Mike decided it was about time he killed something again. He killed a few more of the night stalkers before the sun rose, but didn't get any levels from the fights. Apparently, he had been too absorbed in his work to notice that the warriors had been fighting off hourly night stalker raids throughout the night.

Fortunately, the levels they gained after the first fight, and from the subsequent fights after had allowed them to fight them off without Mike's help, though Aaron had been busy keeping up with healing. No more alphas showed up, and Mike suspected that he had killed the only alpha in the area. He spent a good portion of the day hunting down various beasts, but still hadn't gotten a level.

Granted, the highest leveled one he had found outside the panthers was a level 8 deer, and it wasn't even particularly strong for level 8. He figured he probably needed to kill another enemy of a higher evolution if he wanted to advance further. He spent longer hunting, before he found a candidate that fit his requirements perfectly.

Grizzly bear (level 10)

It wasn’t an alpha, but he felt it would be just as tough of a fight. He ran in swinging his maul, landing a hit on its shoulder. He felt barely any effect as the bear gave a growl, swiping at him with the injured arm. Even with the arm being hurt, the speed the paw moved with made Mike sure he didn't want to take even a glancing blow. His new armor wouldn't even do much, as it was made to block cuts and slashes, not big blows like a bear paw.

“Oh yeah, my new armor.” Mike said, infusing mana into each piece. He saw the bear's eyes get a little less focused on him, but it still clearly knew he was there. Hopefully being a little harder to see would help make dodging easier. His thoughts were immediately confirmed as he was forced to duck under a paw that had swiped at his head. He took the opening the attack had provided by swinging once more at the same shoulder as before.

This pattern repeated several times, before the shoulder gave out, the leg under it buckling under the weight of the bear. He proceeded to kill the bear shortly after, as it was left mostly helpless moving with an appendage out of commission. This bear was tough, but certainly weaker panther alpha had been, but it still gave him the result he was hoping for.

*Class level up! Warrior (level 10)*

*Class evolution blocked due to missing prerequisites*

Mike had gotten a level, but evolving his class had been blocked. He was excited at the prospect of reaching a higher evolution, and gaining that power jump that the bear and panther had. He quickly navigated through his menus to find what he needed to unlock the evolution.

Warrior evolution requirements:

Slay a beast of an equal or higher level with no outside assistance (Complete)

Race level 10 (Incomplete)

Looks like the system wasn’t about to let him start neglecting his profession, not that he had been planning on doing that anyways. He hefted the body of the bear over his back, actually burdened by the weight a bit. It took him an hour to make it back to camp with the huge body slowing him down. He got another request from Otto to take the corpse apart, which he gladly agreed to.

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He was going to ask him anyways, but it was nice to see someone he could count on if he needed this kind of thing done often. He had expected it to be harder to take apart, since the bear likely had a far higher fortitude than the panther had, but the knife he had made worked wonders as it practically pulled itself through the skin. Once more, Otto got all the meat and organs, and Mike got the materials. He wasn't sure what Otto would do with the a bear kidney, or what he had done with the panther organs, but he was sure they would have some kind of use.

He brought all of his new materials over to his stash in the cave, and got to work making more items. It was probably for the best if he made items for the rest of the group, to try and keep everyone well equipped and protected. He spent hours making knives, swords, and plenty of bone tipped arrows. The arrows were not the best quality, but he was sure the archers could make do.

None of what he made had been rare rarity like the knife had, but he also hadn't put as much effort into them as he had with the imbued knife. The crafting session got him up to level 9 with his profession, and he was pretty sure he was going to need to make something else of rare rarity if he wanted to hit level 10, similar to how he had needed to fight a tough fight to reach level 10 in his class.

He tried thinking for a while wondering what he was going to make. He had discovered that the bear bones had a lower mana conductivity than the panther bones, so he hadn't imbued any of them, instead using conventional techniques to attach them to a handle. Technically the proper term was a hilt for the swords, but he was the one making them, so anyone who corrected him would simply have to deal with having the basic swords they started with.

He was thinking a while longer, when he saw Aaron healing some of injured warriors who’d had to be tanks for their hunting groups. He decided then that his new item was going to be made for the healer, as he was one of the most important people in the camp. He was about to get to work, when he thought about how he had no idea what would benefit a healer. He saw the man always carrying around a wooden staff, but he didn't know what it actually did. He walked up, ready to question the man.

“Hey Aaron,” He said, “Mind if I take a look at your staff once you aren’t busy?”

The healer looked at him, cheeks getting a little red. “What?” he said, in a confused voice.

“The one in your hands for god's sake.” Mike said, wanting to slap his forehead.

“Oh, that makes more sense.” He said, finishing his healing on the last of the warriors. He handed the staff over to Mike, who accepted it with a greedy grin. He quickly began running his mana through the staff, getting a feel for what made it useful. It was made from the same kind of wood that the trees around them were made of, which he quickly realized due to how much he had handled the material by that point.

He felt the mana in the moving in specific and consistent patterns, even without him directing it once it entered the staff. Letting the mana settle, he saw the “pathways” for mana that were carved into the mana of the staff. It wasn't carved into the staff itself, but was instead a place where the mana was all drawn to within it. After further inspection, he noticed that the entire length of the staff, except for the top, fed into the input of the pattern. After even more inspection, he saw that the staff was imbued, similar to the knife he had made. The only difference being that the flows of energy created walls for the magic to flow through.

“Alright, I think I got it.” Mike said, looking up from the staff. Aaron was healing someone else, needing to place his hands directly on the wound since he didn't have his staff. “Oh, uh, sorry.” Mike stammered out as he handed the staff over. He had apparently been looking at the staff for longer than he had thought. He speed walked back over to the cave, wanting to avoid the stares he was getting from those who saw him holding the staff.

He got back to his stash, quickly getting to work and trying to recreate the pattern he had seen. He used the femur of the panther, since magic was going to be involved. The bear bones likely would have just rejected the mana outright, not allowing him to do what he wanted. If he was more skilled at controlling mana, he likely could have gotten it to work, but he didn't want to spend forever practicing just to use materials worse than ones that he had.

He put his mana into the bone, infusing it with his mana, filling it to the brim with power. He spent the entire rest of the day, and most of the night trying to figure out how to create the channels that he had seen. He could get them into the shape he needed, but it was really tricky trying to keep them in that shape. To do that, he needed to have the mana flow in circles around the pattern, constantly tracing the outline. After getting that done, he needed to make some way to get mana for spells into the staff. He added an input channel into the handle portion, where it would feed into the pattern. When he finished, he was greeted with quite a few notifications.

*Profession level up! Crafter (level 10)*

*Race level up! Human (level 10)*

*Class and Profession Evolution available.*

*Skill gained. Enchant (Rare)*

*Trait awakening, evolve to unlock trait.*

Mike put all of his free points into strength, really wanting to make the most of the power boost he was expecting. It was time for him to evolve.