Chapter 8 -Fell forest part 2

Kai was meditating in his tent, while recovering his mana. Blizzy spoke outside the tent "Kai, there's a soldier carrying the clothes you bargained for. "

Kai nodded to himself, then exited his tent. The soldier looked nervous. The reason being that Blizzard is 7 feet tall at the shoulder, and twice that in length. Which Isn't counting her tail length. Her teeth are long, and razor sharp and serrated.

Kai looked at the leather pack, with it bulging with items. The soldier handed it to kai Kai while trying not to look at him as blizzard was right behind him looking at the soldier without blinking. The soldier said nervously "General Haixo had me craft these clothes for you. They should fit you well. There's 2 or pairs of pants, shirts, a winter and summer cloak, and winter and summer sandals."

Kai frowned and said "hmm. Thanks. By the way, how would you know if they will fit me well?"

The soldier who was backing away from blizzard, with sweat dripping down his forehead and down his nose said "I.. uh that is..well, my magic has the ability to measure peoples bodies just by looking. The clothes probably aren't the best quality or fit though. Still, it should fit you well until we return to the capital, Rakanshi, and the king and queens tailors can make you better outfits."

Kai said "oh. I see. Well, I'm sure they will fit just fine. Thanks again." He took his bag of clothes back inside his tent, as the soldier walked away from blizzard with obvious relief and haste.

Inside his tent, Kai emptied his bag, then took off his Tiger loincloth. He washed it off with magic, before drying it and putting it in the bottom of his new bag.

He put on the summer cloak, a pair of pants, and shirt. Before putting them on, he cleaned the clothes, sandals, and also the other clothes, as well as the bag itself.

Once he put the sandals on, Kai moved his arms and legs, checking the fit. It was like having a custom made outfit, and barely restricted his movement. The leather and wool clothes were light brown. The sandals were very comfortable, although they needed broken in.

The craftsmanship was many times better than what his elf people were making.

Kai put his remaining clothes back in his bag, then sat back down in cross legged position. Closing his eyes, he began to focus on his mana.

Status

Name: Kai

Level: 32 

Race: Black Elf

Titles: None 

Experience 32,500/107,500

Health: 55/55

Mana: 55/55

Stamina: 55/55

Intelligence: 11

Strength: 11

Endurance: 11

Agility: 5

Speed: 5

Critical hit: 5

Luck: 5 

Active Abilities: True scholar, Martial Artist, Fundamental Force wielder. 

Passive Abilities: Recovery. 

Companions: White Tigress Blizzard.

Kai had gained 32,000 experience from his magic use at the well. Not enough to level up , but it was nice to get 1/3 of a levels experience for his efforts.

…

A month passed, filled with battle. Primarily from the shield walls on the side; but also from beneath the ground, and from the air, both flying and animals launching themselves from the deadly forest trees high up.

The days through the forest were never boring, and the attacks by creatures were by hundreds of forest critters, reptiles and beasts. There were a large amount of different insects, bugs, predators, rodents, and other creepy crawly ugh, continually trying to feast upon the shield wall around the camp or column. As they moved through the forest and arrived at older camps devoid of water, Kai would fill the empty water wells up with magic, after he bargained for different things, including gold.

With him keeping the army alive by keeping them hydrated, the men and women began to look at him with a rather large amount of gratitude, as well as some bitterness as Kai received bread and ale; as well as rare goods like milk, eggs, the best cuts of meat, seasonings like salt, and a spicy pepper called hatsuf.

There was a smaller amount of the army who looked at him with hate and racism in their eyes, but Kai would just match their stare; smiling back at them politely. He looked far different from them, and could understand their anger that Kai never helped them in battles a single time. The general hadn't requested it, and Kai assumed it wouldn't be welcomed.

Kai reached level 35 a month after entering the fell forest. When he leveled up, he received a new system notification.

"Congratulations on reaching Level 35, Kai. Your skill recovery has been upgraded from level 1 to level 2. Your skill fundamental force wielder has been upgraded from level 1 to level 2. Your skill scholar has been upgraded from level 1 to level 2. Your skill Martial Artist has been upgraded from level 1 to level 2. You have gained a new active skill: Speedrunner.

Kai blinked his eyes, he didn't know he could improve his skills levels. The new skill looked interesting, but Kai wanted to look at his new skills first, after distributing his 3 points evenly amongst Intelligence, Strength, and Stamina.

Status

Name: Kai

Level: 35

Race: Black Elf

Titles: None 

Experience 47,732/355,043

Health: 60/60

Mana: 60/60

Stamina: 60/60

Intelligence: 12

Strength: 12

Endurance: 12

Agility: 5

Speed: 5

Critical hit: 5

Luck: 5 

Active Abilities: True scholar, Martial Artist, Fundamental Force wielder, Speedrunner.

Passive Abilities: Recovery. 

Companions: White Tigress Blizzard.

Looking at his abilities, Kai opened up the tabs for their descriptions.

True scholar level 2 - A lifetime of learning has enabled the user to learn new abilities. Cost 1 mana per 2 percent of learning gained. 

Martial Artist level 2- is a master of many forms of martial combat, and furthermore has the ability to learn more skills, and adapt to enemies skills, and learn those as well. Cost 1 stamina per minute. 

Fundamental force wielder level 2- Easily wield the fundamental forces of the universe. Gravity, Electromagnetism, the strong nuclear force, the weak nuclear force, AntiMatter, Dark Matter and Dark Energy. Cost: Use 1 mana per second. 

Kai blinked quickly, thinking to himself.. wow. His powers had gotten significantly stronger, and he could much more easily access his magic, and it also felt stronger, like he could use the power for more tasks.. The Dark energy, dark matter, and antimatter had a huge amount of potential uses.

Recovery Level 2- After leaving active combat, recovers 2 Health, 2 mana, and 2 stamina per minute. 

Kai looked to see if Blizzard had leveled up, but couldn't see anything different.

Strange. Her description said she grew with him. But maybe that only applies for experience gained in battle, as he hadn't been on Blizzard for his well filling activities and she was barely involved in it, simply watching.

His recovery ability now was much more powerful, as recovery speed can easily mean the difference between life and death.

Still though.. it was awesome to have gained such strength from reaching level 35, after 35 levels of only receiving a skill point per level plus boosts at random and his base stats he'd gotten. Not counting his mount, although that had been the greatest and worst experience of Kai's life so far, and still was.

Kai then looked at his newest skill.

Speedrunner: Speed and momentum can make the difference between life and death. Victory or defeat. User can channel the Electromagnetic force, and force of gravity, to ignore the laws of physics, relating to perception speed, mass, and speed. Can run as fast as the speed of sound. Cost: 2 health per minute. Ability shared with Companions.

Kai looked at the skill for a long time, with his eyes reading and re-reading it.

It seems like the skill would be excellent in combat, but the cost of health per minute was quite severe! Especially if Kai was weakened already. He would still use it of course, but it would require some consideration at times. The ability would be great to use to conduct rapid enemy attacks, as well as dodge enemy attacks, or flee from combat.

It was beyond excellent for out of combat movement. Kai could regenerate health with his recovery skill as fast as his health drained away from the skills cost. What an astounding skill. The speed of sound is 767.267 mph.

Kai wanted to try his new skill right away, so he did. His new skill was activated as easy as muscle memory, as it had become part of his being already.

His thinking sped up many hundreds of times, and his eyes could track his feet pounding into the ground as he ran in place, breaking in his new sandals fully.

A kind of twisted smile appeared on Kai's face as his shoes were broken in and his mind imagined the uses.

He was 16, and felt far stronger than he ever had in his past life. He may be a hostage, but he felt he could escape anytime he wanted. Still though, it wouldn't hurt one bit to continue leveling up, as there were likely strong mages in Rakanshi.

Kai was relaxing in his tent, eating his dinner he'd bargained for. It was ribs, with Kai sprinkling hatsuf and salt on it.

Kai heard blizzard rumble outside his tent, and she said in his mind "General Haixo is approaching. He wants to know if he can enter and speak in private."

Kai replied mentally "go ahead and let him come in if you please Blizzy."

She huffed at her nickname, having mostly grown resolved to it. Mostly.

A few moments later the tent flap was raised, with the general walking inside without needing to duck down like Kai did due to his height.

The general looked at Kai eating, and said "Sorry to interrupt you while you are eating Prince Magi Kai. It had to be done tonight though, as I fear the men are growing too angry to control."

Kai swallowed a bite of soft rib meat, and said "oh? What is their issue with me?"

The general sat across from Kai, also cross legged. "Well, truth be told, they think you should be aiding them in repelling the enemy attacks, especially now that we have entered the heart of the forest, and our casualties have risen sharply. I have tried to tell them that you are our hostage, and that we shouldn't ask you to help us take you away from your homeland any more than we already have; but they insisted."

Kai took a bite from his meal, chewing while the general was talking. He looked down at his food, and back up at the general in turns. Swallowing shortly after the general finished speaking, Kai spoke up after wiping his face off of grease, using a hankerchief he had made after trading for a soft scrap of leather.

"Is that so? I thought that you didn't want me to put my life at risk, and wanted me to stay in the middle of the army formation. Thus, I haven't aided the army in combat."

The general thought back to when he'd first met the young Magi. He had been quite scared and jealous of the intimidating young elf prince. Over the last month he had come to know the prince much better, and had come to respect him more than probably any person. "That is true, and I told the soldiers that. The situation has evolved though, with the army and my own trust in you having risen Considerably."

Kai ran his fingers through his hair, and said "oh I see. Well, I don't mind helping much, for a fee."

The general swallowed and said "naturally, we will reward you. What would you like?"

Kai thought, and then smiled. "To start, I would like to study the healers, so I can learn to be a healer as well."

The general grinned and said "that sounds fine. You have a deal."