Book 2 Chapter Eight: Leverage

EIGHT

“That’s…damnit,” Jerry seemed to deflate as he stared at the ring. For the first time the rabbit-kin finally looked like something was affecting him as he slumped against the wall.

“You broke the rabbit,” someone whispered and Roan couldn’t help but feel a glowing sense of pride at seeing the proud beast-kin looking defeated. It was a haughty, superior feeling that seemed to say, this is the way it should be.

“How many hours are left?” Roan asked, but his attention was on the ring’s contents. It was mostly inferior-grade potions, but there were a few pieces that made his heart lurch. Whatever Lester had been, he’d been a fighter.

A fist sized chunk of the mushroom treasure was in the ring. But that paled in comparison to the shard of a mana core sitting in the ring. It also answered his question of whether the mana core quest was available to multiple people.

“Now, are there more shards on the floor, or do I need to hunt the other climbers who have one?” He didn’t like the thought of having to hunt other climbers down to earn the reward. With two shards he’d have access to a poor-grade mana core as a reward right this moment. Part of him wanted to take it now, to get another boost in power similar to the body tempering and bloodline.

“Impatience will get you killed. Collect the rest of the shards.” Roan couldn’t argue with the logic of that.

“We’re almost done. You spent like, the entire time looking at the ring. Thought I was going to watch you have your tongue ripped out,” the same guy said.

“I got there eventually,” Roan said, finally pulling his attention away from the ring and toward the alerts he’d received.

SKILL LEARNED

ENCHANTING

TIER: 1

ENGRAVING YOUR WILL THROUGH SYMBOLS WITH IMBUED MANA TO CREATE LASTING EFFECTS

FLOOR QUEST UPDATE

UNITE THE SHARDS

A SECOND MANA CORE SHARD HAS BEEN RECOVERED. ADD MORE SHARDS TO INCREASE RARITY OF REWARD

“Didn’t realize it but there’s no amount of shards listed on this quest. How many could I theoretically claim?” Roan wondered to himself as he transferred all the contents from the broken ring to his locked ring. They’d hardly materialized out of the broken ring before being whispered away into the second ring. Roan turned to his final alert and couldn’t stop the smile that spread on his face.

LEARN

TIER: 3

PRACTICE AND INCREASE IN MENTAL BASE STATS HAS INCREASED LEARN’S TIER

CURRENT EFFICIENCY INCREASE: 30%

“Have to keep trying to increase intelligence and knowledge. Wonder if the increase is from having a teacher or from studying an object to learn? Maybe both?” Roan stood and stretched, feeling his clothes sticking to his body. Whatever learn did, it caused him to sweat profusely. The canteen was drained in one go as the moment the lukewarm water touched his lips he realized how thirsty he was.

With a nearly silent click the door unlocked and everyone rose to their feet and shuffled out, hardly bothering to look at Jerry as they left. Roan waited until they were gone before he walked up to the rabbit-kin.

“He’s beaten. He came down here for easy resources and you’ve robbed him of them twice. He came to meet a powerful figure in his hierarchy and she dismissed him without looking. He needs a win.”

“What’s the conversion rate like, credits for contribution points?” Roan asked. He kept himself firmly grounded, feet planted at shoulder width apart, chest square, eyes locked on the much more powerful beast-kin.

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“Poor. It would have taken me many hours of my life to earn the barest scraps of knowledge. In a few cycles I would have enough skill to teach on a higher level or even floor. Then I could charge more,” Jerry said morosely.