Rick’s Tattoos began glowing a feint green shade as massive amounts of power began coursing through his veins like a raging torrent of water.

  It filled him with so much power that even Loruk, who stood some distance away, could feel it. The weight of it all was practically suffocating the area Rick stood in.

  This level of increase wasn’t normal by any means.

  It was then a notification flashed across Rick’s face.

  POV Rick

  {Receive the Power of your Ancestors}

  ‘Receive the power of my ancestors huh. I really wish Velora was here to see this. Like this feeling… all of this power… it feels invigorating. I need to make sure I don’t get drunk on this ability of mine.

  ‘Especially since I know for a fact that even this newfound power, it would still not be enough to defeat the enemies that will be attacking the Village in the future.

  ‘I haven’t fought one yet, but I think at most I can likely defeat something at Tier Six. And even that would likely be a hard fought battle with my life on the line. Unfortunately, what we must face if we want to stay here is a step above that.

  ‘And that’s just taking myself into account. What about all the Goblins below me? The only Tier Fours we have are the members of the Royal Retrieval Team. We barely even have Tier Threes.

  ‘Most of them wouldn’t even survive the fallout of a battle that large and ferocious. Tch. I know what I have to do dammit. But it doesn’t make me happy at all. To have to pack up our things and run.

  ‘All because we were weak. I’ve spent enough time here already to know that might makes right. It was true during my first days in this world when I was scared to hunt Horned Rabbits, and it’s true now well over a year later when massive sleeping Serpents are able to just wake up and evict me from an area.

  ‘Simply because it is stronger than us.

  ‘This is vexing.’

  “My Lord…I apologize for interrupting, but the beast is getting closer.”

  ‘Hm? Oh, it really is close. Then let’s just meet it.

  ‘Not wasting any more time, I took off in a mad sprint. An annoyed expression still gracing my face…but when I really looked at the charging Barclaw… It looked fearful. I didn’t even know a face covered in the bark-like skin could even make a fearful expression.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  ‘It didn’t stop either of our charges though, and only a couple seconds later we made impact.’

  BOOOOOOM!!!!!

  ‘Dirt, rocks, nearby bushes, and all manner of things quite literally went flying as the impact of our collision immediately brought destruction upon the entire area. Almost nothing was left spared and Loruk himself even had to dodge some of the debris that flew in his direction. Thankfully he wasn’t really hurt.

  ‘As for me, I wasn’t injured at all apart from a few superficial scratches on my skin.

  ‘Though…I couldn’t say the same thing for the Barclaw. It was quite literally sent flying. A few trees that had the unfortunate opportunity of being in the path it flew were broken as its large body crashed into the surroundings before eventually coming to a halt.’

  WARRRRHHHHHH!!!

  ‘It continuously wailed out in pain as it laid there in a heap of bushes. I walked over to see that most of the outer layer of its skin had been broken off and it was bleeding profusely from multiple places in its body. Even its neck was positioned awkwardly, yet it was somehow still alive.

  ‘I put it out of its misery.

  “Let’s go Loruk. We have a busy day ahead of us.”

  “Coming, My Lord.”

  ‘Or at least that was the plan until not long after we started walking away, the power that was coursing through my veins without impediment this whole time suddenly gave way, and it’s place an equal amount of weakness washed over me.’

  “My Lord! Are you hurt?!”

  ‘Honestly, I don’t think I’m hurt. I think this is the consequence of using that power. I think I had it going for roughly fifteen-ish minutes before it suddenly disappeared.’

  “I’m fine Loruk. I just need a moment.”

  ‘He still looked a little worried, but I won’t hold it against him. I literally fell to my knees when the weakness took me. It wasn’t necessarily that I was so weak that I couldn’t stand, but the suddenness of it was too much for me to bear and my knees gave out.

  ‘Which means I need to be very careful of using this in battle. I can already tell if I was prepared for the weakness to come, it would still cause me to be sluggish at the wrong time.

  ‘It took probably another fifteen minutes before I felt fine again. I grinned. That was more than a worthy trade off, I think. Fifteen minutes of seemingly unbridled power, for fifteen minutes of weakness afterwards.

  ‘That’s something I can handle.

  ‘After getting back to full strength, I roamed the forest for the rest of the day. It was partly to continue more tests, and partly to vent a bit of frustration along with clearing my head from the conversation I had with the Serpent, and the conversation that followed with Rogu and Jaba.

  ‘I needed it. Badly I think. Especially with Velora still being Dormant and not having a place to truly vent my thoughts and that voice that tries to keep me grounded. I guess I didn’t realize how mad I needed her huh.

  ‘Sigh.

  ‘After the Barclaw I was only able to find one more Tier Five beast and it was some type of Deer looking thing. I was able to defeat it quite easily even without using the power of my Ancestors to handle it.

  ‘It seems like with my Tier Four state where I was stronger than all the Tier Fours around me, the same thing carried into Tier Five.

  ‘Yet it’s still not enough for my goals. Whatever, it’s time to go back. I need to plan our immediate future with the others.’