(Book 1 Complete!) Side Quest [Isekai / LitRPG]

Logan frowned as he turned the celestial monster core from the Devouring Coil over in his hand. After he and Mariv had tested the Dream version of his Null Pulse and Eldertread skills, he had tried to crack the celestial core and absorb it. The problem was, the core's solid exterior resisted every attempt.

The gnome fawned over the loot's rarity, but when Logan asked if he had anything that might help him open it, Mariv shook his head. "I might, but I don't think it's wise to crack it open yet, anyway. I imagine the qualifying restriction is the same with your Core Cracker boon as it is for skill potions." Skill potions required 12 identical cores to provide enough essence extract. The idea of facing 11 more Devouring Coils made Logan shiver, and he was glad he only needed the one.

"What's the restriction?"

"With skill potions, a celestial-grade draft requires one to have a class. Otherwise, it gets wasted." Mariv gestured to himself. "I, for example, am a divining wizard."

"How can I get a class?"

"They didn't tell you at the Adventurers' Guild?"

"Well, things got kind of hectic. They fast-tracked me past the usual orientation and I pretty much went straight to Farrowstead to investigate the problem with hearthfires. I still haven't even collected my reward from defeating the frostfire elementals."

"Right. Well, you need to reach level 25 to become eligible. Then, you must travel to a site of power to begin the process. It's particularly easy with the guild and they will handle watching over you while you undergo the transformation process."

The nearby mountain had a site of power within it, but that portion was beyond the Boundary. Mariv recommended Logan stick with the guild, since they had built their entire headquarters complex, called the Highmarch, surrounding the site of power in the city of Caerwyn.

"Whenever you do assume a class, the System will present several options depending on a collection of details, including your natural proficiencies, skills, and titles. Then, if you accept a class, some skills' latter two of the four available threshold perks would become tailored to you, assuming you meet the conditions for those threshold perks too."

Logan was glad he hadn't missed out on receiving any special developments with his currently unlocked threshold perks. Even though he hadn't been able to take in the Devouring Coil's core yet, he did crack open the one from the Tentacled Stalker.

That skill went by the same name of the ability the monster had used against him, called Mindmirror Sigil, and it was a Rare skill.

Nugget chirped, and Logan turned to see Razor stirring. Mariv rushed over, too, and clasped her hands in his with a smile. Logan strolled up, wanting to give them a little space, but was happy to see her awake.

"Unh… where…" She jolted up onto her forearms, scanning the room. "The reaver. Is it defeated?"

"Yes," said Mariv, handing her a cup of blue liquid from the tableside. "There will be plenty of time for news later, but you should continue resting for now."

She got distracted by Nugget who danced at her side. Tears welled in her eyes as she glanced from Logan to the dragon, and suddenly she broke down crying and hugged the little dragon, swaying gently.

Logan felt his own eyes watering. Something beautiful about her ugly sobs almost made him cry too.

When her chest stopped hitching, she looked up to Logan. "Thank you, champion. How did you manage to hatch him? Where did you find the heat of a thousand firestorms and the chill of a thousand blizzards?"

Okay, good, I was right, and he is a him. He started explaining how he used the Devouring Coil to generate the required heat and cold. He continued, telling her more about their adventurers in the Ruined Wilds, with Nugget occasionally interrupting with excited chirps.

When Razor's eyebrows lifted with amusement and gradually began to lower, Logan got nervous and the skin on his back started to crawl.

"I see," she said cryptically to Nugget. Her head swiveled with dramatic sluggishness as she faced Logan.

"I understand that you have started to form a bond with"—she closed her eyes and took a deep breath as if whatever she was about to say pained her—"Nugget." Her eyelids lowered halfway. "You should know that dragons choose their own names, and I blame you for this level of influence."

Logan let out a nervous chuckle, but Nugget chirped happily and Razor shared a look with the dragon before grunting.

"That's not fair," she said to Nugget. "Razor is not my real name. It is Rhaezorynne. A certain gnome"—she glowered at Mariv—"started this whole Razor thing."

Mariv, who was in the other room pouring a fresh cup of tea for himself, inclined an ear. He whispered loudly to Logan. "She likes it, or she wouldn't use it. I think dragons are big softies underneath all the scales."

Razor grunted again, louder. "Regardless, I assume you do not know how to complete the bond. You have, however, completed two of the steps already."

"I did?"

"Yes. I'll start with the second, which is to enter battle with one another. This allows a dragon to believe they can trust you in a combat scenario. Before that, though, the first requirement is that your souls be compatible."

"Oh. I didn't know about those." He scratched Nugget's forehead. "Good thing our souls are compatible. Guess that's something else we can chalk up to you being lucky."

"No," Razor said with a gravelly oh please kind of tone. "That part must have been handled by the System when it searched for a champion. The efforts Mariv and I put into summoning you surely guaranteed that the summon—you—would be compatible for the task at hand. I would not have expected you to bond with Nugget, but it seems the System did." She lowered her voice. "The third task, though, is to swear your soul's purpose to one another at a site of power."

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Logan nodded and stroked Nugget's head. "I can do that."

Razor stayed solemn, though, leaving an apprehensive tingle on the back of his neck as she continued. "If either of you takes injury, the other will feel it. If either of you dies, so too will the other." She leaned in. "I would have never allowed this, but it is not my choice to make. If anything happens to my kin, and even if the reavers destroy us all, I will hunt you in the afterlife and make you regret it."

Logan got goosebumps, and then Razor suddenly smiled and took a casual sip of her special brew.

To ease the mood, Mariv cleared his throat. "There will be time for other matters later, Razor. For now, you need to rest."

She grunted, which made her wince. Before she laid back down, though, she held Logan's gaze and thanked him again with a soft kindness in her voice. Then her snores blended with Mishki's.

Logan enjoyed another two cups of tea with Mariv, having time to chat with the gnome as he helped organize some of the odds and ends looted off various reaver corpses. He had already distributed all his stat points from the recent level gains, prioritizing the stats that didn't increase naturally.

His goal was to bump everything to level 100, since the second threshold perk required a stat score of 200, but Logan only needed to meet half that number as Exalted Kin. Mariv agreed with his thoughts on holding off on Charisma until Logan figured out his whole missing Vitality situtation.

Just as they wrapped up, Avalyn returned with the charged voidstones. She and Mariv began flushing out their plan on how to prevent the reavers from investigating Gnashridge Heights too deeply. They hoped to iron out all the small details by the time Logan returned with Senna and Bromlin, understanding he might be gone a few days, depending on the Ruined Wilds.

Nugget flapped up to Logan's shoulder, and Logan waved goodbye. Then he left Gnashridge Heights and headed up the slope to the Ruined Wilds.

Stealth is level 26!

Logan cast a sideways glance at Nugget, whose head bobbed with quiet excitement. He patted the dragon on the snout. They had devised the plan just before crossing into the Ruined Wilds, and now they had snuck up on a single level 6 combat wombat.

The little monster was punching the ground as it antagonized small insects crawling about.

Logan lifted three fingers, just like they had planned, dropping a finger as he mouthed Three. Two. One.

The moment he dropped his second finger and was left with only his index finger standing, Nugget darted from his shoulder.

Logan let out a small, startled yelp. No! It was supposed to be after one, not on one!

He tried to stifle his small cry of alarm, but between that and the dragon's flapping wings, the Combat Wombat jolted up with a jump and faced them.

It let out a shrill squeak, and two additional cries responded from somewhere nearby.

Dang it.

To make up for the false start, Logan meditated to make sure his timing was perfect, and adjusted his stride a step to the left before triggering his new Force-based skill.

Slipstream Mirage!

He activated the skill for four seconds, swiping his gauntlet claws prematurely in the air. He wondered if that would confuse or alarm the monster, since it was still out of range, but either way, it kept racing toward Logan. On the last second holding the skill down, Logan lunged forward and low, closing the distance between him and the wombat, and swiping it with his gauntlet.

He connected, and silvery vapor wisped from the monster's wound. Within moments, while the monster hissed and retaliated against Logan with a counter, Nugget swooped in from behind the monster and scraped it with his talons. Logan batted the monster's punching arm away before it could counterattack Nugget, giving the golden dragon time to rise back into the air. Then Nugget continued going the direction Logan had just come from.

Logan slammed to a halt to observe as both Nugget and the monster passed him.

The monster gave up on Logan as prey and was chasing Nugget, but it couldn't jump high enough to reach the dragon, and Logan had just released his grip on his new skill. As Nugget goaded the monster forward, the little golden dragon led it in the path Logan had trod moments earlier.

Slipstream Mirage kicked in.

An afterimage of Logan, almost like a translucent silver shell that looked to be shaped by wind currents, traced the same path Logan had just taken. It mirrored his exact movements, including the premature claw swipes.

Although now, those claw swipes were perfectly timed.

Mirage-Logan struck at the monster, whose health had already dropped low, and the monster collapsed.

You have helped kill a level 6 Combat Wombat! No experience gained.

Mariv and Razor had confirmed Logan's suspicion about experience gains in group situations. The System usually divided experience proportionately according to extent of participation in a battle. But in a case like this, where Logan was too far above the monster's level to gain any experience, the System would then distribute the experience to other participants.

That meant Nugget earned all the experience himself, without having been exposed to too much danger.

Nugget trilled with glee, and Logan knew exactly what the little dragon was going through in earning another level gain, now at level 5. He activated Moodprint just to vicariously partake in his little buddy's sheer joy.

The monster's body dissolved in silvery mist, but the two other monsters were rushing in. With similar tactics, Logan and Nugget finished them off. As Logan stood stationary, somewhat enthralled watching his own mirage attack the last monster, he still stood in his own mirage's path.

The silver outline of the claw connected with Logan's arm before the afterimage dispersed in a silvery puff, its timed existence spent.

"Ow!"

Where his phantom gauntlets struck, they left a welt. Despite Logan's real gauntlets inflicting slashing damage, this version was made up of Force mana, and therefore dealt force damage. It was only a fraction of his full physical damage, though.

He opened up the skill's descriptor again, wondering if he could figure out how much damage exactly it dealt.

Slipstream Mirage (Epic)
Create an afterimage of yourself shaped out of Force mana! Activate the skill to let it charge, then release it to give yourself an instant replay. The longer you charge the skill, the more potent the force your afterimage will inflict at percentages starting at a quarter of your skill level, rising up to half.

Logan puzzled over the math, but eventually gave up. He already had a ton of ideas for how to use the skill, but it did use up a significant chunk of mana.

As the last monster body dissipated, Nugget alighted on Logan's shoulder.

"Okay, buddy, we can't spend too much time here." Yes, he wanted to help Nugget level up, but they were still on a schedule, especially important to stick to since the surface journey through the Ruined Wilds caused the weird time delay.

By the end of it all, he had gathered four more combat wombat cores, which he already had been thinking of a special purpose for. He also swiped some tall stalks of Marrowstem Reeds with his gauntlet, tucking that away into storage as well.

Mariv had looked interested when Logan had explained the terrain of the Ruined Wilds, and he figured the gnome might be interested in examining the ingredients.

When he exited the Boundary, Logan checked his cooldown for affinity rotation.

It still required three hours, though. That was interesting. The first trek through the Ruined Wilds had surely been at a faster stride with Logan and Cassandra, and yet seemed to have taken longer.

Whatever the explanation for the inconsistency in time differentials of travel through the Ruined Wilds, though, Logan didn't know.

It was when he was walking down the hill with Nugget perched on his shoulder that something looked off to Logan. The ground looked disturbed.

And that was when he heard Senna and Bromlin in unison shout, "Watch out!"