A few hours of walking find the children finally exiting the territory of the forest. While the attacks from the Deadmen grew infrequent enough they no longer feared for their lives, they did not grow so infrequent that any dared fall behind.

Withing the last hour Ohm Icura and Jharak managed to return with 6 of the children who ran into the forest. Ohm Icura would normally have been quite vexed, but through no fault of his own, the death of one of the children had netted him one the god tier items. He would have been happier if the bow had been from the earth god, Sod, but everything is food to the hungry beast.

As to the lost artifact, there were many guilds that would be happy to accept a quest to find a god tier item, despite the danger of the Deadwoods. The alliance would have it, eventually.

Away from the forest, a large encampment awaited the weary party. High-level guards on the perimeter welcomed the instructors and eyed the student with curiosity and disdain. Inside, the students were immediately descended on by slaves task with treating wounds as well as providing food and refreshment. Had they thought to ask, the slaves would have provided much more than that.

The children were left largely to their own thoughts while the instructor met to discuss the results of their mission so far.

"Well, this as turned out to not be quite the waste of time I feared it would be." Ohm Icura began, setting the god-tier bow on the table, around which they sat.

"Agreed," Jharak said. "A shame about the loss of life, though. They're only children, by the standards of their world, and if the oracles are to be believed."

"Maybe, but this is their world now, better they get used to the reality if they are to adjust successfully. And as callous as it sounds, the tragic event may further guarantee the alliance more of the god-tier items. They can't possibly be qualified to use them anyway. It would have been different had we gained the warriors we thought were coming, but..."

"The loss of life is always tragic, but as they are not yet believers in the Lady of light, it could have been worse." Deacon Moorzu pointed out piously.

The others ignored the deacon with studied practice, has they had had time to grow used to his religious fervor on the trip here.

"What now?" asked Navier, running a hand through golden hair hemmed in by sharply pointed ears.

"Now we rest after that unexpected bit of excitement, but someone should make sure the children don't get themselves into trouble and a basic bit of instruction could go a long way." Chimed in Bihai.

"Yes!" Moorzu thumped the table with his fist, " the sooner these pagans are taught the glory of lady light..."

"Jharak, see to it!" Ohm Icura said, cutting off the deacon. He was, after all, a knight, and the physical exertion of the fight would have affected him far less than the rest of them.

"Excellent! The best time to beat weak bodies into shape is alway 'now'." Jharak agreed with unbridled enthusiasm.

The others glanced at each other, undecided if Ohm Icura had done the children a favor or not.

--------------------

After finishing their early midday meal, the children had been left to their own devices. None had been brave enough to wander about, given their experience in this world so far. The wandering guards also gave off an air of power and intimidation that didn't lend itself to the spirit of exploration.

Leon took his mind off of Samantha by exploring the boxes and the information provided. He had not yet dared to try and use the bonus points, despite having a generally good idea of what they would do. Some of the others had invested them, however, and they could be picked out by the look of wonder on their faces as they did standing jumps higher than their own heads, or moved their own limbs so fast as to almost creating after images.

Before they could fully gain the confidence to explore their newfound strength, Jharak appeared in front of them as if by magic.

"All right, you rabbits! You have the honor of first being taught by me, the level 68 Knight of fire, Jharak Yoor! Much like my master before me, I do not repeat myself, so little rabbits, use your ears!"

Jharak then explained how to use the analysis command, and though the children had figured that one out, they dared not interrupt. Quickly enough, Jharak hit on information the children couldn't yet know.

"Be careful where you invest your bonus points. This applies only to bonus points and not the points from enchanted gear OR from natural level growth. Points given to dexterity will increase your stamina regeneration, BUT, it will negatively affect your magic AND health regeneration. The same goes for the other two regeneration stats, wisdom, and constitution."

Some of the students who had already used their bonus points were aghast, but, even if they had known, it wasn't as though they could avoid the penalty. it applied to everyone and everything.

Jermain Scott raised his hand and asked, "How much is the decrease to the other regen stats, sir?"

"The total of bonus points in regeneration stats 1 and 2, as a percentage of one's total bonus points, determines how much regeneration stat 3 is negatively affected." Jharak replied, sounding as though he was quoting from something."

While not the most helpful explanation, some of the students got it, and some didn't, largely depending on their understanding of oral math. True to his word, Jharak, had no interest in further explaining the nuance of how regeneration worked. Assuming he understood it himself.

At the end of Jharaks lesson, Leon did understand a few things. One was that the reason the students couldn't see Jharaks status was, despite their divine level analysis, Jharak was still too high a level and many enchanted items existed to make such skills unreliable at best. At least when facing other intelligent beings. Leon tried to scan him anyway.

*$%###

Name

&*^#@

Level

68

Health

???

Mana

???

Stamina

???

This world was called Lacaos, there were not one, but two holy empires, both to the far north that were at war with each other and the alliance. The alliance had in fact been formed to defend a host of smaller nations against the armies of the former Casteria Holy empire, now the Xabroc and Druk Liuma holy empires.

One point in strength, intelligence or agility will raise health, mana, and stamina by 10 points each, however, One point from an enchanted item would only raise them by five. Enchanted items did, however, effect regeneration fully.

There was a host of other information on how one's status numbers actually interacted with each other, but in the end, Leon decided to sum it up with, big numbers good, bigger numbers gooder.