Field Assignment end

(Experience gained 1420!)

(Level up! Congratulations on reaching LV. 4)

STAT improvement:

(+10 HP, +20 MP, +10 SOUL ENERGY, Free stat points earned +5)

'Lindsay how did we earn so much experience? Can you break it down?'

'Yes, it appears that fighting multiple enemies provides an experience multiplier. Since you fought five enemies, with two of them being a higher level than you, you gained a times 10 multiplier. Here is the breakdown of the experience gained for each magical beast.

Giant Lizard - 15 experience

Giant Lizard - 21 experience

Giant Lizard - 13 experience

Crazed Deer - 43 experience

Wildcat - 50 experience

Experience gained 142 times 10 to equal 1420.

From what I gather you would normally gain a 1.5 experience boost for 2 enemies, 2 times for 3, 2.5 times for 4 enemies, and 5 times for 5 enemies or more. You faced 5 enemies gaining the highest multiplier and then gained a bonus times 2 for fighting a group of enemies at or above your level.'

Jerod contemplated this information for a while as he piled up the magical beasts on top of each other. With his team gone he wouldn't be able to stick to the field assignment for the full 7 days. Gathering all of the magical beasts together he could use his teleportation runestone to bring them all back for their resources to increase the points for his team.

'What about the experience gained for each magical beast? Can you explain why there is a difference for each of the Giant Lizards even though they were all level 3?'

'Ah yes, I had wondered about that myself. There isn't anything defined in the archives I have access to but what I have noticed is you gain more experience for enemies with higher SOUL ENERGY and higher level. So each level should give you a certain amount of experience and that is either raised or lowered based on their SOUL ENERGY.'

Jerod nodded internally. This was sound reasoning that they could experiment with later. He finished gathering the magical beast corpses into a pile and fetched his backpack laying near the tree wall. He made sure the logs they used for fire were doused with the water from his canteen to prevent a fire from breaking out in the forest and checked for anything his team may have left behind.

After gathering everything into one place and securing it all together Jerod rummaged in his backpack. With his hand in his backpack he took the teleportation runestone he had stored into his inventory out. He had a habit of storing things in the inventory and had decided to make decoy items in case he ran into issues with people in the future. Little did he know that one of his teammates this time had purposefully stolen his fake teleportation runestone.

Jerod then activated the runestone while holding onto the bundle of corpses and teleported into the courtyard back at the academy.

With a sudden flash a mountain of magical beast corpses appeared in the academy courtyard. The students that had just returned or were walking around on their own tasks were taken aback when something so large materialized. After a moment of recognition all of the students that could move, screamed and fled the courtyard as fast as they could, not understanding how magical beasts could infiltrate the academy courtyard.

Jerod sat atop this magical beast pile and chuckled a bit at the sight of people fleeing in all directions before calling out that everything was okay. Some of the teachers flashed into the courtyard at this point and also worked to calm down the panicking students and letting them know that these beasts were dead.

Jerod made his way off of the pile of corpses and was pulled away by a teacher straight to the infirmary. After an examination from head to toe he was given a clean bill of health. The headmaster was waiting for him outside of the infirmary and teleported together with Jerod to his office.

"Well done Jerod! You gave quite the spectacular show. The teaching staff and I have many questions especially about the new magic you displayed but I want to talk about what lead up to the incident first. We have interrogated the students from the team that attracted the magical beasts and were able to put together what happened.

After disclosing that we observed the entire thing Bart Ferris claimed that he didn't know there was anyone in the tree that he threw the scent bags. He claimed his team was trying to attract a magical beast but after getting more than they could handle his team evacuated leaving him to run for his life.

Of course the planning of a child is easily seen through by the teaching staff. He will be receiving adequate punishment for causing a life threatening situation for another student and also losing many rank points. He will no longer be part of the top 50 class as a result so you should no longer have to worry about any machinations he might plan against you.

Now, all resources that your team has gathered will be collected and given to you by tomorrow and we will be providing you with some extra resources due to your field test being cut early because of this situation. I feel you would have definitely made it through the full 7 days had you not been targeted in such a way.

I will allow you to rest but the teaching staff is going to have many questions for you if you are willing to disclose information on that lightning attack you performed. Remember, you are not required to share your magical findings. However, we will do our best to compensate you should you decide to indulge in our curiosity.

Now, I will send you to your room for rest. The next 3 days will be time off for you to do whatever you would like to do."

Jerod listened quietly to everything the headmaster described to him with complete understanding of what happened. He still had questions about how he was found by Bart and what his grade was after tallying all of the resources but rest sounded very good at this time. He had recovered his mana already but the mental taxation of fighting and the few days sleeping outside with no adequate bathing facilities, he decided to acquiesce.

After returning to his room he took a shower to wash the dirt, grime, and blood off his body before soaking in the tub. While relaxing and letting the tension abate from his muscles, Jerod decided to contemplate what he should spend his 5 attribute points on.

STATUS

Jerod LV. 4 EXP. 420/6250

HP: 50/50

MP: 80/80

STAM: 15/15

SPIRIT: 25

STR: 10

AGI: 10

LUK: 6

SOUL ENERGY: 130

'With the boost of MP when we leveled up I feel we should be okay for now. Increasing anything in the spirit, strength, or agility areas will put us past the limits of a regular person. Unfortunately, I can't see the stats of any of the teachers due to them being so much higher level than me, otherwise I would know if they also have super human capabilities. I am inclined to put some points into health and maybe agility. What do you think Lindsay?'

'Good choices, I think you should also consider putting points into spirit as well since it relates to magicle and mana control.'

Jerod contemplated for a while before deciding to put 2 points into his HP, 2 points into agility, and 1 point into his spirit. After confirming the point allocation something unexpected happened.

Pain shot through his body and mind causing him to writhe and splash water around. The pain lasted for several minutes before finally subsiding leaving Jerod laying in the tub half filled with water now.

Groaning he asked Lindsay what happened while checking his stats again.

STATUS

Jerod LV. 4 EXP. 420/6250

HP: 70/70

MP: 80/80

STAM: 15/15

SPIRIT: 26

STR: 10

AGI: 12

LUK: 6

SOUL ENERGY: 130

No health lost meaning he wasn't being attacked, all he could do was wait for Lindsay to discover the cause.

After a brief pause Lindsay came back with the answer.

'It seems that your body had to be modified to handle the increase in stats that go beyond the human limit. This could be considered a sort of evolution. Actually, after compiling the data, it is possible that you may now be in the Novice Mage realm due to the increase in your spirit. The distinction between the levels of mages relates to the ability to manipulate mana and magicles. If I am correct there will be thresholds that you will hit for each tier all the way up to Sage, where you will have to go through a similar evolution.'

'Then with my agility being above human standard I should also be near a novice level warrior as far as stats go. I suppose that next level I should put 1 point into strength to break that threshold as well.

Now that I have crossed the threshold into the novice realm will I be able to increase my spirit again through meditation?'

'I believe it is possible, we can try to search through the library and inquire from some of the teachers tomorrow to see what they say. It will be important to discover how most people increase in strength after breaking through.'

With that Jerod decided to order dinner in his room and sleep early.