《RPG Life in another World》 Chapter 1: Choosing day. Or month? ¡°Okay guys, we¡¯re on the last phase of this boss,¡± I said. ¡°That doesn¡¯t mean slack on the heals, Steve. And Dallas, you better keep those buffs up. Alec is taking hella damage, and the more we can reflect back, the better.¡± We¡¯ve been grinding the last boss in Firecrown for the last hour and a half, and oh Lord I gotta pee. But after this last phase, we all get the ¡°Hellfire¡± achievement and the Hell Hound mount for beating a 10 man dungeon with only 4 people, so it¡¯s definitely worth it. ¡°Alec, make sure you pop your shield after the fire wave finishes. Ozai hits heavy for the next 30 seconds after.¡± I have to keep on top of these guys, or else it¡¯s like they¡¯ve never done this dungeon before. After another 30 minutes of grueling grinding, we finally have Ozai at 5% health. I¡¯m about to tell Steve to ignore healing on anyone but the tank when my screen goes black. ¡°OH COME ON!¡± I start yelling. I look around and notice all the lights are off, and I can''t see a single thing. In fact, it¡¯s pitch black. ¡±This is the worst time for a power outage. We were RIGHT THERE! Ugh!¡± ¡°Sorry kiddo, but there''s no power outage¡± I hear a deep voice say. ¡°Here''s the deal. One of my godly buddies messed up and now you''re dead. I won''t go into the specifics, cause it''ll fry your brain and all that, but just know there was an accident and since I owe him a favor, I¡¯ll be putting you into one of my more fun worlds.¡± I looked around everywhere and saw nothing. That''s when I realized I didn''t feel that I had to pee anymore. In fact, I couldn''t feel anything. I started to panic when I felt a wave of warm energy flow over me. ¡°Calm down, calm down. I¡¯m not gonna hurt yah. I¡¯m just here for your introduction and power selection. After that, you¡¯re on your own. Although, I suggest staying away from the mermaids. They¡¯re tricky ones, alright.¡± ¡°Where are you?¡± I ask. The energy helped some, but I was still apprehensive of some guy claiming to be a god. ¡°Why can¡¯t I see you? And better yet, WHO are you?¡± ¡°Huh? OH! My bad, I forgot to turn your senses back on, one second.¡± I heard a switch get flicked, and all of a sudden I was sitting at a school desk wearing plain white linens. I started checking my body out. Everything seemed to be in place. That''s when I looked up to say thanks and noticed a man standing there. I''d say he looked almost like Hagrid, from the Harry Potter movies. He sat at what looked more like a teachers desk, with many stacks of papers that needed grading. ¡°That better?¡± he asked. ¡°A bit,¡± I replied. I¡¯m still suspicious of this guy, even if he looks like my favorite movie character ever. ¡°So who exactly are you, and why am I here? If I''m dead, shouldn''t I be in heaven or something? I like to think I lived a pretty good life, if uneventful.¡± ¡°¡®Uneventful¡¯ he says. Bah! You''ve spent more time playing those video games of yours than you have with your own family. But no, this is neither heaven nor hell. This is my home, and in a few minutes, I¡¯ll be sending you to one of the worlds I oversee, its name being ^%^$ [EARTH]. As for who I am, you¡¯ll find out more about that when I send you down.¡± I cringed a little when he said the name. Confused, I asked him, ¡°What was that noise you made? It sounded like you said Earth, but it was really garbled up, like you have a mouth full of food.¡± ¡°Ah, my name for it is different from what it¡¯ll be called when you get there. Essentially, all sapients on all worlds call their home planet ¡®Earth¡¯¡±, he explained. ¡°Us gods call each planet we manage by their own unique names. You can¡¯t understand it because it¡¯s in a divine language and you don¡¯t have the qualifications to hear it yet.¡± ¡°Okay, bu-,¡± I started. ¡°Anyways, we¡¯re getting off track.¡± He seemed annoyed at how long this was taking. ¡°So I''ll be sending you to my planet. It¡¯s a newer planet that I modeled after the RPG¡¯s you have on your home world. Although after the time field i put it through, it¡¯s about medieval times. Basically one of those fantasy anime you¡¯ve watched so much of. Adults, when they come of age, have the chance to receive 6 skills. They are broken up into 2 categories: passive skills, which run automat-¡± ¡°As you know, I know games, so you can skip category explanations on me. I get passive versus active skills¡± How does HE like being interrupted? ¡°How many can I have of each category?¡± He looked less than pleased about the interruption. ¡°You can have 3 of each category.¡± Well, that¡¯s pretty awesome. ¡°Usually people already know what skills they want on their Choosing Day and only take at most 5 days to search through the master skill list for what they desire. However, again because of the whole accident thing, you can have as long as you want to examine the list. I¡¯ll put you in a time bubble so I don''t have to sit through this part.¡± He started to raise his hand, fingers ready to snap. ¡±When you have made your selection, call out your name 5 times and you¡¯ll be brought back here so i can give the rest of this spiel and get you started on your way. Whatever name you call out will be your new name on my world. So choose carefully¡± He snapped, and the next thing I knew three books plopped down on my desk, one red, one blue, and the last yellow. The books had scribbles written on the front that changed to English after a few seconds. I guessed that that means there¡¯s an auto-translation system in place. After blinking a few times, I looked at the front of the red book again. This time it read as ¡°Active Skills¡±, and after looking at the blue book, it read as ¡±Passive Skills¡±. The yellow seemed to be just blank notebook paper. I guess it¡¯s available to me to jot down possible skill combinations I wanted before I made my final decision. I started with the blue book, skimming through the pages to see how it¡¯s organized. It appears to be alphabetical. There also seems to be a lot of repeater and numbered skills. After flipping for a while, I took a closer look at the ¡°Accel 1¡±, ¡°Accel 2¡±, and ¡°Accel 3¡± skills to see what the differences were. After reading the skill descriptions a few times, I realized that version 1 was a mental accelerator, version 2 was a reflex accelerator, and version 3 provides a boost in speed to thrown projectiles. I looked down the list a little further at ¡°Accel 4¡± and that provided a boost in speed to magic attacks. I need to be careful about which version of a skill I choose, since they appear to provide different improvements based on the number indicator. After a bit of mental back and forth, I decided to keep moving since these don¡¯t really appeal to me. Maybe the Magic skill, but that only because MAGIC! Oh I am excited to actually be able to do magic. There is literally no way that I won''t choose some sort of magic active skill. But that means that I¡¯ll have to choose my passive skills carefully in order to properly boost my magic. But I also can¡¯t ignore my physical needs either. This is going to take a long time to look at all these skills and think of all the possible combinations. No matter how many pages of the thin book I flipped through though, there always seemed to be more. Curiosity got the better of me, and I decided to flip all the way to the back. I was flipping for over 12 hours before I finished flipping through the ¡®A¡¯s. Well, now I realize why the big guy decided to wait this one out. I turned the book back over to actually start analyzing the skills and see which onesI want. I¡¯m thinking of a general magic booster, or maybe a mana potency booster. After what feels like months have passed, I learned a few things. First is that skills apparently have levels. I assumed previously that it would be me that leveled, and that I''d get stats and all the good stuff of an RPG. Second was that there were resource pools. Just the basic Health, Mana, and Stamina, but some skills can give you access to weird pools, like demonic essence. I don¡¯t particularly feel like going down the demonic pathway, but to each their own, I guess. It all seems reasonable enough to me. Finally, I decided on my 3 passive skills. It took me nearly 20 pages of deliberation on which combinations I wanted, but boy was I excited with what I ended up with. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. Enhanced Body 12 [Bones, tendons, and muscles will be strengthened. Eyesight, hearing, and reflexes will be improved. Metabolism will become more efficient. Less sleep will be needed to be considered fully rested. The degree of improvement increases with a higher skill level. Health and stamina pools along with regeneration of these pools will be slightly increased upon receiving this skill. The amount of increase will improve with skill level.] It¡¯s not exactly the mana booster I was planning on, but I did want a physical skill too. This will be my only physical skill though. If I am going to go to a magic world, then I am so going to use magic, damn it! But I recognize that a boost in both health and stamina will definitely help me if I get into fights and if I have to walk everywhere. I doubt cars will be a thing, it being a medieval world and all. Up next I got Increased Mental Capacity 7 [Thoughts will flow faster. Memory will be improved. Skills that require a mental component will be easier and faster to use. Capacity increased with skill level. Mana pool is largely increased and mana regeneration is mildly increased. The amount of increase will improve with skill level.] So I recognize that I can be a little stupid sometimes. This, however, has nothing to do with that! It¡¯s one of the few skill types that increase mana capacity and appear to affect ease of use of active skills. And the more mana I have means that whatever magic skills I eventually choose can level a lot faster. I plan on being a powerhouse in this new life. So I have high hopes for this one. Make me not a dumbass please! ¡­ I mean, make me a fireball throwing wizard, please! Regeneration 23 [3 resource pools: health, mana, stamina. Primary and secondary priority pools can be set as desired upon receiving the skill. The highest priority pool that is not full will be the target of regeneration. The rate of regeneration increases with higher skill level.] Right here is the skill that took me a week to decide on. There were over 120 different variations of this one skill, all doing slightly different things. I¡¯m still tempted to go back and pick a slightly different version. Other versions only regenerate one pool, give overflow of a pool to the nearest ally, or stock up an emergency pool. But this is the perfect version for me since I plan on going solo for adventures. I do want to be a powerhouse, afterall. There was a version that regenerated all three pools at the same time, but from what I can tell, that version lowered the regeneration rate significantly. The way that version 23 takes turns regenerating keeps the rate up, and I can choose which pools I want regenerated and the priority I want them done in. I really want to put mana as primary, but the wording of the description makes it so as long as I am uninjured, mana will regenerate anyways. Regardless of which version I went with Regen, I''d still have a boosted regeneration from my other two passives, so I am pretty much set. But with Regen 23, my pools will pretty much be bottomless at higher levels. Oh, this is going to be good! ¡°Alright, time to start figuring out what activities I want. Definitely magic, but what kind? What kind, indeed.¡± I opened the red book and read the first page. There were options for how I wanted the skills organized, the default being alphabetical. The second option was by category, and the final option which held my attention was by compatibility with chosen passive skills. Compatibility had potential, since I had mostly resource pool size and regeneration as my main aspect for now. I assume most of the compatible skills would be skills with heavy costs. I decided to start with having the skills ordered by compatibility first. As I imagined, the first few skills were aura based skills that had a relatively heavy mana or stamina cost to them. I Still didn¡¯t know numerically how much health, mana and stamina I would start with, but given the first skill, I assumed probably 100 of each pool, before multipliers were taken into account. The first was an elemental based aura that cost 30 mana per second of activation. With the 100 mana I assume I had, that was a pretty short skill activation time. I checked all the other aura skills, and it seems that 30 m/s was a pretty heavy price to pay. There was a cleaning aura for only 5 m/s. That seems pretty useful for everyday life, but not quite what I''m looking for. A little further down, I see a summoning skill that looks pretty nice. Summon Monster (Slime Line) [User is able to summon a monster from the Slime evolution line. Initial summoning is instant, but requires a relatively large amount of mana and concentration. A third of the summoning cost (rounded to nearest whole number) will be deducted as a maintenance cost per minute of the summon¡¯s continued existence. Summoning cost will be reduced as skill increases in level. Strength of monsters increases with skill level. Other variations of the skill just change the monster type. I saw draconic, undead, and even variations on elemental canine summons. But I don''t want to be a one man army. I want to focus on my own power. I will say it was tempting for a few minutes to imagine summoning a dragon though. That just sounds awesome, and like every gamer¡¯s wet dream right there. Despite all this I moved on to the next skill. After a few minutes of browsing, I decided to switch the organization to category. I immediately went to the magic category and nearly fainted from excitement. Every type of magic I could think of was listed. There was water, fire, earth, wind, light, dark, healing, affliction, and more that I hadn''t even thought of. Barrier magic sounded pretty interesting. Barrier Magic [At the cost of mana and concentration, the user can erect a barrier at desired locations. Barrier size and durability are determined by initial mana output. Barriers can stay active after being damaged or passed as long as mana is supplied and the user has the mental concentration to spare. Additional effects can be added to the barrier as the skill levels.] I felt a strange connection with this one for some reason. I was 100% planning on some sort of elemental magic, like fire or earth. But barriers seemed to call to me, so I had to at least jot it down for later. I was glad the yellow book seemed to have limitless pages to it. Passive skills took me a while to get through. After writing down barrier magic for later contemplation, I kept going through the list. The elemental magic all seems pretty standard stuff. Summon fireballs, water walls, or earth spears. It was so fun imagining all the combinations I could do with these. It took me a full day just to get past the basic elements to see what else there was. After all the elements were listed, something else came that drew my attention. Arcane Magic [Arcane magic requires large amounts of mana and concentration to perform. Arcane magic holds no affinity, but attacks deal large amounts of damage due to mana concentration. As the skill levels, more magic patterns are revealed. Higher levels allow for higher degrees of freedom for making original patterns.] This seemed perfect for me. I was going for the bottomless resource pool build anyways, so this has a lot of potential to fit right in with me. I saw it earlier when everything was organized by compatibility, but after reading it a second time, I just had to have it. I can already imagine throwing endless amounts of balls of pure energy at monsters. It made me excited to get started that I almost picked a random element to start my new life as an adventurer. But I refused to be that newbie guy and had to calm myself down before I could continue reading the master list. ¡°So I already had defense with barrier magic, and offense with arcane magic, what else should i go for?¡± I started to flip through the book to the crafting page and checked out tailoring, leatherworking, and blacksmithing. All sounded like decent choices, but none fit for me. Maybe jewelcrafting? That sounded too expensive though. Enchanting could be good since I had arcane magic and a decent mana supply, but I''m not exactly a crafting kind of guy. While I was considering crafting skills, I flipped through more pages to see various other possibilities. I considered a void storage skill, but wondered if I put bottles in there if they would explode due to a vacuum. It seemed like a good skill to keep food from spoiling, but other than that other skills could be less destructive. ¡°Ooh, this looks pretty useful. And the name seems pretty self explanatory.¡± Game-like Storage [A UI can be called upon with a mental command of "Open Bag" or dismissed with "Close Bag" that will show 4 slots. A small amount of mana will be consumed when objects enter or exit a slot. Similar items can be stacked. An item description?will be provided for each item in a slot. Descriptions will become more detailed with higher skill levels. The number of available slots will increase with skill level (2 per level)] ¡°Kind of seems pretty awesome. From all the games I''ve played, I would assume that food also wouldn¡¯t spoil here either. I wonder how the skills level though. I can¡¯t imagine my bag growing just from killing monsters. That would be kind of ridiculous. Maybe they grow from being used? Each use of a skill gives skill XP or something? I¡¯ll have to ask Hagrid about that later.¡± I''ve come to use Hagrid as the Big Guy¡¯s name for now. After months of solitary confinement, I¡¯ve started talking to myself a lot, mainly pointed towards Hagrid. Despite him not even being her to respond in my time bubble, It¡¯s soothing to at least hear my own voice. Growing tired of the isolation, I closed the book I''ve been reading for the longest time and opened the yellow book again. I added the game storage to my possible list of active skills and started playing with different combinations. I had all the elements listed, barrier magic, enchanting, and even the frost aura. I probably won''t go with auras, but it has the potential for fun. The biggest limit in my opinion is the short activation time and the unknown range. I guessed that the range could be improved by throwing more mana into the skill, but I wasn''t willing to risk it at the moment. My biggest contenders for skills were arcane, barrier and storage. The balance of having a heavy hitting skill like arcane magic while hiding behind a thick barrier that no monster could get through was so alluring. Then my lazy self wants some skill so i don''t have to carry my spoils of the fights. The ability to stack similar items was also pretty damn good too. It makes it better in my opinion than just having 1 cubic yard to pile everything into. ¡°Alright, this is it. I¡¯ve chosen. My 3 passive skills are Enhanced Body 12, Increased Mental Capacity 7, and Regeneration 23. My 3 active skills are Arcane Magic, Barrier Magic, and Game-like Storage.¡± I felt a shudder run through my body as I finished saying that. It felt right. I know I said that I was choosing a storage skill to be lazy, but after seeing the rest of my skill build all written down nice and neatly, everything just seemed right. The last choice I had to make wasn¡¯t even a choice. I knew from the moment that Hagrid said to choose my new name that I''d choose the name that I''ve used for every character I''ve ever played. Now to say it 5 times out loud and move on to the excitement. ¡°CLAFF.¡± I took a deep breath. ¡°CLAFF.¡± Good Hagrid, I¡¯m nervous. ¡°CLAFF.¡± This was it, the start of a new life. A new adventure. ¡°CLAFF.¡± A new me. ¡°CLAFF.¡± Chapter 2: A New Begining ¡°I told you you''d have to come back here for the rest of the spiel, right?¡± Oh. Yeah. The spiel. ¡°Anyways. So here''s a packet for you. It''s only a few pages, but it''s pretty comprehensive.¡± Hagrid handed me the papers and I started reading along as he talked. ¡°The world follows a standard copper, silver, gold currency system. One hundred copper to a silver, one hundred silver to a gold. I see you picked the game bag storage skill, so I''ll do you a favor and add a bank function to it. Any money you receive will automatically be transferred to your bag. To take money out, just concentrate on how much you need and it''ll appear, having been deducted from the total amount in your skill. It also acts as a coin converter when needed. The same mana cost rule will apply though. A small amount of mana is required to take money out.¡± ¡°There''s five major continents. The eastern continent is populated mostly by elves, western by dwarves, the southern by beast kin, and the northern by demons. The central and largest continent is mostly humans, but it''s got a good mix of races in there. When you get down there, you''ll have a mini map function that can expand to show the globe. Only places you''ve been to before will show on the map, and it''ll be automatically updated with more places and the geographical information you learn.¡± ¡°For the most part, humans get along well with everybody, so you shouldn''t have too much trouble getting around. Except with mermaids. Did I mention how they can be tricky little pricks? Feel free to wreak havoc with them. There''s also a possibility of a Demon King appearing in a few centuries. If you''re still around, would you mind taking care of that for me? I''d appreciate it, even give you a reward if you do.¡± Uh, did he just say Demon King? And in a few centuries?! ¡°Other than that, I don''t have much else to add. Any questions before you go?¡± ¡°Yeah, how do skills level? I see a lot of them improve as they level, but I don''t know how to level them. And how do I see my skill levels and resource pools?¡± All seem like reasonable questions to me. Yet he looked at me like I was stupid. ¡°All the time you''ve spent in the time bubble, and never once did you say the word ¡®Status¡¯ out loud? Given how hardcore a gamer and weeb you were, I figured that would''ve been one of the first things you did.¡± ¡°You don''t have to be rude about it,¡± I mumbled. ¡°Status.¡± User: Claff: Health 100/100 Stamina 100/100 Mana 100/100 SKILLS PASSIVE ACTIVE ¡°Why don''t I see the skills I chose?¡± Hagrid laughed a little at this. ¡°They''ll appear after I send you down. If you have any last questions, I''ll send you down immediately if you want.¡± ¡°Well yeah, I do, actually. Is there any other life purpose I''m supposed to have? Or just if I live for a few centuries, try to take out a possible Demon King?¡± ¡°Claff, since your whole second life will be due to a divine error, you can do quite literally whatever you want. If you want to be a street bumpkin, that''s totally your choice. You will have no divine pressure for your entire existence?. Have fun, go enjoy life. I''d prefer you not start any harems, but if that''s your prerogative, then go for it. Do what you want, bud. This one is on us.¡± Oh hell yeah, this is going to be fun. But no harems though. I didn''t get a skill that lets me talk to girls. ¡°Alright, I think I''m ready. If I need to contact you, how can I do that?¡± ¡°Visit a church once in a while. I''ll check in occasionally, see how it''s going. Say maybe, in 50 years? Sound good? Good. In that case, I''ll send you on your way. When you wake up, you''ll be around a 5 hour walk away from the nearest city. Head east and you''ll get there eventually. You should see it on your mini map. Have fun my friend.¡± And with that, I passed out. I woke up under a tree on the side of a wide dirt road in what looks like a forest. I was extremely groggy and a little bit sore. I saw a little flashing light in the top left corner of my vision. When focused on it, a notification appeared. Skills acquired. Attention required. Please open your status at your earliest convenience. ¡°Status.¡± User: Claff: Health 120/120 This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. Stamina 120/120 Mana 120/120 SKILLS PASSIVE Enhanced Body Lv 1 [0%] Increased Mental Capacity Lv1 [0%] *Regeneration Lv1 [0%] ACTIVE Arcane Magic Lv1 [0%] Barrier MagicLv1 [0%] *Game-like Storage Lv1 [0%] Awesome! My skills showed up! But it looked like I had two notifications instead of just one. Odd. I mentally clicked on the regeneration skill and another notification popped up. Please select primary resource pool and secondary resource pool. Once designated, these cannot be changed. Choose carefully. Oh right, I forgot about this part. I figured I should have health as primary, and mana as secondary. That way I''ll always be at full health, and my mana will be topped off right after I''m fully healed. I went ahead and gave the resources their designations and got a confirmation alert in its place. After confirming, I checked the second notification. The unexpected one for my storage skill. ¡°Open bag,¡± I thought. A screen popped up showing that I had four empty slots available to be filled. Industry, I didn''t have anything to put in there at the moment. But above the first slot I saw some writing. 0G 10S 0C When I saw this, another notification popped up. ¡°Here''s some starter money. Enjoy! -Hagrid¡± Well damn. He knew about me calling him Hagrid, huh? I guess that comes with the whole being a god territory. Well, he took it in good fun, I guess. That was pretty nice of him. Now that everything seems to be settled, it is time to start with the really important part of the journey: MAGIC! I dismissed all the notifications and closed my bag. I called my status screen up again and mentally clicked on the Arcane Magic Skill. After focusing on it for a few seconds, I got a horrible headache. It felt like someone was driving a nail in the back of my skull. Mana Bolt pattern has been learned. I could barely read the notification when it came up. After a couple of seconds, my head started to clear. Something tells me it would take a lot longer to be able to think again if it weren''t for Increased Mental Capacity. That being said, holy hell did that hurt. But now I know magic! Time to test this baby out! I took a second to look more closely at the pattern that just got shoved in my head. It looks like all I have to do is concentrate on shoving mana into the shape of an arrow at the end of my finger and release it. This shouldn''t be too difficult. Except. What does mana feel like? I didn''t have it in my old world, so I have no concept of what mana was. I started to panic for a minute until I remembered something. I have my bag skill that takes mana automatically when I put something in a slot or take it out. I quickly grabbed a handful of grass from next to me and called up my storage skill. ¡°Open bag.¡± 4 slots appeared and I focused on the grass being in the first slot. A few seconds of concentration later, the head disappeared from my hand and I felt a small warm rush flow throughout my body, like drinking coffee on a snowy day. I looked at the UI and there appeared a picture of a few blades of grass in the first slot. It worked! ¡°So that''s mana, huh? Shouldn''t be too hard to figure this out.¡± I called my status up again to see how much mana that took. Looks like it''s only 6 points for that handful. Not bad. I looked at the grass image again and noticed the number 6 in small writing in the button corner. It looks like there''s 6 blades of grass in there. Does that mean it takes 1 point per blade of grass? I focused on one blade of grass going from the UI into my hand. The seconds later, a single blade pops into existence in my hand. Looking at my status again, I see I''m down to 113/120 points of mana. As I continue watching, it bumps up to 114/120. I guess that''s my regeneration hard at work. Back to the matter at hand. Magic! I thought back to the pattern for mana bolt. I now know what mana feels like, so this should be a lot easier. I focused on the warm feeling that ran through my body earlier. I tried to imagine that feeling, where it originated from. I pulled out another blade of grass and felt the warmth inside my chest, next to my heart. I closed my eyes and focused on moving that feeling from my heart and moving it down my right arm. From my arm, it needs to move to my hand. From my hand into my index finger. And from my finger to the tip. Hold it there. Let it gather and build energy. Imagine the mana elongating into an arrow. I opened my eyes and extended my arm. There was a glowing bolt, about 6 inches long at the end of my finger. There was a tree similar to the one I''m sitting under across the dirt road. I pointed my fighter and mentally commanded the energy in my hand to shoot at the tree. The next thing I knew, there was a hole clean through the tree the size of my pinky. ¡°Holy crap that''s awesome! I did magic!¡± I got up and started yelling in excitement. I just did magic. Real. Life. Magic! Oh this is so great. Steve and Dallas would be so jealous of me right now. ¡°In your face guys!¡± I got a little sad after that, thinking of my gaming buddies. I missed them a little, but not near enough to even think of trying to find a way back to my old world. I have magic here! I''m going to be a badass! ¡°Okay, that''s enough messing around for now. Let''s head to the city Hagrid mentioned. He said east, so that''s where I''ll go.¡± As I walked, I tried shooting some more mana bolts. The first three that I shot off required extreme concentration. But the fourth one I was able to do while maintaining a slow walking pace. While I was in the middle of charging my ninth ever mana bolt, I suddenly started feeling a light headed. I pulled up my status and saw I was running low on mana. I still had 26/120 mana, but I decided to wait until I was back up to at least 50/120. ¡°Oh right, arcane magic is a mana intensive skill. Time to let regeneration shine!¡± I kept looking at my status screen and saw I gained a point of mana after a couple minutes of walking. I pulled up my status again and focused on the regeneration skill. It looks like it doubles the regeneration rate of whatever pool it is currently on. With the increased mental capacity, im regeneration about 24 mana per hour. It will only get faster as I level the skills up, so starting at an already pretty high multiplier made me super excited. For now, I decided to focus on just walking. I have plenty of time to level, and regen is already doing its job while I walk. Time to relax and enjoy my walk. Right now, I haven¡¯t a care in the world. Chapter 3: First Encounters Well, so much for a carefree stroll. I only got about 40 good minutes of walking before I got a rather rude interruption. Here I am, minding my own business, when two angry looking, mostly naked green dudes jumped out at me from the right. It freaked me out, thinking I was about to get robbed. Then I realized these are probably goblins, and will probably do more than just rob me. I decided to bolt for it. Pun intended. They were only two feet from me when I finished charging the first mana bolt. I was genuinely surprised at how quickly I was able to react and get it going. I guess the enhanced memory works with magic too. I got lucky and shot the closest goblin in the chest before it could reach me. Hopefully that¡¯ll make taking the second one out a whole lot easier. Unfortunately, the second goblin reached me before I had time to start charging up another bolt. It scratched at the left side of my stomach and got a small slice of skin before I could kick it away. Hagrid, that stung like a bitch. Thankfully enhanced body gave me a decent strength boost. The kick I gave shoved it back a good 6 feet, almost to the tree line. That gave me enough time to charge a mana bolt and shoot it straight through its head, almost center of the eyes. After I made sure the second goblin was dead, I went back to the first one to check for signs of life. I decided not to risk it and shot another bolt through its left eye. I was getting pretty fast at activating the spell already. That last shot only took me about a second from deciding to fire it to it leaving my hand. After that fight, I felt extremely light headed and had to sit down. I went back to the side of the road and found a good tree to sit under for a bit while I took a breather. I had to favor my left side while getting down. It still majorly stung and was bleeding more than it should. I should probably wait until regeneration does enough to close the wound. I didn¡¯t want it to get infected and deal with a serious wound on my first day here. I lost the mana regen speed multiplier when regeneration switched from mana to health after I got that scratch. My head is going to be cloudy for a bit until I can regenerate some. I pulled up my status screen to see how much health I lost and how much mana I had left. User: Claff: Health 105/120 Stamina 95/120 Mana 8/120 SKILLS PASSIVE Enhanced Body Lv 1 [10%] Increased Mental Capacity Lv1 [45%] Regeneration Lv1 [90%] ACTIVE Arcane Magic Lv2 [5%] Barrier MagicLv1 [0%] Game-like Storage Lv1 [30%] ¡°Oh! That¡¯s why mana bolt got so much easier to cast. It leveled up! Wow, Hagrid wasn¡¯t kidding when he said using the skill gets you exp. And I¡¯m guessing the percentages are how far along in the skill I am? I probably got a first time bonus with the mana bolt too, given how quickly it shot up.¡± I contemplated on learning whatever new pattern I got with the skill increase, but decided against it. With how bad my head hurt at the moment, and remembering how badly the feeling was when learning the simple mana bolt skill, I didn''t want to risk passing out. Regeneration is also surprisingly close to leveling too. I guess it makes sense, since I''ve basically been regenerating some sort of pool since I got here. I wonder if arcane magic leveled so fast since it requires so much mana to cast a single spell? I estimated that each bolt cost probably 10 mana. I could probably shove more mana into the pattern to make it stronger too. That¡¯s an experiment for another time though. I should probably check out barrier magic soon too. That definitely would have helped with the fight. I probably wouldn¡¯t have gotten hurt if I had a spell to block attacks. That was the whole reason for getting the skill anyways. I sat there for almost an hour and a half before I got the courage to look at my stomach again. I could still see a bit of blood on my otherwise white shirt, but other than that, I could barely tell I was hurt at all. I pulled up my status again and saw that I was at full health and that my mana was starting to tick back up at a decent pace. I figured since my health hit max, that means that regen is on mana again. Thankfully Regeneration also hit level two, so the multiplier increased as well. I''m now recharging at about 30 mana per hour. That¡¯ll make life so much easier. My head wasn¡¯t nearly as cloudy as it was earlier, so I decided to learn the first barrier spell. I concentrated on the skill name and got a familiar blinding headache. It continued to be extremely painful for a solid 15 seconds before it gradually got less and less intense. After a good minute of careful breathing, I looked at the notification that popped up. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. Basic barrier pattern has been learned. I wasn¡¯t going to use it until I had more mana in my pool, but it was nice to have the annoying part out of the way. Since I was sitting on around 30 mana and back at full health, I figured it was time to hit the road again. I stood back up and that¡¯s when I looked at the goblin corpses. At least, what should have been corpses. Where the bodies were laying just 90 minutes ago was now two dirty looking linens and a single long claw. I assume this is the loot from the fight. I should''ve asked Hagrid how this was supposed to go, but I guess this answers my question of what happens to monster corpses after they die. I picked up the claw but left the linens. I know exactly where those have been, and I had no interest in touching that. I called up my bag and put the claw in the second spot. I figured there was no reason to keep the grass in my storage, but I also didn¡¯t want to waste the mana at the moment, so it''s staying in there for now. I kicked the two linens out of the way and started back heading east, this time a lot more cautious and aware of my surroundings. I refused to be ambushed again by what should be starter monsters. I''m so ready to get started on hunting the big guys, but I know I have to go through the low level stuff first. A proper game play doesn¡¯t get rushed. I will not be the newbie who rushed through the trash mobs only to die in what could have been a relatively easy fight if done properly. I should get to the city¡¯s adventure guild and maybe form a group for now. I figure after a few quests and getting the hang on what exactly I can do, I should be able to solo, but until then, I need proper practice with the safety of a group. Speaking of practice, with the higher regeneration rate, I''ll be able to practice my magic a lot more frequently now. I walked for another 3 hours before I checked my status again. I still had 81 stamina, so I''ve got a decent pace set up for myself. However, I had a full mana pool, so it was time to figure out how to use the barrier magic. I concentrated on the skill name again and it brought the basic barrier spell pattern to the front of my mind. I was so glad that I only had to deal with the hammering sensation once before I could just look at the skill name and instantly recall all the spells I had available for that specific skill. It feels like a non tangible spell book, almost. With the basic barrier pattern at the front of my mind, I pushed my mana to follow the shape and see what would happen. I¡¯m glad I stopped walking for the first test, because the barrier formed right in front of me. There was barely an inch of room between it and myself. The odd part of this spell was that I could push more and more mana into it before I had to let it go. There didn''t seem to be a cap on how much mana I could throw at it. I was confused until I remembered the skill description. The more mana I pumped into the barrier, the stronger it became. I only put the bare minimum into this one just to see what it felt like, so it probably wasn¡¯t very strong. I took a step back to get a better look at my creation. It looked to be about an inch taller than my 5¡¯11¡± self. I did a lap around the barrier to see how the light reflected off of it. If I hadn¡¯t known that it was there, I probably would have missed it entirely. This¡¯ll be pretty interesting to use in fights. A quick status check shows that the weakest barrier only costs 5 mana, so I theoretically could surround an opponent in barriers and trap them. Oh this has so much potential to be fun. While the barrier was still up, I fired a mana bolt to see how much damage it could take. It cracked a good bit, which made me think that the base form can only handle about 2 hits before it¡¯s destroyed. I fired another just to confirm, and it was as I thought. When the bolt hit the barrier, a loud crackling sound could be heard as it shattered into tiny pieces and disappeared before it hit the dirt. It¡¯s good to know the limits of my abilities out of combat so I don''t get any surprises in an actual fight. I still had 97 mana in my pool, 2 having regenerated while I was observing the barrier. I cast another barrier, aiming for a few feet in front of me. This time, I poured what felt like 10 mana points into the pattern and watched it form. I could already tell that this one was much stronger than the last. For starters, I could actually see some light reflecting off the thing. It had a strange blue tint to it, as if I were looking through a water wall. I took a couple steps forward and swung my fist at the wall. Surprisingly, my hand went right through it with no resistance. I submitted a moment before I saw that a notification had popped up in the top left corner of my eye. Caster and party members can pass through barriers unless specifically ordered otherwise. Setting can be changed on already cast barriers through concentration and additional mana. Well that explains it. That also makes it all the more awesome. I think in the next experiment, I''ll try making my spells be able to pass through the barrier too. But that¡¯s for next time. I still had 3 more castings of mana bolt before I saved the rest for another emergency. I throw those out at the barrier and decide to wait until I get enough mana to fully destroy the barrier and still have my safety cushion of 50 mana. It only took a few minutes of relaxing on the side of the road before I got that magical number 60 and wasted 10 more on another bolt. My magic proficiencies got a nice boost due to this little experiment. At this point in my journey, the trees around the road have started to thin out a good bit. A few minutes later, farm lands started popping up. I got a curious few looks from some farmers tending their fields. I just smiled and waved. It¡¯s been 5 hours since I first came to this world and I haven''t eaten a thing. I was tempted a few times to stop and ask to buy some food from someone, but I decided to have my first meal here in a proper tavern. At the rate I was going, I should reach the city in around an hour, with no distractions at least. After about 40 more minutes of walking, I could see a city wall. Since I was so close and had about 70 mana in my pool, I shot 2 mana bolts, aiming for the ground beside the road. I didn''t want to waste any regeneration time while in the city after all, and I don''t plan on doing any self harm to give me that leeway when I can do magic instead. As I got closer to the city gate, I could see more traffic approaching. I found it odd that I haven''t met anyone on the road during my little stroll, but I attributed that to mere luck. The guards around the gate didn''t give me any trouble when I passed through, but I did get a few odd looks, probably because I was talking to myself. ¡°So this is my first fantasy city. Pretty impressive, to be honest. There seems to be plenty of shops. Not that I care much for shopping. I''ll head straight to an inn since it''s starting to get dark now. I''ll grab some food and a room for the night and see about signing up with a guild in the morning.¡± Oh what an eventful day it has been. I look forward to many more. Chapter 4: Half Moon Inn ¡°Okay, the receptionist here is pretty cute. Shame I can''t talk to girls for more than a few sentences though.¡± I found a good place to stay for the night at the suggestion of one of the guards. I was glad that the people here seem to speak my language and that those I''ve met are at least pleasant enough for short conversation. The guard gave me the name of Half Moon Inn and directions from there to the local adventuring guild branch. Apparently they''re all connected and are known as reliable enough for basic monster extermination. But before I go there, I need some food and sleep. When I walked in the Half Moon, I was greeted by a portly little man. I would almost call him a dwarf, but I didn''t want to be racist to the guy who was about to give me a place to stay. He seemed to be the owner and directed me to the receptionist behind the front desk before walking towards a lively looking dining room on the right, with some rather ornate stairs running the length of the left wall. The girl behind the desk looked about my age, give or take a year. And also two feet shorter than I am. ¡°Hello there! Welcome to Half Moon inn. How can I help you this fine evening?¡± She seems genuinely nice at least. Her plump cheeks spread into a smile that seemed trusting. ¡°I¡¯d like a room for the night. How much would that run me?¡± ¡°One night is going to be 90 copper. That includes a meal and a drink at dinner time. We¡¯re serving now, so if you want to pay here, I can give you a key and you can head over to find a place to sit and eat.¡± ¡°That sounds lovely, thank you.¡± I mentally pulled up my bag UI and materialized the money she asked for. I held my hand over the desk and 90 copper appeared. I checked my status and saw it only deducted one point for the monetary transaction. I was worried for a moment that it would cost a full 90 mana to pull out the copper. That¡¯s good to know for future use. ¡°Oh, what a neat skill. I don''t think I''ve seen that one before. Is it a storage skill?¡± ¡°Something like that. I like to keep my skills to myself when I can though, sorry.¡± ¡°Oh not a problem! Forgive me for asking! Here¡¯s your key. You¡¯ll be in room 18. That''ll be the second floor, fourth door on the right. Thank you for your patronage, and enjoy the meal.¡± ¡°That I will, thanks.¡± I headed over to the dining hall and found a seat in one of the corners that I could get a good look of the room from. There seemed to be mostly humans, but the occasional dwarf was running around with a tray in their hands. It appears that most of the employees here are dwarves. Maybe it¡¯s a family business? A couple of minutes after I sat down, the first dwarf I saw when I walked in came over with a menu in hand. ¡°Sorry for the wait, we are rather busy tonight and short staffed to boot. And don¡¯t you dare laugh at that. What can I get you started with?¡± ¡°Not a problem at all. And I wouldn''t dream of it," I said with a smile. ¡°What do you recommend? I prefer something with meat, but I assume that won''t be an issue?¡± ¡°Every meal here has meat, not to worry. The stew of the night has some good orc meat and mushrooms. I haven¡¯t heard any complaints about it yet, so I''d say it¡¯s a safe bet. For drinks, we have various juices, beer, and straight water. If you want anything stronger than that, it¡¯ll be extra though.¡± ¡°Stew it is then. I¡¯ll have that with the beer please.¡± ¡°A guy who knows what he wants. I like it. I¡¯ll be right out with that in a moment.¡± He dashed off to get my order in and came back surprisingly quickly. ¡°Here yah go. All this comes with the room. If you need anything else, feel free to give me a holler. The names Thaggerd. Sorry I couldn''t give a proper introduction earlier. Was in a bit of a rush to help. Hope you enjoy!¡± To say I enjoyed it would be an understatement. The orc meat tasted like pork, but so much more tender and flavorful than the pork I knew from my old world. And the mushrooms weren¡¯t bad either. A little more earthy than I usually like, but it worked well in the stew. The beer was also surprisingly delicious. I wasn¡¯t much of an alcoholic drinker before, but I might just have to be here. After I ate and drank my fill, I waved Thaggerd over to let him know I was done then headed up to my room for the night. I wanted to empty my mana pool before bed, but I doubt the guards would take me shooting off dangerous spells into the sky too kindly. When I got to the room, I was happy to see a comfortable looking, feather filled mattress. I was half expecting a wooden slab with a blanket on top. But it looked nice, and when I sat down, it had a decent amount of give to it. I might just have to make this my new semi-permanent home. ¡°That being said, I only have funds for a few more days before I have to actually start working. Well, I¡¯m going to the guild first thing in the morning, so i shouldn¡¯t have too much trouble. I should get better gear first though. Maybe some leather armor would be nice.¡± Thoughts of battling dragons in full plate armor lulled me to sleep, and the next thing I knew, the sunrise was shining through my window, straight onto my face. I woke up a little groggy, but fully rested. I guess having walked for so many hours yesterday really wiped me out. Despite being a little cloudy headed while still waking up, I felt incredible. All my resource pools were full and I had an exciting day ahead of me. After I did a few stretches to loosen up for the day ahead of me, I made my way downstairs for some breakfast and later asked if Thaggerd was around. Funnily enough the little man appeared right behind me as I said his name. ¡°How may I be of service to you¡­ Actually, I don''t think I got your name last night?¡± ¡°Ah, my apologies. You can call me Claff. I was wondering if you had any armorer recommendations. I''m looking more for leather or cloth armor than plate or chain mail. I¡¯ll be signing up as an adventurer later today and wanted at least something to cover up so I don¡¯t look so green going in.¡± ¡°Oh you don''t have to worry about that lad. Everyone starts somewhere yah? You must¡¯ve just had your Choosing Day pretty recently then, huh? My daughter Theona just had hers last year.¡± He gestured towards the receptionist as he said the last part. So I was right in thinking she was about my age then, and that this was a family business. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m still getting used to having my skills. I¡¯ve been trying to make sure my passives are on as often as possible, but only one is really somewhat conditional. But besides that, I work on my actives as often as I can. I think I''ll be heading out pretty soon though. Thanks for the words of encouragement.¡± I gave him and his daughter a brief smile and waved as I left after our brief conversation. The guild hall was only a five minute walk from the inn, which only reaffirmed my desire to make it a more permanent base for myself. The hall was pretty big, with 4 stories to it. When I walked in, it wasn''t nearly as crowded as I thought it would be. There were a few guys who looked to be nursing hangovers at one of the tables in the middle though. I chuckled a bit, knowing the headache they must be dealing with. There were 8 stalls to the left of the entrance, so I headed towards the one with only one person in line. The employee was decently fast and finished the person''s business in just a few minutes. Meanwhile, I was taking a better look around. There was a board full of papers tacked on that I assumed was requests to be filled by adventurers. A few had what looked like pictures of various monsters on them. I saw one with a picture of wolves on it, and another with a circle and a smiley face in the middle. I''m guessing that''s supposed to be a slime. I had a small laugh at the drawing. I looked around some more and saw a bar on the other end of the room with stairs on the wall opposite of the entrance. I turned back around as the person in front of me finished and the employee gestured me forward. ¡°Welcome to Silface¡¯s adventurer''s guild. My name is Luke. How can I help you today? Do you maybe have a request to be made?¡± The guy behind the counter looked barely as old as I was, maybe even younger. So the city is called Silface, huh? I probably should have learned that earlier. But never too late, I guess. ¡°No, but I would like to sign up to be an adventurer though.¡± I was excited for this part. It was a struggle to keep calm with a straight face. ¡°I see! Well in that case, I¡¯ll need to fill out a few papers for you. Do you have any combat skills? They''ll be very important to making a living in this line of work. Emphasis on living.¡± He gave a look at the last part. It made me wonder how often people actually die while adventuring. ¡°Yeah, I have Arcane Magic and Barrier Magic. Those are my main combat abilities.¡± Luke glanced down at my torn shirt. ¡°I see. And what level would those be at?¡± Okay, that felt pretty rude. But I guess I do look like a newbie with a bloodied shirt. I should have seen if I could wash it at the inn before I came here. Oh well. ¡°Arcane Magic is currently level 2, and Barrier Magic is still at level 1.¡± ¡°Oh, so you just went through your Choosing Day? Most people wait until they hit level 5 in at least 2 of their skills before trying to become adventurers. Well, that doesn¡¯t matter too much. I do recommend forming a party before taking any kill quests. Though it looks like you¡¯ve already gotten something done?¡± He said that last part questioningly. ¡°Yeah, I got two goblins on my way to the city. One dropped a claw, and they both dropped a loin cloth, but I didn''t get the cloths though. I really wasn¡¯t trying to touch that.¡± Luke laughed a bit at that. ¡°Yeah, I get that. If you can show me the claw, I can at least give you credit for killing one. In the future, you wont need to bring in anything since all kills will be counted by the quest system.¡± I pulled the bag UI up and held my hand out. After a second and some mana, the claw popped into existence in my palm. ¡°I see you have a storage skill too. I¡¯ll add that to the paperwork. Storage skills can be pretty handy when it comes to gathering and transportation quests. You can even be hired by companies to move products from one city to another, if you want to go public with it anyways. The guild will protect all your information, so don¡¯t worry about any personal information getting leaked.¡± That was reassuring. I still think I''ll keep the rest of my skills private, at least for now. This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°As it stands, there is a no limit kill quest on goblins and slimes, since they¡¯re rather annoying and potentially dangerous pests. If you can pull up your status, I''ll transfer those quests to you now. Whenever you get a kill on these monsters, you can come back and let us know to check for you. You¡¯ll receive half payment for the claw, but in the future, goblins will be worth 10 copper a kill and slimes will be 7 copper a kill.¡± I called my status up to check on if the quests showed up and sure enough, a quest tab is now available on my menu. User: Claff: Health 120/120 Stamina 119/120 Mana 119/120 Quests [2] SKILLS PASSIVE Enhanced Body Lv 1 [90%] Increased Mental Capacity Lv1 [85%] Regeneration Lv2 [30%] ACTIVE Arcane Magic Lv2 [20%] Barrier MagicLv1 [15%] Game-like Storage Lv1 [50%] It¡¯s nice to see a quantitative development of skills. I thought to myself. I like knowing how my effort doesn¡¯t go unwasted. I guess all that walking and the fighting really helped my enhanced body. And the multiple skill uses in battle probably helped with mental capacity. I have noticed myself casting a little bit faster when I use mana bolt. I wonder how much better it¡¯ll be when my capacity levels. After my little self praise moment, I focused on the quest tab. Quests Kill Goblins 0/¡Þ Kill Slimes 0/¡Þ ¡°Sweet, I see it!¡± ¡°Yep! So I still need to finish processing you real quick, but after that, you¡¯ll be free to check out the quest board and pick and choose what you want to do. Before that though, can you tell me your passive skills? Just the name will work, I don''t need the full numbered version. then you can go have a seat and i¡¯ll be back in just a moment.¡± I reluctantly gave him the skill names and after some short praise for smart skill choices, I went to the bar to grab a mug of water and see if any food was available. Unfortunately, they only had peanuts and pretzels, and the water tasted a little off. I guess most people here just get the alcohol. After a bit of wasting time, Luke came back out with a necklace with a little copper plate at the end. I went and joined him at his counter. ¡°Here¡¯s your official adventurer guild tag. You will be starting at the copper rank for now. I suggest either wearing it at all times or keeping it in that storage of yours. The first tag in any rank is free, but if you lose it, it''s a silver to replace it. It¡¯ll be more expensive to replace at higher tiers though. I need you to pour a little mana into it so it can be registered to you, and I need to link it to our system, which only takes a second, then you can be on your merry way.¡± I did as he asked, then put the little pendant around my neck. ¡°Can you recommend any places to find some good but cheap armor? I don''t exactly want to deal with replacing my shirt every day.¡± He laughed and suggested I go to the fourth floor. He explained that the second and third floors were for silver and gold rank adventurers respectively, but the fourth served as a sort of department store, and that it was actually bigger on the inside than the outside due to some nifty enchantments I headed upstairs to see just how good this store was. And I was not as impressed as I hoped to be. For the most part, the store just had shelves along the walls with various swords, shields, and daggers. There were also a couple of racks of seemingly mundane clothing. One thing that caught my eye was the potion section. There were blue, red, yellow, and purple potions that all had different labels. I correctly guessed the first three were mana, health, and stamina potions respectively, but I had to read the label on the purple one. Turns out it was a type of poison. So not really my type. I might consider a few of the first 3 though. While I was checking the potions out, an employee came over to me. ¡°Need any help, sir?¡± I turned and saw a rather beautiful lady standing beside me. I got rather nervous even looking at her. Don¡¯t look down. Don¡¯t look down. Don¡¯t look down. I had to focus on not checking her out. I wasn¡¯t trying to get kicked out on my first day, after all I just started my fantasy adventure. ¡°Yes, I was looking at the potions you have available here. How much are these, exactly?¡± I gave myself a mental high five. I successfully talked to a cute girl without sounding like a total dumbass! ¡°The resource potions are a silver for the minor potions, ten silver for the regular, and a gold for the higher quality ones. The poisonous and fire potions are 3 silver each, although I see we¡¯re out of the fire potions at the moment. If you want to place an order for those, we¡¯ll set how ever many you decide on to the side for a later pick up date.¡± Dang, she has a cute voice to go with a cute face. I¡¯m dying over here! ¡°I see. I think I''ll pass on that today, but thank you for letting me know.¡± ¡°No problem! Was there anything else you needed, or did you just want to browse today?¡± ¡°Yeah, could you help me pick out some armor? I¡¯m looking for something light, but durable? I think I should do leather, but that¡¯s as far as I''ve gotten.¡± You''re doing great, bud. Just keep calm and don¡¯t be a creep. You¡¯ve got this! ¡°Sure, over here we have various sets and pieces for sale for a range of prices. What kind of budget do you have?¡± ¡°Right now I have 8 pieces of silver dedicated to buying armor. How much is a full set going to run me?¡± She gave a whistle and a small smile then said, ¡°That¡¯s pretty good for a copper plate. You can get 2 sets of middle quality for that. That includes a vest, a pair of leather pants, and a couple of arm guards for each set. It¡¯ll be 7 silver total, 50 copper additional copper if they need to be fitted, and if you want that to be rushed, we can do that for an extra 50 copper. Without the rush, it¡¯ll take two to three days to finish modifications.¡± ¡°That sounds perfect actually. I¡¯ll take it! And can I do a rush on one set, and I¡¯ll be back in a couple of days for the second set? Also, how much would future repairs be?¡± ¡°I can absolutely do that for you. Repairs will be dependent on the extent of the damage to the armor. If a whole new piece is required, we can give a discount based on what¡¯s salvageable from the old piece.¡± ¡°Awesome, thank you.¡± Okay, perfect. I got a decent set to use. I should also grab a couple of shirts too, while I''m here. ¡°Let¡¯s go get you measured, and we¡¯ll have the armor adjusted in about 30 minutes. If you want to wait downstairs while we do that, I can go get you when it¡¯s ready.¡± She brought me over to a fitting room and took out a piece of string and started writing some numbers down on a pad that was already in there. ¡°Alright, I just need your name and adventurer number from your tag, and I''ll have everything we need. Give us about half an hour, and we¡¯ll have it ready for you. Here¡¯s a copy of your order number and measurements. You can bring this up to the counter to pay.¡± I showed her my tag and she jotted down all the info while I tried not to sweat through my shirt. ¡°I¡¯m Sarah by the way. It¡¯s been a pleasure meeting you!¡± After Sarah gave me a copy of the paper she was writing on, she walked away. I went over to the shirts section and grabbed a few in my size. Two blue, two red, and one brown. They all felt surprisingly sturdy. I brought them up to the counter along with the paper Sarah gave me. ¡°That¡¯ll be 8 silver, please.¡± Turns out the shirts were 5 copper each. My heart hurt a little seeing how I only had 1 silver and 15 copper left. I needed to hurry up and go do some quests to build up my bank. I¡¯m not trying to be broke in this life too. I put the shirts away in my now empty second slot and was happy to see they weren¡¯t divided by color. I then went back downstairs to wait on Sarah and look at the quest board. Luke came over since he wasn¡¯t busy. ¡°Everyone¡¯s already left for the day. It gets pretty slow around this time most days,¡± he explained. ¡°So you¡¯ve got me to yourself for now. Do you want some quest suggestions?¡± I gave him my appreciation and he pointed to some gathering quests. ¡°You should pick the Cat Ear collection quest. There¡¯s a field of herbs a little further east of here, but the average person doesn¡¯t risk gathering them due to the frequency of goblin spawns in the area,¡± he started. ¡°If you choose this quest, you can get the money for some easy gathering and also money for any kills you get. I usually recommend going with another person, but your barrier skill should make covering your back while you pick the herbs a lot safer. They¡¯re called Cat Ears because they look a little like cat faces. It makes it really easy to spot. They grow in a short field of flowers and other herbs, so it should make spotting goblins a lot easier too.¡± ¡°Seems like a pretty decent quest. I think I''ll go for it. Thanks.¡± I took the quest off of the board and followed Luke over to his counter. ¡°Alright, let me see the quest ID and I can assign it to you. Once it¡¯s been assigned, you should see a blue outline a few miles east on your map. That¡¯s the area of the field I mentioned. It looks like there¡¯s one other solo adventurer out there today doing a similar quest. I think you two should party together, but that¡¯s up to you. He¡¯s a chill guy, and I think the two of you would work well. His name is Grifith. Mentioning my name should get you at least a conversation about partying, if you feel so inclined.¡± I considered it for a bit. If the herbs are in the middle of a field, then I shouldn''t have any problem with sniping them with a mana bolt. Oh, that reminds me, I need to learn the second pattern for Arcane Magic! I¡¯ll do that after I get my armor. ¡°I think I''ll pass for now, Thank you though. That being said, if he approaches me, I''ll definitely drop your name in our conversation.¡± ¡°Sounds reasonable to me,¡± Luke said. ¡°Like I said, he¡¯s a decent guy. He¡¯ll probably help you out if you have any goblin troubles, and I ask that you do the same. I¡¯d rather a couple of good people didn¡¯t needlessly throw their lives away.¡± ¡°Oh absolutely! If it comes to that, I have no qualms about helping someone in need out of a crappy situation.¡± Hopefully it doesn¡¯t come down to that, but you never know. We kept talking for the rest of the time that I had to wait on my gear. When Sarah came down to get me, I said my goodbye to Luke while he ogled her and left to try the gear on. I get it man, but at least try not to be so damn obvious about it. Sheesh! When we got upstairs, I went to the changing room and put everything on. I pulled the brown shirt on first so the vest doesn¡¯t rub directly against me, and it felt like I was wearing a second skin. ¡°This fits perfectly, thank you.¡± I gave her my praise and a smile and she returned it with a perfect smile of her own. ¡°I¡¯m glad you like it! Your second set will be ready in about 3 days, so stop by when you''re done for the day and I''ll have it packed up for you. Until then, I wish you luck on your adventures!¡± I waved and started down the stairs again. I waved to a dreamy eyed Luke and went back to the inn to pay for another night and to get my second arcane magic spell before I left. I definitely wanted a quiet place to do that. When I got to my room again, I plopped down on my bed and pulled my status up. User: Claff: Health 120/120 Stamina 117/120 Mana 120/120 Quests [3] SKILLS PASSIVE Enhanced Body Lv 1 [93%] Increased Mental Capacity Lv1 [90%] Regeneration Lv2 [34%] ACTIVE Arcane Magic Lv2 [20%] Barrier MagicLv1 [15%] Game-like Storage Lv1 [50%] Don¡¯t tell me mental capacity got XP just from freaking out over a cute girl! Oh Hagrid, what is my life?! After my mini meltdown, I got back on task. I focused on my Arcane Magic skill until I got that blinding headache. This time though, it only lasted for a split second. Improved pattern for Mana Bolt has been learned. Well, that''s pretty sweet. I wonder what¡¯s so ¡°improved¡± about it? Let¡¯s get going so I can try this out on some goblins! Chapter 5: Meeting the New Coworker I couldn¡¯t even wait to try my ¡°improved mana bolt pattern¡± on goblins. I remembered that Luke said the herb patch was to the east, and pulling the mini map up confirmed it. What looked to be a few miles east was a little blue circular blob in an otherwise sea of black. It was also interesting how the map kept track of all the places I''ve been to. Mainly being the inn, adventure guild, and the road from where I started. After I left the inn, I headed east towards the blue blob. I passed the gate and guards with no problem. I made a minor effort to remember some faces for future reference. I wasn¡¯t sure if these guys would be here when I got back from my little hunt, but I''m hoping trying to remember random faces would help my mental capacity skill. About 5 minutes outside of the gate, I checked that I was at full mana. Seeing that, I charged up my improved spell and let it loose at the ground on the side of the road. I was trying to see what the difference was from before and now, but I also wasn¡¯t trying to destroy the road while doing so. The first thing I noticed was that the bolt cast at half the speed of what it did before. That came as a surprise since I was already casting it in about a second at level 1. The next thing I saw was the hole in the ground was a good bit larger than what I was expecting. Before, it would have been about an inch or so deep, and maybe half as wide. Now it was almost double that. ¡°Improved¡± indeed. I gotta say that¡¯s at least double power with half the casting time. I started cackling with glee. I could kill a small horde of goblins before they even reached me. Magic is freakin awesome! The last thing I checked was my mana consumption. I saw my pool only went down by 8 instead of the usual 10. This is already a massive gain in power, and that¡¯s only the second level. If I gained nothing but improvement to this one spell, I¡¯d still be pretty damn happy. At this rate, each shot will only cost a single mana by level 5. And I''ll be able to fire 5 per second. I could destroy a whole army at this rate! All that being said, I did still want other spells. Mana bolt is awesome, but it lacks a certain flare that I desire. After my little experiment, I checked how far away the field of herbs was. I was still 4.5 miles away, so I fired another two mana bolts off onto the sky. That way I can get my experience with Arcane Magic, my Regeneration can start working again, and the road doesn¡¯t have random holes littered throughout. I also pulled out the rest of the grass from my bag. I had no use for it anymore, so I tossed it to the ground. Taking it all out gave me a boost in my bag experience too. Now I only had my shirts in storage. The stack of 5 shirts shifted from the second slot to the first. I guess that¡¯s a pretty nifty way to keep organized. I kept walking for about an hour when I saw I was almost there. My mana pool was almost full too, so I shot off another mana bolt and kept on my merry way. It only took another 15 or so minutes before I saw I was at the blue blobs location. When I got a good look at the place, the whole area showed up on my map. Hagrid, I love this thing. I saw somebody start to stand when they noticed me. I assume that would be Grifith. I also saw a goblin pop into existence about 20 feet behind and to the left of him. I had to act quickly, since I didn''t want him to get hurt from me distracting him. I ran towards him and to the side so I could get a better line of sight. Grifith did not seem to like this, as he immediately got into a defensive stance. He swiveled real quick when I started shouting ¡°GOBLIN! BEHIND YOU!¡± It was at this point I realized the goblin hadn¡¯t noticed him yet. Grifith seemed to calm down when he saw how far away it was, and even started approaching it at a slow walk. Before he got to the goblin though, I had already shot two mana bolts at it. One grazed its shoulder, and the other went straight through its head. ¡°DUDE! You gotta calm down! It''s just a single goblin. These things pop out all the time over here. That¡¯s literally why I took this job. So either chill out and let me get the next one, or we¡¯re going to have some issues. It will spawn back in about 10 minutes. So go do your quest and leave me in peace.¡± He had a point. Goblins were starter monsters. They¡¯re essentially angry children with knives at the end of their fingers. Scary to the unprepared, but not a problem for someone who came specifically to kill them. Although it was a little morbid thinking of it that way, it did help me calm down a significant amount. ¡°Sorry, it¡¯s just that your back was tuned to it and it could¡¯ve been bad if I-¡± I started with my apology, but apparently he wasn¡¯t interested. ¡°Alright, lemme ask. Is this your first quest? If so, I can let it slide, but if not, you¡¯re probably in the wrong business with that quick-to-panic attitude.¡± Grifith put away a dagger I hadn''t originally seen as he got closer to me. ¡°I can handle a single goblin. These guys are basically trash mobs.¡± ¡°Yeah, sorry. This is my first quest. I¡¯m new to the whole monster killing thing. Luke mentioned that you - I''m assuming that you¡¯re Grifith?¡± He nodded in the affirmative. That you might be here and to see if you wanted to party with me. I guess that¡¯s not going to be happening though. I feel bad about how I reacted, sorry for that. I also have a quest for Cat Ear collection over here, so I''ll try to stay out of your way.¡± I felt a little bad about yelling like that. He¡¯s obviously more experienced than me and knows what he¡¯s doing. Hell, he even knows the respawn timer for the goblins around here. Now that the goblin was dead, I took a better look at him. He was about my height, wearing leather armor that was dyed shades of black and dark green. He had a small bag tied closed with a string hanging from his waist. All in all, he looked every bit like a proper adventurer. ¡°Don''t worry about it kid. We all start somewhere. But next time, don¡¯t panic. All that¡¯ll do is get you or someone else hurt.¡± Okay, I like this guy. ¡°And yeah, I don''t mind partying up with you for this. It¡¯ll split the goblin counts in half for each of us, but I¡¯m here more for practice than the money right now. I¡¯ll send the invite.¡± His eyes glazed over for a second, then I got a notification. Grifith has requested for you to join his party. Would you like to accept? Y/N? I agreed and the party was formed. I couldn¡¯t tell any difference until I saw a new party tab open on my status screen. It had a one next to it, so I assume that means Grifith is my only party member. After I joined, he gave a rather informative speech about party mechanics. ¡°I don''t know how much you know about the party system, so I''ll give you a few pointers. Credit for any monsters killed while you''re in a party will be shared with everyone in the party. It¡¯ll be spread out evenly, so if you go crazy and kill 20 goblins while we¡¯re out here, you¡¯ll only get credit for 10 on the quest. However, if you don¡¯t contribute at all while we¡¯re partied up, and I end up having to do all the work and killing the same 20 goblins by myself, I''ll drop you like a sack of flour and you can find someone else to mooch off of. Sound fair?¡± ¡°Sounds reasonable to me. I suppose you already know I''m a caster, given how I just killed that goblin. Judging by the knife I saw you with a bit ago, I guess you¡¯re more of a melee expert?¡± ¡°Sharp eye kid. I mostly do hand to hand, with a little knife play mixed in. But how about next time you start with an introduction before you start guessing other people¡¯s specialties first, yeah? You already know my name, so what¡¯s yours?¡± ¡°Haha, yeah, I''ve noticed I''m getting bad at that lately. My name''s Claff. Pleasure to meet you.¡± ¡°Likewise. Before we go any further though, I want to get some things out of the way. All loot from any kills will be split 50/50. However, you do your gathering quest, and I''ll do mine. I¡¯ll give you a heads up about a minute before the next goblin spawns so you can prepare yourself. If any wild goblins come over though, that¡¯ll be based on first come first served.¡± ¡°Let me know when you get low on mana though, the halfway mark is ideal. I know you caster types live off that stuff and it can be hard to come by. I¡¯d rather not have to drag you back to the guild while you bleed out. That being said, there¡¯s a goblin trying to sneak up behind you. He¡¯s all yours.¡± I turned around, and sure enough there was a goblin about 50 feet away, hiding in a bush at the edge of the field. Thankfully Grifith spotted him and we were standing in about the middle of the field, so I had plenty of time to prepare. I started charging up my mana bolt as soon as I saw him. I aimed carefully, let it fly, and missed by about a foot. ¡°Dang, kid. You gotta work on your aim. Now the little booger knows you see him. He¡¯ll start charging in just a second, so take your time. There''s absolutely no rush here. I¡¯ve got you covered.¡± Just as he finished saying that, the goblin charged at me. I say charged, but a raging 3 foot tall monster whose legs are as tall as my shin can only run so fast. Grifith was right. I had plenty of time. Don¡¯t rush it. If you have to wait till it¡¯s right in front of you, that¡¯s fine. One shot should be all it takes. I set my shot up again and took a deep breath. The goblin was yelling a loud war cry as he ran at me, but I tuned it out. I took another breath and waited until he was at the 30 foot mark. I loosed the bolt and the goblin went down a moment later. Bullseye! ¡°Good job, kid. Much better than that waste of a first shot. Go grab the loot and get started on your gathering quest. I¡¯ll grab the first goblin¡¯s loot then focus on my own quest.¡± I was honestly really proud of myself for that shot. I agreed with him and went to see what the goblin dropped. Unfortunately, it only dropped a loin cloth. I honestly don''t even want this in my storage. Hagrid, this is gross. I saw Grifith pick up the other cloth and stick it in a little bag on his waist. If I was a betting man, I¡¯d wager that there is some form of a bag of holding. I kind of want one, but they¡¯re kind of redundant with my storage skill though. Stolen novel; please report. Well whatever. I can just wave my hand over it and it¡¯ll go into the second slot for my bag. So that¡¯s exactly what I did. I pulled my bag UI up and focused on the idea of the loin cloth being in the second slot. A point of mana later and it was there. I checked on the rest of my status to see how my mana is doing. User: Claff: Health 120/120 Stamina 101/120 Mana 84/120 Quests [3] Party [1] SKILLS PASSIVE Enhanced Body Lv 1 [98%] Increased Mental Capacity Lv1 [80%] Regeneration Lv2 [43%] ACTIVE Arcane Magic Lv2 [35%] Barrier MagicLv1 [15%] Game-like Storage Lv1 [65%] I had two more skills that are almost level 2, and I was so excited. I knew that they would gain a level by the end of the day, probably even by the end of my time gathering herbs for the quest. I walked around a bit looking for the Cat Ear herb, and found one after I crouched down to get closer. They were really similar to the description: round bulbs with cat ears on top. I ripped it up by the stem, roots and all, and put it in storage. I found another two by the time Grifith called me over for the goblin spawning. ¡°How can you tell when it¡¯ll spawn? Is there like some energy surge or something?¡± I need to know this for my safety in the future. I would hate to be walking and have a goblin appear out of nowhere right in front of me. ¡°Not really. I only know because of how long I''ve been hunting here. I grew up in the city and my old mentor showed me this place. He had me practice fighting this same goblin over and over for days on end. When I needed sleep, he tied the goblin for exactly 5 hours and cut him loose at the end of his timer. He didn¡¯t didn¡¯t even care if I was awake.¡± ¡°Damn. That sounds pretty rough. But I guess it comes with its advantages. Knowing the respawn timer must be pretty awesome.¡± ¡°Eh. It¡¯s nice when it comes to the quests for this one specific field. But realistically, you can learn in less than an hour. Other than that, it¡¯s pretty useless. I don''t know the timer for every spawn point, nor do I know their locations. I do know that this 10 minute spawner is one of the faster timers out here. I usually come here to meditate and focus on leveling one of my passive skills. I knew the goblin was behind me before you even said anything, and that was even before accounting for the timer. There¡¯s still a 30 second variation of the window for the goblin to spawn. Speaking of which, do you want this next goblin, or do you want me to get him. I saw you shoot 5 of those bolts so far. I don''t know how much they cost, but regeneration isn¡¯t a common skill for people to take.¡± Aw, he¡¯s worried about me. ¡°I¡¯ll take it, if you don''t mind. I need the practice.¡± ¡°Okay, but give me a few seconds after it respawns before you kill it. I¡¯m still practicing my detection skill.¡± ¡°Absolutely. I have a different skill that I can use to stall it. I actually have something to try, if you don''t mind.¡± It¡¯s time for me to try trapping a monster using barriers! ¡°Yeah, sure, whatever. Give me as much of a heads up as you can if it fails though. I can take this goblin on with my eyes closed, but it¡¯s a whole lot easier if I know it¡¯s coming.¡± I nodded to let him know I would and we waited for the goblin to appear. While waiting, I noticed a Cat Ear at my feet and plucked it by its roots and added it to my bag. ¡°Sweet, lucky find.¡± I said. ¡°That¡¯s all sorts of wrong, but I''ll get into why after you kill this guy.¡± The goblin appeared while I was gathering the herb. ¡°Alright, I got this,¡± I tried hyping myself up. I cast the first barrier between us and it, about half a foot in front of the goblin. It still looked dazed from having just spawned, so I still had plenty of time to get a couple more up. I threw the second barrier to its left and was charging the right barrier when it seemed to wake up. It saw us just as I finished the third barrier. The mental strain of having 3 barriers erected at the same time was getting pretty intense, but I felt confident in making this work. The goblin charged forward only to crash into the front wall. I started casting the final back wall while it looked around in angry confusion. It rubbed its nose, saw us again, and charged forward for a second time. It slammed it first into the barrier multiple times, but it didn''t even crack. I might not even need to finish the back barrier. I still did though. I wasn¡¯t willing to risk my safety on chance. Grifith looked on in confusion and walked towards the goblin. As he approached, the goblin started hitting the front barrier harder and harder. I could feel the wall take some minor damage while it was being assaulted. I reached out with my mana to my first barrier and tried fixing it by adding mana to the already slowly draining pattern, and it seemed to grow stronger the more I added to it. I was so focused on my magic that I barely heard Grifith say something. ¡°What did you say?¡± I called out to him as I started slowly walking towards my prisoner. ¡°I said that¡¯s pretty damn impressive! I don''t think I''ve seen someone with a barrier skill like the one you have before. And never have I even heard of someone using it like this. This has some potential. How long can you hold it for?¡± Listening while holding the barriers grew more taxing. I had to strain a bit to say ¡°Not much longer, unless I get the skill level that I''m hoping for. Speak of the devil.¡± As I finished my first sentence, the mental drain lessened by a good margin. I still had to focus to keep the barriers up and fueled with mana, but it was much easier now. I could tell without even looking that Increased Mental Capacity Lv1 just became Increased Mental Capacity Lv2. ¡°Now the only issue is how much mana it¡¯s going to take to keep the little booger in there. It¡¯s slowly chipping at my mana pool, but I should be able to keep this up for 2 minutes before needing to kill it.¡± ¡°Awesome, I¡¯ll use those two minutes with gusto then. The second you even begin to waver, let me know. I''ll be meditating until then, so keep an eye out for strays if you can.¡± ¡°Got it. Get started then.¡± Grifith sat in a lotus position right in front of the barrier. This enraged the goblin to no end as he redoubled his meager efforts of escape. It started to kick and scream and punch at the nearly invisible wall in front of it, desperate to get its claws into my new friend. After around 30 seconds of non-stop rampage, it decided to try one of the other walls. It turned to its left to give an experimental punch. It did a little damage, but the wall still had plenty to hold. I held off on supplying the front barrier with mana until it made a decision. As it stood, the barrier would hold for another eight or so hits before being in danger of breaking. The goblin kept pacing its impromptu cage, looking for a weak spot. Seeing none to take advantage of, it went back to brutalizing the barrier closest to us. I pushed a couple more points of mana into its pattern and waited. I think Grifith should be almost done with his meditation soon, so I''m not panicking yet. I checked my mana pool to see I still had over 40 points of mana available to push, so I kept my cool. This whole test cost an entire 45 points so far, although 20 of that was just setting the barriers up. ¡°Alright, that should be good enough for today. Thanks Claff. I got almost an entire level because of you today. It¡¯s rare that I see so much growth in this skill all at once. Usually, the monsters end up dead pretty quickly after I get close enough to sense them.¡± Grifith got up and dusted his pants off. ¡°No problem. But would you mind taking care of our friend here? I¡¯m getting tired of keeping these up and need a breather. You should be able to just stab right through it, since it won''t affect your body or anything you''re carrying.¡± He seemed surprised by that last little tidbit, but nodded his assent. He pulled out his dagger and with a quick motion, removed the goblins head. A few seconds later, the goblin glowed and disappeared in a minor burst of light. All that was left was his loin cloth and two claws. I bent down and put the cloth and one claw into storage and tossed the other to Grifith. The claw took up the last spot in my bag. ¡°Again, thanks for that. If you ever need a favor, feel free to call me up. That being said, I need to correct your herb picking skills. For starters, you¡¯ll need a small knife in the future. Follow me over here so I can show you how it¡¯s really done.¡± I followed him a few feet to the right and bent down to watch what he was doing. ¡°See the bulb here? This is how most plants will need to be harvested, unless otherwise noted. Hold the bulb in your off hand and pinch the stem right under it. Pullthe stem gently until it''s slightly taught. At this point, come in with your main hand and cut about an inch to an inch and a half below your fingers. This method allows the plant to be harvested multiple times, and it¡¯ll probably even have a new bulb ready for picking tomorrow morning.¡± Right, this isn¡¯t my Earth. Monsters respawn and plants can basically grow in under a day. ¡°Damn. Did me ripping the roots out make that big of a difference?¡± ¡°Well, it usually takes 5 days for a new plant to grow enough to be able to be harvested. However, if too many people harvest too much the way you have in a short time, it can drastically decrease how many plants grow in this area. It¡¯s better to just do it the renewable way. How many more of these did you need? I can lend you a spare knife I have for the day.v Just remember to give it back please. And don''t go hiding it in that skill of yours. Don''t give me that face. I saw you store the claw and cloth.¡± My face went a little red at that comment. I was planning on giving it back anyway, but I forgot he was here when I used my bag skill earlier. ¡°Yeah yeah, you¡¯ll get it back. I appreciate the lesson though. I¡¯ll remember that going forward. And also going forward, at least for the next 3 hours, you¡¯ll need to take care of the goblins. I¡¯m pretty low on mana after that little experiment.¡± I still had 35 points left, but I wasn''t going to push my luck. ¡°Only two hours? No problem. I was planning on soloing the day anyways, so that¡¯ll be completely fine. Just let me know if you see any strays in the meantime.¡± I nodded and took the knife he got out for me. The next 3 hours and change consisted of me finding another 30 Cat Ears bulbs and putting them into storage. After the tenth bulb got added, I noticed that I had 6 slots now available instead of the usual 4. I was glad to be seeing progress. The downside of adding so many bulbs over time was that just putting the bulbs into storage cots a mana each. I still had enough regeneration time to bring me up to 98 points though, so I can''t really complain. ¡°Grifith!¡± He got up and looked at me expectantly. ¡°I¡¯m going to take a break from harvesting. I¡¯ll do some more later, but putting these bulbs into storage is draining my mana too. I''m gonna sit around the middle, and I''ll take the next 3 goblin spawns.¡± He gave a thumbs and went back to his business. Two seconds later, he called out, ¡°Behind you!¡± and kept working. I turned around while still seated and shot two rapid fire Mana Bolts at the stray goblin and went back to relaxing, waiting for the next spawn. I checked my bag to see how the loot has been looking. So far I have my 4 shirts, 12 goblin loin cloths, 35 Cat Ear bulbs, 5 goblin claws, and two empty slots. I called my status up to check my skill progress, since it¡¯s been one hell of a busy morning. User: Claff: Health 140/140 Stamina 75/140 Mana 82/140 Quests [3] Party [1] SKILLS PASSIVE Enhanced Body Lv 2 [16%] Increased Mental Capacity Lv2 [36%] Regeneration Lv2 [83%] ACTIVE Arcane Magic Lv2 [55%] Barrier MagicLv1 [65%] Game-like Storage Lv2 [27%] Not bad for just the morning. All my passives hit level two. Storage leveled up. It has been extremely productive indeed. Chapter 6: Finishing the First Day in a New World User: Claff: Health 140/140 Stamina 75/140 Mana 82/140 Quests [3] Kill Goblins 37/¡Þ Kill Slimes 0/¡Þ Cat Ear Bulbs 60/10 Party [1] Grifith SKILLS PASSIVE Enhanced Body Lv 2 [58%] Increased Mental Capacity Lv2 [93%] Regeneration Lv3 [46%] ACTIVE Arcane Magic Lv2 [95%] Barrier Magic Lv2 [20%] Game-like Storage Lv2 [87%] Storage
  1. 4 shirts
  2. 37 goblin cloth
  3. 60 Cat Ear bulbs
  4. 16 goblin claws
That was one hell of a first day. I harvested 6 times the required number of Cat Ear bulbs, which Grifith guarantees the guild would still pay for, and credit for 37 goblin kills. It turns out every goblin has a 100% drop rate of the loin cloth, which the guild also buys at a rate of 2 copper a piece. The claws are closer to about a 40% drop rate apparently. They still sell for 4 copper each though, so I''m more than happy with today''s outcomes. Over all, Grifith has a pretty sweet grinding spot. In just 10 hours, I earned over 5 silver. And that''s before I accounted for the bulbs. The drain the barrier training put on my mana was pretty bad, but when regeneration bumped up to level 3, it became more manageable. That got me an insane rate of 42 mana per hour. At least it felt insane since I started with 24 per hour. I finally worked out the math for how the multipliers for my regeneration work too, especially after a confused couple answers I got from Grifith. Regeneration started with a 2 time multiplier, and Enhanced Body and Increased Mental Capacity each had a multiplier of 1.2. Each level in Regeneration added 0.5 to the multiplier, which means at level 3, I had a 3 times multiplier to both my health and mana regeneration. At level 2 of my other two passives, they¡¯re each at a 1.4 multiplier. I¡¯m so glad I took the time to read and consider each skill description. I¡¯ll be an absolute beast at higher levels. I¡¯ll be slinging mana bullets like there¡¯s no tomorrow! I need to keep this grind up though. Those skills won''t level themselves. I shook my head to get back to the present. Grifith and I were getting close to the guild hall and were going to go our separate ways from there and then meet up back at the field tomorrow. I need to remember to buy a knife and bring some food for myself tomorrow though. It was awkward asking Grifith if I could borrow some food from him. He seemed happy enough to share what he had, but I need to be self-sufficient going forward. We got back to the guild hall, and it looked like there was still a couple hours of sunlight left. I hadn¡¯t worked so long in quite a while. But with how much fun I was having, I don''t know if it could be classified as work. First thing I did when we got back was check in with Luke. He seemed happy to see us, and a little surprised too. ¡°Back so early? There''s still plenty of time to get some kills out there.¡± ¡°Well, we got quite a few kills already today. And I got more than enough Cat Ear bulbs with the help of Grifith.¡± I pointed to him as I said his name. Luke seemed happy that we worked together. ¡°Alright, if you say so. Hand me your tag so I can credit you for the kill and pull the loot and the bulbs you got today.¡± I was a little nervous about pulling the loot out of my storage skill, but after I took out the full stack of 37 goblin loin cloths, it looked like there was a cap of 10 mana for pulling out large stacks. Relieved, I pulled out the rest of my loot. ¡°Is there a bin or something for me to put the bulbs in? I gathered quite a few.¡¯ Luke looked incredulously at the stacks of loincloths and claws I had. ¡°How in the world did you get so many goblins? It IS your first day, right?¡± ¡°Grigith showed me his secret spot for goblin hunting. Turns out he found a spawning point that he just farms. It was pretty awesome, and i got quite a good bit of skill XP too¡± Luke laughed a bit at that. ¡°I¡¯m sure you did. It¡¯s quite impressive. I¡¯ve been asking him about that spot for a few months now, but he refuses to share where. I gotta assume it¡¯s close to the bulb field. But I guess I won''t pry. I¡¯ll go grab a bucket and count this all up for you. Be right back.¡± He returned a minute later with two large buckets. ¡°This good enough?¡± ¡°Should be. One second.¡± I took out half of the 2 inch wide bulbs and put them in the first bucket. ¡°Oh yeah, that¡¯s plenty of room.¡± I dumped the rest in the second bucket. ¡°You know you only had to grab like 10 right? Sure we¡¯ll pay for the rest, but then I have to do so much more work.¡± Luke started fakely complaining. He took the buckets and left to go do his paperwork. I took a seat in the now more crowded room. It looked like other parties were coming back around now too. I wasn''t much for socializing, so I got a drink and nursed it for about half an hour until Luke came up to drag me back to his booth. He reached down and grabbed a small bag and started pulling out coins. ¡°Your total today is 6 silver and 20 copper. Quite the impressive haul for a newbie. It usually takes people their first full week to get this much. Guess it''s a good thing I set you up with Grifith. I¡¯ll see what other quests we have for you to take tomorrow.¡± He started to turn around before I called out, ¡°Hold up on that. I think I''ll just be hunting tomorrow. Grifith invited me back, and I want to focus more on skill grinding for a bit. I can still make enough just off drops, so I''m not worried about money for right now.¡± Luke looked surprised again. ¡°Wow, Grifith doesn¡¯t usually take kindly to strangers, let alone invite them back. I guess you made a pretty good first impression.¡± ¡°Not exactly. In fact, the first impression was horrible. The second impression really helped though.¡± I then told Luke about my first meeting with Grifith. ¡°Yikes. Charged at him and he still let you stay huh? Good thing you helped him out. Otherwise he probably would¡¯ve kicked you out of the field tight after you finished the Cat Ear quest.¡± ¡°Yeah. Regardless, we¡¯re on good terms for now. I¡¯m interested in keeping it that way. But I gotta go. I¡¯m headed up stairs to see if I can get a cheap knife and maybe some rations for when I''m out hunting.¡± ¡°Yeah, they¡¯ve got decent stuff. Good luck out there. I assume I''ll see you tomorrow?¡± ¡°Same time as today.¡± I waved him off and headed up the stairs. I was happy to see Sarah still working. I waved at her and she came over. ¡°How was the gear? I don¡¯t see any bloody scratches, so I guess it worked out well?¡± She smiled and circled me, checking for any wounds. ¡°It was great! I had a good time out hunting goblins today. I actually came up to see if I could get a dagger or knife or some sort of backup weapon for tomorrow¡¯s hunt. That and some rations would be awesome.¡± You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. ¡°Absolutely. How much were you thinking of spending? Got another 8 silver for me?¡± Okay, she has to have some sort of social skill. There¡¯s no way I was actually tempted to spend 8 silver on a Hagrid damned knife. ¡°No, I''d like to see what¡¯s available before I decide to put any money down.¡± She gave a cute pout at that. ¡°Yeah sure. Over here on this wall,¡± she started to guide me around, ¡°we have some cheaper knives. These range from 1 to 5 silver. And on the shelves by the checkout counter, there¡¯s a variety of food rations for you to pick from.¡± I started to pick through the knife collection and grabbed one that fit comfortably in my hand. Looking at my fingers on the handle, I could start to see the effects of the Enhanced Body level increase. They looked slightly slimmer, and felt a bit stronger. ¡°How much is this one? I like the way it feels in my grip.¡± ¡°Let me see.¡± She took the knife from my grip and removed the sheath. I probably should¡¯ve checked the blade myself. Rookie move, man. Rookie move. Sarah put the blade back in and said, ¡°This one is a good one. It¡¯ll run you 3 silver.¡± She handed it back to me and continued, ¡°We also offer maintenance services as well for any product bought in our store.just keep that in mind for if the blade dulls or gets chipped.¡± ¡°Oh that¡¯s perfect. Thank you for your help.¡± ¡°Absolutely. It is quite literally my job after all,¡± she said with a smile. ¡°Take it up front and mention my name if you please. You¡¯ll find a variety of rations next to the counter. The bottom shelf is 15 copper a piece, and the price goes up by 10 copper with each shelf. I recommend staying away from the bottom, but that¡¯s completely up to you. Hope you find what you''re looking for!¡± ¡°Thanks again. I¡¯ll see you later!¡± I left before I could say anything else to make a fool of myself. I got to the counter and found some other people searching through the bottom shelves of the rations. One looked to be some sort of dog beastkin, and the other looked more like a smaller minotaur. They seemed to be arguing about which one they wanted to get. I guess beastkin come in a wide variety, just like the rations. The dog man turned around and saw me looking at them. ¡°You got a problem, bud? We¡¯re having a private conversation over here!¡± He sounded like he had a Boston accent. When I got a better look, he appeared to have a wolfish face and sharp teeth and nails. His gray hair was cut rather short. ¡°No problem here, just waiting my turn to see what¡¯s good. I¡¯ll take any suggestions if you have them.¡± I tried being polite to defuse the situation. He seemed pretty upset for some reason. I definitely wasn¡¯t trying to start a fight, though I did prepare a barrier just in case. The dog man growled and said, ¡°Meats what¡¯s good. Not that this bovine ass realizes.¡± ¡°Oi Roobs, calm yourself. I said we can get a couple for you, I just don''t do meat that well. I CAN have it, but what¡¯s wrong with me having shrooms and veggies? You ain¡¯t gonna be the one eatin¡¯ it!¡± The mini minotaur had a similar accent. Closer inspection showed he had a brown cow head and legs, but beefy human arms. Oh, I crack myself up. ¡°I don''t like no greens, dammit! But fine! Get what you want, Tav. Just keep that crap away from me.¡± They seemed to have reached an amicable resolution and headed to pay for their food. Finally my turn. I squatted down to check what was available. Most of what was on the bottom shelf were green bags that were labeled as meat, mixed, or vegetarian. The second shelf had more of a description on the now blue bags, with sandwiches, stews, or sauced meats. The third and fourth shelf had purple bags on both, with labels for what looked like full course meals. I decided to grab a couple of the blue bags and went to pay after the other two were done. When I walked up, the cashier looked a little apologetic. ¡°Sorry about those two. They¡¯re good people, if not exactly the friendliest. Tavro does his best to keep Rooby in line, but it doesn¡¯t alway work out. Anyways, what can I help you with?¡± ¡°I get it. No problem. I¡¯d like to purchase these 5 ration packs, and this knife. Sarah said the knife was 3 silver?¡± ¡°That I can do for you. We do a bulk promotion once in a while to get people to keep buying the rations, so it¡¯ll be 1 silver for those. 4 silver total, if you please.¡± He stuck his hand out and I gave him the money. He reminded me a lot of Luke, with both of them having disheveled brown hair and holding themselves in a surprisingly confident way for their ages. ¡°Are you by any chance related to Luke? You two look so similar.¡± He smiled a bit and said, ¡°Yeah, we¡¯re twins actually. I¡¯m surprised you didn¡¯t notice this morning. Though I guess you were still daydreaming about Sarah at the time. My name is Duke, by the way.¡± Luke and Duke, huh? Quite imaginative on their parents part. I blushed a bit at his comment. ¡°That obvious huh? I was trying to keep it lowkey. Though your brother was straight up ogling her earlier.¡± ¡°Oh it¡¯s pretty well known he has a major crush on her. Don¡¯t worry about it though. You kept a better lid on it than most do. Half the clientele we get come up to the counter already pitching a tent, and the other half are women.¡± ¡°Hah, you got me there. Anyways, I gotta head out. Thanks for the help.¡± ¡°Anytime. Good luck out there.¡± I stashed the knife and food in two of my bag slots and headed downstairs and back to the inn to get some dinner and call it an early night. This time, Thaggerd was standing at the counter talking to his daughter when I walked in. He turned around quickly when he heard me walking in. ¡°Claff! Glad your back, my boy. Did you have a good first hunt today?¡± ¡°That I did. I found a good spot to grind out some levels too. All of my skills leveled, one of them even twice! And I¡¯m ready to celebrate about it!¡± ¡°That''s quite the feat! I remember my glory days when levels came that easily. Well, those are words of an old man speaking. How about a large plate of meat and a couple drinks to wash it down with? I¡¯ll even get you one of our cuter servers.¡± He said that last part while nodding to Theona. She traded places with her father and gave me a blushing smile before running off to get my order. ¡°And here I was hoping that was you you were talking about!¡± Thaggerd gave a full body laugh at that and shooed me along to a table. It was still relatively early, so there weren¡¯t many people in here yet. Just one group of 4 humans chatting at a table off to the right, and a couple of dwarves that looked to be taking a break before the dinner rush. Theona came back with her hands full of a plate with two large portions of meat on it. She set it in front of me and gave a cute smile before going to get a couple of drinks. When she brought them back, I offered her a seat and one of the drinks she brought. She hesitantly accepted and started sipping at her mug while I took a swing of my own. Hagrid, you did right in making these dwarves. This is probably the best drink I''ve had in either of my lives. After my second drink, Theona and I started a little conversation about work and how it was going. I told her a bit of how my day went, and she told me about her family¡¯s business. Turns out that Thaggerd inherited the inn from his dad before Theona was even born. Her mom passed away when she was still little, and it¡¯s just her, her dad, and her cousins running the place. I made sure to give plenty of compliments on how well it was run, the food, and how clean everything was. ¡°Thanks. We definitely try our best around here. It¡¯s starting to get late, so I should get back to my counter. Hope you enjoy your meal.¡± She downed the rest of her drink and scurried out of sight. I felt bad about how we ended that conversation. She seemed happy at first, but I guess talking about her mother got her into a bad mood. Okay, so don¡¯t talk about the Half Moon family history. Lesson learned. I downed the rest of my meal and left a few copper coins as a tip. I went to my room and decided to practice my barrier before I slept. I put one barrier right in front of the door, and poured about half my remaining mana into it. After spending so much at the guild, I only had 50 points remaining, though 30 regenerated while I was eating dinner. I spent another 5 points on a barrier in the middle of the room, and made sure to make this one so that I could touch it. I wanted to try hitting it to see what kind of damage I could do to it. Using the goblin as a baseline should let me know how much physically stronger I''ve become. I stood in front of the barrier and readied myself. It was more of a psych up than anything. Once I felt prepared, I twisted my torso and landed the hardest punch I''ve ever done. Checking on the barrier showed it could take another five more of those before cracking. Well, there¡¯s a reason I wanted to be a caster and not a melee fighter. I suck at punching, and I don''t know the first thing about a sword. I nudged the barrier with my foot and laid down. That¡¯s when I remembered I had the second level to learn. I called my status up and focused on Barrier Magic Lv2 [32%]. A few seconds and a horrible headache later, I got the notification. Increased Barrier Manipulation learned. Ooh that sounds fun. I wonder how I can manipulate it. I sat up and cast another barrier and tried adding a second face to it, making it look like the corner of a room. Success! I walked into the corner of it and cast another in the opposite way, caging myself in my own skill. The mental strain was a bit much, with two altered barriers and a supercharged barrier running at the same time. If I were in battle at the moment, I could definitely handle it, but while I was just goofing around and practicing, I decided not to strain myself too much. I dropped the two angled barriers, but left the barrier in front of the door. I looked at my status again, and saw that the changed barriers cost twice as much. I was down to 24 mana and starting to feel slightly light headed, so I sat back down. Apparently the straining from having multiple barriers up was great training for mental capacity too. That short burst brought me up to 99%. Tomorrow¡¯s hunt should have a much smoother start than today¡¯s did. I look forward to it! Chapter 7: Rise and Grind! Why won¡¯t the damn door open?! I¡¯ve been struggling for 5 minutes trying to get it to open up so I can go get some breakfast and head out to hunt some goblins. Still bleary eyed from having woken up late, I went to the bed and threw the pillow at the door in frustration. When it bounced off a blue tinted wall of seemingly nothing, I remembered that I left the barrier up all night. I reached out with my mana to take it down and checked my status to see if anything happened while I was sleeping. User: Claff: Health 140/140 Stamina 140/140 Mana 160/160 Quests [2] Kill Goblins 37/¡Þ Kill Slimes 0/¡Þ Party [0] SKILLS PASSIVE Enhanced Body Lv 2 [70%] Increased Mental Capacity Lv3 [10%] Regeneration Lv3 [85%] ACTIVE Arcane Magic Lv2 [95%] Barrier Magic Lv2 [42%] Game-like Storage Lv2 [95%] Storage 0 g 2 s 20 c
  1. Bowie knife
  2. 4 shirts (2 red, 2 blue)
  3. 5 rations (3 sandwiches, 2 stews)
I gained 11% in Increased Mental Capacity just for leaving it up overnight. I also got another 10% in Barrier Magic too. I might have to do that more often. I didn¡¯t even notice the mental drain of having the barrier up all night. And since it wasn¡¯t damaged at all, there wasn''t a mana drain to maintain it either. Excited at the new method of training, I went and had a breakfast of some sort of porridge with a mystery meat that tasted like the orc I had the other day. I was careful not to fill up too much, but it was honestly too damn good! I bade farewell to Theona and headed straight for the field where I met Grifith yesterday. On my way out the gate, I started to pay more attention to the various stores and other buildings. I saw a bookstore, a leatherworker, and a blacksmith too. There was even a shop that advertised enchanted goods. I¡¯ll have to check that out when I have more money. There¡¯s bound to be some cool stuff in there. After I made it a decent way past the city gate, I fired off my customary two mana bolts. I had to keep regeneration on its toes, after all. I won¡¯t be lacking with my training. I found two stray goblins and even a slime on my way to meet Grifith. One shot took out each of the goblins, but I had to use two bolts to hit the slimes¡¯ core. It did drop a core as loot though, so that¡¯s pretty exciting. I added that along with the two loin cloths and claws I got from the goblins to my bag. Grifith was waiting for me when I arrived at the herb field. As soon as he saw me, I got the add to party notification. I accepted and he got to work collecting his herbs. I called out to him and let him know I was going to be practicing my barriers today between goblin kills. ¡°As long as I get my detection practice on, you can do whatever you want, kid. Just don''t hurt yourself.¡± I had regenerated to 155 mana by the time the goblin spawned. I started casting my regular barrier when I remembered I had my altered barrier to try out. I canceled the cast and switched spells. I rotated the barrier so that the goblin was facing the corner and finished casting as it came to. It saw Grifith sitting in front of it and went berserk. It ran right into the barrier and fell back with a bruised, oversized nose. As it got up to try again, I cast a second altered barrier behind it to finish the trap. There was only 8 seconds between the goblin appearing and it being fully caged. Grifith kept his meditation up for a round 6 whole minutes before I bothered him. ¡°Can you remove its legs or arms or something? It would be a lot easier to maintain this if the goblin wasn''t constantly trying to attack you.¡± He looked annoyed at me asking. ¡°I could, but it''ll just heal itself over time if I don''t kill it quick enough. At most, it''ll buy 3 minutes.¡± I rolled my eyes and said, ¡°That''s still 3 more minutes for you to meditate on.¡± ¡°Fair enough.¡± He got up and made a few slices with his dagger that I couldn''t see. When he stepped away, the goblin was completely missing its arms and legs and was screeching in pain on the ground. It was a rather morbid sight and I immediately regretted asking him to do it. Okay, not asking for that again. Grifith sat back down and closed his eyes again. The yelling and cries of pain from the monster barely seemed to phase him. It was like he was used to this. Maybe he is used to this. Maybe this is how he originally practiced his skill, before I came along to cage them up. It was too creepy to think about, so instead I asked if he minded me killing it. After he nodded in the affirmative, I put my hand inside the barrier and fired a mana bolt. I decided leave the barriers up for next time and as practice for maintaining the altered barriers. I still felt a bit strained, even with just two of them. I figured it would make decent practice for my mental capacity skill, and this way I don''t have to waste mana every 10 minutes putting them back up. I''d exhaust myself too quickly if I did that. Instead, I decided to add to the barrier¡¯s mana supply every chance I got. I made sure to keep myself at 100 mana, but every extra pint I got went straight into strengthening that cage. The whole morning, there were only two stray goblins. I asked Grifitht to take care of them, since I was still concentrating on the barriers. At around lunch time, I had added about 150 mana to the front barrier, and 30 to the back one. Most of the goblin spawned didn''t pay attention to the back barrier, so it didn''t take nearly as much damage. But the practice of maintenance on two altered barriers brought me to the cusp of Barrier Magic Level 3 in just one morning. I felt a sense of pride at how fast I was leveling, but quickly cooled myself when I remembered Thaggerd¡¯s comment about the lower levels coming easy. Lunch rolled around and Griffith and I sat around for a bit eating. He didn''t seem very talkative today, so I concerned myself more with what my plan for the future was I theoretically could survive solely on staying here and farming this one goblin spawner, but that felt way too boring. I wanted adventure in my life, and while this was exciting for now, I wanted more. Goblins were just trash mobs that barely did anything for me anymore. Having one as a prisoner for essentially over a day left much to be desired. I could try picking a different spawner to farm. I''ll ask Luke later when I go to sell my cloths and claws. Though I think I''ll keep my slime core for now. It''s pretty cool. The slime core in question looked like a blue billiards ball with a dark blue smiley face on it. I don''t think it has many uses, but I could definitely tell there was some mana in it. ¡°Hey, do you know anything about what a slime core can be used for? I got one on my way here this morning, and I don''t know if I want to sell it. I might not, and just have it as a keepsake, but if there''s something cool to be done with, if l like to know at least.¡± If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Grifith seemed shocked for a moment, as if he forgot I was here. He quickly cooled his face, but I could tell something was on his mind. If he doesn''t say anything, then I''ll ask him about it when we''re on our way back. We might be on lunch, but we''re still working. I need his head on straight. ¡°Yeah, they can be used as minor mana batteries. I''m sure you can feel the mana stored in it. There''s only about 2 points in there, but you can add 3 more if you want. It''s not very effective, and can only hold a maximum capacity of about 5 points of mana before it''s in danger of cracking. Most caster keep one on them as a last resort kind of deal. They charge it up and forget about it unless they''re in a dire emergency. Then they drain it to add to their mama pool. Gemstones are far more effective though, the better quality ones having a higher capacity. I think I heard diamonds can hold north of 70 points. Far cheaper to just get some mana potions, in my opinion. But I''m not a caster, so who am I to judge.¡± Wow, that''s the most he''s said all day. ¡°I see. They really are garbage, huh? Only worth 4 copper for a reason.¡± He nodded and went back to his food. Looks like he brought just bread and some meat chunks today. After I finished the bite I was working on, a goblin popped up in the barrier cage. Grifith got up to take care of it when I told him to let it be for now. ¡°I charged the cage with enough mana to last us a few minutes. Chill for a bit and finish eating. It''s not going anywhere.¡± He nodded and sat back down. The goblin ended up yelling and banging on the barriers for 15 minutes before we decided to end our misery. A quick stab from Grifith and the goblin''s head rolled. ¡°Why didn''t a second goblin appear? It was in there for over 10 minutes, so shouldn''t another goblin have spawned?¡± He shook his head. ¡°It has to do with the mechanics of the spawner. Some spawners only shoot out one a day. Other, more rare spawners spawn 1 per minute regardless of the previous monster''s existence. Those can be tricky, and are guarded carefully. They''re usually found in an area of high monster volume, like the Dark Forest on the south eastern part of the continent. They have to be regularly culled and maintained, otherwise a horde of monsters would attack a city. That''s also why adventures are so important. We keep the monster population low.¡± ¡°Well what about this one?¡± ¡°This one has conditions on its spawn timer. It''s set to spawn one goblin every day at sunrise. However, if that goblin is killed within 50 feet of the spawner, it''ll spawn another one 10 minutes later. That''s how we''re able to farm it so successfully. That''s why I get here so early, and why I leave early too. Yesterday, I grabbed the last goblin before we left and dragged it to the road before killing it. Didn''t you wonder why?¡± ¡°I did, but I was also too tired to ask. Plus I was dreading the hour walk back to the city.¡± I mumbled that last part. ¡°Hah. Fair enough. You did pretty well for a newbie. Hell, you''re still doing pretty well. Your talent with your skills is amazing. If you hadn''t shown off like you did yesterday, I was young to kick you to the road after you finished getting your 10 Cat Ears. And I mean that literally.¡± ¡°Yeah, Luke mentioned you can be a hardass at times. Glad I''m useful though. This practice at keeping the two barriers up all day has made some serious gains for me. For starters, the skill itself is almost level 3. But my mental capacity skill is almost half of the way to level 4, and regeneration should reach 4 in maybe another hour, two tops.¡± ¡°Congrats! Pretty soon you''ll be able to call yourself a proper copper rank.¡± I''m glad all this talking is getting him out of his rut, but what does he mean proper copper rank? I''ve already got my guild tag and everything? ¡°I can see you¡¯re confused, so let me clarify. You might technically be a copper rank, but the other adventurers won''t give you any respect until you''re at an average of level 5. Only then will they stop giving you crap about it. The only reason you''re not getting it so bad right now is because we get back to the guild hall before most of them. I start early in the day, hell, I''m here before sunrise to catch the first goblin. So that''s why I get back early too. It might not seem early to you, being new and all, but most adventurers don''t get back till around sunset. I like to be home and getting ready for bed around then so I''m properly rested to start the next day.¡± ¡°Doesn''t it get boring? Killing the same goblin over and over? Don''t you want any variety?¡± He looked glum again when I said that. ¡°Yeah, it can be tedious. Usually whenever I need a break, I''ll come here and drag the first goblin to the road and finish it off before going back home for a rest day. But other than that, it can be decent practice for skill training, if used correctly. And the money isn''t half bad either. Even split between the two of us, I''m sure you got more than just a couple of silver yesterday.¡± I nodded in agreement. ¡°That''s fair. I did get 6 silver yesterday. It was one hell of a haul.¡± ¡°Exactly! I average 11 silver a day! It might not be the most glorious work, but it still pays well. I don''t even need the money from the herb collection. It just gives me something to do between goblin kills.¡± We both chuckled at that. Today has felt less exciting than yesterday since I was mostly meditating on keeping the barriers active. The excitement of skill progress outweighed that though. I could already imagine how badass I''ll be when my skills reach level 100. Some quick math tips me that I''ll be regenerating almost 3 points of mana (or health) per second. I¡¯d be unstoppable! Of course, I have to actually get there first, but that''s only a matter of time. That reminds me, is there a cap to skill levels? I''d be practically immortal with a level 100 regeneration, let alone with a level 1000 regeneration. I''d be almost a god at that point. I needed to do more mental math. It''s a good thing I have a mental skill to help. Carry the two, cross out the one. HOLY HAGRID! That''s 278.6 mana regenerated per second, if all my passives got to level 1000. Big if, but still. That''s a lot! My eyes went wide at the thought of defeating an army of dragons with nothing but my mama bolt skill. I imagined the bodies crashing to the ground as a never ending storm of unstoppable mana bolts shot out from both of my hands and even my feet. ¡°Alright kid, I see your face. What crazy scheme are you plotting over there?¡± I told him my little day dream. And he rudely started laughing. ¡°Sorry Claff, but I doubt you''ll ever find that kind of glory. There''s no level cap that I heard of, but every level becomes harder to get them the last. Sure you have potential with your regeneration, but you''d have to live a long ass time to get to the point you''re thinking of. I wish you the best, but don''t get your hopes up. We got some goblins to take care of in the meantime.¡± And like that, the rest of the day went much like the first half. I kept the barriers running, and Grifith occasionally killed the goblins inside. We ended up going a little later than yesterday, but we still made it back to the guild hall before sunset. There were more people than yesterday evening, but it was still relatively empty compared to my visit yesterday morning. I found Luke and got paid for the Goblin kills, claws, and loincloths. I totaled just shy of 5 silver today, but that was expected since I didn''t collect any herbs. Grifith and I had to deal with more strays today, so that made up the difference in our otherwise lower lol count due to keeping the goblins alive for longer. Luke and I didn''t talk too much today, so I went to Half Moon Inn to get some food in me and get to my room. I forgot to pay this morning to keep my room, but Thaggerd figured I was coming back and left it as is, besides regular cleaning. I paid him a whole silver, partially as thanks and partially as a late fee. He was a good sport about it though. That''s why I liked this place. After dinner, I went to my room and set a barrier in front of the door. I added as much mana into it as I could before passing out. I was getting more used to being low on mana, so I got a good amount in there. Then I stripped my armor off, sat on the bed, and pulled up my status. It was time to see the fruits of my labor today. User: Claff: Health 140/140 Stamina 125/140 Mana 12/160 Quests [2] Kill Goblins 0/¡Þ Kill Slimes 0/¡Þ Party [0] SKILLS PASSIVE Enhanced Body Lv 2 [90%] Increased Mental Capacity Lv3 [96%] Regeneration Lv4 [35%] ACTIVE Arcane Magic Lv3 [13%] Barrier Magic Lv3 [40%] Game-like Storage Lv3 [20%] Storage 0 g 6 s 15 c
  1. Bowie knife
  2. 5 shirts (2 red, 2 blue, 1 brown)
  3. 4 rations (2 sandwiches, 2 stews)
  4. Leather armor set
I needed to start jogging or something to level my Enhanced Body skill, but other than that, everything was shooting up in levels. Tonight, I had to learn the next spell level in both Arcane Magic and Barrier Magic. Barrier Magic earned an entire level today, and I used just enough mana bolts to push me over the edge to the next level. Let¡¯s see what Arcane Magic has in store for me! After recovering from the headache, which seemed to be getting less intense with every level, I pulled up the notification. Improved pattern for Mana Bolt has been learned. Another improvement, huh? I wonder when I''ll get the next spell. I wonder what improved about it this time. I¡¯ll find out tomorrow, but I¡¯m itching to know. After arcane came Barrier Magic¡¯s turn. One headache later i got Improved pattern for Basic Barrier has been learned. Maybe the spells come in sets of 5? The first level in a set is the spell, and the next 4 levels are improvements? That would explain everything so far. And that would also explain why 5 is a big number for adventurers in the guild. They¡¯ll give some respect when I can show I can handle myself. Not that I''ve had many issues with anyone yet, but still. Tomorrow¡¯s a new day. And I''ll be able to see Sarah when I finish working tomorrow too! It¡¯s nice having something to look forward to. Chapter 8: Making Money and Celebrations! I sat at the bar in the guild hall chugging my drink. It was straight water, but I had to put effort into not gagging at the after taste. I was on my third mug regardless. My heart was still pounding and I had sweat rolling down into my eyes. Today¡¯s hunt went much like yesterday¡¯s, except with a lot more strays, and the ¡°walk¡± back to the city was a little more intense. I pulled up my status sheet and thought about how the day¡¯s return to the city went. User: Claff: Health 160/160 Stamina 30/160 Mana 125/180 Quests [2] Kill Goblins 43/¡Þ Kill Slimes 0/¡Þ Party [1] SKILLS PASSIVE Enhanced Body Lv 3 [30%] Increased Mental Capacity Lv4 [58%] Regeneration Lv5 [0%] ACTIVE Arcane Magic Lv3 [87%] Barrier Magic Lv4 [53%] Game-like Storage Lv3 [80%] Storage 0 g 5 s 5 c
  1. Bowie knife
  2. 4 shirts (2 red, 2 blue)
  3. 3 rations (2 sandwich, 1 stews)
  4. 43 goblin loincloths
  5. 20 goblin claws
We got a total of 87 goblins, Grifith getting credit for the last one as party leader. After we finished dragging the last goblin out of the field for its execution, I told Grifith my plan to train my only physical skill and he gave his encouragement. He was surprised I even had a physical skill to begin with, but offered to help me train it occasionally if I wanted to. I appreciated it, but had to decline. I let him know it was primarily a resource pool enhancement skill for me. I had no inclination towards the melee side of combat and wanted to be able to keep up with party members if I ever so chose to go that path. ¡°I¡¯m mostly mentioning this so you don¡¯t question when i start to jog. I¡¯m a little embarrassed, but I wasn''t much of an outdoorsy kind of guy before I had my choosing day. I was always much more interested in magic than anything.¡± Grifith laughed and said he wasn¡¯t surprised. ¡°I¡¯ll tell you what. I¡¯ll jog with you and make sure you stay motivated. However, if I do this, I don''t want to hear any complaints tomorrow about you being sore.¡± ¡°It¡¯s just a light jog. How bad could it be?¡± I would later come to regret those words. Turns out it could be pretty bad. Anytime I started to slow down, Grifith got his knife out and threatened to stab me with it. By the third mile, my feet were starting to kill me and I almost passed out when we reached the gates. Grifith got his knife out again and started yelling at me like a drill sergeant. ¡°DID I SAY YOU COULD STOP YET, MAGGOT! YOU GET YOUR ASS UP AND YOU RUN TO THE GUILD HALL! PICK YOU FEET UP! KNEES TO CHEST DAMN IT! KNEES TO CHEST!¡± I¡¯m never working with that ass hole again! The crazy bastard threatened my life! How dare he? I sat my mug down and took a deep breath, trying to regain control over myself. While I sat there for a few minutes with my head hung low, Luke finished up what he was doing and came over to check on me. ¡°Hey Claff, are you doing okay? You don¡¯t look so good there.¡± I could barely get my head up. I was too exhausted. ¡°That bastard Grifith threatened my life! He had his knife out and everything!¡± Grifith had finished at the counter he was at and came up as I was saying that. ¡°Oh don''t be so dramatic. Claff here just needed some motivation to train properly. I warned him I would be a little tough. He¡¯ll manage though, don''t you worry.¡± I glared at him and thought about blasting his head clean off with about 50 mana bolts. Meanwhile Luke laughed and tried cheering me up. ¡°Come on, Claff. It couldn¡¯t have been that bad.¡± Luke just joined Grifith with a hole going from his left temple to his right. There was no face left, having been burnt to ashes. I was jolted from my little daydream by Luke shaking my shoulder a little. ¡°Hey big guy, don¡¯t forget that you have a special someone waiting on you to pick your second armor set up from. You should probably go see her before you end up passed out down here. When you''re rejuvenated by her beauty, come see me so you can get paid for today¡¯s work. I heard yall got a lot today.¡± I gave him the middle finger which got them both to laugh and headed up the stairs, struggling the entire way. I stopped for a break on the third floor landing so I could properly cool off and catch my breath. I looked around but only saw the usual waiting room entrance. The third floor was very private, and only accessible by specialized staff and gold rank adventurers. There was a theory of a platinum rank too, but nobody has reached that in over eight centuries, according to Luke anyway. They would also be able to enter the third floor, not there¡¯s anyone with such qualifications right now. The Silface Adventurer¡¯s Guild currently only had one gold rank party, and they were out on assignment to Hagrid knows where. So the third floor entry door is currently locked and inaccessible to anyone until they return. After a few minute breather, I decided I needed to change my shirt and dry off a little. I put my current armor away in my storage and made a mental note to see about getting that washed at Half Moon later tonight. I pulled out one of the red shirts I had in storage and wiped myself off a little. I also need to see about getting a proper bath. I put everything that stank into storage and pulled a fresh blue shirt out of storage. I felt that it complimented my dirty blonde hair nicely. I took one last deep breath and finished my ascent. I immediately saw Sarah with someone who looked to be about half my height and around the same weight as me, though this person looked to carry most of her weight in her chest. The dwarven lady had curly brown locks and had what looked like a maids outfit on, which only emphasized her large bosom. Sarah beckoned me forth and introduced her to me. ¡°Claff! I¡¯m glad you¡¯re here! This is perfect timing. I¡¯d like to introduce you to Thelby. She is the guild''s best leatherworker, and she just finished adjusting your armor a short while ago.¡± ¡°It¡¯s a pleasure to meet you, Thelby. I¡¯m Claff. You actually adjusted a set a couple days ago for me. And I have to say, it has been supremely comfortable to work in.¡± ¡°Aye, he says it¡¯s so comfortable, yet he¡¯s not even wearing it! Makes me wonder what yee really thinks of me work.¡± She had what I would consider a much more basic fantasy take on a dwarven accent. This is one of my biggest disappointments from staying at Half Moon. They lacked the fantasy accent there, but here it is at last! I smiled and told her that it was currently drenched in sweat inside my storage. She seemed to be mildly abated by hearing it, but she discontinued to insist, ¡°Yee better be wearin¡¯ it next time and avery time after you come in here! I put effort into me work, and you boys best be giving me my proper respect!¡± I bowed before her and said, ¡°It¡¯s the finest equipment I could ask for. Thank you, Thelby, from the bottom of my heart.¡± She blushed and harrumphed as she walked away. ¡°Silver tongue, that one has. Best be careful before I demand you make a proper Dwarf outta me.¡± Sarah and I laughed as we walked towards the fitting room. ¡°I just finished laying your set out. Try it on and let me know how it feels. If there¡¯s any problems, I¡¯d almost suggest you keep them to yourself after that little display.¡± I laughed and went in. I came out a bit later wearing an almost perfect replica of the first set I had. ¡°It¡¯s perfect, thank you. And make sure Thelby gets my thanks as well. She¡¯s definitely earned it.¡± We both chuckled at that. ¡°Believe me, she will absolutely be hearing about how much you absolutely loved her work. I¡¯ll tell her about how you were gushing over every aspect of the beautiful craftsmanship, and how you wanted her to make every set you¡¯ll ever use for the rest of your life!¡± ¡°Okay okay, maybe a bit too far there.¡± I couldn¡¯t help but laugh a bit more. ¡°But seriously, this is by far the most comfortable clothing I''ve ever worn. I might need to get her to make me a set of normal clothes to wear too.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll send your praise. So was there anything else you wanted to get while you''re here? Or were you just picking up?¡± ¡°You know, I was thinking of getting some potions today. Before I do though, can I hear some more details about them? Any restrictions, how many points each one can give, how many can i drink at once?¡± This is all important information I needed. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. ¡°Absolutely. I¡¯m guessing you''re only interested in minor potions for now, so ill focus on those. All three types, health, stamina, and mana, give the same amount of resource points per potion. That number is 20 points exactly. The only limit to how many you can drink at once is dependent on how many can fit in your stomach. If a potion is drunk and then thrown up though, the points will be deducted from your pool. So you do need to be careful about how you use them. For example, if you have 0 mana, drink a minor mana potion,¡± Sarah pointed to the blue bottle with the corresponding label, ¡°use 5 mana, then throw up, you¡¯ll pass out on the spot. You won''t regain consciousness until you naturally regenerate the 5 points that you are ¡®indebted¡¯. After you regenerate the indebted points, your pool will be set to 0 and won¡¯t regenerate again for the remainder of the day. If this happens with your health pool though¡­ Well, you can figure the rest out.¡± I nodded along and cringed a little at the last comment. She quickly went back to a more pleasant tone after my face changed. ¡°Don¡¯t let me dissuade you from using them though! They are extremely useful tools and can be absolutely life saving in the right hands. I only warn you to make sure you don¡¯t hurt yourself. Just be smart about how you use them and you will be just fine, I promise.¡± I nodded at her words. ¡°Well then. I think I''ll take four minor stamina potions for today, please. I¡¯ll be using them as a little pick-me-up at the end of my work days, so it¡¯s not exactly what I plan on using in life changing ways.¡± Sarah smiled and nodded along with me. She grabbed four of the bottles I asked for and escorted me to the front desk where I got a smile from Duke. ¡°Back so soon, eh? I see your buying potions already. I swear you adventurers make way too much. But I guess you make sure to spend it all too. That¡¯ll be 4 silver, if you please.¡± I smiled and handed over the money. I barely felt the point of mana leave my body. ¡°Thank you kindly, my good gentleman. Now if YOU please, I''m off to cash out my quests for the day.¡± Sarah laughed at Duke''s face. ¡°You mean to tell me you haven''t even cashed in yet,and you already had that much? Maybe I did go into the wrong business. You just started as a copper plate only 2 days ago, right? There¡¯s no way you have that much in such a short time!¡± Sarah corrected him, ¡°3 days ago actually, and I''m just as impressed. No wonder you need those potions. Stay safe out there. I don''t get my commissions from boys who don¡¯t come back to me.¡± She winked, giggled, and left to help out another beast person who just came up the stairs. This one looked to be mixed with a horse this time. ¡°Damn dude, makin money and getting Sarah¡¯s attention? I don¡¯t think I''ve ever been so jealous of someone in my life. You better get out of here before I get Rooby and tell him you''re walking in on his territory. That reminds me, never let him see you talking to her. He will freak out. He¡¯s been put on suspension once already for something similar. He beat a newbie for getting Sarah¡¯s advice on what knife to buy, and the poor kid got the same knife he was going to buy stuck right in his shoulder. Rooby was taken care of by security, but it¡¯s best not to tempt fate. I don''t get that guy. He¡¯s been rejected at least 6 different times by her. The last two were pretty public too.¡± ¡°Damn. I¡¯ll remember that then.¡± I pretended to write on my hand as I slowly said, ¡°Stay. Away. From. Rooby. Got it. Any other words of advice?¡± Duke laughed a little and said, ¡°Yeah, don¡¯t rush yourself. I know you think it¡¯s great how fast you''re making progress - which you really are by the way. Luke has mentioned you a couple times already at home - but you have your whole life ahead of you. Take your time and enjoy your skills. Don¡¯t just see them as numbers to be bumped up. Other than that, try not to die. That¡¯s my words of wisdom for the day. You''re welcome to come back anytime you need to hear more.¡± ¡°I see. Sage words, indeed. Especially from one so young. Teach me your ways, master!¡± I bowed and laughed when he smacked my head. ¡°Seriously though man, I appreciate the heads up. I don''t usually see many others when I''m out and about, but I''ll be sure to keep an eye out for anything unusual. If that¡¯s all though, I¡¯m gonna go cash out and pass out. I¡¯m tired as hell from today.¡± He waved me off and I went back downstairs. I stopped at the third floor landing again to put my second armor set into my storage, along with the new potions I got. When I reached the bottom, Luke pulled me to his booth and started his spiel. I gave him my guild tag and dropped a pile of loincloths on his desk. He handed me a small bin when I told him how many Goblin claws I had. He took everything to the back, past a curtain I couldn''t see past. He came and got me from my table when he was done. He sounded surprised and a little concerned as he told me my total. ¡°Alright, you''ve got 5 silver and 96 copper for the day. I want to mention some things though. Don''t let how much money you¡¯re making right now go to your head. It usually takes newbies quite a while to reach what you''re making, a few weeks at least. I don¡¯t want you to get too comfortable and slip up. I know you¡¯re working with Grifith, but that doesn¡¯t mean you should relax. He¡¯s quite adept at what he does. With how rarely he takes kindly to new people, you should feel a bit honored, but,¡± he pointed his finger accusingly at me, ¡°I''m also sure he¡¯s pulling more than his fair share of the weight. I know y¡¯all have your deal in place, but you should probably try mixing it up some time. If you want, I can suggest a few more quests to you, now that you know more of what you¡¯re doing.¡± ¡°I think I''ll stick with Grifith for now. His little training stunt pissed me off to an unimaginable degree, but I also can¡¯t deny that it worked. It got me 40% in my Enhanced Body skill in just one run. I can¡¯t say I''m looking forward to tomorrow, but I will say that it definitely will be interesting to see how well it goes.¡± ¡°Alright, I won''t press. But I will ask that you keep doing the Cat Ears quest. It might not seem like much, but having multiple quests under your belt will help if you want to make it to silver. You¡¯ll need a better variety, but for now, stop by in the morning so I can assign it to you.¡± He still looked a bit skeptical, but he respected my wishes. ¡°That seems reasonable to me. I won''t be doing 60 a day though. I¡¯ll be doing the bare minimum for it, then moving on to the goblin training I''ve been doing.¡± ¡°That¡¯s fine by me,¡± he shrugged. ¡°The paper trail is what really matters anyways. With that said, I¡¯ll see you bright and early tomorrow.¡± ¡°Yep. I¡¯ll see you then!¡± I called up my storage and added the payment. Storage 0 g 7 s 1 c
  1. Bowie knife
  2. 4 shirts (1 wet red, 1 dry red, 1 blue, 1 wet brown)
  3. 3 rations (2 sandwich, 1 stews)
  4. 2 leather armor sets (1 wet)
  5. 4 minor stamina potions
The sun still had a couple hours before it set as I left for some much needed dinner and rest. My feet were killing me and my legs were shaking with every step of the way. When I got to Half Moon, Thaggerd gave me a heartfelt, but concerning greeting. ¡°Claff! Back so soon! Oh no, did something happen? Show me your hands boy. Show me your hands!¡± I held out my hands and he took them in his own. He carefully examined each one before eyeing me curiously. ¡°You seem to be in perfect health, yet you''re shaking like there¡¯s no tomorrow. Let me guess, low on stamina?¡± ¡°Bingo. I went a bit overboard on training on my way back to the city. I sprinted the full 6 miles from the field to the guild hall with barely a break. This was my first time doing it, and might be my last. My legs are killing me right now, but I just need some food and some rest to get back to new by tomorrow.¡± ¡°Food and rest indeed. I¡¯ll get you served something special. Go find a table and Theona will be right over. Theona, go get our stamina special. And sit and make sure he eats it all, will you?¡± Theona nodded and left. I made my way slowly to my now usual corner table. By the time I got there, Theona was waiting with a large platter piled high with a mix of meat, vegetables, and some sort of red potato looking starch. ¡°I¡¯m not sure I can eat all this. There¡¯s just way too much here!¡± Theona laughed and said, ¡°It goes down easier than it looks. Most melee type adventurers need a bit of a pick me up now and then. This always does the trick. Once you start eating, it¡¯ll be down in no time. Trust me.¡± She gave a smile and I shrugged and dug in. I had the whole platter down in under 10 minutes. I burped a little to relieve some of the pressure on my gut and sat back some more in my chair. ¡°That was absolutely amazing. Give my praise to the chef. I truly didn¡¯t believe it would all go down, but I feel better than ever now that it has. And thank you and your dad too.¡± Theona started getting the platter and mug that she brought over together. ¡°Of course. Just ask any time and it¡¯ll be right up. The first plate oh this is free, but future plates will be a little extra. Now head upstairs and take a nap. If you come back down in a few hours, you¡¯ll be just in time for dessert.¡± The thought of more food was almost repulsive, but I did as she asked. I couldn¡¯t even set the barrier in front of the door before I passed out. I woke up what felt like a full day later and ran downstairs. I felt fully rejuvenated. Looking at my status showed that all my resource pools were full as well. Shit. Maybe I really was asleep for a full day! I rushed to check with Theona or Thaggerd and see how long I was out for. Thaggerd just laughed at me and said, ¡°The sun¡¯s barely set! Don¡¯t worry about it. That¡¯s just how good food can affect the body. Now go and see Theona about getting some rum cake. It¡¯s the best in the town, you have my word!¡± I skeptically headed for the dining room, only now realizing how much more lively it seemed than the last few times I was in here. Theona spotted me and came over with a smile. ¡°Judging by the confusion on your face and how well you¡¯re walking again, I''d say it worked. How are you feeling?¡± ¡°A whole lot better, thank you. What was in that stuff, anyways?¡± I had to find out. ¡°Nothing special, that¡¯s just the power of a proper cooking skill. Now come have a seat with me so we can have cake and a drink.¡± I followed her as she led me to an already crowded long table. We sat at one end to chat and a moment later another dwarf came and dropped off two slices of cake with two large mugs. I tried to thank him, but he was gone before I could get the words out. ¡°Don''t worry about your thanks. You''re too polite for your own good. We dwarves understand appreciation a lot better when said with coins anyways!¡± She laughed and downed half her mug in one go. She poured a good splash over her cake too before grabbing her fork and digging in. ¡°It sounds like you¡¯ve already had a few mugs of rum yourself. You celebrating anything today?¡± ¡°Not at all. Today is just a rare night off for me. So I like to live a little, and drink a lot more.¡± She gave a cheeky grin at that before drinking the rest of her mug and grabbing another from a passing dwarf. ¡°Sounds like a plan! Next round is on me!¡± A dwarven server stopped and gave me a side eye. ¡°Hey, let me get a round of your strongest stuff! We¡¯re going to be having a bit of fun tonight!¡± ¡°Are you sure sir? It¡¯ll be 1 silver a mug if you are. It¡¯s usually saved for more prominent celebrations, if you get my gist.¡± My face contorted a bit at the price and I looked at Theona. ¡°You don¡¯t have to! It¡¯s a bit on the pricier side, and we¡¯re just having fun tonight. Just get the rum and we can still have fun!¡± I turned to the dwarven man who was stroking his dark beard, trying to hide a smile. That settled it for me. ¡°Screw it, we party!¡± He looked surprised at my brazenness, and left to get the drinks. He came back 5 minutes later with two silver mugs, Thaggerd in tow. Apparently he wanted to confirm first that I truly wished to order their ¡°strongest stuff¡±. ¡°I said what I said, and I try not to have any regrets. So let¡¯s have it!¡± ¡°Alright, but don¡¯t go crying to me tomorrow when you wake up.¡± Thaggerd waved his finger at me. ¡°¡®Theromear¡¯s Fire¡¯ has one hell of a kick. Even we dwarves struggle to keep it down. But if you insist, Thalfro, give it to them.¡± The server handed a mug to Theona and I each, and I could smell the alcohol from the table. Theona took a small sip of hers and cringed then smiled. I picked my own mug up. Everyone was staring at me, the dining hall having gone quiet over the minor commotion. It seems that I have made a bit of a spectacle. Well, no going back now. Here goes nothing. I lifted the mug to my lips, and the next thing I knew, I was laying in bed, hoping I was in the right room and feeling the worst I have since being on this planet. Chapter 9: The Hangover Hagrid, what happened last night? I barely took a sip before blacking out. That ¡®Theromear¡¯s Fire¡¯ stuff has a serious kick to it. I lasted in bed for what felt like an eternity, but in reality was only a couple of minutes. When I realized the sun was shining pretty bright, I rushed to put my armor on and ran out of my room. I checked the room number on my way out, and it was mine. That''s a relief at least. When I got down and saw Theona behind the counter, I was greeted with a hearty laugh. She seemed to be opening up to me lately. ¡°Claff! You live! I had a great time last night, thank you! But maybe next time, let''s get the cheaper stuff, yeah?¡± ¡°Believe me when I say I agree wholeheartedly. My head is killing me right now.¡± She laughed and handed me a bottle. ¡°This is a little family secret. Take a swig, it''ll help. Don''t mention anything to my dad though. This stuff is like gold to him.¡± I gratefully accepted. It really did help, but it wasn''t exactly a cure. My head was still pounding along with my heartbeat. ¡°Thank you, really. I don''t remember much of last night, but I know I had fun. You gotta tell me what happened when I get back tonight.¡± ¡°That I will. Have fun out there, and stay safe!¡± With that, I headed for the guild hall to grab the Cat Ear quest. Luke gave me a look. ¡°Here I was thinking you''d bailed on me. Getting a later start today, are we? Oh I know that look. Let me guess, you got ballsy and started drinking with a dwarf?¡± ¡°Right on the nose. But hey, I lived. Anyways, let me get the cat ears real quick so I can go. I''m late enough as is, yeah?¡± I tossed him my guild tag and he tossed it back 5 seconds later. ¡°Have fun.¡± He waved me off and I set out at a light jog. Emphasis on light. Every step I took felt like a hammer blow to my skull. I pulled at my status and saw I apparently had a hangover status ailment that had a timer of 4 hours left on it. At least it¡¯ll be gone by lunch. I made it to the herbal field and took a breather. Grifith saw me and started approaching, with a less than please look on his face. ¡°You''re late,¡± he said. ¡°I was beginning to think you weren''t coming.¡± ¡°Yeah I know, I¡¯m sorry. I was drinking with a friend who had a night off. I got a bit too carried away and ended up sleeping in this morning. I¡¯ll try not to let it happen again.¡± I gave a sheepish apology. ¡°Fine. But I''ll be pushing you extra hard on our light jog back. It appears I left you with too much energy last time. I need ro remedy that. Otherwise, how can I call myself a trainer?¡± FML. His devilish grin gave me goosebumps. ¡°Fuck. Anyways, how¡¯s the hunting been? Did you miss me too much?¡± Grifith laughed and went back to gathering his own herbs while talking. ¡°No, nothing serious yet. Although I''ve noticed there have been more and more strays lately. I hope nothing serious comes of it, but I''ll mention it to Luke when we get back.¡± ¡°Sounds reasonable. I picked up the Cat Ears quest again by the way. Luke suggested I keep doing it as long as we¡¯re out here training. And it shouldn''t affect the barriers too much.¡± ¡°Good. I was going to suggest to you today to pick them anyway. It¡¯s still a bit of income. It also helps your physique to stay active throughout the day. It¡¯ll make running a lot easier since you won¡¯t be stiff from sitting on your ass all the time.¡± ¡°Hey!¡± I started to protest. ¡°Me sitting on my ass is only to help me concentrate on keeping the barrier cage up.¡± ¡°That¡¯s another thing,¡± he countered, ¡°the physical activity while focusing on barrier maintenance should help improve your focus too. It¡¯ll be a 3 birds with one stone kind of deal.¡± I hate when he¡¯s right. I grumbled my protests, but still got to work on picking the Cat Ears. 3 minutes later Grifith let me know it was almost time to set up the cage. The mental strain was starting to get better as I leveled my skill, but the hangover amplified the pain. It wasn¡¯t much, but I could tell how much slower I was picking the herbs now as compared to before. Putting all the Cat Ears into storage was starting to get expensive, in terms of mana. I only found one every few minutes, but that was still mana I should be putting towards the barriers. Instead of putting them in my storage individually, I started throwing them into a pile 5 feet from where the goblin cage was. This way I could save mana for the important part of the day by just throwing all the Cat Ears into storage at once. I had a pile of 20 Cat Ears by the time Grifith called me over for lunch. He looked at the pile questioningly as I walked over to him. When I reached him, I lowered my hand and deposited all 20 I had gathered. ¡°Doing it this way saves mana,¡± I explained. He looked approvingly at me and went to town on his meat and bread. We finished the day off with more stray goblins than caged goblins. It might have to do with keeping the caged goblins alive for an increasing period of time, but the amount of strays was becoming concerning to Grifith regardless of the ratio. When I cashed out with Luke that night, I only gave him 30 of the Cat Ears I collected. ¡°The bare minimum, huh?¡± He smirked at me. ¡°Yeah yeah, whatever gimme my money, counter boy.¡± We chuckled, then he got a serious look on his face. ¡°So Grifith tells me you''ve been seeing a lot more strays lately.¡± I nodded. ¡°I see. I''ll do a formal investigation and check the amount of monster kills being turned in in the last week and see if it¡¯s just y''all or if it¡¯s across the board. If this is just happening with the two of you, then it might be a coincidence, but if it''s happening everywhere¡­ Well, that¡¯s a frightening thought.¡± He shook his head and started mumbling as he went back to get my reward. After I left 5 silver richer, I went back to the inn. Apparently I had a tab to settle from the night before. Thaggerd greeted me with his usual gusto and sent me to my table. This time he brought the food out himself. ¡°So, you had quite a few drinks last night. How¡¯s your head feeling? Any better from this morning?¡± He teased. ¡°Yeah, I felt a lot better after lunch. The status ailment of ¡°Hungover¡± only lasted about 5 hours after I left here. It made casting my barriers a bit difficult, but it helped train a different skill.¡± ¡°Only 4 hours, eh? You might just be part dwarf after all. Theona herself is still feeling a bit wobbly. I don¡¯t know how you managed finishing that entire mug, but you sure as hell proved you can hold your liquor, if only the weak, 100 proof stuff.¡± He laughed and slapped my back. Good thing I''m sitting, otherwise he would have just slapped my ass! ¡°But to settle the tab for last night, and for the room you¡¯ll be having tonight, that¡¯ll be 4 silver.¡± WHAT! ¡°I thought it was only a single silver a mug! We only had one each!¡± ¡°Okay, maybe I was wrong about holding your liquor. Sure you had one each of Theromear¡¯s Fire, but after all the rounds of rum you bought for the table, that added another two silver to your tab. It¡¯s fine if you can¡¯t pay now. You can pay in installments if you need. But pay you will.¡± A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. ¡°I¡¯ll pay now, thanks. I hate owing a debt. But I truly don¡¯t remember buying rounds. Never let me do that again, eh?¡± Thaggerd slapped my back and said, ¡°That i won¡¯t just enjoy your own drinks for a while. Leave the money on the table when you''re done. No need to rush.¡± He left after that. I turned to look at the plate of food then turned right back to say thanks, but he was nowhere to be found. I¡¯m starting to think he has a stealth skill. I took my time finishing my food then left 4 silver and 50 copper on the table. Always tip your servers, folks. Hagrid, that was most of what I made today. And just when i was back over 10 silver, too. Never again alcohol! Never again! I saw Thalfro, the server from last night, and waved at him as I left to go upstairs. I go tto my room and changed back to more comfortable clothes. I¡¯ll take the day off after a couple of more days and see about getting everything washed. In the meantime, I had some skill levels to check out. User: Claff: Health 160/160 Stamina 130/160 Mana 195/200 Quests [2] Kill Goblins 0/¡Þ Kill Slimes 0/¡Þ Party [0] SKILLS PASSIVE Enhanced Body Lv 3 [80%] Increased Mental Capacity Lv5 [36%] Regeneration Lv5 [41%] ACTIVE Arcane Magic Lv4 [3%] Barrier Magic Lv4 [92%] Game-like Storage Lv4 [9%] Storage 0 g 7 s 51 c
  1. Bowie knife
  2. 4 shirts (2 red, 1 blue, 1 brown)
  3. 2 rations (2 sandwich)
  4. 2 leather armor sets
  5. 3 minor stamina potions
I did my usual ritual of concentration followed by a headache and a notification. It was probably just a bit of the leftover pain from the hangover, but this headache felt worse than the others, despite the pattern of it getting more mild as my mental skill grew. Improved pattern for Mana Bolt has been learned. As I thought. Another Mana Bolt improvement. I think I''ll pass on barrier training tomorrow and focus on killing the goblin quickly. I want to get as much practice with this as I can. Hell, I might go buy a damn mana potion to get more training in. Except each potion is only a couple of bolts. I¡¯m not at the point of needlessly wasting money yet. Soon though. It¡¯ll be soon. Although with my regeneration, I won''t even need it. I¡¯m getting¡­.. 80 mana an hour now. I¡¯d be wasting an entire silver on what i can get with just 15 minutes of sitting and not casting spells. I ultimately decided against the mana potions, but would gladly buy more stamina potions. After the training I went through on my way back today, I was glad I had bought them. Grifith was also happy to see it because it meant, ¡°I don''t have to hold back on training you any more. Tomorrow, we¡¯ll really push your limits!¡± like i didn¡¯t almost collapse from exhaustion already today. I might still be needing the stamina special every night when I get back. I threw my fully loaded barrier up against the wall and went to sleep drained of all my mana. Tomorrow will be another day of goblin killing. I might look into finding a slime spawner soon. I need practice on aiming at smaller targets. When I brought my slime idea up to Grifith the next morning, he laughed and said, ¡°You''d be wasting money that way. Just aim at the goblin¡¯s eyes.¡± I face palmed when I realize the wasted potential of the last couple days. They¡¯re practically the same size targets. So that¡¯s what I did. I also let him know that I''d be practicing my Arcane magic today, which he seemed a little annoyed at. I asked if that would be an issue, but he said, ¡°No, it¡¯s just I''ve been getting some GREAT levels the last couple of days. The range of my detection skill just passed the bounds of this field. I don¡¯t want to see my progress slow. But I also see that you need to practice more skills than just the one, so go for it. You¡¯ll be in charge of all the spawner kills, and I''ll give you the heads up of strays coming at us. Like the one behind me in the trees right now.¡± I tried to spot the Goblin before it could start its charge, but saw him just as he jumped from a high branch. I did my best to kill it before it hit the ground, but found my reflexes still had room to grow. I shot my first mana bolt right above its head with how fast I was aiming to be. My second shot over compensated and went low. The third bolt however hit right between its nipples. ¡°I see you¡¯ve gotten faster. The first goblin I saw you kill took you twice as long. But this one also took another shot to finish. You need to work on your aim. Also did you upgrade from yesterday? Those seemed a good bit more powerful.¡± ¡°I did upgrade. Let me check my status real quick.¡± I pulled it up. ¡°Each shot also costs less now than it did before too. I¡¯m down to 5 mana per shot. Half of what it originally took.¡± ¡°Impressive. But that doesn¡¯t mean you can just waste your mana either.¡± He started his lecture, but I interrupted him. ¡°Well, it kind of does. I also have twice the mana than I did before. I¡¯m working with about 4 times as many mana bolts than I had access to on a full pool mere days ago. Add that to my regeneration, and I''m a lot stronger.¡± ¡°Damn kid. I don¡¯t think you realize how impressive that actually is. You need to look into the enchanters guild to see if you can fill any power banks for them. They pay good money for simple mana. If you were to fill a battery, you could add some serious coin to your savings.¡± ¡°That sounds like a great idea actually. I''ll talk to Luke about that and see what sort of work I can get with that. But that¡¯ll be in a couple days when I take a break. That reminds me, I want to take a day off in a few days. Did you have any days off planned soon? Cause it would be great if i could align mine with yours.¡± ¡°Yeah, I''ll be taking a day off in 4 more days. This isn¡¯t really hard work anymore for me, but it is good coin which is why I gather and hunt here so often.¡± ¡°Sweet. Then I''ll plan for 4 days from now. I want to go shopping and see the city when I''m not so exhausted from a madman chasing me into town.¡± I laughed. Big mistake. Grifith gave me his evil grin. ¡°A madman, you say? I¡¯ll have to keep an eye out while we go for our light jog this afternoon.¡± Hagrid, what have I done? We got back to picking herbs, and I had my pile grow a decent amount. Since I wasn''t hungover today, I picked 40 Cat Ears before lunch. I got another 30 by the time Grifith called it a day. That was my queue to start stretching and get ready to run for my life. I had made good progress on my body since I started my hellish training with my devilman trainer. I would likely level it when we got to Silface. We passed the guards at a full sprint. I was too focused on not tripping over my feet to pay attention to anything else, but they were so used to our shenanigans that they didn''t even stop us. One just laughed at me and tossed an apple in my way. I thankfully dodged, but let out a little yelp, which only encouraged their laughter. I downed a stamina potion when I stopped in front of the guild. After the last drop left the bottle, the glass disappeared from my hand in a little display of this world''s mechanics. It was odd that nobody seemed to question it, but if it¡¯s been a constant your whole life, then who would really care. I went through the motions the next two days. I gathered Cat ears, killed Goblins, and ran back like my life depended on it. I wasn¡¯t 100% sure it didn¡¯t, the way Grifith swung that dagger of his at me when I slowed down. I was excited on my run back the third day though. I had completely stopped using barriers in the field and only used it at night with my loaded barrier. I was solely focused on getting my next Arcane Magic Spell, and it finally hit level 5 today. I was excited to get to my room and get the download to my brain. But first I went to the store and bought some more rations and stamina potions. I downed my meal at the inn and tossed a silver coin to Theona in my rush upstairs. She started saying hello, but gave a yelp when the coin landed on the table. I opened my door and jumped straight into bed, slamming it shut behind me. I pulled up my Status and drooled at the thought of what comes next. I hadn¡¯t even noticed that Barrier Magic also leveled up from my nightly practice until now. That only doubled my excitement. User: Claff: Health 180/180 Stamina 140/180 Mana 199/220 Quests [2] Kill Goblins 0/¡Þ Kill Slimes 0/¡Þ Party [0] SKILLS PASSIVE Enhanced Body Lv 4 [62%] Increased Mental Capacity Lv6 [10%] Regeneration Lv6 [10%] ACTIVE Arcane Magic Lv5 [1%] Barrier Magic Lv5 [13%] Game-like Storage Lv4 [92%] Storage 0 g 16 s 36 c
  1. Bowie knife
  2. 4 shirts (2 red, 2 blue)
  3. 5 rations (5 sandwich)
  4. 1 leather armor set
  5. 5 minor stamina potions
  6. 124 Cat Ears
I was excited for my arcane magic, but I wanted to leave the best for last, so I started with Barrier Magic first. Improved Barrier Manipulation has been learned. Huh, that¡¯s odd. First I barely felt the headache, and then I didn''t get a second skill? Maybe it¡¯s because I already technically had a second skill with the first version of barrier manipulation. The lack of headache made sense. My mental capacity skill is one of my highest level skills, so it makes sense that mental attacks wouldn¡¯t be as effective. Not that this was an attack, it just made sense to me to think about it like one in this context. But oh well. I¡¯ll experiment with this some more when I see Grifith in a couple days. Tomorrow is my day off, so I won''t be using this either way. Now it¡¯s time for the big reveal. What skill will I get? Oi, I spoke too soon about that lack of headache, huh? Now let¡¯s see. Oh, that sounds cool! Chapter 10: Shopping Spree! Arcane Explosion has been learned. That sounds like it has potential to either do a lot of damage, or to be an aoe spell. Should I go out anyway tomorrow to test out my new toy, or should I stick with my plan of a day off? I decided on having a day off. I wanted to check the city out too much. And though I¡¯ve been waking up earlier, I wanted a day to sleep in as well. I put a full hundred points of mana into a barrier in front of the door, and tossed the rest into another in front of the window. When I hit level 5 in Increased Mental Capacity, I could Sleep with two barriers up, but refrained from it due to how mentally taxed I felt the morning after. The majority of my barrier gains the last few days were thanks to that, but since I hit level 6 today, I decided to give it another try. I doubted anyone would try to enter my room at night, but I still slept a bit better knowing that it would be made all the more difficult for someone to get to me this way. That and the training was too good to pass up. The next morning I woke up bright and early. I decided to start waking up earlier so I could get more practice in during the day with Grifith the last few days. I guess the habit formed pretty quickly. I tried getting back to sleep, but just didn¡¯t feel tired anymore. I recalled that the higher levels of Enhanced Body required less sleep to feel fully rested, so it made sense. I hope it didn¡¯t mean i couldn¡¯t sleep at all in later levels, because i frankly love my sleep. If worse comes to worst, Theromear¡¯s Fire would still probably knock me out pretty good. I laughed then gagged at the memory of how crappy I felt the morning after. I dismissed the two barriers I set last night and didn¡¯t bother checking how much it leveled. I wasn¡¯t worried about skill levels today. Today was my day to spend some money! My first stop is going to be that enchanter¡¯s workshop I''ve been seeing. Actually, before that, I should go to a tailor to get a better set of clothes for when I''m not out adventuring. I went downstairs and got Thaggerd to bring me his best breakfast. ¡°That¡¯s absolutely fine, but the best will be an extra 20 copper. If that¡¯s fine with you, I¡¯ll go fetch it myself.¡± I nodded, not letting him know I was willing to pay up to an extra 10 more on top of that. He brought back a large plate of green eggs and smoked green orc belly, and I did my best not to laugh. I will not eat them, Claff I am. I enjoyed every bite I had of it. The orc meat melted in my mouth. The eggs had an almost citrus aftertaste, which was complemented by the tall glass orange juice I had along with it. I left the table wanting to eat even more. Thaggerd met me at the reception, standing next to his daughter behind the desk. ¡°You seem to be in a good mood today. You¡¯re also not weaning your armor. Taking the day off?¡± ¡°That I am. I plan on going shopping. First thing I''ll do is find a tailor for some outfits to wear when I finish working for the day when I go adventure. Then I''ll look around to find somewhere that does laundry. The last thing i had planned was checking out the enchanters shop that¡¯s on the way to the eastern gate. After that, I''m mostly roaming and checking things out.¡± Thaggerd looked at Theona. She looked a little embarrassed. ¡°I¡¯m sorry I haven''t mentioned it before, but we actually offer a laundry service here. If you want, I can take your clothes now and they¡¯ll be ready before dinner. If you need them rushed, we can have it by lunch. The rush would be on me this time since I forgot to mention it. Next time, a rush will be 15 copper. I¡¯ll get you a sack and you can put everything in there.¡± She ran to the back and her dad just watched her go. ¡°Sorry about that. She can be a bit air headed sometimes. But if you want a tailor recommendation, there¡¯s a good one a few streets north of here. Let them know I sent you, and you can get 10% off your first purchase.¡± ¡°I greatly appreciate that. What¡¯s the name, so I know what to look for.¡± ¡°It¡¯ll be Ered¡¯s Threads. A nice elven couple run the place. Have been since before I was alive too. Good people. Especially for elves.¡± he shook his head a bit. Apparently he had some bad experiences with other elves. ¡°But you¡¯re human, so you shouldn¡¯t have any issues going anywhere.¡± ¡°Here¡¯s your bag. Let me write a tag for you real quick and you can go grab your clothes.¡± Theona got back carrying a small bag barely big enough for a grown man¡¯s shirt to fit in. I had to assume it was a magic bag, otherwise there was no way I was going to be able to fit both sets of armor and all my shirts in there. ¡°Thank you. I¡¯ll be right back then.¡± Even though they both knew I had a storage skill, I still went to my room to keep up appearances. I emptied my storage and put it all in a pile on the floor. One of the red shirts was still a little damp, even though I had taken it out a few days ago to air out overnight. After it was all out, I started shoving them all into the bag. As predicted, it was magic and felt rather bottomless. I wondered how much this could really hold. I brought out the bag they gave me and handed it to Theona. She took it from me and left for the door to the back part of the first floor again. I bade farewell to Thaggerd and left for the tailor he told me about. He said it should have some purple drapes out front, as a notable marker to look out for. I left the Half Moon Inn and headed north. It felt strange, since the Adventurer¡¯s Guild Hall was to the south from the inn. It took around 10 minutes to reach the shop. It was exactly how Thaggerd said it would be, but so much more extravagant than I expected. There were layers upon layers of darkening purple cloth with a golden trim. The whole ensemble made me feel like royalty was present. I almost didn¡¯t want to go in, feeling inadequate to be in the presence of such greatness. I was about to turn around and head straight for the enchanter¡¯s shop when a soft voice called out to me. ¡°Hello there, young man. How may we be of service?¡± A beautiful blonde woman came out from inside the store. She made me feel small, even though she was barely 2 inches taller than me. She looked at me expectantly. I just stared dumbly at her taking in every detail I could without earning a slap. She was wearing a white dress that went down to just shy of the knees, and it hugged her in all the right places. There was a small flower design running the entirety of the dress that looked to sway in the wind as she came to a stop a few feet in front of me. Get it together dude. She is just an elf. A real life, flesh and blood elf. Why¡¯d she have to be so beautiful though? It¡¯d almost be better if she were ugly. At least I wouldn''t be so nervous talking to her. Damnit Claff, say something. ¡°Hi, yes, hello. I¡¯m looking for Ered¡¯s Threads? Thaggerd recommended I come here for my clothing needs.¡± ¡°Oh Thaggerd, such a lovely boy he is. Please do come in. I would love to help you. You can call me Syndra. My husband is Ered. We run this lovely establishment together.¡± She turned and led me inside. ¡°Wow.¡± The store was packed full of too many types and colors of fabric for me to count. The patterns I saw on some of the fabrics higher on the shelves left me a little dumbfounded. I could barely understand the patterns involved in making it. One looked like the living void, Pure blackness shifting around. I might have gone mad staring at it if it weren¡¯t for Increased Mental Capacity and Syndra giving me a small shake of the arm. ¡°Sorry about that, those fabrics are for our more¡­ Esteemed customers. We don¡¯t sell that to just anybody. Anything below that though is for sale. Feel free to browse, or I can walk you through our collection.¡± She gestured to the main floor. There were racks of clothes that could be fit for a king. If these are for everyday customers, then who the hell is ordering something made of that? And what even was it? It felt like looking into the void, and the void wasn¡¯t happy to be seen. ¡°Would you mind walking me through your selection? I''d hate to get attached to something only to find out it costs more money than I''ve seen in my life.¡± Her laugh sounded like a harp being played in a field of daisies. Her sun-yellow hair only added to the effect. ¡°Of course dear. Follow me. I¡¯ll start by showing our cheaper products. Let me know if anything catches your fancy.¡± She led me further in where I saw a man who could¡¯ve been her twin working on hanging some shirts for display. He was just barely taller than her with the same blonde hair and blue eyes, though I could actually see his ears poking out a bit from his hair. He was wearing a green tunic with golden embroidery across the collar and tan linen pants with matching gold designs running down the outside creases. Quite frankly, he was almost as beautiful as his wife. He waved to Syndra and went back to work. Syndra showed me the back where there were some coarser shirts that looked about my size. They felt softer than they looked, but were still too rough for everyday wear. ¡°Maybe something a bit more comfortable. I¡¯m looking for something to wear when I get done with my adventure work. I want more comfort than anything workable, if you get my gist.¡± ¡°I understand. How about these? They¡¯re breathable cotton shirts that are still on the cheaper side. Everything on this rack is 30 copper pieces.¡± She walked to a rack a bit closer to the entrance. ¡°That¡¯s a lot more my style and price range, thank you. Do you mind if I try one on?¡± I reached for a plain white shirt to feel its softness. It was exactly what I was looking for. ¡°Sure! You can take one to our changing room. But please be warned that there are wards and enchantments all over the store to prevent theft. I¡¯m not accusing you, but we¡¯ve had some unsavory characters try some things that they swiftly regretted.¡± ¡°I wouldn¡¯t dream of it. I try my best to keep a clean nose. I will let you know now that I do have a storage skill I will be using for whatever I purchase. But you have my word only what i buy will be going in there¡± This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. She smiled and showed me to the room. ¡°I appreciate your honesty. Go ahead and try it on and show me the result. Modifications won''t take but a minute.¡± I went in and stored my current shirt. I put the white shirt I grabbed on and came out to show her. It felt comfortable as is, but she asked so I¡¯ll oblige. ¡°Looks good on you. Is this what you wanted?¡± I nodded. ¡°I¡¯d actually like to make a small bulk purchase, if that¡¯s okay with you. I¡¯d like to buy 5 white, 3 red, 3 blue, and 5 purple shirts. I¡¯d also like to buy around 10 to 15 pairs of pants as well.¡± ¡°I can absolutely do that for you. Give me a moment to grab my husband, and we can work on getting that all set up for you.¡± She walked away and told him what was happening. He smiled and the pair came over. ¡°So I hear you need a bulk order. All of our products are made to size, so I''ll need your measurements and we can have everything adjusted for you. Was there anything else you needed, or just what you mentioned to Syndra?¡± He looked eager to help, and his melodic tone put me at ease more than his wife¡¯s did. ¡°I¡¯d also like 5 pairs of boxers and some socks as well. If you don¡¯t mind, I''d rather not have a lady do my measurements for that.¡± We shared a small chuckle. ¡°That won''t be a problem. Come with me and we''ll get you sorted.¡± They worked quickly and efficiently. It made me wonder what level their skills were. And if they had more than tailoring at play here. The way Syndra called Thaggerd a boy made me think she was at least a hundred years old. If the pair had been running the shop since before he was born, they had to be old. That would have given them plenty of time to train their skills and reach an insanely high level. Ered gave me a bulk discount on top of the discount for mentioning Thaggerd. He rounded it down to 10 silver for everything. After they finished adjusting all I wanted to buy to fit me perfectly, I put it all in my storage. As the clothes disappeared, the coins appeared in two neat stacks of five silver coins each. I walked out of there with a total of 21 shirts, 10 pants, 5 boxers, and 5 pairs of socks. The boxers and socks fit into one slot labeled as underwear, so that worked out perfectly. Storage 0 g 6 s 36 c
  1. Bowie knife
  2. 5 rations (5 sandwich)
  3. 5 minor stamina potions
  4. 124 Cat Ears
  5. 21 shirts (varied colors)
  6. 10 pants
  7. 10 underwear (5 boxers, 5 sock pairs)
I decided not to look at my status today, but by the number of slots I had, I could tell my storage skill just leveled. It hurt a bit to see I was down to below 10 silver again, but I felt so much more comfortable knowing I would always have clean clothes. It was still early in the morning so I left to go to a bookstore that was nearby. I decided to check out the enchanter¡¯s shop after lunch, since I just blew most of my money. Worth it. Can¡¯t put a price on peace of mind. Well, I guess you can. It¡¯s 10 silver. I walked in and heard a bell ding as the door swung open. Looking around, everything pointed to this being a normal bookstore, so that was a sigh of relief. After the weirdness of that void fabric, I needed a bit of normalcy. I walked further in and waved at the cashier. He appeared to be a normal human man, no pointy ears, no patches of fur. Just a normal human man. Just what I needed. He offered help finding anything and I let him know I was just here to browse. ¡°Take your time. We¡¯re not exactly busy today. Feel free to ask any question about any of the titles we have or any prices you may want to hear.¡± He sounded genuinely nice and eager to please. I found a shelf that seemed to be dedicated to geography, so I picked one of the books and flipped through it a bit. It had a couple of vague maps of the main continent, but more details appeared in the dwarven continent maps and that beast people continent that the elven one. There was absolutely no information on the demon continent. I wanted to ask why, but didn¡¯t want to sound like an idiot. I instead brought the book with me as I went to check out the history section. There were a few books that looked to mention various kingdoms and a variety of different kings. Looks like the demons don¡¯t get along well with anybody. They appear to be too militant. That might explain why I haven''t seen any demons around, or heard of any for that matter. Maybe I''ll venture up there one day to see what that¡¯s about. But that¡¯d also be the last continent I want to visit. Right now I''m torn between wanting to see more elvish babes, or going south to get a cat girl girlfriend. I blushed a little at the thought of living every weeb¡¯s wet dream. I am so loving this world. I grabbed a book that looked pretty relevant to demons and what their relationship is with the rest of the world. After that I browsed for another hour or two before deciding to grab a book on popular skills that many people got on their choosing days and another book that was more of a bestiary with commonly spawned monsters, where to find them, and what weaknesses they have. On my way up to the cashier¡¯s counter, I spotted a book that had the world dungeon on it. I almost passed it by before my brain registered what I just read. I almost dropped the other 4 books I had rushing to pull the new one from the shelf. ¡°Dungeon Delver¡¯s Guide: A Guide to Popular Dungeons. Where to Find Them, How to Farm Them, and How to Form the Right Party for Them¡± This is exactly what I needed. It¡¯ll still be quite a while before I feel confident enough to actually attempt to find a dungeon, but when I do, I will be the most prepared adventurer around. Armed with my light reading for the next few nights, I paid another silver for my 5 books. Apparently the first three books I grabbed were pretty cheap, at about 5 copper each. The bestiary was a bit more expensive at 15 copper, but the dungeon book was pretty popular, which is why there was only one copy left. ¡°Most adventurers don¡¯t bother reading,¡± the cashier explained, ¡°but this is one of the few exceptions. I¡¯m considering ordering a few maps to be made that just outlines where to find the dungeons and selling them for half a silver each. It¡¯s what most people use it for anyways.¡± I paid my silver coin and put my books into storage. I¡¯ll be reading them at night after I finish dinner and before bed from now on. It¡¯s been nice being ignorant for a while, but I do need to at least learn the common knowledge of the planet I call home. I left the bookstore and walked down some side streets. It was a little before I decided to look for lunch when I started getting the smell of cooked meat. I followed my nose and it led me to a long line of street vendors. There were stalls selling orc on a stick, stalls selling a variety of fruits and vegetables, and even the regular hawkers trying to sell all sorts of other things. I went straight to the meat vendors where I found a familiar gray wolf man standing in line in front of me. ¡°Hey, it¡¯s Rooby, right? Funny seeing you here. You and Tavro taking the day off as well?¡± I tried being friendly again, since we didn¡¯t seem to get off well last time. He looked confused as to who I was before a little bulb went off in his head. ¡°Oh it¡¯s you. Yeah, I''m here for some food. About that time and all. This guy here has my 100% guaranteed satisfaction approval. You will NOT be disappointed.¡± He pointed to the stall we were in line for. ¡°I¡¯m glad to hear.¡± I smiled a bit, trying to be friendly. ¡°Since we got off on the wrong foot last time, let me get you a skewer, my treat.¡± ¡°Playing nice guy, eh?¡± He looked at me suspiciously, the fur on the back of his neck standing on end a little. ¡°Alright, I''ll bite. What do you want? Need a party to join? Well too bad. Tavro and I are a two man team. We don¡¯t let no strangers in just cause they buy a single skewer. If you need hunting grounds, then go find one on your own. Other than that, I can''t help you bud. Go bother someone else. I¡¯ll pay for my own damn food.¡± ¡°How about some more food recommendations? You seem to have some good taste. Got any good spots I should know about?¡± He gave a barking laugh. ¡°Right right. There''s a butcher on the west side of town, it has a great selection. Tell him I sent you and he¡¯ll hook you up real good.¡± I thanked him and he turned back around to order his food. He grabbed his skewers and ran off before I could say anything. Not that I was planning to, but still. It felt intentional. I ordered one skewer and went to walk around for a bit. It was pretty damn good. The first bite was too hot to actually enjoy, but after cooling down, the orc meat was delicious. I regretted not getting two or even three. I bought an apple and kept on my walk. I was in no rush today, so I looked at what some of the hawkers were selling. One stall seemed to have some necklaces and arm bands. Another had rings and brooches for coats. There were all sorts of goods being sold. After I finished eating. I found a place to throw away my trash and headed in the direction of the enchanter¡¯s shop. I was eager to see what was available. ¡°Hello! Welcome to my humble corner of paradise! How can I be of service to you my friend?¡± The man looked to be human. He was tall, blad, and had skin darker than black, yet not quite as entrapping as the void cloth at Ered¡¯s Threads. His purple robes had a black and gold threaded trim to it that had a captivating effect on me. I tore my eyes from his robe and met his deep brown eyes. ¡°Hi, I''m mostly interested in looking around right now. I haven¡¯t the slightest idea of what I might want.¡± That being said, I had difficulty looking away from him. ¡°Oh don¡¯t be that way, everyone has at least some idea of their desires.¡± The strange man took my hands into his. ¡±How about I start with this: What do you do? You have the hands of someone who knows his herbs, yet I sense a strong amount of magical power coming from you. Are you perhaps a caster? Or maybe a fellow enchanter scoping out his competition?¡± He chuckled but there was an almost dangerous look in his eyes. I cast a barrier in between us to separate us then immediately dismissed it. Casting only took a second, half as long as when I first started casting barriers. ¡°Ooh, very interesting! It has been many moons since I''ve seen a barrier caster.¡± He barely looked phased at having his hands torn from mine. ¡°Now was that straight barrier magic, or was it some form of an air wall? I didn¡¯t sense any elemental inclination, but it could be arcane in nature. That would explain the raw power I felt. But I¡¯d have to see another look. Would you please?¡± He didn¡¯t have that look in his eyes anymore, so I obliged. I felt a little awkward showing off this way, but I decided to pump what felt like around 50 points of mana into it. ¡°Impressive! How expensive this must be! So let me ask, do you find yourself lacking in mana regeneration, or do you need more of an increased pool? I have rings for both, but they can misbehave sometimes when worn together.¡± He moved his body out of the way and I finally got a good look at his shop. There were multiple display cases showing off a variety of jewelry. Some looked a lot more elaborate and therefore expensive than others. I was down to just shy of 5 silver, so I didn''t have my hopes up on getting anything fancy. He showed me to a case full of plain looking rings. None had any gems on it, which made a sense of relief flow through me. They were still probably expensive though. ¡°Over here I have a few possibilities for you to try on. Don''t worry about damaging any of them. They¡¯re more durable than one might think. I picked up a brown ring and tried it on. It automatically adjusted to my size and fit perfectly on my left ring finger. ¡°The one you''re wearing now has a physical defense enchantment on it. If you focus your magic on it, you should be able to get a vague idea of how it works, regardless of your skills.¡± I reached out and tried touching the ring with my mana. It felt strange not putting it immediately into any specific pattern, but it did give me a sense of the ring. There wasn¡¯t much mana in it, but I did feel that I wouldn¡¯t take much damage if Griffith tried stabbing me. That alone had me tempted to buy it. But i wasn;t much of a front liner, so I put the ring back. The next ring I picked up felt warm as I put it on my finger. I reached out with a single point of mana and touched the red metal. I felt it start to corrupt and absorb the mana i was adding to it and i immediately recoiled at the feeling. ¡°That would be a ring of firebolt. It¡¯s one of my pride and joys! And it¡¯s a good thing you didn¡¯t add any more mana. If you had, a firebolt would have shot out and likely singed away on the wall. It¡¯s enchanted against most elemental damage, but I''d rather not risk it.¡± He took the ring off for me this time. ¡°Maybe give me a heads up on the next ring then? What does this blue one do?¡± I pointed to a deep blue ring. ¡°That would be one of the rings I mentioned earlier. It gives a ten percent boost to mana capacity.¡± TEN PERCENT?! That would be huge for me! It¡¯d be even better at higher levels too. Maybe I should buy it then? I kept a cool face and nodded. ¡°I see. That¡¯s impressive. What does the mana regeneration ring give? Also ten percent?¡± ¡°Actually, that one gives twenty percent. Another of my prides from my early years. Most folks don''t want it, since it would only increase regeneration by 2 points per hour for them. But I feel you might be different. What do you say? Care to try it on?¡± He handed me a dark blue ring with a black stripe through the middle. Twenty percent would be amazing! That would bump me up to 118 mana per hour. Almost one every 30 seconds! Now how much does it cost? I¡¯m a little broke right now after my tailoring escapades. I slipped it on my left ring finger again and it resized itself. It was wonderful. I felt a small rush as I felt the power flow through my body. I wouldn¡¯t have noticed it if I wasn''t looking for it. ¡°Wow, that¡¯s pretty nice. How much will it run me?¡± ¡°The regeneration ring will be 15 silver. If you want the capacity ring instead, that¡¯ll be 10 silver. I don''t recommend wearing both, as I said earlier, they can misbehave when they are together.¡± He gestured to the capacity ring. Damn. too rich for my blood for now. Maybe I could see if he can hold them. I already know which one I want. But what does he mean misbehaved? Ah whatever, I''m too broke right now for either. ¡°Could you put the regeneration ring on hold for a week or so, so I can come up with the money? It¡¯s a bit rich for my blood right now, but I still want to buy it.¡± He smiled with pearly white teeth and nodded aggressively. ¡°I can absolutely do that for you. It unfortunately doesn¡¯t see much attention, given most people prefer to drink potions. But it truly is a ring worthy of being worn by the strong. You¡¯ll see one day.¡± He winked and put the ring in a box off to the side. ¡°I see. Well, I think that¡¯ll be all for me today, thank you. I guess I''ll see you in a few days.¡± I turned and left the store. He bowed behind me and said, ¡°I wish you the best in your adventures.¡± With all my shopping done, I went back to my room at Half Moon to get some reading done. I still had a whole world to learn about, and plenty of monsters to kill. Chapter 11 It technically only took me 4 days to get back up to 15 silver. I would¡¯ve gone back immediately to grab it, but I didn''t want to spend all my money at once. I needed a little cushion before I spent everything. I came back a week later to pick up the regeneration ring. I spent that time farming goblins with Grifith then sprinting back to the city. I ate my usual dinner at Half Moon then went to my room to read. I had Theona grab my laundry yesterday, so I''m stocked up on clean clothes at the moment too. I pulled up my status sheet and admired my progress. User: Claff: Health 240/240 Stamina 200/240 Mana 259/360 Quests [2] Kill Goblins 0/¡Þ Kill Slimes 0/¡Þ Party [0] SKILLS PASSIVE Enhanced Body Lv 7 [43%] Increased Mental Capacity Lv13 [41%] Regeneration Lv14 [32%] ACTIVE Arcane Magic Lv 9 [73%] Barrier Magic Lv 9 [90%] Game-like Storage Lv8 [92%] Storage (9/18) 0 g 23 s 31 c
  1. Bowie knife
  2. 25 shirts (varied colors, cloth)
  3. 10 pants (cloth)
  4. 10 underwear (5 boxers, 5 sock pairs )
  5. 3 rations (3 sandwich)
  6. 3 minor stamina potions
  7. 1 leather armor set
  8. 464 Cat Ears
  9. 5 books
Wow, I''ve come a long way in a week. It¡¯s a shame I didn''t have many uses for Arcane Explosion though. I thought back to my first time using the skill last week. I told Grifith I had a new spell to try out, and that I wanted to test it out of combat my first time. He agreed and told me to be careful and aim it away from him. I obliged and turned my back to him while I prepared. I pulled my status up and got a refresher on the pattern for the spell. It looked to be an area of effect spell centered on my location of choice. I aimed for about the midpoint between the center of the field and the road, with me at the center and Grifith standing a good ways behind me. I brought the pattern to fruition by pouring 15 points of mana into it. There wasn¡¯t much of a sting time, and seemed to only require however long it took me to supply mana to the patter. It was very different from casting Mana Bolt or Basic Barrier. They required time to set up properly. I only had to throw mana at this until it went off like a bomb. It allowed for rapid casts, but had a heavy mana toll. When the last point of mana joined the rest in the pattern, an explosion radiated out from the center of my target. It was loud, but bearable. It rushed out from the epicenter in a large wave of energy. There wasn''t much of a physical aspect to the spell, but the ground around the center looked to have been blown by a large gust of wind. ¡°Damn kid, got an AOE spell for your level 5 boost. That¡¯s impressive. Most casters don¡¯t get large area spells until 15 or 20.¡± I was happy about the explosion, but disappointed by the small area it covered. It only went about 5 feet from the center. Which realistically is impressive, but I still wanted more. And thankfully I got more as I continued leveling the skill up. Levels 6 and 7 brought with it a decent boost in radius and power of the spell. Level 8 also had the aspect of decreasing the mana requirement to 13 points per cast, along with power and radius. Level 9 gave me the biggest boost to power yet. It increased the radius of the spell from 10 feet all the way to 15 feet, while bringing the mana cost per cast to 10 mana even per cast. Yet the Explosion only grew in power. On the third day of the week, it got to the point where I couldn''t practice the Arcane Explosion spell on the ground anymore. I had to aim it about 20 feet in the air to get proper practice with it without hurting anyone. This came with the effect of grabbing the attention of every person and monster half a mile from us. That made for some interesting explanations, along with a decent increase in goblin kills. Grifith had me stop using the explosions for the first half of the day. I was bummed, but it gave me time to practice my Barrier Magic. I got to the point where I could trap the goblin using only 1 barrier. My control over the skill increased with its levels. I could make a barrier with three walls instead of just two at level 5 of the skill. Now that I''m at level 9, I can make an entire cage with just one casting. It takes a large amount of mental control on my part, but doing so only helped me power level Increased Mental Capacity. The first half of the day we farmed Grifith¡¯s spawn point for the goblin so he can get his detection practice. The second half consisted of me using a giant Arcane Explosion up in the air to gather all the goblins in around half a mile of us. They were attracted to the noise. After that, Grifith and I worked to slaughter them all. I tried limiting my explosions so I could help out the way the spell was meant to be used, but I was too afraid of hitting Grifith. Instead, I rapidly fired my Arcane Bolts all around us. My increased mana pool really came in handy then. That and my relatively high level regeneration made killing goblins a cake walk. My Regeneration and my Increased Mental Capacity skills brought me to a monstrous 306 mana per hour. I was getting a point in my mana pool every 12 seconds. It didn¡¯t sound impressive, but the goblins really were quite slow. It made picking them off as they charged at Grifith and I very easy. The rapid fire of my mana bolts accounted for more than two thirds of my Arcane Magic experience this week due to how many we killed. Now that I had the money from all those kills, it was time for me to reap my reward. I walked into the enchanter¡¯s shop, whose name I never learned. I was immediately accosted by the dark skinned man, with his creepy white smile. ¡°Hello again, my friend. Back so soon are we? Has it truly been a week since you last came here?¡± ¡°It has indeed. And I brought my money for the mana regeneration ring, as promised. I assume you still have it ready for me?¡± I held my hand out and used my storage skill to make a stack of coins appear. I put them back as the man started to reach for them. ¡°Of course, let me go grab it for you.¡± He turned away from me and disappeared behind a beaded curtain that hid much more than it should. ¡°I was surprised you wanted the regeneration ring anstead of the capacity ring.¡± He was calling out from his hidden room. ¡°With how much mana you had in your hand the last time we met, I thought you were more of a mana hoarder than a generator. But it appears we can all be mistaken.¡± ¡°Who says I can''t be both? I have quite the capacity and the regeneration as it stands. I would just love to have more of it. More regeneration means I can have more mana to spend at a faster rate. I would have loved to buy both, but I dont have the money for that, and as you said, the two enchantments don¡¯t play well together.¡± ¡°Oh you got me there, my friend. Ah here it is!¡± He walked out carrying a small blue box. ¡°The ring of regeneration, as promised. That will be 16 silver, if you please.¡± ¡°16? But it was only 15 silver just last week!¡± I felt a bit cheated at the increase in price. ¡°Ah yes, the silver is the holding price. 16 for the ring, 1 silver for ensuring it stays ready just for you.¡± He smiled his pearly whites at me again and I harrumphed. ¡°Fine, here¡¯s your money.¡± I piled the money on the counter in 4 neat stacks. He counted the coins quickly and handed the box to me ¡°It¡¯s been a pleasure doing business with you my friend. Any time you have any enchanting needs, feel free to come to me. I can always do custom requests, though they might take some time.¡± ¡°Actually I do have one thing I want to ask about. Are you part of the enchanters guild? I heard they buy mana, and now that I have 20% more than I did just a few moments ago, I figured it was a good time to sell some. I could always use some extra money.¡± I gave a smirk of my own as I took the ring out and put it on. I felt a cool wave of power rush through my body as the ring sized itself to my finger. ¡°That I am. Give me a moment to close down for the evening and I can even bring you there myself. I was already almost done for the day. Not many people come in during the last few hours of the day anyways. Wait outside for just a moment and I''ll be right with you, my friend.¡± I walked outside and played with my barriers for a bit. I could feel the increased mana regeneration energizing me. I was at the point where I was gaining an entire point of mana every 10 seconds. It felt amazing to feel this powerful. The mysterious man finished closing his shop and came out. He turned and locked the door. As he did, I felt a strong wave of power emanate from the whole building. I assumed this was all his security enchantments being activated. He led me down a twisting path of left turns, right turns, and u turns. I felt like he was purposefully trying to confuse me. I was getting frustrated when he finally stopped in front of a large white building more impressive than even the adventurers guild hall. It had what looked like 6 floors and white granite columns out front that went all the way to the top. ¡°Here we are. The Enchanter¡¯s Guild. Impressive, is it not, my friend? Not many outsiders are permitted entry. Most have to make enchanting requests through other means. Very few regular casters are ever brought here, but there are a few anomalies about your mana that I would like to ask you about as a favor for favor.¡± Of course there¡¯s an ulterior motive. Whatever, I guess a few questions can¡¯t hurt. The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ¡°Alright. But I will say my willingness to answer is dependent on the rate I get for my mana. How about we have a conversation after I finish my business here?¡± ¡°Of course of course. No rush my friend. No rush.¡± He bowed apologetically, though I knew it was all a farce. He only wants information. He brought me inside and I looked around and gasped at the sheer magnitude of the display of wealth. There were precious stones on almost every desk I saw, people of various races working on them. The only desk without some jewels on it was made of solid gold. My benefactor brought me forward to the golden desk and coughed to get the person behind its attention. They looked up and started speaking. I couldn¡¯t even tell that anything was being said until I leaned against the desk. As my hand made contact, it was as if plugs were removed from my hand. ¡°-want to sell mana, huh?¡± the androgynous voice asked. They were hidden under a deep hood that I couldn''t see under. My benefactor replied with, ¡°Yes, my good friend here does. I can vouch that he has quite a bit of mana to give as well, though I do not know the exact quantity.¡± The hooded person turned to me and said, ¡°I see. If you can follow me, I can bring you to a testing room. We can go from there.¡± They got up and started walking down a granite hall to the left of their desk. My mystery man followed, and I followed him. After a few turns, we entered a room with a few tools and I sat down at the only chair provided. The hooded figure handed me what looked like a stopwatch and told me to pour exactly 5 points of mana into it. I did as asked and handed it back. They took it from me and connected the watch to a different device that had a large crystal attached to it. The crystal started to glow in a magical manner that had no color to it. The hooded person gasped a little and left the room. My benefactor - I hate calling him that, but he hasn¡¯t introduced himself yet, and I don''t want to give my name to him, either - started in awe at the glowing-but-not-glowing crystal. Then he looked at me, then back to the crystal. ¡°So what exactly happened? And why does the crystal look like that?¡± He turned to me, having gained a bit of his previous composure. ¡°You, my friend, do not possess any elemental affinity. That is quite the rarity. I knew your barrier magic possessed none whatsoever, but I thought that was just an effect of the skill. But no, your raw mana possesses no affinity. And you have so much of it, and it is so pure. Pure power course though your veins, my friend. Pure, uncorrupted power.¡± ¡°But what does that mean? Sure different skills possess different elements, like fire or water magic, but what does that have to do with my mana?¡± He looked a little lost for words at that. ¡°Let me try to simplify this for you. Everyone has some sort of affinity. Some are like you said, fire, water. Some are more ambiguous, like dark man, or life mana. Mind you, dark mana affinity doesn¡¯t make you a bad person, it¡¯s just a simple affinity.¡± I nodded along to his explanations. ¡°Skills also have an affinity. Like the fire magic skill, or the water magic skill. Now if someone with an affinity of water tried to cast fire magic, the fire magic will not be as strong. This has nothing to do with how much mana was put into the spell pattern, but with the water affinity mana corrupting the fire affinity spell, making the whole pattern weaker.¡± ¡°Makes sense so far. But what¡¯s that got to do with me?¡± ¡°I¡¯m getting there, my friend. I¡¯m getting there. You possess no affinity. In theory, your mana could be used to power any spell to the exact same degree as it could a spell of its opposing nature. As water puts out fire, fire boils water. But you do not have fire or water. So your fire ball has the same power potential as a water ball.¡± ¡°I see. So storing my mana would let someone use it to perform a wider variety of magic than someone else¡¯s elementally corrupted mana. Is that the gist of it?¡± ¡°¡®Is that the gist¡¯ he says. Bah. Young ones these days have no sense. The potential of your mana is immense. We could use your mana to power virtually any spell in the world!¡± He had a mildly crazed look in his eye for a moment. I almost started to cast a barrier between us again like I did last time. Thankfully the hooded person came back in and he regained control of himself. ¡°If you could follow me please. The guild leader would like to speak to you for a moment.¡± My benefactor almost seemed to pale at that. ¡°You should come along too.¡± I got up and followed them again. They walked much faster this time, to the point I almost had to jog. So much for my Body enhancement levels. The three of us went up four flights of stairs. The first flight was white granite. The second was a black granite, sanded smooth er than the first floor. The third flight of stairs looked to be made entirely out of gold. The last set we climbed was a deep, glowing purple stone that had jewels embedded in it. How much money do these enchanters make?! Did I grab the wrong skills? I almost got enchanting too! That should at least count for something! Hagrid, I messed up! We got to the top and stepped out into the landing. There was a halfway to the left, with a series of doors on either side. ¡°These labs are reserved for our most esteemed guild members.¡± The hooded figure explained. ¡°If you meet anyone, please show your utmost respect. Some of these members can be rather¡­ Eccentric at times. I¡¯d rather not have to deal with any tantrums if I can avoid it. But if it comes to it, I will do what I must to ensure your safety.¡± I agreed to be on my best behavior. We walked through the hall, and I was doing my best to be as silent as possible, going as far as to hold my breath as we passed the doors. At the end of the hall was a purple door that had one word written in diamonds. I could feel power radiating from it. Master The hooded figure opened the door and stood to the side, allowing my benefactor and I to enter, though he made sure I went in before him. I couldn¡¯t help but feel disappointed. It looked like a regular office from any office building in my old world. There was a wide desk front and center with two chairs on the visitor side. The desk was piled with mountains of paperwork that looked to be hastily pushed to the side. Behind the desk sat an unimpressive man who looked to be in his mid 50¡¯s. He pushed his blonde hair back as he stood up, and I saw he had pointed ears. He was an elf. That made his apparent age all the more impressive. He walked around the desk and pushed a cork board filled with papers to the side. As he approached me, I could feel waves of power coming off of him. He reached out to shake my hand and I hesitantly accepted it. ¡°You must be the mystery man of the hour. I am the leader of this fine establishment. You may call me Paris. What might your name be?¡± Paris gave a friendly smile to go with his handshake. I can¡¯t tell if he¡¯s being nice because he wants my mana, or if he¡¯s this way with everyone. I returned his smile with one of my own. ¡°My name is Claff. And I work as an adventurer at the guild. It¡¯s a pleasure to meet you.¡± ¡°I see! I had a few years when I was younger working as an adventurer. I was only successful because I was enchanting my own gear. A little cheap, but it worked all the same. I can¡¯t say I miss those years, but they were definitely fun.¡± He let go of me and went back to behind his desk. ¡°So I hear you want to sell your mana. Any particular reason why? Or just want some extra coin?¡± He maintained his smile through it all. It felt almost fatherly, but slightly off. I couldn¡¯t put my finger on it. ¡°I mostly just want some extra coin. Adventuring is working well for me, and I earn plenty. But I want to look into doing some dungeons in the future and will need a good bit of money to buy better gear.¡± i kept it honest for now. I saw no reason to lie. ¡°Money rules us all, doesn¡¯t it? Well my associate here tells me your mana is rather pure. I¡¯d love to get a sample and see for myself, if that¡¯s alright with you.¡± ¡°I see no problem with that. That being said, how will the mana purity affect my pay for selling it to you?¡± ¡°Depending on my findings, I might be able to get you a premium rate of 5 silver per hundred points you give. However, If it¡¯s not up to the necessary standard, I can only give you the basic 1 silver per hundred points.¡± What¡¯s with his smile? Why is it bothering me so much? ¡°I see. That works well for me. How do we proceed then?¡± We did something very similar to the lab downstairs, except this crystal was a lot larger, about two feet from one end to the other, and shaped almost like a teardrop. As the Crystal glowed-but didn¡¯t, Paris¡¯ smile wavered a bit. ¡°Well it fits what I''m looking for. How much do you want to sell right now, and how often are you willing to come? The purity you have is astounding. If you want to come once a week, or even daily would be awesome.¡± I started to pull out my status to check what I was at right now in terms of mana quantity. I was also starting to gain better control over my status as well. I pulled my resources up User: Claff: Health 240/240 Stamina 220/240 Mana 360/360 Full mana. Sweet. ¡°Well I can do 300 points right now. If you want to wait an hour after that, I can do 300 more then too.¡± Paris¡¯s smile dropped as he looked shocked at what I said. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I think I misheard you. Did you say you can provide 600 points of mana in an hour?¡± I nodded and smiled. ¡°I have Regeneration as one of my passive skills, and the ring I just got from my friend here only added to the boost.¡± I looked over at my benefactor. His jaw was wide open and slammed it shut as I brought attention to him. He put on a clearly fake smile that looked painful. He nodded as Paris looked to him ¡°I see. Well that¡¯s wonderful then. We can provide you an area to rest after you make your first deposit, and my associate here will come get you when you''re ready. In the meantime, follow me to my personal lab, and you can get started.¡± He brought me to the hall, and we entered the first down on our left. There were jewels, rings, necklaces, and many pieces of armor strewn about on the tables. On the shelf at the back of the room was a floating metallic ball that had an ominous feeling to it. Of course we¡¯re going to the floating ball of death over there. Paris used a special tool to bring the ball towards the middle of the room. He fiddled with the tool again and touched it to the ball. ¡°There will be a small spark and then 300 points of mana will be drawn from your hand. Try not to resist it, as it won''t let go until it¡¯s done. It should be fast though, especially if you add to the mana drain. The more you push your mana into the ball to aid the process, the faster it will go.¡± When it was stationary again, he told me to lightly press my hand against the surface of the ball. I felt a small static shock and a slow drain of mana from my hand. I focused on the drain and ushered a wave of mana from my mana core by my heart, through my arm, down to my left hand, and then out into the ball. It took a total of four seconds before I could remove my hand again. ¡°What happened? Did it not work?¡± Paris looked at his tool in confusion. ¡°That¡¯s not right. The draining process should take at least a few minutes. What was that?¡± He started getting mildly heated as he looked from the tool in his hand, to the ball, to me then back to his tool. ¡°Well, like I said. I wanted to sell 300 points of mana right now, and another 300 in an hour. I just pushed the 300 points into the ball, and took my hand off when I was done.¡± ¡°Well yes, I see that. But how did you finish so quickly? The drain is set to only take 100 an hour. Even if I boosted the mechanisms, it would only take 300 an hour at the most.¡± ¡°Oh, I just have practice dealing with large amounts of mana at once. So I could just shove the mana into the ball and call it good. I didn¡¯t break anything, did i?¡± I was talking about me pouting over a hundred points of mana into my barriers at night. I¡¯ve been getting better at doing it faster. ¡°No, no. Everything seems to be fine. Are you alright though? 300 points is a lot of mana to use at once.¡± For once he seemed genuine in his concern. I realied now that the off feeling was him faking his smile. But a true researcher could never fake interest in their project, can they? ¡°I¡¯ll manage. Now where¡¯s a quiet place for me to sit? I have a book I''ve been dying to read. I finished the geography book a couple days ago, and I finished the history book last night. Tonight was my plan to start the dungeon book I bought. I was eager to get started on reading. The hooded person brought me down to a private room on the first floor where I had access to free food, water, and a private bathroom. I took some time to clean up as best I could and grabbed a small snack. I still planned on eating at Half Moon when I finished here. I took a seat at the desk and got started reading. ¡°Okay, let''s see. What¡¯s the closest dungeon to Silface. Ooh, there¡¯s a slime based dungeon 15 miles north of here. I wonder if Grifith would be down to join me for it.¡± Chapter 12 Turns out Grifith had no desire to go anywhere near slimes. The cores were too small and buried behind too much slime mass for him to comfortably kill them with any sort of efficiency. After Grifith and I finished for the day, we started our daily ¡°jog¡± back to the city. It was remarkably easier for me to run now that I had a few levels in Enhanced Body. I thought some more about the slime dungeon I read about and was going to ask Luke for some information about it. According to the book I had, Dungeons are pocket dimensions that have a set number of spawners and monsters that reset at predetermined intervals. Dungeons are given ranks similar to what adventurers had but lettered from F at the weakest to A at the strongest. The ranking is based on how powerful the monsters it spawned were, how many monsters it spawned per reset, and how strong the boss monster was at the end of the dungeon in comparison to the rest of the monster in the dungeon. According to the information given in the book, the slime dungeon was about 15 miles north of here and had between 140 and 210 slimes, with the boss monster being a stronger slime that spawned as a more powerful version of itself the less regular slimes spawned. So a 150 slime count boss would be a lot stronger than a 200 slime count boss. I assume it¡¯s due to a power distribution system in place to keep the fighting fair. Apparently the boss slime also had a chance to drop a bracelet that increased the wearer¡¯s mana capacity by 10 points. The book mentioned that the bracelet could grow more powerful by feeding it slime cores too, but specifically slime cores gathered from that dungeon only. Any other slime cored that were fed to it would just be wasted. Okay, I have GOT to get my hands on that. It has so much potential to be a broken item. If I can get the slimes grouped, I should be able to wipe out loads of them at a time with just a single Arcane Explosion. There¡¯s not a chance in hell I wouldn''t be doing this. I got to the guild hall and rushed right over to Luke. I asked him to bring out all the bins he had because I''ve been hoarding the Cat Ears herbs I''ve been picking and wanted to get rid of them all today. He instead brought a magic bag over that was used specifically for situations like this. I just had to dump all the Cat Ears I had into it, and it would count them automatically and show the number on a tag attached to it. Quite nifty, if you ask me. I had 512 Cat Ear herbs, all were in pristine condition since they were stored in my storage skill. Apparently it kept herbs and perishables fresh for an indefinite amount of time as long as they were in the actual skill. The Cat Ears, goblin kills, and goblin drops added up to 11 silver 22 copper. I asked Luke if he had a bit to talk about a possible dungeon run, and he said, ¡°That''s my job man. What dungeon did you have in mind? I can¡¯t say I recommend anything over rank E for right now, but I''m sure you¡¯ll get there soon enough. Also, are you bringing anybody along with you?¡± ¡°Well, I plan on going solo, actually. And I want to do the Slime Dungeon to the north. I have a good skill set to deal with it, and I plan on taking some potions with me, so don¡¯t go getting your panties in a bunch.¡± I could see the protest in his face as soon as I said solo. ¡°Fine, but I firmly object to you doing this by yourself. Won¡¯t Griffith go with you? It would be a cakewalk for him. And you¡¯d at least have back up that way. I¡¯d be alot more comfortable with you going if you had a high copper rank with you.¡± I rolled my eyes at him. ¡°Dude, I''ll be fine. My arcane magic is almost level 10, same with my barriers. Would it help if I said I wasn''t going to do the boss and just farmed the basic slime spawns?¡± He looked up at that. ¡°Yeah actually, that would help a lot.¡± ¡°Well too bad, because I want that bracelet.¡± I laughed, but Like didn''t see the humor in my joke. ¡°I promise I''ll take it slow and safe. Griffith has been helping me train my physical skill, so I won''t have any problems running at the first sign of trouble, okay?¡± He looked annoyed, but rolled his eyes and finally agreed. ¡°Fine, you can go. I still object though. Make sure you stock up on supplies before you head out. And don''t stay there for too long. You better be here bright and early in the morning.¡± ¡°Aaaaactually, I planned on maybe staying around up there for a day or two. It would be a waste to go all the way up there only to have to come right back so soon. I want to farm the dungeon for at least two days, maybe a third while I''m at it. I will need to pack plenty of water. Which reminds me, I should get a water skin. I need to start hydrating better, instead of just chugging water after my runs with Griffith and before I leave the inn.¡± Luke looked at me like I was stupid. ¡°Dude, how are you even alive? You''ve been going all these days with no water? What''s wrong with you!¡± ¡°Yeah, I know I know. I¡¯ll be better. Anyways. I''m heading upstairs then going to the enchanter''s guild to sell more mana. At least they love me!¡± It was true. On my way out yesterday, everyone stopped what they were working on and stared at me and whispered amongst themselves. I felt like a proper celebrity. Luke angrily waved me off when I went for the stairs. ¡°Hey! Long time no see. What¡¯s it been, two whole days since I last saw you?¡± Sarah made my heart skip a beat when I saw her. ¡°Yep, an entire 48 hours. I just can¡¯t stay away from you.¡± I blew a flirty air kiss at her and she laughed. ¡°So mister big shot, what¡¯ll it be this time? You here to buy our full plate, dragon proof armor that goes for 20 gold? I¡¯m sure you could afford it by now, right?¡± She¡¯s started a running joke of offering to sell me gear worth hundreds of times what I could afford. Last time she offered to sell me a war hammer made of solid adamantium worth 350 gold pieces. It was my turn to laugh now. ¡°Not in the slightest. That weak armor could never vanquish my foes! A slime could slip right through the gaps with ease, and I wouldn''t even know what killed me!¡± We kept the sharade up for another two comments each before I let it go. ¡°In all seriousness though, I will be needing some more rations and a couple of water skins. I plan on taking a small trip up north to take on the Slime dungeon. I¡¯ll be aiming for the bracelet the boss drops. It¡¯s supposed to have a 10% drop rate though, so I''m preparing to stay a couple days up there. At least two, maybe three.¡± ¡°I see! Moving up in the world, are we? Well you better remember little old me waiting for you to get back.¡± She grabbed my hand and led me to a shelf with various sized water skins. ¡°You know i could never forget y- Oh, is this a magic water skin? That¡¯s awesome!¡± Maybe I get distracted too easily. Sarah laughed at my attention span and let me go so I could take a better look. ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s enchanted to hold 300 gallons of water. It¡¯s a little expensive, but we offer trade-ins for refills when it goes dry. The full skin costs 10 silver, but a trade-in brings it down to 3 silver, assuming it¡¯s still in peak condition.¡± ¡°That¡¯s a great price. I¡¯ll take it!¡± ¡°Are you sure? You wont need the full thing, and you can get a smaller one for half the price.¡± She looked a little concerned about my spending habits. ¡°Nah, I want the big one. Now I just need some rations to last me three full days, and I should be set. Want to help me pick out some meals? I¡¯ve been set on just getting the sandwich raions that are 5 for 1 silver coin, but I think I want some variety instead of eating the same thing every meal for multiple days.¡± She laughed at me and we walked to the front. She helped me pick out a couple of chicken dinners, 3 breakfast packs that came with eggs and orc meat, and she got me to try the meatloaf deluxe ration pack. I also grabbed 2 stews. Duke was nearby and keeping an eye on us, tallying everything up as we picked it out. When we got to the counter, he told me my total was 12 silver, then wished me luck on my slime adventures. ¡°Don¡¯t rush it, and run away if you have too. I don¡¯t know who you''re bringing with you, but make sure you stay safe. I¡¯d rather not have another death to grieve.¡± The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°Damn, that got morbid fast. I¡¯ll be fine man. And I''m actually going solo. If I get that bracelet drop, I''m keeping it for myself, damnit.¡± ¡°For fuck sake. Just come back alive, dumbass.¡± Duke punched my arm and shooed me away. Sarah waved goodbye and I left for the Enchanter¡¯s Guild. It was much more straightforward than the path I took last time. I still don¡¯t understand why my strange benefactor went the way he did. ¡°How can i he-¡± The hooded person stopped halfway through when they realized it was me. ¡°Oh, Claff. Pleasure to see you again. Give me just a moment to let the guild leader know you¡¯re here.¡± They got up and practically ran for the stairs. I get my mana is special, but I don''t get the spectacle they make of it. A minute later, the familiar hood came back down. Hood. That''s as good a nickname as any, I guess. Hood brought me upstairs and we went straight to Paris¡¯s lab this time rather than start in his office. He was waiting with his floating orb next to him, looking eager to get started. ¡°Claff! I¡¯m so happy to see you. Come in come in!¡± I came over and shook his outstretched hand. ¡°Pleasure to see you as well. I will say though, I only have time for one round of sale today though. I have an early start tomorrow, and I''ll be away for a couple of days doing a dungeon.¡± Paris looked slightly concerned at that. Probably nervous at the thought of losing his precious uncorrupted-mana generator. ¡°I do hope you¡¯ll stay safe. Dungeons can be quite dangerous. What rank dungeon are you going to do?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll be doing the slime dungeon up north. It¡¯s only E rank. And from what I read, it only got that designation due to the high number of slimes it spawns. I plan on taking my time going through it, so that wont be a problem for me.¡± I tried my best to put him at ease. ¡°I see. Well still, be sure to exercise plenty of caution. And don¡¯t be ashamed of running. Better to run and live to tell the tale than to stay and die a pointless battle.¡± Okay, he''s good at acting. It almost sounds like he''s genuinely concerned for my safety. ¡°Agreed. But how about we do the sale real quick. I want to read a bit more on the boss before bed tonight.¡± ¡°That¡¯s absolutely fine. The mana battery sphere is already primed and ready. Feel free to start whenever.¡± ¡°Awesome.¡± I approached, pushed my mana into my hand, and touched the ball. I felt the familiar spark from yesterday and poured 300 points of mana into the ball. It went a little faster today, taking only 3 seconds this time. I knew what to expect, which helped speed things along. ¡°Your mana transfer speed still astounds me. I don¡¯t know anyone else who can spend so much mana so quickly. But as promised, here¡¯s 15 silver coins.¡± ¡°It¡¯s a pleasure doing business with you. Maybe in the future, you could show me around to see what items you have for sale. I¡¯m sure we could find a good balance to barter with.¡± I truly was interested in bartering. If I could get some rings similar to the firebolt ring my benefactor showed me, I could theoretically have a nice little arsenal on my hands. ¡°We¡¯ll have to see about that. The pure mana is great to run my lab here, but it would probably take a few mana deposits before you can come near the value some of my items are worth. Remember, I sell in the big leagues. The door to my office is worth more than most of the city combined. But I can see what I can do for you. It would be fun to see what results of you getting a hold on the slime bracelet though. I assume that¡¯s what you''re after?¡± I smiled in the affirmative. ¡°Indeed. I could have a lot of fun with that thing. I really hope I get it. If not the first run, then I''ll keep trying until I do. Either that or untill i run out of food and have to come back.¡± Paris smiled at my determination. He wished me luck and bade me farewell. Hood and I left back down the hallway and down the stairs, and everyone stopped working again to whisper about me. It felt a little embarrassing being the center of attention like that, but I also felt like a superstar knowing they all knew my face. It was awesome. When I got back to Half Moon, I made sure Thaggerd and Theona knew tonight would be my last night here for a little bit. They seemed sad to see me go, but understood I''d be back. I did have to pay a deposit so they''d keep my room for me. ¡°Actually, would you mind if I got a load of laundry done? I''d like to make sure I have a clean set before I head out.¡± Theona gave me a bag and I loaded all my clothes in it. She said she''ll have them ready for me by sunrise, so with that, I went to my room to read some more about the slime boss in the dungeon. Apparently, it was a large slime with multiple cores inside of its body. The basic party procedure for killing it involved a tank getting its attention while any spell casters or ranged fighters targeted the cores to bring it down. It mentioned a second phase to the boss too. If it wasn¡¯t brought down fast enough, the giant slime would start slinging corrosive slime goop all around itself until it shrunk to half its original size. Then its speed got a drastic increase and it would double how fast it could attack. The prospect of dealing with a giant slime intrigued me. I was excited to go and fight it already. I hardly slept a wink that night. Instead, I practiced making a barrier that would go around me while I slept. I would be using it as my makeshift tent while I was out in the woods outside of the dungeon. The next morning, I got my freshly clean clothes, had a light breakfast, then went to the adventurer¡¯s guild to check in with Luke. He asked if I was sure I wanted to actually go by myself and reiterated how dangerous it was. ¡°My mind hasn¡¯t changed, Luke. I will be doing this. I¡¯d love some moral support, but I get you¡¯re upset about it. I¡¯ll be off then. I just wanted to say goodbye. Have a good one man.¡± ¡°Wait a second. I¡¯ll give you some support by doing you a favor. Give me your guild tag real quick.¡± I handed it to him ,wondering what he would do. He went to the back room for a minute and came back out looking pleased. ¡°Alright, check your map. I added the exact location of the dungeon entrance so you won¡¯t get lost. Just follow the guide marker and you¡¯ll be there in no time.¡± Sure enough, when I pulled out the bigger version of my map UI, it showed a glowing marker about 16 miles north of my current location. ¡°Sweet! I didn¡¯t know you could do that. I appreciate it man. I really do.¡± ¡°Show your appreciation by coming back alive.¡± I rolled my eyes, but had to smile. ¡°Alright, I¡¯m outta here. Later, Luke.¡± I left the hall, but not for the dungeon. Not yet, at least. Instead, I went to the Enchanter¡¯s Guild and made my last sale before heading out. It was quick, and went much like last time. I walked in, made small talk with Paris, deposited 300 points of mana, got paid, and then Hood guided me back out to the entrance room where people stopped working to whisper and stare at me. With all that done, I started my journey north. It was going to be a long walk. I estimated it would take me around three hours to get to the dungeon at a light jog. This would also be my first time jogging for a longer distance than 5 miles. I did an actual jog in the morning to get to the field where I first met Griffith, but that was a third of the distance and took me around 40 minutes still. I¡¯d be going a bit slower this time since I had so much further to go. I wanted to hurry, but I wasn¡¯t in a time crunch or anything. Let¡¯s try to actually enjoy this run, shall we? I pulled up my whole status to see what I was working with as I left. User: Claff: Health 240/240 Stamina 235/240 Mana 70/360 Quests [2] Kill Goblins 0/¡Þ Kill Slimes 0/¡Þ Party [0] Equipment Ring of Mana Regeneration (20%) SKILLS PASSIVE Enhanced Body Lv 7 [67%] Increased Mental Capacity Lv13 [61%] Regeneration Lv14 [58%] ACTIVE Arcane Magic Lv 9 [73%] Barrier Magic Lv 9 [98%] Game-like Storage Lv9 [9%] Storage (9/20) 0 g 66s 43 c
  1. Bowie knife
  2. 25 shirts (varied colors, cloth)
  3. 10 pants (cloth)
  4. 10 underwear (5 boxers, 5 sock pairs )
  5. 11 rations (varied flavors)
  6. 3 minor stamina potions
  7. 1 leather armor set
  8. 5 books
  9. Water skin
I was surprised to see I was almost up to a whole gold coin. Most of it came from selling mana, since I got 15 silver for each silver for now. When I get that bracelet to increase my capacity though, it¡¯ll be a whole lot more. I shivered at the thought. Time to go. Goodbye for now, Silface. I''ll see you in a few days. I started with a walk and picked up the pace until I was at a comfortable jog. I have a long way to go, but when my skills get to a higher level, I¡¯ll be the most badass person ever. I¡¯ll be soloing A rank dungeons before I know it. Chapter 13 The total jog took me about as long as I expected: 3 hours. I checked the map periodically to make sure I was headed in the right direction and made adjustments accordingly. I found at one point when I wasn''t paying attention, I had started to turn west so much I added probably another mile to my jog. I would¡¯ve made it a bit sooner if it weren''t for that. Finally made it. They weren¡¯t kidding about dungeons being pocket dimensions. In front of me was an opaque blue swirling portal. It was rather intimidating to be honest. The prospect of going in there suddenly seemed a whole lot more dangerous now that I was here. But I made it all this way. I refused to go back now. I downed one of my three remaining stamina potions and prepared myself to go in. I only just realized I never actually stocked up on potions like I told Luke I would. Oh well. My Regeneration works for both health and mana. And I have stamina potions to supplement it¡¯s one shortcoming. I¡¯ll be fine. I hyped myself up once last time and walked into the portal. NOW ENTERING SLIME DUNGEON. PREPARE YOURSELF. As I opened my eyes, I saw that I was in a damp cave that had twists and turns that prevented me from seeing very far in. I heard a squelching noise every couple of seconds coming from further in. Okay, it makes sense that there won¡¯t be any enemies right at the entrance. And where¡¯s the light coming from? I looked around but couldn¡¯t find a light source. The whole cave seemed to be glowing a bit. It was ominous but not in a scary way. The light seemed to be coming from a line oblong the ceiling of the cave, at least that¡¯s what I thought, given I still had a shadow and the stalagmites to my left also cast a small shadow. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s get this party started!¡± I called out. As I did, I heard a large quantity of squelches start to get louder and louder. I cringed at the idea of getting swarmed by slimes. Oops. Maybe I shouldn¡¯t be talking in here. Or¡­ maybe I should be talking more? I had a brilliant idea. Or a very stupid idea. Results will determine which it is. ¡°COME AND GET ME YOU SLIMY BASTARDS!¡± I yelled out. The squelching noises more than tripled at that. I started approaching the first bend in the cave system and saw an army of slimes hopping, crawling, and rolling in my direction. Hagrid, don¡¯t let this be my final mistake. I started casting Arcane Explosion after Arcane Explosion. The booms echoed all around the cave, beckoning more and more slimes forward. I stopped casting explosions as the slimes seemed to thin in numbers. When they only came in groups of two to three, I switched to Mana bolts to save mana. But wait. If each Mana Bolt costs 5 mana, and each Arcane Explosion costs 10 mana, it would be cheaper for me to keep using the explosions, right? So that¡¯s what I did. I waited for the slimes to get closer and group in tighter together before casting the explosions. After I killed what felt like the thousandth slime, I stopped to take a breather. All around me were slime cores. There had to be at least 60 scattered around the cave floor. After a moment of not hearing any slime squelches, I started gathering the slime cores into a small divot in the floor that acted like a bowl. It only took me 5 minutes to gather them all. I looked around again and couldn¡¯t find any more cores, so I bent down and willed the cores to enter my storage. Storage (9/20) 0 g 66s 43 c
  1. Bowie knife
  2. 25 shirts (varied colors, cloth)
  3. 10 pants (cloth)
  4. 10 underwear (5 boxers, 5 sock pairs )
  5. 13 rations (varied flavors)
  6. 2 minor stamina potions
  7. leather armor set
  8. 5 books
  9. Water skin (300 gallons)
  10. 73 slime cores
I did some quick math to see how many slimes I probably killed. With a 80% drop rate, I estimated I had just massacred 91 slimes in just under 10 minutes. Unfortunately, slime kills don¡¯t count towards the slime quest while inside of the dungeon. Otherwise, this would be a gold mine for everybody. Even as it stands, I just got almost 3 silver in loot. I could probably farm this all day too with my regeneration. I¡¯m up to 367 mana per hour, so almost a mana every 10 seconds. Health 240/240 Stamina 210/240 Mana 103/360 I decided to wait until I was back to a full mana pool before I continued my dungeon delve. I surrounded myself with a barrier, making sure to close the top off but allow air to flow through it freely. It took 30 mana to do it properly, but I could spare it since having the barrier around me meant I would be safe from any sneak attacks. I doubt slimes are smart enough to try anything like that, but I''d rather be cautious. I was back on my feet in under an hour, anxious to get going. While I was meditating, I realized I should probably do this after every fight in the dungeon. That way I would have my full arsenal with me the whole time. It added an hour between fights, but as someone who was soloing his first dungeon, I didn''t care. I was willing to wait. I walked slowly onward through the twists and turns, keeping an ear out for any signs of slime activity. I went at a snail''s pace for about 15 minutes before I heard anything. I assumed that meant that I had cleared off a good portion of the dungeon in just one go. Maybe I was a secret genius with my rather explosive ideas. ¡°HERE SLIMY SLIMY SLIMY! COME AND GET YOUR DINNER! I¡¯M FRESH MEAT AND READY TO BE EATEN!¡± The squelches started rapidly coming my way, almost as intense as the first wave of slimes I killed. I rounded the next corner and was met with a room absolutely packed with slimes. It was to the point where I wondered how anyone else did this dungeon without some major AOE skills. I started blasting the slimes as they came. I was more methodical about it this time, aiming for the more densely packed groups first. I wanted to be as efficient as I could. It took around 18 castings of Arcane Explosion over 8 minutes to fully get rid of all the slimes. After the last slime went down, I waited a full minute, straining my ears to hear anything. After a whole lot of silence, I started gathering all the slime cores in the room. The whole room was about 60 feet in diameter. I gathered the slimes core in the center for an easier time getting them into my storage. I found a couple of cores behind a group of stalagmites on the far left of the hallway I came through. After piling them up, I added them all to my storage. I now had 167 slime cores in my bag. Judging by how many cores I had, I¡¯ve probably killed the full 210 slimes. I guess I lucked out and got the weaker version of the boss on my first run. Speaking of which, the boss should be the only monster left in the whole dungeon. I sat down, cast my barrier, and started thinking of my battle strategy. I was a little nervous at the thought of fighting it. I think my current plan should be to do to it what I''ve been doing to the goblins with Griffith. I¡¯ll cage it in a barrier, then start spamming Arcane Explosions until either it dies, or I run out of mana. If it comes to that point, I¡¯ll gladly turn tail and run. If I can''t surround it with my barrier, then I''ll still be spamming my explosion spell, but I''ll be a whole lot more willing to run if that¡¯s the case. I waited an hour for my mana to completely refill, and though it finished in under the hour, I still waited. I was nervous to face my first boss monster. Sure it was only a stronger version of one of the weakest monsters, but I was still considered a new adventurer. I want to prove I''m strong, but I don''t want to die either. This world might have some video game logic to it, but by the reactions of everyone around, it does not include a revival feature. One death is a true death. All it takes is one mistake. I stopped bumming myself out and instead focused on the prize at hand. I had a bracelet to get, and I had plenty of ammo to feed it to grow stronger. ¡°Here goes nothing.¡± I dropped the barrier and continued on my way. I went down the next hall and came to another entrance to a large room. I walked to the edge of the entrance and peaked in. Inside the room was a giant slime that had 3 dark cores floating inside itself. It didn¡¯t appear to notice me yet, so I went back to the hall to take a breather. Okay Claff. Just like you planned. Cast a barrier around it to confine its movements, then start blasting it with multiple Arcane Explosions. Realistically, it should only take a couple of seconds, max. You¡¯ve got this. All hyped up, I peered around the corner again. I made sure to stick my head in just enough to get a clear view of the monster. When I had the entire thing in my line of sight, I started casting my barrier, and dumped an entire 100 points of mana into it. I wasn¡¯t willing to risk the barrier failing. As soon as the barrier went up, the giant slime started bouncing around, looking to be in a panic. It only had a foot of wiggle room to bounce though. I ensured it would be a tight fit in there. It only bounced at the barrier twice before I remembered the second part of the plan. Oh right, I actually have to kill it now. I ran into the room and started casting multiple Arcane Explosions in a row. I didn¡¯t realize it at the time, but the damn thing died on the first casting. All three slime cores floating in its stomach burst from the first wave of energy that hit them. Not taking any chances, I almost emptied my entire mana pool trying to destroy the giant slime. I paused when I only had one more casting in me, my head pounding from only having 10 mana in my body. The entire boss fight only took 10 seconds, from the moment I caged the slime boss to when I realized the boss was dead. I dropped the barrier, and the tension on my mind lessened a good deal. I walked to where it was set up, and in its place sat three slime cores. Well, better luck next time. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. I stored the cores and went to leave the dungeon when a portal appeared in the doorway. Sweet a quick exit. That¡¯ll make farming this a whole lot easier. Now I have to wait an hour for the dungeon to reset, and I can go again. Time for lunch! I walked through the newly appeared portal and I was suddenly outside. I pulled out one of the new rations I got with Sarah and went to town on it. It was a lemon chicken dinner. In all honesty, if I had been spoiled by how good the food was at Half Moon, I could probably call this the best food I''ve ever had. After I finished my meal, I pulled my status up to see how I''m doing on levels. User: Claff: Health 240/240 Stamina 235/240 Mana 70/360 Quests [2] Kill Goblins 0/¡Þ Kill Slimes 0/¡Þ Party [0] Equipment Ring of Mana Regeneration (20%) SKILLS PASSIVE Enhanced Body Lv 7 [67%] Increased Mental Capacity Lv13 [81%] Regeneration Lv14 [83%] ACTIVE Arcane Magic Lv 10 [29%] Barrier Magic Lv 10 [16%] Game-like Storage Lv9 [19%] Storage (10/20) 0 g 66s 43 c
  1. Bowie knife
  2. 25 shirts (varied colors, cloth)
  3. 10 pants (cloth)
  4. 10 underwear (5 boxers, 5 sock pairs )
  5. 10 rations (varied flavors)
  6. 2 minor stamina potions
  7. 1 leather armor set
  8. 5 books
  9. Water skin
  10. 170 slime cores
¡°Sweet! Both Arcane and Barrier magic skills leveled! I wonder what I''ll get.¡± If I can''t talk to myself in the dungeon, I''ll have to make up for it outside then. ¡°I don¡¯t want to wait to get the new spells, but I also don¡¯t want to deal with possibly being attacked right now. Even though this place is dead silent, I still don''t want to risk it yet. I¡¯ll do it when I get back to my room at Half Moon in a couple of days. And damn. I should¡¯ve grabbed a sleeping bag while I was in town. I¡¯ll have to remember that for when I get back to Silface. There¡¯s no guarantee I''ll get the bracelet on any of these runs coming up.¡± I sat around for the remainder of the hour meditating and listening for any possible noises that might indicate a monster. Thankfully, none showed up. I got up at around the hour mark and stretched a little before going back into the dungeon. I was a lot more confident this round since I had a solid plan that I knew worked. I walked through the portal and immediately started taunting the slimes. ¡°YOU LITTLE BLOBS COULDN¡¯T HURT A FLY THAT LANDED RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU! HOW DO YOU THINK YOU¡¯LL EVER PUT A SCRATCH ON ME!¡± I yelled a few more silly things and rounded the corner to see the horde of slimes quickly squelching my way. I started blasting the slimes, trying to conserve mana so I didn''t have to wait as long between fights. This horde was smaller than the last one I had to deal with. It took me only 3 minutes before I was out of slimes to destroy, as opposed to the previous 8 minutes. When I was done, I gathered all of the slime cores into the bowl in the ground I found last run through and added them to my storage. I only found 48 slime cores in this room. It didn¡¯t make me feel too good about how the next room and then the boss was going to be. My math told me there were only around 60 slimes in here. I had to wait around 25 minutes before I was at full mana again. I didn¡¯t bother with the barrier this time, and opted to keep a closer eye out for any slime assassins instead. As I had yet to die, I stood back up and went back to it. I was more confident in my slow pace to the second slime chamber, but still mildly nervous about it. I found the chamber exactly where it was last time. I did the usual taunt and blasted the slimes in my methodical manner. There were more in this room than the last, but still not nearly as many as the first time I came in here. The slime core count for this room was 65. That meant there was likely around 80 slimes in here. So I gotta deal with a stronger boss this time, eh? That¡¯ll be interesting. Hopefully he¡¯s not that much stronger. I waited for my mana to fill up again and went straight to the boss chamber. I stopped at the edge of the hallway and peaked around the corner to a slime that was at least as tall as I was. Not to mention that it had 12 more cores than the last boss had. Hagrid, what are you doing to me man! I¡¯m just trying to get the friggin bracelet! Was an easy boss too much to ask for? I swear I could hear laughing. I took a deep breather. Alright, just like before. But faster on the explosions this time. There¡¯s no room to mess up. I looked around the corner and cast my barrier around the entire giant slime and immediately started throwing Arcane Explosions at it. I didn¡¯t bother checking to see if the boss was dead. I spent 100 mana on the barrier and then threw 200 more points of Arcane Explosions at it. It all happened in less than 5 seconds. When the dust settled, I saw that there was a small pile of 15 slime cores laying in the barrier. I walked into it and put the cores into storage. I walked out the portal and felt a little disappointed that I didn''t get the bracelet this run either. I sat and relaxed while waiting for the dungeon to reset. The next two runs netted another 274 mana cores for my storage. Yet I still didn¡¯t get the damn bracelet. I did notice a pattern though. The number of scores in the boss''s body went down by one every time the dungeon reset, with the exception being the first run through I did. The third run had 14 cores in its body and the fourth run had 13 cores. I assume the minimum number of cores needed to make the boss was 3, and that was the reset point of the cycle of decreasing cores. ¡°I wonder if the bracelet only drops at a certain point of the cycle. Like it only appears when the boss has 10 cores. That would explain why people think the bracelet has such a low drop rate. But it would be lower than 10% drop rate though. If the cycle is 15 down to 3 cores, then it would be closer to 7% or 8%. But with it being so close, that would still make a reasonable margin of error. Alright, I¡¯ll go through each numbered boss and see which one it drops at. If my prediction is right, then I only have to go through 10 more dungeon runs before I get the bracelet!¡± Turns out that was a false idea. Over the next day and a half, I did those 10 runs instead of sleeping, and not a single bracelet was dropped. I wasn¡¯t mad though. I still had quite the build up of slime cores, 2102 cores total. I started to keep track of how many cores I got from each run, and how many cores came from the boss, by writing in the back of the bestiary I bought. It had a blank page before the cover, so I used my knife and dipped it in some mud before writing with the tip of it. It wasn¡¯t exactly clean or neat, but I could still read it. Slime dungeon slime core count per run
  1. 170 (3 from boss)
  2. 128 (15 from boss)
  3. 135 (14 from boss)
  4. 140 (13)
  5. 141 (12)
  6. 144 (11)
  7. 147 (10)
  8. 148 (9)
  9. 150 (8)
  10. 156 (7)
  11. 155 (6)
  12. 159 (5)
  13. 163 (4)
In that time, all of my skills except for my Enhanced Body leveled. It¡¯s fine. I still have plenty of time. I¡¯ll just keep going and getting more cores for when I eventually get the bracelet. I walked into the dungeon, prepared for my fourteenth run, and my first repeat run with the same number of cores in the boss. NOW ENTERING SLIME DUNGEON. PREPARE YOURSELF. I was greeted by the now familiar notification, and readied myself to start hollering for the slimes. I took a deep breath in and couldn¡¯t find it in me to yell. Instead, I just let it out and let off an Arcane Explosion in front of me. The noise did as good a job as me yelling to get the slimes riled up. The squelching could be heard even over the echoes of the resulting boom. I swept through the slimes with practiced ease. I waited for a few minutes until I had over 300 mana, then went on to the next room to repeat the same process. I gathered another 163 cores this run so far. With the boss room up next, I decided to experiment and see how many explosions it took to actually kill the giant monster. I waited for a full resource pool and then continued on. I put the barrier up around the slime and started by casting a single explosion. The boss died instantly. Are you kidding me? All this time, I''ve been wasting how many casts trying to kill this thing? It only takes ONE explosion? I felt slightly irritated and left the room after gathering the 3 mana cores it dropped. Still no bracelet. What the actual fuck. ¡°Okay, that¡¯s it. Next run, I want to see what the second stage of this boss looks like. I¡¯ll keep most of my mana on reserve in case anything changes, but I want to see what a dungeon boss can actually do.¡± It had just passed mid-day, so I had lunch and waited for the dungeon to refresh. I had so much experience grinding through dungeons in my video games in my past life, that I had no problem farming this stupid boss for his single bracelet. That¡¯s not to say i didn¡¯t get irritated, but i was willing to do what it took to get what i want. The hour went by quickly. I took a power nap for around 30 minutes after I ate and went back in. I swept through the slime spawns with next to no effort. I ended this last 15 slimes with a mana bolt each this time, though the first few needed some spare shots to properly kill. I still needed to practice my aim, and these blobs of jello were just rolling targets. I gathered the cores like always and did the same for the next room. I added 110 cores to my collection before getting to the boss. Well, at least I''ll have plenty to feed the bracelet when I get it. It¡¯ll be getting over 2300 cores to eat. I wonder how much it¡¯ll grow from that? I was exhausted from the lack of sleep, but still pulled up my resources to see how much mana I currently had. Health 240/240 Stamina 75/240 Mana 70/380 I waited to get full mana and then put a 100 mana barrier over the boss slime. I started wildly bouncing off the wall, though it didn¡¯t have much room to bounce. I had gotten better at making the barrier fit around the monster without leaving a gap. It had about 6 inches on either side of it before it ran out of room. I checked the stability of the barrier as the boss collided with it. Barely a point of mana was taken away from the spell pattern with every hit. I had plenty of time to experiment. I Fired mana bolt after mana bolt at the giant blob. The first grouping missed all the cores, but after that, I got every last orb floating in my mortal enemy except one. It shuddered as its fourteenth core was destroyed. It slowed down its jumping around by a lot. Then it seemed to spin. It looked to be rotating extremely fast in the barrier. Then it started to pelt the barrier with globs of its own flesh. This must be the corrosive slime shot I read about. It¡¯s not very impressive, though it is damaging the barrier a bit more than just jumping at it did. The slime it was shooting started to pool at its feet and corroded the stone underneath it. I was surprised at how strong the acidic aspect of the slime was. But that little trick won¡¯t do anything for it. I reached out with my mana and started adjusting the barrier to also cover the newly opened gaps between the barrier and the floor. After 5 minutes of nothing of interest happening, I started to get bored. I added another hundred points to the barrier to ensure the boss wouldn¡¯t go anywhere. That still left me with 110 points of mana in case of emergency. I started to explore the boss room a bit. At first, it looked similar to the previous two rooms, but after walking its perimeter, I realized, this room had no stalagmites or stalactites. I pondered that for a bit as I kept my slow walk going. I came to the realization that the rock formations in the other rooms were probably for slimes to hide in. Unfortunately, it just happened that all the slimes that were hiding were getting hit by the outer edges of my explosions. Quite fortunate, really. When I reached the hallway that led back to the second room of the dungeon, I decided enough was enough. I cast an explosion in the middle of the barrier and put the giant monster out of its misery. The remaining slime glowed in its ethereal way as the monster¡¯s body disappeared. In its wake was the beautiful bracelet surrounded by 15 slime cores. I nearly cried from joy. I walked over and bent down to pick it up. I added the cores to my storage almost as an afterthought. ¡°Oh such beauty. I thank you, beautiful dungeon for this glorious gift. And I hope to never see another slime in my lifetime. Well, after tomorrow that is. I still have another day of farming you. After I get some sleep, of course. It¡¯s been too long since I felt the warm embrace of a soft bed.¡± Chapter 14 I put the bracelet in my bag and went out the portal. It was high time I went to sleep, but first I needed to get enough mana to put up a proper barrier. I half meditated, half slept for the next almost hour until I had a full mana pool. I pulled out two shirts from my storage and rolled them up to be my pillow. I had planned on changing before I went to sleep, but my eyes had other plans for me. I laid out a third shirt on the ground so I wasn''t lying directly on the dirt and out the roll under my head. It wasn¡¯t the most comfortable bed, but it was better than nothing. I put a shield around me and even made sure to put part of it under me too. That last fight with the slime boss taught me not to trust that the ground would always stay level. My final step before bed was pouring every last drop of mana I had into the shield. A full 380 points of pure power surrounded me. It would take a lot to get through that barrier, and since I had yet to see any stray monsters around here, I figured I should be fine. I slept until almost sunset. The first thing I did when I woke up was check on the barrier. It looked to have taken no damage, and I couldn''t see any signs of a monster approaching me. I heaved a sigh of relief and closed my eyes for a few minutes. I finally got it! 15 freaking runs, and I finally got it! I pulled the bracelet out to get a better look at it. Upon my second examination, it looked rather unimpressive. It appeared to be a small slime pendant that would be tightened around my wrist with a thin leather strap after I put it on. I probed it with my mana and got the sense that it would increase size. The only reason I know it would increase my mana pool size is because of what I read in the book. All i had to do was wear the bracelet and concentrate on the idea of the bracelet absorbing the slime cores. And luckily for it, I had 2393 cores to feed it. I slipped my right hand through the loop, making sure the pendant portion was by my wrist, and the leather magically resized itself to my wrist. It was a lot tighter than I was expecting, but not uncomfortably so. After it tightened, I felt a small rush of power as the bracelet¡¯s effect took action. I pulled a single slime core out of my storage and pulled up my resources so I can watch the effect grow stronger in real time. I could see my mana capacity has already increased by 10 points from just putting the thing on. Health 240/240 Stamina 195/240 Mana 390/390 I fed the core to my bracelet and watched as it disappeared. I waited and watched with bated breath. Nothing happened. Okay, that seems fair. A one to one increase ratio could be absolutely monstrous. Instead of going one by one, I walked a few minutes south of the dungeon portal and used an arcane explosion to dig a little hole. By little, I mean a circular divot about 4 feet in diameter. I dismissed my resource UI and poured out as many cores as I could. I stuck my arm in the middle of the pile of cores and focused on the idea of the bracelet absorbing all of them. It took over 4 refills to get all 2393 cores absorbed. The rush I felt every time the bracelet ate the pool of cores was intense, and almost addicting. I nervously looked at my resource pools again and was shocked. Health 240/240 Stamina 195/240 Mana 393/525
  1. All that effort for 135 extra mana points.
I feel cheated. It¡¯s still an awesome increase in power, but still. That¡¯s less than a tenth of what I originally thought. ¡°Whatever. I¡¯ll still run it more tonight and tomorrow. Any increase in power is still an awesome increase in power.¡± I cringed at my attempt to have a cool saying. I dismissed the barrier, sat up and put away the shirts I was using as a pillow and place mat. I walked into the portal, ready to do another run. NOW ENTERING SLIME DUNGEON. PREPARE YOURSELF. Hagrid, I hate slimes. I demolished the first room in no time. I paid extra attention to the crevices behind any stone pillars and made sure to kill the hidden slimes. I got lucky so far with getting them by accident, but I refuse to leave anything up to chance when I don''t have to. I gathered the cores into the bowl and did a lap around to make sure I didn''t miss any. When I was confident that that was all of them, I put my right hand in the pile and had the bracelet feast. I checked my pools and saw no increase in size. What the hell? I should''ve gotten at least ONE point from that. I swept the second room in a similar fashion. I gathered the cores into a pile and had the bracelet eat them. Still, I got nothing. Seriously, what the actual fuck! I was getting pissed, and the boss was going to know it. As soon as I got enough mana. I put up a smaller barrier this time, and killed it in one Arcane Explosion. 14 mana cores were the drops, and I dishearteningly had the bracelet eat it, not expecting anything to happen. Yet my pool increased by 14 points. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? It¡¯s only the boss¡¯s cores that increase the mana capacity? So I just wasted all those cores for nothing? I was pissed. That was almost 80 silver that I wasted on the stupid, glorious thing. For fuck sake. ¡°Alright, now the real grind begins. I still have all of tonight and most of tomorrow to get as many cores as I can. I can probably skip gathering the non-boss cores, and just rush the boss. If I power nap in between runs, I should be able to get at least 16 more runs in before I leave tomorrow.¡± That¡¯s exactly what I did. I started blasting my way through the slimy mess as soon as I got into the dungeon. I didn¡¯t bother doing a full wipe of the place, and instead focused on clearing a path forward. It was a lot more dangerous, but I was a man on a mission. I did 3 Arcane Explosions in rapid fire in a line from where I stood towards the direction of the hall to pass. I ran through the slime cores that rained down and slipped right past a slime that was blocking the path. I did the same thing in the next room too, except this one took 5 explosions. I wasn¡¯t focused on saving mana right now, only speed blitzing through the damn dungeon. I got to the boss, popped a shield as i rounded the corner and once i knew he was secure, ¡°ARCANE EXPLOSION!¡± Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. I didn¡¯t have to yell it, but damn it felt good. I ran right up to the barrier and only waited for the slime mass to fully disappear before sticking my hand in there to absorb the 13 cores. ¡°Sweet, so I was right! Now I just need to do this 15 more times and I can go get some proper sleep at Half Moon.¡± I exited the dungeon through the portal and got a notification. Congratulations! You have earned your first achievement: Slime Slayer! For defeating the Slime Dungeon in less than 3 minutes by yourself, you will be granted one reward of your choice! Choose carefully, as you won¡¯t be able to change your mind once it has been awarded to you! Please select your choice from the list below. I immediately wanted to choose the first option, but forced myself to consider them all before I chose. Option two had some serious potential. If I didn''t already one shot the boss, I would genuinely have considered picking it. Option three seemed useful, except I never let any slimes get close enough to hurt me. They all died by that point. Maybe if I had chosen a more tanky build, that would be a good choice. But not as I am now. Option four just sounded stupid. I saw no way that I could benefit from becoming ¡°slightly elastic¡±. In fact, I didn''t see how anyone could benefit from it. Option five was the biggest contender to option one. If I had this before, would I have gotten the bracelet faster than I already had? That being said though, I don''t see any other loot drops that I would need this for. Option one was the biggest desire for me since it would allow me to run this dungeon even faster. I could potentially run past all the trash spawns and go straight for the boss. It would save me some headache at least. And I can always come back here to grind some more boss drops too. That decided it for me. Future potential of option one was just too good. I made my choice. You now have the effect: Slimes fear you! From now on, any slime within a 10 foot radius will flee for their lives. Happy hunting! I was happy with my choice. Now I needed a power nap. I woke up 40 minutes later and entered the dungeon. I dismissed the usual entrance message and walked towards the first room. I was skeptical about the effects of the achievement, but the slimes really kept a 100 foot radius from me. It was great. I picked up my pace and jogged to the second room. I decided to try jogging through the room, and slimes scurried out of my way. When I reached the boss chamber, I did my usual barrier then one shot. I waited for the loot to drop and absorbed the 12 new cores. Because of my ability to run straight through the dungeon now, I was able to run it 13 more times after that before it started getting dark on my third day. I honestly wanted to keep going, but I promised Luke that I would be back today. My efforts here earned me a total resource pool of 669. I felt unstoppable. I downed my second to last stamina potion and started to jog back. I had a stupid grin on my face the whole way there. It took me 3 hours again to get back. I could''ve been faster, but I hadn''t gotten much sleep the last few nights and really needed to rest. Stamina potions can only help me stay awake for so long. Fortunately, I did gain a level on my way back to Silface. I earned it just as the city came into view. And what a beautiful view it was. The stars in the night sky illuminated the walls to a perfect degree. I almost wish I had a camera so I could capture this image forever. I slowed my jog down to a walk. When I saw the city guards, I had to show them my guild tag explaining that I was training in the Slime Dungeon to the north. They accepted my answer and let me pass. Odd, I''ve never been stopped by the guards before. Maybe because it¡¯s late at night? Whatever. I¡¯M BACK! I get to sleep in an actual bed tonight! OH how I''ve missed warm food as well. I got to the guild hall, half expecting it to be empty, but Luke was still there behind his counter looking like an angry mom about to scold their child for missing curfew. ¡°I¡¯m back, baby!¡± ¡°You¡¯re late.¡± ¡°But i¡¯m alive.¡± ¡°I was worried about you.¡± ¡°BUT! I¡¯m alive.¡± ¡°You couldn¡¯t have been here sooner?¡± ¡°Did I mention I''m alive?¡± ¡°I GET IT! But that doesn¡¯t mean I didn''t worry about you the entire time. I barely slept last night. You only said you ¡®might¡¯ stay three days. I did NOT expect you to stay until damn near midnight.¡± ¡°Luke, take a breather. Everything is fine. I even got an achievement for my efforts!¡± He looked stunned at that. ¡°D-d-did you just say¡­ Achievement? How on earth did you get one of those! You already met one of the requirements to be a gold plate and you¡¯ve only been adventuring for less than a month!¡± ¡°Yeah, I got it for speed running the Slime dungeon. The requirement seems to be to solo the boss and defeat it in under 3 minutes of entering the dungeon. It was pretty awesome and a total accident.¡± ¡°You ¡®accidentally¡¯ got an achievement? What in the 7 hells am I to do with you young man! Well, did you at least get a reward for earning it?¡± ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s the cool part. I got an effect that makes any slime within 10 feet of me run away for their lives. Now whenever I go back to farm it some more, it¡¯ll be 10 times easier to get to the boss room. It¡¯s amazing!¡± ¡°That¡¯s pretty interesting. I¡¯ll make a note of it in the system. I don¡¯t think i¡¯ve heard of that dungeon giving out achievements before. Though people rarely go in there, let alone solo, and yet again speed run the damn thing solo. You truly are a mad man, you know that right?¡± ¡°Yeah yeah, whatever. I¡¯m too tired to argue. I¡¯m heading back to Half Moon for the night. I¡¯m taking tomorrow off too. I¡¯ll be back after that to get back to work. I think I''m done with slimes and goblins for a while though, so cook something juicy up for me when I get back, yeah?¡± Luke agreed and shooed me off. I made it back to Half moon with no issues. Thaggerd was running the desk for now and was happy to see me in one piece. ¡°You¡¯re back! Wonderful! Should I grab a couple of glasses of Theromear¡¯s Fire to celebrate?¡± He had a humorous twinkle in his eye. ¡°Oh hell no. Keep the evil drink away from me. If I never see it again, it¡¯ll still be too soon!¡± He laughed at me and sent me up to my room, though he asked if I changed at least before plopping into bed. I agreed and ran up the stairs, ready for the warm embrace of sleep. As I entered my room, I skipped stripping my clothes and just threw them into storage mid jump. It was a nifty trick I thought up on my way back that I was glad actually worked. I doubt it would work the opposite direction, but that¡¯s an experiment for another time. Before I shut my eyes for good, I pulled up the expanded version of my status sheet to see what all happened the last few days. I knew I had a few spells to learn, but that would have to wait for tomorrow at the earliest. User: Claff: Health 260/260 Stamina 235/260 Mana 662/669 Achievements Slime Slayer! Quests [2] Kill Goblins 0/¡Þ Kill Slimes 0/¡Þ Party [0] Equipment Ring of Mana Regeneration (+20%) Slime Bracelet (+289 ) SKILLS PASSIVE Enhanced Body Lv 8 [23%] Increased Mental Capacity Lv14 [35%] Regeneration Lv15 [42%] ACTIVE Arcane Magic Lv 11 [5%] Barrier Magic Lv 11 [19%] Game-like Storage Lv10 [55%] Storage (9/22) 0 g 66s 43 c
  1. Bowie knife
  2. 25 shirts (varied colors, cloth)
  3. 10 pants (cloth)
  4. 10 underwear (5 boxers, 5 sock pairs )
  5. 5 rations (varied flavors)
  6. 1 minor stamina potion
  7. 2 leather armor sets
  8. 5 books
  9. Water skin
I did some quick math. My base mana regeneration was 10 mana per hour. Multiplied by 3.8 for my Increased Mental Capacity regeneration. Multiplied by 9 for my actual Regeneration skill. Multiplied AGAIN by 1.2 for my ring bonus. All that gave me¡­. 410 mana per hour. I was unstoppable. When I upgrade this bracelet even further, I''ll be on top of the whole damn world. Chapter 15 Alright, the first thing I needed to do today is sell some mana. I went to the enchanter¡¯s guild and met with Paris. He seemed extremely happy to see me. ¡°I¡¯m so glad you¡¯re back! And I see you managed to get the Slime Bracelet as well! How was the dungeon for you?¡± ¡°It was great! I ended up being able to do over 20 runs while I was there. Next time I need to bring better sleeping gear though. My neck was not happy with me.¡± ¡°I see. That¡¯s quite impressive. I wasn¡¯t expecting you to be able to do so many runs in such a short time. I was expecting maybe 8-10 runs, but even that was a stretch of my imagination. Pray tell, how did you manage to do it so quickly?¡± He seemed genuinely curious, so I gave him the abridged version. ¡°I see. So large area of affect spells. Makes sense. How far were you able to upgrade it? I¡¯m aware it¡¯s one of the few actually upgradable pieces of gear in existence, so I would love to know how far you got.¡± ¡°Let me put it this way. What¡¯s the capacity of your battery over here?¡± I pointed to the floating ball. ¡°Well over 10,000. I doubt I''ll ever get it to be completely filled. Why do you ask?¡± ¡°Well, set it up and you can see just how much I can pour in there in one go.¡± He smiled and used his tools to make it so i can pour in as much as i want. ¡°Alright, go for it. I¡¯ll be watching your progress here.¡± He pointed to his hand held device. I walked up to the floating orb and placed my hand on it. I wasn¡¯t going to put everything I had into it. Still, it should give him quite the shock. I pulled the mana from my mana core and pushed it along. It went down my shoulder, through my arm, and finally reached my fingers. From there I shoved every last bit of 600 points of mana into the metal ball. Paris¡¯s face dropped as he got his readings. ¡°SIX HUNDRED POINTS? How on Earth did you get so much in such a short time?It should be impossible to grow that quickly? You HAVE to tell me your secrets!¡± The elven man dropped his device and rushed to grab my shoulders. ¡°Like I said, I ran through the dungeon over 20 times. I read that allowing the bracelet to eat slime cores from the dungeon would allow the effect of the bracelet to grow, but it turns out that¡¯s only the case for the cores dropped from the boss monster. Everything else is essentially trash.¡± I then explained to him everything I found out about the dungeon and the details that weren¡¯t in the guide book I bought. ¡°Unfortunately, I only got the one bracelet, despite how many times I killed the damn thing. Otherwise I''d offer it to you. For a price of course.¡± I smiled and he returned it. ¡°I appreciate you thinking of me, but I have my own mana increasing methods. Maybe I''ll let you in on it one of these days. But that would be a long way down the road. For now, I¡¯ll have to just say my thanks and let you be on your way. I have a few Guild Master duties to attend to for now. But do come back soon. I will always pay for such lovely services.¡± He reached into his pocket and pulled out a coin purse. He pulled out 30 silver coins and stacked them on the table. ¡°For your troubles. Now hurry along. I have a meeting in a bit that I must attend.¡± He had Hood escort me out. This time when I got to the front room, people didn¡¯t give their usual stares. They just kept right on working. Awe. And here I was thinking I was starting to get popular. After I left the enchanter¡¯s guild, I wanted to go to the adventurer¡¯s guild. I didn¡¯t get to see Sarah last night, and I wanted to look into getting proper mage robes, instead of this leather armor. It¡¯s very comfortable, But I realize now that a proper mage never lets any monsters get close enough to hurt them. So what I have now is essentially useless to me. But first I wanted some food. I headed back to Half Moon and ordered a second breakfast. Theone seemed confused to see me back so soon, but when I told her I skipped breakfast, she brought me a plate of eggs and sausage. I took my time eating, paid, then left for the guild hall. The whole time that I''ve worn my leather armor, I''ve never actually been injured. And now that I have a proper grasp on my barrier skill, no monster will ever reach me again. So it was time to get an upgrade. I made my way into the hall and checked in with Luke. ¡°I thought you were taking the day off? I haven¡¯t even gotten your ¡®something juicy¡¯ yet!¡± ¡°Haha, yeah, I''m still not working today. Mostly I''m coming in for a change in wardrobe and stock back up on supplies. The leathers are great, but I''m not exactly a front line fighter, so I want something more fit for a caster.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve wondered when you would switch it up. I never thought they were a good fit for you anyhow. Go on up and talk to Sarah. She''ll get you situated.¡± he looked a bit jealous i¡¯d get to talk to her, but waved me off when i wanted to talk some more. ¡°Alright alright I¡¯m going. Later man.¡± I headed upstairs. ¡°About time you came back!¡± Sarah yelled to me. ¡°Tell me everything. How¡¯d it go?¡± ¡°It was great!¡± I called back to her. She was on the other side of the store when I walked in, though quickly coming my way. Let¡¯s go over to Duke so I don''t have to explain it twice though." I met her there and I told the two of them what happened. ¡°Damn dude! An achievement in under a month of being an adventurer? That¡¯s pretty damn impressive!¡± Duke reached over and smacked my shoulder. Sarah seemed even more impressed. ¡°See? I knew there was something special about you. But how¡¯s the bracelet working? Can I try it on?¡± I tried to loosen the straps on the bracelet and give it to her, but the damn thing won''t come off. ¡°Sorry, it¡¯s not loosening. I don''t know why though.¡± ¡°That¡¯s probably because it¡¯s bound to your soul now.¡± A deep strange voice said. I turned around to see a big, middle aged guy wearing white and gold plate armor that covered him from the shoulders down. The only tanned skin visible was his thick neck and head that was capped by black hair. He had a trimmed goatee and was easily the most intimidating person I have ever seen. ¡°I¡¯ve very rarely seen people get soulbound items, but it appears you have one. Similar bracelets from the slime dungeon aren¡¯t soulbound, which is why I find yours to be so odd. Tell me, how high did you upgrade it?¡± I looked to Sarah and Duke. They both looked extremely surprised to see this man, though I don''t know who he is. I don¡¯t sense much magic from him, which isn¡¯t surprising given he¡¯s obviously a melee fighter. Though I could feel his armor held plenty of enchantments. Sarah started stumbling over her words trying to talk to him. ¡°S-s-sir! I w-wasn¡¯t expecting you!¡± ¡°Calm down Sarah. I¡¯m just interested in polite conversation, for now. Perhaps it would be best if you introduced your friend to me? He seems rather offput at the moment.¡± The man seemed rather commanding. He¡¯s obviously a man of importance, given the way Sarah was talking. Maybe I should be on my best behavior here? I¡¯d rather not offend anyone who could cause me trouble. Sarah gave a quick introduction. ¡°Yessir. This would be Claff, a copper plate adventurer who started just shy of a month ago. Claff, this is the Adventurer Guild¡¯s guild master. He is also the leader of the only gold plate party in Silface. He is Bran the Golden Ram.¡± This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. ¡°A pleasure to meet you Sir Bran.¡± I extended my right hand to him, much to Duke¡¯s obvious horror. ¡°Haha, a brave one I see. Maybe your tales weren¡¯t exaggerated after all. Please, call me Bran for now.¡± He shook my hand with a strong grip that hurt quite a bit. I could feel a tendon get crushed. I kept as straight a face as I could. It was quickly healed by my Regeneration, which helped a good bit. After all, it doesn¡¯t just work on my mana. ¡°As to answer your previous question, it currently increases my mana pool by 289 points. I¡¯ll be going back to the dungeon eventually to upgrade it further though. I want it to get to a 500 point increase before I''m fully happy with it.¡± ¡°I see. Ambitious. When are you planning to go next? I¡¯m interested in watching you work. If all goes as well as I think it will, I might just have to promote you to silver. It¡¯s not every day that a new adventurer can do a solo run through an E rank dungeon.¡± He looked me up and down. ¡°Though I''d suggest getting proper caster wear if you¡¯re serious about adventuring¡± ¡°Funnily enough, that¡¯s precisely what I planned on today. That and getting more supplies that I found lacking during my trip.¡± I laughed a bit, trying to ease the tension I could sense in Sarah and Duke. Duke had remained silent through this whole encounter. ¡°I See. good call then. How about getting Sarah here to fit you into some of our good stuff. My treat, since I''ll be in your care for the duration of our trip together.¡± Is he serious about that? I thought he was only joking?! I''ve only killed goblins and slimes so far. I don''t know what I''m doing! ¡°Yessir. I¡¯ll get him fitted and prepared right away. When would you like to depart on your journey?¡± Sarah seemed to immediately accept that he was taking me to the dungeon. ¡°I just finished a meeting with the head of the Enchanter¡¯s Guild, so I''d like a moment to decompress. Have him ready to go in, I don''t know, an hour? I¡¯ll grab his file on hand and get ready for the Silver Rank promotion test. Claff, I''ll meet you by the front gate. Don¡¯t dawdle on me. Duke, pleasure as always.¡± Duke¡¯s face paled and he bowed in response, much to Bran¡¯s humor. He left shortly after that. ¡°Uuum, am I seriously going to go back to the dungeon now? What was that whole interaction, anyways.¡± ¡°No time. Hurry up and get to the fitting room.¡± Sarah seemed rather urgent now. ¡°I¡¯ll be over with a few suggestions in just a bit. Duke, gather some supplies you think he¡¯d need and have them ready to go. Claff, you better be in regular cloth pants and a cloth shirt by the time I get there. We have to hurry. Leave your shoes on though¡± I felt extremely confused but went with it anyway. I started walking to the room she mentioned and called over my shoulder to Duke. ¡°Can you get me something to sleep on, 6 normal mana potions and 3 minor stamina potions? That and some rations and I''ll be good!¡± ¡°Got it!¡± was his only response. I got to the fitting room and put all my leather armor into storage. I finished putting my clothes on just as Sarah entered with two robes draped over one arm and a small sack in the other hand. ¡°Alright, here¡¯s your options. The dark blue robe has some enchantment that boosts mana capacity and reduces casting costs slightly. The lighter dark blue robe deals with regeneration and casting speed. Either are good for casters, though most tend to want a higher pool. I recommend the lighter of the two though since you have a decently high pool as is.¡± I agreed with her and put the lighter robe on. It was still a dark blue, but the color looked better in my opinion. I felt the power of the enchantments immediately. ¡°Okay next up is headgear. We have earrings that boost regeneration, casting speed, or spell power. We also have hats that do similar things. If you want the classic look, this one-¡± She started listing off all the things the various accessories could do, but i stopped her. ¡°I won¡¯t be using headgear, so skip all that. Let¡¯s get this robe on properly though. I need it taken up a few inches so I can run better in it. The sleeves and belt are fine though.¡± She nodded and got to work. It turns out that Sarah was the guild¡¯s on staff tailor as well as salesmen. She got to work rather quickly. If I didn''t know better, I''d say she has some sort of thread manipulation skill. Soon enough she had everything I needed done. The robe fit perfectly. It went a little lower than I was expecting, but I somehow never tripped on it, even if I tried. ¡°Alright, you¡¯re all set on my end. The robes you¡¯re wearing usually go for almost a full gold coin, but Bran said he¡¯d cover everything for you. Let¡¯s go check with Duke and see if he¡¯s got everything read.¡± She pulled me by the arm to the front as she talked. At the front of the store, Duke had a pile of camping equipment. ¡°Alright, here we have your basic tent, sleeping bag, and place mat. Here are a similar variety of rations you got last time. These potions are a mix of regular potions and minor potions. I know you have one hell of a resource pool, but don¡¯t skimp on the little things. I also added two antidotes that are pretty good and I recommend you keep one on you at all times.¡± He pointed everything out as he said it. I added everything to my storage and thanked the two profusely. ¡°So I''m really on my way to be a silver rank, huh? I guess I''ll come back as soon as I can. Hopefully he doesn¡¯t want to stay too long though. I was still looking forward to my day off. I¡¯ll see you two. Later!¡± Sarah and Duke both gave me a hug and I went on my way. Luke ran up to me as I made my way downstairs. ¡°Dude, what the hell did you do? Bran came down here a few minutes ago asking about your guild file and left as soon as he got them. He''s the big shot, so whatever you do, do NOT piss him off!¡± He was panicking but I tried to calm him down. I told him what the plan was and he looked both scared and relieved. ¡°Good luck with that. If he¡¯s doing your promotion test so soon, he must have some high ass expectations for you.¡± Yah don¡¯t say. Either way, I have to go. I do NOT want him waiting on me.¡± Luke nodded aggressively and gave me a shove. ¡°Again I ask you: come back alive? Good luck man. You¡¯ll need it.¡± I waved him off and left. I walked rather quickly to the north gate and waited with the guards. It took Bran about 5 minutes after I showed up to get here. ¡°I see you got the Robe of Regeneration. A good choice, if I do say so. It looks good on you. Now, let¡¯s see how fast you can run. Set the pace and i¡¯ll follow. On your lead.¡± I didn¡¯t even get to say anything before he slapped my back and sent me running to stay on my feet. I got myself properly situated and set off at a pace that would get us to the portal in about an hour. It was practically a full sprint for me, but I felt I should try to impress the guy who would be deciding whether or not I would be getting a promotion. After I took two regular running steps, I felt the ground shake underneath me as Bran started his own jog to keep up. It looked quite easy for him to do so, regardless of his plated gear. It had to weigh a literal ton, with how thick each piece looked, yet I couldn¡¯t see any sign of strain on him. 20 minutes into our run Bran started to make light conversation. ¡°It¡¯s quite impressive that you¡¯re able to move this fast. How high is your Enhanced Body skill now?¡± I was already panting a good amount, but I still got out, ¡°Level 8.¡± ¡°That¡¯s quite high for a caster. I thought it a waste at first when I saw you had a physical skill, but I see you¡¯ve been putting it to good use. How are your other skills doing? I don¡¯t think I''ve heard of Increased Mental Capacity before. What does it do?¡± Hagrid, please tell me he¡¯s not going to want to have a full conversation when I''m struggling to breathe enough as is. ¡°It¡­ increases¡­ mana pool¡­ size and¡­ regeneration... slightly. Also¡­ makes cast¡­ ing easier¡­ and takes¡­ some of¡­ the mental¡­ strain off.¡± I¡¯m surprised I even got that out. Damn, should I grab a stamina potion already? Health 260/260 Stamina 190/260 Mana 603/669 No, I''m good on actual stamina. Maybe I just need more practice running for distance while at high speed. If I were running with Griffith at the end of the day, we¡¯d already be back to the city by now. It¡¯s true. The run that initially took me almost an hour now took a third of the time. I¡¯ve been steadily improving, as evidenced by the current situation I was in. Other than being out of breath, I felt pretty damn good. Maybe I could try increasing my speed a bit? We could get there even faster. My legs aren¡¯t even close to tired yet. No, I don''t want to make a fool out of myself. I¡¯ve impressed him enough with running as is. Magic is my true strength, and he¡¯ll see that soon enough. No more words were spoken until the dungeon portal came into view. I slowed my sprint down to a jog and stopped a few feet in front of it, hands on my knees panting a little. Bran looked down on me slightly concerned. ¡°I just need to catch my breath. I don''t usually run that fast.¡± ¡°Take your time. I didn¡¯t expect you to actually maintain that speed for so long.¡± He seemed to be serious about me taking my time, so I did. After 30 seconds of panting, I took a deep breath and gained control over myself once more. ¡°Alright, I''m ready to go in.¡± I looked up at Bran and he nodded his approval. ¡°On your lead. Remember though, I¡¯m only here as an observer. Pretend I''m not here at all in fact. Run it how you usually do.¡± ¡°I see. If it¡¯s how i usually do, then i''ll be skipping most of the trash spawns and heading straight for the boss. Do you have any objections?¡± ¡°Actually, I want you to do a full wipe of the dungeon. This is a test after all. It¡¯d be boring to just skip to the end.¡± He had a point. But I haven''t tried doing a full wipe of the dungeon since I got my achievement, so I wasn''t sure how that¡¯d work. ¡°Alright, I''ll do my best then. Let¡¯s enter.¡± ¡°Before you do, add me to your party. Only a party can enter a dungeon together.¡¯ I agreed and focused on the idea of adding him to my party. I checked my status and saw him on my list, so I walked into the portal. NOW ENTERING SLIME DUNGEON. PREPARE YOURSELF. Chapter 16 I started the delve by warning Bran that it would be getting very loud. He nodded his understanding and I approached the first room. As I approached, I fired off a single Arcane Explosion. When I heard the appropriate squelching of the slimes, I rounded the corner and fired 10 explosions in the span of a second. I spread them out so that they''d cover the entirety of the room. Not a single slime was left alive. It wasn¡¯t the efficient method I had been using the last couple of times I ran the dungeon, but I was trying to make a good impression. After the echo stopped, Bran laughed. And he laughed hard. ¡°Damn Claff. You weren¡¯t kidding about it being loud. So that¡¯s how you got your achievement. Pure brute force. Just how much did that barrage of yours cost anyway? It was quite impressive, even by my standards.¡± ¡°It was a round of 10 spells, 10 mana each. I made sure to cover every corner of the room, including the slimes that are hiding behind the stalagmites. I started off with a full mana pool, and depending on how you want to do things, I doubt I''ll use half of my current reserves at this rate.¡± I wasn¡¯t bragging either. That was just my secondary motive. I could finish the next room with just 15 blasts, and the boss only takes the weakest shield followed by a single blast to end it. But I could show off a little and make a stronger barrier to trap the boss so Bran could get a better look at my skills. That would just cost a bit more mana though. ¡°I see. Very well done. DO you want to spend the time collecting the cores, or will you pass on them? I¡¯m done waiting if you do. They¡¯re dirt cheap individually, but there¡¯s at least 60 of them here. Every copper adds up.¡± ¡°You have a point, but I''m more interested in the boss¡¯s cores. That¡¯s my money maker.¡± ¡°As you wish. Continue.¡± I led him on to the next room and spread out a blanket of 15 Arcane Explosions. There was a single slime left behind that I quickly killed with a Mana Bolt. I looked to Bran who had a smile on his face and nodded approvingly. ¡°The only monster left is the slime boss. Judging by how many slime cores are in this room, and how many were in the last room, I''d wager I''ve killed around 165 slimes so far. That means the boss will probably have around 8 to 11 cores in it.¡± ¡°I¡¯m impressed that you¡¯ve paid so much attention. Not many adventures care to use their brains like that. Go ahead and show me what you can do to the slime boss of yours. Whenever you¡¯re ready of course.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll show off a bit then.¡± Time to trap it in a barrier. ¡°Just don¡¯t get yourself killed.¡± ¡°I haven¡¯t so far.¡± I chuckled a little. Bran seems like a cool enough guy. I peeked my head around the corner and wrapped the boss completely in as tight of a barrier I could, including beneath it. There was only an inch of room between the top of the boss¡¯s slime mass and the barrier. I poured 150 points of mana into it, almost doubling the amount of mana I''ve spent in the dungeon so far. After I finished wrapping it, I stepped out into the room and called Bran forward. ¡°What¡¯s wrong? Too scared of the sli- What the Hell?¡± He looked confused as to why the slime seemed to be just jiggling around a little. Then he walked up to it and poked my barrier. I could feel that his single poke did more damage than the slime¡¯s cumulative effort of slamming into the inside of it has done. ¡°Impressive. I was wondering what your Barrier Magic would look like. How expensive was the barrier? It looks like it would take even me a few swings to get through this thing. Damn. That had to cost at least a hundred points.¡± Mission success. Boss is impressed. ¡°The basic barrier spell only costs 2 mana per cast, but I can add more mana to it to make it stronger. Manipulating the barrier makes it more expensive, but not by much. I put 150 points of mana into this barrier, just to show off a little.¡± ¡°¡®Show off¡¯ indeed. Hell, I could use you in my party as you are now. That being said, I think I can guarantee your promotion to silver. I just need you to fight a better variety of monsters first. You¡¯ve spent too much time on goblins and now slimes. I¡¯ll send you a list to check off, and when you¡¯re done with that, you can have your new rank. Sound good?¡± I beamed a smile. ¡°Absolutely.¡± ¡°Now, are you interested in joining any sort of party when you rank up, or are you going to continue going at it solo? If you joined a party right now, hell I could hand you a new tag the moment we get back. But if you want to continue solo, you¡¯ll need to do the entirety of the monster list I get you. Either way, we¡¯ll be taking a minor detour on our way back so you can try out a Lizard Man dungeon as well. It¡¯s only a 2-hour run north from here. At least, at the pace we went to get here.¡± My jaw dropped a little at that. I was NOT prepared for Lizard Men. Hell, I haven''t even gotten to try the weaker Kobolds yet. And I still haven¡¯t gotten the new spells for either of my magics yet. Hagrid, a little help here? I heard the same laughing from far away again. ¡°Oh, don¡¯t look so shocked. Did you think I''d let a future Gold Plate sit in a field and kill Goblins all day every day? Not a chance kid. If you¡¯re going to get stronger, you need to fight stronger monsters. I¡¯m just giving you the push you need. Now go ahead and put this slime out of its misery so we can get started on our next destination. If you hurry, we can get there before lunch time.¡± I cast my Arcane Explosion at the boss and collected the 11 slime cores. ¡°Fine, I''ll do it. But can we do one more run through Slime Dungeon first? The next run will get me to +300 mana. And I can use the break to learn the new spells from my skills that I was planning on doing tonight. It¡¯ll take an hour and 5 minutes, tops¡± ¡°Fine, fine, we can wait.¡± We stepped outside and I brought out the placemat that Duke got for me. I laid it out so I can meditate on it while I learn my new spells. User: Claff: Health 260/260 Stamina 205/260 Mana 370/670 Achievements Slime Slayer! Quests [2] Kill Goblins 0/¡Þ Kill Slimes 0/¡Þ Party [1] Equipment Ring of Mana Regeneration (+20%) Slime Bracelet (+290 mana) Robe of Regeneration (+10% mana regeneration, +10% casting speed) SKILLS PASSIVE Enhanced Body Lv 8 [65%] Increased Mental Capacity Lv14 [55%] Regeneration Lv15 [82%] ACTIVE Arcane Magic Lv 11 [56%] Barrier Magic Lv 11 [39%] Game-like Storage Lv10 [60%] Storage (10/22) 0 g 95s 33 c
  1. Bowie knife
  2. 25 shirts (varied colors, cloth)
  3. 10 pants (cloth)
  4. 10 underwear (5 boxers, 5 sock pairs)
  5. 15 rations (varied flavors)
  6. Potions (varied)
  7. 2 leather armor sets
  8. 5 books
  9. Water skin
  10. Camping gear (tent, placemat, sleeping bag)
I focused on Arcane Magic first. It was the one I was more excited for, and I had a spell and its improvement to learn. I didn¡¯t even feel the headache that came with learning the spell. Spell modification Charge has been learned. Interesting. It looked like this wasn¡¯t a spell on its own, but a modifier for another spell. Judging from the feeling I got from learning it, it allows me to pack more mana into a spell pattern before firing it, therefore making the spell more intense. I fired a regular mana bolt at a tree nearby. Bran looked at what I was doing but didn¡¯t say a word. I prepared to fire another mana bolt at the tree, but a little lower. This time I pushed 10 mana into the pattern for the spell instead of its usual 5. The resulting mana bolt hummed with power before I let it loose. The hole it made in the tree was wide enough to cause it to fall over, though thankfully it fell in the opposite direction of us. ¡°Impressive. Is that the new skill level you learned?¡± ¡°Yes, it is. It allows me to force more mana into a spell pattern than is necessary to over charge the spell and make it more powerful.¡± ¡°Useful.¡± ¡°Indeed.¡± I brought my status back up to learn the next spell. I barely felt a twinge of a headache before the notification. Spell modification Moderation has been learned. Damn. Two spell modifiers in a row. I was hoping to learn Mana Lightning or something. Either way, these both seemed really useful. I fired another regular mana bolt at a different tree. Next, I fired a mana bolt charged with only 3 mana instead of 5. It made a small dent in the tree, but nothing near as powerful as a regular 5 mana bolt. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. ¡°Another modifier?¡± Bran asked. ¡°Yeah, this one allows for the exact opposite as the last, letting me fire weaker versions of a spell by using less mana for the pattern. I¡¯ll be using a weaker version of Arcane Explosion to kill the boss this time around. The full spell charge is just overkill for it.¡± ¡°I see. Just so you know, weaker spells will have their uses as you get stronger. Just wait and see.¡± He gave a knowing look. I don¡¯t see how a weaker version of mana bolt could help me kill something faster than the regular version of it, but I¡¯ll trust your judgment for now, old man. Next up was Barrier Magic. Barrier Effect Siphon has been learned. I see. From the knowledge that just got hammered into my skull, I can now make my barrier siphon the mana of anything that touches it in order to make the barrier stronger. If whatever monster or other sapient continuously touches the barrier, it will drain them at a rate of 1 mana point per second and add that mana to the strength of the barrier. But adding this effect will increase the mental toll the barrier takes on me. Honestly? Worth it. I can make a 5 point barrier and surround the slime boss. And since it¡¯ll be touching the barrier constantly, it¡¯ll be fueled almost entirely by the monster! If only I could get the unused mana I spend on barriers back after I dispel them, it would be perfect! Now for the next Barrier level spell. Barrier Effect Drain has been learned. It was an extremely similar effect as Siphon, but it drained the affected party of stamina points to fuel the barrier instead. I was almost scared of what the next level would teach me. Would that one steal health points? With all new spells having been learned, I meditated in silence until the dungeon was ready. I did a quick jog through the caves and tried out my new barrier effects. I added both Siphon and drain to the caging barrier that I only added 10 mana points to and watched it take affect. The slime started shrinking almost immediately after I wrapped the barrier around it. At the same time, my barrier grew a lot stronger. I felt a minor headache as the combined effects took their toll, but it was nothing serious. I¡¯m sure if I was in my old world, I''d just chug some water thinking I was mildly dehydrated or something. I could probably sleep with the barrier still up too. It took 8 whole minutes for the slime to dissipate into nothing, and after it died, I checked the barrier to see how strong it was now. It had grown to be about as strong as a 200-point barrier, which made sense, since the slime was drained of both mana and stamina pools. I gathered the 10 slime cores and was about to leave when I saw a bracelet had dropped too. I added the new bracelet to my storage and I let my current bracelet eat the cores. I went back out to see Bran and told him of my experiment. He seemed irked that I made him wait, but was happy to hear about the bracelet drop. ¡°Alright, enough dilly dallying. We have distance to cover. Let¡¯s run.¡± That was all he said before taking off. I threw my mat into storage and chased after him. He always seemed to be just in my line of sight. I¡¯m sure he was doing it on purpose, since I made him wait for me to do another run and then didn¡¯t do the run as fast as I possibly could. He could easily lose me if he wanted to. After around an hour and a half of me chasing his shadow, Bran started to slow down. He let me catch up to him before meeting my pace again. ¡°Alright, for this next dungeon, you need to be smarter about using that explosion of yours. Or you can snipe them down from a distance, your choice. But the Lizardmen Dungeon is a rank D dungeon. You can absolutely solo it if you''re smart, and I truly won''t rush you here. I know I was giving you shit by running so fast about making me wait and all that, but I''m serious here. Take. Your. Time. I will only jump in, if necessary, but this will be mostly you since you want to stay a solo dungeoneer.¡± He looked serious, so I took his words to heart. I was almost out of breath, but I''ve been feeling that way for the last 10 minutes. However, I knew I could keep going if I pushed myself. I imagined a dagger wielding psycho chasing me down and found a renewed sense of strength. I nodded at Bran and kept running right alongside him. We ran for another half hour before we made it to the portal. I almost missed it and ran right into it, but Bran stuck his arm out to stop me. ¡°We¡¯re here. Recover for a few minutes and prepare yourself to go in.¡± I pulled out a regular strength stamina potion and drank it. I felt immediate relief and the taste of bananas. I kept panting for another minute but recovered enough to stand up straight. I pulled out my water skin and took a long swig. I offered it to Bran and he accepted with gratitude. He drank for a minute straight before handing it back. We stood outside for five minutes straight before I asked him for some details about the portal. ¡°The Lizardmen usually come in packs of 3 to 5,¡± he explained, ¡°with at least one of them being a ranged attacker, be it magic, arrows, or slings. The boss is a larger Lizardman with usually 2 ranged supporters. I won''t get into details beyond that, but just know that if you play your cards smart, you can do this quite easily.¡± The ranged attacker information was what I was really after. It showed me that these monsters were at least somewhat smart enough to come up with tactics. My current plan for dealing with them will be to try to identify the ranged monster, cage it in a draining, siphoning shield, then focus buffed mana bolts at the rest of the pack. I don¡¯t know what I''ll do yet with the boss monster, but I''ll come up with a plan as I go. I need first-hand experience with the base monster before I think about dealing with a stronger version of it. ¡°How''s the terrain going to look? The slimes were cave monsters, so I''d imagine a Lizardmen Dungeon to be either plains, forests, or marshes.¡± ¡°Very intuitive. This dungeon is strictly a plains dungeon. It¡¯s also a lot larger than the slime dungeon too. In total, it¡¯s around 3 miles long and half a mile wide. If I remember correctly, there will be around 100 groups of Lizardmen in there. The boss monster won¡¯t spawn in until the rest of the monster are killed, so you won''t be speed running this one to the degree you can with the slime dungeon.¡± I nodded along, planning every step of the way. The terrain would make encounters a lot easier, since the monsters won''t be able to sneak up on me. ¡°Yeah, I got this.¡± Bran gave me a pat on the back and we walked into the dungeon together. NOW ENTERING LIZARDMAN DUNGEON. PREPARE YOURSELF. The first thing I noticed was how hot it was. There was a sun beating down on us pretty heavily. Damn, maybe I should''ve grabbed a hat from Sarah when I had the chance. The next thing I noticed was the dying grass that seemed to go on for hundreds of miles in every direction. I was about to ask Bran when he explained. ¡°Some dungeons have hard barriers, kind of like Slime Dungeon. This one has more soft barriers. When you reach the edge of the dungeon, you¡¯ll feel a sort of wall. It feels something like that barrier you used on the slime boss. But the appearance of the plains going on forever won''t change.¡± He contemplated for a moment before adding, ¡°Another thing of note: No matter the dungeon, you won''t be attacked at the entrance. There will always be a safe zone surrounding it. It¡¯s smaller in some dungeons than others, but you will never be attacked by a monster while you are in that safe zone. It¡¯s one of the acts of mercy bestowed to us by God. At least, that¡¯s what some say.¡± ¡°And what do you say?¡± I didn¡¯t take him for a religious man. ¡°I say you should start killing some Lizardmen. There¡¯s a pack that way. Get to it.¡± He pointed behind me. With how flat the plains were, it was rather easy to spot the packs. In fact, I could see damn near every Lizardman in this bloody place. The first Lizardman I saw looked just as I thought it would. It stood around 5 and half feet tall with green scaly skin and a long tail that reached down to the ground it stood on. It had inch long claws, an elongated snout, and horns and spines in the shape of a crown on top of its head. It had no clothes or anything on, but it also had no clear indication of genitalia. I got started walking to the nearest set of three and prepared an overcharged Arcane Explosion. I was about to loose it when I remembered I had an actual plan, instead of just throwing ridiculous amounts of mana at them. I pulled the mana out of the pattern and returned it to my mana core next to my heart. I had originally planned on figuring out who the ranged one was, caging it, then blasting the rest to smithereens with charged mana bolts. But now I have a different idea. I surrounded the entire group with a barrier of 30 mana, ensuring the barrier had both siphon and drain effects active. The group started struggling immediately, one of them casting fire blasts at the barrier. The fire did some damage, but it was quickly healed by the barrier effects. I turned around to start on the next group when Bran called out to me. ¡°Aren¡¯t you going to finish them off? You¡¯re still in the middle of a battle, you know.¡± I grinned at him and told him to just keep following along. I went to the closest group, which happened to have 5 members this time. Despite being larger in number than the last group, this pack was closer together physically. I cast a 50 mana barrier on it this time, also ensuring the effects were active. The group gave a stronger resistance than the first group did, but there were more supplies of resources to steal from. The barrier was growing stronger at an impressive rate. I had nothing to worry about. Bran looked on disapprovingly but didn¡¯t say anything. The third group of Lizardmen were too far away at the moment for what I planned to do, so I went back to the first group. Less than a minute had passed since I had caged them, but most of the fight had already left the caster. The two Lizardmen who I assumed were melee fighters looked to have multiple burns on them, but they still hammered away at the barrier with their fists, occasionally trying to scratch it. I waited another moment before casting a normal Arcane Explosion in the cage. The caster died immediately, but the other two looked determined to live. I blasted them again and they succumbed to their wounds. After the glowing faded away, I walked forward to see what the loot was. There were two chunks of meat and three claws the size of my pinky. I added them to my inventory and went back to the second group. This group looked more drained, having had more time for the barrier to take affect. I cast one arcane explosion inside the barrier that was loaded with 20 mana points. They all died at that. There were 5 more claws, 3 more chunks of lizard meat, and a sling for the item drops. I stored the drops and pulled my resources up to see how I was doing. It¡¯s only been 5 minutes since I cast the first barrier. Health 260/260 Stamina 185/260 Mana 573/670 I was doing fine on mana, and my stamina was refilling at a steady rate since I wasn''t physically straining myself in here. Bran walked up next to me and looked ready to lecture. ¡°This is not how I planned for you to fight this dungeon, but I won''t say I''m not impressed. I intended for you to fight using a series of Arcane Explosions and those arrows you used on that tree. I assume it¡¯s an Arcane Bolt?¡± ¡°Mana bolt, actually. And I''ll tell you what. Since you paid for some fancy new gear for me, I''ll try fighting your way. I''ll take the next group without using the various draining effects of my barrier, but I won''t promise not to use my barrier at all.¡± He agreed to those terms, and I readied myself for a slugfest. I looked around and went to the smallest group nearest to us, which had a bowman - Bow-Lizard-man? - and three presumably melee fighters. I approached them, and as I grew closer, the bow-lizard-man knocked an arrow and held its bow at the ready, not yet drawn though. The three melee fighters looked in our direction at this, and they crouched in an aggressive manner. I over charged an Arcane Explosion. There was a total of 70 mana in this one casting, and I was excited to see how it went. ¡°Heads up!¡± I called out to Bran. ¡°It¡¯s about to be very loud.¡± I had an evil grin as I cast the spell. The Lizardmen were about a hundred feet away from us, yet my robes and hair whipped about in the wind of the aftermath of the explosion I just caused. There were no remains from the Lizardmen, but there was a large crater about 15 feet across where the group once stood. In the middle of the crater, the glow of item drops appeared. I went down to get the meat and claws that dropped. I was looking forward to getting a bow, even if I never used it. It would¡¯ve made for a fun hobby at least. ¡°Alright, you proved your point, but don¡¯t waste mana. Maybe tone it back a bit next time. Any stronger or closer, and one of us might''ve been caught up in it.¡± Bran came to the edge of the small indent in the ground. ¡°So, I have a question. Why aren¡¯t all the Lizardmen attacking me right now? I made quite the ruckus, but none of them have come to attack us yet. Why is that?¡± ¡°In most open dungeons like the one we¡¯re in now, the monsters have a set area they ¡®guard¡¯. You saw how the bow user didn¡¯t attack you on sight right? It was because you weren¡¯t in his area. Their areas range from dungeon to dungeon, but this one is about a hundred feet or so. If you had gotten any close, they would¡¯ve charged and started firing arrows at you. It was one of the things I was watching for before I intervened. So congrats, you get bonus points for asking good questions. However, they will chase you if you attack one of their group, so be wary of that. ¡°Thanks, I guess. But now that I''ve had my fun, I¡¯m almost ready to get serious. I¡¯m planning on rushing the next few groups. Just a heads up.¡± ¡°How so?¡± ¡°Well, my plan involves gathering multiple groups, surrounding us in a shield, then blasting them with multiple explosions, with mana bolts added as necessary.¡± ¡°Sounds good.¡± He nodded approvingly. Maybe the key to this guy is communication. He seems easy going when I tell him what my plans are, and only seems to get upset when I just act without consulting him. I guess I''ll try better to keep him informed going forward. I looked around and found what looked like a good spot to enact my plan. I still had a little over 500 points of mana left, so I wasn''t worried. I¡¯d reserve 100 for an emergency explosion just in case, but most of the mana I planned on using was going to go towards 20 mana explosions. It seemed the sweet spot for one hitting most groups. I planned to gather a few individual groups by firing one point mana bolts at one of the Lizardmen and then running away. I was going to run in a big circle, kiting multiple groups along the way so they can all gather behind the two of us in one large group. ¡°Tell me Bran, do you think I can outrun one of the Lizardmen in a race?¡± He looked at me confused, then I told him what I was about to do. ¡°You ballsy bastard. This is what I was talking about. THAT is at least a more proper fight. That barrier bullshit you pulled earlier was quite frankly disturbing, and the sneak attack explosion left much to be desired. They¡¯re perfectly reasonable tactics, don¡¯t misunderstand me. But I''m looking for a fighting spirit here. My biggest concern with this though would be the ranged attackers, specifically spell casters and bow users. The slings are honestly trash.¡± ¡°I still think I can do it. I want to try, at least.¡± I was too stubborn for my own good. ¡°Alright, this is your delve, after all. Go for it.¡± Chapter 17 Well, I didn''t claim it was my smartest idea. I had over 20 groups of Lizardmen hot on my tail. There were at least 70 of the monsters behind me. I was pumping my arms and sprinting in a giant circle. An arrow just flew by me, but I refused to give it any thought. I had a mental timer counting down, and as soon as it hit 0, I''d turn around and face the horde I''d gathered. Bran was off standing in the safe zone by the dungeon entrance. Alright, this should be my last lap. I¡¯ll pull two more groups - those groups there - and then when I next pass this spot, I''ll start firing empowered Arcane Explosions. I had been sprinting around for almost 10 minutes at this point, gathering monsters for this scheme of mine, and I''ll be damned if it doesn¡¯t work. I locked on to the two groups I intended to pull and fired my weakened mana bolts at them. The first show went a bit right, but the next got the first group, and the third shot pulled the second group. Okay, give them a few minutes to join the gang, and I''ll be nice and set for act two. I continued running, and a couple of firebolts exploded right behind me. Another arrow whizzed by my head. These bastards are getting better at aiming the longer I run. I need to add some zigzags into my pattern, or next thing I know, there''s gonna be an arrow in my back. 30 seconds until I started blasting. Yah know, I really should¡¯ve tried this on a smaller group before I went all out like this. But I never seem to learn, so I? 10 seconds left. Okay, we¡¯re almost to the point of no return. Am I still feeling this? Yes. Yes, I am. No pain no gain! I redoubled my efforts to get as much distance between me and the horde behind me. I needed every inch of room if I wanted to survive this. As the last couple seconds ticked by in my head, I prepared the first Arcane Explosion. 3 2 1 I turned on a dime and let rip a 50-point explosion right at the first line of Lizardmen. They seemed shocked at my sudden stop, and the first group was obliterated. Before anything else could happen, I cast a barrier around me and poured 100 points into it. I¡¯m glad I waited until I was at a full mana pool before this stunt of mine. The next wave of Lizardmen kept charging at me, none were deterred by my display of power. I could see the bloodlust in their eyes. Their claws were elongated and their fangs seemed to drip with their hunger for my skin. I cast another two Arcane Explosions, these at normal power and separated enough to properly blast every Lizardmen in the line. At least 15 of the monsters died in that attack. A single Lizardman made it through the gap in the explosions, but it fell to an empowered mana bolt to the face. I was alarmed at how close he got before I fired that off. Keep your cool man. You¡¯ve got this. There were still about 40 monsters left. They paused momentarily, but continued their charge, spreading out as they ran. Crap, they¡¯re learning my moves. Okay, no more big explosions. It¡¯s time to throw quantity over quality now. I started aiming for the smaller groups, throwing 15-point explosions at them. I had 5 casts out before they started separating further. It looked like they aimed to surround me, but they were getting lower in numbers themselves. There were only 25 Lizardmen left. I aimed at individual monsters, now that they were closer. The group encircled me and started moving in slowly, only 20 feet away from me. I hit two of the monsters in the chest with empowered mana bolts, and as the second one went down, I felt the barrier around me take damage. I turned and saw a fire caster throw another fireball. I aimed to take it down with a weaker explosion behind it to throw it off balance, then I cast an empowered mana bolt into its neck. It fell to the ground, bleeding heavily, so I went on to the next monster. This one was pretty close to the Lizardman to its left, so I cast a regular explosion between them then took them both out with an empower bolt to the head each. As the Lizardmen got closer to me, they had no choice but to get closer to each other. There was a group of three in a triangle formation that got a 15-point explosion tight in the middle. All three went down at once, the glow of loot starting to shine. A Lizardman who was closer to the trio was distracted by the glow and got a regular bolt to the eye. I was down to the last 16 Lizardmen. I saw one of them start firing arrows at me from the left, so I did the same to him as the fire caster. After it went down, there were no more ranged Lizardmen attackers. I decided to wait for the remaining Lizardmen to get close enough to start attacking the barrier before I shot any more. Three rushed in behind me as a group and went down to an empowered explosion. A duo approached from the front and each got a 10-point bolt to the neck as they reached me. From that point on, every Lizardman who reached me got a 10-point Mana Bolt to its chest. I looked around me and saw there were still two more groups of Lizardmen off in the distance, but every last monster I had just pulled went down without even injuring me. My ego just got an enormous boost. I pulled up my resources to check how much that little venture cost. Health 260/260 Stamina 155/260 Mana 175/670 ¡°Nicely done! I''m impressed you didn¡¯t get injured at all! I expected at least one arrow to the back, but the little maneuvers you added towards the end saved you at least twice. Good call!¡± Bran jogged up to me and I let the barrier around me dissipate. ¡°Thanks. I figured their aim was improving as the chase went on, and I didn''t want to deal with that while running. But all in all, I''m surprised at how well that went. I didn¡¯t even have to take any potions.¡± I had moved a regular health potion to be at the first slot in my storage for just that specific reason. I walked around and collected the drops from the fight. After they were in a large pile, I added it all to my storage. I pulled up the Ui to see what exactly I got. Storage (17/22) 0 g 95s 33 c
  1. Health Potion
  2. Bowie knife
  3. 25 shirts (varied colors, cloth)
  4. 10 pants (cloth)
  5. 10 underwear (5 boxers, 5 sock pairs)
  6. 15 rations (varied flavors)
  7. Potions (varied)
  8. 2 leather armor sets
  9. 5 books
  10. Water skin
  11. Camping gear (tent, placemat, sleeping bag)
  12. Slime bracelet
  13. 51 portions Lizardman meat
  14. 63 Lizardman claws
  15. 4 Lizardman bows
  16. 2 Lizardman slings
  17. Essence of Lizardmen
¡°What is ¡®Essence of Lizardmen¡¯? I¡¯ve never heard of it before.¡± I asked Bran about the unusual loot I got. ¡°Essence is one way to increase your resource pools.¡± Bran lectured. ¡°It has an extremely low drop rate though. Like 0.1% or something like that. You won¡¯t find it in any dungeon lower than D rank. Its drop rate increases the higher the rank though. Not buy much, but enough that it¡¯s worth it. Its highly valuable and can break parties that have known each other since birth. Don¡¯t go letting anyone know you¡¯ve gotten that. It can be dangerous.¡± I thought about it for a second. I took it out of my storage and examined it closely. It looked to be a small orb that glowed yellow. ¡°The color indicates which resource it¡¯ll increase. Yellow means it¡¯ll bump your stamina. I recommend eating it now bef-¡± I tossed the orb to him and he stumbled to catch it. ¡°All yours. I¡¯m good on stamina as is, and I can call that repayment for all the equipment you bought me before we left. Have at it, homie." I smiled at the dumb look on his face. ¡°I¡¯ll tell you what, for that, you can call me ¡®homie¡¯ all you like.¡± He had a dumb grin on his face as he popped the pill sized orb into his mouth and swallowed. He glowed for a split second then started laughing. ¡°You know Claff, I might just have to promote you anyways. Not many people can solo a D rank dungeon, especially the way you just did it. Sure, there¡¯s still a few groups out there, but you just took out the overwhelming majority of monsters in here in one swoop.¡± It¡¯s true. I only saw two more groups of Lizardmen left in the dungeon. One was close to the entrance on the opposite side of the first group I killed, and the second group was standing on the opposite diagonal of the first. Huh. I just realized I have never tested the range on my spells. I¡¯ve shot an explosion over a hundred feet away from me today, but that¡¯s the furthest I''ve gone. Time for some experimentation. I still have just shy of 200 mana left at the moment. Let''s give it a try. The group by the entrance was at least a half mile from where I stood. I concentrated on the idea of my explosion happening right in the middle of the group. I added an extra 20 mana to the pattern and let it fire. Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. Success! ¡°Impressive distance. But wait to take out the other group until you¡¯ve fully recuperated. The boss will spawn as soon as you kill them.¡± Oh right, the boss. I had gotten so caught up with killing what was currently present that I had forgotten that there was supposed to be a boss in the dungeon. I went over to the group I just killed and grabbed the loot. It was just some claws and lizard meat chunks. Bran and I sat around eating lunch for about an hour before deciding I was ready to fight the last group and kill the boss. Health 260/260 Stamina 183/260 Mana 641/670 Mostly full mana with plenty of stamina, and topped off health. I¡¯ll be fine. Now let''s check and see if I can kill the last group from here. After that, Boss man should be showing up. Lez go! I let Bran know I was going to aim for the last group from here, and he looked ready to see if there¡¯s a limit to the range of my spells. Okay, that¡¯s just over 3 miles. I got this. I loaded the arcane explosion pattern with 30 points of mana and concentrated on the group. I ¡®m glad the dungeon is pretty damn flat. It¡¯s literally the perfect test zone for this. I wonder though¡­ ¡°Heads up, I''m doing a test really quick.¡± I told Bran. he nodded and I unraveled the pattern I was weaving. I aimed a mana bolt straight up to see how high it went. I estimated it went about a mile high before it hit a barrier similar to the edge of the dungeon. An evil grin grew across my face as a plan formulated for my next run through this dungeon. ¡°What was that about?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a secret for now. Something for me to experiment with in the future.¡± He looked confused but overall ignored my shenanigans. ¡°Alright, I''ll get the last group now.¡± I loaded the pattern again and killed the last group with minimal effort. I barely saw the glow of loot from this distance, but it was there. I decided against getting it since the familiar pop of a monster spawning could be heard. I examined the boss as it spawned. It didn¡¯t have the usual lethargy of a newly spawned stray monster. Neither did its two attendants. The boss was a giant Lizardman who stood at 8 feet tall with a giant spear at its side that was a foot taller than it. Its claws looked shorter than the regular Lizardmen¡¯s, but I guess it was to allow for an easier time wielding the spear. It had a horn extending 3 inches from the edge of its snout, and 3 spikes on either side of the end of its tail. There were strange protrusions jutting out the end of its elbows that honestly looked badass. The boss as a whole looked awesome. It made me wonder what could have been if I had chosen to be a summoner instead of a caster. An army of this guy sounded EPIC. After I finished admiring the boss, I checked out the side pieces that spawned with it. The Lizardman on the right had a gnarled staff that had a flame constantly glowing at the top end. The one on the left held a longbow that stood almost as tall as it did, with a quiver full of arrows as long as my arm strapped to its back. The group had just noticed Bran and I as I finished my fantasies of an alternate time where I had different skills. I shook my head and readied myself as the boss charged at us. It was a lot faster than its weaker counterparts, and it had a weapon unlike them too. I charged 30 points into a Mana Bolt and aligned my shot so that if the boss dodged to the side, the bolt would continue past it and hit the caster. I dashed to the side to get the perfect angle, the bolt thrumming with power in my hand. When it was perfectly aligned, I loosed the spell and it flew faster than any bolt I''ve cast before. I immediately cast a 15-point barrier. The boss jumped to the side and the bolt grazed its hip. It flew past the boss and impaled the casters right arm. Its appendage went limp, forcing it to drop the staff it was holding. The bow user had plenty of time to shoot 3 arrows at me, but they all smashed into the barrier. It brought it down to 3 points of charge, so I dropped it and bolted to the side again, aiming to get the boss between me and it. The boss was kneeling, favoring its injured side. It stood up as I made my maneuver. I charged a second 30-point bolt and aimed at its hip again. The boss side stepped completely and fell to the ground due to its last injury. The bolt continued past and got the bow user in its stomach. It made a hole through it, right through the spine. The bow dropped to the ground, followed by a glowing Lizardman. A little morbid, but fuck yeah! One down, two to go. The boss has barely been a challenge so far, what the heck? I¡¯d be dead if 3 bow users spawned. But I could probably deal with 10 of the bosses. I was too distracted. The caster cast a firebolt at me that went straight through the meat of my left leg, cauterizing the wound as it went. I fell to the ground in extreme pain. Don''t black out, don''t black out. YOU¡¯VE GOT THIS DAMMIT IT! YOU¡¯RE GOING TO BE THE VERY BEST! LIKE NO ONE EVER WAS! I cast a barrier around myself, dumping an entire 200 points into it. Good thing I put so much into it, too. The boss reached me and started assaulting the barrier with rapid heavy blows. I felt the barrier drain at an alarming rate. ¡°Need any help?¡± Bran had called out. Instead of answering him, I gathered half my remaining mana into a massive mana bolt and fired at the boss. The mother fucker can¡¯t dodge from this distance. The bolt went straight through it, vaporizing the left side of its torso. The bolt carried through the boss and in the direction of the caster, who unfortunately wasn¡¯t where I thought it was. It had run far to the left of where I aimed the bolt. That¡¯s fine. I''ll get you with this next shot. I pulled my resources up to check how much I had available to cram into my next spell. Health 180/260 Stamina 183/260 Mana 165/670 I had more than enough for this. I put 60 points of mana into an Arcane Explosion and cast it right in front of the caster. And with that, I had finished the dungeon entirely by myself. ¡°Well, that last fight was a lot more intense than I thought it would be.¡± Bran came over to inspect my wound. ¡°It missed any major arteries. You should still take a potion though.¡± The pain was intense, but I could feel it getting easier to deal with the longer I sat there. It¡¯s been a while since I thought about using my regeneration for health. Let¡¯s see. 2.6 health regen multiplier from level 8 Enhanced Body, 9 multiplier from Regeneration, 10/hr for base health regeneration. All that puts me at 234 health per hour. I only need to regenerate 80 points for my leg to be good as new. ¡°No. It¡¯s practice for my Regeneration. It hurts like a bitch, but I''ll be fine in about 25 minutes. Let me just rest for a bit.¡± Rest was exactly what I needed. Bran looked skeptical but let me be. He pulled a file out from somewhere hidden and started reading. ¡°I see, so your regeneration gives your health and mana then? Impressive. I¡¯d love to hear what version it is, but it¡¯s against policy to ask for details beyond skill name. My own regeneration is used strictly for my health pool. Though others have guessed it¡¯s for stamina too. Keep that between us though.¡± He winked at me at the last bit. ¡°I¡¯d love to hear more about your skills, if you¡¯re willing to tell me. I haven¡¯t even heard of you before today.¡± It was true. I had wondered for a bit about the Adventurer¡¯s Guild Master after I had met with Paris. I figured I''d meet him eventually if I kept to my path of being an adventurer, but I truly wasn¡¯t expecting to meet him so soon. ¡°Feel free to ask more about me at the guild. I¡¯m sure there¡¯s plenty of stories going around, if you ask the right people. And if we do end up working together as equals at some point, which judging by what I saw today will happen sooner rather than later, you¡¯ll find out plenty.¡± That was quite the non-answer. Unfair given he has a file with all my skill names, and even knows some of my skill levels. ¡°Fair enough. I guess a guild master can¡¯t show all his cards.¡± ¡°Exactly. Speaking of ¡®all the cards¡¯, mind telling me your current skill levels so I can write them down for your file? I¡¯ll consider today your Silver Rank exam, but it won¡¯t be made official until you finish the list I''ll be giving you when we get back.¡± ¡°Why do you need to know my skill levels? I thought the skill names were good enough?¡± ¡°Levels only need to be given during a promotion exam. When you register as a member, we only need your skill names to try to determine in what manner your battle skills will be used in the case of an emergency, such as a wave of monsters coming from the Dark Forest Southeast of here. It¡¯s rare, but it has happened twice in my lifetime.¡± ¡°I see. Give me a second.¡± I pulled up my extended status. User: Claff: Health 220/280 Stamina 190/280 Mana 205/670 Achievements Slime Slayer! Quests [2] Kill Goblins 0/¡Þ Kill Slimes 0/¡Þ Party [1] Equipment Ring of Mana Regeneration (+20%) Slime Bracelet (+290 mana) *Robe of Regeneration (+10% mana regeneration, +10% casting speed) SKILLS PASSIVE Enhanced Body Lv 9 [1%] Increased Mental Capacity Lv14 [79%] Regeneration Lv15 [93%] ACTIVE Arcane Magic Lv 12 [12%] Barrier Magic Lv 11 [89%] Game-like Storage Lv10 [98%] Storage (16/22) 0 g 95s 33 c
  1. Health Potion
  2. Bowie knife
  3. 25 shirts (varied colors, cloth)
  4. 10 pants (cloth)
  5. 10 underwear (5 boxers, 5 sock pairs)
  6. 13 rations (varied flavors)
  7. Potions (varied)
  8. 2 leather armor sets
  9. 5 books
  10. Water skin
  11. Camping gear (tent, placemat, sleeping bag)
  12. Slime Bracelet
  13. 51 portions Lizardman meat
  14. 63 Lizardman claws
  15. 4 Lizardman bows
  16. 2 Lizardman slings
¡°Oh sweet, my Enhanced Body leveled.¡± Bran erased then wrote something in his - my - file. Probably my level up. I told him the levels of the rest of my skills, and when I was done, I learned the next level of Arcane Magic. It was the best chance I had, and since the last few level ups hadn¡¯t been much of a headache, I went for it. Spell modification Guided Projectiles has been learned. Oh, come on! I could¡¯ve used this 30 minutes ago! The boss wouldn¡¯t have been able to dodge if I had that! Ooh, I was mad. But also extremely happy. Having this would make future runs through this dungeon a whole lot easier. Bran could see the displeasure on my face. ¡°What¡¯s wrong? Do you need a potion after all?¡± ¡°No, it¡¯s just the new spell modifier I learned. It would¡¯ve made this last fight a WHOLE lot easier.¡± He laughed at me. ¡°HAH, I get it, kid. Believe me. I get it. I¡¯ve learned plenty of moves that would¡¯ve been great for previous fights in my life. The only thing to do about it now is consider how you¡¯ll use it in the next fight. Just move forward, never backwards.¡± ¡°Sage advice. I¡¯ll take it, I guess. But the next time I come back here, I''m coming fully prepared to explode everything.¡± He laughed some more. ¡°I like your spirit. But let¡¯s get you patched up so we can get back to the guild. I¡¯m ready to get a warm meal.¡± ¡°Screw it. I¡¯m drinking a potion.¡± I could feel that my Regeneration would¡¯ve leveled as soon as my leg was fully healed, but I wanted to get back to civilization and get some sleep. So much for a day off. I¡¯ll sell some more mana when I get back, but that¡¯s as much as I''m doing for today. The same goes for tomorrow too. I pulled one of the health potions Duke got for me and drank it. I could feel the muscles in my leg stitch back together. I could even see it if I wanted to, but I looked to the sky, refusing to watch. I was sad about the hole in my brand-new robes though. Once I was all healed, I went to check out the drops from the boss fight. The pile consisted of 5 chunks of Lizardman meat, 5 Lizardman claws, and the boss¡¯s giant spear. The spear shrank down to my size when I picked it up. The rest of it got sent to storage. I started twirling the spear around like I used to with the flags when I was in band camp in my old life. It felt like second nature. ¡°Impressive, but I wouldn''t play with that if I were you. One mess up could get quite bloody, and you just got fixed.¡± I laughed and tossed the spear up rather high. When it came back down, it landed blade down a foot in front of me. The shaft wobbled a little, and I put it in storage. ¡°Alright, I¡¯m ready to go.¡± Without another word, Bran and I left the dungeon. The run back was uneventful, but also fast. We made it in 2 hours and 30 minutes. The sun still had a few hours left before setting. When we entered the city, I told Bran I was heading to the Enchanter¡¯s guild then Half Moon to relax for the rest of the day. ¡°That¡¯s fine. Make sure you check in with Luke tomorrow morning to pick up your monster list. It will be listed as an official quest for you, though there won¡¯t be extra payment, just the regular fees for stray monster extermination. Get it done quickly, because the sooner you do, the sooner you get your promotion.¡± With that, we split ways. Tomorrow was going to be much more exciting than I wanted it to be. Chapter 18 ¡°Well, looks like you impressed the boss man. Either that, or you really pissed him off. He left quite the kill quest for you.¡± Luke was looking at the list of monsters Bran wanted me to kill. I gave him my guild tag so he could add the quest to my log. When he handed it back to me, I pulled up my quest list. He had removed the two ongoing quests and replaced it with one long quest. Quests [1] Monster Hit List Optional ¡°From what I can tell,¡± Luke said, ¡°Bran wants you to go to the Dark Forest. That¡¯s the closest place around to get skeletons and giant slimes. The rest can be pretty local, within a 30 mile radius of Silface, but those two specifically paired with the optional unlimited kills means you¡¯ll have to go there.¡± ¡°Well damn.¡± Is he trying to get me killed? I¡¯m not ready for that place yet! ¡°Damn indeed.¡± Bran said behind me. ¡°GAH! How the hell are you so quiet in that bulky ass armor of yours?¡± Luke looks horrified by what I said about Bran right to his face. ¡°Call it practice. But yes, I want you to head to the Dark Forest and stay there for about a week. If you come back alive with the required monster kills, I''ll give you your promotion on the spot. A Dark Forest raid is also one of the requirements to be promoted to Gold Rank as well, so this is more of a two birds situation.¡± Bran looked pleased with himself. ¡°While I want you to do this solo,¡± he continued, ¡°I will allow you to bring anyone you want, as long as they agree to join you. None from my gold rank party may join, obviously, but any copper or silver ranks may join you. I will even go so far as to count this as a silver rank promotion exam as well. So that can be an incentive for others to join you. Luke here will assign them the same quest you have now. A party will make things easier on yourself in some ways, however, it also means you need to kill more monsters, depending on how many you have joining you.¡± ¡°The Dark Forest is a dangerous place, Claff.¡± Luke warned me. ¡°You should bring at least one person with you, if not more. I can put a word out that you¡¯re forming a raiding party, if you want. I¡¯m sure there will be plenty of people willing to jump at the chance to be promoted to silver. And Silvers would go at the chance to get on Bran¡¯s good side.¡± Bran laughed at that. ¡°It¡¯s true. However, I''d recommend not joining people you don¡¯t trust. It is a dangerous place after all.¡± I didn¡¯t even have to think about it. ¡°I¡¯ll invite Grifith, but that¡¯s it. But if he says no, then I''m going solo. I don¡¯t know too many other people, and I don''t think this kind of quest is one to be introduced to unfamiliar faces.¡± ¡°I see. Like I said, I''d prefer you do this solo, but it¡¯s your quest, ultimately. The only stipulation is that you have one month maximum to come back with everything done. Travel time should only take 3 days there, plus 3 back. Add that to the 7 days of being in the forest, you¡¯ll have plenty of time.¡± He¡¯s reasonable at least. A month should be plenty of time. ¡°I also made sure to make it so you don¡¯t need to go more than 10 miles deep into the forest. You can if you want, just know that the deeper you go, the stronger the monsters get.¡± ¡°10 miles deep, got it. That shouldn''t be any problem. I want to go back to the slime dungeon first to finish getting my bracelet upgraded to 500 before I go, but that should only take me a couple days. Oh right! I got an extra Slime bracelet on my last run through the dungeon.¡± I pulled the bralet out and showed it to them. ¡°Impressive.¡± Bran said. ¡°What are you planning to do with it? We could buy it from you if you want to sell it.¡± ¡°Well, I was planning to sell it to Paris. I forgot to tell him about it last night. I¡¯ll mention it when I go later.¡± ¡°Understood. He mentioned you selling your mana to him, and how you had such high purity and a large quantity for such a new adventurer.¡± He then got serious. ¡°Be careful around him. He¡¯s one of the oldest people on this continent, if not the world. He might appear friendly at times, but I can tell you he¡¯s done some things in his past.¡± The shadow passed from his face. ¡°Alrighty then, on the note, i¡¯ll be heading upstairs to get my new robe fixed. Hopefully Sarah can get the blood out of it too.¡± I waved the two men off and left. I was trying to be in a good mood today, so I definitely don¡¯t need that dampener. ¡°You made it back alive!¡± Sarah ran and jumped at me in a hug. Duke was close behind her, though he only patted my shoulder in congratulations. ¡°How''d it go? How many runs did the two of you do? I thought you¡¯d be back by lunch, but I don''t think I saw Bran return until almost dinner time!¡± The two of them started questioning me. I told them the full story, including the delve of the Lizardman dungeon. ¡°Damn dude! That sounds pretty badass! Taking on over 70 Lizardmen at once is pretty damn impressive! Sucks about your leg, but at least you made it out alive!¡± Duke gave his praises. ¡°So you went from soloing an E rank dungeon to a D rank dungeon in the span of what, two days? You bump your head as a kid?¡± Sarah smacked me upside the head as I told her about the horde chasing me on purpose. ¡°Give me your robe so I can get started on mending it for you.¡± She gasped a little when she saw the burn marks going through where my leg would¡¯ve been. ¡°You need practice on how to use your barrier skill better. Things like this shouldn¡¯t be happening to a skilled guy like you.¡± She berated me. ¡°Not many people get promoted in under a month of being an adventurer. So you need to work all the harder in order to catch up to your soon to be new peers.¡± ¡°Okay mooooom, I¡¯ll do better.¡± I rolled my eyes and stuck my tongue out at her. She stuck hers out in return. Duke just rolled his eyes at the two of us. ¡°Okay, so while you get the robe started, I¡¯m going to do some more shopping. I¡¯ll be getting a bunch of rations, so be prepared for that. I¡¯ll also be getting a ton of potions too. Bran gave me a Dark Forest quest that I have to get done in a month, so I''ll stock up now while I can. After selling mana last night and all the drops I got from the Lizardman Dungeon, I¡¯m up to over a gold and a half!¡± I pulled up my UI to see how much I was up to now. Sweet, it leveled to 11! Storage (10/24) 1 g 55s 77 c
  1. Bowie knife
  2. 25 Shirts (varied colors, cloth)
  3. 10 Pants (cloth)
  4. 10 Underwear (5 boxers, 5 sock pairs )
  5. 13 Rations (varied flavors)
  6. 10 Potions (varied)
  7. 2 Leather Armor Sets
  8. 5 Books
  9. Water skin
  10. Camping Gear (tent, placemat, sleeping bag)
Duke and Sarah¡¯s jaws dropped at that. Duke was the first to say anything though. ¡°How the hell did you get so much money so quickly! Were you secretly an adventurer in a different city before you got here? That¡¯s like four month¡¯s rent for me!¡± ¡°Same! What the hell man! Most adventurers don''t get their first gold until after half a year, if not longer. You need to start spending more so I can get my commissions damn it!¡± Sarah smacked my arm this time.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°Well, I''ve been mostly farming a goblin spawn site with Grifith. Other than that, I started selling my mana. Each time I go to sell it, it''s like 30 silver for now. Everything sort of adds up.¡± ¡°DAMN!¡± They both exclaimed in unison. ¡°Well, I have a lot of mana now, and I get a premium for having pretty high mana purity.¡± ¡°Understatement.¡± Duke said with an exasperated look on his face. ¡°Anyways, let me do some shopping real quick. Before I do that though, how much are the repairs gonna be, Sarah? I need to know how much to set aside for that.¡± She held the robe in her hands and had a pondering look on her face. ¡°Well, these robes weren¡¯t cheap to begin with. I¡¯d estimate around 15 silver to get it fixed completely. I need to get some help fixing the enchantment though. That¡¯s where the bulk of the cost is coming from. It might be up to 20 silver, though no more than that.¡± ¡°Thank you, I''ll set aside 25 just in case. Let me know when you have a good pick up time for me, yeah?¡± She nodded then left. ¡°Alright, what flavors you got for me today?¡± I went over to the rations shelves and started picking out multiple. I had over 30 pulled to the side when Duke let me know What my total so far was, just from the rations. ¡°Claff, you¡¯ve already got 6 silver worth of food. I think you¡¯ll be fine. And I don''t want to restock the rations again today.¡± ¡°Fair enough. Here¡¯s the silver for the food.¡± I put all the rations I gathered into my storage and went to look around for anything else I might have needed. I Decided to grab 5 more regular health potions and called it good. I still had plenty from what Duke got me on Bran¡¯s coin yesterday, but I wanted to be extra sure. It¡¯s not like they¡¯ll go bad in my storage. The same goes for the food. Time seems to stop inside the skill. As long as whatever isn¡¯t living, I can put it in storage and not have to worry about the item spoiling or rotting or losing effectiveness. It¡¯s great. I only need to make sure I have enough slots. And that hasn¡¯t been an issue for quite a while. I brought the potions up to the counter and paid. Duke asked if I had run out already, but I told him, ¡°I''d rather have them and not need them than need them and not have them. They won''t go bad in my storage anyways, it¡¯s fine.¡± He nodded and I added them to my collection in storage. Already down 56 silver. I hope the robes don''t take too much. Even though I''ll be getting more from mana selling later, I don''t want to spend too much. Sarah came back out 10 minutes later and told me that the enchantments would take a while to fix, and that it¡¯ll be ready in about 3 days. ¡°Unfortunately, our in house Enchanter doesn¡¯t have access to the Enchanter¡¯s Guild mana supply, so I can''t put a rush on this for you. It¡¯s already at the front of the line as is, it will just take a while to get to.¡± ¡°I see. In that case, I''ll be back in 3 days. I¡¯m going back to Slime Dungeon to upgrade my Bracelet to 500. I¡¯ll be back as soon as I can, definitely before the 3 days are over.¡± Sarah started to protest. ¡°And don¡¯t worry, I still have my leather armor to wear though my delves.¡± That seemed to alleviate her worries for now. ¡°I''ll see you guys when I get back, so stay safe yeah?¡± I tried being light hearted to make the best of the situation. Sarah hugged me and I got a fist bump from Duke. Then I went to the Enchanter¡¯s Guild to sell and see if Paris wanted my spare Slime Bracelet. He did not, but he did want my mana. I got my 30 silver and went on my merry way. I decided to stop by the enchanter¡¯s shop on my way back to see what else he had available. ¡°My friend! Welcome back! It has been too long!¡± Greeted me before I even put my first foot inside the door. I still don¡¯t know this guy''s name. Huh. ¡°Yes, I came to see about buying some spell rings. I¡¯ve been thinking about that firebolt ring you showed me last time, and I wanted to see what else you had in stock.¡± ¡°Right to the point, I like it! Now my friend, what element were you looking for? I still have the same ring as last time, if that¡¯s to your taste? Or I also have a ring for water bolt, stone bullet, air slicer, and even a light ball ring, though that¡¯s strictly for illuminating dark places.¡± Dark places? Like the Dark Forest I''ll be going to soon? Yes please! ¡°I¡¯ll be taking that light ring, but I also want the stone bullet ring and I''ll look at the air slicer, though I might not be taking it.¡± I want to see ALL the enchanted stuff! How can I be in a fantasy world and not?! Storage (10/24) 1 g 29s 77 c Besides, I can afford it, so why not? ¡°Of course, my friend! The light ball ring will cast a ball of light that will either remain in place above the caster¡¯s head, or stay in a targeted location. I recommend the stationary effect, otherwise you¡¯d essentially be broadcasting your location to any monsters nearby. It does do decent damage to the undead if aimed at them, though that is the only category of monsters it affects.¡± He brought me the ring, and I put it on the middle finger of my left hand. I channeled 3 points of mana through it. I felt my mana corrupt as it went through, then a fist sized ball of light appeared above my head. It moved as I mentally commanded it to. ¡°Sweet, I¡¯ll use this with gusto. How much is it?¡± ¡°That is 10 silver.¡± His pearly whites shined even brighter in the light of my new ring. I handed him the money as he showed me the Stone Bullet ring. I figured I would need it in case I met an enemy that was resistant to arcane damage. This way I can still use a physical based spell. Always be prepared. I put the stone bullet ring on the ring finger of my right hand. I was going to pour mana through it until I remembered where I was. ¡°Do you have an area I can test this out at? I¡¯d rather not damage anything in your shop here if I can help it.¡± ¡°RIght this way. I¡¯ll also bring the air slicer ring as well for you to try.¡± I smiled my appreciation and followed him past a curtain of red beads. It led to a room that hummed with magic. It housed a desk that was as wide as the 5 foot wide room. There were plenty of other rings and charms on it, but the man faced me to the right, where the hallway stretched for 30 feet. There were burn marks and small scratches all on the walls, but nothing major. ¡°As long as you avoid aiming behind this line,¡± he pointed at a yellow line at our feet, ¡°you should be fine to use most spells with a cost of under 10 mana. Anything above that threshold will damage the protective enchantments I have in place.¡± ¡°I see, thank you.¡± I aimed my fist at the opposite wall and ran 3 mana through the ring. I felt the familiar mana corruption but tried to keep pressing more in. I wanted to push 5 though, but the ring seemed to protest. I guess 3 mana is the limit of the enchantment. I wonder if that¡¯s due to the enchantment itself, or if that¡¯s how much the spell usually costs. My Basic Barrier spell only costs 3 mana, before I pack it full of mana to make it stronger. I loosed the spell and a stone projectile about 3 inches in diameter fired from my fist. It flew towards the wall I aimed at and exploded on impact. There was a small mark on the wall from where it lande. I wonder how big it would be if I could push more into it. ¡°How much do spells normally cost? It seems both the Ball of Light and the Stone Bullet both cost 3 mana, but the spells from my skills are different.¡± ¡°Yes my friend, Ball of Light and Stone Bullet are both starter spells for their respective affinities of magic. However, since it¡¯s being fired from an enchanted ring, it increased the cost by 1 point.¡± ¡°It increases? But my Mana Bolt spell costs 5 points for its base form. How are other affinities so cheap?¡± I know that Arcane Magic is supposed to be more expensive than other magics that actually have an affinity, but I didn''t realize it¡¯d be more than double. ¡°Yes, I figured as much. I asked around, and it seems very few people actually pick Arcane Magic due to its¡­ excessive mana costs. My friend, do you realize yet what an anomaly you are? The regeneration requirements must be insane, though I won''t ask further. You truly picked quite the impressive skill set, my friend. Truly impressive.¡± ¡°I see. In that case, I''ll take the Stone Bullet ring. Price?¡± I handed him the 10 silver he asked for and he gave me the Air Slicer ring. I doubt I''ll actually take it, but I need to at least try it once. I put it on my right index finger and poured 3 points of mana in. It corrupted, then a strong gust of wind was flung from my hand towards the opposite wall. Unimpressive. I¡¯d almost rather use it as an air conditioner. I handed it back to him and said it wasn¡¯t my style. ¡°Not every ring is for every customer, my friend. Pick what you feel suits you best, and move along with life. Now, would that be all for you, or would you like to look around some more?¡± ¡°I think that will do for now, thank you.¡± ¡°Feel free to come in any time. I will always be open to you, my friend.¡± With that, I left to go to Half Moon for some dinner. I informed Thaggard and Theona that I''d be leaving again after lunch and heading back to the slime dungeon. ¡°I had planned on staying here for a few days, but something came up and I need to reach my benchmark before I have to deal with some stuff.¡± I didn¡¯t mention the Silver promotion exam to them, nor did I mention me going to the Dark Forest soon. I¡¯d rather not have them worry about me when they didn¡¯t have to. They seemed to understand. Most adventurers came and went as they pleased. Apparently most were civil with dwarves, but few were as nice as I was to them. ¡°We¡¯ll miss you, my boy. But don¡¯t go getting all sentimental. Do as you will. Just promise to stay safe and never be afraid of running from anything. If you see a dragon though, be sure to kick its ugly snout before you turn tail. I hate those buggards.¡± That has got to be the most stereotypical dwarven thing I''ve ever heard him say. Well, besides drinking so much alcohol, his blood is made of the stuff. Whatever, I''ll miss this place while I''m gone. As it stood, I''ll be leaving for the slime dungeon in a few minutes, then when i¡¯ done there, I''ll be seeing if Grifith wants to join me on my Silver promotion quest. If not, I¡¯ll be going at it solo. I could already see the light blue indicator of the quests monster location about 450 miles southeast of me. I should be able to get to the edge of the area in 4 days, but I still planned on 5 days just to be sure. Though if Grifith comes with me, he¡¯ll make it so i¡¯m there in two days. Maybe I won''t invite him after all. I¡¯d be inviting him regardless, but the thought made me laugh. I finished my meal and paid a whole silver for it. I got up and left for the Slime dungeon. Time to get back to the grind. Chapter 19 User: Claff: Health 280/280 Stamina 250/280 Mana 900/900 Achievements Slime Slayer! Quests [1] Monster Hit List Optional Party [0] Equipment Ring of Mana Regeneration (+20%) Slime Bracelet (+500 mana ) Ring of Ball of Light Ring of Stone Bullet SKILLS PASSIVE Enhanced Body Lv 9 [22%] Increased Mental Capacity Lv15 [10%] Regeneration Lv16 [19%] ACTIVE Arcane Magic Lv 12 [65%] Barrier Magic Lv 12 [50%] Game-like Storage Lv11 [4%] Storage (10/24) 1 g 9s 77 c
  1. Bowie knife
  2. 25 shirts (varied colors, cloth)
  3. 10 pants (cloth)
  4. 10 underwear (5 boxers, 5 sock pairs )
  5. 43 rations (varied flavors)
  6. 15 Potions (varied)
  7. Leather armor set
  8. 5 books
  9. Water skin
  10. Camping gear (tent, placemat, sleeping bag)
The first run through Slime dungeon gave me 15 slime boss cores. After that, it took me 21 more runs to get my bracelet to +500 mana. Technically I could''ve had +506, but that would¡¯ve bugged me to an indescribable degree, and I didn''t feel like carrying around six cores until I came back to bring it up to +1000. Damn, I''m so close to having 1000 mana. It¡¯s so close I can taste it. I¡¯ve only been here for a day. I could do another few runs, right? I kept wanting to convince myself to finish the bracelet, but I knew if I started at just a few more, I''d keep going until I had the full thousand upgrade. I started my run back before I could stop myself. Rather than go to the guild hall, I went to the herbal field I used to farm with Grifith. It was time I asked him to join my party. Why am I so nervous? It¡¯s not like he¡¯s a stranger. We¡¯ve been working together for a while. It¡¯s only been a few days since I last saw him. And a lot has happened in those few days. Example one being i now had over 500 more mana than I did the last time I saw him. I made it to the field just in time for Grifith to take his lunch break. He looked surprised to see me, even more surprised to see the rings on my hands. ¡°The prodigal son returns. What¡¯s up man. Ready to go for a run?¡± He gave an evil grin at that. ¡°Har har. No. I¡¯m actually here to ask you to join me for a quest. It¡¯s my silver Rank promotion test.¡± He cringed immediately. ¡°For starters, I have no clue how you¡¯ve gotten to THAT point already, But i think i¡¯ll have to pass. I¡¯m more than comfortable where I am, just farming this one goblin, and collecting some herbs. It¡¯s a comfortable life, and it pays well. Although judging from those rings you¡¯re wearing, you seem to be making more than enough money for yourself.¡± ¡°Oh come on, you don¡¯t even want to hear what the quest is going to be? We just gotta kill a couple of monsters. The hardest part about the quest is going to be traveling. Just a couple of days to get there, a couple of days to kill the monsters - a week tops - then a couple of days back. It¡¯s really not that bad.¡± Except we¡¯d be going to the Dark Forest. ¡°Except we¡¯d be going to the Dark Forest.¡± Can he read minds?! ¡°Okay, you got me there. But you know about my barrier skill. We can sleep under the barriers. With your detection skill, we¡¯d have everything killed in no time. WHat do you say?¡± ¡°Claff. I really don¡¯t want to. I¡¯m seriously happy here. Besides, it wouldn¡¯t count as a promotion test for me, only you. I¡¯d have t-¡± I interrupted him. ¡°Actually, Bran said whoever I get to go with me will be able to consider this their promotion test too. So it would count for you.¡± He looked shocked again. ¡°I see. But still, who would be here to kill the daily Goblin spawn?¡± ¡°We can kill stronger spawns in the forest. It would be better practice for our skills, We¡¯d get more money for it, and we¡¯d get promoted to Silver Rank.¡± I put extra emphasis on the rank. He looked to finally be coming around! ¡°Alright. But before I say yes, I need to know the details of the quest. I¡¯m not going in there just to get myself killed.¡± ¡°That¡¯s perfectly fair.¡± I pulled up my quest UI. ¡°We have to kill Wolves, Hobgoblins, Killer Kobolds, Giant Slimes, and Skeletons. Ten of each. There''s also bonus monsters that don¡¯t necessarily count, but we might encounter them so we¡¯ll get credit for killing them.¡± ¡°See, here¡¯s the thing. The monsters you just listed are fine and all, but those bonus monsters are going to be the end of us. I can¡¯t do it man, I''m too happy with what i got to be throwing it all away.¡± I thought better of you Grifith. But- ¡°If that¡¯s how you feel, then I won''t push you. I¡¯m heading out the day after tomorrow after breakfast, just in case you change your mind. I¡¯ll wait at the southern gate for an hour, then I''ll be heading out after that.¡± I let him know my plans. ¡°I won¡¯t change my mind about this. But thank you for thinking of me. Come back alive, alright?¡± Disappointing. But it is what it is. I left him alone and started my journey back to Silface. I had preparations to make. Wait. Actually, I''m done with preparations. I don''t really have anything to do until my robe is ready. I went to the enchanter¡¯s guild and sold some more mana. Paris was surprised I went from selling 600 to 800. He made the adjustments to his machine, I made my deposit, and he handed me 40 silver. Might as well see what type of things he has to sell while I¡¯m here. Soon enough I¡¯ll be getting a whole gold coin for every deposit I make. ¡°So Paris, what items do you have for sale? I¡¯ve seen the goods at the store of the man who brought me here, but that¡¯s the most of what i''ve seen.¡± I showed him the rings I got. ¡°These are good rings for beginners, and they can serve you well into the advancement of your adventuring career. The best of what I can create is sold as national treasures, and the rest are either private sales for quite the coin, or not even worth mentioning.¡± ¡°That¡¯s quite the non answer, but okay. What private sale could you make for me? Maybe I can offer to pay in mana, or if you have experiments that require pure mana, I could offer my services?¡± Paris smiled. ¡°I appreciate your offer, however, you are still too inexperienced for the test I''d need your skills for. Tell me, if you don¡¯t mind. What level is your Arcane Magic skill? Your Barrier Magic skill?¡± ¡°Both are level 12. But they''re also growing quickly too. I¡¯m sure in no time I''ll be able to do something. But I guess that¡¯s for the future.¡± I felt rather glum about learning that I won''t be getting any fancy new equipment. Oh well. One of these days I''ll get it. Not that I even know what it is I might want. ¡°Tell me Claff, how much research have you done into your skill?¡± Oof. Practically none. I bought that book of skills and descriptions, but i haven¡¯t actually read it yet. I only know what I remember from when I picked my skills originally, and that was before my memory was enhanced by Increased Mental Capacity. I remember practically nothing, except the occasional blurb. ¡°I know that Arcane Magic is one of the stronger hitters when it comes to casting spells, but I also know that the mana requirements are much higher than elemental magic skills.¡± ¡°Yes, but what do you know of the spells you will learn at higher levels? As an enchanter, I had many teachers that told me what I could look forward to as I leveled my skill. See, every Fire Magic is the same. The same with Water Magic, Wind Magic, and every other skill. You are guaranteed to get the same spells that anyone else would get if they got that skill. Level one Fire Magic is Firebolt. It costs 5 mana, and has a two second casting time. The cost and casting time decreases as the skill levels, until the user gets Fireball at level 5. Everyone who knows magic will learn this eventually, but most schools of magic will follow a similar pattern until level 20. Then the spells will become more specialized for that particular school, and the levels will become harder to get. There is a qualitative change in what a person learns as they grow. Arcane Magic has its own separate set of spells though.¡± I feel like I should be taking notes. This is one hell of a lecture. He continued. ¡°My question to you is, do you know what spells are available in your higher levels? Do you want to know what level 13 holds for you? 14? I can tell you if you want, but I will admit you seem to have a pretty damn good grasp on your magic, despite not having a teacher to guide you in the proper way to use the spells you learn.¡±This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. ¡°Before I decide, how do you know what spells come up in my skill? I haven¡¯t heard of another user of Arcane Magic.¡± Bran mentioned he¡¯s done some stuff in his past, but does that mean I can''t trust him? ¡°I have lived for a very long time. I had a friend, oh about a thousand years ago now? He also wielded Arcane Magic, though from what I heard from Bran, your way of using your Barrier Magic is quite disturbing. Robbing the monsters you encage of their stamina until they are no longer able to move? Quite impressive. I don¡¯t think anyones ever done that before.¡± ¡°Yes and no. With my last level, I can now rob caged monsters of health, stamina, and mana all at the same time. Every point I steal from them goes towards strengthening the barrier I put around them.¡± ¡°That- I don¡¯t think you realize how scarily effective that is.¡± I couldn¡¯t help but smile. ¡°It¡¯s my own unique way of using magic. I use what I learn in what I feel is the most reliable way I know. Then I make adjustments as I go, taking into consideration what I know of the monsters.¡± I told him of my first time letting the Giant Slime boss enter its second phase, and how I started surrounding the monster after that, pushing to get underneath it so it can¡¯t melt the ground to get out. ¡°Scary. Ingenious. And again, impressive. Maybe I won''t tell you your future spells then. I¡¯d love to see what you come up with. How did you like the Charge and Moderation modifiers? No other skill grants those two. The other level 11 and 12 skills deal with area of effect skills, though you already have one of those, don''t you? What was it again? Arcane Explosion? Yes, that¡¯s it.¡± Damn, maybe he¡¯s telling the truth. ¡°Okay, okay, you¡¯ve got me. So what spell modifier can I look forward to for level 13 and 14? The longer I have to think about how to use it, the better I''ll be with what I get. I have to figure at some point I''ll get a modifier to let me cast multiple spells at once.. Maybe a modifier that lets me use ritualistic magic with other people? That would be cool.¡± Paris had a shocked expression for a split second before cooling his face. I almost missed it. ¡°Very intuitive. Yes, level 14 of your Arcane Magic skill will allow you to cast multiples of the same spell at the same time. Though it will take an enormous mental toll on you to do so. I recommend getting plenty of practice in doing so before you try doing it in battle. It can leave you with a headache almost as bad as learning spells from leveling up.¡± ¡°I see. That seems useful. How about level 13? What will my next spell modifier be?¡± This information is just too damn good. ¡°I¡¯ll let you figure that one out on your own. I feel I''ve spoiled too much for you as it is. But when you reach level 20, make sure you stop by. I have a few experiments I''d like to run with that particular skill.¡± He seemed to waver between his suspicious behavior and his normal behavior. ¡°No promises, but I''ll see what I can do.¡± Paris clammed up after that. I bid farewell and followed Hood back to the entrance. At this point, I feel my best course of action is to go read up on the monsters I''ll be hunting. Wolves and Hobgoblins are pretty self explanatory, but how am i supposed to kill a skeleton? It¡¯s already dead! Turns out that I need to either completely destroy the skull, or I need to use some sort of holy/light magic. Will my light ball ring be enough? I guess I could downcast my arcane explosion right in its eye socket. But I''ll have to be a lot closer to it than I''d like to to do that. The skeleton wasn¡¯t the only monster with a specific kill requirement on the list Bran gave me. ¡°Trolls are monsters with incredibly self healing abilities. The best plan of action is to burn it using fire magic. Have a melee blade wielder remove a limb, then have the fire caster use their magic to cauterize the wound, stopping the monster from rapidly regrowing its missing limb.¡± That was the official method of killing a Troll. Use fire or fire magic. I could always go back and grab the ring or fire bolt, but I won''t have a ¡°blade wielding melee fighter¡± with me. I could try my barrier magic and drain its resource pools. And if its regeneration is enough that the barrier can¡¯t kill it, at least the troll will be trapped and unable to attack me. The rest of the monsters seemed pretty cut and dry. ¡®Deal enough damage to vital organs and the monster will die¡¯ kind of situation. So basically, an empowered Mana Bolt to the head and I''ll be good. The scariest monsters in my list at the moment were the Dire Wolves and the Dire Rats. They both seemed to be pack creatures that rarely traveled alone. I know they¡¯re both - along with the troll - on the optional list for my quest, but the fact that they¡¯re on the list at all means I will probably have to deal with them at some point during my ventures into the Dark Forest. A lone man stands against an army of monsters. Who will prevail: The nerd who played too many video games in his past life, or the monsters who were born specifically to kill? I felt a little cynical all of a sudden. Why is Bran trying so hard to get me promoted? I¡¯ve done nothing that should be of interest to him. All I¡¯ve done since getting to this world is spawn kill the same goblin over and over, then solo a dungeon. He had no reason to even know who I am. So what does he want from me? Yah know, i really could just keep farming that goblin with Grifith. Hagrid even said it himself, I could be a street hobo for all he cared. This is my life to do with what I want. I don¡¯t owe anyone anything. I kept telling myself that, but I knew in my heart, I couldn''t stand to be lazy that way. The goblin was always just a way to get some money while I trained my skills. I was always going to try to stand out, try to be the best I could be. I slapped myself. There¡¯s no way that I''m psyching myself out of this. This is my chance to move up in the world. I''m about to be a silver plate adventurer, damn it! The rest of my time in Silface was spent studying the bestiary i bought. I wanted to know about as many monsters as I could that lived in the Dark Forest. Ugh I hate spiders. Apparently the marker for where the Dark Forest starts is determined by the thickness of the webs in the canopy of trees, when the webs are so thick that even light can¡¯t get through to reach the ground. It¡¯s supposed to make the whole area rather creepy. Maybe I''ll get that firebolt ring and just light the webs on fire. Then I''ll get credit for killing all the monsters in the forest. I laughed at the simplicity of my idea, but knew that would likely be impossible. Otherwise someone would¡¯ve done it already, and continued to do it regularly to keep the population of monsters low. Oh sweet, apparently the heads of the spiders are their weak spots. That and their large abdomens. My guided mana bolts should make killing them pretty easy. The same goes for the Dire Spiders, which seem to just be a bigger version of the regular spider monster. Though the Dire versions of all the monsters seem to be stronger in general. I kept reading for the rest of the night. I even brought my book out when I was eating dinner at Half Moon so as to get more information on what¡¯s in the area. Thaggerd gave me an extra large portion of orc meat this time, along with some steamed root vegetables and a large mug of some kind of beer. I made sure to leave a silver coin on the table for my tip. I finished my food Then went to my room. I put my book away and decided to do some barrier training to waste some time. I started with putting a Basic Barrier in front of the door. Then I started to stretch it out, covering the whole wall. My previous barrier manipulations have always been sort of instinctual, but I was trying to be more deliberate with my casting this time. I extended the barrier more to cover the wall on the right, then moved it to include the left wall and the far wall. After that, I added the floor and the ceiling of the room to completely cover the room in my barrier. This barrier was a little taller than what I had done in the Lizardman Dungeon, But the other dimensions were about what fit the first groups I had trapped and drained of their mana and stamina. I walked around the room, examining the barrier for any flaws that might be able to be exploited. Nothing jumped out at me as being a weakness, so I released the barrier. Now for the fun part. I grinned at the thought of my plan. I formed a 3 mana barrier a few inches off of the ground, making sure that it wouldn¡¯t let me pass through it. Then I took a careful step, putting a bit of weight on it. The barrier supported my weight with no problem. I added more weight slowly, constantly checking the barrier¡¯s pattern for signs of stress. I saw none, so put my whole weight on it. The barrier held. Step 1: Success! I then cast another barrier a few inches in front of my foot, making it small enough to not be a hindrance, but large enough to fit my foot firmly on top of it. I took the second step, then made a third and a fourth, each one going only four inches higher than the last. I made a total of 12 basic barriers until my head was basically touching the ceiling. FUCK YES! Now I have a rough method of at least getting off the ground. It¡¯s not exactly flying, but it¡¯s good to have in case of a falling emergency. This method of barrier use would also be good for stopping flying monsters from escaping. With another quasi-weapon added to my arsenal, I wrapped a barrier completely around the room and packed it full of 800 points of mana. This would be the second to last night of sleep in Half Moon for a while, and I intended to enjoy it uninterrupted. I was tempted to add the Drain, Siphon, and Leech effects to the barrier for extra security/practice, but decided against it. The next morning, I went to the enchanter¡¯s guild to sell my mana again and left without much conversation. It seems Paris was serious about me learning how to use my magic on my own. I went to the adventurer¡¯s guild next to check in with Sarah and Duke. I waved at Luke as I passed him, but he was busy with another adventurer to notice me. ¡°I¡¯m baaaack. Y''all miss me?¡± Sarah and Duke were chatting at the front desk, apparently waiting for customers to come in for the day. ¡°About time. Your robes should be finished around lunch today.¡± Sarah smirked and said, ¡°How¡¯d it go at Slime dungeon? Did you get to +a million mana yet?¡± ¡°Not quite, but maybe one day. Right now though, it¡¯s at +500 mana. I¡¯m looking pretty good for the moment.¡± I made a couple of barriers for me to stand on as I approached them. Duke looked at me curiously from behind the counter. ¡°How are you taller? Like, easily 4 or 5 inches taller than the last time you were here.¡± Sarah looked down and saw what I was doing. She burst out laughing, and I dismissed the barrier. I fell the 4 inches I had given myself and landed smoothly. Which is to say I stumbled and had to catch myself on the counter so I didn''t fall. This only egged her on to laugh harder. ¡°I have no clue what you mean. I¡¯ve always been this tall,¡± I said as I righted myself. He chuckled and said, ¡°Sure, bud. Sure.¡± Sarah just kept laughing. I made small talk with Duke for a bit so Sarah could compose herself. Then I made a barrier on the ground for her to stand on too. She saw it and was hesitant to stand on it until I distracted Duke. ¡°Hey Duke, what¡¯s that on the shelves behind you? I never asked before.¡± He turned around and started showing off various little knick-knacks that honestly looked pretty cool. While he was turned to grab the second pieces he was going to show me, Sarah stood up on the barrier. It made her go from about as tall as my shoulder to half way up my head. Not significant, but noticeable if someone was paying attention. Duke obviously wasn¡¯t. He kept showing me his wares. I was tempted to buy one that was essentially a flash grenade, but I had my light ring that I had a few ideas on how to use to a similar extent, including a downcast Arcane Explosion. He went on for a few minutes, in which Sarah was poorly containing her laugh. I eventually added two more barriers for her to stand on, after which she was officially taller than I was. After what felt like forever, Duke finally said ¡°What is so funny!¡± Then he saw how much taller Sarah was. ¡°How are you doing that?!¡± he exclaimed. I made a few barriers for her to step down from as she was back to laughing. I told him what I was doing, and got a good kick out of it too. I spent the rest of the morning wasting time with them. When it was almost time for lunch, Sarah went to the back to check on the progress of my robes. I was tempted to get the other set of robes while I was here, but I remembered Sarah saying they were pretty expensive, so I passed on it. She brought my robes out and I tried them back on. They fit just as perfectly as before. ¡°Well damn. I¡¯ll be leaving for the Dark Forest first thing in the morning. I feel like I''m missing something though.¡± I pondered out loud. ¡°Well, you have plenty of food.¡± Duke started listing. ¡°You should be plenty good on water as well, since you bought the 300 gallon skin not too long ago. You should have plenty of potions, especially since I picked them out myself. Your camping gear should still be fine, since you¡¯ve only used it the one night.¡± ¡°Your robe is in perfect condition, though you haven¡¯t paid for it yet.¡± Sarah added. I gave her 20 silver coins. But I still felt like I was missing something. ¡°Have you learned all your spells for your skills? You should do that before leaving.¡± Duke mentions spells, but that wasn¡¯t it. I¡¯m up to date on everything. ¡°Oh well, I''ll make due. I¡¯ll see you guys when I get back. I still have 27 days until I need to turn the quest in, so I''ll make the most of my time out there. Although I only have enough food for 2 weeks. Meh, I can stretch it with monster drops if I need to.¡± Duke laughed at me mentioning food. ¡°Dude, very few people carry as much food as you do. You should have plenty of food for 2 weeks, but if you want to add some more, nobody has bought any today. We¡¯re fully stocked at the moment.¡± I grinned and started pulling out all the blue bags of rations they had. I added another 40 ration kits to my collection before Duke stopped me. ¡°Fuck dude, i didn¡¯t think you¡¯d want to take EVERYTHING! Now I gotta go refill that. Bastard.¡± He punched my arm and I handed him 8 silver for everything. ¡°So now I''m good for 4 weeks. I¡¯ll be taking my dear sweet time at this rate. Hey Sarah, got any more 300 gallon water skins i can buy?¡± She rolled her eyes at me and shooed me off. I gave them both a hug and left to talk smack with Luke. He probably has a few words of wisdom to give me before I leave. ¡°You¡¯re a dumbass for going alone, and you better come back alive. Bitch.¡± Words of wisdom indeed. I went to Half Moon to get some last minute reading done before leaving on my journey in the morning. I got up before sunrise, fully rested and ready to go. I ate my breakfast and headed to the southern gate. I wasted my mana throwing empowered mana bolts off into the sky, waiting just like I told Grifith I would. An hour later, he was still a no show. I pulled my map up and oriented myself to aim right at the Dark Forest. I took my first step outside of the gate when I heard someone call out. ¡°Leaving so soon?¡± Chapter 20 ¡°See, I knew you¡¯d come around. I never doubted you.¡± Oh thank Hagrid. I thought I''d have to solo this shit. I could barely deal with the Lizardmen, there¡¯s no way I''d make it through alive from this by myself. Grifith had finally come. ¡°Yeah yeah whatever. It took me a while to get the quest from Luke. He had a whole sob story he was going on about before I told him I was going to go with you.¡± ¡°Really? Cause he just called me a bitch and told me to come back alive.¡± Grifith Laughed at that. ¡°That sounds about right. So before we go, what preparations have you made? Did you bring enough food? What about a light source for when we get to the Dark Forest? It¡¯s called ¡®Dark¡¯ for a reason, you know.¡± At that, I summoned the Ball of Light from my ring. ¡°I have 83 rations in storage that won¡¯t go bad, along with most of a 300 gallon water skin. Good enough for you?¡± ¡°That should last us for a bit. What about wardings for when we need to sleep? They should keep the monsters away.¡± ¡°I have my barriers, and I''ll wake up if they take any damage and they can take A LOT of damage before dissipating. That¡¯s good enough for me.¡± He continued going through a checklist until he got to the point of monsters. ¡°So what do you know about taking down a Dire Spider? They¡¯re one of the most common monsters in the Dark Forest, so you¡¯ll need to know a lot about them.¡± I took out the bestiary I had bought a while ago and handed it to him as I recited from the book. ¡°Dire Spider can shoot venom at you from a distance of up to 30 feet away, the distance increasing the higher up in the trees the spider is. Their weak points are their small heads or their large abdomens, with the heads being an instant kill. Their legs and thorax are hard to penetrate due to their thick concentrated exoskeletons, but the heads and abdominal areas are rather easy to pierce due to lack of protection.¡± Grifith looked impressed. He handed me the book back and I stored it again. ¡°I have the same book, so I''ll be fine. I¡¯m impressed at how much research you¡¯ve done. Maybe you really do deserve this promotion more than I thought.¡± I mock bowed and gave my thanks. ¡°So are you ready to run? We won¡¯t be sprinting, but I''m prepared to jog for most of the day.¡± Grifith nodded but suggested we walk and talk first. I aligned us to the direction we needed to go, and we started forwards. ¡°So tell me more about your skills. If we¡¯re going to work together, I need to know what your current limits are and how much you can do before needing a break. The reason I hate working with casters so much is how often you all need mana breaks, though I haven''t had much of an issue with how you worked with the goblins last time I saw you.¡± I gave him a quick run down of my skills, and what each does for me. I paid extra attention to my Arcane Magic skill, since I planned on using it the most while we¡¯re out there. ¡°I have it on good authority that I''ll be getting something like a multi-casting modifier soon, so I want to get that as soon as possible so I can deal more damage per second than I do now. I¡¯d also rather not have to rely on my explosions too much since I don''t want the whole forest to know we¡¯re there on day one.¡± ¡°Smart. I was going to suggest you use your single target skill more often anyways for the same reason.¡± ¡°So, that¡¯s all of my skills. Mind telling me more of yours? All I know is that you have a monster detection skill, and that¡¯s it. Actually, I don''t know that much about you now that I think about it. Other than you trained a whole lot in the herbal field.¡± Grifith laughed at that. ¡°I could say the same about you. You never talk about yourself and you ask questions that should be pretty common knowledge. So let¡¯s not get personal and stick to professional and skill related topics. As for skills, my three passives include Monster Detection, Melee Combat Mastery, and Enhanced Body. I find it pretty coincidental that we share that specific skill.¡± Coincidental indeed. But those are some pretty broad skills. Nothing seems to scream out as a main passive, though his Enhanced Body has to be decently high. ¡°I think the reason I was gaining so many levels when I was training you in running was because of that. I really did get the bonus skill experience for training someone how to properly use their skill.¡± Okay, That¡¯s a whole lot to unpack. Bonus experience? What the hell is bonus experience?! Grifith looked at the confusion on my face and just shook his head. ¡°I swear Claff, if I didn''t know any better, I''d think you were living under a rock for the first 18 years of your life. Bonus experience can be earned from many things. One being teaching, the other being from having a teacher. Other bonus experiences can be earned through dangerous events, such as if your life is on the line. The whole reason people want to get promoted is so they can fight stronger monsters and their skills can grow faster because of it.¡± Are you kidding me? The reason my skills have grown so fast is because I¡¯ve been essentially trying not to shit my pants on the daily from how scared I was at the prospect of fighting strong monsters?! I know I''ve kept a mostly level head through all this crap, but I almost DIED a few days ago! And now I''m going to the freaking Dark Forest?! It makes so much sense! ¡°And you also get minor bonuses for killing monsters. Sheer quantity will do it, but stronger monsters give you a better bonus to your skills. The reason I love my farming spot is because of how often I get the monster killing bonus. I usually go for quantity kills, though I guess I''ll be going for quality for this trip.¡± Is that why my skills jumped so much while I was in the Slime Dungeon? I felt like they should¡¯ve risen slower, but holy Hagrid everything seems to be making sense. ¡°Anyways, my active skills are mostly related to bladed weapons. I have the Dagger wielding skill that activates whenever I''m fighting a monster with a dagger. A sword wielding skill that has similar conditions attached to it. And I think I''ll keep my third active skill secret for now. As for my gear, most of everything I need is stored in my enchanted bag. Though I guess you don¡¯t need one of these with that storage skill you mentioned. I¡¯ll admit, I kind of wished I had picked one up too. But oh well.¡± I guess he can keep his third secret. But how are sword and dagger skills like that active if they¡¯re conditional. Whatever. I guess I''ll find out more as we go. I am mostly interested in that detection skill. I need to see if I can get Paris to make a ring for me that works similar to the skill. If I can use it in pulses, that would still be pretty awesome. ¡°Can you tell me more about how your detection skill works? It¡¯ll be a big part of our safety when we get to the forest. I¡¯d rather not have any surprises pop up when it could be avoided.¡± ¡°It tells me the direction and distance of any monster within a set radius of me. The radius increases with skill level, and it¡¯s currently at level 16, mostly thanks to you. Before you came along with your barriers, it was stuck at level 10 for quite a while. But when I got the chance to meditate, I was gaining experience in it like crazy.¡± ¡°Nice to know. That practice helped me a lot too. I¡¯m just saying, I could probably keep a barrier like that up almost indefinitely. Actually, I might try that later on. I can add effects to my barriers now that I couldn''t before. Effects that drain any monster that touches the barrier of mana, stamina, and health. Every point drained from the monster goes towards making the barrier stronger.¡± If I set that barrier up right where the Goblin spawns, then I could be getting a passive 5 kills per hour, taking time away for the barrier to actually drain the monster. That would be awesome. I¡¯d just have to go by occasionally and pick up the drops. Or at least remove them from the area of the barrier. Oh I am so doing that when we get back. Speaking of experiments, I''ll let him know about my quasi-flying ability. ¡°Oh, by the way, I can use my barriers to float, to an extent. I have to climb the barriers like stairs, but when i¡¯m at the top. I don''t really need to keep casting it, I can just sit up there for quite a while.¡± He looked confused until I started making my stairs. Each step takes half a second to cast, but after my foot leaves the step, I don''t need to keep the barrier erected any longer, so it works pretty well. I made enough steps this time to get my feet above Grifith¡¯s head. I kept making a floor for myself, which required a bit of mental concentration, but I figured it¡¯s pretty great exercise for 2 skills at the same time. I cast my next floor ¡°tile¡± over a hundred feet in front of me and started to pick up the pace. I had the next ¡°tile¡± ready to go by the time I reached the end of my current one. I kept this up for over a mile, jogging along the way while maintaining my footing. It was quite the task, but it got easier as I got more used to doing it. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. Eventually my seemingly endless mana supply started to get a little low, so I called it quits after going a second mile like that when I reached a meager 700 points of mana. I made a staircase of barriers to the side of Grifith and descended. I decided to start casting mana bolts into the sky. That¡¯s the skill I wanted to level more than anything currently. I crave power! ¡°He joins us mortals yet again! GAH! A little warning next time you start firing, yeah? Ass hat.¡± I laughed a little and kept firing into the sky. I empowered the bolts to cost 10 mana each, and I did my best to really focus on the pattern of each bolt I lost. I felt that concentration on the skill while using it also gave mild bonus experience, at least in the casting case anyway. I held each mana bolt in my hand for longer than necessary before loosing them. Grifith and I had been jogging for almost an hour when I increased the pattern to cost 15 mana each. And I held them for 5 seconds before I let them fly away from me. I could tell that by studying the pattern, I was making myself more familiar with the spell, and I needed less concentration with each casting. I had almost run out of mana when I felt a change in the magic. I wouldn¡¯t have noticed it if I hadn''t been paying extra attention for the last while. I asked Grifith for a short break so I can get the level in my Arcane Magic that I was sure I had just earned. I pulled up the skills portion of my status. SKILLS PASSIVE Enhanced Body Lv 9 [63%] Increased Mental Capacity Lv15 [92%] Regeneration Lv16 [79%] ACTIVE Arcane Magic Lv 13 [5%] Barrier Magic Lv 12 [97%] Game-like Storage Lv11 [12%] Spell modification Multiple Projectiles has been learned. I thought Paris said I''ll be getting a multi-casting skill at 14? Is this not essentially the same thing? ¡°Alright, I''m ready. Thanks.¡± I told Grifith. I still felt extremely off put. Was Paris lying to me? Did he really have a friend with Arcane Magic? I pondered the skill, and examined the information that was forced into my brain closely. Grifith and I ran in silence for the next 6 hours. I was breathing rather hard, but I refused to give up. My body wasn¡¯t tired, so I had no trouble keeping up. I began thinking my difficulty running was now mental more than anything. Stay distracted. The more I focus on the problem, the bigger it feels. Let¡¯s go back to the new modifier I learned. Should I try it now, or wait for later? I decided on trying it now. I cast my Mana Bolt spell, then fired it. Then I added the modifier to the nest casting, holding it for examination. Okay, it¡¯s not a multicast. It just splits the one spell into many weaker versions. What if I add the charge modifier too, then add the Multiple Projectiles modifier. I see. It essentially is a multi casting modifier. Charging the spell to 10 mana then splitting the ensuing Mana Bolt in half left two original strength Mana Bolts, except with a single cast instead of two. I fired the spell and felt that there was more to it. Let me see. Huh. I can stagger the projectiles. So I don''t necessarily need to hit two targets for it to work as intended. That would be awesome to throw an enemy off balance. Have the first bolt hit either left or right while the second bolt goes low. It¡¯ll have the enemy second guessing foot work, at least. I cast the spell again, this time splitting a regular charge Mana Bolt 5 ways. Each Bolt felt incredibly weak, like it would do barely any damage. But it would work as an attention grabber at least. The amount of control I had over each bolt was limited to how much concentration I put into it. And given my superb mental capacity, I could put as much concentration as I needed in each cast of the spell. This would be GREAT Increased Mental Capacity training. Oh this¡¯ll be awesome. But that still leaves the question of what Paris was talking about for level 14. Maybe he just got the levels switched up and the mystery modifier I¡¯d be getting is what he thought I''d be getting at this level. Oh well. I¡¯ll get there soon enough. I pulled up my resource list. My stamina was surprisingly high still, and my mana was steadily going up as I kept a lookout in the corner of my eye as I jogged along with Grifith. Health 280/280 Stamina 160/280 Mana 40/900 My mana regeneration was up to just over 500 with all my equipment and modifiers. I¡¯ll give it a full hour before I really start playing with my new toy. Turns out Grifith wanted to do lunch before we kept going. It was easily 3 pm, but I went with it. He pulled out his blue ration bag from his bag and went to town. He had a sandwich, and I pulled out a stew ration pack. It would probably be better heated up, but I was used to 3 day old cold pizza, so I wasn¡¯t complaining. We sat around for about 30 minutes. I was tempted to down a stamina potion, but I figured I could make it until the end of the day before passing out. We were maintaining a steady jogging pace that I could definitely keep up for the rest of the day. Any faster and I''d be passing out a lot sooner though. Maybe I should ask Grifith for some Enhanced Body pointers. He seems perfectly fine, even calm. I was breathing a little heavily still, but I was calming down the longer we sat. It almost hurt my heart when he got up and suggested we continue. ¡°Hey, give me some running pointers. I¡¯m doing fine, but we could both get that teacher student bonus to ourskill if you help me out.¡± He grinned, and I almost regretted it immediately. He saw my face and burst out laughing. ¡°I thought you¡¯d never ask. You were pretty in the zone with those spells you were casting earlier. I¡¯m surprised you haven''t tripped yet.¡± I rolled my eyes. ¡°I made a bit of a breakthrough with how to use the spell modifier I learned. And the control it gives me over my spell is quite frankly amazing. I¡¯ll be doing another experiment in a bit when I get more mana to play with.¡± ¡°Your Regeneration is truly impressive. What¡¯s your hourly generation now? I have to bet at least a hundred, the way you¡¯ve been slinging those bolts around.¡± ¡°Give me a second to check my math.¡± ¡°Again with the system ignorance. You know how you can pull up just your resources when you focus on it?¡± I nodded. ¡°Okay, do that, then focus further and think of the idea of seeing your regeneration. It¡¯ll pop right up right next to your total.¡± I face palmed. Of course that¡¯s a system feature. I should tell him I was raised an orphan or something so he doesn¡¯t think I''m dumber than he already does. I pulled my UI up and did what he said. Health 280/280 (266*/hr) Stamina 174/280 (28/hr) Mana 290/900 (501.6*/hr) ¡°Is now a good time to say I was raised an orphan?¡± I cringed saying that. I had wonderful and loving parents. ¡°It¡¯s the only excuse I can think of to be THIS ignorant of common knowledge. So yeah, perfect time. What¡¯s it say?¡± ¡°I have 501.6 mana per hour. What¡¯s the asterisk next to it mean? It¡¯s next to my health too.¡± ¡°Damn Claff. That¡¯s impressive. And I see. Your regeneration gives you two resource pools and it¡¯s probably conditional, yeah? If I had to guess, one pool is a primary pool and the other is secondary? If you were smart, you¡¯d have health as your primary pool. And before you ask, my master had a similar regeneration skill, and it¡¯s hypothesized that Bran has one too. That''s how I know about it.¡± ¡°I see. And yes, I put health as my primary pool, and mana as my secondary pool.¡± ¡°Good, at least you aren¡¯t stupid. Just ignorant. What have I gotten myself into?¡± He mumbled the last bit, just loud enough for me to hear. ¡°Then let¡¯s continue our journey. We still have a long way to go before it gets dark out.¡± Rude. But he has a point I guess. I¡¯m sure everyone knows this. But I''ll be fine. I''ll be at the top someday. Just you watch. We ran for another hour before I started playing with my magic again. I cast a standard 5 point Mana Bolt, then split it 5 ways. I put as much concentration as I could into the spell. I held it for a few minutes as a test. The pattern never once wavered, and the spell never once was interrupted. When I was confident that the spell was stable, I moved the bolts around my hand in a circling pattern. They rotated around my hand in a slow and steady pattern in accordance with my wishes. I had full control of these projectiles. They moved where I wanted them too, and they wouldn¡¯t dissipate until I either fired them or lost concentration on them. I moved the little glowing arrows to form an arc pattern above and behind me. If i need to fire one, it would take a simple thought and however many projectiles i wanted would be sent flying at my target. They wouldn¡¯t miss either, thanks to the guided projectile modifying effect either. That one was automatically applied to the spell, without me having to even think of it. The best part of the spell was that I just needed to add an extra point of mana to the spell pattern for it to recharge the spent bolt. It would only charge the weakest version of the spell, but it still recharged non the less. Grifith saw what I was doing and gave a look of both awe and terror. ¡°How do you have so much control over them? Aren¡¯t most spells supposed to be you aim, cast, fire, and lose control of the spell when it fires? What are you even doing?¡± ¡°I¡¯m taking advantage of an aspect of one of my modifiers. It lets me charge a spell with as much mana as I want before loosing the spell. By adding that modifier to the basic spell pattern, I can maintain control over the spell for as long as I have the necessary concentration. With my Increased Mental Capacity skill, I don''t have to worry about having enough concentration. In fact I have plenty to spare. I could probably add more bolts to my current formation, but I want to get a better grasp of what I''m doing with these 5 before adding more. I¡¯ll be practicing firing and reforming bolts for a while, just so you know.¡± ¡°Thanks for the heads up. But man, you look kinda terrifying right now.¡± Nice little ego boost right there. I spent the next while firing and forming 1 minimally charged Mana Bolt every time my mana pool went up. I kept myself at a sort of equilibrium that way. Never going down in mana, but never going up either. I was constantly hovering around 800 mana in my pool. Every time I added a new bolt to my arc pattern around my body, I ensured that it was far enough away from my body so as to not come close to me when I fired it. I came close once, but quickly learned to adjust. I eventually fired all the bolts in my arc at a bird that was flying by. It fell from the sky after the first bolt hit, then every bolt after that just made it worse. I didn¡¯t bother getting the drops. It¡¯s probably something like a feather or uncooked chicken leg. My next test is going to be with regularly charged Mana Bolts. It¡¯ll significantly reduce how often I can fire them and keep my pool at around 800, but it was going to be worth it for the practice. My skill has already jumped from 5% into the level to 20%. The constant use of the spell really gives tons of experience. Keeping myself at the 800 mana mark has also boosted Regeneration too. I¡¯m almost at level 17 in the skill. It¡¯ll level by the time we stop for dinner. While I was juggling the regular Mana Bolts, it became a bit easier to split my focus. I saw my mana regeneration increased as well. Funnily enough, so did my mana pool cap. Health 280/280 (266*/hr) Stamina 63/280 (28/hr) Mana 800/920 (526.6*/hr) So Increased Mental Capacity gained a level too. This is going to be one hell of a trip. Chapter 21 Griffith and I continued our journey in mostly silence. It took us a total of 3.5 days to reach the outer edge of the quest location, according to the map. The whole way here, I trained my Arcane Magic, focusing on control of the Mana Bolts as they floated around me. Using the projectile split modifier, I was able to control up to 8 Mana Bolts of a regular 5 point charge around me at once. My control over my spells increased the more I practiced. I was able to predetermine the path of the Mana Bolts to a certain degree as well. They used to take the straightest path, adjusting as the guiding modifier told it too. Now I can sort of curve the projectile. Not very much, but it still marked an improvement in my spell control. I haven¡¯t practiced my Barrier Magic much since the first day. Every night Grifith and I stopped to sleep, I formed a large bubble for us to rest in, then poured the entirety of my mana pool into it. We were attacked by Goblins once during the night, but it was a duo that Grifith took care of before I even woke up fully. I made the right choice in asking him to come. I know for a fact that detection skill of his will save us more than once. The map showed that we were technically in the Dark Forest right now, but the trees were still relatively sparse and there weren¡¯t any spider webs as far as either of us could see. His skill also wasn¡¯t reacting to any monsters, so there was that too. ¡°From this moment on, your eyes will alway be moving. I refuse to be taken by surprise.¡± Griffith said. Well, more ordered than anything, but I was fine letting him take the lead of this expedition of ours. ¡°Make sure you are constantly sweeping not just the ground but the tree tops too. The spiders of the forest prefer ambushes over anything.¡± ¡°Agreed. Unfortunately, I can only have one Ball of Light at a time, but I''ll save that for when we get closer.¡± I let him know the limitation of the spell. ¡°Actually, I want you to cast it now and use that to look ahead. Most monsters here will be used to the dark and hate the light. As such, they¡¯ll attack the light to return the area to its status quo of sorts.¡± Makes sense. Again, good thing I brought him along. I cast the Ball of Light and was excited to see that once it was cast, I could go back to casting and maintaining my array of Mana Bolts. I was getting used to having the constant mental strain of the spell, and it was doing wonders for my mental capacity skill. One side effect of having the array constantly up was that I was limited to only that one spell. I could increase how many bolts I had out, but if I had any out, I couldn''t cast a different spell. I was tempted to stop using the spell in this way, but the potential damage I could do was too good to do more than consider. Griffith and I move onwards after having a quick meal. We wanted to get at least some quest progress done today. We walked forward for 3 more miles, then I spotted the first signs of monsters: webs in the trees. I was about to call out to Grifith to let him know what I saw when he made a sharp hand gesture. I shut up immediately and started sweeping the canopy above us when I heard some sort of clacking. It sounded like a bunch of sticks smacking together, but it was very muted. I looked towards the ground, half expecting to see a skeleton or something. I saw nothing, but Grifith pointed to the webs I saw. I looked closer and saw there was what looked like a cocoon in the webs and a spider spinning more webs onto the cocoon. The sound was coming from the ball of silk the spider was spinning. Did the spider catch a skeleton to try and eat it? What the hell? This was the first time I had seen two monsters of separate types interact, and it didn¡¯t look like monsters got along. Hopefully they don¡¯t get stronger by killing each other. I heard the far off laughing again. I got a bit closer to the tree the spider was in, but it seemed to ignore us in favor of its meal. I sent two of the 8 Mana Bolts behind me, staggering them to hit the head one after the other. They flew true and soon enough a small ball of spider silk dropped as my reward. I grabbed it and added it to my storage. I¡¯ll probably be getting a lot of these in the coming days. ¡°Should we also get the skeleton in its webs?¡± I asked Grifith. He considered for a moment before shaking his head. ¡°If it''s still here on our way out for the night, we can get it then. Until then, I''d rather save the energy.¡± I agreed and replenished my Arc, as I started calling it, with two more Mana Bolts. I sent the Light further ahead of us and used it to look for more monsters. It didn''t take long. We found more webs a few hundred feet in. With webs came spiders. I killed a total of 5 spiders before we saw any other monsters. The last spider we found had caught a Hobgoblin in its webs and was about to start wrapping it in its silk. The caught monster didn¡¯t look anything special. It looked like a short, green man with a long nose and mildly hunched back. It was carrying a small bone dagger as a weapon, not that it did it any good. The leather armor it was wearing was extremely torn up Do monsters not drop loot when other monsters kill them? I get the skeleton not dropping loot since it wouldn¡¯t have died to the spider venom, but that Hobgoblin looks pretty damn dead to me. It''s not fighting back or anything. I got out of my head and killed the spider. I then asked Grifith my questions about monsters killing other monsters. ¡°No, when a monster kills another monster, the dead monster doesn¡¯t spawn loot, and its body stays for another 10 days after it dies before disappearing. As for your other question, yes, monsters get stronger by killing other monsters. With the high respawn rate of monsters around here, there¡¯s bound to be a few extremely strong ones.¡± Damn Hagrid. You really aren¡¯t holding back. I sent a bolt through the Hobgoblins head just to be sure. Nothing happened other than the corpse being brutalized. No drops appeared from it. The fact that it¡¯s wearing armor is slightly off putting. The bestiary mentioned that some Hobgoblins can spawn with armor, but I didn''t expect it to be full, decent looking quality armor. The armor looked almost as good as leathers did, if it was a new spawn, at least. As it was, it was horribly shredded and looked like the Hobgoblin put up one hell of a fight before going down. After my examination, I continued looking for more monsters to hunt. It sounds rather eerie how quiet it¡¯s been since we got here. There were no birds, no sounds of insects in nature. Just the sound of our feet on the dying grass. We made it to the part of the forest where the webs started to get a good bit more dense. The canopy has been partially webbed together to block out the light, making the Ball of Light stand out more than it already did. A few minutes later, a larger spider jumped on top of the light and flew right through it into another tree. I sent 3 Mana Bolts at it before it could get away. My reaction time has become better the higher my Enhanced Body skill leveled. The spider turned to loot before it could hit the ground. That marked the seventh spider I had killed in the last half hour. I kept my eyes aimed at the trees above us, but Grifith made a soft sound to get my attention. He pointed forward and to the left at a tree. I looked but couldn¡¯t find anything. Then I realized he was behind the tree. I walked around the tree slowly and sent the light in the opposite direction of where I was going. I could now see the shadow of a monster. I sent one of my Mana Bolts towards it in a curved pattern, and a Hobgoblin screamed in pain. It was a loud and guttural sound that I was sure would only bring the attention of more monsters. Grifith ran forward and killed it with a dagger to the throat while it was writhing in pain on the ground. From the look of it before it disappeared, I had hit it right in the kneecap. Right, Hobgoblins are a lot taller than their non-evolved forms. I need to take that into consideration going forward. ¡°Shit. I was hoping to avoid having to deal with too many monsters at once, but there¡¯s no way that¡¯s happening now. Prepare yourself to deal with a small horde.¡± Grifith put his dagger away and replaced it with a sword. ¡°Expect no less than 15 Hobs and 25 Spiders. I¡¯ll let you deal with any spiders that come our way, since you have ranged attacks. And remember to keep your eyes moving. I can already hear the rustling of the branches. I¡¯m sure we¡¯ll have plenty of monsters from this one fight. Also, be prepared to run if I say so.¡± I agreed and added to my Arc so there were 10 Bolts ready to go. I was not going to die here. I refuse anything lesser than a dragon to be my death. But holy Hagrid I''m freaking out. I put my brave face on and got ready to cast. I did a slow 360¡ã as I scanned the canopy. I felt intensely strained with so many bolts at the ready, but I alleviated the strain by killing two spiders before I finished my slow twirl. I saw a few Hobgoblins approach, but I left them to Grifith. I would¡¯ve had no problem taking care of them by myself, but I didn''t want to hog all the glory. Although I did kill one that was coming from my direction. There¡¯s not hogging glory, then there''s negligence. I kept my slow twirl going, killing a few more spiders. Ooh, that one looks different. Maybe it¡¯s a Dire Spider? It went down with the rest. I was conserving mana by killing the spiders with one shot to the head each, made a lot easier by the Guided Projectile modification. I heard the sounds of fighting as Grifith took down several Hobgoblins. I looked his way while I pointed in his direction. He seemed to be doing fine, but there was a Hobgoblin sneaking up on him. I was about to end it with a Mana Bolt when Grifith did an elaborate twirl of his own and decapitated both the one that he was fighting and the one sneaking up on him.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Right, he¡¯s been an adventurer a lot longer than I have. He knows how to use his skills a lot better than I do, I''m sure. I continued scanning the canopy, and spotted a spider above Grifith. I shot it dead with a single Mana Bolt, and it dropped a ball of silk right on a Skeleton¡¯s head, causing it to stumble enough for Grifith to destroy its skull in one swipe. I didn¡¯t even realize that Skeletons had joined the fight. I guess this is a free for all in the wild, huh? I killed another Skeleton that was approaching from my direction. It took two Mana Bolts to destroy its head enough for it to go down, but it went down nonetheless. Grifith and I were fighting for around 10 minutes until I heard the sound of battle die down. I killed one last spider then checked on Grifith. All around his feet were claws, random pieces of leather armor, and balls of spider silk. ¡°Not nearly as bad as I thought it would be, but it also was louder than I was hoping for. Let¡¯s get our drops and we can move on. I¡¯d like to avoid staying in one place for too long.¡± I agreed and started storing everything. I convinced myself that I wouldn''t look at my storage, other than to make sure I had enough space for drops, until we were done fighting for the week. I stored balls of silk, a bine, and a few pieces of armor. Grifith gathered all the claws and the rest of the armor. We moved on looking for more monsters. I kept my eyes moving along the canopy, making sure no spiders could sneak up on us. Yet Grifith gave me the heads up one was coming from behind and above. Ii fired a single bolt at it and stored the silk. ¡°So, we¡¯ve gotten a whole lot of spiders, a few Hobs, and like two skeletons so far. Where are the rest of the monsters we¡¯re supposed to hunt? We have to be at least two miles into the forest by now?¡± I was starting to get anxious about the lack of variety. ¡°This is the Hobgoblins section of the forest.¡± Grifith explained. ¡°I¡¯m sure if we keep going this way, we¡¯ll find a village of them set up. Most humanoid monsters, when in large numbers, gather in villages that look eerily like sapient villages. I¡¯m talking huts, guard posts, and even the occasional wall with a designated entrance/exit.¡± ¡°Well damn. I wasn¡¯t expecting that.¡± ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s weird. Some people hypothesize that some monsters are sapient. I refuse to believe such utter bull. If they were sapient, then they¡¯d at least try to communicate with us. But the fact is they still drop loot, and we don¡¯t. That¡¯s the big dividing factor between sapient and non-sapient.¡± I nodded and kept going. This wasn''t the right place for a lecture. Maybe when we get back to civilization, we can have a more in depth conversation about it. We found more and more Hobgoblins. It got to the point where they started showing up in packs of 3 or 4. When we saw our first pack of 6, I told Grifith to hold off for a bit so I could trap them and let them drain behind a barrier. I hadn¡¯t replenished my Arc yet, so this was the perfect time to use my Barrier Magic. I trapped the group and they immediately started banging on the wall in front of them. It took a minute for the first monster to fall to its knees and pass out from exhaustion. They all died in under two minutes. I made sure to make the barrier air tight so no sound got through. The whole extermination cost 25 mana. Less than what I would have paid for a mana bolt to the head each. After that group had died, I brought up an Arc of 4 Mana Bolts. We gathered the loot and moved on. When we saw a group of 10 that looked ready for war, Grifith said we should back out for now. ¡°They¡¯ve probably noticed the groups not returning, so they send out an extra pack of their stronger members to search for them. It¡¯s that kind of intelligence that makes Hobgoblins so much more dangerous than regular goblins.¡± Was Grifith praising them? I still had 700 mana in my pool for now, so I offered to spend a good chunk of it taking them all out at once. ¡°No, not yet at least. If you do that and they don¡¯t return, they¡¯ll send out the village head, which is usually an Orc or an Ogre. If we¡¯re unlucky, it¡¯ll be a Troll. I¡¯d rather not deal with a Troll on our first day. They¡¯re easily the most dangerous monster I''ve fought. It took my party of 6 over an hour to kill the damn thing.¡± Grifith shuddered a bit at that. Damn. if it took 6 of them to kill one, then what¡¯s in store for us if we run into one? I knew that Trolls were the most dangerous on the list for us since neither of us has fire abilities, but maybe I underestimate their strength. I figured we could finagle something, but I guess Grifith isn¡¯t so confident. We turned around and went as fast as we could out of the forest without making too much noise. I killed a spider at Grifith¡¯s direction, but other than that we didn¡¯t pause until we reached the spot where we found the Skeleton trapped in the spider¡¯s web. Grifith killed the monster with a quick bash to the head. It left no loot. We jogged until we were no longer in the blue shaded area in our maps. It had started to get dark outside, so we decided to call it a day. Grifith started setting camp up by setting out his warding stones around us. I then set a barrier that would prevent anything outside of the wind and us from passing, including under us. Then I made sure that we could get both out and back in with no trouble. I packed the barrier with 600 points of mana and sat back, proud at how far I had come in the meager month since coming to this world. ¡°Nothing will be getting through that easily. We¡¯ll be sleeping fine tonight.¡± Grifith praised the barrier. Feels good, man. Feels good. After we were done setting up the perimeter, we each started setting up our personal sleeping areas. Grifith had also brought a chair to sit in for when he was eating, but I just sat on my sleeping mat. I was tempted to get a fire started, though I don''t actually know how to do that. Maybe I should''ve bought the firebolt ring anyway. A fire sounds nice right about now, especially to cut back on the chill we¡¯re starting to get. It had been rather chilly last night, to the point even Grifith remarked that autumn must be near. We ate our food in a slow silence. When we finished eating, I asked Grifith if he had any sort of plan for what we should do. Both in general and if we were to run into a Troll. ¡°Well, if we find a Troll, you are to immediately cast the strongest Barrier you can around it, making it as tight around the monster as you can, add those draining effects you have to make the barrier to make the Troll weaker, then we run for it. Plain and simple. I dont have fire magic as my secret third skill, I know you don''t have fire magic, and unless you have an enchanted item that deals fire damage, we don''t have any hope of actually defeating it.¡± He shivered a bit. ¡°The only way to deal with a Troll without fire is overwhelming force, which neither of us possesses. You¡¯re not holding back on me are you?¡± I considered it for a bit. ¡°Well, technically no, but also kind of yes. I made a Mana Bullet that completely disintegrated the upper left quarter of the Lizardman Dungeon Boss. It costs 100 mana to do so, but now that I have a higher mana cap, I could probably double the power of it with another hundred points of mana to at least destroy the head, if not the entire upper torso section of the monster. But I can also do 4 of those at a time, so if it survives the first one, it might not survive the second, third, and fourth all at once.¡± Grifith looked at me curiously. I pulled up the basic version of my status. User: Claff: Health 300/300 (300*/hr) Stamina 122/300 (30/hr) Mana 100/940 (580.8*/hr) SKILLS PASSIVE Enhanced Body Lv 10 [63%] Increased Mental Capacity Lv 17 [33%] Regeneration Lv 17 [49%] ACTIVE Arcane Magic Lv 13 [95%] Barrier Magic Lv 13 [46%] Game-like Storage Lv 11 [45%] ¡°Oh yeah, by the way, I have a maximum mana pool of 940 right now. I¡¯ve gained a lot of experience on our way here, with all the practice and all that.¡± ¡°It¡¯s shown. You did well with the spider. And by the way, for now, whoever has room in their storage holds the loot. When we get back, we¡¯ll sell everything and split the cost from there. 60/40 sound fair? You are the party leader here, and I wouldn''t even be here right now if not for you, so I don''t mind giving a little of my share to you for it.¡± ¡°Absolutely not. We¡¯re doing 50/50, and I won''t hear anything else about it. I probably would¡¯ve been killed at least twice by now without you here, and that¡¯s honesty being generous to me.¡± He laughed. ¡°Agreed. But still, you have my appreciation for this whole thing. I probably would¡¯ve been at my little Goblin hole doing the same thing over and over for the rest of my life without the push you¡¯ve given me. So when we get back, the first round is on me, yeah?¡± I smiled and agreed. Then I remembered the last time I drank and tried not to gag at the feeling. ¡°Maybe just buy me dinner and call it good. I can¡¯t even think about alcohol since I tried Theromear¡¯s Fire. That shit kicked my ass. Hard.¡± ¡°Well no wonder. That stuff is hard even by Dwarven standards. And expensive too. A night at a good inn is cheaper than that stuff.¡± Grifith laughed some more at me. ¡°In my defense¡­ I actually don¡¯t have a defense. I was warned by a few people not to even try it. Yet I wanted to show off for a girl.¡± ¡°Story as old as time, my friend.¡± Grifith got up and smacked my shoulder. ¡°At least you learned your lesson.¡° We sat around for a bit reading stories of girls. I had to do my best to adapt my stories to be more appropriate for the world I was in, since they don¡¯t exactly have online dating here. We both had a few good laughs. After an hour or so of talking, Grifith decided to call it. I let him know I wanted to practice my Arcane Magic a bit more before bed to get as close to level 14 as possible. I also remembered I had a spell to learn in Barrier Magic too. Looks like the danger bonus XP does wonders for leveling. Maybe I should just hold off until tomorrow? NO, there¡¯s only 5% left. I can get that in an hour of practice no problem. I called forth an empowered Mana Bolt that had 30 mana in it. I then split it into 3 projectiles to practice controlling stronger Mana Bolts at the same time. When I got the hang of dealing with so much power at once, I added a fourth bolt by putting more mana into the pattern. Soon enough, I had 10 Mana Bolts that were empowered to 10 mana each. I had them floating around my head, then I brought them out of the barrier to put on a bit of a light show, I had them swirling in all sorts of patterns. Figure eights and smiley faces were my most common pattern since it was too difficult right now to hold more than 10 bolts at a time. I kept the Mana Bolts under 10 feet above the barrier, but I guess that was enough to attract monsters from the forest. It was only two Skeletons, but it was enough that I decided to call it a night. I killed the skeleton with two bolts to the head then killed the second one off with another two. As the second skeleton dropped, I felt the same change in my magic as I had before. FUCK YEAH! My Arcane Magic leveled to 14! I brought up my skills and focused on Barrier Magic first, since I still hadn¡¯t done that yet. Barrier Effect Darken has been learned. Okay, not quite what i was hoping for, but i could see some potential as a convenience thing. Not sure it has battle potential, but it would be nice to make some shade on a sunny day. Disappointed my other barrier effects haven¡¯t gotten a boost yet, but they¡¯re pretty powerful as it stands. I moved onto Arcane Magic. Muti-casting has been learned. The hell? What have I been doing then? I focused on the information that was hammered into my head. It seemed to let me cast two separate spells at the same time. What I''ve been doing is basically hijacking a bunch of separate effects of other modifiers to achieve something close, but not quite the same as this. Paris is off the hook then. He said muti-casting at level 14, and here it is. I guess I just let him get to me. Good thing I did though. I don¡¯t know if i could have achieved what i did in the short time i had the modifier otherwise. I tried casting Mana Bolt two separate times instead of doing it using the janked method I''ve been using. I cast one on each hand. It was interesting to have so much less mental strain for doing something so different yet so similar. I continued playing with my new modifier for another half hour until I was interrupted by Grifith coughing. It didn¡¯t make me mess the spell up, but it definitely startled me. ¡°It¡¯s been over an hour, Claff. You might not need as much sleep thanks to Enhanced Body, but you still need sleep regardless.¡± ¡°Nah, I''ll be fine. I¡¯ve gone 3 days with no sleep, and that was before I got the skill¡¯s help. I could probably go a full week right now, especially if I''m just sitting here playing with magic.¡± I smiled and separated the bolt in my right hand into 5 parts. Then I sent one flying around Grifith¡¯s head. He did not look amused, ¡°Fine fine, I¡¯ll go to sleep. Night Grifith.¡± I let the spells dissipate, then curled up in my sleeping bed. I threw the remainder of my mana into the barrier and passed out. It was a good first day at the Dark Forest. Hopefully we can find some different monsters tomorrow though. Chapter 22 We started the next day much like we started the last. We packed up our camp and started running. I surrounded myself With an Arc of 4 Mana Bolts that had been split from an empowered projectile, and 1 Mana Bolt that was its own casting. It was an odd feeling, holding the two spells at the same time. I¡¯m sure it would¡¯ve felt worse if I hadn''t gotten practice with the split projectile modifier first. As I got my Arc set up, Grifith angled us to head further east. As he knew more of what we were doing, I felt it perfectly reasonable to let him lead. We were in mostly Hobgoblin territory yesterday, so we aimed to deal with more Skeleton spawns today. The few stray skeletons we saw yesterday were coming from a more eastern direction, so it made sense to me to go a few miles east. We went 5 miles before Grifith stopped. He pointed towards the woods, and I followed his direction with my eyes. There was a horde of at least 20 skeletons just walking aimlessly in a circle. ¡°So, what¡¯s the plan? I can take them all out at once, but it¡¯d be loud if I do. Or we can slog through it the old-fashioned way.¡± I looked towards the top of the trees and saw there weren¡¯t any webs in the canopy above us. ¡°I doubt anything would come running at us if I go the Arcane Explosion method. We had to go pretty far yesterday before we found anything.¡± Grifith considered for a minute before deciding to go the safe way and continue running for a few more miles. ¡°You should know I found yesterday to be odd. There¡¯s very rarely that few monsters out. Even the wave of monsters that came at us from the Hob yelling was a lot smaller than I thought it would be. I was expecting to be fighting there for at least 30 minutes.¡± ¡°How do you know so much about the Dark Forest? Have you been here before?¡± It¡¯s like he''s hunted here for all his life, instead of farming that goblin spawn. ¡°No, I haven''t. But I have heard many, many stories from the master about this place. The skeletal horde we just saw is a lot closer to what I thought we¡¯d see yesterday.¡± He shook his head slightly as we ran. We kept going until we were about 15 miles east of our last entry point, when Grifith finally conceded to turning towards the forest again. We had found another skeletal horde at the 10 miles mark, but he didn¡¯t want to deal with it. Kinda defeats the whole purpose of us being here, but whatever. I guess he knows best. I summoned the Ball of Light again and set it to be about 30 feet forward and 10 feet off the ground. There was still plenty of light where we were, given there weren¡¯t any webs yet, but it also has no maintenance cost other than mental effort, so I wasn''t worried about having it out. We walked into the forest and kept going straight in until we saw the first spider. It looked a bit larger than the ones we fought yesterday, so I asked Grifith if it was a Dire Spider. ¡°No, they¡¯re supposed to have a purple stripe on their abdominal areas. It should be obvious when we see one. This spider probably has a few monster kills under its belt. I¡¯d wager it takes out the occasional lone Skeleton to make itself grow stranger.¡± ¡°Ahh.¡± I said as I killed the spider with one of the Mana Bolts from my Arc. These monsters are starting to feel trivial almost. They don¡¯t really pose a threat to me as I am now. I almost wish we could find a Troll. We kept going until we found another horde of Skeletons. ¡°Grifith, I really think we should be taking these smaller circles out so they don¡¯t all form into one giant Skeletal horde. There¡¯s only around 20 in there. I can take most of them out at once. And we can deal with the wave of Skeletons as they come. I seriously think that¡¯s a pretty good bet. Besides, we¡¯ll still get paid for any extra over the 10 kills each we need.¡± ¡°I know, I know. I just don¡¯t like the feeling of being swarmed. Can you just do the Barrier thing so we can call it good with this group?¡± Why the hell haven¡¯t I been doing that?! I face palmed and was about to drop my Arc when I wondered if I could cast Barriers while maintaining it. I pulled the pattern up to surround the horde of skeletons, and added the three draining effects to it. ¡°I¡¯m not sure how well the draining effect will work on the undead, but I can definitely try. It should only take two to three minutes for them all to fall. Care to wait and see?¡± He nodded and told me of a spider in the tree above them, so I took that out with a Mana Bolt then went back to watching the Skeletons. From what I can feel, it¡¯s sort of working, but not as well as it should have been. Hmmm¡­ I wonder¡­ Ah! That''s it. ¡°Skeletons don¡¯t have mana. At least not these ones. I thought all creatures had the same three resource pools, but I guess I was wrong.¡± ¡°You guessed correctly.¡± He said in his lecturing voice. ¡°Most Undead type monsters don¡¯t have mana. They don¡¯t really need it. Instead, they have a higher-than-normal Stamina pool. They also don¡¯t heal, as they don¡¯t have Health regeneration. Again, it was exchanged for Stamina regeneration. So essentially, they can go nonstop without needing sleep, but once they''re damaged, that damage remains on them until they die. Or re-die. Whatever you want to call it.¡± ¡°So, this should be quick then. It is odd though that they don''t seem to react to the Barrier like most monsters do. They just keep on walking their circle, ignoring everything else.¡± I said as I watched one Skeleton¡¯s arm fall off out of seemingly nowhere ¡°Quick indeed. They¡¯re already falling apart.¡± Grifith looked relieved at not having to fight the whole swarm. A minute later, all the Skeletons had turned to loot, though I wished they wouldn¡¯t. They only dropped spare bones. Frankly, I didn''t want to touch them. Grifith gathered them all into one large pile, then I hovered my hand over it and stored them in one slot. ¡°Well, that¡¯s all we need for Skeleton and Hobgoblin kills. Do you want to keep hunting them until we stop for lunch, or move on to look for the next monster type we need?¡± Grifith asked. ¡°I''d like to move on. Skeletons are easier to kill since they move so slowly, but I hate dealing with their drops, and the rattling noise they make is just disturbing.¡± Grifith smiled but added, ¡°Well, I''d say we should find a large body of water. If we keep going East for a while, we should find both the Giant Slimes and the Killer Kobolds near the river that runs down the centerline of the forest. The wolves will probably be easier to find to the west, so I think that should be the last group we go for.¡± ¡°Sounds like a plan. Let''s go.¡± When he said ¡®for a while¡¯, I figured he¡¯d meant maybe another 10 miles or so. But no, we ended up jogging for the remainder of the day. We angled to get out of the Dark Forest first, then ran along the perimeter of the blue marker on our maps until we found the mentioned river, which I learned was called the Dark Forest River. Real imaginative, Hagrid. When we reached the river, the sun had just reached below the horizon. I had asked if we should make camp when it started to set, but Grifith insisted we continue. Afterall, how much further could it be? We set our camp up like usual, and I played with my magic some more instead of eating. I was having so much fun learning new ways to control my magic, that the mental strain just didn¡¯t bother me. It worked so well as Increased Mental Capacity training, that I almost got half of a level with just today. Whenever I got used to handling however many projectiles I had out, I added one more to keep things fresh. I made sure to keep my mana equilibrium at around 900 for the entire day by firing and replacing a Mana Bolt whenever my pool reached the 900 mark. This way I earned another half level in Regeneration. I¡¯d be gaining another level during my sleep, I''m sure, given I was at 98%. I packed the usual Barrier with a full 800 points of mana and kept the last 100 for myself to play with. I did the same set of patterns as last night, though tonight I had split a 20 points Mana Bolt into 20 pieces. The lower powered bolts were so much easier to control than the higher charged bolts. I think it has to do with the concentration required to move mana around. I continued my fun for another hour or so before having dinner. I had a meat filled sandwich and a good bit of water. Then I packed the remainder of my mana into the barrier and passed out. When I woke up, I checked on my Resources to see if I had leveled regeneration. I didn¡¯t want to look at my skills yet because I was going to be tempted to waste too much mana on Arcane Magic to get it to 15 today if I did so. Grifith and I packed up and delved straight into the forest, following the river. We went a mile before seeing the first webs in the trees. I cast the ball of Light then loaded my Arc with a set of 8 multicast Mana Bolts. I didn¡¯t empower any of them, allowing the regular pattern to be cast instead. This was my first time having a full Arc of multicast spells, instead of some variation of split projectiles and multicast. The mental strain was greater than it would have been for an empowered spell split 8 ways, but I also felt more in control of each spell than I did with the split.The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. Maybe because I can empower or moderate each spell individually now, instead of having a full array of one strength Bolts. I also feel like I can move them faster individually as opposed to split from one casting. We kept a slow pace, constantly wary of whether we¡¯d find a monster coming from the edge of the forest first, or if a monster would attack us from the bank of the river first. I had a little flashback to when Grifith was telling me about the Killer Kobolds and Giant Slimes yesterday. ¡°Kobolds are basically a reptilian version of Goblins. They have long claws as their primary weapon, they¡¯re about the same height as gobs, and they also wear a similar loincloth. The biggest differences between a basic Kobold and a Goblin is that the Kobolds have scaly armor that protects them from slashing attacks, and a tail that they can use to attack.¡± ¡°But we¡¯re not facing regular Kobolds here, are we? What¡¯s the difference between a regular Kobold and their ¡®Killer¡¯ counterparts?¡¯ I asked him. ¡°I¡¯m getting there. The Killer Kobold is a bit bigger than the less evolved form and also various shades of blue instead of green. They stand around 5 feet flat, their claws are sharper, and they are also semi-aquatic.¡± He got up and motioned for me to follow him to the river bank. The river bed stretches for a few feet and ends 15 feet from the edge of the forest. The river was flowing south, further into the Dark Forest and towards the monsters we needed to hunt. ¡°Look at the river. It flows slowly and steadily. There will be parts that slow down even further than this right here. That would be prime ground for Killer Kobolds. They hunt mostly fish and Giant Slimes. The Giant Slimes usually spawn in the faster flowing parts of the river and flow down until they can either escape the current and make it to dry land, or until they reach the pools that form a few miles in.¡± ¡°So, we need to look out for both the river and the forest then?¡± I asked as we started walking back to our camp. ¡°Exactly. I think it would be better for me to focus more on the river and for you to focus on the forest. You can fire your magic at the monster in the treetops, and I can deal with killing anything that comes out of the water. Though I will probably need help with the Giant Slimes. They¡¯re corrosive and-¡± ¡°The boss in the Slime Dungeon is a Giant Slime.¡± I interrupted him. ¡°I know exactly how they work. Though they¡¯ll run away if they come to be within 10 feet of me.¡± He looked confused, so I explained my achievement and the ensuing reward. ¡°I can¡¯t believe you got an achievement already. I don''t think anyone has gotten one at such a young age before!¡± He was extremely impressed by my actions. Grifith got me out of my head by telling me there was a monster approaching us from the river. I looked to where he was pointing but couldn¡¯t see anything. That¡¯s when I saw a bunch of rocks moving in the water. Wait, those aren¡¯t rocks! A Giant Slime emerged from the water''s surface and started squelching its way over to us when it got to dry land about 15 feet in front of us. I was starting to really hate the sound of slimes moving around. When it reached the 10-foot mark, it squirmed and reversed direction. I trapped it in a minimal power barrier and added all 3 effects to it. It started flailing about, attacking the near invisible walls around it. ¡°This could take a minute. I can kill it, but the slime mass messes with my aim. I find draining it does the trick.¡± Grifith nodded and stood guard while the slime slowly died. I counted the cores inside its body and found 12. I wonder if I absorb these, will my bracelet grow? I know regular slime cores don¡¯t work, but this is a Giant Slime. The same race as the dungeon boss. It should work, shouldn''t it? When the slime disappeared to its loot, I asked Grifith if he minded me trying an experiment that would destroy a core. ¡°Go for it, as long as it doesn¡¯t draw attention to us and it doesn¡¯t hurt either of us.¡± I nodded and held a single core in my hand. I focused on the bracelet absorbing the core. I pulled up my resources to check the results. Health 300/300 (315*/hr) Stamina 122/300 (30/hr) Mana 900/940 (609.8*/hr) No change to capacity, damn. ¡°Bummer. It was a failure. I¡¯ll store the rest.¡± I added the other 11 cores to my storage and continued watching the trees for monsters. I found another 9 Spiders in the webs above us. These were a lot higher up than the ones that were further from the river though. The trees stretched at least 50 feet above us, and these spiders appeared to stay on the higher branches. There were a few Kobold corpses that I found hanging from some silk. I left them there, not interested in dealing with a spider¡¯s leftovers The only monster I found coming from the forest side of us was a single Killer Kobold. It was a darker shade of blue than I was expecting, and it hid in the shadow of a tree rather well. I almost didn¡¯t see it, but when Grifith pointed it out to me, I couldn''t see anything but it. The Kobold looked like a shorter version of the Lizardmen I saw in the Dungeon. It charged us as soon as it saw us. I put up a barrier about 5 feet in front of Grifith and I and trapped it fully when it slammed against the wall. I took a closer look at it before killing it. It was just as vicious as a Goblin, and a lot more capable too. Not to such a degree as the Lizardmen, but there was a definite difference in strength. The monster used its claws to scratch the barrier and did a jumping spin to slam its tail into it. It was doing all it could to escape, but no matter how hard it tried, there was no way it was getting out alive. I examined it for a few minutes before putting it out of its misery with a Mana Bolt through the chest. Grifith said nothing while I did my examinations. These things are so cool. If my Arcane Magic wasn¡¯t so freaking awesome, I definitely would¡¯ve gone with a version of summoning. I picked up a claw it dropped and we continued our slow walk. I found a few more Kobolds in the shadows of the trees, but I ended each one before it could reach us. The spiders weren¡¯t even trying to kill us anymore, since most of the ones I saw had at least one Killer Kobold in its jaws. I still made sure to exterminate as many as I could though. Grifith was having more success than even I was. Kobolds seemed to jump out of the water every minute, whereas I was getting a monster every 2 minutes. I had to help him with two more Giant Slimes, but the majority of the kills for now were Kobolds and Spiders. There was even one Dire Spider. I confirmed it was Dire with Grifith before killing it. He seemed a little disturbed at the site of the evolved monster, but didn¡¯t say anything about it. We had racked up a large number of monster kills by the time we decided to do lunch. ¡°I can make us a barrier to sit under for an uninterrupted lunch, but if I do, I''ll need a full hour to recover the mana I use on it. That work for you?¡± I planned on putting an entire 600 points of mana into the barrier if we paused in the middle of the forest like we were about to. No chance in hell am I risking a monster attack when I don''t have to. And with my Regeneration, I¡¯ll have it all back in an hour. I could do 300 points and take a half hour lunch, but if I do 600, I can get more practice with both regen and barriers. Two for one. Grifith immediately agreed, so I put the barrier up and made sure to include under our feet. We had our meal and waited around for a bit. I was starting to get used to how quiet he usually was. It was a comfortable silence. I really wouldn¡¯t mind going on more extended quests with him. I really appreciate his knowledge about where we are. I get he said his ¡®Master¡¯ used to tell him plenty of stories about the Dark Forest, but the amount of information he knows about the monsters is honestly impressive. I wonder if his third skill is related¡­ ¡°Mind if I ask a question about your mystery active skill?¡± Grifith froze for a moment before slowly nodding. It seems it¡¯s a bit of a touchy subject, so I¡¯ll try to keep it brief. ¡°Does it have to do with monster information? I know you said you¡¯ve heard plenty about the Dark Forest, but I still can¡¯t seem to understand how you know so much about the monsters we¡¯re fighting unless you¡¯ve been here. And the fact that you knew about the Dark Forest River as well? I¡¯m beginning to wonder if your skill is information related.¡± Grifith closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Oh shit, did I ask about something sensitive? ¡°Well, you guessed it. The skill gives me information pertaining to monsters, spawn points, topography, and even someone else¡¯s skills. The higher I level the skill, the more information it gives me. If you were to ask me what spell you¡¯d learn for your next level in Arcane Magic, I could tell you.¡± I was about to say something, but he held a hand up to stop me. ¡°Let me finish first. The reason I was so against doing this quest is because I''d have to tell Bran more about my skill in order to get fully promoted. I don''t like talking about it because people get antsy when I say I already know what their skill does. I prefer to work solo because most people kind of freak out about whether or not I know how to ¡®take them out¡¯ or whatever. They always assume I use my skill to get above everyone else, despite me using it mostly to get the best hunting grounds.¡± ¡°Is that how you found the goblin spawn point you farm?¡±¡°Yes. I happened to be walking by the field when I saw a goblin spawn one day. When I activated my skill to learn a bit more about the spawner, it told me a whole host of information, including special circumstances to cause the goblin to respawn before it was supposed to.¡± Okay, that¡¯s extremely badass. I won''t ask him to use it on me because I prefer the surprise of learning spells as they come, but the potential for learning so much about different monsters was insane. ¡°That¡¯s pretty awesome, to be honest. I can see why some people would be skeptical, but I like it. That being said, I think I''d prefer the spells I''ll learn a surprise for now, thanks though.¡±¡°Wasn¡¯t an offer, but you¡¯re more than welcome. Are we still good?¡± Grifith looked scared I''d drop him or something. ¡°We¡¯re fine dude. I¡¯d straight up be lost out here without you. If you want to do more quests together in the future, I''d be down for it. Not only is your swordsmanship pretty damn good, but so is that detection skill of yours. Hell, I''d keep you around for just information and detection. I¡¯d gladly deal with the monsters myself if it got you to stick around.¡±He seemed relieved at that, and even smiled a little. How often do people discriminate because of skill choices? ¡°So, what, am I not killing enough monsters to keep up with you now?¡± I punched his shoulder and we both laughed. His face got serious for a second and he turned around. I looked to where his face was pointed and saw a group of 13 Killer Kobolds charge out of the water and start attacking us. Grifith stood and brought his sword out while I sat patiently. I brought out my water skin and kept relaxing. ¡°Dude, there''s no way they¡¯re getting through that. Even if we were to sleep here for the night, they¡¯d still barely put a dent in the Barrier I erected.¡± He didn¡¯t seem convinced, but he lowered his sword. ¡°How about this, try using your skill on the barrier and tell me what it says. I¡¯d love to hear what it tells you.¡± He looked at me skeptically and raised his right hand to touch the Barrier. His lips moved as if he was whispering something, but I couldn''t tell what it was. When he turned around and looked at me, I could tell he was shocked. ¡°Okay, maybe we could actually defeat a Troll with one of these. It says you put 600 points of mana into it, and it would require at least a fifth-tier monster to destroy it. Though I''d wager these guys could take it down given enough time.¡± Tier? ¡°Tier?¡± ¡°Claff, be honest with me, were you an amnesiac or something? The gaps in your knowledge are truly large. How do you not know what tiers are, yet you¡¯ve already made it to both the Silver Rank Promotion Test, defeated a D rank dungeon by yourself, and got an achievement from an E rank dungeon, all without knowing what monster tiers are?¡± ¡°Arcane Magic is some good stuff dude. Don¡¯t skimp on the power of a good explosion.¡± Grifith shook his head and sat down, ready to lecture me some more. The hour we set aside for lunch was almost over though, so I interrupted him before he could get started. ¡°How about you tell me more about it tonight when we set up camp. I¡¯ll deal with these guys first, then we can get back to hunting for the day.¡± He agreed and I cast an 80-point Mana Bolt. Rather than split it into multiple parts, I guided the enormously powerful projectile to fly in a large circle around us, killing every Killer Kobold that had attacked the barrier. It was a total of 15 Kobolds, since 2 more had joined from the forest side while Grifith and I were talking. After we gathered the claws they dropped and added them to my storage, we went on our merry way, leaving a trail of death in our wake. Chapter 23 ¡°So I would usually have suggested that we turn around right about now, but since you¡¯ve taken on the Lizardman Dungeon, I think we can handle this. This settlement of Killer Kobolds pretty much just has numbers, so as long as we don¡¯t do anything stupid, I think we can take it.¡± Grifith and I continued going down the river, killing every Spider, Kobold, and Slime in our way. Which turned out to be quite a lot. I was refusing to look at the quest details since it would only stress me out, but I knew for a fact that we¡¯ve killed more than the 20 necessary to complete the quest. At this point, we were just racking up kills for the payout when we got back to the city. As we continued downstream, the number of monsters increased. I was dealing with one every two minutes before, but now that¡¯s doubled. The same goes for Grifith¡¯s 1 a minute going to 1 every 30 seconds. It felt like we were taking 10 steps then killing a monster. Take another 10 steps and kill another monster. Frankly, it was excellent practice. I wasn¡¯t low on mana, since I decided to keep the Mana Bolt Arc to 5 bolts, strictly base casting and refusing to empower anything or split any projectiles at the moment. When the monster rate doubled, we found out why shortly after. We rounded a bend in the river and found a large section of the river that had essentially expanded to be a lake. There were some basic huts built out of long branches and tied together at the top with spider silk. The Killer Kobolds seemed to be a bit on edge, so we assumed they knew we were here. When one of the monsters spotted us, it shrieked and dove into the water to come attack us. Soon after, around 50 Kobolds had either jumped in to cross the river, or started charging at us on land. ¡°You get water, I get the land?¡± I asked Grifith. He only nodded in response and prepared himself, sword having been never put away since lunch break. The ensuing slaughter of Kobolds happened far quicker than I ever would have imagined. It took us a mere 8 minutes to wipe out the entire settlement. None of the Kobolds ran away, they all attacked us and kept going until the last one fell. The cluster of claws surrounding our feet made it more unstable to walk. I kicked them all into a pile, making sure not to step on any, then added them all to my storage in one go. ¡°That was pretty fast. I don¡¯t think we¡¯ll have to deal with any more for at least a few minutes. Want to take a break, or keep going?¡± I asked Grifith. ¡°Let''s take a short breather. 15 minutes then we get back up.¡± I nodded and he walked over and took a seat on the ground beside me. I sat down too, then put a 50 point barrier around us. I¡¯ll regenerate triple the cost before we go, so I wasn''t worried about spending the mana. ¡°So you got any pointers for me? We¡¯ve fought a few good battles the last couple of days. I¡¯d love to hear any advice you have to offer.¡± I asked Grifith . ¡°You rely on your regeneration too much. If we were to get into a long and drawn out battle, you¡¯d run out of mana too quickly.¡± Okay, fair. But like, feel free to hesitate some dude. He continued, ¡°Your Regeneration skill is truly impressive, and I think you use it wonderfully to your advantage, but I also think you need to work on moderating your spells. You fire quickly with too little hesitation, which is good when you know the monster¡¯s weak points, but if we come across something that we don¡¯t know about, I think you¡¯d run out of mana much quicker than you¡¯d realize.¡± ¡°That seems perfectly reasonable.¡± I nodded along, drinking from my water skin while I listened. ¡°Another thing I''ve noticed is you don¡¯t use your barriers as much for defense as you should. Which ties in with my previous point. If you use weaker Barriers, you could funnel the monster into a more manageable line and deal with one at a time, rather than dealing with the whole swarm of them at once.¡± I thought back to the Lizardman Dungeon, when I literally fought with a horde of 70 monsters. It would have been a lot easier if I had put up some guiding walls to take away a certain degree of their number advantage. ¡°Sage words. I can already think of a time I could''ve used it.¡± He nodded along and asked if I had any advice for him. I had to think for a moment before I came up with anything, but there was one part of the fight that stuck out to me. ¡°I think you could stand to be slightly more offensive. As it stands, I think you are too afraid of getting injured to really get into the beauty of the battle. If you were to use your detection skill in tandem with your melee combat skills, I think you would be a terrifying force to reckon with. You could swim through a rhetorical sea of these Kobolds and come out with minimal injuries.¡± He thought about it for a moment then said, ¡°You have a point. I know exactly where every monster is within a certain growing radius of myself. I could see myself doing something similar.¡± ¡°Hell dude, if you know what direction, how far, and how fast a monster is coming at you, you should be able to take it on blindfolded. That being said, I think that¡¯s something to practice on a different quest when we¡¯re not surrounded by monsters in practically every direction.¡± Grifith laughed and agreed. It would be a mistake trying to change fighting styles in the middle of a quest. After relaxing for a few minutes, catching our breaths and recharging some mana, we moved on down the stream. We decided against destroying any Kobold huts, since they seemed harmless. That and having a place where we know the Kobolds like to hang out will make them a bit easier to spot in future journeys through the woods. I asked Grifith if we were done with the Giant Slime portion of the quest yet, and he said we still needed a few more. When we killed 10 more total, we headed back to where we entered the woods. We got back to our camp as the sun started to set. I suggested we start heading west for a few hours, at least until the sun is fully set, and Grifith reluctantly agreed. He looked hesitant. Since we had just cleared the area of monsters, we should be a lot more safe here than if we were to go towards an area that was still teaming with monsters. I mentioned that we were still a few miles from the start of the forest¡¯s edge, and that I''d be making a strong barrier that even Bran would have to take a few hits to destroy. He conceded and we headed west. We ran for 3 hours before calling it good. And by run, I mean Grifith was back to his old antics of running at me with a blade, threatening to give my health regeneration a run for its money. It reminded me why I was hesitant to ask him to join me in the first place. The first time I collapsed was when the sun had fully set and I tripped on a loose root on the ground. After that, I cast a Ball of Light and had it fly a dozen feet in front of me, providing a clear line of sight as to where I should place my feet to avoid being ran through by the psycho behind me. The second time i collapsed was when i told the fucker to just kill me and get it over with.This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. He laughed, put his sword away and started setting up camp. I did my part by casting a 760 point barrier then laying on the ground catching my breath for a few minutes. The best part was I had gained another level in Enhanced Body yesterday morning, and the results were at last showing. I wasn¡¯t even completely exhausted yet. I pulled up my basic status and looked at what was going on throughout the day. User: Claff: Health 320/320 (336*/hr) Stamina 137/320 (32/hr) Mana 100/960 (637.6*/hr) SKILLS PASSIVE Enhanced Body Lv 11 [43%] Increased Mental Capacity Lv18 [21%] Regeneration Lv18 [50%] ACTIVE Arcane Magic Lv 14 [90%] Barrier Magic Lv 13 [97%] Game-like Storage Lv12 [25%] I had started making immense progress with my Arcane Magic and Mental Capacity skills. I was looking at almost half a level a day since I started practicing using my Arc method. Pretty soon I''ll be hitting level 20 in two of my passive skills, and I''ll be getting level 15 in Arcane Magic before lunch. That should give me plenty of time to learn the hopefully new spell. It had been a while since I got my Arcane Explosion spell, and while I absolutely love it, I need something other than my first spell to attack with. Preferably something cheaper that i can just use as something like a machine gun of bullets. Though I guess I could do something similar with Mana Bolt. Just downcast the spell and I should be able to use up to 20 at a time. And since i got multicasting, i don¡¯t need to limit myself the same way i had to with just projectile split. Regardless. I want a new spell. I have too much fun learning new ways to abuse the spell modifiers. I can¡¯t wait to try it with a new toy. With no new spells to learn for now, I dumped the remainder of my mana into the Barrier pattern and fell asleep. Grifith woke me late in the night with a tap of his boot into my side. I swear if it¡¯s for anything less than a swarm of Trolls, I''m going to end him. Turns out it was just a swarm of Skeletons that he wanted help with. I held my head up to see what he was talking about, and it turned out that we were completely surrounded on all sides by an undead army. I sat up and immediately checked the integrity of the barrier. It had taken a couple points of damage, but it would hold for a few more hours at this rate, even if I did nothing. Relieved, I took my water skin out of storage and took a long swing. Then I handed it to Grifith who took a drink as well. I checked my resources, and they were all full, including my stamina pool. I estimated we had gotten around 6 hours of sleep, since the sun hadn¡¯t shown yet. I could tell it was almost time for the sun to rise though. ¡°Well, I¡¯ll take care of it.¡± I cast 10 Mana bolts and started sending them at any skulls in my field of view. I recast and kept the waves of bolts going until there was only one Skeleton left. I sent the final bolt towards its head and lay back down from my seated position. I then went back to sleep for another hour. ¡°Rise and shine, Mr. Show Off.¡± Please. Mr. Show Off was my father. Just call me Show. I giggled a bit at my unspoken joke. ¡°Yeah yeah I''m up.¡± I threw my sleeping bag off of me and started packing. After I put everything into storage, I looked around outside of the Barrier. So that wasn¡¯t a dream, huh? There were piles of bones laying around. There had to be at least 100 out there. ¡°How many Skeletons were there last night? I didn¡¯t keep count.¡± I checked on the charge left on the Barrier and saw that it had over 900 points of mana still in it. ¡°You killed what could have been an invading horde of Skeletal monsters, and you don¡¯t even remember how many there were? What even are you, Claff?¡± I blushed a little before defending myself. ¡°Well, if I hadn¡¯t been chased to the point of exhaustion by a sword wielding psycho last night, I might have been more aware of the Undead army around us. Now I ask again, how many were there? I figure there¡¯s around a hundred bones scattered around us. I don¡¯t know what the drop rate for the bones are, but I know it¡¯s not 100%.¡± ¡°It¡¯s closer to about 50%. You killed around 200 skeletons last night, and you weren¡¯t even fully awake for it. Wow. Just wow.¡± He looked at me weirdly then went to gather the bones into a pile. When he was done, I put them all into my storage, since it all took only one slot for me. We had our breakfast under the barrier and got ready to head west again. ¡°When we see any small groups of Skeletons, we should at least slow down a bit so I can trap them in a draining Barrier. I¡¯d rather not let an army of the undead reach civilization. Given that we¡¯re here to kill monsters, I say we should probably take at least the first half of the day to go into the undead portion of the Dark Forest so we can do a bit of monster control.¡± Grifith didn¡¯t look happy about it, but he agreed. ¡°I was hoping you wouldn¡¯t say that. But you¡¯re absolutely right. It probably wouldn¡¯t have been as bad earlier if we had taken out a couple groups on our way to get the Kobolds and Slimes.¡± ¡°Agreed. Like I said, let''s just spend until around noonish killing Skeletons, then we can move westward to get the Wolves. I doubt we¡¯ll make it there by sunset, but I''d rather make some progress than no progress.¡± We talked strategy for a bit longer, then I looked at my skill list to see if the festivities last night had given me the push I needed to reach 15 in Arcane Magic. SKILLS PASSIVE Enhanced Body Lv 11 [49%] Increased Mental Capacity Lv18 [27%] Regeneration Lv18 [60%] ACTIVE Arcane Magic Lv 15 [5%] Barrier Magic Lv 14 [15%] Game-like Storage Lv12 [82%] The grin on my face told Grifith everything he needed to know. ¡°Let me guess, you leveled your Arcane Magic during the annihilation that happened last night?¡± I nodded with a goofy smile and focused back on my skill list. I learned the Barrier magic first, as was customary. I knew if I learned Arcane Magic first, I''d be having too much fun with it to bother leveling Barriers. At this point, I don''t even really use it during actual battle. Though I really need to start though. Maybe this level will give me something good? I said that last part as a bit of a prayer to Hagrid, then learned the spell. Barrier Effect Dampener has been learned. It seemed simple enough. It was a passive effect that basically increases the amount of force needed to damage the barrier, effectively making each point of mana i add to the Barrier¡¯s Pattern go that much further. It looked to have a 2:3 ratio, making the Barrier 1.5 times more effective than before. I also didn¡¯t have to consciously use this effect. It would be applied regardless of if I wanted to have it in effect. But I could turn it off if I wanted to, which I saw no reason to ever do. Alright, this is a whole lot more usable than Darken. That one felt like a waste of a modifier. Now it¡¯s time for the Big Guns. I switched my focus from Barrier Magic to Arcane Magic. Exploding Bullet has been learned. Oh sweet mother. THAT''S WHAT I¡¯M TALKING ABOUT! I quickly pulled up the pattern and was about to cast it into a tree when I thought better of it. Let¡¯s focus on the information first to see what it does. I¡¯d rather not cause a forest fire on accident. As I thought, The bullet would be launched with great force, then on impact, an altered mini version of Arcane Explosion would go off at the impact site. I cast the spell, keeping it under my control and refusing to allow it to fire. I examined the pattern closely and saw the portion relating to the explosion. Part of it felt incomplete somehow. It felt like there was more to the spell than was being shown now, but I couldn''t for the life of me imagine what. I pulled the pattern for Arcane Explosion up to the front of my mind and compared the two. I couldn¡¯t see anything that felt missing about the Arcane Explosion pattern, but there was a part of Exploding Bullet that still felt missing to me. Grifith nudged me with the toe of his foot and told me it was time to get going. ¡°I get your confused about how your new spell works, but you can practice it more when we see some monsters for you to kill. But for right now, either add it to your array of floating missiles, or let the spell go. We should get started so we have enough time to do any sort of damage control before we have to leave in a few hours.¡± I know he¡¯s right, but I can''t get my finger on what¡¯s wrong. None of the rest of my spells made me feel this way when I first learned them, so why am I getting that feeling now? I put the whole thing in the back of my mind and focused back on the task at hand. We had some Skeletons to re-kill. Chapter 24 I¡¯m getting sick of Skeletons. Grifith and I had been ¡®hunting¡¯ Skeletons in the Dark Forest for over 4 hours. We had found another swarm of Skeletons and figured we should take it out before it leaves the Forest to find a sapient settlement to attack. I decided to get a little crafty with my Barrier spell to make the process a bit easier. I made a platform for Grifith and I to run on about 8 feet off the ground and stairs to reach it. When we made it closer to the center of the swarm, I cast a large semi-permeable barrier that would let monsters in, but wouldn¡¯t let them back out. Doing it this way and adding the health and stamina draining effects made for an easy wipe of the whole thing. The monsters would constantly be trying to get closer to us to kill us, but when they were in the barrier, their resource pools would be constantly sapped away until they turned to loot. The Skeletons constantly kicked the bones towards the middle of the trap as they tried to get closer to Grifith and I, making the pile of loot easy to store when all the Skeletons had died off.. Grifith was impressed by my ingenuity. All we had to do was make a bit of noise to ensure all the Skeletons made it into the trap. We sat on top of the barrier for around 3 hours, just letting the monsters kill themselves off. The Barrier had grown to hold immense power given it had drained over 600 Skeletons of their health and stamina pools. It had several thousand points of charge by the time we were ready to get off of it. I adjusted the top of the barrier, layering a set of stairs for the two of us to climb down. When we got back to ground level, I immediately got to work storing as many bones as I could. I¡¯m just glad there wasn¡¯t a cap on how many items could be stored in one slot, as long as they were similar enough. It took us a few minutes to get all the bones together, given there were around 300 of them scattered around. When everything was done and settled, we headed deeper into the forest to make sure there were no more hordes similar to the ones we¡¯ve dealt with so far. ¡°This is why there¡¯s regular culling of forest monsters,¡± Grifith explained. ¡°If left alone for too long, the monsters will gather into swarms and leave the forest to find the closest sapient settlement. Without being able to use some crafty bullshit like you just used, It would have taken at least a raiding party of 30 to deal with a swarm that large. Even more if it had joined with the group from last night.¡± ¡°I get it. I honestly don¡¯t mind coming here to get some kills every once in a while. It¡¯s great skill training. I gained 40% a level in Barrier Magic from how many monsters we just dealt with.¡± It was true. I now sat at 56% into level 14. Dealing with the swarm was a small blessing. Plus it added to our sellable loot, and it greatly added to our kill count for Skeletons. We didn¡¯t find any more hordes, but we found a few smaller packs of 5-10. We took turns dealing with them in our own methods. Grifith suggested I keep using my draining method to kill them since it was easier, cheaper, and faster. But I desperately wanted the next level in Arcane Magic, since I was sure it would give me the missing piece of the last spell. ¡°If you want, I can use my information skills and let you know what the next level holds. I don¡¯t use it out of respect for people¡¯s privacy, but if you ask me to, I''m more than willing.¡± ¡°I appreciate the offer, but I want to deal with it on my own. I know I can power level this skill by using it to kill monsters, it¡¯s just that Skeletons don¡¯t make good targets for the new spell. It¡¯s easier to get them with Mana Bolts. That¡¯s why my Arc is strictly bolts right now instead of the Exploding Bullets.¡± I had 1 empowered Mana Bolt split into 8 regular charge bolts in an Arc behind me. I spent most of my time practicing firing and casting in rapid succession during the 3 hours we were waiting on the horde to die down. It had earned me 20% more in the level since I had a decent amount of monster kills with Arcane Magic, though very little when compared to Barrier Magic. We kept hunting more and more Skeletons until it reached around 1 pm. Grifith called it good for now, so we headed back out of the forest to have lunch then run for a bit. ¡°So last night, you were going to explain tiers to me, but you never did. What are they, and how do they relate to monsters?¡± I asked. ¡°Tiers have to deal with a monster''s spawn strength. The stronger the monster, the higher the tier. After a monster kills so many other monsters, it can tier up and evolve into its next form.¡± Grifith started explaining as I nodded and took mental notes. ¡°Take Goblins and Slime, for instance. They¡¯re both tier 1 monster¡¯s. If a Goblin were to kill enough other Goblins or other monsters, it would eventually qualify to evolve into a Hobgoblin. Hobgoblins are considered tier 2 monsters. It''s the same with Giant Slimes. I don''t know what the tier 3 monster for slimes is, but tier 3 and on for gobs are Orcs, then Ogres, and finally Trolls. When an Ogre evolves into a Troll, it completely skips tier 5. Monster evolutions can occasionally skip tiers like that. Each monster can spawn on its own, but a dedicated Goblin spawn can eventually kill its way to becoming a tier 6 Troll, assuming it doesn¡¯t die before reaching that point.¡± ¡°I see. What¡¯s the highest tier monster you know about?¡± Please say dragons, please say dragons. ¡°Dragons.¡± I mentally started fangirling. ¡°Dragons, depending on the race, can be tier 10 monsters. Some are only tier 9, but they¡¯re incredibly powerful regardless of the tier difference. The last dragon that started wrecking havoc took an entire raid party of only Gold Plate adventurers. That being said, most dragons are relatively peaceful, and they are usually spawned with a higher intelligence. They¡¯re one of the biggest reasons people debate on whether or not monster spawns can be considered sapient. There¡¯s actually a colony of the beasts living in the mountains on the dwarven continent. They number in the hundreds, and if they ever decided to rampage, the rest of civilization would be screwed.¡± Oh yeah, I''m SO going to check that out one day. Hell, I might put that higher on the to do list than get a cat girl girlfriend. Priorities, after all. Although¡­ Should I try anything with Sarah? I dunno. Nah. Don¡¯t shit where you eat and all that. We finished our food and Grifith brought his sword out. I looked around for monsters, but couldn''t find anything. He doesn¡¯t usually run with his sword. Not unless¡­ Oh shit. I angled west and started running for my life with a psycho behind me, shouting orders on how to run better. I could barely pay attention, since I didn''t want to get stabbed again and all. Well, he gets results. We made it a little before the sun started to set. I collapsed on the ground and dismissed the 10 bolt Arc that Grifith made me hold, fire, and recharge for the entire sprint, swearing vengeance upon the madman that was my friend. I didn¡¯t mind doing Arc training when we were jogging, but doing it while sprinting for a little over 6 hours drained me mentally. We started to set up camp when we reached the approximate edge of the wolf territory. Grifith set the wards out, I set the Barrier up. We weren¡¯t planning on even attempting to enter the Dark forest tonight. We - and I mean me - were too exhausted from the run over to want to risk attacking. I spent the rest of the night studying the Exploding Bullet pattern, doing my best to become more familiar with it and trying to deduce what I felt was missing. I almost want to say it¡¯s missing a trigger. I see the trigger to make the bullet fly in the desired direction, but I don''t see the trigger to make it explode. I formed an airtight Barrier that extended from my hand to the edge of the Barrier we were going to sleep in. I planned on using the smaller one for testing. Test shot one: ready. I fired the bullet and watched it fly to the end of the mini tunnel I made and explode upon impact. It felt exactly like Mana Bolt and Arcane Explosion were melded together into one twisted amalgamation. Okay, so the spell works as it¡¯s supposed to. So what¡¯s the feeling I''m getting from it? I tested the spell again, and looked at my resources to see how much it costs. It cost 15 mana each, which is the same as the original version of Arcane Explosion. It will presumably cost less the more I gain levels. I kept practicing the spell over and over. I cast over 100 Exploding Bullets by the time I decided to call it a night. I dumped the remainder of my mana into the barrier and went to sleep. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. The next day, Grifith and I charged into the Dark Forest on the look out for Wolves. I killed around 30 spiders before we found the first Wolf. We had made our way southeast, looking for any tracks or other signs of the beasty monster. I¡¯d like to give us more credit by saying we found it, but in reality, it found us. Grifith only survived because he traveled with his sword out and he was able to get it sideways in the Wolf''s jaws before it could clamp down on his neck. It was a gruesome struggle, but when I got over my shock, I put a 10 point barrier between the two to separate them and give Grifith some breathing room. I launched 3 of my 8 Mana Bolts at the Wolf as it jumped backwards to prepare another punching attack at us. 2 of the 3 hit it in its left side, and the third one only grazed its front left paw. I had messed up with the last one since I was still a bit shaken. Grifith recovered and charged straight through the barrier to engage with the Wolf again. He swiped at the Wolf¡¯s front right paw, aiming to remove the mobility advantage the monster had. I cast a minimal barrier behind it so it couldn¡¯t retreat. Grifith¡¯s strike landed and seemed to cut about an inch deep and looked to stop at the bone. The Wolf fell forward, now unable to properly walk on either of its front paws and with it left hindquarter injured. Grifith ended the fight with a blow to the Wolf¡¯s neck. ¡°Well damn. The bastard snuck up on me. I didn¡¯t realize how quick they were and how far back they stacked their prey from.¡± He grabbed the Wolf pelt and Wolf meat that was our loot for the fight and handed them both to me for storage. I was running out of slots for new drops, So i removed the few pieces of Hobgoblin armor I had and traded them for the new drops. We¡¯d be getting more Wolf drops than Hobgoblin drops for the remainder of our trip, so it made sense. ¡°Also, good work on the Barriers. I¡¯m glad you took my advice for what it was and not as an insult as many people take it. You probably saved my life, if not saved me a good amount of effort.¡± I smiled and nodded. ¡°Of course. Always looking to improve.¡± We headed in the direction that the Wolf came from and were ambushed by two more. We were more prepared to deal with these since they waited until we were closer to attack, thereby giving Grifith the heads up with his detection skill. This time, I readied a barrage of Exploding Bullets and fired 5 at each Wolf before they could make it all the way to us. The explosion of the projectiles was enough that each bullet actually tore open each of the monster''s sides. It was a little more bloody than I was used to. Okay, something about this spell is throwing me off a little, but holy Hagrid that was AWESOME! I¡¯ll be using this a whole lot more. I released the Mana Bolts that were in my Arc, and replaced them all with a series of 8 Exploding Bullets. I¡¯d be using these for the duration of our time in Wolf territory. We grabbed the two pelts and meat chunk and continued on our way. I feel more confident now that I have two usable single target spells to go with my AOE spell. It was another few minutes before we had a similar encounter. The Wolves were fast, very fast. In fact, if I didn''t know they were coming, I don''t think I''d be able to react in time. But since I had a secret weapon that went by the name of Grifith, I was able to shoot down each and every Wolf that made its way to us. The only problem was when the Wolves started their charge from outside of Grifith¡¯s range of detection. Then they¡¯d make contact, and I''d have to separate the monster from my friend before tearing them apart with explosions. I¡¯ve come to be able to kill each Wolf with a single Exploding Bullet to the head/neck. We kept our pace up until we were met with a small pack of 5 Wolves. I was able to take 4 of them down, but I hadn''t recharged a fifth Bullet to my Arc yet, so Grifith attacked the last surviving monster from the group. He had decided that he wanted to deal with at least a few Wolves to get the experience of fighting them and to level his active skills too. I felt bad when he mentioned how he wanted to do more while we were out here. I hadn¡¯t realized how much more of the killing I had done until Grifith mentioned it. I had gained a few levels while I was out here in multiple skills, yet he had only gained 3 levels in his Detection skill, and a level in his Enhanced Body. I let him deal with the last Wolf on his own. There was one point where I was about to intervene when it looked like he had fallen backwards, but he showed me wrong by twisting mid fall as the Wolf jumped on him and plunged his blade straight through its open maw. ¡°Damn dude! That was impressive! I almost jumped in there at the last second till you pulled that crap outta nowhere!" I dapped him up then dragged him to his feet. He was heavier than I expected, and that¡¯s including my improved strength. ¡°Hey, I haven''t died yet, so don¡¯t go discounting me too much now.¡± He grinned and grabbed the loot. ¡°It looks like the Wolf Pelts have a pretty high drop rate. I think every one we¡¯ve fought so far has dropped one.¡± I commented. ¡°That¡¯s because it has a 90% rate. We could probably make a small fortune just from farming these pelts. I think each one goes for a silver each. And the Dire Wolf Pelts go for double.¡± He handed the pelt to me and I added it to the pile from the other 4 Wolves before adding them all to storage in one go. ¡°So,¡± Grifith started, ¡°it looks like we¡¯re getting close to the Wolf den. My skill tells me they usually either find a cave and make that their home, or they find the thickest tree around and dig out the dirt under the roots to make a den there. I¡¯d wager we should look for thicker trees since I don''t think there¡¯s any cave systems around here. I think one of us should climb a tree, cut our way through the webs, and see if any tree tops pop out as being the tallest, since that would likely also be the widest.¡± ¡°Man, I¡¯m glad I''m not the only dumbass around here. Dude, we¡¯re obviously going in the right direction the more monsters we face, the closer to their home we¡¯re getting. It¡¯s pretty simple math, in my opinion.¡± He glared at me for the insult, but ultimately agreed that an increase in monster density was a good thing. I increased the number of Exploding Bullets I had in my Arc from 8 to 10 and we continued our journey. The mental strain was intense, but I could manage for now, especially since we¡¯re getting closer to the den. We fought 6 more groups of Wolves over the next 30 minutes. Each Wolf died from a Bullet to the head. When we were attacked by a group of 9 wolves at once, I killed each one as it came. At that point we had more than enough kills to complete the promotion quest, but I still insisted that we spend the rest of the day killing as many Wolves as possible. Grifith wanted to head back so we could get our promotion, but agreed when I offered to either trap a Wolf for him to practice his Detection on, or if he wanted to fight more, I''d start leaving more Wolves for him to deal with. ¡°Fine, but only because I really want those damn skill levels. We¡¯ll keep searching for the den, then we¡¯re going home. It¡¯s been a long ass week and I want a warm meal, damnit!¡± I laughed and we went on our way. He told me to leave 2 wolves for him to kill from the next group that attacked us, and I agreed. The next group was a pack of 4, so I let the first 2 attack Grifith and killed the second 2. Then I shot a spider that I saw way up in the canopy above us and sat back and watched the fight. Grifith was pretty damn good. I know he spends a lot of time just killing the same Goblin over and over, but he really knows how to use his sword. He angled himself so that a pair of trees prevented either of the Wolves from trying to get behind him for a pincer attack. The beasts took turns attacking Grifith, and each time one of them lunged at him, he would come out the victor. The first one jumped forward, getting a serious slash to its side. I thought I saw him take his dagger out at one point to get under the second Wolf¡¯s belly, but I was proven wrong when the end of his sword came out the top of its back, right by its hip. That Wolf was out of the fight, and the first Wolf jumped him right as its pack member went down. It was at this point, when his sword was stuck in the first Wolf, that he took his dagger out from being hidden in his chest piece and used it to gouge a long bloody line from the base of the monster¡¯s neck all the way down to the base of its hips, removing its tail. I applauded him, which turned out to be a mistake. Another Wolf jumped out from the shadow of a nearby tree straight at me. I jumped in surprise and Grifith ran to my aid. I cast a Barrier more out of panic than conscious thought, to separate the monster from myself. The Wolf jumped off of me and switched to snarling and snapping at Grifith. I was thankful the only injury I sustained was from falling hard on my back with the extra weight of the Wolf on top of my chest. I had cast the barrier before it had time to do any real damage, but I could feel my palms were scraped pretty badly, and I had a small cut across my hand that was already starting to close. Grifith Had taken care of the Wolf monster before I had time to fully process what was going on. ¡°You okay there? The little shit came charging at us from too far away for me to call it out, so sorry about that.¡± He looked embarrassed at having failed at his designated duty. ¡°Don¡¯t sweat it man. I¡¯d probably be puppy chow right now if it weren¡¯t for you. I only got a scraped hand from it, so I''ll be fine. That being said, let¡¯s take a break here for a bit so I can recharge some mana.¡± He nodded and came closer to me so I didn''t have to make the Barrier as big. It¡¯s not really a problem for me to make it bigger, but it is easier on my head to make it more compact. I added an extra 100 mana to the pattern and leaned back against a nearby tree. ¡°That last one freaked me out a bit. I was honestly scared for a second. That barrier was an instinctual cast. I didn¡¯t even think about it and it appeared. I¡¯m glad it did too. I¡¯d hate to go back to Silface missing an eye.¡± Grifith chuckled a bit at that. ¡°Yeah, it freaked me out too. I almost thought you were a goner there. I had a full solo escape plan set out for myself and everything. I was only bummed out that I would''ve lost all that loot you were carrying for us.¡± I punched his arm. ¡°I swear I''ll kick you out of this damn thing and leave you without a Ball of Light to see.¡± That only made him laugh harder. We kicked the shit for a full hour. I dealt with a single Wolf during that time, but we relaxed for the rest of it. My palm healed completely, and my mana pool was back to full. I cast my Arc of Exploding Bullets, then we headed deeper into the Dark Forest. I think I need a bit of a break after we finish this quest. I¡¯m tired of not having a proper room to myself, or not having warm meals whenever I want. Chapter 25 After our little break, Grifith and I headed deeper into the forest. We veered a bit further west since that¡¯s the direction the Wolves were coming from. How many are hiding in the Den? We¡¯ve gotten at least 40 kills so far. Surely there can¡¯t be too many more? I say that, but the Skeletons had close to a thousand spawns in their territory. So far, I have yet to look at the quest information a single time to check we made our quota. I¡¯ve been focused more on just killing a shit ton of monsters than anything. So I don''t know the exact number of kills we have. But I know we¡¯ve gotten plenty for each of us. I just really want to get to the den and take it out. We killed another group of 3, Grifith taking two out by himself. It seems to be his current limit for a single battle. I don''t fault him, given he can¡¯t make ranged attacks. The Detection skill makes him more than useful. We Kept going until Grifith called for a stop for dinner. I had started to get a little hungry, but I could''ve gone for a few more hours killing Wolves without needing another break. I stopped all the same, and erected a 300-point Barrier. I could have made it a 600 point one, but I also wanted to have some mana gain for the break. I pulled out a stew from my storage and took a look at my basic status. User: Claff: Health 340/340 (374*/hr) Stamina 247/340 (34/hr) Mana 298/960 (697*/hr) SKILLS PASSIVE Enhanced Body Lv 12 [20%] Increased Mental Capacity Lv19 [21%] Regeneration Lv19 [83%] ACTIVE Arcane Magic Lv 15 [86%] Barrier Magic Lv 14 [97%] Game-like Storage Lv14 [12%] My Increased Mental Capacity has really been boosting in levels since I got Projectile Split, and went even further since I started using Multicast. And edging my Regeneration right along the 800-mana line has really helped it level, though the increased cost of Exploding Bullet means I''ve had to decrease from 800 to 600. This break will definitely help me when we get to the Den though. I¡¯ll be at mostly full mana and with a full Arc of Exploding Bullets. Though I''m tempted to switch back to Mana Bolt, since they¡¯re a third of the price. Grifith dealt with a pair of Wolves that attacked the Barrier when he was done with his food. After that, he sat back down so I could finish my little recharging moment. When I was back to having a full mana pool and an Arc of 10 Exploding Bullets, we left our breaking area and continued our hunt for the Wolf den. It turns out that Wolves hunt in a radius of over 50 miles from their dens. Grifith found that out when his information skill leveled up. So we started debating on what to do. I wanted to cause a bit of a commotion, and do something similar to what we did with the Skeletons. It would make for easy kills, and since Wolf monsters were known for good hearing, we¡¯d end up with a good number of kills, at least that was my argument. Grifith on the other hand suggested that since we had enough kills to complete the quest, we should just call it good and start to head out of the forest and back to Silface. I countered with the argument of money. Grifith counter-countered with the argument of sleeping in an actual bed and getting a warm meal. He almost won right there, but I brought up that this was a Promotion Test. We¡¯d make a better impression if we had more kills under our belt. ¡°Besides, we¡¯d basically be relaxing on top of the trap Barrier in a safety Barrier of our own. I know it¡¯s not exactly the most glamorous way to rack up kills, but you could honestly sleep if you wanted to while I deal with it. I¡¯m not saying you don¡¯t provide help or anything, but you wouldn¡¯t be in any risk of danger.¡± He grumbled and agreed. I made the trap Barrier to be about a 300-foot square, 10 feet tall, then added 300 points of mana to it. I included a floor in the trap, to make sure the monsters would always be in contact with the Draining Barrier. After the initial Barrier was set up, I made sure that Grifith and I wouldn''t count as targets for the draining effect, then made a set of stairs to lead us to the middle of the top of the barrier. Then Grifith set his camping equipment up and fell asleep right there. I put the safety barrier up around us then double checked that everything was set. I added 500 points to it, and made sure it was soundproof. With all my preparations made, I cast a series of Arcane Explosions outside of the Barrier. This should be the bait to draw in as many Wolves as possible. Then when they saw us, they¡¯d enter the Trap Barrier? and slowly be drained of their health, stamina, and mana pools over the course of less than two minutes until they turned into loot. The first Wolf entered the trap. It hadn¡¯t spotted us yet, but it was still inside the effects of the barrier. It looked around for a few minutes, sniffing at some trees that I included in the trap. It looked around again and then up at the Ball of Light that was the only source of light in the forest. It was then that it spotted us. It looked to howl, but sensei had made the Safety Barrier? soundproof, I could only assume. Sure enough, more and more Wolves gathered by the minute. As they saw the Ball of Light, they took turns howling and then running directly under Grifith and I, jumping and snapping at us, yet not being able to reach us. The Wolves looked quite like the gray wolf from the nature documentaries I saw when trying to fall asleep back in my old world. They were a bit bigger though, now that I was able to see them for long enough without them dying to my Exploding Bullets. These seemed to be about 4 feet tall at the shoulder, and their fur looked to end in sharper points. Maybe it wasn¡¯t the ground I scraped my hands on last time. Maybe I scraped my hands on the Wolf¡¯s fur. The Wolves gathered under us and kept jumping, trying to get high enough to reach the two of us. Eventually, the first Wolf passed out, then a few seconds later it turned into loot. The Wolves seemed to be saddened by this and they all looked to howl in unison. More and more Wolves entered the trap and ran right up to us. I spent the whole time watching, as the loot started to increase in numbers. Very few Wolves even attempted to escape the Barrier, the rest spent the entirety of their time in the trap trying to eat Grifith and I. Grifith only slept or at least pretended to for the first few minutes. It was new to him, since we watched the same thing happen with the Skeleton. Except this time, I made the Trap Barrier a lot wider. If I had made the Skeleton trap as wide as I did this one, we would have finished a lot sooner. I learned my lesson and implemented it here. ¡°It¡¯s really working. I wasn¡¯t expecting such high results. How many have fallen in there?¡± Grifith asked. ¡°18 have died so far, add that to the 6 that are in there now and we¡¯re at 24. Oh look, another Wolf came in. 25.¡± I pointed to the western side of the Trap Barrier. A large Wolf at least as tall as I was if not taller just walked in the Barrier. It froze as the last of its tail passed through the one-way wall. It seemed to tense itself and snarled a bit. If it were two feet to either side, my view would have been blocked by trees, but I had a perfect line of sight for where it was. The Wolf turned around and tried to leave the Barrier but saw no success in its attempts. As it turned, Grifith and I saw it had a large black stripe running along its side. ¡°It¡¯s close to evolving into a Dire Wolf. I assume that¡¯s either the pack leader, or one of the stronger Wolves from the group.¡± Grifith said. I nodded along and kept watching. About 20 minutes had passed since the first Wolf had entered and I had gained 230 mana. I prepared to add it to the Trap Barrier¡¯s pattern, but when I looked at it, it had over 5,000 points in it, so I went back to relaxing. Not even Bran could break through this Barrier as it is right now. I¡¯ll wait and see what it does though. At the worst, I''ll pepper it with Exploding Bullets. The ¡®almost Dire¡¯ Wolf scratched and snarled at the Barrier. I flung its whole body at it a few times before giving up and howling for the remainder of its life. When its loot dropped, it dropped a Wolf Pelt and a chunk of Wolf meat. The whole thing felt very underwhelming. It didn¡¯t even try to attack the pair of us. Grifith and I continued sitting up here for the next 20 minutes, with not a single extra Wolf coming. ¡°I¡¯m disappointed. Is that really all the Wolves over here? Should I throw out a few more Arcane Explosions or something to see if anything else comes?¡± Grifith shook his head and just said that we should spend the rest of our night up here. ¡°More might be coming. For all we know, that last Wolf sent out a distress howl. We have the soundproof barrier up, so we don¡¯t know how loud it really was. I¡¯d rather not risk letting the Barrier drop just as the entire Den shows up and have to fight our way through that. Besides, there might be more Wolf drops in the morning. So just relax and get some sleep. I¡¯ll shake you if I sense any monsters under us so you can watch.¡± I nodded and brought out my camping gear. There wasn¡¯t any wind since the barrier was up, but I still felt the cold. I wrapped myself tightly in my sleeping bag, packed the remainder of the mana into the Safety Barrier, and turned to sleep. I couldn¡¯t even get 10 minutes before Grifith me awake. ¡°Good thing we waited.¡± He pointed downwards. I moved my sleeping bag and placemat out of the way so I could get a better look at what he was talking about.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. There were easily a hundred Wolves in the Trap Barrier, all snarling and snapping and trying to reach the two of us. The few that stood out were directly underneath us. They looked to be the most vicious of the group and they were pitch black. ¡°So, these are Dire Wolves, huh?¡± I asked Grifith. He nodded confirmation. ¡°Dire Wolves are black, and they¡¯re bigger and stronger than regular Wolves. Regular Wolves are already tier 2 monsters, and on the high end of the tier as well. When they get closer to evolving, they are considered tier 3 monsters. But when they fully evolve, the resulting Dire Wolf is labeled as tier 4.¡± Grifith continued with, ¡°I feel I should also warn you. The differences in tiers only increase as the tiers increase. So, a tier 1 and 2 monster are a lot closer in strength than a tier 9 and 10 monster. Hobs are closer to regular Gobs than a Hob is to an Ogre.¡± I nodded along, drinking his words in. I wanted to learn as much about the monsters of this world as I could, although a lot of it seems pretty similar to what I know from video game monsters. The Dire Wolves lasted a full minute longer than the regular Wolves. There were a few Wolves that were close to evolving that also took a good bit of time, but in the end, they all fell and turned to loot. I fired a large Arcane Explosion at either end of the Trap Barrier, then went back to looking for more monsters. I¡¯m sure those will attract something. Hopefully another pack of Wolves. I¡¯d love to get as many pelts as possible. I waited another hour before deciding to go down and gather the pelts and meat that had dropped from everything so far. I had enough waiting on my ass for now, so I turned the barrier to be fully solid and not allow anything in and gathered it all up. I didn¡¯t want the meat to go rancid. After I gathered the loot and stored it, I went back up to the Safety Barrier and turned the trap back to fully functioning. An hour later we got a different monster group in our little trap. I had refused to sleep, hoping to see more monsters come in and get turned to loot. I got my wish. I pointed it out and asked Grifith, ¡°Is that what I think it is?¡± He gasped and said, ¡°Only if you think it¡¯s a Troll leading a small army of Orcs.¡± The first and biggest monster stood at 9 feet tall. If I had made the Trap Barrier any shorter, it wouldn¡¯t have even fit inside. It looked to be an ugly, giant, green man with warts all over its back and top side of its arms. The arms were long enough that the monster¡¯s claws scraped across the bottom of the barrier. Its neck hunched forward, with the head hanging level with its shoulders. If it wasn¡¯t hunchbacked the way it was, its head would be out of the barrier. The Troll had no weapons, most likely opting to use the 5-inch curled, yellow claws at the end of its fingers. I was just glad that it had a thick loincloth on, as it also didn¡¯t have any armor, which contrasted with the small army of Orcs at its back. Every Orc stood at 6 feet tall, though the pig-like ears made them appear slightly taller. The monsters all carried cudgels, either dragging them along or draped across the back of their necks. They looked like thick wooden bats, but with a strip of metal at the end, some with small spikes sticking out too. The Orcs had humanoid faces, though the pig-snouts and tusks sticking out really ruined the facade. I¡¯m sure if I made the Safety Barrier not soundproof, we¡¯d be hearing a harmony of oinks. Some of the orcs had chest pieces to go with their leather loincloths, but most just had a shoulder piece covering the arm that carried their weapon. Their green skin oddly complimented the brown of their underwear. After I looked at the 200 pigmen under us with their giant leader, I realized Grifith was still and pale as a sheet. ¡°You okay there bud? It¡¯s not going to get us up here. The barrier between us and him holds over 65,000 resource points from all the Wolves it¡¯s drained. And it¡¯ll only increase as it drains these guys too.¡± Grifith still looked pale, so I handed him my water skin. He looked at it for a second before taking it and taking a long drink. As he handed it back to me, I looked back down. The army or Orcs had fully entered the trap, and the Troll stood right under us, looking confused as to how we were up there more than interested in eating us. It reached a vomit green finger up to poke us, but it was stopped by the barrier. It was small, but I could tell the barrier took a point of damage. The monster looked even more confused and reached its whole hand out to grab at us. The Barrier stood firm, though it took a few more points of damage. The damage was repeatedly healed many times over as the Trap Barrier drained the Troll and Orc army of their resource pools. The Orcs already seemed to be feeling lethargic, as many of them looked to be yawning. I never wanted to see that sight again, but I couldn''t help but laugh at the hilarity of it. Grifith looked towards me the whole time, refusing to even glance down at the Troll after it reached for us the second time. I kept my eyes on the Troll, now that most of the Orc had started falling. The Troll seemed to look fine though. At least for now. ¡°Do you know what the regeneration rate for Trolls are? This guy doesn¡¯t seem as affected as the Orcs are by the Barrier.¡± I asked Grifith, hoping that conversation would help calm him down. ¡°It¡¯s crazy high, something like 50 per minute. That¡¯s just their health though. Their stamina is more basic at like 300 points an hour. Still higher than normal, but not near as ridiculous as their health is. And they don''t have mana or mana regeneration. Trolls are strictly brute force. Orcs have a small mana pool and minor mana regen with average sized health and slightly higher stamina pools and regeneration.¡± ¡°Good to know. So, it¡¯ll be a waiting game then. I¡¯m draining his health pool at a rate of 60 points per minute, so we¡¯ll be fine in a while. It¡¯s just a battle of attrition.¡± I patted his back¡± And we will win this battle, my friend.¡± I looked around and saw that the Orcs had started falling to the ground. Their health and stamina pools were all mostly empty now. They had mere seconds left to live. The Trap Barrier had just gained another 40,000 resource points added to its pattern. There was no way that it would fall before the Troll would. I¡¯d be making sure of that. The Troll started pounding on the Barrier, each hit shedding the Barrier of 30 points. It could only attack very slowly though. Its stamina pool was also getting drained too. I decided to move things along by sending Exploding Bullets at the giant monster. I aimed for its head, but after the first one hit, it started to guard itself with its left hand. This worked to halve the attack rate the Troll could enact. 3 minutes. That was how long it took for the Troll to finally fall to the ground unconscious due to a lack of stamina. After that, I put all my effort into making sure this monster died quickly. Unfortunately, it had fallen in such a way that prevented me from getting access to its neck or head. I experimented with my Arcane Explosion, aiming to flip the monster so I can hit its vital points. When that didn¡¯t work, I decided on a death by a thousand cuts. I kept myself at just under 800 points of mana. Every time I reached that magical number, I''d fire an Exploding Bullet at the monster in my trap. This led to many holes being put into the Troll, and none of them closed up as I''m sure they normally would. It took a ridiculous hour for the Troll to succumb to its wounds, and at that point, it was little more than a pile of meat. Its backside had been completely brutalized, yet it refused to die to my Exploding Bullets. When the Troll finally exploded into motes of white energy, I made the Trap Barrier fully solid again so I could grab the loot. I encouraged Grifith to come down with me, but he still seemed shaken up. The orcs had all dropped a chunk of meat, and a few dropped their cudgels. My storage still had 3 empty slots, these filled 2 of them. It took me 5 minutes to gather all the Orc drops, but I finished and went to see what the Troll dropped. It had left 5 claws. All that time, and it left 5 claws. Are you kidding me? They even stack with the goblin claws! What the hell?! Despite being severely annoyed, I went back up to the Safety Barrier and crashed for the rest of the night. Grifith went to sleep at some point, since when I woke up, he was still fast asleep. When I woke up, I saw that there were a few more Wolf pelts and meat chunks, so I went down to grab them then went back up. I let Grifith sleep for as long as he wanted. The poor guy seemed out of it after the Troll appeared. Even seeing it had died did nothing for his mental condition. He slept for a few more hours after I woke up. I had been practicing my Arcane Magic the whole time. I made a smaller barrier inside the safety one so I could practice firing the Exploding Bullets. I was hoping to see what I thought was missing during my alone time but found nothing until I gained the next level. During my barrage of the Troll, my Arcane Magic skill leveled. I didn¡¯t realize it until I was waiting for Grifith to wake up, but it had reached level 16. I guess the danger bonus XP rally kicked in too, because I was already halfway through the level. I guess Trolls really are strong. Maybe I really was a dumbass for how casually I was acting while dealing with it. It doesn¡¯t change the fact that it was a cakewalk though. Maybe I should hunt for more Trolls to power level all my skills? Although Barrier Magic also leveled, I think I could probably do more for it by making the Barriers into a sort of Labyrinth for added XP. That would be AWESOME!! I looked at my basic status and saw that more than Barrier and Arcane Magics leveled. I also gained half a level in Regeneration and Increased Mental Capacity. SKILLS PASSIVE Enhanced Body Lv 12 [30%] Increased Mental Capacity Lv 19 [83%] Regeneration Lv 20 [39%] ACTIVE Arcane Magic Lv 16 [26%] Barrier Magic Lv 15 [47%] Game-like Storage Lv 14 [22%] Okay, note to self: fight high tier monsters. I will NEED to come back so I can grind some more on stronger monsters. I figured now was as good a time as any to learn the next level in my magics. I wasn¡¯t going anywhere until after Grifith wakes up on his own. He needs the rest. As is customary, I started with Barrier Magic first. Improved Barrier Effects have been learned. OOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHH THIS IS GONNA BE AWESOME!!!! The level essentially doubled the quality of my Barrier Effects. So instead of draining, siphoning, and leeching 1 resource point per second of contact, it was now 2 points per second of contact. And now my Barriers treated 1 point of charge the way it used to treat 3. If I kept getting that one improvement for the rest of my levels, I''d be as happy as could be. In fact, I can''t think of any other ways to improve the Barrier Magic. Meh, I¡¯m sure it¡¯ll still improve with levels. Regardless, I''m extremely happy with that outcome. The improved effects wouldn¡¯t count towards the current Barriers I have active, but it will be applied to future barriers. Which is good, since I¡¯ll be releasing this Barrier when Grifith and I head out. I switched my focus to Arcane Magic. Hagrid, I don¡¯t quite know what part of Exploding Bullet has been bothering me, but please let this level show me what¡¯s been missing. It¡¯ll drive me crazy if I have to wait for a whole new level or even longer to figure it out. With my prayer said, I learned the spell. Explosive Trigger has been learned. THIS IS IT! That¡¯s what¡¯s been missing! The explosion¡¯s trigger! The spell used to explode on impact, and I can toggle part of the pattern to make it do that anyways. But now I can set a Trigger word by accessing the pattern and basically recording myself. When I launch the spell next time, the bullet will imbed itself into my trigger but won¡¯t explode until I give the command word. It basically acts as a delay, allowing me to optimize the explosion by waiting until the bullet is deeper in the monster, making better use of the explosion and dealing more damage. That would have come in handy when I was dealing with the Troll. Oh, that¡¯s been bothering me for what feels like forever. I know it¡¯s only been a couple of days, but still. I needed that sweet release. I decided to wait until after Grifith gets up to set the trigger word for my spell. What should I use though? Would ¡°EXPLODE¡± be too obvious? Maybe ¡°POW!¡± or ¡°NOW!¡± or ¡°KABLAM!¡±. No, those all feel too comic book-ish. I want something simple. I think I''ll just go with ¡°Boom.¡± Not loud, not extra as hell. Just simple and to the point. Happy with my choice, I nodded and went back to playing with my magic. I took a swig from my water skin, as just as I put it away, Grifith awoke. ¡°Morning sleepy head. You feeling any better today?¡± I asked with a small smile. ¡°Yeah, I''m feeling better. Did you really defeat a freaking Troll last night? There¡¯s no way that actually happened, right? Oh no. Look at that. I gained 3 whole levels in detection just from sitting up here scared shitless.¡± He deadpanned the last part. ¡°I think you¡¯re forgetting something important. We lived!¡± I put emphasis on the last part. ¡°It wasn¡¯t like we were in any actual danger with my Trap Barrier? up. I checked its charge when I got up a few hours ago, and it still has over 100,000 points of energy in it. We were always going to be safe.¡± He nodded along, but it didn''t look like he believed me. ¡°Okay, use your Information skill and check out the Barrier below us. See for your own eyes the sheer strength that is I!¡± I played the role of the Arrogant King, trying to cheer him up some. He looked at the Barrier below us and gasped. ¡°Dude. What. The. Fuck. According to my skill, not even a dragon could get through this in one go. How the hell did it get so damn strong?¡± I beamed in arrogance. ¡°That¡¯s just how good I am, my dear friend. Stick with me, and I''ll show you just how awesome Barrier magic and Arcane Magic can be.¡± I crossed my arms and puffed out my chest. ¡°If you¡¯re serious about taking me along, then yeah, I¡¯ll go,¡± he said. ¡°But no abandoning me at the Dwarven continent. I¡¯ll accept the Elven continent, cause at least the girls there are my size. And honestly, I''d flourish in the Beastmen continent. I love a fine ass fox girl.¡± ¡°As long as you leave the cat girls to me, you have yourself a deal.¡± I grinned and we shook hands. ¡°Alright, if you¡¯re feeling better, let''s go get the drops and we can go home. I¡¯m ready for that bed and warm meal you mentioned yesterday.¡± There were two more wolves that fell to the trap since I grabbed the loot from last night. It was only 2 pelts and a chunk of meat, but I wanted every copper we could get our hands on. We hurried out of the forest, not stopping for a single spider on our way out. We had to kill a Wolf though. When we crossed the imaginary line that separated the Dark Forest from the rest of the world, I took a second to pull up the map and fix our heading towards Silface. It had been a long week, but it was certainly a fruitful week. Chapter 26 Storage (10/30) 4 g 13s 18 c Grifith and I had made it back to Silface and just finished turning in the quest and selling all the drops. I was in the process of admiring just how much money we made on our 11-day adventure even split two ways when I was approached by Bran. ¡°So,¡± he started, ¡°I heard you killed a couple of hordes in the Dark Forest. How about coming up to the second-floor office and we can have a bit of a talk about what all happened during your trip.¡± I agreed and asked about Grifith. ¡°Oh, he¡¯ll be getting his promotion test too. I still need to go out and examine his skills before I can give him the official Silver Rank though. How do you think he¡¯d fare against some Lizardmen?¡± Bran gave me a knowing grin. ¡°I think he''d do fine in a one on one, or even a three on one of the melee fighters. But I don''t think he¡¯d deal well with the ranged fighters. He reacted quickly enough when we had to deal with the wolves, but a Wolf flying at you is a lot different than an arrow or a fireball.¡± I was honest and gave some more praise about us dealing with finding the Wolves, emphasizing how he dealt with the faster ones. ¡°Pause. We can get into more detail upstairs. We¡¯re going upstairs.¡± He led the way and I followed. We went up the stairs and for the first time, I went through the doorway leading to the Silver Rank floor. I felt both honored and nervous. But I forgot it was the middle of the day, and most people were already out working on their chosen jobs. The floor had a similar layout as the Copper Rank floor, but the whole place was just nicer. The chairs were all tucked in under the table, the bar had rows of mugs that were actively being cleaned by an older gentleman in a bartender''s vest with the classic white rag. Though this one didn¡¯t have any stains on it. And the job board. The job board looked properly organized by type of quest and then further broken down by recommended party size, including a section for solo adventurers. There were basic kill quests, including going to the Dark Forest and dealing with a horde of Skeletons, since it was getting to the time of year where they spawn en masse and tend to go on rampages through villages nearby, or possibly make it all the way to Silface. Bran brought me to a room off to the side that wasn¡¯t in the layout of the first floor. I wondered how it was being supported structurally, but gave up when I felt some strange enchantment as I walked through the doorway. The room looked to be a standard office, extremely similar to Paris¡¯s office at the Enchanter¡¯s Guild. Bran went around the oversized desk and sat in a chair that I was sure held a high ranked physical support enchantment to be able to take the weight of Bran and his thick white and gold armor. I wasn¡¯t sure if the colors were just for show, but the metal itself was thick enough that I questioned if he had a super strength skill to be able to just carry it. He took out a small crystal and sent some mana through it. ¡°Now, tell me everything. Try not to leave any details out.¡± A recording device? But who would he be sending a recording of our interview to? Despite my curiosity, I held back my questions. Now wasn¡¯t the time. I spent the next 3 hours telling Bran every detail, starting from our swift journey, including finding the Hobgoblin village, finding the Killer Kobolds and Giant Slimes, dealing with the hordes of Skeletons, and ending on our stay in Wolf territory and how we killed a Troll and a small army of Orcs. Bran asked a few questions regarding my skill usage and why I chose to use Exploding Bolts at times over Mana Bolts, times when I opted not to use Arcane Explosion, and a few other tactical choice questions. ¡°Last line of questions. If you had to do this whole quest over again, knowing what you know now, what choices would you have changed, and how would you have dealt with the challenges you faced in hindsight?¡± This feels like I''m back in school. I get why he¡¯s doing this, but I still feel like a child in the principal''s office again. ¡°For the Hobgoblins, I think I should have set up a similar Trap Barrier that I used to take out the Skeleton horde and Orc army around as much of the village as I could. It would have provided a longer mental strain, but I think we could have gotten more passive kills that way. For the Killer Kobolds and Giant Slimes, I think I would have gone a bit further and spent more time going south along the river bank. We probably would have found another Kobold settlement and taken more monsters out that way as well. We had enough rations to last us for another week, so I think we should have gone further. For the Skeletons, I think we should have taken out the smaller groups that we saw on our way to reach the Dark Forest River. I don¡¯t think the hordes that we had to deal with later would have been as big if we had killed more individual groups. And finally for the Wolves, I think our strategy was sound, given how many we were able to exterminate with such a low-cost strategy. We could have gone further into the forest, maybe tried getting closer to where we thought the den was, but the location we chose was based on how late it was, and we initially planned on going further the next day, at least until we were confronted with the Troll and Orc army. After that point, I believe we made the right call in retreating the next morning.¡± I feel that was a pretty good analysis of our performance. Should I have said something about working together more though? I feel like we worked as a team plenty during the Kobold and Slime portion of the raid to excuse not dealing with monsters the basic way while with the Wolves. ¡°What would you do differently if you had to do this quest again right now, leaving tomorrow morning to deal with the same monsters by yourself?¡± Oof. ¡°I would have used my mana more efficiently, making sure to stock up on at least twice as many potions as I left with last time. I would also have used my Barrier Magic a lot more during the Wolf portion of the quest. I feel that I was too exposed and I should have covered our backs more, even with cheap, minimalistic barriers, as that would have bought time in case of an ambush from behind. I would also like to see if there are any dark vision enchanted items so that I wouldn''t have to broadcast my location to all monsters in the forest.¡± Bran nodded along encouragingly as I spoke. He seemed to want me to pass, so it made me more comfortable being self-criticizing. ¡°Do you feel you used potions effectively during your quest?¡± No, I hardly used any! ¡°Yes. I was only minorly wounded once, and my regeneration made the scrape on my hand disappear in minutes, so I didn''t need any health potions. I ran low on mana twice during my venture, and while I could have used a mana potion, my partner for the quest was fine pausing for a break for me to regenerate so I didn''t have to waste what could have been a lifesaving potion in a future encounter. I only used stamina potions during our travels to ensure that I had the physical resources needed to run away in case of emergency.¡± He seemed happy with that answer. ¡°Finally, how would you rate your partner¡¯s execution of his role as a melee combatant?¡± ¡°He was excellent. He handled most of his battles on his own, though I assisted him when necessary. We traded pointers on how each of us could improve. And what I believe most important, we both made it back alive with no lasting injuries.¡± Bran fiddled with the crystal again and set it down in a drawer. ¡°Very good. I think that was an excellent analysis. Moving forward as a Silver Rank adventurer, you will occasionally be asked to give detailed analysis of your quests. This is just one example of how that will go. Other quests will follow different lines of questioning, but it¡¯s mostly used to force adventurers to really think about what they do and how they work. The more honest you are on your evaluation, the easier it will be to improve. Although it sounds like you¡¯re already looking to improve. What advice did you receive from Grifith?¡± ¡°He suggested that I be more mindful of how I spend my mana. It¡¯s a limited resource when in an extended battle, and I need to work on spending it more wisely.¡± Bran nodded along. ¡°Sage words. I hope you take it to heart. How do you think you could work on being better about mana spending?¡± I smiled and told him more details about the Arc I''ve been using. He asked to see it, so I obliged and cast a 100-point Mana Bolt. Then I split it into 10 parts and formed the arc behind me. ¡°I¡¯ve been practicing my control, and I can even do some tricks while maintaining it.¡± I started having the bolts do figure eights and loopty loops in a large circle above us. ¡°It takes a bit of a mental toll on me, but as I practice and my mental passive levels, it becomes easier and I can handle more projectiles at once. I started with only being able to do 5 non-empowered bolts at a time. But as you can see now, I''m up to 10 empowered bolts at once.¡± Bran looked extremely impressed. ¡°I see. That¡¯s good practice, but make sure you don¡¯t lose control, especially out in the city. If someone gets hurt, there will be serious consequences.¡± ¡°Absolutely. I¡¯d only practice this in safe spaces. I figure the guild hall is one of them, no?¡± ¡°Yes, it is, but still keep it to a minimum.¡± I nodded my agreement. ¡°Now then. I think I owe you something, no?¡± Bran opened a drawer to his desk and pulled out a Silver Rank guilt tag.Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. ¡°You¡¯ll need to bring this to one of the receptionists to get it all situated, but as of now, I can officially call you a Silver Rank Adventurer. Congratulations, Claff!¡± He reached out and shook my hand, breaking it in the process. ¡°Oops! Sorry about that. Here, drink this.¡± He got up and walked around the desk to hand me a potion. ¡°I¡¯ll accept it, but I won''t drink it.¡± I grabbed it with my good hand and stored the red potion. ¡°It doesn¡¯t hurt all that much, and it¡¯s training for my Regeneration skill.¡± ¡°Hardcore. I can appreciate that. Hell, I used to do something similar when I first started adventuring. I needed to level a skill, but I had to get hurt first to get it to level.¡± He started chuckling. ¡°I even had a pair of Goblins and a Slime beating me up to get my practice in. Oh, those were some interesting days.¡± I cast a barrier on my back as he went to pat it. It shattered as he touched it, then his hand continued on to smack my back, sending me flying forward. That only seemed to make him laugh. ¡°You said your Barrier Magic improved, but I guess not, eh? Just how the hell did one of those hold back a damned Troll?¡± Was he challenging me? ¡°Care to find out? Hell, I''ll wager half a gold that you can¡¯t break my strongest Barrier in under 5 blows.¡± This had Bran bent at the belly laughing. I thought the desk would break from the way he was slapping it. ¡°Oh, it¡¯s been a while since someone has dared to test me like that. Alright, I accept your challenge. But I''ll make it 3 hits, not 5. And when I win, you¡¯ll do a quest of my choice for me for free.¡± I shook his hand with my newly repaired hand, just to have it broken again. Bran led me outside the city gates and picked the pace up to a jog. I followed him easily for the first hour, but started breathing a little harder in the second hour. We made it to his selected location at the end of the third hour. I was starting to suspect he only wanted to tire me out to prevent me from making the barrier as strong as I could. He stopped 5 miles into a clearing that seemed to go on for another 30 miles before going back to trees. ¡°Alright, take a few minutes to catch your breath. Let me know when you''re ready, and I''ll begin attacking this barrier of yours.¡± I immediately cast a barrier and put 900 points of mana into it. Bran looked at it with curiosity, but held off attacking for now. I leaned forward, placing my hands on my knees as I caught my breath. I waited 2 minutes until I could breathe normally again, then drank 2 of the 5 regular strength mana potions I had in my storage. That gave me another 100 points that I immediately put into the barrier, bringing it up to and even thousand. I rested for another 8 minutes then put 170 points of mana into the barrier. That left me with 6 points of mana. I spent a little concentration to darken the Barrier, that way he had a clear target and couldn¡¯t use visibility as an excuse for not winning. I doubt he would resort to cheap tricks, but I did it anyway since it cost no mana. I turned to Bran and gave him a thumbs up. He walked up to the Barrier and examined it for a solid minute, though he never touched it. ¡°That¡¯s one hell of an impressive barrier. I see what you mean by it improving. The last one you showed me was nothing compared to this. I think I might have to eat my own words with how much mana is stored in there.¡± ¡°I theoretically could charge it further by adding the various draining effects and allowing it to absorb my health and stamina resources too, but since I would never resort to that during battle, I refuse to do it here.¡± Bran nodded approvingly. ¡°So, think you can do it in 3 hits, or do you want to go back to my originally proposed 5?¡± Bran smiled at me. ¡°I¡¯m a man of my word. I said 3, so I''ll do 3. You might want to back up a bit though. It¡¯ll be kicking up some dust pretty soon.¡± ¡°I''ll just be over here then.¡± I said, then sprinted about a mile further into the clearing. When I stopped, I formed a barrier with 5 mana in it, making sure it wrapped all around me. When I was ready, I yelled out to Bran, ¡°READY!¡± The following seconds were a blast. Literally. I should have covered my feet. The shockwave destroyed the land halfway between where I set the barrier up and where I currently was. The dirt and rocks pelted my personal barrier for a few seconds after the shockwave passed. Another couple of seconds passed. The second shockwave felt stronger than the first, blasting my barrier with more debris. Rocks as large as my fist were slammed into an inch of my face before being stopped. The rain of dirt that fell in the following 5 seconds was truly impressive. The dirt now went up to the middle of my shins, at least outside the barrier. The third shockwave felt even more imposing than the first two combined. A series of rocks the size of my head rained down upon the land around me. I now understood why Bran brought me out so far away from the city. So, this is the power of a Gold Rank Guild Master. I truly feel awed. To think I called this guy ¡®homie¡¯. I might just have to start being more respectful from here on out. I doubt my barrier survived that. Yet, I still felt the mental strain of the barrier being in existence. I dropped the shield around me and ran to where I cast the test dummy. When I finally reached the edge of the crater, I saw my barrier still standing, only now it was about 30 feet up from the center of destruction, with a small angle of protected land behind it. Bran was in the middle of the crater looking up. He seemed happy, despite having lost the bet. ¡°Claff, you truly are impressive. I thought that last one was surely going to do it, but alas, it wasn¡¯t meant to be. I¡¯ll have your money in your hands when we get back to the guild. You might want to step back for a moment so I can jump out of here.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll make you some stairs, don''t worry.¡± I did so after drinking a third mana potion and spending that and everything I had regenerated in doing so. I made sure to darken them so he could see them. ¡°Yet again, you impress me. You still had more to give. You held back, yet I still lost. I might have to drag you on a Gold Rank quest soon, if only to use your Barriers. It won''t be for a while though, so don''t worry too much.¡± He talked as he climbed. I tried to estimate his weight based on how much damage the barrier took, but when I realized I had yet to get a measure for how much weight caused damage, I stopped trying. I¡¯ll consider that line of thought more later. As he finished climbing, I examined the test barrier. It had taken significant damage, but it probably could have taken a fourth hit, even with the consecutive blows growing stronger. Possibly a fifth, but I''m glad I don''t have to take that wager. I dismissed the Barrier and we went back to Silface. I downed a stamina potion before we left, and I picked up the pace a little. Bran followed along, keeping a respectful distance, but always close behind. It took us half the time to get back as it did to get there, but I suspect Bran was trying to keep a more respectful pace so I didn''t get lost. We slowed down a good bit as we approached the guards at the gate, and they waved us through when they realized who Bran was. We got back to the guild hall and when we reached the second-floor office, Bran pulled out a bag and tossed it to me. I snatched it out of the air and put it all in storage. It turned out to be 25 silver coins extra, so I took the bag out and added 25 silver to it before tossing it back to him. He raised an eyebrow, but accepted it and put it back in a drawer. ¡°That was the first time I''ve lost a contest of strength in quite a while. Hell, I even earned 3% of a level in two of my skills for doing that. I haven¡¯t gotten that much growth in a while, not from something as mundane as a practice test against a barrier. Hell, you deserve the extra 25 I gave you. Not many would have returned extra payment the way you just did.¡± ¡°The deal was 50 silver, so that¡¯s what I took. If we had agreed on 75, I would have gladly taken 75. I take what I am owed, nothing more, nothing less. This isn¡¯t exactly a tipped position.¡± Bran laughed and we talked a bit more before I went to reception to get my Silver Tag officiated. There were a few lines now that it wasn¡¯t the middle of the day. I went to the shortest line and waited for my turn, Silver Plate in hand, Copper Plate around my neck. I got a few looks for wearing the copper, but they seemed placated once they saw the silver. I reached the front of the line and was introduced to my new receptionist. ¡°Hi! I¡¯m Juke. How can I help you? It looks like you¡¯re our newest Silver Rank, no?¡± Is the guild reception run by one family of 26 identical twins with the first letter changed or something? This guy looks exactly like Luke and Duke! He sounds like them too! ¡°Yes! I just finished my promotion quest this morning. Bran gave me this and said I need to take it to reception for it to be official.¡± I showed the Silver tag Bran had given me. ¡°Yes yes, just hand it over, along with your copper tag, and I''ll get you situated. It¡¯ll take a few minutes, so if you want to take a seat, I''ll come get you when I''m done.¡± I went to the bar and asked for water. ¡°Would you like ice with that, sir?¡± the older looking bartender asked me. ¡°I would love some, thank you.¡± He poured the water from a barrel off to the right and waved his hand over the mug. A wave of mist emanated from the mug, indicating he had cast ice magic in it. ¡°I gotta admit, that¡¯s a neat trick. Must be nice never having to deal with anything being too hot.¡± He smiled and agreed. ¡°I hate the heat, which is why I chose Ice Magic as one of my active skills. It helps more than you¡¯d think. For example, during the summer, this room never gets above 73 degrees. I have Fire Magic for extremely similar purposes. During the winter, it never gets below 65. I like a nice cool room temperature, and all my coworkers seem to love it as well. I can also use a bit of offensive magic, in case any adventurer forgets where they are and gets too rowdy. Overall, I''m pretty comfortable.¡± Weird that he''s telling me his skills right off the bat, but I guess most people here would know of those two, if they¡¯ve been here long enough. ¡°That¡¯s quite the complementary set of magic you have. I¡¯d guess Wind Magic as the third, to evenly distribute the temperature, and ensure the air around here never gets stale?¡± ¡°You would guess correctly. Most people don¡¯t understand, but it seems you do. I see you are also a caster, judging by your robes and rings. You obviously don¡¯t have Earth or Light Magic, since you have the rings for those two. I don¡¯t see any singed hair, or burns on your cuffs, do not Fire Magic either. You seem to understand at least the principles of Wind Magic, so that''s a possibility. Hmm¡­¡± The bartender seemed deep in thought, trying to guess what magic I have. ¡°I¡¯m going to guess you have wind, water, or possibly dark magic. How¡¯d I do?¡± he smiled as he made his guesses. I cast a Mana Bolt in my right hand and let it dance for a few seconds before un-casting it. Then I cast a Barrier behind me, making sure that it was tinted as dark as it could be. Finally, I downed the rest of my drink, then stored the mug in my storage skill. ¡°Not even close. Bummer. Better luck next time. Can I get that mug back though?¡± He seemed genuinely concerned I would leave with it. I quickly brought it back out and was about to ask for a refill when Juke came over to get me. I waved farewell to my new friend and headed to the booths. ¡°I see you met Nico. He¡¯s a cool guy.¡± Juke laughed at his own pun. I could tell I''d like the guy already. Juke handed me my new Silver Guild tag. ¡°So, as I''m sure you were warned with your last tag, if you lose it, you have to pay for a new one. The Silver Rank tags are going to cost you 5 silver for the first replacement, then 10 silver for every one after that. So, unless you want to spend a fortune just on tags, I''d suggest keeping it in that storage skill of yours.¡± I felt shocked he knew my skills. But he droned on, appearing to recite a script. ¡°Yes, I know your skills. As I was the one who originated your Silver Tag, I am now your designated receptionist. I keep track of what skills you have, including levels and achievements. I don¡¯t need updates when your skills level outside of annual checkups. These checkups are just so we have your information in case of an emergency such as a horde coming to attack the city and we need your assistance with dealing with it. Now that you are a Silver Rank adventurer, helping in a crisis will be mandatory. How you help will be up to you so long as it is determined that you are making a positive difference. If you are noted as slacking off in any way, you will be fined based on your earnings in the last year, and you will be assigned a mandatory position in case of future emergencies. If you so desire, we can assign you a position now to avoid the hassle of dealing with figuring out what you can do in the future.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll risk helping how I think is best.¡± ¡°Understood. I checked your file, and you appear to be disturbingly new to already be a Silver Rank, but I also saw you already have an achievement and have completed an E rank and a D rank dungeon, both essentially solo. I¡¯ll look through what quests we have available and see if we have any good quests to help diversify you a bit, but that won¡¯t be until next time you come in. As for now, I¡¯d suggest taking the rest of the day off. I know Bran can be a lot, especially when he¡¯s in a good mood. And you seemed to have put him in a great mood. I¡¯ll need details about that later. But for now, go relax and enjoy the rest of your day.¡± I couldn¡¯t even get another word in before he was already shooing me away. I put my new guild tag on and left for Half Moon Inn. It was going to be a glorious night with a warm meal and a comfortable bed. Chapter 27 The first the next morning, I went to the Enchanters Guild to sell some mana and check in with Paris. When I got in, Hood brought me up to see him ¡°Paris! Good to see you again. It¡¯s been a while. How¡¯ve you been?¡± ¡°I¡¯m good, I''m good. Happy to see you back. I¡¯ve been wondering if you were going to be coming by. Oh, I see you got promoted. Congratulations are in order.¡± He clapped then slapped my back. He then turned to Hood and asked them to bring a bottle of wine for us to celebrate, but I politely refused. He seems friendlier than usual. ¡°Thank you! I just got back yesterday from the Dark Forest. It was a long journey, but I''m glad it is officially over. That being said, I will be going back in to do some more work this evening, so I''ll have to pass on the alcohol for now.¡± Hood bowed, congratulated me, then stepped out of the room, preferring to stand in the hallway like usual. ¡°So! How much mana are you planning on selling today? Let me guess, 800?¡± He looked like he was joking, but I was going to do even more. ¡°900 actually. I gained a few skill levels, so I''ll be able to sell a bit more for now. Thanks for the heads up you gave me about the Multicasting ability. When I first got the split projectile modifier,¡± I cast a 50-point Mana Bolt and split it 5 ways, putting it in an Arc above and behind me, ¡°I thought that was what you were talking about. But then I reached level 14 in the skill and got the actual Multicasting modifier.¡± I added 5 more 10-point Mana Bolts to my Arc, but these were individual casts. Paris looked stunned at my Arc. He started rambling and moved to examine the spells behind me. Before he got around me, I moved the spells in front of me and started having them do the various tricks I''ve been practicing the last while. ¡°How are you controlling so many spells at once at such a young age? Your incredible growth rate means you are clearly not an Elf. You are too tall to be a Dwarf. You have to be human, yet you look so young. How is it that you have such finetuned control? From what I''ve heard of you, you¡¯ve only just had your Choosing Day maybe 2 months ago. I genuinely don¡¯t see how you have so many spells cast at once, let alone the stability I''m sensing from the spell. What training were you doing in the Dark Forest?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve mostly been practicing controlling increasing amounts of mana in an array of multiple spells. When I had the level of power down, I started adding movement to it, trying to make it fun while I practiced.¡± I switched from a figure eight to a circular loopty loop. ¡°I¡¯ve had an Arc like this cast pretty much as often as I could, proving more and more experience for my Increased Mental Capacity skill. It really helps with decreasing the mental strain of having multiple spells cast at once. In fact, that¡¯s one of the biggest reasons I chose this specific skill, that and it also increases my Mana Pool.¡± ¡°Ah. I see. You have a skill specifically for it. I¡¯ve not heard of Increased Mental Capacity before. Tell me about it?¡± ¡°Maybe some other time. For today, I''d like to sell some mana then be on my way. I¡¯m not sure what to expect on my first day as a Silver Rank adventurer afterall.¡± He bowed and backed away. ¡°Of course, how rude of me. You said 900, correct?¡± I nodded, and he set everything up. I pushed the mana out and he handed me a bag with 45 silver coins in it. ¡°Pleasure doing business, Claff. Feel free to come back anytime you want.¡± ¡°Of course. I¡¯ll be seeing you then.¡± He¡¯s starting to get too comfortable; I think. I¡¯ll have to reconsider how often I come to sell. It was useful when I wasn''t making as much as a Copper Rank, but now that I''m Silver Rank, I should be more than set on money. I¡¯ll have to see how the next few days go before I make a firm decision. After all, I¡¯m getting almost half a gold every time I come in here, and I can sell multiple times a day. I made my way to the adventurer¡¯s guild hall and went up to the fourth floor. I wanted to show off to Duke and Sarah. And I miss my friends. ¡°He returns alive!¡± Duke called out when he saw me. I grinned wide and made my way over to him. It looked like Sarah was helping a Dog Beastkin, so I wouldn''t be able to converse with her for a bit. ¡°I don¡¯t get why people doubt me. Of course I''m coming back alive. Nothing can kill me!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t get too cocky. Someone might take that as a challenge.¡± Duke said with a grin of his own. ¡°Let them.¡± I replied, then told him of mine and Bran¡¯s bet yesterday. ¡°Damn dude! How the hell did you win a bet with Bran the Ram! I can¡¯t think of a single time he¡¯s lost a physical challenge. And he¡¯s good with puzzles and stuff too. I thought he was damn near invincible. Turns out I should be thinking that of you now, huh?¡± He stared with awe, so I punched him lightly in the shoulder. ¡°OW!¡± Duke exclaimed, rubbing his shoulder. ¡°Dude, you¡¯ve gotten stronger too. I thought you were a caster. The hell was that then?¡± ¡°Oh, all that running gave me a few levels of Enhanced Body, so I guess that includes my strength too. My bad.¡± Now I feel bad. ¡°It¡¯s fine, but watch it. Us mortals are fragile, you know.¡± He laughed and punched my shoulder as well, though it looked like he hurt himself more than me. ¡°So, how¡¯s everything been? Yall miss me too much?¡± ¡°I barely noticed you were gone. Although Sarah¡¯s been asking about you damn near every day. ¡®Oh, when is big, strong Claff coming back? I miss him so much!¡¯¡± He did a horrible impression of her and we laughed. Unfortunately, Sarah had finished with the Dog Beastkin and they had come up to us just in time for her to hear that. Sarah ran around the counter, punching Duke multiple times in the arm. He tried to run the other way around the counter, but I stopped him with a barrier, getting a barking laugh from the Beastkin next to me. She had the head of a Golden Retriever, the body of a human woman but with fur on the upper part of her arms, a blonde tail, and legs that seemed to bend the wrong way. All of this was hidden behind some leather armor, darker than the stuff I had, so presumably not from the guild. Or she got better stuff than I did. After Sarah finished wailing on Duke, I released the barrier and laughed at how disheveled his hair had gotten. ¡°Hey Claff! I didn¡¯t see you there,¡± she said while pushing her loosened hair behind her ears and making herself presentable again. ¡°Back so soon, eh? Nice seeing you!¡± I tried not to snicker too much, but it only made her ears and cheeks go red. ¡°It¡¯s nice to see you too, Sarah. And who might this lovely lady be?¡± I turned to the Beastkin beside me. Her tail was wagging as I extended my hand, though I pretended not to notice. ¡°Oh, silly me. This is Goldy. She¡¯s a Silver Rank. Just like you are now, I see.¡± She finally noticed my new build tag. ¡°I take it the Dark Forest quest was a success?¡± I nodded and thought back to my results when I turned it in to Luke and shared it with them. Monster Hit List
  1. Wolves 89/10
  2. Hobgoblins 40.5/10
  3. Killer Kobolds 32.5/10
  4. Giant Slimes 11.5/10
  5. Skeletons 439/10
Optional
  1. Orcs 103.5/¡Þ
  2. Ogres 0/¡Þ
  3. Trolls .5/¡Þ
  4. Spiders 163/¡Þ
  5. Dire Wolves 2/¡Þ
  6. Dire Rats 0/¡Þ
  7. Dire Spiders 12/¡Þ
¡°Though that¡¯s only my share of the credit. I went with Grifith, so he got half credit as well.¡± ¡°Damn, you got credit for a Troll! That¡¯s fuckin awesome! Excuse my language, ladies. But that is awesome! And only at Copper too! You have the potential to go down in freaking history, homie!¡± Duke started talking about how he can start bragging about how he¡¯s friends with the ¡®Troll Hunter¡¯ and other fanatics. ¡°¡®Troll Hunter¡¯, eh?¡± a deep voice boomed from behind us. Duke immediately clammed up and Sarah straightened herself further. Goldy didn¡¯t seem as bothered but I did take note that her tail stopped wagging and was tucked between her legs. Bran finished his climbing off the stairs and made his way over to us. I didn¡¯t see him as the all-powerful Guild Master anymore, but I knew better than to even think of mentioning that to them in front of Bran. ¡°Funnily enough, I have a couple Troll hunting quests if you want them. It¡¯ll pay half a gold for each kill you get. Though I¡¯ll say good luck getting someone to agree to going with you. Trolls aren¡¯t exactly the easiest kills, despite how you make them look.¡± He came over and slapped my shoulder. Thankfully, I planned ahead and wrapped my whole body in a 200-point barrier as soon as I heard his voice. His hand made contact with the barrier, and 25 points of charge were taken away just like that. ¡°So, I beat you in one challenge, and now I have to be on the lookout, constantly wearing a barrier around you so I don''t die, huh?¡± I said as I was staring at his hand on my shoulder. ¡°Oops, my bad. And hey, being on the lookout for threats is a good habit to get into, so you''re welcome.¡± Bran said with a grin. ¡°So, what¡¯s this about a Troll quest?¡± I asked, trying to get the conversation rolling. Duke didn¡¯t look comfortable around the man, so I wanted to get to the point as soon as possible. ¡°Well, seems a few Trolls have spawned in an otherwise low tier area. That, or they¡¯re spawns from a higher-level area that were lured there for one reason or another. Regardless, I need them taken care of. Think you¡¯re the guy for the job?¡± ¡°That depends. How many Trolls are we talking here? I can probably handle one or two. But I don''t know about dealing with any more than that.¡± Hell, I''m not even sure how I feel about dealing with two. ¡°There¡¯s 5. Even if you manage to just lure them away, it¡¯ll technically count as a success, though I''d recommend killing them. I¡¯d hate for them to make their way back to the town they''re wreaking havoc in. They¡¯ve mostly gone for livestock, but the farmers are in fear of one of their children going out one day and never coming back. I¡¯d take it myself, but I have administrative duties to attend to.¡± He seemed remorseful for not being able to be the one to take care of it, and knowing his reputation, I believe him. ¡°Damn. Alright, I''ll take it. Go get Juke to set the quest up for me now. I¡¯d rather not leave them out there for too long. Let me grab a few potions real quick and I''ll head out after taking a short detour to the Enchanter¡¯s Guild. I want to see if I can get a good fire spell ring to use on them.¡± I doubt the Firebolt ring at the mystery enchanter¡¯s shop will suffice for a group of Troll¡¯s.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. ¡°Glad you know to prepare. If you want, you can say I told you specifically to take the Troll quest. That should help convince Paris to get you properly equipped. A word of caution before you leave. I hear spell rings past the first spell can be pretty expensive. Though after that big haul you got from the Dark Forest, you should be able to afford it, depending on the spell.¡± Bran gave a knowing wink. ¡°I appreciate it. I¡¯m not a fan of name dropping, but I''ll gladly accept if it gets me a discount.¡± he chuckled, smacked my back again, which the barrier thankfully still stopped, then left back down the stairs. ¡°It¡¯s not every day the Guild Master personally assigns quests.¡± Goldy said. Her tail was now in a more relaxed position, but her voice still sounded slightly uneasy. ¡°Do you need assistance? I can offer some help, though I can''t do much against 5 Trolls.¡± It¡¯s sweet she offered, but I think I''d rather do this solo. Depending on what spell ring I get, I might be able to do this with minimal problems. If it comes down to it, I cast my super Barrier then dip. ¡°I appreciate the thought but I think I''ll be better off alone. I¡¯d rather not take someone who can¡¯t tank for me or who can also deal fire spell damage. No offense, of course. But different horses for different courses, and all that.¡± ¡°None taken. To be frank, I''m glad you declined. I hate dealing with Trolls. They heal too damn fast. I can usually evade a single Troll¡¯s attacks, but 5 would be too many. I wish you luck though. It¡¯s been a pleasure meeting you. I hope this isn¡¯t our last.¡± she casually said, then bowed and left. ¡°Well, that felt morbid,¡± came Duke¡¯s remark. ¡°Seriously.¡± I chuckled. ¡°Let me go grab some potions real quick, then I''ll be heading out soon. I¡¯d rather there not be any sapient deaths when it can be avoided. Hopefully it¡¯s not too far away.¡± Sarak and I went to the racking with the shelves, and I started picking out a few. I pulled up my Storage to see what all I had, and how many I needed. Storage (10/30) 5 g 7 s 28 c
  1. Bowie knife
  2. 25 shirts (varied colors, cloth)
  3. 10 pants (cloth)
  4. 10 underwear (5 boxers, 5 sock pairs)
  5. 45 rations (varied flavors)
  6. 6 Potions (varied)
  7. 2 Leather armor set
  8. 5 books
  9. Water skin
  10. Camping gear (tent, placemat, sleeping bag)
I focused further, demanding details about what potions I had. 6 potions (3 minor stamina, 2 health, 1 mana) I grabbed enough to make 5 of each, coming out to 62 silver. It felt like a steep price, but when it comes to life or death, I was willing to take it. When it came time to say goodbyes, both Sarah and Duke looked extremely serious. ¡°Claff, I know we mess around a lot when you¡¯re here, and I get you¡¯re a Silver Rank adventurer now, but you better take this quest seriously. Trolls aren¡¯t light weights. You¡¯re still a relatively new member, so I know you have to be strong in order to gain Bran¡¯s respect, but you still need to be careful.¡± came from Duke. Sarah looked like she wanted to be all serious too, but all she could say was, ¡°You better make it back alive. I still need you around to spoil me, yeah? There¡¯s that legendary rank Staff from the tree of life you need to buy from me for like a thousand gold so I can retire to a happy life, damn it.¡± I gave them both a hug and said I''ll be back as soon as possible. ¡°Nothing can kill me, remember that.¡± I went down to the second floor and checked with Juke. He looked skeptical at me, but wished me well on my Troll hunting. ¡°Are there any other quests I can do while I''m out?¡± I asked. ¡±Seems a waste to just do one at a time, no?¡± ¡°Due to the urgency of the quest you¡¯ve been given, you are to focus solely on that. However, I can assign you the endless quests for that area, since you will most likely meet a few strays.¡± I handed him back my tag and he added a few more quests to it. When I got it back, I pulled up my extended status to see what was up. User: Claff: Health 360/360 (432*/hr) Stamina 352/360 (36/hr) Mana 1000/1000 (759*/hr) Achievements Slime Slayer! Quests [4] Kill Goblins 0/¡Þ Kill Slimes 0/¡Þ Kill Bell Sprouts 0/¡Þ Kill Trolls 0/5 Party [0] Equipment Ring of Mana Regeneration (+20%) Slime Bracelet (+500 mana) Ring of Ball of Light Ring of Stone Bullet Robe of Regeneration (+10% mana regeneration, +10% casting speed) SKILLS PASSIVE Enhanced Body Lv 13 [56%] Increased Mental Capacity Lv 20 [93%] Regeneration Lv 21 [69%] ACTIVE Arcane Magic Lv 16 [86%] Barrier Magic Lv 15 [72%] Game-like Storage Lv 14 [92%] Storage (10/30) 4 g 45 s 28 c
  1. Bowie knife
  2. 25 shirts (varied colors, cloth)
  3. 10 pants (cloth)
  4. 10 underwear (5 boxers, 5 sock pairs)
  5. 45 rations (varied flavors)
  6. 15 Potions (varied)
  7. 2 Leather armor set
  8. 5 books
  9. Water skin
  10. Camping gear (tent, placemat, sleeping bag)
¡°For the most part, there are similar tier 1 monsters around there, but there are also Bell Sprouts.¡± Juke explained, ¡°Most magic will kill them, though honestly, you could do it by just stomping on them hard and grinding your foot. They drop a seed, but it¡¯s dirt cheap, at 1 copper per seed. The kill is also only 5 copper per kill. That being said, there are more Goblins and slimes over there than there are over here. They don¡¯t have any guards, but you are expected to kill any tier 1 monster you see, as per village customs. If you are seen to purposefully allow a monster to escape, you will be fined and may end up in a cell for the rest of the day. Though it¡¯s customary for most places to have that rule, I feel it important to repeat it for those who grew up in places without said rule as a cautionary tale.¡± ¡°I appreciate the heads up. I planned on killing any I see anyways though. If not for the money, then at least for the skill EXP.¡± ¡°That¡¯s how most folks with combat capabilities feel. But like I said, some people didn¡¯t grow up with that rule in place. It¡¯s a good reminder that children still haven¡¯t gone through their choosing days yet and still need protection from monsters.¡± ¡°Makes sense. So how far is the village from here?¡± ¡°It''s about 200 miles west. Being one of the further towns, it¡¯s harder for information to be passed along. They had to use a disposable communication device to be able to tell us about it. You can get more information from the town elder when you get there. I recommend leaving soon though. Trolls are one of the few monsters that don¡¯t actively seek violence, but they resort to it fast enough.¡± He gave some more information about Trolls, none of which actually helped. After that, I left for the Enchanter''s Guild again. Hood sounded surprised to see me again so soon. It had been around 2 hours since I left, so I had more than enough time to regenerate my full mana pool again. I told her I was here not only to sell mana, but to get a ring with a fire spell in it strong enough to help me with a Troll problem. ¡°We can absolutely get that for you. Would you like to look at our wares before you sell, or would you like to make your deposit first?¡± they asked. ¡°I¡¯ll make my sale first. I¡¯d like to add to my pocket before spending.¡± ¡°I see. Paris has the next hour free, so you should be more than able to sell right now. Follow me please.¡± I was led back up the stairs and to Paris¡¯ office. I told what my situation was and how I needed a strong spell ring. He looked happy to be able to buy again, but refused the sale. ¡°My associate here can help you with all your enchanted ring needs. As I mentioned before, my services are rather expensive, and I''m sure you¡¯re not quite at the level of being able to afford my wares. You will be more than adequately taken care of though, you have my word.¡± Seeing no further conversation happening, I sold 900 points of mana and followed Hood back downstairs. Instead of leading me to the front hall though, we went into a side room. The room I was brought to looked like a jewelry store. There were rings of all colors and patterns. Many had large gemstones on them as well. I could feel how much power was in here. It sent a shiver down my spine. ¡°Here we have a wide selection of spell rings available. Give me a moment and I can make a few choices for you to decide from.¡± Hood grabbed a velvet lined box and walked around, inspecting rings and occasionally putting one in the box. After grabbing 5, they walked back over to me and presented them to me. ¡°These rings are all perfectly usable against Trolls. I recommend this one in particular,¡± They pointed to a blood red ring that seemed to glow. ¡°It spews a beam of lava in the direction it¡¯s pointed. The lava will stick to the Troll, causing continuous fire damage until either the Troll dies, or until the lava cools. It costs 1 gold 50 silver, and the spell costs 15 mana per 10 seconds of casting.¡± Impressive. The continuous damage will help fight against the Troll¡¯s healing factor. The mana cost isn¡¯t too bad, but the price feels a little steep. I nodded and Hood continued on to the next ring. ¡°This one here,¡± said pointing to a ring with a golden band going through the middle, ¡°Will cast a fire debuff on the monster, making all fire damage taken deal essentially twice as much damage. It¡¯s one of our more potent debuff rings we have. It costs 1 gold even, and the spell is 10 mana per target. It can be cast onto multiple targets at once, making it a time efficient spell as well. The debuff lasts for 30 minutes. It complements our other fire rings rather amazingly.¡± A debuff ring sounds amazing. A 2x damage multiplier has some incredible uses as well. I might just have to get this one along with whatever damage ring I decide on. I nodded again and Hood continued. ¡°The third selection I have for you,¡± they pointed to a ring that had a polka dot pattern on it with a darker red pigment, ¡°deals strictly damage over time. It will cast a burning halo over the target that deals minor damage repeatedly for 10 minutes. The spell costs 10 per casting, the ring costs 1 gold 25 silver. This is another ring that will help keep the healing factor at bay. However, it doesn¡¯t deal a large initial amount of damage like the lava ring will.¡± I think I prefer this to the lava ring, actually. I feel it won''t cause as much environmental damage either. Hood went on to the fourth ring. I was tempted to just buy the debuff and damage over time rings and call it good, but I had to hear about the rest just in case. ¡°This one will deal large amounts of damage as a projectile, but it won¡¯t leave anything for over time. It¡¯s good as a finisher though, which is why I brought it to you. It¡¯ll be 1 gold flat, and 10 mana per cast. I recommend using it when you have the Troll almost down and need that final push to get it completely dead. Or you could just cast it 90 times right in its face and call it good.¡± Hood chuckled a bit at that, but it was a serious option I was considering. I have the mana capacity for it. They then pointed to the last ring. It was a dark red and had a purple flame design. I was intrigued and asked Hood about the last ring they brought over. ¡°So, this one is technically fire, but it¡¯s a Shadowflame. It¡¯s usually the least suggested thing we carry, but for you, I think it could work well. Casting the spell causes the target to light up in a dark flame that causes both shadow and fire damage in great quantities. The reason we don¡¯t suggest this ring usually is due to the high cost of a single cast. Each cast costs 50 mana. The caveat is that the spell won''t go out until the target dies.¡± I could hear the concern in Hood¡¯s voice. I felt touched that they were worried about me, but this would go wonderfully with my barriers to keep the flame away from me. ¡°It won''t burn any non-living thing or plant though, so it will most definitely help with your Troll quest, but if you were to touch the fire yourself, you could be severely injured or die. But if you still want it, I can give it to you for 2 gold. Being the strongest spell of the bunch, it comes with a higher cost of course.¡± Yikes, talk about expensive. I¡¯m glad I sold my mana though cause I¡¯m definitely getting this. I think this and the buff ring should work well together. Actually, I should ask about that. ¡°Does the Shadowflame Ring work with the Debuff ring?¡± I asked. ¡°It does, but only provides a damage multiplier of 1.5 instead of 2, given half the damage is also shadow. I could grab a shadow debuff ring for you as well, but that would be another gold to your bill.¡± Damn Still, 1.5 is still better than nothing. ¡°Tell me, is the Shadowflame spell strong enough to kill a Troll by itself? With it being so expensive, I have to wonder how high the damage really is. Can you add some perspective?¡± I feel like that¡¯s a valid question. Hood hesitated for a moment before saying, ¡°Yes, but I can''t recommend just casting it and running away. It would kill the Troll given enough time, but I believe it would cause the Troll to rampage until it dies, and given their incredibly high regeneration, it would take a while. If you had a way of paralyzing it so it can¡¯t run away, then it may be a good plan.¡± Paralyze it = make it unable to move = barrier = good plan. Sweet. Add the draining, add the Exploding Bullet bombardment, and add plenty of time, and I believe I have a solid plan. ¡°I think I''ll take the Shadowflame and the Debuff rings please. Bran mentioned I might be able to name drop to get a bit of a discount. Any chance of that happening?¡± I smiled sweetly, though I''m not sure how much of a discount it could get me. ¡°I¡¯ll give you a heads up. Paris likes you. A lot more than he likes Bran. I¡¯m giving you a better deal now than anyone else coming in here would get. Bran might get similar if he pulled out a favor from Paris, but he¡¯d still be paying 20% under market price. You are getting these at cost, as per Paris¡¯ previous orders. Your mana is incredibly pure, and he wants you around for a while. Don¡¯t tell him I said any of this though, and I also ask that you keep how much you bought these for a secret. It could cause some issues with certain higher ups if it came out that favorites were being played.¡± I nodded as I contemplated what exactly that meant. I want to say that I''m getting bullshitted, but how many other people would actually get to meet with the Guild master of such a rich and probably influential guild? I doubt many. I¡¯m sure the average person gets passed from Hood to some other guild employee to sell mana. And I know Paris is giving me a ¡®premium¡¯ on my mana. ¡°I see. Thank you for telling me. And I''ll keep my mouth shut about what was spoken here.¡± I bought the two rings for 3 gold total and left for the village in the west. I had a long run ahead of me, and I had a lot to contemplate while on my way. Happy Holidays! Talking the rest of the year off! I hope everyone stays safe and has fun! To fill the word requirement: Peter Piper picked a peck of purple peppers Peter Piper picked a peck of purple peppers Peter Piper picked a peck of purple peppers Peter Piper picked a peck of purple peppers Peter Piper picked a peck of purple peppers Peter Piper picked a peck of purple peppers Peter Piper picked a peck of purple peppers Peter Piper picked a peck of purple peppers Peter Piper picked a peck of purple peppers Peter Piper picked a peck of purple peppers Peter Piper picked a peck of purple peppers Peter Piper picked a peck of purple peppers Peter Piper picked a peck of purple peppers Peter Piper picked a peck of purple peppersIf you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.