Kent stood at ready. Both hands grasped his two new daggers. The acsium skeans felt cold from the fresh morning air, even though the handles were isolated from the blade's metal.

His eyes glanced left and right, trying to perceive where the first monsters would come from.

With the sun cusping the horizon, most monsters had lost their aggression – unless disturbed. Estes had a solution for that. A preemptive measure he called it. One he didn’t usually dare to use on his own or without people that had proven themselves. Kent apparently had proven himself the previous night.

Not knowing precisely what was going to happen was almost familiar after staying in the wilds for weeks, but with another person here, it didn’t feel as burdening.

“Ready,” Estes’ voice came from a couple of steps deeper into the woods.

“As I can be,” Kent responded.

He turned around one last time. The wood-cutters' wagon was already visible in the distance, catching up to their position quickly. He couldn’t see any monsters populating the border between the zone, and the forest extending a couple of dozen steps away from that.

Estes banged the handle of his axes against the plate armor he was wearing today. Kent still wondered why the man hadn’t worn it the other day. He had even asked the man and received an answer. According to Estes comfort at a job was vital. It left Kent confused.

“Here we go,” came the man’s voice.

Then, he roared. Not like a human would. Instead, Kent felt like he was standing in front of a giant – fur-clad and forest-splitting – asking him to fight him or to leave. The feeling was shaken off quickly, but it left Kent disturbed.

What sort of skill was that?

Though the question was, as usual, self-evident. It had to do with Estes' trait.

“What do ya think? Wanna fight me?”

“No. I’m all good,” Kent responded.

Before either Kent or Estes could say anything else, the noise wind caused in the underbrush swelled, only to be replaced by the scuttling and rustling of approaching creatures.

Estes had claimed, that there wouldn’t be a lot of monsters affected by his taunt as long as they stayed close to the forest’s edge. This had been a generous embellishment of the roughly five monsters Kent could spot at a glance and the doubtless dozen others that were bound to approach.

Kent readied himself, prepared to charge at the three scramblers and two other monsters that were charging. He needn’t have bothered. Estes rushed forward, swinging his axe at the closest two. Both of the level twenty monsters were torn apart in moments. Estes’s ax drove through the creatures as though they were nothing but paper. The next turn of his ax cleaved the unknown monster’s head cleanly in half.

In haste Kent identified the last remaining of the two, so he would know what he was dealing with. The system called the cartwheel-sized, white, and black striped rodents, Selor.

The violent death of the monster a second later shocked him more than he had expected.

Kent blinked.

Dung, I need to actually pay attention.

He began moving, approaching Estes, but staying a few steps behind the man all the time. His job specifically was to look out for monsters of all kinds that could potentially endanger Estes and dispatch those. Heavy emphasis on turrls and their kin.

Kent was still somewhat surprised that he had not heard a mention of the turrl population declining, which should be the immediate result of the tranquil pond collapsing. He didn’t know what to make of that, though admittedly, he had not convened with conquerors for any significant amount of time.

Estes had meanwhile dispatched the tenth monster. Seemingly without any issues.

A lone turrl charged the ax warrior from up front and sailed towards his arm. It managed to barely hold onto the crevices of the heavy plate the man was wearing, scrambling for any sort of grip. The next blink they lay on the ground dazed. The next it had an ax through its midsection.

Why does he need my help anyway, Kent wondered, not for the first time.

Combat ended with Kent only attacking and fighting one other turrl that came from their left. Estes had managed to easily fend off the other twenty-odd monsters.

“How are you looking, ready for another engagement or are you low?”

“I’m good. Only fought one turrl,” Kent grinned.

“Onwards then.”

The older man saluted as though he was some king's guard and jogged further into the woods, not caring a bit for the shrubbery that made way for him.

Kent followed tentatively. If Estes' magic worked as advertised he had nothing to fear of monsters that could be close by, but he still felt it reasonable to keep a lookout.

A short while later, maybe three hundred steps into the forest Estes stopped. They stood in a region that was clearly frequently visited by humans. Trees all around that didn’t quite look like regular trees. The stems looked normal close to the ground but then indented until the upper part of the trees continued at roughly half the diameter of the bottom part.

The ground looked trampled and there were even a few wagons tracks still visible and one leading away on their right.

“And that kid, is why a good trait is so important,” Estes explained after witnessing Kent’s confused look. “One of the previous gardeners out here didn’t tell the whole truth about their trait, and had a bunch of trees grow back to slightly less than their previous state over the years. You can find their head still on the gate to Turmar.”

“That’s why you never lie about your trait,” Estes lectured. “Gets you hanged real quick. Best be honest about your capabilities upfront. Like me, even if it doesn’t get you the job.”

Kent was just about to inquire further into the last statement when Estes let out another roar that almost deafened him. He cursed the man mentally while falling back into stance. Suspecting that this time there were going to be a lot more monsters coming around, he turned his back towards Estes. At least initially that should be a good move.

The shrubbery began rustling quickly, but this time from almost all sides – except from where they’d come from. And just as soon as the first monsters appeared Kent realized why Estes was worried about fighting out here on his own even in his armor.

Turrl Discharger – Level 31

Kent raised his eyebrows. The turrl's appearance made no sense. He wondered whether this implied that there was another turrl dungeon out here. He’d consider it later, vowing himself to remember this conclusion. It was the only that made sense because it was certainly of a higher level than the Tranquil Pond and the monsters around there.

He squared off towards the monster, knowing that this was his fight. Estes might be able to compete with the remaining critters, but only Kent had a good chance to still be standing after this fight was over.

He considered using his metal skills, but just as he was about to charge the knife he was holding, Estes yelled out toward him. He’d have to deal with this differently.

He dashed towards the taunted monster, which barely paid him any attention. This was not because of the taunt skill – Estes had explained after the previous encounter – but due to the higher energy concentration in his body, making him both more appealing as prey and a greater threat.

Kent pivoted around a tree to adjust his trajectory, coming at the monster from the side no longer straight ahead. He took another glance toward Estes and noticed with glee that the other man’s back was turned. Drawing one of the four throwing knives from his belt he took two more steps and threw it.

The knife bounced off, not inflicting any damage. It managed to draw the monster’s attention though. The blue eyes of the monster glanced at his. Then it hissed.

Kent saw how it constricted the jaw and facial muscles. It was ready to spit the tranquilizing liquid from its fangs.

Kent triggered his cloak's embrace and vanished into the muted world his cloak allowed him to travel through. Three steps later, but not even a breath in time, he stood to the monster’s side and dropped the cloak's effect. He vaguely heard the spit impact a tree behind him, as he drove two Penetrate-enhanced daggers into the confused turrl’s skull.

A glance confirmed that Estes had not noticed his small trick. Instead, he went back to the encounter, preparing to help his companion.

He dispatched two more turrls just below level thirty before the fight ended. They had attracted over fifty monsters this time, but Estes had no issues dealing with most of those. Sometimes when he’d glanced at the man during lulls in his own fights, it had looked as though monsters were torn up, just by virtue of being around the higher-leveled man; he chalked it up to the man just being that fast.

With the last monster dispatched Estes turned to him and smiled.

“That was some good fightin’,” the seasoned conqueror said. “I didn’t see much but what I saw was solid. You’d be a good addition to any group that lacks a rogue. I might know a group if you are interested. Though that’ll have to wait til the war’s concluded.”

Kent only nodded in thanks, faking heavy exhaustion.

After a bit more idle chatter with Estes, Kent approached the Discharger laying off to the side of the main pile of monster corpses, looking for any sort of spell core pair. To his chagrin there wasn’t one to be found.

***

Things had changed during the last day. From helping the foresters to selling the spells cores, getting a quest to retrieve them or something of similar value to finally having a roof over his head for the second night in a row.

Now, a day later, he was sitting on a cart in the middle of the forest with a woodworking crew surrounding him. By the nature of their occupation, they were mostly just idly waiting for monsters to attack.

In the moments of quiet, when Estes just wanted to take a short nap, he had time to think.

If one were to ask Kent, he would claim that things were looking up now. He wasn’t quite satisfied with the situation he was in now. While at first working with the wood cutters to gain a footing had felt like a decent way of making his life, he slowly began realizing what being traitless really meant. He had no real abilities that could further society. If one were to look at his status and the skills he’d unlocked, they would have that confirmed.

He wanted to be of use though.

And for that, he’d need to get stronger. But what was the right way?

He’d considered just abandoning the forester crews in the morning but given that he owned Estes for getting him into the second district and the general kindness displayed by the wood shop’s crew he’d felt guilty at the thought. He would stick it out a bit he’d decided then. At least the two weeks before he’d need to flee or somehow rob the institute.

For now, he’d had made a loose plan for the next coming days and weeks. He’d seek out lessons at the institute before robbing them, and if he had more time, see if he could get Alexus to teach him a bit about metal on the side. The boy seemed nice enough.

For now, he wanted to explore his capabilities more.

He knew – based on explanations of his parents and remote family – that his Identify differed from others. Not only was he able to use the ability on everyone, be it monster or human, within his stage of evolution but it also worked very poorly on mundane goods.

It did work on some of the more mundane items, plants, and building materials he’d inspected, but most seemed to elude the skill. He wanted to learn what constituted those edge cases.

Identifying the trees that had already been felled he came to a disappointing conclusion. The ability had a drastic lack of usefulness even when it came to working with magic trees. Or anything else really. Metals – Kent didn’t know whether that was related to his titles or class – were an exception. He was curious to see how the skill would work on poisons – given his corresponding titles. Or maybe it was his Combatant Title that inhibited crafting information. He had no way of finding out but at least he had now gained a general understanding of the skill.

Directly after encounters – of which they had four over the entire morning – Estes did general movement exercises with Kent. Running him through techniques to familiarize himself with his own Kata and to gain a more intuitive understanding of how blades cut.

The practice proved beneficial quickly. The conscious repetition of movements that Mosquito taught him helped the skill grow ever so slightly. More importantly, it helped Kent understand why certain types of movements would be ideal. Helping him adjust to the situation easier.

After their third encounter, Estes finally shared what this trait really does.

“You’ve no doubt experienced some of the trait's effects yourself, as I consciously use it in combination with Uproar. The skill itself is focusing or threat skill. It does nothing besides drawing attention to me.

“My trait, on the other hand, allows me to visualize certain imagery with my voice. Sadly, nowhere near as efficient as my siblings. I’m able to invoke primarily hostile emotions. Barbaric Vocalization is in some regards a good skill – if I have the necessary support team. Willpower is fairly important to resist the skill's effect over multiple repetitions.”

It explained a lot. With the exception of why Estes didn’t just go armor-bearing into the forest on his own.

As their conversation deteriorated Kent left Estes to take another nap and checked his status, hoping for some decent gains.

Kent Larsson [Level 17] [86%]

Pools:

Health: 123/223

Health Reg: 52 - 280 /d

Stamina: 24/258

Stamina Reg: 77 - 415 /d

Mana: 57/368

Mana Reg: 442 - 2386 /d

Stats:

Vitality: 52

Toughness: 15

Endurance: 52

Strength: 28

Agility: 25

Senses: 17

Mind: 45

Magic: 184

Willpower: 233

Regeneration: 110

Skills:

Accelerate Metal (10/20) (261/500 Exp.)

Penetrate (6/20) (289/300 Exp.)

Metallic Affinity (10/20) (260/500 Exp.)

Metallic Extension (3/20) (80/150 Exp.)

Mosquito (3/20) (58/150 Exp.)

Metallic Presence (6/20) (107/300 Exp.)

Magical Wellspring (9/20) (237/450 Exp.)

In the blink of the eye, Kent gained four levels worth of power. He almost convulsed as the stats auto-applied. His health which had been barely impacted didn’t increase, but the scratch on his arm was healed with the power that came from increasing vitality.

***

The crew of seven briefly considered bringing the monster corpses back to the city to see about extracting cores but given that none of the monsters was level thirty they deemed it not worth it.

For the remainder of the morning and most of the early afternoon, the crew went about their tasks as usual, with the only difference that they were accosted by drastically fewer monsters. There were only two incidences of turrls crawling out from somewhere. One was easily dispatched by Kent the other by the woodcutter that was assaulted. All in all, the entire day had been successful for all participating parties – with the exclusion of Estes. Who had woken up halfway through the afternoon just in time to help push the wagon back to the city.

The usually talkative man was oddly quiet during the remainder of the afternoon, but Kent didn’t really mind because he had to inspect the newly unlocked core sections of his metal-skill tree, thanks to Accelerate Metal and Metallic Affinity reaching rank 11 during idle practice all over the day.

Metallumancy and Metallic Insight trees:

Metallumancy (Core)

Foundation

Accelerate Metal (11/20)

Accelerate a previously attuned piece of Metal towards or away from you

Acceleration: 134,8 m/s^2

Range: 341m

Cost: 2 mana/s

Harden Metal (0/20)

Harden an attuned piece of Metal for a duration

Effect: 42% boost

Duration: 10 (rank) min

Cost: 10 mana

Rotate Metal (0/20)

Rotate a piece of metal however you want symmetrical to the center of mass

Rot. Acc.: 35.0 m/s^2

Range: 21 m

Cost: 1 mana/s

Metallic Extension (3/20)

Attuned Metal is an extention of your body. You can use fitting skills through attuned metal.

Effectiveness: 63%

Core

Metal Attuned (0/2)

Attune your mana to the concept of Metal. Allows for free form metal magic.

Mirrored Movement (0/20)

Determine a plane across which your metal related skills are mirrored. Mirrored skills are cheaper to keep up.

Planes: 1

Cost: 25^(planes)%

Metallic Construct (0/20)

Create a construct from metal. Carries intent (magic). Hardness, Durability, Stability, and Heat increase with rank and familiarity

Oscillate Metal (0/20)

Oscillates attuned metal through a plane of vibrations

Period: 2 sec

Amplitude: 0.21 m

Metallic Insight (Core)

Metal gives strength to any wielder, but seldomly it is understood well.

Foundation

Analyze Metal (0/20)

Gain a mental image(rank) of the inspected metal’s qualities.

Cost: 100 Mana

Metallic Affinity (11/20)

Skills and spells that interact with Metal are boosted 110% (rank)

Metallic Presence (6/20)

Gain occasional impressions of all dense metal pockets (rank, senses-low, magic-low) in your surroundings. For a constant cost, get constant information.

Resolution: 0,22m

Frequency: 6 per hour

Range: 60 m

Cost: 10 mana per second

Metal Permeability (0/20)

Change a metals permeability for 1 second by 10% (rank, magic).

Range: Touch

Cost: 100 mana

Core

Construct Alloy (0/20)

Infuse another metal into a preexisting metallic item to imbue a few of the characteristics of the secondary metal

Metallic Mastery (0/20)

Vary the final output of metal related skills

Maximum Variance: 10%

Effect: Temporal Fitting (0/20)

Morph a channeled metal spell cast into two-time intervals. The immediate interval uses a vast amount of the skills numerical effect at once during the interval

Duration: 0.7s (rank)

Effect: 0.5x (rank)

Effect: Physical Transformation (0/20)

Changes Acceleration effects to Force effects.

Numerical values are reduced to 10%