Hitting his stride

A chain arcs through the sky, the end coming down on a rabbit-like monster, despite the mutations caused to its kind since the arrival of the System, its body was still fragile, and the whip-like blow caved in its skull.

Kyle leapt to one side as another Giant Rabbit launched itself at his back, having gotten used to the increased Agility provided from his Class earlier on. He flicked the end of his weapon at the beast’s feet as it landed, causing it to stumble. Moving quickly levelled a kick at the rabbit’s head intent on further lowering its ability to strike back before finishing it off.

“So…,” he said as he crouched by one of the corpses as Fi passed him a small knife, which he readily took from her, “it looks like I’m starting to get the hang of this.”

Fi agreed with him as he started to remove the animal’s pelt, noting that it looked like once again his lack of skill at doing so would leave the skin worth very little money once they finally got to town.

“You levelled up from that last battle by the way”, she said as she brought up his Status.

Status

Name: Kyle Ferguson

Race: Human

Level: 2

Class: Chain Fighter

HP: 72/90

Regen: 0.9 HP per second

MP: 70/70

Regen: 3 MP per second

SP: 82/90

Regen: 4.5 SP per second

Exp: 0%

Strength: 10(7)

Dexterity: 11(7)

Constitution: 9(8)

Agility:15(9)

Intelligence: 7(7)

Wisdom: 6(6)

Endurance: 9(7)

Willpower: 7(7)

Stat Points: 3

Skill Points: 10

As Kyle glanced over his stats he noted that his base Willpower and Constitution had risen, which he assumed could be attributed to the injuries he had been receiving. He decided to put a point into Willpower bringing it up to 8, so that he had a bit more resistance against status effects like the bleeding one that had been popping up a bit, as he was rapidly running low on bandages, and then the two remaining points into Dexterity so he could hit more often, this brought the final score up to 13. After he had done this he turned to Fi.

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“So, I was thinking about spending my Skill points on the dodge skill I got earlier today but what do you think.”

As she pondered his question the tip of her tail started rubbing her chin again, a habit she had picked up from Thomas over the years.

“No, I don’t think you need that yet,” she said eventually, “it only increases your ability to avoid damage, you can still dodge without it. It’s the same thing for cooking and that new chain attack you got as when you levelled up the weapon proficiency, you can still trip your enemies without it, what you really need now is a way to decrease the damage you take if an enemy does hit you, that way we spend less time waiting for your health to recover, especially as the only armour you have is your coat.”

“Are you sure? The only skill I’ve got for that is Thick Skin and I can’t quite afford to unlock that yet.”

“Yes, it might be a roundabout route, but you’re not struggling with the weaker enemies right now due to your higher stats, and besides it should have some interesting upgrades later on.”

Kyle nodded at her answer glancing briefly at the current bonus for his only Level 2 skill, which was sitting at a 2% increase to his damage, small beans yet but it showed a lot of promise for the future, especially once Lash, which wasn’t far behind levelled up as well.

“Right”, he said, “I suppose we’d better get on our way, we need to let people know about this new Zone and resupply anyway.”

Nodding Fi once more attached herself in her customary position on his arm and the two headed off towards the boundary, stopping to fight a particularly bothersome opponent, a hawk-like monster along the way. Kyle’s happiness only grew as Lash levelled up after this, and he was looking forward to testing it out later.

As they exited the Zone small smiles could be seen on their faces, being in there, surrounded by possible danger had been something that was very uncomfortable for them as they had to take watches throughout the night, something neither had been used to, and they slowly relaxed as they continued their journey to the next town.

Soon they could see something on the horizon, one of the lost cities that had existed before the System. These Cities usually had Dungeons, a more dangerous form of Zone that also relied upon the deaths of many people to form, beneath the streets that monsters that weren’t powerful enough to live within the dungeon proper now roamed. These once majestic sites were now a warning to those whose ancestors had survived the first few days, and a warning not to let a Zone’s master grow too powerful or kill too many. However, many of the larger towns and cities that have appeared since rely upon Dungeons for their survival through the collection of monster parts and what materials could be still be salvaged from the ruined buildings.

Such was the town they were headed to, one much larger than the sleepy village they had grown up in and the guards watched them warily as they approached eying Kyle’s now tattered coat with disdain. It was somewhat unusual for someone to be travelling while wearing so little gear, something only reinforced by the slender young man walking calmly up to them revealing his dirty features for their inspection.

 “Hello sirs, I was wondering if you could point me to the local adventurer’s guild office?” asked the young man politely.

One of the guards sneered at his question, thinking that Kyle was just another country bumpkin with delusions of grandeur.

While Kyle was indeed interested in joining the guild he also knew that one had to be at least level 5 before doing so and quickly explained that he was there to report on the new Zone that had appeared.

When the guards heard this, they pointed him in the direction of a large building a little down the street.

Walking into the Guild Hall Kyle quickly mad his way to a nearby counter, where a bespectacled man waited.

“Hello, I have some information about a Zone that appeared near my village recently”, he said.

The man passed him a sheet of paper, “Please fill out this form, note the name of the town, the type and levels of the monsters in the Zone and leave your name so that we can contact you if need be”, he quickly said gesturing to a nearby plinth the boy could use to write on.

Slightly annoyed Kyle filled out the form and walked out, starting to look for somewhere he could resupply and sort out the rest of his gear.

He soon noticed a general store that sold food and the like to the townsfolk and travellers alike and walked in to sell the pelts and meat that he had removed from the monster he had killed. Due to their poor quality he was only able to get a small amount of copper coins however and after buying new bandages and food was only left with enough to repair his coat and maybe get a new pair of shoes as the one of the ones he was wearing still had a hole in the sole from his first fight.

A slightly sheepish expression on his face Kyle asked around about a way to make some more money and was told about an area in the ruins of the city nearby that had some tortoise-like monsters. These monsters weren’t too dangerous alone due to their slow movement speed and their shells were also a valuable ingredient for making basic heavy armour making them a nearly perfect target for Kyle as he was certain his chain would be able to crack the shell allowing him to get to the soft flesh beneath.

Fi agreed with this noting that may have to get them alone due to the lack of stopping power his weapon currently possessed, but she acknowledged that this would also allow him to increase his skill levels at a decent rate, and so the two once again headed out of the town.