Looking at the paths he could choose between, Poe almost immediately denied stick warrior. The simple reason of it not being something Poe ever wanted to pick, but why is that? Well stick warrior sounded and looked like a warrior path, while Poe wanted to be the greatest mage ever.
Next was path of the mind, but just from the description alone, Poe could see that it did not sound like something good and the mental encroachment skill looked like something only a villain would have, so Poe would 100 % not take that one, even if the mental resistance skill and the bonus wisdom and intelligence was great.
Path of the mana ocean on the other hand gave him a lot of intelligence and still some wisdom, but it looked like a safer choice compared to path of the mind and it felt that Poe had already started to walk down that path.
With all said and done, Poe ended up choosing path of the mana ocean, mostly because it gave him 5 intelligence and the mana vein passive skill sounded like it would be something good.
[Path of the Mana Ocean]
[Yes/No]
Mentally selecting the yes, Poe could almost instantly feel the difference from before.
[Path of the Mana Ocean have been chosen]
[Gained 5 INT and 2 WIS]
[Gained passive skill: Mana veins, lvl 1]
[Mana veins]: mana will now spread through your blood veins. This will slowly transform your blood into mana blood. The skill can reach higher level the more user uses mana and the more mana spreads through the body. - 0.5 STR per skill level and + 1 INT and 1 AGI. Body will fully form mana blood when the skill reaches level 10.
Looking over at the skill, Poe could only think of one thing… Had he not just gotten a skill that made him weaker, but looking at the sweet intelligence and agility he got from it, Poe could only think it was worth it.
After all, he got 2 stat point and only lost 0.5 stat point, but he felt like his strength could really use a boost of some sort and not a decrease…
Poe also wondered why he would lose strength, but gain agility while transforming his blood to mana blood. Agility was after all a physical stat, so it should not have increased while his strength decreased, but then again strength was useless to a mage. Right?
Lamenting over the loss of his strength, but at the same time happy to get more agility and intelligence, Poe returned to Lucia's side.
"Lucia, is the strength stat useful for a mage?"
"Hm? The strength stat does not really help a mage, but it can always be nice to be able to use plate armor, if you had a low strength stat; you would only be able to use things like cloth armor and so on. Plate armor would be too heavy after all."
Hearing this, Poe relaxed again. After all, if it was only about the gear he could wear then it would not really matter, as the greatest mage ever would never need things such as armor. Great mages used barriers after all!
"By the way, Lucia. Now that I'm level 10, do we go back now or do we hunt more?"
"Hm, good question. Now that you are level 10 we can enter the 4 floor, so lets just go now, we do need to register at the sleeping quarters at the 4 floors rest town as well. IVY POE REACHED LEVEL 10 LET'S GO NOW!"
"GREAT, I REACHED LEVEL 15, SO LET'S GO~"
Having called out to Ivy, who was going on a rampage on the small snakes, Lucia turned towards the tunnel at the entrance of the cave and together with Poe walked back towards it.
Ivy soon finished up on her side and joined them as well.
"Poe see me, I've just reached level 15!"
Ivy said all the while jumping around Poe excitedly like a child.
"I-I see, by the way, Lucia also reached level 14, right?"
"I indeed did"
Saying so, Lucia proudly stood in front of Poe. The pride on her face was quite hard to miss. Poe had also not seen their status for a while, so he decided to take a look.
[Lucia, human earth mage, lvl 14]
Lucia looked the same as always, only the level had changed.
[Ivy, human fire lord, lvl 15]
[Titles: Fire lord; pervert; ???]
For some reason, Poe could see some of Ivy's titles and one of the titles was quite worrying, just what on earth did she do to earn the pervert title!?
*Flashback to what happened at the public baths*
Ah, never mind. There is enough reason for that title…
The rest of the way back to the 3'rd floors resting ground was mostly spent in silence. The reason being Poe clinging to Lucia, while looking wearily towards Ivy along the way back. Lucia and Ivy wondered what made Poe so weary of Ivy, but Lucia just thought it was normal. Ivy on the other hand, was quite sad at the development and decided to punish Poe for being cold to her when they made it to the 4 floors resting quarters.
Making it all the way back to the resting town, Poe, Lucia and Ivy checked out at the small building. For some reason the one standing behind the desk looked happy when he saw that Ivy was checking out, but to even make the one behind the desk happy, just because she leaves, just what did you do? Ivy?
Having checked out of the sleeping quarters, Poe, Ivy and Lucia made their way towards the door back to the hall of rest.
[Exited mana dense area]
Having entered the hall of rest once again, it was as busy as ever, but they did not stay there for long, as they soon entered the door to the 4'th floor.
[You have entered a mana dense area: Learning speed of mana based skills and spells increased by 25 %]