After leaving the village, we spent the good part of an hour walking along a well-worn path through the forest. After hours of walking our trail exited out of the woods and onto an expansive prairie with knee-high grass. Kiszo motioned for me to lower myself before she began to speak. “This is where we bring the younglings when they receive their class. Within this prairie are the lowest leveled monsters anywhere around Ray’tha. There are a great variety of these monsters called Slimes, but even you should be able to defeat them.”

It took me a moment to remember Ray’tha was the Beastkin’s village’s name. Beastkin being the name of their race. Kiszo stood up and looked further into the prairie. She pointed out movement ahead of us and had me investigate.

I walked forward with my sword in my hand. My eyes focused only on the displaced grass in front of me. I slowly peeked into the void between the parted grass as I drew closer. About a meter away stood a see-through-red gelatinized mass, with what looked like a rat’s body stuck halfway into it. I could also see a tiny white solid stone floating near its center.

While it was distracted, I lashed out with the blade and cut a large gash across the surface. The gelatin just reformed as nothing had ever happened. Before I could reset for my next attack, I began to feel the heat radiating off of it for a moment. Suddenly a tiny burst of fire leaped off the slime and came rushing towards my face. I jumped backward, but not before parts of my eyebrow and hair vanished.

I heard laughter coming from behind and turned to see Kiszo sporting a full belly laugh. “Sorry, that happens to almost every new pup. You need to destroy the core visible at their center. They are easy experience, but their cores never remain after death.”

I got back up and made my way back over the slime. By now, it had the entire corpse of the rat floating within itself. I watched in curiosity as the rat’s body slowly dissolved, first the hair, then skin. Muscles and other tissues went next until only its white skeleton remained. The Slime then expelled the bones as it began moving, leaving a trail of the white pieces.

I walked alongside the slime. It didn’t seem the least bit bothered by my presence. I spotted the white stone floating around its center and stabbed in its direction, missing by a hair. I moved back before the small puff of flames shot up this time. I stabbed the jelly again and hit my target. The stone flashed briefly before the slime’s body collapsed in on itself, as If I had popped a water balloon.

The liquid seeping into the ground began to rise as it turned into a white mist. The mist formed into a small white gem I now knew was a Bone Core. I guess they didn’t just come from skeletons. I bent over and picked it up just as Kiszo came over and asked what I had done to the slime's corpse. “That happens after I kill anything I’ve fought. I believe it’s due to a trait I have called Auto Loot.”

“I’ve never heard of such a skill or trait. Any party would love to have you around if it meant not butchering the corpse to find the valuables.”

“Yes. It’s always white cores. I did see a green core drop from the land shark I killed a few days ago, but I… I got chased off before I could pick it up.” I lied. No way in hell I was going to tell her I couldn’t pick it up because I was killed.

“Green? You said you saw a Jade Core? What is a land shark?”

“Yea, it was pretty easy. It was slow as it was walking on land. I just darted around a tree and beat it to death with a plank. I believe it's called a Gobie.” I said before describing what the land shark looked like.

“Yes. That is a Gobie. They rule the shoreline for as far as anyone I know has traveled. A group of them can sink even a mighty ship. They rarely expose themselves on land unless they are sure of a quick kill. You are fortunate the smaller ones that follow the matriarch didn’t follow in for your leftovers.”

I grimaced slightly. Oh, they got plenty of leftovers.

I dusted off the white gem and tossed it into my mouth.

[ System Notification ]

Rank D Bone Core has given 2 Energy

Sensory System: 18/100

“Do you know how much Energy is inside each rank of the bone cores?” I inquired.

“Haven’t a clue. What I can tell you is weak creatures begin with a Bone Core. Once they grow in strength and size, they develop a Jade Core. Much, much stronger creatures can have an Azure Core. The strongest of the Gnit can contain them.”

“What is a Gnit?”

“Gnitheathious, or commonly called Gnits. That creature I saved you from was a Gnit. They live in a massive hive to the south of here.”

“Ah, I guess it’s nice to put a name to a face or species.”

Kiszo gave me a funny look before she pointed to a large rock formation deeper within the grassy field. “I will make camp over there. If you get into any trouble, shout, and I will come. Take these for any wounds you should be ashamed of if received. Hunt the slimes until dusk, then come to the rocks,” she said as she handed me a small pouch with a handful of the white flowers that could heal wounds.

I tied the pouch to the cord around my waist and began looking around for any signs of movement in the grass. I immediately noticed something to my right and made my way over. This time, I found a blue slime, and I shattered this core in one try with a slower, more calculated strike. I waited for a white gem to appear and looked around for my next victim.

I hunted the slimes for the next few hours. It took longer and longer to find them as I cleared out a large swath of field around the rock formation Kiszo had made camp under. As the sun began to set, I collected the last gem, popped it into my mouth, and started walking in the direction of the rising smoke near the massive boulders.

[ System Notification ]

Rank D Bone Core has given 2 Energy

Sensory System: 42/100

“We will camp here tonight. Tomorrow, we head to the local mining dungeon. There you can help clear out the top levels.”

“What is a local mining dungeon?”

She scrunched up her face, and I could see her contemplate on how to answer. “They are like other worlds, within our world behind magical gateways.”

“I’ve seen doors like that before. You step through them and are transported to another location.”

“Yes, something like that.”

After dinner, she began questioning me on the plants she had previously shown to me. Once she seemed satisfied with my answers, she drew new plants in the dirt. She took the time to describe them in detail, including each of their properties or warnings as she went. After finishing with the local flora, she began on the fauna.

As she had explained earlier, the apex predator in the area was the Gnitheathious or Gnits. They were hive creatures that closely resembled my world’s ants but were the size of large dogs. The queen’s guard, the ones who could fly and had praying mantis folding front arms, was almost as tall as a man.

She explained the habits of the Slavinting and explained to me how to feel and recognize the vibrations which emanated from the ground when they began their charge. She also talked about a plethora of creatures within the forest, most being docile and nonthreatening.

Kiszo then began talking about the Goblins and Kobolds. Both creatures were highly intelligent and lived in small communities around the forest, caves, and flatlands of this area.

The Goblins were small, ranging from a half meter to a bit over a meter and a half in height. They came in various shades of greys and greens. When in a group, they became deadly as they used swarm tactics to take down their foe.

Kobolds, on the other hand, were vicious only if you intruded into their territory. Otherwise, they seldom attack anyone in the open, preferring to keep to themselves. They were vastly different in size to the Goblins, ranging from a small-sized animal to over two meters tall. They came in all colors and had a mix of skin, fur, and scales. Some of the more intelligent of the species had horns adorning their head and could use forms of magic with spoken words. These same Kobolds could speak common as well and sometimes traded with the village.

Kiszo then explained what we could expect from the dungeon tomorrow. The doorway took whoever stepped through to the inside of a vast network of caves. These caves would form ore deposits on the exposed wall of the tunnels.

The caves also spawned creatures of various types that needed to be killed so the miners could extract the ore safely. The further down you went, the better quality the metals became and the more deadly the cave’s creatures were.

Kiszo talked for hours, her four arms and hands moving through the air as she explained every topic’s most minor details. It was interesting to see how much more detail you could glean from four hands instead of two. She seemed to love teaching. As the last of the sunlight began to leave behind the horizon, we settled down to sleep.

Kiszo’s shouts awoke me. I sprang up as she released an arrow. I heard the crack in the distance, followed by a screech. Kiszo kept calm as she fired arrow after arrow into the darkness. Moments later, she shouldered her bow and, with the grace of a brawler, began to kick and punch the remaining Gnits, disabling their legs. As the few remaining ants started to screech and walk in circles, she beckoned me over.

Amidst the controlled chaos, she calmly pointed to the top of the closest ant and began to explain. “Stab as hard as you can right behind their eyes. Piercing their brain will kill them instantly. These are low-level workers, and their armor isn’t as thick as the warriors I’ve killed.”

Getting closer to the knee-high insect, it began to click its mandibles furiously then began scratching the ground. Thinking to myself this was much easier than fighting the reanimated remains of people, I raised the dagger and plunged it into its head. The Gnit instantly fell to the ground, unmoving. I waited a moment for it to turn to dust, but the body remained. Shrugging, I moved on to the next.

As I killed the last Gnit, each one I had finished became a storm of white particles. They gathered into the typical tornado and materialized into nine white gems along with a small sword. Picking up the shortsword, I found it was entirely made out of the Gnit’s chitin.

“I hate how I have to harvest the ones I’ve killed. Your trait even gave you a blade. May I see it?” Kiszo asked.

I handed her the greyish sword, and she studied it for a few moments before grabbing a handful of grass. The weapon easily sliced them in half as they fell onto its edge. “This is a fine blade, the same quality as those made from the queen’s guard parts. I’ve never heard of a creature leave behind a crafted weapon before.”

She handed me back the small sword, and I then made my way around, picking up the small white glowing rocks. Cleaning them on my shirt, I popped them into my mouth just like they were chunks of deep golden fried meaty goodness from the market back home.

[ System Notification ]

Five Rank D Bone Cores has given 10 Energy

Four Rank C Bone Cores has given 16 Energy

Sensory System: 68/100

Kiszo watched as I finished my snack of gems before speaking, “That is such an odd yet easier way to grow stronger. I’m glad I don’t have to eat the cores off the ground or pulled from their corpses.”

“I’m still trying to get used to the notion of monsters and creatures from myth being real, on top of having to eat their cores as well. How did you know they were low level?”

“I can see their levels over their head when I focus on them. I acquired a skill when I reached level 15, a very rare and valuable skill. I haven’t the faintest idea of how you’ll be able to acquire it.”

I helped Kiszo dismember the larger Gnit warriors. She was correct. It was gruesome to fish out a single core. Its location was next to the organ that resembled their heart. After making sure all was clear, she said it was safe to sleep again. The Gnits would wake her before they could get close enough to be a problem.

The smell of roasting meat awakened me the following day. I sat up just as Kiszo removed a small stick with chunks of mystery meat from the fire. She handed me the stick and then tossed me the skin she kept at her side. “Water from the stream nearby. Eat fast. We have a ways to go before reaching the dungeon.”

Finished with our breakfast, we began our walk towards the dungeon. I asked her more about what skills and abilities everyone got and how they were supposed to work. She explained more about receiving her ‘Analysis’ skill at level 15. After that, skills ranged vastly between the different classes. She also told me about the skills that anyone could obtain through hard work or sometimes sheer luck.

In this world, cooking, alchemy, blacksmith, and other crafting skills could be learned by doing the act of crafting. Some crafters would never obtain the skill from the system but could still learn to become experts in the craft and produce great results. However, those that did get the skill from the system received bonuses, coming in the form of knowledge which could make crafting easier to create products and with better results. They would also get a mark on their body if the system gave them their skill.

She mentioned cartography, and I showed her my magic map. She didn’t seem surprised and explained that it was one of the skills you could buy in big cities. They had these books that could place the skill directly into one’s mind. I asked what other skills she knew could come from books, but she only knew of two others. One allowed people to learn to speak common. The other was on how to write it. She said they were typically bought at a city’s Adventurer’s Guild, a place for people who liked to hunt monsters and become stronger. The village had a pair of them as well.

For as silent as my dark-furred friend walked, she could talk for hours and scare all the wildlife away. Once I began questioning her on a subject, the words just never stopped. I felt she would have done well as a teacher back in my world. In the middle of one of her tales from her youth, she pointed toward the horizon. I could just make out a thin dark line above the treetops reaching high into the sky.

“The dungeon. Won’t be long now.”

As we drew closer, I could see the stone was shaped in a perfect cylinder rising out of the ground twenty or so meters wide and looked to touch the clouds. I was amazed to see the entire thing was polished; not a single crack could be found on its surface. On the backside, I was expecting something like the mirror from back on the island, but instead, a white and blue vortex spun around in an indentation on the tower’s side.

About fifty meters away, a small cluster of houses circled a large campsite in front of the tower. Kiszo caught my attention, motioning towards the spinning blue and white vortex.