Drox screamed as he ran. The high pitched noise that came from the little bear was very shocking as his voice was usually so deep. He tried his hardest to get away from the incoming gems, but they found him as he jumped behind a giant tree and pulled himself into a fluffy ball covering his head. Josh just laughed as his familiar ran instead of letting him know the flying gems were a good thing. As the gems finished being absorbed into the group, Adam was met with a heap of notifications.
You have gained 800 experience points
You have reached level 3!
You have gained +1 to all attributes
You have gained +5 free attribute points - You have 10 unspent attribute points
Your Hand-to-Hand skill has reached level 8
Your Nature Magic skill has reached level 5
You have received: Juvenile Harpy Feather x5, Juvenile Harpy Talon x2, Small Soul Crystal x4
You have a new ability choice available!
Adam looked around and saw that everyone else seemed to have received some things as well since they were all staring off into space. Even Drox had stood up and was looking around while waving his paws around his face.
“What is a level?” Drox yelled. “And why in the hells are all these numbers in my face!”
“It’s what we were talking about earlier,” said Josh. He walked over to where the bear was still flapping his paws around his face like he was trying to swat away insects. “It seems to function on thought or will or something. Just think about making the windows close.”
“What window? There’s no house around here.”
“I mean to make all the numbers go away,” said Josh as he put his hand in his face.
“Oh,” said Drox, looking surprised. “They’re gone.”
“Now, try to bring them up again.”
Drox actually squeaked with joy, making Adam wonder if he was a squeaky bear of some sort before, as he opened and closed the menu in front of his face. Josh assumed that he had the hang of it at that point as he couldn’t actually see the stat page for others.
Adam saw the new skill notification and willed the window to open. A menu of three choices popped up this time and he was intrigued instantly as he checked out his choices.
Healing Specialist - Passive - You have healed your allies and understand the importance of the ways of a healer. Increases healing to self or others by 10%.
Armor Breaker - Passive - Armor is not the friend of fists. Your hits will slowly pound armor into dust. Your hits will now do increased damage against armor.
Fleet Footed - Passive - You are sure of foot in fight or flight. Increases the speed at which you can move by 5%.
This was not an easy choice or an obvious one. He’d always been able to follow some guide on meta builds before, or he could look up the highest damage online for his class. Now, though, he had to choose without any sort of idea. He had to change his mindset. This wasn’t just a game, but his life now. He thought about what would serve him best not just in a quick fight, but his life.
Healing Specialist seemed like it could be very powerful, but it wasn’t something he wanted to focus on. So, he put that out of his mind for now. Armor Breaker and Fleet Footed were the two he really had to choose from, and the choice was pretty easy the longer he thought. Five percent seemed like nothing, but over a lifetime it would be immeasurable. He had yet to encounter anything with armor, and he figured he would be able to just choose to hit around it or hit hard enough that it would break on its own.
Adam had made up his mind and chose. As he made the choice he felt the skill bloom inside of his body. It was miniscule, but he felt just the tiniest bit lighter. He smiled as the warmth of the new skill spread through his body.
Congratulations you have learned Fleet Footed!
Adam looked next at the notification about his unused attribute points. He knew it was time to put some points into things, but he still wasn’t sure which direction he wanted to go. So, he pulled up his stats and looked them over.
Character Statistics Name: Adam Race: Human Level: 3 Experience: 200/1000 Class: N/A HP: 70/70 MP: 70/70 Attributes: Str: 7 Dex: 7 Int: 7 Vit: 7 Wis: 7 Unallocated Attribute Points: 10 Skills: Hand-to-Hand: 8 Nature Magic: 5 Active Abilities: Combo Passive Abilities: Fleet Footed Spells: Emerald Leaves
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He knew that keeping his points was going to be detrimental for him. He saw how hard the harpies hit, how fast they were, and how little mana he actually had. If he ever got another spell, which was very likely, he’d run out of mana fast.
Adam decided that Dexterity would be very important for his build as well as strength and vitality. If he was going to be in melee combat he’d need to take a hit at some point, hit hard, and hit fast. For the moment he had one spell and it wasn’t something he saw himself focusing on, but instead just an emergency backup. If he got something interesting in the future he might think about more points in wisdom or intelligence, but for now he chose to ignore them. With ten points to distribute he added three to strength, three to vitality, and four to dexterity.
The moment the points were allocated he felt the attributes bolstering his body. He felt the change to his body instantly. The muscles in his body all tensed up for the briefest of moments and when they relaxed he felt euphoria rush through his entirety. He knew that he was faster, stronger, and tougher. He felt it. It was strange to Adam that he hadn't felt this way before while leveling or when he first came to this world, but it could have been any number of reasons. Maybe the one point each level was small enough not to notice, or maybe his body adjusted because every attribute was increased at the same time. There were a million reasons why or why not, but Adam didn’t care about a single one at that moment. All he cared about was chasing this feeling again.
Josh noticed the stupid grin plastered across his friend’s face. “Finally put your points in?” he asked.
“Why didn’t you tell me it felt this good?”
“Would it have mattered?”
Adam looked away, “no, probably not. Did you get a passive skill?”
“I did!” Josh exclaimed. “Mine’s called Relentless Striker. If I hit the same target I’ll do increased damage to them for each time I hit them without switching or missing.”
“That sounds pretty amazing. Mine increases my movement speed by 5%.”
Josh’s eyes widened. “For everything?”
“Yep.” Adam smiled. He knew that his friend would understand. They had both played far too many games to discount movement speed and it not being dependent on combat or not was insanely powerful. Adam didn’t underestimate Josh’s choice either. His friend was easygoing, aloof at times even, but the man had an absolutely uncanny ability to strategize. Playing any kind of tactical game against him was just asking to lose. Funniest thing was, he hated chess. Adam never really understood that, but it was what it was.
The group started moving again as Mina and Drox explained their new abilities. Mina had also reached level three and got an ability that made enemies passively focus on her more. Drox seemed to work a little differently than the rest of the group. He said he got a notification that his book had a new page. When he turned to it he found a new spell called Flame Shield. It said that he could cast it on himself or an ally and a shield of flame would block incoming attacks for a time while burning the attackers.
The sun was starting to set as they made their way up the mountain. They came to a small clearing in the forest where a tree had fallen. Mina stopped and turned to the others.
“We should camp soon,” she said. “We do not want to walk through his place at night.”
“How much further do you think before we reach the goblin caves?” asked Adam.
“Half a day's journey, maybe less. We are still adjusting to our new bodies. The scouts were not as fast as we are now. It seems that every single point makes us a lot faster.”
“I’m actually kinda hungry,” said Josh. “Do you have any food?” As if on cue Josh’s stomach rumbled loud enough that it sounded like rocks falling down a mountain. His red skin seemed to get a little brighter. It was made all the more obvious with his lack of shirt.
“Yes,” said Mina, “let us make a fire and we will eat.”
Josh and Adam were put to work gathering sticks as Drox went over to the fallen tree and sat on it like a bench. Mina joined him as she started to pull some things out of thin air.
“You have magic too?” asked Drox
“What do you mean?”
“Where are all of those things coming from?”
“It is something that came with the change. I believe it is called an inventory. At least that is what it tells me. Do you not have one?”
Drox waved his little paws around his face for a bit and exclaimed, “I do! Looks to be some items in here from the last fight.”
A massive harpy feather appeared in his hand a moment later. He gripped it between his paw for a moment before it disappeared. Next, a small soul crystal was in his hand. It fell to the ground as he tried to get a grip on it but failed.
Josh and Adam came back with arms full of sticks. They dropped them in the middle of the clearing in a pile while Drox tried to pick up his soul crystal. He couldn’t get a grip on it. His fluffy paws just kept dropping the smooth crystal.
“Let me help,” said Josh. He moved over and picked the crystal up. He laid it gently into Drox’s outstretched paws. The bear pushed his paws together to hold the crystal between them. He looked deep into the swirling galaxy within the small stone for a while before it disappeared into his inventory again.
Mina bent down next to the pile of sticks with some leaves. She had a flint and steel trying to spark a fire to life. Drox cleared his throat at the sight.
“Do you mind if I have a go, Lass?”
Mina looked up at the bear and down at her flint and steel. “Can you, um, hold them?”
The bear let out a laugh, “I won’t be needing that.” He pulled out his book and Mina understood. Josh, Adam, and Mina moved back from the pile of sticks. They kept moving back until they were almost all into the woods.
Drox, massive tome in hand, pointed his paw toward the makeshift campfire. He muttered something under his breath and a fireball shot out of his hand. It was about the size of a baseball and it traveled with speed that would match an MLB pitcher. The fireball hit the pile of sticks and exploded. In a burst the clearing was filled with smoking sticks, flaming leaves, and ash. As the smoke settled a blazing bonfire was left in its wake.
Drox whistled as he sat on the fallen tree like a bench. His face was covered in ash to the point he looked like a black teddy bear instead of his usual brown. His mohawk was even smoking slightly. He put his book back into his backpack as the others came out from hiding.
“Geez Drox,” said Josh. “I think you woke up the whole forest.”
“Good,” he said. “They’ll know to stay away.”
“I agree,” said Mina, “I do not believe anything will be bothering us for a while after that.”
“That spell seems extremely powerful,” said Adam. He came and sat down on the tree next to Drox and the fire.
“It is lad, but it’s expensive. Before I leveled I had two casts in me before I had to wait. There is also a cooldown of–" Drox pause for a moment before continuing as he check the skills description. "Two minutes. I don’t know what that means, but I can feel that after I cast the spell I have to wait. When it’s ready again I can feel it in my bones.”
“You have bones?” asked Josh.
“You know what I mean you son of a goat.”
Josh laughed. “Minutes are a measurement of time, but if you can feel when your spell is ready again then it doesn’t matter.” He came and sat down on the ground leaning against the tree. The fire felt warm on his skin. Josh knew then, no matter how close he got, it wouldn’t get uncomfortable. He could probably even touch the fire without any issues.
Mina was on the opposite side of the three on the ground. She sat cross legged near the fire staring into the flames. Josh’s stomach rumbled again. Everyone heard it, even over the crackling and snapping of the fire. This seemed to snap Mina out of whatever she was thinking. She pulled some dried meat out of her inventory and tossed it over.
Josh caught the meat and passed some to Drox and Adam before he started munching away. Adam, on the other hand, stared down at the meat for a moment trying to examine it.
Simple Sheep Jerky: dried meat made from a sheep. This simple dish will fill up any adventurer in a time of need. It will also grant +1 vitality for four hours.
“Whoa, did you know this gives buffs?”
“What?” asked Josh. He looked down at the meat. “Wow that’s sick.”
“Yes, food seems to give a boost to certain attributes for a limited time. Depending on the meal or drink the boosts are different. We have not discovered much though as everything is so new. This was actually jerky before the sky fell. Even it changed. I also do not understand how long four hours is, but you can feel the effect and you know when it is getting close to ending.”
Adam nodded and bit into the jerky. It was dry and chewy, but seasoned well. He had no desire to explain hours, minutes, and seconds to anyone. He didn’t even know if time worked the same here. He had a feeling the cooldown timers were just so people like him could understand. The natives of this world had already adapted by feeling the internal cooldowns and timers.
The group sat together and ate while the sun disappeared. Mina volunteered to take the first watch. Adam laid down on the ground. He had never been a fan of camping, but the cool air and the heat of the fire seemed to mingle together in a soothing warmth. He was so much more tired than he had realized and before he knew it he was asleep.