Gregory and Maki were leading the party back to their party. It may have been a bigger party than theirs, but it was also a much lower leveled party. It took until about 10 in the morning to make it back to Sean. He was getting impatient, but smiled when he saw the people coming along with Gregory and Maki. At the same time, he was getting even more suspicious of Gregory, and his ability to grow as quickly as he was.

Publicly, Sean made a grand show of good will toward the new party.

“I am so glad to see that we have some new people here, my name is Sean by the way. It looks like Gregory and Maki found some good people to go along with us. We are aiming to head toward the city, we hope to find food and shelter there. We can maybe even find you some new armor and weapons if yours were lost or stolen.”

The people that had come along looked nervous, at which point Gregory walked up to Sean and whispered to him the situation.

“Seems they had spawned in the city. The armor and weapons we got were apparently quite valuable, but they were ripped off on prices, and then kicked out of the city for not being from here. If we want to make it inside, they will need to be left outside. On the other hand, it may be possible to get some armor for them from traveling caravans or bandits if there are any around here.”

Sean stroked his beard for only a moment before he continued his speech, adjusting his words to make it fit the new situation.

“Well, seems that we will either need to look for bandits, or attack traveling merchants that would have armor to get you guys re-outfitted. By the way, what are the classes that you all have, as well as all your names? I must insist knowing before allowing you to continue on with us.”

The strongest of the group spoke up, as if blinded by the charisma that Sean held.

“My name is John; my class is that of a scout. I am more focused on finding and investigating people and animals and have skills for spotting from long distances, crossing distances at an increased speed, in addition to a skill for seeing through stealth. The two girls’ names are Elizabeth and Danielle, they have the classes of Tracker and Rogue respectively. The tracker class focuses on finding prey from tracks on the ground, or any other trace really, and being able to cover tracks quite well. The rogue class on the other hand is more of a thievery class; it focuses on stealth, being able to cover your presence, and being skilled at sleight of hand. The last three are Joseph or Joe, William or Will, and Robert. Joe is a Summoner, William is a hunter, and Robert is a Soldier. The summoner focuses on summoning spirits which take form once on our plane. The hunter is all about knowing how to survive in the wilderness; they have skills for skinning animals, cutting the meat off cleanly, knowing how to use the bones for various purposes, as well as a bow skill. The soldier class has a weapons proficiency skill, as well as medium armor. Apparently, soldier is a class that knows how to use every weapon, but gains skill experience from them far slower than a specialty fighter. Oh, right, I almost forgot. I have a unique class. I have the Master Scout Unique class as well. It gives me a very strong stealth skill, the ability to see through invisible barriers, and to use the portals of others to find out how many otherwise hidden enemies there may be.”

Sean smiled when he got this information. Gregory had just made quite the find, a group of people with very strong classes when trained up, and they would be loyal to only him. In the meanwhile, Gregory was shocked at how much information they had just given up freely considering they were saying earlier how they felt disadvantaged already.

‘Sean must be doing something to them that they do not question his requests. He must have a unique class that offers him access to manipulation skills, since those are what he seems to be using to make everybody trust him without a single question.’

Sean got back in with some speech now, assuring the new members to the group that they would do everything they could to help them all grow.

“Well, we can do our best to find a group of non-hostiles, that would probably allow you all to level up a few times and not need to worry about most of the monsters that can attack you here. Probably best to keep going forward, that is the only way to find anything. However, let’s have breakfast first. I am famished.”

As he said this, Gregory quickly pulled the wood from his inventory, put the wood down where it had been burning over the night, and then waited for them to start it with the lighter they had brought over from our world. To his surprise, Danielle offered to make the breakfast, and was actually really good at cooking the food, despite it all being wolf meat. Before long, she had finished the cooking, and began to divide it up among everybody.

Gregory was shocked when he began to eat it. The taste was nothing like what he had tried last night, and was actual quite good. She must have practiced at cooking for quite a long time on earth to be this good at it. Eventually they were all done eating, and Sean was preparing to begin looking for something that these new party members could kill to become stronger. Just then, Gregory caught something out of the corner of his eye. Back-up used a spell of healing magic on his brother for some reason. The only thing was, it was a different spell than the regular heal. Gregory tried to replicate it, using the exact same type of magic as back-up had used. When Gregory pushed his hands against a tree with the magic though, the tree that was almost dead had come back to life as if it’s disease had been cured.

Purification has been learned, for learning all the spells associated with a cleric you have unlocked their class.

You still have one empty standard class spot, and one empty unique class spot.

‘Now I am beginning to understand things. It looks like I get a standard class every ten levels, starting with level 0, not counting my original class. It also looks like I can get unique classes as well, though I am not a hundred percent sure how I got it. Probably on the twentieth level, starting at the twentieth level. Which means level 40 will probably have me with another opportunity to get another unique class. The question is, which one would I rather have? Sean’s would allow me to be more persuasive, but John’s is more combat based. I should get John’s first, Sean wouldn’t die unless he was the last one left since his unique class could have most of us protecting him. John on the other hand is much more likely to die from attacks to the party. That decides it, I need to follow around John until I can decipher what gives him his powers.’

Before long, Sean made a self-defense suggestion, but one that helped Gregory immensely.

“John, why don’t you use your unique class abilities, I’d like to see how to best use them with our team.”

Gregory could tell that Sean was watching intently, but only for weaknesses to his abilities. Gregory was looking to see how all his abilities worked. The only problem was, that there were no portals yet, and those were part of his unique class’ powers. Gregory’s Observant and Reverse Engineer were working overtime to figure out how the abilities worked. It was difficult to understand, but it was getting easier to know how they worked as he viewed John using them more.

It was about two in the afternoon when Gregory spotted a herd of sheep. It would be the perfect place for the weaker group to train. They would be the only ones gaining experience, and would finally be able to get some levels under their belt. They all began attacking, but only the summoner could use his class specialty to attack. The rest of them were forced to use their fists to try and pummel the sheep to death. As they did though, something incredible happened. They began gaining strength points at breakneck pace.

‘Stats can be gained from attacking creatures too then it seems. Especially if you need more to hurt them substantially than you can currently deal.’

Before long, everybody was doing damage, and not just the summoner. By about seven, all the sheep had been defeated, and all of them had made it to level 4. It was also at this time that Gregory got back his luck, and then John found a portal that looked like it was in front of a cave entrance. John ran over, and Gregory made sure to watch carefully. He went through the portal before coming back out. Two things happened at this moment, John made a statement, and a window appeared before Gregory.

You have gained access to the Master Scout unique class for learning all of its’ powers.

You have learned all the unique classes you have spots for right now.

“Alright guys, seems the portal is just here to keep bounce people back, I was able to go through because of my class, but it would have otherwise just stopped me like a regular cliff face.”

As he said this, Sean made the motion to charge in there, John used his ability to get to the other side of the portal and shut it down through sticking some of his own mana into it. Gregory smiled at his new abilities. He had just gained a new set of powers, and knew that he would only continue growing stronger as time went on.

As the group entered this cave, it was obvious that it was a bandit cave. There were small camps set up all over the cave, as well as some loot. As they got further down into the cave, they ran into an enchanted door that was made to repel magic. It had a lock on it, and since it was so heavily protected, seemed like it was where any valuables would be held. Unfortunately, the door wouldn’t be gotten into without the key, which was likely on the head bandit.

As they were investigating, a noise came from the opening of the tunnel. Sean made a quick motion for everybody to take cover, and they did just that. Nobody wanted to be out in the open when a large group of potentially dangerous bandits would be coming in. As they got down, hiding behind tents, boxes, crates, and barrels, the group of bandits came into the large open area. A couple were stronger, at level 23 and 21 respectively. The rest of them were between level 12 and 15. There was probably very little that the new recruits to this squad could do, but even Sean could see that the five of them would have a decent chance if Gregory could focus on the two stronger bandits and the rest took care of the weaker bandits. The only thing was though, that the stronger bandits were wearing full helmets, chest plate armor, and the rest was covered in boiled leather. The weaker bandits were only wearing hide and leather armors, and not even boiled leather.

Sean knew that he needed a plan, and he had one. From what Maki told him, Gregory had quite the powerful abilities now with his magic. He would probably be able to hurt them through their armor with that spear she had mentioned. Sean pointed to Gregory, then to the two strongest bandits in the group. It was obvious that the intent for Gregory was to fight them while the rest of the group takes care of the weaker bandits. With Dynamite and Back-up for support, it should be possible to defeat all of them in a fight. As Gregory got up with the rest of the original group, the bandits got startled, it was rare to see a group that exuded such confidence in their abilities and skills to defeat their group. Even rarer to see a group that could get in the cave. Being bandits though, they could not pass up a haul. This group was loaded, two of them had full plate armor on, and the others were magic users.

The leader of the bandits made a yell, trying to scare the group they were facing in addition to shouting his intention for the group.

“Kill the two in armor, keep the mages alive.”

His reasoning was obvious, any mage was valuable to a city, even if an enemy mage. Their magical energy could be harnessed, and if not, they were a very powerful offensive asset.

Gregory though was not going to easily give up. He was forming a sphere of mana in his hands. The size was nothing serious right now, and many of them began laughing. They had heard magic users were dangerous, but this guy seemed harmless. The sphere then released from Gregory’s grasp and began expanding rapidly. The two strongest bandits were the targets, and they couldn’t escape it. As they were hit, the sphere expanded even more, and then exploded in a burst of powerful mana. The two were not dead, but their armor had been shredded, even though it was supposedly enchanted to resist magic. They had also gotten serious bruises and were barely able to stand up after that blast. The rest of the group that was inside the sphere that had exploded were all dead, ripped to pieces from the force of the blast. Even his own group seemed shocked at Gregory now, they knew he was strong, but this was something on an entirely different scale from what they knew he had. Still having barely over half his mana, Gregory began creating spiral mana bolts. They were rushing toward the two bandit leaders, and kept coming until ten had been sent for each of the two leaders. While Gregory had done this, the remainder of the group headed to the door to prevent any bandits from escaping the cave. They didn’t want to have to deal with a larger group of bandits later. To their surprise, Gregory had managed to take care of both the bandit leaders, and probably almost three quarters of the whole group before he quivered from near mana exhaustion.

Gregory was on his knees now, looking out at the bandits. Only the quarter that were on the entrance side of the cave had been safe from his attacks, and they were rushing to their deaths at the hands of the rest of the party he was in. Without their armor, the bandit leaders didn’t stand a chance against the spiral mana bolts, and after his expanding explosive mana sphere, their armor had been destroyed. The bandits on the inner side of the cavern also died to his hands, letting forth another large volley of spiral mana bolts to take care of them before they could get to the entrance. He had gotten multiple messages, and then one more message after the rest of the party had just about killed the rest of the bandits.

You have gained three levels, 33 stat points, one trait point, and your status has been improved.

You have gained two levels, 22 stat points, and your status has been improved.

You have gained one level, 11 stat points, one trait point, and your status has been improved.

The group checked the remains of the bandits, letting Gregory recover since he seemed to be incredibly exhausted from expending as much mana as he had in such a short time. They found the key on the bandit that was level 23 before death, and then opened the door to the loot room. They found full suits of armor inside, as well as gold and other valuables. All the leather armor they had gotten was given to the newest members of their team, as well as bows, daggers, and other assorted weapons. They wanted to get the group outfitted to their fullest extent. The better outfitted and prepared for battle a group was, the more powerful the overall group was. The small group they had allowed in were all still much weaker, but they were also now fully equipped with weapons and armor again. While it wasn’t as strong as what they probably came in with, it was much better than the nothing they had before. On top of that, even though the original party had not gained experience from any of Gregory’s kills, they had gained substantial experience from the bandits they did kill. At the same time though, they had little concern over it, they knew that Gregory was the only reason they made it out alive in this situation and were highly grateful of that.

Sean was the only one in the group that was shocked enough to think it may be worthwhile to change experience to equal Party division. While he knew that less people got experience this way, meaning it was faster to level up if just a couple people participated in the death of whatever was killed. Gregory had gained experience for all the kills it seemed, probably because he was the reason they began running. It also seemed that they had been damaged very slightly from the mana sphere that had been sent flying. The power behind that technique was ridiculous, having ripped apart many of the bandits stuck in the center of it, and even leaving the ones on the edges of the actual sphere mangled beyond recognition.

Gregory was still resting to restore his mana. He had his eyes closed, but was trying to consider his options about the stat points he now had. Looking through the top stats again, he noticed that the second highest WIS was now 125, but the second highest was still only in the low 20s. The highest INT now as ridiculous though, having reached 273. It seems the person with the high INT in the first place had discovered the benefit of having high WIS, and got it to the highest benefit point.

‘What should I do with my points then? I should keep my edge on WIS, it seems to be overall beneficial to my survival. 150 INT would probably be enough to put a powerful bump in my power, but I won’t be the highest no matter what. To top it off, I need to get at least 100 it seems to get into the Library of the Ancients. 150 INT would be icing on the cake, giving me more than twice my current mana, and seriously bumping my ability to deal damage.’

’53 points to WIS, 90 points to INT’

As he thought this, he received two notifications, both of which had been expected to some degree.

For reaching 100+ INT, you have met all the requirements to the Library of the Ancients.

For reaching 100+ INT, you have gained the skill Photographic Memory.

Photographic Memory

Type Passive

Allows near permanent and perfect recollection of information acquired through vision.