Incrementat Power

Chapter 32

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Looking in my hand-mirror caused a smile to break out across my face. System's warning about the threats to come was concerning but I wasn't going to abandon this power. After witnessing this, it was easy to see why. 

Available ClassesSkills: Adventurer lvl 11 Physical Boost lvl 10, Inventory lvl 3, Alchemist lvl 5, Identification lvl 1, Blacksmith lvl 3 Blacksmithing lvl 1, Commoner lvl 4 Lesser Stamina lvl 1, Cook lvl 4 Cooking lvl 1, Farmer lvl 3 Farming lvl 1, Fighter lvl 4 Fighting Sense lvl 1, Leatherworker lvl 3 Leatherworking lvl 1, Pathfinder lvl 4 Navigation lvl 1, Physician lvl 3 Anatomy lvl 1, Potter lvl 3 Sculpting lvl 1, Swordsman lvl 10 Sword Mastery lvl 9, Sword Edge lvl 5. Spearman lvl 3 Spear Mastery lvl 1, Steward lvl 3 Management lvl 1, Tailor lvl 3Tailoring lvl 1

Today had been an astounding haul for experience, one that I had decided to spend on raising up my 'fodder' professions. Having two knights doing the frontlines work, not to mention the impervious nature of my armor versus mere rocks, sticks, and waist high rodents made leveling this time quite a safe endeavor. The safety of which allowed me to focus more on raising the lowest leveled classes rather than using my combat based ones, giving me a good mix of experience in each. Even the larger muck rat colonies weren't much of a problem for us, although it may have seemed like an unnecessary risk from the knight's perspective, these large groups were especially lucrative to me. But because of how lucrative it turned out to be, I was actually running into something of a conundrum. That is, where I should be spending the twenty-nine or so skill points that were staring back at me from the mirror's reflection.

[Nearly two rooms in my inventory had now been filled with the bodies of muck rats, not to mention the two wolves.

Enough that I would need to pay a visit to the guild sooner or later. It was unsettling to me, keeping a graveyard's worth of bodies within the recess of my mind, and the sooner I was rid of them the better.

The two knights and I marched back through the fields, the sun now high in the sky beginning its descent towards the west, letting us know that we only had a few more hours left of daylight. Soon enough we were back through the gates. The soldiers manning the gate shooting off a crisp salute to the two knights and myself as we passed through. Smiling to myself at the special treatment I was receiving.

I thanked the two for their help before beelining to the adventurer's guild. Bursting through the door with my head held high, not bothering to stow my newly christened armor just quite yet. Enjoying the looks of envy, even coming from silver rankers, noticing a familiar face among them. Nate, the spearman who had just weeks ago instructed me on my first excursion as a newbie adventurer.

Tammy was there, winding her blonde curls around her finger, manning the desk with a bored look as usual, her eyes opening more at the sight of me.

"K-keaton! I didn't expect you to come back. Your party was talking about how you didn't show up yesterday... a-and we all heard the rumors!"

She was clearly nervous about how to address me, our stations were suddenly so different.

"It's alright Tammy, aren't we friends? Let the others know I'm sorry about that, some other things have come up, as I'm sure you've heard."

She bobbed her head, still somewhat nervous. Leaning forward to whisper in my ear, the small gap in her blouse gave me a peek at her nipples and disappointingly flat chest.

"...is it true?" She tickled my ear with her hot breath.

"Is what true?"

"That you're a mage?"

I smiled genuinely, showing off my perfect teeth.

"Do you want to see?"

She gulped. Licking her pink lips briefly.

I wasn't sure if she was trying to seduce me, or was just this careless, but I was turned on.

"Let's speak in private. I have a big transaction for the guild."

We passed through the employee entrance out towards the back. The back of the guild was basically a big fenced in lot, with several wooden carts resting unused. Bigger teams would rent these out, hiring supporters to drive them and dress the carcasses, bringing back only what they needed. The collected loot would be counted here and transactions made.

We were alone now, surrounded by tall wooden fencing, with the only entrances being the wooden gate with a latch that could swing open, and the door we had just come through. The yard was dirt, but there was something of a porch and cover set up along the building. An outdoor fireplace, table and chairs arranged for people to relax in.

Tammy began trying to make tea, but I stopped her. Pulling out two cups of tea made the morning prior, still fresh and piping hot, just as they had been when I stored them using [inventory].

*gasp* "So it is true!" She beamed excitedly, huddling over the table where I had just materialized the refreshments. I proceeded to summon out snacks, pushing them towards her.

She excitedly chowed in on the fresh bread, jerky slices, and cheese, probably not having had dinner yet. I realized both how early and late she worked until each day.

"It's so amazing *chew* to think you're actually *chew chew* a mage now Keaton *swallow* how'd it end up happening?" She was furiously tearing into the food, burping embarrassedly afterwards. A sight that somewhat astounded me. Although I'll admit I was somewhat hungry by now, I didn't touch the food, letting her eat as much as she wanted. Was she getting enough at home? How much did a guild clerk make anyway?

"So, Tammy. I mentioned I had a big purchase for the guild. So I suppose I'll start with that." Pulling out a single muck rat body and laying it onto the dirt outside. It bled like a fresh kill would, given that this body was only stored a few minutes after death.

"I have about three hundred more of these. They aren't dressed, so I'll need you to hire labor for that. Think you can do it?"

She grinned.

"Shouldn't be a problem. We can hire local laborers to dress the bodies, that's not a problem. Seeing how fresh this is, even if we just allowed them to take the meat instead of wages, we'd still get volunteers." I knew how valuable meat was now in the winter months, even if our winters weren't particularly harsh here. The cattle and sheep wouldn't breed until spring, so this was towards the end of cycle with the fewest animals. They wouldn't want to thin the numbers of any viable livestock just yet, since they needed them to grow the herds as much as possible.

"That sounds good to me, should I wait for you to hire them, or should I just lay them all out right now."

"You can go ahead, its cold enough that the bodies should keep for a night. We can get some people together tonight, and I would guess they'll be done by morning if that's how many you have. We'll have to get the exact worth of everything you have appraised at that time."

I nodded, starting to unload my inventory. Lying the bodies in rows all across the entire yard. Thankfully I didn't need to actually touch the bodies when retrieving them, unlike how it was with storing them, which saved me from getting any more blood on me. ] 

Increasing any levels in [Inventory] only gave it more space and more rooms to store things, which wasn't really something I needed right now, not to mention the mental complexity of having to track of the exact placement of items among the small number of relatively small storage rooms was difficult enough already. If I were to increase the size and number of rooms any further, I couldn't imagine the complexity that would entail. It was pretty much certain that I needed more intellect if I wanted to invest any further in that skill. 

Then there was [Sword Edge] where the issue seemed to be a lack of charisma. My soul was simply too weak to use the skill repeatedly, lacking the mana for it. Making the skill any more powerful would only exacerbate this issue, making the skill unusable.  

Furthermore, I was only able to use two classes at once for the time being, at least until level 10 or so when I would be getting 'subclasses' according to System. Considering my current restrictions until then investing in fighting based classes seemed useless at the moment, given that I already had the strongest combination in [Swordsman] [Adventurer]. This made me turn to my support and production classes. Frowning a little as I looked at them. They wouldn't be much help in combat, but perhaps they weren't totally useless. [Identify] seemed somewhat useful, it at least would let me know if I was drinking poison or if an ingredient had a beneficial effect, which would help me not overlook something valuable or dangerous by accident. [Navigation] also seemed somewhat valuable. In the deep wilderness you can't see the sky because of the trees and getting lost is pretty easy. It seemed valuable to have this as a tool in the future, especially in the case that I lose my compass. From what I could tell the skill gave a basic sense of where I was, orienting me relative to places that I knew. While equipping the skill I could feel a vague sense of how far we were from town and what direction I needed to go to get there, the only thing was, I didn't really need it right now. 

Settling this, I spent one point in [Sword mastery] finally bringing it to max, before subsequently maxing out [Identify] with a full nine point investment. As far as what the difference this would have, that was something I'd have to test out over time. I couldn't figure out a use for the remaining 19 skill points, leaving those for later.

As far as attributes went, I was considering putting points into strength to make moving around in armor more comfortable, but so far it hadn't posed large enough an issue to warrant correcting. I was already stronger than what peak human condition would allow, and most knights without magically enhanced equipment were running into the same issue I was, yet they managed it well enough, and my enhanced constitution allowed me to deal with the strain for prolonged periods without much issue. I had put enough points into constitution at this point that now I was having fairly large returns for each additional point.

Considering my new position and likely continued status as a valued member of the kingdom, my biggest worries was probably dying to a lucky blow from some monster. I would have my own core of knights in the future, protecting myself should be the utmost priority, so long as I can survive the others will take care of it for now. I didn't need to necessarily be the most powerful person right now, but I needed to avoid dying while I put on more levels.

The beastkin were one thing, but from what the System told me, I'd eventually be dealing with others with a system like me, even if they weren't getting the same benefits from it as I was. Seemingly I had a bit of time. From our even earlier conversations, System seemed like had already banked a lot of energy from this planet, the Goddess' forces wouldn't put up too much of a fuss until the point that we started going negative. Given that this was linked to my leveling, I could more or less choose when it would occur. Giving me the edge when it came to preparations. I could build up my advantages in preparation for time we come into conflict. 

Investing the full ten points into constitution, I felt my body strengthen tremendously. I was somewhat curious about the exact effects, 45 points now had me on track to something akin to a lesser magical beast, somewhere around 12 times the vital force of an average person. Taking off my iron-scaled gauntlet inlaid with fur, I examined my hand, flexing the fingers back and forth.

Taking my skinning knife from its sheath, I tested the sharpness out on my exposed skin. The skin stretched but didn't break, even under considerable force and the edge sharpened as it was, it was almost like I was dealing with a butter knife rather than a dagger. Withdrawing the knife, the skin itself was smooth and unblemished, and even softer than it was a day earlier despite showing such durability. 

Keaton Pel

Level 6

STR15

DEX17

CON45

INT10

WIS9

CHA13

Wrapping things up I signaled to the two knights, ready to retire our outing for the day. I had probably three-hundred additional rat carcasses, not to mention the others I was still hoarding from previous week's solo adventure. Seeing how well the rumors of my space magic and my engagement had spread it should be about time to check in with the guild. Glancing at the two knights who had dutifully guarded me today, I figured it was only appropriate to share some of the spoils. Always a good idea to get along with those charged with protecting your life. Whistling the whole way back as we marched back triumphant.