Entering the elven town was easy and they had no guards or taxes. The city was well planned with primary roads marking the cardinal directions and supporting roads running in expanding concentric circles, so despite the same building style as the dracon it had a very different feel. Thanks to this simple yet effective layout It didn't take long before I found both a jewellery store and a trading hub.

After exchanging the rare plants I had gathered for a few gold coins I purchased some small glass tubes, a selection of essence powders in small pouches, small pieces of gold and silver, a large but cracked mana crystal, two small brass rings and some new clothing. Despite the illusion creating clothing for me and thus allowing me to technically walk around naked I was used to wearing clothes and the simple ones created during the summoning had become rather worn.

Dressed in my new finery and armed with enough materials to complete a few exploits I left the town and proceeded west towards the adventurer's forest. This forest was recognised as a danger zone and used to train both freelance adventurers and low-level military personnel making it the perfect place for me to get a few more levels under my belt. The forest also had a few rare plants I needed and was well known for its bluewood trees who’s sap could be used to substitute for other much rarer materials.

Since travelling alone through this notorious region would draw the attention of bandits and suspicion of merchants, I posed as a merchant and joined an elven trading caravan. I used being superstitious of the dark as the reason for my nightly disappearance and paid a reasonable sum to be excluded from night watch. Alas, it did not work completely as intended since we were attacked by bandits on the third night. there was a sudden shout as the member on watch tried to raise the alarm only to be silenced by an arrow to the chest.

I stumbled around my tent looking for something to conceal my identity as the illusions time had expired and finally decided on just wearing a robe and using the darkness of the hood to hide my face. Luckily I was travelling under the illusion of an elf so I didn't have to try and fake a tail. As I exited the tent the bandits had already begun fighting with the merchants, apart from the four in melee there were three hidden in the tree line with bows.

Crushing one of my mana crystals I released a prepared wind and space combination spell. the small needles made no sound as they tracked and pierced the throats of the archers. Once the real threat was dealt with I grabbed a sword and pretended to fight like the normal person I was pretending to be while secretly helping the others through earth magic. Taking the three lives in the heat of the moment, at a distance and using magical abilities was a lot less mentally scarring then I thought taking my first humanoid life would be. Something in my mind told me that because they were attacking me and I was not stabbing them with a blade this was not as bad. As bad as what?

As the last bandit fell we looked at the damage. Three of our members including the man on watch had been killed and one of the carriages had been lit aflame. I distance myself from the deaths by helping save the goods and telling myself It was not all bad, killing those men had saved others. All clouds have a silver lining and one of the bandits was carrying entas, a powdered drug made from literal magic mushrooms. This substance allowed me to complete my next doubling item, a brooch with an hourglass made of mana crystal looped by two rings with one silver and the other gold.

Visible

Time Tuner

A device used for measuring time

Hidden

Bonded Time Binder

Doubles stat gain for bonded being between levels 6-10

This windfall came at the perfect time as the wreath had destroyed itself when I became level five and if I had gained another level a portion of its use would have been lost. This item along with the two brass rings I had refashioned into cheat Items would last me until I reached level 10 and had to locate more exotic materials. there were numerous exploitative items I could create and use but as the level cap of the items increased so did the difficulty in acquiring materials. the only relatively easy exploits remaining were a ritual involving multiple potions, crafting a levelling weapon or commonly known permanent stat increasing potions that required rare ingredients from monsters above level 60 and minerals found near the planet's core but would normally be available for purchase.

That was not to say that there were no other cheats, there were hundreds if not thousands that could be found just on this continents let alone this planet. The problem was that many had the exact same effect and these effects could not be stacked. Take for example the Time Binder it had the same effect as the Ring of Solitude that was made out of volcanic glass and fire essence powder. The wreath I created was likewise equalled by the singing stone made from desert sand. The items were designed to be crafted in almost any situation or environment the pheonixians might find themselves in and in many cases had a substitution list hundreds of items long.

Once again using the Time Binder as an example there were 200 different plants that could be used as the binding agent with the mushroom being used to make entas being only one of them. So it was not that I was lucky enough to always be running into the material I needed it was more of a case of the list being so large that I would inevitably run into one of them.

Advancing with my group we arrived at the forest outskirts after a week. Several members headed south while four of us decided to stay. It was relatively busy at the entrance to the village positioned before the forest and I nearly burst out laughing when I saw that they had a literal 'Adventurers Guild' and 'Quest Board'. Deciding that doing the whole adventurer thing was too much hassle I instead purchased enough supplies for three weeks and entered the forest alone. It was nothing more than a brisk walk before I encountered the famed bluewood trees and harvested their sap. It was sad to see such a useful resource go completely unused due to lack of knowledge but on the upside at least I could harvest it for free.

A few hours later and following the directions provided by my newly practised mana sense, I encountered my first real monster. Sure the Horned Rabbits and Gale Hounds I had encountered before were classed as monsters but the five-meter tall stone skinned bear that sat in front of me was something different. My identification marked the creature as level 26, sufficient for gaining the title I was chasing and unlike the pathetic 'bonus skill experience' from being a reborn human that might give me a free level if I practice every day for a few years this title has immediate effects. That did not mean I was going to go Leroy though.

While it slept I planted almost 30 small mana crystals with stored spells in grouped formations. It was an hour of my life where I was ready to run away at any moment. Upon completion, I doubled back to the bear and prepared a spell. It must have either detected the mana fluctuation or my killing intent because it woke up immediately. With my first attack foiled, I ran into the forest and despite my stats, the bear was following close behind. My opponent reached the first trap formation and the very earth it was standing on disappeared from below its feet while wooden poison-tipped spikes surged from below. Both the bear and I knew from this move alone its life was over but the bear refused to die alone. It took six of the seven prepared traps to finally kill the beast and despite being my enemy, it earned my respect.

After waiting two hours for the poison mana to disperse from the corpse I approached and cut out its heart before devouring it. The entire process of this battle had earned me the laughable “hero” title for solo killing a monster 20 or more levels above me while devouring its heart converted that title into “Behemoth Hunter”. This title allowed me to gain stat points by consuming the heart of a monster who's level was ten higher than mine in exchange for the corpse dispersing into pure mana. Essentially giving me a choice between strength and loot when fighting a boss. since it could only be used five times in each layer I had to be specific in choosing my targets to gain the most benefit.

Claiming the bear's cave as my home I began the continual grind of finding monsters with earth pulse or mana sense and killing them with magic. Unfortunately, there were no other monsters on the bears level so I could not gain any more points from my new title. After another week passed and I approached level ten, I got slack during a fight with a Cloud Hawk resulting in some damage to my disguise pendant.

The damage was repairable but karma is a bitch and the moment the fight ended, while I was human in appearance. A certain short little elf princess walked into the clearing to investigate the noise. We stared at one another for a moment before I dashed around behind her and placed my hand over her mouth. An awkward silence appeared as I tried to work out how to get out of this situation. When I heard a call from behind me “your highness where did you run off to this time”