Godfather's System
044. Crucible - 21

"Stay with Zolast," I warned Jertann and the rest as we reached the edge of the camp. "The smell of the food will gather a crowd, and I don't want my food to be spoiled, understood?" I said as I finally put down my plate.

I had recovered enough to feel confident against an unexpected situation, even some spare time to experiment with Charisma.

[Health (182/225)] ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ novᴇl(ꜰ)ire.ɴet

"Are you sure you want to go on alone? Maybe one of us should…" he started, but fell silent after I gestured to him.

"Not necessary, not when I finally have my weapon," I declared as I twirled the halberd, making a show of it. A part of it was to make a spectacle of it to raise my status in the camp a little more to match my warrior identity … but the real treasure I was after was the Experience.

I pushed forward, ignoring the larger groups as I rushed forward. People were hesitant during the night, especially with the absence of the archers, who were the ones with the necessary Perception to function easily during the night.

They had set several fires all along the camp to increase visibility, but that only made it harder for them to see the distance. It was to my benefit, as it allowed me to drift closer to the fires to put a show, and more forward if I wanted to pull off a trick.

I walked forward, ignoring the line of defense. No one bothered to stop me as I let my halberd dance. I used it with large, sweeping strikes, smooth enough to look like they were driven by skills, yet enough to kill any beast before they walked closer.

[+23 Experience]

…

[+7 Experience]

I still let one of the beasts deliver a glancing hit and healed it only after significant bleeding — looking strong was good, but I preferred not to look invincible. Nevertheless after a few minutes, I frowned.

There were not enough monsters. Even with the monsters being unsettled, the camp was not exactly a prolific target. Standing alone, more monsters attacked me, and alone, I would probably earn about three thousand experiences an hour, maybe slightly more.

Not exactly the number I was looking for. With every level requiring significantly more experience, I needed to increase the amount I collected. This required another experiment.

I went back to Jertann after a while. "I'm going to visit one of the other camps, to see if I could buy some supplies, in case we stay here for more than a few hours," I explained.

Zolast looked resigned at my declaration, but I ignored that in favor of quickly snacking on a large plate of freshly cooked meat dishes.

"Are you sure that's necessary?" Jertann asked.

"Better safe than sorry," I commented, not really in the mood to deliver an extended speech. I wanted to experiment, which would go much smoother if I used my sword instead of the halberd. I left the camp, and started walking toward one of the other outer camps … yet, once I arrived at a little outcropping I could use, I changed my direction and went back toward the river.

My destination was the earlier hiding spot, one with a convenient hill to hide me from the view of the others, a move that I repeated much easier without all the high-Perception archers littering the camps.

The farther away I got from the camp, the more crowded the monsters started to get, which was a welcome change. Behind the hill, my experience gain was easily doubling … meaning I could level up once after ten hours of grueling work.

Not nearly enough.

I was sure that, if I said that to anyone else in the camp, they would have tried to kill me for saying such a thing. Not that I could blame them. In a world where class was the single most important thing, the Hero class was cheating.

Pity that it came with its own set of problems, or it would have been an excellent way to retire.

"Now, let's see if I could get a handle on the Charisma," I said as I closed my eyes for a moment, trying to reach the same warm yet heavy sensation that followed whenever I gave orders… and it radiated off me, soft and lingering…

Ordering monsters with Charisma turned out even easier than I expected. Maybe it was their instincts, forcing them to attack me already, and Charisma just told them about my presence.

And, just like that, my surroundings exploded into chaos … chaos I met with my magical sword.

[+21 Experience]

[+46 Experience]

…

[+3 Experience]

"Excellent," I muttered in excitement as the density of monsters had increased almost ten times, each slash taking down a weak monster. It took barely half an hour for me to gather enough experience to level up once more.

And, that wasn't the only advantage. The continuous Charisma usage allowed me to develop a better sense of control, and soon, the simpler ways of using Charisma turned into something casual.

However, there were some disadvantages as well.

[-15 Health]

The amount of health drained the constant Charisma usage.

"Pity I couldn't repeat this without recovering, "I muttered as I realized I kicked another group of beasts into the river to get rid of them, not wanting to get caught with a pile of beasts in case someone walked in.

I was tempted to take a break, but I suppressed that inclination to gather more and more experience. The gathering radius of my Charisma limited, and the other camps were creating better targets for bigger beasts, allowing me to gather experience without facing problems I couldn't handle.

"Usually," I muttered as I grabbed my magical sword and turned my gaze toward the sky, where a large bird was diving. It reminded me of a pigeon, if that pigeon was larger than a buzzard, and had claws that would make an eagle jealous.

It dove silently, wrapped in darkness. Unnoticed, its attack would have been devastating, but in my Perception, it had no chance to deal damage. I stayed tense, ready to react…

I stepped to the side as it tried to pull from its dive at the last second to pull me up. A simple maneuver for a supernatural beast.

At least, it would have been if I hadn't slashed one of its wings at the last moment, and then rolled away before it could deliver a retaliatory strike.

"I'm so glad I don't have to play around," I muttered as I stood up and dashed toward the rolling beast, whose fall had been much more painful than mine. If I was trying to fake using a skill — or worse, actually using one — there was no chance for me to avoid the attack, and the forced completion of the attack would have left me vulnerable.

Of course, injuring it didn't mean it was dead. The fall, despite its incredible speed, didn't do anything more than create bruises that recovered immediately — I would have complained about that, but I had survived a ridiculously high fall for that exact reason. The wound that was left by the magical sword wasn't too far behind, quick to recover.

It managed to protect its head from me. Luckily, I wasn't in a hurry. With the advantage granted by the magical sword, half a minute of dedicated attack was enough to kill it — and that was with making sure the smaller beasts didn't use the opportunity to deliver damage, though lessened numbers as I stopped using Charisma to summon them.

The result was … beautiful.

[+6,529 Experience]

I thought about kicking it away as well, but after some thought, I decided to drag it toward the hill instead. It would make a memorable return.

And, maybe, Zolast would manage to cook something particularly well.

"Now, let's try something else," I muttered.

[+1 Charisma]

[-1 Stat Point]

I used the same Charisma trick, only for the monsters to gather around me with a shocking intensity. "Damn, my control is ruined," I muttered in realization, glad that I didn't try to add a few more points back when I was still in the camp. It would have caused a riot.

There were advantages, like attracting even more monsters for me.

And disadvantages, like the increased Health drain.

It took an hour for me to get enough handle to control, which was much longer than getting used to improved Strength and Agility. Why, I didn't know, nor did I care particularly.

I was more interested in the results.

[+1 Charisma]

[-1 Stat Point]

"Let's see if I could get acclimated to it before dawn," I muttered as I once again used Charisma to lure monsters, repeatedly fighting. Five larger beasts attacked in the process, three flying, two landbound, and in the end, I discarded all but one into the water and decided to drag two with me.

Carrying six beasts with me would have been too impressive.

I didn't only fight, of course. Once every twenty minutes, I climbed to the top of the hill, observing the other camps. Every time I checked, I saw squads returning to the camps, while the carts were filled with disassembled tents.

Yet, our squad had shown no sign of returning.

Interesting, I thought, but then I noticed our camp started to gather as well — but in a different manner. Several carts had left our camps early, and joined the others, while about a hundred carts left the other camps to join ours.

Soon, I noticed the tents of our camp going down as well. Curious, as I was yet to notice our squad return…

Curious, I thought, wondering if we were to move before the young noble returned. That didn't prevent me from walking, dragging two large birds with me — which looked more appetizing than giant rats.

The little adventure had been draining … but certainly beneficial.

[Health (83/225)]

[Experience: 518,210]

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