Adam woke suddenly, but not in the refreshed way he had been used to before. This sudden wakening was a jolt awake with a hangover not knowing where you are and needing time to process what had occurred the night before. Slowly his memories started to make sense and separated from the dreams of dying in his sleep. He recognised the sandy floor that marked the way down to the upper mine. The light of a torch revealed three exhausted looking vermite standing guard around him small piles of ore and the corpses of spiders showing they had not been idle while he slept.

"Ti. What happened?" Asked Adam.

She quickly filled him in on their passage back to the main room after Adam had collapsed, starting with the defeat of the two slimes. The vermite had no way to lift Adam up into the safety of the cavern above. Instead they had spent the night guarding against any of the creatures that ventured into the area. The seven slimes and four spiders that had approached were defeated but had taken their toll on the vermite. Rai and Cae had both managed to reach level 6 but covered in acid burns and scratches had still struggled holding back the creatures after their initial battle with Adam against the Great Slimes. Ti had invested in her stealth skill rather than increase report and reach level 6. She looked the best out of the three which wasn't saying much.

Rather than drag out the conversation, after the brief recap Adam led the vermite back to the entrance of the cave where he left them with Trey to rest. He then made several trips back and forth to collect all the ore they couldn't fit in their packs and bring it to the cave they had claimed as their own. With a headache and feeling beat up from the end of the night Adam was surprised how much effort this task seemed to sap from him. At least there would be rewards from the night before he thought as he emptied his pack for the last time and exited the mine.

Adam sat confused as he checked his notifications from the night before

Notifications: Your party defeated Spider - Level 3 x 7. You gain 9 exp Your party defeated Spider - Level 4 x 4. You gain 20 exp Your party defeated Queen Spider - Level 5. You gain 14 exp Your party defeated Slime - Level 5 x 5. You gain 50 exp Your party defeated Slime - Level 6 x 2. You gain 30 exp Your party defeated Great Slime - Level 7 x 2. You gain 52 exp Your party defeated Slime - Level 3 x 32. You gain 40 exp You completed Quests x 2. You gain 350 exp Ti, Rai and Cae gained 298 exp each. You gain 239 exp You lost 18 exp. Ti, Rai and Cae gained 62 exp each. You gain 36 exp.

How had he lost exp? Why were all the entries struck through? Adam was so confused and not in the mood for this right now. Was this connected to how he was feeling? He checked through the rest of the system pages to see if anything else had changed. All were the same as normal except one:

Adam: Adam God Class (Hidden) - Level 5(6) (Secondary Classes not shown) Attribute Value Characteristic Value Health 57/100(140) Vitality 10(14) Health Regen 5(7)/hour Recovery 10(14) Stamina 141/160(170) Vigor 16(17) Stamina Regen 16(17)/hour Fortitude 16(17) Mana 31/31(35) Intellect 31(35) Mana Regen 4.4(5.2)/hour Clarity 27(31) Skill Points (SP) 8/10(12) Perseverence 10(12) Skill Point Regen 1(1.1)/hour Willpower 10(11) God Power (GP) 6/5(6) Unallocated Points 0 God Power Regen 6(19)/day* *max GP Regen cannot exceed GP Unused exp 36

What was going on? His status had reverted to what it had been when he reached level five. He tried to make logical sense out of this. Everything had been fine before he fell unconscious. Then he woke with a cracking headache and things were locked to how he had been four days before. Suddenly a link clicked in his head - the last night he had slept at camp was when he was level five. Each morning he woke feeling worse and worse and had put this down to fighting the night before; perhaps instead it was a warning that he needed to sleep in camp to recuperate properly and consolidate his gains.

With this in mind he practiced with earth mana until his MP was drained and then packed up as much ore as he could carry. Bag packed he left the vermite with a new torch helping to guard the entrance to the room and headed back to camp.

Camp had undergone another transformation through the night. Pel had finished his task of creating an outer fence. The vermite had enhanced this boundary by digging out a small trench and using the earth to make a bank. This meant the fence appeared closer to six feet in height from outside. Three entrances had been left, all of which were eight feet wide and had a double gate barring the way. One of those from the day before now closed over. Adam's route from the mine brought him straight to one of the gates that pointed South East; another gate pointed North to the forest and the last West towards the orchard and river. Ma definitely took my suggestion to make the area safe seriously thought Adam as he also took in the small platforms inside the fence by the gates that would allow guards to stand and watch. Two looked more sturdy than the others; making Adam remember Pa's comments about towers. This seemed a little over the top. Especially as the only creature that appeared in the nearby area was a fox, making Adam chuckle as he imagined an army of foxes attacking and being repelled. Adam followed the marked out path that led from the gate to the front of the main building. Here it met paths coming from the other two directions to form a clearing with the well on one side. To his left he noticed the piglet had a less sturdy fenced area with a new small sty, taking it outside the inner building for good. He went over to say hello and was surprised to find the piglet now resembled a small boar instead - it was growing up quick. He noticed the same with the fields; rather than shoots small plants were present in the furrowed earth growing much faster than he imagined they should. Several of the structures now had a completed feel to them. A sense that they were finished. For example the edges of the field had been outlined with small stones uncovered when it was created and a small hut was positioned in one corner. Checking this hut Adam found some crude shelves on one side holding seeds; a quick sniff revealed the other side to be fertiliser. He decided not to try and create a job for whichever vermite had the joy of bringing that up to the fields. The inner courtyard was tidy and empty. All the vermite were asleep; spread out under this area in their respective parts of the burrow. Some stew had been left in the cauldron that he helped himself to; noticing the second cauldron and some ladles that Sharky had found several days ago had now been retrieved by the vermite. Belly full of stew Adam linked with the vermite to collect 218 exp for their exploits overnight. He was disappointed to see that only the new archer Ghi had levelled up, all the other vermite with classes had been escorting those with professions and only gained a little exp. Checking on his hut he found that Kai had made him some new bracers and a spare pair of boots. There was one last item that it took Adam a moment to realise was a skullcap with a strap to go under his chin. While changing into these Adam looked over the rest of his outfit. His trousers had seen better days but the durability still showed as 2/5 so he figured they would last another day at least. Especially given that tonight he was definitely sleeping in his bed. The boots he was replacing had not fared as well. With 0/3 durability they fell apart into scrap as he removed them; Adam didn’t think Kai would manage to repair those. Honestly, Adam hadn’t noticed the drop in his defence until he replaced the boots. Not sure about the aesthetic qualities of his headgear he did appreciate the additional notification that came up once his outfit was complete. Boar Hide Outfit Worn. Defence doubled against woodland creatures. With +1 from each item except the jerkin which gave +2 Adam now had a total defence of 6; doubled would give him 12. With his recent experience of actually taking a fair bit of damage in fights he had seen first hand the benefit of the defence attribute. The area protected by his clothing absorbed the initial damage of an attack by ten times its value. He remembered his first major fight with the Razorback where he had lost 50HP to the charge attack and a tusk in his thigh. If he was right, with the boar hide trousers and the set multiplier, this would have been reduced to 30HP, meaning a fully kitted vermite could now survive the attack. Adam had never really contemplated the numbers before; but if he was going to challenge the vermite further he wanted at least some guarantee he wasn’t sending them to their deaths. Confident in his ability to channel his HP to heal wounds and no longer afraid of the level 5 creature Adam decided to put his theory to the test. Plus it would be a good opportunity to practice his fighting skills. After bouncing along using air mana for a few minutes Adam remembered that he was meant to be now focusing on developing his earth mana instead. He switched to pulling the earth up as he took a step. The process similar to the feeling of walking through mud. With a little effort and concentration he was able to pull and kick the earth up in front of him now he had finished the mana channels within his legs. By the time he ran out of mana a single kick could bring a wall of earth up to around knee height; definitely something to continue practicing later. The jog through the wood was a pleasant change to his nocturnal antics in the mine. Adam reached the area with the boars and slowed his pace, readying his fire mana and spear to attack the outer boars as he travelled through. To his surprise he failed to meet any of the creatures before entering the clearing where the Razorback was normally found. He was further puzzled to find this central area empty of all but the mangled remains of the Razorback itself. The corpse had bite and tusk marks suggesting it had been attacked by the other boars. All around the taller grasses had been trampled and the whole area was eerily quiet. There were no answers to be found by checking the rest of the clearing, the squeal of a piglet suddenly breaking the silence. Checking carefully through the grass Adam found the source of the noise and almost wished he hadn’t. One of the piglet’s back legs had been crushed and the squeals became more distressed as he approached; the piglet trying to crawl away but unable to support itself. Adam knew the kindest thing to do would be put the creature out of its misery but found himself unable to complete this task. Instead he removed his jerkin and wrapped the piglet; activating his nurse skill which calmed the distressed crying. Perhaps Ell, his follower with the animal husbandry profession, would be able to heal it completely thought Adam as he ran back to camp. He lay the piglet down in the sty, the juvenile boar coming over in the hope of getting some extra food. Adam used Creation and threw some nuts down resulting in a satisfied grunt from the boar. The piglet he left sleeping, still wrapped in his jerkin. Adam was sure Kai would understand. Removing his jerkin had shown him how worn and dirty the shirt underneath had become, so with little else to do currently Adam headed to the river to wash. Enough mana had built up for him to practice Elemental manipulation so he started kicking the earth up in front of him again. The height of the wall in front of him slowly rose as he practiced until it reached his waist. Happy with the progress he crouched behind, imagining an enemy approaching. The defensive wall was good; but he knew he could improve it. Adam ran on a little and then pulled and kicked the earth up in front of him, this time angling slightly to one side. He crouched behind even happier than before at his creation. The slanted top of the barrier gave him more protection and allowed him to reach forward with his spear without exposing himself. A couple more experiments with left slant; right slant and straight top and he received a notification. Elemental manipulation: basic earth manipulation complete. A broad smile spread across his face as he collected the reward for completing the basic manipulation of the fifth element. 400 exp was the most he had received for completing a quest and the new quest replacing the old one was even more rewarding. Quests: Quests Complete? Exp Explore Mountain, slope 1% 100 Explore Mine, lower 0% 600 Gain intermediate control of all five elemental manas 30% 1000 Adam pulled off his pack, stripped out of his clothes and jumped into the river. He was not really surprised as the water clouded up with dirt around him given the state he had been in. Moving over to an area where the water pooled at the bank he found he used fire mana to increase the temperature so he could wash in comfort. While he washed he took the time to contemplate his remaining quests. There was no way he was going to explore further until his power was restored meaning the only productive thing he could do with his afternoon would be working on intermediate control of mana - whatever that was. He probed the quest to get more information. He quickly sorted the information available to him and ended up with a small grid that both explained what he needed to do and how he had already managed 30% completion. Intermediate mana control: Fire Metal Water Air Earth Fire Flame; Fire lance xx xx xx xx Metal Metalwork Smelt (concentrate); Magnet xx xx xx Water xx xx Water shield; Water bolt xx xx Air xx xx xx Push; Cushion xx Earth xx xx xx xx Barrier; Shape

Had he just discovered his spellbook? Most of the quest completion had come from the initial basic uses he had created for the elements. He had realised that using a combination of fire and metal mana had been more complex at the time but hadn't realised the implications. It made sense that the challenge before him was to find a use for every combination of mana.

Pulling himself out of the water and squeezing his clothes as dry as he could manage Adam had enough mana to attempt his next combination. Pushing on both fire and air at the same time he tried to come up with a better name for the spell than Hairdryer as he worked.