As Jacob looked around the stone house they had entered the two meditating were situated a top two two sofas right in the middle of the house, while Jacob stood guard near the entrance where he sat on a near crumbling stone chair. He kept himself busy by practicing with drawing and forming his essence outside of his body, so far while the two were still forming their cores. Jacob managed to draw out his essence consistently however forming it into a proper shape was a different matter. He was only able to form it into a sphere every 1 in 4 tries while any other forms were met with disappointing results, it would seem that he was only able to form the sphere under pressure and by luck. His practice came to an end before he could delve deeper as Riley came out of her meditation with a bright smile Jacob could tell she had chosen an uncommon Job, Jacob asked casually.

“So you got a good job?” Riley got closer and replied.

“Yep the System gave me 4 Jobs to choose from and with your advice I think I chose a good one, the Job I chose is called Voice of the Wild the skill names mentioned are beast taming and wildlife related. I hope I can tame a cute orca someday do you think we can get those mini spacial houses mentioned in comics? I wanna bring my pets with me everywhere.” Riley beamed as happy as Jacob was when he received his first toy in the orphanage. Jacob mildy surprised by Rileys’ willingness to tell him about her Job replied with a soft smile.

“Well with the System anything could be possible but with our current levels and Grade you might have to hold on for abit longer to get a portable living space, but if we have the time we can start you off with one of the forest animals near the kobold cave. They have weird deers, rabbits and bears which is the owner of the silver claws you and Brian used to take down the stone hands. Do you happen to have any experience with animals?”

“Yeap! My dad is a marine biologist and my mummy is a Zoologist they brought me to their workplace often so I was able to interact with many types of animals they taught me all about the animals too, my favourites are orcas and capybaras. The orca just look so sleek and they have such a high capacity for emotions that its higher than humans each orca pod are as unique as a snowflake with special calls of their own and well capybaras are just cute they always looked so unfazed.” Jacob expression turned wistful at the mention of Rileys’ parent but Rileys bubbly personality turned him away from any sad thoughts allowing him to give a genuine reply.

“I’m glad your parents were able to teach you about the world at large, I’m sure that with their knowledge and ability for teaching they would be welcomed anywhere in the Tutorial. Lets get you and Brian as strong as possible so you can meet them in one piece.” Jacob tried giving his best assuring smile but with the blood it was more creepy and menacing instead.

“J-jacob I think it would be better if you refrain from smiling while you still have dirt and blood all over you, its...a bit unsettling. I know you mean well but if you could see yourself you might be given a scare too. I know! We can go back to the forest after this and look for a water source I could use a wash too. I stink!” Riley calmly said to Jacob after flinching from his smile. Jacob could only cut his smile and nodded not knowing what else to say to that. Luckily for him Brian just stood up before the atmosphere could get awkward.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

“Thank you for guarding Jacob, I managed to get a physical related Job so I should be able to handle the stone hands or those kobolds with better ease now.” Brian after having his life saved three times had a complete personality change from the stuck up attitude he had at the start, he still had some reservations as he did not reveal his Job to Jacob or Riley but Jacob would not fault him for that. They barely knew each other and its sensitive information, Riley is merely a beautiful oddity in this instance willing to share whatever she can.

“The both of you can take this time to think of how you all can go about improving your individual mastery, tomorrow I will help you guys in trying to find suitable weapons for that. The both of you should also think of how you guys can go about unlocking your innate abilities as they are part of who you are as a person, so unlocking them would only help going forward. I’m not sure if they are unique but there might be similar skills out in the universe, so even if you get good ones do not get a big head about it. I will go out and confirm some of my suspicions the suns are setting so this place would be as good as any for a resting place tonight. Please stay here while I’m away and practice whatever skills you guys can. I’ll leave the bag of silver claws for you guys to defend yourself.” Riley and Brian nodded with serious expressions as Jacob finished saying his piece, both bid Jacob goodbye and went to practice what they could. Before leaving however Jacob further told them to practice circulating essence in their body from their core to where ever they desire.

Jacob made a move for the door once he finished with what he wanted to say, he took Flowing Water that he leaned on the chair with his left hand and started a sprint as soon as he left the house.

Riley looked wistfully at the door while Jacob was already heading deeper into the ruins. He wanted to check if the reasons for the evolving stone hands were due to outer factors like the floaters or a monster that can control the stone hands. As Jacob was running along the streets he decided to emulate those tv shows where they had the people running on rooftop tiles and along the roof. The top of the houses seems easy enough to reach and no giant tigers could be seen roaming the area, so the risk should be minimal.

With a height of 2.5 metre or so to the rooftop of the nearby house, Jacob drew out more essence from his core and pushed it into both of his legs gathered himself and threw his body upwards. His hands flailing as he was not used to staying so long in the air, his body almost turned a 180degrees before he tried moving his arms in the other direction to balance. Much to Jacobs surprise he did not succeed and his head went straight down he threw Flowing Water a short distance away and quickly curled himself up as much as possible to reduce the incoming damage. With a heavy crash and pain shooting throughout his entire body, Jacob let out an uncontrollable yelp of agony thankfully no one was around to see such an embarrassing sight so Jacob let himself lay down and turned his body with his back facing the ground and look up towards the darkening sky. For a moment only his breath could be heard, slowly in and slowly out. The fall itself did not heavily injure Jacob but the shock was undeniable, Jacob thought he could easily perform feats of daring with his newly gained stats but reality proved him wrong. What he could not do before would need training to be accomplished, nothing was freely given so he could only train harder to take it for himself.

“Thanks for the wonderful show.” Following the voice was the sounds of clapping which alerted Jacob to a foreign presence and he quickly got himself up.