Now that he was fully outfitted, or at least as much as his limited finances would allow him, Tyler left the guild hall for the first time. After browsing the list of quests he had opted to go with what the desk worker had told him was a called a daily quest. Kill 15 monsters of any rank. Apparently the world would generate monsters so often that these quests were the most common, although higher ranked warriors could opt for higher number of monsters. The guild would only put out specific requests for named monsters, which were monsters that had gained enough levels and a degree of intelligence. They would also put out specific quests if a group of monsters had killed a number of other warriors, as people talked and unless without a degree of incentive low ranked warriors would avoid the more capable monsters. Stepping outside the found the sight relatively, well, meh. Surrounding the guild hall was a large open space, obviously what they would normally fill with a town. The whole area was surrounded by a stone wall, a little over 5 meters tall if he had to guess. There were people walking about, but everyone looked to be in a hurry. Sighing he pushed on, and headed out the farthest gate from the guild hall, as he hoped that would mean less people were using it. Sadly it clearly wasn’t the case, as as soon as he left the safety of the walls he could see groups of people, charging towards the forest in the distance. It was like a bad cosplay convention. There were a number of people in patchwork armour, but the majority had obviously decided to preserve their funds and were still in earth clothes. There was even 2 men he could see in full business suits. Tyler was now concerned his new armour would make him stand out in a bad way. It may only be F grade, but it was obviously a complete set, and was far better quality than anything his other participants were wearing. The F grade set he had been awarded from the set was mostly leather, with boots, trousers and a button up jacket that had armoured patches in various places. Topping the outfit off was a thick fur robe that somehow didn’t feel too hot. The robe was a sort of poncho, as it pulled over his head and ended just below his waist. All in all it was obviously made to a high quality, and he resolved to try and avoid attention. There was a well worn path heading straight to the forest, and everyone he could see was sticking to that path. Tyler therefore angled himself in a different direction, and headed to what he hoped would be a quieter section of the forest.

Tyler cursed his luck. He had been in the forest for about 3 hours now, and unless birds were a type of monster, he hadn’t seen anything. He had decided to stick to walking in a straight line, marking the occasional tree with a Z as he went. Tyler wasn’t afraid to admit he knew nothing about wilderness survival. He only did the Z because he thought other people might be doing an X. Still he would rather look like a fool than get stuck wondering the forest for the rest of the tutorial. He was bust internally complaining when there was a sudden impact on the back of his shoulder. It wasn’t strong, far from it, but it was enough that he Tyler missed a step. He quickly spun, and there in the trees were at least a half dozen small green, people? Maybe not people. Their eyes glowed a sort of sickly yellow, which stood out against the green skin. Their faces were almost perfectly round, with large pointed ears sticking out either side. Honestly they were perhaps the most bizarre looking forward creatures he could even had imagined. While he busy judging their appearance, another of the strange green men launched a large rock at him. He wasn’t sure if the creature was weak, or if something else was going on, but the rock seemed to fly as if in slow motion. Using this to his advantage, Tyler stepped to the side and drew his blade. The creatures, whatever they were, clearly weren’t intelligent, and Tyler was in front of them before they even seemed to process that the rock had missed. Using the longer range of his new sword, he slashed, cutting 2 creatures across the face and impacting another on the chest. He was slightly surprised how little resistance he felt pulling the blade through them, but he didn’t have time to ponder on it however, as the first creature reacted and tried to jump towards him. Tyler stepped back and held his blade up, letting his lunging foe impale itself with little to no effort on his part. That left him a problem however, as the creature was now firmly wedged on the blade, and he still had 3 enemies looking to injure him. Dropping the sword and its passenger on the floor, Tyler began waving his hands in the air. To anyone watching he would probably have looked crazy, but the reason seem became clear. A small arrow of water appeared above him, and fired towards one of the green men, which in turn instantly fell to the ground. He immediately started waving his hands again, but was interrupted by a third rock. Something was definitely wrong, the creatures might be weak but these were still rocks, and he was brushing them off like raindrops. Tyler shifted to the side, trying to quietly edge himself closer to his abandoned sword but before he could reach it, another monster dove at him. Without any other option, Tyler swung a fist, connecting solidly with the side of the creatures head. Time seemed to almost freeze, then the creature went flying off, taking down the first tree it hit before slamming into and tipping the next one it found. The final creature finally seemed to work out that it was outclassed, and turned to run. Waving his hands once more Tyler made sure to keep his eyes on the monster and soon enough another water arrow was firing off, felling the monster.

[Battle Complete]

[7 x Goblin Lvl. 1 Defeated]

[140xp gained]

The blue screen appeared in front of him, but he had barely finished reading the screen when there was a white flash and a new screen appeared

[Level Up!]

[You have reached Level. 2]

[3 Stat points awarded]

[60xp remaining to reach Level 3]

The white screen that appeared showed 6 boxes, with a plus next to each one like you would see on any number of old RPG video games. Strength, Constitution, Endurance, Intelligence, Vitality & Wisdom. He had 3 points to allocate, and honestly no idea where to put them. Those goblins, and he couldn’t believe he hadn’t worked that one out for himself, were all level 1, and he had beaten them soundly. Based on the impact of the one he punched, strength wasn’t a huge priority. His mana pool was apparently so large it couldn’t be measured, and he wasn’t overly sure what all the others did. Finally he decided to use this first level as a fact finding upgrade, and stuck one point each into Intelligence, Wisdom and Constitution. As soon as he pressed accept, there was another white flash and his status screen appeared in front of him.

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Character Sheet - Tyler Allen Gender Male Race Unique* Level 2 Class Warrior Karma 0.00 Ranking F Titles Health 2750 Health Regeneration 100/s Stamina 2500 Stamina Regeneration 100/s Mana ++++ Mana Regeneration 550/s Constitution 2 Vitality 1 Strength 1 Endurance 1 Intelligence 2         Wisdom 2 Spells & Abilities Sword Mastery: F-1 ¦ Basic Water Arrow: F-1 ¦

So if he guessed correctly, then Con had added a massive 250 to his health, then either Wisdom or Intelligence had added 50 to his mana regeneration. Nothing else appeared to have changed, so he was assuming one of them added to his unreadable mana pool, which meant it was definitely a waste. Sadly he didn't know which one did which, so would have to experiment again the next time he levelled up. Retrieving his sword, and cleaning it down on a piece of grass without blood stains, he sheathed it and looked around. 7 goblins dead meant he only had 8 more monsters to find before he could complete his quest. That plus 60xp until he hit level 3, and he was suddenly feeling very motivated. Instead of rushing off however, he settled against a nearby tree and went over the fight in his head. He had done well, but he was honest enough with himself to admit that he made a big mistake losing the sword. Additionally while his water arrow spell had been effective, it was too slow to cast and relied on at least a small distance between him and his target. He wished he had a notepad or diary, something he could record these thoughts in to make sure he practised the right things between quests. The biggest question for him was the strength he had shown in the fight. While Tyler was in decent shape, he went to the gym 3 or 4 times a week, he was what he liked to call nightclub fit. He would never be a professional athlete, but he was fit enough that in a club women would know he took care of himself. All that meant that there was no way he should be strong enough to punch monsters through solid trees, especially not at 1 strength. Sadly all his ideas on the topic required another human to test with, and unless he ran into his sister, which he figured was unlikely, then there was nobody he actually trusted.

It was late that night when Tyler returned to the edge of the forest, quest complete. He had actually gone overboard, slaying a total of 22 goblins when he had gotten stuck fighting a large group. Thankfully he had also reached level 3, and chosen to upgrade the 3 stats he ignored the first time. If he had thought himself strong before, it was nothing compared to now. He was actually having to be careful to limit his strength as he walked through the forest, as a casual arm swing could easily dent a tree as he walked. He was certain this was unique to him, and not every other human, otherwise he would be hearing the crashing from the forest of trees getting casually destroyed. Sadly he wasn’t sure what he could actually do about it. For now he just resolved to enjoy the perks, and the easy monster kills that came with it. So far he hadn’t actually taken any damage either, or at least none he noticed. That might have been his armour, or it might have just been his health was so high, along with the regeneration rate, that level 1 goblins just weren’t capable of being a threat to him. Again he decided to just enjoy the fact. Now that he was at the edge of the forest, he decided to set up camp. The guild had been open that there were no inns or places to stay within the walls yet, and staying too far into the forest would likely attract monsters. He did make sure to set up his camp fire with the tent between it and the city, so nobody would spot him. While the guild lady had said it was too early for bandits to be an issue, Tyler wasn’t so sure. In his experience, humans were inherently lazy, and the idea that none of them weren’t already looking for the easy way in this new world was laughable to him. People didn’t want to work when that meant answering telephones, trying to sell those same people on hiking through the forest for hours on end swinging a sword just didn’t seem to be a winning idea. They would probably see this as the ideal time to start, while everyone was low levelled. Tyler took a lot longer than was probably normal skinning a rabbit he had killed with a water arrow. He was not an outdoors-man, and had no idea what he was doing. He then basically burned the meat, overly cautious about eating it raw. As he tucked into the disappointing meal, he thought back to what the guild had advised. He would probably need a party, at the very least somebody who could teach him to hunt and cook meat. The problem was the same as his issue with stats however. He simply didn’t trust anyone not to betray him when a better offer came along. He thought back to all the books he read over the years about similar situations. In all of them that he could remember, the main character would have somebody with them. Hell if this was a story then Tyler would probably have already stumbled into a situation where he saved the life of a princess, or some other rich noble, and had them to help him. Sadly this wasn’t a story, which just left Tyler alone, chuckling to himself over a piece of burned rabbit flesh.