“Fourteen. Fifteen. And Sixteen. That’s the last one.” Yimyo finished counting and handed Spook his share of the pyrestones.

He happily accepted his portion of the spoils. They had been down in the mines for close to two hours slaying Flame Golems. Coming in at a kill count of twenty golems, they had brought in quite a haul. It had been a tedious effort, waiting in ambush for a Flame Golem to start harvesting the pyrestones.

Sometimes, they had killed a Flame Golem only to discover the monster had eaten them all. Other times, the Flame Golem had failed to fully break open the stones, leaving them to find only a measly one or two stones that were extractable.

Out of all the Flame Golems they had slain, four of them had dropped a pyrestone. The rare drop was indeed elusive. Spook still felt content, though. Sixteen pyrestones would sell for a nice chunk of change.

At the end of the two-hour grind, they had compared levels. Yimyo had leveled once, and he had gained two levels since he was a lower level. The orc had received reduced EXP since he was overleveled for the zone.

Spook brought up his status. He dumped all his stat points into vitality, bringing his health up to 100. The extra survivability felt sensible to him as he wouldn’t always be playing with another person. As for his skill points, he put them in , leaving one more point until a rank up.

[Status

Username: Spook

Race: Skeleton

Lvl 4

Health: 100/100

Energy: 100/100

Stats

Strength: 12

Vitality: 15

Stamina: 8

Dexterity: 8

Intelligence: 6

Available Stat Points: 0

Unique Titles and Abilities

: Grants the player special traits based on the things they consume.

: Strengthens the body and allows for ‘Evolution'.

(Rank 1): Grants a slight increase to physical attacks from your fists.

(Rank 1): Grants the player +5% damage reduction to physical and elemental attacks.

(Rank 1): Grants a +1% immunity bonus to paralysis.

Pugilist Skills

(Rank 1-75%): Cost 20 energy to use. A punch capable of inflicting moderate damage. Chainable with Guillotine.

(Rank 1) Costs 30 energy to use. A devastating kick capable of inflicting high damage. Killing an enemy with this skill will provide 50 energy.

Skill Points Available:0]

There was one thing that still perplexed him. He wasn’t able to increase the mastery of or or anything else that was listed under Unique Titles and Abilities. The system menu didn’t show any options for upgrading the special skills he received from eating the Scaling Ingredients.

He had a theory.

If Scaling Ingredients are what gave me the skills in the first place, then maybe all I need to do is eat more of the same thing.

He took one lizard tail out of his inventory and examined it, hoping it would shed some light. He didn’t want to immediately eat it since he only had five more left, and he needed those for completing John’s quest.

[1x Mane Lizard Tail---The tail of a Mane Lizard is used in potion crafting and also for bait in fishing. Is commonly sold by players and can be bought in the World Auction.

Scaling Ingredient: Eating this will not grant you any further benefits.]

Spook tried to jog his memory. He thought back to the system messages that popped up when he had first consumed a Scaling Ingredient. The mimic tongue. The lizard tail. Something important was linking everything here.

He had it. He understood how the scaling system functioned. The game didn’t want him to farm the same mob over and over continually but instead wanted him to seek out new Scaling Ingredients. Every time he consumed a new Scaling Ingredient, it brought him new benefits while simultaneously improving his existing abilities such as or .

In order to test his hypothesis, he needed to find more monsters that possessed Scaling Ingredients.

I’m going to need to travel the world. Spook realized. I won’t improve my scaling system by killing the same thing repeatedly. The only way to fully maximize its capabilities is to hunt new things. The more things I eat, the stronger I’ll become!

Satisfied with his newfound knowledge, Spook packed everything back in his inventory and stood back up. It was going to be a long walk out of the cavern.

“Yimyo, you ready to go?” asked Spook.

The orc nodded and walked over to him. He handed Spook what seemed to be a rolled-up scroll tied with a blue ribbon.

“We don’t need to walk back to town. Just use this town scroll, and it will take you back to Jot,” said Yimyo. “I’ll meet you there.”

[x1 Town Scroll---Takes you back to the last Town you were in. One time use.]

With that, the orc disappeared in a glow of blue light as he activated his own town scroll, leaving Spook alone in the cavern.

Spook felt a wave of relief wash over him as all his tiredness suddenly vanished. Teleportation was honestly one of the best quality of life mechanics.

He opened up the scroll and read the incantation. A tingling sensation spread throughout his body as the same glow of blue light enveloped him. Then the cavern vanished, his vision warping as he found himself suddenly standing in the middle of Jot. He was back.

Yimyo spotted him and ran over, thumping loudly with each step.

“Hey, Spook. I think I’m going to logout. It’s pretty late, and I’m super sleepy. I sent you a friend request, so feel free to add me whenever.” said the orc as he waved farewell. “Thanks for the party, and I hope your first time was fun in Inside Online. I’ll catch you later, man.”

“Hey, of course! I’ll add you right now. Thanks for playing with me, Yimyo. Without your help, I’m sure this quest would have taken me ages. I’ll see you later,” replied Spook, returning his new friend’s wave.

Yimyo gave a smile and nodded. Then he disappeared into a shower of yellow fragments as he logged out of the game.

Spook quickly accepted Yimyo’s friend request and headed to the smith’s shop. It was near 3 am, and he felt himself reaching his limits. It had been quite some time since Spook had stayed up this late into the morning. It reminded him of his college days when he would stay up into the wee hours of the morning just to grind that one last level or to finish one more game.

He found himself smiling. He hadn’t had this much fun in forever.