After looking at his status for the first time in many days Marcus was incredibly surprised to see the many differences from last time.
'Wow many things have changed since the last time I looked at my status, I really should make sure to check it more often. I now seem to have a bonus to my spirt stat for some reason, my bonus from blessing of iron went up presumably from my level up, and I got the digging skill at some point.'
Marcus then looked through the information on his status and found that the bonus to his spirit stat came from the soul tether with the fragment of Irene's soul and he guessed that the blessing of iron gave him a bonus based on his level. He figured he must have also obtained the digging skill some time during the making of the pitfall trap.
'The bonus from the soul tether is pretty nice but I need to figure out what to so with my skill points and stat points now. This is my first level up so what I choose now will be the foundation for the rest of my life and as I can not age that could be a very long time. First things first I should review my newbies guide since it had been quite a while since I skimmed through it.'
Marcus closed his status window and was about to take out his newbies guide when he noticed the body of the fire cat that he had just killed.
'I should probably take this back to my current home before another animal comes by or I could be in trouble.'
Marcus then stored the body of the fire cat and headed back to the burnt remains of the logging community. Once there Marcus decided to butcher the fire cat first so that its meat would not be ruined. He tried his best to skin the animal and remove its pelt but with his paltry skills Marcus was unable to get the pelt off in one piece and ruined about half of the meat. Unexpectedly while Marcus was dismantling the cat, he came across a small light green gem.
'Did it swallow a gem at some point, but it was located around its chest nowhere near the stomach or intestines. I did not read the section in the guide about beasts maybe there will be some useful information there.'
After taking out the newbies guide Marcus found the section on beasts and monster. The section was pretty short only about one page, but it did inform Marcus about the green gem he had just found.
'Okay so this little green gem I have is a magic core. Only monsters and magical beasts have magic cores for other creatures such as humans they do not. The guide also mentions that the stronger the beast or monster the deeper the color green of the core. The core I got was pretty light colored and small, so it is on the weaker side.'
After searching the guide for more information on magic cores Marcus only found that they are often used in the making of items or as a source of fuel. After not learning much but some basic knowledge about cores, Marcus then turned his attention to the section on skills again to consolidate his knowledge.
'At least this section was a lot more detailed and gave me useful information on the working of skills and how special my personal status unique skill is.'
Marcus found that his personal status unique skill not only allows him to see his status at anytime but also allows him to buy specific skills and allocate stat points how he desires. The types of skills cost different amounts based on power, affinity, and the level of the person. So, a powerful skill would be far more expensive for a low-level person than a high level one. Marcus was now in the dilemma of figuring out what to do with his points.
'There are way too many skills to choose from and I only have three points, do I choose three skills that cost one point each or one skill that cost three. I really need skills that increase my combat abilities, but a lot of these skills are not combat focused like hide, or swordsmanship which won't help me right now like. I would love a magic skill but the only one I found so far is fire magic and it cost three points, but I also need the skill magic circulation to use magic, maybe I can find a cheaper one further down the list.'
Marcus spent hours pouring over the skills he could currently buy and finally settled on three skills, fighting, magic circulation, and iron magic. These were the skills that Marcus thought would give him the best combat ability he could have right now. Fighting just increased ones general skill in combat allowing them to better utilize their abilities while iron magic was the only magic that Marcus could afford along with magic circulation.
'Here goes nothing, purchase fighting, magic circulation, and iron magic. Let me also use my stat points since I am using magic, I should give higher priority to spirit and intelligence.'
'Hm, I put one point into strength and vitality just to see what happens and it is now considered a bonus. I guess since I do not normally have a strength or vitality score it just gets added to whatever body I am currently in. Now what is the tier one magic spell that comes with iron magic.'
'Okay it is called iron skin and it allows me to cover my skin in iron that protects me and can be used as a weapon. Let's give it a try'.
Marcus then cast the iron skin spell which took about three seconds to activate, and it covered both of his hands and forearms in a thin layer of iron.
'looks like with my current spirit stat I can only cover parts of my body with iron. It cost me ten MP to cast the spell and it is using one MP every second it is active so I can hold the spell for a little over two minutes currently.'
Marcus then tested how strong his new power was by first taking out a nut and finding that he could now crush it in his hands. He then went over to a rock and punched it as hard as he could, and cracks started to appear all over the rock.
'That still hurt a bit, but the iron skin did absorb most of the impact and its power is pretty good. Now I have a decent weapon and defense, but this still will not help me in case I have to fight another fire cat. I should make some other weapons even if they are really crude.'
Marcus then got to work on making some basic weapons that he could use to fight with so he could level up before leaving in three weeks.