Rafe swished to the left, narrowly avoiding a vertical slash that would have bisected a lesser warrior. The struggle was almost real in these instances. She had somehow improved over tens of minutes of Rafe dancing around her.

His stamina was flagging.

One of his disadvantages when compared to higher leveled warriors was the resources. Normally, his low stats did not matter in a fight. When you considered that he had less innate healing via his health pool though. And less staying power via his stamina pool...

He used his Puppeteer's Rubber Body twice but during those instances he could not attack. In the end, he met his limits.

While hiding his strongest abilities, he could not defeat a peak F grade warrior. Not that Filoria was the average F grade warrior.

Filoria was strong. She was damn strong. She had started using stronger abilities the longer they fought. She was hiding her capabilities. She hadn't even fully unleashed her powers when Rafe started feeling overwhelmed.

Rafe tried to think through any justifications, but he couldn't find any. Why hadn't Filoria done anything that day? Filoria was much stronger than those beasts that had been attacking the girls the day Rafe rescued them. But they were peak F grade as well, the beasts.

Rafe knew better than any body that there were ranks even between people at the same level.

Even with the same stats, there were a lot of factors to consider when fighting someone. Techniques, skills, skill levels. Of course the strength of the classes mattered a lot. Conceptualisation was an important factor. The vessel and the soul, as evidenced by the strength of calamity beasts.

Still, there wasn't a way to tell yet. There wasn't a way to differentiate elites from peak or even stronger individuals. Was there perhaps a system in place in the multiverse? This world was also new to the multiverse from what Rafe knew. He would have to go to the multiverse eventually. After visiting with Earth, and helping with the apocalypse, he'd move on to the multiverse.

That did not even matter at the time. What mattered was the fact that had she wanted, Filoria could have crushed those beasts that had been chasing her and Helare when Rafe had been forced to save them. Why hadn't she? What was going on?

Not that it mattered to Rafe.

"I yield!" he yelled.

He still had to dance around her for a full minute before Filoria stopped. Rafe was wounded and full of holes. Filoria was not even winded.

She was still seething, likely because her victory hadn't been as decisive as she had hopped. Rafe wanted to scoff. She wanted to crush him like a bug? Even while she wasn't using her full power? Keep on dreaming. He hadn't been using his full power either, but still.

***

"That was an impressive fight," Helare said.

Filoria was standing right behind her, and she did not seem to agree. Not that Rafe blamed her. He had no idea what her goal had been, but she obviously hadn't achieved it.

"It wasn't even close," Rafe said with a scoff.

"I…guess," Helare said uncertainly. "It seemed close before you lost your axe. But then it felt like Filoria had gained another level."

"Yes it did," Rafe said with a frown in the other girl's direction.

"Hey, your veil is pretty weak," Helare said. "I guess having a profession focused build means you have to rely on specialised equipment for veils, huh?"

Rafe hadn't even considered that. He had thought having a weak veil would poke holes in his whole peak F grade individual story, but it hadn't yet. Fortunately. And he had learned something new, which, while it was useless to him, was new information nonetheless.

"You know…mages too, at early ranks don't have veils. Normally, that is. But there is a trick."

Rafe frowned at the girl. A trick to veils? He'd be interested in that for sure. Still, now was not the time for that.

"Will I be able to learn it? It isn't hard, is it?" he pretended to be unsure.

"It's not easy for sure," Helare offered with a nod. "But from what I know, neither was branching out from making only swords, yet you achieved it in the four days I was away. It won't be instant, but I have no doubt you'll be able to do it."

"Oh. Ahh, thanks for the confidence, I guess," Rafe said awkwardly. He turned away from her beaming face and rubbed the back of his head.

He let out an internal sigh. He still had time to gain a bit of information. Meanwhile, the tutorial system should be removed from Earth in a matter of weeks from now. And he had finished a number of his goals over the past few weeks of working.

'Ding' Your skill blacksmith has grown to level 58.

Your skill blacksmith has grown to level 59.

…

Your skill blacksmith has grown to level 99.

Your skill Metallurgy has grown to level 253.

That wasn't surprising with how much theoretical and practical knowledge he had received working in this camp. What was more of an achievement was that he'd skipped right past two upgrade thresholds without being forced to use the orb he'd received as a precaution from the trial. And with this much knowledge on metals, the base for his concept was well and truly flourishing.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

He did not have a meditation skill yet, but there was no doubt he had learned how to settle and concentrate. He could better control and program his mind. He had skipped upgrade thresholds for crying out loud. And he could feel the insights ready to breakout of their shells in his soul.

They were ready to be planted and start growing into concepts and beyond. It was time.

And the fight with Filoria had not been entirely useless either. After all, she was a peak F grade warrior who had pushed him to the limits of his admittedly limited capabilities.

Your skill Unarmed combat has grown to level 29.

He was disappointed both Skyholm's Fighting and Puppeteer's Rubber Body had not grown, but they were not basic skills. They could not level from a single high level fight. And neither could his class. Unless he was fighting a calamity beast, but how often did that happen?

That was a good question. How often would Rafe run into calamity beasts in the multiverse? He needed more information on them. After all, it seemed like they were famous, basing on how Devila had been aware of their existence. Was it a stretch to think they might even appear in the tutorial sector?

"So? What do you think?" he heard Helare say.

He had forgotten he was not alone. But the main reason he turned and frowned at her was the unfamiliar inflection in her voice. It was all wrong. Helare was not shy and unsure. She was an assertive and authoritative person. What did she have to not be confident about?

"What do I think about what?" Rafe asked.

"About me teaching you?" Helare replied. "You know. About veils. And spells… and stuff?"

"Ahhh," Rafe said, internally chiding himself for getting lost in his thoughts. "Of course I'd love to learn from you."

She smiled then. It was one of those unpracticed smiles of hers. It was uncalculated and unrestricted. She was genuinely pleased.

Rafe heard Filoria choke from where she stood a distance away from them. He paid her no mind. He was focused on that unrestrained smile.

And then she turned and said something to Filoria and both of them were going off somewhere. She said something to Rafe but it went in one ear and out the other. He stared at her back as she happily danced away.

"Damn hormones," Rafe cursed, making a fist and aiming it for his own crouch area.

He stopped at the last second. He was still mostly human. He did not know if that area still hurt as much as before, and he'd rather not test it on himself. Maybe later, with directed body reinforcement he'd be able to harden that area and punch it as hard as he wanted. It was surely the cause of many of his problems and was probably going to cause more in the future.

That would have to wait. For now, it was time to start working on his insights.

"First, I'd need to improve the blacksmith skill to the best of my abilities. So a hundred hammers. A hundred axes. Maybe a few more accessories with increasing sophistication."

Helare came the next day. She did not talk to him though. Maybe she noticed how focused he was. He did not take any breaks. He had to push through one more level.

If she had spoken to him, he could certainly multitask. He had reached the level where his body could do the tasks necessary for any of the things he was crafting on autopilot. He did not need to be one hundred percent focused to produce competent products anymore.

Of course, when he concentrated like he was now, there was a chance he could produce something special.

And the amount of Essence he collected as he worked at the forge was prodigious. He could tell he was already half way to another level in his class.

'Ding' Side Quest completed.

Your skill blacksmith has grown to level 100.

It was on the second day of his ultimate grind that he finally hit his goal. He had been ignoring Hestus whenever the little merchant told him to rest, but now there was no need to tire himself out. He needed all the energy he could get. He ignored the rewards being promised. He did not need distractions. He would look through them later.

Helare wasn't around, thank the system, or whatever else was watching over him. In fact, there was no one around his forge. The enchanters were almost five large house lengths away from him. He left the place and went to his little tent first. He could not sleep. He was too excited.

He spent an hour just letting his health pool - which was at times reduced by the fires that were calibrated for a stronger blacksmith - and his stamina pool rejuvenate.

His stamina was too low for an hour to suffice in filling it up. That was why for the first time in weeks he decided to unleash his first racial ability.

There wasn't anyone in the vicinity. There wasn't any strange mana around the camp. There wasn't anyone watching him from what he could see.

And so he took the time to check something he hadn't since he'd received it.

Health potions 10 bottles.

Stamina potions 13 bottles.

Mental state elevator potion 1 bottle.

His inventory screen organised and named everything. And numbered everything in his Soul void so that it could be easy to summon.

All he needed at the moment was the mental state potion and a stamina potion. There were other things he'd read through that he'd regretted not having used over the past few weeks. Mostly his soul cultivation manual. Improving his soul was an important matter. He just didn't have enough privacy. There was also another technique manual he had promised to learn when he was free after the tower but he had been too focused on his smithing lately.

He shrugged off all his regrets. He would be leaving this world in a few weeks. And then he'd have the time and space to work on his soul cultivation. And his techniques and concept abilities too. Of course he'd only be able to do all that after finding and reuniting with his family. Maybe even saving them from whatever hell the system was putting them through.

Rafe frowned as he thought about it more deeply. What was he going to do once he reached Earth? After finding his family, how was he going to separate himself from them in order to train or hunt or do anything really? Would he want to leave them? He hadn't seen them in - from his perspective - thirty five years. And more years before those, when they'd been on the same planet.

How was he going to leave them? To leave Earth in order to venture out further into the multiverse to fix whatever it was Enith wanted him to fix? He did not know. He did not know and—

Rafe shook his head firmly. There was no use borrowing worries from the future.

It was time to start his journey to true immortality. He took the stamina potion first.

Then he rose and walked out. He watched his stamina pool's number shoot up on his status screen. Towards the end it slowed down. His resource pools were very tiny so far, so he had never been in a situation where his potions were not sufficient to fill him up completely.

Once his numbers ballooned out of the ordinary though, he'd have a problem filling up in between fights. He'd need some kind of skill for soft healing and stamina regeneration if at all possible. But wouldn't such skills mess with his possible upgrade paths in the future. Wouldn't he be forced to become some sort of combat healer? That was not going to happen unless it was absolutely necessary.

If the Quest system was not enough to provide all the healing he would require in the future, then maybe he'd get a healer or support class user to join his future team. If the system proved sufficient, then he'd be the potion carrier and hence the only healer his future team would require.

Rafe found himself yawning as he walked out of his tiny tent to the open air forge. He was still exhausted, stamina potion or no. He wasn't at the stage where sleep was optional yet.

Before he reached it, he threw back the mental state potion. He felt his hackles rise as he threw the bottle haphazardly back into his storage ability. He rushed to the forge, feeling the concentration that was coming over him.

For the process of unlocking his insights, Rafe would make a sword. Nothing else would be appropriate.

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