Chapter 8

Waking up covered by the sight of unblemished stars wasn’t the worst way you could open your eyes but excuse me for being a bit more traditional and preferring a roof over my head instead.

After laying down to sleep last night I had been knocked out instantly thanks to this absurdly comfortable bed, all regrets of buying such an expensive item were now gone.

Well early bird gets the worm as they say, so may as well not waste any more time. With this thought I dragged my lethargic body away from the comfortable arms of the bed that continued to call out to me as I walked away.

Stretching my muscles which were nowhere near as sore as they should be, I noticed two things. One, Grizz was still running around behind the counter working on a number of tasks, all of which I had no clue what the purpose was. And two, the timer was now sitting at 59 hours and counting. Only 13 hours done, and I was already a fifth of the way to quota, maybe this floor was much more forgiving than I originally thought.

Ignoring Grizz for the time being I moved towards the edge of the hill to admire what I could of the view in front of me, even if the details were magically blurred out the sight alone was truly mesmerising.

Reaching the edge, I couldn’t help but stare out at the open fields in front of me. Maybe I’m just imagining it but wasn’t the tall grass now much closer than earlier? I had no way to accurately measure it but I swear it’s moved forward a good bit. Although unsure of my own observation, with all these magical phenomena this certainly wouldn’t be the strangest thing I’ve seen so far.

Well even if it is growing it’s not like I can do much about it, even if I tried to cut it down it would just grow back immediately. Trying to take my mind of the mystery behind the grass, I made my way to my dear friend Grizz, looking chipper as ever.

“Good morning, James, how are you feeling today?”

“Morning Grizz, yeah feeling much better than I thought I would, actually, do stats also affect muscle recover and stuff like that?”

Throwing away the metallic object he was tinkering with, Grizz seemed to turn his full attention to our conversation. Jumping on top of the counter before sitting on the edge and placing his signature top hat next to him, the goblin happily swung his legs whilst answering my question.

“Heheh Good question James, yes stats are directly tied to every part of your physique, even your very soul. I believe you all would have experienced a bout of fatigue and may have even been directly knocked out back on the first floor, correct?”

Honestly, I wouldn’t’ve even been surprised if Grizz had been watching us the entire time, but it seems he hadn’t.

“Yeah, we ate some food from a chest, and all passed out straight after.”

“Kekeke Indeed. You all did pass out, but it was thanks to your stats increasing, not something to do with the food you ingested. When your stats suddenly increase like they do when you are a lower level your body needs rest to sufficiently adjust to your new capabilities. I expect the same thing happened last night, allowing your sleep to be quite seamless despite the high-stress environment you find yourself in. Luckily, partially thanks to the systems guidance, your body will adapt to this phenomenon, and you will no longer require rest.”

Okay so we didn’t get drugged, it was just a natural response to our stats rocketing up, well it was nice to know the truth behind it at least.

“Any other questions?”

Thinking to myself, was there anything else that I needed to know at the moment. Firing from the hip, might as well ask for some advice, worst he can say is no.

“Yes actually, do you have any advice you can give?”

Tapping his sharpened claw on his chin, the goblin took a moment to think to himself.

“The best advice I can give to you is to just go about things the way you have been. No need to complicate things, just keep moving forwards.”

Keep it simple but keep moving. Quite generic advice but I still etched those words into my memory, even if they weren’t exactly revolutionary it was good to keep them in mind. As long as I keep on moving forward, everything should workout as life intends.

Content with the sage advice from Grizz, I beckoned for the tablet to which he happily obliges. It was time to go on a bit of a shopping spree.

Dire Wolf Leather Chest plate (Common)

- Crafted from a Dire Wolf, this leather balances durability and protection.

- Vigor +2

- Endurance +1

Dire Wolf Leather Leg Guards (Common)

- Crafted from a Dire Wolf, this leather balances durability and protection.

- Vigor +1

- Endurance +1

Travelers Boots (Uncommon)

- Boots worn by a traveller who wished to see every inch of his world, built survive any hardship.

- Dexterity +3

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- Endurance +2

- Grants Skill: Sturdy Footing (Common)

After buying the bed last night I had 135 points leftovers, and with these three purchases I was now left with just 5 points left for any food or water I needed.

They certainly weren’t cheap, but each item could easily save my life just from the protection they granted, and then taking into consideration the stat bonuses. Yeah, they were worth it 100 percent. The chest plate and leg guards appeared as a set and magically changed size to fit my body perfectly.

Putting them over my camo clothing they gave off a perfect fantasy vibe, the brown of the leather was tough to the touch and felt extremely reliable.

Appearing next to the Armor were my new shoes, and I was extremely excited to give these bad boys a whirr.

Ditching my old pair of rundown sneakers, I laced the black boots up as they also matched to fit my exact size. With a quick walk around, it was clear why they were so expensive, not only were they easily the most comfortable shoes I had ever worn, but they were also extremely sturdy. Thanks, in part, to the skill attached to them, I felt confident that I wouldn’t fall over even if I were to go run around on a frozen lake.

Skill Unlocked!

Sturdy Footing (Common): Unless you are physically moved, you will be able to keep both feet on the ground, regardless of the surface environment.

Skill will be lost upon unequipping item!

Well, it was a bit ahead of schedule, but I had finally gotten my first skill. Doing laps around the area for a bit I continued playing around with my new shows while disguising it as a warm-up. One interesting thing I could do now was the Michael Jackson leaning move, and yes that was a very important experiment that was necessary to know the answer to.

Satisfied with the results of my rigorous experiments, I bought a couple more rations of food before heading out for the day. The sun was now just barely visible over the distant mountains as it peaked over the valley. Once again, I couldn’t help but feel like the grass area had moved, but worrying about that could be done later. Following the trail down the walk towards the tall grass brief, taking a deep breath I entered the still daunting field as silence engulfed me once again.

Following the same pattern as yesterday, there was an immediate sound of rustling grass in front of me, the difference today was the beast was now howling in a frenzy. By the sounds of it there was only one solitary Mutt headed straight towards me and it was quickly approaching. Just a couple of metres a head of me, the Mutts howls reached a peak and it was the only thing I could hear, but following its usual pattern, it suddenly went silent.

Maybe this guy was just trying out a new method? Looking up I was expecting to see a mouth full of sharp teeth jumping towards me, what I wasn’t expecting to see was a set of sharp fangs currently embedded into the neck of a lone Mutt. Looking up, I witnessed I sight so unholy that only the devil himself could conjure up such a cruel scene. Chowing down on its prey, a spider silently consumed the corpse. Standing on 8 tall, skinny legs perfectly blending into the gras around it, the spider’s body was a dull yellow allowing it to move sneakily through it’s surroundings. Manipulating its front legs to finish eating its snack, the spider seemed more than ready for the main course as the creatures’ beady eyes rested on a new tasty morsel just sitting there waiting to be devoured.

Fuck.

Faster than anything I could have expected, the creature moved and stabbed its front legs straight into me, knocking me flat onto my ass. The spider moved forward pressing down with its leg as the pressure on my stomach quickly ramped up, I had to act now, or I was quickly going to become a skewer for this unholy beast. Squeezing my sword, I swung it straight at the leg threatening to pierce through me, cutting it cleanly in two.

SKREEEEEE

Losing one of its limbs, the arachnid screeched out in pain. Anger flashed through its numerous eyes as it now took me more seriously. Jumping forward I was only barely able to keep up with the spiders’ movements now that I was expecting them, as it stabbed its long legs into the ground around me, I dodged, ducked, and swirled around like a rat as a few close calls left long gnashes along my unprotected arms. I needed to strike back, or I would quickly find myself unable to avoid the strikes, knowing this, I sought the only cover around. I dove directly under the spider’s large body.

Getting up faster than ever before I swung my sword around in a flurry of imprecise blows, this freak was fast and deadly but clearly didn’t have the durability to support its weak looking legs. Like slicing into stick of bamboo, the spiders’ legs quickly dwindled down as it lost its footing. With only legs on its right side remaining, the spider let out dreadful screeches, but it was no immobile and its large body was left defenceless. Stabbing into the large body of the spider I couldn’t help but recall a science lesson from pre-school, was this part called the abdomen? Well, I might not be an expert on spider anatomy, but I did know that stabbing into the big backside of this thing would kill it, and I was more than happy for that to be the extent of my expertise on the matter.

You have Slain:

1 x Grass Spider (Level 9)

EXP Earned

You have Levelled up!

Level 8 -> Level 9

+3 Endurance

+1 Vigor

+1 Strength

+2 Free Points

My body screamed in protest to remain as far away from this thing as possible but my rational mind prevailed as I crudely cut out the creatures’ fangs. This thing better be worth a lot of points, or some very formal complaints were about to be made.

Throwing the fangs into my bag it became quite clear that these new monsters posed quite a threat, if this thing had been just one level higher and had a skill of its own, I doubt I would’ve been the victor.

Knowing this, I allocated my free stat points that I had pooled up into where it felt like I was most lacking.

With 4 points into Dexterity and 2 points into Vigor, I just hoped that this new status change would give me even a slightly higher chance of surviving against an even stronger foe.

Status

Name: James Burns

Class: Guardian (Tier 1)

Level: 9

Strength: 13 (14)

Dexterity: 14 (18)

Vigor: 18 (21)

Endurance: 23 (28)

Intelligence: 8

Wisdom: 8

Skills (1/5):

- Sturdy Footing (Common

Runes (0/1)

Checking over my injuries I scanned my arms where all the cuts and scrapes had occurred, luckily it was clear that there was nothing to worry about there as the small wounds had already started to scab over and begun healing. Knowing it was thanks to a mix of my high Vigor and Endurance stats I couldn’t help but feel happy about where I had invested my stats.

For now, I just wanted to move in further into the grass area, based on the point posters there should be a few natural treasures I could find around the area, and going off common sense in this new world than all the high-value treasures would be guarded by the higher-level monsters. Namely, more of the spiders.

With my eyes peeled upwards more than ever before, I continued my expedition as I stumbled forward and just hoped to run into something worthwhile. Compared to the previous days there was a serious lack of Mutts, and the reason for that was quite clear. As I continued walking an alarming number of bones littered the ground. Clearly the Mutts were quickly being hunted down for food, but it felt quite strange that the ecosystem here was changing that fast. At this rate it seemed that the Mutts were on the path to going extinct, and whilst there was no love lost between us, I sure as hell preferred those beasts than a spider infestation.

With the goal to actively thin out the spiders’ numbers I made my way forwards walking even further into the unknown.