I howled and cried in pain, my head pulsated in agony, my vision distorted as I stared at my detached foot. Blood flowed endlessly from the cut, mixing with the soil. The monster stood over me with a toothy and malicious grin. It let out a horrid chuckle as it raised the dagger in the air, ready to stab me. The beast crept towards me, savouring the look of despair on my face.

  But it was mistaken, my face scrunched in torment, and yet I did not despair, instead I raged. I spat the blood in my mouth right at its face. The vile fluid hissed on its face, its thick skin preventing any damage, but I had blocked its vision.

  I didn't have enough mana for my [Sapphire Spear], but I had to kill this frog in one go. I summoned a single disk of stone from the ground, and with my hand, and I moulded it into a sharp needle. I twisted and wriggled my body on the ground like a worm, manipulating the stone to stab the frogman in the stomach.

  As the stone javelin penetrated its body, it dropped the dagger in pain but it was not dead. Greenish bubbles formed around its raised hand. It was preparing to finish us both off with an explosion. Before it could complete its spell, I grabbed the stone bolt that was jutting out of its body. I shaped sharp and jagged branches inside the frog's body, shredding its insides. The fire from the hellish frogman's eyes faded, its lifeless body crumpled to the ground.

  I woke up in my room, with a sore head and notifications assaulting my vision. I had no clue how much time had passed, and my last memory was of a dead frogman. My throat was parched but luckily someone had left a jug of water beside me. After a refreshing sip, I lifted the blanket from my body, to discover that my right leg had been amputated. The leg now ended a bit below the knee, and it was covered in bandages.

  My face sank into my hands, my vision turned blurry again and salty streams ran down my face. I felt pain, pain in my leg which was no longer there, I could not fathom it. But before my streams could turn to rivers, I heard footsteps heading towards me from the hallway. I wiped my face clean and tried to compose myself.

  Voglo and Olma entered the room. Their eyes grew wide upon seeing me awake. Olma lunged at me and gave me a deep hug. I lethargically wrapped my arms around her.

  “Thank Yantago you’re okay!” She cried.

  Voglo cleared his throat. “You should step away from the Chief, he is still recovering.” Olma stepped away from me, trying to hide her embarrassment for the obvious oversight.

  “Voglo, what happened to my leg,” I asked.

  Their faces turned dark. “You were losing incredible amounts of blood. Bandages did not work, and herbs only had a slight effect. Not even my [Healing Glow Heliodor] helped." Voglo gritted his teeth as he stared at my leg. "We had to cauterise the wound, but after a few days, you caught a severe infection. I could not use anything to treat it. I even spent some money on human medicine, but it did not help." His eyes were turning red. "The infection was threatening to spread to your entire body. You were in critical condition already due to severe blood loss, amputation necessary.”

  The [Blood Scarred Opal], although it made my blood toxic, it gave me anaemia as well. That gem had saved me against that brutish frogman, but it was also a great liability. I could remove it at the cost of 500 health points, but I didn’t have that much health.

  "What about casualties? How are the rest?”

  Olma took my hand. “None, two injured but recovering. Those other frogs.” I felt some weight lift from my heart.

  Voglo's dour expression changed into a smile. "Those frogs were no match for us! We crushed them!" He cackled.

  I leaned against a soft, goat fur stuffed pillow. "What was that thing I fought? The other frogmen were weak, but their chief was on another level! It even had magic."

  Voglo rubbed his chin. “It was probably a Refined.” I raised my eyebrows in confusion, Voglo noticed this. "When a being reaches a certain level, they undergo the Refinement and become a stronger creature. Humans call it evolution, dwarves call it Augmentation, and so on."

  I sank into a goat fur filled pillow, in contemplation. "What does a goblin become?"

  "Goblins can Refine at level 20. Usually, they become Hobgoblins or Bugbears. I don't know the specifics, since it's very rare for a goblin to reach level 20. But there are tribes with Hobgoblins, like the Bloody Bones tribe."

  I sighed. "I understand, let's let this be. I am still tired." They both nodded and left the room. I opened up my interface.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  The pressure of picking the right choice was suffocating. It was no longer about picking what would help me, but it was also about how it would affect the tribe. Going by the process of elimination, I removed [Hunter] first. The experience from beasts was appealing, but I would hardly be doing any hunting any time soon. Not to mention I hunted with magic, so I didn't get any proper hunting skills.

  When looking at the barbarian classes, I felt embarrassed. The Interface recognised I had difficulties with my emotions and gave me a class related to that. But regardless, those emotions were not sustainable and would only lead to ruin. Giving in to anger was far from desirable, and the madness aspect of those classes was not enticing.

  [Geomancer] and [Crystallomancer] seemed the same. Both were earth-related so they would go well with my affinity. Geomancer seemed more stone focused and simpler. [Crystallomancer] was more specialised but more powerful, I would select [Crystallomancer].

  [Lapidary] seemed by far the best out of all the other options. Although I conjured bricks of stone, I would hardly call that masonry. I had not the slightest clue as to where to begin if I picked mineralogy. As for artisan, it was simply inferior compared to Lapidary. Why bother to not specialise when I had a built-in specialisation for stone and gems?

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