Old man Mendi was understandably confused about the question, and so he asked, "What do you mean by "this world" young lad? Aren't we all living in the same world? I heard you were once a general? You still look youthful while having achieved such feat. Asking how to be strong would be a bit of a stretch, right? You obviously have great strength."
It was quite the slip of the tongue, but Feihren almost forgot that nobody knew who he really was. So with a dismissive hand gesture, he said, "Ah, forget what I just said chief. Maybe the heat got to me, for me to be asking such a weird question, haha."
Feihren had a lot of questions on how the magic in this world really works, as well as the true purpose of his general exp. So he changed the question to a simpler sounding one.
"What happens when you kill strong beasts and creatures in the same manner as people? I was a general, not an adventurer, so I am not entirely aware of how things like these work."
"Hmm" Old Mendi pondered for a while as he organized his thoughts "In general, killing anything that contains a good amount of life force would be beneficial for someone."
"And what do you mean by that?" Feihren asked.
"The entirety of this world relies on the life force distributed from the core through the atmosphere. It may still be slightly unstable for now, but it was said that all creatures have an amount of life force that is equal to how much strength they possess. As such, humans, demi-humans, and creatures could be counted as "resources" if one needed to be strong through gaining significant amounts of life force." Old Mendi replied
"With the problems that arose in the past that caused the unstable life force emissions in the first place, humans and demi-humans alike came to an unspoken agreement long ago. They mutually avoided hunting each other's lives to increase their own strength, even though it would be more efficient that way. The better choice was to eliminate threats that would affect both the humans and demi-humans, such as wild beasts and demonic creatures. They have life force too, and more often than not it would be way denser and stronger than what the humans and demi-humans possess." Old Mendi continued.
Old Mendi added. "Even things that can't move or speak such as plants have a certain amount of life force, but their life force is somewhat different. It does not serve a good purpose for sentient creatures, so it would only make us 'weak'."
Feihren deeply pondered about what the old chief had said
That evening, while he was resting in his tent, Feihren started tinkering with his game system to find out what the general experience really is. Within his status tabs, the general exp was indeed listed. It was hiding at the bottom-most part, being separated from his normal status window by a rather transparent line.
Feihren noticed something on the rightmost side of the tab on General Exp. There was a little "i" enclosed in a circle hiding there! Feihren felt like kicking himself. It was an Information tab.
'Come on Feihren, you never got Alzheimer's right? Or did you only get it when you arrived in this place. Gosh, this was stupid'.
Almost all RPG gaming systems would have information tabs on things that would be new to players unless it was so simple as to be unnecessary or the developers purposely left it off for the sake of mystery.
Dispersing his self-recriminating thoughts, Feihren 'clicked' the information tab as a blue holographic screen appeared in front of him.
'General experience point: Gaia's Paradox hidden experience resource'
'Congratulations on unlocking general exp by surpassing Divine-class'
'Description: Pure energy runs within your body. Multi-purpose life force!'
'Currently known uses: Heat and Energy source, Body strengthening, Skill refining, Equipment refining, Spell Amplification, etc.…'
Under the tabs of the known uses were further information was shown.
'Heat & Energy source: conversion of life force to functional energy'
'Body strengthening: improve user's own life force through absorption'
'Equipment Refining: improve magic equipment through refining'
'Spell Amplification: pure energy infuses users spells'
'What's with all these cheat-like benefits?!' Feihren was startled by all the information he learned about what general exp was truly used for.
Without a moment's hesitation, Feihren moved outside his tent into the direction of the Sentient Ores. He wanted to clarify if killing stronger or weaker beings would guarantee the same amount of general exp, or if it would be constant on beasts and would be less for weaker beings such as humans? He needed the answers to all these questions, and nothing beats first-hand experience after all.
He did not plan to kill any of the Sentient Ores, his aim was wild beasts within the area.
Amazement filled Feihren's eyes as he walked through the prismatic array of multicolored sentient ores. It was an aesthetic he never knew he wanted. It was beautiful beyond words. Having gigantic creatures walk timidly about with bodies that shine with the moonlight was indeed a sight to behold. Feihren nodded in satisfaction as he walked further.
After walking for a while, the place became a bit lonely as the Sentient Ores could no longer be seen. Feihren noticed an orange-red glow not far from where he was. He slowly neared the location, but he gradually felt that the temperature was increasing as sweat slowly dripped from his forehead.
Within the forest was a red Sentient Ore. It sounded like it was in agony and pain as it huffed and puffed in a really slow manner. Its 'eyes' were fiery but a hint of sadness could be felt in its aura.
...
[Ruby Golem] (Sentient Ore)
"Power Level: (5-star Epic-Grade beast)"
"HP: 4,000"
"Damage: 450-500"
"Status: Unstable (abnormal state)"
"Abnormal status effect: Heatwave"
…
Feihren checked the status of the sentient ore as he assessed the situation. 'It's only one star higher than that demonic ape, but its HP and Damage is way higher. Is it due to its physique being made of solid ruby? It seems like it, but somehow it's in an unstable state'
'I do feel like helping this poor guy though. It seems to be in a lot of pain after all'.
Feihren remembered that in his youth, what he feared the most was being old and weak with no one to help him when he was in pain. He strived to be physically strong back then and endured the effects of his Rheumatic arthritis that had started to kick in. He did not want to leave this world with only pain and suffering as his companions.
He thought for a while and arrived at a hypothesis. 'Maybe I could try using some of the general exp I have gathered to stabilize him? After all, the general exp is basically just pure life force. With these sentient ores drawing their consciousness from the core fountain, it might just work…' Feihren considered it, and the next moment he was determined that he would try it. Besides, it wouldn't do any harm to try… right?
Slowly approaching the fiery golem, Feihren bravely powered through the scorching heat. The heat wave caused him to take -10 HP per second as fire damage, but this did not bother him.
Feihren was about 10 meters away from the golem when, without any thoughts of hesitation, it threw a wild punch. The passive effect of the Hermes Assault Rogue Armor automatically reacted to the assault with Feihren not taking a single bit of damage. Unfortunately, in the next instant another punch flew in, triggering the reactive armor feature again. A barrage of punches were sent out by the golem as it seemed to be in a frenzied state, attempting to vent out the pain it was trying to hold in.
Feihren was still calm, but he knew the 30 reactive armor blocks would be gone fast, so he thought up a plan using armor-piercing rounds. Although it pains him to use more bullets, he thought he should at least give it a try.
'Equip'>>>' Dionysus AK-9'
'Load Special Ammunition'>>>'Armor Piercing Rounds'
Shooting this golem does not seem to be an easy task. It was moving at a speed that did not match its huge body. With the bonus movement speed of his armor, Feihren kept evading until he found the perfect opportunity.
*BANG!
A loud resounding noise occurred. Feihren got a clean shot at the perfect time! Right in the head! Running and gunning isn't usually a good thing, so patience was the key to attaining this kind of skillful shot. Just as Feihren felt ecstatic in knowing that he still has his skills.
*clink, clink clink tsss.
A tinkling sound could be heard as the bullet slowly rolled down the golem's body until it finally melted near its feet. Within the next moment…
*Boom!
A punch that caused a sonic wave was thrown straight at Feihren!
The 30 reactive armor blocks were already used up! The bonus 10% movement speed wouldn't help either! Feihren's reaction time is impeccable, but he was still a human. He needed more time to both react and move from a sudden attack.
*Boom!
*Boom!
*Crack!
*Crack!
'System Log: Epic-grade attack, Pallas Skin ineffective'
'HP: 9,000 (-500)'
'HP: 8,500 (Regenerating…)'
'HP: 8,505 (-500)'
'HP: 8,005 (Regenerating…)'
A system notification could be heard within the consciousness of Feihren, as to remind him that he's now seriously taking ridiculous damage at a crazy pace!
A hint of pain was evident on Feihren's face as he was taking the punches and being slammed through trees in the process, but he was still calm as ever while thinking about what to do for this poor frenzied thing. He thought for a few more seconds and a new plan was drawn. It was simple, it was time to weaken this Lil' sh*t…
'Equip'>>>' Titan Cronus Heavy Gunner Armor'
'Activate: Titan's Arms'
*Clank!
A loud clashing of metals could be heard as dust and fragments of debris started flying all over the place!
Feihren didn't have the upper hand against this creature since they have roughly the same damage when engaging in fist to fist combat, but the HP he gained to activate the Titan's Arms ability outnumbered and overwhelmed the base HP of the ruby golem.
*Bang! Clank! Bang!
A few successful hits powered their way through the golem's body as shards started fragmenting off of its body.
Around 10 minutes passed before Feihren had successfully weakened the ruby golem to the point that he could subdue it.
'I may be good at FPS games, but man do I suck at this punching stuff!'
Pinning down the ruby golem, the heat it was emitting gradually lowered as the ominous shine on its body started fading.
'Now how should I do this?' Having no clue on what to do, Feihren went towards the 'dramatic' route that he read about in the novels and placed his hands on the chest of the golem.
Weirdly enough, a system notification popped up!
'Use general exp?'
'The f*ck?' The notification was so vague that Feihren hesitated to agree with it. 'Use it for what exactly?' No reply could be heard… 'Forget it. I'm too old for this guessing game, so why not'.
'Use'
Green lights started swirling between the golem's chest and his palms as the red shards that littered the ground started condensing and solidifying back onto the body of the golem. The trembling and the agonizing sounds the golem was making at the start were slowly dissipating as the ominous glow on its body continued to fade.
"Yes! It's working!" With regards to what he was actually doing, Feihren had no idea…
A few moments later, a bright light enveloped the area as the green, glowing aura from Feihren palms disappeared. At that moment, the ruby golem suddenly disappeared!
"What the… did I just accidentally kill it by drowning it in life force?" Feihren was about to face-palm when he noticed a shiny red gem on the ground. He hardly noticed it because he was currently in his titan armor. With him being so huge and all, he did not immediately notice the small gem.
Feihren picked the gem up and a system notification appeared!
'Congratulations on unlocking the inventory tab: Familiars'
'Congratulations on acquiring Pure Alpha Ruby Golem'
'Would you like to give it a name? _ _ _'
"...Eh? ...A familiar? Holy cr*p, what's with this?" Feihren was not sure if he should be excited or confused after discovering a hidden game tab with a "familiar" feature in it. To be honest, pets and companions in Gaia's Paradox would be utterly pointless. It would have served no purpose as they could have easily been sniped, but now that it's in this world…
Feihren joyfully smiled as he proceeded 'Because you were like a devil while you were attacking me without hesitation, but an angel at heart that is now going to be accompanying me in this new world, I'll name you, "Samael".
'Confirm name? "Samael"'
'Congratulations on acquiring "Samael"'