Master Of None

The reaction of Walker taking a battle stance was instant. Everyone else prepared to face whatever might be around. Midnight had smelled the same thing while the royal dragons just stood still as their dragonkin surrounded them. Any monster on the ground was too weak for them to worry about. Why would a royal dragon worry about some small thing?

Normally, the dragonkin would fight to protect the village and keep the territories clean. That Was how it worked unless a powerful threat arrived, only then would the royal dragons have to make a move. Meanwhile, they would be gathering their mana and understanding the depth of the affinities.

Walker’s stance was facing toward the direction the slightest breeze had blown the smell of blood from. The musky smell mixed in was clear whatever monster had carried that scent of blood, but he couldn’t see it through the trees.

What Walker could see was the alternating coloration of greens and browns that made up the grasses and trees. However, it was clear that there was a gray figure moving through the trees, it was just not clear enough to make out the exact monster that it was. Luckily, the all around appraisal skill just needed to see some of it, not all of it.

’Road gremlin

The road gremlin is a distant relative of the goblin race. They were once goblins before fully falling and accepting their madness and becoming true monsters of their own species. Now that they are their own species, they are considered a great pestilence on the Sigil continent.

The road gremlin hunts long trails, mountain roads, and anywhere well traveled by sentient races. This is so that they can ambush the weakest prey and steal it away to consume. They will often live in groups of twenty or thirty due to their high ability to breed.

They are less than rats when it comes to the food chain since they do not develop fat bodies that provide nutrition. However, they have sharp teeth and very sharp claws. Their spindly bodies also allow them to easily climb trees and drop down on prey.’

While some goblins had come with them on the ships, they had all remained with the ships since they were not the best at exploration and battle. They were also one of the monster races that had not been with other races for as long. Therefore, they needed more time to become more eloquent. That was the same for the gray haired spiders. They too were a little too rough to meet a race and form diplomatic relationships.

Seeing that it had been spotted, one of the road gremlins tried to run away but was easily pierced by a quick arrow from Gil. Unfortunately, this had set off a chain. The other road gremlins had fallen from trees and started attacking the front section of the trail trying to get whatever they could. Unfortunately for them, the dragonkin saw them as nothing but a nuisance.

The immediate reaction of battle was quick and road gremlins began to fall as if they were just straw dummies for training.

Walker had reacted first with Midnight and Onyx. This put him at the front of battle. His eternal orb had taken a staff form and a single stomp down with it had channeled the earth elemental mana around to attack.

Spikes of earth shot upward causing three of the road gremlins to fall to their death in seconds. Meanwhile, Midnight had taken in a large breath. The earth mana that Walker had used was thick around him so Midnight Had taken some of that and the wind elemental mana together. With one burst of her breath, sand flowed at the road gremlins that Walker had not defeated.

The sand was not some weak little breath attack. This was a fusion of elemental manas that Midnight had trained. She had sat for a long time learning to mix elemental manas near her heart. She could add her flames but chose not to. They could burn down all the grasses and trees, she was being smart.

The sand caused the road gremlins to effectively be bombarded by the worst sandstorm possible. It tore at their bodies before completely suffocating them. This left Onyx to find the few that managed to hide from Midnight’s attacks. A single slap of his tail was all he needed to handle them and keep moving on.

The ambush had been quick and instant. Yet, it was over in seconds because the gremlins were foolish and mindless monsters. They had the chance to flee even before they had seen the group. If they had let their senses act for them, they would have sensed the power of the dragons and soldiers around. They would have been able to run away and live another day. Instead, a single one had fled when it saw them while the others had fallen to attack them regardless.

”These things don’t even have a use.” Gil looked at the spindly bones and didn’t even want to try cutting away the bodies to make one of the road gremlin bones in to arrows. They were too weak. It would be worthless to even attempt it. A waste of time.

”They are just rats. That’s what the appraisal said. Less than rats. That means they are a common and annoying pest here. We should send more scouts to beat them as we travel.” Walker sent this message down the line to everyone. The few dragonkin that Mordant had with him nodded and moved to act on this. Such weak opponents could be handled quickly while anything else would be appraised first.

”So, are you going to tell us?” Remey stretched and rolled her shoulders after having beaten a few of the road gremlins herself. It wasn’t even a warm up to deal with them. Just a common courtesy to the new continent they were exploring. Exterminating pests was a gift to everyone.

”I am interested as well. What did you learn that helped you before? I could feel something.” Su was sure that it was Walker’s understandings that had changed. She had felt it the same as Midnight and Onyx.

”Instincts. There’s a passive skill called instinct release. Anyone can use it. It might be slightly different depending on race, but it lets you release your instincts so that you can use them better. I can sense mana and a few other things better. Like my sense of smell, I could smell blood and well, monsters.” Walker felt awkward saying this since he knew it was most likely how Onyx and Minfight sensed things already.

”I see, it is similar to how my senses are changing the more I grow in to my bond with Midnight.” Midnight huffed in approval as Su quickly realized that they were becoming closer and more similar when it came to sense of smell and other things. Midnight was always happier to get closer to her family. Su was her sister too!

”So you are saying that you are going to start acting like dragons more?” This seemed to snap a few of the royal dragon’s head toward Walker. They were clearly still keeping some of their senses on what Walker might be doing. However, their main focus was elemental manas.

”Somewhat. Just my senses for now. But I can also feel mana better too. I have Fleur to thank for that. She had been helping me all the time and now I have something to show for it.” This had made Walker the happiest. He could clearly feel the subtle touches that Fleur made to mana all around him. She had always been doing this under his nose. It made his heart feel just a little more full.

”We should move.” Alice was the voice of reason here. She saw that everyone could stop for hours and talk about this. But she knew that those behind them would be stopped as well. They had a goal and she was sure that she could help them stick to it.

”Thanks for the reminder. Alice is right, we can all try and share the skill as we learn it. I still only partially understand what it is doing. I will probably stay up late when we stop to meditate on it.” Walker was honest. He believed that they all should try to learn it. The system had even said that everyone could learn it. That alone would make it a great boon for not only the whole party but also every race in genesis.

”You can show me after you make yourself useful and show me what herbs I should be picking. We have passed by so many while you were spacing out.” Remey immediately started walking but kept Walker close this time. She was not letting him go back into his own head to think.

….

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