Zane smiled as he opened his eyes and took a deep breath of the forest air. He was sitting on top of a tree that was a few thousand meters away from the place he fought the elves. After the battle with the elves Zane and Old Saber split up. Zane said he wanted to return to his friends and Old Saber said he wanted to continue hunting. They both took the space bags of the elves they killed and whished each other good luck.

The first thing Zane did after separating from Old Saber was finding a place where he could meditate and focus on getting rid of the negative emotions he had accumulated. Zane had killed a few humans before his fight with elves so he had to deal with the negative emotions from both humans and elves.

Now that Zane had finished getting rid of the negative emotions, he took a short breather. The moment he relaxed he felt a warm energy spread through his body. Zane was filled with excitement and looked at his status. He saw that once again he had increase of one point in all his stats.

Looks like my bloodline will always increase my stats by one point, Zane thought. During my fight with the elves, I wasn’t in danger but my mind and body had entered an active state. It seems like the key to activating my bloodline is entering that active state. If I enter dangerous situation its more likely for me to enter that state but it’s not the only way for me to do so.

Zane pondered on his bloodline for a little while longer before stopping and using Meditation. After activating the skill Zane began visualizing his battle against the elven and the battles he had before that. He looked over his flaws and mistakes and thought about the best way to correct them. He also thought about the three strikes that Old Saber used and why they were so effective. After completing his visualization Zane realized he did something that was very idiotic.

Item Name: Tri Weapon Ring

Item Type: Accessory

Level:24

Durability: 150/150

Grade: Epic

Description: A well-crafted ring enhanced by a powerful enchanter. The ring provides a unique space to hold weapons while strengthening the wearers vitality and endurance.

Abilities: Weapon Slots 3/3, + 25 End, +10 Vit

Requirements: Race is Human Ⅱ or greater. Level 15+

Zane forgot to equip the ring that he received from the system. He would have had a much easier time managing his stamina when facing the elves and he would have the ability to use more skills. Part of him wonder if he purposefully forgot about it so he could have difficult battles. His memory had always been good and it was a bit strange for him to forget about an item that was so useful to him. He thought about it for a few more moments before deciding to move on.

However, he did make a mental note to remind himself to switch his weapons when he reached level twenty. Uncle James and the others had spent their money to buy weapons that would be helpful. Also, they had better abilities than the one that Teacher Isabelle provided him. After all she had the weapons made for someone without a class and their usage would always be limited because of that.

After putting on the ring Zane placed his spear, mace and axe into the weapon slots. When he finished doing that Zane completed a final check before deciding to leave. Zane jumped of the tree and started running through the forest. He was still in the party and was able to sense where everyone was.

When Zane was moving through the forest and looking for a fight, he sensed people in two different locations. Now that he was returning to the shelter, he only sensed people in one location. Zane wanted to quickly get back, so he activated Warrior Steps. He would keep them active until he fell below seventy percent of his stamina.

During his run home Zane encountered a few mana creatures but he didn’t fight them. He could have easily dealt with all of them and some would only take one attack to kill. The reason he didn’t stop was because he was focused on understanding the warrior steps skill. Zane felt his speed increase when he used the skill but after using it for a long period of time, he could feel how the control of his body improved.

The skill affected how Zane used his muscles, his posture balance and how he stepped. He slowly explored and tested the skill as he moved through the forest. Zane ran on the ground, up tree trunk, across tree branches and on the backs of mana creatures. Each step he took was influenced by the system. The system helped correct his movement as it pushed him toward fully mastering the skill.

The system showed him that there was a lot more to running than being fast. Zane was confident that without using the Warrior steps skill, he would be able to improve his speed. This was because he had a better understanding and control of his movements. As his control improved, he remembered something Teacher Isabelle told him.

The most obvious effect of an increase in dexterity is an increase in speed. But there are many other ways increasing dexterity can affect you. As you level up search for the hidden benefits behind each stat. Don’t place all you focus on the surface abilities.

Zane only had his class for one day, so he didn’t have time to recall all of the information that Teacher had given him. He did make another mental note to pay attention to the changes he felt in his body when he leveled up and when he applied stat points. For now, Zane would focus on the warrior steps skill. He would try to better understand the skill and the affects it had on his body.

Zane was enthralled by the discoveries he was making. He slowly started using more stamina as he tried to continue to improve his usage of the skill. He stopped using the skill and started recovering after he used sixty percent of his stamina. Then he stopped starting after using fifty percent. After fifty he started stopping at forty percent. Eventually Zane decided to completely use his stamina and then rely on a stamina potion to recover. Zane didn’t stop using the warrior steps skill until he reached less than seventy percent of his stamina. As soon as he stopped using the skill, he heard someone shout at the top of their lungs.

“Why the fuck do I have to calm down?! They’re the serial killers!”

Zane was startled by the shout. A quick check of the area allowed him to realize he was almost at the shelter. He noticed the shout came from the same direction he was heading in. Worried about what might be happening Zane activated Warrior Steps.

“Am I the only person who’s fucking upset about that title?!”

A few seconds after the shout Zane arrived. The moment he entered the area by the pond several eyes turned to observe him. Zane also observed the new and familiar faces by the pond. There were his party members, Brad, Sam and three other people. The members of Zane’s party stood before the group of five looking confused. Brad looked like he was ready to use violence while the other four only looked upset. Before Zane could speak Brad was already shouting down his throat.

“Do you have that fucking title too?!” Brad wore a furious expression as he looked at Zane.

Zane frowned before responding. “It’s not polite to ask other about their titles.”

“Can someone explain to me what’s going on here?” Zane mentally spoke to Sophie and the other. After asking Sophie gave a quick explanation about what happened. Since they were communicating mentally the conversation happened very quickly.

“Of course, you would say that,” Brad said. “Well, I call bull shit! You probably have the same disgusting title that they do!”

“I know your upset but shouting like a madman won’t help anyone.” Zane looked at Sam and started speaking to her. “Can you explain why your friend is so upset? We are confused and really can’t understand why he’s upset.”

Sam nodded and took a deep breath before speaking. “In our world killing people is frowned upon. Hearing that all of you are completely fine with killing human beings to get a title is very disturbing.”

“I never said that we killed humans,” Sophie said

“If you didn’t kill humans then how did you-” Zane watched as Sam stopped speaking and her eyes lit up. “Could it be that the beast we have been fighting in the forest are considered sentient?”

“No, man creatures only start to develop sentience at tier one. However, magic beast and magic plants do have sentience below tier one like humans. Most people gain the title by fighting these two races in a fair battle or by having the member of the race weakened so they can land the killing blow. It’s rare to see a human gain this title by killing other humans.”

“We’re sorry,” Sam said with a guilty face. “We made assumptions and started accusing you without learning all the facts.” After speaking she hit Brad on the shoulder.

“Sorry,” Brad mumbled. His face was red and his head was hung low. “I just became upset when I thought about innocent people being killed. My anger took control of me, and I wasn’t able to think clearly.”

“It’s okay,” Zane said. “Your reaction is typical for people of your race.” Zane used Identify and knew that Brad was the only person in his group who wasn’t a pure human.

Righteous Human Lvl 10

“What do you mean?”

“Where you born as a righteous human or were you offered the opportunity to become one during the mana surge?”

“I became a righteous human during the mana surge. I thought it would help me become a paladin.”

Zane didn’t know what a paladin was, but he guessed it had something to do with righteousness. “Righteous humans hate all forms of evil and dislike people who do bad deeds. If you encounter evil people, you will feel an uncontrollable need to punish them. That’s why you reacted so strongly before.”

Zane watched as Brad and the others let his word sink in. Most of what he knew about the Righteous human race came from Teacher Isabelle. When he saw that Brad wanted to ask more questions Zane raised his hand.

“I know you have questions, but I haven’t talked to my friends in a while. After we finish catching up, we can try to answer some of your questions.”

Zane and the others stepped away from Brad’s group before starting to converse through mental communication. “Why aren’t you guys in the shelter?”

“Shane was training on the ground when Brad and the others arrived,” Jason said. “We told him to send them away, but he failed.”

“They started asking me a bunch of questions about the system,” Shane said. He looked annoyed as he recounted what he experienced. “The questions they asked were either basic or idiotic. Despite me telling them I have to train they kept saying ‘just one more question’.”

“Eventually we came down to give Shane a much-needed break,” Sophie said. She had her hand over her mouth as she tried and failed to stifle a laugh.

“I repeatedly asked you to come down and help me, but you left me to suffer.” Shane pointed at Sophie, Shawn and Jason.

Jason started laughing out loud while he spoke mentally. “You sounded so desperate. You made it seem like they were slowly torturing you.”

“We wanted to come sooner, but we were focusing on recovering our mana,” Shawn said.

“Do you think I will believe that. We agreed that we wouldn’t use more than fifty percent of our energy. How long does it take you to recover fifty percent of your mana? The three of you happily left me down there to suffer for several-”

“Alright, let’s not dwell on the past,” Zane said. “Take this as a lesson on being more observant and reacting to danger quickly. Luna, Lana, when did both of you get here.”

“We arrived shortly before you did,” Lana said. “It might have been fifteen or thirty minutes earlier.”

“What did you experience while you guys were away. Did you experience anything unusual?”

Lana responded to Zane’s question by giving him a brief report of what they did. This was their second time describing what they did as everyone, but Zane had already heard the report. They hunted a few mana creatures before deciding to practice their skills. They spent the majority of their time tracking and avoiding attention of humans and elves. When both of them had two of their skills reached level twenty-five, they decided to return.

After hearing what they had experienced Zane gave a brief retelling of his journey. He glossed over his battle with mana creatures but emphasized his interactions with humans and elves. When he finished talking about his battle with the elves everyone wanted to speak.

“What was their magic like?” Jason asked

“Can I look at their weapons?” Shane asked

“Do you think they will ask for help from the tier one expert?” Sophie asked.

“I would like to look at their armors and cloaks?” Shawn asked.

“Are we going to start hunting them?” Luna asked.

“Do you think they will be able to track you?” Lana asked. “I should be able to sense if there tracking us while were in the forest.”

Zane did his best to calm everyone down. He handed the space bags he collected from the elves to Shawn and Shane while trying to answer the others question. He wasn’t paying attention to the magic that the woman used and couldn’t predict how the tier one expert would react. He didn’t think they would be able to track him. His movements were very erratic on his way back and many of his footsteps weren’t on the ground.

“If you were running like that then it would be very hard to track you down,” Lana said.

“For now, I think we should keep our guard up.” Sophie said. “We can’t predict how the elves will react, but they might not react negatively. After all, it sounded like Zane and Old Saber didn’t provoke the elves and were only defending themselves.” Sophie clapped her hands before moving on. “Alright our next task is to entertain our guests. I’m sure they have a lot of questions they want to continue asking us.”

Zane started to grin before speaking out loud. “I volunteer Shane to answer their questions. Are we in agreement?” Without hesitation everyone voiced their agreement.

“Agreed!” Jason shouted

“Make sense,” Lana said.

“He has spoken to them the longest,” Shawn added.

Sophie grinned and started to join in. “I don’t have a problem with-”

“No! No! No!” Shane shouted. “Absolutely not.”