“Outcast no killz warrior,” Tulbat was arguing.

  “Ogre way is strength. Ooglie one show himz strength. Youz warrior was weak. Let outcast kill him,” the chief replied.

  For a moment it appeared as though the two would fight, but then Tulbat stalked off. The glare he shot at me should have sent chills down my spine, but in this half raging state, all it did was make my blood pump more as I spat out a short laugh in his general direction.

  Kerkek strode over in two long steps. He grabbed my wrist and stripped the pan away from me. “Strong is good. Killz ogres not goodz. Me warn once. Ogres no killz ogres.”

  Then he tossed me to the ground. I still couldn’t assess his level, but he was clearly over level 13 since I should have been able to assess anyone up to ten levels above me. That meant that anything I wanted to try against him would be doomed to failure, so I bit my tongue and took it.

  The rest of the day felt like it lasted forever as I continued cooking. Once all the eggs were used up, I began frying up portions of the charging bird. I used we didn’t really have anything for me to create a batter with, but given enough time, I hoped to be able to create proper fried chicken.

  The big gains of the day were a bit all over the place. I had gained more XP from killing the ogre warrior than anticipated, and I couldn’t make the math work. As far as I could tell, I should have gotten 58 XP but for some reason instead I had gained 116 XP. None of my notifications explained the gain. I knew that there were certain zones where players could gain double XP for PvP kills, but that had never been my thing.

  My only guess was that because the game classified me as an ogre, it applied the same principle to killing ogres. That was going to make things interesting. I started having homicidal daydreams as I was forced to cook all day for the entire tribe. The fact had watched a few cooking shows back on Earth didn’t mean that I was thrilled with this process. And I certainly wasn’t going to spend the rest of my digital doing this.

  The skill gains were good, and I did manage to create two more recipes. The rage badger omelets granted -50% to Rage Cool Down and +2 AGI for 2 hours. I kept feeling like if I could imbue more mana into the recipe, then I would be able to increase the effect.

  Interestingly, when I used some of the limited supply of salt and pepper we had on the omelet, I made for the chief, the bonuses jumped to -60% and +3 AGI for 3 hours. So ingredients did matter. Now it was just going to be a process of experimenting until I could get my hands on a recipe.

  The second recipe was for seared bird and it granted +2 AGI for 2 hours. So it was the least effective of my recipes so far. I assumed if I could learn to make a batter and breading for the meat, it would taste even more like chicken and hopefully would give better boosts.

  The skill gains for cooking came quickly at first. I assume it was because making the omelets was different from the bacon I had cooked before. The repetition was enough to push me up to cooking 10 very quickly, but then it seemed to stagnate. I managed to get it up to twelve when I experimented with cooking the bird meat, but once again it froze there.

  The same thing happened with my mana channeling skill. It stopped increasing at ten. I assumed that was because I was using the same process. But trying to put mana in too quickly had ruined more than one pan of food, so I was just sticking with the slow infusion.

  For some reason, my skinning/butchering skill only went up to seven. Maybe cracking eggs wasn’t good for the skill. Or rather, that should have been obvious to me. I did, however, manage to get another skill point in blunt weapons. The cast iron pan truly was a weapon if used properly.

  The longer I performed the same cooking activities, the less my active mind was required to be involved. For much of the afternoon, I day dreamed of what I might have been doing if I was back on Earth. It made me a bit angsty. It likely wasn’t healthy, but then again, how healthy was it to have my mind crammed into a digital world against my will.

  When I got over moping, the sun was already starting to set and the line of ogre warriors waiting for my food had died down. The experience with the warrior today had only driven home my need to level. I had originally intended to hold off on leveling so that I could increase my skills and find new ones. But I didn’t like being pushed around, especially not by some AI run digital creatures.

  Then I had agreed to strike a balance between levels and skills, but as of yet, mana regeneration hadn’t been an issue. What was an issue for me was the need to be strong enough to be respected by the other villagers. I knew outcasts were always outcasts, but Shemi certainly had their respect. Well, maybe it wasn’t respect. She at least had their fear and since I wasn’t planning on staying any longer than necessary, that would suffice for me too.

  So as the sun set, even though I was weary from cooking, I once again snuck off into the forest. I was pretty sure this time that Shemi saw me leave, but she didn’t make any move to stop me. I guessed she was probably thinking that stupid is as stupid does, and maybe she was right, but the forest was one of only two ways that I knew of for leveling.

  The other still felt a bit too murdery. When I didn't get a faction hit for killing the ogre warrior and instead got a small boost, it became clear that they really did respect strength above all else. So, initially my plan was to start killing ogres. But I just couldn’t bring myself to do it for some reason. Rather than spend too much time worrying about it, I went out into the forest.

  Fortunately for me, all the monsters I had killed the night before had respawned and I was soon making great progress. The levels didn’t objectively make that much difference, but I can say without a doubt that the enemies were easier now. The level three and four rage badgers or jungle cats were easy prey for me now. I got less XP from them. But the ease of killing them helped balance it out.

  That was especially true when I got attacked by multiple groups. Since I got the numerical bonus. It wasn’t that being bitten and clawed didn’t hurt. It did, more than a little. I often hesitated before an attack, but then I focused on my goals and jumped back at it. Armor would have made this so much easier, but I had to make do with what I had.

  I found I could maximize my skill gains by alternating between spells, spear and frying pan. The latter led to another important discovery. The frying pan was very attuned to me after a day of cooking with it and during one particular tough fight with a pair of level five rage badgers, I thought to infuse my mana into the pan.

  It flowed in like it was a desert and I was dripping water into it. The pan soaked up my mana and added extra damage. It was a godsend as the pan was far too weak without the extra heat damage, but I could simulate that by pouring mana into it. I was careful when I realized that the pan was vibrating. There was logically a limit on how much it could hold, but it was enough to allow me to put down those monsters.

  My XP haul for the night was enough to get me to level four, even though I gained less per kill. When I caught a glimpse of the alpha jungle cat, I fled, just thankful that I had seen it first. It was a bit disappointing because I was less than two hundred XP from level five and hitting my first threshold. I was just going to have to suffer another day of cooking.

  This time, without the reset of death, I stumbled back into the cooking area which had become my workstation just before dawn. I needed to get a fire started. My Flameburst spell had gone up to Basic 12 after another night of monster hunting. It wasn’t much, but gains were obviously slowing past level 10 and it would still make starting the fire easier as my control increased.

  The gains in Regeneration were more exciting to me. It was up to Basic 10 now. That meant it was restoring 7 HP every second for 11 seconds. Soon, it would last long enough to cast before a fight and count on it to help close up minor wounds, as I was otherwise engaged. I looked forward to that because no matter how much I tried; I couldn’t get used to the pain that came with killing monsters.

  That was the last thought I had though as suddenly I heard the sound of a heavy object rushing towards my head and then got the notification that I was being sent to respawn.

  Chapter 13- New Plan

  I learned something else. When you died without knowing what killed you, there was no XP gain, even if you were a monster. That meant for now I could only guess who or what would have killed me. The planning involved, as well as what I was pretty sure was the use of a weapon, convinced me it was likely Tulbat or one of his senior warriors. He really didn’t like me.

  What followed was a roller coaster of emotions. At first, I didn’t mind being sent to respawn because I felt like I had gotten a full night of sleep now. I wouldn’t be dragging all day long. Then I saw my character sheet and pissed off didn’t even begin to describe it. A moment before, I had been less than two hundred XP from level five and safely passed the threshold, where I wouldn’t lose levels.

  NPC- HI 3a5.x290

  Integration: 24.1%

  AI Usage: 11%

  Call Name: Frank

  Monster Race: Ogre

  Ht: 9’2” Weight: 848 lbs

  Class: Outcast

  Level: 1st

  XP to Level 1: 0/1000

  Available XP: 872

  Strength: 36

  Agility: 5

  Constitution: 36

  Mind: 10*

  Will: 18

  Unassigned Free Stat Points: 8

  Now I was back at level 1. Worse, I felt weaker. As I checked, I realized I had lost the Strength, Constitution, and Will points that I automatically gained at each level. A panicked glance at my skills drew a sigh out of me. At least I had not lost any skill points. I only lost the things that I gained with the levels.

  But then my eyes caught on something. I stared at it for a full minute. Then I dropped my character sheet before summoning it back again. Sure enough, I was right. I still had all my unassigned stat points. Each level in outcast I gained two free stat points to place as I wanted. I had been saving them, and now I was thrilled.

  The implications were almost game breaking. If I leveled up to 4th level and then died, would I be able to earn another six more free stat points. Not eight for sure dying only put me back to level 1. Could I rinse and repeat that process until I had so many stat points, I would be forever OP? Maybe the bigger question was, could I do that and stay sane?

  I began going about the preparations for cooking today. The other outcasts were already bringing supplies and there were the carcass of something that looked like a three horned bull but was the size of a Mack truck. Apparently, it was another victim of the poor AI naming scheme because it’s corpse assessed as a Tri-Bull. I had to assume that was the result of the chief’s hunting party the day before. Well, at least it was something new to work with.

  Once I got the fire started, I began making omelets again. The bull could wait for later in the day. For now, my mind was too occupied with considering the possibilities I had just discovered. Without thinking about it, I found some of my mana was leaking into the frying pan.

  When I realized it was enough to break me out of my mad scheming about how to game the system. I began focusing on how the mana felt. Then, on a whim, I triggered two streams of mana. One that was going directly into the pan and one that was going into the food. Before, I had not been able to infuse the food with more than about twenty-mana and then only if I did it slowly.

  Different foods also absorbed the mana better than others. So far, the bacon had been the best at it, but the omelets weren’t too bad at it either. Whenever I had tried to push beyond that point to increase the effects, I had ended up exploding the eggs in a mess that covered everyone within a few feet of my frying pan. Now, I laughed as I realized I could balance that out.

  Mana in the pan had a stabilizing effect. It cost me twice as much mana, but now for forty mana I was able to enhance the food to the same extent as if I had been using thirty mana. When I added salt and pepper to the chief’s omelet, the effect was much improved. Rage cool down was reduced by 80% and AGI was increased by 5 for four hours. He even grumbled something about it being good. Which was the closest I had gotten to a compliment from any of the ogres.

  Throughout the entire morning, before the warriors went out hunting, I saw Tulbat staring at me. This time there was no glare, but more like he was laughing at me. If that wasn’t enough to confirm my suspicions, then I didn’t know what would be. Now, I just had to figure out how to use this information.

  Ultimately, I went for it. It hurt like heck, but I leveled myself up each night. It took two nights to reach level four each time, but even when I had enough XP to hit level 5, I never crossed over. Tulbat never attacked me unless I was level 4. So, I reasoned, he simply wanted to keep me from crossing the threshold. Maybe it would be harder for him to justify attacking me if was already a shaman.

  I played my part and acted appropriately scared of him. It was a toss-up which was harder on me, cowering before the idiot, or repeatedly going out and getting chewed on by monsters. Still, I pushed it. I had a goal in mind and I kept pushing for it.

  There was the added benefit that my skills continued to increase. Especially as my weapons skills increased, it became much easier to kill the monsters. The alpha cat saved Tulbat the trouble of killing me on two occasions, but for the most part I had learned how to avoid it. The beasts I wanted to hunt were those that were closest to the village, and so it worked out. Only slipping up twice in a month wasn’t too bad.

  By the end of a month, though, all of my skills had stopped growing. My spells, weapon skills, and even cooking were all stuck at twenty and hadn’t moved at all in three days. Fifteen more deaths, though, had been enough to pack on the skills and to gain an additional 90 free stat points.

  I did feel myself cracking up a bit, though. It was difficult to allow myself to intentionally be victimized, but I sucked it up. I did have one other breakthrough that I spent a bit of XP on. I had already learned and maximized Quick Meditation. But about halfway into the month, I had remembered a skill called Dodge.

  Just remembering it had caused me a stabbing headache, but after all the pain that I endured up to this point, it was tolerable. It came with another warning message about not trying to modify my base coding. Another forced reduction in AI Integration level, which I didn’t really understand occurred. But at the same time, I also gained a permanent bonus to Will of +5. So, again, I didn’t understand the AI’s reasoning. If you don't want me to do something, definitely don’t give me a reward.

  Now, I had stored up 4328 XP even after buying Dodge and Rapid Meditation. It was time to spend it and cross the threshold. The problem was that I was strangely nervous. What happened if I ended up losing the extra unassigned stat points. Or what if the next time I died, I ended up being pushed back to level 1 even though I had crossed the threshold?

  It was fear, not logic, that was driving me this morning. But it was a fear brought on by the trauma of repeated deaths and suffering over the past month. Rather than leveling, I started going about the normal cooking process. I had learned how to fry a dozen different forest animals, but we still hadn’t obtained any recipes or more spices. Even the salt and pepper I used exclusively for the chief was almost gone.

  A day of cooking was almost done by rote now. I didn’t need to think about what I did and instead could focus on how I would spend the stat points. As I saw it, there were two main paths, I could consider. Well, that wasn’t true. I could level up, cross the threshold, and still not spend the points. But if not now, then when? There would always be a reason to hold them back for some later point. Was I supposed to wait till I hit level 100?

  So given that I was going to spend the points, all of them, I needed to decide on a build. I clearly wanted to be a caster. So, I could go the min-max route and let my natural points go into Strength and Constitution. It would make me a weak ogre, physically speaking. And as I fought higher and higher-level opponents, my natural ogre starting strength would no longer be enough. Not to mention the fact that all strength and no agility was a recipe for lack of coordination.

  I could also split them evenly between the stats. That method would try to stay balanced, but it felt like the chicken’s way out. So, by the end of the day, as the other outcasts were cleaning up the cooking station, I decided on a plan. A split that would favor casting but leave me with a powerful physique still. I realized I could have waited to see what spells Shemi had to teach me, but it didn’t really matter. Even if I couldn’t learn spells from her, I was still going to learn spells.

  Once everyone was gone, Shemi turned to walk into her hut. She stared at me for a minute before finally asking, “Youz giving up?”

  Confused, I asked, “What do you mean, Mistress Shemi?”’

  For weeks youz go in jungle and leveling. Tulbat smashes you, but youz never complain to Shemi. Me’z be thinking youz want handle problems ogre way. Be strong. But nowz you stop leveling. No gain levels last two nights.”