It was amazing how much the fear of getting torn apart by the world’s happiest murderhobo could motivate a person. Zane attacked his training like it was the only thing keeping him alive.
He also began to ask questions. Happy Killmore, as Zane had dubbed the frighteningly cheerful kobold, had mentioned a mountain. When he asked about it, Kiel explained that the warren lay at the base of a mountain range.
The God Hand mountains consisted of five peaks wrapped in mystic fog. At the top of each peak was a temple that could grant a boon to worthy individuals. Kiel went into great detail about how the fog affected lower level cultivators, getting more and more deadly the higher they climbed. But Zane wasn't really listening.
The young man had locked onto the possibility of a divine reward. If his mentor made such a big deal about the three he had received already, five more would probably bestow almost godlike power.
Eventually Kiel realized that Zane wasn't listening anymore, and went back to beating him with a stick. They trained intensely over the next few days, the same series of events unfolding again and again. Until finally something changed.
The young man had begun to recognize patterns in the way Kiel moved. The kobold sorcerer had the bad habit of shifting his left foot back before he committed to a full power attack.
The next time they fought, he waited for the kobold’s foot to move. Then Zane smacked Kiel’s spear to the side and tried to exploit the opening he had made. Instead of skewering his opponent, he watched in surprise as the kobold disappeared in a puff of black smoke.
Before he could turn around, Kiel’s was already on him. “Sorry, kiddo,” the kobold said as he thrust his spear into Zane's back and out through his chest. “It was a pretty good move, but I saw it coming from a mile away.”
***
The biggest change came when Zane started ignoring the pain and fighting on, even though he knew his body was done for. He hated losing, and the fear of death was nothing compared to how much he hated being beaten again and again.
Each time Zane thought he had Kiel on the ropes, the kobold pulled some new trick out of his sleeve. Once, after he was disarmed, Kiel whipped off his belt and used it to break Zane's neck. That had been an unwelcome surprise.
One second Zane thought he had the upper hand, the next moment Kiel had ducked between his legs and wrapped the belt around his throat. After that, all the kobold had to do was kick out Zane’s knee and lean forward.
Chimes indicating level ups kept going off, but Zane didn't care. He had to beat Kiel. Other kobolds showed up from time to time, Zane would wait for them to leave and go right back to training.
“How do you do it?” Zane asked after Kiel pulled off a particularly nasty trick. The kobold had shoved the butt of his spear into the ground and thrown Zane onto it. “How are you that good with a spear?”
“Practice, patience, speed, and precision.” Responded the kobold. “And I've died more times than you've had hot meals. Each thing I'm doing to you, someone else did to me first.”
“You fight dirty,” Zane said as he picked up his spear.
“No, kiddo. I fight to win.” The kobold adjusted his stance. “And I'm training you to fight without the Mesh so you have a strong foundation to build off of when you go climb the mountain. Because I know you will try to climb the mountain. Letting you win teaches you nothing.”
Zane chewed on his teacher's words and found that as bitter as they were, what Kiel said was true. “Alright, so go all out. Stop holding back.”
“Kiddo, are you sure that's what you want? There's not much to learn from being vaporized either.”
“Yeah, there's no point in beating you if you're holding back.” Zane knew he was about to get his ass kicked, but that wasn't the problem. The problem was that Kiel had magic and he didn't.
The kobold sorcerer set his spear aside and adopted an open pose, drawing magic from his core and letting it settle around him like a mantle. “Let's see what you got, kiddo.”
***
Zane knew he was in for a rough time when he thought he had gotten a lucky shot in, only to watch his spear shatter against an invisible barrier. The head snapped off and the shaft exploded into splinters.
The kobold did not wait for Zane to get another one. Instead, he attacked. Kiel didn't move, he flowed like smoke, entering and exiting Zane's space effortlessly.
Punches seemed to never find him. When Zane kicked, Kiel became incorporeal and let the blow pass through. Then, he responded with a punch like a sledgehammer.
Zane stumbled back, trying to breathe as he recovered from the blow to his solar plexus. The world was spinning, and Kiel kept on coming. The young man fell to the ground, and when he did, something caught his eye.
He gripped the piece of metal in his left hand and tried to get up, knowing the kobold wouldn't let him. Zane had also learned that the sorcerer couldn't shield and attack at the same time. So when Kiel went to deliver the killing blow, Zane responded with an attack of his own.
He watched dumbly as the tip of his broken spear plunged into Kiel’s chest. The kobold smiled proudly as he continued to beat the snot out of his pupil. Kiel was dying, but he wasn't done fighting yet.
The next morning, Zane called out into the dark. “Hey Kiel, how's it going?”
“Never better, kiddo.” The kobold stood up and summoned a light. He had kept Zane in the dark about certain aspects of the Mesh for his own good. But it was finally time for his student to advance.
“Come on, let's connect to the Mesh and see what new abilities you have available for purchase,” he said.
“Abilities?” Zane asked, “I can buy new abilities?”
Kiel nodded. “Yeah, of course you can. What did you think all that essence was for, bragging rights?”
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
***
Zane centered himself, connected to his core, and opened the Mesh. Nothing had changed, except his level was now expressed as a fraction. He had claimed zero of seven possible levels. Kiel had explained that levels needed to be claimed for them to activate, but smart people saved up their essence first. That way they could gain the maximum benefit by purchasing powerful abilities and upgrades.
Few people could manipulate or gather essence like true cultivators did. But there were those who tried to game the system by having others gather resources for them. They went on guided safaris to hunt spirit beasts and hired chefs like Zane to prepare their kills.
It was possible for a person to level up without ever collecting or spending essence. However, that person would never be as strong as someone who actively engaged in cultivation or gamed the system by going on canned hunts. Claiming levels had benefits, especially when you went up a tier. But slow and steady seemed to be the most optimal path.
The tier system was confusing to Zane. Everyone started at tier zero and advanced to tier one when they accepted their first level. This made sense to him. After that the tier bumps came at levels five, ten, fifteen, and twenty. This also was something he could get behind and was easy to remember. But after that, it jumped to ten levels between tier bumps instead of five. Then fifteen levels, then twenty. By the time Kiel had seen the glazed expression on his student's face and stopped talking, Zane’s mind had already shut down to protect itself.
The young man accepted his first level and was given some options for new abilities to purchase. They were broken down by category. Some came from him being considered a kobold, which was still a mystery in and of itself. Others seemed linked to his class or the divine blessings he had been granted. But a few were grayed out as well.
It seemed they required certain amounts of Divinity and Purity for him to claim. Though, the Purity one was interesting. Because as someone smack dab in the middle of the pie chart, he was being denied for being both too pure, and not pure enough. Rather than take it at face value, and speedrun to either side of the spectrum. Zane took a second to see if there were any skills he qualified for because of his neutrality. Sure enough, there were a few.
Zane took a deep breath. He could only buy one ability per level. So, he needed to make every purchase count. He started with the most expensive abilities and worked his way down, discarding the trash tier consolation prize ones on general principle. He didn't need to waste his time on “color changing scales”. Zane didn't even have scales.
> Kobold’s Regeneration: Draw on the power of your lower core to heal major wounds. Minor wounds heal on their own. Cost 10 essence
>
> Fox’s Swiftness: Draw on the power of your lower core to move faster. Reflexes are boosted. Cost 10 essence
>
> Dragon’s Toughness: Draw on the power of your lower core to resist damage. Become more durable. Cost 10 essence
>
> Cat’s Grace: Draw on the power of your lower core to become more agile. Reduce fall damage. Cost 10 essence
>
> Chef's Tools: Draw on the power of your lower core to summon the necessities of your profession. Proficiency in food preparation is boosted. Cost 10 essence
The green pie chart labeled essence was sectioned out into thirty slices. There were other, cheaper options that only cost five essence. But they lacked the secondary buffs to go with the active ones. Besides, Zane wanted to keep things simple. He didn't feel like trying to weigh the pros and cons of different abilities when he didn't even know what the outside world was like.
Regeneration sounded amazing, but he was already functionally immortal. The same went for Toughness. If he died, Zane would return to the warren completely healed by the next morning.
That left Swiftness, Grace, and Tools. The first two were no-brainers if he was going for a sort of glass cannon build. The third was iffy. He liked the idea of being able to cook. And if he was dying a lot, it made sense to be able to summon basic equipment from nothing. But was it better than two cheaper skills?
In the end, Zane’s impatience and his desire to become as strong as possible per level, won. He accepted Swiftness, Grace, and Tools, bringing his level up to three and advancing from tier zero to one.
As soon as he spent the first chunk of essence, it was like breaking a seal. The essence began to leak out, forcing him to spend the rest of it immediately, or lose it forever. He locked in the third ability just in time and took a deep breath, dismissing the Mesh.
Kiel was looking at him expectantly. “Alright kiddo, show me what you got.”
Zane grinned and vaulted forward, using his Cat’s Grace and Fox’s Swiftness. Unfortunately, his legs were still asleep. So instead of gracefully moving from sitting to standing, he ended up stumbling and crashing into the ground.
The kobold looked down at his student and shook his head. “Got anything else?”
Zane concentrated, drawing on the nexus of energy near his navel. Kiel had told him that was where his lower core was. Eventually a metal spatula appeared in his hand. The kobold laughed and began to summon a small fireball. “Kiddo, if that's what you spent your essence on, I hope you kept the receipt.”
***
A few days later, Zane prepared to meet the rest of the warren. The blankets he had been wearing as makeshift clothes wouldn't do. He needed something better. Luckily, his new abilities could help with that.
The young man focused, drawing energy from his lower core to summon a uniform. The red fabric snaked around him, forming a robe. A stylized representation of a grinning kobold embroidered across the back in gold thread, along with some black accents, gave the garment a semblance of elegance.
To Zane's surprise, it also came with boots, underwear, and a carved wooden mask. The boots were split toed, Jika-tabi style. The Japanese footwear threw Zane off for a second before he remembered that this wasn’t a xianxia land like he had first assumed. Everything here was mixed and hybridized. Eastern influences still dominated. But some more western elements were visible as well.
They were subtle hints, a cavalry saber on the weapons wall, some hurricane style oil lanterns. The small clues added up to create something much different than the world he had been expecting. This place was a melting pot, and Zane suspected his fellow outsiders were to blame.
He picked up the mask and turned it over. On the other side was the face of a dragon, the same red dragon he had seen when he spun the wheel of fate. Like the one Lady Foxglove wore, it left his jaw and mouth uncovered.
Zane donned the mask. It stuck to his face like it had been glued on. He gave his head a shake, trying to see how well the adhesive would hold. It stayed attached until he willed it to come off.
Kiel had explained that masks were a way to show one's class and affiliations. His mask would mark him as a follower of the celestial dragon, and an obvious non-combatant. Warriors wore much simpler masks to prevent a weapon from catching on the carvings.
The young man sighed, he would have picked something more exciting for his class. Maybe a sorcerer, like Kiel. Or perhaps an archer, so he could go Skyrim on the various beasts that stalked the mountain. Stealth archery builds were overpowered as hell.
Instead, he was stuck with what the System had chosen for him. He was a chef, not a warrior or wizard. At least he could respawn when something inevitably killed him.
His upgraded abilities proved to be helpful, but they weren't exactly game changers. Kiel still kicked his ass with alarming regularity. He was faster, but he still wasn't the fastest.
“Zane, are you ready to go?” asked Kiel.
“Yeah, but I'm not looking forward to it.” Zane admitted, “Are you sure you can't convince the other kobolds to leave me alone?”
The sorcerer shook his head. “They won't believe me until they see it with their own eyes. And after that, some will still try and challenge you. Do me a favor and try not to kill them.”
Zane frowned. “But why? Won't they come back?”
“No. Only kobolds who are chosen by the great celestial dragon are able to respawn. That's another reason why they won't be happy to see you.” Kiel shook his head, “You took a blessing meant for one of them, and that's something I fear you will pay for many times over.”
“Nothing is more expensive than a free blessing.” Zane muttered, wondering if he had done himself more harm than good by taking all three. But that was in the past, he couldn't change it anymore than he could return back home.
Kiel looked him over. “Come on, let's go meet the rest of the family.”