After thinking for a few minutes, Ryan decided to temporarily put aside the problem of the Chieftain boss. He still needed to focus on rares and elites and it was best to deal with one thing at a time. This was also how he usually dealt with and processed diffcult situations, taking it one step at a time. Something he was forced to learn after the accident that changed his life.

And now somehow, yet again his life was changed. Things beyond his wildest imagination was coming true and he was going to deal with all of them by taking one step at a time. "I first need to understand this bloodlust." Ryan looked around, restricting himself to the areas right beside the town.

This zone was a little crowded by newbies hunting for rabbits, chickens and goats, doing starter quests but it wasn't too bad. In a couple of minutes, he was able to find a free spot under a tree. A group of three rabbits had spawned here. Ryan calmly walked over to this spot and sat down there. The rabbits were friendly creatures and they didn't attack unless they were provoked first. So while he sat there, the three rabbits continued munching on some twigs innocently.

A few minutes passed just like this and suddenly the feeling of unquenchable thirst was once again back. Ryan's eyes immediately widened. This was fast! Way too fast! He had noted the time between the last attack and this one and it was only half an hour! This meant that he had to keep feeding every half an hour.

Ryan then checked the time again. He wanted to see just how long would he be able to control this thirst and how many minutes he had before he became 'mindless'. 1 minute passed, 2 minutes passed. The feeling of thirst was steadily increasing. A low throbbing headache also started up. However, when then 5th minute mark tickedd, suddenly the thirst became unbearable.

Ryan immediately grabbed the rabbit nearest to him and bit into it hard. Since he was at Level 3, the level 0 beginner beast was no match for him, especially after he started draining the blood. Immediately the thirst that was burning his insides like fire was doused just like that. Ryan was also feeling satisfied. He dully wiped the blood from his mouth as he tossed the rabbit away.

"Hmmm…" He swiped the notification away and started the process all over again. The timing here was very important so he had to be really sure. Things might not necessarily be so simple. Just like Ryan expected, the next time he started feeling thirsty at the 20-minute mark itself. The time after that was 40 minutes. However, once he began feeling thirsty he always had five minutes to quench himself. At least that didn't change.

Also, if he fed regularly every 20 mins whether he felt thirsty or not, the feeling was not triggered. It took him another 20 minutes. Ryan spent almost three hours experimenting with this before straightening everything out. He now had a better handle on his special skills, well at least one of them. As for the curse…

"Time to start hunting." His first target was common beasts. He looked up the town where he was and the nearby grinding areas. All the information was readily available in the forums. This was one of the advantages of having a late start. Now he knew where he had to go.

There was the Level 5 wild boars zone, Level 10 Dire wolf zone, and the Level 30 howling baboons zone. Level 5 wild boars were perfect for him. Ryan stood up and started walking to the outskirts of the forest that surrounded the town. Not long after he came across three wild boars roaming together.

He was still new to this so he didn't want to go for a 1 vs 3 right from the get-go. He looked around in contemplation and his gaze fell upon a nearby rock. He picked up the small rock and tossed it at one of the boars. Immediately after that, he started sprinting. If he wanted he could easily outrun the aggro range of the three boars as he had a headstart but he turned around to see that only one of them was chasing him.

"Perfect! It worked!"

Ryan stopped running and grinned. He swung his hand at the boar that was rushing towards him in a blind rage. Slash! His nails were able to draw some blood, cutting through the thick hide of the boar.

-50

He did not stop there and continued wrestling with the boar. As soon as there was an opening, slash! Another attack landed.

-50

With this the boar was now severely injured and its movements became slower. Ryan immediately grasped this chance to dig into the boar's neck.

-100

Within seconds, the boar stopped struggling and became limp and lifeless.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

The entire fight lasted less than a minute and the points he added to strength and agility were showing their worth. "Not bad." Ryan wiped his mouth. It was uncomfortable to fight without any weapon but he was slowly getting used to his new fighting style.

One more common beast down!

After taking down the first wild boar, Ryan did not stop and took down the other two wild boars as well, swiftly gaining back-to-back chunks of decent experience points and leveling up another time.

Ryan was satisfied with this progress. He was able to target beasts two levels above him and fight with them on equal footing. The only problem was that the fights were too messy. He didn't have any clear advantage and it was always touch and go, coming right down to it.

"I need to think carefully about this." Ryan sat down under a tree, wiping the blood off his mouth. "What are my strong points right now?" He had two skills that were more troublesome than useful. So one could say that he had nothing right now. However, that wasn't the case. He actually had a definite strong point.

"My strength at the moment should be the fact that I don't have to spend any attribute points on stamina or vitality." The former he had unlimited while the latter, he couldn't add to even if he wanted. This basically allowed him to focus all of his attributes on strength, agility, and defense, giving him an edge over other players and beasts of the same level.

But was this alone enough? No.

Ryan distributed the newly acquired attribute points as well, 2 for strength, 2 for agility, and 1 for defense. At the same time, he thought about how to improve his current state. He needed something a skill or a weapon to truly shine. The neckpiece he had gotten from the treasure chest, the only item on his body was completely locked and useless. Other than that he did not have anything. As for skills, he also didn't have that. What to do?

His eyes circled around the many skill points that were lying wastefully. In 'Mana Online' players were able to use these skill points to level up their skills and unlock new skills and even an entire skill tree.

Ryan had read about a player who managed to unlock a defense skill tree by pouring all of his attribute points and skill points into defense and defense-type skills. But his problem was he didn't have any skills, to begin with.

He opened up the browser and started doing some detailed research on how to obtain skill books. One method was to visit class trainers in the city and one had to be level 20 to do so. Another method was to get skill book drops which were very rare. The third and easiest method was to select a class when logging in, which gave everyone a set of starter skills. Ryan already had this one, and it was reset for him when he changed classes.

Lastly, a person could do an action over and over again and create a new skill if they did the action perfectly each time. Some of the casting class players, like mages and warlocks, were learning sword moves in this manner. It was a popular hot topic online as well.

"This should be my only option. But what action can I repeat?" The only thing that came to his mind immediately was his heightened senses. Perhaps if he concentrated and used this aspect repeatedly, he could get this skill unlocked? His eyes glistened with excitement as the notion of finally getting a useful skill excited him.

He had an SSS-ranked legacy in his hand, and he was itching to push himself and bring out the full potential of his legacy. After getting repeatedly put down in life, he wanted to prove himself more than anything and not be weak and helpless anymore. For countless days, he had wished that his accident was just a dream and when he woke up the next day his father would be alive and his life would be back to normal. However, all of that was wishful thinking.

But this right here was the hard truth. Perhaps that was why he was able to accept everything that was happening around him, things that could question anyone's sanity. He wanted a way out of his miserable life, and here it was.

Ryan stood up and started working on his hypothesis. "Come on, daddy needs a skill. Give me a good one." He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, trying to observe everything around him carefully. The rustling of the leaves, the snap of a twig, the cries of the distant birds; there were so many sounds. There were also all kinds of smells.

After some time, he opened his eyes and noticed that he was missing something. That was just smell and sound. What about taste, vision, and touch? He pensively picked up a leaf to observe the detailed pattern on it. "Yup, I was correct. This is definitely the most intricate leaf I have ever seen." He ran his finger through the veins of the small leaf, paying attention to all the small details. They felt different.

As for the last sense, the taste, he put the leaf in his mouth and started chewing, which he immediately came to regret as a nauseating feeling overwhelmed him. "Better to stick to the other four." He spat out the random chewed-up bits. Sure, this was time-consuming but he wanted to give this method a proper try before giving up on it. So he sat there in the same spot and alternated between all the small exercises, really honing in on all of his basic senses.

A few minutes passed by just like this when the three boars spawned again. "Hmmm?" Ryan immediately lifted his gaze to check out the boars. There were three Level 5 wild boars and there was only one of him but this time he was ready to go 1 vs 3!

Wild boars were not very intelligent creatures. One could easily figure this out just after fighting against them a couple of times. So he used their own moves against them to bring down the rage and energy of the boars. He stood in the middle of the boars and kept evading their attacks in such a way that the attack fell on another boar instead.

This way, the boars ended up injuring each other repeatedly, and Ryan used this momentum to throw a few punches and draw some blood. He aimed specifically for the main weak points, the thin legs of the fat boars, and made them stumble and fall. When the time was right, he sank his teeth into the boar, putting it down for the final time. The other two then followed as he finished off the weakened beasts one after the other.

However, the second he did that, the grin on his face immediately faded. He was not alone!

Ryan swung his body around to see a group of players walking toward him.

"Dude, you are a true psycho!"