The trip back to the cave where I had stayed the first few nights, took us most of the day. Though we kept deterring to kill any animals we found. Gathering the corpses and fur as much as possible. Having Erick with me made things much easier. With him to distract the animals my spell casting was uninterrupted. Allowing me to take more time to target vital areas.
We spent the night in the cave before heading north towards the capital. Sticking to the forest, hiding from others. There were a couple interactions that we were not able to avoid. Thankfully they were resolved peacefully and there were no questions about my appearance. The animals got a higher level, as we got closer to the Capital, though if we got to close they would start getting weaker again because the weaker adventurers will clear the area around the city so they can get stronger.
We planned to find an empty cave, and level in the forest until we were both a higher level. I wanted to be above level 10, figuring that level 15 would be a good goal, Hoping that Erick could get a little higher than that. Then we could join a beginner group and work our way up.
Other than getting to know each other better, there were not any big happenings in the first week. The cave we found wasn’t empty when we found it, we had to kill the family of wolves that lived inside. Our, Cooking, Tracking, Skinning, and skills leveled decently. Even our experience was gaining at a reasonable rate.
During the second week, someone stumbled into the cave. He was a middle-aged man, who looked rough. He didn’t have a weapon and his armor was in shambles. His eyes showed contempt as he saw us.
“Ah, good, I need weapons and armor, and you will make great slaves. Give me all of your stuff and I won't kill you.”
Looking at the man, he was level 20, his health was a little over half gone.
“We are free people, you cannot just decide we are your slaves, we have done nothing wrong.” Eric said standing.”
“You're a lesser race, how dare you speak back to me.” He reached out to slap Eric, but my spell slammed into his face.
“How dare you speak to us like that, The rules of the kingdom are there for a reason, you don't have the right to take us against our wills,” I said hoping that my words were true.
“Lesser beings like you should be happy as slaves, how dare you attack your betters.”
Narrowing my eyes, I decided that this man could not leave this cave.
Attacking with my spell again, Eric grabbed his daggers and started attacking the man. His dagger skill had leveled some. Allowing him better control of his daggers. Hitting our opponent in the face with magical arrows did assist in protecting Eric from the stronger adversary. Even With him having been almost half dead to start with he put up a struggle. Eric was bruised and his health was just about at the halfway point when the man finally died. it was good because my magic was down to about a third. Searching him didn’t reveal any items and his armor was practically destroyed. We just threw everything in the corner.
“We were lucky that he was almost dead, we shouldn’t have been able to kill him if he had a weapon this would have turned out differently. And it wasn’t just his health. He was starving and dehydrated. He either doesn’t know how to find food in the wild or felt that he was too good to scrounge.”
"Either way, we were lucky.” I agreed.
As we moved to sit back down, the body started to glow, a white light seemed to envelop the body from his heart. Worried that this was some magic spell I raised my hands to be ready to fight if he revived. Eric’s eyes were wide in shock. Watching as the light encompassed his entire body, then started to recede. Where the light left the body was gone. Until the light had faded to the size of a small pearl. When the light faded a small looking pearl was sitting there on the floor and Erick sat down hard a look of shock on his face.
“Eric? What is this?” I asked worriedly.
“It is a Soul Crystal. Sometimes, Very rarely, when something dies it will leave behind a soul crystal. When you consume the soul crystal you gain all of the experience of the person who made the crystal. Though it isn’t just people, anything that can earn experience could form a soul crystal.”
“That is correct Eric, there are a few ways to boost the chances of getting a crystal, but none of them are available to you right now. Even with a boosted chance, it is still rare to get one.” Alic stated.
“What are the chances?” I asked.
“Usually about 1%, though your level versus theirs the condition of the fight and a few others things determine if you get a Soul Crystal. With boosted chances, it's like a 30% chance. Before you ask, those are rough estimates showing the scarcity of the item, not the actual chance of finding one.” Alic added.
“Thank you, so what do you do with it?”
“You eat it and gain the experience,” Eric said.
I walked over to where the Item was laying.
Soul Crystal
This crystal was from a level 20 Slaver. Through your hard work and defeating this foe, even though he was injured. Ridding the world of him is a good act and has not gone unnoticed.
Experience: 21,900
My eyes widened at the object there was so much experience hidden in this little gem. I wondered if my 20% bonus would count towards this. After a minute I turned and looked towards Eric.
“You did most of the fighting, do you want it?” I asked.
“It was your magic bolts that kept him from overpowering me, and you are a lower level, but seem to have a better understanding. I think it would make more sense for you to have it.”
“Alic What do you think?”
“As the champion of the goddess I agree that you should be the one to have it. We need you to get stronger and there are spells and talents that will come in handy.”
“Alright then.”
Grabbing the crystal I placed it in my mouth and swallowed. After a few seconds, a notification popped up.
“Soul Crystal experience gained 21,900 + 4,380 because of the goddess's blessing. Level increased to 22. 220 experience needed to reach level 23. 51 free stat points to assign”
Closing the notification and opening my status screen, my eyes widened at what I saw.
Name: Alex
Age: 18
Level: 22 (2080/2300)
Class: None
Race: Arcane Elf
Health: 384
Health Regeneration: 40 per minute (Out of combat) 13 per minute (In combat)
Stamina: 290
Stamina Regeneration: 30 per minute (Out of combat) 10 per minute (In combat)
Mana: 483
Mana Regeneration: 84 per minute (Out of combat) 25 per minute (In combat)
Attribute points: 51
Racial points: 24
Strength: 10
Dexterity: 10
Constitution: 14
Intelligence: 29
Wisdom: 37
Charisma: 10
That was a lot of increase, without even adding my free points. Also, there were the racial abilities that had been unlocked that I had not looked at yet. I should have gotten a set of three at level 10 and 20. Moving back towards our fire and sitting down, before pulling up my status screen.
Racial Skills
Level 10
Mimic (0/10)
You are able to mimic the appearance of another race for 5 minutes at a time. Each level increased the time by 5 minutes. Must wait 55 minutes before reactivation, each level reduces the time by 5 minutes.
Magic affinity (0/10)
Your connection to magic becomes stronger increasing the strength of your spells by 2%. Each level increases it by 2%
Concentration (0/10)
Your concentration is 2% harder to break when casting a spell. Each level increases it by 2%
Level 20
Essence (0/10)
Increases the amount of mana you have by 10. Each level increases it by 10.
Catalyst (0/10)
Alchemy is 2% easier and faster. Each level increases it by 2%
Wellspring (0/10)
You are able to summon the magic of the land to form a wellspring of pure water, the wellspring will last for 5 minutes. Each level increased the time by 5 minutes. Must wait 55 minutes before reactivation, each level reduces the time by 5 minutes.
My eyes widened there were so many options. I chose mimic as my first one, sitting as it was probably the most important. And raised it up to level 6, leaving me 3 racial points, but allowing me to stay Transformed for half an hour at a time. As well as reducing the recast time to 25 minutes.
Looking at the other five skills it was hard to choose what might be useful. Essence and magic affinity might be useful once ranked to level ten, but I already had bonuses to help me out. None of my current spells had a cast time so concentration wouldn’t help me out much. Catalyst could be very beneficial, but my potions didn’t take to long right now. It would be good to get to level 10 at some point. Wellspring would probably be the most beneficial because we would always have a source of water.
Using my last three points to bring wellspring to level two, caused me to smile. I wondered how much water it would summon. I wanted to cast it, but without knowing what would happen I was hesitant. Alic could probably tell me more about how it worked. But finding a place to try it would probably help me understand it more.
“What did you chose?” Eric asked.
“I chose Mimic and Wellspring. Allowing me to transform and let us have fresh water no matter where we are. I am also level 22. So it should be okay for me to go into a town now, but are we sure you will be okay?”
“I Should be, in towns people generally care less about it when you're in a town. Slaves are common, but not everyone has them. Even some of the richer houses. Apparently paying people gets the job done better. Slaves are usually kept by the people who cannot afford servants.”
“Oh, well we'll just have to make sure that they don’t look at us. Finding an adventuring group would be a good place to start right?” I asked.
"Yeah, adventurers are normally left alone, because they are always in demand, especially the higher ranked ones,” Eric said.
“Then gaining reputation will be important.”
“What confuses me,” Alic said, “Was that slavers level, how was he so high? The normal level of a slaver is around 15, in this area. Finding someone his level would normally be an Iron level adventurer.”
“He could have been kicked out of the adventures guild, for unbecoming conduct, and if it was a non-human, it could explain his distaste of other non-humans,” Eric replied.
“True, that is a possibility. Be careful though. Even with your level gain you are still only wearing starter gear. Even Eric doesn’t have better gear right now. So you will have to understand you are somewhat behind others who will be working already.”
“I understand Alic, Thank you for watching out for me.”
We settled in for the night, we would be approaching a small town tomorrow, where we were hoping to grab a robe for me to wear. Preferable with a hood to hide my face. We had planned on just Eric going into the city, but with my level gain, it should be safe for me. Especially with my mimic ability. It would be good to try an learn another spell. Maybe some better equipment for both of us.
Eric said I might be able to learn a healing spell from the local priest. This town was small, similar to the one Eric grew up in. But being closer to the capital, and on a main road allowed them to be much more prosperous. It would be my first time in a busy city since coming to this world.
As I laid down to sleep and closed my eyes, I noticed that there was a notification that I had missed before. Opening it, showed that my arcane bolt had leveled up to Novice 7 and now did 17 damage per hit. I fell asleep with a smile on my face.
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