《Classless》 A new world? The first thing Gunther noticed when he woke up was a horrible headache. It felt like someone had decided to hit him on the head with a hammer for hours on end for some stupid reason. Suddenly, he heard a deep voice. The man sounded like he was really excited about something. ¡°We¡¯ve finally done it! We¡¯ve finally created a true homunculus!¡± That was when he noticed, he was definitely not laying in his own comfortable bed. He felt a cold surface underneath him. It was too flat to be the ground and definitely too hard to be meant for someone to lie on. He tried to move, but found that his limbs were bound tight to whatever he was laying on. ¡°Looks like it¡¯s awake.¡± Sounded a second, feminine voice. ¡®It? I¡¯m definitely a he, not an it!¡¯ Gunther thought, while trying to open his eyes. After some struggle, he managed to do exactly that. He was blinded by the bright light for some time and his already painful headache became downright torturous because of it. When he finally got used to the light, he saw that he was in a room reminiscent of a surgery room. A lot of strange devices and tools were positioned around him. They didn¡¯t seem like anything he had ever seen before. Some of the tools were glowing, while others consisted of several pieces floating around each other. ¡®That shouldn¡¯t even be possible! How do they not just fall to the ground, as they should, according to the laws of physics?¡¯ The more he thought about it, the less it made sense. He decided to worry about this another time, since he wouldn¡¯t get anywhere by just staring at a random tool, however impossible that tool might seem. Gunther was sure there was a logical explanation for it, but first he had to inspect his surroundings more thoroughly. He noticed eight or so people stood around him, looking at him excitedly. They wore dark robes and were whispering to each other excitedly. ¡°It truly appears self aware!¡± ¡°It seems like we really managed to create a soul!¡± ¡°Look at how confused it is, must be strange to suddenly be pulled into existence.¡± ¡®What were they talking about, created a soul? I¡¯m just a guy from England.¡¯ ¡®Now that I think about it, how did I even get here in the first place?¡¯ That was when he remembered the accident. Gunther had just been crossing the street, too busy thinking about all the work he needed to get done to look where he was going. Then sudden, blinding lights and then, nothing. ¡®Was that a car? Have I died?!¡¯ he thought, ¡®But that¡¯s impossible, I¡¯m still here, right?¡¯ ¡®But these people, they seem to think they created me...¡¯ Considering some of the impossible tools and the weird robes, he couldn¡¯t exclude the possibility that he wasn¡¯t on Earth anymore, as impossible as it might seem.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. ¡°Silence!¡± Before he could think about it some more, a powerful voice sounded through the room. That one word seemed to be enough to make everyone shut up almost immediately. ¡®This guy must either be the most powerful one here, or the leader. Or both.¡¯ Gunther thought. ¡°Now that it looks like we have created a true homunculus, we have to run some tests to make sure.¡± ¡®Tests? They want to run experiments on me?¡¯ He tried to say something, but he noticed his mouth was gagged. The men and women all walked closer to him, while the apparent leader raised his hands. Gunther looked on in horror as he noticed the man didn¡¯t seem to have any skin or muscles.The guywas a living skeleton! By now it was abundantly clear that Gunther wasn¡¯t on Earth anymore, or alternatively, that there was a whole part of Earth he hadn¡¯t known of until now. Though he doubted the second possibility, modern technology making it way too hard to hide something big, like the existence of magic. Unfortunately, he had other things to worry about than the question of where exactly he was. Namely, the translucent green sphere slowly floating towards him from the hands of the lich. Gunther struggled against his constraints in a desperate attempt to get away from the orb, but in the end it was useless. The orb hit him and an indescribable pain wrecked through his entire body, it seemedas if his very existence was under attack. He tried to scream, but his mouth was still gagged, probably for this very purpose he realised. ¡°As you all can see, Soul Strike seems to get quite a strong response from the it. This certainly is compelling evidence, since none of our former attempts seemed to notice anything, but it is not anything conclusive just yet.¡± Said the leader, after Gunther stopped thrashing against his restraints. ¡°Let us run some more tests, any suggestions?¡± That was the beginning of some of the most painful moments of Gunther''s life. After hours of tests, paused only to heal him in order to make sure he wouldn¡¯t die, something unexpected happened. ¡°We¡¯ve found their lair!¡± A voice sounded from above, ¡°It¡¯s protected from scrying, so I can¡¯t see what¡¯s inside, but considering no one lives around here, this should be it.¡± ¡®Are they here to rescue me? Who even are they?¡¯ Gunther thought. ¡°Shit, The Order is here!¡± One of the necromancers exclaimed. Everyone seemed to panic at that. Before things could get out of hand however, the leader intervened. ¡°Stay calm! It will take them some time to get through our wards. We should have enough time to escape. Take all the research you can and get to the teleportation altar, leave the subject.¡± ¡°What? After all we went through to create it you just want to leave it?!¡± Someone said. ¡°Fool!¡± The leader exclaimed, ¡°Do you really think it will just come with us after what we just put it through. Our lives are worth more than just-¡± Whatever else he wanted to say was cut off when the ceiling collapsed. Sunlight streamed in from above and Gunther noticed what looked like paladins jump inside. They immediately attacked the necromancers with hammers and some sort of light spells. The necromancers didn¡¯t just give up however and the attacks were deflected by invisible shields surrounding them. What followed was a chaotic battle in which all kinds of spells and attacks were thrown around. Gunther feared for his life, as he felt like any stray attack could kill him instantly. The necromancers were at a disadvantage however and in the end only the paladins remained standing. ¡°You think they are dead?¡± Asked one of them. ¡°Don¡¯t think so.¡± Responded another, ¡°Those necromancers always seem to have a way of not staying dead like they should. Maybe we got one or two of them though.¡± After having said that, he turned to Gunther and mumbled ¡°What do we have here then¡­¡± Saved, for now... After looking at Gunther for some time, the paladin said ¡°I think this is the result of another experiment of theirs. William, purge it and catch up with us. Everyone else, let¡¯s go.¡± ¡®Purge? That doesn¡¯t sound good!¡¯ Still gagged, Gunther couldn¡¯t do anything but watch as all the paladins but one left. He looked on in fear as the one who asked about the necromancers earlier approached him, apparently his name was William. Now that he came closer, Gunther could see the paladin was probably not much older than 20. William lifted his hammer to purge the abomination that never should have existed in the first place, but something stopped him. It seemed afraid and its eyes,its eyes almost seemedhuman. Gunther looked on in horror as William raised his hammer, but then the guy suddenly stopped. ¡°I really hope I won¡¯t be coming to regret this¡­¡± William mumbled, after which he walked even closer to Gunther and removed the gag. Gunther gasped as his gag was removed and then smiled. ¡°Thank you, please don¡¯t purge me!¡± Gunther said. William looked shocked and it took him some time to regain his composure. ¡°You can talk?¡± He asked. ¡°Of course I can, I¡¯m not some sort of animal!¡± Gunther replied. ¡°But Frederic said the necromancers created you, you shouldn¡¯t be more than some mindless monster.¡± ¡°So they were indeed necromancers?¡± Gunther asked, before he shook his head ¡°Doesn¡¯t really matter. Can you untie me?¡± ¡°I could, but how do I know aren¡¯t one of the necromancers and this is some kind of trick to kill me?¡± ¡°Look, I have no idea who those necromancers were, or even who you are, but they didn¡¯t seem like the kind of persons to take this sort of a risk just to kill one man.¡± ¡°Indeed they aren¡¯t, but that doesn¡¯t mean I can trust you.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t you have some way to gauge my strength? I¡¯m pretty sure I couldn¡¯t kill you even if I wanted to.¡± That seemed to make William think. Suddenly he slapped his head and seemed to focus on Gunther for a bit. He then gasped and looked at Gunther like he was some sort of alien. ¡®Well I guess I sort of am an alien, if I¡¯m correct about this not being Earth.¡¯ Gunther thought, somewhat amused. ¡°You, what is your class and why can¡¯t I see it?¡± William asked aggressively. ¡°Class? What¡¯s a class, and do you sound so aggressive all of the sudden?¡± ¡°You don¡¯t know?¡± William asked incredulously, before he glared at Gunther and continued ¡°Your lies won¡¯t fool me, reveal your class at once, or I will purge you right here and right now!¡± ¡°Whoah! Easy there buddy! I¡¯m sure we can figure this out together, so why don¡¯t you put away that giant hammer and tell me what it is you¡¯re so mad about.¡± Gunther hastily said. ¡°You really don¡¯t know, do you?¡± William asked, while looking him over warily. He sighed, after seeing Gunther shake his head. ¡°As far as I know, everyone on Elovar has a class. Even newborns have them, although it is just that of their respective race. And then, there you are without one. You also didn¡¯t even seem to know about Inspect, instead you asked about ¡®some way to gauge your strength¡¯. You have to agree that this is highly suspicious. However, since you haven¡¯t exactly done anything that has led me to believe you have hostile intentions, I will give you a chance to explain.¡± Having said that, he looked expectantly at Gunther. ¡°Honestly, I don¡¯t know how I came to be here. I don¡¯t even know what Elovar is, though I assume it is what this world is called.¡± ¡°This world? You speak as if there is more than one world.¡± William interrupted, somehow even more suspicious than he was a minute ago. ¡°I don¡¯t know okay? I come from a place called Earth, then I think I died and suddenly I woke up here to a room full of creepy old geezers in bathrobes throwing green balls of death around. By now the only reasonable explanation I can think of is that I¡¯m no longer on Earth and that this is some other world.¡±This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. William listened to what Gunther said and responded after thinking about it for a while ¡°Say I believe you and you really are from this Earth you talk about, what will you do if I release you?¡± ¡®That¡¯s a good question, what will I do?¡¯ Gunther thought before answering ¡°I don¡¯t know yet, I can at least promise I won¡¯t attack you if it¡¯s worth anything. But as for my plans after you decide not to turn me into mush, I really have no idea. I don¡¯t have anywhere to go and don¡¯t have any money to pay for food either.¡± After thinking some more William said ¡°Alright I think I can at least trust you not to kill me when I release you.¡± After which he went and removed Gunther''s restraints, who just sat up straight on the metal table he had been laying on all that time. ¡°As for what we do now, I might be able to get you some food and water that¡¯ll last you a while. We have to hurry however, because the others will return if I take much longer to catch up to them and they will not hesitate to purge you if they see I haven¡¯t done so.¡± ¡°Before we do anything else though, let¡¯s look for some clothes for you.¡± Gunther hastily looked down at that, and noticed he indeed wasn¡¯t wearing any clothes. Furthermore, it looked like his body was stitched together. It wasn¡¯t as grotesque as Frankenstein¡¯s monster, but he could certainly understand the paladins thought he was nothing but a mindless monster. William actually laughed, looking at Gunther¡¯s face ¡°Well, that look convinces me you really aren¡¯t from around here, or at least didn¡¯t know what your current body looks like. Nobody could act that well.¡± ¡°Well, good to know this body is useful for something.¡± Gunther said dryly ¡°Now, if you¡¯re done laughing, can you help me look for something to wear?¡± Luckily, he didn¡¯t quite think of this new body as his, so being naked didn¡¯t bother him that much. Still, having something to wear would be preferable. He saw a door and was about to open it, when William hastily stopped him. ¡°Wait! That door could be trapped, let me.¡± William walked towards the door and used some kind of spell to shine light on the door. After some time he nodded and opened the door. ¡°What did you do?¡± ¡°I just used a simple trap detection spell to make sure it was safe to open the door.¡± They walked through the door and were greeted with the sight of a quite normal looking dormitory. After some looking around, they found the first sort of normal looking clothing Gunther had seen since arriving in this world. It was kind of similar to medieval clothing from Earth. Dark green pants coupled with a brown shirt and an again dark green vest, which was closed using strings. It kind of made sense the necromancers also had clothes that didn¡¯t just scream ¡®dark mage¡¯ since they also needed to buy food and other stuff from nearby towns. ¡°It¡¯s not much, but it¡¯ll have to do.¡± said William, as Gunther was putting on his clothes ¡°Now, let¡¯s go outside.¡± They walked back into the first room and William casually jumped up to the outside world. Gunther stared at him, the guy just jumped at least two meters high as if it was nothing. William looked down impatiently, as if he was expecting Gunther to jump after him. ¡°Are you coming or what?¡¯¡± He asked. ¡°I can¡¯t jump that high, I¡¯m pretty sure you shouldn¡¯t be able to do so either.¡± Was Gunther''s bewildered response. ¡°Oh right, you¡¯re not from here, I didn¡¯t realise this isn¡¯t something you can do. Just come a bit closer, I¡¯ll pull you up.¡± William said looking a bit confused. ¡°Thanks, for helping me up and for not purging me or whatever you were supposed to do. The name is Gunther by the way.¡± Gunther said while pulling himself up on Williams arm. ¡°No problem, you seem like a decent person and I wouldn¡¯t want to kill you just because you¡¯re not like everybody else. A sentiment that unfortunately isn¡¯t shared by a lot of people from my Order. I¡¯m William, as you probably already heard earlier.¡± William replied. Gunther stood up and looked around. Gunther couldn¡¯t help but stare. It seemed like they were standing inside a forest, but not one of the kind you would usually see on Earth. The trees were gigantic, the smallest one being at least a meter in diameter and Gunther couldn¡¯t even begin to guess how high they were. ¡°Looking at your bewildered expression, I would say arbor trees aren¡¯t something your world has as well. If that world even exists, of which I¡¯m still not entirely sure.¡± William said amused. ¡®Arbor hmm? So Latin is a thing here as well, or it¡¯s just some strange coincidence.¡¯ William took a wooden box and a waterskin from his pockets. ¡°The box contains food pills, they taste like shit, but they can substitute an entire meal, quite useful if you are in a hurry or want to take food with you on long travels. I¡¯ll just say the box got blood on it during your purging and I didn¡¯t want to take it with me anymore.¡± Gunther paled a bit at the casual mention of the fact he could have become some blood splatters on a wooden box if the wrong paladin was sent at him, but he accepted the items with gratitude anyway. ¡°Thank you, is there any clean water source nearby where I can fill the waterskin?¡± he asked. ¡°There¡¯s a stream a couple kilometers that way, it should be clear enough to drink from. I advise you to seek some form of shelter and then look for a way to disguise yourself before looking for any towns. You don¡¯t want to set hordes of scared villagers on yourself because of your lack of a class after all. Also, don''t go around telling everyone you''re from another world, people might not like that very much. Unfortunately, I really have to go now, I wish you well Gunther, and hopefully we¡¯ll meet again in a less dire situation.¡± William said, smiling lightly at the end of his words. Gunther replied with a grin ¡°Likewise, and thank you again for all the help!¡± ¡°One last thing, you should find a way to defend yourself. There may not be any high leveled monsters nearby, because of the low mana concentration around here, but there are still enough that can easily kill you should they wish it so.¡± Having said that, he flew away with a wave. ¡®Seems I¡¯m alone from here on out, let¡¯s hope I won¡¯t meet anything too strong anytime soon¡­¡¯ With that thought he walked in the direction William had said the stream was in. Classes Before Gunther could walk very far, a green box suddenly appeared in his vision.
Welcome to Elovar, Gunther It seems like you managed to survive your first couple of hours here We have been having a bit of a discussion about what to do with you. Since you¡¯re not from here, there have been some issues while trying to grant you a class. But because we also didn¡¯t just want to let you die, we¡¯ve come up with a solution. Let us first give you a bit of information about how this world works. As you¡¯ve already heard, everyone on this world has a Class, they start with a standard Racial Class. For example, a newborn human will start with the class Human. As you progress in life and decide who it is you want to be, your class changes and the divinity of your Branch will take you in and guide you. Say you really like swords, when you¡¯ve become proficient enough, you could get the class ¡®Swordsman¡¯ or ¡®Swordswoman¡¯ of course. The god of swords will then grant you some kind of sword skill that he think will fit you and guide you on your path to sword mastery. All your sword skills would be more powerful and you would level them faster than someone without the Class. When you progress further, you might decide you want to specialise in greatswords and, when you reach the requirements, you get the option to advance your class to ¡®greatswordsman¡¯. As you might''ve guessed already, there are countless variation of every Class, they are coupled together in Branches, such as for example Swordsmanship. Here¡¯s the problem though, in order to gain a Class, you have to ¡®bond¡¯ with the divinity of the Branch the class belongs to. You however, seem incapable of forming such a bond. We don¡¯t know why this is the case, but the problem remains, you¡¯ll have to stay without a Class. Your inability to form a ¡®bond¡¯ with a divinity isn¡¯t the only anomaly we found concerning you. The second problem we have found is that yoursoul appears to be unable to draw in mana, this would normally mean you wouldn¡¯t be able to cast spells either. This is just a minor problem however and is easily fixed. Don¡¯t expect us to help you out another time though, we are only doing this to make sure the karmic balance isn¡¯t too heavily disrupted by your arrival here. Also don¡¯t expect us to send you more messages this way as we usually don¡¯t care enough to busy ourselves with one specific mortal.
Congratulations! You¡¯ve gained the Class: error! no Class found
  • As you have no Class level-ups are disabled
  • As you have no Class advancements are disabled
  • As you have no Class stat boosts are disabled
  • As you have no Class skill boosts are disabled
  • As you have no Class no stat points are awarded
  • As you have no Class no skills are awarded
¡®Oh great, this doesn¡¯t look like anything is fixed at all¡­¡¯ Gunther thought grumpily, after having read the whole info-dump *ahem* notification. Almost as if it had been waiting for that exact thought, another screen appeared, blue this time.
Achievement gained: Sopathetic even the gods pity him As you entered this world with so little potential the divinities themselves took an interest, you¡¯ve earned yourself some boons. I hope you feel good about yourself now. Mana channels formed (divine quality)
  • You now have the ability to absorb, refine and use mana
  • You can now use mana more easily because of your divine quality mana channels
  • Your body can adapt better because of the incredibly pure mana running through it
  • You can now increase your stats by exerting yourself beyond their normal limits
  • Your skill growth is slightly increased because of your body¡¯s adaptability
¡®Oh great, I got one of those snarky systems, didn¡¯t I. Why couldn¡¯t it just be some mindless robot?¡¯ The box was almost immediately followed by a whole lot of smaller blue messages,interrupting further thoughts about the subject.
Passive skill gained: Mana Refining tier MaxIf you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Special skill: This skill was developed through divine means, therefore it can¡¯t increase in level, but instead has a tier that can be raised if specific conditions are met. Your mana channels are of such a high quality, they automatically refine whatever mana you absorb to its purest state. Current tier:
  • Immunity to mana corruption
  • Pure mana
Next tier: This skill is already maxed out
Passive skill gained: Adaptability tier 1 Special skill: This skill was developed through divine means, therefore it can¡¯t increase in level, but instead has a tier that can be raised if specific conditions are met. Your body absorbs part of the mana flowing through your channels and because the mana is so pure, it has gained the ability to adapt in whatever way is needed. Current Tier:
  • Gain stat points by exerting your stats beyond their usual limits
  • Skill levels increase slightly faster
Higher Tiers: We won¡¯t tell you yet, you¡¯ll have to see for yourself when you unlock them
Active skill gained: Mana manipulation lv 10 You are able to manipulate the energy of the world in its most simple form: mana Because of your high quality mana channels, this skill starts at a higher level and will increase in level faster than usual upto a certain level. Mana is 10% easier to control
¡®Well, that certainly could have been worse, though the idea of them messing with my soul isn''t all that nice.¡¯ Gunther thought ¡®I guess I¡¯ll be able to learn way more skills than everyone else, since I¡¯m not forced to follow one specific branch. Although my individual skills might be worse compared to those of the people who actually have a related Class, I¡¯ll just have to make up for it with a wider range of skills. Even if my fire related skills will most certainly be worse than those of someone like a fire mage, that won¡¯t matter much if I¡¯m up against someone who focuses on ice. If I would then meet that fire mage, I just have to use water based abilities. This might just work! If I survive for long enough to even learn those skills that is¡­¡¯ Gunther decided now was not the time to worry about skills and all that just jet, he would first need some place where he could sleep relatively safely. Thinking it would be the best if his future home was at least close to the river, he walked in its direction. While he was walking he remembered one of his new skills mentioned something about stat points and realised he had no idea what his stat points looked like. ¡®Let¡¯s see, stats?¡¯ He thought, emphasising the word ¡®stats¡¯. As soon as he thought the word, a blue screen popped up. ¡°Handy¡­¡± he mumbled and began to inspect what seemed to be his character sheet.
Gunther Baker Active skills: Mana Manipulation lv 10 Passive skills: Mana Refining tier max Adaptability tier 1 Stats: HP: 45/45 HP regen: 0.36/min MP: 90/90 MP regen: 0.9/min Strength: 8 Constitution: 9 Agility: 12 Intelligence: 14 Wisdom: 10 Charisma: 9 Achievements: So pathetic even the gods pity him
¡®Looking at this, I¡¯m guessing 10 is the average of a human from Earth. Still, that achievement is pretty mean.The stats seem about right though, never been good at sports and all, though I guess that¡¯s gonna change now that I¡¯m able to increase my stats somewhat easily. It is kind of strange that my physical stats seem to be about the same as those of my old body, even though this certainly is not that body...¡¯ He thought,deciding to ignore that last observation and grinning a bit at the thought he wouldn¡¯t absolutely suck at sports anymore relatively soon. While he was getting closer to the river, Gunther noticed the trees were getting progressively larger. It was almost like the trees didn¡¯t have a maximum size and just kept growing as long as there was enough water in the ground. When he finally reached the river, the trees were so large that one of them probably contained enough wood to build an entire house. ¡®Actually, using one of these trees as a house isn¡¯t the worst idea.¡¯ he thought, whilst filling the waterskin he got from William. He also drank a bit from the stream and was surprised at how good it tasted. It was difficult to describe what was so different, it just tasted more alive, he supposed. ¡®Maybe it¡¯s because of all the magic of this world, or it is simply less polluted than on Earth.¡¯ He pondered. It was strange how such a little thing made such a large difference, but it was the taste of the water that really made him realise he wasn¡¯t on Earth anymore. Gunther suddenly felt rather homesick. Sure, he didn¡¯t have a lot of friends, but those he did have, he would really miss. He also realised they must be mourning his death right now, as he was pretty sure he had indeed died back on Earth, and even if he didn''t, a sudden disappearance wasn''t much better. ¡®This is something they never tell you about in all those stories on the internet,¡¯ he thought ¡®all you read is how amazing those other worlds and new powers are. Never do they speak about the feeling of being all alone in a place you don¡¯t know with no apparent way to get home.¡¯ Before he could get too stuck in his thoughts however, Gunther did what he always did when he felt a bit down; He got to work. A new home ¡®Well then, let¡¯s see what we¡¯ve got here.¡¯ Gunther thought to himself, while he was looking around to see anything that might aid him in his quest for shelter. The river was just about what you would expect from a river, a lot of flowing water. The spot Gunther was at just so happened to be a bend in the river though and that meant rocks of different sizes that were carried away by the river were abundant. ¡®Maybe I can fashion some sort of tool out of them, he thought. I remember being told that people from the stone-age used to hit stones against each other until one of them broke, to create a sharp edge.¡¯ Suddenly a yellow screen popped up.
Stat point gained! For thinking of using information you recall in a useful way, you gained a stat point in Wisdom. You might actually not jump of a mountain if all your friends didit too, good for you. Wisdom +1
¡®Well then, hitting rocks till they break it is. This is a handy way to check if I¡¯m doing the right thing.¡¯ Gunther looked around until he found a decently sized stone, one a bit larger than his fist. He then walked to the largest rock he could find and began to hit it with the stone. At each hit, a bit of the stone splintered off. He kept going until he had something that could have been an axe head, if you looked at it from the right angle. ¡®Okay, let¡¯s be honest, this looks like shit¡­¡¯ Gunther noticed another yellow box had popped up while he was hitting the rock. ¡®Seems like it will stay transparent until I¡¯m no longer busy, neat.¡¯
Stat point gained! For repeatedly hitting a rock really hard, you have gained a stat point in strength. Lookat that, your strength has almost reached a level most of your world would call normal. Strength +1
¡®These screens really are pretty mean. Oh well, as long as I gain those juicy stat points, I don¡¯t really care.¡¯ When he dismissed the screen, he saw another, blue one.
Active skill gained: Crafting lv 1! Making and using tools is what truly set¡¯s sapient races apart from the others. By doing so yourself, you have proven you are more than just an animal. By creating something, crude though it may be, by yourself, you have gained the sill Crafting. The items you create have a slightly higher quality, higher skill levels grant a greater boost.
''That''s nice.''
Active skill gained: Primitive Crafting lv 1! Though you are stranded in the wilderness with mother nature as only tool, you don¡¯t let that stop you from crafting. By crafting in with nothing but the natural components around you, you have gained the skill Primitive Crafting. Crafting in primitive environments becomes easier, higher skill levels grant a greater boost.
''Two for the price of one, I like it!'' Gunther took another stone of about the same size as the last one and got to work. He noticed he instinctively held the stone a little different and used varying amounts of strength when hitting the rock. When it was done, the rock looked like a tool that could actually be used. It was still really rough, but that was to be expected. He noticed Crafting was now level 2 and Primitive Crafting even went up to level 3.
You have created a tool: Stone axe blade (Very Crude) Stone axe blade An axe blade made by a nameless craftsman in very primitive circumstances, can be used to cut into wood. Cutting damage +1
¡®So there is some kind of item system. I really have to figure out how to use that Inspect spell William was talking about. Primitive Crafting got more experience than Crafting, huh. Maybe the more specific skills level faster because you have to perform one specific action to use them and the more general skills level slower because they are used more. That would make sense.¡¯ Now that he had a kind of decent tool, Gunther had to decide what to do with it. He could try to use the branches laying on the ground, but he really had no idea how to build a hut with them. Gunther kind of regretted not playing outside more often when he was a kid ¡®Would really have come in handy right about now¡­¡¯ Then he thought about what the description had said about his axe blade ¡®Can be used to cut into wood huh, it might be a lot of work, but it could work out.¡¯ With that thought, he walked towards a particularly wide tree and began to cut into it.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. It was really a lot of work, as expected, but it seemed possible to cut out a hole large enough to sleep in. Given that the diameter of the tree he was working on was about three meters, he would maybe be able to carve out something that would in the end act as an actual house, albeit a small one, instead of just some form of shelter. That was an issue for another day though. As Gunther was working, he noticed he needed to rest less and less as time went on and the carving seemed to be going better as well. Curious he checked the notifications he had been ignoring because he thought they would distract him if he didn¡¯t.
Active skill gained: Carving lv 1 We all try to carve a piece of ourselves into the world, you seem to do it a little bit more literally though. By carving into wood, you have gained the skill Carving. Carving becomes easier, the items you create will have a higher artistic value. Higher skill levels grant a greater boost.
¡®So this skill is not only for hollowing out trees, but also for creating little sculptures of wood, interesting.¡¯ That message was directly followed by another one telling him he had leveled the skill up to level 2, after which he got a nice stat point notification.
Stat point gained! For persevering in a tiring task for a long time, you have gained a point in constitution. Maybe you won¡¯t die from being hit by a leaf now. Constitution +1
Well, maybe the message itself wasn''t so nice, but the boost was still appreciated. Now that he had stopped for a bit anyway, Gunther decided to check how much progres he had made. What he saw was disappointing to say the least, after all the time he spent he hadn¡¯t even managed to carve out a cubic meter of wood. ¡®At this rate I won¡¯t have a place to sleep tonight¡­¡¯ He thought, before realising the mistake he had made. He had been going about this in a similar way to what he would have done on Earth. ¡®Now that I have access to mana, I should use it! First I have to figure out how I can use mana and then how I can apply it to my current situation. I should have thought about this earlier, instead of just mindlessly hacking into the tree like a madman.¡¯ Gunther decided to try to feel the mana inside of him. It took a couple of minutes, but in the end he felt some sort of energy flowing through veins he didn¡¯t even know he had. ¡®I guess I really didn¡¯t have them before today. But if the mana channels are part of my soul, does that mean I am feeling my soul right now? Wierd.¡¯ He decided to just sit for a bit and get a good grip on this feeling he now had. After a while, when he thought he had a good grasp of it, he tried to force the mana out of his channels. The result was kind of anticlimactic, the mana went out of his channels and dispersed in the air. ¡®I guess I need to actively control it in order to make it stay huh?¡¯ Gunther forced the mana out again, but now only through his hand while trying to keep it there. He saw a blue glow form above his hand, getting more and more opaque as he pushed more mana into it. He tried to touch it with his left hand, but his concentration lapsed and the mana dispersed again. When Gunther tried to form it a third time it went a lot easier and he managed to keep a little ball of mana floating above his hand for a minute or so. ¡®That Mana Manipulation skill I got earlier must have only began to work after I managed to do it on my own first. I guess that¡¯s fair, it starting at level 10 is enough of a cheat as is.¡¯ Only now did he notice his mana went down from 90 to 20 through all of that. It seemed like he would have to wait a bit before he could continue experimenting. ¡®Well, back to work then I guess.¡¯ Gunther decided it would be best for him to make a new blade before he continued though. The old one seemed to have been blunted quite a bit. He got to work and some skill level-ups later he had himself a new weapon in his battle against the tree. The quality is still Very Crude, but it seemed a little bit better than the last one at least. Now that he was done crafting, Gunther¡¯s mana had only recovered by 5 points. ¡®Even though my mana regen went up by a bit because of the stat point in wisdom, at this rate it would still take me one and a half hour to fully regenerate it. Maybe I can try to get some skill to speed it up a bit.¡¯ He thought about it some more while more or less subconsciously hacking away at the tree. In the end an active regeneration skill or some form of meditation would most likely be his best shot. ¡®I think I¡¯ll try active regeneration first, since I will be able to keep working on my shelter as well.¡¯ While still steadily fighting his way through the tree, Gunther focussed on the mana inside of him. Once he had a good feel for it again, he tried to extend this sense of his outward. After some struggle he managed to feel something around himself, it was faint but seemed similar to the mana in his channels just less pure. Gunther attempted to force the mana inside, but it wouldn¡¯t move. Since force didn¡¯t work, he tried to open himself up for the mana, in the hope it would just naturally flow into him. This technique seemed to work, until his mana reached a certain point, about halfway to his maximum capacity, the mana stopped coming. His own mana appeared to leak into the surroundings. ¡®So this way I can regenerate my mana up to a certain point. I would assume it works like pretty much the same as almost everything else in nature, flowing from a high concentration to a lower one, or from high potential to low potential as was the case with most sorts of energy.¡¯ Gunther¡¯s sort of scholarly mind took over, this was the way of thinking that had helped him with his studies and later his research. ¡®If it really does go from a high to low concentration, maybe there¡¯s a way to make it seem as if my mana has a lower concentration. Condensing could work. Or maybe I should try to create a semipermeable membrane that only let¡¯s mana through one way. That would actually be a great defense too I bet. Also, trying to figure out how exactly my body generates mana could help too¡­¡¯ After this went on for some time, Gunther noticed he went of track and tried to return to thinking about how to improve his mana regeneration. Before he could get back to his experiments though, he noticed a rather interesting pop-up.
Stat point gained! For using your wits to try and improve yourself, you have gained a stat point in intelligence. Maybe now you realise continuously hitting a rock is something only caveman would consider crafting. Intelligence +1
¡°Hey, it worked didn¡¯t it?¡± Gunther said to no-one in particular, a bit embarrassed. That wasn¡¯t the interesting notice hesaw earlier though.
Dual skill gained: Analysation lv 1! Sentience is the ability to feel subjectively, while sapience is the ability to act upon knowledge, experience and understanding. You have proven yourself to be a truly sapient creature. For thinking about a problem and analysing it properly, you have gained the dual skill Analysation. Dual skills are skills with both active and passive effect. They are fairly rare and you should count yourself lucky if you¡¯ve gained it through your class. If you¡¯ve gained the skill through your own ability, you can be proud of yourself for achieving something only a select few could. Active effect: Analisational efforts have increased effect, higher levels increase the effect even more. Passive effect: You are able to stay calm and analyse a situation where others would panic, higher levels decrease the chance at getting panicked even more.
Bunny Now that he had this new skill, Gunther was about to go back to thinking about how to increase his mana regeneration when he noticed his mana had gone back up to it¡¯s maximum, which was 100 now. ¡®In that case, I¡¯ll try out some ideas about increasing my efficiency at carving.¡¯ The first thing Gunther did was to try and analyse the tree to see if that would yield any results. Looking at the tree, with the help of his new skill of course, he noticed some areas seemed weaker than others. The moment he tried to focus on them, they somehow became more prominent in his vision, while the stronger pieces of wood seemed to get slightly less sharp. ¡®This is really useful, I wonder if it is applicable to combat in some way. Maybe I will think of effective strategies easier or something like that¡­¡¯ Now that he knew what spots to hit, Gunther started to think about how to use his mana to cut deeper into the tree. He started cutting away at the tree while thinking, to make sure he didn¡¯t waste any time. It had been morning during his talk with William and it seemed to be getting close to noon now. Gunther was starting to get hungry, so he took one of the pills he had gotten from William and ate it. The pill tasted absolutely horrible, but it did seem to be highly nutritious. Gunther quickly ran to the river and began drinking in order to get rid of the aftertaste of the pill. While Gunther was drinking, he didn¡¯t notice the bunny sneaking up on him. Even if he had noticed, he probably wouldn¡¯t have thought it to be a threat. After all, what could a bunny do against a human? Gunther suddenly felt a sting in his leg and noticed some of his mana leaving him. He quickly turned around to see an innocent looking little bunny, readying itself for another attack. Gunther looked around and thought about his options. ¡®It snuck up on me once, so it could probably do it again if it managed to escape. That means I¡¯ll have to make sure I kill it with one hit, or make sure it can not escape. First I¡¯ll have to make sure it doesn¡¯t manage to get another hit on me though. Mana drain attacks are dangerous after all. Dodging towards my tree seems the best option since my axe blade is there.¡¯ Interestingly enough, Gunther didn¡¯t have any problem with trying to kill the bunny, even though the only creatures he had killed before were some bugs. When he saw the bunny jumping towards him, Gunther quickly rolled in the direction of the tree he had been working on the whole morning. ¡®Those judo classes sure are useful now. That roll would have been difficult to pull of if I had not been forced to practise it again and again.¡¯ All the little stones laying around dit not make his roll a pleasant one however. Now that he had evaded the bunny¡¯s attack, Gunther ran towards the tree and grabbed his axe blade. When he turned around he saw the bunny approaching him again. ¡®If I can dodge it by jumping just a little bit to the side and then strike its neck, I might be able to take it out in one hit.¡¯ Gunther thought and he immediately got a chance to apply his new strategy.
The bunny lunged at him again and this time Gunther jumped just a little bit to the left, ready to strike the bunny. What he hadn¡¯t expected, however, was that the bunny jumped at him again immediately after landing. The terrible beast managed to bite his left arm this time, making Gunther scream in pain. For some stupid reason, the bunny didn¡¯t have the blunt teeth of a herbivore, but sharp ones that buried themselves into his arm. Gunther''s mana began dropping again. Luckily Gunther didn¡¯t get completely distracted by the pain, which was at least partly because of his dual skill, Gunther suspected. Now that the murderous monster was hanging from his arm, he dropped his weapon and grabbed the beasts paws with his right hand. Gunther pulled at the bunny and screamed in pain when it took a bit of his arm with it. Now that he was holding it by its paws, the bunny couldn¡¯t do much and Gunther began to think about the most efficient way to finish it off. Even though he wasn¡¯t exactly bothered by the idea of killing the little bastard, he did not think it necessary to be cruel about it. He walked towards the rock he had used to hit his axe blade on and hit the bunny on it with all his 9 strength points. It took a couple of hits and it was certainly not pretty, but in the end the bunny stopped moving. Now that the bunny was dead, Gunther dropped it and looked at the once clean stone. It was now covered in blood and even a few pieces of brain. The bunny itself was also quite unsightly, its skull was cracked open and its innards were slowly becoming outards.
Seeing what he had done to the bunny, Gunther ran to the river and threw up in it. He had never quite realised how gory killing could be. When reading it usually wasn¡¯t mentioned and when it was, it wasn¡¯t like he was really there seeing it all. In games and movies it was always tuned down, either the gore wasn¡¯t shown at all or it was made to look less horrific. In real life, he had none of these protections and was forced to look at it in all it¡¯s horrible glory. Something his stomach didn¡¯t really appreciate and neither did he. When he had calmed down a bit, Gunther returned to the scene of the crime and cleaned it up to the best of his capabilities. While he was cleaning up, he thought about what had happened. He had let his guard down, thinking it surely would not be very dangerous here, even after William had warned him that there were creatures around that could easily kill Gunther. Now that he knew about the dangers, finishing his tree had become even more of a priority to him. Gunther also didn¡¯t think he could handle more fights like the one he had just been in. While he was quite sure he could take on another bunny quite easily now, his arm was still bleeding and he really didn¡¯t want to have to see all that blood again.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. Finally done with cleaning up the rock, Gunther carried the body of the bunny to the river and threw it in as far downstream as he could. Hopefully the river would take the bunny a long way away so that it wouldn¡¯t attract other predators. With the battle and its aftermath finally dealt with, Gunther decided to look at his notifications. He had gained 2 stat points in strength, 3 in constitution and 1 in both agility and wisdom. That was a nice boost, but Gunther suspected he would have gained more if he had had the ability to level up. There was no use in lamenting that fact though, so he looked at the rest of the notifications.
Active skill gained: Dodge lv 3! You have decided not getting hit is a great way of not dying, good for you! By dodging an attack using knowledge from your original world, you have gained the skill Dodge. React faster to attacks and dodge them more easily, higher skill levels grant higher reaction speed.
¡®So I get higher skill levels if I use skills from Earth, handy!¡¯
Passive skill gained: Melee Combat lv 1! Keep hitting it till it dies, the oldest combat strategy known to man. Now you to use it. By fighting using only melee skills, you have gained the skill Melee Combat. Improved melee damage by 10%, higher levels increase the boost by 1% each.
That notification was followed by others telling Gunther the skill had increased to level 4. ¡®How is not even 5 minutes of combat more effective than nearly 5 hours of carving?! Maybe it is because of the danger that was involved or something, but it still seems somewhat unfair.¡¯
You are bleeding, you will lose 0.25 hp/s Damage will increase over time if the debuff is not removed
Gunther looked at his hp in a panic, it was at 40/80. He had only 160 seconds to live if he didn¡¯t find a way to deal with it. Luckily Analysation kicked in again and prevented him from panicking. ¡®So I will continue taking damage as long as I¡¯m bleeding. I could try to win some time by making the bleeding less severe. Then afterwards I can try to heal myself using mana.¡¯ Now with a plan, Gunther took of his vest and shirt and used his axe blade to cut of a piece of one of the sleeves of his shirt. With trembling hands he clumsily tied the cloth around his upper left arm in an attempt to cut of the blood flow to the rest of his arm. The bleeding slowed down, but didn¡¯t stop completely.
Bleeding slowed down, damage reduced to 0.1 hp/s As the bleeding is being partially blocked, the damage will not increase over time
Tying the cloth around his arm had taken him about a minute and the damage hadn''t increased even more, so he now had 25 hp, or 250 seconds to heal himself. He cursed at himself for not looking at his notifications earlier, as he was sure the damage per second had risen by a significant amount because he would have been dead already if it had started out at 0.25 hp/s. Since he only had a few more minutes to live if he didn¡¯t do something, Gunther got to work immediately. He activated his Mana Manipulation skill and tried to send some mana to his bleeding arm.
Mana attack deals 1 hp damage
Active skill gained: Hurtful Touch lv 1! Mana can be used for many things, you have found out how to hurt people with it. By experimenting on yourself, you have gained the skill Hurtful Touch. Deal damage by touching someone, damage dealt increases with more mana used. Current power: 1 hp per mp (resistances not included) Higher levels: +0.5 hp per mp for each level above lv 1
Extremely glad he hadn¡¯t tried to use more mana, Gunther immediately pulled back. After he made sure he didn¡¯t get any more damage, he sent some mana to his arm again, but now with the explicit intend to heal. It worked and he got another notification.
Healing mana recovers 1 hp
Active skill gained: Healing Touch lv 1! Mana can be used for many things, you have found out how to heal people with it. By experimenting on yourself, you have gained the skill Healing Touch. Heal by touching someone, damage recovered increases with more mana used. Current power: 1 hp per mp (resistances not included) Higher levels: +0.5 hp per mp for each level above lv 1
The skill seemed to be the exact opposite of Hurtful touch, but Gunther didn¡¯t have time to think about that. He quickly spent 60 of his remaining mp to heal himself, it was a bit overkill, but Gunther really didn¡¯t care at the moment. He felt the mana enter his arm and watched as his arm was being recovered at an unnatural speed. He saw his own veins growing back and attaching themselves again and saw how skin grew over it. It was fascinating to watch, although it was a bit gross as well.
Bleeding stopped
You have healed yourself back to full health
Getting stuff done Now that he was finally done with the whole bunny affair, Gunther had to regenerate his mana again. He currently was at 38/100 mp, surely not enough to hollow out a tree. He began to think it had been a stupid idea to decide to hollow out a tree for shelter. It really didn¡¯t take a genius to realise it would take a very long time. He was committed to the idea now though, and one way or another, he would see it through. The best way to regenerate his mana was, of course, doing it while hacking away at his favorite tree. So Gunther took the tool he dropped and got to work again, while utilising the technique he had discovered earlier to get his mp back up to the level of the ambient mana. His mana went back up to 45 in about two minutes, which was about triple his usual speed, but barely increased after that. ¡®Well, that was kind of useless. Maybe I can just stay at 45 mp instead of going all the way up to the max. In that way my regeneration is basically tripled all the time.¡¯ With the problem of his low mana regeneration temporarily solved, Gunther went finally back to creating his own cozy home. He got back to carving wood out of the tree, but this time tried to push mana into his tool. Surprisingly, it worked just fine right away. ¡®This is probably the first thing I do right at the first try since I arrived here¡­¡¯ Gunther thought, a little bitterly. Of course, directly after he thought that, something had to go wrong. His trusty axe blade mark 3 exploded in his hand.
Explosion deals 20 hp damage
¡®20 hp?! that¡¯s ridiculous, I only used 5 mp for that¡­¡¯ Gunther healed himself straight away, resulting in his losing another 20 points of mana.
You have healed yourself back to full health
¡®Great, now I¡¯ll have to regenerate my mana for another 7 or so minutes. Let¡¯s see if the tree at least took some damage as well.¡¯ Looking back at the tree, he noticed that a sphere with a diameter of about 10 was missing from the place he had been carving. ¡®Maybe it¡¯s not that bad after all! Now to find out how I can do this without harming myself¡­¡¯ That was when Gunther noticed he had gained a new skill.
Active skill gained: Mana Explosion lv 1! Let¡¯s blow stuff up while holding it! Said no sane person ever. By overloading an item with mana, you have gained the skill Mana Explosion. Make items explode by pouring more mana into them then they can take Mana cost depends on the item used, certain items can boost the power or add extra effects. Higher levels allow you to add certain effects to the explosion as well as make it more powerful, independent of the item used.
He also noticed his Healing Touch skill had gone up by a level, as well as his Carving skill. ¡®This can certainly be useful.¡¯ Gunther thought, while coming up with possible uses of the skill in combination with his crafting. ¡®The power of the explosion was probably boosted because I used a stone as a base. If I can find a way to delay the explosion I can maybe use it to clear out large chunks of the tree.¡¯ With these kinds of hopeful ideas Gunther collected a lot of smaller stones to experiment with. ¡®I haven¡¯t even been here for one day and am already turning into a mad scientist.¡¯ Gunther mused, grinning. ¡®Oh well, if it takes a bit of insanity to get me a place to live, I guess I have no choice.¡¯ Having collected a sufficient amount of stones of varying sizes, Gunther picked up one of the smallest ones. Pouring one mp into it, using his Mana Explosion, Gunther carefully studied the effect it had on the pebble. It seemed to glow a bit, before suddenly turning red and exploding, dealing a whopping 2 damage. ¡®I might be able to throw it away just before it explodes.¡¯ Gunther thought, while healing himself for 1.5 hp. His level 2 Healing Touch granting him that much for 1 mp now. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Picking up another pebble of similar size, Gunther tried to pour in mana slower this time, while being ready to throw it into the tree as soon as it seemed like it would explode. When the pebble began to turn red, Gunther threw it away and watched as it exploded in the air, before even reaching the tree. ¡®Should¡¯ve thought about that. Maybe I¡¯ll just lay it down and run away.¡¯ After taking yet another pebble and laying it on the ground a bit away from the others, Gunther infused it with mana again, still trying his hardest to do it as slowly as possible. When it looked like the stone would explode, Gunther quickly jumped backwards. He managed to not get hurt and laughed at his success. ¡°Yes, have fear tree, for your end is nigh!¡± He shouted, not caring at how ridiculous it would sound if anyone heard it. He experimented a bit more, using increasingly larger stones for a greater effect, actually earning another 3 levels in the skill. When he was confident enough to use larger stones without hurting himself, Gunther took one of them to the tree. Simply placing the quite large stone inside the hole the last explosion had made, he poured 20 mp into it. After running away a bit, Gunther turned back and saw this explosion alone had doubled the volume of the ''chamber'' he had been carving out. The total size now probably adding up to about 1.5 cubic meters. ¡®A few more of these and I¡¯ll be able to enter it!¡¯ Gunther thought excitedly. ¡®It will not be pretty though. I¡¯ll probably have to finish it up by hand.¡¯ After having expanded the room with another explosion, Gunther started to craft new tools for himself once again. This time, Gunther decided he should make multiple blades, because he seemed to be going through them pretty fast. 2 Crafting levels and 3 Primitive Crafting levels later, Gunther had four more axe blades. He had already suspected skill growth was influenced by experimentation more than repetition after he was done testing his Mana Explosion skill and this new growth seemed to support his theory. While making the tools, he had been trying to change how he did things in little ways. He had, for example, tried hitting the rocks he was trying to turn into blades with smaller stones, which was actually pretty effective he discovered. ¡®It seems the skill levels represent general understanding instead of just being a game like system with bland percentage increases. Maybe applying more knowledge from Earth could be more beneficial than I originally thought.¡¯ His mana had recovered up to 50 mp while he was crafting, enabling him to use some explosions on the tree again. After blowing up as much of the tree as possible, he ended up with a room of about four cubic meters. It was about one meter high, two and a bit deep and a little bit less than two wide. There was now enough space for Gunther to sleep, the irregular surface was still a bit of a problem though. Since most of the tree was removed by small explosions with a roughly spherical form, the floor was not very flat. Gunther took one of his blades and started smoothing out the floor, starting near the entrance, which was just an opening in the tree which was slightly smaller than the actual inside of it. When he had been working for a while and his mana had regenerated up to 45 again, Gunther decided it was time for a bit of an experiment. Careful to not go over the limit that would make it explode, he poured a little bit of mana into the tool. After leveling up his Mana Explosion skill so much, Gunther had gained a bit of an instinctual feeling of how much mana a certain item could handle, before going kaboom. Having learned from his earlier attempts at healing himself, Gunther added a sort of ¡®intent¡¯ to the mana to sharpen his blade and cut into the wood. Said intent seemed to be important while using mana, since it would just try to destroy whatever it was poured in otherwise. When the tool began to glow this time, Gunther stopped providing mana immediately. The glow seemed to concentrate around the edge of the blade and began to become more and more opaque.
Active skill gained: Enhance lv 1! Be it a tool or a weapon, enhancing it makes things happen. By enhancing your stone axe blade, you have gained the skill Enhance. Increases effectiveness of wielded tool, higher skill levels strengthen the effect and reduce the mana cost.
¡®I even get silly rhymes now, the notifications are truly magnificent.¡¯ Gunther thought mockingly. He had to admit that the skill was useful though. He could really feel the difference, the wood giving way faster than before. The mana drain was not all that high, but he had a feeling that would change if he used it on tools which could handle more mana. It was already pretty late by now and Gunther grabbed one of the pills and ate it. He shuddered a bit at the taste and quickly began to drink from the river again. As he was drinking he suddenly thought of the effects his mana had if he just poured it into something. ¡®Maybe using magic is a bit like drinking, you need to take in the mana in the correct way or it won¡¯t work as you expect it. If I would try to use a high pressure water hose to push the water inside my stomach, I would just hurt myself. If I drink it normally however, it will help keep me alive. What if I have been forcing mana into things, while I should have just have inserted it gently instead?¡¯ This theory of his would explain why he initially hurt himself while trying to heal himself or why the blade had just exploded when he added the mana to it.
Mana manipulations gained a level, it is now level 13
¡®It seems my theory is correct. I don¡¯t even have to apply it to make my skill level improve, just knowing it is enough, how interesting.¡¯ After this revelation about the nature of mana, Gunther got back to work. When it became night and Gunther started to get tired, the floor was smooth enough to sleep on. Gunther had focussed on the highest parts first and worked his way down, already knowing it would not be possible to finish it all in one day. Deciding that he would finish the rest of his work the next day, Gunther entered his new home and fell asleep, exhausted from all that had happened on his first day on Elovar. Plan(t)s and powers Gunther woke up to the sound of birds chirping and the light of the sun, entering his bedroom. He groaned, wondering what time it was. It was too early to wake up, that was certain. He opened his eyes to look at his alarm clock and only then noticed he wasn¡¯t lying in his bed at home, but in his tree in Elovar. Slowly becoming fully awake, Gunther began to remember all that had happened the day before. ¡®It really has been a crazy day, huh? Well, it¡¯s time to see what today will bring.¡¯ Of course, Gunther wasn¡¯t really happy with the situation he was in, all alone in a world he didn¡¯t know, but he knew there was no point in complaining. It was time to decide how he would spend his time the coming days. A plan was essential, if he wished to survive this new, dangerous world. ¡®Shelter is taken care of for now, as well as water, my food supply is limited, but will hold for about a month I think. Maybe I should focus on getting stronger then? Or perhaps exploring the area?¡¯ When he thought some more about it, Gunther realised becoming stronger was his best bet. Exploring the area would help if he had to escape in case something more dangerous than a killer bunny appeared, but the risk of running into exactly that creature while exploring was to great. ¡®Gaining strength it is then, cue in the epic montage!¡¯ To his immense disappointment, Gunther didn¡¯t hear any montage music starting, nor did he somehow start moving on his own. ¡®It was worth a shot...¡¯ ¡°Now then, how to start gaining power.¡± Gunther mumbled, thinking about all the paths he could take. Having no class to limit him was great in a way, but it also meant he had to choose from literally every possible option out there. All support or crafting skills were out if he wanted to be able to survive for long. Building a literal fortress would of course help, but for one, he didn¡¯t have the stone for it and secondly, he would never be able to finish such a thing before his food ran out. ¡®That leaves me with melee, ranged or magical combat. A summoner skill would be awesome as well, but I have no idea how to even start at that. Taming animals would be cool as well, but seeing what a single bunny did to me, it somehow doesn¡¯t seem like a great idea.¡¯ Gunther mused, another thought coming up while thinking of the bunny. ¡®I don¡¯t think I could really handle all that blood another time, so maybe melee is not the best idea. If I don¡¯t want to be throwing rocks at stuff, ranged will at least have to wait until I have a bow and since I don¡¯t know how to make one, it seems I will have to become a mage.¡¯ Gunther had always been kind of interested in magic while on Earth, so that may have influenced his decision a bit, but he really believed it was his best option as well. He noticed he had earned himself two points in wisdom and one in intelligence during his decision making. ¡®Maybe it is because I decided to go into the mage direction, or just a coincidence, but it is a nice boost nonetheless. Now to decide which direction I should go in.¡¯ After some consideration, Gunther decided manipulating the world around him would be the best way to go. The main reason for this decision was the fact that his knowledge from Earth seemed to be able to boost his skill levels. Applying his understanding of physics to influence the world around him, would surely give him an edge in comparison to manipulating the arcane energies into a spear or stuff like that. The fact that every first attempt at casting magic had resulted in him harming himself influenced his decision a bit as well. He just didn¡¯t seem all to adept at casting magic like that. Now Gunther just had to decide where to start. The options which seemed the most viable right now were manipulating water, earth, wind or wood. Life or death could maybe be done as well, but Gunther didn¡¯t know enough about magic to try life and after his experience with necromancers, death magic wasn¡¯t all to appealing to him. He didn¡¯t even consider time or space magic. ¡®Wind magic or manipulation might be hard to get to a point where I can damage anyone with it, since I¡¯ll probably have to condense it into a wind blade. Water might be good, but it would leave me powerless if I¡¯m away from the river, since I don¡¯t think using the water in the air will be viable anytime soon. That leaves me at earth or wood magic. Being in a forest, there is enough of both. Wood would help me with upgrading my home as well, but might be harder. Earth seems pretty decent overall, but is just a bit boring. Wood it is then.¡¯ After these and other thoughts, Gunther decided to start with trying to manipulate wood, although he fully planned to at least try his other options as well at some point. Having decided on a plan for the foreseeable future, Gunther decided it was time to get out of his tree. Stepping outside, he noticed it was still early in the morning. Now that he wasn¡¯t in danger or hurriedly looking for a place to sleep, he noticed it was spring. Tiny green plants having sprouted in the area. ¡®Normally, the smaller plants don¡¯t really stand a chance in a forest like this one, with the trees blocking a lot of the light. Maybe they can live of mana or something like that.¡¯Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. It was just a passing thought, but it was still kind of interesting to think about. Moving on from that minor observation, Gunther began to think about how he would be able to manipulate the wood around him. It would be best if he could somehow constrict his enemies with the roots of the trees around him and then use the dead wood on the ground to finish them off. He didn¡¯t know how much of that would be possible though. Gunther thought it might be possible to feel the mana of the tree and try to manipulate that, so he went back to his cozy room and lied down inside. Now surrounded by wood, Gunther tried to open up his senses to the mana around him. He knew how to feel for his own mana and tried to extend that feeling to his surroundings. He eventually got into some sort of trance, completely at peace and slowly becoming one with his surroundings. He didn¡¯t know how much time had passed, but at a certain moment he felt what he was looking for. The feeling was very faint, but it also felt powerful. Strong yet flexible, full of life and energy and very old somehow. He didn¡¯t know what made him think those things, but somehow he just did. He also noticed it felt somehow damaged, rough at the places where the feeling started. Gunther then decided it was time to open his eyes and saw that he had gotten some notifications.
Active skill gained: Meditation lv 1! Doing nothing and thinking of nothing on purpose, the paradox of meditation. By immersing yourself in the world around you, you have gained the skill Meditation. Makes time feel like it passes faster and increases regeneration of all kinds. Let¡¯s you influence your perception of time at higher levels, increases regeneration further at higher levels.
¡®That certainly seems useful, although the fact that I basically skipped a part of the day could be bad. I don¡¯t have unlimited supplies after all.¡¯
Active skill gained: Mana Sense lv 1! By look at ones mana and see his soul. By feeling the mana around you for the first time, you have gained the skill Mana Sense. Enables you to feel the mana around you. At later levels you sense mana with more clarity, sensing mana becomes more natural to you as this skill increases in level, though an active skill, using this one will at one point be as much a conscious action as using your eyes to see.
¡®This is awesome, a completely new sense!¡¯ Though Gunther thought it awesome to gain this new ability, he also was a bit scared, because it was once again a reminder that this place was very different from Earth. The notifications were not done however.
Passive skill gained: Wood Attunement lv 1! Wood is strong and almost as old as life itself. You somehow gained a connection to this element. By immersing yourself in the element of wood, you have gained the skill Wood Attunement. Lets you understand the element of wood and control it slightly, higher levels let you control and understand it better.
¡°Yes!¡± Gunther exclaimed, glad that his plan had worked. He got outside of his tree and noticed the sun was higher up in the air and the temperature had risen during the time he had been meditating. ¡®Something to consider next time I use the skill.¡¯ He had also gotten some notifications telling him his Meditation went up to level 3 and his Mana Sense had leveled to 2.His wisdom stat had gone up by 1 as well. Gunther laid his hand on the wood that had been his bed that night. With the help of his Wood Attunement, he felt a slight sense of hurt and pain. It was as if the tree was wounded. Gunther realised he was the reason the tree was in pain, he had used explosives to make a pretty big hole on the inside after all. On Earth, Gunther knew, the core of a tree consists of dead wood, even if the tree itself is alive. He hadn¡¯t even considered the possibility that it would be different here. Even if it weren¡¯t, he had still carved a hole in the side of the tree. Remorseful, Gunther tried to think of ways to help the tree and heal it. Thinking of his knowledge from Earth, Gunther tried to sense the ¡®vascular system¡¯ of the tree. He knew trees use a concept similar to blood and veins to transport the needed nutrients throughout it. Using that knowledge it was pretty easy to find the phloems, veins, of the tree. The hard part was using his newfound power to make it grow back. Even harder was convincing it to grow back in the way he wanted. Gunther didn¡¯t want to block off the entrance to his own home after all. Using his mana, Gunther send out the intent to make the tree regrow itself in the shape he wanted. Starting with the outer edge, he commanded a single phloem to grow up and reconnect at the top of the opening. Instead of making it do this straight up however, he forced it to grow in an arc, as close to the edge of the opening as possible. Supplying the tree with his own mana to grow, he guided it, pushed and pulled, begged it to follow his command, until it was finally done. Gunther fell to the ground exhausted. He hadn¡¯t used up much mana, just 14 points, but the amount of mental energy he had spent was not something quantified in this world. Even after all that, he had only reconnected one single bit of wood.Deciding he would find some more efficient way later, he got back into the tree and started meditating. Since the skill had said it boosted regeneration of all kinds, he hoped his mental exhaustion would be lessened as well. With those thoughts, he drifted off into a trance again. Flowers in the night Waking up from his second meditation session ever, Gunther noticed he felt a lot less tired than before. It might simply be because he had been relaxing in a warm somewhat comfortable position, but he suspected Meditation had something to do with it as well. Now that the thought had come up, Gunther noticed the tree felt more comfortable than before. It didn¡¯t look like much had changed, but the wood somehow felt just a little bit softer and more comfortable. He decided he should use his new control over the wood to smoothen out his bed some more, but only after he had helped the tree recover from what he had done to it. ¡®I hurt it, so it is my responsibility to help it get better as well. Even if it means I¡¯ll sleep a little bit less comfortable.¡¯ Gunther thought. Now that he was fully awake again, getting out of his meditation felt a bit like waking up just a little bit earlier than he would like, Gunther noticed some notifications he had gotten. He read them over quickly, before dismissing them. He had gotten some new stat points, two in Charisma and one in Wisdom. The Charisma stat-points had of course come with a nice and snarky message attached to them, just like the ones he had gotten for every other first increase in one of his stats.
Stat point gained! For realising you harmed a living creature and trying to make up for it, you have gotten two points in Charisma. Good job, if you keep this up, you will maybe be able to talk to actual sentients instead of trees someday. Charisma +2
¡®It isn¡¯t my fault I can¡¯t go to any settlements yet, I didn¡¯t choose to be the only person on the entire planet to have no Class¡­¡¯ Aside from mean messages from some bored god, Gunther had also gotten some new skill levels. One in Meditation and two in Wood Attunement. He didn¡¯t know why he had gotten two levels in the latter while only having helped one little piece of wood reconnect, but he suspected it might have had something to do with his understanding of how trees functioned. If his guess was correct, Gunther thought he should be able to level up his skill relatively easy, since he doubted many people would start out with knowing how the cells of trees looked or how photosynthesis worked. ¡®This might give me an incredible edge in some skills. The description of Wood Attunement did say it boosts understanding as it levels and I have at least a better understanding than most. I¡¯m sure this will apply to other skills as well. This might be enough to offset my lack of a class and allow me to at least compete a little bit to those who get their skill growth boosted.¡¯ With thoughts like these, Gunther got out of the tree again and looked around a bit. It seemed to be early afternoon by now. He was relieved to see no creatures around, but didn¡¯t let his guard down. He had learned from his encounter the day before, no matter how peaceful and quiet it looked, there were still some rather dangerous creatures around in this forest. Gunther walked around, checking for any sign of danger, finding none, he went to the river and ate one of the pills. Shuddering from the foul taste, he quickly drank some water from the river. Having finished his ¡®lunch¡¯ Gunther went back to the tree and looked at the opening he had made. Sighing, he sat down next to the tree and focussed on his Wood Attunement skill. He used mana to grow back some more of the phloems, but instead of doing it one at a time, he tried to grow them all a little bit now. It was a lot harder to get it right this way, but Gunther thought it would be a bit faster in the end. Feeling his mana go down, he realised he could use his Mana Sense to look at what exactly was using up mana. If he understood what was happening, he could maybe improve his technique. It was hard to see exactly what was happening, all Gunther really saw was a slight green glow in the air between himself and the tree. He did however feel what was going on in a way. It was hard to describe exactly how, but he somehow he just knew his mana was flowing into the tree and speeding up its natural growth process. ¡®The mana is most likely used to send the cells of the tree in an excited state, which makes them do everything faster. That is the most straightforward way to do this after all. It might be possible to find a more efficient way though.¡¯ Another thing Gunther felt, was how his mana sort of guided the tree to grow in the way he envisioned it. Pushing the phloems just a little bit to the side as they were growing. Gunther continued regrowing the tree in the way he had been doing it before, while thinking about a way to improve the efficiency. After some time, when his mana had almost run out, Gunther suddenly thought about the plants he had seen earlier. He had suspected they grew with the help of mana. If he could somehow understand and replicate the process, he could probably speed up his work with the tree. Stopping the mana still flowing towards the tree, Gunther looked at the notifications he had gotten while working.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. He had gotten two new points in Intelligence and one in Wisdom, none in Charisma this time. That made sense though, since he had gotten the points from his decision to right what he had done wrong and he hadn¡¯t done anything new to deserve more points. The points in Intelligence and Wisdom had probably just come from his practise with handling his mana. Aside from stat points, there were also a few skill level-ups. His Mana Sense had gone up to level 4, his Wood Attunement to level 5 and even Analysation had gone up to level 2. Gunther had noticed the dual skill seemed to be much harder to level. He had been using the active part of the spell every time he used his magic to do something new and yet it had only leveled just then. Deciding not to meditate, but to let the ambient mana flow into him instead, Gunther walked towards one of the little plants sprouting all over the place. His mana was down to 30 points, it was low enough to benefit from just letting the ambient mana flow in, but luckily there was still some of it left to experiment with it. It was getting a bit dark already, which was great for Gunther''s plan to test if the plants really could use mana to grow instead of sunlight. Controlling wood didn¡¯t cost a lot of mana and Gunther had managed to regrow quite a bit of the tree before his mana reached the 30 points it was at now. Trying to clear his mind a bit, Gunther breathed in and out slowly. He then got down on his knees and held his right hand over one of the plants. It looked a bit like a Bluebell from earth, the only difference being that it was not blue. Here there seemed to be variants in all colours, making the ground almost look like a rainbow carpet. This particular plant was yellow. Gunther shook his head, in an attempt at preventing his thoughts from wandering of even more. He used his mana in much the same way as he had to make the tree grow. This time, however, he didn¡¯t give the plant any ¡®orders¡¯ about how it would grow. Instead, Gunther observed what happened using his Mana Sense carefully. Then, something quite unexpected happened. The flower absorbed his mana and began to glow. When Gunther stopped giving mana, the flower didn¡¯t stop glowing. He waited a while and after some minutes, the flower dimmed. ¡°Interesting¡­¡± Gunther mumbled. ¡®I wonder if the other flowers have the same ability. Maybe they do different things, according to their colours. Could also just be different colours of light though.¡¯ Deciding to just try it out, he walked to a blue flower. Using his Wood Attunement skill to pour some mana in, he watched with his Mana Sense activated. Gunther was slightly disappointed when he saw it just shone with blue light instead of yellow. Luckily, feeding the flowers with mana take less of it than the amount of ambient mana he drew in. Deciding to experiment a bit, Gunther tried to feed two flowers at the same time. He extended his left hand to another flower and send some mana to it. The flower shone with a brilliant orange colour. Gunther took his hands away from the flowers, but tried to keep the connection. It was harder, but he managed to do it in the end. Having managed this, Gunther decided to have a little bit of fun and take it to the next level. He disconnected his mana from the two flowers and waited for them to stop glowing. Looking at his mana, he found it at the level of the ambient mana, 45 points. It took about one point for a flower to glow for a minute, so that would be a little more than 45 flowers he could light at once, considering he would regenerate some mana while lighting the flowers. Gunther sat down next to his tree in the lotus position, just because he thought it would look cool. Using his Mana Sense, Gunther closed his eyes and tried to feel the mana inside of the plants around him. It was pretty difficult at first, probably because of his low level in the skill. The first thing he sensed was the tree he was sitting next to, he recognised it because he had used it to gain the Mana Sense skill in the first place. After some searching he found the first flower. He knew what to look for now and he found some more soon after. He spread out this feeling as far as he could manage and slowly felt more and more of the flowers around him. He filtered everything out that wasn¡¯t a flower, or what he hoped was a flower. It would be awkward if he sent out all his mana into the grass after all. Having lost count after the first twenty or so flowers, Gunther decided to just look for as many flowers as possible and then just work his way outward until his mana was depleted. Losing count after just twenty was almost embarrassing, but it just took a lot of Gunthers concentration to even find the flowers at all. Deciding he had found enough of them, Gunther used his Wood Attunement skill to send some mana to the closest flower. He found it a lot harder compared to first connecting to the flower and then distancing himself, but he didn¡¯t let that stop him. When he had sent a little bit of mana to the first flower, he started on the second and then the third. He didn¡¯t stop providing mana to the flowers he had already lighted, but instead tried to send the absolute minimum of mana in order to make sure they would still be glowing when he was done. Connecting to the flowers became easier as he went on, probably because he gained some levels in a skill or two. He didn¡¯t let that distract him though and continued connecting his mana to more flowers. As he was adding flowers to this little network of his, Gunther got in some sort of trance, sending mana out without even a thought. When he got out of his trance, Gunther sent all of his mana into the channels without a thought. He opened his eyes and gasped. He must had to have used Meditation by accident, because it was night, the sun already gone beyond the horizon. That wasn¡¯t, however, what had made Gunther gasp. What had made him gasp was the beauty of the scene around him. There must have been hundreds of flowers glowing gently in the forest. It was a sea of light consisting of tiny glowing flowers. For the first time since he had arrived on Elovar, Gunther truly relaxed just enjoying the sheer beauty of this new world. Suddenly exhausted, but smiling happily, Gunther lied down amidst the flowers and fell asleep. Preparations Gunther awoke to the sun shining on his face. It took him a moment to realise why he had been sleeping outside, but when he did, a smile crept back up on his face. It had been a small thing, but the scene of yesterday night had somehow calmed him down a bit. Ever since he had arrived on Elovar, he had been slightly tensed unconsciously. He felt different now. Not just because he had relaxed a bit, but also because of something else. He didn¡¯t know what it was exactly, but the forest around him somehow seemed more friendly. Deciding to check his notifications for an explanation, Gunther read them.
Achievement gained: One with the forest By forming a special connection with the world around you, you have earned the achievement One with the forest. Achievements are rare and whichever one you have gained will grant you with great boons. But beware, because as with everything else there are downsides as well. Forest Connection unlocked: You understand the forest and the forest understands you.
    • Your mana regeneration is boosted by the plants around you
  • The Wood Attunement skill has changed to Forrest Attunement
  • If there are no plants around, your mana regeneration will be greatly diminished
  • Using mana for anything but subskills of Forest Attunement will be harder and more expensive
Passive Skill Evolved: Wood Attunement becomes Forrest Attunement! Forests are places full of life, but death is hidden within. You can manipulate the forest using mana. Gain understanding of forests with every level in this skill. Become more powerful when inside a forest you know well. Higher levels increase the boost gained by knowing the forest you are in as well as increasing your abilities regarding the manipulation of forests.
¡®This is amazing! It¡¯s almost like having a class, at least as far as I understand the benefits of those things. Too bad it doesn¡¯t give me free skills and stat-points for killing monsters¡­¡¯ Gunther then noticed some notifications telling him he had gotten two points in Intelligence, one in Wisdom and surprisingly three in Charisma. ¡®It might be because I connected myself to so many flowers, since this world seems to consider plants sentient. Maybe there are sapient flowers or trees around here, or even Ents or Dryads. That would be amazing!¡¯ Gunther thought, excited at the idea of meeting those mystical creatures. Deciding to see what kind of difference the new skills and achievement made, Gunther walked towards his tree. He felt a bit stiff because he had slept on the ground, but it wasn¡¯t actually much worse than his tree. He supposed he was lucky he hadn¡¯t been eaten by some monster that came out at night. Arriving at his tree, Gunther closed his eyes and felt for the tree with his mind like he had done for the flowers last night. He sensed it at once and was surprised at the ease of the progress. He had to put in a bit more effort to find the part of the tree where he had made the hole. He had just a vague idea of the location of the tree and its general shape, but eventually he found a part that somehow felt broken. Reaching out with his magic, again with an ease that hadn¡¯t been there before, he instructed it to grow back in the way he wanted it. He tried to keep an image of how he thought the hole should look like in his mind. It took some time, but eventually he felt it was done. He didn¡¯t really know how he knew, but he just did. Opening his eyes, Gunther looked in surprise at the tree, the hole looked exactly as he had envisioned it. It was more detailed of course, because he wasn¡¯t able to just create an image in his mind, but it was still very similar, almost eerily so. He rationalised it hadn¡¯t been mind reading since he had imposed the vision onto the tree, but it was still a little unsettling to see something from his mind so directly implemented into the real world. ¡®I guess that bit of work is done now, however creepy it may be. This achievement is really quite powerful, my mana is even fully replenished by now!¡¯ With that thought, Gunther realised that if the achievement¡¯s beneficial effects were so strong, its detrimental effects could also be really strong. Slightly panicked, Gunther decided to try it. Taking a rock from the river which was about the same size as the first axe head he had blown to smithereens, he used his explosion skill.
Explosion deals 1 hp damage
¡®Oh damn, that used to be 20 damage! Only five percent of the power remained? What about healing, will that also be so much less powerful?¡¯ Giving that a try as well, he noticed it took him 20 mana just to heal that one hp. It was more than just a 95% reduction of efficiency, probably because the description of the achievement had also talked about an increase in mana cost. ¡®This is bad. I need to find some other way to heal myself. Maybe there are plants with healing properties, those seem to be commonplace in most games at least.¡¯The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Having realised the downsides of his new powers, Gunther was suddenly a lot less excited about the whole achievement business. He then remembered the skill telling him he would become more powerful if he knew the forest he was in better. ¡®Exploring and searching for useful herbs or perhaps mushrooms seems like the best course of action then. I will have to find a way to defend myself first though, because I don¡¯t think I will be able to take on even two rabbits, let alone more dangerous creatures. I also need a way to determine what herbs are useful and which ones are poisonous, but that will come later.¡¯ Having decided on a course of action, Gunther calmed down a bit again. He started to think about his options, aided by his Analysation skill. Commanding the roots of the trees to constrict or pierce his enemies would probably be a no go for now, as would most direct applications of Plant Control. The skill was not suited for fast applications, or just too low level. All his other skills were practically useless because of the achievement. That left him with two options: using Forest Attunement to create a new subskill, or getting creative with Plant Control. Deciding he¡¯d rather wait with new subskills until he got some healing skill, in case there was a limited amount of slots available, Gunther went with the second option. Since using plants directly wouldn¡¯t work, he had to find some way to prepare some attacks. The main problem with directly ordering the plants to attack was the lacking speed. The attacks would probably lack some punch as well, but that problem would already be partially solved if Gunther somehow managed to speed up his control significantly. Unfortunately, that didn¡¯t really seem possible to achieve in a reasonable amount of time. Preparing some attacks would be the best option then. Growing a strong weapon out of a tree was probably the most feasible option, but Gunther didn¡¯t want to exclude other possibilities as well. The Luminent Bluebells, as Gunther had decided to call the flower lamps, could maybe be amplified to blind his enemies and there might be other secrets waiting to be unveiled, hidden inside those little flowers. Gunther strongly doubted the only thing they could do was look pretty. They had managed to survive here after all and if the rabbits were anything to go by, the wildlife here was pretty extreme. Where most plants on Earth could survive just by being numerous or perhaps slightly toxic, the same could probably not be said about those on Elovar. This was all just pure guesswork on Gunther¡¯s side though, so it could very well all be wrong. Instead of pondering over it much longer, he knelt down next to a red flower and inspected it. Not finding anything useful by just looking, he activated his Mana Sense and inspected the flower with it as well. He noticed a faintly glowing present in the middle of the flower head which was probably responsible for the light function which he had discovered earlier. Not finding anything else, even with his Mana Sense, Gunther went on to gently insert just a little bit of mana into the flower and watched what happened. A part of the mana seemed to spread throughout the whole flower while the rest went to the light part he had sensed earlier to turn it on. ¡®Maybe being pretty is actually the only ability it has, if it can use it to get me to willingly donate mana to feed it, maybe it isn¡¯t actually that bad of an idea.¡¯ Gunther realised. ¡®Let¡¯s just hope I can turn it into a weapon!¡¯ ¡°Muhahahahahaha! I will take this innocent flower and turn it into a weapon of mass destruction!¡± Gunther shouted, feeling a bit silly and then laughed. He was glad he still had some opportunities to laugh and joke around here. It would become depressing very quickly if all he could do was focus on trying to survive. ¡®Jokes aside though, it¡¯s kind of sad I have to turn something so pretty into a weapon¡­¡¯ He thought somberly. Deciding it was okay to procrastinate a bit, Gunther walked back to his tree. He realised it was probably better to actually have some form of a weapon before trying anything else anyway. He tried to use his Plant Manipulation to grow a small stick out of the side of the tree. To his relieve it actually worked and he sat down next to the tree. Since he felt like visualisation and intent were important parts of magic, Gunther thought it was a good idea to at least sketch out the weapon he wanted to have. Using the stick he had just grown, he started to draw out some of his ideas. He started by drawing a sword, but quickly realised it wasn¡¯t really practical to use a wooden sword, since it wouldn¡¯t stay sharp very long. That also meant any weapon that relied on its edge to deal damage was automatically out. ¡®And here I thought I would become some badass samurai¡­¡¯ That left Gunther with some sort of hammer, staff or maybe a spear as options. The hammer he ruled out almost immediately, because he was nowhere near strong enough to effectively use one. The choice between a staff and a spear was harder. A spear would allow Gunther to keep enemies at bay effectively, which was definitely a good thing for him. The spear would however have a similar problem as the sword with it¡¯s tip needing to be sharp. A staff didn¡¯t have this problem, but was less effective at keeping enemies away. The main advantage of a staff was the ability to add some weight to the ends to let it function a bit like a club, as far as Gunther knew. After some sketching and thinking, Gunther decided on a staff with pointy ends. It would not pack the same punch as a staff with weights at the ends, but did allow him to stab at things. He would probably experiment a bit with it after he had found some way to heal himself, which was his main goal for now. After refining the sketch a little bit, Gunther stood up and placed his hand on the tree. He focussed on his magic and made his very first real weapon grow out of it. At first glance, it looked like a normal spear, a large fancy stick with a pointy end. Anyone who would watch closer would notice some oddities however. The first difference was the fact that it had two pointy ends, perfect for accidentally stabbing yourself in the foot. The second and main difference were the grips. It had three of them, one in the middle and one at both of the ends, just above and below the spikes. The grips were rougher than the rest and there were some slightly thicker parts on both sides of them, to make sure the weapon wouldn¡¯t slip from your hand. The rest of the spear was very simple, just a boring but sturdy stick. Gunther weighed his new stear in his hands and decided he would have to think of a better name than that. Thinking it best to call it a spear instead, he inspected it. It felt good in his hands, though he had no idea if it was actually properly balanced. He took hold of the middle grip and swung it around a bit. He then let loose and shifted his hands to one of the ends as quickly as possible. Gunther was a bit disappointed when it took him about five seconds to get a firm grip. Promising himself he¡¯d practise, he swung the spear around with all his strength. Deciding he was satisfied with his new weapon, Gunther started to walk away from his new home. It was time for his first true adventure in this new and strange world called Elovar. Adventure Gunther hadn¡¯t even walked a single meter, when a message appeared in his vision.
You have created a weapon: Wooden Staff (Crude) Wooden Staff A staff grown out of a tree by one connected to the forest. Has pointy ends to stab with, a highly sophisticated weapon. Can be used to hit or stab enemies Slightly increases effectiveness of the skill Forest Attunement and its subskills Slightly increased combat damage
¡°I just said it is a spear!¡± Gunther exclaimed ¡°I also really need to find a way to use some sort of identification skill, it¡¯s kinda sad I still can¡¯t see the stats of my items after I close the first notification.¡± Deciding he couldn¡¯t really do anything about it for now, Gunther went out into the forest for real now. ¡®Besides, a healing skill is more important right now.¡¯ Gunther thought to himself. He was also pretty excited to finally see a bit of this new world. He had been living in a fantasy world for two days and had only seen a single room and a small patch of forest. Granted, the room had contained plenty of excitement for him, but Gunther had still seen way less of this world than he would have liked. Remembering the bit about getting more powerful by being familiar with the forest he was in, Gunther tried to memorize as much of his surroundings as possible. He paid extra attention to whatever plants he saw around, so that he would not miss any useful herbs. He had only just begun walking though, so he didn¡¯t find anything new. After about ten minutes of walking, the first thing of notice happened, Gunther got into a fight. He had been distracted by the forest around him and his self imposed task of memorizing it, when he heard a sound to his right. Gunther turned to the source immediately and, to his horror, saw a bunny. ¡®Why are there no other creatures here?¡¯ He thought, slightly exasperated. He had almost been traumatised by his first encounter with one of them and now he had to deal with another one. Luckily, perhaps thanks to his Analysation skill, Gunther didn¡¯t panic. He instead got into a sort of combat stance. He slightly bent his knees and grabbed his ¡®spear¡¯ on the middle part with both his hands. ¡°It¡¯s really a spear, I swear.¡± Gunther mumbled, not really sure why he was even doing that. He kept his eyes focussed on the little monster and pointed his spear at its head. ¡°So we meet again, my arch-nemesis!¡± He said, in what he hoped was a threatening tone. The bunny didn¡¯t seem to be impressed, or even care about the strange sounds he was making. Instead, it jumped at him. Seeing the bunny jump, Gunther stabbed at it, but he missed because of his inexperience. He had stabbed at where he saw the beast, but when his spear arrived there, the bunny had of course already moved on. Seeing an opportunity, the bunny adjusted its course slightly and landed on the spear. It then jumped again, straight at Gunther¡¯s face this time. ¡®That¡¯s so not fair!¡¯ Gunther thought while hurriedly jumping away. The bunny barely missed him and immediately jumped at him again when it hit the ground. Gunther turned around as quick as he could, but not quick enough. The bunny hit him in the side and tried to bite into him. Luckily, not having expected Gunthers quick reaction, it bit a bit too far to the side. That mishap was enough for Gunther to regain his composure a bit. He slammed his spear into the bunny¡¯s side. He would have gone for the head, but didn¡¯t want to risk missing it and give his opponent a chance to recover. With an audible crack, the bunny sank to the ground. It seemed it wasn¡¯t actually all that though and that hitting it was the only actual challenge it provided. Seeing the creature sink to the ground, Gunther sat down as well. The fight had not even taken a minute, but it felt like it had been much longer. Panting heavily, Gunther looked if there had been some gains from his battle.
Skills merged: Melee combat and Dodge become Wooden Combat lv 5! Plants might seem calm and peaceful, but if provoked, there is nothing that can stop them from taking whoever opposes them down with the full force of nature. By fighting using a weapon made using Forest Attunement, you have gained the subskill Wooden Combat. Increases overall combat ability when fighting within a forest. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.Decreases overall combat ability when not fighting within a forest. At higher levels, the forest will aid you in your battles.
¡®This is very nice, but if this goes on much longer, I won¡¯t be able to do anything outside of this forest.¡¯ Gunther thought with mixed feelings. On the one side, having the forest aid him in his battles seemed very promising. On the other side however, there would be major problems for him if he ever got outside of this forest. In the end, Gunther just decided to hope the forest were large in this world. He would just have to solve any problems when they popped up and not worry about them needlessly. He had also gotten a point in Strength, bringing the stat up to 12. This made Agility his lowest stat, which was kind of bad since the key to defeating the only enemy he had seen so far seemed to be speed. Having recovered a bit from the fight, Gunther got back to walking. After another few minutes, he noticed some sounds again. Having learned from his earlier mistake, Gunther had been paying close attention to his surroundings while walking. He got into his combat stance again, but decided to hold his spear at one of its ends this time. Gunther reasoned he hadn¡¯t had enough practice with his weapon to be able to stab with enough accuracy to hit anything yet. Slashing his spear sideways would cover a much larger area and thus increase his chances at success. Gunther had kept his eyes on a bush where the sound seemed to have come from and winced a bit when he saw not one, but two bunnies emerge from it. He had been having trouble with only one of the tiny bastards and now they had also decided to gang up on him. ¡®Why don¡¯t you just go and bully someone else?! What have I ever done to you?¡¯ He thought, while looking at the bunnies angrily. The creatures didn¡¯t care about however he looked at them however and attacked. They ran at him and jumped into the air at practically the same moment. Having anticipated this, Gunther had already begun swinging his spear at them. Out of sheer luck, he hit the one to the right. Continuing his movement, Gunther hoped to get the other one too, but that one managed to dive to the ground in time. The first bunny flew through the air and hit a tree with a sickening crack. It fell to the ground, lying there motionless. While Gunther was distracted by the fate of bunny number one, its friend didn¡¯t seem to share the same concern. It jumped up at him and bit him in his leg. In a reflex, Gunther flinched and ended up stabbing the bunny in its back accidentally. Its grip on Gunthers leg loosened and it fell to the ground, just like his little bunny buddy earlier. Gunther let himself fall down to the ground and gripped his leg. It was bleeding, just like his arm had after his first fight.
You are bleeding, you will lose 0.05 hp/s Damage will increase over time if the debuff is not removed
¡®So the damage had gotten 5 times worse last time. Good to know I guess.¡¯ Thinking back to the last time this had happened, Gunther took his vest and shirt of and used the clean spike of his spear to cut of a piece of cloth from the sleeve he had left alone then, making his shirt nice and symmetrical again. He had foolishly thrown away the cloth he had used back then, in the hope it would help him forget what had happened. Gunther now realised he shouldn¡¯t ever forget anything that happened, but instead try his best to learn from his experiences. It would have been easier now, if he had done so. The tip of his spear may have been fairly sharp, but spears were not meant for cutting. It had taken quite some effort to get this piece of cloth while he should have already carried one with him to begin with. Having bound the cloth tightly around his thigh, something which wasn¡¯t exactly easy because his legs were of course larger than his arms, Gunther saw the expected notification.
Bleeding slowed down, damage stopped for now Damage will return if the wound is not healed properly
¡®This is a nice surprise, now I still have some time to find some kind of healing herb!¡¯ Gunther thought happily. He had feared he would just bleed out because he lacked the mana to use his old healing skill. He would still have to hurry now, but he would have some time at least. Gunther decided to search for the herbs in his current location instead of moving on. By moving on, he would have a reasonable chance to find a decently sized population of flowers, like the ones at his tree, but if those turned out to be the wrong kind of flowers he would be doomed. Searching his immediate surroundings meant he would find the more hidden herbs or flowers, but the quantity would be much lower. Hoping his Forest Attunement skill could help with that problem, Gunther went for the second option. Thinking back to how he had connected to all of the flowers the last night, Gunther lied down in the most relaxed way possible with a leg which is hurting as hell. He breathed in and out deeply a couple of times to calm himself down and tried to open his mind to the forest around him. Just like last time, he felt nothing at first. He then felt a lot of tiny things around him and realised it was the grass. He inspected a blade of grass as best as he could, but found nothing to indicate any kind of healing ability. Gunther pushed his mind further outwards and the grass became some sort of blur around him. Afraid he would miss something this way, he tried to keep the grass as focussed as possible while still increasing the area he searched in. It was really hard, since he wasn¡¯t used to processing this much information at once, but his fear of dying was a pretty good motivator. While he was doing all this, Gunther tried to keep as calm as possible so that his heart kept beating as slow as possible. Just as Gunther was thanking his Analysation skill for helping him keep calm, he realised he had been using its passive part all the time, but had been neglecting the active part. Activating his skill, Gunther noticed everything around him seemed much clearer than before. While still hard, the help of the skill made enough of a difference to make this way of searching look somewhat feasible. Gunther kept extending this sense of his, until he found something other than grass or trees. It probably wasn¡¯t that far away, but because of the enormous amount of grass blades around him, Gunthers mind was already really strained. He decided to let the grass blur a bit and divert most of his attention, and his Analysation skill on this new plant. The plant somehow felt way more complicated than anything else around it. More complicated than the Luminent Bluebells even. Then, the plant moved, watched in astonishment by Gunther. Wood Panther Gunther hurriedly opened his eyes and found himself looking at a strange creature. Its body consisted of spheres, a small one on top of a bigger one, which were supported by root like appendices underneath them. The top sphere was adorned by a small stick with a leaf on it, kind of like those that sometimes are left at the top of an apple. Instead of arms, it had sticks sticking out of the sides of its lower sphere. Its spheres were green, like the stem of a flower, the roots supporting it were a slightly dark brown while its ¡®arms¡¯ were a lighter brown. The creature had its back turned to Gunther at first, but seemed to notice him staring and turned around. It had two big vertical elliptical eyes with a small mouth and no nose on its face. It didn¡¯t seem to have any ears either, which rose the question of how it had even noticed Gunther in the first place. When the creature saw Gunther look at it, a shocked look appeared on its face and it hurriedly ran away. After a few seconds of contemplation, Gunther decided his healing spell thingy could wait and chased after it. Inspecting a possibly sapient creature or society could potentially be way better than being able to heal himself a bit sooner. If he would just be a bit careful, healing wouldn¡¯t really be necessary after all. Unfortunately for Gunther, he had completely forgotten his wound because of the excitement. While Gunther was thinking about what to do, the strange plant creature had ran out of sight, making it harder to follow it. After looking around a bit where he found it however, Gunther found a small trail of disturbed plants. Hoping the trail was made by the creature he had seen earlier and not some dangerous monster, Gunther followed it. Careful, so to make as little sound as possible, he traced the track. After he had followed it for a while, however, the track seemed to disappear. Gunther looked around some more, but really couldn¡¯t find any track except for the one he had followed up until there. Thinking about what to do, Gunther realised he had been ignoring both his analysation skill and his notifications. Deciding to look at his notifications, he saw what he had expected.
Subskill (Forrest Attunement) skill gained: Tracking lv 1! Perhaps the most dangerous skill of a true hunter is to find you, wherever you go. By following the tracks of a specific target, you have gained the skill Tracking. Helps you identify, look for and follow tracks in forests Higher levels increase these abilities even further
Aside from the skill he gained, Gunther noticed it had leveled up once and he had gained two points in Agility as well. ¡®It¡¯s too bad the skill only works while I am inside of a forest, but for now it should be exactly what I need.¡¯ Gunther thought, whilst activating both his Tracking and his Analysation skills for an extra boost. When he looked around with both the skills active, Gunther noticed some claw marks in a nearby tree. Finally realising he hadn¡¯t done so before, Gunther looked up and saw a small feline creature up in one of the trees. While the trees had few branches this low down, the creature managed to cling on to it by stabbing its claws inside the bark. When it saw Gunther looking at it, the cat apparently decided its sneak attack had failed and launched itself at Gunther. Gunther hurriedly assumed his combat stance again and tried to stab at the cat which was now flying right at him. Luckily, what had happened with the bunnies didn¡¯t happen again, perhaps because of his slightly increased Agility, and Gunther managed to hit the cat. His thrust was slightly off center though and only managed to create a cut in the cats right flank. Seeing he had not managed to stop the cats attack, Gunther tried to slam the it away. He was too late however and the cat managed to scratch his right arm. Gunther jumped away in a reflex and pointed his spear at the cat again. The cat looked at his spear and tried to circle around Gunther. Gunther was surprised the cat showed this kind of intelligence after the rabbits had just kept jumping straight at him, seemingly without any thoughts at all. As Gunther was slightly distracted, the cat took this opportunity to launch another attack. Instead of jumping at him, as everything in this forest had done before it, it sprinted forwards and through his legs. It then tried to slash a claw across Gunthers knee pit, but because Gunther had begun turning around as soon as it saw the cat moving, it only managed to create a gash at the side of his leg. Gunther tried to stab it with the downside of his staff, but the cat had ran away before he could hit it. ¡®This is bad. If this keeps on, I will die from small scratches like this one, just because I can¡¯t get a hit in.¡¯ Gunther thought, while keeping his attention focussed on the cat this time. ¡®I¡¯ll have to come up with a plan. But what can I do if it is so fast that it¡¯s gone before I can get a hit in.¡¯ Before Gunther could think of a plan, the cat tried to repeat its little trick again. This time Gunther saw it coming, however, and jumped to the side, while slamming his staff towards a spot just behind the place he had been standing before. The cat didn¡¯t see this coming and ran straight into his attack. The smash hit it straight in its back, but didn¡¯t seem to break any bones, like it would have with the bunnies. The cat did seem hurt though and was not as fast as before, while it ran out of Gunthers reach.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. ¡®How did I manage to do that? I barely noticed its attack and was already moving before I realised it.¡¯ Gunther thought, amazed at his own actions. He only then realised he was still using his Analysation and Tracking skills. ¡®So even skills that are not combat related can help me fight if I use them like this.¡¯ He pondered, realising his Tracking skill had helped him trace the movements of the cat, while Analysation helped him think of what to do. The cat noticed this stupid human was distracted again, though, and decided to launch another attack. It wondered what kind of idiot would let himself get distracted again and again while fighting. It ran at Gunther and suddenly its claw began to glow a bit and it slashed at Gunthers leg again. This time, its attack had a much greater effect. Gunther felt an incredible pain at his leg and almost fell to the ground, he managed to stab his spear into the ground to use it to keep standing however. ¡®What the hell was that?¡¯ Gunther thought, astonished. He didn¡¯t allow himself to get distracted again though, since he realised it could very well cost him his life. ¡®I¡¯ll probably be able to launch one more attack if I hit it with my spear and then I¡¯ll fall. I will have to make that one attack count then.¡¯ Gunther thought. He quickly ran through his options before deciding on a course of action. The cat ran at Gunther again, a lot slower than before apparently having expended a lot of energy on its previous strike. Before the cat could get to Gunther, he hit it with all his might, adding his own weight to his attack as he fell to the ground, since he lost his support. The cat buckled under the attack, and fell to the ground. After he hit the cat, Gunther expended all of his mana at once to use Mana Explosion on his staff, because he knew he would be done for if he didn¡¯t finish the fight with this one move. Since he hadn¡¯t used any mana in the battle, Gunther had poured his entire pool of 150 mp into that one attack. He tried to direct as much of it as possible towards the side of the spear where the cat was. The spear exploded with a loud bang and the cat whimpered in pain. Gunther himself was also dealt quite a heavy blow by the explosion and gasped in pain. He and the cat both lied next to each other, exhausted and in a lot of pain. Looking at the animal, Gunther noticed it was very skinny and looked like it hadn¡¯t had a good meal in a while. ¡®That¡¯s probably because the rabbits here are such ferocious creatures.¡¯ Gunther thought to himself. Then, not really knowing why himself, Gunther reached for his pockets and took out two of the food pills he had gotten from William and threw one of them to the cat lying next to him. ¡°Here you go little guy, since we will both probably die here, why not share a meal together and die with a full belly at least.¡± He said weakly to it. He then proceeded to eat the second pill he had taken out of his pocket. Its taste was still horrible, but Gunther didn¡¯t really care because he was quite hungry after that fight and he would die soon anyway. The cat seemed to at least partially understand what Gunther had said, or it just mimicked his actions and ate its pill as well. Gunther was a still a little surprised at how weak he felt, until he looked at his notifications and saw that his bleeding debuff had reactivated during the fight and that it had worsened a lot because of all the wild movements he had made. Before he could read any of his other notifications, he passed out.
Gunther woke up in a strange and unfamiliar room. He seemed to be lying on a bunch of tied together grass and was covered by a blanket made of leaves. The room itself was completely made of wood, but contrary to what he would have expected, the wood seemed to be alive. The walls consisted of tree branches that were braided together and there were large openings functioning as windows. There was one particularly large opening, which Gunther guessed was the door. The windows and door were both covered with leaves, only letting through a part of the sunlight from outside. He tried to sit up, but his legs immediately began to hurt and he let himself fall down again. Gunther looked under the blanket at his legs and was surprised to see a different kind of leaves bound around his wounds like bandaids. He looked to his side and saw the cat he had been fighting lying next to him. He started and immediately tried to get away from it, but before he could get out of bed, his legs began to hurt again and he had cried out in pain. The commotion seemed to have gained the attention of someone outside and the leaves before the door were pushed away by something that looked like a stick made to look somewhat like a hand. A creature that looked like the one Gunther had seen in the forest walked inside. Yes, it walked. The roots underneath it had bundled together to form leg like constructions, instead of the octopus like tentacles Gunther had seen on the creature in the forest. Now that it stood on these legs, it was about one and a half meters tall, nearly double the height of the one Gunther had seen in the forest. The creature smiled at Gunther and said. ¡°It took you long enough to wake up, you have been asleep for nearly two days. The little fellow besides you refused to leave your side for even a minute. After it woke up, it went looking for you immediately. We tried to stop it, since we were afraid it would attack you again, but it laid itself down next to you and began guarding you instead.¡± After hearing that, Gunther stopped trying to get away from the cat and looked at it with a confused expression on his face instead. ¡°Why would it do that? Wait, where am I? Who are you? What even are you? I have literally no idea what is going on here.¡± Gunther began to panic slightly when he realised he had indeed no idea what was happening. His Analysation skill¡¯s passive effect kicked in and calmed him down somewhat before he could get truly panicked. ¡°Calm down young uhm... human? You have nothing to fear from us, you are in a place called Ardoricum, the city of Nature. My name is Tenli and I am an Arborling. You fought with this young Wood Pantherand nearly died because of your wounds. One of our people found you and thought you trustworthy. He told us you nearly died because of this little fellow, yet still decided to feed it,whenyou saw how hungry it was.Healso told us how your mana is attuned to the forest, so we decided to take a risk and take you in.¡± Ardoricum ¡°You decided to take a risk? How is taking me in a risk? Also, yes I am very much a human.¡± Gunther replied, a bit annoyed at the hesitation this Tenli displayed when calling him a human. He was a human and he was proud of it. It shouldn¡¯t be too hard to see right? ¡°Forgive me for my hesitation, we don¡¯t see many of your kind around here, so I wasn¡¯t entirely sure. As for why taking you in was a risk. Well, let¡¯s just say you humans aren¡¯t known to be that great with nature. You tend to destroy most of what you come across, you see¡­¡± The arborling replied, looking a bit apologetic while doing so. It was almost as if he, she, it? was afraid of Gunther¡¯s reaction. Gunther thought a bit about what he knew about humans from Earth and couldn¡¯t help but grudgingly admit the guy was right. Humanity had pretty much been on a straight course towards the complete destruction of their own home planet. Gunther had kind of hoped it would be different in this world, but it seemed to be human nature to take whatever they could without caring about giving back. ¡°Uhm, are you alright?¡± Tenli asked tentatively when it took Gunther a while to reply. ¡°What? Oh, uh, yeah, sorry, I spaced out a bit. I guess you¡¯re right about humans destroying whatever they come across. As much as I hate to admit it.¡± Gunther replied with a slight frown on his face. ¡°Come now, cheer up a bit. It¡¯s not as if every human is some heartless monster out to destroy the world. You¡¯re existence alone proves humans are capable of creation as well as destruction. Now back to you, what were you doing so far away from human civilization, all on your own?¡± Tenli said smiling, but also a bit pressingly at that last bit. ¡°Well, that¡¯s kind of a sensitive topic.¡± Gunther replied vaguely, not quite sure how much he should tell this stranger. Just because he saved his live and seemed nice enough, he was not necessarily trustworthy. For all Gunther knew, this Tenli could be an evil necromancer who would experiment on him some more. Tenli frowned at this response and replied angrily, ¡°Listen, I don¡¯t know what your circumstances are, but understand that this matter concerns the whole of Ardoricum. If you are going to wander around the city, I must know if you are to be trusted.¡± ¡°Okay. If you insist, I will tell you, but I ask you not to share this information with anyone else, if you decide I am indeed trustworthy.¡± Gunther answered still a bit doubtful, but understanding he had no choice. ¡°I can give no guarantees, but if your information does not concern the rest of us, I will keep it to myself.¡± ¡°Thank you, I understand that is all I can ask of you in this situation. As for why I was alone in the forest, it was because I am not of this world. I guess I was summoned here by necromancers and put into this body after I died on my own world. I don¡¯t know how people will react to this, so I try to keep this information to myself as much as possible.¡± Gunther explained. The arborling looked at him with a shocked expression, at least Gunther thought it was a shocked expression. Gunther found it quite a challenge to read the face of this mysterious creature, that was to be expected though, considering he had never seen an arborling before. It took a while for Tenli to recover, he just stood there for a while, gaping at Gunther. When he finally did recover, he said: ¡°I can certainly see why you would keep this information to yourself. I appreciate your honesty and promise to not disclose this information to anyone unnecessarily. Since you don¡¯t seem to have any reason to harm us, I think it will be safe to let you stay for a while. We won¡¯t let you stay for free though, you¡¯ll have to pay for food and shelter just like anyone else.¡± ¡°Thank you.¡± Gunther replied relieved. He had been afraid that Tenli would attack him or throw him out when he heard who, or rather what, Gunther was. Everything he had seen about the arborlings so far made him believe they were quite close to nature, so it wouldn¡¯t have been that strange for them to hate everything that had anything to do with necromancy. ¡°Now that you trust me, what am I supposed to do next? I have no place to live and don¡¯t know how to make any money either.¡± Gunther said, after contemplating his options for a while. If at all possible, he would like to stay with the arborlings. It was not like he had anywhere else he could go and it would get quite lonely to just stay out in the forest alone for much longer. ¡°You could stay at my place for a while if you¡¯d like. You will have to help out around the house in exchange, but I won¡¯t ask for anything unreasonable. As for making money, you could try your luck at adventuring. We don¡¯t know what caused it, but a couple of years ago, the animals began to change. They became increasingly aggressive and more powerful. The rabbits are just one example of this. Most other herbivores are also attacking everything around them without much care for self preservation. The carnivores are also changing, but less fast, which is why this Wood Panther is still quite normal. The city has set out a bounty for all the mutated animals and this has led many younglings to start to form teams and go out on adventures to kill as many of them as possible.¡± Tenli suggested. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. ¡°Before any of that though, you will need to decide what to do with your little buddy there. I suggest you take him as your familiar, he¡¯s both fast and strong and knows his way around the forest. It is not easy to gain the trust of a feline creature, so think carefully before you decide.¡± He continued in a serious tone, looking at the Wood Panther, who was still sleeping peacefully on Gunthers bed. ¡°I¡¯ve always liked cats and this little guy looks quite adorable now that he isn¡¯t trying to kill me. I guess I¡¯ll take him, so how does this work?¡± Gunther asked looking over at the cat in question as well. ¡°For the bond to form, you simply need to let your mana flow into him. If he accepts, you two will form a special connection that lets you know of each others conditions and gives you a each of you general feeling towards the locations of the other. If either one of you gains experience, the other will also gain some, letting the both of you level up slightly faster. Some Classes can also gain Skills to boost your familiar, but that completely depends on your Class and luck.¡± The arborling explained. ¡°If you want to share your Class with me, I could tell you if I know of any Skills it could give you.¡± Gunther flinched a bit at that question, but tried to hide it. ¡°No, that¡¯s alright, I like the element of surprise that comes with not knowing the Skills I will get.¡± He quickly answered. Too quickly maybe, because Tenli narrowed his eyes a bit. ¡°Should I wait for him to wake up, or can I just wake him up now to get started earlier?¡± Gunther asked, trying to sound as excited as possible to distract Tenli before he could get too suspicious. Tenli laughed at that, ¡°It is nice to see that youthful spirit of yours. It reminds me of myself in my younger years. Just go ahead and wake him up, I think he is just being lazy right now and does not actually need to sleep anymore.¡± Gunther grinned at the arborling and stroked the back of the Wood Panther still lying next to him gently. The animal stretched itself out a bit and mewled cutely. It then looked at Gunther, both a bit annoyed for his sleep being disturbed and excited at seeing that Gunther was alright. It seemed like the excitement won in the end, because he walked up to Gunthers face and began to lick it with its course tongue. Gunther laughed and pushed the cat away. ¡°Easy there buddy, I¡¯m glad to see you care about me, but we have something more important to do right now.¡± He said with a smile. He then proceeded to put his hand on the Wood Panthers head and pushed a little bit of his mana into him. After a moment, Gunther felt some sort of connection form in his mind. He felt another presence in his mind and realised it was the cat. It was like he could feel a bit of its emotions kind of leaking through and he guessed it was the same for the animal. Right now, there was one feeling that was very present on both sides of their link: hunger. ¡°With that out of the way, how about we go and get you two something to eat. You must be quite hungry after not having eaten for two days, Gunther. The little guy has not had the chance to eat much for a long time too, judging from his condition.¡± Tenli said with a smirk. The two hungry wolves looked up at him grinning madly, both knowing exactly how the other felt. Tenli walked to the door and motioned for Gunther to follow him as he pushed aside the leaves blocking the exit. Gunther left the bed and only then realised he wasn¡¯t wearing pants or a shirt. Before, when looking at his bandages, he had still been pretty tired so he hadn¡¯t really registered that little detail. ¡°Uhh, do you perhaps have any clothing I could wear?¡± Gunther asked, feeling a bit awkward. He didn¡¯t think of himself as especially prude or anything, but did also not like the idea of walking around town in only his underwear. ¡°Oh, of course, excuse me. I had forgotten that you mammals like to cover up your bodies, let me go get something for you.¡± Tenli said apologetically. He walked away and returned a while later with a bunch of leaves that were bound together in his arms. Gunther, who had decided to sit on the bed and pet his new familiar a bit, quickly stood up and accepted the strange clothes. After a bit of fiddling, Gunther figured out how he was supposed to put the bundled leaves on with the help of Tenli, who also did not have any experience with these clothes. The clothes turned out to be a sort of skirt and vest made of leaves. It made Gunther feel a bit ridiculous wearing them, but it seemed like it would be a lot easier to move around in than his previous clothes at least. ¡°You are lucky we even have these things.¡± Tenli remarked. ¡°They were made for some elves who come and visit us on diplomatic missions every once in a while. In the end they decided they liked their own clothing better and left them here in case we might need them someday.¡± Now fully clothed, sort of, Gunther followed Tenli outside. He looked around and his eyes widened in surprise. There was an elaborate system of suspension bridges and stairs spiraling around trees connecting an entire city¡¯s worth of rooms. He saw signs hanging above some of the doors with carvings like a sword or potion, but also just a bread, probably meaning those were shops that sold those things. Some of the bridges were kind of rolled up to isolate the tree they were connected to, probably to secure the privacy of whoever owned the rooms in that tree. What baffled Gunther the most though, was how high up on the trees they were right now. He almost couldn¡¯t see the ground when he looked down. He could, however, see some elevator like constructions that lead down to the ground. Gunther looked at Tenli with an amazed expression on his face and saw the arborling look back at him with a smirk. He spread his arm sticks in a grandiose gesture and said with as impressive a voice as he could muster: ¡°Welcome to Ardoricum, the capital of nature!¡±