Ray stood on one of the castle's many balconies overlooking the large city of Promises Echo. It had been a little over two weeks since he had completed and attached his new right arm. He had spent the first few days getting used to the new limb, but once he felt comfortable with it, he ended up helping Freia with a part order from a merchant within the city. They had spent three days rushing to get the order done, as Freia had overestimated the time it would take to complete it. Ray had felt bad about it at first, thinking that Freia had put too much faith in his ability until he learned from her mother that it was a common occurrence for Freia to overestimate what she could complete within a time frame. Usually ending up with her having late or rushed deliveries. After they had finished and delivered the items, Ray found himself with more free time, so he took to exploring the large city. It was like nothing that he had ever seen before and seemed to go on for miles in every direction. He had been spending the first two hours of each morning exploring, but he had still only covered the part closest to the castle. After that, he would join Erith for an hour or two to train with Arabella, Zenith's daughter whom Erith had been training with since they had gotten here. Ray was not able to learn too much from the lessons as they mostly focused on the proper use of the martial panel and martial arts, which Ray had learned was the word for skills that consumed stamina while those that consumed mana were called the mystic arts. After that lesson, he would join Freia in the workshop, assisting her with any projects that came in, as well as working on a few of his own. After that, he would sit down for dinner with the large scale kin family, as well as Erith. During his time in the castle, he had learned that Zenith was the mother of twelve, with Arabella being the oldest and Orlin the youngest. Curious, he tried to learn more about how Zenith ended up in that dungeon, but she deflected his questions every time, and he ended up giving up. After dinner, it was already late at night, so he ended up going to bed most nights so that he could wake up early and have his walk around the city before the day started. Today had begun much the same way, but he had decided not to go out this morning and instead use the time to reflect on everything that had happened since he came to Zenith’s castle. He sighed while watching the mesmerizing sight of the city below as it slowly came to life. Shops opened up as early risers made their way to work. Ray was happy here. He did not have to worry about whether he had enough coins to make it to the next week anymore as everything had been taken care of for him, but he could not help but feel guilty. He and Erith had set out with the goal of putting an end to the hordes that plagued their homeland, but they had ended up within one of the most peaceful areas on their continent. While Ray enjoyed this time here and he and Erith were no doubt growing stronger, he could not help but feel that it was not enough. He opened his status and went over everything once again.
Status
Name: Ray
Leval: 25
Ascension: 0
Class: Beginner Artisan (Rare)
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Mana E: 160/160
Stamina: 250/250
Stats
Strength 22
Endurance 25
Dexterity E: 20
Intelligence E: 120
Wisdom E: 16
Available Points: 0
Multipliers
Strength 0.5
Endurance 0.5
Dexterity 2
Intelligence 2
Wisdom 1
Skills
Draconic Insite, weapon bond, dual-wielding, Upgrade Material, Disassemble
Titles
[System Appointed Artisan], [Low-Grade Stats Collector], [First threshold], [Blessing of the Scale Mother], [Underdog], [Artifact Grade Craftsman]
Ray had had all of his stats reach E rank except for strength and endurance, which were still lagging by a large margin. He was also pleasantly surprised that his mana reached E rank, as he didn't know it could rank up. Ray had experimented with it and learned that unlike his stats every point of mana did not now count as the same as 10 points at Frank but was instead 10 times as dense allowing him to pour the same amount of mana into an effect but have it be 10 times as impactful. He had learned this the hard way when he pumped the usual amount of mana he spent into his expansion dagger while sparring with Erith and having the blade almost cut her in half as it extended to almost 7 feet long. Thankfully, he was able to find a way to condense the mana running into the blade, focusing it and allowing him to create a one foot blade that was still just as light as his dagger but struck with the force of a sledgehammer. Although these improvements were significant, his lack of progress in levels caused him distress. While he knew that the experience needed to breach the next level increased with each threshold, he still felt like five in two weeks was a terrible pace compared to what he had gained before. Erith was doing even worse than him as she did not have a crafting class that would let her gain xp just to work on a few gadgets within the safety of the castle. While she did still gain a small amount from training with him and Arabella she had only managed to reach the second threshold two days ago and had gone out with a few leveling parties that would fight nearby monster dens and hordes to complete her threshold quest and gain more xp. With a sigh, Ray stepped away from the railing he had been leaning on. It was almost time for Erith and his training and he did not want to be late, but he would speak to Erith after about his worries and get her opinion on what they should do.