The aspect of shadow meld that I was unsure of was whether my movements and inertia would carry over when I popped out of Shadow Meld. Luckily my deductions were right.
In Shadow meld I find myself in a mirror type world where everything is covered in shadows. The part of the world I can travel to is a darker shade of black that is distinctively different from the rest of the world. Those portions of the mirror world are where there are shadows in the real world. To travel across these shadows only takes but a thought and I'll appear where I was planning to appear in an instant. I can see everything that is in the real world and to some extent interact with it, but my actions don't affect the object in the real world.
Every time I had entered this shadow world I had always done it while standing still, I had never tried to enter in a run let alone at a walking pace. The same was true for when I exited the shadow world. What made me believe that my movement was carried over was the fact that I could move and to some degree interact with material things while in the shadow world. I had found that I could even pull things out of my spatial satchel while in this world. Those facts were what gave me the confidence to pull off my plan.
My thought process was that why would these functions even be available within the Shadow Meld ability if I couldn't carry over my inertia between worlds. I didn't need to move to get to my destination. So being able to move throughout the shadow world with my actual body just seemed redundant when I could just appear anywhere on the distinctive areas of the shadow world with but a thought. So that's what I was banking on, that the Shadow Meld ability wouldn't have such a useless function. I guess that being able to use my body could get me into position for my next action when I exited the shadowy world. But I thought there was more to it than that and was willing to take the risk to find out. Because if the worst came to worse then I could just try to stab his eye without my original inertia behind it. Or I could just pop back into the shadow world.
While there were risks, I still felt this was my safest option. Well besides targeting the alphas snout and eventually doing enough damage to it to eventually die of blood loss. I was confident enough in my plan though that I didn't take this option even though it was clearly the safest option.
All I did to defeat the alpha was to will myself onto its back and then stab my Tanto towards its eye, right before I actually pierced its eye I popped back into the real world. The results spoke for themselves. My motion could be carried over between worlds.
I jump off the alphas back then look at the beast that I had just slayed. The thought act of me slaying such a monster of a beast left me shaken. Just a short time ago I was rotting in a cell in prison and before that I was just a regular recluse who only played video games, read fantasy books and webnovels. My only other hobby was cooking. The only people I regularly talked to besides coworkers was my sister, that was before she mysteriously disappeared. So finding myself slaying such a beast was surreal to me, it felt unbelievable that this was my life now. It was almost like I was in one of the books that I used to read.
I can only imagine how it must feel for a new Player to join world game and to not have the same hobbies as me. At least I had kind of prepared my mind by immersing it in fantasy before I came to World Game. Other people probably had a hard time acclimating to this new form of life. But then again from what the Guide made me believe, other people had more of a choice in coming here than I did. I don't know the other ways to get here that my Guide mentioned so it could be that other Players had some time to think about their decision and what it meant to come to World Game.
It was at that point that Griffith appeared, he startled me in my adrenaline fueled state and I jumped several feet away from him when I heard him say "That was a good plan you came up with!" his boisterous laughter followed his statement "I was wondering what to do when I saw that you had stumbled across such a big heard, any one of them could have killed you instantly if they were able to affect you with Bloody Gaze. I was almost ready to jump in and kill all but the three you needed to complete the job, that's how dire your situation was. You gave me a nice show though and quite a pleasant surprise. I'm glad I went with my instinct instead of my head. Something told me by the look in your eyes that you had a plan on how to deal with them, and what a plan you had. Iv' got to say that it took some serious courage to stand in front of so many charging Tyrant Swine and aim such precise shots back to back the way you did.
You definitely impressed our Guide with that performance. I wouldn't be surprised if he gives you some valuable information or a Quest with a juicy reward at the end of it after what you just accomplished. You are not aware of this yet but as a Player, the more capable and valuable you make yourself to your guide the more and better benefits you will receive from him. If you had turn out to be worthless and not be able to make it to D rank even with my training, then you might never hear from him again. Well unless you were in the right place when he needed a certain task done that didn't require any fighting.
That doesn't mean that the only way to become a valuable Player to him is to be a great fighter, but you have to excel in some valuable aspect for you to get his attention.
The Guides quests are always the best Quests for us Players. That's because his rewards are always tailored to you, he always seems to know what you need, sometimes even before you do. With that being said you want to go out of your way to gain our Guides attention and more importantly his trust.
Our guide is really big on upholding justice. Now that doesn't mean that you have to solve any injustice you see. And that doesn't mean you cant kill people. It's just that the people have to deserve it. He's definitely not going to look at you in a bad light if you kill someone in self defense for example. But he would not be happy if you just killed someone because of a petty dispute.
It's really your mental state and thought processes that he's judging. He doesn't want to empower someone who's going to cause more problems that us Green Lotus's will have to go and clean up.
Now I say that he likes to uphold justice but he's more morally grey. He doesn't like senseless killing but he doesn't mind and sometimes even encourages theft. As long as you're not stealing from the poor or something then you really have nothing to worry about in that regard. He considers stealing to be a valuable skill, so keep that in mind. With your skill-set you would be a great thief. The trick is not to kill people as you steal from them" Griffith says the last part with a booming laugh, and the look on his face tells me that he knows this first hand.
"To end this conversation I'll just tell you that you're already well on your way to becoming noticed as valuable, and from what iv gathered your general morality is also on the same general wave length as theirs. Just keep improving and I already know that you'll be swimming in Guide quests.
"Now I don't know how much spatial storage you have but I brought a spatial satchel that's big enough to carry to all their bodies.
You're definitely going to want to take all of their bodies because they are quite valuable. Their bones, skin, and tusks are used to make exceptional weapons and armor. I recommend getting a weapon made from their tusks, so make sure you keep a pair of them for yourself, they will carry you through to C grade before you'll have to replace them. They're not as valuable as the Shadow Cat, but they're only a little inferior, so I would use your tags next week on them because the chances of you finding a more valuable beast in the E rank hunting Grounds is small."
Griffiths lecture is as informative as always.
It makes me happy and a little proud that he thinks so highly of me that he thinks I'll be able to catch the Guides attention.
The Guide has helped me out a lot. If I can prove to be useful in pushing his agenda then I would be happy to do so. I may not know his overarching goals but judging by the state of his morality it shouldn't be something nefarious. Plus I would gain valuable things from doing so.
As far as stealing goes though, I'm not really sure if I have what it takes to be a capable thief. I'v never stolen anything in my life. Griffith is right though, I do have the appropriate skills for it. I guess if the opportunity presents itself then I'll see about giving it a try, though only if I have complete confidence in getting away without being caught. I refuse to lose my freedom again and wind up in a cell somewhere.
I store the alphas corpse in my spatial satchel only to realize that I'll probably only be able to store another two of the Tyrant swines inside it.
So I turn to Griffith and say "I can only store another two of them in my spatial satchel, so you'll have to store the other two for me.
Also I should probably save the Alphas corpse to go towards my tags next week since the job didn't specify that one of the beasts corpses needs to be the alphas, right?
"It's like you were born with the mind of an adventurer" Griffith says with a laugh while giving me one of his famous slaps to my shoulder before continuing "You are absolutely right. That alphas body is worth at least twice what the other beast corpses are worth.
I also recommend taking the tusks from it and having them made into some kind of weapon for yourself.
You should also check your stats and see how many levels you have stacked up. I know you haven't checked in awhile. You've leveled up quite a few times because all of the beasts you've killed since you've been on this job have been at least ten levels above you. The Alpha Tyrant Swine was fifteen levels higher than you." Griffith says
Feeling dumb for having forgotten for so long I immediately pull up my status
Cole Johnson
Level: 19
Hp: 2950/2950
Energy:1950/1950
Available status points: 7
Mental: 30
Agility: 32
Speed:40
Strength: 10
Constitution: 10
It turns out I had leveled up seven times. That means I got a level for each beast that I slayed while on this job.
I distribute all of my available stat points into to my Agility.
Cole Johnson
Level: 19
Hp: 2950/2950
Energy: 1950/1950
Mental: 30
Intelligence:10
Agility:39
Speed:40
Strength: 10
Constitution: 10
With my agility reaching level thirty-nine i only need one more stat point in it before I started bumping up my speed again. While I knew focusing on my agility was the smart move, the thought of being able to move even faster than I already could make my blood pump and fists clench. The feeling running gives me when I move at my max speed is intoxicating. I'v always loved running because of the sense of freedom it gave me. Now that feeling increases with my speed stat.
That's when I realized something, Griffith knew what level I am without me telling him. He also knew what level the beast i'v encountered was. Why could he see people and beasts levels but I couldn't?
So I asked him "Why can you see things levels but I can't?"
He replies "That's because I have a ring enchanted to be able to see people and beasts levels. It's invaluable to have, especially in the higher ranked hunting zones where higher level beasts are more often found out of their designated hunting zones."
"