*Kreeeeeech*

When the leech is screaming in pain as it burns. Galliano noticed it and our eyes met. And also, I don't really know how these leeches actually made a sound though.

Forming my palm to another one that is turning towards me, “Combustion!”

*Bwoosh*

I propelled myself back and yelled out, “Ey yo, G! Back away a bit!”

He did as I said after smacking a leech.

Quickly, I took out my axe and swing it down in his direction, “Wall of Stone!”

*Boom*

I repeat blocking the leeches pathing and turns them against me. Once I have all of their attention, the rest are simply a breeze from here.

…

As the leeches are turning into crisps. The ashes of their former skin flew in the air… alongside their Experience Points, getting sucked into my butt.

! {Level UP}

! {Novice – Milestone Progressed}

~ {Mage – Available Elemental Upgrade: Fire / Earth}

‘Hm, I see. Players can only upgrade the element they have been using. Now, this is quite… a steep drawback for playing this class, I guess.’

It seems that the incoming Exp is in Pending too. I need to choose, and I have to do it soon - like, right now - since there’s a countdown below those Exp. Shit, just how unfair is this game can be?

‘But... which one should I choose though?’

Fire is the most effective, and the one that I have with me - Combustion - is a skill but it counts as a Spell of the Arcane so it would benefit me if I chose the Fire element, but damn, am I really going to invest such an important point on a low tier spell?

I like the Wall of Stone more, and in terms of usefulness, many Earth spells are very much “essential” for playing as a party, in general.

‘Oh well, I need to focus on the situation at hand. Let’s take Fire for now. This type of spell is the most useful in this place since I’ve been and will be dealing with - mostly - the undead.’

Kind of regretting playing Realism Mode right now, or maybe it's just many updates and quality of life changes that I have been used to for a while haven't arrived yet. Maybe I'll make another character to test that out.

! {Element Upgraded}

~ {Related Skills have been and will be transferred into Innate Ability}

~ {Combustion have evolved into Ignition}

~ {Ignition / Rank E-Uncommon / Tier 1 Spell / Coat a part of oneself in flame, able to active Combustion at will once the skill is in effect / Mana Consumption: 100 + 10/s / Cooldown: None / Requirement: 10 Intelligence, 10 Faith}

‘Hoho, now this is a good upgrade.’

Not only that I can spam Combustion at no cost, but it’s also going to be much stronger now since it is in fact, an Innate Ability. The general rule of tiers within the Profile Status is basically Spell / Miracle > Skill > Innate Ability

And of course, I meant that the Innate Ability is better than the Spell / Miracle, not the other way around.

*Pant *Pant

Forgot that Galliano was here. Hmph, I need to start paying more attention to my surrounding, “You okay?”

“Woo,” shaking his head, “Thank god you came just in time, man. These warnings keep popping in my head like crazy! Thought for sure that I only have to worry about that bitch, but turns out… man, never thought that the South Gate was going to be this nail in the butt.”

“Heh, bet it’s not as hard as what you’re packing in there, baby. Just stay here, okay? I’m gonna get Dura back here.”

He nodded with a wounded face. Players can never be injured for real, even if they were cut in half, their mind is always protected.

Though, stress is a different thing. No amount of advancement in technology can even cure anything related to mental injury, not even biological medicine can do it either - especially, one that has no side effect upon consumption... or injection.

After spending some time back and forth, I managed to get Dura back to the swamp. There is a reason for me to bring them in one place instead of catching up with Dura. Welp, it’s just much safer to fight something you can manage rather than the unknown and the unbeatable, plus I can have an easier time monitoring everyone this way.

The old man’s wound is rather deeper than I thought, but it’s nothing life-threatening to the point that he can’t move. I don't want to spend my legendary item just on that too.

But all of them are heavily exhausted, and I’m sure the unconscious ones are as well. “Heheh, I need to stop horsing around now,” I noticed Dura is doing something with the corpse of that thing, “Hey, D. What are you up to?”

Cutting the flesh of the leech with the blade he lent me, “We need energy, nutrition… protein.”

“Huh?”

*Slice*

“Here, you can have the liver.”

“W-Woah, woah, woah, hold up there. I’m not desperate enough to eat a monster’s corpse, baby. Imagine the germs and—”

“Stop being picky and take it, you some princess or something? Here.”

Well, I am, sir.

Rolling my eyes, I took it since he’s insisted on it.

! {Item Received}

~ {Cooked Boa Liver / Increase Health Regeneration by 2 for 1 hour}

Well, I don’t need to eat it but, why not? I always wondered what those OP monster-eater protagonists feels like when they taste thi—

*Cough*

“Bleeergh~”

“Kid, that’s disgusting. Just swallow it, you don’t need to chew or even taste it.”

I did what he said and it went down the drain like I’m sipping a porridge, ‘Didn’t really taste like anything though but the textures are disgusting as hell.’

“You want some too, Traveler?”

He shook his head, “No, I’m good. Thanks.”

“Hmph, suit yourself.”

There doesn’t seem to be any bad blood between them. That’s good, we’re gonna need everyone to be in the same page if we want to survive this place - not really.

Speaking of everyone though, one by one, the old men are waking up.

I assisted on serving them a plate of the not so delicious monster’s meat and they gobble it up without a care in the world. Looks like it’s normal to eat monster’s meat in this world, and that is quite the news for me.

I didn’t really explore or even care that much on how people live in this world since I was just interested in the lore of things. Anyway, I told them about everything. What is going on and how do I get here, including the huge frog in the midway to this place.

There is nothing to strategize about, I was originally intended to kill it with my own hands anyway, and I don’t want anyone to have the share of the juicy Exp that thing is going to give me. Galliano seems to have leveled up too, so I’m sure he can take of these old peeps while I dealt with that thing.

Then, I have this plan that I was going to distract the giant frog while they sneak around and rendezvous with Boland.

The safety of the group is the top priority, and even though it’s obvious that I insisted so much on it, Galliano didn’t ask me a question of why and what for.

I appreciate it that he allowed me to keep my privacy, not that it really it either.

==== Quick Status ====

Statistics

Name: --- / Level: 10 / Class: Mage

Primary Attributes

Max Health: 1000 | Max Mana: 4000 | Max Stamina: 1600

Health: 1000 | Mana: 4000 | Stamina: 1600

Secondary Attributes

Strength: 20 / Dexterity: 10 / Endurance: 20

Vitality: 0 / Agility: 20

Intelligence: 80 / Faith: 20 / Luck: 50

Combat

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

Magical Attack: 15 (+50) / Magical Defense: 0 (+10)

Health Regeneration: 1 / Mana Regeneration: 11 / Stamina Regeneration: 1

==== Quick Status ====

“Now then,” with the frog is still sitting idle and the boys are ready to go, “I should go higher and probably aim for the eyes.”

So, I went up to the level of the small hill and mumbled, “Ignition.”

Dashing onward as I went aflame, running, and then jumped over the high ground with my hand ready to strike, “Combustion!”

*BWOOOSH*

{800}

Trail of flame brushes through its eyes.

*Krooooooaaaaaaaaack*

It's making so loud noises, and when it opens its mouth, I’m bound to get swallowed by that thing, “Well, feel free to do that, my boy!”

*Flap*

The frog wrapped me up in its tongue and send me in.

“He—!”

A familiar voice, ‘Quickly, before this thing moves...' pulling the keyboard in my mind, 'Don’t worry, baby, I’m fine. Just make sure you bring those old peeps to the NPC that I left at the mini gate… and sent.’

A message is important at this point, ‘Now then, I can’t see anything, and I don’t seem to be damaged either. In fact, I’m dealing quite the damage right now.

*Groooooahhh*

“That’s right, boy! You’re fucked up!” concentrating my energy to dual casting this without blowing them, “Combustion!”

*BOOM*

{1200}

In slow motion, I was untangled by the frog’s tongue and swirl around as I prepare another explosion, “Combustion!”

*BOOM*

{1800}

I feel myself shaking, the frog is in chaos.

Quickly bringing up the Quick Status for a sec, I glanced at it and grinned at the sight of my current Mana is still a long way to go before it’s depleted - like, by a very long mile or whatever.

“Hohoho, too bad, boy. Too bad. You should've chased me instead of going for a non-existent butterfly.”

Making a hole in my hand, “Combustion!”

*BWOOOOSH*

{4000}

Straight to its throat. ‘So, the shape of my hand can determine the focused pathing and change the effect of the spell, huh. How immersive.’

“Combustion!”

*BWOOOOSH*

My head suddenly cracked, “Combustion!!”

*BWOOOOOSH*

“Combustion!!”

*BWOOOOOOSH*

“COMBUSTION!!!!!”

*BWOOOOOOOOOSH*

The fire that has surrounded me and coated my body from inside and out has started to shake. As they smoke my mouth full, I mumbled, “These flames… are mine.”

! {Mastery Achieved}

~ {Dealt 100.000 Damage with Fire Element}

~ {Title Obtained: Fire Wielder / Increases the Potency of all Fire-type abilities}

~ {Fire Wielder title has coincided with the existing Class}

~ {Pyromancer Subclass has been unlocked}

~ {Fire Wielder / Level 2 / Greatly increases the Potency of all Fire-type abilities and unlock all type of fire enhancement effect hidden within all Pyro catalyst}

! {New Quest Received}

~ {Acquisition Aflame / Rank D / Objective: (1) Dealt 1.000.000 Damage with Fire Element, (2) Burn 100.000 Enemies, (3) Ignition Tier 2 / Reward: Pyromancy Guidance / Additional Reward: 1 [D-Grade Pyromancy Box], 2 [E-Grade Pyromancy Box}

~ {The main Reward will be given once 2 out of the 3 objectives that are available have been completed}

~ {The completion of all objectives is required to receive the Additional Reward}

Tilting the left side of my brow as the flames around me violently radiating even brighter, 'Heeh, interesting.' Shaping my hand again, I muttered the skill once again, “Combustion.”

*BWOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH*

{80.000}

The inside of the frog’s mouth was charred while still in flame.

*BOOM*

No longer shaking, ‘Looks like it’s over.’

! {Level UP}

! {Level UP}

! {Level UP}

! {Level UP}

! {Level UP}

! {Level UP}

! {Boss Defeated}

~ {Loot Obtained: D-Grade Random Item Box}

~ {Special Loot Obtained: Diamond of Genoa / Epic / Effect: Boost any liquidation-type abilities / Requirement: 200 Vitality}

"Didn't even get the chance to use it, huh. Poor thing." Opening the frog’s mouth by burning it with my own body, and as it melts, I walked out coated in its blood but it all went away as I turn off the flame.

“Mhm.”

Brushing the dust off my shoulders, stretching my arms left and right, I gripped my fist tight in the air and pull it, “Hell yeah!!! That’s what I’m talking about, man!”

“Shit, I. AM. THE. GOAT, BABY!”

“The G.O.A.T, you hear?!”

“You can’t beat me with that bitch ass of a monster! That's like a toddler-level enemy, not for a fucking grown-ass champ like me!” all right, that’s enough, “Need to check on my boys…” dashing onward with my brows settled in, “I hope they’re okay.”