Once Jude reached level 3, the exp he gained from killing decreased dramatically. He could still get to level 4, but it would be more efficient if he found something harder. But since he didn’t know where he was or where the nearest town was, he decided to put more effort into finding civilization.

It didn't take long before Jude heard the noise of battle in the distance. Being careful he made his way towards the sound, he didn’t want to just jump out in front of potential combatants.

He made his way through some hedges and thick undergrowth and between the branches he peered out to see what was happening.

He saw four young kids around the age of 15 and another man, possibly in his early 30’s. The man wore a long free flowing brown robe tied cord at his waste. His hands were wrapped in a metal like cloth. Clearly, he was the most dangerous of the group. The others wore simple clothes and had simple weapons. Three boys and a girl.

***

Hildred walked through the forest with her companions and the assigned Trainer Morgan. She found the three boys to be mostly annoying, especially after spending the last week and a half with them. Morgan said that their progress was fairly average, but to her, it felt dreadfully slow. They were only level two after more than a week of killing ! And she knew that the higher in levels you got, the longer it takes!

Wardell, one of the boys aspiring to be a warrior, said angrily, “Ugh, why is it taking so long to level! I’ve heard there are people who can get level 2 in a day! Yet we have been here for weeks and just barely got level 2, who knows how long it will take to get level 3.”

“Now, now, Wardell,” Hildred tried to make her voice sound older than it was, “Even two weeks to get level 2 is considered average. Since we did it in less than two weeks, it means we are above average!”

Hildred sounded cheerful and convincing, but she didn’t believe her own words.

“My older brother got to level 2 in five days,” said Dorman. “But that was years ago, he’s leveled so much now that he’s already achieved the next class up! He he. And that job is-“

“We know, he’s a knight,” Estel interrupted.

Dorman had bragged more than once that his brother was a Knight, but Hildred doubted that to be true. After all, if his brother really was a Knight, then why didn’t he help his brother level, or at the very least give Dorman better equipment. Dorman’s equipment wasn’t any better than Hildred’s and she was a Healer.

That’s right, she was one of the rarer classes. Out of the four starting combat classes, Healer was one of the rarest, second only to Wizard. Warriors like Wardell and Dorman were the most common combat job and Estel was a rogue which was still pretty normal. Wizard was the rarest, and commoners like them didn’t have one in their party.

Morgan, their guide/teacher, was a Warrior who advanced to Monk. His overall level was over 30 which was quite impressive.

“Estel,” Dorman replied, “you don’t seem to know the true essence of a story. You can’t just cut someone off like that. My dramatic pause and slight laugh were all ruined because of you.”

“What a load of bull!” Wardell cut in.

“How are my words bull?”

“How are they not bull? Anyone can say their brother became a knight without proving it. And where is your proof? You are dressed in the same rough clothing we are and the same cosh'ing sword too. Then you bash Estel, the only person who actually believes you!” Wardell laughed at the last part.

Then he continued to dig it in, “I mean look at him! Every time you mention something about your great and knightly brother he turns green with envy!”

The whole situation was about to blow up when Morgan cut in. “Alright, that’s enough! If you guys put as much effort into training and leveling as you do bickering, you would have been level 2 in less than a week! Now stop the squabbling and attack the next wolf.”

They all grumbled but still complied. Wardell lead the way to the next wolf with Dorman not far behind. Estel circled around and Hildred stayed back. She wasn’t much help in the fights, except for healing.

Morgan had led them to the area were the were level 2. Their HP had doubled and their speed wasn’t bad, but their strength was still pretty low.

Wardell rushed in toward the closest one and slashed downwards with his sword, chipping off a little bit of the wolfs HP. The retaliated with a bite back.

Dorman came along the side of the wolf and swept up with his sword barely making contact.

Estel came in from behind with his dagger and gingerly pierced towards its hind flanks. He missed and the jumped out of the way of all three.

Wardell lunged at the wolf but missed miserably only to take a counter attack to the face.

“AAAAhh!” he cried.

“By the grace of healing and life, !” Hildred threw up a small roll of a bandage and as it sored up it unrolled. As the bandage unrolled it sparkled brightly and vanished. The sparkles floated down and landed on Wardell healing his HP.

The fight lasted for another 10 minutes, leaving the youths tired and bruised.

Morgan frowned, “Have we learned anything new?”

“Yeah, level 2 enemies are hard to deal with!” Wardell said. This was the first level 2 they had fought.

“Wrong answer,” Morgan replied.

“We need to aim for critical areas.” Estel tried.

“Better, but still not there,” said Morgan.

Hidred shrugged her shoulders, she was a healer so she stayed out of it.

Dorman was about to raise his voice when a new voice sounded.

“You need to raise your skill level and not just your job level.”

***

A boy around the same age of Morgan’s charges came out from the thicket. Morgan was surprised that he hadn’t noticed the boy sooner. Part of him went on alert, yet this being a newbie zone, so the boy shouldn't be a true threat.

“Young man, where have you come from?” Morgan asked.

“From that way,” the boy replied jerking his thumb behind him, “I’m Jude.”

“I am Morgan, these here are Wardell, Dorman, Hildred, and Estel”

“By the way was I right?” Jude asked.

Morgan was surprised at the boy’s answer, “That’s right, increasing the rank of your skill is just as important as increasing your level. What is the use if you make it to level 100, yet cannot even command the power that you have?”

He now turned toward his charges, “I watched every one of you. None of you correctly executed a single skill. Even if you don’t have a skill to Rank II, you should be at least competent at your most basic actions.”

Morgan knew that some of them weren't even at Rank I on their skills. They were truly pathetic. Training skills, however, had to come from one's own work and talent. Morgan could show them the path, but they had to walk it.

"What about me?" Hildred asked. "My skill was good wasn't it?"

"Did you not notice? You waste half of your healing effects as they fall to the ground rather than on the person. Then you almost always heal too quickly, which further wastes the amount you heal. You want to heal up to their maximum HP or slightly below. Once they hit max, the rest of the healing is wasted.

“How about this?” Jude asked as he walked up to a Level 2 . He held one hand on the hilt of his sheathed sword while waving his hand and said, “!”

Before Morgan could warn the boy about the wolf’s level as he had clearly come from the level one area, Jude had already made his attack. What first surprised Morgan was that the boy was a Wizard, but once he saw activate, he was even more surprised.

Morgan had worked with a couple Wizards before. He knew that they would abandon as soon as they gained access to for was deemed too weak. Yet this boy, no older than the level 2's he was teaching. Plus, his looked incredibly real and deadly. This was nothing like what he had heard before.

Then Morgan got his third surprise, the blades didn’t merely hit the wolf then leave a shallow wound. Instead, the 8 blades seemed to form a cohesive whole dicing the wolf into several meat chunks.

It all happened in an instant, yet it left Morgan and the other teens speechless. Morgan knew that the teens wouldn’t understand what had just happened, all they would have seen was a flashy spell of a Wizard, but Morgan knew that this kid, Jude, had some real talent.

“I could do that if I was a wizard,” Dormal silently said.

“I wish I was a wizard,” Estel also mumbled.

Wardell heard the two and tried to sow some discord, “You guys would still be garbage even if you were wizards.”

Morgan ignored the comments and went right back into teaching mode, “Excellent! That’s exactly how it should be. Don’t be mistaken and think that just because he’s a wizard that his job does more damage than your job. The reason why he does more damage is not because he has a better weapon either. Weapons do play an important role, but they are only as good as the skill that is being used!”

He then turned back to Jude, “To see such an exquisite it must mean that your Spectral Magic must be at least Rank III, or have you reached the Legendary Rank IV?”

“I’m not sure. How exactly does the ranking system work?” Jude replied. He could check his status, but that would take his attention away from the conversation and who knew what kind of glazed look would be across his face when that happened. It would just be rude.

Morgan was a natural teacher. And while it surprised him that Jude didn’t know this information it wasn’t too far out of his expectation for someone Jude’s age.

“The Ranking system for skills is pretty simple. The first three ranks of a skill, like , is easily gained through using them. As long as you keep using them they will naturally rise. To go beyond Rank III you will either need a teacher or be a genius yourself. Finding a teacher, however, is quite hard, in fact, I’ve never heard of one that could teach passed III for .”

Jude asked, “Ok, so I understand the skills and rankings but what about something like , doesn’t it also have a ranking?”

“Ah, very good question. A skill class, or magic class in your case, will mirror your highest ranked skill in that class. Each rank of class will unlock new skills to use. However, for a skill class to go beyond Rank III, even I do not know much about it.”

“I understand. Thank you for your help. By the way, I’m kind of lost and was wondering if you could…”

“Yes, we can lead you back, however, we still need to finish our training mission.”

“How about you join us!” Hildred butted in.

“No,” Morgan said, “Have you not learned anything? Didn’t I just say that you needed to work more on your Skills and not just your levels? If Jude joins, then he’ll end up doing all the work. You might get a lot of experience, but in the end, your Skills will only get farther behind. If you want to be like Jude, then you need to work without him. At least for now, once your Skills rank up then you can think about joining him!”

Morgan turned to Jude, “Return here just before dark and we will lead you back. Or if you need to, head due East and you should find a trail. Head north on the trail and it will lead you back to town.

“Also, watch out for the tougher variants of wolves south west of here.”

***

After Jude and Morgan’s party parted ways, Jude opened up his status screen.

Spectral Weapons

Rank: V

Using a weapon as a focus, create ether images of that weapon to fight for you. 30% Bonus damage. Can summon up to 8 weapons. Connecting to the weapon directly creates a real manifestation of that weapon, utilizing 100% of its damage.

Spectral Magic

Spectral Magic

Rank: IV

Special Magic allows you to manipulate the ether. Calling forth your power from Spectral to Reality.

Spectral Magic now is 40% more powerful.

Skill's Unlocked:

Spectral Weapons V Spectral Objects I Spectral Eye I Spectral Shield I

***Interesting, so he had unlocked Rank V in , but had yet to meet whatever requirement for Spectral Magic in general.

By the time Morgan and party came back, Jude had gotten Spectral Shield to a castable point, though still Rank I and killed enough wolves to reach level 4.

In a game, it is easy to go out and explore as death has very little meaning. But now that Jude was ‘living’ the game, he decided to play it more slow and steady.

If Morgan and party knew that Jude’s ‘slow and steady’ was reaching level 4 in one day they would probably collapse. It was just too far outside their understanding.

Still, it took Jude more time to get to level 4 as it did to get from 1 to 3. It would have taken him even longer if he hadn’t found the and the occasional . The would occasionally take two whole hits and have a pack of wolves. Luckily Jude now had Spectral Shield and was able to get away very safely. The only downside was that Spectral Shield took up too much mana.

They quickly meet up and greeted each other. Morgan’s youths looked worse for wear. Jude was tired, but they looked downright ragged.

“You seem to have done well,” Morgan said.

“I did thanks. The wolf packs were a little troublesome but I did survive.” Smiled Jude.

Jude got some strange looks from the other youths, he decided that it was best not to say too much about what he could do. It might incite jealousy and not in a good way.

Jude’s comment seemed to have put a damper on any conversation and silence ruled the group. Perhaps a change of topic was in order.

“I found a strange rock a while back and I was wondering if you guys knew anything about it.” Jude discreetly pulled the Stone of Stumbling out of his inventory. The was a fantastical thing to Jude, so he wasn’t sure if he should be overt with it or not after he had already incited jealousy in them already.

Dorman was the first to look and said, “Oh that’s a very important Quest item, good job!”

Estel looked a little jealous until he saw the object. But he didn’t say a word.

Wardell got right to the point, “What an idiot, you might have a little skill as a Wizard, but you can’t even see a junk quest item when you see one.”

“Oh, what’s wrong with this quest?” Jude asked honestly.

“Everything is wrong with it,” Wardell said. “It’s bad luck! You can only find the stone if you ‘stumble’ on it.”

Now Wardell started to mock Jude, “That quest is legendary in town! The quest description is non-existent. No one knows how to complete it. Of course, that wouldn’t matter much, except you can't even drop this quest. It will always stay with those who accept it.”

Wardell chuckled at Jude as he turned way, apparently done talking.

Hildred tried to comfort Jude, “It’s ok, it’s only one quest after all. There’s not really any downsides to having it. And the bad luck is just a rumor, it’s probably not true.”

“Except you will always have to carry the stupid rock with you!” Wardell came back. “It’s a rock of offense if you ask me!”

That’s when it clicked for Jude. A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense! This was from the bible back in his world, which of course would be here. It made sense since in Jude’s universe it was the most printed book ever. Much of early printing had been invented for the bible to be mass produced.

The Stone of Stumbling was a representation of God. But this stone seemed quite ordinary, not to mention it was broken. However, it did have an interesting shape and beautiful words written on it. Perhaps it was because it was only one piece of the stone. Maybe it was the stone of God.

~Ding

Jude heard a chime and got a quest notification.

Quest Completed!

Rewards:

+Exp

Boots of Peace

He was now a level 5 wizard!

Quest: Restore the Stone

Part 1: Find the stone fragments.

The stone you now hold was once a part of a great tablet. Find all the pieces so that one day it may be restored. The second piece lies in the Grimwar Caves.

Accept Quest [y/n]

Yes!