Shit, I could have died from this… The realization slowly became more obvious. He didn’t know any factors that were at play here. He had assumed that his life was still governed by factors he had been told about, yet, so many things were different.

Kent held his seventh to last health potion in his hand, considering. It made very little sense how low his HP was. He had drunk a potion after his last fight, filling him all the way up. But he had been at least unconscious for two hours, given by his stamina meter. Maybe longer. Whatever had happened was funky.

How he had received all that damage was a mystery, not the circumstances that lead up to it though. The system had given him some information about what might have happened, but it would be better to stay wary and to also invest in vitality more than he had originally planned.

Definitely need more monster blood next time. And maybe drawing the sigil before placing stat points. Also, should I do all three? It shouldn’t change anything about the allocation but might reduce the loss of health. Or maybe I should just let my stats naturally grow? Probably won't have time for that though.

He stopped thinking about that stuff, not being a scholar, he just accepted it and moved on. Though he would heavily consider drawing sigils on his body again.

Since he wasn’t in a hurry this was as good an opportunity as any to appraise his health potion, right before drinking the whole thing.

Lesser Persistent Health Potion – Recovers 147 Health, with a persisting effect of healing Vitality per hour if at rest for 2 hours.

Hmm, that… I think is better than what my family had around, at least they never mentioned a persistent effect. It is a shame that nearly half of the effect is going to be wasted on me.

Ready to embrace the day – well Kent wasn’t quite sure whether it was still day, day again, or night – he left the cave. Onwards to tackle the dungeon.

He moved the same path as he did the previous time. He had to just pass a few trees to spot the first turrl. It sat at the same place where he had found the previous monster.

Either it respawned or they have migratory patterns. Shit, I really hope it didn’t respawn this fast. He grabbed his knife tight in his right and prepared for the charge.

It didn’t approach him. It didn’t even move, only stared at him.

Something was off. The turrl seemed to be wary of something, and soon enough Kent figured out what it was.

It hadn’t been wary; it had been waiting, why he wasn’t sure. It could have just started making sounds whenever, but suddenly it chittered a bit and Kent got very nervous very quickly.

Sadly, it was just out of reach, a few paces up the tree.

Another turrl appeared maybe fifteen seconds after the first had alarmed its brethren. The development was unwelcome but given his hesitance in doing nothing just standing there he felt it was earned. ‘Never let a monster live’ was what his uncle had frequently said, and this was his reward for not listening. Extra monsters.

They dashed down their respective trees as though to an unspoken command. Both charged him, though their speed was not the same, one would arrive a few moments before the other.

When he attacked, he was a good chunk faster than before. He could feel how his increased agility and strength worked together to accelerate his body just a bit more. Not to double what he could do beforehand. But a nice decent chunk.

His movements strained him less as he moved towards the monster, and it felt just a bit more natural to engage the predators. He could anticipate their movements a tiny smidge better, and could better adjust to their attacks.

He wasn’t quite able to dodge both of the assailants all the time. He would ignore whichever monster clawed at his cloak and focus on the other. In a way, turrls were his ideal opponent, especially if they were a bit larger. More than half of him was technically immune to their attacks thanks to the cloak. A drop-pig and their blunt damage was very much the worst opponent he could encounter, he figured.

Each step he felt more sure of, and with each move he twisted the outcome of the fight just a little more in his favor. Even Accelerate Metal was able to help him in the fight occasionally. It gave his jabs just a little more speed, a little more penetration power. Enough that soon, both turrls laid on the floor, dead.

It also made him realize something. As much as he wanted to, he would have to spend his next skill point at level four on one of the Dagger skills. He was too reliant on melee to forgo them until later. He was pretty dead set on Metallic Extension, at this point so it wouldn’t even be a loss.

What he had not expected was the secondary way Accelerate Metal helped him. He had bound his old kitchen knife as well, without any issues – he had expected to only be able to bind a single item after the arbitrary weight restriction. Wielding two weapons was tedious and confusing. Neither his Mind nor his Agility were able to elevate his lacking knowledge to a point where his poor grasp of the tools became actually effective when it came to attacking.

But that wasn’t where they shone. They helped with dodging and movement more than expected. While the skill apparently didn’t work on metal pieces that weigh more than a certain weight it seemingly could put an amount of force similar to the weight limit into those objects when they didn’t accelerate with the skills given speed.

That meant that if he had particularly unfortunate footing that hindered him from dodging an attack he was sometimes able to get out of the way just a little faster, to regain his footing just a little better.

As he fought Kent noticed a larger difference in strength between the two monsters. The second was seemingly the weakest turrl he had ever fought. Maybe even level one or two. The other in contrast was probably one of the strongest ones yet.

As in many of his previous encounters, the turrls way of jump attacking was what got both of them killed in the end. Their lack of air maneuverability was a fatal flaw at that point.

*Ding – Notification pending*

New Notification Log Entries:

You have slain “Somniferous Turrl” Level 9! Experience has been awarded.

You have slain “Somniferous Agitator” Level 10! Experience has been awarded.

The second notification was a surprise. There had been no obvious outwards indicator that the second monster had been a different version to the base turrl version. It had been a bit faster, sturdier, and the single claw strike Kent had suffered had hurt more. Enough that he had presumed the lower-leveled monster to be below level five and the other level nine or so.

That just showed the increase of the power beyond the wall. It also showed his sudden increase in power over the last day.

This was too easy. Wait. I shouldn’t jinx it. I should be able to do a level eleven turrl without issues now, and I could really use the extra skill point.

Shit… Do I even get the extra skill point now? I can’t make that sort of assumption anymore. It almost got me killed once.

His resources looked good as well. He had only used a small amount of stamina and only occasionally used Accelerate Metal.

Accelerate Metal (1/10) (24/50)

Accelerate a previously attuned piece of Metal towards or away from you. Gravity does not affect the metal for the duration of acceleration.

Acceleration: 6.1 m/s^2

Maximum Mass: 5kg

Range: 20 m

Cost: 1 (acc) mana per second

He checked his skill and considered a bit. It wasn’t bad, but it also wasn’t exactly what he had hoped for it to be. It would grow stronger, with time and become more useful, just as of yet it was a bit lacking.

Skill progress is good though. I’d like to know whether time spent using the skill or mana spent increases the skill’s progression, but I should be able to get to the second rank within the day. He checked his mana, which confirmed this.

That would involve a good deal of stress in the future though. His mana regeneration was currently at around one per hour when awake. His system sadly wasn’t willing to show him greater detail for the different states of regeneration, though the difference couldn’t be large as of yet. Maybe those options would open up when the difference became significant enough.

He went back to the shoreline to calm down a bit and made use of the passive effects of the health potion he had ingested in the cave. He waited observant initially but it seemed turrls didn’t become aggressive as long as you didn’t enter the forest so he browsed his available skills again, to figure out which one he would choose at level four.

There were just too many good ones, just none that was an insane powerup, besides the Pyromancy skill tree. With the Daggers skill tree, Kent would gain some close combat capabilities which he was in dire need of right now and the skill Metallic Extension would then increase his prowess at a distance. And that was without taking advantage of his quite frankly ridiculous stamina pool.

He sighed and stopped all consideration. He would wait with any theory-crafting until he was at a point where it had a use.

What couldn’t wait was finally getting his first real level up. Currently, he was stranded at three quarters to level two, and since every monster thus far had given him a quarter, he assumed that the last kill would get him there. Then he would consider taking a real break.

Who am I kidding? As if I’m going to stop now that I can finally level. With a smile that even felt uncanny to him, he moved back into the forest.

This time he would try some experiments. It was decided that his canteen would be the sacrifice. The idea might not be an efficient one, basically, a pure waste of mana and Kent was aware of that, but he needed a better understanding of how the skill worked.

He pushed mana into the connection between himself and the canteen through the line that his skill offered. Slowly but steadily the canteen moved into the forest, the seconds ticking by, and Kent observed his mana drop by five.

Shit, this is really a waste of mana. Woah what was that? The position of the canteen had subtly shifted downwards.

He could barely make it out anymore but maybe there was something brown on it now.

“Shit,” he started laughing. Damn turrls are attacking a water bottle.

Three seconds later the canteen impacted a tree.

The connection with the canteen changed. It was still there but it wrought with his head. It felt off and uncomfortable. At the same moment, he also heard a lot of squirrel chirping coming from further inwards, but it barely registered.

That was enough shock and confusion for Kent that he dropped the skill. The weird sensation disappeared at the same moment and Kent felt as though nothing had happened at all. Only the memory was left. The connection with the canteen broken.

That is interesting. Yet, as two turrls came rushing at him from further into the forest, one of them limping quite badly, the feeling of confusion changed to curiosity in an instant.

He could work with this.