He woke up with his head snapping up, causing him to bang it against the stone wall of the temple against which he had been resting. The pain helped him wake up further and he soon caught the sounds of voices coming from nearby. He looked up at the sky and saw that it was just starting to get lighter so he stood up, stretched, and began looking around while he rubbed the back of his head. Finally determining that the voices he was hearing were coming from just around the corner, he put his backpack on and began walking around the temple in that direction.
As he turned the corner he saw Randy and his group of sleepy students all gathered near a set of tables filled with various odds, ends, tools, and other things that seemed rather random. A few people from the group noticed his approach but showed no interest in it. Noticing that several people had looked over at him, however, made Randy turn to look as well. He gave Kid a slight smile and waved him over. As Kid sighed and approached, Randy gave him a morning greeting.
"Well, hey there. I was almost worried you wouldn't show up. It seems like you aren't even the last one here."
"Pfft. I was the first one here. I've been over there the whole time. I just fell asleep while waiting for you."
"If you say so. Just wait here for a bit. I'm going to give the last two a few more minutes to show up before I start."
Kid didn't say anything and just crossed his arms and stood there while he waited. He heard Randy give a small snort that sounded like a mix between amusement and annoyance. Around him he could hear everyone muttering but couldn't hear what they were saying. He chose not to pay attention to any of it since he already knew he was basically an outcast to them who was among them only temporarily for this one lesson. Instead, he tried to work on meditating to get the skill level up that much sooner.
"Alright. Let's go ahead and start. First off, let me tell you that my personal opinion on the Precision skill is that it's quite possibly one of the best skills you could ever learn regardless of what your goals, class, or anything else are. Want to make your weapon, whether ranged or melee, more accurate? Precision does that. Want to make your crafting skills a little better? Precision does that. Want to be a sneaky type? Precision will even help there, from picking locks to clearing traps to putting your hands and feet in the right places. Precision is a support skill that will improve nine out ten things you ever even think about doing.
That said, I might be biased towards how great it is but I am still willing to tell you about its faults. In its first evolution, the boost itself is not very strong and some may not even feel it making any difference, especially at the lower levels. If you ever have plans to try and bring it past its second evolution then you're going to have a very rough time as it's one of the odd ones that becomes incredibly difficult to have a high tier linear evolution of. Of course, you could always just max out its level at the second evolution and keep a permanent boost to practically everything at the cost of one skill slot for never having to worry about using skill points on it again. That's a choice for future you, though. Finally, since it boosts almost everything in some way then leveling it is as easy as just doing...well...anything but since the boost is so small it will still likely level somewhat slowly.
Now, getting the skill is going to be a little annoying and difficult. Normally, that is. Because of that I'm going to do what I can to make sure all of you get it before noon. Whether you choose to actually pick it up or not is entirely up to you but if you have a slot to spare for it then I highly advise it. Now, everyone move to some spot by the tables but stay on this side. What we're going to do is spend about ten seconds with whatever activity is in front of you, which I'll explain for some of the more vague ones in a moment, while you try to do it as many times as possible and as accurately as possible. Those of you who don't have an activity in front of you can come over here for now since there's some you can do off the tables as well. Every ten seconds everyone will shift over one activity. With enough luck and effort all of you may even get a few extra skills out of this other than precision as well.
So with the needles, daggers, swords, and other similar things you should also have some kind of target as well. Adjust your position to be as far from that target as you can while still being able to reach it. You'll want to try and hit the center as precisely as you can as much as you can. The ones who have the reusable magic circles and various ranged weapons, which should all have mana ammunition that I'll be swinging around to reload myself once we start so you don't have to worry about it, you'll notice that there are targets out there for you to just continuously shoot at. For those who aren't at a table, you'll be doing a little course as you move from one end to the other. Here you'll be placing your feet as carefully as you can to not touch any of these lines. Here you'll try and walk steadily while keeping your feet precisely the same distance from each other at all times. Like this. Yes, it looks like a funny waddle but you'll notice that my feet are always the same distance from each other. The whole point in all of these activities is to try and be as precise as possible. If you just kind of lazily do the activities without trying then you likely won't get the skill. Now, we only have until noon to do this so I'll swing around real quick to make sure nobody has any questions and then we'll start."
***
Congratulations! You have gained the Sneak skill. Would you like to learn this skill? Yes/No
Congratulations! You have gained the Aiming skill. Would you like to learn this skill? Yes/No
Congratulations! You have gained the Knife skill. Would you like to learn this skill? Yes/No
Congratulations! You have gained the Precision skill. Would you like to learn this skill? Yes/No
Kid chose no for all but the precision skill, which he went to Randy as soon as he learned it to ask a question.
"Hey, I got a question. Putting your bias aside, do you think Precision would be better than Drawing for me? Actually, what category does the skill even fall under? Magic support? Ranged attack support? Crafting?"
"It's one of those that fits in several categories. As for what would be better for you...as I recall you said something about wanting to be a gun wielder, right? Drawing is definitely better if you want to put all of your focus solely on your magic but otherwise Precision is probably going to be better. That's as unbiased as I can be so you can take that as you will."
"No. It makes sense and I was already considering it. I just wanted to make sure, first."
He chose yes for precision and then muttered aloud, "Now I just have to decide between Sneak and buying Block Identify."
"For you, I'd say get Block Identify. It's a shame to have to use up points to buy a skill but for you it's definitely going to be a worthwhile investment. Besides, they're both stealth skills if that's what you're worried about."
"Oh. I didn't really mean to say that out loud but thanks. Since I have the skill now, though, I'm going to go ahead and leave to get some stuff done if that's fine."
"Ya, that's fine. Just try to stay out of trouble. Most of these guys should be about ready to head up to the next layer before a week passes so you have about that much time until I can come help you out."
"That's okay. I think I have a few things I can do until then. I'll see you later."
He gave a light wave to Randy and headed for the guild. He wanted to work on his skills and level up some but that meant he needed to try and get the requirements for Death Dealer done as soon as possible before it became practically impossible. He figured the best place to find out where something with decent levels was would be at the guild. He walked in and saw the same staff in pretty much the same places as the last time. He turned to the receptionist lady after taking note of that and asked as calmly as he could.
"Hello. Is there a way I can get some information on all of the nearby monsters and their levels and stuff?"
"Hm? Oh, hello. Um, I can give you some general information I suppose but I can't give you any maps or anything unless you're a guild member. First, I need to ask why you want the information, though. As a new arrival, it would be best to ask your mentor, I think."
"Ah, well. Due to, well, complications...I guess...I don't really have a mentor for another week or so. I've mostly been living in the woods already anyways so I figured while I wait I might as well travel around a bit and see how far out I can go and how long I can survive by myself. I thought I should check around first to make sure I'm not going to be running into some major monsters and this seemed like the best place for that..."
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"Right. First off, that's a terrible idea. There are level twenty five monsters not even a full ten kilometers outside the town in most directions that have roles, classes, and enough intelligence that some of them can even use magic. You're best bet is to just wait until you have a mentor again. I'm sure if you go to the temple that they can help find you a better place to sleep than out in the woods while you're waiting as well."
"I see. I still plan to go hunting, though. That was advice from the guy who's going to be my mentor, after all. I'll swing by later when I have some meat and stuff to sell."
He quickly left again before he could be asked any further questions and contemplated swinging by the general store to pick up some travel supplies before deciding to just hurry his way out of town. He had already bought some simple things earlier and his new dietary preference seemed to be blood with a side of meat so wasn't a whole lot else he needed to buy for the moment. He started jogging as soon as he was at the town outskirts and decided to try and work on manipulating his mana as he ran, partly to work on leveling the skill and partly to keep his mind busy while he ran.
He continued jogging long past the point where he would normally turn off the road to go to his tree and only slowed to a stop when two things happened. The first was that he came up to a forested area that was both thicker and had bigger trees. His assumptions were that he would either need to go into this area or around and past it in order to find some of the monsters with levels that he was looking for. It definitely gave an ominous feeling to him though and his final decision was to sit down and rest for a little while before trying to skirt around it. The other thing that finally made him stop running was a notification.
Congratulations! You have gained the Jogging skill. Would you like to learn this skill? Yes/No
He obviously chose not to get it but felt that it was a good chance to finally look over his status while he rested.
Name: -
ID(Hidden): 1095341C47-9
Sex: M
Age: 17
Lvl: 2
Exp: 7/9
SP: 2
Species: Cambion(T2)
Race: Etherai, Blood Demon
Role: N/A
Sta: 44.7/146.3
(Vig/2)
Sta Reg: 62.7/hr
(Dex/5)
Mana: 138.4/170.3
(Mag/2)
Mana Reg: 42.9/hr
(Mnd/10 +50%+3%)
--- Vig Dex
Vit: 95.9
(94.1+2%)
Con: 104
(102+2%)
Str: 92.8
(91+2%) Fin: 101.5
(88.1+10+1.5+2%) Agi: 106.7
(93.2+10+1.5+2%) Spd: 105.5
(92+10+1.5+2%) Mnd Mag Int: 91
(89.3+2%) Wis: 98
(96.1+2%)
Will: 91.8
(90+2%)
For: 113.2
(95+10+5+1+2%) Pow: 111.1
(93+10+5+1+2%) Spi: 116.3
(98.1+10+5+1+2%) --- Class: N/A Lvl: 0 Exp: 0/0 Skills: 1. ---
Traits:
Angel Blood, Bidirectional Hearing, Blindsight(ground sense, hearing, water)(5 meters), Blood Domain, Blood Magic Affinity, Glossophobia, Bloodhound, Carnivorous, Curse Absorbent(blood), Dark Magic Affinity, Demon Blood, Dragon Blood, Endoskeleton, Farsight, Four-limbed(bipedal), Kinetic Vision, Night Vision, Nosocomephobia, Trypanophobia(minor)
Racial Skills:
1. Blood Magic(T2) (2) 3. Detect Life(T1) (4) 2. Minor Regeneration(T2) (2) 4. Meditation(T1) (3) 5.
General Skills:
1. Identify(T1) (4) 4. Drawing(T1) (2) 2. Magic Circle(T1) (3) 5. Precision(T1) (1) 3. Mana Manipulation(T1) (3) Ultimate Skills: Titles:
Abilities(Hidden):
Blood Manipulation, Draconic Might, Enduring Mana, Mana Burst, Unholy Intimidation
Potential Skills (Hidden):
Aiming(T1), Dismantling(T1), Jogging(T1), Knife(T1), Sneak(T1)
He noted that several of his stats were still climbing by themselves very slowly. Some quick math also told him that if he wanted to wait until his stamina was full again that he would need to rest for over an hour and half. He didn't want to wait that long while just sitting in the middle of the open like he was so he decided he would wait until his stamina was at least over the 80 mark and just walk for a while after that. He was also starting to feel a little hungry, though. He looked around while he was resting, pushing his Detect Life to its fullest, in hopes that he could find something easy to kill and eat. He could hear some birds and various other small critters coming from somewhere in the forest but he couldn't see any of them so he had to just sit there and wait until he was ready to move again.
Since he was basically doing little more than resting, he also tried to work on his Meditation skill a little more. It was one of the few skills he remembered being excited to read up on during one of his library visits since it could eventually evolve to make his mana regeneration a continuous passive. Supposedly there was one that did that for stamina as well, although it was a harder one to acquire. He did hope to try for it someday but for now his stamina didn't feel like too huge of a bottleneck for him. He finally decided he had rested enough and started to walk while keeping the trees to his left.
Evening soon approached and his stomach had taken to letting him know every few minutes about all the meals he had skipped recently. There was occasionally some movement to his left, likely from birds and squirrels and other woodland critters, but nothing was ever there long enough for him to get a good look at it much less use Identify. In a way he took it as a good sign. Closer to the town there were too many creatures who weren't skittish in the slightest since the only real predators they seemed to have were from salients or maybe residents. That so many creatures were skittish enough in this area to hide before he would even fully see them likely meant that there were more predators in the area, which also hopefully meant that they were higher leveled.
Since he didn't really have way of seeing anything's level, though, it would be hard to know if something was leveled enough to qualify for his desired class' requirement. He figured that all he had to do was find the biggest, meanest, scariest thing around, use Identify to make sure it at least had a role, and then just hope that it was good enough. It might not have been the greatest plan that anyone had ever come up with but since he had a pseudo-immortality at the moment and few other ways to accomplish the task, it was the best he could come up with for now.
Eventually he came to a point where there was forest to his right as well, much like the forest nearer to the town. Feeling hungry, exhausted, sleepy, and slightly bored, he turned away from the ominous forest and went into the nice forest to search for a place to sleep and hopefully a wild creature he could kill and eat. The place to sleep didn't take too long, as he quickly found a nice little divot in the ground at the base of a tree between its thick roots. Detect Life picked up nothing but that tree and some grass in the immediate area so he settled in to get some rest with the hopes that he would be able to find some breakfast easier than he was able to find some lunch or dinner.