I cast Walking Sleep to slow its attack speed, not because I thought it necessary, but because I wanted to see the spell in effect. It made the bear about 30% slower. My Agility was already high enough that I was at least as fast as the bear in close quarters. With my movement buff, I could probably outrun it even over flat ground. But I waited. It got close and lashed out to claw me.

  Stepping to the side was easy, as the bear’s attack seemed to come in slow motion. The bear seemed thrown off by how slow its attack was. Either that or the disease component of the spell made the beast feel sick. I rammed my spear into the side of its neck and twisted. Great gouts of blood poured out as I yanked the spear back. The bear had already been on its last leg HP wise, so this attack finished it.

  The XP I was awarded wasn’t anything special because they were lower level than me, but I still got some since I took out four monsters at once. Still, 125 XP was nothing to sneeze at. Compared to my days as a player, leveling as a monster seemed easy. Then again, I was sorta OP with the extra stats I had. Normally, a caster wouldn’t have half as much mana as I did, nor would they be so willing to fight with a melee weapon.

  I looted the corpses but didn’t get much of anything. From the skeletons, I got crude spears and bone chips. If I recalled correctly, the bone chips were an ingredient in some enchanting and alchemy. The spears were basically trash, so I left them where they were.

  Looking at the bear, it was obvious that I could use my skinning and butchery skills in order to gain the best loot, but I was more interested in XP right now, so I opted to just auto-loot. I gained 2 bear claws, and a burned bear fur. Apparently, the fire spell had partially ruined the loot, anyway.

  I trotted off, looking for more monsters to kill. The safest course was for me to stay on the outer edge of the valley. It would mean there were fewer mobs, but less XP at a safe pace was better. The problem was that I was feeling stronger and stronger. I wanted to push it.

  There was just an overwhelming urge to fight anything that stood in my way. I wanted to assert my dominance over all my enemies. I wanted to be king of this valley. Then I caught myself. Those were not reasoned thoughts. It seemed like the ogre rage could affect me in other ways.

  I had a moment there where it felt like my heart stopped in my chest. Just how much control was the system exerting over me already. I was 27.2% integrated. Did that mean that it could influence me a quarter of the time, or was there some other meaning?

  Having to second guess all my thoughts and motivations was going to suck. It was going to slow me down. But I couldn’t take anything for granted. For now, I was just going to assume that any powerful urge or emotion was suspect.

  Then I caught sight of another bear and I pushed that thought from my mind. It was time to get down to business. I ran forward while casting Root. For now, at least my mind was focused on the business of leveling.

  After eight more hours, I had learned a great deal about my abilities. But I also knew I wasn’t testing myself. I had killed eleven giant pincer beetles, sixteen grizzly bears, and three dozen skeletons. None of the fights had been hard as most of the monsters had been single kills.

  The sun was set, and I had only gained a total of 1,832 XP. While that was nearly enough to level up twice; it was dark and I worried that more powerful monsters would start coming out. My average fight lasted less than a minute, even being careful, and I was averaging eleven minutes between the fights.

  It only required seven seconds to regenerate my mana after casting Frostburn, which was my primary damaging spell. It was a signature spell and had gone up to Proficient 1. That was promising, since it meant it would likely keep scaling as I raised my level. Proficient was the tier of spells that followed basic and would take me up to level forty.

  The spell hadn’t changed at all. My level cap on it had just gone up. I hadn’t encountered it yet while playing, but one of the selling points of the game had been that even the simplest of spells or skills could eventually be evolved into a powerhouse. As it was, the damage from Frostburn wasn’t going to keep up with stronger opponents.

  Many of the bears had over seven hundred health and one casting of the spell only did at most a fifth of that in immediate damage, with another 105 points spread out over time. Maybe I was being greedy. It wasn’t like I wasn't able to solo this zone, so I shouldn’t complain.

  The lack of immediate stopping power had led to one other thing. I realized I was able to switch my buffs out quickly enough to make it practical to keep more offensive spells on my list. I switched Frost Rift out for Scale Skin. That allowed me to pepper enemies with a spell from a distance even while Frost Burn was doing its damage.

  I also got skill ups in Piercing Weapons to Proficient 1 and Mana Channeling to Proficient 2. Dodge went up to Basic 12, but that didn’t include an upgrade. I was thrilled when the other two skills did.

  You have become better at putting the pointy end in the enemy. One might even say that you are proficient now, just barely. Piercing damage: +43%. Attack accuracy with piercing weapons: +43%. Armor penetration with piercing weapons increased by 21%.

  The chance that your piercing attacks will cause the Bleeding Debuff has increased from 10% to 20%. Further, the number of times which you may stack this debuff has increased from 2 to 4.

  The messages continued to be snarky, but I could live with that. The damage percent per level went up and the same for accuracy. No change to armor penetration, but the increased bleeding debuff was already paying dividends.

  Mana channeling was even better.

  Your continued use of the mana channeling skill has pushed it up to the proficient tier. The cost of doubling the power of a spell has decreased from 300% Mana to 250% mana. The ratio continues for higher levels of increase.

  The sun was down now. That likely meant that I would find more undead and perhaps some stronger predators. So far, I had gotten the jump on every enemy I had to face, but that might not always stay true. My night vision was good enough to keep hunting and since I could return to the village just by casting home, I wanted to try my luck a little more.

  It was time to go big game hunting. So off I crept, as only an ogre can creep. Which is to say that I broke every dry stick on the ground that was even close to my feet and managed to generally make more noise than a wounded wildebeest. Still, I managed to find my target.

  There, at the base of one of the hills the valley was named after, was the primary monster. The giant had to be at least fifteen feet tall. It was hard to say for sure while he was seated with his back against a large rock. He was snoring deeply, and I almost felt bad about attacking him while he was asleep.

  Almost that is until I Assessed him.

  Hill Giant- Bear herder Level: 29

  HP: 1170

  Apparently, I wasn’t gonna get the extra information that I got from monsters that were lower level than me. It was asleep though, so how hard could this be. I had a routine down now. My buffs all had more than an hour left on them, so I was comfortable there. With my protection buff, I had over 1,000 HP. This guy couldn’t be that tough despite the level difference.

  So, I jumped right in. Well, actually I cast Root followed immediately by Frostburn. I knew it would take some time to kill this thing, but with Root to hold it in place, I had nothing to worry about. Except for the first time, I learned about why the spell wasn’t fool proof.

  The giant woke up thrashing about, just like any of us would if someone poured a bucket of ice-cold water on our head. Oh, and that water just happened to burn away at our skin. He howled and then stumbled to his feet. At first the roots held, but then even in the dark of night, I could see his muscles bulge. He pushed forward and ripped the wooden restraints right off.

  I felt a moment of shock go through me. I knew it was possible, but everything had gone so smoothly so far. I quickly cast Walking Sleep as I started backing up. Fortunately, the Root spell kept trying to grab at the giant. New roots sprang up and tangled his feet. He nearly tripped with every other step but continued to make his way toward me.

  The huge club he carried was not something I was interested in getting acquainted with, so I backpedaled and cast Frost Rift while waiting for Frostburn to complete its work. On a whim I cast Blinding Flash. It would have been too much to hope that the creature would be actually blinded by it, but at least it made him raise his arm to cover his eyes.

  Taking that opening, I streaked forward. Wolf Spirit gave me excellent mobility, and the roots continued to slow the giant, so I needed to take advantage. A fast thrust of my spear drove the tip of the magical weapon into the giant’s gut. It would be a painful wound and, as expected, he reacted. Only the fact that my spell had slowed his attack speed by 30% allowed me to dodge the backlash.

  I felt the whoosh of air over my head as the arm which had covered his eyes to protect against the light came swinging at me with club in hand. The damage notifications were popping up, but Frost Rift had done less than half damage. Hitting him with a spear had been like driving it into the side of a tree. It pierced in, but there was no sense of soft tissue.

  The only good news was that the DoT over time effects from the Bleeding Debuff I had just inflicted, along with Frostburn, were slowly ticking away at his health. It just wasn’t going fast enough. I recast my debuffs. There was no way I could risk him moving at full speed. Fighting the hill giant made me wonder if this is what the knights of Belchor had felt like while fighting an ogre. I was simply outmatched in terms of both reach and physical strength.

  Chapter 26- Adds

  A quick check of the giant’s remaining HP showed 928/1170. The bleed damage was taking 1 point per second and Frostburn added another 5 per second. At that rate, this was going to be a long fight. The giant’s long strides kept pushing me back even though its movement speed was cut in half by the roots.

  I invested an extra surge of mana and channeled until I had a double strength Frostburn ready to cast. I aimed it, trying to take out the creature’s eyes, but the height difference threw off my aim and it ended up hitting the giant’s chin. It bellowed in pain as the frost expanded over its throat and lips. I could only hope that would impede its breathing.

  Taking advantage of its reaction, I once again surged forward. This time the stomach wasn’t open, but I thrust my spear deep into the iron corded muscles of his thigh. My success emboldened me and took the extra time to twist with all my might, trying to tear the muscles and further hobble the creature.

  That extra twist bought it enough time to react. I felt the air driven from my lungs as its heavy club came smashing into my midsection. So mighty was the blow that I was flung ten feet away and saw 20% of my HP disappear in a single blow. I was reminded again how desperately I needed armor. Spell protection was great, but what I would have given for a shield or even a chainmail vest with a padded gambeson to help absorb some of that impact.

  Fortunately, the twist had resulted in another bleeding wound, so along with the double powered Frostburn, it was losing 12 HP per second. I just needed to hold out for another couple of minutes. But every bit of good luck seems to create its own bad luck. Whether from all the ruckus or because of the light from my spells, I soon found myself being swarmed by skeletons.

  None of them were a problem individually or even in small groups, but there were at least two dozen at once. They tried to smash me with maces, slash me with swords, poke me with spears, or tear at me with bony fingers. I swung about and used my spear as more of a quarter staff, just trying to create some space around myself.

  My efforts were hindered because I had to keep an eye on the hill giant. I couldn’t afford to be caught unawares. Thus, I kept having to move while fighting to push back the undead. I cast Flameburst in their midst, trying to make sure I wouldn’t be in the AoE and was gratified to see four of them burst apart never to rise again. Still, I was badly outnumbered and finding it to be hard to maintain my debuffs on the giant.

  Every time I took a second to cast a spell against it, I suffered several minor wounds from the skeletons. When my health had hit the halfway mark, I spared the mana to cast Regeneration on myself. It cost me minor wounds, but I had to cast it a second time. The stacking effect was enough to start reversing the amount of damage I was taking.

  Then the worst possible outcome occurred as I felt a shadow spear forged of necrotic magic drive into my chest. The chill of the grave swept over me and I knew a necromancer had joined the fight. That made sense, given how many undead were gathered in one place.

  I lost another hundred HP from that attack, but it had another effect, which was far worse. My healing had dropped from 24 per second to only 18. My mana was still over 80% full, but I had too many enemies mounting up. There was no time to channel a more powerful spell, so I could only pepper the base versions of my spells against the hill giant.

  He was gonna die. That wasn’t the question. The concern was how much damage I was gonna take from these skeletons while finishing him. I could switch to focusing on the skeletons, but that would leave me vulnerable to an attack from the hill giant. And I still haven’t found where the necromancer was. He or she was still hiding in the shadows.

  If I had better armor or some melee skills, I would have just counted on those to survive the skeletons long enough to kill the giant. Then it would be on to the necromancer. Likely, he would be soft and squishy if I could close with him. Instead, I took a gamble and moved, counting on my movement buff to get me a little clear space. I bolted further into the valley running between two of the hills.

  I was worried about getting more adds if I moved too far. Deeper inside the zone, the monsters were more densely packed from what I remembered, but I needed space to channel a spell. The question then was what to channel. An enhanced Flameburst would destroy the skeletons if I could charge it enough or an enhanced Frostburn would finish the giant.

  Eventually, the decision was made easy for me. I got fifty feet of space and saw all my enemies pursuing me. Even with roots impairing his movement, the hill giant was still pulling ahead of the shambling skeletons. So, I channeled extra mana into Frostburn and hit him with a triple power spell.

  I targeted his knee and hoped to bring him to the ground. This time my aim was better, and the spell went off just as I had planned. The initial blast of the spell consumed all but a sliver of the monster’s HP. But better yet, it caused him to lose his footing and plow into the ground.

  The skeletons behind him were already impaired by the trail of broken roots the giant left in his wake. But now most of them ran into his dying body. His final throes crushed several of them and damaged others. It also bought me the time for another empowered spell.

  I channeled enough mana into Flameburst to create a devastating blast. I was nervous as my mana hit the one third mark, but I had full health and even with the necromancer out there, it would be worth it if I could finish off most of these skeletons.

  The flames exploded just as I had intended and caught most of the remaining skeletons. Struggling to get past, the thrashing giant had already helped to deplete their HP, and the intense burst of fire did the rest. It unfortunately also lit up the darkness like a massive bonfire and I had to assume there would soon be other beasts coming to investigate.

  As vulnerable as that made me, it also stripped away the shadows which had been cloaking the necromancer. I saw a dark elf in black robes. Clichéd, yes, but he seemed caught off guard by the loss of his covering. I ran towards him as fast as I could.

  He didn’t take long to recover, and began to cast a spell. I braced myself to be hit by the shadow spears again, but instead, he had opted to channel a spell. To me, it seemed as though he had misjudged my speed, because I was upon him by the time that he finished his spell.

  I never stopped moving. I drove my spear into the necromancer. I could feel whatever protective spell he had in place, resist and then crumble before the weight and momentum of my nearly thousand-pound ogre frame. All that force was focused behind the tip of my spear as I drove it into his gut and then watched a spray of gore behind him as the blow went right through him.

  HP are supposed to be HP no matter who they belong to, but the game still manages to capture some elements of physics. The small body of the dark elf was absolutely shattered, and all but torn in half by the force of my charge. A quick Assess performed even as I slammed him into the side of a hill while he was still impaled upon my spear revealed his power.

  Dark Elf Necromancer Level: 25

  HP: 19/350 HP

  He was almost dead from my single attack. To be fair, there was a great deal which just hit him. It reminded me once again why ogres were almost all melee type monsters. Against smaller humanoid bodies, our might was just devastating. Still, he clung on and grinned with blood-stained lips.

  “I shall rise again. He is the lord of death. But your soul shall be consumed today. I win.” His words were punctuated by bloody coughing between every couple of words. He seemed to be doing the dying baddie thing, but then I saw his eyes glance behind me and my head turned to follow his line of sight.