He wasn’t sure how he should feel. He was still pretty mad about being falsely accused, and part of him thought that they had brought this on themselves. On the other hand, he had killed a person, an abominable action for any sane person on Earth.

“Why did they have to be so stupid?” he said to himself, annoyed and a little depressed about the whole ordeal.

He shook his head; he didn’t have much of a choice. They wouldn’t listen to him, and in the end, it was kill or be killed. Besides, things had changed. He wasn’t on Earth anymore, he tried to justify it to himself. That didn’t make the reproving look on his mother’s face in his mind go away, however. He sighed. How long would he look for her approval, even when she was not around?

Resigning himself, he decided to check his status. It had been a long while since he last saw them and it would be a good distraction.

Status:

Lvl: 9

Name: Lucas Romano

Race: Human

Class: N/A

Health Points (HP): 220/250

Mana Points (MP): 190/190

Stamina: 145/170

Stats:

Strength: 17

Agility: 18

Toughness: 0*

Perception: 12

Vitality: 13*

Magic: 6

Distributable points: 15

Fifteen whopping points! In addition to his training gains of seven in Strength, five in Agility and one in Perception—another thirteen. Those points were crucial in helping him escape, but they wouldn’t be enough if he were required to kill all of them.

He stared at his Toughness with temptation. That’s what he had been waiting for, wasn’t it? Ever since he arrived in Ponos, he had wanted to mitigate his biggest flaw and get rid of the effects of this disease once and for all. He had even gained twelve “free” points in Agility and Strength, and one in Perception; this really seemed like the best time to invest in Toughness, but he hesitated.

His mindset had changed since arriving on this planet. He couldn’t think like a regular person anymore; that would only take him as far as the most normal person could go. Only the daring had a spot at the top, he genuinely believed that.

Yes, he had gained thirteen points due to his training, but that was the advantage he built with hard work. If he now decided to put all his distributable points in Toughness, wouldn’t that mean that all his work was for him to only stay on the same level as all the others who didn’t have the brittle bone disease?

At the same time, he thought it was a real pain in the ass to have to climb down the tree each time he wanted to kill a beast, when jumping would be far easier. It was a difficult decision.

He tried to remember how his points were distributed when he was level zero. If he remembered correctly—and he had—the lowest one besides Toughness was at six. If he invested all his points in Toughness now, with the 1-3 exchange, he could only get to 5 at most. Still a little weaker than the average person.

In the end, he decided to have six points go to Toughness, getting the overall to 2. Seeing four points being wasted made him physically ill, but he had to do it at some point. And he was sick and tired of having to calculate his rolls and jumps to not break anything. Trying to convince himself that he made a good decision didn’t help much, so he moved on. There were another 9 points to go.

When he started his training, he had the idea that since he would be getting points in Agility and Strength, he could use the points from the level-ups on other stats. But now… Well, Agility and Strength were both very useful. Especially Agility, since he could use it for both defense and offense. And he needed to dodge the attacks if he didn’t want to break his feeble bones.

In the end, he decided to put three in each: Agility, Vitality, and Perception. Perception was another very useful stat, as he came to learn, and the only reason he was able to notice the attacks coming for him in time to dodge. The fact that he had only twelve in there was probably the reason he couldn’t completely avoid the last one, which made a deep cut in his arm, missing the bone by only a few inches.

Vitality was directly related to his special constitution, and he wanted to learn more about the effects, so this was a no-brainer. Magic… he knew a little more about it after seeing the mage, but that still wasn’t much, and it was also not something he could learn by just putting more points in. That will have to wait until I reach that city that he mentioned…

Even though the whole interaction was a complete disaster in the diplomacy department, he still gained some pretty useful information.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Right before that archer died, that splitting arrow… was it a skill? Lucas was still intrigued by that. He didn’t know that a skill could do impossible things like split an arrow in two. That could prove very useful in battle, and he was even more anxious to get a class now.

There’s a possibility to choose a class in this city of NPC’s, and judging by how they were talking, it shouldn’t be too far. I could even try to find better weapons there…

There were two problems with that idea. First, he had no idea how to get there. He had been heading North for some time now and didn’t find anything out of the ordinary. And lastly, he had just killed one of the people who came from the city and was believed to be some sort of serial killer by the rest of them.

“Why things couldn’t just be simple?” he sighed.

His upgraded Vitality might have played a part in his speedy recovery; either way, he was out and about not long after. He was just walking aimlessly, wondering if he should find a higher ground to try and look for the so-called city, when something odd appeared in his line of sight.

He got close and saw a sign. Yes, a sign. Right in the middle of the woods.

Danger.

Dark Forest ahead.

Do not enter.

Now that’s interesting, he thought. Whoever put this sign here clearly thinks this “Dark Forest” is much more dangerous than the regular forest, or there wouldn’t be a sign. But that doesn’t sound like something someone who just arrived here only two weeks ago would do… Is this some sort of quest?

Lucas stayed there, staring at the board for a few minutes. If the sign hadn’t been put there by an NPC, then it should have been a native, if there were any natives, that is. In the end, it didn’t really matter; he would move forward just due to his curiosity alone, if nothing else. He even began to think that was the purpose of the sign all along—to invite people in rather than keep them outside.

He quickly made his way to what he believed was the Dark Forest. The sun was hidden behind leaves, and it felt like nighttime had come earlier. He could still see things, but it surely set the tone. It wasn’t just that either; the place had an indescribable aura about it, something that slowly crept up inside Lucas—a dread, an oppression, a feeling of pure evil. He couldn’t say exactly, but he never felt anything like it. After a few minutes of this, he decided to stop for a minute to take a breath.

The people who disappeared, have they come here? Lucas wondered. If that was the case, that forest wasn’t simple, he had to be cautious. As he continued walking forward, he started to notice that the air of the forest carried a stale scent, heavy with the aroma of rot and decay. He couldn’t help but feel afraid. Was this the effect of the aura or was he really scared?

Against his best judgment, he pushed forward, stopping only when he spotted something near a tree. It was a bearded man, seated, leaning on it.

Is he dead? He decided to approach him but realized his axe was gone. He had left it with that archer, a common mistake. Now he wasn’t sure what to do; going into a death forest with only his weak body as a weapon didn’t seem like the smartest idea. But even if he decided to make an axe on the spot, there were no rocks around.

He could still go back, but he felt unwilling; it was his curiosity, of course. He couldn’t leave now that he had found something interesting. With a deep breath, he went in the direction of the man, ready to take to his heels if need be.

“Hey, sir, are you all right?” Lucas asked, keeping a distance. Although the man was pale, he seemed to be breathing.

The bearded man started, looking at him. His eyes open wide. And then something else appeared on his face—sadness? Lucas wasn’t sure.

“What are you doing here? You didn’t see my sign?” the bearded man’s voice was hoarse and full of emotion.

“That was you? Yes, I saw it, but…”

“But what, can’t you read?” he said angrily.

What’s wrong with people today?!

“Listen, I nearly died an hour ago, so spare me of this bullshit. If you have nothing else to say, I’ll be on my way. I can take care of myself.”

“Wait!” he exclaimed, trying to sit up straight. He was clearly on his last legs, but there were no noticeable injuries. “There’s something I need to tell you about this forest.”

That’s it, Lucas thought. He had already suspected it, but now he was pretty sure that was an NPC. It was his first time actually seeing one, and he looked exactly like any other person, except the way he acted wasn’t quite right; it was scripted after all. That’s the reason he didn’t mind telling this NPC off; he had bet that if he had something to say, he would, no matter what.

Lucas learned the NPC’s name was Rick, and he was a lumberjack. One day, he was wondering around the forest when he encountered this place. He noticed the aura the place had but at first thought it was only due to some dead trees, nothing more. But as he walked further, he noticed the aura was getting heavier and heavier. He tried to leave afterwards but couldn’t; “the forest wouldn’t allow it”.

“Since I couldn’t leave, I made the decision to figured out what was causing that,” the man said, a little emotional. He headed further into the center of where that aura came from, but found a thick fog that covered everything. “I could barely see the things that were in front of me, and then, some… things began to appear in the fog.”

He paused. Lucas wanted to ask what it was, but he didn’t look like he wanted to remember, so he let it be. The man continued:

“After some time, I was completely lost, I had no idea where I was or where did I enter the fog. That oppressive aura and the darkness was much stronger there. It took me a long time to get out, and even now I don’t know how I did it. But I have a feeling that, there, in the center of this fog, lies the reason for the forest to be like this.”

Lucas thought for a while. It really seemed that this was some sort of quest, but the System didn’t give it away, and if he was to trust the words of the lumberjack, he couldn’t turn back now. So that meant he had already accepted the quest, unless he wanted to hang around with old Rick forever.

“In which direction is this fog?” Lucas asked after some time.

“You are not thinking about going in there, are you? If you go inside, you might not be able to leave, it’s not worth the risk,” he said, concern in his eyes.

“Don’t worry, I’ll stay outside. I just want to take a look at it. I’ll be careful, I promise,” Lucas lied.

“Well, if you say so.” He sighed. “If you want to get there, you have to head east, but don’t get too close. I was lucky to be able to come back but still ended up like this,” he said, sounding a little sorrowful. “It’s this damn aura; I probably won’t last much longer.”

“I’ll see if I can find something to help you along the way. But… I lost my weapon a while back; I know it’s probably too much to ask but don’t you have a weapon I could borrow?”

“Of course! You can have my axe, you might need it. In this forest, you never know. No need to return it either, consider it a gift from a dying man to another.”

Lucas frowned at the last part but took the axe happily.

Lumberjack’s axe

With this axe, it will be even easier to chop down wood.

Required level to use: 4

According to the description, it wasn’t exactly designed for battle. But that didn’t lessen his excitement; the blade was made of metal and it required level 4 to use it. All of this aside, he still had the best reason to be happy about it: it was free! Between going with a crappy axe and his bare hands, he would choose crappy axe all day of the week. He couldn’t afford to get injured in a place like this.

It took about twenty minutes for him to get to the place Rick mentioned. He stopped when he noticed the fog. He was still far away but he could see the dense fog and feel the oppressive aura. And what’s more, he could see things moving inside.

“This is…”