Chapter 63 Workers 2

[Bone Hammer Level 1] (Iron Bar)

[5 damage – crushing, bludgeoning]

[5% chance to stun or cripple targets – Dependant on point of impact]

[Lifespan – Requires necrotic essence to maintain it’s form]

[Current lifespan: 4 hours]

“Ok, ok. Not bad. Pretty similar to my bone daggers but with one extra damage and a shorter lifespan, not that a short life is a problem anyway.

Jay got up and searched for a rock. Most of the ground was cracking dried-out soil, but after walking down the hill a little he found his first victim – a large rock.

*Thwack! – clingg*

The hammer made a ringing noise after he smashed it against the bare stone, but it came out much better than its target. A chunk of the rock had cracked and fell off, unable to withstand a single blow from his hammer.

“Nice.” Jay was satisfied, smiling at his hammer as he gripped it firmly and swinged it a few times.

Sitting down cross-legged again, he started to make five more – though after only making three, he had to stop himself. The hammers required so much of his essence during their creation, and since Jay’s mana was getting too low, he ended up only crafting four in total.

Giving one hammer to each of the skeletons, he realised that he didn’t need more than four anyway. The skeletons were holding the hammers with both their hands.

Since they were smaller than Jay it made it seem like they were two-handed hammers, specifically designed for them.

“Good, good.” Jay smiled, glad he didn’t waste time making more.

“I guess with two-hands they can hit harder too, so this works out great” he thought, looking at his blue skeletons.

Each of the skeletons looked threatening, their blue wolf-skulls gazing defiantly as their bone hands ended in claws, grasping the shaft of the dark green bone hammers.

Jay was glad with how much work he put into his minions, and they represented his work over the last week or so.

At first, he started with a single tiny skeleton that didn’t have any weapons, was made of weak rat bones and wasn’t even as high as his waist. It could only do 1 or 2 damage and had 15 health.

This first feeble creature, true to its name, was feeble. At the time, it didn’t even have a name; though now it was Jay’s strongest – Blue.

Blue was now reclassified as a ‘perennial’ creature after levelling up to three, having 45 health, strong blue wolf bones and could craft its own weapons. It even had mana, which was rare for summoned creatures..

Jay smiled with pride as they stood before him. He had worked hard, and had truly come a long way.

“But while I may be much better than other adventurers my age, I should not forget that I’m still weak. Unlike them, I’m trying to survive. I must get stronger so that I can’t be killed on a whim of some powerful noble. I’m not evil or a monster, and I don’t deserve to die for my class.”

Gripping his new hammer tightly, he marched back up the hill again, encouraged by how far he had come as he was resolute in himself. The two wolf-skull skeletons followed after him.

Peering over the hill, he found his first two targets – the two statues guarding the gate.

Jay took the path down and made his way over.

The deathwalkers sentry shield squeezed his arm, warning him of danger, but this was unnecessary, it was pretty obvious what would happen. Not to mention the clue from the association making it clear he would fight statues.

Jay analysed one of the 7-foot tall stone statues, each of them another head taller than Jay.

<[Helvetian Soldier – Level 3]>

[35 HP]

<[Skills]>

[Helvetian Standard Sword]

– 7 damage

– Knockback if blocked

– Unlootable

[Helvetian Standard Tower Shield]

– Block (Passive) – Negate 100% damage from an attack. 15% chance, otherwise reduce damage taken by 80% when shield is hit]

– Unlootable

[Brittle Armour]

– 40% damage reduction to slashing, stabbing damage.

– 20% more damage taken from crushing damage

[Helvetia’s Revenge]

– Immune to non-physical magic damage.

– Any wielded weapons or items become cursed and unlootable.

<Description>

A soldier of the Helvetian kingdom. The Helvetian kingdom was once the jewel of the world, a place of dreams and magic, a force of justice and freedom. Here the soldiers stand guard, waiting for their chance to exact revenge on those who would harm their precious kingdom.

“Uh, the kingdom has already been harmed…?” Jay looked around at the walls, all broken down and in ruins.

“You guys had one job…” Jay mocked them.

The statues began to move, responding to either Jay’s taunt or his analysis skill – he wasn’t sure, but now it didn’t matter.

They both power-walked over with heavy steps, creating thud noises and cracking the ground from their sheer weight as Jay prepared himself with his minions.

Jay had the minions go to each side, preparing them for a flanking attack. He was going to have them attack the soldiers ankles and legs while he would act as the bait. Jay was counting on their heavy weight helping to crush their own ankles.

The first stone soldier lunged, swinging his massive stone sword through the air.

*Whoosh!*

It created a sound as it swept through the air, passing over Jay since he crouched down at the last moment.

This was when Jay had his minions launch their attack.

Before he could stand up, the second soldier’s sword came directly at him, thrusting sharply.

Jay didn’t have enough time to dodge, and the sword went right through his stomach and out the other side.

*Shlew*

[-7]

[Mana burn – 0.5 mana per second for 5 seconds]

*”Eugh! huuuu” was the only sound that came from Jay’s mouth as his lungs were squeezed upwards and the air forced out of his throat from the massive sword in his chest.

The sword strike also applied mana burn, though losing 2.5 mana was inconsequential for Jay, as he currently half-way up a sword.

The pain was intense, but the sword was quickly pulled out as the soldier prepared to thrust again. The hole in Jay’s chest was healed in an instant, his health points draining instead, while the pain left.

The damage would only be permanent if his health points reached zero – then he would die.

This was the first time Jay took a mortal wound; until now, he had only taken small stabs and scratches, though a wound like this would have originally killed him instantly; he certainly would have died if he was still a normal person without a class.

Thankfully, Jay was an adventurer with a large health pool now. There was no such thing as mortal damage as long as you have health points.

During the fight, it took some time for Jay to adjust to this, realising he was still alive and the hole in his chest was gone as he patted his hand over it.

“Dammit, glad I put lots of points into vitality…” he thought as he stepped back and rubbed his chest.

“What the fuck…” he thought, as there was no hole.

*Whoosh!*

He ducked another sword swing which flew over his head – then he promptly rolled to the side.

*Shruu*

The second sword made a different noise as it was thrust through the wind – directly at the same spot where Jay was just crouching.

The minions were attacking the ankles of the warriors by now, chunks of rock and cracks were forming.

*Clingg*

Jay dodged a few more times before finally, with a loud ring, the ankle of one of the soldiers was blasted apart.

The first soldier fell to the ground, leaving only the second standing.

Jay had both his minions focus on the standing one while he stopped dodging and put in some work with his own hammer.

*Cling cling cling*

After the soldier’s legs were crumbled, the three of them went together, ganging up on the second soldier.

Jay smashed at it’s head, removing a cheek plate off of it’s stone T-visor helmet.

The minions were each focusing on its ankles still, soon it turned around with a swing of its sword, hitting Lamp.

Lamp offered no resistance to the sword as it was sliced directly across it’s abdomen. The skeletons were light and the sword was heavy, so of course, Lamp completely left the ground.

“Lamp went fucking flying”

Jay almost laughed, the level 2 skeleton made it almost halfway up the hill that they just walked down. Their light skeletal bodies couldn’t contend with a huge stone sword after all.

“I guess they can fly.” Jay thought with a chuckle as he turned back to the soldier and smashed the back of it’s head with his hammer.

[6 damage]

[Stunned – 1 second]

“That’s all I needed.” his eyes gleamed with ferocity.

Jay dropped his shield and held his hammer with two hands, high up behind his head. He stepped closer to the soldier and brought it down swiftly like an axe on a chopping block.

The stone soldier couldn’t even grit it’s teeth to brace for the impact – if it had teeth anyway.

[12 damage – Critical Hit]

The rest of it’s helmet crumbled away, falling off as the soldier turned back to Jay with another swing – but this was an obvious move. Easily dodged by Jay, it only gave him more time to smash it’s head in again.

[12 damage – Critical Hit]

[40 Exp]

The stone soldier died.

*Sploii~*

“Ah shit!” Jay looked down, a sword was thrust into him again.

The first stone soldier who was on the ground had managed to crawl over and pierce Jay’s left side, the tip of the stone sword sliding right under his ribs.

“Fucker!”

[-7]

[Mana burn – 0.5mana/second for 5 seconds]

Jay’s health replaced the open wound as it dropped by seven, “Little bastard!”

Red watched as Jay was attacked, and responding to its master’s pain it jumped over to the stone statue, bringing its hammer down on the soldier’s spine.

The soldier couldn’t do much from the ground – this sneak attack was all it had left, so it was quickly destroyed by Jay and Red.

“I should’ve just ended it when I had the chance. That was a little silly…” Jay thought to himself, he was more calm now as he beat it’s rocky brains open with a hammer.

Lamp returned from the hill just as the last stone soldier died.

[40 Exp]

Jay healed it using his restoration skill, the whole skeleton was enveloped in a cloud of the green mist as its HP was brought back up to 30/30.

“I can see why that adventurer looked at me like I was an idiot.” Jay thought as he went over the fight.

“I had to play defensively until one was taken out. Surely there’s a better way you can kill them though…”

Jay considered their heavy, bulky size for a moment as he thought up a battle strategy.

“If I’m fast enough, maybe..” scratching his chin as he thought to himself.

“Maybe I can step around a stone soldier, using it as a barrier and keeping the other one behind it. This way, I would only have to fight one at a time.”

“Then I can just smash their heads open, ending them quickly if I get a stun.”

Nodding to himself, he went over to loot the broken statues.

[Soulstone (empty)]x2

“Soulstone… if these things had souls, maybe they were sentient? …Wow, I almost feel bad for destroying them…”

“Almost.”