“Wh-What do you mean you don’t know, sir?”

“Just call me by name, lass,” putting me down, “You know it, right?”

“Well, yes, but… hm?’ I noticed that the rest are not with him, “Where are the others?” asking as I check my Profile Status.

“We split up.”

“Huh?”

“At the same time you passed out, the gate was opened. I told the others to get in while that Traveler and I dealt with the golem, but that thing suddenly has no interest in fighting us, and a moment later, it shattered itself to pieces.”

“What," frowning, "That doesn’t make any sense.”

Turning around, surveying the area, “When we entered the gate, the Traveler went missing and so is the area behind us. Replaced with that large wall full of webs.”

“Hmm…” pondering to myself.

“Know anything about it?”

“Teleportation… maybe,” treating myself to the coldness of the ground. I sat down and check on the party members list, “They’re still alive…”

My chest tightening, “We can take a break for a bit, but we need to hurry and find them before it’s too late.”

“What do you mean?”

“The South Gate is unlike any other gate, sir. There is a reason why many other Travelers have no interest in going this route.”

He sat with me as I took a couple of stones nearby and align them with the things that I’m about to say, “I don’t know the exact layout but this place is supposed to be linear, and this is where we have to go…”

“… Treat it as if there is another group of layers, and we are around here. I’m sure the others are around here somewhere, but each layer always has a secret gate of their own on top of the mini gate that we are going to…

“… We will avoid these secret gates but what I’m worried about is them accidentally entering these abominable things, and not to mention, there is a big monster waiting at each of these mini gates, so our objective is…”

“... We head directly to this ‘mini gate’ after checking this area here,” the path on the left side of us, “Once investigated, we can take care of the mini gate. Make sure it’s safe and sound, ready to be used as a checkpoint. You and whoever we brought from the left side here, if there is any, will stay there as I will search for the rest of the group and brought them back to the checkpoint.”

Stroking his subtle thick beard, “Hmm…”

“How is it?”

“A good plan, but are you sure you can handle it alone?”

“…” there is doubt in his voice. Perfectly reasonable after seeing my performance so far but this time, “I’ll make sure to bring them back.”

Staring at me, our eyes locked onto each other, “All right, I’ll entrust them to you, but lass, don’t push yourself too hard. Come back quickly whenever you need help.”

I nodded, “Mm.”

Still, even I myself am nervous not about the plan itself, but this situation overall. With the kind of Quest I've got, splitting up is the worst thing that could happen to us and it fucking did, goddamn it.

‘I need to bring them back and stat!’

My luck has been terrible so far, ‘Maybe I should invest some points to that attribute. Having good drop rates on things is not so bad of investment too.’

“You seem to be relying a lot on the System. Be careful, lass, being too reliant on it could cost you your life.”

Glancing at him, ‘What is he talking about now. Where could I even go if the System not around? Anyway, focus, Siola.’

I spent all 40 points on the Luck attribute and kept my Primary points for later.

Touching the icon for the [E-Grade Random Item Box], a new menu screen appeared with the box itself is above the red [Open] button.

Clicking on it.

*Wooooooosh *Woosh *Woosh

5 cards, metallic bronze color with silver ornated patterns and one of them has a gold-colored lining, but it has the same bronze color so I’m not expecting a lot from it.

I flipped the first card on the far right.

! {Item Unveiled}

~ {Fatigue Relieve Potion / Tier 1 / Upon full consumption, slightly release tiredness and recover 10% of Maximum Health}

Potions have up to 5 tier levels, and the one that I’ve got is not bad at all for a starting item. But I need more than just this.

My hand staggered for a moment, and after I took a breath, I flip all the cards open.

! {Item Unveiled}

~ {Health Potion / Tier 1 / Recover 10% of Maximum Health}

~ {Telekinesis Skillbook / Rank E-Common}

~ {Wall of Stone Spellbook / Tier 3}

~ {Healing Potion / Tier 1 / Recover 1% health per second, up to 15% of Maximum Health}

My eyes light up, ‘All right, finally, things are going my way now.’

A skill-type Telekinesis is different than the spell-type one, mainly because it won’t take up a slot on the latter on top of a few % effectiveness.

Yes, a player can only hold up to 5 spells at a time. Once a player learns more than that very limited quantity, the first one they learn will automatically be erased.

… And the process of erasing it is quite a painful one, not that it will hurt you physically of course. On top of that it cost real money to erase it, and a good chunk of it too, but it also gonna needs you to handle several hours of absolute head-spinning meditation.

‘Hm?’ wait a minute, ‘I can only pick one of these items???’

Gritting my teeth at the sight of the worst system ever, ‘So the update hasn’t come around yet? Fuuuuuuuuuuuck! I just wasted a whole 40 points on this!’

‘No, come on, Siola. It’s an investment, just make do with what you have now.’

The Wall of Stone Spellbook, ‘I don’t remember the spell being anything useful but I have used it before.’

Tiers of spells are simplistic for up to Tier 11 and they have their own codename.

Basic > Intermediate > Advanced > Expert > Master > Extreme > Supreme > Mega > Ultimate > Maximum > Overdrive

‘I don’t remember the Wall of Stone spell has any evolution too, but I'm not saying that it’s going to be that bad of a spell even if it doesn’t have one.’

‘Telekinesis just won’t cut it so pretty much leaves the Wall of Stone. It feels like the System wants me to have this... why not, I guess.’

! {Item Received}

I took the book out of the inventory and kept in my arm, “All right, let’s go.” Boland nodded and followed me from the side.

…

==== Quick Status ====

Statistics

Name: --- / Level: 5 / Class: Mage

Primary Attributes (1200)

Max Health: 700 | Max Mana: 400 | Max Stamina: 1300

Health: 700 | Mana: 400 | Stamina: 1300

Secondary Attributes

Strength: 20 / Dexterity: 10 / Endurance: 20

Vitality: 0 / Agility: 12

Intelligence: 13 / Faith: 0 / Luck: 45

Combat

Physical Attack: 20 (+10) | 7 (+5) / Physical Defense: 0 (+10)

Magical Attack: 15 (+5) / Magical Defense: 0 (+5)

Health Regeneration: 1 / Mana Regeneration: 2 / Stamina Regeneration: 1

==== Quick Status ====

! {Playback Started}

~ {In Queue: AID Command – Repeated)

*Badum *Badum *Badum

I kind of get it now why that golem is all mossy, this place reeks in dark green plants. Not in a good way too. Making my heart beating so fast.

‘Boland seems to be tightening his butt cheeks, I should make haste.’

Finished reading every single word of the not-so-thin Spellbook.

! {New Spell has been Learned}

~ {Wall of Stone / Advanced / Conjure a 5ft tall stone wall at target location / Mana Consumption: 150 / Cooldown: 10s / Requirement: 30 Intelligence}

~ {1/5 Slot}

‘Don’t have enough stats for it, huh.’

No matter, I’m close to leveling up anyway, so it should be fine.

At a steady pace, we marched onward while fully guarded ourselves.

Then I caught an enemy hiding behind a rock on the sideway. Small, like the size of a goblin but it has wings and the color of its skin is red.

‘A demon— no, a demonic undead.’

Missed the little details about the fact that its skin is rotting. I can see it, even without a night-vision spell, I can see it clearly thanks to my well-maintained eyes.

I signaled Boland to stop. Whispering, “Behind that rock. I’ll take the hit. You aim for the head.”

“Wait—”

Dashing towards it as it was jumped by the sudden action I took, quickly taking my axe out of the inventory, I leaped over the rock and slice the fucking thing.

*Woosh*

It evaded and instantly retaliate.

*Bam *Bam *Bam

Blocking it with the weapon I have, I can see where his claws are gonna go. However, doing it like this makes my Stamina meter falling off the ceiling.

*Slash *BANG

Boland came in and sliced the monster’s head but it didn’t cut deep enough as it was struck and left staggered on the rock. I quickly take my dagger out, the [Boland Stone Shiv] and shove it up its ass… grinding it up as I swirl it inside.

*Grraaaaaaaaaaaaaagh*

Well, I mean, if its skull is thicc, so… I should aim for the meat, right?

Then I stab its head with the axe and finished it off.

*Taks*

{+400 Exp}

“That was… quite a unique way of killing things.”

D-Don’t say it! I know it’s embarrassing but it was the only way I can think of killing this thing. My memories of common enemies are vague, so I don’t really know the most efficient way of killing them other than using a Crowd Control destruction spell. So, don't judge me!

Continuing on, we encountered many more of that creature.

Turns out, it was not that big of a deal, and Boland even managed to do a number on them without even using his skills. And an even better news than that.

! {Level UP}

Just sliding that slider all the way…

==== Quick Status ====

Statistics

Name: --- / Level: 6 / Class: Mage

Primary Attributes

Max Health: 700 | Max Mana: 2200 | Max Stamina: 1300

Health: 700 | Mana: 2200 | Stamina: 1300

Secondary Attributes

Strength: 20 / Dexterity: 10 / Endurance: 20

Vitality: 0 / Agility: 15

Intelligence: 30 / Faith: 0 / Luck: 45

Combat

Physical Attack: 20 (+10) | 7 (+5) / Physical Defense: 0 (+10)

Magical Attack: 15 (+15) / Magical Defense: 0 (+10)

Health Regeneration: 1 / Mana Regeneration: 4 / Stamina Regeneration: 1

==== Quick Status ====

Quite disappointed to see that Magical Defense can only go up at no points higher than the bonus for the Physical Defense no matter how high the Intelligence and Faith stats there is, so basically, a cap limitation.

Nonetheless, I feel a lot of power growing inside me when I intended to use the new spell, it’s as if the system is recognizing my intention and what I wanted to do, and the system does it for me.

Some sort of magical aura brimming out of my arm, I directed it at the ground where those monsters are standing and clenching it tight as I bring it up.

*Boom*

{180}

Not even a critical, but the firepower is so high that it even managed to kill them. “Heh, so I can use it as a weapon too?”

Now I’m starting to l-o-v-e this spell… and even more so for this awesome game.