Mature Content Warning: A call to nature is answered.

Author's Notes: This segment update has a few good updates, and a very crude moment. Enjoy.

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Chapter 4.1: No way...

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The town of Argent was both larger and smaller than it had first seemed. Blackthorne had spent the better part of the day exploring the area after Patrolman Greene had escorted him to every feasibly interesting place that the mage could think of to visit.

Currently, he sat in the Screaming Onion once more. He had returned to eat dinner and regain his lost vitality.

As he had expected, his grass items were not worth anything. However, he had sold the few fiend horns and vita stones that he had prepared after spending some time eating breakfast and combining the rest of the items.

After a little negotiation he had managed to gain another two hundred thirty Jerin. He still had a few stones left to combine, and a few more rat horns as well. He had lived dangerously, however. Even after eating breakfast and buying a few sandwiches and pieces of fruit to eat while working, he had been left with only four vitality points.

Still, his main production items had been combined and sold for a decent amount. If he were to consider the overall cost of living, a single night’s work had earned him enough money to live for two weeks. That was mostly thanks to his synergy skills and the ability to create slightly better items by combining lesser ones.

“The sun is starting to set. I’ll take my leave traveler.” said Patrolman Greene.

“Thanks for all of your help today.” replied Blackthorne.

Patrolman Greene snorted loudly then turned away. It was obvious that he was happy to be able to take his leave from him at last.

Blackthorne watched the guard walk away for a moment then considered his next move. He had completely regained his vitality and probably had at least till morning before he started to wake up.

The dark mage stood up then went to talk to Scraggles. “Got any food to sell?”

“Plenty, what do you want?” asked the tavern keep.

Blackthorne fished out twenty-seven of his Jerin from his bag and placed them on the counter. “Ten ham and cheese sandwiches, and as many apples as that will buy.”

“You planning to open a grocery store?” asked Scraggles with wide but happy eyes.

“Nah, I just want to stock up on food so I don’t have to eat field rations.” said the mage.

Scraggles nodded. “I understand. Food is cheaper than potions unless you need to regain a lot of vitality.”

The man disappeared into the kitchen. When he returned he offered the mage three large sacks of apples and a stack of sandwiches.

Blackthorne stuffed the apples and sandwiches into his recently cleaned bag then grinned. Everything had fit. His bag was nearly full, but that was fine. His supplies would be depleted quickly anyway. He did not plan to hunt tonight. He would spend the entire time grinding his crafting, synergy, and magic skills. He needed to boost his stats a little.

Blackthorne thought about it a bit more. “Hey, how about another few apples...?”

Scraggles quirked his eyebrow. “How many?”

The mage pulled out another twenty Jerin and Scraggles widened his eyes once more. “So, you want another hundred apples? That’s most of my stock...”

“Do you need to keep them for dinner?” asked Blackthorne.

“No, I can send Jack out to buy more tomorrow. I just don’t know how you plan to eat so many of them without turning into an apple tree.” said the man before laughing.

Blackthorne took his two hundred or so apples and ten sandwiches then immediately went to his room. He had to carry two of his three additional apple sacks by hand, but that was fine. They would be the first to be devoured for the cause.

He sat down on the bed then pondered the way the world worked. The onions were worth considerably more than apples even though apples healed two full points of vitality. He suspected that it had to do with cooking and the overall supply of each item.

Blackthorne took out all of his grass items and the hand full of remaining green stones as there were only three left. He had not bothered to combine them because he needed four to make one vita stone.

He started to combine them all in earnest. He had a lot of grass items remaining, so he started with them first. He combined them and then combined them again. Each time his vitality dropped slightly. Whenever he dropped to five points, he ate two apples, waited a minute, and then went back to work.

Combining all of his grass bracelets into grass rings, and then all of the rings into one single ring, took roughly an hour out of his life. The green stones were combined next, and soon he had nothing left to combine out of his initial stock.

Blackthorne picked up his apples. He felt a little too full to eat right now. He’d consumed sixteen apples in the last hour, and one sandwich. It would take a little time before he could stuff himself further.

He picked up his apple sacks then made a face. His stomach groaned in pain. He was done practicing synergy for now. He did not want to expend his vitality until he could regain his ability to eat.

Quickly, he made his way out of the tavern and then out into the field beyond. The grasslands beckoned.

Blackthorne found a nice grassy spot that was within view of the road then collected lengthy pieces of grass. Weaving bracelets took no vitality, but they would keep him busy for a time.

The minutes faded into hours. The sun set completely and the moon rose high in the sky. It was difficult to see the grass at night, but he continued to work without cessation. He had woven grass bracelets in the night, just the other day. It was difficult and time consuming, but it had the needed effect. Six hours after he had started, Blackthorne received a new whisper. His jewelry crafting skill had increased once more, and with it, he had gained another point of vitality.

He yawned loudly then shook his head. So far, it was the only skill that he could truly grind. Everything else required vitality expenditure or a monster to fight.

“Right, better get started combining these things.” He stood up then stretched for a moment. He wanted to be on his feet for this part of his training. No monsters had come to molest him in the darkness since he was close to both a town and the road. However, he wanted to be a little more cautious since he would expend vitality now.

Twelve combinations, three apples and a sandwich later, and Blackthorne finally received another longed for whisper. “Your mastery of the art of synergy has increased.”

He grinned like an idiot then checked his status.

<<< Status >>>

Name: Blackthorne

Level: 1 Skill Points: 0

Vitality: 10[14]

Weapon Attack: 3[3]

Durability: 5[5]

Speed: 5[5]

Spirit: 14[14]

>>

“So, my spirit went up. Not bad.” What he really wanted to do was increase his character level, as he liked to call it. The problem was that his character level would be the slowest thing to increase in level. Even a guy in a coma had only managed to reach level seven. It would be so much easier if he knew what it took to raise that level. There was no indicator, however.

He did know that combat was not the only way to increase it. Some people online claimed to have never fought a monster, yet they were level two or three.

Blackthorne felt a little full again for the moment, so he decided to grind his jewelry crafting skill a bit more. He opted to keep working till he had created enough to bring his pile of grass bracelets up to one hundred fifty, then stuffed all of the bracelets and synergetically created rings into a nearly empty apple sack.

Now it was time to waste a little of his vitality. He ate a ham sandwich then began to chant.

~ Anger of the disquiet soul, become my weapon and strike down my enemy...~

“Jolt!” cried the mage.

He felt his vitality being torn from his body to fuel the dark power that he had just conjured. Black energy skittered and whirled around his finger tips for a brief few seconds and then faded away.

His magical spell took nearly one fourth of his vitality with each cast. He had no choice, however. If he wanted to train his magic, he needed to actually use his spell. Unfortunately, he could not practice his conjuration spell. He would have a chance to awaken his basic conjuration spell when he gained a character level, but he had been forced to choose only one spell during the first dream.

Of course, once he did that, he would receive no more basic abilities automatically. He would have to develop new abilities through time, effort, and training.

Blackthorne quickly cast the spell three more times. He felt like his body was on fire and it became hard to breathe. It took all of his willpower not to fall to his knees. He had only two points of vitality left, and his body felt like it weighed several times more than it really did.

He fumbled with his bag and pulled out three sandwiches then forced himself to eat them. His vitality rose back to full and the sense of pain and heaviness faded away. However, now he felt completely full.

The mage cast his spell twice more then sat down and began to grind his jewelry crafting skill once more. It was a mind numbing process, but he had to do it. He needed to increase his stats and he wanted to do it before he went back out to hunt.

He consumed three apples over the course of the next hour. Each addition to his stomach made him feel over-stuffed, but it was something that he felt that he had to do.

Blackthorne cast his spell three more times then worked through the pain. He continued his training and grinding throughout the night. By morning his entire night-time training session, including his actions in his room, had managed to grant him a total of three hundred thirty-two grass bracelets and thirteen grass rings.

In order to do that, he had consumed a total of six sandwiches and fifty-two apples in the course of fourteen hours. The mage had never eaten so much in his life. How had he eaten so much? He was uncertain. He could not stand to even look at an apple right now.

However, his jewelry crafting skill had increased once more. That increased his vitality by one more point. Since he would probably wake up within the next few hours, he figured that he could expend his vitality on one last multiple casting session.

Blackthorne chanted his spell four more times. On the final cast a soft and much-desired whisper informed him that his dark magic skill had increased.

“Finally!” He checked his status then grinned. Dark magic was a primary skill devoted only to the spirit stat. He had gained three points of spirit by raising that skill.

He stuffed all of his grass bracelets into his nearly empty apple sacks then tied them off. He was done training for the moment as far as he was concerned.

However, something he had hoped to avoid suddenly made its presence known. It had happened infrequently during his travels, but he should have known that eating so much would cause him problems.

Blackthorne’s stomach rumbled and he quickly untied one of his sacks. He dumped out the grass bracelets then snatched up a handful of them.

He barely had time to wander off to the side and pop a squat before his dream-self met with one of the more disturbing elements of reality. Blackthorne had been struck with a violent and immediate call of nature. As far as the straining and groaning man was concerned, this fact of existence alone proved that this was more than a dream.

It had only happened twice during his initial travel, but it seemed that the more he ate, the more he had to answer that special call of the wild and fertilize the grass. In some ways, it was like a punishment for over-eating as it did not seem to follow the natural laws of such things. It only became necessary if he ate a lot, or so it seemed.

Several minutes passed as the man went through agony. After he finished whimpering something strange and wonderful happened. A bright light flared around him and the soft, feminine, voice whispered. “Your hard training and dedication has allowed you to rise to new heights of power.”

Blackthorne’s eyes widened while he wiped at his backside. “No way...”

He checked his status then laughed like a moron. Somehow going to the bathroom had put him over the edge. He’d gained a level!

<<< Status >>>

Name: Blackthorne

Level: 2 Skill Points: 4

Vitality: 21[21]

Weapon Attack: 8[8]

Durability: 9[9]

Speed: 7[7]

Spirit: 23[23]

>>

“Man, that looks so much better.” He opted to check his skill levels after that.

<<< Skills >>>

Primary

Dark Magic Level 2

Conjuration Level 1

Secondary

Heavy Armor Usage Level 1

Sword Mastery Level 1

Ring Mastery Level 1

Tertiary

Synergy Level 2

Jewelry Crafting Level 4

Enchanting Level 1

Alchemy Level 1

>>

It had taken a lot of effort just to reach level two. However, he could already feel the possibilities now. His largest limiting factor was his vitality. Now that it had increased a bit, he could work a bit longer between force-fed meals.

He finished wiping at his backside then cleaned his hands on the grass as best as he could. Blackthorne loaded up his grass bracelets, all save for a certain few that he would leave behind, and then rapidly made his way back to town. He planned to work on his synergy a bit more before he woke up.

Breakfast would be ready in a few hours. If he worked his synergy skill like a dog, he might be able to raise it to level three before he had to face the real world. Though, before that he intended to get a small tub of water and perform a little emergency hygiene.