《The Arcane Archer》 1 Cliché Beginning I was on my way home from my daily archery practice and while walking, I decided to be a major ass idiot and cross the road while not looking. You can probably guess what happened as immediately after I got ran over by a truck. After getting run over by everyone favorite reincarnator truck-kun, I woke up in a black void with a weird old man standing over me. I attempted to look around but noticed that I was somehow able to view everything in a small circle with me as the radius. At the center of a circle was a small white glowing fragment of something which I could only assume was my soul or something like that. The old man continued to just watch me while stroking his beard. Eventually I got bored of just staring at him stroking his beard so I attempted to speak up but as I had literally no body or anything, no words came out. However, what did happen was that my glimmer of a soul glowed just a bit brighter. Upon seeing this, the old man finally stopped what he was doing. "Ah, sorry about that. I got caught up in reading about your past life and didn''t notice you wake up. My mistake. Anyways you''ve died and I''m very bored so can you do me a solid and go into a different world and entertain me? I''ll even give you three wishes as payment for entertaining me. Deal? Just do me a favor that if you do accept, you don''t become a harem master or whatever kids these days are calling it. I''ve attempted to reincarnate other people but every single time they would do the same thing and only think with their dicks. Trust me, it gets so boring after a thousand people do it. " I thought about it for a quick second but instantly agreed because I didn''t really have anything else to do. As I went to say, "Sure", I again just glowed a bit brighter and didn''t actually say anything. The old man seeing this just faced palmed and then snapped his fingers. Upon doing so, I regained my body and was able to see normally again. "There you go kid. That should help you respond to my questions and stuff. Anyways, do you agree or not?" I smiled and gave him a thumbs up, "Of course! I''m dead and I don''t have anything else to do so I might as well have some fun and stuff like that." He just smiled and floated his way over and hit me on the back. "That a boy! Now, how about those three wishes? And since you decided you want to have some extra fun out of this, I''ll give you a extra free wish for the hell of it! Now go wild kid!" I thought for a bit before finally responding, "Ok so for my first wish I want a good system that doesn''t always give life and death missions, and isn''t bitchy. For my second wish, I want the ability to adapt to anything. By this I mean that if I''m poisoned then I''ll gain a resistance to that poison. If I also have two powers or something that directly go against each other and stuff like that then I''ll just adapt to be able to use both of them without any downside cause of the other. For my third wish, I want to be able to infinitely grow. Finally, for my last wish, I want to have to never work out to lose weight and stuff like that! Losing weight is so annoying." The old man just nodded each time and chuckled at the last one. "It shall be done my boy. Now get ready, I''m sending you off." He snapped his fingers and as soon as he did that it my vision looked like it started going down a toilet. At one point, it became pitch black and then it started going down a toilet again and when it finished up, I want in an area with lots of trees. Before I could even look around, a blue HUD screen appeared in my vision. [Hello and welcome to the world of Astvail. As you are completely new to the life of adventuring, please enjoy this complimentary starter package.] As soon as I finished reading the last word, a ding noise went off somewhere in my head. In the corner of my vision, I faintly noticed a small inbox looking thing that had a small 1 next to it. Putting that to the back of my mind, I returned my attention to the screen. [Here is your status. Don''t forget that you almost the weakest thing in existence at the moment. So please be careful! ~~~~~ Status- Name- Leo Walter Race- Human (Mutated) (Cause of a small genetic anomaly, your body is much more flexible and dexterous then a regular human but is also much weaker than a normal human) Title- Friend of God (Increases overall luck by a huge margin) (+10 Per level) Level- 1(Xp- 0/10) Strength- 5 Dexterity- 15 Constitution- 6 Intelligence- 12 Wisdom- 8 Luck- 50 ~~~~~ To use the system, please just think of having the system do something and if it''s in its power, then the system will help. Best wishes. XOXO ~System] Again, as soon as I finished reading, the screen disappeared. Seeing as that was the end of the system''s introduction and what not, I immediately opened up my complimentary starter package with a simple, ''Hey system, please open my starter package please!'' Upon doing so, I heard a video game loot box opening noise and the HUD listed the items I got. [You''ve received a standard bow, a full quiver (24 arrows), 10 days of food, and a bottle that can hold 10 gallons of water.] Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. I waited for the items to just appear randomly but after standing around like an idiot, my wisdom of 8 finally did its job. ''Ooooh, I probably have an inventory! System inventory.'' As soon as I did that, the blue HUD once again appeared but this time it just listed the items but with a + sign next to each item. Mentally pressing the + sign on the bow, it listed the stats of it. [Standard Bow- Damage- 1~20 piercing damage + Dexterity Required Stats- 6 Dexterity] 2 Day 1 (A/N- made some small changes to the previous chapter in his status.) Pulling out the bow and quiver full of arrows out of the inventory, I equipped them and thanked my luck for giving me a weapon that I''ve been practicing my entire life with. After making sure everything was correctly tightened and wasn''t going to just fall off me as soon as I moved, I took a quick look up to the sky to find the time. The quick glance easily told me that it was around noon and that I had a good amount of time before night. Not knowing where the closest civilization is in this new world, I could only assume that I would have to survive the next couple of nights out here. Putting the bow on my back, I started running into a random direction in hopes of finding anything useful that would help me survive the night. After a few minutes of running, I heard something loud fall down. I quickly stopped running, crouched down, and got my bow out. Before just running into whatever danger the loud noise was, I made sure to prepare everything else I could and pulled an arrow out and readied it. Finally, being as ready as I could be, I started sneakily making my way over the noise. After about 30ish seconds of my horrible sneaking, the system dinged. [*Ding! * Congratulations for gaining the skill {Sneak}. At its current level, it will only help hide your presence very slightly. Make sure to practice this skill so that you may one day achieve the level of Skyrim sneaking where you can just crouch down and disappear!] ''Ah, that''ll be helpful in this situation.'' Once again continuing, I eventually got to the where the loud sound happened. What I saw when there was a large ish snake wrapping itself around a fox like creature. Slightly nearby was a broken off branch from a nearby tree. Combining two and two together in my head, I could only assume that the snake wrapped itself in whatever this creature was and the weight was too much for the branch under them and fell. Still being cautious, instead of just firing an arrow at them, I instead put the arrow away, threw the bow over my back. Then I started climbing up a nearby tree as best as I could. With my horrible strength which I now know is from my mutation as the system called it, I struggled getting up but was successful after a minute. [*Ding! * Sneak is now Level 2., you''re now slightly quieter when doing anything while sneaking.] ''Once again, that''ll be useful for what I''m about to do.'' In the tree I made my way over to a sturdy looking branch and prepared myself once again. Aiming my bow down at the snake, I prepared to let the arrow fly at a moment''s notice. A minute passed.... Another minute.... The snake suddenly started to spasm. Not knowing what was happening, I just let the arrow go and let the bow do the rest of the work. It immediately went flying into the snake and pierced right into it. As soon as I did, red numbers appeared in my HUD next to the words "Sneak Attack!" The total damage in total was 70 damage. Max damage from the regular arrow (35) but was then doubled because of it being a sneak attack. [You''ve killed a {Vine Python} and a {Woodland Fox} you''ve earned 23 Xp!] [You''ve gained 17 System Points!] [You''ve successfully levels up!] [You have successfully gained the skill {Archery}. As you were a master archer on Earth, this skill is currently max level. You gain increased bow damage, increased bow accuracy, and increased range.] ''I killed both? Arrow must''ve pierced completely through the snake then and went into the fox. Oh well, can''t argue with that.'' I jumped out of the tree into a smaller tree nearby and then jumped onto the ground from there. I made my way over to the animals that I killed but made sure to keep my bow ready. Arriving at the python and fox, I gave it a quick kick just to double check even though the system said it was dead. Confirming that it was I stashed my bow on to my back and put the fox and python in my inventory. ''System, will things go bad inside the inventory or will it go into a sort of Stasis?'' [Answering to Host, you control the time for each object inside the inventory. If you want it to go into a sort of stasis you can. If you want time to accelerate you can. The only thing you can''t do it reverse time.] I nodded my head in understanding. With that done, I continued walking in a random direction in hopes of finding a place to stay for the night. An hour or two passed quickly and during the walk I took out a ration and some water to eat. After another hour, I had to sit under a tree to take a break as I was exhausted from constantly walking and my horrible constitution didn''t help. I rested underneath the tree for an hour while just messing around with the system. Getting up I stretched and continued walking. Luckily this time, after around a half hour, I came upon a small cave. I looked inside the cave while standing at the entrance but wasn''t able to see that far into it. I prepared my bow and arrow, then grabbed a rock while holding the bow in my off hand. Throwing the rock into the cave as far as I could, I got into position to shoot anything that came out. I stood for a solid minute before slowly starting to get out of position. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Seeing as nothing came out, I decided that I would make this my temporary home. Turning around to a tree, I grabbed some loose branches and other stuff to make a fire. I stuffed a bunch of them into my inventory and sat a couple of feet inside the cave. Taking another quick glance at the sun for the time, I noticed that it was actually starting to set and that my original time that I predicted was wrong. Seeing it motivated me even more to prepare for the night so I started doing what would be the hardest part of the night. Starting a fire. On earth, I never made a fire without matches or a lighter but I did watch a couple of survival things on the internet the one time. Pulling out a decent sized piece of wood and a stick, I started to twirl the stick on the piece of wood as fast as I could in an attempt to cause enough friction to start a small fire. After ten minutes of doing so and hurting my hands countless times, I threw the stick outside the cave in a fit of anger. It only went outside the cave by a couple of feet and was generally embarrassing as I was that weak. I sat down with my back against the wall of the cave and started thinking about what I could do to start a fire. I was able to stay on task of thinking about how to do it for a solid 5 minutes before my mind drifted off to what happens this day. Most of what I thought about was just the constant walking and stuff like that. A small part of it the skills and other stuff that I got. At that point, I remembered getting some points or something. ''System, I remember earlier when killing the snake and fox that I got some point. Can I use that in a shop or something?'' [Affirmative! In the shop there is everything in existence and then on. However, because there is practically infinite number of things, there isn''t a shop menu. All you have to do is ask me to purchase something with a set amount of points and I will personally search if for you. If there are two choices are both good, I''ll tell you them and you can decide which one you want.] I nodded my head once again. ''Can you use around 10 to 15 points to search for something to help me make a fire?'' [Affirmative.... Searching.... Searching.... Found. You have 2 choices. You can either get the {flint and steel} for {10 Points} or a {Introductory for Fire Magic} for {15 Points}.] ''Fire magic, no question!'' [Deducting points... You now have {2 Points} left.] After buying it, a book with only a couple of pages appeared in my lap. Picking it up, I opened it up to the first page and started reading. Most of what it talked about was feeling the flow of energy around you and inside of you, combining it into a singular place, and then just saying, "Fire". Closing the book, I sighed to myself as it barely listed how to actually search for the energy and move it. Throwing the book carelessly into my inventory I closed my eyes in an attempt to find this energy that it was talking about. I searched for a couple of minutes before I felt a weird lukewarm feeling. It originated from inside of me and when I looked around me with my eyes closed, I felt a weird warm and cold feeling. Assuming that this was what the book was talking about, I attempted to move it onto the small piece of wood nearby. It took a couple of attempts but I was able to eventually get a small part of both my inner energy and the world energy to gather onto the piece of wood. With that done, I did the final step. "{Flame}" Upon saying this, it felt like a lot more of the internal lukewarm energy left my body and went to the piece of wood. Opening my eyes, I noticed a very small flame on the wood. Before doing anything to celebrate, I pulled out some leaves and stuff to help fuel the fire. After a minute of doing this and seeing that it wasn''t going to go out instantly, I sat down in exhaustion. [Congratulations to host for successful casting a spell and for learning how to do it without the help of the system!] I smiled at the message as I was proud of myself for doing it. [You have successfully learned the spell {Flame}. It uses 10 mp to light a object within 5 feet of you on fire slightly. This is currently level 1.] [You have successfully learned {Mana Manipulation}. You are now able to move very small amounts of mana. This is currently level 1.] 3 Miserable Nigh I continued to focus on the fire after my small break. Occasionally I threw some fuel into it to keep it going but most of the time I just relaxed next to it. As the next hour went by, the sun started to set more and more. Finally, it eventually disappeared completely. I at that point moved my attention away from the fire and fully focused on the night sky. Compared to earth where you would only be able to see a couple of stars because of air and light pollution, the night sky here was riddled with stars. It was a beautiful view that was so captivating that I didn''t even notice the fire go out. Only when I started shivering because of the cold did I finally notice it. I pulled out some more fuel for it and started piling it together. Moving a foot back, I stretched my arm out, closed my eyes, and focused on moving the energy or mana as the system called it, onto a singular branch. "{Fire}" Again, I felt exhausted from doing this but barely any when comparing to the first time I originally cast it. ''Seems like my instant adaption is coming in handy. I''m now able to cast magic without getting as exhausted.'' Sitting down in front of the fire, I pulled up my status with a quick thought. [Name- Leo Walter Race- Human (Mutated) Class- None+ Title- Friend of God (+10 luck per level) + System Points- 2 Hp- 60/60 Mp- 110/120 ~~~~~ Level- 2 (Xp- 13/15) *PLEASE CHOICE A LEVELING METHOD. ONLY ONE CAN BE CHOSEN AT THE MOMENT. * 1. Jack of All Trades- Every level up you get +1 stat in everything 2. Min/Max- Only certain stats are raised depending on class. 3. Point Buy- You get 5 Status points where you can decide to put them Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. *PLEASE NOTE THAT THERE IS A VARIETY OF WAY TO INCREASE STATS* Strength- 5 Dexterity- 15 Constitution- 6 Intelligence- 12 Wisdom- 8 Luck- 60 (+10 From Title) ~~~~~] ''Huh, seems like my status board updated a bit... Hey system.'' [How may I assist you?] ''When or how can I get a class?'' [Please mentally press on the little plus sign next to your Class. It''ll give you all the available options.] I followed the systems orders and it quickly brought me to a menu with my available classes. [Hunter, Assassin, Tamer, Arcane Archer, Beginner Magician, Cleric, and Survivalist] The number of classes was much less than what I presumed I was going to get but some of them stand out. The most obvious one being the Cleric itself because I had no connection to any of this world''s gods and probably only got it because of my title which said I was friends with the one god that sent me here. The other is the Survivalist because you apparently only need to survive for a single day or something to get that class choice. Finally, the one that I liked the most, the Arcane Archer. It obviously went with my current stats and it fits perfectly with what I want to do. Use a bow and arrow, and now some magic because I could do it. I quickly selected it and as soon as I did, I got 2 new skills from the system. [Cause of your class, you''ve automatically learned {Arcane Arrow}, it enchants you arrow with a set portion of your mana that deals extra damage using your Intelligence or enchants your arrow purely with mana that deals damage equal to how much mana you put into the arrow. Caution, arrow may explode from mana overload if they''re weak enough. Must be prepared ahead of time.] [Cause of your class, you''ve learned {Mana Mark}, you can mark a object with your mana and find where it is within a certain range. Current range is {15 Feet}.] [Cause of your class, you''ve learned {Curving Arrow}, you can move your arrow after shooting it by placing a mana marker on it and using mana to move it. Mana depends on how big the movement is. Must be prepared ahead of time before shooting.] Seeing these three skills, I got a idea on how I wanted to do things. Pulling out the two corpses of the animals I killed, I quickly pulled the arrow out of the fox and python, and then stuffed the two animals back into the inventory. With the arrow, I cleaned it as best I could with some water from the bottle of water that could hold 10 tons. With that done, I put it down on the ground to the side of me so that it wouldn''t get burned and turned to it. Stretching out my hand, I didn''t even attempt to use magic like I did the last two times and just said, "{Arcane Arrow}" The space in front of my hand turned into a purple circle with a bunch of different runes on them that I couldn''t understand. On my HUD, I had a small screen pop up asking how much mana I wanted to enchant into the arrow. I of course rammed it all the way up to my current amount of mana which was now 114 because of me not using it for a bit. As soon as I hit accept to enchant the arrow with 114 mp, the arrow just exploded and sent shard flying everywhere and almost hitting me in the eye. One piece, managed to lodge itself slightly into my arm and deal 28 damage leaving me with only 32 Hp left. [{Arcane Arrow} has leveled up, you now slightly better at enchanting arrows.] ''That took almost half my health and it wasn''t even a direct hit!'' At that time, I started feeling very very exhausted and tired. As I was about to fall unconscious, I had enough sense to move slightly away from the fire and to put something on it really quickly. I did both at the same time before falling to the ground asleep. When I finally did wake up again, it was already morning outside. The fire went out and both my Hp and Mp regenerated back to full. The area where the arrow part him me was fully healed and didn''t even have a scar or anything. [You''ve earned the skill {Minor Regeneration} thanks to your {Adaptability}!] I was starving from not eating anything last night and quickly pulled out two things of rations and my bottle of water. Eating both the rations really quickly and filling myself on water, I got up from my sitting position and stretched. All the bones in my body cracked and created a noise loud enough that it even surprised me. With that out of the way, I focused on one thing I wanted to do before heading out and gathering some resources. ''System, choose the Min/Max leveling type.'' [Confirmed. Updating Status now... [Name- Leo Walter Race- Human (Mutated) Class- None + Title- Friend of God (+10 luck per level) + System Points- 2 Hp- 60/60 Mp- 120/120 ~~~~~ Level- 2 (Xp- 13/15) *LEVELING METHOD* Min/Max- Only certain stats are raised depending on class. Strength- 5 Dexterity- 18 (+3) Constitution- 6 Intelligence- 14 (+2) Wisdom- 10 (+2) Luck- 60 ~~~~~ ''Seems like I automatically get 3 points in Dexterity with each level and 2 points in Wisdom and Intelligence per level.'' I pulled out the rest of my arrows (23), and started working on enchanting them. The first arrow I attempted to put 25 mana into but it had the same results as last night except less extreme. The second one I attempted to put in only 10 mana and was lucky enough for it to work properly. With the arrow in hand, I started looking at it to see if there was any identifier that showed it wasn''t a normal arrow. [Congratulations, you''ve successfully gained the {Inspect} skill. It allows you to gather more information on a object.] ''System, what''s the difference between this and the option I get when something is in my inventory?'' [When have something in your inventory, you can only view the very basics about it like the attack power and such. It is also limited to your inventory. This skill however gives much more details and can be used on pretty much everything. The only requirement is that you can see what your identifying and that it doesn''t have a enchantment preventing you from identifying it.] I nodded in understanding before getting back to work on the rest of the arrows. In total, I was able to enchant 8 arrows with 10 mana each and each time I used the mana option instead of the one that uses my intelligence because I wanted to figure out the skill more. Stashing them all back into the quiver, I put my bow on my back and started making my way into the forest again. 4 A QUESTionable Antic A few miles out from the cave I stayed the night in, I was currently up in a tree hiding. Below me, is currently two deer moving around in a circle. From the looks of it, they were probably going to fight soon to figure out who was the stronger one or something like that. I just continued to watch, unmoving, the entire time. Roughly six seconds passed before the first deer charged at the other with its antlers slanted downwards. The other seeing that the match has finally begun joined in and rushed towards the other. They met shortly after and clashed their antlers trying to prove who had the greater strength. I saw my opportunity. I shot a singular regular arrow at the first deer that charged and pulled another one as quickly as I could. As soon as the first one hit, I shot the other arrow. The first arrow hit the deer directly in the side and did 76 piercing damage because of it being a sneak attack. The second arrow however was spotted by the other deer as he saw his enemy getting hit and was on the lookout for anything dangerous. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. So as soon as he spotted it, it started running away. Luckily enough, it hit its leg and it took 24 piercing damage. The first deer at this point was now getting up and was starting to run away. Before it could get far, I released another arrow, this time one of the special ones. The shot wasn''t as good as the first one but still hit the deer. Since this was one of my special arrows, it did some extra damage and did a total of 39 damage in total. The deer just dropped dead whether from blood loss or the mana going through its body I do not know. [You''ve killed a {Woodland Deer} and earned 8 Xp and 4 System Points!] At this point, the second deer was in the far-off distance still trying to escape. I dropped down to the ground and nearly fell face first. *6 Damage [You''ve gained {Slight Fall Resistance} thanks to your {Adaptability}!] ''Yes, I know system, falling hurts and I shouldn''t do it.'' I got up as quickly as I could and stored the first deer in my inventory, then started running for the other one. As soon as my foot left the ground, a small message came up on my HUD. [Quest: Chase down the deer and kill it. Reward: Camping Gear Do you accept? Y/N] I mentally pressed yes as I continued to run after the deer. As I started to run after it, I got exhausted within a couple of minutes but thankfully was able to notice the deer come to a stop a good couple hundred feet away. I slowed down my running and hid behind a tree before it noticed me. [You''ve gained +2 Constitution thanks to your {Adaptability}!] I pushed the message away as I didn''t care to much and was focused entirely on killing this deer. I continued making my way over to the deer ever so quickly and made sure to start getting my bow ready. Around 100 feet away, I finally stopped and got into a shooting position. "{Mana Mark}" I whispered A faint purplish glow appeared on my arrow before quickly disappearing. [{Mana Mark} has leveled up, the range is now 30 feet.] ''Shit, need to level this up to make it useful. Forgot about the range!'' I attempted to sneak forwards but accidentally stepped on something and alerted the deer. It turned its head towards me and seeing this I fired my arrow. As it moved forwards a good couple of feet, the deer kicked off the ground and started running away. Using my connection to my arrow, I attempted to move it even though it was already out of my 30-foot range. [Thanks to you exerting mana farther then you can control, {Mana Mark} and {Mana Manipulation} have leveled up because of {Adaptability}. The range for {Mana Mark} is now 45 feet.] Sadly, this didn''t help as it was still out of my range. I put my bow on my back and started running after the deer. I chased after it for a bit but was still tired from my previous run so the two extra constitution points didn''t really help. Eventually after a couple more minutes, the deer finally stopped in the far-off distance. By this point, I was gasping for breath and had stitches in my sides. [You''ve gained +5 Constitution thanks to your {Adaptability}!] ''Yes, I know that I was very unfit! Stop reminding me!'' I continued to use a minute to catch my breath while watching the deer and making sure it didn''t run. "Fucking mutation making me weak and easy to tire. At least my adaptability wish is coming in handy and fixing it." I mumbled quietly With one last big breath, I got down low and started sneaking again. This time, I made sure to avoid sticks and dried leaves that could make noise if stepped on. [{Sneak} has leveled up through constant use. Your footwork now slightly avoids things that makes noise automatically.] ''Finally! Something fucking useful!'' I continued on my way and now only occasionally checked where I was stepping. Luckily, I did though as a couple of times I wasn''t looking, I nearly stepped on something. As I got closer and closer, I was eventually within 45 feet and pulled out my bow. ''I''ve finally caught you, you bastard!'' I readied my arrow, marked it, and then let it fly. For whatever reason, the deer somehow seemed to notice me again and attempted to run away. However, it was still in my range. With my connection to the arrow through my mark, I made it turn sharply to where the deer was running off to. The arrow hit the deer in it''s other leg and lodged itself there. *40 Magic and Piercing Damage! The deer then fell forwards and slid forwards on the ground for a bit. It attempted to get back up and run forwards to get away from me but wasn''t able to. I readied a regular arrow and aimed it at the deer. "I''m sorry little one..." and let it go. ~~~~~ 2 and a half hours later ~~~~~ "FUCKING FINALLY! I SHOULD NOT HAVE LEFT MY BASE WITHOUT MAKING SOME INDICATOR TO WHERE IT WAS!" *Deep Sigh* "At least I''m back now." I started making my way inside the cave as I finally paid attention to some of the messages from the system that I haven''t been paying attention [You''ve dealt 31 piercing damage to a {Woodland Deer} and have earned 9 System Points along with 7 Xp from killing it.] [Congratulations, you''ve leveled up!] [You''ve completed your quest of hunting down the run away deer. You''ve been rewarded with a standard set of camping equipment. They have been deposited in your inventory.] Inside the cave, I pulled the camping gear out of my inventory and it came in the form of a giant backpack with a bunch of stuff in it. I started digging a bunch of gear and other stuff out and throwing it around my cave. At the very bottom of the bag, a very small blue cube with a button was hiding in its corner. Pulling it out, I turned it around trying to find any indicator of what it was and on the back of it said "Portal Tent to go!" Pushing the bag away, I walked a bit more into the cave and pressed the button. It started to rapidly expand into a 1-person sized tent. I nodded my head in satisfaction and turned back to all the other gear. Grabbing one of the knives I threw to the side, I pulled the deer out of my inventory and started cutting it up and removing the fur. As I''ve never done this before, blood was everywhere, everything was cut up horribly and barely even recognizable. After an hour and a half, I finally finished, and just grimaced in disgust at all of my work. [You''ve gained the skill {Dismantling} by attempting to skin a deer. You are now very slightly better at it.] Using my inventory, I attempted to store all the blood in it to see if it would work as a quick clean up service. Thankfully it worked and it cleaned up a majority of the mess. I then moved over to a open area in the cave and started working on a fire. Sitting down and grabbing a pan from the side of the cave I threw everything, I started cooking and making myself my first real meal in this world.... ~~~~~~~~~~~~ A/N- Here''s his status with all his new buffs and skills. [Name- Leo Walter Race- Human (Mutated) Class- Arcane Archer + Title- Friend of God (+10 luck per level) + System Points- 2 Hp- 130/130 Mp- 68/160 ~~~~~ Level- 3 (Xp- 3/25) *LEVELING METHOD* Min/Max- Only certain stats are raised depending on class. Strength- 5 Dexterity- 21 (+3) Constitution- 13 (+7 from Adaptability) Intelligence- 16 (+2) Wisdom- 12 (+2) Luck- 70 (+10 from title) ~~~~~ Adaptability: Max Level: Able to easily adapt to everything and get new skills or stats through it. Can Evolve. Sneak: Level 3: Reduced noise and presence, and a slight auto movement away from things that make noise. Archery: Max Level: Increased bow damage, accuracy, and range. Can be evolved. Flame: Level 1: Light a small object on fire within 5 feet. Costs 10 mana Mana Manipulation: Level 2: Gain slightly better control over mana. Enchanted Arrow: Level 2: Able to enchant a arrow with mana to deal damage in proportion to either your intelligence or how much mana you put in. Mana costs vary. Mana Mark: Level 3: Able to mark a object within a certain range. With this mark, you''re able to find where ever it is within 45 feet. Marking costs vary. Curving Arrow: Can move a marked arrow after shooting it by placing a mana marker on it beforehand. Current range is {Mana Mark}s range. Mana costs vary. Minor Regeneration: Level 1: Doubles natural healing speed. Inspect: Level 1: Able to see the stats and description of objects within sight. Slight Fall Resistance: Level 1: Increases the height you can fall from without getting hurt. Dismantling: Level 1: Slightly better at dismantling and skinning things.] Ok, that''s it for you now. Bye bye! 5 Error 404: Lofi beats missing I spent the next couple of hours skinning all the other animals I''ve collected since coming to this world and also started to cook them so that I could eat them whenever I needed. Around when I was 75% of the way done, it started to thunder and then slowly start to rain. Listening to the rain while doing so, I fell into a sort of temp as I was cutting and cooking all at the same time. When I did finish it, I threw everything into my inventory for my future self to think about and clean. I then spent the next 15 minutes just staring outside the cave and enjoying the nice pitter-patter of the rain. ''Man, if only I had some Lofi Beats to listen to while watching this. Though it is nice to have some peace and quiet while enjoying the rain, even though I did just get to this world 2 days ago... I hope that old man isn''t bored right now.'' Eventually getting up, I stretched and decided to find something to do. Walking around the entrance of the cave which I made my home, the system decided to give me an answer to my problem. [Quest: Explore more of the cave/base Reward: Lofi Beats for the Rain Do you Accept? Y/N] I looked down towards the rest of the cave and contemplated if I wanted to go exploring. Pondering for a while, I eventually accepted it. Moving over to where I was keeping some wood, I looked for a decently sized stick that I could use as a makeshift torch. Luckily enough, there was a stick right on top of the others that was perfect for the job. Pulling out some leather that I cut horribly, I started wrapping it around the stick as I couldn''t think of anything else to use. When I thought that it was enough, I quickly casted {Flame} on it to light it up. A spark appeared on the leather and started to slowly spread all over. Seeing this, I started walking into the cave as the flame grew bigger and brighter with each passing step. After 10 seconds of walking, the passage started getting narrower and narrower until I had to eventually crouch down as if I was sneaking the entire time. After another minute or so, it started getting even lower and I had so start crawling. At this time, I was somewhat scared that there was going to be some giant spiders or bugs that would fall on me. Though I wasn''t totally afraid of bugs back on earth, with the introduction of magic and fantasy my fear of a ginormous one appeared. After another 3 minutes of crawling, I finally met my first bug. Thankfully compared to what I thought was going to appear, it was just a simple spider. Reaching out, I used my torch to squash it before continuing on my way. Then it happened. Spiders started to flood in. I started swatting and batting at the spiders and killed as many as I could. [Thanks to your adaptability, you''ve gained {Arachnophobia Resistance}. It''s now harder to be scared of spiders.] "WOOPTY FUCKING DO SYSTEM, I NEED MORE THEN THAT FOR WHAT I''M EXPERIENCING RIGHT NOW!" The spiders continued to crawl and eventually started making their way into my clothing. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-" [Thanks to your {Adaptability}, {Arachnophobia Resistance} has leveled up.] [Thanks to your {Adaptability}, {Arachnophobia Resistance} has leveled up.] [Thanks to your {Adaptability}, {Arachnophobia Resistance} has leveled up.] [Thanks to your {Adaptability}, {Arachnophobia Resistance} has leveled up.] [Thanks to your {Adaptability} and constant usage of {Arachnophobia Resistance}, you''ve gained {Arachnophobia Immunity} and can no longer be scared by spiders.] My mind upon receiving this skill immediately calmed down and stopped worrying about what was happening to much and started thinking of what to do about them. Eventually my mind came to a simple solution that I think anyone else would have. "I''ll just burn everything!" Using my mana and my prior experience casting magic without the help of the system, I spread out my interior mana and focused both it and the world mana all around my body as a type of aura. Then using my mana as the spark to kick start the spell, I whispered "{Flame Aura}" and my body rapidly covered itself in flames. *You''ve taken 5 Fire Damage *You''ve taken 5 Fire Damage *You''ve taken 5 Fire Damage *You''ve taken 5 Fire Damage *You''ve taken 5 Fire Damage [Thanks to your {Adaptability}, you''ve gained {Fire Resistance}. You are now harder to be affected by fire and heat.] All the spiders around me started burning up and my clothing started burning up as well. [{Flame Aura} has leveled up! It is now even hotter.] Seeing as the spiders were gone and that I had lost my clothing, I decided to press forwards in hope that there would be something good to replace my clothing as I would have to make my own and knew that with my crappy craftsmanship at everything, it would just be a disaster. With my flame aura surrounding my body, I pressed forwards and eventually got to a opening that brought me to a bigger part of the cave that I could actually walk in. As soon as I stepped through and got up, the system gave me 1 Xp for killing a total of 1,000 spiders. [{Flame Aura} has leveled up! It is now even hotter.] Inside this more open part of the cave was a bunch of spider-webs that were holding a bunch of cocoons on them. Walking forwards a couple of feet, I started hearing a bunch of scuttling further down the cave from where I was. Avoiding all the web cocoons and not even attempting to sneak cause of my fire, I eventually got to a opening with nothing in it but a singular giant spider on the roof. ''Shit. System, what''s my mana right now?'''' [26 / 160 Mp] ''Fuck!'' I quickly shut off my flame aura and ran to a nearby wall hoping that somehow the spider didn''t see me. I took a peak around the corner but was unable to see in the complete blackness of the cave. [Thanks to your {Adaptability}, you''ve gained {Dark Vision} and are now able to see in pitch black areas.] With the new skill, my eyes started to adjust and focus and eventually allowed me to see what was happening. Luckily enough with me getting this skill at this time as, as soon as it kicked in, I saw the spider slowly making its way down ever so quietly and making its way over to me. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Seeing this, I opened my inventory to get my bow but discovered that it was not there. My eyes widened as I realized that my bow burned along side my clothing and everything else that I had on me physically. Looking around with slight panic, I tried to think of a way to kill this spider and escape now that it saw me and I knew that I had no weapons. It continued making its way to me until it got so close that it was in arms reach. It''s mouth opened up as if to bite me and I realized that I can''t avoid saving up my mana. "{Flame Aura}!" The flames spiraled up around me and burned the spider''s face. The spider moved back away from me in pain and shook its head in an attempt to clear its vision and orientate itself. *Surprise Attack! 68 Fire Damage to `Giant Spider` Using this opportunity, I pointed to a flame nearby and cast a quick {Flame} to light it up. Immediately the webs caught fire and started burning rapidly as it was amazing fuel for the fire. The spider seeing this turned its head away from me and allowed me to quickly run up to it. While doing so, I quickly asked the system how much mana I had left and found out that it was only a measly 5 Mp which was not even enough to cast flame again which cost 10 Mp. Turning off {Flame Aura} I continued to rush at the spider which quickly turned its head to me and started sauntering its way over. "I hope this works!" I screamed at it As soon as it was about to lunge at me, I slid downwards beneath is and reactivated {Flame Aura}. I launched myself at it and grabbed hold of whatever I could. Using the last remaining amount of mana I had left, I forced all of it into {Flame Aura} and supercharged it as much as I could. *7 Fire Damage *7 Fire Damage *7 Fire Damage *7 Fire Damage [{Flame Aura} has leveled up! It is now even hotter.] At this point I felt like I was going to faint from exhaustion but I continued to force myself to stay awake and feed it mana I didn''t have. [Thanks to your {Adaptability}, you''ve gained {Mana Exhaustion Resistance}, you are now less exhausted from over use of mana.] [Thanks to your {Adaptability}, you''ve gained {Mana Regeneration} by forcing your mana to regenerate so rapidly even though you have none left. You now regenerate mana much quicker.] Skill after skill continued to level up as I did everything that I could to stay attached to the spider and feed my mana in {Flame Aura}. Both me and the spider were screaming as if we were a second away from death and whoever screamed louder would survive. After what seemed like forever of constant screaming, skill level ups, and a good amount of crying, the spider eventually died. [Congratulations for slaying {Giant Spider}, you''ve gained 50 Xp.] [You''ve leveled up to Level 4! (Xp- 29/40)] As soon as the notification appeared, my mind decided that I deserved a break and blacked out. 6 Silent Saviour After a uncertain amount of time unconscious, I eventually started to wake up. The first thing I noticed when I woke up was that it was very cold and that I felt like I was moving somewhere. When I actually opened my eyes, I saw I was in a wagon being pulled by two horses and three other people in the back with me. One of the people upon seeing me spoke up and said, "Hey you. You''re finally awake. You were trying to cross the border right?" Upon hearing this I started screaming. Upon doing so, I bolted up from where I was and realized that it was all just a dream. Looking around, I noticed I was back at the entrance of my cave. Sitting a couple of feet away was someone wearing a cloak and hiding their face. When they noticed me looking in their direction, the person got up and headed towards me while holding a knife They got closer and closer until they were finally close enough to touch me. The person then knelt down and slowly moved the knife downwards. "P-please don''t kill me." They stopped moving the knife and looked me in the face. Under their hood, I still couldn''t tell what they looked like as they had a mask on as well. The person just shook their head and then continued moving the knife until it went to my hands and cut off a rope I didn''t even know was there. "Oh.... my bad, thought you were going to kill me." The person once again shook their head as if they were disappointed in me for thinking that. With my hands now free, I attempted to get up from where I was but the person used their free hand to push me back down. They then reached into a small satchel on their side and pulled out a small thing of bread and handed it to be. Once it was in my hand, they made a gesture indicating that I was supposed to eat it. I looked at it for a second before shoving it in my mouth and chewing it. While it was very bland, it ignited the hunger in me after who knows how many days I was asleep. As soon as I finished the piece they gave me, I looked back up and asked if they had any more. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. They just shook their head and went back to the side of the cave and sat down. I contemplated just pulling out a bunch of food from my inventory to eat but because this was my first time meeting someone here, I didn''t want to risk doing something that shouldn''t normally be possible. Getting up, I went to the other side of the cave where the person was sitting and looked for my bow that I left behind previously. It was easily found as it propped up against the wall with my quiver next to it with a smaller amount of arrows then I left it. I put them both on and started making my way out of the cave. Before I left entirely, I stood at the very entrance and said, "I''m going to hunt for some food. If you''re still here when I''m back then we can eat it together." And then left. I searched and hunted for a bit less then a hour and caught 3 rabbits in total. Each of them offered 1 Xp and System points each so I didn''t level up. I made my way back to the cave and noticed as soon as I got close that a little bit of smoke was exiting through the entrance. Making my way into the cave, I lifted up the three rabbits for the person to see and then started working on skinning them and removing the blood so that we could eat them. As soon as I started working on the first rabbit and making some progress, the person came up and took my knife while rapidly shaking their head. They pushed me away from the rabbit and quickly skinned it. While doing so they showed me how to do it properly and my dismantling skill even leveled up just from watching. Once all 3 were done, we put them on sticks over the fire and started to cook them. During the time they were cooking, I just started between the fire and the person. Eventually to escape the awkwardness I was in, I spoke up. "Sooo... may I ask who you are?" No reply. "No? May I then ask if you were the one who saved me?" They looked up and nodded before looking back at the fire and waiting for their food to finish cooking. Once again there was a awkward silence. "Do you uhh... Do you know how to speak or are you mute?" The person looked up at me. In a very quiet voice I was barely able to bear over the fire, I heard a small, "Yes" Though it was just a small start, I was glad to have heard them say something. We continued watching the fire in silence until the meat was fully cooked and when it was we took it off the sticks and chowed down into it. Or, at least I did. The person just sat there staring at their food and not moving a muscle. It continued on like this for a solid five minutes (Which I continued to eat during), until they finally moved and moved a hand up to their face. They grabbed the mask and slowly moved it slightly away from their face but still kept it close. The person then moved the food closer to their mouth and ate some while continuing to make sure the mask was blocking my view of their face. After a small amount of the food was done, they put the mask back in place and handed me the rest of their food. I took it and just held it in my hand while continuing to stare at them. "Why don''t you want me to see your face?" They looked up at me and just stared me in the face. "....cause.... I.... hurt...." they spoke in a very quiet voice Again silence took hold of the conversation and made it awkward. After a bit of time, instead of me continuing the conversation, they kick-started it instead. They reached up to their mask and grabbed it while slowly moving away. Underneath the mask was a heavily burnt face of a girl that showed that it continued way down on her left side. She left the mask off before putting it back on and then continuing to stare into the fire. Neither of us said anything for the rest of the day. Eventually it became dark and as I started going into my tent, she continued to just sit there staring into the fire. "Goodnight Miss... Uhh... You know what, as you didn''t give me your name, I''ll call you Ms. Feuer (A/N: German word for fire.). I would like to thank you for somehow finding me and saving me. I would like to somehow repay it in some way or form if possible but for now it is time to sleep. Good night Ms. Feuer." And then I went to bed. The night passed slowly as I had trouble finding sleep but eventually it came to me. Once it did, the night quickly passed and when I woke up I walked out of the tent and saw that she left. Outside of my tent on top of a rock was a small book with a small vial of ink and a quill to write. Picking up the book, I turned to the first page and found a little message. "I was out in the woods when I head a loud screaming and found your cave. Continuing inside, I eventually came to find you constantly burning and healing at the same time. Though in normal situations I would''ve taken everything you own, I know the pain of being burned alive. I waited for the fire to die down and eventually it did so I dragged you back to your little camp and made sure to tie you up in case you would attempt to fight me. When you woke up, I saw the fear in your eyes of me which convinced me even more that you needed help. I stayed with you for a bit and taught you some things. Though or time together may have been short and you didn''t really know me, I''m sorry to say that I couldn''t respond much to your questions as the fire has permanently deformed so that I can''t speak much. I leave this small journal for you as a reminder of what you learned in hopes that the next time we meet you won''t be burning alive again. ????????????????????????????????????, ???????????????????????????? ????????????????????. PS, I liked the name you gave me." and that''s where it ended. Though I found it a little weird that she left it for me, I still thought of it as something nice. Also minding the fact where she said she was going to take everything I owned, she actually turned out to have a nice heart. 7 Grinding Some Levels (A/N: Forgot that he burned off all of his clothing while in the cave soooo....) Putting the book that she gave me into my inventory for safe keeping, I stood at the entrance of the cave just looking at the wilderness and enjoying the breeze. For some reason though, it seemed to be much... breezier, then usual. Looking down I noticed why. "FUCK! I WAS FUCKING NAKED THE ENTIRE TIME." I ran back inside the cave and hoped that nobody saw me even though I was in a forest. Checking everything I had in my inventory and everything I threw to the sides of the cave, I couldn''t find any spare clothing. ''Ugh, I was hoping to save as many system points as I could. System, how many system points do I have?'' [You have a total of 132 System Points] ''Hmm... What full set of clothing can I get for around 50 system points?'' [For 50 System points, you can get a full set average adventurers gear. Would you like to purchase? Y/N] I groaned mentally for having to waste points on clothing but I begrudgingly said yes. As soon as I did, the system asked if I wanted to equip the clothing immediately. Again I said yes and then immediately was fully equipped in a set of leather gear with a bunch of pockets and pouches on me. There was even a little hood on the back that I could flip up if it started raining or something. Now that I had clothing and wouldn''t be running around naked. My plan for the next couple of days or so, I was going to find as many animals as I could and grind some experience. I don''t want to fight another enemy like the spider and be almost totally defenseless because I didn''t have my weapons or because I was weak. With that in mind, I formed at work out schedule. With my adaption ability and me discovering that certain things I do will adapt my body quickly (like running), I could start doing increased workouts to increase every stat that doesn''t increase with a level up. I might even be able to discover another way to get another leveling system as when it first gave me choices it stayed, "Choose one for now", heavy emphasis on the word "now". Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. This means that there is probably a way to get a new or extra leveling system. Now that I have this all sorted out, I started my first workout. All it was, was me doing a bunch of pushups, sit-ups, and any other workout I could think of as I was doing the other two. Heading outside, I looked for a relatively flat piece of land. It didn''t take to long as a couple hundred feet out there was a nice flat grassy area. Taking off my bow and quiver, I set it to the side of me as I started doing the standard workout. I got through around 10 pushups before I fell to the ground with pain in my arms, [Thanks to working out and your {Adaptability}, you''ve gained {1 Strength} stat point.] While laying on the grass and looking at this, I gave a faint smile and attempted to get back up and continue working out as seeing that my strength increased almost immediately encouraged me. ~1 Hour Later~ ''Oh my fucking god I want to die'' At the moment, I was throwing up from working out. With my horrible strength and constitution, just a simple hour of doing a basic workout was already making me throw up. In between normal thoughts and and constantly thinking about wanting to die from this workout, I was able to ask the system to show me the my status without my skills, name, titles, and everything else. ~~~~~ Strength- 10 (+5) Dexterity- 24 Constitution- 15 (+2) Intelligence- 18 Wisdom- 15 (+1) Luck- 80 ~~~~~ A total of 5 extra strength, 2 extra constitution, and somehow a extra point in wisdom from who knows what. I moved away from the spot I was and moved to a much cleaner spot to lay down. I spent a good ten minutes or so just laying down and having skills kick in and help my body. Once I finally felt good enough to move again, I moved over to where I had my quiver. I pulled out each arrow and enchanted all of them and added a mana mark to all of them as well. When I was done with that, I was ready to start the Xp grind. I started jogging at a moderate pace and stayed on the lookout for any sounds or sights that might''ve indicated a couple of animals or monsters I could hunt. I ran in the same direction for ten minutes before I heard a bush to the right of me rustling around. Since it was so close, I jumped backwards as soon as soon as I heard it. Luckily I did though as when I jumped back, a boar came running out of the bush right where I was and crashed into a tree opposite of where I was standing. I pulled my bow out and got ready to fire a arrow but by the time I finished getting the bow out and knocking an arrow, the boar was already running towards me again. "SHIT" I cursed loudly as I jumped to the side while also dropping the arrow I had. I attempted to roll after jumping but I''ve never actually done it while also focusing on something else so I just ended up hitting my head against the ground. [Because of {Adaptability}, you''ve gained the skill {Basic Roll}] *8 Bludgeoning damage The boar once again came charging my way but I rolled to the side. With the arrow that I dropped earlier from rolling, I used the mana mark on it to quickly fire it to the boar. *44 Piercing and Magical damage The boar took the hit and only turned to look at me while throwing a look of rage my way. I got off the ground and quickly got an arrow out and fired it while the boar started charging my way. Letting loose the arrow, it flew into the boars body again. *65 Piercing and Magical damage The boar screeched in pain but continued its run towards me while sticking out its tusks trying to pierce me with them. Once again, I quickly pulled out another arrow and shot it straight at the boar. As it flew, I saw it moving slightly to the right so I used the mana mark I put on it to fix it and put it dead center. [Because of your {Adaptability}, you''ve gained the skill {Quick Draw}] [Because of constant use of {Mana Mark} and {Adaptability}, {Mana Mark} has leveled up!] As I did that, the boar continued to run forwards and had the arrow that I just moved go straight between the eyes. *CRITICAL HIT! 54 Piercing and Magical damage x2 (108 Total Damage) The boar staggered slightly from where it was running but when I looked it in the eyes I saw that it had pure rage and determination in its eyes to kill me. I pulled out another arrow and knocked it but because I now had the quick draw skill, I quickly knocked it into place and shot it. The arrow found its place right where the other arrow was and went even deeper then the previous one. *CRITICAL HIT! 54 Piercing and Magical damage x2 (108 Total Damage) [You''ve killed a {Raging Forest Boar}, you''ve earned 35 Xp and 15 System Points.] [You''ve leveled up!] All the rage and determination that was in its eyes before vanished as that arrow finished it off. The boars legs stopped moving and it went straight into the ground but because of its momentum it continued to slide towards me. It only stopped after it was withing 3 feet of me. Letting a sigh of release go I walked up to the boar and stored it into my inventory. While the fight didn''t hurt me that much, it did show that I need to also practice moving while in combat along side my stat boost training. Just thinking about all of the work I was going to have to do just to improve myself caused a small headache to appear. [Because of {Adaptability}, you''ve gained {Headache Resistance}] It immediately numbed the pain down as if I took some medicine and helped me thing like normal again. Pulling out my magical bottle of water, I went to drink some but was only able to get a couple of gulps before it emptied. Seeing this, I threw it to the ground in rage. "CAN''T THINGS JUST GO MY WAY FOR ONCE!?" I picked it back up and stored it in my inventory while mumbling while walking forwards in search of both more Xp to grind and water. This continued on for a good while before I stopped mumbling and focused on listening for signs of water with my ears and keeping an eye out for anything that might try to kill me. After another hour, I discovered both. As heard the water, I started running towards it, and as I got closer and closer, a arrow flew past my head. Looking up at the tree, a hooded figure that was very different from Feuer was crouching on a branch with a bow in their hands with a arrow prepared to fire. Under my breath, I started mumbling again. "Just one fucking day. Is that to much to ask for? I have 90 fucking luck but it seems to do FUCKING NOTHING." 8 Elves The person in the tree just stared me down while continuing to aim a arrow right at me. "Who are you and why are you trying to enter the Elves land?" I was slightly taken aback from hearing that the person that was firing arrows at me was from the land of the elves and that a land of the elves even existed in the first place. "My name is Leo Walter. I''ve been living in these woods for the last couple of days and I just ran out of water so I came to find some. I heard running water in that direction so I continued that way. I didn''t know that the elves lived over here and I am sorry. If you could let me get the water or if you''re willing to trade so that I can get some water then I''ll be on my way." We continued to just stare at each other for another couple of minutes before they eventually stopped drawing back on the bowstring. They then did a flip out of the tree and as soon as they hit the ground they rolled forwards to lessen the damage. "Someone else is on their way to talk to you and watch over you as you get water. If you''re lucky, we just might allow you to trade with us." I nodded my head as I didn''t want to say anything to anger this elf and become the enemy of elves. After all, this will be the first entire city of people that I will meet. If I''m able to get a good relationship with them, they might even help me with training or something. After a couple of minutes of me imagining the possibilities of what a friendship with the elves might give, a person eventually came along that. The person was a male elf with leaf green eyes and blond hair that twisted into a braid that went all the way down to the center of their back. "Excuse me human, I am here to watch over you and make sure you don''t do stupid. Now keep up." He immediately turned around and started walking in a direction that was slightly away from where the water was. We spent a good couple of minutes walking before we eventually got to a area that had a singular giant tree. This tree was so big, that it''s base was as thick as an entire skyscraper. When we got close enough, he took a sharp turn to the right that lead to a smaller tree with a door on it. "Please enter here and we will confirm everything that you have on you and determine whether or we will keep you alive for knowing where we are." Just hearing that sent a cold feeling down my spine that made me fear for my life. I entered quickly through the door and as soon as I did it was shut behind me. Through the door was a room that had a person sitting in a chair with a couple of tables, and weird leaf hammock like things on the sides of the room. The person sitting in the chair who was reading a book, closed it as soon as the door was closed and stood it. "You''re finally here. Good. Now strip and put everything that you own and have on you right on that table." He indicated towards a table with his book. "Do you have a uhh, room to undress and get a spare set of-" "No we do not. Now do as I say and quickly put everything on the tables." I gave a quick sigh and did as the person asked. The entire time though I was angry about the fact of how I just got clothing and now I had to strip. Plus, my 90 luck seemed to do FUCKING NOTHING. But let''s not think about that right now. After stripping, I put everything on the table he indicated to earlier and stood a bit further away with it while trying to keep some decency. The elf slowly walked over to the table slowly while also pulling out a golden monocle and slowly putting it on his face. He started pick up everything and slowly look over it. First he went to my clothing, then my bow, and then finally my quiver. He spent a good amount of time just staring at the quiver before moving onto the few arrows I had left. As soon as he looked at a arrow, his eyes widened. "Human... Where did you get this?" He said while pulling out a arrow from the quiver. "The arrow? I got it from a uhh... Friend?" The elf gave a deep sigh as he slowly walked towards me. "Not the fucking arrow.." He was now a foot away. "I mean the ENCHANTMENT ON THE ARROW?!" He screamed at the top of his lungs. "That? I-I did that. Why? Is something wrong about that?" "It wouldn''t be wrong if it was for the fact that enchanting is incredibly hard to do and you have a bunch of arrows that are double enchanted!" "Look, I know nothing about enchanting other then how to do a mana mark and just imbue a certain amount of mana into the arrows. So could you please elaborate more about enchanting if you could?" He once again sighed deeply before rubbing the bridge of his nose. "As everyone knows, well, except for you, enchanting requires years of experience and even then it is something that doesn''t really give out that good of a enchantment unless you''ve been alive for centuries. These arrows that you say "you" enchanted are a basic enchantment for us long lived elves but for a human to create something like this they must''ve lived hundreds of years!" "So me being able to create a couple of arrows like that is something that seems impossible?" "Yes it is." He turned around to where he was originally sitting and pulled out a arrow from the side of it somehow. He then came back to me and handed it to me. "Enchant this." "Like right no-" "YES RIGHT NOW." I jumped back slightly because of him yelling. Immediately getting to work, I started casting the two spells on the arrow. As I did it, the elf just stood their while watching me in amazement. "That''s... Amazing to put it simply. You''ve casted two enchanting spells in such a quick time... Hum- No, Leo, would you be willing to work with the elves? You potential is amazing when it comes to enchanting and I feel like we could create a mutual work relationship?" Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. 9 Elvish Hospitality Author''s Note: I got two comments about what to do. From Halonfox, they said "Kill the filthy long ears." Which I didn''t even give as an option. Marff_Marrf however did the exact opposite and listed a bunch of benefits of siding with the elves. Since they was the only note worthy comment, we''re going with their choice. Now back to the actual story :P ~~~~~ "A work mutual relationship?" I asked while raising my eyebrow. "Well you see it''s quite simple. I am willing to enroll you in our teachings of enchantments and other stuff so that you could use them to improve upon your ability to do so. The price for this however will be that you will have to be on our side if we ever need something enchanted and such. Do you agree?" I contemplated everything I could get from this and everything I could also loose from it. On one side, if I agreed and sided with the elves, I might be able to trade with the elves, learn proper enchanting, and more training with the Bow. Maybe Another class with beast taming or something like that? After all, who doesn''t want a pet for fluff and cuteness? On the other side, by siding with the elves, it might limit my options to other available things and might tie me into things that I don''t want to deal with by being with the elves. While thinking all this, the guy who originally asked me the question just stared at me while I stood still and staring off into the distance for a straight minute just thinking about this. He eventually cleared his throat and asked me again whether or not I was willing to learn stuff. This time instead of contemplating it for another minute, I just instantly agreed while thinking mentally, ''Welp, I hope this doesn''t blow up in my face!'' The guys face grew a giant grin that looked slightly sadistic. "That is great to hear." He then snapped his fingers and two more elves walked through the door. Though they appeared frail and skinny from the way they looked, they were easily able to grab my naked body and hoist me into the air like a flag. "W-Wait!" By the time I stuttered this out, they were already making their way to the door. "CAN I AT LEAST HAVE SOME CLOTHING!?" There was no reply as the one elf just continued to stay in the room and wave politely at me as I was carried off somewhere. It took around 10 minutes of me being constantly carried and being thrown around until I was gently laid down on the floor. I laid there unmoving for a solid minute just trying to not throw up. After that minute, I got off the ground and started looking around where I was. The place I was placed was a small room with a bed, closet, desk, and a smaller room in the corner for the bathroom. First thing I did was go straight for the closet to see if they had any clothing for me to wear. As soon as I opened it, I saw the most glorious sight before me. Inside the closet, there was a dozen or so outfits there all folded up neatly and ready to be worn. I took one out of the closet and put it on as quickly as I humanly could. The new clothing was very comfy and felt as if I was wearing a very soft set of silk or something. I moved around and started doing some exercises in the clothing to see how flexible and how well I could move in them in case I ever got into a fight while wearing them. Not surprisingly they were all I expected and more. It seemed to flow with me as I moved and when I did some jumping in my room, I made barely and noise an the clothing didn''t get in my way at all. After testing all this out for 10 ish minutes, a knock was heard on the one door (No not the bathroom). I stopped what I was doing and went to the door and opened it. Upon opening it, a elf with both arms behind her back walked straight into my room and once in the center, turned around to me and gave me a paper that she kept behind her, and stayed silent after that. Looking down at the paper just handed to me, I saw a bunch of scribbles that I had no clue how to read. I tried deciphering it to the best of my abilities but couldn''t. "Is there a translation to this or-" Before I finished speaking, the elf quickly reached out and flipped the paper. "Oh... My bad." On the translated side was a... Class schedule to put it simply. As I started reading the translated side, my brain slowly started connecting two and two together about the connections between elvish and english (or whatever language I was reading). [Thanks to your {Adaptation} and High Intelligence, you''ve been able to decipher and learn the Elvish Language!] ''Nice.'' I flipped it back over and attempted to read the Elvish again. This time, I started reading it as easily as I read the stuff on the back. All it really felt like now that I knew it was as if I was reading it with a different type of font. In the back of my head, when I thought about speaking Elvish, it came to me that if I attempted to speak as if I had a accent, I would speak Elvish. Anyways, minding how I now viewed Elvish, the class schedule went like this. Class 1. Enchanting Class 2. Archery Class 3. Nature Harmony Class 4. Magic 101 And finally, everyones most favorite class in existence... World History Just kidding!~ We all know that history is the worst class of all of them. Looking away from my paper, I looked back up the the elf who was still in the center of my room... Prison? Anyways, I wanted to know the times and such for everything and how I was going to be living now that I was with the elves. She looked at me with a bit of annoyance in her eyes before she closed them, took a deep breath in, opened them, and started explaining everything. "So everyday in the morning, a elf will be assigned to wake you up, feed you, and make sure that everything about is prepared to go to your classes which will be around 45 minutes each and at these classes you will be learning about each subjects history, origin, and how to properly use the it in everyday life meaning you''ll be able to use this knowledge to help us in the future when we require your measly presence and support in whatever the elder decides because we do not know for what reason he decided to accept a measly human like you in the village." She said very quickly and bitchily. I just started at her while nodding every now and then while she was saying this to make it seem as if I understood what she was saying. When she finally finished, I mentally let out a sight of relief. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. ''I will call you... Mrs. Bitchy Elf for being very rude 11 Barrier (A/N: Leo knows German. Why? Cause he was interested in it when he was younger and wanted to learn it. Just kept on forgetting to mention how he knows German phrases and such while never really explaining some stuff about his past abilities and such which I will slowly reveal.) After being handed the bow, I was just standing in the training area by myself just holding the bow. I didn''t really know what to do now so I did the best thing I could. Test the new bow. Going over and grabbing a couple more arrows, I got into a ready position to fire. As I drew back the string, it seemed to be less resistant then all the other bows and seemed to flow to where I pulled. Once I reached as far back as I could with the string without fear of breaking it, I took my time to aim. Once I was adjusted, I released. The arrow went flying faster then I could see and went immediately into the center of the target. After a second passed, a small bit of wind went passed and slightly blew up my air. I continued to practice for a while using the new bow and thoroughly enjoyed my time doing so. Hours seemed to fly by as I continued to constantly practice over and over. At some point, a ray of sunlight went directly into my eye and brought my attention to the time. When I looked up, I noticed that the first rays of light were now appearing. I quickly ran back to my room while constantly saying shit while doing so. As soon as I got to where my room was, a elf was standing outside my door ready to knock on it. Slowing down, I stood right behind them while they knocked on my door. Waiting a couple of seconds, I watched as she patiently waited for me to open the door. "Need something?" I asked while standing right behind her. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. She jumped up into the air slightly before quickly turning around with a bit of anger in her eyes. "That was highly unnecessary Mr. Leo." "It might''ve been but I saw a opportunity and I couldn''t let it pass. Sorry." She scolded me for a bit by saying that I was very unprofessional and not acting like a elf should be and then remembered that I wasn''t a elf so started saying sorry a couple of times. "Anyways Ms. Anmutig (Graceful in German), what can I help you with?" "We are preparing to work on the enchantment today that will better help hide our home and I was told to come pick you up so that you would assist us with this enchanting. Also, my name is Fhaertala, not whatever weird language you spoke was." I raised up my hands in a sort of self defense. "Sorry sorry. Can you lead me to where I need to go? I feel like I should do this as soon as possible before I fall asleep from staying up all night." She nodded her head as she turned to her left and started walking. I followed while also constantly hitting the side of my head to stay awake. We continued walking for a couple of minutes before we finally got to a giant open area with a bunch of elves standing around in a circle doing a weird chant. To my human ears it sounded ominous but since I knew the language that they were speaking, it also sounded stupid at the same time. They were constantly chanting that seemed like a children story about a magic barrier that would protect some little kids homes. I almost laughed but made sure I didn''t as I would probably get a lot of confused looks. Fhaertala turned to me and did a quick bow before quickly turning and running off somewhere. Gael then somehow appeared out of nowhere and replaced her. "Greetings Leo, I''m glad to see that you''re here. Are you ready to help with the enchanting?" "Yeah, just show me what I need to do." He started walking directly to the center of the circle and directly in the center was a large glowing word in the ancient language that simply said "barrier". Gael walked up to it and stood directly next to it before turning to me. "Your task is to enchant this ancient word to erect a barrier around our home. We elves know that there is something your are hiding about your ability to enchant-" I flinched upon hearing this "But we do not care what it is you''re hiding. As long as you help us with this, we will forever be in your debt and we will acknowledge you as one of us. Now, if you would." He moved slightly away from the stone and kept his arm outstretched to indicate it. I walked up to it and reached out both hands as if to touch it. Once I was a inch away from it, I kept my hands in place and closed my eyes. Using my mana, I slowly wrapped the giant stone in my mana. It took a long time and compared to the small objects I usually enchanted, just wrapping this in my mana was already draining my mana to the point of it nearly being exhausted. Suddenly, I felt a hand on my back. "Don''t worry, we''re here to help." I heard Gael behind me. Slowly but surely, I felt a lukewarm feeling go into my back that started to fill up my mana. The feeling grew stronger and stronger as I constantly heard from more and more elves behind me say "I give you my aid too." I continued to create a giant circle using my mana and finally did after around 10 minutes of work. At this points, I was sweating from how much work I was putting into it. If I got any stat points or skills from doing this, I haven''t noticed yet as my full attention was just on enchanting this. With the circle done, I started doing the writing. In the ancient language, I started writing what I wanted it to do. (Use the mana present in the world to create a barrier that hides and forbids anyone that isn''t a friend of the elves to enter. If they shall harm the Elves may they be harmed themselves.) I ever so slowly etched this with my mana in the circle and while doing so heard multiple things behind me fall. "Leo... Please hurry..." I myself was feeling very hot as if I was running a fever. Sweat was constantly dripping and making things even worse. Feeling this, I wanted to wipe it all away to remove the annoyance but if I did then I would have to redo the enchanting. Pushing through I continued to slowly etch more and more. After a unknown set of time, I finally did finish. I slowly backed away from the now enchant stone. With heavy eyes and a heavy body, I turned around to face all the other elves who helped me. Hundreds of them were lying on the ground with only 3 of them standing up and holding each others hands. While looking at them, I heard a grinding noise behind me and turned back around to see what was happening. The enchanted stone was slowly lowering itself into the ground and once it touched the ground, seemed to have actually merged with it to create a small alter. This alter then started glowing at the top before then shooting a bright blue beam directly into the sky. The blue beam after reaching a certain height spread out to create a dome that spread across the entire Elven kingdom. "Congratulations" I heard from behind me. "You''ve guaranteed a safer future for us." [Congratulations for evolving your {Friend of the Elves} title. It is now {Protector of the Elves}. All elves will look up to you for what you''ve done and now see you as one of their own.] 13 Trust me, I can sing Sticking to my word, I threw some arrows into my inventory and also making sure that my previous bow was in there too. It would be hilarious if another situation like this came up but instead of loosing my arrows I lost my bow instead. True comedy right there. Going around, I quickly grabbed the daggers I threw everywhere before leaving as I didn''t want to get rid of a gift from the elves. After that, I took a quick look back at my way points and centered myself in the direction indicated. From then on, I continued walking till I got to my point. ~~12 Days Later~~ "COuntRy RoooAds, Take mE HoOmE. to ThE PLace I Be-" [Thanks to your horrible singing and {Adaptability}, you''ve gained the skill {Singing}. You''re now slightly better at singing.] "long! West Virginia, mountain mama. Take me hooome, country roads." Currently, after multiple days of camping, hunting, working myself out to the point of throwing up and regretting my choices in life, I was finally standing on a large hill that allowed me to see the village in the far off distance. Also fuck you system, my singing was amazing. Anyways, as I was traveling here, I killed enough animals and such to get me another level which increased my luck up to a total of 100. Once I did, the system congratulated me and gave me the skill {Lucky Break} which increases my chance of having a good day if something bad happened the previous day. Though it sounds stupid, there was no limit mentioned meaning that if one small bad thing happened, the next day I would have an amazing day or something. Can''t really argue with that. Continuing to stand on top of the hill, I took in the sight and slowly moved my gaze across the village. I took in the view of the trees, farms, nice building, the fire on top of those buildings, the peo- Wait a minute. I looked back to the fire and took a moment to actually recognizing what was happening before running down the hill and constantly yelling, "SHIT SHIT SHIT" in my head. Getting closer and closer, I started hearing the yelling from the the citizens inside of the village. For example, some were shouting, "OH GOD IT BURNS, PLEASE SOMEBODY DOUSE ME IN WATER." another simply said, "Oh hey, there''s some fire right there. Wonder if I can cook some meat on it." and finally but not least, "MY LEG!" When I finally did get to the giant fire that was close to lighting the other nearby buildings on fire, I''ve already came up with a plan on how to stop this. Using basic magic, I rapidly cast water ball over and over till I eventually added hundred balls of water together. The people were now staring in aw at what I was doing and stopped caring about the fire. When the ball of water finally got big enough to cover the entire roof, I dropped it down and put out all the fire on that building. For little fires that spread out from the original one, I just fired a simple water ball at them which quickly put them out. At this point, the people finally remembered what happened and why they were there as they started cheering for me. Taking a quick look at my mana, I found that I had only 18 left from casting such a large amount of magic without any help. Thankfully, my very overpowered Mana Regeneration skill give me a point of mana per second and with it being level 5, means it actually gives me 5 mana per second. Very very strong. Within a few minutes with people constantly cheering and kids were running up to me with amazement in their eyes. "Excuse me Mr, can you teach me magic!?" asked one kid very excitedly I crouched down slightly and messed up his hair. "Sorry kid, I don''t think you should learn magic from me." His head went down in sadness but I didn''t change anything. As I continued talking to the kid''s and some other people who were constantly thanking me for what I did, some old guy started walking through the crowd and was parting it like the red sea. "Excuse me there wizard, I''m the leader of this village and would like to talk to you for a moment." ''Sure!" I said, "What do you want to talk about?" He looked annoyed by me saying this. "In private if we could." I just shrugged my shoulders and followed him as the crowd continued cheering for me while slowly dispersing and going back to their own business. Once we got to another building, the old man led me inside and motioned at a chair next to a table. I sat down and asked again, "What would you like to talk about." The old man made his way to the chair opposite of mine and sat down. He let out a deep sigh before saying, "I would like you to leave as soon as you are able to." I raised an eyebrow. "And why''s that?" "Cause my village can''t deal with Wizards, Sorcerers, Shamans, or whatever you want to call yourself. We in this village just want to live a nice life and if you''re here something is bound to happen." "Who says? I think you''re a bit paranoid of something happens. And sure, let''s say that something does happen as a result of me being here. If so, then I''ll make sure to fix whatever problems I have caused and what not. Probably won''t happen though cause I''m just staying here for a day or two." The old man stared me down with as much evil eye he could muster. All it did was remind me of my grandfather. After a minute or so if him just attempting poorly trying to intimidate me, he hit his fist on the table between us and mumbled very quietly, "This is a horrible idea." After another couple seconds of just silence, he shooed me away and said, "You get two days maximum. Now please leave before I change my mind." I bolted out of my seat and made sure not to risk it. As soon as I was outside, I encountered one of the kids who was impressed with my magic. "Can you do another magic twick pwease?" The kid asked cutely. "Sure." I smiled, "What would you like me to do?" Their eyes widened at the prospect of being able to decide what I was going to do. "Make me invisible pwease!" I stood there for a second thinking about how I was going to do that. I couldn''t even do it on myself yet. "Uhh sure..." I stretched my arm out and put my palm on their forehead. "God of Unseen, give this child the power to not been seen!" I removed my palm and watched as they jumped around in joy. "Now remember kid, if someone is very observant, they''ll be able to tell you''re there and won''t see you as invisible so be careful. Now go have fun!" The kid ran off in joy as they seemed to believe what I just said was true. Looking off in the distance and watching them, I thought to myself, ''I did good.'' and watched until a nearby building suddenly exploded. The door behind me slammed open and the old-man presented himself with a face of rage. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "I FUCKING KNEW I SHOULDN''T HAVE ALLOWED YOU TO STAY!" I screamed back in anger, "IT''S BEEN LIKE 5 FUCKING MINUTES OK!? THIS ISN''T MY FAULT!" 14 Bandit Cliché The old-man motioned for some people nearby and started talking to them and issuing some orders. I took this chance to run off to where the explosion was and follow the part of the deal that I would fix the problem even if I didn''t really do it. Mostly cause I was nice. After a short run to where the nearby building exploded, I quickly found out why it exploded. Inside the center of the building was a massive hole that had a tunnel that went somewhere away from the village and a horde of angry buff looking guys were constantly running out of the tunnel. "BANDITS!" Someone screamed Upon hearing someone scream that, everyone else screamed in fear, and than ran away like some kind of NPCs from a video game. The bandits seeing this, grinned in joy as seeing everyone being very afraid of them and started chasing after them. I quickly got my bow out and knocked a arrow while aiming it at whatever bandit was closest to a villager. Once I saw my opportunity, I released my arrow and quickly hit the bandit right in the side of the throat. *73 Piercing Damage [You''ve killed a regular Bandit. You''ve earned 25 Xp and 25 System Points!] The bandit dropped dead instantly and gave me a decent amount of Xp and System points compared to a regular animal that I usually farmed. I took another couple of quick shots at a few other bandits and quickly finished them off the same way I killed the first one. [You''ve killed 7 regular bandits. You''ve earned 150 Xp and 150 System points!] [You''ve leveled up to level 7!] Seeing this notification from the system, I took a quick peak while taking a couple more shots at the Bandits who for some reason kept on focusing on all the regular people who weren''t fighting back instead of me. Currently, after killing those 7 bandits, I was 124 Xp out of 170 Xp and I was already gaining even more very quickly! With another five shots, I killed another 5 more. [You''ve killed 5 Regular Bandits. You''ve earned 125 Xp and 125 System Points!] This is just becoming the best Xp farming I''ve had yet. The only main problem about this is that I''m killing human beings.... HOLY SHIT I''M KILLING HUMAN BEINGS!?! WHAT THE HELL AM I DO- [Because of {Adaptability}, you''ve gained the skill {Trauma Resistance}. You are now are harder to be traumatized.] [{Trauma Resistance} has leveled up! {Trauma Resistance} has leveled up! {Trauma Resistance} has leveled up! {Trauma Resistance} has leveled up! {Trauma Resistance} has leveled up! {Trauma Resistance} has leveled up! {Trauma Resistance} has leveled up! {Trauma Resistance} has leveled up! {Trauma Resistance} has leveled up!] [Thanks to your {Adaptability} and experiencing immense amounts of trauma, your {Trauma Resistance} has evolved into {Trauma Immunity}] ing.... Ok now it doesn''t seem that big of a issue anymore... Guess I''ll just keep grinding Xp! (A/N- Yes, this probably seems very stupid but I needed to give a reason as to why he was able to kill so easy and just giving him a skill where it didn''t traumatize him like a regular human being seemed like the easiest soooo..... Yeah :P) Taking a quick look at where everybody was running, I spotted 4 more bandits chasing them around so I shot 4 quick arrows at them and was able to hit them directly in the throat like all the others. [You''ve killed 4 Regular Bandits. You''ve earned 100 Xp and 100 System Points!] Quickly checking my system again, I found out I was 179 Xp out of 275 and had a total of 666 System Points. I might want to buy something quickly so that something bad doesn''t happen. Checking back at the hole in the ground, I saw two more bandits were standing near the exit of the small tunnel as if guarding the passageway. I readied a arrow and was getting ready to fire it at one of the bandits before suddenly a loud laughter came out from the tunnel and echoed throughout the area. Moving where I was aiming at the tunnel instead of the guards, I got ready to fire a arrow at whatever came out. About 10 seconds later, another bandit came out who was dressed in some better gear and had a prideful look on his face. As soon as I saw him, I let go of the string and let the arrow fly at him. As the arrow got closer and closer, I thought that it would hit him directly in the head but before it did, he turned in the direction of the arrow really quickly and caught it. He then turned away from the arrow and looked up at where I was standing. "Well would you look at that, it seems as if we''ve got a hero on our hands!" The two bandits who were standing guard started laughing as if they heard the best joke they''ve heard in their lives. "Why don''t you come down here so that we can have a 1 on 1?" Asked the bandit who I assumed was their leader. "What if I don''t want to?" I replied as I started pulling another arrow out of my quiver really slowly. "Then I guess you won''t mind if I do this!" He then pointed his sword at me and once he did the two guard bandits started rushing at me. I quickly shot the one arrow at one of them while also pulling out another arrow and shooting it at the second one that was charging me. [You''ve killed two bandit Lieutenants! You''ve gained 100 Xp and 100 System Points.] [You''ve leveled up to level 8!] With those two guards finished I went to grab another arrow out from my quiver but was unable to get one as I''ve run out of arrows in it. I had 5 arrows in my inventory but I might just waste them if I fire them normally at the bandit leader. Keeping the bow still in hand, I put it down at my side while looking down at the leader who was still looking up at me. "You think we can have that 1 versus 1 you were talking about earlier?" "Come on down here and I''ll think about it." I slowly started making my way down as I though of a plan as to what I would do to not get killed instantly. Right as I was about to get right to the bottom, I came up with a semi decent plan. Standing right in front of the leader, he continued to just stare at me as he had a massive smile on his face. Without even saying anything, the leader rushed up to me with his sword out. "I accept your challenge!" He said when he was right in front of me. The next second, he slashed horizontally across my torso. Thankfully to my high dexterity, I was able to dodge out of the way and roll a bit away from him. [Thanks to your {Adaptability}, {Combat Roll} has leveled up!] He once again tricked slashing at me with his sword and I channeled my inner dark souls player and started rolling like a mad man. After almost a solid minute of just rolling and a couple of level ups for {Combat Roll}, I was finally starting to get very exhausted. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. However the bandit leader seemed to be getting exhausted too. "You know... You look very... VERY stupid when you do that." He said "Yeah, I know." I was still holding my bow in hand even after all those combat rolls and such. "Why do you even have a bow out? I saw that you''re out of arrows?" The leader questioned I grinned upon hearing this. "Wanna see a magic trick then?" Slowly I started reaching behind my back as if I was pulling out a arrow. "Like I said, you''re out of arrows so why even pretend that you have some." I stopped momentarily and shrugged. Then I quickly made a arrow appear in hand through my inventory and fired it at him. Immediately after, I started spamming my basic magic and creating fire-bolts after fire-bolts at him. He first slashed through the arrow that I fired at him earlier but didn''t expect all the fire-bolts that I sent at him so they all hit him on different places on his body. He survived the first few hits but staggered back from the force of it until finally it burned through his armor and killed him. [You''ve killed a Bandit Leader. You''ve gained 200 Xp and 200 System points!] When the leader''s body hit the ground after everything, there was a moment of silence as everyone just watched what was happening. After that second, everyone started screaming in happiness upon seeing that they were safe. ''Well I hope this gets me some free food or something.'' 16 Earthy Rabbit Steak Authors Note: I''m going to be focusing on this story more then my other one now so expect a slightly better upload schedule! Also discord- https://discord.gg/hRsWPzS Please come and join¡­ Ok, now back to the story. ~~~~~~~~~~ I sat in the chair for a couple of minutes while taking my sweet time reading the amalgamation that was the book. Inside the book was a whole bunch of contradictions and stuff that went along with the title. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Every time I attempted to wrap my head around the stupidity of every work and what not, it just made it seem worse and worse. When I was around 8 minutes into the book, I was just about to give up until... [Thanks to your {Adaptability} and constant use of your brain, you''ve earned a point in {Intelligence} and {Wisdom}] Seeing this happen encouraged me to try and read some more but I honestly didn''t want to continue having to think about such stupid things. Thankfully Eric rescued me from a mental hell. He came out from the back with a plate in one hand and a jug of something else in the other. Setting it down on the table in front of me, he asked me once again if I was sure I would be able to eat this without dying. Using the utensils, he pulled out from somewhere, and already cutting a piece, I responded with a simple, "Nope." and then immediately took a bite. His eyes widened before her quickly looked around trying to find something he could do to save from whatever impending danger was about to come from me eating it. Before he could do or think of anything, I already swallowed the piece. The taste was good but as soon as I swallowed it, my opinion of "Oh this isn''t too bad" changed to "Oh god it feels like I just ate something very spicy" My face was starting to heat up and water was starting to appear in my eyes. At the same time, my breathing became harder and harder as if something was filling up my throat. After 5 seconds, something "good" finally happened. [Thanks to your {Adaptability} and you attempting to ingest mana from another creature, you''ve gained the skill, {Mana Eating} which allows you to eat mana safely and gain some minor benefits from it.} While this may sound good and did save my life, the original taste that was left behind and the spicy feeling turned to one of grossness as if I just ate a whole mouthful of mud or dirt. I took a deep breath in to fill my lungs of the air it deeply desired and then coughed a bit. Eric seeing this stopped running around like a chicken without a head and just stared at me. "So, you really can eat magical creatures... Do you think you can teach some of us how to do that? Might make surviving in the winter easier." I shook my head while coughing a couple of times. "Don''t think I''ll be able to teach anyone. Even if I did, I probably wouldn''t cause just doing that felt like torture." Eric just nodded his head as he reached forwards to grab my plate so that he could throw it away. I however decided to stop him. "I''m still going to finish this sadly. It might help in the long run, but I won''t know till I eat the entire thing. Eric shook his head this time. "You said it was torturous though. You sure you want to eat the rest?" I shook my head too, "I definitely do not but I have to... FOR THE BUFFS!" I said loudly before taking a bite out of it again. Once again, as I first started chewing it tasted fine as it had a bunch of seasoning and stuff on it but as soon as I swallowed, it left a bad earthy after taste in it. Maybe it was from it being a weird "Earth Attuned Rabbit" or so the system named it. That brings up the question if other elemental attuned rabbits exist and if they have their own tastes. Taking a third bite, I repeated the process once again of enjoying it before I had to swallow and get the gross earthy aftertaste. [Thanks to {Adaptability} and {Mana Eating}, you''ve obtained {Basic Earth Attunement} from the {Earth Attuned Rabbit}. Magic cast that is earth based now has everything increased by a small percentage (5%)] Seeing this message gave me some determination to finish eating the rabbit but not much. Have you ever randomly decided to go outside, sit down, and just eat handfuls of dirt just because you could? No? Well this is what it''s like to me. Sure, I would get some good stuff out of it, but it just tasted horrible and I really didn''t want to. Using some quick basic magic to create a small illusion around me, I quickly shoved the rest of the rabbit into my storage if I ever got a skill that would help me eat it better. Spending another minute using the illusion to make it seem like I was eating the rabbit quickly, I made it finish it and then actually handed the plate back to Eric. "You think you got anything good from that?" Asked Eric while holding the plate I shrugged my shoulders. "We''ll have to find out later." I lied, "I''m not really sure for now." He once again nodded, and we then continued to talk for the rest of the day. Once it got dark and Eric showed me to a decently sized room, I sat down on the bed and relaxed for a couple of minutes. After those nice and calming few minutes were up, I decided to attempt a few things. First was to talk to the system about some stuff. ''Hey System, can we talk for a bit?'' [Of course Leo, what can I help you with?] ''So, I was wondering about how I evolve skills, gain new leveling methods as you call them, and how much God actually watches me.'' [Answering to the first one, to evolve a skill there is two possible ways. The first way is to ask me to evolve it and I''ll give you some possible choices that it''s possible to evolve into. The second is the best way which is to evolve it manually by using it to a point where it naturally evolves into something better than I could offer normally.] ''So just use it a lot to evolve it or just ask you?'' [Affirmative. For the second question, the only way to gain new leveling methods aside from your current one is to buy them from the shop. There is no natural way to get them and they''re quite costly in the shop as well so it''s as you would say, "A late game item"] ''And exactly how much is the extra leveling methods?'' [For the most basic one, it''ll cost you a total of {412,795,844 System Points}] "Holy Shit!" I exclaimed audibly ''Ok got it, definitely a late game item. Now how about the last question I had?'' [I myself am unable to answer that question but it''s possible for you to ask him yourself if you want. Would you like to talk with god?] ''Hell yeah!'' [Affirmative. Connecting to god, please hold¡­ ¡­ ¡­ God: Leo! What''s up man? Leo: Wow you answered quickly. Anyways, I had a quick question for you. God: You wanted to know how often I watched you right? Leo: Yeah, how''d you now? God: Take a real good look at my name. Leo: ¡­. God: It''s that and that I was watching you while on the toilet. Leo: ¡­ Leo: That is so so so very gross. Please, never do that. God: Eh, maybe. God: Anyways, the answer to your question is that I do it quite often. I do stop watching you when you''re going to the bathroom, sleeping, or just walking around which to be honest, you seem to do a lot of. Leo: Hey, I''d teleport if I could, but I know where nothing is and don''t even have that ability ok! God: Yeah, it''s fine. Though I must say, it''s given me enough time to write a novel about everything. Leo: Wait what? God: Yeah, I decided to create a website back on your earth called WebNovel and after a bit of time, I made an account of QuasiKai and posted some other stuff until I finally posted your Novel. Though I must say, in the time that I waited, people made some pretty good stuff. Leo: Can you take down the novel please? I don''t like the idea that my entire life is being written as a novel for someone to read¡­ God: It''s fine, everybody reading it just think it''s some dumb fantasy novel anyways. Who in the world will believe this? God: Anyways, I answered your question and probably messed you up mentally, so I''ll just erase everything after I answered your question. Bye! ¡­ Chat has been closed] The System chat menu that was open just a bit ago closed and I continued staring off into the distance for a couple of seconds while my brain just processed everything. ''Well at least he doesn''t watch me 24/7. Weird how he closed the chat after saying that though¡­ Must''ve had some god work to do, wonder what it could be¡­'' ~~~~~God''s Pov~~~~~ ''Ok now I just have to finish writing the chapter of what he did the last couple of minutes and I''ll post it on my fake account for people to read. Man is it fun to trick people into reading the true story of someone I decided to Isekai.'' 17 Some Word Building Author''s Note- Hey everyone! Do you hate me yet? No? Well you''re going to after you''re done reading this chapter cause its filled with a bunch of useless information about the world. Please feel free to skip this chapter as I would too if I was told I had to read something like this. Anyways, good luck, have fun, hope you don''t throw a fit because this isn''t the usual type of stuff, I post :P ~~~~~~~~~ After the short conversation with the System and god, I didn''t really know what else to do for the night so I just decided to go to bed and talk to Eric in the morning about some things that the Elves didn''t educate me on. Aka, things about the entire world because they only really focused on my enchanting magic with a couple other magics here and there. After a good couple hours of sleep and some extra minutes staying in bed because it was comfy, I eventually got out and changed into a spare set of clothing that I bought from the system for only 10 System points. The set of clothing given was pretty much what I wore back on earth. A pair of jeans, decent shoes, random shirt I got from my older brother, and a jacket that went over it. Leaving my room, I saw Eric sitting at a table drinking from a wooden cup and staring out the open door. Seeing me, he waved me over and said, "Good morning Leo. Was the room to your liking?" I took a seat before answering and when I finally did, I replied with a simple, "Yeah." It seemed to satisfy him enough as he went back to drinking whatever he was drinking and continued staring out the open door. After a few minutes of silence and just enjoying the breeze coming in from the door, Eric turned back to me once more and asked if I wanted breakfast. With a simple yes, he got out of his seat and made his way to the back to start working on the food. Pulling out the book once more, I attempted to figure out the story it was trying to tell with a lot of difficulty but eventually got to the end of the first chapter¡­. Which was only 4 pages. However, that was long enough for Eric to finish up what he was doing and bring out some food. It was a simple meal, just a thing of bread with eggs on the side. It was kind of bland but I still at it thankfully and greedily as I was hungry from not eating that much last night. Once I was done, I turned to Eric and asked, "Is it ok if I ask you a couple of questions?" "Sure, what can I help you with?" "So, from where I''m from, we only focused on self-improvement on whatever we were assigned with. For me, it was Archery and Magic. Anything else besides that, I really have no clue about so if possible, could you tell me more about the world, it''s races, and anything else you can think of that might be important in daily life?" He nodded his head for a bit while thinking and taking a few sips from his drink. "I could but it''ll take a while if that''s ok with you." Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "Go right on ahead, I''ve got a lot of time." Taking one final sip from his drink, he got into a comfortable position in his chair, and started speaking. Author''s Note- Here comes the fun rant about world building that I made in a couple of minutes. Quality may be iffy. You have been warned. "The world, as you hopefully know, is called Astvail. From what we humans know after extensive research, the world has been around for thousands upon thousands of years. We think that after the first few centuries of the world being here, the elves appeared followed by almost every other race after another few centuries except for humans. Us humans were the last to have appeared. For whatever reason, we looked somewhat like elves but were entirely different. We can grow beards for example while they cannot. They live a dozen or so centuries while we''re lucky to even break 40 sometimes. Now here''s a quick question before I continue. Do you want me to focus on human history or something else? I''m much better at telling human history than any other history as I loved listening to my great grand pappy''s stories, but I have some knowledge about other stuff. It''s not going to be as accurate as a library filled with information, but it might be enough to help you learn more about everything." I thought about it for a bit. ''I am human and like human stuff¡­.'' "Yeah" I responded, "I''ll go with human history if you could." His eyes shown for a second as if he was doing a mental fist pump. "When humans first came about, we were as my grand pappy said, "Very Confused." Compared to the other races that figured out what they were good at and what they wanted to do; we had no clue. We had no history, no fancy innate magical powers, or anything else like that. So, because of that, we became wonderers. We started exploring everything that we could to try and find our purpose. Along the way some people discovered it and became adventurers, chefs, kings, and anything else you could think of. With all these people finding out what they wanted, they also settled down and formed tribes. Once that gained enough people, it formed into a town, then a city, and finally kingdom. Take the main Human Kingdom Kingcreed for example and before you say it yes, the name is stupid. Early humans weren''t that great at naming things. We kings and queens are too lazy to admit that it''s stupid and change it. Anyways back to topic! The Kingdom became our main area but our ambition for adventure still thrived in our blood and soul. The kings at that time decided to "borrow" some of the land from other races. They did not take this kindly. Wars were waged between the humans and everyone one else. In the beginning, it was a losing war for us but as the time passed by, humans started to learn (A/N: Steal) from the other races and copy them. From the elves we learned magic, from the dwarves we learned craftsmanship, from the half-beast we learned how to fight, and a couple random things here and there from all the other races. With this new knowledge and our ability to adapt much quicker than every other race, the tides turned to our favor until we finally came to a draw with the other races. We continued to build villages, cities, and some more kingdoms on the land the we earned though the war while the other races just came to hate us more and more. While there has yet to be another war between us and the other races, the more we do the more they hate us as we never actually care for what they want. Hundreds of years later, we get to where we are now which is Era 4, year 427." Eric took a deep breath to try and regain some of the oxygen he lost from saying all of that without stop. "I''d explain more of it to you but like I said earlier, I only know this much because I loved listening to my great grand-pappy when I was younger. To learn more about it, you''ll have to either visit someone who actually is devoted to learning about all this or go to a library and read about it yourself. If you want to learn the other race''s side of the story, well I''m not really sure what to do as they still hate us for what we did back then." He shrugged, "At least not all humans are like they were back then. A good majority of us want to create better relationships with them but their long lifespans make it hard as they remember is much clearer than us. Now any questions?" I didn''t answer as I just took in all of the information, he told me within a few minutes. Most of this explained a lot of my previous interaction with the elves and some of it left me with even more questions. Though not wanting to sound like an idiot, I just said, "Nah, I think I got the most of it." We then continued to just talk for another couple of minutes while eating and drinking while staring out the open door. Sometime around when we were doing that, the System gave me two new quests. [QUEST: Visit the main Human Kingdom KingsCreed. REWARD: Diary of a First Era Citizen. Do you wish to accept? Y/N] And [QUEST: Learn more about the world by learning about the past from the other race''s perspectives. REWARD: Random High-Ranking Human Skill. Do you wish to accept? Y/N] Quickly accepting both, I put them on the backburner of stuff to do after getting some stuff from this village and learning what to do next. 20 Aetius, The False God ~~~~Somewhere Deep Underground~~~~ A short man holding many bundles of paper was running down a deep hallway. After taking a few turns here and there, he finally got to what seemed to be a dead end. Making sure that nobody followed him or was watching, he quickly turned back to the wall and saying a couple of words that sounded like gibberish to anyone that might''ve heard it. After saying these words, the wall that originally a dead end started to transform into a simple wooden door that seemed to belong there naturally. Rushing through the door, the person then made his way up a set of stairs that seemed to be made of pure light. At the very top was a bustling city filled to the brim with people that had giant white wings on their back. The short man who had no wings, pushed his way through crowds of people until he got to a massive building with a bunch of heavily armored people with wings at each entrance. They armored angels initially stopped him but after the short man showed them something on the papers, they quickly ushered him through. The man, running as fast as he could, eventually got to an open area with stairs leading up to a single throne in the back of the room. Sitting atop his throne appeared to be an elegant angel with wings who had bits and pieces of light shooting off them. Once the man got to the center of the room, he quickly got down on one knee and looked downwards and avoided looking at the man sitting on the throne. His breathing was ragged after pushing is body to get here as quickly as he could. "Human¡­" Said the elegant angel sitting on the throne said simply. "Why are you here when none of us have summoned you?" The man looked up from the ground and looked in the general direction of the angel but never once attempted to look him in the eyes. "We have recently discovered that a human¡­ No, they''re no longer a human anymore for what they did! They decided for some reason to befriend and protect those filthy elves by hiding them from us." The short man said with despise. "Aetius! Please help u-" Aetius, simply gestured with his hand for him to stop speaking. "Human. What have I said about using my name while in my presence here" He once again simply said. The short man looked away after realizing what he had done. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "I-I''m sorry my god!" Aetius got out of his chair and walked down the stairs one by one till he was eventually on the same level as the man. Walking up to the man, he put his hand gently on the side of his head, got down on one knee, and made their foreheads touch. "It''s alright. I need to thank you for bringing this to my attention. After everything I''ve done there are still so many amongst you who are refusing to accept the truth." There was then a moment of silence. "I should reward you for what you''ve done¡­" The guy''s eyes seemed to sparkle with happiness upon hearing that his god was going to reward him. "But you''ve done something I''ve forbidden." Both looked up at each other at the same time and their eyes met. Aetius''s eyes softly glowing gold before the hand that was resting on the side of the short man''s head suddenly forced it downwards into the ground, killing him instantly. Blood spattered everywhere and a few drops even got onto Aetius''s face but instead of making him look like a fiend or monster, it somehow only seemed to amplify his elegance and handsomeness. "Guards," Aetius called out after staring at the mess for a few seconds. "Clean up this mess and bring me the council of Gods. We have some things to talk about." Before turning around and heading back to his throne. Once sat upon his throne, a small smile formed upon his face. "Oh, how I love to play with these toys." He said ever so silently before cleaning of the blood on his face with his hand, and then licking it clean. ~~~~~Back to Leo~~~~~ After eating, we all went to our corresponding rooms to get everything prepared for the journey ahead. It didn''t take any of us that long because everything was pretty much already prepared. The 3 of them had everything in big bags on their back, and I obviously had my inventory where I could just throw everything into it without caring about organization as I could simply ask the System to get it for me if I was lazy. After that, we all said our farewells to Eric and the left. On our way out, a few people here and there occasionally thanked me and tried giving me something as thanks for what I''ve done for them the last few days, but I politely declined each time. Eventually we got out without people constantly stopping me every other minute. We continued walking and talking for a good while to pass the time during our trip. At some point, I decided to stop. Something in the back of my mind made me feel as if something forbidding was going to happen at some point. I looked around to find where this feeling might''ve come from but couldn''t find anything. Eventually I looked up towards the sky and without warning, a chill went down my spine. 21 God Appeaser After the chill went down my spine and the other looking at me weirdly, I made up a random excuse about wanting to look at the beautiful sky before we continued. They looked at each other and questioned among themselves if it was true or not but didn''t ask me. We continued till it slowly started getting dark and rain started to drizzle down. "We should stop here for the night. Set up camp and getting something to eat." Kendrick said while holding a book above his head to try and stay dry. The others nodded in agreement while taking off their bags and getting a couple things out. "I''ll start setting up the tent." Pyra said. "Kendrick, you start the fire using some magic. Leo, please go find something for us to eat if you could. Kaleb, go pray to your god like usual, we''ve got the rest from here." Kendrick and Kaleb just nodded before going in different directions. Kaleb went underneath a tree and pulled out a few items to start praying. Kendrick went up to a couple of trees and grabbed a couple of sticks that were still dry. Seeing as they were all doing their jobs I went ahead and did mine. As it was starting to rain, most animals were starting to seek cover as well. My Darkvision helped but as the rain started coming down harder and harder, it made Darkvision pretty much useless. I went a couple hundred feet out from where we were setting up camp and started looking for any tracks I could. It took a while but eventually¡­ [Thanks to your {Adaptability} and constant searching for animals'' tracks, you have learned {Tracking}. Tracks from both animals and humans now slightly glow to you.] With this skill, a few places on the ground slowly started to glow a soft dull blue color. By the time I eventually saw this, the rain was now a downpour, so I lifted up my hood and started following the tracks. A few minutes after following them, I eventually got to a giant tree with a small group of deer at the base of it hiding from the rain. Getting close to the ground to hide my presence, I slowly got my bow out. When I had it in hand, I pulled out one of my enchanted arrows and started aiming at the biggest deer I could find. Besides the sound of the rain falling, nothing else could be heard. After aiming for a bit, the biggest deer looked in my general direction and as soon as I did, I released the arrow. Within a split second, it went through the deer''s forehead and killed it instantly. The other deer nearby immediately ran away from their unknown hunter. Putting my bow back onto my back, I got up from the ground and started making my way over to the dead deer. When I was right in front of it, I knelt down and thanked it for giving its life to me, even if it didn''t know it. Originally when I came to this world, I killed a bunch of animals and such without really caring about it. But after living and learning with the elves, I''ve learned to appreciate them a bit more. Not enough to not kill them, but still enough to offer a bit of thanks to them. Picking it up, I heaved it onto my shoulder and made my way back. Given that it was raining, I finally used one of my quest rewards that I''ve wanted to for a while. Lofi-Rain beats. Simply asking the system to play it, I started hearing it as if it was background music in a room. Even with all the loud rain around me, I could still somehow hear it clearly as if wearing headphones. The walk didn''t take long to get back as I wasn''t trying to track anything this time. When I got near, I saw that the fire was nowhere to be seen, probably because the rain didn''t allow it to even start. The tent was set up but the others where nowhere to be seen. I thought nothing of it until I got closer to the tent. I heard a hushed whispering of some kind from inside the tent. I couldn''t tell what they were saying because of the rain, but from what I could hear, someone was very VERY frustrated. Stopping the Lofi beats, I stored the deer into my inventory, and started sneaking. I got close to the side of the tent and got as close as I thought I could without getting in trouble. Still, the rain made it harder to hear so using a bit of basic magic, I enhanced my hearing by a small amount. [{Basic Magic} has leveled up!] Though it only enhanced my hearing by a small amount, it was still enough to hear what they were saying. "We can''t just do that Kaleb, we agreed to help take him to KingsCreed!" Kendrick said. "I know we did but Aetius told me of the atrocities that he did!" Kaleb said back. "And what are those atrocities!? Ever since we''ve met him, all he''s done was try and do things without hurting anyone! Hell, he even put me to sleep instead of trying to do it physically!" Pyra impatiently said. "Aetius said that he helped out the abominations that are trying to be like us humans! He prefers them over us! Please, we must kill him, and then this will all be over." There was a silence after he said this. "No¡­ He''s our friend Kaleb. "Pyra said. "While we''ve been together for a long time, I don''t think we can do that just because your god says so. I''m sorry Kaleb, I ho-" There was then a sound of metal hitting metal, with a disgusting squish sound as well. "HOLY SHI-" I heard Kendrick start yelling but then another squish sound came out. "I''m sorry everyone¡­" Said Kaleb. "I must do this for my god. For he knows best~!" Kaleb said the last bit with happiness in his voice. I could now hear a sound of something wet dripping down inside of the tent. Slowly backing away, I could already guess what just happened. Kaleb killed both Kendrick and Pyra because his god wanted me dead and they refused to kill me. While slowly backing away, I kept my eyes on the tent making sure nothing was going to happen. I continued to also listen to what was going on inside and at the moment, Kaleb seemed to be sending a prayer to his god, whose name I couldn''t remember. Sadly, as I was mainly focused on the tent, I tumbled over the small pile of sticks that Kendrick stacked up earlier when trying to set up a fire. While on the ground, I saw the tent flaps open up and Kaleb come out with blood on his armor, face, and his mace. "Ah, hello there Leo. Did you just get here? Or did you happen to hear the conversation just now?" I was still slowly crawling my way backwards away from him. The rain was now washing away the blood on him and made it seem as if he was still "pure". "Yeah, I heard most of it all. Your stupid god want me dead just because I helped some elves? How stupid is that!?" His face turned to one of anger. "NEVER CALL MY GOD STUPID FOR HE IS THE MOST PERFECT BEING THERE IS!" Kaleb was now pointing his mace at me like it was a sword. While he was speaking, I sadly backed my way into a tree and he just kept on getting closer while I was doing so. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "I thank you my god for allowing me to kill this heathen who protects those abominations." He said with an insane smile on his face. He brought his mace up above his head and before he was about to bring it down, I quickly pulled a throwing knife out of my inventory and threw it at him. The knife went directly towards his head and as he tried to dodge away, he instead maneuvered his head accidentally so that it went into his eye. *Critical Hit! 146 Piercing Damage! "AAAAAAA" He screamed out while using his other free hand to pull it out. Blood poured out of the fresh wound as he constantly sprouted out swears and asking his god for the power to kill me with as pain. I pulled another throwing knife out but sadly he was expecting it this time and brought his mace down onto my wrist holding the knife. *You''ve taken 248 Bludgeoning and Holy Damage! (HP- 212/460) *Your right wrist is now broken! Instantly, my wrist broke from the mace and the dagger in my hand went flying. The previous screaming from Kaleb now turned from the pained anguish to a mad laughter. While he was laughing insanely, he brought down the mace once again, attempting to break my other wrist. Luckily, I was able to move my hand away in time be he did still hit me on the side of the arm. *You''ve taken 38 Bludgeoning and Holy Damage! (HP- 174/460) While it did just barely touch me, a burning hot feeling went right into the side of my arm it touched. I didn''t feel it earlier probably because of the pain, but I could feel it now since it was only a minor hit on the side of my arm. "AAAAA" I screamed out in pain. Compared to all the fantasy novels you here about the main protagonist just gritting their teeth in pain and telling their enemy that they could deal with worth, but in actuality, it is extremely painful and almost impossible to do what they do. "HAHAHA, THAT''S THE SPIRIT LEO!" Shouted Kaleb as he started brining up his mace once again. However, I knew I didn''t stand a chance anymore. Just from a small scrape I lost a whole bunch of health and if I had one more direct hit, I would die almost instantly. "SWAP!" I yelled in the ancient language to use basic magic. This spell made us swap our general places by consuming a ton of mana (400 out of my total 430), so Kaleb now stood in front of the tree I was originally on and brought his mace down onto it. As if a bolt of lightning the tree, a loud bang rang out and the tree was almost destroyed. But by the point Kaleb turned around, I was already on my feet running away from him and his madness. Because I only had my leather armor on, I was much quicker than Kaleb who still had his half-plate armor on. I easily got ahead of him, but I sadly forgot one thing. "Guiding Bolt!" Shouted out Kaleb as a streak of light started making its way towards me. Doing a quick combat rolled, I just barely avoided it as I got far enough away from Kaleb to hear what he was saying. Whatever it was, it stopped that rain falling temporarily and formed what seemed to be a invisible layer of something that held all the rain in place. Slowly the rain started forming into a giant ball of water that grew bigger and bigger as all the water from around us started flying its way over to the ball and merging with it. After about 15 seconds passed, the giant ball of water now started moving in my direction. Contrary to its size, it moved surprisingly quick and hit the ground relatively close to me. All the water pushed me further away from Kaleb but made me hit a couple of tree, plants, and rocks here and there. *5 Bludgeoning damage! *5 Bludgeoning damage! *5 Bludgeoning damage! *5 Bludgeoning damage! *5 Bludgeoning damage! *5 Bludgeoning damage! *5 Bludgeoning damage! *5 Bludgeoning damage! (HP- 134/445) The water was now falling normally on the ground again and because of the water pushing us apart, I no longer knew where he was and hopefully, he no longer knew where I was. I got up from the ground and continued running away as far as I could from him. He''s way to strong for me to fight. 22 Healing Break Running was all I did for the rest of the night. I payed no attention to the direction or where I was going, all I was focusing on was getting away. Eventually I did stop as the exhaustion was catching up to me. Looking around quickly, I found a couple of trees grouped together so I quickly used some magic to jump my way into the branches. Laying down in the branches, I took a moment to rest and gather my thoughts, but I was more tired than I originally thought as after laying down, I fell asleep almost immediately. Upon waking up I could feel the throbbing pain in my right wrist from where Kaleb broke it, and all the other injuries too. ''System, what time is it and how long have I been out?'' [The current time is 10:56 Am and you''ve been out for a total of 11 hours, 28 minutes, and 44 seconds. You also have multiple unread notifications.] Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. I raised my head slightly upon hearing this but quickly put it back down as is hurt just to do that. ''Summarize the notifications for me please.'' [Affirmative. {Minor Regeneration} has leveled up 7 times and evolved into {Intermediate Regeneration}. Thanks to {Adaptability} and being under constant pain, you''ve learned {Pain Numbing} and it leveled up 5 times. {Lucky Break} is now in effect for the next 1.5 hours. Thanks to {Adaptability} and constant running, you''ve learned {Running} and its currently max level. Thanks to {Adaptability} and surviving from large amounts of damage, {Constitution} has increased by 2.] I read the messages and smiled slightly. The intermediate regeneration and pain numbing must''ve helped a whole bunch as when I moved my arm up slightly to look at it, I could see it healing ever so slowly. Though it may have been slowly, it was still noticeable. Looking around, I noticed that it was no longer raining, and it was actually sunny and warm now. Though there was still a couple of injuries here and there on my body, I assumed that there was some stuff I could do to fix that. Quickly asking the system how long it would take for me to fully heal, it responded with a couple of things. If I stayed awake, didn''t eat or drink, and did nothing for the next two days, it would heal fully. If I slept, didn''t eat or drink, and did nothing for the next day and a half, it would heal fully. It kept rambling on and on about all the possible things I could do that would change the estimated time it would take to fully heal but the best one it gave me was to just cast a basic regeneration spell on myself, eat and drink some stuff, and sleep to allow my body to do the rest of the work. So that''s what I did. Casting {Minor Regeneration} using basic magic (Which leveled it up), my healing speed doubled once again. Next, I pulled out some spare water I had and drank as much as I could. Searching around my inventory I found some of the left-over food that I couldn''t eat from the Inn and started chowing down on that. I was able to eat all of it but was still very hungry which I assumed to be a side effect of my regeneration that I haven''t adapted to yet. With a mental shrug, I pulled more and more food out until all I was left with was a bunch of raw food that I haven''t cooked yet, and the rabbit steak. I really didn''t want to have to eat the rabbit until I could figure out how to deal with the aftertaste, but I had to do what I had to do. Pulling it out, I took a gigantic bite and after chewing it for a bit, slowly swallowed it. Immediately my throat felt dusty and dry and the aftertaste left in my mouth was horrible, but I fought past it with tears in my eyes. I kept taking out massive bites while thinking, ''This is horrible!'' Eventually I did finish and got two things out of it. First, I was finally full and no longer had to eat everything I could. Second, my basic earth attunement that I got from originally eating the rabbit leveled up twice. Now all I had to do was finish taking a nap and I should be completely fine in the next 5 hours (Or so says the System.) Buying a pillow for 10 System Points, I fluffed it up slightly and took a nap. ~~~~~5 Hours Later~~~~~ [DING DING DING. Leo, your 5-hour alarm is done. DING DING DING. Leo, your 5-ho-] ''Yeah yeah, I''m awake. Please shut up now.'' I slowly got up from laying down into a sitting position and stretched my body out slightly. Everything felt completely normal as if nothing happened within the last 24 hours. Storing the pillow into the inventory, I jumped out of the tree after looking around briefly to see if anyone was nearby. At the moment, I was completely lost and had no clue what to do now. The main problem at the moment was that Kendrick tried to kill me just because his god told him to. I was going to go to the main human kingdom, but I have no clue how many religious people are like Kendrick. For all I know, Kendrick might even say I killed Pyra and Kaleb just to get people who aren''t religious to want to kill me. My best bet would be to either hide for the rest of my life and become a hermit or find some of the other races for protection. I contemplated my choices. In the end, I decided that becoming a hermit would be way to boring for me and I''m only on this world because God¡­ The god I like, not the god that Kendrick followed, sent me here to entertain him. I''m definitely not going anywhere near human settlements for a while cause of what I''m predicting Kendrick to do. The best choice would to find the other races that might be able to help me. What I know of this world, there''s Dwarves, Elves, Gnomes, Halflings, Half-Orcs, and supposedly Dragonborns. There''s probably a whole bunch more but that''s all I know with my current limited knowledge. ''System, could you tell me where the closest group of people that humans aren''t are?'' [Affirmative but for me to do so you''ll have to use 100 System Points.] ''Fine, take them.'' [Deducting points¡­ The closest is a large group of dwarves about 184 miles away (About 1 week if you never stopped for breaks during the day). Would you like me to pinpoint the general location on your map and HUD?] ''Do it.'' A mark was then made and signified that I had to go in the south-eastern direction. Without anything else to do, I started walking and after a few hours, I eventually heard some talking. "Are you sure he''s here?" Asked person #1 "Yeah, this is the direction in which the church said he went after killing the two." Replied person #2 "Then let''s keep looking and find him! If we bring him in either dead or alive, we get 20 Platinum coins so we might as well kill him!" Said person #3 At this point I was in a tree keeping my eyes on them. They seemed to be your stereotypical group of humans who were assuming that this was going to be a very easy mission for them just because it was one person. You know the Clich¨¦. I was starting to reach for my bow but before I finished what I was doing, I decided not to kill them and put my bow back onto my back. While they did say they were going to kill me and such, if I were to kill them it would make my case even worse. I could even imagine what the headlines of it would be if there existed newspapers. "Leo Walter has continued his path of murder and killed another group of people for no reason whatsoever! Just as the Church said, this man is someone who''s a menace to them human race itself!" Or something along those lines. Instead of doing that, I took the opportunity to focus on improving my sneak skill. Now it is level 5 and helps a ton but can always do for some improvement. Getting close to the ground, I started sneaking around them while also keeping an eye on them the entire time. Every now and then I made a bit of noise, but I was able to move away fast enough from it that they just thought that it was an animal. After two minutes of slow maneuvering around I was finally behind them. Sneaking leveled up once and increased the small auto-adjustments to where I walked so that I wouldn''t step on things. Continuing in the direction once again, I encountered a couple more groups of humans tempted by the offer of 20 Platinum coins. Once again, I sneaked around them or used some magic to get around them. It got to the point of this happening so much that both of them leveled up twice. Because of it, {Basic Magic} became max level and {Sneak} became level 8. With {Basic Magic} becoming max level, I decided that now would be a good time to start evolving all of my skills. As the System said earlier, there is two ways for me two evolve them. The first one is to ask the system in which it''ll then give me possible choices of what it can evolve it into. The second one is to do it manually forcing the skill past the limits into trying to achieve something that it wouldn''t normally be able to do at that level. The second method is a mix bundle because it can lead to it becoming something else entirely different of what I wanted, or it can evolve perfectly into what I want with an extra bonus or two. Take the skill {Arachnophobia Immunity} for example. It started out as just resistance to help me deal with all the all the spiders on my body and evolved into immunity because I was that scared of all the spiders. If I asked the System to evolve it instead of me having accidentally evolving it manually, then my supposed options could''ve been something like entomophobia (Fear of bugs) or maybe something that allows me to do more damage to bugs. It evolving into Immunity might''ve been an option but it''s impossible to tell unless I asked the system for the choices. ''System, evolve {Basic Magic}] [Evolving {Basic Magic} ¡­. 3 possible evolutions found. 1. Intermediate Magic- Increases the available difficulty of spells to a higher amount allowing you to cast harder spells by continuing to use the ancient language. (Like minor teleport) 2. Wordless Magic- Allow for you to use actions, emotions, feelings, and thoughts to control magic into what you want by merging with the skill {Mana Manipulation}. Will have to relearn how to do magic as this is an entirely new way. 3. Word Magic- A hybrid between Wordless Magic and Intermediate Magic that allows you to enhance the power of your magic through the use of the Ancient Language. For example, you could change the properties of a spell and other specifics while a spell is being casted or even after.] All of these choices were amazing things. Intermediate allowed me to just cast harder spells, Wordless allowed me to pretty much manipulate the mana into what I want with actions and thoughts instead of spells, and Word Magic allowed me to manipulate the spell whenever I wanted. I personally preferred Wordless Magic as with it, I could do something with a simple thought. Maybe with a simple gesture like a point, I''d be able to cast a fireball or something like that. For another couple of seconds, I thought of the possible things I could do after picking each one. In the end, I followed my preference. ''Please evolve it into Wordless Magic.'' [Confirmed. Combining {Mana Manipulation} and {Basic Magic} ¡­. Skill fusion and evolution successful. {Wordless Magic} level 1 has been made. {Basic Magic} Skill has been retained and is still usable. {Mana Manipulation} is no longer available as it''s now {Wordless Magic}] I stopped running for a moment and did a small gesture with my hand trying to do wordless magic. Nothing happened. I kept doing what I assumed would work over and over but nothing ever happened. Eventually I angry because I felt like I was scammed. Going over to a tree, I punched it but somehow, my fist became wrapped in a light red glow and punctured right through the tree while also burning it slightly. "Wow¡­" 23 Evolution Seeing as I wasn''t actually scammed, I started working on it a bit more, however I also started to run while doing so. Eventually got the hang of it when it was starting to become night. The entire premise for it to work was that I had to manipulate the mana into what I wanted it to do with my thoughts, actions, feelings, etc. etc. It didn''t work previously as I wasn''t manipulating the mana, just trying to get my desired effect. Stopping for the night, I looked around for someplace to hide/stay so that I could sleep without worry. It took a while but eventually I found a small little indent on the side of a hill. I checked it out for any secret entrances or objects to make sure I would get caught in something unlucky when I wasn''t paying attention. Pulling out a few sticks and rocks, I started setting up a fire so that I could cook some of the meat that I had in my inventory. Checking my water, I only had 3 or so liters left as well so I would have to refill that at some point if possible. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. After setting up the fire and something to keep the meat over the flame, I got to work on evolving the next few evolvable skills I had. ''System, list all of the possible skills that I can evolve at the moment.'' [Affirmative. 1. Running 2. Archery 3. Perfect Metabolism and Body 4. Infinite Growth 5. Adaptability] ''Guess I''ll work from the top down then. System, evolve the {Running} Skill.'' [Evolving {Running} ¡­ 2 possible evolutions found. 1. Super Speed- Allows for you to increase running speed by an exponential amount for every level. 2. Quick Step- Allows you to instantly move a certain amount of feet per level.] Once again, a very hard choice. Super speed in general would allow me to get to place quicker but with the exponential amount, I don''t know how easy it would be to control unless it also improved my reaction timing and what not. Quick steps are an instantaneous teleport to a certain distance that would increase per level which is great for combat but I''m not sure if I can specify how far I want to go within the distance I could move. I mentally went back and forth over and over constantly between the two of them because I didn''t know which one would be better. Finally, I picked one. Not because of what it could do, just because I decided to pick at random. ''Evolve into super speed.'' [Confirmed. Evolving {Running} into {Super Speed} level 1. {Running} has been retained and is still usable.] I was about to get up and test it but immediately sat down as it was becoming dark and I had to stay here to make sure I didn''t burn my food. Though I was a bit dishearten upon hearing this, I reminded myself that I would have all day tomorrow to test it out and level it up. ''Ok, next skill! System, evolve {Archery}.'' [Evolving {Archery} ¡­ 2 possible evolutions found. 1. Marksmanship- Increased precision with projectile weapons and gives a higher chance of critical hits. 2. Mana Archery- Allows for creation of a bow made out of pure mana to be created and makes arrows of pure mana when the string is pulled back. Can be used with a regular bow or with regular arrows. Uses mana to create.] For this one it wasn''t even a question of which one to pick. Mana archery sounded awesome and would probably be awesome once used. ''Evolve into Mana Archery!'' [Confirmed. Evolving {Archery} into {Mana Archery} level 1. {Archery} has been retained and is still usable.] Thankfully, this one I didn''t have to get up to test. Using my hands, I put them into position as if I was holding a bow. A purple mana seeped out of my hands as it took the form of a very simple bow. Every now and then, little wisps of blue mana came out as well. Pulling the bowstring back slightly, an arrow formed immediately as if it was there the entire time. Pulling it all the way back this time, I met a sort of resistance when I got to what would normally be the normal for a regular bow so I assumed that it was as far as I could go instead of trying to go further. Letting the bowstring go then, the mana arrow in it instantly disappeared. In the distance where I was originally aiming, I heard a loud bang which was then followed by me feeling extremely exhausted from the lack of mana. [Thanks to your {Adaptability} and constant use of {Mana Archery}, the skill has leveled up!] [Thanks to your {Adaptability} and constant use of {Mana Exhaustion Resistance}, the skill has leveled up!] Leaning against the nearby wall for a second so that my mana could quickly refill, I felt better after a few seconds. I focused on my food for a few seconds before making sure that it would be fine without my attention for the next minute or so, so that I could focus on the evolution of my next skill. ''Ok, next up is {Perfect Metabolism and Body}. System, you know what to do!'' [Evolving {Perfect Metabolism and Body} ¡­ 8 possible evolutions found¡­ 4 possible evolutions found¡­ 1 evolution has been found. All other useless options have been removed 1. Apex Body- With a combination of {Adaptability}, {Infinite Growth}, and {Perfect Metabolism and Body} an impossible grade skill has been made. Your body is able to do almost anything given time. It is always evolving and will stay at the new apex it created. It''s possible to evolve in a certain direction if desired and your body will adapt overtime. If a something bad were to happen, you can change your body according to however you want to fix it. BONUS FOR MAX LEVEL IN ALL 3- After a long rest (8 hours of sleep) your body will automatically improve the lowest stat by your current level.] Upon seeing this possible evolution that was a combination of the three skills I asked from God, I audibly yelled out, "HOLY SHIT THIS IS AMAZING" because who wouldn''t? This skill literally improved my lowest skill every time I went to sleep and made it so that my body was constantly evolving and if I get an evolution I didn''t want, I could just get rid of it! ''Evolve into Apex Body!'' [Confirmed. Evolving {Adaptability}, {Infinite Growth}, and {Perfect Metabolism and Body} into {Apex Body} level 1. All other skills have been retained and are still useable.] Just then after confirming and seeing the message, my body was racked with a really weird feeling. It wasn''t a feeling of pain or something similar, it was¡­. Undesirable. But one thing I did know about this feeling, was that I was hungry. Grabbing the meat from the fire, I started eating it as quickly as I could and only stopped once the entire thing was gone. Once again, I leaned against the wall and took a second to gather myself from what just happened. I was about to get some more meat out to cook but before I could even think about stopping it, I fell asleep. ~~~~~9 Hours Later~~~~~ [Thanks to {Apex Body}, you''ve gained 8 points in {Wisdom}. Total is now at {49 Wisdom}] The first thing I noticed when I woke up was that I felt exactly the same as before I evolved my god skills. I looked around to notice if anything else has changed over the night but saw nothing that stuck out. Next, I looked at my body to see if anything else has changed about it. After a through search, nothing stuck out to me that anything was different. My muscles were still the same, my looks stayed the same, all my powers were the same strength (Except the ones I evolved), so it seemed like nothing really happened. At that moment my stomach then groaned in hunger. ''Guess I was wrong.'' I got off of the ground and did some morning stretches before I went to look some fruits or something to eat. While stretching, I mentally complained about the constant need to eat with all of these evolutions and skill usages (Like Regeneration). [Thanks to {Apex Body} less nutrients and calories needed are a possible body evolution. Would you like for your body to start evolving? Y/N] I paused my exercising and stared at the option I was seeing on my HUD. Immediately, I tapped yes mentally and started feeling something in the back of my head working on something. [Time till evolution finishes¡­ 3 days.] I raised my arms up in victory. If I could return to eating the regular amount of food that I did just a couple of days ago, I wouldn''t have to focus so much time on keeping myself full so that I could use my abilities. But at the moment, I was still hungry. Even more so because I initiated a physical Evolution and I could feel myself getting hungrier and hungrier by the second. Quickly looking around a few trees, I spotted a few trees here and there with a bit of fruit hanging off of them. I grabbed a few and threw them into my inventory so that I could eat them when I became hungrier later on. While going between tree after tree, I ate some of the fruit while constantly using the {Inspection} skill to make sure each and every single one was actually edible. Because of me doing so, the skill leveled up twice, making it level 5 in total. All level 5 did was enhance the description and everything inspect told me. For example, when inspecting something that looked like an apple, I saw this- [Item Name- Poisonous Crab-apple Poisonous- Yes Description- This fruits poison is spread throughout the entire crab-apple itself. If ingested, it can be very fatal to creatures who are unable to resist the poison inside. People who have come across this fruit and eaten it, have described a swelling, burning sensation in their mouth, throat, and chest; which often makes it difficult to breath, which can sometimes lead to internal bleeding. Requirements to eat Safely- 30 Constitution] My constitution at the moment was a solid 48 so I obviously took a few because who know if they would be important later. I continued to binge eat while searching for more and more food and eventually after gathering a decent amount, I started heading in the direction of the dwarves again. Thankfully since it was day and I was in the clear, I was finally able to use my newly evolved skill, {Super Speed}. Getting into a running position, I then kicked off the ground and stared running in the direction of the dwarves. At first it seemed like a normal run to me. Trees where passing me, I saw a couple of animals here and there, and it seemed as if everything was the same. It eventually took a while, but I eventually did find out that it was actually working. Since it was only at first level, I was only in a slightly super speed mode. Everything around me looked a bit slower and I discovered this when I was able to watch as an animal''s head slowly turned towards me at a speed that was half of what it normally should''ve been. I stood still as well to see if it would still work, and everything continued to be half the speed as it normally was. When I thought about ending it, it simply ended and when I thought about it starting up, it started. The only downside was that once again, I was getting hungry. This seemed to be a new side effect of physical skills that didn''t use mana or something similar. I had hoped that I would''ve adapted by now, but it hasn''t happened for some reason. Might be that I have to literally starve myself almost to death for me to adapt to it. But hey, who knows. So, I continued running while using super speed to contemplate how it might work. 24 Dwarves Compared to the estimated time of 1 week to get to the dwarven group from the System, it only took 2 days in total, almost 3 as it was starting to become dark once I finally got to the estimated area, There was still 2 more days till my evolution finished so I still at the moment had to constantly shove my face full of food just to keep up with the amount of calories/nutrients. Most of it was fruits and stuff as I haven''t finished cooking all of the meat I have in my inventory, but I was slowly cooking all of it as time passed. Seeing as it was getting dark as well, I looked for an area to set up for the night and once I did, I started cooking. At the moment, I was in an open area with a lot of mountains and hills. One could easily see why the dwarves decided to live here as they were pretty much free space to dig and build whatever they wanted. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Currently I couldn''t see anything dwarven but if I went around looking for a cave or something, I''d probably be able to find them. So after finishing up the rest of the uncooked meat and shoving it back into my inventory before giving it a chance to cool, I watched the sun slowly set on the horizon and enjoyed the nice views of this world before finally cozying myself up in my sleeping bag from the system. ~~~~~8 Hours Later~~~~~ [DING DING DING. You''ve slept a total of 8 hours, it''s time to wake up.] [Thanks to {Apex Body}, you''ve gained 8 points in {Strength}. Total is now at {50 Strength}] Slowly I opened my eyes and slowly used the ground to push myself up into a sitting position. Doing the quick morning stretch to wake up the body a bit more, I tried looking for the rising sun to enjoy a good morning view. Instead, all I saw was a stone wall. Turning to my right and left, all I saw once again were more stone walls. Finally, turning all the way around, I saw a metal door that seemed to be a bit smaller than it should be normally. "Uh, hello?" I called out. I waited for a bit but got no reply. I looked around to see if any of my gear that I left on the floor where I slept was left but sadly it seemed as if I only had my sleeping bag¡­ and the stuff in my inventory but it was only a few arrows, throwing knives, books, and my old bow. Getting out of my sleeping bag, coldness instantly hit me as there was nothing heating up the room. I shivered slightly but was good for now thanks to my high constitution. Going to the door, I crouched down slightly to see if there was anything, I could see through the bars on the front of it. Through them, I saw a bunch of other metal doors going down a long hallway. "Hello!?" I called out once again. This continued on for a couple of minutes before some rough voice yelled back, "Shut up will ya!?" "Yeah I will but can you first help me out for a couple of seconds? I just woke up and don''t know where I am. The last thing I remember is that I went to sleep near the mountains and that''s it!" I now started hearing some heavy footsteps making their way to me. A couple of seconds later I saw a short red hair dwarf with both his beard and regular hair almost touching the ground. "You know why you''re in here human. Don''t try to play me like a fool! You were trespassing on our here land and now your behind bars." He said before smacking the metals bars on the door once to emphasize what he was saying. Mentally upon hearing this, I complained how it was almost exactly like the scenarios with the elves but unlike them, I wasn''t offered to be trained and given the opportunity to help them. "Would it be possible to talk to someone about my case?" I asked hopefully. "There''s some things I would like to talk about and hopefully work out with you folk." The dwarf eyed me down for a couple of seconds before breaking down in a fit of laughter. "That was one of the best jokes I''ve heard in a while! You, a human, want to work with us Dwarfs? You despise us and we despise you!" "Look I know this may sound weird but I''m different from other humans ok? Is there away way to convince you about that?" The dwarf continued laughing for a bit before leaving and returning a moment later with a chair made out of stone. "How about this. Tell me your tale so that you and help me pass the time till my shift is done. And let''s say supposedly your tale sways my heart, then maybe I''ll talk to one of my higher ups about you." He said jokingly. With a sigh, I started recapping the last few days without telling him about my powers and what not. About how I helped a place being attacked by bandits, to meeting the 3 adventurers, eventually almost being killed by the one cleric, and finally how I decided the best thing to do was seek out the other races for help and how I was told that the dwarves were somewhere around here. He stayed silent the entire time before asking one simple question, "What did you say the human''s god''s name was?" I raised a questioning eyebrow. "His name was Aetius, why?" He groaned slightly. "He''s the supposed "God" of humans, or so he liked to say. All he really is, is an Aasimar who has permanent wings and lots of divine power thanks to his parents. So basically, a demi-god who thinks himself to be a full god." He continued to talk but I had questions, so I raised my hand for him to notice. Eventually he did and all he had was a look of confusion on his face. "What''re you raising your hand for?" He asked simply "I have a question and it''s rude where I''m from not raise your hand. Anyways, what exactly is an Aasimar as you called him? And can you tell me more about him if possible?" "Ah, you don''t know what an Aasimar is? Well an Aasimar is a human being with what we call a "Divine Soul". This usually indicates that their parentage is of divine origin and because of this, they usually have some special powers or physical features. In Aetius''s case, he has a bit of both with permanent wings and a whole bunch of divine power." I nodded in understanding. "Thanks to his divine energy, he''s been able to lives thousands upon thousands of years compared to the regular lifespan of humans. With his long lifespan, he''s been convincing other humans that the other races are not what he wanted and told them to get rid of us. Humans then waged war after war believing that they were better in every aspect then us and continued to fuel their ambition which then allowed Aetius getting more and more power. With each war, the humans stole more of our techniques and learned how to do what we were able to. Eventually, with the help of all the other races, we were able to put a stop to the constant wars. After the wars, all the races went to their own sides and decided to stay in isolation. Which now brings us to here. If what you''re saying is true and Aetius is trying to kill you because of you helping the elves, we might have another war on our hands." He got out of his chair and sighed. "I''ll go tell my higher ups about this. This information will be very valuable to us." And then left. I was now left alone with just my thoughts and the system. My main thought was that I at least found some dwarves like I wanted to. However, know I also knew more about this Aetius guy, which made me worry slightly. If this demi-god being was out to kill me just for helping some elves, what could this mean for the world? Someone being nice to someone else could get them killed sounds like a horrible world to live in. I continued thinking about stuff like this for the next couple of minutes until I eventually heard a lot of walking coming from behind the door. Getting close to it, I knelt down once again to see what was happening and saw 4 armored dwarfs following a single female dwarf. The female dwarf was wearing a golden crown on her head and a bunch of insignias on her clothing. The insignia looked like a hammer striking metal in a forge, which made sense since they were dwarfs. After they were a couple of feet away from me, they all stopped except for two guards who continued making their way to me. Once one got close enough, he opened the door and allowed the other guard to come in and put some sort of hand cuffs around my wrists. With them now on, he pushed me through the open door and hitting the back of my knees to force me to kneel down. "Human¡­" Said the female dwarf who I assumed to be the queen. "I have heard from the jailer here that you know something about Aetius. Is what he says true?" "It is true your¡­. Highness? I''m assuming you''re the queen or something." One of the guards that stopped with the rest moved forwards upon hearing me say and yelled, "WATCH YOUR TONE WITH THE QUEEN!" I turned to him and look him directly in the face. "Dude, calm down. I''m just asking if she''s the queen. Jesus." The guard''s face scrunched up in rage and as he was about to do something, the queen stuck out her hand towards the guard and gave him a death stare. The guard seeing this, backed up before bowing and saying, "I-I''m sorry my Queen. It won''t happen again¡­" The queen turned back to me and gave me a quick look up and down. "What is your name human?" "I''m Leo, Leo Walter." She raised an eyebrow. "You''re royalty? What is royalty doing here on dwarven land? You royalty usually stay in the city and do what they want there." "Oh, I''m not royalty. From where I''m from, it''s actually pretty common for people to have a last name. Even beggars have last names." "And where are you from?" "Uhh¡­" I thought for a second for what I should say. "America?" She didn''t say anything so that she could ponder where that was. "I don''t think I know where that place is. However, we don''t have anymore time to waste, we need to talk about everything you know about Aetius and what has happened recently. We''ll decide your face from there." She said before turning around and walking away. All the guards followed her and one of the ones that opened the door and cuffed me pushed me from behind to indicate that I was supposed to follow. I gave them the stink eye as they didn''t even help me up first, but I complied. Hoping that by doing so, I''d receive either some better treatment or something like that. Following along for the next few minutes, we eventually got to a large open room with a large table in the center and a lot of dwarfs sitting along the side of it. The guards pushed me to the opposite end of where the Queen was and made me face all of the dwarfs. If an outsider were to see this, it would be hilarious for them. A somewhat tall human that is almost 3 or so feet taller than everyone around him is being pushed around in a room that is very small for him. "So." Said the queen. "Please tell us everything you know, and we''ll decide your fate after what we learn." "Well," I started. "It all started with this really angry person¡­" 25 Relax After a lengthy hour of being questioned and doing by best at hiding my secrets that I didn''t want to be revealed, I finally got to what was happening right now. After finishing, there was a couple of moments of silence before the queen finally spoke up. "So, you''re saying that Aetius''s followers are trying to kill you¡­" "Yes." "Because you helped another race besides human?" "Yes." There was a second of silence before she started laughing as if it was the best joke that she has ever heard. After the couple of seconds of this crazed laughter, she suddenly hit the table with her fist and spoke to me. "Leo! Because you helped the Elves instead of being like the average human, us Dwarves will help you out!" The other dwarves talked amongst themselves about what she just said. After a bit, the queen asked for a guard and once she got one, she gave them a couple of commands before she used her hand to indicate the guard was supposed to leave. They bowed and then made their way over to me. "Sir Walter," The guard who I know now was female said. "I was told to take you to a room large enough for a human." She then undid my weird stone handcuffs and put them in a little bag around her waist. Without even saying anything, she started walking in the direction of the exit. I turned to say thank you to the Queen but by the time I did, the queen and the others were already deep in conversation about something else. Turning back to the guard, I did a quick jog to catch back up with her. There was no conversation between the two of us as we continued walking in what I felt like was a endless hallway. My map from the system luckily was able to keep track of all of it so if I ever needed to come back here, I would be able to do it with only a bit of difficulty. After around 13ish minutes, we finally got to a metal door that seemed exactly like the prison doors from earlier. The guard turned around to me for a second and said, "Please wait out here for a minute or so Sir Walter. I was told to return everything we took from you." And then going through the door. Just like she promised, after 3 minutes she returned with all of my gear that I had with me physically. I put everything on quickly so that everything would be easier to carry around. Once again, we spent a few more minutes walking around until we once again got to a door. This time however, the door was a simple wooden one which made me question how they got the wood when the entire area around the mountains had almost no trees at all. She stopped walking and indicated the door to me. I didn''t question anything, so I opened the door and walked inside without question. Thankfully, this wasn''t a loony toons cartoon, so there was no random pitfalls or anvils falling down. Inside the room was a simple bed with a small end table nearby. In the center of the room was a little pit with a few pieces of dried wood that once again made me question where they get all of this wood. Above the small fire pit was a tube that split off into many different other smaller tubes. I moved my eyes back and forth between the two before coming up with an idea. Quickly leaving my room to see if there was a guard or anything, I quickly found out that the original female guard was still there just guarding my room. "Hey Ms. Guard Lady, can I ask you for a favor?" I asked after getting her attention. "Can you get me a large metal basin or something? Just something that can hold large amounts of water and what not." By now, you probably know what I was going to do. It''s the most common things about Isekai novels and such but hey, who could blame them? She bowed shortly after and said that she would see what she could do but it might take a while. I just thanked her and went back into my room. Pulling out a few of my books, I started reading them while occasionally attempting to read the contradiction that was the one book every now and then. Doing so got me a few points in intelligence and wisdom which I was always glad to get. After around a half hour I finally got a knock on my door after saying that it was open, a large metal basin was brought into my room. I shook her hands in thanks before pushing her out of the room and telling her not to allow anyone to enter or attempt to talk to me for like the next two hours or so. The entire time she was very confused at everything I was doing, including the handshake. Quickly using some enchanting magic, I made the basin levitate slightly over the pit. Normally this wouldn''t be possible if I were to use enchanting magic as it would require source of lots of mana which the surrounding air wouldn''t be able to provide by itself. However, with me adding into the enchantment that it would take my mana too, it would just barely be possible. It would slowly take all of my mana and put me at zero if I fed it mana for a constant hour or so. Filling it with a bunch of water that I got by embarrassingly asking the guard for it after telling her not to allow herself or anyone else to disturb me, I started the fire in the pit and started heating up the large amounts of water. Once the heat got to a decent amount, I made the fire smaller before putting everything on me into my inventory and awkwardly jumped into the floating basin. Water went everywhere but I decided to clean it up later. For now, I was going to enjoy a nice hot bath. Cause even though I know that there are overused in Isekai stories like I said earlier, who can really argue with the fact that they''re fucking amazing? With one arm on the side of the metal basin and the other one in front of me with a book, I enjoyed this calmness with no worries. I might have stuff to do later but for now its time for me to relax and organize my thoughts in peace. (Authors note: Reminder to everyone to find something calming and relax for an hour or two. I''ve been incredibly busy the last few days and had almost no time to write but just earlier I was able to relax with no worries which helped me finally get this chapter out (Though it may be a bit short). Now below this, you''ll find all of Leo''s stats that are up to date and everything. ~~ Name- Leo Walter Race- Human (Mutated) Class- Arcane Archer + Shown Title- Friend of God (+10 luck per level) + System Points- 851 Hp- 480/480 Mp- 430/430 Previous cost: 275 Xp Level- 8 (Xp- 174/445) *LEVELING METHOD* Min/Max- Only certain stats are raised depending on class. Strength- 50 (+5 from Hero) Dexterity- 67 (+3 per level) (+5 from Hero) Constitution- 48 (+5 from Hero) Intelligence- 45 (+2 per level) (+5 from Hero) Wisdom- 52 (+2 per level) (+5 from Hero) Luck- 125 (+10 from title per level) (+5 from Hero) Copper: 143 Silver: 10 Electrum: 0 Gold: 0 Platinum: 0 Adaptability: Max Level: Able to easily adapt to everything and get new skills or stats through it. Fused with Infinite Growth and Perfect Metabolism and Body to make Apex Body. Infinite Growth: Max Level: Able to grow infinitely without physical, mental, or any other restraints. Fused with Adaptability and Perfect Metabolism and Body to make Apex Body. Perfect Metabolism and Body: Max Level: Makes you unable to gain fat from eating too much and keep fit without needing to workout. Fused with Infinite Growth and Infinite Growth to make Apex Body. Sneak: Level 8: Reduced noise and presence, and slight auto movement away from things that make noise. Archery: Max Level: Increased bow damage, accuracy, and range. Evolved into Mana Archery. Enchanted Arrow: Level 5: Able to enchant an arrow with mana to deal damage in proportion to either your intelligence or how much mana you put in. Mana costs vary. Mana Mark: Level 7: Able to mark an object within a certain range. With this mark, you''re able to find wherever it is within 105 feet. Marking costs vary. Curving Arrow: Can move a marked arrow after shooting it by placing a mana marker on it beforehand. Current range is {Mana Mark}''s range. Mana costs vary. Intermediate Regeneration: Level 3: Give a noticeable natural healing speed. Cannot regrow limbs and organs but can regrow bones. Inspect: Level 5: Able to see the stats and description of objects within sight. With each level, more and more are revealed. Slight Fall Resistance: Level 3: Increases the height you can fall from without getting hurt. Dismantling: Level 6: Understands the basics of skinning and dismantling things Arachnophobia Immunity: Max Level: Can no longer be scared by spiders. Flame Aura: Level 5: Able create an aura of flames around you that burn everything within 1 foot. 5 base damage with +1 damage per level. Dark Vision: Level 8: Able to see in the dark for a certain range. 5 feet per level. Mana Exhaustion Resistance: Level 4: Now less exhausted from overuse of mana. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Mana Regeneration: Level 6: Regenerates mana much quicker. Gives 6 Mp per second. (1 per level) Quick Draw: Level 5: Able to knock an arrow 9 times faster than what you could normally. Headache Resistance: Level 2: Slightly numbs the pain of a headache and makes it harder to get. Combat Roll: Level 8: Able to roll around without much difficulty and keep everything on you without them falling off/apart. Enchanting: Max Level: Able to enchant an item using your knowledge of the Ancient language. Mana cost and Time varies depending on what you''re enchanting. Basic Magic: Max Level: Able to cast basic magic up to a certain amount by speaking in the Ancient Language. Mana costs vary. (Already Evolved) Wordless Magic (Evolved From: Basic Magic): Level 5: Allow for you to use actions, emotions, feelings, and thoughts to control magic into what you want. Mana costs vary. Meditation: Level 4: Increase mana and hp recovery while also allowing the mind to think clearly. Helps reduce/fix psychological problems. Plant Sense: level 2: Able to sense what plant you want within a certain range. 5 feet per level. Knife Throwing: Level 3: Better at throwing knives properly and quickly. Lucky Break: Max Level: When something bad happens, the chance to have something wonderful/wanted to happen increases. Mana Eating: Level 2: Allows you to eat mana safely and gain some minor benefits from it. Basic Earth Attunement: Level 3: Increases strength of earth-based magic by 15%. (5% each level) Tracking: Level 3: Allows you to see tracks from both animals and humanoids by showing a glowing blue light from them. Pain Numbing: Level 6: Numbs pain down to a certain level. Running: Max Level: Increases the speed of running and the duration you can run without getting exhausted. Evolved into Super Speed. Super Speed (Evolved from Running): Level 1: Allows for you to increase running speed by an exponential amount for every level. Also increases reaction speed to help with movement. Currently twice as fast. (Think of flash time from the flash) Mana Archery (Evolved from Archery): Level 2: Allows for creation of a bow made from pure mana to be created and makes arrows of mana when the string is pulled back. Can be used with a regular bow or with regular arrows. Uses mana to create. ~~~~~ Languages Known: Common, German, Elvish, Ancient Protector of the Elves: All Elves will look up to you for what you''ve done for them and see you as one of their own, so they''ll not discriminate against you for your race. Hero: For being recognized by a group for people, they all look up to you and their hopes and dreams fuel you as they increase your stats. The more people that see you as a Hero, the bigger the stat increase. (Currently set to 5) Friend of God: Adds a permanent extra 10 luck each time user levels up. ~~ Also, I''ll be going back to 1500 words per chapter now that I''m back in school. Ciao everyone.) 26 Confusion After the few nice moments of calmness, a few loud knocks echoed from the door. I looked up from my book at stared at the door. "Who is it?" I asked lazily "This is Belle Stormfoot, the guard who''s been assigned to you by the Queen for the duration of your stay." She said "And what does she want with me at the moment? I''m kind of¡­ Busy with something at the moment." I said while indicating at the bath even though nobody could see me "Yes, but she is the Queen. If you are doing what I assume you to be doing, please get yourself at least presentable." I groaned before getting out of the water and stopping the already dying flame. After that I stopped the enchantment and made sure that it slowly floated down to the ground instead of just falling and splashing water everywhere. With that done, I looked around for something to help me dry. "Do you have a towel!?" I yelled out in question. "You''ve got magic from what I''ve heard. Just use that." I grumbled to myself and just complied. After that was done, I equipped my gear and put my bow and quiver on my back. Even though I had {Mana Archery} Which literally makes the bow and arrow from mana, using a regular bow was still preferable for me. Exiting my room, I accidentally walked right into the Guard. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "Sorry about that uh, Belle was it?" "It''s fine Sir Walter." She gave me a quick look up and down. "I see that you''re dressed in your previous gear. If you want, you can wait with me here till its time to go meet the Queen." "Sure, why not." Going back in my room, I grabbed a chair and pulled it out into the hallway and sat down on it. "So, Belle, you ok if I asked you some real quick questions?" She looked at me sitting with the chair in contempt, probably because she herself wasn''t allowed to sit down while at work. "Sure." She said simply "What can you tell me about the world?" I said while looking at the official quest given by the system. "From a dwarven perspective of course. I know the human one, but I would like to hear about it from a different perspective." She once again turned her head back to me which I felt like must''ve been very annoying. "You know, you''re very weird for a human." She said simply before once again, turning back to the wall. "I know I am! Thank you!" I said gleefully. She looked slightly weirded out by this but didn''t turn around this time. "Us Dwarves were born from the ground. When we were first made, were shaped in the image of our Gods. Actual gods, not what you humans think are gods." She started ''Hah! I know the actual god, were the best of pals!'' I thought after hearing this. Immediately after I did- [You''ve got a message from god. The message says, "We''re more like associates. -God"] ''Wow, ok, thought we were friends ;-; '' "Our gods grabbed pieces of different stones and made us with those stones. Each dwarf is different because they were made from different amounts and types of stone. Occasionally there is a special case in which our gods decide to add a diamond or other rare gem to the creation process. This would make that dwarf very special by giving it some special powers, skills, or something. Our gods instructed us to go build and create, so we did. We attempted to stay on land and build there but it didn''t feel right for us. Moving underground and in mountains, we then felt like we were in the correct places. Now feeling at home, we started doing what our gods wanted us to do. We learned how to transform the surrounding metals of the ground into beautiful creations, the gems and diamonds into little trinkets and jewelry, and the stone itself into our furniture. From there on, we continued doing this until something miraculous happened, you see-" At that point, loud footsteps were heard making their way in our direction. Belle, who was slowly starting to learn against the wall, straightened up and stood at attention. Slowly, the Queen started coming around the corner with her guards. The previous guard who was very rude to me earlier, was gone so that was nice. "My Queen" Belle said as she bowed. She was about to say something else but the Queen raised her hand to stop her from speaking. "I see that you got our guest here dressed, though it may not be actual decent clothing. You are dismissed, we''ll be doing the rest from here." The Queen said. Belle bowed before walking away in what I thought was a random direction as I still didn''t know the entire map for the area. "Follow me and we''ll discuss your fate now that we now everything. I can promise that you won''t be killed because you were nice to the other races from what we''ve heard from both you and the Elves." The Queen said. "You talked to the Elves? Aren''t they many miles away?" I asked questioningly while following behind her. "I had someone cast the sending spell." She replied without even turning around. Nothing more was said for the next few minutes until we got to what I assumed to be a dinning area from all the food on the tables. The Queen went to one side of the table, sat down, and then indicated for me to sit down in the chair opposite of her, which was pretty far away cause of how big the table was. She started eating with perfect etiquette as she took her sweet time. I however, was very hungry from Evolving and not eating for the last couple of hours. Chowing down, I ate as much as I could until I was unable to eat anymore. Some of the guards stared at me in either amazement or fright by how much I was eating and I made sure to take a mental picture of it because of how funny I found it. After I finished and a couple of minutes passed in which the Queen finished eating as well, all the food was removed, and I was facing the Queen directly. "Soooo.... We''re talking about my fate?" I asked "Yes, we are." Replied the Queen. "As you can probably guess from our previous conversations, we''ve been having multiple problems with Aetius and the humans who''ve started following him because they believe him to be a god. From what I learned from the Elves by having my Wizards casting sending a couple of times, everything you''ve said was able to be confirmed as truth. All the other races and I believe that you''d be able to help us achieve our goal if you''d be willing to help. Just know, that even if you don''t want to, you''d still leave alive, just with your memories altered and such." "And what is your goal exactly? I can make assumptions that its something to do with other humans and Aetius but other than that, I can''t really tell." I replied while fiddling around with a fork in hand. "Well it''s simple, we want your help in removing the Human''s false god and returning them to their former glory. You current Humans may not know this but back when you first came into existence, you were so much nicer! You were like the youngest child of the races and everyone wanted to take care of you. The other races of course still waged war and such but we all left it out of it and let you grow without anything affecting you. We wanted to see what you could do." Then she scowled. "But then things changed. People started believing in Aetius and doing as he said and followed him without question. That previously nice race evolved into one that now made every other race hate them their entire being. Now don''t get me wrong, there''s still some good Humans here and there as shown by you, but it very rare to see." "I think I get your point. You want humans to return to their former glory and niceness that they once were by removing Aetius. Though how do you plan to do that?" "War is upon us Leo; can''t you see the signs? After a few centuries of peace, it was bound to start again because of Aetius. To start this war, he''ll have to exert lots of power to make sure that he wins this time. Doing this will make him weak and give us the chance that we''ve been needing to finally kill him. So let me ask you once again Leo, will you be willing to help all the races and I return you Humans to your former glory? Will you help us kill that False God? 27 Dwarven Training I put my hand up and asked for a moment to think. She just simply nodded and didn''t say anything. A couple of moments passed with silence before I spoke up again. "You know your idea is insane right?" I asked. "How so?" She responded back simply while taking a sip from a glass of wine. "Just because you remove Aetius, that won''t mean the Humans will go back to their former selves. They''ve had many years of being like that and just removing him won''t change what they''ve been like." I tried reasoning "Yes, but we have to try!" She said with determination. I rubbed the bridge of my nose. "I''ll help you kill Aetius and what not." Her face lit up. "But that doesn''t mean the Humans will become nice again. That''s an entire other problem you and the other races will have to deal with." Her face lit up with joy. "That''s great to hear! Now we need to get you on the field and actually learn to fight!" She said with a bit too much joy. "Wait wha- "I tried saying before two guards picked me up by the arms and started dragging me off somewhere. "WAIT A MOMENT, AREN''T I ALREADY TRAINED ENOUGH!?" "Oh honey, you''re not even close." She said with a tone that hinted at disbelief. "I''m honestly surprised that you''re still alive from traveling from the Elves to here." By now I was quite a distance away from the Queen, she just waved me goodbye as I was entering a hallway. Eventually I was no longer able to see nothing but the stone hallway as the two guards continued to drag me to wherever our destination was. Once again, I thought to myself how weird this must''ve looked. Two buff dwarfs dragging a above average height (Average height is 5ft 8) Human down a long dark hallway. It''s kind of like my life was some weird comedy adventure story that just started off with a random plot that eventually evolved into something different¡­ Nah, like that would ever be true. Eventually after a couple more turns, we got to a large open room with a bunch of other dwarves standing in lines. Each dwarf was equipped with a weapon, either a battle-axe, hammer, hand axe, or Warhammer. Some of them were also equipped in medium-plate armor, the rest were wearing some light leather gear. Once I was dragged to the front of the room, I was laid down in front of a dwarf who had a bunch of metals and badges adorned on his set of full-plate armor. The two guards two dragged me put their fist over their heart and their left arm at their side. "GENERAL!" They yelled. "At ease soldiers." The General said to the guards before looking down at me sitting. "Ah, seems like you decided to accept our Queens choice. That was the smartest decision you could pick." He looked at the other Dwarves and said something in Dwarvish (which I couldn''t understand at the moment) which made the people standing in line laugh but the two guards to just force themselves to hold back a laugh. I assumed it was some sort of insult about me being human or something. The usual stuff. Getting off the ground, I brushed off all the dust that I could from being dragged and did a slight elven bow to the General. His face showed slight amusement of me doing this and everyone else stopped laughing as well. "You seem to have learned etiquette from the Elves. I''ve heard much from the Queen and it seems you having learned from the Elves was true as well. I am General Baern of the FireFist clan and I welcome you to the Dwarven army." He said while stroking his long beard. "Normally I would make you pick an actual weapon like an axe or hammer, but I can see from the bow on your back that the Elves decided to ''mark'' you for themselves. Here, come and show me what you can do with that bow." He told one of the other dwarfs nearby to continue with the training before walking me over to one side of the room that had less people in it and telling me to get my bow ready. I complied and got out my bow and knocked an arrow into place. Reaching for the back of his belt, he pulled out an iron mug. "I''m going to throw this mug into the air, and I want you to hit it as soon as you can. Ready? One¡­ Two¡­ Three..." He said as he started getting his arm into a throwing position. But before he said go, he quickly brought the mug down onto my shoulder. *You''ve taken 5 Bludgeoning Damage! "GO!" and then threw the mug. Because I was hit by the mug on my shoulder, I let go of the arrow and lost focus on where I expected the mug to go. "What the hell man!?" I asked the General. He took a moment to respond and just stroked his beard. "Just like I thought. You and the Elves are both way to easy to trick and focus to much on what''s at hand. Here, let''s try this again." He went and grabbed the mug before coming back over to me and telling me to get ready as well. "One¡­ Two¡­ Three¡­" And just when I thought he was about to hit me again; I quickly took a step to the side and got my arrow ready to fire. However, the mug never came down as it was already up in the air. I released my arrow without aiming in hopes that I would still somehow hit it but sadly my luck of 125 did absolutely nothing as my arrow passed right by it. "Once again, you''re too much like the elves. Those long living folk focus on their arts more then anything. They put to much work on stealth, magic, and archery over actual combat skills." He said while shaking his head in disappointment. "I guess I''ll have to teach you from the very start like a baby dwarf. Come, throw your bow to the ground and get your fists up, we''ll force them basics into you." I looked at my bow and mentally thought of the similarities between myself and the Elves. Eventually I did think that I might be copying them a bit too much as I had a bunch of their skills and other stuff. Putting my bow and quiver on the ground gently, I got into what I assumed would be a decent fighting position. "Ready?" The General asked. "Ready." I replied confidently. The General hearing this smirked and then quickly closed the distance between us, much quicker then one would think a dwarf could do. Within a second, he was already in front of me and getting ready to punch me in the gut. I went to Dark Souls my way out of this but sadly as I got ready to combat roll away, the punch already connected directly in my gut. *You''ve taken 75 Bludgeoning Damage! This punch lifted me slightly off the ground and when I fell back to the ground, the General didn''t spare a moment and punched me again with his other arm. *You''ve taken 100 Bludgeoning Damage! I stumbled back from this punch before falling to a knee and holding my stomach. "You know, you''re not as fragile as the Elves, I''ll say that at least." He said while ever so slowly closing the gap between us. Once he was right in front of me, he grabbed me by my hair and pulled my head up to look him directly in the eye. "Can''t you just train me the regular way?" I pleaded He just laughed upon hearing this. "Kid, this is nothing what you''re going to be facing when we''re going against the humans and eventually Aetius. We don''t have time to start off teaching you step by step. We need to teach you quickly and efficiently." He punched me in the face. "And this is the best way to do it." *You''ve taken 150 Bludgeoning Damage! I took a quick look at my HP and saw that I only had 150 left. Blood was running out of my nose and down my face from the punch of the General and I was pretty sure that some of my internal organs were messed up from just the 2 punches as well. ''System, what happens when I drop to 0 hp?'' [You''ll go unconscious.] The System replied simply Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. ''And then what?'' [I do not know.] It once again replied simply. By now, the General had his fist near his head, ready to punch my face as soon as he wanted. The fist then started coming towards me and when I thought it was about to hit me again, I closed my eyes ready to feel the pain. But it never came. Opening one eye, I saw the fist right in front of me. "Step 1." The General said. "Never close your eyes in a fight." And then used his legs to kick me in the guts, once again lifting me off the ground. *You''ve taken 150 Bludgeoning Damage! You are now Unconscious. 28 Rationality or Instinct? Author''s Note- Before we start this chapter, I want to say that this is slightly different then the usual chapter. What you''ll read just below this is Leo''s thoughts about something and it''s something I wanna try focusing on later. So because it''s a bit different and the way I tried formatting it, the chapter might not be the greatest. I tried though and that''s what matter! ... Hopefully. ~~~~~~~ Trust my instincts or listen to a rational mind? This is what I thought of while unconscious. In some stories (and sometimes the real-world) when people trust their instincts, they''re able to dodge things they didn''t know of, have a sense of what to do properly, or convince the brain what''s the right course of action. On the other hand, you have people who rely upon their rational mind to solve a problem. They use their mind to tell their body what is right and what''s wrong. They use it when they know their instincts are incorrect and based on their genetics fear of something. But what is right? Often in stories you hear about how they focus entirely on one or the other but then always make fun of the other. They then also insult anyone who doesn''t follow their choice of thing to follow. By now, I had opened by eyes while thinking about this. My mind had wandered to what the general was doing and made me question what to do. If I followed my mind, I might''ve been able to understand that he was going to do something different the second time. If I followed my instincts, I might''ve been able to properly dodge or understand that he was going to attempt some sort of trick. A few minutes passed as I thought about it. During this time, a few other dwarfs noticed that I was awake. They didn''t try to start a conversation or anything but just stared at me in confusion as to why I was just staring at the ceiling and saying nothing after being beat up so badly. Eventually, one of the dwarfs did start a conversation. "Excuse me lad, but why are you staring at the ceiling?" He asked "Thinking about what''s better." I replied flatly The dwarf turned to the others and shrugged. "Well we have training in an hour, and I don''t think the General would like to hear that you''re staying here instead of coming back to training now that you''re fully healed." My mind temporarily went back to the beating the General gave me. I groaned in contempt at the thought of moving but eventually sat up. Now that I was no longer staring at the ceiling, I was now able to look around the room and question how I got here. At the moment, I appeared in a barracks like room with a bunch of beds along the side of the room. Everyone was wearing some sort of armor and had their weapons holstered. "How''d I even get here?" I asked the small group of people. "After the general knocked ya out, he told us that you''d be part of our training group. So, we dragged you back here to get some rest and heal up from the beating and I must say, after only 3 hours of rest, you''ve healed up pretty well." One of the dwarfs said. I looked over at my stats really quickly and thought that I was about halfway to being fully healed up. My mana was full as I didn''t use any of it during the "training" with the General and had an amazing mana regeneration. Speaking of regeneration, my {Intermediate Regeneration} leveled up! Getting out of the stone bed, I did a quick stretch before feeling a bit hungry, probably because of regeneration consuming a bunch of calories even though I just had a bunch of food prior to training with the General. "Can we get something to eat really quick? Maybe a drink too, I''m actually quite thirsty as well..." I said before mumbling only to myself. "Might be cause of all the blood I had leaking out of my nose..." The dwarfs turned to each other before giving a hearty laugh. "You speak like a true dwarf there lad! Just woke up and want some food and a nice drink! How about you go clean yourself up in there bathroom and then we''ll make our way to the mess-hall?" He said while pointing at a door. I gave him a thumbs up before heading to the bathroom. All there was inside the bathroom was a simple hole in the ground. I looked at it in disgust before making a mental note to find out if there was a proper bathroom somewhere here. With the thing I wanted in the bathroom not being here (An actual toilet and mirror), I decided to rely on the next best things. Magic and the system. ''System, please give me a mirror I can use please. Spend at most like 5 or 10 system points if you have to.'' [Confirmed. Deducting 4 System Points. Handheld Mirror now in Inventory.] Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. I thanked it before quickly taking out the mirror and checking out my face. All over my mouth and a bit on my neck was all the blood that ran down my nose. The General hit hard and this just proved it. Using magic, I cleaned myself up the best I could before regretfully having to go to the bathroom in the hole. I immediately used magic to clean up the place and then left the bathroom. The guys immediately took me to the mess hall and brought over a couple of drinks and a bit of food for me to eat. Mostly drinks though. I stared at my drink for a bit and sniffed it. From what I could tell, it was made of something foul and rotten as the drink smelled horrible. Though looking at the dwarves who were currently chugging it like they haven''t had a drop of water their entire lives, it was the best thing in existence. My instincts told me that drinking this was a horrible idea. My mind on the other hand said that it probably wouldn''t be as bad as I expected. The mental dilemma came to mind again. Which do you rely on? The dwarfs were drinking it and didn''t seem to have a problem with it. But I also wasn''t a dwarf. I pushed it to the side, relying on my instincts this time and asking for something less¡­ Dwarvish to drink. They looked at each other before sighing in disappointment but hey, I didn''t want to risk it. I at the food they gave me while once again contemplating. I just couldn''t get it out of my head for some reason. After a while I had a mug of water given to me by the group which I kindly thanked them for before spending a few more minutes finishing up my food and drinks. By this time, we had about a half hour left till training according to the group and it takes about 15 minutes to walk to the intended location. So, for 15 minutes we just talked. We had a good time and got to know each other. The first person I talked to who asked me what I was doing when I woke up was Grel. He relied more on being light on his foot compared to the regular dwarf as he was a scout that tried to get things done quickly as he said. Though it was mostly to run away according to the group. One of the other dwarfs was Gunther, a wizard or sorcerer wannabe who decided to incorporate magic into his fighting style. He called himself an Eldritch knight or something. The group shook their heads in disappointment upon hearing what he called himself. Next was Flint who was a bard or so his friends said. He was around only for a few seconds before he walked away from the group to a girl and said something that caused her to slap him. His only reaction upon getting slapped was laughing and saying something back to the girl before finger gunning and then leaving. Finally, was Vondal, a Paladin of an actual god unlike what Humans usually do. He worshiped Moradin who was pretty much everything a dwarf would want. Moradin did blacksmithing, protected families, helped the earth become more stone like, etc etc. However, he was also "addicted" to Moradin as he based his entire life to pleasing, meeting, and then one day dying for him. Hearing all this, I automatically knew the problem with my group. It was the weird one. The group that everyone picked on because of the way they were or just because of how they did things. By the time I was introduced to everyone, we only had the 15 minutes left to get to training with the General, so we started making our way there. We got in line with me at the end and just waited there patiently for the General to show up. He eventually came about 5 minutes later while barking out orders to the closest groups about what to do and what to focus on for todays training. When he eventually got to our group, he gave me a big smile. "Well well well, looks like someone''s back for another training session." He said. I looked at him with a bit of hate. "Did you really give me this type of group?" I asked questioningly "Yes." He replied simply. 30 Underground Hot Spring I watched the rest of the fights and laughed here and there at some stupid stuff they did. Grel tried running around the area to tire out Gunther but Gunther just threw a fire-bolt at him and successfully knocked him out in one hit. Flint (The bard) tried seducing Vondal but I think we can all see where that ended up. During the matches I also occasionally poked at my bruises to see if they still hurt or not and they still did. Eventually training came to an end with the General telling all of us to go clean ourselves, get something to eat, and then go to sleep so that we''d be prepared for training tomorrow morning. Hearing the General, everyone started leaving the room and heading towards this worlds version of showers. A couple of minutes passed before we eventually made it to a giant open area with half of it being filled with hot water that was steaming the entire time. On the side of the rooms were small little areas to personally wash yourselves before you actually went in the hot water or so said my group. Everyone immediately stripped down to their underwear and rushed over to the little cleaning areas. I just shook my head in disappointment from their lack of embarrassment but then again, they''ve probably been doing this their entire lives. I bought a bathing suit for 15 System points, used the system to equip it and store my gear, and then went to go clean myself. The water used for cleaning wasn''t that warm and made me actually shiver a bit from it. After finishing that up and making myself still decent, I joined the others in the Hot Spring to "unwind" from all of today stress and training. They all jumped in but as I got closer to the spring, I noticed how hot it was. Just by standing about 20 or so feet away from it, I was sweating like a the one guy from the Airplane movie by Paramount pictures . Forcing myself to take one step forwards, I expected {Fire Resistance} to make it easier for me to handle the heat and level up but instead I was rewarded with the {Minor Heat Resistance} skill. Asking the system why, it said that {Fire Resistance} only protected me from heat generated from an actual flame while {Minor Heat Resistance} was just for heat in general. By the time I finally got to the hot spring, {Minor Heat Resistance} already leveled up to level 4 and even then I was still only barely manageable. Dipping just a toe in, I took 15 Scalding damage and immediately had {Minor Heat Resistance} level up. Eventually {Minor Heat Resistance} got to level 8 at which point it became akin to a very hot bath, though to get to this point, I took almost 100 damage. Once I finally was in, the group came over and talked to me to help pass the time. Around a half-hour passed as we enjoyed the heat and talked about stuff. I was able to convince them to talk to me about the world from their perspectives and all I learned was pretty much the same from Eric from the inn except what it was like for them. Thankfully, this was enough to finish the quest that I had gotten from what I would say was around 13 chapters ago if this was some sort of story, which it isn''t. The basis of the quest was just to learn more about the past from other race''s perspectives and the reward from it was a random high-ranking Human skill. It asked if I wanted the skill now or wait collect it later (which I found no point in) so I accepted it immediately. [Rolling die for random high-ranking Human skill.... ..... ..... Die has landed on {Human Adaptability} but because user has the Ultimate version of skill, die will be re-rolled. Re-rolling... .... .... Die has landed on {Quick Improvisational Thinking} allowing you to think of something on the spot by allowing you to use past experiences to think of a solution.] I stared at the skill in confusion as I assumed that literally every race was able to do it. Shaking my head to stop thinking about it and just accepting the skill, the group and I finally got out, dried ourselves off, got dressed, and finally went to the mess hall to get something to fill our stomachs after the hour long training session with the General. At the mess hall, there was a lot of meat and mushrooms with some things of bread here and there. There was also of course the weird drink that the dwarfs seemed to love and I was still thinking about avoiding just because it irked me wrong. However, even though I was thinking about it, I was unable to avoid it. Flint brought over around 10 entire mugs filled with the stuff and put one in front of me. This mug had only a little bit and everyone in the group was cheering me on to drink it, even Vondal who as a Paladin, I was pretty sure wasn''t supposed to peer pressure someone. I tried refusing multiple times but eventually I drank a bit of it and honestly it went against my expectations. Though it smelled and looked both rotten and foul, it actually tasted pretty sweet and wasn''t that bad. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. But it also made me drunk immediately. My vision almost immediately became useless as everything I saw was blurred and constantly moving around with every little head sway and my attempted movements almost never did anything I wanted it to do. Time seemed to pass in a flash and the next thing I knew, my head hurt. And holy fucking shit did I mean my head hurt. Whatever happened after trying the drink I couldn''t really remember. There was some laughing and a lot of puking from what I could vaguely recall if not for the taste I had in my mouth when I woke up back in bed where I woke up from the first fight. I got myself into a sitting position and cradled my head. Taking a quick peak at a long list of notifications my drunk self didn''t pay attention to, I saw that I had level 4 {Alcohol Resistance} and {Headache Resistance} leveled up 3 more times. I could only imagine how bad the headache would be without the skill being at it''s current level, even though it was only level 5. Looking just below that notification from the system, I groaned in self disappointment at what I saw. Apparently, I was wrong about my drunk self not looking at the notifications. It seems I was actually so smart that to allow myself to stay drunk in my drunken mess that I was, I had the system delete both skills whenever I was rewarded them. Luckily I didn''t ask it to make it impossible for me to get those skills anymore or else I would be dying. In good new though I had a long rest and got 8 more points into Intelligence which increases the effectiveness of my spells and ability to learn things. Wooo! Pulling out my magical bottle of water that could hold 10 gallons of water and started chugging like my life depended on it and from what I could feel from the headache, it really seemed like it did. The headache went down a bit as I replaced the much needed bodily fluids that kept my life blood nice and healthy.... I''m never saying/thinking those words again. That was just horrible. Anyways, I looked around the room and saw that literally everyone was fine. I blame it on their dwarven resilience or something. It probably gave them advantage on saving throws against poison and resistance against poison damage too! (Author Note- Good job if you thought this was funny, I thought it was but my friends just shook their head in disappointment.) Getting out of bed, I went to the bathroom, looked in horror at myself in the mirror, cleaned myself up, and then joined the others on their way to breakfast. While there, they were constantly talking about what I did last night and I had no clue what was true or false because some of those things seemed highly impossible and others made a lot of sense. One of them was me apparently using my bow to try and shoot a roast turkey out of the air that someone threw. Then, miss dramatically and hit them in the neck with the turkey landing on their lap. This one seemed probable. Another one was that I joined Flint in a mission to seduce the ever living hell out of everything I saw. and I. Mean. EVERYTHING.... Fine, I tried to seduce a chair.... Not my finest hour but hey, I was drunk... I got up from where I was seated and went to get more food to calm my mind and stomach. "Fuck you guys." I said as I passed them. They just stayed silent for a few seconds before starting to cry and laugh at the same time. "Really. I fucking hate you guys." 31 Shortening of Time Author''s Note- Hiya, I just wanted to let you know that I''m going to try and attempt to change the way I write my story. The way I currently write it makes everything fly by really quickly and it''ll probably finish really quickly at the pace it''s currently going and if I stay along the path I wanted it to end at. The way I''ll be doing this is by just extending the details of everything, adding more jokes. and allowing more words and stuff into the mix. Kinda like what I''m doing now to hit my work count... Yup. But anyways, if this chapter doesn''t work out that well, I''ll go back to my old writing style and try finding another way to extend the pace of it or something. ... ... I also wonder if people still read these because of how often I do them and everything... ~~~~~~~~~~ A few weeks passed by as I trained constantly with the group and the General. Everyday was pretty much the same thing over and over with me being beaten up, slightly raising my skills, getting blackout drunk thanks to the group, and getting a daily increase of 8 points in my weakest stat score which I feel like is very OP (A/N- It is ;-; Curse my stupidity.) First, let''s talk about my skills and what happened to them over the last 3 weeks. First my {Alcohol Resistance} became level 8 and has seemed to have stagnated even though I constantly get drunk. {Quick Improvisational Thinking} increased only by a singular level and still didn''t seem to do that much. {Taekwondo} became level 6 after constantly kicking people and things over and over. Hell, I even kicked myself in the face once and leveled it up. {Basic Earth Attunement} increased by one bringing it to 4 even though I did nothing but live underground for a while... Still have no clue why it leveled up though. {Knife Throwing} increased by two bringing it to level 7 and allowing me to throw a knife pretty well. {Meditation} increased by two as well, brining it to level 6 after I realized how useful it was after every spar I had with the general and the group. {Quick Draw} leveled up once bringing it to level 6 and allowing me to draw an arrow 12 times faster than usual which still felt incredibly slow against everyone unless I was using {Super Speed} and even then it still felt slow. Makes you wonder what their stats are like right? {Intermediate Regeneration} leveled up once bringing it to level 5 and that only happened because of how bad I was doing when faced against someone who wasn''t purely melle based and had to get close to me allowing me to fire arrows back. {Pain Numbing} also leveled up once bringing it to level 6 as well probably for the same exact reason. And finally, the last skill that leveled up during my 3 weeks of training with the dwarves was, drum roll please... {Slight Fall Resistance}! Probably forgot I had that skill didn''t ya? It leveled up only once but the way I leveled it up was incredibly stupid. I was walking down to training one day and sneezed from the dust in the air or something and the momentum of the sneeze and me walking caused me to somehow fall face first into the wall before I backed up and fell on my butt causing the skill to level up. If you''ve been keeping track as well, you probably noticed that no magic skills leveled up. That was because I was told not to and even when I attempted to do it in secret, the somehow figured it out and sent me to train with the General. Ever since that day, I would try here and there to work on my magic but some fucking how they always found out and would send me to the General who had a face of pure rage every single time. I have nightmares about that face. Now that you''re caught up with all the skills and stuff, let me tell you what''s happening right now. Currently, I am waiting in line to talk to the Queen because I was told by a guard that she wanted to speak to me and sadly I wasn''t given a fast pass to skip this wonderful line and talk to her directly. I spend a solid hour or so passing the time with my new friend Ashanti something something. Forgot what her last name was but she was a very nice old dwarf who said that I reminded her of her grandson. She also attempted to pat me on my head but failed miserably so I just knelt down and hugged her instead. After the nice talk and encounter with my now Dwarf Grandma, I finally got to the end of the line and was able to walk through the doors guarded by the Queen''s guards and talk to the Queen. The Queen herself sat in a throne made of solid gold with diamonds, emeralds, rubys, and various other fancy gems embedded into it. In front of her throne was stairs leading up to her with two brazier at the very top which were also both lit and making the only light in the room. "Leo!" The Queen called out upon seeing me come through the doors. "It''s so nice to see you again. Though I wonder what took you so long. Did the Guard just talk to you a few minutes ago or did you wait in that dreadfully awful line outside the doors?" Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. I looked behind me to the doors before turning back. "I waited in line. Asked one of the guards if I should wait or if they knew what I needed to do. They just pointed to the line with a dead look before turning back to face something off in the distance." I replied before shrugging. She shook her head. "Tsk Tsk Tsk, it seems like I''ll have to talk to that guard once I get some free time. But that''s not what I summoned you here for today. I''ve heard from the General that you''ve finally reached the strength of one of our own!" "Really?!" I asked both in surprise and question. "Yes! A dwarven child." She said while smiling as if what she just said was a compliment. "While this may not seem like much to you, it means you''ve finally reached the strength required to do a mission or two for me and gain some much needed experience on how to do somethings." "Ok but what kind of missions would you allow someone with the strength of a child to do?" "Oh very simple and easy ones of course! What you''ll be doing is delivering things that I need delivered and stick around that person who''ll teach you a few things. This should hopefully give you some experience. Including if they''re about to fight something and request your help, though you may still be incredibly weak." I covered my face with my hands and screamed internally. I was originally hoping that I would be able to do something cool like become part of the fight and show how much I learned or something. But nope, I''m going to be a delivery boy for the Queen. "Reginald, would you kindly bring over Leo''s new gear and stuff please?" She asked one of the guards before turning back to me. "I had some equipment handmade just for you. I hope they fit and that they allow people to understand your new job assigned to me." By this time, the guards who the Queen called Reginald had came up to me with some regular looking clothing and a satchel which seemed to have something in it already. "Go find a place to get dressed and then visit the General, he will be your first delivery for the day before he sends you off to your next one who will then do the same and so forth. Once I get word from other people about certain things, we''ll see about what you''ll do next after this job. Now run off and do your job to the best of your abilities! Toodaloo~." A guard put their hand on their back and slightly pushed me to the doors. I quickly left before going to the room where the group and I slept and happily found that they weren''t there. Gently placing the satchel on my bed to not destroy whatever was in it, I held the clothes in hand before spiking it into the ground with disdain over what just happened. Doing this a few more times, I alleviated the anger in my system of the stupidity of what I was just assigned to do and everything. All I could imagine was a young post boy back on earth who ran an errand or two for their parents and got repaid with like a dollar or two. It felt morally degrading and I hated that I was still somehow incredibly weak even though I trained for a while with a bunch of cheats, increasing all my scores to be above 80 which means they pretty much doubled, and even then still couldn''t hold a finger against even Grel who''s entire thing about combat was running away and my thing about shooting people who were running away. I continued to grumble and mumble to nobody but myself about how stupid this was while I started getting dressed in the clothing that I was given after a quick spending of 3 System points to clean it. After getting dressed fully, I looked in my handheld mirror and could only look at how stupid I looked. I could feel my self confidence dropping to the negatives as seconds passed. Breathing in deeply in hopes that I would be able to think of something to regain some self confidence, I went to the satchel before quickly looking inside to see what I was going to be delivering. Inside was a simple white scroll with a red wax seal keeping it closed. There was no heavy signifer about what it was about so I simply put the scroll back into the satchel, put the satchel on, and the left my room while hoping that I didn''t actually look as stupid that I thought I did. 32 Insane Old Man My steps echoed throughout the dull stone hallways that the dwarves built as I slowly made my way to the training area where the General and my group where. I tapped my fingers on the satchel that had the white scroll inside of it and continued to wonder what secrets it would contain. I quickly got to the training area as I thought about this and the General as usual was berating people and forcing people to push past their limits. Though for some reason though, he was saying "Plus Ultra" or something this time. He quickly noticed me enter the room with my very un-fancy mail-boy outfit and yelled out my name for everyone else to hear and bring their attention to me. Everyone in the room was just staring at me in either confusion or disappointment at what I was wearing. By the time I was right in front of the general, he was already holding the bridge of his nose as if he was very disappointed in something. That something I assumed was me. "Eric..." He said while still holding the bridge of his nose. "I knew you had no common sense but are you really that much of an idiot?" He indicated to my clothing. "The Queen gave them to me. Wasn''t I supposed to wear them?" I asked "No. Just no." He said after releasing a breath he was holding in. "You should know how the Queen is by now. She just gave you that clothing because she thought it would be cute or funny. Maybe both." I looked down at the ground in disappointment. "Did you really have to call everyone''s attention to me then?" "No but that''s only because I did it on instinct without noticing what you were wearing in the first place. Sorry Leo." The General said with actual concern. I sighed but pulled the scroll out of the satchel given to me and handed it to him. He took it before quickly breaking the seal and reading the contents of it. After a couple of seconds he crumpled up the scroll and threw it behind him. "It''s official." He said. "The Queen is a fuckin idiot." There was complete silence for a few seconds. "What?" I asked simply. "According to what was written down, she wants you to deliver stuff to people to gain experience on stuff and learn new things. But she also wants you to be there for a few seconds before you''re sent on another pointless delivery. I''m pretty sure that you have at least some common sense to how bad that is... Though you did dress up in the outfit gave you without question so you may actually not. Anyways though, I''m changing her orders. For the next week or so, you''ll be training underneath high-position dwarfs to learn more about our culture and learn how we do things here. That way, when you actually join the war, and visit the other races, you''ll be proud to say that you know the dwarvish way!" I raised my hand. "Do I have to?" He stared me down before kicking me out of the room physically and metaphorically. Along the way however he also gave me a hastily written paper that told me where to go for my first "Internship" or so I liked to call it. For the day, I would be learning from Erisdrem Wararm, a blacksmith who became popular by popularizing a different type of blacksmithing that sped up the amount of time required to forge something properly. Following the direction, I took multiple left turns, multiple right turns, and eventually got back to the training area. Rechecking the directions, I once again followed them directly back to the same place a couple more times. Eventually a random dwarf I came upon was good enough to give me the proper directions. Times like these make me hate the mini-map for having fog-of-war and not allowing me to see places I haven''t been. Oh the fun it would be to find my way to somewhere without ever getting lost. After about half an hour of walking, I finally got to two large metal doors that seemed to comically oversized for your average sized dwarf. After knocking, I heard a bunch of metal fall to the floor, a lot of swearing, and a lot of scrambling to get to the door. The door opened with a shorter then average dwarf with a very short haircut and beard that were currently on fire at the moment. He also had glasses that had ash or something all over them making it supposedly impossible to see through. "YES?!" The dwarf both screamed and questioned. I winced slightly upon hearing his voice. It was a weird mixture of very high pitch and very off key of a regular voice. "Hi yes, I''m here by orders of the General to learn underneath you for a day." I said while pulling out the paper given to me. He took a quick look at the paper before turning back to me and once again screaming and questioning at the same time, "YOU''RE GOING TO HAVE TO SPEAK UP A BIT. MY HEARING ISN''T WHAT IT WAS LIKE A FEW DECADES AGO!?" I quickly bought a pen with 1 system point and wrote on the back of the paper what I just said a few seconds ago. Once I was done writing, I turned it to him to read even though I was questioning why the General sent me to this Dwarf of all dwarfs. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. The dwarf took a few seconds to look at my paper before taking off his glasses, cleaning them in his still on fire beard, and then put them back on as they sprouted a small flame on them. "HMMM, I SEE." He looked up to me after looking at the paper. "I CAN''T READ THIS." My eye twitched slightly before I mashed the paper into a ball and threw it behind me. I rubbed the sides of my head for a bit and questioned how I could tell him what the General assigned me to do. Eventually I tried something very basic. I pointed at the room. I then pretended I had a hammer. Then I started to hammer the air. And finally pointed between ourselves. He gasped in enlightenment. "I SEE! YOU WANT ME TO TEACH YOU BLACKSMITHING UNDER THE ORDERS OF THE GENERAL AFTER HE READ THE INITIAL ORDERS OF THE QUEEN BUT FOUND THEM TO BE STUPID BECAUSE SHE WANTED YOU TO SPEND A FEW SECONDS WITH PEOPLE AND EXPECTED YOU TO GET A LOT OF EXPERIENCE FROM THAT!" I was holding my hands over my ears and was forcing myself to understand what he was saying. Once he did finish speaking, I nodded and gave him a thumbs up to indicate that what he was saying was correct. He cackled both insanely for a few seconds that eventually turned into a hearty laugh. "Ok, you reader to start learning kid?" The dwarf said suddenly in a crystal clear voice and one that was easily understood. "Wait... You can speak normally?" I questioned. "Yup. I got word for the General a few minutes before you got here that you''d be coming and I decided that it would be good to mess with you. Also where did you get that writing device? It appeared to have just appeared out of thin air!" I looked at the pen in hand before throwing it behind me with the paper that I threw there just a few seconds ago. "I don''t know. Magic or something." He nodded in understanding. "Magic can be a weird and mysterious thing. That''s why I like to stay here in the forge and work with my hands. Much easier then what those magic people do." I shrugged as he lead me through the doors into a room that was very VERY hot. He closed the doors behind him as he walked me over to one of the walls that had a little pool of lava flowing into a little pit. "These are what keep the forge nice and hot." He said as he reached into the lava. "I like to store some of my metal in here before working on them as it allows me to work on them much quicker then if I have to heat them up later." I nodded my head while wiping away some sweat. Pulling out a large hammer, he placed some of the metal from the lava on the ground nearby before hitting it with the hammer and causing a large indent into it which seemed impossible because of his size and body frame. The dwarf was while average size, was still very skinny and looked to have almost no muscle on him. But according to what I just saw, he was possibly one of the strongest dwarfs here. (Or so I think, I haven''t met them all yet.) "So Leo," He asked after hitting it a few more time. "Would you like to give it a try?" as he put the hammer out for me to grab. I hesitated for a moment before grabbing it and responding with a simple, "Sure." 34 Incapable Reaching out and grabbing the hammer, the Smith as I''m calling him, gave a big grin before letting go of the hammer. Expecting the hammer not to weigh much, I didn''t use any strength to hold it in place. Contrary to my belief the hammer actually weighed a ton. The hammer went head first directly into the stone ground and left the handle hanging upwards with my hand still on it. I tried lifting it up but no matter how much strength I put into it, I was unable to lift it even a singular millimeter. The Smith ''gently'' slapped me on the back with so much force that I was forced to move a foot or so just to carry out the momentum he gave me. "Come on, put your back into it!" He said. I glared at him but he didn''t seem to care. Moving back in place, I got ready once again to move the hammer but this time with both hands and with my legs. After a solid minute of doing this and sweating like crazy, eventually something in my right arm popped. *You''ve injured your shoulder! You''ve taken Falling onto the ground, I put my hand around my right shoulder and held onto it hoping that it would help with the pain. "You hurt yourself while trying to lift a simple hammer?" He asked while shaking his head. "Guess you''re not cut out for this line of work." "That is anything but a simple hammer. Whatever you metal or magic that is made out of is something way to heavy! There''s even a crater there after dropping it a few feet." I nodded over to the hammer and crater in front of me. He shook his head. "That''s nothing but a little dent in the floor. I''ll fix it in a couple of minutes." He quickly scanned the room for something before moving over to one side and grabbing it. Coming back, he placed down a chair in front of me. "Here, sit and watch. Though you may not be able to lift even the most basic of tools, you can at least watch." Without even giving me a chance to refuse, he already left to start doing some work. I sighed before taking a seat and watching the Smith do work for a couple of minutes before eventually getting tired of the constant metal banging noise. I opened one of the random books that I had in my inventory and started reading it. "Once upon a time *bang* there was a simple human who *bang* tried to *bang* defy *bang* *bang* the odds that fate gave them. Attempting to forge their own fate *bang* *bang* *bang* *bang* *bang* *bang*, they took to faking being something they were not. This is the tale of *bang* *bang* *bang* *bang**bang* *bang* *bang **bang* *bang* *bang* the Peasants Knight. *bang*" Looking up from my book, I stared at the Smith in hopes that he would see it and stop. Sadly, he did not so I go up from my chair and left. Out in the nice cool and quiet hallway, I stretched before heading to the cafeteria to get something to eat and drink while also making sure to avoid alcohol because the dwarves keep forgetting that I cannot drink like one of them. Since it was so quiet as well, I pulled out the book once again and started reading it. Not out loud this time though. Finally arriving at the mess hall, I discovered that nobody was there and just assumed that it was time for training or something. They love their training a lot so it makes sense. After getting my quick drink and food like I wanted, I spend a nice half hour just reading the simple book, not getting any skills or stat points, just spending my time doing what I wanted. Though I did start getting inpatient for someone to appear. Closing the book after marking my spot, I threw it in my inventory before leaving the mess hall to look around to find something or someone to talk to. Walking around for a bit, I opened a couple of doors and continued to discover no dwarves or anything. Suddenly, I heard a loud noise that I couldn''t identify happen a bit down the hallway and around a corner. Making a bow of mana using 5 mana per second, I created an arrow using 100 mana. The way the arrows do damage I figured out was that it did the same amount of damage equal to the mana used to make the arrow, plus 10 percent of both my intelligence AND dexterity. That means my arrow currently will deal 117 damage. Holding my bow ready, I pulled the mana string back ready to release the arrow as I slowly made my way up to the turn. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "Hello?" I called out while still slowly moving forwards. Just then, a simple metal cup rolled across the floor and landed in front of me. Staring at it for a bit, I eventually dismissed my bow and arrow and picked it up. Looking at it I noticed nothing special about it and inspecting just said it was a simple metal cup without a handle. Shrugging, I put a mana mark for the heck of it before throwing it at the wall so that it bounced around the corner. No noise was heard. I stepped around the corner to find a couple of dwarven guards floating in the air with blood leaking out of them. I went to go make a bow but a sword came up to my neck. "Well it seems like everything we were told about you has been... Exaggerated to say the least." A gruff voice behind me said. "Put your hands up and I''ll rescue you nice and quick from the delusion that has been forced upon you." "And why should I do that?" I asked while slowly doing as commanded. "You wouldn''t like a painful death, would you?" I continued to slowly raise my hands before quickly throwing them into the air and using a combination of thoughts and feelings to use wordless magic. A giant stream of air somehow shot us both into the air as I quickly used this chance to activate my superspeed and gain some distance. Turning around, I made another bow and made an arrow using another 100 mana. I went to go fire it but whoever was behind me was no longer there and my arrow just destroyed a small part of the wall. "Nice trick. Though you''re still a bit slow." Quickly combat rolling to the left, I pulled three throwing knives out of my inventory and threw them in the general direction of the voice. Three audible *tink* noises were heard. Now getting a good look, I saw that the person was wearing a white fancy looking outfit with metal armor here and there. He also had unkempt beard and long sword in his left hand. On his right was a metal gauntlet that had all 3 of the knives I threw. Walking towards me in what seemed to be a normal pace but actually only seemed normal because of superspeed, the human continued as if there were no problems at all. Out of nowhere, he threw the 3 knives back at me. One knife scratched the side of my face while a second one scratched my left shoulder. *You''ve taken 263 Slashing Damage! I fired two more arrows which left me at 570MP before I threw a ball of fire at him using some more mana. Dismissing the bow, I attempted to run and find a better vantage point or give myself a bit of range to face him. Somehow though, he seemed to always stay the exact same distance away. Turning around and firing another arrow a bit off course from him, I dismissed my bow and watched as it nearly flew over his head before using the curving arrow skill and trying to make it hit him in the back. Without even looking, he maneuvered his sword around so that it is that flat part of the blade instead of where I tried curving the arrow. "What a fancy trick. Why don''t you see the error of your ways and join which you rightfully should? You know that the Human race is above all others. Aetius, the one true god, wants you to come back to your real family Leo." He said while slowly walking again. "I have no clue who the ever-living FUCK you are, and you are definitely not my family." Throwing a quick inspection his way, I tried gaining a semblance of an idea of how to escape, hide, beat him, or something. Luckily it also appeared that Luck was on my side for once. [Inspect has leveled up to level 6! More information is now revealed!] [Name- Marth ????? Race- Human Class- ?????? Title- The Potential Deprived Level- ???? HP- ????? MP- ????? Strength- ????? Dexterity- ????? Constitution- ????? Intelligence- ????? Wisdom- ????? Charisma- ????? Skills- ?????] Everything else however, seemed to be on my enemies'' side. [Lucky Break activated! Luck has doubled for the next minute!] Sadly, I still think it''s still on their side... 35 System Update Do you ever wonder how you get into such stupid situations? I know I sure do. With my luck being a wonderful 125 from my wonderful {Friend of God} title, you''d think that thing''s would go my once or twice. But no, it seems as if my luck means nothing. And you may be asking yourself "Why is he saying all this? Didn''t the skill {Lucky Break} just activate?", and you''d be right, it did activate. But once again, it meant nothing. Right now, as I''m thinking about this and breaking a supposed fourth wall that may or may not actually exist because I think my life may or may not be viewed by some higher beings like the one god I know thanks to the way I think of life and the universe, I''m currently being impaled on a sword. Though I must say, it hurts a lot. I rate it a 2 out of 10, would not do it again. Tapping the sword with my finger as adrenaline flooded through my system and pain resistance leveled the hell up, I just looked in both wonder and amazement at my current predicament. "Huh, well that''ll leave a mark." I said out loud. "You know, color me impressed" Marth said. "Most people would''ve died instantly and those who didn''t would probably be screaming out in pain as they died." "Well I blame all the adrenaline and me being able to easily adapt to this situation or something. I took a look at my health bar as it constantly decreased and increased at the same time. Decreasing because of the obvious sword running through me. Increasing because Vondal was casting some healing magic on me. What a nice guy. At this point it''s been a couple of seconds since I''ve been impaled and Vondal and the others have just now revealed themselves to Marth as if they were some superhero team coming to the rescue of the damsel in distress. Grel, Gunther, Vondal, and flint all did a nice slow bad ass walk to me as they got themselves into a battle-ready stance. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. "Hey, could you guys hurry up and stop with the bad ass slow motion stuff? My adrenaline is staring to fade away and I''d rather not still be on a sword when that finally happens." The others turned to me and gave a quick apology before getting back into their battle stances. Marth smirked as he tilted his sword down and let me slide off of it with a gross sound or two. Once I was fully off the edge of the blade, I made a gross splat noise on the ground and gave a quick "Ow" before getting up, brushing myself off, complain about the state of my clothing, and then finally realizing that Vondal has stopped supplying me with healing magic and I was at a incredibly dangerously low number. 24Hp to be exact. Using up all my mana, I did a quick heal that left me at 0Mp and 242Hp. Healing wasn''t a 1 to 1 scale sadly, so I wasn''t able to heal all the way up. Using this opportunity now that I had some health and a decent opening now that Marth was fighting 4 people by himself, I pulled a few more throwing daggers out of my inventory and sent them in Marth''s direction. He seemed to notice them instantly as he grabbed Gunther by his armor and held him up in front of them. One of them went slightly into his neck as the others just harmlessly bounced off his armor. "Leo, what are you doing? Run! You have no chance against him!" One of them yelled. I was thinking about complaining but we know how the clich¨¦ usually goes. Hero tells person to run. Person complains before the hero interrupts them once again and says to run away as the person grit''s their teeth, close their eyes, start crying, and then finally turn around in a blind run. Luckily, I caught myself in time as I just ran off without a word. Only a silent thank you that they might never hear in person. Running through the endless halls of the dwarven kingdom, I continued to see numerous fights and battles that affected the kingdom around them. Large holes were in the walls, numerous scorch marks were on the ceiling, and multiple dead people littered that halls. Eventually I was able to find my way out through either dumb luck or just brute forcing my way through the kingdom using my mini-map and only going to places that I haven''t explored yet. Definitely not saying which. As I ran outside and got my first breath of fresh air in quite a long time, I had to quickly cover my eyes as the bright sun nearly blinded me after so many days underground. As I slowly regained my vision, I heard a small ding from the system. Once I was able to see properly, I checked what the notification from the system was. [As you''ve assisted in killing future Dwarf Hero Gunther, and dealing {> 1%} of Gunther''s max health, you''ve gained 1% of the XP from the kill!] [You''ve leveled up!] [You''ve Leveled up!] [You''re now level {10}] [As you''ve reached level 10, you are now applicable to have the system update!] [Would you like to proceed? Y/N ] I stopped and stared in horror at the first notification. Gunther was dead. The others probably were too. And apparently even with Gunther being a bullet shield for my knives, I still did less then 1% of his max health. I was so horribly fucking weak. How was I even supposed to survive in this world if I couldn''t do anything. ''System, will the update help me become stronger?'' [Calculating¡­ Calculation show that it will both make you stronger and weaker. Would you like to proceed?] ''But which one will it do more of?!'' [Calculating¡­ Calculation invalid. You must decide for yourself after update.] I slightly growled in annoyance as I hit the yes button. [Update confirmed! Connecting you to System Administrator {GodRulez}] Time seemed to all of a sudden stop as everything gained a slight grey hue. Then, without warning, a giant bright beam of light surrounded me as I felt my soul leaving my body. Suddenly, I was in the void once again with the old man/god who was stroking his beard which was a literal hazard because of how long it was. "Ah, welcome back Leo. Nice to be able to talk to you face to soul again." He said before quickly taping me and giving me a normal appearance. "There we go, much better." Two chairs suddenly appeared behind us as he sat down and indicated for me to sit down as well. Not really able to refuse a command from God, I complied like I apparently did with everything since I was brought over to the new world. "Tea?" He asked as a cup of tea appeared in hand. I said nothing for literally one second before his face turned into a frown. "No? How about vodka? Soda? A Martini? Souls of the innocent? A bagel?" "A bagel?" I interrupted him in confusion. "No, two bagels!" There was another moment of silence. "I think I''ll take that cup of tea offered earlier." As soon as I finished saying that, I already had the cup of tea in hand. I took a sip and noticed that it was actually pretty good. "So, what am I here for God? I assumed that I was going to just get a regular update and then be done." He took a sip of his own drink before giving me a frown. (Author''s Note- Big info dump of stuff down below.) "That would be the case if I didn''t make a giant problem with your system and everything else." I attempted to say something, but he put up his hand to stop me. "Let me finish. When you first made your 4 wishes, you asked for a good system that wasn''t bitchy and gave life or death missions, adaptability, infinite growth, and being able to never gain fat and always be in peak condition. So, I saw a great opportunity to give you an already premade system. The Gamer system as some people would like to call it. However, because of copy right infringement and wanting to make your story a non-fan-fiction story on web novel, I had to make a system that was very VERY similar to it while also not. In doing so, I gave it the power to complete what you wanted but made almost everything else weaker. For example, even though you''re level 10, it''s more like you just reached level 1 and even then, your stats would be under the usual average of 100s in everything except luck. So, I''m fixing up your system as we speak, and making it more reliable and actually making it so that you''d be useful. Now you''ll actually be able to kill things besides weak animals, some regular civilians who were bandits for like a day and a half, and finally a magical baby rabbit or something that just learned how to literally do think." He finished off his drink. "Well that should be all. You''re now caught up with what happened, and now I''ve finished fixing your system. I''ve changed some of the skills and other stats so you should probably take a look at that when you have time. Anyways, see you Leo! Make sure to continue have fun because when you have fun, you offer me some great entertainment!" And suddenly I was back outside with the sun shining in my eyes. [Congratulations, system has successfully updated into system version 1.1!] 36 Spell Changes Before checking my stats and skills to see what has changed, I made sure to get somewhat far away. I say somewhat because as shown earlier, even with me activating my super speed and pushing myself to the limits, I was still moving slowly for the enemy. It was also confusing as to how he was moving that quickly as his title said he was the "Potential Deprived" or something like that. Deprived means a severe lack of so with him having no potential, how did he even get to that strength in the first place? He also had a last name and from what I''ve learned from both the elves and dwarfs, having a last name as a human means that you''re royalty and such. Maybe him being royalty has to do with him being able to achieve his strength? Or maybe it has something to do with Aetius? Aetius is still a giant wildcard as far as I know. According to the dwarfs (especially Vondal who loved to talk about his god), gods try to avoid interacting in mortal affairs. If they need something to be done on the mortal plane, they usually have their worshipers do it for them, as shown by Vondal who said he would carry out anything his god needed of him. Aetius however is different. He is no god. All he is, is an absurdly powerful half-divine, half-human, hybrid that is¡­ Addicted to put it simply, to humans and want people to think of him as a god because that''s what he believes himself to be. A god to humans. As a semi-divine being, he''s allowed the power to come and go from the mortal plane freely whenever he wants. This gives him the power to be a physical god to humans and put in actual work to prove his existence. Resting against a tree, I took a quick break from running. Sitting down, I looked at all my stats and skills. Thankfully, they were split and simplified for me now. Here is what it was at level 10 before the update. - [ Name- Leo Walter Race- Human (Mutated) Class- Arcane Archer + Shown Title- Friend of God (+10 luck per level) + System Points- 829 Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Hp- 627/890 Mp- 910/910 Previous cost: 720 Xp Level- 10 (Xp- 468/1,165) *LEVELING METHOD* Min/Max- Only certain stats are raised depending on class. Strength- 90 (+5 from Hero) Dexterity- 97 (+3 per level) (+5 from Hero) Constitution- 89 (+5 from Hero) Intelligence- 91 (+2 per level) (+5 from Hero) Wisdom- 88 (+2 per level) (+5 from Hero) Luck- 125 (+10 from title per level) (+5 from Hero) ] And after the update- [ Name- Leo Walter Race- Human (Mutated) Class- Arcane Archer + System Points- 829 Hp- 63/89 MP- 91/91 Previous cost: 72 XP Level- 1 (XP- 47/117) Strength- 9 Dexterity- 10 Constitution- 9 Intelligence- 9 Wisdom-9 Charisma- 6 ] So, everything pretty much got divided by 10, rounded up or down, and still somehow below average. The average is supposed to be somewhere around 10 for everyone or something like that in this world. Probably not because then everyone would be an abnormally strong superhuman. Hopefully it''s not what I was thinking cause that also meant all the humans I met in that town all had a 1 in their stats or something and will die within a week or two if they''re lucky¡­ I should probably make sure they''re ok when I''m much stronger or something. Done with my stats, I looked at my skills and just nodded at the very small changes here and there before getting to one of them. "MOTHER FUCKER!" I yelled. Looking up at the sky, I gave it two birds and yelled, "FUCK YOU GOD! GIVE ME BACK MY APEX BODY!" I yelled out some more insults and curse words hoping to get at least a sorry or something from god. Sadly, all he did was use the clouds in the sky to create two giant birds in the sky. One an actual bird made from clouds and the other being the current ones I was giving god. My {Mana Regeneration} and {Basic Magic} got nerfed as well but I didn''t care about those as much as my wonderfully overpowered {Apex Body}. Like, come on, who wouldn''t shake their fist at god if they just removed something that just barely kept you ahead of the game? After getting a few more curse words out and saying some angry stuff in German which causes anything said to sound even more angry, I eventually called down before giving one last quiet "fuck you". With a slow sigh, I looked over my stats to see if anything else big changed. The biggest thing I noticed after tearing my eyes away from the spot in my skills that showed {Apex Body} was no longer there was that I had a charisma score now instead of my luck. ''Hey system, what happened to my luck and why do I have such a low charisma score?'' I asked the system. [According to the update log given by god, as you deemed luck to be completely useless, it was instead replaced with charisma. Luck will continue to work in the background, but charisma-based skills will matter much more. For instance, when you attempt to lower the price of something you''re buying or when trying to get someone to buy something with an elevated price, charisma will be used for these checks.] ''Does that mean I''ll be able to buy 20 arrows without spending an entire gold! Those things seemed so overpriced!'' [You''ve could''ve done that even without the update. You just agreed to the price instantly and didn''t argue. Also, that was the correct price for them.] ''Yeah but he was so nice! He was just trying to make a living and I''m not one to try and ruin someone''s life by very under paying.'' [Understood. Now to answer why you have such a low charisma score, I think you''d like to know tha- Warning, hostility detected.] Upon hearing the system say that there was some sort of hostility, I used basic magic to cast a spell I deemed as {Mist Step} which allowed me to teleport to an area within 30ft of where I casted the spell. Turning around, I looked back to where I was standing to see a sword imbedded into the tree where I was standing earlier. The person was wearing some basic armor with some metal pieces here and there. Their sword also looked very basic as well and their face screamed a "Oh no!" look. Casting inspect, I quickly got the basic details from him. His name was Evan and he was a human which I could clearly see. His class said he was a {Apprentice Swordsman} with his strength score being the highest followed by his constitution and dexterity. His level was also at 7 but supposedly nearing 8 according to inspect. Forming a quick mana bow, I fired two low mana arrows at him hoping to end this quickly. Sadly, to my disappointment, the didn''t kill him instantly but did deal some good damage. The two arrows were blocked by his arm which he raised up to block them. The arrows temporarily imbedded themselves into it before vanishing out of existence. Using his foot by putting it against the tree, he finally pulled his sword out before turning towards me and getting into a attack position. We stared at each other for a bit before he gave a battle cry and ran towards me with his sword in the air. Before I had time to cast another spell or move, he was already in front of me and brought his sword down. He slashed my armor and slightly cut into my skin. Using taekwondo, I kicked him back a couple of feet and cast another spell which I deemed {Hunters Mark}. This spell simply increased the amount of damage I would do to him and it was a combination of both mana mark and a very basic curse which does nothing by itself. He once again tried rushing at me but this time I was already in the process of casting another spell. The spell was {Bramble Thorn} and made the small area around me grow sharp brambles. At that time, I also noticed the nerf to my basic magic. Certain spells now required¡­ Concentration to put it simply. I had to actually focus on a singular spell, and I could only concentrate on one thing at a time. Obviously, I wanted to curse again but was obviously busy at something at the moment. Luckily the bramble thorns slowed him down enough to actually give me time to notice and think of what to do next. Casting another use of {Inspect}, I figured out that he only lost a fourth of his health. Backing up, I quickly shot two more mana arrows and dealt a bit more damage to him as he escaped the area of bramble around him. He got close enough to swing his sword at me once again and I nearly dodged, but he once again cut me slightly. Since he had to also take a step forwards to get to me, he also was slightly open so instead of pushing back and firing more arrows, I went forwards and got near him. Putting my left foot behind his foot, I used the palm of my hand to push him forwards and trip him. Next using my right foot, I stomped it onto his chest before pulling one of my knives out of my inventory and stabbing it down at his throat. It nearly hit its mark, but he grabbed my foot and rolled to the side making me fall to the ground as well. Now on top of me, he pulled his own knife out of his boot and went to stab me. I raised my arm up and blocked the knife using it. I screamed out in pain as it went deeply inside my arm and blood went everywhere. Turning on flaming aura, I pulled himself closer into me as his eyes widened and he desperately tried to escape. He screamed out in pain as he struggled over and over to try and escape. Against me meager strength, he was actually able to pull himself away and get free. Another inspect showed that he was on his last leg and 1 or 2 more shots from my mana bow would kill him. Evan seeing that he had no weapon, put his fists up and got ready for a brawl. "Really?" I asked He just grinned before running towards me with one final battle cry. I got down low and once he was a few feet away, I took a step forwards and used a kick to hit him up slightly into the air before making a mana bow and firing a quick mana shot at him. His eyes widened upon seeing this as his eyes dulled as his body fell to the ground. [Congratulations you''ve leveled up! You''re now level 2!] [Congratulations you''ve leveled up! You''re now level 3!] I canceled all my spells and skills and let out a sigh of relief. Taking a look at my health and mana, I saw that I had 57 out of 89 Hp left and 34 out of 91 left. According to the system, my regeneration was now per minute instead of per second. {Basic Magic} divided up my spells into categories and costs for each. A cantrip or one of the most basic spells, cost 10mp per casting. A level 1 spell costs 10 to 50mp per spell, a level 2 spell costed 50 to 100mp, and finally a level 3 spell costed anywhere between 100 to 200mp. {Basic Magic} now only allowed me to cast up to 3rd level spells instead of whatever I wanted as long as I had enough mana. It gave me some extra spells that I didn''t know or use beforehand but still. No clue what this means for {Wordless Magic} though. Looking more deeply into it, more stuff changed but I''m still going to have to figure out what all changed. Letting a minute pass, I gained some more health and mana back, so I went over to Evan''s body and started looting. He has 4 silver pieces and a singular electrum piece. So around $14 in total if you''re using American money as a reference. Not much but appreciated. Grabbing whatever else I could find, I picked a random direction and started running. I needed to escape Aetius''s men as soon as I could. 37 Seekers of Aetius Author''s Note- Don''t know how many people read the last thing at the end of the chapter but I got offered to be contracted by WebNovel for this story and would like your opinions on it. Do you think I should accept it or leave my story as is? Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Ok now back to the story. ~~~~~~~~~ Around a day or so after the invasion of the Dwarven Kingdom by the humans, I myself have gotten as far away as I could within that time. Along the way during that time, I saw groups of people here and there and made sure to hide every time so that I would be able to escape without getting hurt. After finally getting a couple miles out, I stopped encountering any more groups of people, so I stopped taking it slow and started using super-speed. When the night came, I camped out underneath a small hill hoping that it would allow me to get some sleep without being caught. Upon waking up, I had a quick meal with stuff from my inventory before walking/running for the next hour so that I could get away from the kingdom even more. That finally brings me to now. It''s been around half a day since I woke up and had breakfast. At the moment, I was currently resting and eating lunch and trying to think about what to do next, once again. Defeating a {Apprentice Swordsman} was incredibly hard and it once again proved how weak I am. I feel like I''m saying I''m weak way to much and if I had a friend around me, they would back-slap me and tell me to actually work on fixing that. Groaning out in annoyance I laid down on the rocky ground and contemplated. Going to a human kingdom, town, or city would probably be an incredibly idiotic choice for me to do as all they Humans are either hunting me to prove their worth to Aetius or going to avoid me to not then get targeted themselves by the followers of Aetius. Makes one think of High-school all over again. Getting into a sitting position, I pulled out my Elven bow from my inventory and started cleaning and fixing it. Finding another race could be good as they might be able to teach me something which would hopefully help me escape from Aetius''s guys for a while, but they just keep on finding me somehow. While it may just be pure luck, I believe that it''s something more than that. My first goal should be trying to find out the reason that they are able to find me and put a stop to it. [ Quest- Figure out how the followers of Aetius are able to find you. Reward- 600 Xp, 100 System points, and a Disguise Kit Do you wish to accept? Y/N ] Accepting, I put the bow back in my inventory before getting up off the ground and brushing as much dirt off as I could. After, I took a quick look around the area. Lots of large rocks scattered the area with a few trees here and there. From what I could see, not many animals were here either and the ones I did find were just reptiles or bugs. Oh, and some scorpions too. They''re really fucking gross. That''s all I''m going to say. After walking around a bit more, I enjoyed the scenery. Though it probably wasn''t much for some people, to me, a person who almost never left anywhere further then 10 miles away from my home, the scenery was very nice. ''Maybe I should make my home here.'' I thought randomly while taking to no one. But as we should know, I''m never actually alone. [A base would help increase your chances to complete your main quest.] ''I have a main quest?'' [Affirmative. Though I don''t know much, in the update logs it stated that a quest called {The False God} has automatically been accepted. To complete this quest, you must kill Aetius before he either Ascends or Kills the entirety of an entire race. Upon the completion of this quest, you will be given a reward by God depending on how well he thinks you did.] ''Can I remove this quest?'' [Affirmative. Would you like me to remove this quest for you?] ''Yes.'' [Quest has been removed.] ''Thanks System, I always know I can believe in you.'' [You''re welcome Leo.] ''¡­'' [Alert! God has forced a Quest upon you!] "MOTHER FUCKER!" I yelled out in rage. Taking a few quick deep breaths, I eventually let out a long sigh. "Ok, guess I''m not allowed to remove quests from God. Now, as the system said, creating a base of operations would probably be a good thing for me to do." I said out loud as to not tempt both fate and the system which only did things based upon mental commands or mental questions. "But where to put it? Should I make my base underground, inside one of these gigantic rocks, or should I just create a giant castle or something¡­" An idea popped into my head. ''System, I can use the store to buy everything and anything if I have enough points, correct?'' [Affirmative.] ''Would it be possible to buy a skill which would allow me to have a portable pocket dimension to live in or something?'' [Checking¡­ Item found. {Bag of Housing} available for 2,500 System points. Would you like to know what it does?] ''Yes.'' [Similar to the famous bag of holding from {Dungeons and Dragons}, this bags space is 15ftx15ftx15ft and allows breathable air to constantly be inside it. No matter what is inside the bag, it always weighs 30 pounds and if the total amount of stuff inside the bag weights more than 1,000 pounds, the bag will rupture, and everything inside will be sent to the Astral Sea.] I took a quick look at my system points; I saw that I had 929. From the previous 829, I got the 100 from the swordsman who was nearly level 8. To get this bag, I would have to kill 16 more people around his level or kill a whole bunch of stuff. I frowned at this. Looking to the side, I saw a scorpion crawl onto a rock. Sending a small fire-bolt at it, I killed it instantly and got 1 Xp and 1 System point. I brought my hand up to my face to stare at it. ''Maybe I should use magic to cast multiple fireballs and blow everything up in hopes of killing something. Though by doing that, I might catch the attention of something big¡­ Oh.'' I understood now. [Quest Complete! You''ve figured out how Aetius''s followers are finding you by realizing that they''re tracing the leftovers of magic you leave almost everywhere when you cast a spell above first level. Rewards- 100 System Points, 600 Xp, and a disguise kit. ] [You''ve Leveled up!] [You''ve Leveled up!] I used the hand that I was staring at just a second ago to face palm. Just a while ago, I used magic to start my campfire, to brush my teeth take a shower, and a couple other stuff. They''re probably following it like a trail that has a giant follow me sign pointing to it. Dragging my hand down my face, I eventually just shook my head in disappointment before setting up a plan to get points. The only real way to get points is either by quests, killing things, or maybe achievements if they have them¡­ ''Do you have achievements?'' [No.] ''Fuck'' Ok, so there''s only two possible ways to get them then. While going the killing route would be nice for some quick Xp and points, there really isn''t much around. But I also don''t know how to trigger the quests and stuff. If only I knew how¡­ [ Quest- Figure out how to use the questing system. Reward- 25Xp, 5 System points, and 1 stat point in both wisdom and intelligence. Do you wish to accept? Y/N ] I accepted. Just from what happened the last few seconds, I could guess how I get Quests and stuff. I simply ask for one with a goal in mind. [Quest Complete! You''ve figured out how to properly use the quest system without asking the system for help! Bonus reward will be given! Rewards- 50 Xp, 10 System points, and 2 stat point in both wisdom and intelligence.] I gave another sigh. These last few minutes probably aren''t good for my mentality with me constantly being reminded of multiple annoying things I don''t know, don''t have, and can''t do. Anyways, let''s create a quest that''ll help me get some system points so that I can finally buy that nice pocket house or whatever it called it. ''Create Quest; Mob Farming for Points'' [Creating quest¡­ Quest created, and rewards generated.] [Quest- Find a group of killable things to gain System Points and Xp. Reward- 250 System Points and 1 level in tracking.] I nodded at self-appreciation at what I learned. After all, it''s always a good thing to learn new things about yourself and the abilities that you have so that when the time comes, you''ll be able to use that knowledge for your own to help in whichever way you deem necessary. I continued nodding. [Thanks to {Adaptability}, you''ve gained 1 point in {Wisdom}!] I stopped nodding. "Fuck. Off." 39 Buff Wizard At the first sign of light in the morning, I peaked out from underneath my nice warm covers before quickly putting them back over my head. It''s been a long week and I could definitely do with an extra hour or two of sleep. Thankfully I was able to get my wish and get an entire extra hour of sleep. Un-thankfully I was rudely interrupted from my sleep with a loud banging at my door. "FBI? Is that you?" I asked groggily "The F-B what now?" I heard Ava ask from behind the door, not sounding even slightly hangover from all the drinks I paid for her last night. I had a feeling that she might be able to out drink a dwarf with how high her constitution was. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. A few seconds passed before I eventually got out of bed and changed into some comfortable clothing, I bought from the system a while ago. Opening the door while yawning, I saw Ava turned around with a mug already in hand and chugging whatever drink was inside it like there was no tomorrow. "What did you wake me up for Ava?" I asked as she finished the last of her drink and turned to me. "Well, I heard from the bartender last night that you had to put a lot the drinks you bought me on tab. You got to pay the Bartender back within a week or he''ll hunt you down for fun. But I''m feeling nice after you bought me all those drinks so I''m here to give you a job so you can pay him back!" Shivering slightly at the amount of money I would have to pay back, I quickly agreed. "Alrighty then, just get all your gear ready and we''ll go out hunting for some food and monsters." She said while already leaving and waving goodbye. "Meet me outside in around 10 to 15 minutes!" Equipping my gear and keeping my broken bow in hand, I just gave a deep sigh at how much this place might cost me to replace it. Heading downstairs to the main area of the Inn, I saw Ava packing some stuff into two separate bags. As soon as I got within 10 feet of her, her head came up from the bags to look me directly in the eye. "It''s only been 1 minute and 58 seconds. Either you''re a really quick at getting dressed or you used some sort of magic. Hopefully you didn''t use magic as we have yet to add you to the list." "What''s this so-called list? I heard you say something about its last night, but you never went into details about it. Also, I''m just a quick dresser. Don''t want to get caught with my pants down because I took my sweet time getting dressed." She chuckled slightly at the last bit and went back to filling the bags. "The list is a magical Artifact from centuries long past that we were lucky enough to stumble upon. The list looks like a regular notebook and shows no signs of magic but Harold, our Sorcerer Wizard who spent many years learning about Artifacts, just barely knew what it was. When you write your name in this Artifact in the Ancient Language, your magic becomes unreadable and untraceable my normal means." "That sounds very powerful and useful. Would be horrible if it in the wrong hands." "Correct. It''s why Harold did some enchanting on it so that it would be teleported somewhere very far away and hard to find if anyone but he himself uses it. Now catch." She threw the one of the bags she was previously filling at me. Caching it in my free hand, I noticed its weight and figured out that it was full to the very top. Slinging it onto my back, I showed Ava my bow and asked if there was anyone around here who could fix this quickly. She said she could before she put out her open hand for me to put it into. Not knowing what else to do, I simply complied. Putting it on the table, she put a magnet in each hand before curling that hand into a fist and held it slightly away from the break point of the bow before she closed her eyes. After a minute, her eyes opened and instead of the previous brown colored eyes, her entire eyes were now glowing a mint green. The break point of the bow started shaking slightly as I saw the previously broken wood start to slowly fuse back together as if it was never broken before. Once everything was fixed and fused back together, her eyes stopped glowing as she shook her head as if to get rid of some dizziness. Picking up the bow, she pulled the string back slightly to make sure everything worked out properly before handing it back to me. "Should work completely fine now. Mended the broken area as if it was never broken." I took it back gratefully and thanked her for fixing the gift I got from my friends. She just smiled before saying to eat the breakfast she packed at the top of my bag. After eating the quick breakfast which she packed for me (Just some bread and beef jerky), we headed outside. There waiting for us were two horses already saddled up and ready to go. The one horse, which was grey with black spots, was the one which Ava climbed up onto. The other was a simple black horse that I assumed was for me. Climbing into the saddle with some difficulty, I eventually got into place without making myself look like a gigantic idiot, only a small idiot instead. "Never ridden a horse before?" Ava asked. "Not once in my entire life." She laughed at that. "Good thing is that we''re not heading to far out. It''s only a few hours ride away and then we won''t have to do any more for the next two or so days." I nodded once before she started teaching me the bare bone basics of what I needed to know so that we could get to wherever we were going. I did ask once where we were going but she just put her finger up to her mouth and said that it was a secret. After that, we started heading a bit deeper into the town. After a few minutes, we eventually got the door of a giant stone tower that I somehow never noticed previously. Ava jumped off her horse before going up and knocking on the doors. A minute passed before the door opened up to a very old buff guy wearing robes. "Oh Ava, it''s so nice to see you! What brings you here today?" The buff old man said in a kind grandfatherly voice with a giant smile on his face. Immediately after hearing that she wants him to put my name into The List, his smile turned into a deep scowl. He stared at me for a bit before grumbling something to quiet for me to hear. "Boy" The buff wizard said. "Can I have your hand for a second." He said in more of a command then a question. I hesitated for a moment before he just grabbed it. "And what is your name Boy? I need your entire name. First, middle, last, and anything your parents added to your name." "My name is Leo Ernest Walters." "And is that your entire name?" He said while raising an eyebrow. "Ye- "Before I finished saying even a simple yes, I was stabbed in my hand with a knife. "s-AAAAAAAA!" I screamed out in pain. "Such a baby." He said while shaking his head and holding a glass jar underneath my hand, letting the blood flow freely into it. After a few seconds passed with me screaming and the blood flowing into the jar, he eventually took out the knife and casted a spell on me that quickly healed the stab wound as if nothing ever happened. Immediately he left to go back into his tower leaving me and Ava standing out front of his door with blood all over my shoes and on the floor. "Huh, I seriously thought that he was going to do something worse then that. He let you off easy for giving him some work to do in the morning." "That was easy!?" I asked while constantly massaging the area that previously got stabbed but was now completely normal. "Yeah. The one time, we woke him up very late at night and he just cut off that person''s entire leg and right hand for disturbing him at that time with some work to do. He even waited an entire month before giving the limbs back to him." She shook her head and shuttered slightly. "He should finish writing your name in The List in about an hour or two and then you''ll be able to cast magic freely again. Until then, we''ve got some riding to do!" She jumped back onto her horse and immediately set off. I cursed slightly before jumping onto my horse (Very badly I might add) and then following behind her after I eventually caught up. 41 Strong Continuing my way down the dungeon, I eventually got to my next set of enemies which was once again some goblins. This time however, there was two of them and one of them had what appeared to be a bow. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Getting into position, I aimed towards the archer goblin first to take him out and prevent him from providing any support to the goblin holding the short sword. Just as I was about to release the bowstring, I saw something in the corner of my vision move and promptly combat-rolled to the side to evade whatever it was. Taking a quick look over to where I was just standing, I saw a goblin with a dagger stuck in the ground. Seeing as it was having trouble pulling it out, I quickly ran over to it and kicked it in the face. Whether it was from the goblin itself being very light or me just catching it in surprise, it flew backwards and hit the wall. I took the opportunity to shoot another arrow at him in hopes that it would finish him off and allow me to deal with the other two. Speaking of the other two, the archer goblin sent an arrow past my ear just a second ago and the short sword one was getting awfully close. Moving my left hand away from my bow so I could cast a spell, I casted {Hold Person} on the short sword goblin that was getting awfully close. I could hold this spell for about a minute before I either lose concentration and drop the spell, the goblin figures out how to escape, or I just try holding it longer then the duration. The goblin then was lifted in the air a few feet before staying there in confusion. It tried struggling and escaping but its wisdom must''ve been incredibly low to not figure out how. I took another quick glance at the dagger goblin to see if it was going to chase after me if I went for the archer goblin, but quickly saw that there was nothing left but the small crystal. As another arrow came flying my way, I quickly reacted by dodging to the side and just barely moving out of the way of the arrow. Not having time to draw another arrow and knock it onto the string, I instead went for a nice and simple firebolt towards the goblin. It must''ve note been expecting that as when I casted it, the goblin''s eyes opened in fear before the firebolt hit it directly in the face, leaving it no time to react or move. The goblin was instantly sent flying backwards into a nearby wall and hit it with a lot of momentum and force causing it to die instantly. The goblin I casted {Hold Person} on now was just staring at me with fear in its eyes and was still trying to escape. I did the quick mental calculations and realized that it was only around 24 seconds since I casted the spell and had some time to spare. Walking up to it, I pulled out one of may daggers and quickly stabbed it in the side of the head. Instantly the body of the goblin fell to the floor as my spell broke because it could only be used on living things, which the goblin no longer was. A couple of seconds later the body from the archer goblin turned into air and so did the short sword goblin, leaving nothing but their tiny crystals and the archer goblin''s arrows. Picking up the nearby crystal, I made my way to the loot of the archer goblin and picked up the few arrows it dropped. Instantly I noticed that they looked like my arrows, better even. Pulling out one of my arrows, I noticed instantly that they were dull and shouldn''t even be used for hunting. I never really looked at this previously as I just assumed that when I bought them that the store was selling actual arrows, not some training ones. I threw a quick {Inspect} at my arrows to double check. [Item - Training arrow 1 ¨C 4 Bludgeoning damage + 1% of Dexterity Made by a blacksmith in training, these arrows are not made for fighting and instead of made for practicing. The arrowhead itself is blunt and the tip doesn''t even have a point. Can be sharpened to increase damage slightly.] This made me question things. How long have I been using these horrible arrows? How long have I been extending a fight or loosing a fight just because of these? I picked up one of the goblin''s arrows and used {Inspect} on it as well. [Item - Goblin Arrow 30-50 Piercing damage + 25% of Dexterity Used by the goblins of Dungeon #473, these arrows are below average in terms of regular arrows, only able to reach the normal damage of one if it''s a critical hit. Can be sharpened to increase damage slightly.] Massive improvement from my other ones. Picking up one of my arrows, I shot it at the wall nearby. It went inside slightly but seemed as if fall out at any second. Trying one of the goblin''s arrows instead, I shot that at the wall and watched as it went much further into it. I shook my head before dropping all my current arrows and picking up the 7 arrows the goblin dropped. While it wasn''t much, I could just use mana archery to replace some of the arrows. It would require me to take a break every now and then to recharge my mana because of the nerf to mana regeneration, but that should be fine. Walking down the tunnel, I eventually found another goblin by itself. I made sure to check the area first for any traps or what not and any goblins hiding around the corner but didn''t find anything. Knocking an arrow, I fired it at the goblin quickly and watched as it swiftly pierced through it. I whistled upon seeing this before quickly walking over and picking it up as well as the small crystal too. After that, an hour quickly passed. Whenever I found a goblin, I would swiftly kill it and just continue my way after gathering everything. Once I even found a small group of goblins which I found the perfect opportunity to cast {Fireball} on. It was amazing to watch as that area just exploded and sent every goblin flying to the walls and burnt them nice and crispy. With that done, I eventually found myself at large door with Ava sitting down next to it reading a book. As she heard me coming, she looked up from her book and moved one hand to a dagger on the floor next to her. Once she saw that it was just me, she just went back to reading her book. "So how did you enjoy your first hunt?" She asked while turning a page in the book. "Wasn''t to bad." I said while sitting down across from her. "Found a lot of these tiny crystals though. What''re they used for?" She shrugged. "A multitude of things. A professional alchemist can make some potions out of them, an enchanter could use them to help power an enchantment, and a whole bunch of other stuff. Those however are pretty much useless. They hold so little power that you''d need a hundred of them or so to even have enough mana to do something with them. Did you find anything else though?" I pulled out the magic book holder and handed it over to her. She inspected it for a bit before casting a spell on it. After a minute of chanting something with her eyes closed and holding a pearl and owl feather for some reason, she suddenly opened her eyes before giving me the book holder. "That is a magic book holder that offers some protection to whatever book is inside. The leather is very strong and can withstand multiple attacks without being scratched. However, it seems like the top part makes it easy to hurt the book itself if not closed properly. An ok find compared to some of the other stuff you might''ve found." "Did you find anything?" She pulled out 18 copper pieces and a spool of thread. "There isn''t really that much good loot until you get much deeper into the dungeon." She said. "Lucky for us, we only need to clear out the first floor as it''ll take a week or so for it to fill back up with goblins. It needs to divert mana from creating other things to these so if we go deeper inside the dungeon and kill more things, the longer it would take before we need to come back here and clean everything up. If you are feeling up to it to try and do the next level, or do you want to head back to chance?" I stared at the giant door next to Ava. "Would we have to fight some sort of giant creature if we go through that door?" I asked while pointing. "Yes, we would. We hunters call that the Floor Master as it usually is like the monsters on the floor in some way. Hearing that, you think you want to head back?" I thought for a second before grinning. Knowing that I was weak because of my weaponry and that my magic can deal large amounts of damage, I think I would have a good chance at beating it if Ava helped. "No, lets head in and fight it. We''ve got a pretty good chance I think." She grinned upon hearing this, quickly got up from her sitting position, and put her book away. "That''s what I like to hear!" She said as she pushed open the door. 42 Boss Battle Pushing open the door, Ava took the initiative by running in first with her daggers out and ready to stab any incoming enemy. We were able to get a couple of feet without seeing anything before torches started lighting up showing that we were in what appeared to be an arena. In the center of the room sat a lone figure. Its skin was red, and it was as tall as a regular human but still had some features that indicated it to be goblin like. This was a hobgoblin, the evolution of a regular goblin. The hobgoblin had a set of chain mail armor on, along with a shield and long sword in its hands. It was sitting on the ground, but it stood up once all the torches along side the wall lit up. Ava ran forwards towards the hobgoblin and once she was close enough, slid beneath the hobgoblin just as it was about to attack her. Just barely avoiding the attack, Ava quickly turned around and stabbed the hobgoblin in the back but because of the chainmail, it didn''t go all the way through and deal only minor damage. The entire time this was happening, I was pulling out all the goblin arrows from my quiver and using a quick mana mark on all of them. I shot them all at varying locations around the hobgoblin for later use. After firing all of them, I switched to using mana arrows instead. Pulling the bowstring back, I focused on forming the mana into a shape of an arrow and quickly felt my skill doing the rest of the work. Both of my hands started glowing in a purple aura as the said purple aura started leaving them and moving to create the shape of an arrow. Though it may seem like this took a few seconds, it seemed to happen instantly, and my mind was able to keep track of it for some reason. Firing the arrow, it swiftly flew through the air as it flew straight into the hobgoblin''s back as he was now facing Ava who was away from me. The first arrow that hit it, made it move forwards a bit which Ava took the opportunity to once again stab it. Now that it knew I was an actual competitor; it grew wary of my as it placed kicked Ava to create some distance between them. I shot another arrowing during this time, but he must''ve been expecting it as he took a page out of my book and swiftly rolled to the side to evade it. Placing it''s shield on its back to protect against any strikes it couldn''t see, it put both hands on the hilt of the longsword and got into position to either attack or defend. Ava and I slowly circled around it as it watched us wearily until I was right in front of it. Once there, Ava charged at the goblin''s back hoping to get an attack in but was unable to as the Hobgoblin ran forwards to attack me. I cursed slightly before firing and arrow and using curving arrow on one of the goblins arrows that I marked earlier to fly towards it. One thing I realized with curving arrow was that I could even move the arrows from a sitting position like a puppeteer if I gave them enough mana. This allowed for me to help control the field better and give a surprise attack, but it needed a bit of prepping to do. The hobgoblin saw my glowing mana arrow firing straight for it so it used its sword to cut right through it, which I should add, I didn''t know was possible. But by doing this, it didn''t see the one goblin arrow flying straight for it. The arrow flew straight into the hobgoblin shoulder and pierced through its chainmail, causing it to shout in pain. I smirked at that and decided to summon the rest of the arrows. Using {Curving Arrow} on each and every arrow that I could, I made them all attack the hobgoblin and watched as he used his sword to break a few which let only 3 arrows left in total but by the time he was able to get rid of that much, he had already taken a lot of damage. The 3 arrows lay in the ground nearby its feet and I quickly moved them out of the way so that he wouldn''t be able to destroy them. If I were to keep up the constant use of what I called the Curving Field, it would probably mean it would destroy those arrows immediately. I would have to save them for another surprise attack when it wasn''t expecting it. And while it was expecting more arrows from me, it however forgot about Ava. As Ava jumped onto it''s back, she quickly used both daggers to stab him in the sides of the throat. The hobgoblin once again roared in pain but was still somehow alive. Using one hand, it quickly grabbed hold of Ava and threw her towards me. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. I moved slightly to the side as I knew that I wouldn''t be able to catch her without falling myself. As she hit the ground, she rolled back up onto her feet just in time to see the hobgoblin pull something out of its pocket. What it pulled out of its pocked was a small glass bottle that held what appeared to be a chunky liquid that was lime colored. Ava''s eyes widened as she quickly ran towards the hobgoblin and yelled to me, "Don''t let him drink that potion!" I quickly looked over to my mana and noticed that I didn''t have much left. I might just be able to cast 5 or 6 mana arrows, but I don''t think it would do much. Instead, I opted to go for a spell instead. While most people think that it''s always important to figure out how to make yourself stronger with magic, few people learn how to make others stronger unless they were a priest or druid who were dedicated to healing and helping. I on the other hand, just like the efficiency and speed of what someone could do so I casted {Haste} on Ava. {Haste} is a fun spell in my opinion. Casting this spell on a willing creature within range (Which was 30ft), I''m able to double that creatures speed, increase their defense, make them more dexterous, and allow them to attack quicker and more often. The downside however to all these buffs, is that if I ever somehow drop the spell or just loose concentration, then whatever I targeted would have to spend a few seconds of doing nothing as a wave of lethargy rapidly sweeps over them making it impossible to do anything. The regular duration of this spell is a minute and it took up the rest of my mana meaning that I would have to either wait however long for my mana to regenerate somewhat or run over and pick up one of the mana marked arrows. I chose to do both as I made my way over to an arrow and watched as Ava slashed at the hobgoblin''s wrists, causing it to drop whatever potion it was about to drink to the ground. It growled in anger but quickly grabbed its shield again to help it defend against Ava''s flurry of dagger blows over and over. Eventually I was able to get to one of my arrows but by that point, some of my mana had finally regenerated and Ava had nearly killed the hobgoblin (I think). Seeing as I had only enough mana to cast one of the most basic spells which was a cantrip, I decided to use it to cause a distraction. Running to the side once again, I continued to watch as Ava met it blow for blow and occasionally got in a quick cut or two onto its face. Once I was completely on its right side, I threw a quick firebolt at it, using up all my mana. Once that was done, I ran as quickly as I could to the back of the hobgoblin which was now no longer protected because the it was currently using its shield. Pulling out that goblin arrow from my quiver and aiming it as quickly as I could, I watched as the firebolt hit the hobgoblin in the face and gave Ava enough time to stab it in the side of the head. That blow might''ve been enough to kill it, but I didn''t want to risk it with my weird luck and everything to I quickly fired my arrow and let it fly directly into its heart. The arrow pierced through the chain mail and was somehow able to strike true as blood gushed out. The hobgoblin fell to the floor as my {Haste} spell on Ava ended in she stood in place for a few seconds, just staring at the body of the hobgoblin. I walked over to the potion that it dropped previously and raised it up to eye level. Currently I was unable to cast inspect on it as my mana was completely empty, but I had a feeling that it would be incredibly useful for something later down the line. Storing it in one of the small pouches on my belt, I walked over to Ava who was now able to move again. "Good job with that spell you casted on me earlier. Didn''t even know you had a spell scroll for that." She said as she quickly fell to the floor to take a rest. "A spell scroll?" I asked in question. "I didn''t use a spell scroll, just casted the spell." She bolted up into a sitting position. "YOU WHAT!?" She yelled in both surprise in question. "HOW DID YOU CAST A SPELL WITHOUT USING MATERIAL, SAMATIC, OR VERBAL COMPONETNTS?!" "I just did I guess?" I asked in confusion. "Can''t everyone." She just started at be before falling back down to the ground. "No. No they cannot. What you''re doing is supposed to be impossible, but I guess that''s a normal day to you from what I hear from the Elves." I smirked. "And then you must also know that I won''t reveal any of my secrets, do you?" She smiled slightly upon hearing this. "I did." She responded before eventually laughing a bit which I eventually joined into. 43 Ritual Casting Author''s Note- Wasn''t in the writing mood the writing the last 3 chapters within 24 hours so I took a small extra 1-2-day break to make sure I didn''t get burned out. I''m all good and still here! Now back to the chapter! After taking a small rest and just relaxing in general from battle with the hobgoblin, we eventually got back up and started collecting the loot from the battle. One of the most obvious things to do as well was to grab the last three remaining arrows that I had left. I gave a deep sigh as I tried thinking of a good way to conserve my mana and still fight properly but couldn''t think of anything as mana arrow and a majority of my good spells consumed a whole bunch of my mana. Once that was done, we made out way to the opposite end of the arena from where we first entered from and opened the giant doors like the ones before entering here. Once we did, we entered a 10ft by 10ft room that had nothing but a chest in the center of it with a smack brazier next to it. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Ava walked up to the chest and without even checking to see if it was a mimic or anything, just opened it up immediately. "Man, all that hard work and we didn''t even get any good loot." She said while shaking her head. "All we got was some expensive looking charcoal, incense, and some random herbs." My eyes lit up upon realizing what they might be used for. "Can I have everything in that chest?" I asked quickly. She raised an eyebrow but gave me the go ahead to take them all. Upon seeing that it was okay, I quickly picked up everything and kicked the chest away from me and back into the arena. Using my foot, I then moved the brazier into the center of the room where the chest was previously. "You think we have about an hour or so for me to do something." I asked while already dropping everything on the floor and using the charcoal to draw something on the ground. "We have enough time but what are you going to do for an entire hour and with all that random junk loot?" "Making a ritual of course!" I said while continuing to draw. She gave me a weird look, one that told me that she thought it was some sort of dark magic ritual or something. I quickly told her that it wasn''t that type of ritual, but she just put her hands up next to her head as if to defend herself. As time quickly passed by for me, I continued to constantly draw the magic circle until I used nothing but the remaining dust on my fingers to draw the last bit of it. With that done, I threw the herbs into the brass brazier that I previously put into the center of the room and lit them on fire. With the incense stick in hand, I stood in front of the brazier and started burning it. Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath before starting the last bit of the ritual. "You who are not from this world," I started saying in the ancient language, "Adhere to the laws of this realm and become a familiar of my own soul. The incense stick in hand started burning rapidly and the charcoal circle on the ground started moving forwards to the center of the brazier, slowly climbing up it and into it. "Become a being that I may watch through, become a being that I may hear through, become a being that I may act through, and become a being that is independent but still listens." The incense stick in my hand was now fully burned and the smoke from it had moved towards the center of the brazier as well. Slowly it merged with the charcoal, slowly become into a single puddle inside the brazier that had no form. "May you come from the lands of the fey and help me in what I desire. Become a form in which you''ll be a Familiar Friend." As the spell finished, the previously puddle like sludge inside the brazier started moving and changing color. After a minute passed, the previous puddle like sludge became a magnificent creature. The creature was something that had the body shape and size of a hawk, but its beak was shorter and wider, much like that of an owls. Its wings appeared to be a hybridization of a birds and bad wings I noted as it stretched them out before releasing a cry. The cry sounded odd as it sounded more like a kettle coming to a boil, a low whistle that increased in volume and pitch over a few seconds before coming to an abrupt stop. From behind me, Ava was clapping her hands and slowly walking over to me. "So, it was a summoning ritual the entire time. Though you were able to cast magic without needing the components?" She asked. "I am." I replied simply as my new familiar flew onto my shoulder, "But rituals are different. Rituals don''t cast that much mana but have actual rituals components that I need to fulfill to get it to work. This ritual was the {Find Familiar} ritual which would classify as a first level spell. The needed components for this spell are 10 gold coins worth of charcoal, incense, and herbs that must be consumed in a brazier fire. The ritual gives me the service of a familiar, a spirit that takes the form of an animal that it deems suitable for itself. I am however able to deem what kind of spirit it is among 3 choices. A celestial, a fiend, or a fey. This guy right here is a fey. Familiars cannot be killed as if they''re just stabbed or hit with something damaging, they instead just disappear as they have no actual physical form, which I should probably note that I can change to whatever I want within reason as long as I''m able to recast this ritual. I''m also able to resummons the same familiar with this ritual as well. The benefits of having this familiar is that if it''s within 100 feet of me, I can communicate with it telepathically. Additionally, I can see through its eyes and hear whatever it hears but to do this, I must disregard my own senses which can leave me blind and deaf to what is normally happening around me. If needed, I can also temporarily dismiss it. By doing so, it goes to a pocket dimension inside my soul and awaits there for my summon. Alternatively, I can dismiss it forever, but I probably won''t do that. Anyways, I can resummons it anytime and can have only 1 familiar at a time. The familiar itself is unable to attack but I can cast my magic through it which gives me some fun new tricks!" She just whistled upon hearing all the cool stuff that it could do. "So, what''s it name?" She asked while reaching out to pet it. "I''m not sure yet, maybe when I find out its species, I''ll be able to give it a good name." "You don''t know? I can tell you if you want." I quickly nodded at her offer, "This is a Blink Hawk. It is a fast flying bird that can teleport up to 50 ft every 6 seconds or so. There are normally two types of colors for a Blink Hawk, a bright one and a dark one. Yours however is special as it is the same color as your eyes whenever you cast a spell which is dark purple. While these types of birds aren''t particularly territorial, they are ferociously protective of what they hold precious and repeatedly attack any creatures that come near enough to their so called precious. When fighting, they most commonly dive directly at their target before teleporting away to regain altitude." I thought about everything she just said to think up of a name for it. I wanted to combine the words Blinken and Vogel which were both blink and bird respectively in German. I decided to keep the B from Blinken and keep the last part of Vogel, creating the name "Bell" for the blink hawk. I may have added another L to the name but hey, I like that it created an actual word. "His name is Bell." I said while petting his head. Telepathically, I could feel that it was happy for the name and that it appreciated the kinds gesture. Earlier when I said it could talk to me telepathically, I really meant that it could convey feelings and thoughts. I''m not actually able to talk with him with words, but I get what he''s saying to me. "Think I might be able to summon one of them?" She asked. "Maybe? I only learned most of the spells and I know through some really weird methods, so I have no clue how to teach someone else them or even if they have any other requirements for other people then what I know." I then smirked. "And I would probably like to keep them to myself so that they can''t be used against me." "Fair point. Now you ready to head down to the second floor and then go back to Chance to pay off your debt!" The smirk wiped off my face as I turned pale. "Shit I forgot about the debt." 44 Second Floor Author''s Note- Short chapter as I''ve been busy with writing a entire research paper and after doing that for an entire day, I just felt burnt out from writing and couldn''t bring myself to write. But hey, here''s a chapter at least. Next chapter will be world building or something, I don''t know. Don''t ask me cause I''m literally making stuff up on the spot to try and get to my end goal plan for the story. ~~~~ Heading down to the second floor, it was pretty much exactly the same as when we first entered the dungeon. But this time, the starting minion, while still a goblin, looked healthier and had what appeared to be better gear. If I were to take a guess, it was also smarter as well, meaning it would be a much harder fight as it would be able to think of plans and such. Before we got to close to it so that it would hear or smell us, whichever one came first, I stopped Ava and indicated to my bow. She nodded in understanding and stood in front of me with her weapons out and ready. I did the usual stuff and fired the arrow at the goblin, aiming for its head as it had no armor on that part of its body. The arrow flew through the air and hit its mark and swiftly killed it before it even knew we were there. Once the body disappeared, it left a crystal that was about 2 times the size as the small eraser crystals the 1st floor goblins dropped. Putting it into my inventory and making it look like I was putting it into my pocket, we continued onward to the next group of enemies. Standing there talking to each other were what appeared to be two goblin fighters and a singular magic caster of some sort. I was unable to tell what kind of magic caster they were, but if I killed it quick enough, it shouldn''t really matter. Aiming by bow, I once again aimed for the head, knowing that aiming for the arms and legs would be a horrible idea, the arrow nearly hit its mark but just before it did, it instead hit some sort of invisible barrier. The magic goblin turned our way and indicated to the other two goblins about us while it also started casting a spell. Ava rushed forwards with both daggers out and closed a good distance between them. The fighters followed suit and started running forwards as well, nearly getting in close enough to hit each other. The magic goblin in the background sent a bolt of ice towards me while all this was happening. Being to focused on Ava and the two goblins, I didn''t notice the bolt of ice as it stuck itself into my shoulder. Looking down at it, I noticed that it was more of a dagger made of ice instead of just a bolt and saw that while it did indeed hit me, it didn''t go to deep to the point of it being lethal. It hurt a bunch, but I grabbed the dagger with my left hand and pulled it out. Already the dagger was melting in my hand as I looked up to the magic goblin who I noticed was smirking at me while preparing to cast another spell. "Ava!" I called out, "You think you can handle those two goblins by yourself?" She responded back with a quick yes before getting back to fighting. I shot back at the goblin with a quick fire bolt followed up by two shots from my bow. The fire bolt should''ve hit its side but instead seemed to hit the barrier once again. One of the arrows flew right over its head bit luckily the other one didn''t. The arrow hit it in its leg and the goblin screeched out in pain. It looked at me with hate in its eyes before it reached into a bag on its back and pulled out a small ball of something. I quickly shot a few mana arrows towards it now that I was out of regular arrows and watched as it hit him both times. Blood was flowing all around the goblins body, but it seemed determined to finish casting this spell. After a few seconds, it grinned before a small red circle appeared at my feet. I knew well enough from what it looked like to know what this spell was. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. The goblin was casting fireball. I tried thinking of a spell to cast to avoid getting hurt or to just cancel it out entirely and eventually thought of counter spell. Using that quickly in hopes that it would end the spell, I saw my mana leave as it dimmed out the fireball beneath me before it quickly glowed even brighter and exploded. Fire roared around me as it burned me as much as it could. It ended a few seconds later but the damage was done. A good majority of my body and gear was burnt and I was very low on health. The goblin just continued to grin as it jumped around in joy before seeing that I was still standing and started preparing to cast another spell. I didn''t give it a chance to finish as I casted a super charged version of fireball as well by just doubling the amount of mana that would normally go into the spell. It quickly exploded around him with a bright red color with a small amount of purple as well. After the spell went away and I was able to see the goblin again, I saw what appeared to just be a very burnt creature standing there as it let out a singular puff of smoke before falling to the ground dead. I gave a small cheer to this but noticed that Ava was still fighting one goblin. As I didn''t have any mana left to use and was about to fall unconscious from going into the negatives with my mana. Instead I pulled out a throwing knife and threw it at the goblin. It didn''t really do much damage or hurt it that much, but it did catch its attention which gave Ava enough time to finish it off. "Thanks for the help Leo!" She said before turning to me. Once she did, she looked me up and down and said, "You look a bit¡­ Crispy. Should we go back to Chance?" I nodded before coughing a bit of smoke out. "Yes please." And then fell unconscious from using up way to much mana. 45 Paid Dep Author''s Note- Before anyone says anything, yes I know that this chapter has been really late. When I first started on this chapter, I was only a few hundred words away from finishing it and uploading it when my laptop died. Not wanting to see what happened, I went to bed and woke up to see that the worse case scenario did happen and that I lost all my progress. Then doom eternal came out and I did nothing but 100% the nightmare mode. I did that and then wrote this chapter... All I gotta say was it was worth buying the game, fuck the marauders, and I''ll try getting back on schedule. ~~~~~~ From my perspective, it didn''t take long to get back to Chance. It felt like I just closed my eyes and woke up in a nice warm bed with all my burns gone and healed. Don''t mind the fact that Ava was yelling at me for giving her more work to do, enjoy the fact that I didn''t have to go through the pain of riding a horse again. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. In all seriousness though, Ava had to drag me all the way back to the exit of the dungeon, bring me back to Chance, and get someone to heal all my burns and make sure I wasn''t in a life-threatening condition. Luckily, I don''t have to pay for the healing as the priest, druid, or whatever said that it was just the right thing to do and didn''t need any money for what she just did. I counted it as a miracle that I wouldn''t go even further into debt. But speaking about dept, I should really see if I can pay back my tab. After staying in bed for another day just to get some rest, Ava and I eventually set out to get the money from clearing out the first floor, the boss of the first floor, and some of the second floor. Speaking the second floor, I apparently leveled up from killing the magic goblin! I am now level 7 with 9 strength, 28 dexterity, 10 constitution, 29 intelligence, 24 wisdom, and 6 charisma. While this may not seem like much to what I had before the update, it''s actually much better as pretty much all my stats got divided by 10 to make them seem smaller but were still the same strength and stuff. My bonus to level up because of my class because of this actually meant that it''s now 10 times as much as before. A pretty big buff in my opinion. However, it also seems like everything but the 3 stats that increase because of leveling up are also very slowly increasing now. I''m assuming that it''s because the increase is too small to actually be shown but it''s still increasing as my constitution did increase by one from what it was previously after almost dying from a fireball to the face. Now standing outside of what seemed to be a regular looking fantasy bank, Ava and I made our way inside and I noticed the bareness of it immediately. Nobody was there but the one guy sitting in a chair doing some paperwork. He noticed us after we walked forwards a bit and the echoing of our footsteps caught his attention. "Ah, Ava and her little trainee, how nice to see you two! Are you both here for your payment for the mission?" He asked in a polite tone. Ava nodded and made some small talk with him as they both filled out some paperwork. Eventually after turning everything in and the guy reviewed everything to make sure it was correct, he handed both of us a singular small bag with change in it. We thanked him before leaving and then parting ways to do whatever we wanted without money. I immediately made my way to the bar to pay off the tab and make sure it didn''t accumulate interest or anything like that. I didn''t want to risk it. Once I arrived, paid it off, and left, I discovered that I still had quite a bit of money left to spend. 1159 copper, 18 silver, 4 electrum, and 5 gold. Not enough for a fancy magic item in the store I noticed, but I could always make them myself given enough time and resources. Instead, I decided to upgrade my gear. I didn''t want to use up my system points as I still wanted the portable home and I got 250 System points earlier for finding out about the dungeons and getting an easy way of getting Xp and System Points. With the points from the quest and killing all the goblins, I currently have 2,290 System Points and am very close to being able to buy what I want. After exploring around Chance for a bit, I eventually came across the two stores that I desperately wanted to find, a weapon shop and an armor shop. Stepping into the weapon shop first, I decided upon 3 separate things that I wanted to buy. "Greetings their sir, how may I help you?" A humanoid looking dragon said. I stared at him in aw for a second as I knew dragonborns existed and stuff but haven''t seen one till now. Dragonborns are exactly as they sound. They''re humanoids that are of dragon descent from many many years prior. They''re covered in scaly hide that match the color of their draconic ancestor, usually a foot or so taller than humans, weigh around 300 pounds or more, and their hands and feet are strong, talon like claws with 3 fingers and a thumb on each hand. A truly fascinating race. "Never seen a dragonborn before?" The red dragonborn shop owner asked. "No sir. I''ve heard all about dragonborns but have yet to actually see one till now." I said. "I have to ask though; can you do the thing?" "The thing?" He asked in confusion "The thing!" It took a bit before his eyes lit up in understanding before suddenly, he opened his mouth and a small stream of fire went out a few inches in front of him. He chuckled upon seeing my reaction before stopping and suddenly bowing down slightly and saying, "I am Narhadur Nyalthashkmuardok, owner of this weapon shop. Pleased to be at your service." My brain processed his name for a second and he must''ve had this happen many times before as he said I could just call him Hadur. "Well Hadur, I''m looking for 3 things if you have them. The first thing is a set of throwing knives as I''ve been using this one set for a while now and have been steadily losing knives as times goes by. For the second, I need a bunch of arrows, as much as I can get and still being able to buy the last thing. Finally, I''m wonder if I can get a knife which is really easy to hide on one''s body." Hadur thought for a second before saying one moment and leaving to go to a room behind him. After a few moments, he popped out his head and asked how much I was willing to spend for all of this and I said around 5 gold and 10 silver. Once again, a few minutes passed before he came back out, this time with a couple of stuff in his arms. Setting them all down on the counter, he went to one end and started introducing each and every item. "These here are the throwing knives." He said while indicated to a medium sized box in front of him. "Each throwing knife is 5 copper pieces meaning you can buy as much as needed instead of having to buy all of them. For the next item is the arrows." Now indicating to 4 wrapped bundles of the arrows. "Each bundle is 20 arrows in total and cost a gold coin each." I put my hand up to quickly stop him from saying anything else. "May I look at these for a moment? Last time I bought some arrows for this price they were not actual arrows and instead some training ones made to look like real ones." He looked shocked for a moment before saying, "Not at all! Go right on ahead. And since I feel bad for even having a fellow sales man like him even existing, I''ll instead sell you each bundle for 7 silver and 5 copper instead!" Quickly casting inspect on the arrows showed that they were the real deal and made of much much better quality then the ones of the goblins from within the dungeon. I quickly looked up from the arrow and saw a genuine look in his eyes that he felt bad and sorry for what the other salesman did. Putting the arrows back together, I quickly thanked him and let him know that he could move onto the next item. "Now the kind of dagger you were describing sounds like a plus 1 dagger as the wizards call it." "A plus 1?" I asked. "Don''t ask me, the wizards named it like that for some reason. Anyways, the dagger you wanted was enchanted or made by some uncommon method which increases the damage, durability, and somehow making it a magic weapon as well. Now those types of daggers cost around 302 gold which I''m pretty sure you don''t have enough for since your budget was 5 gold and 10 silver. So instead, I got you a dagger which was made with some steel so it''s a bit more durable than others. This dagger costs 2 gold and is good for a long time before needing to be replaced! Now pick and choose as you want and once done, we''ll see how much you owe." I nodded before agreeing to the dagger and all the arrows. Just those brought me up to 5 gold in total, meaning I had only 10 silver which was luckily the same amount as 1 gold. Doing the quick math told me that I could buy 20 throwing knives without going over what I wanted to spend. Hadur did the math quickly and came to the same total that I had came to earlier. "Your total for everything will be 120 copper, 28 silver, and 2 gold in total. Which is also exactly 6 gold as well! Your budget being 5 gold and 10 silver is exactly 6 gold so I think we did some might fine business right here." Doing the rest of the work to buy everything, I eventually left the weapon store with 5 gold and 10 silver less and a bunch of useful stuff for me. Sadly, this brought to my attention the prices of everything and doing the math showed that I would only have around 4 gold or so left and that wouldn''t be enough for what I wanted. I sighed a bit before shrugging my shoulders and leaving to go back to the inn to sort through my inventory and figure out what to do next. 46 Revelation "Hi and welcome to the Mimic Inn, may I take your order or are your just staying the night?" "Get me a beer." "Understood sir." I said with slight nod. Now you may be wondering, "Why is Leo saying this to people????" Well to answer your question, the dungeon is still working on refilling the first two floors with enemies so till that happens, I had to take a part time job to make some money. The Mimic Inn pays decently in my opinion. With Chance being filled with many strong people and what not, they all have a decent amount of money and know how to pay a good minimum wage. Their minimum wage was a silver per hour. According to regular wages in a human city, someone would be lucky just to earn 2 silver coins per day for working an easy job and technically I''m working one of the easiest jobs. All I''m doing is sitting in a chair, greeting anyone who walks through the doors and asking them what they''d like before using magic to send a quick message to the owner who''ll start working on it. Other then that, I have nothing else to do and have been reading my books for a while. Compared to having to learn history and stuff back on earth which was a massive bore for me, learning history and stuff here is much better cause it talks about magic and stuff. Can almost never get bored from reading about magic in fantasy novels and video games so why not on a different world who''s history is filled with magic? Anyways, after a few more minutes, an alarm I set within the system went off indicating that it was time for me to end my shift. Closing my book, I got up from my chair and walked over to the boss before saying my shift was up and getting a quick nod from him and a small bag holding 8 silver coins. This being my second day working here, I''ve made a total of 16 silver in which brought me up to a total of 34 silver. Making my way up the set of stairs to get to my room, I saw and heard that I got a notification from the system but I just shoed it to the back of my head cause I wanted to get to my room first and it couldn''t be that important. Unlocking my door, closing it behind me and relocking it, I then threw myself on my bed and relaxed for a few minutes. Eventually I sat up and went to check out the notification from the system. [Quest Failed! Aetius the false god has killed the entirety of a race and has ascended into an actual god of war!] ¡­. "Well shi- " My door slammed open with Ava standing in the doorframe. "Leo, I have bad news!" She yelled loud enough the entire Inn probably heard. "Let me guess, Aetius and his followers killed the entirety of a certain race?" I asked not sounding surprised. "No! He- wait. How did you know?" I raised an eyebrow and gave her a "Take a guess" look. "Right. Magic. But now that all the Tabaxi are dead, we''ve lost one of the biggest supporters in our fight against Aetius. He even killed their Divine King and took his spark." "Divine King?" "Yeah, you know, the Jaguar King, god of War and Heritage. Usually whenever the previous Jaguar king is about to die, he sends a Tabaxi on a quest to discover their own power before the Jaguar King dies and adds his power onto that Tabaxis newly found power, constantly making the Jaguar King stronger and stronger. Sadly, it doesn''t pass down knowledge from what we hear so it makes the new king a bit of an idiot, but it also makes the new king strong. Anyways, since he was able to take the Jaguar king''s diving spark, he was able to ascend to Godhood and became a newly born god of actual war and something else which we don''t know." "How don''t we know the second part? If he took the divine spark from the Jaguar King who was the god of war and heritage, shouldn''t he get the same Godhood and powers?" "If only but no. When someone gains a divine spark, they gain a godhood from one of the two godhood''s that the divine spark came from which represents them the most. The other half is something else entirely that defines who they are. Let''s take Sapphire, the god of death and mercy for example. According to legends, she was a regular mortal who was a priest under Zyrt, the god of Death and Survival. She eventually became his best priest and accomplished many things with the power he gave her and offered her a divine spark. She accepted that spark but instead of becoming a evil god of death or a god of survival like Zyrt, she instead became one of mercy who wanted to ease people into the afterlife instead of being a ruthless evil god who did her job without emotions because she still cared about people. She wanted to be merciful." "But she didn''t kill Zyrt to gain the divine spark? Is there another way to gain one?" "There is." She said while nodding slowly. "A god can give someone a divine spark if they''ve had one for long enough because as time passes, their amount of divine sparks slowly starts to grow as they grow in power. However, by doing so, they themselves will loose power and will feel a responsibility to the person they gave the spark to." There was a moment of silence that she allowed me to just contemplate everything I just learned. At one point, a question came to mind that out of all the other ones that I had now. "How do you know all of this?" I asked. "I''m guessing this isn''t some knowledge that everyone hears about." She gave a smile that seemed to radiate a bit of sadness. "Well that''s simple." She said while slowly taking off the hood that covered her head, revealing elvish like ears that were much shorter then regular elf ears. "I was a priest of Aetius and he told me many things as one of his favorites." There was an awkward second without any sound before I started laughing. "A priest of Aetius!? That''s one of the best jokes I''ve heard in a while!" I laughed out while she gave me a death glare. "Aetius hates any other race then humans and if I''m guessing, you''re a half elf or something which would mean he would still hate you as any other race." She continued to glare at me before punching me in the face. It sent me back a few feet as I was to busy laughing to notice. For some reason I continued to laugh as if it was the best joke I''ve heard in the entire world, even though I knew that this was a very serious matter. After a bit more laughing from me and some aggressive kicking from her, I somehow did stop laughing. To make up for it she dragged me downstairs to the bar and started making me buy her few rounds at the bar, but I made sure to give a limit as I didn''t want to go into debt again. After a few drinks in her system, she eventually started speaking. "It was around 35 years ago¡­" She started. "35 years? You''re not that- "I started saying before she gave me a death glare which told me to shut up. "35 years ago, I was still in the main human city, fighting for my life as a kid. Humans were racist as usual so everyone always beat me up, insulted me, and just about anything they could think of to ruin my life. At some point, I decided to go to church in hopes that even though one of my parents was an elf they would help me escape the fate that I once though certain. At first, the regular priests just threatened to kick and force me out if I stayed any longer, but I continued begging. Eventually, one of the higher up priests who had this huge smile on his face that never seemed to fade. He took me as his priest directly under him and taught me the ways of being one too. A few years passed and as I continued to learn, I was brought a choice of how I wanted to continue learning. Learn how to fight for Aetius, or support for Aetius. I decided that since Aetius had numerous churches filled with priests, I''d be able to become a paladin and fight for him instead. The priest that took care of me didn''t take to this lightly even though he offered it himself. He started hitting and beating me up to the point I was barely able to move but not once did he use magic. He did this for what felt like months until he beat me up to much one day. I was on the verge of death and he finally had to use magic on me, healing magic. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. This caught Aetius''s attention and he spoke to me in my head. He said that I did well to seek him out and decide to fight for him. He continued talking and telling me words of praise all while the priest looked upwards in horror. My body healed thanks to Aetius while the priests slowly started to become bruised and bloodied. One I was fully healed, the priest himself dropped dead. After that, I worked under Aetius for multiple years. Fighting under him, killing for him, and doing anything he asked because he helped me and was once nice to me. As time passed, I noticed small things here and there that made me question what was happening, but my devotion remained strong. That is until he spoke to me physically. He came down to me wearing armor that was made of some incredibly strong materials. He told me his plan and what he needed to do to ascend to godhood. At that time, hearing what he was saying and everything else made me realize the horrors of what I''ve done. I agreed and made it look like I was enthusiastic about it but once he left, I fled. Some people make it seem like it''s hard to abandon one''s duty as a paladin or priest but it''s incredibly easy. All one must do it deny. Deny the powers that were given to you and deny the oath that you took to get those powers. By doing so, you become what many classify as a being a of hate and death. An Oathbreaker. As an Oathbreaker, you still retain some powers but done of what you had previously. Your new powers revolve around death, necromancy, and destruction. I never used these powers as I didn''t want to eventually embrace the darkness that now lingers inside me. I roamed around the world for years and learned new ways to fight and live. I eventually decided upon stealth and using dagger compared to the previous giant sword I used previously. Then, I discovered chance by, well, chance. They took me in and taught me a new way to live my life. They didn''t care that I was a half-elf as this entire town is filled with beings who accepts you as you are. They''re my new family and hope that we''ll be able to survive through what comes next from Aetius." There was a minute of silence as we just drank in peace and just looked at our mugs. "If you knew what he was going to do then why didn''t yo- " "BECAUSE PLANS CHANGE." She yelled. "because¡­ they change over time and become unpredictable¡­" "Then what do we do next now that Aetius has reached godhood?" "I¡­ I-I don''t know." 47 Leveling Spree Two weeks passed by after the talk with Ava. We haven''t talked very much since then but once two weeks since we were in the dungeon passed, she knocked on my door telling me that it was time to go back to the dungeon and clear out as much as we could. Riding our horses in silence, it felt much longer then it originally did to get there. Once we did, we entered without talking and split up immediately. I quickly dispatched all the goblins in front of me as I walked in a randomized path. Very quickly I leveled up as I''ve killed around 50 or so goblins. Arriving at the doors, I noticed that Ava wasn''t there and decided to sit down a read a bit till he got here. A few minutes later, she came out from around a corner with a few cuts and scratches. I read the last few pages of the chapter I was on and got a point of intelligence form it just before finishing. Putting the book away in the bag on my back, I summoned my familiar Bell and opened the door to the boss. Ava stayed behind me and waited for me to initiate the first attack on the Hobgoblin. Using Bell, I sent him forwards and made him blink behind the Hobgoblin which at that point I then casted a point-blank Mana Arrow charged with a whole bunch of Mana. The Hobgoblin turned around to face whatever attacked it but by then I already had Bell blink away. With it being turned around, Ava started running forwards with little to no sound. I waited till she was only a few feet away from it before firing as to make sure it didn''t turn around early. Ava stabbed it at multiple on its body before it had time to even turn around and defend against her. Once it did turn around a second later, the arrows I fired just before hand hit it directly in the chest and pushed it backwards a bit. This continued for a bit before it tried pulling out a potion just like before, but I already had a plan for that. Using mage hand, a reached out with the invisible hand and tried taking it from the Hobgoblin but it held it in its hand firmly and didn''t allow me to take it. It drank the potion and threw the now empty bottle to the ground, shattering it. Shortly after, its height doubled and somehow, it''s armor and gear grew with it. It let out an evil laugh and gave a grin that showed it thought that it won. I just frowned before casting fireball at it. Afterall, the bigger the person the bigger the space to burn. The fireball exploded and burned it all over making it let out a roar of pain before ran out from it and towards me. Ava took the opportunity to attack it while it was running away but somehow missed. Quickly knocking and then firing a few arrows, I hit him a few times, but he didn''t seem to care in his rage. Shortly after he was right in front of me and swinging its sword wildly at me. Just as it was about to hit, I quickly cast shield as a reaction and made the sword hit an invisible wall of something. After it hit twice and nearly broke the shield, Ava came to the rescue by climbing up him and stabbing him in the neck. The Hobgoblin stumbled around a bit as blood flowed freely before falling to the ground dead. Compared to the first time, this fight was much quicker and if I do say so myself, it also showed that I grew a good amount. Gathering its drop loot and going through the door to the stuff in the chest, which was a sealed scroll of something, we continued downward. A few minutes later we came upon the same group of goblins as last time. Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting. Aiming my bow, I enchanted an arrow with a good portion of Mana and shot it at it. Just like before it seemed to have hit a magical wall which was the shield spell but was able to pass through it this time and hit it directly in the forehead, making it drop dead immediately. Killing the rest of the group was much easier now that their spell caster was dead and made the rest of the second level of the dungeon much easier. The other goblins just ran around in confusion like headless chickens to the point that it was just an easy Xp and System Point grind. Speaking about System Points, I now had enough to buy the portable house and some extra stuff because of how easy it is to get the points from this place. After around an hour or so of xp and point grinding, we eventually got to the door to the floor boss. Entering, just like the floor before lights around the arena lit up showing the boss in the center. This time, it Appeared to be a Hobgoblin fighter along with a Hobgoblin magician. We could probably beat both, but it would take a lot of our resources and time to do so. So instead of rushing in and dying, we decided to sit down and start working on some stuff. Ava said that until we attack either of them, the would just stay there so we didn''t have to worry. Sitting down, we took out the scroll to see what was inside. I was about to break the seal on it before Ava told me to stop because if I did then the spell inside of it would go off. Handing me a pearl and a feather, Ava told me to cast the identify spell if I knew it (which I did) before handing back the pearl and feather as I didn''t need them for the spell unless it was a ritual spell or something like that. From the spell, I discovered that inside the scroll was the spell Storm Sphere. Storm Sphere is a 4th-tier evocation spell that creates a 20-foot-radius sphere of whirling air centered on a point I choose within the spells range (150 feet). Each creature inside the sphere gets bludgeoned by strong winds that push them around and it also turns the ground inside it into difficult terrain, making it hard to move. Until the spell ends, once every few seconds I can cause a bolt of lighting to leap from the center of the sphere towards one creature I choose within 60 feet from the center of the sphere. Its also hard to see through. Sadly, its concentration meaning it limits some of the other spells that I could cast as even though it''s a scroll I still must concentrate on it as if I casted it like one of my spells. I quickly told Ava about the spell in which we then started formulating a plan on how to use this in battle. Most of it revolved around me casting this and making them not know how to escape and just constantly firing spell after spell and arrow after arrow into it and just hoping that I would be able to hit them. With the improvements to my mana after leveling up and the increased wisdom which increases mana regeneration, I should be able to cast around three or so fireballs without losing all my mana. With the plan in mind, I broke the seal on the scroll and out the two Hobgoblins directly in the center of it. Quickly before they had time, I casted a fireball directly where I casted the scroll and burned them. Next, I used the feature of the scroll to send bolts of lighting towards where the magician was before once again casting fireball and repeating this process once more. After I was out of mana, I continued to use the lighting from the sphere while constantly shooting at the enemies that I could somewhat vaguely see. The minute passed and as the spell disappeared so that we could see inside, I saw that there was three stone size mana stones along with a potion and staff from the Hobgoblins. From this I assumed that our planned worked out very well as I could also see a pile of my arrow next to the potion and staff which I assume was the ones I was lucky to be able to on both of them and dropped from them after they disappeared. Gathering the loot, we went through the doors to get the chest loot and discovered 17 gold coins as well as a red potion. Taking the potion and gold, we left the dungeon and I noticed that I was now level 11 with 420 Mp. Saying nice and getting a confused look from Ava from just saying "Nice" when there was literally nothing happening, we continued our ride back to Chance as we made some light talk. 48 The Underdark and bad food stalls Hi everyone, bet you didn''t miss me! I''m back and hate online classes. Wrote this chapter in a few hours, tried coping my writing style when I first wrote this story, and posted this. Now I''m going to go to bed cause I wrote all of this within a few hours. Might not be the best chapter, definitely isn''t my worst chapter, and I gotta progress the plot somehow right? ~~~~~~~~~~ A couple more days passed without anything happening. I bought my wonderful bag of Housing from the System, decorated it with some simple furniture and kitchen stuff, and enjoyed a rent-free home. Other then that and working, Ava and I have been planning. Aetius is now a god. Probably a god of war instead of heritage as he''s in or starting wars most of the time according to Ava. The tricky part is finding out what the other half is. Without knowing the second domain he has a card up his sleeve that could change the tide of battle. With that in mind, Ava and I decided to leave to work on gathering more forces to boost our war. Now you might be wondering what all we talked about and what happened between us after the revelation she revealed but who really cares. Lots of arguing, throwing things, crying (from the shop keeper who kept having his stuff thrown), and the other stuff that usually goes with resolving a conflict between people. Just don''t mind the fact that we nearly burnt down the entire town¡­. Twice¡­ Besides that, the basis of what we''re going to do besides gather more forces is to infiltrate some human cities. I tried going big and said that we should go for the main human city of Kingcreed, but Ava immediately denied and said that we should start with different city. Not knowing any, she ranted a bunch that I can''t really remember the names of, but I said \"Triston\". As we packed and prepared to leave, she gave me the brief summary of Triston. Triston has nearly 150 thousand human with around 37 thousand gnome slaves. The gnomes are all forced to help farm and do the hard-manual labor while a lot of the humans work and start preparing for war. The humans that don''t work for war are scientists who are working on trying to create better weapons and magic for their soldiers. Because they''re all working towards that, they have much less security then a regular kingdom would. It would take a couple of days to get the but until then, we have enough time to do some stuff. Hoping on our horses, we then started our travel with a very boring ride. A few minutes in I got bored and started talking. \"For my disguise to get into Triston, I''m thinking about a fake mustache and speaking with an old man voice. Then if they ask me to state my name, I''ll say I''m Bonzu Pipinpadaloxicopolis¡­ The third! You can be my grand-daughter and we can- \" \"That''s a very dumb plan and will never work. \"I think some regular guard would fall fore it. Nobody likes to mess with insane old people after all.\" A couple hours of some light talking and planning later, the sky started to grow dark. Ava started setting up a tent to sleep and tied the reigns of the horses up to a nearby tree. I didn''t need to do any of this though because I was able to just jump into my bag of housing and lay down on a nice comfy bed. Ava questioned where I got such a wonderful magic item but as usual, I replied with the same answer. \"Magic!\" She sneered at the answer but didn''t ask any more questions as she knew she wouldn''t be getting a better answer from me then that. He night passed quickly as I enjoyed the nice warm covers of my bed while Ava stayed outside and enjoyed the night sky. Sleep came quickly and I woke up early with Ava throwing me out of my bag of housing. I cooked breakfast, read some of my books, made a pot of tea and got a confused look from Ava, and practiced using my disguise kit. This continued for a few days before we eventually got to our destination of Triston. The guard standing at the gate looked both of us up and down before asking us some questions. \"Race?\" \"Human\" \"Reason for coming to Triston?\" \"Work\" \"Reason you have and Elven bow?\" \"Spoils of war.\" \"Oh? Are you willing to join the war then and hunt some monsters?\" \"I think we''ll stick to some regular work.\" He gave a nod before writing down a few more things and tearing of two pieces of paper and giving them to us before letting us in. After walking out of hearing range, I leaned over to Ava and whispered to her, \"That was much easier than expected.\" \"What did you expect to happen?\" She asked. \"Did you expect them to figure out from a single glance that we weren''t here for what we said we were? He''s probably underpaid and working hellish hours to do something and just trying to get the day over with. They almost never care.\" Past the gate was a long road with multiple buildings and alleyways littering the side. Some buildings went many stories up while others seemed to go many stories sideways which was a weird thing to look at. Moving closer and closer to the center of the city, Ava kept looking around for something and occasionally stopped and investigate. She didn''t exactly say what she was looking for but said I would know once she found it. I gave a slight nod in response as I continued to look around the city. Eventually, we got to a point where we where in the shopping part of the city as there was food stalls all over the place and many signs advertising one thing or another. I said that we should split ways so that we could cover more ground faster and Ava agreed. When she left, I rushed over to a stall selling crepes. Ordering one, he asked for a singular silver for a single crepe (which I thought was an outrageous price). Paying a moving a bit away, I took a bite out of the crepe and almost immediately spit it out. Instead of what I was used to for crepes, they made this one with so much sugar and salt it tasted horribly. I spit out the piece in my mouth into my hand and looked for a place to throw it out. Sadly, I was unable to find one and wished I had the ability to remove it from existence which I sadly couldn''t do. And with that, I vowed to never try crepes that seemed heavily overpriced and from a stall that had no other customers. Though I did also go over to a different food stall that had more people in line. A few minutes passed as I started shoving a bunch of food and drinks into my inventory from all the stalls. Some of it where stuff I knew from Earth while others were some weird named abomination that probably only existed on this world because of weird evolutions and what not. Sitting down on a bench, I enjoyed some of this weird named abomination food that I was talking about. Some of it was very nice while others was horrible. About halfway through my 4th abomination food, Ava jumped me like a mugger and said she found what she was looking for. Dragging me to one of the Alleyways, she knocked on the wall twice before stopping and then knocking three more times. A few seconds later, a sound like that of stone grinding came from behind us and an entrance to an inn like room was now there. \"Ava, I still have no clue what you were looking for.\" \"Isn''t it obvious? We had to go so a dark alley, do a secret code that opened a door, and everything is hidden from view of regular people!\" \"So, something illegal?\" She gave me an annoyed stare. \"This is the black-market and the main center for criminals and what not.\" \"Ah the black market where they sell black food stalls with burnt food and what not.\" \"Leo, now is not the time to be addicted to food and hate burnt food. We''ve got some work to do and you''re joining me.\" Walking into the inn like area, Ava talked to the person behind the counter who looked very rough, tough, and buff. She said some stuff in an unknown language and slid him a bag of coins. When he looked inside it, he gave a weird smile before smiling and giving her a key. Walking down a nearby hallway, I noticed that we were gradually going downwards underground. After around one or two minutes of walking, we eventually came out into a giant open area with multiple people who all looked similar to the guy behind the counter. \"Welcome to the Underdark Leo. You''re in for one hell of a first time with criminals.\" 49 Murder, Information, and Viva La Résistance According to the books I read while with the Elves, this was definitely not the underdark I''ve read about. According to the books, the underdark is the vast network of underground caverns and tunnels underneath the surface of Abeir-Toril. It was home to a host of evil beings driven deep into the caverns at the end of the age of demons. This underdark seems to have just been named after it because the creator of whoever named this place did minimal research and thought \"Hey, that would be a great name for this place!\" Ava walked around the open area and swerved through the crowd of people that littered the area. Occasionally a fight would start between two people without any prior warning. For example, this one guy was sitting and reading a book. He seemed to be enjoying his book and was about to go drink some tea when all of a sudden, a guy in the crowd ran up to him and stabbed him in the gut. The attacker said something in a language I didn''t know before running away. The person sitting in the chair fell off the chair and clutched his stab wound while everyone else just kept on walking. \"Tell the bastard that got me\" He started saying to no one. \"Tell him he didn''t kill me, a plant did!\" I felt a little bad for him, so I quickly used to inspect and found out his name and a small description about him. His name was Francis Gaylord the first and he was involved with some sort of unicorn dust scheme? I had no clue what that was, but I didn''t feel as bad for him because of how literally stupid it was. After a few more murders and a lot more yelling from people I encountered, Ava put her hand up to indicate to stop. Looking ahead I saw a building with a sign above it saying, \"Jenny''s Illegal Info!\". I understood that this place is all about illegal deals and what not, but did it have to be that blatantly obvious? Walking inside, I saw a what appeared to be a regular restaurant. Obviously, I knew that it wasn''t one but hey, there were waiters and people sitting down just like one. Soon a waitress came up to us and asked how many people there was with us today and Ava just indicated with her fingers that it was just the two of us. The waitress moved us over to a booth to sit down and gave us some free bread sticks which I eagerly dug into. A few minutes later, our waitress came back and got a small notebook out to take out order. \"Welcome to Jenny''s Illegal Info, I''m Carly and what information would you like to illegally have?\" \"Hey Carly, I would like information for the king''s guards, the Pope''s current whereabouts, and where the resistance in this town is located.\" Carly wrote this down and double checked a few things with Ava first. After confirming that she got everything on the order correct, she gave us the check and left to take some other people''s orders. Ava looked at the checked and flinched slightly upon looking at it. Reaching into her bag, she moved some money around into a smaller bag and placed it onto the table. A few minutes later Carly came back and checked the bag. Seeing that we had the correct amount, she took it to the employees only area and then returned a minute later with more breadsticks. Some light banter with Ava later and trying to figure out how much money she just spend, Carly eventually came back to us with a thin book in hand. Placing it on the table in front of Ava and talked to her about the details and limits of what was inside the book. Using the opportunity while they were distracted, I used mage hand to stealthily bring the book over to my side and read it. The first few pages described the king''s guard and that most of them were Paladins of Aetius who were of complete faith and dedicated to protecting the king because of something we had. But because we didn''t order that information, it didn''t list exactly what he had and why they were protecting him. After that it listed the Pope''s current whereabouts on a singular page which just said that he was in Smeltersburg. No clue where that was but I can guess the importance of that location. Finally, the last few pages had a map drawn on it with a few marks here and there listing the locations of the resistance. The resistance was split up between three separate groups that were each made for specific reasons. Group 1 was made to gather information amongst the population and then feed that information to group 2. Group 2 was dedicated to sorting through that information and finding out what was useful and what wasn''t. Once they had solid information and knew that it could be used, they handed it off to group 3 who used that information to formulate a plan of attack and then proceed with that attack. By the time I finished reading everything, Ava was just staring at me with a bored look on her face. I handed over the book and nibbled on a few more bread sticks as she read the book herself. Once she finished, she put the book in her bag and stood up. Leaving the establishment, Carly waved us goodbye and asked us to visit again. Using the book from earlier as a guide, Ava expertly guided us through the tunnels until eventually we got to a dead end, but I could already guess that this wasn''t one. Doing a quick couple of knocks on the wall while using the book as a guide once again, nothing happened for a couple of seconds before the ground beneath us opened up. We fell a couple of seconds until we were just a couple of feet away from the ground and our falling speed suddenly slowed down. Thankfully our momentum didn''t seem to just continue as we would just be stuck to the ground like flys on a windshield. As we slowly fell, a guy wearing robes walked over to where we were falling before looking up and shouting, \"What do you need from the Resistance?\" \"We''re here from Chance by chance!\" Ava responded. \"I thought there would be more of you.\" He simply responded before a few more people came out of the shadows. Once we landed on the ground, he walked over to me and put his hand out. \"You must be Leo.\" He started. \"I''ve heard about you and how you would be able to help with our situation.\" \"And what help do you need exactly? Minding the Resistance itself.\" I asked while grabbing and shaking his hand. \"A few things. You familiar should be able to help gather more information and with you being able to cast a multitude of spells without needing components or somatics, you should do well in dealing with a few missions.\" \"Ah, I see. And when will this first mission be?\" \"In about a day or so. During the time leading up to that, we will brief you on everything you need to know.\" He said before turning around and leaving. As he did, I mentally questioned how I did that as for the last couple of weeks/months, I haven''t really been given an opportunity to respond and talk back. Most of the time I would just be forced into doing something or not even given a chance to think. Plus, I talked like I knew what I was saying. I made bullshit up on the spot and went with it. Somehow that worked and I am definitely not going to question it too much. Some of the other people then started introducing themselves and saying how I was such a huge motivation for them and fighting against Aetius. I tiled my head in confusion before he started explaining how almost everyone knew the story of how I pissed of Aetius just because I helped another race besides humans and because of that it inspired people to start fighting back. Though it should be worth noting that it wasn''t humans that I inspired. Instead, it was all the half-humans. Everyone here was a half-human. The guy I spoke and shook hands with earlier? Half-Orc (I think. He had some tusks and can''t think of any other race but orc with tusks.) Everyone here was either shamed and treated cruelly because of their heritage and decided to make this resistance because of it. I thought it was stupid how they did this because I randomly found the elves and helped them create a barrier while not knowing about any of this. Still, I said I was glad to help and smiled like a politician cause I didn''t want to be rude. Curse my want to be nice cause I''m not some edgy edge lord who wants to be evil just because I can. Eventually we were shown to our separate rooms and I thanked them once again. One of them asked for an autograph with on a wanted picture of me which I signed very awkwardly. Upon me giving it back to them, they squealed like a fan girl and ran off. I dreaded what might happen the next couple of hours if this was anything to go by. 51 Infiltration and Artifacts The night after arriving at the Resistance was a weird one. Though it was nice and quiet most of the time, you''d hear the occasional shank happening in the distance. Once I was able to fall asleep, I was awoken around 9 hours later by an archer for the resistance who seemed to have based her entire fighting style and look off of me as she had the same bow as me and armor I was wearing yesterday as well. "Good morning General Leo!" She said while saluting me. "I''m here to help you for the morning before taking you Leader Aaron to be briefed about the mission!" I stared at her for a few seconds just mentally questioning why she though it would be a good idea to do that. Eventually I got to asking for a few minutes to change into regular clothing before she happily responded and left the room. Once we finally got to the mess hall, cafeteria, or whatever they called it, I got a bowl of oatmeal, some bread, and bought some orange juice from the system cause I could. I sat down, had a spoonful of oatmeal, and then had a bombardment of questions from the Soldier and multiple other people who saw me enter the area and wanted to talk to me. I tried answering as many as I could while also keeping some things secret because I didn''t want literally EVERYTHING known about me, I barely was able to eat anything before about an hour or so was up and the Soldier quickly rushed me down to meet up with their Leader Aaron. Thankful for no long having to be mobbed by people who saw me as a celebrity, I bought some more juice before bringing out some food from my inventory to eat. Arriving at the war room very quickly, the person from yesterday who I first saw when I was falling down the hole was talking to Ava while having his arms behind his back like a person in the Military in America. As we entered the room, Ava saw us and gave a quick wave which the Leader noticed, causing him to turn around. "Ah, Leo and private Taylor (Author''s Note- to lazy to think of fantasy names), glad to see that you''ve finally arrived." He said before turning to the soldier. "Thank you for bringing him, you are dismissed." She saluted to him before turning around and quickly leaving the room. Upon doing so, Aaron turned back to me. "I''ve been talking to Ava about the mission and what you would be able to do the most during it. She talked about some of your abilities and their uses and I think we''ve come up with a plan that just might work." He started walking over to a table and indicated me to follow. Setting down a few folders he started describing in the plan. "Our main mission is to take the Artifact from the King. While we don''t fully know what the artifact is, we do know that it has something to do with teleportation. There''s both good news and bad news about this. The good news is that there is a cooldown on how many times they can use it per day. The bad news is that we don''t know if they''ll have used it the full amount of time, they could for the day meaning they could use it to escape. Now while we don''t know the range, we can say with enough confidence that it''s far enough to teleport you away from the room to make an escape." He then opened the folder and started reading some stuff off. "To counteract this, we''ve decided on this plan. You know up to tier 3 wizard spells meaning you have both counterspell, blink, and invisibility. Sneaking into their home, you''ll use invisibility to get around and blink to go through the walls as needed. Once you find the king, you''ll report back to the rest of the group and lead them to him. Once there, we''ll initiate combat with him and if he ever tries using the artifact to teleport away, you''ll need to counterspell. The only major thing that could go wrong with this is that your counterspell might not successfully work against the artifact which is why I''ve brought this." Setting down a silver ring on the table, he slid it in front of me. "This is a Ring of Focus which makes spells that are able to be resisted a bit harder to resist and spells just a bit stronger, meaning that it will have a slightly higher chance of working on the artifact. It doesn''t increase it to a 100% chance but will still increase it nevertheless." Putting it on, I didn''t feel anything happen but with a quick look from my stats I saw that the chance of me succeeding on a counter spell increased by around 8.73%. I asked the system quickly as well what would happen if I wore multiple of these rings but discovered that wearing more then one of the same items wouldn''t increase the effect. So no to two rings of focus but yes to a helm of focus maybe? I''ll have to test it out later¡­ Or I could just ask the System. ''Hey system, would it be possible for me to wear a helm of focus or something like that?" [It is not possible to do so because it would have the same enchantment on it. If it''s enchanted with something else that offers that enchantment as a side effect, that however will work.] ''So, if I twist up the enchantment ever so slightly it would work?" [Affirmative.] "Anything else I should be informed of before being sent off? Any guard positions, secret traps, hidden areas?" I asked before going off on this mission. "We''ll be sending you in through a secret entrance we know of but you''ll mostly going in blind. If we knew any more, we wouldn''t be needing to send you in alone to find out how to get to the King." I gave a small sigh but could understand and didn''t argue. About 12 hours later, I was crawling into the King''s home through the sewer system. A group of half-humans were following right behind me so that once I finished finding out the correct path to where the king is sleeping, I could immediately come back and show them the way. The group wasn''t that big, consisting of only four other people, each of a different class. There was a sorcerer and priest (Of a weird obscure god I never heard of) to offer support from the back with either spells or healing. A barbarian and fighter to focus upfront and both deal and take damage as to make sure the back support didn''t get hurt. Oh, and Bell as I wanted a way to communicate with them somewhat while I was away. I also didn''t ask about their exact classes like with the dwarves I knew, just got the basic classes to know what they could and couldn''t do. At the end of the sewers, we came to a dead end where it would normally start if someone were to be escaping out of the king''s home. This meant that it was time for me to break in and figure out the needed path. Taking a deep breath through the enchanted mask I had on (made to filter air and make it smell nice), I casted blink on myself. Blink a third level spell that has a 50% chance every few seconds to teleport you into the Ethereal plane. The Ethereal Plane is a misty, fog-bound dimension that coexists with the material plane (The plane I''m currently on) and pretty much every other plane. When one goes into the Ethereal Plane, they''re able to see the material plane through muted and indistinct colors that make it seem more like looking through fog and distorted glass. While in this plane, you''re unable to interact with anything on the material plane and invisible to it as well. This makes it amazing for reconnaissance, spying, and almost any other occasion when one wants to move around without being detected. Now once I''m on this plane, I''ll be able to move in pretty much any direction and though anything (as long as it''s not magical) as there is no gravity and am unable to be detected as one cannot see into the Ethereal Plane (unless my magical means once again.) The best part of this blink spell is that it doesn''t require concentration, meaning I can cast invisibility as well and improve my stealthiness even more for an entire minute. As I sit there, I wait a few seconds for it to take affect while the others just stared at me in confusion. I was about to shrug but just then I was forced into the Ethereal Plane. Once I was, I floated upwards through the ground and found myself in a bathroom. I reappeared for a few seconds which gave me just enough time to cast invisibility which sadly did require concentration this time. Invisibility does exactly what it says it does and makes me invisible. During this time (1 hour), anything I''m wearing, or carrying is invisible with me. But I have to be wary to not cast anything as if I attack or cast a spell, the spell ends. Walking up to the wall next to the door out, I waited for blink to activate and force me into the Ethereal. Once it did, I stuck my head through the wall to look for any guards to be on the lookout for, only to find none. Before I was forced back, I went through the wall as to ensure I didn''t have to walk through the door and possibly have creaky hinges reveal that someone was here. Walking through the halls a bit, I came upon a kitchen with many people working in it. I started sneaking my way through and stole a freshly baked loaf of bread before I was about halfway through and blink activated, which I then quickly went through everything to get to the end and leave through the wall. Once done with that, I shoved the bread into my inventory. Done with the kitchen, I was now in the dining room which was both giant and magnificent. And even though it was pretty late at night, there was still a few people up and waiting for food by the looks of it. I assumed that the people in the kitchen were preparing food for the morning, but it seems that they were making food for these people right here. Most of them appeared to be guards with one or two of them being royalty. I quickly surveyed the area looking for the door out and quickly spotted it. It was closed and had a guard standing on each side, ready to question whoever came through or left. I waited for blink to activate but after a few seconds, I mentally cursed. The spell had ended as I wasn''t paying enough attention to it. Getting out of here would be incredibly difficult now. I can''t recast blink as it''ll end invisibility and reveal myself which would end badly. I couldn''t attack the guards either as that would end it as well. The only option would be to somehow cause everyone to be loud and force everyone to pay attention to something. A quick survey of the area didn''t reveal anything of importance, but I had to think of something. About a minute passed as I quietly walked around, looking for anything to use before it came to me. Theoretically, I should be able to use my inventory without ending the spell as my inventory isn''t a spell itself. Reaching out into space, activating my inventory, and grabbing my bread I put in their earlier, I quickly brought it out and rejoiced that I was correct. Now with the invisible bread in hand, I tried figuring out what I could do with this or anything else in my inventory. As a few seconds went by, the female royal people sniffed the area before loudly saying, "I smell some fresh bread." "Of course, you do." The other royalty said. "We''re right next to the kitchen where they''re making our food." "I know that, but we had someone enchant it so that we wouldn''t smell what they''re cooking and make ourselves hungrier while waiting." The female royal answered back with a hint of anger. They argued back and forth for a while but during that time, I came up with a plan. Sneaking up to one of the guards, I tore off a piece of the bread and put it on the ground next to them. Taking a bite out of it, I then place it on the ground as well and made it seem like it was the guard who did it. While I was doing that, the guard yawned so I decided to just drop it instead to create a bit of noise for them to hear. The plan worked perfectly. The male royal heard something drop and looked over to the noise, only to see the guard and the bread. Without thinking or even questioning what was happening, he quickly told the other royal who saw it as well and commanded the other guards to take him to the torture chamber for what he did. While highly excessive just for some bread on the ground, I followed behind the other guards as they opened the door which gave me ample time to sneak my way through without getting caught. Now I was in the main entrance area with stairs going upwards. Before going up them, I counted the guards and looked around for an area to hide so that I could recast blink. After a bit of looking and following behind some guards going through doors, I was able to get to a secluded area that allowed me to cast blink and then invisibility in rapid succession. Almost immediately, blink forced me into the Ethereal, so I used that time to run through the walls and go up the stairs. There was a few guards stationed along the walls of the next floor, but I was just somehow barely quiet enough for them to not care. Slowing down, I made sure to take my time while in the material plane and rush as quickly as possible while in the Ethereal. The combination of the two allowed me to quickly move through this floor and into a giant library. Inside this library, there was no guards stationed and absolutely no lights or windows. While there was some candles, they were all burnt down to nothing and everything had a fine layer of dust over it. Blink was about to end in a few seconds so I decided to instead just look around for the next couple of seconds so that I could recast my spells before I rushed forwards. Looking around the books, some where really basic while others appeared to be spell books. I eventually had so many interesting books in my inventory that I decided to shove literally every book I could within a few minutes time into my inventory. While this gave me a giant amount of books, compared to all the books in the library it was nothing. Wiping the sweat off my brow, I gave one last look of the library to see if there was anything of importance before noticing a book. This book seemed to be layered in gold and gems, so I picked it up and read the title. "Font of magic" was on the front of it and had no author. I read through a few pages of the book and it described a deep wellspring of magic within every living being. This wellspring is able to cast spells and create a variety of magical affects. Compared to a wizard who learns how to cast spells with mana through knowledge and items, those who are able to access this well are known as sorcerers and it''s possible for everyone to access this given time and chance. Smirking slightly at this, I decided to close my eyes and look inside myself to see if it was true. For a few minutes, I found nothing and was about to throw this book back on this table and rush back to my mission as I''ve already spent way to much time messing around but just as I was about to do so, I felt a cold power inside. At first, I thought of how clich¨¦ it was. "Look inside and you''ll find power inside of yourself!" kind of clich¨¦. Opening back up the book, I saw that it listed some basic uses of this wellspring of power once you find it inside yourself. They called these uses, "Metamagic" and are used to shape spells and even change them. One of the metamagics I noticed increased the duration of the spell and I instantly focused on learning that. After a few seconds, I eventually got it to work and increased the duration of blink to 2 minutes using a good amount of this wellspring inside of me. Using up the rest of this wellspring, I discovered thanks to the system that I increased the duration of the spell up to 8 minutes. Casting invisibility, I kissed the book in hand before quickly throwing it into my inventory for later use and running through the wall once blink forced me into the ethereal. From there on out, I was able to move throughout the gigantic house with ease. From the library, there was then an armory, a prison, gigantic wardrobe full of fancy clothing, a kingly bathroom, a brewery, and finally the king''s room itself. Inside the king''s room was an overly decorated room with many sculptures of the king, multiple swords on the walls, a giant bed that seemed big enough to fit an entire army, multiple pictures of himself, a bunch of gold (which I quickly stored in my inventory), and a few other things here and there. Sadly, the thing I was looking for the most wasn''t there. The king himself. I rummaged around looking for any secret door or something like that where the king could be hiding and having a secret meeting but was unable to find one. With regret, I walked towards the wall to bang my head on it. Sadly, blink activated and forced me into the ethereal plane just in time so that my head instead went through it. Upon doing so, I immediately saw multiple heavily armored guards with gigantic swords and shields in hand, standing next to a throne. In this throne was the king himself. Pulling my head out of the wall, I looked over to the side slightly and saw a doorway which I assumed earlier was just for the bathroom or something. Face palming for a few seconds, I eventually made my way back to the others through a long and tedious process of going directly through the floor in the Ethereal Plane. Now before you ask, the reason I didn''t go upwards through the floor in the first place was because I had to make sure that he wasn''t on the first floor. If I didn''t, I could''ve missed him entirely and not search his house for useful stuff. Once I got back to the others, I quickly told them that I discovered where the king was and a few other things. With that, the priest took something out of their backpack and handed it to me. What they handed to me was a really weird looking crown. "This is a one time use magic item that we were able to purchase for thousands of platinum coins. With it, you should be able to teleport us anywhere within 500 feet or so. All you have to do is put it on your head, think of the location while we hold onto your shoulder or something, and once you concentrate on the location within 500 feet, we will all be teleported there and the crown will turn to dust." The crown handed to me had a white-gray look that made it seem brittle. It had little wave like lines drawn all over it that seemed to slightly glow a lunar blue color. Putting the crown on, I started focusing on the king''s room and as a couple of seconds passed by, the sewer walls around us slowly started to fade away and turn into the walls of the king''s bedroom as if we were in a slideshow transition. As soon as we were fully in the king''s room, the brittle crown on top of my head lost the weird lunar blue color coming out of it and rapidly turned to dust. I shed a small tear for all the money that was just lost for a single use of that item. The fighter seeing that we were in king''s room, asked me where to go next to find the king. I indicated towards the door and told them to be wary because a bunch of guards. Pushing open the door, the barbarian pushed ahead of the fighter and ran directly forwards before spotting the king and rushing towards him. The guards were able to push themselves between the barbarian and the king just before the barbarian was able to get an attack off. The barbarian roared with rage and recklessly swung his axe around trying to hit anything. The fighter rushed in as well seeing that all stealth was thrown out the window and that we were just going to wing it. With him rushing in, the priest and sorcerer moved forwards a bit so that the could see the entirety of the guards and started offering support. Getting my bow off my back, I started offering support as well and fired multiple arrows at the guards. All while doing this, the king was hiding on his throne and crying out of fear. After a couple of seconds went by, the fighter was able to get the first good hit and successfully killed one of the guards. That left just 7 more to go! With the first guard killing, the guards hold on the barbarian loosened which allowed him to break free and continue rushing towards the king. Using that time, I was able to shoot another guard and get enough XP from him to level up. As the barbarian ran forwards and was just a few feet away from him, the king pulled out a peculiar looking helmet and put it on his head. Just as he did, a large amount of mana could be felt surging out from it as it started to glow to an almost blinding degree. Quickly I casted counterspell on it in hopes of quickly stopping whatever was happening. As I felt my magic leave me and attempt to stop whatever the helm was doing, it didn''t seem to work as it continued to grow brighter and brighter until the ring of focus on my hand started heating up and then suddenly, the light was gone. The king who seemed to be filled with joy previously about being able to escape and survive this ordeal was now filled with fear. The barbarian seemed to get closer and closer until they were faced to face with the king. The guards where constantly hitting the barbarian with a multitude of attacks, whether it was magic or sword. The barbarian raised their weapon in the air and stared down at the king before bringing their weapon down and cutting the kings head off. By now, there was only 2 guards left as they all prioritized on keeping the King alive. I was able to level up 2 more times by the time we were able to kill the king but that still left us with the 2 guards. The guards stood in awe at what just happened and their inability to protect who their god told them to protect. They were quickly pushed out of this funk as our fighter attempted to decapitate one of them with their sword. Shooting a few arrows, I offered support by hitting them here and there as a distraction while also dealing a decent amount of damage. Eventually with the help of the priest and sorcerer, we were able to finish the last 2 off and someone give me one final level from this encounter. Walking over to the now severed head of the king, I gently took off the helmet from his head using mage hand and used multiple uses of prestidigitation. Throwing a use of inspect at it, I found out that it was the helm of teleportation, a legendary item that allows you to cast the spell teleport 3 times per day. (Author''s Note- The regular helm of teleportation from D\u0026D is only rare but I''m making it legendary here because it allows you to literally cast the teleport spell which is 7th level.) The helm has already been used twice, once from something I don''t know about and once from what just happened. While looking at it, I started hearing heavily armored footsteps rushing to our location echo around. The others ran up to me and asked if I was able to use this artifact to get us away from here. I quickly replied with a maybe as I put the helmet on and willed it to cast the teleportation spell. Mana surged from it as it surrounded us and started glowing brighter and brighter. Previously unnoticed doors banged opened as multiple guards started rushing in. However, they weren''t in time as the helm of teleportation finished casting the spell. Now let it be known about one thing of the teleportation spell. When teleporting, you need to be familiar with the location you''re going. If you use a permanent teleportation circle as the location you want to go to and you know the circle, then you have a 100% chance of going there. It is the same if you teleport to an associated object that you know of. However, if you''re very familiar with it, you only have a 75% chance of being on target, 10% chance of being off target, 10% chance of going to a random similar area, and a 5% chance of it being a mishap. All of this just for an area you''re familiar with. But what about to a place you''ve only viewed once? Say the temporary bedroom you stayed the night in? Well when that happens, the chances of you being on target or slightly off target drop dramatically. For me, I was teleported to a similar area as when the spell finished teleporting us and we were able to see again, I could definitely tell that we were not where we were supposed to be. After all, why would I want to go to a secret base of Aetius instead the secret base of the rebellion? Can you answer me that? Well anyways, I can tell you everyone''s reaction to when they too understood what happened. "Oh Shit.", "Oh Fuck", and my favorite, "Fuck you god. Fuck you so so much." 50 Infiltration and Artifacts The night after arriving at the Resistance was a weird one. Though it was nice and quiet most of the time, you''d hear the occasional shank happening in the distance. Once I was able to fall asleep, I was awoken around 9 hours later by an archer for the resistance who seemed to have based her entire fighting style and look off of me as she had the same bow as me and armor I was wearing yesterday as well. "Good morning General Leo!" She said while saluting me. "I''m here to help you for the morning before taking you Leader Aaron to be briefed about the mission!" I stared at her for a few seconds just mentally questioning why she though it would be a good idea to do that. Eventually I got to asking for a few minutes to change into regular clothing before she happily responded and left the room. Once we finally got to the mess hall, cafeteria, or whatever they called it, I got a bowl of oatmeal, some bread, and bought some orange juice from the system cause I could. I sat down, had a spoonful of oatmeal, and then had a bombardment of questions from the Soldier and multiple other people who saw me enter the area and wanted to talk to me. I tried answering as many as I could while also keeping some things secret because I didn''t want literally EVERYTHING known about me, I barely was able to eat anything before about an hour or so was up and the Soldier quickly rushed me down to meet up with their Leader Aaron. Thankful for no long having to be mobbed by people who saw me as a celebrity, I bought some more juice before bringing out some food from my inventory to eat. Arriving at the war room very quickly, the person from yesterday who I first saw when I was falling down the hole was talking to Ava while having his arms behind his back like a person in the Military in America. As we entered the room, Ava saw us and gave a quick wave which the Leader noticed, causing him to turn around. "Ah, Leo and private Taylor (Author''s Note- to lazy to think of fantasy names), glad to see that you''ve finally arrived." He said before turning to the soldier. "Thank you for bringing him, you are dismissed." She saluted to him before turning around and quickly leaving the room. Upon doing so, Aaron turned back to me. "I''ve been talking to Ava about the mission and what you would be able to do the most during it. She talked about some of your abilities and their uses and I think we''ve come up with a plan that just might work." He started walking over to a table and indicated me to follow. Setting down a few folders he started describing in the plan. "Our main mission is to take the Artifact from the King. While we don''t fully know what the artifact is, we do know that it has something to do with teleportation. There''s both good news and bad news about this. The good news is that there is a cooldown on how many times they can use it per day. The bad news is that we don''t know if they''ll have used it the full amount of time, they could for the day meaning they could use it to escape. Now while we don''t know the range, we can say with enough confidence that it''s far enough to teleport you away from the room to make an escape." He then opened the folder and started reading some stuff off. "To counteract this, we''ve decided on this plan. You know up to tier 3 wizard spells meaning you have both counterspell, blink, and invisibility. Sneaking into their home, you''ll use invisibility to get around and blink to go through the walls as needed. Once you find the king, you''ll report back to the rest of the group and lead them to him. Once there, we''ll initiate combat with him and if he ever tries using the artifact to teleport away, you''ll need to counterspell. The only major thing that could go wrong with this is that your counterspell might not successfully work against the artifact which is why I''ve brought this." Setting down a silver ring on the table, he slid it in front of me. "This is a Ring of Focus which makes spells that are able to be resisted a bit harder to resist and spells just a bit stronger, meaning that it will have a slightly higher chance of working on the artifact. It doesn''t increase it to a 100% chance but will still increase it nevertheless." Putting it on, I didn''t feel anything happen but with a quick look from my stats I saw that the chance of me succeeding on a counter spell increased by around 8.73%. I asked the system quickly as well what would happen if I wore multiple of these rings but discovered that wearing more then one of the same items wouldn''t increase the effect. So no to two rings of focus but yes to a helm of focus maybe? I''ll have to test it out later¡­ Or I could just ask the System. ''Hey system, would it be possible for me to wear a helm of focus or something like that?" [It is not possible to do so because it would have the same enchantment on it. If it''s enchanted with something else that offers that enchantment as a side effect, that however will work.] ''So, if I twist up the enchantment ever so slightly it would work?" [Affirmative.] "Anything else I should be informed of before being sent off? Any guard positions, secret traps, hidden areas?" I asked before going off on this mission. "We''ll be sending you in through a secret entrance we know of but you''ll mostly going in blind. If we knew any more, we wouldn''t be needing to send you in alone to find out how to get to the King." I gave a small sigh but could understand and didn''t argue. About 12 hours later, I was crawling into the King''s home through the sewer system. A group of half-humans were following right behind me so that once I finished finding out the correct path to where the king is sleeping, I could immediately come back and show them the way. The group wasn''t that big, consisting of only four other people, each of a different class. There was a sorcerer and priest (Of a weird obscure god I never heard of) to offer support from the back with either spells or healing. A barbarian and fighter to focus upfront and both deal and take damage as to make sure the back support didn''t get hurt. Oh, and Bell as I wanted a way to communicate with them somewhat while I was away. I also didn''t ask about their exact classes like with the dwarves I knew, just got the basic classes to know what they could and couldn''t do. At the end of the sewers, we came to a dead end where it would normally start if someone were to be escaping out of the king''s home. This meant that it was time for me to break in and figure out the needed path. Taking a deep breath through the enchanted mask I had on (made to filter air and make it smell nice), I casted blink on myself. Blink a third level spell that has a 50% chance every few seconds to teleport you into the Ethereal plane. The Ethereal Plane is a misty, fog-bound dimension that coexists with the material plane (The plane I''m currently on) and pretty much every other plane. When one goes into the Ethereal Plane, they''re able to see the material plane through muted and indistinct colors that make it seem more like looking through fog and distorted glass. While in this plane, you''re unable to interact with anything on the material plane and invisible to it as well. This makes it amazing for reconnaissance, spying, and almost any other occasion when one wants to move around without being detected. Now once I''m on this plane, I''ll be able to move in pretty much any direction and though anything (as long as it''s not magical) as there is no gravity and am unable to be detected as one cannot see into the Ethereal Plane (unless my magical means once again.) The best part of this blink spell is that it doesn''t require concentration, meaning I can cast invisibility as well and improve my stealthiness even more for an entire minute. As I sit there, I wait a few seconds for it to take affect while the others just stared at me in confusion. I was about to shrug but just then I was forced into the Ethereal Plane. Once I was, I floated upwards through the ground and found myself in a bathroom. I reappeared for a few seconds which gave me just enough time to cast invisibility which sadly did require concentration this time. Invisibility does exactly what it says it does and makes me invisible. During this time (1 hour), anything I''m wearing, or carrying is invisible with me. But I have to be wary to not cast anything as if I attack or cast a spell, the spell ends. Walking up to the wall next to the door out, I waited for blink to activate and force me into the Ethereal. Once it did, I stuck my head through the wall to look for any guards to be on the lookout for, only to find none. Before I was forced back, I went through the wall as to ensure I didn''t have to walk through the door and possibly have creaky hinges reveal that someone was here. Walking through the halls a bit, I came upon a kitchen with many people working in it. I started sneaking my way through and stole a freshly baked loaf of bread before I was about halfway through and blink activated, which I then quickly went through everything to get to the end and leave through the wall. Once done with that, I shoved the bread into my inventory. Done with the kitchen, I was now in the dining room which was both giant and magnificent. And even though it was pretty late at night, there was still a few people up and waiting for food by the looks of it. I assumed that the people in the kitchen were preparing food for the morning, but it seems that they were making food for these people right here. Most of them appeared to be guards with one or two of them being royalty. I quickly surveyed the area looking for the door out and quickly spotted it. It was closed and had a guard standing on each side, ready to question whoever came through or left. I waited for blink to activate but after a few seconds, I mentally cursed. The spell had ended as I wasn''t paying enough attention to it. Getting out of here would be incredibly difficult now. I can''t recast blink as it''ll end invisibility and reveal myself which would end badly. I couldn''t attack the guards either as that would end it as well. The only option would be to somehow cause everyone to be loud and force everyone to pay attention to something. A quick survey of the area didn''t reveal anything of importance, but I had to think of something. About a minute passed as I quietly walked around, looking for anything to use before it came to me. Theoretically, I should be able to use my inventory without ending the spell as my inventory isn''t a spell itself. Reaching out into space, activating my inventory, and grabbing my bread I put in their earlier, I quickly brought it out and rejoiced that I was correct. Now with the invisible bread in hand, I tried figuring out what I could do with this or anything else in my inventory. As a few seconds went by, the female royal people sniffed the area before loudly saying, "I smell some fresh bread." "Of course, you do." The other royalty said. "We''re right next to the kitchen where they''re making our food." "I know that, but we had someone enchant it so that we wouldn''t smell what they''re cooking and make ourselves hungrier while waiting." The female royal answered back with a hint of anger. They argued back and forth for a while but during that time, I came up with a plan. Sneaking up to one of the guards, I tore off a piece of the bread and put it on the ground next to them. Taking a bite out of it, I then place it on the ground as well and made it seem like it was the guard who did it. While I was doing that, the guard yawned so I decided to just drop it instead to create a bit of noise for them to hear. The plan worked perfectly. The male royal heard something drop and looked over to the noise, only to see the guard and the bread. Without thinking or even questioning what was happening, he quickly told the other royal who saw it as well and commanded the other guards to take him to the torture chamber for what he did. While highly excessive just for some bread on the ground, I followed behind the other guards as they opened the door which gave me ample time to sneak my way through without getting caught. Now I was in the main entrance area with stairs going upwards. Before going up them, I counted the guards and looked around for an area to hide so that I could recast blink. After a bit of looking and following behind some guards going through doors, I was able to get to a secluded area that allowed me to cast blink and then invisibility in rapid succession. Almost immediately, blink forced me into the Ethereal, so I used that time to run through the walls and go up the stairs. There was a few guards stationed along the walls of the next floor, but I was just somehow barely quiet enough for them to not care. Slowing down, I made sure to take my time while in the material plane and rush as quickly as possible while in the Ethereal. The combination of the two allowed me to quickly move through this floor and into a giant library. Inside this library, there was no guards stationed and absolutely no lights or windows. While there was some candles, they were all burnt down to nothing and everything had a fine layer of dust over it. Blink was about to end in a few seconds so I decided to instead just look around for the next couple of seconds so that I could recast my spells before I rushed forwards. Looking around the books, some where really basic while others appeared to be spell books. I eventually had so many interesting books in my inventory that I decided to shove literally every book I could within a few minutes time into my inventory. While this gave me a giant amount of books, compared to all the books in the library it was nothing. Wiping the sweat off my brow, I gave one last look of the library to see if there was anything of importance before noticing a book. This book seemed to be layered in gold and gems, so I picked it up and read the title. "Font of magic" was on the front of it and had no author. I read through a few pages of the book and it described a deep wellspring of magic within every living being. This wellspring is able to cast spells and create a variety of magical affects. Compared to a wizard who learns how to cast spells with mana through knowledge and items, those who are able to access this well are known as sorcerers and it''s possible for everyone to access this given time and chance. Smirking slightly at this, I decided to close my eyes and look inside myself to see if it was true. For a few minutes, I found nothing and was about to throw this book back on this table and rush back to my mission as I''ve already spent way to much time messing around but just as I was about to do so, I felt a cold power inside. At first, I thought of how clich¨¦ it was. "Look inside and you''ll find power inside of yourself!" kind of clich¨¦. Opening back up the book, I saw that it listed some basic uses of this wellspring of power once you find it inside yourself. They called these uses, "Metamagic" and are used to shape spells and even change them. One of the metamagics I noticed increased the duration of the spell and I instantly focused on learning that. After a few seconds, I eventually got it to work and increased the duration of blink to 2 minutes using a good amount of this wellspring inside of me. Using up the rest of this wellspring, I discovered thanks to the system that I increased the duration of the spell up to 8 minutes. Casting invisibility, I kissed the book in hand before quickly throwing it into my inventory for later use and running through the wall once blink forced me into the ethereal. From there on out, I was able to move throughout the gigantic house with ease. From the library, there was then an armory, a prison, gigantic wardrobe full of fancy clothing, a kingly bathroom, a brewery, and finally the king''s room itself. Inside the king''s room was an overly decorated room with many sculptures of the king, multiple swords on the walls, a giant bed that seemed big enough to fit an entire army, multiple pictures of himself, a bunch of gold (which I quickly stored in my inventory), and a few other things here and there. Sadly, the thing I was looking for the most wasn''t there. The king himself. I rummaged around looking for any secret door or something like that where the king could be hiding and having a secret meeting but was unable to find one. With regret, I walked towards the wall to bang my head on it. Sadly, blink activated and forced me into the ethereal plane just in time so that my head instead went through it. Upon doing so, I immediately saw multiple heavily armored guards with gigantic swords and shields in hand, standing next to a throne. In this throne was the king himself. Pulling my head out of the wall, I looked over to the side slightly and saw a doorway which I assumed earlier was just for the bathroom or something. Face palming for a few seconds, I eventually made my way back to the others through a long and tedious process of going directly through the floor in the Ethereal Plane. Now before you ask, the reason I didn''t go upwards through the floor in the first place was because I had to make sure that he wasn''t on the first floor. If I didn''t, I could''ve missed him entirely and not search his house for useful stuff. Once I got back to the others, I quickly told them that I discovered where the king was and a few other things. With that, the priest took something out of their backpack and handed it to me. What they handed to me was a really weird looking crown. "This is a one time use magic item that we were able to purchase for thousands of platinum coins. With it, you should be able to teleport us anywhere within 500 feet or so. All you have to do is put it on your head, think of the location while we hold onto your shoulder or something, and once you concentrate on the location within 500 feet, we will all be teleported there and the crown will turn to dust." The crown handed to me had a white-gray look that made it seem brittle. It had little wave like lines drawn all over it that seemed to slightly glow a lunar blue color. Putting the crown on, I started focusing on the king''s room and as a couple of seconds passed by, the sewer walls around us slowly started to fade away and turn into the walls of the king''s bedroom as if we were in a slideshow transition. As soon as we were fully in the king''s room, the brittle crown on top of my head lost the weird lunar blue color coming out of it and rapidly turned to dust. I shed a small tear for all the money that was just lost for a single use of that item. The fighter seeing that we were in king''s room, asked me where to go next to find the king. I indicated towards the door and told them to be wary because a bunch of guards. Pushing open the door, the barbarian pushed ahead of the fighter and ran directly forwards before spotting the king and rushing towards him. The guards were able to push themselves between the barbarian and the king just before the barbarian was able to get an attack off. The barbarian roared with rage and recklessly swung his axe around trying to hit anything. The fighter rushed in as well seeing that all stealth was thrown out the window and that we were just going to wing it. With him rushing in, the priest and sorcerer moved forwards a bit so that the could see the entirety of the guards and started offering support. Getting my bow off my back, I started offering support as well and fired multiple arrows at the guards. All while doing this, the king was hiding on his throne and crying out of fear. After a couple of seconds went by, the fighter was able to get the first good hit and successfully killed one of the guards. That left just 7 more to go! With the first guard killing, the guards hold on the barbarian loosened which allowed him to break free and continue rushing towards the king. Using that time, I was able to shoot another guard and get enough XP from him to level up. As the barbarian ran forwards and was just a few feet away from him, the king pulled out a peculiar looking helmet and put it on his head. Just as he did, a large amount of mana could be felt surging out from it as it started to glow to an almost blinding degree. Quickly I casted counterspell on it in hopes of quickly stopping whatever was happening. As I felt my magic leave me and attempt to stop whatever the helm was doing, it didn''t seem to work as it continued to grow brighter and brighter until the ring of focus on my hand started heating up and then suddenly, the light was gone. The king who seemed to be filled with joy previously about being able to escape and survive this ordeal was now filled with fear. The barbarian seemed to get closer and closer until they were faced to face with the king. The guards where constantly hitting the barbarian with a multitude of attacks, whether it was magic or sword. The barbarian raised their weapon in the air and stared down at the king before bringing their weapon down and cutting the kings head off. By now, there was only 2 guards left as they all prioritized on keeping the King alive. I was able to level up 2 more times by the time we were able to kill the king but that still left us with the 2 guards. The guards stood in awe at what just happened and their inability to protect who their god told them to protect. They were quickly pushed out of this funk as our fighter attempted to decapitate one of them with their sword. Shooting a few arrows, I offered support by hitting them here and there as a distraction while also dealing a decent amount of damage. Eventually with the help of the priest and sorcerer, we were able to finish the last 2 off and someone give me one final level from this encounter. Walking over to the now severed head of the king, I gently took off the helmet from his head using mage hand and used multiple uses of prestidigitation. Throwing a use of inspect at it, I found out that it was the helm of teleportation, a legendary item that allows you to cast the spell teleport 3 times per day. (Author''s Note- The regular helm of teleportation from D\u0026D is only rare but I''m making it legendary here because it allows you to literally cast the teleport spell which is 7th level.) The helm has already been used twice, once from something I don''t know about and once from what just happened. While looking at it, I started hearing heavily armored footsteps rushing to our location echo around. The others ran up to me and asked if I was able to use this artifact to get us away from here. I quickly replied with a maybe as I put the helmet on and willed it to cast the teleportation spell. Mana surged from it as it surrounded us and started glowing brighter and brighter. Previously unnoticed doors banged opened as multiple guards started rushing in. However, they weren''t in time as the helm of teleportation finished casting the spell. Now let it be known about one thing of the teleportation spell. When teleporting, you need to be familiar with the location you''re going. If you use a permanent teleportation circle as the location you want to go to and you know the circle, then you have a 100% chance of going there. It is the same if you teleport to an associated object that you know of. However, if you''re very familiar with it, you only have a 75% chance of being on target, 10% chance of being off target, 10% chance of going to a random similar area, and a 5% chance of it being a mishap. All of this just for an area you''re familiar with. But what about to a place you''ve only viewed once? Say the temporary bedroom you stayed the night in? Well when that happens, the chances of you being on target or slightly off target drop dramatically. For me, I was teleported to a similar area as when the spell finished teleporting us and we were able to see again, I could definitely tell that we were not where we were supposed to be. After all, why would I want to go to a secret base of Aetius instead the secret base of the rebellion? Can you answer me that? Well anyways, I can tell you everyone''s reaction to when they too understood what happened. "Oh Shit.", "Oh Fuck", and my favorite, "Fuck you god. Fuck you so so much." 51 Retreat into Invasion Author''s Note- Kept ya waiting huh? Sorry about being late on this chapter but blame school. Quarantine + school stuff is a horrible combination as I have to learn everything by myself without any help which takes a good majority of my time. Anyways, enjoy this chapter and a slightly out of character Leo because I wanted to write him that way today. ~~~~~~~~~ Upon arriving in the center of a secret the rest of the group immediately started blasting like Danny DeVito. We could tell that we were in a secret Aetius because there was a bunch of people staring at us wearing gear covered in Aetius symbols. The room which was exactly the same size and dimensions as the room I tried teleporting to were also covered in Aetius symbols. Teleporting in caused a gigantic blast of light to erupt from where we originated from which caused everyone to be temporarily blinded except us. Our Barbarian ran forwards, still covered in blood from the last fight and went for a person wearing robes. He quickly decapitated them and immediately went for another person but was quickly tackled by a tall muscular human. The human was double the height of our Barbarian and just reached out and grabbed him. The barbarian flailed around trying to escape his grasp but was unable to because of the human''s strength and height. The others while this was going on, were constantly casting spells and trying to figure out how to get out of this situation. I threw the helm of teleportation into my inventory while this was going on as to ensure that they wouldn''t get it. After that, I started offering support and fired arrows at the gigantic human that was holding our Barbarian. A rough half minute occurred with multiple people rushing into the room and joining the fight. Sadly, none of them were on our side and were aiding the humans. More and more people grabbed and piled onto my team while making sure that they wouldn''t be able to attack. We were able to kill a few of them but that did nothing with how much were rushing into to the room. At one point, I too was forced to the ground with my bow thrown across the room. With it being thrown across the room with such strength and speed, it broke upon hitting the stone wall. With all of us useless and without weapons, things calmed down for the humans while we continued to struggle. Eventually, after a few minutes passed loud walking could be heard echoing from behind a door. As the footsteps got closer and closer, they gradually got louder and louder until they were right in front of the door and then stopped. The door slowly opened up with a creak, revealing none other Marth, the human who was hunting me down in the Dwarven kingdom the night that it got attacked. "Well hello there again Leo." He said as he closed the door behind him and started walking towards me. "You must understand my confusion when I heard that the number one person being hunted has randomly appeared in my base. I was just doing some paperwork and then someone rushed into my room with this wonderful news." At this point he was in front of me and crouching down on the ground. I tried looking away from him as I didn''t want to talk but he just reached out with his hand and violently forced me to look in his direction. "Have you finally learned the magnificence that is Aetius and decided to come join us with these offerings as a "sorry about what I did last time" gift?" He asked. "Nah, I''m only here by accident. The usual stuff that happens with magic items where it never works the way you intend them to." "Hmmm." He hummed and nodded in understanding before violently slamming my head into the ground, dealing 78 points of damage to my beautiful face. "Huh, still as resilient as ever. That would''ve killed a normal person eight times over. You however seem to be just fine." Marth stood up and brushed any dirt them might''ve gotten on him off. He then took a look at the others before waving a guard over to him and telling him to take everyone to their prison. The guard saluted before quickly giving everyone orders to pick everyone up off the ground and bring them to their prison cells. As they were doing this, Marth stood to the side of the door and just watched. As we were picked up and then forced to the door, Marth put out his hand in front of it to indicate for them to stop. "Where is that magic item that allowed you to teleport into here? You talked about it and from what I heard you appeared in a bright flash of light that would seem to indicate the use of one." "Turned to ash. Look on the floors and you''ll be able to find it." I said while attempting to shrug. He stared me down for a few seconds before telling the guards to get us out of his sight and quickly walking behind me to where we originally entered. Thankfully, the item was in my inventory, recharging quickly thanks to my ability to change time however I wanted in it. As we walked down the hallway, I kept note of where everything was and tried to see if they had anything out in the open that I could steal later once I teleported out. Nothing really stood out as everything was behind closed doors that offered no hint to what was behind any of them. A few minutes later we were shoved into individual cells without any of our weapons and gear. The others immediately went to the bars and grabbed hold of them and angrily yelled to be let out. I just shook my head because I know that they definitely wouldn''t let us out for any reason. Cause after all, why would they? I''m currently their biggest target that they''ve been hunting for a few weeks and I''ve been able to escape their grasp multiple times. The best chance at escape would be teleporting into their cells and teleporting them all back to base, or someplace that I''ll be guaranteed to teleport to. With the others banging on their cell bars, I took a quick look at my own cell and saw that it was exactly like the others. A simple bed in the corner and a bucket in the other corner. Going to the bed, I layed down and decided that the best thing to do would probably just wait for the night. Then, when it is night, I can just use some spells to teleport to their cells and teleport all of us away. Easy as that. Now if only I could just easily pass hours in a few seconds just like Skyrim or Fallout... Man I miss video games. I wonder if Elder Scrolls 6 is ever going to come out like they promised or if people will ever trust Bethesda after what happened with Fallout 76. Truly question of our ages that might never be answered. And just like that, I stared at the ceiling for multiple hours on end. Thankfully I have the system and was able to download some movies and music after spending a few system points to buy them. Have I ever told the system I love it and thank it for everything it does for me? I don''t know if I did but I will now! ''System!'' [How may I assist you Leo.] ''I just want to let you know that I love and appreciate everything you do for me!'' [Aww, love you too Leo] Anyways, when the clock struck midnight and the two guards that were left to guard us were barely awake, I decided that it was time to enact my plan. Getting out of bed, I saw that the others were sleeping and exhausted from screaming to be let out for the last few hours. Stretching and cracking my kneck, I stared at the closest cell to me that had one of my companions inside of it which was the priest. Casting misty step, I expected to be teleported inside their cell but instead just watched as the mana disappeared and did nothing. A couple of seconds passed by with me standing there like an idiot just staring at the place I expected to teleport with nothing actually happening. I tried once more.... Then twice more.... And then threw a sandwich I had in my inventory at the wall. "DANGIT" I screamed into the empty abyss that was my prison cell. Upon doing so, one of the guards walked over to my cell and hit it to cause some noise. "Keep it down will ya, I''m trying to get some sleep!" She said before leaving and grumbling about unfair times and how someone else should''ve got todays shift. I watched from within my cell as they slowly moved sluggishly to a chair that was propped up next to a small desk. Once they sat down, I turned away and sat back down on my bed. Testing a few more spells, I attempted to find out what was causing my inability to cast misty step. Was it some sort of Anti-magic cell? A permanent stealing of mana through the cell? What was it? First of all, I could tell it wasn''t the second one as I still had a full thing of Mana according to the system. The first one was the most probable but I could cast very very tiny spells. Which by that I mean I was able to make a small spark in hand which used 1 mana. Anything else I tried doing didn''t work. There must be something special about being able to cast a spark spell worth literally 1 mana. 53 Escape Magic is very limited at 1mp. I could cast basic things like spark, gust which created a very light breeze, and a few other things which weren''t helpful one bit. The system did work however which means that I wasn''t completely limited on how to escape and bring everyone back with me. My inventory didn''t cost any mana which allowed me to infer that whatever was causing me to not be able to cast anything costing more then 1 mana was limited to only reducing casting abilities. This didn''t mean I could just break out with brute strength however as even our Barbarian tried bending the bars without anything happening to them. I''m definitely not as strong as them so I won''t even be able to do anything. In my inventory, I didn''t really have much except for some spare arrows, books, a bunch of food, 92 tiny mana crystals, a magic book holder, a potion from the hobgoblin that I assume is a growth potion, a disguise kit, unknown red potion, and 47 small mana crystals. The potion was potentially useless as I''m pretty sure that it would only double my strength and endurance or something. Food was good for eating which I immediately started doing cause its free food. The magic book holder is only useful for a full-on wizard who needs a grimoire to cast spells. That only leaves the mana crystals left Pulling out a tiny mana crystal, I cast a quick inspect on it and saw that it only had 1 mp stored inside of it and a small mana crystal had 5. In total, all these crystals gave me 327 mana. However, who knows if I''ll even be able to do anything with these crystals? For all I know, there could be the same effect on them as there is with me. Deciding that an experiment would do good, I grabbed a handful of tiny mana crystals and started casting a spell with them. As I did, two small sparks came out of my hand as one of the tiny mana crystals dulled into an ash gray color. Trying again but with a small mana crystal instead, 6 sparks came out of my hand with the mana crystal once again dulling into a dull ash gray color. I tried some more things here and therewith the crystals until I came to the realization of something while trying to enchant a book. When trying to enchant, it would first consume the crystal in hand before my own mana. If I had multiple crystals, it would instead drain them one by one before it would drain mine. This means, I could enchant something to get out. But then that brings up the question, can I use magic items here? I assume but I won''t know till I try. Pulling out the artifact that I got just a few hours earlier, I put it on and attempted to teleport directly to where I was standing. The did the usual with a large bright light appearing and then a few seconds later the light disappeared, and I was a foot in front of where I was earlier. Now before you ask why I don''t use this to escape, there are a few reasons. First, the guards will be rushing over to my cell like they are now, then probably scream and yell at me asking what that bright light was. Kind of like they are now but with a lot more threats mixed in. Another reason besides this is that I want to bring everyone back safely and I have to go to each individual cell which would definitely give them enough time to find a magic user who can cast counter spell or something like that. With the experiment done and the helm of teleportation back in my inventory before the guards even arrived, I now had to actually deal with the guards. "I don''t know what you''re talking about." I said without even knowing what they were saying as it was probably what you would expect. "Everyone saw that bright light! What did you do?" Guard A asked "Told a really bad joke." Guard B slammed on my cell bars. "Stop lying heretic! We know you did something and will not leave till we find out what." "Oh really?" I asked with a smile. Once they confirmed that they definitely would, I walked over to my bed and laid down while staring at them. After a few minutes passed I started watching a movie through the system but made sure to keep an eye on them the entire time. The best part about this was that for them, they wouldn''t be able to see or hear the movie so to them it would look like I was just staring at them. Almost 4 hours passed with them yelling and banging on my cell walls before they stopped and left. Though not before spitting into my cell and calling me names like a thug or gang member. After all that happened, it was not around 5 am in the morning which didn''t leave me much time as they would probably come and take me to an interrogation room when they''re all awake. I do not want to be here when that happens. Buying a cheap item from the system store, I quickly placed it on the ground and started enchanting it while constantly pulling out mana crystals. Taking around 10 minutes, I was eventually able to enchant the item to be able to cast misty step 5 times per day. After all the enchanting, I was left with a total of 8 tiny mana crystals and 3 small mana crystals. During the process, I was entirely surprised that the item didn''t break from how much mana I was forcing into it with enchanting. I''ll also have to be careful with it as it might explode if used to much in quick succession, dropped, or even looked at the wrong way. The item is a literal ticking mana bomb that is detrimental to escaping with everyone, but I''ll have to do it carefully. Taking a deep breath, I took out the helm of teleportation and put it on my head in preparation for when I needed to use it. Then, I carefully picked up my item of misty step? and walked to the bars of my cells and focused on one of my companions'' room. Pushing 1 mana into the item to activate it which put a crack into the item and nearly frightened me to death. Immediately after seeing the crack, my body turned into mist and within a second moved over to one of my party members cages. At the moment, they were all asleep which was weird as there was people just yelling for 4 hours straight just a few minutes ago. Shaking them awake, I got a startled reaction before quickly calming them down and telling them the plan. They nodded and asked some quick questions before allowing me to continue on my way to the others. Waking up the rest and telling them the plan, I was eventually able to gather everyone within 10 feet for the plan to work. Then, teleporting outside of all the cells, I stood directly in the center of where everyone was and used the helm of teleportation to get us out. The guards noticed us and started running towards us while one started casting a spell. Just as I the helm was about to finish and teleport us away, I felt a resistance trying to keep me in place and not allow me to leave. Taking a quick look around while also trying to concentrate on forcing my way through the spell, I eventually spotted what I appeared to be the magic user. They were staring me down and had a massive smirk on their face as if they successfully ruined my entire life. Which I must say, felt like they did as shortly after the helm of teleportation failed and didn''t teleport me away like I wanted. But I still had more charges! Immediately using the helm again, I focused on using the helm while also using taekwondo to keep all the guards away from me. Once again, I felt the resistance and tried forcing my way through the counterspell and eventually successfully broke through the resistance. And just in time too as just as I finished using the helm of teleportation, Marth walked in through a hallway with his sword out, staring me down. Giving him a smile, I flipped him off with both hands as some of the guards jumped onto me and tackled me to the ground. Just as Marth was a few feet away and I was dogpiled to the point of being unable to move, the helm finished its job as we were teleported into the regular hideout of the resistance. The others, being free and not on the ground like me, bounced around in joy and quickly ran out of my room to find their superiors to tell them all that happened. I just spend a few moments on the ground enjoying the nice hard floor with silence in the presence of no one before getting up and leaving to find Ava and report to her the abomination (Author''s Note: or clusterfuck as my friend said as it works even better) that was the mission as almost nothing went correctly after a certain point. This morning was going to be a long and tiresome time of people (Ava) yelling at me. But this time I''m going to yell cause I''m tired and want to go to bed. 52 Escape Magic is very limited at 1mp. I could cast basic things like spark, gust which created a very light breeze, and a few other things which weren''t helpful one bit. The system did work however which means that I wasn''t completely limited on how to escape and bring everyone back with me. My inventory didn''t cost any mana which allowed me to infer that whatever was causing me to not be able to cast anything costing more then 1 mana was limited to only reducing casting abilities. This didn''t mean I could just break out with brute strength however as even our Barbarian tried bending the bars without anything happening to them. I''m definitely not as strong as them so I won''t even be able to do anything. In my inventory, I didn''t really have much except for some spare arrows, books, a bunch of food, 92 tiny mana crystals, a magic book holder, a potion from the hobgoblin that I assume is a growth potion, a disguise kit, unknown red potion, and 47 small mana crystals. The potion was potentially useless as I''m pretty sure that it would only double my strength and endurance or something. Food was good for eating which I immediately started doing cause its free food. The magic book holder is only useful for a full-on wizard who needs a grimoire to cast spells. That only leaves the mana crystals left Pulling out a tiny mana crystal, I cast a quick inspect on it and saw that it only had 1 mp stored inside of it and a small mana crystal had 5. In total, all these crystals gave me 327 mana. However, who knows if I''ll even be able to do anything with these crystals? For all I know, there could be the same effect on them as there is with me. Deciding that an experiment would do good, I grabbed a handful of tiny mana crystals and started casting a spell with them. As I did, two small sparks came out of my hand as one of the tiny mana crystals dulled into an ash gray color. Trying again but with a small mana crystal instead, 6 sparks came out of my hand with the mana crystal once again dulling into a dull ash gray color. I tried some more things here and therewith the crystals until I came to the realization of something while trying to enchant a book. When trying to enchant, it would first consume the crystal in hand before my own mana. If I had multiple crystals, it would instead drain them one by one before it would drain mine. This means, I could enchant something to get out. But then that brings up the question, can I use magic items here? I assume but I won''t know till I try. Pulling out the artifact that I got just a few hours earlier, I put it on and attempted to teleport directly to where I was standing. The did the usual with a large bright light appearing and then a few seconds later the light disappeared, and I was a foot in front of where I was earlier. Now before you ask why I don''t use this to escape, there are a few reasons. First, the guards will be rushing over to my cell like they are now, then probably scream and yell at me asking what that bright light was. Kind of like they are now but with a lot more threats mixed in. Another reason besides this is that I want to bring everyone back safely and I have to go to each individual cell which would definitely give them enough time to find a magic user who can cast counter spell or something like that. With the experiment done and the helm of teleportation back in my inventory before the guards even arrived, I now had to actually deal with the guards. "I don''t know what you''re talking about." I said without even knowing what they were saying as it was probably what you would expect. "Everyone saw that bright light! What did you do?" Guard A asked "Told a really bad joke." Guard B slammed on my cell bars. "Stop lying heretic! We know you did something and will not leave till we find out what." "Oh really?" I asked with a smile. Once they confirmed that they definitely would, I walked over to my bed and laid down while staring at them. After a few minutes passed I started watching a movie through the system but made sure to keep an eye on them the entire time. The best part about this was that for them, they wouldn''t be able to see or hear the movie so to them it would look like I was just staring at them. Almost 4 hours passed with them yelling and banging on my cell walls before they stopped and left. Though not before spitting into my cell and calling me names like a thug or gang member. After all that happened, it was not around 5 am in the morning which didn''t leave me much time as they would probably come and take me to an interrogation room when they''re all awake. I do not want to be here when that happens. Buying a cheap item from the system store, I quickly placed it on the ground and started enchanting it while constantly pulling out mana crystals. Taking around 10 minutes, I was eventually able to enchant the item to be able to cast misty step 5 times per day. After all the enchanting, I was left with a total of 8 tiny mana crystals and 3 small mana crystals. During the process, I was entirely surprised that the item didn''t break from how much mana I was forcing into it with enchanting. I''ll also have to be careful with it as it might explode if used to much in quick succession, dropped, or even looked at the wrong way. The item is a literal ticking mana bomb that is detrimental to escaping with everyone, but I''ll have to do it carefully. Taking a deep breath, I took out the helm of teleportation and put it on my head in preparation for when I needed to use it. Then, I carefully picked up my item of misty step? and walked to the bars of my cells and focused on one of my companions'' room. Pushing 1 mana into the item to activate it which put a crack into the item and nearly frightened me to death. Immediately after seeing the crack, my body turned into mist and within a second moved over to one of my party members cages. At the moment, they were all asleep which was weird as there was people just yelling for 4 hours straight just a few minutes ago. Shaking them awake, I got a startled reaction before quickly calming them down and telling them the plan. They nodded and asked some quick questions before allowing me to continue on my way to the others. Waking up the rest and telling them the plan, I was eventually able to gather everyone within 10 feet for the plan to work. Then, teleporting outside of all the cells, I stood directly in the center of where everyone was and used the helm of teleportation to get us out. The guards noticed us and started running towards us while one started casting a spell. Just as I the helm was about to finish and teleport us away, I felt a resistance trying to keep me in place and not allow me to leave. Taking a quick look around while also trying to concentrate on forcing my way through the spell, I eventually spotted what I appeared to be the magic user. They were staring me down and had a massive smirk on their face as if they successfully ruined my entire life. Which I must say, felt like they did as shortly after the helm of teleportation failed and didn''t teleport me away like I wanted. But I still had more charges! Immediately using the helm again, I focused on using the helm while also using taekwondo to keep all the guards away from me. Once again, I felt the resistance and tried forcing my way through the counterspell and eventually successfully broke through the resistance. And just in time too as just as I finished using the helm of teleportation, Marth walked in through a hallway with his sword out, staring me down. Giving him a smile, I flipped him off with both hands as some of the guards jumped onto me and tackled me to the ground. Just as Marth was a few feet away and I was dogpiled to the point of being unable to move, the helm finished its job as we were teleported into the regular hideout of the resistance. The others, being free and not on the ground like me, bounced around in joy and quickly ran out of my room to find their superiors to tell them all that happened. I just spend a few moments on the ground enjoying the nice hard floor with silence in the presence of no one before getting up and leaving to find Ava and report to her the abomination (Author''s Note: or clusterfuck as my friend said as it works even better) that was the mission as almost nothing went correctly after a certain point. This morning was going to be a long and tiresome time of people (Ava) yelling at me. But this time I''m going to yell cause I''m tired and want to go to bed. 53 Report and Shopping Considering what I thought was going to happen when I came back and announced that I have collected the artifact, teleported into the enemy base, got captured, and somehow escaped, the current situation is easily much better than what I expected. I expected the resistance leader to yell and berate me like you would see in the movies about the soldier who didn''t do their job according to plan but instead there was a lot of tears involved. As I made my way to the war room where we discussed what we were going to do to break into the castle, a couple of people in the resistance passed by me and did a second look to see if what they saw was true and once they did, most (About 50% I would have to say), fell to their knees and started crying. It was one of the weirdest things possible for me because I knew almost none of them and they were all treating me like their teenage celebrity crush. I had to use misty step a few times just to avoid some of these people. Once I get a nice long rest and something to eat, I am going to try and get my next mission or job and leave to go do that. Finally, after a couple of minutes I was able to get to the war room safely. Once inside, Aaron, who was doing some paper work, looked up from it before once again looking down and continuing it. "Ah, Leo, glad to see that you''ve come back finally. Some of your "fans" have been freaking out and begging us to send some people to go and rescue your after word quickly got out that they captured the number one heretic Leo while Ava and I tried calming them down." Aaron said while filling out his paperwork. Ava, who I previously didn''t notice as she was sleeping in a corner surrounded by multiple beer bottles, suddenly jerked up once Aaron called her out. Her hair was stuck to her face and it seemed as if she was still asleep. Her speaking however showed that she wasn''t. "LEO YOU''RE BACK!" She said loudly and drunkenly. "CAN YOU GET ME SOME MORE ALCHOHOL?" Ava picked up a bottle and tried taking a drink out of it but was unable to as there was nothing inside. Out of drunken anger, she threw the bottle at Aaron and missed him only by a few inches. "Leo, I think you deserve a few days or so to relax after what happened. Please report to Rebgi and report the mission while also giving him the artifact. After that, you''re free to go ahead and enjoy yourself. I will... Attempt... To deal with Ava." Aaron said while finishing up what he was doing, getting out of his chair, and throwing me a bag of coins. Not wanting to deal with a drunken Ava again like I had to back at Chance, I pocketed the coins in my inventory and quickly left to deliver the artifact and write a report about all that happened. Rebgi was nice and didn''t seem like one of my fans so I was able to have a nice conversation with him while filling out the paperwork. From there, I changed my clothing to something else I had and did my best to sneak out of my room. To enjoy my new days off, I think the best thing to do would just be to go to the surface and have a bit of fun. To get there, I took the secret way that I used to get to the king''s home but took a few turns here and there to get somewhere else. A mixture of blink and invisibility allowed me to find my way into a back-alley without getting caught so that I could merge with a nearby crowd flawlessly. Using the flow of the crowd I took my time to look around and find some places to go to. One that caught my attention was a potion shop that had some smoke coming out of it. People walked by and didn''t even bat an eye to the smoke or even the small explosion that happened as I made my way to it. Opening the door to Djon''s Potion Emporium, I caught a heavy smell of something burning but was unable to determine exactly what it was. Instantly upon reading these I covered my mouth and nose as to do my best to avoid the poison but continued making my way inside. In the main room there was no nobody there but there were multiple potions of the walls that each had different bottles shapes, colors, and sometimes even things floating inside them. Slowly moving my hand away, I noticed a bell near the wall that had a sign that said "Ring me!" so I did as it said. Once that ringing stopped, a thud was heard from behind the door behind the counter. "Coming!" Yelled an old man''s voice. A second later, a short old man with that was balding and had white beard and mustache. His entire face was covered in soot and his eyes looked as if he was staring off into the distance. "Ah yes! Have you come for some potions!?" Asked the old man while fidgeting around and constantly looking around excitedly. I took a look at how much money I had and my eyes widened for a second upon seeing how much I actually had thanks to what I got from Aaron. 500 Gold coins. "Yes, what all do you have!" I asked with excitement about having some money to spend. "I have an assortment of things! Do you want to grow bigger? How about growing a rainbow-colored beard!?" He spouted off like a mad man. "Just tell me what you want and I''ll see if I''ve got it!" "Well before that, might I ask for your name Mr...?" "Ah! I''m Victor! AND DON''T FORGET THE K!" "The K?" "YES!" At this point I realized that he might not be fully there. "Well victor, I was hoping that you might have something for injuries? I tend to get hurt a lot and don''t have time to go to a doctor or a priest." "A healing potion eh?" He said before quickly turning around and grabbing a potion that was nearby. "This potion by itself will cost you..." He started using his fingers to count how much it would cost and which point I then noticed that he was also missing 2 of his fingers on his right hand that he was counting with. "50 gold per potion!" Digging out 100 gold coins from my inventory, I handed it to him in a small coin bag. From there, I watched as he took one out and bit into it which showed how little teeth, he had left. Once he confirmed that they were real, he picked up the bag and threw it behind him directly through the doorway. Reaching under the counter, he grabbed a second red potion and handed both of them to me. Taking both, I made it look like I was putting them into my backpack but actually putting them into my inventory. "Anything else I can get for ya?" He asked while rapidly blinking. Slowly backing up, I made my way to the door while thanking him and saying that I didn''t have anything else I wanted. Once out, I made my way back into the crowd and start looking around once again. The encounter with Victor was a weird one but did show that not everyone was the same. Sometimes they''re some batshit crazy old man that seems to be doing experiments that heavily harm him. I''ll just have to remember him later on when I needed more potions or ingredients maybe. 55 Goddess of Nature Making my way back to base from the weird journey that was exploring the city, I made sure to buy and eat some food while making my way back. While doing so, I did the complicated thing of turning around multiple corners, going through the sewers, and eventually finding the ladder to descend further into the ground. But as I was doing that, I heard something call out to me. I looked around to find the source of the voice and walked around a bit but no matter where I was standing, the voice always had the same volume. Casting Mage Armor on myself just in case there was a fight, I got prepared to pull out my bow and fire at an enemy if need be. "Hello?" I called out. Nothing responded back as I did that, so I walked forwards a bit before a felt a spike of pain shoot through my head. Looking around once again to try and identify the source, as I took a step back, I noticed that I stepped on a bug where I got the random spike of pain. Kneeling own, I got close to the bug to see if there was anything special about it that might''ve caused the spike of pain but from what I could tell, it was but a simple bug. Just as I was getting up from the ground, a bit of dust from the ceiling fell onto me which caused me to look up and see bugs. Hundreds upon hundreds of bugs. As they fell from the ceiling onto me, I would''ve probably been horrified if I didn''t have a skill which helped me with my fear of spiders and other bugs. "You..." A feminine voice inside my head said while I was covered in these bugs. "You are not an Elf." "That I am not. Though I have met and befriended the elves." I said out-loud as I attempted to moved and get out of the bugs. "Befriending them doesn''t matter, you humans are all the same and probably tricked the elves somehow. Though that doesn''t answer the question on how you emit the aura of an Elf." The voice continued as the bugs slowly started contracting and dwindling my health down. "Answer me or you shall receive the fate as all other humans have." The bugs continued to get tighter and tighter around me until I was finally able to grunt out, "I... Helped them... Form a barrier and got their blessing!" From that, the bugs stopped contracting. The bugs slowly moved off of me, but all stayed together. After another couple of seconds passed as I gathered my breath and thought about trying to escape, the bugs slowly formed into a weird humanoid bug like form. "I am the Goddess Cryssal, Goddess of Nature and bugs. Those elves you helped are the only thing keeping you alive, otherwise you''d be dead where you are. But since you''re here, I have something I need you to do mortal." The Goddess said inside my head. "And what do you need me to do Goddess Cryssal, as not to be rude, but as a Goddess, why are you entrusting whatever you need to a mortal like me?" "Like you wouldn''t know what your false God has done." Cryssal said inside my head with disgusts and anger. Though, after a second passed she said, "Oh, you don''t know." with genuine surprise. The humanoid-bug figure of her took a step forwards and grabbed my hand. Forcing my hand open, she put a weird bug into my hand and then told me to eat it. I opened my mouth to ask a question of why I had to but when I did, she swiftly picked up the bug and shoved it into my mouth. Gagging at both the taste and action of it, I fell onto my knees to try and throw it back up but by then, the action was done. In my head, I saw a Vision of Cryssal and what I think was Aetius, fighting each other. Aetius who had these massive pairs of wings was burning everything around him with a holy looking fire while multiple humans were chanting and casting magic to make chains surround Cryssal. From there, other humans who were wearing full plate armor were running up to Cryssal and attempting to tear off her limbs. A few minutes passed with Cryssal killing a what seemed to be thousands upon thousands of human to escape her bindings while also trying to keep Aetius at bay with nature and bugs but he eventually got close enough to somehow grow bigger, and bite her head off. From there, he spit the head out and released a roar of what seemed to be anger. "Aetius... Killed you? But you''re still here so he didn''t actually kill you? I am so confused." I questioned. "Aetius tried to eat me and steal one of my Divine sparks but as a Goddess of Nature, that wouldn''t be as easy as he thought. He tore my physical body apart and left me as nothing but a spirit of the world, forced to use bugs as a carrier. But even though he couldn''t take my spark, he still has the limbs of a Goddess which hold divine power inside them." My decently high wisdom was by now able to figure out what she wanted, and the system helped prove that idea by giving me a quest. [Quest (The Body of Nature)- The Goddess Cryssal want you to retrieve her Divine body from Aetius''s troops before they''re able to turn her own power against the world and its inhabitants. Reward- Natures Blessing and the Assistance of Cryssal when needed.] "So, you want me to go find these pieces of you and make sure that Aetius doesn''t use them for whatever a new god would use them for?" "Hmmm, you''re close but no. I want you to make sure that Aetius doesn''t give his men the power the kill Gods when they themselves are mortal. Though I am willing to make this worth your time as you see, even though I''m unable to control the pieces of me as a spirit of my former self, I can make it so that they''re able to be used by those I deem worthy." "Then can''t you just make it so that Aetius''s troops can''t use them?" "If only it were that easy. Aetius is doing something to them that''s slowly turning the power in them into something that''s not mine. Something that goes against nature itself. But whatever he''s doing is taking some time to do which means that there''s time for you to find them and bring them all together." With a sigh, I accepted the quest and watched as the bug figure of her gave a weird smile. "Then to prove that this won''t be for nothing, I will give you the one thing I was able to save from Aetius''s grasp. My eye." The bugs then started to move and rush towards me as they all grabbed my arms and brought me down to my knees. In the center of the previous bug version of her was a giant white eye that appeared to resemble that of a spider''s eye. The eye was about the same size as my head and the bugs were slowly moving it closer and closer to my face until it was pressing up against my left eye. The entire time I was trying to escape whatever Cryssal was doing but the bugs kept me in place. All of a sudden, the back of the eye opened up like a mouth and bit into my eye. Instead of a feeling of pain and taking any damage, all I felt was instead the emptiness of my eye being eaten. Then, the emptiness was replaced with the sensation of normality as if nothing ever happened in the first place. The bugs that were forcing me in place backed away and let me drop to the floor. Immediately, I moved my hand over my eye to cover it as I felt the eye moving inside the socket. The weird thing about that was I could see through it as well, even though it wasn''t physically connected. And just like that, it was done. The eye stopped moving and was in place like a normal eye. I was able to move it around like a normal eye and felt exactly the same as my previous eye. "Interesting." Cryssal hummed with interest. "For a human, you''ve somehow integrated a part of me into yourself as if it were meant to be. I''ll be keeping an eye on you human." She continued to say as the bugs started to disperse. About a minute later, I was alone in the corridor and looking at my eye with the mirror I had in my inventory. Looking at my eye, nothing seemed to be different except that every now and then, it would split into two pupils before merging back into one. Stowing the mirror back into my inventory, I rushed back to the base so that I could report what just happened. Hopefully, they would be able to figure out if I would transform into some weird bug hybrid because of the eye implanted into me. Eventually I got to the door to the base and just as I was about to open it, I thought for a second that I saw a mug being thrown at me by a still drunk Ava. Seeing as the door was closed, I assumed that I was just hallucinating and opened the door just like normal, only to get hit in the face by a mug thrown by Ava. "Leo, you''re back!" Ava said drunkenly. ''What''s wrong with your eye?" My left eye which was the one eaten or traded with the eye of Cryssal, was irritated as if there was some dust was in it and I was rapidly blinking as to try and get whatever dust was in it out. "Well a whole bunch of stuff just happened less then an hour ago and it''s probably a good idea to make sure that my eye doesn''t have some weird god infection or something so I''m going to go visit a cleric or something if I can find them." "Ok, I''m going to continue partying. Have fuuuun~." From there, I asked around a bit and eventually found what could be classified as a doctor. After explaining to them the situation of how my eye is no longer my eye but the eye of a goddess who not physically here anymore, I was eventually given an ice pack as they didn''t really know what to do and told me to go find someone who knows more about gods then them. This lead me down a weird rabbit hole of trying to find more information about Cryssal and trying to figure out if I got any weird god infection from the entire thing. Eventually, as the universe is, I found knowledge from an unlikely source. "Cryssal you say? I haven''t heard that name in quite a long time." Private Taylor said. For those who don''t remember, Private Taylor was that fangirl who woke me up and brought me to the General the day of the mission. She was¡­ Weird to put it simply but she still got her job done. "Cryssal was a minor Goddess of Nature and Bugs. She was killed a few decades ago by Aetius and was said to have been torn apart to have her physical body turned into a weapon, though we know that that''s impossible. Since she was only a minor god, she wasn''t that well known and was said to have had few followers, though she still held great power." Private Taylor said in between bites of food. "Then again if you''re asking about it¡­ That must mean there''s something special about it!" "No, was just a name I heard in passing." I tried to advert but her eyes was already sparkling, and she seemed overjoyed upon hearing me say this. "If Cryssal is still alive that means we would have another ally on our side! I must tell everyone!" Just as she was about to run off and talk everyone''s head off, I grabbed her by the arm and stopped her from running. "Please, just keep this between the two of us, ok?" Her face became red and you could almost see smoke coming out of her ears because of what I said and because I was holding onto her arm. She slowly nodded to no one, stuck inside whatever fantasy she was currently having as I just slowly let go and backed away. Even as I was doing that, I continued to watch as she stayed stuck inside the daydream. The power of being their idol or whatever you want to call it was weird. Though thanks to her, I was able to get a bit more information, even if it was only a small amount. She was a Goddess with few followers but still had lots of power. Her body is being turned into a weapon and you can apparently use them if she allows you to and by having them take over the position of that part on your own body or something. I held my hand over the eye while doing this and shivered slightly at the idea of recovering every part and using them. Just having the eye inside me was weird and made me not want to get anymore. Leaving the room, I started slowly making my way back to my own room while thinking about how to find the next piece of Cryssal. Getting an ally that had divine powers was something that would help in the end battle against Aetius if I ever got there but at the moment, it felt like something quite a ways off. Once at my door, I reached for the doorknob only to see an explosion. My left eye was twitching and felt like it was on fire, so I released the doorknob and took a step back. A minute later, I reached for the doorknob again but felt nothing. Not wanting to risk it after what happened with the mug thrown at my head, I decided to cast a spell which would summon a weird ghost-like servant for me. This servant is an invisible, mindless, shapeless force that''s able to perform simple tasks for me until the spell ends (1 hour). It has only one health and can''t attack but is still able to interact with objects which makes it great for little things like this. Backing 60 feet away from the door which required me to go around a few corners here and there, I had the unseen-servant open the door for me and prepared for a loud explosion or some sort of heat to appear. But as a second passed, I only heard what sounded like a pin being pulled. Then came the explosion and a bunch of heat as I felt what seemed like enough fire to go around one or two of the corners that I was hiding behind. 56 Spanish Inquisition The power of foresight in a weird thing. Unlike the ability to read the future, foresight is mostly a very accurate depiction of what could happen in roughly the next six seconds or so if you were to continue the action you were going to do without change. This means, if I were to open the door, I could''ve been burned alive. Fun stuff, right? If you want to go even further, you''d have to talk about alternate dimensions about where I decided to believe the foresight was wrong and head straight first into the room and die. This was pretty much the brief synopsis of what the foresight skill does that the Eye of Cryssal gave me. Every now and then, it would give me a brief glimpse into the future. Doing so will drain my mana and if I didn''t have enough mana, it would instead drain my health, which I don''t have much of as a weird glass canon archer mage thing¡­ I honestly don''t even know what to say I am in gaming terms anymore. Anyways, my unseen-servant is dead, blown to smithereens with only the memories of him left. Didn''t even get to name him and give him an award for the wonderful deed he''s done for me. Also have I mentioned that fire extinguishers don''t exist. If not, then I think it''s a good time to mention it now. Currently, what I''m assuming to be a bunch of clerics are now rushing their way over to my room and casting multiple water creating spells that I no longer know that''s to the God both nerfing and buffing me. Like I said, I have no clue what my life is. Anyways, a now sobered up Ava was now standing next to me with her knives out while asking me who was attacking us and if anyone was hurt. A simple shrug was enough to almost get her to face palm but since she had knives in hand, she probably thought better. "This could just be some sort of elaborate prank." I said to Ava as we speed walked our way to the war room. "With how everyone treats you here Leo, I highly doubt that." Ava said with a tone that hinted at anger, though you could''ve probably guessed that. "If there was an attack here, that could mean they''ve somehow infiltrated the base and sent some assassins to kill your or that they already had spies on the inside." "Wouldn''t be the first time someone tried to kill me Ava, though it doesn''t seem like you care that much while being constantly drunk and everything." Ava growled with a bit of anger but didn''t answer back and instead just walked a bit faster. Eventually we were able to get to the war room where Aaron was sitting down and shouting out commands to everyone else as everyone moved around hectically. General Aaron and Ava shared some quick words before Aaron eventually had his eyes focus on me and he said with a straight face, "I''m honestly surprised you''re not dead yet." I would''ve answered back, "Honestly, so am I." if I already wasn''t in so much trouble. "Leo, you''re mission here in the city is done. You''ve successfully found the artifact and have secured it for the resistance. You just staying here constantly increases the chances of Aetius''s army finding you. Hell, you accidentally teleported into their base and got captured for a few hours. They probably know that you''re here now which is what incited what happened just a bit ago with the explosion. So, with what happened earlier and from what I''ve heard from people and what you''ve been asking around about, it''s probably best for you to leave and gain both power and connections. The General from there continued to say some fancy stuff that was mostly used as filler and everything but when really simplified and shortened was pretty much him saying, "I appreciate all your help but to ensure the resistance''s survival, I''ll send you and a few random troops to a random city in hopes that they''ll follow you and leave us allow. Ava will stay here and attempt to kill some of the enemy forces." And though it was a bit rude I was inclined to agree. Where I go, danger follows and where I stay, danger will happen. So, with a nod and a quick question about where to next, I was just given a direction and a map. The group of people would meet me at the exit and follow along side me on my journey, but I would have to be wary of them as there is a chance that there could be a spy in there midst. "Anything is possible" was said over and over and made lots of sense. In a world that was unlike earth and had magic, the impossible could be made possible with one little interference from some sort of god or person with high amounts of power. Though it could also be said for the same thing for earth but now I''m just rambling. Gathering the directions to the escape wasn''t that hard as it was the same area, I had to go to sneak my way to the castle. Eventually, the walls shook every now and then from what seemed to be large explosions. People constantly ran pass me until I decided to pick up the speed. There at the end was a group of 3 people, each person someone I''ve never met before. As the current time and predicament didn''t allow us to exchange pleasantries, we al quickly made our way into the sewer before leaving out of the city. From there, we just started walking as I saw plumes of smoke rising out of the city. Author''s stuff- Hi everyone. I know I''m not putting this in the author''s notes section at the bottom of webnovel but let''s be honest, nobody really reads that stuff. For now, I want to have a really quick but nice chat with you guys about me and the story. First off, let''s start with the fact that I have a bad memory. As you may know, I like to write and make jokes in my story while also throwing multiple random details into the story. I do my best to remember and record these details, but they can easily be forgotten or passed over. I just want you to please understand this if there''s some details that I''ve missed now and then. For the second and possibly the last thing, I want to let you know that I write for fun, not speed like almost literally every author in existence says. I know that when I was first starting writing God Complex and such, I was writing nearly 2,000 words everyday for a few months straight. I was able to do that because I was having fun and doing what I wanted. But now, my writing is hectic and decent on the best of days but I''m trying to make it what it once was and to do that, I can''t force myself to write. I came to this realization when I was attempting to write the last chapter for a while and I just couldn''t think of any good ideas for it, only for an entirely different story which I currently only have ideas on. Those ideas for that story come easily while the ideas for Arcane Archer are¡­ Non-existent to say the least. Now I''m going to finish this story, even if it''s the last thing I do. But I''m going to take my time to do so and by saying/writing this, I''m going to get lots of hate as that''s just how the writing world is now adays. My writing has been going down-hill from what it once was, but I think I can fix that if I try to actually care for my work. Take last chapter. Chapter 55- Goddess of Nature was 2,591 words and that was from a few hours of working after I came up with an idea that I actually like. That idea allowed me to write and finish it quickly while still leaving me with some ideas while the chapters before hand were just me coming up with random stuff and writing that down to force out a chapter. I also believe that the last chapter was a good chapter compared to the last couple of ones I''ve wrote, and I''m going to try and continue increasing both the length and quality of the story. If you''re still here, thank you. You are the reason I''m still writing and haven''t given up like I have with God Complex. I want to finish something and do something you''ll be able to read and say, "Man, that was great." Or even just "Was good." I''m trying to get better, for you guys. -QuasiKai 57 False Nigh With the plumes of smoke rising, everyone was either freaking out, getting raided by soldiers for one reason or another, or doing their best to put out any fire they could see, us leaving through the sewers was incredibly easy. My companions, Vanchu a half-orc, Dentratha a green dragonborn, and Graal the goblin. The three of them seemed to have already known each other for quite a while as they talked with each other as if they''ve known each other for years. Outside of the city Graal took a map out of his bag and started recommending directions. One of the directions was a town called Smeltersburg which was their main place for rapidly producing and making gear. It was quickly agreed upon that it would be best to either disrupt and or destroy Smeltersburg as to hinder its production. Graal took the lead as he was the one with the map and quickly guided. Eventually, the sun started to set as we stated making our way into an area with lots of trees and rocks. It was quickly planned that while the others set up camp, Vanchu and I would hunt for some food. After walking for a bit, I eventually found some tracks that indicated some sort of deer. "Vanchu, if we head in that direction, we should encounter some wild-life" I said while indicating the direction the tracks went. Nothing was said as Vanchu stared off into the distance. "Vanchu?" I called out. After she didn''t respond, I reached out and grabbed her shoulder. Instantly, she put her hand over my mouth even though I didn''t say anything. "Something is watching us." She said while continuing to stare off into the distance. I tried looking in the same direction but didn''t find anything that would indicate us of being watched. But I wasn''t an idiot. If Vanchu thinks we''re being watched, then there must be a reason for thinking that. Putting my arm out to the side, I summoned Bell as he had much better vision than me. With a small telepathic signal, I sent it on its way to look around the area to see if it could find anything. I also decided to look through my familiar''s eyes to try and see if I could spot anything as well. After a few minutes of looking, I stopped looking through Bell''s eyes and cast detect magic as a last resort. Another few minutes of that returned with nothing and Vanchu kept looking in the same direction. "Let''s go in a different direction, we still need to gather food for tonight and can continue looking for whatever is out there while we''re moving." Sitting on a fallen tree next to the fire, I started working on the deer and removing the skin and such. As I wasn''t the best at it, it took quite a bit of time just to get out parts we wanted to eat and such. Once that was done, I gave the meat to the others to cook while I left to go "Throw away" the rest of the deer but in reality, just put it into my inventory once I was a bit away. From there, as I started making my way back, I heard something akin to a music box playing in the far-off distance. I wasn''t able to tell exactly what direction because as I continued walking, it sounded as if it stayed the same distance the entire time. I started to speed walk my way back to camp as I didn''t feel threatened but still wanted to get back earlier than if I was to just walk. At camp, I saw that Dentratha was working on dinner and taking her time making sure it was edible. Graal was reading out of a thick book and muttering random nonsense. Vanchu was dealing with a wound on her shoulder. All in all, it seems like a wonderful nig- how did Vanchu get that wound? I didn''t have any healing spells but I did have some healing potions. Rushing over, I quickly inspected the wound as Vanchu explained how she must''ve got it from when we were hunting earlier. Quickly thinking, I verified to myself that nothing of that sort happened. Assisting her, I continued to think about what might''ve happened while I was gone to cause this. Dentratha and Graal didn''t look the least bit worried. Vanchu didn''t look too badly hurt but whatever caused this without them even knowing must be dangerous. Thinking this through would be so much easier without the creepy music box music I was hearing... Moving away, I went to sit on a fallen tree close by. Slowly, I moved my hands up to my ears and covered them to drown out the noise. A second later, I felt a wound on my shoulder that I didn''t notice earlier. Don''t know why I didn''t notice it to begin with though. I stared at the message and questioned why I could''ve gotten this. Was there someone trying to make me see something? Hear something? I covered my ears and saw a hint of something black but then was tending another wound I got earlier while hunting. I remember covering my ears and seeing something but after that I was suddenly just tending to a wound I got earlier? Something between covering my ears and tending my wound is altering my mind to forget it. How many times have I done this? Taking another look at the others shows that they had some more wounds on them but continued to act as if everything was fine. The meat that was only starting to be cooked what seemed like only a few minutes ago was not burnt and nearly ruined even though the flame wasn''t that big. With a sigh, I went to go cover my ears once again but stopped right before doing so. Mentally, I started going through my spells to see if I could use any of them. After a minute of thinking and tending to my wounds, I came up with what I think was a good idea. The sad part about this spell is that I can only cast it on myself meaning I can''t share it with the others. Looking around, I saw this large shadow like creature with wide white eyes holding onto this very ornate music box. Its shadowy claws were slowly turning the little crank on the side of the box and the creature itself seemed to be staring at Dentratha, drooling. The next spell I was going to cast was a ritual, meaning I couldn''t just cast it with mana and had to have a material component to cast the spell. The material component this time was a small crystal bead that I sadly did not have. But we do have someone who should. "Hey, Graal!" I called out to our small goblin with the large book. Graal looked up from his book but didn''t say anything and just looked at me. "Do you have a small crystal bead?" He looked at me for a second before closing his book and putting it between his legs. From there, he started going through a pouch on his left side that seemed to carry various items from the sound of it. After a bit of looking, he eventually pulled out a small crystal bead just like I asked for. "Thank you very much!" I said while making my way to the center of the camp. Sitting in the center, I quickly looked around to make sure that everyone was within 10 feet of me and that the creature itself wasn''t. From there, I held the tiny crystal bead in hand and started slowly putting mana inside of it while chanting some words in the Ancient language while also using my other hand to do some hand signs in the air. As a minute passed, the bead in hand started to slowly glow with my purple mana until it glowed like a molten piece of metal. Once it was at this point, I stood up and held it above my head and let it go. When my fingers were no longer touching the bead, an opaque purple light moved outwards of the bead till it formed a 1- foot radius hemisphere around us. Inside this hemisphere the walls are transparent and allow us to look outside but make it so that people on the outside can''t see us. Nine other people or creatures can fit inside with me but the spell fails if its area includes a larger creature or more than nine people. Creatures and objects within the dome when I cast this spell can move through it freely. All other creatures and objects are barred from passing through it. Spells and other magical effects can''t extend through the dome or be cast through it. The atmosphere inside the space is comfortable and dry, regardless of the weather outside. Until the spell ends, I can also command the interior to become dimly lit or dark. Overall, it''s a really good spell to help ensure that we get a good night''s rest. But if the enemy is dumb enough to let us cast it, well then it means we''re safe from them AND can attack using ranged weapons. Like my bow. What I whispered was, "There''s a shadow creature following and making us forget. The hut should protect us but stay quiet. The music is making you forget and the creature can''t see you, but can still hear us." He looked up for a second before looking back down and continuing to cast some spells, a bit different in nature this time. After that, I sent the same message to the other two and watched as they silently moved around and covered their ears. It was still drooling but seemed to look angry as well now. It was tapping around the hut looking for a way in but couldn''t which seemed to make it angrier and angrier. I continued to enhance a few arrows until I had 10 total enchanted arrows each with a mana mark on it. I signified to the others that I was about to shoot arrows at it but was signified by Dentratha to wait and watched as she then blessed all of us with a spell. Slowly, I pulled back the bowstring after knocking an arrow and aimed it at the head of the creature as it made its way around the hut. Once it was nearly face to face with me, I put my arrow right at the edge of the hut with it aimed at its head, and let the string go. 58 Death of a Nightare The large shadow monster like took a step back, shook its head, and roared from either rage or pain. It was hard to tell. Taking another arrow out, I continued to shoot a few more that only made a few scratches on it here and there. The shadow monster dropped the ornate music box in its hands and charged forwards to the barrier. It punched it a few times but the punches did nothing to it. After it realized that the punches did nothing, it rested it''s claws on the outside of the barrier and attempted to pry it open. For about a minute, it did nothing but stay there attempting to pry it open while the others attacked the monster as now, they could see it now that the music box was broken. Their attacks bounced off of it mostly but some did deal some actual damage here and there. But after this minute, the claws slowly became surrounded by a blackish aura similar to the shadowy color of the monster. At the claws finished becoming surrounded by this aura, the claws themselves, dug into the barrier. I attempted to counterspell whatever it was doing but there was nothing to counterspell as my spell refused to work on it. With its claws now inside the barrier, it started to pull it open. As it pulled and pulled and created a hole about a foot big, the barrier finally broke and the spell ended as the barrier was destroyed from the monster''s innate usage of Dispel Magic from what I could tell. With the music gone which was making the monster invisible and making us forget, all that''s left was the shadow monster itself which was still drooling while looking at us. Vanchu took the initiative by pulling out a regular looking sword and attempting to slash at the monster. As she made contact with its skin, the sword sent a weird energy into it. I followed up her attack by shooting an arrow each at the monster''s eyes but the monster brought its arm up and blocked them instead. With its one arm up, it brought it down and attempted to slash at Vanchu with its claw. Vanchu was able to block it a bit but she gained a massive claw mark across the entirety of her left arm and part of her face. The monster went for another attack but Vanchu was able to move out of the and dodge it. Graal, who already had his spellbook open, snapped his fingers in the air four times really quickly. Each time he snapped; a glowing dart appeared. Once all four were there, he pointed his finger at the monster and the dart all simultaneously went and hit the monster. Dentratha took the opportunity were the monster looked away from Vanchu to quickly run up and cast a spell on her that healed her wounds. While it didn''t heal all the damage from the attacks of the monster, it healed enough the Vanchu could continue to fight without trouble. Once the healing was finished, Dentratha quickly backed away and hid behind a fallen tree. Now being healed and back on combat ready shape, Vanchu was getting ready to swing her sword once again but the monster anticipated this. With the back of its arm which it was previously using to block attacks, it swatted her sword right out of her hand and a few feet away. A loud swear came out of Vanchu''s mouth but she held her ground and put her arms to defend as best she could. I shot a singular arrow from my bow at the monster''s eyes and then immediately cast misty step to be near her sword. Taking another shot, I then reached down and grabbed the sword and ran over behind Vanchu and held the handle out behind her for her to grab. During this time, Graal was able to throw a weird blue-white light towards the creature that upon hit created a small spot of frost on its skin. Dentratha stood up from where they were hiding, looked at the monster, and said something in another language that I didn''t know. Her words were resonated with power behind them and the monster, slowly dropped to its knees and groveled. I shot a glance at Dentratha while waiting for Vanchu to take her sword back, but Dentratha didn''t say anything. After another 2-3 seconds, Vanchu finally reached behind her and grabbed her sword. With her sword in hand and the monster groveling on the ground, Vanchu raised the sword in the air and brought it down on the monsters'' neck. The swing of the sword plus whatever Vanchu did to the blade like last time left a noticeable cut that was making the creature bleed a decent amount. Following up her attack, I ran behind the creature and decided to create a mana arrow for my bow instead of just using a regular one. Charging up this arrow with as much mana as I could, I released it right at the cut on its neck as it attempted to look up from where it was groveling. Compared to the previous few shots were it mostly bounced off without even a small scratch, this arrow penetrated through the cut and into its body before then coming out the other side. From there, the monster quickly stood up which forced us to take a few steps back. But as it took a step forwards and looked as if it was about to attack someone, it instead fell to the dirt ground very heavily. [You''ve killed a young Forgetting Nightmare!] [You''ve earned 500 System Points!] [You''ve leveled up!] [You''ve leveled up!] [You''ve leveled up!] [You''ve leveled up!] Page Break [You''ve leveled up!] [You are now level 20!] [For having your Dexterity reach over 50, you get the skill [Fluid Movement], you now move at double the speed and movement related skills have half the cost.] [For having your Intelligence reach over 50, you get the skill [Mana Increase], every point of intelligence now gives an extra 5 mana.] [For having your Wisdom reach over 50, you get the skill [Mana Breathing], you''re able to take a bit of mana out from the world into yourself to increase your mana regeneration rate.] We all stared at the body, waiting to see if it would move anymore but watched as nothing happened. Eventually I averted my eyes away from the body to look at all the notifications. With confirmation that it was truly dead, I was the first one to move and started making my way towards the body. Once there, to show the others that it was dead, I tapped at its head with my foot. Seeing that it didn''t move, the others started walking towards the body as well. "What do you think it is?" Graal asked out loud. "Aren''t you supposed to be the smart one?" Dentratha replied. "Well whatever it is, it was able to constantly make us forget because of this music box." I said while making my way over to it. The music box on the ground was broken and had little metal pieces piercing out from the ornate wooden box that had fancy lines drawn all over it. Picking it up, I tried turning the crank on the side to see if it still worked but only got the sounds of metal grinding together. With it in hand, I turned back and made my way to the body of the monster. Vanchu and Graal were now doing their best to try and skin it to see if they could somehow turn this into some sort of armor. Dentratha was cleaning and purifying it with magic as to get rid of any possible danger from just touching or even just being close to it. I decided to take the time to start setting up another hut for everyone to stay the night in but realized halfway through that it would be best to have Graal do it instead as if the caster of the spell leaves the area, then the spell will cancel. Meaning if I cast it and then go into my little portable home bag thing, then it would leave the others exposed. "Hey Graal!" I called out to him. He looked away from the body and said, "Hmm? Need something Leo?" "Yeah I was wondering if you could cast tiny hut tonight. I was going to cast it but I''m going to be sleeping somewhere else." "Sure, but where are you going to be sleeping? It would be best to sleep here with the group in case something bad were to happen." "Ah, I''ll be sleeping in this little portable home. I know it looks like a small bag but it''s actually bigger on the inside and is breathable too." "May I take a look?" "Sure." I said while handing it to him. He messed around for a few minutes before handing it back to me and saying, "Fascinating. What you have right there seems to be a more advanced version of a bag of holding." before gently handing it back to me. "A bag of holding is this but smaller and without air in it right?" "Essentially yes." "Interesting. Well I''m going to head to sleep now. "I said, already crawling into the bag. "Wake me up if anything happens!" ~~~~~ Hi there, it''s me, your least favorite author QuasiKai! So, I''ve officially started college and started working at a new job at the exact same time. Because of this, I have literally no free time at all. I wake up at 5 am, go to college till 3 pm, and then work till 10 pm. Then after that I''ve got homework and stuff to do. And because of this, I''ve decided to make a Ko-fi! I know it''s the stereotypical thing and such to do, but I''ve got to say that every cent helps and allows me to be a somewhat functioning college student. The Ko-fi is here; https://ko-fi.com/schutte