244 Make the most of the system, please! part “What? what did I do?” Ryu said as he was being escorted out of the building by the same people who had invited him in.
“I’m sorry, there’s nothing I can do to help you now. Although it may seem like a rude thing to do, queen Samoat actually saved your life.” Saser explained once they were outside the city.
“But, I don’t get it, what happened?” Ryu had never been so confused in his life, the beastkin people had taken care of him while he was unconscious. The minute he wakes up he gets invited to a celebratory feast in his honor, next thing he knew he was served a dish that contained human meat and then was kicked out of the settlement.
“It may sound odd to you, but we eat humans.” Saser sighed, “I’d like to tell you that we take no pleasure in doing so, but it’s actually a delicacy. From the dawn of history, we’ve always preyed on humans, it’s just the way it is.”
Ryu, who all this time had seen the beastkin as victims because he knew they were being enslaved and treated unfairly by humans, was now thinking twice about it.
“Then, why go through all the bother of taking care of me? wasn’t it a lot easier to just kill me?” Ryu’s mind was dizzy already after waking up in an unknown location after an undetermined amount of time, but now he couldn’t make sense of anything.
“Our laws are considered sacred, we can’t disobey it, even our queen has to obey the law or she’ll end up paying the consequences. You saved our queen’s life and, according to our customs, that means our whole race is indebted to you. As a means to repay you for your kindness she offered her hospitality, but by rejecting the food they offered you, you also turned down the offer. It’s actually a bit difficult to explain and there’s not much time. All I can tell you is that you’re not safe in our country anymore.” Saser said as they advanced through the wasteland.
Ryu took the time to use analyze on whatever he could see, but there was nothing but scorched earth, small rocks and very few weeds.
“What am I supposed to do, then? I can’t go back to human civilization if I don’t have the first clue on where I am.” but Ryu’s words faded in the solitude of the wasteland, Saser was nowhere to be found.
.....
‘Why would they do something like this to me? I would have been better waking up in the goblin village. I don’t have food, water, tools, this is almost the same as last time.” Ryu thought to himself as an intense anger grew inside of him.
The feeling of helplessness overwhelmed him. He crouched in despair covering his ears as his eyes wept.
Ryu remained like that for a couple minutes, then he came to the realization that throwing a tantrum would do nothing for him. Night was coming and he was in an unsafe place.
He kept walking in the same direction he had been walking before, hoping to reach civilization or at least finding something useful for his survival on his way.
He attempted to cast magic and, although there was no disruption of mana, his mana pool was completely depleted, as it was confirmed by a message on his display.
>insufficient mana
He concentrated on his display, mostly because he had nothing else to do, and then a small screen appeared in front of him giving him the information he needed.
Thanks to that, he was able to confirm that not only his mana pool was depleted, but also his energy level was so low it wasn’t even enough to replenish his mana, health or even stamina.
The formerly familiar list of skills was almost completely greyed out. He had been able to use conceal, stealth and camouflage as soon as he woke up, but now he regretted it because he was getting tired already and no matter how much he rested, if he didn’t find anything to eat he would end up unconscious again.
Fainting in the safety of his house would have been one thing, but in the wilderness it was almost the same as dying,
He clapped his hands trying to dispel all the pessimist thoughts that wanted to invade his mind.
He looked at his surroundings for a long while, trying to look for anything that could be useful again, but there was nothing in his field of view.
There weren’t even landmarks such as mountains or water bodies, it was a barren land, dry and hostile.
He kept walking for hours until sunset, by that time he had already spent all his stamina points and couldn’t take another step.
He woke up next morning, but long after dawn. It was rare for Ryu, who always woke up early, to miss on a sunrise but at least he was feeling a lot better than the past day.
A quick glance at his display gave Ryu the first piece of good news he had received so far, he had regained a little bit of mana, it was less than a hundred points but if was more than he expected. He kept looking at his status in hopes of finding anything useful.
Ryu (healthy)(thirsty)(hungry)
Strength: above average
Dexterity: above average
Constitution: below average
Intelligence: above average
Wisdom: legendary
Charisma: poor
Pets: Mochi, Famine, Mia, Drake, fairy.
Patron: Aruru
Quest: craft a shovel (pending)
There were many surprises on his status, especially the part where his wisdom had risen to the legendary level but his charisma lowered to the poor level. Even though he didn’t understand the meaning of that change, he was almost certain that it had something to do with his physical appearance, he could sense that something was off in his body, but there wasn’t enough time for him to worry about those matters.
Next, there was another piece of good news, and it was about his new pet. Ryu knew only two fairies, but he had mostly interacted with a female, the one that the goblins handed to him to locate Bardun. Ryu didn’t know if she ended up getting caught or if she ran away, but if she appeared on his status it meant she was still alive.
And lastly, Ryu was glad to see that he had received a new quest.
He didn’t have the first clue on how to craft a shovel with what he had at hand, which was nothing besides his clothes, but with at least now he was able to cast magic.
His first attempt was to mold the wasteland dirt into the form of a shovel, then cast fire on it and see if it was possible to refine it. As usual, it didn’t work, but at least Ryu was used to things not going his way.
Next thing he grabbed the biggest stone he could find, which was about the size of his fist, and molded it into the shape of a shovel with his magic.
The form was perfect, for a decoration, but it wouldn’t be useful even to play in the beach sand.
He checked on his display, and the quest had yet to be completed. Since he had nothing else to do, and he still had enough mana for a few more tries he experimented while sitting in the hard ground.
‘Where did the beastkin get their building material? it looked like a rock, but it was clearly more resistant.’ Ryu tried to wrap his head around it, but for them to be able to construct buildings so if they must have been living near a quarry.
‘Unless, they didn’t gather the material, but rather made it themselves’.
Molding a stone required a steady stream of mana, but now he wanted to pulverize the rock, which meant he needed a burst of mana. Ryu let out mana as he focused to not let it fade away, and then he closed his fist while staring at the rock focusing on crushing it.
The result was it crumbling into a pile of fine dust. He then mixed it with some dirt in different portions and, after a little experimentation, he made an uniform dust.
Since he had no other liquid at his disposal, he had no other choice but to urinate on it, creating a paste. Thanks to his ability to mold dirt and stone, he didn’t have the need to use his hands to mix it.
Ryu molded it into a long stick with a flat tip, it looked almost like a spear, but even though it didn’t look much like a shovel it could be used as one.
>Quest: craft a shovel (completed)
>rewards: water attribute +1
Ryu placed his hand in front of him and concentrated on creating a small amount of water, and the result couldn’t have been better. A small ball of water floated on top of his hand, giving him enough time to drink a good gulp out of it before falling to the ground.
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