"A . . . Roam Tab?" Darren muttered out loud, a bit in a daze as the phrase 'go to other worlds' rang repeatedly in his head.
In a hurry, Darren opened the system and clicked on the '►' repeatedly, causing the panels to phase in and out repeatedly.
Status, Inventory, Active Skills, Passive Skills, Titles, Shop, Proficiencies, and finally, the [Roam] Tab. But before he could even get a proper look at the tab, a tutorial panel popped up.
▬▬▬Tutorial▬▬▬
Unlike in the Daily Quests, where time stops in the real world for as long as the user is doing the Daily Quests, time will continue to go onin the same rates in the real world while roaming.
Also, starting a roam will not be possible unless the user is safe and secure in a private room.
[Open Roam Tab]
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Nodding as Darren found the Roaming rules sensible, he clicked on [Open Roam Tab] and went back to the main panels, finally letting Darren read it.
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◄[Roam]►
Roam Unavailable (System Offline)
World: Hidarya [Roam]
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Darren's hear sank as he realized he wouldn't be able to roam right away, but after a tiny bit of inward moping, he shook his head and went to the status panel.
After a bit of thought, Darren chose to level up his TEN stat, since it was the one closest to reaching 30 points. He wanted to discover a few second tier skills and also explore more about how the TEN stat works.
He remembered how the three tier skills were [Active]: Pokerface, Wilful Strike, and Roar; and [Passive]: Detachment, Passion, and Charisma.
Pokerface helped conceal one's emotion, Wilful Strike was a focus based attack, and Roar was a 'disadvantage' based attack.
Detachment helped improve pain tolerance, Passion helped EXP gain, and Charisma helped . . . well, charisma.
The area that Tenacity covered was too great, and Darren sort of felt like the TEN stat and skill was going to help him a lot.
And with that, Darren finally applied the changes he wanted to his stats.
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◄[Status]►
LVL 5
EXP: 3%
HP: 550/550
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SP: 116/120
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Status Points: 0
BRU 20 [+]
DEX 15 [+]
VIT 15 [+]
SPR 10 [+]
TEN 30 [+]
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Right after he clicked on apply, a panel popped up into view.
However, he wasn't given the chance to read it when Ranfel came up to him, his face looking grumpy.
"Let's go back to the HQ."
Darren was glad that Ranfel wasn't the type to talk endlessly in a lecture, so he managed to go home quite quickly. He simply wanted to explore the new things he unlocked and sleep to pass the time-- he really needed for the system to go back online soon so that he could ask questions again and he could do his first roam.
When he got home, he changed into more comfy clothes and reopened the dismissed Unlock Panel.
▬▬▬Skills Unlocked▬▬▬
[Passive Skills]
►Flawless
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"So I didn't see it wrong . . . there really is only one branch skill."
▬▬▬Skill Details▬▬▬
Flawless: When killing a creature without taking a single point of damage, EXP gain is doubled - Works only once per creature
Costs 2 Skill Points
[Learn]
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". . . Woah, this sounds awesome." Darren exclaimed in a whisper as he realized that learning all EXP boost-related skills was going to be his main priority, since having more EXP meant leveling up more often, and leveling up more often meant more stat points and skill points.
After reveling in his gains for a while, Darren wanted to pass the time and hit the sack. He was excited at the prospect of roaming in another world and getting 'items' and 'skillstones' and a few other things.
With a satisfied smile on his place, he muttered, "I'll tell Naph some other time," and fell asleep.
♦♦♦
Darren was woken up by a series of loud beeps, and when he was awake enough to understand speech properly, an announcement rang in his head.
"The system is now back online. Congratulations to the user for reaching Level 5. You have taken the first step to your rise in power."
All the grogginess in Darren's head vanished as the system praised him, and he immediately remembered about the Roam tab he was excited about.
He briefly checked the window of his run-down room and found that it was still dark-- there was still no traces of the sun rising anytime soon. He had to check it, because he knew about how time wouldn't stop for him anymore when spending time in the worlds of the system. And since the current time was favorable for him, he opened the system tabs and headed to the [Roam] tab.
He didn't want to waste any more time and immediately clicked on the [Roam] button.
▬▬▬Confirmation▬▬▬
User will be sent to the world Hidarya.
[Confirm] [Cancel]
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Darren took a deep breath and clicked on [Confirm], prompting for his consciousness to rapidly fade, and the next thing he knew, was that he was standing in the midst of a moonlit forest.
The canopy of the forest wasn't that thick, so the moonlight allowed for Darren to see quite clearly. He saw plain-looking shrubs, the usual curling roots, mushrooms and rocks here and there-- nothing out of the ordinary. But the fact that he was in a foreign place didn't let him relax.
". . . So where do I go . . ?" He muttered under his breath, turning his head into different directions.
▬▬▬Answer to Query▬▬▬
While spending time in this world, a Map Tab will be present. As of this moment, it shows the user's location, the topography of explored areas, and highlight important places.
[Open Map]
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"Oh." Darren blinked a few times after reading, before clicking on the button below. It prompted for a panel containing a simple map that had icons for everything.
In the center of the map was a green triangle, which was labelled as 'user.' Around the green dot were clusters of tree icons, signifying a forest. That forest was labelled with 'Oljon Mountains.'
The rest of the map didn't have any icons or topography inicators, except for one yellow dot that was situated outside the Oljon Mountains. The yellow dot was labelled as 'Oremos Town Gates.'
When Darren noticed the yellow dot, he complained, "Couldn't I have been sent there directly . . ?"
▬▬▬Answer to Query▬▬▬
Sorry for your inconvenience, but if a person were to see another person suddenly materialize, then it could cause chaos, and the user might get subjected to harsh treatments for various reasons.
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". . ." Darren pursed his lips together, finding the system's reason for sending him into a forest reasonable.
'I guess I'll just run.' Darren thought, before pausing before he could even take his first step.
He opened the system and went directly to the Proficiency Tab.
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◄[Proficiency]►
►Blade Throwing (Poor)
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"System? The . . . blade throwing proficiency got unlocked because I tried throwing a blade, right?"
"Affirmative."
". . . What other proficiencies can I get? Can you give me examples?"
"Negative. The user must discover the proficiencies all by themselves. However, allow the system to define the term 'Proficiencies.' Proficiencies are any action that does not require any points to level up, nor do they have any magical qualities to them. They are simply actions or skills that get better along with practice, and all the System does is to keep track of what the user is proficient in."
"O-Oh."
"However, the DEX stat offers a few things that can help with Proficiencies, and simply increasing the stat will help the user level Proficiencies up faster."
"So . . . Proficiencies are things like . . . swordplay?"
"Affirmative."
"Why don't I have the swordplay proficiency even though I've . . . already slashed a few monsters to death?"
"The user's crude way of killing the slimes does not classify as swordplay."
"I-I see . . . so, the actions needed to unlock proficiencies need to be a little . . . tricky."
"Affirmative."
Darren sighed and clenched his fist. He didn't have a weapon at the moment, nor did he know special combat arts that could be used to unlock more proficiencies. Thus, Darren headed to the Shop Tab and bought the only weapon currently available-- the basic knife.
He also bought the only food and beverage available: loaves of bread and water pouches.
▬▬▬Item Details▬▬▬
►Loaf of Bread
Consumable. Spoil-proof.
►Water Pouch
Consumable. Pouch will vanish upon consumption.
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They were all nothing special and cost less than a hundred coins all in all, but Darren knew it was going to be useful while travelling. As such, he began consuming food and water while walking at a leisure pace.
After a few minutes of filling his belly, he opened the system to fetch another loaf of bread, only to be interrupted by a low growl coming from somewhere around him. Suddenly, the moonlit forest seemed to be darker than earlier.
He flicked his wrists to retrieve his basic knife, before flicking it again to take a quick look at his stats, and saw it there.
▬▬▬Status▬▬▬
HP: 550/550
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SP: 118/120
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Debuffed: [Blinded I]
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Darren's heart racing, he realized: he was going to encounter the first real beast he would ever face in his life. It won't be some slime or skeleton, nor would he have other cultivators gang up on the beast while he waited on the sidelines.
And while he was nervous and fearing for his life, he was willing to take on the beast.
It was a one-on-one, between him and whatever monster that thirsted for his blood.