I swept everything into my new bag and changed into the new clothes behind the curtain near the door. The new leather clothing fit perfectly and felt like they gave a decent amount of protection over the garb I had spawned into. I looked up and slightly shuddered before leaving the shop.

Outside in the square, I could still see the hive of activity. I continued to walk around the outside, looking at the larger storefronts. I stopped when I spotted what I assumed was a bookstore, but my mind reeled with pain as Luin’s rage and fear rolled over me. I couldn’t wait any longer. I could come back when I knew Luin was safe.

I sprinted to the gate and out, pulling up my map to ensure I was headed in the right direction. Soon as I hit the tree line, I began to imagine running faster and pushed my thoughts into making a construct. Over an hour later, I got something to click when I made the shape of boots with the intent of faster movement. I released the construct and immediately fell backward as my feet propelled my bottom half-forward.

Getting up, I began walking slowly, getting used to my leg’s movement speed before picking up the pace. Moving faster, the trees to my sides began to blur in my vision. I estimated I was going somewhere around thirty kilometers an hour. It was absolutely crazy and felt terrific, up till the point I felt the energy within my body draining away about half an hour later. It took a few tries to cancel the buff, but I began to gasp for air as I stopped. Pulling up my map, I could see I crossed almost a third of the distance back to Ray’tha Rise.

I began walking again whilst my breathing slowed, I felt drained. The speed buff must have kept draining my mana as I used it. I would need to remember that for next time. A bit past the halfway point later that night, I raised a huge stone pillar and then hollowed out the center, sending the stone back into the ground. I created holes close to the ground and a few around the top for airflow, I didn’t want to suffocate myself.

Inside I raised a pillar to block the entrance and tossed a dull light orb to the ceiling. I sat down with my back against the surprisingly warm stone and began to meditate. I was pulled from thoughts by a chittering howl from outside. I willed the light to go out and sat in the dark. A few moments later, I could hear scraping on the outside of the enclosure and was proud of myself for adding a roof this time. An hour later, the scraping ceased and did not return. I curled up on the stone floor as best as I could and went to sleep.

The following day I made a few holes to look out into the forest before making a door for me to slip out of. The ground around my stone pillar had been dug up on one side as if the creature tried to dig under it. Scanning the forest showed no other sign of my night’s visitor.

Feeling great, I stretched and started jogging towards Luin. With my mana seemingly recharged overnight, I created the construct again for the speed buff but cut the speed in my mind in half. Ready to release the construct, I began moving forward fast but nowhere near the pace of yesterday’s full-out sprint. Guessing that by cutting the speed in half for my intent, I could cut both the speed and, hopefully, the mana cost by at least as much. Hours later, I realized the mana usage was much less than the full-on speed buff. I still felt like my mana reserves were high. Maybe the cost scaled higher the greater the buff. I would need to do tests to figure it out later.

Getting close to the village, I began to slow. It dawned on me that I didn’t think how I would rescue Luin. I wasn’t going to just rush into the warren and begin killing every Kobold in my way, was I?. Looking at my map, I noticed where I had been killed and where Luin was taken and began to make my way over to it.

The circle of tightly organized stone pillars still stood tall as I grew closer. I could see they had begun to weather and a few now sported cracks on them. I willed two pillars to sink into the earth and was startled at the sight. My skeleton lay where I had died. It looked as if animals had picked my corpse clean. On the wall behind my corpse were the charred remains of a Kobold. The upper portion of the skeleton looked to have melted into the stone wall.

Could Luin use magic? Had she taken revenge on one of our attackers? I looked below the remains and found my backpack still intact. The hammer still lay on the ground next to my body. I wondered if they couldn’t move the hammer or didn’t care for the loot after getting their prize.

I bent down and pulled the belt off my body with the original bottomless bag still attached. With three of the bags and my hammer, I felt a bit better about my chances. I searched the blackened corpse of the kobold and found a small bag that survived Luin’s wrath on the body’s bottom portion on the ground.

Inside I found a cloak that shimmered for a moment before going completely see-through. Was this what they wore while following me? Moving the cloak to look at it closer, the same shimmer rippled through the cloth before going invisible once again when it stopped moving. This would come in handy. Putting the cloak back into the small bag, I placed it in my magic sack.

I was about to start heading to town when I heard the same chittering coming from the forest. I whirled around and put my back to a stone pillar as I scanned the forest. Moments later, I caught movement to the side to see a massive chitin-plated spider approaching me. It looked just like the Gnit who tried to get at me before using the fusion fireball. I summoned an ice lance and tossed it towards the massive creature.

The ice shattered upon its carapace without as much as a scratch. I began constructing one of my blue fireballs when a screech above me knocked it out of my mind. A smaller version of the queen’s guard stood to my left on the tree’s trunk. I looked into its multifaceted eyes for breathless moments before it dropped off the tree and began to charge the giant spider. It screeched twice, and the forest above came alive.

The new smaller queen’s guard came out of the trees in droves and attacked the giant spider. I stood there in stunned silence as the massive spider roared and began taking out the smaller mantis spiders. What the hell was going on? I thought both were from the same hive. Why were they attacking one another, and not me? The guards began to thin, and I recreated my blue fireball and launched it at the mass of fighting spiders.

The fireball hit, and the explosion was deafening. Half of the massive spider and almost all of the smaller mantis spiders were gone when the smoke cleared. Then the bodies began to turn to dust before a field of glittering cores stood in front of me. A movement to my right caught my attention, and I spotted half of the body of a mantis spider crawling towards me.

I raised my hammer, ready to strike when it stopped. With its good mantis arm, it scratched something into the dirt in front of it. The ever-curious part of me walked forward, the other part calling myself an idiot. As I drew closer, I could see it had scratched two runes into the earth.

Help. Hive.

Well, that was entirely unexpected. I watched the Gnit for a few moments. It stood still, just looking at me. I bent down to be at eye level, hammer ready to strike if it moved. “What does “Help. Hive.” mean? Why ask me for help? Why did you kill one of your own to protect me?”

The Gnit’s head turned to the side like a puppy regarding me. It stretched out its arm, and I was about to strike when it went down to the earth and began drawing three groups of runes.

Powerful. Queen. Prison. Other. Control.

I pointed to the group of runes saying queen prison. “Your queen is not in control of the hive?”

The Gnit wrote the rune for ‘no” on the ground and placed its arm over it.

I pointed at the runes for other control. “Who controls the hive?”

New runes were carved into the earth.

Darkness. Control. Change. Domination. Man.

Is a man controlling and changing the hive? What do you mean, Darkness?

The Gnit seemed to give me the equivalent of a shrug. I pointed to the powerful rune. “Why do you think I’m powerful and can help you?

Again more runes scratched into the earth.

Destroy. Hive. Alive.

“You know I destroyed the hive, and you still want my help? How can you even remember me if I killed every one of you near me?”

Queen. Remember.

“I never met your queen. Do the Gnit’s share the same mind?”

The Gnit bent down to scratch another rune, but its head disappeared from its body a moment later. I spun, pulling an ice lance into my hand towards the direction of the arrow that took its head. A younger panther Beastkin held a now-shaking drawn bow aimed at me. “You better lower your bow Gurig. Our mage friend here doesn’t look like he likes weapons pointed at him,” said a Wolf Beastkin stepping out from behind a tree.

“Gurig? From the mine?” I asked.

“Zeal?”

“Yes. Why did you kill the Gnit? Did you not see me speaking with it?”

“It was a Gnit. He acted on instinct. Speaking with it? How is that possible?” asked the Wolf Beastkin.

I pointed to the runes carved into the ground. “The explosion! Are there more who will investigate?”

“I would assume so. Who is this, Gurig?”

“That’s Zeal. He left a year ago before your tribe arrived.”

“The same Zeal people talk about?”

“Yes, the same. Kiszo will be happy that you have returned. We must go find her,” said Gurig.

“No. I need both of you to tell no one you saw me. I will find Kiszo on my own. I need to do some things on my own first.”

“We can help you. Just tell us what needs to be done, Zeal,” said Gurig.

“Just answer me, do the Kobolds remain inside the village, and is Go’gie still the alpha?”

“Yes, they have grown to be a larger part of our town. They are producing more mage classes and have greatly helped with the town’s defense. Their group has even cleared the dungeon’s floors down to the fourth floor. The towns have greatly prospered in the last six months because of the cooperation with the Kobolds,” said Gurig.

“I see. Tell no one I’m back. I need to do something first. Please Gurig, and you. Do not tell anyone about me. Tell them you found nothing here when you arrived.” I ran over to the cores and tossed them into my sack. I retrieved the cloak and put it on just as I heard another running towards our location. I walked away from the puzzled-looking panther and wolf and stood still. The look on their faces told me they had seen me vanish.

A moment later, Kiszo came crashing through the forest, her regular stealthy running going unused. “Where is he? Was it Zeal?”

I watched the panther and wolf look at one another. I could see Gurig struggling with his decision before speaking. “We just got here. All we found were these runes scratched into the earth.

Kiszo came over and studied the runes. “Who wrote these? I don’t understand the meaning. Blackness, control, queen, powerful? Is this some type of joke? This had to have been Zeal, but where is he? No one else could have made an explosion like that, and there are no bodies around.”

I watched the two panthers and the bear speak back and forth. Gurig and his friend kept stealing glances in my direction, but they never gave me away. Kiszo, a couple of times, raised her head to sniff at the air and looked in my direction but never moved. I waited for a bit after they left before taking the cores.

[ System Notification ]

Three Rank E Jade Cores has given 24 Energy

Eleven Rank D Jade Cores has given 132 Energy

Rank A Jade Cores has given 28 Energy

28 Energy converted to 280 Mana

Sensory System: 200/200

I pulled up my System’s Status to make my following selection.

[ System’s Status ]

+ Nervous: Rank 2

+ Sensory: Rank 2

+ Cardiovascular: Rank 1

+ Respiratory: Rank 1

+ Muscular: Rank 1

+ Skeletal - Rank 1

+ Epidermis: Rank 1

+ Endocrine - Rank 1

+ Digestive - Rank 1

+ Toxin - Rank 1

I opened up the Sensory System information with the ‘+’ icon next to it to check how much Rank 3 would cost.

[ Sensory System ]

This system consists of your eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and dermis.

Upgrading this system gives the user a boost to their Survivability.

Rank: 2

System: 0/300

Upgrade: Yes / No

Oh, thank Elune. It wasn’t as bad as I feared. I didn’t know if it would have doubled or done something else. I figured I'd keep to my simple plan of leveling everything and getting easy levels. I closed the Sensory System box, opened Cardiovascular, and selected ‘Yes.’ I immediately got the new tracker box.

[ Cardiovascular System: 126/200 ]