Kiel couldn't believe he was still in one piece, waking up with a start and patting his head all over, checking to see if any pieces were missing. Nothing was, of course, something which he considered was a miracle in and of itself.
He was inside Melissa's house, which took a while to recognize as his eyes took a moment to adjust and stop spinning. The faint headache he had when he fainted was still there but much more muted. Hopefully that meant he hadn't lost entire days resting while the city was next to whatever the forest next to them had become.
Focusing his eyes on the ceiling, he took a moment to count the individual grains on the wood. He didn't know why, but he could smell something burning and counting the grains on the wood helped take his mind off the rest of the annoying smell without needing to get up. He managed to count to thirty when his mind caught up with what he was doing.
I don't think I could see that well before.
The door opened the very next second, Melissa and Edel bursting into the room.
Edel howled happily seeing he was awake, but Melissa got to him first as he was beset by an almost teary face. She hugged him tightly, her arms enveloping him in a bear hug. He waited for her to let go. She hugged him harder. A few seconds later he started to wonder how long it would take before she broke bones.
He decided not to teleport away, finding himself strangely unbothered by the show of affection. He headbutted softly against her jaw when she gave him a chance to breathe. Edel's response was much calmer only in the sense that he didn't find himself threatened with a trip to the hospital. She licked his face, growling happily as her tail waved from side to side.
Cassandra yelled something from the other room, and he could recognize it had something to do with food, the burning smell growing immediately stronger.
"Cassandra's about to burn down breakfast, sorry!" Melissa run back to the kitchen, yelling something else he couldn't understand.
Her reaction still brought a smile to his face as his tail swished back and forth, "Good luck!" he wished her merrily. Edel sat next to him, and in the silence that followed, his mind immediately turned to his gains from the fight he came out on top of.
He remembered missing a ton of notifications during the fight and in his trip back and now he felt like a kid on Christmas day about to open his presents. Which he did a moment later, greeted by an avalanche of pop-ups, a few of which were insistently staying on the center of his vision.
He sped through the first four messages in the blink of an eye, and he focused on the very first one.
You have increased your Body and Spirit attribute by 1 without the help of the system! Title gained; Cultivator.
Error; title is incompatible with current system operations.
Temporary Admin has been alerted!
Temporary Admin not Found
He was staring at the new title in excitement, his paws flexing and his tail sat upright. He ignored the error messages, already reading the title's description. Cultivator as a title increased natural essence absorption, something he remembered was how the system referred to experience for leveling up. He wondered if that meant he could passively gain levels... probably not?
Really, if I get another dumb title because of this I'm going to be filing a complaint. Oh wait, it's not like there are any admins to look at it.
He shook his head and asked Melissa to make sure, but no one gained levels passively. Add to that the fact that the prerequisite for unlocking the title was to increase his attributes without the help of the system, it painted a very interesting picture.
But the best bit of all was the small tidbit about "current system operations". That was clear proof that the system had changed sometime in the past. He didn't know what that meant, along with the missing admins, but finding more about the system was exciting nonetheless, though not as much as getting more levels, new titles and skills.
Besides, there was no way he was going to be finding any information regarding the system any time soon, not when they couldn't even find what the stage above gold-rank was called.
Admittedly he didn't really care about the latter, guessing it was a show of power from the powers that be. If need be he could pester the guild master until he gave in and fessed up. As a back-up plan, he could try stealing from a library or two. The private ones that Melissa had told him about.
He was making plans about ways to find out more about the system when he saw that the error messages continued.
Error has been recognized as level two severity.
Escalating case; alerting Local Admin.
Local Admin not found
Error logged
His jaw hung open for a minute there, "Hey, Melissa, do you know anything about a level two severity thing?" he asked, hoping it didn't mean more trouble. Honestly, at this point he couldn't blame himself, how is the system even working with so many errors?
"Nope! Also, when you come to the kitchen bring Edel with you, breakfast is ready," she said, "maybe even explain what happened in the forest yesterday."
He nodded then remembered she couldn't see him and send her an image of him nodding. His next system message was another title, a temporary one. He seemed to be gathering these at a fairly fast pace and he wasn't sure if he should be proud or scared.
You have interfered with system procedural operations! Temporary title detected; [Troublemaker]. Temporary title granted; [Marked].
At least it wasn't as bad as troublemaker, though he couldn't say he enjoyed another negative title. In essence, it added another ten percent reduction in experience. The only difference was that the title additionally marked him for investigation by the soonest available admin. Given that there weren't any available admins for serious problems, he doubted this was something he would have to worry about any time soon.
He got up from the bed and moved towards the kitchen. Melissa was talking with Cassandra who was in the middle of salvaging the breakfast.
"Good morning!" He sent to Melissa and Cassandra, though he relied on Melissa to translate for him.
He focused on the remaining messages while trying to take a peek at what Cassandra had burned. Unfortunately she had much keener senses and better reflexes, so she was able to hide the target when she saw him trying.
If he wasn't taken aback by the next couple of skill level notifications and consequent maxed skills he would have gone for another attempt.
You have maxed out your skill, Unbound Adaptation! You have gained +9 in the Body attribute, Unbound Adaptation becomes more efficient.
You have maxed out your skill, Spatial Rend! You have gained +2 in Mind, and +1 in the Spirit attribute, increased authority over spatial stability.
The skill notifications brought a smile to his face.
He was excited to find out what "more efficient" meant in this context. He'd pushed the skill pretty hard before passing out, so he was relatively certain of its limits. In that regard, he could more accurately judge how big of an effect the max level bonus had on the skill.
And Spatial Rend? It didn't say that he would be able to destroy space more easily, no. It increased his authority over spatial stability, an upgrade a whole lot more interesting than he was expecting. As a quick test, he willed the space around him to strengthen, and he started feeling some resistance when he tried moving. In his Spatial Senses space seemed compressed?
He was almost jumping with glee as he continued with the rest of the notifications.
He gained three levels in total from the corrupted beast, two more on Spatial Sense even though he didn't remember focusing on it too much, and a terrifying amount of attribute points. An entire seventeen attribute points had gone to his body, so much so that he was scared putting a bit too much pressure on one paw might break the wooden floor underneath him.
He didn't feel much different now, but he instinctively knew that if he wanted a small jump could take him to the ceiling. If he tried racing with Edel this time he would come out on top. There was no way she had more points in Body than him after such a huge boost.
Heck, he couldn't imagine struggling in bronze-ranked dungeons any more. Not that he struggled before, but now it was even more so.
Name - Kiel
Level - 20
Titles - Traveler, Unyielding, Ritualist, Scholar, Troublemaker*, Cultivator*, Marked*
Body - 47
Mind - 28
Spirit - 37
Skills - Unbound Adaptation (Lvl 20) [Max], Climbing (Lvl 7), Ether Sense (Lvl 10) [Max], Spatial Sense (Lvl 6), Spatial Manipulation (Lvl 10) [Max], Spatial Rend (Lvl 10) [Max], Spatial Shift (Lvl 10) [Max], Ether Manipulation (Lvl 10) [Max], Spatial Storage (Lvl 2)
He felt oddly proud looking at his status screen. This was the result of countless dumb decisions, near deaths and close calls galore. His body attribute was getting close to fifty points and he couldn't help but wonder if there was going to be anything special after he reached that milestone.
Looking at the numbers go up was addicting, but the kind of work needed to get him to this point was the sort that shortened your lifespan. Then again he doubted most people reached level twenty this fast.
"So, what happened in the forest?" Cassandra asked him curiously, which Melissa translated with a more demanding tone. If anything she seemed less angry than he expected from coming back injured and passing out on the forest ground.
He was tempted to ask her about that, but shook his head. This was important.
"The east side of the forest is almost completely gone." He started to explain everything from the somewhat stable paths in the dead forest, to the goblins fighting off corrupted ones, to actually killing a gold-ranked corrupted one that'd spotted him.
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When he got to that part, Melissa was staring at him in shock and Cassandra wasn't much better. Well, seeing how he was here instead of another gold-ranked corrupted one roaming the forest, they'd guessed he managed to run away. They guessed wrong, and their expressions were every bit as amusing as he'd imagined they were going to be.
He also detailed the corrupted monster's keen senses about spatial magic. Using Spatial Storage for a nanosecond to remove a snack had been what gave him away after all. I don't think I'm going to be able to see those grapes the same way ever again.
He removed one to test it out. He didn't feel anything different about it, but just to make sure he popped it into his mouth, making sure the refreshing flavor was the same. He was about to repeat the experiment just to make sure when Melissa screamed at him in surprise.
"Wait, you were the one that took all of them?! Y-you thief!" She pointed at him, murmuring a sorry to Cassandra. Then turning to face him again, she opened her palm expectantly, "Tax."
Begrudgingly he let her have one. Then Cassandra started staring at him the same way and he was forced to cough up more of his stash. When Edel started doing the same he was about to lose it.
Wait, can wolves eat grapes? I think I heard something about that in my previous life... best not to risk it.
He started arguing with Edel, saying he wasn't sure it was safe and her repeating that it was. They went back and forth a few times before he decided to trust the expert and gave her one hesitantly.
He was prepared to use the Heimlich maneuver at the first sign of something going wrong. Looking at his paws, he thought back on what the plan had been. Maybe I can send the information on how and what to do to Melissa should the need arise.
It was a needless risk, but Edel had been pretty insistent that she'd tried these fruits without any problems in the past, so he caved in. In the few moments that followed nothing happened and instead Edel had a satisfied expression on her face, so he let out a sigh of relief.
Then again, he hadn't been sure whether the fruit had been safe for him before he tried it. It had escaped his mind entirely until Edel asked him for a piece and he vowed to be more careful in the future, even if nothing had happened so far.
In that regard he forgot about what he found outside the city, "I don't think we need to be too worried about the spatial disaster in the forest outside. Someone mended and strengthened the space outside to an incredible extent. Whatever the stage above gold is, that was certainly in or above it."
"So, more dungeons?" Cassandra asked in response.
Melissa looked uncertain, and he turned to Edel.
He'd vowed to not let her be a silent part of his life, so what better time to start than now?
He translated for her, after which she looked at him questioningly, seemingly ready to go wherever they went. For her, dungeons were less of a place to grow stronger and more like an intense playground.
He was surprised at that description, and he couldn't stop himself from laughing. Of course that didn't translate very well in cat form, with Melissa worried when he started coughing. It took a good while of rolling in the ground, unable to breath as he laughed his heart out.
It wasn't so funny, but the sheer contrast in how they viewed dungeons broke him.
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"Maybe inform the guild master about this? I mean, I doubt we have anything he doesn't already know, but still..." Melissa said pensively. She fiddled with her hair, somehow not noticing Kiel dying right next to her. She picked up the wheezing cat that had covered its head as it rolled around. She looked at him quizzically as he recovered.
"I vote for the harrowing playground," She heard from Kiel and it took her a moment to realize what he was talking about.
When she didn't get what was funny about it, he seemed miffed.
She started getting ready, checking her backpack to see if anything was missing. Kiel had offered multiple times to carry their backpacks for them, but she wasn't about to agree to that any time soon. While what he proposed seemed incredibly useful, if he got separated from them, she would lose a lot of useful trinkets
Inside her backpack she had some food and water, but mostly useful trinkets like a water conversion amulet, an enchanted map and the like. Compared to Cassandra, she traveled rather light. On her person, she wore a weak protective amulet and had three ether crystals in her belt in an easy to access manner, as well as a few healing potions. Of all of her items, the ether crystals were the most expensive, able to enhance her power as a one-time use to incredible levels. Or so she'd heard, because they were expensive enough she didn't dare use them lightly, each one coming from a gold-ranked dungeon supposedly.
The protective amulet was her newest acquisition, one that she'd spent a lot of her savings to buy after the close call in the forest back when she first met Kiel. Money wasn't worth anything if you weren't alive to use it, so she had no qualms about spending it there.
At the same time, their finances weren't looking so great lately. Cassandra had come back from the guild yesterday, and most of the quests were gone, turned to escort ones.
On the other hand, Kiel was pretty excited to get going and, as he proclaimed, "Finish the rest of the puny dungeons today." He imagined he came out of that fight a fair bit stronger, and she couldn't wait to see him prove her and Cassandra wrong.
As her friend packed more arrows, sigil covered arrows, and various miscellaneous stuff along with a small first aid kit to be placed at the bottom of her uniquely shaped backpack.
She remembered with a laugh, right when they had started, Cassandra struggled juggling between her bow and arrows and a normal backpack so much that she barged into a tailors' shop, asking for a more humane backpack design for archers. In the end, much to both of their surprised faces, there already was such a design. It was slung over diagonally from shoulder to waist while also replacing the need for a quiver.
It was their first pricy purchase, and they spent almost an entire month completing various small quests to gather money in order to buy that backpack. Three years later, it still held strong, something which didn't fail to surprise her with the kind of life adventurers lived. Then again, Cassandra wasn't in the habit of getting hit, and thankfully neither was she.
It almost didn't feel real how fast they were growing now. Three years of minor quests, a few dungeons under their belt and a ton of experience was paying forward now. It also didn't hurt that Kiel and Edel were leagues above most silver-ranked adventurers.
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Kiel watched with Edel as the others packed and prepared for a series of dungeon delves. He offered to store most of the things they packed, but both of them refused. He still packed camping supplies and what passed for sleeping bags in this place. In fact, their sleeping bags were leagues above what he'd seen in stores back on Earth, so he couldn't be too harsh. Spare clothes, food, and drinkable water all went to his spatial storage.
It was even more useful as food didn't seem to spoil in his storage, though it did grow colder the longer he left it there. Not like he went with cooked food, though that would have been nice. As far as camping supplies went, this world was leagues ahead of Earth with better tasting meat jerky, something similar to instant noodles but for soup and dried fruits.
Edel sat next to him, and he leaned against her. It was comfortable enough that a weird kind of noise came from him before he realized what he was doing. It was like a low growl and entirely involuntary.
He felt relaxed, his body losing tension as he let his thoughts wander.
He was strong, stronger than he ever imagined and yet the world kept getting more dangerous.
He wanted to protect this home... his home, and he was willing to do anything to that end.
It was unbelievable that the situation had progressed to that degree in only a few days. He had noticed an increase in quiet zones before leaving, but being able to avoid them as efficiently as he could, might have hidden the severity of the problem.
He doubted anything would get past whoever was protecting the city, but it didn't hurt to be prepared. He got up with Edel leading the way as Melissa and Cassandra opened the door, ready for another dungeon delve. The others didn't believe him, but today they were going to finish the rest of the dungeons close to the city.
Outside the house the sun was hidden behind a few clouds, so it wasn't too hot to go out. The weather had been great for so long that he had begun to wonder if there was a drought. Wouldn't surprise him honestly, not with all that was going on recently. At the same time it didn't look like it was going to rain, so that was another positive.
The streets weren't too busy at this time of the day which suited him perfectly fine, and asking Edel, she seemed to prefer it this way too. Approaching the western gate, however, he noticed the same presence strengthening the space around the eastern gate. Perhaps whoever protected the city wanted to be certain, but all it did was make him more worried. No one noticed and he debated keeping quiet or telling the rest.
It took them a few minutes to actually exit the city, and the same protection extended far outside the city walls, though exiting that influence he couldn't detect any signs of broken space. He let out a sigh of relief at that, and they continued on their trip towards the nearest uncompleted dungeon.
In the end he didn't say anything, focusing on his bond with Edel and taking comfort in her feelings of excitement. He could sense that she was holding back, being half a second from running and racing inside the forest. She kept looking at him, and after a few minutes of that, he gave in. "Fine, but loser eats the leftovers!" He sent to her as he took off running.
Edel was startled for a moment before taking off right behind him. She tried to catch him as they ran and zigzagged between the trees. She didn't manage to catch him, though due to his arrogance there were a few close calls.
He flexed his muscles, pushing against the ground and trees, letting his instincts take over as the air blew past him the same way as when peeking out of a car moving on the highway. It was fun and exhilarating, with the added difficulty of having to avoid startled monsters as they blew right past them. More than that, a white storm was right behind him, somehow managing to keep up despite Kiel being positive he had way higher strength after yesterday's events.
That didn't stop him from poking fun at her and making funny faces while staying ahead.
His arrogance caught up with him, however, as right before he planned on returning where Melissa and Cass were waiting, Edel managed to catch up and tackle him to the ground. At their speed, the tackle ended up taking them a few dozen meters to stop.
Melissa was worried seeing them fall like that, but calmed down when she saw Kiel was in a much better mood than before and didn't seem hurt. Cassandra on the other hand fussed over Edel, admonishing her lightly as they had gone slightly overboard with their chase.
Kiel couldn't help but laugh, though Edel reminded him of his place immediately after when she sent him an image of him eating after her, apparently what she considered leftovers. Though the definition was slightly wrong, he found it was in his best interest not to correct her.
Half an hour of walking later, they reached the dungeon in question; another lizard, or in this case, lizard-adjacent dungeon. These lizards fancied themselves as ninjas, focused more on speed and sneak attacks than raw strength. Lacking in toughness in exchange, this was a boss monster he felt confident he could one-shot, though he wouldn't let overconfidence get the better of him either way.
As they entered the same dark, dimly lit tunnels, he focused on his spatial senses more than sight, hoping to prevent an ambush that way. Some times he forgot this was an evolved skill. He wanted to be using it more, even in fights, though that part was still under consideration. The skill needed a lot of focus to use, focus that went to dodging lightning fast attacks normally, so he usually ended up enhancing his perception when he needed that kind of versatility.
If he got better at using his skill, the sacrificed attributes that went to perception could be instead focused on his strength or endurance.
They walked for a few minutes without meeting any monsters, and Cassandra couldn't help but speak up, "Are we sure there are any monsters here?" she said, breaking the silence. This had been indeed the first time they had yet to meet a monster after walking for so long. Even Edel was disappointed, not to mention Kiel who wanted to show off.
Finally, after five more minutes of walking, a blurry shadow charged at them. Kiel and Edel reacted instantly, but it was Cassandra who put an arrow between the eyes of the monster charging at them. The not so sneaky monster hadn't been fast enough for Kiel to have a chance to act, and he couldn't help but grumble about that. Taking a look at its corpse, he noted the nasty looking claws. The lizard was dark black, same as the sky in the middle of the night, but that didn't help it too much in front of their expert sharpshooter.
For their first monster after almost ten minutes of walking, it felt a little underwhelming.
Melissa shrugged, throwing her backpack to the ground and stretching her shoulders, "I wasn't aware of any groups that started raiding dungeons recently, but then again it's not like I visit the guild all too much recently, so it's not impossible." After that they continued without letting their guard down.
Another ten minutes later they were almost at the final cavern, with no sign of any more enemies. Reaching the cavern itself, they again found no boss. "Huh, that's unlucky..." Cassandra said, sitting down to rest.
"Where is the closest dungeon from here?" Kiel asked Melissa, who promptly took out a small map and a small marble emitting a faint yellowish red light.
Marking the new dungeon, he noted it was still pretty close to this one, so there wouldn't be any backtracking at least. In that regard he had to thank Melissa, because if he'd been the one planning this they wouldn't have even made it to the dungeon, lost leagues before that.
Not wanting to waste too much time and full of energy, he pushed Cassandra to move, biting the hem of her shirt below her leather armor.
Not wanting to tear her shirt and unable to force her to get up, he enlisted the help of Edel to get her back up and moving. Melissa laughed at that as she joined right behind them, helping Cass get up before she started making dirt angels herself.
Kiel had promised they were going to finish the rest of the dungeons today, after all, and she wanted to give him a fair chance.