My relaxing journey continued with no problems. Although I saw few interesting things on the way to the river, I did not stop to see them. First, I was not even sure what they were. They were just different colored objects in the distance. No matter how interested I was, if I were to detour for everything interesting, I would either waste too much time, or possibly get lost.

Instead, I focused whatever was on my road - few trees were down there. When I first saw them, I thought they were something else. After all, blue trees? They fit the environment, sure, but that just felt wrong. As if I was seeing something made with CGI. Well, my current position could be called CGI as well so... Still, it was wrong. End of story.

The trees' bark was quite hard - I couldn't take it out with my hand. They simply refused to budge. But it was no challenge for my die. Haha, I was damn happy that I discovered I could make it sharp. I still didn't know how it worked out, but it was able to pass through everything like a knife through butter.

The reason I was trying to get the bark was to see beneath it - to learn whether any bugs existed here. There was no animals, no, nothing living except the trees here. How did that happen? I mean, if trees could survive here, then herbivores should as well, right?

After taking the bark out, I looked it from quite close - to see at least something moving on it. I wished for something living - not like skeletons or trees, bug just something living normally. An animal, a person, a bug... Didn't matter. If I could find someone to interact with, I was even going to shelve my personality and act nicely. That's how terrible my situation was.

While holding the bark and praying/wishing for someone, The bark slowly started to change color. From the blue, it first started changing to gold. While it was happening from one side, the other side started turning to gray. What was happening? Was the bark was dying because I took it from the tree? But barks were dead material! How could it change color?

As the bark started changing color, I noticed that the tree I was leaning started changing as well! On top of that, to the same colors! What was going on? This could not be something natural? Why would a tree change color?

Under my amazed gaze, the tree slowly finished its transformation. There was no sign of the original blue color. If I did not see it change with my own eyes, I would probably believe this to be its original colors.

One side of the tree was completely golden, same color as my hair. It was somewhat shimmering as well - though I was not sure my hair was doing the same thing or not. The leaves and the branches had different hues, the leaves were more bright and lively than the branches. But, the color of branches somewhat made it look like it was more solid, strong.

The other side was gray. I did not know original name of the color, but I was sure that it was death gray. A gray close to white - like bones of a skeleton. The branches actually looked like the bones of the skeletons I killed before. It was very eerie. The leaves looked like they lost their luster - somehow they managed to look similar to bones. This part of the tree did not look like it was alive - but I knew it was. The hardness of it was not lost, and the leaves were not crumbling when I took them as well. Of course, that was the extent of my botanic knowledge, but it was enough to know that the tree was very much alive.

I backed of from the tree a bit. First of all, considering how the other trees were same as before, it looked like I somehow caused it to change. Not knowing why, I felt an aversion towards the tree - I did not want to go too close to something weird, especially if it was caused by me. Call me a coward, but I would prefer to be safe than sorry.

After inspecting the tree for a bit and not finding anything particularly dangerous, I sat a bit far from the tree and opened my status. If there was anything that could answer my questions, it was the system.

[ Status Screen

Name: Odds

Race: Lokkich

Class: Child of Luck

Level: 91 (61.86%)

Strength: 274

Vitality: 273

Sensation: 280

Perception: 276

Agility: 277

Dexterity: 275

Intelligence: 373

Skills : (Skill Points - 9)

- Manipulate Luck

Titles:

- Lucky

- Skeleton Slayer

- Enemy of the Skeletons

- The One Hated by the Skeletons

Items:

- Lucky Die

]

My status offered no answers, but it created a new question for me - what the hell was the status points. I tried to remember whether they were on my status before, and they were. If my memory was correct, they were there since I reached the mountain. I wanted to facepalm. The ease of killing the skeletons and the increase in my strength made me ignore this. That was not good - getting relaxed usually resulted in something terrible. It was nice that I noticed them before something happened. From the number, it looked like I gained one per ten levels. But what use they had: improving my existing skill, or for obtaining new ones? The answer was, as courtesy of system, both.

The skill points could be used to improve my existing skills. There was not much information about the improvement, it just wrote general improvement of the skill. Getting new skills were quite different though. For that, I would need to find a skill store on any place that was inside the system. The skills available changed from store to store as well - low level places had worse skills.

Getting new skills would be actually awesome, although my existing skill was powerful enough, I wanted variety. For now I only used it on my die, trying it on something else filled me with dread. Probably my abrupt descend to hell became a bit of a trauma. The die was enough for now. It did everything I asked for, though being able to fly on my own would be quite nice.

But, I decided against waiting for a skill store. Although I was able to live nicely in this place for now, it was called hell. Who knows what waited me ahead. Perhaps I would find a skeleton strong enough to resist my die. Then I would be literally screwed. Rather than gambling with my life, it would be better to get stronger know.

With that decided, I assigned my skill points to my skill. The assignment was quite easy, I just wished for it, and accepted the are-you-sure window. After the assignment, two new windows opened.

[Skill: Manipulate Luck (5)

Due to reaching skill level 5, you can know give a direction to the skill. The skill is now easier to use on outside world.]

[Skill: Manipulate Luck (9)

The skill reached level 9. The skill is now easier to use.]

Right. Waiting a better explanation was my fault. Still, it was nice to know that the direction I felt while using my skill was something real. And this new ability to use direction was probably the reason why the last time the skill got used I died. Still, why the skill activated before, I had no idea.

After the distribution, I got up. Sitting while doing nothing would help me accomplish nothing. My journey was still long, I was still not near enough to see the river clearly. Holding onto my die once more, I started flying. Using the skill on myself could wait for more appropriate time.

This time, I was not going to stop anymore. The stop at the trees wasted me enough time, and I honestly didn't want something weird happen again. I was going to visit the river, take a break, see around for anything interesting, and come back to chain for continuing my descent.

As I was already around the third of the road, the remaining passed quickly. Especially now that I was not watching around for interesting stuff. I simply cranked my speed up, and went my way. Not long after, the river was in sight.

It was a very clear but blue river. The water, if it was water of course, was casting an ethereal blue glow around it. It looked like that nearly everything in this cave was glowing blue. Dropping myself near the river, I took care to not touch the water. If something happened like the tree if I were to touch the water, that would not be cool. A single tree was alright, it did not affect the surroundings much, but a whole river? No way. I did not want anything to notice my handiwork.

After making myself comfortable, I doze off into the glow of the river while playing with my die. The small waves of the river was relaxing me, as if I was sitting near a sea on Earth. The trees on either side of the river was stunning as well, with their blue shimmer. My eyes relaxed themselves on the waves, trees, the smoke in to distance, the hills around... Just like Earth.

Wait.

Smoke in the distance? Just like Earth?

Feeling most excited since I came here, I literally jumped to my feet and took off. My destination was the distant smoke - if there was a smoke looking like it was from a chimney, it may absolutely mean people were living here.

My speed was much more extreme than normal. The smoke was on distance, just following the river would get me there. It was behind a hill that river curved around - I decided to simply scale it. No need to take the long road.

The hill was not too high, and reaching its top took me at most five minutes - I was going really fast. After reaching there, I took a stop to survey around. Knowing more about my destination was always essential. My hope now was the smoke coming from something man-made, or whatever-made. Not something natural. If it was like a vein of a volcano, I would be too disappointed. I prayed to every god I knew.

My prayers were half answered. The smoke was coming from a hole on the ground, probably a vein like a thought. But, that flew from my head almost immediately. Because, I saw something much more familiar - a town.

The buildings looked like they were from middle ages, some were made from stone, some from dirt, some from wood. Still, no matter the age, it was nice knowing that there was at least similar buildings. If they were something completely unfamiliar to me, I would've stuck. Similar buildings meant similar shapes - the first meeting would be nice.

I could see the inhabitants of the town from where I was - small, blue figures moving around. As expected, like everything in this cave, they were blue as well. Still, I did not care. And if they were not racist and did not care about how I looked, then it did not matter.

Taking my time, I slowly neared the town. Whatever they were, I was anticipating a conversation with someone. Anyone. Even a child would be okay.

After I got about fifty meters of the town, the blue people noticed me. At least, that's what I thought. One of them started moving its hand weirdly, and pointed towards me. Some noise was coming to me as well.

Their shape was just like what I would expect from a human - with few exceptions. They looked like they had a natural decal, a pattern on their skin. From the places I could see over their clothing, it looked like there was a hexed pattern. A light blue color denoted the hexes.

The most glaring difference however, was the single horn coming from the middle of their forehead. It looked like a unicorn's horn. Twirly, and somewhat bony. They looked like blue demons.

As I neared, the activity on the edge of the town near me increased. The number of blue demons were much higher than before. I could see at least 50 of them. After getting about 20 meters close, I stopped. Them coming to me first would be better for first communications.

Like I expected, three of them slowly started making their way towards me. Their height was looked similar to the skeletons, about my shoulders. They were talking something between them, I could see their mouth moving. They stopped after noticing me trying to listen them.

They completed their remaining walk in complete silence. The distance between us was about 3 meters, a conservative distance for talking, but I did not care. I met someone else for the first time in who-knows-how-long, something so petty as this would not even deter me.

My only problem was that I could not read their faces, their expressions. We stared at each other for few seconds. Then, the one in the middle, after what I presume sighing, opened its mouth.

"?????"

"Oh, same to you, same to you." I replied.

"???????? ?????? ???" the demon continued.

I started to notice the problem. Our languages was not the same. Hell, their way of talking was not even remotely similar to anything I've heard of before. How was I going to talk with them?! This was damn terrible.

Still, I did not give up. I repeated the phrases in every language I knew. Perhaps they would be familiar with one of them. While I was trying to talk to them, I noticed that demon that was staying back was changing color. They did not seem to notice it.

Not knowing what is happening, I tried to warn them. At first, they did not understand what I was saying, naturally. After that, I changed my way of communication. Shouting and making hand movements. While pointing at him, I simply made noise. They turned to where I was pointing immediately. After seeing it turning slowly gray, they rushed to it. After few seconds, one of them turned to the ones on the back, and shouted something. Then, it turned its head towards me. I could swear that it was making a malicious expression. Few seconds passed in silence, and a sound rang around.

Thud.

The noise came from my shoulder. Something hit it. Whatever it was, it felt like it was burning my shoulder.

My head rigidly turned there. I saw what hit me.

An arrow. And it started to hurt. My brain started going overdrive.

Ithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsithurts.

The arrow on my shoulder bore a hole in it - the head of the arrow was completely on the other side of my shoulder.

I was not able to think clearly. Only, I noticed more arrows hitting around me. What was happening? Still, I was not going to sit still. Although moving at all made my shoulder burn, sitting hear meant death. I rushed back, towards the river. They immediately started following me.

Thankfully, my speed was much higher than them - I reached the river in few seconds. Although they were rushing here, it would take them some time to reach. I had some time.

Taking the arrow from my shoulder came before anything. It needed to be gone, with the pain affecting my mind I could not even defend myself, let alone counter attack. My knowledge on what to do in this situations was limited - but I knew that the arrowhead being outside was a good thing.

Remembering few bits and pieces from documentaries, I took a branch on the ground, and bit it. Then, after a deep breath, I broke the arrow. The pain made me dizzy, I could faintly notice myself screaming. Few moments later, my consciousness came back. The branch in my mouth was completely destroyed. I looked up to see where they were - they were much closer. Not having much time, I closed my eyes and pulled the arrowhead. It hurt like a bitch. Still, my head was much clearer now, and I could move my arm a bit.

Even if it was not working properly now, at least I could move around without too much pain. Pushing myself with my working arm, I got up. It was time for payback.

Summoning my die, I slowly made it revolve around myself. Although I could not catch the arrows with it, I could kill them easily - the sharpness made sure of that. And with them having same shape as me... A head-shot meant instant kill.

While I was waiting for them, I inspected their equipment. From the 20 following me, most of them had bows on them with few having swords. They did not look to accurate as well, they did not even managed to hit me properly when I was standing still.

When they reached about fifty meters, I sent my die at full speed. In a second, it was in front of them, and with only requiring my thoughts to work, I hit the foremost demon instantly. The moment my die passed through its head, it fell to the ground.

With the knowledge of head-shot being effective, I starting sowing chaos on the group. They started to fell down one by one. This was easy. Huh. If only you bastards hadn't attacked me, we could be friends. You massive fuckers. My shoulder was still hurting.

Whew.

An arrow came from the side and scratched my cheek. A burning line formed on my left cheek. Ducking, I looked towards the direction the arrow came from.

A group of nearly 200 demons.

They somehow avoided my gaze, and put me in a pincer attack. What was I going to do now? Even if I were to run, they could probably hit me with arrows. In a situation like this, I did something I should never have done. I panicked.

Not knowing how to get out, and feeling the pain of an impending doom, my feelings were in turmoil. There was only one solution coming to my mind - using my skill. If my head was clear, I could easily notice more, I could simply fly and run, revolve the die around me and simple walk towards them shredding everything, etc. Instead, I used my skill. With a very simple direction - kill all the demons, and make sure I don't get hurt.

At first, nothing happened. Then, the skill activated, and I learned for the first time what my skill was capable of.

When my skill activated, a demon looked like it was charging a magic towards me from its horn. Just before it fired, my die happened to pass near it and messed up its the spells direction. Instead of me, it hit the river. A giant explosion happened.

For a few seconds, there was an extreme silence. Slowly, a shadow appeared on the water. Then, too many things happened at once. It felt like I was watching a movie, somehow, I noticed all the details the camera focused on. And, a feeling of safety was on me - as if nothing could hurt me.

First, the shadow from the water exploded and when the water fell to the ground, my jaw dropped. A massive blue dragon was flying towards us. Its size was about the same as the hill I first saw the town - basically, massive. A small part of my brain asked why everything in this hell was massive.

Seeing the dragon coming towards us, I reflexively recalled my die. At the same time, one of the demons relaxed its hand, and caused an arrow to fly towards me. But before it could hit me, it collided with my die and both of them ricocheted towards the dragon.

The arrow hit the dragon first, to the diamond shaped lump on its chest. It must've been a weak spot, because dragon started getting angry. Opening its mouth to the limits, a giant, blue breath flew towards the demons. While its mouth was open, I glimpsed my die entering the mouth.

As abrupt as it started, the breath ended in seconds. There was no sign of the demon army now. The breath wiped them out. Still, it did not made me relax - the death just felt like it changed shape. I recalled my die again.

While I was waiting for my die to came back to run, the dragon started whimpering on the air. It looked like something was making was hurting it quite a lot. After getting hit by an arrow myself, I sympathized a bit. It was not a nice feeling.

After trashing around a bit, it started sending its breath to random directions. I immediately ducked - getting hit by a random breath would make me deader than dead. The random breaths nearly destroyed everything around me, but thankfully did not hit me. Then, the breaths disappeared and a giant tremor passed through the earth. The noise was like a plane crash. At the same time, my die finally reached me.

Taking care to not get spotted, I slowly stood up. What I saw made me feel terrified for the days to come. Terrified from my own skill.

The dragon fell on top of the town.