Julian dropped down, aiming the sword at the tiger’s head. It slammed on the dumbfounded creature with great strength, severing nerves, blood vessels and snapping bones. As he braced for impact with the ground, Julian saw that the monstrous beast had collapsed to the ground motionless, head hanging loosely and limp to one side.
+133 Runes.
The counter at the bottom right of his vision went up, beyond the threshold of the first level up. Nothing happened however, and after a moment of wait Julian decided to check his status and see if anything had changed. Nothing. It was all the same as before save for the new number of runes he had. Perhaps he needed to perform something particular in order to—
His head snapped to the side moments before a terrible shadow emerged from the thick foliage. Julian didn’t have time to react before another tiger, bigger and even more deformed than the one he killed was upon him. Its immense weight sent him off balance, and he rolled to the ground. Trying to recover his vision, he saw the orange blur move towards him while the forest swam and danced all around. He tried to raise his arm, but he couldn’t. He stared at his HP bar, more than half empty, and then at his arm. It was bent backwards, and he couldn’t feel his fingers anymore.
His sword lay next to his useless limb, flat on the ground. Then he saw a paw, glistening razor sharp blades adorning its tips. Darkness. The HP bar dropped to zero.
***
Julian opened his eyes, struggling to bring the image into focus against the blinding light of the setting sun. Raising a hand to shield himself from the orange sunlight, he scanned the area. The pleasant smell of flowers made him relax his tense muscles, and the faint sound of water put his mind at ease. He was back at the prairie, standing barefoot on the golden grass lit by the waning light of dusk. Shit. Or actually good news, I would say.
His sword and shield were still in his hands. Checking himself, Julian found that he was still wearing his armor, save for his boots. And his rune count was now zero.
Alright, this is good information. He thought. There was something extremely reassuring in the thought that he was, for all means and purposes, functionally immortal. Except for the pain. The pain of death was something that he couldn’t quite describe. He wasn’t even sure if the worst moment was before or after his death, for the two different kinds of pain were just too disconnected to even allow a comparison. He recovered quickly, but he was not used to pain and even if he was, he suspected, this was quite more than enough to put the fear of death back in his immortal self.
Retracing his steps, Julian made his way towards the very same trees he was in before, making use of the dying light of the day. He would need to light a fire soon, or hope there was a moon in this simulated space.
What is that? He thought, looking at a small dot that appeared in his compass, right next to the East marker. It pointed just slightly to the right of the tree he found the tutorial guy in, right where… right where I died. Are those my runes?
He decided to make a beeline to the waypoint. If those were his runes, maybe he could find his boots there too, and clear up the last questions he had regarding the respawn system. With a haste to his steps he approached the tree and kept going, overtaking the immobile naked man and not stopping for a moment. It was getting quite dark, but he could still see fairly well even in the thick of the trees.
In the distance, glowing a faint white, were the runes. Julian stopped right at the edge of the clearing where they were resting and waited patiently, using the cover of the night to hide. A few minutes later he saw it. Revenge time, motherfucker.
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He jumped out of the thick, sword held high and shield at the ready, and landed right on top of the tiger. The huge beast roared at the sudden attack, and shook him off with one powerful contortion of its body, but not before he managed to slash at its hide with his sword. The sharp blade severed the flesh, gouging deep into its side. The beast did not bleed, and its cut open flesh was like a cut of meat on a butcher’s table.
You’re limping. You know what this means. Knowing it was already dead, the beast did not run but chose to try one last desperate attack. Perhaps pushed by the system itself, it stood on its hind legs and began to furiously swipe at the armored attacker with its razor sharp claws, hitting the shield and ripping huge splinters of wood from it. Julian waited for a window to attack, relying on the many different styles of combat he had stored in his brain. He saw it, after a particularly ferocious strike that left the tiger off balance, and he took the chance. He swung his weapon, nicking the creature right in the neck, but leaving himself in turn exposed.
He screamed in pain as half of his own health bar was taken away with one single powerful attack. The beast went limp.
+133 Runes.
Julian collapsed on the ground, holding his stomach. There was a huge slash, a deep set of three cuts that exposed his internal organs to the chill of the night. But he wasn’t bleeding, nor was he losing HP. This is good. He thought, nodding to himself to garner the strength to get up.
He stumbled, falling once and then twice into the dirt before finding his unstable footing. Both times a flash of pain like liquid lightning surged through his brain. Turns out, his voice was distant in his own head, thoughts muddied by the sharp sting of pain, moving is difficult without the use of the abs.
Night fell upon the silent forest. All was quiet, save for a faint wind that made the leaves dance, and the distant trees howl. There was no moon, and the feeble light of the fake stars didn’t reach the deep layers of the forest, where the trees and the leafy denizens of the middle stratum blocked all the light.
Julian moved slowly, trying to avoid any movement that heightened the pain. He gathered some firewood close to the clearing, never straying too far away from the only source of light in the vicinity: his lost runes. He made a small pile of tiny branches and dry leaves and used his sword and shield to make a spark.
Come on! After a few tries his arms were getting sore. But Julian persevered. I’ll do it. Watch me.
A small, shy flame came to life. Eyes widening as if in disbelief he managed to even do it, Julian wiped his sweat away from his forehead and softly blew on it to make it grow. Feeding more wood to it, he finally had a small fire going.
Suddenly his HP bar replenished. The pain vanished from his body, and looking down he saw that his armor was now mended and his body repaired. He had a small scar, he noticed with a frown after digging below the metal he was wearing, and the chainmail was damaged but it was still functional. And most importantly, it doesn’t hurt anymore. Which is all that matters.
Julian gathered the glowing runes beside the fire. Their light was nothing compared to the flickering flames, but he was glad they were of help in the darkness.
Now, if my hunch is correct, I should be able to level up.
Just as he thought that, his status showed up in his vision. Right, he thought, putting a hand to his chin. What to even do?
It’s a pickle. For one, I just got vigor checked, twice. On the other hand, that arcane stat is looking very interesting. It usually means discovery and luck, both things I really need if I want to have a good run. However, what if I run into my level cap eventually? Will there even be a way to respec if I fuck up?
Damn, it’s hard. Fuck it. Arcane it is.
Julian V. Terror.
Level: 0 -> 1
Class: null
VIGOR: 10
MIND: 10
ENDURANCE: 10
STRENGTH: 10
DEXTERITY: 10
INTELLIGENCE: 10
FAITH: 10
ARCANE: 10 -> 11
Runes: 133
Runes needed: 180
Skills: none
>>LEVEL UP COMPLETE<<
>>CHOOSE A SKILL<<
Uh? This was a surprise. It looked like this was the legacy skill assignment system, Julian realized as he remembered what he read when he tried to hack the system. It was some sort of gacha, where he was presented with three alternatives to choose from.
Crown of Doom lv.1
You take 3% more damage and deal 3% more damage
Tome of Arcana lv.1
Incantations are 10% more powerful
Valuable Experience lv.1
Decrease level up cost by 5%
Julian whistled. "I like this."