Mere minutes after Devon left the terminal he ran into another leafstag. He cursed under his breath and ducked behind a tree before it saw him. Leafstags were the only monster he'd encountered so far on the mountain that he knew he couldn't outrun, and he didn't like the idea of getting gored in the back by the creature's powerful horns. He could still remember the immense pain from when the other one had stabbed into his arm.
He had a decision to make now. He was four hours up the mountain, and he hadn't left much of a trail to follow unless the lizards had a rather remarkable tracker. He had to decide here and now whether to try to sneak his way further up the mountain or say screw it and start killing everything he came across.
Going the stealth route would spare him from unnecessary danger and potentially allow him to remain undetected for longer, but the idea had a few problems.
He was noticing a pattern to the ecology of the creatures in this world, one that had seemed to hold true for both the plains and the mountain; the further one got away from the starting point the stronger things became. If the creatures near the upper reaches of the mountain were as dangerous as he thought they would be then remaining passive could end in a fatal result if he found himself surrounded by monsters he couldn't possibly fight.
Devon's distrust of the overseers had proved correct, but he still believed they meant it when they had said the pursuit of strength was paramount in this world.
Going up the mountain stealthily would also cost him heaps of time. It was entirely possible that the overseers would figure out his objective was to get the crags to find a place to hide and intercept him.
So in the end he felt his only good choice was to embark upon a path of carnage. He stepped out from behind the tree and entered the vision of the leafstag. The creature immediately let out a big huff and charged him.
Devon sprinted towards the thing, sword in hand. Right before they collided Devon leaped to the side, throwing his sword arm out and cutting through a thick layer of vines. He scowled when he rolled to a stop and checked his sword only to find a thin line of blood on it.
Damn vines act like some kind of soft layer of protection.
He looked up, ready to make his next move against the creature but stopped in surprise when he saw the leafstag limping toward him, the fire of hatred still burning in its eye.
Devon couldn't understand why the leafstag was limping. He'd only cut through the outer layer of vines, barely scratching the thin skin below. Then the realization hit him. He hadn't noticed at the time, but the flesh of the animal beneath the plants wasn't lean in the slightest. It had actually looked as though the animal wasn't that muscular.
I see now. The vines act as the creature's muscles and the animal provides nutrients for the plant to live. What a fascinating creature.
But no matter how interesting Devon found the thing's biology, the fact remained that he needed to kill the thing. Now that its mobility was hindered, Devon shoved the sword into his inventory before pulling his trusty spear out. With a few quick stabs from a safe distance, the leafstag fell.
Kill - [Leafstag - Level 6] - 27 Talons
Devon spared the poor animal only a glance before moving on. He couldn't help but notice the system had barely awarded him any talons for the kill, and he thought back to the initial four hour trek he realized the pattern.
It seemed the system marked down the talon gain of repeated kills, meaning to effectively gain money you either had to constantly hunt for new things or continuously grind out a single group of monsters.
Devon smiled, if the last four hours were anything to go by, new creatures were something the mountain would have plenty of.
----------------------------------------
Two hours later Devon sat on a stone, panting. Next to him sat the corpse of a spithound. The thing had appeared canine to Devon's eyes before it had opened its disgustingly alien mouth and spat a glob of acid at him.
Kill - [Spithound - Level 8] - 81 Talons
[Level up. Level 8 obtained.]
Huh, I suppose that makes me even to Eve now. Actually, I suppose I should take another look at that ladder now. Ladder.
[Level Ladder]
1. Eve - Level 10
2. Ray - Level 10
3. Stein - Level 9
4. Zane - Level 9
5. Nix - Level 9
6. Ingrid - Level 8
7. Trey - Level 8
8. Ash - Level 8
9. Devon - Level 8
10. Kyle - Level 7
[Talon Ladder]
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1. Eve - 596
2. Ray - 543
3. Stein - 522
4. Nix - 467
5. Devon - 458
6. Ingrid - 451
7. Zane - 439
8. Kyle - 411
9. Ash - 387
10. Damon - 361
"Damn," Devon muttered to himself. He'd known he was a lot less inclined to this sort of lifestyle, but the fact that Eve and Trey were still outpacing him was a bit sad after his two solid hours of grinding. But then again, they were likely able to finish fights far easier because they were able to distribute their free points.
He was starting to seriously feel the strain of fighting creatures while he had significantly fewer stats than he should rightly have, as the fights were taking longer and longer as the levels went up. Devon could likely have finished creatures off faster if he just went for the kill, but he knew letting his guard down at the wrong moment could prove fatal.
He just wasn't willing to take a hit when he was pretty certain that the healing item's cooldown still hadn't reset, though he had no way to properly check that.
He might just have to resign himself to being continuously behind everyone else. He opened his status, wanting to give himself a little bit of satisfaction for the progress. However, his eyes narrowed when he noticed something strange.
[Status]
Name: Devon Wells
Race: [E-Grade Human]
Level: 8
Class: [Feature locked until level 10]
Profession: [Cursed Schemer]
Mana: 85/85
Talents: [Spear Proficiency - Level 1], [Sword Proficiency - Level 1]
Skills: None.
Titles: Initiate, Cursed(2), Callous
Strength: 19
Dexterity: 20
Vitality: 17
Endurance: 16
Arcane: 17
Free Points: 35
Talons: 458
The weapon proficiencies weren't new, he'd gotten those on the way up the mountain and had already checked them out, only to find they didn't do much of anything. Devon suspected they were something of a gateway to generalist weapon skills, but they would need to be leveled up before giving any real reward.
The real inconsistency was in his stats themselves. Unless his math was wrong, and he was a grade A calculus student so he was pretty damn sure it wasn't, each of his stats had 1 more than they should have.
He scoured his status page, looking for a reason for the inconsistency, but found nothing he hadn't seen before. His first thought was that it was probably due to the Cursed title, as the effects under that were listed as ??????, but discarded the idea after thinking about it.
If those points were gained from the Cursed title then I should have 5 unexplained points in each stat, not just 1.
He'd gained 5 levels since he'd killed the overseer, so it only made sense that if the title gave an extra point for every level they would be much higher.
Maybe it does give me gains, but they're staggered? Maybe it only dishes out an extra point every 5 levels.
He had no concrete answers, and the system was as silent as ever, refusing to give him even the most basic information on how things within it really worked. He sighed in resignation and decided that there was no choice but to move on. He'd just have to wait until the next level to see if he got more 'mystery points.'
Once I get the messaging function I should ask Eve or Trey if they've encountered this. It might just be an effect of becoming higher leveled.
His race was listed as E-Grade Human, and Devon would be shocked if there was no way to improve one's grade by some means of progression. It seemed like it should almost be a given with a leveling system such as the one in place.
He shook off the thoughts and turned his attention forward. He'd stopped here not only because he needed the break, but because he had finally reached the point on the mountain where the terrain became truly jagged.
He sat near the edge of a ravine, a tiny one compared to the ones he could see further up the mountain, but it was large enough that he thought he might have a chance to find a cave or alcove at least to take a rest in.
He shoved his weapon into his tile before clambering over the edge of the ravine. It looked to be about 10 meters to the bottom, and Devon still didn't feel anywhere near strong enough to endure a fall like that without injury.
He'd been rock climbing a few times with a friend in high school when he still participated in athletics, so he wasn't completely hopeless when it came to climbing. Still, it took him nearly half an hour to make it to the bottom. Climbing down was a lot harder than climbing up because it was more difficult to see the rocks and harder to judge their stability.
He mused to himself that he was lucky the wall was suitable for climbing at all. If it had been a sheer surface he would have had to search for a way down or make a rope. Both options would have cost him time, though he felt the time pressure was a lot less imposing now that he'd made it to where he wanted to be. Now he just had to find a suitable spot.
He walked along the bottom of the canyon, keeping an eye out for any sort of alcoves or caves. After about ten minutes he came to a sort of intersection in the path and frowned.
The formation could almost perfectly be seen as a T intersection, with two 90-degree angles to match.
That's… odd.
He was pretty sure nature wasn't supposed to create such neat formations, but then he had to remind himself that this was a different world. Of course, it probably had different rules. If he was a betting man he'd have put his money on the stone being composed in some weird way, like how pyrite clusters formed perfect cubes, or quartz crystals ended up looking like natural monoliths.
He didn't spend long at the intersection, choosing the direction that took him closer to the summit.
It didn't take long, perhaps a minute later, that he heard a chittering and scraping along the stone ahead. As a precaution, he took his spear out of his tile before moving forward.