[Skills]

Active:

[Metal Scales]

Partially cover your upper body in iron-like scales.

Lvl 1

XP: 0%

[Metal Claw]

Grow nails as strong as iron.

Lvl 1

XP: 0%

[Metal Bite]

Gain iron strong teeth and jaw.

Lvl 1

XP: 0%

[Metal Handler]

Change metal's shape and size or combine different metals at your will.

Can’t increase the base metal amount.

Lvl 1

XP: 0%

[Appraisal]

Appraisal allows you to get information about the things around you.

Lvl 1

XP: 0%

[Dismantle]

Automatically break down the target.

Can’t Target living things.

Dismantled things shall be moved to inventory.

[Max level]

Camouflage:

Perfectly blend in the environment. If you move during skill usage, camouflage will break.

Lvl 1

XP: 0%

Passive:

[Endurance]

You won’t get tired easily. +20 stamina.

[Map]

The map will grow as you explore the world. It is possible to place markers on it.

Specials:

[Devour]

Lvl: 1

Skill XP: 30%

Back

[Status]

Name: Alaric Black

Age: 24

Title: Metal Lover

[Metal Lover]

You love metal and the metal loves you.

50% affinity with Metal Magic.

Level: 1

Stats

Vitality: 9 >> 24 Agility: 6

Stamina: 6 >> 14 (+20) Strength: 5 >>35

Intelligence: 7 Charisma: 4

Dexterity: 7 Luck: 0

XP: 2/20

Back

I was sitting in the nest inside the black tree and checking out all of my new stats and skills.

After checking out all the things, I came to the conclusion that one of my stats was completely wrong, and that stat was luck. If it was zero, then there was no way to stumble upon this place so conveniently.

It needs to be at the least 50 considering that I got all of this by eating some wired eggs. if this is not luck I don’t know what is.

I was already over the moon from getting the skills from eating the eggs but there was more. I even leveled up and got the beginner skills package.

To be honest, I must say, the person who chose the skills for this package sure knows what they are doing. All these skills are meant for one thing,

Survival.

With the help of the map I won’t lose my way, Appraisal will give me information about the things around me, dismantling will help me break down stuff to attain all the valuables as I have no idea about what is considered valuable here and finally, camouflage will help me hide from the creatures.

When my stats increased it felt like my body was undergoing a change I could not explain. It did not hurt but felt wired. It was like something was moving inside my body. After a while, it stopped and I started checking my body all over to see any changes. And as expected there were changes.

My new body was nothing like my previous body. My muscles grew and my body got toned. Since I was on the skinny side, the new muscles were easy to notice. The clothes that felt a little loose, were now perfectly showing my toned physic. On the other hand, the thing that was difficult to tell was whether I had grown in height or not. Previously I was close to 5,9 but it felt like I had grown. I don’t know if I was imagining it or not but there was no way to confirm.

Now let’s see how each of the skills works.

First I wanted to check the [Map]. I think about using the skill and a big blue screen appears in front of me. It was just showing a small area around a black-filled circle. I am guessing the circle is me and when I explore more, the map will also get bigger. To check how it works I walk here and there around the big black tree and open the map again. Now the area on the map was a little bigger. The big tree was properly shown in a tree-like shape on the map but the rest of the trees were shown with different color dots. There were brown, green, and yellow trees with the majority of them being brown.

Understanding how the skill works I move on to [Appraisal]. I think of appraisal while looking at the big tree.

[Obsidian Tree]

A metallic tree is said to be the sharpest and hardest in the Loswarier forest.

‘So this place is called Loswarier’ I think to myself. I finally knew where I was but still, it didn’t matter even if I knew the name of the place because I was in a completely different world with no humans around that could tell me where Loswarier was.

After reading the description I noticed that the skill called "obsidian" is a metal. To my knowledge, obsidian is more like a sharp glassy rock. I don’t know if the information given by appraisal is incorrect since the level of the skill is low or if obsidian is different here. Next, I use appraisal on the eggshells to know what I ate.

[Iron Lizard Egg]

Egg of an iron lizard. They become harder as they come close to hatching.

Well, with all the metal-like skills I got, I had an idea that whatever was in the egg was something like a metal-related creature, and appraisal just confirmed my suspicion. Since the eggs were not that hard, they must have been quite far from hatching.

As I was about to walk around using appraisal on the other tree, I hear noises coming from the backside of the obsidian tree. Something big was coming but that shouldn’t be possible. There is no way something big can come through those metal-like trees. But after thinking for a bit I knew who it was that was coming.

It was probably the Mama Lizard.

Now let's look at the situation I am in. I came and ate the lizard's children because I was hungry. If this was my previous world, we can also describe this as me breaking into someone's house and murdering their children. So we can determine that the situation is very bad.

Yes, I have skills but they are all level 1. I have not used my acting skills but from the names, I can see that none of them is long-ranged. There is no way in hell I am fighting something that can make a hole in a tree that is called the sharpest and hardest at close range.

I run out of the nest and start looking around. The noises were coming closer and I had no time to run into the forest. As I was looking around I notice a lot of branches on the obsidian tree. There were no leaves on any of them, all the leaves were on higher branches. The lowest branch was probably three meters high. I think to myself that ‘normally there was no way I could jump that high’. But I was normal no more.

I jumped using every bit of strength I could gather in hope that I reach the branch. And indeed I reached it. And not only did I reach it, but I also passed over it and grabbed another branch that was near me. I was amazed by how high I jumped, it was close to 5 meters high.

I put my amazement to the side and move from branch to branch towards the back of the tree to get a better view of what was coming.

As I settle myself on the branch, I use [Camouflage]. My whole body and clothes change to black and I blend in the environment. You would have to come close to notice that something was hiding here.

I set my eyes on the place the noises were coming from and see how the lizard was coming here. It was pushing the metallic trees to the side and the wired thing was that they did not break. They bend to an angle, that should be impossible for a tree and go back to their original position with a catapult-like motion. They were metallic but flexible that is the only way I could describe them. I was looking at the trees when finally the lizard came into my view. It was almost 4 meters tall with metal-like scales covering its back from its head to tail but its front was soft looking. It looked like a mixture of a pangolin and lizard.

I was admiring its appearance when I noticed something was wrong. It was staggering here and there while coming towards the tree. It looked injured and weak.

The lizard came to the tree and sat while its back was touching the tree. When it came near, I noticed that there was a big wound between its shoulder and neck. A lot of flesh was missing from there. I tried using my appraisal but it was too far. After a while, I noticed that it was sleeping. I don’t know what happened to it but I am glad it didn’t go in the nest. But that still didn't change my situation.

I am trapped.