The first thing he noticed as he opened his eyes was the notification.
*You have killed Wild Tuk – lvl 2. Experience earned.*
Lucas tried to get up, but waves of intense pain surging from his chest made him stand still once more. He was lying on the grass, still alive, apparently. Lucas raised his head and saw the beast he had faced—one rock still stuck in the right eye.
As he sighed, the pain flared again. He couldn’t make it out clearly, but he was pretty sure his chest was caved in. How was he still alive? He should be dead; there was no doubt about it. He had just started medical school, but he didn’t have to be an expert to know that.
At that moment, he remembered to check his status.
Status:
Lvl: 1
Name: Lucas Romano
Race: Human
Class: N/A
Health Points (HP): 19/160
Mana Points (MP): 110/110
Stamina: 90/90
Stats:
Strength: 6
Agility: 8
Toughness: 0*
Perception: 8
Vitality: 13*
Magic: 6
Distributable points: 3
Achievements: Special Unique Constitution.
Abilities: Beginner Craftsman 1.
Skills: N/A
His health pool had gone down to only 19. It should still be falling if Earth’s logic was applied, due to blood loss or something. But just as he was looking at it, to his joy, it rose another point, reaching 20. That could only mean he had some sort of regenerative ability.
That’s good, he thought. It would be hard to recover without proper medicine. As he considered that, he became a little annoyed at the system. What kind of second chance is that? He didn’t receive any proper weapons to protect himself—not even some health potion or whatever they had on this planet. It felt kind of harsh, but there was nothing he could do.
Sucking it up, he thought of another thing he could do while lying down. He could check how much time it took to gain a health point, and since he had no clock, he had to count down by himself.
Yay, super fun.
Ten minutes later, he got his answer. He didn’t know how much he had recovered before waking up, but doing some quick math, if a point took ten minutes to increase, it couldn’t have been more than three hours. He began to think.
The morning seemed to have already passed, and he felt a little incredulous no one had found him there after all that time. He was an easy prey, lying there half-dead; the blood alone should have attracted something.
Maybe the System is not so bad after all, he thought. Perhaps it is a reward for my bravery… nah, I’m overthinking it.
Turning his attention back to his status, he stopped at the three distributable points that had appeared, and noticed that his level had gone from 0 to 1. Okay, pretty straight forward MMORPG stuff. I get a level by killing something, and that level gives me points to distribute, he thought.
He started to think about how he should distribute the points, but it didn’t take long before he decided. I can’t go around with 0 Toughness; that’s a massive liability. Maybe if I put all my points in there, I’ll be able to sustain more damage during a fight; who knows, maybe even get rid of my disease altogether.
With this happy thought in mind, he went straight to it, but as he started the distribution, a frown appeared in his face.
“What the…”
As he placed his first point in Toughness, it simply disappeared. The number in Toughness continued to be 0, while he had only two points to spare now. Feeling very anxious, he tried to retrieve the point. With a sigh of relief, he saw that his spare points were back to three.
“Does that mean I can’t upgrade my Toughness no matter what? That’s bullshit! Wait…”
He began to think. If the System wouldn’t allow him to upgrade his Toughness, then it shouldn’t even have let him place it there in the first place. No, there was probably more to it. He looked at the asterisk next to Toughness.
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Still frowning, he placed the point there again, and then another, and then another. After all three were placed, the 0 next to toughness turned to 1. A bitter smile appeared on his face.
He tried to remember what the System had said right after he was transported to this planet. It mentioned something about an adverse condition due to that “Special Constitution”. That should be it, he thought. It was the only explanation he could find.
Looking at the asterisk next to Vitality, he experimented once more—if three points in Toughness amounted to only one point in reality, maybe one point in Vitality multiplied by three in the end. But his hopes were shattered; it was the standard 1-1. He wondered what that asterisk stood for then.
I guess I’ll eventually find out. Lucas smiled, excited by the prospect, and went back to considering how he should distribute his points. He couldn’t just place all of them in Toughness now, knowing he would only get one point in return. He was too weak at the moment to waste them like this. No, he had to be smart about it.
He started by retracing everything that had happened when the Wild Tuk appeared. Right off the bat, he could see how a higher perception would be something to look into; he only saw the beast when it was close by.
Maybe with enhanced perception, he could have sensed the creature from afar and made preparations or hide. But he wasn’t sure if one or two points would be enough for what he had in mind; he felt like he needed to upgrade things that he could use immediately, considering his precarious situation.
That left Strength, Agility and Vitality, since he had no idea how he could use Magic yet. And even though he was intrigued by that asterisk next to Vitality, that was still his highest stat and not a necessity to improve at the moment, seeing how he had survived the attack of the higher leveled beast even without any Toughness or equipment.
By the way, where is my armor that all the video games on Earth promised me? He had left Earth with his regular clothes, and his shirt was almost completely torn off at this point. Going around shirtless exhibiting his skinny chest around the forest was definitely not something that he was looking forward to. Eh, should have put on my full armor plate before I left home, damn.
His agility was put to the test in his previous battle and passed it, even if by a hair’s breadth. But his Strength… Seeing how he couldn’t even take his spear back after stabbing it, he knew what he had to do. He placed all his spare points in Strength, bringing it up to 9.
As he confirmed his choice, he felt a weird sensation, like his body was inflating a little. He tried to look down, and thought that perhaps he had seen a muscle there that didn’t exist a few seconds ago, but he couldn’t be sure.
Due to his lack of exercise, he was a very skinny, almost sickly-looking. His face was a little better, but not very remarkable. If you passed by him on the street, chances are you wouldn’t look at him twice.
He was fine with his appearance overall, but he couldn’t deny that the possibility of gaining muscles in only a few seconds was an appealing thought. Who cares if I almost died in the process? Beats hundreds of hours of boring gym training, that’s for sure.
He did his best to check his injury again. After some effort and pain, he noticed that although his caved-in chest looked bad, it was his broken collarbone that was hindering his movements.
He rolled a little and tried to stand up without using his arms. After a few minutes he succeeded, but he still had to avoid making sudden movements with his upper body.
Lucas walked up to the beast that he had slain. As he looked down upon it, he was surprised; the beast looked harmless, almost innocent. Completely different from the ferocious beast that he had stabbed in the eye. But there was no doubt that it was the same one; the rock was still stuck in there as proof.
As he looked at it, he had an idea; he could try to cut some of the hide to make a vest or something. It would at least protect him more than his shirt did.
He was also happy that he didn’t have to go looking for food, in his current situation, it would be very difficult. His only problem now was that he had to wait to heal enough so that he could move his arms more freely. Coming to this conclusion, he sat back down and waited.
…
It took him another two hours for him to feel confident in his movements, and he soon began to work. He had almost no idea how he should go about everything. He had some theoretical knowledge but no practical one; he hadn’t even done as much as clean a fish, so he knew things would get tricky. But since there was no one else to do that for him, he got to work.
The first thing he did was grab the rock that was stuck in the beast’s eye. The rock was sharp, the fact that it had killed the beast was proof of it, but it was no knife and beggars can’t be choosers.
As he pulled the rock, some brain matter came out with it, and while Lucas had some tolerance to gruesome scenes—since he wanted to become a doctor—that was almost too much for his empty stomach to bear. Shaking it off, he began his work.
The whole process took around two and a half hours, and by now the forest was almost completely dark; it should be around 6 p.m. Looking up at the sky, he confirmed something that he had been wondering, there was only one moon up there.
Cutting up the beast proved to be a very arduous job. He looked at the literal bloody mess he had made—now completely over his previous nausea—he wasn’t sure he had succeeded.
“I must’ve wasted a lot of meat. But I got what I wanted!”
He couldn’t help but feel a little triumphant as he saw the notifications.
New ability acquired!
Ability: Disembowelment
You have learned the principles of this art that guarantee the safe removal of organs that are rather unsavory!
New ability acquired!
Ability: Beginner Skinner
Waste not, want not! You have learned to remove the skin of low-leveled beasts, and can now use them for your own benefit!
Before he could analyze his new abilities, he had to think of his next steps. He was very hungry after all that activity, and many hours had passed since he arrived on this new planet. His stomach was rumbling by now, but he still wasn’t confident in his location.
Lucas looked around until he found a tree that he could climb. He had healed enough to the point that he could attempt to climb it, and that’s what he did. He climbed the tree more easily than he thought possible, it seemed that his upgrade in strength was already coming in handy.
As he got near the top, he found a relatively safe spot where he could spend the night if he tied himself to the trunk. It wasn’t ideal because he could be surprised by some flying beast or some alien monkey, but it was the best he had for the moment.
Lucas climbed down carefully to not injure himself further and he formed a plan. He would light a fire, cook the meat he had gathered, and if any beast came by, he would climb the tree and stay there until there was no more danger. It was a very bad plan, he knew. But his ability to think properly was limited due to his exhausted mind working on overdrive. Seeing that no other beasts had appeared after all that time, he thought it was solid enough.
Despite having some knowledge into making a fire, he had never actually made one, and it took a lot more effort than he had predicted. He managed to make one after a while, but didn’t get any notification from that.
I guess the system thinks making a fire is too simple to warrant any abilities.
The meat was tough, and the taste wasn’t the best, but with how hungry he was, he found it delicious. After eating enough, he decided to leave the rest, he couldn’t eat anymore, and it would probably be bad by the time he could eat again. Trying to avoid any potential predators, he covered the rest with dirt.
He cut part of the hide to make a strip to tie himself and took the rest with him too, along with his now free spear. It was a little difficult to climb holding everything, but he succeeded after some time.
Lucas tied himself to the tree and finally rested his body. Still, even after that day that seemed to last for weeks, he felt more alive than ever. He finally realized all that he had done. He, who was always looked down upon, had entered a battle between life and death and had emerged victorious. He couldn’t hold back a laugh of joy after thinking that, before falling asleep from pure exhaustion.