A soft noise came from the undergrowth behind them, drawing their attention away from the hairy mantis. Behind them, a small round furry thing rolled out from under a bush. With its large eyes it stared at V, slightly bigger than his foot, its body looked almost entirely made of fur. It had ears that looked vaguely like a cat, and V could swear its eyes actually had sparkles in them. Eika gasped "Awaawawawa! It's so cute! Eika thinks that is a forest fairy!" V readied his weapon. It was only a small ball of, somewhat cute, fur but he was not going to be taken by surprise. Eika waved her hands "Nono! The fairies are friendly! They said its good luck to be visited by one. Supposedly they watch over the forest and heal plants and animals and stuff." She had not been wrong so far, so V was willing to believe her for the time being. He lowered his weapon. "Is... it just going to stare at us? Can it talk?" Eika knelt down "How would it even? It does not look like it has a mouth..." she held out her hand, trying to coax the, supposed, forest fairy toward her. It simply continued to stare out them. "Well, I guess if it cannot talk, and just wants to watch us, that's fine, weird, but fine. Let’s get out of here though, that mantis thing made a ton of noise while I was fighting it. I don’t want to find out if any more of them are in the area. Eika looked disappointedly at the fluff ball. "Awww, but it looks so fluffy! Maybe it will let me pet it before we leave..." She tried to get closer to it, only for it to hop backwards, away from her. She let out a small huff before turning and following V, who had already started walking.

As they traversed the forest, V considered his new class. He had discovered that in order to switch classes he simply had to go to his class status, and next to the hide option there was a "Change" button. That fight with the hairy mantis was sudden and dangerous, and his back hurt, but he figured it would be safe to try the new swordsman class out on a normal mantis or two. He wanted to start leveling it up right away. He decided to change his "Jack of All Trades" ability from Constitution to Agility, to make up for the Swordsman Class's relatively low Agility rank. However, once he did so, the pain in his back suddenly increased. "Ah! Are you ok!" Eika called out from behind him. The sudden increase in pain had surprised him, causing him to stumble. "Ah. Ya, I unlocked the swordsman class, and was switching to that. The drop in Constitution ranks caused the damage I received in that last fight to hurt more. It blindsided me." V figured there was no need to tell her about his Divine Class ability at the moment.

Eika let out an "oooooohhh" as she moved closer to V "I don’t know much about changing classes, but it makes sense to Eika that a lower score would make the damage worse." Her words brought up an interesting point. He was unsure if just the pain had increased, or if changing Con ranks had retroactively increased the amount of damage he had received. He tested his range of movement, and stretched some. From his quick experimentation, it appeared as if the damage was the same, simply the effects of the damage were more pronounced. V figured that it worked in such a way that damage is not amplified by a lower score, but the effects of existing damage might be. If he was cut and bleeding, lowering his Con score would not make the cut larger, but it would probably increase the effects and rate of blood loss. With that in mind, switching to Swordsman would lower his con score by one more rank, making the pain worse, but hopefully, not increase the damage his back had taken. He told Eika that they would take a short rest. He wanted to be setting down in-case the drop in Con turned out to be worse than he expected.

Switching classes had all sorts of unexpected effects on V. First and foremost, the pain was absolutely unbearable. He was unsure exactly how much difference each ranking made until this very moment. Through the mind-numbing pain shooting through his lower back, he concentrated as best he could, switching back to Divine Champion, so he could switch Jack of All Trades back to Con, before switching back to Swordsman. The pain, now being back to manageable levels, was only one of the new discoveries he had made. The process of switching classes back and forth took him about sixty seconds, he wondered if he would be able to reduce that time with practice. Additionally, the world around him seemed somehow duller, less vibrant. He had not noticed till now, but as a Divine Champion, his vision was good enough to see each of the leaves on the trees, even at the top of their branches he could see the outline of each leaf. Now however, they seemed to blend together more, it seemed harder to point out where one leaf ended and another began. Not supremely so, but as his Divine class, it was automatic, easy. Now, he had to concentrate. It was sort of like reading the names of passing buildings while in the car. When you’re driving, it takes some thought and concentration to read them. It was also proportionally difficult to discern the different sounds of the forest. Additionally, he could tell the difference in Strength ranks. Even dropping only one rank had made a noticeable difference. Everything was obviously heavier. This was most notable with his sword. He could still swing it of course, but it took more effort and was clearly more taxing. As for Agility, it was hard to put into words for V, but he noticed the difference. It was rather large. He had never realized how difficult the terrain of the forest was to traverse. Now however, every step he took had to be planned out, not to trip over branches or roots. He had never thought of Eika as particularly agile, but watching her easily and swiftly move through the forest was not something that seemed impressive in comparison to his movements.

"Well, this sure is an experience." V tested out his movements, trying to get a handle on his new limitations. Eika watched him "Are you sure you are not a baby?!" She giggled "You look like you never walked before!" As Eika sputtered and laughed, V attempted to redirect her "I did not know ranks made this much of a difference. I would like to level this class up, but you’re going to have to help me find a weak mantis. Nothing like that hairy one." Eika nodded, trying to control her laughter "gha, right. Small mantises." she bit the collar of her leather jerkin as she started searching the nearby forest. After a time, she spoke up "Well, there is...something over that way. It sounds like a normal mantis, but I cannot be sure anymore. Iv never seen or heard or smelled anything like the strange ones we keep finding." V nodded and crept forward. He would have liked to move more quietly, but with his agility so low, that seemed to be impossible. Luckily, Eika's tracking abilities seemed to be good enough, as a normal mantis came into view. Slightly smaller than the first one he fought, it seemed much more threatening. V was unsure if that was because it seemed stronger and faster by comparison to him then the first one, or if perhaps having a Willpower of E made him more fearful.

He decided to charge toward the mantis, he was certainly not going to be able to sneak up on it with his current capabilities. The mantis heard him and turned, making the same aggressive gesture and movements as the first one. V charged forward; he was certain he would have already slashed the monster in half by now if he was still using his Divine Class. When he brought his sword down on it, the mantis deflected the blade with its own, bladed appendage. Surprised, V stumbled backwards, the mantis catching him in the leg with its other blade. Luckily, it did not penetrate deeply, but man it hurt. As V regained his composure, he blocked a slash from the Mantis. He was slow, weak, and unable to read his opponents movements well. How did anyone ever level up as a normal class? Maybe in groups.... As his thoughts raced, he remembered that his new class had an ability. Focused Slash. If it was anything like jack of all trades, he sort of just had to will it to activate. Hoping it would help the situation, he attacked the mantis a second time, activating Focused Slash. For a moment, time seemed to slow down around V, additionally, he was able to aim his attack with greater ease, able to aim specifically for the part of the monster he wanted. After a second, he landed his slash cross the monsters’ eyes. It hit, blinding the monster. The ability was certainly helpful, it was sort of like it boosted his abilities for that single attack.  He went to finish the monster off with another attack. He attempted to activate the ability again, but nothing happened. He had somewhat expected this. If you could use the ability constantly, then why would it even be an ability rather than a passive buff? Either way, the blinded mantis had little ability to defend itself. He finished it off with two more blows before wiping his sword off.

Checking his status, he saw that he had acquired eight experience. about a third of a level. Eight did not seem so bad when you did not need hundreds of thousands.... "Are you ok!!" Eika rushed out of the trees and looked at V's leg wound. It was superficial but was bleeding quite a bit due to the width of the slash. "Ah, I am alright. I was not entirely prepared for how much stronger the mantis would be. Or rather, how much weaker I would be." Eika pulled a bandage out of her vest and was attempting to wrap his wound. "Oh, thank you. I did not know you knew how to take care of wounds" She shook her head "Eika does not know really, but I know you wrap wounds. That is a basic adventuring rule!" She was clumsy and poorly wrapped his leg up, but she looked so proud of her work that even V did not want to disappoint her. "Ah. Thanks! It uh, feels better already."

Although he did not want to give up the hunt, not when he only needed two more kills to see what level two of Swordsman might bring, but between his back, his leg, a general sense of exhaustion, and the risk of running into one of the... messed up mantises, he figured it would be best to head back to the inn for the time. Eika agreed with him, not that he thought she would ever disagree with him, and they started to head back out of the forest. "Hay, Hay V it’s still following us!" There was mix of confusion and hope in Eika's voice. "I never heard of them following people. I always heard that it was hard to see one, some people don’t even believe they exist!" V looked at where Eika was pointing. "Oh, the forest fairy thing. That does seem a bit strange." V looked around, trying to figure out why the small ball of fur had been tailing them for the last two hours.