After what felt like a decade (which was probably only 20 or so minutes) the walls finally dropped. Smart people would take it slow and evaluate their soundings. Emmanuel did not do the smart thing; he just tore off into the forest. In hindsight, it was dumb especially because he didn't have any equipment and was still in his suit and dress shoes. But it's not like he had a choice on his equipment; the system didn't offer anything. I wonder if I can make anything out of a branch or something. Looking around he didn't find a branch which was strange; after all, he was in a forest.
But then again, he was transported to an alternate plane of reality. Okay: Best to stop thinking about that. Looking upwards, he found no branch in sight. At least ones small enough that he could conceivably cut off, let alone reach. The trees were massive -- like the size of the Redwoods -- and the branches were also massive, being bigger than a barrel around, more than 100 m, in the air. As a result, it cast the forest in the deep, dark, lurking Shadows.
Passing his gaze over the tree one more time before he moved on, he didn't find anything to help make or use as makeshift equipment. However, he did spot something out of the corner of his eye. Turning his head, he spotted a deer. The deer looked utterly normal in his opinion, a bit bigger than what he was used to. He wasn't from the East Coast where the deer were tiny either; he was from the West; he was used to big deer, but this deer was still larger.
Its antlers reached well above his 6'3 frame and stretched outwards like the branches of a tree. The antlers were also covered with moss and Ivy as if they were being eaten by some sort of infectious disease.
Making eye contact with the buck, he was unsure what to do with it. The deer decided for him, lowering its head and charging at him. He, of course, dodged out of the way. The buckle rush narrowly missing him. He had no idea how to kill this thing; he didn't have any weapons and with its impressive size and speed, he doubted he could punch it to death. Looking around for something to hurt -- hoping for a rock or something else to kill with. Unfortunately, he couldn't find anything, except for the looming trees.
The buck lowered its head again and charged at him, this time he wasn't fast enough to get out of the way. Its antlers hit his suit coat, unfortunately for him; his coat was very tight and well made. As a result he was promptly plopped right on his ass while the deer ran off into the distance. And then the deer turned around and stared at him. Lowered its head, and charged, again.
Oh shit, I'm screwed! Come ON! Get your ass up!! Before he could pull himself off the ground the deer ran into him like a freight train. He was sent flying through the air, hitting the ground hard. He stood up slowly, noticed that the deer was still charging at him, and looked around, hoping he could come up with something to deal with the annoying bastard. All that he saw were the immense trees. But then, he got an idea. He let the deer charge him, again dodging this time, thankfully.
He pulled off his coat and held it like a matador. He began shifting backward, one foot at a time. The deer continued to charge him, again, and again; for the next 5 minutes it charged, as he slowly continued, to slowly back up.
The deer charged him. He dodged out of the way and it rammed, head-first, into the tree. Taking advantage of the opportunity given, he jumped on the buck’s back. Grabbing its antlers, he prepared for a wild ride. The buck was unhappy with Emmanuel's presence on his back, which is reasonable; it's not a horse, it's a deer. They're not designed to be ridden. So it did what any deer, or wild animal, would do and tried to get the pesky rider off. It jumped around and smashed into trees but the stupid thing wouldn't let go. After around 20 or so minutes of running around like a chicken without its head the buck finally tired and Emmanuel made his move.
Taking a deep breath in, he made sure that his grip was tight on the buck's antlers and twisted. He heard a satisfying pop as the buck went limp underneath him. Gasping in exhaustion, he heard a familiar sound:
*Ding*
You have slayed a level 4 Greenwood Deer. You have gained XP.
*Ding*
You have reached level 1. Your stats have been increased and you have 2 status points to allocate.
Go forth and grow fast and let your strength be a testament to your resolve.
*Ding*
For reaching level 1 and being newly integrated you may select one basic starter kit.
Before looking at whatever the starter kit was, he decided to check out his Status to see if the level actually increased his stats.
Name: Emmanuel Agerico
Level: 0 G
Class: Warrior
Stats
Strength: 14
Constitution:13
Dexterity:12
Agility:11
Perception:7
Wisdom:8
Intelligence:11
Unassigned attribute points: 2
skills none
Class Skills:
Splitting strike:
Rank novice 1
When the Warrior imbues their strike with Mana it produces a strike that can split low-grade stone.
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The Gift of Gab:
Rank universal
Allows all beings of the Multiverse to communicate with each other.
Before allocating his two unassigned points he decided to look through the potential kits the system provided.
Heavy kit
Provides users with basic chainmail armor, a large shield, Boots, and a small weapon of your choice.
Medium kit.
Provides users with chainmail as well as Pauldrons Grieves, and Boots, and a choice of a medium-sized, one-handed weapon.
Light kit
Provides the user with a leather chest plate along with pauldrons and Greaves and Boots. This kit also comes with two, light, one-handed weapons.
This decision wasn't nearly as hard as the decision to pick his class. He immediately outlawed the light kit. Light weapons like daggers would not be ideal for their lack of reach and one-on-one fight. you weren't the biggest guy so going with a large Tower shield and taking a tank root, especially being alone would just be slow and cumbersome.
yes, it would provide a lot of survivability but he wouldn't be able to kill anything with a small weapon and a large shield would be cumbersome.
Which only left the medium kit which is what he would have picked anyways. It was the most versatile of the three kits and came with his preferred weapon: a sword.
Ever since he was little, and his grandfather made him train all those stupid weapons, only one really clicked with him. And that was the sword. It didn't matter if it was a katana or a standard head and a half or broadsword, he just understood the blade. He was best with medium-sized swords; however, he could proficiently operate great swords, as well as short swords.
He made his choice picking the medium kit. After a few seconds of nothing happening, a chest appeared in front of him. Opening the chest he found a set of chainmail pauldrons and Greaves. And, most importantly, he found a belt with a Scabbard hand and a half longsword. Not the standard, long German long sword; hand and a half Swords are usually quite a bit smaller. Although the size of the blade would not indicate a hand and a half which is usually around 30 to 35 inches where the blade is around 47 inches. The size of the blade fitter that of a broadsword but he just liked some extra length on the handle. It was interesting that the system knew that but then again it could transport his body across space, so he wasn't that surprised.
Taking the sword out of the scabbard it revealed what looked like a Damascus steel-made sword. Giving it a couple of swings he found that it had decent balance, certainly. Not the worst weapon he had used, maybe even one of the better ones. Taking off his suit coat, he put the pauldrons and Chainmail onto his torso. He must have been a sight, with some medieval-looking leather armor on top of a collared dress shirt and tie. Then he attached the Greaves to his legs and put his feet into the Boots. Securing his new best friend. At long last, he ditched his dress shoe and donned the Boots.
Although sad to leave it behind, he had a ditch the suit coat; it just would slow him down. Before going out to hunt something else he decided to give his friend another test and to test out his as-of-yet unused skills.
Looking around for something feasible to chop at, he came back to the trees. First he decided to test the sword's Edge. He gave a good swing, not too hard, not too weak at one of the mammoth trees looming above his head.
The sword bit deeper than he expected; then he remembered the material the blade was made out of and the increases to his strength and agility stats.
After the swing, he decided that he had enough strength. He decided to allocate one point to dexterity and one point to perception because of how far it was lagging behind. The strength already seemed good enough for now; additional dexterity would help him wield the blade; the increased perception would just help spot stuff. He had no idea what was out here, after all.
Name Emmanuel Agerico
Level: 1 G
Class: Warrior
Stats
Strength: 14
Constitution::13
Dexterity:13
Agility:11
Perception :8
Wisdom: 8
Intelligence:11
Unassigned attribute points :0
skills none
Class Skills:
Splitting strike:
Rank novice 1
When the Warrior imbues their strike with Mana it produces a strike that can split low-grade stone.
The Gift of Gab:
Rank universal
Allows all beings of the Multiverse to communicate with each other.
Looking at the sword, it seemed like it took no damage which he confirmed by testing its Edge a couple of seconds later. Unsure how to activate his skill, he did what popped into his mind first. Feeling like a larper, he called out a splitting strike. Nothing happened. Now, beyond the fact that he didn't know how his skills work, he felt like a dumbass.
After a couple of minutes of wallowing in his embarrassment, he decided to focus on the blade. How it shimmered in the sunlight, his hands gripping the black leather of the hilt. Taking a deep breath in, he pushed something from within him. He couldn't explain why he did this, he just knew. Feeling as if a stream of energy coursed through his hands and into the blade, he swung.
The sword bit much deeper into the wood, cutting at least eight or nine inches into the tree. To say Emmanuel was impressed was an understatement. With that kind of strike he could have toppled most trees back on Earth. He wondered if he could increase the power of the skill by focusing on the blade more.
He repeated this process several times. While he didn't find that his hypothesis was correct, the more he focused on the sword, the more energy he poured in, the more the sword would bite into the trees. However, he would have to rest for around 5 seconds which in a fight would be an eternity. He would have to start the battle with a fully powered strick.
After around 2 or 3 minutes of practice, two things happened. The first thing is that he had a splitting headache and couldn't activate his skill anymore remembering that little part in the skill description about imbuing your strikes with Mana. He inferred that he was either out of Mana or he could only use the strike so many times. On top of that, he heard a sound that at this point was starting to become frankly annoying.
*Ding*
After repeated use, your splitting strike skill has reached level 2.
*Ding*
After repeated use, your splitting strike skill has reached level 3.
*Ding*
Your splitting strike skill is now more Mana efficient. You can also do more Mana into the skill.
Concerning here done enough testing for the day Emmanuel decided to go find something to hunt.