Maria got a sleeveless white vest, simple pants and a pair of sneakers, she had killed one dog before coming across the pack, meaning she got a couple of points from that. As a weapon she chose a one and half meter long copper rod, she said it was compatible with her skill.
[Electric Touch]
[Rank: F – Active Skill]
[Magic: 1 MP x Use]
[Proficiency: 0/25000]
[Description: Transforms magic into a weak electric pulse to be used on touch, it doesn't apply damage.]
[Effect 1: Objective gets paralyzed for a small time (depends on vitality and wisdom of the target).]
[Cooldown: 15 seconds]
She explained how the electricity could be transferred over to the copper rod, which will allow her to paralyze enemies while using the rod to fight.
'Not a bad idea.'
While reading 'How to survive in Nostalgia for Dummies', I found out about skill upgrades, once you master a skill, it opens new possibilities within the system, in Maria's case, she will probably be able to upgrade to more powerful electricity-based skills when rank E is unlocked.
I asked her to try the skill on me, small sparks of lightning came out of her hand, as she touched me, my body stiffened for half a second. Not long enough to be useful, but it should improve as both her intelligence and proficiency increases.
Magic skills scale based on the player's magic power, they will get stronger independent of its original rank.
After that, I left the cabin with Nina by my side, Kat and Maria following behind us, Molly decided to stay, I don't know if we will be able to convince her of going hunting at some point, but we need to try.
On the way out of the village, we discussed our fighting formation, with me at the front and Maria covering my back, Nina will remain attacking from behind with Kat keeping the creatures away from her. I also told them about my current health points, having 100 points made Kat and Maria feel safer about hunting, as long as I block the enemies the girls shouldn't be in much danger.
Truth be told, I think the dogs won't pose much of a threat to me with my current vitality, due not only my health points increase but my physical resistance.
Once we are about to leave the safe zone I could see their nervousness, a feeling of tension coming from the girls. In the end, their determination to become stronger won over the fear.
We have to walk around fifteen minutes to find a couple of monsters nearby, they don't notice our presence giving Nina the chance to shoot her arrows at them, it's impressive to watch her reload her bow and take aim in a matter of seconds, even if one out of two arrows end up missing their target.
Maria and I rush towards the creatures. I let Maria take on the most wounded of the two while I charge the other one and easily grab it, swiftly forcing the creature to the ground and finishing with a few well-placed punches.
I look towards Maria fighting against the last enemy, she uses the copper rod to transmit her skill and paralyze the monster for a slight moment, which she takes advantage of to deal damage. Maria took longer than me to finish the creature, but she is yet to level up and I can see her path forward as a part of the team.
Each dog gave us 2 experience points per person, meaning with a four people team you get an additional 3 experience points, 1 point per additional member in the party.
We keep going around the village, trying not to stray too far from its safety. We find some lone dogs, killing 3 of them, which allowed both Maria and Kat to level up. Both of them decided to add their 3 stat points to their intelligence, hoping to increase the effectivity of their skills.
Most of the time in the forest our group remained silent, with a few questions about the system and monsters when necessary.
By the time it's getting dark and we are considering to go back, our team gets ambushed by a pack of ten dogs, we must seem like easy prey to them with our fewer numbers.
The first one to attack rushes towards Nina, and is successfully intercepted by Kat's staff, Maria keeps two of them at bay with her rod, while I step forward a couple of meters straight into the bulk of their pack, managing to focus their attention on me.
At first, I'm surprised by how little damage they deal to my health points, I could probably walk amongst them for a whole minute without and I wouldn't die. Not that I'm stupid enough to wait standing there for them to attack me, but I can ignore their damage while focusing on my attacks, I easily grab them in the middle of jumping and leave them suffering on the ground. I even one shotted a creature trying to sneak up on me.
When all the monsters disappear, I realize six of them were killed by me, Nina and Maria dealt with three and the last one was finished by Kat.
The girls came up with a good strategy to deal with the creatures, Maria would paralyze one of the dogs giving Nina the chance to shoot her arrows while Kat and Maria kept the others at bay, slowly depleting their health. The worst moment was Maria getting one her legs injured, Kat reacted quickly and applied her 'Healing Touch' to stop the bleeding.
Even though they were exhausted by the end of the battle, the girls seemed excited, beating four monsters on their own increased the confidence of the team.
Each one of us received 20 experience points from killing the pack, Kat and Maria reached level 3 and increased their intelligence to 10, which gave a qualitative change to their skills and an increased boost to their MP.
Meanwhile, Nina is at 67 experience points, fairly close to reaching level 4, even making us consider staying longer, but we decided to go back, it was already nightfall.
On the way back we found two additional dogs for us to kill, I let the girls take care of them while looking out for some other monsters nearby.
Maria's 'Electric Touch' became more effective with the increase in her intelligence, stunning the creatures for almost 2 seconds and dealing minor damage, long term it will become a really useful skill to have on battle. I can imagine Maria being able expand her range, paralyzing enemies within certain distance or multiple enemies at the same time.
When we arrived back inside the safe zone of the village, the darkness of the night spread through the forest, it creeped me out, I could feel the dangers lurking beyond the protection of the village.
As our team returned, we could see the lights inside the houses and light posts installed on the street, allowing people to keep walking outside at night.
To be honest, I didn't expect to find as many monsters as we did, our hunting went better than expected.
Once we reached our team's cabin, it was time to exchange the loot for points. From a total of 17 dogs, we obtained 34 pieces of dog meat, 17 pieces of dog skin and 17 dog bones. Besides the meat we keep for food, everything else was exchanged for points, earning our team a total of 68 points to spend, adding the remaining 2 I had left from before we have 70 points.
"I suggest we spend the points on a skill for Nina."
The girls looked at me and shrugged their shoulders, not showing much interest in how the points are spent.
"I don't really care boss, if you think it's the best for the team I'm okay with it."
Maria just seems to want to get stronger, increase her chances of survival.
"I agree with Maria, you have to choose the best for the team, there is no need to ask for our opinions. If you ever take advantage of us, we would probably end up leaving the team, you don't seem like that kind of person anyway."
Kat thought it through better than Maria, meanwhile Molly kept silent, I think she believes herself to have no right to question my decisions.
I transfer 50 points to Nina and let her use the computer.
"Nina, get this skill."
[Arrow Crafting]
[Rank: F – Passive Skill]
[Proficiency: 0/10000]
[Description: User can make arrows from different items.]
[Effect 1: Arrows will have different properties depending on the materials used.]
[Cost: 50 points.]
I believe this skill is essential for Nina and the team, so that we don't need to keep spending points on her arrows.
'I'm an idiot.'
On hindsight, we should have left some bones for her to practice with.
'I'm too tired right now, that will have to wait for tomorrow.'
After eating some of Molly's cooking, the girls left to sleep in a different cabin, leaving me to sleep here by myself. Nina wanted to stay with me, but I didn't think that would be a good idea so I had the girls take her along.
Before falling asleep, my mind wanders, worried about the countdown. I wonder what this world has prepared for us tomorrow, I'm certain the small dogs aren't the only monsters we are going to face on this place.
I tried to keep reading the book, but exhaustion hit me hard the moment I relaxed and couldn't help but closing my eyes, drifting into dreamland.