I Became a Side Character in the World Of Skyrim

Chapter 4 Grinding

After parting ways with Astrid, I headed north toward the bandit camp near Whiterun. If I cleared the place out, I might earn an easier path into the city—and more importantly, it was the perfect grinding spot to raise several of my skills.

When I arrived, I saw that the front courtyard was heavily guarded. Too many eyes. Too many weapons. Not ideal for a frontal assault.

So I waited for nightfall.

When darkness finally settled over the plains, I swapped my armor for something quieter. Leather boots, cloth under-layer, and a dagger—silent and perfect for sneak criticals. My heart pounded with the familiar thrill of stealth gameplay, except this time… it was real.

Alright, Alex. One at a time. No mistakes.

One by one, I eliminated them. Silent steps. Quick strikes. Bodies collapsing without a sound. With each takedown, my Sneak skill surged upward. But I couldn’t celebrate—I knew this camp held a Bandit Chief, and he was a lot tougher than the rest. If I didn’t level up soon, I’d be dead meat.

Inside the camp I found several traps—pressure plates, swinging logs, falling boulders. Perfect. I could use these.

Deeper in, I spotted a lone bandit mining iron ore. I opened my inventory—god, the dimensional inventory system was such a blessing—and pulled out a bow.

One arrow. Straight to the skull.

Sneak skill up. Archery skill up.

I looted the body and unlocked the next room. Ahead were two more enemies: one heavily armored with a battleaxe, the other wearing robes—a mage. I had to take out the mage first. They’re always annoying.

But then—

The Bandit Chief noticed me.

“Hey! You intruder! You dare enter my domain!?”

I taunted back, “Hey, ogre-face! Catch me if you can!”

“Bastard!”

I lured him toward the entrance where the trap mechanisms were located.

“Don’t you run from me!!”

At the perfect moment, I triggered the trap. Boulders crashed down, smashing everything beneath them. I barely managed to dodge outside. The dust settled… and the chief was in critical condition.

I nocked an arrow and fired one clean shot to his head.

“Fiuuuh… That was exhausting.”

I dragged the bodies outside. This camp could serve as a temporary base while I continued grinding. While looting the mage, I found a spellbook—Soul Trap.

Lucky. Very lucky. That spell was essential for quickly leveling Conjuration.

After clearing the area, I searched for the one spellbook that only appears in this place—Transmute. A spell that turns iron ore into silver, and silver into gold. A must-have for leveling Smithing.

I slept, leveled up, and checked my level skills:

Three level-ups in total. I dumped all my points into Magicka—I needed it to spam Soul Trap later.

Soul Trap required 100 Magicka per cast. After leveling three times, my Magicka reached 130. With a robe that boosted Magicka by 30 and a bandit garment giving another 50, I reached 210—enough for two casts.

So I cast Soul Trap on corpses.

Twice.

And my Conjuration level shot up by four.

What the hell… This is broken. And I love it.

I repeated the process until I maxed Conjuration at level 100. It took five days. By then, my main level had risen to 17. I allocated points into Health, Stamina, and Magicka.

Thankfully, the bandits had killed a mammoth earlier, so I didn’t starve. And thanks to the inventory system, food never spoiled.

Honestly, I had no idea how long this would take for a normal person. But with a system backing me up? I didn’t know the true difficulty curve anymore.

After that, I mined every iron vein in the location, transmuted them into gold, and crafted gold rings.

Transmute leveled my Alteration.

Crafting leveled my Smithing.

All in all, it took about a day due to the limited supply of ore.

Now my level had reached 18. I added more points to Health and checked my status:

…Not bad. Not bad at all.

Maybe it was finally time for me to head to Whiterun.

Join My Pattreon for more chapter

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!