“I almost didn't make it because of you!” I tried to yell as I angrily scratched at the screen in front of me, but my voice cracked horribly and my throat restricted my voice, as if in fear I would tear a hole through it. And, of course, the screen wasn’t really there, so I couldn’t grab and strangle it. With a sigh, I ignored the messages for now and pulled out the weapon to inspect what I had used to kill this monster of a Boar.
As I thought, the only thing that came out of the dead husk was up to the hilt. A few pieces of metal clinked as they broke off and fell to the ground ungracefully. With nothing else to inspect, I checked out the handle. It was so incredibly plain, just glancing at it was enough to discern all its main features. It was quite literally just a piece of a stick with a dirty wrap poorly wrapped around it.
“What, the fuck,” I breathed out slowly, letting it slip from my hands as I took a few steps back, intending to sit. I only got to the second step before my heel caught on a root, and tumbling I went. I finally ended up upside down against a trunk, similar to the night before my death, but rather than embarrassment this time, I felt… good?
My heart was still racing so fast I thought it might burst from my chest and live out its dream of being a race car. Sweat still fell from the tips of my hair, which wasn’t very styled to begin with now, and gleamed a bright white against the sunlight. Yet, the feeling of accomplishment overran all of this. If I was in my old body, I would’ve died at least three times over in that one fight. I had already grown leaps and bounds.
Maybe starting again as Klum, even with the same stats I had from my last life, wouldn’t be as bad as I thought.
Righting myself after teetering on my side for a second, I mentally ordered all the screens that had popped up into the middle of my vision. Instantly, 11 messages flew in front of me. I swiped away the five I had already seen — the Critical Mark hit, the tutorial messages, and the ‘defeated Boar’ and ‘calculating rewards’ ones. That left 6 more things to check out. I read them one by one, my eyes widening more and more with each one I read.
[Untrusty Dagger]
[Rank: Extremely Common]
[Description: … The stick might’ve been better. This excuse for a dagger is held together with a few wraps and a prayer to the Gods.]
Atk: +3
Def: +0
Spe: +8
0/6
I blinked, once, then twice, then three times. “How the hell did I manage to kill that thing with this??”
I was dumbfounded, and stared for another few seconds before shaking my head. I had killed it, and survived, so that was what mattered now. Tossing the handle to the ground, I stored the Eldwood Stick into my Inventory. Worse comes to worse, at least that's usable.
Moving on, I looked at the next messages.
[Obtained 20 EXP from the Strong-Armed Boar.]
[User forcefully gained an extra 10 EXP for fighting a stronger enemy.]
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
[Obtained Strong Leather Armguards. (Please touch the Strong-Armed Boar to collect.)]
[User Leveled up!]
[User gained 5 stat points.]
The rest of the messages made my heart skip a beat. Five stat points, just like that. I had been worried that only certain circumstances would raise my stats, like how my Sixth Sense had kicked in or the double DEX caused a DEX point, but this… this was amazing.
Without wasting any time, I quickly opened my Life Statscreen. Before I could do anything, another screen opened over it, and I watched it move curiously.
[30/25 EXP]
[29/26 EXP]
[28/27 EXP]
The number on the left rapidly depleted, while the one on the right rose at the same rate. Finally, it stopped when the number on the right doubled what it originally had been.
[5/50 EXP]
The message suddenly disappeared, revealing new info on my Life Statscreen.
[Name: Klum]
[Age: 17]
[Lv: 2]
[EXP: 5/50]
[Health: 16/25]
[Mana: 24/24]
[Stamina: 19/25]
STR: 4 MAG: 2
AGI: 6 DEX: 2
VIT: 3 INT: 7
Free Stat(s): 5
ACC: 4
DEF: 3
POW: 4
[Skills: Klum’s Reincarnation (Unfound), Critical Eye (Rare)]
My teeth shone from the giant grin that spread on my face. My DEX had already gone up, but I sunk another two points into it.
[New Stats come into effect in 3…]
[2...]
[1…]
A satisfying feeling ran through my body like a live wire. I became aware of my entire body, and it felt loose and ready to respond at a moment’s notice. It wasn’t anything incredible in reality, but I could feel the difference immensely in just 3 stat points. It was like going from being colorblind to seeing color. The coordination was insane.
I went to add the three other points to DEX as well, but the same feeling from right before the Boar attacked made me stop. I knew that this time, it had something to do with the stats I was about to add. I lowered my finger as I pondered why I felt this way when I was so close to becoming so dexterous.
“Oh.”
The realization hit me harder than a red sports car.
It hadn’t been DEX that saved my life several times over in that last fight. In fact, if I had maybe even just one less INT, I probably would’ve been one-shot by the Boar’s sneak attack. Without the AGI, I wouldn’t have made it out of the way.
If I had a few more points in STR, I might’ve killed the Boar with the first Critical Hit.
With a sigh, I reassessed my stats, before distributing the last three points the way I felt would best help me survive, at least until I found civilization. Once I did, I would go on a DEX rising spree.
Nodding my head in agreement to my Statscreen, I closed it before checking my surroundings.
There were only trees as far as my new amber eyes could see.
With a sigh, I resorted to Plan B. “Tutorial, you wouldn’t happen to know where the closest town, village or city is, would you?”
I looked at the peppy messages in disdain. ‘For a tutorial, it doesn’t seem too sure about this.’
But, with a lack of a better idea, I collected my reward from the Boar, then used the sun to orient myself and began walking.
* * *
[Name: Klum]
[Age:17]
[Lv: 2]
[EXP: 5/50]
[Health: 22/30]
[Mana: 24/24]
[Stamina: 25/30]
STR: 5 MAG: 2
AGI: 7 DEX: 4
VIT: 4 INT: 7
ACC: 5
DEF: 4
POW: 4
[Skills: Klum’s Reincarnation (Unfound), Critical Eye (Rare)]
(Ranks in Puria are as follows, from low to high:
Low Rank: Extremely Common, Common, Uncommon,
Mid Rank: Rare, Super Rare, Ultra Rare,
High Rank: Legendary, Unfound)