*DING*

Notice: You have gained a level!

Baffled, Neira stared at the floating screen. It’s been a while since she saw that. She was what, nine? Yes. That was around that time. After that…

“Status”

*DING*

Name: Neira Gender: Female Level: 58 Age: 21 Race: Demi Class: None HP 1283 / 1553 MP 185 / 185 P.att 2852 M.att 166 P.def 2008 M.def 289 STR 232 INT 225 CON 207 VIT 9 DEX 101 MEN 15 Racial traits: Base HP +21%, Base P.Def +11%, Keen senses, Survival instinct Status: Permanent property of Joe Level UP! : You have 13 unassigned skill points remaining Noh Panthies : HP +5%, MP +5% Heavy Armor: P.Def +1362, Slashing damage received -75%, Blunt Damage received -45%, Movement speed -7%, Cannot swim wile equipped. Sword mastery - Level 2: From equipment P.Att +429, It looks as if you know what you’re doing. Try not to stab yourself. Hand to hand Combat – Level 69: From equipment P.Att +190, Your heavy punches penetrate deep into your target, on critical hit ignores up to 1748 armor, Chance to damage or destroy opponents armor 2%, Chance to apply status crippled 11% Malnourished: P.Att -24%, 89 days until full recovery, overeating can make you sick Soul Link: Based on your master’s affinity towards you, Master Item Box access Slave Codex: I. Protect your master and his possessions, II. Never lie to your master, III. You are not allowed to keep secrets from your master, IV. Protect yourself Siphon: 95% of your earned XP is consumed by your master

”That lazy ass bastard…”

She dismissed the screen, cleaned her sword against the corpse, pick up the body and shoved it into the item box alongside the rest of their prey.

Monster hunting he said… All that lazy ass did was sitting in the shade and reading a book while sucking away her XP. For all she knew he might been staring blankly into space since he hardly ever moved. What a troublesome master she got herself.

Well, he did cook and the food was delicious and the fun they had after a day of work… Her mouth began drooling and her belly growled in the anticipation of what was to come. Maybe she should finish sooner today? There was hardly anything alive left in this area and critters with at least half a brain started outright avoiding them.

She did one more sweep of the fields and after finding nothing, trotted towards their camp guided by the smell of roasted meat.

What a reliable lazy ass of a master she had. Aside from the near charred, thin slices of soft meat her master ate, two large, rare made steaks with bones waited for her near the fire. She unstrapped her armor and sitting cross-legged, begun devouring her meal. In the silence of the field only the rustle of turned pages and the crackling of bones in her teeth could be heard. Her master did not even bat an eye at her. Annoying lazy bastard.

Neira yawned and stretched. It was time for a nap before the evening hunt but first...

Was it noon already? Joe raised his eyebrow staring at the Demi sprawled over his lap. Somehow it became her favorite spot whenever she wished to annoy him.

*DING*

Notice: All grind and no play made your slave stressed out. Your slave is bored and stressed. She will ignore your non-enforced orders. Seal of obedience and total control remain in effect.

This again? He let out a sigh and rubbed her fluffy butt. Somewhere around her tail there was a certain spot...

”Oy! Bad Master. Not there...lower...mmm...therrrre...”

Joe worked his fingers until laud stead rumble filled the air. It was a sign he should stop unless he wished to waste a whole evening. Demi were too easy in that regard and pass a certain point they wouldn’t let you go until you’d finished what you started. He gave her butt a final pat and went back to his lecture.

Yeigreds val Norin preface to aethereal or Magic 101 for idiots as Joe called it, dealt with quite the interesting stuff. Such as the pillars of magic, the mana theorem and basic exercises for mana control. It also covered the link between gods and magic, most commonly known as the job system. And all that for a measly sum of a hundred gold. Outstanding.

This world had eight gods regarded as the main deities, each presiding over eight classes and each class based its skills on one of the four pillars of magic or a mix of thereof.

Elemental magic focused on harnessing the power of fire, water, earth, air and every in between like wood, thunder, smoke, etc...

Summoning magic that dealt with spirits.

Light magic. The holy and recovery magic governed by certain unmentionable... Joe bit his tongue stopping himself mid word. Potatoes, plenty of potatoes. Large fields of potatoes...

Last, least understood pillar, the Timespace magic baffled sages for ages. It played a crucial role in many spells such as the creation of pocket dimensions or speeding up the body recovery, slowing an infection or helping the crops grow. There were countless spells associated with it but the understanding of the pillar itself compared to the remaining three left much to desire. Many people used it but no one really knew how it worked.

Joe let out a sigh and put down the book. Out of the eight known deities, the one who should not be mentioned had strict monopoly over healing and recovery magic.

One could use potions, charms and antidotes but any injury after a certain point required the attention of a healer and healers were all the followers of... Potatoes, potatoes... large fields of potatoes...

One could spend years mastering the basics of light magic but without the convenient shortcut the god given classes provided, healing anything beyond a common scratch was impossible.

Was there any other way?

The enchanter class under the patronage of Kunfayo seemed worthwhile as it allowed the practitioner to bestow certain effects upon magical items, healing included.

But then came another obstacle. As a follower of darkness, no entity would recognize him as worthy of bestowing a class upon him.

Joe wondered. He had one skill that could heal others.

”Describe True Heal”

*DING!*

True Heal Current skill level 1 The true understanding of light and darkness, of life and death allows you to truly heal others as you understand the cause and effects of the damage done to their body and soul. Life and death have no secrets before you. Skill effect: Recovery effect: 60% of target’s missing HP recovered upon use Life drain: User HP -1000 per use, Repeated use will cause “Weaken” status, Using the skill with HP lower than required may cause death. Removes: Poison VI or lower, Bleeding VI or lower, Crippled, Soul damage stage I , Frozen VI or lower, Petrify VI or lower, Dispel Curse II or lower Reassemble: Ability to reattach lost limbs. Requires sewing kit. The limb must be fresh or well preserved. The limb must be compatible with the socket it is being attached to. Does not work on severed heads. For more advanced corpse assembly, see Animation, Reanimation and Resurrection.

And all he had were measly two hundred health points...

”Status”

*DING*

Name: Joe Gender: Male Level: 27 Age: 0 (40) Race: Looks like Human Class: Costume maker HP 254 /254 MP 300 / 115 (+185) P.att 138 M.att 113 P.def 856 M.def 193 STR 28 INT 360 CON 45 VIT 7 DEX 7 MEN 10 Racial traits: _Unknown_ Status: High Int: Reading speed +60%, Understanding +30%, Perfect memory Level UP! : You have 332 unassigned skill points remaining Noh Panthies : HP +1%, MP +1% , Stamina+1%, Recovery Speed+1% Light Armor: P.Def +723, Slashing damage received -45%, Blunt Damage received -15%, Movement speed -11% (low strength), Hidden armor Soul Link: The soul of your slave is at your disposal, MP +185 , Life Force drain available, Total control available, Item box sharing active, Experience siphon active, Mind share (requires Necromancy level 3) Lazy ass buffer: Recovery magic +30% and P.Att -60%, Your body is able to handle quick, repetitive bursts of high energy outputs for a prolonged period of time as your body provides little to no resistance towards mana transfer. Pervert: Mood +500, XP+5%, Stamina +10%, Hands of pleasure active, Always ready active Favor of Darkness: _Unknown_ Endless Run: Stamina does not decrease while running for your life. Will result in temporary 90% decrease in all stats after reaching safety Coward: P.Def+20% while using someone as a body shield. P.Def + 15% While hiding under a table. Hitting someone that cannot fight back has 65% probability of critical hit. You can run away even if you have sworn to stay and fight as a result you will receive double the negative fame. Includes pacts taken under Geas Money Lover: Mood -1000, you are low on gold. Please collect more. Cheapskate active. Purification: Poison immunity, Dead rot immunity, Disease immunity, Due to your body aura items in your possession will be cleansed overtime of any harmful effects. Touched by DEATH: Calm in the face of apparent death. Death Sight: Considering your profession it is natural for you to see HER even though others may not. Be warned tho, talking to yourself in public is not a good sign. This skill also reveals the presence of souls, spirits and deities.

He scratched his head. His stats and skills were all over the place. And what's with all those unknowns?

In theory his high intelligence would allow him to quickly master all kinds of advanced magic but getting anywhere without a deity patronage or access to more advanced spell book was nigh impossible. One milion gold for a fireball?! Come on! Not to mention his preferred branch of magic became a forbidden territory thanks to...

Potatoes, potatoes, fields of potatoes...

So what left? Path of a warrior? A sword master with a bit of magic mixed in? No. It would be a waste with his current stats and the amount of time required to master proper fighting techniques outweighed any of their usability.

No. That was not the way to go.

Costume Maker? Joe watched the name wandering. It became his main class after he lost all the healing abilities. Oh. Perhaps...

Joe browsed through the skills and designs the job provided. Not that bad. Some of those could be worth a bit of gold. Even more if sold to a proper buyer. That would take care of his income plus whatever else they could get from selling surplus resources. After accumulating some wealth, he might reconsider his choices.

Now, what about his survival? He probably gonna need more strength if he ever will wear something better than his current light armor which in fact was too heavy for him. But that can wait, right now he needed a way to survive an attack that eventually would come his way. A way to soak some damage and give Neira enough time to deal with the threat.

He got one idea.

”This better be worth it”

He put all his skill points into his constitution and saved the changes.

*DING*

Through special action new skill was created! Tough Body added! You may not be able to pick up a rock but you sure know how to take a hit. Skill effect: HP Boost: HP +72% Stamina Boost: +60% HP Recovery: HP +257/h Damage resistance: Incoming damage -10% Damage absorption: Can absorb damage up to twice the current constitution level.

Nice. That turned out kind of nice. With this he might be even able to withstand one of Neira’s kicks... Or maybe not. An image of his slave splattered with guts and blood passed his mind. That was the result of her punch stopping a giant boar mid-charge. Intestines flying everywhere.

”What?”

She gave him a curious look.

”Why’d ya stop? Not yet... Continue!”

She grabbed his hand and put it back on her swinging butt. Joe let out a sigh, it will be a long night.

***

Somewhere in the ocean, on a long forgotten island, deep within bottomless caves where light never reached a troubled voice could be heard.

”Oh dear, oh dear...”

A chain forged by forgotten gods, hanged broken between two troubled tentacles.

”It got out.”