Homesteading in a fantasy world

His full attention was scary, but was he actually drooling right now? Anyway, he just helped make my point. “I’m sorry, but I think you messed up right now. You should really learn to handle your desires—you shouldn’t let your abilities take control of you.” He looked a bit confused at that, and then I pointed towards his own army.

When he looked towards it, he was hit by a powerful spell that actually managed to damage him. I don’t know how long it had been since he saw his own blood, but he looked angry. “You liar! You’re a useless piece of shift!” I heard the person who had attacked him yell.

He looked back towards him with a smile on his face. “I’m going to enjoy taking that as well.” He then attacked, but to my surprise, someone rushed in front of him, saving his life but getting destroyed at the same time.

It happened so fast—but was that Adam, the person I ran that dungeon with? Yet the next moment, Adam was once again standing there, after I had just seen his upper half nearly completely vaporized.

“You think the two of the 16 will fall so easily?” the person who managed to land an attack on him once again yelled out. Adam rushed him, and every spell aimed at him was destroyed, yet the next moment he was whole again.

Was Adam actually the person from the 16 cards called Adam the Immortal? I’d heard he started to fight more after our dungeon delve, and that he started to develop better self-healing. But he was ranked five now, and from the looks of it, killing him would not be easy.

“Thanks for coming close enough,” I heard him say, and I saw Adam freeze. Once again, I saw that same sucking ability he used on that person before. This time, however, he was interrupted when another spell hit him so hard it tore through his defenses, leaving behind a wound that glowed with red power. It took him a moment to stop whatever that spell was doing and disconnecting from Adam. He just barely managed to defend himself against the next spell.

His own army started attacking itself. It was too much to hope that everyone would come to our side, but it was good enough.

“Everyone who’s strong enough, back up the people attacking him, and if you are one of the 16 and good enough at fighting to survive, join the fight. Other than that, help the ones in his army that rebelled and get away from him as soon as you can.” That was the word I gave through my abilities so they wouldn’t be heard by the enemy.

It took a moment, but everyone left in the fortress started to move around the fight that was happening between the powerful spellcaster, him, and Adam. I saw him notice what was happening, and then he glanced towards me, but only for a moment as he needed to concentrate. Adam was so good and so willing to let his body be destroyed that he was actually able to make his spellcasting kind of useless.

Still, he had so many abilities, but I concentrated on boosting Adam and the other person as much as I could. They accepted the boost immediately, but unfortunately, he figured out that I was giving that boost.

“You are beginning to become really annoying,” he said, but before he could move—most likely to try to catch me—he was stopped by an arrow. I looked towards the tower where it was fired from to see Arabella. She started to shoot more, actually being helpful. It didn’t take long for a few others to join the fight, and we were properly starting to push him back.

I was pretty strained boosting so many, and I couldn’t simply throw energy into it as I only had my own reserves. I could understand the problem he was having—he simply had too many abilities, and the more you had, the more you would need to think about what to use in a certain situation. That momentary hesitation cost him quite a lot. More and more people joined this fight, but some were simply too weak and should have known better.

They moved so fast that I could barely kept up, but I couldn’t go too far as the abilities I was using to boost these few people needed me to stay in the fight. He was so stupidly strong, and the only reason he hadn’t destroyed us was because of Adam. His body was incredibly resilient—spells that would have killed me instantly barely did anything to him, so if he wanted to take Adam out for a few moments, he truly needed to push his spells.

I couldn’t predict who was going to win, but I was still ready to help if needed. I was still just rank four, and even with my core energy, I didn’t think I could do enough damage, but I might be able to surprise him, so I stayed ready.

What I didn’t like was that Arabella moved closer. She was able to keep him from moving too freely, but no one could get too close to him—otherwise, he would try to use his draining ability, which didn’t seem to have any counter.

They were slowly whittling him down. His body was healing incredibly fast, but I could see it starting to slow down. "Enough," and then he exploded, the blast being powerful enough to push us all back, but it didn’t do any real damage. Unfortunately, that did give him some space, and before they could resume their attack, he managed to cast a spell that took almost a second to set up.

He aimed it at the powerful spellcaster who had been able to consistently do real damage to him. "No!" I yelled but it was too late as Adam moved in front of the spell. Unfortunately, it wasn’t an attack spell. As soon as it hit, it transformed into something else, and instead of doing any damage, I watched as Adam and the powerful spellcaster were launched into the horizon. We had lost.

It took him only moments to kill the few others who had been able to keep up with him, leaving only Arabella and me. “You two I won’t kill. You, Rich, I believe is your name—your achievement page is tasty. I haven’t had a harvest this good in a while. But you, Arabella, I thought I took you off the board. Instead, I drove you to the person I should have been keeping a better eye on. Who are you, Rich? Why are you so important?”

I hoped that I could keep him distracted long enough for Adam and the spellcaster to get back, but I doubted it. Still, I pulled out my card. “I think you’ve been looking for me?” I said while showing him the card. He started to laugh.

“That damn fortune teller… I’m going to find her eventually and take whatever ability she has for myself. Still, she almost succeeded. But now it’s time for you both to die.”

He started with Arabella, and I rushed towards her. To my surprise, he actually let me. I could now see what he was doing properly. He sent energy tendrils toward her; they penetrated her heart and formed some kind of black hole-looking orb. I could feel it starting to suck everything she was into it. She looked at me and mouthed “sorry.”

I wasn’t going to watch another loved one die.

Attacking him would be useless, even with my core energy, but whatever ability he was using, it was based on energy and manipulating that—well, that I was good at. I grabbed a hold of that black hole and wrenched it out of her, causing her to black out, but it was still sucking her dry.

“That’s impressive. I’ve only seen a few who could manipulate this ability of mine. Still, it’s useless. I’ve made sure that nothing can interrupt this connection unless I want it to.”

There was a lie there, but why? I noticed how the stream pulling everything toward him was incredibly inefficient, and he was also making sure that nothing reached him except for what he wanted, which was the few skills and abilities of hers he desired. I pulled the black orb into my own heart and watched the pull on Arabella stop. But now it was pulling from me.

“Well, congratulations, I guess. Didn’t even know that was possible, but not to worry—I’ll take from her when you’re dead. Still impressive.” He then properly started to pull from me. I could feel him trying to take the traits, abilities, and skills he wanted, while letting all my class experience simply disappear.

There was nothing any of us could do against him anymore, especially when he got my traits and abilities. He was unkillable—nothing in this world would stop him. This world…

“You want what I have so much? Then take it all!”

I stopped fighting the pull. Instead, I pushed into it but also took control of the energy as much as possible so he wouldn’t be able to disregard my stat points and experience. It was hard, but this connection—this ability of his—wanted to take everything.

He had to fight against it, to disregard the things he didn’t want, but I figured out why he didn’t want them. He was so close to rank six. I should be able to help push him to reach it.

It took him a moment to understand what was happening, and I saw that happy face of his morph into something terrified.

“No! Stop that! Don’t—” he continued to beg, but I didn’t listen. I felt how my stat points were drained, how I lost my abilities and skills, but I made sure to keep my energy manipulation skills and abilities for as long as possible. I could see how my classes lost levels so fast. I even lost a few traits, but those weren’t the important ones.

He tried to attack me, but the abilities and spells he had channeled into this main ability of his made it impossible for anyone he targeted to damage him. But he never expected a need to damage them, so he didn’t remove the immunity he had woven into this ritual of his.

Finally, he stopped being stupid and started fighting on the energy level, which brought him some success, but he wasn’t only fighting against me—he was fighting against his own abilities.

“You finally learned, but I’m afraid it’s too late.”

I watched as my Adventurer class disappeared, then my Legendary field marshal. It didn’t take long for my Prestigious true archer class to follow. One by one, my levels decreased from my First elder homesteader class.

It was at level 7; I was so weak. Everything hurt so much. I was on the ground, barely conscious, when I saw it. He yelled so loudly, so angrily, but the next moment, he simply disappeared—taken from this world to who knows where.

We had won. He was gone. Then I coughed out blood. I had made a mistake—pushing so much out damaged me so much. But I kept some of my abilities and traits, which were now too powerful for my body to handle.

“Rich! Wake up, Rich!” I heard Arabella’s voice. “Healer! I need a healer!” Then I felt someone trying to heal me, but it was barely doing anything.

Still, I managed to speak a few words, “Take care of my f...” I felt more healing, but I didn’t hear anything anymore—the blackness was coming in, and I hoped it would stay, but I still fought against it with everything I had.

Then I felt a jolt, I came back, and I could hear words again. It was Adam who was speaking. “I am sorry, Arabella. He is too damaged, and his own traits are killing him. He saved the worl...” Then the voices faded out again, and the blackness started to claim me once more.

“Hey, system, could you send me someplace that would finally put me to rest?” Those were the words I focused on it as I felt death coming. Then emptiness—but I wasn’t unconscious. A moment later, I felt something brush against me, and I got the feeling of “as you wish,” and then I was launched somewhere. Everything felt so empty, like there was nothing left except me.

At the start, I felt other presences like me moving around, but soon everything fell silent. Was something supposed to happen, or was this my existence now? Then I felt it— the edge of my consciousness slowly being sanded down. What’s this? Was this that should have killed me so long ago but simply wasn’t strong enough back then to end me?

I was moving in some direction, always in the same direction, and the further I moved, the faster I was being destroyed. I tried to fight against it, as is my nature. Even if I wanted to die, I would struggle to my last with everything I had, but I think the system actually did what I asked. It sent me towards someplace that could even destroy me.

Goodbye, everyone, and I’m sorry I couldn’t keep your memories for longer. I felt myself weakening. I don’t know how much time had passed—it was impossible to know—but I knew I was about to die. Finally, I would be able to rest.

I was a bit sad that I couldn’t keep homesteading. I would have liked to see what I could have done with a few centuries of simply farming a single piece of land. The end was near now, but then I felt it—something grabbed hold of me. I tried to fight it, but it was pulling me and protecting me against the void. Not again. And then everything went black.

The next moment, I opened my eyes and was surrounded by forest. I was fully naked, this time in an adult body. “Son of a bitch.”

THE END.