It didn't take more than two beats on the door to get the witch to open it up. Giving me a quick, complicated glance, she hurriedly pulled me in her home. All hope died the second I saw that the fireplace was long now extinguished, the burned wood cool, emitting no heat whatsoever. I was vaguely aware that she was telling me something, but at this time, I only had one goal. Get this fire started!

I tried to lodge the magical log she had given me previously as far in the remains of the evening fire as I could before igniting it and dropped some more coals out of my inventory on top of it for good measure. Still freezing, I let myself flop down to the floor, as close to the newborn fire as I could.

And it was about this time that my brain finally unfroze enough to actually comprehend her words.

"You certainly look... terrible. I didn't think that the baby slimes would have given you so much trouble. You DID get them didn't you? Tell me that you didn't run away without completing your task." Her tone was equal measures pity and irony, but at the very end, she showed a bit of concern as well. Of course, it was more of a concern about completing my task as opposed to my well-being, but, eeeeh, you can't win them all.

"The slimes... no. Those were easy. The god damned return was what nearly killed me. Wait... I AM alive, right?" I managed to feebly whisper back.

"What do you mean? The downstream towards the river isn't that bad, the return should have been a piece of cake!" Hmm? Why the surprise? Also, what river. I'm guessing my brain is still frozen because I seriously can't follow what she's saying.

"Wait... what downstream?" There wasn't one was there? Pretty sure there wasn't... such a bad taste of humor this lady has...

"The one in the cave obviously! You know how streams work right? Water goes in one end, water comes out the other end." And now she's getting mad at me? I should be the one getting mad! Well, madder.

"There was another exit from the cave?" I just can't follow her. It's like she wants me to believe that there was another exit, a very accessible one. This simply can't be. IT.CANNOT.BE.

"What do you mean 'another'? There is only one EXIT from the cave. Wait. You didn't???" I really don't like how her eyes almost popped out of her face right now...

"...I did." It's the end. That which could not be accepted, must, at some point, be accepted.

"How? Why?!" WHY ARE YOU ANGRY? I AM ANGRY! ONCE I UNFREEZE MYSELF THERE WILL BE A RECKONING!

"Are you fucking kidding me? Why didn't you tell me there was an exit!" A RECKONING!!!

"What? Of course I told you! I told you the same time I was describing the cave!" More jibberish!

"You didn't describe the cave at all!!!" By this point, my rage was enough to unfreeze me. The blood was rushing to my head, giving me enough energy to (almost) stand up and punch her in the face.

"I did! You were making those stones and nodding as I was explaining!" That's! That's... possible. DAMN!

"...Oh. Well... damn. I think I just ignored you then. Can't multitask at all...." And just like that, all that rage dissipated. Because I've seen it happen a ton. In work. In family dinners. With girlfriends...well, exes. Stupid lizard brain that can't hold more than one thought go die!

"Can't multiwhat now?" Bleh, whatever.

"Nevermind. Low on energy right now. Goodnight." Energy spent. Preparing to shut down system. Bye-bye world.

And simple as that, I felt my eyelids close, lying on the floor in front of a now pleasantry warm fireplace.

With not nearly enough sleep, a sharp pain on my ribs jolted me awake.

My face had taken the shape of the floor as a small puddle of drool had formed where my mouth laid.

"What?" I murmured, still trying to uncramp my jaw. Looking at the clock, it still wasn't even 6. She didn't even let me rest for a single hour!

"My crystals." She said, crossing her arms around her waist. "Also, this is not an inn. You're now dry enough to not raise questions. Give me my crystals and leave!" She exasperated.

Still sleepy, I fished twenty monster stones from my inventory and handed them over.

Like a stingy gold trader, she inspected them one by one before nodding satisfied. And, like a magical girl transformation, she instantly brimmed with a shining smile, her grumpy face disappearing. "Thank you very much for those! Now, as promised."

Quest completed. You gain 2000xp. Reputation with Grinea village increased to honored. Congratulations! For completing 3 quests you gain a title, Beginner Adventurer. Only one title may be active at any single point. Beginner Adventurer: Increase all stats by 1 For gaining your first title you unlocked the Achievement: Title holder I. You gain 1 combination point.

Before I even had time to read the messages she grabbed my, slow to respond, hand as I felt the familiar nauseating feeling in my guts.

You gained the skill Meditation Lv1 (Multiplies mana regeneration while resting)

...I somehow feel like I should have completed three quests much, MUCH, faster. But reading the coveted Meditation skill I couldn't get myself angry...

Looking at my stash of remaining crystals, I just had to ask. "What else can you teach me?"

She seemed to stare hard into my eyes before nodding. "Usually I would charge 10 crystals for a skill, but... since you brought me plenty, and since you have been of great assistance to the village, I will drop the price to 8.

I can only teach you the skills that I've kept in their basic form. Apart from what I've taught you so far, I can teach you any of the four elemental magics, nature magic, alchemy and light magic."

Hahaha, Reputation discounts rules!

But this really is a hard decision. Normally I wouldn't go for any elemental magic, that's for mages and that's not what I'm going for. But the whole combination stuff may provide some interesting results.

Alchemy is also my favorite type of crafting, but I already have Infused Elementals for consumable crafting.

Nature magic could also work with the whole hunter/nature theme, but do I need more active abilities?

The only one that I'm certain about is Light magic. Since I mostly play solo I need a healing skill. Ok! Let's start with that, and we'll see how it goes.

"Teach me light magic!" I said confidentially.

You gained the skill Light magic Lv1. (Manipulate and create light)

You gained the talent Minor light globe.

"What? What is that!!!" I shouted as I grabbed her by her shoulders shaking her. Or, at least, trying to shake her. Somehow she stood still, firm as a boulder resulting in the one rocking back and forth being me.

She tilted her head sideways, partly amused by my jerking motions, partly confused. "What what? Why the distress?"

She asks what! The scammer! Give me my crystals back! "Where is my healing skill? What's with this control light skill!"

She let a light chuckle. "Why would 'Light magic' have ANYTHING to do with healing? That's Restoration magic!"

"But 'Light' is usually just a low level spell tucked hastily with other stuff. Why would it need a whole skill tree? Never mind the fact that I can already see in near darkness! This skill is useless!"

"IS NOT! And what do you mean with usually? Regardless, the skill is really strong! At higher mastery, not only you control the intensity, but you can also control the color, giving signals! With enough mastery, you can blind opponents or even light, or darken, areas as big as a whole village! Yesterday night you saw how powerful it can be." She finished with a humph sound as she dislodged me from herself.

Still sounds useless to me I thought as I disappointed waved my hand goodbye to the scammer. No way I'll give her even more of my hard earned (not really) crystals. "Ok, ok, bye"

As I turned to leave, She grabbed me by the shoulder, rooting me to the ground. Where does an old lady get such strength?!

"Wait." She said. "I've also told you that I'll let you know how I knew you were a lost soul and an elementalist, right?"

Oh yeah, there was that too. Probably another cheat NPC ability or something.

"Have you noticed that you can somehow sense your own soul's power and abilities?" Is she talking about character screen? "Newborn lost souls, like you, can barely see a rough approximation. But there is a skill called soulsight that basically allows you a much better view, and if trained enough, even allows to see the soul strength of others."

Hey! That sounds like Appraisal or Analyze or something along this line of thought. That's definitely a cheat skill!

My anger (more like mild irritation) dissipated as I did a one eighty turn back towards the witch. "Hey! Teach me this skill!"

She moved her head from side to side, in the universal motion of rejection. "I can't. I've already merged it with another one. But I wouldn't teach you either way. It's one of the most common skills available for lost souls. Maybe THE most common. Every single one of us actually naturally develops this skill after some time. So, even you, you'll get it eventually." She smiled kindly towards me, and then, like a mother ushering her kid away towards school, she gently pushed me towards the door. "Now, go rest before you collapse from exhaustion."

If you're that worried about that, then let me sleep here, you scammer!

But it's true, I was beat tired, and furthermore, in a few hours, I had to make the big decision of logging out to go to work or quitting and staying here.

As I entered the inn, the morning customers were watching me a bit weirdly, but that much was natural if you think about my disheveled state. A few stray sentences entered my ears as I passed through the tables towards the wooden counter.

"...he did come from the Elder's house..."

"He slept there?"

"I wouldn't call what he did sleeping, look at his state!"

"But he looks like a kid!"

"Hah, who knew the old Elder had such tastes."

"I must warn my kids to not go alone to her house!"

"Poor kid... I hope he recovers..."

Ha? It seems the old crone had nightly visitors while I was in the cave. Furthermore, it sounds like it was a kid! I shuddered when I thought that I slept so unguarded in a pervert's home! Whatever... what she does in her own life is not my business. I was just thankful that my (virtual) chastity was safe.

Dropping a silver to the counter, I tried to head to a room upstairs but the innkeeper stopped me and pushed the coin back into my palm.

"Go rest... today it's free of charge." He said, a look full of pity in his eyes.

Hmm? That seems excessive for a Reputation discount but I'll take it.

Several hours afterwards, the internal alarm that I had set rung, waking me up. My, still tired, body couldn't accept that I had slept like a log for eight hours already, but the internal clock was blinking 2:00 PM. Even if almost two and a half days have passed since I've logged in the game, only a bit more than five and a half hours have passed in real life. In just half an hour, real time, I would have to normally wake up and go to work. Forever losing the 10x time advantage in here. Else, I could opt out to quit my job and hope that there will actually be a deal with those scientist fellows and the military, giving us some form of recompense for staying logged in. But that seemed a bit random and unwise, given that the developers could crack the bug and manage to replicate it before we even begin to gain any sort of money, leaving me then just jobless...

I walked down the stairs, sat on a table, and ordered something to eat. Didn't really matter that I would eat lunch for breakfast, whatever it was, it was surely better than what I could make. Hell! It was usually better than what I would usually order as take away normally, almost as good as a good restaurant.

Per usual, I skimmed through the forums as I was eating. The thing that caught my attention was a new guide, posted by a dude named Rrhnod746, at least in the forums. He had a screenshot with his character (with like half the information actually blurred), at level 26 already, to back up his claims, as well as a citation noting that all the information was provided not only by him but by a collaboration of all of his high level guild members. He made certain to actually mention the name of the guild, Red Riding Noobs, every second sentence, obviously going for a publicity stunt.

The guide was split into two parts. The first one containing tips and general information, while the second one was a list of what they believe are static combination skills. A disclaimer saying that due to lack of enough information, they just went with what had produced the same results in three+ different characters.

The very first tip was to rush to do three different quests for a power boost. But I claim that this guide is bogus! Because it continued by saying that this was extremely easy to do so by level 2 by completing cakewalk newbie quests like 'kill 10 bunnies'. I call bullshit!

The second tip, which tied to the first one, was about quests. Quests seemed to be dynamic so far. By finding and identifying problems and situations, one could speak to the relevant NPCs to force the system to create an appropriate quest about that.

The list continued forth, with tips and advice that ranged from 'duh', like try to maximize all three resources in your build, to 'you're batshit crazy' like setting your internal alarm to sound every one second to allow you to time your skills with your regeneration easier.

According to the guide, there were plenty of ability, skill and combination points that could be gotten outside of normal progression. A few quests offered them as rewards, usually quests from lost souls NPCs', but there was also achievements that granted them. So far, stat boosts at level 5 and 25, and combination points at level 10 and 20.

Skimming down the list, there were a few bits and pieces I kept in memory, like not keeping valuable stuff in external storages like the pouches because it was much easier to steal from there and etc.

(Game mechanics below, you can safely skip those without any plot loss. Mechanics will end with another parenthesis to make it clear where they stop)

Finally, I made it to the skill list. The very first one had a whole section dedicated to it. Soulsight, or appraisal's fancy name.

The gist of it was that the character sheet without it was crap. As an example, PAtt was just the system's approximation of your physical capabilities, and like all system's approximations, wildly inaccurate. Basically, the example PAtt, was a combination of damage, accuracy, damage penetration, critical chance, and etc. All of which became visible with the right soulsight levels.

The basic consensus was that stats grew exponentially until 20, and afterwards linearly (that is, if 100 points raised dodge from 0 to 50%, another 100 would raise it to 75%, another 100 to 87.5% and etc)

Lastly, there was the mention that it was extremely easy to acquire soulsight, you just had to keep swapping equipment and check your status for 6 hours straight. But since this was time inefficient, you could keep swapping equip and checking status in between you walking from mob to mob.

...Yeeeeeeah, not doing this. Since I do check my status when I actually have a reason to, I'll probably gain the skill... eventually.

The most interesting thing on the guide was actually the armor skills. It seems after the second combination they started giving some form of stance skills. Order of combination mattered because stances were retained even after you combined said skill further. In addition, combining skills with armor seemed to, so far, merge both skills. So you would stop getting talents from the lost skill. Although you would still get some of its passive boosts as the armor skill level rose.

To put it simply, merging acrobatics meant that it would still help somewhat with dodge, but not as much as if you had let it unmerged, and you wouldn't get any of its active talents, but you would keep any of them you had already unlocked. Similar for toughness.

Furthermore, it seems that this was weighted, with toughness retaining most of its bonus when merged with heavy armor while retaining almost none of the acrobatics benefits. And the opposite for light armor. For cloth users, it was best to not combine it at all, since they would lose the increased mana regeneration talent if they did so.

Looking at the light armor section, basically, everyone combined light with cloth for hunter armor. Afterwards, there were two paths. Acrobatics gave rogue armor mastery, which gave rogue stance and increased maximum stamina while reducing detection range of opponents. Toughness, on the other hand, gave slayer stance, which increased stamina regeneration and physical damage. Lastly, either way you went, combining both gave scout armor mastery, which reduced stamina costs of abilities and gave you increased perception.

So basically rogue had greater burst, slayer better sustained damage, and scout... scout would depend on actual %. Logically either in between or just straight up better.

(Mechanics nonsense ends about here)

Given my playstyle so far and that future toughness talents seemed more useful as well, I immediately spent my spare combination point on merging hunter armor mastery and acrobatics for rogue armor mastery and stance.

The whole guide had me thinking about my actual strengths and weaknesses. Elementalism in particular. It was surely lacking in power, but it seemed it excelled in versatility, especially with the new level 7 talent. And yes, Rock-kuns were worse than a real tanking skill, and fire magic would probably do more than Flame-kun, or an attacking skill compared to Windy-chan, or water magic compared to... compared to... OH MY GOD! I forgot to name my lifesavers, the water elementals!

I immediately shot up, knocking the chair down in the process and gathering all the attention around me. Disregarding everything, I sprinted towards the dreaded well. As soon as the bucket of water emerged from the frightful hole, I started the chant.

I was rewarded by a vaguely humanoid body composed of water that when emerged from the bucket performed a graceful rotation around her body, like a pirouette, and blew me an imaginary kiss.

"Definitely a Chan!" I proclaimed, and bowing my head I continued "Thank you from saving me Liquid-Chan."

The tiny elemental gave me a good look before pushing her chest forward, full with pride, as she patted it, like she was trying to tell me 'leave it to me'.

Yeah... elementalism was certainly the correct skill choice.

And... I was definitely procrastinating my decision about what to do with my actual life. It was unreasonable to actually expect an answer to my emails at this point either, it wasn't even 7 in the morning in the real world now, my family was probably asleep throughout my whole gaming session.

So, let's do this scientifically. Heads log out, tails stay.

Hmm, heads...

Ok, two out of three.

Tails! Heads...

Waaaaait! Three out of five!!!

...Who am I kidding? I HAVE to stay. Let's just hope that I won't mess up my life.

With the decision off my chest, it was finally the time to relax. I didn't just quit my job to slave over a game. Officially, I declared today a no-combat let's relax and maybe-raise-a-skill day.

And since now I had some money to spare, I visited the general store. First thing in order was a mesh kit to help with cooking, then the herbs that had been suggested to me for flavoring, and finally a pickaxe and a chisel to help with the next step. Seeing as my ink was about halfway used, I also refilled that. All in all, it didn't take more than a few silvers and coppers to resupply. Although I think I also had the usual reputation discount here as well.

I walked towards the open fields and, locating a big enough cropping of rocks, I started my production. It turns out that actually using tools makes the statesmanship much faster, and its products much sharper!

With a pile of stone arrowheads on my feet, I sat down and started. I initially started making a single Air dart and then meditated until my mana was full again, but this got boring fast.

So I switched it up, making a dart, infusing the dagger, meditating, making a dart, infusing my chestpiece, meditate, and etc. But once more, after a bit, I got bored again.

Finally, I found the ideal routine. I was basically like previously, darts plus inscribe, but this time my already leveled up meditation allowed me to also insert two elementals of my choice in the mix. And obviously, I made those elementals fight with each other to train them!

No, really, from what I could tell, compared to the first time I've summoned them, the more I've used them, the more they seemed to actually diversify their moves. From unbelievably simple punches in the beginning to a semi-viable actual attack sequence now.

When I hit level 7 in the elementalism skill back when I leveled in the cave, I had gained a new talent for it, called Single enhance. This allowed me to either severely increase their duration, up to one hour each, or to keep them at five minutes, but give them a 50% extra damage bonus. For the purpose of this shadow puppet theater that was unveiling in front of my eyes, I obviously went with duration, either way, they were just distractions to pass my time more enjoyably.

And it worked! I had a blast seeing the four of them duking it out with each other. As time passed, it seems that all four of them had fully developed their 'fighting style'. It also gave me a bit more insight on how they actually worked. So far, it seems they were actually using two resources each.

Rock-kun usually started the fight with a one-two punch, and then used punches in a boxing like style, until he had enough rage to unleash either that fists-flayed-to-sharp-points move or actually use another one that restored his damaged body to full. It looked like a stamina and rage style. Dirt-kun was exactly like Rock-kun, but instead of a damaging and a healing rage ability, it seemed that it could trap people in the loose soil.

On the other hand, Windy-chan used a much more extensive martial repertoire with lighting fast kicks and punches, with somersaults and axe-kicks, but at times, she would actually float in the air and unleash some sort of ranged wind barrage skill, that my Mana sight actually caught. So, more like stamina plus mana.

Then you got Flame kun. Flame-kun started with flame breaths and some touch like punches, that both used mana, and then, when he was ready, he was unleashing fire spits and small blasts, probably using rage. So that one was mana and rage.

Last but not least, my savior, Liquid-chan, danced around the battlefield, with extreme mobility, and then snaked out in unbelievable patterns, throwing tiny parts of herself, little droplets, towards her enemy. For the most part, I didn't actually see her using anything else except this stamina-based range style. But at some point, when she got cornered by Rock-kun, she dispersed herself in a puddle, and reformed behind him, while sending a high-speed water current that launched her backwards, and this whole set of movements used mana. So, stamina and mana, like Windy-chan.

The sun had started to set by the time I had started to bore with my elementals as well. And since today was a free-day, I simply went to the woods, gathered a few pieces of broken branches, and using my flint, I made a small campfire and started cooking. It took some using to, to actually identify and taste-test the various herbs that I've bought, but in the end, after quite a few tries, I managed to find a taste that suited me. With all of my meats gone, either eaten, or thrown away, or eventually, stored in my inventory as completed meals, my training for the day had finally reached its end.

Looking at my status, which I didn't neglect actually checking every time I heard the sound of a skill raising, I nodded to myself for a very productive day, even if it didn't have any sort of battles.

Name: Qualexis Race: Wildkin Gender: Male Title: Beginner adventurer Level: 5 Experience: 4910/5000 HP: 65 MP: 105 Rage: 0/100 Stamina: 150/150 HPregeneration: 0.08/sec MPregeneration: 0.16/sec - STregeneration: 10/sec Strength: 10 Dexterity: 14 Agility: 14 Constitution: 8 Intelligence: 19 Wisdom: 16 - - Physical attack: 30 (35) Magical Attack: 35 Physical defense: 35 Magical defense: 121 Critical chance: +4% Critical damage: 0% Speed: +4% Reputations: Elves: Favorable, Fey: Favorable, Grinea: Honored, Avon: Noticed EXP%: 1x, +0.2x bonus for hunter related skills. Skills: Talents: Natural camouflage Lv4 - Feral senses Lv4 - Elementalism Lv8 Summon minor elemental, Single enhance Inscribe Lv6 Minor P.Att rune, Minor P.Def rune, Minor M.Att rune, Minor M.Def rune, Dagger Mastery Lv6 Stab, Backstab, Quick slash Sneak Lv4 - Outdated Stonemanship Lv3 - Toughness Lv5 Reduce pain, Rogue armor mastery Lv4 Rogue stance, Cooking Lv3 - Dissasembling Lv4 - Leatherworking Lv1 - Throwing Lv2 - Tracking Lv2 - Infused Elementals Lv8 Inscribe minor elemental, Double inscription, Soulbind Lv1 - Mana sense Lv1 - Trapping Lv1 Set minor snare, minor blasting-earth deathtrap Hatred control Lv1 Provoke, Abuse Light magic Lv1 Minor light, Meditation Lv4 - Combination Points: 0

The night was still young, and I was already stuffed from eating way too much, but regardless the fact I had woken up at 2 pm, and now it wasn't even 2 am, I still went back to the inn to sleep. My first "free" day after a very long time ended with the very pleasant dreams of my departure from the village and the adventures that were to follow.

Of course, the next morning, I would regret that I had forgotten to actually send the relevant emails, like to my boss informing him I quit, or to my parents to ask them to take care of my home and probably my body while I was stuck in here. But, oh well, such is the life of an adventurer.