The level up had unlocked many additional things in the system. Focusing on things now gave him a prompt showing useful information about it. Centipede turned out to be level ?? with a note under it for survival chances stating “Certain Death” it even gave information about any random item he focused on for a bit, it felt like a small mounting pressure in his head before information popped up.

His sword was ranked as poor and named as goblin longsword. It would probably not last him long considering it had visible cracks on it and rust patches. But nonetheless it was a weapon, now he would just need to find enemies to use it on. As understanding had slowly sunk in that he would not survive long without getting stronger, if he had stats like games and gained levels like games he could grow stronger. He would have to if he wanted to survive, just hiding and running was not enough.

The tab for skills was interesting but apparently nothing he knew qualified as a skill as it remained empty. Ten free stats he could allocate was very useful though making him feel considerably stronger as he applied them, leaving his stats page changed, to his surprise he had gained an extra strength point from somewhere.

Alex:

Strength: 6

Dexterity: 6

Constitution: 10

Intelligence: 8

Perception: 5

Willpower: 2

Charisma: 3

Hp:72/100

Stamina: 27/120

He put most of his points into constitution with the remaining four split between strength and dexterity. The effect was immediate as he felt a strong tightness throughout his body for a few moments before it stopped. Leaving him generally feeling a bit stronger as his hp and stamina stats climbed massively. The new health points were instantly added to his health total but the stamina just added to the maximum leaving him feeling surprisingly tired and drained.

He rested for a while and ate some food before stamina slowly reached max again. Health, on the other hand, seemed to take a while per each point. Now that he was mostly healed up back at 78hp and his stamina was full it was time to scout and find targets that he could defeat, as sooner or later something else will find his little base in the rafters. And next time he might not be lucky enough to fight something that he had a chance against.

Scouting the monster dens that he had nearby brought him some hope the camping store had level five spiders the big one as stronger at level fifteen but it just seemed to sit at the back in its web. And each spider did not seem to care about the fate of the rest of them so a stone throw reliably brought one spider out of the store at a time.

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After having tested several times that only one spider came Alex prepared himself for battle. A thrown stone along with some spilled food as bait got a spider out of the shop. And into position underneath a nearby tree.

The creature was the size of a dog coming up to Alex’s waist. Covered in coarse black hair with green patches on its back. Its legs thin and lean keeping its body well clear of the ground.

As the monster feasted on the bit of food Alex slowly psyched himself up to attack, still terrified but slowly gaining resolve that this was the only way he could survive.C'mon man you gotta do it! it's just a spider I just need to hit the head. Just as the spider finished eating Alex eventually attacked, silently he dropped down onto the spider with his sword aimed at the spiders head. He would finish it in one blow!

But that was not to be, the top of the spiders head was far better armored than Alex had expected. Moments later he tumbled off the spider having only left a thin scratch on its head. And now he quickly scrambled away to get up before the spider could reach him. And the spider was very much trying to jab its fangs into him, the fangs dripping poison that was smoking as it hit the floor, ones he very very much wanted to avoid being stabbed by.

The surprise attack had done a lot less than Alex had hoped as he frantically dodged the deadly fangs. I need to run! No can’t, or I will always be running I need to kill it. The internal struggle between his cowardice and his resolve went on, the spider did not care about his internal struggles it just continued its attempts at murdering him.

The blows from Alex’s sword did not do much just glancing away from the spider's sturdy hide. As the fight went on Alex got lucky one wild hit slashed at the joint of one of the spider's legs and his sword went straight through severing that leg at the joint. Alex rejoiced he had found a weakness he could exploit the fight could still be won.

I can do it! Thought Alex finally feeling hope that he could win. Slashes with his sword were far from accurate but he was faster than the spider at start and with each limb lost the spider slowed more, until it was near immobilized on the ground hissing up at Alex. Removing its limbs had not killed it but left it helpless for the final blow as Alex stabbed his sword into one of the spiders large eyes Once the spider was dead he checked his character sheet and found that he had gained nearly half a bar of xp. Just one more and i will be level two! He had hope that he could grow strong enough to survive in the hellhole he was now stuck in.

The battle with the second spider went a bit easier than the first one as Alex now knew how to kill it. Once the second spider died Alex now feeling confident in his ability to kill them baited out the third one.

The fight went similarly with the spider lunging and Alex getting a quick swing in before the spider got itself ready to lunge at him again. The spider did not see as dangerous as they did at the start so Alex decided to try and end the fight early by going straight for the eyes after only cutting off one leg. And for his overconfidence, he got rewarded with a tiny scratch from the spider's fangs. A scratch that burned with incredible pain leaving Alex running away once more trying to get back to his base. Luckily for him, the spider was not all that fast so he easily escaped.

By the time he made it back to his base, the agony had spread from his arm through all of him. Blood pumping through his body spread the agony with each heartbeat spreading a new wave of pain through him. Somehow he managed to climb up nearly falling down several times as he eventually collapsed onto the hard planks that made up his bed.

Opening his character sheet he ignored the selection of notifications only focusing on his health ticking from fifteen to fourteen. Desperately he allocated all the points from the recent levelup into constitution to try and gain the instant health bonus, pushing his constitution to 20. The agony instantly dropped several degrees in intensity with his health shooting up to a hundred and twelve. Through the agony, he cleaned the wound as much as he could. Eventually, he succumbed to unconsciousness as his stamina ran out with his health still slowly ticking downwards.