It was a very tough decision for Arun to make. All four items that were presented before him had their uses, but the thing was he didnt know what kind of scenario should prepare for. If he was preparing for a frontal attack by the people around him, it made sense to him to get the sword and shield. But the letter that he received told him that he needed to kill beasts and increase his strength. Which meant that he wouldn't be facing a group of humans.
A bow and quiver of arrows made sense, but as he didnt know whether he could use a bow or not, it didnt make any sense to choose it. The survival knife and the survival kit were the ones that caught his eye. He was tempted to get both of them, but didnt have enough coins to get both.
Maybe.. I can steal someone's survival kit. Yeah, I think I can. So for now, let's buy weapons. I can deal with everything else later.
Immediately, he then bought the Sword and Shield Combo and the Sharp Knife. The windows vanished after his selection, and another window appeared before him.
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Everything that you have brought is stored in your Common Inventory. The rest of the coins have been debited back to your inventory.
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After the window vanished, Arun then came and sat down by a rock. There were a lot of things that he needed to consider now before he could take any steps.
The letter mentioned that he was an anomaly, he didnt know what it meant. Also, the letter mentioned that he should not work with other players or accept invitations. From what he got, the letter was telling him that he should not mingle with other players and go solo. But why? What does being an anomaly even mean?
I dont know whether I can trust the letter fully. So for now, let's just play it safe. Try to understand the situation.
He then opened his status window once again and started going through the menus, so that he could fully understand how this system works. And as no one could see what he was doing, he was not worried at all at the moment.
When he focused on the Skill menu, more specifically on the Language skill, a window popper open before.
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Name- Language
Type- Passive Skill
Rank- Legendary
Description- It is a skill that gives power to the players so that they could speak, write, and understand the local language of Tower of Yggdrasil.
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Local language? Does it mean that there is another civilization living on this floor? Moving on, he went and checked the inventories that he had, but then many messages started popping open in front of him.
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Inventory is a Spatial Pockets that the system provides to every player. The inventory could store everything that the Tower has to offer if you have the price to pay for it.
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The Common Inventory is a pocket where one could story any nonliving matter, that also included dead living matter. This inventory has unlimited space, and can only be accessed after opening the status window.
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This inventory is divided into various blocks. A block can store 10kg worth of things.
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The first two blocks in the inventory have unlimited space, the first block can store all the money that the player has. While the second block can store all the rewards and gifts that the player would receive.
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Quick Access Inventory is pocket for the things that a player can access with one simple command.
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The first slot of the Quick Access Inventory is unlocked by default for free.
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The slots of the Quick Access Inventory can be expanded in the Dungeons's shop.
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It was then he got access to the inventory menus and everything was pretty straight forward as the messages mentioned. Then he accessed the Stat menu, a window popped open before him.
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Exp- 0/100
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Vigor- 5
Arcane- 2
Strength-9
Dexterity- 8
Endurance- 12
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Stat points- 0
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One by one, more windows started popping open before him telling him about all the options. According to the explanation that he got, Exp or Experience is a bar that fills up when a player kills beasts. When the bar gets full, a player advances a level, and with every advancement comes a definite number of stat points that could be integrated into the real-time attributes of the player.
Vigor, Arcane, Strength, Dexterity, and Endurance are the physical representations of a player's bodily statistics. And from what he read, their explanation was bonkers, something straight out of a video game.
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Vigor signifies the health of a player. Greater the Vigor, the greater would be the player's vitality. Greater the vitality, greater would be the ability to heal fast.
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Arcane was the representation of the amount of mana or magic that player's holds. Greater the Arcane, the more magic one would be able to wield.
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Strength was the representation of a muscle definition of the player. Greater the strength, more power would a player would be able to exert with every strike.
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Dexterity represented the overall ruggedness of a player's body. Greater the dexterity, the stronger would be the body.
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Endurance represents the stamina that a player possesses.
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The explanations were pretty simple to understand, still, he held some reservations as he had never played a video game in his life. But the fact that he could change the stats of his body by just killing beasts baffled him, this was simply too magical.
After opening the status menu, when he tried accessing the Faction menu, but got an error message, like the one showing up on his status widow. As far as his friends list was concerned, he did not have any.
Well, so some part of the letter was right. I need to kill beasts to get strong as the message from the Stat Menu mentioned. Now the question was, whether the part about me being an anomaly is true or not.
There was no denying it, there was something weird about his existence here. The alien does not ask him his name and place of birth, the letter and the error message from his status window are enough for proof. Which is why, just to be on the safer side, he decided that he would go on a solo journey form here onwards. .
Arun then stood up and started walking towards the outer section of the ruins. He started looking around the place in order to make an informed decision about he situation here. From what he saw, the ruins were surrounded by dense forests on almost all sides. He could see some mountains towards the west, but they were very far away.
For some reason, he was thinking about abandoning the group and moving solo. The prospect of going alone in the forest was not scaring him at all, in fact, looking at the terrain he had already started formulating a plan on how to build a campfire and a camp. So without wasting a breath, he started moving towards going opposite of the mountains…
***
What kind of job did I used to have before I came here? Arun thought as he was hunching over some black shit. Rather than being disgusted by it, his first instinct told him to squash the thing. When he did, and saw how slimy the inner parts were, he understood that whichever thing did this was nearby. That shit was fresh.
Accessing his status window, he took his knife and put it in the first slot in the Quick Access Inventory. Then he proceeded to look around the place for footprints. And in the moist mud of the jungle, it was very easy to find prints, he didnt have to look far.
A humanoid footprint, a being with three fingers. Maybe a kind of monkey.. No.. From its size.. This thing is small. But large enough that it could be a threat.
He moved forward, No. Never mind, cannot be a monkey. The trail only shows the trail of the being using its hind legs to move. Apes this big use all four of their limbs to move.
Arun started following the trail, and with every fresh print, unknowingly he started forming a smile on his face. He loved the thrill of the hunt, with every step he took, he was making sure that flow of the wind so that the beast could not get a whiff of him. He was hunching while moving, making sure that the beast would not easily be able to spot him. The thing was, he didnt even know what kind of thing he was dealing with. But he was just happy to be there.
It took him a few minutes, but he eventually saw some movement, and he crouched down on the ground. Crawling in the wet mud, he started moving around, trying to find a good angle of the thing that was in front of him. It did not take him long, and he soon found himself staring at what looked like a mutated human from a science fiction movie.
That thing was short, around 3 and a half feet tall. It had grey skin and was fully naked except for a loin cloth around his private. That thing didnt have any hair on its head, had rather large pointy ears, and yellow eyes. The creature was busy processing what looked like a very huge boar, hanging from the adjacent tree.
Arun took his time and crawled as slowly as he could towards the thing. In his mouth, he had his 5-inch survival knife tucked, ready for action. When he reached his mark, he slowly got up. He had seen that the creature had a bow and arrow, that was lying under a tree. While the creature had a rather long machete in his hands, with which it was carving the meat. He aimed to get so close that the creature would understand that going for the bow and arrow was not an option. Its only option is to fight head-on…
As Arun slowly got up, the creature's hands which were working on the meat stopped abruptly. It turned around and faced him. The creature looked rather surprised to see him there, but surprise didnt last long, and the creature screeched like a bat. It raised its machete and ran towards him.
While Arun on the other hand calmly waited for it, he had the knife confidently gripped in his hands. As the creature came, it wildly swiped its machete towards him, he gracefully sidestepped out of the trajectory of the weapon. He didnt wait long to retaliate, he also swung his knife, swiping the face of of the creature. It screamed in pain, dropped its machete, and took a few steps back.
He didnt waste any time and retaliated further with round house kick. The creature was flung back and landed a few feet away. The creature understood that it stood no chance against him, it started moving towards the bow and arrow, after all, there was no chance that it could go for the machete. Arun had no plan to let the creature. He didnt waste time came to the creature and put his foot down. Without wasting a breath, he lunged his knife into the heart of the creature from its back.
The creature struggled for a few seconds, but then it passed away.