Early evening passed quickly. Leo’s group found their way out of the woods and after remembering that they didn’t have any camping equipment, Greg and Stonks departed to Ardania for a supply run.

On the meantime Leo went around the area with Jehmaan, scouting out possible places to settle down for a night, and gathering firewood.

They found a nice hill which had huge boulders around, giving them some cover from the elements as well as local mobs, which were rumoured to change into beastial twisted forms during night time.

Leo went over his day’s skill gains and notifications that had been bugging him for hours now.

Skill increased: Sword Mastery (Beginner IV + 2(boosted by gear))

Skill increased: Dual wielding (Beginner I)

Skill increased: Quadrawielding (Novice VI)

Skill increased: Swordbonding (Beginner III)

Skill increased: Blood drain (Novice II)

Skill regained: Medium armor mastery (Novice I)

During past six hours you have recovered total of 5861 points of stamina. Dexterity +1

You have recovered more than half of your health during one combat encounter. Constitution +1

You have gained 3912 exp. See full listing?

Solid increases all around. Leo declined to see the full listing. He knew what he had been killing. But was there anything he could do now to improve? Leo opened his character menu and searched for unspent skill points. He was a bit shocked when he saw the number. Seventeen free skill points. That was so much, but.. where had he got so many? Each levelup granted one whole point, so seven would come from that. Three every third level from his class, so fourteen. Where had he gained the remaining three?

Leo shrugged and thought about where to spend them. He had been saving them. It just made sense to him. Why waste your points on early levels, since they would gain ranks naturally in fast pace. But now he was going underleveled to a wolfman camp. He needed any advantage he could get. Leo also had four free characteristic points, which he quickly put in his strength.

It frustrated Leo to no end, not knowing the current Meta. He could boost almost two of his skills to next ranking. Or one skill above level III by two, but was that a smart decision? It wasn’t. But judging by the fight with the wolfman scout, Leo needed more power.

So he put seven points into his Swordbonding and six to Sword mastery, boosting both skills up to Apprentice ranks.

Skill increased: Swordbonding (Apprentice 0)

New effect gained, based on previous usage: quickslotting. You can allocate up to five actions in quick mental commands for each weapon. Each quickslot has three second cooldown.

Skill increased: Sword Mastery (Apprentice 0)

New effect gained, based on previous usage: Piercing. Each thrusting attack now deals 5% of maximum possible damage as armor piercing damage.

Yup. That was worth it. Quickslots by themselves were valuable enough to waste thirteen skill points, but to gain true damage on top of that? Abyss yes! Leo put his ‘mental commands’ to their official slots; overhand slash, upper thrust, block, lower thrust and underhand slash. Each slot gained a number, and just by thinking of that, his spellblades would perform the attacks.

Leo went around the campsite, executing his commands and looking how his blades acted on their own. It was so easy. Each time after the selected action was performed, the blade returned to his side in defensive position. Automating difficult tasks was total bliss!

Finally after his testing was done, Leo sat down. Jehmaan had built a campfire, and was tending the flames.

“Nice moves!” He commented, a hint of amusement on his face.

Leo grinned and did some mental math. His swordbonding skill did 6n + 2x damage, where N was skill level and X was sword mastery skill level.

Both skills were now at apprentice ranks, or at skill level twenty. that would make his max potential damage one hundred and sixty four. Plus twenty two percent gained from sword mastery, making the grand total.. even two hundred. Leo looked at his skill in new amazement. Sure, his opponent’s armor rating and damage reduction needed to be taken into account, but still. The damage potential was massive! And if he used a thrust, he would deal ten extra damage as true damage.

He reeled over the information, in true wonder. Was he becoming too strong? Nah. He was sure other people were getting just as powerful. And he had been focusing mainly on his skill levels. Combat was all he was good at, at the moment. Even so, over two hundred potential damage with a single sword strike.. It was insane!

“Umm.. Jeh!” Leo called out, tentatively.

“What’s up?”

“How much is your max damage potential on one attack?” Leo needed to know if his output was normal.

Jehmaan stayed silent for a moment, focusing on his own screens. “Umm.. Just a bit over one hundred. Why?”

So it was true. He had way higher damage output. “Just wondering. Thank you” He needed to keep this fact for himself. Sure. He had conditionally unique class and really powerful skill. But still. Leo felt like this needed to be kept as a secret.

Wisdom +1

Extra secret..

It took some time, but soon Leo saw two men with big bags coming towards them. In setting sun, Leo recognised Greg and Stonks. He waved at them.

Soon they were all pitching tents around the campfire. Leo grimaced at the thought. Something to never think about again.

“Did anything interesting happen in the city?” Leo asked the guys after the camp was prepared.

“Actually yes!” Greg’s face lit up “Well.. nothing interesting happened but we passed this one storefront, or was it a warehouse, but there was this one large man dressed in red robes casting some form of spells to the door. He muttered something about him having to save his apprentice and how to handle a council. No idea what that meant. But your informant was right! He seemed to be hunting a rogue mage. “

Leo was troubled by this. He really had dodged a bullet on that one, but while doing so had he ran in front of another?

“Alright. Well.. Nothing we can do about it. We need to set up a watch rotation and..” A shouting interrupted him. It was Dan, the druid girl, Mark and.. who was the last one again?

“Ah! You’re back! Great timing!” Leo greeted the allied party. “How did your day go? Mark! Did you bring any food?”

Mark came to Leo, Jeh and Stonks, while Greg went out to be with his original team.

“Yeah. I made Dan summon those white rabbits for me and i filled couple of my pouches with their meat. I also stored their pelts. Those suckers have some seriously soft fur.”

“Awesome! You’re on the cooking duty. But before that, how was your day?” Leo glanced at the other team, still a bit distrustful of them. Dan had really dirty mouth and the druid.. she was reasonable but had some serious anger issues.

“It was pretty good! Those guys are actually nice people. The girl, Alicia, explained a bit about Dan. Apparently he has negative charisma, so to demonstrate that the system alters the words he speaks. Making him super rude and whatnot.”

Well that explained it. “What about the druid? Alicia? What’s her deal?”

“I didn’t actually ask much about her. From what i gathered, she has a cursed title of something. Makes her seek out for battles. She is actually a nice person under that attitude” Mark explained. “But yeah. Cooking. Let me get on that”

He started pulling out chunks of meat and pouches of seasoning from his utility belt. Leo watched, mouth watering as Mark prepared the meat, skewering them and putting them next to open flame. The scent was.. almost heavenly.

“The chef profession was definitely worth getting!” Mark stated gleefully as the pieces of meat started gaining colour. “I get profession experience every time i cook, and better the food turns out to be, i get better multipliers. Leveling the it up also gives profession exclusive skills. Like this..” He did.. something. From what it looked like, Mark grabbed the skewers, shoved them into the flames and after pulling them out, they had glistening, perfect golden brown surface with just a hint of charring. “Instant spit roast!” He distributed the skewers to people around him and laid his back against a boulder.

Leo tasted the food, with animal like hunger. It was delicious! The skin was roasted perfectly, and the meat was red, beautiful medium rare. After a few bites, Leo gained a notification.

Buff added: Restoration I. After eating a Journeyman rank food, cooked from a rare creature with healing properties, you regain health, stamina and mana 20% faster for one hour.

Everyone who had eaten the meat had similar expression, showing Leo that they all had gained the same notice.

“Mark!” Jehmaan exclaimed! “I’ve never gained a buff from.. just food! When did this happen!?”

Mark looked dumbfounded, and after checking his own notice, a joyful smile took over his face. “Hah! My cooking skill gained a rank! It’s now Expert 0! Now it has added effect of passing the creature’s inherit abilities on to the eater! Apparently all i had to do was find an animal with strong enough ability that it would stay in the meat!”

“We need to get you some rarer beasts then! This is amazing!” Leo congratulated his friend as an idea came to his head. Something about what Mark had said resonated with him. Professions. He had yet to choose one, and he had gained a new, possibly rare profession after getting his Blademancer class.

Leo opened his profession tab, and looked through his choices. There was one profession, marked with asterisk.

Kensei *: Legendary swordsmen, kensei are defined by their distinct fighting style. This profession is only available for those with unique sword skill and will be lost if you either lose your unique skill that grants you this profession, or another member of your own race gains the same skill, making it no longer unique. Kensei are sight to be seen in battlefields, acting as pioneers of what is possible to do with a piece of sharpened metal

Profession benefits at first level: Increases your understanding of deeper mechanics of swordplay by 40%. This gives you insight on how to improve your skills faster, how to branch them out in unique or unexpected ways and grants you 40% learning speed on sword related skills. Gains skills from ‘Swordsman’ profession. If you lose your skill to have Kensei profession, it will automatically turn into ‘Swordsman’ profession.

You level up this profession by defeating other Kensei in single combat, and by leveling up or creating unique sword skills

Leo stared at the new option. This would mean ninety percent increase in learning speed of sword skills, if the bonus from ‘Swordsman’ profession stacked, in addition to the esoteric statement of gaining new insight on how to improve. So this would mean he would gain two professions in price of one. It was a no brainer. Leo selected Kensei, and his mind felt.. clearer. New ideas on how to use his Spellblades filled his mind and he wanted to go out and test them immediately.

Title gained: Sword saint 1 / ? (Upgradeable). By selecting Kensei as your profession, you have gained a mandatory title that will stay with you until profession is lost.

Having an unique sword skill is no small feat, and this title allows you to showcase your talents to the world at large.

50% chance to learn your opponent’s unique sword skill after defeating them in single combat, if they have ‘Sword saint’ title. This title is set as your active title and cannot be removed. Other Kensei will be coming after you and your unique skills. The title will upgrade each time you learn another Kensei’s skill, showcasing your victories and devotion to edged arts. Be careful. The world just got a lot more dangerous.

Caution: You have at least 5 of 10 title slots filled. You can choose to replace one if needed, but be warned, gaining a mandatory negative title while all title slots are full will delete one other non-mandatory title at random. (Example: Warlock).

What is this now? A title that encouraged PvP?! No, wait. Npcs could also have it. But still. Leo wasn’t sure if he liked his new title. Sure, there was great benefit in defeating other sword saint, but even so. Nothing to it at this point. He would just have to grind up in power so no one could threaten him.

Leo decided to get some sleep. From the look of the sky, it would be raidy weather tomorrow.

He cringed at the awful attempt at a pun, and closed his eyes.