Chapter Twenty-Eight: And to the Victor go the Spoils

Drake waited in the tree for several minutes as he waited for his battered and broken body to mend. Thankfully he hadn't lost any limbs on his crash landing through the forest.

After what seemed like an eternity of staring back and forth from his status, to his awaiting quests. Drake was finally healthy enough to untangle himself and drop down from the tree. He wanted to immediately go over his notifications and level up but he had too many things he had to do beforehand.

Drake took his time going over the battlefield he had been flown from, making sure to grab any remnants of loot he could find. Unsurprisingly he couldn't fit the Foreman's enormous pickaxe into his void pouch. And both it and the Foreman were so large he had no way to move them.

But not everything on the Foreman was unlootable. Thankfully it looked like the loot spawned after it had crashed to the ground, so he didn't have to search all over to find it.

Drake picked up the skill stone somewhat surprised.

[Skill Stone: Fire] [Rare]

[Unlocks a random skill from the Fire tree.]

[Requirement: Open Skill Slot. Have a Main Class-tree unlocked]

It was the first Skill Stone he had picked up that had some sort of element in the description. And it was for all classes, not just the Mage?

I really need to gather some more info on skills. Drake thought.

He moved onto the next thing laying on the ground next to the Foreman. A backpack.

[Medium Dimensional Sack [F Grade]

10x5 Dimensional Space Bag

Requires one Inventory slot. Must be placed in Inventory to be equipped

Stores Items in current state indefinitely, does not include living entities

Drops on death

"So the boss always has the good stuff in this reality too, huh," Drake smirked.

He quickly placed it into his inventory and equipped it to his bag slots, and what appeared in his inventory was incredible.

Almost countless jewels and precious stones were lined up in the sack. The icons of blues, reds, greens, a nearly full palette of color was now covering his screen.

Drake inspected one of the slots.

[Sapphire Gemstone [F Grade] [Uncommon]

A raw magic gemstone.

A magically infused gemstone that can be used in crafting to create accessories that increase Intelligence by a small amount.

Drake's eyes began to sparkle. This was just what he needed for his all round build. The description basically told him everything. That there was some sort of crafting available, and that there were different available stats that could be increased. If he could find a way to learn how to make jewelry he could make up for and boost some of his most needed stats giving him explosive jumps in strength like he had done with the Foreman.

This would give him so many more options in fights that could make up for some of his blind spots.

Drake was about to scream in happiness, but remembered that he still had so much to go over. He quickly looked around to see if there were any more Kobolds in the area, but it looked like the Foreman had either killed or scared off the remaining ones.

He began to make his way to the Outpost, slipping on his Martial Artist Ring Tattoos, and exchanging his Strength accessories for his Dexterity ones.

When he finally reached the gate, Drake was amazed at what he saw. The sheer size of the outpost was more of a fortress than an outpost, and completely dwarfed Outpost B. The Outpost stretched a large portion of the mountain, and was a fair distance from the side of it. If Drake had to make a guess it could have held thousands of individuals here at any given time.

There were still fires lit throughout the outpost, as well as tents still erect. Drake looked around but saw no movement outside of the wind rustling things here and there.

He cautiously entered and looked back at the wall, seeing the wooden staircase spiral up to the guard towers where he had killed oh so many Kobolds from. Drake then eyed the pulley that held the gate up, and made his way to it. Turning the mechanism so that the gate swung closed, he turned back to the outpost satisfied, and excited to see what goodies were left for him.

Drake swept through the whole camp, going from tent to tent deconstructing each one after. He was doing a total search for both loot and any remaining monsters that may be hiding.

What he found in each tent varied but it was obvious which ones were for the regular Kobolds, and which were for the Squad Commands or supply tents.

In various tents he would find beds and single tables or chests with things in or on top of them. In others he would find nothing but racks of weapons and chests of metal armor. And in the Squad Commander's tents. He found, THEM.

Drake gazed at the mythical structure before him, as he entered the first Commander's tent. A King sized luxury bed, with all the amenities, Pillows, silk sheets and coverings. He wasn't sure where the Commanders had gotten them but he didn't care. He stared at the bed with longing eyes as he searched the rest of the tent.

He couldn't very well jump into the bed as the mess he was now. He thought. Going through the multiple chests that were strewn throughout the place. Drake found more accessories and jewels. Armor and weapons. Even some skill stones, but nothing that he didn't already have.

As Drake left the Commander's tent he remembered its position and left it standing.

He then finished going through the rest of the Outpost surprisingly finding no Kobolds hiding within.

After hours of deconstructing tents and putting out campfires, Drake eventually found the large entrance to the Mines.

Drake stood in front of an entrance large enough to allow the Foreman into, which was situated on the side of the mountain. He stared into the dark tunnel.

"Hello!!!" He shouted into the tunnel, his voice echoing and carrying.

"Oh that's fun. It's been a hot minute since I've been to a cave that can do this." He laughed, his laugh carrying into the tunnel as well. "Where is she!?! Swear to me!!!!" He shouted again, beginning to curl over in laughter.

"Ah… that's good I needed that. All I have to have now is a black cape, bad mask, enormous wealth, and a butler that knows how to do everything under the sun." Drake said, looking down at his black and gold trim robe.

"Ok, maybe not the cape. Robe is close enough I'd say."

Drake pulled out a torch from his inventory and lit it with some flint. Then began to go through the entrance into the mines.

He traveled through the mines, his every footstep echoing into the endless tunnels he passed. The Mines were an experience Drake had never thought he would have. The sparkling of colorful veins marked the walls, the rails used to push and pull carts littered the ground. The jarring and disorienting feeling of not knowing where sounds were coming from as they bounced off the walls of the endless tunnels.

Drake traveled deeper in a straight line so as to not get lost when he needed to get back to the outside. Passing nearly countless tunnels that branched off from the main mining shaft. He heard the occasional dripping of what he was sure was water, or whatever the equivalent would be in a Mining shaft. And also the sounds of footsteps, or his own footsteps, he honestly wasn't sure.

Finally, Drake hit the end. And at the end there was a small shack with a glaringly bright light in the sole window of it. Drake knew who this shack belonged to from the size. It was the Foreman's.

Drake unhesitantly entered the shack, pushing open the incredibly large door, having to use his whole strength and both hands to do so.

When he entered he only saw a large chest and a moderate looking bed that was large enough to fit the Foreman.

Drake immediately swarmed to the chest, having to jump up to get in position to open the latch. The chest was at least a few meters taller than he was, and many meters wider. As he swung the top off the chest, his eyes sparkled at the sight of the pool of jewels that were inside.

"Holy shit! There's enough F Grade jewels here for a lifetime! I'm rich bitch!!" He shouted, diving into the ocean of shining gemstones.

After bathing in the gemstones for a few more moments, Drake swept all of them into his inventory and hopped out of the chest and onto the massive bed.

"Alright! This is as good a place as any. I've already swept the camp, and looked at the mines a bit. Time to finally get my class upgrade!" He smirked as he pulled out a familiar 20 sided black die.

"Oops I mean class upgrade(s), don't I…"

[Drake Wallen]

[Race: Human]

Tutorial Alias [Shot]

[Base Class: Mage x Warrior] [Unique] Level 10

[Vitality] 204

[Strength] 258 (20)

[Dexterity] 200 (30 + 10% Base) +(40)

[Intelligence] 358

[Wisdom] 213

[Endurance] 130 (5)

[Free Points] 28

[Skills] Basic Mana Bolt [Level NA] Basic Heavy Strike [Level NA]

[Titles] First Blood, Two versus One, One vs Many, Monkey Slayer, Living on the Edge, Close Call, Dead Man Walking, Dual Class, Punching Up, Improbability, Rounded, Dog Hater, One Man Army, Dog Killer, Battle of Attrition.