[You gained the skill [Basic combat].
Congratulations.]
The system said. Although the announcement was neutral, it always felt as if it was annoyed with me and would be happier if it would announce my violent death instead of my success.
And before I forget it: This fucking demonic training schedule was over! I almost squealed my happiness to the sky, but contained my emotions and played the act which was expected of me.
"Honored [Instructor Tom], how may I ever repay your grace of teaching an unworthy student like me?" As if to show my effort, I flexed this body's muscles a bit, making a display window light up.
[[Instructor Tom] is moved by your kind words towards your teacher. His affection rises by +20.
Friendship level: 125/100
Remark: [Instructor Tom] wants to forcefully adopt you. Better run before he succeeds.]
A cold shiver ran down my spine. I still didn't know how I managed to push his friendship level over the upper limit. But it resulted in those weird remarks.
I only wanted to get the extra bonus one could get, if the affection with your instructor was high enough.
"Oh my!" he basically squealed at my words, while jumping in my direction and passionately touched my bulging muscles. If I knew what a terrifying existence he would turn into after the 100/100 affection mark toppled over, I would have never attempted to get the bonus.
But since I already offered up my body (and soul) why not take the rewards? Beggars couldn't be choosers. So I patiently waited until he detached himself from my arm and spoke up: "Although you aren't my most talented student, I like your perseverance and your muscl…I mean your strong fighting spirit. The world outside is not a peaceful one and since I know of your desires to travel, I will give you something precious to me. It will support you on your journey and hopefully make you into the greatest magical swordsman ever with lots of training in no time." The NPC handed me a thin booklet. Although it wasn't what I expected, I didn't let the disappointment show on my face and opened the status of the booklet.
Only to choke on air. What the hell did I just get?
[Manual of the secrets and hidden truths of swords fighting.
Written by [Tom Willcrox], a [Knight of Remian]
Volume 1]
Description: A unique collection of the experiences of [Tom Willcrox]. Written with his sweat, tears and blood etched inside forever.
Effect: By reading the book, you can acquire either [Knowledge], [Quests] or [Skills]. This book can be readed repeatedly. Rewards per read aren't guaranteed. Reading the book can decrease the durability.
Durability: 100/100
Remark: Try your hardest and you might squeeze a skill out of it.]
The part about sweat, tears and blood made me almost drop the book in disgust. But I didn't, because it was a treasure! I needed to appraise it to discern more information, but the description alone hinted that the book was a unique item and I could use it repeatedly to get skills, quests or knowledge of Falan! What a lucky grab! I only knew that the instructor would teach students with a favorability over 50 a random skill and handed out a rare skill to those who had a rating of above 75 affection.
But I never had seen such a high affection level on a NPC. Now that I thought about it, have I ever gotten hints of the rise of affection levels with Coven? Was it part of him being an error?
Anyway, now I got something even better from my hard training schedule!
Grinning widely, I thanked the NPC and headed to the marketplace of Bronning. There, I sat down in the shade of a large tree to read the booklet I just got.
Naturally, I wore my cloak once again. I had no illusion that other NPCs would act friendly towards me. It would be better to not provoke any type of conflict with NPCs.
As I opened the book, expecting to get the notification of a new skill or other nice thing, pages written in the local language greeted me. Uhm.
I was kind of illiterate in Falan. Players didn't need to read any of the written language and dialogue would be translated if you were a native or acquired a skill of translation. I saw Coven reading or writing sometimes but all skills in books were often transferred by the simple act of opening a book. Reading was unneeded. Until now, that is. If I wanted to get all those treasures out of this booklet, I would either need to learn to read this language or buy an appropriate skill. I knew where I could find the [Reading] skill in Daystreak, but wasn't so sure about Bronning. But did I have a choice?
I sighed, stood up and walked towards the local school, trying to apply for classes. Doing my hardest to overlook the fact that I passed the age of adulthood seven years ago and was glad to finally leave school behind in favor of studying in a university.
Not thinking of how I had to literally spend hours in game to learn one measly combat skill and then over half a day to study reading so I could enjoy my rewards. Only to get just one skill from reading the book literally four times, I was barely able to contain my anger.
Although the skill [Triple slash] was a good skill, it did not reach my expectations. There goes over almost a whole day and more of spent time, about 4 to 6 hours in the real world for two measly skills. I should've done some missions instead to get more skills. At least I would be able to deal some damage like this and not be useless like I predicted before.
And I had the brand new skill [Basic reading] which enabled me to read written text of Remian' language. Which I would need like never again if I didn't include the booklet of [Instructor Tom]. At least I could get more rewards from this book if I read it more often. At least I hoped that I would. In my point of view, reading a book, although thin, four times for a rare skill was a total scam.
I barely had half a daytime left to go hunting before I needed to stand up to head for work. After all the chaos and problems, the new class and the difficulties I faced, I would be able to just farm monsters. What a blast! What a paradise. Peacefully just killing a few of those damned rabbits would make my mood splendid!
With quickened steps, I left Bronning, heading for a joyous rabbit hunt!
[!!!]
[From here on, a depiction of murder follows. Who cannot handle descriptions regarding brutal killings of animals, gore and bowels please skip this part.]
[!!!]
My sword hit the rabbit's body, severing only a part of its belly and back before staying stuck inside the body. It looked like I impaled the rabbit to roast it instead of killing it. Luckily the bleeding made the rabbit die just a second later, so I could remove the remains, the body and innards, from my blade. Killing in close combat was dirty. And severing and killing with blades regularly was even more grueling. Parts of my clothing were already drenched in blood that spilled on me, my hair and face sometimes felt wet after I showered in another gush of blood and killing those pests wasn't so easy! Mostly, I encountered groups of two or three rabbits and until they all were dead, I often had to use the light shield to block their teeth and claws or either catch and stab them at close distance with the poisoned dagger or dissect them with my sword. But as I said, killing them in closer proximity resulted in my definite need for a bath. Urgently at that. I only had made about a dozen kills but it already felt like hundreds. In between I made short breaks to eat snacks to fill up my satiency and drank a potion or two to heal myself after especially grueling battles with those monstrous rabbits. I never remembered struggling as hard as this ever before if I excluded playing a tanker only an in-game day ago.
But the killings barely pushed me to level 2. From there on until level ten, the experience points needed to reach the next level would always double.
I still needed to kill about 5.098 rabbits or more rewarding monsters to reach level 10. Luckily after level 10, the needed XP wouldn't increase so high paced anymore. But reaching level 10 with only killing rabbits would take very long. I could try finding elites or head to a hunting ground housing stronger monsters. Those bunnies were just level 1 or 2 and gave just 10 XP. Maybe deeper inside the hunting ground, there would be higher level rabbits. But the deeper I would go, the more dangers I would encounter. Larger groups would endanger me and I had no further death wishes. Maybe I should head to another hunting ground. Because I was cheap, I would need to walk there. Teleportation was no option, considering the exorbitant price of 1-2 bronze coins. These rabbits only dropped some brass coins and less valuable stuff. Because I mostly painted the ground with their mangled and severed bodies, some even poisoned, I didn't even bother to collect them to sell the rabbit flesh. It was far too common and the butchers preferred the mostly intact corpses.
I finally decided to head to the salamander hunting grounds. Although they were harder to kill, they came mostly alone and seldomly had partners or children closeby. They could only regrow their tail once or twice due a battle and they could be roasted perfectly in fireballs. Pondering if I could still kill them at all with a sword equipped, I shrugged and headed in the general direction. I would try to slay one and then decide if I should keep hunting them or the rabbits.
My way to the other hunting ground led me closer to the spot where I found the corpse of my former body. After picking the treasures I tried to dig a grave but none of my equipment was fitting for real digging so I gave up midway, kicking the remains in the half-assed ditch I dug and covered it with a bit of earth, branches and my ugly beginners clothing, neatly ripped apart.
Without hesitation, I walked out of the undergrowth and halted in shock. Why did the system not warn me from attracting perverts in my neighborhood? Coven's core was truly a harrowing treasure that creepy figures were attracted by it!
A person had dug up my corpse and was groping the rotting flesh all over, then slipping their hand in the almost empty ribcage. While standing there, unable to make a single sound, an uncomfortable tickling sensation spread through me and I had to stop myself from screaming bloody hell and just running away in terror.
Why was my luck this shitty? And why the hell did a psychopath attracted to dead flesh and bones have to find my former body and...kinda use it in a way too dirty manner? I was disgusted by having to witness their thorough touch of my bones and remaining organic matter.
Moving as quiet as possible, I moved away, step by step until I dared to walk normally again. A relieved sigh escaped my mouth and I noticed the three rabbits far to late which already ran towards me, while a wild and furious "Squeaak!" resounded through the forest.
Well, fuck this shit.
_____
New skills:
[Basic combat lvl.1] (active)
Description: Movements that every beginner needs to master. Groundwork for further advanced fighting styles running from close quarter to long range weapons in melee battles.
Effect: A skill that enables three sets of movements to attack an opponent.
Damage: Each attack will have between 10-25% more damage. With every hit, a base damage of 20 is guaranteed. It will be added to any damage your weapon will deal.
Range: Up to two meters away from your target.
Cost: 20 mana
Cooldown: Activate up to three times until it enters a 10 minutes cooldown.
Remark: Fancy movements that might save the day.]
[Triple slash lvl.1] (active)
Description: Fancy striking motions closely executed right after the former.
Effect:Three consecutive slashes aimed at either one or multiple targets.
Damage: 10% chance to trigger critical damage. With every hit, the weapon deals 15% more base damage.
Range: 1 meter
Cost: 30 mana
Cooldown: 5 minutes
Remark: A slashing motion that looks like you have the potential to slash fruits professionally.]
[Basic reading lvl.1] (passive)
Description: You are able to read basic texts written in Remian. If you read a lot, maybe unexpected things might happen.
Effect: A translation of the basic words is offered under any text you read.
Remark: Finally joining the bookworms?]