Beth, one of the Oracles to the King, woke up in a cold sweat. Her skin tingled uncomfortably in bed. She shouted loudly as she jumped out of bed and began running towards her Seer's Sanctum. She needed to know how hard the threat was going to be and when it was coming.

As she set up the expensive manastones and her assistants helped with dark bags underneath their eyes, she didn't feel very hopeful.

The ritual to peer into the future was a costly one but it was always worth it. A sliver of knowledge would help them save the kingdom and sometimes the world.

She began the ritual by chanting. All the skills of her [Oracle] class were designed to improve the clarity of her visions so that there could be no mistake.

The vision which was more of a glimpse was enough to confirm her fears. It was a catastrophe threat and it was one she had seen before. For some reason, the Earth Hive Slimes had been disturbed. She rushed to the side of her Seer's Sanctum to triggered an emergency meeting. Hopefully there would be some Heroes nearby.

* * *

Eremi was walking through the halls of the Ranger Barracks when Captain Rak suddenly appeared in front of her. He wore a grimace which didn't bode well for anyone.

Ever since his son, Yak was almost killed and the subsequent fallout between the two, the Captain had become a bit more emotional and his mood swings were not pleasant.

"Eremi, it doesn't look like today is going to be a good day. I would argue that today is going to be a disaster."

Eremi was surprised but then her mind began to work quickly. A bad day would normally need the use of her skill.

"What can I do?"

Rak kept his grimace. "That is the problem. You are normally our way of dealing with disasters but not today. You are one of the hunches and not good at all, probably death is my guess. What were your plans for today?"

Eremi did not like the sound of that. She always felt a sense of safety because of Eremi's Foresight. If she was in a dangerous situation, she could see the next three seconds and possibly save her life.

"I was going to help Ben train... do you think it is his Divine skill?"

Rak shrugged. "It has caused a hunch before. The kid will have to practice by himself today. We need all our [Rangers] to help with the real disaster. The mines. Something is going to happen. My guess is a collapse and it involves a lot of the miners, based on my hunches."

"Which mine? Can we get the miners out before something happens?"

Rak shook his head. "The mines have been trouble for the last month. The miners have been feeling tremors and managing most of them with their skills or by mining in a different location. I spoke to the Chief [Miner] and he said that he can give everyone the day off but there is a group that is deep in the mine. They travelled there yesterday to do some investigations. My guess is that they are going to be involved."

Eremi frowned in thought. She didn't know what they could do other than send people to warn them but they could also be trapped.

"Surely, there is something we can do?"

Rak tsked. "I have been trying to think of something since sunrise."

Eremi felt a bit aimless at the lack of direction from the Captain but she forced herself to focus.

"Can we at least warn their family members? Maybe they even have a way of warning them?"

Rak nodded. "That is a bit of a stretch but better than what I have. Let's go."

* * *

"Hello Ben, how are you doing today? How is the head?"

Ben smiled as he entered Pete's Herbal Shop.

"Good. My head is ok, it is normally gone by the time I wake up. I also think my improved Endurance is helping."

Pete nodded. "That is good. I don't get the headaches anymore so you have something to look forward to. Today we are going to be making some simple nose and coughing remedies, do you remember the ingredients?"

Ben nodded as he rattled off the list he had in his head. Being Pete's apprentice for the last year hadn't been easy but it had paid off. He had learned a lot about herbalism and how to make simple remedies but he also finished his Detect Curses Quest by learning the Lens of Bemural skill.

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Lens of Bemural [10]: An ocular skill that visually highlights cursed objects. Can see through illusions. Requires focus for use. Attributes (Primary/Secondary/Tertiary): ???? / ???? / Endurance

As soon as he finished the Detect Curses Quest, he immediately received a new quest: Lens of Bemural Novice. It was very similar to his [Throw Ball] Novice quest which required him to get to level twenty-five and rank up to Novice. It made Ben wonder if he would receive another Quest for Expert and then Master ranks. If so, they would be impossible to complete. People who had Master rank skills were almost always Heroes.

The rest of Ben's afternoon was spent creating remedies and then, like always, he would practice Lens of Bemural. Practising his visual skill was very different from [Throw Ball] because it didn't require any movement, it actually worked best if he didn't move at all. Practising always required set-up. Pete would hide cursed items around the shop and Ben had to find them. It was exhausting and he always ended the day with a headache.

When he first discovered that Pete had such a strange skill, he had been surprised until Pete explained his reasoning. Part of helping people with remedies and potions was diagnosing problems. Sometimes the problems were in the form of a curse. Pete couldn't fix strong curses but he could help people deal with the symptoms. To diagnose the curse, Pete used the Lens of Bemural skill. When activated, it changed the person's vision so that cursed items or people would be highlighted.

Pete was kind enough to take Ben on as an apprentice after the High Priest convinced him. After that, it took Ben a couple of weeks to gain the skill.

Ben had been confused that the skill didn't require any Mana because it seemed completely magical. It also made him question why more people didn't just get powerful skills with magical effects that didn't require Mana. After he gained the skill, he realised how unpleasant the skill was to use. It required him to focus for at least a minute for the skill to work for a few seconds. It also gave him headaches. The only good part about it was that levelled very quickly and it was his highest level skill despite the number of hours he had practised [Throw Ball]. Lens of Bemural also allowed him to work on his Endurance. A quick look at the Attributes showed his progress.

Name: Ben Manafield

Species: Town Human

Age: 15

Class: None

Attributes:

Strength: 18

Dexterity: 12

Endurance: 10

Mana: 0

After finding the last cursed item, which was a black stone that looked completely ordinary, Ben said goodbye to Pete and the other two apprentices and headed off to his [Throw Ball] practice. Since he had gained the skill, he had practised as much as possible because all his skills revolved around it. It took long discussions with his father to work out what his future plan was. His [Throw Ball] skill was designed to apply the Divine curse to a target, Lens of Bemural was there to confirm that the curse had been applied and his Absolute Damage skill existed to kill the target. After his father had realised this, he had gotten a bit worried. He made Ben promise to use his remaining two skill slots for defensive skills.

His father was not an idiot so Ben took his advice to heart. Due to having a Divine skill, the High Priest had organised for a [Ranger] to train him sometimes. This was a great help and allowed him to learn [Dodge] and [Near Miss]. Both were passive Dexterity-based skills that would help him not get hurt.

Dodge: Passively helps the user dodge attacks. Primary/Secondary/Tertiary): Dexterity / ???? / ????

Near Miss: Provides a small chance for a fatal injury to miss completely or miss a vital organ. Primary/Secondary/Tertiary): ???? / Dexterity / Endurance

The Rangers said that [Near Miss] was a very powerful and life-saving skill. Unfortunately, it was impossible to level up without being put in danger. [Dodge] could be trained so whichever [Ranger] was training him would throw balls at him whilst he threw balls at the target. It ended up helping both skills level up because throwing balls and dodging was hard to do at the same time. His list of Skills reflected his hard work.

Throw Ball [8]

Lens of Bemural [11]

Dodge [5]

Near Miss [1]

Sprint [9]

He still had [Sprint] because his progress of getting an Absolute Damage skill had completely stalled. From his own studying and talking to people around town, a skill that dealt Absolute Damage was not common. Firstly, it had to be a combat skill which meant that most people in Hamfield wouldn't be interested in it and wouldn't have a chance to get it. The [Rangers] had refused to help him and so he become a bit stuck. That was until his father had spoken to the High Priest who had sent some letters asking about it to surrounding towns and even one of the cities. That had been a few months ago and Ben hadn't heard anything so it was a bit disappointing.

His life had gotten better in many ways since he had gotten a Divine skill but some things had gotten worse. He hadn't had many friends before but with his apprenticeship and training with the Rangers, he didn't go to school as much. It made him a bit of an outsider and many of his classmates were jealous of him because he got to spend time with the Rangers. Due to this, he made sure not to skip classes and always spend as much time with his classmates as he could. He tried to not bring attention to himself but unfortunately, it always seemed to find him.

"No Ranger to protect you today Ben. It seems they had more important things than babysitting a baby Champion."

Yak was standing at the entrance to the school along with a couple of older students. The Captain's son had been a thorn in Ben's side since the day he got his Divine skill.

"That is fine. I can practice by myself. Unless you want to be my target?"

Ben had been training with Rangers for a year so he felt his [Dodge] level was high enough to avoid a fight and his throwing aim had improved a lot since he started.

He knew he should've probably run away but he knew that Yak would just wait for the next opportunity to harness him.

Yak did not look pleased by his words and was about to respond when the ground began shaking.

Ben had no clue what was going on and he looked around in case they were under attack.

One of the students with Yak shouted. "Earthquake!"

Several students began running as Ben frowned in thought. He had learned about earthquakes. Powerful Earth-aligned classes or monsters could create them. Before he could ponder any further, he received a notification that everyone seemed to receive at the same time.

Warning! Your town is under attack by multiple Earth Hive Slimes. Please see the threat level below and act accordingly.

Threat Level: Catastrophe

Immediately after the intimidating warning, Ben received a new Quest.

You have gained a new Quest: Kill a Slime

He quickly read it before using [Sprint] to go find a [Ranger].

Kill a Slime: Kill one of the Earth Hive Slimes that is threatening Hamfield. This Quest is part of the Chosen Quest and thus no rewards will be provided.