James arrived in the middle of a field on the outskirts of a small village. In the far distance was a large stone wall that went around what appeared to be a city. A few moments after James arrived, Rocko appeared next to him.

"We are here. This is good. An area which the Ellorian Kingdom has pacified." Rocko explained, looking around.

"Where should I go first?" James asked.

"First, you should change your appearance. Then we will wander the far-field for small creatures for you to kill. Collect their hides and meat and then move on to stronger things. I would like you to get to level 5 by the end of the day."

"You are optimistic," James countered.

"It is not unreasonable, considering that you are in an area with many small creatures. You will not be fighting creatures 10 levels above you. But, please bear in mind that you are no longer invulnerable," Rocko cautioned.

"Understood. I need to figure out how to activate these PSI powers I have." James reviewed the PSI Powers and divided them up into three categories. Defence, Offense and Utility. Under Defense were Harden Skin I, Heal Self III, and Mental Shield - Iron I. Under Offense was PSI Bolt II. And under Utility were Alter Self II, Augment Skill I and Attribute I, Darkvision I, Mind Scan I and Telekinesis I.

"There are more powers than I am comfortable with," James observed. "I am not going to remember when to use them."

"James, most of the Powers you have are very simple. And you will know when best to use them. The next few days will be you learning how to use them and what their full potential will be."

James uses Alter Self to make himself appear like he did when he was alive. Although he was tall and muscular again, the image felt off. It somehow felt hollow and empty. Deciding quickly, James changed his appearance to something more in line with his Attributes but still human. This disguise felt more natural to him than his original option, but there was still a sense of wrongness about the whole thing.

James took a moment to look over his starting gear. He even learned Analyze. He had a non-descript backpack that held some rope, a couple of torches, three days of rations, a water skin and a small mess kit. When he Analyzed them, they were pretty generic. He was wearing a breastplate made up of four pieces of hard-boiled leather. He had a wool undercoat, a cloak, leather leggings, and high leather boots. A pouch on his belt held 50 coppers, a flint and steel and a small bit of tinder. He had a dagger, a boot knife, and his Glrick Sword for weapons.

Name: Boiled Leather Breastplate Quality: Fair Armour Rating: 17 Durability: 17/17 Special: Worn – Torso

Name: Leather Leggings Quality: Fair Armour Rating: 2 Durability: 6/6 Special: Worn – Legs

Name: Steel Boot Knife Quality: Fair Damage Range: 1d3+4 Accuracy: 3 Crit Chance: 5% Durability: 17/17 Damage Type: Slashing Special: One-handed, Small, Concealable

Name: Glrick Sword (rapier) Quality: Excellent Damage Range: 1d6+16 Accuracy: 11 Crit Chance: 11% Durability: 42 Damage Type: Piercing Special: One-handed, Enchanted

The next thing on his list was reviewing all his Powers. He noticed that almost all of them had an initial cost and then an upkeep cost based on duration. He looked at the cost of all the Powers that he could use in combat. Then he looked at the cost of all his Powers that would help him in combat. Augment Skill I, Augment Attribute I, and Harden Skin I could all be used. Keeping in mind that James would have Alter Self II and Mental Shield - Iron I in place, he would be looking at an activation cost of 90 PSI and upkeep of almost 10 PSI per minute. Rocko had explained earlier that his PSI regeneration would be his total PSI per hour. So, about 2.5 per minute. He would lose about 7.5 PSI a minute. He would run dry of PSI after eight minutes. The crystal would give him another twenty minutes before it ran dry. This was an oversimplification and did not consider the casting time of each Power. James could not use all his Powers at once and needed to increase his PSI regeneration.

"Are you okay?" Rocko asked.

"Ya. Just getting a grasp of my Powers. I activated Mental Shield - Iron I and Alter Self II." James tried to explain. James was down 50 PSI and would regenerate back to full in under an hour.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"This is good. Let's go find some fluffy bunnies to slaughter." Rocko said encouragingly.

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James appeared back in the same clearing as the sun was setting. He looked much more tired, and a deep frown was on his face. He appeared in the clearing by stepping out of Astral Space. This appeared as if he stepped out of a doorway that only he could see. Once he confirmed he was back in the starting clearing, he sheathed his Glrick Sword and took a drink from his near-empty waterskin.

Rocko appeared in the clearing a moment later and looked up at James. "I didn't expect you to grab the attention of every single Scraggler in the forest, James."

"Screw you," James bit back. "Those little bastards were all over, and I am lucky I got out of there alive."

Rocko smiled, "The look on your face when they all turned in your direction and screamed was pretty funny."

"Ya, anyone can roll a one," James sighed.

"A one?" Rocko inquired.

"Another time, what now? I am not level 5 yet, and there is still some time in the day." James looked up at the sky.

Rocko turned to the village and started heading in that direction, expecting James to follow. "It is fine. There are still the three quests you can hand in, which will give you the necessary experience to reach level 5. Then we eat, sleep and in the morning, head back to the temple where you hid all your items."

When they arrived in the village, James had to ask a couple of people where Mrs. Anders' cottage lived, but the village wasn't that large, and he quickly found himself knocking on her front door.

The door opened, a lovely lady of about forty drying her hands on a towel. "Can I help you?"

James smiled and bowed his head a little, as Rocko had told him was customary in this part of the world. "Sorry to trouble you, but I was told that you were interested in rabbit meat."

Mrs. Anders grinned broadly, "Yes, yes, please come in. Were you able to find any of the little fuckers?"

James almost missed the step when he heard Mrs. Anders' choice of words, "Yes, ma'am. Killed me twelve of the fuckers."

Mrs. Aanders led James into the kitchen and clapped when she heard the news, "Oh, that is good to hear. Those furry little bastards have been eating all the vegetables in my garden." Picking up a meat cleaver, she turned to a butcher block and looked to James, "Well, let's see what you got."

James placed the twelve pieces of rabbit meat on the block. Mrs. Anders looked joyfully and started slamming the cleaver into the meat. James didn't think she was doing anything other than ruining the meat, but soon she had a pile of diced meat cubes. "This is wonderful. There is enough here for three pots of stew. I had someone drop off some rabbit meat yesterday so that I can give the pots I made this morning, or, if you are okay to wait, I can make you some fresh pots of rabbit stew now."

James returned the smile and shook his head, "I am sorry, but I can't wait around. I am happy to take the three pots of stew now."

Mrs. Anders leaned under the counter and pulled out three pots of rabbit stew. The clay pots were about two litres in size, "Here you go. Come see me if you get any more of the little fuckers tomorrow. I will have some more rabbit stew prepared."

James picked up one of the stew pots, "Any chance I can trade you this pot of rabbit stew for the recipe?"

"Well, now, if I give you the recipe, you won't come back here to turn in the rabbit meat." Mrs. Anders stated.

"Perhaps, but I plan on leaving soon, and with the recipe, I can feel good about killing more of the little fuckers and cooking them up. And each time, it will be with Mrs. Anders' Rabbit Stew."

Mrs. Anders beamed as she wrote down the recipe for her stew on a piece of parchment, explaining the steps. James smiled back at her when she handed over the recipe, "Thank you again for the stew."

"More than happy to help, young man."

James walked away from the small cottage and shook his head, "That woman seriously hates rabbits."

"She is known as the Rabbit Slayer in these parts," Rocko commented.

James didn't need to ask for directions to the leather vendor as he had a large sign hanging over his door. James knew that the vendor would buy his two fox skins and twelve rabbit skins.

James had to wait his turn as a young woman bought some flour and a new trowel. When it was his turn, he put the skins on the counter.

"Oh, for the love of the gods, not more rabbit skins!" he exclaimed.

"Sorry. A guy got to eat." James explained.

"Ya, ya, I know, but l am surprised there are still any rabbits in the area, with the way she has them hunted down,"

James just smiled, "I have no use for them, so if you want them, let me know."

The vendor looked them over and sighed, "I can give you a copper each for them. And that price is because the tanner is sick, and I don't know how long I will have to hang on to them before he is well enough to treat them. But the fox skin goes to a man in the city. So that one I can be fair with. Say, eight coppers each for the fox skins.

James did the math in his head. Twenty-eight copper wasn't much, almost three silver. "I hope that will be enough to get a bed and a meal nearby."

"That should be good for two nights in the common room here at Bronco's." the vendor countered. James hoped he would get more, but he had a pouch of coins hidden at the temple.

Taking the coins, James headed out and towards a low tower on the edge of the village.

"Are you sure about this," he whispered to Rocko.

"You will be fine. Just stick to what we talked about." Rocko reassured him.

The soldier was named Corporal Mcgivin, and he had a quest to hand find and kill Scragglers. Some were a couple of levels higher than James at the time, he was able to kill them with practice and patience. It helped that he could pull them to him one at a time. A couple of times, he would get the attention of several and would have to step into Astral Space to avoid them overwhelming him and killing him.

"Are you Corporal Mcgivn?" James asked, not daring to use Inspect.

"Aye. And you are?"

"James, sir. I was told that you would buy my Scraggler tails." James said, looking at the ground. He did not want to give the Corporal any reason to challenge him.

"Aye, that's true. Five coppers each."

"Bastard," Rocko shouted, "You were ordered to pay out six coppers each for those tails. Everyone knows this, you thieving bastard. No wonder the realm is going to hell."

James just shrugged and handed over a dozen tails in his backpack.

"That is a pretty good haul there, young man. You kill them all yourself?" Corporal Mcgivin asked as he was slowly counting out the copper.

"Yes, sir. Been working at it for a couple of days."

The Corporal nodded his head and handed the 60 copper. James was going to count it but decided he didn't care. Putting the coin in his pouch, he put the pouch in his backpack.

"You know you have a sword sticking out of the bottom of your backpack?" the Corporal asked.

James smiled, "Yes, sir, it is my brothers. I don't know how to use it, but I hold it for him."

The Corporal narrowed his eyes a bit but said nothing. "Best be off."

James nodded and turned back towards the village.

"Now where?" James asked when he was far enough away from the tower.

"The tavern over there. Get a meal, a drink and then some sleep." Rocko directed.

James didn't mind that Rocko had the next few days planned out for him. It made things a little easier. James did insist on knowing what was planned ahead of time, and Rocko explained it in detail. James was confident that Rocko and his advisors knew what they were talking about. Being a good soldier, he did as he was told.