Luke felt how his wounds slowly closed while silence returned to the forest.

DING

Quest Completed!

You have successfully defended the Ancient Guardian of the Forest in its hour of need

The Guardian has deemed appropriate to reward you

Reward:

+2 to all stats

Mana Control Beginner lvl 1

New Quest!

The Guardian has consider you worthy of protecting the forest from the goblins that have invaded.

Reward: Unknown

Do you accept?

Luke stared deeply into Bob’s eyes and hesitantly responded

“I would gladly help you not because you ask but for my love for this forest. However I don't think I will be able to do it and survive… I mean if they're a plague there must be at least a couple dozens of them and it proved difficult for me with only five, so it should be out of my league”

“But how? How could a little mana make the difference?”

“Hmm, fine” Luke was rather surprised by Bob's rant as it came out of nowhere

DING

Quest Update!

The Ancient Guardian of the Forest has not set a timeline for the completion of the quest but has warned that the difficulty increases with every day that goes unresolved.

Beware that the reward may change depending the time spent and the damage done to the forest by the goblins

Quest has been accepted

Luke quickly left, partly as a consequences of being intimidated by the creature but mostly because he was worried about Jack and Sarah, the couple that lived and worked at the house with him (Sarah was an excellent cook and Jack knew how to repair or build almost everything to live in an isolated place and do so comfortably). He was also worried about his father, Richard, but seeing as he was in a business trip and there was almost no cellphone signal in the property it was not practical to drown himself in worry about a problem he wasn't able to resolve. There was also the fact that his father has been military, worked out regularly to keep fit and that he wasn't that old (he had Luke right after he finished college) so he had good chances to survive whatever life threw at him.

Luke didn't run home, there was no point in tiring himself trying to reach the house and not being able to do anything as a result, he just walked at a fast pace making the same distance he did previously in half the time.

Just before arriving at the house, he realized his failure as a nerd and a gamer: he hadn't checked his attributes yet! Full of anticipation he shouted “STATUS”

Name Luke Thorn Race Human Class None Level 2 Health 180/180 Mana 250/250 Stamina 180/225 Strength 22 Agility 23 Dexterity 25 Vitality 18 Intelligence 25 Wisdom 21 Luck 17 Unassigned points 5 Skills Mana Control Beginner lvl 1 Staff Mastery Intermediate lvl 4 Blacksmithing Intermediate lvl 1 Leather Working Intermediate lvl 1 Carpentry Intermediate lvl 1 Tracking Beginner lvl 7 Runic Language Mastered Affinities Nature 48%

The stats looked high if this worked like other games and the human average was 10 but then he remembered that meeting and protecting Bob has given him 7 extra stats points and his attributes didn't look so high anymore.

‘interesting, the System considered everything I know how to do and put a number on it’

This was in reference to the tracking skill and the various production skills. Luke didn't know what to think about the affinity thingy but he has a feeling it would be important after all the notification when he met Bob had mentioned it. He thought about using the points he got when he leveled up but decided against it. He knew too little about the System, about what was important and which path he would follow to make a decision.

Luke has never stopped walking paying very little attention to the way he traveled (so close to the house it was not possible for him to fell, he had memorized even the places where roots protruded from the ground) and could already see the house between the trees.

The clearing where the house resided had a 100 mts. radius and looked out of a fairy tale. It was surrounded by a small garden with flowers in full bloom. There were two buildings: the first was the house and the other was a greenhouse where they grew some vegetables. Luke’s home had two stories and a basement. In the ground floor was the kitchen, the dining room and a workshop with the tools necessaries for Luke’s hobbies. The upper floor had four dormitories and two full baths with another room useful for reunions or tea time snacks. Lastly, the basement was divided in two compartments: half was a walk in freezer (a must if you live more than an hour away from any town and you don't want to make that travel constantly) and half was a storage space turned training room. It was mostly free space with a couple of fitness equipments.

On the other side of the forest from where Luke came out was an old dirt road that led toward the closest town and civilization.

Luke didn't notice anything out of place but the goblin well could have come in (doors and windows were never closed for obvious reasons) and left by now. So he was relieved when he found Sarah in the kitchen with lunch almost ready and then Jack watching TV in the dining room.

“Luke, go wash your hands lunch will be ready soon, you too Jack” Sarah said

“Hey, have you seen…” Luke started

“What the fuck!” shouted Jack before Luke could finish.

“Watch your mouth!” Sarah shouted back

“Wait, honey something is going on. All the news have been going crazy about humanoid monsters appearing everywhere around the world” Jack answered

“What! Stop messing around and go set the table you lazy bum” Sarah

“Come and see if you don't believe me you crazy woman” Jack

“Who are you calling crazy, stupid monkey!” Sarah

“You of course…” Jack

“STOP” Luke interrupted. Both turned to look at him surprised.

Now Luke could let them go on and they would continue shouting at each other, even when they both had the same opinion, for hours without end unfortunately time was pressing.

“That was what I was trying to say before you started going at each other throat, I encountered some of those monsters in the forest and I can guarantee that they aren't friendly.”