After looking through his Attributes and the growing list of skills, Frank turned to the Grids tab. It hurt to spend a whole 50 GP just to get nine attribute points. But Taking the Lead was the follow up to the Trailblazer grid, which was Frank's most exclusive grid, awarded for being the first to learn a skill in the whole zone. He had rather high hopes for it. With a sigh, he completed the grid.

Congratulations on completing the Taking the Lead grid. You have been awarded the Quick Learner I ability.

As a reward for completing the Taking the Lead grid, the Building Momentum grid has become available.

Hmm, the Building Momentum grid requires a whopping 100 GP, and only awards nine attribute points, that's pretty bad, Frank thought as he looked at the new addition to the Grids tab. Now, to see what this ability I got does... wait, ability?

Frank blinked a few times, but the text indeed said 'ability' and not 'skill.' Then he noticed that there was a new tab on his profile panel, appropriately named Abilities. Frank switched to this new tab and focused on the only entry on it, after a few seconds a panel with its description popped up.

Quick Learner I: You have chosen to take the lead, and become one of the pillars that will determine your planet's fate. Now, you can advance faster than the rest, increasing your power at a faster rate than others. A futile effort that will only bring your demise. This ability increases the speed at which you obtain skill experience by 33%.

Huh? What's with the sudden responsibility? A pillar that will determine the fate of the planet... sheesh. I just wanted to live a little longer, maybe have an adventure before I die, now I am the hero that will save the world? Frank thought and shook his head in disbelief. At least the System is still being an asshole, claiming all my effort is in vain. On the plus side, the increased experience gain means I'll get level-ups 33% faster than before. That's a rather huge boost. Heh, taking the lead indeed.

“Hey, gramps, you alright?” A voice interrupted his thoughts. Looking up, he saw Steve staring at him with some concern.

“Yeah, I am fine. Just got distracted by something. Anyway, I want to talk to you about the process to cure pelts, just give me a few minutes,” Frank told him.

“Alright, I'll be here,” the man shrugged.

So, 33% faster skill level-ups, and just in time. Now I can get the most out of this three-day break in monster attacks and just train. Speaking of which, I have 28 GP left. The follow-up, Building Momentum, is the obvious choice. But, that's 100 GP for nine attributes, the reward should be great, but the attributes are lousy. I could also spend 15 GP to get the Magic grid, which would give me seven attribute points and Arcane Bolt. Hmm, that's 35 mana per hour, assuming I could train sixteen hours a day, times three days, and possibly doubled with Meditation... yeah, this is better. Having made his decision, Frank spent 15 GP to complete the Magic grid.

Congratulations on completing the Magic grid. You have been awarded the Arcane Bolt skill.

As a reward for completing the Magic Grid, the Magic II grid has become available.

You have learned a skill: Arcane Bolt, level 1: Like a real mage, you can now fling arcane orbs at enemies. You've seen how this spell works, upon impact the energy inside the bolt will explode in the direction of impact. So, it should come as no surprise that anyone with a fast reaction and a hand full of pebbles can render it useless. This skill sends a ball of arcane energy that will explode upon impact. Cost: (10 + 0.5*level) D mana.

Frank burst out laughing at the description of the spell. All the skills I've learned are useless. Oh well, I'll have to make do with what I got. But can it really be countered like that? I should ask Amy about her description of this spell. Ah, whatever, time to spend my points, he thought. What to spend points on was another topic for deliberation. I need more HP and I'd love more Vitality, but I can probably get away with what I have since we don't expect any attacks for three days. I do need a bit more D mana if I want to use Arcane Bolt. After some mental back and forth, Frank settled on adding one point to D magic, and five points to Endurance, Willpower, and Focus. He looked at his profile screen, admiring the rising regeneration rates and imagining how many skill levels he'll be able to get now.

Strength: 3

Dexterity: 3 (+1)

Quickness: 6 (+3)

Perception: 2 (+1)

Constitution: 1

Vitality: 11

Endurance: 12

Destructive Magic Affinity: 3

Restorative Magic Affinity: 4

Focus: 12

Control: 2

Willpower: 13

HP: 48/48 (67/hour)

Stamina: 65/65 (175/hour)

D Mana: 30/30 (46/hour)

R Mana: 40/40 (101/hour)

Finishing the Magic grid brought the remaining GP to 13, but he didn't want to spend them right now. Instead, he got up and walked over to Steve, who was focusing on a scrap of rawhide. Frank looked on curiously as blue gas-like substance suddenly sprang out of the leather scrap, covering it completely. A few moments later, it was sucked back into the item, which now had no fur, just a length of leather, about an inch wide.

Cured Leather Strap

Frank read the notification that popped up when he focused on the item. Hmm, strange. Shouldn't it say Magically Crafted? He wondered. However, further concentrating on description or the item itself didn't result in any new notifications. I guess the string was called Magically Crafted String because it was actually different compared to a normal sinew string. However, this cured leather strap is just that, the fact that it was processed via Magical Crafting didn't result in a different item.

“Nice. Now you can create cured leather,” Frank said to the red-haired man. I wonder if it's due to his better understanding of the process, or if a smaller piece is easier to influence.

“Yeah. Problem is, I don't have enough mana to fully charge a whole pelt,” Steve shook his head dejectedly.

“That's simple enough. I'll fill the pelts with mana, and you can process them,” Frank waved his hand dismissively.

“You have enough mana?” Steve sounded skeptical.

“Maybe. If not, I'll just get Amy to help,” Frank said pointing at the young woman working on a rawhide nearby. “She's a mage and should have plenty of mana.”

“Alright. Let's do it.”

“Hold on, we should test if you can work on an item saturated with someone else's mana,” Frank said as he suddenly thought of a possible obstacle. “Let's test it on a scrap just like that one.”

Steve handed him a piece of rawhide, and Frank activated Mana Channeling. It only took a few points of mana before the scrap was at capacity. Frank gave it back, then walked a few yards away and used his various active skills to burn through most of his resources. No reason to waste them, he thought as he put his saber back into his ring and took out a short sword, which he nonchalantly stabbed into his left arm.

“Looks like it doesn't matter whose mana fills the item,” Steve said after a minute, a piece of cured leather in his hand.

“Great. I am going to start charging up those pelts,” Frank said as he made his way to the nearest one.

“Huh? Ah, yes,” Steve said, his eyes glued to the sword piercing Frank's arm. He stared at it for a while, then just shook his head, without saying anything.

Each pelt took around 30 mana to fully charge, so Frank could only do one before he needed to meditate. He handed the charged up pelt to Steve, and walked over to Amy. The young woman looked somewhat disappointed when he approached.

“I couldn't even get the Semi-Processed that you did,” she told him with a sigh.

“That's the expected result though, you don't know anything about the process,” Frank chuckled. “Anyway, Steve can transform all the pelts himself, he does need help charging them. Want to lend me a hand with that?”

“Sure,” Amy replied with a smile.

They spent the next hour and a half charging two dozen pelts. Frank continued to burn through his resources all the while, his stamina regeneration at an impressive seven per minute while meditating. Once they were done, Steve waved them over.

“Would you like to help some more? Take these cured leather pelts and cut them into long scraps, say an inch or two wide. Jose's guys need some four hundred of those,” he told them.

“What for?” Amy asked curiously.

“They can use the scraps like a rope to tie several stakes together. Makes them sturdier and pointing in more directions,” Steve explained.

“I see. Four hundred scraps will use most of the pelts you've cured so far,” Amy said.

“Can't be helped,” Steve shrugged, “I need to get me some people to help to gut all these damned wolves,” he added.

“Don't look at me,” Frank said, raising his hands in a surrendering gesture. “By the way, do you have the fangs from the tigers we've killed? I want to try crafting a necklace using them.”

“Guess that beats being covered in wolf guts and blood,” Steve laughed as he gave Frank the fangs.

“Alright, going to try...” Frank began but was interrupted by shouts coming from the forest line. Turning to look in that direction, he saw a group of people emerge from the forest, led by Gabriel, the MMA guy.

“Looks like the rescue party returned. They seem pretty cheerful,” Steve said as they watched the group make their way toward the base. “Well, back to work,” he added and returned to his task of curing yet another pelt.

Frank shrugged, he was curious about what happened, but if it was important the Marshall would no doubt inform everyone. For now, he had something he wanted to do. He grabbed a handful of sinew, moved a dozen yards away and sat down. First, he channeled mana into the sinew and then used Magical Crafting to transform it into a string, some three feet in length. He tied the ends of the string together and laid it on the ground in an oval shape, then he placed the eight tiger fangs on the bottom part. He channeled mana into each of the nine components until full, then activated Magical Crafting. The image Frank had in mind was a simple tiger-fang necklace.

Because the image was so simple, it barely took five minutes for the skill to work. Frank opened his eyes and looked at the item.

Uncommon Grade, Tiger Fang Necklace: +1 Dexterity, +1 Quickness

Nice, Frank thought as he admired the necklace. It was the first real item created with the System and he was excited to see what kind of things could be made now. No Grid unlocks though, no messages of being the first to craft an item, he thought somewhat regretfully.

Having succeeded, Frank showed Steve and Amy the result.

“Simple yet functional,” Amy commented with a smile, “and it adds attributes.”

“I wonder how close something needs to be to allow for the skill to work its magic. Can I just transform a whole cured pelt into a leather jacket?” Steve mused as he considered a nearby pelt.

“Maybe if the design isn't too complex? Like no buttons and such. Though still doubtful,” Frank offered with a shrug.

“More experiments to do? Guess we're just getting started with the System,” Steve nodded slowly.

Such experiments would have to wait though, for now, they had other things to do. Frank joined Amy, and together they began to cut the wolf pelts into long strips. It wasn't hard, but the sheer number of strips they needed made it take several hours. Frank even gained four levels in Leatherworking skill.

You have learned a skill: Leatherworking, level 1: Leather is one of the earliest materials used by humans to craft clothing and armor out of. And now you are following that proud heritage. Of course, the quiet life of a leatherworker isn't for you, your fate is to die on a battlefield. This skill improves your ability to craft leather items.

Again with the death messages, Frank shook his head dejectedly.

“Um, Amy, what is the description of Arcane Bolt?” He asked the young woman, as they handed over the four hundred strips of leather to Steve.

“Hmm, like a real mage, you can now fling arcane orbs at enemies. This skill sends a ball of arcane energy that will explode upon impact, sending the energy inside the bolt in the direction of impact. Cost: (10 + 0.5*level) D mana,” she read the description.

No insults, huh? Nor a mention of it being countered by flinging pebbles at the bolts. How curious, Frank thought.

“Good work you two. I'll take those to Jose now, and I'll tell the Marshall about your necklace,” Steve said, interrupting Frank's mental musings.

“Looks like we are finally free,” Amy said with a smile, “I am going to go drink from the river,” she added.

“I'll come too. We really need to figure out how to make a flask out of these leathers,” Frank said, as the two departed.

“How much damage does your Arcane Bolt do?” Frank asked as the thought of training his resistances flashed through his mind.

“Thirty-nine,” she replied, “I have 21 D magic,” she explained upon seeing Frank's expression.

“Damn, I only have 48 HP. You can almost one-shot me,” he said dejectedly.

“Got to put some points into Constitution, I have 150 HP and I am not even a front-liner,” she shook her head.

“I plan to. Still, I have enough HP to cover the damage, plus I can use Mana Shield as a buffer, it should work. Would you like to help me train resistances? It's easy, you just hit me with your spell,” Frank asked in an eager voice.

“Are you sure? What if I score a critical hit?” Amy asked, sounding quite skeptical.

“Is there such a thing?” Frank asked and stared at her for a while. “It's fine as long as I have Mana Shield up,” he finally decided.

After drinking and cleaning up by the river, they returned to the base, finding a good place to train. Frank had used that time to put 10 GP into the Building Momentum grid and got one attribute point, which he added to Constitution, bringing his total HP to sixty-three.

“Alright, let's do it. Hit me,” Frank told Amy, who still wore a skeptical expression on her face.

“Fine,” she sighed, deciding to go along with the crazy old man.

A ball of arcane energy shot out of her hand, impacting against the blue, translucent bubble surrounding Frank. The shield popped as it was instantly depleted. The remaining five points of damage were directly subtracted from his HP, rather than inflicting physical damage which then depleted HP as it was healed.

Frank scratched his head as he thought about it. Is this the way spells work? No, my Lightning Bolt seems to cause a physical reaction, and it even burned the goblin a little. I need a better understanding of what it does, without a shield, Frank thought.

“Again. No shield this time,” he gestured to Amy. “And yes, I am sure,” he added, seeing her renewed reluctance.

Amy shook her head and sent another Arcane Bolt at him. The spell hit him in the chest, the energy within it exploding into him. The sensation was extremely strange, there was no pain, nor physical damage, but in his mind, it felt like he just got splashed with boiling water or a very powerful gust of hot wind. He stumbled backward, his body trembling from the sensation, as he lost his balance and fell.

“Are you OK?” Amy screamed as she rushed to his side.

“Uh, yes, I am... uh fine,” Frank replied as his head spun and he had trouble sitting up without falling to the side.

Amy held him by the shoulders, helping him stabilize. A few seconds passed, and he regained his senses.

“Hmm, I still have 21 HP left, but it was just such a weird sensation. It completely overwhelmed me,” he offered. “Is it similar to what happened to those tigers we fought? They still had HP to spare, but the constant wounds we were inflicting overwhelmed them, leaving them a defenseless, whimpering mess.”

“It's only natural that there is a threshold of pain, go beyond it and you lose your senses,” Amy said.

“But, it just highlights the importance of training one's Pain Tolerance and other resistances,” Frank said, as he used Healing Touch to fully restore his HP. “Arcane magic seems to be the one the System gives out at first, which makes it a great resistance to train. Want to give it a try?”

“After the performance you've just displayed? No,” Amy chuckled.

“Ah, youngsters, no appreciation for the sacrifice of the old folks,” Frank said with a short laugh.

“Again.”