The giant wasn’t dead, something he would have known if this wasn’t his first time ever seeing such a creature that only existed in myths and legends before. It turns out a giant has two brains that communicate with each other, share knowledge and memories and when one vanishes? No problem at all, they just need to wait until the head regenerates. But what if they can’t wait, well then you have a giant with the motor skills of a three-year-old.
Ethan nearly laughed when he saw the massive beast move around like a toddler trying to reach a high place to grab something. In a way it was also sad, the giant didn’t wanna be here and he hoped the thing was just a copy of a real giant. But what it lacked in motor skills it made up with pure aggression. Crawling on hands and feet its aura erupted like a volcanic eruption, the mud turned hard as rock and the water vaporized, covering the giant in a mist cloud, big red eyes the only thing visible through it.
He managed to keep his distance through it all, while the volcanic aura was extreme, his own aura managed to keep him from burning to a crisp. While jumping around the giant screamed and slammed his fists on the ground, while it gor close a few times it still missed him with those massive fists.
When his mana had restored itself to around half, mostly due to his new equipment, he started to attack again. Large attacks like the spear weren’t possible so he tried to focus on small attacks. Multiple ice spikes flew towards those big red eyes. He thought that was the best course of action after all the brain must be behind them right?
While attacking he got closer, Ethan tried to close the distance because of the really bad plan that had formed in his mind. After another barrage of ice spikes he managed to damage one eye enough, the giant screamed and held his hand in front of his eye. Ethan grinned, using his small amount of stamina during a mad sprint. He felt his skin getting warm, then hot.
His boots steamed when the leather touched the giant's skin. He ran up his arms and gathered his magic, the intact eye turned to him but it was already too late. Pushing himself from the giant’s arm he jumped towards the remaining eye, a scream escaping his mouth as he launched a smaller version of his giant killer spear.
Without flesh or bones to hinder its path the spear penetrated the eye easily and like before it exploded inside of the giant’s chest, ripping the second brain apart. Ethan managed to push himself away from the giant and he quickly stumbled back to not get crushed by the bulk of the giant.
Dropping to one knee he saw the giant stumble once, twice and then it landed on its side and breathed its last breath. Ethan spat blood on the ground and wiped his lips with the sleeve of his robe. “Stay down asshole, fuck that was to much mana.” He looked at his arms; the normally pale blue veins were turning red, and there were bruises in several places. The damage from the amount of magic he had used.
Falling on his ass he took a moment to just catch his breath and relax for a second. While doing that he checked his notifications. Finally the giant was truly dead.
[You killed Fire Giant - Level 30 | You gained experience!]
*Update* You reached Level 25! Stat points allocated! Free points received!
*Update* Class choice available!
*Update* For beating the Challenge of Quality you receive…
[The Eye of Fire resistance]
In his hand appeared an amulet that looked like the eye of the fire giant but made from crystal, a silver chain was attached to it and he quickly put it on. After seeing the effect
[The Eye of Fire resistance]
[Grants the bearer a resistance to natural and magical fire. + 10% Fire resistance]
A smile on his face as he pushed himself to his feet, he managed everything he wanted in the swamp. His gaze wandered upwards, he was curious who had a hand in it. Ethan shrugged, did he really care? Not really. Like nothing happened he continued on his path, for now he would stay away from his class choices. He wanted to meet up with Nora first and take a look at the next circle before coming to a final decision.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
While he now reached the halfway mark, having finished two out of the four rings he felt like his journey barely started. For now he just needed to walk and he couldn’t believe how good that felt after all those fights.
It was late afternoon when he reached the ritual circle again that served as teleporter for the dungeon. To his surprise he saw Nora sitting on it, coiled up and looking at him. Ethan built their connection and greeted her. It’s good to see you again Nora, did you find an answer to your questions?
He sat down next to her on a block of ice he created, what was immediately noticeable was how Nora had changed, her white scales now looked more like ice, her eyes glowed with a new intensity and her fangs are ice blue and longer, a second smaller set just behind her primary ones.
I did, yes, I had a run in with those zombie beavers you disliked so much, after that I wanted to return to you but witnessed your fight against that human. It inspired me to pick my path and ever since I tried to improve my understanding of my path and the abilities that come with it. I would say I did a good job so far.
She wrapped herself around his arm again, he noticed the increase in weight and length, Nora now wrapping from his shoulder all the way to the middle of his forearm. It wasn’t uncomfortable so he didn’t even mention it.
Both of them made their way towards the border of the swamp. While travelling they talked about their solo adventures, how he killed those mosquitos and the fight against the giant. Nora told him about snakes that tried to invade her mind and fish that could fly and shoot projectiles made from water that flew as fast as Ethan’s magic.
Soon two days vanished in the blink of an eye and they saw the border. A wasteland of jagged rocks. Between the rocks they could see red sand that covered basically everything else. To his surprise they also spotted a building, to be more specific, a guard post. Based on the watchtower and gate made from wood. Curious, he and Nora approached the outpost and tried to look as harmless as possible. Around one hundred meters a booming voice stopped them.
“Hold! Who goes there?”
“Ethan…the…Wizard?” he said, his voice raw from not using it for such a long time.
“We don’t know anyone by that name, approach but be careful…we will shoot you if necessary.”
Raising his hands he approached the gate, keeping his staff stretched to the side so it looked as unusable to him as a weapon. Even he wasn’t convinced by his performance, but the gate opened and he stepped through. What he didn’t expect was the…creature.
A muscular body covered in a white robe in a style he would expect in the rome of old days, the creature had the head of an alligator while his body was covered in scales. A strong tail dragged behind him, clearly also that of a crocodile. Its massive mouth moved surprisingly fluid during each word. But it looked so weird it rubbed Ethan in the wrong place.
“Apologize traveler, since the war we became paranoid but you never know who is looking for shelter or is spying for the enemy. What brings you here traveler?”Ethan was confused, before this there wasn’t one creature he would call an NPC, the only thing that came close was the ghoul king in the dungeon. But his guess was this was some different kind of scenario, he was in a tutorial after all, so it should teach something. He cleared his throat and nodded. “Well I’m here to help you with the war effort, I’m a mage so maybe I can be helpful?” He tried and failed to show a confident smile.
That didn’t bother the crocodile person; he just grabbed Ethan’s shoulders. He was very trusting, especially for someone who suggested he was a spy only moments later. But it was not his place to question the design of the tutorial “Oh I thank Vorthulax, god of the Crocodiarii for sending you mage Ethan! Come we just celebrate your arrival, you must know, mages are exceedingly rare in our race!”
Laughing he pulled Ethan along, gathering some more of the muscular Crocodiarii to celebrate, when he heard one of them mentioning food and drinks he just rolled with it. What could possibly go wrong?
