Jared kept his ears open and his eyes moving left and right while he walked. Trying to find the obligatory goblin ambush or the damsel in the middle of a bandit trap.

But the only thing out of the ordinary he saw, was one bird that shot water out of his beak to hunt insect. And the squirrel-like rodent that apparently wears the dead remains of his kin as some badge of honor. 

And no if someone asked, he didn't scream like a little girl and ran away at full sprint, when the shoe size rodent jumped at his face.

The thing is, he hadn't slowed down from his full sprint, even an hour later. When he checked his status it looked like his stamina generation of 6,7/s was enough to keep him sprinting forever. He wasn't even breathing hard and was on a full-on runner high for at least the last half hour.

Though he would probably need to stop in a short while. Running didn't cost him any stamina but having to constantly be on edge and wary of running into a tree or just tripping gave him a headache. He probably needed more dexterity to make the action more subconscious.

That was another thing that bothered him. His stats didn't increase by a single point. Nothing he did worked, sprinting for a good hour, doing mental arithmetic, he even pulled a drawer out of his Inventory to do some strength exercise while running, nothing worked. He needed to find a way to gain more stats and the only way to probably do that is to gain a class and lvl up. But there he was stuck again he had no idea how to get one.

While he was jogging through the forest he suddenly felt an itch. Confused he stopped, the itch didn't seem to come from him but a bit ahead and to the left from him.

It was then he remembered he still didn't turn off his Script Sniffer skill. The itch was some kind of written word. The written word that was moving in his general direction.

Jared ducked behind a tree and as silent as he could walk to his right. The itch didn't seem to follow him, so he tried to get closer.

"Who's there!" When there was only 20m between and the itch, whoever it was noticed and yelled." If ye don't come out by the time I count to 5, I'm gonna put ya full of Arrows!"

"Alright, alright no need to get angry I was just coming over to ask a question." Jared yelled back still not able to see the other person through the last meters of trees.

"Funny way to ask a question by sneaking up on them" the man yelled back from behind a tree, and it could only be a man except if the woman in this world sounded like a burly scotch man. 

" It's dangerous being out here by oneself can't be too careful" Jared shouted. A second later he felt the edge of a dagger pressed against his throat, and a young female voice whisper," You really can't, don't make any fast movements and stay up." Jared back was drenched in a cold sweat in an instant and he stood up careful not to move too fast or to stumble and skewer himself.

With his voice quivering no matter how hard he tried to stay calm he said," So there were two of you, I'm Jared by the way." inwardly he was kicking himself. He was way too confident in his skill she must not have anything written on her, Jared still felt only the one itch a couple of meters away, and the ones from his clothes.

" Yes two, now be quiet and move." the girl behind him bit out, and he walked, as he came out from behind the tree he could see the man for the first time. The first thing he did was Appraise him.

Karoff Fallon lvl 52

Ballistic Archer

He was about the same height as Jared 1.80m but build more robust, not fat, just a barrel full of muscle. He had bushy brown hair and a beard with some silver showing. The man wore leather armor, or at least it looked like it, together with some fur and a mantel clipped to his shoulders. He held a huge wooden bow with glowing lines and symbols running through, not really drawn but still pointed at him.

Jared still managed to notice that the itch came from the symbols on the bow, before the man started talking.

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" Who are ye, and what are ye doing here, don't look like an adventurer." Jared thinking faster than he ever thought before, oh so he hoped." I'm not an Adventurer," he said with a shaking voice," I'm a scholar I was researching when I needed to abandon my camp to run away, I truly am lost and just want to ask for the way to the next town."

The man looked at him dubiously but lowered his bow somewhat."What kind of research, and how the hell did u notice us we weren't stomping around not like you?"

Jared answered bringing more confidence in his voice," I'm studying the Sciuridae Caníbales and the possibility to elevate them to semi-sentient status, the reason I knew you were there is because of my skills can detect enchantments it's a Scholar thing."

The man looked at him for a second before he sighed putting the bow away, at the same time the dagger disappeared from his throat and the girl moved next to the man.

Sydelia von Aschenbaum lvl 21

Marauder

That was the first time Jared managed to see her, she was about 1.70m tall and slim like really slim, he almost pulled some of the snacks out of his Inventory for her on reflex, she wore expensive-looking black leather armor. She had a Short Sword and a dagger strapped to her belt. Syd wasn't the classic beauty but with her pixie cut, she would be considered handsome.

Jared breathed a sigh of relief and said with a smile to seem friendly, "Now that that's done, hi I'm Jared nice to meet you."

The Girl ignored him and started to set up camp, it looks like that after all the running and their mini standoff it was almost sundown. The man answered him." My name is Karoff and this es me trainee Sydelia."

"Syd!" The girl interrupted apparently not too fond of her full name. Karoff just huffed a laugh and sat on a log in the small clearing and pointed at a boulder next to him for Jared to sit. He shared some Rations with him, hardtack and jerky of some mystery meat.

He did so and said," So you know why I am here but what brings you here, ahh, and before I forget where is the closest town?"

Karoff grunted and poked the fire that Syd just finished to set up." She is here to finish a Quest and I too watch and evaluate should she pass the test, then she becomes a full-fledged adventurer." you could hear the pride in his voice." And the next town is about 8 km to the east of here called Velluneno by a river you can't miss it if you go too far north or south you can follow the road."

Nodding in gratitude he asked, "Do you mind if I join your camp tonight before heading off tomorrow morning?"

Karoff said, "Sure." Syd nodded and joined them, she then said the first thing after her name, " What were you researching, Sciuri something, what's that?"

Starting to get nervous again but hiding it Jared said, "Sciuridae Caníbales, I don't know what you call them here, but they are these small rodents that like to dress in the remains for their kin." 

"Crazy Crackers." Karoff interrupted. Jared almost snorted because of the name but nodded and kept going," Yes, anyway I'm studying the Sciuridae Caníbales to decide if they fit into the category Semi-Sentient, they have quite the interesting cannibalistic Culture..... ."

And then he kept going with one of the studies he once read of a cannibalistic tribe in the amazon almost one to one. Syd already had her eyes closed and was nodding off and Karoff tried his best to keep his open, Jared coughed." Pretty fascinating, right."He said a bit louder than necessary.

Karoff startled and laughed embarrassed which woke up an annoyed Syd from her nap. "Hahaha yes, yes an interesting project you got there Jared but where is the rest of your team?"

Jared smile stiffened a bit and he said," I am doing the study alone, I'm pretty good at running away, and sadly I was unable to gather the funds for a bigger team, people don't seem to be interested in studying Sciuridae Caníbales, can you believe it?" Both Syd and Karoff avoided his eyes and answered his enthusiastic question with murmured" Yes, unbelievable." and "Crazy people."

Jared was starting to sweat," If they ask me any more questions, I'm going to run out of bullshit to tell them." he thought.

So he started to ask them some questions." So, Syd, Karoff here is obviously some kind of bowman, but the combination of sword and dagger seems unusual what are you." She just glared at him and turned her head while Karoff snickered, "She likes everything about her class except the name, makes her sound like a bandit, its Marauder." Syd kicked his shin walked over to her Bedroll to lay down.

Karoff just shook his head and smiled," Now seems like it's time to turn down for the night, I take the first watch and here it's not really a bedroll but that's the best we can offer you for the night."He handed a pile of blankets to him. Jared thanked him and went to make himself a makeshift bed.

" If I were able to access my Inventory I could pull out a full bed," he thought looking at the sad pile of blankets," but I can't take the risk, I know nothing about this world even asking about Syd's class could have gotten me killed."

As Jared lay there in his pile of blankets he noticed that he wasn't tired not even a little bit. Everything that happened today and not even a bit tired.

That had to be the skill Everlasting Life (Lv. 1)." I wonder if the other skills also had abilities that were not listed in the skill description. Jared didn't know how to feel about the possibility to never sleep again.

And so Jared lay there with his eyes closed wide awake.