As nice as it would have been to stay in Lefpool for another day, Joe had a schedule to keep, so he left shortly after dawn. He still went through various training actions during first half of the day, but made sure to keep an eye out for predators or even animals that could provide useful materials or products to sell when he got to Mankerin as night approached.

Two more oculasauruses tried to attack him that first evening. He was far less worried about them than he had been the first time he faced multiple lizards at once, as his Deflection Field proved perfectly capable of preventing them from causing serious wounds. He let them both get close to him before he cast Cold Snap that hit them both with freezing energy. Before they could recover he hit each one with a casting of Lightning Jolt. His higher Intelligence meant those two attacks alone were enough to kill them now.

Joe decided to use his Harvest spell to make a magic set of boots. Not for himself, as his tree climbing relied heavily on his clawed feet, but to sell when he got to Mankerin. He ended up with Boots of Durability (Simple). They resisted damage and normal wear and tear. He liked the result so much he got another pair from the second lizard.

The next day Joe came upon a horse-drawn wagon stopped on the other side of a large fallen tree on the road. Unlike the merchants that came to Rust's Edge this guy didn't have any bodyguards with him and couldn't budge the large tree trunk on his own. His eyes lit up in hope as he saw Joe coming up to the tree.

“You there, good felinoid. Do you have an axe or something you can use to remove this obstruction? I need to get to Lefpool before the day is out.”

“I left my axe at home, but don't worry, give me a minute and I can have this removed entirely,” Joe replied.

Joe put down his ever-growing burden of bags and packs and went up to the tree. It didn't look like any kind of tree he'd dealt with before. Before doing anything else, Joe activated both Read Aura and Inspect on it.

Northern Steelwood. This tree is known for its exceptionally tough wood. It can only thrive on soil and water with a high iron content. A mature tree can only be cut down using magical axes or spells, although they are known to occasionally fall on their own. Although difficult to work worth, they are highly prized for the quality of products that are made from them. Their sap is a key component in elixirs to raise Toughness.

Knowing what he was looking for now, Joe cast Harvest on the tree and selected several products he thought would be beneficial. Even though he should be keeping his advanced CGS interface hidden, he could easily explain away what the human saw as part of the spell he cast, which was actually true in the cast of Harvest.

Results of Harvest spell:

1 Steelwood Handcart

10 Flasks of Steelwood Sap

10 Steelwood Seeds

1 Steelwood Chest

1 Steelwood Buckler of Deflection (Common)

The man just stared in utter shock at what happened. “Did you just make those out of the tree?”

“It was a Steelwood tree, normal tools wouldn't work on it anyway,” Joe explained as he packed the flasks of sap and his lizardskin bags in the new chest, which he loaded onto the handcart. “Magic is so much better, isn't it?”

The man had no rebuttal to that, so he just smiled and thanked Joe for his assistance. “I wish I had something I could give as reward for clearing the path, but I'm due in Lefpool before tomorrow and all of the goods in my wagon are spoken for there.”

“Don't worry about it,” Joe assured him. “I'm glad I found such a great material. I think I made out way better in this transaction.”

The man started to get his horse ready to resume the journey. “What's your name? My name is Otto Layton and if I ever run into you again I want to be able to balance my obligations.”

“My name is Joe, but again, I'm good. Have a great day,” Joe called out as he grabbed the handles of his handcart and started to move past the wagon.

Otto was still utterly confused by the nonchalance Joe exhibited, but had somewhere to be so would have to stew on it while traveling. Pulling the handcart unlocked a new skill for Joe.

Portering (Level 1). This skill is for carrying, pushing, or pulling heavy loads. Higher skill levels will allow you to carry more with less of a stamina cost. To train this skill move heavy loads further and/or longer.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Key Attribute: Strength

Joe would need to keep an eye out for more downed Steelwood because he could likely make a lot of money from being able to process it into useful products. From the description it should grow well at Rust's Edge, too. Maybe Ferrite knew a spell that could speed up their growth.

Now that he had less worry about carrying capacity, Joe actively hunted down some oculasauruses the next few nights. Less than a week out of Lefpool Joe gained another level in his Mage class. He got a new ability, was given a new spell choice called Backtrack, but chose the Minor Levitation finally, and he put his bonus attribute points into Intelligence.

Boost Spell (Rank 1), Active. Using this ability will enhance the effects of the next spell cast before 5 seconds have elapsed.

Mana Cost: 20 mana, plus additional mana equal to the cost of the spell being enhanced

Key Attribute: Intelligence

Minor Levitation (Level 1). This spell allows the caster to mentally move a single non-living object up to one-tenth the weight the caster can lift physically. The maximum distance an object can be controlled is up to half a meter for every point of Intelligence.

Mana Cost: 10 mana per minute

Both very useful additions to his repertoire. The Minor Levitation spell will be great training for his Focus skill, a much needed way to increase his Intelligence, which will then improve all of his spells' effects. Minor Levitation wasn't strong enough to lift the whole handcart and all his possessions on its own, but when coupled with Boost Spell it could. Of course, it was so expensive to do that, he could only last seven minutes. He'll have to boost his Strength so he can move it without needing to Boost it.

Joe managed to increase the level of his Portering skill to 4 by the end of the second week out of Lefpool. He also increased his Stamina Regrowth to 10, his Endurance to 9 from the constant stamina drain of pulling the handcart, his Meditation to 5 when stopping to refill his stamina, his Listening up to 4 just from being alert, and his Focus to 5 from leveling up Minor Levitation to 2. He had killed nine more oculasauruses and had the results in his cart.

The third week of out Lefpool the road passed by a large, stinky swamp. He had to kill the occasional alligator, which was much less scary than what he expected, especially after killing so many of the oculasauruses, but the worst enemy was something that looked like what you get after feeding a furball after midnight. They were scaly green bipedal monsters that were called swamplings, according to his Inspect ability.

Swampling. This creature, as its name implies, is found in swamps, bogs, and wetlands. They are territorial and travel in packs of anywhere from five to twelve members. They are quick and have sharp claws and teeth. Their adrenaline can be harvested as an ingredient in Potions of Speed.

Their small size combined with their pack tactics actually worked against them. Joe would bait them to rush up to him from out of the swamp, wait for them to get close, and then hit the group with a Cold Snap. As soon as he leveled Cold Snap to level 2 it would kill every swampling within range. With so many swampling bodies, he was able to level up Harvest to level 6 collecting Potions of Speed from them, 1 per body. It was a very mana-intensive maneuver, but the rewards were worth it between his spell levels, and his Mana Channeling and Meditation skills each gained a level, and focusing on the flow of energy during meditation sessions ranked up his Sense Manachlorians ability after spending days killing and harvesting swamplings.

The new rank of the ability let him actually see the flow of manachlorians with his eyes open, instead of just when he was meditating with his eyes closed. With this new sense of the flow of energy Joe tried to use his meditation skill to refill his resources while he was moving and half paying attention to his surroundings. It was extremely difficult, and of course not nearly as efficient as when he meditates normally, but it pushed three of his skills up a level after just a few hours: Meditation, Focus, and Listening.

After setting up camp, a good distance away from the swamp, Joe would spend some time using a tree as a punching bag to practice his Punching and Kicking skills to try to get some easy Strength increases to help his Minor Levitation spell's effectiveness. Of course, punching and kicking a tree really, really hurts, so it also gave him training with his Pain Tolerance skill and Healing Touch spell. After three days he had 2 levels up in both Punching and Kicking and 1 level up in Pain Tolerance and Healing Touch.

By the end of that third week out of Lefpool his Strength was high enough that he could pull his handcart slightly off the ground behind him with Minor Levitation without having to use Boost Spell first, while simultaneously meditating to restore his mana as he spent it on the spell. Since his hands were free he also used the opportunity to go back to practicing his Throwing and Running. The cart maintained a synchronous position relative to him regardless of his speed while it was under the effects of Minor Levitation, so it was perfect. His Focus was working on both his ongoing spell as well as meditating while splitting his concentration, so it leveled up rather quickly in the following days.

He was able to maintain a continual Minor Levitation for just over an hour even in the middle of doing everything else, and his Focus was now at level 8, his Running at level 5, his Throwing at level 6, and his Mana Channeling at level 10. His Minor Levitation also went up to level 3 through the constant use of it. It was a good week for him and his training. By the time he gets to Mankerin he'll be even stronger, and stronger still by the time he gets to Trenos.