My instinctive reaction was to cover my ears and duck for cover, but the sound pierced right through, directly into my brain.

Augh! Syscile! What the hell is that racket?

According to my internal records, that is the Chosen level-up notification alarm. It seems that for some reason, The Chosen specifically have a tendency to delay checking their notifications for extended periods of time. His Majesty considers that…unwise, and created the level up alarm so that His Chosen would, at the very least, level up as soon as possible. You had better check them, as it will only get louder until you do.

The siren wail cranked up by another ten decibels, punctuating her point.

Aaaah! Fine, fine, just make it stop!

A storm of notifications sprang up in my vision, screen after screen lining up behind each other. Most of them were blue, like normal. However, one in particular had a bright, golden glow to it. No points for guessing that one.

The alarm faded, and I stood, as Syscile’s cool, silky voice took over.

[You have defeated: 2x Blue Slime Lvl 1, 1x Green Slime Lvl 3! Your party members have defeated: 2x Blue Slime Lvl 1, 4x Blue Slime Lvl 2! You gain 35% experience to level 2! Current Progress: 100/100%]

[Congratulations! You have gained enough experience to ascend to level 2!

-You gain the following stats:

+4 STR; Total STR: 23

+3 CON; Total CON: 19

+1 BDY; Total BDY: (19+23+1)=43

+10 Max HP; Total Max HP: 440HP

+2 INT; Total INT: 15

+2 WIS; Total WIS: 15

+0 MND; Total MND: 30

+ 500 Max MP; Total Max MP: 1300MP

+4 AGI; Total AGI: 27(1.1)= 30

+4 RCT; Total RCT: 27(1.1)= 30

+1 SPD; Total SPD: 60(1.1)= 66

+2 WIL: Total WIL: 17

+2 CHA from “Chosen of the Golden Lion” Trait: Total CHA: 21

-You have earned 1 Blessing Point. Blessing Points, or BP, are used to improve your Blessing in dramatic and noticeable ways. Simply go to your Blessing page in your Journal in order to spend them. BP may be earned by levelling up, completing rare quests, earning rare or unique achievables, and by levelling up your Core Blessing abilities a total of ten times. Your Core abilities are; Lightning in a Bottle and Create Chain.]

-You have earned 1 LP! Remaining LP: 2.]

As Syscile finished reading off the level up notice, the gold screen in front of me cracked, then shattered. Golden fragments of light surrounded me, then stabbed directly into my body. There was no pain as the light was effortlessly absorbed into me. In fact, I felt a rush of power and euphoria as the light dispersed throughout me, improving every aspect about me from muscle density, to brain capacity. Let’s hope that helps stop some future dumb-ass ideas.

A shiver ran down my spine as all of the wounds on my body instantly healed, bringing me up to my new max HP of 440. God-damn that felt good.

The flood of notices was far from over, however.

[Ability: Lightning In A Bottle, has levelled up to level 2! Effect increases from +1.0 to a +1.05 multiplier. Stack damage increases from -5HP/second to -6HP/sec. Cost increases from 100MP to 120MP.]

[Ability: Maximum Overcharge has levelled up to level 2! MP cost to activate increases to 105% , effect increases to a 1.05x damage multiplier.]

[Ability: Spark Jab has levelled up to level 3! Effect increases to 1.2x base physical damage, plus 16% total lightning damage. Take 6% recoil damage. Cost increases to 36MP.]

[Ability: Create Chain has levelled up to level 2! Maximum chain length increases from (WIL/3) to (WIL/2.9). Current maximum length is (17/2.9)= 5.8ft. Cost of chain increases to 12MP/ft. Chain production speed increases to 0.6ft/sec. Chain durability increases to [HP=(5.5)(2x)]. Attack increases to Atk= 2+(1.6)(x)]

[Ability Unlocked! You have developed the ‘Chain-Slam’ ability! Description: Slam the weight of your chain down on the opponent with mighty force! Effect: Deals [(1.85x + (AGI/4)] physical damage. Cost: 0MP. Cooldown: 25 seconds.]

[Minor Skill: Lighting Manipulation has levelled up to level 2! Effect increases by 1%.]

[Minor Skill: Sprinting has levelled up to level 2! Effect increases by 1%.

[Major Skill: Athletics has levelled up to level 2! Effect increases by 0.5%.]

[Minor Skill: Hand to Hand has levelled up to level 2! Effect increases by 1%.]

[Minor Skill: Dodge has levelled up to level 2! Effect increases by 1%.]

[Minor Skill: Light Armor has levelled up to level 2! Effect increases by 1%.]

[New Minor Skill Unlocked! Whips Level 1. “Is a chain really a whip?” I hear you say. The System says yes, so yes. Just a very heavy whip. Effect: Increases power of all whip attacks and abilities by 1%.]

[New Major Skill Unlocked! General Resistance Level 1: The mana in your body adapts to harmful substances, allowing you some modicum of natural protection. Effect: Provides a 0.5% reduction in damage taken.]

[New Minor Skill Unlocked! Acid Resistance Level 1: Well, at least getting most of your face burnt by slime drops was not a total waste. Effect: Reduces damage taken from acid by 1%.]

[Achievable Unlocked! “Better Get Used To Those”: Complete your first Random Encounter! Reward: 1 BP. Remaining BP: 2.]

I gasped as I felt all of the various bonuses take effect. My body tingled as I became aware of all the lightning mana in me for a brief moment. Athletics and Dodge left me feeling just a bit more nimble. I could even feel the difference in how my armor fit, though there’s no way in hell I could explain what a one percent better fit felt like.

The most jarring was the [Whip] skill.

Basic knowledge of how to use a whip implanted itself into my brain. The proper arc to bring your arm forward for a smooth strike. All the general angles of attack. How to flick your wrist right at the end for extra follow through, maximizing damage. The knowledge felt oddly familiar, like I was remembering something I’d forgotten a long time ago.

Poof!

Just like that, I knew how to use a whip. It left me a little stunned, honestly.

I-Is that all of them, Syscile? Please tell me it is. I need a breather.

Do not worry, Chosen Emmanuel. That was the last of them. Oh, and do not worry about saving your BP and LP until a more convenient time. There are no alarms for those.

Oh, thank Godking. I wanted to wait until we set up camp tonight to do all of that.

That is acceptable.

With all of that out of the way, I turned back to finding my bag, peering carefully into the grass.

Then a realization hit me, and I pinched the bridge of my nose in frustration.

I had a goddamn Loot Finder ability. That should’ve been the first thing I tried!

With a sigh, I pushed mana into my eyes and activated the ability.

The world in front of me turned dark blue, the sea of thick, waving grass turning into one, uniform plane. For the first couple seconds, there was nothing. Then, a pulse of light spread outward from me. It traveled out a hundred feet and disappeared.

Two high pitched *ping!*s rang out, one from off to my left, and one from directly behind me. Turning to the first one, I saw a black form sixty feet away moving about glowing blob shapes. Ah, Brygid and the slime corpses, got it. So the other one…

I turned around, seeing a glowing rectangular shape about fifty feet in front of me. Keeping [Loot Finder] active, I walked over to it, picked it up, then cut the ability.

Lo and behold! My fucking bag! Thank you, Loot Finder!

Of course, with that level up healing me back to full, I didn’t actually need that potion anymore. Which I thought was a nice bonus, considering I’d already wasted that other one by smashing it. Good thing I hadn't paid for it!

Satchel in hand, I turned, and made my way over to Brygid, waving it at her. “Alright, finally found the sucker! So, what’s the haul? Anything good?”

She snorted and shook her head, waving her arm around to encompass the slime bodies. “Pfft! No. They’re slimes, E. We got 5 units of ‘Blue Slime Drippings’ and a unit of ‘Green Slime Drippings.’ Not useful to us at all, unless you’d rather drink them raw?” Waving that away, she added, “What about you? I saw the light show, so I’m assuming you levelled? What was all that yelling about?”

“Oh yeah I did. And get this. Apparently, His Majesty programmed a ‘level up notification alarm’ just for me, so I wouldn’t be able to put off reading them for too long. It came out of nowhere, and it was really loud.”

Brygid gave a real laugh at that. “Haha! You are pretty much the most distractable person I’ve ever met, so He’s got your number there, Emmanuel!”

I shrugged theatrically. “Well, you know. You say ‘distractable’, I say ‘excitable and easily motivated to accomplish a variety of tasks.’ Tomato, tomahto, right? Anyway, answer me this,” I said, sitting down on the grassy hill with a *fwump* and looking out over the rolling countryside in front of us. At this point we were just a little over five miles out of the city, and Ring Five still loomed large in my vision. If I looked up, and squinted reeeeeal hard, I could just make out the circular shape of Ring Four hanging far, far in the sky.

“Was that a lot of slimes for one Random Encounter? It felt like it.”

Brygid pursed her lips and sat down beside me, scratching her chin with her nails in thought. “Okay, first off; No. Not at all ‘Tomato tomahto.’ Second; Yes, actually. It was a lot of slimes. Whenever I’ve gone out with another group, the enemies we ran into always came in groups of four to six, maybe seven. I’ve never had this many spawn all at once.”

Chosen Emmanuel, if I may?

“Hmm? Oh, hold on a second Brygid, Syscile has something to say.” I retrieved Syscile from the Clingy Bag, then had a thought and turned to face Brygid. I held Syscile up in front of her. “Wait, before that. This isn’t actually what she looks like. Syscile, now that we’re out of the city, why don’t you go ahead and go back to your normal look? We should be able to walk around out here without someone trying to friggen’ mug us.”

I let go of her, Syscile hanging there in the air. She bobbed slightly, and repeated the same process as before; the air around her growing thick, obscuring her form as it changed. After about five seconds, the processed finished and the air went back to normal, leaving Syscile bobbing in the air, in all her glory. She floated there for a second, then moved to hover a foot or so behind my left shoulder.

Brygid’s eyes went wide. “Holy crap! So, she’s actually a giant gold book, flies, knows basically everything, and can speak to you telepathically? I take it back, you are a cheating motherfucker, you know that?”

I flashed her the shit-eatingest grin I could. “Yes, dear Brygid. Be jealous! It only fuels me! Ahaha! Aaaaaanyway, go ahead Syscile, drop some knowledge on us please.”

Her front flap opened, and she proceeded to do just that, her voice audible to both Brygid and I.

Lady Brygid, may I ask: when you went out on expeditions with the other Blessed, were they all B rankers like yourself?

Brygid nodded. “Yeah. Never traveled ‘round with A rankers too much. They usually want a bigger cut of the loot over everyone else, or want to be group leader, even though the rest of us didn’t know ‘em.” She shrugged. “Too much effort to put up with all the drama.”

Syscile bobbed in acknowledgment. That is in line with my expectations.

Then she turned more my way, clearly “looking” at me. The reason is simple, and we are all looking at him right now.

I pointed a finger up at my face. “What, me? But I haven’t even done anything yet! This was literally our first fight!”

Syscile gently shook from side to side. It is not about what you *do*, but rather what you *are*.

I groaned and buried my face in my hands. “Uuuuugh, this is some more S rank bull-shit, isn’t it?”

Syscile bobbed again.

Unfortunately so. Regular monsters, which live and procreate naturally as part of the larger ecosystem, are just that. Natural. They have needs like any other creature, and live in order to fill those needs. However, Random Encounters are not part of the natural ecosystem. They are instead part of, and controlled by, The System. I will not go into the details of how it all works, as that would take an unnecessary amount of time to explain. To put it simply, Random Encounters are meant specifically to test Adventurers, and are as such scaled off of the party leader’s rank and level. Because Emmanuel possesses an S rank Blessing, the System parameters for Random Encounters are significantly higher than a party led by a B rank.

Brygid started snorting with laughter, slapping me on the back. “Hahaha! Because of course it is. Gods, Emmanuel. You know I love ya dude, but if I’d known how much fuckin' trouble you were going to be, I might have reconsidered this whole adventuring party thing.”

I scoffed at that, blowing her a raspberry. “Pfffffft, no fuckin’ way Brygid. You and I both know you would never miss out on all this fun.”

She opened her mouth to retort, then thought about it and scoffed. “Tch, yeah, you’re right. Well, not like I’m complaining. This just means extra EXP and goodies for me too, after all. Oh! Speaking of, come on!”

Brygid stood, grabbing my arm and pulling me up with her. “We gotta go get that fruit, man. Its like, five minutes away now.”

——————————————————

That was a lie. It was a solid fifteen.

As we walked, we spotted a lot of wildlife. Most of it was pretty tame. You had the usual suspects; big fluffy bunnies, small predator animals like foxes that ate the bunnies, herds of deer occupying a copse of trees munching on the leaves, and insects buzzing harmlessly around the many flowers. All level four or lower, and totally non-aggressive if you didn’t mess with them first.

The softly sloped terrain gave way to a damned steep hill, a solid fifty five degrees. As we climbed the hill, getting closer to our destination—which I knew when Brygid so kindly mentioned “We’re getting close!”—the vegetation around us began to thrive. The carpet of grass stood as tall as my calves, the trees and bushes rapidly growing into a thick forest.

We crested the hill, and I saw Brygid was so excited about. The top of the hill resembled a deep bowl, the sides curving sharply down about forty feet. Would not want to fall from here. From our high ground, it was easy to see what all fuss was over.

The trees and bushes had been replaced with an endless field of flowers. Each one was about three feet tall, with a head like a sunflower’s. The petals were colored like sunrise, a soft layering of light blue, yellow, and a little pink. In the middle of the field sat a small pond of bright blue water. Literally bright blue, the pond glowing with magical power. And in the middle of the pond, was the tree.

It was not what I was expecting. It was staggeringly tall, an easy two hundred feet, which I only missed because of the thickness of the forest on the hillside.

The trunk was a deep, dark green, almost black in color. It had branches only at the very top, with leaves shaped like flat disks the same color scheme as the flowers surrounding the tree. The wind blowing our way carried the scent of honeyed strawberries. Plum sized, lime colored fruits hung from the trees branches. I immediately Examined it.

[Mindella Tree: This uncommon Tier One tree only grows in an area with a mild climate along with high earth and water mana concentrations. Mindella trees process that mana and store it in their sweet, nutrient dense fruit and sap. Eating one will increase the consumer’s maximum CON by 1. It is recommended that an individual not consume more than one Mindella fruit every three days, as the fruit takes time to fully digest, and additional fruit may upset the user’s mana balance.]

But the tree was not alone. Sitting in front of the pond, just outside the edge, between the tree and us, was a tall pillar of free standing dirt with a conical base that tapered off into a sharp spire. Its surface was uneven and rough, covered in holes an inch and a half in diameter, as large as a gold coin. And unless my ears were just playing tricks on me, I’d swear the damn thing was buzzing, even from all the way over here.

And then I realized. Besides the sound of wind blowing through the tree canopy above us, that buzzing was the only noise I’d heard since we hit the steep hill climb. Yeah, the plants were doing great, but where’d all the animals go?

My skin crawled as a horrible idea crept down my spine. Oh, please don’t let that be what I think it is.

I faced Brygid, beads of sweat beginning to run down the back of my neck.

“Hey, Brygid? What the fuck is that thing?”

She looked at me with an expression of confused innocence, batting her long eyelashes at me. “What? That’s the tree, silly!”

Fucking bitch.

My finger wagged at her in furious disapproval. “Ohhhnononono! You know what I’m talking about! The fucking dirt pile.” I hissed at her, glancing back at the spire of dirt in spite of myself.

Near the base of the spire, a head poked out one of the holes. It had two quivering antenna, shiny black chitin, and mandibles half the length of my pointer finger. Smooth, soulless eyes stared at me. Instinctively, I triggered Examine.

Apis Mindella Drone Lvl 4.

HP: 60/60.

Atk: 6 piercing + 4 poison damage on sting. 5 slashing on bite.

Def: 2 Def. 100% weakness to Fire damage.

Description: When a Mindella tree blooms, it releases an incredibly sweet scent into the air that will attract many different species of insects. When a species lays claim, they will feast on the sap that the tree produces, and the high amount of mana will mutate them into a new, more aggressive form which will protect the tree at all costs, killing all competing insects. As well as using the swarm for protection, the Mindella tree siphons mana off of the swarm to grow. The Apis Mindella, also known as the Mindella Bee, is a mutation of the traditional honey bee. Their honey is even sweeter and more nutritious than regular bees, if you can get your hands on some.

I screeched in terror.

“AaaaaaaaaaaaaaaBrygidwhatthefuck?!”

That was the exact wrong move. The buzzing grew louder as a dozen more shiny black heads poked out from the nest, each audibly clacking their goddamn huge, terrifying pincers together.

[Apis Mindella Drone Lvl 4 x6]

[Apis Mindella Drone Lvl 5 x6]

Nah, fuck this shit. I’m out!

I turned to sprint to safety.

Brygid grabbed me by the arm. I yanked my arm back, trying to pull away, but Brygid’s STR was higher than mine, and she held on. Tight. “Woah woah woah! Where you goin’?”

My head snapped toward her, my voice coming through clenched teeth. “Brygid. Bugs. You know how I feel about bugs.”

She nodded, letting go of my arm and patting me on the shoulder. “I know, E. But, this is a free point of CON. And you’re an adventurer now. An S ranker at that. With a power that hurts you. You’d be a full blown idiot to pass this chance up, man. Don’t worry, they look nasty, but they’re really weak individually. I’ll take point, you can stay in the back and just deal with any that get past me. Trust me, man. I wouldn’t let them getcha that bad.”

I wrapped my arms around myself and shivered. Uggggh. After that one time, with that stray cat and the beehive……

Ergh, but Brygid was right! Even more than she knew. I wasn’t just an S ranker, I was the goddamn Chosen! I couldn’t let some fucking honeybees scare me off from something I needed.

I turned back around, overlooking the flower field. I took a deep breath. As deep a breath as I could. I held it, then let it out, willing the tension and fear to go with it. It……didn’t work, but I’d deal. Stretching my arms and legs, I looked to Brygid for the lead this time.

“Okay, so what’s the plan then? Just……blow the thing up from range with a giant fireball?”

She chuckled and shook her head. “Heh, no. Nice try. We’re not here to kill all the bees, just snag a couple of fruit. And if you kill all the bees, the tree won’t be able to siphon its mana, or use them for protection. Basically every part of a mature Mindella tree is fricken’ delicious to basically everything, so its needs them. That way it’ll grow bigger and everyone can keep getting fruit from it.”

“Everyone?”

She nodded. “Yeah, everyone. Lots of people come by here to try and grab a piece of fruit. I learned about it………what, like a month into adventuring, when some group I was dungeoning with shared it with me. Hah, you’re lucky you get to have me show you around. Otherwise you’d have to hope someone was nice enough to share, find it yourself, or buy map location information off someone. Rare item locations can run a pretty penny though.”

A rueful smile crossed her face. “Anyway, back to blowing up the hive, if you antagonize the hive directly, then you’ll have to deal with the warriors and the Queen. Trust me Emmanuel, you of all people, do NOT want to deal with that.”

I recoiled from her in revulsion at just the thought of what kind of monster the Queen Apis could be. “No. No attacking the hive. Got it. Got it completely.”

“Heh, correct. So, the normal plan is easiest with a full party, where three or four people form a distraction so one person can go climb the tree and loot fruit, but with me here, it doesn’t matter.” Cue preening. “Because as long as we make it to the tree, I can fly up real quick, snag a couple fruit, and then we can book it. No climbing required.”

“Right. And so you’re going to leave me down there with the bees? Wait, no. Why don’t you just fly from here over to the tree? Why do we have to walk up to the tree at all?”

“Well, its not that simple.” Brygid gestured to the hive, “I can’t fly over the flowers. Tried it before with a different group. If I get in the hive’s airspace, they will flip, and a whole shit ton of them will attack me at once. Maybe think I’m a bird or something? And I may be good, but I can’t take that many on at a time. No way. If we stay on the ground until we can get to the tree, they’ll split attention between us and only attack a few at a time. And as long as you don’t get too greedy, this plan is basically fool proof. Trying to take all the fruit is apparently just as threating to them as attacking the hive directly.”

I looked at her suspiciously. “So you’re saying as long as we stay on the ground, and only take a couple of fruit, the bees will go easy on us?”

“Yeah, thats exactly what I just said. Don’t ask me why, I’m not a fuckin’ biologist. So here’s the plan. You stand behind me and I’ll pelt the bees with Tindershot. If I focus both feathers on one bee, I can take them out in one attack, which means I can take out one every second. Then, if a bunch of them clump up, I let off a Fire Flap and soften up the lot.”

I heard the scraping of metal as Brygid’s two main daggers left their sheathes, forgoing the many smaller knives she had. A feather floated down, coating the weapon in fire. After five seconds, the other blade was too. “And these babies will kill any bee dumb enough to get close to me. So, I’d say the chances of a bee actually getting past me are close to zill, and if they do, I know you can handle at least one or two, right?”

“Yeah, of course! Uh, let me get some practice in first though.”

I made a chain, producing the max length of 5.8ft in a little less than ten seconds. The results of levelling [Create Chain] to two were pretty significant. It was almost a foot longer, for starters, and I would use every new inch to stay as far away from the bees as humanly possible. I could tell each iron link was a little denser than before too. Added together, the chain probably gained another couple pounds of weight, making it that much better of a weapon.

Time to see what that new [Whip] skill could do.

Instead of wrapping the chain around my hand, I held it by the very end, letting the extra drag on the ground. I found a good place to stand on the rim of the bowl, and turned to face my victim, a nearby tree.

The chain rattled as I lifted my left arm up to about chest height, drawing the chain-whip behind my back and into position. My right arm pointed straight forward as a sort of aim-assist plus counterbalance. I took a deep breath and focused, visualizing a successful attack, a loud crack splitting the air, the end of my chain planting itself into the splintered wood of the tree.

Attack!

My left arm whipped forward at full speed, throwing the weight of the chain as hard as I could. It streaked through the air with a whistle, slamming into the trunk of the tree with a loud *thunk*. I tried to yank it back towards me, grunting in surprise as the iron link stayed where it was, stuck in the wood.

I tugged harder, yelping as the chain dislodged itself and came hurtling back at my head. I dropped the end of the chain, dodging out of the way with a jump and a roll.

“Ah! Oh, shit!” The yelp turned into a curse as I, in my process to dodge the chain, threw myself down the hill a good thirty or forty feet. I took a bit of damage from hitting a few large bushes, and Brygid laughed at me while she gave me a little Cinnamend. It drifted through one ear and out the other as I focused on getting the chain back and giving the tree another couple whacks.

After the third swing, I was more able to spot what I was doing wrong, comparing it to the information the Whip skill was giving me. You couldn’t actually swing too hard, that would throw off your balance and aim. When judging distance, you wanted to hit with as close to the end of the whip as possible, because that’s where the speed was at its absolute highest. That insane speed is what caused the “crack”, and made a thin leather whip capable of slicing flesh with ease.

Of course, it was a little different when using a heavy iron chain, but the principles were the same. I laid into the tree, striking it overhand forward whip attack, more sidearm attacks, and lashes going diagonally across.

Each strike was a bit more precise than the last. The tree was tough, but each hit made another dent in the bark armor, and pretty soon wood chips were flying with each attack. The poor thing didn’t really deserve it, but I was going to beat on it until I got something.

After about a minute, I got what I was looking for.

[Congratulations! Minor Skill Whip has levelled up to level 2! Effect increases to 2%]

[Congratulations! You have developed the ‘Chain-Lash’ ability! Description: Take a whip-crack at your foes with the business end of your chain. Effect: Deals [(1.3x+(WIL/6)] physical damage to one enemy. Cost: 0MP. Cooldown: 5 seconds.]

Oh, hell yes! That’s beautiful.

But what made it different from a normal attack? Let’s find out!

I readied myself again. I’d go for another sidearm lash, pulling the chain-whip from behind me.

Whipping my arm forward, I activated [Chain-Lash] as soon as my hand passed my torso.

I could tell the difference immediately. Some invisible force gripped my arm like a vice, correcting my aim, holding my hand until I could flick my wrist at the last possible moment. The invisible force flowed down my arm and onto the chain.

The length of chain snapped taut in an instant.

There was no gunshot like crack, like there would be with a regular whip. Instead, the iron links rattled like thunder as the end of the chain struck the tree like the head of an axe. Splinters flew as the rest of the bark layer shattered, the impact caving in the soft wood underneath.

Woahoholy shit! That is AWESOME!

From off to the side, Brygid cheered. “Woo! Good form, man!”

Syscile floated over to me from a tree a fair distance away. Had to make sure I didn’t accidentally whack her, right?

Good job, Chosen Emmanuel. That is a solid ability, and should be quite useful against the Apis Mindella.

Woah, she actually sounded kinda impressed for once.

Flashing Brygid a thumbs up, I grinned smugly, yanking the chain out of the tree and back into my hand. I leaned against the tree, propping myself up to have a conversation with Syscile. Why thank you Syscile. That does makes me wonder though; what actually makes the System give me a new skill or ability? Like, why did it give it to me just now, and not the first time I used the chain as a whip, even though it gave me Loot Finder as soon as I tried?

Syscile drooped ever so slightly, and though she didn’t say anything, I would swear I heard her sigh.

Chosen Emmanuel, that is a much more difficult question than you think. Since the dawn of time itself, scholars have been searching for the answers to those very questions. Each one of them is entwined in the other, and explaining the intricacies of each would take years of dedicated lecturing.

In layman’s terms, the biggest determinant is always capability, followed by repetition, then intention. You can practice something as much as you like, and you may earn other skills and abilities in the process, but if you are incapable of performing the ability, the System will not simply hand it to you.

I nodded. Easy enough to follow along so far.

In regards to the creation of your Loot Finder ability, the simplest answer is that the System registered your specific intention for Examine to reveal treasure. You had enough mana to use the ability, and you yearned for it hard enough. For things that do not necessarily require action on your part, that is sometimes enough.

For the Chain-lash skill, you attacked the tree with the sole purpose of developing a better form. Intention. By repeatedly attacking the tree, you developed your form enough that your strikes could no longer be consider random flailing. Capability and repetition. With the conditions met, the System quantified your abilities and initialized the skill. Mind you, the System is doing precise calculations to decide this, but I would not waste my time wondering about them.

“Hey Emmanuel, everything good?” Brygid walked up to me, shaking my shoulder gently.

“Wha-! Ow!” I jumped back—or tried to at least, cracking my head on the tree and causing a shower of leaves to fall.

“Oh, shit sorry!” Brygid hurriedly dropped another Cinnamend on me. I grimaced and rubbed the back of my head, though the pain was fading already. “My bad, you were just zoning out again. I was asking if you were ready to get started.”

“No no, you’re fine. Sorry, didn’t even realize you were talking to me. Syscile and I were just talking about skills and stuff.”

She chuckled and shook her head. “Man, you gotta tell me before you start talking to her. Or get her to turn down the volume or something. Not being able to get your attention could be dangerous, and at the least, its kind of annoying.”

Huh. That was a damn good point.

Syscile chimed in her agreement, and her fix. Instead of sounding out through my whole head, I could only hear her on my left side. Indeed. I believe this should be an acceptable solution however?

I had the both of them talk at once and confirmed that I could hear everything just fine. “Alright, yeah, I’m good to go. So, we have a plan of attack, what about entry and exit? Is there like, a designated path or something?”

Brygid nodded, turned, and waved over her shoulder at me. “Yeah, right over here.”

I followed behind her, picking our way around the lip of the bowl through the thick vegetation. It was close by, and soon enough Brygid pulled the last bush—an especially prickly one—out of our way. Behind it sat the lip of the bowl. But, instead of a sharp drop off, there was a five foot wide dirt ramp that led all the way down to the lower level.

“Woah, that’s convenient. Someone made that with earth magic, I’m assuming? That can’t be natural.”

Brygid shrugged. “I dunno, probably. It’s been there since before I’ve known about this place at least, and I’m thankful for it. Beats the hell out of a ladder. Now, hmm…” She tapped her chin, then snapped her fingers as she remembered something. “Okay, this is important, so listen. These things are extremely territorial and aggressive. I’m sure you’ve noticed the lack of animals around here?”

I nodded. “Of course. The bees?”

“The bees.” She pointed to the hive, then to the very edge of the bowl, right where the ramp started. “The edge is the exact border of their territory, and they’ll attack anything that crosses it. I guess over time, everything around here learned to leave well enough alone? Once we step onto the ramp, they’ll sense our presence and begin the attack. The longer we stay in their territory, the more aggressive they’ll get, so we need to be quick. You don’t need to run, but a good power walk would be a solid idea.”

“Brygid, this sounds a lot harder now than when you first started talking about it. How long are we talking about?”

She pinched her chin in thought. “Hmmm. The bigger the group, the less time you have. See you as more of a threat then, I guess. I’d say, with the two of us……about twenty/twenty-five minutes until I would really rather not be here. They send out bees in waves, and don’t start using the really tough types until the later waves. But once they start, they don’t stop.”

I looked out over the field of flowers at the Mindella Tree. What was that, three quarters of a mile between here and the bees/pond? Pretty far, but not that far. Twenty minutes should be plenty of time, and if worst came to worst, with two stacks of Lightning in a Bottle I could get my ass out in a hurry. They might be fast, but I doubt they’d be that fast.“Yeah, okay. Let me just move some items around for easy access real quick.”

See, I learned my lesson from that fight with the slime. In battle, you couldn’t rely on a bag that took more than a couple of seconds to open (*1). To remedy that little problem, I moved two greater potions and the ingredients for a radial bomb (just in case) into the clingy bag on my hip.

“Alright, now I’m good. Lets move.”

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*1: I would kill for a real Inventory System. Those are ugly expensive though.