Greenskins And Solitude
Greenskins were nowhere near as strong as Green Bean the bear. They didn't have his teeth or his claws, his pelt or his paralyzing roar.
But they did have their hands and their brains. And with those two things, they proved to be lethal opponents. Ones I couldn't take lightly.
They weren't prey to be hunted. They were a force to be fought. At least until I became strong enough to deal with them without worry, though that would be a long way off.
I began with a small group of three Greenskins who were out hunting for Speedbirds.
I stalked them as they stalked the birds. They were abnormally silent and difficult to notice, likely magic at work.
They began surrounding the cluster of Speedbirds, making a triangle around the group of unsuspecting fowl.
The birds began to notice something going on. Some perked up their heads from where they had been pecking at the dirt. They stared around with their round, pigeon-like eyes, warily searching for anything suspicious.
It was too late for them though. With practiced, almost imperceptibly quick movements, the three Greenskin hunters converged upon the crowd of birds and began ravaging. Clubs were swung, stone blades flashed, and stick spears were thrust. Due to the two group's respective speeds, the entire encounter ended within less than three seconds. But by the end of those three seconds, the Greenskins had killed about eight birds.
Three hunters. Eight birds.
Though I was planning to kill them, I found their hunting prowess to be impressive. Certainly greater than mine.
I readied my own spear and teleported into their group. As quickly as I could, I threw a spear, aidding its speed and direction with telekinesis. Then, just as quickly, I teleported back to safety.
The spear traveled true. The Greenskin I'd thrown it at had impressive reflexes. It noticed the spear and tried to jump out of the way, but was still too slow. Like a bullet, the spear shot through the air and into the Greenskin's head, jerking it backwards and leaving a bleeding, red hole in the center of its forehead.
It was dead.
The other two hunters took vigilant positions, their spear at the ready. They had seen me teleport, and knew I could be anywhere at once. One of them was snarling in anger, glancing at the corpse I'd left behind.
Well I didn't feel good about it either. Not that that would stop me.
I teleported again, appearing behind one Greenskin, who immediately noticed and spun around as fast as he could. I was able to nail him in the chest with another telekinetic spear, but before I could teleport back to safety, he managed to shiv me in the side. I teleported back, and he keeled over, finally dead.
<HP: 1090 -> HP: 1000>
Almost 100 HP was taken by that single stab. Quite a lot.
But still. Two down, one to go.
The last Greenskin was staring at its hunting party in disbelief and anger. It was warring with its emotions and panic.
'Sorry buddy.' I thought, as I teleported again.
Appearing behind the doomed creature, I shoved my last spear into the back of its neck and it died. The last, and easiest kill.
That was my first attack on the Greenskins.
<Level 15 -> Level 16>
<Cutting Resistance Lv.3 -> Cutting Resistance Lv.4>
<Gained Title: Hunter Hunter>
Great. I was getting stronger.
I began looting the corpses for anything useful. All I found some interesting jewelry. Small rocks strewn together on a small string of twine. Evidence that the Greenskins had some kind of culture.
I pocketed the jewelry. Then I took the downed birds, set the bodies on fire with Pyrokinesis, and teleported home.
<Pyrokinesis Lv.9 - > Firebending Lv.1>
What?
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It turned out Firebending was just the system's idea of a joke. I remembered how Firebending was supposed to work in Avatar, and this was not it.
The system's version of Firebending was just a more controlled, more powerful version of Pyrokinesis. Starting fires was not the only thing I could do now. I could control the intensity and spread of the flames to a much greater degree now.
A good thing, since it would be helping me cook the meat I'd just stolen.
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Two days later, a few notable events occurred.
For one, I finally got rid of that Emaciated debuff, and held a celebration via Killshroom-feast. I gained a new level in Poison Mitigation thanks to it.
For another, I found two new Greenskin hunting groups in my neck of the woods (heh). They were three or four per-group, and were making short work of the local wildlife. They hunted the magical creatures and collected mushrooms and plants, weakening the food sources in my territory.
Naturally, I responded with violence.
I killed them all with minimal injuries, assisted by my Hunter Hunter title, as well as my full Str and Vit, but the fight was still a tense game of catch-the-teleporter. I got a new level out of it though.
Given the increasing frequency of hunting-group-sightings, I found it reasonable to believe that there was a Greenskin village in the area.
If I wanted to keep my food, then that would need to be dealt with.
I felt odd for deciding to kill them so easily. Maybe I was being influenced by the survival lifestyle. Maybe the system was subtly manipulating me. Maybe the combined experiences of the past two months had warped my mentality more than I had thought.
Either way, I had no compunctions over killing invaders. And said invaders certainly had no compunctions over killing me.
Food was limited, so conflict was inevitable. A law of nature.
Fight or die.
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A week later, I found myself tailing the Greenskin hunters, seeing if I could follow them back to their tribes.
They numbered five this time. The tribe had probably noticed their hunting parties failing to return (since I killed them) and started beefing up their hunter's security with more numbers.
Either way, I'd sat back and watched as the group chattered among each other in their strange, Greenskin language. The corpses of hunted prey were being lugged on their shoulders, weighing them down. If I wanted to, killing them would be fairly doable.
Despite their chattering, these hunters were vigilant. I was almost caught stalking them from the slightest sound or movement I made. A single crushed leaf or snapped twig was all it took to get all five Greenskin heads to swivel in my direction.
My efforts were not left unrewarded by the system.
<Gained Skill: Stealth Lv.1>
<Stealth Lv.1 -> Stealth Lv.2>
<Stealth Lv.2 -> Stealth Lv.3>
It began leveling almost instantly, making it to level three by the time the hunters reached their tribe, almost fifteen kilometers from my tree-home. I marked the place in my memory for the inevitable attack that had to be carried out.
It was a bright place. Torches were plentiful, and kept away from flammable leaves and twigs and whatnot. Tents and huts were strewn around in a very haphazard way, which made sense considering that the nomadic Greenskins would likely leave after hunting and gathering everything in the area.
I watched from a good distance, my Darkvision helping me see through the night. The hunting party rejoined the tribe, and was greeted with...
A strange feeling gripped my heart upon watching their reception.
Unlike my previous interactions with the Greenskins, this was not a combat situation where one side was murdering the other. This time, I was simply a watcher, a voyeur, observing from the outside. Without a fight, I was calm enough to think about the things I saw.
And I saw...
The hunters were greeted by various smaller Greenskins with hugs. I didn't need to know their language to understand the elation in their tones and faces. The small ones were happy to see the hunting party back and safe. They were joyful that the hunters were successful in their hunting, and the tribe now had meat to eat.
The hunters were likely the older family of the smaller ones. The strong and the fit. The fathers and the brothers...
Their high-pitched tones sounded like human voices. Their complexions and facial expressions looked like human ones.
The feeling grew stronger. I felt an icy hand wrapping its fingers around my stomach. I felt the tightening of my jaw and lips, my eyebrows furrowing together.
I felt the loose, watery feeling of my tear-ducts opening.
As fast as I could, I made the jumps to teleport home, gripped by sadness and jealousy.
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As I laid down on my tree-branch home and stared up at the treetops, I pondered my overly-emotional reaction to seeing the Greenskins.
I'd seen them being happy and felt sad. I'd observed their familiarity and community, and felt jealous.
I closed my eyes, but didn't sleep. I couldn't sleep, since Faint Resistance blocked unconsciousness of any kind. Instead of sleeping, I laid on my back for the rest of the night.
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The next day, I started whittling sticks into spears with a small rough stone. I'd need quite a few of these if I was to kill those Greenskins. Or at least run them off from my territory.
Yesterday, I'd felt empathy for the little green men. I'd seen them laughing and happy, having a bonding moment together, and I'd connected it to everything I'd lost.
I'd lost my home when I died. I'd lost all my worldly possessions, my money, my car, my house. But more than that, I'd lost my family and friends. All the relationships I'd made and cultivated for the twenty years I'd been alive, gone, just like that.
And worse, I'd been reincarnated as Harry Potter. He had no relationships. No positive ones, at least. Just an abusive family.
And then that family had driven me insane which led to me burning them all to death and going on the run.
And now, I had nothing. No human contact in any way, shape, or form.
That was why I'd felt so strongly towards the Greenskins. Because I wanted what they had, and didn't like the fact that I had to kill them.
I would still kill them.
But I wouldn't like it.
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Three days later, I considered myself ready.
I had transported my stock of spears close to the tribe's village. I had my attack plan set, and it involved a lot of fire.
The thing about fire was that it wanted to be close to other fires. The space between flames always started burning faster, since there was less air. It was the principle behind urban firebombing.
I would teleport in and use Firebending to spread flames across the outer edges of the village. Eventually, they would converge and flow into the village, directed by the mechanics of the air.
And if any survived after that, then I would pick them off with my spears as they ran.
Brutal? Cruel? Yes.
But it was the best plan I had, and I couldn't really afford not to be brutal. No matter how human-like they were (or even if they had been humans), the Greenskins would kill me the moment they could, simply because we competed for the same food sources.
Hopefully, the forest fire this could cause wouldn't be too large.
I watched the village from the treetops, concealed by shadows and my Stealth skill.
Then, I teleported.
Fire spread from my hands, washing over my immediate surroundings like an orange tidal wave. One hut caught on fire, and then another. Soon, the four surrounding me were aflame, and I teleported to the next section of the village, repeating my attack.
Then I teleported just outside the village, in the treetops where I could hide myself. I made sure to stay upwind of the smoke.
I watched as the flames curled around each other, gradually moving closer and closer to the center of the village. I heard the sound of burning wood, and Greenskin screams of terror and of pain.
I kept watching though.
Eventually, what I was watching for happened. Most of the Greenskins had died in the initial conflagration, but some had survived. The survivors began running away from the blazing village, attempting to get to safety.
Not on my watch.
I picked up a spear from beside me and began sniping from my hidden position in the treetops.
One runner died, a spear lodged through his neck. Another died with a spear in his chest. They couldn't fight back. They were too panicked due to the suddenness of my attack, and even if they were in the right mind to fight me, I was well-hidden.
My jaw grew tighter with each kill.
A small Greenskin died from two of my spears. The first one shot through its stomach, pinning it to the ground. The second spear went through the back of its head, sticking out of the front where it had pierced all the way through.
Similar deaths followed. There were perhaps fifteen survivors left of the inital population, which had been about seventy-five.
And now, even those fifteen were dead. There were no more screams of pain emanating from the burning village. Only the sounds of crackling fire and the occasional collapsing hut reached my ears.
A tribe of seventy-five, destroyed in less than an hour.
I felt the beginnings of a sickness.
<Level 17 -> Level 19>
<Stealth Lv.3 -> Steath Lv.5>
<Firebending Lv.2 -> Firebending Lv.5>
<Teleport Lv.9 -> Teleport II Lv.1>
<Telekinesis Lv.9 -> Telekinesis II Lv.1>
<Gained Title: Destroyer>
<Arsonist -> Firebomber>
Throughout the attack, my system had been jabbering at me. Telling me I leveled up, or my skill improved, or I'd gained a new title.
I could look at it later.
---------
The month after my destruction of the Greenskin tribe was calm and quiet.
There was no forest fire resulting from my actions, as I had used my Firebending to put them out. Then I walked through the rubble, making sure there were no survivors hiding. Then I teleported home.
I felt numb after the attack. Like I'd done something wrong.
Well, it was true that my destruction of the tribe was a horrible thing to do, but to call it wrong would be wrong too.
Had I not done it, the Greenskins would have kept hunting in my area until the plants were few and the animals ran away. And without plants and animals, I would starve.
I didn't want to starve again, so I killed the Greenskins and destroyed their home.
Was I wrong for not wanting to starve?
...
...
...
I didn't think so. But I still felt bad for it.
Sometimes, I wished my system had a Wis stat too.
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System Status (At End Of Chapter):
Name: Harry Potter
Titles: Hardened Rock, Firebomber, Unhinged, Fugitive, Survivalist, Hunter Hunter, Destroyer
Race: Wizard
Level: 19
HP: 1430/1800
MP: 1990/2100
SP: 1455/1465
San: 65%
Vit: 56
Str: 34
Dex: 43
Int: 59
Cha: 37
Skills:
-Mana Manipulation Lv.5
-Firebending Lv.5
-Telekinesis II Lv.1
-Teleport II Lv.1
-Cooking Lv.9
-Gardening Lv.5
-Cleaning Lv.6
-Darkvision Lv.8
-Stealth Lv.5
Resist:
-Heat Resistance Lv.9
-Cold Mitigation Lv.2
-Cutting Resistance Lv.6
-Impulse-Force Mitigation Lv.1
-Pain Mitigation Lv.4
-Fear Resistance Lv.9
-Poison Mitigation Lv.3
-Hunger Mitigation Lv.4
-Suffocation Resistance Lv.9
-Faint Resistance Lv.9
-Paralysis Resistance Lv.1
Buffs:
Debuffs:
-Claustrophobia (-50% to San when in enclosed spaces)
-Cursed (Horcrux)
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