Chapter 3

Sitting by the fire with holding my hand out, I was looking at the ball of mana swirling in my palm. “So, everyone in the System that finishes up the Newbie Path can use magic?”

Laughing hard and wiping a tear, Wick spurts out, “HAHAHAHA, no. The System gives 1-2 skills based on personal strengths. My 27th soul companion was a dwarf named Blumpff. He got shield bash and hammer strike as his two skills. You seem to be adept at magic and have some martial ability in that you’re given both magic melee skills. So, practice for a minute and enjoy the 400% regeneration rate. So how do you want to proceed?”

With a grin I hold out my arm extending my hand and shot my mana bolt. It was interesting as to how to actually use magic. I had to feel the mana within myself, call it forth to my hand and then not only think mana bolt but also visualize what I wanted to do. I didn’t want to shoot more than 1-2 mana bolts. My max mana is 135 and with his regen rate of 7.75 per hour outside the safe room over the next 18 hours of the double experience I’ll only get an additional 139.5 mana. So all in all at 10 mana per shot I’ll only have about 27 shots. “Well doing the math I’ll have about 27 mana bolts for the next 18 hours, we don’t have any water or food and not a weapon other than magic between us. So, I think we start slow, sneak out and try to see what we can get from those that we kill. Who knows what we’ll find here, though if they’re magic resistant we are definitely in trouble. Do you have anything besides fireball that we can use?”

“At level 1, nope. Pretty much fireball is it. Though since my fire is infernal it does 20% more damage than a regular fireball. You should be happy all the fireballs I threw at you were done so at glancing blows. Your mana bolt damage is half your intelligence and increases 2% per level of your skill. Damage also depends on where you hit them. As I kept throwing glancing blows the damage was less than let’s say throwing them right in your face. Throwing all those fireballs at you did increased my skill level to 2, so, thank you,” Wick said with a sly grin.

“Ok so my intelligence is now 21 so my damage is going to be around 10-11 per bolt. Damn Really wish I could increase that or at least increase my mana regeneration more!”

“Well you can learn the skill Meditation, it will slightly increase your mana regeneration while we rest. You may be able to get an extra bolt or two out of it. Though don’t forget you’re only level one. You’re sure to level and quickly if we can get a few kills under out belt. That will increase your mana pool as well as your regen. Now to learn meditation close your eyes and calm your breathing focus deep within yourself and find your mana pool. Trace the mana lines you used for your mana bolt back to the source.”

I took a slow deep breath through my nose and slowly released it out my mouth. Closing my eyes, I focused on my breathing, picturing the ball of mana in my hand I slowly traced the flow through my arm and back into my chest. At first, I felt a slight warmth, but the more I focused on that spot the more at peace I felt, felling the warmth pulse in rhythm with my heart. After a moment of calm, I got the notification.

You have discovered the skill Meditation Lvl 1

Looking deep within yourself, (well it’s you so you didn’t have to go too deep), you were able to focus on just being. Allows user to enter into focused state, increasing regeneration by 1% per skill level. May be knocked out of meditation by disturbances. Increasing skill level allows more actions to be done while meditation.

Congratulations! Who knew you were deeper than a koi pond! +1 Wisdom

Slowly opening my eyes, and taking one more slow breath, I smiled, “totally worth it, not only did I get the skill which will help with regen when we take short breaks, but I got an extra point to wisdom. Well no time like the present lets get to it. We’re burning time.

Standing up and taking a last look around the cave, I got a bit of inspiration from my WikiHow looking at the remnants of our firewood. Taking the last pieces of wood, I wrapped pieces of the dry moss around the ends, then ripping strips from my already shredded shirt I tied the moss on tightly, making impromptu torches. With that notifications popped up.

You have discovered the skill Craftsmanship Lvl 1

Take a piece of this, take a piece of that and put it all together and you get….something. Though not trained in any particular crafting skill you use your knowledge to make something new. A little bit of ingenuity can go a long way!

Congratulations! A bit know how and a dash of luck and you got something new! +1 Wisdom

You have created Improvised Torch (common)

Improvised torch will give you just enough light not to trip over anything underfoot; just don’t expect it to light up your life.

Feeling a bit proud of myself, I put 8 of the torches into my bag and lit one from the fire. Looking around the cave one last time to make sure we weren’t forgetting anything and feeling a bit of sadness leaving the start of my new life, I lead Wick out of the cave.

Slowly making our way down the cave tunnel we hear some squeaking. Holding the torch out in front, I could see a pair of eyes peering back at me. With another squeak the eyes came charging at me. With as much as fear and surprise I swung the torch like a baseball bat smashing the creature into the wall. Not wanting to break the torch I quickly ran and started to kick and stomp on the creature. The creature was about the size of small dog, with a long snout and hairless tail. With notifications popping up I plopped down and looked at the creature.

Giant Rat

Lvl 4

HP - 16

Giant Rats are the scavengers of the dark. Usually found in packs, so where there is one should keep an eye out for 2, 3, 4 …

You have killed a Giant Rat!

12 Exp (doubled to 25)

“Ha! That seemed almost too eas..” Interrupted by multiple squeak’s. I looked up and saw 4 more sets of eyes shinning in the darkness. “Oh crap…” Jumping up and holding the torch like I’m ready for a Randy Johnson fast ball, with just the same amount of fear or being hit, I set himself just as the first giant rat launched itself at me. Hammering into the side of the rat, the rat rolls down the tunnel squeaking in pain as its fur caught fire.

You have taken 4 points of damage

You have taken 5 points of damage

With Wick firing a couple of fireballs at two of the rats. One of them snuck up and started biting my legs. With a quick kick and brandishing the torch to light up the rats life. I stepped back a bit to take stock of what was going on. Wicks two rats were slowly moving, their hit points draining as they burned. The first rat that attacked me laid on the ground mewling in pain with an obviously broken back. Finally looking back at the last rat, the fire almost out, it hissed and attacked again. This time I wound up mentally picturing Pele and kicked the rat right into the wall taking what hit points it had left. Taking a breath, I walked around to the other three and heal stopped each one in the head to make sure they were dead.

Looking around at the dead rats, Wick nodded in approval. “Well for your first fight, not too bad. For these low levels hopefully you got a level, but let’s just be glad we got attacked by them first before anything too difficult.”

Looking at Wick with a bit of a resigned sigh I had to admit as difficult as these rats were they’ll probably be nothing compared to what is ahead. Being a level 50 dungeon, rats were going to be the least of his problems. Figuring that there weren’t any other rats around I thought he’d take a quick look at his notifications.

You have killed a Giant Rat!

12 Exp (doubled to 25)

You have killed a Giant Rat!

12 Exp (doubled to 25)

You have killed a Giant Rat!

12 Exp (doubled to 25)

You have killed a Giant Rat!

12 Exp (doubled to 25)

Congratulations! You have reached Lvl 2! You have 5 points to allocate

25/200 Exp till next lvl

Quickly opening up my stat sheet, I took my 5 new stat points and quickly allocated them, 3 to intelligence to 2 to wisdom. After all the recent points from the Paths and now my leveling my health was a base of 186, my mana was at 157 and my stamina climbed up to 180. All in all, not too bad of an increase for a couple hours’ worth of work! Sharing my updated stats with Wick, I took a knee for a couple of minutes to catch my breath.

Patting Thoren on the shoulder, “Not too bad, you shouldn’t be one shot anymore but let’s not test that out as we really don’t know what’s down here. I’m ready whenever you are”

Nodding my head I got up and picked up my torch. “Well let’s get a move on.”

Just as I started walking away, Wick grabbed my arm. “Hey, you’re not just going to leave the rats here are you?”

“Why would I want to take them? We don’t have a knife so we can’t skin them.”

Wick rolled his eyes, “Look what is one of the things we are missing?... FOOD! Ya, rat meat isn’t something to write home about but its far better than starving. Sure, we don’t have a knife now, but I have a feeling that there are things down here that do, so throw them in your bag and we’ll figure it out later”

A little disgusted at the thought of eating the giant rats. I had to admit that it was better than to starve so I walked around and grabbed the 5 dead rats stuffing them into my bag. Now hefting the torch, we started down the tunnel again. A bit warier than I was before.

After about 20 minutes of walking, the tunnel started to open up a bit more and to our surprise the moss could be seen growling along the walls and ceiling sporadically again. Putting out the torch, but continuing to hold it I looked over at Wick. “Just how many things have something like darkvision and can see down here? With the moss here giving off just enough light that we can see where we are going, was getting a bit worried that holding the torch was going to be a flare drawing whatever is down here right to us.”

“There are a lot of different creatures, sentient and not that have something similar to darkvision. Me being one of them. As long as you can see well enough with out tripping all over the place your plan is a good one. I can see far enough that I should be able to observe something before they see us”

Walking down the tunnel, keeping my hand on the wall for a bit of guidance, I looked over at Wick and had some questions that have been bothering me for awhile. “So, what exactly is an instance dungeon? Are there regular dungeons too?”

Looking over and smiling, Wick started. “I was wondering when you were going to ask. Well first off, yes, there are regular dungeons. They’re pretty much planted by The System. Each dungeon has a core that controls the dungeon. Dungeon cores are highly sought after as you can farm them for experience and loot. When you kill something in a dungeon after a few minutes the body will absorb back into the dungeon and some loot will be left behind. Wild dungeons can be quite powerful and have extremely dangerous creatures/traps and puzzles throughout. Though the reward is just as good. First run throughs of a dungeon get much higher rewards. We can get more into how they work when we’re done here. As for an instanced dungeon, it’s completely different. There is no core, creatures aren’t spawned here. So, whatever we kill we don’t have to worry about them popping back up behind us. Also, nothing gets absorbed and drops loot. Like those rats, they’re just dead rats, sure we might get lucky and one of them could have swallowed something and when we open them up we may find something but most likely not. They’re more of way that The System is saying something is happening here that could be of some significance. As an example, my 79th soul companion Shandrain and I got into an instance dungeon on the planet Lordrell. Fun little planet little smaller than your Earth. It’s a mana infused planet like Raylia and we were exploring the forests on the north continent. After walking for about a week into the forest we got the notification of an instance dungeon. Uggghhhh, it was the worst. Turns out the spider queen Vrondeen was overtaking the heart of the forest looking to then expand out over the continent. We spent THREE days fighting those damn spiders, we nearly burnt half the forest down wiping them out; and my ass still hurts thinking about how she bit me. Shandrain never let me live that down the bastard.” Wick let off a slight chuckle.

After a quiet moment Wick continued. “So as to what is going on here, I have no idea. The fact that it’s a level 50 means that it has some pretty big significance. Don’t let the number completely freak you out. It’s bad, well REALLY REALLY bad, but its also a rating on the difficulty of what’s here and also of how significant the event is. So, it could either we extremely high level creatures doing something small and we just happen upon them, or it could be something of incredible significance and just happens that a couple of mole people are about to trigger it. Most likely it’s a mix of the two. Just have to see what it is and be on our guard for the former and hope its more like the latter.”

We continued on for a bit in contemplative silence, I was just thinking over what Wick just said and Wick thinking back over a past memory. “Shhhhh the tunnel opens up ahead, lets be as quiet as we can”

Half crouching, I started slowly walking on the balls of my feat, conscious of every scuff and rub my shoes gave off. Trying to will myself to be as quiet as possible, I almost tripped when I got a notification.

You have discovered the skill Sneak Lvl 1

You’re no ninja but you’re far better than a charging knight in armor. Movement speed is reduced while sneaking. As you advance in sneak your movement will become faster and your noticability well decrease. Keep leveling you may just vanish!

Congratulations! Be verrrrrrry verrrrry quiet you’re hunting…Wait what are you hunting? +1 Agility

As tense as I was I couldn’t help but grin at the new skill and point. Regaining my focus, I crept forward only to be astounded by what I saw. A sprawling cavern spread out before him. Ancient buildings crumbled and only hinting at the majestic construction they must have been. The far cavern wall was well out of sight as was the ceiling. Wick and I crept further in, trying to see what laid ahead. Hearing voices in the distance, I pointed to a crumbled building. As quickly and silently as we could we climbed up the decrepit stones. Climbing over the stones, squeezing through gaps and making sure not to knock any loose stones, we managed to reach the top. Crawling to the edge, two pairs of eyes looked out to what was laid out before us.

What could have only been a small city was hidden under this mountain. No buildings still stood, only the echo of what had been could be felt. The soft glow of the moss, and light of the few camp fires lit up what was left of beautifully carved stone walls and broken masterful works of art. Broken statues and reliefs littered the cavern floors. Breathlessly I whispered to Wick, “What was this? Where are we? This place is amazing it must have been just…words don’t describe”.

In a hushed tone Wick almost reverently said, “Honestly I don’t know. I’ve never heard of a city like this in Raylia before. Whatever this was, and wherever we are, it’s been a very long time since anyone has lived here.” Looking at the camp fires a bit more carefully, wick muttered, “ohhhhh crap. Look at what’s there and tell me what you see.”

Looking at the movement around the fires I strained my eyes to see what was there. When I got a notification.

Hobgoblin Scout

Lvl ???

Hobgoblins are the smarter, stronger version of goblins. They are cruel, violent and cunning. Never attack hobgoblins unless you can wipe them out. Are very vindictive, vengeance isn’t a possiblity it is guarantee.

“Ughhh freaking hobgoblins, how many do think there are? How come I can’t see their level and how many hit points they have?”

“Well first, no idea, we have to get closer to look. Second, they’re more than 10 levels higher than you so inspect won’t work.” Then is a hissed voice, “Third, how did you miss the TROLL?!”

Quietly sputtering I said, “Troll? What troll?!” Looking again at the fire I stared and tried to pick out the troll that I must have missed, then what I had assumed was a giant boulder moved.

Mountain Troll

Lvl ????

Smash, eat, smash some more! Not overly bright trolls are incredibly strong and tough. Hopefully you brought more than a few friends to fight them, or you are at least faster than they are when you need to run away.

Face palming, I grumbled, “Well at least we know why this is a level 50 dungeon..”

With a quiet chuckle Wick retorted, “Not quite, as tough as they seem, this would be more a level 20 maybe 25 dungeon. There is way more going on here. We really need more info. Since I know your eyes suck I bet you didn’t see the cages against the wall by the closest fire”

Really trying to will my eyes to see more, I just shook his head. “Nope can’t see them, I really need to get darkvision or something, this sucks. Going by the roaming torch lights it looks like there are 5 scouts walking around. We really need to thin the numbers a bit and get to the cages and see what’s there.”

“Ok, we need to kill scouts that are over 10 levels higher than us without them calling out and bring a literal mountain of pain down on us. All we have are fireballs and mana bolts with no weapons what so ever. Ok no problem, to pull a bit from your history this is like the Kobayashi Maru.”

“Seriously? Star Trek? You root through my mind and you pull that up? Well if you looked further you’d see he beat it, you just have to cheat...” I just looked at Wick and smiled.

After a few minutes of devising a plan and testing some theories I looked at Wick and said, “you ready?”

“This has got to be the craziest and stupidest plan I’ve ever heard of, but hey you’re the boss, lets do this.” Holding out his fist.

Looking at Wicks fist, I shook my head and chuckled, giving him a fist bump.

Pulling out a few stones, I just waited until one of the scouts came close to our rock pile. As soon as one was close enough I started to toss the stones. Starting close to the scout and slowly leading it to where we were.

The scout heard the first bouncing stone. Having been in this cavern for just over a day all they have come across are giant rats. Hoping to find another for dinner the scout thought about his future dinner with a grin on his face.

As the scout neared, I gave Wick a look of “are you ready”, with a firm nodded Wick crouched near the top of their pile. I then dropped what was to be the last stone straight down.

The scout had been following the sound of bouncing stones for about 20 minutes getting closer and closer. His stomach rumbled with the thought of fresh meat. Thinking about having the rotten stew again just made him want the giant rat that much more. Five feet away he saw a stone drop to the ground from one of the decrepit building. Sneaking up to the wall he bent down to pick up the stone. Standing up he looked up to see if he could get a peak at his future dinner. That was to be the last thing he did.

I watched as the scout crept up to the broken wall of the building. When he was right under them I held my bag over the wall and called forth the giant piece of stone I had put into the bag when we conceived this plan. Materializing over the wall the stone fell with all the wonderful gravity this world had to offer. With a sickening (but generally quiet) crunch, I received a notification.

You have killed a Hobgoblin Scout!

225 Exp (doubled to 550)

Congratulations! You have reached Lvl 3! You have 5 points to allocate

375/400 Exp till next lvl

Planning lvl 2,3,4 reached

Congratulations! For devising a plan and killing something over 10 levels higher than you without any of your party taking damage the , “The Path of the Cunning” is open to you!

In a whisper, I grinned like an idiot and said, “I told you it would work!”

“I can’t believe the plan, “lets drop a giant boulder on its head” worked. Well let’s get down there and see what we got.”

Quietly climbing out of their rock pile of a building, we crept our way to our prize. First thing I did was to put the stone back into the bag. Seeing what was left of the hobgoblins head made me throw up a bit in my mouth. “Now that is gross”

“Well that helm isn’t going to be any use anymore but let’s see what else he has.”

Stripping the scout down to his underclothes, (there will NEVER EVER be a time when you will want the underclothes of a hobgoblin), we made a small pile of loot.

You have found:

Worn leather bracers

Defense: +2

Type: Light Armor

Durablility: 4/8

Item Class: Common

Quality: Poor

Weight: 3.2 kg.

Traits: None

You have found:

Worn leather vest

Defense: +7

Type: Light Armor

Durablility: 12/20

Item Class: Common

Quality: Poor

Weight: 5.4kg.

Traits: None

You have found:

Worn leather pants

Defense: +5

Type: Light Armor

Durablility: 9/20

Item Class: Common

Quality: Poor

Weight: 4.1 kg.

Traits: None

You have found:

Dull Iron Knife

Attack: +1-3

Durablility: 7/15

Item Class: Common

Quality: Poor

Weight: 0.6 kg.

You have found:

Dull Iron Scimitar

Attack: +3-7

Durablility: 15/30

Item Class: Common

Quality: Poor

Weight: 1.4 kg.

“Not too bad, though he only had 20 copper on him, do you think you can help me get this stuff to fit? Might help to stop one of the dull weapons from killing me.” Together Wick and I were able to work the straps so that the leather armor fit somewhat. Hobgoblins are taller than regular goblins, but they tend to be around 5 feet tall. So, on my 6’3” frame the leather looked almost childish. In hushed tones I hissed out,“Holy shit! This stuff smells god awful!”

“Speaking barely above a whisper Wick retorted, “What did you expect? It’s hobgoblin armor. They practically live in it, do you think they take the time to wash it? They sweat, eat, shit and fornicate in it. When it gets too small they give it to someone else and they put it on as is, and it repeats until they die and someone else gets it again as is or it falls apart.”

Forcing the bile back down my throat, I strapped the sword and knife to my waist, and threw the body into my bag. Raising an eyebrow Wick looked at me and said, “I may eat giant rat but there is noooo way..” stopping Wick there I held up his hand, “No, just so we can hide the evidence for now, I’ll dump out the bodies later. Now as the wise and venerable shampoo bottles used to say, lets rinse and repeat.”

With the 4 other scouts being further out. Wick was sent to lead the trail of breadcrumbs to the kill spot. Being able to move faster in sneak and having darkvision it was the obvious choice. I would just wait on top in our usual spot and as soon as the scout was under me I would drop the stone. A little over an hour later and I was able to take a look at my notifications.

You have killed a Hobgoblin Scout! X4

1100 Exp (doubled to 2200)

Congratulations! You have reached Lvl 4-5! You have 10 points to allocate

1375/1600 Exp till next lvl

Quickly spending my points. I felt and saw myself improve. My muscles got slightly bigger and more defined, the fat that I had was melting off, breathing felt easier as if someone had taken a weight off his chest. I also felt as if my mind start to clear, like getting a cup of coffee in the morning, everything just felt sharper. “So pretty much all the same crap, more worn leather pieces, another 112 in copper, though the last two had interesting pieces.”

You have found:

Fine Steel Dagger

Attack: +3-6

Durablility: 12/20

Item Class: Common

Quality: Good

Weight: 0.5 kg.

You have found:

Iron Ring of Agility

Durablility: 6/8

Item Class: Uncommon

Quality: Good

Weight: .07 kg.

Traits: +1 to Agility

Dumping the bodies deep in the rubble. I wiped my hands and gave a look to Wick. “Well seems like the easy part is done, shall we go look and see what real trouble we’re in?”

NAME: Thoren Parker

LEVEL: 5

AGE: 22

RACE: Human (Earth End Prot)

EXP: 1375/1600

LANGUAGES: All System Sentient

SOUL COMPANION: Chadwick (Wick)

LIVES: ???? (Bonus Life(s) for EP)

TITLES

Luck Bastard: grants you an additional 100 points in Luck.

STATS

HEALTH: 204

MANA: 165

STAMINA: 204

H REGEN: 9.5/HOUR

M REGEN: 10.25/HOUR

S REGEN: 9.85/MINUTE

ATTRIBUTES

STRENGTH: 22

AGILITY: 16

DEXTERITY: 13

CONSTITUTION: 25

ENDURANCE: 25

INTELLIGENCE: 27

WISDOM: 27

CHARISMA:11

LUCK: 110

RESISTANCES

Fire: 5%

SKILLS

Firestarter. Lvl 1.

Physical Fitness. Lvl 1.

Heavy Blow. Lvl 1.

Camping. Lvl 1.

Dodge. Lvl 1.

Iron Skin. Lvl 1.

Herbalism. Lvl 7.

Fire Resistance. Lvl 1.

Meditation. Lvl 1.

Running. Lvl 1.

Inspect. Lvl 1.

Sneak. Lvl 1.

Planning. Lvl 4.

Mana Bolt. Lvl 1.

Craftsmanship. Lvl 1.

ABILITIES

Gift of Tongues: Due to having a Soul Companion all sentient spoken language known. Written language only in Common and Infernal. Due to vast spoken knowledge written learned 75% faster.

Limitless Potential: Being born human your lives are fleeting. All skills level 50% faster

PATHS OPEN

Support Path 0/10; Risk Taker Path 0/15; Dauntless Path 0/50 ; Lucky Bastard Path 0/50; Path of the Cunning 0/20

PATHS COMPLETED

Newbie Path 7/7; Defense Path 10/10;

DESTINY PATH POINTS AVAILABLE: 7