Zach, still on the same tree trunk, was lost in his thoughts talking to the system.
'System, what does those stats stand for ?'
[Each stat is a represantation of host's capabilities in each field.]
'What are those field ?'
[Strength is a representation of the power host can muster, Speed show how fast the host can be, Stamina represent how long host can keep an intense effort and directly affect host's HP, Spirit is a representation of how much power host's soul is able to wield, Intelligence stand for host energy reserve and directly affect host's mana and Charisma is a unique stat which represent how host's presence can affect other beings in the world.]
'I was already aware of what strength, speed and stamina would do. As for the other that's a total surprise. What is soul force ? What is containing my energy ? What it means to affect other beings with my presence ?' Zach is a bit confused about those few things.
[First host should be aware that in addition to physical and dantian cultivation there is another one which is soul cultivation, Soul force is the power emanating from it, host should also know that the System is made to focus on the soul cultivation.]
[Intelligence show how large is your dantian thus how much energy you could wield which is represented by your mana points.]
[With enough charisma host presence could destroy the will and even destroy the mind of the being host affect.]
'What use does the system points have ?' Zach asked, still ignorant about their uses.
[System points can be used to be trade for stats apart from charisma or they can be used to upgrade your skills level, host can use system points however host want. Moreover each stat is directly relied to each of your cultivation.] The system explained.
'How can I gain additional charisma points ? And what does it mean directly relied to my cultivation ?' Zach was confused about how to gain charisma.
[Host can gain charisma as a reward to some quests, title or with specials circumstances. Strength, Speed and Stamina are a translation of your physical cultivation, Spirit represent your Soul cultivation and Intelligence show your Dantian cultivation.]
'I see now, it means I could upgrade my cultivation only by using my system points but it could mean that I won't be able to upgrade my skills.' Zach was hesitant about what path he should follow.
'System, does it means I can upgrade my stats through other means like the others with a cultivation method ?' Zach was curious about this point because it could mean saving a lot of system point.
[Yes Host, it is not only possible but also heavily recommended, if Host only depends on the System to grow your cultivation and power Host's physical cultivation and thus Host's body will become far behind his peers at the same level.]
[Your dantian cultivation won't be impacted by the increase thanks to the System but Host won't get anything from the System to use the said energy gained save for special cases. As for soul cultivation it is the goal of the existence of the System to make you the best in this domain thus Host shall not worry.]
'Glad I asked before I invested points in my stats. I now need a good physical cultivation method and I could use system points to increase my soul and dantian cultivation.' Zach was relieved he was patient enough to not spend his system points.
'When I think about it, what would happen to my inventory if I increased its level ? System how much is it to increase the level of Death from the shadows ?' Zach was very curious because it was clearly stated that what he could put was limited by his shadow size.
[To upgrade Death from the shadows to level 2 Host needs 10 System points.]
'Forget about this, for now it's too expensive to quench my curiosity.' Zach was a bit disappointed about the fact he could not upgrade his skill.
As Zach was lost in his thought the sun was slowly rising and bit by bit illuminated the forest, a ray of sunshine dazzled Zach out of his thoughts.
'It's already time, I spent a lot of time asking the system and thinking about the best choices to make about my system points.' Zach was rather surprised that the sun already rose.
He heard behind him the sound of someone who was leaving his tent.
"Hey Zach, how your nighshift has gone ?" Inquired Jess in a cheerful voice and sat just next to Zach.
"It went well, just a small pack of wolf came a bit too close a little after you went in your tent, I took care of it swiftly." Zach explained to Jess.
"SWIFTLY ?! You call it swiftly when you at the end you need this much bandages for your wound, for God's sake you could have called us for help." Jess yelled at him furiously when she saw a good part of Zach's back bandaged. Though Zach could swear he saw tiny tears in the corner of her eyes.
Zach caressed her should and calmly explained to Jess why he did it without warning them beforehand.
"Jess, it's not a serious wound, beside one day or another we will be wounded. I was confident in taking them without suffering too much and I succeed, next time I can do better."
"Yes but you should still have told us about it." Jess complained before turning her back on him and pouted him.
"What the fuck is actually happened for you to yell this early in the morning." Behind them, Arnold who just woke up due to all the noise they made and walked toward them. Still in the clouds Arnold tripped on some rock on the ground.
Zach and Jess were about to turn around due to Arnold's yelling but before they could see him they heard a loud thud. When they turned they saw Arnold's face in the dirt on the ground.
"Ha Ha Ha, you should see your face Arnold." Jess and Zach both laughed loudly and exclaimed at the same time when they saw the dirty red face of Arnold.
"Oh shut up you two. Instead of laughing you should tidy the camp because for now we did not have much real fighting experiences so we should go explore more this forest."Arnold retorted furiously at the two of them making fun of him.
"You are right though someone this night had much more fighting than the others." Jess responded mischievously.
"Zach ? You got yourself some fun and you did not invite us. I see that you even wounded yourself in this process, you could have done better ha ha." Arnold said while lightly laughing and looking straight at Zach's wound.
After this brief fun, they started to pack up their tent, and returned to their adventure in this forest full of danger for them but as harmless as a new born for others.
The three of them were now sinking deeper and deeper in the forest when they encountered a larger pack of wolf, a pack of 12 wolves, 6 of them at the low rank 1 and the other at the peak of the human realm.
"This will be thougher than this night but I think we can do it pretty easily if we do it well." Zach declared as he gripped his scythe tightly.
"Just a bunch of hungry wolves, not the greatest challenge of all time." Arnold replied
"Don't worry this time I am here." Jess added while drawing her bow and shooting an arrow directly between the eyes of one of the low rank 1 wolf which dropped dead on the spot.
"Let us a bit of fun Jess !" Zach exclaimed.
Zach and Arnold dashed toward one wolf at the peak of the human realm. Zach slashed deeply the flank of the wolf he had before him, 4 other wolves were rushing toward him, he could not end his prey, at the instant the wolves were about to jump on him he rushed toward one of them and used it as a launching pad and landed on a branch.
As for Arnold he simply made a cross slash at his prey neck which was very effective as the wolf dropped on the ground on the brink of death. The last 5 wolves rushed toward Arnold with a fury visible in their eyes and loud growl which were probably saying revenge.
Arnold a bit taken aback by so much wolves going on him was nervous but out of the blue an arrow pierced the neck of one of them.
"Don't worry I will support you." Jess shouted.
When he heard this Arnold went in, he was like a dancer with his swords, he made small and deep cuts here and there and Jess shot them with her arrows. Little by little the wolves were slowly dying and after only 5 minutes all of them were on the ground dead or a the verge of death.
Arnold only had some shallow cuts on his forearms and legs, as for Jess she was totally fine.
While they were occupied with this Zach had the wolves in the palm of his hand. He Alternated between slashing, piercing with his scythe and running in the tree which made the wolves lost and after a minute all of the wolves were dead. Zach made it perfectly none of the wolf wounded him , he had learn a lot from his previous fight with wolves.
He approached all of the wolves' corpses and retireved a small amount of meat on each, he used this task to cover the fact that he was also collecting their souls. Zach as usual heard the bunch notifications in his head, from the wolves' deaths and their souls.