Chapter 23: 23. Ghost Whispers

Even with his 65 Constitution, Alistair’s hands started to hurt five hours into their battle against the ogre swarm. His Stamina was being pushed to the limits as well, something he had never even been close to before. He regenerated over half a point per minute, yet he was losing almost a full point from his exertion.

The ogres weren’t that strong; an [Eyes of Truth] analysis revealed they were level 15 Chthonic Ogres, which explained the hands grabbing them from beneath the ground. If Alistair were to use two words to describe them, they would be “stupid” and “big”. If these were supposed to be the sophonts for the purposes of [The First Step], the Pathfinder AI must have had a quite expansive definition of the word.

With precise targeting of the skull or chest, Alistair could kill the ogres with a single strike, not having to use any Mana. After a few hours of fighting, he grew bored with just punching and kicking and started trying headbutts, elbows, and knees. He didn’t notice any differences in the power of his [Ghost Whispers]-infused punches, but huge physical beasts like ogres were probably the wrong targets to use his spiritual attack on, anyway. While he had hoped to improve {Assassin’s Fist} and [Fighter’s Instinct], the ogres proved to be too weak to engender any improvements.

That didn’t mean the colossal beasts weren’t dangerous, however. The yellow-skinned ogres killed two more of their number over the course of the day. The issue was that the underground ogres that would occasionally burrow out from the ground and grab an unsuspecting target, allowing another one of their brethren to spatter the person into smithereens. No matter how hard they tried to kill all the ogres beneath them, more took their place, leaving the only ones to survive the ogres’ tactics to be ones who could dodge the hands or were strong enough to shrug them off. The party was whittled down to himself, Lauren, Aayush, Sofia, Alexandra, and Blaise.

While Lauren was pretty much useless, Aayush’s Surgeon Class was as helpful as expected of a healer-type. He healed any non-lethal wound with his [Regeneration] Skill with fortunate expedience, including Blaise’s shattered shoulder that Alistair could never have imagined recovering without his intervention.

The sun fell during their battle, and Alistair couldn’t believe the sheer number of ogres they had killed over nearly half a day. A conservative estimate based on the rate of slaughter was over a hundred thousand, a mind-boggling number considering the previous largest swarm was the Kyrav Ants at five thousand.

Level 15 monsters shouldn’t have been able to level him up, but quantity was a quality in of itself. He was almost tempted to put his free stat points into Intelligence because of his new “Good Samaritan” dilemma. Alistair viewed the ogres as evildoers because of the malevolent slaughter the ogres had enacted on the innocent people of the area. The new bonus of an additional 20% to his two highest attributes, Agility and Charisma, was amazing, but the fact that his Charisma was now higher than his Intelligence pissed him off to no end. Since the additional Intelligence would still keep it lower than his Charisma, he put the points into Endurance, saving his Upgrade Points for later.

Alistair didn’t have the most effective AoE options, as Oliver would put it, and in total kills he was being outshone by the three other combat-oriented members of the group. Sofia had certainly killed the most ogres, her invisible sword cutting paths of devastation everywhere it flew. He witnessed her use a Skill that seemingly expanded the length of her sword tenfold, slicing hundreds of ogres to pieces in a flash of silver light that covered the entire area in front of her.

Blaise and Alexandra weren’t far behind either. The terse man summoned an enormous compound bow that crackled with electricity, sending glowing blue arrows at the ogres. Each time an arrow hit its mark, lightning arced from ogre to ogre, killing dozens in a single swoop. Alexandra’s fighting was the simplest. She swung her sized-up dagger in vast arcs, bisecting any ogre that dared come too close. The purple vapor her dagger emitted rotted their flesh from the inside out in a gruesome sight. Luckily, she had basic control over her poison, directing it forward so as to not poison her allies.

“How are there this many damn ogres?” Alexandra complained as she felled five ogres in a single swing. “I’m running low on Stamina.”

“We all are,” Blaise said, slapping an ogre with his bow. “I’ve been out of arrows for an hour.”

Sofia was drenched with sweat, her olive skin glistening in the glimmer of moonlight. “It might be time for a retreat. I think we’ve all gained a level and a sufficient amount of drachma. Any more and we endanger our lives to an unacceptable degree.”

“How are we even going to get out of here? We’re completely surrounded.” Lauren asked. She had been silent for almost the entire time. Alistair felt bad for her since in this element, she was like a fish out of water.

“Me and Alistair will cut a path back. Alexandra, you’re going to have to handle our back as we retreat. Blaise is useless without his arrows.”

The Archer grumbled but didn’t dispute Sofia. Right as Alistair was going to respond, an eardrum-shattering boom echoed from deeper within the forest. The force of the sound almost knocked him clean over, and Blaise, Aayush, and Lauren actually fell over. His body started shivering uncontrollably and goosebumps formed all over his arms. The modern world and all of his bodily and spiritual improvements couldn’t shave his ancestral instincts. He knew it was the roar of an apex predator, a creature that they would have no chance against.

It looked like Sofia had the same reaction, since she shouted at the top of her lungs, “RUN!”

Alistair didn’t need to be told twice. He turned around and bolted as fast as his legs could take him. His only job was to make sure there was a clear path out of the forest. He just had to trust the others.

Sofia ran ahead of him, dashing through fallen logs and in between trees with the grace of a ballerina. Every aspect of her movement was elegant, Alistair thought, as the surrounding air warped with an aura of sharpness. All objects in a five-meter vicinity were shredded by thousands of minor cuts — the trees, the ground, the rocks, and, of course, the ogres. It differed from her normal attacks that sliced through solid flesh in a flowing dexterity, instead tearing apart the world in tiny slices. Alistair wouldn’t be surprised if the name of her Skill was “Death by a Thousand Cuts”.

Even as she tore apart the incoming ogres, more threatened to swarm their path in the wake of the high Agility woman. That was Alistair’s turn to shine. With Sofia’s back facing him, she probably wouldn’t be able to see his new Skill, and even if she could, well, she was bound to find out eventually.

He punched the air to his left as he activated [Void Beckoning]. The Chaos Assassin Skill cost the most Mana of his Skills, at 30, and it was time to see what it could do. The moment his arm fully extended, a cone of pure void erupted from his fist. It was blacker than the darkest black Alistair had ever seen, and the immense pressure it emanated conjured images of infinite emptiness.

After a moment, the cone of darkness disappeared into the forest. Everywhere it once touched was just… gone. Not burned or crushed like an ordinary attack, but completely vanished, as if it never existed. Alistair got his hopes up that he had just unlocked the most broken Skill in existence, but his dreams were dashed when he saw it did not completely eviscerate the ogres as it had done to the trees. They were dead, that was for sure, but only parts of their body were missing, marked with small holes like a piece of swiss cheese.

Not able to pay too much attention to the effects of his new Skill, he continued spamming [Void Beckonings] at either side. Sparing a brief look back, he saw Blaise was carrying Lauren like a baby, while Alexandra fended off the ogres coming for their rear. Aayush was running for dear life, evidently still not a great athlete despite the improved stats.

They continued their mad escape for almost an hour. Alistair quickly ran out of Mana, popping one of his tier 2 Mana pills just to use more [Void Beckonings]. As they approach the exit to the forest, the number of ogres declined, allowing them some respite. Still, a contingent of monsters chased them until they reached the edge of the forest.

Blaise was reaching the end of his Stamina, barely able to hold on to Lauren and run at the same time. In the split second he turned his head, Alistair felt his [Fighter’s Instinct] go haywire. He barely glanced at the incoming object headed straight for the side of his skull. With his enhanced reaction time, he could have dodged the blunt projectile, but that would have let it fly straight at Blaise, who was occupied with his passenger. Instead, he moved a [Mana Strike]-laden hand as fast as he could to intercept the club. He was too late to completely block it, but the edge of his hand sliced the club in two, sending one part skittering over his head and the other into his gut.

The impact made him nearly lose his breakfast, but he was otherwise fine. A notification alerted him he triggered his “Deliverance of Justice” Badge.

“Deliverance of Justice”: +1 free Attribute point.

It had been so long since he had procced “Deliverance of Justice” that he almost forgot he had it. Now that it activated retroactively, he had a lot of free stats to gain, as long as he could save people's lives. Not that he rescued people for the stats, of course.

With a vicious swing of her dagger, Alexandra killed the remaining stragglers as they left the forest. The red-eyed monsters eyed their group with unintelligent rage but didn’t leave their abode.

“What the hell was that?” Lauren demanded. “I didn’t sign up to get killed in the middle of nowhere! Cash and Quinn were my friends, and now they’re dead. You better increase my cut, you greedy bitch.”

Blaise glanced at Alistair with wide eyes as Lauren started shouting at Sofia the moment they were back in human territory.

“We saved your life,” Sofia said.

“Only because you endangered us in the first place!” Lauren exclaimed.

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“1.5% of the total earnings of the New Boston Alliance is a generous deal, Ms. Yoon. And you don’t want to test my patience right now.” The air around her grew dangerously sharp.

Lauren gulped and simmered down, realizing the stupidity of challenging Sofia’s authority.

“Did you sense how strong the monster that made that roar was?” Alistair asked Sofia, who had proved to have impressive instincts.

“Not something we can handle at our current level.” She was blunt in her prescription, not that Alistair disagreed. It made him wonder if Prince Kalgur would have become that strong given a week to fester. “I’m curious whether the fourth rank could do it.”

Alistair had heard all about the man they were set to meet the next day, and most of it wasn’t pretty. New York City was the Wild West, where the only law was the law of the jungle. At the top of a mountain of corpses, both human and monstrous, was Anthony Ricci, ranked #4 on the global leaderboard. There was a hubbub of speculation about what his powers and level were, but anyone who had seen him fight was dead or unwilling to speak on it. While Sofia was cold and ruthless, it made him admire the New Boston Alliance all the more. At least the people were being fed and protected. From what he heard, Anthony ruled like a petulant child, content with having all the women and money he could find while everyone else fought to the death.

“Check the System Store,” Alexandra said. “I think he got kicked down to fifth. I was just checking my new position, #1060, by the way, when I saw that a new person reached number one.”

“It’s not Long Junkai anymore?” Sofia asked.

“Nope, and the weirdest part is that their name isn’t shown. It’s like a nickname, or something. I mean, I hope it’s not his real name.”

Alistair opened the System Store, looking at the number one spot on the leaderboard. Sure enough, Long was booted to number two, and in his place was “Wandering Hobo”. His avatar was a man covered in black bandages carrying a golden spear.

“I’ve never heard of anyone else using an alias on the leaderboard,” Sofia said.

“I never read each name in-depth, but I don’t remember seeing anything weird like that either,” Alistair offered.

Pondering the mystery of “Wandering Hobo” took up most of their time as they trekked back to the Teleportation Circle Lauren had set up in the neighboring town. She had complained the whole time, bemoaning the waste of drachma. Now, it was looking like a profitable investment. They had gained over 100,000 drachma between all six of them, not to mention each person gained at least one level, Aayush gaining two from all the healing he did.

Alistair’s own position on the leaderboard moved up to #902. He was moving up slowly but surely, and he couldn’t imagine that many others had his unique benefit of Arbiter of Justice or the synergy between his Skills and Talents. As long as he kept leveling up and following his Dao Inspiration, the top 100 was in sight.

Alistair’s biggest disadvantage, from an objective standpoint, was his own generosity. He was sharing a lot of his loot with Donna and Tamia and Oliver, on top of being in a team setting as opposed to leveling up solo. But he felt that the rewards for being a decent human being made up for it, which was surprising considering the cut-throat nature of the Final Frontier Empire. It made him wonder if there were multiple players behind the scenes since the hidden nature of his Subclass and the error messages suggested a subversive force that wasn’t completely aligned with the Pathfinder AI.

Plus, even if he could have been slightly more powerful by being ruthless and killing innocent people like Marcus or George, he wouldn’t have done it. That took a level of evil he would never reach.

“You’re always so lost in thought,” Alexandra said, patting him on the shoulder. “Should I knock a few brain cells loose to lower your Intelligence?”

“I don’t think that’s how it works,” Alistair laughed. “I was just thinking about what this is all for. How are you going to react when you see a cultivator from the Final Frontier Empire for the first time?”

“I’m not sure. Maybe I’d want to fight them to see how strong they were. Or maybe I’d be too scared, I don’t know.”

“Alexandra admitted she’s scared, what a sight to behold.”

“You think so little of me,” Alexandra moaned. “I’m not so stupid that I’m going to pick a fight with someone who could wipe our planet out with a sneeze.”

“That reminds me, are you going to take revenge on Atavius eventually? For Earth, I guess?” Alistair asked.

“It depends,” Alexandra mused. “If I found out Atavius was the one directly responsible for the death of a member of my family or my closest friends, I’d be pretty pissed off. But if they just died from the initiation, I feel you can’t blame him too much.”

“That’s remarkably measured,” Alistair said. “What did you do with the real Alexandra?”

“I’ve just had a lot of time to think about it. Also, what are you even talking about? That guy could blow up countries and you’re talking about revenge? You’re the one who has a screw loose.”

“Not right now, obviously. I’m saying in a couple of years when I’m strong enough, I’ll bring him to justice,” Alistair said firmly.

“You’re confident you’ll eventually get that powerful?”

Alistair smiled. “I don’t think I told you what the bartender in the Soulnet said to me. He claimed not even the Emperor of the Final Frontier Empire has reached the peak, never secured a path to eternity. As long as those heights exist, I’ll climb the mountain to the top.”

“Bold. I think it’ll help out if you see someone ahead of you, so you have to climb after them.”

“Yeah, talk to me when you’ve received a Dao Inspiration and get into the top 1000,” Alistair teased.

They went back and forth a couple more times before they reached the Teleportation Circle. Hundreds of thousands of ogres were a frightening enemy, but Alistair was more scared of the human monsters in New York City.

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