After a few hours of walking with not much conversation going on. Neia stops and holds up a hand. Lee, who has been scanning his surroundings constantly since the battle, tenses. Neia slowly begins to creep through the brush. Following along, after five minutes or so, Neia stops.

She glances at Ruven and nods. Ruven comes forward and Neia points in the distance. Ruven follows the finger with his eyes and after a moment nods as well. Wielding his bow he knocks an arrow. He very slowly draws the bow to full and takes aim at something in the distance, soon after he releases, arrow flying through the woods.

Lee hears a soft thump and then nothing. Neia smiles, she stands with Ruven and walks in the direction the arrow was fired. Lee, still tense wondering if another battle is near, follows after.

Soon Lee finds what their quarry was. A deer of some sort, instead of brown fur, it was a mossy purple, with white tufts of fur spreading out from its chest and tail. A small set of antlers atop its crown and small marble like eyes.

Now understanding that no fight for his life is upon him, Lee relaxes. Neia seems very excited, and looks towards Ruven “When was the last time you’ve seen a Gallum?”

Ruven smiles as well, “It’s been months, we are lucky.” Turning to Lee he continues. “Gallum deer materials are very expensive, with their mana rich meat they taste fantastic and may provide a temporary bonus to stats if prepared by a skilled chef, their organs, fur, and bones, can be used in alchemy and other professions.”

Neia looks towards Lee and says “Lee, I will loot this because my luck is higher than yours and Ruvens. Normally we wouldn’t care too much when it comes to whoever loots a creature, but for rare animals, monsters, and treasure chests. A group may reveal their luck to gain more resources.” Bending down to lay a hand on the deer, Neia loots it.

Shimmering away, left in its spot are an antler, a nice purple pelt, a pearly white pile of long bones, and one full large leg of meat. Neia smiles wide, “We are lucky!” Taking a small pouch from her waist she opens it and begins to put the loot inside.

Before she can store anything, Lee quickly uses Identify.

As Lee finishes his Identify spree, he watches in amazement as the items seem to shrink and fall into the small pouch that Neia has. Looking more closely, trying to view inside, all he sees is a void. Neia seeing his interest explains. “It’s called a Bag of Holding. Even the smallest ones are expensive. You didn’t think we came out here days away from Neldam with no bags to carry things did you?” Neia looks at him in mock askance.

Lee realizes that he never thought twice about them having bags or not. Luckily for him, even though he never played fantasy games, he at least knew of the famous Bag of Holding. A classic magical item. Thinking about the two elves some more, he doesn’t even know why they are out here in the first place. He decides to ask. “Why are you two out here in the forest to begin with?”

Ruven shows a wry smile, “So you finally ask, I have been wondering how long it would take you to.” Neia starts to lead them back on their journey and Ruven continues to explain. “Neia and I are monster hunters, we go out and search for rare monsters to loot. While also making the area around Neldam safer.”

Now interested, Lee asks “So you’re like adventurers?” Looking back and forth between Ruven and Neia he starts to see their posture tighten.

“No, we are not adventurers.” Ruven replies quickly.

Lee now a little confused, asks, “Is there a specific difference between the two?”

Neia jumps in and states, “Adventurers travel from city to city, country to country, seeking monsters, dungeons, and treasure. We just hunt monsters.” She glances back at Ruven and gives him a complicated look.

Lee sensing some awkwardness with this line of questioning, changes topics. “The fight with four goblins only gave me 50XP. It will take a lot of danger to reach level five.”

Neia, glad for the change in topic replies, “You got experience for one goblin, not four. You only dealt damage to the one you killed. If you had done some damage to the other goblins you may have gotten some more, but if I held down one and it stood no chance against you you would have gotten nothing. The only reason you got 50XP from the goblin is because it was mortally wounded by the time I finished it, if it was still healthy you would have received a lot less.”

Filing this information away as very important, Lee continues. “So what is Neldam like?”

Neia glances back at him and smiles. “It’s the city of dark elves. It’s located at the base of one of the largest Garbola trees. It’s very impressive. We have lived there for almost a thousand years.”

Lee tries to imagine an elven city. What he imagines are buildings shaped like trees with clean, river-like, wide streets winding across the city, with lots of fruits and vegetables being sold by the side. Lee suddenly remembers something important and asks “Didn’t you mention living underground?”

Neia winks and turns back to find a path. “You will see.”

Ruven chimes in, “You will be surprised, I think we will be there in about two days.”

Continuing on the journey, they go on for hours until night begins to fall. Neia stops to find a small area to make camp. Making camp was the same as before, gathering logs and kindling.

Lee, hungry and thirsty, begins to wonder if he will make it to Neldam without water. His last real drink was back at the river the day before. More than 24 hours ago. The meat he ate with the elves was fine, he survived in the hospital not being able to eat much, but water is different. Lee asks “Do you have any water, or something else to drink?”

Ruven looks over at him “We have some water do you need some?” unhooking a waterskin from his side.” He tosses it over.

Lee grabs it and drinks deeply. After a few moments he finishes and hands it back. Ruven staring at him the whole time, asks. “When was the last time you had something to drink?”

“Over a day ago.” Lee says while positioning his various furs to get warm next to the fire.

“That’s not too long, you drank like it had been a week.” Ruven laughs and starts to check his bow and arrows, maintaining them if needed.

Lee chuckles back “If I didn’t drink for a week I would be dead.”

Ruven then looks over to Lee and sees that he is not joking. “Really?”

Neia joins into the conversation and speaks to Ruven. “He is a human, he has different needs. I did not anticipate this, the only thing I knew of was sleep. We only need two or three hours of sleep. They need eight hours.” She turns to Lee and asks, “If you need something just say so, we will accommodate you. We only drink once a day, sometimes more, sometimes less. Ask for water when you need it. What about food? How often do you eat?”

I wish I could get rested within two or three hours. Lee mulled. “We can survive long without food, a few weeks without any, but we usually eat three meals a day, two is fine.”

They both look at him. Neia asks, “We usually eat in the morning and at night, occasionally we will skip the night meal like today, if we don't find anything we can eat during the journey.” They did find something today, but that something is too valuable to just eat in camp.

Lee not wanting to hold the elves back, grabs his warmed furs and begins to lay down his sleeping arrangement, “I will go to sleep now early, so we can leave earlier in the morning.” He says while laying the tail fur of the squaller down as his pillow, and the other squaller fur down as bedding. Using the Jackalope fur as a blanket.

Ruven nods and says “We will wake you in the morning, we will go find breakfast again together.” he looks unsure for a moment then also says. “You do not need to reach level five to live comfortably. Many make this mistake when they are young.”

Lee doesn’t have to think much about it, he saw the monsters and animals here, this wasn’t earth, today showed him that. He wasn’t going to sit around in this new life and have people protect him and take care of him like before. He was going to be the protector and he was going to heal people. Slowly he fell asleep.

He slept and began to dream, dreams of healing people. He was in a small village helping heal anybody who needed it, walking into a small cabin, he asked who needed healing. Being led towards the back he opened a door and walked in, there was a bed in the corner with what he assumed to be a child underneath heavy covers. Walking up to the bed smiling, he pulled back the covers, only to discover a dead female goblin with its head missing.

He woke up startled. Eyes wide and cold sweat running down his back. Looking around he saw Neia staring at him. The piercing faintly glowing eyes almost seemed to be gazing into his soul. She gave a half smile and said “Happens to everyone. Go back to sleep.” She looked away and began scanning around the forest. Lee looked for Ruven and saw him sleeping sitting next to a tree.

Trying to go back to sleep was difficult but as soon as he did, it felt like no time passed, he opened his eyes seeing Neia nudging him. “It’s morning, we will go search for breakfast.”

Getting up, Lee looked down to his hospital gown, it was in terrible shape. Scrapes and holes all throughout it. He was beginning to wonder if it would even make it to Neldam. Storing his furs, he began to follow Neia once more, Ruven following from behind as always.

After half an hour of searching, Neia seems to find some tracks, she turns and leads them at a much smoother pace in a different direction. Just a few moments later she slows and hurriedly waves Lee and Ruven over. Coming to her side he spots what she has found, a Jackalope. Looking nearly identical to the one from the past, he at least knew what he was dealing with for once.

Instead of sending Ruven to the other side of it like with the squaller, she looked at Lee with sincerity and whispered, “It is level one. Do you want to try to kill it yourself?”

Lee looked back towards the Jackalope and sized it up. He couldn’t remember exactly what the Identify said in the past so he did so again.

Speaking as quietly as he could, he asked Neia, “Do I only need to worry about the charge?” She nodded back towards him. Looking back and forth between the Jackalope and Neia, Lee looked towards Ruven. Ruven gave him a small smile, nodded, and motioned him forward. Knowing that this was a path he couldn't avoid forever he began taking a deep breath, he locked eyes with Neia and slowly took out the belt knife, with adrenaline now pumping through his veins, he began sprinting for all he was worth directly towards the Jackalope.

The Jackalope hearing the rustle of bushes and the rapid crushing of leaves swung its head around to stare in Lee’s direction. Still sprinting straight ahead he angled the knife outward. The Jackalope lowered its head and you could see the tension winding in its hind leg muscles, it sprung forth.

Even knowing from Identify not to underestimate the speed, he did so unknowingly. It closed the gap of more than sixty feet in a second. Throwing himself to the side as quickly as he could, he was still grazed by the edge of its antlers, a large gash opening along his calf.

Getting back to his feet as quickly as he could, Lee looked towards where the Jackalope dashed by. The Jackalope was lining itself up to charge again in a line, lowering its head once more. Instead of sprinting at the Jackalope, with a slowly healing calf, he decided to walk slowly towards it, waiting for his moment.

The Jackalope, now flustered, began tightening for its second launch forward. As soon as Lee saw the tightening muscles he dashed to his left and swung his right arm which held the knife out in a horizontal slash.

The Jackalope launched into its charge, and zoomed in a straight line, directly into the knife path. The knife, while sharp, was not meant to be used as a weapon. It didn’t sink in nearly as much as needed for a clean kill, but it did damage for sure.

The Jackalope now faltering in its charge began to tumble. A large red gash could be seen running down from its neck all the way toward the base of its thigh. Now in immense pain, the Jackalope began to thrash and panic, looking for an escape.

Lee surged forth with adrenaline and jumped on its back trying his best to avoid the large antler on its head and began to stab into its neck. After only a few in and out’s, the Jackalope lay still.

Lee identified it once more.

Collapsing in relief, he heard clapping. Neia appeared from behind a tree proud and smiling. Ruven jumps down from another, bow still knocked but not drawn smiling as well. “Congratulations! You did it! I thought for sure one of us would have to help.” Ruven exclaimed. Lee, not as afraid or shocked as he thought he would be, smiled as well.

Neia, finally reaching Lee, gave him a pat on the back and smiled with her mouth as well as her glowing green eyes. “Well, how much XP did you get?”

Lee quickly opened his status to check.

“60 XP? But I only got 50 XP from the level 2 goblin?” Lee asks, confused.

Neia jumps in, “Well, did you fight that goblin completely by yourself? Remember, I’m the one who technically finished it. Your XP was reduced from that.”

Now understanding, Lee asks about his three unused points.

Neia caught a little off guard, says. “Well, that's different from us, we receive two free points and one point in dexterity on even levels, and two free points and one point in wisdom on odd levels. You seem to get them all in free points. You can place them into any of your stats to increase them. You should place them where you feel you need them. I will not tell you what to put them into, these are your stats not mine.”

Lee walks over and loots the Jackalope. He got another fur pelt and three more meat chunks. He decides to Identify the fur to see if this one is also mana infused.

Storing them, he remembers that Hidden Cache and Healer’s Touch both improve with levels.

Walking back to their camp to cook breakfast, Lee decides to view his upgrades and think about which stats he wants to improve.