The first thing Lee did as they began walking back was check his ability upgrades.

A .5 increase? Isn’t that a little too good? Lee thinks of what it will be like in the future. If I make it to level 10 somehow, and the scaling doesn't change, won't I heal 5.5 health a second? If my total health stays the same, I could fully heal myself from near death in about 20 seconds?!

Realizing now that sharing this information with the wrong people would be a grave error. Lee decides to double down on Neia’s earlier warning of not telling people about it casually. Ruven mentioned healers being expensive, do they heal with spells? If so, how effective are they compared to me?

Deciding to ask Neia and Ruven later, he looks up the upgrades to his other ability.

It doubled… Lee, deciding he needs answers sooner rather than later, starts up a conversation. “Hey Neia, you don’t happen to know how effective normal healers are, do you?”

Neia glances over her shoulder, her long braid swaying from the movement, says “They vary depending on level. The higher the level the more potent spells they learn. The average lower level healer can heal moderate wounds, things like gashes, sprains, and broken bones. They can also usually get rid of poisons in the body.” As Neia finishes her explanation she has a curious gleam to her eye.

Yeah that was kind of obvious… let’s ask about how strong other healers are right after I level up. Well, might as well go all in. “And by chance, do you happen to know how much that Bag of Holding is able to hold?

Neia barks out a single laugh and says. “Why, I wonder what made you so curious?” Teasing Lee as his questions most definitely gave away that he noticed the scaling of his abilities. Returning to his question. “This Bag of Holding holds roughly 10 feet cubed. It’s considered to be on the smaller side.”

Lee wipes an imaginary bead of sweat off his forehead. Okay Hidden Cache isn’t nearly as strong as I was thinking. I wonder how many levels there are? Can these scale infinitely? Deciding that he was already asking questions to continue. “Is there a maximum level?”

Neia continues onward and instantly replies. “Not that anyone knows of.”

“What's the highest level you’ve heard of someone having?” Lee questions.

Seeming to think for a moment, Neia comes to her answer. “The highest level I have known about was in the upper five-hundreds.”

Lee’s brain stops working. Did she say upper five-hundreds? How much killing does that take? Looking back towards Neia just as they arrive at their former camp for breakfast. He wants to ask their levels but from what he knows it is considered rude. He decides the worst they can say is that they won’t answer. “Do you mind if I ask you both a personal question?”

Ruven, who had been listening in, already knows where this is going. “Is the question our levels?” Smirking, he puts his hand out in askance.

Lee gives him the jackalope meat and then nods his head. Neia looks over and states. “It may not be as much of a secret than you might think. The skill Identify is one of the most common skills in the world. For example, do you know when Identify fails?” Undoing her braid as the meat cooks. She begins to brush through it, much longer than Lee originally thought, Neia’s hair reaches down to her lower back. Lustrous and looking as smooth as silk, Lee stares for a moment before he realizes he was asked a question. “Does it fail when they're at a higher level?”

“Yes and no, as long as whatever or whoever you’re trying to Identify is less than five levels higher than your own you will succeed. There are some skills and abilities that reduce and outright negate the use of Identify though, so you must be careful.” Neia, eyes the meat cooking. Making sure they are not burning. Then continues to brush her hair.

Ruven glances towards Neia and smirks while spinning the skewers. “We are above level five. We will at least tell you that.” Neia attempts to smack him playfully and says in mock anger “How dare you reveal our secrets!”

Everybody laughs and now the food is done cooking, each of them grabbing a skewer. No spices, chewy, and gamey. Lee finishes his portion and looks into his stat points.

Do I focus on my strengths or sure up my weaknesses? What do healers even focus on? While thinking about the stats, Lee brings up the descriptions for each of them.

Strength would help if I stayed a melee fighter, but I don't know if I will continue to do so. All I have is a borrowed knife. Frowning Lee considered some of the others. Dexterity would have helped with the jackalope, but my Healer’s Touch healed my leg in less than 20 seconds. Constitution seems like a wise choice, but do I even need to “withstand disease”? Healer’s Touch seems to take care of that, but the physical resistance and health increase seems nice. Harder to die that way. Thinking that constitution is the best choice so far, he continues on. Wisdom would help with spotting danger before I get into it. That would have helped with the goblins, but I don't have any way to use my mana yet. Intelligence is my highest stat, but I haven't noticed the effects of it at all. No spells to make use of magical power, and I feel about as smart as I was before. Luck is also kind of in the same scenario as intelligence, i have nothing with secondary effects currently, and i feel like my points would just be better spent elsewhere.

“Can I at least ask for advice about my stat points?” Lee asks while watching Neia finish braiding her hair once more. She stands up and motions for everybody to get moving again. As they start their journey she says. “You may ask but I will only give advice.”

Knowing that they are fully aware of his stats page he explains his former thoughts. When finished Ruven speaks first. “Constitution is a good choice early, yours is even lower than average and would help you the most currently.” Sliding his gaze toward Neia’s back he returns them to Lee and speaks again. “Intelligence is also not a bad choice. You may be able to get spells or even create your own once we arrive in Neldam.”

Neia adds in her own thoughts on the matter. “You don’t have to choose just one stat, you know.” Lee takes that into consideration, originally he thought for maximum value that increasing a single stat would have the most short term value. For example, almost raising his strength by 50% if he added all three.

After some thinking, he decided that living took precedence over doing cool magic and he added all three points into his constitution.

Much happier with his new HP, he focuses on the long journey ahead. Hopefully tomorrow he will arrive in Neldam.

Most of the day passed uneventfully, around noon, Neia found large owlbear tracks. She didn’t seem too concerned about it and started heading in a separate direction, but Lee was definitely concerned. The owlbear's footprint was easily three feet long. About four hours later Ruven signaled an immediate stop. “Neia! Do not move…” Ruvan walks up towards her and leans forward near her feet. “There is a trap here.” Swiping his hands over the area in front he revealed what appeared to be a false layer of leaves atop some sort of dirty canvas, it was covering a hole dug around eight feet into the earth, at the bottom of the hole were sharpened spear like sticks with black tips. “Goblins,” said Ruvan. Both he and Neia began to check their surroundings, while Lee readied his knife.

After a few short moments nothing seemed to be amiss. Neia spent a few moments studying around the trap and then seemed to find what she wanted, looking towards Ruvan she said “This way, at least six of them.”

Ruvan nods and motions for Lee to follow Neia. Lee, about to face goblins once more, was in a much better mindset. They are monsters, they will attack on sight. They don't have the element of surprise. He began stalking forward. After a few minutes Neia signals for everybody to stop. Neia continues forward by herself, disappearing into the forest.

After a few more minutes, Lee begins to worry and looks at Ruvan but he looks unphased, only looking determined. Moments pass and Neia returns and motions them both forward.

Speaking quietly and with a slight frown, Neia says “There are nine of them.” Ruvan hears this and also frowns, then states. “It will be risky because of Lee.” Lee hearing this looks his way now with a frown of his own. “I would much rather these monsters be killed, even if I don't get any of the experience.”

Neia begins to slowly nods. “You can still participate but we will need a plan.” She begins to smile as if having a great idea. “ Let's find somewhere to camp and then we can talk about our options.”