There were messages to read but most weren’t good.
Congratulations! You have gained a feat.
Window to your soul: You have seen your soul in some manner.
Can more easily see and access your soul.
Mind Melt stage 4:
Permanent loss of -3 intelligence
Time remaining: 0 seconds
Soul Rend stage 3: Your soul has been heavily damaged.
Permanent loss of -1 to all stats
Xane was mortified to see the loss in stats“That hurts to see”. He almost cried just by the sight.
He told Lyenn, “It's not that bad in the grand scheme your stats are insanely high. Still gotta hurt though. I feel for you. Also when it says permanent it is permanent. I think very high level healers in those fields can get rid of that.”
“Really? We should go see some then.” Xane got up to regain his stats just to fall over. He for some reason couldn’t walk…just flop.
“I think we are going to be bedridden for a bit more.” Xane sighed dejected, lying on the floor till someone found him.
He looked over the last of his messages.
Warning! Your mind, body, and soul are not fully linked together.
“That would have fucking helped to know.” he mumbled into the floor.
Turns out no one came. The good news was that it only took 3 hours for him to pick himself up enough to lay back down. Another 4 hours to feel well enough to try walking again. Why did he have to try doing this alone? He had told himself it was so he wouldn’t disappoint his friends if it didn’t work. He could yell for help but decided against it. Why not surprise them.
He started to shakily start walking down the stairs. To his surprise there was no one around. Not even Dav’ip was behind the bar. “Hey everyone I’m back! Anyone?”
“Maybe they all mysteriously disappeared and you are now the only one left in the entire city?”
“I’d have you at least.” Xane shocked himself with the genuineness of that statement. It was supposed to be an off handed joke.
“I…I’ll be here for you. Until we get my body back of course. Now lets see what is going on.
Leaving the establishment he found people funneling themselves to the town square. At least the quadrant square. There the two saw was someone talking loudly. “We need to act. As people of this world the threat has been getting worse and worse. Zakor has acted primarily as support in the war. THIS ENDS NOW.” Xane found Calrin leaning against a wall of a nearby building. With him were his brother, Huntress, and Hatchet.
Hatchet had noticed them, “Hey Lyenn, listen to this nutjob.”
The man on the boxes went on, “News has come in that now the Island of Iron has sided with the orcs and minotaurs in their conquest of Torgota.”
This was interesting information. Wait, thee island of iron? The place we are going to be attacking soon?
“I hope not. This could be bad” Lyenn answered.
No, this is good. I bet with them attacking their base of operations is less guarded. We should attack soon, Xane said convincingly.
“I don’t know. Let's just see what this guy has to say.”
“-They have a new leader. The Goddess of the Ocean herself. She wields oceans to destroy the beach towns. We can’t back out now. Reports say they have their sights on Zakor next. The barbarians want this entire continent for themselves. We can’t let them do whatever they want. We have pushed them back before a hundred years ago and we will do it again. Do what you can in these times.” A few guards were walking up to the man. They had their weapons holstered with hands ready. “See now they want to silence me for speaking the truth. We need to do more.”
The guards were talking to the man and he got down and just followed them without another word spoken.
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
“That was interesting.” Xane mused. “Also this kinda ruins my whole thing but hey guys I’m back.”
They turned to Xane suspicious. “Lyenn this isn’t funny.”
“No, I mean it, it’s really me Xane.” As he was saying this Calrin got him in a big bear hug nearly crushing him. “You can let go now.” He tried to say.
After more personal time with them it turned into a more somber mood. “I will be leaving to go after who is masquerading as Lyenn. I can’t keep pushing back on this. So I will be grinding my last few levels and leaving right after.
“We have also been talking. We’ve decided to help you.” Calrin said, downing his mug.
“You don’t have too. This is mine-ok it's Lyenn’s fight, but it’s our fight not yours.” Xane did want their help but would rather them stay back than die trying.
Calrin gave his signature smile. “We also have taken a bounty to report on that sea witch. We were going to be informing you two in a few days when it was finalized it. 2,500 for knowledge and a 160,000 head bounty. They don’t believe it's the true god so I couldn’t argue a higher price. But 60k is still a lot. The last Lord of Iron was only 90,000k bounty.”
“Wait we-”
“I know we can’t give the head so we aren’t actually going to be able to complete it. But I think that with the system prompt saying we killed her it might just work.”
Calrin had done it again. He’d found yet another way to earn money by doing the thing he was already going to be doing.
“In that case it's settled. We get me to my class and leave.”
“We will need to charter a ship and crew willing enough to sail those waters.”
It was Xane’s turn to grin. “Don’t worry I have that covered.”
Xane missed montages. He truly wished that he could just play music and have a few scenes of him doing shit and coming out at the end jacked. Sadly it took another 2 weeks of constant fighting. They had decided really high level creatures were the best bet.
There just so happened to be many contracts out for rather large fluffy creatures. The fights all in all netted them another 4k in gold each. That was just in bounties. The bodies themselves selling for a good amount more. What was more important was the level ups.
Congratulations! You have gained 5 levels. You are now level 24.
He had 30 points to distribute. He shoved 15 into intelligence and 15 into dexterity. If he was right, the class he assumed he was going to be getting will cater to those two stats. He was done with splitting his stats up. If need be he would find or make magical items to bulk up those stats.
Lyenn had told him that getting his last level solo and fighting a much more powerful creature tended to have a better outcome. This is why he found himself alone going after not another bunny but something that was called a Bleak Bear. A massive 20 ft tall bear while standing. There were reports of one having taken up residence in the area. It was level 49 if the missive was accurate. He had been going in its direction as they slaughtered creatures in their wake. Now that he was here and alone he was thinking better of it.
Are you sure it's really that important to do this?
“Yes for two reasons. If it happens to be an even higher level then you should be able to get the better version of the level disparity feat. And it should boost your chances by a large amount for your class choices. Trust me this is a good idea.”
Ok ok fine we will do this. Xane snuck further into the rocky terrain. Xane had bought a new hat finally. It was one finely enchanted by Warren.
Corsair’s Shot(Rare)(Enchanted)(Great)
This tricorn has been lovingly crafted by Tannis and expertly enchanted by Warren. Gives bonuses to long range weapons.
+25% accuracy of ranged weapons
+19% damage of ranged weapons
+31% max range of ranged weapons.
Xane planned on also running the piece later when he was better at it. But as is it was his best item besides his ring. It did cost him a large fortune. Xane seemed to be ‘lucky’ in the way that the original owner of items seems to disappear just in time for Xane to buy said item at a much higher price. His luck stat was working over time.
He also bought a coak that would increase his stealth by a small 11%. But he would take it.
Xane used his x-ray to try and peer through the stone hoping to find the cave entrance before he ran into it. The missive said that the bleak bear was inside a cavern. The bears usually didn’t hibernate like usual bears instead killing on mass constantly. They did have a special ability that let them quickly consume food while resting to massively boost their healing allowing them to quickly get back to the slaughter.
Xane watched as the stone wall he was following from the tree line started to open up. He had found it. Walking closer he noticed that there were rabbits strewn about. Fur and bones. No wonder the thing was able to level so fast. It was killing the big game as well. A rock moved inside and Xane stopped moving. Wait, that isn’t a rock. It was the leg of the claw of the creature. It was bigger than it was supposed to be. Much bigger. Xane slowly backed away and risked the inspect.
Bleak Bear
Level: 55
Stats:
Strength: 271
Constitution: 260
Endurance: 227
Information: Bleak bears are known for their ferocity and territorial nature. As in the entire world is their territory. Dumb for their stats they blindly attack anything they come across be it a worthy foe or not. Beware their tough skin and even tougher skulls.
Things above 45 were usually a death sentence for a single level 30 with a class already. A good class could possibly defeat the creature. At level 30 or lower. However levels only got farther and farther apart in power. The same level 30 would have trouble with a level 48-50. Anything higher needing more people. This didn’t account for items just raw strength.
Creatures however gained levels through killing like a human. They however didn’t get skills, or professions. They got abilities. As well as the ability to consume things to absorb their latent energies to then grow in power. For this level 55 to have such high stats it had to have eaten a lot of rabbit.
Xane was thinking this over as he backed up. And then tripped on something. It was merely a stumble. Just a stumble broke his stealth. The bear was starting to move. “Well fuck us then.”
It's not over yet.
Xane braced himself and fired.