention that the laws of tier magic in this world have been slightly altered from how they were back in Yggdrasil. So even if he wasn't certain if druids in the game could halt the wood piece growth of [Blockade] with their consoles since spellcasting mechanics were limited to just clicking a button, because the fluff of that specific 1st-tier spell never specified if the desired growth could be any size below the specified limit, a druid from Yggdrasil can indeed do just that in the new world.
Rhemurus jumped high and snapped a little branch from a nearby tree, a branch he made himself sure was bigger than three inches, then consciously desired to cast [Blockade] in a way that made the piece of wood grow to the size of a club a medium-sized creature like him could wield with just one hand.
Then he used the [Wood Shape] spell to mold the enlarged branch into the specific form of a masterwork wooden club he was envisioning inside his head.
And lo and behold, the little branch was transformed into the most basic of the weapons in the simple weapon category.
- Of course, I'm pretty sure this club I just made is even shittier than the weakest low-class weapon of Yggdrasil, but still, this will be of so much help here!
The berserkers in front who were keeping an eye on him were genuinely impressed, the white wild wolf could make himself a fancy-looking wooden weapon out of almost nothing, even if it was a club that would most likely break after a few swings.
"You don't think that will be of any use against a chuul, right?" Asked a nearby berserker.
"Obviously not. But it will still help me against this small fry who keeps annoying us."
With renewed confidence, Rhemurus cast [Flame Weapon] on his new club since the flames enveloping it are magical in nature, so for all intents and purposes, this mundane club is now considered a magic weapon for the purposes of bypassing defenses and damage reduction.
- Still, the durability of this weapon can't be enhanced by any spell I have now. So against a chuul, I imagine I should be able to land two or three strikes at most before this club breaks.
It took three different spells to make a somewhat remotely useful low-level weapon, so this isn't something he can do every time his weapon breaks without draining his MP, so this new flaming club should be used against as many small fries as possible.
And it was indeed very useful for that. The low-level swamp monsters who attempted to attack were now easily defeated after Rhemurus cast [Animalistic Power] on himself.
The berserkers for their part were now glad that their invite wasn't a weapon-less burden that could only strike at things from afar, and the extra small monster carcasses they were collecting were an added plus.
"Yo, Rhemurus, that's a green felldrake you just killed? Here, put it in the bag."
"Is this, a bag of holding?"
"What? Ha! I wish I had that money to spare! No, this is a lesser version of that, it can only hold a limited number of smaller monster bodies, but anything bigger than two humans, we need to carry it ourselves."
"I see."
Now that he thinks back, they wouldn't have dragged the achaierai corpse by themselves if they had a real bag of holding.
But in any case, everything was going great and everyone was in high spirits on their way to the area where the chuuls are usually at, that is, until the entire swamp was hit by an echoing and terrifying croak-roar that reverberated throughout both the fauna and the humans hunting in it, making the muddy earth shake beneath their feet.
- Ah, I forgot. The berserkers said this was a place called the Froghemoth Swamp.
In Yggdrasil the froghemoths were usually level 50 monsters that were either at the top of the food chain in mid-level swamps, or mob small fry in high-level swamps.
Even if the froghemoths of this swamp aren't level 50, Rhemurus felt that the EXP of such a monster may be what finally allows him to become an arcane hierophant. But when he asked about the berserkers to verify if they had any chances against a froghemoth, they swiftly and firmly told him that hunting the lord of this swamp was a complete and absolute NO.
"We just need the carcass of a single chuul. Once we have what we need, we get out of here."
"You can always stay behind and hunt whatever you want, wild wolf. Just don't drag us into a hunt we can't come out alive from."
"Alright, I understand. One chuul and we're out."
With any lingering doubts out of the way, the humans kept walking even deeper into the swamp until they finally saw a large body of water. Then, Solangus gave the signal for everyone to stop.
"Prepare yourselves."
Roughly half of the berserkers made some distance from the rest of the group and stationed themselves in places around the body of water that were still a good distance apart from each other.
"Oh, so those are the actual berserkers."
"You're quite perceptive, wild wolf. Yes, those are our comrades that fight by unleashing the primordial rage inside their hearts."
As strong as berserkers are, their wrath-induced madness makes them unable to tell apart friend from foe so they are a huge liability in group combat.
It can be mitigated by taking several precautions, however, like making sure that those who aren't berserkers are mindful of staying out of the way of the furious warriors in the midst of their [Frenzy], something that's easier if they are physically apart from each other like they are now.
Some of the ones that didn't have [Berserker] job levels took their bows and prepared to attack from a distance, and Solangus used the 2nd-tier spell [Flame Weapon] to set his two blades ablaze.
"Annik, now!"
The one called Annik took the not-bag of holding from before and grabbed the first monster corpse her hand reached, took out the small dead monster, and threw it on the still pool.
Even before the small carcass touched the water, a large squirming tentacle reached out like a whip to grab the body and submerged it inside where the bigger monster was.
Then, after several bubbles and blood could be seen on the surface, a large monstrous crustacean rose from the still pool, its pincerlike claws snapping angrily as the fire from Solangus' blades and Rhemurus' club reflected off its mottled, armored carapace. Its small dark eyes fixed on the humans with a hungry stare, and the tentacles dripping from its mouth squirm excitedly as the chuul emerged from the water.
"Gooooohhh!"
"Raaaaaggg!"
The berserkers who were actual berserkers didn't wait a single second before unleashing their [Frenzy], their eyes became red and foam began to come out of their mouths.
Lunging forward with their swords and spears, the berserkers actually managed to break the chuul's outer shell with their first strikes, blows so powerful that the rest of the humans could feel the shockwave from a distance.
While the chuul wailed in agony and attempted to grab the berserkers with its paralytic tentacles the archers began to fire arrows from their high-poundage bows, so Rhemurus used the opportunity to throw a [Flaming Sphere] enhanced with [Penetrate Magic].
[Flaming Sphere] was also an evocation spell, so its attack power was enhanced further, causing a huge amount of damage to the chuul.
"Hey, Rhemurus! We appreciate the help, but remember that we need to conserve some of its shell! Don't blow the whole chuul apart!"
"Ah! Sorry! I forgot!"
Should he have used [Call Lighting] instead? It was also an evocation spell, and it would shock the chuul to death rather than blow its body apart.
- No, the berserkers are fighting in the water. The risk of electrifying them as well is too high.
The chuul recognized Rhemurus as the one who caused it the most harm, so while it kept attempting to constrict the berserkers who were delivering swift and ferocious blows to it, the chuul exited the water and targeted Rhemurus in an attempt to paralyze him with a speed that the player couldn't react to.
"Now!" Screamed Solangus out of nowhere.
Before Rhemurus even realized it, the ones with melee weapons all simultaneously aimed at the tentacle that the chuul tried to use to grab the player, cutting it all the way through before it could even touch the wild wolf, then one of the archers dropped his bow and took out a shortsword he used to pin the rest of the tentacle to the muddy ground with great strength.
"Finish it! Quick!"
The rangers all aimed at the vital parts of the chuul's body while the berserkers kept hitting the monster randomly. By the time Rhemurus could even process what just happened, he grabbed his flaming club with both hands and jumped forward to smash the chuul's head until the monster was dead.
But just as he predicted, his club shattered first, barely lasting four strikes against the hard carapace of the chuul.
- Well, easy comes, easy goes.
The furious chuul took the opportunity to grab Rhemurus with one of its large pincers. If it weren't for [Barkskin] the monster would've easily been able to cut the player in two, and even then, the pinching strength was something else, Rhemurus felt as if his guts were being crushed.
In his desperation, he almost cast [Call Lighting] to finish the monster off despite the risk, but Solangus managed to land a good critical hit to the now weakened chuul, burying both of his flaming blades right into the monster's neck, ending the fight.
"There! It's over! It's over!"
It appears those loud exclamations from Solangus signaling that the fight was over were directed more towards the ones in a [Frenzy], alerting them to subdue their madness lest they start killing their own comrades.
And luckily, thanks to the years of mutual trust and companionship between the berserkers, they were able to recognize the voice and words of their leader even if the maddened state they were in, so they were able to consciously stop their [Frenzy] in its tracks.
"Wow, that was fast..." Exclaimed Rhemurus out of genuine amazement.
"No hunt benefits from an unnecessarily long confrontation with the prey. We need to conserve enough energy to carry our game all the way back to our encampment, tiring ourselves just in the kill would make our hunts moot."
Spoken like a true hunter, no wonder Solangus is their leader.
The player for his part didn't feel the surge, which meant that this chuul didn't have enough EXP after all.
"Alright, everyone. Let's carry this thing before scavengers carry its scent."
"You heard the boss. Move, move."
Even though the ones who just exited their [Frenzy] were more tired than the rest, they began to put in the effort to lift the large-sized creature and carry it all the way through to where they came from.
"Um, I still have some mana left, so would it be alright if I buff you a bit? I know a spell called [Animalistic Power] that will help you ease the burden a bit."
Normally, the berserkers' pride would refuse the aid of the wild wolf, but as tired as they felt at that moment, they would have no issue accepting that aid, so they accepted the player's help.
After Rhemurus cast [Animalistic Power] on the berserkers, he offered to cast it on the other members of the group as well, but they were the ones who blatantly refused since they remarked how they weren't as tired in comparison, and that he should conserve some of his mana in case something else shows up on the way.
"In that case, would you also accept me healing your wounds? Everyone's wounds."
"Thanks, but no need. None of us has any serious wounds. If we arrive at our encampment without any issues, then you can heal our wounds then and there, but until then, you should conserve your mana, just in case."
Rhemurus himself also got a bit hurt, that enormous pincer most likely did cause some significant internal damage and even cracked his armor even further. But if the berserkers have enough grit to suck it up, then so should he.
So they went, the physically strongest berserkers carrying the chuul corpse with the rangers and rogues remaining alert of the surroundings.
"Hey, Solangus, can I ask you a question?"
"Yes, Rhemurus, what is it?"
"Everything went a bit too fast in that fight so I couldn't process it then, but now that I think back...did you know that the chuul was going to target me in particular?"
"Well, that was a possibility we discussed last night in preparation if you decided to join us today."
"What? Really?"
"Yeah!" Someone else jumped into the conversation. "You seem to have a knack for getting the attention of monsters, so we assumed that the chuul would try to aim for you while ignoring everyone else."
"Ah...right."
"You sound sad? That was a good thing, no? We could finish the chuul faster than normal this hunt, I think accepting your aid was a good idea after all."
Thanks to the aid of the player, the berserkers could save not only lots of energy but also lots of consumable resources thanks to his constant use of magic to quickly get rid of weak but annoying monsters that always got in the way.
On top of that, he promised to heal their wounds once they go back to camp, also saving them the medicinal herbs and substances they would've used otherwise.
His position in the minds of the berserkers went from 'untrustworthy outsider' to 'friendly outsider'. Not enough trust to be a real comrade yet, though, that takes far more time.
- I doubt they will let me sleep in their camp. So once I say my farewells, I will tell them that I will need a few days to recover my strength, or something.
Rhemurus wanted to immediately go back and try his luck against a froghemoth, but he was very, very tired and hungry, so at the very least he wants to have a bite and sleep through the rest of the day. He wanted to be in full strength of body and mind by the time he becomes an arcane hierophant.