2.10

To read up to 15 chapters ahead: https://www.patréon.com/SlyOW

Top 10: 1 Bonus Chapter

Top 5: 2 Bonus Chapters

Top 3: 3 Bonus Chapters

Top 1: One Bonus Chapter every day of the following week!

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

The fresh air of the outside felt especially pleasing after what we went through. Within the dungeon, the air felt humid, and the stench of blood permeated the dungeon, although I guess I was partly to blame for this.

Ralof, upon reaching the outside, laughed, "Even a dragon couldn't bring down the mighty Ralof and…"

He abruptly turned my way, and grabbed my shoulders to ask, "My brother, I never asked your name!"

I smiled through my teeth, as he shook the shoulder that had been injured by the arrow, and said, "Alexander, but my friends call me Alex."

Ralof, oblivious to my pain, roared, "To the mighty Alexander then!"

He patted his chest, and added, "My brother, you must join the Rebellion!"

I smiled and replied, "Well, if I have the time, I will. Say, how long would it take to walk to Riverwood from here? And to go from Riverwood to Whiterun? And Whiterun to Windhelm?"

Ralof took a moment to think, and eventually answered, "It should take about 10 minutes to reach Riverwood. To get to Whiterun, around a couple of hours. As for Windhelm, if you take a carriage, then between five and six days. By foot, probably a dozen days."

This was precious information, as it told me how many days I would have to exchange to get to certain locations, when I came back here.

For now though, I wanted to get somewhere before my teammates got here, so I said, "Well, it was a pleasure meeting you, Ralof. Unfortunately, it is time for us to part ways."

Ralof smiled, and we strongly shook hands, grabbing each other by the fore-arm.

"Godspeed."

And so I started running through the forest, following the road as I moved as fast as possible.

If I had ten minutes, I was sure I would be able to reach it, but since I didn't know when my teammates would leave Helgen, I couldn't waste a second.

Thankfully, the area around here, although larger than in the game, was quite similar, and as I ran down the road, I reached my destination.

The Guardian Stones.

There were 13 Standing Stones, spread all across Skyrim, and each could give the Dragonborn a different blessing in the game.

And the Guardian Stones gathered three of these stones: the Thief Stone, the Mage Stone and the Warrior Stone.

Each provided a buff to the learning speed of the associated skills.

And now, I wondered whether I could use them.

In lore, I'm pretty sure they are quite different from the game, supposed to grant more impressive skills, but only to a few. It was also related to when one was born.

As for me, I wasn't even from this world, so it might simply not work. Still, I would rather try than just leave it.

I also wanted to try it now, while I was close to it, as I didn't know whether returning to this world between missions would send me back where I left.

Not willing to waste any time, I moved to the stone that interested me.

The Mage Stone.

The Thief Stone was completely useless to me as it had nothing to do with my fighting style. As for the Warrior Stone, while I mostly fought in close combat for now, I was quite good at fighting already, although it was mostly instincts.

What I really lacked, were magical skills, in other words, control of the Force.

I had already confirmed the Force was considered magic in this world, as lightning had weakened my connection to it, so the Mage Stone would allow me to speed up my learning speed.

The Super Soldier Physique already increased my learning speed, so this should make everything better.

I placed a palm on the stone, and nothing happened. However, now that I touched it, I could feel the Force was strong within the stone.

I tried to tug at it, and the moment I did, I received a notification from God.

[You have received the blessing of the Mage Stone! +20% to the learning speed of magical skills.]

I looked down at my hand, a smile tugging my lips. I didn't really feel any different, to be honest, but since God had sent me the notification, it must have worked.

Now that I had done everything I wanted in this mission, and more, I decided to sit down. Leaning against the Mage Stone, my greatsword on my knees, I looked at the nearby mountain, taking in the scenery.

Next to the road was a river, behind which was the large mountain. I didn't know what it was called, but I remember that at its top rested the Bleak Falls Barrow, the first real dungeon the player would go through if they followed the main quest.

And if I decided to go down the stream instead, I would first find Riverwood, hometown of Hadvar and Ralof, as well as a sacred temple to the chicken.

Speaking of, I couldn't help but wonder about the Dragonborn.

We had not really interacted since the beginning of the mission. But if he was as weak as I believed him to be, I wonder how he is going to kill Mirmulnir, the first dragon the player fights right after the Bleak Falls Barrow.

I sat there for a couple more minutes, before I once again felt that half-awake, half-asleep state, and was teleported away from Skyrim.

---

[Do you wish to be healed? It will cost you 560 Points to heal yourself. If you wish to heal your three other teammates, it will take you 584 Points.]

"Only heal myself, God."

The moment I said that, I was surrounded by white light as I felt God heal my wounds.

Meanwhile, I sent a look at my teammates. There were still four of them left. Jonathan and Chris, who had gone through the first mission with me, and Sarah and Erik, the two newbies.

Silver hair and fierce man, the two I expected to survive. Good.

None of them chose to heal themselves, which was to be expected since they didn't even look injured. 24 Points to heal all four of them was nothing, they were probably just a little exhausted.

Meanwhile, there had also been two people waiting for our return, as Thomas and Shizuka rushed at Chris and Jonathan, hugging them.

As for Erik and Sarah, the silver haired girl was looking at the two a little strangely, while Erik's gaze was focused on me.

My injuries had been mostly healed by the potions, so it didn't take long for me to heal. It was actually surprising I had to pay this much to heal myself. I only had to pay less than half of this when I came back from the first mission, with broken limbs.

The first hypothesis that came to mind was that the stronger you became, the costlier it would be to repair your body.

As God finished healing me, I landed back on the ground, and the two couples grew silent, looking at me sternly.

Jonathan had fear in his eyes, Chris was solemn, Erik looked like he wanted to fight, and Sarah was nervous.

They probably saw what Ralof and I left in our wake.

My sword resting against my shoulder, and still shirtless, I asked, "What happened to Lucy?"

Jonathan looked down and replied, "She was crushed by a meteorite."

I nodded, "She looked careless."

Jonathan looked angry at that, but he said nothing. Still, I decided to explain, "The meteorites were slow, I'm sure you all had to dodge some. If she got hit by one, then she was careless. Now, had it been lightning, that would just be her being unlucky and weak, but it wasn't."

Stretching my limbs as I started feeling the fatigue settling in, I said with finality in my voice, "Well, believe it or not, I'm happy you survived. But don't think you may rest. I said nothing after the first mission because you had no Points, but now that you all have 1000 Points, I expected you to either enhance yourself, or at least train."

Sarah scratched the back of her head at that, and said, "Well actually, we got 2000 Points and a Rank D Reward."

Author's Note: Thanks for your suggestions on future missions! I can't promise I will follow them, but don't hesitate to send your ideas and suggestions for future missions/enhancements, be it for MC, his team or even other Teams.