Before going back to the wall to continue my investigation, I plan to explore the forest a little to find some spices that can enhance the taste of the meat that is going to be my staple food from now on.

As I'm searching the forest for any useful spices by appraising every plant and tree I find, I came across the bodies I left around everywhere as experiments.

I took a closer look at each of them and although the bodies were in different stages of decomposition, none of them has even a small bite mark on them even after a few weeks of being left in the open.

And there aren't any extra corpses so no other beast came to eat them.

Does that mean there are no carnivores around here?

Am I that lucky?

The Appraisal results does say that this is the core area of the forest and I'm pretty sure strong monsters occupy core areas of any forests that I read about in the books.

Maybe this is a different kind of forest but I'm more willing to bet that the cause is mostly related to the presence of the corrupted monsters in the area.

More and more it seems like the source of the corruption is the reason for a lot of these weird occurrences.

What kind of monster can occupy an Empire's capital without getting killed, can corrupt others and keep the monsters away from where it stays?

At least I'm hoping it's a monster, then I can kill it although when I kill it depends on its strength.

I don't know what I can do if it is something else.

That's just my guess and if that is correct I don't have to worry about any predators in the area except for the corrupted monsters and their source but those corrupted ones seem to stick to their buildings.

Hmm.

Wait a second.

Didn't the corruption source corrupt the dead people in this ruin and raise them as undead?

If I leave these corpses alone, wouldn't they raise someday as undead?

Even if the chance of that happening is one percent why should I take the risk?

Then what should I do with these bodies?

What if I throw them outside the walls?

Wouldn't the beasts that live outside eat them?

Even if they don't, wouldn't the wall be a sufficient obstacle?

That's good enough.

After that, I start storing all the decomposing corpses in my storage. I can throw them when I go to the walls.

Although I was side-tracked by the decomposing bodies, I did find a few basic things that would help improve my food's taste.

Until I reach some kind of civilization these plants are all I have. My exploration for spices is done for now, so I move towards the wall to continue my investigation.

I move towards the first Sentry Tower and from there on to the wall and towards the opposite direction of where I went yesterday. Before going far, I throw away the decomposing corpses on the outside.

Same as yesterday, as I reach the surrounding area of where the Sentry Tower is, I could see two skeletons lumbering around and after appraising them they are similar ones to yesterday, just different levels.

As I could already face both the skeletons quite comfortably, I want to know whether them having their weapons would make any difference. I move towards them and they charged towards me like always but this time, the fight was a bit difficult.

If I want to, I can quickly cripple one of them and slowly kill the other one like I did last time but before that, I want to see how far I can go.

I spent somewhere between three to four hours adjusting to the weapons reach and slowly started to control the rhythm of the fight. After that, I was able to comfortably dodge them using one against the other.

After learning all I could from them, I repeat the same process from yesterday, crippling one of them with Spatial Slash, killing the other one first, and then the crippled skeleton.

You have defeated a Corrupted Imperial Archer x2

Your race has gained a level

I invest the five Attribute Points into Intelligence. That should be enough to unlock the last skill I need for my class. I search the skeletons for loot next.

The loot I found on them is similar to the last time, a pair of daggers on each of them. But there was an extra sentence in the description as the Appraisal skill gained another level. It seems these weapons are also made of Deep Iron.

As for the Sentry Tower which I combed through next, a couple of longswords and daggers from the weapons storage room, that's about it.

Just like last time, the wall I'm on ends here and it's connected to another wall that seems to be on the backside of this whole ruin. I move on to that wall and I can see another Sentry Tower in the distance.

Let me see, there were two Sentry Towers on the two corners and one in the middle of the last wall. Hmm, then similarly the one I'm seeing right now in the distance should be the middle one for this wall and there should be another at the far end.

By that count, there should be a total of seven Sentry Towers and I still need to cover four of them. If they all have the same number of undead patrolling them, I guess I'll be done exploring them by dark.

I move towards the next Sentry Tower.

As the number of skeletons doesn't increase after that, I repeat the same process as before. Reach the Sentry Tower, inspect the skeletons, kill them and then loot them and search the whole building top to bottom.

Every skeleton has the same pair of daggers on them and every building has the same couple of longswords and daggers in its cache room. The only difference is that of the other four buildings, there were two skeletons at three of them and one at the other and apart from the above-mentioned loot, I found a magic item.

You have defeated a Corrupted Imperial Archer x 7

Your class has gained a level x 2

Longsword Mastery reaches level 5

Multi-Tool

Grade : Uncommon

Type : Tool

A set of tools made to be used in everyday activities. Made of Deep Iron.

This dark blue colored multi-tool looks similar to modern pocket-sized multi-tools one can find in the market but this one has only six of them.

Namely, a knife, saw, pliers, file, scissors, and a couple of detachable lockpicks. This item looks more and more like a set of tools that thieves would need but that doesn't matter as long as I'm able to use it.

This is the second magic item I found that's still in working condition.

Of the ten Attribute Points I've gained, I invest five to Dexterity and the rest to Perception.

Just as I thought, there are seven Sentry Towers around the ruin, one at each corner of the walls and the other three at the middle of the three walls except for the front one. I was able to go around this whole ruin once, during which I surveyed the inside and outside, trying to remember as many details as I can.

Now I at least know where the huge buildings in the ruin are with respect to one another and also confidently say that monsters from outside the ruin won't be approaching this place any time soon. As for the environment surrounding this ruin, the only things I could clearly see are trees.

There seems to be a large mountain range to the back of the ruin but that's too far and I can only see it when the sky is clear. I could see quite a few flying monsters in the distance too but none of them come near this ruin.

I don't think I will be able to reach any civilization from here on foot. I'll be dead before that.

My only hope is to improve my Space Mana Manipulation skill high enough to able to manipulate the space mana to the extent that I can unlock the Teleportation skill which also needs an insane amount of mana.

Hmm.

Wait a second.

If this place is isolated from the world, couldn't I use this place as my hidden base. I can slowly clear this place and make it my own. I can also use the transportation array in the Temple's basement to check the different areas it is connected to. Maybe one of those places is somewhere near to civilization.

Wouldn't hurt to check.

I should keep that in mind and throughly check all the places it connected to slowly after gaining my class.

By the time I'm done going through all the Towers, it was already late into the evening, so I went back to the temple to rest.

I do have a skill to unlock which I'll do tomorrow morning.

As for dinner, I used the new spices I found today morning to make myself some roasted meat, which I immediately devour, and damn was it good.

Maybe it's just my mind playing tricks on me but it was better than good. If I already didn't have any plans for exploring before, now I may just want to spend my time roaming the continent for the sake of trying different kinds of food every day, it was that good.

Well, it's decided, one more goal to complete and that is to try and eat as many different types of food as I can.

Now that I'm full, I began my daily grind of skills but mostly focused on Space Mana Manipulation, if I want to hide from the skeletons then increasing this skill's level is a must. I train until I'm exhausted and then go to sleep.

The next morning when I woke up, I feel like my body is a lot more flexible compared to before. At first, I thought it was just my misconception but when the Eogus fruit I was eating slipped my hand, I caught the fruit before I even registered it in my mind.

That raised my suspicion, I carefully checked my responses and I can confidently say that they have been improved, just a little but that's enough.

What prompted these changes in my body?

I didn't do anything differently yesterday from every other day. I trained, fought with skeletons, gained a level, and practiced my skills at night before sleeping.

The only thing special among that is after gaining a level, I've invested the Attribute Points into my attributes as I see fit but I did that even before.

If that's the reason for this change then why now and not the first time I invested.

And also why only my flexibility, what about the other attributes I've invested in?

Hmm.

I check my staus to see what's the difference between now and then.

The only difference is that my Dexterity is at twenty and that's in second place after Intelligence which is at twenty-five while the rest are below twenty.

Could it be because my Dexterity has twenty points in it?

If that's the case shouldn't the first change in my body be when my Intelligence had twenty points?

Hmm.

Could it be the change was done but I didn't feel it?

From the explanation I got from using Appraisal on the attributes, Dexterity corresponds to my body flexibility, reflexes, speed, reaction time, etc., so it should improve them. And I did feel my body becoming more flexible, that was the main reason I'm pondering these questions.

Similarly, Intelligence corresponds to my mental energy and it increases mana.

But how do I check if there are any changes?

Is there any easy way to check the effects that are mental?

I don't think there is. If there was I would have at least noticed some differences by now, but I didn't. May be there is some way to check the mental changes in somewhere but right now I'm not privy to that information.

Now that I'm consciously thinking about it, I do feel like my mind is a little more energetic and don't feel the fatigue that often but that may just be my mind playing tricks on me.

I need to be sure about the effect but I can't right now so I'm going to assume that some kind of improvement did happen when my Intelligence reached twenty points.

Even if it did, why wasn't the effect immediate?

Why wait a day?

Does that mean that the system needs the day to make the adjustments to my body?

Or do I just need to rest?

And why at twenty points?

Is the system going to affect my body every ten points or is there some other calculation I don't know of?

Also, If I invest my Attribute Points in other attributes, how will they change my body differently?

Are there any side effects if I keep investing my Attribute Points only into one attribute?

So many questions and no one to answer them. I should remember these questions for now. Maybe I'll get answers while I explore or I can always ask someone when I reach some kind of civilization.

And for now, if I can't find any explanation, I'll just have to use my body as an experiment and experience them. But that doesn't mean I'm going to change how I'm investing my Attribute Points from now on.

I'll keep investing as before but when they are reaching the next ten points threshold, I'll make sure to invest in one attribute each time so that I can accurately see the difference.

After draining my mind thinking about the system shenanigans, I focus on unlocking the last skill I need for my class.

It's been four hours since I've been trying to gain the defensive skill Spatial Shield. I thought it would be as easy as all the other skills I've gained in space magic until now but it's proving me wrong.

To gain the skill, I need to use my space mana to manipulate the spatial fabric defensively to act as my shield. As the spatial fabric is everywhere, I thought it would be a piece of cake to manipulate it to act as a shield but I wasn't able to do that.

When I try to use my mana to interact with the spatial fabric, it goes smoothly and I was able to manipulate it to form a tunnel, like I did when I unlocked the Blink skill.

But when I try to use my mana to manipulate the same spatial fabric to form into a small shield in front of me, the difficulty seems to increase and my mana manipulation can't keep up with the task and fails.

Do I need to have more control over my mana?

I can't think of any other reason for my failure. I'll have to improve my Space Mana Manipulation skill a little more first before trying this again.

What should I do with the rest of the day?

Hmm.

Exploring the other buildings wouldn't hurt. From the list of buildings left to explore, Palace is the last place I plan on visiting and Catacombs just before that.

From what I saw yesterday by traveling along the walls, Catacombs must be that tomb-shaped building at the back of the Palace.

Now that those two are out, I can either check the building to the right of the temple or the ones on the opposite side.

I'll first go through the building on my side and from there I could check those guard posts near the entrance and then move on to the buildings on the other side.

Name : Janus Arthridge

Race : Human

Level : 2

Bloodline : N / A

Class : N / A

Level : 5

Health : 100 / 100

Stamina : 150 / 150

Mana : 250 / 250

Attributes

Strength : 10

Dexterity : 20

Vitality : 10

Endurance : 15

Resilience : 10

Perception : 15

Intelligence : 25

Wisdom : 10

Willpower : 10

Attribute Points : 0

Skills

Appraisal Lv.2

Stealth Lv.2

Meditation Lv.5

Space Mana Manipulation Lv.6

Blink Lv.1

Spatial Slash Lv.1

Longsword Mastery Lv.5

Corruption Resistance Lv.2

Spatial Storage Lv. 1

Skill Slots : 1

Perks

Otherworlder

Summoned Being

Polyglot