by Pegaz
‘Ding!’
Chapter 11
Strength Test
Congratulations for thinking up a valid add-on skill! We have included the add-on in the inventory.
Opening up the system, John was looking through the skills when he noticed the new add-on.
Flesh's Strength - Idlers 1/99, Regeneration - 15/100, Immunity - 0/2
Flesh's Strength:
Immunity: Level 1 will make sure no scars are left behind after healing. Level 2 will make sure anything harmful is filtered out of the skin cells.
Oh, so at level 2 of the new Immunity skill, plus the White Cells skill, I’ll be completely immune to all poisons. More importantly, skills can be thought of instead and added to the system?
Midas’ hand of gold with the off and on option would be good to make sure I'm able to survive.... No? John tried harder to get the system to register his ideas. Zeus's ability to throw thunder will help me survive any deadly crisis too…. Nothing? Bollocks.
After walking through the city gate and still receiving no response from the system, John turned slightly to his right and headed northwest toward Loose Forest.
Because the Flesh’s Strength skill already had an Idler in and is still levelling up, he couldn't take it out. However, he could try to alter what the Idler was working on, switching it to work on Immunity instead of Regeneration. It worked, and the new countdown that popped up read 1d.
Wow, that means that the first skill needed six days total. After mulling this over in his head, he looked at the top of the screen again.
Welcome to the Idle System 1.2
Sure enough, it's updated again. I can get seven more skills by either thinking up plausible skills or by doing repeated actions. So before I get to Loose Forest, I should think of skills which might help me in the long run.
During the 6 hours journey to the forest, he came up with things like "Weakness Detector", "Ghost Whisperer", "Fire Breath", and even "Transparent Map". Nothing worked, so he merely carried on his path.
Pausing his stroll, John looked up at the tall trees in the distance. He was almost there. ‘Ding!’
Congratulations for thinking up a valid new skill. It has been added to the list.
John opened the system and looked at the top first.
Welcome to the Idle System 1.3
His gaze worked its way to the bottom of the list.
Directions - Idlers 0/99, Map 0/1, Transparent 0/1, Icons 0/1
Directions:
Map: A 2D map of the surrounding five miles in each direction, with you always in the centre. (Quest Locations Included)
Transparent: Keep the map open without blocking your view.
Icons: Add icons like enemies, neutral, ally, points of interest, buried treasure and more.
That's when he noticed there wasn't a "Bonus for maxing all skill levels" listed at the bottom of the description. Looking through all the skills to see if he missed any other skills with no bonuses, he noted that the Mind Strength skill had no bonus.
“System, I think you missed the bonus for maxing out the Mind Strength skill. If you have, fix it. If it isn't a mistake, that's some bullshit,” John complained to the system but felt he was getting greedy. All the other skills could already make him near indestructible in the mortal world, at least, once he reached the level cap for everything.
He was looking forward to the first Map skill, though. If this flower truly was rare, it could take days of searching. With a map that points and says "here it is!", he could complete the quest in a few hours instead!
John felt unstoppable. He could take on any quest to find any item and was guaranteed a 100% completion rate. Just so long as he was able to beat the strongest monster in that area. Who else in the world could say that? He turned the Continue skill off and closed the system.
When he finally reached the edge of Loose Forest, his mind wandered over to Alan, Peter and Cyril. They said that they were returning to do a quest in this forest too. Of course, he forgot to ask what the quest was, but then again it might’ve been rude to ask.
Still looking at the system, John he gazed at his 220 Attack points. Eyes darting to his stamina, he registered that it was 99/100. The one stamina loss was probably through the 6 hours of walking here. He really needed to test how strong he was and check his stamina usage out too.
With that in mind, he walked up to the nearest tree. It was as big as the ones deeper in the forest, about 100 feet tall and just over 8 feet wide. Taking a basic boxing stance that he remembered, John put his left foot forward and his right foot back, shoulder width apart. Mustering his strength, he threw a straight right at the tree, turning his hip with the blow.
BANG!
His fist carved into the tree about two inches deep, small cracks spreading around the hole where half of his fist was sunken into the bark. Pleased with the result, he glanced up at his stamina. It now read 98/100. 1 point per punch, then.
Walking around the tree to his right, John stopped at the other side and turned around. With a sudden flash of motion, he pushed off of the ground as fast as he could, putting his left foot forward.
Surprisingly enough, he landed about four feet away from the tree. His stamina still sat at 98/100, which John noted with a grin. Not quite done with his test, John tilted his head to the left and right then stretched out his arms. He lifted his left leg, shook it, put it back and did the same with his right leg.
Another flash of movement, and he pushed off as fast as he could. This time he landed in front of the tree on his left leg, but he was still skidding across. Desperate not to lose momentum, he punched out.
BOOM!
This time with the extra speed and his weight being pushed further because of it, his entire arm was deep inside of the tree, stopping just before his elbow.
Around where his arm had crashed into the tree, the bark began to sink in. Spider web cracks spread across the surface, spanning out across the tree’s bark for about two feet. Astounded, he pulled his arm out of the tree and took a look at the damage done to his arm. It was all cut up and bleeding.
Looking at the cuts, he noticed the edges slowly closing. At only level 15, the healing skill was visible to the naked eye. A weird thought crept up on him as he watched the wound heal itself little by little.
At level 100 for the Regeneration skill in Flesh’s Strength, if a sword or dagger managed to stab me, would the wound heal so fast that it would close with the weapon still inside of me? Will it be like plucking hairs? Even that hurts like hell, but this is bound to be about a million times more painful!
Sighing at the thought of plucking a sword from his arm, John cast one last glance at the damage and walked further into the forest.
He scanned the area for any big rocks that could be hard to climb or scale. The flower was sure to be in an environment like that. He started wandering around, keeping an eye out for bears, rabbits, bats or anything else that could threaten him.
An hour gradually passed. ‘Ding!’, ‘Ding!’ Two?
Congratulations for finding a mistake in the system! The bonus for maxing all skill levels for the Mind Strength and Direction skills are now included. We have given you a reward of 1 skill point to place anywhere you choose.
How come I'm only getting one skill points for pointing out two mistakes?! Wait... First, it was killing a beast, then a ranked monster... I still don't know the difference between them yet, but the system is registering them differently...
At first, I was awarded for finding a clash of skills, which the system called a bug. Now it's a called a mistake? Did they just forget to put the bonuses in the description or did they forget to add a bonus in the first place? I can’t figure this stupid thing out!
I doubt I’ll get any other skill points by finding other bugs or mistakes. Same goes for killing any of the same rank of monsters. It makes sense. Anyway, that's one ‘ding’ down. Where'd the other one come from?
Looking at the system, John had 1/16 Idlers fr
ee. It must have just finished levelling up! Putting the Continue skill back on, and then placing the free Idler into the Direction skill slot, he checked over his list once more.
Blood's Capacity - Idlers 0/99, Cell Speed - 9/100, Transportation - 0/10, White Cells - 0/10
Ah, so that was the one that levelled up. He couldn't feel anything different at all, but then again it was slow progress. The only reason he felt it so much with the attack skills was because he levelled up too fast. He doesn't want to do that again.
He put the skill point into the Idlers Speed skill and raised it to level 6. Satisfied, he checked out the new bonuses.
Mind's Strength:
Bonus for maxing all skill levels: Removes the chemical melatonin when produced and automatically do everything else your body does while sleeping, this removes the need for sleep, you will never get sleepy again. (you can still sleep if you want to though.)
Directions:
Bonus for maxing all skill levels: System's screen will become transparent.
Surprised and happy about the new skill bonuses, John closed the system and walked further into the centremost part of the Loose Forest. He hummed a chipper tune.
Chapter 12
The Manual Part
After three hours of tactlessly searching for any large rocks and black flowers with almost no parameters at this point, John came up with absolutely nothing.
His best bet was to find some food and settle down to sleep for the night. Tomorrow, he would wait for the new map skill to finish completing, and hopefully one of the flowers would appear within a five-mile radius in any direction. Then, he could just go to the place it indicated, get the plant, and be on his way back to town.
With this plan in mind, he started searching for something to hunt for dinner. He hadn’t seen any of those jumbo rabbits and didn't feel like fighting a bear. If he could help it, he really didn't want to eat a bat.
Guess with the new stomach acid, I could technically just eat grass or something. The thought that an animal might have defecated on it put him off to the whole idea.
Still not seeing any animals whatsoever, John directed his attention upwards at the tree branches to see if there were any birds or other edible creatures. While he did spot some birds, they were fairly small, about the size of a sparrow. He would need to kill about fifty of them to fill himself up, and the only way he could kill them at this point was to throw rocks at them and hope the birds felt suicidal.
That's when John remembered the waterfall from the cliff that he initially woke up by. Surely the river at the bottom would have animals drinking there. It was the perfect place to hunt. Gathering his directional bearings, he took his compass out and worked out which direction he needed to head: northeast.
‘Ding!’
He didn't get very far before he heard the system again.
Muscle Elasticity - Idlers 1/99, Cardiac - 10/100, Skeletal - 0/100, Smooth - 0/100, Time - 1d 2h 30m
He suddenly had an impression that his heart was pumping more blood than usual. John held a hand to his chest and felt for his pulse.
Two hours later, he could hear the sound of the waterfall in the distance. John slowed his pace down and kept the shelter of any trees or bushes he found along the way. It was all he could do to stay out of sight while approaching the waterfall.
Soon, he arrived about eighty feet away from the waterfall and the river. The river was travelling to the west and from what he could make out, there were no animals here. Maybe because of the noise? John started moving downstream while sticking to the tree line as much as possible.
Around forty minutes passed, and he finally spotted a Jumbo Rabbit (name credit: me, thank you very much!) drinking water from the river. It was a little smaller than the one he saw fall victim to the bats. By his estimation, it was only three feet tall and one foot wide.
Now, how am I going to kill it? Even then, how am I going to dismantle it?
Looking around, he found no stones, rocks or any makeshift tools to use. It was all bushes, grass and dirt. Left with no other choice, he settled on the only thing he could think of. He had to punch the thing to death.
Coming to this conclusion, he had two courses of action. One: he could wait for the rabbit to finish drinking and pray that it walked towards him. Or two: he could charge out now, surprise the rabbit, and hopefully catch it before it got too far.
But before he could decide between his options, the rabbit finished drinking and hopped away in the opposite direction.
FUCK!
John sprung out as fast as he could towards the rabbit. In response, the rabbit stood up and turned its head towards the noise, spotting John. With its head faced upward, John could see its face; it had dark red eyes and buck teeth—really, really sharp buck teeth.
The rabbit was the one who took John by surprise. Against all expectations, it charged directly at him and jumped up to bite his neck! This rabbit was a carnivore!
John got close to the rabbit with all the momentum of his sprint and punched out with a left jab. His idea was to stun the rabbit and keep it from biting him.
BANG!
The hit landed, and as John’s fist made contact, half the rabbits face disappeared. The rabbit’s body was still in motion when it collapsed onto John. Stunned at the power of the punch, plus the fact that it had landed so smoothly, John stared down at the body of the rabbit, blood gushing from the open wound.
Was the rabbit thinking it could have survived the blow? Or was it just too slow to react?
‘Ding!’, ‘Ding!’
Congratulations on your first kill with system's skills! You have unlocked the Time Pool. 1 second has been added for killing the Buck Tooth Rabbit.
Congratulations for dismantling part of a creature! We have given you the skill Dismantler.
So blowing part of the head off a rabbit counts as ‘dismantling’? John looked around to make sure it was safe and then opened the system.
Welcome to the Idle System 1.4
Name: John
Age: 15
Idlers: 0/16
Time Pool: 1s
Time Pool: Take the life of anything using the system's skills. The system will turn the vitality you've destroyed into time, which you can put into any skill to reduce the time by said amount.
Dismantler:
Look at any creature and this skill will show you where to cut for the best and most natural results.
Bonus for maxing all skill levels: If the option is turned on, it will show you the target’s weakness and the best way to dismantle the enemy alive.
So because I used the Knuckle Damage skill while blowing up this rabbit's head, the vitality, which could be described as its remaining lifespan, was taken by the system and converted into time. But what's with the ratio? I don't know how old this rabbit was or how long it had left to live if I hadn't killed it, but 1 second? That's a bit low, isn't it?
Either way, this must be the "manual" part of the system that I was talking about. The more I kill, the more time I can absorb and apply to any skill.
John turned the Continue skill off and then closed the system, wondering what to do with this rabbit. Peering down he noted the remaining half of its skull, blood, brains, and bits of bone splattered everywhere.
Going a little pale, he took slow, deep breaths while making sure to keep eye contact with the massacre. He was going to have to get used to these kinds of scenes at some point. He figured the sooner the better. Even back on Earth, humans still had to kill to survive. It's just that in the modern era, only a few people killed the animals and the rest got packaged meat.
He stayed by the rabbit’s ruined corpse and took in the smell of the blood. John toyed with the skull a bit, tilting it over and letting all the blood drain out. After most of the blood had drained, he then pinched the skin at the end of the wound with his left hand's thumb and middle finger. Taking a deep breath, he tugged on the skin.
The skin was attached to everything underneath
, and as he pulled harder, the meat along with the skin ripped off the bone, veins and all.
He stuck his left hand's index finger in between the layer of skin and fur, hoping to separate them a little. Pulling both ends apart, he found the result was not perfect, but it's still seemed like it would be edible. After all, if desperate then he could always eat the fur and bones. The Stomach Acid and Impurity Filter skills would see that he could safely consume the creature. Luckily, he wasn’t that desperate just yet.
After an hour, John's managed to separate the fur, bones and meat into clumps. He wound up with about four nice pieces that were about nine inches in length each. While two of them were much thicker than the other two, each piece would serve him well. Somewhat tired from the whole process, he decided he needed to get a knife as soon as possible to do this more comfortably.
The river was perfect to wash the meat in. Once John was done cleaning each piece, he hung them over his arm to keep it from falling onto the floor.
While holding the pieces of meat in his left hand, he looked around for any dry bits of wood. After a whole ten minutes of searching, not one bit of wood was to be found. There weren’t even any dry leaves for him to use, and the living bark all around him all seemed perfectly healthy. The branches were too high up for any monsters or beasts to break them, and the only birds around here were too small to send any pieces his way.
Now he had nothing to burn. Nothing to start a fire. Nothing to keep the pieces of meat on the fire to cook. All he had were a few pieces of meat and a carcass near the river.
It was just after 3pm, and John was getting hungry. If he ran, he might be able to get back to the city in an hour or so—so long as his stamina didn't run out before then. If he walked, it would take roughly seven or eight hours.
Gritting his teeth, he held the meat in front of his mouth and forced himself to take a big bite, chewing a few times and then swallowing.
After a minute of anxious gorging, he’d eaten all the meat and was trying his best to keep the food in his stomach. He knew he couldn't be poisoned or get diarrhoea or anything else. It was the thought of eating raw meat that got to him.