Waking up after logging in Eldrian immediately looked around, glad to see that Sesha was indeed still nearby. She had wandered for a few hundred meters, but at least she was still in sight.

Sighing with relief Eldrian stood up and started walking towards the horse.

"Hey, Sesha. How was the night?" Eldrian asked, he had had a difficult time explaining to the horse what was going to happen when he logged off. Due to the new updates players' bodies would disappear within half a minute of logging out. Eldrian had worried that Sesha would run away when he was gone, luckily this worry seemed to be unneeded.

To Eldrian's greeting Sesha simply gave him a horse nod of acknowledgment as she stood up. After which Eldrian mounted her and set off again. They were already very close to the river, according to his map they were over four-fifths.

Eldrian simply planned to find the river before taking a break and eating breakfast.After which they would set out again.

...

Nothing much happened further during the day, Eldrian simply continued to try and cast Observe and Inspect. The unstableness of the trip making it hard for him. Even so he felt he was making progress and that he would get it if he could really concentrate for a few hours.

"We should be able to reach the camp tomorrow morning if nothing happens," Eldrian commented as he climbed off of Sesha and started setting up camp. There was not much of setting up as Eldrian simply made a fire to cook his dinner.

They were currently in a large forest that seemed to span the entire distance which was left to travel. Eldrian would have preferred if the entire journey was simply grasslands as it would enable him too see far ahead and Sesha to move almost full speed. He could still not handle her best.

After enjoying his meal and setting out the fire, Eldrian tried to make sure that nothing was nearby. Naturally he had no idea what he needed to do to make sure of this, as such he simply spent a few minutes listening to the silence of the night.

After which he decided to practice casting Anthizo, since he only needed around 40 more casts to reach Tier 1.

...

Two hours later Eldrian finally finished his last cast, reaching Tier 1. Calling his interface Eldrain quickly searched for his improvements.

[Player has reached the requirements for Tier 1]

[Player's highest Tier is of magic type, classified player as mage type]

[Haru's Statistics:]

[Level: 5 (1250/16k)]

[Magic Class Tier 1]

{For next Tier up}

{0 / 20k Tier 1 spell cast}

{0 / 200 Tier 2 spell cast}

[Avatar Affinity: 96.21%]

[Attributes:]

[Strength: 105]

[Agility: 115]

[Constitution: 105]

[Intelligence: 115] [Was 110]

[Spirit: 110] [Was 105]

{20 free attribute points}

Mmmh, that is not a large difference. And what the hell should I spend my free attributes on? Eldrian felt he still knew too little to use them. He had no idea how important they would be and currently, he did not feel a need to spend them uninformed.

Continuing on he searched for other differences.

[Stats:]

[HP: 105]

[Mana: 121]

[Stamina: 105]

[Armor: 0.25]

[Magic Armor: 0.25]

[Physical Resistance: 0.5%]

[Magical Resistance: 0.5%]

'Oh, cool I got some resistances and armor,' Eldrian mumbled as he saw the change. It was small but he currently still had no armor, hence he quickly saw the change.

I should probably make that a priority. He thought after realizing that he was still only wearing normal clothing. Normal being relative as he was currently wearing the game's equivalent of jeans and a T-shirt.

The most significant difference being that his jeans were brown since it was the most common color around, his shirt on the other hand was black. Eldrian had chosen these colors when he learned that making the jean blue would quadruple the cost.

[Apparel: Custom cotton clothing]

[Weapons: Grace, Arming sword, Kite shield, ...]

***

After having reached Tier 1 Eldrian felt he did not have more he needed to do. After spending a few minutes on Observe and Inspect, he logged out.

...

Logging in again Eldrian directly started looking for Sesha, yet this time he failed to see her nearby. Startled, he quickly jumped to his feet and pulled out Grace.

Warily Eldrian moved around to see if anything seemed out of place. After a good while of searching, he failed to find anything out of the ordinary, yet Sesha was gone.

Did something startle her? Luckily it does not seem like she died. Eldrian thought, glad that he failed to find blood anywhere. Even so he was not happy that he had to now continue on foot.

Keeping his spear out he followed along the river at a normal pace, making sure to not waste his stamina. By midday, nothing having happened, Eldrian started feeling that what startled Sesha must have long left the area. Even if it did not, he had now left it. Unless its area was the entire forest.

Feeling more at ease Eldrian finally decided to put Grace back into his inventory and started a fire. He did not have any food left from the day before, having only grilled enough for two meals.

Luckily starting a fire was easy with Floga, as such Eldrian soon had some new meat grilling over the fire. As he listened to the sizzling of the meat Eldrian cursed his stupidity for not having stuffed his inventory with at least a month's worth of food. He was certainly not going to miss out on that usage of his inventory again.

Crack

Hearing the sound of a branch breaking Eldrian froze just as he was about to take the meat of the fire. He was not accustomed enough to hear the snapping of small twigs or the crush of leaves on the ground. But an entire branch being broken, that he could hear.

Eldrian jumped back from the fire with a start, pulling Grace out as he did. His brain having finally processed what the noise of a branch breaking could mean. Luckily what had broken it did not seem to be coming for him.

Drawing further back, Eldrian warily watched the surrounding trees. He planned to head for the river, hoping that whatever was coming would not be the best at swimming.

As Eldrian reached the riverbed he heard more branches being broken, even managing to see the silhouettes of the creatures. Through the shadows of the trees Eldrian felt that he was looking at a massive bearlike creature.

Cursing his luck Eldrian prayed that they would ignore him.Please just move on. Take the meat and go. Eldrian hoping this even stronger when he realized he never even visited a town or village, meaning he would respawn in Aggostead if he died.

While warily waiting for something to change Eldrain suddenly heard a deep growl reverberate through the forest. Followed by more growls from all directions, except from his back where the river lied.

Seems I do have a way out? Eldrian thought in relief, wondering if he should simply jump into the river or wait some more. The nearest bearlike creature was now no more than ten meters from him. Luckily it was facing towards his fire, leaving its back towards him.

"It's a pack of Arkbeasts. Five here, but the growls indicated more than twenty." A female voice suddenly pierced through Eldrian's ears.

Thank god I am not alone. Shit, wait will they be fine? Just as he was becoming worried more voices echoed.

"Dammit, why do you Chosen always go so far out from the camp!"

"Sorry! We hoped to find more herbs. Those nearby had been finished."

"Do I look like I fucking care about your reasons? Keep inside the formation and don't run! I will personally kill you if you do!" Shouted the same female voice Eldrian had first heard.

Relieved Eldrian realized that they were certainly soldiers. Now he just needed to decide how he was going to play this.Run and save myself, or help?

While wondering Eldrian heard the whistle of arrows, some flying close by him. Luckily he was hiding behind a tree, else he felt certain he would have received an unwelcome arrow.

Responding to the arrows the Arkbeasts roared in anger and charged the soldiers. Eldrian stayed in his hiding spot for a bit longer, waiting until the arrows were more focused.

Good thing I didn't just rush in. Eldrian thought as the arrows grew less and soon stopped coming near him, as this happened he sneaked his head out from behind the tree. Seeing one of the Arkbeast trying to move around the soldiers. At least he assumed that was what it was trying to do by being so far back.

No you don't! Eldrian shouted internally as he rushed out of his hiding spot, hoping that the beast would not be too tough a kill. While rushing he quickly cast Anthizo on himself for the regen, lunging at the beast soon after. His spear piercing through its hind leg.

Howling in pain the beast turned towards Eldrian in rage, wanting to kill him with one bite. Before it could it received a shortsword directly plunged into its mouth.

Pulling back Eldrian pulled his spear out of the beast's leg while he left the blade inside of its mouth, the hilt stopping the beast from closing its mouth. Blood flooding from it.

Enraged the beast charged at him, ready Eldrian knelt and struck the back of his spear into the ground, impaling the charging beast on its own momentum.

[900XP]

Eldrian saw the system message only because he was waiting for confirmation, having planned to plunge a dagger into the beast's throat if he did not get it.

After the beast had impaled itself, Eldrian dove to his side as he saw another charging him. Cursing as he lost his spear Eldian pulled out an arming sword and kite shield, blocking a blow from the new beast with the latter. The blow sending him stumbling against a tree.

"Fuck, that hurt!" He cursed as he ducked down to avoid his head being ripped off.