The new recruits were waiting behind the wall. A good distance away, in case Ronny and Enzi got killed and the ‘Rockjaw Beetle’ was still hungry for blood afterwards, but they hadn’t completely abandoned the construction site yet.

Ronny and Enzi sat themselves down on an old bench. It broke when Enzi put his weight on it and he fell through it. That got a few nervous laughs.

This time, Ronny helped him up. He then turned to the crowd surrounding them, “Is anyone hurt?”

“None other than the one you guys saved.” One of the more capable woods stepped forward, “They should live, but won’t be able to work for a while.”

“That’s good. All that matters is that they’re safe.” Ronny smiled gingerly and got up. He walked to the pay dispenser and took his compensation for the day. 90 silver. Enzi did the same. 1 gold and 40 silver for him. Ronny turned back to the crowd, “Where can I find them?”

The fledgling masons led him to a pile of hay, on which the injured his injured apprentice laid. They weakly looked up at him as he approached, “T-thank you, sir.”

“Don’t thank me. I realize now that its my fault that you got hurt today. I should have listened to the warning about the forest.” Ronny bit his lip, “As such, I want you to have this, “Ronny put his bag of coins from the day next to their chest, “90 silver. It should cover you for a few days. Don’t come to work until you’re healed.”

The newbie nodded silently. His audience, somewhat baffled by the stark contrast in personality from what they’d seen earlier that day, started to cheer but Ronny silenced them.

“From tomorrow onwards, I’ll do what I can to keep all of you away from the forest. I don’t want you guys to die too…” He started walking away from the construction site, but called back to his people as he walked, “Collect your pay and leave. Let’s call it a day.”

As Enzi and Ronny travelled to the Inn, Enzi tried to make small talk, but Ronny wasn’t really listening. Instead, he examined his stat sheet.

LEVEL: 10

STATS:

STRENGTH: 15 DEFTNESS: 8 MAGIC: 2

ACTIVE EFFECTS: None

PASSIVE EFFECTS: Magic Detection (LVL 1), Team (Enzi Adeyemi)

SKILLS:

Scan Detect Life (MAGIC, LVL 1)

There was a lot to unpack. First off, there was a whole new category. ‘LEVEL’ stood at the top of the sheet in big, bold letters. Focusing on it, System gave him some information.

“A numerical value representing an estimate of one’s capabilities. Calculated using stats. Can be improved by killing things—or to a lesser extent, training.”

An interesting development. He remembered the Scan ability he’d since he arrived in the new world. It was supposed to tell him what level anything he used it on, provided that they were less than ten levels above him. Using it on Enzi yielded a value of 16. He really was a good bit stronger.

Then his attention turned to the new passive effect, Team. The System had put Enzi’s name in parenthesis around it, which was odd. He didn’t know what to make of it but resolved to find out as soon as he could.

The last thing he noted was that all his stats had increased by one. That probably came with the level up. Crazy stuff, he thought. The increase was equal to at least a few days of practice; and it only took almost getting killed by a bug to obtain. If he could ‘mass produce’ similar encounters, Ronny knew that his growth would be immense.

Eventually, they came to the Inn. Before they could enter, Alice came out through the door and greeted them. Theo was absent, “Good afternoon! You’re home early… and you brought Mr. Adeyemi?” She smirked, remembering how adamant he’d been about keeping the Demon away from the Inn.

“He followed me.” Ronny used scan on Alice, just to see what would happen.

The response didn’t come as a surprise, “ERROR: Target is too high level for this ability.” She had claimed to be Mythrill level a few days before, and her demonstrations added credibility to the claim. He wondered how far above his ability’s range Alice was.

She craned her neck up to Enzi, “I trust that you found some money?”

“Yes! I work at the same place as Ronny now. It’s a good job.” He dropped ten silver coins into her hand.

“I’m glad to hear it. Well come then, let me show you to your room.” They all went inside, though Enzi had some trouble getting through the door, “Are you planning on staying here for a few nights or do you intend on living here?”

“I’d like to live here, if possible. I like how its away from the crowds everywhere else in the city.”

“In that case, we’ll have to make some renovations.” Enzi put his foot on one of the stairs, and it cracked under his weight. “A lot of renovations!”

With careful feet, Enzi managed to get past the first flight of stairs, Alice opened the door and gestured for Enzi got enter, but the frame was simply too small. Slipping past it was impossible and Alice realized that quickly.

“Step back,” she said. After the others obeyed, she put her palm flat on the wall and shook her head. Next, there was a violent blast. The recoil of which, almost knocked the men behind her over. When the dust cleared, the wall was gone. Amazingly, the rest of the area was mostly undamaged. “That should do it. Sorry that there isn’t a lot of privacy… but we’ll address that tomorrow. I promise you that.”

Enzi had wide eyes, “R-right… Do what you like.” He’d seen magic before, but rarely anything like that. The level of power and more impressively, control, was something that he thought not even some of the very best soldiers in the Demon Army could pull off. It was very off-putting for what he thought was just a random Innkeeper to have that kind of skill.

They walked into the room. It way too small for him, with ceilings at chest-height and too undersized for him to straighten his legs when laying down.

“It is what it is, “he thought, “Better than the streets.”