Feeling a little satisfied from the quick meal, I bent backwards lazily.
"This hits the spot~"
Filling another bowl with water from the beaker, I drank an appropriate amount such that it wouldn't keep me bloated.
"..."
Resting like this gave me quite a bit of time to think about my plans moving forward. Well, to search for the man that had kindly led me to this place was one thing, but I needed to set my priorities straight first.
As I began to perspire a little from the warmth of the soup stock, I begin to feel a little cold as the sweat evaporated from my skin. I left my outer coat as it is on the sofa and wore back my black long-sleeves.
It became a little more comfortable now that I felt less chilly.
Hmm...? Oh right... those insects... but when did I bandage myself? ...
Now that I saw my own body carefully, it seemed to be covered in bloodied bandages, but they didn't hurt so I didn't notice them at first in the dark. It felt a little strange, but as I touched them with the intent of appraising the bandages, it showed up not as an item, but one that merely read:
Recovery possible in 1:17:03
A timer...? The last few numbers that are being reduced were the seconds, so it's an estimated hour or so before 'recovery' is possible huh. Was this a healing item? It just looked like a bandage to me. And things that weren't identifiable tend to be normal things on Earth. For now, I felt that it was best to leave it alone for now.
I wore my clothes properly this time as made a mental note to check on it after the hour.
...Ah, I should be 'healthy' now right... I've consistently ran red the last time I checked... Haaah...
I felt depressed thinking about it. To think the situation had turned for the better so suddenly, even I did not expect it to go so well. I really needed to thank that hunter. Giving my sincere gratitude to the hunter internally, I resolved myself again to look for the man whom I did not know the name of yet when it was possible to do so.
[https://i.imgur.com/WLcA83p.png]
As I checked my status to observe how much value was increased from that meal, I noticed that the numbers had turned green as an indicator that I was currently 'healthy'. So did orange mean 'within a reasonable range', and red meaning 'critical range'? It seemed simple to understand, and again, it did not serve much of a purpose as I could tell that on my own.
Stamina [93] Hunger [95] Thirst [95]
But before the ｢Status Window｣ faded away after the stipulated three seconds, two additional clauses were added below the 'sustainability' parameters. As if reading my thoughts, they reflected what I had just deduced.
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
-Healthy- Trial [13]
A line that just says "Healthy". What is this? The color green as well, doesn't it mean that it corresponds to the values above it? This is useless...! Fuck.
...No wait. Perhaps... this is... a 'universal' indicator? This might be useful! If it does indeed turn to "poisoned" when I am indeed in such a state, then couldn't it also detect early signs of poison? Maybe common coughs and fever would be pushing it, but when that time comes, it wouldn't hurt to check my status window out.
I've gotten something useful, a little bit. Well at this stage, it was nothing more than a 'detector'. I did not have any actual skill yet. I had already half given up on it to be completely honest.
The second line was the word "Trial", coupled by the number "13" coded in black. It did not seem to have any meaning, what did trial refer to? Was this a test product? Was I being tested? Thinking too much did not help at all, seeing that the number did not change. So I ended up deciding to keep an eye on it every now and then to see if it jumped after doing a particular action. After a few more times, I eventually gave up the frequent checks and only did so when I wanted to check my own 'health indicator'.
This increase in the information shown under my Status Window revealed new possibilities for the appraisal skill. I started to think about what could've happened to it, and what triggered the manifestation of its 'evolution'. Maybe I needed to simply use it frequently enough. Or was the words that I said the 'keyword' to unlocking it? ...That couldn't be true, I did yell out a few embarassing words I thought would qualify as 'skills' the moment I arrived in this world.
...Wait. Those names weren't on a technical level... were they? What did I say earlier...?
...'Healthy'?
Was it a coincidence? Gulp. No way... right?
Let's try it out.
"Health. HP. Mana. MP. Experience. Experience points. EXP. XP. Strength. STR. Dexterity. DEX. Intelligence. INT. Luck. LUK."
For now, these were the things I wanted to check. I even did the short forms for these values, so that the wording would cover as much grounds as possible. So that there wouldn't be any more misunderstandings. ...I should have thought of doing so from the start. Maybe the circumstances back then did not give me time to do so, or I was simply confused. But this time was different. I was now in a safe place.
...I narrowed my eyes, and cleared my throat.
"｢Status Window｣"
HP [4/5] MP [0] XP [1]
STR [0] DEX [1] INT [1] LUK [0]
Stamina [93] Hunger [95] Thirst [95]