Theo was still chatting with Grace about topics from before the integration and her time during the integration.
“I chose a group tutorial over a solo. Looking through the classes we had access to, I always liked to be sneaky and strike first in video games, so I stuck with what I knew. Obviously, Rogue, and for the profession, I chose alchemy for all the varieties of potions you can make, but I’m getting ahead of myself. I didn't get my profession until later. It was on the first day that I tried to hunt alone. I sucked, but on the second day, I met my friends. Jessica chose the Healer class. Before the integration, she was in the medical field. She was a specialist of some kind; I don’t remember the name. Kyle chose the Mage class. He was a scientist obsessed with thermodynamics. His magic—he is a very good fire and ice mage—not sure how that works. When I ask him, he says they’re the same side of the coin when it comes to thermodynamics, but I think he’s talking out of his ass. And Aaron and Alex are the Warriors. They are also brothers. They were high school students who were really big into sports of all kinds, and that carried over to their classes. They experimented with all types of weapons. Before the tutorial was over, neither of them had a weapon of choice. Still, yeah, we met on the second day of the tutorial, and we all just clicked and did many dungeons and hunted through the different creatures in the tutorial. It was a lot of fun,” Grace said.
“I’m glad you made some friends,” Theo said.
“Out of curiosity, what did you get during the tutorial store? I know you got the spectral servants and a training room. What else did you get, Uncle Theo?” Grace asked.
Theo rattled off the rest of the items he had gotten and asked her what she had gotten. She rattled off the items that she got; one of them stuck out, and that was a skill book on raising the rarity of perception. Theo facepalmed; he had completely forgotten he had promised himself he would buy a skill book when he had the chance.
Grace noticed with a smile. “You have forgotten about using the Galaxy Trade Store to upgrade your skills like perception, didn’t you?”
With a sigh, Theo said, “Yes, I did forget. I’m going to my office to remedy that oversight, and you do the same. Look over your skills to see if there’s anything you want to improve with the skill book.” Theo said goodbye to Grace and walked back to his office.
Theo looked through the skill books in the Galaxy Trade Store. He got the Identify skill book; he also found one on “Battle Healer Tactics, on and off the battlefield”.
Looking at his character sheet.
Theodore Thompson
Race: Human E-Grade Lv. 25
Class: Battle Healer Lv. 25
Profession: Warden of Gehenna Lv. 25
Health: 1110/1110
Mana: 1350/1350
Stamina: 1120/1120
Stats:
Vitality: 111
Strength: 106
Endurance: 112
Agility: 108
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Intelligence: 135
Wisdom: 120
Willpower: 143
Perception: 103
Free Points: 0
Class Skills:
Healing Touch, Common, Master 2
Cleanse, Common, Master 1
Target Healing, Common, Journeyman 6
Healers Intuition, Common, Novice 3
Clean Common, Novice 6
Sword Mastery, Common, Master 9
healing knowledge journeyman novice five
combat healer tactics journeyman novice one
Professional Skills:
Warden’s Knowledge, N/A: Warden Site, Common, Novice 0: Universal Translator, N/A: Spectral Shade, Journeyman 6: Warden’s Suggestion, Journeyman 4: Novice 9: Warden's Command, Common, Novice 4: Warden’s Key, Common, Novice 0: Summon Binding Chains, Common, Novice 7: Respond N/A, Chains of Gehenna N/A, Flames of Gehenna, Common, Novice 0
General Skills:
Identify Master, Journeyman 5
Meditation, journeyman novice one
Bloodline Skills:
Mental Resistance, Uncommon Novice 0
Physical Resistance, Common, Master 7
Soul Resistance, Common, Master 0
Immunity
Lesser fire immunity
Bloodline: Fortitude
Bonds:
Galaxy Trade Store Tablet, Chains of Gehenna, the Prison Gehenna, Sword Cane Rare
Theo had noticed something unusual: the giant skill book he used for all the known races granted him the skill "Healer’s Knowledge," but it only advanced to the journeyman level. He also realized that the skill "Clubs" was no longer listed on his status sheet.
“I’ve got to ask the system about that next time,” Theo thought. He spent the rest of the day goofing off.
The following morning, he had breakfast with Grace in the dining room after they finished.
Theo asked, “Are you ready to go?”
“Yes, I’m ready,” Grace replied.
A portal opened before them, revealing the plateau littered with the corpses of dead ants. Some birds were trying to peck at the remains but were unable to penetrate the tough carapaces.
Theo and Grace stepped through the portal, causing the birds to skitter off as it closed behind them. The four chains, which had formed a ritual circle, disconnected from each other and returned to Theo's limbs, disappearing into his body.
“It’s only been a day, but I really missed my chains. They've become an extension of my body,” Theo thought.
Grace approached each corpse and began collecting them. And putting them in her storage ring,
“I’m sure a certain blacksmith would be happy to work with this carapace,” Grace said with a smile.
“And while we’re down in the tunnels, we can keep an eye out to see if the vein that the metal came from is still exhausted,” Theo added.
As Grace finished collecting all the ant corpses and placing them in her storage ring, she walked toward the entrance of the cave. She pulled a few vials from her storage ring, then handed the other one to Theo. Theo took it as Grace drank the other one.
Theo used his upgraded Identify skill on the vial in his hand.
Dark Vision Potion
The effects of this potion give you the ability to see in pitch-black darkness.
“Did you create this yourself?” Theo asked.
“Yes, I wasn’t sure how long it would take to navigate this tunnel system, so I created a lot more Dark Vision Potions last night. The spectral staff are very helpful,” Grace said.
They continued to talk as they walked down the long cave system. Grace heard jittering before Theo did, and she put her finger to her mouth, and Theo fell silent. Grace listened for a moment, then whispered,
“These things sense mana, whether it comes from magical ore or people. We might be swarmed; they’re quite a bit away, and we can hear them from here, so there can be a lot of them, and I don’t know when they’ll sense us.”
Theo summoned his chains, remembering from last time that his sword was useless for cutting through their carapace.
“Let me take the lead. I can use these,” gesturing to the chains, “to smash them while. You watch our six to see if we don’t get swarmed. We passed quite a few branching hallways; there’s a chance they might come from behind us,” Theo said.
Grace nodded and said, “Roger.” As she quit walking beside Theo and started walking behind him, they moved closer to the source of the noise, not very stealthily, since there was no point, since the ants could sense their mana. The noise of chattering and the rustling of many creatures stopped.
“This happened to me before. They spotted us,” Grace said. Theo unwound the chains on his arms and extended them, waiting for the ants to charge them, which didn’t take long. The rush of tens, or maybe hundreds, of creatures heading towards them, all chattering, was pretty nerve-racking. From the long hallway, Theo could see the ants appear, as if they had peered out of nowhere because of the cave's slope. Theo used the Identify skill on the lead ant.
Cave ant level 15.
Cave ants usually live in mountainous regions, nesting in natural caves and then expanding from there. Miners look for cave ants because they’re attracted to the mana in all magical metals. They take the metal and eat it, absorbing and strengthening their carapace. As a result, their carapace will be stronger than that of any other ant variant.
“Well, that explains why they are so durable,” Theo thought as he got into a defensive stance.
