The next morning, at around 8 AM, Lee was awoken by his door being knocked upon. He got up quickly and answered. Neia and Ruven were outside, in their combat leathers and gear from when he met them. “You ready? It will probably take most of the day to get to an area with monsters to kill.” Ruvan said, Lee smiles slightly, “I just need to stop by and get some rations. I don’t want to be eating Jackalope the entire time.

Neia laughs. “Well, you have a package out here, so get it inside and then we will go.” Package? Looking down there is a medium sized box. Lee opens it up and finds his robe and sets of clothes he ordered from Sarum. Perfect timing.

He quickly donned the white robe. It was beautifully made, the silver lining was very eye-catching with the stark whiteness of the robes, it came with a silverish leather belt to tie around his waist.

Smiling ear to ear, he examines himself with his small hand mirror. Happy with what he sees he stores the spare sets of clothes in his home, all except the one set that he takes with him. “Lead the way.” Lee says to Neia and Ruven, as he locks his door.

It didn’t take too long to reach the entrance to Neldam. As wonderful as the city was, Lee liked the three primary colors of the dim forest. It reminded him that he was in a new world, and that he has only seen but the briefest parts of it.

With Neia leading the way just as before, they traveled for a few hours. Neia and Ruvan slowly got more and more aware of their surroundings the farther out they went. It was approaching time to set up camp for the day when Neia stopped and signaled. She changed directions and tracked through the underbrush swiftly and quietly. Soon they found what she had tracked. It was humongous.

Wandering through the forest was a truly massive creature, easily standing over 8 feet tall on all fours. A large bear-like creature with the face of an owl slowly made his way through the forest with dusk setting. Its large eyes were sharp, almost as sharp as the beak the creature possessed. Dull purple fur and feathers made its camouflage incredible, even with its sheer bulk, it easily blended in.

Lee quickly checked his status to see if it’s been twenty four hours for his spells to change.

Nodding, Lee used Identify on the creature.

FUCK! Lee quickly blurted out. “I alerted it!”

As soon as Lee starts talking, the creature, which Lee assumes is an Owlbear from his previous conversations with Neia about monsters, swings his head around and screeches a loud cry of rage. Neia wastes no time, instantly unsheathing her blades and taking a defensive posture. Ruvan scrambles up a tree and begins knocking his arrow. Lee decides to launch an attack.

Casting Icicle Spear, Lee summons the Icy projectile above his palm and throws it towards the Owlbear. The Icicle Spear spins rapidly like a screw and drills into the Owlbears shoulder. It screeches even louder and stands on its hindlegs.

Slowly, the feathers around the neck of the Owlbear begin to vibrate. In split seconds, the feathers eject from the Owlbears neck and launch towards their group.

Like small daggers, the rain of feathers fall upon Lee, Ruvan, and Neia.

Neia dodges or cuts a good amount of them before they can reach her. A few of the feathers slip by and give her slashing wounds. She doesn’t even grunt.

Ruvan fared much better, having been in the tree since Lee had alerted it, Ruvan slipped behind the trunk and avoided the feathers.

Lee did not fare as well as them. He managed to dodge but a pittance of the actual amount sent his way, causing him significant damage. His robe probably saved his life.

Lee, unlike Neia, screamed when he got hit by the multitude of arrow-like projectiles. The pain caused him to cast Mend Wounds on himself instantly.

Instantly back in top shape, Lee runs towards a nearby tree for some cover.

Neia leaps through the forest towards the Owlbear right after the storm of feathers ends. Reaching the owlbear in mere moments, she begins a dance-like series of attacks with her silver sickle blades. Cuts and deep gashes show upon the Owlbear and it screeches and goes for a bite on Neia. Neia dodges the lunging bite attack easily.

An arrow to the eye is its reward for attempting the bite, warm dark red blood pours forth from its socket as its screech of fury turns into a screech of pain. Lee pops out behind the trunk and launches an Earthen Strike with all the mana he had left with the optional variable cost. The chunk of earth is no longer the size of baseball, it is more the size of a basketball. Surging through the air the chunk of earth slams into the Owlbears chest and seems to cave it in slightly from the crushing impact.

The Owlbear heaves and labors with its breaths as it swipes and tries to bite Neia as she leaves retaliating cuts at every opportunity.

Lee, out of mana and having no weapon, just hovers around the outskirts of the battle in case he needs to dive in to heal with his Healer’s Touch in some kind of desperation move. Only around fifteen seconds after his Earthen Strike, the Owlbear collapses, blood oozing forth from the massive amounts of cuts it had sustained.

Neia looks towards Lee with a slight hint of annoyance, “You shouldn’t be identifying anything out here unless we are already fighting. You are too low of a level.” Lee, knowing he fucked up, simply nods. “I apologize, being in the city must have dulled me to the dangers out here. It will not happen again.”

Ruvan doesn’t say anything and loots the body, retrieving his arrows in the process. He looks towards Lee and shouts. “Pick up the arrows it fired, I can use them for making arrows.” Lee doesn’t reply and just goes to pick up as many as he can.

A few minutes later, Lee finished picking up all the feathers and using Healer’s Touch on Neia. Neia looks up at the dimming sun. “Let's look for a camp and continue in the morning. How much XP did you get Lee?” Lee decides to check, focusing only on a portion of his status page.

“I got one hundred and twenty five. I still need two hundred and thirty five more to hit level five.” Lee replies while following Neia through the forest. Neia nods and asks. “You’ll get it soon. Have any ideas about what your profession will be?”

Lee takes a minute to think about it. “I don’t know for sure, but if it only accounts for what I did in this world, maybe I would be a teacher or some kind of medical profession. If it counts from my old world… I don’t know.”

Ruvan speaks from behind Lee. “Well, whatever it is, I'm sure it will be fine. Mine is Fletcher, it allows me to make arrows and bows. My father taught me everything I know.” Ruvan smiles softly in reminiscence.

Neia laughs, “You look like it’s as if he’s dead. He’s been running that store of his for longer than you’ve been alive. Also, here is where we will camp.”

Looking around, it’s just like most of the camps they’ve had in the past, a small clearing or glade. Neia starts up the fire and Lee hands Ruvan some meat. “I bought some steaks in Neldam so we don’t have to eat Jackalopes, or Owlbears I suppose.” Ruvan smiles wide and laughs. “Smart idea.” He grabs the meat and gets to cooking.

Soon enough, they all are full and fed. Lee whips out his sleeping bag and gets comfortable for a night in the wild.