Gael placed the ring on his finger, and circulated his mana to bound it. He instantly felt a connection forming with the object. The ring was a special item which was rare to find outside of the tutorial, only a few people could create them. They turned the life of their users easier.

He didn’t have to keep on carrying the herbs that he collected on his backpack anymore. He hovered his hand above the herbs, and they ‘disappeared’.

He felt the space connected to his mind, and saw the herbs there. Although the ring was really useful, it couldn’t be used during combat. To place or to take something from it, the user had to stay still while doing it.

He thought of transforming those herbs into pills, which would enhance their effects and lower the space they occupied in the ring, but in the end it was not worth it. Each pill would require a payment to Monoceros, and that would diminish the funds he had to buy a powerful skill. Nevertheless, he was happy that he had the ring now.

Many tried to find a loophole in which they could use the space ring in combat, but nothing could be done about it.

With everything ready, Gael departed from the camp. He had memorized the map when he looked at it, and with his previous knowledge of the surrounding lands, finding the camps would not be hard.

He departed the camp with the sun shining over his head. He ran amidst the trees like a gale. His body had reached a marvelous level. Feeling your body getting stronger, jumping higher and running faster was a marvelous feeling.

Gael walked through the forest for roughly five hours before arriving near the next camp. The sun was already setting on the horizon, and the forest was becoming quieter. The birds that made the forest liveful had just returned to their homes, leaving only the buzzing of insects behind.

He looked up and saw the smoke coming from the camp.

Getting closer to the place, He slowed down, but didn’t stop. The mission he had now was too important, and staying still was not an option.

As soon as he left the forest, he saw the camp. Unlike the camp he hailed from, this one was faring much worse, only by looking at the people you’d realize that. From the original two hundred, only forty something where left, less than half of what his camp had.

The people had wounds all over their bodies, and their weapons were not that good.

Gael had asked for Monoceros to make a weapon for him, but others were not the same. Finding the ores to make a weapon was very hard. And even if you could find some ores, you’d only know their properties by making a weapon out of them, or by having prior knowledge.

How could novices know where to find ores and what their properties were? They obviously chose to ignore the option given by the guide to make their own weapons, and bought theirs directly from it.

The weapons sold at the store ranged from basic weapons made from common materials, like a fireman’s axe, to a magic axe with enchantments, that could offer different effects.

There were some really good weapons sold by the store, but two things stopped Gael from buying one.

The first thing was power. Although the weapons were powerful, they would lose their values quickly, after all, who would have the capability to restore a weapon in the tutorial? Even an enchanted weapon was not invincible. The runes wore out, and the weapon got destroyed from excessive use. He knew that if he had bought a weapon at the store, it would be unusable by now from how much he had fought.

The second reason was potential. Weapons bought in the store couldn’t receive more enchantments in the future. The more you specialized, the more enchantments you had to put on your weapons. If you had a skill related to fire, putting enchantments to augment fire attacks was a must, but only a single enchantment wouldn’t suffice most times, and several should be put on a weapon.

Because of these reasons, he chose to make his own glaive. It’s potential wasn’t restricted by the system, as it was made by materials found by him, and not bought directly from the store. And together with the fact it had a growth enchantment allowing it to grow more powerful in the future made it even better.

Not even counting the fact that his glaive was made of special materials that were hard to find even after the tutorial.

The weapons wielded by the survivors of this camp were mostly weapons made with durable material, but didn’t have any enchantments on them. They were only normal weapons sold by the store.

However, from everyone in the camp, a guy stood out. He had a red mohawk, and a pale white skin. He looked like a gangster. He had a metallic gauntlet on both hands that had enchantments.

Although the man was not using the skill right now, Gael recognized him as the man that was fighting John some days ago. From what he remembered, the man used the golden skin skill. A C ranked skill that made the skin hard like metal, and even gave the user some strength.

As he walked into the camp, the people in the surroundings noticed his presence and looked at him. Most retreated, while some goons that surrounded the mohawk guy took some steps forward.

Gael waved his hand at the man and said. “Want to take another smack on the head?”

A vein almost popped on the mohawk guy’s head. He looked at gael and ran toward him while activating the golden skin skill. “ARHHHH, YOU FUCKER!!” The man raised his left fist, and the gauntlet shone in a red light while he punched at Gael.

Instead of grabbing the glaive that was strapped on his back, or even hurrying to evade the attack, Gael simply smiled while activating the Soul eyes skill, It looked like fire was emanating from his iris and going toward the pupil, disappearing in the darkness. He simply took a small step to the side.

The man became paralyzed mid attack, and his momentum took him forward, making him fall into the ground. Gael kept his gaze at the man, and turned him around while stepping on his chest. He took the glaive from his back, enhanced it with mana and pointed it at the man’s neck.

The effect caused by soul eyes could paralyze the enemy, but couldn’t deactivate their abilities. Because of this, the man’s golden skin skill was still activated, however, the glaive cut through his skin, albeit barely, leaving a small cut on the man’s neck.

“Surrender, or die.”

The man looked at Gael with fear in his eyes. Gael concluded that the man probably thought that the golden skin skill had made him invulnerable. That was a common misconception made by people in the tutorial.

“I… I surrender…” The man said in a low voice.

Gael looked at the man’s soul with his skill, and after making sure that the man was not lying, he removed the glaive from the man's neck. He shook the glaive to take out the little blood that was on it’s blade, and said.

“Some people will soon arrive here. Make sure to follow their orders, if you don’t I’ll kill you once I come back.”

The man nodded like a duck while saying. “Of course I’ll. I wouldn’t dare to disobey.”

Being sure that the man wouldn’t go back on his words, he left the place while going to the next camp.

The night was even harder in the forest. The camp offered protection, not letting any monster approach it on other moments, if not on when the invasion happened.

He killed many monsters while going forward. The forest was inhabited mainly by giant lizards and wolves, but oftentimes, he found other creatures.

He was going toward his second destination when he found some strange creatures. Fire was dancing around the forest, almost as if the forest was burning, it was a blue, almost green fire. However, after taking a closer look, Gael found out that what he was looking at were small birds.

He had heard of these creatures, they were called wisps. Known as harbingers of death, wherever one of them appeared and chirped, it was sure that many deaths would follow in that place.

He felt a chill going down his spine, but soon calmed down. The birds were quietly dancing around, not making even a sound.

“It’s not my time today...” He thought while looking at the creatures. “But how can I see them?” Gael asked himself, but soon realized the answer to that question.

Wisps were known to appear when death would soon follow, but outside of these circumstances, no one could see them. Some speculated that they were creatures made purely of soul energy. He placed his fingers on his eyes, and realized that his soul eyes had activated by themselves.

He didn’t feel any threat coming from the birds, and slowly approached them. As he got closer, instead of scaping, the little creatures began to curiously look at him.

He saw that they were flying above one bird that had fallen on the ground. The wisp that had fallen was slowly fading, almost as if it was about to disappear.

He walked toward the fallen wisp, and the others began to fly around him. He crouched to look at it closely, and took it with great care in both hands.

“What can I do for you little buddy?” Gael asked with a tender voice. He was not too much into interacting with other people because many scars surrounded his heart, but he had a soft side to him.

The small bird looked at him with its fading eyes, and pecked at his palm. He felt a little sting, but ignored it. He looked at his hand, and saw the bird swallowing a drop of his blood.

Gael eyes widened. “Is this what I think?” He felt a connection forming between him and the little creature. The connection was not only formed by their blood, but by their souls as well. The fire from which the bird was made began to burn intensely, and soon its form was clear again.

It got up on his hand and happily flew around him. The wisp sat on his shoulder and snuggled on his neck.

“It seems like I have a new companion.” He said while looking with a smile at the little creature.