“I see. Okay. What level do I need to be to get my skills?”
“I guess level three is when most melee classes earn their first skills. What’s your… Oh GG, man. Congrats on your new level.”
I had no idea I had earned a level, but I guessed the fight with the snake was difficult enough to advance me, especially since my initial fight with the thugs had brought me two-thirds of the way there.
“Let’s get you set up,” Leo said as he circled his hand in the air in front of him. “Before any more snakes attack you.”
The circle he had traced shone with a purple light and his hand disappeared through it as if it was a portal. Before I was able to express my astonishment, he had pulled out a leather shirt and a pair of leather pants. Their stats hovered above them as he threw them in my face.
Name: Leather Shirt
Type: Upper Armor (Light)
Rarity: E Grade
Physical Defense: 43
MP Increment: 0
Durability : 149/170
Weight: 1230
Description : A shirt made of cattle leather. It provides some protection without hindering movement.
Name: Leather Pants
Type: Lower Armor (Light)
Rarity: E Grade
Physical Defense: 27
MP Increment: 0
Durability : 136/160
Weight: 1730
Description : A pair of pants made of cattle leather. They provide some protection without hindering movement. Not very easy to remove when you’re in a hurry to visit the bathroom though.
“Is that—?” I said, momentarily not finding the words. “Is that some kind of inventory wormhole?”
“I keep forgetting how new all of this is to you,” he said, laughing. “Yes. Kind of. Costs a pretty penny, but it’s a good investment. Now put those clothes on and get your sword back. You dropped it over there.”
“What’s wrong with my clothes?”
“Do you see any stats when you examine your System of a Down T-shirt? Does it say something like ‘Legendary T-shirt of the metalhead, S-Grade’ and the like?”
“Okay, okay. I get it,” I said and started to take off my shirt. “Give me a bit of privacy?”
“Oh, I’ve seen better, dude,” he said and started to cast a different spell.
Once he’d stopped moving his hands, the faint outline of a shield appeared in front of me and disappeared in an instant. It looked like the ones used for noble house crests. Before I was able to pull my new pants up, he had finished casting yet another spell. This time, the outline of a greatsword flashed before me.
“You’re all ready to fight now!” he exclaimed, and I mentally brought forward my Battle Stats screen.
Battle Stats
Max HP: 145
Max MP: 45
Physical Attack: 9
Physical Defense: 99
Accuracy: 34
Critical: 44
Attack Speed: 416
Magic Attack: 3
Magic Defense: 47
Evasion: 34
Speed: 126
Casting Speed: 213
HP Regen. : 3.2/minute
MP Regen. : 1.1/minute
Next to this stats screen was a small extension. I focused my attention on it and a new text window appeared before me, headlined “Active Effects”.
Name: Fortitude
Type: Buff
Level: 1
Effect: Boosts Physical Defense by 8%
Time Left: 19 minutes 57 seconds
Description : A layer of mana envelops the recipient’s body, acting as a dampener for physical blows.
Name: Might
Type: Buff
Level: 1
Effect: Boosts Physical Attack by 8%
Time Left: 19 minutes 59 seconds
Description : The recipient’s muscles are infused with mana, providing a significant strength boost.
“You can buff people too?” I exclaimed, surprised at the renewed vigor flowing through my body. “I thought you were a damage-dealer?”
“Just the basics. Remember, I’m still a generalist until I get my class change.”
“I see. I can probably guess the answer to this question, but buffs don’t stack, right?”
He moved his hands and muttered a few arcane words, and the shield outline flashed before me once more.
“You can see for yourself,” he replied. “Now go find more enemies to kill so you can get to level three.”
When I looked again, the boon granted by his Fortitude buff hadn’t increased but the timer had reset back to twenty minutes, so I did as he had said, running around the outskirts of the forest.
“Why don’t you join me?” I shouted back at him as he followed closely behind with Louie right next to him.
“Let me show you why,” he said, and immediately a flashing dot appeared in the periphery of my vision. I focused on it.
Leonardo DiFiore has invited you to a party.
Party Members: 1/9
Party Leader: Leonardo DiFiore
Do you accept the invitation?YesNo
I accepted his party request and immediately an image of his face, with his HP and MP bars attached to it, appeared in the top left corner of my view.
“Now watch this,” he said and sent his Gale Blast at a snake that had just appeared a couple of dozen feet away from us.
The cobra was killed on impact and since I had an idea what he was trying to show me, I kept an eye on my XP bar. It hadn’t moved at all.
“The Dark Energy would never allow for such shortcuts,” he said as I saw a semi-transparent window appear, informing me that the party had dispersed before disappearing again. “The greater the level gap between party members, the bigger the XP penalty. If the level gap is large enough, no XP is distributed at all.”
“So I guess you can only heal me and buff me while I fight?”
“Exactly. Now go!”
The closer I got to the thick wall of trees, the more I saw the grass rustle with movements that followed my every move. It wasn’t long before another Young King Cobra head rose out of the grass to attack me. This time though, I knew exactly how to fight it.
I raised my sword along the trajectory the snake was taking and managed to move it in time for the snake’s bite to only find my steel. I immediately thrust the sword forward, managing a deep cut in the snake’s mouth. My hit landed a lot harder than before, a sign that Leo’s buff was working.
And when the inevitable bite came, I saw a considerably smaller portion of my HP bar disappear. This only served to motivate me more. I parried and slashed, dodged and pierced the snake until it fell to the ground dead.
“You’re getting better at this!” Leo shouted once he’d cast a spell to purify me of the poison again.
As much as I didn’t want to admit it, it was exhilarating. The thrill of fighting. Actually holding a sword, killing monsters. I tried to suppress my enthusiasm. I wasn’t supposed to be enjoying myself. I was only doing this so that I could pay back the hospital sharks. But how long would I be able to control myself, when only a few days ago I was working on the BF-TCG-7231 Jira bug ticket?
I looked toward the forest and spotted what looked like two foxes heading my way. On closer inspection, they resembled illustrations of gray blink dogs much more than foxes—their ears large and pointy, brown stripes down their backs, and two thick tails behind each of them.
Name: Two-tailed Yandir
Type: Beast
Level: 3
Disposition : Aggressive
HP : 47/47
Physical Attack: 6
Magic Attack: 6
Speed: 120
Attack Range: Melee
XP : 93
Description : Yandirs are native to nature-ruled realms. By themselves, Yandirs are not dangerous predators but they never hunt alone. This particular species has a mutation that giv
es it two tails, which offers no fighting advantage but is rather a part of yandir mating rituals.
“Careful with these two!” Leo shouted as he cast a healing spell on me.
The yandirs were approaching me from opposite sides, circling around my position to flank me.
“You got another one of these swords?” I asked Leo.
“Sure,” he said and threw another short sword from his pocket inventory dimension. “But it won’t increase your attack. They aren’t balanced as a pair.”
“It’s fine for now,” I said as I grabbed it.
Both beasts attacked at once. I struck one of them with my sword and it yelped in pain while the second bit my leg. The pain was… well, to be honest, it wasn’t as bad as I’d expected the bite of a wild beast to be, no doubt thanks to my new armor and the Fortitude buff.
I also expected to feel some kind of remorse as my sword pierced one of the beasts from its belly all the way to its back, but the only feeling I had was that of survival. I was attacked and I had defended myself. Louie’s growls from behind Leo indicated that he shared my sentiment. The second yandir made one last attempt to attack me but between Leo’s healing and my sword strikes, it didn’t stand a chance. My last thrust made it fall to the ground with a thud.
“Shouldn’t I be skinning them for materials or something?” I asked as I wiped the blood off my swords on the green grass floor.
“You can if you want to,” Leo replied, “but I don’t think you’d appreciate the amount of effort involved.”
He was right. Even in games, I’d never enjoyed gathering materials. I was always the kind of player who found a way to make gold by moving things around and then buying whatever I needed. But at least the monsters should have provided me with enough XP to get the level I needed. I shifted my focus onto a minimized screen that was flashing on the edge of my view.
Congratulations. You have advanced to level 3.
You have unlocked 3 skills.
I mentally clicked on the number three and three new text boxes appeared.
Name: Mighty Shot
Level: 1
Type: Active
HP Consumed: 0
MP Consumed: 17
Power: 65
Range: 60 feet
Precondition: Only usable with a bow
Description : A powerful long-distance attack. The arrow is imbued with mana before it is fired, making it easier to pierce through flesh and armor.
Name: Mighty Slash
Level: 1
Type: Active
HP Consumed: 0
MP Consumed: 9
Power: 30
Range: Melee
Precondition: Only usable with swords, blunt weapons, or spears.
Description : A powerful melee attack. The weapon is enveloped in a thin layer of mana, making it easier to slice through flesh and armor.
Name: Mortal Stab
Level: 1
Type: Active
HP Consumed: 0
MP Consumed: 8
Power: 40
Range: Melee
Precondition: Only usable daggers and knives
Description : A rudimentary assassinating attack. The weapon is coated in a thin layer of mana. Once the weapon strikes, the mana is released into the victim’s vital organs. This skill’s power stacks on top of the user’s Physical Attack.
These skills looked great but what was really surprising was the fact that from one moment to the next, I simply knew how to execute each of them. I had never held a bow in my life—at least not a real one—yet now I knew how I would go about infusing mana into my arrows.
Since the only weapons available to me at the moment were the two swords I was holding, I executed the Mighty Slash skill. I brought both of my blades forward and their outline gave off a very faint purple glow which was gone the moment my attack was finished. Along with the glow, however, 9 MP were removed from my limited pool.
“Great job, man,” Leo said, once he saw me execute my first skill. “I think you’re ready to enter the forest now.”
“I hope so,” I replied. “Should I level my skills a bit first?”
“You can’t level up your skills. Their levels will increase when you level up.”
“I see,” I said. “In that case, do you have any mana potions?”
“There’s no such thing as mana potions. That would make spellcasters imba.”
“Did you honestly use a gaming term in real life? I thought you were in your thirties already.”
“Check again. Imba has been used as a short form of ‘imbalanced’ in the Apocosmos for centuries,” he retorted with a smirk. “It’s pretty old-fashioned actually. And I’m in my very early thirties, which is pretty much an infant in half-elf years.”
“Sure, sure,” I said, not wanting to drag this on any longer. “Shall we go then?”
“Let’s take a short rest,” he replied, “so we can go in with full HP and MP.”
I agreed and we both sat down overlooking the entrance into the forest. A couple of seconds later, the smell of delicious, greasy, crispy bacon filled the air.
“Is someone frying bacon?” I asked and gulped. I hadn’t realized how hungry I was until now.
“There’s no way someone could—” Leo started but stopped mid-sentence and jumped up. “Louie!”
Louie was running as fast as his short legs could carry him, headfirst toward the source of the mouthwatering smell, which was, of course, the gloomy ominous entrance to the forest.
I launched myself up and sprinted behind him, though it was clear I wouldn’t be able to catch him. Leo and I reached the opening at the same time. I was able to continue running, but I heard what sounded like an electric discharge and saw Leo being flung back next to me.
“Damn it!” he shouted and immediately started casting a barrage of spells.
“It’s fine,” I said. As I turned to leave, I felt his healing spell wash over me and his two buffs being renewed.
“Take this,” he said. I barely managed to turn back around to catch a corked glass vial shaped in the fashion of a test tube. It was filled with a red liquid.
Name: Minor Healing Potion
Type: Consumable - Potion
Durability : 20/20
Rarity: E Grade
Weight: 4st.
Description : A magic potion, which upon consumption will slowly restore HP. The effect of the potion lasts for 15 seconds.
I thanked him with a nod and sprinted forward, keeping in mind the information I’d just absorbed. The potion wouldn’t heal me instantly but rather raise my HP Regeneration Rate for 15 seconds. If push came to shove, I would need to use it before my HP dropped to critical levels.
With every step I took into the forest, it seemed as if the sun was setting in fast-forward. Before long, I was standing in the middle of a forest in the dead of the night, with the only light coming from luminescent fungi on the ground and down the sides of trees.
I wasn’t able to see Louie, but there were little luminescent paw-prints on the ground. He must have inadvertently stepped on some of the fungi, and thank fuck he had because I don’t know how I would have been able to follow him otherwise. The forest was thick with trees I didn’t recognize. Their branches hung heavy, resembling willow trees, but their foliage was a thick vibrant green.
As I ran through the forest, cutting small branches with my swords, I was sure I saw more than a couple of snakes slithering about, though thankfully no other predators. The two yandirs I’d fought proved to be easier opponents but I had the feeling that those two were only scouting for a much larger pack. I just hoped the pack’s lair wasn’t somewhere in here and that Louie wouldn’t bump into them on his own. Just as my thoughts were getting darker…
A bark!
“Louie! I’m coming, boy!” I screamed at the top of my lungs and sprinted even faster.
Why did he run away? The smell had been very intense—it stil
l was. But never before had he behaved like this. Then again, never before had I used a key on a fucking wall, and run around chasing birthday presents in the Apocosmos. First, I was almost killed by a damn cobra and now Louie was missing. As much as I liked Leo, he was much more of a hot mess in this world. And that’s not to mention him dragging me into dangers I never should have been part of. It was high time I started to distance myself from him completely.
“Where are you, boy?” I shouted and heard another bark in reply.
I followed the sound and was soon standing in the middle of a clearing, which was much brighter than the path I’d taken due to the high density of shining fungi. Louie was sitting on the ground in front of me, yet he didn’t turn to acknowledge my presence. And he wasn’t alone. At least a score of yandirs had now been alerted to my presence and were swinging their tails expectantly. Worst of all, right in the middle of them, directly in front of Louie, was a yellow-and-purple-striped tiger. Its fur gleamed as it moved its paws, lazily circling around Louie.
Name: Great Forest Tiger
Type: Beast
Level: 6
Disposition : Passive
HP : 94/94
Physical Attack: 13
Magic Attack: 6
Speed: 100
Attack Range: Melee
XP : 212
Description : Great Forest Tigers are regal but vicious beasts. As cubs, they are forced to battle their siblings until only one of them is left. The survivor is then ostracized by the rest of the pride until they reach adulthood.
The tiger purred at Louie and rubbed its massive head along his body, easily shifting him to the side. Louie looked like he was having fun and apparently so was the tiger. But how long would it be before the tiger became hungry? It looked like the giant cat was the leader of the yandir pack, and I doubted it would choose one of its own for its next meal.
Berserker: A LitRPG Urban Fantasy Adventure (Apocosmos Book 1) Page 8