Caleb was enjoying himself a lot. Magic was real! Even better he seemed to be very talented in its application. He was able to learn how to control his mana after just 24 casts using the wand something neither his godfather nor Jared could replicate even after 100 casts. after learning to control his mana the next step was obvious; create a mana bolt without the wand that took significantly longer mostly because he didn't want to run out of mana before a fight so only let himself get down to 75 mana before waiting for his mana to fully regen something that took an hour if walking, 30 minutes if resting and only 15 minutes if he meditated. He actually learned a skill the first time he tried meditating to relax his mind last night before bed.

**DING** ACQUIRED SKILL, Meditation: doubles stamina and mana regen

Around noon today he finally managed to get it to work right. It was against the Razortailed lynxes that got the jump on them. He had been holding 5 off while Thomas and Jared took care of the other four. it wouldn't half been so hard except the alpha kept shooting mana bolts at him. But at one point everything seemed to click and lifting his left hand he sent a ball of condensed mana, a mana bolt, blasting into the alphas open mouth. Quickly following up by stabbing his sword down into the head of the fucker. With that he heard an always welcome **ding** in his mind letting him now he had acquired a new skill or level.

Pretty soon he killed his second lynx and after that both Jared and Thomas joined him finishing of the rest. Caleb entered meditation trying to regain his mana and stamina as quickly as possible. Jared had said they were at most 2 hours away from the nearest city based off of what he saw the last time he climbed a tree to get a better view which was already 40 minutes ago. Caleb wanted to see what this city was like and hopefully meet a new race. After exiting meditation once he felt his stamina had completely refilled, he decided to check the system notifications he had got followed by his overall gains.

**DING** Razortailed Lynx Alpha level 5 killed Bonus exp earned for killing an enemy above your level. 320 credits and TP earned

**DING** HUMAN(G) has reached level 4. +1 to all stats +10 free points

**DING** Spell Learned, Mana bolt: a bolt of mana that causes damage scales off of intelligence and wisdom.

**DING** Razortailed Lynx Level 4 killed exp split with party. 160 credits and TP earned

**DING** Razortailed Lynx Level 4 killed exp split with party. 160 credits and TP earned

**DING** Razortailed Lynx Level 4 killed exp split with party. 160 credits and TP earned

**DING** Razortailed Lynx Level 5 killed exp split with party. 320 credits and TP earned

STATUS PAGE

NAME: Caleb Fulmen

RACE: Human (G) LEVEL: 0 CLASS: N/A PROFESSION: N/A TITLES:(FORERUNNER OF EARTH) (MASTER OF THE COMMON TONGUE) (PRODIGIOUS LINGUIST) STATS HEALTH (HP): 130/130 STAMINA (SP): 230/230 MANA (MP): 187/210

VITALITY: 13

TOUGHNESS: 12

STRENGTH: 12

AGILITY: 13

ENDURANCE: 11

INTELLIGENCE: 21

WISDOM: 24

WILLPOWER: 22

PERCEPTION: 15

FREE POINTS: 40 INSPECT: Allows user to inspect anything non-sapient. Scales off of wisdom and intelligence. IDENTIFY: Allows user to identify anything sapient. Scales off of wisdom and intelligence

JOURNAL: allows use of system panel to right down thoughts and ideas. Every 5 levels in race adds one panel.

QUICK-STEP: Increases movement speed at the cost of stamina. Scales off of agility and strength

SPELLS MANA BOLT: a bolt of mana that causes damage scales off of intelligence and wisdom.

He was quite proud of his progress, especially in creating a mana bolt. All three of their party had acquired (inspect) (identify) and (journal) as the only one with a requirement was journal and it was low enough most would unlock it as long as they tried to organize their thoughts or ideas. They also all picked up the skill book quick-step from a mini dungeon of rabid bunnies. Thomas though had gotten the best as far as skills/spells went. he found a skill book for (cut) and during the boss fight he somehow learnt the spell minor healing to save his friends life while also unlocking a bloodline. He wouldn't say much about the bloodline just that it was probably why he gained the spell. Though Caleb was somewhat jealous that his godfather got a cool-ass bloodline and even a knew spell, mostly the spell, he was also very happy for him. He was even happy for that Jared guy when he got a skill book for double shot. But after looking at his wallet he felt even happier especially knowing he had more than both old men put together.

SYSTEM WALLET CREDITS: 14,500 TUTORIAL POINTS: 15,500

It had cost 1,000 credits to use the skill book for quick-step, as they currently had no idea how valuable credits actually were it was hard to say if it was a good or bad investment.

Caleb was crouched down waiting. Jared was leading an aquarhino towards his and the old mans ambush. this would be the last fight before they got to the city so they wanted to take a risk. Caleb had just hit level five while both Jared and Thomas were one percent past level four. This rhino was level 14. There source of confidence stemmed from Caleb learning the rune wall after a goblin shaman used it. As long as they timed it right the rhino would crash into the barrier and be stunned allowing the to deal massive damage uncontested. If the timing was off Caleb was probably going to learn how roadkill feels. No pressure, well unless he gets squished then there would be lots of pressure. Time to focus not time for bad puns.

ALL of a sudden he felt the ground shaking, shortly after seeing Jared sprinting down the trail. He looked terrified he also kept screaming "I'm going to kill you". Caleb was glad that his teammate could be so brave to yell those words at the beast chasing him. It was at this point that Caleb finally saw the beast doing a quick INSPECT.

AQUARHINO LVL 14

HP: 2245/2245

SP: 2035/3175

MP: 890/890

Seeing the monster charge Caleb began to shake with anticipation. Finally he would have a challenge. At this point Jared reached him jumping over his head landing directly behind him. This was so the beast would hit the mana wall head on.

Caleb counted down and just as he reached 3 seconds he blasted his mana into the rune for 'wall' that he had painstakingly carved in preparation for this exact moment. A solid blue wall appeared in front of Caleb, yet at the same time sparks began to emit from the rune he had drawn. After testing earlier they new it would last for only 1.2 seconds before it along with the wall would disappear.

CRASH

Luckily that was all the time needed. The beast had crashed into it right on time making it enter a stunned state. Caleb lunged forward sword leading the way as he slammed it into the beast eye of his foe. Jared launched his 'triple shot skill' and Thomas jumped down from the tree above using his skill 'cut'.

The ambush happened perfectly. The only issue was that they were dead ass wrong on how long it would be stunned. Right after Thomas used his skill the rhino awoke and tried to charge Caleb. Caleb managed to dodge with only a light scrape from the horn. But the water bolt the rhino sent next flung Jared through the air. Jared crashed into a tree and puked up blood before passing out.

The rhino was getting ready to charge the downed party member when Caleb sent a mana bolt into its still healing eye. This once again made Caleb the beasts primary target. "Get Jared the fuck out of here!" Caleb yelled while trying to keep dodging. The rhino obviously had higher agility than him and the only reason why Caleb could dodge was his instincts allowing him to take advantage of both his surroundings and the beasts huge size.

After a minute he could no longer hear Thomas or Jared so he figured he was now alone with the beast. That is when a grin appeared on his face. Up until this point he was holding back 2 trump cards. One being that he could lower the cast time of mana bolt from 5 seconds to only half a second. But the one he was referring to was how he modified mana bolt into a spell called mana spear. It required 6 times the mana to cast and only did roughly four times the damage. Some may ask what's the value was then. The answer was simple: penetration.

Caleb continued to dodge as he charged the spell in his left hand. After 12 seconds of dodging and many a scrape and bruise the spell was ready. He decided to aim for just behind the left shoulder as he knew his spell couldn't penetrate the rhino's skull but he hoped that it could destroy the heart of the beast. Right when he lined up his shot he fired a blue spear seeming to fly out of the palm of his hand. The beast roared in pain fear and anger. It stumbled and fell yet tried to stand up again. Caleb refused to give it the chance and using both hands stabbed his sword deep into the gaping wound that his spell had left. Finally heard that most beautiful of sounds.

**DING** Aquarhino Level 14 slain exp split with team. 34,789 credits and TP earned.

**DING** HUMAN(G) has reached level 6. +1 to all stats +10 free points

**DING** HUMAN(G) has reached level 7. +1 to all stats +10 free points

Seeing the notifications from the system made Caleb smile. He loved how simple and frankly easy it was to gain both power and wealth in this new world. And the best part was Magic! Caleb was just about to sit down to rest when he heard a noise in the bush behind him so rushed to turn around blade out in front and a mana bolt already condensing in his off hand."Caleb it's just us." Thomas's voice called out a few second before Caleb saw both him and Jared come through the bushes. Jared looked horrible, his right arm was obviously broken and he was as white as paper, an amazing feat for a black person. luckily with how the new world worked he be in top shape in only a few hours compared to the weeks it would take him on the old Earth. Heck it would take even less time for him to heal with Thomas's magic.

Caleb stood before the city gate looking at the name of the city. Raynthalor, the name was so foreign to his human sensibilities yet seemed so enticing at the same time. Even stranger than the name was what the city was made of. The city was made of black, dark purple and blood red crystals that seemed to have grown into the shape of buildings. After looking around for a bit he and his party walked inside. soon as they crossed the gateway they received a notification.

**DING** Welcome to Raynthalor you have passed the hidden Quest " First to Find a City" awarding one free Cleansing Token.

"Do you think the system wants us to take a bath" Jared asked confused.