Then Esoteric Sense finally went back to work for him, and he noted an area of fighting a block away. If the griffin riders had landed that could only mean one thing. They must have found some of the hostages. Jackson sprinted off using all the speed that his level 100 running skill gave him. Olympic sprinters would have eaten their hearts out in jealousy.

  When Jackson rounded the corner, he found a dozen humans with nine griffins. Of course, Aremay was in the thick of it as he struck down an orc warrior who was outside a squat, round, single-story building that appeared to be made of the same tanned hides.

  Inside he could hear the screams of terrified children. He didn’t even bother stopping as he ran straight for the wall. He allowed his momentum to build and then triggered the second use of the earth glide skill. It pulled him under the ground and then up into the midst of scared children and pre-teens who were tied to stakes. A single guard inside was watching the front door and so didn’t see Jackson rise through the floor.

  Giving a warning might have been the honorable thing to do, but then again this was a man who kept children hostage. Jackson felt nothing as he pulled his wind axe out. In a single smooth motion, he drove it right into the orc’s back, severing his spine. Once again Eloria worked against the orc as he wasn’t dead but was paralyzed from the waist down. Death was inevitable, and Jackson’s second blow removed his head.

  He pushed aside the XP notification to join the other unread notifications. He wanted to reassure the kids. Most of them were crying, but a couple pleaded with him for help. The presence of a human, even a half-blood, must have been reassuring. He might look young, but after what he had done to the orc, there was no doubt that they were looking to him for succor.

  “Calm down. I’m Prince Jackson,” he said firmly, trying to rein in their fears. He decided it was better to refer to himself by his Miromaran title, even if there was no way the kids would have known that he was engaged to Princess Gianna.

  “Captain Aremay, I’ve secured the inside of the tent.”

  The flap for a door was pulled back, and Aremay entered sword first. His eyes went wide, and he burst into laughter. “Dang, boy, I should have known that only you could make as big of a mess as whatever that was.” Then he looked at the kids and apparently realized what he had just said. “Err… rather that is, I wasn’t expecting to find you here, Prince Jackson.”

  Jackson just laughed. “Glad to surprise and amuse. We need to figure out how to get these kids out of here. It looked like you only had room for three of them on the griffins. Leave three of your men, and I will lead them out of here so that you can carry all of the kids with you.”

  The captain shook his head. He still had a smile on his face but there was a stony set to his eyes. “I’m sorry, my prince. I can’t do that. Four of my men will stay behind and you will ride back with us. I have explicit orders from the king to make sure you aren’t put in harm’s way more than necessary. The fact that you ended up in this town doesn’t bode well for Captain Pritch’s military career.”

  “Bah, like any of you can stop me from doing what I want, but fine. I will go with you. I have intel that should be shared with the war council.” Then he fished out four healing potions and tossed them to Aremay. “Make sure whoever has to hoof it out gets these.”

  Jackson didn’t wait for a response but started quickly cutting the ropes on the kids. It chafed that he didn’t have time to loot the orc he had just slain. Not that long ago he would have been crippled by the fact that he’d just killed a man, even if he had tusks. That boy had been forced to grow up.

  Outside there was some more fighting, and Aremay snapped, “We have to hurry and get them out of here.”

  The fight out of town was tense at times, but the fire kept most of the orcs busy. Before it was over, Jackson had killed three more orcs, and the rest of the squad had done their share. Jackson’s Glitterdust Aura kept any enemies close by confused.

  He even maintained it as they flew off with Captain Aremay seated in front of him, their griffon being the last to leave. The aura around them obscured them and saved the griffin from any arrows, although Jackson felt a couple whiz by his head.

  They flew on in silence for half an hour before Jackson finally spoke up. “So, how do you want to spin this with the king?”

  The captain didn’t make a sound, but his shoulders were moving so Jackson assumed he was holding back laughter. It was hard to make out his voice with the wind blowing by, so Jackson had to listen carefully, even when the man turned his head to speak.

  “I don’t know what you are going to say, but I’m not going to take responsibility for having brought you into an enemy encampment. It might be useful to know what you did, though, to make all that ruckus.”

  Jackson was quiet for a minute before replying. “It’s not really King Albret that I’m worried about. To him, I’m sure that this will seem like just another heroic feat. It’s more what my mom and Gianna will say if they find out I was captured by the orcs.”

  Now there was no disguising it. Aremay absolutely was laughing at him.

  “Can’t help you out there, m’boy. I’ve met your mother. There is no way I’m getting between that bear and her cub. As for Gianna, I’m sure she’ll find a way to make sure you know how upset she is that you could have died before her wedding.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  For this reason, a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. —Genesis 2:24

  Baldora- Capital of Miromar- Jackson Nelson

  As much as he was worried about their reactions, Jackson couldn’t change them. He also couldn’t or wouldn’t change what he did if he had to do it again, given the information he had at the time. He thought about what he had learned. He now knew there was more to the orc power structure than just the warriors and the shaman priests.

  There was also a shadowy arm that seemed to pride itself on reacting in ways that the others wouldn’t. They would bear watching, and it was important that the defenders prepare accordingly. Jackson doubted that the Miromarans were completely oblivious to the existence of such an organization, but they might fully understand their motivations. He hoped to be able to shed some light on that.

  He wanted to talk to Aremay about how common Esoteric Sense was and how they might have blocked his or hidden things from it. The noise while flying made anything but the simplest of exchanges impossible though, so he would just have to wait. That meant for the last few minutes of their flight he had nothing to do except check out his notifications.

  You have defeated: 7 orcs level 15, 8 orcs level 18, 6 orcs level 19, 1 orc level 23, 1 orc level 24 (after Tier penalty and numerical bonus= XP: 4113 x 2 (killing blow bonus) = 8226 x 1.5 (racial bonus) = 12,339

  Warning: exploit detected. You have created an Eloria first. This is the first time that a chemical explosive has been used in a tactical battle situation. The events did not trigger a military-style event, thus XP was awarded at normal rates rather than the reduced rate. This resulted in more than 1000% gain in the XP that would have normally been received.

  You are commended for your ingenuity. As a result of this, three decrees are made.

  You will be allowed to keep the XP you have gained through this exploit of Eloria’s natural laws.

  New laws governing the generation of XP from chemical explosives will be generated. Expect it to work as a variant of trap XP.

  You will gain a reward for creating a unique situation that has expanded the scope of Eloria. Intelligence: +10, Agility: +5, Constitution: +5 along with the title Bomber. All chemical explosives are 10% more effective when used by you. You also gain the skill- Alchemist: 1.

  Jackson assumed that was all that he would hear about the use of a bomb. He hadn’t really thought about how it could be used as a way to reap a huge amount of XP at one time. If he had, he would have made use of it before, but at least it really worked out. He was even more thrilled when he saw the next two notifications.

  You have gained more XP than all your cumulative XP up to this point in a single event at Tier 3 or higher. Standard bonus applies: +1000 XP.

  Congratulations you have gained enough XP to reach levels 27-36!

  Stat Points Gained: 54

  Stat Points Available: 62

  Character Points Gained: 667

  Stat Points Available: 960

  Jackson about burst out of his seat, except that would have been a bad thing given that they were still a few hundred feet overhead. Not only had he reached Tier 4, he was now closer to Tier 5 and had a metric ton worth of stat and character points to spend. He almost jumped right into it but then looked at his final notification.

  Congratulations. For taking a unique action you have been awarded a rare opportunity to upgrade your class to an epic class. You will maintain all the benefits of the Ironwood Monk but also gain additional perks.

  Class offered: Boom Monk (Epic) - Tier 1

  Class Benefits: +30% CON, +30% END, Damage Resistance increases by 2% for every 1% of health lost. Generate an aura with varying effects based on the damage taken. Effects determined by further class-specific skills.

  Additional Benefits: +20% DEX, +20% to Alchemy skill level when making bombs. Auras are further modified to enable a defensive and an offensive aura at the same time. Base Offensive Aura granted: Boom Fist. Self-inflicted damage increases damage resistance by 4% per 1% of health lost rather than base 2%.

  Class Restrictions: Must fight without armor. Must keep Unarmed Combat as your highest base combat skill. Must keep CON higher than STR and END higher than AGI. Must keep DEX higher than WIS. Must keep Alchemy at a level equal to your general level.

  Class Purpose: An armorless warrior whose internal power creates a defense unlike any other for the purpose of showing that the best offense is a good defense.

  Additional Purpose: Hide an explosive surprise within that great defense.

  Upgrade Quest: Here Comes the Boom.

  Success Conditions:

  Raise Alchemy to at least your general level. At least half the levels must be earned by practice and not character points.

  Reach level 40 in Throwing Skill

  Kill at least 4 distinct creature types with a thrown bomb.

  Reward: Class upgrade including the extra 4000 XP for an epic class.

  Note: Just because you are marrying a future queen does not mean that

  you are now the King of Queens. Better learn to master fuses because if they are too short you can end up in serious trouble.

  Eloria is conflict, and sometimes one of the more vital ones is making sure you still have ten fingers.

  Now Jackson plain old thought he was going to lose his mind. This was turning into one of the best days of his life. He had been instrumental in rescuing all those kids. He had learned more about the enemy. And on top of that, he got huge upgrades.

  Off in the distance he saw Baldora, but he still had a few minutes. He went ahead and triggered the next notification, knowing full well what it would be.

  Watcher’s Preparation- ongoing: As a result of reaching character Tier 4, 4 of your prior life skills will have their base level doubled. Each tier gained will provide an increase to a decreasing number of these skills, and only the skills enhanced at this Tier will be eligible for future improvement.

  That part was a no-brainer since he only had five skills available to pump up. He immediately chose to drop Languages. A single character point was all that it took to learn a language. He chuckled. Spanish class back home would have been so much easier with this, and then maybe Mom wouldn’t have given him such a hard time for not being fluent in ‘his peoples’ language.

  The first he chose was Unarmed Combat. The skill had gone from 5 to 10 to 20 and now 40, but he already had 40 of his character points in it, so now it hit 80. He then immediately popped in the maximum allowable points and raised it to 100. Then he did the same with Blunt weapons.

  He grinned. He was so close to having an actual grandmaster skill.

  The third skill was engineering. It was a crafting skill that he hadn’t had any ability to use yet. This upgrade pumped it up to 40. He could have added character points but chose not to… yet. As a noble trying to build up Eris’ Rise or even helping in the management of Miromar, this skill would become invaluable, but he was going to wait to use it. The doubling effect would also only gain steam from here.

  The final prior life skill he had was running. This was the one that was going to hit grandmaster. It was at a base of 80 and had 20 points spent in it. Now it hit 180, which meant that his movement speed was now 1800% higher than normal. This was definitely the skill he would drop if he managed to hit 5th Tier, but for now, it was a significant boost.

  Jackson didn’t know what Mira’s exact running score was, but he bet that he was close to catching up. He was far faster than a horse now, and he thought he was faster than a car now, at least in a straight line.

  That was the easy part. Now he had some decisions to make. The class upgrade quest was a bit confusing. He didn’t understand the flavor text, but maybe Mom or Dad would. If it was warning him about treating Gianna right, then he was sorta offended.

  Jackson had given up. He truly felt head over heels now. It was easy once they were engaged to admit all the confusing feelings inside of himself. He still didn’t think he was ready to be married. Then again, she definitely made him think about things he hadn’t considered before.

  He needed to stay focused. The next thing he needed to decide was where to place his 20% stat bonus. To gain the new class he had to keep Dexterity above Wisdom. At the moment they were even, but Wisdom had a 30% racial bonus. What he couldn’t figure out was what Dexterity helped him with.

  It was most likely related to his rogue skills. Agility was speed and larger-scale body movements. He took it that Dexterity was precision in his movement and fine motor skills. Thus it would likely help with mixing stuff up for alchemy. It also would help with precision in throwing weapons and skills like stealth.

  Thinking back to the stairs in the root cellar, he could understand how precision in the placement of his weight was important. Right now, the stat was only at sixteen, which was good for an Earth human but not even the peak of what would have been possible back home. There was the other issue that he had earmarked this stat boost for Strength. Ironwood Monk—or perhaps soon Boom Monk—required that he keep Constitution above Strength, but Constitution had a 50% bonus between class and the 20% stat bonus he had received at Tier 2.

  Yeah, he decided then. He wasn’t going to derail his build just because he had a chance to upgrade it. He would put points into Dexterity, but that 20% boost was going into Strength.

  Of course, before he could do that, he had to increase Constitution some more. More health was never a bad thing, so he popped 5 of his available stat points into it. That pushed it up to 61. The gain of 5 from his new title had already helped shore him up. Which also reminded him that he needed to apply 5 more to Endurance to keep it up with the boost he had gained to Agility. Then he applied the bonus to Strength and added 10 points there, pushing it up to 60.

  He was about to move on to the next step when he was suddenly hit by a wave of nausea. His muscles tensed up, and his head spun. Then it was gone so quickly that he almost thought he had imagined it. His character sheet was still open, so he immediately noticed what had happened.

  In Albia, he didn’t get the land ruler bonus for being a baron—or wouldn’t until he was fifteen years old and could officially act as baron. But that didn’t seem to apply to his bonus for being a prince of Miromar. All his stats got an immediate boost of 25%.

  Warning! Land ruler bonus is considered a permanent boost. Your stats are now out of alignment with the requirements of your class. You have 30 days to fix this or you will lose your class permanently.

  Crap. That was something he had never considered. Of course, why would he? The bonus was just hitting him for the first time now that they had officially crossed the zone line into Miromar.

  Fortunately, he had stat points to spend and didn’t have to rush to try and gain a level. He only needed to apply 1 point to fix it, but by adding 3 he brought his modified Constitution up to 77.

  He was still left with 39 stat points. Jackson wanted to add some more points to Agility. Speed would definitely help him during a battle, and with his ridiculous running stat, the higher his base movement rate the better. That meant he also had to add points to Endurance. So he plopped 5 into Endurance and 4 into Agility.

  Not only did this fix the imbalances but it also left Jackson with 30 stat points to assign. He briefly considered adding points to Intelligence or Wisdom. Ultimately, he decided he would simply need to get a mana receptacle or two. Casting outside of his auras, which were powered by the damage he suffered, was not a key part of his build.

  So, with that, he split the points between Dexterity and Charisma. A part of him had wanted to split it three ways adding in Luck. The trick was that he didn’t know what the base chances of the things affected by Luck were and so couldn’t gauge how valuable the increases were.

  In contrast, his quest had told him he was going to need more Dexterity, and his fiancé had shown him he was going to need more Charisma. More than once he had put his foot in his mouth with Gianna, and he wanted to be able to read a room better than that. It was undoubtedly going to be helpful both in running Eris’ Rise and in being a prince of the realm.