Lanek promptly shut down the notifications, he couldn’t be distracted right now. He wanted to head west for an hour before veering south to get back to his camp. That route should keep the gaunts from following him to his camp. If it doesn’t I’m screwed.
As he leapt through the trees he came to a river cutting through the forest. Now, normally he would have dropped to the ground, crossed the river, and then continued on. However, he was feeling particularly exhilarated from his parkour skill, to the point where he felt the urge to yell “parkour” every time he did something acrobatic. Instead of yelling and drawing attention to himself, Lanek launched himself from the last tree before the river and launched his chain whip while midair toward a tree on the opposite side.
For a brief moment the rational part of his mind was yelling at him, telling him it was too far to jump and that the whip wasn’t going to help. That part of his mind had a quick change of heart and whooped in excitement when Sanguineus’ blade entered the tree trunk and stuck long enough to allow Lanek to jerk himself forward in the air before coming free and back into his hand. The boost in forward momentum allowed Lanek to soar past the tree he had aimed for and land on a tree branch a few meters past his target.
Holy shit! I wonder if I can get the whip to coil around something and swing across like in the movies, that would be awesome! Hell, at this point I want a grappling hook, too.
The rest of Lanek’s return to camp proved uneventful. He only stopped along the way to forage for more berries and nuts, feeling too tired to catch, clean, and cook a fish. On his return to camp, he settled down before starting a fire and pulling up his notifications. He gasped at the notifications, he hadn’t expected to do that much damage.
You have defeated Lesser Gaunt (lvl 7) x6.
You have defeated Gaunt (lvl 12) x3.
You have defeated Gaunt Charger (lvl 14) x2.
You have defeated Gaunt Impaler (lvl 10) x5.
You have defeated Gaunt Glider (lvl 12) x4.
Congratulations, you have leveled up!
Soulbinder lvl 10 → lvl 15
Rogue lvl 1 → lvl 5
Twenty gaunts?! How strong were those explosions?! Maybe they were already injured from a previous fight or were just packed way too close together. No wonder it costs so much mana. My mana hasn’t gone up at all since I fired those off either, so it’s not something I can use continuously. Shame.
With a thought, Lanek brought up his stat screen. Let’s see where I’m at now.
Name Lanek Solvinsson Species Human (Transmigrated) Class Soulbinder (Mythical) lvl 15 Subclass Rogue (Uncommon) lvl 5 Titles Disciple of the Void, Ally of the Wild HP 350/350 MP 10/70
Attributes
STR 29 CON 70 DEX 76 PER 38 RES 69 SPI 14
Ah, that’s good to know. The System only distributes points from classes and titles when my main class levels up, not all of my class level ups.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
Lanek also noticed that his chain whip proficiency had jumped to level 5. Thinking about it for a moment, he reasoned that it had come from the fight with the corpse weaver. He remembered falling into a rhythm and feeling his attacks become smoother and more refined.
He pulled up his companion information, noting that neither of them had leveled up. They must not get a share of the experience if they are recuperating. We’re going to have to do something about that.
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The following day, Lanek felt a pulse from Sanguineus. Smiling, he summoned the wolf from his vessel only to be tackled by the rambunctious beast that then proceeded to cover his face in licks. He scratched the wolf’s ears and sighed. He still hadn’t felt anything from Kazuma since the battle, he had clearly taken far more damage than the wolf.
After welcoming the wolf back, he sent Sanguineus off to feed himself and burn off some energy. The blood wolf had come down with a serious case of cabin fever during his recovery and he didn’t hesitate to bolt into the forest.
Shrugging, Lanek turned his attention to today’s task. He was getting quite sick of feeling exposed at night, so today was going to be door day. After gathering numerous branches, he proceeded to spend several hours weaving them together until he had a large enough panel that he could pull behind himself when he entered the cave. While the panel wouldn’t do anything against monsters, it wasn’t really meant to be a defensive measure, remaining hidden would be his primary defense. Instead, the “door” was simply there to give him peace of mind and protect him from the elements.
While deciding on what he should do next, he pulled up his skills. It had been a while since he checked on his skill progress. [Bushcraft], [Woodcutting], and [Fishing] were all at level five now. I thought fishing was getting easier, but I just assumed it was from getting better with my chain whip.
After some consideration, he decided to alter his plans a bit. While he would have loved to create a fireplace and wall around the cave entrance, the wandering gaunts and goblins made him discard that idea. The more he changed the landscape around his camp the more likely it would be that someone would discover him. Loathe as he was to admit it, surviving outside of Caelis may be more difficult than he anticipated.
Should I try to link up with the Night Arrows? They may not be outright hostile, but that doesn’t mean they would welcome me into their camp. I could make a go at living in Caelis, but I don’t know if the dungeon would still be able to track me even without that light orb.
Maybe I could make a network of camps and move every couple of days? No, that is way too much work for too little benefit. Hell, look how much work this camp took and the cave provided the structure. Pretty sure there aren’t going to be caves all over this forest, so I would have to build camps from scratch. Nah, not happening.
Lanek thought about ranging even further afield, maybe leaving the forest and Caelis far behind him. While not a bad plan, Lanek reasoned that the dungeon’s resources would be invaluable in the future and really didn’t want to give up on his one advantage, no matter how dangerous that advantage would be.
Regardless, he felt severely under-equipped at the moment and the dungeon was still his best bet for getting geared up. After trying to make some sense of his situation and formulate a plan, he found himself developing a massive headache and chose to call it a night. Whistling at Sanguineus, he pulled the makeshift door closed behind him and crawled into bed. Moments later, a weight landed atop his legs as Sanguineus made himself comfortable.
Well, that’s one less thing to worry about. I won’t have to worry about the cold with this furball around.
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An incessant pulsing woke Lanek up in the morning. He panicked for a moment, his tired mind thinking that it was Sanguineus trying to warn him, but the wolf was still snoozing away. His mind cleared enough after a few seconds to recognize what it was, Kazuma was ready to come back out. More than ready judging from the pulses.
The mist cat materialized in the middle of the cave, chuffing at Lanek in disapproval for making him wait. This annoyance only lasted a moment before Kazuma gave Sanguineus a lick and began rubbing his head all over Lanek’s face.
“I missed you, too.” Lanek choked out, hugging the cat to him. At this point, the wolf had awoken and was exuberantly joining in on what he clearly thought was a cuddle session. Calming them down, Lanek extricated himself from the bed and started up the fire. Kazuma chuffed at Lanek before darting into the forest, clearly hunting. When the cat returned half an hour later, he dropped two rabbits and a pheasant on the ground.
The cat promptly began eating the pheasant uncooked while Sanguineus claimed a raw rabbit. “Savages, the both of you.” Lanek mock-scolded while preparing his rabbit for the fire. After all three had finished their meal, Lanek looked at his two companions.
“Now that you are both here, I need to tell you something. That whole clusterfuck with the corpse weaver was my fault and I am so very sorry that you two got so badly hurt because of my decisions. I don’t ever want to see you to like that again, so I have some things I want to try with you.” Both animals crept closer and nuzzled him, causing him to choke up at their obvious forgiveness.
“Okay, let’s get to work then.”