Chương 22

I could see four or five more goblins spread out in the tree line, content at watching us. They were all the same kind as the one that had followed me, and now that I could see in the dim light, I was sure they were of a darker green colour than the ones we had fought earlier. That hinted at these ones being some sort of a variant. Scouts… maybe…? Lucas prodded me in the side, and I tore my gaze from the goblins, following him into the longhouse.

We waited a bit for Marcus to come back and then stepped into a room, closing it behind us and seating ourselves as comfortably as we could in the cramped, dark space. Marcus handed me a bowl and spoon, which he took out of his inventory.

"It's cold now, but it's all they had" he explained. I thanked him profusely and scarfed the cold fish stew as quickly as possible, finishing it in a few seconds it felt like. My enhanced perception let me taste the food much stronger than before, but I couldn't quite focus on that at the moment. Marcus wordlessly took out another bowl from his inventory and handed it over to me, a small smirk on his face.

Choosing to pretend I couldn't see his expression in the dark and focus on the food instead, I made short work of the second bowl as well. I looked at Marcus hopefully, but he lightly shook his head, still with a light smirk. A little disappointed, but satisfied nonetheless, I set the bowl aside and looked up at Lucas and Marcus's waiting expressions. Taking a deep breath, I started telling them everything since the start.

I left out the existence of the goblins for now, preferring to speak with Lucas alone about that. Other than that, I explained everything to the best of my memory.

"… and then I reached here" I finished.

"The key takeaway from today, which was my real aim, was that indirect damage counts towards us getting exp, so we can use traps and tools to do the work for us instead of charging in and getting ourselves killed. That, and the fact that now we know that milestones exist."

"Hmmm… weird. The key takeaway I got from your tale is you doing everything alone and almost getting yourself killed" said Lucas, still a bit miffed. I knew it was said from a place of caring rather than malice, and I sheepishly replied "Yes well… there's that too…" He glared at me a bit before letting out a frustrated sigh.

"Look Alex, I don't know why you think you have to do everything alone. We spent the entire morning levelling up as well. A lot of us understand the fact that sitting around doing nothing won't get us anywhere, and we are putting in the work. We started building a fence, secured a food source from the river, and located a major herd of cattle not too far away. We also faced off against more of those boars and some large cats and came out on top.

I don't get why you insist on being alone all the time" he ended, visibly annoyed. I was surprised. Not so much at his frustration, but at all the things he had listed off. He was actually right. Despite seeing the progress of the square, I mentally thought of everyone else as just focusing on surviving instead of entertaining the thought that there were others who were discovering things about the system and the surroundings too. That being said, I didn't think I would suddenly get too social.

It's just not in my nature. But perhaps we could work something out?

"Sorry Lucas, you are right. I don't know why I thought that way, but I did and I was wrong" I said, seeing him visibly calm down.

"That being said, you both know that it would have been difficult, if not outright impossible, to do what I did with others accompanying me. No one else has stealth, as far as I know, and either the kobolds would have discovered us, or the wolves would have definitely attacked us. I think me going alone was the right call, but I should have at least let you know what my plan was beforehand." Lucas let out another sigh and said, "Well, it's a start, I guess."

I knew he still wasn't convinced, but I wanted to ask him about a few things I had noted earlier.

"Now, tell me about the cats, and those cattle. What levels did you guys reach? Did someone else upgrade their class?" Lucas frowned a bit at the subject change, but luckily Marcus spoke up.

"We didn't get any upgrades or stat milestones like you did, but let me tell you about those cats. As large as a panther, but much more deadly, it ambushed us and almost…" he animatedly started telling off the tale, and a few sentences in, Lucas also forwent his frustration and joined in. We shared a few laughs, Marcus surprisingly being an excellent storyteller. He exaggerated purely for comic relief, and I suspected it was to cut down the earlier tension, which I was grateful for.

Some time later, Marcus stood up.

"Well, this has been fun lads, but I'm spent. I'm gonna go get some sleep, see you guys in the morning" he said. We both said bye to him as well as he gave a small wave in response and left. This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. I looked at Lucas and took a deep breath.

"I need to tell you something important that I didn't mention earlier, and I need to know what to do about it" I told him. He stood up a bit straighter at my serious tone, and indicated me to go ahead. I then started telling him about the goblin who followed me, and the goblins outside.

Lucas snored away. It was amazing as well as grating to see his ability to go to sleep anyplace at any time hadn't been affected by literally our reality changing. I looked up at the dark ceiling, thinking about what we had discussed. When Lucas had learned about the goblins watching the square, I had to physically stop him from jumping out and clearing them out. It took a while, but I ultimately got him to realize the small advantage we currently had despite it being a risk to leave them out there.

But then again, even if I went out and killed them all, no one else could see them right now and they would know that I could spot them. Instead, we made a barebone plan on signifying the importance of stat thresholds to everyone, and relaying the importance of perception to a select few at first. Spotting those goblins made it clear that the goblins as a whole were much more than just mindless beasts, and they were clearly planning something.

We had to be prepared for them, and ideally, strike them before they had the chance to enact their plan. For us to be successful, the community as a whole had to grow. I couldn't do much alone. Still, there was something I was uniquely positioned at the moment to do right now. I hadn't mentioned it to Lucas earlier as I wasn't sure if it would work or not. If it did, then I would tell him. If not, I'll try something else. So, without further ado, I mentally prepared myself.

Crossing the perception threshold and being so close to level 10 had gotten me thinking that I should do this sooner rather than later. Time to try and learn magic… again. I knew I could see, hear, smell, taste, and feel a lot more than before. The question was if I could sense mana as well now. I planned on getting Omar to throw out a few spells tomorrow while I observed to see if I could glean something new; however, right now, I had to try alone. First, I tried to see.

There wasn't really much to see in the dark room; just a few dust motes falling down. The same scenario repeated itself when I tried to hear, smell, and feel. There was nothing much that I could do in the empty room. Not giving up, I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths, this time trying to focus inward. It was fascinating. I could feel and hear blood rushing through me when I concentrated.

My heart beat was clear to hear and feel, and I could even hear faint sounds coming from my stomach as the food within was being digested. I could smell sweat and the faint smells of nature clinging to my body somehow. Amazing. I took a few moments to marvel at the new experience, before I concentrated further. I tried looking deeper within me, at the presumed mana that should be flowing somewhere inside. However, much like the last time I tried, I could sense absolutely nothing.

Getting frustrated once again, I calmed myself and thought of what else I could do, when a possible avenue I hadn't tried hit me. Stealth! It was the one skill I had that actively used mana, both at the start and as a sustained cost. Excitedly, I mentally focused on Stealth to start. Immediately, I felt the familiar shift take place.

But this time I had better senses and I was concentrating completely on the sensation, therefore I was able to sense that something spread all over me in an instant and dampened everything – my presence, smells, and sounds. I could somehow feel how the moonlight coming through the window of the room was interrupted by something, so that it couldn't quite reach my body. Feeling like I was on the right track, I focused harder on trying to understand what the skill was doing.

Perhaps only because I was concentrating so hard, I all of a sudden felt when a barely perceptible whiff escaped from my body for the barest of instances. What was that? I did a mental double take, but couldn't see it again. I kept trying to sense what it was, but it was to no avail. I was thinking about perhaps assigning more free points to perception, when I felt it happen once again. Yet again, it happened so fast that I was left in doubt if something even occurred or if it was just my imagination.

Then, it happened again, and now I was sure I wasn't imagining it. I tried to focus on what it was, as it happened again, and again, after a certain time passed, like clockwork. Oh! Like clockwork! I opened up my status while still trying to focus on that feeling. As soon as my mana ticked down by one, the same thing happened again. It's mana leaving my body! I'm finally sensing mana! I focused on the feeling as hard as I could, but it was too fleeting.

Each time it happened, it was over before I could even do anything. I stopped stealth and opened my eyes, thinking a bit about what I could do differently. The mental step back allowed me to remember something I had discovered quite early on – the system responded to intent. I knew I couldn't just 'intend' to make something happen and it would just magically happen. I probably needed to put in actual thought and effort into it, and move my intent in the right direction.

I closed my eyes again and switched stealth on, feeling the sensation of something covering me and dampening everything about me. This time, I focused with all my mental strength on just two things; one, for the cover to be and do more, and two, to somehow reduce the mana that leaked out at constant intervals. I wasn't sure how long I stayed there, laid down, trying my hardest to tell the system what I was trying to do through intent.

I did a few different variations like trying for the cover to hide me better, or not allowing anyone at all to see me. I was just about ready to give up when I heard the blessed sound of a system notification. Ding! You have upgraded a skill.