With five days until Lilia and her group were to depart Marcus made sure to keep an invisible eye on her until the day for her to leave had come. He watched as all of them piled into the carts they had bought for the journey home and inspected the ten adventures that were to be their guards. Finding that the lowest level among them was fourteen and the highest was beyond what he could see, Marcus felt satisfied that they would be protected. He then followed them all the way to the city gates and as they were waiting to exit, he entered the cart Lilia was in and deposited an urn with a note from him attached to it that contained the ashes of Irene's body under her seat. With his final gesture for Lilia done and his goal of saving her complete Marcus flew back into the city.
'You have leveled up to level 17.'
A bit surprised by the sudden level up Marcus checked his log and found this message there.
'Congratulations you rescued the little girl.'
'Well now I have gained six levels just saving Lilia, I really do want to go with her to make sure she is okay, but I know that if I had gotten any more attached to her, I was not going to be able to leave.'
Having come into a huge influx of skill and stat points Marcus was busy deciding what he was going to do with all of them. With a total of thirty-seven skill points and a hundred twenty stat points Marcus had a lot to think about. He first decided to distribute his stat points completely evenly so as to not have some of his stats lag behind the others. With that done he now had to decide what to do with his skill points and with the amount he had there were now dozens of skills he could get that he could never afford before.
'Augh, there are so many good skills, that I have access to that it is difficult to decide what to do. Do I spend a ton of them on one or two powerful skills, or do I keep myself balanced with a bunch of cheap but useful skills? I could also just pump the skills I already have as high as I can.'
After much contemplation Marcus decided to stick with methods two and three. There certainly were some powerful skills like space magic or future sight but Marcus figured they would not be that strong at level one anyways. So, he instead purchased less powerful but useful skills, such as, mana regeneration, speed burst, mana body, powerful slash, physical resistance, and heighten spells. Having spent eleven skill point buying these skill Marcus had twenty-six more for upgrades.
'Hm, now which skill should I upgrade, definitely my scythmanship, iron magic, and mana regeneration.'
Considering his options for nearly three hours Marcus finally decided how to use his remaining skill points.
'That should do now let me see how my new status is.'
'Status'
Name: Marcus Ferrous
Age: 28
Race: Unbound Ghost
Level: 17
HP: 860/860
MP: 710/710
STR: – (+65)
AGL: 62
VIT: – (+64)
INT: 71
SPR: 86
Stat Points: 0
Skill Points: 3
Unique Skills: Personal Status, #######, Solid Soul
Skills: Small Item Box, Lesser Regeneration Lvl 1, Digging Lvl 1, Fighting Lvl 2, Magic Circulation Lvl 3, Iron Magic Lvl 3, Disassembly Lvl 2, Stealth Lvl 2, Lightning Magic Lvl 2, Creature Appraisal Lvl 2, Fire Magic Lvl 1, Danger Sense Lvl 2, Darkvision Lvl 1, Scythemanship, Superior Lvl 4, Healing Magic Lvl 1, Mana Regeneration Lvl 2, Speed Burst Lvl 2, Mana Body Lvl 2, Powerful Slash Lvl 1, Physical Resistance Lvl 1, Heighten Spells Lvl 1
Blessing of Iron
Race Abilities: Invisible, Ethereal, Chill Zone, Float, Possession (Limited), Undying
Possessed Race abilities:
Specter Powers: Ghost Sounds, Spectral Arm
'I am looking pretty good; I know that the average level for every intelligent creature is thirteen, so I am now much stronger than most people. My problem now is what I should do next, since I have arrived on this world, I have been either stuck in the middle of the planet's core or trying to save Lilia. I have nearly infinite possibilities like becoming a royal investigator, just exploring this world, or continuing to be an adventure. The problem with gallivanting around the world is that I only know the one langue, and I do not have anymore tokens that let me learn them instantly. I could be a royal investigator but if they find out I am a ghost, I may get hunted down by people many times my level. I guess I should just adventure for a while to build up my level and gear and then I can figure out what to do when I get board of it. I have everlasting life so long as my soul is not destroyed so there will be plenty of time for me to find out everything this world has to offer.'
Having decided to try being a proper adventure for a while Marcus floated his way towards the guild hall to find some requests to sink his time into. Upon his arrival he had one more major decision to make.
'Should I register as myself or just keep using Irene since I am already an adventure under her name. I really do not want to go through the registration process again and I already have one job completed as Irene so I can always just accept the requests in her form and switch back while actually doing the job.'
Switching back into Irene, Marcus found a deserted alley to solidify in and then walked into the guild hall and headed straight for the request board.
'Impressive there seem to be dozens of more requests than there were in River Landing, now which ones should I take.'
After looking over the copper requests Marcus decided not to go for any of them since even the hardest one was to hunt some type of oversized beavers. Looking over the bronze requests Marcus found many just asking for small light green magic cores and he had enough to complete three of them already. Taking those as well as a request for the bodies of seven bubbling crabs Marcus headed for one of the receptionists. When he got to the front of the line, he handed her the request tags and his adventure card. As she looked over it, she had a skeptical look on her face before saying, "I am afraid that copper adventures can only have two active requests at a time so you will need to pick which of these you want."
'Ugh, this is one of the reasons I did not want to reregister as Marcus since being a copper adventure is more like being on probation.'
Marcus then asked if he could complete two of the requests right now since he already had the magic cores on him, and the receptionist begrudgingly told him that he could. Handing over twenty magic cores Marcus successfully completed the two jobs and received forty-two copper as payment. He then registered for the two remaining requests and asked the receptionist one more question,
"It says that the bubbling crabs are located in the Ocean Bluff Temple, but could you tell me where that is."
The receptionist then looked at Marcus like how a doctor looks at a patient who they just found something really wrong with. Shaking her head and sighing she then said, "You must not be from around here if you do not know about the Ocean Bluff Temple. It is one of only three dungeons in the entire kingdom, and one of the reasons that Loursend is so prosperous. You can find it at the northwestern end of the city just outside the gates, you cannot miss it. Also, I do not have time to give you every detail about it so if you want to know more there is a library upstairs and if you cannot read there are people selling their services to read for you. Have a good day."
Now that he'd signed up for the two remaining requests he had to complete to advance to the next rank, Marcus headed upstairs ready to read everything he could about the Ocean Bluff Temple.