Feeling pain throughout his body, Edart wakes up scared and tries to lift his body with his arms. His attempt ends in failure and he collapses to the floor.
Éris, seeing that Edart has woken up, starts talking to him with concern visible in her voice.
— ["Edart!!! You finally woke up, how are you feeling? Can you get up? We need to get out of here, other slimes might come and attack us, we've been lucky so far."]
— "Calm down, Éris! I'm alive, you don't need to worry. I feel like something is stuck in my body, it hurts a lot when I try to get up."
— ["What a relief to hear your voice."] Her concern subsides, but soon she remembers Edart's condition and continues speaking.
—["There are some 'Leaf Blades' on your back, you have to take them out. When you ate the 'Life Balls' earlier, the wounds around the leaves healed, so it will be difficult to remove them."] Edart nodded.
Carefully, he felt his back with his hands and found some leaves embedded in it. Every time he touched them, a stab of pain ran through his back.
It took him a while to prepare. Meanwhile, he looked at his stats.
— ["Edart, Life 10/19, Mana 18/18, Stamina 3/12"] Although his stamina was almost exhausted, his health was half, even if he removed the leaves, he had no possibility of dying.
Edart mentally prepared himself and started removing the leaves, it was not an easy job. With each leaf he took out, he felt enormous pain, he also felt his skin being ripped apart.
Each time a leaf was removed, it was followed by a trickle of blood that ran down his back.
— "Ahhhh."
Due to the damage he suffered from picking the leaves and the blood that oozed from his wounds. Edart had no choice but to use his last 'Life Ball'. His life recovered a little, and soon his wounds closed, causing the blood to stop flowing.
Edart was happy to make these 'Life Balls', as they have already saved him several times.
His wounds might be healed, but his body still hurt. He rested for a while longer until he felt better. Meanwhile, Éris kept watch.
During this time, he asked Eris what happened to the slime after he passed out. She said that the club he threw at the slime hit him squarely and hit his core, and soon after he died.
Edart doesn't forget to thank Miss Luck for this coup.
To his happiness, no slime approached and soon time passed.
…
— "We have to move and get out of here soon."
The sun was getting low on the horizon. Pained, Edart stood up and gathered his spoils from the last battle.
He recovered his club, some core fragments, and 7 Leaf Blades.
— "I hope I find some use for this."
Having nothing else to do here, he returned to his forward camp.
Once there, he took as much shower as possible to clean the blood and dirt from his body.
After cleaning himself up, he gathers his things and returns to his tree.
…
Not having a place to store the leaves, he drops them next to the tree trunk. If he needed to, he would easily know where he was.
After eating some berries from the nearby bushes to fill his belly, he climbed his tree. As he climbed up, he noticed that it was much easier to climb the tree than before.
— "It seems like I've gotten stronger." A smile blossomed on his face.
Arriving at his usual twig. He sat down and relaxed, then the tiredness of the day caught up with him.
Sitting there, he began to think about today's incident, his near death, and the dream he had after passing out.
That dream was very strange, he didn't know what the whole dream meant. The towers came from nowhere and ended in nothing and those responsible for that were those tentacles.
At the thought of them, a shiver ran down his spine, making all his hairs stand on end and a fear settled over him.
— "What is this feeling?"
Edart didn't know why he felt this way just thinking about it. It took some time, but he managed to recover.
Trying to think of something else so that the fear wouldn't return, he spoke to Éris.
— "Éris, is there a message that I didn't see, that appeared after the fight
with the slime?"
- ["Yes, some."]
Soon the messages appeared in Edart's vision.
—["You killed a 'Green Slime (Level: 14).'"].
— ["You gained 127 XP"].
Edart was really surprised by the amount of experience points he got, it was really worth it, even though he almost died. With luck, he could level up a few levels.
— ["You leveled up, now your level is 4"].
— ["You leveled up, now your level is 5"].
— ["You have gained 4 attribute points to distribute freely among your main attributes"].
The messages didn't disappoint him, he now had 4 free points, which would increase his strength enormously.
But the messages didn't stop there.
— [" You have undergone a life-and-death ordeal when facing an enemy much stronger than you. By surviving this, you have earned the title 'Survivor'."]
— ["Title: Survivor (Rare)"]
— ["Description: Fought an opponent 10 levels stronger, surviving death and lived another day to tell the tale. You gain +5 Strength and +5 Vitality."]
Edart was very surprised by this message and read it several times to make sure, he just gained 5 levels at once, that was a big deal.
After seeing the bonuses the title granted, he understood why it was so easy to climb the tree this time.
So the messages continued.
—["Your job 'Hunter' has leveled up, now your level is 3."]
—["Your job 'Explorer' has leveled up, now your level is 3."]
Although two jobs had evolved, gaining one level for 'Hunter' and two levels for 'Explorer', no new skills came from them. Edart was confused by this, he expected to have more ability to become stronger, but it didn't discourage him. Your new title was already great.
— ["'Collect' is at level 3"].
The Collect he managed to level up after getting the slime items, in addition to consuming a lot of mana because it is a stronger slime. He didn't care much about it, paying attention to the next messages.
— ["'Club Handling' is at level 4"].
— ["'Throwing' is at level 7"].
Edart enjoyed improving this skill, but what caught his attention were the next messages.
—["'Mana Perception' is level 8"].
'Mana Perception' gained an incredible 3 levels at once. He couldn't say for sure what caused this, the only thing that came to his mind was the dream, but if he reached these levels from there, maybe it wasn't a dream.
As he thought about this and remembered the tentacles, fear settled in his heart. With some effort, Edart got rid of this feeling.
—["Skill acquired: 'Spear Throwing (Common) (Level: 1)'"].
— ["Description: Rod throwing is an ancient technique, even though you don't have talent, it's not impossible to improve it with a lot of effort.
This ability increases your strength and agility as you evolve. Strength +1 and Dexterity +1."]
Then the abundance returned. Seeing this new ability, he quickly forgot about the dream.
Two more points, equivalent to one level, today was very profitable. Edart thought.
Although he didn't use a spear at the moment, now that he had the 'Leaf Blades' that the green slimes left behind, he could easily craft some wooden spears, which could replace the stones.
Seeing that there were no more messages and how happy he was. He asked Eris.
— "Is there anything else I didn't see?" After asking this, he thought.
'Maybe there is better news'.
— [" …Well… There is a…"] She spoke in a hesitant and low voice.
Edart realized this and became serious.
— "Very well, show me."
When he saw what it was, he was silent and thoughtful for a long time.
—["The curse 'Ravaged by the Abyss' has been placed on you."]
— ["Description: You have seen the terror that the abyss can cause through your own eyes. Affected by its powerful energy, fear settled deep within his soul. Whenever you see a being from the abyss, fear will arise and lock you in place."]
— ["Effect: Whenever you face a being from the abyss, your fear will make you weak. Half of your Strength and Will will be sealed until the fear passes."]
Edart read and reread these messages several times, he didn't know why it affected him, but when remembering the 'dream', he remembered the powerful energy coming towards him and the fear he felt at that moment.
It was as if that energy was going to destroy everything and everyone it encountered, its only motivation was destruction.
Not knowing what to do, he spoke to Éris, telling her about what happened when he was unconscious. When he finished telling the whole story, he spoke.
— "Éris, do you know what I should do about this? How should I get rid of this? Or something about that abyss?" In his voice, she can hear the fear and anxiety. Having her strength cut in half when she faced an enemy was very frightening for Edart.
His strength was little and he counted on every drop to beat his opponents, if he became weaker when facing something, how could he win. With this fear in his heart, which locked him in place, he would be easily eliminated.
Soon Éris spoke to him trying to comfort him, as they were linked by soul, she could feel a little what he felt.
— ["Calm down, Edart, we can get through this."] She tried to comfort him.
—["We only saw one enemy who had the touch of the abyss, although I don't know how to lift that curse. As long as we avoid any being from the abyss. We can move forward calmly and become stronger. This way we can beat them later more easily and then find a way to get rid of it."]
After hearing this, Edart realized that he had only seen a rabbit weak to the touch of the abyss when he arrived here. After that, he never again saw any being that had anything to do with the abyss.
— "You're right, but how can we know which enemy has to do with the abyss?"
— ["We can differentiate by their mana, these beings have more chaotic mana than other beings that are not from the abyss. I'll let you know when I see one."]
Since she could use 'Mana Perception ', she would be a great lookout for him, as she had already been doing.
— "Very well, I will count on your help."
After thinking about it, he calmed down. This abyss was an unknown thing for him and everything unknown generated fear. With this in mind, he decided that he needed to get stronger as quickly as possible, the enemy would not wait for him, this was a feeling he had and he could not explain where it came from.
Having assimilated this, Edart decided to focus on something else, something he needed to do.
Looking at his status, he started to think about where to allocate his free points. After much deliberation, he decided. Three points were placed in resistance. He had to try really hard from now on, his stamina would be important.
The remaining point was put into Vitality, even though I had gained a lot of points in Vitality, a little more health wouldn't be bad.
Looking at his information panel, a smile appeared on his face. In just 4 days, he became much stronger.
Name: Edart Zanuy
Age: 19
Race: Human (???????)
Level: 5
Height: 165 cm.
Weight: 65 kg.
Health: 10/46 (+27).
Mana: 11/18
Stamina: 4/24 (+12).
Attributes
Free Attribute Points: 0
Vitality (VIT): 10 (+6)
Strength (STR): 12 (+6)
Endurance (END): 6 (+3)
Agility (AGI): 5
Dexterity (DEX): 5 (+1)
Intelligence (INT): 8
Will (VON): 5
Perception (PER): 11
Works
Hunter (Common) (Level: 3)
Alchemist (Common) (Level: 1)
Explorer (Epic) (Level: 3)
Skills.
Tracking (Common) (Level: 1)
Collect (Common) (Level: 3)
Club handling (Common) (Level: 4)
Spear Throwing (Common) (Level: 1)
Throwing (Uncommon) (Level: 7)
Basic Alchemy (Uncommon) (Passive)
Gambiarra (Rare) (Level: 1)
Mana Perception (Rare) (Level: 8)
Identify (Legendary) (Level: 7)
Titles
Survivor (Rare)
Traveler Between Worlds (Unique)
Curses.
Ravaged by the Abyss.
Items
System.
17 x Leaf blades.
Seeing this, Edart was happy, his health and stamina doubled, and after focusing his attention on his body, he could feel that he was stronger. The next day, he would have to test.
His mana didn't change, but he didn't care much about it, as he didn't have any offensive skills that used mana. He could improve this in the future.
The sky was already getting dark, and there wasn't much else to do. Edart practiced some 'Mana Perception' and soon called it a day.