Once I was on the road, heading back for town, I decided now was as good a ti as any to practice Gravity Well. It was still at Rank 10 while my Soft Cap was Rank 11, which ant I could easily push it up by one more.
So, as I walked, I went ahead and did that. Gravity Well required a target, and there was nothing else around to hit, so I just used it on myself.
The mont I toggled the Spell on, a wave of disorientation hit . I’d used the Spell on myself in the past, so I thought I’d be able to anticipate what it would feel like, but I was completely wrong. Before, the Spell was low-Rank enough that it only increased my gravity by twenty, maybe thirty percent at its most. But in the ti that’d passed since then, it increased all the way up to near seventy. That difference was massive.
Really, the only reason I didn’t collapse on the spot from the surprise was because of my Stats—Endurance helped withstand the initial shock and Dexterity helped find my footing, but of course Strength was the main assist in this case, allowing my legs to not collapse out from under . At 36, my Strength had gotten to the point where I’d probably ended up being a good deal stronger than the average Unclassed. Since it added onto existing muscle, it also helped that I was already in good shape from my past training to beco a Swordsman.
However, despite how extre the effects of the gravity increase were, they were nothing compared to the new Taxing Well Upgrade. Index had attempted to explain exactly what it did, and I thought I’d understood, but no matter how it had been explained to , I didn’t think I could have ever anticipated this feeling. It was similar to the sensation one would get while subrged in the water—every single movent I made felt so much harder to make, and the harder I tried to move, the more my own body seed to resist.
And, of course, at least underwater you’d be weightless, not having to worry about keeping yourself standing. But now, not only did I have to deal with standing up under these weakened conditions, but I also had to deal with the increased gravity from the original effect of the Spell.
It was the perfect storm of effects, completely ruining my ability to walk. I did try to keep moving, of course, since it felt like a good idea to get a grasp of what fighting under the Spell would be like—the better I understood how my enemies would feel, the better I could exploit that during a fight—but it felt like my pace was instantly cut to a quarter of what it would have been. Every step was exhausting, requiring my full exertion just to drag my body forward, and I found myself quickly taking breaks to catch my breath every ti my feet found the dirt.
“Good gods,” I muttered, breathing heavily. My hands were planted on my knees to help support the crushing weight on my back. “Index, you didn’t tell how fucking tiring this would be.”
“The Upgrade is very literal when it says ‘physical muscle strain is increased.’ It makes your body work that much harder to do the exact sa thing. You’re basically doing so very extre endurance training right now, like walking with eight bags of sand strapped to your chest.”
I chuckled, sweat forming on my brow. “Well, I guess if I ever want to work out, I’ll just use this Spell on myself while I walk around.”
“That technically isn’t a terrible idea, if you have the spare Mana. Doubling muscle strain would, by natural consequence, double muscle developnt.”
“Guess that’s even more of a reason to try and raise my Mana regen,” I said, grunting with each footstep.
After about a minute of walking under Gravity Well, it gathered enough Spell XP to finally Rank up.
Threshold reached. Gravity Well XP has reached 461.
Gravity Well Rank has increased to 11.
Due to Gravity Well Rank reaching 11, it has undergone the following changes:
Mana Cost: From 15.9 to 16.3
Gravity Increase: From 67% to 74%
Instantly, I shut the Spell off, not wanting to endure any more of that. Gods, I’d never really stopped to think what it must’ve been like for my opponents. When all of the debuffs were stacked on them, plus the Stamina drains, it must have been like living in the hells to fight under. And I’d only tasted a single one of those Spells.
As I recovered from that, I decided I should also go ahead and send a ssage to Ainash. It’d probably be a good idea to inform her and Erani that I was headed back into town, after all.
I closed my eyes and focused, putting in the extra ntal effort it took to send ssages over long distances. Eventually, I got through. “Hey, Ainash, I’m walking back in your direction now. Do you mind telling mother? I’ll just be planning on eting her in the Human town.”
“Okay! Mother is actually staying with right now.”
“Wait, what? At your Goblin house thing? Why?”
“Um…Did not want to tell you while you are doing important thing with an Humans. Did not want to distract you. But…I am in trouble.”
“In trouble?”
“Yes, mother is mad at .” I could tell from the tone of the ssage, Ainash was unusually sheepish right now. Like she was embarrassed to tell .
“Why?”
“I…um…tried to kill Goblins.”
“What do you an?”
“Um…let ask mother. Do not know how to tell you.”
There was a pause, and I frowned. What was she talking about? I an, killing Goblins didn’t exactly seem like a big deal to , honestly.
“Um, so, what mother told to tell you, is, when I talking about ‘pets’ like making Goblins into my pets, I am not saying pets. If I wanted to say pets, I would say this:” Ainash then said a new word which I could tell also ant ‘pet.’ “What I have been saying is, um…when you have soone you train to fight for you, to do things you tell them to do, to fight in army for you.”
“A soldier?”
“Yes! Want Goblins to be my soldiers! My pet soldiers! They will fight for us and kill bad guys!”
I nodded slowly. Really, that didn’t change much when it ca to what Ainash was doing here. I an, she’d already been talking about how she wanted the Goblins to fight for her, so it was basically the sa thing. Plus, the Goblins were fully thinking creatures. It wouldn't be like the way a farr kept cattle, that was for sure. So…sure. Soldiers.
“Father, you do not seem very surprised.”
“I guess I’m not. I an, it makes basic sense why you’d want soldiers. Did you think I’d be surprised?”
“Yes, mother was very surprised!”
“Why?”
“Well, was talking about how was training Goblins to be my soldiers. Put them in a deep hole and whenever they are bad, I throw rocks at them so they are not bad anymore.”
“You throw rocks at them?”
“Yes! And when was talking to mother, one Goblin was very bad. It threw rock at mother! So I went to kill it.”
“Seems like the right move. Definitely can’t keep sothing alive if it’s trying to hurt her. I an, they don’t even know how strong she is, so they could’ve killed her without knowing it. No sense in rewarding that behavior.”
There was a mont of silence from Ainash, then she said, “Really think so?”
“Yeah. If you’re trying to get these Goblins to fight for you, then you should probably make sure they don’t end up trying to kill us, right?”
“That is what told mother! She stopped from killing Goblin, though. And now is mad that I tried to kill it. That is why she is staying with . To make sure I do not kill Goblin.”
I blinked. Oh. Did I accidentally just give her ammunition to argue against Erani with? “Uhh, you should probably just do what mother says. I an, the Goblin tried to attack her, right? So she should have final say over whether or not that Goblin gets punished. Maybe you can just make sure it knows you don't want it to throw more rocks so other way?”
“Mother keeps saying I should treat Goblins more nicely but that does not make sense! I am being nice to Goblins by giving them better ho and taking them away from Dragon and helping them fight bad guys!”
“I think she ans you should be nicer to them individually. Like, it would be an to that one Goblin to kill it, right?”
I got a sense of confusion from her. “But I am being nice to all the Goblins. Sotis so Goblins need to die. Like all animals. Being nice to one single animal does not make sense, because doing that just ans you will hurt other animals. If you are nice to prey animal by helping it avoid predators, then you are being an to predators. If you are nice to predator, you are being an to prey. So cannot just help one Goblin, because then will be being an to other people. Like mother! And do not want to be an to mother by letting Goblins hit her with rocks!”
“Hm. Well I’m not sure what I can tell you here. I don’t think she wants you to kill the Goblins when you’re trying to help them.”
“...Okay. Will do what she says. But she will not be in Human settlent when you go there, because she is with right now. She will co back later!”
We said our goodbyes and ended the line of communication. What the fuck had Ainash gotten herself into? Clearly Erani didn’t appreciate her attitude when it ca to the Goblins, enough that she didn’t even trust Ainash enough to leave her alone with the things. Which was completely understandable—in fact, I was left wondering if Ainash had already done a similar thing to a few others. How many unsuccessful attempts at capture had there been before she found the two that she had trapped now? Occasionally I forgot just how easily that kid could decide to just kill soone.
But for now, I just continued walking.
The hours passed and I eventually made it back to town. In the ti that passed, I continued practicing Noxious Grasp, pushing its Spell XP higher and higher, until it finally reached the next threshold.
Threshold reached. Noxious Grasp XP has reached 2.49k.
Noxious Grasp Rank has increased to 17.
Due to Noxious Grasp Rank reaching 17, it has undergone the following changes:
Mana Cost: From 5.45 to 5.59
Health Drain: From 21.8 to 22.9
Stamina Drain: From 10.9 to 11.4
For Rank 18, I’d need 3.03k Spell XP. And then there were just two more Ranks after that until 20. Getting close.
Ainash ssaged along the way and said that Erani was coming back into town soon—apparently they had a nice, long conversation on why murder was bad—so I said I’d et her back at our room in the guild. But while I waited, I ran a couple errands. Primarily, I went out to turn in my full Mana Battery and grab a new one from the teleporters.
With the first one done, I still had nine more to go. It felt like a lot left, but I hoped that the ti would pass more quickly now that we’d finished settling into this place. Just do so work, get so money, fill so batteries. Didn’t need to be too complex.
Once I’d gotten that, I just went back to the room to wait for Erani. It was nice to lie down on the bed and get so rest, honestly. So I just closed my eyes and waited.
It wasn’t much ti before a knock sounded on my door. Strange, I would’ve expected Erani to be a little longer. But whatever, I stood and walked over, swinging the door open.
“Hey,” I said, “how was—”
I stopped. Standing in front of wasn’t Erani. It was a group of four people. Adventurers, obviously, considering their equipnt—this was…two lee-Types, a Ranged, and a Magic. Decent gear, especially on one of the lees. He stood at around my height, clean-cut hair and a pale face, with the other lee standing two heads taller than , seeming more a pile of muscle straining under his dark skin than an actual Human being. The Ranged and the Magic were shorter won, standing with a bow and a staff, respectively.
What in the hells were these people doing here?
“...Hey,” I said, “wrong room.”
The Magic-Type frowned, looking down at a paper in her hands, long black hair swaying with the movent, then peered back up at . “No, I think we have the right place. We’re looking for Annor Ton. The foreigner. Is that you?”
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