‘What was that? That felt… really good. It was like getting a full body massage but just before I completely relaxed, it just stopped.’ Ingram’s thoughts were suddenly flooded with a single sentence seemingly spoken by everything around him, “This world is a mirror that reflects others, Merit is the key to open the door between them.” Ingram held his head as he collapsed to his knees in the forest as the word echoed through his mind. In an instant, Ingram felt the sudden sharp pain in his head ebb away as his Mana surged along with something deep within him and subdued the unnatural power hidden within those seemingly simple words.
‘That… hurt.’ Ingram thought as he decided to collapse onto the ground and laid on his back in order to catch his breath. While the pain was gone, there was a deep sense of fatigue that seemed to permeate his body, like that powerful feeling took something from him when it faded away. Either way, Ingram was dead tired and didn’t want to do anything, so he ended up gazing up at the white clouds that freely floated across the heavens. Like all things, this period of rest had to come to an end. Ingram sat up and looked at the path towards Yonder and felt that he didn’t want to go back. He knew that he should, he was severely unprepared for anything hidden in the forest, but he felt a feeling he hadn’t felt for years at this point, Yearning.
As for what he was yearning for, he didn’t know, but his logic has no hold on his feelings. Ingram decided to go treasure hunting, and when he thought about treasure, he remembered two things, ‘I still have a chance to increase my Innate Talent by one level, but I should check out that Evolution Conditions thing first. What if I can evolve my talent naturally, then wouldn’t it be a waste to use that 60% chance now. Information is everything in this game. If I didn’t learn about and obtain
{Evolution Conditions: [Trash to Common] Find 27 Trash tier treasures. Found 1/27}
Ingram looked at the requirements and immediately smiled, ‘That’s easy. I’ll hold on to my upgrade chance until I reach Common Tier, then I’ll jump from Common to Uncommon in one easy step.’ Ingram planned with a smile as he glanced at his Treasure Compass Uses, only to see they had grown from 23 to 35. ‘It’s been six hours already? Time flies when harvesting Experience, I guess. Or should I say it was quicker than expected?’ Ingram mused as he used one of his Treasure Seeking opportunities. The treasure compass appeared in his right hand before wildly spinning around before firmly stopping with its arrow pointed at Ingram. Ingram’s heart jolted for a moment when he remembered the Treasure Compass can currently only find trash, then he realized it wasn’t pointed at him rather it was pointing through him.
Ingram laughed at himself as he turned around and saw the needle was pointing back towards the battlefield. Ingram almost groaned but held it in before slowly making his way back, it didn’t stop him from complaining though, ‘If I knew there was… actually, I don’t think I would have stayed there to collect trash. It’s still a pain to walk all the way back. Stupid past me, not using the Treasure Compass before leaving. I know I should have looked at the evolution conditions earlier. I can’t believe I forgot something so important.’
As Ingram made his way back, the Burning Blades were having a headache of their own. “What are we going to do now? There’s so much loot, but not enough hands to carry them.” Tony said with a saddened expression, but Issac had a nonchalant expression as he watched the lower ranked adventurers scramble around, rapidly dismantling the beast in front of them, taking what they want from it and leaving the rest to rot before dashing to another. Liz had a regretful expression, on that Tony asked her about, “What are you looking so regretful for? I should feel the most regretful, all this food gone to waste, if I could sell it, I’d earn a small fortune.” At this point Issac spoke up, “Shut up Tony. If we sold all of this meat, the butchers of Yonder would all quit on the spot. There are thousands of beast corpses, even if we could sell it, we’d destabilize the economy due to how much money this city would owe us. If that happened then the Tower Master, Guild Master and City Lord have to use their authority to borrow money from the forces behind them to buy a portion to ease the burden on the city and they would not be happy about it. Not that they would ever allow a sale that large to go through.”
Liz ignored their bickering and sadly spoke, “I wish I got to know who used that magic. It’s an unheard-of magic; it has so much study potential. It’s a new line of thought, do you know how much reputation and money that would give us? If I can explain the power behind it, maybe my family would rise again.” Tony whispered to himself, “But the Kilowatt Family hasn’t fallen.” Liz glared at him and Tony looked away, towards the distant horizon, looking like a wise man who saw through the secrets of life. Issac sighed and spoke up, “Yeah, they helped us a lot. I’d like to thank them, but it seems we aren’t faded to connect yet.” The other two rolled their eyes as Tony whispered, “You say that every time you don’t manage to tame something.” Issac glared at him and Tony looked up at the drifting clouds, putting his hands behind his back looking like a man who has no enemies.
“Anyway, we need to inform the Guild Master that the job’s done. It’s a shame we didn’t manage to kill Yonder’s Bear King. Ten Silvers would be a decent chunk of money to bring back to the others. Perhaps this means me and the Bear King are fated to be partners.” Issac suddenly got excited and began to track the Giant Bear, but Liz splashed cold water on his fiery ambitions, “I’m pretty sure bear’s hold grudges and you were standing next to me when I hit it, so…” Issac deflated and looked up at the clear sky, acting like it didn’t bother him, but the bitter tears the flowed down his cheeks said otherwise. “Ah, it’s raining.” Issac said and the other two ignored his theatrics.
“Who should go back to Yonder? I vote Tony, he’s the most useless among us currently. I mean we aren’t fighting anything and that’s all you know how to do.” Tony glanced down at her with a proud smirk, like she was praising him, he even puffed out his chest a bit. Issac also voted for Tony, by firmly patting him on his shoulder before shambling towards the huge pile of beasts that need to be dismantled. “I guess that settles it, do a good job and I’ll put in a good word with Blake for you. Maybe he’ll teach you a thing or two.” Liz said before sighing to herself, “How regretful, Blake wouldn’t have let that mysterious mage get away so easily.” Afterwards, she got to work helping the others.
Tony’s gaze drifted around the chaotic battlefield and felt like a crane among chickens before Liz yelled at him, “Stop daydreaming and get to work! Go and be quick about it! Don’t forget to bring as many carts as you can!” Tony shook his head while muttering, “What would they do without me.” Tony then began to steadily jog back towards Yonder while humming a tune he got stuck in his head, off key of course. Tony almost bumped into Ingram who had his head lowered looking at his Treasure Compass, they only just missed each other due to Ingram slightly staggering to the side to catch himself after tripping on a barely exposed root.
After the blur of a man came the echo of an off-tune song that made Ingram’s ears hurt. ‘What was that? I guess as long as he’s happy, I don’t know.’ Ingram put this odd experience behind him and began to follow the Treasure Compass again. After a while, Ingram saw the group of adventurers seemingly in a frenzy, but after a glance Ingram decided to ignore them. ‘I wonder what this… treasure is. I hope it’s not a cursed notebook again.’ Ingram thought before the needle’s slope was pointed straight down, at his feet, sat a shard of metal. Kneeling down, Ingram picked it up and the Treasure Compass vanished as a system Prompt appeared,
{You have obtained [Trash] Shard of a Sword}
Ingram solemnly nodded before glancing at his Evolution Conditions and seeing it grew by one. ‘So, this works… This is going to be a very long day. I should get rid of the rest of these Magic Circles. I still have a few Physical Block and Magical Block prepared to be filled, so I should be fine without these thirty-meter ones, just a waste of Mana at this point. I wish there was a way to just return the Magic Circles to the… Magic Circle Space, that’s what I’ll call it from now on. This is going to be a VERY long day.’ Ingram mentally sighed as he looked down at the shiny metal shard in his hand.
After twenty-five iterations of {You have Obtained [Trash] ….} Ingram’s Treasure Compass Skill evolved after almost an hour of running around the forest. Ingram sat on the ground, covered in dirt as he panted and looked at the twenty-six pieces of a sword. ‘I can almost piece it back together. According to the hilt, this sword belonged to someone named, Alan Smith. If I come across any Smiths, I’ll give these to them and inform them that the owner of this sword is dead.’ Ingram sighed as he looked at the grave he personally dug after finding a piece of a skeleton next to the twenty-sixth piece of the sword, the hilt. Ingram had a grave expression as he looked down at the strange energy white emanating from the hilt that spread to the rest of the sword pieces, but the concerning title he read when he picked up the hilt made his blood freeze.
{You have obtained [Trash] Alan’s Grudge-filled Sword Hilt]
‘Why does every piece of trash tier treasure I find seem to be cursed? Am I that unlucky? I can’t even get rid of it, even when I buried it with all of the pieces I found, they just floated back out and began to follow me.’ Ingram felt like he was going crazy, but he refused to give in to ghost, but he did level up his class and used two of the ten resulting points to buy the Characteristic: Spiritual Block and Size: One Meter, using 605 MP to instantly learn them. Then he used them to make a One Meter Sized Spiritual Barrier that cost 408 MP and encasing himself in it for good measure, he’d rather lean forward and walk then be possessed by a ghost.
{Judgment: Magic Circle is 86.67% accurate. Barrier strength is decreased by 13.33%.
Perfect Barrier Strength: 5,880.22 | Penalty applied, New Barrier Strength: 5,096.38
8 Proficiency Points gained.}
‘I hate the fact only one Barrier can be activated at each size, at least when it encases me. If only they could merge into one, maybe I should make a 1.99 Meter Barrier, use my barriers in layers, like an onion.’ Ingram sighed wistfully as he looked over at the floating sword that stubbornly remained within his Physical Concealing Barrier, mostly because it couldn’t get past the Spiritual Block Barrier, but oddly it didn’t cause any damage when the two touched.
‘Can I even go back to the city with a Ghost Sword? I don’t want the Magic Tower to get rid of me… Oh, I don’t think the defense system would notice it. So, this kind of situation is what the Tower Master was afraid of. At least my Passive Mana regeneration is high enough to keep both barriers active at all times, that’s some good news at least. Who am I kidding, I hate this. Is it my destiny to attract ghosts?’ Ingram looked up at the sky, but no one could answer his unspoken question. Ingram continued to stare at the broken floating sword and decided to ignore it. Instead, he turned his attention to the lottery chance he obtained from his quest.
His mind was once again taken into the void and the massive wheel of chance appeared in front of him, with slightly more being lit up this time. After it appeared it began to spin rapidly, until the point where the iridescent glow and the dark grey mixed together. Ingram watched the iridescent wheel spin before mentally ordering it to stop. Ingram didn’t hold his breath, not after losing so badly last time, even if the odds were in his favor this time. Soon the wheel slowed down, the thin needle gliding over the iridescent section, falling into the grey. Ingram focused on the edge of the Iridescent section and patiently awaited the failure system prompt again. However, this time it kept going like something was pushing it forward until it landed on the very edge of the Iridescent section, right where his eyes were focused on and then Ingram was kicked out of the lottery void.
The first thing he saw was, {Congratulations for Landing on, Innate Skill Rank Up. Lottery Chance Cooldown: 24:00:00} Ingram rubbed his eyes, to make sure he wasn’t seeing things before he let a hint of excitement appear on his face. ‘I finally won something, but that lottery Cooldown is taking forever to tick down, it's been eight seconds already. Never mind, it moved down by one… What a second is this timer linked to real world time? If I’m doing the math right, the lottery chance will only reappear in eight in game days.’ Ingram sharply inhaled before decided to silently close the system prompt.
‘Anyway, now my Treasure Compass skill should be able to find Uncommon Treasures.’ Ingram felt like shedding tears out of relief, but the problem he decided to ignore was still floating behind him. Decided that owning an Uncommon treasure would make him feel better, he mentally activated his treasure compass again, only for something new to happen.
{What Tier of Treasure do you wish to Seek?
54 Trash (There are 2,300 within the Compass’ radius)
3 Common (There are 108 within the Compass’ radius)
1 Uncommon (There are 21 within the Compass’ radius)}
Ingram looked at the numbers and felt his breath hitch before he immediately focused on the Uncommon and the system window faded as the Treasure Compass appeared in his right hand with its needle pointing deeper into the forest. Ingram began to follow it, doing his best to ignore the ghost sword that floated behind him. ‘There’s a lot of trash nearby. It’s nice to know how much treasure is within a 20 Kilometer radius of me, I guess. I hope this is the closest one to me, I mean it’d be dumb not to lock onto the closest one. Maybe one day I can decide the name of the treasure I seek.’ Ingram sighed before muttering, “A man can dream.”
After arriving at the location the Treasure Compass was pointing at, Ingram saw a strange plant, it was a bright green herb with a whorled orientation with only two entire leaves on one stem. Ingram knelt down and gently pulled it out of the ground, roots and all. To his surprise, the compass in his right hand shot out a beam of Green Light that sank into the herb. Once the roots were exposed to air, they shriveled and died before falling off as a system prompt appeared,
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
{You do not have the Harvest Skill.
Failed harvest…
Skill Treasure Compass interferes…
You have obtained [Uncommon] Healing Herb}
After completing its duty, the crystalline compass sank back into Ingram’s palm. He ignored it as always instead he focused on the strange herb in his hand. ‘This is the first actual treasure I have obtained, and it’s not cursed. If only the treasure Compass could warn me of cursed objects like it assisted me in harvesting, then I’d be really happy.’ As if it was provoked from him ignoring it, the ghost sword began to rapidly swirl around Ingram. He finally got fed up with dealing with it, so Ingram spoke to the ghost sword for the first time, “What do you want from me?” The sword seemed to freeze when it heard his words before the tip of the blade fell to the ground and began to slowly write with shaky letters.
“I want you to take my sword home to my wife so she can know of my fate.” Ingram nodded before answering, “Will that make you leave me alone?” The sword tip quickly wrote, “Yes. All I wish for is to go home, then I can rest in peace.” Ingram’s breath caught in his throat as he read the words before his argument dissolved into a sigh as he remembered something unpleasant. “Alright. Where does she live?” The sword danced around before the sword tip began to write again, “She lives in Yonder. She has brown hair, green eyes, she usually carries around a large axe. She’s an adventurer like I was. She should be at least C Rank by now, we weren’t as talented as some of the other adventurers are, but we had each other so we got by.” Ingram seriously read his description, but the more it wrote the more familiar it sounded.
Ingram hesitantly cut in, “What’s her name? I think I know who it is, but I need a name to be sure.” The sword tip quickly wrote out, “Rebecca Snow. Does that match the name you know?” Ingram had an awkward expression when he remembered he never got the Guild Master’s name, so to save face he solemnly nodded. “She’s doing well. She became Yonder’s Guild Master.” Ingram followed the method of saying less to avoid being caught in a lie. The dancing sword hilt suddenly stopped, and the sword tip quickly wrote, “She is? She must have work so hard to get here. You know she never- never mind. Can you take me to her?” Ingram felt a headache coming on, but he verbally agreed, but not before setting some conditions. “Sure, but you can’t just float in. I don’t know what the Magic Tower would see you as, but there’s a high chance it wouldn’t be human. On account that you’re, you know a grudge filled sword. I have a way to get around it, just don’t panic. Do we have an agreement?”
The sword remained silent for a while before the tip wrote out, “Deal. If I can go home, I don’t mind if I got refined into scrap metal.” Ingram felt a lump form in his throat, but he swallowed it down as he entered the Barrier Magic Circle Space. He quickly drew a new Spiritual Block magic circle, with a modified size of eight inches for a cost of 402 MP. Ingram opened his eyes as he waited for the magic circle to fill with mana. However, this time, he didn’t get an achievement for creating a new Magic Circle Component. ‘That’s too bad. I still have 159 Merit I don’t know what to do with.’
Ingram decided to ignore the Merit problem for now instead focusing on the ghost sword and asked, “Can you layer all of your pieces atop one another?” The ghost sword complied as Ingram’s New Magic Circle appeared. Once the ghost sword was just a pile of scrap metal, Ingram quickly formed the Spiritual Barrier around it. After it was trapped in the barrier, Ingram put on a cruel smirk. “Finally. I thought I’d be stuck with you forever.” The ghost sword began to panic as its parts rubbed against the edge of the barrier, only for the sword pieces to fall through, leaving an empty barrier.
Ingram looked at the empty barrier, but the countless system prompt said otherwise,
{100x Spiritual Block Barrier blocks 65 points of Spiritual damage from a [Life Level: 60] Alan’s Malevolent Spirit.
Judgment: Barrier strength is higher than the damage dealt, Spiritual Block Barrier remains intact.}
{You gained 650 Points of Experience.}
Ingram smiled as he continued to speak, “You thought I wouldn’t notice. You have been lying to me. I learned a lesson from countless stories, never trust a ghost.” Ingram was lying of course, in reality, he never got a quest from the system so either the Ghost Sword wasn’t being honest, or Ghosts can’t give quests. Either way Ingram wasn’t going to waltz back into Yonder with a Grudge-filled Ghost Sword in tow. ‘Since I can’t figure out what’s true or false, I’ll just seal him away forever.’ Ingram’s eyes looked into the empty barrier and sighed with a you will forever be a stable source of exp.’ Ingram mocked as he looked at the empty barrier, but the countless system prompts made him smile.
‘I don’t know if I’d get beaten if I told someone this, but hearing the gentle sound of the system prompt is getting really grating on my nerves. I wish I had a way to get rid of him.’ Ingram sighed after thirty minutes, the bliss of steadily gaining experience long gone and all that’s left was annoyance. ‘How much exp have I gained by this point. Do all ghosts attack so fast? I mean, a hundred attacks per minute is insane.’ Ingram sighed as he looked at the countless damage blocked notifications.
{You gained 19,500 Points of Experience.}
Ingram sighed again as he looked into the “empty” barrier. “Are you done yet? No matter how many times you hit it, it won’t break. No amount of perseverance will allow you to escape from it.” Ingram said with a hint of anger in his voice and the constant system prompts finally stopped after one last attack.
{You gained 7 Points of Experience.}
“Now, you have two options. Either you tell me who you really are, or I’ll kill you. You know I can.” Ingram threatened with a flat tone that made the ghost quiver. Deep in Ingram’s cold eyes the ghost saw a burning desire for violence. It was a look Alan saw many times in high ranked adventurers that lost themselves. Knelt down and had the barrier fall onto the ground and allowed for the ground to pass through, by very quickly deactivating and reactivating the barrier around Alan’s soul. Alan was too shocked from Ingram’s suppressed malice to even attempt to run away. Ingram carelessly dropped the sword tip through the barrier and patiently waited. Alan possessed the sword tip and began to write in extremely small characters, “What do you want to know?”
Ingram smiled a genuine smile that made Alan’s spirit shiver from fear. ‘How can he still smile so brightly with all that hatred inside?’ Alan, being a malevolent spirit had an innate ability to sense negative emotions and the hatred he sensed from Ingram eclipsed his own grudge many times over. Ingram had no idea that this weak spirit saw through his heart, so he began to speak, “That’s easy. What do you actually want? If you lie to me again, I’ll leave you in there, forever.” The malevolent spirit shivered and began to narrate his grudge with a few words as possible, “I harbor a deep resentment for Rebecca Snow. She’s the one who killed me. I died for a variant herb, like the one you found.” Ingram leaned forward to read and frowned before he rolled his eyes, “So, you were a casualty of human greed. Yeah, humans have the tendency to resort to extreme acts to get what they want. Let me guess she has connections with someone powerful, like the Lord of Yonder.”
The ghost quickly answered as it sensed Ingram’s deep malice suddenly surge, “Yes, she’s the granddaughter of the Lord of Yonder. She killed me to ensure I wouldn’t tell her grandfather about her harming the adventurers under her. She took eighty percent of their rewards for herself and claimed it was a protection tax.” The sword tip underlined the word tax a few times as if it was furious. Ingram merely hummed and waited for the ghost to continue. Alan felt Ingram’s hatred surge again, so he quickly continued, “I was left to die in this forest after she cut my arm off to seize my herb. If I could have returned with it, I could have cured my sick wife with it, she was my only family.” Ingram only nodded as if he was listening, but his hatred surged again at the word “Family”.
Alan seemed to sense a kindred spirit so he hastily continued after wiping away the previous words, “I admit I lied to you so you could take me to Yonder, but it's only to avenge my unjust death.” Ingram suddenly cut in, “I don’t believe you. I think I understand what you want to do.” Alan’s writing sudden froze but Ingram ignored him and kept speaking in a low tone, “You want me to sympathize with you, so I’m more likely to let you go or help you take your so-called revenge. You only became more passionate after I remembered something unpleasant.” Alan’s spirit began to quickly write something, but Ingram seemed to be on a roll, “So, to test you, I thought back to the day I can never forget, and you know what happened, you got even more passionate. If not for the fact you’re encased in my barrier, I would have thought you were feeding off of my negative emotions. This is the second time you lied to me. You had your chance, goodbye.”
Ingram ignored the frenzied writings of, “Please don’t leave me here.” and “Release me.” Instead, he focused on the Magic Circle that controlled the barrier he sat in and a familiar system prompt reappeared,
{Do you wish to force [Life Level: 60] Alan’s Grudge-filled Sword to bear the cost of this barrier?
Warning: Only one barrier can be forcibly applied to a target.
Y/N}
After confirming, Alan felt something forcibly attach to his soul before a fourth of his soul energy vanished. Despite all of his previous begging, he was actually trying to force Ingram’s empathy to rise so he’d feel bad, and Alan could continue to spin a new story that might allow him to escape. Alan honestly thought in his soul state he was invincible. The real reason for his sword to be scattered across the forest was to bait other creatures to touch it so he could enter their bodies and devour their souls. Most living creatures don’t have any form of defense for soul attacks, so they died. Even creatures much stronger than Alan himself felt to his frenzied attacks. Ingram was the first person he met that he had a feeling of danger towards. Alan felt like if he were to enter Ingram’s soul, he would instantly die. There was no evidence to support this instinctual feeling, but Alan followed it, mostly because his instincts disappeared the moment he became a malevolent spirit, until now.
Alan felt the fear of death for the second time and mentally collapsed. He used the sword tip and tried to pierce through the barrier, only for the sword tip to fall through, while his spirit was ejected from it. Ingram merely watched the sword tip fly through the air before it powerlessly fell to the ground. After another minute, Alan felt another fourth of his total spirit energy fade away. After he got over the moment of weakness from having another fourth cut out of him, he began to furiously attack the barrier in front of him. Ingram was unmoved as he sat still watching the notifications appear and disappear.
After the third minute passed, Alan finally felt regret, ‘What did I do to deserve this?’ He conveniently forgot about all the innocent people he killed. The E-rank adventurer that came out for his first gathering quest only to stumble upon one of his sword shards, the young man never stood a chance. The traveling merchant caravan, all they did was pick up a shard of the blade and their fates were sealed. These are only a few of the victims, Alan in life was a nobody. He was only a D-Rank adventurer that got lost in a forest with his party. Instead of retracing their steps the camped in the forest for the night. The rest never saw the monsters coming, but Alan did. Being on lookout he saw the wolves' approach, but instead of warning the others, he saw this as a chance to make a large sum of money. He stole their weapons and armor before running for the hills, he would have gotten away with it, if only he didn’t try to sell the Lord’s grandson’s treasured sword to a blacksmith that personally knew the Lord, it was only a hobby that he bought second-hand goods to repair and resell.
The reason for his grudge towards the Guild Master? She was the only member of the party that survived, not due to skill, but rather she stayed back in Yonder to buy supplies for the next quest. Alan got the same treatment his victims did, he was thrown into the forest with nothing but a dull sword. It would have been a mercy, if the Lord didn’t use it to violently cut off his dominate arm first. Naturally the scent of blood lured the beasts of the forest right to him and he was violently ripped to pieces. He didn’t even manage to kill one wolf before he was torn apart by the pack. The memories of his first death made Alan struggle even harder, but unlike his first death, this one was even more despair inducing, because he can’t run this time.
Of course, Ingram knew nothing about Alan’s life and if he did, he wouldn’t care. He only watched the barrier, as still as a clear pond. Alan’s struggles could never move the barrier, nothing could. The third minute passed, and Alan was only left with one fourth of his spiritual energy. He raged, he roared, he cried, he begged, but after another sixty seconds, he died, like a puff of smoke in a hurricane, unseen and unheard. Ingram can’t see spirits after all. After Alan was dead, Ingram kept the barrier up for an additional five minutes to be sure before he crushed the magic circle with a thought. Ingram looked at the total mana he obtained and felt it could have been higher if he could endure the gentle notification sound, but he wasn’t complaining about having more exp.
{You gained 2,600 Points of Experience.}
Ingram removed the barrier around his body and stretched his stiff body. ‘Leaning over for so long really leaves a kink in the back.’ Ingram gently stretched his back as he looked up at the bright sky and felt it was too bright. ‘That was an annoying undertaking, but I got a lot of exp out of it so it wasn’t a waste of time. Time to find more treasure.’ Ingram thoughts, not giving Alan another thought as he summoned his treasure compass and began to look for an Uncommon treasure, but not before gently placing the two leaved green herb in his coin pouch. ‘I really want a magic pouch, but I’m just so poor. I hope this herb can be sold for a decent sum, though that will open up a whole can of worms. Like, how did I get it? I can’t just day I walked out the city knowing that there was a beast tide coming and found it, that’s stupid.’ Ingram sighed as he looked up at the dense foliage. ‘Protagonists don’t have to worry about this, they play a crucial role in repelling the beast tide and would earn a decent chunk of money along with recognition from the other adventurers as a fellow strongman. I mean I really don’t want the trouble, so never mind. When I figure out what it is, I’ll sell it to another player that doesn’t know what it is for an exorbitant up-charge.’ Ingram laughed at his own thoughts for a few seconds before looking down at the crystalline compass with a pair of soft eyes.
The walk this time was only ten minutes and at the end of this compass’ needle, sat another plant. However, this one looked different, it was a dull blue herb with a basal orientation with only two sinuous leaves on one stem. ‘Herbs in this world look so… odd. Yeah, odd works. It’s not unheard of in nature, it’s just I’ve never seen one. Then again, I don’t really leave the house so what do I know.’ Ingram mused as he knelt down to pick up the blue herb, only for a sudden brown blur to lunge at him. The concealing barrier took the hit, but Ingram still instinctually retreated from the sudden attack. Sat coiled in front of the blue herb sat a brown snake with a long slender body with thorn like scales, a triangular head and yellow elliptical pupils that were filled with an unnatural madness. In the system’s words,
{Physical Concealing Barrier blocks 1,295 points of Physical Damage from a [Life Level: 51] Uncommon Viper.
Judgment: Barrier durability drops by 1,295. Physical Concealing Barrier has 2,998.10 HP remaining. Barrier remains intact.}
{You gained 129 Points of Experience.}
Ingram felt his adrenaline surge as he instinctually started filling on of the backup Spherical Physical Block Barriers that he stored within the Magic Circle Space with 408 MP. Ingram and the Uncommon Viper stared at each other, well more like Ingram looked at the Uncommon Viper while the Viper wondered where he went. After almost nine seconds, a new Magic Circle appeared and Ingram instantly activated it, encasing the viper in the Barrier. Only after the viper was sealed, did Ingram release a breath he didn’t know he was holding. Ingram patted his chest and felt his racing heart beat in his chest. ‘That was scary. I didn’t expect an herb to have a protector. I should keep a single Block barrier of all types active at all times. Next time I go treasure hunting, I’ll be prepared, but now it's time to go back to Yonder.’ Ingram did his best to sooth his anxious heart as he took shaky steps towards the herb, after the compass interfered, Ingram had a second herb in his pouch as he walked back,
{You have obtained [Uncommon] Mana Herb}