I was bummed that I didn't level after the wave but it made sense, I leveled not too long ago, and asking for another so soon was greedy. I was still keeping a pace of more than a level a wave, so it wasn't like I was falling behind.

In 6 waves, I leveled 8 times. 7 if you exclude level 1 since that was given to me. Worse than the scout that visited but still better than most of my family. The lowest level among us was Diana at level 5. She hadn't been doing much and none of us felt right about asking her to.

Besides her, the next lowest level was 6, with several people there. Not everyone participated that much during the waves and they certainly didn't go out of their way to hunt. That was fine with me, not everyone excelled in one area, they could just focus on their professions once they got one.

We had done it enough times that the clean up was a breeze and the rest of the day melted by. Since Austin and I hunted in the morning and fought in the wave, we decided to give our bodies time to rest before we began again tomorrow.

We both had bite marks in various places and scratch marks here and there that still felt tender after getting healed. I was in no mind to push it and didn't wish to reopen old wounds, so it was a light workout and magic practice for the rest of the day.

I kept putting off training my perception because it never seemed to do anything, but I went out of my way to dedicate an hour or two to it. I couldn't keep ignoring it forever, even though I wanted to.

It paid off because the following morning's training notification finally had an increase in perception. The stubborn stat finally decided to go up after two weeks. It only increased by one, but it was still something to celebrate. Now I had officially trained all of my stats by at least one. Everyone had probably done that as well but it was a nice feeling while it lasted.

Austin and I started our hunt the same as we usually would and noticed that we were slaughtering these boars now instead of the fights they used to be. My upgraded skill along with both of our new ones made the fights a lot easier than they had been, now we had to decide if going for level 10's was worth it.

Fighting a level 10 was considerably harder, but well worth it in satisfaction. Not only did it feel better to fight something that was an actual challenge, it was more rewarding as well. It was hard to explain, but the level 10s gave us chunks of experience compared to below that level.

It would still take a decent number of them to level off of, but considerably less than fighting level 8s. We both agreed to risk it and started searching for level 10s to take down. We still killed all of the lower-level ones we saw but it wasn't what we focused on anymore.

When we actually encountered the evolved boars, we got more serious and fought defensively, slowly wearing the creature down. It was similar to the last time we fought the earthhide boar but it went a lot smoother.

Instead of feeling like we were wielding feathers instead of weapons, it felt more like the fight it should have been. Penetrating Strike easily chipped through their hide, and Austin's quick stabs were enough to overwhelm the poor thing.

After I shaved its armor off, Austin poked enough holes in the thing so it bled out or until he hit something vital. The fights were a slog and took a while to get through but they weren't the life threatening experience they were a few days ago.

It was marveling to see how fast something could change like that, one day we almost died to that level of difficulty, and a few days later we could face it confidently. It went to show if you weren't advancing, you were getting left behind.

We didn't level that day either but managed it on the next. Day 18 was a good day in that I reached level 9 and we got a new leatherworker. Sam and Ashley, the mother-daughter duo, were the two who wanted the profession and it took them two days to unlock it.

Sam was used to fixing up clothes and could do alterations to all kinds of apparel. Ashley was the same but she was big into getting clothes from thrift stores and altering them to whatever she wanted. She sold some of them, but most were for her personal use.

Tailor would have been a better fit for their skills but that wasn't what we had available to us. We were drowning in leather not cloth, and it wasn't clothes we needed, it was armor. My armor was shot, there was no way it would last much longer and I desperately wanted to avoid buying a new set.

I didn't know why I felt it was a waste of points, but I did and I not so politely bugged the two girls about it. Finally, they got so sick of me asking that I was the first person whose armor they made. It made it so that I would get their most inexperienced work, but that didn't matter to me. Better it go to me with the fortitude to compensate than someone else who had fewer stats. I could always get them to make another set if it wasn't up to snuff.

The armor would take a few days to complete and it wouldn't be as comfortable as what the system manifested, but that was to be expected. They didn't finish it in time for the seventh wave and I had to make it through without it. It was a wave of snakes this time and they weren't that hard to take down.

Their speed was their downfall and allowed us to greatly diminish their number before they came close. Luckily, they weren't venomous and the few who got bit only needed a quick heal to fix the wound.

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It was the unlucky two who let them wrap around their legs who would be feeling it for a few days. The snakes were strong enough to break bones when they coiled around it a few times.

I never let them get that far so I didn't have first-hand experience with them. They got pulled back in time to where a broken leg was the extent of the damage. Granddad tried to use it as an excuse to get us to retreat, but he gave up when someone floated the idea that the snakes might be able to climb the wall.

It never got that far and their numbers were already plenty thinned out from our ranged attacks, so it wasn't that difficult to cull the rest. They were less difficult to fight than the evolved boars Austin and I were used to.

My axe was more of a hammer now after beating it against the sturdy boars for a few days, but it still did the job. It crushed them more than sliced them but they ended up dead all the same.

After the wave, we could afford to get two more professions and it created a dilemma for me. I needed to start thinking about which profession I wanted to get and how long it would take me to achieve.

The profession that I wanted the most was enchanter. I was studying to be an engineer before I started moonlighting as a warrior and watching the wall get enchanted was calling to me the same way engineering did.

The reason I first got into engineering was because of the fascination I had with finding out how things worked and how they were made. All the pieces adding up to get the desired effect was something that would never get dull.

I still remembered in vivid detail as the runes were drawn and the feeling that it gave me. It was something that I wanted to learn how it worked, and no other profession called to me like that did.

The only problem was that the information book for enchanting was expensive. It was double what the rest were and on our priority list for professions, it was at the bottom.

Alchemist was debated about getting but was vetoed for the same reason as Enchanter, too expensive. We could get two other professions for the cost of one. Plus, we doubted that anything that a new alchemist could make would be as good as something bought from the store. Blacksmith was next on the impromptu list we had made followed by the more generic Craftsman.

Those were in no way set in stone, just what we thought was needed for the camp. Originally, Farmer and Gardener were discarded because we thought there was no way there was enough time to grow anything, but watching what the Carpenter job could do, it might have to rejoin consideration.

I wouldn't consider it worth it, but then again I wasn't complaining about the protein-heavy diet. I could go for some carbs, like bread or potatoes as much as the next guy but that wasn't what was important. Survival came first, and having a field of crops did nothing if you were too dead to eat them.

Carpenter was chosen over Builder because we had a lot of wood to work with and lacked other materials, which made it the better choice. The same reasoning made Tailor unfavorable.

There were some that we didn't know what exactly they would do, like Cook or Explorer. We could cook just fine now and we didn't know what getting the profession would do differently. Spending 5,000 points to find out wasn't on our list of things to do.

Some were thrown out automatically for being nonessential like Painter, Merchant, and Jeweler. We didn't have very many precious gems lying around to make that feasible. There were a bunch that dealt in territory management that were ignored as well, like whatever the hell a seneschal was.

In my eyes, the next one up should be Blacksmith so that we could repair our gear and maybe make more. We would have to buy the metal from the shop but that was way cheaper than buying a new weapon outright.

As there always was when we had to decide on something, opinions were varied. The idea was floated out there that now that we had made contact with another pylon Merchant wasn't as useless as it used to be. We could trade others for things that we didn't have.

Maybe trade for stone or metal from a pylon that had those close by, or better plants from a pylon in the more forested region. If we could get stone from another group, Stonemason was back on the table. Our pylon was along the edge of the forest and the nearest stone we could quarry was in the mountainous region to the north.

We actively ignored that region and tried our best not to go there. The one time a scout was sent north it encountered monsters that instead of giving a level when identified, it gave back question marks. Later when we sent Kyle, with his longer-ranged and more powerful identify skill, he said that the creature was level 25.

Ever since then, we quenched our hopes of getting stone to use for building. The monster in question showed no signs of venturing south and seemed to be content to stay where it was near the mountain.

It was a lot colder the closer to the mountain you got and we figured it didn't wish to leave the environment. We still kept a lookout pointed that way but after 2 weeks of nothing happening, we figured it wouldn't come south.

Monsters from the forest came closer to the camp all the time and had to be put down, but the northern beasts didn't have that inclination.

It was decided that Blacksmith and Craftsman were the two professions that we would buy with the points from the wave. Now that we had all of the essential jobs we could afford to spend a little more and get one of the expensive professions next, like Alchemist.

10,000 points and two books later, I had a decision that I needed to make. Scott had leveled Carpenter a few times by now and he was increasing his stats faster than I could train and I had to decide if waiting for Enchanter was worth it.

It wasn't on the list of priorities and it would at least be a few waves before it was considered which was at least a week and a half to two. I could learn Blacksmithing and get a few levels under my belt by the time that I would be holding out on enchanter.

And if I got stronger from profession levels I could leverage it to fight tougher monsters to then level faster. It wasn't like that I was averse to being a Blacksmith, my schooling had involved a lot of material analysis and manufacturing processes, forging included.

I wouldn't be starting with zero knowledge of how to do it and could jump into working a lot faster than Sam had with Leatherworking. I didn't know if holding out would be worth it in the long run. The faster I gained strength the higher my ceiling would be by the time the tutorial ended.

While I was in my own head musing, the two books were purchased and the rest of the family were deciding on who would learn them. I came back to the conversation at the end.

"Alright, we have 2 people who want to be craftsmen and only one blacksmith. Is there anyone else who wants to be a blacksmith, I don't know if one is going to be enough for everything that we need done." Granddad was trying to gauge interest in the new professions.

He was met by silence, it seemed no one besides my cousin Vincent wanted to be a blacksmith.

Fuck it, I guess I'll do it. Maybe I could push it toward being a Runesmith or something through the evolutions.