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Levelling Up The Weakest System Blame
Alexei slumped down to the ground, his back pressed against the trunk of an old oak tree. He was no hero. An entire city had been wiped out, and it was all his fault. If he’d done anything differently and finished the job instead of taking her captive, then maybe none of this would have happened. Thousands of people, if not more, would still be alive. Neave sat down next to him and leaned into his side. It was a small comfort, but comfort nonetheless. “You shouldn’t be blaming yourself for this,” Risa said, her voice hollow. Alexei looked up at her and saw tears rolling down her dirt-stained cheeks. “It’s not your fault,” She went on, “It’s that bastard Administrar and the ones who he sent after you that are to blame, not the other way around. He’s the one you should be directing your anger at.” “I don’t have anger right now, Risa,” Alexei sighed, “All I’ve got is sorrow for those who have died, so many innocent lives.” “Aye, and so you should,” Risa agreed, she crouched down
Levelling Up The Weakest System Side of The Road
A half days walk and a shift from day to night found Alexei, Risa and Neave sitting a ways off the main road around a fire under the first full moon of spring. Alexei and Neave had managed to hunt out a couple of hares, while Risa had used her magery to identify a few mushrooms and tubers that were safe to eat. Alexei had then used his Power Divine, which had been constantly levelling up ever since he’d first received it, to bring together the elements to make a very basic cooking pot to hang over a fire. He’d then filled the pot with water and the ingredients and had set it to simmer for a few hours. The resulting stew wasn’t really anything special, not in comparison to the meals that they’d grown used to in the Assassin’s Guild castle, but after a long day walking it was exactly what he needed. From the way that Neave and Risa were tucking into their own bowls he figured that the same could be said about both of them.“This is almost reminiscent of what I wanted Neave and I’s
Levelling Up The Weakest System Side of The Fire
Alexei, Neave and Risa were all riding doubled up with the men who had ridden across them while they were eating their rabbit stew. It had taken some more convincing, but in the end, the leader of the four men had agreed not to ride on to Estie.Alexei and Risa had managed to convince them that it was a lost cause and that they only wanted to find somewhere warm for them to rest their heads for the night before they moved on toward Alandria. The men explained that the town they came from had taken them almost all day to ride from and that they had set up camp in a nearby cave the night before that they could use as a base to travel to and fro if they had been collecting survivors. In a way, Alexei supposed that plan had paid off for them, though the only survivors that they had managed to collect from the disaster zone were the three of them. The four travellers, Alexei and his companions all dismounted their horses before entering the cave. Alexei had half been expecting a group
Levelling Up The Weakest System Death Of A Demon Lord
Sleep was an odd place for Alexei. He had been dragged out of his own dreams so many times by the Demon Lord that he always seemed to know when he was dreaming and when he was actually awake. That was how he knew, as he and Risa shared a bath together, that he was not in reality at all no matter how much he wished it to be. Slowly his memory returned to him, he had wanted to speak to the Demon Lord to appraise him of the situation and to get some advice on what to do next. Usually, the Demon Lord was more than willing to pull him down into the depths of his strange dreamscape existence, especially when Alexei needed help with some kind of help with an Eldreth related matter. The fact that the Demon Lord hadn’t immediately made contact was concerning, to say the least. Fortunately, Alexei had been pulled out of his own dreams so many times that he also knew exactly how to exit them himself. He’d just have to be careful about navigating the astral plane alone. He centred himself
Levelling Up The Weakest System Taking Stock
When Alexei woke the next morning he was, as expected, filled with renewed purpose. Risa and Neave were already up and sitting out in the spring morning sun, they clearly hadn’t wanted to wake him or the men from the village. He got up carefully so he would make as little noise as possible and joined the two outside. “Hey you two,” He whispered, “Nice morning, all things considered.” The sky was mostly clear, though there was a strange haze in the air that Alexei could only assume was smoke drifting over from the destroyed city of Estie and the volcano that now dominated it. “Yeah, out here it’s almost possible to forget what happened yesterday,” Risa sighed, “I think I’d like that, you know, to be able to forget.” Alexei nodded, he knew exactly what she meant. Neave seemed to as well if the way she latched onto his hand was anything to go by. “Well, unfortunately, I’ve got some more things to tell you that you’re probably going to want to forget,” Alexei sighed. “What do you
Levelling Up The Weakest System Return to Alandria
Winsted and his four companions had been more than happy to transport Alexei, Neave and Risa back to Alandria. Their own town had all but died out and moved back to the capital after the destruction of the tavern, something that Alexei still felt secretly guilty for, so moving with them and joining up with their wives and children in the city after dropping Alexei and his friends off only seemed like the logical choice. They hadn’t spoken much during the journey. The mood was as sombre and dark as the day, which had become increasingly overcast as time wore on. By the time it had started raining Alexei was sure that everyone just wanted to reach Alandria and bed down for the night in a tavern. That was what he wanted, anyway. Coming through the gates of Alandria felt a lot like coming home. Alexei had enjoyed roaming around the countryside and seeing new sites, even if much of that had been tinged with disaster, but Alandria was the city that he knew the best even if most of tha
Levelling Up The Weakest System The Prodigal Son
Alexei looked up at the gates of the Academy and he couldn’t help but feel as if the entirety of the Academy was staring down back at him. That was a ridiculous notion, of course. The Academy itself was a building, and buildings had no eyes to stare at him with. Even if they did, he was wearing his shadowy assassins' robes and looked like just about anyone who came on a pilgrimage to say thanks to those who were at the Academy for sacrificing their lives to training and fighting against the Shades. “If only they knew,” Alexei muttered to himself. Nothing was as it seemed in the Academy, and that was going to end tonight, he was sure of it. He gathered a quivering ball of enhanced air in the palm of his hand, channelling the twin powers of his Power Divine and his weapocraft-based magery and then let it fly free. The wind hit the gate hard and ripped it off its hinges before flinging it across the courtyard. The last time he’d gone through those gates it’d been with his head hu
Levelling Up The Weakest System Cards On The Table
As Alexei spoke and explained everything that he’d been through since leaving the Academy, the Administrar simply sat and listened with a growing wide-eyed wonder. Here was a man who he had thought was weak and worthless, with a Power Divine that had amounted to nothing. A failure. A stain on his reputation as Administrar. Yet he had become so much more than that, more than any Initiate that had ever come before him. Harnessing not just his own Power Divine, but intricate Magery, the power of the Demon Lord and the power of Weapocraft all at once?Four individual and bespoke powers, all contained within one person. It was enough to make his head spin. No one should have been able to contain all that power, and yet there Alexei was, sitting in his office chair as if the past few months had never even occurred at all. And then there were the other things he spoke about. The darker things. The things that would make anyone's stomach churn and hair stand up on end. The death of
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- Levelling Up The Weakest System
Return of The Proto Lord
After his last encounter with the Proto Lord Alexei had never wanted to hear the hoarse croaking laughter of the creature ever again. Now that he had the hairs on the back of his neck and his arms were all standing to attention and every fiber of his being was telling him to flee, run as far away as he could, and never look back. But he couldn’t do any of that. He had a mission to complete, people to save, and a kingdom to protect. “Show yourself, Proto Lord!” Alexei called out, his staff held defensively in preparation to ward off any attacks, “I’m not the man you faced before, I’ll take you out myself this time.” “So you say,” The Proto Lord wheezed from somewhere in the dark, “And yet you still bring so many users of the Power Divine to fight alongside you. So many snacks for me to feast upon.”That was the final straw for Alexei. With a pulse of arcane power, Alexei slammed his staff down onto the ground. A sphere of light erupted out from where he stood, a magery spell desi
- Levelling Up The Weakest System
Manifest
Nerves had seeped into the hearts of the men that Alexei and Harold had chosen to take with them into the underground sanctum of the Proto Lord the moment they took their first steps into the tunnel system that the creature had made its home. They all looked to be strong and full of heart, but Alexei could sense it. The fear was electric and it was all he could do not to get caught up in the worry himself. Instead, he drew his staff and allowed it to shift forms into that of a magery wand, perfect to be used in enclosed situations and easier to maneuver with so many bodies around. With a flex of his will, Alexei summoned a ball of light at the tip of the wand and sent it out ahead of the group. It illuminated the dank depths of the tunnel that they were slowly descending into. Once upon a time, Alexei could have imagined the tunnel being used for mining and most likely to serve as a lower down access port to the well that he had originally sensed the malaise of the Proto Lord seep
- Levelling Up The Weakest System
A New Team
As Alexei explained what the Proto Lord was to Harold and the other members of the Royal Defence Corps he could tell that their willingness to fight such a creature was waning further and further. Alexei could understand. After being told to go to the front line and expecting to die in combat defending the kingdom the shades had all disappeared. That had given them all a second chance at living. Being told that they instead had to fight a being that was well on its way to becoming the next Demon Lord? Something that, just like the shades, could kill you and then perhaps use you to fight the rest of your friends? That wasn’t something that a lot of people were keen on. Harold, though, was a brave man and always had been. “Very well,” He said as Alexei came to the end of his explanation, “If that is the case then this so-called Proto Lord must fall before the Proto part of the wretched thing's name becomes Demon instead.“I will not order anyone to join myself or Alexei in this f
- Levelling Up The Weakest System
Ancient Evil
Alexei placed his hand onto the Warp Gate and sent a pulse of magery through the system. He’d never actually had to operate one of the things before, but thanks to his more innate relationship with magery it was a bit like opening a book and simply reading from the pages. He placed his palm onto the stone and it fed information directly to him and allowed him to open a temporary link between the gate he was standing next to and the gate that was back in Alandria. It opened with a sputter at first and then, as Alexei made the link between the gates more solid, it blazed into life with a swirling blue glow. “You really are full of surprises now, aren’t you,” Harold said with a shake of his head, he couldn’t believe how different his friend had become compared to the last time he had seen the man. “Just a bit of advanced magery,” Alexei shrugged, “What did you expect me to do when I got kicked out of the Academy, go become a merchant somewhere?”“That probably would have been the sm
- Levelling Up The Weakest System
Royal Defence Corps
Alexei worked his way through the woods until he was able to catch up with the soldiers of the Royal Defence Corps. These were all men and women who had gone through the training at the Academy and come out the other end, each of them with a Power Divine powerful enough for the previous Demon Lord to want to absorb it. Perfect for fighting against a Proto Lord who hadn’t fully come into the powers that Eldreth was offering them. At first, Alexei wasn’t sure who he should approach, but then he noticed someone who looked just a little bit familiar. Without any doubts, Alexei was sure the man he saw walking in the centre of the column was none other than his old friend from the Academy, Harold. “Harold!” He exclaimed, “Is that you?” The column of marching soldiers froze instantly, like a rabbit caught in the path of an oncoming dragonhorse, before turning on Alexei with their powers at the ready. It took only a moment for Harold to realise who had called out to him. “A… Alexei?!
- Levelling Up The Weakest System
Good News
“Okay, wish me luck you two,” Alexei said, he was standing in front of a Warp Gate, one that Risa had told him led to a town that was very close to the front. Neave wrapped her arms around him as best she could and he returned it by holding her close. “You better come back safely, yeah?” Risa said, she held his gaze with a stern look. “Hey, if the Shades are running wild then you have my promise that I’ll be jumping right back into that Warp Gate,” Alexei said, “This is a recon mission, nothing more nothing less. Promise.”She gave him a critical eye, “You know, every time you’ve ever said that you’re just going to look at something or do a bit of recon you’ve come super close to dying.” “Yeah, but those times I had no idea what I was going into, this time it’s either going to be one of two things, and only one of those two things could actually be dangerous. Pretty good odds if you ask me,” Alexei said with a grin, though he could tell he was only annoying Risa with his banter.
- Levelling Up The Weakest System
Grief
Waking up in the morning Alexei realised that, despite everything that was going on, he actually felt pretty good. Not only was the threat of the Demon Lord technically dealt with, he’d also met with the Administrar and had basically engineered a situation where the man would no longer be able to send people after him. All things said and done, that was two of his major problems dealt with already, even if he did still plan to get his revenge on the Administrar in one way or another. The man couldn’t be allowed to continue in his post, not after he had sacrificed so many Initiates to the Shade Front for no good reason. When everything had concluded and everyone was safe, Alexei intended to go to the Royal Household and speak to the Emperor, perhaps he would listen to reason, if Alexei could get an audience with the man of course. Alexei pulled himself out of bed, wrapped a towel around his waist, and walked off to the shower room. He shivered as the cold water streamed onto his
- Levelling Up The Weakest System
One Last Stew
“So, let me get this straight,” Lyla said, “You’re going all the way to the front to maybe take on a massive Shade Army that you have no hope of actually fighting against just in case they’ve gone wild now that the Demon Lord is actually properly dead.” It was a pretty succinct way of explaining the situation, but Alexei was glad that Lyla had grasped the broad strokes of what was going on. “Yeah, pretty much,” Alexei shrugged, “Though I have a feeling that it’s not going to be nearly as bad as you’ve just made it sound. In fact, I think it’s going to be a wasted trip, but a necessary one just in case.” “A wasted trip?” Lyla asked. “Well, after first meeting the Demon Lord and being given a sliver of his powers I’ve always been able to sort of… you know, sense them,” Alexei said, “Just as a kind of dark fuzz off to the eastern border. Can’t feel that anymore.” “What, as in they’re just gone?” “That’s what it feels like, yeah,” Alexei said, “It feels like the Demon Lord had one l
- Levelling Up The Weakest System
Lyla
While Alexei had made it seem as if he were going to be running off to the front lines as fast as he could, there was one thing that he needed to take care of before he left Alandria again. He was sure that if he left the city without at least swinging by The Trout’s Gills at least once then Lyla would have probably ripped his head off with her inhuman beastkin strength. Once again Alexei was struck by a distinct sense of de ja vu. The day had receded into night, with the final glimmers of the twilight sun just about peaking over the very top of the mountain. It was dark, and the streets of Alandria had drawn to a near-empty silence. The only thing that guided his way was the lamplight from the many torches that hung off of the sides of various buildings. The water lapped at the underside of boats and barges alike, and he knew that somewhere deep down under the water there was the body of the very first assassin that he had dealt with, now likely stripped of flesh to the bone by
