A Warlock's Ascent

It was the happiest moment of his life, the grazing horse in front of him brought him so much joy that some tears fell down his cheeks. Before he had planned to stay here for the night. After all, the cataclysm was still underway, and he could come across dangerous monsters if he were to roam in the grassland, on foot. But now as he had the horse, he could travel anywhere he wants without worrying much.

First, he brought the horse to the tree line so that it would not run away. And then he decided that he should probably rest for a while. He was tired from all the fighting so it would be good for him to take a breather before setting off.

While sitting under a tree, he started thinking about what he should do for now. He knew that the best chance of survival, he should return to Ravenshade city. He would be safe there. But when he started thinking about the next move, he suddenly started thinking about the context of the emergency quest. As he didn't remember what exactly was written in the description of the quest, he once more opened his quest menu and checked out what was exactly written there…

According to the quest, beasts would constantly attack cities and other establishments all around Midgard until sunrise. After reading this line, he started to reconsider his plan of going to Ravenshade city. After all, if beasts are constantly attacking the city then it would be very dangerous to go even near it.

'Wait a minute… Why am I even thinking about going to Ravenshade in the first place? I could just simply run away. That ginger is bad news and everyone could see that. If I run away, chances are that people would think I have died. And this could work to my advantage…' he thought.

The more he thought about it, the more his plan made sense to him. He could return later to help his friends out when he had gained some amount of strength. But till then he could roam this place and gather information. He wanted to explore this world and find out the route to the second floor. And this was his chance to do so…

Before getting on the horse, he started to think about where he was supposed to go now. After all, it was not like he had a compass or anything that he could navigate his way through this world. But after thinking for a while he decided to go in a random direction. He made this decision when he remembered the map of this world.

The map of this world was fairly simple and easy to memorize. There were five cities in this landmass. He doesn't remember the names of the other cities, but he does remember the domain of Ravenshade city. From what he remembers the Ravenshade city's domain is kind of shaped like a triangle. It was surrounded by two rivers from two sides and an abyss from the other.

So he figured that even if he starts moving in a random direction, he would be able to find his way eventually…

He made his horse trot slowly while traveling. He knew that his horse may have rested for a good amount of time, but it was still tiered. And probably is thirsty as well. As currently, he didn't have anything to give this horse, so he was trying to go easy on him. Also, he knew that if he gets attacked again then this horse was the only thing that could save him. So there was no way in hell he was recklessly using his only trump card.

While moving in the open grasslands, from time to time, he would look around, to see whether he could spot any monsters. He wanted to avoid any confrontation for as long as he can. he did a pretty good job for half an hour or so. But it was then he heard…

ROAAAAAAAAAARR

As he heard the loud roar, he looked to his right side and spotted one of the big Earth Porcupines running towards him. Seeing the monster made him confused, as he was sure that there was nothing towards his right a moment ago. But now a creature that was as heavy as a double-decker truck running toward him. It seemed as though the creature manifested itself out of nowhere.

But he did not panic. He had a horse and could easily outrun such a huge creature if he wants to. Thus he pulled the reins of the horse to run away. He had only traveled for some distance when suddenly, the horse suddenly neighed loudly and fell down on the side. As the horse fell down, his foot got lodged under its heavy body.

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The horse neighed loudly and struggled. Its legs flay around like it was suffering. At first, Dave was angry at the horse as it fell down. But it was then he saw that there were two spikes lodged in the bottom half of the horse.

ROAAAR

The Earth Porcupine roared once again, making his heart pound faster and faster. He started panicking. He used all of his strength and somehow was able to get his foot out.

He then got up quickly and started running. But as soon as he started to sprint, he fell down again. His leg stuck under the horse's body felt like it was broken. It may be a sprain, but still, he could not run with this leg.

Still, in the condition, he got up somehow and started hopping away on one leg, he moved as fast as he could, but it was already too late, Porcupine had caught up to him, he could feel the steps of that monstrosity getting closer and closer to him. But he didn't dare to look back.

As he was running, he heard the whimpering of his horse coming to an abrupt stop, followed by the crushing noise of bones. He instantly knew that his time has come. He had no cover and nowhere to run. At least he could face his death head-on. He immediately took out his shield and turn back, this way he would be able to intercept any spikes that comes his way. It might be his last stand and he wanted to go like a warrior.

As he turned around, he saw that creature in a frenzy, it was slamming its feet on the horse's corpse, making a paste out of it. While doing so, it was glaring at him, he could feel the bloodlust in its eyes. Before he had fought with the miniature version of this creature and had killed it as well. Now as he stood in front of the giant form of the creature, he understood that now he had no chance of survival.

He stood there, terrified, ready to piss in his pants at any moment of time, but he didn't let it show in his body language. He stood on his ground bravely. It is then, he thought of an idea. The plan was very suicidal and may not work at all. And there was a huge chance that it could backfire on him. But he simply had to take that chance…

The Earth Porcupine to made its move. The spikes on its back started moving towards the front, this one could aim its spike, unlike the small one. Any person would die for sure if they come into the range of the spikes. Dave had not foreseen this attack, but he was waiting precisely for the moment when the creature uses its spike attack.

Soon all the spikes on its back were aimed at him, without a delay, the creature launched its attack. At at exact time, he gave a mental command to his system and retrieved the body of the small Earth Porcupine that he had stored in his inventory.

The body of a small Porcupine was big enough that it was able to intercept most of the spikes aimed at him. But one of the spikes made it through and flew by Dave's right-hand shoulder, making a huge cut in the process

The big Earth Porcupine was startled to see the body of a small Porcupine suddenly manifest itself in front of his target. But before it could make any other move, a small glass bottle was thrown at it, which coincidentally broke on the big guy's nose.

ROOOAAARRR

The creature started wincing in pain and started going berserk. It started shooting spikes in random directions, he ducked down and stayed hidden behind the body of the small Porcupine. The big creature suffered for a minute or two before the sound of roars died down.

After everything had calmed down, he peeked from the side, and it was then he saw that the big Porcupine was now down on the ground and was breathing heavily. It had fired every one of its spikes and now his back was spike less.

He then slowly came out. The loud breathing of the creature told him that the green bottle must have contained a very potent poison. And as he saw the capability of poison he was impressed as it could take down a creature of this caliber.

It was then several blue boxes started appearing in front of Dave…

.......

You have slain an Earth Porcupine.

.......

You have been rewarded 250 exp for your feat.

.......

Congratulations you have leveled up.

.......

Congratulations you have leveled up.

.......

You have been awarded 10 stats points.

.......

Seeing that he had leveled up didn't make him happy. He was now stranded in the middle of nowhere with no transport and no rations. He felt thirsty and a little bit hungry. He was injured and he had no supplies. So it was hard for him to be happy at the moment.

He then put away his shield and started walking again. He didn't want to stay in this place. The amount of blood in the area was bound to attract some monsters. And he didn't want to stick around when they come around…

After walking for half an hour, he finally saw something that got his hopes high. The structure in some distance was a tower. He figured that he would be able to find someone there or maybe get some supplies there. So he started walking towards the tower.

It was hard for him to walk with a limp, his leg was aching so much, even though he was not putting a lot of weight on it. While walking towards the tower, he was having second thoughts about whether the tower would be safe. Based on his luck tonight, it was safe to assume that this place would be crawling with monsters. But as he had nowhere else to go, he decided that it would the best to check it out.

As he closed some distance between him and the tower, another set of messages started appearing in front of him…

.......

Due to the huge amount of death during the Emergency Quest, the quest would be halted.

.......

The monster spawned during the event would be despawned.

.......

Congratulations to all the players that were able to survive the event.

.......

'If all the monsters had despawned then that would mean that they are no longer roaming around here and there. That is some good news. It means that this tower would be safe. For now at least.' he thought…

The tower was huge, it was nothing compared to the high towers made back on Earth. But it was still pretty impressive considering that it was made in a place like this.

The tower didn't have any windows. It only had one door which was broken. The door had a lot of holes and scratch marks on it. He was familiar with those scratches, they were the work of the kobolds.

He knew that all the monsters had despawned but still he took out his sword while stepping inside the tower. It was pretty hard to navigate through the tower because there was light in the tower. But from the smell of blood in the air and squishy things that he was stepping on, it didn't take a genius to understand what happened here.

After stumbling dark for a minute or two, Dave finally stumbled upon a lantern of sorts. The lantern looked fine and was not broken. There was a small dial on the lantern and when he turned, made the lantern lit up. With the light of the lantern, navigating through the tower became very easy.

The whole tower was filled with dismembered bodies of humans. Most of the bodies had their guts taken out and were half-eaten. Seeing all these dead bodies may have made him throw his guts out previously. But now he stood like a rock, with a cold look on his face. The past few days had been tough for him, so all of this gore didn't faze him.

As he went deeper into the tower, he found some sort of armory. There were spears, bows, arrows, swords, shields, armor, and many more things that one might need when fighting. After going further, he then came across a wooden door that looked untouched.

It took some force to open the door, and after opening it, he found himself in some sort of pantry. There were boxes filled with fish preserved in salt. There were some barrels of water and some boxes full of jerky. He immediately stored water and a lot of food in his inventory.

As he went deeper, he also found a machine. It looked like a communication radio. He stored it in his inventory as well, he figured that he might need it in the future.

After scavenging some clothes and bandages, he then locked himself in a room. He secured the room barricading it with broken furniture. After that, he first checked the wound on his shoulder and leg. After bandaging his wounds.

After eating some jerky, he laid down on the bare floor and immediately fell asleep.