Jaycee inspected the new tools he had while walking with Percy. He had a knife as well as other tools that he had been shown scraped off sections of fat and meat off of harvested hide.
"We should hurry back. I'm afraid they'll be a little mad we've taken so long." Percy said as they sped through the camps of people. Jaycee jogged a little to keep up with the larger man as he reviewed his new profession.
'Profession Gained: Apprentice Beast Harvester'
Apprentice Beast Harvester: You've started on the journey of a beast harvester. You'll decide the quality of materials from beasts and amount of usable material. With your quality materials you stand to make lots of money. Yet you are only a beginner, and the beast harvester path is not easy. +2 Agi +1 Per +1 Will +1 Vit +1 FP
Jaycee nodded as he read the description over. It was pretty standard as far as things go, but he didn't predict that he stands to gain just as much stats from his profession as he does in his class.
No wonder Percy felt so much stronger. Professions literally just made your stats increase and allowed you to create gear or have a hobby even. And with his class level at 22, his race levels are going to double by the time he worked his profession to 22. Soon enough they entered a small clearing at the entrance of the camp.
5 other people stood there waiting impatiently. Noticing the two, a large man stepped forward. He was about 6 foot 5 inches and built heavily. Jaycee guessed he weighed at least 280 pounds. And that was assuming that under the layer of fat and beer belly he had little muscle.
But upon the first look over Jaycee decided that probably wasn't the case.
He shouted toward them as they approached. "Been damn near an hour what took you so long?" His Australian accent was the only thing on Jaycee's mind as he noticed the man large hammer. He was clearly their heavy warrior. He felt formidable. And now that Jaycee could use his identify skill he used it.
'Human: Level 16'
He was a whole 5 race levels above Jaycee. Scanning the rest of the group he found himself to be an embarrassingly low level. Percy was a good 6 levels higher than him but was the highest in the group. The large man inspected the small boy as he used identify himself.
Zeke had long flowing sun bleached hair as well as darkened weathered skin. He had a large bushy beard as well. "Is this our mage?" He asked almost rudely.
Percy smiled while introducing Jaycee to the group members he hadn't met. "Zeke this is Jaycee. Hes the fire mage I've been talking up." He said. Jaycee shook at the thought of his presence to this elite team being talked up by Percy.
The standards felt crushing. "And Dion this is Jaycee the fire mage. He's hard to dislike." Percy said as he began to talk to the man with the clipboard who had waited for them. Jaycee introduced himself to the two and greeted the archer who he had fought with before and Lady who stood in the corner watching them.
She gave him a respectful nod and she began hanging next to him. Her race level was 5 above his as well. Jaycee was personally surprised the archer was still on this team. He was the best option when the camp was much much smaller.
He wasn't anything special when Jaycee had last seen him but he had definitely grown a lot.
Through surviving multiple dangerous situations where others didn't he had been sharpened into quite a skillful warrior despite lack of initial talent. But Jaycee felt the odd energy from a week ago on this man. It hadn't been present for the whole week but now he saw it. They exchanged some conversation and settled into a comfortable silence.
The archer was a mid 30s year old man who had worked an office job before the tutorial. He was lanky and had a face of stubble that didn't seem to grow past stubble. He had a messy combover of brown hair.
Percy finished his business and turned to the group which was split with Zeke and Dion standing away from Jaycee. "We can get going. Now let's remember our goal is to show off that we're capable enough to merge. Dont get too flashy with anything and don't be too much. But also don't get pushed around. We got this. The journey should be a little difficult but we'll be fine." Percy said as he jogged out of camp.
With the addition of the system humans could now run much faster and longer than before. The preferred mode of moving was jogging which wasn't too expensive energy wise. Jaycee could keep up well enough with his stats but him and Lady were ultimately the deciders of how fast they ran.
Over the week Jaycee had worked on many things in his magic and skills. He felt as though before he had been growing too quickly and felt like his understanding of the basics were poor. So he spent his time exploring the nature of magic and creating a couple mediocre skills and one great skill.
Overall he was happy with what he had done but he knew he could be doing more. He didn't exactly move the speed Percy did when it came to initiative. Jaycee also felt under armored. He only had a vest and some pants that gave him some minor toughness stats. As they got deeper in the forest the beasts were starting to become much stronger.
Now each beast was about level 18. Even just one of these beasts would be able to wipe out 20 average people back at the camp. The small amount of gear and loot hidden in the forest became more powerful and rare. They were venturing through truly dangerous territory now as they started to close in on the dungeon location.
In their first dangerous encounter, a group of Elk as big as a door frame blasted toward them from a small cove. "Shit! Zeke get in front! Dion be careful that one's the leader." There were two elk that were levels 18 and one elk that was an incredible level 22. It radiated power as its glowing hooves shot toward the light warrior.
Caught off guard by the beast 8 levels higher than him, he got hit. The hoove smashed into his shoulder sending him flying backward heavily injured. His body nearly went flying through the forest but Jaycee summoned a rope of flame to catch the man's ankle.
Simultaneously he was casting a small spell with his hand to increase the amount of air in his magic. He was still too inexperienced to quickly on the fly change the amount of air magic in his mana. He had only a few easy skirmishes to experiment so far.
Air surged around him as Percy and the heavy warrior took on the other elk each. This left the four others to do the job. Jaycee watched the beasts hooves move so fast as its powerful leg muscles powered it forward. Arrows hit the beasts but they simply werent strong enough to penetrate any more than an inch or so.
It's hard muscles were the only thing that made it tough. Its hooves flashed toward Jaycee who summoned a inch thick shield of energy. It was a hexagonal force field that worked aggressively to repel things that make contact with it.
It was the great skill that Jaycee has carefully developed over the course of the week. He had experimented against many beasts in life and death battles to create a strong reliable defensive measure.
They packed their energy so densely together with such a well crafted internal mana structure that the spell was now his highest rarity skill.
Hexagonal Repelling Force field, Green: A thorough analysis of creating defensive shields has you settling on a strong and efficient shield technique. Your high wisdom and intelligence has allowed you to create such a powerful skill.
Its two front hooves slammed against the shield. its hooves were thrown off of the shield. Despite his race level being half of the beasts he was still such a powerful combatant. He hadn't just worked on his defensive magic either.
Raising both of his hands he flexed his whole body. Reaching into the depths of his person he was going to push himself against this beast. The flames erupted from the man. They formed into spears as they reached toward the beast and shot forward.
They only had to travel a couple yards but the air magic was starting to form around his magic the way he wanted to. Each second that passed he learned more about how the air mana could control or influence his fire.
And seeing as the flames that smashed into the beasts had drowned it in power, it was working quite well. It was like an endless assault on the beast as Jaycee expended large amounts of mana. It struck out again but a well placed shield gave Jaycee enough time to dodge. Ropes of flame shot out from the fire that cloaked his body and latched onto the beasts ankles.
That was one of the techniques he developed but hadn't made into a skill yet. He could cover himself in fire in a cape like way and therefore use all the concentrated energy for spells at any moment. He pulled the ropes in different directions momentarily restraining the giant elk. Immediately an arrow charged up from the archer smashed into its eyes obliteratin it entirely.
Jaycee fed energy down the fire whips loading them up with more fire mana as he began to blast air mana at the elk beast causing the flames to grow and spread. Soon enough the screaming of the elk could be heard throughout the forest. More ropes of flame shot out and wrapped the beast in more fire as some ropes snapped from the beasts strength.
But no matter what the poor elk couldn't stand as the ropes pulled in every direction as they burned the beast. A few moments later it died.
'Beast Slain: 640 TP acquired.'