Illusions and a Caveman

Watching everyone head out of the training grounds Draven finally had the time to work on himself. After looking at all his level 1 professions and his class quest there was no way he wasn't going to work. He has been waiting a month to finally start gaining levels and this class quest was the only thing stopping him from getting back on the grind. After checking his skills, he noticed Carving was already at the max level ready to rank up. System why didn't I get notified about this? Draven asked.

<Beep! The profession system comes from the terminals which is a separate to Djinn would User like integrate with system?>

"Yes!" Draven replied.

<Beep! Commencing integration of Professions into Djinn System please stand by.< p>

- Blacksmithing 100% Installed

- Tailoring 100% Installed

- Enchanting 100% Installed

- Leatherworking 100% Installed

- Alchemy 100% Installed

- Jewel crafting 100% Installed

- Carving 100% Installed

- Cooking 100% Installed

- Woodworking 100% Installed

- Engineering 100% Installed

Integration of Professions completed User may see Progress on Professions in the New Professions tab of the menu.>

<Beep! Congratulations Carving has ranked up to Iron Tier.>

<Beep! 100 The map has been updated to include search functions for Raw materials used in Professions. range of detection is currently feet.>

"Nice!" This was much more convenient now Draven didn't have to go to the terminals anymore to rank up his Professions and the addition to the map spoke for itself. Draven was very pleased with this situation. Draven looked at the map he wanted to look for areas that fell in line to where the system said he could find shadow monsters. After scanning the map, he found 3 areas that had potential. 2 caves that were roughly 5 miles away in separate directions and to the mountains far south it seemed there was a long narrow passage that lead into an undiscovered area.

Draven decided to check out the caves first as he was likely to also find metal ore there as well. Draven was running at a comfortable speed which would still put the greatest efforts of famous long-distance runners to shame. After taking a few detours to pick up some random herbs along the way such as a few Blood roots and star flowers. Draven had arrived at the first cave. The entrance was hidden between dead trees and vines. Draven extended his claws and chopped a path to walk through like a machete. Inside the cave, Draven could see many deep scratch marks lining the cave walls. He stayed on high alert looking out for any creature that may have caused those markings but then he saw copper and iron ore on the map just ahead of him. All thoughts of dangerous creatures vanished from his mind as Draven practically skipped like a little girl over to where the ores were located.

A few feet ahead Draven came across a section of the cavern walls that glinted a lighter moss-green color. After inspection the system deemed this to be copper ore. Draven pulled out a pickaxe he had bought when picking up the blacksmithing profession and started going to town on the wall. As soon as a chunk of copper flew out he sucked it into his inventory. It only took Draven a few minutes until he had mined out that entire section of wall containing the copper ore. Giving him a total of 429kg of raw copper. Thank the system that weight didn't mean anything to objects inside his inventory. After making sure he didn't miss any copper Draven walked over to where Iron Ore was pinging on his map.

This was a lot harder to see Draven was positive if the map hadn't shown him where the ore was, he would have walked right past it without ever noticing. The Iron was practically the same color as the cavern wall, just a slightly lighter shade of grey. After thanking the system once again for the bountiful loot Draven started going to town on this wall as well until he had mined all there was to mine. With 642kg of raw iron in his inventory, Draven pretended that all the cave-shaking, ore mining didn't happen and was back on high alert for monsters. He continued the path of the cave, it wasn't like in some stories where the way would constantly branch off creating a maze.

Draven continued through the cave until he suddenly stepped into a hole and began to fall forward. Before he could fall into what looked like a pit of spikes Draven summoned a gust of wind and used it to launch himself backwards. Draven fell backward and landed on his Ass. Draven was panting from the sudden rush of adrenaline. 

"He hehe he" Draven whipped his head around to look for the source of the creepy giggle. Even with his mystic eye, he wasn't able to find anything. looking back to the pit Draven was confused. "I would have noticed a huge pit in front of me." he thought. It was as if the pit suddenly materialized.

Seeing that he was nearing a dead end on the map he didn't want to risk any more traps and turned around heading back out towards the exit. After turning around the first bend of the cave Draven came across another dead end. If Draven wasn't on high alert before he was now. Draven has played enough fantasy games to know the wall is either an illusion or a monster. According to his map, the path continued forward through the wall. Using his mystic Eye Draven scanned the wall and his surroundings. The wall showed nothing and neither did the other walls behind him or the ceiling until suddenly the system gave off a notification.

Illusion Imp demon Level 12

Health: 180

Mana: 1200/1500

A bead of sweat rolled down Draven's spine. "This demon has been watching me while invisible this whole time!" Draven was creeped out to the max. Using the mystic eye to find its stats over and over Draven was able to have a very good idea of where it was. He pretended to keep looking around like he was lost to keep the imp in the dark as he charged the seals in his legs and arms with lightning magic. Draven didn't want to form a spell he might scare it off. After reconfirming its location Draven unleashed the seal in his left leg and kicked off the ground launching him towards where he thought the imp was and with extended claws stabbed towards that direction against the wall. His claw penetrated the stone of the cavern wall and Draven thought he had missed until the system alerted him.

Congratulations! The user has slain Illusion Imp Demon level 12.

After the creature died it became visible and it lifelessly hung between Draven's claw and the wall. The imp was green in color and had 2 horns on its head with multiple spikes protruding out of the skin on its entire body. It had very long ears and a tail. its small child-like slender arms and hands with matching legs and feet didn't match the rest of the body it was very off-putting. If the mystic eye didn't tell him it was a demon he would have for sure thought it was some kind of weird lizard creature. Blood streamed down his arm and pooled around him on the ground. Draven looted the Imp and received an Iron Xp orb, and a pair of Imp Horns.

<Beep! Xp orb contents are compatible with Djinn Race. The user is advised to consume Orb.>

Draven had never gotten that message before, he had gotten plenty of other XP orbs that were related to both his dragon and raiju race and never gotten this message. Draven pulled the orb out of his inventory. It was easy to find as it was in its own slot instead of stacked with the other Iron orbs. Draven ate it on the spot.

<Beep! The user has gained an Affinity to Illusion magic.>

"Illusion magic?!" Draven let his jaw drop so fast it nearly dislocated. Excitedly Draven tried to recreate the illusionary wall the imp had made earlier and found that this new magic was much more difficult to control. It was like painting in the air, it was easy to make a block with a solid color that could close off the tunnel but it wasn't very convincing at all. Then he tried to change the color to match that of the cave and then change the shape of the wall to match the markings and grooves of the cave he honestly couldn't do it right now. "I'll have to practice this from now on." Draven thought to himself.

He headed out of the Imp's lair and casually sprinted to the location of the second cave. He saw many creatures but after activating Draconic Aura not only did they not bother him they would either run in the opposite direction or simply lie flat on the ground waiting for him to pass. After reaching the next cave Draven noticed that unlike the first cave the entrance to the second was not hidden and was a lot larger. After entering he saw many pings on his map indicating raw materials. "Jackpot!" Draven yelled out in excitement. He cautiously took a few steps into the large opening and noticed that the path was already leading towards the underground at a steady decline. Within mere moments Draven began to hear a subtle "Tink… Tink" sound coming from deeper within the cavern.

Draven went full stealth mode which meant crouching down and moving very slowly he tried to go invisible using illusion magic like the imp had previously done but other than getting a portion of his hand to become see-through while staying perfectly still he decided he had to give up on that for now. It seemed that it was impossible to be invisible while moving as you would have to change the illusion on your body to mimic what is behind his body in real-time and that was not in his skill set at the moment. So, moving slowly was the most he could muster in terms of stealth. After navigating the cave for a few minutes, he came across the culprit of the sound.

It was a small humanoid creature the size of a goblin, but it was super hairy almost like a lion the hair on its head and face it all merged into one large mess of hair, with a face popping out in the middle of all of it. It was wearing leather clothes albeit super dirty but nothing compared to the filth of the goblin's loincloths. With its scrawny arms, it was mining an Ore vein that looked like iron. Perhaps these monsters were intelligent? Draven wondered. He didn't want to kill intelligent beings that he could reason with, and Draven was even more than happy to give up mining all the ore down here if they were friendly and he could get some information from them. Draven inspected the creature with the Mystic eye.

Coblynau Level 9

Health: 450

Mana: 80

Draven wasn't worried about dying to this creature and after inspecting the room to see if he could find anything else and coming up short, he decided to try and talk to it. "Uhhm Hello Mr. Coblynau are you able to understand me?" Draven said with his hands up attempting to show he was unarmed and meant no harm. The creature spun around and pointed at Draven while mumbling a bunch of sounds that he couldn't understand. It stood in front of the ore vein holding a pickaxe indicating this ore vein was not for Draven. "Well it didn't attack me on sight so that's good I guess?" Draven asked himself. "I don't mean you any harm. Can you understand what I am saying?" Draven said while maintaining his distance. The Creature continued to make weird guttural sounds and pointed to Draven and then the exit.

Draven assumed that the creature wanted him to leave the cave. Draven wasn't sure what to do in this situation. The creature wasn't hostile but not welcoming either. Perhaps it lived here in these caves, maybe there were more of them down here. Draven wanted either information or the ore but he also didn't want to offend the first non-hostile creature he had found. Draven pulled out a lump of copper from his inventory, "Here this is for you" Draven said while holding out the copper ore in its direction. The Coblynau had a weird expression on its face, but it did start to walk over to Draven. Draven simply stood there unmoving with the copper ore in his palm and waited for it to take it from him. The Coblynau walked over and sniffed the copper a few times before snatching it from Draven's hand.

"M…ore!" The creature yelled out towards Draven. "You can talk my language!" Draven exclaimed this was huge! perhaps he could get some answers about this world from the Coblynau. But before Draven could say any more the creature pounced on Draven with its hands reaching all over Dravens body looking for more copper to take from him. Draven activated Draconic Aura again and the creature immediately jumped back holding the pickaxe in front of him preparing to defend an attack. Seeing this as an opportunity draven tried to reason with the caveman. "If you answer my questions I will give you more," Draven said while holding another chunk of copper.

The Caveman stared at the copper and wanted to rush forward but was still being suppressed by Draven's skill. "Can you tell me where we are?" Draven asked. The Caveman was not interested in anything Draven had to say and simply stared at the copper in his hands. Draven decided to put the copper back in his inventory in hopes of getting the caveman's attention again. This backfired immediately as the Coblynau looked pissed it had even taken a few steps forward which had never happened before. Draven was impressed but he didn't know how to further this conversation. Should he knock it out and take it back with him and let someone else give it a try? Draven pondered that option as this creature clearly could speak English to what extent Draven didn't know but he could potentially get some really important questions answered like if it was also abducted and if so did it know what or who had captured him.

Draven didn't like the idea of capturing this creature just because he wanted information. Draven didn't feel like he had a right to just take its freedom away just because he wanted answers but Draven had to think of what needed to be done for all the humans who were brought here against their wills and if this creature could answer even the simplest question it would be worth it. Draven decided it was better to capture the Caveman and let it go after the group at least tried to get some questions answered. Draven moved in and struck it in the back of its nape with the flat of his hand and the creature fell to the ground but not unconscious.

"All of Anime lied to me! Did I not hit him hard enough?!" Draven had no idea how to knock a person out let alone some small caveman. After attacking, the effect of Draconic Aura seemed to lessen on the creature and it pounced again but this time its Pickaxe was raised towards Draven's head. "MORE!" it screamed at Draven. Draven sighed as he smacked the pickaxe out of the creature's hand. But this seemed to enrage it even further as it bared its teeth and tried to bite Draven in the neck. With a heavy heart, Draven extended his claws and with a quick swipe the head of the Coblynau was severed from its body tumbling to the ground.

<Beep! 9 Congratulations! User has slain Coblynau Level>

Draven was a bit depressed the Caveman was intelligent enough to understand the value of metal but not intelligent enough to trade or offer anything in return nor was it capable of understanding the strength difference between them and acting in accordance. Draven decided that the chances of him getting anything useful out of it were extremely low and more than likely not worth the time commitment to try. Draven looted the creature and obtained its pickaxe the copper ore he gave it along with 56kg of Iron Ore, 1 Novice Veteran Xp Orb, and its leather armor. Draven then spent the next 15 minutes mining all the Ore that was in the vein and received a total of 726kg of Iron ore. Draven continued the Path and decided to quickly farm all the ore that was down here and leave. He didn't come across any more Coblynau and after roughly an hour Draven had mined another 1027kg Iron Ore, 951kg Copper Ore as well as 149kg of Gold. Only after Draven was sure there wasn't anything left did he exit the cave and make his way to the last location he pinned on the map.