“Yhaaaargkh!! Hak! Hak! Hak!”
The goblin lets out a cry of victory as it stabs him, flailing its arms in the air like a child that had just received a present.
Meanwhile, the man just knelt there, staring ignorantly at his bloodied shoulder.
After celebrating for a while, the goblin began to approach the man, reaching for the handle of the long hunk of metal, crudely fashioned into a spear.
“AARRGHH!”
*Ping!*
The man screamed dreadfully as the goblin quickly and savagely plucks out the spear embedded into his left shoulder. The pain was stinging, electrifying, even. Only at this time was the man able to comprehend his present circumstances.
“I have to run” was the only thing going through his mind right now.
Summoning all his remaining strength, the man plants his right foot to the ground while slowly raising his left. And then, with an explosive burst of movement, he sprinted as fast as his legs could take him, not even trying to look back if the goblin was giving chase.
It was giving chase, although its tiny legs could not keep up with the man’s long strides.
“Run. Run. Run. Run. Just keep running!”
*Ping!*
With blood slowly trickling down from him, he tore straight through any obstacle that blocks him.
Leaves, branches, brushes. He simply shrugged it all off in an impressive attempt to preserve his second life, even when they’re directly hitting his face, causing small, inconsequential cuts on it.
*Ping!*
He does not even remember the route he’s taken. He recalled that he may have passed through a shallow creek and that his boots are currently soaking wet but apart from that, he didn’t bother to think where he’s headed.
*Ping!*
“How long have I been running?”
He was totally unaware of the passage of time or the distance he’s travelled since running as adrenaline forced his body to run. He could've been running for a minute, or maybe an hour. It may have even felt like an entire day if he thinks about it. However, the adrenaline began wearing off since then and his heart beat started to slow down.
As his panic slowly dissipates and reason begins regaining control, he turned his head back to look if that creature was chasing him.
There was nothing.
No rustling, no sound of footsteps, nothing.
He stopped by the trunk of a gigantic white tree, leaning himself onto it to catch his breathe. His panting is so heavy it could be heard from several meters away.
“What the hell. What just happened?”
He looked at his left shoulder, afraid that he may have lost too much blood from the escape.
To his surprise however, the wound was now smaller than it previously was. The blood has also stopped spilling, although the bloodstains still remain. This would also mean that at some point during his run, the blood trails must have stopped.
“Is this… Is this real?”
Surprised, he thoroughly checked the wound, from the front to the back. He even lightly pressed onto it but the jolt of pain reminded him that it was not completely healed after all.
“Wait… Don’t tell me…”
“System!”
[SYSTEM]
HP: 66/100
MP: 100/100
[Inventory] [Skills] [Map] [Notifications: 4]
There was now another tab available in the gray interface.
“Notifications?”
As if on cue, the interface showed him the contents of the notifications tab.
[SYSTEM]
You have acquired the following:
[Piercing Resistance 1] Passive Skill, [HP Regeneration 1] Passive Skill
[Stamina Regeneration 1] Leveled up to [Stamina Regeneration 2]
[Stamina Regeneration 2] Leveled up to [Stamina Regeneration 3]
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
His guess was right. While he was running, he would occasionally hear a subtle ‘ping’ sound, but he would just ignore them. Or rather, he was too preoccupied of running away to even care about them.
“My stamina regeneration leveled up?”
“I see. That would explain why I was able to continuously run that long.”
He was not a very athletic person in his previous life and he would often find himself getting tired faster than most, so the fact that he was able to run this much surprised him.
“Speaking of which, why is there no stamina bar in my status?”
He looked at his status interface again, but to no avail. The only difference this time is the notifications tab have disappeared.
[SYSTEM]
HP: 69/100
MP: 100/100
[Inventory] [Skills] [Map]
All of a sudden, he heard rustlings on the bushes about four meters to his left.
He immediately retreated back to hide behind the trunk of the giant white tree that he was leaning on and waited to see what comes out of the shrubs.
“Crap. What do I do if it’s that creature from before?”
He looked around him and saw a fist-sized rock lying beneath his feet. He picked it up with his right hand and readied himself to throw it any moment.
The leaves kept rustling, and every second of waiting makes his heart beat faster and louder. He could feel cold sweat falling down from his nape and unto the ground below. The anticipation is shaking him.
He tightens his grip on the rock and swallows his saliva. He blinks his eyes for a couple of times to moist them and he wipes off the sweat trickling down his forehead with his left hand.
But then, the shakings stop.
“…”
That was not a relief though, as the silence has only made him more anxious around his surroundings. It was deafening.
He waited for a couple of seconds for something to happen, but nothing did. No creature came out of the bushes, nor was there any sound that noised anywhere. Only the shifting of the tree’s leaves caused by the wind propagated in the whole forest.
He was convinced that the threat has now disappeared. He gulped once more, and decided to come out of his hiding.
However, just as he was about to step out, the bushes rustled once again and out of it comes the goblin.
No, that may be wrong.
It was indeed the goblin that had stabbed him earlier, with its primitive clothing adorned with small bones and dried animal leather. But what had truly shocked him was the gigantic snake that clutches the lifeless goblin on its fangs.
He took no time to hide himself once again, petrifying his body on that small corner of the tree not to alert the monster that’s about five meters in length and with a body as big as the trunk of the average trees around.
He covered his mouth, desperately trying to calm his breathing down.
“This is bad. I don’t want to be here anymore. Is there even any civilization here? I WANT TO SEE A FELLOW HUMAN!”
“Hisssss…”
The snake hissed as it moves.
“Don’t notice me, don’t notice me, don’t notice me…”
*Ping!*
As if to grant his wish, the gigantic snake passed by him unhindered. Perhaps it didn’t really notice him, or maybe it did notice him but it had already hunted its food for the day so it simply ignored him. Either way, he’s managed to safely leave the area unharmed.
Calming himself down, he carefully backtracked his route, lying low within bushes and flora not to attract unwanted attention.
“What should I do? Where should I go? Maybe… for now I should go back where I came from.”
“Also, I need to find a way to fend for myself.”
“…”
“Ah, that reminds me. I haven’t checked my inventory yet, have I?”
He has also discovered that he can call forth the interface box without having to command it every time. He just has to think it, and it will come. Furthermore, he can skip the choosing of tabs and immediately open it without going through the stats window.
[SYSTEM]
[Equipments] [Materials] [Miscellaneous]
However, when he looked into them, they are all empty except for the equipments which currently only display the clothes he’s wearing.
[SYSTEM]
Common Cloth Shirt: 1 Def / Durability: 39/50
Common Cloth Pants: 1 Def
Common Leather Boots: 1 Def
“Durability, huh? Well, it did get damaged from the stab…”
While he’s walking the less-dense part of the forest, he somehow came across a wooden hut by a creek. For a while now, he’s just been going east, returning to the place that he came from before he ran away as looking at the map showed him that he ran towards west.
“Are you telling me I managed to miss this hut while I was running?”
“Well whatever. I hope whoever’s in there is hospitable…”
He approached the hut slowly, careful not to slip by the rocks and wet his boots more than it already is.
However, as he gets closer and closer, he began to notice the small cobwebs and cracks of decaying, old wood on it.
“Is it abandoned?”
He went onto the door and gently touched it with his index finger. The dust that allocated on it confirms that it has long been abandoned.
“That’s fine. It’s getting dark already, no time to be picky.”
He softly pushed the door open, careful not to apply too much force lest it breaks. It did not, fortunately. But the eerie creaking sound that it made as it opens couldn’t help but make him a little bit nervous.
He thoroughly scanned the whole interior. There’s a hearth on the right, to the far left is where the bed is with a chest next to it, and at the center are the table and four chairs surrounding it. At the left side of the door is what appears to be the kitchen.
Aside from the aging of the wood and occasional spider webs, it looks like a typical hut that one would find in the forest.
After dusting off the table and one of the chairs, he sat on it and took out of his inventory some berries that he managed to forage along the way.
*Grooowl*
His stomach rumbles.
“Well, I hope these aren’t poisonous.”
He took a red colored berry, but just before he places it into his mouth, he noticed something at the lower right corner of his vision.
It was a green bar.
STA: 50/50
“STA? Stamina?”
“Wait, why is it only out of 50 when my HP and MP are out of 100?”
He begins to think as he was eating the berry.
“Am I debuffed or something? But there’s nothing on my status that says so…”
All of a sudden, the bar updated and changed.
STA: 60/60
“Huuuh?”
“…”
“That’s weird… I could’ve sworn it was 50/50 just moments ago.”
“Wait a second…”
He took another berry and ate it whole.
STA: 70/70
“I knew it! My maximum stamina decreases as I get hungry!”
“Phew! I thought for a second there that something was wrong.”
“Oh yeah, I have a notification that I haven’t checked yet.”
[SYSTEM]
You have acquired the following:
[Stealth 1] Passive Skill
“Must have been that time I was hiding from that giant snake. Still, I have a feeling this is going to be tremendously useful later on.”
As soon as he finished eating all the berries and replenishing his stamina bar to 100, he went over to the bed and dusted it. That was when he looked at the chest that was right beside it.
“It’s not locked…”
“It’s not robbery if no one owns it, right?”
He approached the wooden chest and slowly opened it. It was incredibly dusty and webbed but something was inside it that immediately piqued his curiosity.
He took it amidst the filth and the gray interface suddenly appeared in front of his eyes.
“Is this a…”