Chapter 8: An Overheating Head

I was knock unconscious for an hour after Misha save me, due to the fatigue from the ordeal I just faced. When I woke up, I was lying in the cart already patch up, Misha was beside me busily licking her paws. I looked around and saw that the old man has already returned, the old man saw that I was awake already so he approached me at the side of the cart and asked me what happened, I told him exactly what happened, but he already surmised what happened due to the tracks and marks the battle left around the field, he just want it to be confirmed by my own mouth. Then he told me what happened to the other bandits that I left alive, because I already know what happened to shorty, he was surely killed by Misha, for I heard the cracking noise his neck made before I lost consciousness, fatty died, he drowned in his own blood, the old man told me that fatty bit his own tongue severing it causing fatty to overly bleed and be drowned by his own blood, and also his jaw was dislocated, making this two the cause of his death, that means, I didn’t know that I killed fatty when I kicked his jaw with all I had just to make him unconscious, but it led to fatty being killed. Skinny also died, but it was only partially my cause, skinny was bleeding to death, and with no healer around, even if we treat him with the available materials we had, he won’t survive the night, so the old man do the necessary thing, he grant skinny a fast and painless death.

The old man didn’t condemn me or anything for what I had done, he understand that I did what I did for the sake of my own survival. Instead of condemning me, he praised me, then it hit, I killed a person, not just one, but two, and since I helped Misha kill shorty, then I became its accomplice, but since I was doing it even before Misha helped me, I was not just an accomplice, I’m the main culprit of the shorty’s death, or their deaths. I killed three person, a human being, even if that human being can be called evil, I still killed them, then for killing them, what kind of human being am I? The memories has begun to torment me, I became silent, I don’t know for how long I became silent, I even forgot that the old man was just in front of me and Misha was beside me, till I saw him standing and holding my shoulder giving it a tight press and Misha was using my lap as a pillow as if she’s comforting me. I didn’t even notice that I’m already in the state of self-loathing and I didn’t even know that I’m crying till I saw a blurry image of the old man that was in front of me, he looked at me into the eyes, his gaze kept hold on mine, even though we were both not speaking, his gaze told me something and his hands on my shoulder confirms what his eyes was telling me, that he knows what I’m going thru right now, and that he is always there if I need him.

“It’s a good thing that you felt that way, killing another person or another being may trouble any person, but what they turn out after doing the deed will define them. Some dwell on it for too long that they became mad, or they felt nothing anymore that they lose the boundary between right and wrong. And some, overcome it and they became a better person. Now the question is, what are you feeling right now? With that question, you can answer what kind of person you will become. To help you answer that question, examine yourself and your reason for killing, if it’s just and if you’ll do it again.” With that said, the old man left me alone with Misha to think.

The old man left us heading to the forest after a few moment he was gone from my sight, I look at Misha who was lazily using my lap as a pillow and put my hand on her forehead, she purred as I stroke her fur. I examined myself and thought what the old man had said. Why did I cry and loathe myself, did I cry because I feel guilty for what I done, or did I cry for them, for the three person I killed? No, I cried not because of guilt, maybe a part of it, and most of all I didn’t cry for the three person I killed, I cried for being weak. Did I loathe myself because I feel disgusted for what I done? Then if it’s true, do I loathe my life? No, what I loathe is not the act of killing, instead I loathe myself for being weak, maybe if I ‘am stronger, I can find a way or a method for defeating them without them getting killed. Am I being naïve? I don’t think so, they died because my first priority was to survive, being weak myself, there’s no other choice but to do all I can do to survive, even if it led to killing. If I faced another situation like this, if it means to survive or to protect anyone I care about, and the only answer is to kill again, I will do it. Now I find my answer, I don’t know for how long I was ruminating myself but it’s time to tell the old man my answer. As I was about to stand up and find the old man, I suddenly notice the windows at the edge of my vision, it must be there since I pass out.

You defeated Three Bandits!

For defeating Three Bandits almost by your own. You gained:

+15 to Strength

+25 to Agility

+30 to Dexterity

+20 to Constitution

+30 to Wisdom

+10 to Luck

+40 to Endurance

+70 to Fighting Spirit

The Gods and Gaia has deemed you worthy because of your meritorious deed, you gained a Simple Accomplishment “Number Odds”

You don’t have a name, for not having a name, your accomplishments has not been distinguish and has been revoke.

You learned a skill “Throwing Proficiency”

Throwing Proficiency (Passive) Apprentice Grade 1 (0.00% to the next grade)You are more familiarize handling a Throwing Weapon

+5% in Throwing Weapon damage

You tire much slower when using a Throwing Weapon

The higher the grade of this skill enhances your proficiency when using a Throwing Weapon

Finally, I learned the throwing skill, it took me a day or couple of days to learn the bow proficiency skill, but this throwing skill took almost 2 weeks. I ponder why I just only learned the skill just now, maybe because I had someone to teach me how to use the bow, unlike throwing skills, anyway, at least I already had the skill, it would be much easier to train it now.

I left Misha on the cart then I searched for the old man inside the forest and found him about 20 meters away from our campsite, I approached him and notice that he was facing 3 dug pit and the bodies of the three bandit was beside each pit.

“So did you find your answer?” he asked me as I approach

“Yes” I said, I was now standing side by side with him and looking at the bodies and the pit beside them.

“And what is it?” he asked me again

“I did what I had to, although I said it, I still felt regret for what I did, it is wrong for anyone to take another one’s life, but if it means for me to survive or to protect someone I care about, I won’t hesitate to do it again, but if I can manage to avoid it or find another method instead of taking another one’s life, I will do it. From now on, my first priority is my life and the life that I care about.” I said with resolved and determination.

“Good, you are on the right path, if you chose another path that leads to indiscriminate killing, I will kill you right here at this very moment and bury your body with them.” He said while pointing not far away where the 4th pit was. I was surprised that the old man has already made a decision to kill me if I chose the wrong path. Good thing I didn’t, I breathed a sigh of relief. “Life is not given for others to take, but only if it means for your own survival, like the predators in the wild, they kill to live, so they can eat and survive another day, but they don’t just kill with impunity, for they know that if they kill all the things around them, soon they will follow and die. Remember this.” He said

“Thanks, Mr. Silan, I will never forget.” I said with sincerity.

“Now, let’s move it behind us, for now, what do you want to do with the body?” he asked me

“Is there anything else aside from burying it?” I asked bewildered

“Yes, decide if you want to just bury it or decapitate it before burying” he said, ahh now I remember.

“Oh, please decapitate it, I don’t want any Soulbounder like me be trap in this kind of person” I said

“If what you mean by person is the person personality, it won’t be a problem, for the body doesn’t hold the personality but the soul, but if what you meant of person is how they physically look like, I know what you meant, who would like to look at that face.” He said “But isn’t this a good thing for you?” he asked me

“How is it a good thing for me?” I asked

“This body is weak, let say you’re a little bit stronger than this body, if someday this body became Soulbound, it would be in your advantage if you face him in the future.” He explained. If the old man said it like that, he does have a point, but.

“You have a point, but I don’t want to see the person I killed again, it would be so awkward and I don’t want to be blamed if he got a chance to know that I may be the cause that he got that body. Let’s just decapitate it.” I said. We decapitate the body, it was a gruesome task, as if I was killing them again. I almost vomited but I held it. After that gruesome task, we bury the body and said some prayer. We head back to the cart, as we arrive at the cart, the old man took something in the cart and pass it to me. It was shorty’s things, a pack, his sword and belt, and the thing he used against me, it was a bracelet. I identified it.

Bracelet of ThoughtAn Accessory that was once made and wear by a great Alchemist and Enchanter. It was made with a fragment from a high mana condensation and a pure fire element.Instant Cast – Wearer can cast any skill the wearer had by just calling the skill name out loud or just by whisper. The higher the grade skill may require a cool down. Cool down may vary depending on skill strength and grade.

FireBolt (Active) Apprentice Grade 1 – Skill Grade may be replaced if the wearer has the same skill but with a higher grade. May expend much more mana if the wearer doesn’t have mana manipulation skill.

Damn that shorty! He had this OP item, where did he get this kind of item. He had this kind of item, but his sword is just normal, and all the pack had was some rope. Then I remembered the purse I got from the other two, I opened skinny’s purse first, what I found was gold coins and a ring, then I did the same with fatty’s purse and found out that it had the same content, except skinny had much more coin than fatty. I identified both rings, skinny’s ring being first to be identified.

Ring of GoliathAn Accessory that was once made and wear by a great Alchemist and Enchanter. It was made with a fragment from a high mana condensation and a pure earth element.Brute Force – One action that require power can be strengthen by 5 times. May expend much more mana if the wearer doesn’t have mana manipulation skill.

Cooldown 5 seconds

Ring of ArionAn Accessory that was once made and wear by a great Alchemist and Enchanter. It was made with a fragment from a high mana condensation and a pure wind element.Blink – One action can be done much faster than a blink of an eye. May expend much more mana if the wearer doesn’t have mana manipulation skill.

Cooldown 1.5 seconds

DAMN! This guys, even though they are not that strong, with this type of equipment, I would be killed in an instant. Skinny who got Ring of Goliath which multiplied it strength by 5 times, if he stab me, I would surely have a whole much larger than my head. And fatty, if he instantly move behind me and swung that axe of his, I won’t even know that I was already slice in two. This item complement them, fatty being slow, and skinny who lack strength, good thing they didn’t had the chance to use it against me. The saying was right, don’t let your guard down or you will be dead. Fatty and Skinny died underestimating me, if they wear it and use it from the start, I won’t be alive right now.

I showed the old man what I found, and asked him what it is and where did they found it, maybe he had some idea, he explained it to me that this kind of item was quite normal in a sense but also rare, normal because the people around 300 thousand years ago had the skill to make it or they found an item or material which was contaminated by fragments of high mana condensation, then was found or inherited by this era. Rare, because the people of this era, can’t make as good as the people 300 thousand years ago, unless they found a much better material.

In summation, high mana condensation isn’t the only one that was sought when it form, high mana condensation scattered some fragments or the fragments that didn’t made it to form can be found around the area where the formation occur. Many people who can’t compete in searching the high mana condensation, content themselves by searching the fragment instead or the things that was contaminated by the fragments. Kingdoms, mage guild, rich merchant, and other rich buyer would vie for it. It would strengthen a kingdoms armory, or a mage spells, or a merchant would gain much richer, and or the rich buyer would do what he wants to do with it. So finding this kind of things is not like winning a lottery jackpot, its much like winning a bingo game every 10 rounds or so. Many strong people has this kind of item in their arsenal, especially when they are employed by a kingdom. But the bandits having this kind of item means, they ambushed someone, or they raid some tomb. And seeing the bandits strength first hand, means they didn’t ambush anyone strong enough to have this kind of item, so there only one explanation, they accidentally found a tomb and raided it, in this case, this great alchemist and enchanter.

I asked the old man to accompany me in the bandit’s camp, maybe we can found more of this item. He told me that we can do it later, after we had some lunch, since it’s already about time to eat. I didn’t even noticed that all this thing just happen in a span of half a day, I almost felt it like forever. We prepared for lunch, the old man manage to catch some wolf and rabbit in his night hunt, so we cooked some of it. As we are eating I asked the old man how defense of an equipment work as I encounter a problem earlier when I was fighting fatty, if my dagger can punch thru my cloak when it was covering fatty.

“Listen well, all wearable things has its own defense, even an underpants, now, let’s make an example out of your situation earlier, your cloak has a defense of 581 and durability of 450, now the dagger you used earlier has an attack of 5-10 right?” he asked me to confirm, I just nodded, he knows it because it was his old hunting knife that he gave me. “Show me your stat window” he said “After that, said add equipment stat” he continued

“Show Status Window to Mr. Silan” I said “Add Equipment Stat” I followed

Status WindowNameNeed to be registeredTitleUntouchableStandingsCommoner Grade 1StatusSoulbound, Imprinted, SprainedStrength162 (+81) (+50eq)Agility 281 (+140) (+67eq)Dexterity243 (+121) (+40eq)Constitution 169 (+84) (+45eq)Intelligence45 (+22) (+0eq)Wisdom 75 (+37) (+0eq)Luck70 (+35) (+0eq)Leadership 0 (+0) (+0eq)Endurance310 (+155) (+0eq)Fighting Spirit 220 (+110) (+0eq)

“Why didn’t you tell me the first time that it can be like this?” I asked bewildered

“Because what you wear or what you use doesn’t had much stat or doesn’t had any stat at all that can affect you’re over all stat.” He explained. “But since you are wearing something that can affect your overall stat, it became necessary to add it.” he continued

“Doesn’t my Soulbound stat would affect it, so it would make a difference even if a little bit.” I said

“No, it doesn’t, the thing you wear is with you not a part of you, so any stat boosting title or status won’t affect any equipment you wear, unless it said specifically.” He explained again. “Now were getting off topic, this is about defense, see here, your strength without the cloak is just 243, 1 strength adds up 0.5 to you damage, so the dagger you held which had 5-10 damage would become 126.5-131.5 damage, it means every strike you make, the damage would be between 126.5-131.5, being 126.5 the lowest and the other the highest you can make. You follow so far?” he asked me, I just nodded. “Now your cloak has a defense of 581, this means that you need a total damage of 581 in one strike to null the defense of the cloak, or in your attack damage, you need to strike it 5 times so you can null its defense. Then you have to keep hitting it so it won’t regain its defenses, but if you stopped hitting the armor for 5 seconds, the armor regain its defense again” He said

“Wait I didn’t understand that, why 5 seconds? And what do you mean by 5 seconds?” I asked

“Because that’s the fixed time of all equipment to regain its defense, unless it has a specific properties that lowers it.” He explained. “It means that, if you manage to null the defense of any equipment your target wear, you can do some damage to the armor before the armor regain its defenses. While the armors defenses is null, this is your chance to either break it, destroy it, or just punch a hole on it so you can penetrate the wearer. But there are some warrior who wear multiple layer of armor, like knights, most knight like to wear 3 kinds of armor in their body, leather, chain mail, and a full body armor. This changes things.” He explained.

I ponder this for a moment, what I understand from what he said is that, if I manage to null the armor, I need to continuously hit the armor and not let it be not hit in more than 5 seconds so it won’t regain its defense, then what happen when it regain its defenses? And what about a knight having multiple layer of armor?

“Mr. Silan, what’s this about breaking and stuff, and about a knight having multiple layer of armors.” I asked

“Uhm let’s see. For example, you manage to null the armors defense, you focus on damaging the armor to destroy it, this is where durability enters, durability is the overall strength of the armor, the accumulated damage in every part of the armor adds up to the total damage to the durability of the armor, it takes 1/10th of you’re total damage to lower the durability of any equipment unless it was made differently or you have a specific weapon which ignore this rule, let say you null the defenses of your cloak and want to make a hole in a specific part, in your case, 1/10th of 131.5 is 13, the durability of your cloak is 450, hitting it 34 times will, here comes “Destroy”.” He said, emphasizing the word destroy then he continued on, on what he was saying.

“Hitting it 34 times while its defenses was nulled will destroy the cloak but in this case you just want to make a “Hole” on it.” he said emphasizing the word hole. “Hitting it in the same exact place a number of times will make a permanent hole on it till it was repaired, or if you can’t, let say you only manage to hit it the exact same place 2 times and still not enough to make a hole, then your opponent manage to dodge you for 5 seconds or your just stupid enough not to manage to make a hit again on your opponent in 5 seconds then the cloak regain its defense again, you just need to null it again then hit it again in the same exact spot till you made a hole on it. Don’t worry, even if you didn’t manage to make a hole on it on the first try, the damage accumulated when the defenses was nulled will take a toll on the durability, so if you change your mind about the hole and decided to just destroy it, then you’ll only need a little more hit to destroy it.” he said

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“It seems impossible for me to do it? Unless I had a super strong damage” I asked

“No, it is quite possible for everyone, it just hard to do, you just need to break the armor.” He said

“Huh?” I said puzzled

“Now “Breaking”” He said emphasizing the word breaking. “Breaking an armor is the easiest thing to do, the only thing you need to do is, hit some vital parts of the armor, for example a joint that holds it together, it would came apart instead of destroying or making a hole on it, that would be much easier. Now that we covered up about breaking, destroying, and making a hole, now it’s time for multiple layered armor. You must first understand that 30% of the defense of the first armor you wear adds up to the next one. for example, your tunic that you are wearing right now has its own defense, weak but its till a defense, let’s say what you wear had 100 defense, then you put a leather armor on top of it with a defense of 200, this figure is just for example, so it can be easy to understand. Now 30% of your tunic is 30, it will add up to the leather armor making it 230, then you wear a chainmail on top of leather armor that had 300 defense, the leather armor that has now 230 defense, 30% of it which is 69 will add up to 300 making it 369, then so on and so forth. Now let say you manage to punch a hole on the chainmail, then the leather armor appears which had a fresh 230 defense and durability, you need to null it and punch a hole on it so you can pierced thru it, then to the same on the cloth so you can hurt your opponent.” He said

“Huh? This is getting hard to understand by the minute.” I said

“What I mean is, a person wearing a multiple layered armor is hard to kill, because even if you manage to punch a hole in the first armor, he can just protect it all the time so you can’t manage to penetrate the next one. Unless you destroy the first armor or break it so you can null the second one in any part that you want, not unlike with the first armor still on and only a hole to hit to null the second one. Do you understand?” he asked me

“Then it would take for forever.” I protested

“That’s why I said it’s quite possible, I didn’t said it would be easy, or you could just hit some unprotected parts of your opponent, like the eye or the skin that doesn’t have any protection. Like what you did with three bandits.” He said “But that where constitution enter, skin is the main defense of the body, the defense came from constitution, 1 constitution is equal to 0.4 of your natural defense.” He continued

“Huh?” I said

“It’s just the same as the equipment, but instead it became your skin, let’s make an example of you again, so you had 253 of constitution, not including your stat gain by equipment, it means you had 101 of natural defense, since your attack can do 131.5 damage, it means it can cut you up since the damage exceeds 30 of your natural defense, if the attack was aim at your heart, it will pierced thru and ending your life. And since skin isn’t an armor it doesn’t have a 5 seconds to regain its defenses, it will remain wounded unless it was healed magically of course, and it doesn’t have durability so the instant you are wounded means the defense of that part of the skin that was wounded was already gone.” He explained

“Argghh!”I screamed while holding my head. “My head is starting to hurt.” I said to the old man, math is not my strong point, all this number only make my head hurts.

“Oh, I forgot to say, this is only the easy version, so you can understand it easily, damage is not affected by just strength alone, you must add the factor of speed, this is where agility enters, 1 agility is equal to 0.3 of maximum speed your body can make. Your total agility is 421 it became 126 of your maximum speed. Your damage of 131 can gain not exceeding of 126, it means that depending in the speed of your attack, you can gain an additional damage. Other stat also adds up, for example dexterity, even though dexterity affects your control in everything, especially your aim, it also affect your other attack and speed in a small way, every 1 of dexterity gain you 0.05 in attack and 0.1 in terms of speed. You got 253 dexterity not including your equipment stat, it means you got 12 additional attack damage and 25 on speed. Lastly, don’t forget about skills and other stuff” he said nonchalantly, it seems he can sense my agony in numbers.

“ARGGGHHHH!” my head is starting to overheat.

“I told you in the very beginning, this world runs in numerical value.” He added the final blow.

As we finished this bloody discussion, bloody for me, we also finished our food, then we rest for a bit after eating and started to prepare for our small incursion in the bandits camp. While preparing I ponder more about what the old man tried to explain to me earlier, it was a lot to take in. But as I thought about it and look at it in a different angle, it became much easier to understand. I thought of treating it like a game again, since I started to forgot that I’m treating this world as a game since my fight with the bear, putting my life in danger made me start to realize that this is not a game, so I’m going treat this as a game only in this aspect. I will treat all stats as a game, so it would be much easier to understand and other things aside from stat as real life, so I won’t be careless and die, for there are no save points here.

Game has a ton of HP, but in this world, I only have 1 HP. In a game if your avatar has been hit, your HP diminishes and leads to zero then you die, in here, if I’m hit, my defense diminishes and leads to zero I die. It’s much easier to understand if I think this way. Wait, in game, there’s an HP bar so you can see if your opponent is taking some damage, in here there’s no such thing as bar, or there is? I just don’t know, I must ask this to the old man.

I and the old man started heading out, we left Misha to guard the cart and the horse, hoping that she would do what she was ordered to, not lazing around, we can’t do nothing about the cart, for the path the bandits took was not meant for a cart to travel, and since I don’t want to be left out in looting the camp, err searching the camp rather, and the old man won’t let me go on my own for there may be some unknown circumstances that may occur, there’s no other choice but left Misha in charge of guarding the cart. We followed the trail left by the bandits, it was easy to follow because it seems the bandits doesn’t know how to cover their tracks. Since it was easy to follow the tracks, it won’t take too much of our attention finding it, it was my chance to ask the old man what was bothering me after I ponder about what he said earlier.

“Mr. Silan can I ask you something?” I asked, preempting the discussion

“What’s that?” he answered

“it’s about what you explained to me earlier, I was wondering how would I know if I did enough damage to penetrate an armor of the opponent, is there some kind of a skill?” I asked while we kept following the trail

“Oh, about that? If you’re experienced enough of a warrior or a fighter or a mage, or a blacksmith or any crafter who made some armor, and or a merchant.” I was about to interrupt the old man when he immediately stopped me.

“Don’t ask why a crafter or a merchant is included, you’ll know enough later, you’ll know by just feeling alone, I can’t explain it clearer, they just know, same thing happened to me, when I accumulated a lot of experience in battle” I was about to ask a question of what battle he experience, when he stopped me again.

“Don’t asked what experience they were because I won’t answer and we will go off topic even if I answered it which is not, anyway, I just felt it that I did enough damage to penetrate it. Then after some more experience, I developed a gauge of some sort, just by looking at your opponent’s armor, a gauge pops out in front of it that tells you how much damage you accumulated on the armor, then if you null its defenses, it changes to the armors durability that’s for a greater warrior. Now the merchant, not specifically a merchant, but a merchant is more adept on it than any other person. Since a merchant’s job was to appraised the goods he sell or buy, he has the experience to judge what kind of armor just by looking, especially a talented merchant. All merchant also had a skill “Identify”, you also have it but a merchant has the advantage.” I was about to ask why when.

“Don’t ask why, I’ll tell you later.” It seems the old man know when will I interrupt him. Damn old man. “When the skill Identify reach Journeyman Grade 6 or higher, he can do what an experience person in battle can do by just also looking, they develop their own gauge even if they didn’t participate in any battle their whole life, and when they develop a much higher identify skill it became more detailed than any warrior can ever dream off. That’s because of their job, they had appraise thousands of thousands of item they buy and sell, that’s their advantage, to appraised numerous items advancing the grade of their Identify skill which a normal person don’t had an access to. Most warriors nowadays try to learn identify skill from a skilled merchant and try to advance it in Journeyman Grade 6, but without access to numerous items to be appraised its extremely hard to do, they can always go to a market and appraised some items, but that would not be enough, unless they spend almost quarter of the years a skilled merchant had. Or they pay some merchant who had acquire some extremely rare items, which they can gain much more experience in advancing the skill than appraising other normal things lying around, which is not a cheap cost to pay, for a merchant who had some extremely rare item, only show it to a person they can trust or a person who would surely had the gold to buy it.” he said

“Same goes to the crafter, because their job is to make an armor, they had the experience to judge how much defense or the durability the armor has. And when they advance their skill, they develop their own gauge. But much more detailed than any warrior or merchant had, they said that they can tell where the weak point of any armor is, it’s just a rumor though for they kept their secret tightly.” He said ending our discussion and continuing on the trail.

As we followed the trail, I ponder again what the old man told me, all I did this day, aside from fighting the bandits, is pondering what knowledge the old man imparted me. To have this kind of gauge, what I need is to experience many battles, but since it is impossible for now, don’t know in the future, it’s out of the question, the other is to advance Identify skill or make thousands of armor, but since Identify is much possible than making thousands of armor, I’ll go for advancing my Identify skill, and I need to start from now on if I want to have a gauge in the near future.

After three hours of following the trail, we finally arrive near the place where the bandits make camp, we didn’t directly go to the camp, and we need to act carefully from now on, for we didn’t know if the bandits left some trap or there was another person we don’t know about. The old man scout the place first and come back to me after a couple dozen minute saying it’s all clear, then we headed directly at the camp since it was already confirmed safe. We looked around the camp and found many things, we found a heap of weapons in one spot, there are 3 swords, 1 bow and arrows and a lot of daggers, from the looks of the weapon the bandits doesn’t seem to know how to care for it. the swords was the same quality as Shorty’s sword, the bow was so much lower quality compared to mine at least we’re having extra arrows, the daggers where the same quality as the sword and skinny’s dagger. It seems this weapons was from their companions that they betrayed. We took them instead of being found by other bandits and use it for no good.

The next thing we found was a 2 small bag, 1 bag was filled with jewels, gems, and gold, and the other was raw ores of silver and gold. The gems and jewels came in different sizes, the largest one has the size of my fist and the smallest one has the size of my fingernail. The old man said that I can sell them to a merchant or a mage guild or an enchanter, the smallest one can be sold for about 70 gold pieces and the largest can be sold for a staggering amount of 1 million gold, damn, I became rich in an instant. I said I will share it with him but it seems the old man was not interested in riches, I was wondering how can he not be interested in this kind of riches, unless he’s some kind of a rich man himself, but I don’t have any way to find out because the old man refuses to tell me anything about himself. The old man’s mysteries has kept piling up on me. Anyway, the old man told me that the jewels where mainly use for enchanting, so it can be used as an accessories or in a wand for mages to augment their powers.

The next thing we found was a 2 small chest, 1 chest was filled with books, 2 books in particular was a rare skill book, rare because when you read it, it disintegrate to ash and you instantly learn a new skill, not like reading a manual that you can only learn a skill if you 100% understand what you read and can do a successful practical application of what you read, as the old man explained. This book will let you learn the skill instantly even if you don’t understand and don’t do any practical application, you only need to read it, then poof, you have a skill, and not just that, based on how skilled the writer of the book was on the skill your about to learn, you can achieve a much higher grade of that skill. This means the skill I was about to learn will not start on Commoner Grade 1 but on much higher grade. This 2 skill book was Alchemy Craft and Enchant Craft, even though they are not combat skill book, they are still precious skill book which I can instantly learn. The other books was all basic manual for both skills.

The second chest were filled with tools for alchemy, empty vials, crucible, weighing scale, different sizes of weights, mixing tools, and etc.. Aside from the tools, there was a small box filled with 6 ink bottles. The old man said, it was not ordinary ink, it was an ink made with a material that was contaminated by a fragment of high mana condensation, it was used for writing skill books like Alchemy Craft and Enchant Craft, with this 6 bottles can make 6 skill books, he said I can request someone to write me a skill book if he agrees, or pay someone to write their skill for me so I can learn it instantly. Or it can be used to write some magic scroll, which I won’t be learning the skill, but I can use the skill by just reading it, of course it would turn to ash after use, the old man explained.

Ink of PowerInk made with a material that was contaminated by a fragment of High Mana Condensation. Mainly use for writing a skill book of rare quality, magic scrolls, and runes. Can also be used to form a contract that magically bound both parties, powerful curses and anti-curses, talisman and such.

We deducted that this things were horded by the bandits in a tomb of an Alchemist that is also an Enchanter, or an Enchanter that is also an Alchemist, anyway, they just horded it in a tomb, then the three that I killed betrayed their companions and run and tried to hide here. Since we don’t know where the tomb was, we can’t return it, which is a good thing for me because I don’t plan to return it, but if the old man told me to return it, I wouldn’t have a choice but to do so. But since we don’t know where to return it, it became mine instantly because, first I defeated the bandits which automatically made this items spoils of war or battle, and second the old man don’t want any of it, he said I need it more than he needs it. With this item, I became rich in an instant, but I’m not going to sell it, I’m going to use them for my own item later on.

We headed back to our previous camp after collecting the things, its already dark when we arrive at the camp, so we decided to stay for another night in this place, we check first if Misha was around the camp, or the horse was still alive and if the things in our cart was still intact. All things where present and where they should be, except for Misha who was lounging around the camp. We lighted our previous campfire then prepared dinner and then immediately went to sleep, for I was extremely tired from this day’s activities.

The next morning, we continued on our journey, but before we go, I headed back to the graves of the three bandits, I said some prayers not for them but for me, I prayed that in the future it won’t come for me to take another person’s life if necessary. I realized that taking another person’s life also takes a part of yourself. For I already became a different kind of person from the person I was few days ago. After praying, I said goodbye to the first persons I killed and walk away. We spent traveling the entire day, we did the same routine as we did this last few weeks, except for me, I added some time to practice my new items, the bracelets and the rings, the old man told me that if I’m going to use it, I better familiarize myself on how to efficiently use it and to know their limits, so I won’t die because of them.

I practiced using the bracelet first, I can shot 41 fireballs before I fall from exhaustion, the old man told me that I exhausted my mana pool and need to take a rest, over using it may lead me to faint or worst to die, he told me that when I gain a mana manipulation skill, I can also gain a window gauge at the edge of my vision on how much mana I have. But since I don’t have mana manipulation skill, all mana related detail is a blank for me, especially how much mana one fireball cost. The next thing I tried was the Ring of Arion, as I use it, I feel like I was teleporting, I would be in another place in an instant in just a command from my thought, the limit was 10 meters around me, it was hard at first, I would teleport more or less from where I want to be, sometimes I would hit a tree or blink 1 meter above the ground making me instantly claim back by gravity then falling hard to the ground, other than teleporting or blinking, I can fling a punch or a kick or any one movement I make seems like I didn’t move at all, I tried that with the old man, thinking I get my revenge from the all hit I took from him, but instead of hitting him, I was hit instead, I can believe it, he was much faster than a blink of an eye? Since that day, I didn’t try it to him anymore and stopped thinking about revenge. I thought that I’m already an OP character in this world, but what the old man showed me told me not.

After almost mastering the Ring of Arion, I practiced Ring of Goliath next, it was much easier than the Ring of Arion, since it was all about strength, I tried punching a tree with a normal punch and all I did was scratch it and hurt my left hand, so I decided to wrap it first with sturdy leathers to soften the impact to my knuckles before trying the ring. When that was done, I tried it again to the tree, but this time with the rings ability behind it. The tree was gauge one and a half knuckle deep, it was an eye opener, why, because it hurts a lot, the old man check my knuckles for me and told me it was fine, just a few bruises, he said it was a good thing that I used my brain before punching the tree. I thought that I really use my brain, because I decided to punch a boulder first, but change my mind to a tree instead of a boulder. I averted a large disaster. After that, I decided to use a weapon instead, I tried to do a normal slash of a dagger to the tree, and I sliced it for about 1 cm deep, then tried it again with the rings power behind it, the slash was 6 times deeper, then I tried combining it with the Ring of Arion, the result was over a quarter deep into the tree. I was shocked because the tree was two people wide while hand in hand around the tree. If I’m a bit stronger, maybe I can even cut it with just one slash.

This training was added to my routine while traveling and resting, aside from practicing my throwing and other skills. I didn’t used the skill books I got, because I don’t have enough time to practice it, with all the things I’m doing now, adding another thing will just hamper the growth of the other skills, so I decided that I’ll use it when I had the time to practice it. I did this routine for almost two weeks, till we finally arrived at our destination.