Brandon checked body for injuries. Leveling up seemed to heal minor injuries, but he was not sure to what extent it healed. He dusted himself off from the fall, paying careful attention to getting the dirt out of his hair. I need to make more soap. I only had one bar in my bag but it is almost gone from us using it this week. We haven’t cleaned the ashes so that's fine, I just need a container to store and cook fat.
Brandon began walking around the camp and seeing what he could find while the others came down. His mana sight allowed a much broader range of vision than what he had from his eyes but less detail. He was grateful for this because it prevented him from being sick. It was not the first, not even the fifth dead body he had seen. Brandon was an engineer, he chose not to be a doctor for only one reason: he felt responsible for the deaths of those around him.
Brandon’s chest was tight, his heartbeat loud in his ears, and his mind was having trouble focusing. We could have saved them. These bodies were fresh and though he had never known the people now lying here dead, he felt the weight of having been in a position of helping them. If only he had explored earlier, if only they came here yesterday. As he paced the camp, not listening to the conversations of his companions, he saw a shovel in his mana sight. There were 10 bodies, two full parties. He needed to bury them.
“Hey Thysse,” He looked over at the group of his allies and saw them all staring at him. “What?” Brandon asked. They looked concerned.
“Have you heard anything we’ve said?” Asked Jade.
At almost the same moment, “Are you okay?” left Mia’s mouth.
“Uh, I uh, yeah, I’m good, but no. I’m sorry, I wasn’t listening. I was looking around the camp. We need to bury them and uh, sorry. I don’t know. Seeing the way they were cut apart and killed, even violated, it’s hard. You shouldn’t look if you can avoid it.” He cringed saying it, but he couldn’t avoid seeing. “I want to bury them and maybe take some equipment or tools they have before we head back to camp.” Brandon held up the shovel he had grabbed while they were talking as he finished.
“Yeah man, I’ll help. My rake isn’t as good as a shovel but I can help you move the dirt.”
Mia came up to Brandon and put her hand on his shoulder. “Are you sure you’re okay? You seem off Brandon.”
“I am, it’s just… We could have saved them Mia. If we came yesterday-”
Mia cut him off with a hug. Mia hadn’t been the type to show much affection, if any so he was really surprised to feel her embrace him. “It isn’t your fault. You didn’t know and we couldn’t have come yesterday.” Brandon tried to speak but she squeezed him and spoke over him. “You almost died Brandon. Yesterday you didn’t even have all of your weapons, how would you have killed that hobgoblin then? Huh?” She squeezed him again and let go after. “Thank you for saving me, but don’t blame yourself for this.” She gestured at the camp around them. Brandon saw her blinking her eyes to avoid tears as she looked around.
“Thank you Mia. I mean it, thank you.”
For the next several hours, Brandon, Thysse, and Jade dug the people who had died here, one large grave. Jade had found another shovel and come to help while looking in the camp. Jade and Thysse were cracking jokes together and eventually Brandon joined them. It helped the work go faster but he couldn’t forget the scene at the camp because it was still in his sight unlike theirs.
They dug a large hole around six feet deep and twelve across. Brandon then moved all of the bodies into the hole with the help of Thysse and they covered them up. With the dirt. They burned the bodies of the goblins and then all sat together back at the top of the hill.
Mia had found some food as well as a couple of knives. They salvaged the armor off of the hobgoblin, they may be able to use the metal for things. One of the more noteworthy things they gathered were the halberd and the javelins from the hobgoblin.
[Crushing Halberd (Uncommon)]
+5 piercing damage
+8 bludgeoning damage
Durability:270/300
[World Tree Javelin (Rare)]
+10 piercing damage
+5 poison damage
Applies poison of a dying world tree.
This Javelin is created from the branches of a world tree long ago passed and dipped in the sap that leaked out as the tree died.
There were 4 javelins in total, Jade and Dylan both took two. Thysse had apparently chosen an ability already called thorn javelin which allowed him to conjure thorns of plants he had grown and shoot them at high speeds. He had realized the need for a ranged option during the previous fight. Mia and Jade had picked skills too. Mia had gotten a skill called magic missile. It was a rare skill that created mana bolts that tracked targets. She could create multiple at once as well. Jade had gained a skill known as weapon versatility. It increased the speed she became proficient with weapons and increased the damage of all weapons. The effect was weaker than Brandon’s swordsmanship skill, but the broad scope was staggering. It applied to all weapons from melee to ranged. Because of this skill, she took the halberd as well as her Javelins.
Dylan was still choosing his skill , and Brandon thought he knew what he would pick but had not fully decided as some of his other skills had also leveled up and he wanted to check them first. Overall the biggest gains were the skills, but Brandon considered the pot and the cast iron pan they had found from the camp to be just as important for their survival. Who knew if diseases would be cured by leveling up.
In the end after some discussion, Dylan chose the skill charge, it would let him charge forwards at high speeds and thrust with his weapon to deal massive damage. It made him even more specialized but he thought it was his best option. Before they walked back, Brandon decided to look over his own skills.
[Field medicine (uncommon)]
Level: 1
Your knowledge of field medicine allows you to recover the target’s health by 5% when performing field medicine on them. Wounds treated by you have a lower chance of being infected.
[Basic Swordsmanship (common)]
Lvl. 2
You have some knowledge of basic swordsmanship.
+10% damage with sword type weapons.
Your body has acquired knowledge of vertical cuts, horizontal cuts, and thrusts.
It was a strange sensation to suddenly have a feeling of knowledge. Brandon had used a sword before but was by no means a practiced swordsman.
[Mana Sight (uncommon)]
Level: 3
Your knowledge of mana has grown for you to be able to sense your own mana and mana in the environment. You have learned to see with mana, you can detect mana in all directions and feel the mana of other beings, not just your own and the environment.
[Basic Telekinesis (rare)]
Level: 2
Your knowledge of mana has grown for you to be able to control it outside of your own body.
This control enables you to manipulate objects in the environment by infusing mana into them.
This skill enables your telekinesis to be more powerful and cost efficient.
[Skill: Arc Slash level 2 (Uncommon)]
Channel your mana into a blade infused with your mana to overload it.
Slash with this overloaded sword to create a short ranged arc of mana that slashes opponents in front of you. Damage and range are based off the damage of the weapon and amount of mana used. Your mastery over Arc Slash has increased and now costs less mana and does more damage.
[Skill: Sword Manipulation level 2 (Rare)]
You may more easily and efficiently manipulate swords you have infused with your mana. This skill is passive and makes infusing and manipulating infused swords much easier. Allows rudimentary telekinesis with sword type weapons.
His skills were both narrow and broad. He had no true melee skills, and his skill options only had two as choices. He didn’t care for lunge. He was already capable of fast infusion, mana bolt, and infused blade, but not on the level the skills would take him to. Being a battle smith was definitely interesting, but he didn’t have a crafting class yet and what if he got stuck with alchemy or being a bowyer. If he could wait to choose he might have, but instead, he took [infused blade]. It may make it cheaper and more powerful. Hopefully he could also gain more insights on mana from the skill.
Once he had chosen a skill and they had rested some, it was evening. The light hadn’t started to fade but it would soon and they wanted to be back at camp when it started. Brandon led them back as they had come. The map feature of the system was invaluable, but he would have made it back anyway. The tree at The Hedge would be hard to miss.
As they approached The Hedge, just getting into the clearing around it, they saw another group of four people approaching their temporary home.
“Hey!” Brandon shouted, waving to them. “Who are you?”
The group who had approached The Hedge drew their weapons and turned on them as they approached. A gruff looking man, with an angry red scar across his face, obviously fresh, spoke. “And who the bloody hell are you bitches?”
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Brandon also drew one of his swords. “We asked you first. You’re the one approaching our home while we aren’t there.”
Brandon and his party were fairly rapidly closing the distance. It wasn’t a run or even a jog, but they were walking quickly and their stats were helping boost them along.
“I don’t care who asked first, you better bloody well back off idiot.” The man spit towards Brandon.
Brandon held up his hand to stop his party just about thirty feet away from them. “Listen man, I don’t want a fight, but that is where we are living. We need you to back off and we can talk about it.”
“Whatchu mean? This is our lot now, shove off. See, Davey is already inside.” Another man stuck his head out of their entrance and gave them the finger. He was fat and bald, looking very sweaty as he hid around the corner of the vines.
“Brandon,” Thysse whispered in his ear, “It's not worth it. We can set up somewhere else.”
“Maybe but did you see what happened to that other party? We have clean water and relative safety here.”
As they discussed among themselves, so did the opposing party. Before Brandon had a chance to speak. The scarred man spoke again. “Matta o’ fact. Those look like our weapons too, don’t they boys?”
“Absolutely not.” Brandon stood up straight and sheathed his thorn blade, drawing his mist steel sword. He may have been willing to give up The Hedge if they had to, but he would not give up their weapons. The rest of his party also drew their weapons.
“Boys, leave the ladies alive. We’ll take- Aaaarrggh.” The man’s voice was cut off as a flash of white crossed his face directly across his scar. A sword followed right behind Mia’s quartz bolt, burying itself up to the hilt in the mans head. Blood squirted around the blade as he fell back onto the ground and the rest of his party started screaming and ran at them. It didn’t seem like any of them had any ranged abilities, Thysse’s thorns pierced the man charging out of The Hedge, and Mia finished off another on the right. Jade and Dylan had their weapons drawn, ready for whatever happened. Brandon charged up an arc slash and cut through one of the two in the center before they reached him. By the time the parties collided, only one man remained.
The man slashed at Brandon with a club, trying to smash his head in. Based on his speed and apparent strength, Brandon knew the man was much lower level than they were. Brandon reached out and caught his club. He was going to spare one to find out more information, but before he could dispatch of him and restrain him for questioning, a javelin went through his head, further splattering Brandon with blood.
Brandon sighed. Looking at the notifications, none of these men were above level 3. Most of them in fact were still level two. Damnit. I didn’t want to kill them. I wish they’d just left us alone. “I’m sorry you guys had to experience that. Mia, can you burn their bodies over on the far side of the clearing from the stream? I’ll carry the bodies over.”
“I’ll help.” Said Thysse solemnly.
“Are you okay?” Mia came up to Brandon and put her hand on his arm, making him look at her. Her brown eyes almost glowed in the fading light, piercing through him.
“I am fine, really. Those weren’t humans. They were monsters trying to kill us just for coming home, worse if they could manage it. Are you okay?” He put a heavy emphasis on the word you.
Mia looked away and said, “Yeah, I think so at least.” She said it very quietly. This time, it was Brandon’s turn to help comfort her. Brandon gently put his arms around her. He breathed slowly as he gave her a hug, trying to let the slower breaths help calm her down as she matched it. It was hard to take deep breaths like that when they both smelled of dirt, sweat, and blood, but the hug helped calm them both. She was warm and though she was small, she was more well muscled than him. They broke apart when Dylan coughed to get their attention. Brandon saw Jade and Thysse doing the same with his mana sight.
They dragged the bodies to the edge of the clearing and set them ablaze. Mia and Brandon used dirt and magic to keep the fire contained. The smell was horrendous. Brandon stood there though. He knew he would have to kill someone someday, but he expected an epic struggle between him and someone equally skilled. He expected to feel guilt, rage, and more. All he felt was disgust and pity.
They had not fought an epic encounter, he didn’t even know their names, but they did deserve what happened. They wished to kill him and his friends, do worse to Jade and Mia. He was almost glad they were dead. It was not what he expected to feel. He felt pity for the slaughter but was disgusted by their existence and glad they were dead. Even with the rancid smell, he smiled.
This was his duality he supposed. He found the thought amusing but also telling. I am not a murderer, I am glad because we survived. I would not have killed them except to defend myself. The fact remains I am glad. I was upset seeing men and women I had never met killed by goblins, but these men, killed by me and my friends, I am glad about. Glad and enraged by death, good and evil, no matter how you see it, it shows, I am not as normal as I thought. Maybe it is weird I have been so calm about all of this.
Hours later, They were all sitting around talking, eating roast deer. They needed to hunt again tomorrow. “Oh!” Brandon spoke, “Guys, go check your rewards from earlier!”
Brandon opened his menu and claimed his random supply box and random item box He also claimed the 5 silver and 7 copper from killing a named monster. The boxes materialized in front of him, they were both steel banded wooden chests. Neither had a lock on them. More importantly, on claiming the silver and copper, he got a new notification. Ding!
[You have unlocked the Store tab now. Congratulations!]
Brandon looked to where his smaller boxes such as inventory were in his vision and opened up the new one that looked like a money bag. This screen, much like the rest, had the normal window look but was divided into 4. There was a search function at the top, a window on the right with all of the information on selected items. A window on the left to scroll through the items, and a window at the bottom which would let him sort through different categories.
A window popped up in front of all of these momentarily after he first opened it.
[Welcome to the store! This store is only available in the tutorial. The currencies in the tutorial are based on your own world’s ideas and genre chosen to adapt you to the system and are not valid outside of the tutorial. Spend them while you can. You may also buy and sell items with other players via the store.]
Brandon sorted through the store for a while, finding items and curiosities. He looked for food and found it plentiful and cheap. He bought 5 pieces of bread for a copper each. They were buttered dinner rolls and appeared on a napkin in front of where he was sitting when he bought them. They appeared one at a time and in a row. He passed them out and explained the store as he kept looking. He sorted by 1 handed swords. There were sixteen current swords for sale, and he looked at each. The first six were worse than his thorn swords. The rest were worse than his Mist Steel Sword except the top two.
[Quartz Edge (Rare) - 10 Gold]
+15 slashing damage
+5 piercing damage
+10 light elemental damage
Durability:1000/1000
A single edged dueling blade grown from a single living quartz crystal. The blade is enchanted with a blessing of light. A blue glow emanates from inside the blade, appearing as a bar of solid blue light that radiates out from the clear blade.
[Stormsteel Blade (Epic) - 25 Gold and 1 Mist Steel Sword]
+15 slashing damage
+15 piercing damage
+10 lightning elemental damage
+5 water elemental damage
+5 wind elemental damage
Durability:1500/1500
Mist-Steel swords are created by using magic to turn steel into a mist and condensing it. Infusing this blade with magic can help to reshape the blade. The ability to change the shape of the blade at will and repair it with just mana made Mist-Steel swords the pinnacle of technology for eons. One day, a Mist-Steel sword was used to slay a lightning elemental in a storm. The blade was left there, presumably destroyed. Instead it morphed into stormsteel. Lightning makes up the edge of this blade and it is stronger even than mist steel but keeps its other properties.
Once Brandon had noted the weapons in the shop, Brandon closed it and went to the Bonebreaker Armor. He transferred it to Thysse.
[Bonebreaker Armor (Rare)]
Level 1 slashing resistance.
+ 10 endurance
+8 physical armor.
+8 Magical armor
Increases blunt damage done by weapons by 3
Durability: 681/1000
Armor worn by Karigan, the Bonebreaker. This armor increases one's ability to break bones much as its namesake did in life.
It’s good, but I already have the Marelith Trainee’s Shirt and Thysse has no armor. He is also a frontline fighter with me.
“Hey thanks man! This’ll work great with my rake! I appreciate you.” Thysse called over to him.
Next, Brandon opened his random supply box. Inside of it were three paper wrapped packages. He could tell what they were without opening them but he opened them anyway. He pulled out the three items to show everyone else. He had a large soup pot, a sauce pan, and a metal grate with feet below it so that the pot and pan could sit on top of it over a fire.
“Guys, I can make more soap in the pot! And we can make different kinds of food!”
There was a general excitement about the items in his box but more so because of the food than soap.
Next, Brandon opened his random item box and what was in it made him pause, It was a belt with a small pouch hanging off the side. The belt was black but with patches of what appeared to be blue or purple powder and dots of white. When he lifted it up, he saw the material seem to shift and with a clearer view, he saw it was stars. Galaxies and nebulas were stored within. The leather feeling material. It was not a look any material on earth could have. As soon as he touched the belt, he got a notification before he even saw what the belt was. Ding!
[You have successfully soulbound an item! This item cannot be accessed by anyone but you and will follow you after death, disappearing with your soul and following where it goes. A soul storage is unique and unlike other spatial storages cannot be stolen. The size of the storage will increase with the size of the soul and take on its properties. Items stored in a spatial storage are stored in their current state, from temperature to energy. Living things cannot be stored in a regular storage. May your soul grow in strength. Your name is known by the system, Brandon.]
[Brandon’s Soul Storage (Unique)]
Reach into the pouch on the belt to access what is inside, there is a 5 meter cube inside. Items stored in your soul storage or in a normal spatial storage will be available in your inventory. You may touch items larger than the pouch with the open end and they can be sucked in if there is room.Current Properties: None
Current size: 125 meters cubed.
This must be the spatial storage the old man mentioned. This will be really useful, especially since it works with my inventory.
Brandon tested the storage with a few of his items and in a few different ways. The first thing he did was unequip his swords via his inventory menu. They vanished off of his body immediately and showed up in his inventory screen in a new section labeled Brandon’s Soul Storage. He tried equipping them again and they went back to where they had been when he had last had them equipped.
Next he began putting away their food and the backpack he had. The food stayed warm and steaming after he pulled it out, and the backpack was interesting in another way. In the inventory screen it showed just the backpack which had its own expandable inventory screen as well.
The rest of the night was spent chatting around the fire together with everyone showing off their new items. It turned out everyone got a spatial storage from their item box. Mia got a box of crystals from her resources. Most were large salt crystals with a few quartz, and a sapphire. The salt turned her mana bolt into almost a shotgun blast of smaller bolts, and the secondary effect could be used to remove moisture from things. The sapphire was a bolt of water and could be used to pour out fresh, clean water. It eliminated their need for water filters almost entirely.
Thysse got a new set of gardening tools, pruners, shears, and a gardening spade. Jade got feminine hygiene products and had enough that she was willing to share with Mia as well. Dylan received three sets of running shoes which he would definitely use with his abilities.