"Where-" I struggled to open my mouth as the pain I felt from the bullet still lingers in both my mind and body. "Am I?"
I remember dying in the last second of the system countdown. But I swear I accepted the proposal with my dying breath.
Did I just clutched that moment?
I wondered what could have happened if I was not able to ounce up my remaining strength to utter the word. Surprisingly, I was not that too much bothered, pondering again if this was normal. To feel alright after a near death experience.
No, not near. I may actually have died.
But thinking about it now is useless therefore, I waited for anything to happen and began noticing my surroundings. My whole body was submerged in a pit of void, consumed by darkness, falling endlessly. I squinted my eyes for no reason. The eerie silence disturbed my mind, my ears began to throb as the sound of my heart grew louder by every beat.
Is this what they call the abyss?
Out of nowhere, a new system window appeared that illuminated the deep abyss, almost blinding my eyes.
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SYSTEM NOTICE
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WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF RIVIERA. PLEASE WAIT PATIENTLY AS YOU ARE NOW BEING EVALUATED ACCORDINGLY IN TERMS OF LUCK.
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ROLLING SEVEN DICE ALL AT ONCE...
RESULT
7
7
7
7
7
7
7
TOTAL: 49 POINTS
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EVALUATING
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!!WARNING!!
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AN UNKNOWN GOD IS INTERFERRING
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DETECTING ANOMALIES
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ANOMALIES CONFIRMED
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A GOD SACRIFICED ITS POWER TO GIVE YOU 1 POINT OF LUCK
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TOTAL RESULT: 50 POINTS
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The system kept feeding me weird stuff. A god had interfered? Not to mention, it added one point in my total result. I was not sure if it was a good thing or not but I could not do anything besides reading what is being shown in front me. I wanted to know which specific God it was so I could thank them or curse them if it was meant to make my second life worse yet again. The system was not done yet and continued sending me messages, to which I read every detail.
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EVALUATING
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DONE
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CONVERTING YOUR LUCK
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DONE
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RESULT
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STATUS WINDOW
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NAME: Jin Kirkland
Level: 1
HP (2000/2000) - HP gradually regenerates over time. (10 HP per sec) - Affected by VIT and Level
MP (500/500) - MP gradually regenerate over time. (3 MP per sec) - Affected by Mana Pool Level
PHYSICAL POWER: A
ABILITY POWER: A
DEFENSIVE POWER: A
DEXTERITY: A+
VITALITY: A
LUCK: S+
MANA POOL: A
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SKILLS: (6)
Passive: Divine Blessing (Pink)
Description:
-When leveling up, all stat points will increase and a random two stat points gained are doubled.
Passive: Super Sense (Red)
Description:
-All six senses are greatly enhanced by 40%.
Passive: Carnage (Red)
Description:
-When successfully landing successive hits to an opponent, each hit will increase the user's damage output by 0.01%. Can be stacked up to 50% damage bonus. NOTE: Combo meter and passive
effect will reset if the user fails to hit an opponent within 5 seconds after a hit landed.
-When damage bonus hits 5%/10%/15%/20%, attacks will also apply life steal and will also increase respectively.
Passive: Alone or With Friends! I shall See through The End! (Red)
Description:
-The user can either hunt alone or with a party. Will naturally gain 2x more experience points than normal when hunting alone. Will naturally gain 1.2x more experience points when hunting with a
party, plus there is an increase of 1.5x drop rate of soul cards from monsters.
Passive: Auto Guard (Blue)
Description:
-The user is permanently coated with a thin barrier of mana to protect the user from unwanted and unexpected attacks. The barrier's toughness surmounts to 10% of the user's current mana. Higher
mana means tougher barrier. If the attack power received by the user is too high, the barrier will break and the user will suffer from the damage received.
-Auto Guard will not take effect if mana has been depleted.
Active: Cut (Green)
Description:
-The user will utilize and coat any weapon with mana to produce a swift and sharp swing to cut the opponent. Damage=(100%PP*DEX)
-Mana Consumption: 20 MP
-Skill CD: 10 seconds
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Seeing my own status window and the absurd descriptions of the skills I just got, I doubted whoever god is controlling the system of this world. Especially the fact that I got all 7s in the rolling dice and that another god had intervened during the process. Well, I never expected an answer from the system. The same system that did not even provide more information about the beta tutorial message it showed back on Earth.
Since I have no way of knowing whether these stats are considered high, I tried to rely on my experiences in games. If the grading of abilities are by letters, then that means "F" or "F- " would most likely be the lowest rank. And S+ or SS+ are the highest.
But it bugged me that the abilities were graded by letters while the skills used colors. Well, not that the system would spoon feed me now anyway. I guess I have to figure it out by myself later on huh?
With nothing else to do I stared at my status window for a bit longer, waiting for what the system would do next as my body floats deeper in the void. And speak of the devil, another notice popped up.
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SYSTEM NOTICE
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ALL CHOSEN ONES HAVE BEEN EVALUATED AND HAVE THEIR CORRESPONDING LUCK CONVERTED.
WE WILL NOW WARP YOU IN RIVIERA TUTORIAL GROUNDS AFTER YOU RECEIVE YOUR DESIRED WEAPON AND READ BOTH THE TUTORIAL AND PERSONAL QUEST.
----------------------------------------
Frowning at the message, curiosity ran through my head. "Personal quest?" And as if the phrase served as an activation, another window popped up.
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PERSONAL QUEST
{I AM THE SHIELD THAT GUARDS THE SHEEP}
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YOU ARE GIVEN THE ROLE OF A SHEPHERD. IN YOUR PARTY MEMBERS LATER ON AFTER YOU GET TELEPORTED, FIND THE TRUE SHEEP AND PROTECT THE SHEEP AT ALL COST.
IF THE SHEEP DIES FROM MONSTERS AND KILLERS, THE SHEPHERD WILL SUFFER A PENALTY: DEATH
IF ALL MEMBERS, INCLUDING THE WOLVES, SURVIVED WITH THE SHEPHERD AND THE SHEEP, THERE WILL BE NO PENALTIES GIVEN. BUT THERE WILL ALSO BE NO REWARDS GIVEN BY PERSONAL QUEST AT THE END OF THE TUTORIAL.
IF THE SHEPHERD AND SHEEP ARE THE ONLY ONES TO SURVIVE FROM THE PARTY WHEN THE TUTORIAL PHASE ENDS, THEY WILL BE GIVEN A RANDOM SOUL CARD.
SOUL CARD REWARD (RED) (RANDOM)
x1 Werewolf Card = PP+ 10%
x1 Minotaur Card = DP+ 10%
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
x1 Mermaid Card = AP+ 10%
x1 Wyvern Card = DEX+5% VIT+ 5%
BUT IF A WOLF HAD DRAWN FIRST BLOOD FROM A SHEPHERD, THEY MUST KILL ALL SHEPHERDS AND SHEEP UNTIL THE END OF THE TUTORIAL.
----------------------------------------
TUTORIAL QUEST
{MVP}
----------------------------------------
KILL MONSTERS DURING THE TUTORIAL TO EARN POINTS. HIGHER POINTS WILL BE GIVEN BY MONSTERS OF HIGHER LEVEL AND DIFFICULTY. EVERY MIDNIGHT THE RANKINGS WILL BE UPDATED TO SHOW EACH PLAYERS' PROGRESS.
TIME ALLOTED: 7 DAYS
GENEROUS REWARDS WILL BE GIVEN TO THE TOP 10 OF THE RANKINGS LIST.
----------------------------------------
That was unexpected. Right from the get go, the team I'm in will be in a competition. And we still have to deal with points for the rankings.
But I steeled my resolve. Whatever happens out there, I told myself I was already prepared for it.
After I get my weapon, of course.
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SYSTEM NOTICE
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PLEASE CHOOSE THE WEAPON YOU WISH TO USE DURING THE TUTORIAL.
LONG SWORD SHORT SWORD BOW ORB STAFF DAGGER HAMMER SICKLE AXE SHIELD SCYTHE MACE SPEAR
----------------------------------------
There were so many to choose from. Swords are typically the most common choices out of them all but my mind and body wanted something else. Something that I have always imagined myself swinging with style.
Without anymore hesitation, I chose the weapon that represented my numbers earlier in the dice draw.
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CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR WEAPON CHOICE: SCYTHE (PP +5%, DEX +5%)
YOU MAY SUMMON YOUR WEAPON THROUGH OPENING YOUR PERSONAL DIMENSION STORAGE.
MAY THE GODS FAVOR YOU IN YOUR JOURNEY.
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The abyss that cloaked my entire body suddenly began to glow, going a hundred eighty-degree turn from absolute darkness to everlasting brightness. It took my breath for a second and my mind began to feel wobbly since it was the second time already my body experienced being teleported. My vision returned after a short while. I had my hands still raised up, covering my eyes from the light earlier, and was greeted by a strong and cold breeze that pressed the uniform I was still wearing, slapping them on my skin. When I put down my arm, there I found myself not alone but with a group.
So this is where we are welcomed in our first day.
Our starting area seems to be here, at the shore. And in front of us is a forest filled with mysteries that matched the rippling sand to where we stood. The soft ends of the trees and overgrown shrubs danced with the wind that hummed along the shore. I sought for the singing sound of the birds from the deep forest bestowed in front of us, but nothing reached my ears. Only the crashing waves of the vast sea near us along with the whistling lash of leaves carried by the strong wind can be heard.
I observed the sun was not entirely above us, as it just floated above the mountains in the far distance behind the high canopy of the forest. It could mean the day had just started. But since this was a new world, I told myself there is a possibility that the sun will set behind a mountain rather than the horizon of the sea in contrast to the location of my place back on Earth.
When I gave attention to the other people around me, the first thing I caught was their style of clothing. It was kind of familiar so I instinctively thought they were also from Earth. We were all wearing different sets of clothes. One woman had a sports attire. Others had pajamas and typical jeans and shirt. But I dared not ask any of them. Not uttering a word, I counted them with my eyes. There were six members, including me. Three women, three men. Our age seem to range from eighteen to late twenties except the one person who is evidently a middle-aged man with its receding hairline and wrinkled temples. At least to my judgement.
All our body language expressed wariness against each other.
A shepherd, a sheep, and of course a wolf. Killers.
So I heightened my guard and senses just in case. Not even a minute had passed by, and a young woman suddenly had the courage to break the tension that was rising within our group. Raising her hands timidly, she took a step forward and began talking.
"Uhm. Hi. We all can rest easy. I think." Her words did not match her tone as she stuttered in between words. But she tried to finish her sentences.
"I think. We should get familiar with each other and introduce ourse―" before she could even finish, someone cut her off.
"No thanks, little miss." It was another young woman, probably in her late twenties. Her hair was dyed red but cut short. Her lean body and arms that has a fair share of muscles suggested that she was lifting weights. "In fact, why should we?"
Startled, the younger woman took a step back and began fumbling with her fingers. "P-pardon? So that we-we all could get along? And, know each other?"
The short haired woman still glowered and showed no interest in her idea.
"Bullshit. You expect us to work along with a potential killer, is that what you're saying?"
She seemed the type of person to directly confront someone regardless of the situation nor your relationship to her.
Giving up, the younger woman lowered her gaze in defeat and did not continue arguing further. The others, including me, did not even try to save her face and just averted our eyes. It was a silent agreement that all of us here are not friends unless we knew who to trust with our roles. And none of us are willing to expose anything. I did not know what were the details of the others' quests are. It was hard to just pin point someone. And basing on personality does not seem reliable at all. A wolf could be hiding in the disguise of a sheep's skin.
I need to pay attention.
Tension began rising again. None of us were willing to go out and venture deep into the forest. But none of us also wanted to be acquainted with each other. Shit. This is ridiculous.
It took awhile before finally, another contender tried to ease the churning agitation from everyone and offered a temporary solution.
"Why not a truce? Even for just a short while. Since nobody's brave enough to enter the forest to gain points from monsters, we should work together until you all decide whether it's worth staying with the group or not." It was a young man this time, and if I were to judge only by his height, he is probably a high schooler but his face did not match it at all. He seemed mature in his looks especially with his the strong features of his face. Him and the woman beside her were both clad in identical pajamas.
Couples?
"Why not reveal just everything?" Another suggested. It was the man who was the oldest looking among us all six, but not taller than me who was five foot eleven. "Why not just focus on getting points with this team and just ignore whatever quest we personally received?"
The short haired woman did not stay quiet for long. With her hands crossed on her chest, she began to question his point.
"Ha! For the sheep and shepherds it's heaven and advantageous. But for the killers, I don't think they'll agree to it."
"The penalty for having the full party finish this tutorial is none. Although there's also no reward, don't you all think it's way better than having to be at the edge of our seat day and night worrying about who is who?"
"I agree to your call. But how can we trust each other's back?" The woman in matching pajamas had also entered the conversation. It seemed that everyone is opening one by one now except for me who have not said a single word yet.
The middle-aged man frowned and contemplated for a moment before answering her question.
"That is something I can not control, dear. We'll just have to hope that everybody here thinks the same."
He was right. There is no way of telling who will betray us later on if given the right chance. It is hard to determine the dangers lurking in the shadows of the forest waiting for us but it is harder to trust a man's word. When I saw the group retreating from the idea that was just proposed, I knew we would never get ahead of this problem unless we point out each of our roles.
But the young man in pajamas from earlier decided to take over again.
"It doesn't matter. If we don't get moving, we'll be stuck in this sand. Unless you all wanna die in here, I suggest we better get moving."
"The person who does not want to tag along shall be left here. Hmm. Yes that should do it." Added by the middle-aged man.
The red haired girl clicked her tongue, clearly detesting their idea but she was left with no choice since she knows she can not survive on her own yet. By the meantime, I decided to suggest giving our names at least. Since we all decided to work together, names will not be able to reveal too much from any of us and should not be forbidden.
One by one, we introduced ourselves. The middle-aged man called himself Keon while the short haired woman was Patricia. Both the pajama duo, the young man and woman, introduced themselves as Evan and Emily respectively and we learned they were siblings. The timid girl is known as Tina. When all of us finished introducing, we began to formulate a plan. It was not something special nor complicated. In fact, it was just as simple as entering the forest and then deal with every monster we encounter while picking up anything that is edible for us to eat.
Approximately six hours have passed, and we have encountered several monsters so far. A pack of unusual horned wolves often appear in all sides, ambushing and trying to catch us by surprise. Luckily, it seems that all of us here are able to adapt fast not only in fighting. Each of our mental fortitude seems to be high as we quickly got used to killing a living being. Only the first kills did bother some of us. It almost feel like these people I am with are game freaks who played several RPGs in their lives. Thus explains why we were not that flabbergasted by the idea of magic and monsters all around us. We were also able to gain fighting experience with mere goblins during our early trek in the forest. Some were isolated by group of three, while others wandered the forest alone. So when the wolves tried their best to contain us all in, we were able to fend them off and kill them with the help of our weapons.
If there is something I noticed the most, it is that my attack power is higher than all of them. At least, to what they have shown. I could feel the effect of grade A's in my body when I fought the monsters. My body feels really light. But the outcome of my sloppy swinging was heavy. I sliced a goblin in half at the waist with my skill Cut. Although goblins are quite small compared to a normal human adult, their agile movements and creepy laugh could still rouse up my anxiety when facing them. I also thought I would puke when I teared off their flesh just like the stories I have heard back on Earth when they first accidentally kill a living being, but it never occurred to me here in this world when I took my first kill. In fact, I got excited. I felt free.
After wolves were the random gigantic spiders, the size of a toddler, that suddenly drops from the high reached canopy. They were not entirely threatening us since we could feel their presence but when caught by their sticky webs, it would definitely annoy anyone. But they seem not to appear in this deeper part of the forest.
Now we took a break here at an open space, where the canopy of the trees fail to conceal our group from the peeking eyes of the sky. After fighting multiple times, more than half of us needed rest. Not to mention, we were all hungry and dehydrated. We had someone who could identify if something is edible or not but so far we could not find a tree bearing an edible fruit. The meat of the wolves we hunted tend to disintegrate into a pile of smoke after taking a fatal hit. The only reward we get was a bunch of experience points. So the thought of tasting meat will have to be put aside for now.
Looking into my status window, I have leveled up by four points and gained a new skill. I was amazed by its description. It lets me teleport in short distances three times after casting within twenty seconds.
Not bad. Mobility skills are what I like the best.
"Gosh! I should have eaten my breakfast." Patricia groaned. Her stomach growled as if to support her complaint.
Ignoring and moving past her, Keon took the lead in planning this time.
"Should we camp in this spot? We can have fewer people to try and search for food in the near vicinity while the others prepare a hut. Does anybody here knows how to build a simple hut?"
Raising his arm, Evan volunteered.
"Me, I do."
When no one else lifted their hands, I did. Letting one man do the work would take us some time. Evan nodded at me to show appreciation and suggested to go gather wood before dusk falls. But Emily, who can not seem to handle being separated from her brother, asked us to take her too.
I got worried for a second there. These two are siblings and they could be plotting something to me. But the others did not refute the idea so I too went along. I will just have to watch my back and if things comes to worst, I can just escape with my newly acquired skill.
Now that the others volunteered to go searching for food and scouting for potential dangers ahead, with a trio group, we all got into work.
A few minutes have passed, the twins and I have strayed further from the others. Out of nowhere, Evan opened a question.
"By any chance, Jin, are you a shepherd?"
I stopped from my tracks and observed not just him, but his sister as well. The blunt question got me by surprised but I needed to keep a straight face.
"Why do you want to know no? Are you implying that you already know the sheep?"
He meets me in the eye and responded. "No. But we do have a chance here right now, don't you think?" Without trying to hide his intention, he sure knows how to make someone feel uneasy.
With a sigh, my mind began to think of countermeasures. Should I bluff that I am wolf? What good will it do to me? Can I beat these two? Or should I stick to my original plan of escaping? Series of thoughts swam in my mind. Nonetheless, I did not feel threatened.
"Are you that eager to know? It's still the first day you know."
"The earlier we settle things, the better."
"Rushing things now huh? Did you finally determine that the monsters residing in this forest are not a total challenge?"
"Let me tell you straight. My sister and I don't fully trust the others. Well, none of us here does to each other anyway. Sooner or later, first blood will be drawn. And I only need one shepherd to protect my sister at all cost."
His sister had not utter a word since the start of conversation. It seems she was not the one to talk too much. She merely stood behind her brother. Observing everything being unfolded. I could not tell whether Evan was serious or not, that he might have other intentions. Surely, everyone is capable of lying.
And these people in front of me are no different.
Evan was straight up telling me his sister is the sheep. He is suggesting that he only wants a shepherd for his sister. Or it could be a bait for the shepherds like me to flock into her to guard her then later eats us alive.
As if reading my thoughts, Evan sighed. I did not know if that was a good sign but then he suddenly raised his arms up in surrender and said.
"Alright. Let's stop here. We still need to gather materials and build a hut so let's get moving." He turned his back and continued moving forward.
"I refuse."
He glanced back to me, frowning at my words. And I carried on.
"Why should I keep following the two of you who barred their fangs at me?"
"We have no plans of killing—"
"Stop. I'll return back for now. You both can stay. I'll just gather materials somewhere else. I'll pretend this never happened."
Evan did not argue further and just shrugged. "Your call, then." I could see his sister making a long face, guilty about her brother's decision of confronting me.
I watched them vanish from my vision first before turning around and walking straight back to our camp. It took awhile before I shot out through the dense forest and finally got into the open space we all agreed to camp into.
When I tried to survey the area where the others went, I saw a figure in the distant. I could not discern it well due to the thick weeds covering my vision. It took a moment before I could finally take a good look of it and I frowned.
I identified it was Patricia. But something was wrong. She was staggering in her steps and kept leaning on each tree she bypasses. Half of her body was limp and covered in blood. She started running desperately towards me when she spotted me, her face was filled with panic.
Because behind her, were her pursuers. And they too, were familiar to me.
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END
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