Chapter 43 Tranquility Pond

"Come on, let's go. We can't keep wasting time." Vance grabbed Alice's hand and continued forward. Sally turned and looked at Vance for a moment before hurrying to catch up. She slowly walked behind him, staring at his back. She was starting to understand why the princess liked this man.

---

An hour later.

"There's one more! Alice, Sally!" Vance yelled out as he swung his sword. They had been hunting for a while, and both girls had already gained a level, and he was close to level 14 as well.

"Haah!" Sally stabbed out with her dagger, then used the wolfgoon's head as a foothold and flipped her body over it, taking her dagger with her. At the same time, Alice shot out three ice arrows all targeted at the wound on the wolfgoon's head.

"Awooo!" The wolfgoon let out a pained cry as it dropped dead on the ground. Vance walked over and smiled. "You two did great!"

"Alice and I practiced our skills together when we were at the palace. We specifically worked on teamwork in case of emergencies. We figured if something happened and it was only the two of us, we would need to be able to work together flawlessly in order to survive. What I am surprised about is how well you worked with us. I saw no flaws in your ability to follow our movements and compensate for our openings. To be honest, I feel with you in the lead, we can easily overcome more powerful monsters." Sally had some worries about how well they would work together in a team, but after being ambushed by wolfgoons, all her worries were taken care of. She could tell Vance was a skilled fighter.

​ Vance could only chuckle inwardly to himself because he was only as good as he was because he had soloed his entire way through the game last time. If he played like a normal player, he would have only learned one role, a role such as a tank or DPS. He was forced to learn multiple roles at once where he had to attack, tank, and heal all at the same time, or he would never have survived as a solo player. "To have Miss Sally's praise means a lot to me." Vance teased, causing Sally to humph.

"Let's keep going. We need to reach a certain place so we can have a peaceful rest." Vance announced, causing both girls to become curious.

"What place?" Alice asked, her eyes glowing with curiosity.

"You will see." Vance grinned and began skinning the wolf goons, ignoring Alice's puffy cheeks. Alice stomped her feet and yelled out: "Do you need to be so secretive!? It doesn't make you look cool at all!"

When he was done, Vance looked at his skinning skill and could only sigh. The experience bar for his skinning had only gone up a tiny bit. Even his magic skills were still struggling to get past the quarter mark. He noticed there was a difference between his acquiring spells outside the skill tree than with the skill tree. He would have two ways to upgrade them, through either using them or with skill points. But Vance had a feeling that the usage path might bring better benefits. He was just not sure yet. He wanted to wait and see if the strength of a spell would be the same as the skill if he worked at using it to level it up with experience.

The experience was granted upon usage. It was like a mastery system. The same way skinning was handled. You would need to skin many monsters before you could be able to raise your skinning skill level. While this might seem tedious, Vance felt he was indeed getting better and handling his spells, which was giving him the idea that maybe he could become an even stronger sword mage than before. If he truly wanted to reach the top, then he would need to work even harder.

The next few hours flew by. Both girls gained four more levels making Alice level 10 and Sally level 13. As for Vance, he got 3 more levels making him level 16. His experience slowed down due to the level of the monsters and splitting experience. But he found that grinding levels like this in a team that you worked well with actually made leveling fun and not boring.

[Name]: Vance

[Age]: 20

[Level]: 16

[Race]: Human

[Evolution]: Common Mortal

[HP]: 210/210

[MP]: 90/90

[Attack Power]: 170

[Magic Power]: 100

[Status Points]: 35

[Strength]: 17

[Vitality]: 21

[Intelligence]: 10

[Mind]: 9

[Agility]: 7

[Quest Points]: 0

[Skill Points]: 15

[Skills]

[Skinning (LVL 1)] [Fireball(LVL 1)] [Alchemy (LVL 1)] [Foraging (LVL 1)] [Minor Heal(LVL 1)]

[Titles]

[Natural Mage]

"Wow!" Alice looked at the glowing blue pond in front of her that was showered in a veil of white vines hidden from the outside world. A small creek on the other side created a small waterfall that fell into the pond that gave off a soothing sound that relaxed one's mind. "What is this place!? I never knew this place existed so close to the capital!"

"It's called Tranquility Pond. It is one of the safe zones you can find within the forest areas and a good place to set up camp. Monsters do not touch the white vines. They secrete a kind of odor that only the monsters can smell and repels them from this place." Vance explained. Within the dark forest, there were many safe zones. This one was the closest to the capital, but it was also one of the most beautiful of all the safe zones. While most of the time, such a place would be filled with players resting, even setting up small stalls, at this time, no players could even reach this place. So it was a perfect place for them to rest for the night since they would need to fight their way back in the morning to make it back to the capital by nightfall.

Alice ran to the edge of the pond, kicked off her shoes, found a rock to sit on, and dipped her white feet into the water. Blue, glowing balls of light floated up off the pond's surface as she kicked about playfully. She looked like a little kid with how she was acting. Both Sally and Vance smiled softly at her childishness. They knew for Alice, this was all new and exciting as she rarely got to go out and see the world. A princess can only leave the castle once and a while, and normally it is to do official business for the palace. But here and now, she could be herself and not a princess. She could act like a child all she wanted without anyone telling her to act as a royal should.

Vance kicked off his boots and rolled up his pant legs and walked up behind her, and sat down, putting a leg on each side of her and wrapping his arms around her waist. He then rested his chin on her shoulder and asked: "Do you like it?"

Alice turned her head and kissed his cheek while nodding. "Mmm! I really like it! Thank you for bringing me here."

Sally sat down next to them and also dipped her feet into the water. She also found this place to be very beautiful. She looked up and gazed at the man next to her unconsciously.