Kyra panted, dropping to the ground once more as she noticed her health bar dropping to a mere 5/33. A sudden jolt of realization hit her as she realized she didn't know how fast her health would regenerate. And she was aching all over. There were stings on her right shoulder and down her legs, from three striped scratches that dragged crooked red lines on her skin.

Kyra assumed there were a lot more goblins further in the cave, and with her health extremely low, Kyra wanted to give up. If her HP dropped to 0, by common sense, it would be game over. And she doubted that there would be a second chance, with all the pain she was feeling.

Less than an hour ago, she was fine. Now she could barely even move because sore muscles and wounds stung as she stretched her limbs. So Kyra doesn't move. Instead she stares at the level up! notification and opened up her status. Indeed there was a little + sign next to each of her stats for her to add.

[STATUS]

Name: Kyra Malixi

Path: Path of the Peasant

Level: 3

Class: N/A

Health: 5/33

Mana: 237/237

Stamina: 16/23

Vitality: 3

Strength: 5

Endurance: 4

Agility: 6

Intelligence: 16

Perception: 2

[SKILLS]

ACTIVE:

Thrust Lvl. 1

PASSIVE:

Fortitude Lvl. 2 Mana Sense Lvl. 1

From her gaming experiences, Kyra had a basic understanding of game stats and how they affected gameplay, but obviously there was another layer at play here with real life. Or else Marc's aura wouldn't actually impact her senses. It would just restrict her movement or she'll take damage like in games. Not make her feel like her lungs like they were burning.

Kyra weighed her options and decided to invest both of her stat points into vitality. Immediately, her health healed by 1. Kyra grinned, thinking she made the right decision.

She then looked to the new skill Tiny gave her, [Mana Sense], and wondered what the hell it was and what it did. She clicked on it, hoping it would help her.

[Mana Sense Lvl.1: By a stroke of luck, you have peered into the truth about mana, feeling it flow through your veins. Increased sensitivity towards any and all mana.]

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Kyra bit her tongue to keep from screaming. This was such a useless skill! It wouldn't help her with her combat. Even if she could sense mana, she still wouldn't be able to use the massive mana stat Tiny had given her. She sighed in frustration, slamming her fist onto the hologram, vibrations rippling like a computer screen.

Leaving that for now, Kyra opened her inventory and inspected the little pouches of gold and the remaining wooden spear. She raised her eyebrows as she realized there were two other filled boxes, each with an icon of a little glass bottle with beautifully carved sides. The first one was a glass full of a red liquid, and the second was one filled with blue liquid. By the number on the bottom right of each box which indicated number of items, there were 5 red bottles and 3 blue ones.

Curious, she pulled the red bottle out of the inventory, sticking her hand into the screen and tugging it back out like dragging the cap out of an airtight box. The inventory seemed to suck on her hand. But she didn't need to do anything but drag her hand out easily, and the bottle miraculously dropped in her hand as she did so.

Above it, like with the monsters, there was a tag.

[Lesser Health Potion Lvl. 1]

Kyra's eyes grew wide as she clicked on the tag.

[Lesser Health Potion Lvl. 1: The most basic health potion that can be created by anyone who has dabbled in alchemy. Regenerates 20 HP when consumed.]

With a needle of doubt, Kyra uncorked it and drank the potion. Looking at the three bars floating close to the ground, she sees the first bar, the HP, slowly change from red to green, and it indicates her health was no 25/33. Her whole body tingled. Kyra reached down and touched the back of her calf, and confirmed her suspicion as the goblin wound was gone, leaving behind a lumpy scar.

The bottle rolled away as Kyra pulled out another health potion. She drank half of the vial, wondering if her idea would work. Nothing happened. Her HP bar remained static. Kyra pouted, wishing the HP potion could still work even when consumed in half.

Then a light bulb struck her. Kyra downed most of the remaining potion. She corked it back up and stuffed it in the pocket of her hoodie, grinning.

Checking her stamina (SP), she saw that it was halfway and clicked the blue potion with hope.

[Lesser Mana Potion Lvl. 1: The most basic mana restoration potion that can be created by anyone who has dabbled in alchemy. Regenerates 20 MP when consumed.]

Disappointed that her fatigue wouldn't be magically washed away like her stinging wounds, Kyra stood up to collect the loot from the five goblins, stretching out her sore muscles.

In total, she collected 11 gold, a pair of leather shoes and the dagger from the chief goblin. Kyra examined the leather shoes but decided against wearing them over her sneakers as an image of goblin feet donning the same pair of shoes invaded her mind. She gagged, storing the boots in her inventory, biding farewell to the +1 agility effect it had.

Kyra then examined the [Stone Dagger Lvl. 1], with it's wavy, uneven edges and leather-wrapped handle. It was like those weapons from archaeologist digs of hunter-gatherer times of ancient history, as if the weapon was forged from smashing rocks into each othe repeatedly. Kyra thought the dagger would be better to use than the spear, which only had a wooden tip. Remembering how the warrior goblin had smashed her spear in half, Kyra stored the spear away and gripped the dagger in her right hand.

Then staring into the cave, Kyra bit the inside of her cheek and stepped into the darkness, heart ablaze.