The next 15 gongs pass in a blur for you. You're rampaging across the cabbage patch, tearing up heads as quickly as they'll come out of the earth, with your System sight exploding with messages.
[You have received 5 EXP! Harvesting [Cabbage, common] has granted you 1 Mana.]
[You are now level 3! Your stats have increased!]
[You have received 3 EXP! Harvesting [Cabbage, common] has granted you 1 Mana.]
[You have received 3 EXP! Harvesting [Cabbage, common] has granted you 1 Mana.] ...
[You are now level 4! Your stats have increased!]
[You have received 1 EXP! Harvesting [Cabbage, common] has granted you 1 Mana.]
[Class: [Human, level 4]. EXP: 3/100]
You grab another cabbage with one hand, pulling it effortlessly from the soil as you stride to grab the next with your other hand. You are in the zone, rhythmically tearing vegetables from the earth and tossing them carelessly behind you. Forgotten is their bitter, unpleasant taste. Forgotten too is your nausea. Even your hunger. Cabbage heads are flying every which way, and you feel great.
[Class: [Human, level 4]. EXP: 38/100]
[You have received 1 EXP! Harvesting [Cabbage, common] has granted you 1 Mana.]
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You're tearing through the patch like a Cabbage Berserker. They should call you the Butcher of Cabbaken.
[Class: [Human, level 4]. EXP: 71/100]
Briefly, you cast a gaze ahead to reassure yourself that there are enough cabbages left to take you to level 5. There should be plenty. (You grab a cabbage with your left hand and pull, dropping it immediately to the ground.) There's at least another hundred or so. (Next cabbage with your right hand. Pull. Drop.) Are they going (cabbage, left hand) to stop giving EXP (right hand) when you (left) level again? (Right) probably. But (left) strangely enough (r), all this time (l), each cabbage (r) has consistent(l)ly given (r) exactly (l) 1 (r) mana.
You grab two cabbages simultaneously, pulling them free easily, barely glancing at the notification screen as you toss them aside and pounce on the next pair as if they were the last flat-screen TVs at a Black Friday Sale at Walmart.
And finally, you see:
[You have received 1 EXP! Harvesting [Cabbage, common] has granted you 1 Mana.]
[You've gained a level!]
[You are now level 5! Your stats have increased!]
You mean to stop there, but somehow, you don't. Perhaps the monotony of your actions has hypnotized you. Perhaps the Law of Inertia is demanding you keep going. Or perhaps it's the savage cabbagelust that's taken hold of you.
[Harvesting [Cabbage, common] has granted you 1 Mana.]
[Harvesting [Cabbage, common] has granted you 1 Mana.]
[Harvesting [Cabbage, common] has granted you 1 Mana.]
You might not have stopped until every last cabbage's roots had been torn out--if an unbalanced external force hadn't halted your motion with a debilitating blow to the back of your head.
Between one cabbage and the next, you drop to the ground, half-turning as you fall. You stare up through bleary eyes. Framed by the darkness encroaching on your vision, you see the face of a young woman looming over you. She would be pretty, you think, if she weren't wearing such an ugly scowl.
Your eyes drift close and that's the last thing you know.