I didn’t wait long enough for the victory to sink in. The moment I confirmed the dragon was killed, I immediately began walking in the direction of the church. The King was almost certainly still in danger, and he was probably engaged in a much more dangerous battle at that very moment.
“Where are you going?” David asked, easily keeping up with my quick pace. “The dragon is dead, and no more monsters are spawning. The army can deal with the little minions. Now’s the time to celebrate!”
I grunted in displeasure before saying, “The whole attack on Etron was just a part of the Lich Cult’s true plan to kill the King. This won’t be over until we can confirm the King’s safety.”
David frowned, saying, “Is that right? Wait, if these cultists are strong enough to summon a dragon and threaten the King, aren’t we just marching to our deaths? What could three B-Tiers hope to accomplish in a battle against A-Tiers?”
“Now that the ritual has been interrupted, it should be impossible for our enemy to kill the King. Considering how much is riding on Haydith’s father staying alive, I just want to confirm he’s still breathing.”
To some extent, the Blue Mage must have been relying on the ritual. Despite this, something about his behavior rubbed me the wrong way. If the ritual was necessary for his assassination plan to succeed, why had the Blue Mage left a single necromancer to guard the ritual? Still, there was no way a single A-Tier [Mage] could defeat King Theophrastus. Hopefully.
As we approached the church, Miriam and Eadric waved to us happily. Standing near them were four horses and Haydith’s mount, Sherlock.
“You did it! Congratulations!” Miriam called out.
“What are these?” I asked.
With a smile, Miriam said, “Father Galen asked the congregants to prepare mounts for us. He said it would benefit everyone if the city’s saviors could move swiftly in a time of crisis.”
“When you see him again, pass my appreciation on to Father Galen,” I said as I painfully lifted myself into the saddle. Even with my frail constitution, I had managed to master horse riding after more than a decade of practice.
“Where are we going now?” Eadric asked.
Before I could answer, Haydith spoke up. “Hey, uh, David. Did you see the King in the palace before you left?”
“Yes,” David said. “He was putting his armor on when he left. He said he wanted to kill the dragon himself.”
That basically confirmed my fears. For one reason or another, the King didn’t attack the dragon.
“Where could he be, then?” Eadric asked.
In the distance, a bright firework went off, showering sparks into the night air. The boom caught our attention, and the two natives to the world of Ferrum pulled back in ear.
“By the Goddess Nyx, what is that?” Miriam asked, genuine fear motivating her tone and posture.
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It was the [Sparks of Celebration] spell. Most [Mages] considered it a waste of time, but it was very popular among players of [Ferrum Online]. More significantly, Beltane knew to use that spell whenever he had to get my attention.
“That’s Beltane!” I shouted as I spurned my horse forward. “He must have found the King!”
I took off at a fast gallop, and the others followed close behind. As I traveled, I decided to deal with the System notifications that had been vying for my attention for the past half hour.
LEVEL UP: 25
Wow, that was an increase of three levels since the last time I checked. With that increase, I would officially make the jump from C-Tier to B-Tier. It wouldn’t be much help in a fight against the Blue Mage, but I would take any help I could get.
“Haydith! David!” I called out, slowing my horse to speak to them. “Check your notifications! Have you guys gained any experience?”
There was a pause as Haydith and David checked their character sheets. David took a small mirror out of his pocket and examined his reflection.
“Holy shit!” David swore. “I just leveled up! Hell yeah!”
“Me too,” Haydith said, surprised. “I gained two levels.”
“Good. The System must have given you experience points for your help against the dragon. Apply your benefits before we reach the King. We’ll need every advantage we can get.”
Swiftly, I applied the benefits of my three gained levels.
Name: Thale Feldrast
Class: Sorcerer
Level: 22 -> 25
HP: 67 -> 82
MP: 495 -> 550
Fortitude: 6
Strength: 6
Agility: 7
Intelligence: 22 -> 24
Willpower: 16
Charisma: 13
Tier: B
Damage Modifier (Sorcery, Staff): 4.55 -> 4.9
Damage Modifier (Base Level): 1.3 -> 1.4
DPS (Sorcery, Staff): 91 -> 98
DPS (Base Level): 26 -> 28
Alignment: Scrupulous (Good)
[SKILL GAINED (UNDEAD LORD): WHENEVER AN UNDEAD UNDER YOUR COMMAND IS KILLED, YOU IMMEDIATELY REGAIN 1% OF YOUR TOTAL HP]
When I asked the System to pull up my character sheet, it displayed two new pieces of information that I had not seen before: my damage modifier and DPS. Those two pieces of information provided some evidence that my increasing Intelligence did more than just increase my mana.
It seemed like the System was changing the displayed information to better suit my play style. The System knew that I was going for a glass cannon DPS build, so it prioritized that information. I was thankful for that information, since it immediately made it obvious that my increased Intelligence was affecting my damage. With every two points put into my Intelligence score, my damage went up 10%.
One other thing was made obvious by those numbers. With the benefits of my class skills and the Staff of Imogene Drac, my DPS was higher than my HP. If I was to get into a fight with a perfect doppelganger of myself, the fight would be over in a second. I was suddenly much more aware of my own frailty.
The skill I gained, [Undead Lord], surprised me. That skill was typically not available to players, and only powerful enemy Necromancers had access to it. Naturally, Thale Feldrast was one of the NPCs with this skill.
I didn’t have to take the [Undead Lord] skill, but it was available for me to take, so I made my decision with little hesitation. There were many ways I could abuse that skill for my own benefit.
When I turned my attention back to the city around me, I realized my horse was galloping through the town square in the center of Etron. In the future, it would be named after King Theophrastus. At present, however, it was called the King’s Square. We had traveled all the way to the Castle District in the middle of town, and the nearest building was more than a hundred meters away. The only notable structure in the King’s Square was a massive statue of King Theophrastus standing in the center.
Surrounding the statue, there was a pitched battle between the forces of Etronia on one side and a horde of monsters on the other. Flying above the battle were the unmistakable forms of King Theophrastus and the Blue Mage engaged in a pitched duel of sword against sword.
