The Insider System

Chapter 19: What Cores Do

Rushing back to where Kyle and Mary were, Lake could see they were still there harvesting plants, and if he didn\'t need to ask Kyle about cores he would probably just go back to hunting. Arriving next to Kyle Lake said, "Hey Kyle I killed some goblins and was wondering how to get the cores out of them."

Kyle stopped cutting plants and showed Lake his knife. " This is the best way cores are really hard so you don\'t have to worry about damaging them, just stab where you think it will be, usually it\'s near the heart, you\'ll feel the knife hit something really hard then just use your knife or finger and pull it out."

Lake also wanted to know if cores had uses other than selling them for money. Things were usually only valuable because they were useful. "What are they used for, why does the guild buy them?" Kyle looked a little amused by this question, "They\'re useful for people with magic jobs. Some of the more rare ones are useful to everyone because they can grant Exp, stats, and some even give skills."

This explanation Made Lake think about Intangible loot, it did something similar to cores but now he had another question. "How do you tell the rarity of a core? Kyle thought for a few seconds, Lake guessed he was trying to think of a good way to explain it so Mary started to answer. " It\'s a feeling you get when you hold them the only people that can actually tell are people with the Appraiser job."

Kyle shook his head in agreement. Not having any more questions, Lake said he would see them again in a couple of hours. He could tell they weren\'t even close to being done and he wanted to be able to go further into the forest this time.

Getting back to where lake had killed the first goblin. Lake got a glimpse of something brown near the body. Lake quickly hid behind a tree, and peeked out to see something that looked like a bear was eating from the corpse.

Looking at the size of the bear Lake wasn\'t to sure about his chances of winning if he were to fight it. Lake felt confident of winning if he was to use his free stat points. What should he buff though? for some reason Endurance was screaming to him.

Lake knew it was out of fear, he was afraid to get hurt. This made him think back to the screaming goblin that tried to run after he scared it out of the log; it had been so easy to kill because it ran.

If the two of them had stood their ground at the beginning, they would have had a better chance of at least injuring him. This made Lake think any decision made out of fear wasn\'t the best.

After thinking this, Lake knew if he chose Endurance it would guarantee that he would be hit. It was better to try and never get hit, at least until he knew more about Endurance.

He really didn\'t even know if it made him more durable. This made Lake decide to buff Agility again. After putting the first 2 points into it Lake felt something happen as it hit 10. Stopping he opened his status screen to see the skill page flashing.

Burst (U) Lv.1

Doubles the effect of the Agility and Strength stat.

Consumes Stamina (1 per hour)

Lake almost laughed when he saw this skill someone had added in the Strength and changed the rate at which it used Stamina, and with these two changes it became completely busted. Lake only had 10 stamina at the moment so that meant he could keep this skill active for 10 hours.

But what about in the future if he ever had more than 24 stamina he would be able to have it on all the time. Lake shrugged it was his enemies problem not his. Lake decided to keep the other 7 free points.

With this skill this bear was dead. All it took was Lake wanting to activate the skill and he could feel the power; it was like adrenaline on steroids. Grabbing his spear lake directly charged. A few steps later Lake felt the bear become aware of him, but he didn\'t slow down.

Lake was hoping to sever the bear\'s spine with the first thrust, but instead of dodging the bear turned its head towards him and went for a bite. Lake scoffed at this lame counter attack he had a six foot spear in his hand.

There was no need for him to get close enough for this bear to bite him. Lake watched as the spear tip started to enter the bears neck, it felt like there was almost no resistance. He guessed that was the benefit of moving so fast.

It changed as the wooden part of the spear started to go in. Lake felt as the spear shaft started to bend; afraid it would break he let go. Lake still had a lot of momentum, so instead of barreling into the bear Lake jumped over it.

After he landed he took a few steps to slow down. Turning around, Lake saw the bear was on its side with massive amounts of blood gushing out of its neck, but it was yet to die. Lake decided to wait.

He didn\'t want to get close to it until he felt the Exp. Almost 10 minutes later Lake saw [Level up] he smiled walking over Lake pulled the spear out. It had gone pretty deep so it wasn\'t that easy.

Seeing the size of the monster he had killed, Lake wasn\'t sure how he was supposed to get it back to the cart. " Is this something people would eat?" He wasn\'t sure if this counted as food. Lake sighed and started back towards Kyle at least he could look at his stats while he moved.

Race: Human Lv.1 ( 6/10 )

Job: Thief Lv.5 (55 / 160)

Special: The Insider Lv.0 ( 1/5 )

Stats

Health 10

Stamina 10

Mana 10

Strength 6

Endurance 7

Agility 11

Dexterity 8

Perception 7

Intelligence 9

Charisma 6

Free stat points: 10

This bear had been worth good Exp. Lake also noticed he only needed 1 more point in intelligence for it to hit 10, he wondered if he would get a skill like he did with agility. Lake would think about which skills to buff to 10 on the way home. For now he was more worried about getting the bear home.