This was Alex's first time seeing a dead body, much less a skeleton. Stunned Alex takes a step back for a second.
The skeleton was leaning over the tree wearing armor that was extremely rusty. Around his waist, there was a sword.
Alex notices it and draws the sword. It looked like an expensive sword that had gone beyond rust. It was heavy for Alex to properly hold it.
It was a dark long sword totally covered in rust about 4 kg in weight.
Alex's powers were mainly focused on speed and precision. He knew he wasn't strong enough to use this weapon freely without giving up on his speed. Especially if it was rusty.
Sighs* Alex puts down the weapon and takes a rest.
"Whatever I gotta do, I'll do it tomorrow". It was already getting dark and Alex was extremely tired.
7 hours passed by -
Alex wakes up looking fresh, the dark circles in his eyes had also gone. But the first thing he notices was, it was still dark almost as if the time had frozed itself in the sky.
Dark blue sky with the bloody moon shining as bright as ever. "Did I not slept enough?"
Alex definitely felt the impact of sleeping long in his body, but he couldn't be 100% sure anymore.
Anyways, I got to look for food before my vitality starts declining.
[Vitality : 499/550]
Alex now had to go search for food, but before going he laid down the skeleton on the ground and covering the body with dead tree branches. Holds his hands tight together and makes a short prayer "May your soul rest in peace"
Alex takes the sword with himself and sets out to the dark wilderness.
'Whenever I push myself to the limit my stats increases depending on how much I put in the effort. If I carry this sword for a long time, it would increase my strength while doing multi tasking.'
Although the trees were dead, they were huge hence making the forest extremely dark. But that wasn't any issue for Alex as he could see it clearly.
After walking for a long over 20 minutes, he sees a wild rabbit jumping around in the wild. Alex throws away the sword and stretches his body.
During the time he was walking earlier he had improved some of his stats.
[Strength : 15.9] >> [Strength : 16.1]
[Stamina : 17.3] >> [Stamina : 17.6]
[Agility : 25.8] >> [Agility : 25.9]
Alex slowly approaches the rabbit, when he got near he notices that the rabbit had sharp nails and sharp canines.
The rabbit had keen ears and immediately notices Alex's presence. Alex had no option but to start chasing it. Despite Alex having high agility, the rabbit was way too fast.
They both starts running all around the trees, the rabbit runs from one tree to another flexibly, and everytime Alex tries to match the rabbit's pace he was unable to control himself and gets hit by the trees whenever he changes the direction.
[Vitality : 340/560]
Alex was almost out of breath, but he didn't gave up. But sadly for him, the rabbit seemed to be in perfect shape.
'Now I know why this small creature is alive in this horrifying place filled with monsters'
The rabbit was twice as fast than Alex and had great flexibility.
"Fine I give up" Alex goes back to pick up his sword and relaxes near a tree.
Alex notices some insects inside the old cracked tree. It was red worms.
Alex's mind was now in jeopardy. He was well aware that red worms are actually good for consumption but so was the frog?
The only reason he didn't eat it was because of his own disgust which stopped him from eating it.
"But I had options before....Beggars can't be choosers" Disgusted, Alex picks him the worm, and chews it down his mouth closing his eyes. The insect was extremely chewy and the taste was horrible.
[You have consumed poison]
'Again?'
[Poison Resistance has been activated]
Alex's head starts to hurt but the poison was very weak and the pain vanished after a minute.
There were a lot more red worms under the tree. As he stretches his hands, something mysterious bites his hands.
The bite was extremely painful, blood was leaking from the cut in his hands. It was a long horn beetle that was hiding inside the tree.
Alex had no other choice but to add it in his menu.
As he was eating his meal, he notices his agility had increased.
[Agility : 25.9] >> [Agility : 26.6]
"That much?" Alex had only chased him for about 40 minutes but his stats increased a lot.
Once he was done eating, he immediately moves out searching for another rabbit.
He finally found one, but the place was extremely unsuitable to chase the rabbit. The entire place was full of roots of the trees. It was extremely vulnerable to tripping.
It didn't matter either way for Alex as he had made up his mind.
'Before my vitality drops to 100 I'm gonna catch you'
This rabbit however was even faster than the previous one and to make things worse, Alex had to pay close attention to the huge roots.
While having to instantly change the route of the direction and keeping the roots in track, it was wearing his stamina a lot quicker than expected.
For the next few minutes he kept on chasing the rabbit at his fastest, but the speed was decreasing slowly by slowly. He was drenched in sweat and his breath was getting heavier each second.
His vitality had already dropped to 60, Alex was well aware but he didn't care, his mind was fixated.
Vitality : 58 >> 57 >> 54
"One last try..." Alex musters all his strength and sprints to catch the rabbit, he somehow gets close to the rabbit and raises his hands but the rabbit changes his direction instantly and sprints even faster.
Alex lies down in the ground, breathing heavily while staring at the stars. "This is my limit"
After resting for a while, Alex goes back to get the sword. But there was a problem. Alex was lost.
Alex quickly came back to his senses, this place had some few grasses spread around and the dead trees had algae grown all over.
With his vitality less than 60, Alex's desperation had brought him to an unknown danger.
Earlier Alex was confident to outrun any huge monster, especially something like the Black Spider, and seeing how wild rabbits were there roaming freely his confidence skyrocketed. But now he wasn't in any fit to run at his full speed, much so in an unknown place.
Alex stands cautiously while trying to recover his vitality, even by a bit. He now checks the thing that drived him to this much desperation, it was his stats.
[Agility : 26.6] >> [Agility : 30]
His eyes widened in excitement. That's a huge improvement but his face soon became gloomy realising that his vitality was way too low for the stat to be of any real use.
[All the necessary experience has been fulfilled]
[Congratulations! You have obtained a new skill]
[Quick Dash : Level 0]
Alex knew exactly what it was and how to use it. Agility being his strongest suit, this skill was gonna be revolutionary for Alex.
Few meters away from Alex, there was a huge hole behind a tree. A huge serpent sensed Alex's presence.