Author’s note: Well, I hope you enjoyed last chapter, I had two ideas on how to inform the MC about his situation, and chose this one. Will try to write another chapter for later today. Anyways, point out any mistakes you see, and hope you enjoy!

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Cordby, seeing that I understood the meaning of the story he just told, changed the topic abruptly.

“Ok, Rob, your initial question was about skills right? If I know them, I will tell everything about them. Otherwise, you will have to go to one of the cities, but, except Rasgar Hold, there are no other towns nearby. Other questions can be answered later on, most of the time I spend in the temple, so if you have other things you want to learn, feel free to come by. But your priority for now should be accommodating yourself. “

What? The sudden subject change confused me at first, but it also allowed me to focus on a problem before me, instead of redundant information I may ask about later on. Specifically, I still needed job, especially now, when the game became reality. Knowledge of skills was crucial as well, if my survival depended on it. So I asked away.

“First of all, are there any other perks to the divine protection except reincarnation? I mean, I have blessing of god of luck, and I couldn’t see this stat at all. Was this the reason?”

“It’s up to gods really. As you saw, they seem to rejoice in our struggles, so they didn’t put any kind of tips about the skills, so we all had, and still have to figure out what they do. Divine protection is most random of skills, because one god grants different things through it, making it impossible to determine exact effect it has, besides reincarnation of course. You must observe it yourself, whether you are really lucky or the opposite.”

“I guess there is no other way around it then. There are also two other skills, Life Gambler and Mana Sense. Know anything about them?”

“Mana Sense is fairly easy, it’s self-explanatory after all. It is ability to sense magic around you. It includes monsters, spells being cast around you as well as magical objects and places rich with mana. The higher your proficiency, the better you sense it. It is basic skill required to learn any kind of magic. As for the other one, what was it? Life Gambler? I never heard about it before. It sounds as it is associated with Farran though, so you should probably look for people knowledgeable about him, to learn the effect of that skill.”

So no luck with Life Gambler huh? I had a feeling this skill was associated with my stats being so big, but I had to wait till I went to larger cities for that to be explained. There was one more important thing bothering me about my status.

“Last thing, I have 11 level, and it is my second day in gam… on Avalon, is earning levels easy here? Also, what do levels grant? I got 11, but no points to distribute between my statistics.”

Cordby was quite surprised at what I said.

“You have been here, and you earned 11 level already? Wait, did you just say you got no points to distribute?”

He stood up and took attacking posture against me, his face contorted in anger.

“You better tell me fast who did you kill Rob, and no funny moves, this room is situated above one of the Mana Rivers, so I can obliterate you if I deem you dangerous!”

“Bandits, I killed bandits! On the way from Lumber to Plenty, me and my group were attacked large band. During the encounter I killed a few of them, including one of the leaders! You can ask Lomar, protector I came with, he will prove my story.”

Cordby relaxed, but not fully. He explained then, that killing people granted many levels but no additional stat points. If one wanted to earn points on leveling, one needed to kill monsters, and absorb their energy. Avalon inhabitants just called it Life Force, and to harvest it from monsters corpse you needed to stand near it and feel it. Kind of like with mana, but different feel to it. After sensing it, you needed to draw it into yourself, like Ki in cultivation books, only this was fast and easy process for all. The harder monster was to slay, the more LF he had. After leveling from monster kills, you didn’t get fixed amount of points, they were based on quality and quantity of monsters you have slain, before leveling up.

So there wasn’t any perk to leveling up in itself. In fact, the way I did it , was detrimental to my growth. The higher the level, the more life force was needed, and the less points was granted for it. Average points from leveling up by killing monsters of similar to ones strength, was 3, so as long as you didn’t kill something way above your capabilities, your growth was rather slow. But there was great potential in this system-while killing people granted many level ups, if you killed, say, dragon, while being much weaker than it, you would still earn only one level up. But points earned after that upgrade would skyrocket!

There was also another way of earning stats and level, which was living. Normal people wouldn’t go hunting monsters, especially when their average stats were in 30’s and 40’s. So how did they earn points? By doing manual labor, exercising, learning and many other things associated with each stat. For each person it was different, how much one needed to work to earn level and points. Those earning lots with almost no effort were called prodigies. Truly unfair world.

What was worse, was that unless you passed a kind of thresholds, you could lose stat. For example, if you lied on the bed, not training your muscles at all, your strength would fall. But luckily, it couldn’t fall beyond borders. These were on 10, 50, 90, 130 and so on. So I had to earn another 30 in each stat not to worry about losing them, or let them fall to 90, which I didn’t even consider. I had huge starting handicap, and I didn’t intend to lose it.

I decided that that was enough for today, as I had to return to Lars, and somehow convince him to pay me for today. I preferred sleeping in bed to cold stone in random alley. Especially with my unknown luck factor included. Before I went, last thing Cordby said, was not to talk about my previous life with others. It was sensitive topic for most, since they left families and friends in their original worlds. After thanking Cordby, and assuring him I was alright, and would come back later on, I left the temple and headed back to smithy.

Lars was overjoyed to see me. He really needed help with his work, but was too proud to take on any “useless”, as he said, human apprentices. His one condition, was that after learning everything from him, I was to teach him everything I learnt on my own, if we met one day ahead. Master becoming student sort of thing.

I was shown the ropes, he completed a set of 5 same blades, after which I was supposed to take my shot as he instructed me. All in all, it wasn’t as easy as it looked. If I wanted to make perfect piece of equipment, I had to strike with precision and regulated strength. My first 4 attempts were failed, the metal had to be reforged. But Lars didn’t criticize me harshly, he just pointed out my mistakes and watched from the side, and my 5th attempt was acceptable, as he said.

I didn’t notice when it had grown dark outside. I sheepishly asked Lars if he could lend me some more money for the inn. Lars laughed, and said that he could, but the only inn in Plenty would probably be full. So, he proposed, I could sleep in his house, on the floor. It was better than sleeping on the street, I happily agreed and followed him, after he closed the shop.