Chapter: High Level Remains

They checked the cave, everything was either useless or had been destroyed over time.

The only thing remaining was a gold broach around the person's neck and a storage ring on their finger.

Rugrat checked the broach, turning it over in his hand, he took the ring off as well and cut his finger, dripping some blood on the ring.

He smiled and then passed the ring to Erik, allowing him to see what was inside.

There were rations of water and food inside, inside a storage ring everything was placed in a kind of stasis so food would never go bad. There was also a random assortment of meats, furs and three different monster cores, two low grade mortal cores and one mid grade mortal core.

There was also a casting staff and a selection of scrolls that had magical information. These books contained theory as well as a few spells. None of them were healing or did anything to help Erik as he tossed back the ring.

"What's with the broach?" Erik asked.

"I don't know, just a simple broach," Rugrat said, tossing it over.

"Well, anything can be a storage item," Erik said, he dropped some blood onto the broach and looked inside. The area was over three meters square, putting it in as a Mortal Grade Major storage ring. It was worth 3 gold all by itself.

Erik was greeted by crystals that had been shaped into blocks as well as a body wearing armor still and all of their gear. There were also potions of mana recovery, healing, ones that could also boost one’s strength as well. All of the items were incredibly valuable, but that was the problem, they were worth too much, if he was to try and take these anywhere to sell them, it was more likely for people to try and kill them for information or to try and get their riches.

Erik pulled out the corpse and threw the broach back to Rugrat as he looked at the man on the ground.

He looked as if he had died just minutes ago as his corpse hadn’t aged in the storage ring.

Erik used organic heal on the man, looking him over.

Unlike animals, people wouldn’t disappear immediately if they were looted.

It took up to 3 weeks, even if the body was looted, for it to disappear.

Putting them in your storage ring meant that you didn't want their death to be discovered or you didn't have time to loot them and needed to run away.

Mortal Grade Major rings of holding had an ability that touched on something that the Earth grade storage rings could do as well, they could hold a storage ring inside of their storage space, this was one of the reasons that they were so prohibitively expensive. While they were listed as a base price of three gold, they rarely went for anything less than seven gold.

Now, only one other storage item could be held in the Mortal Major ring of holding, so it couldn’t be holding another Mortal Major ring of holding and then that was holding a storage ring and so on and so forth.

Rugrat was looking at the warriors armor and his weapons, not the rings or the necklace around him. Erik looked at the rings, he had to cut himself again as his wound was already starting to heal itself.

With a few drops of blood he covered the three different rings, nothing happened with two of them, but the third did.

Erik quickly checked inside.

There was a number of powders inside, the warrior hadn’t spent the money to get the more powerful potions.

There were also manuals, these manuals were on different fighting techniques and there was a manual on smithing and the upkeep of one’s armor and weapons.

There were a few weapon ores as well as smithing tools to repair and maintain the armor.

Erik started looking at the rings that didn’t activate, he pulled them off of the warrior’s hand and looked at them.

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Beyond limits

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Weight: 0.1 kg

Charge: 73/100

Base Value: 2 gold 15 silver 7coppers

Slot: Takes up finger jewelry slot

Ability: Increase user’s stamina regeneration by 10% (13 minutes left)

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Greater Reaction

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Weight: 0.1 kg

Base Value: 5 gold 43 silver 72 coppers

Slot: Takes up finger jewelry slot

Ability: Increase user’s agility (+4)

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The attributes and abilities of the two rings was stunning, the increased combat ability couldn’t be matched in the first realm.

“This armor looks like it’s part of a set, each piece gives the user an ability or enhancement, but with all of them together the effects are multiplied, a 3% bonus of strength on the legs will turn into 10% increase in strength when one is wearing all of the pieces of armor,” Rugrat said.

Rugrat touched it lovingly as if it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

"Well, I don't think he's going to be needing it anytime soon," Erik said.

Rugrat nodded and started to strip the man, the armor showed signs of being hit with magic, melted metal, scarring and pitted as it was, in the first realm it would incite a war.

Erik pulled out the scroll he had found.

Simple guide to maintaining one's Journeyman level armor and weapons.

"Heads up!" He yelled, Rugrat looked over just as the scroll was coming over, with his increase in agility he caught it easily, he was about to shoot off an angry retort as the title of the scroll registered in his mind.

"What?" Rugrat sat down, forgetting about the armor in front of him as he started to look through the scroll.

It was a simple scroll, but here in the first realm it was a treasure allowing Rugrat to learn more about weapons and armor not normally found in the first realm.

It had to be known that the armor in the first realm could only reach the Novice level, the second realm it would reach mid Novice level with some pieces in the Apprentice level.

The third realm would have different weapons and armors due to the realm's odd attributes compared to the other realms. In the fourth realm, the battlefield realm, one could find Mid to high Journeyman level weapons and armors, with rare Expert armor appearing. Expert weapons and armor were enough to make the battlefield realm turn into a bloodbath with countless warrior sects and nations clashing over just one piece.

One's stats were the basis of their strength, first the power of their original stats, then that they got when leveling up, then the ultra rare and hard quests that could increase one's stats, the body cultivation and mana gathering quests were these kinds of ultra rare quests.

After that it came down to one's weapons, armors, alchemy concoctions, with skills and spells allowing them to draw greater power from their own bodies.

If someone in the first realm was able to get a piece of expert weaponry or armor, then the boost in their combat abilities would turn them into a god of the first realm. Their strength couldn't be underestimated.

Erik could only shake his head bitterly at Rugrat's actions. It was understandable, he had only made a novice blacksmith and here he was looking at a manual talking about Journeyman level armor.

If he could get some insights and knowledge from this simple manual then it would be possible for him to increase his skill quickly and not waste his effort.

Erik held onto the ring, waiting for when Rugrat came back up to drop the rest of the items and information on him.

After all there was a few maintenance kits and smithing tools inside the ring with ores that were incredibly hard to find in the first realm.

The corner of his mouth lifted as he thought of what Rugrat's reaction might be.

He moved to the body and started to remove the armor.

He stored the pieces away, inside he could see that there were complicated formations that were used to increase the power of the armor and the user's abilities.

It was truly not a simple set of armor as he put it away.

There was a nasty wound on the warrior's neck where the last blow had landed, ending his life.

Erik was about to leave the body when he stopped.

With a thought he used his simple organic scan spell and started to look through the warrior's body, focusing on his body.

"I thought so," Erik muttered to himself, feeling a deep sense of excitement and anticipation.

The warrior had undergone body cultivation, his bones looked like polished jade and could be used for Apprentice level weapons if someone was to refine them down. His blood had stilled in his veins, but Erik felt a sense of deep energy in them, no weaker than what he felt in his own veins.

As Erik's eyes looked through the man, searching out the secrets of body cultivation he looked into the man's mana channels.

Erik could only shake his head, the man's veins had clearly been altered, even now they were drawing in some mana from the surrounding area. This was the power that came with altering one's body to increase their strength.

Clearly this Beast Mountain was not a simple place, there were many treasures and items to be found that weren't just in the bodies of high leveled beasts and rare ingredients.

Erik moved the bodies off to the side of the cave and sat down.

He pulled out the different manuals from the two, most dealt with swordsmanship, using a shield or casting high leveled spells.

This information would be useful to others but Erik and Rugrat were walking down the path of a marksman currently. Their biggest gains were from the two deceased's supporting alchemy concoctions and their support manuals.

Erik pulled out another manual, it was a well worn book but kept in good condition. Erik shook his head, clearly this was a basic manual but to Erik it was an unmitigated treasure.

Basics of mana gathering–From Mana Drops to Core Compression.