As Dante and his party continued their walk, conversation quickly followed.

"Why didn't you just teleport your familiar to you? I thought you could do that?" Frank asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Simple, I didn't want to. That would have required me to gesture at least twice to make him vanish then reappear. It would have also tipped my hand a bit. Above all other things, he didn't ask. Besides he used some skill on me to either keep me from lying or know when I was. I didn't want to risk it." He explained to his party quickly and quietly.

"...I suppose I see the reasoning there. I won't push it. But I will most certainly be teleporting my flying monkey around when I get him!" His father exclaimed mildly changing subjects to change the mood.

-----------

As they continued their walk Dante brought out his familiar for a moment and let him rest upon his outstretched arm.

"Do you have a name?" He asked quietly to which the owl abruptly whipped its head around to stare at him.

Feelings flooded across the connection, fear, a desire to hide.

Something more crossed the connection.

A memory.

Running, the sounds of pursuit behind him. Voices he could not understand.

A sudden calling, a pull coming from off to the left.

An unspoken promise of respite.

He watched as the being that was his owl fled, following the feeling of a promised safety.

'It has to have been...' His thoughts interrupted as the answer came.

He watched as it burst through the tree line into a clearing and there in the middle he saw it.

There in the middle of the clearing was a small orb. A window, a gateway across the planes.

Those that chased were almost upon him. He moved as fast as he could and leapt through the doorway.

Where he had been was behind him but the land of his promised respite lay ahead with darkness all around him.

He just wanted to hide from them, hide from the world trying to kill him, he just wanted to be safe.

He had stopped but something was reaching for him though the door from whence he came. Suddenly he shot forward at tremendous speed and...

...then he was flying, his shape had changed. Now he had wings to fly. He was free, he was safe.

He felt something within him shift as he spread his wings to fly. A feeling washed over him as if the gaze of the whole world had slipped from him.

--------------------

Dante shook his head as he heard his own voice calling the owl.

"You were running from something? Someone? It's lucky you were the one the spell chose. My name is Dante. Would you like a name?" He spoke softly.

At his question the owl's eyes widened for a moment, a feeling of longing washing across the connection between them. Then confusion.

Neither understood why he desired a name so, only that he did. So it was that Dante granted him the name...

"Prism, the Prismatic Owl." He spoke in a warm and joyful tone.

Prism took in his new name for a moment before closing his eyes and spreading his wings.

This time he did not vanish however. Not quite the opposite.

As Prism spread his wings he began to emit a faint light. Then the light began to emit from him all at once. He felt something soothing and familiar wash over him, but couldn't quite place it.

The text that came first was warm and gentle like the sun of a summer's day.

You have unlocked the affinity Light...

The Road of Light has opened to you...

Road of Fae...

Error!

Access to that road is currently barred!...

You lack approval to access that road...

Road request denied!...

The System is watching you...

He felt for a moment something else opening to him only for it to immediately be slammed shut. Like closing a bulkhead door on a submarine seconds before that section began to take on water.

Dante shivered at the feeling but felt...well he didn't understand it now but the world just seemed a little brighter.

Then came something unexpected.

Congratulations! Your Spirit has exceeded 100!...

The Sage I road has opened to you...

You are found to possess an inventory...

Inventory size has been increased from 1x1x1 cubic meters to 2x2x2 cubic meters...

Inventory has been partitioned into Slots, due to highly increased size...

Each slot’s size will be 1 cubic meter...

You now possess 8 inventory slots of 1 cubic meter!...

Soul space is experiencing a period of rapid growth!...

'What the hell?' He thought before he called for his party to stop as he stood and turned inward.

Once more he found himself under the shade of a familiar tree. He watched in awe and splendor as the dome that formed the sky receded. He could feel this place growing by the second.

"Beautiful is it not?" Virgil stated as he appeared next to Dante.

"Yes it is." He stated as he stood and watched the edge of this place race outward giving him more space to work with.

After a moment things seemed to settle and the sky no longer seemed to move. He smiled and in a blink he was gone. No sooner did the expansion stop did the notices resume.

Calculating additional rewards...

Checking player status...

Players possess Wisdom exceeding 100...

Recalculating...

Expanding status checker...

Health, Mana, Stamina all exceeding 3,000...

No regenerations exceeding 200...

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Recalculating...

Checking player skills...

Players possess resistance skills for mundane and magical exhaustion...

Synergy detected...

Your resistance skills for mundane and magical exhaustion have combined!...

Skill levels have been lost...

Status has slightly fallen...

You have lost 8 Rp...

You have obtained the Uncommon...

Recalculating...

Quality of materials is above requirements...

Resulting skills rank has increased...

You have obtained the Rare semi-active skill, Meditation Lvl 1. Effects of previous skills retained...

Meditation

Allows users to enter into a focused and restful state, increasing regen for Physical stats by 1% per skill level. Increases regen for non-physical stats by 2% per level. Mild increase to all resources and regens per skill level.

Meditation while under mental debuffs can help to alleviate the conditions.

Users may be knocked out of meditative state due to disturbances. Increasing the skill level will allow for greater freedom of actions for the user to perform whilst maintaining meditation.

Meditation will automatically activate in the proper situations.

'Holy shit...' Dante thought, that was all he could think. He was mildly stunned by all the notices. This had to be the longest list of notices he had seen yet. Not to mention he had lost status?

Questions swam in his mind but he decided it was better to figure them out later.

He motioned for his party to continue as he began to walk. Answering questions as he went.

Since there didn't seem to be a cost he flicked on Meditation.

Inspecting his status he didn't see much difference in it but did see he had lost some Rp.

Seeing how he had 10 rp he saw he could raise his Intellect to 100 but instead he decided to round up some of his lower odd stats. 1 point to Dex, 3 to Will, 5 to Cha, and 1 to Per.

Dante took a deep breath and slowly released it as he stretched out his arms.

'One step closer to base stats of 100.'

--------------

As they walked he held a hand onto his father's shoulder to steady himself and keep from losing his way while he was grinding his cartography skill.

Back and forth Prism flew through streets scanning shop fronts for anything of interest covering far more ground in far less time than they could have.

Once more Prism swept the streets allowing Dante to grind his cartography skill. About an hour and several skill levels later he saw something.

Skill, Cartography has leveled up! Lvl. 16->20...

As Prism rounded the corner and flew down what appeared to be a street filled with smithy's, something in a window caught his eye.

There in the window was something he recognized. As soon as he felt his familiar back in range he promptly spoke through the link.

"Fly high up to give me a good view of the city." All the while he kept an eye on the shop that had caught his attention.

When his familiar had reached about 300 feet he felt his familiar coming upon some kind of limit.

He supposed this height would be enough to get a good view.

Looking down upon the town from on high through his familiar he mentally marked where he was and the shop he sought.

When he had both those in mind he mentally began mapping a route.

Congratulations! You have unlocked the semi-active Cartography sub skill, Pathfinder (C) Lvl. 1...

Pathfinder- You find a path between two points. Accuracy and time saved increase with skill level. Accuracy and time saved increases with Int and Wis. Accuracy increases with levels in Cartography. Small increase to stamina and its regen per level of the skill...

"Sweet...Hey guys I'll meet you back at the Inn later I'm going to visit a shop." He said as he pulled back his sight for a moment.

---------

After a short conversation with his parents and Califa he was on his way towards the smithy shop.

It took him only 5 minutes to arrive at the shop even with it being on nearly the other side of town.

'Hurray for high stats!' he thought as he drew closer.

Pathfinder has leveled up! Lvl. 5...

Running has leveled up! Lvl. 12->16...

Physical fitness has leveled up! Lvl. 15...

He smiled at the skill level notices, noting he wouldn't have probably gotten this many if he had tried the shortest route. Namely trying to climb a building and then jump from roof to roof across the streets to get to the shop faster.

He had gained 2 points of wisdom for thinking of that. Well 1 for thinking of it and another for thinking of the consequences and then not doing it.

+2 Wis...

What made the job harder was his constant switching between his own sight and that of his familiar. He constantly had to ensure he wasn't going to run into anyone or anything. Though he had some close calls he did manage to avoid being hit or hitting anything. For all that he had earned 2 points in Dex.

+2 Dex...

As he finally arrived at the shop he peered in the window and saw what he had come for.

There on the shelf he saw a familiar looking shield. One shaped almost like an arrowhead. Upon its face were simple lines but adorning its center was a large green jewel.

Dismissing his familiar he stepped into the shop and called out.

"Hello? Anyone here?" He started for a moment as he heard a racket coming from the back of the shop. A few seconds later appearing through the doorway leading to the back was a dwarven man.

The dwarven man had a well kept black beard all in braids. The same went for the hair on his head though he believed the term for that was corn rows.

"Aye, what can I do for you sir? Looking to buy a weapon, armor or both perhaps? We also do commissions if that is what you're after." He spoke in a rough voice that sounded vaguely Scottish.

"That's good to know..." He paused for a moment to mentally bookmark this shop on his map.

"Aye cat got your tongue?" The dwarven man asked as he smacked him on the back and gave a hearty laugh.

Dante smiled, he had expected the bit of pain on his back.

"I saw that shield on your shelf and just had to have it..." he said as he pointed towards the shield. The dwarven man turned his head to look at the shield, his brows furrowing before Dante continued.

"...Now that you mention it I suppose I should get myself some gauntlets or at least bracers. I wonder, have you heard of Gauntlets of Ogre power?" He asked to which he had expected a laugh but none came.

"Aye, nasty brutes Ogre are. I remember them from my days as an adventurer. Gauntlets of Ogre power you said? If you would grant me a moment please." He spoke as his hands came up. Immediately a dozen blue boxes sprang into existence in front of him. His eyes darted from one to the next for a few seconds till he found what he sought.

"Is this what you're looking for?" The dwarf asked as he presented Dante a blue box.

Looking down he saw a familiar set of gauntlets along with a description.

Gauntlet's of Ogre power (Unc) Imbues the user with the strength of an Ogre. Item affected by level and rank of user. +(5) Str per level of the User, retroactive. Cannot boost user past (500) Str. Requires attunement, (1 continuous hour of wearing the gauntlets)

"That's even better than what I expected. How much is it though?" He asked the critical question.

"Aye right. Power like this doesn't come cheap. It will cost you about 100 small gold for the gauntlets..." he paused for a moment, his eyes drawing back to the shield for a moment as if examining its every detail.

"...I'll even throw in the shield you want as a bonus. It's just some worthless iron shield. I don't even know where it came from, it wasn't in stock this morning. But if you're going to take it, promise me you'll at least get it enchanted for durability if you're going to be taking it into combat. As it is now, it probably wouldn't stand even one hit from some of the harder monsters in the dungeons. Heard of too many kids like you getting themselves killed after coming to my shop." He said with more than a bit of concern in his voice.

"That seems like a fair price. I'll keep that in mind. "I'll stop by an enchanter next to get the shield enchanted." he said, nodding to the dwarf who was clearly being very serious with him. His joy and mirth gone.

"Good. Now then that will be 100 small gold please..."

---------------

Dante stepped from the shop, his new gauntlets adorning his hands. His hands and forearms would be a lot harder to injure now.

He was somewhat regretful at using nearly half of his money on a single purchase but he took a breath and thought it would prove itself to have been a wise investment.

It was as he held up the shield to inspect it that he saw the large green jewel that adorned it almost seemed to gleam. He felt a light sense of connection and something more.

A request. A question without words that he nevertheless understood.

In his mind's eye he saw a woman and he simply knew what he had to do.

"Fuck..." he swore under his breath but in the end agreed. It would seem that this shield was the genuine article and it wasn't his. He was simply the delivery guy in this instance. It saddened him but in the end he appreciated knowing that even these items were real.

The jewel shined again and the shield gave an unspoken promise. A promise of a reward for his trouble.

'Those restrictions would have sucked anyway.' he thought to himself with a smile before tucking the shield away into his inventory.

He had been honestly surprised he could do that, though there had been resistance when he initially tried.

When he saw the women he had been shown, he would give the shield to her.

"Maybe it will give me some kind of shield skill? That would be nice." He spoke off handedly but still one being heard him,

Dante held his newly equipped gauntlets up to the light of the artificial sun admiring how they shined.

The gauntlets were mainly silver though there did appear to be some gold imagery upon their tops. The image of a bearded ogre yelling made all from gold. The image mirrored on both gauntlets. The inside of the gauntlets were padded to make them more comfortable. A welcome addition.

He resolved to fight with his fists till he could learn something better. Maybe he could pick up some levels in monk by fighting like this.

He still wanted to see how hard he could punch now.

He was definitely glad to have something to protect his hands now.

'How hard can I punch without my skills? How much will a heavy blow increase my attack power? How bad will the recoil be? Can I use heavy blow and [Strike] on the same attack?' Questions swam through his mind, filling him with excitement.

He made his way to the Adventurers guild. This was going to be a fun day.