Chapter 3 - Onward OASIS
Two curious heads emerged from the tall grass, their noses quivering as they sniffed the carcass of the Thabit in the middle of the trap.
The grass 100 meters around the carcass was all knotted to form snares but the 2 Gharls were too stupid to realize its impending doom.
As they swaggered into the trap,they started to be entangled by the grass snares. "SQUEEE!!" They hissed in shock and started to struggle mightily. While they managed to break some of them, most of it held.
To make the matter worse, the broken grass leaked substantial amounts of very sticky saps, which was the favorite food of most Thabits.
Fortunately both of them were quite a distance apart. And by the time they hit the 80m mark they were covered in sticky sap and completely entangled by the grass snares.
Cautiously, Kiel approached the Gharl on the left and drew his Miao Dao.
The angry beast seemed to realize its predicament and started to hiss loudly, baring its fangs as it tried to snap at Kiel.
It looked pitiful as it could barely move.
With a sudden burst of movement, Kiel lowered his body almost to the ground, rushed in and stuck the pointy end of his Miao Dao into its open mouth and down its throat.
The length of the sword is just enough to pierce its brain. With a rough twist and jerk. The brain turned to mulch.
" Adult Gharl killed, 35 experience point gained"
The other Gharl was completely enraged and was struggling like crazy as it saw the lover it just wooed with a lot of difficulty getting killed like that.
Kiel pulled out the sword and looked at the beast coldly and pointed his sword to the struggling beast.
The beast struggled desperately, trying to fight for that tiny bit of chance of survival by breaking out of the trap.
It was futile.
Kiel ruthlessly slashed the sword toward the neck of the imobile beast with all his strength.
Slash!
Kiel also held the sword in its after slash pose.
The struggling beast paused.
There was barely a nick on its neck where the sword was supposed to cut.
Kiel was rated 'fragile'... He despaired.
The beast eye looked mockingly at him. Somehow, a stupid beast seemed disdainful of him.
He felt his world crumble… so weak…
In his anger, he slashed a few more times.
Nothing changed… well some grass was cut and the Gharl was covered in more slime but that's about it.
And the most infuriating part is the beast seemed relaxed and stood there calmly twisting its neck for him to slash.
Then after he stood there panting, he swore he saw the damn thing smile at him as if it was telling him 'are you done mister?'
Pissed. He moved to the front of the cheeky bastard. Any armored creature's weakest parts will be the nose, eyes and mouth.
Kiel decided. He will stab the cocky bastard in one of those holes.
As if knowing his intentions. The beast calmly closed his eyes, mouth and turned his head down toward the ground, effectively throwing his plans out the window.
He stood there for a full minute trying to bait the beast to no avail and completely stumped on what to do.
For lack of a better idea, he walked around the beast to look for other opportunities.
Then when he got to the tail end of the beast.
He saw its tail was tangled up and stuck to the side. Exposing a brown chrysanthemum.
He paused. Utterly disgusted by his light bulb moment.
And the beast seemed to sense this and his body visibly shiver and Kiel clearly see the 'flower' tighten.
Shaking his head vigorously.
'No'
Kiel shouted.
'i'm not dirtying my sword blade on such nasty stuff. And i'm no homo'
He then continued walking and eventually returned to the head of the beast.
Kiel was looking at the Gharl. He was at a loss of what to do.
Sensing Kiel in front of it. The beast open one of its eyes and looked at Kiel mockingly.
While its eyes seemed to hide a killing intent so great it wanted to kill Kiel and ripped him to pieces. It showed disdain so great as if it did not put Kiel in its eyes.
This triggered Kiel. The thing he hated the most was being looked down upon.
He knew he was an orphan. He knew he was poor. He had been humiliated, scorned, rejected so many times he had lost count.
And he knew he had next to no chance to succeed in life if not for the Tower.
In his past life. Anyone who gave him that look doesn't live long, neither will this lizard.
Making up his mind he started to head to the tail end again.
This time, the oh so cocky Gharl seemed to realize what is going to happen. It was struggling even harder and realizing the futility, its eyes showed a miserable pleading look towards Kiel.
Too late for regrets now.
Kiel got into position. Readied his sword, and look at the beautiful blade feeling guilty.
'I'm so sorry to put you through this'
And thrust with all his might into the flower bud up till the hilt of the sword.
The Gharl hissed towards the sky, all the embarrassment, the pain, feeling defiled was unimaginable.
But the beast did not immediately die, as it spasmed in pain.
Again apologizing to his sword, Kiel jerked his word around as if stirring a big pot of soup inside the pitiful beast.
After 5 minutes of excruciating pain. The miserable Gahrl breathed its last.
"Adult Gharl killed, 35 experience point gained"
"Level Up, Stat readjusted.
You are now Level 1.
You gained:
All Stat +1
Free stat + 2"
After hearing the prompt, Kiel felt a surge of cold refreshing feeling coursing his body and then settled in his right chest. He had formed a mana core. He was excited and he immediately followed up,
"Status"
######
Name: Kiel Sinclair
Age: 16
Level: 1
Class: -
Health: 14/14
Mana: 4/4
Stamina: 7
Intellect: 9
Strength: 5
Agility: 8
Equipments: Basic Miao Dao
Skills: -
Experience: 0 / 200
Free Stat: 2
Assessment: Fragile
######
Looking at his status window, Kiel smiled for the first time in this level and after his rebirth.
Leveling up gives a free full refill of health, mana and stamina.
"Finally mana"
Now he can absorb that mana lode and get a big head start.
He then stabbed into the eye of the Gharl infront of him to reach its brain. Then he stuck his hand into the head searching for a mana core.
First Gharl yielded nothing, on the second Gahrl Kiel got lucky, he found a small green marble.
Unlike humans whose mana core was located on the opposite side of the heart. Tower monsters' were usually found in their brains.
This small colourful marble is called a mana core.
They came in different colour and sizes.
While they can not be absorbed directly, they were quite useful in forging and refining weapons and equipment or acting as a power source for special enchantment on the equipment.
Kiel however, was the best at turning them into a bomb. He once used a watermelon sized fire element mana core to make a warhead.
Its aftermath basically annihilated half of the level 60 map he was on. He was lucky to survive that.
Since then he didn't dare to lightly make mana bombs anymore. But these small sized ones should still be safe for him to use…. Right?
Looking at the Gharls carcass stuck in the snares and slime Kiel felt a pity, he could have made a rough armour for himself. But he has neither tools nor strength to butcher it. He felt pity for the waste of resources.
Turning to the leftover carcass of the Thabit. He decided to quickly butcher and get as many fur and meat and tendon as he could.
Pity this Thabit has no mana core.
After rubbing the skin, meat and tendons against the grass to cover it with the pungent slime and remove the smell, he excitedly rushed back to the burrow.
Reaching the mana lode. Kiel dropped his loot to the side. Then without much further a do, he placed his hand on the mana lode and since he has mana, he received a prompt.
"Discovered Large Mana Lode. Do you want to absorb?"
"Absorb" Kiel replied.
He felt a surge of mana rushing up from his hands to his right chest where humans' mana core formed.
"Mana +1
Mana +1
.
.
.
Mana +1
Mana Lode Exhausted"
He then heard a loud crack and the Mana Lode he placed his hands on cracks then turned to dust leaving a large gaping hole in the tunnel.
Kiel yelled
"Status"
######
Name: Kiel Sinclair
Age: 16
Level: 1
Class: -
Health: 14/14
Mana: 14/14
Stamina: 7
Intellect: 9
Strength: 5
Agility: 8
Equipments: Basic Miao Dao
Skills: -
Experience: 0 / 200
Free Stat: 2
Assessment: Fragile
######
10 mana points, Kiel was elated. It took 2 intellect point for 1 mana point.
And for stamina the health conversion is 1 stamina for 2 health points
After searching around some more and finding nothing else. Kiel packed up his loot and left.
Looking up at the sky he saw a trace of faint blue light in the horizon.
He used the fur to cover himself from the freezing cold wind and bit at the raw meat.
He then heads towards the light, where the Oasis was supposed to be.