Pebble and his party of Heroes traveled through the dark woods. Their path was lit by Fred's lantern as it gleefully floated back and forth in front of them. It wagged its handle like a tail as it completed its job with purpose.
"That's one happy Lantern," Pebble pointed out.
"He sure is, isn't he?" Fred said, clearly tickled by its behavior. "Can I get another charge please?" Pebble's hand started glowing gold. He then gave Fred a high five. The brief moment of contact was enough to charge his mana to full. The rest of the team were walking slightly further ahead and did not get to see Pebble use his Charge skill.
Puffy, unaware of the happenings between Fred and Pebble, continued on about the Sentient Tool skill, "Oh yeah, sentient tools can be a lot of fun! They develop their own personalities and can even form their own desires. That being said, I've had to put a few bad tools down via a quick unsummoning. Some tools are just bad. I'm not quite sure how it works yet, but on rare occasions, some tools seem to inherit some sort of anger when they are summoned into this world." Puffy shook his head, "They will listen to you Fred, but they will not hesitate to hurt your friends. You must be aware of any odd behavior that your tools exhibit, consider yourself warned."
"Great, now I have to worry about the flying lantern too." Phil sighed.
"I don't think this little guy wants to hurt you, Phil." Bard gave the snake man a pat on the shoulder, "So, I'm assuming we all leveled up thrice in that last fight?" He questioned happily.
"Yeah, I'm level 4 now with 50/800 exp until level 5." Phil said in a cheery tone, dropping his worry over Fred's lantern.
"Yes, exactly," Fred nodded.
"Cool, exactly the same amount of exp for all of us!" Bard raised his arms in celebration and Pebble smiled, but stayed silent about his actual level.
"Amazing! Now I'm 25,391 exp out of the required 104,900 exp needed to reach level 26!" Puffy said in a mocking expression.
"Wow, that's a lot of experience. You're level 25, Puffy?" Pebble looked at him with new found intrigue.
"Yerp! Took me three years of adventuring to get this much experience!" Puffy said with a sigh.
"What the hell, three years?"Pebble was now level 6 and it only took him two days. For some reason, he felt like he would reach level 25 way before the three year mark..
That was an issue for later, for now, he needed to deal with his level up. His eyes began twitching as he quickly accessed his menus and he selected stats.
Pebble was having consistent issues with his intelligence. He knew he needed to increase that stat as soon as possible. He allocated his points.
"What just happened?" Pebble said as he noticed his points went somewhere he did not intend. He knew he needed to increase his intelligence and it was still his plan, and yet, somehow the points ended up being allocated into strength.
"What?" Puffy replied curiously.
"I swore, I wanted to allocate my points into intelligence, but they went into my strength." Pebble said with visible confusion.
"Why did you put the points into strength? Aren't you strong enough already?" Fred pushed the issue.
"Dude, I swear, I don't remember assigning the points at all. I wanted to put them into intelligence, but when I went to allocate the points, they were already put into strength." Pebble was adamant.
"Oh no, I've heard of this before." Puffy said.
"Don't you 'oh no' me like that!" Pebble's voice was stressed.
"Well, history tells of a Hero from a few hundred years ago who had such a low intelligence level, that he couldn't stop himself from putting points into charm. He was literally the most lovable idiot. They ended up giving it a name. They called it One Stat Syndrome. " Puffy pulled out a book from his inventory. The book was bound in leather and had a title burned into the hide. The title read, "History Tells: A List of Historical Anecdotes for all Aspiring Adventurers"
"You're kidding?" Phil looked over Puffy's shoulder to get a glimpse at the book. "Oh sh*t, it says here that he had a whole harem, but couldn't recall the name of any of his wives. This guy sounds like a legend."
"Is this a real thing?" Pebble questioned in disbelief.
"Sadly, it seems like it might be. This book has been very accurate to history. Maybe you don't have the same issue though! Maybe your next level up will be different." Puffy shrugged.
"How does that even make sense? Can low intelligence really alter my ability to put points into my stats?" Pebble was frustrated, but did his best to not take it out on Puffy.
"Well, intelligence is actually a level of consciousness as well." Puffy shrugged, "It determines your self agency. We don't need to get into semantics, just know that, as a team, sometimes we can't blame Pebble for his actions. It isn't his fault that he's stupid." Puffy smiled and held his hips as he watched the team react to his comment.
"Is there any way to fix this?" Bard asked with a sense of urgency that surprised Pebble.
"Well they never fixed History's Most Loveable Idiot. So, I'd assume not?" Puffy was unsure if there was any way to help Pebble, but he could not bring himself to let the group down. "That doesn't mean you should give up on that goal, though! There's a first for everything, ya know? Hey, now that I think about it, I'm officially the first unretired Hero!"
"How many Heroes retire?" Fred went to elbow Puffy but he was too low and the physicality required to bend down was currently beyond him.
"Well most die within their first year and the rest normally never want to retire. They push until something stops them." Puffy said regretfully.
Fred's lantern began to buzz in excitement and spun around the group quickly before bobbing up and down, "What's got him all excited?" Fred asked but after moving a couple more steps further, the team was able to spot lanterns in the distance. "Oh, I think we found Kris."
Puffy climbed up Fred's robe and stood on his shoulders, "Yup, that's definitely Kris. Are you guys ready for your first real town?"
"Real town? Isn't Aegis a real town?" Phil picked Puffy up, off of Fred, and put him on the ground.
"No, not at all. Aegis is a City created by a Hero who wanted to escape the realities of Tiamat. Aegis floats above Tiamat and is allowed to self govern as long as they can continue to defend themselves." Puffy looked up at Phil ominously, "Why do you think I set up shop up there? It's safe."
Pebble peered through the vegetation at the dark town. From the distance, all he could see was the warm glow of the lanterns hung above the streets and a tall tower with a metal ball at the top.
"Okay, well, one more thing before we get going." Pebble looked at his team, "Level up your constitution, right now."
—
Back in Artia's garden, Artia and The Throne Holder watched Pebble and his crew through a puddle of a silver liquid. The liquid pooled in a giant chalice that was adorned with golden fruits and leafy vines.
"Ah yes, the township of Kris. When is Glurt supposed to arrive? Doesn't he have a friend in Kris?" The Throne Holder inquired.
Artia was wearing a white hooded vest that was made of a fine delicate looking fabric that ended in a slitted skirt that ended halfway down her thigh. She wore a pair of tight fitted gray pants underneath the skirt that were tucked into knee high boots.
"Despicable," Artia removed her hood and twisted her face. "I remember that little runt quite well, actually."
"If I remember correctly, Glurt was previously fond of him." The Throne Holder stirred his tea.
"Even more detestable. Do you take pleasure in my disdain?" Artia took a sip from her glass and eyed the man in front of her.
"No, on the contrary, I was saying Glurt was previously fond of him." He looked up from his glass and met Artia's gaze. "Now, the latest news is that he has forsaken Glurt. We both know how touchy Glurt can be." He let his words resonate with Artia.
Artia smiled, "I see. If that is indeed how history is written, then perhaps I may convince Glurt to allow me to assign Pebble his first task."
"Now you're catching on." He smiled back.
Artia's coin began to buzz from the end of its chain around her neck. She pulled the coin out from under her hooded vest, "Looks like they should be arriving soon." She said as she flicked the coin.
"BE THERE FIVE SECONDS!" Reeki's said before abruptly hanging up.
"He's not really one for words, is he?" Artia chuckled.
"He used to be." The Throne Holder replied solemnly.
"Wha…" Artia was interrupted by a giant boulder landing directly behind her. The boulder crushed a small tree that Artia had been attending to for a while. She looked angrily at Reeki as he climbed out of the boulder. He then assisted Aphrodite in escaping the boulder.
"Thank you Reeki! We can always count on you for a quick ride!" Aphrodite said seductively as she dismounted the rock.
Reeki's mountains split in half as he smiled widely at Aphrodite's comment, "AW, SHUCKS!" Reeki turned away quickly to hide his face and a tiny avalanche fell down his back, "IT'S NOT DANDRUFF!" He scurried over to the Throne Holder to prevent further embarrassment.
"About as smooth as a jagged rock, my friend." The Throne Holder handed Reeki a drink and gave him a pat of consolement.
Artia rolled her eyes. She was not particularly fond of Aphrodite. Of all the gods that she's met, she's never been able to get a read on Aphrodite or her interest. That scares her, "Hey Aph, nice to see you."
Aphrodite smiled wide and expanded her arms for a hug, "Arty, darling, it's simply an honor to be invited to your prestigious garden. I'm sorry if Reeki broke anything valuable. I too, know the work required to maintain such a piece of art."
Artia was caught off guard by her praise and awkwardly accepted the hug, "Oh, thank you. It certainly does take a lot of my free time to keep this place exactly how I like it." She looked back at Reeki's boulder and sighed, "He crushed a Celestial Juniper that I've been tending to. It isn't ideal, but honestly, it could have been much worse."
Aphrodite stopped smiling, "Aw, I'm so sorry. Please accept this gift as an apology." She pulled out an empty pot and laid it on the ground. After a brief pause, she took a step back and a seed appeared in the air above the pot. Water floated out of the ground and soaked the seed before both the seed and the water entered the pot. Aphrodite bent down and grabbed some dirt with her bare hands and put it in the pot with the seed and the water.
Artia was stunned to see Aphrodite's actions. Every rumor she's ever heard about her had insinuated that this woman would never get her hands dirty, "I gladly accept your gift!" She said in an almost desperate tone.
Aphrodite held up her hand, "Thanks, but it's not done yet!" The pot began to spin slowly, then suddenly it rocked violently. A green smoke emitted out from the pot and soon, the pot emitted a noise that sounded like plant fibers being ripped. A second later, the pot stopped spinning and a small tree started growing at visible speeds until it stood about as tall as Reeki. It was a Celestial Juniper and it was bigger than the one Artia had been growing.
Artia was breathless, "How…" She never knew such magic existed.
"I hope to have a fruitful partnership with you, Artia of the woods." Aphrodite smiled again.
"Ugh, what the f*ck," Glurt's voice was heard before he struggled his way out of the boulder. "I think I was knocked out by that landing."
Reeki Laughed.