And (N)one Shall Remain

“Whew, that one just one was somehow both tougher and easier to deal with compared to the freakshow abomination one from earlier,” commented Moira shortly after the last boss monster of the forest-dungeon they were in, a [Spinyback Titan Warthog Lvl55] drew its last breath and collapsed on the ground before the party. “What? You try pronouncing that Gum-something name yourself if you got complaints!”

 

“At ease, Dame Moira,” said Osmond as he raised his hand in his defense. He had been giving Moira the side-eye at her rural accent every now and then, including just earlier. “I am certain that nobody is protesting over your pronunciation of our slain foes’ names.”

 

Ethan just shook his head at their argument. Even before Alissa had briefed him over the Kingdom’s political situation which she gleaned from the conversation with the Fifth Princess, he too already noticed that the Kingdom wasn’t as united as they should be, considering the imminent threat and all. There were obviously various factions, each with their own goals, at play.

 

That the temple, or church, or whatever they wanted to call it was one of them had not surprised him in the least. In his own world’s history the church and the crown were frequent rivals for power, so to see it happen in this other world as well was no strange thing. Rather, it was also something often mentioned or even elaborated on in the stories he read, so he somewhat expected it.

 

For that reason he had mostly tried to keep a polite relationship with those members of the party that originated from the Temple Guards, remaining friendly with them, but not getting too close either. He had already seen how Joshua seemed rather reliant on the priestess called Vesta, and had no desire to be the next to potentially fall under their clutches.

 

That said, the Temple Guards that he worked with in the party were all generally nice people, all considered. His only issue with them was that they were clearly very devoted in the teachings of their religion, as conveyed by the priests. He would consider them fanatical in many ways, even, and that meant that their loyalty would always be to the temple first and foremost.

 

As for the ones who came from the Royal Guards… The rift between the political factions wasn’t the only one Ethan noticed. There were clearly some rifts as well between the nobles and the commoners, as Osmond de Jardine had been so happy to show to everyone around him. While the Fifth Princess was friendly and treated the commoners normally, the marksman had no qualms about making his opinion known vocally, and to Ethan’s thinking, rather obnoxiously.

 

Ethan hadn’t thought he’d meet someone so full of themselves in a different world like this, but apparently humans would always be humans regardless of where they came from, it seemed.

 

For obvious reasons, that placed Glenn, Maribel, and Moira on bad terms with him, since all three of them came from commoner backgrounds. Maribel and Moira mostly only got some snide remarks or side-eyes from time to time from the nobleman, partly since the two of them practically grew up in the Royal Castle, one being the Princess’ playmate and milk-sister while the other being picked for Royal Guard training at an early age.

 

Most of Osmond’s more vitriolic remarks was instead targeted at Glenn, and there Ethan actually had some difficulty distinguishing which part of it was just the nobleman’s ego acting up, and which was instead an actual attempt to denigrate a potential opponent since the two of them worked for different claimants to the throne.

 

It was quite a clusterfuck, to say the least.

 

“I think Moira has the right of it, honestly,” Ethan offered as he spoke up from where he sat. He had tanked the beast’s attacks for most of the fight and was quite exhausted as a result. His new shield – despite its improved durability and toughness – lay shattered, strewn in pieces around the place, though Ethan himself mostly escaped with just some nasty bruises. “This thing was tougher but also easier than the abomination one.”

 

“I would say that you all took care of this one much more safely too,” offered Sir Inolet with a satisfied nod as he watched over the group. They had only taken one casualty during the fight – a new member from the temple guards who was thrown against a tree and broke some bones, but survived the experience – and nobody had died this time around. “But go on, Mister Greene. Explain to us why this one is both tougher and easier in your opinion.”

 

“Well, for one, no bloody death beam,” spat Ethan out in reply, to some relieved chuckles from the rest of the party. “Heck, this big pig is practically all melee. The only ranged attack it got was that one time it tried to hurl some boulders our way, but that’s too slow to hit anyone who saw it coming,” he added. “On the other hand, it definitely had a much thicker skin that took a long-ass time to cut through.”

 

The [Spinyback Titan Warthog] was a massive beast, easily three meters tall at the shoulder, and around twice as long from its snout to the base of its tail. Lookswise, it looked like an oversized wild boar with what looked like rocky formations growing from its skin instead of fur, which took the form of a dense row of sharp-edged spines along its back, making it look almost like some sort of spiny boar-porcupine hybrid.

 

Those spines had caused Ethan and Alissa to be wary at first, and indeed, the first blow they landed – courtesy of Alissa’s [Walk in the Shadows] allowing them to get really close and launch a surprise attack – was focused on the beast’s rear leg, both intending to cripple the beast’s mobility as well as to make it harder to attack using its spiny rear end.

 

Fortunately, the beast couldn’t fire those spines as projectiles, and while they made that part of the beast practically untouchable, the only way for the beast to actually attack with it was to try to crush someone physically with them, which none of the party was foolish enough to get caught under, though Silvia came close, having once dived in too close after an overzealous strike.

 

The rest of the fight against the beast itself was a long slog. The beast’s craggy skin rendered it nearly immune to the harm that the party could inflict. Joshua’s full-powered spell did singe and wound the beast quite a bit, but he had nowhere near enough mana to keep repeating that sort of move. Most everyone else’s weapons just causes marks and little notches to form on the craggy hide instead, though.

 

In the end, they had to resort to targeting the few wounds Alissa managed to create before her skills ran out and enlarge them into large, bleeding gashes. Alissa’s own skill made the bleeding worse, so in the end, the party kept the beast occupied in their midst while it slowly bled to its death. That process still took them nearly an hour of constant fighting, though.

 

Name : Ethan Louie Greene

 

Race : Human

 

Age : 18

 

Class : [Warrior Lvl20]/[Guardian Paladin Lvl12]/???/???/???

 

 

Stats :

 

Free Major Stat Points: 0

 

• Body : 66.33

 

    - Strength : 65

 

    - Dexterity : 59

 

    - Constitution : 75

 

• Mind : 23.33

 

    - Intelligence : 23

 

    - Perception : 24

 

    - Wisdom : 23

 

• Soul : 22.66

 

    - Willpower : 23

 

    - Intuition : 22

 

    - Sanity : 23

 

Skills:

 

Class 1: [Warrior]

 

• Raging Bellow: Lvl 5

• Weapon Mastery: Lvl 6

• Antagonizing Yell: Lvl 8

• None Shall Pass: Lvl 4

• ‘Tis But a Flesh Wound: Lvl 3

• Heavy Blow: Lvl 3

• Muscle of Iron, Bones of Steel: Lvl 4

• Share the Burdens: Lvl 2

• Do Unto Others as Others do Unto You: Lvl 1

• ???

 

General Skills:

 

• Respawn: EX

• Language Understanding: Lvl 3

• Athletic Savant: Lvl 9

• Analysis: Lvl 4

• Refuge in Audacity: Lvl 5

• To Make a Stand: Lvl 3

• Defensive Maneuvering: Lvl 3

• Regeneration: Lvl 3

• Tolerance: Lvl 2

• ???

 

A glance at his status window told Ethan quite a bit. The fight with the [Spinyback Titan Warthog] had gained him a level that came with a new skill. The skill turned out to be quite literal. As its name suggested, [Do Unto Others as Others do Unto You] allowed Ethan to replicate the last attack he took and throw it back at an enemy. It was pretty much a skill tailor-made for someone with a tanky class like his.

 

Similarly, his other skills so far had been quite straightforward as well. [Heavy Blow] simply doubled the weight of his attack when he activated it, which worked well given how often he had been making surprise attacks together with Alissa lately. [Muscle of Iron, Bones of Steel] was a passive skill that made his body tougher overall, more durable and resistant towards all sorts of damage in general.

 

Combined with his new general skills, and the way his class allocated more into Constitution than anything else, it made him quite a durable one indeed. [Regeneration] further allowed him to recover from his injuries at a faster pace, given some time, while [Tolerance] allowed him to handle more of them before reaching his limit.

 

As for [Share the Burdens], it was a very powerful skill, when used right, but also risky when used wrong. What the skill does was to allow Ethan and a few of his allies – which he fortunately got to choose from – to “share” the damage they received. The damage sharing only went one way though, namely from them to Ethan. Needless to say, using it on a reckless ally that got themselves killed would be quite detrimental to Ethan himself, and for that reason, he had not yet mentioned that he could use it on multiple people and instead only used it with Alissa thus far.

 

So far, the locals mostly just played their own games and politics, while the three of them who were summoned were clearly being powerleveled – Ethan was uncertain if any of the locals was familiar with the term, but given the many summonings that already took place, thought it a likely thing – so they could reach a level where they could participate in the war.

 

He already heard how there was an increased occurrence of skirmishes on the front lines, as both sides were slowly getting into gear. The actual war itself was unlikely to happen until either the [Heroes] or the [Champions] reached their third tier, however. At their third tier they would likely be able to hold their own against the local powerhouses, who were in their fourth tiers, and thus lower the risk of them being captured by the opposition.

 

Neither side feared their [Heroes] or [Champions] getting killed in combat, as that was a commonplace occurrence and they would return in short order. On the other hand, what they attempted to do – and to prevent the other side from doing – was to capture the other side’s summoned ones and keep them from committing suicide, thus taking them out of the war and giving their side a decisive advantage.

 

That those captives were also meant to serve as fuel to later send their own summoned ones home was a bonus, of course.

 

Ethan allowed himself to be carried by the Kingdom’s current, for the time being. After all, what the Kingdom was doing was beneficial for them. He realized all too soon after he was summoned to this other world that one needed power to be able to have their say of things here, and who was he to refuse when said Kingdom was doing their darndest to give him said power on their own?

 

When he and Alissa had more power, they would have more say in things. More importantly, they would also be able to use that same power to protect themselves. As for Joshua, Ethan was uncertain where he stood, or would stand at should things come to blows. While he had little personal liking for Joshua Smith, he still wished the best of luck to him though.