I start to concentrate to activate my new rune crafting ability and the system mandatory pop ups start to message me.

Initializing rune crafting ability

...

Rune crafting skill acquired Beginner 1

Rune reading skill acquired Beginner 1

Randomizing starting runes blueprints

...

Minor Gravity rune blueprint : you can increase the gravity of the rune crafted item.

Touch mana input rune blueprint : you can fill and activate a runic circuit manually while touching this rune

So from my neophyte understanding, rune crafted items are like electronic circuits. You put components and link them. What I got is quite basic but it should be a good start to improve my hammer.

I grab my hand metal graver and start drawing the circuit. A few minutes later a notification pop ups

Congratulations on finishing your first runic item.

Minor Gravity hammer: Waouh, you can now break nuts easily. Hopefully the minor gravity will not pount them to powder.

rune crafting skill beginner 2

I take my hammer and bang my anvil while activating the runic circuit. A mighty clang resounds in the workshop and I watch the anvil lightly deformed by the hit.

Ooops, I nearly ruined my anvil and made all the nearby monster aware of my presence. At least the hit is quite good and the mana expenditure quite low, if only the goblins gave me good stuff

You could have looted them perhaps ?

Ooops again.

Keeping my hammer in hand I quickly put my makeshift bridge back in order. A quick peek in the room confirm that I am still alone. I approach the shaman and touch its corpse

Loot

The goblin disappear

You looted:

- a Runic staff of strength

- 5 coppers

I then touch the grunt.

Loot

The goblin disappear

You looted:

- a crude spear

- a crude club

- 2 coppers

Hu where is the loot? Is there an inventory?

A transparent window pop up with some grids. In the grid I see my new loot and at the bottom icons of money with the sum.

I wish to get the staff that appears in my hand and then I wish it back in the inventory. I try it succefully with my hammer but trying to put my TV inside I get the following message

Only compatible system item can be stored

Seems logical.

Time to get rid of some pests.

Carefully I walk to the entrance of my flat, activating my discretion skill.

I go through my destroyed door in the corridor, and ignoring the elevator probably not working anymore, I take the stairs. The door to my level has been bashed implying the really low intelligence of the goblin

I climb the stairs and try to open silently the intact door at the next level.

Silently was the keyword. It seems we did not pay enough the building manager to do basic maintenance on the stair doors.

I will not be able to stealthy explore my building without some noise suppressing. There are probably runes or magic for that but I have nothing yet to help me on that topics. Too much risk then and the doors being intacts perhaps there are not monsters then.

Deciding with my change of direction, I descend the stair. The ground level door is also smashed open confirming my musings about the low intelligence of the goblins.

I continue to the entrance and take a quick peak outside.

I am shocked by the scenery displayed. Some buildings are burning and a lot of corpses are displayed everywhere. Most of them look like people were trying to flee. Some goblins are still striking some of those corpse, meaning their target died quite recently.

There is nothing more I can do for them and I am not sure I can help the surviving one apart from one thing I am about to do: avenge them by killing all these monsters.

Fortunately, it seems the goblins are quite dispersed and even with the burning buildings the shadows are quite deep.

Lets see how you fell to be from hunter to prey.

I carefully begin my new activity hunting alone goblin.

A few hours later I check a compilation of my notifications

You have leveled up twice

Discretion is now beginner 9

Hammer mastery is now beginner 5

Throwing is now beginner 6

Gaining the mastery of my hammer was really anticlimactic there as it was the only tool/weapon I had available if I wanted to stay hidden.

That limited me to only alone goblins unfortunately but I manage to get rid of around fifteen of them.

I could have gone for pairs but without my mana bolt spell, being too flashy, that was to dangerous.

I carefully make the trip back to my flat which I secure again by removing the makeshift bridge. I does not seem that another team has investigated the disappearance of the team in my building.

Now that I am in my safe place I check my loot and browse my options after leveling.

System can you display the loot?

Accumulated loot :

- 10 crude clubs

- 10 crude spears

- 10 crude daggers

- 50 coppers

Yeah nothing really interesting there. At least I will be able to melt the daggers. System can you display my gain?

2 attributes points

1 new skill ability

free spells: 4

After adding one point in vitality and one point in stamina to improve my survivability I turn to my other gains.

Oh yeah I forgot the free spells.

I quickly browse the spell list and select a few useful ones.

minor healing: heal small injuries

obscure: improve your discretion skills

silent steps: improve your discretion skills

Looking for ability skill I found an interesting skill that will allow my mana bolt to be less visible.

Spell manipulation : Can be upgraded later on. Allow you to change some aspects of a spell like power, element, color, ...

I try to imagine what the upgrade can cover but I quickly dismiss the idea. For now having a mana bolt not visible will be quite a gain.

Status

Name: Damien

Level: 5

Class: Magic Jack

Profession: None

Muscle: 10

Agility: 12

Vitality: 10

Stamina: 7

Wit: 13

Will: 9

You have 0 unassigned attribute point

Hit points: 100/100 Regeneration 0.7

Mana: 220/220 mana

regen rate .9 per seconds

General Skills

Throw: beginner 6

Identification: beginner 1

Improvised weapon crafting: beginner 1

Discretion: beginner 9

Mana sight: beginner 1

Hammer mastery beginner 5

Abilities & related:

Spell casting

Free spell available: 1

- Mana bolt beginner 2

- Minor healing beginner 1

- Obscure beginner 1

- Silent steps beginner 1

Rune Crafting

- rune crafting beginner 2

- rune reading beginner 1

- runes blueprints : minor gravity, Touch mana input

Spell manipulation

As I browse through my status with some satisfaction I hear a big commotion coming from my living room

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

What is happening now?