"35 gold coins, huh? It's the highest gold coins I've had so far," I glanced at the gold coins which were initially arranged neatly on Tim's belly.

The wolf fang he held while fighting me didn't drop.

I think not every item drops when a player dies.

'I'm assuming only a few items of a deceased inmate drop when they die.'

These were still my assumptions for now with no concrete evidence.

"Since Tim defeated thirty players on his own, then it means he must have been rewarded with thirty gold coins,"

Then the extra gold coins must have been acquired while he fought against the wolf and a

kobolds he mentioned he might have fought against.

With so many rewards now in my hands, this certainly calls for a celebration, but my aching body kept reminding me to prioritize resting before anything else.

I lazily dropped to the ground to sleep for the night. The cold night breeze was also tempting as well.

Rest mattered right now. I could always check the items once I'm awake.

For now, I just want to sleep. "Zzz…"

___

I woke up the next morning with unexpected fatigue wearing me down. Yesterday had been one of the most eventful days I had ever experienced in my life.

It was a day I achieved numerous first experiences.

"My first time killing six grown men,"

"My first time sleeping in the woods even though there could be beasts lurking around at night,"

" My first time walking around with my bare feet,"

And so many others like that.

I noticed Tim's body was nowhere to be found. It must have disintegrated last night while I was asleep.

"It's a good thing I stored the dropped items in my inventory before falling asleep last night,"

I wonder what would have happened if his body had disintegrated into pixels while the dropped items were still on top of him.

Since I had no idea of what the outcome would have been if such a scenario occurred, I decided now would be the right time to equip my newly acquired skill book.

I could have never imagined that upon reaching a certain EXP limit, we would be given a skill point which would be used to purchase a skill book.

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This somehow reminded me of a conversation I overheard between a number of kids in an arcade, but that's a story for another day.

What matters the most to me is having a long-range weapon with far better durability than the ones I had seen until now.

And the cheapest weapon happened to be a handgun with a price tag of 500 gold coins and the bullets to use along with it having its price at 200 gold coins.

Sighs.

The Celestial elves were truly brutal and heartless.

How do they expect a young man like me to survive without having that kind of currency with me?

This had been my aim since yesterday. To save as many gold coins as I can to buy both the weapon and the magazine as well.

While my mind drifted back to reality, I equipped the skill book and unlike what its name depicts, the skill book was in the shape of a rolled parchment paper.

The paper had an inscription of various words I do not understand aside from the words written at the top of it which was strangely written in English.

The word "Hand-to-hand combat skill" was written in bold in the top left corner of the paper.

The inscriptions written below it abruptly began to glow in a golden hue and just like that, I could feel a pleasant sensation warming up my entire body and about five seconds later, it stopped.

[Ding! New Skill (Hand-to-hand combat skill) Acquired.]

[Acquired skill: Hand-to-hand combat skill.]

[Level requirement: Level 1.]

[Effect: You are now adept in close-quarter combats, with a minimum capability of inflicting (-3) damage to any unarmored targets.]

[Required Attributes: STR (1), DEX (1), and STA (1).]

[Note: A variant of martial arts skills is now at your fingertips. Your knowledge also includes the use of melee weapons such as knives, swords, axes, and spears. The act of Dual wielding will only improve as the skill proficiency level increases.]

"Woah! My body feels lighter,"

Images of various kinds of martial arts skills stormed my mind, and I could suddenly feel confident in my ability to defend myself.

If Tim and I had battled in a fair fight last night, I'm certain I wouldn't have been able to leave a dent on him.

Thinking back, it was truly wise of me to have to use the darkness of the night in my favor.

It afforded me the upper hand, something Tim didn't have.

With that out of the way, I decided to summon my status window.

For quite some time now, my stomach had been growling because my hunger bar had dropped to 10%.

[Status]

[Level: 1]

[HP: 10/10]

[EXP: 90/500]

[Hunger: 10%]

[STR: 1]

[AGI: 1]

[VIT: 1]

[STA: 1]

[DEX: 1]

[PRE: 1]

[CP: 0 points.]

[SP: 0 points]

[Weapons]

[Potions]

[Skills and Recipes]

[Inventory: Slingshot (1/1), Dagger (1/1). Skill book (1/20).]

[Number of gold coins: 47 gold coins.]

[Number Of Kills: 6.]

[Bounty: 0 gold coins.]

[Acquired skill: Hand-to-hand combat skill. (LVL 1/10).]

It appears the highest number of skill books I can store in my inventory is twenty.

The figure right next to my acquired skill must be the skill proficiency as well.

"Is ten the max level a skill can reach?" I wondered.

I'm assuming the skill proficiency level will increase as long as I continue to use the skill.

Every skill requires a skill point, which serves as currency to get a skill book.

All skills have different requirements, and it looks like other players can learn a skill from a skill book that had been dropped by a deceased player as well.

This certainly works in my favor since the requirements for leveling up were still far from reach at the moment.

For now, I will aim to acquire above 300 experience points. I'm certain I'll be gifted a skill point once I've reached this value.

__________

The total number of players currently in the game: 78,952.

The number of deceased players: 23.

The total number of deceased players: 1,048.