Chapter 19: Chasing Waterfalls

The first thing Riley did on waking up was take a bath. He was still covered in the blood of his enemies which sounded really cool but practically was a nightmare. He had to wash all of his nooks and crannies with only a few thin bushes between him and the rest of the party.

Thankfully the rest of the party had had the same problem so there was no teasing for fear of mutually assured destruction.

Cleaning his armor was even worse. The dried blood was caked on and needed a good scrubbing to come off. Riley had to liberate some moss from the nearby rocks to get the job done leaving green smears all over his leather armor. Heather had graciously used her points to purchase some soap for the group so he ended his bath feeling as rejuvenated and refreshed as he could considering he had slept on hard stone in his armor.

Better a few aches and pains than waking up in the middle of the night under attack and not being prepared.

Scott made the group break their fast over sausages and potatoes. Considering the events of the day prior the smell of roasted pork turned Riley’s stomach, but he didn’t give Scott the satisfaction by letting it show. Still Riley stuck to eating only potatoes. There was no telling if the food provided by the system was conjured from magic or teleported through it so it still gave Riley the ick. The others didn’t seem to have the same issues with the food, digging in heartily.

“When the boss slime was rolling at us, I thought we were dead for sure,” Scott said around a mouth full of food. “And then you went like boosh and it was gone. So cool!”

“Thank you, thank you, I am pretty awesome,” Heather preened. “Though only a close second to Riley who had the guts to stop the boss the first time.”

“Oh, that was nothing much,” Riley said, rubbing the back of his head. “Nermit and Scott were the ones to slow it down for me. Speaking of did you see those lightning strikes? That shaman was crazy, how were you able to block all those strikes?”

Nermit flexed in response.

“Hey, no fair,” Casey said, “Nermit won’t pass on the compliment to me.”

“Oh don’t worry sis we all know you’re the best dodge tank this side of the Mississippi. And it helps you were the one to get us out of that tight spot.”

“Oh yeah, I’ve been meaning to ask. How did you know I could teleport up there?”

“You can thank Dr. Funk for that. Where is the little guy anyways?” Riley asked.

“They were sunbathing on a rock like an hour ago. Don’t worry, they gained two levels overnight somehow.” Scott shook his head, “if they ever release a leveling guide, I’ll be the first one in line.”

“Wait,” Riley interjected. “Speaking of unanswered questions how did you hear those guys coming Heather?”

“Oh, I unlocked something early when I completed the trial.”

“Ooo, spill.”

“No spoilers,” Heather said, earning her a round of boos from the group.

The group spent the rest of the morning chatting and talking about the events of the previous day. They had finally reached a place where they felt safe, and the group was taking advantage of the opportunity to decompress a little bit. Heather opened up a little more about her trial rewards when Riley asked about the Barbarians that appeared. She could summon a few of the mobs from the trial with the horn she had earned, though the summons were only a limited duration.

Scott was the first one to break out the anime training montage by tying a boulder on his back using the party’s rope and doing some pushups. This prompted a whole series of increasingly ridiculous challenges that Scott, Casey, and Riley competed in.

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Heather and Nermit still had only their base Body stats so they were happy to cheer on the group.

It quickly became apparent that despite having similar Body stats, Riley and Casey were expressing them in very different ways. Riley found lifting the boulder trivial, jumping from rock to rock with it on his back with ease. Casey could lift the rock, but jumping was out of the question.

That didn’t mean she didn’t have her own advantages. She ran circles around Riley as they raced around the edge of the pool. When the tested their accuracy throwing rocks both Casey and Scott blew Riley out of the water. Even with Scott having 16 less stat points in Body than Riley did.

The group theorized there were hidden sub stats contained within the Body score based on the player’s intention. Something like a hidden Strength, Dexterity, Perception, and Constitution score. Though the last one was only theoretical as Riley was too keen on testing that last one. He preferred his sharp metal objects outside of his body, thank you very much.

Riley pulled up his character sheet. It had been a whole two days since he last looked at it which was practically forever. Plus, he was stuck at level 20 for the foreseeable future, so it was a good time to take stock of where he was.

Status

Riley Pocket

Basic Mask: Level 20

Body: 53

Magic: 10

Spirit: 10

Abilities:

Lingering Leech (A)

Rock Armor

Locked

Locked

Locked

Riley resolved himself to fix his imbalanced stats as soon as he was able to. His base magic was sufficient for the moment but as soon as he got a second active ability he would be in trouble.

It took a lot of work, but Casey eventually managed to get out of Nermit the secret to his skill success. The spirit stat. It helped a lot with making abilities more flexible. Nermit hadn’t managed a full upgrade, but he had modified the ability twice to great effect. Once to better block physical entities, slowing down the boss slime more effectively, and secondly to attune his spell to block lightning over all other magic. Had the shaman tried a different spell they would have broken through the barrier with ease.

Nermit was the closest to attuning his second ability as he had been investing in his Spirit and Magic stats equally and Riley was now regretting his short-sighted stat distribution.

Riley took some time to test out his Rock Armor ability in a non-combat setting. Without the pressing danger he was able to get a better sense of what the ability was doing. It flooded his mana pathways with mana and then condensed the mana at the same time that it expelled it, transforming into a hard outer layer. Riley couldn’t risk multiple casts of the ability with his low Magic score, but just the single use gave him a lot more insight into the ability and an idea on how to upgrade it.

Riley didn’t want to settle for just attuning his Rock Armor ability. His Lingering Leech was objectively more powerful than his base Leech ability and it went against Riley’s nature to leave power on the table. Riley was going to upgrade the ability if it was the last thing he did.

It turned out that Spirit was also the solution to Heather’s Obliterate problem. The spell was too powerful for their low levels, but a higher Spirit score would theoretically allow her to handle the power better and reduce the time needed between casts.

All of this pointed towards a more balanced stat distribution being the intended meta with this system. Fortunately, it was early enough in the tutorial that it wasn’t too late to correct the mistake.

The fight, despite the danger, had been very lucrative for the group. Riley alone had earned just under a thousand points from the one fight. That was one tenth of what he needed to buy a stat potion, which seemed out of reach for the moment. But it was halfway to purchasing one of the basic abilities the store offered. A simple Power Strike, Explosive Step, or Block skill could all be purchased for 2000 points and Riley was tempted, but not desperate for the moment. If he really needed a movement skill the Bunny’s charge ability would work. With the Porcs similarity to the Orcs from the tutorial he suspected he could get a Power Strike ability from one of them as well. There must be a mob somewhere in the tutorial with a shield skill as well. Riley would save his points for the moment. Though if he reached level 30 without any suitable skill Riley would bite the bullet and use his points for one of those.

It was past noon when Casey asked the question which had been on everyone’s mind. “So, are we going to address the elephant in the room or what?”

The group grew serious as they gathered together, including Dr. Funk who was still avoiding Heather’s grasping fingers in favor of Riley’s tentative pets.

“I don’t know, doesn’t it seem too obvious?” Heather asked.

“Shot bet?” Scott offered.

“Shot bet,” both Riley and Nermit chimed in.

Unsurprisingly both Casey and Scott bet For with Nermit joining them after a moment’s consideration. Riley joined Heather on the against side only so that she wouldn’t be alone.

It was with a serious air that the group approached the waterfall. The water fell from atop the cliffs in a stream strong enough for eastern monks to train in, but not strong enough to kill a man. To no one’s surprise Casey found a small path leading behind the waterfall which led to a damp cave that extended deep into the cliffs. As they took their first steps into the cave a notification popped up.

Welcome to the Lost Mines Trafalgar