I slowly opened my eyes, realizing I must have passed out from the pain. My head still pounded and I still couldn't move. I glanced at my health and saw it had gone up to 23 in the time I had been unconscious. I didn't want to do the math but I had to figure out how long I had been lying here, assuming my health had not dropped below the 12 I had before I lost consciousness. I figured I was out less than an hour.

My head was now clear enough now to cast Rejuvenate and I was certainly glad for the ability to cast silently as even those small movements caused me pain, I couldn't imagine the pain a word of power would cause as it affected my entire body. I tried casting Cleanse as well to see if it would clear my head some more but there was no noticeable effect. I repeated casting Rejuvenate when it came off cooldown until my arm snapped back into place.

Now that my free arm was healed I could cast Healing Touch.

This was the one downside of the spell. It could be cast on anyone within 25m except the caster, for that, I needed palm contact with myself to cast it. It was an odd peculiarity of the spell. I felt my legs repair themselves next as my health ticked up.

With that done I looked around to find my backpack, or what was left of it.

It was torn open from the fall and all of my supplies had been scattered along the hillside. I just lay there for a minute and decided to go over any notifications while I took stock of the situation.

Congratulations you have earned the title Indomitable, weak men break in the face of adversity, you just laugh 25% improved chance to stop deadly blood loss

I could do without the flavor text but at least my near-death experience had gifted me something in return. I turned over to try and free my trapped arm. It took a few minutes but I managed to pull it free from the rubble.

While doing this I wondered why Fiona had not come down here and finished me off. She had mentioned that she heard people coming? At the time I thought she had just used it as an excuse to attack me but what if it wasn't. Who could have been trailing us? Someone from the town perhaps, but I didn't know anyone other than Frathsar and the few Royal Guard...

'Oh, no.'

If she thought it was someone from the Black Dragons then her strange behavior towards me started to make sense. At least since we began our trip, I was starting to suspect the Commander may have said something about me as well to sour her mood towards me. She must have thought I was stalling deliberately to allow them to catch up and capture or kill her. No wonder she attacked me, still, she should have said something sooner. We could have fought them together or fled.

I'm not sure I would have acted much differently in her place. With someone, you barely know and as soon as you leave safety you realize people are following you. I would like to think I would try and communicate better but I could see her side as well.

While I was alone, she had an entire garrison of people to think about, and if her mission failed nobody would know for weeks. Long after it was too late to do anything about their situation.

While her actions started to make some sense it didn't make me any happier about my current situation. Or the fact that I still had a quest to fulfill to earn that money, held in trust by the weird rules of the system Frathsar assured me. I looked up to the top of the cliff. It was a good hundred feet at least to the top.

Cursing that woman under my breath I started collecting my items or what was left of them and putting them into a pile to sort through. It took me almost half an hour to find my staff wedged into a tree a quarter of the way up, and retrieve it from the hillside. It was good to be armed again.

Finishing the mission would be damn near impossible now unless the woman managed to flee our pursuers. If they captured her who knew where they would go. The fact that the mission was still active told me she was likely still alive.

It seemed like the likely place would be to move farther south. I don't think the Black Dragons had a large force in the town, otherwise, I would have expected them to surround the Library, instead of fleeing. I could try and beat them to the other side of The Scar. I saw the land around the top and it looked rough to travel across. I'm not quite sure what I would do if I caught up with them though. Especially if that Sharla woman was there.

I could always turn around and report to the Commander what happened. Somehow I doubt I would leave that conversation alive.

How had they even managed to find or track us? Had they been waiting specifically for me or someone from the Royal Guard. Had someone sold us out, it seemed the most likely option since they would have had to wait days for us to appear otherwise. It might also have the added benefit of ridding the town of the only truly powerful people leaving it free for the Guard to steamroll the rest of the populace. I wanted to think better of them but I hardly knew them.

While pondering the conundrum I went over my recovered gear. The backpack was a mess with a torn strap and a large hole in the side. I was able to roughly patch it with some torn cloth and a sharp stick that I used as a really rough needle and some thread I made from one of my spare socks.

My windup flashlight was a loss. The charging handle was busted off the side and the bulb had been smashed against a sharp rock. I decided to keep it anyway in case I found replacement parts. My tent and tent poles were shredded and broken so I tossed them off to the side.

Thankfully my sleeping bag had survived intact and I was glad for that. My food and water had been mostly lost, though I managed to recover one intact water bottle and three of my meal bars if only smashed a little. I sighed and berated myself for being such a fool.

I should have immediately turned the Commander down when I found out how much Fiona disliked me during training or requested someone else accompany me. Someone perhaps a bit more level-headed. Whatever happened I needed to level before I caught up with her or whoever had her. My guess being they would skirt around the landmark.

Going around could take a few hours or days depending on the landscape but my estimate was on the later as I could not see the end of The Scar as I affectionately called it and that meant it was at least ten miles across. Now she could run the entire way and I knew she had the endurance for it but with the unfamiliar terrain, I doubt even she would risk it and if she was captured I doubt the group would risk that pace if they had any sense.

I made my choice, I would go through The Scar and as straight across as possible to try and outpace her or them. I hitched up my repaired backpack and got ready to set off. Then Lady Luck slapped me across the face and said, "Not on my watch," as the strap broke again, dumping all of my items back on the ground.

"Whyyyy!" I yelled in frustration.

After doubling up on the repair and testing the strap I finally managed to head off through the winding ravines and hills. I had a few hours until dark and wanted to find a good place to hold up for the night. After a few minutes, I started hearing rustling in the brush around me. At first, my mind went to Fiona having found me but I quickly rejected that idea. I set my bag down and prepared my staff. Out of the thick undergrowth came a large boar. It noticed me and grunted a challenge as it pawed the ground.

Tusked Boar | Level 5

"F-you piglet I've had a bad day," I said in response, and the beast charged.

I waited until he got up a good head of steam and cast Earth Fist right in his path. The beast slammed headfirst into the spike of earth and made a terrible squealing sound. I no longer had a gun since my pistol ran out of ammo and I was forced to leave the rifle behind at the library so I just bashed the beast over the head repeatedly until it went quiet, which took longer than I expected on such a low-level creature. My experience ticked up again but I still didn't level. I needed to find a better place to farm.

I walked on leaving the dead beast behind. I had no hatchet anymore, that was lost in the fall and my pocket knife wasn't going to be sharp enough to skin the animal. I did loot it and received two boar tusks.

After another thirty minutes of walking, I saw what I thought was a cave at the end of a cul-de-sac between opposing cliffs. I thought it was worth checking out so I headed in that direction.

"Bugs eww, why did it have to be bugs," I grumbled looking at the cave from a good distance away, watching the large centipede-like creatures crawl around the mouth of the cave. They had to be at least five feet long with six-inch-long mandibles that looked strong enough to tear a limb off. 'I just need to clear them out so I can rest for the night,' I told myself. Should be easy to kill a few bugs even if they were big bugs. I made my way down to get in range of my Identify spell.

Rock Centipede | Level 5

I prepared my spells and started to approach them. It didn't take long for them to notice me and start clacking their mandibles together angrily at me. This was going to suck. They all came at me at once and I decided to split them up by hitting the middle one in the side with an Earth Fist knocking him into the one beside him.

This bought me a few seconds as they untangled themselves. I slapped the first one to reach me aside with my staff with a jab. I backpedaled as the other two closed in spinning my staff and slapping away mandibles. I wasn't entirely successful and took a couple of slashes to my legs and thighs as they tried to bite at me, the cuts being shallow.

I cast Rejuvenate and ducked under one as it tried to jump at me. Turns out their legs are just as sharp as their jaws and it sliced my back up rather well as it passed over unable to gain purchase. I spun in a circle clearing the creatures from my vicinity and dashed back down the trail as they gave chase. My back on fire from the numerous small gashes.

I used Healing Touch and jabbed out at the closet one activating Flurry of Blows. Each strike cracked its hard exoskeleton and it went down unmoving. I dodged another incoming bite and kicked the offender in the head stomping it into the ground where orange ichor oozed out.

Two down three to go. One of the remaining three reared back and spit a grey blob at me that stuck to my shirt. It wasn't causing me any damage but I could feel the fabric bunch up as it touched the glob. I smacked the next centipede to rise in the side causing it to miss its aim and hit the third one who was now having trouble dislodging its legs from the gooey mess.

Dashing in I picked up the one I hit with my staff flinging it back and away with an upward swing. I ducked under another glob of spit and smashed that one over the head. My two days of torturous training with Fiona paying off. She had been much faster than these creatures. It crashed to the ground kicking and tearing as it tried to recover its faculties. I didn't give it the time and smashed down on its head again until it stopped moving. I felt a wet slap against my back as the stuck centipede managed to free its legs and spit at me.

"Dammit, forgot to keep the enemy in sight."

I dashed back at the monster hitting him with some rapid jabs. I would have used flurry but it was still on cool down. It went down after a few strikes only leaving the one I tossed away left. I went to turn and my back brushed against a bush tangling me up as the substance coating my back stuck to that as well. I could see the last monster scuttling towards me then it stopped just out of range and started spitting at me. I managed to dodge most of the spit but it hit me twice in the leg and I could feel my foot sticking to the ground. My cooldown time for Earth Fist finally reset and I smashed the creature into the side of the hill with the spell killing it.

You have reached level 7, modifiers increased by 1, 3 free skill slots available

You have 3 open skill slots. to see available skills at your level please enter the skill chart

I decided to wait on the skills as I tried to get free of the substance the Rock Centipedes spit on me. Luckily the stuff seemed to harden after some time and flake off. Although it left my hoodie and pants looking like some male teenagers used... You know what not even going to continue on that line of thought. I just pulled the hoodie off to get as much of the dried spit off as possible.

"Ewww," I said peeling the last of the hardened spit off. I can imagine getting surrounded by these bugs only to get covered in this stuff and for it to harden leaving me motionless. I shuddered at the thought, putting the hoodie back on as it was still chilly at night during this time of year.

I decided to loot the bodies first getting 15 chitin plates and 10 mandibles for my efforts. I wasn't sure why sometimes the system seemed to give out more of an animal's parts than others when looting. It would have to be another question for later I thought, tossing the items in my bag. I looked at the cave deciding not to go in until I selected my two skills. I kind of wanted to save the free one I earned until I made it to the Bazaar to see what I could purchase. I opened up my skills page to see what was available to me.

Seismic Strike: Causes a rippling wave of Earth to deal weapon damage to everything within 20m from the point of impact and causing those affected to stumble, Cost 100 mana, cooldown 3min

Healing Aura: Your body emits a healing aura that affects all your party members within 20m Heal 150 hp over 30sec, excludes caster in effect, Cost 75 mana, cooldown 1min

Imbue: Imbue your weapon with elemental damage for 60m. Must choose damage type when activating the skill - cannot be changed while active, Cost 50 mana, cooldown 60min

Stunning Gust: Your attack produced a gust of wind that causes weapon damage and has a chance to stun the target, 15m range, Cost 25 mana, cooldown 15sec

Now all of these were good skills and I could see a definite Earth and wind theme going with my class, I would only choose two of them though, saving the extra skill slot to see if a more interesting skill came along. Seismic Strike seemed like a no brainer. Having an area of effect combat ability would come in handy. Casting cost was steep but I would have to juggle that with my other abilities anyway. Healing Aura made sense if I was in a group or party at least if I could trust them enough to use it, best to skip that for now.

Imbue seemed nice but it didn't say if it added damage or converted your weapon over to that damage type. I was leaning on the latter which could be good or bad depending on the situation. Adding fire element and then running into fire-based creatures would leave me without a way to damage them until I could change the spell out. Waiting to cast it until combat would be ideal but then I'm stuck with it for the full 60 minutes. I might pick it up later.

Last was Stunning Gust. It wasn't the most impressive of skills but it filled out what I lacked which was a ranged attack option other than my Earth Fist. It was also cheap to cast and recharged quickly enough that I would likely get multiple uses of it during a fight. I made my choice, Seismic Strike and Stunning Gust were added to my ability list. I decided to look at my stats since I hadn't in some time; Frathsar had been nice enough to show me how to display my modifiers as well. Damn hidden features.

Paul Fuller | Mantra Enchanter | Level 7

Strength: 11(+2) modifier x8

Endurance: 16 modifier x26

Agility: 13(+2) modifier x8

Perception: 12 modifier x8

Intelligence: 16 modifier x26

Wisdom: 14 modifier x8

Charisma: 11 modifier x8

Luck: 12 modifier x8

HP: 416(457)

Mana: 416

Mana Regen(M): 112

SKILLS

Lesser Rejuvenate

Minor Wind Walk

Minor Giant Strength

Shield

Area of Denial

Healing Touch

Earth Fist

Aura Strike

Endure

Rock Skin

Cure

Flurry of Blows

Seismic Strike

Stunning Gust

Ew, it showed my last name.., anyway Frathsar had told me what the modifiers are used for. Seemed like the modifiers started at a base 20 or a base 2 and went up one every level. Strength was used to determine additional damage on a critical hit, not just hitting something in a critical spot but an actual critical strike determined by my luck and other abilities.

That meant I could do an additional 104 damage including my weapon damage and critical bonus damage to the target. This explains why sometimes my strikes seemed to one hit creatures. Not much can stand up to a strike that was nearly 200 damage, at least at my level.

The Strength modifier also determined my carrying capacity. A base strength of 11 was not that great and I wasn't including my skill boost in my math because I couldn't keep it active all the time yet which meant I could carry 88 lbs before I would suffer penalties.

Of course, intelligence went towards my mana and spell effectiveness. Wisdom would improve my mana regeneration rate. I may have added a few too many points in wisdom this early as my mana regeneration per minute was now up to 112. Oh well, I can never have too much mana, not with my power-hungry skills.

Agility was a bit more nebulous; Frathsar said it had some effect on acrobatics and base movement speed as well as coordination to some extent. The product of the two numbers came to 104; did that mean my base movement speed was 104, 104 what? Or 104% and what was considered normal? I certainly didn't feel twice as fast as I did before the system. So perhaps base 100% would be normal, I felt slightly faster and more agile than I did pre System. It made sense if I was 4% faster than normal which felt about right.

Perception dealt with my ability to see long distances and spot stuff that was out of the ordinary. I could now focus and pick out details at a much longer range than before the system. It is an ability more useful for ranged attackers and perhaps thief types though.

Charisma helps people like you or helps you gain others' trust more easily. There is no formula set in stone as there are many underlying threads or interconnected links that could skew the calculation one way or another.

Endurance dealt with Hit Points and how long you could fight or run for without exhausting yourself. Then there was Luck. Frathsar speculated that it had to do with drop rate and chance to hit a critical strike or even avoid one. Now that I had applied two of my free skill points and checked my stats I was ready to head into the cave.