'Did…did I die?', waking up that was the first thought that plagued my mind. With the last thing I remembered being the sharp edge of a blade nearing my temple, it was the only logical conclusion.
Although I had to say, even though I was encompassed by darkness I didn't feel particularly... deceased, as far as I could tell I was still breathing, my limbs still functioned and touching the rest of my body, I confirmed that I was in one piece.
The only oddity, excluding the darkness, was that all my injuries and fatigue from the previous battle had disappeared. Almost if the battle never happened, if not for the hole in the side of my shirt prove that I had being stabbed, I would have probably believed this all to be a dream.
Just as I was beginning to further question the state of my existence, I heard a message from the system.
[Congratulations on reaching Lvl 5! You have being transported to the {Class Trial}]
[Congratulations on being in the first 0.8% of awakened too reach Lvl 5]
[Your time limit in the {Class Trial} is increased by 50%]
[Trial panel has being added to the system]
Quickly opening the system I was confronted with two tabs, one named Status and the other simply called Trial.
Already knowing what Status stood for I focused on the Trial page.
______________
[Trial panel]
Duration: 14 days & 23:58:23
Objective: Survival
Final Reward: {Skill} or {Class}
______________
As I perused through the panel I felt slightly underwhelmed by the lack of information, although it did confirm a few things with the biggest one being that I was alive, and that I had been teleported before the goblins dagger could reach me.
What came as a pleasant surprise though was that I now knew I was not the only one to receive the system, with me being in the top 0.8% and all, and that I had reached Lvl 5, I had an inkling of the reason but to confirm I checked the system messages.
[You have slain Lvl18 {Goblin}]
[You have slain an E rank Goblin while being F rank]
[Extra experience will be granted]
[You Leveled UP]
[You Leveled UP]
[You Leveled UP]
[You Leveled UP]
[Ding- you reached LVL 5]
'Hah, so that bastard died before me and was apparently a higher rank, actually... how many ranks are there?'.
I now knew there was an F and E rank with the latter being a higher rank according to the system. If we would be going by the common game trope then the ranks would likely go from F>D>C>B>A>S, but seeing as there was an E rank after F, I was just guessing at what the next rank could be.
Realising that thinking about it wouldn't give me any answers I decided to leave it, and although I was still unsure how to feel at the thought of not dying when I had already accepted my death, I also did not ponder on it for long finding it redundant.
Its not like I was suicidal, but more like the state of my existence didn't have a great importance to me.
In life I just followed the motto,"If I live I live, If I die I die", was it a bit depressing…. maybe, but after living the last few years like that you get used to it.
So now that I am still breathing and kicking I decided to just focus on the trial ahead of me, hoping it would be as entertaining as the battle with the goblin. Minus the part of getting stabbed, which might go against what I just said about the state of my existence not mattering, but come on, no one enjoys getting stabbed! unless their a masochist.
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Deciding to focus on something else, I finally looked at my status too see how it had changed with four extra levels.
_______
Name: Aeron
Level: 5. (F)
Class. None
Skills: None
Health: 832
Mana: 124
Strength: 10 , Agility 9 ,Vitality 8
Endurance: 8 ,Intelligence: 16 ,Sense: 7
USP: 16
_______
Thinking back, I hadn't opened the window since I had leveled up, and it sure had grown. with all my stats receiving a huge boost mostly doubling except for intelligence as it was already pretty high.
I could confirm that with every level I got all my stats would increase by 1 with my Endurance that was 4 at level one, having gone up to 8.
The stat that saw the biggest increase would be the sense stat, as technically it was at 1 before I got the system so it had increased by 700% too 7.
Even though it was the stat with the biggest increase I couldn't tell the difference, probably because there was no real stimulus for the senses around me except the cold somewhat jagged ground, or because it had some other hidden function.
Looking at the 16 USP, I decided to allocate them. I could wait and utilize them when I needed it in a battle, however I did not want to be attacked by a monster again without having the reflexes to react, like what happened with the goblin.
Then saving up the points would be more than useless, so after a bit of contemplating my status looked like this.
_______
Name: Aeron
Level: 5. (F)
Class. None
Skills: None
Health: 1076
Mana: 124
Strength: 13 , Agility 16 ,Vitality 10
Endurance: 10 ,Intelligence: 16 ,Sense: 9
USP: 0
_______
After allocating my stats my status had again seen a major development, with me dumping most of them into agility and strength.
With this build I would be fast enough to react and strong enough to actually damage monsters. In the other stats I had put 2 each as I didn't know which one to prioritise.
The only stat I neglected was intelligence as so far all I knew was that it increased Mana which was useless to me as I did not know how to use it.
Satisfied with my choice, I finally took the time to take in my surroundings, although it was mostly dark, after standing up and looking behind me I could see a faint flicker of light in the distance.
Heading towards it I became increasingly aware of my location.
'A dark and dreary place, thick humidity making it difficult to breath, and the faint sound of water dripping to the ground, I am definitely in a cave', and just as I had thought as I made my way over to the light I found a torch illuminating the wall, displaying the passage of a cave in all its dull gray glory.
The cave was about two meters wide and three meters tall with the walls lined with torches, illuminating the stalactites on the ceiling, along with the further ends of the tunnels, as if it were providing directions for me to pursue.
knowing I would have to follow the torches to get out of here, I decided to grab one of them, using it as a makeshift weapon would I come upon any creatures.
Feeling somewhat prepared, I cautiously followed the trail of fire.
...…..
It didn't take long until the passage led me to encounter my first enemy.
The enemy in front of me like with the goblins was a familiar one you would often encounter in MMORPG Games or most fantasy games, although I never really played them they were so popular practically everyone knew about them.
And the monster in front of me was definitely what they called a slime. Being about the size of a basketball, and made out of a light blue gelatinous substance making it see through, it seemed to literally be a ball jelly as its oval shape was slowly moving in my direction.
And when I say it was slow, I meant SLOW as it was moving at a walking pace.
For a while now I had continued to withdraw keeping a good three meters distance between me and the slime, the reason being.
"How do I kill it?"
Although the slime appeared to be a pathetically weak enemy I had no idea how to attack it, as its body didn't seem to have any organs or weak spots, I also doubted blunt damage would do the trick.
The fire of the torch also didn't bother it, as after I waved it threateningly a couple of times it still kept approaching me.
Getting frustrated I eventually decided to just engage it in battle hoping I would somehow be able to defeat.
Closing the distance for the first time I put the torch in front of me in a defensive position in case the slime did anything unexpected.
Which turned out to be the right course of action as after I was about a meter away from the slime it suddenly jumped at me.
Although the jump was fast and unexpected I had enough time to react and swatted the slime like a baseball against the cavern wall, after that I quickly approached it and began continuously pounding it with the torch.
After a minute or so I realised I was getting nowhere, although much of the slime's body was splattered across the cave, after a while as if sentient all those pieces would crawl back to it main body.
I could keep beating it with the stick but I was already getting tired, all the while the torch would probably break with the wood already visibly blackening, as it turned out the slime was acidic.
The only positive was that the slime didn't jump at me again, likely because it was injured in some sort of way.
Just as I was thinking of abandoning this battle, I noticed something in the body of the slime, because my torch's fire was extinguished after the first clash, I failed to notice a glint in the middle of the slime's body.
This detail would have evaded me if not for the slime being significantly smaller than before, but now that I focused on it I could make out that it was a small blue marble, a slightly lighter blue shade than the slime.
Seeing this as my chance I used all my power and pierced the body of the slime with the butt of the torch hitting the blue marble and making it exit the slime.
As the marble rolled on the floor, the slime transformed into a blue puddle, while I heard the system.
[You have slain Lvl 2 {SLIME}]
Having defeated my first foe I grabbed the marble it had dropped and a new torch while progressing deeper into the cave.