Travelling for over a day Adam and Lianna talked, learning more about each other. He told her about his position at Black Sphere, developing and implementing advanced security systems around the world. Of course he didn't do the traveling himself but whenever the installation team had any technical trouble, he'd be the one to walk them through it. 

  His job involved designing every aspect of the system, with the help of his two assistants. This included the material composition of vaults, to developing the best facial recognition,eye scanners, fingerprint scanners, and many systems to make sure the person given access was the correct person. Black Sphere was specialized in high security settings such as banks, museums, and places with extremely valuable items. They did occasionally work with people on housing security as well and some unique requests.  

  Lianna as expected was a high school student in grade twelve. She told him how much she disliked school but loved to play sports. She apparently played basically any and all sports. She had been focusing on volleyball most recently but still played basketball, football, soccer, and anything she could get people to play with her in her free time. If she couldn't find people to play with she would go hiking through the forests and mountains around her city. 

  This was very evident to Adam how fit she was after the day of walking. His feet and legs were so sore he contemplated using one of the capsules to heal himself. Yet she seemed in perfect condition, ready to run a marathon. He also knew being so active with the various sports made her extremely agile, giving her the edge she needed to defeat the horned cats that kept appearing. Every time they burst into action to attack her, it would be dead before Adam had looked away from its initial location. 

  Taking a break, as Adam couldn't continue walking, they set up camp near a tree that had grown in the open fields, fairly close to the road. They hadn't seen any horned cats in hours or anything beyond the grassy fields. Adam had been focusing on increasing his mana skills while they walked, but only made little progress as Lianna liked to keep some form of conversation going. He managed to increase his manipulation maximum up to forty, while his mana sense and absorption improved only slightly. 

  Lianna was laying on her blanket while Adam was trying to concentrate on increasing his mana manipulation further. Increasing this skill he found fairly straight forward though not necessarily easy. It involved manipulating his current maximum while drawing out and adding one more without losing control, then simply maintaining the new maximum. This didn't always go smoothly as he would lose control of one or more mana, letting it disperse. Fortunately each increase was simply a matter of time and repetition. His mind seemed to need to adjust to controlling so many mana at one time. 

  As the large sun was approaching the horizon, Adam was able to achieve another ten mana to his control, bringing his manipulation maximum up to fifty. He was also very low on mana from continually losing control. Just after hitting fifty, he heard Lianna sit up excitedly.

“What is it?” He asked her. 

“So you know how I hit level three earlier today? Well I just noticed I have two attributes unlocked I can place my points into. At level two I was able to do physical strength, and now I can increase my physical speed as well.”

“So Evond was correct that we need to level up to increase our attributes. How many points do you have? What will you do with them?” Adam said with complete interest. 

“Now that I have the attributes available, I know that both my strength and speed are five. Is that good? We should have asked about that. Umm let me put one point in each first,” she said after standing.

“Oh..tingly” she said with a shiver.

“What?” Adam asked 

“After I put each point into strength then speed, I felt a tingly sensation go through my body. It only lasted a second each but was weird.” she explained. 

  After moving around a bit, running jumping and to Adam's surprise she even did a couple flips she came back over to Adam.

“Impressive.” 

“Thanks, I’ve done gymnastics since I was young. Anyway this is pretty sweet. My body feels lighter, faster, easier to move around. Not anything crazy but a noticeable difference for sure.” 

“I don't understand how that's possible, I know this world has mana and magic but I still feel that there has to be a logical reason how it works.” Adam questioned. 

“Wasn't there a saying that magic is simply science that isn't understood yet or something?” She asked Adam.

“You're right. So I just have to learn more about how everything works until it is science to me and no longer magic,” Adam said with excitement in his voice.  

“Sure, you do that,” she told him as she walked a good distance away from the tree and marked a line in the ground with her foot. 

“Ok Mr Scientist, time how long it takes me to run to the tree!” she yelled at him. 

“Ok,” he shouted back. 

  With a nod, she began running. With his best attempt to count the seconds he got to sixteen when she placed her hand on the tree. 

“Sixteen seconds,” he told her. 

“Again. I've put my last four points all into speed. Lets see the difference,” she told him then jogged back to her starting line.  

  This time Adam could see the difference in her speed. Her hand hit the tree when his counting stopped at twelve. 

“Twelve seconds,” he told her also excited at the large increase to her speed. 

“Hell ya!” she shouted jumping in the air, then continued to run around, testing out her new speed. 

  Lianna spent the rest of the day running and jumping around, testing out the new limits of her body. Adam wasn't sure how she could just run so much but she seemed happy. 

  Adam knew he was going to have to work on leveling up if he wanted to get stronger. He didn't like the idea of killing anything but if he didn't get strong enough to survive in this dangerous world, he was going to be the one dead. He knew he had not been as lucky as he thought with avoiding the monsters in the forest since they avoided him instead because of his level. He also knew animals needed to eat, and eventually he would get attacked by something and become their dinner. 

“Lianna?” Adam got her attention when she ran back to her blanket area, completely drenched in sweat.

  He estimated the temperature to be around twenty five degrees celsius. So far the temperature ranged between twenty and thirty degrees, so not too different from many places on Earth. 

“Ya?”

“Could you help me … level up? I doubt I could handle something as fast as those feline creatures but if anything shows up that I could possibly… deal with, then…. I  can handle raising my skills on my own without experience but I'll never get stronger or be able to increase any of my attributes without leveling up.” Adam asked a little awkwardly. He wasn't used to asking for help, since he usually could do most things himself,  or simply didn't do the things he couldn't. 

“Sure,” was her only response as she laid down on the blanket.  

“Thank you.” 

  His first opportunity arrived the next day when a very small creature wandered into their path. It was what Adam thought simply looked like a really fat squirrel. It had four legs and a tail with fur covering its body except much rounder. It was also very slow, even for Adam. It did have a large spike at the tip of its tail that he figured was like a scorpion stinger, most likely venomous. With the length of his shortsword he was easily able to stay out of its reach. He hesitated greatly but with some resolve and a quick stab the sword went through its body, killing it instantly.

Damage Inflicted: 30

Experience Recieved: 11

  Adam quickly felt guilty and regretted that he felt forced to kill the fat scorpion squirrel for a whole eleven experience. He knew he had to do it but didn't like it. Pulling out his blade, red blood pooled around its body along with streaks of dark purple liquid he assumed was probably the things venom. 

  They should probably be more careful when they slept. They had both kept watch for some of the previous night but inevitably fell asleep. Adam was used to getting only a few hours of sleep some nights from working to finish a task at work but it was different when he had been walking for hours, becoming sore and physically tired. He struggled to stay awake. Lianna seemed better off than him but she needed at least six hours of sleep to function.

“Adam! Head out of the clouds.”

  Adam looked up to see five more of the scorpion squirrels coming out of the tall grass. They varied slightly but were all still very chubby. They must use their venom to take down much larger creatures then gorge themselves, eating more than they should. 

  All five sets of eyes were focused on Lianna, he assumed since he was still level zero and not worth killing. He swung his sword to remove some of the blood dripping from it, then approached the closest squirrel to him. He easily stabbed it from behind as it continued to walk slowly towards Lianna. His sword went through the creature's body like the first but took him a little more effort to initially pierce its skin. 

Damage Inflicted: 40

Experience Recieved: 22

  Adam continued to follow behind them as Lianna kept just enough distance to keep their attention on her. He was better to fight such an opponent with his longer sword anyway. Her short dagger would require her to be at risk of getting stung. He stabbed three more times.

Damage Inflicted: 40

Experience Recieved: 22

Damage Inflicted: 30

Experience Recieved: 14

Damage Inflicted: 30

Experience Recieved: 14

  Now at eighty three experience, he looked at the final scorpion squirrel that finally realized the threat and was coming towards Adam. This one seemed slightly faster than the others, though it didn't really matter when they were moving at a turtles walk. Adam lunged for it with the blade hitting it in the side causing the blade to cut deeply but didn't pierce fully through its body like the others. 

Damage Inflicted: 12

  Before Adam pulled back, the stinger hit the blade with a loud clang, nearly causing him to drop it. Taking a step back, he noticed the sword had a small dent where it was hit. Guess this was the boss squirrel he thought with a nervous chuckle to himself.  

  Lianna continued to watch him calmly, appearing to think he could handle it. Trying again, he swung the sword this time aiming for its neck, rather than stabbing at its body. Hitting his mark, with only a bit of resistance, the shortsword cut halfway through its neck. Which was easily enough for it to slump to the ground dead. This one must have been a decent level Adam thought.

Damage Inflicted: 28

Experience Recieved: 46

  His blade and him this time were soaked in blood. He dropped the sword on the ground, slightly in shock killing so many animals. Six deaths to get him to the hundred experience he needed to get to level one. Was it worth it. He needed to learn more how experience worked at least to minimize the amount he would need to kill. That last one had given him forty six experience but he only needed seventeen, so twenty nine was wasted, and that was more than he had received for the two squirrels giving him fourteen each. He could have just run away after that or leveled up and not let the experience go to waste. Lianna had picked up his sword and cleaned it off with her already blood stained shirt. 

“Here. Did you get enough experience at least?” she said handing him back his shortsword. 

“Ya. Thanks.” he took back his sword and used his now removed shirt to wipe off his arms.

  Luckily the creatures were small and no blood made it up to his face. Then he put on his cleaner shirt. He knew it wouldn't be long until he was covered in blood again if he was going to continue leveling but wanted to be clean for now. 

  Adam was hesitant to level up. If he did, he would be a target for any monster that came near, while they actually avoided him for the moment. No he needed to do it. He needed to get stronger and return to Enault City. Gerald was enslaving people from Earth, ripping them away from their lives. He slaughtered people in the streets like they meant nothing. Someone had to do something. He wasn't exactly sure how he would do it, but he would. Bringing up his menu, he tapped the new level up button that appeared. Then he was level one.

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“You did well. I know it's not easy at first. I still don't like the killing any more than you do, but I can't go back to being a slave. If we have any chance of getting back home, we need to be strong.” Lianna reassured him. 

“I know, you're right.” Adam walked over to the dead bodies. “Can I see your dagger”

“Sure. What are you doing?” she asked.

  He materialized a small glass vial. Using the dagger he cut into the last scorpion squirrel he killed with great effort until he found a small transparent sack with dark purple liquid inside. Carefully he poked it with the dagger while placing the vial underneath. Once the five milliliter vial was full, he materialized a lid and screwed it on. 

“Uhg, definitely have never dissected something before, but their venom might be useful,” he told her and placed it in his bag.

“I really wish your magic let you create bigger and better things, like clean clothes for starters,” she told him ignoring his disgust. 

“Well I definitely don't disagree with you there.” He told her smiling. “Let's continue.” 

  After walking for only a few minutes,  another of the chubby squirrels appeared. This one was somehow even bigger and slower than average.  

“Can you keep its attention for a moment,  I want to try something?” Adam asked. 

“I guess.” She got its attention on her and lured it around in a circle, a very slow circle. 

  Adam removed the vial from his bag and poured a small amount of the venom on the tip of his shortsword. Then he put the lid back on and returned the vial to his bag. 

“Ok, I'm ready,” he said walking closer to the circling pair. Then poked the squirrel with the blade, pushing just hard enough to wound it and get the venom in its system. Then he backed away to watch the result. 

Damage Inflicted: 5

“I'm no scientist but shouldn't they be immune to their own venom?” She asked him. 

“Possibly, but that might not be the case.” 

Paralysis Inflicted: 20 seconds

Poison Inflicted: -10 hp/s for 20 seconds

  The creature stopped moving, falling to the ground parylized. 

“Guess it's not,” he said smiling. 

  After a few more seconds, the experience notification appeared, signalling its death. 

Experience Recieved: 22

“So it paralyzes and poisons. Scary.” Adam was surprised at its effect.  “But also much less bloody.”

“Ten damage per second over twenty seconds, thats two hundred damage. We would be dead for sure if we got stung.” Adam told Lianna

“I wonder how effective it would be on something larger, and much higher level,” Lianna contemplated. 

“I just hope it isn't too painful,” Adam said quietly. 

  Continuing on, they finally saw their first destination in sight, a small town similar to Enault City in size. They had traveled a few more hours and Adam killed enough of the chubby scorpion squirrels to get to level two. The creatures continued to be slow and plentiful up until an hour before seeing the town. 

  Adam was able to know his first attribute, physical strength. Which was the same as Lianna’s had been at five. He decided to put two points into strength and leave the other four points for later. Just as Lianna had said, each point caused a tingle of energy to flow through his body, more specifically his muscles. He didn't seem to have more muscle, the bit of muscle he did have just felt stronger.  

  He focused less on training his skills for the walk and instead using his mana to create gold coins, using his mana absorption occasionally for as long as he could stand. Which amounted to ten to fifteen minute intervals. It was just too tedious. He managed to reach thirty gold coins in his pouch along with the fifteen silver. 

  The city was apparently similar in size to Enault, but the first thing he noticed was that the large gate and walls were made of stone instead of wood. Which made sense with the sparse amount of trees in the area. There must be a mine nearby for the large quantity of stone to build such a wall. He could see figures moving along the top of the walls as well. 

  Reaching the gate, two guards stood on each side. One guard was significantly shorter and heavily muscled with a large beard coming from his helmet. Both of them wore full metal plate armor. The guard standing beside what he was going to assume was a dwarf, stepped forward and spoke with a commanding feminine voice. 

“What is your purpose in Kettu City? The cost of entry will be two copper each, can you pay that?” she asked them.

“We are just passing through, here to stay for the night and yes we can pay.” Adam handed her a silver coin.  

“You don't have copper?” she asked clearly a little suspicious at someone having silver but no copper.

“We were robbed, but luckily they only got our copper, not knowing we had some silver stashed away,” Lianna spoke up. 

“I see. Very well, here's your six copper. Enjoy your time here in Kettu. I recommend the Kettu Inn, it's to the left there and two streets down,” she said handing over the copper and stepping aside.  

“Thank you. We will take the recommendation.“ Adam said.

  As they walked through the city looking for the mentioned Inn, Adam noticed that all the buildings were also made of stone with wood for the windows and various areas. Though the houses were in decent shape, they still had missing stones in some locations, moss growing in dark areas and clearly not maintained. This town also appeared much more lively, numerous people walking in the streets, chatting with one another.  

  He noticed less starved people living on the streets, though they were there. What appeared much worse here was the number of slaves following their owners around. Very few of the slaves were human. As far as he could tell the majority were what looked like elves, with various colored skin reminding him of different gems. They had pointed ears, with colorful eyes and matching hair. They all stood a foot or more taller than the humans around them even with their slouched postures. 

  They reminded him of the aquamarine coloured lady at the bank. Though he wasn't able to talk with her at the time she clearly was intelligent and he didn't know how anyone could make slaves of them. With the little he knew of this world, he didn't doubt there was also an Elven city somewhere with humans as slaves. It seemed to be a world with many races, where each race made slaves of the others, yet each individual only looked out for themselves, not caring about others no matter the race. Adam gritted his teeth, knowing he couldn't help everyone, and he couldn't just go around buying up slaves to free them. Someone would notice and he would probably end up dead this time. He didn't have the power or any form of influence to prevent it. So he would continue working to get it.

  He knew he wasn't going to be strong, not strong enough for people to fear his strength, especially not anytime soon. So the next best thing was allies. If he could find people who agreed with him and had the strength to change things, he could support them. Money wasn't everything, but it was significant, and could even be the deciding factor to wars. He knew there had to be good people, he had already seen it. He just needed to find these good people who were also strong. If that doesn't work, then he'll make the good people strong, it would just take more time.  

  They found a large two story building with a sign out front depicting what Adam thought looked like the head of a fennec fox. Adam was about to go through the door when a small figure ran past him, grabbing the pouch of silver on the outside of his waist, ripping the loop that kept it attached. Lianna reacted quickly, tripping the thief as he ran past her and snatching the pouch back. 

  It was a young boy that didn't quite look human with slightly pointed ears and a very slight amount of pink to his skin. Not the same as the elves but more like a human with dyed skin. His eyes were a deep blue with long matching hair.

  The boy looked up at them from the ground clearly angry with tears forming. Adam took the silver bag back from Lianna, thanking her. Then tossed a silver to the boy as he finished standing. He was wearing rags for clothes.  

“I'd rather you ask me for money than try to steal it,” he told him. 

“I.. I'm sorry. Asking for money never works,  and … I'm so hungry. You're giving me a whole silver even though I tried to steal from you? I've seen people killed on the spot for stealing from the wrong person,” the boy said, clearly suspicious. 

“How about I do even better. I'm hungry myself. Care to join us for a meal? My treat.” 

  The boy seemed even more surprised. He didn't answer right away, something clearly bothering him. After awhile he finally spoke up. 

“Umm would it be too much to ask... if my sister could come as well?” he said hesitantly

“Your sister? Sure why not.” 

“Umm…” the boy said clearly confused. Trying to figure something out. 

“He means yes. Your sister is more than welcome to join us.” Lianna told him. Then whispered to Adam. “He was probably trying to answer your question of ‘why not?’” 

“Oh. Fudge,” he said to himself before continuing. “Yes, she's welcome. Is she nearby?” 

“Y..yes. I can bring her,” he said about to run off.

“Would you be able to meet us back here in a little while? We would like to do a couple things before going out to eat,” Lianna asked the kid.  

“I can do that.” He answered

“Okay, see you in a bit then,” Adam said with a smile. 

“What do we need to do?” he asked after the kid ran off.

“Don't you think it might be a good idea to clean up and get some new clean clothes before going to eat at a restaurant?” she said gesturing to their blood stained clothes. 

“Oh. Yeah. Good thinking,” he said sheepishly.

  Finding a clothing shop didn't take long, both getting decent clothing this time that had better style and much softer material. Then they checked into the Inn, dropping off their bags and used the public baths available to paying customers. Properly clean, they dressed into their new clothes and headed out front of the Inn. 

“Are you planning something with them?” Lianna asked  

“No. I might ask them some questions, but that's about it. I can hopefully treat a couple kids to a meal without soldiers eventually slaughtering a bunch of people and kidnapping us. I just have to be more discreet with helping.”

“Alright. Well I'm so hungry, and we haven't had much in terms of an actual meal.” 

“Agreed.” 

  The young boy returned with a young girl that looked to be the same age and height as her brother with similar features, following behind.  She had the same bright blue eyes and hair as well that stood out against the pink skin. One main difference was her skin which was less faded looking than her brother's.  

“Welcome back,” he said smiling at the two nervous kids. “Do you have names?” 

“I’m Ceru,” the boy spoke up first, clearly less worried than his sister.  

“My name is Roux,” the girl spoke up after a bit of urging from Ceru. 

“Ok Ceru and Roux, as I don't know this town very well, do either of you know a good place to eat? With lots of food. Though we'll have to make a quick stop first to get you some new clothes as well,” Adam said. 

  Both of them looked at each other smiling before saying the same thing. “Liah’s Restaurant,” clearly excited. 

“Guess it's decided then.” Lianna said smiling. 

  After stopping in at the same clothing store, which didn't take very long as neither of the siblings cared about the style of the new clothes they got, but with some help from Lianna, they both looked much better, though still quite dirty. Lianna picked out a nice stormy grey dress for Roux and a nice pair of pants and shirt to match the theme for Ceru.

  Once out of the store, they were led to a very busy area, the kids easily slipping through the crowd of people going unnoticed. Then having to wait impatiently for Adam and Lianna to catch up. The area was a collection of buildings around a large grassy area with a few trees in the middle. A park. The smell of delicious food filled the air, coming from every direction. They were brought to the largest and only two story building in the area.

  They waited in a small line of finely dressed people just outside the large double doors. Jewelry, frilly dresses and quality fabric worn by them all. He wore a buttoned shirt of soft cotton, plain but for some simple embroidery on the collar and cuff, and straight legged trousers under a black cloak similar to his own except thinner with a silk lining. Lianna seemed uncomfortable yet pretty in her pale green dress that sported little golden buttons on the bodice and sleeves. Both outfits were made up of quality material at the very least, but neither had wanted anything flashy that would draw unwanted attention. 

  Adam saw Lianna staring down the line of people. He looked the way she was facing to see a plump woman sitting in the line upon the back of an Elven man. He was kneeling on his hands and knees, obviously struggling to hold up her significant weight. What frustrated Adam most was that no one in the area paid it any attention, though it was probably not an unusual sight for them.

  Adam and Lianna both turned away, accepting that they shouldn’t do anything. Fifteen minutes later, it was their turn to be led into the restaurant. A well dressed man led them to a small private room with a table in the center, surrounded by finely crafted dark wood chairs with fancy designs carved into them. The table was covered with a black tablecloth with gold stitched edging. They each took a seat, including Ceru and Roux, who received a quickly hidden look of confusion from the waiter.  

“So, Ceru, Roux what would you like?”  Adam asked.

“Meat,” Ceru said with agreement from Roux.

“Meat it is. Three of your finest meat dishes please,” Adam told the waiter. 

“Make that four, and ice cold water as well please.” Lianna added. 

  The waiter nodded and without a word left them alone in the room. 

“So Ceru and Roux, do you have parents?” Lianna spoke up first. 

“No.” Roux said 

 “They died,” Ceru added in. “Killed by monsters outside the city. “

“That's why we never leave the city. It's dangerous” Roux continued. 

“How long have you been in the city without your parents?” Adam asked.

  Ceru looked thoughtful but Roux spoke first.  

“At least two years I think.” 

“You've survived here on your own for over two years?” Lianna asked surprised. 

“No. We did it together.” Ceru told her. 

“Mind if I ask if you are Elves?” Adam couldn't help his curiosity. 

“Yes, and human. Both.  Dad was human and mom was Elf, they said we were both.” Roux said happily. 

“Very nice. So I take it if you have been here awhile, you know the city pretty well?” Adam asked. 

“Most of it, ya,” Ceru answered. 

“We won't be in the city long but have a few things we could use. Would you mind showing us where to go? We'll pay you well,” Adam smiled to them both.  

“Okay!” they both said together. 

  Adam and Lianna continued to chat with them, asking questions until the door opened, and the waiter returned with their meals. Each plate contained an assortment of meat, each with its own sauce or flavoring. A sizable portion of some kind of yellow mashed vegetables and a few small portions of tiny vegetables accompanied the dishes. 

  After a plate was placed in front of each of them, four metal cups with intricate designs in them were placed in the center of the table with a large jug of water with similar designs on it. There were no ice cubes inside but the water looked on the verge of freezing as a cold mist emanated from the top of the jug. 

  The waiter placed a knife and what was essentially a fork, with two prongs beside their plates then retreated out the door again. The waiter barely had time to leave before the siblings each had a chunk if meat in their hands, held by the bone protruding from it. 

  No more talking occurred while they each enjoyed their meal to its fullest. Adam finished everything on his plate, having loved each bite of the three different types of meat that he had never had before. He enjoyed the yellow mashed vegetables that had a sweetness to it. The small assortment of vegetables were slightly acidic and sour like a lemon, which he wasn't keen on but ate them anyway.

  Giving the waiter a gold coin, he returned with eighty silver in change. Leaving a tip on the table of four silver, they took their leave from the restaurant. They left full and satisfied, especially Ceru and Roux, who had devoured their meals in half the time he had. 

  The siblings had agreed to take them to the best place to buy weapons and armour. Adam was excited, since the description they gave, some of the armour and weapons they saw leaving the shop had a glow to them. Adam and Lianna both couldn't help hoping that it was enchanted or some kind of magical weapons and armour.