Chapter 3: Escape & Learn

Aeden turned towards the scream, and he saw a woman flat on her back, another goblin charging towards her. His mind was still on his adrenaline high, he sprang into action. He charged at the goblin and released another combat fueled roar. The goblin was already on top of the woman ready to bring down a crude looking club. She struggled to throw it off her. The goblin began cackling at the terror of its victim, to just turn its head in time for the front of its face to meet the destructive power of the world's most reliable weapon. As Aeden had done it once already, he rained down another savage display on his new target. It took a bit as these were surprisingly hardy creatures or he was just weaker than them. Which was an uncomfortable thought for Aeden at the time.

Then he heard a small 'Ding'.

After he finished off the creature, the women sat there petrified as to what just happened. All she could do was breathe, and she was struggling at that task alone. After Aeden finished off the creature he tossed its body to the side, grabbed the woman's arm, and yelled “Let’s go!”

He wasn’t waiting for a response, already trying to lift her off the ground. As she rose uncooperatively, she was only able to sputter incoherent sentences. “What was- I thought I was- Who arrrre-? wahh!”

The moment she stood up straight Aeden didn’t even bother trying to wait for her brain to catch up. He took off running towards the woods. He saw many already escaping into the thickets. He didn’t stop for anything else. People were screaming for help or in agony as they were devoured alive. His left leg was on fire from where the goblin had stabbed him moments ago. But the adrenaline was pushing him forward and the need to survive.

After about five minutes of non-stop running, he finally began to slow down basically dragging the other women as he did. Aeden and the woman were breathing hard. His chest was heaving, trying to get both air into his lungs and trying to wet his lips and throat. The woman was breathing hard, but she seemed to be faring better than Aeden. They both fell to the forest floor trying to catch their breaths and calm down. After a few minutes Aeden breathe had return slightly, he still labored to breathe. He swore if he survived this he would start working out. Aeden had never been athletic with his time on earth but after this first encounter with this new world, he foresaw a lot more running in his immediate future.

After calming down the woman that Aeden had been roughly dragging along was the first to speak. “What the hell were those things!”

Aeden took a moment as he looked over the women. She was blonde with bright blue eyes with a slightly tanned skin tone. Her hair was pulled into a messy bun. She was average height for any woman, probably 5.4ft. Her body was curvy with an hourglass figure an overall bombshell. She was wearing a sports bra and yoga pants. ‘She was stunning,’ Aeden thought to himself. Then he focused back onto her question looking away and trying not to stare too hard.

“Goblins I think.” He stated as a matter of fact.

“Like from movies and stories! Really!?” she said, astonished.

“Yeah," he said. "They fit the bill from their appearance.”

Silence reigned for a while before the women spoke again. “Thank you for saving me by the way. I don't know what I would’ve done. I’m Erika by way.” She gave him a soft friendly smile the soft rays of the new morning sun illuminating her soft features. Aeden had never believed in those fairy tale moments in both movies and shows really existed. Where characters had a fateful encounter matched with the perfect scenery, but he had to admit in this moment maybe they were right.

“Aeden” he quickly responded, still a little out of breath. “And you're welcome.” He gasped out still trying to catch his breath.

Now it was Erika’s turn to inspect her wood-be savior. He was a tall guy probably 6.2ft with an average build. He had short black hair that was slicked back and faded down on the sides. He was sporting a black hoodie with a pair of blue jeans. She noticed the sleeves were a little rolled up revealing some tattoos. The prominent ones being a skull on his left hand, and a rose on his right. They were well drawn the rest still covered by his hoodie. Aeden turned his head to look out to the forest surrounding them. Erika noticed two crosses tattooed behind his right ear, one a little higher than the other. After examining him she went back to her earlier questioning her mind slowly starting to catch up to the situation they were in.

“Do you have any idea as to where we are? Or why are we here?” She asked hoping that he would have any answers. To her surprise, he did, or at least he thought he did.

“I think we’ve been transported to another world.” he responded rather excitedly.

“That's insane that couldn’t have happened, it's not possible.” She said, disturbed by his answer.

“Do you remember a notice before you woke up here?” He started to question her.

“I don't know. I remember seeing a sign in the sky saying something, but I didn't really read it because I couldn’t really believe what I was seeing in the first place. I tried blinking a few times, but the sign just remained there in the sky. I thought I was hallucinating.”

Aeden couldn’t really blame her; it's hard to accept things that exist outside of normal concepts. Though it's probably best to fill her in as to why we were here. “Well in the sign there was some text. In there it was stating that we had been selected for preservation basically. The strangest part about it was the system being fair.”

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As he finished his last statement that reminded him of the status screen, he was looking at earlier. He wanted to bring that up and take a closer look. He tried swiping his hand like the first time. Nothing appeared. “Open,” he said to seemingly no one. Erika looked to her savior and wondered if he had just lost it. He just broke off their conversation just spouting random phrase into the air. He was just waving his hands randomly. She began to wonder if she was truly lucky to be stuck with this guy for the moment.

Aeden was starting to get frustrated trying whatever combination of hand movements or words he could think of. Then an idea popped into his head. Since the status screen looked like it belonged in a video game maybe he could ‘will’ it into existence. He took a deep breath and focused his mind and finally he thought ‘status’ in his mind and the screen reappeared. ‘That was useful,’ he thought to himself. As long as you were conscious you could activate it anytime.

The status page opened once again. He noticed some things were different from last time.

Status

Name: Aeden Knight

Lvl: 1

Title: [none]

Class: [none]

Attributes: [Human] [Doomed Race]

Free Attribute Points: 1

Strength: 14

Dexterity: 16

Constitution: 11

Charisma: 11

Intelligence: 16

Wisdom: 18

Skills: [Unarmed lvl1]

‘It seems it only tells the current things about you, mainly your attributes and skills.’ He thought to himself. Speaking of his skills and attributes they had all changed. He went down the list.

First his level. It was zero when he first got a glimpse of it earlier. At some point he had ranked up maybe when he killed those two goblins. He didn’t have a title or class. He figured he knew what classes were just from video game knowledge alone. However, he didn’t know what titles were.

He did have two attributes being both: [Human] and [Doomed Race]. He didn’t know what these meant for him. Maybe could find out though. He would have to experiment in a second but put it on hold for now. His base stats he already knew what they were, but he would have to inspect some of them further just to ensure what they did for him specifically. He also got a new skill [Unarmed lvl1]. He probably earned it after the brawl with the goblins just bludgeoning them with his fist and a rock into them repeatedly. ‘That was obvious’ he thought to himself.

Now it was time for him to see if he could inspect further. He decided to investigate the stuff he already had. He started with the [Human] trait. He mentally said ‘open,’ and a small screen appeared that said…

Human: A bipedal species that has adapted to their environments for over hundreds of thousands of years. Ranging with several attributes and characteristics. They are highly intelligent and adaptable. For having the Human Attribute each level up, you will be awarded +2 attribute points for all attributes per level up.

There was another ‘Ding’ sound. He swore he had heard one earlier.

He then inspected the next attribute [Doomed Race] ...

Doomed Race: The species known as humans were doomed to perish whether by their own design or cosmic fate. The system has deemed the continuation of their species. This race will undergo a massive transformation due to their new environment therefore they will receive +1 attribute points for all attributes per level up, plus +1 free attribute point can also be assigned to and attribute of their choosing.

Aeden didn’t know if that was good or bad because he didn’t have anything to compare it too unfortunately. Next, he wanted to check out some of the actual attributes he knew some were self-explanatory like dexterity, strength, and intelligence. So, he started to investigate a little further just to make sure there were no hidden features that those attributes had. So, he started down the list first with constitution.

Constitution: relates to how much one's body can endure. It affects the body including how well you can endure environmental factors, as well as status effects, pain, and damage. It also affects how quickly you can heal.

That snapped Aeden back into reality for a second because he just now remembered the stab wound in his leg. It still hurt but it wasn't the hot sharp pain he felt before. It was dulled a little but not by much. Probably thanks to the increase in CON due to the level up. Next, he would look at charisma.

Charisma: how well you can speak and influence others as well as the initial attitudes and dispositions of others towards you.

That last part caught him by surprise but the more he thought about it made began to make sense. People that were introverted and didn't really speak out much, or quiet people generally were thought of as weird, so he guess it made sense both in reality and with this ‘system’ as well.

Finally, wisdom…

Wisdom: is the attribute of the mind. How well you can apply both the knowledge and experience you have gained as well as how well you can guard the mind and endure mental challenges and influences.

To Aeden wisdom seemed to be a much better trait than it let on. He would have to keep that in mind in the future. Thankfully he only had one skill to inspected. The [Unarmed] skill.

Unarmed: You have a crude understanding of fighting with your own natural weapons. This skill affects how well you can attack and perform with your body. Your STR provides a bonus to damage per strike. You may now learn move sets related to the unarmed skill. Increase this skill to increase your base damage and effects of move sets.

After taking a moment to take in all the information that he had just learned. Aeden decided to check one more thing. He decided to look at these titles even if he didn't have one but maybe it would tell me more information about it. He opened the tab with my mind and expanded it with my mind and I was thankfully shown a text box underneath it.

Title: Titles are monikers given to individuals who have completed great feats, overcome impossible challenges or odds. They have survived significant events or have influenced many others with their deeds or actions. Titles provide special effects based on which titles you have received. It is also possible to equip multiple titles.

There was one last thing he wanted to check out. It was in the top right corner of the screen it said ‘log’ and it had an orange exclamation point on it. It seemed important so he opened it without too much thought, and it said…

Log

For being the first of your species to discover the status screen +1 int has been awarded…

Goblin defeated gained exp…

For being the first of your species to defeat an enemy you’ve been awarded +2 STR, +2 DEX, and +1 CON…

Goblin Defeated gained exp…

Congratulations you have leveled up. Points have been awarded…

For being the first of your species to level up +1 to all attributes have been awarded...

You have gained unarmed skill…

For being the first of your species to learn a new skill +1 INT, +1 WIS have been awarded…

For surviving a minor wound +1 CON has been awarded…

For being the first of your species to discover a function of the system without the system's help +2 int and +1 wisdom has been awarded…

“Holy crap” he said aloud. Quite a few things had happened since his little fight for survival barely thirty minutes ago. He took a moment to ponder. It appears special actions would culminate into extra attribute points. Especially if you are the first to accomplish something. One thing that caught his attention was the part where it said the first of his species. Did that mean there was other sentient life here? He began to think what that could mean for the rest of them. He decided to push that to the side for now he had more important matters to attend too.

Name: Aeden Knight

Lvl: 1

Title: [none]

Class: [none]

Attributes: [Human] [Doomed Race]

Free Attribute Points: 1

Strength: 17

Dexterity: 19

Constitution: 14

Charisma: 12

Intelligence: 21

Wisdom: 21

Skills: [Unarmed lvl1]