"Got any plans for the future? I can't imagine all the stress you are feeling right now after all of this happened at once" Gerard said.
Derrick simply gave a sad smile and shook his head, "We don't really need the money at the mont, so I think we need to take a break, think things through We will see how things develop and go from there."
They said a few more things and chatted for a while and then split up. Although it was tragic, there was not much that could be done to improve the situation.
The Goblins seed to have sunk into the ground, there were no traces of them left. Nobody got attacked since the last incident, nobody even saw one of these creatures.
For so simple people that was a good sign, but for those that knew how the world worked, they beca increasingly worried.
An enemy doesn't simply disappear after an attack. Most likely they retreated to soplace, preparing for an even bigger scale invasion.
In a few months to half a year, there would be at least another thirty to fifty thousand new Goblins, just based on the number of won that went missing. It made a person sick to their stomach and many willingly ignored these facts.
Although not many noticed it, bigger cities already started to quietly stockpile food and firewood although it was just the beginning of sumr.
Soldiers were also slowly mobilized and used as an extra work force, reinforcing walls and making easy-to-deploy traps around the settlents.
Gerald even spent a few days flying above the forests in an attempt at finding so clues. However, like so many before him, he didn't have much luck. Forget about finding a horde of Goblins, it seed like even the normal animal population declined a little bit.
"I did all I could It's been more than a week already, if there were any clues at the beginning, now they are most certainly gone." He returned to Auralba shortly after.
Deciding to check up on the Auction House and see how the potion production is going, Gerald was quite surprised to hear what has transpired in the last few days.
The Shopkeeper, Alois Mundo, of The Flask of Wild Herbs sohow managed to sell all his White Berry seeds to Arthur for five gold a kilogram!
Even though they helped him recover after fainting, he was rciless and sohow gathered his inhuman strength to argue and negotiate for days about the final price.
Exhausted, Arthur finally agreed to the price and now they had a yearly supply of seeds for their potion needs.
Gerald couldn't help but laugh. This guy was really getting worked from all sides, and the culprit behind it all was him!
Jokes aside, the Potion of Focus production already started, but they decided to stockpile at least a thousand before announcing the news to the world.
Although master Ashbrew had many apprentices helping him prepare the ingredients, the final step, creating the potion with the help of magic, was still entirely up to him. Although the work was quite exhausting, he still did it with a smile on his face as the full potion vials piled around him.
"Good, it seems like everything is going on smoothly, I won't be bothering you then," Gerald said and waved them goodbye.
Even though many people died and even more were wallowing in despair, Gerald was in a great mood today. His physical strength and magical abilities were increasing exponentially and he could barely keep himself from smiling all the ti.
With the newly given confidence in himself, he even decided to visit the great Warrior's Guild in Auralba and have his stats asured again.
The assistant that was helping him today was a different one from the last ti so he did not make too much of a fuss. Still, after testing him for an hour, even that experienced assistant couldn't help but look at Gerald with reverence and jealousy.
The final results: Weighing at 95kg, 193cm tall, and with physical strength reaching 1083kg, Gerald exceeded the requirents for the Iron Rank and stepped into Silver Rank-1!
His weight increased and he even grew a little bit since he was last asured, but what surprised him the most was his raw strength. 'I knew I was strong, but damn! I guess it makes sense I get around 20-30kg for each Essence Core absorbed and I was stuffing myself for weeks with them Multiple a day even!'
Although his muscles could produce an imnse amount of force, that didn't an he was completely satisfied with it yet. His ligants and bones suffered whenever he used his full strength, and that was before even making use of strengthening magic. His body didn't yet have ti to adapt to his new strength and his speed was also lacking.
The force of a punch was usually two to three tis the multiplier of a persons' strength, but he could barely increase it by 50%. Not to ntion that he would break his own bones if he even tried to push it further.
"I need a weapon to take the impact. And since I'm quite slow, I will need sothing long, like a spear or a halberd" His thinking was, if he had sothing with long leverage, with his strength he could swing it easily, and the tip of the weapon would be moving extrely fast in slashing motions.
"Maybe I should get a sword also Sothing hefty and strong to suit my strength!"
After thinking about a design for a while, he went and ordered two custom made weapons, one spear, and one sword. He specifically requested them to be made thicker than normal so they would be more durable.
"Weapons are just force multipliers and they don't need to be pretty! Give your best quality tal and make it strong!" That's what Gerald told the weaponsmith.
A good quality weapon took ti to make, so Gerald decided to finally drink the Bone-Reforming dicine while waiting for it to be done. He had nothing better to do anyway.
He went ho and sat down on his bed, taking the vial out of his pouch. He stared at it intently and sighed, "A week of torture, huh? Haah..." He steeled his mind and drank the entire thing at once.
It did not taste good.
"And now we wait" Indeed, the potion was one to start off slowly. For the first half-hour, Gerald didn't feel much different at all.
But then, at the one hour mark, he started feeling itchy all over his body, and it was an itch on the bones he couldn't scratch it!
"Mn, that's...so annoying!" Gerald complained as he moved in weird positions, trying to scratch that unreachable itch.
After a few hours of this mild torture, he already wanted to bang his head on the wall to relieve the discomfort. The feeling was intensifying continuously until it crossed a certain threshold and instead of an itching sensation, there was the pain.
Lots and lots of pain!
"Uh!" Gerald gritted his teeth and beca red in the face from increased heart rate. Soon he felt like his body was on fire, every movent resulted in excruciating pain, and it felt like his every joint and bone were inflad.
It was one hundred tis worse than the worse flu he ever had, so much so that he couldn't hold on any longer and he fainted.
He woke up soti later, in hellish pain, drenched in a cold sweat.
"Gah! How long has it been?" Looking through the window he realized it was still the sa day. "Fuuuuu-!" He tried to curse, but his movent resulted in imnse pain all over his body. His face beca pale and he was sweating bullets, but he could do nothing but endure.
It was a long night.
At so point, he fell asleep in spite of the pain as he was just too exhausted. When he woke up the next day, he was feeling weak and thirsty, as well as painful.
He gathered his strength to take a pot of bone broth and drank it in big gulps, slowly regaining so strength. He had always so food and drink in reserve so he would be never caught off guard. Even if he was sohow stuck in a desert, he would still be able to survive a few weeks with his supplies.
"Just...six...days...left" Gerald squeezed out the words with difficulty. "I think...I'll...skip...this...ti!"
He stood up...and then jumped on the ground, headfirst. He didn't use magic to protect himself this ti, so the concussion was enough to knock him out. The blood that gushed out of his wound for a while made it look like a cri scene, with him being the victim.
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