Kiel looked at Edel who definitely needed to rest, and decided it was time to go back. They didn't need to destroy that camp today, and the goblin mage in charge gave him a bad feeling.

If he was being honest, he didn't particularly care to see that camp destroyed. His goal had been to destroy the goblin camp by the river, the one that caused him so much trouble and pain. He didn't really want to make it his life's mission to eradicate all of them, though he held no special love for them either.

But Edel was different. She had a much bigger issue with the goblins than him. A wolf without a pack was rare, but for a young wolf it was unheard of. He didn't need to be a detective to reason out what had happened.

He wanted to help his friend escape from the vicious cycle of revenge.

It was one thing to kill in order to eat or survive, and another to kill just to get rid of someone. Seeing how these goblins behaved, he didn't feel comfortable killing them in cold blood.

No, that wasn't quite right, he would feel absolutely nothing from massacring the goblins that hurt his friend.

The only problem with that, was that the goblins responsible were probably even deeper in the forest. Edel was this strong and not even an adult wolf. Her pack at the height of their time must have been terrifying.

Which brought him to problem number one, he didn't want to spend however many months or years it took getting stronger in order to kill those goblins. He didn't want to mindlessly hunt and train inside the forest for the rest of his life.

What he wanted was to go back by the river and explore what he gained upon reaching level 15. He wanted to explore his options without the pressure of another fight about a camp of goblins he didn't care about. He wanted to show Edel the world outside the forest and he wanted to experience those very things himself too.

He wanted to see more of the life this world had to offer. He'd grown to like and even enjoy his time inside the forest, but he also didn't have much to do other than train, kill monsters, eat and cuddle with the most lovable wolf he'd ever met. Admittedly the last one was the biggest reason he managed to keep his sanity inside this forest.

When the novelty of magic started to fade away he had Edel by his side. He didn't feel alone in this world, which was a lot more than he had to say about his previous one.

Which was why when Edel started moving towards the camp again, he bit the fur of her leg, not allowing her to march forward. Heck, he wasn't sure if she even had all of her ether back considering how tired she was only half an hour ago.

She looked indignantly at him, but he didn't let go. Thankfully she didn't persist because he wasn't sure if he would have been able to stop her if she really wanted. After an entire minute of trying but failing to get him to let go, she acquiesced.

He sighed in relief as they started walking back towards the river. Of course after a while Edel had to lead because while he had been getting better at navigating through the forest, he was no match for her, and she apparently didn't want to add a few hours to the trip back after the first couple of times he veered off track.

They avoided most monsters on their way back, but that didn't mean they were able to avoid all fights entirely. A moderately large group of horned rabbit-like creatures attacked them in their trip back.

Unfortunately they chose the wrong victims this time. Kiel took the lead, teleporting twice in quick succession and taking the lives of two of them in less than a second. A third rabbit charged at him with its horns, but he teleported back, letting Edel take the stage from there.

Edel killed another two of them with her claws before the group saw reason and retreated.

The way back was the opposite of peaceful, but although they were attacked a few more times, none were particularly difficult to deal with. Traveling with Edel was more fun than he'd expected after being restricted in what he could do for so long. She didn't seem to be in a great mood unfortunately, but that was an easy fix.

He meowed to get her attention and jumped on her back. No one could resist the charm of carrying a sleeping cat in their arms, and although this wasn't exactly the case here, it was close enough. Helped him save on energy too.

It took them about three hours to return back to the river. Although resting on top of a moving wolf was far from the most comfortable position to be in, Edel didn't move too roughly in consideration for him, and he found himself waking up only a few minutes before they reached the river.

When did I fall asleep?

He found himself embarrassed about it. He only meant it as a joke, he didn't actually intend to fall asleep, but what was done was done. He let himself fall from Edel's back, landing on his feet.

Stretching his body, he trotted ahead, recognizing the area in front of him. Edel picked up the pace to catch up, and so did he in order to stay in the lead. That turned into a game of cat and mouse like race. They reached the spot below his favorite tree by the river in record time. By the end of it they had been running as fast as they could, and he had been pushing the limits of his teleportation.

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He didn't win, but it was fun enough and it seemed like Edel's mood was all the better for it. He was happy.

Now it was time to check his status, an itch he had to avoid thinking about back in the deeper parts of the forest. He took a few deep breaths, both to calm himself and because he was out of them due to the race.

Choose a trait between Physique Amelioration, Ether Touched, Soul Empowerment . . .

Focusing on each word he could understand what each option entailed. Physique Amelioration was the most straightforward of all, and probably what Edel chose for her trait. It would enhance every physical aspect of his. Claws? Sharper. Body? Not so frail any more. Eyes? Goodbye myopia. To add the cherry on the top, each point in his body attribute would be more effective from here on out.

He needed to take a deeper breath as he considered the implications. It was the option he was considering the most and he had to stop himself from selecting it right away. It would address his biggest weaknesses, but he needed to see the rest.

Ether touched was the trait resulting from his mind attribute. It would enhance all skill damage and effectiveness. Its biggest selling point, however, was skill acclimatization. He would be able to push skills that were stuck at the level limit, as well as leveling them faster when he trained. Of course, same as the first trait, all points in mind would be more effective from here on out.

As for soul empowerment, it was the trait affecting his spirit attribute and the one with the most answers. Selecting this trait would increase the number of skills his soul could hold, as well as offering him increased ether resistance. Combined with increased effectiveness for his spirit attribute, he would be able to pick up even more skills.

He was tempted to choose soul empowerment but of the traits he was offered, it was the worst match for him. It had the greatest potential of all three traits, but with his fighting style being up close and personal it was a mismatch. He didn't want to be a jack of all trades, and he wasn't sure if the bonus attributes from the skills would make up for the difference.

In the end he decided to check on what his skill point did before he got any further.

Choose between empowering or fusing a skill . . .

He could use his skill point only on skills he'd maxed, which unfortunately meant he couldn't empower Spatial Rend to make it more usable. The problem with the skill point was that he didn't know what he would be getting out of it. For reference he opened his status page,

Name - Kiel

Level - 15

Titles - Traveler, Unyielding, Ritualist

Body - 22

Mind - 24

Spirit - 31

Skills - Body Adaptation (Lvl 10) [Max], Climbing (Lvl 7), Ether Sense (Lvl 10) [Max], Affinity Sense (Lvl 10) [Max], Spatial Manipulation (Lvl 10) [Max], Spatial Rend (Lvl 2), Spatial Shift (Lvl 10) [Max], Ether Manipulation (Lvl 6)

Looking at his skills, his eyes quickly landed on a few pairs and examined them.

He could combine Ether Sense with Affinity Sense, or Spatial Manipulation and Ether Manipulation. Or he could combine Ether Sense and Manipulation. His mind was filled with endless possibilities.

Shaking his head out of that, he got back to the traits.

He could continue on the path of a one-trick and focus on his body attribute. On that note he could enhance his Body Adaptation skill or his teleportation one. He could become a jumping horror of death without fearing a stray blow ending his life.

He could pick the mind trait and focus on making his existing skills stronger. On that end, it might allow him to finally use Spatial Rend outside a quiet zone, or even see what he could do by fusing Spatial Manipulation and Ether manipulation on top of that.

He could also focus on the long game and pick the spirit trait. He was afraid of meeting a dead end with it, but he imagined a scholar with catalogues of suitable skills and a spirit trait would be quite the scary man.

When in doubt, start eliminating options.

On that end, Ether Touched was a gamble. While it offered him a lot of potential down the road, he had seen how easily the goblin mages fell. At the same time, he would be able to use Spatial Rend in the future, and he wasn't sure if it would be worth changing his style of fighting when he hadn't even figured out how to cast magic yet.

He didn't even consider the spirit trait because he didn't want level 15 to be the end of the road for him.

He was left with Physique Amelioration. And since he could already teleport very well, he decided to enhance the only skill he had that affected his body. Since he chose to make his body stronger, why not double down? Body Adaptation had been his first skill, and the first skill to reach the max level.

There was a reason why people loved one-trick ponies, and that was because it worked.

Finalizing his selection, he remembered all too late what'd happened to Edel.

His entire body seized up as a well of energy rushed from inside of him. He could feel his muscles contracting and locking up as his eyes started to burn and an itchiness spread all over his body. He could feel his insides churning and he wanted to throw up from the discomfort, but was unable to so much as move.

It took about five minutes for the entire process to finish, and if he was completely fine before, now he was thoroughly exhausted. He knew he'd just woken up, but he already wanted to go back to resting.

Taking a step forward, he almost threw himself inside the river as his body jumped almost an entire meter and tumbled to the ground. Edel was quick to check up on him, and this time he didn't push her away or teleport. His heart beat so fast he felt like he would pass out and her presence was too comforting to give it up.

The last thing he did before resting was check his new skill. The enhanced skill was called Unbound Adaptation, and he let his jaw drop in response.

You have enhanced your skill, Body Adaptation! Body Adaptation has become Unbound Adaptation.

Unbound Adaptation was in one word, broken, because on top of everything Body Adaptation did, its evolution let him push the limits of the attribute itself. In essence he could focus the effect of his attribute for a specific purpose.

That meant he could choose to sacrifice strength for vitality in order to recover from a particularly nasty injury, or if he was feeling spicy, focus on his strength to the detriment of the rest of its sub-categories.

In the end he spent the rest of the day running around, testing his new skill and getting used to his increased strength, his previous exhaustion forgotten.

This certainly brought up the timetable for his plans. If he had to fight a three tailed lizard as he was now, he might not fare well in a straight fight, but it wouldn't be the one walking out alive.

Starting tomorrow he was having lizard barbeque!

It was time to check up on the city.