The journey back was rather uneventful. Not because there weren’t anymore encounters with animals, but because he chose to run away from the badgers and the one bobcat he saw, and quickly killed any coyotes and stuffed them in his bag. Alan had learned a lot today and wanted to get back to his camp so he could spend some time putting it all together.
The badgers were tough little buggers which would cost him time to kill and he now felt an attachment to the bobcats so he left them alone as well. Coyotes, however, were a quick way to level up some of his classes and would also provide him with some carcasses to harvest for resources. He did notice a definite uptick in encounters. They must be spawning more often now.
The sun had set fifteen minutes before he made it back to the lake. The moon was already up and with his increasing perception the twilight shadows were not a hindrance to his sight. The bright gray light his eyes perceived made it easy to navigate the scattered trees and occasional fallen stick. Those that were in his path got added to his pouch. It finally looked like he was starting to fill it up. There was still plenty of room, but it actually felt as if there was stuff in it rather than being an almost empty space.
The first thing he did when he got back was to get a fire going. Running for almost twenty miles helps you work up an appetite. While occasionally tossing sticks and small branches on it to get some coals going, he also set about carving up one of the coyotes. The squirrel from the previous day had been tasty, but after the bobcat he was fresh out.
He carefully skinned the pelt and set it aside. Then he cut up the meat and sliced a nice long strip off of one of the back quarters and put it on the spit. There must be a better way of cooking the meat because turning it was a labor intensive process and he had other things he could be doing. It was something to work on in the future. One thing he could do now was talk to Tamee.
“So, Tamee, how did your day go?”
“Well, I watched this idiot run around for a while. He even managed to lose a very valuable class stone, the kind that would go for a fortune on the outside. But then he somehow lucked into befriending a vicious clawed terror and got it back. Oh, and for some reason he spent a lot of time literally hugging trees.”
“I find it is easier to sense their aura when I am touching them.” There was a long pause so he asked “Tamee, are you still there?”
“What do you mean by their ‘aura’?” She finally asked. There was something in her tone, he couldn’t tell if it was excitement or a sudden wariness.
“I had been calling it an energy field, but since I got a skill aura reading I figured that’s what they’re called. You seem surprised. I told you earlier about sensing the energy flows in my body.” That reminded him, he needed to see about his own aura, but it would probably be rude to do that in the middle of a conversation. He made a mental note to work on it after dinner.
“Yes, you told me about seeing the energy inside yourself, but that is very different from being able to sense that aura in someone else. And gaining the aura reading skill while still a quartz classer, and an early one at that, is very rare.”
“Really? In order to pass the seeker dungeon I had to read people’s souls.” Alan was truly confused, it seemed like sensing energy was an important element to completing many of the dungeons.
“While they are tied together, a soul and an aura are not the same thing. That is why even non-living and non-sentient things can have an aura. Also, most people do not actually complete that dungeon in the way it is described. Some, like you, figure out a clever question to ask. Others just go by luck. It takes them a long time, but eventually they can guess right every time. Are you saying you could actually read their soul to determine if they were lying?”
“It took me a while, but once I saw the effect of lying on myself I was able to find it on the first guard since I knew he was a liar.”
“Alan, this is important, can you walk me through how you completed all of the dungeons?” This time Alan could definitely hear the excitement in her voice.
He wasn’t sure why this was so important to her, but there wasn’t much else to do while turning the coyote so he told her everything he could. She wasn’t very interested in the more physical dungeons, but the mage and seeker dungeons she had him go over several times. It was the guardian dungeon, though, that really peaked her interest.
“Are you saying you actually used your mana to make the rock stronger?”
“Yes. I needed the rock not to break so I had to reinforce it somehow. It was difficult at first but I was able to push mana into the rock and then it was kind of easy to get it to meld with the existing grid. I even got a skill out of it, mana enhancement.”
“Ok, I am going to ask something that is seen as rude where I come from, but can you share your status screen with me?” She had to explain the process to him. It would have been easier to share if both of them were physically together, but since they were in the same party it was still possible. She looked over it for a few minutes before she said anything else. By this point the coyote-ke-bob seemed to be done enough so he took it off the fire and started nibbling on it. It wasn’t terrible but he really needed to find some spices. A grill might be helpful as well.
“Most of your skills are pretty common. I should say they are not uncommon for people to have a few of them, but with all your classes you ended up with more than usual for such a low level. Putting quantity aside, mana drawing, mana enhancement, and aura reading are much rarer and more valuable than the others. Mana drawing is not unheard of, you can gain the skill just from drawing magic symbols even without a real understanding of what you are doing. That is actually how I thought you completed the mage challenge. I did not realize that you were actually seeing how the energy interacted and flowed along the lines.”
“So you thought I was just getting lucky?”
“I already told you I thought you were surprisingly competent. But, honestly, when I first saw you I thought you looked like a dumb jock.” She said very matter of factly.
“Wait, how do you know what a jock is?” Alan wasn’t really holding up his end of the conversation, so maybe she had a point.
“Even if we did not have sports on my world, I have been learning about your Earth culture. You kept fumbling around with your weapons and you sometimes asked the stupidest questions. Your prowess in battle was decent, but who bashes down a solid wall when they could just pull a lever?
“Anyway, what I was going to say before I was interrupted, was that your aura reading skill is very rare. I would be surprised if any other recruits had it before completing at least tier two. It isn’t until after evolving a class to opal that many people learn it. Your mana enhancement skill, that is almost unheard of. This is not to say that no one has that skill on the outside, but those that do have it usually get it with their amber class. Sometimes you hear of people learning it at ruby or garnet, but I have never heard of someone gaining that skill before their first body evolution.”
“Well, I guess it’s something I’m good at? Also, not to doubt you, but how much do you know about this? Maybe it happens more often, just not on your world? Also, amber and ruby class, what’s that?”
“I am truly surprised you are “good at it” since your spirit stat is so low. Usually those who show talent with auras and mana skills have a very high spirit. Also, while I do not hail from a core system, I am not a country bumpkin and when I say it is rare, you should believe me. You are currently quartz class and can evolve your classes to opal next. Several steps down that path lie garnet and ruby, and amber is after that. I myself am above that at topaz.”
“So that’s a long way away for me. Then what does having these skills now mean for me? I don’t suppose you could tell me what I can use them for?” He was pretty sure what the answer to that question was, but there was another long pause before she answered.
“I am not sure how much I should say. It could be that part of why you have learned so much is because you don’t know your limitations. However, even if I thought it was a good idea, that would definitely exceed my mandate here.” That last part was expected, but the first half was surprising.
After another long pause she continued with her voice lowered to barely above a whisper, almost as if she was afraid of being overheard. “I know there is much you do not understand and I have not answered many of your questions. Understand that I have an obligation to my homeworld. By performing well here I could boost our resources significantly. However, before I left I was told by the elders to keep an eye out for talented recruits. I was authorized to take some risks if I found any who seemed truly gifted. If you can prove to me that you are one of these supremely talented individuals, then I can provide you with a lot of help that I otherwise should not.”
This is what Alan had been waiting for, a chance to make her a real ally. If he could somehow convince her of his value she could become a huge asset. “How would I prove that I am worthy?”
“You have two days before the final challenge of this tier. If you can get all of your classes over 30% by then I will know that you are truly gifted. It is unusual for most to get over 30% in one class, and individuals with more than three classes usually only have one that high. If you can demonstrate that you can learn how to grow all of your classes that high then I will be certain.”
“I don’t suppose you can tell me how to do that?”
Another Tamee sigh. He was starting to hear an unspoken ‘idiot’ whenever she made that noise. “I will repeat what you were told at the start. To grow your classes you have to use them. I will not say more, that is part of your test.”
He had been wondering what his next goal was going to be since he had completed all of the dungeons, but now there was a path before him. He didn’t know how to do it, but he already had two classes at that level and two more were very close. That left four that would need significant growth.
Alan had finished his meal by this time and needed to get cleaned up. A quick trip to the lake would solve that. After several forays into the water he was much more confident that there were no killer fish hiding in the depths. His clothes were trashed, but they were washed as well as possible because he still didn’t want them to stink even if they looked awful. While washing he was also thinking. If he understood correctly, in order to grow a class you had to use a class, just like she said. But he had seen that it could be through the class talent or through applications of the stat associated with it.
That was probably how he gained some of his growth as a hunter. A large part of that came from taming the bobcat and the failed attempt with the fox. Some more had also been gained from tracking that same bobcat. There was also some growth he had achieved in between all of this. Thinking back on what specifically he had been doing at the time, it was most likely when he was fighting with the squirrels. It had required him to follow all their movements as they ran around the trees and along the ground. That could be seen as using perception in the fight. However, he also had been using perception lately when studying the growing differences in the valley. There had not been any noticeable growth from that. Maybe you get more out of it if combat, or at least some level of danger, is involved?
The healer class should theoretically be easy, he just had to heal himself a lot. The same could be said for the mage class, but with casting more spells in combat. Seeker he could probably level by trying to sense auras more often. The class talent was sensitivity so that seemed straightforward. Scholar was going to be more of a challenge.
While going over his status sheet with Tamee it had not escaped Alan’s notice that he had gained some points in scholar today, six percent, but it was less clear why he gained them. The class talent was still a mystery, so that left the stat Focus. Had he been particularly focused today? Maybe you could say he was focused while tracking down and taming the bobcat, but he didn’t gain any points in it until after using his guardian stone.
Whatever it was must have happened on the way back. Try as he might, Alan couldn’t figure out how to improve that class, but at least there were plans for the others. Guardian was perhaps going to be the easiest, all he needed was to find a club and bash things. With a talent like hammer blow he hoped that would work.
Now that he was washed and his clothes were drying by the fire it was almost time for his nightly sharpening ritual. Before he got to that it was time to deal with his shelter. It was the last item on his original list of things to do and he felt he had earned an upgrade in his sleeping arrangement. There wasn’t a whole lot he could do with the resources he had on hand but a fortuitous find today would help.
While traipsing through the woods he had found a branch that was partially separated from the trunk. There were large claw marks in it suggesting something a lot larger than a bobcat had been sitting on it. Perhaps its weight had been too much for the branch or it had gotten into a fight and caused the damage. Either way, after a little bit of tugging and a lot of cursing Alan had managed to pry it off and store it in his pouch. It was the single largest item in his storage space.
This was going to allow him to make a significant difference in the state of his shelter. By wedging the large branch just so, he made a kind of frame that stretched across much of the entrance to his cave. Using some of the rotten tent he had collected in the hunter dungeon he was able to create a barrier from the constant mist of the waterfall.
This wouldn’t do anything about the puddles of water in the alcove already, but it should help prevent him from getting soaked overnight. He also collected large handfuls of grass and used them to push as much water in the largest pools as he could over the edge. It was not the most efficient method, but after twenty minutes of work he had eliminated the majority of the puddles inside. Next for a bit of luxury.
The coyote hides he had harvested ended up having some of the softest fur he had ever felt. He laid down another pile of grass to soak up any further water, and some of the blood that still clung to the hides, and placed three of the hides on top to make a kind of bed. Looking around in the gray light of night he took in his work. It wasn’t the Four Seasons, but it was an incredible step up from a literal slab of rock.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Personal Quest Completed: Getting started
[You have completed your personal quest Getting Started. Reward: There are no rewards for personal quests.]
Achievement earned: Self-Motivator
[You have set yourself a list of tasks as a personal quest and followed through to their completion. The effect of your Focus is slightly improved]
That was partly unexpected. Part of the reason for improving his shelter was a personal sense of satisfaction of completing the list he had set himself on the first day, but he hadn’t really expected anything to come of it. The quest completion notice was exactly what he expected. It would have been a cheat if you could set yourself quests that you were then rewarded from. He still wasn’t sure how he activated the personal quest, but it would have seemed unfair to get a reward.
However, even if the quest didn’t have a reward, he had earned an achievement. Whatever that meant. The description of the achievement was interesting, it hadn’t caused his focus to increase but it said the effect of his focus would increase. Time to check his tutorial guide.
“I hate to bother you again,” Alan began, “but I just earned an achievement. What does that mean?”
What followed was a ten minute exchange where he explained how he had earned it and what it said. Tamee was unusually helpful with her answers this time. Apparently achievements were a rare treat from the Network that didn’t come with physical rewards. The fact that it had improved the effect of one of his stats was not a common reward, but it was not all that rare either.
There were a myriad of other ways it could provide an improvement and unfortunately Tamee was unable to list others. She did hint that there were additional rewards beyond those stated. What she could say is that the increase to the effect of his focus was just that. Whatever focus did, and she wasn’t sharing that, it would now do it slightly better than before.
Tamee left him with a parting thought. “There are many ways to improve yourself such as leveling your classes and raising your skills, but achievements are by far the most sought after. Everyone gets some, but those who hope to follow their Path to its Coda need as many as they can get. And some are better than others. The one you earned is one almost every person gets at some point. Be aware, though, that while two people may earn the same achievement, they do not always gain the same reward from it.”
The night was dragging on, if Alan had a watch it would probably say it was after midnight. His new bed was calling, but first he had something to do. Taking out his whetstone, he sat down and started on his seax. Holding it in his hand he first tried to sense an aura again. There was still nothing he could detect, but from hints in the conversation with Tamee he was pretty sure there should be something. Maybe his senses weren’t strong enough?
Giving up on finding its aura he then started swiping along the blade with the whetstone after dunking it in the lake to get it wet. As he got lost in the rhythm he focused on his own aura. There had been a lot of growth in his classes and stats today and sure enough there were a lot of new disturbances in the flow. Alan was also able to sense that even with the disruptions the overall flow of the energy had increased. Rather than trying to smooth them out he first focused on a particular rough spot to see if he could see what was causing it.
The best way to describe it was that his energy was flowing along a special energy artery. There were occasional branches coming off of the artery like arterioles. The branches occurred all over his body, but the one he was focused on at the moment was located near his right eye. There was a disturbance here because the branches coming off of the main flow were not well formed. Some came off at sharp angles and others had partial blockages. He focused his mental energy, almost like someone pretending to use the Force, on smoothing out the sharp turns. He tried to elongate the tube to make the branches take longer to make the same turn. Alan also thought of his energy grinding over the blockages and smoothing them out and found it happening for real.
When he felt like he had accomplished all he could, what he observed was an area that used to be a disturbance was now one of the smoothest flowing sections in his body. Excited with the progress and now burning with adrenaline he moved around fixing all of the turbulence in his aura, even improving some of the areas that he had previously thought were repaired. By the time he was finished sharpening the seax he was also finished with his aura.
Alan knew he was feeling better, but he wasn’t exactly sure of how. It was almost like smoothing out the flow unlocked potential in his body. He was definitely looking forward to the sixth night when Tamee said she would explain all of this. Come to think of it, if he could finish her new mission by then they would hopefully have a lot more to talk about than just that. And maybe she would be more forthcoming with her answers.
Sheathing his seax, it was time to sharpen his pugio. Before he began sharpening it though, Alan had a thought. Checking his status screen he was disappointed to find that his scholar class had not gone up. He thought that with all the focus involved in finding the flaws in his aura that it might have increased, but apparently that is not the kind of focus it meant. That or it didn’t count since there was no combat involved.
The rasp of the whetstone resumed as he started sharpening the pugio blade and this time he focused not on himself or the blade but on his whetstone. He quickly found he could sense the aura of the stone. Perhaps stones were easier than metal, or maybe because the blades were worked metal instead of raw ore? He was shooting in the dark here but he felt he was onto something. The whetstone had a strong grid. It did not have the more organic curves that he was coming to associate with living things, but the strength of the grid was impressive.
While grinding away at the edge of the blade he tried to make the aura in the stone even stronger. He could sense his mana pool dropping as energy seemed to flow into the black quartz. A large pool of mana formed in the stone. It was definitely in the stone, yet it was somehow separate from the grid already present. Deciding there was enough mana collected he then worked on layering it over the existing pattern. The pool was quickly depleted but the amount of energy he had added had not had much of an effect. So he kept pushing more mana in, each point of mana he drained sent the equivalent of the previous large pool into the stone. This time rather than trying to build up a reservoir he instead tried to push it onto the framework as he went.
There was a learning curve and at first it was a struggle, there was little progress and much of the mana seemed to dissipate into the air. However soon the energy was flowing directly from his hand into the grid of the whetstone. Alan soon had emptied his mana pool but still energy was pouring out of him. He had no idea where it was coming from until he looked back at his own aura and noticed how little energy was flowing through his own veins and he immediately cut the connection.
Looking down at the whetstone with his senses it was easy to detect a significant increase in the strength of its aura. Not only that, but even with his normal eyesight he could detect a glow from the stone. He wasn’t sure what he had done, but he had definitely done something. And whatever it was had really left him drained. His vision faded as he found his eyes closing and he collapsed forward onto the ground.
Alan was woken some time later by two coyotes. They were nudging his body as if to check if he was alive. Unluckily for them he was. He wasn’t sure why he had passed out, but if he had to guess it would be because he had put some of his body's own energy into the whetstone and not just his mana. That must have left him drained. A quick check of his aura showed that the flow was not fully restored, but it was much improved from earlier. Now to deal with the visitors.
His left hand was still clutched around the hilt of the pugio. A glance through slitted eyelids showed that one of the coyotes was more hesitant and was standing back from him while watching the other. That coyote, though, was much less scared of him. It was bending down and poking at Alan’s right arm with its nose.
He looked closely at it trying to find its jugular. With his aura still not at full force he wasn’t sure how weak he would be so it would behoove him not to get involved in a prolonged fight against two opponents. It was important to kill this one with his first strike. It was also the more aggressive and probably more dangerous of the two.
There was no more time to set up his first blow as it decided Alan wasn’t a threat and started chewing on his arm. Luckily it got a piece of his tunic first instead of ripping off a chunk of his bicep. Moving quickly he stabbed it in the neck and then pulled the blade out. A cascade of blood fountained from its neck all over him. He was going to need another bath, but the first coyote was out of this fight. He scrambled to his feet as its snarling partner came to avenge it.
Initially he started to switch his dagger to his right hand, but then he picked up the whetstone instead. As the coyote tried to hamstring him with a bite he brought the stone down on its head as hard as he could. It staggered under the blow and Alan brought it down again and this time heard a crack as its skull split open. A third blow sent it to the ground and it shuddered weakly before expiring.
Both bodies went into the pouch. It's a good thing it preserved things or it would probably reek in there. It also seemed to sort things somewhat as the bodies tended to end up together, as did the rocks and sticks he had gathered. Experimenting quickly he found that he could actually move things around in the storage if he concentrated. Then it was back into the lake for another bath. Luckily for him the blood hadn’t dried yet and it was relatively easy to wash it off of his skin. It was not so easy to get out of his clothes. They seemed to have a permanent red tint in the areas that weren’t already brown with other stains.
The moon was most of the way across the sky. He had already been up late so he probably hadn’t been unconscious for too long. Unfortunately there was little point in trying to get some more sleep now anyway. He would have woken up normally in a couple of hours. Feeling hungry, he took a brief break from washing to get some blueberries from his pouch. That reminded him of something.
He took a detour on the way out of the lake and checked on where he had planted some berries yesterday. There, sitting in the patch of dirt, was a growing plant. It was maybe twenty centimeters high with several leaves. Things really did grow faster here. That kind of growth could have taken weeks before.
Now that he was thinking about it he took a quick look at its aura. It was small and faint, which made sense for a newly growing plant. Careful so as not to exceed his mana pool, or to overly stress the plant, he reinforced its aura. It wasn’t any bigger, but in some way it looked more vibrant. It wasn’t glowing like the whetstone, but everything about it was more robust than before.
Checking on his own growth he was shocked to find that his scholar class had grown. Several of his skills also increased, including mana enhancement, and some of his other classes had grown from the fight as well. Fighter had gotten to 30% finally. It was the growth of scholar that he was most interested in, however.
Thinking back to the description of the class it mentioned understanding the creatures around you and its linked stat was focus. Maybe when he had focused on the coyote’s neck, looking for a weak point, that had counted? It wasn’t much to go on, but it was something he could test out today. There was no point in going back to sleep for an hour or two, so he decided to get started early. Instead of yoga or tai chi it was time for some practical practice with his new body. Alan spent a little while working on jumping, rolling, and climbing. His strength and dexterity had improved to the point where he would have been a world class athlete. It was important to find how that changed the ways his body could and did move. He soon felt more comfortable with his body's new limits.
Next he practiced drawing his daggers. Both one at a time and in concert. He tried to practice stabs and slashes against invisible opponents but he felt like a poser waving his arms in the air. Instead he found a holly tree that had developed near the lake, it was about seven meters tall. Standing before it he practiced stabbing with his left hand while using the seax in his right hand to ward off imaginary foes.
Alan picked out certain leaves to stab and if he wasn’t careful and overextended, or swung wildly with his attacks, he was rewarded with painful scratches from the sharp leaves. He then switched it up and used the seax to slice leaves off of branches while protecting himself with the pugio. His blood was pumping by the time he was ready to take a break.
Making his way back to the grown blueberry bush he collected some more while also snacking and about half the berries made it into the pouch. A quick glance at his growing plant was enough to notice that it was already several centimeters taller than just an hour ago. Maybe that mana infusion had really helped. Not wanting to begin the day too low on mana he made another quick check of the camp to make sure he had everything and then he was good to go. The first stop was a nearby tree. It was one of the non-identifiable kinds, but he had noticed it had one potentially useful branch sticking off of it.
Using his nearly inhuman strength he snapped it off of a larger branch. This was difficult, but not impossible since this branch seemed to be dead already. Using his seax he trimmed up some of the tiny branches on it, and broke off the top where it got too narrow for his uses. When he was done he was left with a stick that was about four centimeters in diameter and just over sixty centimeters long. It wasn’t ideal, but it was the best club he could come up with using what he had.
If he was going to be bashing things for his guardian class he would prefer not to do it with a rock in his hand. When he used his daggers it seemed like his fighter and rogue classes got all of the improvement. After bashing that one coyote’s head he had noticed a nice increase in his guardian class. With a talent of hammer blow it made sense that bashing things with blunt objects would count.
The next six hours were perfect for a training montage. It was time to do some power leveling and today he was finding groups of beasts, which made it go faster. He had avoided the one pair of bobcats he found, but was death incarnate on anything else. Alan started most fights with his daggers, but once he had eliminated the majority of his opponents he would switch to his newly crafted club. Sometimes he was able to keep the whole group alive while severely wounding them so that he could get even more work in with the club.
While searching for his first victims he had spent the time infusing mana into the stick. He didn’t want it to break, so he made sure it was as strong as he could make it. This method had worked on the rock so it should work on the stick too. By the time he found three coyotes together it felt as hard as steel and was faintly glowing.
Item: Mana Infused Club (common), this crude club has been infused with light mana to increase its durability. It also provides a low level of illumination.
Checking his whetstone he found that it had a similar description. Somehow his mana had given both of these items some kind of magical enchantment that made them glow. That was something to think about later. The coyotes, on the other hand, weren’t really worth talking about. Alan quickly slashed one’s throat open and stabbed another one in the mouth. It gave it a chance to bite him, but he wanted to take wounds so that he could use his minor healing spell.
With two opponents down he dropped his daggers and pulled the club from storage to face the last one. Removing things from his storage was easy, it took more effort to put stuff inside so it was easier to just drop them. The lone remaining coyote was driven insane with rage by the death of its packmates and lunged at him with a shocking disregard for its personal safety. A quick blow to the side of its head cracked its skull open and a second blow to its back broke its spine. One last blow to the head spilled its brains onto the ground. This was a solid club indeed.
It was confirmed that focusing on his opponents’ weaknesses counted for improving his scholar class when he fought a strange pairing of a badger and a coyote. That time he tried to blind both animals with light bolts to their eyes before clubbing them to death. He was not a great shot, but it caused significant progress for both his mage class and his aim by the time he was done.
He also tried to work on improving some of his skills. While jogging through the forest at a good clip he would sometimes cross tracks of animals. If they looked fresh he would stalk the animals and get as close as possible before ambushing them. He also made sure to try to sense the aura of every animal encountered. This improved tracking, sneaking, and aura sensing in addition to his classes.
Alan quickly began to notice differences in the aura of different types of beasts. The badgers with their incredibly tough hides and strong muscles had a lot of energy pathways near the surface of their bodies, with only a few thick streams running through their center. The coyotes had larger pathways in the center as well, but they were more numerous. Also, they had many very small branches throughout their limbs, almost like capillaries. Perhaps this helped increase their agility? The two bobcats had a more balanced set up, similar to what he saw inside his own body, but the amount of energy flowing through them was much greater than any other beast he had observed.
It was after an especially hectic encounter with ten squirrels that he contacted Tamee. “I can’t help but feel like an asshole. I am going all murder hobo on these poor animals.”
“Remember, that's why these animals are here. Also, while you are technically killing them, the system revives them after a set amount of time. Think of them like dungeon volunteers.” That helped a little, but by the end of his killing spree he still felt a bit like a monster himself.
Checking his gains as he washed off the blood and guilt back at the lake left him impressed. Scholar was still his lowest class but he had gotten it up to 12%. Guardian, Mage, and Seeker were all approaching 20% and his other classes had made progress as well. Rogue was over 40%! It seemed that all of the knife fighting counted more as a rogue’s style rather than a fighter’s. His skills had seen similar improvement.
With a solid push tomorrow he should be able to meet Tamee’s deadline with no problem, especially since the monsters should once again get an upgrade. If it was similar to how the last four days went, he would expect to see solitary level three creatures.
