"This… this is…" he muttered, looking down at his body in awe.
While holding the book in his right hand, Arlo began to hop on the spot, throwing a few jabs with his left, marveling at the speed with which they shot through the air.
"Oh~!" he exclaimed joyfully.
There was no doubt that he had become nimbler than before, and his jabs felt like they packed a far stronger punch. Seeing this, Arlo couldn't help but grin.
"Hehe~ I wonder just how strong I can get…" He muttered before looking over at the remaining reward he had left to receive.
[Mail.]
[You've completed the 'Quest: Shadow Wolf Slayer'!]
[Completion rewards have been sent.]
[Would you like to receive them?] (Y/N)
'Yeah, I would—'
Instantly, a bright, glowing light radiated from the screen, morphing into four shimmering cards. The cards were blank, devoid of any designs or markings, but unlike the level-up cards, these ones were white and had white waves of energy pulsing out of them.
[Please select a card of your choice.]
'Let's go with the one on the left this time,' Arlo thought, extending his arm to grab the leftmost card.
The moment he made his choice, the unselected cards disappeared, leaving the chosen card shining even more brightly as it revealed its content.
[+4 Ability Points.]
Arlo's eyes began to twitch as he stared at the card. The card vanished promptly, followed by the Ability tab opening, displaying the large ability tree with the title [Abilityless] at the roots of the tree and the freshly acquired points further below it.
[Ability]
[Abilityless.]
[Available Ability Points: 4]
"This time, not only did it not show the other rewards that I could have gotten, but it also gave me the reward which I needed the least…" Arlo stared at the screen dejectedly before sighing.
What was done was done, and there was no point in stressing about it.
'I wish I had gotten some more stat points, at least…' he thought, preparing to walk down the path with the orb lighting the way ahead.
However, after a single step, Arlo stopped and glanced back at the shadow wolves' corpses. The earth spikes had retracted back into the ground, leaving the lifeless bodies lying there.
"I might be able to use the corpses for something… maybe selling them or even eating them if I can't…" Arlo mused. "How I'll bring them with me is a problem, though…"
There were six corpses, far too large for him to carry on his own. With that in mind, he searched the book for a spell that might work. After a short while, he finally found it.
"Intermediate Class Water Magic: Water Whip," Arlo called out after finishing the chant.
[MP: 65% -> 64%]
Following his words, a ball of water manifested in front of the blue magic circle, and from it, a water whip emerged. The whip wrapped itself around the corpse of one of the wolves.
After confirming that the water whip could drag the wolf without any issues, Arlo poured more magic power into the spell. He watched as five additional spheres of water emerged from the magic circle, each one launching a whip that wrapped itself around the corpses of the monsters he had defeated.
"Good, with this, I should be fine," Arlo muttered, satisfied with his solution as he began walking down the path.
The six water spheres hovered behind him, just outside the barrier, dragging the monsters' corpses along. With this arrangement, Arlo didn't have to worry about dragging them himself.
'Alright, the next spells I'll try will be advanced class spells,' he thought, his mind already planning ahead. 'After that, I'll try to level up a few times before heading back to my world to make some money. My plan is perfect!'
Filled with joy at how well everything was going, Arlo carried on walking, a bright smile on his face. He seemed to be in such a good mood that he failed to notice the vampire watching him from the very top of one of the nearby trees.
'Hm… he handled those shadow wolves without any problem,' Vielle mused, her hair swaying beneath her pointed hat in the gentle breeze. 'Still, walking in the woods right now isn't a good idea. If he sticks to the path, he should be fine… the dungeon is down that way after all. But I should probably keep watch over him for a little longer…'
A thought suddenly occurred to her, and she furrowed her brow. 'Also, I've been wondering this, but who is he talking to? It's windy so I can't hear what he's saying from all the way up here, but could he be talking to himself?'
After pondering the question for a moment, she shook her head, dismissing the idea. 'No, of course not. He didn't look crazy when I spoke to him.'
With that, the vampire gracefully hovered to the next tree, following after Arlo while remaining hidden from sight.
-
"Hm… that's strange. I haven't encountered any other monsters so far," Arlo muttered as he continued walking, his brow furrowed in confusion.
He had been walking for around twenty minutes, and the only other interaction he'd had was with a different group of adventurers who seemed a little shocked when they watched him pass by. He didn't speak to them either, but he could sort of understand why they were shocked.
'A guy walking through the woods, dragging corpses of monsters behind him… Even I would be shocked if I were them,' Arlo thought, a wry smile on his face. 'I'm not the dense type who would assume that something like that is normal in this world just because I'm able to do it.'
Arlo had read countless stories where the characters would be insanely overpowered yet not realize it, thus believing that they themselves were weak. While he didn't know exactly how strong he was, based on what he'd seen, magic wasn't easily accessible to everyone.
Even among the party of adventurers he had crossed paths with, they didn't seem to have a mage in their ranks, as they were also carrying torches.
"I'm sure being able to use intermediate and advanced class magic makes me stronger than your average adventurer…" Arlo mused, "but that's just my take on it. More importantly, where are the monsters?!"
He looked left and right into the darkness of the woods, hoping to spot a potential target. He had been waiting patiently for a monster to appear so he could test out an advanced class spell, yet nothing showed up.