"The mountains? No." Ricky immediately rejected it. He almost lost his son once due to him going into the mountains. He did not wish for it to happen again.
"Father, I have to go. There is something strange about what happened to me, and I need to take a look. Plus…. Who can harm me now that I can cast fire magic?" Vance had figured this would be his response with how protective Ricky was of him. But this was something that had to get done. The life quest were quests he could not skip as they would normally give him some kind of benefit on the path he had chosen.
"What do you mean something strange? Are you saying you did not fall by accident?" Ricky's eyes narrowed. He remembered the day his son was brought back by the Everling brothers. They seemed frightened, but maybe it was all an act. "Alright, you can go but…. You must be back before nightfall."
"Don't worry. I do not plan to head out until first light. So for now, let's get the heavy things you need done, now." Vance smiled as he patted Ricky's shoulder and walked back towards the house.
Ricky turned and looked at his son, who seemed to be back to normal, maybe even better than before, and looked up at the sky with a small smile on his lips. He just stood there for a few moments, seemingly lost in thought, before turning to follow after Vance. Although, on the way back, his mind was quite heavy with thoughts about what Vance had mentioned. He wondered if there truly was some foul play at work here.
The next morning Vance left early. He made his way towards the mountain, which was about a two-hour walk. It was a place that the hunters of the village frequented, but normally they did not go too deep. They would hunt the level 3 or 4 monsters for meat and either sell it or keep it for their families. This was what Vance figured the original owner of his body was doing.
Vance pushed his way through the tall grass, making his way into the forestry area of the mountain. He was looking for a frequently traveled path, but he had yet to see one, so he was not sure if there was one or not. "My life quest really does not mention much except that something happened during this body's time in the mountains before he was brought back by those brothers. If my guess is not wrong, then I was probably pushed. If that is the case, why did the Everling brothers bring me back home?"
Vance pondered his thoughts out loud as he made his way deeper into the forest. He came upon a gragoon a kind of dear-looking beast that would normally run away when it saw someone unless it was either injured or its favorite food was around. They loved to eat a special kind of herb called the grandula. It was a skinny grass-like herb with small pink flowers on the tips of their pointy peaks.
Vance stopped in his tracks and looked at the gragoon that was now staring him down. "Level 3…. This might be a bit of an issue with my current stats, but…. With my title, I think I can kill it with one attack if I can land a fireball on it."
Gragoons were fast, which was going to make Vance's current situation somewhat hard. He could cast a fireball, but at level 1, the casting speed was still quite slow. He would need at least three seconds to cast it. Luckily he knew how to handle such monsters. Vance looked around and spotted the grandula herb a few steps away. When dealing with a monster in Alantina Online that would change its normal behavior due to its favorite source of food, you can actually cheat slightly and make use of that change in behavior. Vance slowly moved towards the herb, causing the gragoon to lower its head with its huge set of antlers at him and dig into the ground with its hoof.
Even though this action was threatening, and many would probably back away when an animal did such a thing, Vance only ignored it as he bent down and picked up a patch of the herb and held it in his hand. The eyes of the gragoon followed the patch of herbs in his hand as if it lost sight of the fact that some human had stolen its food. Vance waved it back and forth, and as he did, the eyes and head of the gragoon followed. Seeing how he got the gragoons full attention Vance held out his other hand while holding his right hand that had the grandula herb in it out to his side. "Fireball!"
By the time the gragoon snapped out of its trance, the fireball had already landed and exploded, blowing off half of its right side. The gragoon cried out in pain and stumbled back before tripping and falling to the ground dead. Vance saw that it was now dead and made his way over to the gragoon dispersing the flames. He frowned slightly when he saw the large hole in the gragoon's body. "I could have used the fur! This is the only thing I hate about the mage class!"
Vance disliked how his precious materials at lower levels would be destroyed. While normally he could salvage at least something, in this case, he could only take the horns and store the rest for meat. This was because half the body was ruined, and he could not skin it even if he wanted to.
After storing the gragoon away, Vance grabbed a bit more of the grandula herb just in case he came across another gragoon. It did not take long for another level up notification to appear in front of Vance as he made his way through the forest. He also did not waste time upping his skills either.
[Name]: Vance
[Age]: 20
[Level]: 2 → 3
[Race]: Human
[Evolution]: N/A
[HP]: 90/70 → 90
[MP]: 40/30 → 40
[Attack Power]: 50
[Magic Power]: 40
[Status Points]: 0 → 5 → 0
[Strength]: 4 → 5
[Vitality]: 7 → 9
[Intelligence]: 3 → 4
[Mind]: 3 → 4
[Agility]: 2
[Skill Points]: 1 → 2
[Skills]
{Skinning (LVL 1)} {Fireball(LVL 1)}
[Titles]
{Natural Mage}
Vance looked at his menu and nodded his head. Things were much smoother than before. "Killing level 3s would have been trouble if this was my first time, but since I know most of the monsters' habits, things are not so bad." Vance was actually happy he was able to start from a blank slate. Because every level and every status point was precious to a sword mage, it could be said that if he woke up in a body that was level twenty with maxed strength and agility, he would have been screwed as he would not have been able to even out his stats for a long time. Luckily this was not the case at this time.
Now that he leveled up, Vance continued through the forest, killing what he could along the way until he suddenly spotted a path that made him sigh in relief. Because trying to trudge through the underbrush and push past the trees and thickets was not easy. "Looks like this path goes up if I follow it to the left."
Vance was unsure of which way he was supposed to travel, but from the sounds of what he was told, he should have fallen from a high area. So unless it was a cliffside, there was no real way of falling down and getting hurt, as he was told.