Fight. Level. Survive.

Chapter 2 – Magic Bolt! Magic Bolt! Magic Bolt!

Mason woke up with his head pounding and his entire body sore.

"This is definitely not a dream. If that happens every time I level up, I might just off myself right now."

Five new info boxes had popped up while he had been unconscious, he quickly read through each of them.

Notification – 1/5

Initiation complete.

Your character sheet has been updated.

You have unallocated stat points to spend.

After reading the message, Mason wondered how he was supposed to close the current box and move on to the next one but as the thought entered his mind, the box closed.

Notification – 2/5

You have reached Level 1.

Stats unlocked.

Skills unlocked.

Skill 'Identify (Basic)' acquired – Identify - This skill gives you basic information about objects, creatures, and people you focus on. Level further to increase the available information.

Base skills unlocked.

Skill selection available.

Stat points allocated.

Notification – 3/5

Quest update - Zero to Hero - In order to begin your journey, you must take your first step, reach level 1, and begin initiation.

Quest Complete

Reward options – A. Small Weapon box (Common) or B. Small clothes box (Common).

His instincts were telling him to choose the weapon box, that mosquito was fucking massive, and he couldn't be sure what was going to be hunting him next. On the other hand, his junk was awfully exposed, and if that somehow got bitten off, the women of his world and this one would miss out greatly, and that surely could not be.

His inner thoughts having done a decent job of convincing him, Mason settled on the clothes box as his decision and with that thought, he felt a light thud in the grass directly in front of him.

Notification – 4/5

Achievement Reward - Rise and shine, sleepy head.

Reward – Health Potion (Common) X 3

Achievement Reward - Better get started.

Reward – Mana Potion (Common) X 3

Notification – 5/5

Mini-map unlocked.

Exiting the last notification, as he had expected, there hadn't been a single question answered, although there was a lot to process.

Closing his menu for the time being, Mason decided to open his clothes box and see what he had been awarded by the almighty system.

At his feet sat a small box, a parcel wrapped with brown paper tied together with simple white string.

Reaching down to open his glorious reward, he picked it up and eagerly ripped it open; inside, he found precisely what he had wanted, sort of. Staring at the box's contents, he attempted to use his newly acquired 'Identify' skill. Focusing on the item of clothing in front of him whispered, "Identify?"

Item – Basic Underwear – Underwear worn by the various humanoid races of this world, this particular pair is a lovely shade of Salmon Pink.

Effect - Increases' Resilience' by one point.

Rolling his eyes at the description, he stepped into the underwear and pulled them on, Mason did begrudgingly feel a slight relief to be wearing an item of clothing, even if it was a 'lovely' shade of pink. He wasn't going to say no to any added Resilience.

Rereading the words he realised it had actually given away a small tidbit of information, ‘worn by the various humanoid races of this world’. At least now he knew there were other people in this world and he wasn’t destined to be alone with just the words in his head.

Looking around, he tried and failed to find the Mana and health potions he had also been awarded. He opened his menu to see if they had been added anywhere but was soon distracted by the changes to his character sheet.

******

Name: Mason Hughes

Level: 1

Current XP: 1/25

Race: Human

Class: N/A

Health Points (HP): 150

Mana Points (MP): 120

Stamina: (SP): 120

Stats

Strength: 4

Agility: 3

Endurance: 4

Vitality: 5

Resilience: 3 (+1)

Intelligence: 4

Perception: 4

Willpower: 4

Free Points: 10

Skills:

Identify (Basic)

Base Skills:

Universal Translator, Inventory (Basic)

Current Quest: No current quests.

Looking at his current stats, he was disappointed. Strength and Intelligence 4? He had never been a gym rat like a few of the guys he knew from work, but he had always been decently muscular and tried to stay active, so the 4 in Strength stung his masculinity a bit. The 4 in Intelligence, however, felt like a sucker punch; he was an avid reader of fiction and non-fiction alike and liked to believe he knew a little about everything. He was never top of his class at school but consistently got A's and B's.

"These Stats are Bullshit", he decided out loud; apart from Strength and Intelligence, he didn't really understand what the rest did anyway.

Help

Strength – How much you are physically able to affect the world around you – Governs how much you can carry, how hard you can hit, and most physical combat skills.

Agility - How fast you can run, swim and fight – Governs most movement and combat skills based on speed.

Endurance - How long you can run, swim and fight - Governs maximum SP at 100 Base points +5 SP per point in endurance. Also governs stamina regeneration speed.

Vitality - How resistant you are to poisons and other afflictions that affect the body - - Governs maximum HP at 100 Base points +10 HP per point in Vitality and health regeneration.

Resilience- How difficult you are to physically harm - Governs how effective health points are and any physical armour skills.

Intelligence - how well you can process information gathered from the world around you - Governs maximum MP at 100 Base points +5 MP per point in Intelligence. Also governs most magic-based skills.

Perception- How well you perceive the world around you - Governs skills based on any of your 5 senses or any other senses you may gain.

Willpower - How resistant you are to mental attacks and effects - Governs Mana regeneration speed.

"There has been a help menu this entire time? Help, where am I? Help, how do I get home?"

Nothing happened. "Yeah, figures that wouldn't work."

Looking over his stats again, he threw 5 points into Strength, 3 into Intelligence and the last 2 into Vitality, bringing his current stats to Strength 9, Intelligence 7 and Vitality 7.

Warning! Reallocating stats is impossible before reaching Level 100.

Are you sure you want to make these changes Y/N?

Ignoring the warning and going with his gut, Mason confirmed; feeling a tingly sensation, he braced himself, expecting the worst. After nothing had happened for a few seconds, he started to relax, thinking his luck might have turned. A wave of nausea and mental fatigue hit him, and pain spread throughout his body. He felt as if he had spent the last 24 hours simultaneously working out in the gym and studying advanced algebra non-stop. After only a few seconds, the pain and exhaustion faded, leaving behind only a slight pain in his head and sore muscles.

"Why does any progress in this fucking place have to feel like I'm constantly being beaten up by a pissed-off Muhammed Ali." Sitting for a moment to catch his breath and verbally assault the world some more, Mason returned his attention to the matter at hand.

At the bottom of his regular character sheet was a new section.

Level 1 skill selection available.

Available skills:

Piercing Gaze (Basic) – Gaze upon your enemies and strike fear into their hearts.

Active effect: Small chance of damaging an enemy by looking at them, scales with Intelligence and Willpower.

One-handed weapons (Basic) –You won't be fighting dragons anytime soon, but hey, you got to start somewhere.

Passive effect: Unlocks the basic ability to wield and use one-handed weapons such as daggers, short swords, maces Etc.

Magic Bolt (Basic) – Call upon your mystical power and unleash it to strike down your foe.

Active effect: Focus a portion of your Mana into an attack in the form of a bolt of kinetic energy. Damage dependant on Intelligence. Scales with Intelligence.

Taking his time to consider the best option for him in his current situation, he ignored the first 2 skills and immediately picked Magic Bolt because Magic.

Do you want to unlock Magic Bolt Skill? Y/N?

"Magic Bolt! Magic Bolt! Magic Bolt!"

Mason felt a rush of information enter his head, giving him everything he needed to know to use the skill. He could now feel the presence of Mana within him, and to a certain degree, he knew he could control the strange energy and focus it to create the Magic Bolt. It made his headache worsen slightly, but he ignored it, excited to try out his cool new Magic powers.

Closing his menu, he raised his hand and pointed at one of the trees he had developed a hatred for. He could feel something moving through his body, a tickle of what he knew to be his Mana. It built in pressure at his fingers until it reached its limit, he gave a mental push, and a small blue bolt of energy left him in a burst. Eager to see the damage he had done to one of his sworn enemies, he went over and inspected the tree closely.

While the bolt had hit its target, the damage it had done was underwhelming. He wasn't expecting to knock the giant tree over or even shake it, but he had hoped to do more than chip one piece of the damn thing's bark.

He used Identify on the tree, hoping the description would alleviate his disappointment; perhaps the tree was special, made from magic and difficult for even the most powerful to…

World Object - Wild Kathan Tree (Common) – A tree found all over the world, not often used for its wood as it tends to break very easily. The leaves at the top of the tree are a common ingredient in Alchemy, used in many concoctions.

"Oh, fuck you!" Mason took a few steps back and once again pointed his hand at the tree shooting off a dozen bolts at the tree in quick succession. As the last one hit the tree, Mason collapsed to the floor.

Status effect: Affliction - Mental exhaustion has been added – Mana regeneration -50% for 5 minutes

Barely able to stay awake, Mason opened his menu and saw his Mana was at 0/135. He watched for a full minute before seeing it tick up to 1/135.

It was good to know that lack of Mana would affect him like that, but some warning would have been appreciated.

Warning! Running too low on Mana or stamina can result in negative afflictions.

Running too low on Health points can result in death. He raised his middle finger to the sky, "Not Helpful!"

He lay on the forest floor for five minutes, just contemplating life, before standing back up, feeling better enough to inspect the tree again.

The tree in question stood as tall as ever, glaring down at him mockingly. When he approached, he saw that he had done more damage to the bark, but it really was nothing to write home about. He had shot 12 bolts at the tree, 13 if you include the first one. From the damage, he guessed it would maybe take 200 of his bolts before the tree would even be at risk of falling.

Gazing up at the tree, he muttered, "I'll get you next time."

*DING*

Quest Received! TIMBERRRRR

This particular tree has insulted your honour. Gain power, come back and teach it who is boss!

Reward – Small sweet, sweet revenge box (Uncommon).

Accept? Y/N

"Fuck yeah, I accept."

The last thing he needed to do before heading off was check his inventory. He tried saying “Inventory” out loud, naturally, with zero results. Opening his menu, he scanned it looking for a way to access it. In the very corner of his menu, he saw a small backpack symbol. Mentally clicking it opened a whole new screen. There were 9 squares set out in a 3x3 format. In the first 2 boxes sat his health and Mana potions. Closing his menu, he went to retrieve the coin he had discarded earlier and, for good measure, added the string and packaging from his item box just in case he ever had use for them.

Looking around, he started to think about what he should do next. In order to figure out where he was and what was happening to him, he figured he would need to find some sort of civilisation; failing that, a water source would be a good start.

Remembering that one of his notifications had mentioned a mini-map, he opened his menu and saw that right there at the top was a tab with the word Map. Opening it showed a large blacked-out area with a small path of colour that, he figured, must have been the path he had walked so far. While useful, it didn't show him anything new. Closing the map, he picked a direction and started walking.

Every so often, he stopped and reopened his map to inspect his progress. After toying around with it a few times, he figured out he could zoom in, allowing him to see more details. He also found he could exit his menu but keep the map up in the corner of his vision, hence the name mini-map.

He kept walking, keeping his mini-map zoomed in enough to see any changes to his immediate surroundings. A few times, he caught a glimpse of blue on the map, only for it to turn out to be patches of the blue grass he had seen earlier.

After walking for another half hour, he was just about to give up hope and beg the words in his head for help, when he came across another glimpse of blue on the map, but this time it came with the sound of running water. Deciding that today may not be the day he dies, he ran towards the noise. Squeezing between two trees to get to the clearing where the river was.

As he stepped into the clearing, he was mesmerised by the river of crystal-clear water. Complete with a beautiful waterfall that had been the source of the noise that had drawn him there. The waterfall was about 15 feet high and a welcome sight. He remembered reading that drinking running water was safe, or at least had less chance of giving you salmonella or E coli.

Mason stepped towards the water and saw his reflection for the first time since this whole ordeal began. he stared into the water and was amazed by the subtle differences in his physique. He had definitely gained a bit of muscle and thought he might even be an inch or two taller. The biggest difference was his eyes. He looked harder at the reflection, moving his head closer to the water; his eyes appeared to be glowing yellow, except... those weren't his eyes.

The yellow orbs, he had thought were his eyes, grew larger until the creature they actually belonged to became clearer. Fuck. Backing away as fast as he could. He watched as the Beast lumbered out of the water. The giant lizard, half resembling a Komodo dragon, heaved itself up out of the water. It was as big as a car, with stumpy legs as thick as tree trunks. Its yellow eyes never left his direction.

The lizard didn't move immediately. It just stood there. Watching him.

"Identify", Mason whispered as quietly as possible, doing everything he could to not provoke the Beast further.

Beast – Level 21 Giant Drake – These temperamental creatures are extremely territorial. If you come across one, you better hope it doesn't see you. Too bad for you; this one has 100% seen you.

*DING*

Mandatory Quest Received! – Giant Drake, Giant Problem - You have wandered into the territory of a Giant Drake. The way it sees things, it now has the right to kill and eat you, not necessarily in that order.

Quest Objective - Survive.

Reward - Continued existence.

Blinking away the messages, Mason slowly stood.

"Good giant lizard. You're okay. I'm just going to, very slowly, back away. And not be eaten."

The lizard's face changed slightly.

"Did you just fucking smirk at me?"

The Drake charged.