Kent grumbled as he jumped down the tree. The drop of almost twice his height barely phasing him. All of that had just been too good, now he had to wait at least another couple of days until he would be able to satiate his curiosity.

“What even is the point,” he grumbled staring at those annoying words. ‘Unlock Core skills by reaching Rank 11 in one of the Foundational skills’ has to be the silliest rule ever.

He had never heard of such an incident before, but that made sense. People for the most part took the relaxed way of leveling up through their skills reaching rank ten and funneling the excess experience into their class.

Even worse, it had shown something else. It somewhat relativized the usefulness of the additional specializations he had unlocked. They wouldn’t allow you to just take a Core skill immediately, instead you still had to spent at least one skill points on a foundational skill.

Given that he had not gained an extra skill point at level ten, even after his evolution, he now knew to appreciate the extra skills he had gained earlier and was able to better judge the worth of one of those extra specializations. They also showed another issue he would have to face at some point in the future.

Usually, people had two specializations in the core phase, and by common understanding this would increase to three after evolving a class to tier three. He already had six but unless gaining another 15 or so points until level one hundred would not be able to bring all of them to the next stage – whatever it might be called.

He thought for another moment about his conundrum but shelfed it in the end. There was nothing he could do about that. So, he would have to be smart. Keep his skills confined to a few core trees and only expand once he had four skills in each of those to allow for natural leveling of the trees.

Treading on the road once again, he made his way further towards Farburg. The few people he met on the way, most overtaking him but almost no one coming from the other town, all had hurried and worn worried expressions. Most far outpacing whatever speed he could muster.

Some were dressed in travel clothes, others in heavy fabrics, and some shining with the gleam associated with sealed fabrics, others with heavy irons of a soldier, ready to fight in the defense of their home and others again didn’t quite fit any category. He had greeted each person he had met, some ignored him, other greeted him in return. There had been some outstanding parties.

Human – Expedient Curier – 76

…

Human – Blades Edge – 89

…

Human – ??? – ???

That was when he received his first surprise, he hadn’t expected to be able to identify people of such a high level in the first place, let alone see what looked like their class names. The general rule of thumb was that you could identify people in your tier as long as they didn’t exceed half the tiers difference, so for him people of level fifty five. Yet he could get more information from people way beyond that and more detailed than most. There were of course exceptions, of dozens of types, but his identify would certainly qualify as good.

That latest identification stood out twofold. He had heard of the phenomenon of no information previously. Most people couldn’t identify his uncle Jeff, the village chief, or a selected few that had either grown old enough or had experienced enough to call themselves twice evolved.

That, while noteworthy, wasn’t outstanding on its own.

The person clad in white armor, that almost looked like cloth if it hadn’t been undisturbed by the wind of their speed, was hovering over the floor. At least that’s what it looked like. It was obvious that they were engaged in some sort of flight.

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They were also the only person going towards Reinsteel instead of coming from there. What that meant wasn’t entirely certain on its own but given that the only other people he had met going in that direction had sounded exactly like conqueror were described didn’t leave much room for guessing.

That person had to be someone high level, especially daring to travel to a region that was presumably under siege all on their own.

After directing a casual greeting, a wave and a nod, towards the stranger Kent turned towards the road again, about to hurry his pace again, when the stranger spoke. Her voice was pleasant though it sounded distant, aloof but not cold.

“You don’t see exiles very often, do you?”

Those words were enough to send shivers down his spine. Whatever her intensions were, if you started a conversation like that it didn’t bode well for what was to come.

Thoughts and panic spun through Kent’s head. The last people that had identified him as an exile and said so hadn’t appeared to be interested in causing harm, but that counted nothing in interactions with other people. Manners are a toolbox, and politeness the key.

“Breath and Bread Traveler,” the obscure yet supposedly polite greeting, occasionally to be heard in Blueleaf’s inn, the first thing that came to Kent’s mind and he spoke them. “I guess you are…”

Before even done with the sentence he was interrupted by a soft cough. The pose of the stranger enough to tell Kent it wasn’t one of habit but of meaning.

“With the war upcoming there are bound to be many more,” but the tone of her words had changed now, mirth being almost palpable. “What did you do to get the exile status? Murder anyone?”

Shit shit shit… What can I say. At least there is no aura of truth around this time. Best I stay honest regardless, right? His internal musings didn’t even take a second and he responded barely phased outwards – he hoped.

“I didn’t get the trait my parents and my village wanted me to get,” he said dejectedly. The emotions on his face were accurate, he truly was sad about that. But it also was only truth in a vague sense of the word, he implied more than what was accurate. The last part of her questions was what made him lose all color in his face.

The shock might have been visible on his face. He felt like it should have. If stats didn’t have minor influences on an individual’s response to stress she wouldn’t have been able to not notice.

Her lack of reaction, other than to start speaking assured him a few moments later.

“That’s hardly unique. Admittedly, some farming villages tend to be like that. With the war coming you have good chances of claiming to be a refugee to get someone with the voice of a noble to remove that status. Heck, most would do so if you just offered to work for them for a couple of years. A lot of people are bound to have that marker in the coming years and nobles are surely going to be happy about that. I heard we’ve already lost a village. Leaf something.”

“Well, you take care. Check with Conquerors if you are looking for a job, they should be short-staffed right about now.”

With an odd salute, crossing her arms before her chest and slightly inclining her head, she drifted of the ground and drifted away undisturbed at a much higher speed than previously.

If he knew one fact for sure, it was that he would not check in with conquerors. The stories he had heard about them did much to dissuade him of the notions that were supposedly common in cities. Conquerors weren’t some sort of heroes. No, Kent had been told the truth often enough and he had a good source, his uncle had been one when he was younger, and he had attested to the temper and danger that conquerors had.

Kent wanted no part in that.

Kent wanted to say something, anything really, before the traveler disappeared. In the end he stood there quiet and traced the hooded silhouette disappear in the distance. Not long after, he continued his track, occasionally using Accelerate Metal around him, to further process towards his goal of getting his first tree to unlock the Core skills.

He couldn’t wait for what that would reveal. The second tier was supposed to round out the users build, to make a tree more effective and powerful. In a way, Metallic Insight did both of that for Metallumancy and Daggers, so he wasn’t sure what exactly would come with the second tier. That didn’t mean he wasn’t excited.

***

Every couple of hours Kent checked his status, looking to see how far he had progressed. Having calculated that he would need over two thousand mana spent on Accelerate Metal to get anywhere close to unlocking the second tier he determined that it would at least be another three days until that point. At which point he would also be very close to unlocking Metallic Insight’s Core skills as well.

He passed the second village between the towns of Reinsteel and Farburg on the eve of that day and was highly considering spending the day within the confines of the village.

Had he been in the possession of even a single styca or sceat, he would have tried for it. He was yearning for a bed, and a pillow. To rest in safety, to rest at all.

But without money his ‘exile’ status was bound to attract trouble.

With his previous nap almost a day past he felt himself growing sluggishly even though his stamina was not nearly as low as it could be. A quarter remaining would hopefully be enough to stay effective during the night. With any luck he would even be able to level up once or twice.

Torn about his decision he moved around the village, trying to not attract attention, and hoping to have succeeded. His tracks took him out of the zone and into the wilderness.

He would spend the night nearby, wanting to have the relative safety of the zone as a fallback safeguard.