It was currently evening in their new home. Leon and Rose had purchased beds and closets for their bedrooms, the beds were much more comfortable than their old ones. They also bought minor items specifically for the bathroom.
For the living area, they bought a stylish and comfortable couch, a TV, and some delicate plants to liven the place a little up. Leon was curious about the TV and its channels, but that would have to wait due to not having cable yet.
They added a new dining table and some new chairs to the apartment and luckily they didn’t have to buy a new fridge as the apartment already had one installed. With the new home outfitted and ready to live in, they only needed to settle some contracts and move over what minor stuff they had to the new house.
Rose and Leon both purchased phones, and Rose used her phone mainly to call to establish contracts like electricity and gas. Rose spent well over 4,000 credits to get everything bought and delivered on the same day. It might’ve been a waste to others, but for Leon and Rose, it was worth it.
Leon had little to do other than browse the web. I already suspected as much. It’s actually pretty similar to my old world’s internet.
Leon unsurprised. He noticed how people interacted on the forums, which was already enough of a sign to him. Is it because I influenced it? Or was it always like this? The original novel never went into details like these. It focused mainly on the game and not much outside of the game.
He stopped over analysing and searched for some information regarding ferrets and ferret-like behaviour. As he researched, he stumbled upon some videos of ferrets jumping erratically. Oddly enough, he recognised it because Beans did it sometimes as well.
‘Weasel war dance, commonly means the ferret is thoroughly enjoying itself.’ Leon smiled as he read that, knowing that Beans was enjoying himself was good to know. His good mood didn’t last long as ferrets had many health problems, with the most common one being cancer.
Leon took a deep breath to calm down and thought slowly, Beans isn’t a normal ferret. He’s got a special soul to control the earth, and mana exists as well. These can all change the health problems. As Leon thought further, he found it pointless to guess if the health problems had a future effect on Beans.
“Ready to go back one last time?” Rose asked as she held some empty garbage bags ready for the rest of their stuff. Leon was hesitant. “Won’t the people there look negatively upon us in these clothes?” He asked as he looked down at his new clothes.
Rose smiled, “Not really. If anything, they’ll be happy we leave.” She opted to not explain it further.
Leon didn’t understand. Why would they be happy? He didn’t voice his opinions as he followed behind Rose.
The colony’s lamps slowly turned dark as they reached the slums, and Leon became more nervous as they approached the slums. People noticed them coming and kept looking at them. Leon was sure a confrontation was about to happen, but to his surprise, nothing seemed to happen.
They entered their previous abode and could take their stuff. It wasn’t much, but the headgear was an absolute must. Leaving with the bags, they walked back on the streets. People kept looking at them and one person even shouted, “Don’t come back here!”
Leon already felt uncomfortable from the stares, but now that one was even yelling made it 10 times worse. He took some deep breaths to calm himself down. Rose noticed Leon was struggling and put her arm around him in comfort as they walked.
Once they got far enough, Leon couldn’t hold back anymore as he felt betrayed. “Why do they hate us just because our situation got better?” He could feel his grip on his emotions slip as he knew what was coming.
Rose stopped and crouched down to eye-level as she smiled. “Leon, they weren’t mad at us.” Her words made Leon stop.
“W-What do you mean?”
Rose sighed a little. “Those words they said ‘Don’t come back here’. It means that we shouldn’t screw up and have to go back there again.” Leon’s thoughts suddenly understood the underlying message as his meltdown quickly ebbed away.
He suddenly became embarrassed as he didn’t get the message. “Couldn’t they have just said that?” Rose giggled as she heard Leon’s complaints.
“Appearances have to be kept.” She had her fair share of those instances in her past life that she could notice quickly.
After dropping their stuff at the new home and going out to eat once more, they finally finished all their tasks for the day. Crashing down on the new couch, Leon and Rose were exhausted after today’s events.
“Not yet. There’s still one last thing to do,” Rose said as she looked at the door leading to the bathroom.
Leon understood the message this time as he asked, “Ladies first?”
Rose shook her head. “You go first. Women take a bit longer and I think you’ll be asleep once I finish.” The truth was a bit different. I’m too weak, I really need to train up again. She didn’t do any training yet because of the immense sweat and smell that would come off.
Leon didn’t question it and got up to take the first shower since coming to the world, and man, did it not disappoint. I really missed this. He thought as he exited the shower. He yawned as he exited, “Your turn, sis. I’ll probably go to bed already.”
Rose smiled, “No problem, don’t forget to activate the headgear.” She reminded him. Leon nodded. Although it wasn’t time for the servers to open yet, one could still activate the headgear and be ready for when the servers opened.
With his back on the new comfy bed, he activated the headgear and quickly drifted into unconsciousness. Oddly enough, Leon had a dream. It was the very first dream he had since coming here.
Leon opened his eyes and looked around. Everything was much bigger than he remembered and he didn’t recognise where he was. It looked like a normal and cosy middle-class house. He spotted two people talking and gesturing wildly at each other.
The first person was a teenage girl with flame-like orange hair in a high ponytail. Is that Rose? Leon recognised her pretty quickly. The other person was a middle-aged male with jet black short hair. His features matched Leon’s pretty well and soon Leon knew who it was. That’s my father?
Leon couldn’t hear them talking, but he could guess it wasn’t a pleasant conversation. He saw how worked up Rose was and had tears in her eyes. His father was indifferent and whenever he looked at him, his eyes spat with disgust.
The scenes soon changed with Rose waking Leon up from his sleep and taking his hand along with a bag filled with clothes. They left the house and never returned there. *Ding* Leon could hear a sound and his eyes opened up as he awoke in the game.
He was a little disoriented from the sudden switch and looked around, and noticed he was still in the Alchemists’ Guild. Before he could even process the dream, a message popped up in front of Leon.
[Souls Online has gone through a small update since the servers were offline. Please refer to the Patch Notes for further information.] An update already? To Leon’s surprise, Gaia believed an update was already justified.
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
Leon clicked the link, and a new screen opened up. [Souls Online Patch 1.0.1]
‘Updated the UI for the character sheet, Gaia noticed players complained that the character sheet was too long and cluttered, so Gaia has changed it.’
‘Fixed an exploit in which the players could switch equipment in the middle of a battle and use the item’s abilities. From now on, the equipment will be locked and cannot be manually changed during a battle. Players who abused this exploit will have their cases looked over and judged by Gaia.’
‘New forum topics have been added to the official website: Marketplace, a place where players can advertise items for a private trade. PvP, a place where players can request duels with themselves either for fun or for stakes.’
It’s not much, so it’s a small patch. The main thing is the exploit fix. Leon used the exploit, and he likely wasn’t the only one to do so, seeing that Gaia found it prudent to fix it already.
Leon closed the tab and quickly got another message, [Message from Gaia: You have used a now fixed exploit one time. You have not spread awareness to this exploit during your gameplay. Gaia has forgiven your transgression for your honesty to the game’s integrity.]
Leon felt a wave of cold sweat wash over him in an instant as he read the message. Phew, that could’ve been really bad had I spread it. He couldn’t help but give a silent prayer to those who abused the exploit.
He checked his status screen to see what had all changed to its UI.
Name:
Tempest (Human)
Level:
16 (59%)
Titles:
Pioneer Summoner (Click to expand) Pioneer Alchemist (Click to expand)
Class Soul:
Summoner (Beginner) (Click to expand)
Profession Soul:
Alchemist’s Soul (Beginner) (Click to expand)
Ability Soul:
Goblin Elite Scout (Click to expand)
Attributes:
HP: 180/180
Mana: 360/360
Strength: 3
Agility: 5
Intelligence: 65
Wisdom: 36
Vitality: 9
Free Attribute Points 15
Physical Power: 9
Magical Power: 153
Physical Defence: 3%
Magical Defence: 11%
Skills & Spells:
Stab: (Click to expand)
Arcane Missile: (Click to expand)
Contract: (Click to expand)
Meditation: (Click to expand)
Thunderbolt: (Click to expand)
Skinning: (Click to expand)
Equipment:
[Arcane Gathering Pendant] (Blue) (Click to expand)
[Celestial Robes] (Green) (Click to expand)
[Arcane Strider Boots] (Green) (Click to expand)
[Venomous Staff] (Green) (Click to expand)
That’s…a lot more streamlined? Leon didn’t quite know what to make of it as he liked the old, very detailed style, but this one had all the extra details hidden unless one tapped on them. All the empty fields like Enchantment Soul and affiliation were hidden. These would be filled in once they became relevant.
He noticed his free attribute points and Leon invested them in his usual style. 8 to Intelligence, 5 to Wisdom and 2 to Vitality.
Attributes:
HP: 180/180 → 220/220
Mana: 360/360 → 410/410
Intelligence: 65 → 73
Wisdom: 36 → 41
Vitality: 9 → 11
Free Attribute Points 15 → 0
Magical Power: 153 → 169
After closing everything, his mind went back to the dream he just had. Why did I get that dream? Leon questioned. He knew what the dream was about. It was a memory of the original Leon whose body he had taken. The thing he was miffed about was why he had that dream now and never in the past.
Am I assimilating more of the original Leon? Leon already had assimilated almost all the original Leon’s mannerisms over the past month, including his autism. The only thing that remained were the memories.
Leon sighed and put it out of his head. Whatever, I had already accepted becoming Leon, so the memories will help. He thought as he stood up. Leon needed more reputation if he was going to figure the third prince out, so he headed back to the Adventurers’ Guild.
It was repetitive, but this was Leon’s routine, going for an adventure and then doing more alchemy afterwards. Unfortunately for Leon, this routine quickly destroyed. Nothing? No mission about the goblins? The board mentioned nothing about goblins.
He had even pushed his anxiety apart and asked the guild member, who sadly didn’t have any mission for him, either. Leon left the Adventurers’ Guild and was unsure of what to do next.
The missions on the board were nothing great, either the pay was low or it wasn’t interesting to Leon. He wandered around aimlessly, trying to think of something to do when an idea came to him. I haven’t explored outside the capital much, have I?
He had only explored the forest outside to the south and not to the other three directions of the capital or even deeper into the forest. South is the closest. Leon decided and headed towards the forest to explore deeper.
Before Leon ventured out, he bought something very important. It was a small and simple-looking parchment. But it was anything but simple.
[Return Scroll] (White)
A scroll imbued with magical properties of teleportation. Once used, it will warp the user back to the set location. (Set Location: Capital of Gruhl.) Onetime use.
The scroll had cost him 1 silver, but its price was well worth it, as now Leon could explore deep into the forest without having to worry about the return trip.
Upon leaving the city, Leon passed by the farms again. He looked around but couldn’t find Marvin. Probably busy? Leon thought as he walked, the Bovines still needed to be bred and defences had to be set to ensure the goblins wouldn’t take more of them.
The forest was still deathly quiet, as almost all the animals were still gone. Maybe I should help revitalise the forest sometime? Leon had noticed that since he had become a Summoner, he cared more about the animals.
He had spared all the snakes when they would’ve given him just as much venom by simply killing them. They would even help level his skinning skill and give him blood and meat to sell, not to mention the white-graded gear. This meant his class was influencing his mind slightly.
Influenced by the original Leon, influenced by my class, what more can I be influenced by? Leon mentally griped as he walked deeper into the forest. The forest stretched far into the distance and the goblins couldn’t have reached that far.
Leon finally started hearing regular forest sounds after 30 minutes of walking. Birds were chirping, and the grass was rustling again. He even spotted some squirrels and other smaller creatures again, bringing him to peace.
Suddenly, the grass parted next to him to reveal a small red-furred fox standing there. The fox spotted him and bared its teeth at Leon.
[Red Fox] (Common)
Level 13
HP 125/125
Leon almost ignored the fox when he realised he still had not used his new spell since gaining it yesterday. He felt a little bad for the fox as he grabbed his staff and concentrated. Yellow sparks quickly appeared on the staff.
Leon opted to go for full power as he was confident he could fire it off. The sparks soon coagulated at the top of the staff. The fox felt the power of the staff and the spell. In an instant, it turned around and wanted to flee.
Leon pointed his staff at the running fox and fired off the spell. Once it was done charging, a yellow electrical arc shot through the forest in the blink of an eye faster than any Arcane Missile he had ever fired off.
[Thunderbolt Spell Completion 72%, 85% of the skill’s power displayed. Mastery +1.] Leon was back to having the spell completion be at less than 85% but that was to be expected. What Leon didn’t expect was the fact that he missed his spell. The electrical arc slammed into the ground next to the fox, which frightened it and made it run even faster.
Difficult to aim, but it’s got more power than Arcane Missile had at level 1. Leon analysed it would take some getting used to hitting a moving target with that spell. Beans noticed the poor performance and made some chirping sounds as if he were laughing at Leon.
“Oh yeah? How about you show me how it’s done then with your new skill?” Leon fired back as he felt embarrassed as he was laughed at by a ferret. Beans gave Leon more chirps as he jumped off his shoulder.
He jumped and stomped on the ground, erecting a rock the size of Leon’s foot from the ground and to Leon’s shock, he ran up and head butted the rock shooting in the air. Leon’s head tried to make sense of the physics when it was likely that Beans had used some innate mana to control where it went.
Seeing the rock fly off course made Leon feel better about himself. “See, even you struggled.” But he noticed Beans wasn’t looking at him but a bird sitting atop a tree branch.
The rock fell with an arc and smashed into the bird, killing it instantly in a meat paste. [Level 5 Blue-feathered forest bird killed. Reducing experience for killing a lower levelled enemy, Obtained 0 EXP.]
Leon was too stunned to even get mad at the 0 EXP. Beans turned to him with a smug look as if to say ‘How about that?’ “Fine, you win,” Leon grumbled as Beans seemed to enjoy himself. They went further into the forest after that brief stop.