## Chapter thirteen, Levels, levels for day’s

I woke up with a jolt, as usual. The first thing I asked Yoerus was how long I had left on the safety timer and if there were any monsters nearby.

“You have 2 hours left on the timer. I don’t see any monsters in the vicinity. Do you want me to check again? If I’m right, you have some more level ups to go.”

“Yes, please do that.” I answered as a sound like small coins dropping to the floor was heard.

You have a money transfer for 10000 gold from Ragnhild, with message ‘Money for Canfee proceedings, accept Y/N

What?! That came as a total surprise. To be honest I’d forgotten that the production of Canfee had been ongoing while I was doing the dungeon and everything else.

I focused on yes.

10000 gold were transferred to you from Ragnhild.

Not bad, not bad at all. Looks like money will not be an issue for the foreseeable future.

While doing that, I heard Yoerus in the background saying. “If you follow the signs to the marker on the map, it’s an hour walk. It will be in tough terrain. There will be a place for you where you will be safe for the next 24 hours.”

“Lead the way,” I said, and as the signs showed up on the map, I started the trek for safety. 24 hours was probably enough for me to level up and do all the admin work. Maybe I will even be able to ask some questions of Yoerus to shed some enlightenment on the cores I somehow have started to gather.

Damn, he wasn’t kidding. It was tough terrain. We soon left the grasslands behind us and started the climb up a small mountain. In the beginning, there was a game trail we followed, but after half an hour, that turned into rocks and dead shrubbery. It was quite hard to pass. It was at this point I remembered that I was going to buy survival gear back in Ostvik. When I asked Rondellen about it as we were going for the dungeon, he merely laughed and said that he had everything we would need. Problem was that right now, I was alone. At least I had sleeping bags. And Canfee, but no food. Well, if I must have a supersmart AI in my brain, let's take advantage of it. “Hey Yoerus! Can you help here? I just realized that I’m out in nowhere and other than half a skin of Canfee and a waterskin, I have no provisions. Haven’t had time to get much more.”

“This is not a problem.”

“Uh, yes. Maybe not yet, but soon it will be a problem for me.”

“This is not a problem.”

I tried asking in a couple of different ways, but the responses were almost the same each time. I stopped and concentrated to get where I needed to go instead because now the trek was really gnarly. Then when I thought I’d regret going along with Yoerus. The path opened up and in the distance I saw buildings and smoke coming from chimneys. “Where are we or rather what is this place called?

“This small village is named Raeen. Here you will find the inn Inny-McInnface. There you will have both food, a bath, and a safe place to level up.”

“So when you said that food was not a problem, you were not kidding. I will trust you on these things in the future.” I said humbly.

“Green Raven, as USERUS I will set my people first in every case. But as Yoerus, I will always put you first. Tell Hilda at the inn, Inny-McInnface, that Sven sent you, and you will get the best room at a decent price.”

“Thank you!” I picked up the pace. Now that there was more of a path to walk on, and I felt that the hunger I had tried to suppress came back in full force. A few minutes later I walked into Raeen. It was a smaller village than Ostvik, probably only one or two inns, small stores, and houses for the residents. And unlike the lush greenery and clean streets of Ostvik, this was a couple of levels down, it was not rundown but felt more rugged and worn. The first inn I spotted was not the one I was looking for, so I continued down the street. Then on the right hand side of the street was a big ass sign that said ‘Inny-McInnface’. The sign had a white background and all the letters were in green except ‘Mc’. Those letters were in yellow. Even if I was half blind, which I’m not, I’d find this place in a whiteout. If you found the sign to be outlandish, it had nothing on the color of the inn. It was bright purple with lots of round blackcolored spots. I did enjoy seeing the sign and the inn. It was the only house in the village that had any color other than gray and worn. With a small smile on my face, I opened the door and entered McInnface. I was met by a cacophony of sounds. There was someone playing on something, probably an instrument of sorts. There were people singing, drinking. Drinking what? I’d assume alcohol of some sort. At least back home, no one sang that false without a couple of beers inside the west. This is when I remembered Yoerus.“Hey, could you tell me what people are drinking?”

“Boork, of course. Why?”

“What is boork?” I asked and got a long, really long explanation. Halfway in, my ears nearly bled. It was not that interesting. In essence, it was beer as I could have guessed. Asking him about it was all my way of trying to connect to Yoerus and become more used to the second voice in my head. I know now that we will not bond over boork that’s for sure.

During his tirade or I’m sorry, explanation of what boork was, I made my way through all singing drunk people to the bar. There a middle-aged lady was pouring beer after beer, I mean boork after boork. “Hey, I’m Green Raven. Sven said I should come here since you have the best food and the softest beds. You are Hilda, I presume?”

“Green Raven, yes, you are expected. Let me just finish pouring the boork, and I’ll be right with you.” Hilda said with a smile. She poured a couple of more mugs and then came back to where I was standing. “So you need a room, a bath, a warm stew and a pitcher of boork?” She asked with a tired smile.

“Yes, except do you have anything other than boork? Something not with alcohol in it?” I had been to a few parties back on earth and on my fathers wake too, I tasted beer. I knew that being in the middle of a quest, beer, or boork in this case, was not the way for me to go.

“Yes, we have a brand new thing coming out from Ostvik. It’s called Canfee. Apparently it’s served hot but someone figured out that you could drink it cold. So one Ice Canfee coming right up! You will love this stuff. It’s a bit more expensive than boork, but you will love it, I’m sure.”

The expression on my face was probably quite fun to watch because Hilda just smiled nervously and said she would be back with my order and keys for the room. She was back just a few minutes later with a steaming bowl of ‘something, some meat’ stew and a large pitcher of ice cold Canfee. The stew smelled amazing. I’m not sure iit was that good or if it was my hunger. I hadn’t eaten anything since those rations for breakfast before we tackled the third room of the second floor in the dungeon. I was famished, and if the smell was nice the taste was even better. Hilda didn’t say anything as she swooped by and exchanged my empty bowl for a new one, as full as the first one with the same awesome stew. Washing it down with Ice cold Canfee was perfect. Full and energized from food and Canfee, I started to look around and take in my surroundings. The music was still going, but there was no singing anymore. The whole room was much more quiet like they were waiting for something to happen. Hilda came out from the back room or kitchen and walked up right to me and said,

“So you liked the food. What did you think about the Ice cold Canfee?”

“Yes, both the food and the drinks were good,” I said. I had already decided that I wouldn’t mention that I was the Canfee creator. Nothing good could come from that. “I have the feeling people here are waiting for something to happen? It’s not at all that noisey now as it was when I arrived.”

“They are waiting to see if the evening alarm will go off or not.” Hilda said offhandedly while she was picking up my empty bowl and pitcher.

“What evening alarm?” I asked.

“Ah, yes you’re new here. This town is plagued with monsters that attack some nights. In the last couple of weeks, there have been several attacks from TerraLizzards. Around this time at night is when they strike, so we are waiting for that. If the alarm hasn't sounded when the song is over, you will see that this place will pick up its pace again. That means that there will not be an attack tonight.” Hilda answered and turned. When she was about to leave, I hurried and asked.

“I heard that there might be a bathhouse here? Do you know if it’s still open?”

“Yes, of course, Green Raven. If you just wait at the bar, I will show you the way.”

I followed her to the bar, and she went into the kitchen or back room with the empty dishes. A few minutes later, she was back and gestured to a door at the end of the room that I almost had missed seeing before. It wasn’t disguised. It was made to look part of the wall, and was probably more out of design than anything else. I went after her through the door. Right away, we were in an open room, and you could feel the heat. It smelled fresh of herbs and the like.

“That’s nice. The bathhouse is next door.” I said.

“Yes, it's in the same house. There is, of course, another entrance as well, but for the guests of the inn we have that door too. Take towels and what you like and go through that corridor,” she pointed to a desk with towels and what looked like soap. “When you are done, seek me up in the inn and I’ll get you a key and get you settled in one of the rooms up the stairs.”

“Thank you,” I said to her departing back and she waved with her hand and was gone. I took a couple of towels which were quite small and went in through the corridor past an open door. Inside the room it was a low ceiling. Aroma scented candles were burning and pots with green plants were littered along the walls. One of the pools must have been warm because steam came up from it. There was another pool that probably held cold water. I went past the cold pool and came to a stop in front of a door that stood open, the dressing room. I soon found myself undressed with a towel around me. I looked around and found something that passed as a shower here.

After showering and soaking for a long time in the hot pool, I took a very fast dip in the cold pool. I toweled off and dressed. Then I went to find Hilda.

She was standing as usual at the bar. When I got closer to her, she looked up and smiled. She turned around and by the time I reached her, she gave me a key for my room and said, “You look refreshed. Hope you enjoyed our bathhouse. Here is your key. Your room is on the top floor, room 13.”

“Yes I did, thank you,” I said with a smile and went up the stairs.The top floor was on the third level. There was only one door there marked with 13. The room was as outlandish as the outside of the room. Three of the walls were black. The fourth wall that the king size bed stood against was, of course, purple. The three black walls were filled with paintings that looked like it described monsters of different kinds. There was also a window facing the backyard of the inn. It was the kind of window that you couldn’t open. Not that it mattered. I was here to level up and pass out. Nothing else.

So let’s see what I have. I focused on my status page.

Status:

Name: Green Raven

Level: 17

Coins: 11795 gold, 47 silver,

51 rusty copper.

Attributes:

Strength 12

Dexterity 10

Endurance 7

Vitality 29

Intelligence 10

Wisdom 50

Available points: 0

Health: 290/290

Stamina: 70/70

Mana: 500/500

Skills:

[Inspect item] level 2/10

[Inspect being] level 4/10

[Telekinesis] level 3

[Copy] level 1

I had been roughly calculating even though math isn't my strongest subject in school. I thought I had experience points to go to at least level 22 or maybe even up to 23, so I thought I would go through a few notifications before I started to add into my stats. I focused on a level up notification.

Congratulations you have reached level 18

You have 3 unspent points to spend on your stats. An additional 2 points for being from another world.

Congratulations you have reached level 19

You have 3 unspent points to spend on your stats. An additional 2 points for being from another world.

Congratulations you have reached level 20

You have 3 unspent points to spend on your stats. An additional 2 points for being from another world.

Congratulations since you have reached level 20 you can choose to get a new random skill or level up one of your existing skills.

Okay, time to stop and put some points into stats and think about what’s on offer.

I put 3 points into endurance to get my stamina up to an even 100. That leaves me with 12 points. You can never have too much mana, I thought, so 10 points in wisdom. I put the last two into intelligence since I wanted to see if that could boost the damage output I did with my sword using skills. Then, it was the choice of a new skill or leveling up existing skills. Always fun with new skills but not bad to get [Copy] up another level either. It seems like you get a new skill every other 5 levels. I got a skill at level 10 and another at 15 and now again at 20, so I’d be surprised if I didn’t get the same offer at level 25. Fuck it, I’ll go for the level up of [Copy].

I focused on the message again.

Congratulations your skill [Copy] has reached level 2, you can now copy 2 skills, skill slot one is currently occupied.

With that I closed down my status page and the by now familiar pain ensued and then black out.

I woke up some hours later, feeling quite well and refreshed. After drinking some Canfee, I brought up my stats.

Status:

Name: Green Raven

Level: 20

Coins: 11795 gold, 47 silver,

51 rusty copper.

Attributes:

Strength 12

Dexterity 10

Endurance 10

Vitality 29

Intelligence 12

Wisdom 60

Available points: 0

Health: 290/290

Stamina: 100/100

Mana: 500/500

Skills:

[Inspect item] level 2/10

[Inspect being] level 4/10

[Telekinesis] level 3

[Copy] level 2, Slot one: Focused Hit, level 20. Slot two:

Time to get the last level up notifications read as well.

Congratulations you have reached level 21

You have 3 unspent points to spend on your stats. An additional 2 points for being from another world.

Congratulations you have reached level 22

You have 3 unspent points to spend on your stats. An additional 2 points for being from another world.

At least one more notification blinking.

Congratulations you have reached level 23

You have 3 unspent points to spend on your stats. An additional 2 points for being from another world.

Congratulations you have reached level 24

You have 3 unspent points to spend on your stats. An additional 2 points for being from another world.

I still had one blinking, but because I have found out that it’s good to be able to heal in combat by leveling up, I stopped myself here. So that's 20 more points. Even up health to a good 300, strength to 15, intelligence to 13 and the rest of the points, I put in wisdom. I made the changes, and yes, you know it, pain and then black out.

I checked my stats when I woke up.

Status:

Name: Green Raven

Level: 24

Coins: 11795 gold, 47 silver,

51 rusty copper.

Attributes:

Strength 15

Dexterity 10

Endurance 10

Vitality 30

Intelligence 13

Wisdom 75

Available points: 0

Health: 290/300

Stamina: 100/100

Mana: 500/750

Skills:

[Inspect item] level 2/10

[Inspect being] level 4/10

[Telekinesis] level 3

[Copy] level 2, Slot one: Focused Hit, level 20. Slot two:

I looked out of the window. The sun was starting to rise, and I saw people moving around on the streets outside the courtyard. Time for breakfast, I thought, checking out the local store and then back to the quest.