《God's Little Joke》 Prologue - For Every End, A Beginning K''s life wasn''t that great....ok let''s be honest it was downright horrid. At 33 his life, if you could call it such, was absolutely pathetic. No job, no girlfriend or wife, no close ties with anyone...at this point he wouldn''t even be considered a NEET. His apartment was paid for by the government and his food expense as well. Now granted its not like hewanted to live like this. Between the Recurring, Severe Major Depressive Disorder, the severity of his Anxiety, and his Severe PTSD....well at this point he was lucky to still be breathing. And although there were people who had tried to stay in his life, well the unfortunate truth was thathe was the one who couldn''t handle dealing with them. So it came as no surprise to...well anyone...that when he died it was weeks before someone found his body. And by that time it was too late to do anything but be thankful it was over at last. Or at least it should have been....
White. White as far as the eye could see...not that, in this place, you could really judge distance very well. K found himself waking up a bit hazily to this white room. At first, of course, he was confused. But that lasted only a split second for his mind to race to its obvious conclusion. Someone was fucking with him. Oh, he had a pretty good idea what was going on. He''d read enough(far too many honestly) books and stories about reincarnation that he would bet his nonexistent life that that was where this was heading. And honestly, he couldn''t care less. His last life was less than pleasant and at this point, now that it was finally over, all he wanted to do was rest. But that obviously wasn''t in the cards. Looking around for something or someone for a bit he finally gave in with a sigh and said "Can we get this over already? Neither of us is going to like where this ends up and I''ve had enough of living. So give me your spiel or whatever so I can turn you down and go on to oblivion." A low chuckle that seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere all at once, before the sound slowly coalesced into a man(?) seated at a table that came into being when he did. Average height, average looks...well all except for the eyes. Those seemed to see into his very soul....which, given where he was, they probably were. "You know I''ve done this countless times before. Seen it all in fact. The crying, the anger, the hysterics. Usually, it takes people a bit to realize and then believe they''re dead. And then comes the threats, the begging, the deals. And finally, after awhile they sit and listen to what I have to say and we go on our merry way" the man(?) said, just a bit smugly. "But not you. Within seconds you not only realized you were dead, you realized where you were and what will happen afterward. Not only that you''ve already made up your mind to reject it and would rather be sent to oblivion? Even for me, that''s something new" he said, that low chuckle permeating the air again. With a bored and somewhat tired look "Is it just some random lottery you reach in and grab whoever to send on? Or do you actually research who will get to go to your own brand of special hell? Because if so, you should know exactly what you''re asking me to do after 33 fucking years of every day wishing I was dead. And now that I finally get my wish you want me to continue living someplace else? On top of it most likely being a world where death is an everyday part of life and quality of life is shit? You can''t be serious" K said, with just a hint of disgust in his voice before sighing again. "What could you possibly offer me to make me agree." Despite his tone and choice of words, the slightly smug smile never left the man(?). "Oh, I can think of a few that might peak your interest. For starters how about we get rid of that chemical imbalance in your brain that was the root of your depression. Now it won''t change your memories of the trauma but at least you won''t have to worry about a repeat" he grinned. "Yeah still not worth it," K said with another sigh. "Besides that...what could you possibly see in me that would make you go through the trouble? It''s not like I was a good person, to begin with even before the many, many mental breakdowns, attempted suicides, and generally being a useless piece of shit. What could I possibly have that you want?" "Call it a charity case if you want" the man(?)''s smug smile deepening. "Call it redemption, if that makes you feel any better. Hell, call it twisted entertainment for all I care. It''s not like you could fuck things up in that world any more than they already are. Now then, on to business. If you''ll remember in some of those stories there is a concept of a mistake. A mistake in which a soul is sent to the wrong world and Management has to wait til it dies to correct the problem. Well, in this case, that would be true. Even I''m not sure if your suffering was caused by this or you were just severely unlucky on both counts. Whatever it was, you weren''t supposed to be here. And unfortunately for you, I can''t send you on without you going to this world first. However, since itwas a mistake on our part, the least we can do is give you a few benefits for this time around." Shaking his head, K sighed for the umpteenth time before giving in and asking "So I don''t have a choice, huh. Well before we get in-depth into theso-calledbenefits why don''t you tell me what it is, exactly, that you want me to do in this new world of yours. Oh, and a brief history lesson wouldn''t be amiss either. "The history of this world is actually pretty standard for this type of thing. Wars between humans, wars between races, hate and discrimination abound. Slavery and death, Heroes and Demon Lords. Greedy people vying for power and not caring for those they step on to get there" he said, his tone a bit droll. "You''re not really instilling confidence here," K said blandly. "Well no, but that was the point. Regardless of Race human nature will exist in any world. The point is, for every darkness there is light. There are good people in this world as well who are just trying to survive and keep those precious to them safe" the man(?) replied. "And as for what I want you to do in this world....well....just have fun," he said with a smirk. K blinked for a moment before scowling. "Fun? You''re reincarnating me, sending me to a death world and giving me cheat like abilities and all you want me to do is have fun!?" The heated words slid off the man(?) easily as he just looked at K. Shaking his head again, K sighed once again and said "Fine. Whatever. Not my world, why should I care how you fuck it up." Closing his eyes briefly, he opened them and stared hard at the being in front of him. "All right then. What are thesebenefits you were speaking about." The man(?)''s grin widened yet again and then waved his hand. In front of K appeared a window, much like one you''d see in a video game. "This interface will walk you through choosing your race as well as your abilities and skills. You have a certain number of points in which to buy said choices and you can use them however you want. Once you get where you''re going there will be a more in-depth....tutorial I should say, that will explain how to level up your choices as well as possible evolutions. Take your time, for your choices cannot be undone once you choose. Once you''re done just hit the finalize button and off you''ll go" the man said, his voice getting softer and softer as it went, causing K to jerk his head up just in time for him to see the man(?) fade out of existence, along with his table. Heaving a sigh of disgust, K shook his head and went back to perusing the menu in front of him. In front of him was a semi-transparent screen split into two sections vertically. On the left side was a list of current races and on the right was an image of his current body as well as his current info. The boy staring back at him was at once familiar, and oh so different. The info put him at 15 years old and according to K''s shoddy memory, he did indeed look like that at that age. 5''9 and what looked to be about 175 lbs with tan skin, brown eyes and jet black hair that showed no sign of the grey it once did. Broad shoulders and a lean build that had lost the fat and wear and tear of his old body finished out the look. While he wouldn''t win any modeling contests at least he could honestly say he was moderately handsome, at least back then. Nodding his head at the current look he switched his gaze back to the list on the left. Now K had played games all his life. From video games to board games to pen and paper role-playing games. And there was one thing that stuck with him as a player throughout it all. Call it min/maxing or munchkin or whatever, K would get the absolute most out of his choices and make the strongest character he could(sometimes breaking the game in the process). And he didn''t see any reason to stop now. So with a breath to calm his mind and intensity to his gaze, he sat down to make whoever thought this up to regret every second he was alive and kicking. "Hmm....always felt like I was short so I don''t want to go any shorter. That crosses out Halfling and Dwarf automatically" he said as he skimmed through. "This list is kind of long. I wonder if it has a search function..." his voice trailed off in surprise as a new window popped up with an obvious search bar. "Well, that''s interesting. Voice activated then? That makes things so much easier." And then he stopped, staring off into space. A search function was all well and good but whatexactly was it that he wanted? Well, first and foremost it was magical ability. If he was going to be reincarnated in a world of swords and sorcery then he would damn well be using said sorcery. What else. Well, that would have to definitely be growth potential. While he absolutely hated being weak he could, maybe, stand to start out that way if it meant he had the best potential in the long run. Ok....hmm...well those two are good to start with at least. Now, what did heNOT want? Well, he sure as hell could go without having to sleep. He hated to sleep, hated the dreams, the nightmares, the wasted time. But mostly he hated the nights hecouldn''t sleep when his body demanded it, all because his mind wouldn''t let him. So yeah. No sleep. All right let''s start there. "List all current races that don''t need to sleep," he said, hoping the system was as intuitive as he believed. And he was rewarded as the left-hand screen blinked a few times and then his current choices were outlined. "Hmm, mostly Undead and Magical Constructs. Yeah, no. Not going that route. I don''t want to sleep, and while the option is nice, that doesn''t mean I don''t want to eat as well. Clear list" he commanded as he thought again how he could achieve what he wanted. "Show racial options that preclude sleep or have the ability to forego sleep," he said, hoping again that he was right. The screen blinked a few times again and then one name popped up on the list. "High Human? What the hell is that" he said in confusion. Clicking on the name itself brought up the racial information.
High Human
Said to be a mythical race, the precursor to mankind before the Cataclysm. While Humans today have excellent growth capability as well as the ability to learn all but the most stringent race locked skills, they pale in comparison to their ancestors. On top of their large Mana Capacity as well as an affinity for Magic, High Humans have the option to evolve their bloodline to better suit their preferred growth route. As they are closer in essence to magic, to creation, than other races there are several racial traits unavailable to most.
Racial Abilities
Greater Mana Capacity - Base Mana Capacity is greater by far than normal races found today but make it very easy for those with any type of Magic Perception to locate the user.
Enhanced Growth - Speed at which Magic, Mana Capacity and all skills learned is very greatly increased.
Meditation - Skill which allows the user to rest and recharge without the need to sleep while still being aware of their surroundings. Greatly increases Mana Capacity. Range and Rate depend on level of mastery.
Theory to Application - Rate at which abilities and skills improve via training is greatly increased as is learning new skills.
Quality over Quantity - The Essence accrued through battle condenses inside you for a more potent growth in exchange for a slower growth speed. 1/4 Speed for 4x Growth.
Evolutionary Paths
Elemental Avatar - The base essence of magic manipulates all of the Elements of the world. Allows for complete Mastery of every Element as well as any combination therein
Divine Light - Forsaking the Path of Darkness and embracing all things Light you wield this particular Element as easy as breathing. Allows for purification and healing greater than normal
Path of Darkness - Forsaking the Light you revel in Darkness. Allows for greater control of Darkness Element as well as the sub-branches such as Shadow and Necromancy
Chronos - You have mastered the very fabric of reality, enabling you to have complete control over Time and Space
Spirit of the Beast - Your Soul cannot be caged and your affinity for Beasts and Monsters allow you to tame even the most stubborn of foes. Allows for learning of racial features for each tamed creature
Enlightenment of Body - Your magic has lead you through strange paths, focusing inward instead of out. Allows a greater understanding of all things Martial
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A low whistle could be heard as K finished reading the current page. "How the hell is this even available? There''s gotta be a catch" he said as he scanned through until he finally caught on to how the system worked. Apparently, there was a total number of points he could use to buy Races, Abilities, and Skills. And of course, this particular gem cost quite a bit. So much so in fact that he could easily be stupidly overpowered right out of the gate. It would just cost him in the long run as he hit his counter stop quite early on. But I guess that was the point. And unfortunately, hehad to choose a Race before he could move on and couldn''t go back once it was decided. But....this was exactly what he was looking for. Oh well, you only live once....or not as it were, but whatever. As he clicked on the finalize button underneath High Human his character portrait didn''t change too much all together. Hmm....was he a bit more handsome now? Meh, that could wait. Time for Skills!If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. The screen blinked again a few times as the right-hand screen disappeared in favor of a blank canvas and what looked like one of those tables where you can send abilities over to the other side to see what you''ll be choosing and how many points you have left afterward. Granted High Human took up the majority but it''s still nice to be able to tell what you have a bit easier. Oh, it seems I already have an ability in the Taken column. Item Box. Yep, that''s going to be very handy. Oh, it looks like it''s just the basic ability so the size isn''t extremely large but it''s still decent enough. Also seems like it has a time stop feature on it but doesn''t allow living organisms inside. Makes sense. Now, first things first. Every successful protagonist always had some form of appraisal so I need to get that quickly. Ah, let''s use the search function again. "Search for appraisal abilities that include identifying objects as well as people and sort them from lowest cost to highest," he said and let the interface do it''s thing before quickly scanning the results. "Hmm, typical things so far...but how do they rate these?" Scanning through he realized that the skill system itself was fairly simple. A five-star rating system with one being Novice and five being Complete Mastery. And upon looking closer at a few skills he saw that they overlapped a bit upon hitting Mastery. For instance, there were skills such as Appraise Object, Appraise Weapon, Appraise Skill, Appraise Monster and Appraise Person. Upon hitting Mastery in any of these it would correlate to another Appraisal skill and would allow the user to use that skill as well. However, the pricier option would be Appraise All as that would be far more powerful in the long run. "Hmm it looks like Appraise All would be my best bet....." he trailed off as he saw the final, most expensive option on the list.
Demon Eye of Truth - A physical manifestation of the Appraisal skill. Allows the accurate Appraisal of literally anything in the world. Only has one level and that is complete Mastery
Not even bothering to look at the cost he quickly clicked the skill and it moved over to the Taken column on the right. "Well, thats one problem solved....now, what next." After perusing through the skill list for awhile he started to notice a trend. Including the Demon Eye of Truth, there were a few skills that had a tiny star next to their name. Curious, he touched the star and a window popped up. "Only choosable upon creation? Well....that makes things a bit more interesting. Search skills only available upon creation" he said quickly commanding the search function again. "Now that''s more like it" he grinned as he started to read through again before stopping quite abruptly. "Skill Store? There''s even such a thing?" he asked before quickly clicking on it.
Skill Store - A specific additive function of the menu which allows for almost all skills to be bought using experience points with the exception of Character Creation Skills.
"Yeah, I''m sooo getting that" as he quickly selected it and sent that skill over to the next column as well. "Ok now to look and see what I can''t live without from these since I''ll be able to figure the rest out eventually." Scanning through he quickly picked out a few skills and preemptively sent them over to see exactly how many he could take and decide the best layout with the few points he had left. After spending quite a bit of time going back and forth he was able to narrow it down to these five.
Truthseeker - The ability to easily discern when someone lies. Higher levels of Mastery will eventually unlock the ability to see through the lies to the truth behind it
True Elemental Affinity - While not actually giving the user the ability to cast spells from the Elements it does give the user the ability to learn more easily all spells from all Elements eventually
Gravity Manipulation - A rare skill that cannot be taught. Allows the user to control gravity in greater and greater applications as the level of Mastery rises
All Language Comprehension - An extremely rare skill that allows the user to speak with any sentient being.
Soul Empowerment - Allows the user to grant his companions and followers a piece of his power, making them stronger and allowing them to learn skills and abilities they would otherwise not. Based on Loyalty
All of them were obviously very good skills and compared to the others, these were the best of the lot. The only difficult choice was the last, Soul Empowerment. Honestly, it was a complete gamble. Despite the fact that this was a new chance at life, his previous one did nothing for giving him assurance that he would, in fact, be able to evenfind companions and followers to Empower. But...it would be nice. Even if it was just one, just one friend to share his journey with it would be worth it. And so, despite his misgivings, he spent the last of his meager points on Hope. Now that''s not to say there weren''t other skills that were equally impressive. There were several in fact that would have made his new life so much easier. Invisibility, Hypnosis, Domination, Time Stop....very powerful skills indeed with little to no chance of resisting them. Which was the problem. If things turned out how they usually did in these type of situations(granted his knowledge was based off of novels) then he was already going to be quite overpowered at least eventually. And once that happened it would be so easy, so very easy to inflict his will on the world. No more slavery, no more war, no more greedy nobles that think they actually have the right to treat others as lesser just because their ancestors did something enough to get land and the people to work it. But how long til he crossed that line? How long til he ended up just like them, all the while using the excuse that he was better, because he was doing it for the right reasons. And those skills would make things even worse. So he honestly didn''t trust himself enough to use them without abusing them. And that was what crossed them off the list. Double and then triple checking his selections, he spent one last moment before steeling himself and clicking the finalize button. Both screens dissolved into new as the one on the left turned into his status and the one on the right turned back into his character portrait. On a new note, there was one noticeable change to his new body. His eyes were a deep and vibrant shade of purple. "Hmm. Good thing I''m partial to purple. And at least it''s not red" he said with a grin before turning his gaze to the left-hand screen and checking his status. Skimming over it quickly he realized that it was down to the hardest part. All throughout his 33 years of playing different types of games, they all had one thing, one tiny thing, that gave him the most trouble. A name. Something that stood out as different, that wasn''t cliche at least, that wasn''ttoodifferent that it would stand out in a bad way. It was especially important considering this was actually going tobe his new name. "Hmm....I always hated this part. Kind of why I came up with a name and stuck with it through the years unless it was already taken" he said with a frown. Shaking his head he just entered his gaming name and called it good before glancing at the finished product of his status.
Name - Kieran Race - High Human
Level - 1 Job -
Occupation - Title - Otherworldly Child of Despair
HP - 310 MP - 6600
Strength - 17 Agility - 19
Constitution - 21 Intelligence - 56
Wisdom - 43 Charisma - 26
Luck - 87 Growth - 99
Skills
Meditation ¡ï????
Greater Mana Capacity ¡ï
Enhanced Growth ¡ï
Theory to Application ¡ï
Quality over Quantity ¡ï
Demon Eye of Truth ¡ï
Skill Store ¡ï
Truthseeker ¡ï????
True Elemental Affinity ¡ï
Gravity Manipulation ¡ï????
Soul Empowerment ¡ï????
All Language Comprehension ¡ï
After looking everything over he was confused for a moment as he gazed at his stats before figuring out where the problem lied. His base stats were slightly higher due to his new race, which of course made sense. As did his Growth stat from his racial ability. What didn''t make sense was his luck stat....at least until he clicked on his title for its description.
Otherworldly Child of Despair - Your life was a living hell through no fault of your own, and despite that, you survived for years. Greatly increases Luck as well as slightly increasing the disposition of others towards you
"Well.....I guess that''s one way to apologize" he through glumly before shaking his head and staring one last time at the screen. Steeling his resolve and closing his eyes he clicked the finalize button for the last time before everything went black. Chapter 1 - Clich茅, Although Welcome, Is Still Clich茅 The first thing he knew, was the wind on his skin like a gentle caress and the feel of the ground beneath his body. Next was the scent of green and living things. And yes, for those who''ve never been in the countryside, green did have a smell. The smell of soil, of growing plants and trees, of life and nature. As he slowly opened his eyes he gazed around at what appeared to be a fairly dense forest. His first thought? "How clich¨¦, appearing in a forest immediately after arriving. Good thing I made plans for this eventuality. Honestly, I might even be a little thankful to that bastard for dropping me here as I can get a handle on my new skills and try to figure out an initial combat style on what I hope would be low-level monsters. Now if only I can find a river or lake and a cave this would be perfect." His next thought was to wonder about how clear he was thinking. It was as if a fog had lifted from his mind that had been there his entire life(well past life) and didn''t even know existed. Not only that, but the fugue and lethargy he normally felt, as well as the depression that was his constant companion, was gone as well. It was decidedly....odd, to say the least. Almost disorienting to be honest. "First things first, find somewhere safe to hole up and then do your self-psychoanalysis," he thought, shaking his head. Standing up, he started to take stock of himself. His clothes, while not winning any beauty awards, were at least functional at a glance. Thick black cloth pants, a white cloth shirt, and somewhat decently sturdy leather boots kept him from feeling the weather. On top of that seemed to be a simple breastplate with shin guards over his pants and bracers on his forearms. The leather of the armor obviously wasn''t the greatest. If he bought it in a store it would most likely come as a set called "Beginner''s Adventurer Armor". But it was free so he wasn''t going to complain.....well too much at any rate. Nodding to himself once at his attire, he then started to play around with system commands. He already knew it was voice activated, but it would be much better if he could command it silently as well. He obviously wasn''t going to go around shouting "Inventory!" or "Status" like an idiot, telling all the world his special powers. That was just asking to get kidnapped and experimented on. Or kidnapped and sold into slavery. Or kidnapped, tortured and killed. Or kidn- well you get the idea. So without another thought, he focused his mind on the task at hand and thought "Status". And that easily, a window appeared before him.
Name - Kieran Race - High Human
Level - 1 Job -
Occupation - Title - Otherworldly Child of Despair
HP - 310 MP - 6600
Strength - 17 Agility - 19
Constitution - 21 Intelligence - 56
Wisdom - 43 Charisma - 26
Luck - 87 Growth - 99
Skills
Meditation ¡ï????
Greater Mana Capacity ¡ï
Enhanced Growth ¡ï
Theory to Application ¡ï
Quality over Quantity ¡ï
Demon Eye of Truth ¡ï
Skill Store ¡ï
Truthseeker ¡ï????
True Elemental Affinity ¡ï
Gravity Manipulation ¡ï????
Soul Empowerment ¡ï????
All Language Comprehension ¡ï
Yes, nothing had changed since he clicked finalize. And it was also good he could use the menu commands mentally. "Now let''s see what other goodies my new Menu has. Options" he thought and was happy to see a new screen pop up. Scanning through it quickly, he turned on the Automap feature and set his Minimap function to display only Friendly, Neutral and Hostile targets at the moment. He was quite surprised to find that there was a BGM option but decided to keep it turned off for the moment. What he found even more surprising was the Autoloot function. Although it had a range of only 5 meters currently, it also had the option of upgrading it via the Skill Store later on. "Yoink! I feel like that particular function was made specifically for me!" he thought rather happily. "Now that that is taken care of let''s see what that stingy god left for me. Inventory!" And another screen appeared. Two screens, like the ones during his character creation, the one on the left showed a typical equipment page complete with boxes or "slots" for his items and an image of what he currently looked like in the center. The one on the left was the traditional Inventory page. This particular one had tabs at the top, like file folders on a browser. The first tab was just labeled "Items" And showed square boxes in rows set 10x10 for what appeared to be 100 slots. In the first three slots were little icons with names underneath. The first slot was Bread x5 and after touching it once a loaf of hard bread materialized in his hand. The number on the icon also went down to 4. Holding the bread up and pushing it into the surface of the Inventory screen made the bread disappear again and the number went back up to 5. Nodding to himself once again, he turned to examine the other two icons and saw a set of 5 red potions and 5 blue potions, labeled simply as Beginner Healing Potion and Beginner Mana Potion. Touching the icon for the red potion but holding his finger there, a small window popped up with the item''s information.
Beginner Healing Potion - Heals 50 HP.
Seems simple enough. After cautiously releasing his finger the potion didn''t materialize. It seemed that touching it once made it appear but holding down the "button" made the info window appear instead. Holding down the icon for the blue potion he got the same message but for MP this time. "Well good to know I''ve at least got something to take the edge off if I get hurt. Now what about these other tabs," he thought as he looked up and read the names listed. "Weapons", "Armor", "Crafting", "Currency", and "Valuables" were what he read, and for the most part, they were self-explanatory. Quickly cycling through each tab, they all had the 10x10 layout, and with the exception of "Weapons" and "Currency", they all were empty. In "Currency" there were the rows as usual and also like the "Items" tab there were three icons. There appeared to be 100 Copper coins, 20 Silver coins, and 5 Gold coins. Quite a bit more than he initially thought he''d get. It seemed as if that god wanted to at least give him a fighting chance at this. Also above the grid was a total for his current currency, which with some simple math, let him figure out how much each was worth. 100 Copper = 1 Silver and 100 Silver = 1 Gold. There was probably something above gold like Platinum or White Gold or somesuch but as he didn''t have any currently he couldn''t be bothered about it. At least the currency he knew about was simple enough. Clicking on "Weapons" once again he saw only one icon, that for a Short Sword w/ Baldric. Pulling up the info, he saw that it was a simple common iron short sword, with a leather baldric that he could adjust to either hang from his waist or over his shoulder. Touching the icon made it appear and he started fiddling around with it so he could figure out how to wear the damn thing. Again the leather wasn''t the greatest and the sword was functional...and that''s all that could be said. Finally, with it sitting comfortably(somewhat) on his hip he pulled the sword from its sheath and gave a few practice swings. Now, as he was a bit of an otaku....ok a lot of an otaku....he had fought with a few different weapons before, like at renaissance festivals and such. He''d even had a few beginner lessons from different martial arts styles he tried but never could seem to stick with. Nothing in-depth mind you, or even enough to be called basic proficiency but at least he had somewhat of a clue on a basic stance and where to stick the pointy end. He''d watched enough documentaries, dramas, and reenactments to make an absolute mess of things but it was better than nothing. Deciding that it would do for now, he straightened his shoulders and looked around one more time before setting off in what could only be described as a random direction. Though he did stop to mark the tree in this location in case he went in circles. It didn''t take more than a few minutes for something else to occupy his mind again though, and this time with a bit of wonder. Although 33 is not old, the absolute wear and tear of his body, coupled with a diagnosis of osteoarthritis in almost all of his joints, made pain a constant, if greatly unwelcome, companion. Even walking down the street would make his knees ache something fierce. So to be able to trek through a forest, which is difficult at best if you''re not used to it, without any discomfort was a very joyous thing for Kieran. So much so that he missed the rustling of bushes until it was too late. It was only good fortune that what jumped out was just a rabbit if a rather large one....with...a very sharp looking horn. "Oh, come on! Really? A Horned Rabbit?" he thought with a snicker at the typical beginner monster after silently trying to figure out which command worked for the Demon Eye of Truth. Apparently "Appraise" was enough to activate it.
Name - Race - Horned Rabbit
Level - 2 Job -
Occupation - Title -
HP - 48 MP - 10
STR - 7 AGI - 12
CON - 9 INT - 1
WIS - 1 CHA - 3
LUK - 2 GRO - 14
Looking at the stats of this particular monster, he shouldn''t have any problem dealing with it. But unlike most who would be put in this situation, Kieran wasn''t about to underestimate this fluffy ball of death. That was just asking for a beating and a good chance he''d have to waste some of his health potions, a precious resource at this point as he had no way of getting any more. And so it was with great vigilance that he slowly stepped away from it, easing his sword from the sheath so as not to startle the rabbit into attacking before he was ready. Unfortunately for him, the rabbit had other plans as it jumped towards him horn first faster than he would have believed. It was at this point that luck, or LUK, saved him as he tripped on a branch behind him in his haste to dodge and fell down, the rabbit passing his sprawled form. Quickly scrambling up to face this deadly adversary, "Did I really just call a rabbit a deadly adversary!?" it was with no small amount of shock that he saw the rabbit turning to face him once again. But that wasn''t what shocked him. It was upon seeing the tree that rabbit had grazed with his horn as he passed him that was now sporting a deep gouge. "Yeah that would have definitely hurt," he muttered quietly before turning his eyes back to the, now upgraded to, ferocious demon, his eyes straining for any hint it was about to leap at him again. Before he could figure out what exactly that looked like however, the rabbit lunged at him again. At least this time he was ready.....well, that is to say, more ready.....as he threw his body to the right to try and dodge. Mostly successful, he was spun a bit more as the rabbit''s body grazed him and pushed him off balance. "At least it wasn''t his horn," he said as he panted lightly from nervousness at the situation. Once again he set himself up to face it, and once again the rabbit got ready to jump. But this time Kieran noticed something, and honestly, he wasn''t sure what and was already moving by the time the rabbit jumped. With more time to plan, he struck out with his sword and, more from luck than anything else, sliced into the creature, knocking it down with a thump. Panicking slightly that it might get up and attack him in anger, he jumped towards it and started stabbing downwards repeatedly with absolutely no finesse, just a desire to avoid dying to a little girl''s pet on steroids. With a final squeal, Kieran must have hit something vital as the rabbit died and at that exact moment he heard a familiar sound, though one he''d never thought he''d hear in real life.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. ''Dundundun dun dun dun dundundaaa'' "Did.....did the victory battle theme from FF just play!?" he almost screamed in shock. "Well someone certainly has a sense of humor," he commented dryly as the corpse of the rabbit disappeared before realizing that there were several messages that had popped up in the bottom left corner of his screen. Kinda where a chatbox would be.... "You have learned Basic Sword Mastery ¡ï????" "You have learned Dodge ¡ï????" "You have earned the following items: Rabbit Fur x1, Rabbit Meat x1, Rabbit Horn x1, Copper Coins x 4" "Well that makes things quite a bit easier if I don''t have to dismantle things," he said as he checked his Inventory quickly to make sure they were there. "Though why a rabbit would give me money I have no clue. Not that I''m going to complain," he grinned before taking a breath and replaying what lead up to the battle as well as what he could have done better. Even as inexperienced as he was he realized there were quite a few things that could have gone horribly wrong since that fight came as such a surprise. If he hadn''t fallen the first time the rabbit jumped he definitely would have been hurt. Which would have made subsequent dodging that much harder and would have likely incurred more wounds. And if it had been something stronger than a Horned Rabbit he might have died already.... Shaking his head he quickly stopped that line of thinking and instead thought about what he could do differently next time. First would be to actually pay attention to his surroundings as he traveled. Trying to be quiet probably would go a long way to not being ambushed again. Next would be to immediately draw his weapon as soon as he heard something since in this forest, the chances that what he''ll come across(or will come across him) will be friendly are going to be extremely low. And being able to apologize to a friendly person will be much better than getting mauled while he fumbles to pull his weapon out. After that....well it will just be about getting experience fighting monsters. There''s no way he''ll be able to instantly see the muscles bunching in the monsters leg before it attacks like in anime or manga. At least not yet. There might be something in the Skill Store but he''ll worry about that later when he has the time and has gotten whatever points he needs to actually buy something. Now while we''re on the subject of planning ahead, finding edible food would be a very good idea. Sure he has a few loaves of bread and even just picked up some meat, which thankfully will stay fresh in his Inventory, but if he''s still here in a few days that is going to be a big problem. And thankfully, with the Demon Eye of Truth, he should be able to tell what is edible and what isn''t. "The damn skill costs enough so it better!" he thought a little grimly. "Well, might as well start trying now," as he started to "Appraise" everything in sight. Most of it, as you would rightly assume, was just normal things. Trees, rocks, grass, weeds, sticks and such were obvious items to find in a forest. But his luck was still holding as he saw a patch of oddly colored grass growing at the base of a tree.
Medicinal Grass - Basic herb used for healing common wounds. Efficacy is greatly enhanced if made into a potion.
"Well isn''t that handy," Kieran muttered quietly before kneeling down and starting to harvest. "If I remember correctly from all those stories, you need to collect the whole plant, roots and all to make the most out of it." Carefully digging each plant out with his hands, it wasn''t until the seventh or eighth plant that he received another notice. ''Teriin'' "You have learned Basic Herbalism ¡ï????" Quickly pulling up his status and finding the new entry, it read.
Basic Herbalism - Allows for the successful harvesting of common plants, herbs, and spices, as well as the knowledge of what parts are useful
Grinning at gaining another useful skill and also at the new speed in which he could harvest the Medicinal Grass he was soon feeling accomplished as he looked at his Inventory which had a new icon. Medicinal Grass x 23. Not a bad little haul," he thought, just a bit smugly before standing up and brushing himself off. Looking around he realized it was around noon now but felt he should explore a little more before finding a safe spot to have a bite to eat. And marking the tree here to help him if he got lost he set out once again, this time a bit more cautiously. "Now how did they explain how people learned to move stealthily?" he pondered as he slowly crept through the bush. He remembered certain martial arts stories about treading on rice paper until you didn''t break it but that wasn''t going to happen with him. "I think I once heard that military special forces rolled their feet from outside to in as they stepped....how the hell do you even do that!?" he screamed inside his heart before just giving up and hoping for the best. "Well, I can at least pay attention to where I step. No sense stepping on twigs that will break and alert everything to my presence...probably shouldn''t step on that type of grass either as it''s a bit crunchy sounding. I should also probably focus on my hearing as it would be hard to see anything coming in a forest," he decided, straining his ears even as he kept moving slowly forward. After a while, and just when he was about to stop and take a break, he was rewarded for his efforts when the sound of a nearby bush started shaking. Quickly but quietly, he pulled his sword out and got ready to attack as soon as whatever it was decided to show it''s, most likely, ugly face. It was with great vigor that Kieran literally leapt upon the poor Horned Rabbit that poked it''s head out from the bush, sword swinging wildly as he sought to end it''s miserable existence before it had a chance to react. And with a swish and a meaty thunk, his sword found itself lodged deeply in the head of the aforementioned rabbit. ''Dundundun dun dun dun dundundaaa'' Taking a deep breath to steady himself, he pulled his blade from the corpse which then disappeared into particles of light. "That was way easier this time around," he said happily before checking the new messages he received. "You have learned Stealth ¡ï????" "You have learned Sneak Attack ¡ï????" "You have earned the following items: Rabbit Fur x1, Rabbit Meat x1, Rabbit Horn x1, Copper Coins x2" "Huh. Not that I''m not grateful for finally learning Stealth but....why did it take so long? I know it''s possible to learn skills outside of combat as is evidenced by Basic Herbalism. But it wasn''t til I got into combat again that I was able to learn Stealth and on top of that Sneak Attack as well for a successful....well sneak attack. Maybe it''s just easier to learn certain skills in combat?" he thought about it for a few moments before shrugging and deciding on dealing with it later. For now, he should find a safe place to take a break and eat something. Scanning his current area his eyes abruptly stopped on a tree filled with fruit. A quick Appraisal later and he was quickly climbing the tree to find a sturdy branch to rest on while he collected what he could on the way.
Pomfris - A citrus-based fruit with an edible skin. Contains no poison and is a favorite of animals and humans alike.
Finding a rather wide branch and resting his back against the trunk, he pulled out one of the Pomfris and took a hesitant bite. His eyes widened in pleasant surprise as he tasted what seemed to be a mix of an orange and a strawberry. The skin was very thin and reminded him of an apple as did the seed-filled core. "That...was really tasty. I should collect as many as I can while I''m out here," he said smiling at the thought of having a large supply of the tasty fruit. "Well, obviously I can''t cook the meat I found in a tree, nor would I want to until I find a safer place to hole up since the smell might attract predators. At least I can eat some bread to help fill me up." The bread, of course, was as hard as it looked but thankfully was soft on the inside. A bit tasteless compared to what he was used to but it did the trick. Finishing off the bread he quickly downed another fruit to take the edge off his thirst. "My immediate concern will be to find water and then look for someplace to camp for the night. I don''t want to wait too long and be stuck someplace because it got dark quicker than I thought it would." That decided he clambered down the tree and tried focusing his hearing again, hoping he might be able to tell the direction of a water source. "Concentrate," he thought as he closed his eyes to better focus on what he could hear. At first, it was very hard to focus. His thoughts kept wandering and the slightest notice would throw him off balance so to speak. "Concentrate," he reminded himself as he fought to keep his focus steady. The sounds of the wind blowing through the trees, the insects buzzing lazily through the air, the birds chirping randomly, all sought to distract him with their song. "Concentrate!" he demanded as he sought to expand his mind to encompass what he could hear and start to make things out. The sound of something slithering in the grass, the light, hopping tread of what most likely is another rabbit a bit further away, the flap of wings passing above and to the right of him. "CONCENTRATE!" he bludgeoned his mind before his body started to relax from the tension he inadvertently held. And as it did so he could faintly hear the soft lapping of water against earth to the left of his current position. "YES!" he cried triumphantly, breaking his accidental trance-like state as his hearing went back to normal and a sound played in his mind. ''Teriin'' "You have learned Focused Hearing ¡ï????"
Focused Hearing - Through thorough training of your ability to hear you have been able to go beyond normal limits and focus your sense of hearing through concentrated effort
Breathing a sigh of relief upon reading the description he stood up and started heading towards the direction he heard water....stealthily of course. "I''m not sure if that was harder or easier than I expected. Focusing that much was definitely not something I''m used to. If it''s like the usual type of skill it will probably get easier to activate as it levels. The range will most likely increase as well." About fifteen minutes later, "Man that was definitely farther than I thought it would be," he came across a small lake, the water crystal clear as he could easily see fish swimming. Looking around he spotted what appeared to be some type of deer quite a bit further down the shoreline drinking. "Well it seems that the water is safe enough since the animals are drinking it," he thought dryly before facepalming and checking with his Demon Eye. "Yup, it''s safe." And with no further ado, he quickly knelt and had his fill of the refreshingly pure water. "Too bad I don''t have any type of container," he thought a bit sadly before shaking it off and deciding to look around the lake. He had made it about three-fourths of the way around, "Of course I chose the long way," before spying what looked to be a cave. "Hopefully, it''s not occupied, and if it is it''s something I can take down easily enough," he mumbled to himself before pulling out his sword and creeping towards the mouth of the cave. Stopping to the side of the mouth, he activatedFocused Hearing in the hopes he might notice if there was something inside or not. After a few minutes of intense concentration, Kieran let out a breath and eased his shoulders before slipping quietly through the opening. While he didn''t hear anything from where he was he wasn''t going to take any chances. Luckily the cave was a bit shallow and unoccupied to boot. From the looks and smell of the place, it hasn''t been used by anything in a long time. No bones or fur that he could make out, nor was there evidence of a campfire. With the chance of walking in on a very angry predator now gone he finally took the time to take a closer look around. The cave itself was only about 20 feet deep and the ceiling was about 7 feet high as well. About 3 feet wide at the entrance it tapered out to, at its widest, about 12 feet towards the back. All in all, if he could find some way to secure the entrance this should make for a good camp, at least for the next few days while he got used to this new world. Nodding his head in determination he set out once again to see what materials he could scrounge up. Chapter 2 - Magic Is A Mans Romance! After leaving the cave Kieran looked up, and judging by the position of the sun(not that he was in any aspect proficient at this), he thought he maybe had four hours left of daylight to fortify his new camp. With renewed determination, he then started looking around the immediate area to take stock of his options. Water - check, Dirt - check, decent amount of branches for a possible fire - check, random sized rocks - check. Shaking his head as nothing immediately jumped out at him and screamed: "Use me to build a base!". Which made him stop for a moment. Maybe he should change his perception? Sure most of these things would be good if he had the tools to process them even somewhat. But that''s just it. He''s still thinking in terms of his old world. This world had magic. And so did he! "Ok first let''s gather enough wood and branches to make a fire and keep it going for a while. Then I should probably drag some of these rocks over as well. Maybe I can shift them into some form of a crude barrier and figure out how to use Earth Magic to fill in the gaps with the dirt around? Shouldn''t be too difficult to harden it all together like mortar if I can just figure out how the magic works. Then....find a few decently sized flat stones to make a makeshift grilling surface. Hell if I can get enough experience with Earth Magic I could probably make a kiln or something to bake clay containers....wait couldn''t I just make containers directly out of earth? Stop thinking in terms of Earth''s old technologies and start thinking Magic!" he thought, starting to get excited at the prospect. Magic was a Man''s Romance after all! Luckily this lake and cave he found were in the middle of the forest so finding wood, branches and twigs and leaves for kindling was rather easy. He was even able to drag over some of the smaller fallen trees he found. Wandering a bit around and behind where the cave was located revealed several small to large sized stones that he was able to move, although the larger ones were quite a bit of work. He was even able to find, rather quickly, a flat stone that could serve well as a grilling surface. What was a bit harder to find were the type of stones he needed to use as the base, as they had to be thick enough, depth-wise, to support the flat stone but wide enough to allow for a fire underneath. It took a good twenty minutes(he''s just guessing here) to find what he thought he could make work and drag it back inside the cave. After taking a quick water break Kieran sat down at the cave entrance to go over his new resources as well as to plan how he wants to make his base safe. Behind him in the cave itself was the pile of wood, branches, and kindling material as well as the makeshift grill. In front of him sat a collection of different sized rocks, ranging from the size of his head to about four times that and three logs of deadwood. Sure he could just pile the rocks in front of the entrance to block it but what would happen if he needed to leave quickly? Or if it was harder to dismantle after hardening it all together with magic? Too many negative variables for that to be a comfortable idea. Nor did he have any idea how to make a door with what he did have on hand, and while the lake was only about twenty feet from the cave, he didn''t have enough materials to make a fence or walls. Shaking his head and sighing as he lightly facepalmed "Think Magic damn it!" he chastised himself aloud. It had been roughly two hours since he started, and he had enough to build a fire and also had meat to cook and bread and fruit to eat with it so he didn''t have to worry about hunger. And with the lake so close, though it was inconvenient without a container, he also didn''t have to worry about thirst. Shelter was taken care of with the cave itself, though it was going to suuuuuck sleeping on the hard ground by itself. Maybe he could hunt for more furs later if he had enough time, or collect enough grass and foliage to do a makeshift bed. So that meant, worse case scenario, he had at least two hours to figure out this whole Magic thing.
True Elemental Affinity - While not actually giving the user the ability to cast spells from the Elements it does give the user the ability to learn more easily all spells from all Elements eventually
"According to the description I should be able to figure this out manually, and if it''s anything like the stories I read, learning how to manipulate the base Element will make for an easier time learning or creating new spells." he reasoned, before closing his eyes and focusing inward. "First things first, find the mana that should be floating around my body. Usually, it''s either centrally located in the heart or stomach or it''s circulating like a bloodstream. Ah! Maybe I should try Meditation to see if that would make finding it easier. Wait...Meditation...that means I don''t have to sleep on the hard ground! Yay!" he thought gleefully before calming himself and activating Meditation in his mind. Immediately he felt a tranquil emotion as his heart and mind centered, his breathing became slow and steady, his racing thoughts calming until he felt as if his consciousness were floating. And he became intimately aware of his body. He felt his heart beating a soft yet steady rhythm, sending blood flowing through his veins to all parts of his body. And underneath it all, he felt power. Power that flowed through him like blood but different, power that enhanced every facet of his body and mind in a way he wasn''t quite sure of. Immersing himself in the flow he lost track of time for a while and when he realized it had already been at least an hour. On top of that, it seemed as though the flow had gotten a bit stronger. Now that was all well and good but it wasn''t exactly what he started out to do. And so he turned his senses outward, following the path of power in reverse until he realized he was pulling that power from outside himself. And "opening" his eyes to see what was around him he was not at all shocked to see that power literally permeating everything around him, even the air. It was so thick he had to wonder exactly how he didn''t realize it until now. The air, the trees, the water, the earth, it was in all of these things. It was all of these things. And so he reached down with his thoughts, down into the earth itself. It was....at once alien and familiar. Implaccable, eternal, following a cycle of death and rebirth that spanned eons. And it was overwhelming. Quickly pulling back until just beneath the surface, Kieran focused only on the tiniest tip of this proverbial iceberg, the surface layer if you will. And once again he immersed himself, though this time he was carefully paying attention to the time he spent doing so. Once he had finally gotten used to how the Earth felt and behaved he sent out a tendril of his own magic to interact. All elements are intertwined but they all behave differently. If you could assign personalities to them you could easily see those differences. In this case, Earth was stolid and unmoving. You told it what you wanted it to do and gave it the power to do it. It was more about control and force than it was finesse. So after acclimating himself to how his magic mixed with Earth he seized a little of it and shaped it into a jar. Imagination was key here so he visualized each step of what he wanted to happen. First, it was pulling the dirt up into the air and separating the more harmful minerals out into a separate pile. Next was to shape it into the jar, smoothing the surfaces and making the thickness uniform. And last was hardening it, with just a touch of magic to reinforce his creation. And with a final twist, he tied it all together and let go of the energy. What fell into his waiting hand was a jar, larger than a mason jar but smaller than a pitcher, with a light brown color that almost looked like glazed pottery, but before he could take a closer look into it he heard what was starting to be a familiar message tone. ''Teriin'' "You have learned Mana Perception ¡ï????" "You have learned Mana Manipulation ¡ï????" "You have learned Earth Manipulation ¡ï????" "You have learned Earth Crafting ¡ï????" "You have learned the Recipe: Earthen Jar ¡ï??"
Mana Perception - Due to your insight into the true essence of the world you are able to perceive the mana in all things. As a bonus, you are able to tell when magic is being cast near you
Mana Manipulation - You have seen the true essence of the world and have bent it to your will. Learning magic and creating spells is 10% easier and has a 10% cost reduction when casting
Earth Manipulation - You have seen the true essence of the foundation, the body of the world. Learning Earth-based magic and creating spells is 10% easier and has a 10% cost reduction when casting
Earth Crafting - A long forgotten skill, you are able to use your insight into Earth Magic to create items via magic. 10% increase in durability and strength, as well as a 10% cost reduction when working with soil or minerals born from the earth.
For a moment, Kieran was utterly speechless. "Wow.....just...wow," he said in shock. "I expected something but I didn''t think it would be all this! Maybe I should go the crafting route after all..." he wondered aloud for a moment before standing up and starting to pace off the area he wanted to enclose. With the skills he just learned it should be easy to make walls to protect his little base camp although that still leaves the problem of doors. "Meh, I can figure that out after I get the basic structure up." And with that, he concentrated and sent out his magic to grab a hold of the Earth again, visualizing exactly what he wanted. First, to raise the earth eight feet high and four inches thick leaving a gap for a doorway half way down that is three feet wide and seven feet high. Next to smooth out the walls, this time enhancing the stronger minerals inside, spreading them out to reinforce the wall as a whole. And finally, hardening it completely and reinforcing it quite a bit with his magic before tying it off again. As he looked at his handy work in satisfaction, he was pleased to see a wall over twenty feet in length, from the rock face about ten feet from the cave entrance down to the lake itself. Because of his paranoia, he actually had the wall about a foot into the water and he planned to put up a fence at least to cover that route in while leaving a way to get water and fish. Nodding once he turned around and did the same to the other side, fully enclosing the area with the exception of the two doorways and the open face of the lake. ''Teriin'' "You have learned Earth Wall ¡ï????" Pondering what he should do at the lakefront he raised walls about a third of the way from each wall, leaving a third open to the lake itself. Shrugging his shoulders he just made a half wall that jutted out about a foot from the others that were open at the bottom every foot or so. The gap itself was only about a foot high off the surface of the water and about a foot across, so while it would let water(and possibly fish) in, nothing else should be able to crawl in. With that taken care of and a quick glance at the sun, he focused on his last immediate concern....doors. "I should have enough time to make these doors and scout around for some more rabbits or at least spices to cook with. Worst case I''ll just make and tear down the doors each day but I''d rather not in case I need to get in and secure the area quickly." Racking his brain for a good ten minutes he gave a growl of frustration. "I can''t think of a single way to make an actual door with just earth magic. I lack the tools to make something out of wood, and while I could probably learn some wood-based magic I don''t have much more time before the sun sets. Wait...I''m doing it again aren''t I. Stop thinking using your old common sense and start thinking like this is a game. Surely there is some spell I knew of from one of the ridiculously many games I''ve played before," he thought with a grimace. "I''m drawing a blank for utility spells from video games. Maybe something from D&D? Wasn''t there a spell that allowed you to pass through stone like water? One of those underground racial abilities if I''m not mistaken. Now how would I get that to work here....." he contemplated for a few more moments as he came at it from various angles now that he had a direction to go. "The problem isn''t so much getting through as it is not permanently displacing what I''m moving through. I need to have it so my body and magic treat it like water so that it stays in its original shape after I pass through. Hmm." Another solid ten minutes pass before Kieran opens his eyes and looks at the wall in front of him. "Well, nothing for it but to try," he said aloud as if to convince himself. Shrugging, he walked forward and concentrated his magic once again. First, it was on the wall itself, familiarizing his magic with its unique feel. But instead of moving to the next step using the magic of the wall he instead focused on his own body. "The trick probably lies in attuning my magic''s signature with the wall''s. And then convincing the wall that I''m nothing more than magic passing through? That might work." Slowly he balanced his magic with the wall''s, focusing entirely on his left hand. He got as close to the image he had of the wall''s signature as he could before slowly pushing his left hand into the wall. At first, there was a little resistance but as he kept pushing it disappeared as he subconsciously matched the wavelength of mana. Once his hand was fully submerged into the wall, which should mean his fingers are sticking out the other side, he pulled it out and canceled the magic to examine his hand.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. "Nothing seems wrong from the looks of it. I can still move everything just fine," he thought as he then pushed his hand against the wall and felt that nothing had changed from before the experiment. Nodding to himself he quickly reattained the state of matching magic signatures before this time incorporating the wavelength thought his whole body. With a quick breath to steady himself, he walked through the wall.....and out the other side! Making sure he was completely out of the wall he released the magic and a familiar tone rang in his head. ''Teriin'' "You have learned Earth Glide ¡ï????"
Earth Glide - An ability commonly found in Earth Elemental sub-types, this allows the user to move through earth and stone as if it were water. Can not move through metal. Higher levels allow faster movement. Current movement = Walking Speed.
"Holy shit! It worked!" he cried out happily, relief evident in his voice. There were quite a few things that could have gone horribly wrong after all. "Best to focus on what needs to be done now instead of all the things that could have gone wrong and killed me," he thought a bit grimly before walking back in a closing up the holes where the doorways were before casting Earth Glide once more and heading towards the forest. "If I''m lucky I''ll be able to at least find some herbs to cook with if not more Horned Rabbits." A good half hour later and as the sun was starting to set Kieran made his way back towards his campsite. While he didn''t find any more rabbits or even a lot of herbs he was lucky enough to find a patch of oddly colored grasses as well as a few edible mushrooms(according to Appraisal). The mushrooms were typical and probably could have been found back on Earth but the grass was interesting and should be fun to cook with.
Firesage - An uncommon grass that is notable for its fiery orange hue and can be used in cooking. When ground it produces an herb that has a spicy yet sweet taste that firmly enhances meat.
Honestly, he couldn''t have asked for anything better to start off his first cooked meal in a fantasy world. Plus he reeeaaaally loved spicy things. In his past life, especially as he got older, his body really hated him when he overdid it but he couldn''t help himself most times. It was only too bad he didn''t have a pan to sautee these mushrooms in or it would be perfect. "Hmm...I wonder if I could make a frying pan? Might as well try when I get back as I need to let the "stove" heat up anyway. I should make a few more jars while I''m at it and a plate and....spoon would probably be easiest to make and use...spoon to go with it." he thought to himself as he made it back to camp and cast Earth Glide to let himself back in. Quickly bringing out the "stove" and setting it up, along with the wood to start a fire underneath he then stopped as he realized what he was missing. "Well shit, I forgot about starting the fire. Oh well, it shouldn''t be too hard to figure it out thanks to what I know about Earth and Mana Manipulation." Once more he sat down, this time in front of the gathered firewood, and activated Meditation. This time was much easier as he knew what to expect and didn''t get lost in the wonder of the magic in and around him. The problem started here though. Finding the magic in Earth? Easy as pie. In Water? Different viewpoint but sure that can be done easily too. In Air? Just think in terms of the exact opposite of Earth and you can see how it acts. But....Fire? Well, it might be easier if he had a fire to look at. But the whole point of this exercise was to create Fire so he was starting at a deficit. "All right, what do I know about fire? Simple things: it''s hot and it burns things. More complicated things: it consumes something else to fuel it and needs not only a catalyst but oxygen from the air to survive. Also, friction creates heat which is a common fire-starting survival technique so that''s a thing. So...maybe if I think about exciting the essence of the wood to generate heat? It''s open to the air so I shouldn''t worry about the oxygen factor. Well let''s try it," and with that he focused his mind on the pile in front of him, reaching out a tendril of magic as he did. "Should I excite the wood itself or the magic inherent inside?" Shrugging he decided to try both at the same time and hoped it wouldn''t explode in his face....literally. The tendril of magic gently grabbed a hold of the magic in the wood and then sunk down into the wood itself. Slowly, ever so slowly he started imagining his idea of the process of friction in hopes that it would "excite" something enough to catch on fire. With his eyes focused on the wood, he could start to see a change, that, even though he was wanting it to happen, still took him a minute to figure out that it was heating up the wood itself. Cautious now, as he could just imagine the wood catching fire in an instant, and the resulting explosion of heat, he tried to funnel that new energy towards the top of the pile where he had set some of the kindling before speeding up the "friction". It wasn''t even a minute later that the wood briefly started to glow before catching fire. But of course, he wasn''t going to stop there. Focusing now on the flames he watched how it moved and reacted, how it felt to his magic, memorizing everything he could about it before coaxing the fire to spread evenly to the rest of the waiting wood. Once he was certain that it was going and would stay that way he relaxed his mind and stopped Meditating. ''Teriin'' "You have learned Fire Manipulation ¡ï????" "You have learned Ignite ¡ï" With a deep breath and a wide grin he quickly stood up and went down to the lake to make and fill up the rest of what he would need for dinner. In no time at all, he made three more jars, filling up two of them, as well as a decent sized spoon, a large plate, a twelve-inch frying pan, and a mortar and pestle to ground up the herbs he found. Oddly enough it wasn''t until he made the final piece, the mortar and pestle, that he received a message saying he learned something. ''Teriin'' "You have learned the Recipe: Earthen Utensils ¡ï??" "Huh...well I''m not going to complain," he shrugged mentally and then put all of his new items in his Inventory and went back to check on his "stove". It was heating up nicely and should be ready soon. With that in mind, he pulled over another flattish rock. After washing it down, he set the mushrooms he found on top of it and pulled out his sword. While it was awkward as hell he eventually managed to cut them into smaller pieces without mangling them too badly. That done he put them into the empty jar he had and put it back in his inventory, pulling out the mortar and pestle as well as a few strands of the Firesage. Getting to work he quickly started grinding the herb down into much smaller pieces. As this was going to be slathered onto the meat he didn''t need it finely ground so he was soon finished. Placing the whole thing into his inventory he pulled out one of the Rabbit Meat he got earlier and started examining it. Honestly, it was a decent looking slab of meat with enough marbling to make sure it would provide its own juices to cook in. Setting it onto his cutting-rock he took his sword out again and started to cut the meat into small strips before putting the result into the jar with the mushrooms. Preparations complete, he walked over to check his "stove" again and held his hand a few inches above the surface. Deciding that it was good enough he quickly took out his new frying pan and set it on top. Letting it warm up for a minute, and firmly lamenting that he had no butter, he took out the jar with the mushrooms and meat and dumped the whole mess into the pan. Working quickly now he took out his ground Firesage and sprinkled a pinch or two over the contents of the pan before stirring with the spoon he made earlier. About five minutes, and three stirs later, he grabbed the jar that had held the mushrooms and meat and put a few more pinches of the ground Firesage as well as a dash of water from another jar before sloshing it around thoroughly. A minute later he slowly poured the tiny bit of herb water over the pan''s contents and stirred again. Letting it soak for a few minutes he cleaned up his area and put everything away into his inventory before pulling out his plate and a loaf of bread. With actual meat being on the menu he decided to split the loaf in half and save it for later as he put half on his plate and the other half back into his inventory. Now that everything was ready it was time to eat! "Wait...how am I going to pull the pan from the "stove"......" he suddenly stopped and asked himself. Racking his brain for a moment he then turned back to his inventory and pulled out one of the Rabbit Fur. It was quite a lovely pelt. Much better than anything he could have gotten on his own that is for sure. Flipping it over he saw the scraped inside and thought, "Meh, it''ll work," and used it as a makeshift potholder with the fur facing his hand. Not wanting to damage it any more than was necessary he quickly pulled the pan from the "stove" and onto the cutting-rock. He then put about half of the pan''s contents on his plate and put the rest, pan and all, into his inventory to stay fresh before setting the fur to the side to cool off before he put it away. He sat down and pulled the plate with his spoon towards him and just as he was about to take a bite- ''Teriin'' "You have learned Cooking ¡ï????" "For making a dish that is above your current limit you have leveled up! Cooking ¡ï¡ï???" "Huh...well that''s quite a pleasant surprise. Good to know some of my skills from my past life will carry over at least a little bit. I was never a five-star chef but I did know my way around a kitchen after all" he thought to himself as he took a bite....and froze. Honestly? It was really good. If this were a manga he''d have stars or hearts in his eyes and his clothes would melt off in an orgasmic display of ridiculousness. The meat was only a little gamey, as he''d never prepared rabbit before but the sauce and spiciness of the Firesage along with the flavor and texture of a well-cooked mushroom more than made up for it as it seemed to melt in his mouth. He looked down questioningly as his plate was empty and realized that he had instantly devoured it and was now sopping up the leftover juices with his bread. "And that was only level 2!?!? Well at least I have something to look forward too!" he crowed happily in his mind as he sat back and ate a Pomfris for dessert before washing it down with some water. As he sat back, his arms supporting him as he lounged, he stared up at the sky and felt, for the first time....well...ever....at peace. The night sky was cloudless and there was a gentle breeze blowing as he gazed upon stars he''d never seen before. "Huh...two moons. Go figure."
Name - Kieran Race - High Human
Level - 1 Job -
Occupation - Title - Otherworldly Child of Despair
HP - 310 MP - 6970
Strength - 17 Agility - 19
Constitution - 21 Intelligence - 56
Wisdom - 43 Charisma - 26
Luck - 87 Growth - 99
Skills
Meditation ¡ï????
Greater Mana Capacity ¡ï
Enhanced Growth ¡ï
Theory to Application ¡ï
Quality over Quantity ¡ï
Demon Eye of Truth ¡ï
Skill Store ¡ï
Truthseeker ¡ï????
True Elemental Affinity ¡ï
Gravity Manipulation ¡ï????
Soul Empowerment ¡ï????
All Language Comprehension ¡ï
Basic Sword Mastery ¡ï????
Dodge ¡ï????
Basic Herbalism ¡ï????
Stealth ¡ï????
Sneak Attack ¡ï????
Focused Hearing ¡ï????
Mana Perception ¡ï????
Mana Manipulation ¡ï????
Earth Manipulation ¡ï????
Earth Crafting ¡ï????
Earth Wall ¡ï????
Earth Glide ¡ï????
Fire Manipulation ¡ï????
Ignite ¡ï
Cooking ¡ï¡ï???
Chapter 3 - I Have The POWER!!!!! After sitting and watching the beautiful night sky for awhile Kieran didn''t even bother going inside the cave before meditating since it was a nice night. At first, he lost himself in the feeling of becoming one with the world around him, marveling at each new sensation as he drifted along peacefully. Several hours passed by in the blink of an eye before he became aware of himself again even while still in a state of tranquility. "This is so nice. Honestly, I could do this for the rest of my life and feel like it would be a life well lived. But that''s a bit boring isn''t it," he thought with a slight smirk before deciding to try something. While maintaining his current state he directed his consciousness around him to focus on finding the signs of life in his vicinity. At first, even with concentrating his newfound senses it was hard. Everything was all jumbled up together and trying to separate the magic in the world with the magic in living beings was difficult at best. "Well, I already know what the Earth feels like. Maybe I should try with plants next? That seems like it shouldn''t be that far off." His direction set, he focused his gaze on the Earth and once he had gotten comfortable again with it he slowly spread his consciousness through it and started to ever so slowly move upward. At first, it was hard to tell the difference since they were connected by the roots growing into the soil but once he realized that it was relatively easy to find the ''lines'' of the mana flowing up and out. From there it was only a matter of time to study the structure and feel of the magic signature before he was able to differentiate the different types of plants. Not anything in great detail yet but he could at least tell the difference between grasses, bushes, and trees. Once that was done it was just identifying the fundamental difference between the living plants and the Earth it grew in before he could finally sense the tiny bit of Life in each. "Well, that wasn''t so bad. I should be able to create some sort of plant manipulation if I play with it a bit more but let''s focus on one thing at a time," he though a bit happily before expanding his focus once again. This time it was with the idea of finding bigger organisms with "Life". Plants and animals are obviously different in many ways. Even though both are alive they shouldn''t feel the same when looking at it through his awareness via Meditation. As such he focused on the spark he felt from the plants and tried to find anything even remotely similar. With surprising ease he quickly found something but it took him a few minutes to figure out what they were. Insects. They were easy to find due to the "size" of the "Life" being similar to the grass they were crawling in. From there it wasn''t overly hard to up the scale to start finding mice and voles in their holes, scurrying about. Then to the rabbits in their den and the snakes slithering through the grass to the owls sitting in the trees. Even as he identified and categorized each new lifeform his awareness was slowly expanding. And at the very edge was something far larger. "A wolf maybe? Seems about the size- oh it just left my range. Probably a good thing as I don''t want to deal with them right now and especially not if it could call for help," he thought a bit grimly before pulling his awareness back in towards himself as he realized it was almost daybreak. "Might as well have some breakfast and plan out what I want to accomplish today." ''Teriin'' "You have learned Sense Life ¡ï????"
Sense Life - The ability to sense all life around the user in a certain range. Will stay activated passively in conjunction with the minimap but will display lifeforms in more detail when actively focusing. Information gained as well as range will increase with mastery. Certain skills can deceive this skill based on the competing levels of mastery. Current range = 10m
"Well, that should come in handy. Let''s eat and then try to see if I can get some sort of enemy perception while I''m at it," he thought while stretching a bit and then taking out the leftovers from dinner last night. He almost forgot that the pan was still hot but luckily remembered in time to use the Rabbit Fur as a pot holder again before emptying the pan onto his plate and setting it aside to cool down. "Ahhh this is really good!" he thought while happily chewing. "I wonder if I perforate the meat somehow and then rub the ground Firesage on it if it will taste less gamey? Usually, the gamey taste is because the blood wasn''t drained properly but I doubt that is the case with the Inventory being set up like it is. Oh well, nothing for it but to try." Quickly finishing up his meal he heading towards the lake with his utensils to wash them and a little of himself as well before putting everything away. "Now then, what should I do today? Obviously, I would like to hunt a bit more of the rabbits since I only have one more meat left. Oh and get some more mushrooms and look for more spices or herbs to mix it with. And then I should probably work out some more magic while I''m at it. I feel like I''m forgetting something? Guess I should look through my skills again and plan from there." Calling up his status again he stopped for a moment once he realized, "Wow this is a mess already. And it''s only going to get worse from here when I start adding more skills and spells. I wonder if I can fix this? The system has been pretty intuitive so far maybe I just have to imagine what I want and then command it? Worth a shot," he thought and then started deciding the new form of his menu. "In games, they always have different tabs or windows for each of these things so I should start there. First, separate skills, spells, and crafting recipes. Oh probably won''t end up with just one title so maybe a Title tab as well? Yes, that will work. Ok now to have it automatically sort spells and recipes by Element. And while I''m at it I should separate the skills into categories as well. Uh...ok physical, magical and support are no-brainers but I feel that still leaves something lacking. Maybe a mental category? Might as well just to cover my bases. Ok now focus on the whole..." A bit of concentration and a command to change the structure and it was done. "That was surprisingly easy!" And this is what was left.
Physical Skills Mental Skills Magical Skills
Basic Sword Mastery ¡ï???? Meditation ¡ï???? Mana Perception ¡ï????
Dodge ¡ï???? Demon Eye of Truth ¡ï Mana Manipulation ¡ï????
Stealth ¡ï???? Truth Seeker ¡ï???? Gravity Manipulation ¡ï????
Sneak Attack ¡ï???? Earth Manipulation ¡ï????
Focused Hearing ¡ï???? Fire Manipulation ¡ï????
Support Skills Spells Crafting Recipes
Greater Mana Capacity ¡ï Earth: Earthglide ¡ï???? Earth Crafting: Earthen Jar ¡ï??
Enhanced Growth ¡ï Earth: Earth Wall ¡ï???? Earth Crafting: Earthen Utensils ¡ï??
Theory to Application ¡ï Fire: Ignite ¡ï
Quality over Quantity ¡ï
Skill Store ¡ï
True Elemental Affinity ¡ï
All Language Comprehension ¡ï????
Soul Empowerment ¡ï????
Basic Herbalism ¡ï????
Cooking ¡ï????
Earth Crafting ¡ï????
"That''s much better. Now then, I just have to plan my routine around my skills. First off is Theory to Application, which if I''m reading it correctly means I''ll be able to improve my stats through exercise and training. However, according to Quality over Quantity, I won''t be able to level up very fast at all. If I needed three Horned Rabbits to level up normally with this skill it would take twelve. But...4x growth....maybe that means I get four times the stat points to distribute per level? Or maybe four times the Skill Store points? Or both if I''m lucky. Well, I''ll figure it out when I level. Which means I should hunt quite a few rabbits today if I can so I can plan around it. Next would be practicing magic. I should at least add Water Manipulation to my repertoire today and maybe some sort of plant version as well if I can. But the number one thing I should focus on should be Gravity Manipulation. Since I already have it unlocked I just need to familiarize myself with it and create a few spells. One of which should be something to apply to me at all times so I can train both magic and my physical stats at the same time. I just have to be careful to start off easy and work my way up. Which also means I need a stronger attack version so I don''t get myself killed trying to hunt and train at the same time either. Nodding to himself he sat down and activated Gravity Manipulation.Thanks to his knowledge from earth he knew roughly how it would affect its surroundings but he still needed a solid hour before he felt acclimated enough to how the magic moved in this world before he attempted his first spell.Gently wrapping a small layer of Gravity around himself he immediately felt heavier as it settled down onto his body before tying it off. ''Teriin'' "You have learned the spell Gravity Cloak ¡ï????"
Gravity Cloak - A spell that targets the user and wraps the power of Gravity around him. The user can control how much Gravity affects him while doing so and further mastery will increase the maximum range as well as decrease the cost of maintaining the spell.
"Awesome! ....Wait...the wording is a little different than what I expected. It says range instead of weight...does that mean I can reverse the Gravity affecting me as well?" Immediately he tried to lightly reverse the effect and was rewarded when instead of feeling heavier he felt lighter than normal. "Huh. I wonder if I can figure out levitation with this as well and combine them for Xianxia style movements like in those over exaggerated Chinese martial arts films. Oh well, I''ll worry about that later. Now to change the target and figure out an attack/debuff version," he thought. Concentrating on the feel of the Cloak around him and leaving it active he then switched his focus to outward instead of in. "I should probably start small. Maybe five meters in diameter at the target location?" Holding out his hand towards an area in front of him he willed his magic to create the phenomena he wanted and was rewarded once again with a familiar sounding message tone.This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. ''Teriin'' "You have learned the spell Gravity Well ¡ï????"
Gravity Well - A spell that targets a specific location and greatly increases the gravity to slow down enemies. Higher mastery allows for greater control and weight distribution as well as higher efficiency and increased range. Can be maintained at an additional cost. Current range = 5m. Current rate of slow = 1/4th normal speed reduction
"Very nice!" he crowed happily. "One more as an attack should start me off for today. I can work on the other Elements tomorrow." And with that, he set his mind to the new problem. "Hmm....honestly, I probably can''t just make things fall to the ground due to the weight as that is most likely higher level mastery of Gravity Well. So that means I need to use an object to instantly make heavier to fall onto my enemies. Since I''m targeting an object instead of an area it should allow for greater weight control for an actual attack if it hits. The problem is, what exactly am I going to use? Just throwing stones or whatnot has a great chance of missing and if I just threw something at the target it most likely will just fall down before it reaches them," he pondered, quite stumped at this point. "Wait. What if I use it on the downswing of a weapon? Sure it would be much better if it was a big two-handed hammer or something but if I time it right I should still be able to do some pretty decent damage with a sword." Quickly standing up he pulled out and equipped his sword before looking around for a likely target. Spotting one of the deadwood logs he had dragged over initially he maneuvered it into a more open space and unsheathed his sword. "I should probably coat the blade completely in the energy of Gravity so that when I need to exert the full force I can just act like it''s an on/off switch. Need to be careful that I don''t warp the blade by using too much though. Maybe coat the blade and then focus the switch more towards the end of the blade itself?" Once again letting his imagination lead him along the path he wanted he lead the Gravity energy towards his sword before completely wrapping it around it like he did with his Gravity Cloak. Making sure to not let the weight affect the blade yet he concentrated more power towards the top third of the blade. Checking once more that everything looked like it did in his head he took a stance with his sword and swung, activating the "switch" towards the end of the swing....and almost face-planting when he over-balanced! "Well that was a thing," he chuckled ruefully as he set himself to try again. The second time was no better than the first but expecting it this time he was able to recover his balance easier. The third time was, unfortunately, the same. The fourth time, however, his blade seemed to jump towards the log, slicing completely through it and actually burying itself into the ground a little bit. "All right! Now to find that sweet spot again." It took him a few more tries to figure exactly when on the downstroke he needed to apply the Gravity but eventually he heard that tone once again. ''Teriin'' "You have learned the spell Enchant Gravity ¡ï????"
Enchant Gravity - Through trial and error, you were able to apply Gravity Manipulation in a completely different direction. Coats a weapon in Gravitational energy and swiftly and greatly increases it at the most opportune time to wreak havoc on your target. Higher mastery will increase the weight you can apply as well as reduce the cost of the spell.
"Ok, now that that is taken care of I should start hunting. Hopefully, I can forage more supplies along the way" he said to himself and then cast Earthglide to exit his camp. Looking around to make sure he was alone he released the spell and activated Focused Hearing and Sense Life to see which direction he should take before setting off as Stealthily as he could. With the help of his new senses, it didn''t take him five minutes to sneak up on an unsuspecting Horned Rabbit and with a quick application of Enchant Gravity, the poor creature didn''t have a clue what happened before it was dead. Noticing nothing changed in the spoils he received he quickly used his Demon Eye to look at everything in the vicinity before moving on. About the time he finished killing his seventh Horned Rabbit he was startled when he received a new notification. ''Dundundun dun dun dun dundundaaa'' "The skill Basic Sword Mastery has leveled up! Basic Sword Mastery ¡ï¡ï???" "The skill Sneak Attack has leveled up! Sneak Attack ¡ï¡ï???" "The skill Stealth has leveled up! Stealth ¡ï¡ï???" "You have earned the following items: Rabbit Fur x1, Rabbit Meat x1, Rabbit Horn x1, Copper Coins x3" "Wow! I didn''t think anything would level up so quickly. Must be the effect of Theory to Application. Not that I''m going to complain. Wonder what else I can level up by the end of today," he thought wildly before calming down and checking his surroundings again for anything useful. Moving on once again he noticed how much easier it was to move while in Stealth now, and how much quieter he became. Grinning in anticipation he resisted the urge to start rushing ahead to find more prey. "Slow and steady now. Let''s not get cocky and end up getting hurt because I couldn''t contain my excitement and made a mistake. Plus I shouldn''t need but a few more rabbits to level....hopefully." Unfortunately, it wasn''t until his sixteenth Horned Rabbit that he finally heard a welcome sound and a slew of messages appeared. ''Dundundun dun dun dun dundundaaa'' "You have leveled up! You have earned the following increases: HP +235, MP +5850, Stat Points +12, Skill Store Points +400" "The skill Enchant Gravity has leveled up! Enchant Gravity ¡ï¡ï???" "Through arduous training under the skill Theory to Application, you have gained the following stats: Strength +2, Constitution +3, Intelligence +6" "Woooow!" he whistled softly seeing the sheer amount of gains just one level got him. "Hmm. Looks like my base HP was 100 and my Constitution stat is multiplied by 10 and added on. But it seems like I only got 25 for level 2 plus my CON stat x10. However, my MP stat is all messed up. I remember my base stat being at 6,600 at level 1. That means that the base MP started at 1,000 and then my Intelligence was multiplied by 100 and added on. If I take the same formula as the HP then 1/4 of the base stat is added every level plus my Intelligence x10. Which would put me at 13,050 after adding the additional gain to Intelligence but that still leaves 3,330 extra MP from something. Wait....I forgot I Meditated a lot yesterday. That could easily explain the extra. But regardless that is some absolutely broken MP," he shook his head in shock. But before he could think about anything else his Sense Life picked up a far larger signature than the rabbits he had been hunting. Quickly and quietly moving behind a tree he focused his hearing towards the direction of the new lifeform but couldn''t really hear anything. "It must be moving very quiet for me not to hear anything at this distance. I wonder if it''s a wolf? Oh....looks like something caught it''s attention as it''s starting to head this way. Must be that bit of blood that was left after the fight. Wonder if I can still get a Sneak Attack on it." Holding his breath he readied his sword for a quick strike after casting Enchant Gravity on it. Luckily he didn''t have to wait long for what seemed to be a large wolf came out of the bushes. About 1.5 meters tall with bristly, dark grey fur and sharp yellow fangs was all that Kieran could make out clearly before launching his surprise attack. Unfortunately for him, this particular monster was much better suited to combat as even with his ambush he wasn''t able to get a clean shot, only causing a short slash across its flank as it quickly evaded him. "Damn!" he muttered as the wolf turned to him with a deep, low growl before quickly dashing towards Kieran. Trying not to panic he cast Gravity Well centered on the wolf and then Dodged to the right just in case. Which was good as the wolf was still able to land at his previous location even with the slow debuff. But luck was not with the wolf today as his body stumbled a bit due to the increased weight, opening it up for Kieran to quickly dash in and swing down with another Enchanted blow. Not even he could tell if it was luck or design as the blade landed perfectly on the neck and decapitated the wolf cleanly. ''Dundundun dun dun dun dundundaaa'' "You have learned the skill Critical Strike ¡ï????" "You have earned the following items: Wolf Fur x1, Wolf Meat x2, Wolf Fang x2, Copper Coins x11"
Critical Strike - By studying your opponent you can strike a deadly blow at its weak point. Can activate passively when hitting an opponent''s weak point even by Luck. Higher mastery will make it easier to pinpoint an opponent''s weak point as well as increase the damage of the strike.
"My Luck is working overtime today," he says while panting lightly from the nervous tension of fighting a stronger monster. "I wonder how Wolf Meat tastes?" Shrugging he continued on his way a little longer before starting to circle back towards his camp from a different direction. By the time he made it back to his base and used Earthglide to enter he was quite tired, at least mentally. "Looks like I''ve got a few hours of daylight left but I think I''m done exploring for the day. On top of that I was so focused I skipped lunch and I''m starving!" Resolving himself to an early dinner he first set about organizing today''s haul. "I was quite lucky today since not only did I find a few patches of mushrooms, Medicinal Grass and Firesage I also found a few new herbs. Add on to that a couple of Pomfris trees I picked clean and the wolf and rabbit meat I caught and I''ve got enough to keep me going for a few weeks. And I even leveled up a few more skills as well!"
Wild Avens - A small purple plant with a peppery and minty taste with a hint of sweetness reminiscent of Earth''s Basil
Forest Chives - A long stem grass related to onions it has a more refreshing taste than its Earth counterpart.
"The skill Focused Hearing has leveled up! Focused Hearing ¡ï¡ï???" "The skill Sense Life has leveled up! Sense Life ¡ï¡ï???" "The skill Mana Manipulation has leveled up! Mana Manipulation ¡ï¡ï???" "The skill Gravity Manipulation has leveled up! Gravity Manipulation ¡ï¡ï???" "The skill Basic Herbalism has leveled up! Basic Herbalism ¡ï¡ï???" "Today was a good day! Let''s make some food now!" he said happily before deciding to use Earthen Utensils to make several skewers and a very sharp fork. Starting up the fire under his stove again he then took out a cut of Rabbit Meat and also one of the Wolf Meat he got. Seeing as how the Wolf Meat was rather large he cut it into quarters and put the rest back into his inventory before cubing the meat he left out on his cutting-rock. Taking his newly made fork he started perforating each side of the cubes before grinding up the Wild Avens and Forest Chives together and then rubbing it deep into the meat. Lastly, he washed the mushrooms and then took the skewers he made and alternated chunks of meat with the mushrooms and as a finishing touch squeezed Pomfris juice lightly over the whole thing before setting it on his makeshift stove. Rotating the skewers every few minutes to make sure the searing was even it wasn''t long at all before the eight skewers he made were done. Pulling the pan from his inventory he quickly moved half of the skewers into the pan before putting it back into his inventory and the rest onto his plate along with half a loaf of bread. And of course, it was delicious. In no time at all the skewers were picked clean and all that was left were a few crumbs from the hard bread. Washing it down with water he sat back and started to relax again. "Perforating the meat first and then rubbing the herbs on it definitely eliminated the little gamey taste it had. As much as I want to stay here until I''m sure I''m strong enough to at least deal with the typical bandits and thugs in what is hopefully a low leveled beginner town, I''m very tempted to skip it just so I can get some different ingredients to cook with. I mean this stuff is this good and it''s all things I''ve found in the wild! Oh well, I''ll think about it in a few days. I guess I''ll just meditate some more while leaving the Gravity Cloak up. Tomorrow since I don''t need to hunt I''ll focus purely on learning some new magic. Water and Air definitely and if I can Light and Darkness as well. Maybe I''ll start on Darkness during the night." he muttered softly to himself before falling deep into Meditation again.