Feeling his body again, Takashi sighed in frustration, he had actually gotten himself started without dying instantly.
'Well, at least I know what to do now'
Opening his eyes, we was greeted with a dark forest, dimly lit with red light, looking into the sky he saw a crimson red moon cascading light throughout the world. Looking around he was unable to see anything that could be used as shelter.
Walking over to a small splotch next to a hill Takashi started digging with his bare hands.
"If I can't find a place to take cover until the night is over, I'll make my own!"
Though the ground solid, Takashi found that he could dig through it quite easily, and chunks of dirt were put into his inventory, it just took a couple seconds.
Seconds that he did not have
An arrow flew towards him, missing him as he dropped into the hole he dug, though, he had miss calculated, he had enough room to fit, but, anything else could also drop into it with him, like the
{Acquired Knowledge: Geist}
"Fucking Nice!"
Trading hits with the Giest a nearly familiar sentence popped up soon enough
{Geist Killed You}
------------------------------
Luckily Takashi spawned in the MIDDLE OF THE OCEAN AGAIN! unsurprisingly it didn't take long to be killed again, and by a sea serpent as well.
------------------------------
The second Takashi felt himself coming to, he started digging down as fast as he could. Quickly digging down three meters, he took the dirt in his inventory and placed it above him, and was plunged into darkness.
"Should have thought of that" He murmured to himself.
Digging a hole in front of him, he made a small vent to the surface, this way he could see when it was day time again, after all with the crimson red light pouring in, and the sound of various monsters above, there was no way he would be able to sleep.
With nothing to do and occupy his time, Takashi quickly felt boredom set in honestly the only thing good about the situation was that there was not a clock to watch
'Well.....not being killed is a good thing as well I suppose'
At times it was tempting to uncove himself and head up, just to see what was going on, though every time he got close to doing so, he would hear the sound of.....things walking above him, and that was easily enough to make him back down.
You would think that over time you could get used to it and would be able to sleep, but, there was an ever present feeling of dread, or the feeling of being watched, that sent a shiver down Takashi's spin, and NO ONE could ever fall asleep with that feeling hanging over them.
Time seemed to ache by, seconds turned into minutes, and minutes turned into hours, which turned into days, it felt like when you are sitting looking at your screen waiting for the next game in your favorite series to drop so you could buy it immediately and start playing it, though surprisingly, the tiredness of staying up so late never came.
As suddenly as it came, the crimson light of the blood moon seemed to vanish instantly and was replaced by the much brighter yellow light of the sun, as it leaked through the vent Takashi had made and shone on his face.
"Finally! Now I can actually get on with my life and stop hiding away"
Digging the dirt above him, Takashi Climbed out of his small hideaway, and looked around the forest.
It was a nice clean forest, with trees spread about(Mostly oak and aspen), Takashi dropped to the ground as an arrow hit a tree behind him with a loud
*Thunk!*
"Damn it, I got excited and forgot that there were monsters around"
Looking in the direction that the arrow came from, Takashi saw a couple skeletons, and he turned and ran the opposite direction as fast as he could, almost tripping as he had to dodge the swing of a zombie that had come up behind him.
Running towards the end of the forest, while zig zagging around, he saw a river that separated the forest from a moderately large clearing, and, in that clearing he saw something that caused a grin to spread over his face. Once he reached the edge of the forest, he leaped into the river with fervor, and swam across.
On the other side, Takashi looked back and saw that he had completely out run anything chasing him, though he doubted they could get across the river even if they tried.
In the middle of the grass clearing was a small encampment, having three mid sized tents, as well as a camp fire and small pen.
'I'll go check that out in a second, first gotta make my self some tools'
Walking over to the gravel edging the river, Takashi dug around it taking a couple pieces of flint which he than smashed into shards on a small stone mound like thing, before braking a branch from a nearby tree into sticks, then he went and searched for stones again, this time finding some near the river, he than opened his inventory and used the crafter to make a flint knife, cut some grass and made it into string and then made his second flint hatchet.
It still took awhile to cut down a tree with the flint hatchet, not that is was surprising considering that the flint knife shattered on impact with the skeletons bones.
Collecting the {Oak Log}s, and making them into planks before using them, Takashi made his second {Crafting Table}, and was able to craft his first pickax with three {Solidstone} and two {Stick}'s, as well as a stone sword that used two {SolidStone}'s and one {Stick}
Right as he finished crafting he heard a grown from behind him and turned around, there were a few zombies coming out of the stone mound, before lighting on fire.
"Huh, I guess you guys burn in direct sun light, though either way, I am ready to kill you now!"
Dashing at the zombies, Takashi Took out the stone sword he had just crafted, it was about half a meter in length, and had a small stone crossguard.
Swinging it at the neck of the zombie, he felt it bash against its neck, knocking it back a few feet.
'I guess I shouldn't have expected a sword made of stone to be able to easily slice through a neck bone'
Ducking under the swing of another zombie, Takashi ran at the zombie he already hit, this time swinging straight down, hitting it on the head.
There was a small *Crack!* as the stone sword cracked open the zombies head, causing it to fall down, shattering into pieces of dust that filtered out into nothing, leaving a hunk of rotting flesh and a group of glittery yellow sparks, that flowed towards his body, melding into it.
Spinning around with a swing of his sword, a zombie was knocked to the side, Takashi quickly followed up with with a horizontal slash to the head, it also, fell to the ground and disintegrated leaving another hunk of rotting flesh and some more yellow sparks that flowed into Takashi.
"At least this means that I won't have to deal with your dead body's after I kill you!"
The Zombies did not seem to acknowledge his words, as they kept shambling towards him, another two, seeming to have appeared.
'Where are these guys coming from?'
Looking towards the zombie furthest away from him, he notices that the stone mound has an opening right behind it.
Running around the zombies, he heads into to stone mound, straight ahead is its a passage for about two meters before it curves sharp left, opening up to a small room holding a chest, as well as two metal cages about 1'x1'x1' in size, each in an opposing corner. Both cages have a green pale green colored vortex swirling at intense speeds, inside of them.
The cage on the left most corner, suddenly starts swirling faster and faster, then with a soft *zoom* a pale green blob is thrown out, whizzing through the cage and warping into a zombie.
"So that's where you guys are coming from?" Takashi shouts with a short laugh.
"I assume if I break that, you guys won't be able to spawn any more eh?"
Rather than waiting for no one to answer, Takashi runs at the zombie, slicing its head twice, killing it, than he takes out his pickax and starts hitting the metal cage? portal? whatever it is, he can feel it breaking, but it will take awhile.
*zoom*
'Dammit, there is no way I can break either of these while fighting!'
Turning around and switching to his sword, Takashi slashes it, when *zoom* *zoom* two more zombies are spawned.
"Fuck!"
'There's not enough room in here to fight so many zombies at once'
Ducking under the closest zombies attack, he runs for the exit, entering the passage out he hesitates for a second as he sees the zombies that were outside have entered and are heading right at him.
"dammit" With a curse under his breath Takashi runs at the zombies blocking the passage, using his sword, he slams the first zombie to the wall, allowing him barely any room to run past, having to duck under the attack of the next zombie, he uses it as an opportunity to slip past it, before tanking a hit from the last zombie and knocking it backwards and out into the sun, where it lights on fire and looses the rest of its health.
Once back out in the open, Takashi, feeling much safer, runs to the stone mound and climbs on top of it. walking over to the corner that he thinks the caged portal was at, he takes out his pickax and mines through the roof.
Looking over his shoulder he notices that the zombies seem to not be able to get up onto the mound, so he can work at ease, looking into the mound he sees that he is right above the caged portal.
'Though I think I'm going to call them, Vortex's'
Reaching in, he can just reach the {Zombie Vortex} and starts hacking away at it, and soon enough it breaks apart, though to his surprise not only does it leave some items behind but, it also breaks into a bunch of yellow green sparks, that flowed into his body.
He hadn't noticed before as he got to little but, when he absorbed the yellow or green sparks his body felt an energy rushing through him, feeling quite good.
Taking out his pickax, right before he was going to mine the other {Zombie Vortex}, it spat out another two zombies, before shattering into pieces, again leaving some items and a lot of yellow and green sparks.
"Okay then....I guess they will break on there own after putting out a certain amount?"
'Yea... that's probably it'
Turning towards the zombies that had all gathered at the side of the stone mound closest to him, he smirked.
"Now I can just deal with you lot how ever I want"
Jumping down into the stone mound, Takashi collected everything in it, including the chest without looking at what they were, before running out, and slashing down at the closet zombie to him, knocking it against the stone mound with a *Thud* the zombie behind it came forwards just to meet an upward slash to the jaw, before a downward slash to the top of its head, bursting its head into pieces as it disintegrated.
A searing pain shot through his shoulder as a zombie he hadn't noticed, when he was on the stone mound, came and whacked it.
Takashi jumped left turning around with a swing he miss estimated its position and barely clipped its out stretched arm.
This also gave the zombies behind him the chance to attack him as well, causing him to lose even more health. Just as he was going to back away he heard some flapping from behind and...
{Acquired Knowledge: Nymph}
{Effect: Regeneration 5s}
{Effect: Regeneration 4s}
{Effect: Regeneration 3s}
{Effect: Regeneration 5s}
Looking behind him he found a being about 1.5 meters tall (4'6") with a pink shade of skin and semi see through cloth draped over it, covering it completely, and having the general shape of a woman, along with large pale pink, outlined black, butterfly style wings, the {Nymph} looked quite mystical.
Logically a being the generates a natural healing aura around them wouldn't be hostile, so Takashi, ignores it for now, and turns back to face the hoard of zombies in front of him, there are 9 left, all spread out, about two meters away from him.
Running to the zombie to his right, closest to the river, he slashes at its head, with renewed vigor, killing it instantly, with the zombies now all lined up in front of him he starts a basic, up down, slash combo, being able to kill most of the zombies easily, though some did end up taking three hits rather than the usual two.
Finally having killed the last zombie, Takashi falls to the ground, lying there with a panting breath.
"Open Inventory"
{Profile}
{Inventory} !
Planks: 12
Sticks: 8
Rotten Flesh: 14
{Attributes}
{Skills}
{Knowledge}
"w....Wow, just what I ne...need, rotten....fucking.....flesh" Takashi says, still trying to catch his breath
Reaching up Takashi tapped on the profile tab
{Profile} !
Name: Takashi Yoshino
Level: 0 +
Exp: 100
Health: 18
Mana: 0
Stamina: 18
Stats:
Intelligence: 0
Endurance: 0
Strength: 0
Dexterity: 0
Willpower: 0
Attentive: 0
Wisdom: 0
Deftness: 0
Luck: 0
{Inventory}
{Attributes}
{Skills}
{Knowledge}
'Huh, I take it the sparks where exp than, the question is what gives more exp, destroying a
{Vortex}, or killing the monsters that come out of it? I'll have to test it out later'
Tapping on the + that,s in front of his level, a small screen popped up.
{Are you sure you want to spend: 10Exp?}
{Yes} {No}
"Its only 10 so why not?" Tapping {Yes} the screen disappeared and there were some changes to his profile.
{Profile} !
Name: Takashi Yoshino
Level: 1 +
Exp: 90
Health: 18
Mana: 0
Stamina: 18
Stats:
Intelligence: 1
Endurance: 1
Strength: 1
Dexterity: 1
Willpower: 1
Attentive: 1
Wisdom: 1
Deftness: 1
Luck: 0
Stat Points: 5
{Inventory}
{Attributes}
{Skills}
{Knowledge}
"Oh! Nice! Leveling up is definitely worth it!, though I'm going to check out what else I can do before dumping all of my Exp into my level"
Looking through the rest of his interface he only noticed two things, on the attributes tab, he could put his exp into it as well, it cost 10 exp to level any attribute up to level 1, lastly the skills tab was not grayed out anymore tapping on it an option came up
{What Do You Want To Specialize In?}
{Crafting: Receive extra exp every time you craft anything, the amount varies based on both the rarity of resources used, and the difficulty of the crafting}
{Mining: Receive extra exp every time you mine anything, the amount varies based on both the rarity of resources mined, and the density of the object mined}
{Combat: Receive extra exp every time you kill anything, the amount varies based on both the rarity of Mob killed, and the level of the Mob}
"Which one do I do? Will I kill more mobs than the amount of things I craft? or mine? You know what, I'm not going to think to hard about this and just go with combat"
Tapping {Combat} the interface came into view again, this time with the skills tab open
{Profile}
{Inventory}
{Attributes}
{Skills} !
{Combat}!
Melee Damage 0/5
Melee Speed 0/5
Archery Damage 0/5
Archery Speed 0/5
Stealth 0/5
Stealth Damage 0/5
Stealth Speed 0/5
Shield Blocking 0/5
Random Crits 0/5
Iron Skin 0/5
{Mining}
{Crafting}
{Knowledge}
It takes 50 exp to level up any of the skills, so Takashi left that for later, directly putting all of his exp into his level, and used all his stat points
{Profile} !
Name: Takashi Yoshino
Level: 10
Exp: 0
Health: 18
Mana: 0
Stamina: 18
Stats:
Intelligence: 30
Endurance: 20
Strength: 20
Dexterity: 20
Willpower: 10
Attentive: 10
Wisdom: 10
Deftness: 10
Luck: 0
Stat Points: 0
{Inventory}
{Attributes}
{Skills}
{Knowledge}
Since intelligence should help him make smarter decisions it was best to focus on it, though, he should put some into wisdom at some point, he wanted to put some into luck, however it seemed that luck was a stat that you could not use stat points on.
Hearing the soft, smooth, flapping of wings again, Takashi closed his interface and looked around, spotting the Nymph, from earlier, come to a stop a few meters away from him. After a moment, she flew along the river to about twenty meters away, staying there for the same amount of time and then flying off to another spot, it looked like she was patrolling the area, maybe her territory?
'Not sure if I can talk to her or not.....well its getting dark so I should go to the encampment first'
Getting up, Takashi walked over to his crafting table and put it in his inventory(Does it have a size limit at all?) and then walked towards the camp.
Nearing the camp he had a better view of it. It was right at the edge of a 1.5 meter tall cliff, that spanned out into a small hill. At the very front was a small camp fire surrounded by several flat large stones, past it were some tents, on the right was a tent with a think dark wood frame and a purple canvas stretched tight between four beams. The other two tents(on the left) were the same except for color, one being cyan and the other being light green.
There were also three people, all huddled around the fire, where it looked like a chicken was being cooked on a spit. Walking towards them, Takashi felt a bit of apprehension, since he had been ended up in this place, the only non hostile thing he has come across was the Nymph.
If these people were hostile, they would be way more dangerous than the zombies he had just fought.
Approaching them, Takashi felt tense, stopping about five meters away.
"H..Hello" Waiting for their response he was surprised when they just looked up at him and waved him over.
Not looking hostile, he decided to take the risk and join them, once he reached them, non of them said anything though, the same one who waved him over, pointed at an empty stone in next to the fire.
Taking the invitation for what it was, Takashi sat down, all three nodded at him, but didn't say anything.
Following their example, Takashi kept silent and just watched the flames cook the chicken, enjoying the first relaxing moment he had gotten since appearing in this strange world. In the last two days, he has died five times, all of them as painful as the last, and still no answer to the questions he had when he got here besides the first,
Who? What? Why? Where? How?
And even then, he may feel like he knew who he is right now but....who was he before he got here?
Takashi can remember how humans reproduce, so logically he came about the same way right? but if so, why can't he remember anything before he got here? And if he came into existence here, than where did all the information he has in his head come from?
Watching one of the men turn the chicken over, Takashi decided to not dwell on those thoughts, after all no mater what, he is here, now, and this place in full of danger, therefore he should simply focus on surviving for now, maybe once he is supper powerful he can worry about those things.
The man who waved him over, took the chicken of the spit, and cut pieces off handing some to each person, including Takashi, who hesitantly accepted it.
The four of them ate in comfortable silence enjoying the delicious chicken. By the time the chicken had been completely eaten by the four of them it had gotten completely dark out, this time without a red moon, once the moon became fully visible off in the horizon, the three strangers got up, Takashi following their lead, and headed to the tents, two heading into the cyan tent, and the last one, the guy who waved him to join them, lead Takashi to the purple tent, lifting the flap and indicating Takashi to head inside.
Heading inside and looking around he saw a purple bed along the left side, a chest at its head, and a gray furnace on the right side, looking pretty homely. Looking back out he saw the man heading into the light green tent, closing the flap, he stripped down to his briefs and hopped into bed, it was a lot more comfortable than he thought, and fell asleep shortly after.