Kai stepped out of a Daniel’s office and headed straight to the mess hall. He reported to the head chef and cut vegetables for the next three hours. The moment he got his second skill level up notification he said his volunteer time was done.

Congratulations! Cutting Vegetables is now Lvl. 4.

Congratulations! Cutting Vegetables is now Lvl. 5.

From the mess he went to the laundry and told them he needed the step just above regular laundry. The level of focus he brought allowed him to escape the laundromat even faster than the kitchens. Two hours later he checked his notifications and realized his level of focus must have made him miss a notification.

Congratulations! Laundering is now Lvl. 4.

Congratulations! Laundering is now Lvl. 5.

Congratulations! Laundering is now Lvl. 6.

Kai turned to the supervisor and said, “I just got level 6. I’ve washed my quota for the week.” He removed the heavy gloves they had given him and walked outside. Stars shone in the sky, more than he’d ever seen before in patterns he didn’t recognize.

He knew North was off to his right but Polaris was nowhere to be found. He was able to distinguish the cardinal directions and was even able to determine where Daniel’s office lay in relation to where he was now. He looked around and somehow knew the general direction of the obstacle course, the sparring grounds, and Sam’s workshop. He headed towards the last one making his way steadily along.

Congratulations! Pathfinder is now Lvl. 2.

Kai was rewarded with a notification as he came upon the shop where he had met Sam and learned his Mana Embroidery skill. He shook his head,  not ready for that yet. Kai made his way towards the slaughterhouse and when he arrived he quickly found Avery and asked if he could level his skinning skill. Avery directed him to a line of bodies that needed skinning and Kai got to work.

After three bodies and two level gains Kai asked if there were more difficult bodies to skin. He was moved to an alligator type creature with scales. Avery showed him the most effective way to skin the creature and Kai set to work. Kai felt as though he worked for a day, but after checking the clock available in the slaughterhouse it had only been about four hours. After skinning the fourth alligator type beast he had reached skill level 10 in Skinning. He found Avery and thanked him for the opportunity.

Kai left the slaughterhouse and retraced his steps back to the workshop he had learned his Mana Imbuing skill at. He knocked and waited. After ten minutes of no answer he made his way inside and headed toward the forge that he remembered. He found Ken pounding at a piece of metal on the anvil but there was no sign of Sam, or anyone else.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Hey Ken,” Kai called, “I’m here to do some leatherwork. Is that alright?”

Ken paused in his hammering and looked over at Kai. He jerked his head toward the bench Kai had worked at before then resumed his work on the piece of metal.

Kai took the head jerk to be permission and set to work at the bench sewing pieces of leather together and carefully imbuing Mana into each thread that he stitched. He worked for hours. He worked on both already finished pieces that he simply embroidered Runes onto, but he also worked with some raw leather pieces and shaped those into various pieces of armor. All the pieces he made himself turned out to be trash. He did get a notification from his work though.

Congratulations! You have learned the skill Leatherworking. Lvl. 1.

…

Congratulations! Leatherworking is now Lvl. 5.

Congratulations! Sewing is now Lvl. 10.

Congratulations! Mana Imbuing is now Lvl. 10.

Congratulations! Equip is now Lvl. 9.

Kai let out a long sigh. He had achieved the crafting goal and then some with the addition of the Leatherworking skill. And he still had most of a day left before his time was up.

Kai looked at his most recent creation and sighed.

Newbie’s Leather Bracer Lvl 5: Leather armor worked by someone just learning to craft. Health +9.

Mana Embroidered Dragonfly 24% ©: Wearer of the armor has a small chance of moving more quickly when moving with the wind.

He could use it, but compared to what Sam had given him it was pure crap. He tossed it into a pile with everything else he had made and stood from the workbench. He stretched his arms to the sky and rotated, trying to work out all the kinks in his muscles from sitting.

Ken looked up from his hammering and nodded to him. Kai took that nod as permission to leave and did so.

He stepped out of the building and headed towards the mess hall. It appeared to be just after noon and Kai was famished. He had a light snack during the crafting but it wasn’t nearly enough for all the mana he had coursing through his body from the constant mana potions.

On his way to the mess hall he looked at his status and realized he had 30 PP which was enough to complete the Pathless X path and have some left over. He dumped the final 26 points into the Pathless X Path and smiled.

Congratulations! You have completed the Pathless X Path! +2 Health/Mana/Stamina per level! +1 Stat per level! You have realized that all paths are the same, and all paths lead to the same place. And that the path continues ever onward…

Kai quickly put his 6 stat points into Vitality and Endurance bringing both of those up to 10. He then checked his Path screen and was a bit overwhelmed.

???: 0/15, Mana Bolt I 0/25, Underdog 0/20, Sword Mastery I 0/50, Basic Physical Fitness 0/20, Pathless 0/100

He had always chosen a question mark path before but now there was a clearly labeled Pathless Path with no roman numeral. He rolled the dice and figured that was the correct one to take and dumped his four points into that and continued on his way to the mess hall for a much deserved lunch.