Lucas woke to sunrays caressing his face. Opening his eyes, he was temporarily overwhelmed by amount of daylight all around him. Reeling in, he inspected his surroundings. Big Kong’s corpse was still there, lying in the pool of dried up blood. Some way off from him laid body of Ent, whose post – mortem use as a club left severe cracks in its bark. As he walked over towards beaten enemies of last night, he found John already there.

“Good morning, youngling” old hunter greeted him. “Got your beauty sleep?”

Lucas lightly nodded in return, his eyes still on destruction last night brought.

“Something on your mind?” John asked

“Not much” he responded “I’m just not used to seeing aftermath of fights” What left unsaid was that Lucas didn’t particularly care to see them. He really didn’t care about a lot of stuff, fights and taverns filling his days and nights respectively. Now, looking at the grizzly scene his actions probably left behind, Lucas felt a little nauseous.

“The absolute worst part is stench” he said to himself more so that to John, but old man nodded regardless.

“Aye, and you never get used to it, no matter how much you lie to yourself” John started “Rot and blood and worse of them all, death. Even monsters give it off, hell I saw trees smelling like it since this madness started” he finished.

Lucas didn’t feel the need to respond further, remembering instead what he still had to do.

“I have to do something about parry” he started his to – do list. “And that bitch bird gave me an idea. Also, I have to decide what to do with those fucking gloves”

“Call me when breakfast is ready” he told John

“Wouldn’t kill you to make it yourself for once” he responded to him.

Rolling his eyes, Lucas went to the center of the basin, where remains of dryad camp stood. Lucas took a deep breath and called his equipment menu

Equipment

Active Set bonus: Leatherworker’s curated set 5/5

+50 Health

Curated leather chest (Uncommon quality item)

A skilled leather worker carefully selected best pieces of skins from various beasts to make leather chest that protects body of the wearer with hardened seams and weak spots and at the same time not hampering mobility of the wearer. Not particularly powerful all by itself, a whole set makes a sturdy contraption that guards the life of its wearer. Part of the Leatherworker curated set

Bonus ability: Pleasing to the eyes +1 Charisma

Curated leather pants (Uncommon quality item)

A skilled leather worker carefully selected best pieces of skins from various beasts to make leather pants that protects body of the wearer with hardened seams and weak spots and at the same time not hampering mobility of the wearer. Not particularly powerful all by itself, a whole set makes a sturdy contraption that guards the life of its wearer. Part of the Leatherworker curated set

Bonus ability: Pleasing to the eyes +1 Charisma

Curated leather bracers (Uncommon quality item)

A skilled leather worker carefully selected best pieces of skins from various beasts to make leather bracers that protects body of the wearer with hardened seams and weak spots and at the same time not hampering mobility of the wearer. Not particularly powerful all by itself, a whole set makes a sturdy contraption that guards the life of its wearer. Part of the Leatherworker curated set

Bonus ability: Pleasing to the eyes +1 Charisma

Curated leather gloves (Uncommon quality item)

A skilled leather worker carefully selected best pieces of skins from various beasts to make leather gloves that protects body of the wearer with hardened seams and weak spots and at the same time not hampering mobility of the wearer. Not particularly powerful all by itself, a whole set makes a sturdy contraption that guards the life of its wearer. Part of the Leatherworker curated set

Bonus ability: Pleasing to the eyes +1 Charisma

Curated leather greaves (Uncommon quality item)

A skilled leather worker carefully selected best pieces of skins from various beasts to make leather gloves that protects body of the wearer with hardened seams and weak spots and at the same time not hampering mobility of the wearer. Not particularly powerful all by itself, a whole set makes a sturdy contraption that guards the life of its wearer. Part of the Leatherworker curated set

Bonus ability: Pleasing to the eyes +1 Charisma

High – quality steel rapier (Uncommon quality item)

Rapier made from a single ingot of magically refined steel, giving it unprecedented durability. Magic infused during refining constantly sharpens the blade.

Self – sharpening

Lucas felt a strange sense of pride, looking over his equipment. The amount of haggling that went into making himself an armor that is actually pleasing to look at was insane. The poor leatherworker back at the Settlement had to make three Quests just to get amount of eye – candy skin necessary to make “a shitty peacock straps”.

“Those eyelashes from pretty maidens back home won’t bat by themselves” Lucas chuckled “ After all, a Prince charming must look the part” The same thought process went into buffing his Charisma with his first free points during his teenage years, when he got his class. And now, he was looking at the replacing it. With a resigned sigh, he slipped his old gloves and put new ones.

“Your Set bonus degraded from +50 Health to +25 Health”

He called focused on his status menu after flexing his finger, pleased that new gloves didn’t hamper his finger movement.

Name: Lucas (surname N/A)

Class: Duelist level 26 (Skill points available:1)

Attributes:

Strength: 27

Agility: 37

Constitution: 21

Intelligence: 26

Willpower: 23

Perception: 35

Charisma: 29

Luck: 30

Health: 542

Stamina: 1776

Mana: 598

Skills:

Eye for details

Duelist Grace

Infuse weapon

Lunge

Dodge

Pierce

Battle dance

Death of thousand cuts

Stinging cut

Equipment

Curated leather chest

Curated leather pants

Curated leather bracers

Ceramic – laced gorilla gloves

Curated leather greaves

High – quality steel rapier

Quests

Help the Camp Hearth

Titles

Monster Slayer

Colossus Muncher

That settled, Lucas focused on his next task. Parries where sorely missed tools in his arsenal, as his fight with the Corvid knight proved it. With System not helping him in a bit he would have to do it himself.

One of the earliest lessons he remembered from his tutorials was that every skill draw from one of the resources: Health, Stamina and Mana. Of the three, mana was the most versatile one, as lifeblood of System. More importantly to Lucas, utilizing mana was how you learn new stuff outside of Level Up skill gains. Finer details of the process were beyond his grasp, but on a basic level, it functioned as muscle memory. Do something enough times to persuade System you know how to it, and Skill is awarded. Tapping into his mana, felling it in his bloodstream as a current of power wading along with blood, Lucas pulled it to the surface. For a moment, his whole body was glowing before he focused that energy onto his blade and started a series of parries and ripostes from pre-System Earth.

As the midday came, Lucas was raging. For a solid two hours, he manipulated mana and train his movement. His first idea to infuse rapier quickly proved wrong, as mana simply stopped when it hit edges, acting as shittier version of “Infuse weapon”. After that, he tried focusing it on the pommel, on the body of the sword, even on his muscle, but nothing came of it. He knew how to measure progress, remembering the ecstatic feeling when he made progress in infusing weapon.

“How the fuck should I do this?” Lucas yelled at the prompt showing his remaining mana. As was tradition, System didn’t respond.

Forcefully calming himself, bottling the whirlwind of rage that coursed through his body, he readied himself for another try. Deciding to try wrists next, Lucas forced his mana into it. This was his last try, as his reserves were getting low and would need time to replenish. Somewhere in the middle of his moves, his rage started anew, feeling his lack of progress. That broke Lucas’s concentration and he let mana slipped from his wrist to his hand. When it happened, inspiration struck, and Lucas condensed it again, this time on his whole hand. Returning to his motions, Lucas gradually realized what needed to be done. He switched his movements, not trying to parry with his sword, but with his hand. Dozens of imaginary enemies attacked him and he parried them, all the while his instincts singed in tune with his mana. After last one fell, a prompt appeared

“Congratulations! You learned Punch Parry”

“Congratulations! You learned Mana Punch”

“Fucking finally” Lucas yelled trough gritted teeth, massive headache from lack of mana flaring up. Even better, he learned a second skill, a welcome surprise.

“I will not forgive you that easily” he said the System, bringing up his skill menu and looking for his newest additions.

Punch Parry (Rare)

People thought that it’s only possible to parry with a weapon, but you decided to prove them wrong by punching an opponent attack into submission. Blocks enemy attack and stagger them for 0,5 second for every point of strength.

Cost: 50 stamina, 50 mana

Mana Punch (Common)

Sometimes the enemy demands that you get close and personal with them. Emphasis on personal. Allows the user to land a mana – enhanced punch on his opponent. Damage is buffed by 1% for every point in Intelligence. Taunts enemy for 0,1 second for every point in Strength and Charisma.

Cost: 70 mana

Grinning at his gains, Lucas went back to camp. He needed food, his grumbling stomach reminded him. After that, he still needed to test his idea from the Corvid fight.