System Notification: [Essence Siphon is successful]. You have gained [Stone Essence Fragments] x 1.

[Stone Essence Fragment]:

Essence fragments can be used in enchanting, but their effect is almost negligible. Collect 100 stone essence fragments to form a [Minor Stone Essence Orb].

...

Capra had started siphoning essence from various different objects to see what he could get.

Essence siphoning water from a nearby puddle gave him water essence fragments, dirt gave him dirt essence fragments, and using essence siphon on a stone gave him stone essence fragments. The process was pretty straight forward— although Capra wondered how powerful an enchantment using something like dirt essence could be.

...

After a while the only thing left to essence siphon was the fruit shrub and the weird fruits that grew on it.

“Identify!”

[Identify] was a basic skill every player had, but its results would vary depending on player level and knowledge. Capra had no levels in herbalism, and no experience with the strange fruit… so he wasn’t surprised the skill failed, but he still frowned. It was regrettable.

If the fruit was poisonous he could essence siphon it and use the essence for an enchant, but if it was edible then he wanted to save it in case the monsters in this region were too difficult to hunt for food. He could test the effects of the fruit by eating it... but he didn’t want to risk being poisoned.

...

There was a show Capra used to watch called “Crikey’ Gov’na.” Every week the show’s host would travel around the world and show the audience new and exotic animals. The commentary was practical and fun, and you could watch it for free if you had an internet connection. One particular episode featured a rare species of frog— the Flaptrap.

The flaptrap frog was special for two reasons: 1. It was a rare shade of bright yellow and had purple stripes on its legs and 2. Its skin contained a very powerful toxin.

The flaptrap had horrible camouflage, but very few creatures were brave enough to eat it because its bright colors warned of the toxins it secreted. If a predator was foolish enough to eat a flaptrap it would quickly find its mouth sealed shut from the inside, and then it would die of starvation or suffocation.

The fruit from the fruit shrub looked like a purple apple with yellow dots all over its body, and the way it stood out in the forest made Capra feel like he was looking at the flaptrap frog, so he refused to be the predator stupid enough to take a bite.

Luckily Capra didn’t need to eat the fruit himself to test its effects. He knew just where to find the perfect guinea pigs to serve as his replacement.

…

At the northern entrance of the goblin village two guards leaned on their spear shafts half-asleep.

All of a sudden an apple shaped fruit flew out of the forest and hit one of the guards on the head. The guard immediately woke up and started yelling— which woke up the second guard.

The second guard was startled. His large helmet was too far forward so he couldn’t see anything, and he started panicking. He screamed “Ya’ga!” And repeatedly thrust his spear at the air in front of him.

...

After a few seconds the panic wore off and he stopped thrusting. He hadn't been able to see, but he felt he had just fought a hectic battle. How many goblins could fight blind like he had? All of a sudden he felt like a legend… Maybe even greater than Kor’snarch the Unsmellable.

He fixed his helmet so he could see the corpses of his enemies, but noticed their distinct absence.

“Fff’poot, where fight?” He snarled.

Fff’poot scratched his head and looked down in shame.

“No fight.” He muttered.

“Bah! Why snore’stop if no fight?”

“Me thought was fight…but was fruit” Fff’poot explained while kicking at the apple shaped fruit by his feet.

The second guard opened his eyes wide.

“How fruit? Fruit fight?”

Fff'poot snorted.

“Stupid Fwuh’plunk. Fruit no fight... Is fruit.”

Fwuh'plunk took a large step back with a hand over his chest, he then narrowed his eyes, slowly fixed his helmet, stood up straight, and stuck out his chest.

“I not stupid, you stupid.” He retorted

Fff’poot took a step back in shock.

“No... you!” He countered.

Gasp

The goblins started arguing, repeating, “No you!” Over and again over for the next few minutes… then another fruit flew from the forest and hit Fff'poot on his head.

“Ya’ga!” He yelled while hopping up and spinning around defensively. His wild movements caused his helmet to obscure his vision again, and he panicked. He used his spear to randomly attack his surroundings until roughly a minute later he calmed down.

He took off his helmet and noticed the fruit at his feet.

"..."

“Maybe fruit do fight…” He muttered. “What do?”

“...”

“...”

“Throw back.”

And so the goblins each grabbed a fruit and launched it back into the forest.

…

In a nearby bush Capra watched as two fruits flew at him. The goblins hadn’t known his location, or at least he didn’t think so, but the two fruits flew straight at him. One fruit hit him right in the middle of his stomach, and the other fruit barely missed his head.

“Ugh…”

The force of the hit caused him to hunch over.

System Notification: You have taken 80 damage. HP 120/200

Capra’s face paled.

“Jesus…”

He hadn’t expected the fruits to be so hard. The fruit that hit him came in like a bullet. He wasn’t sure what the goblins’ levels were, but now he regretted trying to use them as guinea pigs. They might appear stupid, but apparently they were a lot smarter than they looked— not that that was saying much, since they looked pretty damn stupid to begin with.

“Uuugh..”

It would have been nice if the goblins ate the fruit, but because they didn't Capra only had two options left to test it. He either needed to find another guinea pig, or essence siphon the fruit…

Eating it himself wasn’t an option.

…

System Notification: You have used [Essence Siphon] on an unknown fruit. You have gained [Unknown Fruit Essence Fragments x 20].

In the end he gained 200 essence fragments and formed two minor essence orbs. Each fruit gave him 20 essence fragments, which was good because there weren’t that many fruits.

...

With all the fruit siphoned Capra was in the mood to enchant something, but there was an issue. Other than his combat equipment Capra had absolutely no items to enchant, and he couldn’t risk enchanting any of his skinning or tailoring tools because he had no way to replace them. He had to get creative to test the the essences he’d gotten, so he decided to start simple.

“Enchant doesn’t have any skill usage restrictions. So this should work right?”

Capra picked a single leaf from a nearby tree.

“Please work.” He thought.

He prepared to pull out a few [Minor Stone Essence] orbs from his inventory, but he was startled to find there were no essences in his inventory.

“What the hell?”

Had he been robbed? When? Why hadn’t he noticed?

“Status!”

Status Window:

[

Name: Capra

Class: Enchanter (Rank 0)

Level: 0 (70%)

Health: 160/200

Mana: 300/300

Mana Regen: 30 mp/m

Health Regen: 20 hp/m

Physical Defense: 2 (+1)

Magical Defense: 2 (+8)

Satiety: 55/100

Carry Capacity: 5/50kg

Strength: 10 (+0)

Dexterity: 10 (+0)

Constitution: 10 (+0)

Intelligence: 10 (+10)

Wisdom: 10 (+10)

Karma: 200

Titles: [Essence Thief].

Skills: Skills: [Chaos Bolt lvl.1], [Enchant lvl.1], [Essence Siphon lvl.1], [Conjure Water *], [Conjure Stale Bread*], [Beginner Tailoring Mastery lvl.1], [Beginner Skinning Mastery lvl.1]

Passive Skills: None.

Stored Resources from [Essence Siphon]:

Uknown Fruit Essence: 200 units.

Stone Essence: 400 units.

Dirt Essence: 134 units.

Leaf Essence: 34 units.

Water Essence: 314 units.

Blue Moon Rabbit Essence: 100 units

Cursed Blue Moon Rabbit Essence: 200 units

]

Capra scrolled down his status window looking for an abnormal status, then he noticed that there was a category at the bottom of his status screen specifically for stored essences.

“They don’t go into my inventory?”

Did that mean he couldn’t use them? Why was it all in units, were were his orbs and fragments? Capra quickly did the math and realized that the number of units he had corresponded to the number of fragments he would have if his orb values were converted to fragments.

“So each unit is worth a fragment?”

It didn’t take Capra long to understand the conversion rate of fragments and orbs. He was originally a little startled that his essences didn’t go into his inventory, but it was better that way. He didn’t know if dying would cost him any essences, but as long as other players didn’t get any he’d avoid a lot of future troubles…

“I guess it’s a good thing that I don’t keep them in my inventory.”

He still wasn’t sure how to use the essences he had, but Capra decided to go ahead and enchant the leaf anyway.

“Enchant.”

The leaf began floating up in the air in response to Capra’s invocation. After a split second it was surrounded by the bright ephermeral fireworks of the enchant spell.

System Notification: You are in possession of essences. Would you like to use some to enchant [Common Leaf]? Y/N

The system prompt blocked Capra’s view.

“Ah.. so it was automatic.”

Capra selected yes.

System Notification: Due to your low proficiency with the enchant skill you may only select one type of essence. Make your choice.

“Should I try stone?”

The leaves from the trees here were prickly like maple tree leaves, but about a foot long and wide. If he enchanted the leaf with stone essence what would happened? Stone essence was easy to get, so Capra made his selection.

The chaotic energy of the enchant spell began to change. Normally the enchant spell was full of colors, too many to count, but now those colors were slowly becoming grey.

“So it’s as I thought. The essence affects the enchanting energy.”

If that was the case maybe the devs had really intended for the enchanters to be a joke profession… although Capra guessed there were a few viable methods to enchant without knowing essence siphon, they were hardly as viable as using an essence; assuming his enchantment succeeded at all that is.

So far the process had been very smooth, which worried Capra becausee didn’t know what to expect from a failure. All of a sudden the absorption rate of the grey energy into the leaf amplified tenfold. Capra felt he was losing control of the leaf and the enchanting process, but he held on.

He used finger movements to keep the grey energy condensed on the leaf, and it seemed it was stablizing, but all of a sudden it exploded.

Boom!

The leaf radiated a powerful amount of grey energy, knocking Capra back.

System Notification: You have taken 30 earth attribute damage. The extreme purity of the earth attribute damage applies the [Petrify] debuff. HP 140/200

“Shit. Shit!”

Capra's legs slowly began turning to stone. It wasn’t a fast process, but it was fast enough to be a threat because he didn’t have any spells or potions to stop the petrification effect. Capra estimated that the debuff would leave him completely petrified in under a minute if he didn’t find a solution.

For a second Capra regretted trying to enchant using essences, what was he supposed to do if this was always the consequence of a failure? It would only be one death… but Capra didn’t like it, however, despite his best efforts he was having a hard time thinking of a solution.

“Damn.”

The petrification was up to Capra’s waist now. He roughly thirty seconds left at most before he became completely petrified. In the distance Capra saw that the leaf he had been enchanting was laying on the ground. Capra hated wasting resources so he really wanted to pick up the stone leaf before he died… but he had no way to, and essence siphon wouldn't reach that far to recollect the essence he'd used...

His eyes went wide.

"Essence Siphon.."

All of a sudden, Capra thought of something crazy. The petrification had reached his heart by now, but he could still move both his arms. He pointed at himself with both hands and shouted.

“Essence Siphon!”

A grey vortex began to grab at Capra's petrified skin, and little by little stone essence peeled off of Capra and floated into the vortex formed by essence Siphon.

“Hahaha!”

It seemed that essence siphon could even be used on magic. Capra was overjoyed, however his joy quickly disappeared.

System Notification:

You have successfully removed petrification using [Essence Siphon], you have received 6 units of stone essence.

System Notification:

You have learned to use [Essence Siphon] Defensively. Essence Siphon may now be used to remove weak debuffs.

System Notification:

Imperfect control of essence siphon has resulted in the removal of some of your own vital essence. All stats -2. You have gained [Vital Essence unit] x 20.

"What?"

It never occurred to Capra that essence siphon could take his own essence... whatsmore he only got 20 vital essence units despite losing two points in every stat.

“Status!”

Status Window

[

Name: Capra

Class: Enchanter (Rank 0)

Level: 0

Health: 160/160

Mana: 280/280

Mana Regen: 28 mp/m

Health Regen: 18 hp/m

Physical Defense: 1.6 (+1)

Magical Defense: 1.6 (+8)

Satiety: 55/100

Carry Capacity: 5/40kg

Strength: 8 (+0)

Dexterity: 8 (+0)

Constitution: 8 (+0)

Intelligence: 8 (+10)

Wisdom: 8 (+10)

Karma: 198

Titles: [Essence Thief].

Skills: [Chaos Bolt lvl.1], [Enchant lvl.1], [Essence Siphon lvl.1], [Conjure Water *], [Conjure Stale Bread*], [Beginner Tailoring Mastery lvl.1], [Beginner Skinning Mastery lvl.1]

Passive Skills: None.

Stored Resources from [Essence Siphon]:

Vital Essence: 20 units

Uknown Fruit Essence: 200 units.

Stone Essence: 106 units.

Dirt Essence: 134 units.

Leaf Essence: 34 units.

Water Essence: 314 units

Blue Moon Rabbit Essence: 100 units

Cursed Blue Moon Rabbit Essence: 200 units

]

He wasn’t even level one yet, and he was already losing stat points. How was that fair? The blow to his constitution was huge. Each point in constitution was worth 20 health points and 0.2 magic and physical defense. At his level, losing two points in constitution meant losing a fifth of his health points…

But there was nothing he could do now. He saw the stone leaf in the distance and hoped it was worth the loss of status points...