For a moment, Arthur just sat there, staring at the tall hunter’s vanishing body.

There was no system notification when the man died, like the ones that came when he killed a monster, nor was there any surge of EXP.

...But a couple of things had been left behind. A black, scuffed spear, the same one the man had used during the fight, and a small leather pouch.

Arthur bent down and picked up the pouch first. When he tugged it open, small, glistening stones clacked against each other, as a familiar orange ember filled his vision.

Elemental stones of fire. And more than a couple dozen, too.

Even without counting them, Arthur could roughly tell from the weight how many there were.

A hundred or so, maybe even a little more.

A few meters away, John knelt by the other man’s body, doing the same. The shorter man’s spear had dropped too, and a second pouch was waiting for him near the vanishing corpse. John scooped it up and hefted it twice in his palm.

Then he turned to Arthur and asked, "How do you feel? That was your first kill, wasn’t it?"

Arthur didn’t answer right away. His heart was still beating fast, but surprisingly... he didn’t seem to feel any guilt?

Was it because he’d only killed someone in the game and it wasn’t a ’real death’, or was it because the guy had deserved it? Either way, he felt fine.

So he turned to John and nodded.

John patted his shoulder and went on with a grin, "Not bad. You took it better than I did. Don’t worry, it only gets better from here on out."

He shifted the pouch of stones in his hand, then plopped down on a flat rock as he continued,

"Let’s rest a bit before we continue. Catch our breath, you know."

Arthur gave John a small nod and sat down opposite him.

For a while, the only sound that could be heard was John counting the elemental stones from his newly obtained pouch. Arthur closed his eyes and focused on the steady trickle of mana returning into his body, one point at a time, until the empty feeling in his chest disappeared completely.

After a few minutes, John pushed himself to his feet with a grin and stretched. Then he threw a look at the rest of the loot they’d gathered.

The hide of the Iron Boar and the two spears. It wasn’t much by volume, but hauling it all up the mountain while they fought would be a hassle.

Still, there was no other choice. They couldn’t leave their loot back in the safe zone, nor hide it anywhere in this place. What if someone else just picked it up and made off with it?

So John draped the boar’s hide over his body like some kind of barbarian and took one of the extra spears, while Arthur grabbed the second, and the two of them began to make their way up the mountain.

Soon, their figures disappeared into the mist, leaving the memory of their recent ambush behind them.

...

It wasn’t long before another monster appeared in their path.

It hadn’t been ten minutes since they’d started walking, when a long, serpentine shadow appeared in front of them, its scales scraping faintly against the stone.

Arthur sucked in a breath of cold air as he took in the familiar figure.

Another [Rock Serpent].

John seemed to have noticed it too, barely a moment later. He dropped the spare spear and the iron boar’s hide to the ground and prepared himself for battle.

The creature was still a good distance away from them, but Arthur could tell right away: this serpent wasn’t as big as the one they’d encountered at the foot of the mountain. The status window confirmed it, too.

[Rock Serpent]

[Level 6]

[Type: Monster]

The creature hissed and flicked out its tongue, its rocky body grinding on the stone as it prepared to lunge at its new prey.

But Arthur and John were already on the move.

John roared and drove his spear forward, the fanged tip sparking against the serpent’s rocky scales.

As expected, it didn’t have any effect. But John didn’t need it to. He just needed to buy time for the real killing blow.

The snake hissed again, snapping its head forward at its attacker, its mouth gaping wide.

...But Arthur was waiting for it.

Mana surged through his arm as he conjured a [Water Arrow]. The azure arrow glowed faintly before exploding from his palm, whistling through the air until it struck the serpent squarely in its left eye.

Finally, the creature shrieked, the impact snapping its head back.

And then, just like the first serpent, it collapsed lifelessly to the ground as the familiar system notification flickered across Arthur’s vision.

[Rock Serpent defeated. +28 EXP]

[Level Up!]

Surprisingly, John seemed to have leveled up as well, judging by the way Arthur caught him staring into nothingness with a surprised look on his face. It seemed that their difference in EXP was much smaller than Arthur originally thought.

Arthur grinned and pulled up his status window to take a look at his new stats.

[Name: Arthur Shaw]

[Age: 19]

[Species: Human]

[Class: Mage]

[Title: Child of the Elements (Unique), Goblin Slayer]

[Level: 6]

[HP: 140 / 140]

[Mana: 210 / 210]

[Strength: 12+]

[Intelligence: 15+]

[Wisdom: 14+]

[Agility: 11+]

[Vitality: 7+]

[Elemental Affinity: Fire (Minor), Water (Minor)]

[Skills: Water Arrow]

[Unassigned Stat Points: 2]

Everything looked as expected. His Strength and Agility were almost on par with his Intelligence and Wisdom by now. The only glaring weakness Arthur still had was his Vitality, which was stuck in the single digits.

For a moment, Arthur considered putting his two unassigned points into it, trying to bring it up with the rest, but he discarded the thought the moment his gaze landed on his remaining four stats.

After the ambush by those two men, Arthur appreciated his current spread of points even more than before. Granted, if he poured a bit more of it into his Intelligence or Wisdom, he suspected the power of his [Water Arrow] would climb up a notch, but what good was that if he couldn’t defend himself? If he got ambushed again with no time to fire off a skill, his higher Intelligence wasn’t going to save him.

Well, if he wanted to work purely as an artillery mage who just fired off spells, Arthur knew his current stat distribution wasn’t optimal, but he wasn’t playing as an artillery mage in the first place.

So, after a moment of hesitation, he pressed the plus signs next to his [Strength] and [Agility] again.

He wasn’t going to keep this up forever, naturally, but it was clearly the best course of action right now.

Then Arthur turned to John, who seemed to have finished assigning his own points and was already waiting for him.

"Ready to go?" John asked, a glimmer of excitement in his eyes.

"Something good happened?" Arthur asked curiously. From the eagerness on John’s face, it was obvious something had.

"You can tell? Hahaha! My Strength and Vitality finally hit 20. I feel like I can probably fist-fight those boars and still not lose."

The edge of Arthur’s lips curved up. "What about the Rock Serpents?"

John’s eyes widened, and he shot Arthur a mock glare, before both of them grinned in amusement.

Then, they pressed on.