Because the [Race: Human] was one of the baseline races with almost all the pathways open to them, they were also given the most choices, a total of 17 of the perks one can choose from.

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Each perk had its own benefits, making players better within their own playstyles. Some choose based on their class, others try to integrate it with a favourite skill of theirs. All in all, the freedom of choice allows variation among human players and gives everyone the choice to build something that is special to them.

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In my case, I had two perks that I was going to work towards, alternatively, at every 20th level.

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[Perk 5: Decreases the cooldown of the skill by 5%]

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[Perk 16: Increases the power of blessings the user receives by 5%]

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The others were also good, but these were the ones that suited me the most.

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Abilities or items that lowered the cooldown were rare, and the same goes for anything related to blessings. At the very least, if one gets the chance to lower the cooldown or change the nature of blessings to a positive shift, I believe he should just do it.

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"Has everyone recovered?" I asked, looking at the rest of the party members, making them nod at me before we once again went deeper into the forest to hunt stronger monsters.

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One advantage we had over the others in levelling was having the entire monster zone to ourselves. Unlike how it was going on in the beginner town and villages, there was no competition here, and we could just hoard all the experience to ourselves.

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Additionally, I knew a few dens within the area where the monster camps were. Allowing us to steadily increase the level at a faster pace.

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The coordination and the skills were just an added bonus to all this.

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We continued hunting during the day and traced our steps back to the settlement by the evening. Rather than logging out, I asked the party members to utilize the time to increase their skill levels.

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For the next two days, we decided to work continuously to gain as much as possible before departing on our next log-in.

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Other than just developing our skills and increasing our levels, I also inquired with the merchant about a few key items that I would like him to bring from his 2-day trip to the closest city. A bunch of scrolls, a few spare weapons and a few potions to carry for our journey.

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All right. If we can do this much, it should be enough to survive on our way to the temple. I pondered before beginning to work on my original spells and a few more, trying to increase their rank at least by one.

Time passed as the next day came, and then the following, while we hunted, trained and looked at our progress from time to time.

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At the end of the 3-day continuous training, both our levels and skills were considerably increased.

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[Ezekiel - Level 23]

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[Raven - Level 23]

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[Blaze - Level 23]

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[Guardian - Level 21]

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[Link - Level 21]

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[TristanBear - Level 20]

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As for the skills that I was training for the last two nights. It was these two.

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[Dual-Weapon Mastery(Maxed)]

[Effects:

-When wielding two weapons at once, it increases the overall attack of the two weapons by 50%!

-Increases chance to land a critical hit by 15%

-Increases the overall damage by 1.5% per combo hit!

Remarks: Two is better than one, eh? The shield hero won't be rising with this one, though.]

[Arms at hands(Maxed)!]

[Effects:

-Increases the effect of all close-combat weapons by 25%!

-For every successful attack on the enemy, Critical Chance increases by 2.5%. This effect resets after hitting a successful crit!

Remarks: Indeed, a veteran Soldier.]

If it were possible, I would continue playing the game for an entire week or so before beginning to move towards the location. However, since the game doesn't allow for more than 72 hours of play, I had to log off and take a break just like everyone else.

The Arcadia System, as of the current version, allows players to return to the game after 8 hours in real time. Though, since I also needed to check on a few things, I asked the others to take a 1-day real-life break, sleep and get refreshed before logging back in.

After all, our entire task in our next session would be travelling at least 200 kilometres on foot, deeper into the jungle. It was going to be taxing both mentally and physically, so having a tired or rushed start was most probably going to spell our doom.

In any case, after waving my good-byes, I logged out of the game and stretched as usual before moving towards the kitchen to feed myself. Not eating or drinking anything for more than 24 hours made me tired, hungry, thirsty, and, for the most part, easily irritable.

-Growl!

As my stomach growled, I took out the late-night frozen dinner and put it in the microwave before drinking two full glasses of water.

-Ding!

Taking out the heated food, I then ate it all completely. But perhaps because I was too hungry, I still wanted to eat something.

It's 1AM right now. I wonder if the convenience store near the gas station is still open. I thought as I quietly moved out of the house and the apartment. Reaching the gas station, I saw the old granny sitting there, reading yesterday's newspaper.

"Evening, Granny. You got something that can curb hunger?" I asked as I yawned, making her turn to me and then point at the end of the section where a few read-to-eat snacks were shelved.

"Mikael?"

Though a voice from the entrance of the store came as two boys, whom I had no idea of, appeared out of nowhere. One of them was a thin, skinny brown-haired guy, wearing a black jacket over his gray pants. The other one was a black-haired fat kid wearing a dark-green hoodie and blue jeans.

Recalling the images of the people who were at the high school in this timeline, I traced back the information on the two kids in front of me.

Garf and Rig. Their father owns about half a dozen bicycle shops. I think they were friends with the local high-school bully, but their track record was clean. I thought as I waited for them to approach me.

"Buying a late-night snack? Bet you are still studying even after finishing high school. Hahaha!" The duo laughed as they looked at me before moving towards the counter, picking up a few items and then taking them towards the counter.

As they did that, they asked me dozens of questions on how I was doing, and how my life was faring. As the conversation continued, they also told me that their own lives were pretty much the same, and how they missed high school now.

"Now that we are out of there. We started feeling like it was the best. Ironic, isn't it?" Rig said, with a hint of nostalgia in his voice. Then, as if recalling something he said,

"Hey, did you know? Sebastian is deciding to throw a party. But it's at least a month away after the exam results come out. Bet. He is still trying to show off."

Sebastian was one of the rich kids apart from Richard. Though not faring as well as Richard was, he was pretty well known in the rich community. Though he was more known for his stubborn ego and pride than anything else.

"Here, lady. How much is the total?" Gard spoke as he was about to pay for the whole thing. When I decided to pay him for my share, he stopped me with an irritated look.

"Geeze, Mike. You helped both of us brothers pass the exams when even our parents gave up on us. At least, let us pay for your late-night study snack."

"Seriously, brother. You are way too nice. You should stop doing that sometimes," Rig shook his head before patting my shoulders as he gave me a slight smile.

I saw the duo pay for me before waving at me as they moved out of the shop.

"Goodbye Mikael."

"See you around, Mike."

I looked at the bunch of snacks in my hand before I sighed.

A batch party, huh? As I walked out of the store, I thought deeply about it.

Earlier, when I was going through the information on my high-school mates, I found that most of them were pretty much normal except for Richard and Fredricka. But surprisingly, there was one person who piqued my interest more than the others.

She was a girl named Alice.

Just like Fredricka, she was also someone from my past. Though she did not belong to any major rich house, or had a secret background. But, soon, as she plays Arcadia Online, she will start getting better at it and make her own fame there.

While I did meet with her on the battleground in my past life, I had only known her from a distance from the streams that she did and the guild that she was a part of. There was also a Unique Quest that she had stumbled upon, which somehow made her one of the key characters in the first war of Arcadia.

I wonder if I can establish a friendship with her at the party? If I did it any other way, there was a chance that she might suspect something was wrong or that I had some hidden intentions. I thought as I walked back to the apartment, chewing on the croissant that Garf had just bought for me.

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