Niqel mountain range. Dusk.

Shirley watched the pot of stew boil as Ray held the cauldron in his hands, watching the potion bubble. Normal fire could not be controlled easily for beginners. Hence, one had to insert mana into the cauldron and let the cauldron convert it to heat.

"Are you going to cook for once?" Shirley asked.

"I always burn whatever I cook." Ray shook his head.

"And yet you can make potions."

"They taste bad too..."

"Want me to teach you? Wait, what's that?" Shirley pointed at a black cloud passing by a mountain tip.

"Oh that? Just a bunch of alpine blood bats." Ray glanced at the approaching black cloud.

"Alpine blood bats?"

"Around level 5 creatures. Absolutely hates light and anything that attacked them."

"Should we run or should we believe the repellent?" Shirley sounded concerned.

"Why would we run from free experience points?" Ray asked back.

"How are we going to win?"

"Watch closely my apprentice. Welcome to farming 101." Ray started to place black little flags and magic stones on the ground.

"Who's your apprentice?" Shirley rolled her eyes.

"The outer green formation powered by six medium stones form a protection dome. The inner blue formation powered by three lesser stones regenerates mana. The most inner formation powered by four greater stones... hehe, that's a secret." Ray sat at the center again.

"Wow you are a terrible teacher. Dry, boring, moving too fast, I didn't even see what you did. How much money do you have left after using the greater stones?"

"I'm broke again. Anyways, wake me up after I faint." Ray drank a bottle of mana potion.

"What?"

Attracted by the light, blood bats went kamikaze on the orange dome, forming layers and layers of ripples. Yet the dome withstood the crashes and did not waver.

Ray shot out a thumb-sized grey flare into the cloud of bats and collapsed with a 'thud.'

[Living Fire] was a spell that converted life force into more Living Fire after contacting living flesh. Generally considered useless as it could be easily dodged or blocked with an inanimate object.

Immediately the cloud of black became blazed with the grey fire. As more and more bats dropped from the sky like rain droplets, the ground became a sea of grey.

"Wake up!" Shirley grabbed Ray's collar and shook violently.

"What? Where are we?" Ray robbed his eyes.

"The blood of the dead bats is being drawn into this giant sphere ten feet from our dome. What do we do?!"

"Oh, that's the mini-boss 'avenger of the blood bats'. Inject mana into this until it pulsates a white light. Then chuck." Ray handed over a lighting bead.

With a deafening roar, a man sized bat stuck its hideous head out of the blood cocoon. Ray and Shirley became paralyzed for a moment. The feeling of powerlessness and despair rushed into Ray's heart.

However, before it completely broke free, a tiny bead shot through the cocoon. With a blinding flash and a thunder that rocked the valley, the mini boss was reduced to a pile of ash and a red pellet.

As if signalling the end of battle, cream white vapor steamed off bat corpses and spiralled around Ray and Shirley, eventually permeating their skin.

Some vapor formed a sphere on top of Ray's head, emitting a warm light. As the vapor thinned, the light dimmed.

Ray suddenly opened his eyes and crushed the greater stone in his hand. The four stones surrounding him turned to dust as if they were instantly cremated. The sphere of thin vapor above Ray's head stopped fading away. After condensing into a single drop of clear liquid, it dropped into Ray's mouth.

Ray's dog tag flashed three times. He made it to level 10.

"What was that?" Shirley asked.

"An Easter egg." Ray said without thinking. He felt a little hazy as if drunk after the mana drain. His thought process was a little... malfunctioned.

"What?"

"Nothing." Ray just realized that he accidently spilled some beans.

"Hmm, where did you learn the spells and formations?" Shirley squinted her eyes and stared at Ray.

"It's the same mechanics as Starlight Road One." Ray said without thinking again. He immediately regretted it.

"Haha, I was joking. I'm actually a genius who figured most of it out myself." Ray sweated like crazy.

"Hmm... As your apprentice, can you at least tell me what the last formation did?"

Ray took out his dog tag and activated the status hologram. "You see that green +5% after all my stats, yeah, that means it's temporary. So I drink this potion. khoff, bleh, ugh, disgusting... They turn white and stay permanent at the cost of slower leveling."

Shirley stared goggle-eyed at Ray's status screen. However, before she could ask any further, Ray started snoring.