Walking along the street, Jake sighed. Tonight was like most others, him coming out of work late and walking back home.
His life was pretty normal other than him being an orphan and having no family members.
He spent a few years of his life in an orphanage before being adopted by a gruff old man.
The man, Mark treated him fairly well, giving Jake a figure to look up to in life. The next decade of his life was filled with joy until Mark died.
Jake was already 18 at the time so he didn’t need to go back to an orphanage.
He inherited Mark's assets including his house but knowing he couldn’t afford to pay the various expenses, Jake sold the house for a hefty sum.
He went to college and got a degree as promised to Mark. However there was no demand for his education and Jake couldn’t find a job.
He still had funds from the inheritance, wisely invested and growing so he didn’t need to worry too much about money. But life felt empty being cooped up in his apartment, immersing himself in all forms of media and games, letting life pass him by.
So he got a job as a store clerk, not for the money but to feel like his life had purpose. Throughout the years he and his friends grew apart, they either moved to a different place or started families of their own.
Maybe due to his life circumstances he could never really become close to someone so he would push others away when they got too close.
Looking at the stars, Jake wondered what his future would be like, would he spend his days alone till his death or would fate give him a surprise, making his plain life have more flavor. Well at least he had games, novels, and other vices to help him cope.
The idea of magic, adventure, and continuously reaching new heights appealed to his soul. If only he could live in a world like that, where everything was possible and he wasn’t burdened with the chains of reality.
If only God could give him a chance to live in such a world, then maybe he could find joy and happiness in life.
But that was an impossibility, so he suppressed that desire deep into his heart. Moving along the dark empty streets, Jake emptied his mind as he let his subconscious lead him home.
That was until his vision changed, no longer the cold grieving darkness but a warm loving light. The buildings around him vanished, being replaced by lush trees of various sizes.
The rough, wet walkway was replaced by a narrow ground road. Feeling the warm gentle breeze of air hit his face, Jake awakened from his stupor.
Observing his environment all he saw was trees from all directions except for the small road, devoid of any life. His clothes too, were replaced, his woolen hoodie now a leather vest covering a white cloth shirt. His dark jeans, now blue with extra padding.
His Nike shoes turned into a leather boot. There was also an added belt along his waist, holding a sheathed sword.
Enjoying the changes in his environment , Jake's mouth curved showing a slight grin. If this was a dream or hallucination, he wished to never wake up.
Then a black screen materialized in his view. Featuring white text, the screen reads.
‘Your wish has been answered. Fortunate individual may achieve whatever you want in your new life. With the help of the golden finger blessing your journey will be less challenging, however always be wary and don’t lose your life due to careless mistakes’
After reading through the message the screen changes now showing a status panel.
[Name: Jake West
Hp: 100%
Mana: 100%
Level: 1 (0 / 100%)
Physique: 1
Magic: 1
Soul: 1
Karma: 0
Skills: Regeneration, Big Brain, Adaptability
Spells: Mana Slash
Equipment: Beginner Set]
On top of the panel there was a symbol of a person lit up, next to it was a chest, and the last option was a map.
Before doing anything else, Jake thanked God as much as could. He then clicked on the status panels various stats and it showed him more details.
Health points percentage based, when reaching 40% health remaining inflicts injury reducing stats by 20%, when health is 20% inflicts grave injury reducing stats by 50%, when health is 0% you will die.
Mana, also percentage based, shows how much Mana you have left. If Mana goes below 20% using magic will cause mental pain. If Mana reaches 0% regeneration time doubles but mama pool increases slightly.
Level bar shows how close the user is to the next level. Leveling up will increase the users stats and sometimes unlock system functions. Leveling up will get exponentially harder as the user gets stronger.
Physique, the user's overall physical capabilities. Affects speed, strength, and stamina. Higher physique increases regeneration of health points and resistance to ailments.
Magic, the user's magical capabilities. Affects maximum Mana, Mana regen, and effectiveness of spells. Spells require magic stat to be at a certain point in order to be used.
Soul, the user's mental abilities. Affects charisma, resistance to mental attacks, and power of users' mental attacks. As soul increases so will the user's learning abilities increasing the growth rate of skills and spells.
Karma, a measure of the user's ethics. Doing good deeds will increase karma which increases the users luck and relation to factions aligned as good but will decrease relations with evil factions.
Doing evil deeds will decrease karma and lower the user's luck. Increases relations with evil factions and lowers relations with good factions.
Next he checked the skill and spell details.
[Skill Name: Regeneration
Level: 1
Effects: Increases regeneration of health and Mana]
[Skill Name: Big Brain
Level: 1
Effects: Increases learning speed. Skills and spells will be easier to level up]
[Skill Name: Adaptability
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Level: 1
Effects: Reduces the time it takes to become immune or cure to ailments and diseases. Increases the users mental ability to adjust to new situations]
[Spell Name: Mana Slash
Level 1:
Descriptions: Coats the weapon in Mana and then launches that Mana in the direction of the swing. Higher Mana use will increase skill damage.
Requirements: Equip a sharp edged weapon. Have enough Mana to launch the skill]
Then Jake clicked on the equipment sections which transported the screen to the inventory section.
The chest symbol is now lighting up. On the left side it showed the typical equipment slots. The slots for the chest, legs, feet, and weapon were filled.
On the right it showed empty rows of boxes with the lower ones having a lock symbol on them. Clicking on the equipment he got a view of their effects.
[Equipment Name: Leather Vests
Level: 1
Effects: Defense +1]
[Equipment Name: Virgin Pants
Level: 1
Effects: Defense +1
Special Effect: Description can only be read by virgins]
[Equipment Name: Noob Boots
Level: 1
Effects: Speed +1]
[Equipment Name: Beginners Sword
Level: 1
Effects: Atk +5]
After analyzing the equipment effects and seeing nothing else in the inventory. He clicked on the locked boxes.
[Inventory slots can be unlocked by fulfilling quests and attaining achievements]
Seeing the message, Jake clicked on the map symbol. The screen changed now showing a green dot in the center surrounded by trees.
There were yellow arrows pointing towards the top of the map. On the top right corner it showed.
[Beginners Quest: Go to the friendly beginner village and start your journey]
After messing with the game panel a while and discovering nothing new. Jake decided to test his sword slash skill.
Pulling his hands on the sword's handle, Jake felt the rough leather covering. Unsheathing the sword he put towards the sun's light, illuminating the sword. Holding the sword with both hands, Jake decided to use the skill.
The moment he envisioned it in his mind, he felt a powerful force coming out of him. From his hands blue particles of light came out and covered the sword. Concentrating he guided the particles to fully cover the sword.
Swing the sword downwards the blue light separated, gliding in the air before hitting the ground. Boom, the ground shattered, sending dust and bits of ground into the air.
Seeing the powerful force of the slash, Jake was amazed. Checking his status panel it showed.
[Name: Jake West
Hp: 100%
Mana: 90%
Level: 1 (0 / 100%)
Physique: 1
Magic: 1
Soul: 1
Karma: 0
Skills: Regeneration, Big Brain, Adaptability
Spells: Mana Slash
Equipment: Beginner Set]
His mana decreased by 10% but the damage output was really nice. Satisfied with the skill, Jake moved towards the beginner village, following the yellow arrows on the map.
Sprinting towards the distance, Jake noticed that although his stats were only 1, his abilities were much better than before. He could run faster, see clearer, hear more, and his mind was much clearer.
Although maybe this was just due to his lifestyle of being a novel reader and doing nothing else in his free time leading him to have very poor physical abilities.
After a while Jake got a bit bored running as the village was much further than he thought. So he decided to experiment with Mana.
From the sensations he felt from using his skill, Jake decided to mimic it to see if he could control Mana on his own.
Within a few tries he could manipulate a few strands of Mana, guiding them in his body he realized that he could strengthen them by using Mana.
Guiding the Mana towards his legs, Jake's speed increased, now traveling faster than before.
After running for a while, Jake saw a small village within his vision. The village had small wooden houses and huts. He could see a few people moving within it.
Approaching the village a few villagers noticed, one of them an old man holding a cane walked towards him.
“Are you the hero sent by the adventurers guild to solve our problems?” the old wrinkly grandpa asked Jake.
Jake was worried if there were going to be any language barriers with the inhabitants of this world, but it seems not.
“Uhh, Sure” Jake replied, he wasn’t a member of the adventurers guild as far as he knew, but this definitely sounds like a quest.
“Good” the oldy responded “Our village has been overwhelmed by slimes for a while and our warriors are having a hard time taking care of them, it’s good that you came early”
“They’re hunting the slimes right now and if you go towards the west” The old man pointed to the forest “You can go assist them”
“Sure thing Gramps” Jake responded, moving towards the pointed location. He checked the map and his quest was updated.
[Quest: Help the villagers deal with the slime]
The yellow arrows now pointed towards the west of the forest, about half a mile away from the village.
But he wasn’t rewarded for making it to the village so he was very disappointed although it was a very easy task.
Making his way through the forest, Jake first heard the sounds of battle as a few screams rang out.
Moving towards the sound, he saw a few people with muscular physiques fighting 20 to 30 slimes.
The frontliners took the brunt of the damage using wooden shields to block the slimes oncoming attacks and wood sometimes used clubs to beat the slimes.
The archers at the back would release arrows sometimes hitting the slimes and sometimes hitting Natalias (if you know you know).
Looking at the battlefield Jake thought to himself that the weak slimes in novels were absolute bs since the slimes here were a lot more powerful.
They launch sharp streaks of their body fluids at an extremely fast speed making it act like a bullet. Some of the people had graze wounds on their body with blood dripping out of it. They would also launch themselves forwards, slamming the wooden shields with extreme force.
The sizes of the slimes varied, some of them being the size of a small pillow, while some of them were pretty big. The small ones would launch the projectiles while the bigger ones would slam themselves towards the villagers.
Seeing the intensity of the fight, Jake thought about leaving, but then again this was what he was looking for, an exciting adventure.
Calming his nerves, Jake entered the fight heading towards the backline to target the smaller slimes.
Dashing towards the slimes, Jake's heart beat with passion as his eyes narrowed, entering a focused state, Jake felt the world slow down.
One of the slimes noticed him and launched a projectile towards Jake. Jake saw the slimy bullet moving at a slow speed and was able to easily dodge it.
Drawing his sword, Jake slashed the slime, destroying its core. The other slimes launched attacks at him but Jake dodged all of it. Moving his sword Jake used his mana slash, although much fainter due to the rushed casting. The blue light still cut through the slimes splitting them in half.
Jake rushed towards the other slimes while dodging their projectiles and dealt with them with ease. Moving through the battlefield, Jake killed all of the slimes in the backline and moved towards the slimes in the front.
These slimes were bigger but that didn’t make much of a difference. The slime bullets were faster and larger than before but he could still dodge them. Whenever they tried to slam him, Jake would move to the side while cutting them.
Soon all of the slimes were dealt with. ‘That was actually pretty easy’ Jake thought ‘I take back my statement of slimes being strong’.
The villagers approached him and with a smile one of them spoke “Thanks for the help man, I knew adventurers were strong but not this strong”
“No problem, I’m just doing my job” Jake replied, now taking the identity of an adventurer.
“We’ve been having trouble taking care of the monsters around our village, but with you around we’ll be able to rest easy”
“Yes, but when did you guys start having trouble with monsters?” Jake asked, deciding to get some information. Based on the games he played before there was likely a deeper meaning behind this situation and based on the villagers words this was mostly the first time an adventurer came here.
“About 2 to 3 months ago, the monster spawning around our village suddenly increased, we were excited about it at first since we were able to hunt more monsters, but their numbers kept increasing making it harder for us to hunt and keep the village safe”
“So we decided to hire an adventurer to help us out and hopefully solve the problem of the increasing amounts of monsters”
The villagers put the slime corpses in a large and long basket that they strapped onto their backs.
“We’ll have to go back to the village to drop off the slime corpse and take a break, you can go with us if you want” a villager said.
Looking at his remaining mana being 50% due to the fight and him constantly using it to boost his speed. Jake decided to go with them although he wanted to find more monsters to fight.
While they were travelling back to the village Jake checked his status panel. His experience reached 3 / 100% due to killing the slimes. His quest also changed now being [Quest: Help the villagers solve the increasing number of monsters]