Before committing to leveling Greg decided to first take a closer look at what it meant to level. Directing his thoughts toward the system the system responded with a couple of notifications for him to review.

  Thinking over this information Greg understood why the titles where supposed to be locked until he achieved a class. Otherwise the tiles would grant 10 bonus levels of extra stats, luckily his Void title seemed to somehow bend the systems rules. Finishing his second cigarette Greg took the flask in his hands and thought about the desire to turn on the Bottomless rune he identified earlier.

  He felt a bit of his stamina resource and a small trickle of mana leave his body and could feel the level of liquor rising inside. There was still a bit of pain from the mana drain confirming his theory on his current status of [Ravaged by Arcane] somehow his body was damaged in a way that prevented mana from flowing properly.

  With a sigh he stopped channeling his resources and pulled up his resource stats.

  Even with his new buff [Greg’s Addiction] that increased his resource regeneration his health and Mana did not change. As a matter of fact, he lost a percentage while he was charging the flask. Dismissing the flask with a mental command Greg summoned the Cigarette box that was now named tobacco-box, not that he minded the change he just thought it odd.

  Willing the Replenish rune to activate Greg felt a much more acute pain and with a yelp dropped the box that vanished before hitting the floor. It appeared that the resources used where reversed compared to the flask. The box seemed to demand only a trickle of stamina and a lot more mana. Clearly, he had a lot more stamina as his stamina percentage did not budge from 82% and the mana dropped down to 6% despite Greg channeling only a split second or so.

  Greg had a theory as to why the resource drain was so much more intense on his Mana and few moments later the system confirmed his thinking and once again bombarded with so much more new information.

  Greg mentally complained on how much data the system kept dumping at him every time he had a stray thought. It was all important information so he couldn’t truly complain, which made him complain.

  Looking over it a couple more times annoyed him all the more. Why the hell was it so needlessly complicated? Basically, the more stats the better and if he ever ran out of any of his resources…well, he would have a pretty rough day…probably die or something.

  Looking at his base stats Greg suddenly had a sobering thought come over him. He only had 1 vitality left and according to this new information meant he was almost about to kick the bucket. So close…bah who was he kidding? How could someone like him have a “sobering” thought? But which one was it though!? The liver or the lungs? Aargh he would never end up finding out. Which annoyed him all the more.

  He would have blamed this new reality of his for not letting him die in peace, but he was gifted with endless booze and smokes that somehow made him “healthier”. How could he truly be angry? Bah he would kiss this “Rune-Smith” if he could.

  It was time to get this leveling thing over with so Greg mentally prompted the option to level come back up. He accepted the prompt and felt an energy quickly sweep through his body, quickly followed up by a second stronger energy, no doubt coming from his title. Then energy, so much energy welled up inside of him. His dull headache evaporated; his aches now fully vanished. Some he had so long he forgot about them, his back, neck, every – single – joint, everything was so much better. He hadn’t felt this good since his youth. Bah who was he kidding? He was malnourished then. He never felt this full of vigor before.

  Lastly, he felt his connection deepen to his Soul-Bound items. He felt a much more intimate knowledge than Arcane Insight gave him creep into his mind. While none of the stats went up in value, he suddenly knew the exact state his coat, flask, and tobacco case were in. A grin crept up on his face when he realized that the flask and case where both refilled to the brim.

  But his smile quickly vanished when realization set in at the loss of goods. If only Greg knew that they would refill he would have never leveled up so soon. He would have instead smoked each cigar and drank the flask dry. He angrily swiped the notification away that let him know he had enough experience for another level. He wouldn’t be fooled again, sighing he took a consolatory sip from his flask and his sorrow increased tenfold.

  The taste was quite excellent, though the proof was still lacking. The problem was that it was different from the previous level. With his new knowledge he gained from the level up he understood that if he generated the liquor and cigars from his own resources it would taste differently. Previously the flask and case simply converted the current items to be made of his mana but left the flavor profile alone. His initialization wasn’t a level up to 1 rather he was always at that state, he just never had the system before to tell him that. The difference now was that the level up changed him fundamentally so his Soul-Bound items would also change. It was still good knowledge to have. If he ever found a particularly good dram or flavorful cigar, he would simply store it in his box or flask and convert it. He would have to be extra careful with level ups though.

  Puffing on a newly minted cigarette he understood the reason for the name change as well. It was named tobacco box because he could “will” the box to form the goods in almost any form of tobacco he chose. Cigar, cigarette, loose leaf, skinny, fat, short, long, if he could imagine it, the glorious box would make it.

  Enjoying his vices Greg wished the damn notifications wouldn’t pop up each time he sipped or puffed letting him know the buff duration was refreshed. He wished instead that he would only get a notification if the buffs were gone. Just like that the system responded and the notifications stopped flashing and he knew the system setup a conditional notification.

  Just how far could he use the system? He thought about a notepad appearing as he wanted to document the flavors of tobacco and dram but sadly no screen came up. Thinking about the time yielded no magic ticking clock either. Thinking about a notification to come up if his mana dropped any more and he felt the system respond. Canceling the request Greg understood the system would comply with preferences and requests that related directly to the system functions. Deciding to finally look at his gains he pulled up his status.

  While impressed with the gains Greg still would have rather not leveled, though his mana was so low at the time he didn’t know if he could have made enough to really make even one cigarette. His critical status was now gone but the [Ravaged by Arcane] was still an issue. It looked like it even worsened by a tad bit. He really didn’t know what he was supposed to do to fix that. He supposed he needed to go to a doctor. Or whatever the equivalent was here in Hestheria.