CHAPTER 14

I don’t exactly why school keeps forcing students to play recorder. It’s useless, stupid, and not helping me in any way. I can’t read the musical notes but the syllabus kept being shoved down our throats. Why? Is this a conspiracy to break our mind with recorders? Is the recorder industry lobbied the governments?

That aside, what’s the point of this harmonica? Both of my subclasses are multipurpose. Surely that the Bard can do it too. I feel sorry for the Bard because they can’t practice it to save themselves. If Nostrazeus attacked me when I first came here, I would be dead too. Even just now, I was hit by him. It wasn’t for my Ambrousian, I would’ve died.

The next question will be: how does a subclass works when it depends on a tool? Do the multipurpose aspects get divided into the person and the tool? That seems unfair. In my case, I don’t need to worry if someone steals something from me. But in this Bard’s case, they’ll need to keep track of it every single second or they’ll lose some of their most powerful features. I can’t imagine what it feels like to be worried that someone might take my hands away without me noticing it.

Should I try the harmonica? On one hand, I must know what it can do so that I can adjust my strategy around it if needed. On the other hand, that might tip off my location to Nostrazeus. Dilemma dilemma.

Before anything bad happens, I activate my Dwarvel’s ability on one arm. Then, I put the harmonica on the arm. With some metal bending trick, I can cover the harmonica without damaging it. Now, I don’t have to worry about it goes missing.

Ah! I need to change the harmonica’s position. I need to place it on the inside of my forearm. There we go! All set and ready! With this, I don’t have to worry about accidentally breaking the harmonica when I need to block an attack.

What can a Bard do?

From my understanding, a Bard can inspire the other player. That’s the flavor. In gameplay, they’ll usually gives a bonus to some of the players. Some can do defensive boost, some offensive. But from what I understand, that has nothing to do with the musical instruments. That’ll usually depend on the Bard themselves. They are the source of the inspiration.

Bard is also known to be... adult-oriented. I have no idea where this stereotype came from, but I’m glad that I don’t have it as a Sorcerer. Think about it. A Sorcerer’s body is more experimental than a Bard. In one subclass, I can change the shape of my metallic limbs or heat it up. In the other subclass, I can create steam. Think of the possibilities especially if I combine both! I have trial and error embedded into my body. Plus, I don’t have to be associated with the adult-themed stigma. I win, Bard!

If the Bard is where the musical part comes from, then the harmonica must change the function of the inspiration. This is just pure guessing at this point, but harmonica can be played with no hand, correct? If you bite it on the right location, you can just blow the harmonica after letting your hand go. What if that’s what this Bard’s subclass is? The ability to inspire while having 2 arms free? That’s actually a good one! The Bard can still use a sword or gun to fight while boosting their allies. Multipurpose!

But still, it is sad that the Adventurer got Bard alone. A Bard needs an ally to work. They were doomed from the start. If I reach the Bard quick enough, I would’ve been a friend to the Bard. Maybe we can be each other’s party members.

Party? I never thought about having my own party members before. I’ve been fighting alone all this time. I’m fine… most of the time. If there was no healing after the bosses, I think that I would’ve died. In fact, I actually died against Nostrazeus! I also can’t heal after fighting my stalker. I’ll need some backup to watch over me in case he came back. But, who would be my party member?

A scream. Someone is screaming. It’s a woman’s scream. That can’t be my stalker or Nostrazeus. Then the only logical answer is another Adventurer!

I was right! In fact, there’s several of them!

Nostrazeus swings his sledgehammer. It hits a Wizard’s spellbook straight to the Wizard’s body. One dead. One Fighter tries to stab Nostrazeus but Nostrazeus continues swinging the sledgehammer to use the Wizard’s body to hit the Fighter’s body. Two dead.

Okay, what should I do now? If I kill Nostrazeus, that means that I’ll allow Adventurers to overpopulate and overtake this world into oblivion. But, the new Adventurers might be my party members.

No! I’ll decide that later. The most important part right now is my Keyward Stone!

The location hasn’t changed. It’s not far from me.

Another Wizard fires electric in my direction. He’s aiming for Nostrazeus. I’m just so happen to be in the way. I roll towards my Keyward Stone. The electric hits someone. That’s not my problem yet. I put my Keyward Stone into the inside of my forearm so that it won’t fall off.

Okay. Main objective done. What now?

The river! I can push the new Adventurers there! That way I won’t have to kill Nostrazeus while saving the Adventurers! Last time, Nostrazeus doesn’t cross the water when he saw me. That should be good for me!

With my Steam Sapien, I create a fog of steam around me. With my Dwarvel, I push an Adventurer into the river. That’s one. Crap. I can’t see where the rest of them are. I also can’t remove the steam because that’ll return Nostrazeus’ vision. I have to fight in my own blindness.

A stone wall appear in front of me. I think that the second Wizard is panicking. He is making random spells in order to save himself. I can’t blame him. He just got here in a strange land among strangers, and one of the stranger just so happen to kill everyone. I would panic too if I was in his position.

Wait a minute. The stone wall is higher than my steam. That should give me a vantage point.

I climb the stone wall. I can see a few head. I should avoid any white-haired guy.

A red head! I have no idea who this is, but I lunge toward the red head. Then, I punch them into the river. That’s two Adventurers.

A female scream. Someone is dead. I should be quicker!

I stand on top of the stone wall again. Suddenly, someone smashes the stone wall. Nostrazeus!

The stone wall crumbles. I have to jump away from it. There goes my vantage point.

I can’t see where he’s swinging the sledgehammer. There’s no choice. I have to disable my steam fog.

Okay. I can see now. There are two Adventurers. One is a Barbarian while the other one is... I have no idea. As for Nostrazeus, he’s after me. He… has a red streak on his hair. Ambrousian? Like me? At the same time, he has stitches on his forehead. The only person I know that have stitches like that is Brenuaza. Is he a Demon and Ambrousian at the same time?

No time to think!

I run away from Nostrazeus. Then, I push the second Adventurer into the river. That works fine.

Nostrazeus swings his sledgehammer towards me. I can’t go towards the Barbarian! Come on dude! Jump into the river! You’ve seen how everyone got into there. Do it!

Instead of jumping, the Barbarian screams. That must be Rage. Okay. Maybe I can use his help for now.

Something grows out of the Barbarian’s arms. Something long and coiling his arms. It has spikes on some areas. Barbed wires. One on each arm.

The Barbarian punches Nostrazeus with a barbed wire coiling his fist like a knuckleduster. Good! Now let’s go to the river!

No! Stop! Don’t attack Nostrazeus! He’ll revive back if you kill him! There’s no point to it. We should be drifting in the river! Maybe he can’t control himself because of his Rage? I have to pull him into it!

The Barbarian extends his barbed wires toward me. The wires wrap my hips. Before I can break the wires, he swings it to throw me into the river. In his rage, he wants to kill me off like that? If this is how you want to go, fine!

As the current drags me, I pull his barbed wires. He loses his balance which causes him to fall into the river. Good!

It’s not over yet. The Barbarian swims towards me. Then, he punches my face with his barbed knuckleduster. I punch him back with my spiky arms. How do you like that?!

The rock! The one that I used to stand yesterday!

I try to grab the rock but he punches me again. Stop it! We missed the rock! You get another punch to your face for that!

Okay. Here comes the waterfall. I know that I can survive the fall because I’ve done it before. Have you? My side mission is to save new Adventurers from Nostrazeus. That is done since Nostrazeus simply won’t enter water. What happens next is up to you, you raging Barbarian!

The current turns from horizontal to vertical. I’m falling down. My metal legs are ready to land. What about him?

The Barbarian aims for the nearest tree. When he’s satisfied with his distance, he uses his barbed wires to swing into the tree’s branch. From there, I can’t see where he’s swinging. Even in rage, he still has self-preservation. I’m not sure if that counts as a good or bad feature considering that he can’t control himself. I’m glad that I’m not a Barbarian.