《Transmigrate to another world》 Chapter 1: Prologue This is the story of an average anime nerd who got his greatest wish, but in a way he never imagined. After all, there is a reason for the saying "Be careful what you wish for!". My name is Klein and until recently I was a human being living on Earth, in the United States. This is my story, the story of how I died and was summoned to another world, which was my heartfelt wish. But was the fact that I was granted this wish a blessing or a curse? I was an only child and fell in love with anime at an early age. My love for anime led me to manga, video games and all things nerdy throughout my life. I never had a close rtionship with my distant rtives, so after my parents passed away, my only real connections were with my friends who shared my love for anime. My parents had left me a house that was almost paid for, and since I didn''t need all that space to myself, I had my friends move in with me and pay my rent. Between the rent and working part-time as a pizza delivery guy, I could pay my bills and feed myself, which was all I really needed, since every minute of my free time was spent watching anime, reading manga, or ying games. As long as I could do those things, I was happy; it didn''t matter to me that I was single most of the time or that I could barely survive, because I could always escape to another world. Isekai, once I found it, became my absolute favorite because I never felt like I really belonged in this world and I always wished I could be summoned to another world to be a hero. I watched or read all the isekai I could find, even if I didn''t really like them, the fact that they were isekai was enough for me. I mean, I was pretty happy until the day a drunk driver ran a red light and crashed into my car while I was making a delivery. I didn''t die in the ident, but the bones on the left side of my body were mostly crushed and several organs were damaged. I woke up in the hospital in immense pain even though I was takingrge amounts of painkillers. The doctors told me that I only had a few hours to live at most, in fact they were surprised that I was still alive after the amount of damage my body had sustained. The doctor asked me if I wanted anything, my first request was to stop the pain, but I was told I was already at the maximum allowable dose. My second request was my phone so I could contact my friends, but unfortunately I had it in my left pants pocket and it was destroyed in the ident. Unfortunately, I had lost the habit of memorizing phone numbers after buying a smart phone, so I had to borrow a phone and log into Messenger to inform my friends of what happened. My friends soon arrived at the hospital to be with me and, knowing me so well, they brought my tablet from home. Once I had my tablet and was able to read thetest manga episodes that hade out, the pain didn''t bother me as much. To my doctors'' surprise, I was able to endure the next few days, simply because I didn''t want to die without first finding out what happened next in my favorite manga. But s, I was only human and on the fifth day after the ident I passed away surrounded by my friends and clutching my tablet tightly. "Death is but a doorway to another path. Joyce Lavene." I was sure I had closed my eyes for thest time, but I open them again, though it is hard to be sure they are open as I see nothing but darkness. I know I''m not in the hospital room, that room was never really dark with all the machine screens and flickering lights. I feel like I''m floating in an infinite sea of darkness, what is this, I don''t believe in God so I just feel a void,e on, at least let me be a ghost so I can spy on people and y pranks on my friends! ??-DING-??. - System message: error, no valid belief systems found! "Huh, what was that voice, are you God, is God aputer?" ??-DING-??? - System message: activating the reincarnation system! "Wait, tell me what''s going on! Ugh, do I have to go through all that again?" ??-DING-??? - System message: transferring to the Otherworld system! "Yes! Yes, send me to another world! I want to be a hero!" ??-DING-??? - Message from the Other World System: karmic bnce calcted, new world selected, initiating reincarnation! ''It''s finally happening, I''m finally going to another world, this is going to be amazing!'' Suddenly, I notice a shift in the void. In the distance, the darkness seems to move. Somehow, I can see what looks like a ck hole forming in the void, and then the colors explode. The spinning mass has every color I have ever seen in my life and many of them have no name. It is the most amazing and beautiful sight I have ever witnessed. Then I feel an impact as if a giant hand pped me on the back and suddenly I am flying towards the colors spinning at incredible speeds, or at least that''s what I feel. As I get closer and closer to the event, I can see a hole forming in the middle and I am flying directly into the hole. As I fly towards the hole, instead of feeling like I''m flying, I suddenly feel like I''m falling through the tunnel. The colors are blinding up close and the feeling of falling makes me panic. I tell myself that everything is fine! As long as it takes me to another world, I can handle anything! ??-DING-??. - Thanks to your strength to resist death you have acquired the skill Tenacity. ¡Ì Tenacity ¡Ì Level 1 - Resistance +2 HP +10%. - Your strong willpower allows you to attempt to resist death. ??-DING-??. - Because you ignored the immense pain, you acquired the Resist Pain skill. ¡Ì Resist pain ¡Ì Level 1. - You feel 30% less pain. "Oh, an RPG-style skill system, cool! And these skills look very useful! Good, now I just need some kind of heroic skill or ss!" ??-DING-??? - Otherworldly system message: error, warning! Due to an incorrect location error, no ss can be offered. "What do you mean by incorrect location, where are you sending me, are you running on Windows or something, and how much longer am I going to keep crashing?" It seems like I''ve been dropping for days! I get no response as I keep falling down the tunnel. By now I''ve gotten used to the feeling of falling. Voice of an unknown girl: "No! He lied to me! My own father has betrayed me and is killing me! Anyone? Anyone? Help! I don''t want to die! I want him to die! Someonee and kill this monster that was my father! Dark Goddess Krenocia, Ruler of the Underworld, I offer you my soul if you send someone to avenge me!" Whose voice is that? And why can I hear it here in this tunnel as if it were standing right next to me? Ow! Why is my chest suddenly burning? It feels as if someone has put a red-hot poker through me! Wait! Is that light? It''s a good thing there''s a light at the end of the tunnel! It better not be me being reborn as a baby! Now I''m falling towards the light and as I get closer I can see a room, it''s a big room and I see people. I feel like I''m not falling as fast as before, but I''m still falling towards the room. I can see a dais and a throne, and is that a girl being carried? I seem to be heading towards a huge glowing circle with about fifty people standing in it. I hope I don''t fall on anyone or die on impact, that would be a horrible end to an adventure that''s just begun! ??-DING-??? - Message from the Other World System: Final message: wee to your new world! Was this the beginning of the story of the hero I had always dreamed of? Or was this the beginning of a cursed story? Chapter 2: Transmigration In the throne room. I enter the throne room and, for a moment, I pause. The space isrge and rectangr, with tall windows along the walls, guarded by numerous guards. Suddenly, the burning in my chest intensifies, spreading throughout my body. The feeling of lightness vanishes, reced by an overwhelming heaviness. The shadows in my field of vision be sharper, and then I see them: sixteen figures in robes, sitting or lying around an incandescent circle. Suddenly, my immunity to gravity disappears, and I feel myself falling for real. Barely a few seconds pass before I hit the cold marble of the circle. "How...gross!" Lying on the polished marble, the floor is only inches from my face. I can see every vein in the stone and a pattern etched into it. I try to get up, but my body feels strange. Looking at my arms, I freeze. They are covered in ck hair. What is happening to me, where am I, what am I, what am I? I stare at my arms, incredulous, when something hard hits me in the head. "DROP!" The guard''s shout echoes through the room, "You fucking monster!!!". The sound of pounding reverberates in my ears, "Thud," "thud," "crunch," "thud." I''m being punched and kicked from several directions. All I can do is curl up and hold on, as I can''t control this body nor do I have any idea what is happening. I try to move to better defend myself, but the new body I''m apparently in feels heavy and sluggish, as if it hears mymands but doesn''t understand them. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Pain Resistance skill has advanced to level 2! - Resistance to pain ¡Ì Level 2. - You feel 30% less pain. - Physical damage reduced by 1%. "Why is this happening, stop him, someone save me, I''m your hero, aren''t I?" King Raden Feldster says, "Enough! What''s going on over there?" The Royal Guard replies, "Your Majesty, it''s a beastman!" "A beast man, are you talking about me, is that why I''m hairy?" King Raden says, "Zamart, check him." The chief court magician, Zamart, says, "As you wish, Your Majesty!" I hear someone approaching, followed by some words in anguage I don''t understand. I''m not sure what''s going on, but I''m thankful the pounding has stopped for the moment. Between the fall to the ground and the blows, I feel nothing but pain throughout my body. Zamart shouts, "STATE!" As the wizardpletes his spell, I get my first glimpse of my character''s screen. It seems to float in front of my eyes, visible even if I close them. ========== - Name: Klein. - Race: ck lion. - Title: None. - ss: None. - Level: 0. - HP: 21/132. - MP: 50/50. - Strength: 20. - Agility: 20. - Resistance: 20. - Intelligence: 18. - Physical: 18. - Charm: 18. - Points not spent: 0. - Missions: (0). - Skills: (2). - Crafts: (0). Zamart says, "Your Majesty, he has no ss and is zero level." King Raden replies, "Then he''s worthless. Get rid of him." "''Wait! I''m supposed to be the hero, right? How dare you call me worthless!" "Shhhhhhhhhh..." King Raden says, "No, stop your sword. I don''t want his blood all over my throne room. Throw him in the pit!" The Royal Guard says, "Yes, Your Majesty!" As I look at my status screen, trying to figure out what''s going on, I''m grabbed by my ankles and dragged across the floor. I finally figure out how to move, just as the guards pick me up and throw me into what appears to be a well. As I begin to fall once again, I instinctively roll over so that I''m face down and extend my arms and legs fully. Extending ws I didn''t even know I had, I barely manage to reach the walls of the pit and begin to slow down. The screeching noise of my ws against the stone makes my head snap in two, but I can.... Don''t you dare stop if I want to have a chance of surviving this. ??-DING-??? - Congrattions!!! You have acquired the SAFE FALL skill. - Safe fall ¡Ì Level 1 - You take 5% less damage when falling. ??-DING-??? ¡Ì "Mandatory mission!" ¡Ì Mission: SURVIVE THE WELL! - Objective: to survive and find a way to escape from the pit. - Reward: 10 stat points. These messages appear as I fall, and I desperately try to slow down enough to survive the fall. The Safe Fall skill seems like it will help, but I''m in no position to check, and I don''t want to trust my life to a skill I just obtained and don''t fully understand yet. A few secondster, I see the bottom of the pit. The first thing I notice is arge pile of bones directly below me. Then, I see a small green-skinned humanoid creature right next to the pile of bones. "Is that a goblin?" In a split second, I decide to aim for the creature to cushion mynding, as falling on the bones would probably mean instant death. I push myself slightly towards the creature with my hands and feet. As soon as I make contact, I roll to try to minimize the damage I take. I roll five or six times before hitting the wall fairly hard. ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, the Tenacity skill has advanced to level 2! - Tenacity ¡Ì Level 2. - Your strong willpower allows you to resist death. ¡Ì End +4 HP +15%. "Ayyyyyyyy! That hurt!" I''m surprised it worked and that I''m still alive, but my whole body aches. I don''t even want to think about how much worse it would hurt without the Pain Resistance skill. ??-DING-??? - There are new missions avable! "New missions, huh, I''ll take a look at themter!" Speaking of looking, I realize that I can see the room around me just fine, even though it should be almostpletely dark down here. There is a little lighting from the well above, but not enough that even a cat couldn''t see well in this well. It looks like a round room with five passages leading out of it; the walls are made ofrge stone blocks joined together like in a medieval castle. ncing into the nearest opening, I see a thickyer of dust that doesn''t look like it hasn''t been touched in a long time. Considering that the main thing I want right now is a ce to hide, recover and try to figure things out, this sounds perfect. I get up in a lot of pain and turn to walk down the hallway. Unfortunately, on my first step, something goes wrong and I end up falling t on my face. "Thud!" "Whew!" It better not be a habit to stare at the floor an inch away. I turn around, look at myself and notice for the first time that my legs are bent backwards, like an animal''s, instead of the way I was used to. ''No wonder I can''t even walk properly!'' After several attempts, I manage to get to my feet and crawl into the passageway. I realize that I''m leaving footprints in the dust, but I''ll have to hope that, if there are more goblins, they''ll be too stupid to notice them. After about six meters, I reach an area where the wall and ceiling have copsed, blocking the tunnel. As I look at the copse, I notice that the passage is notpletely blocked; there is a small gap in the upper right corner through which I could pass. I crawl down the slope of the copse and try to push myself into the space. I struggle, grunting and squeezing to get my new body through the gap. Once I seed, I find myself in a five by ten area between thendslide and the end of the tunnel. I decide this is the best I can do at that point, so I sit with my back against the wall, n to check my stats and mull things over, but almost immediately fall into a deep sleep. Chapter 3: The well [ 1 ] Down in the well I wake up after who knows how long, feeling better physically, but now I am hungry and very thirsty. If it weren''t for the pain, I would think it was all a nightmare and that I''m still in the hospital. Thinking about what happened, maybe it would be better if this had been just a nightmare. However, wishing won''t change anything. I need to concentrate on surviving. I guess a source of food and water will be the top priority. But first I want to better analyze this... State! ========== - Name: Klein. - Race: ck Lion - Title: None - ss: None - Level: 0 - Hp: 35/140 - MP: 50/50 - Strength: 20 - Agility: 20 - Resistance: 22 - Intelligence: 18 - Physical: 18 - Charm: 18 - Unspent points: 0 - Missions: (4) - Skills: (3) - Crafts: (0) ========== I only have thirty-five life points, I didn''t heal much by sleeping, could it be because I''m hungry and thirsty? Even so, this healing rate is too slow; it will take me days to healpletely. Well, we have strength, agility and stamina as physical stats, and intelligence, wisdom and charm as mental stats. It really is like a role-ying game! Ah, yes, let''s take a look here.... Race! - Race: ck lion - Abilities: Higher starting stats, Darkvision, No skill limit, Eligible for advanced sses. Well, so I can see, but if I''m eligible for advanced sses, why don''t I have a ss? Select ss? Choose ss? ss? Why doesn''t anything work? Well, I guess I can''t have a ss for some reason. Let''s see what those missions were... Missions! ¡Ì Missions: - Survive the pit. - Objective: survive and find a way to escape the pit. - Reward: 10 stat points. ¡Ì Kill goblins. - Objective: kill goblins 1/20 - Reward: 5 STAT points. Do you ept? Y/N ¡Ì Kill goblin shaman. - Objective: Kill goblin shaman 0/1 - Reward: Ability Fire Lightning. Do you ept? Y/N ¡Ì Kill the boss - Objective: Kill the goblin boss 0/1 - Reward: ck knife Do you ept? Y/N "Ah, so Inded on a goblin. Good thing I got credit for that. well, I guess I ept everything!" As I sit there, after epting the missions and trying to decide on my first move, I notice some footprints in the dust. As I lean in for a closer look, I recognize that they arerge rat tracks; the strange thing is that the tracks go directly into the wall. As I lean in for a closer look, I go to put my hand on the wall to keep my bnce, but as I put my hand through the wall, I lose my bnce and end up falling on my face again. "Whew, what is this, an illusionary wall?" As I pick myself up off the floor and walk through the wall, I am blinded for a moment because the room is as brightly lit as if it were daylight. As I wait for my eyes to adjust, I am happy to hear the sound of water dripping somewhere inside the room. As soon as I can see again, I look around and see a room twenty by twenty meters. There is water dripping from a crack in the wall in one corner and flowing into a crack in the floor. I immediately run to the corner to lick the water off the wall. Once I quench the worst of my thirst, I take a good look around the room. The first thing I notice is that I can see through the wall from this side, which means I will be able to see any goblin that enters the hallway. The next thing I notice is that the light ising from a stone suspended from the ceiling in the middle of the room. Other than that, all that''s in the room is some old dpidated wooden furniture, which leaves me confused as to why it''s there and why it''s hidden behind an illusory wall. The first thing I do is move all the broken furniture to the far corner of the room so that the floor is nice and clear. I then proceed to do some basic stretches and exercises to try to get used to this new body. Getting used to my new body is something that is definitely foreign to me, but I know it is necessary. In my previous life, I had beenzy and out of shape, so seeing what this body can do really surprises me. I''m actually having fun. So I decide to train a little more seriously and see what my physical limits are. I''m able to do a hundred push-ups before I start to feel my muscles protesting. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, you''ve acquired the passive skill Fitness! ¡Ì Fitness ¡Ì Level 1 Statistics +1 End +1 Hmm, I wonder why it''s so easy to acquire skills, could it be because of my race? Well, at least if I keep getting stat points from all these skills, it should be possible for me to be quite strong even without being able to gain levels. After finishing my training, I go over to drink some more water. As I lick the water off the wall, I hear a squeak and, as I look around, I see a rat on the other side of the door. Since I know it hasn''t seen me yet, I run to the wall next to the door and try to be as still and quiet as possible. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, you have acquired the active skill Stealth! ¡Ì Stealth ¡Ì Level 1 - MP cost 20 You can hide in the shadows and move silently. Ignoring the skill message, I focus on the door and pounce on the rat as soon as it sticks its head inside. "Squeal!" "Yes! Gotcha! Wow! It''s as big as a house cat!" I feel guilty about killing it, since I had a pet rat in my previous life, but survivales first. I bring the rat into the room,y it on its back and use a w to start slowly removing its fur. ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, you have acquired the Desuello crafting skill! ¡Ì Skinning ¡Ì Level 1 - Agility +1 - You can skin small and medium-sized animals. I carefully skin and gut the rat. Then I try to make a small fire with the broken furniture; it takes me a long time to get the fire going. Once the fire is lit, I try to roast the meat over the mes. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, you''ve acquired the skill of cooking! ¡Ì Cooking ¡Ì Level 1 - Intelligence +1 - You can cook basic foods. I''m too hungry to be patient and end up eating the rat meat when it''s still half cooked. It''s not very tasty, but it''s food and I have no intention of starving. Well, I''ve taken care of the food and water for now. This hidden room will be my base of operations while I explore, so I suppose I should try to make some improvements. For starters, I''m not too happy about having to lick the wall to collect water; I need some kind of bowl or pitcher. I stand up and start looking around, trying to think of what I can use, when my eyes pass over the copsed area of the hallway. I notice one of the bricks sticking out, look at the corner where the water ising in and decide to try to make a basin to catch the water. I step out into the hallway and start using my ws to dig into the dirt looking for the bricks from the original wall. ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, you have acquired the Mining crafting skill! ¡Ì Mining ¡Ì Level 1 - Strength +1 - You can try to mine normal ore. I really don''t think digging in loose dirt counts as mining! But it''s not like I''mining; I need all the perks and skill points I can get! I keep digging in the dirt looking for bricks, but I dig a little too far in one direction and cause a small cave-in that causes more dirt to fall through the broken wall. After things settle down, I notice something strange in the new soil. Lifting it up, I discover that it is a lump of y. I immediately start sifting through the soil looking for more. Once I have a decent amount of bricks and a good pile of y, I bring everything into the room. Then I start building a wall around the corner using the bricks and y instead of mortar. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, you have acquired the masonry craft skill! ¡Ì Masonry ¡Ì Level 1 - Stats +1 End +1 - Able to build simple structures using brick or stone. ''How strong and sturdy this is, how cool!'' Once I finish building the wall, I line the inside of the new wall, the floor inside and the old wall to the level of the new wall with y. I make a square basin of y to catch the water. ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, the Masonry skill has advanced to level 2! ¡Ì Masonry ¡Ì Level 2 - Strength +2 End +2. - Able to build simple structures using brick or stone. Well, that helps, and once it''s filled I''ll have a better way to drink water, which is important. With that done, I go back to the copse and start expanding the opening so I can get through more easily, since I''m going to be out exploring quite often. ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, the Mining skill has advanced to level 2! ¡Ì Mining ¡Ì Level 2 - Strength +2 End +1 - You can try to mine normal ore. Chapter 4: The well [ 2 ] Since I''m here, I should take a look at the central room; I was in a bit of a hurryst time. "Activate stealth!" HP: 30/50 Once I''m hidden thanks to the skill, I carefully walk back to the well room. I look around and see that there are no goblins; however, several rats nibble at the goblin''s corpse. Stealthily, I slowly approach until I am right behind one of the rats, extend my ws and stab the rat''s neck, killing it instantly. ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, you have acquired the active skill Sneak Attack! ¡Ì Sneak Attack ¡Ì Level 1 - MP cost: 5 - Attacking from stealth inflicts 5% more damage. Of course, all the other rats run off and disappear in a matter of seconds, but I don''t care because now I have more food. I''m about to return to my room with the rat when I notice that the goblin corpse has a rope belt over its loincloth. I don''t want to touch the loincloth, even though I''m tired of being naked, but rope is always useful, so I untie it and remove it from the corpse. I''m pleasantly surprised to find a dagger sheathed in the belt when I pick it up. Grabbing my loot, I quickly return to my room. Once safely behind the illusory wall, I set the rat on the floor and pull out the dagger to examine it. I''m immediately disappointed, as it''s rusty and looks rather dull, but it''s still a weapon, so I decide to see how I can make it useful. I look at the dagger while trying to think of how to remove the rust and sharpen the de with what I have avable. ¡Ì ITEMS. - Rusty dagger - Damage: -5 - Durability: 5/30 ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, you have acquired the passive skill Observe! ¡Ì Observe ¡Ì Level 1 - Intelligence +1. Can identifymon level items. Not that you need a skill to identify that this is a rusty dagger, but the increase in Intelligence is beneficial. I try using some coarse dirt to polish the rust off the dagger; it works a bit, but takes a lot of effort. Next, I use a w to make a notch. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, you''ve acquired the Repair crafting skill! ¡Ì Repair ¡Ì Level 1. - Strength +1, Intelligence +1 - You can repair somemon items. Once the dagger is sharp again, I use it to skin the rat. Next, I use it to scrape the rat''s pelts and clean them. Once the skins are as clean as possible, I use the rat''s organs as a tanning agent, stretch them and fasten them with bricks. ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, the Skinning skill has advanced to level 2! ¡Ì Skinning ¡Ì Level 2 - Agility +2. - You can skin small and medium-sized animals. It won''t work as well as a frame, but I don''t have enough wood to make one. I hope I remembered how to do it correctly; after all, I only saw it once on a random survival video. Next, I take the rat guts, stretch them out, twist them well, and let them dry. Next, I cook the rat meat; this time I''m not so hungry and cook it all the way through. It doesn''t taste any better, but it''s easier on my stomach. Then I check the sink and, although it is only half full, the water is crystal clear. I drink my fill and then curl up on the floor to try to get some sleep. When I wake up, I am stiff and sore from sleeping on the cold stone. I get up and stretch to rx and then drink some water. Then I do another exercise routine to warm up my muscles. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, Fitness has advanced to level 2! ¡Ì Physical fitness ¡Ì Level 2. - Strength +2, End +2 Okay, that''s going to be my morning routine from now on. At least I think it''s morning, right? I guess I can''t keep track of time down here. Let''s see how I''m doing so far. STATS! ========== - Name: Klein. - Race: ck Lion - Title: None - ss: None - Level: 0 - HP: 65/145 - MP: 50/50 - Strength: 27 - Agility: 22 - Endurance: 27 - Intelligence: 21 - Physical: 18 - Charm: 18 - Unspent points: 0 Hmm, my stats have gone up quite a bit just by acquiring skills, but I''m still not healing very fast. I wasn''t hungry or thirstyst night when I went to sleep, so that wasn''t the reason. maybe healing is that slow without any items? I need a skill to help me heal faster? Come to think of it, in many martial arts manga characters can use meditation to heal, so maybe I can create a simr skill here. I guess it''s worth a try. First, I try to sit cross-legged, but since my legs are bent the wrong way, I find it difficult. It takes me a few minutes to find a way to sit that works with my new legs; then, I slow my breathing and work to clear my mind. ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, you''ve acquired the passive skill Meditation! ¡Ì Meditation ¡Ì Level 1 - Wisdom +1 - A skill for recovery. HP 5/hour, MP 5/hour ''Yes! It worked!'' Still a bit slow, but it''s better than sleeping. At this rate, I can fully heal myself with sixteen more hours of meditation, and maybe I''ll get better if I level up the skill. I then meditate for the next two hours. - MP: 75/145 ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Meditation skill has advanced to level 2! ¡Ì Meditation ¡Ì Level 2 - Wisdom +2 - A skill for recovery. HP 5/hour, MP 10/hour Well, leveling up the skill was pretty easy. My MP recovered, but not so my HP? Maybe the next level will be better. I get up and get something to drink before returning to my meditation. I meditate for four more hours before a sound interrupts my concentration. MP: 95/145 ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Meditation skill has advanced to level 3! ¡Ì Meditation ¡Ì Level 3 - Wisdom +3 - A skill for recovery. HP 10/hour, MP 10/hour Okay, that''s much better. Five more hours of meditation and I''ll bepletely healed. Chapter 5: The well [ 3 ] I try to continue meditating, but the rumbling in my stomach prevents me from concentrating. I get up, take a drink of water, grab my dagger and go out to explore in search of some food. I get to the center fairly quickly, but, unfortunately, there are no rats in that area at that time. After looking around carefully, I head along the right wall into the next hallway. I carefully advance down the corridor, which stretches for about twelve meters before leading into another room. Again I can hear the sound of water before I can see anything. As I reach the end of the hallway and see inside the room, I am surprised to find a small stream dividing it in two. On the other side of the stream, I see mounds of dirt and what appear to be mushrooms. Seeing nothing moving, I enter the room slowly and cautiously. As I approach the stream, I notice a small bridge crossing it, leading to a path between the mounds of dirt. I stop at the edge of the stream to get a better look. The stream enters through the right wall and flows to the left, away from my room. I wonder if this is the water source in my room. Examining the stone walls and arches where the water flows, it is obvious that this stream was here when the room was built, and whoever designed this ce incorporated it into the design. Looking at the mounds of dirt, I doubt they were here originally, but from here I can see lots of mushrooms growing on them. So I cross the stream, ignoring the bridge, to examine them more closely. I see five different types of mushrooms, so I decide to pick two of each type to test them. ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, you''ve acquired the craft skill of herb collecting! ¡Ì Herb gathering. ¡Ì Level 1 - Intelligence+1. - You can gathermon herbs and nts. I take the mushrooms and carefully return to my room. Then, I sit down and ce the mushrooms in pairs in front of me. I pick one from the first pair and eat it. ??-DING-??. - You''ve been poisoned! You''ve taken 10 points of damage! HP: 85/146 ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, you''ve acquired the passive ability Poison Resistance! ¡Ì Poison Resistance ¡Ì Level 1 - End +1 - You take 5% less poison damage. Huh? I''ve taken damage, but I don''t feel bad or anything. Then I try one of the next type of mushroom. Um, it doesn''t taste bad and it''s not poisonous, what a relief! I set the other mushroom of that type aside and try one of the third type. ??-DING-??? - You''ve been poisoned, you''ve taken 20 points of damage! HP: 65/146 "Ugh Blergh!!!" I have to wait a while until my stomach calms down before I try the next type of mushroom. ??-DING-??? - You''ve been poisoned! You''ve taken 5 points of damage! HP: 60/146 ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, the Poison Resistance skill has advanced to level 2! ¡Ì Poison Resistance ¡Ì Level 2 - End +2 - You take 10% less poison damage. Well, that one wasn''t too bad. Now for thest one. I taste thest type of mushroom and discover that not only is it not poisonous, but it''s actually delicious. So I take the two non-poisonous types and memorize what they look like before I eat them. Then I meditate for the next two hours until my stomach growls stop me again. HP: 80/147 I carefully return to the mushroom room to collect more. I remember hearing that, if you only pick half of something, it will grow back faster. I only pick half of the edible mushrooms. ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, the Herb Gathering skill has advanced to level 2! ¡Ì Herb Gathering ¡Ì Level 2 - Intelligence +2. - You can collectmon herbs and nts. As I''m trying to figure out how to carry the pile of mushrooms, I hear footsteps in the hallway. I quickly run to the wall next to the opening and get ready. ''Activate stealth!'' MP: 30/50 I wait patiently as the footsteps grow louder. From the sound, there seems to be only one person, so I draw my dagger and prepare to attack. As soon as I see the goblin enter the room.... ''Sneak attack!'' MP: 25/50 I activate the skill and stab the goblin in the throat, killing it instantly. Killing the goblin. - Objective: Kill goblins 2/20 Although I kill the goblin silently, its fall makes quite a bit of noise due to the pot helmet it''s wearing and the bucket it was carrying. I freeze, waiting to see if anyone elsees to investigate the noise. A few minutes pass before I rx. I pick up the bucket and fill it with all the mushrooms I collected. I return to the goblin and remove his helmet, a sheathed dagger and another rope belt. Then, carrying everything in one arm, I reach down with the other and grab the goblin''s ankle. I drag him back into the pit room and toss his corpse next to that of the first goblin. I take onest look around before returning to my room with my prizes. The helmet is of poor quality and too small for me, but I think I can use it as a pot for the time being. The dagger, when I pull it out of the sheath, is rusty and dull, as I expected, but I can fix it. So I set about polishing off the rust and using the brick to sharpen it. ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, the Repair skill has advanced to level 2! ¡Ì Repair ¡Ì Level 2. - Strength +2, Intelligence +2. - You can repair somemon items. Now that some time has passed, I decide to go find some more rats to eat. MP: 5/50 When I return to the well room, I find six rats devouring the goblin I left there, so I grab a dagger in each hand and sneak up on them. I then sneak attack one rat with my right hand while, at the same time, throwing the dagger in my left hand at a second rat. MP: 0/50 ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, you have acquired the active skill Dagger Throw! ¡Ì Dagger Throwing ¡Ì Level 1 - MP cost 5 - You can throw a dagger with speed and uracy. Hit +1, Damage +2 ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, the Sneak Attack skill has advanced to level 2! ¡Ì Sneak Attack ¡Ì Level 2 - MP cost 5 - Attacking from stealth deals 10% more damage. Ugh, why do I suddenly feel dizzy, is it because my MP reached zero? I pick up the two rat corpses and stagger slowly back to my room, where I immediately sit and meditate for an hour. HP: 90/147 MP: 10/50 I feel much better. Okay, so MP going to zero is bad, got it! I want to try making soup instead of just eating the meat, but I can''t figure out how to keep the helmet over the fire with what I have. Then I remember the bones in the well room and, although it''s a bit morbid, I think I can use them and learn the scrimshaw technique while I''m at it. I''m really d I''ve been obsessed with fantasy movies, anime and manga, otherwise I''d have no idea how any of this works! I return to the well room and, after checking that the coast is clear, proceed to gather some leg bones and a skull before returning to my room. First I use the three leg bones to make a simple tripod to hold the helmet. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, you have acquired the craft skill Ivory carving! ¡Ì Ivory carving ¡Ì Level 1 - Agility +1. - You can carve normal bones and turn them into basic items. I then fill the helmet halfway with water and ce it on the tripod, lighting a small fire underneath. I cut about half of the mushrooms and add them to the water. While waiting for it to boil, I carefully skin the two rats and scrape and stretch the skins. ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, the Skinning skill has progressed to level 3! ¡Ì Skinning ¡Ì Level 3 - Agility +3 - You can skin normal animals from small torge. I then proceed to remove the meat from the rats and brown it before adding it to the pot. While the pot is boiling, I carefully carve myself a bone spoon. Unfortunately, by the time the soup is ready, I''ve used up what I had left of the wood. ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, the Cooking skill has advanced to level 2! ¡Ì Cooking ¡Ì Level 2 - Intelligence +2 - You can cook basic foods. I eat about a quarter of the soup before I get my fill. Then I go out to the copse and dig a hole behind the wall, taking all the debris left behind by the rats and burying it. I have to keep things clean, I don''t want to smell rotten or catch a disease. I go back to the room and sit and meditate for the next eight hours instead of sleeping. HP: 147/147 MP: 50/50 ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, the Meditation skill has advanced to level 4! ¡Ì Meditation ¡Ì Level 4 - Physical +4 - A skill for recovery. HP 10/hour, MP 15/hour Chapter 6: Hunter Throne room of the castle The king is seated on his throne, surrounded by his council. The nobles, waiting to present their petitions, wait at the other end of the throne room. Amidst a multitude of glittering jewels and expensive silks, they listen attentively to the king as he speaks to his council. King Raden says, "Tarrik, what have you to report?" Knight Commander Tarrik replies, "Your Majesty, recruitment has been concluded and all the new recruits have been moved to the training camps. We have even exceeded the required number, anticipating possible casualties during training. We are on schedule, and by this time next year, you will have a fully trained army of 10,000 men, of which the other nations will know nothing." King Raden says, "Good, very good! Quill?" Spymaster Quill says, "Your Majesty, as you ordered, all those who witnessed the recruitment have been silenced, making it look like bandit attacks. In addition, my men are patrolling the areas near the training camps to make sure no one discovers anything. I have also sent agents to the borders and the port to ensure that no spies can enter or leave the country." King Raden says, "Excellent! Good work, both of you." At that moment, several shouts are heard at the back of the throne room and everyone turns their eyes in that direction. The courtiers, who were waiting to speak with His Majesty, huddle against the walls, clearing the center of the hall. Along that path, the chief court magician, Zamart, advances, followed by a huge wolf. The beast, about five feet tall, has dark gray fur and moves with the confidence of one who fears nothing and no one. The royal guards quickly form a line in front of the king with weapons in hand, though they all seem nervous at the thought of fighting such a creature. Zamart''s point of view King Raden says, "Zamart! What is the meaning of this?" I stop a few feet away from the royal guards and bow to the king as the wolf leans back behind me. "Your Majesty, this is a level ten Terrible Wolf that I n to send to the well to hunt the beastman as we discussed earlier." King Raden says, "Hadn''t you said you would send a summoned monster to hunt him?" "After consulting with my specialist summoning mages, I came to the conclusion that none of your summonings were strong enough. So I went to the northern defense line and captured this beast to get the job done." Best not to mention that it''s at the edge of what I can control, everyone looks pretty nervous already. Although the look of terror on Tarrik''s face is priceless! Knight Commander Tarrik says, "Don''t you think that''s a bit of an exaggeration, Zamart? This wolf is as strong as a squadron of knights." "There is no exaggeration when ites to ensuring that His Majesty''s ns are notpromised. Besides, Tarrik, unlike you, I know never to underestimate an opponent." King Raden says, "Enough, you two! Very well, Zamart, send the beast to hunt in the pit." I bow again and, with a gesture, order the direwolf to head for the well. Everyone watches as the creature leaps into the well and disappears. The royal guards sigh in relief and return to their posts, as court resumes. At the Well, Klein''s point of view. Girl''s voice: "Wake up! If you want to live, wake up now!" Ie out of my meditation - did I just hear a voice? Or was it a dream? It sounded familiar! ??-DING-??? - EMERGENCY SEARCH! - Defeat the dire wolf that is hunting you! - Objective: Kill the dire wolf 0/1. - Reward: unlockbat skills, get a new skill. My head spins at the sound and I look at the mission. I jump up and look through the illusory wall. As soon as I see the five-foot wolf, I know I''m in the right ce. As the creature stealthily approaches, I brace myself, clutching my two daggers tightly. ''Sigilo!'' MP: 30/50 I hope to finish the wolf off quickly with a double sneak attack, so I crouch and wait for it to cross the illusory wall. As soon as its head passes over the barrier, I make my move. ''Sneak attack!'' MP: 25/50 I pounce with both daggers and stab the wolf''s neck, but the creature is quicker than I expected and manages to turn, causing me to only wound it in the shoulder. Before I can retreat, the wolf bites my side. - You have suffered a bite attack. 53 HP damage! - HP: 94/147 ''Damn, fifty-three points of damage? Two more attacks and I''m dead!'' I duck and, as the wolf lunges at me again, I step to the side, push it against the wall and stab it in the stomach with both daggers. I then twist them around before pulling them out and jumping. Once again, the wolf is too fast and manages to bite me in the thigh as I jump. - You have suffered a bite attack. 47 HP damage! - HP: 47/147 ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, the Pain Resistance skill has advanced to level 3! ¡Ì Resist pain ¡Ì Level 3. - You feel 40% less pain. - Physical damage reduced by 2%. Ind badly and stagger backwards until my back hits the wall. With my leg injured, my mobility ispromised, but the wolf also seems quite weakened. ''One more bite and I''m finished - I must finish this with the next attack or it''s game over!'' I lunge towards the wolf and feint, then duck down to try to punch it in the throat. The wolf falls on the feint, but quickly recovers and bites my shoulder as I drive both daggers into its throat. The wolf throws me across the room and then staggers off. - You''ve suffered a bite attack. 48 HP damage! ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Tenacity skill has advanced to level 3! ¡Ì Tenacity ¡Ì Level 3. - Your strong willpower allows you to attempt to resist death. - End +6 HP +20%. HP: 1/157 With myst bit of strength, I throw both daggers at the wolf. ''Dagger throw! Dagger throw!'' Then, I slide into the darkness. HP: 15/50 ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, you havepleted the emergency mission! - Objective: Kill the big bad wolf 1/1. - Reward: unlockbat skills, get a new skill. "DIZ" "DIZ" "DIZ" "DIZ" - Congrattions, you can now learnbat skills! - Congrattions, the Dagger Throw skill has advanced to level 2! ¡Ì Dagger Throwing ¡Ì Level 2 - MP cost 5 - You can throw a dagger with speed and uracy. Hits - +2 Damage +4 - Congrattions, you have acquired the Beast Hunterbat skill! ¡Ì Beast Hunter ¡Ì Level 1 - All stats +1 - You cause 5% additional damage against beasts. - Congrattions, you have acquired thebat skill Dagger Fundamentals! ¡Ì Dagger Fundamentals ¡Ì Level 1 - Agility +1 - You cause 5% additional damage with daggers. - Congrattions, you''ve acquired the Dual Wieldingbat skill! ¡Ì Dual Wielding ¡Ì Level 1 - Agility +1 - You can fight with a weapon in each hand. Castle Throne Room from Zamart''s point of view. I stood off to the side, listening to the king discuss the tax rate with one of his nobles. Suddenly, I felt a stabbing pain and clutched my chest, letting out a scream. I groaned and fell to my knees. Everyone, including the king, turns to look at me. King Raden says, "Zamart, what''s wrong?" Chancellor Marvok exims, "Quick, get the healer!" I gasp as I try to focus on the pain and put it aside as I was trained to do. "No, I don''t need the healer, it''s a reaction spell." Chancellor Marvok asks, "Reaction of what?" "I''m sorry, Majesty, I have failed. The Terrible Wolf has been killed." Even I underestimated the beast man. Everyone around the king, and the king himself, are stunned by my news. King Raden exims, "What?!" Knight Commander Tarrik suggests, "Well, maybe he was killed by goblins or some other monster?" Chancellor Marvok shouts, "You''re an idiot! There aren''t enough goblins down there to kill a terrible wolf! And there aren''t any other monsters down there!" Knight Commander Tarrik retorts, "So you''re saying that a measly zero-level beastman defeated him? Ridiculous!" King Raden shouts, "Enough!" They both bow to the king and say, "We apologize, Your Majesty!" King Raden asks, "Zamart, can you be sure he killed him? And the beastman?" "Yes, Your Majesty, I saw through the wolf''s eyes at hisst moment and watched as the beastman threw the dagger that ended his life. I also saw the beastman on the verge of death, but I think you should be prepared for the unexpected. I would say he will die for sure, but I already underestimated him once and I will not make the same mistake. King Raden reflects, "This is worrisome to say the least. For now, we will assume that he is indeed the Great Summoner and that he is still alive. In time, he will surely find a way out of the pit. Tarrik, I want guards at the well at all times and all forces in the kingdom alerted. If he is detected, he is to be killed instantly." Knight Commander Tarrik replies, "It shall be done, Your Majesty!" Chapter 7: Intermediate Throne room of the castle, Zamart''s point of view. I slowly approach the king, who is talking to his council. I don''t feel much like telling him what I shouldmunicate to him. The king is a tall, broad-shouldered man, though he now has a bit of a paunch. He has short gray hair and a neatly trimmed gray beard. The only thing that keeps him from looking truly regal are his small, sunken eyes, which give him a sly appearance, more befitting a con man than a king. I have never liked looking into his eyes, not even when he was just the prince consort. I bow and wait for the king to acknowledge me before speaking. "Your Majesty, I regret to inform you that your daughter, Princess Mericel, did not survive the casting of the spell." King Raden says: "Never mind, what were the results?" I can''t believe my ears, how can he care more about the summoning than his own daughter? It''s not like Princess Amercy, who was the daughter of the previous Prince Regent, but it''s his own blood that just died. Am I seeing things or does he seem happy about it? "Ahem... We have sessfully summoned all fifty avable invocations, Your Majesty. Though twenty-two of the forty-nine were nonbat sses, such as artisans and farmers, leaving only twenty-sevenbat types." King Raden says: "Okay, as long as the other nations can''t summon anyone next year during the normal summoning time, everything will go ording to n. Teach the summoners who don''t fight enough about the nation so they can survive. Then send the craftsmen to the appropriate guilds and give the farmers a plot of emptynd each." "Yes, we summoned them all and it only cost your daughter her life. I wish I dared to say that to her face. The more time passes since the queen died, the more I wonder what I''m doing here." "As youmand, my king!" Knight Commander Tarrik says: "Your Majesty, why bother with nonbat invocations? Just throw them all into the pit." As usual, Tarrik doesn''t think or understand anything. He is aplete idiot and is so out of shape that he has to enchant his armor to support his own weight because he can barely move. I understand that the king needed to bribe his family to support the crown, but to put a jester as a knightmander of the army is just ridiculous! King Raden says: "Because economic prosperity is also a weapon, sometimes even more powerful than an army. Besides, we lost many subjects after my wife''s death, before we closed the border." Well, what did you expect when both the queen and her eldest daughter died in the same week? This country has been ruled by a queen since its founding and you took the throne and made yourself king on the same day. She died. I still believe you killed them, and if I could find proof, I would kill you myself, even if I had to bring this whole castle down on our heads to do it. Knight Commander Tarrik says: "Yes, your majesty." King Raden says: "Tarrik, I leave you the twenty-sevenbat types, train them well and make them believe that we are fighting for our survival against the other nations that want ournd. Your job is to turn them into an elite fighting force that will be loyal to me!" Knight Commander Tarrik says: "As youmand!" "Your Majesty, there was another problem. None of the forty-nine summonings were registered as Grand Summoning or had an Advanced ss." King Raden says: "Are you saying that piece of man-beast was the Great Summoning, how could it be, it was a level zero with no ss!" ''You shouldn''t call him trash and underestimate him just because you hate and envy beastmen! Not to mention that you covet his mineral-rich mountains and fertile valleys!'' "I''m not sure, Your Majesty, it could be because he was destined to be summoned to the Beast Realm." King Raden says: "It doesn''t matter, he''s already dead. A summoned hero is only powerful because he has the power to level up; without that, he can''t survive the pit." "I''m sure it is as you say, Your Majesty. However, just to be sure, I would like permission to send a summoned creature after him, just to be sure." Knight Commander Tarrik says: "What would be the point? He was wounded and unarmed when we threw him in there. I doubt he even survived the fall." Chancellor Marvok says: "If you had ever faced them in battle, you would know that there is no such thing as an unarmed beastman, Tarrik." Marvok served the queen as I did, but he has always been a political animal, and I have never trusted him. He is a tall man and seems absolutely trustworthy, and he uses that to pit the noble factions against each other. I doubt that even the king trusts him, but he is a very useful man. Royal historian Dammer states: "Your Majesty, I have consulted the records and have found no mention of a ck-furred beastman of any race anywhere in the records. Nor is there any record of a beastman having been summoned before. As you know, beastmen do not have wizards, so they cannot perform the summoning themselves." King Raden says: "So you are suggesting that this could be the Great Summoning? Very well, Zamart, you have permission to confirm it." I bow and approach Dammer now that I have finished reporting. Dammer is the only person I really trust here; he served the queen and her mother before her, just as I did. He is in his seventies and it shows, I fear he doesn''t have much time left. It is a pity, for he possesses one of the most brilliant minds I have ever known. Had I met him at another time, with magical talent, he would probably have surpassed me. At that moment, a figure emerges from the shadows and kneels before the king. He is a thin, dark-skinned man, a master of the shadows whose appearance reflects his craft. I know for certain that he is not to be trusted; no one associated with darkness is trustworthy. Yet the king seems to trust him and rely on him for all manner of dark deeds. The spymaster Quill says: "It is done, Your Majesty. Everyone who was outside your council and knew of your daughter''s summoning or death is dead." ''What, even the healers? Even the king should be careful not to anger the church! I know he has some kind of agreement with the High Priest, but even so, the disappearance of four healers will not go unnoticed by the church.'' King Raden says: "Good job, Quill. Make sure the rumors say that the princess died while trying to negotiate with the ''bandits''. We need the people to hate the rebels, so that when we use the army to eliminate them, we''ll be seen as heroes. Now we can move on to the next stage of the n!" Master Spy Quill says: "Yes, Your Majesty. I will begin immediately." King Raden thinks, "Within a year I will be able to conquer the other nations and rule the continent!" "If that dayes, I pity the people of this continent. Perhaps I should send messages to my old friends to warn them of what the king is nning?" Chapter 8: Exploration [ 1 ] I slowly wake up with a groan, still lying on the ground where I copsed. The first thing I see when my eyes focus is the wolf about a foot away from me. I scream and try to crawl away from the corpse, but only manage to painfully reopen all my wounds. After a moment, I calm down when I realize that the wolf is dead. I sigh in relief and carefully sit up. ''Cheers!'' HP: 1/158 Wow, I almost died again, I really need to find a way to get stronger! I put those thoughts aside for now and concentrate on meditating for a few hours so I don''t bleed out. HP: 31/158 With my wounds closed again, I carefully get up, take a long drink of water and eat half of my remaining mushroom soup. After finishing my meal, I approach the wolf carcass, retrieve and clean my daggers. Then, I skin and quarter it. ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, the Skinning skill has progressed to level 4! ¡Ì Skinning ¡Ì Level 4 - Agility +4 - You can skin normal animals, from small torge. As I ughter the wolf, I find a strange orb in its chest. I examine it closely, trying to figure out what it is. - Item. ¡Ì Beast Core - Quality: medium ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, skill Observe has advanced to level 2! ¡Ì Observe ¡Ì Level 2 - Intelligence +2. - You can identify objects with intense study. - It is possible to absorb the core of the beast. do you want to continue? Y/N "Can I absorb it, what does that mean? I guess there''s only one way to find out." "Yes!" ??-DING-??? - You''ve absorbed the average Beast Core! ¡Ì HP +50 ¡Ì MP +50 ¡Ì Strength +5 ¡Ì Agility +5 ¡Ì Endurance +5 "Wow, that''s awesome, I need more beast cores!" It''s an easy shortcut to make me stronger. The fight almost killed me, but it was worth it! ''Status!'' ========== - Name: Klein - Race: ck Lion - Title: None - ss: None - Level: 0 - HP: 31/223 - MP: 100/100 - Strength: 34 - Agility: 33 - Endurance: 37 - Intelligence: 27 - Physical: 23 - Charm: 19 - Unspent points: 0 - Missions: (4) - Skills: (13) - Crafts: (7) I''ve definitely gotten stronger. First I need to heal myself, then continue exploring and improve my skills. I start with my usual exercise routine, then pull out both daggers and practice all thebat moves I remember from anime and manga. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Dagger Fundamentals skill has advanced to level 2! ¡Ì Dagger Fundamentals. ¡Ì Level 2 - Agility +2 - You cause 10% additional damage with daggers. ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, the Dual Wield skill has advanced to level 2! ¡Ì Double Grip ¡Ì Level 2 - Agility +2 - You can fight with a weapon in each hand. Once I finish my training, I drink a good drink of water and then rx to heal some more. I meditate for the next four hours. HP: 71/223 After meditating, I eat what''s left of the mushroom soup and decide to work on some of my crafting skills. First, I go out to the well room and, after checking that it is empty, I gather the best bones I can find from the pile and take them back to my room. I sit down with my dagger and start carving. First I turn a skull into a bowl to use with my spoon, then I make a te out of a hip bone. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Ivory carving skill has advanced to level 2! ¡Ì Ivory carving ¡Ì Level 2 - Agility +2. - You can carve normal bones and turn them into basic objects. Next, I carve a knife and fork, then several needles for sewing. Since I''ve already carved everything I can think of, I concentrate on rat skins. The wolf skin still needs more time to heal, so I decide to try sewing the skins together to make myself some pants. ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, you have acquired the fur crafting skill! ¡Ì Furry ¡Ì Level 1 - Agility +1. - You can craft rudimentary items from leather. The pants I nned to make ended up being shorts due tock of material, but the important thing is that I don''t have to walk around naked anymore. With leftover scraps, I make a belt to hold my dagger sheaths. Rat gut has worked quite well for me as a cord; I came up with it because I remembered reading that in the Middle Ages violin strings were made from cat gut. Since I''ve used it all up, I''m letting the wolf sinews dry in a simr fashion, hoping to use them in whatever I make with their fur. Having no more ideas of what to do, I decide to meditate for another four hours before heading out to explore. HP: 111/223 ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Meditation skill has advanced to level 5! ¡Ì Meditation ¡Ì Level 5. - Physical +5, Intelligence +1, Charm +1. - A recovery skill. HP 15/hour, MP 15/hour. ''Hmm, additional stat bonuses at level 5? Cool! I bet that means level 10 will be special too''. Now that I''m a bit more healed, I decide to do something. I''m scouting, so I drink my fill, check my weapons and head for the well room. I don''t activate stealth, but walk as quietly as possible. I think the stealth skill hasn''t leveled up just by using it, so maybe I need to practice being stealthy. I find the well room just as I left it, so I continue moving along the right wall. This time I pass the first passage leading to the mushroom room and continue to the next one. This passage is simr to the others, except that it has less dust, which should indicate that it is in use, so I advance slowly and cautiously, being careful not to run into goblins. The passage continues for ten meters before a side passage opens up to the left. Looking down, I see that, about five meters away, it ends at a T-shaped intersection. After listening carefully and hearing no movement, I decide to continue down the main passageway first. ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, the Stealth skill has advanced to level 2! ¡Ì Stealth ¡Ì Level 2 - MP cost: 15 - You can hide in the shadows and move silently. ''I was right, I need to practice the skill, not just activate it!'' After advancing another three meters, I find a door on the right. Not only is it the first door I find, but when I try to open it, I discover that it is locked. I crouch down to take a look. The other side is simr to the light in my room. Since I have no tools to test the lock and don''t want to risk the noise of trying to break down the door, I continue down the main hallway. After advancing another ten meters, the hallway opens into a room where I see the flicker of a campfire. I approach slowly and cautiously until I can see inside. In the room, five goblins are sitting around a small campfire. Although I want to take them out, I decide it''s probably best not to fight yet, since I only have half my HP. So I creep back down the hallway. Back in the well room, I pass the closed door and then turn right into the side hallway. I move silently to the right and nce around the corner; both ways, it''s only about ten feet before I reach what appear to be small rooms. Seeing no movement and hearing nothing, I approach the room on the right first and take a look inside. Inside, I see broken and rotting boxes, which makes me think this used to be a storage room. I''m surprised that the wood here hasn''t decayed long ago, but, thinking about it, aside from the stream and the trickle of water in my room, the rest of this ce ispletely dry, which probably slowed the decay. Well, at least, if nothing else is useful here, I have a supply of firewood for cooking. I turn around and head to the other room before checking the piles of garbage. The second room is the same size, but instead of boxes, it looks more like a copsed bookshelf. Upon closer inspection, I recognize parts of armor shelves, deducing that this was an armory long ago. Hoping to find weapons, I begin to examine the piles and stack the remaining wood for easier transport. After going through the entire room, I find only a rusty old mace and a broken shield. So I take them along with a pile of firewood and return to my room. Once there, I clean the mace and practice a few blows with it. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, you''ve acquired the Bluntbat skill! ¡Ì Bluntbat basics. ¡Ì Level 1 - Strength +1 - You cause 5% additional damage with blunt weapons. I decide I can''t repair the buckler, but Ie up with another use for it. I light a small fire and ce the tripod on top, then use the buckler as a makeshift frying pan and start cooking wolf steaks and mushrooms. ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, the Cooking skill has advanced to level 3! ¡Ì Cooking ¡Ì Level 3 - Intelligence +3 - You can cook food without burning it. Since I''ve never tasted wolf, I''m not sure if it''s delicious. Be that as it may, I clean up the mess and then make several more trips for firewood, being as stealthy as possible. ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, the Stealth skill has advanced to level 3! ¡Ì Stealth ¡Ì Level 3 - MP cost: 15, Agility +2. - You can sneak up on average beings. After cleaning out the armory, I have enough firewood stacked in my room for several days. I decide I''ve done enough for today, so I set out to meditate for eight hours. HP: 223/223 MP: 100/100 Chapter 9: Exploration [ 2 ] In the well. Ie out of my meditation feeling great. As I stand up and stretch, I notice that all the aches and pains arepletely gone. So does having my foot muscles maxed out really affect how I feel? Next, I go through my exercise routine and somebat training with the daggers and mace. I don''t level up, but I feel good about my fitness and I think I''m ready for a fight. However, before that, I decide to have breakfast, so I light a fire and cook some wolf steak with mushrooms again. After eating and doing the dishes, I grab my dagger and some bones, carving out a set of lock picks, or at least what I think they should be. I''ve never actually tried to pick a lock in my past life, so this will definitely be a matter of trial and error. Before leaving, I check the wolf pelt and find it ready to use, but after seeing the holes I put in it while fighting the wolf, it doesn''t look like I can do much with it. Finally, I decide to make a vest and, if I have enough left over, maybe a belt pouch. So I sit down and start cutting and sewing. ??-DING-??? ¡Ì Item created: - Terrible wolf vest. - Defense +2 - Durability 20/20 ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, the Leatherworking skill has advanced to level 2! ¡Ì Leatherworking ¡Ì Level 2 - Agility +2. - You can craft rudimentary items from leather. A doublet instead of a vest? Well, whatever, the +2 to defense is more than I expected. I put on my new doublet and find that it fits well and is quitefortable. I''m about to leave when an idea urs to me: I take a half-burnt piece of wood from the campfire and, using the scorched end, start drawing a map of what I''ve explored so far on the wall. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, you''ve acquired the Cartography crafting skill! ¡Ì Cartography ¡Ì Level 1 - Intelligence +1 - You can draw rudimentary maps. Looking at the rudimentary map, I realize that, once I finish yesterday''s passage, I will only have two left to explore. So, feeling motivated and refreshed, I set out to finish the passageway. I head straight for the main passage. I intend to finish off the goblins before attempting to open the locked door. I keep moving cautiously, but don''t activate stealth until I''m just outside the goblin room. MP: 85/100 I observe the goblins before making a move. Four of them only have daggers, but the fifth has a spear and a round wooden shield next to him, so that''s the one I want to kill first. Unfortunately, he''s at the opposite end of the room, so I have to move slowly around the room using the shadows cast by the fire. It takes me a while, but I''m finally behind the spear-wielding goblin, ready to attack. I start with a surprise attack, plunging my dagger deep into his back. MP: 80/100 ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Sneak Attack skill has advanced to level 3! ¡Ì Sneak Attack ¡Ì Level 3 - MP cost 5 - Attack from stealth inflicts 15% more damage. I drop the dagger on the goblin and pull the mace from my belt as I throw the dagger in my left hand at the goblin to my left. MP: 75/100 ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, the Dagger Throw skill has advanced to level 3! ¡Ì Dagger Throwing ¡Ì Level 3 - MP cost 5 - You can throw a dagger with speed and uracy. Hit +3, Damage +6. - Objective: Kill goblins 4/20 Two down, three to go! Now that the element of surprise is gone and I only have the mace, I engage the three remaining goblins. As they get up and draw their daggers, I move to the right and hit one in the head with the mace. CRUNCH - Objective: Kill goblins 5/20 The two remaining goblins rush towards me. I swing the mace at the arm of the nearest goblin and dodge the second one''s thrust. Crack ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, you have acquired thebat skill Dodge! ¡Ì Dodge ¡Ì Level 1 - Defense +1 - Your agility allows you to evade attacks. When the goblin that missed stumbles, I kick him hard in the stomach and throw him against the wall. Then I swing the mace again and smash the head of the goblin who clutches his broken arm, screaming. CRUNCH - Objective: Kill goblins 6/20 A couple of steps towards the goblin stunned by the impact against the wall and one more blow with the mace is enough to end it all. CRUSH - Objective: Kill goblins 7/20 ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, Blunt Combat has progressed to level 2! ¡Ì Blunt Combat ¡Ì Level 2 - Strength +2 - You cause 10% extra damage with blunt weapons. ''Whew, that was easier than expected, I didn''t even take damage!'' This confirms it, even without ss or level I can be strong. And I will be strong, finding a way out of this pit. I look at the ceiling and shout, "And one day I''lle back, I''ll make you pay for throwing me out like trash!" Castle Throne Room. Dammer''s point of view. The king is sitting on his throne, pondering the next stages of his n, when he feels a shiver run down his spine. He looks around him and, although he is surrounded by his royal guard, a sense of danger invades him. His gaze, filled with uncertainty, is fixed on the well leading to the pit. King Raden says, "Guard, call the historian!" The Royal Guard replies, "At once, Your Majesty!" The guard runs off and, a few minutester, returns, taking me with him. I limp in, leaning on my cane, moving as fast as I can. "You summoned me, Your Majesty?" King Raden says, "I want to know everything the records say about the well." "Ah, yes, I see. I admit that after the recent events, I too was curious and checked the archives, Your Majesty. The well, actually, was already here before..." "The castle was built." King Raden asks, "How can that be? The castle is the oldest building in the kingdom, isn''t it?" "That''s right, your majesty. The archives contain a report on the construction of the castle. When they were digging the foundations, they discovered the entrance to what we now call the moat." King Raden says, "Are you saying that the pit already existed and was buried here before the foundation of the kingdom, five hundred years ago?" "Yes, Your Majesty, are you familiar with the legends of the ancient ruins? Specifically, about how they were created by an empire that ruled the continent and fell just over a thousand years ago." King Raden replies, "Of course I''ve heard the legends: an all-powerful magical empire destroyed by its own greed." "Correct, Your Majesty. The reports mention the Empire of Allothal and state that the well was the basement of a structure of that empire. When they found it, they explored it, and the records even contain a map." King Raden says, "A map? Well, is there another way out of the well?" "ording to the report, there is a way down into something they call a ''sewer.'' I am unfamiliar with the term and have been unable to find its meaning. However, the report also states that everyone who was sent to explore the culvert, including several powerful warriors, never returned." King Raden, satisfied, says, "They never came back? Good! So, the beast may survive in the pit, but its only hope of getting out is certain death. ha ha ha, that''s perfect!" I miss the old queen; she would have paid attention to the fact that greed destroyed the old empire. By ignoring history, you are doomed to repeat it. King Raden concludes, "That will be all, Dammer." I bow and leave, leaving the king to return to his musings about conquering the continent.... Chapter 10: Exploration [ 3 ] In the well. Once I settle down and catch my breath, I pick up the four daggers, spear and shield, and take them back to my room. Then I return and, though I don''t want to, I open the spear goblin''s chest to look for a beast core. Finding none, I drag the goblin corpses into the pit room and throw them on top of the pile of bones. I return to the room to check it onest time; I even run my hands along the walls to check for illusions. Once I''m sure the room is empty, I return to the closed door in the hallway and sit down. I take out my lock picks and start feeling around the inside of the lock with them to try to figure out how to open it. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, you''ve acquired the passive skill Picking Locks! ¡Ì Picking Locks ¡Ì Level 1 - Agility +1 - You can attempt to pick a lock without a key. My good mood from acquiring the skill disappears momentster when the picks break. With a sigh, I toss the broken picks aside and get up again. Before returning to my room, I decide to check the storage room. I quickly sort through the piles of junk, separating the wood and stacking it by the door. I''m disappointed, but not too surprised, to find nothing useful other than wood. I gather a pile of firewood and return to my room. After dropping off the firewood, I update the map and sit down to take a look at the weapons I took from the goblins. As expected, all the daggers are dull and rusty, so I set about cleaning and sharpening them first. ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, the Repair skill has advanced to level 3! ¡Ì Repair ¡Ì Level 3. - Strength +3, Intelligence +3 - You can repairmon objects without damaging them. When I turn back to the spear, I''m surprised to see that it''s not rusted, and that all I have to do is sharpen it a bit. That done, I take a dagger and some bone, and start carving ten sets of lock picks. ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, the Ivory Carving skill has advanced to level 3! ¡Ì Ivory carving ¡Ì Level 3 - Agility +3. - You can carve normal bones and turn them into basic items. Once I finished using the picks, I picked them up and headed back to the locked door to try again. I sat down in front of the door again and began to learn how to pick a lock by trial and error. From the shape of the hole, I deduced that I needed to manipte the bottom of the lock and turn it somehow. Three broken lock pick setster.... ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, the Picking Locks skill has advanced to level 2! ¡Ì Lock picking ¡Ì Level 2 - Agility +2 - You can attempt to pick a lock without a key. After breaking five more sets of lock picks.... "CLIK" "CLIK" ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, the Lock picking skill has advanced to level 3! ¡Ì Lock picking ¡Ì Level 3 - Agility +3 - You can attempt to pick a lock without a key. "Finally!!! That took forever!" I tuck the two remaining sets of lock picks into my belt and get up. As I had been warned, I close my eyes until they are half-open before opening the door so as not to be blinded. Once my eyes adjust to the light, I find myself in a very small room. A small desk, a single chair and a small bookshelf with six books greet me as I look around. My attention is immediately drawn to the books, as I still know nothing about the world I have been summoned to. I pick up the first one and open it, but am disappointed to discover that I cannot read thenguage it is written in. I quickly check the other five books, but they are all in the samenguage. Since I can''t read them, I take the books to my room and then go back to look for the furniture. Once the room is empty, I carefully check the walls for illusions and find none. Thest thing I do is reach out and take the light stone. As I return to my room with the stone, I am amazed at the details I miss when I use my dark vision. Looking at the walls in the bright light, I get an idea of how old this ce must be. I go back to my room and try to sit in the chair, but it seems too small and doesn''t fit my legs. So I break it into kindling and add it to the pile. Then I try to crouch down in front of the desk, but it''s too low and notfortable, so I add it to the firewood as well. Since I''m hungry, I decide to make a soup with thest of the mushrooms and the wolf meat. While it''s cooking, I sit on the floor and open one of the books to try to decipher thenguage. It''s a slow and difficult task, but by the time the soup is ready, I''ve deciphered a few letters. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, you''ve acquired thenguage skill! ¡Ì Linguistics ¡Ì Level 1 - Intelligence +2 - You can try to decipher othernguages. While I eat a bowl of soup, I continue to study the strange letters. When I manage to decipher the next letter, the soup runs out. I continue for hours deciphering one letter at a time until I can start tranting simple words. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Linguistic skill has advanced to level 2! ¡Ì Linguistics ¡Ì Level 2 - Intelligence +4 - You can try to decipher othernguages. I spend all night on this and by morning I''m able to read the titles of books: History of the Empire I, II and III, Basic Spellcasting, Theory of Magic and Diary of an Archmage. Once I identify the books, I start with History of the Empire I, reading it from the beginning. At first, it takes me an hour to read just one sentence, but it gets easier as I go along. ??-DING-??. Congrattions, Linguistic Ability has advanced to level 3! ¡Ì Linguistics ¡Ì Level 3 - Intelligence +6 - You can try to decipher othernguages. Will it be easier because the skill is increasing or because my intelligence has improved? I guess it could be both. After reading the first chapter, I decide to put the book down for a while. I meditate for two hours, then return to the warehouse and finish carrying the wood to my room. After that, I go through my usual exercise routine and then work on the weapons. I take the spear and shield and start training with them. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, you have acquired thebat skill Fundamentals of the spear! ¡Ì Basics of the spear. ¡Ì Level 1 - Strength +1 Agility +1 - You cause 5% additional damage with spears. ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, you have acquired thebat skill Fundamentals of the shield! ¡Ì Shield basics ¡Ì Level 1 - Strength +1 Resistance +1 - You gain Defense +1 when you use a shield. I like the feel of using the spear and shield, so I decide to adopt them as my primary weapons for now. I hang the mace from my belt and still have two daggers with me. Once ready, I decide to head out and explore the next passageway. Crossing the shaft room, everything is as I left it. But not far away, in the new passage, I see something new: a door guarded by two goblins. There are no detours before the door, so this is the only way to go. Both goblins are armed with daggers, so I decide to be a bit reckless. Instead of sneaking up on them, I''ll attack them openly. I step out of the shadows and run down the hallway straight towards them,ughing at the look on their faces. However, that doesn''t stop me from piercing the one on the right with the spear and hitting the other one with the shield. - Objective: Kill goblins 8/20 ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, you''ve acquired the "Charge"bat skill! ¡Ì Charge ¡Ì Level 1 - Strength +1 - When you charge into battle, you cause double damage with your first hit. ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, you have acquired the active skill Shield Strike! ¡Ì Shield Strike ¡Ì Level 1 - MP cost 5 - When you hit an enemy with your shield, you have a 25% chance to stun them. I must step on the first goblin to release the spear, and then it is easy for me to dispatch the second one. - Objective: Kill goblins 9/20 I kick the goblin bodies aside and try the door. Opening it, what I see inside horrifies and enrages me. There are five human women, all clearly tortured and abused. What''s worse, three of them appear to be pregnant. I hate what has been done to them and even more what I must do for them. I pull out a dagger and slowly approach the first woman. She looks terrified, so I try to reassure her. "Shhh... I won''t hurt you. I''m going to put you out of your misery." She seems to understand my intention, closes her eyes and nods. I do it as quickly and painlessly as possible before moving on to the second woman. "Thank you." "I''m sorry this happened to you, I promise I''ll kill all the goblins." Again, I do it quickly and painlessly. The third woman doesn''t seem able to speak, but she gestures to me to indicate that she understands what I''m about to do. Thest two are already unconscious, and I make sure they don''t wake up. At that moment I hate myself, and I want nothing more than to kill everything down here, climb down the shaft, and finish off everyone in the castle. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, you''ve won a title! ¡Ì Title: The Merciful One. - Effect: Charm +5 when interacting with women. The title makes me feel like they understood my intentions a bit, but it still takes me a while to suppress the anger and bottle it up. Why oh why couldn''t I have that title in myst life? I guess it will be like this. It wille in handy when I get out of here, I''ve never been good at dealing with women. I remove the daggers and rope from the goblins and then toss their corpses onto the pile of bones. I carry the five women one by one into the hallway outside my room. I gather more bones and sit down to whittle a rudimentary shovel and pickaxe. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Ivory Carving skill has advanced to level 4! ¡Ì Ivory carving ¡Ì Level 4 - Agility +4. - You can carve bones to make basic items. For once, the sound of the skill upgrade doesn''t make me smile. I proceed to use the new tools to dig in the dirt behind the broken wall. I wish I had more room for separate graves, but I can only ce one. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Mining skill has advanced to level 3! ¡Ì Mining ¡Ì Level 3 - Strength +3 stamina +1 - You can try to mine normal ore. "Oh, shut up!" I proceed to bury the five unfortunate women. I then return to my room, clean myself up and grab a bowl of soup. After a while, I hear angry shouting echoing down the hallways, which makes me smile. Then, for the first time, I hear the goblins actively moving. Well, now it''s my turn to hunt them down - I have some rage to share with you monsters! Chapter 11: Goblins Farmhouse At the well. I quickly pick up my spear and shield, preparing to go go goblin hunting. Just as I''m about to break through the wall, I stop when I see two goblinsing out of the hole in the cave-in, so I wait and watch. The goblins take a quick look around them at the dead end and then turn around to head back. As they enter the gap in single file, I attack them. I expected the spear to pierce the first goblin, but not to pierce the second goblin as well. - Objective: Kill goblins 11/20 ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, the Charge skill has advanced to level 2! ¡Ì Charge. ¡Ì Level 2 - Strength +2. - When you charge into battle, you cause double damage with your first hit. I kick the goblins off the spear and head towards the well room. I stop in the corner to take a look around. The well room is empty when I look around, but as I''m deciding what to do, a goblines out of the hallway to my left and starts running towards me. Guessing by the direction he''s facing, I know he''s headed for the next passageway. I wait until he''s right in front of me and swing the spear at his neck. - Objective: Kill goblins 12/20 The goblin''s body continues to advance a few steps before copsing, as its head hits the ground with a plop sound. ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, the skill Spear Basics has advanced to level 2! ¡Ì Spear Basics. ¡Ì Level 2. - Strength +2, Agility +2 - You cause 10% additional damage with spears. I decided to see where he was headed, so I advanced towards the mushroom room. Looking inside, I saw two goblins on the other side of the stream gathering mushrooms. As I entered the room, the goblins dropped the mushrooms, drew their daggers and rushed across the bridge to attack me. I parried one with a thrust to the chest with the spear, while blocking the other''s attack with my shield. The goblin ducked, ducked under my shield and stabbed me in the leg. - Objective: Kill goblins 13/20 - You have been stabbed and inflicted 5 points of damage. HP: 219/224 ??-DING-??? - You''ve been poisoned, you''ve taken 18 points of damage! HP: 201/224 ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, the Poison Resistance skill has advanced to level 3! ¡Ì Poison Resistance. ¡Ì Level 3 - Resistance +3 - You take 15% less poison damage. "Whew! You''re a sneaky little..." I throw my spear back, raise it high and stab the goblin as he pulls his dagger out of my leg. "PUNCH!" - Objective: Kill goblins 14/20 I release the spear from the corpse and bend down to close the wound in my leg until it stops bleeding. As I wait, I look around and notice something on the ground next to the mushrooms. I hobble over to the bridge to take a closer look and find a stone mortar half full of a paste. It looks like the goblins have been crushing mushrooms to make a paste that they smear on their daggers. I take the pestle and mortar, and walk over to the stream to clean them out. As I kneel down, I see movement. As I look closer, I notice a fish swimming across the stream, which makes me smile, as it represents a new source of food. Once clean, I take the mortar and pestle and return to my room, then meditate for an hour before resuming the hunt. HP: 224/225 When I go out to resume my search, the well room and mushroom area are empty except for the corpses I left behind. So I continue on and check the passageway where I found the books, but all the rooms are empty. I decide to keep looking and head to the room where I found the prisoners, but it is also empty. As I look around, I see a second door on the right side of the room, so I head towards it and open it, finding another hallway. I can see that the hallway continues for about thirty feet, but halfway down there is something uneven, so I approach cautiously. To the right is a small alcove, but to the left the wall is broken and there appears to be a natural cave behind it. As I approach the opening, a bad feelinges over me and the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, you''ve acquired the passive skill Danger Sense! ¡Ì Danger Sense ¡Ì Level 1 - Wisdom +1 - A feeling that warns you of great danger. I immediately put my back against the opposite wall. I slowly slide to the side until I can see into the cave. At first, all I saw was the spider web, but after a few minutes of staring, I spotted the spider. Its body is at least a meter wide, and I''m guessing with legs it''s at least a meter and a half. It''s definitely a giant spider! I turn around to leave the ce, but I stop suddenly. I bet that thing has a beast core! I''m trying to think of the best way to kill the spider when an evil grin blooms on my face and I head back towards the well room. As I walk towards the well room, I switch my spear to the hand holding the shield and stop next to the headless corpse to pick up its dagger with my right hand. Then I creep toward thest passage I haven''t explored, knowing it has to be the goblins''ir. As I slowly make my way down the hallway, I see a room up ahead and a bonfire, so I know I guessed right. When I get a little closer and can see into the room, I count about twenty goblins around a campfire. I also notice that the room has torches along the walls, as well as piles of trash, maybe goblin beds? I also see arger goblin with a sword, who I assume is the boss. okay, this should work, let''s give it a try! I walk over to the light and throw the dagger at the goblin next to the boss. MP: 95/100 - Objective: kill goblins 15/20 ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, the Dagger Throw skill has advanced to level 4! ¡Ì Dagger Throwing ¡Ì Level 4 - MP cost 5 - You can throw a dagger with speed and uracy. Hit +4 Damage +8 "Catch me if you can!" I grab the nearest torch from the wall, smile at the boss and run off. I can hear the goblins chasing me as I reach the well room and turn left, then left again towards the prisoners'' room. I run across the room and through the door on the right,ing to a sudden stop by the broken wall. I throw the torch into the cave and then hide in the alcove. ''Follow me!'' MP: 80/100 I standpletely still as I see ten goblins run through the door and head straight for the cave, chasing the torchlight. As soon as the goblins in front skid to a stop, they try to back up, but it''s toote, as the spider emerges from the darkness and grabs the goblin in front. - Objective: kill goblins 16/20 ''Haha, did I get credit for that?'' The remaining nine goblins dart forward to attack the spider, and I''m about to jump to attack them from behind when I hear footsteps. I stand still and wait. I see another gobline through the door, but this one is wearing furs and feathers, and carrying a stick like a staff. ''Jackpot! This must be the shaman!'' The shaman stops in the middle of the hallway, faces the cave, and starts muttering something I assume is a spell. ''Sneak attack.'' MP: 75/100 I exit the alcove and stab the shaman in the back as hard as I can. - Objective: kill goblins 16/20 ''DIZ'' ''DIZ'' - Objective: Kill the goblin shaman 1/1 - Congrattions, you havepleted the mission Kill the Goblin Shaman! - You''ve been granted the magic ability Ray of fire! ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, you''ve unlocked magic skills! - Congrattions, you''ve acquired the magic skill Fire Lightning! ¡Ì Fire Lightning ¡Ì Level 1 - MP cost 30 - You cast a beam of fire that deals 30 points of fire damage. "Hooray for magic, can I get magic as a skill, so I don''t need to have a ss to use it, excellent!" - Objective: kill goblins 17/20 I look up and see a goblin writhing as it dies in the spider''s jaws. The remaining eight goblins keep attacking the spider, but their daggers don''t even scratch it. The first goblin that turns to run takes my spear in the chest. - Objective: kill goblins 18/20 The next goblin doesn''t even turn around and simply looks down in surprise as the spearhead emerges from its chest. - Objective: kill goblins 19/20 I smile as I draw the spear and the remaining six goblins turn to look at me. I approach one of them, who quickly recoils only to scream when the spider bites him. - Objective: kill goblins 20/20 Firebolt - Congrattions, you havepleted the mission Kill Goblins! - 5 stat points have been awarded! ??-DING-??? ¡Ì New mission avable! - Kill goblins II. - Objective: kill goblins 20/50 - Reward: 10 stat points. - Do you ept the mission? Y/N. "Hahahaha, of course! Yes!" Chapter 12: Goblin Boss In the pit. I move quickly while the goblins are still hesitating, aim at the goblin on the far right and stab it in the chest. - Objective: kill goblins 21/50 I swing my shield at the next goblin. ''Shield sh!'' HP: 70/100 ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Shield Strike skill has advanced to level 2! ¡Ì Shield Strike. ¡Ì Level 2 - MP cost 5 - When you hit an enemy with your shield you have a 30% chance to stun them. My shield strike hits the next goblin and knocks him down stunned. As thest three goblins move to attack, I jump backwards andnd back in the hallway. As the three goblins recover and chase me, the spider takes the stunned one. - Objective: kill goblins 22/50 As the three goblins rush at me, I again target the right one and let it run straight into the spear while I push the shield towards the other two. - Objective: kill goblins 23/50 They try to reach me over the shield, but their arms are too short. I swing the spear over their heads to force them to duck and, while they are blinded, I swing the spear back and under the shield and cut them off at the ankles. As they fall to the ground, I finish them off easily. "STAB" "STAB" "STAB" - Objective: kill goblins 25/50 ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the skill Lance Basics has advanced to level 3! ¡Ì Spear Basics. ¡Ì Level 3 - Strength +3 Agility +3 - You cause 15% additional damage with spears. I look at the giant spider and say, "Thanks for your help, but I was really hoping to get some damage and make this easier for you." "Okay, let''s try this. fire beam!" MP: 40/100 A small fireball forms just above my palm, I look directly into the spider''s multiple eyes and throw the fire beam at them. *YELLING* "And again. fire beam!" MP: 10/100 Throwing the second fire beam I strike the spider, as it screams and ils, I charge it with my spear. After seeing how the goblin''s daggers don''t scratch the spider''s exoskeleton I aim the spear at one of the joints and throw with all my might. The spear sinks into the spider, but it snatches it out of my hands as it rears back. I react quickly, grab the mace from my belt and m it into the spider''s leg joint. "CRACK!" With one of its legs broken, the spider tilts and loses its bnce, but doesn''t fall, and since I''m close enough to use the mace, I can''t dodge its bite. - You''ve suffered a bite attack! 35 HP damage! ??-DING-??. - You''ve been poisoned! You''ve taken 43 HP of damage! HP: 147/225 As I scream in pain, I bring the mace down on the spider''s head. "HIT!" ??-DING-??. Congrattions! The skill Basic Blunt Strikes has advanced to level 3! ¡Ì Blunt Strike. ¡Ì Level 3 - Strength +3 - You cause 15% extra damage with blunt weapons. The spider recoils but does not fall, I can see green ichoring from its head and from where the spear is still lodged in its body. Seeing the spear I get an idea and jump closer to the spider. shield hit! MP: 5/100 I don''t aim at the spider, but instead hit the base of the spear and put all my weight behind it to sink it deeper into the spider''s body. As I sink the spear deeper, the spider at the same time lunges and bites my leg. -You''ve suffered a bite attack! 30 HP damage! ??-DING-??. - You''ve been poisoned! You''ve taken 43 HP damage! HP: 74/225 ??-DING-???. - Congrattions, the Poison Resistance skill has advanced to level 4! ¡Ì Poison Resistance ¡Ì Level 4 - Resistance +4 - You take 20% less poison damage. I''m about tounch another attack when the spider drops. It twists a couple of times and then the legs curve inward, all but the broken one. I wait a minute, walk over and kick the spider to make sure it''s dead. When it doesn''t move again, I grab the spear and try to free it. I have to climb and stand on the spider with my feet on either side of the spear and use my whole body before I can finally free it. Just out of curiosity, I try to stab the spider''s body with the spear, but it just hits it and then slides off without leaving a scratch. ''Oh, I''m going to have to try things with you!'' The first thing I have to do is figure out how to get it back to my room. But before that, I walk up to the goblin shaman and cut open his chest. aha! I pull out the shaman''s beast core with a grin on my face. I stare at it. "ITEM." ¡Ì Beast Core - Quality: Minor Next I check the shaman''s "staff". "ITEM." A staff "Ha ha ha!" I toss the stick aside, check but find nothing else of value. I start dragging the goblins back to the well room and toss them onto the pile of bones after removing their daggers and ropes. I leave the shaman forst and support him facing the passageway where the goblinir is. I then take all the daggers and ropes to my room, where I meet the first two goblins I killed and had forgotten about. I also take the daggers and ropes from them before dragging them to the pile of bones. I also remember the two that were in the mushroom area and do the same with them. I then go back for the spider, first to get it through the doors I cut off all of its legs. Then I start dragging it slowly towards the corridor, but something strange catches my attention, the torch is still lit. I walk over and pick it up and look at it, it doesn''t seem to have burned at all, so I stare at it. ¡Ì MAGICAL OBJECT. ¡Ì Torch that burns eternally. "Oooh! I wonder if all those torches are like that." I stick the torch in the ground and leave it there for the time being and drag the spider''s body back. It took me a lot of effort and quite some time to carry the spider''s body back to my room. After catching my breath for a minute, I made my way to the torch. Once I pick it up, I decide to check it again before I leave. I then use it to burn the entire web, but all I find are a few more daggers. I then go back to my room with the torch, now between the two light stones and the torch my room is brightly lit. I eat a bowl of soup and then meditate for eight hours. HP: 194/226 MP: 100/100 ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Meditation skill has advanced to level 6! ¡Ì Meditation ¡Ì Level 6 - Wisdom +6 Intelligence. +2 Charm. +2 - A skill for recovery. HP 20/hour MP 20/hour Now that I am rested, I pull out the shaman''s beast core and stare at it. ¡Ì ITEM. ¡Ì Beast Core - Quality: Minor Would you like to absorb it? Y/N "Yes!" - You have absorbed a minor beast core! HP +10 MP +10 ''Hmm, so little, is it because it''s minor?'' So, the higher the rating, the better the stats. I guess that makes sense. Let''s see what you''ve got. I start cutting along the joints of the spider shell and take it off piece by piece and set the pieces aside for now. Once the carapace is stripped, I make a cut in the chest and pull out the core of the beast, then stare at it. ¡Ì ITEM. ¡Ì Beast Core. - Quality: Inferior. Would you like to absorb it? Y/N. "Yes!" - You have absorbed an inferior beast core! HP +25 MP +25 Fue +2 Agility +2 Stamina +2 Resistance +2 ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Watching skill has advanced to level 3! ¡Ì Observe. ¡Ì Level 3 - Intelligence+3. - You can identify items with intense study. Well, not bad, not bad at all. Now I wonder if you''re edible. I quickly cook a piece of spider meat and taste it. It''s not poisonous, but it tastes pretty awful. So I drag what''s left of the carcass and toss it into the pile of bones. Then I sit down, clean my weapons and clothes, and clean and sharpen all the daggers. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Repair skill has advanced to level 4! ¡Ì Repair. ¡Ì Level 4 - Strength +4 Intelligence +4 - You can repairmon objects without damaging them. I now have almost twenty daggers, I choose the best two to wear on my belt and leave the others to use for crafting. I try to make armor pieces from the spider carapace but none of my weapons can scratch it, so I settle for scraping and cleaning it and then pile it in a corner until I find something to cut it. I sit and meditate for another two hours. HP: 271/271 MP: 135/135 Okay, I''ve got HP maxed out, now it''s time to finish this. I pick up my weapons and head to the well room, after checking for enemies, I move into the hallway outside the goblinir and take a careful look inside. I count eight remaining goblins plus the boss, I don''t want to fight all of them at once, so Ie up with a n. I quickly go back to my room to get some extra daggers and then go to set everything up. I walk into the door of the goblinir and smile at the boss. The goblins notice me almost immediately and the boss jumps up, points at me and starts roaring at the other goblins. The remaining eight goblins draw their weapons and charge at me. I step back and kneel as I drop the spear to the ground, then grab the first of the daggers I left there waiting. ''Dagger throw! dagger throw! dagger throw! dagger throw! dagger throw!'' MP: 115/135 ''Dull thud'' ''Dull thud'' ''Dull thud'' ''Dull thud'' ''Dull thud''. - Objective: kill goblins 29/50 ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Dagger Throw skill has advanced to level 5! ¡Ì Dagger Throw. ¡Ì Level 5 - MP cost 5 - You can throw a dagger with speed and uracy. Hit +5 Damage +10 I quickly throw the four daggers I left ready and so, half of the goblins fall. Then I aim at the next goblin. ''Fire beam!'' MP: 85/135 "FUUUUUU!" - Objective: kill goblins 30/50. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions!!! the Fire Lightning skill has advanced to level 2! ¡Ì Fire Lightning ¡Ì Level 2 - MP cost 30 - Youunch a bolt of fire that deals 35 points of fire damage. As the goblin falls screaming and burning, I grab my spear and prepare to take on thest three goblins. The fastest of the three leaps into the air from about five feet away andes flying towards me until it suddenly stops in mid-air as it collides with the spear I am holding aloft. "PU?ALADA". - Objective: kill goblins 31/50 "CRACK" The goblin suddenly falls to the ground with half of the spear still stuck in him. In the meantime, I am left alone with a broken piece of wood, as thest two goblins have attacked me. I throw it at one of the goblins to slow him down as I raise my shield to intercept the other goblin while reaching for the mace on my belt. I intended to attack the goblin behind my shield, but as I am about to strike, I see the second goblin approaching and I change my target and strike the goblin''s head. "SMASH" - Objective: kill goblins 32/50 As I kill the second goblin, the first one lunges around my shield and manages to stab me in the side. - You''ve suffered a stabbing attack! You''ve taken 10 HP of damage! HP: 261/271 ??-DING-??. - You''ve been poisoned! You''ve taken 18 HP of damage! HP: 243/271 With a growl I turn to thest goblin and bring the mace down on its head. "CHAPOTEAR" - Objective: kill goblins 33/50 With thest goblin dead, I step back towards the goblinir and stare at the boss. The boss unsheathes his sword and starts walking towards me, wielding a longsword But I use it with both hands. I move forward to meet the boss and, as we approach, the boss throws a powerful overhead strike. I raise my shield to block it and, at the same time, swing the mace into the boss''s side. "BLOW BLOW" "CRUNCH." ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Basic Shield skill has advanced to level 2! ¡Ì Shield Basics. ¡Ì Level 2 - Strength +2 Resistance +2 - You get Defense +2 when you use a shield. I smile when I hear the boss''s ribs crack, but I''m surprised that it doesn''t seem to affect him. The boss immediately tries another big attack and again I raise my shield to block it. "Thud" "Crunch" "Crunch!" My smile fades as my shield shatters under the boss''s powerful blow. Before the boss can attack again, I m my mace into the boss''s elbow. "CRACK!!!" The boss, now with only one arm, throws a horizontal punch towards me, but I manage to dance backwards and get out of range. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Dodge skill has advanced to level 2! ¡Ì Dodge ¡Ì Level 2 - Defense +2 - Your agility allows you to evade attacks. The boss moves behind me and tries tond another heavy blow. This time I move closer instead of backing away and grab the boss''s wrist with my left hand to parry the blow. Then I m the mace down on the boss''s head, and again, and again, and again! "Thud" "Thud" "Thud" "Crackle!" With this the light finally leaves the boss''s eyes and he falls to the ground. - Objective: kill goblins 34/50 "DIZ" "DIZ" - Congrattions, you havepleted a mission! - Kill the goblin boss. - Objective: kill the goblin boss 1/1 - Reward: ck knife As the message fades, suddenly a dagger appears floating in the air in front of me. I grab it eagerly. ¡Ì MAGIC ITEM. - ck razor. - +10 dark damage. A dagger forged in darkness. I slowly pull the dagger out, it has a beautiful ck de, longer than an average dagger, slightly curved with a single edge, and when I hold it up the de seems to be covered in ck fire. "What a nice reward, it was definitely worth it!" Chapter 13: Escape [ 1 ] In the well. I kneel down and cut open the boss''s chest. The new dagger cuts it as if it were made of paper. I extract the beast core from the boss and look at it. ¡Ì ITEM. ¡Ì Beast Core - Quality: Inferior Would you like to absorb it? Y/N. "Yes!" - You''ve absorbed an inferior beast core! HP +20 MP +20 Strength +2 Agility +2 Stamina +2 Endurance +2 "DIZ" "DIZ" "DIZ" "DIZ" "DIZ" "DIZ" "Huh?" - Congrattions, you''ve unlocked skills! - For having Strength greater than 50 you''ll get the Superior Strength skill! - For having Agility greater than 50 you will get the Superior Agility skill! ¡Ì Superior Strength. - You get half of your Strength stat as damage on melee attacks. ¡Ì Superior Agility. - You get half your agility stat as damage on ranged attacks. How cool! So, my melee attacks basically get +25 damage? Cool! I then take the sword from the boss and examine it. ¡Ì ITEM. - Knight''s Sword - Hit +2 - Durability 49/50 I sheathe the sword and tie it to my waist. Then, I pick up the twelve daggers, all the rope, and my broken spear, and carry them back to my room. Then, I drag all the corpses into the pit room and throw them on top of the pile of bones. When I return to their, I decide to take a look through the archway in the left wall that I noticed earlier. This leads to another room, where there is a rudimentary altar inside, which makes me think it is the shaman''s room. There are also two torches here, so, with the seven in their and the one I already stole, that brings the total to ten. I grab one and stare at it to make sure. ¡Ì MAGIC OBJECT. - Torch that burns forever. I should figure out how to take them with me. I''m sure I''ll be able to sell them on my way out of here. Then I''ll break the altar into pieces and take it out to throw into the pile of bones. Next, I take out the trash that the goblins used as beds and their supply of wood, and add it all to the bone pile. With the rooms empty, I check all the walls for illusions. When I find none, I take the nine torches to my room. Now, with ten torches, the room is too brightly lit, so I take one of the light stones with the intention of hiding it, but realize I never identified it. I stare at it until the ability is activated. ¡Ì MAGIC ITEM. - Daylight Stone. - Made by trapping a Spirit of Light. "Trapping? Oh no, that''s no good!" I grip the stone tightly and, with a twitch of my muscles, snap it in half. The light dims to a small floating cloud that immediately flies to the other luminous stone and surrounds it. "I understand!" I lower the other luminous stone from the ceiling and split it in half. Again, the light dimmed to a small cloud. The two clouds flew towards each other, describing very close circles, as their lights changed to all the colors of the rainbow. Once they settled and returned to the yellow light, the two clouds flew over my head and surrounded me. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, you''ve won a title! ¡Ì Title: Blessed by the Light. - Benefit: You take 25% less damage from Dark and Shadow attacks! "Oh, thank you, little ones, now go away, be free!" I watch as the two little puffs of light fly away down the hallway to the well room and then straight up the well. I wish I could fly out of here so easily! I sit down and finish what''s left of the soup while thinking about what I should do next. After eating, I walk over to the wall and add the goblins''ir to the map. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Cartography skill has advanced to level 2! ¡Ì Cartography. ¡Ì Level 2. Intelligence +2. - You can draw rudimentary maps. As I study the map, I realize I missed something. I didn''t go check the room down the hall, beyond the chandelier. So I grab my weapons and set out to explore thest room. What I find is another small room full of trash, so I start carrying it to the well room and add it to the trash pile. As I clean the room, I discover something: in the back corner is a hole. As I kneel down and look at it, I realize it must be where the rats and goblins came from. It''s not big enough for me, or for the spider to have used, unless it came up when I was a baby. The hole seems to be about six meters long and goes down continuously, but since I haven''t found another way out, I''ll probably have to think of something. For now, I simply finish taking out the trash and then go back to my room to rest. I''m not too hurt, so I decide to sleep for once instead of meditating. When I wake up in the morning, I remember how ufortable it is to sleep on the cold stone floor. As I get rid of all the tight muscles, I realize that I haven''t done my exercise routine in a while. So I do my exercises and then double up on them to make up for lost time. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, fitness has advanced to level 3! ¡Ì Physical fitness. ¡Ì Level 3 - Strength +3 Endurance +3 ''Hmm, it''s been a while since I''ve checked the status.'' ========== - Name: Klein. - Race: ck Lion - Titles: (2) The Merciful One, Blessed by Light - ss: None - Level: 0 - HP: 301/301 - MP: 155/155 - Strength: 52 - Agility: 51 - Endurance: 46 - Intelligence: 41 - Physical: 26 - Charm: 21 - Unspent points: 5 - Skills: (2) - Missions: (2) - Skills: (14) - Combat skills: (8) - Magic skills: (1) - Crafts: (9) ========== ''Looking good!'' Ah, yes, I have stat points to spend! Should I use them or save them? I''m not sure what to increase right now, so I guess I''ll save them. Besides, my stats are increasing considerably with all the skills. Next, I take out the new sword and perform some attack routines. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, you have acquired thebat skill Sword Fundamentals! ¡Ì Sword Fundamentals ¡Ì Level 1 - Strength +1 - You do 5% extra damage with swords. I then sit down and take the tip of the broken spear, carving one of the terrible wolf''s leg bones into a new handle and attaching the spear point. It''s a short spear now, but it should work. I take the spear, grab the bucket and head for the mushroom area. First I check the edible mushrooms, looking for new ones growing and picking some of the older ones. Then I head to the creek and sit patiently with my spear at the ready until a fish swims by. "CHAPOTEO!" ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, you''ve acquired the artisanal skill Fishing! ¡Ì Fishing. ¡Ì Level 1 - Agility +1 - You can try your hand at fishing. Ha ha, did I get the skill even though I lost it? I''ll try several more times before I get my first fish. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the fishing skill has advanced to level 2! ¡Ì Fishing. ¡Ì Level 2 - Agility +2 - You can try your hand at fishing. Well, then there will be fish and mushroom soup! I take the food to my room and start cooking some soup. While it''s cooking, I take a piece of the spider carapace and try out the new knife. It cuts, though it''s not easy, which means I can now make armor out of it. I distribute the pieces of carapace and n what I want to do. "Okay, the tworgest pieces will be used for the breastte and back, and if I use thestrge piece to make a new shield, there should be enough left for .... armguards and bracers? Yeah, I think that''ll work!" I start carving while ncing up from time to time to keep an eye on the soup. I take my time and am very careful not to mess up any of the pieces, as I don''t want to go looking for another spider to get more material. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions! The Ivory Carving skill has progressed to level 5! ¡Ì Ivory carving ¡Ì Level 5 - Agility +5 Intelligence +2 - You can carve bones to make objects. I continue working until the soup is ready. Then I eat half of it for breakfast and save the rest forter. ''Man, how I miss the salt!'' After eating, I grab my bone pick and shovel, grab two torches and head to the room with the hole leading down. First, I carefully scrape away the mortar until I can remove the bricks surrounding the hole. I set them aside forter; once they are all removed, I start pounding the rocks around the tunnel. I n to widen it enough to get through. However, I''ve only made a little progress when my pickaxe breaks. I decide that a bone pick will not be enough to extract the stone, so I return to my room. I pull out all the daggers I''ve collected from the goblins and sort through them. I set aside the best eight and have fourteen left to use. I go out to the bone pile and look for fourteen thigh bones. This task is quite unpleasant, as the carcasses have begun to rot and the smell is horrible. The only constion is that, due to the air flow in the pit room, that smell would be making its way into the throne room. Once I find enough bones, I take them to my room, where I sit down, take the first bone and notch the end. I then insert the hilt of a dagger into the notch and tie it in ce with a piece of string. Once this is done, I shake it and twist it a few times to make sure it''s not loose. After deciding it will work, I spend the next two hours making the other thirteen. Then I pick them all up and take them back to the hole. I''m cautious on my first few shots, but the pick holds up pretty well. I soon learn to aim for weak spots and make the shot at an angle to preserve the pick as long as possible. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Mining skill has advanced to level 4! ¡Ì Mining. ¡Ì Level 4 - Strength +4 Endurance +2 - You can try to mine normal ore. I soon realize that by doing it this way I will have to make the hole muchrger than I had originally nned, otherwise I will have no room to hit as I advance deeper. So I pause mining to remove more bricks around the hole and erge the area, and then continue mining. When I get tired, I erge the area around the hole and get to a depth of about a foot. I hope to make even better progress tomorrow based on what I have learned. Before returning, I take the shovel and clean up all the rocks and dirt from the work area, piling them in a corner. Then I go back to my room for dinner. While I eat, I pick up History of Empire I to continue reading. It''s a slow process, as I still have to stop frequently to trante words, but I''m definitely making progress. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Linguistics skill has advanced to level 4! ¡Ì Linguistics ¡Ì Level 4 - Intelligence +8 - You can try to decipher othernguages. Hmm, it says that when the empire was formed it covered the continent, but it doesn''t mention beastmen. I read until my eyes began to tire, then put the book aside, washed the dishes and cleaned the room before sitting down to meditate. Chapter 14: Escape [ 2 ] I emerge from my meditation six hourster feelingpletely refreshed. I immediately do my exercise routine and then do a long swordbat routine. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, Skill Sword Basics has advanced to level 2! ¡Ì Sword Basics. ¡Ì Level 2 - Strength +2. - You do 10% extra damage with swords. Once I finish my workout, I grab the speargun and go to breakfast. I catch a fish on my first attempt, so I decide to give it a little more time and see if I can catch another one. The next few attempts fail, but then I seed and get a second fish. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the fishing skill has advanced to level 3! ¡Ì Fishing ¡Ì Level 3 - Agility +3 - You can try your hand at fishing. Then I grab a handful of mushrooms and go back to my room to prepare breakfast. Since I have two fish and I''m sick of soup, I decide to grill the fish and saut¨¦ the mushrooms. I''ll eat one fish now and the otherter, it tastes better than the soup, but I''d still like to have some seasoning. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Cooking skill has advanced to level 4! ¡Ì Cooking. ¡Ì Level 4 - Intelligence. +4 - You can cook pretty decent food. With a full stomach, I set out to continue mining. I n to devote most of the day to it. I make good progress, though by the end of the day, already on my third day, I manage to clear almost five feet of tunnel. I go back to my room for dinner and go back to reading. I do it much faster now and feel like I''m actually learning thenguage instead of tranting it all the time. The next morning my routine is the same and after breakfast I go back to mining. By the middle of the day, when my fourth peak breaks, I''m about halfway through the tunnel. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Mining skill has advanced to level 5! ¡Ì Mining ¡Ì Level 5 - Strength +5 Endurance +2 - You can try to mine ore. I go back and grab another pickaxe and return to mining. A few minutester, as a section of rock breaks under my strike, I notice something strange. There is a bright spot on the rock; on closer look, it''s not a rock I''m looking at. ¡Ì MAGICAL OBJECT. ¡Ì Armatite ore. - A magical mineral, stronger and lighter than steel. It is very difficult to work with. I let myself get distracted and started mining the ore. It only took me an hour to extract the twenty-three kilos of ore that was there, so I thought it was worth the effort. Although I still have no cksmithing skills, I figured I will eventually get it done when I have the equipment to do it. I take the ore back to my room and then go back to continue working in the tunnel. I make about thirty more inches of progress before my pickaxe breaks again and I decide to call it a day. At that point I grab the shovel and clean everything up before returning to my room for dinner. As usual, I read while I eat and before going to meditate for the night I finish History of Empire I. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, Skill Linguistics has advanced to level 5! ¡Ì Linguistics ¡Ì Level 5 - Intelligence. +10 You may attempt to decipher othernguages. "DIZ" "DIZ" - Congrattions, you have acquired a new skill! - For having an Intelligence greater than 50 you will gain the skill Superior Intelligence! ¡Ì Superior Intelligence - You get half your Intelligence stat as damage to magic attacks! The next morning I wake up and do my exercises. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, Skill Fitness has advanced to level 4! ¡Ì Physical fitness ¡Ì Level 4 - Strength +4 Endurance +4 After breakfast I''m back to work on the tunnel, hopefully I''ll be able to open it today or tomorrow. I''m on my eleventh dig and have about sixty centimeters to go when I get distracted by more ore. This time it''s an even smaller vein, barely ten pounds, so it only takes me thirty minutes to mine it. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Mining skill has advanced to level 6! ¡Ì Mining ¡Ì Level 6 - Strength +6 Endurance +3 - You can try to mine normal ore. I take the ore to my room and while I''m there I have a quick dinner, then return to the tunnel. I''m determined to break through as soon as possible. It takes me three more hours and another broken spike But I manage to break through. I poke my head out and look around. It''s arge circr passageway running left to right from my tunnel. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, you havepleted a mission! - Survive the pit. - Objective: survive and find a way to escape from the well. - Reward: 10 stat points. ??-DING-???. - New mission avable! - Escape from the sewers. - Objective: Survive and find a way to escape from the sewers. - Reward: 10 stat points. Do you ept? Y/N ''Phew, another one? Well, at least I get more stat points''. "Yes, I ept!" I finish opening the hole leading to the sewers, but decide to leave the exploration until tomorrow, as I''m pretty exhausted. So I turn around and go back to my room to rest for the night. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Meditation skill has advanced to level 7! ¡Ì Meditation ¡Ì Level 7 - Wisdom +7 Intelligence. +3 Charm. +3 - A skill for recovery. HP 25/hour MP 25/hour When I wake up in the morning, I go through my usual routine and start reading History of the Empire II while having breakfast. I''m eager to start exploring, but if it''s more dangerous than the moat, I should be better prepared. Then, once I finish eating, I take ck Razor out and work on carving the spider carapace into armor. It takes me a couple of hours toplete the armor. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Ivory Carving skill has advanced to level 6! ¡Ì Ivory carving ¡Ì Level 6 - Agility +6 Intelligence +3 - You can carve bones to make objects. ¡Ì ITEM CREATED. ¡Ì Spider''s armor - Defense +5 Next I start carving a shield, once I have the shape made, I make a hole in the middle and ce a dagger hilt in it so the shield has a point. ¡Ì ITEM CREATED. ¡Ì Spider shield - Defense +2 Damage 10 Once the shield is ready, I stand up, pull out my sword and do abat practice with the shield. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, you have acquired the Sword and shieldbat skill! ¡Ì Sword and shield ¡Ì Level 1 - Defense +1 Strength +1 - A style for both offense and defense. ''Hey, that was unexpected, are there even skills forbat styles?'' Then I go back to carving and work on bracelets and bracers. ¡Ì ITEM CREATED. ¡Ì Spider bracers. - Defense +1 Resistance +5 ¡Ì ITEM CREATED. ¡Ì Spider''s bracelets - Defense +2 These are some really cool extra abilities! When I try them all, I get an extra surprise. - Set bonus active! - Spider set 4/4 - Set bonus: Spider''s web walking - You can walk on spider webs without getting stuck as a spider. Wow, did I create a set? But I wasn''t trying, and I''m notining! That bonus wille in handy if I run into another spider. I then set about modifying my fearsome wolf doublet so that it would fit over the breastte without affecting my movements. Once that was done, I put everything on and did somebat training to make sure nothing would squeeze me, rub me or hinder my movements. Once everything is settled, I sit down to dinner and continue reading. After I finish eating, I read for a couple of hours and then meditate for my usual six hours. In the morning I do a light workout and go to breakfast. After breakfast I get dressed, put on my armor and grab all my weapons. Alright, I''m as ready as I can be, it''s time to explore the sewers! Chapter 15: The sewers [ 1 ] Fully equipped, I walk through my tunnel and enter the sewers, only to feel a wed hand wing at my arm from the right. - You''ve suffered a w attack! 5 HP damage! ??-DING-??. - You''ve been poisoned! You''ve taken 7 points of damage! HP: 292/304 I turn to the right and raise my shield to block the next attack. I see that my opponent is too close for the sword and I pull the ck Razor from my belt. I block another attack with the shield and then swing the dagger towards the thing''s neck. "REBANADE!" As it copses to the ground and rolls over before dying, I get a good look at it for the first time. It looks like a six-foot tall rat with fur and a tail, but from the way it stands upright and struggles, I''m guessing it''s bipedal in nature. ??-DING-??. - New missions avable! - Kill the rat men - Objective: Kill the rat men 1/30. - Reward: 10 stat points. Do you ept? Y/N - Kill the Rat King - Objective: Kill the Rat King 0/1 - Reward: Lionheart helmet. Do you ept? Y/N "Yes, I ept." -Ah, so it was a rat man? And they have a king? So there are at least thirty of these creatures down here, and who knows what else! I''m d I took the time to upgrade my armor! I check the corpse for anything of value and find nothing. I hoist it over my shoulder and walk back to the trash pile and toss it on top. Then I walk back to the sewers and look around carefully before entering this time. I turn to the right and start to slowly explore. After about thirty feet I see a small passage to the left, but decide to continue down the main tunnel for now. I can already tell that this ce is much bigger than the shaft. I continue for about seventy feet or so before I see a crossroads, the main tunnel goes straight on but there is a passage to the left and to the right. And the passage on the right is guarded by two goblins. I draw my sword slowly so as not to make noise and then use the shadows along the side of the passage to approach. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Stealth skill has advanced to level 4! ¡Ì Stealth ¡Ì Level 4 - MP cost 15 Agility +3 - You can sneak up on average beings. Once I am close enough, I charge, hit the first goblin with the upward strike as I pass and continue to the second and hit it with the downward strike. - Objective: kill goblins 27/50 I hear a noise and turn towards the passageway to see a dozen goblins charging towards me. I turn to face them and prepare to charge, I take out the first two with a swing of my sword and a swing of my shield, but the rest quickly surround me. - Objective: kill goblins 29/50 - You''ve suffered a stabbing attack! You''ve taken 1 HP damage! - You have suffered a stabbing attack! You have taken 3 points of damage! - You have suffered a stabbing attack! 2 points of damage have been inflicted! - You have suffered a stabbing attack! You have taken 1 HP damage! - You have suffered a stabbing attack! You have taken 1 HP damage! - You have suffered a stabbing attack! You have taken 3 points of damage! HP: 281/304 I start shing from left to right as fast as I can and quickly take three more goblins out of y. - Objective: kill goblins 32/50 - You''ve suffered a stabbing attack! You''ve taken 1 HP damage! - You have suffered a ded weapon attack! You have taken 2 HP damage! - You have suffered a stabbing attack! 1 HP has been inflicted! - You have suffered a stabbing attack! You have taken 3 points of damage! - You have suffered a stabbing attack! You have taken 1 HP damage! - You have suffered a stabbing attack! You have taken 2 points of damage! - You have suffered a stabbing attack! You have been damaged 1 HP! HP: 270/304 ''They barely hurt me? I love this new armor!'' After seeing how little damage they do, I stop trying to block their attacks and start using the shield to attack them as well. Two sword hits and two shield hits and four more die. - Objective: kill goblins 36/50 - You have suffered a stabbing attack! You have taken 1 HP damage! - You have suffered a stabbing attack! 2 points of damage have been inflicted! - You have suffered a stabbing attack! 2 points of damage have been inflicted on you! HP: 265/304 A few more moves and thest three fall before me. - Objective: kill goblins 39/50 ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Sword and shield skill has advanced to level 2! ¡Ì Sword and shield ¡Ì Level 2 - Defense +2 Strength +2 - A style for both offense and defense. I feel powerful as I step over the corpses and advance through the passageway. The passageway is uneven and broken, with obvious signs of tool marks and, after thirty feet, opens up into what looks like a natural cave. Inside the cave is obviously the goblin nest and I find six other adult goblins guarding five younger goblins. I don''t give them time to react and they attack immediately. All six goblins fall without even being able to hit me. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Sword Fundamentals skill has advanced to level 3! ¡Ì Sword Fundamentals. ¡Ì Level 3 - Strength +3. - You deal 15% extra damage with swords. - Objective: kill goblins 45/50 I look at the mission counter and then at the remaining five goblins, normally I''m not a fan of killing the defenseless but I want to finish the mission and I know from the manga that if I leave them alive I might regret itter. So I step forward and it''s over with five swipes of my sword. "DIZ" "DIZ" - You havepleted a mission! - Kill the Goblins II. - Objective: kill goblins 50/50 - Reward: 10 stat points. Once done, I clean my sword and start gathering daggers from the dead. I carry the daggers up to my room to make more spikester. I then spend an hour going back and forth to move all the bodies to the trash pile. Once that is done, I decide to call it a day and return to my room. Before dinner, I clean and arrange my clothes and weapons. Then I update the map with the new area. After all that, I sit down to eat my cold dinner and read some more. With so much talk about the imperial family line and various rebellions, it makes for pretty boring reading, but I think knowing the history of this world mighte in handy someday. So, after reading for a few hours, I meditate for six hours. The next morning I get up and go about my normal routine. After breakfast I go back to the goblin nest to finish cleaning it, all the garbage I return it to the trash pile. I find nothing useful until I examine the cave walls, where I find a couple of metal veins. I take myst two picks and go back and start mining for ore. As soon as I have a piece I check it out to see what it is. ¡Ì ITEM. - Iron ore. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, Observing skill has advanced to level 4! ¡Ì Observe ¡Ì Level 4 - Intelligence. +4 - You can identify items with study. I end up breaking both picks, but manage to extract one hundred and fifty pounds of iron ore. I then spend the next two hours carrying it all back to my room, though I still can''t do anything with it. Deciding that the day is not yet over, I return to the sewers and this time turn left to explore the other side. After about fifty feet there is a passageway to the right, but I pass it by. Thirty feet further on I find a corridor on the left and decide to take a look at it. It stretches for fifteen feet and then opens into a room, it looks like another warehouse full of junk. As usual, I walk through it and carry the trash to the trash pile under the shaft. As I''m clearing the piles, I discover something: under the pile are a couple of cans, and when I lift them, they move. When I open them, I immediately recognize the smell of oil. I already have a n in mind for them and take the two cans to my room. While I''m there, I update the map and, instead of going back down, I look for more bones and start making more spikes with the goblin daggers I got from the nest. I can make another fifteen spikes which I hope will be enough for whatever mining I end up doing there. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Ivory Carving skill has advanced to level 7! ¡Ì Ivory carving ¡Ì Level 7 -Agility +7 Intelligence +3. - You can carve bones to make objects. Once I''m done choosing, I sit down to read a bit and eat dinner. After a couple of hours, I finish The Story of Empire II and decide to go to sleep. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Linguistics skill has advanced to level 6! ¡Ì Linguistics ¡Ì Level 6 - Intelligence +12 - You can try to decipher othernguages. Chapter 16: The sewers [ 2 ] I get up the next morning and decide that, instead of working out that morning, I will go do some mining after breakfast. So I get up and go to the mushroom area with my spear and quickly catch two fish. ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, the fishing skill has advanced to level 4! ¡Ì Fishing ¡Ì Level 4 - Agility +4 - You can try your hand at fishing. When I go to look for some mushrooms, I realize that only the new shoots are left and none of them look ripe, so I go back to my room with only the two fish. After roasting and eating them, I grab my gear and the spikes I made and head to the goblin nest to spend a couple of hours mining. During the two hours, I get another hundred pounds of iron ore. ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, the Mining skill has advanced to level 7! ¡Ì Mining ¡Ì Level 7 - Strength +7 Endurance +3 - You can try to mine normal ore. When I''ve taken the ore back to my room, I think I''ve had enough exercise and head back down to continue exploring. I head back to the storage room where I left it and continue down the main passage. About ten meters further on, Ie to a crossroads; the main passage continues while there are smaller corridors to the left and right. Following my strategy of exploring the outside first, I take the corridor on the left. The hallway is about fifteen feet long, but the strange thing is that as I walk down it, the air bes noticeably warmer. The room at the end of the hallway seems to be lit by firelight, so I approach cautiously. When I peek inside what I see surprises me, the room is empty except for one being, it looks like the figure of a woman made of fire. She is chained in ce and appears to be either dead or asleep, but as the room is definitely warmer, I assume she is asleep. I look carefully around the room that seems to be a natural cave that expanded and seeing no other enemies I slowly enter the room. As I approach her, I notice that the chains holding her are very thick and go from her wrists to the walls. I also notice a strange square hole in the ceiling just above her. "Hey, hello?" Elemental wakes up startled and yells "Die! Burn! Huh?" Elemental says, "Oh, you''re not a rat man or a goblin, what are you?" "I am a beastman, ck Lion race. Are you a fire elemental? And how is it that I can understand you?" Elemental says, "Yes, I am a fire elemental. We elementals are magical beings, we canmunicate in anynguage. I''ve never heard of a ck Lion beastman before, where do youe from, and howe I can sense the mana in you?" "That''s a long story, and I have mana, shouldn''t I?" Elemental says, "Beastmen, as created beings, are not supposed to have mana." "Created beings? What do you mean by that?" Elemental says, "Beastmen are not natural, they were created by the imperial mages by taking the core of a mana beast and fusing it with a human." "Mana beasts, they''re not natural? The more you talk, the more questions I have." Elemental says, "Well, since you''re the first person I''ve seen since the Archmagest left that I can talk to, I don''t mind." "That''s fine, I''d love to talk to you for a while, but first I think I should release you. As long as you''re not going to attack me, sure that''s fine." Elemental says, "I''d love it if you could release me! And I promise not to attack you if you do, but these chains are made of steel forged with spells, so I doubt you could free me. Why would you want to free me anyway?" -I don''t like very! I''m not sure I can free you, but I intend to try. I draw my sword and strike the chains. "METALLIC SOUND." The sword bounces off the chain without leaving a mark. "Well, since you''re a fire elemental, the chains will surely be immune to fire, so the fire beam won''t do anything. I think I''ll try the ck Razor." The elemental watches as I draw the dagger and stand next to it to try to cut the chain. The dagger slowly cuts the chain as the elemental''s eyes widen in disbelief. "Ha, okay, give me a minute and I''ll release you." Elemental says "That''s a very powerful dagger you have there." "Yeah, I got it as a reward from a mission." Elemental says "???? a mission reward?" When I cut the chain on his right side, the whole chain and the shackle on his wrist disappearedpletely. "What, where did it go?" Elemental says "You broke the spell and the chain was destroyed." "Okay, I''ll work on the other side then." Elemental watches me as I start cutting the left chain while moving my arm. It takes me a few more minutes to cut the chain and then it disappears as well. Elemental says, "Oh, I''m free atst, I never thought I''d be free again, thank you so much!" "You''re wee." Elemental walks along stretching and enjoying being free. - "Why were you chained here anyway? Elemental says, "My job was to run the forge and incinerate all the garbage the people threw down the chute." As he says this, he points to the hole in the ceiling I noticed earlier. I look at it and realize that anything that fell out of there would havended on the elemental while he was chained up. "While it''s a good way to get rid of trash, I can''t believe someone would enve you for something so simple." Elemental says, "The Archmage loved to find ways to do even simple things using magic, and he didn''t consider elementals and spirits as beings. He saw us as moving masses of magical power." "Well, I have a lot of questions to ask you, but first I should tell you how I ended up here. Like I said, it''s a long story, would you like toe to my home base?" Elemental says, "Sure, I don''t mind, but just so you know, I only have enough mana to stay here for about six hours." "Okay, I should be able to get a lot of information in that time. Follow me." I turn around and head back through the sewers and up to the well and then to my room. "Umm, I don''t have much but can I get you anything?" Elementalughs and says, "No thanks. I consume mana to live." "That''s right you mentioned you only have enough mana for six hours, why?" Elemental says, "I was once a superior elemental, but having been trapped on this ne for eons, my powers have greatly diminished over time. The chains provided me with enough mana to keep me here, but now, once my personal mana runs out, I will return to the ne of fire." "That doesn''t mean you will die, does it? If so, I don''t know how, but I can try to give you some of my mana!" Elemental says "You are a sweet being, but no, I will not die. I will simply return to my home ne to recuperate until I am summoned again." "Ah, I see. But the Archmage died a long time ago, so no one will call you back, right? Oh, by the way, my name is Klein, what''s yours?" Elemental says "Klein? Haha, I like that name! I like the ash because that''s all that''s left when I burn my enemies! No, I don''t have a name." "Umm, okay, so for now is it okay if I call you Ele?" Elemental says, "Sure, I don''t mind that." "That''s okay, Ele. To start, let me tell you how I got here and what I know. Then, you can fill in the nks." Elemental says, "Sure. I''ll tell you what I can, although my knowledge is pretty limited since I''ve been stuck down here for so long." I start by telling him a little about my old life and how I died and was summoned here. Elemental says, "Wait. You were summoned here recently?" -Yes, I think a few weeks ago. Ele says, "That shouldn''t be possible. It''s not time for the summoning yet." "Why?" Elemental says, "Natural mana ebbs and flows over time. Every hundred years or so it is at its peak and this period when it is strongest is called the time of invocation because only when the magic is at its peak can another world be reached." "So the magic isn''t at its peak right now, so it shouldn''t have been summoned yet?" Elemental says, "Correct. The peak is still a year away. Summoning you before that time would have required a great sacrifice." "I wasn''t the only one summoned, I didn''t have a chance to look around but I feel there were between forty and fifty people around me when I showed up here." Elemental says, "Are you sure you were summoned by a king and not an emperor? The reason I ask is that the maximum number of possible summonings is fifty. And before you ask, I don''t know why that is the limit, no one has figured it out that I know of. The amount of power needed to summon all fifty during the summoning time is immense, I can''t even imagine howrge the amount needed to summon all fifty would be before!" "I''m pretty sure it was just a king, but I don''t know anything about the kingdom or the current state of this world. Anyway, let me finish exining so you know my situation." I tell him that I was attacked immediately after being summoned and that I was deemed useless because I was zero level and thrown into the pit. I then exin how I survived and what I have aplished since then. Elemental says, "Wow, that''s an amazing story! It''s amazing that you survived, not to mention that you survived as a level zero. I''m sorry to say I don''t know why you didn''t have a level. Like I said, beastmen were created, so I didn''t think it was possible to summon one. Well, let me tell you the story of the fall of the empire first so that you understand the origin of the beastmen." "Well!" Elemental says, "At the time of the fall, the empire was ruled by Emperor Quintent and the fall was caused by his older brother, Duke Daggun. You see, at that time the empire was ruled by magicians and magical power was everything. Daggun was the eldest, but Quintent was a stronger wizard, so he became emperor. Daggun was sent to rule the far north territory as duke, of course he felt cheated and that the throne belonged to him. Ten years after the emperor''s coronation, Daggun raised the north in rebellion. Now, rebellion was a fairlymon urrence in the history of the empire, so no one thought much of it and expected the army to put it down quickly. At first they were right, the imperial army won several victories against Daggun at first, but then Daggun started using a new type of beast and the war changed." Elemental says: "Now, magically created beasts were quitemon in the empire, they were used for all sorts of things, such as farming, protection and arenabat. The main difference was that those beasts onlysted as long as mana was infused into them, whereas Daggun''s beasts were self-sufficient. They were real, living beasts and could even reproduce, no one had any idea that was possible before they appeared. They were also considerably stronger than expected and destroyed two entire imperial armies before anyone knew what was happening. Daggun had apparently been nning and preparing for a long time because he unleashed thousands of the new beasts against the empire. These beasts became known as mana beasts, and what allowed them to live fully was the beast core. Now, for the first time, the empire was losing a civil war and such drastic measures were deemed necessary, the Archmage and the imperial mages devised a process to infuse a beast core into a human being." "Those were the first beastmen, weren''t they, that''s why you called them a created race?" Elemental says, "Correct. Thousands of the empire''s human soldiers were fused with beast cores extracted from Daggun''s mana beasts. Those who survived the process became the first beastmen. The process had a mortality rate of approximately thirty-five percent." "Wow, that''s a lot of dead soldiers, isn''t it?" Elemental says, "Yes, hundreds died to create the beastmen. But we''re talking about... Over an empire, the imperial army before the war counted more than. Hundred thousand, that is, hundreds of losses were eptable. Especially since tens of thousands had died fighting Daggun''s mana beasts. Now the tide turned again, with the beastmen leading the army that were able to kill the mana beasts and drive Daggun back. I think it was an act of desperation on Daggun''s part, but it created a new type of mana. Beast. It was the only mana beast capable of using magic, what''s worse, It could fly and spit fire." "That sounds like a dragon!" Elemental says "What''s a dragon?" "A mythical beast from my ancient world. Large, scaly, lizard-like, immensely powerful, able to fly and exhale fire." Elemental says, "Sounds pretty good. Anyway, these new creatures were beyond Daggun''s ability to control and went berserk all over the continent, burning all the cities and viges to the ground. Even the Archmage''s castle, which used to stand over this basement, was easily destroyed and he had spent a lot of time and power in enchanting it. At the time, it was considered second only to the imperial pce in terms of magical protection, but a dragon destroyed it in a matter of minutes." "So they destroyed the entire empire?" Ele says, "Yes, in about two weeks, everything was reduced to ashes. The war and the empire ended in mes. At least that''s what the Archmage told me thest time I saw him. I think he just told me. Because he had no one else to tell." "So, the well used to be the basement of the Archmage''s castle and the sewers were from the city that belonged to the castle?" Ele says, "Yes, and the Archmage liked to hide from his people in the basement so he could research and write his book. That''s the only reason he survived, but he was trapped there. After a while, he went to the sewers and talked to me for a few days. Then he left to find a way out, saying something about the river, and that was thest time I saw him. Now I''m not entirely sure how long ago that was, I slept quite a bit over the centuries that passed, and that''s the end of my knowledge of the world above." Chapter 17: The sewers [ 3 ] "Well, that gives me a lot to think about. But here''s something that still puzzles me: why are you surprised that I have mana?" Ele says, "Because beastmen have a beast core. A beast core absorbs mana and converts it into life energy, that''s why beastmen can be so strong. To have mana, you either don''t have a beast core, or you have mana so strong that it''s more than your beast core can absorb. The only being known like that is what you called a dragon." "Wait, I have a beast core?" Ele says, "As a beastman you should. But my time is running out." "Oh right, sorry, I lost track of time." Ele says, "Don''t worry, I enjoyed our chat. You''re a very interesting character, Klein. Makes me wish I could stick around to see what happens next. Hmmm..." "What?" Ele says, "Well, there''s a possibility, since you have mana. I could try to form a bond with you that would allow you to summon me. However, you can only form one bond and it would be for the rest of your life." "Alright, let''s do it!" Ele says "What, you didn''t even think about it!" "You''re the first friendly being I''ve met since I was summoned to this world, and who knows how long it will take me to escape this ce. If I don''t have a friend to talk to, I''ll go crazy." Ele says "Friend? I''ve never had a friend before! Fine, we''ll give it a try. But first you must give me a proper name, Ele won''t work since it''s just short for Elemental." I look at her carefully and think of a name for her. It has to be a good name, something that fits her. "How about Ruby? Because to me your eyes look like rubies." Ruby says, "I like it! I don''t know what a ruby is, but I like the sound of it." "A ruby is a type of gemstone, usually dark red in color. If they exist in this world, I''ll show you one when I find one." Ruby says, "All right. Now, when I make the contract, you''ll have to put your blood on it to sign it. Then I will seal the bond with a kiss. Now, keep in mind that I am made of fire, so it will burn you. Also, the bond will be burned into your soul. It will hurt you a lot! Are you still sure you want to do this?" "Yes, I''m sure." Ruby says, "Okay, I''ll do the contract now, it only takes a drop of blood. I''ll also disappear afterwards because this will use up thest of my mana. While you should be able to summon me right away, wait about a week before you try, as I need time on the other side to recover." "Okay, I get it, let''s do it!" Ruby spreads her hands about a foot apart and after a minute, a scroll made of fire appears. I read it very quickly and find no hidden uses or anything, so I prick my finger and ce it on the bottom of the contract. As I touch the contract, I burn my finger, but then everything starts to glow and the scroll rolls up and spins so that its ends point toward Ruby and me. Then, when Ruby leans in to kiss me, the parchment stretches and enters our chests. "How can lips made of fire be so soft, and how can it be so pleasurable when my lips are burning?" I copse to the floor, writhing in pain as Ruby disappears. I feel as if all the blood in my body has been reced by fire and I''m being burned alive from the inside. ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, the Pain Resistance skill has advanced to level 4! ¡Ì Resist pain ¡Ì Level 4. - You feel 45% less pain. - Physical damage reduced by 3%. "DIZ" "DIZ" - Congrattions, you''ve acquired a new skill! ¡Ì Thanks to the contract you have obtained the Fire Elemental Bond! ¡Ì Fire Elemental Bond. - You are bound to the Fire Elemental Ruby. Fire resistance +30. ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, you have acquired the Summoning skill! ¡Ì Summoning ¡Ì Level 1 - MP cost 100+5/Hour - You can summon Ruby, Lesser Fire Elemental. ''Whew! Argh! Ow! That was only sixty percent of the pain? I thought I was going to die! Iy there for quite a while, the memory of the pain making me reluctant.... To move. Finally, the rumbling of my stomach motivates me to get up. I grab my spear and head to the mushroom area to catch something for dinner. "Hmm... 100 MP +5 per hour? That way I can summon Ruby and keep her around for eleven hours max." I need to get more mana or level up the skill to reduce the cost. It says it''s a minor fire elemental. I wonder what the ranks are, I''ll have to ask him in a week when I can summon her. I soon catch two fish and go back to my room to roast them. I try to pick up my book and read as usual, but I have too many thoughts swirling around in my head to concentrate on the words. So I put the book down and think about everything Ruby had said to me while I was eating the fish. Wait, didn''t she say something about lighting a forge? What forge? Do I have a beast core? How can I find out? As I think about it, I think about meditation. In many manga, meditation can be used for various things. I decided to try meditating to explore my body instead of focusing on healing. When I immerse myself in meditation, an outline of my body appears before my mind. As I focus on myself, the body bes clearer and then I can see the movement of energy within my body. I see a solid ck beast core in the center of my chest. It looks like the beast cores I have collected and absorbed. As I focus on it, I seem to get closer and closer to it. As I get closer and the image of my body bes clearer, I can see how the energy flows into my body from the outside and then follows paths leading to the core. -So, is this the mana I am absorbing to feed my core? I wonder if I can affect it. Or the channels it follows? Then I start experimenting and soon discover that I can make small changes here and there. Mainly, I can smooth out some rough spots in the channels and widen some narrow spots. I am surprised when I suddenly lose meditation and fall down. I feel dizzy and strange. MP: 0/155 I guess doing things uses MP as energy to make changes. That just means I need to get my MP back and try again. So I meditate normally for seven hours to get my MP back. Then I go back to mind-eye meditation; it''s much easier the second time. This time the channels look good, so I concentrate on the center. As I zoom in, I discover that my center is not smooth, but covered with ridges and imperfections. I can start making small cuts, but very soon I give up meditation because my MP reaches 0. Again I have to stop and meditate for seven hours to regain my MP. Now that I have found out about the inner vision, I am obsessed with it. I am about to go back to work on my core when my stomach strongly objects. I am forced to procrastinate while I go fishing and cook a couple of fish. Once my hunger is satiated, I immediately return to the inner world and nibble again at the same spot. Just before I run out of manna, I pluck a ke and discover that there is red underneath instead of ck. Then I lose the meditative state and feel dizzy and sick again. So I do another seven hours of meditation to recover my MP. ¡Ì Core upgrade process started. 1% progress. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Meditation skill has advanced to level 8! ¡Ì Meditation ¡Ì Level 8 - physical +8 Intelligence. +4 Charm. +4 - A skill for recovery. HP 30/hour MP 30/hour ''Core upgrade? What did I just do?'' Wait, does that mean I have to turn the entire core red? That''ll take me a year with my current mana! Well, I need to upgrade my mana before I continue working on my core. Wait, all beastmen have cores? does that mean rat men have them too? I run over to the pile of garbage and ignore the smell as best I can. I open the chest of the rat man I killed. Sure enough, I find a small core and pull it out. I go back to my room with it and wash it off, along with my hands. Then I sit down and look at the core. ¡Ì ITEM. ¡Ì Beast Core - Quality: Minor - Would you like to absorb it? Y/N. "Yes!" - You have absorbed the Minor Beast core. HP +5 MP +5 ''Is that all?'' No, wait, that''s something, there are twenty-nine more rat men, this will add up quickly. Okay, new n, hunt everything in the sewers that has a beast core to increase my MP and then work on upgrading my core." Chapter 18: The sewers [ 4 ] I''m not sure how long it''s been, is it two days or three? Is it day or night right now? Not that it matters too much down here. So I act like it''s morning and start my normal routine. After my morning workout, I go catch two fish to grill and eat, then check my gear and get ready. Then I go back to the sewers, just before I exit the tunnel I draw my sword and take a look inside carefully to check for any ambushes. After seeing that it is clear I enter the sewers and turn left. I head towards the room where I found Ruby, I n to continue exploring from there but I also want to check if there is a hidden forge. Before I reach the room, I see two rat men in the main tunnel, they also see me at the same time. They rush at me recklessly and I just stand and wait for them, while the faster of the two reaches me and extends his ws, I calmly evade his attack and brandish my sword. As the rat man''s head arches in the air, I take two steps forward and sh the second one as he watches the flying head. - Killing the rat men 3/30 ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, the Sword Fundamentals skill has advanced to level 4! ¡Ì Sword Fundamentals ¡Ì Level 4 - Strength +4. - You do 20% extra damage with swords. I stood there for a minute, listening and watching for more enemies to attack. When no more appeared, I quickly opened the chests of the two rat men to retrieve their cores. - You have absorbed the core of the Lesser Beast. HP +5 MP +5 - You have absorbed the core of the Lesser Beast. HP +5 MP +5 After absorbing the cores, I pick up the two corpses, drag them out and throw them into the trash pile. I then return to the sewers to continue exploring and hunting. When I reach the room where I found Ruby, I take my time and carefully search the room, but find no illusions or anything else to indicate the location of the forge. -I guess I''ll have to wait until I can ask Ruby. I leave the room and turn left to follow the main passage. After about a dozen meters, Ie to another tunnel on the left that is lit by a soft glow from within. I slowly descend down the three-meter tunnel and it opens into arge cavern that has a glowing ceiling. The entire cavern, except for a path down the middle, is covered with mushrooms of various types and sizes. The glowing ceiling makes the cavern as dark as twilight, not dark enough to use my dark eyesight, but too dark to see well with normal vision. So I am extremely cautious as I follow the path into the cavern, the path winds back and forth between the mushrooms, but generally heads north. The cavern itself is about forty feet wide and over a hundred feet long. It takes me a few minutes to follow the path before I see anything but mushrooms. About eighty feet from the cavern, the path splits: one path continues north along the cavern and the other path goes straight up the cavern wall. I decide to go straight ahead first, I want to see what is in the cavern before checking the other path. As I continue down the path I start to hear the sound of running water and about thirty feet from where the path splits I see more rat men. There are four of them this time, three look unarmed and are gathering mushrooms, the fourth has a sword sheathed on his back and looks a little bigger than the others. I draw my sword, but the rat man hears it and turns to face me as he draws his own sword. The other three stop gathering and look around. As soon as the rat man sees me, he attacks me. Again I wait for him toe at me and, as he brandishes his sword, I raise my shield to face him. When the sword meets my shield, I thrust my sword into the rat man''s stomach. "BLOW BLOW" "STAB". ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, the Basic Shield skill has advanced to level 3! ¡Ì Shield basics. ¡Ì Level 3 - Strength +3 Resistance +3 - You gain Defense +3 when you use a shield. "DIZ" "DIZ" - Congrattions, you''ve acquired a new skill! - For having Endurance greater than 50 you''ll get the Superior Endurance skill! ¡Ì Superior Endurance - Base HP increases from 100 to 250. I swing my sword to the side and disembowel the rat man, then move to the side and drop him. As I pass by the rat man, I hit him in the neck with a backhand to make sure he won''t attack it and then move towards the other three. - Kill the rat men 4/30 The three unarmed rat menunch themselves at me. I elude the first one, brandish my sword against the second and sh with the shield at the third. I then turn and sh the first one as he heads towards me. - Kill the rat men 30/7 I make a slow turn to check for other enemies before kneeling down and retrieving the three beast cores from the unarmed rat men. - You have absorbed the core of the Lesser Beast. HP +5 MP +5 - You have absorbed the core of the Lesser Beast. HP +5 MP +5 - You have absorbed the core of the Lesser Beast. HP +5 MP +5 I then move on to therger one I killed first and remove its core. "ITEM" ¡Ì Beast Core - Quality: Inferior Would you like to absorb it? Y/N. "Yes." - You have absorbed the Inferior Beast core. HP +20 MP +20 Strength+2 Agility +2 Stamina+2 Resistance+2 I then clean and sheathe my sword before picking up the rat man''s sword to take a look at it. "MAGIC ITEM." ¡Ì Imperial knight''s sword. - Hit +3 Damage +5 - Durability: 96/100 "What a nice looking sword! I wonder how a rat man got it". Anyway, this will be my main weapon from now on and I''ll keep the other one as a backup. I pull the scabbard off the body and tie it to my waist, then sheathe my new sword. I now have two swords, a shield, a mace and the ck Razor. I''m getting a little heavy handed, but I''m of the opinion that it''s best to be prepared. I carry the corpses to the trash heap two at a time before returning to explore the cavern. About twenty feet further on, the path ends next to a river, the river is about ten feet wide and seems to be flowing pretty fast. I see lots of fish in the water and that reminds me that I am hungry. The river cuts through thest section of the cavern, I want to go look, but there is no bridge, which means I will have to jump over it. The bank on this side is about a foot above the water, while the other side seems to be about three or four feet above, which means I''ll have to cross ten feet while gaining a couple of feet of height. So, I back up a bit to gain momentum and jump as hard as I can. I realize very quickly that I have underestimated my body when my head grazes the ceiling which is twenty feet up. Ind about fifteen feet from the river bank, which puts me fairly close to the center of the area on this side of the river. The area is about thirty feet wide and thirty feet long, but narrows as it gets farther away from the river. I keep looking around and realize that it is quite defensible, maybe not as good as an illusory wall, but it will probably work as a new base. After all, there''s not much point in constantly going back to the well when all I have to do now is down here. After searching the area to make sure there''s nothing hidden, I jump back across the river and head to where the path forks. I follow the new path to my left and return to the main tunnel, only through a different entrance. Then I backtrack and follow the original path back to the first entrance and return to the shaft. I take my spear, some firewood and a couple of torches and carry it all back to the cavern and across the river. I leave the wood on the ground and then go back to scout the area by torchlight to make sure I haven''t missed anything. Then I take the spear and go fishing for my dinner, after catching a fish. A couple of fish. I pick the edible mushrooms I recognize and cook me one. Decent meal. Once I finish eating, I make several more trips back and forth. Onward hauling the stuff I''ve collected to the new base. I don''t n to finish moving it all right now, mainly because of I''ve collected the ore, but I want to get at least half of it done before.... Meditate for my usual six hours. Chapter 19: Playback As Ie out of my meditation, I decide to count this day as day three, better to y it safe than risk hurting Ruby. As I go about my morning routine, I decide to set today as the day to move in and prepare the new base instead of scouting. Once my old base is empty, it should be time to let those idiots upstairs know I''m still alive and get a little payback. So I set out to finish moving stuff out of the old base after I finish breakfast. It takes me several trips over the course of a couple of hours to move everything. At this point, the only things left in the old room are some rocks, the bucket and the two cans of oil I found. I take the bucket and partially fill it with dirt and y from the cave-in, then add a little water to turn it into mud that I can use in ce of mortar. I then carry the bucket and bricks to the start of my tunnel, then, using the bricks I brought and the bricks I used when I made the tunnel, I start building a patch that will fit the hole and hopefully hide the tunnel. ??-DING-???? - Congrattions, the Bricying skill has advanced to level 3! ¡Ì Masonry ¡Ì Level 3 - Strength +3 Endurance +3 - Able to build simple structures using brick or stone. It takes me about an hour to build the false wall and figure out how to close it from the sewer side. Once it''s ready, I go back to the well room and pour the two cans of oil on top of the pile of trash. Then I do a quick check of the well to make sure I haven''t forgotten anything, which it turns out I have. Ipletely forgot about one of the small storerooms, so I pick up all the trash in it and throw it on the pile. Just in case, I go to the mushroom area and collect all the edible mushrooms and take them to my new base camp. Then, when I return, I collect all the poisonous mushrooms and throw them in the trash pile as well. ??-DING-???? - Congrattions, the Herb Gathering skill has advanced to level 3! ¡Ì Herb Gathering ¡Ì Level 3 - Intelligence+3. - You can collectmon herbs and nts. ''I don''t know if this will make the smoke poisonous, but I really hope it will!'' I cast fire beam three times to make sure the trash pile is well lit and the smoke goes straight up the shaft, then run into the sewersughing all the while. MP: 115/205 ??-DING-???? - Congrattions!!! the Ray of Fire skill has advanced to level 3! ¡Ì Fire Lightning ¡Ì Level 3 - MP cost 25 - Youunch a fire beam that deals 40 points of fire damage. I close and block the false wall and then sit and wait. Castle throne room from Zamart''s point of view. It is noon and the king is gathering the entire court to hear the requests of his nobles. Everything is going on as usual and I am practically dozing. However, I am suddenly awakened when I smell a scent that does not belong to me at all. ''Activate magic eyes!'' ncing around I see a strange element in the air spreading rapidly throughout the throne room. "Evacuate the king immediately!" "Everyone evacuate the throne room!!!" I watch as the royal guard evacuates the king and his council through a secret door behind the throne. Meanwhile, the nobles panic and stampede towards the door. I can already see several corpses and smoke can now be seen rising from the pit. I quickly cast several spells, the windows are forced open with the first spell and the second spell creates a violent wind to blow the smoke out of the windows. The third spell creates a bubble of pure air around me. It came out of the well, it must be the work of that beast man. The king is going to be furious and do something stupid, I bet. I wait until the throne room is empty and the doors are closed before walking towards the bodies. The guards posted at the well are all dead and several nobles have also died. I check them all to see if any can be saved, but cannot. So, I head to the well and send a remote eye to see what happened. I find that the pile of garbage is still smoldering. I try to cast a spell to put out the fire, but it''s too far away and will drain all my mana, so I cancel it and decide to let the fire put itself out. Then, I turn and walk out of the room and head to report to the king. King''s room. The king, who has changed his clothes, paces back and forth waiting for me. Chancellor Marvok and Knight Commander Tarrik attend to the king and await orders. I enter looking tired and old, I bow to the king, who stops walking. King Raden says "Well? Report!" "Your Majesty, six royal guards and eleven nobles who had no anti-venom spells are dead. The smoke originated from the pit of a pile of burning goblin corpses and other trash. I opened the windows and left a wind spell to blow the smoke out, but unfortunately I can''t put out the fire because it''s too far down." King Raden says "Argh! How dare that thing! Tarrik, as soon as the smoke clears, I want you to lead a squad of your best men to kill that thing! No, better make it two squads!" Knight Commander Tarrik salutes and says, "Yes, Your Majesty!" King Raden says, "Marvok, once the smoke has cleared, I want all the servants in the pce and throne room to clean every inch, including the ceiling. You must keep cleaning until there is not a trace of that stench left!" Chancellor Marvok bows and says "Yes, Your Majesty." King Raden says "Pen! Pen!" Master Spy Quill appears, bows and says, "You summoned me, Your Majesty?" King Raden says "Make sure the rumors about this indicate that it was an assassination attempt by one of the other kingdoms! Make especially sure that''s all the other summonings hear!" Master spy Quill says "As youmand!" and then vanishes into the shadows. King Raden says, "Zamart, what do you make of this? I mean the reasoning behind it." "Your Majesty, I can think of two possibilities: one is that he has found a way out and this has been his parting gift. The other is that he has not been able to find a way out and this is to lure us down, where he can attack and possibly escape." King Raden says, "If it is the first, I will tear this country apart to find it. However, if it is the second....". Tarrik summons two more squads to protect the entrance to the well while you are below." Knight Commander Tarrik says, "As Your Majestymands, there is no way that beast will escape me!" King Raden says, "Zamart, what else would you advise me?" "I would have the courage to tell him that this is a problem of his own making!" "If the beast escapes, I would advise him to find a way to seal the pit permanently. For if he can get out and join the rebels, he might as well lead them back inside." King Raden says, "Good thinking, Zamart. Marvok, if that thing escapes, I''ll let you seal the well." Chancellor Marvok says, "Yes, Your Majesty. However, I would like to point out that this will make the castle nobles unhappy, as they have grown ustomed to having a convenient ce to dispose of toys they no longer use." King Raden says, "As if I care if they have to try harder! Everyone, you have your orders, move along!" Chancellor Marvok, Knight Commander Tarrik and I bow and walk away, leaving the king to keep walking and muttering. Outside the king''s room, I see Marvok and Tarrik rush out to carry out the king''s orders. I realize that I have not been given any tasks and slowly walk back to my room. As I walk through the castle and see the fear on people''s faces, I realize that it is not fear of the attack, but fear of the king''s mood. I wonder if I made the right decision to stay and serve the king. If I were younger, I would have definitely run off to join the rebels. Maybe it''s not toote, there are no mages here who deserve to be my apprentices. Maybe among the rebels I can find someone worth passing on my knowledge to. Hmm,e to think of it, I didn''t mention to the king that the fire in the well was started by magic. So I''ve already done that. Hemitted treason, didn''t he? And if things go wrong there, the king...be looking for someone to me.... Chapter 20: Betrayal Zamart''s point of view. I reach my room and let out a sigh of relief, this room is the only ce in the castle where I can rx. I take a look around and realize there isn''t much I can bring, just some books and items I''ve made. I head to my closet and put on my best travel gear. Then I start packing the rest of my clothes into a dimensional storage bag. I pack my books and my few personal effects and, in the blink of an eye, I''m done. Well, that''s all that''s of value, what''s my next step? I remember hearing that the rebels are in the Fang Forest, though I''ve never been there. Let''s see, the closest I''ve been is the port city of Durendall, which is only a few days walk from the forest. So my best option is to teleport to the port and walk. However, teleporting takes a lot of power and I haven''t gotten my magic back yet, but I don''t want to wait, I need to leave while everyone is focused on the well. I''m trying to remember a good way out of the castle, I know every inch of it because I''ve enchanted it at the king''s request. I''m addingyer afteryer of defensive spells because the king is worried about assassins and rebels. ''Wait for the enchantments! That''s it!'' I can undo all the incantations and recover some of the power used, not only mine, but I also know the keys to the incantations my master cast. After all, the king will be my enemy now, so why leave him with a well-defended castle? I enter my casting room and sit in the circle my master made so many years ago. I ess the castle''s magic and only then do I realize how many enchantments I can remove. Even if I restore my powers and teleport, there will still be arge amount of energy left. I need to decide what to do with it before I start or I might identally destroy the city. Mmm, could I make an object? No, I don''t have anything of sufficient quality to contain that much power, it would just explode. I''m not sure what to do, I''ve never used such arge amount of power at once. I start thinking about the life of the castle and how I can affect it. Then I think about the court mages, not the ones I have chosen and trained that the king dismissed or sent tobat zones, but the actual court mages that were chosen by the king from the sons of the nobles who support him. All those useless ones without any real talent for magic who dominate themon people. If I use half of this power tounch a massive dissipator on the castle, to eliminate its protections, and then the rest of the power tounch an attack against all of them. I could kill them all at once and leave the king without any mages. Not only that, but then there would be no one toe looking for me. I decide and begin to unravel all the magic woven into the castle''s defenses. I only recover about a quarter of the magic used, but it is still a staggering amount of power, as the enchantments have been building for the past two hundred years. I know that even ipetent court mages will sense this huge amount of mana in motion, so I have to act quickly. First I recharge my own mana supply, then I prepare my teleport spell, then I cast the most powerful dispel spell I know with additional power, and finally I inject the remaining power into a spell aimed at the court mages. As soon as I cast the spell to kill the court mages, I activate the teleport spell and in the next instant I am over a thousand miles from the capital, sitting on a hill overlooking the port city of Durendall. I sit here for a while, enjoying the sun and the nice ocean breeze. I feel like I''ve lifted a weight off my heart that had been there since the queen''s death. I slowly stand up, turn to the south and start walking towards the forest. As I walk, I can''t help butugh as I imagine the look on the king''s face when he discovers that all his precious court mages have been reduced to piles of ashes. As soon as I find the rebels, I must tell their leader all about the summoning and the king''s secret army. If the rebels can get the message to the other kingdoms about the king''s n to attack them, they can begin to prepare to defend themselves. Hopefully, this will begin to atone for my actions since the queen''s death. At the well. Tarrik sends twenty soldiers down the rope to the well before following them himself. He leaves another twenty surrounding the well as ordered by the king. He is convinced that it will be easy to kill the beastman with only the soldiers he has sent, but he was not about to disobey the king. Even before he reached the bottom, the nauseating stench assaults him in the nose, he releases the rope with one hand to bring a perfumed smell, uses a handkerchief to cover his nose and mouth. When his feet touched the ground. He feels the bones crumble to dust beneath them and sees his twenty men standing in a circle around the pile of bones with torches held high. Even with the twenty torches the room is not well lit, so he pulls the enchanted torch from his belt and raises it high. The enchanted torch easily illuminates the entire room and even a few meters of each of the five corridors. Knight Commander Tarrik says: "Squad one will assume defensive positions, squad two will split into pairs. Each pair will investigate one of the passages. When you see the beastman, do not attack, simply shout and squad one will run to your aid. We will overwhelm him and quickly finish him off so we can get out of this nasty ce." The soldiers obviously think getting out of there is the best part of the n, but they still obey their orders and the pairs head down the corridors holding their torches high. Klein''s point of view. I''ve been waiting patiently all this time, sitting just behind the false wall, peering every now and then through a crack to check for movement. I have put aside my shield, my mace and my two swords and am armed only with the ck Razor. Finally, when I look through the crack, I see a light in the hallway. I freeze and watch as the two soldiers enter the room. Expecting them to see only a dead end, they wave their torches to illuminate the corners and then turn around to return to the hallway. When they turn around, I gently push the false wall open and slip out quietly. I quickly move behind the pair. As I approach the soldier behind, I cover his mouth with my left hand and stab him in the back with the dagger in my right hand. The other soldier starts to turn around at the sound of the torch hitting the ground, but I am already there to stab him in the chest with the ck Razor. I quickly throw their torches into the spiders''ir, then pick up the corpses and throw them into the tunnel before closing the false wall. I then go to the corner before the pit room to take a look and see what I''m up against. Meanwhile, the other four couples have returned and thest couple left ten minutes ago. Tarrik is getting impatient, he wants this to be over so he can go back to the castle and get a bath and maybe a maid. Knight Commander Tarrik says, "You four, go find out what is taking you so long. Go and find a court magician and ask him to levitate a couple of hounds down here." With a "Yes sir!" a soldier grabs the enchanted rope and lifts gently out of sight, the other four soldiers signaling Tarrik to head down the passage where I am. Hearing everything, I quickly retreat down the hallway and hide in the alcove across from the spider room, then settle in to wait. The four soldiers move slowly until they see the light of the two torches, then run towards the spiders''ir, but stop when they see two torches lying on the floor. This is exactly as I had nned and, as soon as they stopped, I stepped out of the shadows and killed the first soldier. As the body fell, I positioned myself between the next two and stabbed left and then right, then lunged forward to stab thest soldier in the throat just as he was starting to scream. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the skill Dagger Fundamentals has advanced to level 3! ¡Ì Dagger Fundamentals. ¡Ì Level 3 - Agility +3 - You cause 15% additional damage with daggers. Well, that''s six down, now it''s fifteen to one. The odds are getting better and better. I quickly return to the corner to watch and listen for my next opportunity. Meanwhile, Tarrik is pacing back and forth when, suddenly, he hears a scream and, turning in the direction from which it came, sees his soldier, whom he had sent to the well, fall to his death. A few seconds after the body, the enchanted rope appears, whose coils cover the corpse like a shroud. Then, Tarrik''s enchanted torch is extinguished as Zamart''s dispeller reaches the well. The knightmander Tarrik shouts, "What the hell is going on?" I see all the soldiers staring at theirrade''s body and quickly move behind one of them. I move in again to cover his mouth as I stab him in the back and drag him back into the darkness. I leave the body in the hallway and then quickly move into the shadows towards the hallway leading to the goblinir. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Stealth skill has advanced to level 5! ¡Ì Stealth ¡Ì Level 5 - MP cost 15 Agility +5 - You can sneak up on average beings. It takes a minute for the soldiers to realize that theirpanion is missing. When they do, voices can be heard shouting and mingling. I wait patiently to see what they will do next. I don''t know why the magic rope and torch failed, but I am thankful for it. Knight Commander Tarrik shouts "SILENCE!!! !!!!" Knight Commander Tarrik says, "Panicking will only kill you! You and you stay here and wait for reinforcements to arrive. The rest of you with me, we will hunt this beast down." I watch as the leader and ten soldiers walk down the hallway towards the spiders''ir. They only stop for a minute at the corpse of the soldier. The two left behind have moved to stand below the pit and look up as if seeking salvation. This allows me to sneak up behind them and end their lives with two quick stabs. I extinguish their torches and then follow the rest into the passageway leading to the spider''sir. When I look around the corner, I see the leader and two soldiers standing in the hallway. ''Enough of the cat and mouse, let''s change the game!'' Four soldiers return from the direction of the tunnel to report nothing, while the other four return from inside the spider''sir to report six torches but only four bodies. Knight Commander Tarrik shouts, "Where the hell is this stupid beast!" "I''m here!" As I step into the light, I throw three bolts of fire, one at the leader and one at each of the two soldiers closest to him. The soldiers don''t react in time and are hit, but Tarrik is quick enough to pull one of the other soldiers in front of him and take the st. MP: 130/205 As the three soldiers go down in mes, I smile at Tarrik and run back towards the pit room. Knight Commander Tarrik shouts, "After him! Don''t let him get away! KILL HIM!" The seven remaining soldiers hesitate for a few seconds as they stare at the burned corpses of theirrades. Then they visibly pull themselves together and run off after me. Knight Commander Tarrik thinks, "How the hell can that thing use magic, especially when ours doesn''t work, did it?" Knight Commander Tarrik gasps as he runs after his men. Normally, his armor is enchanted to be lighter, so he''s not used to running with full weight. He catches up to his men in the pit room, they are standing looking at the two corpses of the men they left behind. Knight Commander Tarrik says, "Where the hell are our reinforcements, what''s going on up there?" Chapter 21: Warning to the King What happened in the Throne Room? Marvok''s point of view. The king sits on his throne watching as Tarrik prepares his men, they are waiting for the court magician to finish cing the magic rope to allow them to descend easily. I am standing next to the king as usual, also watching the preparations. King Raden says, "Where is Zamart? He should be here, he would have had the rope ready in a few moments." "Last I heard, he had gone back to his quarters to rest, should I tell someone to go get him?" King Raden says, "Yes, I want him here when Tarrik brings me the beastman''s head." "As youmand." With a wave of his hand, I send a guard to fetch Zamart. After the guard leaves, the court mage finally ces the rope and goes to join the other mages. Tarrik begins to send his men for the rope. -Tarrik, don''t you know that a goodmander leads his men? You''re nothing but a fat.... Coward and I hope the beastman kills you before you die. The king sits bored and impatient. Tarrik has been in the well for more than ten minutes. King Raden says, "What''s taking them so long?" "They''re probably having trouble finding him, Your Majesty. If he found a way out of the well, it could take them quite a while to find him." The Royal Guard says, "Your Majesty, someone ising this way." King Raden says, "Well, it''s about time!" Suddenly, the throne room goes dark and all the enchanted candles go out. At the same time, the king and I hear sounds of pain from the court magicians and a faint screaming from the well. As I look into the well, I can no longer see the rope. King Raden says "What just happened?" The court magician says "Sire, all our magic has been AAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" The king turns at that terrible scream and sees all the wizards in his court burst into mes. King Raden shouts "It''s an attack! We''re under attack!" All the royal guards rush to surround and protect the king. "Escort His Majesty out of here and take him to safety at once!" The royal guards take the king out through the secret door behind the throne. I stay behind to take control of the situation. "Someone find me a court magician who can exin what''s going on!" That is if any of them are still alive. The guard sent earlier to find the head court mage Zamart enters through the gates and rushes to inform me. The guard says, "Chancellor, the chief court magician Zamart is nowhere to be found, his chambers are empty, his things are missing." Did he run away? Or is he the one behind this? The guard says, "I do not know my lord." Several more guards return and say that all the court magicians are dead. I look around and remember the well. "Go get enough normal rope to pull and get our people out of there. Go see the smiths and check if the seal on the well is ready. Tell the servants to check the storeroom for normal candles and put them in ce. Alert the city guard and the army stationed in the capital to be on high alert." Each guard, when directed to do so, salutes and hurries to carry out my orders. I start pacing back and forth in front of the throne, trying to understand what is happening. Did Zamart betray us and do all this to us? Or is the beastman behind all this? I need to know what happened or the king will want my head. "You, you and you, go out into the city and find me a wizard, even an adventurer will do." The three guards salute and run out of the room. Shortly after, servants enter with candles and begin to ce and light them. Then several guards enter with a huge spool of rope and ce it next to the well. "Well, get that rope down there quick, I want to know what happened down there!" ''Tarrik, you''d better have that beast''s head or the king will have yours!'' Meanwhile, back at the Well, Klein''s point of view. Commander Tarrik says: "Don''t split up anymore, he''s taking us out a few at a time, did any of you see which passageway he went down?" The seven remaining guards look at each other before shaking their heads. Tarrik takes onest look down the shaft, but seeing nothing, turns back to studying the five passageways. Knight Commander Tarrik says, "We will hold our position here until we get help, he won''t try to attack us all at once!" Iugh and throw the two daggers I took from the dead soldiers. MP: 120/205 "Thud" "Thud" "Thud!" As the two soldiers fall with daggers in their throats, the rest turn around to try to see where they came from. I slowly walk in circles in the shadows looking for an opening. A terrified soldier says, "This isn''t a beastman! It''s a demon!" and runs off into the darkness dropping his torch behind him. "Hmm, only four of you left, this is getting boring. I think it''s time to end this." I step into the light holding a soldier''s sword in each hand. The four soldiers grip their weapons tightly but do not move. The knightmander Tarrik says, "What are you waiting for, kill him in the name of the king!" The four soldiers slowly approach me and disperse to surround me, while I stand there waiting quietly. I really should have practiced with two swords before this. But it always looked so cool in the anime, so I have to try it. I suddenly take a step forward raising both swords and then turn while stretching my arms. "Cut" "Cut" "Cut" "Cut" "Cut" ??-DING-?? - Congrattions, you have acquired thebat skill Sword Dancer! ¡Ì Sword Dancer ¡Ì Level 1 - Movement speed +5% Damage +5% when wielding two swords. - You dance the dance of death when wielding two swords. "What an amazing skill, it worked better than I expected!" Knight Commander Tarrik blinks and rubs his eyes. He can''t believe he has seen four of his soldiers felled in an instant by a mere beastman. He stares stupidly at me as I approach him. "You''re hismander aren''t you?" Knight Commander Tarrik says, "Um, uh, yeah?" -Then why were you always hiding behind them? I say you''re a coward! Knight Commander Tarrik says, "I''m the Knight Commander of His Majesty''s forces! Dealing with a piece of trash like you is..." "DEAF NOISE!" "Oh, sorry to interrupt, were you saying something?" The head lying on the ground, of course, does not respond. I quickly locate the soldier who has escaped, I find him in the mushroom area trying to crawl through one of the arches let through by the stream. I grab him by the back of the neck and lift him up, quickly remove his weapons and armor, and his bag of coins and leave him against the wall. "If you answer my questions I will let you live." The terrified soldier says, "All right." "What kingdom is this?" Terrified soldier says, "The Kingdom of Revalia." "What is the name of the king?" Terrified soldier says, "King Raden Feldster I." "What city is above us?" Terrified soldier says, "The King''s City, although it used to be called Emberly after the founding queen." "I found some living women down here captured by the goblins, how did they get here?" A terrified soldier says, "Some of the nobles use the well to get rid of toys they no longer use; those who want them to suffer give them a slow fall spell first." "Do you know the names of those nobles?" my voicees out as a threatening growl. The terrified soldier says, "N-No, I''m just amoner. I don''t know any of the nobles!" I will definitely find out the names of those nobles and when I do, they will die. preferably slowly! "Very well, I''ll keep my word and you can live." Terrified soldier says, "Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!" "But you must deliver a message to the king. Tell him that the beast man says this trash will be thest thing he will ever see in his life." Terrified soldier says, "Yeah, yeah, whatever you say!" "All right, get out of here." Terrified soldier says, "Um, I don''t know the way!" I sigh and lift the soldier up and carry him to the well, now there is a rope hanging there. I push the soldier towards the rope. "Wait." I pick up Tarrik''s head and tie it to the soldier''s belt. -Get that to the king, now go! The terrified soldier jumps up, grabs the rope and starts climbing as if all the demons in hell are after him. I grab the bottom of the rope and stand under the well watching until the soldier disappears. As I expected, a few minutester the rope starts to climb, I wait until it tightens and pull it with all my strength. Then I step aside and wait, a few secondster two bodies fall to the ground followed by the rope spindle. I gather all the rope and start gathering all the corpses, after stripping them naked I pile them directly under the well. At least if more people hit the ground, they might have a softernding. Meanwhile, in the Throne Room, Marvok''s point of view. Once I am sure that no attack is taking ce, the king returns to the throne room to receive my report. I tell the king everything that has happened and all the details. King Raden says, "Why would you summon an adventuring wizard to the castle?" "Because with all the court wizards dead and Zamart missing, we have no one who can cast spells to determine what really happened, Your Majesty." The king is about to respond when one of the royal guards shouts that someone is climbing up the rope. We all turn to watch the well expectantly to see if Tarrik has seeded. When they help the soldier out of the well and we see his terrified face and head tied to his belt, everyone is shocked. King Raden says, "Soldier report! Where are yourrades, what happened to Tarrik?" Terrified soldier says "All dead, your majesty! That monster killed everyone!" King Raden says "What, impossible!" -So how did you survive, soldier? Terrified soldier says "He let me live to deliver the head and a message to Your Majesty." King Raden says "What message?" Terrified soldier says: "He told me to tell you ''This garbage will be thest thing you ever see!" King Raden says "WHAT!!! You dare! The guards kill this coward!" One of the royal guards immediately approaches and draws his sword, to everyone''s surprise the soldier doesn''t try to run, in fact he even looks peaceful as he is decapitated. "No one else ising, pull the rope and prepare to seal the well." Two royal guards begin to pull the rope, but secondster they both scream as they are dragged into the well and the reel holding the rope is released. Everyone is paralyzed with surprise, then the king begins to scream and shout. King Raden shouts, "I''ll send a thousand soldiers after him! There won''t be any safe ce anywhere that scum can hide from me!" I watch the king rant and rave, and wonder if Zamart foresaw this and that''s why he disappeared. Chapter 22: The sewers [ 1 ] In the sewers About fifteen minutester, I return to my base with my arms full of swords and daggers that I took from the soldier, but I discover that my camp is in darkness. All the torches are out, luckily I don''t need them to see. I jump across the river, drop the stuff on the ground and pick up one of the torches to take a look at it. As I examine it, I find something written on the top, where the me normally is. There are two words in the ancientnguage; when I trante them, they are "ignite" and "extinguish." "Ignite!" The torch lights up when I say themand word. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, you have acquired the magic skill Ignite! ¡Ì Ignite ¡Ì Level 1 - MP cost 5 - You can light small fires. "How handy, no more rubbing sticks together for half an hour!" But did I get that from the torch or just from seeing how the magic worked? Hmm, let''s see,nguage is an expression of thoughts. In anime, chanting spells is a means of shaping your thoughts correctly. So, if I understand how magic works and can create the form in my mind, do I get the ability? "Extinguish!" ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, you have acquired the magic skill Extinguish! ¡Ì Extinguish ¡Ì Level 1 - MP cost 5 - You can extinguish small fires. I then turn around and light all the torches. Before experimenting further, I make two more trips down to the pit to retrieve the equipment I stole from the soldiers. I seal the false wall as much as I can on myst trip. On my return, I quickly catch a couple of fish and build a small fire. ''Light up!'' MP: 115/205 As the small pile of kindling begins to burn merrily, I smile and ce the fish on top to roast. Looking at my dwindling supply of firewood, I realize I need to find more soon. I look around and see that I still have a lot of work to do in my new camp. While the fish is cooking, I walk around my camp area, pick up all the poisonous mushrooms and throw them across the river. After eating, I decide to test my theory. I sit and concentrate on a stone and form in my mind the image of Mana moving the stone for me. I extend my hand and concentrate, and after a minute the stone flies into my hand. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, you''ve acquired the magic skill Remote Hand! ¡Ì Remote Hand ¡Ì Level 1 - MP cost 10 - You can use mana to manipte objects. You can lift a weight up to 5 lbs, distance up to 20 ft. "Ha, it worked! The Force is powerful in me! Ha ha ha ha ha ha!" Well, if that worked, then improving my knowledge of magic should pave my way to new abilities. Now the question is: can I apply my knowledge of physics to magic? I''ll have to try thatter. For the moment, I think I''ve done enough for one day, so I set out to meditate for the night. I meditate for the next eight hours because, while I didn''te to any harm, I went through a lot on a mental level and I want to be sure I''ve had adequate rest. The next morning I get up from my meditation and look around. I don''t really have space to do my usual routine, so first I start cleaning the area. First I pick up all the loose stones and pile them up along the river bank. Then I get to work with the mushrooms, there are six types that I don''t recognize, one of which is huge, almost four feet tall. I tear off a small piece and taste it, then immediately spit it out, it is definitely not edible. However, it has the consistency of wood, so maybe I can use it for other things. The next guy I pick up gives me a bad feeling just before I put it in my mouth, so I stop. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Danger Sense skill has advanced to level 2! ¡Ì Danger Sense. ¡Ì Level 2 - Wisdom +2 - A feeling that warns you of great danger. Yeah, I definitely won''t try that one! I immediately pick up all of that type in my area and throw them into the river. The next type doesn''t arouse my sense of danger, so I try it, it''s good and it''s not poisonous. The next three are also not poisonous, so I collect a bunch of the six edible types. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Herb Gathering skill has advanced to level 4! ¡Ì Herb Gathering ¡Ì Level 4 - Intelligence. +4 - You will be able to collect useful herbs and nts. I then fill a pot with water and ce it on the tripod on some wood. Then I cut up all the mushrooms I have collected and put them in the pot. Next, I catch three fish to add to my stew. Once everything is ready, I look at the wood and think "Light it" and the wood starts burning instantly. MP: 200/205 While the stew is cooking, I go through my normal exercises and, before doing anybat work, I take a breastte and use it to rake the cleared ground to make it more level. I then take two of the soldiers'' swords and begin abat routine. I move faster than normal thanks to the new skill and keep trying dance moves. I keep working on it until the stew is ready, by which time I''m pretty exhausted anyway. After I finish eating, I put aside the leftovers forter and then clean and maintain my equipment. After that, it''s time to sort through the loot I got from the soldiers yesterday; none of the gear is as good as what I''m already using, although the daggers are better than the goblin ones. Next, I empty all the pouches from my belt and count the money. 128 Gold 439 Silver 64 Copper. Well, at least now I''ll have money to spend when I get out of here. I put all the coins in a pouch and stowed it safely under my belt. Then I put on my gear and weapons and set out to explore a bit. I went back into the tunnel and then turned around, but this time, as I headed towards my base, I took the first right that I ignored earlier. I head down the corridor and after about six meters I start to see spider webs. Over the next ten meters the cobwebs get thicker until the hallway opens up into a room covered in cobwebs. The room looks round, but it''s hard to tell because of all the cobwebs, so I stop at the door and look around carefully. It takes me a minute, but I can see three giant spiders, two are the size of the one I killed in the hole, the third is more than twice the size. Hi mom. I wonder how cute your core is. Luckily, the spiders are spread out around the room, so hopefully I can take them down one by one. I think killing the two smaller spiders first will be easier. So I draw my sword and, with the shield on my arm, I take off running towards the nearest spider. Thanks to the set bonus, I can run through the web to where the spider is. I''m pretty sure that, if spiders could look surprised, this one would. Knowing how tough the spider''s carapace is, I aim for the joint of a leg with my first strike. I easily sever the leg and then dance backwards to avoid the spider''s bite. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Dodge skill has advanced to level 3! ¡Ì Dodge ¡Ì Level 3 - Defense +3 - Your agility allows you to evade attacks. After dodging the spider''s bite, I dart backwards to cut off a second leg, and since its mobility is reduced, I can try to kill it. Instead, I get a bad feeling and leap to the side, narrowly avoiding the bite of the second, smaller spider. ''Phew, I was hoping they wouldn''t help each other!'' I quickly check and see that the big one hasn''t moved but the distraction costs me money as I can''t dodge the second spider bite unharmed. - You''ve suffered a bite attack! 28 HP damage! - You''ve been poisoned! 43 HP damage! HP: 477/548 I move quickly backwards, away from the wounded spider and, as I expected, the second spider follows me as the wounded one stands still. As soon as the second spider is a decent distance from the first, I attack, again aiming for a leg joint first. I block the spider''s bite with my shield and drive my sword into one of the joints of its body shell. I receive a ssh of green ichor as a reward as I release the sword and leap backwards to avoid another bite. I move closer, luring the spider to try to bite me again, and when it does, I dodge the bite and cut off a second leg. Now that I have the advantage of mobility, I''m confident I can kill the spider as long as the other two stay away. I stab the spider twice more as I dodge the bites and it moves slower and slower. Then my foot catches on a strand of web and I stumble and the spider bites me before I can regain my bnce. - You''ve suffered a bite attack! 26 HP damage! - You''ve been poisoned! 43 HP damage! HP: 408/548 ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Poison Resistance skill has advanced to level 5! ¡Ì Poison Resistance ¡Ì Level 5 - Resistance +5 - You take 25% less poison damage. Well, that will help a little, but I''d rather not poison myself any more. I walk slowly around the spider as I catch my breath. I also check the other two to make sure they haven''t moved. Being more careful with my bnce, I dance closer and stab the spider again, then step aside to avoid its bite and stab it again. Now the spider starts to wobble a bit as it moves and I know it''s close to dying. Instead of waiting for it to die, I reach over and punch it in the face as it tries to bite me and then plunge my sword deep into its body. With a shudder he copses and his remaining legs curl upward. I keep my eye on the other two as I stab it again to make sure it is dead. Once I''m sure it''s dead, I start walking through the cobwebs toward the wounded one, keeping my eye on the big one. It takes me a few minutes of dancing, but I manage to kill it without it biting me. Now that I know how they move, it''s much easier to finish them off. I hope the big one moves the same way. With only the big one I slowly approach it, watching it closely to see how it will react. What happens next takes me by surprise, the big one opens its mouth and suddenly throws a web at me. I''m too surprised to move out of the way and the web covers me, but after a second it falls to the ground as it can''t stick to me thanks to the set bonus. I take this opportunity to leap forward and thrust my sword into the spider''s open mouth. I quickly draw my sword and move out of the spider''s reach. I am rewarded with a jet of green ichor spurting from the spider''s mouth. Then, for the first time, therge spider moves and I find myself in trouble immediately. Every time the spider moves, the webs bounce and sway, so I have to make a great effort to stay on my feet. It''s like trying to fight on an active trampoline and the big spider has no problem moving. Suddenly, the big spider moves much faster, much faster than something this big should be able to move, and the bounce of the webunches me into the air. I have no chance to dodge it and the spider catches me in mid-air and bites me. - You''ve suffered a bite attack! 75 HP damage! - You''ve been poisoned! 143 HP damage! HP: 190/549 I scream out in pain as the venom tears through me like fire, knowing that another bite will kill me. I plunge my sword into the spider up to the hilt and leave it there. When the spider releases me, I drop onto the web and move away from it as fast as I can. Once I''m a good distance away, I stand up and draw my spare des. When I look back, I see the big spider iling around. trying to pull the sword out with its legs. I look around trying to think of a way to finish him off without getting close enough for him to bite me, when I seeing all the webs moving and rubbing together, Ie up with a crazy idea. Okay, now concentrate, use mana to gather all the static electricity in the room into a single point on my hand, then throw it at the hilt of the sword! Thunder deafens me as a bolt of lightning shoots from my hand into the hilt of the sword trapped in the spider. MP: 130/205 ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, you have acquired the magic skill Lightning Bolt! ¡Ì Lightning ¡Ì Level 1 - MP cost 75 - You cast a lightning bolt that deals 100 points of electrical damage. I was surprised because I only expected a small arc, not a full lightning bolt, but I happily watched the spider il and die after being hit. I simply sat on the web and watched the spider as it caught its breath. I didn''t want to go near it until it stopped moving. Chapter 23: The sewers [ 2 ] As I wait for it to stop moving, I grab a single strand of webbing with both hands and try to break it. Even trying with all my might I can''t, so I start thinking of ways I can use it. I grab a cut leg and cut off a segment, then take a single strand of spider web and start unraveling it and winding it around the leg segment. It takes me almost an hour topletely finish a single strand, but the thread is almost twelve meters long. By then, the spider has stopped moving, so I think it''s time to start dismantling the spiders. I go out into the hallway and clear an area of web to work with, then pull out the first small spider and start cutting off all of its legs. I then begin to carefully remove the entire carapace in sections and stack them to the side, finally I remove the core of the beast. "ITEM." ¡Ì Beast Core - Quality: Inferior Would you like to absorb it? Y/N "Yes!" - You''ve absorbed an inferior beast core! HP +25 MP +25 strength +2 Agility +2 Stamina +2 Endurance +2 I then drag the stripped corpse into the main tunnel and push it aside. I then return to the spider''sir and pull the second small spider out into the hallway. I remove its legs, carapace and beast core. - You have absorbed an inferior beast core! HP +25 MP +25 Strength +2 Agility +2 Endurance +2 Resistance+2 I again drag the naked corpse towards the main tunnel with the intention of dropping it along with the other one, but when I reach the main tunnel the first corpse is gone. I immediately drop the corpse and unsheathe my sword, then look around carefully. I see nothing, so I retreat into the shadows of the corridor and crouch down to wait. About thirty minutester, two rat men appear and grab the spider corpse. I kill them both before they know I''m there. - Killing the rat men 9/30 I cut them open to remove their beast cores, but leave the bodies there. - You have absorbed the core of the Lesser Beast. HP +5 MP +5 - You have absorbed the core of the Lesser Beast. HP +5 MP +5 I then return to the spider''sir to start working on the big one. Its corpse is too big to fit through the door, so I have to remove its legs and remove its carapace from the room. Then, I remove the core of the beast, which is quite a bitrger. "ITEM." ¡Ì Beast Core - Quality: Major Would you like to absorb it? Y/N. "Major? Y/N!!!" - You have absorbed the core of the Greater Beast. HP +100 MP+100 Strength +10 Agility +10 Resistance +10 ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, you have acquired the active skill Crashing! ¡Ì Star ¡Ì Level 1 - MP cost 10 - Your speed is doubled. Duration: 10 seconds "Wow, the beast core gave me an ability? And an awesome ability! It was worth fighting it!" I pile up the entire carapace and drag it behind me as I return to the base. I keep an eye out for rat men, but I''m not too worried about them. When I reach the river, I throw the pile of shells across before jumping in. I pick up the shell and ce it against the wall with all the other stuff I''ve gathered. Looking at the piles, I worry that I''m bing something of a hoarder. Then I eat some more stew and read a bit, then decide to go into inner world meditation and burn my mana that is sapping my core. - MP: 0/365 - Core upgrade progress: 2%. I then go into normal meditation for eight hours. HP: 430/759 MP: 240/365 When I wake up from my meditation, I''m surprised to find that my HP and MP are now high enough that I can''t recover them in just eight hours. I''ll have to avoid using mana during the day so I can be full tomorrow to summon Ruby. "It''s a week tomorrow, isn''t it? It''s really hard to keep track here." Well, I guess I''ll have to call her tomorrow and see. I get up and do my normal exercise routine and then finish the cold stew for breakfast. I''m really sick of fish and mushrooms, I would literally kill for some bacon and eggs! After I finish eating, I go back to the spiderir and spend four hours collecting more spools of webs; luckily, each one makes the next one easier because there are fewer to untangle. By then, I have a total of six reels and the web is about a quarter dismantled, enough to start seeing the floor, which is also covered in webs. I expect to find bodies and possibly equipment down there. I pick up the reels I have so far and go back to the base, once there I start unwinding them and use ck Razor to cut them into three meter sections. I then take one of the shells and cut a small hole in it, then take each segment and wash it in the river, then run it through the hole and pull it to scrape and clean it. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, you''ve acquired the Tailoring craft skill! ¡Ì Tailoring ¡Ì Level 1 - Agility +1 Intelligence +1 - You can make rudimentary clothing. Once all the spider silk thread is clean, I start braiding pieces together to make a rope and then weave the rope together. "CREATED ITEM" ¡Ì Spider silk hammock. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Tailoring skill has advanced to level 2! ¡Ì Tailoring ¡Ì Level 2 - Agility +2 Intelligence +2 - You can make rudimentary clothing. I take my new hammock and ce it between two rock spurs, then climb into it to try it out. I find it veryfortable and think I can use it for reading or when I really want to sleep. Then I go back to braiding ropes and weaving them into something else. "CREATED ITEM" ¡Ì Spider silk fishing. This will make fishing a lot easier! So I decide to try it right away and manage to catch two fish on my second cast. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Fishing skill has advanced to level 5! ¡Ì Fishing ¡Ì Level 5 - Agility +5 - You are an expert at fishing. After a few more casts, I have six fish, so I decide to grill two now for lunch and save the rest for dinner. After lunch, I return to the spiders''ir to gather more spools of webbing. It takes me six hours to finish removing therge web that had epassed the entire room. I return to camp and sit down to cook my fish. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Cooking skill has advanced to level 5! ¡Ì Cooking ¡Ì Level 5 - Intelligence. +5 - You can cook decent food. After dinner, Iy in my new hammock to read for a while. I can finish History of the Empire III in about two hours. Then I settle in to meditate for eight hours. It takes me a while to clear my mind because I''m looking forward to summoning Ruby tomorrow. HP: 670/759 MP: 365/365 When I get up the next morning I decide to skip the exercises and just go get breakfast. While the fish is cooking and I eat, I start reading the Diary of an Archmage. As soon as I finish eating and cleaning up after breakfast, I get ready to summon Ruby. With my current mana, I can summon Ruby and keep her around for more than two days, or more if I can meditate and still regain mana while she is summoned. "Activate summoning!" MP: 265/365 When the spell activates, a pir of me forms out of nowhere and after it fades away, Ruby is standing there with a smile on her face. Ruby says "Hello Master!" Chapter 24: Ruby [ 1 ] "Master? What''s with the greeting?" Ruby smiles and says, "Well, you summoned me, so you''re my master now, right? Besides, I wanted to see the expression on your face, Master." At least she can''t see me blush thanks to the fur. Why can all women make me react so easily? "It''s okay, you can drop the master thing and just call me Klein." Rubyughs and says, "As youmand, master!" "Anyway, now we have plenty of time to talk. I should be able to keep you here for at least a couple of days." Ruby says, "Yes, I can sense that you''ve gotten stronger, do you mind if I ask how you were able to get so much stronger in such a short time?" "Mainly by absorbing beast cores." Ruby opens her mouth but doesn''t say anything, lookingpletely stunned. Oh, did I say something weird? Ruby says, "Did you really say you''ve been absorbing beast cores?" -Yes, why, is it weird? Ruby says "Weird? It should be impossible!" "Oh, well, uh, didn''t you know?" Ruby says "How exactly do you absorb it, do you eat it or something?" "No, I just hold it in my hand and have the option to absorb it." Ruby says "Option, aren''t you using a spell or something?" I exin to Ruby how my skill and stat system seems to work, and how after Observe gives me the information from a core, it gives me the option to absorb it. Ruby says, "That''s absolutely amazing, I''ve never heard of anything like that. Then again, beast cores were something new back then, so maybe it''s something we hadn''t discovered yet." "Oh, that brings me to one of my many questions - can you tell me about the ssifications of beast cores? And of elementals?" Ruby says, "Of course, they are the same anyway. From lowest to highest, the rankings are: lowest, middle, highest and supreme." "So, you used to be the second highest and now you''re the lowest?" Ruby says, "Yes, unfortunately, with elementals the power slowly fades if we are not active. So, being trapped in those chains for hundreds of years allowed all my power to slowly fade, and now I have to start from scratch. At least I kept my humanoid form." "The lesser elementals aren''t humanoid?" Ruby says, "No, elementals start out as fire blobs with eyes, it''s usually around the higher stage that we acquire a humanoid form and the ability to speak." "Well, I''m d you haven''t lost your form or your ability to speak. By the way, are you fully recovered? I didn''t call you too soon, did I?" Ruby says, "No, you didn''t. My mana has fully recovered. Thanks for caring, Klein." "Yeah, uh, it''s kind of hard to keep track of the days here." Ruby says, "Oh yeah, I know exactly what you mean." "So, now that you''re free, how do you go about getting your former power back, do you level up?" Ruby says, "No, elementals don''t have levels, we just have our degrees of power. In the ne of fire we get stronger by absorbing the power of the ne, hunting creatures native to the ne or fighting and absorbing other elementals." "What happens while you are summoned, is there any way for you to be more powerful while you are here?" Ruby says, "I''m not sure, after all, the only time I spent on this ne so far was trapped in those chains. I would probably get stronger fighting things here, but I don''t know for sure." I stare at Ruby and activate Observe. ========== - Name: Ruby - Race: Minor Fire Elemental - Title: None - HP: 150/150 - MP350/350 ========== Would you like Ruby to be your pet? Y/N. "Familiar? Like a wizard''s familiar? How does that work?" Ruby says, "Not that I mind, but is there a reason you''re staring at me so hard?" "Oh, uh, sorry!" I say as I blush. Ruby smiles and says, "Did you know that fire elementals don''t see the same way you do? Instead, we see patterns and heat changes. What I mean is that when you blush, I can see the heat rise to your cheeks even through your fur." This just makes me blush even more and I stare at my feet. Ruby says, "Oh master, you are so cute!" "Ahem! No, I was looking at you to use one of my abilities, observe. It allows me to see your state, and when I did, an option popped up. It asked me if I wanted to make you my familiar." Ruby says, "Ah, so you were watching my status, familiar? What''s that?" "Well, in my old world it was a term in the games that meant a servant or magicalpanion." Ruby says, "Well, we''re already bonded, so I don''t see any harm in another bond, do you know what effect it will have?" "Unfortunately I have no idea what will happen." Ruby says, "Well, I''m always open to new things, so unless you don''t mind, let''s go ahead and try it." "No, I don''t mind if you don''t. I just didn''t want to do anything that might affect you without your permission." Ruby says, "Oh, what a polite teacher! Yes, go ahead and make me your familiar." "Yes, will you make Ruby my familiar?" ??-DING-??. - Confirm: make elemental Ruby into a familiar? Y/N - Warning: the choice once made is irrevocable! "Wow, that''s never happened before!" Ruby says "What''s the matter, nothing happened?" "Well, when I selected to make you my familiar it asked me to confirm and then warned me that it was irrevocable." Ruby says "Oh, sounds just like the bond, once done it''s for life. I''m still fine with it, we''re already bonded after all." "Okay, okay, confirm, make Ruby my familiar!" MP: 10/365 - Confirmed, Elemental Ruby will now be Klein''s familiar! As the mana drained from me, it swirled around Ruby in all colors of fire. After a few seconds, Ruby ispletely hidden and continues to hide her form for several minutes. When the swirling energies fade and Ruby reveals herself, I can''t help but stare at her open-mouthed. Ruby now looks like a human woman in her early twenties and is wearing an oriental-style red silk dress with me prints. Her skin is dark and her hair is long and red with orange and yellow highlights, so that when she moves she gives the impression of dancing mes. The only thing that hasn''t changed are his eyes, which are still a deep, solid ruby red. Ruby says, "Master, what''s wrong, did something happen?" ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the skill evolution urred! - Skill summoning has evolved to elemental summoning! ¡Ì Elemental summoning ¡Ì Level 1 - MP cost 100 +5/hour - You can summon a minor elemental of the desired element. "Um uh, well... How to exin this?" "How do you feel Ruby, do you feel any different?" Ruby says, "No, I feel fine, why, what''s wrong?" "Well, you seem to have transformed into something different. You don''t seem the same anymore." Ruby looks down at herself and lets out a gasp of surprise. She looks down at her hands and then touches her face. Then she runs to the river to look at herself in the reflection. Suddenly, she runs back and grabs Klein''s face with her hands. Ruby says "Does that burn you?" "No, your hands are pleasantly warm. Nothing else." Suddenly Ruby smiles and says "You mean my touch won''t hurt you anymore? I won''t destroy everything I touch?" Suddenly Ruby sits up and starts crying hot tears, but from the smile on her face I can tell they are tears of happiness. "I''m not sure what happened, but I think it''s safe to say that from now on you will only destroy what you want." Ruby rushes over to me and hugs me as she cries into my fur. Ruby says, "Thank you, Master, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!" Chapter 25: Ruby [ 2 ] It takes a few minutes for Ruby''s excitement to subside, but I have no intention ofining. I''m quite enjoying the hug. When Ruby finally pulls away, she suddenly starts rubbing my chest and apologizing. When I look over, I see a few patches of hair burned from her tears. -Don''t worry, I didn''t feel anything. Ruby says, "I''m sorry, I''ve never cried before. In fact, I don''t think I was capable of crying before now." "That''s okay. And at least your first time crying was from happiness. I''m d you''re not mad at me for what happened." Ruby says, "Why should I be mad, this is unbelievable!" "Because in my old world most people found change scary and to hide their fear they would get angry." Ruby smiles and says, "I''m not the human Klein." -Of course! But we still need to find out who you are. -I look at her and activate Observe. ========== - Name: Ruby - Race: me Spirit, minor - Title: Klein''s familiar. - ss: Familiar - Level: 1 - HP: 250/250 - MP: 50/550 - Strength: 32 - Agility: 36 - Endurance: 30 - Intelligence: 36 - Physical: 34 - Charm: 34 ========== "How is it possible that she gets levels and I don''t, it''s not fair!" Ruby says "What do you see, can I see it?" "I don''t know, maybe. Try thinking STATE." Ruby says "Oh, I see it! Oh, wow! Oh, wow!" "What, what do you see?" Ruby says "I can see everything! And now I''m a Spirit!" "A spirit like those little bursts of light I saw?" Ruby says, "Yes, those are typical lesser spirits, but that''s just the beginning, humans often mistake greater spirits for gods. Okay, so humans are below elementals, right? What I mean is that a lesser elemental can easily kill most ordinary humans. Well, elementals are below spirits in the same way that humans are below elementals." "s, for humans, but okay, I think I get it, where does that leave beastmen?" Ruby says, "Normal beastmen are above humans who have no magic, but still below elementals. You are unique and I have no idea where you came from." "That''s okay, I can live with that. By the way, I don''t see any skills or abilities, do you?" Ruby says, "Yes. I have one skill, five magical skills and one normal skill. The ability is Fire Life, which means fire damage heals me. The magic skills are Fire Fist, Fireball, me Shield, me Weapon and Summon Fire Elemental. The skill is... Fire Dancing? "That skill would be great! The others seem useful, but what is Fire Dancing?" Ruby says "I have no idea, should I try using it?" "Sure, use that clear area, it''s where I do my training." Ruby gets up and walks over to the clear area. "Can you make some kind of music?" "I can try." I grab a breastte and start ying it with the drums, then start whistling the tune to one of my favorite anime. Ruby starts dancing to the music, and as she does, the area around her fills with dancing mes that mimic her movements. I''mpletely enchanted by her dance and can''t take my eyes off her. "No! Damn it Klein, you shouldn''t be thinking such things!" I thought. Ruby suddenly stops and says, "Oh, the skill has gone up a notch!" "Haha, yeah, that''s a great feeling, isn''t it?" Ruby says "Yes it is!" with a smile. "Okay, I noticed that your mana was low like mine, but since I made you a familiar, it hasn''t decreased. Also, my ability to summon you changed to normal elementals. I guess that means you''re no longer a summon and it''s possible that you''re here full time." Ruby says sarcastically, "Oh no, you mean I''m stuck here with you, Master?" "You might not be so enthusiastic once you taste my food!" I say with a smile. Rubyughs and says, "Well, since I''ve never eaten before, I''ll be able to honestly say it''s the best thing I''ve ever eaten." Iugh as I grab my and head to the river to catch some fish. While I''m fishing, Ruby gets the fire ready and lights it, she keeps ncing sideways at me as she works. After catching some fish, I jump into the river and pick some mushrooms before jumping back in and sitting down to prepare a stew. "Ah, yes. When you first told me you were imprisoned, did you mention anything about a forge?" Ruby says, "Ah, you remember that? Yes, the Archmage used to ask me to power his forge when he made magic items." "Really, where is it?" Ruby says, "In the cave where she was chained." "But I looked there! There were no illusions hiding anything." Ruby says "No, it''s not an illusion, you have to apply mana to a certain rock to open it." "Can you teach me? I want to teach myself the cksmith skill." Ruby says "Of course I can be Master, but after we eat?" "Sure, sure, it''s almost ready. Oh, sorry, I only have a bowl and a spoon, so we''ll have to share." Ruby smiles and says, "No, it''s totally fine with me." Once the stew is ready, I fill the bowl and hand it and the spoon to Ruby and show her how to use it. Ruby takes a spoonful and then grimaces. "Is it terrible?" Ruby says, "No, it''s just a strange feeling, but I really enjoy it." We pass the dish back and forth, eating and enjoying the pleasant silence. We eat about half of the stew I prepared. "Once we get out of here, I can''t wait to present the meal to you with spices and sweets." Ruby says, "I''ll look forward to it, master. Should we go to the forge now?" "No, that can wait until tomorrow. For now I want to test your skills and make sure we both know how they work in case we need to use them inbat." Ruby says, "Sure. I wanted to test them anyway." "I''m pretty sure I know what Fire Fists does, and we don''t have room for Fireball, so let''s start with Fire Shield." With a nod, Ruby turns and activates the ability; instead of a shield appearing on her arm, arge shield appears floating in the air. "Ah, it''s that kind of shield! Useful, can you change its shape or move it?" Ruby tries and says, "I can move it, but I can''t change its shape." "Okay, next time you throw it, try to imagine a different shape. For now, I''m going to attack it so we can gauge how much damage it can take. Ruby nods and stops moving the shield, I draw my sword and swing at it. "CRACK!" The shield resists but it''s riddled with cracks, obviously it won''t withstand another hit. "Don''t be disappointed, I hit very hard. Based on that, I could withstand five or six normal attacks. Okay, go ahead and discard it and try Firearm next." Ruby concentrates and then says, "Nothing happens when I activate the spell." "I see. Okay, try this. -Then I hand you my sword." Ruby takes the sword in her hand and activates the ability. Immediately the sword is covered in mes. "Okay, it''s a spell to enhance a weapon, do you know how to use a weapon?" Ruby says, "No. I''ve never needed to use one before." "Okay, I''ll teach you, anyway I''m curious to see if you can learn skills like I do now." I approach Ruby and show her how to hold the sword and how to swing it. Neither of us mention that our hearts are racing as we get closer. After showing her the steps, I step back and ask her to practice a few strokes. Ruby says, "Did I just acquire a new skill called Basic Sword Knowledge?" "Excellent! That means you can learn skills just like me!" Ruby hands me back my sword, sits down and says, "Sorry, I don''t have much mana left." "No, that''s okay. That''s the next skill I n to teach you anyway. Now sit down like me." I sit cross-legged and wait for Ruby to mimic me. "Now close your eyes, breathe evenly and try to clear your mind. If this works, you will gain a skill called Meditation." After a few minutes, Ruby says, "Okay, I get it, that''s helpful!" "Yes, it''s one of the best skills I''ve acquired being stuck here. Now we''ll meditate until morning." So we both sit facing each other, about a foot apart, and meditate for the next ten hours. Chapter 26: Outside In the Throne Room of the Castle, Marvok''s point of view. King Raden sits and rages as he waits for me to bring him the report from the wizard adventurer they have hired to determine what happened. When I walk in alone and dismiss everyone else, the king knows it can''t be good news. King Raden says, "Well, how bad is it?" "Your Majesty, all enchantments in the castle and all enchanted objects inside the castle, including those in the vault, havepletely dissipated. The adventurer confirmed that both the dispelling and the spell that killed the court mages were cast by Zamart, so he has definitely betrayed her." The king goes into a rage and smashes everything that falls into his hands. I calmly stand aside and wait for his tantrum to pass. After all, it''s not the first tantrum the royal guards and I have witnessed, and the king will be more serene after exhausting himself. A few minutester, the king copses on his throne panting. King Raden says, "Huff, well, what''s next?" "The Illium Wizards Guild has asked for twenty thousand gold to send a group of wizards to re-enchant the castle." King Raden says, "Very well, do it. Oh, and create a residence tax for those nobles who choose to live in my castle and constantly bother me. If they will live here, they can help pay for the enchantments." "Yes, my king." "Why, I suppose from time to time you might have a good idea. But it doesn''tpare to the former queen." "We must also consider the court magicians. We''ll have to hire a trainer for them once we find new mages. May I suggest we open up recruitment to includemoners? There are few noble children left who have magical potential." King Raden says, "Never! I will not entrust power tomoners! Just recruit all the nobles who have magical potential and hire a trainer for them. After all, if we just wait a bit, there will be more noble sons, all nobles always produce children. In fact, order all lords to check their illegitimate children, those who have magic should be legitimate and given to the crown to be court magicians." Yes, that should give us approximately ten times as many children to choose from. If I phrase it correctly, some of those children will have a much better future ahead of them than they do now. "So shall it be done, my king. Thest point you must consider is Tarrik''s recement as knightmander. Unfortunately, his second inmand and the most capable candidate is amoner by birth." King Raden says: "No, by no means. Choose the highest ranking nobleman serving in the army." "I think that would be Sir Raveos." He''s just like Tarrik, all bluster and no brains. With him at the head of the army we''ll be lucky to win any battle where we don''t outnumber the enemy. King Raden says, "Then summon him and I will promote him and exin his duties." "At once, my king!" King Raden says, "If that is all, then you are dismissed." I bow to the king and leave the throne room. The king waits until the doors close behind me. King Raden says "Quill!!!" Spymaster Quill steps out of the shadow cast by the throne and kneels next to the king. Master spy Quill says "Your orders, Your Majesty?" King Raden says: "Spread rumors that Zamart sold himself to Gundar''s Empire and put a bounty of ten thousand gold on his head." Master spy Quill says, "As you wish, Your Majesty, is there anything else?" King Raden says: "Someone keep an eye on Marvok, he''s too soft onmoners for my taste." Master spy Quill says, "By yourmand!" Quill disappears into the shadows, leaving the king pondering and nning his revenge. Out of the Forest of Fangs Zamart''s point of view. I have been walking for a few days now and have enjoyed the freedom it affords me. Now I am entering the boundaries of the Fang Forest and pause to cast some spells. I''d better be ready to defend myself in case I run into real bandits or a mana beast. While I''m at it, I cast a spell to peek into the castle''s past and see what happened after I left. When I see that Tarrik is dead, a big smile appears on my face and then I walk into the forest. Wow, I really underestimated that beast man, to think he took out Tarrik, if I ever find him, I owe him an apology and a thank you. So I walked further into the forest, in such a good mood that I whistled as I walked. Of course, that made it easier to find me. Half an hourter, the "bandits" surrounded me and confronted me. Bandits says, "Stop where you are and identify yourself!" "Well, you didn''t ask for my valuables, so I expect you to be part of the rebels. As for me, I am the former head mage of the Zamart court and I have valuable information for your leaders." The armed men chat for a while and then surround me and escort me into the forest. About an hourter we arrive at the rebel camp. There are several defensive ditches surrounding the camp and some tents scattered inside. I am taken to thergest tent under guard and told to sit on the ground and wait. I do as I am told and wait for about five minutes before someone new enters the tent. I am surprised to see that it was a woman and I am even more surprised when I recognize her. She is a striking woman with bright red hair that would be hard to forget. "Miss Alexa, I heard you were dead!" Alexa says, "No, despite the king''s best efforts, I''m still alive and well, and you can forget about the dy'', I''m Alexa or themander here. Now, Zamart, what are you doing here and why are you the former chief wizard of the court?" "Well, that''s a bit of history, but first I have much more important news. Somewhere in the northern part of the kingdom, an army of ten thousand new soldiers is currently being trained, plus, the king was able to summon the fifty summoned early." Alexa stares at me in shock upon hearing the news. She staggers over to a camping chair and plops down in it. Alexa says, "Are you sure about this, it''s not just a rumor you heard?" "Yes, absolutely sure, I was there when the king ordered Tarrik to double the size of the army in secret and I also helped with the summoning spell, to my shame." Alexa says "I don''t understand, the army is strong enough to wipe us out." "There is no need for him to double it just for us anymore." "You are not the target, he is nning tounch a surprise attack against the other nations. He wants to unify the continent and be emperor." Alexa says "That''s crazy, I can''t believe it!" ???? says "Sure I can." I turn around to see who is speaking. I see a young woman in her early twenties, with short blonde hair and green eyes. When I recognize her, my eyes widen and my mouth opens wide. After a second, I drop to my knees. -I thought you were dead! Please forgive this old man for waiting so long to act! Mercy says, "You can stand up and please call me Mercy, that''s how the rebels know me. What do you mean by acting? What have you done?" I stay kneeling and say, "Princess, forgive me for not being able to save your sister. Let me convey to you everything I know about the king''s ns and what has happened recently and then you can execute me." Mercy takes my shoulders and pulls me to my feet, then bends down and kisses me on both cheeks. Mercy says, "Whatever happened to my sister is my father''s fault, not yours. You were my favorite teacher when I was a child and the magic you secretly taught me is the only reason I am alive today. So there will be no more talk of executing you! Now sit down and start from the beginning." So I end up sitting at a table with Mercy and Alexa and telling them all about the summoning they sacrificed Princess Mericel for and everything that has happened since. Including the level zero beastman who killed a level ten dire wolf and Knight Commander Tarrik. Alexa says, "If Tarrik is dead, then the army is leaderless and now would be the perfect time for the raids we''ve been nning." Mercy holds up a hand to stop Alexa from leaving and says, "Zamart, you still haven''t exined what it was you did that you wanted me to spare you for." "In order to have enough power to flee the castle, I dismantled the castle''s enchantments. With the additional power, I dispelled everything in the castle and killed all the wizards in the court." Mercy says, "So, you weakened the castle and killed some of my enemies, and you think you should be punished?" "No, I should be punished for not acting when the Queen died, if I had acted instead of looking for evidence, I could have prevented much of this misery!" Mercy smiles sadly and says, "I know how loyal you were to my mother, and I know she considered you one of her few true friends. I have no doubt that the news of her death destroyed you. Besides, if you had acted sooner, we would have no idea what the king is nning. For what it''s worth, if you need it you have my forgiveness, but more importantly, now that you are here you can help us." "Mercy, you are the rightful queen, if there is anything this old man can do to serve you, I would be honored!" Alexaughs and says, "Old man? You may be old, but you are still the most powerful wizard in the kingdom!" Mercy says, "Alexa is right, I can think of hundreds of uses for your magic and I don''t even know what you''re really capable of. So yes, I will ept your service and loyalty, and together we will make my father pay for all he has done!" I kneel once more before Princess Amercy and take her hand, pledge my allegiance to her and then kiss her hand. Mercy smiles and helps me to my feet. Mercy says, "Now, Alexa, go ahead with the ns for the raids and also find me our best messengers. We need to warn the other countries of what my father is nning." "I can help with that. If you give me a day to prepare, I can create a gateway to the mage guild in the city-state of Illium. The guild master is an old friend. If I exin the situation to him, I''m sure he will help the messengers get where they need to go." Mercy says "See, you''re already invaluable to us!" I smile at Mercy as Alexa goes to start making preparations. Mercy says "What else can you tell me about the beastman, do you think he''ll escape, do you have any idea where he might show up?" "I don''t know much more, but I''m sure he''ll survive. And even if I don''t know... I don''t know where he''lle from. I know we''ll find out. I doubt he can move quietly anywhere in this realm. With that I begin to prepare a site for a gate while the princess and her knight send out raiding parties and prepare messengers. they will do what they can to disrupt the king''s ns and buy time for the other country to prepare its defenses. Chapter 27: Forge In the sewers I wake up from meditation to a familiar sound. ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, the Meditation skill has advanced to level 9! ¡Ì Meditation ¡Ì Level 9 - Physical +9 Intelligence. +4 Charm. +4 - A skill for recovery. HP 40/hour MP 40/hour I look at Ruby, who is still meditating. I simply enjoy watching her. I can''t help but admire her beauty and marvel at the possibilities. No, I can''t think like that, we''re bonded for life. What if I confess and she doesn''t feel the same? How awkward would things be? It''s better to just be friends and partners. Especially since I could die at any moment in this world. Maybe if it was my old world? Ah, who am I kidding, in my old life I would never have had the courage to get close to someone as beautiful as her! My thoughts are interrupted when Ruby starts to move. I quickly get up and pretend I''m busy doing something before she opens her eyes. Ruby says, "Hooray, my meditation skill has gone up two levels!" "Good morning, how nice! Would you like some breakfast?" Ruby says, "Sure. After that, would you like me to show you the forge?" "Yes, please." Ruby stands up and stretches, smiles as she notices me looking sideways at her. Then we sit down and share breakfast and then get ready to go to the forge. Ruby says "How do I cross the river?" "Like this," I lift her in my arms and jump across the river. Ruby''s heart starts pounding and not for flying through the air. "Did you just say eep?" Ruby punches his arm and says, "No, I didn''t." "Oh, okay, okay, sorry!" I rub my arm as we walk back to the room where Ruby was imprisoned. Ruby walks to the back wall and points to a rock. Ruby says, "Channel mana to this rock and the room will open." I walk over, put my hand on the rock and channel some mana into it. A section of the wall disappears as if made of smoke. Behind it is a forge fully equipped with aplete set of tools. Ruby says, "Before you go in, you should know a few things. One, the forge will only work as long as I am in the room. Two, you cannot remove anything that is in the room at this time. Three, time passes faster in the room." "Are you thrilled with the time dtion? Cool! Do you know the speed?" Ruby says, "I don''t know what you just said, but every six hours in is an hour out here." "That''s awesome, I''m going to get a lot of use out of this room!" I''m so excited that I rush to hug Ruby before I think better of it. Ruby freezes in surprise at first, but then smiles and hugs me back. "Oh, I''m sorry, I guess I got carried away." Ruby says, "Oh, that''s okay, I don''t mind at all." "That''s okay, first thing I have to do is get the two hundred and fifty pounds of iron ore I mined up here. That''s a lot of back and forth, do you want to wait here?" Ruby says, "Yeah, okay, I''m feeling a little down." "Did you run downstairs, are you okay?" Ruby sits with her back against the wall and says, "Yeah, I feel like I used to, when it was time for me to be uninvoked so I could rest, even though I have a lot of mana. I don''t understand it myself." I kneel down next to Ruby and say, "We can do thister, let''s go back to camp for now and you can try to sleep, maybe meditation doesn''t count as rest for you." Ruby pats her hand and says, "No, no, I''m fine. I''ll just sit here and rx while you run around like crazy." "Are you sure, Ruby?" Ruby says, "Master, I''m fine, go away now!" "Well, fine if you insist." Then I spend the next hour running back and forth from camp to the forge, hauling iron ore. Ruby sits and tries to rest, but every time I run in, she can''t help but open her eyes and look at me. On my return from thest trip, I also carry two torches and three books. Ruby asks, "What are those for? "I was nning to finish reading them, but I didn''t have time. So I thought I might as well read them so I wouldn''t waste too much time." Ruby says, "Oh, I guess that''s smart." "Umm, thanks?" Rubyughs and says, "You''re so serious all the time." "Well, it''s been a matter of life and death since I was summoned, sorry." Ruby says, "No, I understand. I was just wondering what you''d be like if you were more yful." "Anyway, I''d like to try forging now if you feel up to it." In response, Ruby gets up and enters the room. As soon as she enters, the forge lights up and a wave of heat hits me. It gets worse when I enter the room after her, which makes me feel very grateful for the fire resistance I gained from bonding with her. Ruby moves to one side of the room and sits on the stone bench there. Ruby says, "I light the forge just by being in the room, but I don''t know anything about how to use it. To be honest, I never paid much attention to what the Archmage was doing." "That''s okay. I''ve never done this before, but I''m pretty sure I at least know the theory behind it." Ruby sits back and watches as I fill a crucible with raw iron ore and ce it in the forge. While it heats up, I set up some ingot molds and then sit back and watch the iron ore melt and bubble. "So, I know I need to wait a bit for the impurities to burn off, but I don''t really know how long it takes, so this will be a bit of trial and error." Ruby says, "That''s okay, I n to sit here and rest anyway." "Are you still feeling exhausted?" Ruby says, "Yes. If anything, it''s gotten worse." "You said you felt that way when you needed to be unlinked. But you''re no longer being summoned, so what can we do?" Ruby says, "Yes, the chains used to keep me, but when the Archmage unchained me to handle the forge, I felt that way until I was put back in the chains." "But the chains are gone and you''re no longer an elemental, can you think of anything that might help you?" Ruby says, "I feel like I just need... rest..." Ruby''s form begins to glow and, as I look at her, she shrinks into a cloud of bright red light and flies towards me. As the cloud reaches me, it hits my chest and I feel an intense, burning pain. When I look down at my chest, I see a medallion with a fire motif embedded in it. I touch it gently and wonder what just happened. "Ruby, can you hear me, are you okay?" I hear Ruby''s voice in my head, "I''m fine, I''m just sleepy." After making sure she''s not in any danger, I go back to what I was doing. The fact that the forge is still working well also helps to lessen my concern for Ruby. Then I realize that I''ve probably left the iron in the forge for too long and I take it out and pour the molten metal into the ingot molds. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, you have acquired the craft skill cksmithing! ¡Ì cksmithing ¡Ì Level 1 - Strength +1 Fire resistance +1 - You can transform metal ores into raw items. "Created item." ¡Ì Steel ingot - Quality: High Grade "Wow, high grade steel, how could that happen?" I quickly put more iron ore in the crucible and put it in the forge. While waiting for it to melt, I found myself rubbing the medallion and discovered that it was warm, even warmer than the air in the room where the forge was. I took that as a good sign, since Ruby is a me spirit. Come to think of it, when she became the cloud of light, she looked like the other spirits I saw. Maybe this had something to do with what happened to her because of me. I spent the next few hours turning the two hundred and fifty pounds of iron ore I mined into twenty high-grade steel ingots. ??-DING-?? - Congrattions, the cksmithing skill has advanced to level 2! ¡Ì cksmithing ¡Ì Level 2 - Strength +2 Fire resistance +2 - You can transform metal ores into raw items. I then return to my camp to fish and cook some fish to eat. After eating, I collect all the armor and weapons I have gathered and start carrying them to the forge room. I then proceed to cast them into another ten ingots. Ruby thinks "Bostezo!" "How do you feel?" Ruby thinks "I feel a lot better now and I understand some things too." "Like what?" Ruby thinks "Well, now I have something called spiritual power, I have to use it to keep my human form. I ran out of it and that''s why I became an amulet." "That''s good, I was worried something had gone wrong!" Ruby thinks "Oh, you were worried about me?" "Of course! You suddenly became a cloud of light and then this amulet, what was I supposed to think?" Ruby thinks, "I can see your point. Normally, a spirit that runs out of energy would return to the spirit ne to recover. I guess this means you are my ne, ha ha ha." "Well, as long as you recover, it doesn''t matter how." Ruby thinks, "I''m still recovering, but I''ve recovered enough to stay awake. But I''ll still be a charm for a while." "That''s okay, I''m just doing boring crafting stuff for now anyway." Chapter 28: Self Improvement [ 1 ] Ruby thinks, "Okay, I''m going back to sleep, wake me up if you need me." "Okay, I will. Sleep well." Then I grab the tongs and use them to put an ingot in the forge and watch it heat up. Then I grab the cksmith''s hammer and ce the ingot on the anvil and start trying to shape it. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the cksmithing skill has advanced to level 3! ¡Ì cksmithing ¡Ì Level 3 - Strength +3 Fire resistance +3 - You can transform metal ores into raw items. My first attempt fails miserably, but I manage to melt it down and turn it into an ingot and try again. My second attempt also fails, but I realize I''m not using enough steel, so I start over with two ingots. Next time I get closer, but I still don''t seed. ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, the cksmithing skill has advanced to level 4! ¡Ì cksmithing ¡Ì Level 4 - Strength +4 Fire resistance +4 - You can transform metal ores into raw items. Well, at least I''m learning how to shape it the way I want to, but I should probably take a break. I go back to camp to eat and thene back and sit on the stone bench and start reading. It only takes me a couple of hours to finish Diary of an Archmage. Before I start on Magic Theory, I decide to do a meditation of the inner world. Ruby thinks, "You know that book isn''t his real diary right?" "AHHH! Don''t scare me like that!" Ruby thinks, "Heh heh. It''s not my fault you screamed like a little girl." "No I didn''t! And what do you mean it''s not her diary?" Ruby thinks "That book was edited and published by the empire, his real diary was always with him." "Hmm... I''d love to read his real diary then!" ??-DING-??? - New mission avable! - Locate the Archmage - Objective: Find the remains of the archmage 0/1. - Reward: 5 stat points. Do you wish to ept the mission? Y/N "Yes. Wow! Just talking about it generated a mission to find his remains." Ruby thinks, "A mission? What do you mean?" I then tell her about the missions I''ve done so far and the rewards. Ruby thinks, "That''s weird, I''ve never heard of anything like that!" "I have no idea how it works, I just know it works and so far it''s been worth doing." Ruby thinks, "Well, if you can find his remains, it will definitely be worth the effort. He was never going anywhere without his personal dimensional bag." "Please tell me that''s what I think it is - a bag that contains way more than it should?" Ruby thinks, "Yes, that''s exactly what it is!" "Wow, a bag of containment! That''s it, I''m not leaving here without finding its remains!" Ruby thinks, "Aww, you''re so cute, Master. Anyway, I''m going back to sleep now." I blush and sit down to meditate, but it takes me much longer than usual to clear my mind. Once I finally do and sink into the inner world, I find a strange light that hasn''t been here before. When I look at it, I find the cloud of light that is Ruby. "What are you doing here?" Ruby says "I don''t know! I don''t even know where this is! I was sleeping and suddenly I''m here!" "This is my inner world meditation where I can work on improving my core." Ruby says, "Oh! Maybe it''s because my amulet is connected to your core?" "Is it? I didn''t know that!" I look at my chest more closely and sure enough, I can see the amulet and the tiny threads that connect it to my core. Since they are much smaller than my mana channels, I suppose they can be called mana veins, and unlike my channels, which carry mana to my core, these allowed mana to pass from my core to the amulet. "So, my core feeds mana to the amulet and converts it into spiritual power for you to recover?" Ruby says, "Yes, as far as I know, that''s how it works." ''Hmm, I wonder if I can create more mana veins to spread it all over my body. But if I do that, I''ll need more manaing in, so I should widen my channels first. I start from my core and slowly begin to expand my mana channels. I do it slowly for fear of tearing them. I often stop to thicken a channel wall if it seems thinner after widening it. I can only do it a little at a time, as I have to stop and meditate normally to regain my mana. Whenever I work in my inner world, the little cloud of red light is always there beside me, close by and keeping mepany, even if it says nothing. The only time I take a break is to go fishing, cooking and eating, and I spend more than a week doing this before all my mana channels open up. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, you''ve obtained the Mana Regeneration skill! ¡Ì Mana regeneration ¡Ì Level: 1 - You regenerate mana constantly. MP +5/Hour ''Yes! Now I can regain mana no matter what I''m doing!'' So I start creating streaks of mana bit by bit, and once I run out of mana, I practice smithing for hours while my mana slowly recovers. During the second day of this, I have my first sess with smithing. "ITEM CREATED" ¡Ì Raw steel pick. ''No! Why is it so rude? After all that, this sucks!'' So I throw the rudimentary pickaxe into the forge to start over. I make a rudimentary pick twice more before regaining enough mana to create more mana streaks. The first veins of mana that Iplete go to my heart. Once the mana is flowing steadily to my heart, I find that I get much less tired and can go longer without resting. After feeling these effects, I decide to connect veins to all my organs first before worrying about the rest of my body. Then I start connecting veins to my lungs, but I soon run out of mana and return to the smithy to wait for my mana to recover. ??-DING-?? - Congrattions, the Meditation skill has advanced to level 10! ¡Ì Meditation ¡Ì Level 10 MAX - Physical +10 Intelligence. +5 Enchanted. +5 - A skill for recovery. HP 50/hour MP 50/hour "So level ten is the maximum? I guess that''s good to know." As I retry to make a pickaxe, I have to add another ingot, as each time I restart a bit of material is lost. I have to repeat this process several times over the next twelve hours as I reforge the pickaxe over and over again until I finally get it good enough. "ITEM CREATED" ¡Ì Steel beak. ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, the cksmithing skill has advanced to level 5! ¡Ì cksmithing ¡Ì Level 5 - Strength +5 Fire resistance +5 - You can transform metal ores into useful items. ''Finally, it only took eight ingots!'' I carefully set the pickaxe aside, as I would have to make him a handleter. Then, as my mana was full, I returned to the inner world to create more mana veins for my lungs. Once my mana was depleted again, I got up and went back to camp to eat again before returning to work in the smithy. Now I start working on making steel tool sets for my other crafts, I also want to make some woodworking tools to see if I can use them on therge mushrooms to make useful items. Ruby thinks, "Why are you so dedicated to all these crafts?" "Because since I can''t level up, my best option for getting stronger are all the stat boosts I get from leveling up my skills. Besides, being able to craft what I need on my own wille in handy once I get out of here and am trapped in a hostile realm." Ruby says, "Well, you''re right there, from what you''ve told me, once you get out of here you''ll have soldiers chasing you, right?" "Heh, for all I know, I may have a whole army chasing me. What I do know is that this kingdom and its king are definitely on my enemies list." Ruby thinks "Well, if they''re your enemies then they''re mine too, anyone who tries to hurt you will burn!" "I want them to pay for what they did to me and I n to fight them, but I don''t want to obsess about revenge. I want to explore this world and experience all its wonders, not darken my heart with hate and revenge." Ruby thinks, "Okay, I''ll protect your heart for you!" "Thank you, Ruby, I''m so d I found you down here, otherwise I would have been lost by now." As I walk back to the smithy, Ruby is really d I can''t see her face at that moment. Chapter 29: Self Improvement [ 2 ] I tool for hours until my mana recharges, by which time it''s been a week but thanks to the room it''s only been a little over a day outside. This time my manasts long enough for me to finish the veins in my lungs. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, you''ve obtained the Magic Body skill! ¡Ì Magic Body. ¡Ì Level: 1 - All stats +5 HP +5/Hour. ''Great, that''s the kind of power-up I needed!'' When I take the first breath of air with my mana-enhanced lungs, I get quite dizzy, as my body is not used to such arge intake of oxygen. I have to sit for a while until I get used to it, but I can''t help the smile thates across my face. Ruby thinks "Why are you grinning like a fool?" "Right now I''m on an oxygen high." Ruby thinks "Huh?" I have to exin quite a bit about biology to Ruby before she finally gets it. By then, my euphoria has worn off and she groans and goes back to napping. I go through all the tools I''ve made to see if I''ve forgotten any. When I can''t think of any more to make with the smithy, I take the handsaw I made and return to my camp. After fishing and eating some fish, I cut the threerge mushrooms that are in the camp area. After cutting the softer parts on top, I take the three logs to the forge room. Then I sit down and start to carefully cut a handle for the pickaxe. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, you''ve acquired the Carpentry craft skill! ¡Ì carpentry ¡Ì Level 1 - Agility +1. - You can craft wooden tools or structures. I then continue carving handles for all the tools I have made, with this I use two of the mushroom logs. With thest stem I carve four wooden swords. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Carpentry skill has advanced to level 2! ¡Ì Carpentry ¡Ì Level 2 - Agility +2. - You can craft wooden tools or structures. Well, now that that''s done, let''s see. I have eighty-eight ingots of steel left. I think it''s time to try my hand at forging a sword. After draining my mana generating veins, I start trying to forge a sword. It takes me a few hours before I have my first sess. "ITEM CREATED" ¡Ì Steel Katana - Hit +1 Damage +2 ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, the cksmithing skill has advanced to level 6! ¡Ì cksmithing ¡Ì Level 6 - Strength +6 Fire resistance +6 - You can transform metal ores into useful objects. ''Yes! I can make a katana!'' The bnce is unbnced, so I need to improve my skill, but I can do it - I can wield katanas like a real anime hero! Although it''s a sess, I''m not happy with it and I melt it down to try again. I''m so focused on the crafting that I don''t notice the small cloud of red light thates out of the amulet and circles the room a few times. Ruby watches me until I make a katana again. Ruby says "What kind of sword is that?" "Huh? Oh, hi Ruby. It''s called a katana, it''s a sword from my old world that I''ve always dreamed of wielding." Ruby says "It''s a very nice sword." "It''s also a very good sword, if you know the fighting style to use it properly." Ruby says "And you?" "Well, not exactly, but I have some ideas of how it works." Ruby says "Can you show me?" I ce the sword in a hilt I made earlier and then leave the forge room. In therger cave, where I have room to wield it, I try to perform a kendo routine based on what I''ve seen in anime and manga. Ruby ends upughing after I trip over my own feet. Ruby says, "Oh yeah, very dangerous!" "Haha. I told you I only had a few ideas, obviously it''s going to take a lot of practice to figure them out. Speaking of practice, do you feel like practicing a little?" Ruby says, "Yeah, I''m full of energy and a little bored, to be honest." I go back to the forge room, put down the katana, pick up the four wooden swords and take Ruby with me back to camp. "Okay, you need to be in human form for this." Ruby assumes her human form and I hand her two of the swords, then take the other two and draw a rough circle in the dirt. "Well, this is called trainingbat. We will fight each other using wooden swords so that it doesn''t hurt too much if we get hit. However, stay inside the circle, the limit is to help you be aware of your position and bnce. Ruby swings the two swords back and forth to feel them and then says "Okay!" Soon, the rapid ck ck ck ck echoes throughout the cavern as Ruby and I struggle back and forth. We''re pretty evenly matched, I have the edge in stats and experience, but I''m not trying as hard as I can because I''m having so much fun. The fight ends after almost an hour when one of my swords breaks, at which point Ruby hits me pretty hard in the ribs. Once the fight is over, we both sit on the floor, out of breath. "DIZ" "DIZ" "DIZ" "DIZ" ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, the Dual wield skill has advanced to level 3! ¡Ì Double Grip ¡Ì Level 3 - Agility +3 - You can fight well with a weapon in each hand. ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, the Sword Fundamentals skill has advanced to level 5! ¡Ì Sword Fundamentals ¡Ì Level 5 - Strength +5 - You deal 25% extra damage with swords. ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, the Sword Dancer skill has advanced to level 2! ¡Ì Sword Dancer ¡Ì Level 2. - Movement speed +10% Damage +10% when wielding two swords. - You dance the dance of death when wielding two swords. Ruby says "Wow, I''ve upgraded a bunch of skills!" "Yeah, me too, that was the whole point of this. It was a lot of fun though." Ruby says "Yeah, it was, and what do I get for winning?" "Haha, I''ll cook you dinner." Ruby says, "Wow, you would have done that anyway!" "Well, what did you want?" Ruby looks away and says, "Nothing, forget it." I get up after catching my breath and grab my to go catch some fish. I keep at it until I''ve caught five fish, then I go to pick some mushrooms. After cleaning and gutting the fish, I cut the mushrooms and stuff the fish with them, then I fry the fish with my new steel pan I made. ??-DING-?? - Congrattions, the Cooking skill has advanced to level 6! ¡Ì Cooking. ¡Ì Level 6 - Intelligence +6 - You can cook decent food. "This hasn''t improved in a while." The food doesn''te out too bad, at least the taste is a little different. Ruby and I sit together during the meal, asionally talking about little things and enjoying each other''spany. "Ruby, do you have any dreams?" Ruby says, "Well, yes, originally I dreamed of bing powerful enough that no one couldmand me. Then, for a long time, my only dream was to free myself from those chains. You made that dreame true." "Yes, well, I think I learned as much as you did, so what happens now?" Ruby says, "Now? My dream now is to explore the world with you and see you standing proudly on the surface, no matter what anyone else says about you." "I am honored, and even if the whole world is against me, I will stand tall as long as you are by my side." Ruby smiles and leans over to kiss me on the cheek, which makes me.... I blush even more. I look around quickly trying to think of a change of subject when I see the pile of spider silk. "Oh, yeah, I never finished that room. Ruby, do you want to help me with something?" Ruby says, "Of course, master." "Okay, let''s go to the spider room." Ruby quickly transforms into a cloud of light and speeds across the river before I can try to pick her up again. I then guide her to the spider room, where Ruby reverts back to her human form. Ruby says "Yuck!" "Rx, the spiders are dead." Ruby says "So what are we doing?" "Collecting spider silk and looking for useful things." Ruby shrugs and, after I exin how, winds the spindle while I unravel the threads. It takes us about two hours to finish dismantling the medium-sized webs all over the room. Then I start tearing apart the smallers on the floor, exposing bones and asionally something else. During the process of clearing the room we find two more passages out of the room, one leads back into the main tunnel and out the other side of the room Ruby was trapped in. The other leads north to arge cross-corridor that I haven''t explored yet. Aside from a few daggers and other small items, we find nothing useful among the bones, so we pick up the silk reels and head back to camp. Chapter 30: Skills [ 1 ] Once back at camp, Ruby helps me clean and scrape the silk. Then together we start braiding it into rope. Several times I have to stop and untangle Ruby''s hands as Iugh. But we have a lot of fun working together and we manage to make the silk into a 48-meter long rope. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Tailoring skill has advanced to level 3! ¡Ì Tailoring ¡Ì Level 3 - Agility +3 Intelligence +3 Y-you can make items out of cloth. Ruby says, "I didn''t know working with your hands like this could be so much fun." "It''s fun mostly for thepany, the rest of the time it''s pretty boring." Ruby says, "Well, I''m running out of energy, I''m notpletely exhausted but I think I should rest in case you need me for anything." "Okay, that''s a good idea. I''ll try to finish my crafting stuff and once I''m fully charged up we can work on exploring some more areas." Ruby says "Okay!" and transforms into a cloud and goes back to the amulet. I get up and go around cleaning up camp and getting everything organized. This is much easier now that all the extra weapons and armor have melted away. I then catch a couple of fish and roast them, taking them with me as I head back to the forge room. Once back in the forge room, I quickly burn my mana and create more mana streaks on my body. I then sit on the stone bench and eat my fish while I start reading Magic Theory. It''s not a big book and I finish it in a couple of hours. This is a very basic book, not meant to teach about magic, but to identify the elements and types of magic. It is almost like a children''s book. I quickly move on to read Basic Spellcasting, but again I was not very impressed with the book. ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, the Linguistic skill has advanced to level 7! ¡Ì Linguistics ¡Ì Level 7 - Intelligence. +14 - You are adept at deciphering othernguages. This book teaches spell casting, but it''s of no use to me because I use skills instead of casting spells. I put the books aside and return to the inner world to create more mana veins. Once I run out of mana, I stand up and stretch. "Hmm... What should I work on now? Come to think of it, I can''t even remember all the skills I have. skills!" - Skills: - Combat Skills: (11) - Beast yer Level: 1 - Dagger basics Level: 3 - Dual wielding Level: 3 - Blunt basics Level: 3 - Dodge Level: 3 - Spear basics Level: 3 - Shield basics Level: 3 - Charging Level: 2 - Sword basics Level: 5 - Sword and shield Level: 2 - Sword dancer Level: 2 - Magic skills: (6) - Fire bolt Level: 3 - Elemental summoning level: 1 - Ignition level: 1 - Extinguishing level: 1 - Remote hand level: 1 - Lightning Level: 1 - Active: (5) - Stealth Level: 5 - Stealth attack level: 3 - Dagger Throw Level: 5 - Shield strike Level: 2 - Dash Level: 1 - Passive: (10) - Tenacity Level: 3 - Pain resistance level: 5 - Safe fall level: 1 - Physical condition level: 4 - Observe level: 4 - Meditation level: 10 MAXIMUM - Poison resistance level: 4 - Lockpick Level: 3 - Linguistics Level: 7 - Danger perception level: 2 - Crafts: (13) - Skinning Level: 4 - Cooking level: 6 - Mining level: 7 - Masonry level: 3 - Repair level: 4 - Herb gathering Level: 4 - Scrimshaw level: 7 - Furrier Level: 2 - Cartography Level: 2 - Fishing Level: 5 - Tailoring Level: 3 - cksmithing Level: 6 - Carpentry Level: 2 - Skills: (7) - Superior strength - Superior agility - Superior intelligence - Elemental bond of fire - Superior endurance - Mana regeneration level: 1 - Magic Body Level: 1 "Wow, I really acquired a lot of skills, didn''t I? Ah, yes, the physical aptitude!" Ipletely forgot about my daily routine. I decided to improve the fitness skill, as I had forgotten about it for a long time, so I did an hour of exercise. I don''t really feel like I''m doing much, so I stop and forge some steel weights for my wrists and ankles, then try again. Another two hours of exercise pass before I finally get the message. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Physical fitness skill has advanced to level 5! ¡Ì Physical fitness ¡Ì Level 5 - Strength +5 Endurance +5 I was d Ruby was asleep, otherwise it would have been a bit embarrassing if she had been watching. I then melted down the katana I made earlier and tried to improve it. I tried bending the steel several times, but it didn''te out right. However, I keep trying, as bending steel is an important goal for me when making a proper katana. ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, the cksmithing skill has advanced to level 7! ¡Ì cksmithing ¡Ì Level 7 - Strength +7 Fire resistance +7 - You can transform metal ores into useful items. I''m getting closer and closer to being able to bend steel, but I''m running out of ingots. I either have to give up or find more iron. Feeling a bit discouraged, I leave the forge and return to camp, sit on one of therge mushroom tops and notice that my mana is full, I enter the inner world to add more mana veins. As I add the veins, an idea urs to me, so, when I run out of mana, I grab another of the mushroom tops and my handsaw. I cut the bottom first so it''s even and then cut it back about an inch higher. When I''m done, I have a one-inch thick circr board that I take to the forge room. I sit next to the forge and stick a poker in it until it''s red hot and then carefully burn a line into the board. ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, the Carpentry skill has advanced to level 3! ¡Ì Carpentry ¡Ì Level 3 - Agility +3. - You can craft wooden tools or structures. "Not the skill I was nning on upgrading, but I''ll take it!" I continue to burn lines on the board and stop every few lines to reheat the poker. As I add more and more lines, a picture slowly begins to form of the sewers I''ve explored so far. ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, the Cartography skill has advanced to level 3! ¡Ì Cartography ¡Ì Level 3 - Intelligence +3 - You can draw rudimentary maps. There''s the skill I was hoping for. Now, when Ruby wakes up, at least I can show her what I''ve explored so far and we can keep track as we explore more areas. I take my new map and poker and return to my camp, set them up near the fire pit and then walk over and look at the river. Ruby can''t help with this part, so I should probably do it now. Once I made up my mind, I undressed, took the rope we had made earlier and tied one end around my waist and the other to a rock on the river bank. Trying to prepare myself for the cold, I dove in and at first I didn''t feel the cold, until the water soaked my fur and got to my skin. I grabbed onto the riverbank and began kicking my feet. I knew how to swim in my old world, but I thought that since my legs were different, I would have to relearn. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, you''ve acquired the passive skill Swim! ¡Ì Swimming ¡Ì Level 1 - Strength +1 Endurance +1 Resistance to cold +1 Hold your breath: Final stats x 1 minute. - You can paddle and not drown. ''Hooray for Cold Resistance, and can I hold my breath for more than an hour!!!'' So I take a deep breath, let go of the bank and let the river carry me downstream to the end of the rope. I keep my eyes peeled for another cave or any sign of air pockets. Unfortunately, I find none when I reach the end of the rope. I turn around and try to swim upstream, but the current is too strong and I''m going nowhere. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Swimming skill has advanced to level 2! ¡Ì Swimming ¡Ì Level 2 - Strength +2 Endurance +2 Endurance to cold +2 Hold your breath: stat end x 1 minute. - You can paddle and not drown. I grab the rope and start pulling myself back towards my camp. I quickly get out of the water and huddle by the fire. My fur is soaked and I can''t stop shivering. "Ruby! Help!" Ruby quickly appears from the amulet and takes human form. After seeing me tremble, she kneels behind me and wraps her arms around me. Suddenly, the temperature rises so high that my fur begins to steam. "Oh, that''s hot, it''s an incredible feeling!" Ruby says "You idiot! What were you thinking?" "I thought I should look for a way out across the river. I didn''t know the cold would affect me so much and I knew it wasn''t something I could do." Ruby says, "Well, did you find anything?" "There''s nothing within rope reach, but it''s not too far away either. I need to improve my swimming before I try to go any farther without the rope." Ruby says "Wait, are you nning to do this again?" "Yes, I have to. This may be the only way out of here. This river is likely to surface at some point. The question is whether I can hold my breath long enough to get there." Ruby says, "How do you know it''s going to surface somewhere?" "The fish I''ve been catching, if they didn''te from an area with sunlight, they''d be albinos." Ruby says "Oh." "Okay, Ruby, I''m warm and dry now. Thank you very much." Ruby regretfully releases me and lets the temperature return to normal. She''s d she''s behind me so I can''t see her blush when she realizes I''m sitting there naked. She can''t help but sigh in disappointment when I start to dress, even with the fur I am very pleasing to the eye. I''m about to put on my armor when I realize I haven''t washed it in a long time. I take it to the river and start washing it piece by piece. As I clean it, I think about how little damage I''ve sustained while wearing it and then I look at Ruby. "Ruby, put this on" I say as I hand her one of the bracelets. Ruby says, "It doesn''t really fit, but it''s okay." "I know it''s too big, but I want to try something. Put it back in the charm and thene back, please." Ruby does as I ask and disappears, then returns a minuteter, when she reappears she still has the bracelet on. "Good, it worked, the bracelet went with you. Now I can make you a suit of armor so you won''t get hurt when we go exploring." Ruby says, "Ah, okay. I was wondering what you were doing." Ruby hands me back the bracelet, which I put back on. Then, to amuse herself, she picks up the rope and dries it as she coils it up. Ruby says, "I''m going to have to go back to sleep soon, I used a lot of energy to warm you up so fast." "Yeah, sorry, I underestimated how the cold would affect me. I''ll prepare better next time. Go ahead and go to sleep, I''ll work on your armor while you rest." Rubyes over and kisses me on the forehead and says, "Good night, and no more bullshit!". Ruby disappears into the amulet before I can think of a reply. Then I go fishing after realizing how hungry I am all of a sudden. After eating, I gather the furry tools I made and all the spider shell and head to the forge room. ============== From here on two chapters will be published per day. I also want to say that I wrote this novel a long time ago so the writing is quite old. Chapter 31: Skills [ 2 ] As soon as I sit down to start working I realize that my new steel tools I made are useless, as they can''t cut through the spider''s shell. With a sigh I put them aside, pull out ck Razor and get to work. I work diligently for hours and only take breaks to add more mana veins when my mana is full. I make Ruby a full set of armor, breastte and skirt, bracers and greaves, I even make her a helmet. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Furry skill has advanced to level 3! ¡Ì Furry ¡Ì Level 3 - Agility +3 - You can craft rudimentary items from leather. "Well that should be enough for now, once I try it on I can make the final adjustments, hmm, I''m almost out of steel, I guess I can use bone for all the fasteners." I touch the charm and say, "Ruby, can you step outside for a minute? I need you to try this on." Rubyes out of the amulet like a puff and circles around my head before moving to the bench and taking human form. Ruby says "Do you want me to try this on?" "Yes, please." Ruby reaches down and grabs the bottom of her dress, obviously about to take it off. I quickly turn around to turn my back to Ruby. "No! No, you put it on over your dress!" Ruby asks, "Are you sure, aren''t you curious if my body ispletely human?" "No! No, I just need to see if the armor fits!" Ruby says, "Wow, Master, I think there''s more heating out of your face than the forge!" I cover my face with my hands as I hear Rubyugh behind me. Then I hear creaking and banging noises for a minute. Ruby says, "Okay, you can turn around now, master." I turn around to see that Ruby has all of her armor on except for the helmet which is in her hands as she looks at the slot in the back of the helmet. "That''s for your hair, I thought it would be awkward trying to keep all that hair under the helmet." Ruby puts the helmet on over her hair and when my jaw opens, her hair slides up under the helmet and out through the slot on its own. "No fair!" Rubyughs and says "I''m a spirit, my body is made of energy so I can control it however I want." "Okay, move over to see how it fits, I haven''t finished it yet, I wanted to be able to make adjustments." Ruby moves her body and says, "It fits surprisingly well, especially. since you didn''t take any measurements. how well do you know my Body Master?" I cough, look away and say, "I just have a good eye for detail." Ruby smiles at me as she tests her mobility with the armor. I walk out into therger cave and Ruby follows me. I pull out my swords and offer them to Ruby hilt first. Ruby takes the swords and moves away from me for space and performs abat routine. I watch her closely, just to see how the armor fits her, of course. "It''s okay, you can stop now, I can see what adjustments I need to make. By the way, do you like the two swords or would you like to try other forms ofbat?" Ruby says "No, I''m fine with the two swords, it feels natural for some reason." I undo the scabbards from my belt and hand them to her one at a time so she can sheathe the swords. "Try putting them on your waist, I need to know if you want them there or on your back." Ruby tries it both ways and then says, "Definitely, my choice would be on my back." "Okay, is there any irritation or pinching anywhere that needs fixing?" Ruby says, "No, it works great. I only see one problem." "What problem?" Ruby says, "This armor is much better than yours. You are the master, you need better armor or it will look weird." I look at myself and say, "Umm, yeah, I guess so. This was my first attempt and I had limited materials at the time. I guess once I finish yours, I should redo mine too." Ruby smiles at her victory and returns the swords, then begins to take off the armor piece by piece and hand it to me. As she hands me thest piece, she once again acts as if she is going to take off her dress only to see me spinning away and stomping back to the forge room blushing. She follows meughing and then shifts into her spirit form and goes into the amulet where she can rx while I do my crafts. I sit down and clear my mind, then enter the inner world. I quickly burn my mana by expanding thework of mana veins I have built. Then I set about making the necessary adjustments to Ruby''s armor. Once that''s done, I get up and head back to camp to get some food. After I finish eating, I pick up the marquetry tools I made and head to the spider room to gather some bones. Once I have what I need, I return to the forge room and start carving the fasteners and clips I need toplete the armor. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Ivory Carving skill has advanced to level 8! ¡Ì Ivory carving ¡Ì Level 8 - Agility +8 Intelligence +4 - You can carve bones into many objects. Next, I make two new sheaths for my swords that will attach to the back of Ruby''s armor. I then attach the sheaths and add all the fasteners and clips to the armor and, a few hourster, her armor isplete. I carefully set everything aside and begin the long process of making myself a new suit of armor. I stop after a few more hours to burn my mana and find something to eat. After eating, I return to the forge room and try to work on my armor, but I can''t keep my eyes open. That''s when I realize it''s been weeks since I slept instead of meditating, so I return to camp, climb into my hammock and fall asleep almost instantly. When I wake up twelve hourster I feel great, eat breakfast quickly and return to the forge room. I sit down and start working on my armor again, now with much more concentration. Instead of using solid pieces like I did the first time, I''m carving bands and scales and joining them together to make armor that is much more flexible. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Furry skill has advanced to level 4! ¡Ì fur ¡Ì Level 4 - Agility +4 - You can craft leather items. I have to make much more precise cuts due to the smaller pieces, so it takes me much longer than making Ruby''s armor. It takes a lot of time and the only reason I''m willing to do it is because of the forge room. "ITEM CREATED" ¡Ì Armor with spider carapace bands. - Defense +9 Poison resistance +10 - Durability 150/150 ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Furry skill has advanced to level 5! ¡Ì Furry ¡Ì Level 5 - Agility +5 - You can craft leather items. "Wow, that turned out great! Now all that''s missing are new swords." I check and discover that there should be enough steel left for two katanas, provided I don''t make mistakes and have to start over. I''m about to start with the first one when an idea urs to me. "Summon Elemental, Fire!" MP: 265/365 Light swirls and pools and a fire emerges; it''s the size of a chair, has two arms and eyes that stare at me. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Elemental Summoning skill has advanced to level 2! ¡Ì Elemental Summoning ¡Ì Level 2 - MP cost 75+5/Hour - You can summon a minor elemental of the desired element. "Okay, your job is that when I take the metal out of the forge and start hammering it, you must hold the metal at the same end as the tongs and do your best to keep it at its current temperature." The mass of fire seems to nod, so I decide to give it a try and get to work. Before, the metal would cool before I finished bending it and it would break. Now, with the fire elemental keeping the metal hot, I can sessfully bend the steel. It takes me a little over two hours to bend the steel ten times, but for me it''s worth it when I''m done. "ARTICLE CREATED" ¡Ì Bent steel katana - Hit +5 Damage +10 - Durability 125/125 ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the cksmithing skill has advanced to level 8! ¡Ì cksmithing ¡Ì Level 8 - Strength +8 Fire resistance +8 - You can transform metal ores into useful objects. I look at the elementalist and say, "Good job, thank you, you can go now". The fire elemental looks happy as it fades away. I''m happy too as I look at my new katana sword, the only downside is that it took more material than I expected, so I don''t have enough to make another one. I quickly take the sword and insert it into the mushroom wood hilt so I can take a few swings with it. The bnce of the de is almost perfect, my only problem is that the hilt is too light and doesn''t feel right in my hand. So I sit down and find the heaviest bone I have and start carving a new hilt. Once it''s ready, I ce the de and try again, this time it''s much better. I take my time and practice all the types of moves I remember from various anime and manga. The sword is exactly what I expected to do and I am very happy with myself. However, I am not satisfied, I want two, so I go back to my camp, take my new miner''s pick and a torch, and start checking the cavern walls foot by foot. I check up and down, I have no intention of overlooking if there is iron anywhere in here. I check the walls of my camp first but find nothing, then I jump the river, move to the west wall and start searching. After an hour, I have searched along fifty feet of the west wall when I see something shiny. I quickly approach and sure enough, it is iron reflecting the light of the torch. I insert the torch into a crevice in the wall and start tapping the surrounding rock with the pickaxe. It takes me forty-five minutes to extract fifty pounds of iron ore. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Mining skill has advanced to level 8! ¡Ì Mining ¡Ì Level 8 - Strength +8 Endurance +4 - You are an expert in mining ores. Fifty pounds of iron ore is smelted to form four ingots of steel, which is the amount I need to make another katana. Once I have it, I run back to the forge room with it and, as soon as the forge heats up, I start melting it down. Once I have all four ingots, I summon a fire elemental again and start forging a second katana. This time it takes me a little less than two hours, but I seed. "ITEM CREATED" ¡Ì Bent steel katana - Hit +5 Damage +10 - Durability 125/125 ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the cksmithing skill has advanced to level 9! ¡Ì cksmithing ¡Ì Level 9 - Strength +9 Fire resistance +9 - You can transform metal ores into useful items. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, you''ve developed a skill! - Superior Strength has evolved to Supreme Strength due to the Force reaching 100! ¡Ì Supreme Strength. - With one hand, adds Stats to Strength to damage. - Two-handed it adds Stats to Strength x 2.5 to damage. Wait, so for a one-handed weapon I add one hundred to damage? But with a two-handed weapon I would add two hundred and fifty to damage? But I don''t have a two-handed weapon! I look at my two new katanas, if I had known about this, I would have made a nodachi! Even though I''m annoyed by the new ability, I still make a bone hilt for the second katana. Once it isplete, I sit down to carve two sheaths for my katanas. Chapter 32: Skills [ 3 ] Once the scabbards are ready, I clip the katanas to my belt, but I''m still thinking about the skill upgrade and wondering if I should forge a two-handed sword. I can always go get more iron, if there''s enough, I could make one. Oh wait, what about that other ore I found, armatite, right? Maybe I should try that. So I go back to camp to get the other ore and take it to the forge, ce it in the crucible and put it in the forge. While I wait, I burn my mana by adding mana veins; by then, I have all my organs hooked up and am working on my muscles. When I finish and wake up from meditation, I check the mineral, but find that it has not melted. I touch the amulet and say "Ruby?" Rubyes out in spirit form and says, "Yes, Klein?" "Any idea why this mineral is not melting?" Ruby takes human form and looks at the mineral "Isn''t that Armatite?" "Yes, I think so." Ruby replies, "Well, that''s why. It has a much higher melting temperature than iron." "Oh, can the forge get that hot?" Ruby says, "Yes, but I have to fire it directly. I don''t think you can use that metal, it takes mana to work it. I know because I saw the Archmage make a single dagger and in doing so he was exhausted." "Okay, for now let''s cast it into a bar, I can carry it more easily and decide what to do with itter." Ruby says "Sure." Ruby walks behind the forge and ces her hands on it, then with a look of concentration on her face she begins to light the forge. I quickly move to the side as the heat pouring out of her sts. I quickly move the ingot mold and rece it with a bar mold, then, standing to the side as much as I can, I ce the crucible back into the forge. I watch the ore turn from a brown rock to a silvery metal as it melts. Once it ispletely melted and has bubbled for a while, I guess it should be pure, so I take out the crucible and pour it into the mold. Even with my fire resistance, it burns my hands and I get dizzy when my mana reaches zero. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the cksmithing skill has advanced to level 10! ¡Ì cksmithing ¡Ì Level 10 ????? - Strength +10 Fire resistance +10 - You can transform metal ores into useful items. ''Wow, I got a level just for smelting this?'' Hey, wait, what''s with those question marks? The temperature in the room drops rapidly and Ruby, in spirit form, returns to the amulet. Ruby thinks to herself, ''Sorry, Klein, I''m out of energy. "Don''t apologize. I ran out of mana too, just by melting it. I wasn''t expecting it, you earned your break. Thank you." I sit and meditate to regain some mana while I wait for the bar to cool down. Two hourster, I wake up from meditation, pick up the bar and study it. "MAGIC OBJECT." ¡Ì armatite bar. - A magic metal, stronger and lighter than steel. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Observe skill has advanced to level 5! ¡Ì Observe ¡Ì Level 5 - Intelligence. +5 - You can identify items with study. "Charming, huh, I wonder if that''s why you absorbed mana from both of us?". Since I have to wait until Ruby recovers to ask her about my ability, I decide to do an experiment. I meditate until my mana is full and then channel it all into the metal bar. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, you have acquired the magic skill Channeling! ¡Ì channeling ¡Ì Level 1 - Intelligence +1 Mana +10 - You have experience in channeling mana. "Nice. Another way to increase my mana pool." Since it seems to have worked, I repeat the process a couple more times. This takes me more than a day, as I have to meditate for hours between each channeling. Rubyes out of the amulet in spirit form and says "What are you doing?" "I''ve been channeling mana to the bar while waiting for you to recover. I think it''s working, look, now there''s a golden dot." Ruby says "Yes, when the Archmage finished the dagger it was already golden, so I guess it''s working." "Besides that, I have a question. You see the skills the same way I see them now, so when we cast this I got to level ten smithing. Next to the level is a bunch of question marks, any idea what that might be?" Ruby says, "Well, I can''t be sure, but it should mean that the skill can evolve." "Okay, that sounds good, but how do I evolve it?" Ruby says, "I know of two ways, one is years of study and effort, the other is to use a bestial core." "Okay, the beast core is easy enough, what grade?" Ruby says, "For first stage evolution it has to be above a minor grade." "Wait, first stage evolution?" Ruby says, "Yes, the first time you evolve a skill is called first stage. Not all skills can evolve, some can only evolve once, but others can evolve two or three times. Second and third stage evolutions require supreme and higher grade beast cores." "s, that could get expensive, well, I won''t worry about that for now. I just hope we find a decent beast core as we explore." Ruby says, "Oh, did you finally finish crafting, are we going to explore now?" "Yes, I''m done for now. Yes, we can go exploring, but after we eat." Ruby says "Yes!" and follows me back to camp. I fish and cook some fish and, while we eat, I show Ruby the map. I show her where the camp is and where her room is so she has an idea of distances. "First, I want to explore this corridor above the spiders''ir. I think it will connect the two sides. If so, it will be the dividing line. We''ll explore everything to the south first." Ruby says, "Okay, just so you know, I never saw anything outside of my room and the forge room until you came along. So, I can''t tell you what might be down here." "That''s okay, I''ve been exploring blind since I started this mess. At least now I havepany to watch my back." Ruby smiles and finishes her fish then starts to put on her armor while I finish eating. Ruby says, "By the way master, your new armor looks really nice." "Oh thank you!" Once I finished eating, we got our weapons ready and set out to finally explore. Ruby is very excited and practically bounces around the ce as she waits for me. When I start moving, she quickly changes to spirit form and flies over the river before transforming back. I simply jump and then lead the way to the nearest exit of the cavern. The tunnel out of the cavern is only fifteen feet long before it reaches a fork. To the left and right is the main tunnel, though to the left it is blocked by a cave-in. Just on the other side is a smaller passageway that descends a little and then turns left. I lead Ruby to the right down the main tunnel for about thirty feet until wee to arge corridor on the left. If I am correct, this should be the hallway that the spider room connected to, so we headed down it to check it out. After about forty-five meters, wee to a turn-off to our right. Sure enough, I can see my footprints in the dust, leading to the spiders''ir. So we go straight ahead, thirty feet ahead is a passageway on the left and thirty feet beyond that is a passageway on the right. I''m taking careful note of the distances so I can add it all to the map urately. The next passageway is again on the right, forty feet below thest one, again we pass it because I want to determine the length of this cross passageway and whether it connects to the other main tunnel. Sixty feet further on, the corridor ends; to the left, it copsed, so we turn to the right. This is definitely the other main tunnel where I annihted the goblins, but after fifteen feet, it opens into a room. In the center of the room is a pile of bones and on the other side the passage continues. I don''t see any other way out of the room, so I head towards the pile of bones with the intention of going around it. "Rattle" "Rattle" "Rattle" "Rattle." I freeze at the first sound and watch as some of the bones begin to move. Three skeletons rise from the pile of bones and begin to slowly walk towards Ruby and me. "They are skeletons, a lesser form of undead, destroy the skull and that should be the end of them." Ruby says "Alright" as she moves towards the skeleton closest to her. I sheath my katanas and take the mace from my belt. I move towards the other two skeletons and smash the mace into the skull of the lead skeleton. "Smash!" The skeleton doesn''t even try to defend itself, and as the mace crushes its skull, the rest of the bones fall to the ground. I turn to the second skeleton, which is still advancing towards me. Meanwhile, Ruby walks up to her skeleton and punches it in the face. "Crack!" Her skeleton also copses as her punch turns its skull to dust. I then punch the skull of thest one. "Crunch!" ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Basic Blunt Strike skill has advanced to level 4! ¡Ì Basic Blunt Striking Concepts. ¡Ì Level 4 - Strength +4 - You cause 20% extra damage with blunt weapons. As thest skeleton crumbles, Ruby says, "Aww, that was too easy!" "Yeah, skeletons really aren''t a threat unless there are a lot of them." Ruby says, "Why did you use the mace?" "Heh, one of the rules of roleying is to always carry a blunt weapon for the undead." Ruby says, "No, I mean you''re much stronger than me, you could have punched them." "Ah, right, I hadn''t even honestly thought about it." I shrug and hook the mace on my belt, then poke around a bit in the pile of bones. Ruby asks "What are you doing?" "Just checking, usually the undead don''t just show up for no reason." Finding nothing, I head for the exit to the room to the south and Ruby follows me. We follow the main tunnel for a hundred and thirty feet beforeing to a four-way corridor that I recognize. The left passage leads to the goblinir, so I turn right, as it is unexplored. Go on about fifty feet and turn left, then ten feet down, there''s another passageway on the right leading north. I''m pretty sure it connects to the cross corridor we just explored, but I decide to follow it to be sure. It takes us for sixty feet with no branching and ends at the cross corridor as expected, so we backtrack and return to the previous corridor and turn right. After another twenty feet, ites to a four-way intersection. "Right should take us back to the cross aisle, left shoulde out near my original entry point. Let''s check it out first." So I lead Ruby to the left and, after seven meters, a door opens to our right. I peek inside and see two rat men crouched down rummaging through some trash. I step aside so Ruby can take a look, then point to myself and then to the right, then to her and to the left. Ruby nods and draws her sword, I draw ck Razor and nod. We both walk through the door together. Ruby goes to the left and punches the rat man in the neck. I go to the right and stab the other rat man in the back. - Killing the rat men on 11/30. Ruby says, "That was too easy! When are we going to find a challenge?" "I don''t know, but don''tin about easy. That''s asking to get us killed." Ruby cleans and sheathes her sword, not wanting to argue my point. Meanwhile, I open the chests of the two rat men and pull out their beast cores. I clean one and hand it to Ruby. "Stare at it, you should acquire the Observe skill and then it will ask if you want to absorb it. I wait." After staring at it, Ruby says, "I got the skill and it asks me if I want to absorb it, should I?" "Yes, go ahead," as I absorb the other one. You have absorbed the core of the Lesser Beast. HP +5 MP +5 "I know it''s not much, but believe me they add up." Ruby says, "Now I see you''ve gotten so much stronger in such a short time. No, I have noints." I quickly scour the trash piles to check for anything useful and find nothing, so we head back down the aisle. After another six meters, it rejoins the main tunnel, as I thought, so we turn around and check again on the other side. At the fourthne we take a left, as I''m sure if we go straight ahead we''ll be back in the cross corridor. The corridor on the left goes seven meters before turning right and then another fifteen before ending at a door. I check the door and see that it is locked, so I bend down, pull out my bone picks and try to pick the lock. I break every lock pick I have and fail to open the lock. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Lock Picking skill has advanced to level 4! ¡Ì Lock picking ¡Ì Level 4 - Agility +4 - You can attempt to pick a lock without a key. "We''ll have toe back after I make more lock picks." Ruby says, "Okay, that''s fine with me, master." We turn around and backtrack and follow the other tunnel, as I thought it took us back to the cross corridor. "Okay, that''s the south half of the sewers, let''s head back to camp to get something to eat and rest before we start on the other area." Ruby says, "Whatever you say, master..." Chapter 33: The Armory When we get back to camp, I catch some fish and grill them. While waiting for them to cook, I heat up the poker and start adding them to my map. ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, the Cartography skill has advanced to level 4! ¡Ì Cartography ¡Ì Level 4 - Intelligence. +4 - You can draw basic maps. After eating Ruby I return to the amulet to rest, channel all my mana to the bar and then meditate for eight hours. When I wake up from meditation, I channel all my mana back into the bar. Each time I do so, the golden spot grows noticeably. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Channeling skill has advanced to level 2! ¡Ì Channeling ¡Ì Level 2 - Intelligence +2 Mana +20 - You have experience in channeling mana. I rest for a few minutes until the dizziness wears off before grabbing my pickaxe and heading out to mine a few pounds of iron ore. Once that''s done, I head to the forge room to smelt it and make some steel lock picks. Then I go back to the locked door to try again. Steel picks are much harder to break, so after fiddling with the lock for five minutes, I seed. "CLICK." ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, the Picking Locks skill has advanced to level 5! ¡Ì Lock picking ¡Ì Level 5 - Agility +5 - You can attempt to pick a lock without a key. "Yes!" Ruby thinks "Huh? What''s wrong?" "Oh, sorry to wake you up, I picked the lock!" Ruby steps out in spirit form to see what''s behind the door. I open the door and my eyes widen as I see rows of weapons and armor on wooden shelves filling the room. "An armory! Wow, look at all this stuff!" Ruby says, "Yeah, that''s a lot of equipment! What are you going to do with all that?" "Depends on how good it is, but, except for the upgrades we can make, the rest of it will probably melt away. I can''t carry it all and I don''t see the point in leaving it like this." Ruby says "That''s right, do you want help moving it all?" "No, thanks. Go ahead and rest up for the next part of the scan. I can take care of this." Ruby doesn''t argue and goes back into the amulet to go back to sleep. I gather a bunch of weapons and make the first of many trips back to camp. It takes me two hours and about twenty trips to empty the armory of all weapons and armor. Then I go back three more times to get all the racks and wooden stands, which I disassemble for firewood. I''m really d that room was locked, if the rat men had all this stuff they would be a serious problem. Then I start sorting everything into piles, once sorted, I start examining them, starting with the swords. "MAGIC ITEM." ¡Ì Imperial knight''s sword. -Strike +3 Damage +5 - Durability: 100/100 "Oh, it''s just like the one I gave Ruby, now she can have one to match. Wait, are they all the same, can I even melt magic items?" I touch the amulet and ask, "Ruby, what will happen if I melt a magic sword?" Ruby thinks, "It will most likely explode! So don''t try it, if the forge were to explode, this whole area would disappear." "Although I''m attracted to the idea of the look on the king''s face as his city and castle copse, I''m not going to melt them." Ruby thinks, "Well, I mean I would survive, but I would be sad to lose you." "Umm, thanks, I think?" I then grab a spear and stare at it. "MAGICAL OBJECT." ¡Ì Imperial Spear - Strike +5 Damage +5 Piercing +3 - Durability 75/75 ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, the Observe skill has advanced to level 6! ¡Ì Observe ¡Ì Level 6 - Intelligence +6 - You can identify items by studying. "Oh, nice spear, I''ll take one of these". I set one aside and checked that the rest were the same before stacking them with the swords. Then I picked up the only war hammer I could find and looked at it. "MAGIC ITEM." ¡Ì Crushing war hammer. - Hit +2 Damage +10 Damage to undead +20%. - Durability 150/150 "Well, that''ll rece my rusty mace for sure!" I remove the mace from my belt, toss it aside and ce the warhammer in its ce. Then I take one of the maces from the armory and stare at it. "MAGICAL OBJECT." ¡Ì Imperial war mace - Hit +5 Damage +10 - Durability 90/90 "Bah, with all these magic items I really can''t do anything!" I throw the maces into the magic pile and then pick up one of the pikes and stare at it. "MAGIC ITEM." ¡Ì Imperial Pike - Hit +5 Damage +5 Damage x 3 vs charge. - Durability 100/100 "Wow, nice, and I have to remember never to attack someone with a pike!" I move the pikes to the pile of magic weapons, then change my mind and pick one up and ce it near my practice area. Then I pick up thest weapon, a two-handed axe, and stare at it. "MAGIC ITEM." ¡Ì Great Axe of the Empire - Hit +2 Damage +20 - Durability 200/200 "Ouch, this thing hits hard! Wait, if this was the basic equipment for Imperial soldiers, what was the equipment for their heroes like?" I pick up the axe and set it down next to my training area. Then I sit back down and pick up one of the kite shields and study it. "MAGIC ITEM." ¡Ì Imperial kite shield. - Defense +5 Magic resistance +10 - Durability 125/125 "Well, I''ve found a recement for my spider shield". I take one of theet shields for myself and stack the rest next to the pile of weapons. I then take the single tower shield and study it. "MAGIC ITEM." ¡Ì Wall Shield. - Defense +9 Fire resistance +25 - Durability 250/250 "Or maybe I want to keep this one?" Then I stand up, tie it to my arm and move around with it and try to spin it. Then I take it off and put it on the pile of shields. "No, it''s too bulky andplicated. I''ll stick with the kite shield." Next I check the leather armor and the steel armor. "MAGIC ITEM." ¡Ì Empire light armor. - Defense +5 Speed +5 - Durability 50/50 "MAGIC ITEM" ¡Ì Imperial armor - Defense +7 HP +100 - Durability 110/110 ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, the Observe skill has advanced to level 7! ¡Ì Observe ¡Ì Level 7 - Intelligence. +7 - You can identify items with study. "While the armor is nice, I think mine is better, and none of them are for women, so that leaves Ruby out." I stack the armor against the wall and sort through the stacks of weapons and shields. As I stack them, I count them all: neen swords, nine spears, nine pikes, nine pikes, ten maces, nine kite shields, one tower shield, ten leather armors, and twenty steel armors. Why would all this have been in the sewers? Unless it was backup equipment they ced here in case they couldn''t get to their quarters? Or maybe it was an emergency point? I guess the dragon took them out so fast they didn''t have a chance to run. But how much magic did the empire have if this was all backup equipment? I get up and walk to my practice area, then grab the pike and try to figure out how to wield it. It''s too long andplicated to use while on the move, it''s meant to be used while holding a line against cavalry. I can move it easily with my strength, but it''s still not a good weapon for me, I still try to figure out how to use it and, more importantly, how I could counter it if I need to. ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, you''ve acquired thebat skill Polearm Weapon Fundamentals! ¡Ì Polearms basics. ¡Ì Level 1 - Strength +1 Endurance +1 - You cause 5% additional damage with polearms. "Huh, not bad, but I''d never use something like that." I take the pike and add it to the others in the weapon pile. Then I go back to the practice area and pick up the giant axe, which feels much better in my hands. I swing it a couple of times and it feels powerful, I''m having a lot of fun just swinging the giant axe. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, you''ve acquired the Basic Axebat skill! ¡Ì Axe basics ¡Ì Level 1 - Strength +2. - You deal 5% extra damage with axes. ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, you have acquired the Weapon Masterbat skill! ¡Ì Weapon Master ¡Ì Level 1. - Speed and damage with all weapons +5%. - You are capable with all types of weapons. "Wow, who would have thought there was a bonus like that for learning all different types of weapon skills? I guess it pays to be a skill junkie like me." Iugh at my own joke as I continue to swing and twirl the big axe like it weighs nothing. Normally, a big axe would be a slow weapon, but thanks to my great strength it dances in my hands like a much smaller weapon. "I think I''ll stick with this axe, I quite like it." The first thing I need to do is make a sheath for the axe that will hold it on my back. I also want to figure out how to attach the kite shield so I don''t have to keep it on my arm. Come to think of it, with two katanas, ck Razor and the war hammer as well, I really should find a war harness to hold everythingfortably without interfering with my mobility. I take my time and n it out, figure out how to hold everything and secure it to my armor. Once I have a n, I set about making it and the attached holsters for all my weapons. It takes me a couple of hours and I pause in the middle to fish and cook some fish to eat, but I can do it and when I try it on I can carry all my weapons with no problem. "Okay, everything is fixed, but from now on no more weapons unless I rece something I already have." After that I channel all my mana into the bar and then climb into my hammock for a full night''s sleep. Chapter 34: The Rat King When I wake up I feel great, get out of the hammock and stretch before heading to the river for breakfast. After eating I check my gear and then jump across the river, then touch the amulet. "Ruby, are you ready to go exploring?" Ruby steps out of the amulet and takes human form before turning to smile at me. I smile back and extend the new sword to her. Ruby asks "What is this?" "A recement for that old sword, it matches the other one." Ruby says, "Oh, thanks. I guess you found some good stuff in the armory." "Yeah, pretty good stuff, too bad I can''t take advantage of most of it because it''s enchanted." Ruby says, "So, shall we go exploring again?" "Yes, we can explore to the north this time. I''m pretty sure that''s where the rat men areing from." Ruby says, "Yeah, a fight! I''m ready, let''s go." I exit the main cavern through the nearest exit. This time, instead of turning, we cross directly into the new hallway, follow it for about ten meters and then turn left to make our way into a room. We look carefully at the room, it is huge, about fifteen meters wide and forty-five meters long. As we look around, there are vats and strange pipes; I assume this is the imperial version of sewage treatment. On the other side of the room is an area that looks like a camp and we can count ten rat men gathered around it. "This seems like the perfect time to test your fireball." Ruby says, "Really? Yeah! Okay, here we go!" Ruby leans into the room and throws a fireball into the campfire, which explodes right in the middle of the rat men. To the poor rat men, it must have looked as if their campfire had suddenly exploded. - Killing the rat men 18/30 Only three rat men survive the explosion and they don''t look very good, so Ruby and I quietly enter the room and head towards them. The three rat men, instead of trying to run, rush at us. Ruby and I draw our swords and split up, one rat man heads towards Ruby and the other two rush at me. Ruby eagerly reaches for hers while I calmly wait and let minee at me. Just as they are five feet away, I move in, with a quick lunge I close the distance and sh crosswise with both katanas. As the two rat men fall, I look to the side and see Ruby already cleaning and sheathing her swords. - Killing the rat men 21/30 I clean and sheathe my katanas and then set about collecting the ten beast cores from the bodies. I find that the burned bodies smell even worse than normal corpses, but I hold my breath and take the cores. I divide them equally and give five to Ruby and keep five for myself. We both take a few minutes to absorb the beast cores. - You have absorbed the core of the Lesser Beast. HP +5 MP +5 - You have absorbed the core of the Lesser Beast. HP +5 MP +5 - You have absorbed the core of the Lesser Beast. HP +5 MP +5 - You have absorbed the core of the Lesser Beast. HP +5 MP +5 - You have absorbed the core of the Lesser Beast. HP +5 MP +5 ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, your familiar has reached level 2! "Ah, Ruby, did you just level up?" Ruby says, "Yes, I did. I have stat points to spend, what should I put them into?" "Well, Int is better for magic, so that would be my suggestion." Ruby says, "Okay, I''ll do it!" "Man, I''d love to be able to level up!" We then set about searching the room, which took us two hours just because of all the pipes we climbed and checked behind. I didn''t find anything useful, but Ruby did, she proudly walks over to me and offers me a blue stone the size of my hand. I stare at it. "MAGIC OBJECT". ¡Ì Cleaning stone. - Cleans everything it touches. "So, they used magic for sewage treatment, impressive." I reach out to take the stone from Ruby, and as I do, Ruby startsughing. Suddenly, I feel my entire fur bristle and puff up like I''ve just been blow-dried. Ruby is bent over,ughing so hard she''s clutching her sides. I just look down at my fur, which is all shiny and clean. "Did you know that was going to happen?" Rubyughs and says, "I had a really good idea, yes!" I sigh and tuck the rock in my belt before heading for the only way out of the room. Ruby follows meughing. We enter a tunnel that runs east for about twenty-five feet before wee to a T-shaped fork. The right hand leads back to the main hallway, so we continue straight ahead into the smaller hallway. We follow it for twenty feet before another hallway branches off to the left heading north. Straight ahead I can see a door further down. I decide to continue straight ahead and take a look at the door, then head back down the other hallway. Another thirty feet brings us to the door, the door is a pile of rotting wood, so we peek inside. The room is a chaos of broken ss, rotting wood, twisted and broken metal; it''s hard to make sense of it. I doubt we''ll find anything useful here, so we turn around and head back to the intersection of the hallways and turn north. We follow the hallway fifteen meters north, then turn left and walk it another thirty meters before wee to anotherrge room. It is twenty-five meters long by one hundred and fifty meters wide and is divided in half by arge rectangr pool of brackish water. At the north end of the pool is a raised area with a throne made of bone and odd bits of metal. A rat man sits on the throne with eight others around him. There are also between fifty and a hundred giant rats roaming around that end of the room. The rat men mostly ignore them. "I''ll go in and climb up the right side of the pool, you take the left." I wait for Ruby to nod, then release the axe from my back and enter the room with determination. I move quickly to the right side of the room with the axe gripped in both hands and begin marching up the right side of the pool, apanied by Ruby on the left. It doesn''t take long for the rat men to notice our presence and, as I expected, they split up. Four head towards Ruby while the other four head towards me. Ruby rushes forward to meet his. I stop and stand up, preparing for a big blow. I n to kill the first one in one blow. Theye at me two at a time and I give them a mighty blow. I didn''t expect the axe to go through the two rat men, but I''m quick enough to react, turn the axe around and swing it the other way as the next twoe at me. Once again, the axe slices through them and leaves me standing over four dismembered bodies. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, Skill Axe Basics has advanced to level 2! ¡Ì Axe Basics. ¡Ì Level 2 - Strength +4. - You do 10% extra damage with axes. - Kill Ratmen 27/30 I look over to where Ruby is and see that she has already killed two and is working on the other two, so I continue on to the king who is still sitting on his throne. The king makes a strange noise and all the giant rats run towards him and form a mass between him and me. I stop as I look at the horde of giant rats, I don''t think my armor will protect me from so many. As they rush towards me, acting on pure instinct, I take a big breath of air and then let out a roar that seems toe from deep inside me. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, you''ve unlocked Bestial''s abilities! ??-DING-???. - Congrattions, you have acquired the Bestial skill Lion''s Roar! ¡Ì Lion''s Roar ¡Ì Level 1 - Damage 10 Range 20 ft. - Causes fear in a 50 ft. radius. The roar kills about fifteen rats and causes the rest to run into their holes, I stop in surprise not knowing I could do that. - Killing the rat men 29/30 Ruby asks, "What was that, that was awesome!" "I don''t know, it just happened!" Ruby says, "Well, these two turned to look at you, which made it very easy to kill them!" - Well then there''s only the king left! I turn around to face the king, who is now curled up on his throne looking at me as if I were the devil. I calmly approach and with one swift blow take the king''s head and put him out of his misery. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, you''vepleted a mission! - Kill the rat men - Objective: kill rat men 30/30 - Reward: 10 stat points. ??-DING-???. - Congrattions, you havepleted a mission! - Kill the Rat King - Objective: Kill the Rat King 1/1 - Reward: Lionheart helmet. "Finally!" The helmet appears before me, floating in the air, waiting for me to take it. I reach out, grab it and smile as I look at the lion design on the helmet. Ruby says, "What, it just appeared out of nowhere!" "It''s one of my quest rewards." "MAGIC ITEM." ¡Ì Lionheart helmet. - Defense +4 Immune to fear - Durability 300/300 Iy my axe on the ground next to the rat king''s throne so I can use both hands to put on his helmet. "So, how do I look?" Ruby says, "Majestic and intimidating, though your ears sticking out of your helmet also make you cute at the same time!" I pick up my axe again and wipe it clean before resheathing it on my back, then pull out the ck Razor and cut the core of the beast from the king''s chest. "ITEM." ¡Ì Beast Core - Quality: medium Would you like to absorb it? Y/N "No!" Would you like to evolve cksmithing now? Y/N "Yes!!!" As soon as I say yes, the core in my hands turns to dust, but this time I don''t feel the surge of power in my body, it goes somewhere else. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the cksmithing skill has evolved to the expert cksmithing skill! ??-DING-???. - Congrattions, the skill Expert cksmithing has advanced to level 11! ¡Ì Expert cksmithing ¡Ì Level 11 - Strength +12 Fire resistance +12 - You can craft expert level metal items. "Yes! My cksmithing evolved!" Ruby says "Congrattions!!!" "Since I used the higher quality core, you can absorb the lower eight of the other rat men." Ruby says "Are you sure? We can still split them up, master." -Yes, I''m sure. I want you to be stronger. Ruby goes around collecting and absorbing the cores, while I rummage around the throne area looking for anything that might be useful. I''m having no luck when suddenly there''s an explosion behind me. I turn around expecting to find enemies when instead I see Ruby engulfed in mes with a huge grin on her face. "What happened?" Ruby says, "I just evolved from a minor spirit to a half spirit!!!" "Congrattions!!!" Ruby says, "This means absorbing cores is even better than I thought! I have more spirit energy now, so I can stay out longer!" -Good, I like having you around. Ruby smiles and asks, "So, what''s next, master?" I point behind the throne and say, "Let''s see where that tunnel leads." Chapter 35: The Cavern Ruby says, "Is it okay, do we normally rest after a fight?" "I''m tired of being underground, I want to find my way out of here and see the sun!" Ruby says, "That''ll be great, I''ve never seen the surface of this world." So we head into the tunnel, unlike the rest of the area, which is brick, the tunnel is made of roughly hewn stone. As we go along, the tunnel twists and turns and some ces are so narrow that I have to walk through sideways. When we finally see the light at the end of the tunnel, I guess we have gone about forty-five meters. The light gets brighter as we get closer to the end of the tunnel, it''s brighter than the twilight of my camp, but steady, so it''s not the light of a fire. When we finally reach the end of the tunnel, we see a beautiful cavern filled with nt life in a variety of colors. The light is simr to sunlight andes from crystals on the ceiling, I am not sure if the crystals are generating the light or if it is reflected sunlight somehow. Taking a long look, the cavern is huge, broken by many pirs and covered with nt life. "This will take longer than I thought, let''s leave it at that for now. Besides, I''m hungry. We''ll rest for the night and start again tomorrow." Ruby says, "Okay, master." So, without entering the cavern, we turn around and go back through the tunnel. I stop in the rat king''s room to pick up the dead giant rats. Ruby says, "What are those for? "For dinner. I''m sick of fish." Ruby says "Can you eat rat?" "Sure you can, it''s not as bad as it looks. You''ll see." I head back to camp with Ruby, who is still unconvinced, following me. Once back at camp, I quickly skin and butcher all the rats and start cooking the meat with some mushrooms. Once it''s finished cooking, I ask Ruby to try a bite. "Well, what''s it like?" Ruby says, "Chewy, but you''re right, it''s not bad." "Would you like some more?" Ruby says "Sure." So Ruby and I share the food and enjoy each other''spany as we eat. After we finish eating, I pull out the purifying stone and do an experiment: I stick my arm in the river and then touch the stone after I pull it out. As I expected, it dries my arm instantly, which means I can go swimming and be dry as soon as I get out. -Hey Ruby, before you go to rest I''m going for a swim. Ruby says, "Okay, I have enough energy to warm you up" and smiles. I take off my armor and use the purifying stone on each piece before carefully stacking them. Feeling Ruby''s eyes on me makes me feel self-conscious as I remove the rest of my clothes and dive straight into the river. I freeze for a few seconds as the cold hits me and then I start swimming against the current trying to stay in the same spot. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the swimming skill has advanced to level 3! ¡Ì Swimming ¡Ì Level 3 - Strength +3 Endurance +3 Cold resistance +3 Hold your breath. - You can paddle and not drown. This time it''s not as bad as it is now. I loved swimming in my old life, I''m d I can do it here too. I keep swimming underwater for quite a while before surfacing to let Ruby know I haven''t drowned. I swim for two hours straight before I start to feel exhausted. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the swimming skill has advanced to level 4! ¡Ì Swimming ¡Ì Level 4 - Strength +4 Endurance +4 Cold resistance +4 Hold your breath. - You can swim pretty well. When I emerge exhausted and freezing, I immediately touch the purification stone to dry off and quickly put on my clothes before heading to sit by the fire. Ruby sits right next to me and starts radiating heat until I stop shivering. Ruby says, "Was it worth it?" "Yes, I went up two levels in swimming." Ruby says, "That''s good. If you don''t need anything else, I''m going to rest now." "No, I''m fine. Enjoy your rest." Ruby changes to spirit form and gets into the amulet to rest. I sit for a while enjoying the warmth of the fire and then grab the Armatite bar and channel all my mana into it. Then I climb into my hammock and sleep for four hours, when I wake up I meditate for six hours and then channel half of my mana into the bar. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions! The Channeling skill has progressed to level 3! ¡Ì Channeling ¡Ì Level 3 - Intelligence +3 Mana +30 - You have experience in channeling mana. I then set about catching, cooking and eating breakfast, then used the purifying stone on myself and my clothes before putting on my armor and weapons. Once I was ready to go, I clean up camp, jump the river and head to the new cavern. I wait until I''m in the tunnel just before the cavern before summoning Ruby from the amulet. Ruby takes human form and looks around, then checks her gear and nods to me. We enter the cavern together, but freeze after a few steps because the nts near us are suddenly blooming and glowing slightly. They are also emitting a beautiful scent, but nothing dangerous happens and after a minute we rx. "What''s wrong with these flowers?" Ruby says "They''re beautiful! I think they might be reacting to our mana." "nts reacting to mana? Is thatmon?" Ruby says "Not that I know of, but can''t you feel how much mana is in the air here? This cavern is very rich in mana." "What could cause that?" Ruby says, "It could be a number of things, both natural and unnatural." "Okay, keep your guard up, anything could be hiding in here." We cautiously make our way into the cavern, due to the pirs and vegetation our line of sight is not very wide so we keep close to each other. As we go deeper into the cavern every nt we pass blooms, there are flowers of all kinds of colors and sizes, it is really beautiful, but we are alert to danger and can''t enjoy it now. Soon we hear the sound of water, and as we go deeper into the cavern, it bes a roar. Soon wee to a clearing in the foliage where thend splits, to the left it goes down and to the right it goes up. Hoping to get a better view, we take the right path and climb towards the sound of the roaring water. The first thing we see when we reach some rocks is a smallke or veryrge pond that stretches in front of us for over ny meters. It is fed by a wide, slow-flowing rivering out of the cavern wall to the right and, as far as we can see, there is a waterfall somewhere along the left side of theke. I approach the water''s edge, the water is fairly still and I can see my reflection in it. I lean over to get a better look at myself and look at myself. I realize that this is the first time I have seen what I look like since I came into this world. My contemtion is interrupted by a bad feeling, reacting instantly I lunge backwards, only to see huge jaws sprout from theke and m shut where my head was a second ago. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Danger Sense skill has advanced to level 3! ¡Ì Danger Sense. ¡Ì Level 3 - Wisdom +3 - A feeling that warns you of great danger. Ruby lets out a small cry of surprise as I back up a bit more before standing up. When I see the alligatore out of the water behind me, I don''t even stop to think, I turn and run to the nearest pir and climb straight up it using my ws. I stop when I''m twenty feet up and turn around to look down, only to see the gator at the base of the pir. Chapter 36: Negotiation City State of Illium, Wizards Guild, P.O.V. of Zamart. I arrive at the mages guild through my door and make my way to the guild master''s quarters. I knock on the door and open it when I hear an answer. I walk in and see my old friend sitting behind a huge desk, he has a long white beard and very little hair, he is tall and thin but has presence. "Hello, Roddick, my old friend!" Roddick looks up and says, "Zamart, is that really you?" "I know it''s been almost seventy-five years, but have I really changed that much?" Roddick says, "Yes, you''ve changed quite a bit since thest time I saw you. That was when we had just finished our apprenticeship and became full-fledged wizards. You went back to Revalia to be a court mage and I stayed here and joined the mages guild." "And here you are, now the guild master! Congrattions!" Roddick says, "I heard you became the head court mage, so congrattions to you too." "Thank you, but I''m no longer the head court magician. In fact, I''ve beenbeled a traitor and they''ve put a price on my head." Roddick says, "Ah, I see. Well, if you are here to ask for refuge, I will grant it." "Actually, I am here on behalf of the rebellion and I have bad news for you and the other nations. King Raden is nning to attack the other nations and has summoned all avable summonings." Roddick says, "That''s quite an argument. You''d bettere in and sit down, I''ll pour you some tea and you''ll tell me all about it." We sit down together and, as we drink the tea, I tell my old friend everything that has happened since the queen was assassinated. I tell him how the king sacrificed his own daughter to summon all the heroes and I tell him about the secret army being trained. Roddick says, "Okay, I believe you. Rest here for a while while I summon someone and have some mages check a few things." "Sure, check everything you can, your word will carry a lot of weight for the other nations to believe us." After Roddick leaves the room, I take a few minutes to look around. It is a very elegant and serious office, many random objects adorn the walls, including heads and trophies that I recognize asing from very dangerous mana beasts. Iugh when I see a familiar crystal on Roddick''s desk, it lights up when someone tells a lie near it. Our master had one when we were apprentices, it was our undoing on many asions. My memories are interrupted when the door opens. I stand up and turn to look at it. I see Roddick enter, followed by a muscr man with gray hair and beard, and violet eyes. He moves gracefully, but with obvious restrained strength, and I see a glint of intelligence in his eyes. Roddick says, "Zamart, this is Ambrose, master of the adventurers guild, he is also the leader of the guild masters council and current master of the city." I bow slightly and ept the offered handshake. We sit down and I retell the story of what has happened in Revalia. Ambrose says, "That is a truly disturbing story, forgive me for not epting it without confirmation." -No, I understand perfectly. Roddick says, "My mages have verified that there are no heroic summonings avable, so that is confirmed. Also, we recently received a request from King Raden for some of our mages to go to Revalia and enchant the castle. I also have mages currently scanning northern Revalia for the training ground." Ambrose says, "Well, if there are no court mages to oppose them, that shouldn''t take long. In the meantime, I''d like to know more about this summoning of beastmen, I''ve never heard of such a thing!" "It''s true that it has never happened before, as far as I know. And the way it happened was also very strange." Roddick says, "Oh yeah, how''s that?" "Well, the forty-nine summoned had appeared standing in the circle as they were supposed to. Then Princess Mericel gave her father a look that was part betrayal, part hatred just before she copsed. After copsing, the beastman fell into the circle as if he had gone through the ceiling." Roddick says, "I''ve never heard anything like it before." "Royal historian Dammerter checked the royal archives and found nothing like it anywhere." Ambrose says, "Interesting! Whenever something happens that has never happened before, you know interesting times are ahead!" Roddick says, "You''re always so eager to fight!" Ambrose says, "Well, excuse me for enjoying a good fight! How about I retire and you take over management of the city?" Roddick says, "No thanks, I''ve got enough paperwork just managing my guild!" As the two continued to argue, I started thinking about the beast man, wondering where he was and what he was doing. I also wondered what role he might y in the uing events. My thoughts and their bickering are interrupted when a mage walks through the door. From her robes, I can tell she holds a fairly high rank within the guild. Roddick says, "This is Belliza, my number two in the guild, I asked her to lead the divination team." Belliza says "Guild Master, we have located a training camp with over ten thousand soldiers in the desert north of Revalia." Ambrose says "Well, that confirms everything, it looks like a war!" -So, will you help our messengers warn the other nations? Ambrose says "We will do more than that, we will also send messages confirming what we have found. We will help your messengers with supplies and escorts. I will also open the city to the rebels, they can send refugees here through the gate and we will wee them. They can also use the city to buy weapons and supplies." "Thank you very much, it will help us a lot!" Ambrose says, "No need to thank me, we are now allies against amon enemy!" Roddick says, "Belliza, change of ns, are you willing to take the mages to Revalia to do the enchantment? It will be more dangerous now as it will also be an espionage mission." Belliza says "I will, can I choose my team?" Roddick says "Of course." "You should know that the king has a spy master named Quill who is a master of shadows." Roddick says, "One of those pathetic men who sold his soul for power?" "Yes, exactly. And as despicable as he is, he''s very dangerous." Belliza says, "I know the perfect wizard to take with us then. Guild master, with your permission?" Roddick says, "Yes, you may go and begin preparations." Ambrose says, "I should go brief the rest of the council and prepare messages for the other nations." Belliza and Ambrose leave the room. I look at Roddick and smile. "I should go too, I must report this to our leader. The messengers will arrive as soon as I get to the other side." Roddick replies, "Yes, I too have preparations to make. If we are to enter a silent war, there is much to be done." "I''m sorry to bring such bad news when we haven''t seen each other in so long." Roddick says, "I''d rather know now than when an army shows up at the gates. Bute back in a few days or a week and we can sit and chat over beers." "Deal!" I stand up and hug my friend before leaving to head back through the gate toward the rebel camp. Chapter 37: The Princess Rebel Camp, Princess Amercy''s point of view. Zamart left to talk to the mage guild master a few minutes ago, I''m sitting in my tent nervously awaiting his return. Everything is going to depend on whether or not we can convince the other nations of the threat my father poses to them. The three messengers are ready and waiting for Zamart''s return, each has a letter written by me and signed and sealed in my name. I know my father has spies in the other nations, so once my letters arrive, it won''t be long before he discovers that I am still alive. At that point, I expect them to send an army to exterminate us. I should be making ns with Alexa for that, but until I know how things went on Illium, it''s hard for me to think about next steps. I''m also a bit worried about Zamart himself, he''s still in good physical shape, but as far as I know he''s almost a hundred years old. If anyone can convince the guild master to help me, it''s Zamart, I trust himpletely. I have since I was seven years old and he agreed to teach me magic in secret because he was afraid of my new father. Even before he agreed to teach me magic, he was my favorite teacher. He was always very patient with me, even when I was acting like a spoiled child. I know that if he had known I was still alive, he would have rushed to join me as soon as he could. I don''t me him for serving my father, I know he did it for the sake of my little sister. The fact that the king was able to sacrifice his own daughter for power is only one of many reasons why he cannot be allowed to remain in power. I will do whatever it takes to have him overthrown and the country returned to what it should be. The fact that I will now have Zamart''s advice to help achieve that goal is a relief. I must remember, when Zamart returns, to ask him to teach me magic again and also to find someone among the rebels who can be taught. With all the court mages dead, magic will be an important factor in future battles. I should also ask him about his previous apprentices. I remember hearing that they were all sent to the army because the king did not trust them, as they were mostlymoners. Maybe Zamart can get in touch with them and get them to defect. On the other hand, if I made my identity public, we would probably get much more support from the people, but that would also greatly increase our danger. I will ask Zamart for his opinion when he returns. The guard says, "Princess, Alexa is here to see you." "Show her in." I watch as Alexa strides in. She moves quickly, but she is aware of everything around her. It is her awareness that earned her a ce in the queen''s guard and her outstanding service that ced her as head of my guard the day we were attacked. "Alexa, do you ever regret being with me instead of the queen that day?" Alexa pauses before saying, "I regret the queen''s death, but no, I don''t regret being there with you. I may have lost a lot of goodrades, but it was worth it to keep the future queen alive." "Sorry, for some reason my mind goes to the past a lot, did you need something?" Alexa says, "Yes, the assault teams are back, they were all sessful!" "Great, what about casualties?" Alexa says "Some injuries, no losses!" "Wow, that''s unexpected, is there a reason?" Alexa says "The garrisons were understaffed as I expected and their discipline wasx." "Well, a win is a win, I''ll take it!" Alexa says "Is Zamart back yet?" "No, I would be surprised if he did. Although the guild master is an old friend, I expect he''ll want to verify the information before acting." Alexa says, "Okay. Should we talk about our next ns then?" "No, I can''t think beyond Zamart''s return right now. It will all depend on the response we receive." Alexa says, "Okay, I''lle back when Zamart is back." As Alexa leaves, I find myself trying to remember thest time I practiced with a sword. It''s been too long, I need to practice again, I may need to use one very soon. Magic is not a problem, I have practiced as Zamart taught me, every day without fail. My mana reserve is much more developed since thest time he taught me, that''s why I want to get more lessons from him. Magic is useful in all sorts of different situations and having it as a trump card that no one knows about saved my life before and I might very well do it again. The guard says, "Princess, Zamart has returned!" "Send him away immediately!" A minuteter, Zamart enters the tent, I can tell by his stride and the smile on his face that he has good news and I instantly rx as some of the tension leaves me. -Zamart, sit down and tell me all about it, tea? Zamart says "Yes, please" as he sits down across from me at the desk. I pour him a cup of tea and pass it to him, before he can say a word, Alexa enters the tent and quickly steps behind me. Zamart says, "Everything went very well, the couriers are already through the door. There will be escorts waiting for them, as well as letters from the master of the mages guild and the head of the city. Illium is already preparing for war and they are with us." Alexa and I smile at each other and at Zamart. This is our first real step to attack the king. "That is excellent news, my friend!" Zamart says "There is more, the city master, Ambrose, has said that Illium will ept refugees in small groups and that we can use the city merchants to buy weapons and supplies, if we have the funds." "We have some funds but not much." Alexa says, "Actually, I have a n for that." "Oh yeah, let''s hear it!" Alexa says, "I''ve long thought that if we need funds, we can raid the mansions of the nobles who stay in the capital all the time to be close to the king. I have a list of targets and ns to raid them." "Robbing nobles loyal to my father to fund the rebellion against him? Ha ha ha ha ha ha, I love it, we''ll definitely do it!" Zamart says, "Give me a day or two and I can craft items that will counter the barriers and reveal things hidden by magic." Alexa says, "Anyway, it will take a few days for the raiding parties to be ready, since they just got back." "Then, it''s decided. The raiding parties can rest for a few days while Zamart makes the items. Then, when they return, we should have enough funds to be able to buy what we need. Let''s start sending the refugee families through the gate starting tomorrow as well. Once they are safe, it will be easier for us to n our defenses, because once my father knows I am alive, we will definitely be attacked." Zamart says, "I should get to work immediately, if I can''t find suitable items to enchant I''ll have to make some." Zamart finishes his tea, stands up and bows to me before leaving the store. Alexa walks around the table to stand in front of me and also bows. Alexa says, "I should get to work too." "Yes, of course. Also, please start drawing up ns to counter an armying into the forest to look for us. I guess that will be my father''s reaction to finding out I''m alive." Alexa says "Yes, Princess." She bows again before leaving. Zamart reminding her that I am a princess has had an effect. I was getting used to being just Mercy, but now it looks like I''ll have to go back to being Princess Amercy. But a rebellion needs a symbol and a princess is a better one, so if that''s what I can do for my people, then I''ll just have to get used to it. Chapter 38: The Gator In Klein''s P.O.V. Cavern. I stare at the alligator as it begins to circle around the column I''m clinging to. I call it an alligator in my head, but it doesn''t look much like an Earth alligator. For one thing, it has eight legs and, as I just saw, it moves much faster onnd. Although the jaw looks about the same, the neck is more flexible and longer, it keeps stretching its head to look at me as if disappointed that I haven''t fallen into its mouth yet. I look around and see Ruby a little further away, she''s holding her swords but looks hesitant. "Are you okay?" Ruby says, "Yeah, I''m fine, how are you?" "Annoyed! By the way, why is he ignoring you?" Ruby says, "I don''t know, maybe because I''m a spirit and don''t smell like food? I was going to attack him, but I doubt my swords would hurt him much. I thought about hitting him with a fireball, but I''m worried he''ll hit you too." "No, don''t throw fireballs at me, please! I really should have taught you how to use the fireball! Anyway, judging by the looks of your armor, I don''t think your swords will work either. Just stay away, I''ll take care of this!" Ruby says, "Okay, don''t do anything stupid!" Iugh as I let go of the pir with one hand and point at the alligator with it. ''Lightning!'' MP: 330/405 Lightning shoots out of my hand and hits the alligator in the head. The gator shakes its head and then looks at me even more angrily. I then decide to hit it again, this time aiming for its mouth. ''Lightning!'' MP: 255/405 This time, the lightning strikes inside the alligator''s mouth and has more effect. The alligator roars in pain, and then turns away from the pir to return to the water. This is what I expected, I retract my ws from the pir and leap towards the gator. I pull the ck Razor out of the air as I hear Ruby scream in surprise. Ind on the gator''s back and wrap my free arm around its mouth to keep it closed. I hold on for dear life with all my might as the gator starts iling around like a madman, but thanks to my strength I am able to keep its mouth shut. Just as I''m about to stab it with ck Razor, it changes tactics and rolls. Considering that this thing weighs several hundred pounds at least, suddenly finding myself pinned between it and the rocks is not a pleasant experience. The fact that it spins around five or six times in the same amount of seconds leaves me seeing stars and with bruises all over my body, but despite that I don''t let go and start stabbing it over and over again with the ck Razor. As I stab him I either hit him in a painful spot or he just decides I''m not soft enough yet because he goes back around the other way another six times. HP: 453/809 I quickly realize I can''t keep this up much longer, so I stop randomly stabbing and wait until I''m up, then take aim and stab him in the eye. When the hilt of the knife hits bone and stops, I channel another bolt of lightning through the dagger. ''Lightning!'' MP: 180/405 ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Lightning skill has advanced to level 2! ¡Ì Lightning ¡Ì Level 2 - MP cost 60 - Youunch a lightning bolt that deals 150 points of electrical damage. The animal rears up like a wild colt and sends me flying fifty feet into the air until I run into a pir with a thud and slide down it to end up lying face down at its base. From there, I watch as the alligator staggers a few steps towards me as smoke pours from its eye socket and mouth before copsing. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Beast yer skill has advanced to level 2! ¡Ì Beast yer. ¡Ì Level 2 - All stats +2 - You cause an additional 10% damage against beasts. I straighten up and sit up with a grunt as Ruby runs towards me. I was expecting her to help me up, but instead she hits me hard in the head. Ruby says, "I told you not to do anything stupid!" "Ow! What was that for?" Ruby says "For doing something stupid and almost killing you!" "Although I admit it hurt more than expected, everything went ording to n!" While I was thinking that everything I said was perfectly reasonable, Ruby ends up hitting me in the head again and disappears into the amulet to sulk. I then get up and rub the back of my neck as I walk over to the gator carcass to retrieve the ck Razor. With much grunting and panting, I manage to flip the carcass over and start skinning it. Once I have the skin out of the way, I make a cut in its chest and pull out the core. I then stare at it to trigger observation. "ITEM." ¡Ì Beast Core. - Quality: Major Would you like to absorb it? Y/N. -Oh, a bigger one, nice! Now the real question is should I absorb it or save it until I have an ability to level up? If I absorb it now I will be stronger, but then I will have to go get another coreter when I have a skill ready to evolve. The priority right now is survival and getting stronger will increase my chances. "Yes!" - You have absorbed the core of the Great Beast. HP +100 MP +100 Strength +10 Agility +10 Endurance+10 ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, you''ve acquired the Devour Beast skill! ¡Ì Devour ¡Ì Level 1 - You can be stronger by consuming the flesh of strong enemies. ??-DING-???. - Congrattions, you''ve developed a skill! - Superior Agility has evolved to Supreme Agility due to Agility reaching one hundred! ¡Ì Supreme Agility. - You gain your Agility stat as bonus damage to ranged attacks. "Devour? Now that sounds promising." I guess I can try it out on this big guy, he was definitely a strong opponent. I get up and start looking for some wood to use for a campfire. I get lucky and find some on the shore of theke, it looks like driftwood. I find branches on it and since I don''t see any trees, I guess that means the river ising from somewhere above ground. I gather some firewood and go back to the carcass, build a small fire and then cook an alligator steak and taste it. It''s pretty tasty, but I don''t get any kind of message, so I guess cooked doesn''t count. So I cut the heart out of the gator and eat it raw. ??-DING-??. - The Devour skill has been activated! Strength +4 Endurance +4 "Not a bad result. I definitely like this new skill." I continue to skin and quarter the alligator while wondering how much longer Ruby will stay mad at me. I end up making several trips back to camp to move all the meat, hide and bones. Once everything is back at camp, I sit and meditate for ten hours to recover from the fight. When I finish meditating, I return to the new cavern and look around. I start checking the ceiling near the pirs for a cluster of crystals near a pir. When I find one, I quickly climb up the pir to get close enough to look at the crystal. "ITEM." ¡Ì Sr crystal. - It emits an endless light. "Perfect, but I''m going to need new tools." So, I descend, head back to my camp and grab my pickaxe. Then I spend two hours mining iron ore and manage to get about a hundred pounds. I take it all to the forge room and smelt it and then use it to forge a new set of tools. I then return to camp, grab my rope and head back to the cavern. I climb back up the pir and get as close as I can to the crystals, then tie myself to the pir so I can use both hands. Once I am secure, I grab arge piece of crystal with one hand and my new small pickaxe with the other. Very carefully, I start to strike the crystal near the base, I slowly strike the entire contour of the base to create a break line. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, you have acquired the gem-cutting crafting skill! ¡Ì Gem cutting ¡Ì Level 1 - Intelligence+1. - You can make rough gems. I keep tapping along the same line over and over until the whole piecees loose. I almost drop it when it breaks free, but manage to hold it with my fingertips. I end up releasing the beak to grab the crystal with both hands. Then, I slowly descend, holding the crystal firmly against my body as I descend. When I reach the ground, I look at the piece of ss; it should be big enough to make two. Chapter 39: Rubys Swords [ 1 ] I quickly return to camp clutching the crystal as if I feared someone might try to steal it. I ce it on a rat skin and pick up the new tools I made earlier and begin to slowly shape the crystal. First, I carve out the general shape and remove much of the excess material. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Gem Cutting skill has advanced to level 2! ¡Ì Gem Cutting - Level 2 - Intelligence +2. - You can make rough gems. Then, I carefully split it in half to have two identical pieces. Nextes the slow process of removing the small pieces and smoothing out the shape. I know the hardest part will be getting the de perfect, I want it to be sharp but not brittle. As I n each stroke of the chisel, I notice that all the little bits and slivers of ss are still glowing. I thought only therge pieces would emit light, but it turns out I''m wrong. I may have to y with those piecester just to see, but for now I have to concentrate, they have to be perfect. I finally figure it out and stop working long enough to go to the forge room, as I''m going to spend hours chiseling one b at a time. Once in the forge room, I concentrate fully on what I''m doing, taking care that each b I''m removing is exactly the size and shape I want to remove. It''s a long and painstaking process, but I spend time and effort to make it as perfect as possible. "ITEM CREATED" ¡Ì Sr crystal scimitar. - Hit +2 Damage +4 Piercing +1 - Durability 25/25 ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Gem Cutting skill has advanced to level 3! ¡Ì Gem Cutting ¡Ì Level 3 - Intelligence +3. - You can make rough gems. Okay, the durability is very low. It was to be expected, but if I can figure out how to enchant it, it should improve. Now, for the second one, I set aside thepleted one and start repeating the process with the second one. It takes me four hours toplete the second scimitar. I double check every inch of them to make sure I haven''t skipped any points and that the bnce is identical. Then I sit in my meditation posture with them in myp and sink into the inner world. Unlike normal, instead of looking inward, I look at the swords with my inner sight. What I find are dozens of motes of light inside each crystal sword. Now I have no idea how the enchantment is normally done, so I hope I can do something simr to how I modify the inside of my body. So I concentrate on the motes of light and try to move one, once I can move it, I move it to where the de meets the hilt. Then I move the next one, and the next one after that. I keep doing this for hours until all the motes of light are in the same ce. As I move thest speck into ce, they all merge and form a little ball, like a miniature nucleus, which is what I was hoping for when I started this. Maybe I should have asked Ruby if she knew how the enchantment is made, or I could have examined one of the enchanted weapons I already have. But since when do I letmon sense stop me once I have an idea? Since I''ve already started, I might as well finish the process and see what happens. I then create a mana channel inside the sword to supply it with mana and then create mana veins that run all the way through the sword. This is much easier than creating them inside my body, as I can let the veins follow the crystalline structure. Once the veins areplete, I step back to take a look. The vein structure looks like a leafless tree when I look at it from further back. I decide it''s done for now and wake up from my meditation. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, you have acquired the magic skill Enchantment! ¡Ì Enchanting - Level 1 - Intelligence +2 physical +1 Enchantment +1 - You can enchant objects. Well, whether or not it''s the way other mages do it, at least I know my method works and it didn''t blow up in my face. So I look at the scimitar that is enchanted and use Observe on it. "Magical object." ¡Ì Sr crystal scimitar. - Hit +3 Damage +6 Piercing +2 - Durability 50/50 Hm, well, there''s been a small improvement across the board, but it''s still a minor detail. For what I have in mind, it will have to be much better than that. But before I try the next crazy idea, I go back to the inner world to repeat the process with the second scimitar. Once I can look at both scimitars and not tell the difference, I wake up from meditation. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Enchantment skill has advanced to level 2! ¡Ì Enchanting ¡Ì Level 2 - Intelligence +4 Physical +2 Enchant +2 Charm +2 - You can enchant objects. Nowes the fun part. I want them to be fire instead of light. I think I can aplish this by infusing a fire spell into the core of the sword, but I''m just guessing, it will most likely explode. So, to be safe and not endanger the forge, I move into the main cave, away from the forge, and sit back down. First, I summon a bolt of fire, but I don''t release it, I hold it in my hand and concentrate on it. It''s magically created fire, but it''s still normal fire, so I concentrate my will on it and try to get it to suck in more air. As it does, the me gets bigger and burns hotter in my hand, but that''s not the effect I want, it was just to see if I could alter it. Now I concentrate on changing it so that, instead of just sucking in air, it simply draws oxygen from the air. Instantly, the me triples in size and nearly burns my face when I lean over it. Now the power is closer to what I was looking for, but the me is out of control, so I concentrate again and add pressure to the me to force it to get smaller and smaller without losing intensity. I keep doing this until it reaches the size of a marble, and that''s when something I didn''t expect happens. The small marble of condensed fire changes color, turns pure blue and begins to burn my hand. On instinct, I reach out my hand and shoot the fire beam at the wall. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, you''ve developed a skill! - Level 3 Fire Lightning has evolved to level 1 Blue Fire Lightning ! ¡Ì Blue Fire Ray ¡Ì Level 1 - MP cost 25 - Youunch a bolt of blue fire that deals 50 points of fire damage. I stare in shock at the wall where a one foot by one foot section is currently flowing down the wall like molten rock. That''s much more intense than I expected and I didn''t expect my spell to evolve, but I guess I''ve answered my own question about whether physics can be applied to magic. Now I guess all that''s left is to try to see if I can infuse the spell into the core of the sword. I set one sword aside and pick up the other with my left hand. It feels a little weird because the hilt is too small for my hand, but I can manage for now. Then I extend my left hand with my index finger pointing forward and cast my new fire beam spell. The blue marble-sized spell appears just beyond my index w and I concentrate on holding it there. Then I go into inner world meditation and concentrate until I can see the core of the sword and the blue fire beam. I give all my willpower to move the blue fire beam toward the sword and merge it with the core. There is a blinding sh that brings me out of my meditation and I find myself lying on my back looking up at the ceiling of the cave. I slowly sit up and look at the sword lying in front of me, where once it was a clear crystal emitting yellow light, now it appears that the scimitar is made of sapphire and small blue mes y steadily up and down the de. ''Observe!'' "Magic object." ¡Ì Blue fire crystal scimitar. - Hit +5 Damage +20 Perforation +5 - Durability 250/250 ''Hahahaha, it worked, it really worked the way I wanted it to, this is awesome!'' Although I don''t think I''ll tell Ruby how close I came to blowing myself up, I quickly check that I have enough mana left and grab the second sword to repeat the process. It works exactly the same way as the first time and the two swords look identical. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Enchantment skill has advanced to level 3! ¡Ì Enchanting ¡Ì Level 3 - Intelligence +6 Physical +3 Enchantment +3 - You can enchant objects. ''Perfect!'' Now, for the finishing touches, I first wrap the hilt of each with a strip of leather to give it a better grip, then make a set of sheaths for the scimitars. Once they are ready, I sheathe the scimitars and wait a minute to make sure the swords don''t burn the sheaths. Then I hid e both swords behind the forge, out of sight, and return to the cave outside. I reach out and touch the amulet. "Ruby, are you done sulking yet?" Chapter 40: Rubys Swords [ 2 ] Ruby thinks, "Angry?! I''m not angry! I''m angry at you and I''m giving you the silent treatment!" "Okay, yes, I took a chance and it''s going to happen again. Living safely won''t make me stronger or bring me out of here to the surface. I took a calcted risk, it was a risk, but the odds were in my favor. If the odds are against me, I won''t do it or think of a way to improve the odds. That''s just the way I am and I''m sorry you''re stuck with me." Ruby quickly exits the amulet and takes her human form, only to turn around and p me. I''m surprised, to say the least, and I look at her with wide eyes as if to say "what did I do?". Ruby says, "I chose to be attached to you! Don''t ever say I''m stuck with you again!" "Oh, right, sorry. I guess it was a bad choice of words." Ruby says, "Okay, so what did you mean?" "Basically, that that''s just the way I am. Sorry, but I guess it takes some getting used to." Ruby looks like she wants to punch me again, but then takes a deep breath and calms down a bit. Luckily, my stomach chooses that moment to growl loudly, making herugh. Ruby says, "You skipped a meal to work on something again, didn''t you?" "Um, I guess. I''m not sure how long it''s been." Ruby says, "Okay, let''s go to camp and you can exin things to me after we eat." "Okay!" So the two of us head back to camp together. Once there, I quickly prepare some alligator steaks and mushrooms and we sit by the fire to eat. We finish eating and Ruby turns to look at me, she has a much less angry look on her face. Ruby says, "Can you exin to me why you were so reckless? I know you say it was a calcted risk, but normal people don''t take those kinds of risks." "Well, I haven''t really thought about it, but it''s probably because of how I lived my previous life. I never took any real risks, I lived a pretty boring life, but I still died screaming and crying in pain. I think this time I''d rather take risks and not live in fear, if I''m going to die in pain anyway, I''d rather it be because I was doing something worthwhile." Ruby says, "You don''t talk much about your past life. Maybe if you tell me about it, it will help me understand you better." As we sitfortably by the fire, I tell Ruby all about my past life. Of course, this involves exining all sorts of things to her, like technology, anime and manga. Ruby seems fascinated and interested, and I don''t get the usual feeling that she''s pulling my leg. She seems to be really listening to my long, boring story. By the time I finish telling her everything I can think of to help her understand me, I''m yawning after every word. Ruby says, "Thank you! I have a lot to think about, I still don''t understand much about your former world, but I think I understand you quite a bit better. I''m going to rest and think it all over, why don''t you get some sleep before your jaw goes ck?" Ruby''sughter echoes around me as she transforms into spirit and enters the amulet to rest. I agree with her and climb into my hammock to get some sleep. I end up sleeping for about twelve hours and when I wake up I''m hungry again. It''s only when I''m eating breakfast that I realize I didn''t even have time to give Ruby her new swords. I finish eating and then clean up the camp and myself before touching the amulet. "Ruby?" Shees out of the amulet and circles around my head beforending and taking human form. Ruby says, "Good morning, master!" "Good morning, would you like me to fix you some breakfast?" Ruby says, "No, thank you. I''m not hungry, so you should save it for yourself and dy your return to fishing a little longer." "Haha, well, thanks for being mindful of my diet." Ruby says, "So, I did a lot of thinking and now I understand some of the things that drive you. I don''t promise not to hit you when you do something stupid, but I will try to keep in mind the reasons behind some of the things you do." "I do. Even though sometimes they scare the hell out of me." "Thank you. And I''m sorry I scared you." Ruby smiles and says, "Apology epted! What''s the n for today?" -Actually, I made something for you. Ruby says, "Oh, yeah? For me? What is it?" "Follow me and you''ll see." With a smile, I turn and lead Ruby back to the forge room, where I take the swords from behind the forge and offer them to her. She takes them with a smile, but looks a little confused. Ruby says, "What kind of swords are these? I''ve never seen a sword shaped like this before." "In my world they were called scimitars, they are for a flowing style of sword like the ones you use." Intrigued, she pulls out one of the swords and gasps as she sees the blue mes crawling along the de. Ruby says, "What the hell is this, I''ve never seen blue mes before! And I was a fire elemental, so I''ve seen a lot of fire!" "Blue fire is more intense and hotter than normal mes." Ruby says, "Don''t get me wrong, the sword is beautiful and I love it. I just want to understand exactly how you did this. I was pretty sure you didn''t have enough mana to cast any of the enchanting spells yet." "Uh... Are there enchanting spells?" Ruby frowns and says, "Yes, of course there are! Wait, if you don''t know them, how did you enchant this? And with a new kind of fire, no less!" "How about you put the sword away before I tell you?" Ruby says "Why?" "Because, you hitting me is one thing, with that sword you could inadvertently kill me." Ruby sheathes the sword and sets both aside as she looks at me as if debating whether to hit me just on principle before I exin something. "So, I enchanted them simr to how I modified my own core and mana channels." Ruby says, "You mean you manipted the pure mana of the swords, that''s dangerous! But what about the blue fire?" "It wasn''t that dangerous, I did it slowly to be safe. And the blue fire came from my fire beam spell that I evolved and then fused it with the sword core." Ruby says, "So you created an object core, which I didn''t think was possible, and then fused a spell with it, which should be impossible. Did you even stop to think that it might have exploded in your face? Not to mention evolving a spell that should have exploded in your face!" Suddenly, Ruby sits down on the stone bench. I sigh quietly, relieved, as I was expecting it to hit me. She seems to be breathing deeply and her eyes look a little wide. "I was as careful as I could be, I promise. And it wasn''t so much about developing a spell as it was about applying physics to it." Ruby looks up and says, "What, physics? What''s that?" I then give Ruby a basic exnation of what physics is, but I stop myself before I get too technical because she looks a little overwhelmed. "Think of it as a set of rules that allow you to understand how natural things work and why they work that way." Ruby says, "Stop. Stop for a moment. I feel like my head is too small." "Okay, I''m sorry. Sometimes I forget that you don''t have a frame of reference for some of the things I say." I sit on the floor and wait quietly for Ruby to organize her thoughts. She stares into the void for almost half an hour, while she is distracted, I enjoy just sitting and watching her. When her eyese back into focus, she stands up and stretches, then takes the old swords off her back and hands them to me. She reaches over, picks up the scimitars and puts them on her back before unsheathing them. I watch as she tries out the swords to familiarize herself with them. Once she does, she does a full practice routine with the swords; her graceful, fluid form is truly a pleasure to watch. Standing, she is beautiful, but when she moves she bes really impressive. I admit that I spend the entire time she is practicing watching her, luckily for me she is engrossed in the swords and doesn''t notice. When she finally stops, I quickly look at her face as she turns to me. "So, what do you think of them?" Ruby says, "They''re perfect! They feel like part of me! I love them! Thank you so much, teacher!" She runs up to me and hugs me tightly, she is so excited that she doesn''t even sheathe the swords. Being very careful with the swords, I hug her back. "I''m so d you like them. Now you''ll never have to worry about not being able to hurt an armored opponent ever again." Ruby says "They are amazing swords, sorry for getting mad at you." "That''s okay. Even in my past life I had a talent for pissing off women." Ruby smiles and says "Oh yeah, is that so? You''ll have to tell me about it someday." "If you''re going to smile at me like that, please put away the swords!" Ruby blushes and says, "Whoops! Sorry, I forgot I had them ready." She quickly and smoothly sheathes both swords as if she''s done it a thousand times before. Except for the color, they really look like a natural part of her. Ruby says, "Master, can you teach me this new fire magic?" -I can try, but not here. It might be a little dangerous near the forge. I know a good ce where we can practice. Come with me. Ruby says, "Yes, master!" Chapter 41: Blue Flames I lead the way with Ruby behind me, I take her to the sewage treatment room, it''s big and full of pipes and things to blow up. I take her to the center of the room and turn around to look at her. "Okay, first I''m going to exin the fire beam spell to you to see if you can acquire the skill." Ruby says "Okay!" I then exin the spell to her step by step, how it works and what it feels like. She quickly understands and soon acquires the ability and shoots her first fire beam. It hits the pipe she was aiming at, but barely burns it. "Okay, now I''m going to show you the blue fire beam." Watch closely as a small blue fireball forms on the tip of my finger and then shoots out. It blows up a section of the pipe and melts it even more. Ruby says "Wow, that''s much more destructive!" "Yes, but it''s veryplicated, you have to understand fire to a higher degree to evolve the skill." Ruby says "Okay, I''ll try my best." So we sit on the floor and I start exining to her how air is made up of different gases. Once she understands, I exin how fire works and how different things burn in different ways. I ask him to summon a beam of fire without letting go. Then, step by step, I exin to him what I did: first more air flow, then just taking in oxygen and thenpressing the mes. What takes him the longest to understand is the pressure. I have to exin to him whypressing it makes it more powerful and then what forcespress things. It takes us about five hours before he understands enough to evolve his ability to blue fire. When he sessfullyunches it, something happens that I didn''t expect: Ruby is suddenly covered in blue mes. The heat is so overwhelming that I have to quickly turn around and take cover behind an old tank. As I take a look around the tank, I can see that all the pipes near Ruby are melting from the extreme heat. She is still covered in blue mes, though they don''t seem to be hurting her. In fact, the expression on her face could describe her as ecstatic. "Ruby, are you okay?" Ruby startles and says, "Oh! I''m sorry, Master, I was distracted, so much just happened!" "It''s okay, Ruby. As long as you don''t hurt yourself, do you think you can stop melting the room now?" Ruby says "What? Oh! Um, give me a second!" The expression on her face changes from confusion to surprise and then to intense concentration. It takes her a few minutes to control her aura so that the mes die down and the heat drops to normal around her. When the mes die down, the first thing I notice is that her hair is now blue, a vibrant, bright blue. I approach her carefully once the temperature in the room drops to something close to normal. "Are you okay?" Ruby says "I''m better than fine, I look fantastic!" "Well, so what happened?" Ruby says "Um, I guess I evolved as the spell did. All my abilities are now blue fire abilities. I also gained superior intelligence, so I guess my stats went up. Sorry, I got a lot of messages at once, I''m not sure I caught everything." "Wait, have you evolved, are you still a fire spirit, or are you something new?" Ruby says, "I''m a blue me spirit now. I''m not sure, but I might be the first." "Hey, that''s great! Don''t worry too much, being unique isn''t a bad thing. Oh, uh, by the way, your hair changed color." Ruby quickly reaches out, grabs a lock of hair and holds it in front of her face so she can see it. "Don''t worry, it looks good on you. Your eyes haven''t changed, so your name fits." Ruby says "Really, does it look good?" "Yes, it looks good! You''ll really stand out when we go out." Ruby says "I''m not worried about standing out, as long as you like me I''m happy." I smile at Ruby and stroke her hair. I''m amazed at how soft and silky it is. She smiles back as I run my fingers through her bright blue hair. "How are you feeling, are you ready to go back to camp?" Ruby says, "I''m feeling tired, but before I rest I''d like to try my new blue fireball, if that''s okay with you." "Sure, but first let''s go to this side of the room and you cast the spell to that side. Oh, and can you exin the fireball spell to me like I did with the fire beam spell?" Ruby says, "I can try." We walk down to the end of the room closest to the camp and she points her spell at the other end of the room. She casts her spell slowly, telling me what she is doing step by step. Her way of expressing herself is a bit strange to me, but I manage to get the gist of what she means. When his fireball explodes, it turns the other end of the room into a bright blue inferno; when the mes die down, there are no pipes left and the walls and floor melt slightly. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, you have acquired the Blue Fireball magic skill! ¡Ì Blue Fireball ¡Ì Level 1 - MP cost 50 - Inflicts 100 damage in a 30 ft. area. "Wow, that has awesome destructive power!" Ruby smiles and says, "Yes, it is! And it''s all thanks to you, master!" "I simply shared some knowledge with you, you did the rest on your own." Ruby says, "Still, none of this would have been possible without your experimentation. I''m sorry I doubted you, master. But now I''m tired, so I''m going to rest." Before I have a chance to say anything, Ruby turns into a spirit. I notice that her spirit form is also bright blue just before she reaches into the amulet to rest. I pat the amulet and tell her to sleep well. I turn around to head back to camp, but it hasn''t been that long, I''m not really tired or hungry. Then I turn my steps in the other direction and head back to continue exploring the cavern. The area Ruby threw with her fireball is still too hot to cross, so I have to take the long way around. It takes me a few minutes to remember which tunnels to take to go around, but then it''s a direct path back into the cavern. Once inside the cavern, I turn left and follow the wall, counting my steps as I go because with the terrain it''s hard to calcte distances and I want the map to be as urate as possible. I also try to memorize the positions of the pirs as I pass them. As I follow the wall, it soon begins to descend and I pass within fifteen feet of the ce we chose to climb up to theke. The path narrows as the cliff face rises to my right; soon there is only about five feet between the wall and the cliff face. Soon it feels more like a tunnel as the path continues to descend; the roar of the waterfall bes quieter. Then the trail curves a bit, and as I go around the bend, the roar of the waterfall bes overwhelmingly loud. I stop as the path ends, the walls open up a bit and five feet in front of me is a pool into which the waterfall falls. The waterfall is only about thirty feet high, but the walls wrap around the pond and magnify the sound. The only outlet I can see is the small river flowing out of the pond through the cavern wall. Judging by its size and my location, I think it is the river that runs through my camp. I''m about to turn around and leave when something shiny catches my eye. As I approach the edge of the pond, I can see something shiny in the waterfall. I take a few more steps closer until I can see a crystal spur barely sticking out of the waterfall. What''s more, I see a shadow behind the waterfall - could it be a cave? I guess there''s only one way to find out. Chapter 42: The Tree [ 1 ] I approach the wall and try to slip behind the waterfall. I make it, but end up soaking wet from the water. It''s not as cold as I expected, but being soaked is not much fun. Unfortunately, I left the purification stone back at camp, so I guess I just have to suffer. I have to crouch almost twice as low to get into the cave opening. The crystal I saw from outside is the ceiling of the small cave, it emits a soft blue glow that illuminates the cave. The crystal looks different from the ones on the ceiling of the cave, besides the color, the structure also looks different. I reach up and touch it and it feels smooth like ss and is slightly warm to the touch. I stay hunched over and follow the small tunnel for about 20 feet before it opens up enough for me to stand up. It makes me a little nervous knowing that I''m now under theke, but curiosity gets the better of me and I keep following the tunnel to see where it leads. I can''t help but think that if Ruby wasn''t resting, I''d probably beat myself up over this. For some reason, thinking about that makes me smile. I''m distracted from those thoughts when I see a bright spot on the wall. A closer look reveals that it''s more armatite ore. Oh, I wish I hadn''t found this. The idea of mining down here isn''t very exciting, but now that I''ve found it, I want it. Later, I''ll have to go back with my pickaxe, for now I must finish exploring. So I follow the tunnel that twists and turns, but generally heads east, further down theke, up ahead I can see the glow getting brighter. I reach the end of the tunnel and it opens into arge chamber. The first thing I notice is the ceiling, it''s a blue ss dome and beyond that I can see fish, so that''s the bottom of theke. Then I see a pir supporting the dome, except it looks more like a tree than a pir. The trunk looks like gray stone, but there are brown branchesing out of it, there are blue, yellow and red leaves on the branches. On a couple of branches there seems to be light green fruit, like pears. I take a couple of steps forward attracted to the tree, I want to take a closer look, but then something moves. What I had thought was arge rock next to the base of the tree stands up and turns towards me, it is big and long, it has four legs and a tail. When it looks at me, I can see why I overlooked it, it''s on its back. He is covered with ovepping tes that look like gray stone. I notice that his eyes glow, and when I make the mistake of looking into his eyes, there is a sh, and suddenly the world goes ck. I''m still awake, I can feel my body, but I can''t see anything, I''m blind! I try to rub my eyes and blink rapidly, but it makes no difference, I see nothing. I feel myself starting to panic, so I force myself to take a deep breath and calm down. I listen, I can hear the creature moving towards me, running away seems like a good idea, but knowing I''m lucky, I''ll hit a rock I can''t see and wake up while I''m being devoured. So I pull out the axe and get to my feet, then concentrate on my hearing. I remember that I''m on a downward slope, but I don''t remember if there was anything nearby that I could trip over, so I need to stay fairly still. As I listen, I can hear water dripping faintly somewhere in the room, but I ignore it, concentrate fully on the noise of the creature approaching. It approaches slowly, I can hear every step it takes, it is only a few feet away. Its armor looks tough, I can''t see to aim for a weak spot, my only option will be strength, so I raise the axe over my shoulder and prepare for an overhead strike. As I listen for his next step, I tense my muscles and put all my strength into my arms. When he takes the next step closer, I grunt and swing the axe with all my might, I feel the axe bite into something and quickly pull it back and slide it back carefully. "Hard hit!" I raise the axe and swing it into attack position as I back up a couple of feet. I then stand still and listen for the creature. I hear several quick footsteps and then feel a burning pain in my calf. - You''ve suffered a bite attack! 57 HP damage! ??-DING-??. - You''ve been poisoned! HP: 890/947 The pain from the bite is intense, but now I know where its head is. So I picture the creature and guess where its neck should be and throw another blow with all my might. I can hear the wind whistling around the axe as ites down and then I feel the de bite into something softer before it goes through and hits the stone floor. "CRACK" "CRACK" ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, you have acquired thebat skill Blind Fighting! ¡Ì Blind Fighting ¡Ì Level 1 - Wisdom +2 Awareness +1 - You''re not helpless when you''re blind. I stagger backwards and fall backwards, my left leg doesn''t respond well and there is extra weight on it. As I carefully crouch down, I feel the creature''s severed head still trapped in my calf. I open my jaws and throw the head away from me, but I feel dizzy, I can feel that something is not right. ''Ruby!'' Ruby thinks, "I''m here, but I''m still pretty weak, what do you need?" ''I''m blind and poisoned! I need your help!'' Ruby thinks "WHAT?!?!!" Next thing I know, I feel Ruby''s hand on my cheek. Suddenly, I feel less scared now that I''m not alone. Oddly, her hand feels a little cold as she caresses my face. Ruby says "What is that thing, where are we?" "I''m not sure what it was, I guess I''d call it a basilisk. We''re in a cave under theke. I need you to guide me out and back to camp, if you can." Ruby says, "Okay, I see a way out, can you stand up?" Before I even try I set aside the giant axe, then I remove the shield from my back andy it on the ground, I also remove my katanas and war hammer. I then remove as much armor as I can, no need to carry all the extra weight when I''m not sure I can hold myself up. I then try to stand up slowly, my left leg doesn''t want to hold any weight so I end up bncing on my right. "Standing, walking, I doubt it. Dancing is not an option, so don''t ask now." Ruby says, "Was that a joke, did you make a joke? Oh, oh, this must be bad." I try to limp toward the exit, but Ruby quickly stops me because I''m going the wrong way. She walks over to me and gets under my left arm to try to help hold me up, then guides me toward the exit and into the tunnel. Despite all the pain, all I can think about is how good it feels to have her pressed against my side. The next thing I remember, I''m crawling through thest section of the tunnel towards the waterfall. I remember thinking about how good the cold spray from the waterfall felt on my face and then nothing. That''s thest thing I remember. Chapter 43: A dream?? I wake up and see a vaguely familiar ceiling above me. I lift my left arm, which hurts like hell, and see a human arm with an IV in it. Was it really all a dream brought on by the meds? I look around, I''m in my hospital room and clutched in my right arm is my trusty tablet. I''m alone, my friends must be resting or working, I''m sure they''ll be hereter. I look around and see the same medical equipment hooked up to monitor me and keep me alive for a few more minutes. It sounds and smells just like I remember. I guess it was all a dream, there were some bad parts, but I feel disappointed, I would have preferred it to have been real. I lie back on the bed and grab my tablet, maybe I can check for new episodes, since I have nothing else to do. I hear the door open and see a sh of red out of the corner of my eye. I immediately think of Ruby, but then I remember that her hair was blue at the end of the dream. I look anyway, but it''s just a red-haired nurseing to check my vitals on theputer. She doesn''t even say anything, just writes something in my chart and leaves. Now I feel more alone than in the dream. There Ruby was with me, here I am alone. Yes, my friends will visit me and be here when I die, or at least they were in the dream when I died. But it''s not the same feeling, even though it was a dream Ruby felt like more than a friend. ''I miss her already.'' I read a few manga episodes to distract myself and then fall asleep for a while. I wake up when my doctor enters the room and stands by the bed. The doctor says, "I see you''re still with us." "Yes, at least for a few more minutes." The doctor says, "Well, the fact that you survived this long means there may be hope. I contacted a colleague at my university who is in research, specifically organ research. You may be able to go through an experimental procedure that could keep you alive." "What kind of experimental procedure?" The doctor says, "Well, it involves using animal organs to rece human ones. I know how that sounds, but let''s face it: you have too many damaged organs and you''ll never make it to the waiting list for organ transnts. You only have a few days left at most." "If I do this experimental procedure and it kills me, will my friends get paid?" The doctor says, "Yes, I think there is a policy for something like that, do you want me to ask him toe talk to you?" "Yes, if there is payment at the time of my death I will do the paperwork." The doctor says, "Okay, time is limited, I''ll go call him right now." "Thank you, doctor." The doctor turns around and leaves the room, not that I really have any hope of saving myself, but if my death can improve the lives of my friends, then I will do it. After all, I should have died by now, all the doctors I''ve visited have agreed on that, so at least this way my death can have a little more meaning than my life. I''ve already hired awyer to draw up a will so that everything goes to my friends, including anywsuit against the guy who basically killed me. Who knows, maybe my dream is a prediction, maybe when I die I''ll be reborn in another world. At least that''s what I''m praying for now that I know death is near. Girl''s voice: "This is a dream! If you don''t wake up, you''ll die!" ''Wait! That voice? I know that voice!'' It''s the voice from my dream, the one that warned me about the big bad wolf! I quickly look around me trying to locate the source of the voice. "Hello? Is anyone there?" I look around like crazy, but the room is empty, am I hearing things, is it the drugs, why is it the voice from my dream? She said this was a dream, I''m so confused! I stop and calm myself to think it through, if I had to choose I would choose this to be the dream. If this is a dream, how can I prove it? Obviously pain won''t work, I''m already in terrible pain. I need to find something to prove this is a dream, I really want to go back to the other world! Girl''s voice: "You must hurry up and wake up if you want to live!" I jump when I hear the voice again, but this time when I look up I see a ghostly figure in the corner of the room. She looks to be about thirteen, has long hair and is wearing an old dress, but that''s all I can see before she disappears. She looked familiar, but I don''t remember how or where I''d seen her before. Well, if he''s right and this is the dream, I have to prove it to myself. They say you can read things in dreams, but only if you''ve read them before. I grab my tablet and look for a manga I''ve never read. When I find one, I open it and it''s nk! This is a dream! How do I wake up now? I guess I''ll try pain, so I grab the IV and rip it out of my arm. "Ahh!!!" It hurt like hell, but I''m still here, I need to try something else. Maybe if I can get myself drugged into unconsciousness, then I''ll wake up again in the other world. I quickly rip all the monitor wires out of my body. When the machine stops working, it only takes about thirty seconds for the first nurse to arrive, I start iling on the bed and struggle as she tries to hold me down. I feel bad for causing them so much trouble, but I keep telling myself that this is just a dream. As I expected, I soon hear someone order me to be sedated. When I feel the needle being stuck in my arm, I stay still and concentrate all my willpower on waking up. I am hopeful and try with all my might as the darkness ims me, I have only one thought, and that is to see Ruby again. Chapter 44: Healing "Ruby, I think I''m going to need your help now." Ruby appears beside me in the inner world, she is in her human form and looks well rested. She looks at the tangle of threads and then turns to me. Ruby says "You''ve made a lot of progress, how can I help you?" "I want you to try to keep the rest of it stable while I release the thread. It keeps getting tighter and it''s getting harder and harder to untangle it." Ruby says, "Okay, I''ll do my best!" I slowly pull the thread inch by inch again. Ruby has some trouble at first, but after a few tries she figures out how to keep the rest in ce. Because Ruby keeps it from tightening, I''m able to make much more progress. I stop twice to channel my mana into the Armatite bar, but other than that, I keep undoing the blind spell. With Ruby''s help, I can reduce it to about a quarter in a couple of hours. That''s when things start to go wrong, the thread I''m unraveling starts to fray. It frays faster than I can free it, soon the whole tangle is frayed and torn. I manage to free a few more sections before it all gets out of control despite Ruby and I trying to hold it together and it explodes. The explosion takes me out of my inner world and knocks me unconscious. When Ie to, I still see nothing but darkness. I''m lying on my back and my head is resting on something soft. I groan in pain as I feel how much my head and face hurt. Ruby says, "Stay still, don''t try to get up." "Ugh, what happened, why am I still blind?" Ruby says, "Well, thest bit of the spell went haywire and exploded." "Yeah, I remember that part." Ruby says, "Well, the explosion burned your face...and destroyed your eyes." I can hear the sadness and worry in her voice. Can my healing make my eyes grow back? Or am I going to be blind forever? "Are you okay?" Ruby says, "Yeah, I didn''t hurt myself. I''m sorry, I couldn''t keep it steady." "Don''t me yourself, we were doing something risky from the start. I don''t even know if that''s how you remove a spell, it was just a guess." The way his voicees from behind and above me, I finally realize that my head is resting in hisp. I reach out blindly and she takes my hand and squeezes it. "Don''t worry, I''m going to try to cure my eyes through meditation. All hope is not yet lost." Ruby says, "Is there anything I can do to help?" "Stay with me and protect me." I settle back and enter the inner world, once inside I can''t help but smile knowing that my head is still resting in Ruby''sp. I push those thoughts out of my mind and turn around to take a look at the damage. No wonder Ruby sounded worried, my face is a mass of burns and where my eyes should be there are only sunken holes. I start with the burns, healing them and regrowing my hair. That''s the most visible thing and I hope that seeing them heal will reassure Ruby that I''ll be okay, though I''m still not sure myself. When all the burns are healed and my hair is back to normal, I turn my attention to where my eyes should be. First I heal the optic nerve damage, this relieves my headache and allows me to more easily work on getting my eyes to grow back. My understanding of how eyes work is pretty basic, luckily I know that my body contains the blueprint of how it is supposed to work. So all I have to do is concentrate on restoring things to their normal state and let my body do the rest. It takes me a few hours of intense concentration, but I can help my body regenerate my eyes. Ie out of meditation and blink rapidly several times to focus my eyes. The first thing I see is Ruby''s upside-down face smiling at me. I smile back at her. "Good to see you!" Rubyughs and says, "It''s good to see you, are youpletely healed now?" "Yes, everything is back to the way it should be!" Ruby says, "Good! I was really worried!" "Yeah, to be honest, me too. But everything is fine now, except that I''m starving." As Rubyughs, I reluctantly remove my head from herp and sit up. Stretching out, I smell my own odor and realize I''m dirty. "I''m going to clean up and get something to eat, then I''ll probably sleep for a while. You can go rest if you want and I''ll call you when I''m ready to go back to that cave." Ruby says "Okay!" and gives me a tight hug before disappearing back inside the amulet. I quickly locate the purification stone and clean myself and my clothes, then go to find food. Unfortunately, the alligator meat I had has gone bad, so I end up going fishing. After catching a couple of fish, I throw the rancid alligator meat into the river and then set about preparing fish and mushroom soup. While waiting for it to cook, I grab the poker and update the map with what I learned about the cavern and cave below theke. After eating, I climb into my hammock and go to sleep. After waking up and eating my leftover soup for breakfast, I do some stretching and make sure everything is working and moving correctly. I decide to try one or two experiments before heading to the cave. So I grab one of the enchanted pikes and move to sit in my practice area. I enter the inner world and take a look at the pike, I can see the mana woven into it, but it''s nowhere near asplex as the blindness spell was. I leave the inner world and reach for the Armatite rod, which is already about half gilded, and then return to the inner world. I carefully untangle the mana thread inside the pike, trying to channel the mana into the Armatite at the same time so as not to overload myself. Doing both at the same time makes the process much slower, but I think I''ll get better with practice. I am able topletely remove and absorb the mana thread from the pike without any explosion. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Disenchant skill has advanced to level 3! ¡Ì Disenchanting. ¡Ì Level 3. - Intelligence +6 Physical +6 Mana +6 +30 - You can remove an enchantment and recover 15% of your mana. When I open my eyes I see that the wooden handle of the pike is intact, but the metal head is gone. I also notice that the gold on the Armatite bar has grown noticeably. This will work, I have tons of stuff I can disenchant to get mana. However, it takes quite some time, so I should move all the enchanted stuff to the forge room and disenchant it thereter. As I get up to do just that, I see a pile of grayish dust. When I look closer, I realize that the steel pike didn''t disappear, it just broke. I pick up the dust to take it with me and start moving everything to the forge room. It takes me quite a few trips to move all the weapons and armor and stack them neatly. I''ll wait untilter to start disenchanting them. First I want to finish exploring the cave under theke. So I head back to camp and, as I enter the cavern, I hear a loud roar echoing in the direction of the camp. ========= Author''s note. I would like you to leave ament, I like to know the opinion of the readers to know if there is something wrong with the novel, although this novel is very old and I wrote it a few years ago I guess you might like it for those who got to this chapter. One thing is that I don''t demand anything, if you want or not to leave yourment there is no problem but that helps me to improve or review to correct something wrong written in the novel and in each chapter. I mean also, leave your power stones and if possible a Golden Tickets.... Thank you and enjoy the story that is very long. A/ N Chapter 45: Blind! I open my eyes and see nothing but darkness, but I feel like I''m rocking back and forth, so I''m on a boat or in my hammock. I feel a cold cloth being put on my forehead. "Ruby?" Ruby says "Oh, you''re finally awake!" Suddenly I feel a weight on my chest, Ruby is lying on top of me hugging me tightly and crying. I raise my right hand to stroke her hair. "Shh, shh, it''s okay. I''m sorry for scaring you, I''m back." Ruby says, "You''ve been sleeping for three days, I was so worried you''d never wake up!" I hold Ruby tenderly until the tears stop. As I hug her, I can''t help but think that it was worth it toe back, that no matter the pain I suffer or the hate I have to face, that this is my world now and I''m happy about it. "You sound exhausted, did you stay awake the whole time I was asleep?" Ruby says "Yes, I had to take care of you, you have a fever." -It''s okay now, I''ll meditate and take care of it. Ruby says "Umm, also, your leg where you were bitten has turned to stone, and it''s slowly spreading." "That''s why it hurts so much and is so heavy, I''ll see what I can do. I mean that too. But you need to rest, you can join me in the inner world while you rest." Ruby says, "Okay, I need to rest, but call me if anything goes wrong!" "Yes, ma''am!" I smile in her direction before her weight disappears and I assume she has returned to the amulet. Slowly I stand up from the hammock, I have to bnce on my right leg as the left one won''t hold any weight. I hop in the direction of my practice area, I have theyout of the camp firmly in my head and can almost see it as I walk through it. When I get there, I sit down and force my legs into meditation position, then quickly enter the inner world to see how bad things are. The first thing I check are my eyes, the eyes themselves and the optic nerves are intact, but when I look outside I see aplex tangle of mana covering them. So it''s a spell effect of some kind, annoying but it won''t kill me, so I look at the rest of my body. The fever ising from my body trying to fight the poison. I can see it in my left leg, where I was bitten, and from there it is spreading through my veins. So the poison is in my blood and it is slowly spreading and turning me to stone. This is what will kill me if I can''t stop it. Before I start, I check the amulet on my chest and notice that Ruby is inside and sound asleep. I let her rest and go back to concentrating on my left leg. I concentrate on the blood in my leg and begin to trace and destroy the poison drop by drop. It takes me a few hours to eradicate all the poison, that stops the spread but does nothing for the part of my leg that is already turned to stone. I try various things but can''t figure out how to return the stone parts to flesh. I can only think of one way to fix my leg but I know it''s going to hurt like hell. So I pull out a ck razor and grit my teeth, then cut my leg. I screamed through my teeth as the knife cut my leg, but I kept going until I cut all the stone off. It left a gaping hole in my leg, but the stone was gone, so I went back to meditating and concentrated all my healing energies on my leg. The wound slowly closed over the next hour or so. ??-DING-??. -Congrattions, the skill Pain resistance has advanced to level 5! ¡Ì Resist pain. ¡Ì Level 5. - You feel 50% less pain. - Physical damage reduced by 5%. Once the wound is sealed, Ie out of meditation and fall to the ground face up, gasping and groaning in pain. The skill helps reduce the pain, but I can''t wait to get to level ten. I hope not to feel any more pain at that point. Once the pain is gone, I get up and test my leg; it works perfectly and my fever is gone too. Now all I have left are my eyes, but before that, I''m hungry! I walk to where I keep my and feel around before grabbing it. I walk to the river, it takes me several tries before I can cast the. I ampletely blind. I can''t see the fish, so I have to keep throwing it again and again I will finish before I get lucky and catch a couple of fish. Cleaning and preparing them blind is not that difficult and I cook them quickly and devour them. After eating, I find the Armatite bar and channel all my mana into it, then climb into my hammock and sleep for ten hours. When I wake up, I''m relieved that I didn''t have any dreams. I get up and stretch. I walk and sit in the practice area, then go into the inner world and call Ruby. ''Ruby, are you awake?'' Ruby says, ''Yes, Master, I''m here.'' "Well, I hope you''re feeling better." Ruby says, "Yes, I''m not quite rested, but I feel much better now, did you need anything?" "Yes, I want you to look into my eyes with me. This tangle is what''s keeping me blind, I think. What would happen if I cut the strings?" Ruby says, "Well, I can''t be sure, but my best guess is that it would explode." "Whew, no, I''m not going to do that. So, my only option is to try to untangle that mess?" Ruby says, "I think so. Unless you know a spell to dispel the mana, untangling it is probably the only other way to remove it." "No, I don''t know any spells like that, that''s how it works!" Ruby says "Do you want me to help you?" "No, thanks. Go back to sleep for now. I may need your helpter though." Ruby says "Okay, be careful!" I wait until I feel Ruby is asleep before I start studying the tangle of mana looking for a loose end to start at. To me it looks like a ball of wool after a kitten has been ying with it for a few hours. It takes me a while of searching before I finally find the end of the yarn I''m looking for. I mentally grab it and pull it through the first of many loops to free some more, as I slowly unravel the yarn I realize this will take me a long time. I manage to release a few inches of the thread when suddenly what I have released disappears and I feel a headache. MP: 705/505 ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, you have acquired the magic skill Disenchant! ¡Ì Disenchanting. ¡Ì Level 1 - Intelligence +2 Physical +2 Mana +2 +10 - You can remove an enchantment and regain 10% of your mana. ''I have more mana than my maximum? Is that why my head hurts?'' So I recovered mana by unraveling the mana thread? This could be very useful! I quickly reach over and grab the Armatite bar and channel all my mana into it. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Channeling skill has advanced to level 4! ¡Ì Channeling ¡Ì Level 4 - Intelligence +4 Mana +40 - You have experience in channeling mana. I wonder if this would work with all those enchanted weapons. If so, it could be an easy way to finish filling up the Armatite bar and also finish my mana streaks. I''ll try itter when I can see again. For now I go back to unraveling the mana mess because I really want to see again. For the next two days I continue to do so, and only stop when I have full mana to channel it into the Armatite bar and to get food when hunger interrupts my meditation. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Disenchant skill has advanced to level 2! ¡Ì Disenchanting. ¡Ì Level 2. - Intelligence +4 Physical +4 Mana +20 - You can remove an enchantment and get 10% of your mana back. At this point, I''ve untapped about half of the blinding spell as far as I know. I wonder if all spells are thisplex or if it''s because it was the beast''s ability. I just don''t know enough about the magic of this world or the rules, I just keep blindly stumbling around trying things to see if they work. Not having many options, I keep untangling the mana threads. It gets harder and harder as I get deeper into the tangle. Every time I release a section of thread, what''s left tightens up as if the spell is resisting unraveling. At this point, I''m not sure if I''m going to be able to untangle itpletely or what exactly will happen when I do. Chapter 46: Company! I reach for my axe and that''s when I remember that all my weapons, except ck Razor and most of my armor, are under theke. I pull out ck Razor and crawl towards the camp to see what is roaring. When I see it, I don''t quite know what to call it, it is standing on two legs and has the general shape of a velociraptor, but its body is covered in blue fur. Its tail is covered in yellow feathers, it has a feline face with a frill of more feathers, but these are red, it has two arms that end in wicked looking ws and everything is soaked. I see it sniffing around where I had been keeping the alligator meat, did it eat what I threw in the river and then follow the trail back here looking for more? Slowly, I reach over and touch the amulet on my chest. ''Ruby,e out please, but stay low and quiet.'' Ruby appears in her human form crouching beside me, follows my gaze and sees the creature. Ruby whispers "What is that?" "I don''t know, but right now I''m thinking it''s dinner. But I only have my knife with me, so I''m going to need your help." Ruby whispers, "Of course, master! What do you want me to do?" "Well, besides not calling me master, I want you to lure him here and distract him." Ruby smiles mischievously at me and moves to the side until she is uncovered. Then she stands up and unsheathes her swords. Ruby yells "Hey, ugly! What are you looking for?" The beast turns, leaps across the river and charges Ruby in an instant. I activate the run and charge on an intercept course, just as its ws are about to strike Ruby, I tackle the thing from the side and we both slide ten feet into a mushroom pile. I quickly step aside and jump on my feet, just as I look up I see nothing but the tail and then I''m flying backwards. "SQUEEZE!" Chapter Find: - You''ve suffered an impact attack! 46 HP damage! HP: 901/947 I hit the ground hard and am knocked off my feet. Then I see that the thing is in the air and heading straight for me. I don''t have time to do anything, but just before itnds on me, a blue shield appears in the air between us. It hits the shield with a thud and then jumps up with a screech and I can smell the burning fur. I quickly turn back and look around for it. Ruby moves to put her back against mine and looks around as well. Ruby says "I lost it! How is that thing so fast?" "I don''t know, but I underestimated it terribly, thanks for saving me!" Ruby says "Hey, you saved me first!" I take a deep breath and turn around when I sense movement out of the corner of my eye. I turn to face him just as he is about to hit me and I roar as hard as I can in his face. He stops his attack with a scream and tries to cover his ears with his ws. While he''s distracted, I lunge at him and sh his right leg with a ck de. He leaps back about fifteen feet and then staggers as hends. "Good, that should slow the damn thing down!" Ruby turns around and sees him as he''s straightening up and throws a bolt of blue fire at him. Surprisingly, he dodges the spell andes back at us. I crouch down in front of Ruby and wait for him to close the distance. Just as he''s almost upon us, I activate dash again and jump straight at him. ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, Skill Dash has advanced to level 2! ¡Ì Crashing ¡Ì Level 2 - MP cost 10 - Your speed is doubled. Duration: 15 sec. The thing reacts with blinding speed and meets my attack head on; as I thrust the ck razor into its chest, it bites my shoulder and its ws scratch my ribs on both sides. - You''ve suffered a bite attack! 52 HP damage! - You have suffered a w attack! 33 HP damage! - You have suffered a w attack! 47 HP damage! HP: 769/947 The thing snatches the ck knife out of my hand as it jerks back abruptly and then turns and runs toward the river. I take off in pursuit running as fast as I can. Ruby yells "Where are you going!" "He''s got my knife! I''m not letting him get away!" He slides into the water at full speed with barely a ssh, I''m only a few steps behind him when I jump in and dive into the river behind him. Ruby yells "You idiot!!!" I quickly spot the beast swimming downstream, it moves through the water like an alligator. I take off after it, swimming as hard as I can, but surprisingly I start to catch up. It takes me a minute to get within her reach to grab her tail. When I do, she immediately spins around in the water and tries to bite me. I shove my fist into his mouth with all my might, release his tail and grab the tuft of feathers surrounding his head with my other hand and quickly straddle him and squeeze his torso with my legs. He goes crazy, circling and iling around trying to shake himself off, at the same time trying to bite my arm over and over again, but my fist is big enough to stop his jaws from closing. I let go of his cor with my right hand and reach up to where the ck razor is still stuck in his chest, grab it tightly and pull it up with all my might. The water around me suddenly turns pink and the creature ils weakly a few more times before it goes still. I pull my fist out of its mouth and carefully sheathe the ck knife before grabbing it by the tail and starting to swim upstream. It takes me about half an hour to swim back to camp dragging the creature behind me. ??-DING-?? - Congrattions, the Swimming skill has advanced to level 5! ¡Ì Swimming ¡Ì Level 5 - Strength +5 Endurance+5 Cold resistance +5 Hold your breath: Final stats x 2 minutes. - You are a good swimmer. With effort, I pull myself out of the river and drag the beast behind me. I see that Ruby has lit the fire and, when I get up, she walks towards me with the purifying stone in her hand. She touches me with it, drags me and pushes me into the fire. Then she hits me on the back of the neck, hard, before hugging me and pouring her warmth over me. Ruby says, "You reckless idiot! What were you thinking?" "The ck razor is the best knife I''ve ever seen. I wasn''t going to let that bird-cat-dino thing get away with it." Ruby says, "You risked your life for a knife!" "Yeah, I like that knife. Besides, if I let it get away, who knows if it won''te back with friends?" Ruby says, "Well, I guess it''s possible, but I still think it was stupid." "Maybe, but it''s not like I''ve had much time to stop and think about it. Besides, it all worked out fine." Ruby taps me on the shoulder and says, "Oh, yeah? You''re bleeding." I nce at my shoulder, but the wound is barely bleeding now and is close to closingpletely. I pat Ruby''s hands before slowly getting to my feet and heading toward the creature. Its chest is cut right down the middle so I can see its core and heart. I quickly pull both out and set them aside, then set about skinning and quartering the animal. I''m a little nervous as I toss the organs and other debris into the river, but I really have no other way to dispose of it. I really need to get back to that cave and retrieve my weapons and armor in case another one of these things shows up. Chapter 47: The Tree Before Ruby and I head off to do that, I pick the heart out of the thing and eat it raw. ??-DING-??? - Devour skill has been activated! Agility +10 Speed +20 ??-DING-??? - Congrattions, the Devour skill has advanced to level 2! ¡Ì Devour ¡Ì Level 2. - You can be stronger by consuming the flesh of strong enemies. I love that skill! It''s a nice agility boost, but speed? I hadn''t even seen a speed stat before. That thing was incredibly fast, so it makes sense. Then I take its beast core and stare at it. "ITEM." ¡Ì Beast Core - Quality: medium Would you like to absorb it? Y/N "No." I clean the beast core and then set it aside. Ruby looks at me strangely when she notices it. Ruby says "You''re not going to absorb it?" "No, I n to save it for the next time I need to develop a skill." Ruby says "That''s okay. I guess that''s a smart move considering how the skills are spent." "Well, I''m sorry if all my skill work is boring to you." Rubyughs and says, "It is, but I don''t mind. I understand how you get stronger that way." "Do you want to try eating this before we head to the cave?" Ruby says, "Sure, it doesn''t look very tasty, but I''ll try it with you." So I cook up some steaks and while they''re cooking I clean up camp. Once it''s done cooking, we get to digging. Ruby says "Mmm! Delicious! How can something so ugly be so tasty?" "I don''t know, but now I''m hoping I had friends. seconds?" Ruby smiles and says, "Yes, please!" Once we finish eating our second helpings, we get up and head to the cave below theke. I make sure to bring my pickaxe because I haven''t forgotten that there is more armatite ore down there. It takes us about twenty minutes to walk back to the cave and follow the path down to the pond. Ruby hides in the amulet to avoid going over the waterfall. I crawl through the small part of the cave and summon her toe out once the tunnel opens. We enter the cave under theke side by side. Ruby is watching the tree, but I look for movement. I quickly head for my gear and start putting it over my eyes as I constantly wander around the cave looking for another basilisk. Once I have my armor and weapons back, I rx a bit. As I look at the dead basilisk, I feel a twinge in my leg. With Ruby watching my back, I approach the corpse and examine it. It''s made of stone, no flesh to speak of. It was a living stone creature as far as I know. I''m not even going to try to eat that to activate the devourer, but I cut it open and pull out the core of the beast. "ITEM." Chapter Your: ¡Ì Beast Core - Quality: medium Would you like to absorb it? Y/N. "No." I turn and toss the beast core to Ruby. "That one''s yours." Ruby says, "Okay, thanks." I walk along the cave walls looking for openings and making sure none of the rock piles are going to move. Once I know we''re alone, I approach the tree for a closer look. The trunk looks like gray stone, but when I reach out to touch it I feel it''s bark, plus it''s warm to the touch and I can feel life in it. Ruby says, "This thing is giving off a lot of mana!" "Do you think this is the reason the cavern is the way it is?" Ruby says, "I think it would be a safe bet." "Do you think it would be safe to eat the fruit?" Ruby says "Who knows?" At that moment, a rustling echoes in the room, and as I look toward the tree, I see a branch fall. I catch it out of pure reflex. It''s heavier than I expected and the branch has two fruits on it. "I think the tree wants us to eat them." Ruby says, "How can a tree want anything?" "Trees are living things, and with as much mana as this one emits, they very well could be sentient." I pull one of the fruits from the branch in my hand and take a bite. As soon as the juice hits my tongue, I''m in heaven. I quickly pull out the other fruit and toss it to Ruby as I take another bite of my own. I devour the fruitpletely in just a few minutes. - Consuming the fruit of the earth tree grants MP +100! ''Wow, a benefit from eating the fruit?'' So this is an earth tree? I reach out and touch the trunk again and try to convey my gratitude to the tree. Ruby says, "I gained mana by eating the fruit!" "Yes, I did too. I think we should leave the tree alone, we don''t need anything else down here." Ruby says, "It''s okay, master." "I thought I told you to stop calling me master?" Ruby smiles and turns to follow me back down the tunnel. I stop near the middle of the tunnel and look around until I see armatite ore. "I''m going to do some mining and then head back to camp to do some crafting, you can go rest if you prefer." Ruby says, "Okay, just try not to hurt yourself this time." Ruby switches to spirit form and lunges at the amulet before I cane up with a witty retort. I shrug my shoulders, lean the branch against the wall, grab my pickaxe and take my first swing at the cave wall. It only takes me about half an hour to extract the armatite ore. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Mining skill has advanced to level 9! ¡Ì Mining ¡Ì Level 9 - Strength +9 Endurance +4 - You are an expert at mining ore. I seem to have enough ore to smelt into another bar. I pick it up, grab the tree branch and head back to camp. At the camp, I leave the pickaxe and most of my weapons, then grab the ore and the branch and head to the forge room. I ce the ore in the crucible and set the branch aside with the pickaxe handle from earlier. "Ruby, I''m going to need your help." Ruby says "Okay," steps out of the amulet and takes human form. "What are we going to do this time?" "I need you to turn on the forge to smelt the Armatite ore again." Ruby nods and walks to the back of the forge and ces her hands on it. Suddenly, the forge bursts into blue mes and I jump back with a curse. Ruby says, "I''m sorry, I didn''t know that would happen!" "It''s okay. I should have known, but I didn''t stop to think. It''s okay to try again." Ruby says "It''s okay" and reactivates the forge. Once the blue mes subside, I ce the crucible in the forge. This time, the armatite ore melts much faster. In a few minutes it is ready to pour into the bar mold. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the cksmith skill expert has advanced to level 12! ¡Ì Expert cksmith ¡Ì Level 12 - Fue +14 Fire resistance +14 - You can craft expert level metal items. Once the ore is poured into the mold, I sit on the stone bench to catch my breath, just being near the forge is exhausting when it''s running on blue mes. "Okay, it''s ready, you can stop now." Ruby lets the forge go back to normal andes to sit next to me. Ruby says, "What now, more crafting?" "No, not yet, how about we finish exploring the cavern first?" Ruby says, "Sure!" Chapter 48: The Archmage Then I let the bar cool down and, while Ruby follows me, I go back to camp and pick up my weapons. Then we go back to the big cavern. This time, as we enter, I start following the wall on the right. As before, I take my time and count my steps so I can urately update the map. Suddenly Ruby exims and darts off through the foliage to our left. I quickly turn and follow her, not wanting to get separated. I find her kneeling in front of a bush that is covered with so many red flowers it looks like it''s on fire. Ruby says "Isn''t it beautiful?" "It is, but you like it because it looks like it''s on fire." Ruby says "So what?" She reaches out to gently touch one of the flowers and, as she touches it, it turns blue like her hair. Then, in a domino effect, all the flowers on the bush also change color. Now the bush appears to be covered in blue mes. Ruby smiles and says, "Wow, it reacted to my touch!" "Yes, I admit I wasn''t expecting it." Ruby spends a few more minutes admiring the forest before returning to the wall and continuing to follow it. We follow the wall for about five hundred feet before reaching the ce where the river flows out of the cave wall and flows into theke. I jump across the river with ease and then look back at Ruby, who transforms into her spirit form and flies away before returning to her human form. We then continue along the wall. I keep hoping to see more armatite ore, while Ruby is more interested in all the colors of the flowers. We follow the wall around the entireke until we are at the edge above the pond that feeds the waterfall, by my estimate, we went about a thousand feet from the river to here. "I guess all that''s left is theke itself." Ruby says, "Yeah, count me out. The swimming is up to you." "Yeah, but I''m counting on you to keep me from freezing to death afterwards." Ruby says, "So, I''m your personal heater? I can live with that." Iugh as I start taking off my weapons and armor. Once I''m down to my shorts and ck switchde, I walk over to theke and step into the water. "Hey. It''s not as cold as the river. I wonder if it''s because of the tree." Ruby shrugs and watches me as I go further in until I can start swimming. I crouch down and look around, not wanting to be surprised by another alligator if there is one. Fortunately, all I see are normal fish, although the blue glow below is a little strange. I swam deeper to get a better look and then realized it was the ss ceiling of the cave the tree was in. I swam all the way around theke to see if there was anything interesting before heading back to where Ruby was waiting for me. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, Skill Swimming has advanced to level 6! ¡Ì Swimming ¡Ì Level 6 - Strength +6 Endurance +6 Cold resistance +6 Hold your breath: Final stats x 2 minutes. - You are a good swimmer. I get out of theke and shake like a dog, sshing water everywhere and making Rubyugh. She looks a little disappointed when I start putting my armor and weapons back on without her warming up to me. Ruby says, "Anything interesting in there?" "No, nothing at all. So the only ways out of this cavern, besides the tunnel we used, are the rivers. I''m pretty sure downstream leads to camp, so let''s take a look at the river that feeds theke." Ruby says, "Okay, you''re the expert." "Expert? Ha ha, I''m actually making it up as I go along." Ruby says, "Well, that''s reassuring." I just smile and shrug and then lead the way back around theke to where the river empties into the cavern. As I approach the river from this side, I notice that there is a narrow ledge on the other side that I hadn''t seen before, so I quickly jump down to take a closer look. Ruby follows me in spirit form as I see a rusty piece of metal sticking out of the wall, so I quickly move to the edge of the river to get a better look. It is simr to a climbing nail and even has a small piece of rotten rope attached to it. It looks like a long time ago someone attached a rope to hold on to while following the ledge along the river, as the ledge appears to be about six inches wide, so it would be very tricky for someone to follow it without something to hold on to. I stand there looking at the ledge and the river, debating whether to try to follow the ledge or just swim upstream. The current doesn''t seem very strong, so I can probably swim, but it would be pretty exhausting. However, the ledge should be fairly easy for me with my ws. To test it, I extend the ws of my hand and push against the rock wall. It takes a bit of effort, but I am able to sink them into the rock and thus get a good grip. My mind made up, I turn to look at Ruby, who is standing a few feet away watching me. "I''m going to try to follow this upstream, see where it goes." Ruby says, "Okay, I can follow it spiritually and provide some light." "That works, but don''tugh if I fall into the river." Ruby says "No promises!" Ruby transforms into her spirit form and steps into the cave ahead of me to light the way. I begin to advance along the ledge, sinking my ws into the stone to hold on. We advance slowly, but after about a hundred feet, the ledge widens and I can move a little faster. After another two hundred feet or so, the ledge ends. I stop and look around me under the blue light Ruby is emitting. I see that the river is making a bend and there is a wide ledge on the other side. The problem is that it''s about twenty feet from where I am now and the ceiling is quite low. I know that if I jump normally, I''m going to hit my head on the roof and end up in the river. Not wanting to amuse Ruby, I crouch on the ledge and ponder the problem. I could swim to the other ledge, but swimming with my armor and weapons wouldn''t be easy, I can''t take them off because I don''t want to be unarmed in uncharted territory. After thinking about it for a minute, I crouch down on all fours and try to jump to the other ledge. Jumping from the lowest position allows me to avoid hitting the ceiling. I make it to the other ledge, but end up hitting my face against the cave wall because I can''t stop my momentum in time. When I get up, I discover that this ledge is about two feet wide, wide enough for me to walk normally as long as I am careful. I follow the river for quite a while, lose count of my steps, but I estimate that I follow it for about five thousand feet before the right side of the river opens up into a cave. The river continues, but I jump to explore this new cave first. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, you''vepleted a quest! Chapter Discover: - Locate the Archmage - Find the remains of the archmage 1/1. - Reward: 5 stat points. Not immediately seeing the remains that triggered the quest, I cautiously advance towards the cave. As I pass by the edge of a pile of rocks, I see ice. It''s a huge block of ice in the middle of the cave and there''s something inside it. Ruby returns to her human form and stands next to me. Inside the ice I can see human remains and standing on them is some sort of wolf centaur-like creature. "What is that thing!" Ruby says, "I have no idea. I''ve never seen anything like it." ??-DING-??. - There''s a new mission avable! - Defeat the demon! - Objective: Kill the demon 0/1 - Reward: Ability: Teleport Do you ept Y/N? "Oh great, a demon?" Chapter 49: The Forging Ruby says, "Demon? What''s a demon, and how do you know?" "A demon in my world was a mythological being of pure evil. They are immensely powerful and can only be defeated with the best weapons. And I know this because I was just given the mission to kill him." Ruby says "Kill him? You mean he''s not dead?" At that moment, we both notice the creature turn its gaze towards us. Without speaking it, we quickly back up around the pile of rocks until we no longer see the ice. Ruby says "Do you want to kill that?" "Do I want to? No, but I need to. That corpse at your feet is probably the archmage." Ruby says "Do you think we can kill it?" "No, not without some preparations." Ruby says "Like what?" "I''m going to have to forge a sword that''s capable of killing him." Ruby says "Can you?" "Maybe, if I use the Armatite." Ruby says "You don''t have enough mana for that." "Not if I just use mine, but if I disenchant all those magic weapons we found in the armory I might have enough." Ruby says "Well, I''ll help you in any way I can. I''ll be with you no matter what we face." "Thanks, Ruby! Let''s go back and I''ll get started. I''m going to take the quick way back, so you might want to go back to the amulet." Ruby nods and dunks the amulet in the water. Once it''s safe, I jump into the river. Even with my armor and weapons weighing me down, it''s easy enough to swim with the current. The river quickly carries me to theke, then I swim across theke and out to the side of the waterfall. I don''t want to fall down the waterfall and maybe hurt myself, so I jump into the pond and then jump into the river again and down it to my camp. Ie out of the river at the camp cold but not too tired, I light the fire and take off my armor and weapons, then use the purifying stone to dry myself. That done, I sit by the fire and start cooking more beast steaks. "Ruby, will you have dinner with me?" Ruby quickly steps out of the amulet and takes human form, she immediately sees the steaks and smiles. Ruby says, "I''d love to!" We sit together by the fire and enjoy our meal of beef steaks and mushrooms. As I eat, I n what I need to aplish and what kind of sword I want to try to make. "You should probably go back to rest, I''ll need your helpter but first I have some boring things to do." Ruby says, "Alright, whatever you say master" and smiles before disappearing into the amulet. I groan a little as I get up and head to the forge room. I grab the two bars of Armatite and the crucible and ce them near the bench. I then grab one of the pikes and ce it on myp as I sit down to meditate, position it so that my head is over the crucible and ce one hand on the Armatite bar which is half gold. I quickly enter the inner world and turn my attention to the pike and begin to unravel the mana that is in it. When I open my eyes, the head of the pike has turned to steel dust and fallen into the crucible, and the gold in the bar has grown a little. I repeat this eight more times with the remaining pikes, then melt the powder into a couple of ingots and move on to the swords. When I have disenchanted five of the swords, the first Armatite bar ispletely gold and epts no more mana. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Disenchant skill has advanced to level 4! ¡Ì Disenchanting. ¡Ì Level 4 - Intelligence +8 Wisdom +8 Wisdom +8 Mana +40 - You can remove an enchantment and recover 15% of your mana. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, you''ve acquired a new skill! - Superior wisdom gained by having a wisdom stat above 50! ¡Ì Superior Wisdom. - Wisdom stat added to mana. I set aside the finished bar and start working on the second bar. It takes all the remaining weapons and a couple of armors to fill the second bar. I also make twenty-three steel ingots during the process, which is good because I want to practice making the sword out of steel before I try my hand at Armatite. Before that, I want to make some new hammers specifically for bending. So I grab a couple of ingots and set about forging them. It takes me several tries to get the hammers perfect. Now everything is ready for forging, but I want to experiment with something, so I run back to camp and pull out the mortar I got years ago from the goblins. I use it to grind up the crystal scraps from Ruby''s sword making. I keep doing this until they are reduced to a fine powder, as I was hoping that even the individual grains would give off a glow that would signify that they contain mana. I n to sprinkle the powder on the steel during folding to see what happens. Now that everything is ready, I summon Ruby. Ruby steps out and takes her human form, the first thing she notices are the two golden bars of Armatite ore. She picks one up and turns it from side to side admiring it. Ruby says, "Wow, you really filled it with mana!" "Yeah, they took all the weapons and almost half the armor." Ruby says, "So, how can I help?" "What I need you to do, besides powering up the forge, is to maintain the temperature of the metal while I work on it." Ruby says, "Okay, I should be able to do that." "Okay, first let''s do some practice with steel so any mistakes won''t be a problem." Ruby says, "Okay, I''m ready." So I started forging my first nodachi, and almost immediately everything went wrong because the metal melts as I try to hammer it into shape. Ruby says, "I''m sorry. I think it''s a little hot." "That''s okay, that''s why we''re practicing." I smile at her so she knows I''m not mad and start again. It takes us four tries before I manage to forge the first nodachi. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the skill expert cksmith has advanced to level 13! ¡Ì Expert cksmith ¡Ì Level 13 - Strength +16 Fire resistance +16 - You can craft expert level metal objects. Now that we have mastered the technique, I repeat the process and make another one, but this time each time I bend the metal I sprinkle crystal powder along the de before bending it. The second onees out higher quality and can be charmed, which is even better than I expected. Now I think we''re ready for the real product, so I get the two bars of Armatite and put them in the forge. "Okay, Ruby, fire up the forge please, then we''ll do everything else the same way." Ruby says, "Yes, master, here we go!" The fire in the forge turns blue as Ruby lights it and the two bars begin to glow rapidly. I watch closely as the colors change as the metal heats up, even though it feels like my face is getting sunburned. Once I think it''s the right color, I use the pliers to pull the bars out and start hammering them together and ttening them. Chapter Experience: Then I put it back in the forge to make sure it is melted correctly. After a few minutes I take it out and start shaping the metal into the length and shape I want, dust it all with powder and then bend it. Ruby concentratespletely to maintain the perfect temperature so I don''t have to stop and overheat the metal. I manage to fold it ten times before I run out of crystal powder, so I finish thest fold and finish shaping the sheet. I then quickly cool the de and look at it to check for ws, it is beautiful and as perfect as I can imagine. Ruby says "It''s a beautiful sword, but it was exhausting, I need to rest." "Go ahead. Thank you for your help and sleep well." Ruby says "Try to remember to eat and rest." I don''t hear Ruby well because I''m already looking around trying to decide what material I''m going to make the hilt and scabbard out of. At that moment I notice something strange. I stacked all the wooden sticks in a pile against the wall earlier, but now all that''s left is the tree branch. Did it absorb them? I reach over and pick it up, it feels heavier than I remember, but it''s the perfect length to make a hilt and sheath out of it. Then I sit down with my wood carving tools and start working, it''s going so well I can''t help but think the wood is helping me shape it. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Carpentry skill has advanced to level 4! ¡Ì Carpentry ¡Ì Level 4 - Agility +4 - You can craft wooden tools or structures. Once the hilt is made I attach it to the de and activate observation. "MAGIC ITEM" ¡Ì Nodachi of folded little weapon. - Hit +10 Damage +25 - Durability 150/150 - Charmable: Yes Grade: Supreme Supreme grade? That should be the highest possible! Great! Now I just hope my n to enchant it works as well as the crafting did. Chapter 50: Blitz! I finish carving the scabbard and put it aside for now, put the sword in myp and enter the inner world. When I look at the sword with the inner sight it looks like it''s made of mana, there are so many mana dots that it''s hard to separate them. This is definitely going to take a while, but I don''t n to do it the same way I did with Ruby''s swords. I turn my attention to my own core and start to chip away at it, but this time I collect the fragments that break off instead of letting my body absorb them. Once I have what I consider to be a decent amount, I begin to move them down my body to the tip of my finger resting on the hilt of the sword. Pulling the shards out of my body hurts enough to make me scream, but I keep going until all the shards are in the hilt of the sword. - Core upgrade progress: 4%. I get up and stretch before heading back to camp to get something to eat and sleep. For all I know, I''ve been working for at least a couple of days. After eating and sleeping, I return to the forge room and resume my meditation. I concentrate again on the sword and begin to carefully move my core fragments together, then begin to move the mana points to the same ce one by one. My hope is to make the sword core form around the fragments of mine and bind the sword to me, but for all I know, this will make it explode. The hours fly by as I move each mana point very carefully to the center of the hilt. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Channeling skill has advanced to level 5! ¡Ì Channeling ¡Ì Level 5 - Intelligence +5 Mana +50 - You have experience in channeling mana. It seems like days have passed when I move thest piece of mana to the hilt. When thest piece falls into ce, there is a sh that blinds my inner vision for a few minutes. When I can look again, the core of the sword isplete and the mana veins have begun to grow on their own. The core is pure white and throbbing when I look at it. Nowes the dangerous part as far as I can see. I focus on the core and cast a lightning bolt. MP: 656/716 There was no explosion, that''s a good sign! I looked closely at the core and saw only a tiny yellow sh. So Iunched the beam again and again. MP: 536/716 ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Lightning skill has advanced to level 3! ¡Ì Lightning ¡Ì Level 3 - MP cost 50 - Youunch a lightning bolt that deals 175 points of electrical damage. When I check the core again, I see a yellow line on the target - it works! I can turn it into a lightning sword, but it looks like it will take a lot of lightning to make it work. I cast the lightning ten more times. MP: 36/716 ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Lightning skill has advanced to level 4! ¡Ì Lightning ¡Ì Level 4 - MP cost 50 - Youunch a lightning bolt that deals 200 points of electrical damage. I grab a couple of pieces of enchanted armor and disenchant them to power another twenty lightning bolts. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Disenchant skill has advanced to level 5! ¡Ì Disenchanting. ¡Ì Level 5 - Intelligence +10 Enchant +10 Charm +10 Mana +60 - You can remove an enchantment and recover 20% of your mana. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, you have evolved a skill! - By having an Intelligence greater than 100 the Superior Intelligence has evolved to Supreme Intelligence. ¡Ì Supreme Intelligence - You gain your intelligence stat as damage to magic attacks. When I check the core again, only one eighth of it is yellow. I also notice that streaks of mana now run all over the sword. I start to worry that I canplete the enchantment before I turn it into a lightning-based sword. Then I start disenchanting things faster and bombarding them with lightning bolt after lightning bolt. By the time I''m done with the remaining armor, I''veunched another fifty lightning bolts at the core. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Lightning skill has advanced to level 5! ¡Ì Lightning ¡Ì Level 5 - MP cost 40 - Youunch a lightning bolt that deals 225 points of electrical damage. I''m surprised that the sword is taking all this magic damage and didn''t explode. I''m d, but when I decided to try this I never imagined it would take this much lightning. When I check the core again, it looks like half of it is yellow. I look around but I''ve disenchanted everything I had stacked in the armory, so I take the giant axe andet shield off my back and disenchant those as well. That gives me another twenty-five lightning bolts, but even with that the core is still notplete. So I go into normal meditation and meditate for fourteen hours to recharge my mana. MP: 728/728 That gives me enough mana to cast lightning eighteen more times. If this core is notpleted soon, I may end up evolving lightning next, that is, if it is a skill that can evolve. The core is not ready yet, so I meditate again for fourteen hours and then cast lightning eighteen times. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Lightning skill has advanced to level 6! ¡Ì Lightning ¡Ì Level 6 - MP cost 40 - Youunch a lightning bolt that deals 250 points of electrical damage. When I check the core again, I am happy to see that almost everything is yellow with only a few white spots, so I meditate again for fourteen hours to recharge my mana and start throwing lightning bolts at the core one after another. After the sixth lightning bolt, the sword suddenly explodes with lightning shing up and down the de. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Enchantment skill has advanced to level 4! ¡Ì Enchanting ¡Ì Level 4 - Intelligence +8 Wisdom +4 Enchantment +4 - You can enchant objects. I quickly check the core and find a ball of lightning with lines of lightning running all over the de and hilt, then Ie out of meditation and use observe on the sword. "MAJOR MAGIC ITEM." ¡Ì Folded armatita nodachi. - Hit +20 Damage +50 Speed +5 - On critical hit:unches a lightning bolt towards the target. - Durability 500/500 - This sword needs a name, do you want to name it now? Y/N "Yes!" - Please say the name of this sword. "Its name is Blitz!" "MAJOR MAGIC ITEM" ¡Ì Aerial Bombardment - Hit +20 Damage +50 Speed +5 - On critical hit:unches a lightning bolt towards the target. - Durability 500/500 ''Yes! I''ve done it! I created a more powerful magic item and didn''t kill myself. I grab Blitz and hold it with both hands, I can feel the tingling energy just by holding the hilt. I quickly walk out into the cave outside the forge room and take a few swings with Blitz. It feels amazing, the bnce is perfect and wielding it feels totally natural. "Now that''s a sword that kills demons!" Chapter 51: Preparations "Ruby,e take a look - I did it! It''s finished!" Ruby steps out of the amulet, takes her human form and looks at me, standing there with Blitz in my hands. The lightning keeps going up and down the de, so at times it looks like I''m holding lightning in my hands. Ruby says "Wow, that sword looks amazing!" "Thanks! It''s called Blitz." Ruby says "Blitz? Isn''t that a pretty simple name? Shouldn''t a sword like that have a grander name?" I reach over, pick up the sheath, sheath Blitz and toss it to Ruby. "Try to draw the sword." She tries with all her might, but the sword won''t budge, so she throws it at me. I easily unsheathe it and spin it around before re-sheathing it. Ruby says "What, she doesn''t like me because I''m a fire spirit?" "No, if I''m right, I''ll be able to draw it. In fact, I might explode when I die, I''m not sure." Ruby says "Why?" "Before I tell you, don''t hit!" Ruby says "That just means you did something stupid that I should hit you for." "I used fragments of my core to make the sword core." Ruby says, "What, you basically made the sword using your own soul?" "Umm, if my core represents my soul, then I guess so. That''s why no one but me should be able to use it." Ruby says, "Why would you do something so risky, that''s crazy, I should beat you up for that!" "I took risks, yes, but to make a sword that can kill a demon the risks were worth it." Ruby says, "Can it, kill the demon, I mean?" "Well, I''m pretty sure it can, why don''t we go find out?" Ruby says, "Right now? You look like you''re about to fall." I stop and take stock of myself, to be honest, I''m feeling pretty exhausted and pretty hungry. It''s probably been a few days while I was charming Blitz. "Well, maybe after I eat and get some rest." Ruby smiles as she follows me back to camp. I quickly cook what meat is left of the bird thing and we share it before going to rest. When I wake up, I''m pretty sure it''s been at least a day. I catch something to cook for breakfast. After lunch, I prepare my armor and weapons and head for the cave. The longest part is navigating the ledge back to the river, but eventually I return to the cave where the demon is. I touch the amulet to let Ruby know it''s time to leave, she does so and quickly takes human form. Ruby says, "So what''s the n?" "Wait, let me look around first." I walk past the pile of rocks and take another look at the block of ice containing the demon. Then I walk all over the ice looking at the rest of the cave and the terrain we will be fighting on. I also take a close look at the demon; its lower body is that of a veryrge wolf, while the head would normally be in ce, but now it is a human torso covered in fur with a head that looks like a mix of wolf and human. With four legs, it will probably be very fast, its upper body is also very muscr, so it could be very strong. It''s not going to be an easy fight. I walk back towards Ruby as I think of a n. Ruby says, "It''s so creepy the way his eyes follow you." "Yeah, I''ve been trying to ignore it. I think I have the n figured out." Ruby says, "Okay, I''m listening." "I want you on top of these rocks, we''ll both hit the ice with fireballs to melt it, I''ll be on the opposite side of the cave. When he is free I will get his attention, I want you to use a fire beam to see if the blue mes hurt him, if they do stay up there and hit him until you run out of mana. If they don''t then you can use your swords, but be careful I think it will be too fast." Ruby says, "That''s it, that''s the best n you coulde up with?" "Yes, considering I know very little about what skills I might have. We''ll have to adapt as we go along, so aplex, convoluted n is basically useless." Ruby says, "It would make me feel better." "Trying to follow a n might also get us killed." Ruby says, "Okay, okay, okay, I get it, let''s just get this over with." "Right. Oh yeah, aim high with the fireball, if we burn the remains it''ll be pointless." Ruby says "Got it." Ruby starts climbing up the pile of rocks and I move to the other side of the room, I move until I can see Ruby behind the ice block. I take onest careful look around to check for anything that might trip me up, then look back to check on Ruby. When I see she''s on top of the pile of rocks I ready my fireball. Spell. Once the spell is ready, I look at Ruby and see that she has hers. Ready too, I aim at the top half of the ice block and then nod towards Ruby. We both throw our fireballs at the ice block. When the mes dissipate, I''m surprised to see that the ice hasn''t changed at all. Ruby yells "What now?" I salute Ruby and sit down to meditate and take a look around with my inner sight. What I see is a staggering amount of mana swirling inside the ice, no wonder the fireballs had no effect. When I open my eyes, Ruby is sitting across from me. "There''s so much mana in that ice that I don''t think anything we can hit it with can scratch it." Ruby says, "So what do we do?" "Um, the only thing thates to mind is that I''m going to have to disenchant the ice." Ruby says, "Won''t that amount of mana kill you?" "Maybe, if I did it all at once, probably. I need to study it a bit before I do anything." Ruby says, "I think that''s the first smart thing you''ve said since we first saw that thing." "Haha. Just protect me while I study this thing." Ruby says, "Yes, oh wise and mighty master!" Chapter 52: The Ice "I told you not to call me master, and I can dispense with the sarcasm as well." I go back into my meditation before Ruby can respond and focus my attention on the mana inside the ice. After studying a bit, I can tell that there are two different types of mana and they are fighting. One is trying to keep the demon locked up, which means the other is the demon''s mana. If he can use mana, this will be an even tougher fight than I thought. The problem is that the mana is constantly moving, there is no fixed structure that he can disarm. The only thing I can think of is to try to absorb the mana little by little until it weakens enough for the ice to break. I just have to figure out what to do with all that mana so my head doesn''t explode or something. Well, first I should empty my mana so I have room to absorb some of what I take from the ice. Maybe now would be a good time to finish working on my mana veins, I''ve been meaning to do that for a while now. So, I focus inward and look at my body. Right now, my mana veins are going in all directions without any structure. After what I''ve learned from enchanting weapons, I need to rework most of it to be more like a tree sprouting from my core, withrge branches in some areas and then small branches breaking off from them. I get to work quickly, what I didn''t expect is how much it hurts to remove the old veins. I struggle through the pain and work until my mana reaches zero, then I switch my attention to the ice and reach over, grab a small piece and push it into my body. The mana tries to resist me but my will proves stronger. As soon as the mana enters my body the pain shoots through my entire being. - Core enhancement progress: 6 %. ''Ouch, that hurts!'' I quickly burn some mana by adding it to my mana veins and, after a while, the pain stops.What happened? When I extracted the mana, about ten percent of it disappeared and somehow my main enhancement improved. But I didn''t feel the mana entering my core, and why would mana entering my core improve it? I wake up from meditation and look around, I see Ruby off to the side practicing with her swords. "Did you just get a mana download from me?" Ruby stops and says, "No, I didn''t feel anything, why?" "Some of the mana I drew from the ice disappeared and I''m trying to figure out why." Ruby says, "Well, I know your sword is glowing." I quickly unsheath Blitz and take a look, sure enough the de is glowing. So the sword absorbed some of the mana I took? I return to meditation and take a close look at Blitz''s core. So the sword''s core can also improve, that''s interesting. "Is it normal that a weapon core can be upgraded?" Rubyughs and says, "For a weapon to have a core is not normal at all, how do I know what it can do?" "Okay, you''re right. But as my familiar, it should be able to channel mana to you, right?" Ruby says, "Yes, it should be possible, why?" "I want you to burn all your mana then, next time I take a piece of ice I want to channel some to you so I don''t get too full." Ruby says, "Okay. What do you want me to do?" "Just throw fireballs at the ice until you run out of mana, thene, sit here and take my hand." Ruby smiles and says "Sure!" then proceeds to throw five fireballs at the ice. Rubyes over and sits very close to me and takes my hand in hers. It takes me a minute to fight the distraction and go into my meditation. Once I can concentrate, I take another chunk of mana and struggle to release it, the pain when I absorb it is much less with Ruby to absorb the excess. I burn the mana by adding it to my mana veins and then take another chunk, I repeat this process three more times. - Core upgrade progress: 9 %. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, a skill has gone up a level! ¡Ì Magic body ¡Ì Level: 2 - All stats +10 HP +10/Hour. ??-DING-???. - Congrattions, you have evolved a skill! - For having an Endurance greater than 100, Superior Endurance has evolved to Supreme Endurance! - Base HP increases from 250 to 500. With that my mana veins are full! I stop ande out of my meditation and look at Ruby. "How are you feeling?" Ruby says, "I''m pretty tired, to be honest." -Yes, me too. Let''s get some rest and continue tomorrow. Ruby says, "Okay, but at least we''re making progress." "Huh?" Ruby points to the ice and, after looking at it for a minute, I notice it: a small trickle of water. The ice has begun to melt. Ruby returns to the amulet to rest and I make the long trip back to camp to eat and sleep. I return the next day after breakfast, but before I summon Ruby I think about what else I can do with all this mana now that my veins are full. I can work on improving my core, but I could also do some enchantments. The problem is that I don''t have anything I can enchant, my armor isn''t of high enough quality, and I don''t have any more armatite to do anything with. So I guess working on my core is my only option. With that decided, I wake Ruby up and she quickly sits down with me in front of the ice. "Okay. Same as before." Ruby says, "Yes, master," and takes my hand in hers. I enter my meditative state and look at the ice from the inner world. I take a piece of mana and force it across into my body, channel what I can''t handle into Ruby and then start working on my core with the rest. - Core enhancement progress: 10 % MP +100. ''A hundred more mana? That''s a nice bonus!'' So, if I fully upgrade my core, I get at least a thousand more mana. I could be a decent mage at that point. I stop thinking about meaningless things, take another chunk of mana and repeat the process. After four more times, I get to fifteen percent. - Core upgrade progress: 15%. All goes well, the ice weakens and I upgrade my core. Then I make a mistake, I don''t pay enough attention when I''m taking mana and I catch a chunk of the demon''s mana towards my body. Chapter 53: Playing with mana. Instantly pain wracks my body, I try to force the mana back out but I am unable to, I can''t even channel the overload to Ruby. I drop out of meditation and curl up in the fetal position as wave after wave of pain roars through me. I can feel Ruby''s hands on my back as she tries to figure out what is wrong with me. I am sure she is saying something but I can''t hear anything over the pounding in my head. ??-DING-??. ¡ª Congrattions! Skill Pain Resist has progressed to level 6! ¡Ì Pain Resist ¡Ì Level 6 ¡ª You feel 60% less pain. ¡ª Physical damage reduced by 6%. I think without that skill this would actually kill me, right now death would be a relief. I can''t tell if it takes minutes or hours, it feels like forever before the pain finally starts to fade. As my senses return the first thing I feel is that Ruby has wrapped herself around me as much as she can. Now I am d I didn''t die, being held by her feels wonderful. Ruby says "Master? Can you hear me? Master!" "Ugh! Yes, I can now." Ruby says "What happened? Are you alright?" "I identally grabbed some of the demon''s mana, it didn''t agree with me." Ruby says "You really had me worried! For a minute your eyes were glowing red!" "What? They were?" I check myself out real quick, but rx when I find no damage and no permanent changes. There is no trace of the demon''s mana inside me that I can find. "Well, I''m fine now. I even feel fairly good now that the pain is gone." Ruby says "Well, as long as you are okay, just don''t do that again." "Trust me, I don''t n to!" I stand up and stretch, I do my best to work out the kinks from being in the fetal position for so long. Then I sit back down and prepare to enter meditation. Ruby says "What? You are going to continue? Shouldn''t you rest first?" "No, I''m fine. I want to get this done." Not wanting to hear anymore cautions or that I''m being stupid I enter my meditation before Ruby can say anything. I float in the inner world waiting till I see the channel to Ruby go live so I can start working, but instead she appears floating next to me in the inner world. I had forgotten she can do that when she is in the amulet. Ruby says "You are an idiot! You are rushing into a fight against a creature you know nothing about." "I know a lot about demons in theory, and if there was a way to learn more before fighting it I would take the time. But there isn''t, we know as much as we can know already, we will only learn more by fighting it." Ruby says "Yes, but why rush? Rest up first. You just went through a lot of pain." "Yes, the demon''s mana hurt, but it was just pain. It didn''t do anything to me and I feel fine, resting won''t make any difference." Ruby says "Why do I feel like your pain means more to me than it does to you?" "I''ve told you how I died in myst life right? Pain is basically an old friend of mine. I''m used to it at this point." Ruby says "That makes me very sad. So your pain really doesn''t matter to you?" "No, not really, I mean while it is happening yes it hurts, but once it is gone I quickly forget about it. In my world we had a saying ''Anything that doesn''t kill you, just makes you stronger. And it is true, pain can teach you things." Ruby says "Like what?" "Like don''t do that again stupid, it hurts." Rubyughs and says "So, you admit you are stupid?" "I have my moments." Ruby says "These moments seem to happen fairly frequently." "Yeah, yeah. Can we get back to work now?" Ruby says "I guess so, since you won''t listen to me and rest anyway." Before I can respond she disappears, and shortly I sense the connection open between us meaning she is holding my hand and ready to ept mana. I turn my attention to the block of ice, but before I can grab a chunk I see a problem. The two manas are now swirling more furiously and are much more intermixed. I doubt I can grab a chunk without getting some of the demon''s mana. Oh well, like I told Ruby it is just pain, so I grab a chunk of mana and pull it into myself. The demon''s mana causes me some pain but not enough to break my concentration so I go back to working on my core. ¡ª Core Upgrade Progress: 17% Each time I grab a chunk of mana the demon''s mana hurts me less, that is worrying me just a little. I can''t really stop now though, if I leave it like this the demon will escape sometime soon. If it isn''t killed it will cause all sorts of chaos if anything I know about demons is true. Since I am the one weakening its prison, anything it does would be my fault, I have to kill it. So I keep grabbing and absorbing chunks of the mixed mana. ¡ª Core Upgrade Progress: 20% MP +100 I''m happy to see the progress on my core, so I reach for another chunk, and that''s when it all goes horribly wrong. Even in my meditation I hear the ice shatter and a thunderous roar, but that isn''t what worries me the most. All the remaining mana in the ice is rushing into me like water from a dam that just broke. It is way too much mana for me to handle and I know for a fact if I don''t do something right now it is going to kill me. ====== Don''t forget to leave power stones for support. Chapter 54: The Demon [ 1 ] I already know that I can''t channel the mana to Ruby, and if I try to hold it in me, I will die for sure. I can only think of one other option and, without time to think twice, I immediately start channeling all the mana to Blitz and ck Razor. I quickly realize that I''m only channeling the archmage''s mana, but I can''t pay attention to trying to figure out what happened to the demon''s mana. I feel quite a bit of pain, but I ignore it as best I can and keep drawing mana from me as fast as I can. Everything goes ck for a second and when I open my eyes, I find myself leaning against the far wall of the cave. I can hear sounds of struggle, Ruby needs me! I stand up and discover that my left hip hurts. I look down and discover that my flesh is burned and torn and ck Razor is not there. A quick look around shows no sign of him, I guess he couldn''t handle the mana and exploded. That must be how I ended up unconscious and against the cave wall. I push those thoughts out of my head and look for Ruby. I see her dodging the demon''s attacks, but she''s being pushed back and is about to run out of room. I lunge toward the demon, ignoring the pain in my hip. I pull Blitz out, happy to see that it''s intact, I don''t even have time to wonder why the lightning is ck now. I run at full speed towards the demon, barely making a sound, but somehow the demon senses me and begins to turn towards me. I hit the demon at full speed and bury Blitz to the hilt in the side of its wolf body. I bounce backwards and rip Blitz off and lunge backwards. I see the demon''s handing towards me, I''m almost out of its reach as it passes by my face. Only one w lightly hits the left side of my face, suddenly my vision is half lost, my left eye stops working. I fall backwards to the ground and roll backwards to my feet. I can see that the demon is bleeding where I hit it with Blitz, at least I can hurt it. It has some other superficial wounds that bleed a little, they must be from Ruby. Suddenly, the demon is right in front of me and throws a right-handed w at me. I dodge to the right to avoid it, but it was a feint! I fall into the trap and don''t realize it until his left fist hits me in the chest. - You''ve suffered an impact attack! 372 HP damage! HP: 883/1255 I hear a loud crack and go flying backwards until I crash into the cave wall. I feel like I''ve been run over by a truck. My chest armor is in a heap of tiny pieces between me and the demon and, from the pain I feel when I manage to breathe, I think I have some broken ribs. I look up and see the demoning towards me. I still have Blitz in my hand, so I struggle to my feet. If I''m going to die, I''ll die fighting. Suddenly, the demon is engulfed in blue mes and, with a roar, turns around to face Ruby. I can''t let her face him alone, I force myself to straighten up and start walking towards the demon. I really need to hit him and move out of his reach before he hits me again. ''Stall!'' "Insufficient mana!" ''What!!! How can that be, mana! MP: 0/0 ''What?! How can that be? What have I done to myself?'' There is no time! I have to concentrate. I start moving faster towards the demon, it will feel me and start turning again. Last time it turned to the right, so I lean to the left as I gain speed. As I expected, when I get close enough, it starts to turn right. I run at full speed and pass by its hind legs. As I pass, I throw Blitz and sh the back of both hind legs. He lets out a roar and jumps away from me. Ie to a screeching halt next to Ruby. "Hello!" Ruby says, "Don''t ''hi'' me, you lunatic! Where have you been?" "Sorry, I took an unexpected nap, are you okay?" Ruby says, "She''s not dead, but she''s not very well either. look out, she''sing back!" I look up and see the demon moving toward me. It seems to be moving slower, which is good. I start moving to my right as Ruby moves in the opposite direction. The demon stays focused on me. I guess I pissed it off. I stop moving, crouch down and let ite at me. Just as it''s in range to attack me, I see a sh of blue pass behind it as Ruby swipes at its already injured legs. He roars, gets up and starts turning to chase Ruby. Seeing an opening, I lunge as hard as I can straight at the thing. I sh at its chest with Blitz just before crashing into it with my shoulder, it goes backwards with me on top of it. I jump to get away as it crashes into the ground and I hit the ground somersaulting to make sure I''m far enough away as I get to my feet. The demon is getting to his feet as I stand up and turn to face him. I can''t see Ruby, but I don''t want to look away from the demon to look for her. I see the demon take a deep breath and, as I see the glow forming in its open mouth, I dive to my left. I feel the intense heat behind me as the demon exhales a cone of hellfire where it was a second ago, I hear a female scream as I get to my feet and immediately attack the demon. "Ruby?" Ruby says, "I''m fine, I''ve just never been burned before, I was surprised." Hearing Ruby''s response, I am relieved as I charge at the demon who continues to spit hellfire. I notice it has its eyes closed to protect them from the re of the mes. This is my best chance. I run down and slide underneath its wolf body. I cut into his stomach as I slide to the other side and roll backwards to stand up. I run a few steps before turning to see where the demon is. big mistake! It''s right behind me and I''m about to be trampled. Luckily, with its injured paws, I''m a little faster and manage to stay out of its reach. The problem now is that I''m running into a wall and don''t have much room to maneuver; if I try to turn, he''ll be able to hit me. The cave is mostly round, so the walls are curved. I guess I''ll try something stupid. I hit the wall at full speed and run straight up, I do well until the whole wall shakes when the demon hits it, I manage to push off enough to fall to the ground behind the demon. Chapter 55: The Demon [ 2 ] Hitting the ground reminds me that I have broken ribs. It takes me a couple of seconds to be able to breathe. I look up and see the demon staggering. The ce where it hit the wall is dented and cracked. Despite the additional pain, I roll over to get away from the demon a few times before I struggle to my feet. As I stand, a blue fireball flies past me and crashes into the demon. The demon roars in pain and staggers against the wall again. It''s still bleeding from where I''ve managed to cut it, so we''re wearing it down for sure. Now the question is who will run out of energy first, us or the demon. The demon turns and faces us as Ruby approaches me, I smile at her and she smiles back, then we both turn to face the demon. I really wish I could hit it with a couple of lightning bolts right now. I guess we''ll do it the hard way, I charge straight at the demon, as it moves to attack me, I feint to the right and then dodge to the left. As I move, I turn my dodge into a dive to get underneath the ws swinging at me, it saw through my feint. As I thought, this thing has a lot morebat experience than I do. I barely manage to dodge the attack, but Ruby, who attacked from the other side while it was focused on me, hits it twice. When he turns to chase Ruby, I manage to hit him in his side before I have to dodge. Ruby and I manage to hit him a few more ying tag from both sides. Then he tires of the game and goes back to trying to fry both of us with his hellfire breath. I dive behind what''s left of the ice to avoid the mes, the heat is intense, the ice melts quickly butsts long enough to protect me from the mes. Once the mes fade, I jump back on my feet, only to see an arrow of fire heading my way. I dive to the side to dodge it, but it turns and follows me. - You have suffered a magic fire attack! 104 HP damage! HP: 779/1255 - Fire resistance +1 "Ouch, it can use magic too? It''s not fair!" Ruby yells, "Stop whining and figure out how to kill this thing!" "What do you think I''ve been trying to do?" Ruby yells "Try harder!" "Try harder," she says, "that''s helpful. I need to find a way tond a couple of solid blows on it. Maybe if I can cut him deep enough he''ll bleed out, or if I can cut off an arm or a leg and limit his fighting ability. I need to do something to tip the odds in our favor or I''m afraid we won''t win this fight. The only way I see to get a good hit in is to take a hit in return, I''m not fast enough to hit the demon ande out unscathed. I decide to go for an arm, if I can take one of his arms without losing mine, that should put the odds in our favor. So I let Ruby distract him and waited for the right moment, I lunged at the demon, he turned his attention back to me, but I kept going straight at him. He feinted with his right hand and hit me with the ws of his left hand, instead of dodging it, I took the hit directly. - You suffered a w attack! 338 HP damage! HP: 441/1255 As its ws rake my chest, I strike Blitz in the elbow of the demon''s left arm. The demon roars as I go flying backwards and the lower half of its left arm flies off to the other side as its blood gushes out. It proves to be smarter than I expected as it cauterizes the stump to stop the blood loss. He then turns and looks at me, and I can see nothing but pure hatred in his eyes. He''s definitelying for me and maybe I can take one more hit. "I hope you have a n! Because I just got really pissed off!" Ruby doesn''t respond and the demon starts attacking me. A quick look around shows me that I really have nowhere to run. If I can get past it, I can climb the pile of rocks or try to dive into the river. I have to get past him first, so I brace myself and wait for him to catch up. As he attacks me, I see Ruby dart from the side and turn. As she spins, she swipes her left hind leg several times as she passes him. The demon stumbles and begins to fall towards me, I am moving to jump out of the way when suddenly arge blue kite shield floats in the air between me and the demon. The demon hits the shield with a thunderous roar, but the shield barely holds and the demon bounces off and falls sideways. "Good job, Ruby!" Ruby yells "Stop congratting me and kill it!" I set out to do exactly that as she says it. I lunge forward and m Blitz into the demon''s neck with all my might, but it manages to raise what''s left of its left arm and block the killing blow. Then I feel one of its wolf paws hit my stomach and I go flying. - You have suffered a kick attack! 103 HP damage! HP: 338/1255 My back crashes into the cave wall and then my head. My helmet keeps me from passing out, but I see stars for a few seconds. I shake my head several times to clear my head, and when I look up, the demon is standing and attacking Ruby. I get up despite the pain and set off after the demon. As I run after it I see Ruby make the same mistake I did, she feints one way and then dodges the other. I watch helplessly as the demon''s fist catches Ruby in the head and with an explosion of blue sparks Ruby disappears. "NO!!!! RUBY!!!!" Chapter 56: The Demon [ 3 ] All I feel is burning fury as I see Ruby disappear. I lunge even more towards the demon and leap at it before it can turn around to face me head on. I ram Blitz in the back of his upper body and push him all the way down before my shoulder hits the demon. The demon spins on the spot and sends me flying again, but Blitz is still lodged in his body. I spin and roll in the air andnd on my feet in front of the demon, who tries to pull Blitz out with his remaining arm. I pounce on the demon again and jump on its back, grab the arm trying to pull Blitz out, nt my feet on its shoulder and pull. I put my whole body into it and pull the arm with all my might! "CRACK!" I free the demon''s broken arm and stand up, then, as the demon roars in pain, I grab his shoulder, pull myself up and sink my teeth into the side of his neck. The demon''s blood floods my mouth, it tastes bitter and burnt, but although it is disgusting at the same time, it is somehow satisfying. The demon reaches out with its broken arm and grabs me, pulling me free, losing a chunk of its shoulder and neck in the process. It rears up like a horse and throws me, this time instead of throwing me against the wall, it throws me straight down. I don''t have time to get my feet under me and I fall to the ground with impressive force, and before I can roll backwards, he stomps me with both front legs hitting me in the chest and stomach. - You''ve suffered a stomping attack! 356 HP damage! HP: 1/1311 ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Tenacity skill has advanced to level 4! ¡Ì Tenacity ¡Ì Level 4 - Endurance +8 HP +25%. - Your strong willpower allows you to resist death. I swallow the piece of meat in my mouth reflexively when I get hit, and I don''t miss the opportunity to grab the leg by the chest and stretch my neck forward to bite it. I feel the bone crack and break under my jaws as I bite down with all my might. The demon howls in pain and leaps, leaving the lower half of its leg behind. Itnds badly on three legs, all with wounds, as it staggers I leap to my feet and flex my hands. My ws shoot out and extend further than I knew they could. I crouch and leap towards the demon, moving too fast for it to react before I punch it in the chest and dig my ws in, as it roars in pain I rise up until we are face to face and then use Lion''s Roar. I smile when I see the blood start to drip from his ears. I drop to the ground and dig my ws into its chest and stomach. I quickly leap backwards to dodge it as the demon throws an arm strike at me. At that moment I could let the demon bleed out and die from the wounds, but that wouldn''t satiate the rage boiling inside me. So I attack it again, act like I''m leaping towards its chest again, but when it raises its arm in defense, I tackle its remaining foreleg instead. "CRACK!" When my full weight falls on him, the demon''s knee bends backwards and I have to roll quickly to keep him fromnding on me. Now the demon can''t stand upright and his movements have be slower, probably due to blood loss. I start darting in and out, which makes it keep moving and every now and then I give it a swipe with my ws. It takes me a few minutes to finally get the shot I wanted. I duck to dodge the slow swipe of his arms and run my ws across his throat as I pass in front of him. He immediately covers his throat with his hand to stop the flow of blood. I circle around and run down his back as he tries to keep his throat closed. I reach over and grab his chin with one hand and the back of his head with the other. Then I twist him as hard as I can. "CRACK!!!" And with that the demon is finally dead! He slumps forward and lies face down underneath me. I take a deep breath and let out a roar that contains all my rage, hatred, sadness and anguish. The roar continues until I run out of breath. I then fall to my knees on the demon and clutch the amulet on my chest with both hands as I cry tears of loss. Unbeknownst to me, my roar echoes in the stone. The roar reaches all the way to the capital and everyone in the city hears it for several minutes. Everyone also feels the small earthquake caused by the roar, including the king. Ruby whispers, "I''m not dead! But it''s nice to know you care so much." "Ruby!!!" Ruby whispers, "I''m a spirit, remember? My physical body is made of energy." "So, are you okay?" Ruby whispers, "Well, I wouldn''t say fine, but alive. It will take me a few days to get my energy back." "I''m so d you''re alive!" I wipe away my tears as a smile breaks out on my face, Ruby is alive! I can feel her now that I''m paying attention, she''s already sound asleep. Somehow, I doubt she''ll forget she was crying and I''m sure I''ll find outter. I get up wearily, with the goofy grin still on my face. I finally realize I''m still on top of the demon and see Blitz''s hilt peeling off his back a foot away from me. I reach out and grab the hilt to pull Blitz off the demon''s body. As my hand touches the hilt, a massive darkness swells up and engulfs me. Chapter 57: The battle for the forest [ 1 ] In the Forest of the Fangs, Princess Amercy''s point of view. I stand waiting with Zamart and Alexa, I see one of the scouts approaching. This should be the news we have been waiting for since I sent the messages to the other kingdoms. Scout says, "Princess, the army has entered the forest!" "How many are there?" Scout says, "Five thousand infantry and one thousand cavalry!" Alexa says, "That''s more than we expected. I guess your father is serious." Zamart says, "More importantly: are they using the road?" Scout says, "Yes, Mr. Wizard." Zamart says, "Good, then at least all the effort of moving the nts wasn''t in vain." "Alright, let''s follow the n - let''s get started!" Alexa walks away shouting orders to our troops, the scout runs after her. I turn and look at Zamart, only to see him smile. "Do you think our chances of winning are that good?" Zamart says "No princess, it''s not that. I''m ashamed to say I''m excited, it''s been over fifty years since I cast a spell inbat." "Don''t worry, you''ve earned the right to enjoy yourself a bit. Between the mages you recruited among your former apprentices and the new mages you''ve trained among the rebels, you''ve contributed much to the battle ahead." Zamartughs and says, "Not to mention the weeks I spent preparing the forest for the enemy." "Yes, I know how much work you put into that, and believe me, my friend, I am very grateful." Zamart says, "Ahem, yes, well, I should join the other mages. Things will start soon." "Take care Zamart, there is still much to do after this battle." Zamart says, "Don''t remind me, you take all the fun out of things!" Iugh with Zamart before he heads off to join his mages. I walk slowly and confidently to where my horse awaits me. With all the troops watching me, I can''t afford to show any signs of nervousness or concern. I''m d all the speeches and morale campaigns are over, now all that''s left for me to do is lead the cavalry in the fight. We have fifty cavalry and just over a thousand infantry, but we are outnumbered. Our advantage lies in the terrain and in our mages. The enemy will face several traps and ambushes before we can meet him head on. Even if half of the enemy dies in the traps, we will still be outnumbered by a ratio of three to one. I sit on my horse and rack my brain, trying to think of something we can do to improve the odds. We''ve been plotting and nning this for weeks, and I can''te up with anything new until I hear Alexa shout orders for the infantry troops to get moving. Soon after, Alexaes over, mounts her horse and rides up beside me. We both watch as the foot soldiers march. I try to make eye contact with as many as I can to give them onest hug. Even if the battle goes well, many of them are going to die today and I feel responsible for all of them. Alexa says, "The reports were urate, the new Knight Commander is an idiot." "Umm, Raveos, right?" Alexa says, "Yes, that''s right, he''s even dumber than Tarrik. They went through the first traps and kept moving down the road." "What about your scouts?" Alexa says "All wiped out, they march blind." -So, is Zamart''s n working? Alexa says "So far, exactly as nned." "How many have lost so far?" Alexa says, "It''s hard to get an exact count, but I''m guessing at least five hundred so far." "That''s better than we expected isn''t it?" Alexa says, "Yes, but don''t get your hopes up. They brought in more than we expected, so arger number isn''t as helpful as you might think." "If Raveos is as stupid as reported and advances straight through the worst we have, what do you think our odds are?" Alexa sighs and says, "Even if he suffers maximum casualties, I''d still say our odds of winning are around twenty percent." "That bad?" Alexa says, "Yes, Princess, even at even numbers we would be in trouble. Our soldiers, though brave, are mostly farmers with what little training we were able to give them." I try not to let my disappointment show as I go back to watching the soldiers march to their positions. At least, with the equipment acquired in Illium, our troops are as well equipped as the king''s army. Had we had more time to prepare and train them, a few more months would have made a big difference. As thest of the infantry troops pass, another scout rushes back to report. It takes him a minute to catch his breath before he can speak. The scout says, "Commander, the enemy sent out nking squads to try to keep our archers at bay." Alexa says, "He divided his forces? This Raveos really is an ipetent idiot!" Scout says, "Squads were wiped out, estimated enemy losses are around two thousand." "Excellent! You can have some water and then rejoin your squad." The scout bows to me and runs off. I watch everything spin as Alexa re-examines our ns. After a minute, she smiles and shakes her head. "What?" Alexa says, "If I had known earlier, we could have changed a lot of things, but at this point it''s toote to use the information." "Can''t you think of anything?" Alexa says, "It''s not something we can implement before the fighting starts. We should take our position now." I nod to Alexa and get my horse moving, Alexa stays by my side and the other fifty riders follow right behind us. We are the center of the formation for the battle, our job will be to counter charge their cavalry. We stop as we reach the edge of the clearing where the battle will take ce. This clearing did not exist two weeks ago, somehow Zamart used magic to move the trees and bushes to make it just right for this battle. I am about to ride into the clearing when I hear footsteps behind me. I turn in the saddle and see one of the magesing up panting, he is out of shape and obviously not used to running. I have to wait for him to catch his breath long enough to speak. The mage says "Zamart says to stay at the edge of the forest, visible to the enemy, but not in the clearing." Alexa says "What, why, we can''t form troops in the trees." Mage says "He just said to stay out of the clearing." Alexa sighs and goes to spread the word to the troops. I signal the rider behind me to ride to the other side, then ride a little farther forward until I reach the edge of the clearing. The minutes seem like hours as I wait for the enemy to appear, I have never seen a real battle before and now the waiting is torture. All I want to do is turn around, ride off and get all my people to safety. I don''t want to lead them into battle and have their deaths on my hands. Just as the waiting is about to make me scream, something bright catches my eye on the opposite side of the clearing. A rider in armor has just emerged from the trees, soon joined by another and another. Soon about two hundred horsemen line up in front of me in the clearing. Then the foot soldiers starting out and forming up, and I can''t help but count them. Two hundred, then four, then eight, soon I pass two thousand on my count. It looks like two and a half to three thousand infantrymen have survived and are ready to fight. I am about to give the order to charge when I remember what the wizard said, so instead I sit and wait even though it makes me want to scream in frustration. Then I notice it gets darker and I look up, the sky that moments ago was clear and blue is now covered by ck clouds. A rumble makes me look down again, the enemy is advancing towards the clearing. If we don''t get into formation we won''t stand a chance, but I trust Zamart, so I sit and wait. Then I see a bright spot fall to the ground in the clearing, I get confused as I look up and see dots of light falling from the clouds. Chapter 58: The battle for the forest [ 2 ] In the Forest of the Fangs P.O.V. of Princess Amercy I stare upwards trying to figure out what is going on, then I hear the first scream. I quickly look in the direction it came from and see an enemy soldier covered in mes. He spins around trying to put out the fire while screaming. Soon I see more points of lighting down and setting the soldiers on fire when they reach them. Is it fire? Is it raining fire? I didn''t know that magic was possible. The rain is increasing as well, but it is only falling inside the clearing, this has to be Zamart''s doing. Many of the enemy soldiers have stopped and are crouched under their shields. Only a few so far have caught fire, but their formations are broken, and the cavalry horses are going crazy. I want to give the signal to charge them now, but even my troopers don''t want to follow me under a hail of fire, so again I am forced to wait. I watch as several of the cavalrymen are thrown as their horses flee to the safety of the forest. One poor horse runs off with its tail on fire and its rider bouncing a few feet behind with his foot caught in the stirrup. I start to get ready to move as I notice the rain slowing down, but then I see arger piece of fire fall to the ground. It explodes on impact throwing a dozen soldiers into the air, several of whom don''t get up again. Over the next five minutes there are several dozen such explosions, and suddenly silence reigns. I look up and see the clouds dissipate and patches of blue skye into view. I step forward and give the signal for our troops to form up, I see Alexa doing the same to my right. I look this way and that until I see everyone in formation and ready to go. "CHARGE!!!!" I shout at the top of my lungs. I advance at a trot, I don''t want the cavalry to outnumber the foot troops too much. Alexa gallops her horse across the clearing to return to my side, together we form the spearhead. The enemy is gathering in front of us, but has not managed to get into formation by the time we close the distance. When we are fifteen yards away I draw my sword and urge my horse into a gallop. The noise when we impact with the enemy is deafening, I never imagined something could be so loud. I wave my sword left and right as I cut through the enemy cavalry. Our momentum is soon exhausted and the battle degenerates into a melee, I can''t see anything more than a few meters away. Alexa is protecting my back and I am fighting fiercely to hold my position, it is impossible to advance with so many enemies pressing me. I need to gain some breathing space or I will be knocked down by numbers, so I decide to use one of my trump cards. A long time ago, Zamart taught me a sh of light spell that blinds everyone but me within a fifteen meter radius. Over time, I have mastered the spell and modified it slightly. Now my spell only blinds my enemies, but I can only cast it once a day. This is the spell that saved my life when my father''s troops dressed as bandits tried to kill me the day my mother died. When the spell activates, Alexa and I quickly wipe out the blinded enemies near us. What''s left of our cavalry quickly makes its way towards us and surrounds us. Once there are no enemies near me, I climb into the saddle of my horse to see the rest of the battle. A quick count shows that I have thirty cavalrymen left and I can see that there are about eight hundred infantry troops left, the enemy is starting to push us back due to the weight of numbers. "Alexa, call for a retreat. If we don''t retreat now, we are going to be annihted." Alexa looks disappointed as she removes her horn from her chair and blows a long, deep note. I drop back into the saddle and turn to lead the cavalry to break through and break free of the enemy. We barely make our way through, a few more minutes dy and we would have had too many enemy surrounding us to get out. When we manage to break free, I have only twenty-two cavalrymen left. The enemy does not immediately pursue us, he stops to get back into formation. Then, to our surprise, instead of chasing us to finish us off, the enemy turns around and goes back the way he came. "What, why are they retreating?" Alexa says "I don''t know, they still have enough numbers to finish us off." Soon after Zamart approaches leaning on another mage, his face is gray with fatigue. Zamart says "What happened, did we win?" "We are not sure. Alexa, order the scouts and archers to keep up with the enemy and harass them as much as they can safely." Alexa nods and leaves. I then order the troops to carry the wounded back to camp and check on the enemy as well. I look at the mage supporting Zamart and order him to take him back to his tent to rest. With a nod, the wizard practically carries the protesting Zamart back to camp. I spent the next six hours organizing the cleanup after the battle. I pushed myself too hard trying to do as much as I could until I felt myself falling to the ground and Alexa caught me. The next thing I realize I wake up in my tent, back in camp. Judging by the light, it''s the following afternoon. I quickly get up, ssh some water on my face and get dressed. I head straight to themand tent, where I find Alexa and Zamart looking at some maps. "How long was I out, what''s the status of the enemy?" Zamart says, "The enemy is returning to the capital and you slept for about twelve hours." Alexa says nothing, just brings a te of food closer to the empty seat. I quickly sit down and start eating as I realize how hungry I am. Alexa says, "We killed about three thousand infantrymen and six hundred cavalry. We lost almost thirty cavalry soldiers and three hundred infantry." Zamart states, "In terms of numbers alone it was a great victory. But the king can deal with his losses more easily than we can." Do we know why they turned back instead of finishing us off? Zamart says, "I was able to sift through the past and find out. Raveos received emergency orders from the king." "My stepfather spared us? I can''t believe it!" Zamart says, "Oh, it wasn''t to pardon us. The king called all the troops to the capital." "Why would he do that, it doesn''t make sense!" Zamart says, "It took a little more work, but I was able to figure out why. There was a small earthquake in the capital, caused by a fierce roaring from deep subway." Alexa says, "The roar apparently terrified the king and he panicked and called all the troops to the capital." "What caused that roar? Wait, you said it was all the troops?" Alexa says, "Yes, all the troops. I''ve already sent every physically fit man we have to take advantage of the situation." Zamart says, "As for the roar, apparently it was the ck beastman, though I couldn''t figure out why." "Well, that exins why the king panicked. So the beastman saved us over a thousand miles away - I really want to meet him!" Chapter 59: Soulscape [ 1 ] Unknown location P.O.V. Klein. The darkness that shrouds my senses fades and I find myself standing in a hellishndscape. I am standing on a in of ck rock, and here and there I can see the red glow of fires below the surface. In the distance I can see a line of jagged ck mountains that look like teeth reaching upward to rip the sky. Sensing a presence, I turn around and see that it is the girl from my dream. This time she looks real and solid, and I can see that she is about thirteen years old and has long golden hair held back by a tiara. She looks majestic in an elegant dress, she will be a real beauty when she grows up. "You again, who are you?" Mericel says, "I am, or was, the Second Princess Mericel of the Kingdom of Revalia." "Princess, huh? Wait, aren''t you the one I saw copse just as I was summoned?" Mericel says "Yes, I was the sacrifice that allowed my father to summon the other heroes." "Your own father sacrificed you? That''s horrible! Why did you agree to that?" Mericel says, "I didn''t know it would cost me my life to summon them. My father convinced me that I was just a magic battery. Anyway, we don''t have time for this now." "Okay, where are we, did you summon me here?" "No, the demon brought you here. As for where we are, this is what you call a soulscape." "Soulscape? I don''t think I like the sound of that!" Mericel says, "We need to find a way to escape before the demon devours you." "Wait, how do you know about the demon and this ce?" Mericel says, "Zamart taught me a little in my lessons." "Okay, for now tell me what you know about this ce and how it works. Mericel says, "We don''t have time for this, the demon is hunting you!" "Tell me before it finds us!" Mericel sighs and says, "The soulscape is a created battlefield, souls fight to the death here. Every time you die, your soul weakens; once weakened enough, your soul dies or, in this case, is devoured by the demon." "So, do I have to fight the demon again?" Mericel says, "No! That would be suicide! The demon is at full power here, unlike when you faced it." "Wait, wasn''t it at full power? Whew!" Mericel says, "No, he was weakened by being trapped in the ice for a thousand years." "Wait, how do you know,e to think of it, why are you here?" Mericel says, "I have seen everything that has happened since you were summoned. As for how and why I''m here, that can wait untilter - we need to start running!" "Okay, but I have many questions for youter. Now, how do souls fight?" Mericel says, "The battle in thendscape of the soul is based on willpower and imagination." "Imagination, huh?" I turn and look at the ground in front of me and imagine that it is turning into a pool of crystal clear water. As I form the image in my mind, it bes a reality at my feet. I kneel down to drink, but stop in shock at the sight of my reflection. "Why am I human? This is what I looked like in my previous life." Mericel says, "Despite the body you are in, your soul is still human." "Well, then why is Blitz here?" Mericel says "Because you did it with part of your soul, silly!" "Ah, right." I look at myself in the reflection again and imagine what I should look like now. Watch as my body changes to the ck lion I''ve been since birth. Summoned. It''s not exactly how I imagined it though, where my left eye. Should be a scar line and I also have scars on my chest. Mericel says "What, you shouldn''t be able to alter your soul!" "This is the form I choose for my soul. This is me now, my past life is nothing but a memory." Mericel says "Wow, that''s impressive willpower!" I shrug and turn around to take a drink. The water is sweet, delicious and refreshing. Then I imagine the pool showing me the demon and its image appears in the water. I can see from the terrain he is walking on that he is probably in the mountains. Judging by the size of the things he passes, the demon appears to be about 20 feet tall. Mericel says, "See, here it is in full power." I notice that she has moved next to me and is also looking at the image. I ignore her and imagine stone spikes shooting out of the ground to impale the demon. It happens just as I imagined and in the pool I can see the demon roaring in pain. Then I imagine multiple lightning bolts falling roaring down from the clouds to strike the demon. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, you''ve unlocked mental abilities! ??-DING-???. - Congrattions! You have acquired the mental skill Mind Attack! ¡Ì Mind Attack ¡Ì Level: 1 - Wisdom +2 - You know how to cast mental attacks. The lightning bolts kill the demon, but a secondter it reappears standing just behind the stone spikes without any damage. I kill the demon with lightning three more times just for fun. Each time ites back without any damage, except that after thest one I notice that the demon looks a little smaller. "Hahaha, does it shrink every time it dies?" Mericel says, "Yes, his size represents the strength of his soul. Every time it dies it gets weaker andes back a little smaller." "So, do I have to keep killing it until it disappearspletely?" Mericel says, "If you could do that, you would destroy it." "And if I destroy it here it will die permanently won''t it?" Mericel says, "Yes, final death here means the end of your soul." "Okay, then I''ll kill this thing once and for all!" Mericel says "That''s crazy, I''m surprised you can kill it from a distance, but once it gets close, you don''t stand a chance!" "Then I won''t let it get close." Mericel says, "Listen to me, you can''t win against it!" "Just watch me!" ======== Author''s Note. If 75 stones of power are reached, there will be 5 extra chapters. Chapter 60: Soulscape [ 2 ] First I turn the pool into a big TV screen and float it in the air to get a better view. I quickly change the image to high definition, while Mericel gawks at it. Then I carefully imagine a howitzer cannon and it appears next to us, I imagine it connected to the TV for aiming and a remote control appears in my hand. I point the remote at the demon on the TV and a red dot appears. "You should cover your ears." Mericel covers his ears and then I pull the trigger. "KABOOM" I see the explosion secondster on the TV, just for a second I can see pieces of the demon flying, but they disappear as the demon reappears. Mericel says, "What a horrible weapon, how did youe up with that?" "It''s a weapon that existed in my old world." Mericel says, "What kind of monsters would you need a weapon like that for?" "Humans." Mericel looks confused and asks "What do you mean?" "The only monsters in my old world were humans, like your father." Mericel looks sad as he realizes what I mean and I feel a little bad for taking away some of his innocence. I look back at the screen and see that the demon is now running downhill, it must have heard the cannon fire and is now heading this way. I use the remote to target it and kill it twice more before it reaches the ins. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, the Mind Attack skill has advanced to level 2! ¡Ì Mind Attack ¡Ì Level: 2 - Wisdom +4 - You know how tounch mental attacks. I watch as the demon charges towards us across the in, I wait for it to get closer before hitting it with the next surprise. Mericel says, "It''sing, we should run!" "Wait, be patient. I''ve got it under control." As the demon approaches, I imagine the in around us changing, and as I imagine it, the in begins to glow. At first it resists, but I am stubborn and, before the demon gets halfway across, the entire in, except for an area around me, bes ake. Even at this distance, I can hear the demon scream in anguish, because this is not a normalke, it is ake of holy water. Mericel says, "How did you do it, did you change the environment? But that means..." "What?" Mericel looks at me with wide eyes and says, "It means your willpower is stronger than the demons." "Oh, so it''s the demon''s will that keeps this ce the way it is?" Mericel says, "Yes, and to change it you have to master its will." The demon finallyes out of theke and crawls onto the rocky beach by the mountains. He seems to have shrunk more than a foot from all the times he died in the water. As he stands there looking at theke, I point the remote at him and pull the trigger. The demon hears the cannon fire and tries to run, but to no avail. As I watch the demon die again, I smile at Mericel. "You know, I like it here." Mericel says, "There''s something seriously wrong with you!" "You''ve been watching me all this time and you''re just now realizing it?" Mericel looks at me angrily as I kill the demon again with the howitzer. For some reason, every time the demon explodes, I can''t help but smile. Mericel says, "You know it wille sooner orter, what''s your n then?" I smile at him as I imagine a castle wall growing out of the water around the ind. Seeing the expression on his face when the wall appears is almost as good as watching the demon die. ??-DING-??. - Congrattions, you have acquired the mental skill Mental Defense! ¡Ì Mental Defense ¡Ì Level: 1 - Wisdom +3. - You can protect your mind in some way. Mericel says, "What good is a wall against a demon?" "A wall made of sacred stone and covered with sacred marble should be quite effective." Mericel says, "Are those things real?" "It doesn''t matter here, as long as I can imagine it." Mericel points to the screen and says, "It looks like theke and the wall won''t matter now." I look at the screen and see that the demon has grownrge bat-like wings andunched itself into the air. It is now flying towards the ind and, to Mericel''s surprise, I startughing. Mericel says, "What are youughing at? "It''s flying!" Mericel says: "Exactly, it will fly over theke and over the wall. and then what will you do?" "It''s flying over theke of holy water - what will happen if it loses its wings?" When an expression of understanding appears on Mericel''s face, I turn to the screen and imagine the demon''s wings disappearing. It doesn''t work, the wings don''t even glow and the demon keeps flying closer. I realize I can''t affect the demon directly, so I imagine teleporting to its back. I pull out Blitz and make two quick attacks. "CHINK" "CHINK" As the demon, now wingless, falls and before it can recover from its surprise, I teleport back to the ind. I sheath Blitz and turn back to the TV in time to see the demon fall into the water. When the demon returns to the far shore, it appears to be about ten feet instead of six. The demon now walks back and forth along the shore, I kill it twice more with the howitzer. Then I feel a pressure in my head, I quickly realize that the demon is trying to turn theke into rock again. I concentrate and firmly hold the image of ake of holy water in my head. After a minute the pressure disappears, but when I look at the TV the demon has disappeared too! =========== If we reach 75 power stones there will be 5 extra chapters, we are getting there fast. Chapter 61: Soulscape [ 3 ] I quickly make aplete turn around but I don''t see the demon anywhere on the ind. So it didn''t copy me and it didn''t teleport, so where did it go? Then I notice that the image on the screen is moving, it is still following the demon not far from here. "Ah, it turned invisible and is flying towards the ind that way!" Mericel says, "How are you going to stop it now?" "Just watch!" I imagine another weapon from my world and raise it to my shoulder. I then fire it in the direction of the demon at incredible speed through the air. Mericel says "What was that?" "A heat seeking missile. It aims for heat, so it won''t matter that it''s invisible." At that moment, the image on the screen jumps and is now going in the opposite direction. He must have seen the missileing and is now running towardnd, but there is no way he is going to outrun it. Secondster, the screen fills with an explosion and when it disappears, it focuses on theke. When the demon emerges from theke, it is barely five feet tall. It starts running back and forth, I think it''s looking for a ce to hide. I imagine there is a small cave near him, and when he enters it, I imagine it closing like a mouth on him. When the demon reappears, he immediately falls to the ground and begins to shake. It looks like it''s having some kind of seizure, but when I look, its humanoid torso disappears and it''s left looking like a small wolf. "What just happened?" Mericel says, "It''s just a guess, but I''d say you weakened it enough that it de-evolved." The demon wolf gets up and runs off down the path that leads to the mountains. I wait and let it go quite a ways before I imagine it turns into a frictionless slide with a spiked pit at the bottom. Watching it slide down bouncing off the walls and then fall into the pit is hrious and Iugh my ass off. Mericel says "Are you...are you ying with it?" "Well, maybe a little bit. But he hurt Ruby, he deserves it." Mericel says "I can''t believe you''re ying with a demon!" I kill the demon a few more times with the howitzer and then when it reappears, it looks more like a wolf puppy than a wolf. It''s only about sixty centimeters tall now, and it''s still trying to escape. So I imagine a sacred steel cage trapping him and then I imagine the two of us teleporting to stand next to the cage. As soon as the demon sees us, he takes a deep breath. As soon as I see the glow in its mouth, I imagine a bubble around the cage with no air inside. I wait until the demon suffocates to death before I imagine the bubble disappearing. When the demon reappears inside the cage, I stare at it and wait for it to make a move. The demon says, "All right, that''s enough, let''s get it over with!" "Oh, are you ready to give up now?" The demon says "Don''t gloat, just finish me off." Mericel says "Yes, kill him." "I''m going to offer you a choice." The demon''s eyes light up upon hearing this and his ears perk up as well. Mericel looks at me in disbelief. I just smile as I wait for the demon to respond. The demon says "What kind of choice?" "Either I throw you in theke, cage and all, or you agree to serve me." Mericel says "What, what are you thinking, you can''t trust a demon!" "Of course I wouldn''t trust him! I''d be under contract." As soon as he hears the word contract, the light in his eyes goes out and his ears close. He looks like a scolded puppy, so I want tough, but I restrain myself. Mericel looks unsure and seems to want to argue more. I imagine a fragment of my soul and a fragment of the demon merging to form the contract. The demon and I scream in pain as our soul fragments are torn from us. The two pieces fuse together and create a glowing scroll. I imagine the terms I want appear on the parchment and then wait for the demon to read them. The demon says, "What, this is a bondage contract!" "Of course it is! You think I''m going to let you run free and cause chaos? very or death, your choice." The demon says, "Okay, just kill me!" I imagine the cage floating over theke. Then I start to slowly lower it into the water. The demon holds on until the cage is a few inches above the holy water. The demon says "Wait! Wait! I''ll sign it!" I stop the cage and move the contract towards the demon. Once he signs the contract in blood, I bring it back to the shore and lower it to the ground, then remove the cage. I move the contract closer to me, prick my finger and sign it in blood as well. There is a blinding sh and a p of thunder as the contract transforms into a glowing ne and ring. The ring floats and is ced on my finger as the ne is ced around the demon''s neck. Mericel says, "You really did it, you enved a demon? I''m beginning to understand why you terrify my father so much." "You and I need to talk a lot more,ter. I''ll figure out how to reach you." Mericel says "Okay." "Demon, tell me your name." Demon says "Drogomar the Great! Master!" "Too much, I''ll just call you Drog, got it." Drog says "As you wish, master." "Now end this escape of souls." Drog says "Yes, master, I will do it now." The whole world glows and then the darkness swells and engulfs me again. The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!