Now that they lay before me like this, I wanted to try the clothes on myself. However, it did not take long for me to realize that human clothing was much more complicated to take off than I had expected. And since I wanted to wear them myself, I could not really just rip them off it.
I started with the biggest piece of clothing, the cloak. It was fastened around the neck—or what remained of it—with a clasp. Removing that was not much of a problem and once that was done, pulling the rest of the cloak from beneath the skeleton was easy enough. For now, I placed it on the ground next to me.
It stopped being as easy and obvious with the cloak. The black tunic for one, had three buttons on the chest, which I unfastened, but that was not all. Before removing the tunic, I would first have to take off the vambraces.
I unfastened the straps securing them to the skeleton’s forearms, although with the flesh and muscles gone, it would probably also work without doing so. Once loose, I carefully slid the vambraces off the arms and placed them at my side.
The tunic was tucked into the trousers, but with the lack of body, even the dark leather belt posed no obstacle to untucking it. Finally, I could take the tunic and put it right next to the vambraces and cloak.
After some fumbling, I also managed to undo that weird metal thing on the belt which kept it in place. The belt was adorned with four pouches, two on each side, but I decided to leave a check of their contents for later. For now, it joined the rest.
Next, I began to remove the greaves from the skeleton’s legs, carefully unstrapping and sliding them off. They clanked softly as I tossed them onto the pile of already acquired clothes. With a bit of effort, I then tugged the boots free, revealing the skeletal feet beneath. The boots were stained with blood, but appeared undamaged.
At last, I pulled the trousers down and off the lifeless human skeleton. There was another piece of clothing that left me momentarily puzzled. It was by far the smallest piece and seemed to be purposefully designed to cover the crotch of the human woman. I decided to leave them.
Yes, the human before me was a female. I could tell as much from the shape of her pelvis. It was wider than the average man’s—so were her hips, I realized soon after. It was not very relevant information, other than that the clothes were a woman’s, and so probably would fit me more likely than if it had been a man's.
Surprising what one could learn from watching human corpses rot for a few decades.
With all the clothes off the body, it was time to don them myself, but that turned out to be easier than then stripping them off the skeleton. It was my first time dressing myself, but after knowing how to remove them, putting them onto myself was really not that big of a deal.
First, I slid into the trousers, then donned the tunic, tucking it neatly into the waistband, just as the human had. The tunic felt snug around the chest—both tight, yet comfortable.
The trousers fit me well enough, albeit slightly short. To secure everything in place, I fastened the belt around my waist, which was the most difficult so far.
After that was done, I pulled on the boots, which reached halfway up my calves and shins. There were a few strings on it, but I didn’t think it necessary to tighten them any further, as it was unrealistic I would slip out of them.
The vambraces and greaves were made out of some black metal and forged to look rather… sinister, for a lack of a better word. Still, they would offer me additional protection, which in turn would reduce the probability of injury, so there was no reason not to wear them. Except their weight. It was not as if they were particularly heavy, but they definitely pointed out the weakness of my physique.
Nonetheless, I slid my arms into the vambraces one at a time. They hugged my forearms snugly, and while the weight was there, I did not feel that it would impede on my movements.
Next, I grabbed the greaves, which were likely forged to match the vibe of the vambraces—they definitely belonged to each other.
Lastly, I draped the cloak over my shoulders and secured it with the clasp and with that I was dressed. For the first time in my life I wore a full set of clothes, and I even dressed myself. An impressive feat, if I do say so myself.
Not only was I impressed by my own feat, but also by the effects of simply wearing clothes. I always thought them to be uncomfortable, since even the clan members only wore the bare minimum, but I was pleasantly surprised. Not only did they feel comfortable, but they also offered a—probably unreasonable—sense of protection. The thin cloth would probably be torn by just a single attack of a drone. But, at the very least, it would keep my body from being covered in even more blood.
It was almost time to continue my venture, but before I wanted to take a look into the pouches on my belt. From earlier, I had already heard some rattling and clanking, now it was time to see just what made these noises.
One of the two pouches contained a small satchel, filled with two dozen circular pieces of metal—judging by color alone, probably gold. In the middle of each piece, there was a strange creature engraved into it. It was one I had never seen before, nor anything that remotely resembled it.
It possessed wings, but was no bird. It had a long tail and a powerful horse with long arms and sharp claws. But most outstanding, the creature emitted flames from its mouth. Unrealistic, I thought at first, but then I recollected what the system enabled me to do and unrealistic turned into possible. Any creature breathing more than air was a problem, but at least in this lair, there should be nothing beside bugs.
“Please, anything but fire breathing bugs,” I mumbled as I stuffed the coins back into the satchel and put it back into the pouch.
Within the next one, I found a tiny glass container, barely thicker and just as long as my index. It was sealed with a cork and held some kind of purple liquid, the kind that just looked like bad news. When I uncorked it, a putrid odor, worse than decaying corpses, assaulted my nostrils. It was one of those instances where I was really glad that I couldn’t throw up. Well, I could still gag and I did.
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I quickly put the cork back on and stuffed the liquid back to where it came from. Despite its stench, the human must have carried it for a reason and it might turn out to be useful. At least, I wanted to keep it around for now. The cork would stay though. No way I ever smell that again.
In the third pouch were ten thin and elongated pieces of metal with a very sharp tip. They were some kind of needles, probably used as some kind of weapon. Their small size probably meant that they were not meant for direct confrontations but rather hidden attacks. Technically, perfect for me, but I had neither the ability to wield them nor did I believe that they were long or thick enough to kill Exapoda. Returning them into the pouch, I opened the last one.
It, too, contained something made of metal, although these were slender metal tools with a long, thin and pointed end. It had a slightly hooked shape at the tip, almost like a small, flat claw. The other end was thicker, probably for holding. There were six of them—their purpose was a mystery to me entirely, but like the liquid before it, I saw no reason not to just take them with me.
After inspecting all the pouches and their contents, I slung the bag containing the text and bronze thingies over my shoulder, picked up my two pincer and prepared to leave, when I realized, there was no need for me to actually carry them around all the time, instead, I secured them on my belt.
With that, I had taken everything of interest from the dead humans and continued where I had initially left off.
As it turned out though, I had quite the walk in coming for me and without anything to kill, my boredom caught on soon enough, one that not even practicing mana control could defeat. And only one thing came to my mind to keep myself busy.
I opened the bag at my side and took out the text-thing. I was not even the tiniest bit interested in what the human had to tell after my first read, but there really was not much else to do and I could keep walking even while doing it.
As I read through it, I learned quite a bit of unimportant information. It was mostly things that I had no use for, other than knowing them. For example, the human woman I robbed. Her name is, or rather, was Johanna. And the text-thing was called a diary. She addressed it like a person vomiting all of her thoughts and experiences into it in the form of words.
The only pages that really interested me were those about Veraxia. I thought I had read them all, but it turned out that there was a bit more indirectly connected to the humans whole plot to fuck with Veraxia.
This “Lord Kepler” had been mentioned throughout the entire diary and he was the leader of a place called “Sylvane”. From what I could gather, it was some kind of human settlement which was home to many humans. Being a leader, his position was quite similar to that of Malik, and his subordinates seemed just as deprived. Well, as far as I understood, Kepler did not accompany Johanna and her companions, so he probably was still alive in this Sylvane place.
In general, Johanna actually praised Kepler a lot, herself too. And despite all the glorified bullshit, she still managed to portray herself and Kepler as absolute scum. Or maybe it was just me that did not understand human morals.
I was reading about Johanna burning down a house—a place were humans lived in—when I was finally interrupted by some bug noises in the distance. I almost let the diary drop and rushed forward, but contained myself, excitedly stuffed the diary back into my back and quickened my steps.
Even though reading Johanna’s diary was somewhat of an enjoyable pastime, it compared little to the thrill of battle, the leveling and getting stronger.
Five drones, all of which level 15. I grabbed the two pincers, picked one up with Telekinesis and then rushed into the fight with a smile and began the slaughter. The battle was short and very one-sided, with the drones unable to show a lot of resistance. However, the results were good enough.
[Novice Witch] has leveled up! Stat points have been allocated! 1 Free Stat Point acquired!
[Novice Witch] is now Level 16.
Unexpectedly, I leveled up my class, bringing it on the same level as my species. I wondered why it was that it caught on so fast and what the reason for the slower progress on my species was, but those were not things I had any hopes of finding out. The stat point, like the ones before it, went into Willpower.
After the battle, I grew disinterested in Johanna’s stories. I felt like I had read enough for now and kept myself busy with mana manipulation. More specifically, I shaped an arrow and moved it around without touching it. While I guided the arrow through the air, excessively focusing on keeping it in shape, I started to regret the time I had wasted reading. This was actually harder than expected and it would definitely take quite some time, training and levels until I could shoot arrows as any kind of attack. Maybe I had to stick to explosive orbs for now.
The next group of five drones—all of which level 15—appeared a while later, interrupting my quality training time. Like the last group they just scoured around the tunnel with seemingly no particular purpose.
You have slain [Exapoda Drone| Lvl. 15]. Experience will be awarded.
…
You have slain [Exapoda Drone | Lvl. 15]. Experience will be awarded.
I defeated the five with little effort, but this time did not receive another level. Naturally that was slightly disappointing, but there was already another group in my ear, so maybe that one was enough to turn the sixteens into seventeens.
[Novice Witch] has leveled up! Stat points have been allocated! 1 Free Stat Point acquired!
[Novice Witch] is now Level 17.
And it was. One of my sixteens turned into a seventeens, my class now officially overtaking my species. This stat point, I invested into Intelligence.
After that group, there was silence for a while and I returned to practicing with my mana until I had a realization. Or rather, a misconception of mine that had been corrected by pure chance. I thought even though I practiced, real improvement would only come from either better stats or grade ups of the skill in question, but that was wrong. At least to some degree.
It was not that my output increased or that I was suddenly able to do new things, it was just my manipulation that seemed to improve with time. The fluidity of its movement, the response time and even the simple strain on my mental when using it, all of which improved.
And the longer I maintained my manipulation, the less it felt like a skill. The line between a system bestowed ability and a simple body function blurred.
The description of my Unique skill already mentioned it, but I felt like I was only now beginning the true meaning behind these words. Mana really was a part of me and I had to stop thinking that it was not. Manipulating it was not a skill, it was just another of the things I was naturally capable of doing.
At some point, I did not think consciously about what I wanted to do with my mana, I just did it. When I walk, I do not consciously will my legs to do so, they just respond to my intentions, and the same was happening to my mana manipulation. Although, I still sometimes fell back into conscious commanding.
This breakthrough was quite exciting and I was actually a little frustrated when I noticed another group of drones, and I was reminded that I still had a job to do. One that involved the continuous slaughter of overgrown centipedes.
You have slain [Exapoda Drone| Lvl. 15]. Experience will be awarded.
…
You have slain [Exapoda Drone | Lvl. 15]. Experience will be awarded.
[Novice Witch] has leveled up! Stat points have been allocated! 1 Free Stat Point acquired!
[Novice Witch] is now Level 18.
[Unregistered] has leveled up! Stat points have been allocated! 1 Free Stat Point acquired!
[Unregistered] is now Level 17.