“You'll be able to see the human-city Clearmine as soon as you are over the next hill," said Branch.

Kevin nodded. He'd gone off by himself, away from the group, using elimination as an excuse. Of course, he really had needed to go, and as usual, Branch had left him alone during that time. But now, before heading back, he was having a quick conversation with the fairy.

Branch said, "It looks bigger than I remember."

"When's the last time you saw it?" asked Kevin.

"Oh, I don't know, thirty years ago?"

Kevin rolled his eyes. "Well, do you think we're going to have any problems?"

"I have no idea. Mortals are weird."

"Fair enough. How many people do you think there are?"

"Not sure. Hard to count that high. You know how there were a few guards outside that weird town you stayed at before?" Kevin nodded, and Branch continued, "This one has more guards than that.”

“Very helpful.”

Well, it’s a lot bigger too. More people going in and out. There's actually a proper road and wagons heading to the city and leaving to the west."

That made sense, Kevin thought. Clearmine was a gem mining town, after all. There was a brisk trade with the city over the next rise. It probably meant that he was actually walking through land that was owned by the city itself. But there were plenty of other individuals that bought or squatted on land, trying to find gemstones and make it rich before leaving. A place like this attracted all sorts of people.

When he started brooding, Branch understood that he was lost in thought, and the little fairy zipped up into the sky to do whatever it was Branch did in his spare time. Meanwhile, Kevin sat with his chin on his hand.

He'd been doing pretty well so far. In fact, he had a trump card that he hadn’t even been tempted to use. That might not be saying much, though. For the most part, he’d rather die than go that route. Still, it meant that this adventure had been going decently, at least he liked to think so.

But once he got to the small city ahead, he had to admit that he just didn't have the power to protect his charges or even himself. All of his abilities he'd gained from monsters so far were useful, but together were also really best for ambushes. In fact, he had [Ambush Camouflage], and he didn’t even really know how to properly use it yet.

Other than his abilities from monsters and his cleric spells, he was just a stronger, taller-than-average goblin with a nice sword. If, for whatever reason, there was violence in a city with a city-sized population, Kevin was still confident that he could get away by polymorphing into a chipmunk. But that would mean abandoning the other goblins. And over the last few days, he'd grown fond of them. It was not their fault that they'd been through such a harrowing experience. And the fact that they survived and continued to put one foot after the other now spoke well for their grit.

However, over the last day in particular, they'd all expressed fear and worry about Clearmine in different ways. In fact, Kevin had even asked them if they wanted to travel to their old home, but that apparently wasn’t an option either. They said the orks had completely destroyed it, and they weren't willing to take the risk of going there by themselves without Kevin's protection. Some of the other orks might find them again. The goblins wanted to go to Clearmine, but they dreaded it.

"What a mess," Kevin whispered. He was about to do something potentially rash.

If he were by himself, he would probably hold out, not do what he was about to do right now, but he was comfortable with his decision. And more importantly, he was curious about how things would pan out for Rock's group. For the first time since the day he'd escaped the mine, he pulled up the system message that he'd received after the cave in.

Congratulations. You have received two renown points for preventing the unearthing of Set's temple. The dark god Set is now searching for you.

Kevin closed the window again and sighed. He was very familiar with renown points; they were part of the strange and unreliable, but undeniably powerful system he received from the Morrigan after becoming a Champion. In fact, the Eternal Struggle Reward System, the interface he could use renown points in, was the reason he had supernatural speed and strength as a knight in his past life. In fact, on Goldmere, he'd been stronger and faster than any other warrior who used magic or aura. It's how he'd been able to dominate. He hated to admit it, but the Eternal Struggle Rewards System was how he’d been able to escape from his third life with his sanity intact.

But on this world, he’d gone twenty years, as a Champion, without earning a single renown point. This was likely at least in part because he actually got to have a decent childhood for once. Probably. But to get two renown points at the same time was rare. It meant he had seriously thrown a giant monkey wrench in whatever Set's plan had been. It also meant if he hadn’t intervened, the impact would have been huge and devastating to the surrounding region.

Renown points were basically like a currency given out to Champions of the gods. They were awarded if a Champion did something that gained themselves or their god great fame or screwed over another god in some way. There were other ways to get them, but not many.

The two points Kevin had earned represented a lot of potential power, but also a lot of potential trouble.

If he were still traveling alone, he'd save them. The more points he had, the more likely he could get a better reward when he used them. On top of that, with his new power to absorb monster abilities, if he could live long enough to hunt a bunch of named monsters, he might not even need to spend the points for a long time.

Hoarding the points could even be his ticket to finally learning magic.

But the circumstances were pushing him into using the tools he had. After all, if he were to die in the near future, hoarding all the points would feel stupid in hindsight as his last thought.

He grinned, but his expression sobered. Regret doesn't kill anybody, but Kevin knew from experience that deep enough regrets could be a poison and a weight on the soul.With one last sigh, he pulled up the Eternal Struggle Reward System.

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Since he was already familiar with using these screens, he didn't read any of the help menu or information tabs. At its core, the Eternal Struggle Reward System was a device for gambling. Using the points one had, the system could award a red, orange, green, blue, or purple box. The more points were loaded into a box, the more prizes could be displayed to choose from, and the higher chance the rewards would be good, as well as a larger range of reward tiers.

The system sounded complicated at first, but it really just boiled down to inputting more points to get better stuff.

Kevin had one big decision now and he couldn't make up his mind. Either he could use both points on one roll, or he could do two separate rolls for one point each. With only one point, the odds of getting a powerful ability or skill or item would be very low. But if he did two separate rolls with one point each, he'd be guaranteed at least two rewards. Since it's gambling anyway, I might as well gamble twice, he thought.

But before he could press the button on the screen, suddenly he heard a flapping sound and looked up in time to see a midnight black crow descending from the sky. Kevin didn't mistake it for a regular bird even for a second. Instead, he merely waited for the crow to descend further and nodded his head after it landed on the ground in front of him.

The crow spoke. "Kevin Santos. You are already doing great things on this world. The Queen has sent me to congratulate you and to bring you a gift."

Kevin merely nodded. The queen that the crow was referring to was the Morrigan. He didn’t bother to question whether the gift was to stop him from using the Eternal Struggle Reward System, or to tell him to stop. He knew from experience that the Morrigan’s messengers wouldn’t answer questions like that. Instead, he suspected that he wasn’t supposed to notice how a visit like this might change his mind about things.

The Morrigan did not demand obedience and didn’t even give commands, but she did give nudges.

"Are you Rishlay?" asked Kevin.

Rishlay was the messenger crow that he dealt with before. The crow hopped on one foot and sketched a strange avian bow.

"Indeed I am. As the longest living and currently first servant of the Queen, I am happy to be of service again."

Kevin didn't respond right away. He was never quite sure how exactly to speak to Rishlay. In fact, he was never exactly sure what Rishlay was. Was it the equivalent of a demon or an angel for the goddess Morrigan? Was it a wizard turned into a crow? Was it a construct or maybe even a part of the goddess herself? He figured he could ask but never quite brought himself to do so.

"So she must be pretty happy that I messed with that god Set, huh?" Kevin said.

The crow nodded, and his eyes gleamed. "Oh, indeed. Set is not a friend of the queen at all. And the fact that you stumbled into such a thing, no doubt influenced by fate, and destroyed decades of planning by the other god through almost sheer happenstance, was a fortunate thing indeed. She is quite pleased."

"Cool."

The crow waited for him to say anything more, and when Kevin didn't, Rishlay continued, "I see that you are about to use the Eternal Struggle Reward System. I apologize for interrupting. The queen has sent me to give you a gift."

Then the crow bowed and then flipped his beak forward. Something materialized and flew a couple of feet to land at Kevin's feet. He looked down in surprise and reflexively activated an ability he picked up when he became a Champion to properly examine what Rishlay had given him. It was [The Spoon of Perfect Seasoning].

He could read the details of the item:

The Spoon of Perfect Seasoning

After using this spoon to cook with three times, a permanent effect will be conferred.

[Perfect Seasoning]:

Allows the cook to instinctively know how much of an ingredient to add. Higher levels of mastery will also increase the chances of enlightenment.

Allows the cook to sense hidden potentials.

The description for the plain-looking wooden spoon was somewhat underwhelming. Kevin pursed his lips. "Uh, okay. Thank you."

"Of course," said the crow, with far more enthusiasm than Kevin thought was appropriate given what the gift actually was. "Well then, I will take my leave now. Continue doing great things in the goddess's name!"

"Yeah, of course," said Kevin. He waved slowly as the crow jumped up and flew out of sight. There was no sonic boom, but Rishlay’s speed was so fast he must have been moving just under the sound barrier.

From the opposite direction, Kevin spotted movement a few minutes later as he was staring into space. Branch flew closer, a bit more slowly than normal, and whispered, "Is it gone?"

"Yes, it's gone," said Kevin.

"Oh good. I could feel whatever it was from a long distance. Why were you talking to that whatever it was?"

"It was just middle management. Don't worry about it," said Kevin. He made a dismissive hand wave, and Branch gave him a confused look but then shrugged and buzzed over to a nearby bush to start poking a caterpillar with a stick.

Kevin glanced at the [Spoon of Perfect Seasoning] on the ground again and blew out his cheeks. It was laughable that this gift was going to change his mind about using the Eternal Struggle Reward System in either direction.

He returned to this earlier thought process, picking up where he’d left off. He'd already decided to make two separate rolls with his two points, but now he had another decision. Each roll required keywords, and since he'd been using the system for several lifetimes, he understood how the keywords worked. However, he didn't know whether to try for an ability or a piece of gear. "Maybe both," he said out loud. "We’ll see. Okay, here goes nothing."

The three keywords that Kevin chose for his first roll were: “combat strength,” “supernatural power,” and “passive ability.” It was through a combination of similar keywords that he’d gotten lucky and been able to choose superhuman physical augmentation in his life as a Knight. However, that had been done with three points, all put on one roll. This time he only had one, and he was hoping for the best but made a face when he saw the results.

When using the Eternal Struggle Reward System, using one point, he had a possible roll of -1, 0, or 1. He’d rolled 0. So not the best roll, but not the worst.

The prize results read:

- Elvish Acuity [Tier 2]

- Minor Battlefield Awareness [Tier 1]

- Explosive Adrenaline Surge [Tier 1]

So two of the red rewards, the lowest tier, and one at the higher tier, orange. He frowned and then drilled deeper into all three of his options.

[Elvish Acuity]

Confers the mental and physical grace and poise of the Elves. What is normally a racial advantage only the Elves enjoy will become a part of you, mind, body, and soul.

[Minor Battlefield Awareness]

Enhanced awareness of one’s surroundings during combat and widened peripheral vision.

[Explosive Adrenaline Surge]

In moments of extreme danger, you may choose to activate this ability. Your body will release a surge of adrenaline, granting you a temporary boost to your reflexes, speed, and strength. The ability is more taxing on the body the longer it is used and the more it it is activated.

Overuse can permanently damage the body or mind.

They were all good. All of them would make him a stronger fighter than he was now.

Ultimately, his decision came down to which one would benefit him the most.

He already had a great deal of fighting experience that might make Minor Battlefield Awareness a little redundant.

[Explosive Adrenaline Surge] would be amazing, but he didn’t know how long he could use it without damaging himself. On top of that, he didn’t like how the ability had a situational requirement to use it. Based on the text, he’d have to already be in danger to activate it.

[Elvish Acuity] would not only benefit his goblin or human forms but would probably do great in his animal forms as well. On top of that, it also gave him the ability to think like an elf. On this world, elves were the undisputed kings of memorization, which was why elves were always the strongest wizards. Always.

Of course, memorization didn't really apply to many mages, but it did for wizards and they usually had the ability to throw around more raw power. As a result, elven magicians were universally feared. "If I ever get magic, maybe having some elven brains will help," he muttered.

The higher tier grade of Elvish Acuity was probably because it conferred more than just one improvement.

Without any further hesitation, Kevin chose the [Elvish Acuity]. He didn't feel any different, but he knew from experience that the changes would be slow but noticeable, probably within the next few minutes. Before he started feeling any twinges, he wanted to get the second roll done.

Making a snap judgment, he decided to go for another ability, not an item. After all, items can be lost or stolen. He decided to use similar keywords to the first roll: “combat survival, “supernatural power,” and “passive ability.”

He rolled a 0 again.

The results read:

-Pain Suppression [Tier 1]

-Lucky Streak [Tier 1]

-Werewolf Constitution, Minor [Tier 1]

All the same tier this time. Not surprised. He frowned at the last option, but drilled deeper.

[Pain Suppression]: You have a higher tolerance for pain, allowing you to fight past trauma or injuries that threaten your composure or consciousness.

[Lucky Streak]: Sometimes when you otherwise would be badly injured, you can escape harm. Or you might be alerted to danger when you’d otherwise be unaware.

[Werewolf Constitution, Minor]: You gain a tiny portion of the legendary werewolf’s natural physical abilities.

He sucked in air through his teeth. These options were not nearly as good at the first set, and the right choice wasn’t as obvious to him. They all didn’t have a ton of information to go off of, either.

Kevin decided to just work his way down the list.

[Pain Suppression] sounded good at first, but he would much rather avoid getting hit, or avoid injury than fight through pain or suffering. If he was going to build his powers towards a goal, the goal is to hurt the enemy while not getting hurt.

[Lucky Streak] would be an obvious pick if it were a Tier 3, or maybe even Tier 2 ability. But at Tier 1, it had to be unreliable at best. Kevin thought luck powers were kind of bullshit anyway, too. He wanted to take control of his own destiny, not trust random chance. In fact, it was random chance that had just given him these lame three choices.

The last option, [Werewolf Endurance, Minor], was probably the most practical, but he didn’t want to take it. Kevin was not fond of werewolves or werewolf lore. Bad memories.

But eventually, he didn’t want to waste his renown point so he went with the option that might actually help him live long enough to get better abilities.

Kevin chose [Werewolf Constitution, Minor].