Chapter 12: I'm 40 Years Old, Level 3

Therina was terrible as skinning the wolves, removing the teeth, separating meat from bone… Just about every aspect.

She apologized to the dungeon, but it didn't care and simply told her to focus on improving. Its bigger concern was how it was going to make a tanning solution to cure the leather hide.

The wolves should have been skinned while their bodies were still warm and the hides were spoiled, but at least he got some meat and she got to practice dismantling.

What was worth it, and would solve a great deal of Therina's complaints, was a large amount of fat which could be boiled down to a burnable oil. There were better, more natural options available, but this was currently the best available.

Therina was the hands of the job when she wasn't practicing her thrusts. She carried all the fat and placed it into a large cast iron pot the dungeon made, which was then filled with water and set to boil. This process would take an entire day at least, so it was left to be, with a shroom gnome occasionally throwing more wood on the fire.

"How is the weight of the sword?" The dungeon asked in the elf's mind, unable to test himself.

"Off balance."

"How much?"

"Like. Mace."

He felt like raging at that comment and mentally shook in anger.

"Can use. Still."

"How is it you cannot feel you mana network and actively release and block mana, but you can release it into the sword."

"Don't understand."

"I have been observing. You being able to release mana to empower the sword has nothing to do with the sword itself. It is you that is opening up your network and allowing your mana to flow outwards."

"Don't know. Just, can."

The dungeon pondered over this and wondered whether perhaps it was a sixth sense she didn't have, but the system which controlled the world installed a piece into her which allowed her to do it instinctively when holding a weapon which could receive mana.

He tried having her touch the mana engine, but she couldn't power that even though it was basically the same principle. He even refurbished it by replacing the iron with manasteel, and whilst it improved its spinning speed by 50 percent, the young elf woman still couldn't power it.

His other thought was that rather than something automatically helping her empower weapons or equipment, there was something which stopped her releasing her mana in ways "not allowed".

"Its time for you to head out toward the village and kill some goblins. We will focus on mana again later."

"Understood."

Therina was nervous, but she had been practicing with the sword for several days until thrusting had been ingrained into her muscles and bones. She had even earned the Swordsmanship skill and risen it to <Lv. 2> in such a short period of time too.

The constant training had also earned her an extra point in both dexterity and endurance, a helpful addition to her low stats.

She went into her room and equipped the old leather armor. She then took out a belt from her belongings, wrapping it around her waist over her tunic before tying the scabbards of the long sword and two curved daggers to it.

She drank several cups of water and filled up a leather pouch with more for the trip. She carried several herbs with her as well as goblins can occasionally use poison, despite their low levels.

Three shroom gnomes followed her out of the dungeon and began stealthily moving toward where the elf village once stood. She had to be reminded often, but she was constantly applying Concealment to herself on a day to day basis.

The dungeon would even wake her up when she was sleeping by dropping cold water on her face, forcing her to activate concealment before she could sleep again.

Killing all the wolves had also put her very close to levelling up. Elves were a naturally long lived species, and almost as if to balance them out with other species, they required much more experience to level up. The world was both fair and unfair in many ways.

~~~~~

The elven village was very close to the dungeon, it was a surprise the goblins hadn't discovered it as of yet, but they were still preoccupied over scavenging the village. The had even eaten many corpses, which deeply pained Therina when she saw the scattered bones, some with meat still on them.

The other corpses lying around were ghastly pale, but hadn't begun decomposing yet thanks to their elven vitality and higher levels. The direwolves were similar, as higher levelled monsters had stronger materials which wouldn't spoil for even longer.

Their fat would also create an oil three or four times higher in quality than that of standard animal fat.

Therina hid herself using the burnt buildings or anything else for cover. The dungeon could see through her eyes as well as the three shroom gnomes, so it gave her updated information on any goblins she couldn't directly see.

The original number of 30 had seemingly increased to 40 over the past several days, another goblin group seemed to have challenged this one and lost, the survivors joining the original group and not only replacing the lost numbers, but also bolstering them.

She silently drew her manasteel sword, whose center of gravity was uncomfortably half way up the blade.

"The goblin sentry will approach the corner of the building in 5… 4… 3…"

Trusting in the dungeon, she stepped out from around the corner and attacked in one fluid motion. The sword was infused with a small amount of mana, drawn back and thrust forward in perfect form.

The goblin sentry didn't even have time to sound an alarm as the sword stabbed it through the eye like a bolt of lightning, the blade not encountering any resistance until it met the back of its skull, which even that was pierced through with little effort.

[

Goblin <Lv. 3> killed!

+ 45 exp

]

She only needed 30 more experience until she levelled up, which she quickly did upon finding another goblin and catching it by surprise.

[

Goblin <Lv. 3> killed!

+ 45 exp

]

[

Experience threshold met. Level Up!

Lv. 2 -> Lv. 3

Accumulated skill experience bonus:

Weaving <Lv. 9> -> <Lv. 10>

+ New Subskill: Thread: Auto-Spin

Archery <Lv. 6> -> <Lv. 7>

Flower Arrangement <Lv. 7> -> <Lv. 9>

+ New Subkill: Defense Alignment

Concealment <Lv. 4> -> <Lv. 6>

Swordsmanship <Lv. 2> -> <Lv. 3>

All Stats(Non-Luck): +1

Class bonus: Dex +2, Int +1

Mana: 128 -> 191

+ New Title: Child of Mana

]

[

Species: Tree Elf

Name: Therina Sel'Ether

Class: Thatcher

Age: 40

Mana: 191/191

Exp: 15/956

Level: 3

Str: 5

Dex: 12

End: 7

Vit: 14

Int: 11

Mnd: 8

Lck: 6

Skills:

Nature Touched (Racial) <Lv. MAX>

• +20% Dex, End, Vit when in forested regions.

• Forest wildlife is less hostile to you.

Weaving <Lv. 10>

• 3-Fold Plat – 1 mana/min

• 5-Fold Plat – 2 mana/min

• 9-Fold Thatch – 3 mana/min

• Wood Weaving – 10 mana/min

• Thread: Auto-Spin – 2 mana/min

Flower Arrangement <Lv. 9>

• Nature Alignment – 15 mana

• Mana Alignment – 30 mana

• Defense Alignment – 40 mana

Archery <Lv. 7>

• Twin Shot – 5 mana

• Rapid Fire – 5 mana/shot

Trap Setting <Lv. 5>

Concealment <Lv. 6>

Swordsmanship <Lv. 3>

Titles:

Child of Mana

]

[

Child of Mana: One who is said to not just be gifted with mana, but was someone born naturally attuned to it.

Conditions: Be born with mana far exceeding the standard of one's own race.

Effects:

• Mana increase upon level up +20%

• Mana recovery speed +15%

]

Therina was stunned. Not at the bonus skill experience, she hadn't levelled up for nearly ten years, so she had accumulated a lot. What astonished her were two things.

Firstly, her mana increased by a huge amount for going up a single level. When she went from <Lv. 1> to <Lv. 2>, her mana pool had increased from 22, to 34, only 12 points difference. This level up had it increase by 63 points.

Second was the title. It was incredible and shocking at the same time. Especially considering it was supposed to be a title given at birth. She wasn't gifted with a huge mana pool for her level, not until recently at least.

'Could it be an error in the world? One doesn't need to specifically be "born" with it in order to earn the title, or is it something else? Such as levelling up counts as being "reborn" which fulfils the criteria.'

Therina mimicked how the dungeon considers these things while pondering the answer. She believed it was the latter, else she should have gotten the title long ago. Of course, it could just be a gift attached to her bonus experience to consume anything leftover from the potential she had accumulated.

Throwing her questions to the back of her mind for later, she continued moving around the village ambushing goblins along with the three shroom gnomes. They managed to assassinate ten goblins before they were discovered, screeching goblin cries alerting the tribe of their presence.

Therina hid amongst the village houses, doing her best to not pay attention to the dead bodies everywhere. The goblins knew she was here, but they didn't know where exactly she was.

The still had nearly thirty goblins, included two much stronger than the rest with iron swords, and a goblin shaman who looked like the leader of the tribe. If its crooked staff was anything to go by, it could also use magic.

Most goblin shamans knew spells which would make their allies stronger and enemies weaker, while also often being able to cast entry level elemental spells.