Beginning The Attack On Thornbury Fort

As the plan was set, and they were both rearing to go, they set up an ambush about half a kilometer away from the castle. Ark predicted that this was on the route of the patrol, and there were multiple spots to ambush them from, making it one of the best spots to set up an ambush. Since they saw a patrol leave the castle just now, they had to hurry and get in position though, since they didn't want to miss them.

Their plan was to have Thufrat intercept the path of the patrol, and grab their attention, then Ark would try to assassinate the High Skeleton of the group. Then they would clean up the small fry together. They would then act according to how the forces inside the castle responded, if they were oblivious and kept sending patrols, then they would kill off the patrols until there were none left, they would then storm the castle.

As the patrol was already on its way, and they were not far away, it only took a couple of minutes for it to appear. At the helm of the patrol, was once again a High Skeleton clad in scarlet armor, this one, however, had a scary looking two-handed battleax at its back. As the patrol noticed Thufrat, the leader ordered them to attack him. But just as they started to move, a highly condensed arrow of light suddenly pierced the High Skeleton head, instantly blowing it to pieces.

The other skeletons had no idea how to react to something like this, and they just stood completely still for a moment. Thufrat and Ark didn't let this chance go to waste, and they instantly started to attack the skeleton. Thufrat used the same skill he had used the time he battled against the other High Skeleton. Instantly crushing between 25 and 30 skeletons.

Ark didn't let him steal all the glory though, as he instantly erupted with a large wave of light which swept over a large number of skeletons. Even though it didn't kill all of them it killed most of them and severely injured the rest, making this clean-up even easier. Since they both wanted to conserve some Mana and energy, they both just used normal attacks as well as some light magic while dealing with the rest of the skeletons.

This first ambush had been a large success, and it was mostly due to the surprise attack that managed to instantly take out the High Skeleton. In normal cases, an attack like that would just be blocked easily by its battleax, but since it was unaware, and focused on something else, the attack managed to hit. The reason why it instantly killed it was just that the head was the skeletons weak spot.

If it had hit any other area of the body, it wouldn't have done much damage at all.

Since they had taken care of this patrol, they both sat down to rest and to wait for the next one to come. They had both leveled up and decided to spend their stat points while they waited. Since he didn't do much this fight, Thufrat only gained 2 levels. Ark gained 3 levels, and he was essentially level 35 right now, even though his actual level was 20. Therefore he decided to put 10 more points into his intelligence, as well as 5 points into strength.

Name: Ark

Condition: Excited

Species: Radiant Ice Wolf

Level: 20 (35)

Mp: 210/210

Strength: 30

Agility: 40

Dexterity: 30

Endurance: 25

Vitality: 25

Intelligence: 70

Wisdom: 30

Night Vision [Lv.2]

Water magic [Beginner Lv.4]

Growth [Lv.Max]

Inspect [Lv.5]

Mana manipulation [Lv.6]

Mana perception

Mana recovery [Lv.2]

Herculean strength [Lv.1]

Swift [Lv.2]

Nimble [Lv.2]

Stealth [Lv.4]

Regenerate

Enhanced Stamina

Small Fire Affinity

Small Water Affinity

Big Ice Affinity

Big Light Affinity

Mental Fortitude

Yin Yang body constitution

Envoy of Holiness

Holy Spear: Dawn

Status points [0]

As he once again saw his status a couple of minutes later, he noticed that he had started to pay less attention to his agility, and for good reason, it just didn't feel like it was the path he wanted to go down. No matter how good agility was, Ark felt like he was more suited to magic, since it was something he earnestly loved, and it was basically the only thing in this world which he helöt any passion towards. He had also noticed that he quite liked exciting battles.

He also felt like he would be able to attain greater heights if he focused on magic, since he had a bloodline that seemed to be really good with magic, and it wasn't even fully awakened yet. And as the saying goes, jack off all trades, but master of none. If he solely focused on 1 stat, it was surely going to bring him tremendous changes in his combat effectiveness. Of course, he wouldn't let his other stats fall too far behind since that would greatly affect his body. How would his body be able to handle his enormous Mana pool if it was weak?

Ark had also noticed that the wisdom stat was a lot more effective than he originally thought. Since he could now recover a couple of Mana in a manner of minutes, whilst at the beginning of his journey, he assumed that the wisdom stat was the amount of Mana he recovered every hour, but it now seemed like it was more about percentages of his max Mana. He still didn't intend to invest a lot into it, since it wouldn't be that helpful in actual combat. But he would try to keep it a notch higher than the other physical attributes in the future.

As Ark pondered, the sound of a marching troop suddenly entered the duo's ears. It seemed like the next patrol came earlier than they anticipated, as it had only been an hour since the last one. They both didn't dare slack off since that would just be a waste of energy in the end, and they got ready in their positions. The High Skeleton this time was armed with a small circular shield, as well as a shortsword. It had the same scarlet armor as its predecessors.

But this time around when Ark tried to assassinate the High Skeleton, it didn't go as expected, the skeleton had raised its shield in the last second, completely blocking off the attack. As Ark saw this, he was a bit surprised, but he recovered in an instant, and instantly went on the offensive. When Thufrat saw this, he knew that he would have to stall the entire patrol by himself this time, but that only sparked his battle spirit.

Ark wanted to end this quickly, and he decided to spend a lot more Mana this time around. Therefore he decided to use the same move he had used in the first battle, and he started to conjure up a massive amount of swords made out of light Mana. The High Skeleton didn't want Ark to do this of course, but before it could get close, Ark howled, releasing a shockwave of ice into the air. This was something he just came up with, and it seemed to be effective as the skeleton was caught off guard and sent tumbling as it blocked the majority with its shield.

Since he now had the time he needed, Ark released all of the swords he had created to wreak havoc upon the skeletons. The first target was the High Skeleton, which tried to put up a fight, but it soon got overwhelmed by the sheer amount of swords, and it lost its life. As it died, the remaining swords continued to wreak havoc as Ark and Thufrat cleaned up.

This fight was also pretty easy, but Ark only got a single level from it, which showed that it would be harder to level the more levels you got. But Ark didn't really care, he was sure to face more powerful foes in the future, which would still allow him to level up at a decent pace. And of course, not everything was just about levels, you needed to be able to use your strength as well.

As the day went on, Thufrat and Ark faced all kinds of High Skeletons, sometimes it was easy, sometimes it was a bit bothersome, but they always came out on top. And at the end of the day, no more patrols came. At this point, Ark had already gained 2 more levels, and he dumped 5 points into endurance again, and 5 points into vitality, the last 5 he put into wisdom.