Rowan woke up bright and early, his makeshift hammock didn't feel as great as his bed, but he was safer up in the trees and had something decent to sleep on.
He would get to farming right away, he didn't want to waste anymore time. After eating a bit of his rations, he activated Hot Chocolate again, and made it in the shape of a basket and then got in. He started searching for something to gain experience from.
[95/100]
A moment later, he saw a group of goblins, dragging with them an animal. Actually, he asked around in the city, and most people didn't even seem to know about these creatures. What did that mean when even the inhabitants, who went in and out of the city and into the forest, didn't know about such things? The creatures didn't exist before, there's no way they wouldn't have noticed it, they've probably been living here for years. Rowan concluded that it must be the system, humans can't just kill purely humans for experience, right? Other races were a different thing, Rowan had only seen humans so far, so he didn't know.
The system must be adding in monsters or something, is what Rowan thought.
The forest seemed to be full of these creatures, he hoped to find other monsters, as these goblins only filled his experience bar by 25% last time.
He decided to follow them, thinking that they were going to go somewhere with more goblins. Rowan's theory was confirmed shortly after, they went into a cave, and it was now time for him to strike. He activated Hot Chocolate again, this time not solidifying it, and threw it at the goblin in the back of the group entering the cave.
Shhhh
It started screaming shrilly, alarming the other in the group, as well as those that were probably in the cave. The goblins rushed forward, slashing at what they thought to be an enemy, only to meet the same fate. Rowan was watching from a safe distance in the sky, enough to manipulate his skill, but far enough to where they couldn't hit him.
He scanned the area, making sure that there were no goblins hiding or waiting in ambush, before landing near the cave. Now that Rowan was closer, he kept pushing the mass of chocolate that blocked the entrance entirely forward, it melted everything in its way, only leaving scraps of metal.
Rowan went all the way through the cave, until he was meant with a dead end, by now all of the goblins had died, with none of them being able to put up a fight. The whole trek took about half an hour, and he could tell that there were plenty of them. The Hot Chocolate skill went through them like a hot knife through butter.
'No humans being kept as captive?' Rowan thought he would see - or at least hear - humans or something here, treated as mere toys, because he had the impression that goblins did that.
Even if those things occurred, he had no way of stopping it, at most he would let those captives go because they had no enmity, or he would relieve them of their misery. That was the manner in which Rowan handled things, nice and simple.
'I'll think about that later. Interface.' Ethics, morals and such were one thing, leveling up to prepare for the coming turmoil to preserve his life was another.
Rowan leveled up 5 times, leaving his experience bar half full, he was not sure how many goblins he had killed, but he knew that it was not little. He allocated the stat points immediately: 3 was put into dexterity, 4 points went into strength, 8 went into constitution, and 10 went into intellect.
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Name: Rowan
Race: Human
Title: None
Class: Confectioner
Level: 7 -> 12
Exp: 50/100%
HP: 160/160 -> 200/200
MP: 100/100 -> 150/150
Stat Points: 25 -> 0
Str: 16 -> 20
Con: 12 -> 20
Dex: 1 -> 4
Int: 10 -> 20
Traits: Sugar Overload 5★
Abilities: Taffy Ball 1★, Hot Chocolate 2★
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After that, Rowan saw a prompt from the system, rather than the active skill he expected, it was a passive- or rather, a trait instead. Rowan thought the two were the same thing. It's just that the trait seems more fitting, because it encompassed the uniqueness of the class, like it's specialty.
'Every 5 levels is an active and every 10 levels is a passive?' That was his conjecture, but he would have to confirm that later.
[Please select a trait.]
Rowan's first thought was about how such low rarity skills could be so strong, what of the higher rarity skills? Or maybe, this denotes that lower rarity skills can be just as powerful.
He immediately crossed off Decay, Hot Chocolate basically did the same thing. Now, it was between Sweet Experience and Intense Aroma, and he was leaning more towards Intense Aroma.
Why? Because of his 5★ trait, Sugar Overload, the two synergized so well; the system basically rigged everyone's first roll to the best it could possibly be, and 'best' varied from person to person. Someone's best might have been a 3★, another's best might have been a 4★, it depended on the class and their uniqueness, Rowan thought.
It was a really difficult choice, since Rowan knew how powerful Sweet Experience could be, imagine how much experience he would get if millions ate his confections. However, it explicitly mentioned that it had to be his confections. There's also the fact that he did not have nearly enough mana to make that much. The system even termed it as 'fixed,' how much was fixed? He would have to test it out another time, he hoped to roll it later on.
Rowan ended up choosing Intense Aroma. Despite it's low rarity, it should have high synergy with his Sugar Overload. He thought back to what Sugar Overload did.
• Sugar Overload ★★★★★: Confections can apply a debuff that stacks, affecting rationality, increasing weight, and raising blood pressure regardless of whether they were consumed or not, on those considered enemies. Chances of heart disease, heart failure, heart attacks, and strokes increase the more stacks of sugar overload there is.
Rowan, from his experience with Sugar Overload thus far, thought that the debuff itself basically inflicted those affected with symptoms of ingesting too much sugar. Except that it skipped many steps, there was no tasting, eating or digesting needed because Sugar Overload directly applied symptoms of overconsuming sugar for long periods. A couple stacks might not do much, but how about when the stacks were in the dozens. Would your body be able to hold up? Rowan didn't know how it would feel, but dozens of grams of sugar, going to kilograms, and beyond that would could be lethal.
Rowan didn't forgot for a moment how strong this trait was, and coupled with Intense Aroma, the stacks would apply alright.
He realized that there would be drawbacks with this though, like how far would the aroma spread out? He had an inkling, 'Intense' denoted that it would be highly concentrated and strong, while 'aroma' meant the scent would be distinct and pervasive. And, the system didn't mention it, but Rowan knew that his stats would affect it.
He set off immediately to test his new trait.