Alexander deduced that the increase in the level of Mana Sense had increased his 'sight' from ten to fifteen feet. He took in his new surroundings. The clearing was much larger than he had originally thought, and he was positioned at the very edge of it. In the middle of the clearing, there was a large hill that rose ten feet above the ground. This could be a good vantage point to observe the rest of the clearing.
The small slime maneuvered up the hill using his slightly sticky body to latch onto the grass and roll up to the hilltop. Just as Alexander crested the hill, he yelled out in surprise and fell back down the hill. Amusingly, Alexander had no mouth, so if one was observing the situation from the outside, they would have seen a small, blue slime hopping a couple of inches into the air before rolling down the hillside.
Alexander slowly regained his senses, and carefully traversed the hill once more. When he reached the top, he squished himself as low as possible to the ground to avoid being seen. There, on the other side of the pasture, was a giant beast grazing in the lush pasture on the other end of the clearing.
Alexander stared in horror, as he focused on the beast. The thing looked like a cross between a rhino and a pig. it had massive tusks jutting from its lower jaw that were over 4 inches long, and Alexander noticed the rows of sharp teeth that looked as though they could pop the beach ball sized slime with a little prick. The beast had to be at least twice as wide as him and three times as long! Yet, the scariest part was the giant, razor sharp horn protruding from the center of its mean face. There was no way he would be able to run away from such a creature, much less fight it. He was thankful that the creature had not noticed him, and he decided that he would take the loss for today.
[Congratulations.]
The old, wise voice of Bucephalus boomed in Alexander's mind.
[You have received a new mission:
Defeat the rhinoboar and feed on its flesh.
Reward: Mana and flesh of the rhinoboar, 5 stat points, and +5 luck.
Failure to complete the mission will result in the death of the host.
Do you accept the mission?]
"Waitwaitwaitwait a minute Bucephalus, are you telling me that I have to kill that!!??" He exclaimed, jerking his slimy body towards the rhinoboar, "That rhinoboar thing must weigh at least ten times what I weigh!! No way I accept that mission!"
[Warning: Failure to accept mission will result in starvation in approximately 21 hours and 34 minutes in addition to a penalty of 5 stat points. Do you still wish to proceed?]
"What!? My trusty steed has got to be messing with me! Starvation and losing five stat points!? That is all of my stat points, gone out the window. I need those to increase my strength and toughness, and without them there is no chance of me surviving long enough to even starve to death. It looks like I have no choice," Alexander conceded.
He had no other choice but to accept this mission. Fighting the rhinoboar was going to be extremely difficult, but surviving on his own in the wilderness with almost zero strength was an impossibility.
"Alright, fine Bucephalus. I accept," Alexander grumbled.
[Mission accepted.
User 'Alexander' has accepted his first mission! Reward: Dig - 1]
"Awesome, a new skill!" Alexander exclaimed.
He was very excited that he got a new skill, yet he was slightly confused that the reward was a skill that made one better at digging. What could one even use a digging skill for when fighting a giant rhino and pig hybrid? Well, he could figure out its use later. For now, the most pressing issue was how he could use his stat points to his greatest advantage.
"Bucephalus, open the body modification window." This was something he had learned back on earth by reading manga. The system allowed the user to use 'Stat Points' to improve bodily or spiritual functions which were quantified into a number. Adding a stat point to a function improved the function instantly. For example, if one was able to lift a 100 pound rock and they put a stat point into strength, they would now be able to lift a rock heavier than 100 pounds. The improvement options he had were displayed by Bucephalus:
[Body:]
Toughness: 1
Strength: 1
Agility: 1
Int: 10
Wis: 5
Luck: 10
HP: 1/1
Mana: 5/5
Stat Points: 5]
Alexander had only five points to spend, which irked him because he knew that a measly five stat points would not be enough to get on the physical level of the rhinoboar. There must be a way to win!
He first considered an all rounder approach, focusing on bodily functions of course since he did not know any magic attacks. Unfortunately, he had to throw out that idea because a small increase in speed, strength, and toughness would do next to nothing in a head on fight with the rhinoboar.
He also pondered putting all his points into one stat. Assigning all 5 of his stat points to toughness would allow for a significant increase in HP (Health Points). This would allow him to withstand more hits from the rhinoboar, but even this strategy was useless because he had no way to fight back.
He then remembered that a popular strategy in the games he had played in the past was to put all of one's stat points into agility in the early levels, and no one was able to catch you. Again, Unfortunately, this strategy could only work if someone had at least a possible base attack power. Alexander had 1 stat point of strength and he knew no offensive magic spells. He barely considered adding all of his points into strength because of his measly 1 HP. One tap from the rhino boar would result in instant death at that level.
As he scanned his list of possible options, he got to the very bottom of his stat points, and a lightbulb popped into his head. He chuckled to himself before tapping the blue screen and adding all of his stat points into his 'Luck' stat.
[Luck stat has reached 15. Completed secret task: The Luck of the Draw. Alexander has been rewarded +2 stat points in Luck.]
Alexander's chuckle rose into a maniacal laugh. If there was no way to beat the rhinoboar in a head-on fight, he would have to beat it through a very unorthodox method.
---
The slime had finally finished setting up his preparations. For the last three hours, Alexander had been slaving away, sneaking around the clearing and scheming for his big fight with the rhinoboar. All the while, the rhinoboar had been grazing away peacefully on the other side of the meadow, where its view was shielded from the hardworking slime that endlessly toiled on the other side of the clearing. It was finally time to put his plan in action. With caution, the slime crested the hill, traversed his way down, and, peculiarly, started bouncing up and down.
The rhinoboar noticed the slime and instantly his eyes turned red with anger. This slime was taunting him! It reluctantly turned away from its succulent grass pasture and charged at the hill, enraged at the cheeky slime who had disrupted its dinner time.
The moment Alexander saw the rhinoboar charge, he turned and rolled his little slimy body as fast as it could go back up the hill. Unfortunately, it seemed as though Alexander had miscalculated the rhino's speed, and, by the time that he reached the top of the hill, the rhinoboar was right on his heels (metaphorically).
Luckily, this was all according to Alexander's plan. The rhinoboar was completely focused on Alexander, so, when it crested the hill, it did not notice the small hole that was discretely covered with some leaves and sticks just over the tip of the hill. The rhinoboar did notice, however, the long, sharp stick embedded into the ground at the bottom of the hill and sticking straight up towards the rhinoboar. The rhinoboar snorted, it was not dumb enough to fall for a trap so simple.
A second later, Alexander jumped with all his might, almost flying towards the bottom of the hill and narrowly escaping the gnashing jaws of the rhinoboar. With a crash, the rhinoboar's front leg fell into the hole, instantly shattering its shin bone. Alexander internally praised his luck stat. Without the extra luck, he probably would have been eaten by the giant rhinoboar, not to mention the chance of the rhinoboar not stepping in his trap. Alexander turned around with glee. The rhinoboar had fallen for his plan perfectly. It had been fully impaled on the sharp stick that was protruding from the ground. The stick had gone directly through its heart, and it had little time left to live.
Alexander reminisced on his scheme. The new additions of the digging skill and luck stat were essential to his plan. The luck stat improved the odds that such a risky plan would succeed, and the digging skill allowed him to dig the trap that the rhinoboar had broken its leg in. Interestingly, the digging skill actually involved him eating the dirt and ejecting it from his other end, which allowed him to dig extremely quickly and efficiently. Overall though, the most challenging part of the plan was making the sharp stick. He had found the stick by the tree line of the clearing, and had spent most of his three planning hours sharpening the stick on a sharp rock that was embedded into the ground.
As he came out of his thoughts the rhinoboar took its last breath. Its head slumped down and its tongue lolled out of its mouth, its eyes lifeless and grey.
[Mission complete: You have killed the rhinoboar]