Zane opened his eyes and took a deep breath of the forest air. Although Zane’s eyes were opened, he was still lost within his memories. In that memory he shared his first intimate moment with Teacher Isabelle. This made him remember several more intimate moments that he had with Teacher. Each one filled him with a sense of joy and warmth. Eventually both of these emotions were replaced by a feeling of loss when he membered her leaving.
Zane shook his head and tried to quickly shake off the feeling that almost took control of his mind. He had already decided to stop dwelling on the disappearance of Teacher Isabelle. More importantly, she already sent him a message telling him what he should do. He needed to grow stronger and the system had sent him to perfect place to grow. At least that’s what it looked like so far.
Turning his head to look up Zane saw leaves, branches and darkness. He wanted to look at the stars but he already knew it was impossible. He still looked up though and tried to imagine their appearance. He thought about what he had experienced so far and what he would do next.
“Teacher was right,” Zane whispered.
After Zane removed the negative emotions caused by the death of the five humans, he felt his body heat up for a brief moment. Initially he had dismissed it, but he quickly realized that the feeling was caused by his bloodline. After checking Zane saw that he gained one point in each of his stats.
The cause for the increase in Zane’s stats were technically a mystery to him. The obvious answer was the increase was caused by his most recent fight. It could also have been caused by the fact that he fought the five humans shortly after fighting five panthers. The increase in stats could have been caused by an accumulation of all of his battles. Zane didn’t know for sure, but he had a feeling that the most obvious answer was the correct answer.
Most of Zane’s fights ended quickly but the fight with the five humans took longer than usual. Zane spent most of the fight laying on the ground with his body tense and his mind in a hyperactive state. The actual fighting was quicker and easier than his other fights, but it was much more dangerous. A single mistake, one wrong decision and Zane would be forced to flee with serious injuries, or he could have died. Zane also felt that he was lucky his attackers didn’t use an aggressive method of attacking. This resulted in him having more time to think and plan.
It didn’t matter if Zane won through luck or skill. What mattered was how Zane felt during the fight. He felt like his mind and body were working as a perfect team. Zane believed it was this feeling that was the crucial factor in activating his bloodline. This reasoning made it easier for Zane to decide what he would do next. Zane would start looking for humans to fight.
When Zane separated from his group, he purposefully focused on fighting mana creatures. The elves had a tier one expert supporting them and getting into fights with them could bring Zane a lot of trouble. Also, he wanted to avoid getting into fights that would end in one party killing the other. He could have fought other humans, but he felt like they were too weak.
During the daytime Zane watched different groups of humans fight mana creatures. There were some people who looked older than him and there were some people who looked like they were the same age as him. None of the people he met looked like the veterans or bandits he would see in the wilderness. They all looked timid, nervous or exited. They didn’t feel any caution toward other humans and nobody tried to attack each other.
Zane thought he didn’t have a reason to justify attacking anyone but now he knew he did. He would attack people because he wanted to. He improved by fighting difficult battles which means he had to find opponents that could push him mentally and physically. Currently the best opponent for him to face were other humans. His actions would anger many people to the point where they wanted to kill him but Zane didn’t care. He believed his choice aligned with his current class and the future path he would walk. After making this decision Zane prepared to leave. The first thing he did was look at his status and assign his stat points.
Status
Level 15 Exp: 117,421/120,000
Name: Zane
Age:16
Race: Human Ⅱ
Class: Warrior CP: 247
Health (HP):1210 Health Regen (HR): 6.5/min
Stamina (SP):1350/1500 Stamina Regen (SR): 75/min
Mana (MP):972/1080 Mana Regen (MR): 11.0/min
Stats
Strength:134 (+11)
Dexterity:129 (+12)
Endurance:150 (+21)
Vitality:121 (+11)
Intelligence:108 (+3)
Wisdom:101 (+2)
Perception:110 (+2)
Willpower:119 (+10)
Free Stat Points: 2
Talents:
Identify, Skill Visualization
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Skills:
Mana Manipulation Lvl 17, Mana Control Lvl 17, Meditation Lvl 15, Basic Shield Mastery Lvl 25, Basic Sword Mastery Lvl 17, Basic Axe Mastery Lvl 11, Basic Mace Mastery Lvl 11, Basic Spear Mastery Lvl 20, Basic Knife Mastery Lvl 15, Basic Whip Mastery Lvl 13, Basic Archery Mastery Lvl 13, Block Lvl 18, Slash Lvl 18, Charge Lvl 10, Cleave Lvl 10, Smash Lvl 9, Pierce Lvl 16, Stab Lvl 16, Lash Lvl 10, Focused Release Lvl 7, Rapid Release Lvl 12, Warrior Steps Lvl 10, Skill Combo Lvl 7, Final Barrier Lvl 1, War Cry Lvl 1
Titles
The Chosen Adventurer, Classless Title, Blood-Stained Murderers, Well Trained, Tier One Killer Ⅰ
Energy surged through Zane as he distributed his stats. After that he focused on his skill list. Specifically, he focused on his Basic Shield Mastery skill and the quest he received for it.
Congratulations! You have completed the Basic Shield Mastery Skill Ⅰ class quest.
Quest: Basic Shield Mastery Skill Ⅰ
Description: Every skill is capable of improving the ability and foundation of the user. Explore and level up the Basic Shield Mastery skill.
Quest Objective: Reach level 25 in the Basic Shield Mastery skill.
Quest Reward: 10 class points and 1,000 exp.
Quest Failure: Failure to reach level 25 in the Basic Shield Mastery skill
Failure Penalty: None
Every skill below tier one offered two class quest. One quest was offered when the skill was learned and another was offered after the skill reached level twenty-five. The reason these quests were called class quest was because they were only offered for skills that were connected to a person’s class. Many people argued about the purpose behind theses quests but couldn’t agree on an answer. It seemed unnecessary for the system to reward a person for doing what they would have done on their own. The ability to obtain a special effect provided a sufficient reason to level up the skill.
Congratulations! Your Basic Shield Mastery skill has reached level 25. You must choose a special effect to continue leveling this skill.
Option 1: Stronger Defense- Increases the defenses of your shield by 50%
Option 2: Equal Attack- Your shield can now deal damage that is 50% of its defense
Option 3: Attack only- Your shield can only deal damage and provides no defense
Zane quickly looked through the options available for his second skill. Although the options available weren’t unique it was rare to see two people have the same three options. The options given to Zane were because of the way he trained with the shield and how he used it in combat. The shield would always be seen as a weapon for defense but there are ways it can be used to deal damage. That’s why the obvious option for Zane to choose was the second option.
The first option was for someone who wanted a weapon to defend themselves with. An increased ability to deal damage wouldn’t be helpful. The third option was the only option that Zane thought was ridiculous. A shield would lose its purpose if it wasn’t able to defend and it could still deal damage without a damage value. After selecting his special effect Zane took a final look at his skill and status before leaving.
Skill: Basic Shield Mastery
Level: 25, 0%
Tier: 0
Effect: Improves physical defense when wielding a shield. Defense 13 + Str/10 + End/10
Special Effect: Equal Attack
Cost: none
The decision to pick a fight with random humans and finding random humans to fight were two different things. Zane traveled through the forest for a while but didn’t come in to contact with a human he could fight. Zane knew that it would be much more difficult to find a human capable of giving him a difficult battle.
Although Zane was blindly searching for an opponent, he did have a basic strategy to increase his chances. Before Zane was attacked by the five humans, he would occasionally hear human screams as he moved through the forest. Those screams could have been caused by a mana creature attack or it could have been caused by another human. Teacher Isabelle had trained him to move away from those sounds in the wilderness. Moving closer would lead him to getting dragged into unnecessary conflict.
Now unnecessary conflict was exactly what Zane was looking for. He hoped to find humans fighting against each other or humans fighting against elves. Both of these options increased Zane’s chances of finding a powerful opponent to fight against. If the humans were being attacked by a mana creature, then Zane would help them kill it before moving on.
Zane managed to hear a few screams as he traveled through the forest. By time he got close they stopped, and Zane didn’t see anything clues that would help him locate the person who screamed. After experiencing this several times Zane was ready to give up and head back to the shelter but, he suddenly heard a few screams close by.
The screams were extremely close, and Zane didn’t want to miss this opportunity. He activated Warrior Steps and managed to arrive in less than two minutes. When Zane arrived, he saw a group of humans facing off against a pack of wolves. The wolves were wounded but they looked energetic and ferocious. The humans were also wounded but they looked drained and defeated. One of the humans was so badly wounded he looked like he was dead. After using Identify on everyone Zane confirmed that he was still alive.
Human Lvl 9
Human Lvl 6
Human Lvl 8
Human Lvl 5
Human Lvl 9
Human Lvl 6
Human Lvl 7
Zane also used identify on the wolves as well. Three wolves were level nineteen, two were level twenty and one was level twenty-two. Zane thought the fight would be difficult but not impossible to win for someone with proper training. As soon as that the thought came into his mind it left. Zane quickly realized that the group of humas were from another world. Right as Zane was about to jump in and provide assistance he stopped and smiled.
One of the humans in the group, a woman, pulled out a weapon that looked similar to the ones he took from his five attackers. Zane was unhappy about finding a group of weak of humans, but he became excited about having the opportunity to question them about the unfamiliar weapon. He saw the familiar flash from the weapon and heard a wolf howl in pain.
A new wound opened on one of the wolves, but the wolf only briefly paused before continuing to attack. The weapon activated several more times, but it had small effect. By now Zane could tell that the weapon was much weaker than the ones he had in his space bag. The ones in his space bag should have left the wolf severely injured after one attack.
Not seeing a reason to continue watching Zane drew his sword and entered the battle. War Cry. Skill Combo. Cleave. Slash. Zane quickly landed a combo attack on the strongest wolf’s neck. He didn’t focus on killing it and moved to a wolf nearby to use the same combo attack. Wanting to end the battle quickly and knowing he was going to level up soon Zane didn’t hold back on the usage of his energy. He used War Cry two more times and delivered several combo attacks. The first wolf died after Zane landed a combo attack on the sixth wolf and he dealt with the remaining wolfs using normal attacks. When Zane finished killing the wolves, he turned to see a stunned group of humans staring at him with their mouths open.
“Hello,” Zane said. “I hope you don’t mind me interfering in your fight. It looked like your group could use a little help.”