Might as Well

Looking into the dead, and incredibly angry eyes of the being in front of him, Sam couldn’t help but shudder. Intellectually, he knew he was in a tutorial area, and he was capable of defeating the shadow spirit (helpfully supplied by his inherited memories), but thanks to the high fidelity of the game, and the sheer genius of the developers he was feeling the spirit’s aura.

And what he was feeling told him that the being in front of him was ready for murder.

Though he felt it was unlucky, a detached part of his mind noted that the presence of a shadow spirit possessing the bandit leader’s body explained how the gang managed to be so successful and why they had decided to take over the town.

Shadow spirits were necromantic constructs, born from an amalgamate of emotions, mostly negative, though according to his memories there were a few that were born from ’good’ emotions, and they were no less dangerous than those born from negative emotions. And they always developed some kind of grudge or vice, no matter what.

Seemingly, this one’s vice wasn’t greed, as it would have attacked the moment Sam found the lever to open the door to the vault. To Sam, it was more about the pain it caused to people, as it clearly was content to ride along in the body of the bandit leader, directing things literally from the shadows.

And now he was about to cross swords, ruining whatever plans it had.

‘Great, just what I needed…’ he grimaced, but then straightened up. All was not lost yet.

“What do you want, spirit?”

The dark flames on the dead body flickered with anger, and Sam could feel the chill in the air. He began to slowly and carefully move his hand towards the grip of his sword.

The eyes on the flame narrowed, not at his hand, but still at him.

“You. Dead.” it spat, anger coloring its voice.

“Whatever for?” he asked, intent on stalling as long as possible while giving a glance at Lucky who was standing next to him, tail down, and growling fiercely at the spirit, seemingly ready to jump at the moment’s notice.

The eyes on the spirit narrowed even further, and Sam expected an attack to come instead of an answer, but the spirit still answered.

“You ruined my plan, human. Of course, I will kill you!”

“What plans?”

The spirit just scoffed in answer.

“You think I’d tell a human my plans? Dream on!” Hearing the answer, Sam tightened his grip on his sword and began to move his feet into something resembling a stance in preparation.

“Can’t we talk about it?” Nobody should accuse him of not trying diplomacy.

The spirit, however, just slightly opened his shark-like mouth, showing that beneath of multitude of triangle teeth was just a gaping chasm, and grinned. However, the grin was not the fun time grin, but one that sent another chill down Sam’s spine.

“Sure, I’ll talk about it with your dead body!” came the cry, and with that the spirit launched at him, sword raised high, leaving Sam only enough time to cry out in alarm, and hastily pull out his own sword, raise it horizontally in front of him, blocking the spirit’s strike.

There was a clang, and the spirit's grin grew.

Sam grunted, then spat out an order. “Lucky, back off. Wait for my signal.” Then, with great exertion of strength pushed the spirit’s sword back a little, then without taking his eyes off the spirit, he lashed out with his leg.

His leg landed on the thigh of the dead body, and while it wouldn’t have hurt an adult human, he still saw the spirit flinch a little.

Smiling viciously, he used the minuscule distraction to fully push the spirit away and then transformed the movement into a slashing attack aiming at his opponent’s arm.

Sadly, the spirit was competent enough to meet his attack with his defense, but Sam didn’t care much.

He knew something that would definitely lead to his victory.

There were two types of possession. The first one was where the spirit or being doing the possession would destroy the mind of the possessed, thereby fully taking over their body. And the second one is where they would possess an individual but leave their mind intact. Living in their bodies as passengers.

And now that the bandit leader himself was dead, the shadow spirit had to transition from manipulating his mind to fully possessing his body.

Fortunately for Sam, that was where its weakness came into play.

Possessing a body wasn’t easy. There was a transitioning period where the spirit or being possessed would be extremely sensitive to things affecting the body as it harmonized with it.

The grin on the spirit’s face dipped a little, and the viciousness in Sam’s increased, but they were still locked into a sword fight, while Lucky was on the side watching with eyes that promised pain to the spirit if it managed to harm Sam.

The next few seconds were a rush for Sam.

They clashed with their swords, attacking and parrying. Sometimes dodging the attacks. Despite this, it didn’t take long for Sam to realize that after too many nicks that would have cut him if it weren’t for his Mana Shield, he was the inferior swordsman.

And by the look on the spirit’s face, it also realized.

It smiled cruelly and began to chuckle.

“It seems this is where we end things.”

Sam just raised an eyebrow.

“You think?”

“I know,” came the self-assured answer from the spirit.

“Bring it on, you up-jumped fart!” yelled Sam, while making eye contact with Lucky.

The spirit let out an incoherent yell and jumped at Sam, intent on severing his head from his body. Sam thankfully managed to raise his sword to defend against the attack, but with the way his body was rattled, and the amount of mana that was consumed from his Mana Shield, he knew he didn’t have much time.

Looking at the swords, he shuffled a little back, letting his sword slide down a little, then with a small twist, he locked the guards of the two swords together.

There was a moment of surprise in the spirit’s eye, but Sam didn’t care.

“Now, Lucky!” he exclaimed, then reached deep within, grabbing a good chunk of his mana, and began to ready it.

The wolf launched himself from against the wall of the corridor, jaw ready to bite down, eyes alight with anticipation.

The spirit, to his detriment, looked away from Sam at the charging wolf.

Sam used this moment to step back and to the side, untangling the swords, which caused the spirit to lean forward a little, making the spirit work for its balance for a moment. Unfortunately for the spirit, Lucky chose this exact second to land on its back, aiming his bite at the spirit's throat.

Making a note to talk with Lucky about good targets for ambush attacks, Sam didn’t hesitate. The moment the spirit fully lost its balance due to Lucky jumping on his back, he stepped forward, mana ready, and sword angled just at the right angle.

Taking the mana he gathered, he crudely pushed it out of his body, wincing at the small damage it did, and with willpower he didn’t know he had, he directed the mana to flow around the edge of his sword.

Then he watched, almost in slow motion, as the spirit in the dead bandit leader’s body fell forward, body wide open, and its heart lining up perfectly with the tip of Sam’s sword.

There was a moment when Sam saw the spirit’s eyes widen, and felt mana being gathered by the spirit, but it was too late.

His sword pierced the body, and blood, still capable of flowing, began to escape, Sam let go of the control of the mana he used.

The mana, relieved to be not controlled anymore, used the opportunity to go anywhere. Sadly, for the spirit, most of the sword was inside the body it possessed.

Sam stood still in the corridor, with the wide-eyed Lucky, looking in disbelief at the remaining parts of the bandit leader, which mostly consisted of part of the pelvis and everything under it. The remaining body was everywhere.

On the walls, on the floor, and on the ceiling, and most importantly it was covering both Lucky and Sam.

The only thing moving still was a black cloud that was half fog, half flames, flickering with angry light, dark enough that it was sucking in the light, hovering over the scattered remains of the bandit leader.

Taking a deep breath, Sam carefully swept something he didn’t want to think about from his face, and gulped.

“I need to be careful with that…”

Lucky just huffed in annoyance, while it carefully walked around the corpse and once again stood next to him.

Sam stepped forward, observing the spirit, and saw it was breaking up. Spirits like this one, according to his inherited memories, were weak enough that if they spend enough time in a body, possessing it, then they would become almost one with them, not having the power to stay in control and also stay a separate entity.

And the destruction of most of the body caused the spirit to almost fracture. The cloud of shadows and darkness in front of him moved around, changed its shape, and a few times he saw a face trying to form, but in the end, it vanished just as fast as it appeared.

And now Sam was in a pickle. He had no way to fully destroy the spirit. But he also didn’t want to leave it around, as it would more than likely reform while also holding a grudge against him.

Then he almost slapped himself.

Sam quickly opened his inventory and began looking around in his inventory. He had bought a few things at the beginning, mostly odds and ends, but one of them was a set of vials, with very strong stoppers that adventurers used to collect ingredients when they were out in the wild.

He took one of them, flipped the lid off, and reached out with his mana gently, forming it into a net that he then threw around the almost vibrating cloud of darkness.

Then, ever so slowly, he began to reel it in, funneling it into the bottle.

He didn’t know how long it took, but the moment the lid was put in place, he found himself drenched in sweat, shivering, and sitting on the ground, Lucky looking at him in worry, and his Mana pool dangerously close to empty.

But he still smiled, because there was a notification in front of him.

[Congratulations! You successfully captured the Lesser Shadow Spirit (Fractured)!]

Ignoring the other notifications now, he sat there for a moment, catching his breath, then slowly stood up, and now that he wasn’t hyper-focused on the attacking spirit, he could finally hear the sounds coming from the direction of the hall.

Apparently, the bandits were waking up.

It only took him a few seconds to put together a plan for escaping. He took time to take out a clean cloak, and with Lucky following him, he began to run towards the hall.

Before reaching the door, he took a deep breath, then smashed through them and immediately began yelling.

“Attack! Attack! Somebody is attacking the boss!”

Then, without giving them time to think, he grabbed the nearest bandit, pulled him up from the ground, and basically tossed him towards the door.

Then he continued yelling while pulling, pushing people towards the door that lead to the vault while he was slowly heading towards the corridor that lead to the exit.

“What?” “Who—” “What’s going on?” “Where are my boots?” “Mommy!”

The hall instantly turned chaotic, as bandits began to stagger towards the door, and yelling at each other.

Sam, seeing as the chaos was well on his way, stopped yelling and began running towards the exit, while reaching for his sword and the detonator for the explosives.

He barreled through the door that led to the forest, surprising the still sleeping guard, but he didn’t give him the time to react, as his sword immediately struck down, ending the bandit’s life.

The moment the bandit’s body hit the floor, he pushed the button on the detonator, throwing it behind him, not wanting anything on him that would link him to this place, and began running at full sprint towards where he knew the river was, Lucky hot on his heels.

They were almost at the edge of the ward that constrained the sound in the area when he heard the first explosion, which was soon followed by many more, while the ground began to slightly shake under him.

Despite that, he didn’t stop running.

They didn’t stop until they reached the gently babbling river that cut through the forest.

And the moment Sam stopped, he fell to his knees, exhausted. Lucky, panting with his tongue out, simply jumped into the river and began to wash himself off.

Sam, taking a minute to catch his breath, did the same after chucking off everything he was wearing. Shirt, pants, armor, and cloak. And to Lucky’s delight, began to play with the wolf in the surprisingly not ice cold waters of the river.

After making sure they were as clean as possible, Sam quickly put together a fire, throwing his soiled clothing on it, then sat next to it, with Lucky lying on his belly, munching on meat scraps, and began to review his notifications while he was drying.

[Congratulations! You defeated a Lesser Shadow Spirit!]

[Thanks to the spirit being well above your level, you and your companion receive bonus experience!]

[You are now level 9!]

[Thanks to your quick thinking, you managed to surpass a stronger enemy, you gained +1 AGI!]

[Thanks to your spontaneous planning, you gained +1 WIS!]

[You gained 4 Unassigned status points!]

[Lucky is now level 8!]

Chuckling a little, at the comments for level-ups, Sam checked Lucky’s status screen and when he saw that there was still only one skill, he changed to viewing his own and assigned the new points, two to Perception and another two to Wisdom.

Then he began to review the other notifications.

[Mana Shield reached level 17!]

[Controlled Mana Shield has reached level 1!]

[You successfully broke through with a skill!]

[Basic Sword Mastery reached level 10 and upgraded into Intermediate Sword Mastery!]

[Intermediate Sword Mastery: Level 0/15 (0%) (Passive) Shows that the person is more than capable of wielding a sword. You’ve mastered the basics of the sword. It is time to improve upon it. Increases the damage done with swords, and decreases slightly the mana required for sword related skills.]

[You gained the Stable Stance skill!]

[Stable Stance: Level 0/5 (0%) (Passive) Makes your stance when wielding a sword more stable. Enemies will have to use more power to unbalance your stance.]

[Pinpoint Accuracy reached level 4!]

[Intermediate Mana Control reached level 2!]

[Companion Sense reached level 5!]

[Mana Sense reached level 7!]

[Multitasking reached level 2!]

[Calm Heart reached level 2!]

Smiling at his gains and ignoring the notification about the guard he killed, Sam dismissed the status screen, then seeing as he was more than dry enough, took out another set of stolen clothes, dressed himself, and doused the flames of his fire with the water from the river, then buried the remains as much as possible, and then tiredly began walking towards Greenwood.

He was exhausted, but logging out in the forest, just after he blew up a small mountain wasn’t the best idea.

He reached the town by the time the sun was setting. He greeted the guard, then tiredly he dragged his body to the Green Stump inn. Sam barely had the energy to give Sarah a quick wave before he entered his room and fell face first into his bed.

In the real world, feeling the same tiredness, he removed his helmet, and left the room to wash his face, then just like in the game, he fell into his bed and was asleep in minutes.