After a long day of hunting, Bharat could be seen walking through the rabbit territory towards his camp, while keeping a vigilant eye on his surroundings in case of any sudden ambushes.

He would have been there already as he rarely stayed inside the forests past evenings but he prolonged his stay in the woods despite the dangers due to one specific reason.

Loot boxes.

The one he found at his cave gave him a hint that there may be more of these out here but the fact that he hadn’t found any such boxes inside the forests even after 10 days of staying here made him realize that finding them was going to be a difficult task.

This is why, even after he explored the inner area of the rabbit territory for the first time, he was not able to find any more loot boxes. But he recalled the little gems embedded on the chest, the ones that emitted faint light and the reason he was able to find the first loot box in the first place.

Spotting that dim light in the daytime was not possible though, that is why he decided to stay inside the forest even after the darkness of night was starting to envelop the whole forest and provided even more cover for the lurking predators.

He reasoned that this could very likely the reason that the loot boxes were hidden in the first place, to make the task of finding them even more challenging and risky, but providing benefits that rewarded those brave enough to accept that challenge.

And as if approving his theory, a dim white light coming through some bushes ahead caught his attention. Approaching the area with quick steps, he soon entered the bushes in search of the source of light.

The branches inside the bushes did irritate his bare torso but he easily ignored that sensation, his mind fixated on locating the possible loot box. Soon enough, the loot box entered his vision but he was surprised at the location it was placed this time.

At the base of the tree, which was covered by the bushes earlier, he saw a cubic space that seemed to be cut out of the trunk itself, leaving a hollow space inside of which the altar with its loot box was placed upon.

He realized that he might have missed the light entirely if he were looking at the tree from a different angle as the tree would have blocked most of it. It only further proved his theory that these chests were deliberately placed in places that made them harder to detect by conventional means.

*Ding*

<< Item: Loot-Box (Common)

Description: A common rarity loot box containing items that will be very beneficial for whoever finds it.

Remarks: Everybody likes loot boxes! >>

Once again, the box he found revealed itself to be of [common] rarity, which wasn’t actually bad in his opinion, but still, he couldn’t help but think what higher rarity loot boxes would give, if they were even a thing.

Once again, the box contained exactly three items, those being a single HP potion of [common] rarity that recovered 150 health points instead of 500, a dagger which was far better looking than his current one, and a white coloured scroll.

*Ding*

<< Item: [Appraise] ability scroll (Common)

Description: an ability scroll

Remarks: Absorb it for more information >>

*Ding*

<< Weapon: Steel Dagger (Common)

Description: A simple but effective weapon for someone who likes to get up close and personal to their targets. Made of high durability steel and leather, it will help you through many tough battles.

Remarks: Or you’ll sooner poke your own eye with it. >>

‘Yikes!’

The absence of a combat ability scroll made him frown as the [appraise] scroll was completely useless to him, but he guessed that hoping for useful items in each loot box was wishful thinking on his part.

Besides, the presence of a dagger was a nice bonus, as his current one could barely be called a weapon. The dagger looked simple enough, with a double-edged blade and a leather grip. And of course, one cannot have too many health potions.

So, picking up all the items, he exited the bushes and continued his task of looking for more loot boxes on his way back to the camp. And it looked like today was his lucky day as not even five minutes later, he discovered another [common] loot box.

Unfortunately for him though, this one contained another bow and quiver, and instead of the [basic archery] scroll, he found another [appraise] scroll inside. That left him carrying about 8 different items on his person, and made him wish, not for the first time, for a bag or pouch to carry his stuff.

He imagined that having a health potion on his person would be a lot helpful in case a similar situation like his first encounter with the claw-foot rabbit arises.

‘Maybe I could fashion something out of the skin I collected from that rabbit.’, he thought to himself, but ultimately dropped that idea as he had zero experience in that department.

Reaching the cave, he set about placing all his items in one corner of the cave after which he went towards the centre, sat down with crossed legs and opened his status.

Status

Name: Bharat Kumar

Race: Human (Tier 0) (Level 4)

Level: 4

Titles: [Pioneer Of World], [Newbie]

Health: 159/159

Mana: 121/129

Stamina: 95/123

Stats

+Strength: 19

+Perception: 14

+Endurance: 15

+Constitution: 12

+Intelligence: 14

+Agility: 13

+Luck: 3

Unspent Points: 9

He decided to finally take care of the thing he’d been neglecting or rather avoiding since he got his first level up.

His Unspent points.

He was avoiding using these points till now, as despite his strong feelings regarding taking assistance from the boost, he knew that it was the sole reason he was even alive till now. He didn't want to caught flat-footed in a scenario where stat boost will be the only option available after all.

But now that he amassed quite a few points given his recent level-ups, he decided it was about time he gets to know about his other stats as well as the only ones he was sure about was strength, agility and perception.

His Strength stat was still outclassing the other stats by a large margin, even though its actual application till now ere pretty much none, leaving out the parts where he had to use the boost. And as for agility and perception, they were major contributors to his archery and hunting in general.

He didn’t include luck in that list because he honestly had no clue about what it was, as something like reality-bending sounded too good to be true if he considered how balanced everything else in the system was.

‘Time to fill up those blanks about other stats.’

First was Endurance, so he put one point in it and waited for the incoming boost. A Strange 'energy' blossomed inside of him that started from his stomach and spread across his body, doing…something.

What that something was, he had no clue as he didn’t feel any different than before. Strangely, even the system was silent about this as the previous times he had dropped points in strength, perception or agility, he had gotten a detailed description of that stat afterwards

But, thinking for a while, he realized that their effects too were more noticeable and obvious.

‘Does that mean the system updates information based on my own analysis and experiences?’, he thought that might be the case, as only after experiencing the boosts of the respective stats and analyzing them did the system provide the updated information. So it was basically interpreting his own experiences.

Looking at his status page, he noticed that the single point in endurance increased 3 points in Health, mana and stamina each. So, rather than focussing on a single thing, it looked like it provided all-around improvement instead. But still, the lack of any further discovery left him disappointed.

After he failed to understand anything useful about the endurance stat, Bharat was a bit sceptical about the two remaining stats, those being Constitution and intelligence as they both were as vague as endurance in their meaning, if not even more so.

But he shouldn't have worried as when he put one point in the constitution, he felt he knew what the function of that stat was.

Instead of some energy erupting inside of him, a strange 'energy' covered his body from the outside and settled on his skin and muscles. Before the feeling left him, he quickly picked up his new dagger and tried to make a small nick on his hand and just as he imagined, the dagger failed to even leave a mark on his hand despite being so sharp.

The next moment, as if confirming his theory, the system notification sound rang in his head.

>

<< Constitution: 13

Description: Numerical indicator of your body’s capacity to take a hit and reducing the ensuing damage. Provides a temporary boost to your muscle and organ density after manually adding a point. Explore for more functions

Remarks: Thick-skinned and shameless people love this more than anything. >>

As the boost left his body, he couldn’t believe how amazing the benefits provided by this were. It was basically providing damage reduction which he absolutely needed to have if he were to fight stronger creatures with enormous attack power.

The image of that large bear flashed in his head, having no doubts that one half-assed attack from that giant creature could kill him on the spot in his current situation. Thankfully, it didn't seem to have any intentions of leaving its current territory.

As per its effects on his stats, it didn’t provide any additional numbers but that hidden increase was already more than enough.

‘Now to the last one. It is probably responsible for 6 points increase in my MP as I thought before but what about its boost?’

Putting one point in Intelligence, once again energy erupted inside of him, but this time he was very familiar with it as for the last few days, he had dedicated his mornings to experiencing and controlling this energy continuously with varied results.

Getting into his meditative state while the boost was present, he reached his mana core in record time and saw that the movements of his mana threads had become more erratic and fast. If his mana before was like the surface of a calm lake, then the current mana was like an ocean during a storm.

But what exactly did it mean? Till now, the only thing he had managed to do with his mana was creating arrows and that was more of a guided process based on his intentions rather than actual effort. So what does the intensity of mana in his core signify? It didn't provide excess mana to use for a short time, as his MP was unchanged.

‘Then what exactly does it do?’

It felt like the answer was on the tip of his tongue but before he could finally reach it, the feeling of boost left him and that discovery went away with it like a slippery fish that managed to escape out of your hands before you could finally catch it.

And just like what happened with endurance, there were no further system notifications afterwards. Regardless, it did at least prove that it was something related to mana and its functions and not his actual intelligence or capability to think like he first guessed.

‘That would be fucking creepy if everyone had the same growth in their thinking and intelligence due to some stats.’ As for the boost, he guessed he would likely discover its function when he manages to get his hands on some actual magic abilities. He still hadn’t given up on that, despite training most of the time with his bow.

‘Now, what to do with the last one.’, he thought to himself and after some thinking, he put the last point in perception, as that stat was largely responsible for his accuracy which was something he needed. And after careful consideration, he decided to keep 5 points at all times in case shit went sideways.

With that out of the way, he spent the remaining day practising his accuracy outside till he exhausted himself and then turned in for the night after eating dinner of two berries.