Ace woke up with a growling stomach. The bed he'd been allowed to sleep in had been anything but comfortable. Last night before falling asleep, thoughts about his family surged up. He hoped with all his heart that they all chose the human race. Knowing his sister and mother, they should have. But nothing stopped his brain from thinking the worst.
He couldn't imagine seeing his sister as a goblin or orc. It almost broke his heart just thinking about it. Finally Ignoring those thoughts, he grabbed his bag and made the bed.
Leaving his room in the village elder's house, he followed the road to the gate. His goal was to level up and increase his constitution stat. Having spoken to the elder for the better part of yesterday, Ace had gotten useful information on where the weaker monsters were and how to kill them.
Finishing his bread, he walked through the gate and waved to the guard who'd guided him to Allira the day before. Following the path descriptions elder had given him, it didn't take him long to find koboary monsters roaming about.
The elder explained that a koboary is like your typical boar but smaller and has a very fast reproduction rate. This often leads to an excess amount of koboary which messes up the wildlife balance. They are also used as training practice for orc children as they run in a straight line if they're blind.
Ace spotted a koboary next to a tree ahead of him. He quickly grabbed his knife out the bag. Knife at the ready and a heartbeat akin to drums, he snuck up behind koboary to the best of his abilities. A couple of meters away, the koboary noticed him and quickly ran into bushes.
"Dammit!" He said and bit his lip. "New strategy, just jump them when I'm getting close." He thought.
After spending another five minutes looking around, he found another koboary who was approaching another koboary. Ace stayed still and watched. "No way!" He thought to himself as he watched the koboary start mating. Squeals and whines could be heard for the koboarys.
"This is my chance." He thought and quickly snuck up behind again. This time, ready to pounce.
"5... 4... 3... 2..." He counted as he was approaching.
"NOW!" Ace jumped and stuck the knife into the back of one of them. The other koboary quickly ran away whilst the stabbed animal writhed around on the ground. Ace didn't like seeing animals in pain but going for the knife while the animal was thrashing about was just dangerous. Instead, he resorted to trying to kick the koboary in the head.
His heart was pumping harder and faster than ever before and after tens of kick, the koboary finally stayed still which let him grab and loosen the knife to stick it into its brain proper instead.
"F*ck me, that was horrible." Ace thought and shivered at the feeling. He thought about stopping for today but decided to continue. This was the only real way for him to quickly advance in level and he figured it would get better the higher level he got to.
Wiping away the blood on the dagger with the koboarys pelt, he then moved on looking for his next target. A couple of minutes later, he found another koboary with blood on its back. "Same bastard from before" he thought and crouched down. This time, he thought to use [Dagger Strike]. A few steps away, he jumped the koboary and stuck the blade into its back, a loud squeal made him cover his ears as he watched the koboary squirm around on the ground. He sighed and started kicking.
***
A few hours later and 13 koboarys killed, Ace found his last koboary for the day. Having killed quite a few of them, he now knew how to properly kill them. He snuck up, made sure it noticed him, he makes what looks like a big step to the left and then jumps right to stick the blade into the koboarys head which instantly kills it. As it dies, a flash of relief is rushed through his body. He opens his character sheet and surely enough, level 2. He fist bumps the air in victory.
Sitting down on a rock, he stares at the two unallocated stat points and ponders. "If I was to translate over the stats from the game to these new stats it would mean increasing strength means my entire body becomes stronger, but increasing agility will allow me more control and speed." tapping his chin he continues. "Intelligence increases my control and power of spells as well as my mana reserves. Lastly constitution which was my original goal. Constitution should then be my overall stamina. How much I can endure I guess."
>Character sheet
[Name: Ace Hill] [Class: Rogue]
[Level: 2] [Race: Elf]
[Titles: None] [Languages: Elven]
>Stats<
Strength: 1
Agility: 6
Intelligence: 1
Constitution: 1 > 3
Unallocated stats: 2 > 0
================
Having chosen what to put his points into, he made his way back to the village where he sees Allira and her group move out. Allira in front with another girl next to her. Behind them are four more scouts. Every each one of them donning a bow and quiver on their back.
Ace waves them goodbye and enters the village through the main gate where he sees a group of elves he recognizes from yesterday beyond the gate wall.
"Hey Ace!" One of the elves call him over. As he's approaching the group, he realizes just how bloody his clothes have become from continuously jumping on top of koboary to stab them.
"What's up?" he asked the man who called him over.
"What happened with your clothes man?"
"I was out killing a few koboary. Anyways, what are you guys doing?"
"We've been talking about our experience when we got teleported to the character creation place."
"We were teleport?" Ace was surprised. So was the group when they heard Ace's question.
"What? You didn't?" Asked one of the girls
"Well to be honest, I'm not sure. I fell asleep and then woke up in the character creation place. I thought I was lucid dreaming during the character creation. Had I known that I'd become the character I made, then I definitely wouldn't have made myself look like this."
"You look good." One of the guys said.
"Thank you. But not even close to what I actually look like."
Ace ended up spending some time to get to know them. Their names were Lia, Asher, Jude and Sage with their classes being Mage, warrior, priest and hunter in corresponding order. To Ace's surprise, Sage had never played the game before and only chose the elf race because of how pretty they are.
After returning home to his room, Ace switched clothes and went out to speak with the elder. After knocking on the elder's door, he entered his office.
"Hello elder. I have a question if you have time?" He said and closed the door behind himself.
"Yes. I'm free, go ahead." He nodded.
"How long was it since the last attack and when do you reckon the next one will be?"
After thinking about it for a few seconds, the elder responded, "They last attacked 16 days ago and I would say that the likelihood of an attack is getting higher and higher for every day that passes. The time between the two past attacks is 25 days."
"Then I'll use that as a deadline to try and get the groups ready. Do you have any knowledge concerning the enemy's levels?" he asked.
The elder frowned. "It's impossible to tell. Having said that, the past four attacks have mostly been devastating because of their numbers and not because of their level."
The room went quiet. Both minds were trying to find solutions to the upcoming battle. It was clear that even with the increase in numbers on the elves' side, it wouldn't matter if they didn't have a strategy.
Ace lifted his chin, "I'll go over the groups we have at the moment and see if we can't go leveling in groups to prepare."
"The guard outside can guide you to a dungeon close nearby. It used to be one of the main attractions this village had before all of the attacks started. It's dangerous if you're not careful but seeing as how much you care for this village, I want to give you every method for leveling I have." Elder said with a forced smile. He knew just what risks there were when entering a dungeon at a low level. Every week when the village was popular, there would be news spread about some young adventurer getting well over their head and dying in the dungeon.
Ace noticed the look the elder had on his face. It was as if the meaning behind the words screamed at him but he understood. The dungeons would give them an advantage if they could utilize them. Increasing in level and if lucky, finding a treasure room would help tremendously in the upcoming battles.
Just then, someone knocked on the door. It was Allira.
"Night squad has returned, elder. I'm here to report."
Elder nodded to Ace and he opened the door. Allira was clothed in her usual get-up but now covered in blood splatters on the shirt. Allira noticed Ace and entered. She walked up to Elder and kneeled on one leg.
"One of the grunt parties had advanced towards our base by half a day. We thought it be wise we kill them before they continued forward since they were already isolated." Allira said. Her face didn't shift in expression.
Elder scratched his beard and sighed.
"Any losses on our side?" Elder asked.
"No sir. Only a small scratch wound on Malon's thigh, nothing else sir."
"Alright. Thank you, you can leave." It was evident to Ace that Elder did certainly not like Allira and her squad taking part in battle without proper planning. Either way, the Elder decided not to say more on the topic and turned to Ace.
"It seems it's worse than I first imagined. I'd say we have a week and nothing more."
"Okay, I'll see to it to inform the groups. I have a few things planned."
"Speak with the guard outside on your way out. His name is Goren and can guide you to where the dungeon entrance is."
Ace nodded and said his goodbyes. Leaving the building, he spoke with Goren and was promptly guided to a small hill sticking out on one of the village walls. The guard informed Ace about the monsters that could be found within. Ace thanked him and they went on their separate ways.
Ace returned to the village plaza where the majority of prior humans resided. Grabbing one of the nearby empty wooden boxes, he placed it in the middle facing the group and stood on top of it.
"Attention! Can I have your attention please!"
The chatter died down and soon everyone present was staring at him.
"Thank you. I spoke with the Elder a few minutes ago and it seems very likely the orcs will attack within a week and no more."
Whispers started again and nervous looks and frozen faces were seen. Ace couldn't help but acknowledge their feelings as he was faced with this the day before.
"However, I have together with the elder found a way for us to increase our strength. There will be risks but if we don't take advantage of this, I'm afraid we won't be able to beat the orcs."
"Just tell us already! What is it!" A young elf yelled out in a restless voice.
Ace nodded and said, "A dungeon. I've decided we will take groups into the dungeon. The groups will be planned to increase our survivability." Whispers could now be heard again but Ace quickly stopped them by continuing. "Now, we'll make look at how many of the different classes we have and go from there."
Ace stepped off the wooden box and approached the group. "I guess I'll start with asking, is everyone here or are we missing someone?"