{5 minutes later}
Lukas leisurely rushed through the forest after the encounter with the goblins he didn't find anyone for the next five minutes, he was looking around at the scenery and by now he had begun paying more attention to the trees around him.
The trees had a slight resemblance to the coconut trees except for the fact that he could not see any fruits hanging on them. The other difference was that they were too long, each tree was almost 60m tall. Other than the tall trees there was a mix of other trees that were growing all around the coconut tree creating a dense web-like structure.
This created natural barriers between layers of clear patches of grass. Maybe the forest was specially created for the sole purpose of creating a confrontation-like environment that had enough space for everyone to fight.
He sensed more people in his range and he slowed down somewhat, while he was expecting to see more humans the result was a bit disappointing as he came across another group of monsters.
'At least they look surprisingly more dangerous than the last one, seriously why did I have to fight a panda...' Lukas grumbled as he slowed down, he came across a bunch of bushes that were in the way of him advancing to the next area.
'If I consider that all the participants are in a large continent and the direction the sun is leading us to be the main goal, then how come, someone, is in a layer front of me...' Lukas thought as he looked at the bear in front of him.
Though it could not be attributed as a mere bear anymore, its claws had sprung up and had become larger like a certain mutant superhero. Along with that, it had ears now, two sharp ears that protruded out of its skull.
Lukas quietened down and didn't move, the dagger was still in his hands and the bear was within range. Through his senses, he could tell that it was the only living thing in his surroundings.
[Mutated Bear[E] Lv-2]
[+20 Exp]
'This monster has a rating, let's try this I need to use this skill to level it up anyway, {Shadow Strike}' Lukas thought as he felt the world marginally slow down to him. He watched the bear move in slow motion as he felt himself dive into his own shadow. A feeling of cold overcame him as if he took a dive into real water and then he came out of the shadows behind the bear.
The feeling of disorientation was a little too for Lukas but he still remembered to strike, since the bear was stunned he aimed for the back of the bear's head. The dagger immediately sliced through the bear's spine and Lukas hurriedly dodged back, his eyes traced the bear's figure but the behemoth simply collapsed as a black damage number appeared above his head.
[-500]
All of these things happened quickly and barely 1 second had passed from the moment Lukas started attacking. He felt the soul leave the bear's body so he relaxed his stance and walked closer to the bear. He saw the wound and his dagger had cut cleanly into the bear's brain.
'The damage number was black, I remember the damage number to the goblins and the panda were black as well, is it universal or was it because of fatal damage.' Lukas thought he stared at the panda for a moment but he didn't see anything drop. He wanted to stay and see if the body evaporated but time was more important to him at the moment.
As time slowly passed he was beginning to realize the difficulty of the tutorial, the first test was a psychological one. The panda was too cute to kill and Lukas was willing to bet a lot of people would have suffered a loss because of it.
The second test was confrontational, Lukas wasn't sure if everyone got the same test but at least for him and the weird-named goblins that he killed it was the same. Two species were allowed to interact in a closed and controlled environment, but the teleportation was 'random' so maybe some people would encounter fellow humans or goblins or whatever the other species was out there.
The third test should be survival, you have to survive based on the decision you have made, if you were stupid enough to fall for the panda trick then you would quickly be eliminated by the confrontation test. If you managed to gain more allies in the confrontation test then maybe your journey after that would be easier.
'But a larger group means more dependence on supplies,' Lukas was beginning to feel hungry too. He had gone through a lot of layers of forest by now and he had come across three fights. If the layering was as he expected then there should be some rest point along the way otherwise not many people would survive due to a shortage of supplies.
By now Lukas had stopped rushing through the forest, he was now walking through the clearing as he came across the next barrier, sensing no one on the other side he crossed the barrier looked at the position of the sun, and went forward once again.
Around 10 minutes later, Lukas came across another group this time thankfully they were human, the problem was there were 4 of them and one of them looked like he was quite high-level.
'Level 2 means he was the one doing the heavy lifting while the other 3 weren't of enough help.' Lukas concluded he was still hiding in the bushes as the group was barely within his range. Just like he had accepted the group was on his immediate right, if nothing happens next then due to the direction of the sun they should collide in the next couple of rings.
'Should I kill them? they would be perfect 4 extra points before I reach the rest point, being a solo it would be better to be stronger than my peers.' Lukas thought as he carefully sneaked closer to their position while maneuvering through the bushes.
The group consisted of two guys and two girls, they looked quite young in their early 20s. Everyone on their team was a little banged up and Lukas could see that they were running on fumes already and the only assurance they had was the small pistol that their leader was holding.
"Hey Erin, what should we do, I'm feeling a little tired and the girls couldn't walk anymore. How about taking a break." the level 1 huy spoke.
Erin looked at his friend and nodded, the two girls audibly took a sigh of relief as they collapsed close to each other.
"What the fuck even happened man, how the fuck did we end up here, this looks like something straight from a horror game... did you see the size of that leopard back there, it was fucking huge..." Erin complained as he sat down too, they weren't concerned about their clothes as all four of them were dressed in surprisingly sporty outfits.
"...that dog was so cute though-" the level 1 girl spoke causing Erin to smile at her as he patiently explained to her to stay back and let him handle everything.
Lukas listened to their talk hidden behind trees and sighed, like he thought all three of them just hid behind the dude with the gun as they basically barreled their way through the challenges up till now.
'4 points it is then...' Lukas thought as he crept a little closer. He wasn't necessarily going to kill them if they were confident, to gain the most amount of TP Lukas has decided to only kill the useless ones in the beginning. The ones who won't be competent enough to even gain TP could only become stat points for him to build a solid foundation.
He was within range and he wasn't going to listen to the obnoxious talks of the 4 of them, he used {Shadow Strike} once again but this time he was ready for the wave of cold. He was in the shadow realm for barely a moment but he grasped the cold shroud of shadows all around him as he emerged behind a stunned Erin.
The fight that followed wasn't qualified to be mentioned as such, once Lukas lopped Erin's head, the rest of them simply trembled as Lukas finished them off. One of the girls was able to overcome some of her fear and she began to run away but she hadn't leveled up in the least and it was surprisingly easy for Lukas to catch up to her.
"Please! Please! Wait I'll follow yo-Ghkk! ghkk!..."
Lukas stared at the collapsed corpse for a moment before he walked back to the two guys he had killed while ignoring the notification from the battle. He opened his status and put all 4 points into Soul.
...
[Status]
[Name: Lukas Atkins]
[Titles: Psychopath{Unique}, Pioneer{Common(Growth)}]
[Race: Human{E}]
[Class: ~]
[Sub-Class: ~]
[Level: 5 (170/350)]
[Health: 500/500]
[Mana Points: 10/10]
[Stats]
[Physique{E}: 9]
[Reflexes{E}: 10]
[Vision{E}: 10]
[Mana{E}: 1]
[Soul{E}: 5]
[Points: 0]
...
'Every level I get just 2 stat points so even though I am level 5 my average stats are just 10 points. Whereas if someone specializes in a certain direction then they could have around 20 in just one stat. If I try to round up too much my combat advantage would fluctuate...' Lukas concluded as he thought about the dilemma.
He looked at Erin's corpse for a moment before he decided to take a plunge and activated his special skill attached to the {Psychopath} title.
[Ding~]
[Using special skill {Devour} target Erin Nervi[E]]
[Select one of the fields to copy from the target's status]
...
[Name: Erin Nervi]
[Titles: ~]
[Race: Human{E}]
[Class: ~]
[Sub-Class: ~]
[Level: 2 (130/150)]
[Health: 200/200]
[Mana Points: 20/20]
[Stats]
[Physique{E}: 6]
[Reflexes{E}: 7]
[Vision{E}: 6]
[Mana{E}: 2]
[Points: 0]
...
'As I thought nothing interesting...' Lukas stopped his skill and the panel in front of him disappeared. He walked up to the second guy and used the skill again and a similar panel appeared in front of him again.
'So I can cancel it and use it to scan statuses, good to know' Lukas thought, he was ready to sacrifice the ability to get to know about its limitations sooner rather than later. He looked down at Erin's head which was lying around 2 feet away from his torso, his eyes were still open in surprise.
Lukas bent down and searched through the bodies of all 4 of them, he got another magazine with 14 bullets and the 4 that were still present in Erin's handgun. He threw them in the inventory and they focused on his main reward from the hunt.
Normally he wouldn't do something like this but desperate time calls for desperate measures.
'At least they are from Nike...' Lukas thought as he removed Erin's shoes and quickly slipped into them, he looked at his leather-covered shoes for a moment before he threw them in his inventory as well.
Lukas smiled as he took a few steps and began walking on the patch of grass once again, the air felt cleaner and the grass a little more green now that he wouldn't have to walk in those abominations again...
...
-----------------------------
AN- Fair Warning! Killings would quickly become a part of this fic, and while they might seem mindless now even these few kills would shape up how the story would develop.
Thanks for reading if you do decide to continue!