“System Damn it! What is with it and rewarding me with pain? Just because I’ve felt worse doesn’t mean smaller amounts of pain suddenly hurt less. Sure I can take it but that only means I don’t get to sink into the glorious blackness of unconsciousness.”

Jason stands up and takes a few deep breaths. The first couple he can hear an odd crinkling from his chest. However after a couple short bursts of pain that sorts itself out. Now each breath feels like a whale swallowing the sea as his chest expands still it strains his shirt. “Better lung capacity is a nice side benefit. Though of course I would prefer a better stomach. You need air to live and admittedly my cultivation is partly based on it at the moment. However energy rich herbs, pills, and elixirs can do more for me and being able to digest them fully would be better. Sadly, I never learned the techniques for improved digestion as they all required more than a mortal body. Sure I can practice some meditation techniques to help with digestion but most of those are just about relieving stress. Probably be better for me to cultivate a little before taking any cultivation resources. Anyway, I need to get to sleep soon.”

Next morning rolls around and Jason readies to leave the Scratchy Pinecone for the last time. Everything is packed away, not that he ever left his stuff in the room, and Lily was in the harness munching on some spinach. With quiet steps Jason enters the dining area and sighs in relief when he doesn’t spot Fern. Still vigilant though he eases the exit open. However as it opens Jason nearly jumps at the sound of it creaking. For some reason though it doesn’t sound quite right. Almost as if the noise was coming from behind the door instead of the door itself.

Once fully open this suspicion is proven true. Right behind the door crouched down out of sight is a silently giggling Fern. She jumps up and slaps Jason on his shoulder. Back in the dining hall the guests all turn away and studiously ignore this turn of events. Fern, now finished laughing, advises him that, “didn’t someone already warn you to change your title? Mister stick in the mud at the guild should have mentioned it. Very important because only those who manage it on their own get the title. Only important families have various ways to cause a kid to form their core early. If you don’t use the title, then some powerful people will think you belong to one of them and that can only cause trouble. You already have me so you definitely don’t need others meddling in your life.”

Jason tries to leave but Fern blocks his way and looks down at him expectantly. He can only sigh and tell the system to switch his title to ‘Core Genius”. Once that is done Fern lets him through. Though not before one last offer that he, “can stay here anytime you want! Same price, same meddling!” Jason just books it. No looking back, no slowing down, all the way to the Adventurers Guild.

Once inside, he takes a moment to catch his breath only to find that he doesn’t have to. The enhancement to his lungs already proving their worth. Then again, that might just be the roads at work now that he is level ten. He doesn’t care to delve into it too much and instead turns to the System message alerting him to a new letter. Rosha had gotten back to him it seems. Her suggestion on where to meet up was convenient for Jason. She had decided on a trade city, deep enough into the kingdom so it isn’t an easy invasion target. However close enough to two other kingdoms, one being the place with the nobles that hate him, to allow an easy passage for caravans. Better yet there is a major road connecting Wasteland’s Edge to it in a straight shot. Apparently while the wasteland extends into another kingdom only on this side are the monsters low enough level to make material farming worthwhile.

With a target now Jason takes a look at the quest board. It would be perfect if he could find some escort mission to make some pocket change on the way. Of course it is wishful thinking on his part to expect that. While there are protection details they aren’t looking for him. With such a flood of adventurers who have broken through the third bottleneck coming and going all the time no caravan would bother with someone who hasn’t.

In the end he asks around and finds that for one of his three gold he can ride along with a caravan leaving just before noon. Most other groups have left already and this one caravan was still in town because of a broken axle. It confused Jason why it would take so long to fix in a world of magic. That is he was until the receptionist explained that they had to replace the axle because they were enchanted to handle the load. At least it meant he wasn’t going to be traveling alone. With only slight trepidation he hands over almost a third of his money to reserve a spot.

Done with the guild Jason heads over to the market again. While he could not upgrade his armor, there was one thing that needed to be changed right away. His backpack was holding together for the moment but the tutorial magic was quickly fading. The System message might have made it sound like the thing would stop working right away there is some leeway built in. He didn’t need anything too fancy. With his portable planter taking care of his plants one of the basic models should work just fine. Though in the end he includes one nice feature. They enchanted the side pockets to hold three times the volume and with a stasis effect so food will take longer to spoil. Besides that the thing barely holds twice the volume. Compared to the luxurious tutorial packs ten times this was nothing. However he didn’t particularly use the space to begin with so it all works out. Works out to a whopping two gold and 23 silver. Even that is an incredible deal. Places where people go to break the second bottleneck would price it at least ten times that amount. Wasteland’s Edge only has them so cheap because this is where people tend to trade them in for an upgrade, not buy them.

Modified Spacial Backpack (Leather, 2x Volume)

Description:

A generic backpack with spacial magic enchanted on it that increases the inner volume to twice the expected amount. It has been modified so the two side pockets have thrice the volume and non-living items inside them degrade at half the rate of the stable dimension it currently resides in.