I spent the hike back to Gorok working on leveling Barkskin since it was still my most important skill and it was finally nearing level seven. I emptied my Essence reserves by casting it a total of eleven times to finish out the level.

Barkskin Level 7

I grinned as I felt the subtle change in how I would form the essence after I leveled. I pulled up my Status to see my progress since after the first village we defeated.

Eli - Lvl 4 Druid

Experience - 2730/5000

Strength-8

Dexterity-8 (+1)

Perception-7 (+1)

Vitality-8 (+1)

Spirit-9

Willpower-9

Barkskin - Level 7\10 (+1) Upgradeable

Experience - 0\6400

Thornbolt - Level 5\20 (+1) Upgradeable

Experience - 220\3200

Rejuvenation - Level 4\10 (+1) Upgradeable

Experience - 180\1600

Entangle - Level 3\5 (+2) Upgradeable

Experience - 200\400

Out of all our trips to the bloodfields, this was by far the most successful run we had completed so far. My statistics were continuing to increase almost evenly, which made sense considering my fighting style was evenly split between using my body and my essence. I wasn’t sure if most adventurers specialized in either physical or essence stats but so far I liked the route I was moving in. We managed to pass halfway to level 5 and I was confident we would reach it at the end of our next journey to the bloodfields.

Thornbolt leveled after the second village we had cleared out and I noticed the thorn had gotten sturdier and penetrated through the reinforced leather armor some of the awakened hobgoblins wore. Rejuvenation continued to increase the speed of its healing and allowed us to spend less time waiting after we finished our fights and needed to heal our injuries. Entangle was a skill that quickly increased in strength as it leveled, and I was able to grab two nearby enemies with one cast. The skill cost about a tenth of my essence but I found it was well worth the cost when it held even an Awakened monster for a few seconds in battle. I tried to use it as much as possible since I planned on upgrading the skill after I Ieveled to five if I didn’t receive another skill to unlock.

I was excited to see the changes in Barkskin and I cast it once I had recovered enough Essence. My skin felt less odd than it had before. The spell had always left your skin feeling tight and dry while it was on and the effect was now a bit reduced. Instead, I had created a layer of essence that rested on top of my skin, although it seemed as if that effect was only a small part of the skill. I expected that by the time I reached level ten the skill would switch from changing the target's skin at all and it would all be a layer of essence that would form above the skin. I continued training Barkskin on the rest of the hike back to the city and I had decided to continue to focus on the skill despite the rising experience costs.

We entered the gates after a short wait and we headed straight to the adventurers guild to get our loot sold. We had already split the coin pouches that the goblins commonly held in the villages and had each earned about 3 silvers each.

“Good morning, ma’am. We have four F-rank monster cores to turn in,” Aaron said as he excitedly handed over the small brown cores of Essence. The attendant swiftly handed over two gold coins and I happily led the way to one of the tables by the bar.

“I’ll see if I can get some change from the bar,” Aaron suggested before walking to the bar. He came back a minute later, sat down, and started handing each of us a pile of silver coins. With the little silver I had left from our last trip and the coins from the goblins I had about 45 silver to my name.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“I don’t even know what to spend it on, honestly,” Gabrielle said while staring at the pile of coins in front of her. “This is more money than my family makes in a year, by far.”

“Well, we could consider saving some money for the mages guild fee?” I responded once I had the coins placed into my pouch. Five gold was an incredible amount of money to save up, and even if we made similar money to this moving forwards it would take us months to save that much.

“Mages guild? Did you two check that out last time we were here?” Zack responded interestedly.

“Yeah, I guess we forgot to mention it. They have an admission fee of five gold, but the attendant hinted that they would have ways to increase our essence-related statistics faster and maybe teach us to cast a spell without a skill.” Gabrielle replied to the group and everyone looked interested.

“I’m focused on my physical attributes more than essence but it would help to have a higher spirit and willpower,” Zack responded. “Five gold is ridiculous, though. I’m going to look into some armor and a new shield, for now.” I nodded at that, Zack was already tough to knock down in his leather armor; once he could afford some better armor he would be a much better frontline than me or Gary.

“That does sound interesting and it's probably something we should all join at some point,” Gary said towards Gabrielle “That said, I think we should focus on upgrading our gear every time we have the funds to do so. In the long run, we might be wasting some money but I’d rather us stay alive with empty pockets than die with full coin pouches.”

“Agreed,’ Aaron replied quickly. “Making forty silver each is a fortune for now, who knows how much we’ll be making in another few months. I just bought a new bow and some decent armor so I’ll have to do some thinking on what I can upgrade while we’re here at the city.” Our server brought out each of us a large bowl of stew with some ale and the table grew quiet as we all focused on our food.

“I’m going to head to Brightswell tomorrow morning if anyone wants to join me. The portal fee is 5 silver each way, but I’d like to speak with my parents and tell them I’m all right.” Everyone planned to join me and I decided to head to the bathhouse to get cleaned up. I spent an hour just soaking in the pool of water as I let myself completely relax. I browsed the market streets for a few hours afterward as I looked for anything that could be helpful during our next expedition. I found a few small items that could be useful but I decided to hold off on buying anything until I looked around in Brightswell and talked to the rest of my team some more. I decided to call it a night and slept in one of the bunks at the adventurers guild.

The next morning I met the rest of my team for breakfast and we headed towards the far side of the main hall of the adventurers guild. One of the attendants pointed us in the direction of the Brightswell portal and we all quickly handed over 5 silver for the fee. Unlike last time I wanted to keep my eyes open as I passed through the portal and I immediately stumbled after I stepped through the portal into the similar-looking room. I walked off the area in front of the portals and waited for the rest of my team to join me.

“All right, when does everyone want to meet here to head back?” Gary asked once we all gathered near the exit to the adventurers guild.

“How about an hour or two before sunset? I don’t plan on staying in the city,” Zack replied. I had planned on staying overnight but now that I was here I realized everything I wanted to get done I could finish during the day.

“Sure, I’ll see everyone here then,” I said. The rest of my team quickly said bye and we split up to head to our parents’ homes. I took my time passing through the streets of the market district that I had grown up in. It felt almost like I had been gone years, by how much I had changed in the short time since I awakened. A few minutes later I arrived at my parents' shop and I walked through the open doorway.

“Good afternoon, how may I help you?” my mother asked from behind the counter of the shop before she looked up.

“Hey, mom,” I grinned as she jerked her head up in surprise.

“Eli!” she shouted as her face broke out in a smile and I could see a mixture of happiness and relief in her eyes. “Did you just arrive back in the city? How have you been? Are you all right?” I tried to reply and kept getting interrupted by my mom as she continued asking questions and hugged me.

“I’m fine, mom!” I finally got a moment to speak and cut her off before she could ask anything else. She stopped talking and I laughed a bit at her reaction to seeing me.

“I just didn’t expect you back so soon. I’ve been talking with James’s father and he said it took his son four months to come back to Brightswell after he joined the adventurers guild. He said the fee to use the portals was five silver each way!” she said while we stood by the counter of the shop. It felt comforting to be back in my parents’ tailor shop and I contentedly took a seat beside her.

“Yeah, unfortunately, it is. Thankfully, I found a great team and we’ve been doing very well on our expeditions out into the bloodfields. I think we’re improving faster than most adventurers, but I haven’t talked to many of the other adventurers I’ve seen.” I explained. I knew she was worried about me so I wasn’t going to bring up how close some of our fights had been.

“Well, how long are you going to be here? Your father won’t be back from the market for a few more hours, but I know we’d both like to hear about how being an adventurer has been. What class did you choose?” she asked.

“I’m meeting my team just before sunset to head back to Gorok, but I can spend the day here. I decided to become a Druid, and it was the best decision of my life. The skills are incredible, and I can’t wait to see what I learn in the future.” I replied with a smile. I was looking forward to casting rejuvenation on both of my parents when my father got back home. I spent the next couple of hours chatting with my mother before I headed out to the market district to compare the prices to Gorok.

After spending a while wandering the market district I realized that there just wasn’t much demand for lower quality gear here since there were no low-level dungeons nearby. There were two shops near the entrance to the nobles district that had wyvern-hide armor, but it cost four gold just for a jerkin. I sighed and resigned myself to saving the majority of my silver unless my team had some good ideas.