Once Laric confirmed that he had the ability to give out quests so long as it was something important, Trevor started inspecting the logs. Apparently that responsibility had been meant to send out wide-scale alerts to adventurers if the logging operation was attacked by monsters, though the foreman had felt this could be made into something as well. It didn’t hurt that the Quest Master had apparently mentioned it already.

“I can’t offer you much,” Laric said. “Five silver and a Trinket that might be able to help you, but only if you think you can do it.”

Trevor didn’t answer verbally, but nodded. He was doing the math in his head on how likely he was to get this done in time. “Rashie, any idea when the rain will start falling?”

The shark girl lifted her head and took a deep breath. She went silent for a few moments, and then raised a hand to the sky. “About an hour!”

“Okay, so, it’s thinking out loud time,” Trevor said as he crossed his arms. “Was about a twenty, maybe thirty minute walk. Assuming I can cut that down by half… How far down the river is the mill?”

“About a ten minute walk outside of town,” Laric answered.

“So thirty, forty minutes of walking, assuming half of the time,” Trevor muttered to himself as he looked at the logs.

Stepping forward, he reached for one and tried to suck it into his inventory. It would have worked if it weren’t for the miscellaneous stuff he had in his pocket dimension already. It wasn’t much, and he shunted it into his backpack for now. It weighed him down, but he barely registered it. Trying again, the log on the top of the stack disappeared into his inventory.

Laric made a surprised grunt, but Trevor didn’t react to him. “Add one point to Capacity please, Quest Master.”

[[Stat increase complete. Capacity is now 3, 4 with your backpack. You still have two (2) banked points remaining to be used at your leisure.]]

Putting his hand on another log, Trevor was able to pull it into his inventory. If it followed this trend, then it would look like putting his last two points into Capacity would have him able to take the rest of them in with room to spare.

He opened his mouth to tell the Quest Master to do so, but no sound came out when he did. While it was objectively the right call, he didn’t want to spend his points on just Capacity. Trevor liked increasing his other stats, too.

“Quest Master, status screen, please.”

[[Trevor Anderson

Human

Level 5

Banked Points: 2

Strength: 3

Dexterity: 2

Stamina: 2

Magic: 1

Mana: 1

Speed: 1

Specialty Stats

Capacity: 3 (4)

Power: Inventory

Skills: Quick Growth (Human), Dimensional Storage (Inventory), New Skill Available]]

Trevor stared at his stats as he tried to think this through. If he left his Capacity stat as it was, then he could increase his Speed to get there faster.

He imagined zipping through town, avoiding all obstacles in his path. Maybe the PathGuider 5000 would tell him to jump the logs again, and thanks to the rush he’d no doubt be experiencing he would give it a try. Halfway through, he would start getting tired and need to boost his Stamina, using his last point.

The Horn of Swift Heroics had already been used today, so that wouldn’t factor in. Just imagining running back and forth, making it back for his last trip just as it started sprinkling, was intoxicating. He only had to make it back for the last logs before it began raining, and at that point he would definitely win the quest.

It would just be him, his own abilities, and the wind on his face. Rashie, too, if she decided to come along.

Trevor felt a small hand tugging at his sleeve, and he looked down to see the shark girl. “You okay, Trevorson?” she asked.

“Trevorson?” he snorted. “Is that your nickname for me going forward?”

Rashie hesitated. “Maybe. I don’t know if I like it yet.”

“That’s fair, and I’m okay,” he said before looking back at the logs. Scratching the back of his head, he looked up at the sky. “Quest Master, please put the rest of my points into Capacity.”

[[Are you sure about that?]]

“Second guessing me?” Trevor asked with a nervous laugh. Now that his decision had been questioned, he was having second thoughts, but shook them off. “This is the responsible way to do it. Plus, there’ll be more quests, and I can put my stats into other things then. Let’s not forget about Trinkets, either. So, yeah, I’m sure. ”

[[So long as you’re sure.

Stat increase complete. Capacity is now 5, 6 with your backpack. You have no more banked points remaining.

One of your stats has reached 5. You may choose a skill for this stat.]]Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Trevor reread the message, but didn’t dwell on it.

The mental bubble that represented his Power riding in his head expanded to more than double what it was before, and vertigo washed over him. It only lasted a few seconds, but he could tell that his pocket dimension had gotten much larger. It was hard to tell exactly how big it was now by feel, but Trevor was able to pull everything back in from his backpack and take the remaining logs in with some wiggle room left to spare.

“Well I’ll be,” Laric said before chuckling. “You’ve got yourself a quest.”

[[New Quest! Second foray out of Tosa!

I mean, technically the fastest way is through Tosa, so you enter it and then come out on the other side.

Either way, these logs are now safe and sound in your inventory space. Even when it rains, they’re going to be good to go so long as you put them in the right spot. Thanks to this, the town won’t lose out on some of its economic power it would have otherwise. Six logs are a lot, after all! Now get to that mill and make that delivery!]]

The PathGuider, which Trevor hadn’t even realized he still wore, started pointing him back towards the road as the quest became active. Before he could say anything, however, Laric reached into his pouch and pulled out a water bottle with a red and blue top and offered it to the young man.

“Haven’t drank out of it yet today, but you’ve helped me out a lot between the axe and the logs, so you take it,” the orc said.

Slowly, Trevor did as he was told. The water bottle looked just like one from Earth with a clear body, a clip for attaching it to things, and a straw that could be pushed down to become unobtrusive.

[[New Trinket! The Vigor Bottle!

Fill this bottle with any non-alcoholic, non-magical potable liquid. When you drink its contents from full to empty, raise your Stamina by 1 for 8 hours. Perfect for the good little worker bees on their 9-5!]]

“This is really cool, but are you sure?” Trevor asked.

Laric waved him off. “I can get another one. They’re not terribly expensive.”

“Well, thank you very much,” Trevor said with a bow.

The moment he did, rain started coming down in sheets. Everyone was drenched in seconds, and Rashie started running around and screaming with glee.

“Shark, I thought you said we had about an hour!” Laric snapped.

Rashie paused at the orc’s outburst and shrugged. “Smelled like an hour to me,” she said before resuming her running.

“Well, at least the logs are safe,” Trevor said.

Despite what he had told Rashie earlier, he really only liked being wet under certain circumstances. Fully clothed with a giant backpack wasn’t one of those circumstances. While pulling his clothes into his inventory and wringing them out was an option, it wouldn’t do him any good with the rain coming down this hard; he could barely see Laric standing a few feet away.

“You best be on your way, then,” Laric said as the workers started leaving. “And don’t let this rain get you sick. It’s been cold out, you know?”

“I got it, thank you, Laric,” Trevor said before hanging his new Vigor Bottle on his backpack. “You coming, Rashie?”

In an instant, the shark girl was next to him. “I’m going to go swimming!” she yelled before disappearing again.

“Guess it’s just me and myself, then,” Trevor said before he began running where his PathGuider told him to go.

As the scenery was just rain and what little bit of the road he could see, Trevor found his mind wandering to what the Quest Master had said about his new skill. It said that it could be discussed, and he found himself wondering what that meant. He then realized he could just ask, and felt silly.

“Quest Master, what about a new skill?”

[[Power skill selection! You have reached Level 5. First off, congrats! It will now be harder to level up, but oh so rewarding. Normally, upon reaching this stage, you get two options that allow you to boost your Dimensional Storage skill to its next stage. Sometimes you get more, but you never get less. And this is totally normal level up, so here’s your two options.

Option One: Temporal Dimensional Storage. You can designate up to a tenth of your Dimensional Storage skill to be disrupted from your personal flow of time. This means that items put into this space will age incredibly slowly, almost to the point where they could stay there for years and barely change!

Option Two: Primed Dimensional Storage. You can designate up to a fifth of your Dimensional Storage skill as an area that keeps the force and momentum of objects entering it. These objects are considered “Primed,” and can be shot out at the same speed you intercepted them. Yes, this will basically weaponize your inventory.

Take your time, and choose wisely.]]

“Oh, no need to take my time,” Trevor said. “Even if I weaponize my inventory, that still means I need to be in the line of fire to grab things like arrows and stuff, right? I’m not about that life. I’m a simple courier. I’ll go with option one, and never lose Froil’s taco bread balls ever again.”

[[Your Dimensional Storage skill has been upgraded to Temporal Dimensional Storage! Please, enjoy your always warm taco bread balls.]]

“I will. Thanks, Quest Master,” Trevor replied with a smirk. “What about the Capacity stat increase?”

[[Stat skill selection! Your Capacity stat has increased to 5, which means you get to choose a Capacity-themed skill! As this is your Specialty Stat, these options are very attached to your Power Skill, and there will be some overlap. Just like Power, you normally only get two choices, but you have a special Trinket option today! Here they are!

Option One: Ranged Retrieval. Under normal circumstances, you can only pull things into your inventory if you are touching them. With this skill, you can pull them in from a distance up to one inch per point in Capacity. Retrieve from a distance, amaze and astound your friends!

Option Two: Stacks. We’ve all been there. You have too many things in your space, and you always need more capacity. That’s where the power of stacks come in! Depending on how big the item is, if you have more than one of them you can put them in stacks! This will lower the space they take up by a small margin.

Trinket Option: Container. You may designate another container to operate in the same manner as Anderson’s Backpack, though it will not give you a +1 to your Capacity stat when worn.

Take your time, and choose wisely.]]

This choice actually gave Trevor pause. He still wasn’t sure if he needed Anderson’s Backpack to be a gateway for other people to grab his things, but he could see where it might come in handy. It was versatile, and that was nice. If the mill hadn’t been so far away, he could have sent Rashie over there to pull out the logs that he took in.

Ranged Retrieval would have had great synergy with Primed Dimensional Storage if he had known they were two of the options he could have picked. While he still didn’t plan on being an adventurer, working them in tandem could have been a lot of fun. Without it, it was just a neat trick.

Stacks gave him the most trouble. It seemed like a great option right off the bat, but he felt that his inventory space was already huge. He wasn’t sure if more space was actually what he needed. It was already big enough for several logs and miscellaneous items. Then again, if he had more space, then he could focus more on his other stats like he wanted.

“In for a penny, in for a pound,” Trevor muttered to himself. “Let’s go with Stacks.”

[[You have gained the Capacity skill Stacks! Please, enjoy stacks on stacks on stacks.]]

Without any input from Trevor, the logs snapped together in his inventory. They didn’t lose a lot of mass, around 10% by his roughest estimation, but the feeling he got was incredible.

He could feel the stack floating around in his pocket dimension, and it gave him the same kind of fuzzy feeling he got when he pulled a warm load of laundry out of the dryer, or removed dirt with a powerful pressure washer, or when the amount of product was just right to empty the box and fill the shelf at the same time.

“Okay, that was the right choice,” Trevor said as he continued running. He was starting to get cold as the water chilled him down to his bones, but he was still feeling good when he entered the town of Tosa.