Soul of the Warrior

Reivyn sheathed his weapon and walked with his father toward the dead snake. Is it a snake or a serpent? Does a giant snake have to be in the water to be considered a serpent, or just a giant snake? Are there even rules?I could have Identified it, but I was too reactive once it attacked. I wonder if Identify works on dead monsters?

He used his Skill on the slain beast.

Snake (dead)

Helpful hint: Or is it a serpent?

Reivyn just stared at the cheeky Notification for a moment before shaking his head. Is that the System or the Akashic Record messing with me? More questions with no answers. Another question without an answer, currently: is my Skill too low to give me additional information, or is that what scanning dead things always brings back? Maybe I should scan more things…

Refix was already busy experimenting with the scales of the dead snake - I’m just going to call it a snake - by stabbing it with his sword. After a couple stabs, the blade went through the scale much easier than when the creature was alive. It still took Refix several stabs in the same spot to pierce it, showing that it still had some defensive properties, but it was nothing like when it was alive.

“Must be the absence of Mana or Stamina or whatever flowing through the body,” Refix said, stroking his chin in thought. “That beggars the question: If this is crafted into armor, can we do the same thing with our Mana with similar results?”

“I’d bet money it’s based on whichever Armor Skill said armor is based on,” Teilon spoke up.

“Yeah, I wouldn’t take that bet,” Refix grinned. “Pretty sure you’re right on the money.”

Teilon turned to Kimberly with a smug look.

“See, honey, I make smart bets! We should live a little…” He was obviously alluding to some previous conversation they’d had on gambling, Reivyn surmised.

Kimberly just rolled her eyes.

“Nobody’s going to make bets on that sort of thing,” she said with exasperation.

Teilon’s shoulders slumped and he glanced away, kicking at an imaginary rock.

“It’s the principle of the thing,” he muttered.

Reivyn just chuckled.

Rexif managed to slide his sword between some of the scales, and one popped off pretty easily. Reivyn stepped up and re-drew his sword to try his hand at the same thing. He had a hard time wiggling the blade between the scales, and once he finally managed, he only bent the scale he was trying to pry off. It didn’t even look slightly looser to the skin underneath when he was done.

He looked back and forth between his attempt and his father already peeling his seventh scale away.

“How are you doing that?” He asked.

Refix looked up and noticed Reivyn’s botched attempt. He smirked at his son.

“Skinning Skill,” he replied. “A staple of any good Adventurer. You should invest in it some time.”

“More Skills to work on?” Reivyn quirked an eyebrow.

“What are you talking about?!” Teilon threw him a disgusted look. “You love training new Skills, and this one’s pretty adjacent to a lot of your other ones.”

“I mean, yeah, but I already have so much on my plate…” Reivyn trailed off.

Teilon scoffed and rolled his eyes. He retrieved his own dagger and stepped forward. He expertly stuck his dagger in a seam and wiggled it around before one of the scales popped off. It wasn’t as clean as Refix’s, but it was actually a success.

Teilon glanced up at Reivyn with a sparkle in his eye.

“Hah! Finally found something you’re not good at.” Teilon sounded far too pleased with himself in Reivyn’s opinion.

“For now,” Reivyn said, pushing up his sleeves and readying his sword again. Refix stepped in front of him.

“No way,” he said, grabbing Reivyn’s sword, preventing it from getting closer to the snake. “You don’t even have the Skill unlocked, yet, and you won’t get it unlocked with your butchering job. You’ll have to wait until we get back to the Lower Regions and practice from the beginning, just like everyone else. We’re not going to have you ruin these perfectly good scales.”

Reivyn stared at his father in the eyes for several seconds before sighing. Refix let go of his sword, and Reivyn sheathed it once more.

“You’re right, of course,” he said. Teilon snickered. Reivyn glanced at the other boy popping off more scales. “What are you so happy about? That just means more work for you.” It was Reivyn’s turn to smirk.

Teilon’s smile slid off his face. He turned and looked at the scale he was working on, then he turned and looked at the rest of the monstrously-sized snake laid out in front of them.

“Dang it…” he whispered.

Reivyn just laughed out loud and shook his head.

“Come on,” Kimberly said, grabbing Teilon’s other dagger out of his sheath, “I’ll help, too.”

“Thanks, babe.”

Kimberly leaned over and planted a quick kiss on Teilon’s cheek before getting to work next to him. Reivyn shared a look with Kefira before turning toward the center of the little hill they were on.

“Let’s find out why there was a big snake hanging out on this hill,” he said, sauntering toward where he first sensed the snake curled up.

As he walked forward, his Divine Sense picked up energy radiating from just below the surface. The energy “blinded” his ability to see exactly what it was, overwhelming his mundane vision with the Mana contained in whatever was located there. He simply relegated the sensation to the back of his mind and marched up to the object.

He looked down with his normal vision and finally spotted the anomaly.

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“It seems to be some sort of variation of a Star Body Ginseng,” Reivyn called out as he reached down to pluck it from the dirt.

He lifted it up and inspected the ginseng in question. Normal Star Body Ginsengs had what looked like a constellation on their surface. This one still had the same markings, but the central “star” was much larger and had markings that made one think of illumination.

The others who weren’t working on removing the scales from the snake had followed behind Reivyn, and Kefira walked up next to him to look down at it.

“I believe that’s what is called a Sun Body Ginseng,” Kefira said. “It contains considerably more energy inside it, but it’s not usable for the ritual to advance one’s Bloodline. The imbalance of power throws it off and causes all sorts of problems. If one is particularly unlucky, it could even cause death.”

“Do you know what it’s used for?” Reivyn asked.

“I’m sure there’s some variation of the ritual that exists to curb these problems, probably with other rare variations of the other materials, but if it exists, it’s not public knowledge,” Kefira shrugged. “Other than that, it’s an alchemy material. The energy is the same kind as a Star Body Ginseng, so any recipe calling for that could substitute this and create a more powerful effect. An inanimate potion isn’t going to have the same issues as a living body when it comes to imbalance of power.

“That doesn’t mean an alchemist without the proper Skill Levels could handle it, of course, just like with any other higher-Tier materials. Star Body Ginsengs are Tier 5, this variation is probably considered five and a half for Skill Level purposes.”

“I see,” Reivyn contemplated for a moment. “So we can either sell it in the outpost, or I can absorb the energy for my own Bloodline advancement and gain a bunch of equivalent Experience towards its advancement.

“I’m still really far away from advancing my Bloodline, energy-wise, and I don’t have any pressing concerns for advancing it quickly like you did, so I say we just sell it. We have to repay the loan to the Adventurer’s Guild, after all.”

“If that’s what you want,” Kefira said with a smile. “I’m fine either way.”

“That sounds like a good idea,” Ameliyn spoke up. “Who knows, we might find another one in the future when you decide to work on your Bloodline. Our Luck brought us to this one, so who’s to say it won’t lead us to another.”

“Ok, well for now, we’ll just pocket the thing,” Reivyn finished as he scooped the ginseng out of the ground.

As a simple root, there wasn’t any special method to gather the material. One could just dig it out and it would be fine. Another misconception many had was that every material needed to be stored in some sort of special container to prevent efficacy decay. While that was true for many things like flowers, grasses, and the thorns they were gathering, it wasn’t universal. Ginseng roots were one of the things they could simply place in a storage bag and not worry about losing any efficacy.

“Now to gather the remainder of the Blood Rose thorns.”

—

The Party spent a couple hours gathering the materials from the hilltop. Refix, Teilon, and Kimberly busied themselves with the giant snake - scales, fangs, poison sac, gallbladder - while Reivyn finished off collecting the last of the thorns they needed.

“Ugh…” Reivyn lay on the ground with his hand over his eyes. “It never gets any easier.”

“Well, we all thank you, sweetie, for taking care of that last one,” Ameliyn said.

Refix finished packing up the materials they gathered as everyone waited for Reivyn to recover. Reivyn finally sat up and glanced at the mostly still intact remains of the giant snake.

“What about the rest of it?” Reivyn asked.

“We don’t have anyone with a Butcher Skill,” Refix shrugged. “Sure, we could cut it up and take the meat with us, but we don’t really need to, and the cuts won’t be good. It’ll affect the taste and texture when we eat it. If we were going to be out long enough that our supplies wouldn’t last us, I would say let’s do it anyway, but that’s not the case, and I don’t really feel like eating gamey meat.”

“Does a Butcher Skill make that much of a difference? After removing the scales, we can slice through the meat and bone quite easily, no?”

“Yes and no. We can cut it up easily enough, but the Butcher Skill will let us find the perfect places to cut for the best meat. It’ll guide us in removing the gamey flavor. True, a high enough Cooking Skill can do the same thing, but the best foods incorporate both.

“My own Cooking Skill is also pretty low Level and won’t be enough to affect cooking such a mana-dense creature. Your mother could probably do a good job of it, but not enough to get past not having a decent butcher to begin with.

“The main point is that we don’t have the necessary tools to take advantage of eating such high-quality meat out in the wilderness, whereas if we leave it, other wildlife that doesn’t need such things will benefit from it, and what’s left to decay will benefit the vegetation, now that we’ve removed the venom.”

Too validate Refix’s reasoning, Reivyn spotted the Blood Rose bushes ambling toward the far end of the snake where they set down roots directly in the blood run-off.

“Well okay then.”

The Party did a final check of their gear and set out once more toward the mountains in the distance. They had already collected all of the Blood Rose Thorns they would need for the rest of the Party, and they had picked up a few Star Body Ginseng along the way. The final piece of the puzzle were the roots of Burning Echinacea. The particular flower could be found in areas with increased levels of Fire Mana present in the ambient Mana, and there was an ancient cave/mine system a little ways up the mountainside that had just such an environment.

Reivyn didn’t know if the increased Fire Mana was due to volcanic activity closer to the surface, which was entirely plausible, or if it had something to do with the nature of mining and was built up over many years.

The actual mine where metals were pulled from was actually a resource Dungeon located at the entrance of the cave system. It was possible that Mana leaking from the Dungeon was the cause. Either way the ambient Mana contained higher levels of Fire Mana than other regions nearby, and that’s where they would find the last ingredient.

The Party continued their trek through the countryside continuing their policy of fighting only the things that attacked them first. There was a noticeable drop in goblin activity as they got closer to the mountains. It seemed the horde of goblins was mostly relegated to the forests and plains for whatever reason. Reivyn didn’t know, and he hadn’t looked into it.

Reivyn perused his notifications after fighting a small group of animals that had attacked them after they intruded on their territory.

Combat Initiated

Enemies Defeated

Exp +1

Exp +1

Exp +1

Combat Resolved

“Why is the Experience so low for these things?” Reivyn asked. “Aren’t they Tier 5? They still put up a little bit of a fight.”

“They’re not true beasts,” Refix answered. “Sure, they’re Tier 5, but they’re Tier 5 nothings if you think about it. The giant snake was a true beast, so it was fully a Tier 5 with all the Experience and Skill gains accounted for. These animals are just regular animals with higher levels of mana density.

“If one of these animals somehow made their way to a Tier 1 Region and a Tier 2 or 3 hunter found them, they would actually award bonus Experience instead of less Experience because of how difficult it would be for them to kill such an animal. Even though you’re only Tier 3, you’re in a Party with Tier 4’s and 5’s. The System isn’t static, as you know.

“You’re actually lucky that your absurd Stats don’t hinder you more with how easy you could bowl through everything else within your own Tier, and Dungeons are an exception, because you get the bonus for clearing the Dungeon, and nothing isn’t considered a beast or monster inside except for things like insects and such.”

“I see.”

“The goblins are similar,” Refix continued. “You didn’t notice because you weren’t getting Experience at the time, but because the goblins are nuisance monsters, they have reduced Experience gain, too. Equal tiers get a quarter the Experience for fighting nuisance monsters above Tier 4. That’s one of the main reasons the first outpost is situated beyond the main areas the local goblins can be found in.”

“That makes sense. The people out here want to gather resources and gain Experience. Why set up somewhere where you’re going to get bogged down by hordes of monsters with much less return for your effort.”

“It’s not all bad, though. The System grants a bonus if it turns into enough of a siege that it’s recognized as an actual battle and not just combat. It’s not much, but it makes up for the difference in difficulty.”

“Good to know.”

Once everything was clarified, Reivyn once more closed his Notifications. It also answered his question as to why his Skills didn’t see much growth from all the fighting they were doing against the local wildlife. They fought enough that he assumed he would have seen at least one Skill gain a Level, but if there were reduced Skill Experience gains as well, it made sense.

Another reason why Skill Shards are so important. People are only getting Skill gains from like 10% of the actual amount of combat they see out here. Another minor mystery resolved.

Eventually, after hiking another couple of days, they made it to the base of the mountain. From below it looked much like ascending another small hilltop, but the elevation just kept going up and up and up instead of rolling hills and valleys. Refix pointed to a prominent cliff in the distance.

“That’s where the resource Dungeon is located. There’s a small camp around the Dungeon entrance. It’s not technically permanent, but there’s always people delving the Dungeon, so there’s never not at least some tents pitched. There are no goblins roaming this far away from the forest, and there’s enough Adventurer activity that the beasts are kept culled, so there’s no palisade or anything, though.”

The rest of the Party members nodded their heads and continued hiking in that direction. They noticed the change in the ambient Mana as they got closer and closer to their destination. The temperature increased marginally, but noticeably, and they were able to snag a couple of roots from the Burning Echinacea already. They would need to spend some time moving about the area to fulfill their quota, but with how quickly they found two on their way in, Reivyn wasn’t worried about wasting too much time with the task.

True to Refix’s words, once they got close enough to the cliff, Reivyn spotted a couple dozen tents pitched in a chaotic circle around the Dungeon portal. Most Dungeons Reivyn had seen were simple tunnels through space that had no portals associated with them, but that was apparently only true for the lower Tier Regions. Many Tier 4 and all Tier 5 and up Dungeons were accessed through portals. Reivyn didn’t understand the reasons behind it, but he was sure he could find something in one of the libraries if he decided to check in the future.

The tents were clearly separated by Party. There were clumps of them together with wider spaces between the groupings to indicate the separation, but as a whole, they were set up in a rough circle around the portal.

Reivyn could see Adventurers puttering around here and there doing their own thing. Some were just resting. Others were talking with other Parties or bartering. There seemed to be several different cookfires set up for anyone to use without having to make their own. I bet some of them with high Cooking Skills sell their services to other Parties, Reivyn mused as he took in the scene.

Behind the portal, the cliff extended hundreds of feet straight up into the air. It wasn’t a barrier preventing people from traveling further up the mountain, though. Off to either side, Reivyn could see in the distance where it leveled out and paths were in place for people to continue their journey further up if they wanted.

“Alright, we’ll set up camp here and rest for the remainder of the day,” Refix said, dropping his pack on the outskirts of the circle of tents. “We’ll delve the Dungeon tomorrow, see what it has to offer, and then we’ll spend a couple hours scouring the outside for the rest of the roots before heading back to the outpost.

“Sound like a plan?”

“Sure thing,” Reivyn nodded.

The others nodded their heads in agreement and got to work setting up their campsite. Reivyn clapped his hands and rubbed them together enthusiastically.

Alright. Our first little expedition is about half-way over. I’ll need to go over the dossier for the Dungeon one last time tonight, but this is a resource Dungeon. Shouldn’t be anything too tough to tackle inside.

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