The moment Kai entered the game through the game portal of the landing planet, he was jolted awake by his NPC aunt, who immediately began lecturing him about missing his hunting practice in the forest with his uncle. After scolding him, she handed him some fruit for breakfast and sent him off to complete a chore in the village downhill from their hut.
His task was simple: trade their monster meat in exchange for some flour and fruit. He finished it quickly and stored it in his inventory, not wanting to get stuck doing more chores either at home or in the village. His priority was clear—reach level 10 as fast as possible and master the bow while doing it.
He had always been good at aiming, thanks to countless hours playing VR games. All he needed now was to get used to handling this bow, and then he could fully utilize the Infinity Arrow feature.
But the real question was.. should he spend 3 SP on the skill he had been rewarded? It was a unique challenge, and from the way the village and story were set up, it seemed like an important one too. The skill had to be valuable. The problem was, he only had 4 SP—if he learned it, one of his skill slots would remain empty. Who knew when he would earn more SP?
As a baseline, every five levels granted 1 SP, with additional bonuses of 2 SP at levels 50 and 100. The best skills, however, all cost 3 SP or more, and he didn't want to waste points on something mediocre.
Well, whatever. Right now, he needed at least one skill, like Deimos, to hunt monsters more efficiently. Dying repeatedly and losing 20% of his experience points each time would be the worst thing that could happen right now.
"Alright then.. Let's just learn this skill. If it turns out to be useless, I'll still have 1 SP left, and Level 10 will give me another. I can manage with a basic skill for now, I guess. It shouldn't be that useless though."
With his mind made up, Kai took out the Book of Learning he had earned.
The moment he opened it, a prompt appeared in his interface:
[Skill Available: Godstep] (Learn: 3 SP)
[(Yes) | (No)]
Without hesitation, Kai selected Yes, and in an instant, one of his two empty skill slots lit up with an icon—a strange-looking golden arrow. He immediately selected it to check the skill's details.
[Skill: Godstep
Rank: ⬟⬟⬟
Refresh Time: 30 seconds
Effect: Upon activation, the wielder transcends the bounds of space, seamlessly exchanging their position with the loose arrow from their bow. In an instant, they stand where the arrow reaches, defying distance as if the world itself bends to their will.]
"A three-star skill!"
Kai was speechless.
He had never heard of any starting character receiving a three-star skill this early. Normally, such powerful abilities were only awarded after players became familiar with the world and completed grueling quests or solved known troublesome mysteries. The method to obtain skills of this caliber was once sold for over 20 million Exelon—the last time he had heard about it.
He had owned a few in his last timeline, but only after tirelessly grinding through countless frustrating quests.
This Maeka lady was a much bigger deal than he had initially thought. If she rewarded him with a skill like this, then her future quests might offer even more incredible rewards. He needed to work hard to complete them.
For now, though, the priority was getting out of this beginner village. That would most likely happen after the Slenshalan event. If the story progressed as he suspected, there would be some excuse for players to leave once it was over.
There was no way in hell this small village contained more than a few percent of the main story. The event timer displayed: [Time until Slenshalan: 133:05:43]
He still had over five in-game days—meaning a full 24 hours and a little extra in real time. That was more than enough to level up beyond 10.
Eager to test his new skill, Kai hurried deeper into the forest, trailing monsters that he thought he could handle while carefully avoiding higher-level ones. Fortunately, this was a beginner-friendly leveling area, and high-level monsters were few and far between. Even the lower-tier monsters—ranging from level 7 to 15—weren't immediately nearby. He had to go much deeper to find them in greater numbers.
MP was precious, so he didn't want to waste any on mere practice. He had no idea how much Godstep would consume in a single activation. Usually, the higher the star rating, the higher the MP cost and cooldown, preventing players from spamming it. His MP currently stood at 10/10, with a natural regeneration rate of 1 point every 3 minutes.
Soon, he spotted a herd of rodent-like creatures with elongated limbs and chitinous exoskeletons. They swarmed around a weakened, four-legged reptilian beast-its spine covered in thorny moss, the rodents had their razor-sharp mandibles toring into its flesh. Even the monsters were vastly different from what he remembered in Nyxfall 6.
Just how many years had passed between the two stories?
Kai silently raised his bow, his breathing steady and controlled. One of his many wooden arrows was nocked, ready to strike. This bow couldn't handle multiple shots, so he had only a few chances. He aimed at the one in the middle of the herd, too focused on devouring its prey to notice him.
The creature never had a chance to react. The instant the arrow swooshed through the air, it pierced straight through its skull—a clean, lethal shot.
The rest of the herd scattered in all directions.
Kai swiftly loosed three more arrows in quick succession. One struck a target in the stomach, another hit a monster's neck, while the last one missed. But his attack didn't go unnoticed.
The herd, after fleeing for a short distance, suddenly regrouped—and then turned back toward him.
They were, after all, monsters—and they were higher level than him. Most of their name tags displayed Chitterfiend Lv.9 – Lv.13.
He was fighting creatures almost double his level.
Still, that was fine. Even wooden arrows were lethal if fired at vital points from close range, that was the advantage of using a bow, Swords wouldn't hold that much power in a player's hands this early in the game.
He also had a knife, but it was small, dull, and barely useful as a weapon. His dumbass hadn't even remembered it when fighting Deimos—not that it would've helped much against her superior dagger.
Where the hell had she even gotten that thing?
And she also had that crazy breath skill too.. He needed to get one for himself. If it worked well against ghostly creatures, it might be worth learning later when he had more SP.
But now comes the real test.
As the furious herd charged toward him, Kai fired an arrow at the thick branch of a bluish-dark tree a short distance away.
Then he activated his skill.
"Godstep!"
A heartbeat later, his balance vanished.
His head spun as his entire perspective shifted in an instant—and then he was falling.
The arrow, buried in the trunk of the tree, and the branch he was aiming to reach had 10 meters between them. He had not expected it would teleport him right above the arrow. His instincts kicked in fast, and as he tumbled mid-air, arms flailing, he barely managed to grab onto a small offshoot jutting out from the main branch.
For a few agonizing seconds, he hung there—literally clinging to life.
But he wasn't the only one caught off guard.
The Chitterfiends had completely lost sight of him. Even though he was right above them, they had short aggro ranges and no way of tracking his sudden disappearance.
Ah.. this was going to take some learning curve.
Kai exhaled sharply and hauled himself onto the branch, waiting for the monsters to disperse so he could collect his loot.
Just one Godstep activation had consumed 2 MP. That meant he could use it five times on a full MP bar—and then only once every six minutes after that. Definitely on the high side in terms of cost.
But with more levels, his MP would increase. Eventually, he might even regenerate enough MP naturally to use it without ever needing to wait.