i just needed to repair the circle and use something like candles to summon a skeleton. I could have him guard the cave while i went out to gain experience. I looked threw all the rest of the spell. All i needed was a monster core from a monster of level 11 or greater and a skeleton from a humanoid monster level 50 or human level 10 some size requirement here. The candles were just to hold the practitioner attention as a skeleton i did not need that.

I checked Laura had used a shaman goblin skeleton as she was able to lift in on her wheelbarrow from the local dump. I checked again all i needed was listed here.

Intelligence + 1

I looked around could i dig a escape tunnel the hero's book had mentioned a escape tunnel in his book the villain used to escape him. I wondered was i a villain. I decided it did not matter i needed a escape tunnel but even if i had one i could not go out during the day. So what i needed was a hide hole somewhere to hide. The cave was tiny it had been carved out by a greater badger or some other large beast. So while it was sturdy it had one entrance and one exit. I looked down the ground was dirt, i could use my hands and make a trap like int the book only i would hide under it if trouble came.

Of course i did not have any building materials but the survival book must have a idea as to where to get them.

Ping fame + 10 the corpses of the two snakes have been found by Timmy

i looked up that was not good i should have hidden those snake corpses i could not go back there now as someone might notice me and the book about the hero mentioned the villagers ganging up on monsters. I would have to be more careful.

As it was sunny out i got to reading and made a discovery monsters leveled up quickly but did not gain hp as quickly as i had. Most skeletons had hp from 40 to 200. In fact most gained hp at level 4 and 7 i thought about it the titles i had must have leveled me up three times at level seven each title had increased the number of times my hp went up a construct had 5 a monster 10 and a mage 5. So i would not have 4400 hp points when i hit level 100. i would have 880 still it was a improvement.

Night 3 Monday

i put down some basic traps the book said would capture rats a piece of meat over a series holes with ice over the rim. Stupid animals would come for the meat and slip on the ice into the hole. Then i used ice spell to cover a rock so the rats could not climb it and i put my books on it.

i crept out looking for something called a bee hive.i found one marked as dangerous on the map. As no one owned it no one would notice it missing bees. I moved slowed hiding as this improved sneak. I found the bee hive and went over and pushed my hand into the hive. The bees flew around stinging me.

Poison resistance + 5 percent hp-1

Poison resistance + 5 percent hp-1

Poison resistance + 5 percent hp-1

Once my poison resistance hit 55 i drain life. And used vamparic aura on the bee hive.

Vamparic aura has killed over 1000 living beings level up

vamparic aura has drained over 10000 living beings level up

drain life has killed over 1000 living beings level up

vamparic aura has been replaced with drain skill allows the possibility to drain an skill or ability from a enemy you have killed and drained of energy probability of drain 0.1 percent. Ability is at 5 percent of original owners ability use can use this ability to adsorb the same ability again and again

drain life spell can now be used as a short range attack range 1 meter radius from you cost 1 hp per minute drains 10 hp 10 mp 5 stamina.

I looked at my stats

laura skeleton level 10

hp 372 stamina 48

I checked there was still a few hundred bees around drain life went into effect

you may choose a ability to learn at 5 percent of original skill set

industrious you do not slow down from working

vortex lift off wings can lift you easier

poison you can secret a toxin out of a stinger you die once used

social skill you can be organized by your queen more easily

sense skill you can sense flowers over vast distances

Mapping

hive mind can communicate with others of your kind easier and give and receive clear orders

conversion you are able to convert pollen to nectar

hive guard you gain fury when your hive is in danger.

Friend or foe you can identify enemies by scent

sun sense during the day you always know where the sun is even when cloudy

i wondered what it would be like to smell it might be useful as would perhaps mapping. But hive mind was what i needed to take. I was a construct and monster and ice mage, if i could find another monster i could use him to communicate far easier and hopefully learn to talk. i checked the map there were two other locations with hives not owned by anyone in the village marked. I had time i as the bee hives would have ten or twenty thousand bees each i would gain half or a whole skill per bee hive.

I moved off carefully keeping a eye on where i was this bee hive was near a mill and i had to avoid everyone.

I watched the few lights in the village one was the inn and the other was a lantern being moved by what i took for the local night guard. I moved quickly as i needed to be back in my cave by sun rise. The bee hive was easy to find and a quick energy drain left me with a full hive mind and full mapping ability. I checked my skills

drain skill allows the possibility to drain an skill or ability from a enemy you have killed and drained of energy probability of drain 0.8 percent. Ability is at 5 percent of original owners ability use can use this ability to adsorb the same ability again and again.

It had gone from 0.1 percent to 0.8 percent this was good i had one more hive to visit and this would allow me to gain

a lot more abilities from the bees. I moved quickly as my new mapping ability lead me straight to the last point on the map. I quickly adsorbed the last two skills i wanted

Friend or foe you can identify enemies by scent

sun sense during the day you always know where the sun is even when cloudy

i took a whiff i smelled there was a stream on the way back so i took a brief detour and walked into the water washed and left. I smelled something lovely so i picked a flower to bring back to the cave with me.

I checked back at the cave i was now level 17 that annoying level up counter had stopped going off. Well things were looking up. Level 25 here i come.

There were six rats caught in the trap i killed one it only awarded me only 20 exp each i guess my level was increasing. I needed to get down and kill all those snakes and fast then i would wait for laura or perhaps i could wait till the Friday that way i would not be noticed by the villagers. I left the others alone i could practice sneak on them.

I looked at the map again there was a stream near the pond with the snakes it had to lead somewhere i could trace it and return tomorrow night. Time to get back to reading i needed to level up my language skill

tuesday

i went outside and let the sun burn until i was at half hp then i used energy drain on the rats. I got nothing but i noticed my mana is increasing faster now. I checked it is not a stat but a effect of the cave. Tonight i will trace the source of the snakes they had to come from somewhere.

As night fell i got ready i already had a lot of good abilities and i needed more. There were things called ants in my hero book and something called snails and grubs. These would all have good abilities and i would level up after gaining enough to gain a new skill.

I walked into the night and noticed something in the sky. Insects of some kind a quick drain and i got nothing. I moved off looking for dead trees. I found some and began to use drain life. According to my book there should be beetles in the

dead tree i quickly learned extra hard exoskeleton but could not equip it just yet. I also gain a level so by learning one more skill i could level up i needed lots of small things

extra hard exoskeleton

you can create a extra hard armor hard plating on your body it takes a month to fully encase yourself in basic armor lowest grade. However as a skeleton you can not use this skill.

I moved off and found some ants they had the ability exoskeleton and strength organization. Unfortunately my vamparic aura still only gave me a 0.8 percent chance of gaining a ability of 5 percent. So roughly i had to kill more than one hundred to gain a a 5 percent increase in a skill. And i had to do this 20 times 100 * 20 = 2000 still it took only two trees to level my beetle extra hard exoskeleton to 15 percent. After 6 more i had a full ability.And barely a couple of dozen stops to find a ant hive they had put down a pheromone trail i followed.

I took exoskeleton just to level up and extra hard byte

And a truly amazing ability.

Ant strength

ants are amazingly strong creatures strength * 8

i picked up a rock and threw it it slammed into a tree with a bang. This was good i heard a snorting and the local forest moved to show a massive boar

Massive giant rampaging fighter monster Boar, level ?? hp ?? skill ??

i took a look at the boar and decided to test out the hive mind ability.

"Yeah i love to fight and stomping you into the ground will be fun"

The boar started to par the earth and i jumped behind a local tree. The tree exploded as the boar charged threw it and missed me by a hairs breath

Fast movement learned

dodge learned

i checked my level 24 at 25 i would get a boost. As the boar turned around i doubted it would be enough even if i got instantly to level 50

Diplomacy learned

Diplomatic check failed

"Na squashing you will be fun i will give you a head start say 20 seconds"

animal language basic learned.

I turned and ran around a tree which disappeared as the Boar ran straight threw it. I ran on thinking if i had my club coated with the snake venom instead of the toad venom i might have actually been in with a chance. It was obvious the boar was letting me escape narrowly. I also wondered why i had not leveled up from the diplomacy skill. Then again perhaps gaining a level per skill learned was not automatic.

I jumped out of the way and the boar missed me by a razor edge again. I had to come up with something and fast. I looked down and cast a minor ice spell with all of my mana. The boar moved to in give me another scare and i lashed out. The monster Boar skidded on the ice but having to get out of the way i missed him and my club broke off his butt. The boar screamed in pain and charged into a over a gulley. I heard a bang as the boar had run right into something.

You have killed a creature far more evolved than yourself. Level up with multipliers creature 3 evolutions higher

creature 10 times more hit points creature far more experienced in combat.

I checked my luck had jumped to 11 i was now level 39

Some of my skills had gone i checked one of my new ones

dark armour you can form durable dark armour when takes a month you can not be exposed to sunlight damage during that time or you have to start the process again. This replaces the broken chainmail skill you gained at level 25 and Extra hard exoskeleton beetle and ant skills

Dark sword can form a dark sword once a year takes twelve hours concentration and not moving to form

Speed replaces Fast movement and dodge

survivor toughness ability your bones are harder than normal gaining increased protection from sunlight and blunt weapons.

Time to head back i wanted to be out of here in case by some miracle that boar had friends. Was i forgetting anything i swore i was going to go back to get some poison from a viper or two.The boar it was a upper level monster it would have a monster crystal in its stomach.

I pulled away the bush and found the boar with a broken neck. He had simply been surprised and ran into the gorge and smashed into the rock below at full speed.

My club was still embedded in his rear. I tried to pull it out what was left but it was lodged in there. I still had my dagger so i tried cutting the skin no luck my dagger almost broke. I finally tried the under belly and managed to pull enough away and reach into the pig to remove the crystal. I took a look it was a fairly big one. My books indicated this was a very valuable piece as it was quite large .It would be a shame to waste this on a summon skeleton spell i would trade it to Laura for a few dozen smaller ones and a proper gromoire.

Time to be off i had lost my exoskeleton skills time to get them back. I was faster now and could move to the dead trees faster. I took a slight detour on my way back to the ant colony as i wanted to avoid the dead trees and patches of soil i had already adsorbed. I wanted to

i heard something and stopped by a tree. Two men were talking "I do not like this no sir those bees did not die of no disease and neither did those insects. Something got to them look at the ground all dead like" "Quite fool you never claimed those bees did you now i know they was yours but i guess you did not want to pay the mayor his cut. So i am doing you a favor out here trying to track whatever did it but we need to be quite i want to sneak up on it" "Quite yourself a blind man could follow the dead soil something is out here i need it gone so the bees will return now get a move on. Because i aint paying you to stand around." "Your not paying me at all your wife promised me a month of home cooked meals if we managed to catch this thing."

I still as farmer level 36 Ryan and hunter poacher level 50 moved out. I thought about it i had not started killing anything except those flying insects until i was well away from the cave from now on i would be careful as to where i left things. I decided to visit a different ant hill on the way back to avoid any traps the poacher might have left out.

I checked the dark armour description after i re adsorbed exoskeleton ant and beetle. It changed to say you can form amazingly durable light armour with bonuses depending on the skin type skills you adsorb. I moved back to the cave and decided to let my mana charge up and forge a sword i needed a new one.

I checked the gromoire until i was ready and cast a couple of minor ice spells somehow i knew two more ice spells

ice dagger cost 25 mana cooldown three minutes

icy blast cost 100 mana per second range 3 to 4 meters sends out a icy blast the freezes anything in its path can direct the blast will cost additional mana.

Tuesday Thursday

i kept leaving the cave for a few minutes at a time. I regenerated in the cave and my sun resistance rose. It was time consuming of course and i decided to take full damage just before the sun went down. I could have gone out to hunt but my mana was non existent and i had a dagger so i decided to use the form dark sword ability.

I selected the ability and three choices were offered

nitting needle

butter knife

rusty fork

i checked again. It must have something to do with the fact i had just used up all my mana. I put of the gloves that increased my magic a bit and waited until my mana was at full.

Choices

claymore rusty brittle cracks

shield rusty brittle cracks falling apart

spear rotten brittle

rusty sword rusty brittle

short sword a bit rusty

dagger

dagger vampiric a bit rusty steals 1 hp per second when inside a enemy and gives to wielder.

I selected short sword and imagined the sword. The darkness flowed like a mist into my hand

short sword durable black

a skeleton short sword better made than most skeleton sword

durable the sword creation adsorbed all the dark energy from the skeletons cave dungeon space effect rusty removed

black and shiny due to the skeleton who created this sword having a advanced energy drain life the sword gives a bonus to all spells with drain life or ice effects.

Hard to see at night the sword is black and at night hard to see.

Thursday night.

Time to test things out now that i have speed i run over a short distance until my stamina goes down to zero. It goes back almost instantly. Unlike my mana which can take a long time to increase. I think i regenerate about two mana per minutes out in the world. But in my cave before i created my sword it was different. It went up really fast. I tried checking the caves status but am not at level large enough to do that yet. I had 280 mana after putting down the gloves and had gained basic shadow affinity. Which was nice but the problem was i had timed the sword creation to stop a hour before sun set. I would not have a lot of time in the world to get what i wanted done. I decided to visit the pond again and try to get some venom i could wait for anything more adventures until later i moved off.

The pond was filed with tadpoles i guess the frogs were using the time well. A quick drain life and the ability swim added to my range. I looked at my sword i wanted to to use this new ability but the sword would get wet. Dropping the sword into some bushes i entered the water with the dagger in my teeth. A few strokes and a decided i liked swimming. I would come back later to investigate this spot. I left the water and picked up my sword to find a bunch of snakes moving in for the kill. Two leapt out of the water one trying to stop me getting my sword the other making a straight line for me.

The first snake grabbed my hand and tried to byte me i tossed it into a tree and kicked the one trying to grab my sword. My extra strength really came in handy. I turned around as three snakes began to emerge from the water. The middle began to talk

"HA Ha Ha Now we have you this is our pond stupid undead thing. I will be killing you now stupid skeleton only we are allowed to bath here. So"

the other two heads spat at me a cloud of black smoke and a a jet of something water like.

You have been poisoned with absolutely deadly poison no effect mild acid damage until acid is washed off

you have entered a region of deadly poison one breath would kill a elephant you do not breath no poison effect.

I put out my hand and used ice blast on the water the snakes were coming out of. It froze as did the massive body that had been coming out of the water.

The middle head of what i now thought was a hydra laughed. "Stupid skeleton i will be out in a minute or two. I am the biggest and breath fire you can not run from my flame arrows."

Someone screamed "get that big bully hydra he farts fire balls all the time. He almost burnt all the reeds down last week"

the middle head started to screech "I am the biggest what i say goes. I do not care how thirsty you are i will not let you drink until you do a dance for me."

I ran away from the front of the creature and jumped into the water. Firing off a icy blast just before i hit the water.

I swam under the water. I moved down as i heard the middle head scream. "Use poison water you i will fry him once he runs out of air." the mocking voice called out again "Stupid hydra that skeleton does not breath."

As i doubted the ice would hold the hydra long i put my hand on him and began to use drain life. My mana filled up in seconds. I moved around the front of the hydra and cast icy blast. The water in front of me froze into a solid pillar of ice it wrapped around the hydra leg. I made a shallow cut with my dark sword and took a grip of the ice pillar and using my sword began to adsorb as much mana as i could. As i swam under the hydra i noticed my cuts were visible healing even as the hydra tried to roll around so he could use his heads to eat me. Another icy blast to his other back leg and he stopped. I could hear the heads arguing.

"This is stupid he is really annoying lets just leave and go bully the toads again"

"Leave how we are trapped. Lets just ask him to leave after all there is no way he can kill us not with our regeneration"

"no i going to toast him"

"We do not have to keep our word ouch that hurt "

i really liked my hearing this was going nowhere fast so i cut a hole in the hydra and put in a icy dagger. In the water the icy dagger spell was larger. The hydra healed around the dagger pushing it further into the hydra. I heard a cry "ouch" "ouch" "ouch" Each of the heads must have felt that one. One more icy blast to the front legs and i got down to it dragging my sword over the hydras belly turning it and casting freeze dagger on the holes my sword had made. The regeneration stopped and the side hydra heads tried to get to me. I moved around the back and then came up with a idea.

I grabbed my dagger from my mouth and plunger it in and twisted then cast icy blast before the wound could fully heal. The ice formed a cage around my dagger and left the hydra with my dagger and icy spear in its gut. They i cast icy blast on the scars with the ice daggers running threw them. The Hydra went nuts and broke out of the the front part of the ice. With only my sword left i plunged it into the belly and hung on clinging to the frozen back leg.

After a while the hydra stopped moving about and i heard a familiar pinging sound. Due to you using adsorb life while killing a hydra you have adsorbed the hydras magic stone.

For killing and adsorbing a creature that much stronger than yourself you increase your cap level . You can grow a bit stronger in all skill and abilities. Allows new abilities you were unable to learn before to be learned

You may choose one of the following options.

Level increase 25

take one hydra ability

regeneration warning for a construct this is much slower rate.however you will be able to regenerate lost limbs

breath fire

breath toxic cloud

spit poison

i took regeneration. That whole regain limbs sounded like a good thing to have.

I checked my level it was now 69 and that regeneration was good to i would have to wait to get back to my cave as there was not much time before sunrise. In fact i did not have enough time according to my internal clock the battle with the hydra had taken to long. I looked around and stay the day a toad jump into my view.