He was still clearly a teen but now at least he was one with the sense of worth to meet your gaze when you looked at him Combine that with his powerful looking shield and leather armor and you had more than a Chieftain you had a Knight
Was he 18 19 17 Randidly wondered trying to remember how much time had passed on Earth His own journeys now put him just over 3 years or so but even that was suspect And perhaps most confusingly their time together and apart seemed to have deepened their connection between them even when they weren’t together When he looked at Donny looked him in the eyes he could see the admiration and respect He saw a young man who had learned to carry responsibility and pay his debts
A man who had the strength of personality to protect Donnyton regardless of what was thrown in his path That was of course only if Donny had the strength to manage it Willpower was only half of the battle
You two can leave Randidly said shortly gesturing to the two training partners After a hurried bow they followed his instruction closing the door behind them When they were alone Randidly examined the surrounding area It was a nice space plenty of room for both close and far range practice Although Randidly suspected that Donny focused primarily on defense in the former case and team battles in the latter
Well it was time to shake things up a bit
What’s up Donny asked curiously using a towel to wipe away his sweat
Flashing a smile Randidly threw a spatial ring at Donny He caught it nonplussed and examined the inside When he discovered that there were about a hundred Health and Stamina potions within his eyes widened looking in askance at Randidly
I have thought a lot about Donnyton’s future Randidly started and when Donny went to speak Randidly held up his hand No nothing to do with how you guys are handling the governing I have divorced myself from that and I don’t want that to change No I just have come face to face with the realization that I may need to leave Donnyton And I want to be sure that if I do so it will remain safe
You are leaving
Randidly smiled sadly It seems all but inevitable right now I’ll give it a chance but
He trailed off then shook his head Then with a steady gaze he looked at Donny After the rescue operation tomorrow to sweep the new areas for people you and I are going to spar For 24 hours straight I won’t hold back It’s going to hurt And I hope to god you convince me I made the right decision choosing you as the Village Chieftain “
Chapter 474
Mrs Hamilton looked up at the young man that walked into her field office It was almost noon and most of the Southern and Eastern new areas had been examined at least in a cursory manner From what she understood most of it was monster infested wilderness so much so that the Squads above 20 were having difficulty rescuing people when they found them Mostly they just called for assistance from Numerals or even the Ghosthound himself if he was in the area
But now that they had finished their sweep it was time to hear what the damage was
Report Mrs Hamilton said coolly The man nodded then began to speak
All told we found about 3000 people Most came relatively quietly when evidence of monsters became too obvious to deny But there were some hard headed ones that needed convincing Most were taken to Franksburg for a more gentle transition to System life but we were able to identify a few dozen highly skilled laborers that were recruited But some of those I think are a little shocked by everything they’ve seen ma’am
Mrs Hamilton leaned back in her chair So many had close encounters with a monster How many do we think died
The young man closed his eyes grief clear on his face He can’t be older than 24 ’ Mrs Hamilton thought to herself chiding herself inwardly
Probably probably about twice that much Most of the people were in a small bit of a city center that was transplanted to the Easternmost boundary By the time we got word of it an Alien style monster had set up shop there Latched onto the face suffocated victims planted eggs in the dead body etc It was only the Ghosthound’s arrival that saved the rest He used his roots I’ve been led to understand and his aim was impeccable All infected and live monsters were impaled within a half hour of his arrival
Then the boy hesitated unsure of what to say Mrs Hamilton chuckled dryly Go on say it Randidly isn’t so petty to take offense at the truth of his methods
The boy visibly flinched at the use of Randidly’s name and Mrs Hamilton almost said something about it and the danger of deifying a man but decided against it Especially when Randidly was going to be so distant from the day to day running of Donnyton it didn’t do too much harm it was just somewhat exasperating to deal with On the other hand it had the added benefit of making the men treat the actual leader of their Village Donny like a regular guy
So for that reason alone it was worth keeping around Mrs Hamilton was much more worried about Donny letting the fame go to his head than she was about Randidly
Well The young man coughed into his hand before speaking He didn’t ah bother to check if there were witnesses So many people watched their family members who had previously been attacked by those strange little monsters be eviscerated by roots in front of their eyes
Mrs Hamilton remained silent tapping the table Sometimes even she forgot how far they had come These people had never realized that they were about to die yet They were still innocent in that way
Well now that they were here it was only a matter of time
Fine now give me specifics Mrs Hamilton said putting on her cool mask she used when she was preparing to see the threads of people’s lives through the eyes of a spider Tell me about our new haul of recruits
Mrs Hamilton’s sharp eyes picked up on the young man’s almost imperceptible shiver before he began to speak
Fully 32 hours after he had entered the room Randidly left Donny’s training area The ground was cracked and soaked with blood There were portions of the ground and walls that had been warped somewhat as though reality itself had been bent by the force of what had previously occurred there Wilting plants dotted the cracked and shattered landscape
Satisfied Randidly smiled at Donny who stumbled out after him his leather armor almost completely obliterated his eyes somewhat unfocused How many Skill Levels did you get today
You fucking liar that was so much longer than 24 hours Donny muttered stumbling over to a jug of water by the entrance He just raised it and dumped it towards his face some of it going into his mouth but most of it sluicing off of him and wiping away the caked blood and dirt that built up from so long being pounded into the ground When he finally finished however and looked at his Status screen his eyes widened
Holy shit Donny said I gained almost 100 Skill Levels
Randidly chuckled Something like that couldn’t be done twice And the only reason that he had been able to accomplish it was that his Regeneration rates were so much higher than normal So he could continually push Donny to his limits never running out of gas
It had been a varied attack too so just when Donny was starting to get the hang of fighting against one of Randidly’s attack types he would switch it up keeping him on his back foot That area when the body was struggling to find and teach itself rhythm was the fastest growth after all Randidly was likely the only person with enough Skill variety to do it for so long
He had started with hand to hand combat then moved onto using Roots using root avatars then fire Skills then different Summons then spear Skills then Spear Phantom Skills then Randidly’s own Class Skills before finishing out with a period of 8 hours where Randidly relied only on the crushing superiority of his Yggdrasil Skills