I am removing auto-loot, since this is supposed to be more realistic than purely game-like.

_____________________________

After Sean had introduced everybody, Gregory made mental notes of their names and classes. He already knew Dynamite was a sorcerer due to the class he gained from learning his magic, but he didn’t know for certain that backup was a cleric, that Maki was a Berserker, or about Sean being a Knight. Knowing this information now, it was possible for him to work on gaining the other classes he was missing, but he would need to find out every skill and spell they knew, at least those associated with having the class.

Gregory took a seat now that he knew everything about everybody else. He could smell that they had some meat cooking, probably from one of the wolves they had killed. Gregory knew that the sheep, boar, or deer meat would probably have been better, but he hadn’t collected any of it. Despite being rather skeptical of the meat, Gregory found it to be surprisingly better on a near empty stomach than eating nothing. Everybody was fairly quiet now, they didn’t know each other very well, and Gregory was working on understanding how the whole sets of screens worked, what they actually meant. Gregory was about to get ready to get some sleep, until Sean made a suggestion.

“Why don’t you take the watch tonight Gregory? It will help open everybody up to you a bit more. Just make sure to wake us if you see anything that you can’t take care of.”

Gregory was debating a reply and trying to get out of this, but decided that it would be the perfect time to practice learning some new sorcerer spells.

“So, only if there is something I can’t take care of then? I will take care of it.”

He headed out to the edge of the area where camp had been set up, and then sat down to take the watch. As they fell asleep, he decided to try using identify on them. To his shock, it actually worked, but only to a small degree. It hid their name, level, and stats, showing only their title, health, stamina, mana, and any special status they had. Once all their screens said sleep, Gregory decided to start some training. He worked on modifications for the spells he already had. First, he knew from using them earlier, that they moved slower than some other spells. They weren’t slow, but they were liable to miss if from long distances, or if there was a linear or exponential growth in regard to stats. He practiced placing a small amount of mana into a visual target, and then firing the blasts at an angle away from the targets. As he had hoped, the attacks homed in on the targets, hitting the trees he had marked with his mana. It also let him know that two new spells had been created. On top of these two, Gregory had also experimented with altering the shape, size, and nature of the attacks. He had altered the mana sphere to expand, absorbing mana along the way, to grow larger and explode in a blast of mana after the center hit a target. He transformed the bolt into a large javelin, with greater power, and some spin to it for added speed.

Having made these, Gregory got the messages for them. The costs on the homing spells were not much more, but the larger more powerful spells were ridiculously more. He pulled up his full status screen just to get a view of everything he had right now.

Name Gregory Jeffrey Drake Age 19 Level 17(27%) Class Wizard, Sorcerer Unique Class Gamer Race Human Title Fearless Health 765/765 Stamina 1020/1020 Mana 2040/2040 CON 30 STR 15 AGI 30 INT 60 WIS 155 PER 100 FTH 15 LUK MAX Passive Skills Life in a Game, Passive Luck, Reverse Engineer, Observant Feats The Wise One, Perceptive, Lucky, Kingslayer Traits Trained, Educated, Boosted Active Skills Riftwalker N/A[10M,10S] Flare Novice 9(23%)[10M] Bolt Novice3(37%)[10M] Slice Novice 8(46%)[10M] Identify Novice 1(97%)[N/A] Healing Novice 1(0%)[20M,10S] Self-Healing Novice 1(0%)[30M,10S] Mana Bolt Novice 1(0%)[10M] Mana Sphere Novice 1(0%)[15M] Mana Manipulation Novice 2(73%)[VARM] Homing Mana Sphere Novice 1(0%)[75M] Homing Mana Bolt Novice 1(0%)[50M] Expanding Explosive Mana Sphere Novice 1(0%)[1000M] Spiraling Mana Javelin Novice 1(0%)[700M] Unspent Stat Points 0 Unspent Trait Points 1

Gregory was curious now, wondering what else he could do to become stronger. ‘Could I make a construct, a clone of myself, with mana? That would be a good way to do a couple of things. I could prevent the rest of the group from thinking I am the same wizard they fought earlier, while simultaneously using it to spar magically. The real question is, what kind of stats would it have?’

The first step he decided was to feel himself out with reverse engineer. Eventually, he thought he had a good understanding of what his body was, down to the smallest details. Using his mana to fill his entire body, as if aiming to print it, he used half of his mana to attempt creating a copy of his body. To his amazement, and joy, Gregory succeeded at this and created a duplicate of himself. Using Identify on his clone did two things; first, it raised his identify to level 2, it also showed that the clone was basically him with lower physical stats.

‘Makes sense, I made it with pure, raw magic. It would probably have lower physical stats, and the same magical stats. Still, it’ll work for how I want to use it. This’ll give me a chance to see how strong my magic is against other magic and people.’ Gregory sat and waited for a minute, waiting for his and the clone’s mana to restore to maximum before they would spar. Once his mana had reached maximum, Gregory would tell his clone what to do.

“I want you to step back 20 steps, and then use a combination of Flare and Bolt. I will counter with the expanding exploding mana sphere, I want to see how the spells work.”

As they prepared to attack each other, Gregory began to gather the mana for his expanding explosive mana sphere, while the clone gathered mana for flare and bolt. After just a few moments, both launched their attacks. The real Gregory’s spell not only consumed the spells of the clone, but also created such a strong blast, that when only on the edge of the blast the clone was completely destroyed.

Your training plan and creation of a new skill gains you 20 WIS. For killing a unique enemy, your party gains a level. Since the enemy was your clone, you gain no experience or level/s.

The sound of the blast, not to mention, the internal blaring caused by the status windows coming up in their sleep shot awake the rest of Gregory’s party. Dynamite and Backup were the first to make a retort about the noise and the inability to get sleep. “What the hell dude, now everybody is awake. What even attacked that so much destruction was caused?” The most surprising thing about their retort, was not that they actually held their own opinions, but that they spoke the same thing almost simultaneously and didn’t pick the same class. Maki got up, the giant axe in her hands right now. She looked around intently, trying to find any other enemies that may be around. “You should let me take the watch tomorrow, I have the second highest perception in this world.” Sean looked with uneasy awe upon Gregory. “You have some serious skills kid, to be able to fight with something that could cause this damage. Glad you are still okay, don’t go passing us up too quick now.”

Gregory smirked at all of this. All of them were upset, but they all took their turns. Well, Maki and Sean did anyways, Dynamite and Backup spoke too quickly to even have a retort for them. ‘Well, seems my clone will be a good way to scope things out. It also effectively doubles my combat power, at least the magical portion of it. After a few minutes, the rest of the group got back to sleep, a light sleep that left one wondering if they were really asleep or not. Gregory decided against any more training, not wanting to make the party suspicious, but he did work on making a magical construct to be used as a place to sleep. It was proving difficult, he needed to make walls, a ceiling, make it large enough for a bed of some kind. Magic was not easy to work with, even with all the INT and WIS he had. Gregory tried altering his mana to make it softer, but then the whole construct ended up flimsy. He tried to make it hard for just the walls, floor, and ceiling, but even the bed felt like a rock. There was no easy way to make it work well for him. Probably a by-product of having massively reduced luck. It was harder for the world to work his way because he had used it so much to get to this point.

The hours ticked by, seemingly at a snail’s pace, until the sun had finally risen and the rest of the party groggily got up from the ground. Many had a bedroll as a gift from the mysterious beings that set this whole thing in motion, but Gregory wanted to sleep in style. He refused to use the bedroll unless it was his only option. Now that the rest of the party was up, Gregory decided to go find some wood to start another fire. Maki volunteered to come with, and kept a vigilant eye out for any enemies. As they finished finding firewood, Gregory stuck all the remaining wood in his inventory. Maki looked curiously at him. She was intrigued that he was taking all of this so calmly, considering it was a big jump to learn that your planet will be overrun by other creatures. So far, even the wolves would’ve been a problem for most people. Truth be told, Maki would rather have taken all the sheep and deer, being overleveled but unliked than being so afraid of everything.

“I honestly think that whoever took all the sheep and deer is probably having a really easy time right now. Most likely, they are probably twice our levels, clearing camps of monsters as if they are sheep and deer, even if he has stopped killing sheep and deer.”

Gregory felt like blurting that it wasn’t true. That they were barely stronger than she was now, and that she could probably overcome and surpass whoever it was that she saw earlier. However, he knew it would give him away. On top of that, he doubted it to be true. Gregory could learn skills at a highly-increased rate with his reverse engineer, and he was probably the only person that could pick up multiple classes.

As he was about to reply, Gregory saw out of the corner of his eye another group of people from what was probably another area on earth. They all looked nervous, and almost entirely out of breath. The sun had only barely risen and whoever these people were had already got themselves in trouble for the day. Perhaps they hadn’t gotten out of yesterday’s troubles, especially in a place like this.

Gregory ran over to them, and saw a mob of wolves. There were more than we could count, but was limited to using only sorcery against them because of what Maki knew about him. Taking aim, he made use of his perception and intelligence to quickly deduce the longest path of wolves in the area. ‘Spiraling Mana Javelin’ Instantly, a pole with a sharp end shot forth from in front of Gregory, running straight through all of the wolves in that line. Even the wolves in the area were frightened of what happened. It was not every day that a human was capable of taking out so many of them alone, and so quickly on top of it.

Your multi-kill of wolves has gained you 2 levels, 22 stat points, and your status has been improved.

It was a fight now, and they weren’t about to let Gregory get away with what he had done. They also bunched up differently, grouping up so that the spiraling mana javelin would not hit nearly as many as the first time. “Mana Bolt” It hit one, but the speed was definitely a downfall of the mana bolt. Gregory created another bolt of mana, but put a spin on it as he launched it toward the wolves. He could tell that it had used more of his mana, but it also did way more damage and was far faster. It was still not as powerful as the homing mana bolt, nor as usable in the ways it was, but spiraling mana bolt was a good signature move for him. At this point, Gregory decided to fire the bolts for as many as his mana would allow. With all the wolves dead, and his mana nearly depleted, Gregory collapsed, barely able to keep consciousness. There were notifications going off, but Gregory’s eyes drifted shut and wouldn’t open right now.

The complete depletion of your mana has inflicted Mana Exhaustion. Until your mana is completely replenished, you will be in a highly-weakened state. Killing an entire pack of wolves alone has granted you the Title “Outnumbered, not Outgunned.” You have gained 2 levels, 22 stat points, a trait point, and your status has been improved. For clearing a mob, you have gained 3 levels, 33 stat points, and your status has been improved. Mobs cleared Non-Hostiles, Wolves

Maki was stunned with Gregory, surprised that he had managed to do what they considered risky as a party. For the moment, however, she waited next to him, ensuring that no harm would befall him from the small party next to them, or any other gathering of potentially dangerous creatures.

Levels of all creatures and people are now visible.

At this, Maki eased up when seeing that the other party were all level 1, except for one person at level 2. Gregory on the other hand was at level 24 now, way stronger than these other people were. After roughly six minutes had passed, Gregory awoke to the sight of levels above the heads of everybody in the area. He dismissed the windows as he got up, seeing what they told him and almost glad about the new change.

“Give me a moment, I’d like to work on getting what I’ll need from these wolves.”

He walked over to the wolf corpses, grabbed knife from his inventory, which had been in the starter kit, and started flaying the meat from them. Eventually, he had gained a passive skill, skinning, which allowed him to more effectively skin the animals. He also gained filleting as a skill, which allowed him to better remove meat from bone without bringing along the bone. After he took care of a few more wolves this way, he decided against doing this to all of them. It would take too long and be impractical for him.

Gregory walked back over to the group, taking his first real look at it. They didn’t have any armor on, but did wear common clothes for this era.

“What are all of your classes?”

The one person at level 2 took the initiative, being the strongest.

“We don’t want to reveal that kind of information, we are at an obvious disadvantage to you already, and would rather not risk ourselves by freely giving up party information. However, as we are also new here we need some help in becoming stronger. In exchange for information, we’d be willing to give you our classes and any unique classes.”

Gregory made an effort to look quizzically at him, pretending not to know of what he was referring to.

“I will take you to Sean, he is our group’s leader.” After a pause, Gregory continued. “It should be common knowledge, but putting on your equipment would be a much better way to survive out here. That would be especially true of any physical or ranged fighters. From what I can tell, you gain some proficiency with a weapon and form of attack once you enter even if you don’t know one previously. All the items should be in your inventory.”

All of them seemed to look distraught, and probably because they had lost or gotten rid of their gear.

“We had sold everything when we got here, turns out they were worth a substantial amount. We were kicked out after they found out we were of a different world.”

Gregory looked at him. It was obvious that all these people had made a fatal mistake, and hadn’t realized until it was too late.

“You can’t just go back to Earth? Wouldn’t it be safer for you there?”

“We can’t go back, unless we go back through a portal. The closest portal is inside that city, which connected us from Chicago. The only other way to get out it would seem would be to almost die, but that could be fatal. We’ve already noticed that we can take actual damage here. A cut is a cut, you bleed, you don’t just lose health. We think it is quite possible to die here, even for us, if you don’t get yourself healed from a wound. We have seen that magic could heal us, but it was too expensive, we couldn’t afford it. We thought we’d sell our goods, head home, and wait until the worlds came crashing together. Unfortunately, we found out that we sold our armors and weapons far more cheaply than we should have, and that they kicked us out of the city after we had finished.”

Gregory made one final comment before he would lead them back to the party.

“You may be able to join our party, we have a healer, and it may be a good way for you to grow stronger without worrying about death. Having no equipment, you will likely be in constant danger. My suggestion would be to find a way to make some makeshift weapons. Perhaps use some of the wolves’ bones as daggers.”

At his suggestion, the group moved quickly to pick up what they could from the wolves, grabbing bones and stone to use as weapons or to make weapons. After they had gathered up everything they could scavenge, they went to move behind Gregory and Maki, not wanting to put themselves in further danger.

Name Gregory Jeffrey Drake Age 19 Level 24(16%) Class Wizard, Sorcerer Unique Class Gamer Race Human Title Fearless, “Outnumbered, not Outgunned” Health 765/765 Stamina 1020/1020 Mana 2040/2040 CON 30 STR 15 AGI 30 INT 60 WIS 177 PER 100 FTH 15 LUK MAX Passive Skills Life in a Game, Passive Luck, Reverse Engineer, Observant, Skinning, Filleting Feats The Wise One, Perceptive, Lucky, Kingslayer Traits Trained, Educated, Boosted Active Skills Riftwalker N/A[10M,10S] Flare Novice 9(23%)[10M] Bolt Novice3(37%)[10M] Slice Novice 8(46%)[10M] Identify Novice 2(17%)[N/A] Healing Novice 1(0%)[20M,10S] Self-Healing Novice 1(0%)[30M,10S] Mana Bolt Novice 1(0%)[10M] Mana Sphere Novice 1(0%)[15M] Mana Manipulation Novice 2(73%)[VARM] Homing Mana Sphere Novice 1(0%)[75M] Homing Mana Bolt Novice 1(0%)[50M] Expanding Explosive Mana Sphere Novice 1(0%)[1000M] Spiraling Mana Javelin Novice 2(19%)[700M] Spiral Mana Bolt Novice 3(4%)[20M] Unspent Stat Points 77 Unspent Trait Points 2