Zortex busied himself training his newly acquired spells, which for reasons unknown to him they were leveling up much faster than the rest of his skills. To his understanding those spells were of elementary class, so not really flexible in the use. They were easy to learn and the continuous training could give effortlessly a great understanding of their effects. For comparison, his Slimification could still be developed into a great number of new uses, so Zortex had only scratched the surface of the skill potential, resulting in a level of only 11.

A couple of months passed by with Zortex spending his time grinding all of his skills. He had not forgotten to improve also his Stamina skills, so he visited the training center a few times to follow some lessons. He was not stuck on only the Spear as a weapon, so he started training also in the sword and the knives. To tell the truth he found much more to his interest the magic part of his schedule. Close combat activities were nice, but at the primary levels they were not that different from things he could have done also in the real world. Spells on the other hand were much more entertaining and new to explore. Finally one day Zortex decided that he had enough of grinding.

“Status”

Name: Zortex Enark

Class: Shadow Slime Warrior

Level: 8

Stats:

Strength

20

Health

214(214) + 2.1/min

Endurance

16

Stamina

252(252) + 11.5/min

Agility

12

Mana

287(287) + 12/min

Spirit

27

Skill proficiency

Knife mastery

Level 7

Throwing mastery

Level 2

Slimification

Level 12

Slime summoning

-

Sonar

Level 8

Slime eating

Level 9

Mana Control

Level 22

Spear Mastery

Level 8

Sword Mastery

Level 8

Tentacle

Level 6

Acidic Shot

Level 29

Blind

Level 42

Poison

Level 15

Entangle

Level 27

Shadow Mask

Level 31

· Resistance to darkness: Every darkness attack will have 50% reduced effect on you. Increased vision at night.

· Weakness to fire: Every fire related attack will have 500% more effect on you.

· Weakness to light: Every light related attack will have 100% more effect on you.

· Slime muscles: Small resistance to some physical attacks

· You will not be able to choose any spell or skill unrelated to slimes or darkness.

· Godly senses

Remember that you can always discover new skills. Combining skills you already have or by using them in creative ways new skills can be created.

Almost all of his skills had improved, especially the spells. Zortex spent a lot of time training his Entangle spell, considering that he was quite weak in the melee combat, and he needed something to keep the fight long range. The main advancement was his Shadow Mask spell. At the beginning Zortex had to focus on it to be able to keep it going, but day by day he kept increasing the amount of time it could last. At a certain point he tried to maintain it while doing something else, like eating or walking around, however it was much more difficult than he had expected. Sometimes he would put too much mana in it and darken his vision too much, or he would decrease the flow of darkness and hurt his eyes with the light passing through. It took him weeks to grow accustomed, but now he was very confident on it, so much that he was training all his physical skills with his shadow mask on. On the other hand, for the spells he had to take it off because it kept draining his mana a little, so it would slow his grinding of other skills.

I think that I have done enough grinding of skills. I feel familiar with most of the spells and I’ve reached a plateau when repeating the same acts has no effect at all. Probably I have to try them directly in combat to get some new insights. Now what? I still have money, but that silent room at the inn I have rented isn’t that cheap, and I cannot keep spending forever.

Zortex kept having this thoughts. The last few months he was just focused on his training without realizing that he had lost touch with his bigger plans.

My big plan until now has been to kill that fucking Matthew and make him pay for what he has done to me. I still want to do that, but where the hell do I start from? I have heard nothing of him or his guild. Even if I find some clues how can I confront something so big? Impossible...

Zortex expression became grim under his mask of shadows. He had lost himself in the pleasure of a noob’s grinding, but now he was coming to face the fact that he had not yet planned his future steps.

I have spent a lot of effort into blocking my senses to not go crazy again, but that is actually just a temporary solution. The only way to really save myself is to adjust my brain to the data entering it. I’ve actually worsened it by covering too much. I must develop a protocol to force myself into increasingly hard situations for all of my senses. Right now I have to get a better picture of AoL to make a good decision of my future.

Zortex was in his favorite spot in the Wizard Tower and it was late at night, so he decided to keep training until morning, and then start to act. There was a place he still had to visit: the Adventurers Guild. In AoL there were countless ways to obtain jobs or commissions, but for a noob taking his first steps in the world the guild was the easiest spot. Although it was called Adventurers guild it could also be called Mercenary Guild because the people taking up jobs were almost always warriors meant to fight their way through the mission. The building was a little remote from the center, so Zortex had to walk half an hour to get there. He expected to find burly warriors drinking beers and making a mess of the place, but he got disappointed. Obviously if people wanted to get drunk they would go to a tavern and not inside the guild. The same could be said about the presence of people, with nobody around it felt quite gloomy, exactly the way Zortex liked. It was still early in the morning and the place had just opened up, so he was the only one present apart from a guy at the reception which looked to be half sleeping. The place looked like a post office or any other place where bureaucracy is done, rather than the dispenser of dangerous missions. Zortex reached the guy and coughed one time to wake him up and get his attention. The steward looked up annoyed to be asked to actually work so early in the morning, but he remembered his job and started to act professional right afterwards.

“How may I help you, Sir?

“I am here to register as a mercenary” Zortex replied. Nowadays he could speak to NPC without stuttering. At least the male ones, even though he had been able to speak also to the female ones with just some trouble. Unfortunately speaking to real people was still beyond him. He believed that if he could get out from the city to places where his presence hadn’t been noticed yet, he could try to speak to the other ‘travelers’.

“Certainly Sir. I need to know your name, level and general profession”

“My name is Shad, my level is eight and I mostly deal long-range damage”

The steward wrote down some things on a clipboard and then looked back to Zortex.

“Surname? and can you tell me your main skills and their level?”

“None and no” Zortex replied firmly. Skills should stay secret, otherwise enemies could think of counterattacks even before battling him. He could not keep everything secret forever, but for sure he wasn’t going to divulge his assets even before having real battles.

“Okay. Not mandatory, but it would have been useful for us to propose the most suited mission for you. With this information I can give you the lowest rank in the mercenary scale”

The steward wrote down something more and then rummaged below his desk for a few seconds before taking out a badge of green color. He used a special pen which left a black mark on the badge which wrote ‘Shad’.

“Now you are officially part of the mercenary system. You can take part at mission of your rank or a rank above yours. Right now you can look at missions of green and yellow level. You can find the descriptions in the rooms at the sides with the doors of each color. When you have chosen you just need to come to me and I will register your request to participate. For some missions you will have to wait permissions from the employer”

“Thank you”

Zortex entered first the green room and then the yellow one. There were about a dozen jobs available at that moment, but only two attracted his attention. The first one was in the green room and it was about a certain necromancer and a Count. There weren’t other details, still Zortex gave a half laugh looking at the ring on his finger. The second one was a yellow one and it was about a battle squad to hunt down a tribe of Srenc which had invaded a forest a few days of travel from the city. This was the kind of battle he was looking for, even though he had no idea what a Srenc was. The mission was given by the city itself and it would depart in about ten days, since they were waiting to round up more people before leaving. Zortex came back to the main hall and went to talk with the guy.

“I take this two missions”

“I’m sorry, but at your rank you are allowed to only take one mission at a time”

Fucking rules! I have basically already finished one mission. Now I will have to come back another time to accept the second one. What a waste of my time.

Zortex accepted the green mission and left the building. He had the address to go meet a certain lady. Time to get the 50 silver reward for the mission he had already completed….probably.