Increase my attributes?

I froze, stunned silent for a second as Par's words slammed into me. How had I forgotten about the increase the first milestone had gained me? It wasn't like I had it so easy that I didn't need any little power available to me!

I instantly opened my status window and looked at the current rank of all my stats.

> 33/33: Muscle mass (maxed)

> 03/120: Fat

> 31/40: Coordination

> 30/30: Stamina (maxed)

> 06/10: Learning rate

> 539/744: Knowledge

> 07/60: Well spoken

> 87/200: Karma

I knew right away that I had a difficult choice to make. Unless I got incredibly lucky, it was unlikely that I would gain any more increases in the short run, and I had two stats maxed. Still, I had no idea what the benefits would be and which ones I could increase. After a moment, I turned back to Par, suddenly getting a great idea.

"Par, can I increase anything on my status?"

"What? No! Just muscle mass, fat, coordination, stamina, and well-spoken."

"What? Not the learning rate?" I asked, disgruntled.

"Of course not," Par muttered, turning his focus to me. "If that was possible, do you know how many…" his voice petered off, and he grunted. "Never mind. The answer is no. No learning rate."

I frowned at him, wondering what he had been going to say. It must have something to do with those blasted limitations.

I focused on the ones I could increase, and my mental frown deepened. My gut told me to go with stamina as I had maxed it first and could probably quickly max it again. The thing was, I was already rarely running out of stamina now. It only really happened when I sprinted for a long time. So what use would increasing it bring? Then again, strength didn't seem to do much. I felt pretty strong most of the time, and I hadn't even gotten anything from maxing it. Was it that I only got something for maxing the first stat?

"What would you choose?" I asked after a while before quickly adding, "I've got a maxed stamina and strength right now."

Par sniffed. "Can't even decide your own progress. Bah. Fine, tell me what the current values are."

I can decide, I thought angrily. I just need some more input.

I held back my angry thoughts and began. "Thirty-three muscle mass, three out of a hundred twenty fat-"

Par yelped, then looked at me with such a stunned look that I wondered if he was having a heart attack. He burst out laughing, fell on the branch, and lay on his back, rolling as he tried to keep breathing.

I was about to ask what the hell was so funny when he rolled from the branch, screeched, and flailed in the air before slamming into the ground dozens of feet below.

Serves you right, I thought as I hovered closer.

"I want to say, god punishes those who deserve it, but that feels odd right now," I said calmly. His scowl made me feel something better.

Par got up and glared at the tree as if it had been the cause of his misfortune. Then he turned to me.

"Yeah, you just laugh, mister three-fat!"

I stared at him in confusion, flabbergasted.

"What? Don't know?" he asked, a nasty grin on his face. "Nobody told you? Well, fine," he barked a laugh. "Anything below ten fat means you are underfed, and your body can't use all of its potential strength. It's like you are constantly using half of your power!"

"Wait, there's nothing that indicates this on my status window!" I burst out as I summoned my status to verify.

"What, do you need everything to be on there?" Par snapped, his cute snout scrunched up. "This is common sense! Aren't you hungry or something? Just go and eat more, foolish mortal! Your shell isn't ready to be sustained solely by karma."

I looked at him in stunned wonder before snorting.

"Whatever," I said as I closed the status window, focusing on myself. I didn't feel hungry. I mean… I could eat, but I almost always had that feeling. Wait... was that normal?

"So? What stat would you increase?" I asked, deciding to consume more food as soon as I could.

"Strength or stamina," Par said as he moved back to the tree and began climbing up. "Either will reach thirty-five and in both cases, you will get a random skill."

Random skill? Damnit, I need more knowledge, I thought as I wished I could punch something.

"What skills?" I asked.

"What part of random don't you get?" Par said with a snort. "Muscle mass will be something using or amplifying physical strength, and stamina will do something to bolster that. Makes sense, right?"

I sighed and closed my status window before floating towards the other tree.

"So? What are you going to pick?" Par shouted from behind me.

"Don't know yet," I said as I reached the second tree and moved through the leaves. It took me only a moment to find Casiron's massive head resting on a massive branch, its eyes closed.

"Your body was destroyed," I said as I floated closer.

One of the massive eyes opened, lighting up the darkness below the foliage with a soft golden light.

"I know."

The short, dull answer confused me. Most of the time, Casiron was easy to talk to.

"Can you inhabit any carving, or are there requirements?" I asked slowly.

"It needs to be large or huge and resemble some form of serpent or drake," Casiron said, and his eyes closed again.

I got the distinct feeling I was dismissed and frowned. For a moment, I considered bugging him for more information. Then I remembered I was lying in a cave, only a comatose Libidi with me. It might be best to get back there before something happened while I was in here. Which reminded me, I needed to find a way to keep track of what was happening outside my body while I was in here. I pondered for a moment if I should ask Par or Casiron, then decided I had had enough condescending speech for one day. Still, there was one more thing I needed to do.

It took me only a few moments to figure out how to get the screens of my mindscape to pop up, and as soon as I did, I saw the one I was looking for.

> Choose a skill to improve by 5

There was a selection behind it, and when I looked at the options, I saw the ones Par had told me before. If I'd just looked, I could have saved myself one karma and the annoyance of having him page through a child's book for me. Pondering, I eyed muscle mass. It wasn't that I didn't think stamina was useful, but if being starved was weakening me, it was a good thing to get it higher. That way I could offset the problem even in case I wouldn't be able to find more food.

Besides, I thought as I selected muscle mass, so far stamina hasn't been a problem.

A ping came from my status as my muscle mass stat changed instantly.

> 33/38: Muscle mass

Now to get it up again, I thought with a sudden cringe. I kept forgetting I still needed to raise the values after getting a new maximum.

"Alright, I'll try and get you a new body as soon as I can," I said before stepping out of my mindscape.

As soon as the sensations of my body returned, I felt a nose and lips pressed against my neck and a warm breath tickle down my collarbone. My eyes snapped open, and I looked down. Libidi had her arms wrapped around me, her eyes closed. With how much of her armor had disintegrated, a significant portion of her warm flesh pressed softly against my chest, and I felt an immediate reaction. Gritting my teeth, I was about to roll away so I could cool down when she groaned as if she was in pain.

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"*&()*&! &***&%^!"

Her whisper was voice slurred, her face warped in fear and pain. A tear formed below one of her scrunched eyelids, and it slid down. Between it and her fearful look, the momentary lust vanished like snow in the sun. She muttered again. This time it was longer, and the only thing I could make out was one word.

Dibidi.

Dammit, I thought as I pulled her a bit closer before closing my eyes. How am I supposed to sleep like this?

The night passed by slowly, and Libidi continued crying out at times, keeping me awake. Finally, when the first rays of light came through cracks in the makeshift barrier in front of the cave opening, I still hadn't managed to sleep at all, and I finally had enough.

I slowly unwrapped Libidi's arms from around my waist and got up. She muttered something unintelligible again, then wrapped herself up like a cat, her head on her lower leg, her posture revealing a lot of skin. I sighed and turned to the entrance.

Eliandra had better appreciate how honest I am, I thought with a mock grin.

I pondered for a moment if I should unblock the entrance, then decided against it and took stock of my gear. A quick, good look across my armor showed that even parts of my previously pristine basil wood chest plate had been cracked. Most of the leather of my chest and lower armor had holes in them, only strings holding it together, and I was reminded of the fact that I had nothing below. Only a loincloth they dared call underwear. I tried pulling some of the armor together, but more material dropped to the ground as my fingers tore through the leather at my knee.

"Shit," I muttered.

After a few more failed attempts, I came to grips with the fact that we had no food, no armor, and only my ax was reasonably intact. For the rest, only the golden-colored piece of wood I had found in the town was left. It had somehow remained stuck in the belt, and examining it, I wondered what I should make with it.

A soft groan came from Libidi, and I turned to see her stretch herself, her eyes blinking around confused. For just a moment, she looked like a regular hot girl that woke up in a place they didn't know how they got to, wondering what was going on. Then the emotions fled her face, and it returned into its typical emotionless poker face.

Her blue eyes flashed to me, and she blinked.

"What happened?"

"You almost died," I said as I tried to keep my eyes from roaming her body.

She got up, and a small part of her armor slid off and tapped on the ground, causing her to look at it before inspecting herself. The fact that parts of her chest armor were gone, exposing more of her than was descent, didn't seem to bother her, and she turned to me.

"You saved me?"

"Yes," I said.

"How?"

I could see her eyes narrow, and it took me a full second to get why. Then I sighed.

"I used that spell I used before and almost killed myself," I said.

"But you didn't."

I smiled sadly. "I drank demon blood so I could stay alive…"

"You what?" Libidi hissed, and her carefully emotionless expression dropped again, showing shock and fear.

"It's fine," I said. "My demon-blood resistance is much stronger than you think."

Libidi just stared at me, her eyes roaming across my body as if she was looking for something. After a moment, she gazed into my eyes.

"Thank you, but you shouldn't have taken the risk."

I shrugged, and feeling slightly uncomfortable from her intense gaze, turned to the entrance. I grabbed the nearest boulder, lifted it, and moved it to the side. Par's words about fat echoed through my mind, and interested in a change of topic, I moved another and looked at Libidi.

"What is a normal value for fat?"

Libidi blinked, looking minutely confused before realization appeared on her face. "More than you have," she said. "We usually prefer fifteen or higher but never get below ten."

"Yeah," I muttered. "You don't say."

"If you are below ten, we need to get food. Fast," she muttered. "If you hit zero, you will start starving and might die."

She moved beside me and began helping with the boulders, removing the smaller ones and leaving the bigger ones to me. Even then, I was surprised when she lifted a boulder that had to weigh a hundred pounds as if it was nothing.

When we finally stepped out of the cavern and into the sun, I had to agree I was starting to feel peckish. It might be because of all the talk about food, but as I looked around, I wondered if we could find anything.

"Can we eat demon flesh?" I asked as I looked around the rugged, stony hills and crevices.

The sun was poking across the hill in front of us, painting the gray rocks ruddy and highlighting a few sad clusters of brown and yellow grass.

"Yes, but not all of it. It depends on how powerful the demon is and how high your resistance is. You can probably eat anything below a tier three," Libidi said.

"How do you know what… tier a demon is?" I asked.

"You don't," Libidi said. "Either someone tells you, or you try."

"Lovely," I said before raising the bag I'd stolen from the demon. "Let's see what that guy was carrying around."

I sat down on a rock, opened the bag, and put the papers on my lap. Libidi came towards me, and as soon as I folded open one of the letters, she snatched it from my hands, causing a slight tear in the side.

"Hey!" I snapped as I looked up to see her gaze dart across the page rapidly. "So, you can read that?"

"Yes," Libidi said, her eyes not stopping as she continued reading.

"These are orders in Terio, one of the languages of Leralion, and spoken by the Terioniarcs. They are an unscrupulous, vengeful race, even by our standards," she said before holding out a hand. "Show me the rest."

I began passing the other letters and folded missives to her, and it took her a surprisingly short time to read through them all. When she finally handed the last one back, her face was so emotionless it was frightening.

"The orders are sent by Scrachlin, a priest off Ux disir Lar. They are detailed instructions on what towns to destroy and how to handle the people there. It describes all the mutations in minute detail."

I looked at the papers for a moment before stuffing them back in the bag and putting it back over my shoulder. "Well, then we know that," I said. "The invasion is being orchestrated by Ux disir Lar, not Nimron."

"Maybe," Libidi said softly.

"What? There's more?" I asked as I inspected her.

"There was one oddly vague letter. It said something about working together with someone from here. I can't read it perfectly, but it seemed to imply that there are forces here working together with Ux disir Lar."

"Are you fucking kidding me?" I grunted as I got up and looked around. "Fine. Let's go and see what more we can find."

"You need to burn those papers first," Libidi said, and I swirled around in surprise.

"Why?"

"Because there might be ways to find or detect them."

Of course there are, I thought as I emptied the bag to the ground.

"The bag too," Libidi said, and I looked up to see if she was making a joke.

Her cold eyes showed she wasn't, and in disgust, I tossed the bag on the pile and began casting Controlled Conflagration.

Ten minutes later, I climbed across the boulders and towards where I knew the road was, a small pile of steaming soot on the ground behind me.

--

Hours later, a cold wind was blowing across me as I walked down a muddy slope, and I shivered. I remembered that when I had reached Kernstalion, the wind hadn't been this cold, and I wondered what season we were in.

"Do you know when winter arrives?" I asked, wondering if there were even seasons here. I didn't even know where this continent was or what other ones were. I remembered that Rathica had ones said this was the least populated and most backwater of the continents, so did that mean there was more civilization elsewhere?

"A few weeks, perhaps a month," Libidi said.

"Then we need to find new clothing before we freeze to death," I said.

"Yes."

I grinned at her short answer when a loud screech echoed from the left. Spinning around, I saw three specs fly over a distant hilltop, straight towards us.

"What the hell are those?" I hissed.

Libidi didn't respond, and I turned to her to find her mouth had dropped open, and she was gazing at the incoming flying things.

"Libidi?" I snapped, the fact that she was shocked to this point making my hair stand on end.

She shook, then turned to me, her calm expression returning. As it did, I wondered why she had become so much more prone to emotions compared to when I had first met her. Was it because of her brother, or because I was just with her enough to notice?

"Go'in'la. They are a form of Troachir," she said. "They shouldn't be here! They-"

"Are from Leralion," I completed her sentence, slightly annoyed. "How dangerous are they?"

"They are deadly, but they are also fragile," Libidi said, turning to look at my wrists. "Can you create more of those arm blasters?"

Not even noticing the odd word she used, I was about to say I needed wood when I realized I had wood. I grabbed the piece of dark, gold-gleaming wood and grimaced. Although I still didn't know what type it was, I knew it was rare and valuable, and if I used it to create bolt casters, part of it would be wasted.

"Any other way we can kill them?" I asked as I looked up and noticed the flying shapes were much closer than before. How fast were these things moving?

Libidi shook her head. "With enough throwing daggers, I might be able to kill one if it gets close enough, but not three. They spit toxic bile that incapacitates their prey."

"Dammit," I muttered as I leaned my ax against a boulder, grabbed my black dagger, and cut off roughly a sixth of the wood. Then I cast the Regrowing-thorn bolt caster spell.

Roughly six seconds later, the wood glowed, flowed across my arm like molten metal, and then shaped itself into the now-familiar form of a bolt caster.

"How many times can you shoot?" Libidi asked, kneeling behind a cracked boulder.

"Six times," I said.

"Then you either need to make more or don't miss," she said, turning her icy blue eyes back to the incoming Go'in'la.

I grunted and looked at the wood in disgust. With a disgusted grunt, I sliced another piece of wood off.

Just as I finished creating a second bolt caster, a loud screech came from above me. I looked up to find three greenish shapes diving towards me, thin leathery wings flapping like sails. With beaks that looked partially fleshy and wounds across their whole bodies, the first thing they reminded me of was flying zombie birds from a game I'd once played.

"Shoot them before they get closer!" Libidi hissed as she grabbed stones.

I didn't reply, as they were too far for my bolts to reliably hit yet.

Let's hope they don't explode, I thought.