Chương 23

Your skill Stealth has been upgraded to Concealed Presence. Yes! I felt jubilant! Something I had been trying to do since I was put here was finally achieved, and I felt immense joy at having succeeded. Concealed Presence… even the name sounds so much better. Pleased at myself, I immediately tried the skill out. I felt the shift, much like I had with stealth, but this time it felt more pronounced.

I focused like I did earlier and could see that the covering of mana was thicker and felt more profound than the one with stealth. Moreover, the periodic release of a minuscule amount of mana was somehow reduced even further with this skill. I released the skill and felt myself become tangible again. This time, I opened my status, noted that the mana was at 98, and then started Concealed Presence again. My mana dropped to 85, then I started counting.

I reached eight seconds, the point at which 1 mana would have decreased with Stealth, but nothing happened. It wasn't until I reached fifteen seconds that my mana dropped by one. So, 13 mana to activate and 1 mana per 15 seconds. Higher upfront cost but lower to maintain it. Instead of trying to do mental math to see if this was better than the one earlier, I immediately wanted to see if this would work better practically.

I was halfway to my feet, intending to test it out on the unsuspecting goblins outside, when a short snore sounded out from Lucas. Remembering what he had just berated me a bit about earlier, I stopped myself. Probably better to do it in the morning. I settled back down on the hard floor, trying and failing at getting comfortable. Maybe I could get some sand from outside and spread it here, that could be softer than the coarse wood right now. Or maybe some leaves…?

Idle thoughts ran in my mind before soon, I started drifting off to sleep. My final thought before sleep overcame me being; if intent and experimentation could upgrade a skill… what else could I change?

I woke up feeling stiff, thirsty, and hungry. This is getting old… fast. Lucas was still dead to the world for all intents and purposes. Sunlight was streaming in through the window, straight on my face, which was the reason I had woken up. With no idea what time it was but feeling awake nonetheless, I knew I had to do something today that I hadn't done yesterday. I kicked Lucas in the shin, hard. He startled awake, looking around in confusion.

Immensely satisfied at having woken him up, I said "Get up, we have a lot to do today." He continued to stare at me in confusion.

"Did you just kick me?"

"I might have."

"… Why?"

"You weren't getting up when I called out your name gently and tried to shake you up" I lied. He blinked.

"You're lying, aren't you?"

"I might be" I replied. He stared at me, and I stared right back. He sighed and slowly started getting up, though I could spy a hint of a smile on him.

"Let's go, I'm starving" I said while getting up and opening the door, Lucas silently following behind.

We had a breakfast of yet another stew, which I learned the cooks insisted on making as it was easy and allowed the limited food to be stretched further than something else. After we had eaten, Lucas asked me to come with him.

"What do you mean? We need to start on our plan against the goblins" I said. I had told him about my skill upgrade over breakfast, and he was excited and agreed to start experimenting as soon as breakfast was done. I had even pointed out that we were still surrounded by goblins to him, in fact, there were more of them now.

"I know, I know. But trust me, this is important as well. Now let's go, don't waste time!" he said and pulled me along. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. We spent some time just going around the camp as Lucas showed me around. He introduced me to Emma, a woman in her 40s, who was leading the cooks, and to Harry and Margie, who had both, separately, been tailors in their life, and had taken over the responsibility of looking after the tailoring section.

Emma spoke in a hurry as she oversaw washing of the pots, but her tone was sweet nonetheless, telling us her plans of grinding a few herbs for possible spices and her hopes of getting a few vegetables or fruits soon to vary the dishes. Harry and Margie mentioned their struggle at trying to treat and tan the boar skins. They had gained knowledge of how to do it with their Class, but didn't have the proper materials yet.

Margie proudly showed off a crude but serviceable skirt she had fashioned out of some large leaves and vines. Harry spoke about his ideas on how to get some crude bedding underway, which I was completely on board with. As we roamed around, Mason passed by waving at us, grinning while shouting "How'd the fire go, Alex? Didn't burn the forest down I hope!" I chuckled as he passed by without waiting for a response, a trail of much less enthusiastic people trailing after him, already dreading the labour ahead of them.

Omar, Marcus, and Madelline then passed by, all of them greeting us. Marcus even threw in a quick jab, "Wow, you're still in one piece today? Is it a day of miracles?" but before I could respond, Omar spoke up in his loud voice, "Alex my friend! Heard you had some fun yesterday, why didn't you take me with you?" he said in mock disappointment. We spoke and laughed together, with Sara and Ben soon joining us as well.

Soon though, the entire group left us, planning on finding a way to cross the river and finally explore the other side. If they couldn't find a way across, they planned on getting Mason to see if there was any way to build a crude bridge of some sort after the fence was done. Lucas told them he'll join them soon. I looked at the fading backs of the group, and then at the people all around me. Everyone moving with purpose, going about their day with plans in place.

"Everyone is determined to go forward, Alex" Lucas spoke up from my side.

"All of us have something waiting for us back on Earth. We know this tutorial, whatever it is, has to end someday, when we'll probably return to our homes. We have families, friends, and loved ones, and no one here is just sitting around doing nothing." I had no response. I looked at him solemnly, then turned back towards the bustling square. Lucas then chose to ruin the moment, slapping my back hard.

"Don't get so serious now, it doesn't suit you. Come on, we have some pesky goblins to catch, don't we?" I looked at him and he now had his signature grin back. I rubbed my stinging back; he really did slap me hard.

"That was revenge for the morning, wasn't it?" I asked.

"Maybe" he replied. Bastard.

"Ready?" I asked. Lucas, staring intently at me, nodded. We had returned indoors and were on the third-floor hallway of the longhouse. This way, we were sure that no goblins would be able to see what we were about to do. We even made sure the doors of all rooms were closed, on the off-chance that we may be spotted by one of the goblins through a window. On his nod, I mentally started Concealed Presence. Or at least I tried to.

I was just hit with a sense of wrongness, and the shift that I had come to associate with the skill's successful activation didn't happen.

"It didn't work, as expected" I said. I knew this would probably happen. No way the skill would work while someone was focusing on me, but it was good to have it confirmed now. Lucas nodded and shifted slightly, his eyes focusing now on the hallway wall to my left. Not looking at me directly, but keeping me in his peripheral vision.

"Go ahead" he said. I tried the skill again, but the same thing happened. It didn't work. Lucas then turned fully to the left and stared at the wall right in front of him, to the point where he confirmed he could vaguely see me from the corner of his eye. I tried again, but got the same result once more. Do I have to move completely out of sight? Before concluding the experiment, I had one more idea. I asked Lucas to close his eyes, and without activating the skill, I changed my position a bit.

Not much, just enough for a change. I wanted to see if Lucas being previously aware of exactly where I was made a difference with the peripheral vision test. Once I was in position, I asked him to open his eyes and keep looking straight. I then activated the skill, and this time, I shifted. It worked! I told Lucas of the success, and he was happy as well. We spent a bit more time experimenting, testing out the applications of sound and touch as well.

If Lucas could see, hear, smell, or feel me through touch, the skill refused to activate. Experiments done, we moved to the entrance of the longhouse. Lucas went out while I stayed inside, out of sight within the hallway, and switched on Concealed Presence. As soon as I felt the skill take hold, I moved outside, tracking the eyes of the goblin watchers. Please let this be good enough. To my immense relief, it seemed to be working.

I walked around the square but none of the goblins seemed to be following me with their eyes. I wasn't sure which one of them was the one who had been following me yesterday; they all looked the same. However, their eyes never focused on me even when I walked right in front of them. I tried with 4 different goblins, getting the same encouraging result, before I was sure that this new skill worked in keeping me hidden from them.

I went back inside the longhouse, stopped the skill, and stepped out again, telling Lucas the good news. He was elated as well and celebrated with me. Shortly after, Lucas bade me farewell after sternly warning me not to get into a dangerous position again. I knew he was miffed at not being able to go with me, but he knew he couldn't, and instead went to level up so he could gain more stats of his own. I settled right next to the entrance of the longhouse, and waited.

My eyes were roaming around the tree line, keeping an eye on the goblins spread out, waiting. Before long, what I had been waiting for happened. One of the goblins got up, turned around, and went in the direction from which the goblins had attacked us. Finally.