Fireball! Red Crystal!
Boom! Boom
"Srksiih-!" the level 4 [Green Snake] that tried to catch Alex off guard was killed by his succession of attacks.
Currently, the boy was in the middle of the novice village's forest, trying to chase some level 3 [Wild Boars] and level 4 [Green Snakes].
His attempts had been successful until now, none of the monsters managing to get a hit on him as his skills managed to keep them far away.
Of course, you wouldn't expect such precision and power from a beginner mage, but Alex had the experience from before, so channeling his powers became much easier even with his new class.
The moment the new players figured out how to handle their weapons, killing low-level monsters became increasingly easier, and so more and more people began to enter the forest.
The [Novice Village] is a beginner area, so it was normal that people struggled.
Though you shouldn't underestimate it, because beginning area also meant most of the time ways to become stronger much quicker.
And thankfully enough, Alex actually knew of one of them: there was an S-Level Secret Quest that would guide him to an even better area, as well as grant him a [Legendary] item, yes, you heard that right!
He had already reached level 4 at this point, since killing [Green Snake] gave him 20 experience, and [Wild Boars] 17, placing his four attribute points in agility this time as he needed to keep up with them.
But after killing yet another snake.
Ding!
[Please select something to extract!]
[Snake Backpack (Uncommon)
10 Agility Attribute Points
Low-Level Snake Armor (Common)]
"Oh!" for the first time, Alex was actually able to get the option to extract agility points from the monster, basically stripping it away from its attributes and absorbing them himself!
["Extraction" isn't used to only drop 'items', if the user is lucky, then such options can appear and be chosen: skills, talents, attributes, equipment, etc…]
[Rarity doesn't matter, if it is available, it will be an option at some point.]
"Alright," Alex nodded, and although those 10 agility attribute points looked very juicy, he still decided to take the [Snake Backpack].
Why? Well because his current backpack only had 5 slots, which wasn't good enough as he planned to stay in the forest for a while to get items and to complete the quest.
Ding!
[Snake Backpack (Uncommon) has been selected!]
[Description: 10 inventory slots that can store items from common to rare rank]
The backpack was green in color, made of the snake's skin, and though its size wasn't any bigger than the beginner one, it still seemed to be able to hold more items.
Fwish!
Boar Charge!
Yet, before he could even truly take a break, another level 3 [Wild Boar] rushed in his direction.
[Wild Boar]
Level: 3
HP: 120
This thing had 17 points in strength, 12 in speed, but its magic resistance was pretty damn low.
Fireball! Red Crystal!
Alex waved his staff twice as the boar charged him, and both spells hit it directly, canceling its attack.
-55! -40!
It was sent flying in the opposite direction, but not quite dead yet, charging up to the human with its high speed.
'Shit,' Alex's cooldown wouldn't be fast enough to cast a skill again, and thus for the first time he was forced to roll away.
Thankfully, years upon years of experience as a warrior ended up helping him out even here, as he wasn't sure his [Physical Resistance] would have resisted the boar's charge.
Fireball! Boom!
He immediately sent another fireball, and the boar died.
Ding!
[Please select something to extract!]
And so through insane luck, he got two prompts back to back!
It was a miracle!
[Wild Boar Trophy (Rare)
Boar Meat (Common)
Boar Tusk (Uncommon)]
"Damn, it even extracts food?"
Universal Descent players also needed to eat, obviously, as not eating could result in you dying and thus being logged out from starvation.
Stocking up on food was an important matter as he clearly remembered suffering several days in some dungeons because of the lack of food.
[Current Status: Hungry]
Hungry was only the first stage of starvation, so he still had a few hours before actually being in danger.
And as for the [Wild Boar Trophy], well… it wasn't that useful to be honest.
As stated in the name, it was but a trophy, its only value coming from the fact it had a low drop rate and rare.
Nonetheless, he still picked it as it was the rarest and most valuable, then put it inside his backpack.
Ding!
[Fireball has increased to Level 3, damage increased from 20 to 40!]
[Red Crystal has increased to Level 2, damage increased from 40 to 70!]
And coincidentally, both his skills had leveled up again, increasing his damage output.
"…Let's go," he mumbled as he kept going deeper inside the forest.
…
In that same forest, not that far from Alex, a girl was currently fighting one of the [Wild Boars].
She was wearing a worn-out leather armor, with her snow-white arms and thighs exposed to the air. Her tall and slender figure rugged and sweaty from the combat.
She held a long bow, her eyes were sharp, and her arrow hit the eye of the dark wild boar in the distance with intense precision.
Her face was beautiful, and even more so when she was concentrated on her target, like a predator.
Her name was Alice, and she was a level 3 archer with the [Star Archer] SS-Level talent.
Fwish!
She shot another arrow, its edge glinting with the power of the stars as she launched it toward a [Green Snake] this time.
[Green Snake]
Level: 4
HP: 130
Fwish!
Boom!
-149
Each of her arrows were infused with her basic skill [Star Shot], dealing massive damage to enemies.
In exchange for very high damage, the archer class had several weaknesses: first of all, if the fight got too close, they would be at immense disadvantage, and in addition to that, they had to recharge their arrows every time, taking a bit of time.
And let's not talk about the chances of missing your target.
Thankfully though, Alice seemed to have none of these problems, each of her shots precise and deadly.
Ding!
[You have leveled up to level 4!]
"Phew…" she sighed, it took her a bit of time, but she had done it.
And suddenly, right as she leveled up, she heard a notification from her panel.
[Private Messages - 1 new message]
"Hm?" she only had one contact, so there was no surprise as to who it could be.
[1 friend - online]
[RichDad: Bought a few set of equipment from some crazy merchant, sending you the equipment via trade soon!]
This was all he said before logging off the game.
Richard was an extremely busy man after all, and before the first beast attack which killed his daughter, he usually didn't play this game much at all, only doing it when it benefited Alice.
[Alice Starfield: Thank you, dad.]
And so, just like this, she continued heading deeper inside the forest.