Tobias used the skill book. He then opened his stats panel. It was frightening to see how much his mouth widened.

He told me all the information.

[STATS]

- Name: Tobias Berg

- Level: 1

- Health: 100/100 (10/min)

- Mana: 100/100 (10/min)

————

- Strength: 13

- Dexterity: 12

- Vitality: 10

- Wisdom: 10

- Available stat points: 0

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Talents:

- Eagle eyes

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Skills:

- Camouflage (E) [0]

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[Eagle Eyes]

- Enhance accuracy with ranged weapons and allows the user to see over greater distances.

[Camouflage]

- Grants the ability to blend into the surroundings, making the character harder to detect.

- Grade: E

- Proficiency: 0

- Mana cost: 5 Mana / Second

His talent and skill had some synergism. I didn't know if it would immediately prove useful, considering we were in a forest with a single melee weapon.

"Go back to the plains and practice your skill for a while. I'll go kill some monsters to bring you Mana crystals."

"What? Those are expensive. I don't want to use your resources like that!"

"It's fine. These are sure to become common items soon. I also don't have any need for them right now. In fact, it's better for me if you can raise your levels and skills. Having a stronger official in town would make me worry less."

He hesitantly obliged. He activated his skill as he was walking back. I could see his body change in mysterious ways. It's like the light interacted with him differently. The figure of him walking ahead appeared hazy, as if my vision was playing tricks on me. Despite not being completely hidden from my view, there was potential to enhance its effectiveness, especially over longer distances. I switched my attention to grinding.

My speed has increased. I now had a speed of around 20 meters a second. My proficiency was at 75 before I entered the dungeon. I still had 5 points I hadn't assigned yet, but I wanted to wait until the next dungeon.

I had spent an hour aggressively hunting goblins. Not even once did I level up, rendering these goblins useless to me.

I'll head back now. These crystals should help Tobias train faster.

Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

[INVENTORY]

- Crude dagger (F) – 14

- Crude Club (F) – 8

- Low-Grade Mana Crystal (F) – 35

My hunting efficiency had gone up significantly, I checked my skill as well.

[Incorporate Lightning]

- Fills your body with the power of lightning, letting the user control it to their wishes.

- Grade: D

- Proficiency: 79

- Mana cost: 2.1 Mana / Second

Just 79?? I spent an hour here with more kills than before. Does skill gain also have a condition? I need to find a new dungeon.

With a sullen expression, I headed back.

I saw Tobias sitting in the middle of the plains; he seemed to wait for Mana regeneration.

"Hey! I got a delivery for you!"

Tobias snapped his head to me in surprise. When he saw me, he gave his signature wide smile again.

"Hehe.. Back already? I raised my skill proficiency to 4!" he said smugly..

I stood there stunned, dropping my joking attitude. Tobias interjected.

"Hey what's wrong? Are you really that surprised? It shouldn't be that amazing!"

For the time being, I would keep my opinions of it to myself. The name Hyper-Learning suddenly made sense to me. It was a mistake to underestimate the part that said hyper. I thought back to me using it for its full duration once, increasing the proficiency by 3 in one go. That was me half-heartedly training with it. Add that to the fact my skill was one grade higher. The obvious conclusion was that it should be harder to learn. I'm glad I didn't share the proficiency of my skill during the meeting with Knut.

I handed him the 35 low-grade crystals. His jaw dropped and his eyes widened in disbelief. He was unaware of my speed, and the monsters posed little danger to me. This would give him 3 and a half full duration uses of his skill. He used the crystals while he activated his skill. It allowed his proficiency to reach 5.

"Say, Arild. How strong are you right now?" Tobias asked.

"Well, I move very quickly and punch harder! The goblins can't take a single hit." I boasted.

I couldn't wait any longer. Excitement for tomorrow’s dungeon adventure compelled me to retire early. Initially, my plan was to carry Tobias for a few levels, but he would have to do that on his own time.

"Hey, let's go to the boss. I'm feeling sleepy."

We traveled at a fast pace, only killing the goblins that came in our way. Tobias dealt with the lone ones to gain levels. I also incapacitated the ones in the groups we met, smashing their limbs or kicking them towards Tobias to finish. He had reached level 2 when we saw the camp clearing.

The goblin chieftain was in the same position as the last time, staring in our direction. With Tobias's training in law enforcement, I wasn't worried about letting him fight it. We've already decided that we would approach the boss together, but let him fight while I was just a distraction and emergency measure. He also had a better weapon than I had the first time.

It went quite smoothly. Tobias baited out the first attack. He seemed to have taken my warning to heart about what I experienced. The boss's focus on me in the encounter made it easier to damage.

Tobias achieved another level up. Another short-sword dropped too. I took that one while I let him have the one he was loaning. I accepted the crystal as gratitude, despite not needing it.

"Can you sell that one for me to the association?"

"Yes, of course. That will probably be one of my primary jobs here. Whatever goods you don't need, we'll take it for a fair price! However, the price might have changed since yesterday. Do you still want to sell it?"

"Sure, no problem!"

We headed out. Before Tobias left, I had him give me a copy of the dungeon locations map. He had gotten a new iteration after the first; it contained more dungeons and more information inside the dungeons. So far, no reports of red-level dungeons exist in Norway. Fortunately, it was a rare occurrence. A lot of dungeons were high level, but entering and exiting wasn't a problem.

I set my sights on one dungeon by the river. This was the information presented:

[DUNGEON]

- Litt Canyon.

- Level: 5-10.

Perfect for my next step. No need for harder dungeons yet. Despite my confidence in my skills, the mystery of level scaling left me unsure. I would look into jumping levels in the future. For now, I wanted to make my skill infinite, as well as exploring new worlds, monsters, and drops.

I said goodbye to Tobias and went to bed, almost too giddy to fall asleep. Tomorrow would be a whole new experience.