Chapter 12

My First “Real” Battle

I definitely want to try and move towards the mountains in the distance. I am particular about my shelters and I think that underground or a cave would be the most secure. Plus, there must be creeks, streams or rivers coming down from them, so I should be able to find a source of water which is number two on my survival list. I can hunt on the way and place anything I find into my inventory.

Inventory!!! I forgot to check on my inventory. As a former game player how could I have forgotten that message. Don’t panic Mark. Inventory.

That was underwhelming. I don’t have anything in it. I did count and it seems that I have 25 spots which would be equal to my strength. However, I do not know if that is coincidence or not. Time to test it. I cut some leaves and twigs off the tree I am standing on. Place in Inventory. Nothing. This time I try touching it while thinking the phrase. Place in Inventory. The leaves and twigs disappeared. Inventory.

Leaf X 5

Twig X 3

Branch X 2

Alright so I have to be touching something to put it into my inventory. Easy enough. I also noted that it sorted the pile on its own to separate leaves, bare twigs, and twigs with leaves it called a branch. Along with the auto sorting it seems that I can have multiples of the same item in my inventory. I do not know how many yet, but I can experiment with that later. Or I can just use my brain and see if I can observe it. Observe Inventory.

Inventory: Spatial storage given to every organism that manages to reach an intelligence stat of 3 or higher. 25 slots are provided every 25 levels until 100 inventory spots are achieved. Multiple items can be stored in each slot equal to the organism’s strength. A limit of 50 kg per slot is enforced for every five points of strength.

Well that answered my questions. I will have a 25 slot inventory until level 25 or 26, not sure when it awards the upgrade. I can also carry up to 25 of one item in each slot, because that is my current strength. I wonder if when they talk about the weight limit and enforcement it just means that it won’t work or if there is a penalty. I’ll try that one out later. I start climbing down the tree after noting the direction I need to travel in.

I did not quite make it all the way to the ground when I realized that I was being human stupid again. I am an Elemental Mantis now. Mantises are ambush predators. I should probably travel through the canopy as much as I can for safety and so I can ambush something if I see it. I climb right back up the tree to the canopy and start traveling towards the mountains in the distance.

I am trying to pay as much attention to my surroundings as possible while I travel so I can catalog plants, animals, and the area in general. Speaking of animals, that looks like some type of pig like creature down there. It definitely has tusks and is on four feet. I slowly approach the tree above where it is rooting in the ground and try to figure out what it is. Observe Creature.

Jungle Hog Level: 14 Magic: Unknown

It is 3 levels below me. This should be relatively easy especially with me attacking from above in ambush. I line up my jump and detach myself from the tree. Falling through air I imagine plunging my scythe blades into its neck and decapitating it in one blow. About 1.5 seconds later that thought became pure imagination as reality caught up with me. I had never really practiced using and aiming my scythe blades above my proto-hands.

When I fell I horribly misjudged the placement of my scythes. I am now on top of a very upset Jungle Hog that has one of my scythes stuck in its rump and also had one of its tusks lopped of with a line of blood down the side of its face. Ok if I survive this encounter I really need to practice my combat. I guess I just assumed after my success in climbing and movement that everything would come easy in my new body. This is a very rude awakening.

These thoughts flashed through my head at an extremely fast rate, however before I could actually do anything about it the Jungle Hog reacted to my ambush. With a mighty flick of its head and a bucking motion through its torso it flung me into a nearby tree. I wish I could say I landed gracefully or ready to do battle, but in actuality I was reintroduced to something I forgot having a body gave you. PAIN! It hurt to be flung into a tree at the speed I was. I need to focus if I am going to survive, where is that stupid pig?

The answer to my question came into focus with a loud grunting sound and yep it was charging straight at me. It’s obvious that I upset it and the only thing it wants to do to me know is turn me into a puddle of stomped on mantis goo. I realize that I probably truly would not die, but I still did not want to test that out, besides between resurrecting in another virus body I would experience an absolute amazing amount of pain. After just being reintroduced to that sensation I was in no hurry to accumulate more personal experience with it.

I tried to scramble up and move into a fighting position or anything that might allow me to survive this experience. My efforts seemed in vain. That Jungle Hog can sure move fast when it is properly motivated. I saw no way of escaping death this time. Out of pure instinct I reached out my hands as if I could ward it off. The series of events that happened next made me want to go and see if they had lottery tickets in this world, because I have never been this lucky ever.

As soon as I reached out my hands to ward off the inevitable crushing blow coming, I could see the eyes of the Jungle Hog widen and that he tried to slow down to no avail. I had once again fallen into human memories and forgotten that I had scythes on the ends of my arms. So, my reaching out to stop the pig from squashing me resulted in two fairly large and sharp instruments of death being lined up with the Jungle Hog’s head. The impact after this series of events was amazing.

The only reason I was still alive after the collision had to be the many bonuses to my constitution. The Jungle Hog quite thoroughly impaled itself on my outstretched scythes. This did not lessen the impact by much, but rather made the force slightly off center which resulted in me only taking a portion of the damage. This was enough let me tell you. My exoskeleton was cracked in several places and there were chips that had been dug out from the tree behind me. I laid at the base of that tree entangled in the remains of the Jungle Hog for several minutes before I felt that I could even move.

I need to get free of this mess. I know, Place in Inventory. That actually worked. The remains of the Jungle Hog had disappeared. Now I need to get to a place where I can recover in peace and quiet and think about my first dismal failure of trying to battle in this world before the noise and blood from the fight brings other things to the area. I climbed very slowly and painfully up the trunk of the tree. The plan was to find a nice thick branch covered in foliage where I could hide and recover.

After what seemed like forever, but was probably only a couple of minutes amplified by the pain I was still in I made it to a branch I thought would do. I partially collapsed and just kind of shut down. How long does it take for my HP/Regeneration to kick in. I probably should check my Status.

Name: Mark Stefanopolis Race: Magic Chimera Mimic Virus (Elemental Mantis form)

Level: 17

Primary Profession: Sorcerer +10% exp Secondary Profession: Not Assigned

Unassigned Stat Points: 0

Strength: 25 Agility: 25 Intelligence: 15 (27)

Wisdom: 20 (22) Constitution: 15 (33) Perception: 15

MP: 2,700 HP: 23

MP/Regen: 220% per hour HP/Regen: 33% per hour (-50% due to extreme damage)

Skills:

1. Observe Level 5 – 37%

Bonuses:

Greater Resist All +5 Con Many Bodies One Mind +10 Int

Basic Tactics + 2 Wis Photosynthesis + 3 Con

Mana Manipulation + 2 Int Adamantium Defense +10 Con

Strengthen + 0 Str Flexibility + 0 Agi

Devour + 0 Per Miasma Poison Immunity

Oh wow I was closer to death than I thought. That -50% debuff on my regeneration means that it is only going to take longer to heal up. I need to speed this up somehow. I feel very vulnerable in this condition. I have realized that no matter what stories said about reincarnation people being stronger than others, and I might be, I am still fragile and undertrained. There is not much in my former life that really prepared me for life and death struggles. I have information, but no practical experience.

I have an affinity and profession dealing in magic, but it did not even dawn on me to use it to attack. I should have kept myself safe and attacked from a distance to give myself a chance to run away if needed. I know it does not sound very heroic, but this encounter has reminded me of something. I was not summoned or reincarnated or any other cliché to be a hero. Rather I am trying to make myself stronger to take revenge. I can’t take revenge if I die so I need to be smarter about this. If it takes longer to reach my goal who cares? No one is timing me. In fact it might actually be better to take a long time that way the stupid “Overbeing” might forget about me and lower his guard making my revenge easier.

I have some serious training in front of me and I need to rethink priorities and needs. I need some skills that can keep me alive in any situation. Before I even try and get these skills I need to get back to basics. I need to learn how to fight. I need to learn how to kill. I need to learn how to survive. None of these things are instinctual to me. I was never a survivalist in my past life. I have some basic knowledge, but nothing to specific that will make me instantly powerful or able to survive. Knowing how to pay bills and keep a corporate job seems pretty ridiculous now. I mean I learned the skills needed to survive in my old world. Now I just have to realize I need a completely different set of skills in order to survive on Planet Braxis.