*smack* "Guh! Oh, you little..." *swing* *crash* "Finally... Got you, you f*cking little stinker..." Soren exclaimed tiredly, as he looked at the half-torn doll that had crashed on the tree and laid motionlessly, before collapsing on the ground and checking his HP having dropped to 3, as a result of taking two hits from the doll, one of which being a sneak attack. As he sat down to recover, he couldn't help but ask in a frustrated manner. "Lucas, how long until I can get rid of the low realism setting? It's seriously starting to become a problem, since it's hard to keep track of the hits I've taken, especially in the heat of the battle."
"You still got another twenty minutes. Why don't you try doing something else instead of fighting, since you've been complaining about it so much?" Lucas responded, as he asked sarcastically.
"You're not the one wandering in the middle of the forest, constantly being ambushed by every living thing within a ten kilometer radius." Soren retorted back, before looking around and asking in a confused manner. "Speaking of which, how come I haven't come across even a single collection point? I've been wandering in the forest for over two hours by now, so how come? There's no way I'm that blind, am I?"
"Don't ask me. Ask the developers or just look it up. The game's been out for two days by now, so shouldn't someone have made a guide or something about it?"
"..." *slap* "You know what? Forget I said anything. I'll just focus on finding a miniboss and hope it actually kills me in the process." Soren stated embarrassingly, as he facepalmed himself in shame at the realization of his own idiocy. Unfortunately for him, his hopes became true, as loud crashing sounds started echoing around the forest and a deafening roar nearly caused him to become deaf.
'Me and my big mouth...' Soren thought to himself, as he cautiously made his way towards the origin of the loud sounds and once he made past a few trees, he witnessed a destroyed clearing of trees and at the center of the clearing, a massive beast that looked like a honey badger, was standing on its own two feet, as it grabbed some of the broken trees with its sharp claws and started eating them voraciously with its massive maw, as its expression was drowning in ecstasy.
"Soren, no matter what, do not make any sounds and slowly, walk as far away as you can. Do not try to engage with it. This thing is far above your current capabilities." Lucas warned calmly, as he had a nervous expression and hoped that Soren wouldn't try to take on the beast.
'I f*cking know this thing is way out of my league!' Soren inwardly yelled out, as he slowly walked away from the clearing, all the while he kept his eyes on the beast. Once he was a couple hundred meters away from it, only then did he ran as fast as he could towards the settlement and hoped that the beast wouldn't pursue him and only after running past the guard, did he stop to catch his breath and relax.
"Holy f*cking shit... Lucas, please tell me that was a field boss or something. Please tell me it's something like that, because there's not even a snowball's chance in hell I'd be coming back alive, even after a single exchange of blows, let alone a skirmish."
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"How do you expect me to know the amount of monsters and their classifications? Like I've said multiple times, I'm not part of the game development team. I don't even know half the game stuff, I only the Virtual Reality stuff, since I've been working with this for years. The game? I barely got a few days worth of experience and it's only the superficial stuff."
"I think... I think I need a break or something. This is not good for my heart..." Soren then immediately logged out of the game, only to find himself being lifted by both Nora and Lucas, before being dropped on the couch.
"Phew... No one told us that this guy weighs over ninety kilograms. What the hell does this guy even eat?" Nora stated tiredly, as she wiped the sweat off her forehead.
"I'm actually barely below eighty kilos and I'm not a heavy eater either." "AAAH!" Soren corrected calmly, as he nearly gave Nora a scare, before he slowly raised his aching body.
"Jesus... Could you give us a warning, at the very least?"
"Probably once this helmet gets an alarm installed. Ow... Did I actually fall off my couch?"
"You did. That's why we were lifting your body, before you woke up and nearly gave me a scare." Nora explained, as she sat down next to Lucas, who had a winded expression.
"Sorry, sorry about that... Anyways, am I done with the 20% realism? Can I never have to go back to it ever again?"
"To answer your questions, yes and then no. Expect to do more 20% realism tests in the future, but for today, you're done with them." Lucas answered, as he drank a cup of water to quench his thirst.
'At least I don't have to play with that setting for today, so I'll take it.' Soren thought to himself in relief, as he made his way towards the kitchen to grab a snack for himself and reentering the game once he finished eating it. Upon logging in the game once more, he immediately made the switch back into 40% realism and upon doing so, he felt as if a burden that was enveloping his entire body, had completely disappeared and could feel the soft and cool breeze once more. He wanted to bask in this feeling for longer, but he also knew that he had to finish his grind for the day, so he swiftly made his way back into the forest, but towards the opposite direction of the beast, as he had no intention coming close to it and if possible, he wanted to ask about it in the guild once he had turned in his quests.
And so the last hour passed rather uneventfully, as he hunted rabbits, dolls and even a couple of armadillos and upon killing another armadillo, he was met with a familiar panel.
Bless Magic Proficiency has leveled up. (+2 Wisdom, +1 Intellect)
'Jesus... 2 points in Wisdom... Did my Wisdom stat become my highest as of now?' Soren thought to himself, as he opened the stat and skill panels in front of him.
Name: Neros (Soren) Race: Human Class/Position: Undetermined HP: 15/15 (+0.02 HP/s) MP 30/30 (+0.05 MP/s) SP: 15/15 (+0.02 SP/s) Strength: 3 Intelligence: 3 Vitality: 2 Agility: 3 Wisdom: 5 Focus: 2
Current skills: Active skills: Holy Touch Passive skills: Beginner Sword Proficiency Lv.5, Bless Magic Proficiency Lv.5, Beginner Alchemy Proficiency Lv.1
"Wow... My Wisdom stat is my actual highest one... With this much MP, I can use my Holy Touch for an entire minute... Give me ten minutes to recover from empty to full and I'm good to go. Makes me wonder if I'll be playing a paladin build or something." Soren muttered to himself, as he felt proud of seeing his current progress, despite feeling a bit of disappointment, upon seeing his alchemy proficiency.