Chapter 3- Level Up!

Zaki was sitting on the floor with a towel around his waist, every birth pod had some sort of clothing item for the person who spawned out of it.

“All of my stats are one, so that means the only way I can get them up is by killing things, and in a world where you can respawn the only thing I’ll have to worry about is my first kill.”

It was right before the break of dawn and Zaki was rolled onto his back, checking out his stats, in a tiny text near the top right of the menu it showed his current XP.

CURRENT XP: -1

“NEGATIVE ONE?! HOW IS THAT LITERALLY POSSIBLE?”

Baffled by the sudden decrease in numbers it finally dawned on Zaki that you probably lose all of your XP when you die, and in the case of Zaki, he had no XP or level for that fact, so instead of deleveling by one, it just took away one XP.

Out of the corner of Zaki’s eyes, he noticed a little cockroach crawling around, the building he was in was dirty and abandoned for probably years. Zaki had to test out if killing bugs gave any XP, and with his XP speed boost skill, he wanted to see how overpowered it was.

“TAKE THIS!”

Zaki smacked the bug with his hand, Zaki looked defeated as the bug simply continued on its way. His strength was so low that he couldn’t even kill a bug with his bare hands, his best bet was to find some sort of weapon, it just so happened that there were shards of glass everywhere thanks to the abandoned building theme.

“Alright, you might have bested me last time you little roach, but TRY THIS ON FOR SIZE!”

Zaki sliced the tiny roach in half, on the top right of Zaki’s vision he noticed a box showed up, when he focused on the box, it read “Bleed Effect”.

“Bleed Effect? That must mean since I sliced it in half it takes extra damage from the fact it’s bleeding to death. If that’s the case then there should also be a stunning effect from blunt items like the club, I guess I didn’t notice since he had bashed my head in so many times, but I was a little fuzzed up.”

The roach stopped squirming and Zaki pulled up his menu.

CURRENT XP: 5

“WOAH, FIVE XP ALREADY? DAMN IF THAT TINY ROACH GAVE ME THAT MUCH, I’LL BE LEVEL ONE HUNDRED IN NO TIME!”

Zaki decided to check his stats again to see what type of gameplay style he was working with. The stats read one still which meant that the world’s stat system didn’t have a sort of leveling system for weapons and armor types, so his stats would only increase through leveling and equipment.

“That’s a bummer, but hey, if it were that easy, I’d be level one hundred by next week! I’m just glad that killing tiny bugs gives so much XP, I wonder how much I need to save to level up, maybe there’s a skill that’ll tell me?”

My child, I must leave quickly so I don’t have much time to talk, but once you hit level five you’ll unlock your first skill point, this will allow you to gain full access over leveling and you will level much faster after this point, GOOD LUCK!

“HEY WAI-, Of course he’s gone, well that’s useful, I’m guessing there will be some sort of appraisal skill that way I can see more about my stats and what the hell everything in the world is.”

Zaki fell back onto the floor, the sun still had not yet come up so he decided to get a bit of rest, but being so giddy he began to roll on the floor and giggle.

“Hehe, I’m basically in a fantasy world, this is so cool!”

Zaki had read many light novels and watched plenty of anime’s on the aspect of being transported to another world, he just didn’t think it was true, but there he was, reincarnated as an elf to save an entire world (with the help of friends).

Zaki slowly closed his eyes and let a yawn escape the confines of his mouth, he was finally ready to get an hour or two of sleep until the sun came up. He would have gotten to sleep fast if it wasn’t for the slight clacking of what sounded like hooves.

-I need to stay quiet, that sounds like something with hooves so I’d assume it was an animal, but in this world, I can’t be too sure anymore, my best bet is to stay quiet and get into an ambush position.

Zaki got up and grabbed the glass shard he had stabbed the roach with, he went up to the only door in the room he was in and waited, whatever had entered the building was walking around aimlessly, it wasn’t like it was searching for anything, just simply going with the flow. The fact it wasn’t doing anything weird made Zaki hope that it was an animal that he could get a fair chunk of XP from.

A sudden sound caught Zaki off guard, it was right next to the door, on the other side of the door was the creature that had entered the building, in the hopes, it was an animal that would be too stupid to even realize he was there he kicked the door open and came face to face with the creature of his nightmares. Standing or so crawling on the floor was a humanoid figure on all fours, it was pale and had no defining features, it didn’t look male or female and hardly looked human, its face had eye sockets and no eyes, and one largemouth with sharp fangs protruding from the skin, probably the result of not chewing on anything hard like some sort of rodent.

“HOLY SHIT!”

The creature looked in the area of Zaki and screamed, not a scared scream, but a scream of dominance, like it knew it found a prey. It charged Zaki without any thought, Zaki leaped out of the way and started running down the hall, dodging shards of glass and debris. The creature jumped off walls and was gaining on Zaki without even taking a break from screaming.

-Oh shit, oh shit, oh SHIT!

The creature leaped onto Zaki and began tearing at his back, Zaki screamed with terror and pain before he took the shard of glass and stabbed the throat of the creature, he kept stabbing and stabbing until he notices the bar of bleed effects go from one to two, it stacked causing more damage and faster blood.

“Come on, JUST DIE ALREADY, NOW!”

Zaki grabbed another shard of glass from the ground and stabbed it into the other side of the creature, he ran both the shards around as much of the creature’s neck as he could until its head was hanging on by a thread. The creature screeched one last time before falling over dead. Zaki pushed the body off of him and began panting, he lost a decent amount of blood from getting ripped at and his body needed more time to heal, not only that but Zaki hadn’t eaten or drank anything in almost a full day, being hungry and thirsty caused the healing process to be even slower.

“D-damn, that thing… That thing is the scariest thing I’ve ever seen in my life!”

Zaki panted between every word before getting onto his stomach to rest, before he could though he heard a ding sound.

LEVEL UP! LEVEL 2 REACHED!

ALL STATS INCREASE BY 2 FOR AN AVERAGE STAT LEVEL OF 3

THE BLEED EFFECT IS NOW LEVEL 2, REQUIRING FEWER ATTACKS TO GAIN MORE STACKS OF BLEED.

BLEED RESISTANCE IS NOW LEVEL 1, THIS SKILL ALLOWS THE SKILL OWNER TO BLEED LESS AFTER BEING CUT.

Sure enough, when Zaki checked his stat menu he saw that all of his stats were now level two and his level had also raised to level two, he did the math and it seemed that it cost him fifty XP to get from level one to two, that monster alone gave him one hundred XP. Zaki was at fifty-five XP which meant that every level meant he needed to get more XP which in turn meant that he needed to kill either more monsters or stronger monsters.

“Holy smokes, one hundred XP from that alone? And the fact that I’m already at fifty-five XP means that I won’t need to kill so many creatures to level up again, or maybe I could find another one of these bad boys, and with my strength being level three now I should be able to kill them easily.”

Zaki hadn’t even noticed that his body fully healed when he leveled, not only that but he no longer felt hungry, thirsty, or tired. Leveling up meant that all of your needs were fulfilled, for the time being, this meant that if Zaki kept leveling up, he wouldn’t ever need to eat, drink, or sleep, giving him more time to level up! And with the Infinite Level skill, it meant that he had no limit to what level he can reach, which means his power is endless.

“Ah, the suns finally coming out, it’s time to step food outside and see what this world looks like, I didn’t even have time to look out of the window when it was light since I was trying to save so much energy, I hope it doesn’t look like shit.”

Zaki got up from his resting position and walked over to the door to leave the room, he looked back at the creature lying there dead, he squinted at the thought of that thing ripping into his body and eating him alive, it made him glad that he killed it.

“That thing definitely gives me the bejeebies, I hope the next time I run into it, I get the upper hand and kill it with one hit. WAIT! I HAVE AN IDEA!”

Zaki ran over to the body and began to look at its leg, it wasn’t too thick or long, it looked like it would fit perfectly in the hand of Zaki. He looked at the glass shard in his hand, he knew that he would need to carve the thing out so he got to work, he started slow and once he got it into its leg he began to rip and tear at its flesh to get to the bone, it didn’t take long since the thing was so skinny but the flood and smell were almost unbearable for him, it caused him to gag multiple times throughout the process, blood covered the hands of Zaki by the time he was done.

“Alright, WEAPON ACQUIRED!”

Zaki wanted to make sure it updated his stats so he went to his menu to check.

STRENGTH STAT: 3 + 5 (8)

DEFENSE: 3 + 3 (6)

“I see, the club added an extra five stat points to strength and three to defense since I’m not using my hands anymore. I wonder how much the glass shard gave me, anyway, this is BADASS! I’ll actually stand a chance against people for a change! Alright, this is it, weapon check, next on the list is clothes, it’ll be hard to trust anyone but if I can find a tailor I can probably have them make me some clothes.”

Zaki grabbed some of the skin from the creature and made a makeshift satchel-type holster for his bone club, it went sideways from his chest to his hip and allowed him to carry it on his back for the time being.

“If magic exists as it says in the stats, I’ll have fun customizing my weapons to their truest potentials!”

He began getting excited again, Zaki was almost fond of one hundred percent games and being able to claim his spot as the greatest player of all time so getting the best gear is something he plans on doing.

“Alright, it’s time to go outside for a change, it’s been way too long since I’ve seen the sun, I’ve got a full day ahead of me and I don’t plan on making any mistakes! No deaths until I get past level five!”

Zaki made his way out of the room and into the main part of the building where his birthing pod was, he looked at it one last time before making his way to the exit.

“I’ll miss you, old creepy abandoned building with shards of glass all over the floor!”

He finished those words and walked out the door, the sun blared in his face and he breathed a sigh of relief as he noticed that the sky was clear and blue, there were trees all around him and grass on his toes.

“That’s a relief, I’m glad the world doesn’t look like it’s been burnt to the ground just yet, I hope I can change that fate, one by one.”

Zaki walked into the forest that surrounded all sides of the factory-type building, he noticed a few boars ahead of him and they noticed him too, the best part about it was that they weren’t scared, they were angry, this gave Zaki practice since he’d never used the club before that point.

The two boars started rushing Zaki, their first mistake was trying to take him on one at a time, this gave Zaki the benefit of using all of his strength on one of them, gaining some stamina back, and then bashing the other one next. The first boar charged Zaki and he dodged out of the way with ease, he had spent three years in karate so his reflexes in combat weren’t horrible, on the second round of the boar rushing him and he got into batting position and as soon as the boar came around, he smashed it’s brains in.

“BULL’S EYE, I WIN!”

The second one, after seeing their friend get killed in one shot by the club was filled with primal rage, Zaki who used the rage to his advantage, was able to jump into the air as the boar charged and smashed its head. The boar was stronger than the other one so it was able to survive the hit, but like the shard of glass, a new effect was achieved: Discombobulate, which seemed to mess with the vision of the enemy unlucky enough to get it.

“BATTER’S UP!”

Zaki taunted the beast until it charged its last time, without wasting any time, Zaki smashed its head in, this time killing it. Both of the boars were dead on the floor and Zaki used the time to check his XP.

LEVEL UP! LEVEL 3 ACHIEVED!

ALL STATS INCREASED BY 5 MAKING THE AVERAGE STAT LEVEL 8!

SPECIAL LEVEL STRENGTH INCREASED BY AN EXTRA 2 POINTS GIVING IT A GRAND TOTAL OF STAT POINT LEVEL 11

SKILL: “DISCOMBOBULATE” LEVEL 1 ACHIEVED, AFFECTS THE VISION AND MOVEMENT SPEED OF THE AFFECTED TARGET!

SPECIAL SKILL: DODGE SUPER SPEED UNLOCKED, MOVE FASTER THAN AVERAGE BUT USE MORE STAMINA!

“HELL YEA! I’m guessing since I killed it using a melee weapon it gives a bonus to my strength stat, I wonder since my intelligence has gone up if I can see any more of my stats.”

While checking his stats he noticed a new one appeared: SPEED, without any sort of appraisal skill he can’t see what it did but by using his brain he guessed that it would increase his movement speed and attack speed if leveled up. Next to the skill in a tiny text read: “Cannot be upgraded by leveling.”

“Can’t be upgraded by leveling? I have no clue what that means but I’m guessing it has something to do with me needing to actually use my other skills to level it, kind of like how if I use blunt objects to kill things, it levels my strength stat more than anything. Alright, now that I know that, I might need to find a place to rest for a bit, I guess even though I’m not tired my brain still wants me to sit down for a bit.”

Before Zaki left he decided to take some leather from the boars, and some meat just in case, he gathered sticks and rocks and found a little cave to settle in, it was big enough for a few people so it made it easy to defend against the wildlife.

“I’m not the best at making things but if I do this, and this, and a little bit of, ah, yes, these look really nice.”

A pair of simple leather shoes made by himself for himself, he put them on and checked his menu again:

SPEED INCREASED BY FIVE POINTS: 1 + 5 (6)

“I won’t get up just yet but I’ll be sure to test my speed when I set back out for XP farming, alright now that that’s out of the way it’s time to try out some magic!”

Zaki set the sticks and stones into position to make a little fireplace, he stuck his hand out and tried to use incantations.

“BLAZE! INFERNO! MAKE FIRE! What the hell, why isn’t it working?”

Zaki tried for several more minutes before hearing a familiar voice again.

Young Zaki, you must focus, imagine you are a kid playing wizards, think of how you felt like you could do magic, and how you’d put all of your thought into actually creating a simple spell. Goodbye, my child.

“And he’s gone, alright, what did he say? Focus all of my thoughts on the spell. Alright, let me try that out”

Zaki got quiet and began to imagine the fire going through his body, passing each and every major part of his body, going in through his nose and out through his mouth, he found that sweet spot of heat in his body and from the top of his lungs he shouted.

“FLAME!”

A microscopic fireball launched out of his fingertips and caught one of the sticks on fire, he threw it back into the pit and watched as his tiny fireball turned into a sustainable campfire.

“Well I’ll be damned, God sure does like giving me hints.”

Zaki put the raw meat on a stick and began to roast it over the fire. He doesn’t need to eat but he hasn’t had anything to eat in so long that he just wants the flavor in his mouth and something about cooking it himself made him crave it more. Zaki spent the rest of his morning in the cave and once he finished eating his boar, he stepped out and looked in the distance.

“Well it’s time to get going, thank you cave for the shelter, I’ve got no time to waste, I gotta find my friends before anything big happens here.”

Zaki finally put the fire out and began his journey forward, he’s got eternity to fix this world, and eternity is a long time.