[You have defeated a Wolf - lvl 2]

[Lvl 0 > Lvl 1]

After resting against the tire of the bus for a few minutes, I receive a message indicating that the wolf had finally died. Either it succumbed to its wounds or another animal finished it off. Well, at least I got enough experience to level up.

[Name: Nathaniel Gwyn]

Difficulty: Hell

Floor: 1

Time left until forced return: 4y 364d 23h 12m 3s

Lvl 1

Strength: 6

Dexterity: 8

Constitution: 3

Mana: 2

[Primary Class: Unavailable]

[Sub-class: Unavailable]

Skills:

Focus - lvl 3

Mana manipulation - lvl 1

[Skill Points: 0]

[Stat Points: 3]

I got three stat points, and my level changed. Also, somehow my Mana and Dexterity went up by 1 point each.

One hour. I can't believe we have been here for that short time. Somehow it feels much longer.

I try touching the holographic window with my finger, but nothing happens. My finger just passes through.

"Stat explanation."

Nothing.

Haaaa. Not again. I am too tired for this. I'm sure there will be some gamers on the bus so I can make them do all the work, but for now, there is one stat I can't go wrong with.

"Put 1 stat point into Constitution," I try, and one stat point disappears. Huh? It actually worked.

Now I try to focus and think about wanting to put 1 stat point into Constitution. It takes a moment, but then I get a feeling as if someone is asking me for confirmation, but in my mind. It´s unsettling but I send back something like a thought version of "yes," and another point disappears. This could be useful.

I quickly add the last remaining point into Constitution and close the status window.

Now back to stats.

Strength and dexterity should be self-explanatory, and Constitution should be something like endurance, vitality, health, or an all-in-one stat. Hopefully, it will help me heal faster or require less rest.

There is no need to be greedy for power or speed. As I already noticed, I can level up my stats even without stat points, and survival is most important at the moment. I don't know if it's the placebo effect, but I already feel better. Well, let's wait and find out.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Now, mana. I already used mana to strengthen my body. I think. The movement I showed while fighting the wolf should have been impossible for a 1-hour younger me. It could be Focus, it could be Mana manipulation, or both. If I learn how to control it, it will increase my chances of survival.

Okay, I will figure it out later.

My name. Somehow, the system knows my real name. The best thing I can do at the moment is to be prepared to not be surprised if some of my private information pops up out of nowhere.

Freezing from the surprise in the middle of a dangerous situation can be deadly, so for now, let's think that the entity controlling the system knows everything about me. While we are here, I need to let go of my life on Earth and focus on surviving here.

It might be pretty drastic, but I am at the mercy of the entity, system, and the only sensible thing is to focus on surviving. It's better to think that I will be stranded here for five more years, and that's long enough for people to declare us dead.

Let's forget about everyone on earth - my family, my friends, everyone. There will be time to grieve or celebrate after I get forcibly returned, so it's better to be pleasantly surprised than any other option.

Well, it's not like there are that many people I care about. To be honest, the list may be really short.

The most important thing at the moment is my survival, and I can't let anything distract me. Let's use other passengers as well. I should act fairly friendly but distant enough, at the same time, I can't let them use me. I need to act a bit more distant. I can also put on a strong front. If I set it up right, it will be a nice combination of give and take, with me taking more than I'm giving.

For a second, a thought flashes through my mind - would it be possible to level up by killing them? This time I think about it a bit longer but decide against it in the end. I started with lvl 0, and others are most likely the same. Even if it's possible to level up by killing people, I am lvl 1 at the moment, and I would most likely need to kill most of them. If it's even possible to gain experience from lvl 0 or a human.

It might be even on purpose that everyone is level zero.

Also, I already decided on using them - well, at least from the start and until I collect more data or become stronger, so let's not go this way.

Sounds good.

Good.

I take the shirt off my chest, and I don't know if it's just me, but the wound already looks better.

Another thing from the status is the word "forced" return. If I had to say, it means that there is a way to return to earth without waiting for 5 years. Not a forced way of returning. But... Do I even want to?

Well, probably yes, as it's much safer that way, however... later... I will reflect on that later.

The Floor 1 part in the status is interesting as well. It means there are more floors, and if I think about it as a game, we will have to fill out some requirements to move to a lower or upper floor, or we will be moved there after some time. Maybe after 5 years? That doesn't sound right - we never went to another floor, so we don't have any place to return to. The only fitting place to return to is Earth.

Let's collect more info first and then think about it again.

The level number in my status is probably only showing how many times I got 3 stat points. But it can be useful in another way as well. Maybe I will need to be at a certain level to be able to do something, or it's just some kind of strength measurement.

The difficulty is pretty disturbing - Hell.

In games, the difficulties are usually categorized as easy, normal, and hard, with "hell" representing the most challenging level. Therefore, I must be extremely cautious. When facing an enemy, I need to make sure to not underestimate them, even if they appear weaker.

I am also curious why I got this difficulty, which may be the hardest one, but at the moment, I have no way of finding out. There is also the possibility that there is an even harder difficulty, but no way of confirming it at the moment, or at least I don't know about any.

Classes sound interesting, but I don't have the option to pick one. There may be special requirements or I need to level up more.

It is already clear that the system knows a lot about me, and it's highly possible that I am being watched by it even at the moment. It doesn't even have to be someone personally watching over me, just some kind of program writing down my actions and thoughts.

Now when I think about it, even the process of leveling up is kind of weird. I have an idea of how it works in games, but being stuck in this situation makes me want to think about it a bit more logically.

There is a possibility that leveling up is just a reward from the entity/system for killing the monster. Meaning that I got granted stat points by it after fulfilling the requirements of leveling up.

Another option is that I got stat points by killing the wolf - the wolf died, and its life force or something similar to it got transferred to me and probably to the guy with the gun. Possibilities are that its life force got split between the two of us. Another one is that we humans need more life force than the wolf to get to lvl 2. The third possibility I can think of is waste during the transfer of its life or the system taking a "cut."

I like the possibilities with life force more. They sound a bit more logical, and I always liked to think of magic as science we don't understand.

Taking a deep breath, I slowly stand up, but fortunately, my head doesn't spin, and I feel pretty good all things taken.

It's time to socialize and find someone useful.