Please Note: Statements between % something in italics % are game system messages.

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"Character Window"

.........

Raka looked at all the stats he had gained in the two months of real time, he had already spent on the game. If it had been other games, people would have quit already, if they had to spend two months like this. In fact he had a suspicion that they may have already. But as more information about the game become public, he anticipated that the they may come back. He hoped though, that there were still a lot of people interested! After all all the forum posts was written by someone. Complaints on the forum had gotten fewer as people started immersing themselves in a different kind of challenge.

'Not that any new game wouldn't have this difficulty in the beginning. It is only later as you move forward and start knowing how things work, does gameplay become faster.' So the people who came later already knew what to do, atleast at the start! Unlike the first people who had to discover and figure out everything.

'Its just a different way to play that's all!' Raka mused as he walked on this road which will eventually lead to the capital of Ilmentia island nation, Thelmova!

Raka had set off from Gurrow village, finally. He had debated whether he wanted to learn more skills, the more would be better. But in the end, he decided to head out. Learning can wait, he wanted to have an adventure.

And so he looked at his earned stats. 'The endurance was especially earned!' He quipped looking at his higher than normal endurance, atleast compared to his other stats! He had equipped his armor and was using his staff as a walking stick for now. He had stopped practicing his flute in the game after he got the skill, concentrating on his other skills. But now he will practice everything.

Before all of that however, Raka wanted to get his first taste of hunting in the game. He wanted to measure his real strength. He started transforming energy. 'Earth', he thought as he embedded earth magic onto his staff.

% Earth magic has been embedded. Damage increases by 5. Durability increases by 20.%

The road to the capital was covered on both sides by dense forests. Raka decided to head into the forest on his left. Walking for a little while, he encountered a horned rabbit. He took a stance and waited for it to notice him. Soon, it did. And moved to attack him with a grunt! Horned rabbits are fast. He knew that from his previous encounter, but knowing that they will attack straight at him, made his job a little easier.

Raka swung his staff to meet the rabbit as it jumped to gore him with its horn. Smack! and the rabbit was pushed to the side and fell over. It righted itself again, and attacked. Raka moved his feet to face it and another hit! It opened its mouth and showed its sharp teeth. Raka smiled. 'It won't go like last time!' The rabbit attacked again, a little faster this time, but Raka stayed calm and waited. As soon as it opened its mouth, he shoved the staff in his throat.

"Clang, clang" made the sound of rabbit's teeth as it tried to chew through the metal staff but was unable to do so. Raka simply swung down, hard! With all of his strength and the gravity supporting him, the horned rabbit was thrown on the ground. As it fell loose of the staff, a little blood came out of his mouth. But it looked even more fiercely and went on the attack once again. Raka had gotten used to its timing by now, so he simply waited for the right moment and swung down his staff aiming for his head.

Smash!! And the staff landed on its head with enough force to open a cut, which started bleeding.

% Critical hit! Damage increased by 40%. %

'Wow!' Raka was having fun. This rabbit was no match for him. The only thing that did go for the rabbit was that it did not lose any of its speed. Raka decided to take a hit and learn how much damage it would cause.

% You have taken damage! 25 Life lost. %

His armor had taken most of the sting out its head on horned attack. But still, he lost 25 Life.

'Hmm so I can get hit about 6 times. Considering that damage might vary between attacks, I can probably take 4 hits safely. But my recovery is slow, and I don't know any healing spells, so not getting hit is still ideal.'

After that he simply waited for the rabbit to attack again, and swung his staff, aiming for its bloody head once again. Another Smash! and the rabbit fell down motion less.

'Hmm. This is a problem.' He could not see the Life bar of the rabbit. Usually, it was standard that you could see those HP or MP bars of any monster and when you hit, it got reduced. Which kindof helped you. But in this fight he could not see any bars. In fact, he hadn't been able to see them the first time either, now that he thought about it. Another thing which he wondered about was...'where is the loot!' The rabbit he had killed the first time, and even now had dropped nothing!

'Was there another skill which he had to learn!!' He pondered. Wondering if it was required urgently or if he could proceed like this, 'Well in any case, now I can easily defeat horned rabbits in about 5 to 6 hits so they shouldn't be a problem.' Another thing he had noticed. Animals do not disappear like monsters in other games. Even the last time when Lady Altia brought animals with her and also when he killed that horned rabbit on the hill, they hadn't disappeared like you expect monsters to do after they die. 'Well I should atleast get the meat out!' But just then....

%

Bloodlust! Animals in the area are being attracted by the scent of blood.

Bloodlust increases 15%. Animals will attack in a frenzy.

%

'Eh.......................! What the hell' and he quickly looked around as he found a bunch of horned rabbits coming out from the surrounding trees. '5.....6...7....' he was surrounded by seven horned rabbits in an instant. Raka just had one thought, 'Shit!!'.

'First rule in fighting many enemies, do not let them surround you,' he remembered Lady Verina's words. Raka ran in one direction, soon found a broad enough tree and took it at his back. He made a stance. He could not stick very close to the tree though, he would not be able to move his staff very much, but atleast it will limit the attacks from behind. "If I am going to die, I am going to kill as many of you as I can"...he yelled. 'Well it is kind of a cliche' he thought in his mind. The most he is going to lose were some stats but right now, with the fear pumping his adrenaline and his excitement...he didn't care about cliches.

The rabbits soon attacked. Teeth shining, mouth wide open drooling, eyes looking dangerous, horns and all their fierceness on display. Raka moved. He held his staff at one end and swung it. And smashed it on the rabbits. It hit a few of them and they fell to the ground. He quickly drew his staff back and with the other end, hit another one who was coming in the other direction. Without looking to see what happened to it, he rotated and the staff took down two more rabbits. But two reached him and he saw his Life bar reducing from their attacks.

"Ignore all messages!" Raka couldn't care about it right now. He moved and hit their heads, just behind their horns with one end of his staff, and their heads cut open. Blood started oozing out from those cuts.

Raka didn't have time to admire his handiwork, the ones who had fallen were rising up again. But atleast they weren't attacking together now, but in groups of twos and threes. 'Staffs had two basic advantages. Range and the ability to handle multiple enemies' he remembered Lady Altia's teachings. He moved his hands again, elongating the other end and moved to hit one of the rabbits attacking him, the one in the middle. The rabbit tried avoiding to the side but being in the middle, it simply hit the others and fell back, taking his attack. Raka quickly swung his staff to one side, hitting the one on the left. Rotating, as if in a single movement, he hit the one on the right.

He quickly corrected his stance. Two more were attacking and he moved the staff in their direction. He aimed and one of them jumped and hit his staff dead on. The trembling caused by the horn hitting the metal stick, almost made him lose his grip but he held on somehow. He swung at the other one and knocked it aside. He side stepped and shortened his reach on his staff and swung at the first one who had arrived quite close and it was thrown aside.

And he side stepped while swinging again, as the last two finally reached him. He tried to hit them but one of them blocked it with its horn, sliding his staff aside and continued to move towards him. Raka quickly shortened his grip and with the end, smashed it into the rabbits mouth. He quickly pulled it out before it could bite and tried to block the other one's attack but the horn still hit him. He stepped back and while rotating his staff, moved sideways and dodged. He lengthened his reach and hit the rabbit's back with as much power he could manage. The rabbit dropped down and did not move.

'One down!' he thought and he focused on the other rabbits.

His life was declining rapidly and his mana was already at critical levels. But he had managed to defeat two more. 'Another hit and I might be able to kill a couple more....' he thought while the rabbits attacked constantly, not caring for their injuries or the other rabbits. It was getting harder. The more they were, the easier it was to hit them, as they were buffeted by the other rabbits when they attacked. But now, they had more room to maneuver. Every time Raka moved to attack them, they could dodge it easily. His only option, was to wait for them to begin their attacks and then counter them with some good timing and some luck. He moved his staff as another rabbit began its attack. Smash and the staff met the rabbit's body flinging it away. Raka moved the staff a full 360 degrees as he hit another rabbit and flung it aside with his momentum. The force killed the two, but another attack landed at him from the other side. His Life finally moved to the red zone. He could take one more attack and that will be the last. He moved again, trying to kill just one more, if he could, and landed his attack on the one coming straight at him. The other had moved on behind him in the meantime and Raka did not even have the time to look around at it. Praying to all the Gods he knew, he simply extended his staff backwards with all his strength, without looking.

The staff hit the rabbit head on, missing the horn and making a bloody hit on to its face. He had finally killed all the rabbits....and survived. Raka laughed loudly. "HAhaahah!! That was amazing...!" Now all he had to do was get to the road.

Just then he saw something blinking in the side of his view and remembered that he had put all system messages to 'ignore'.

"Remove ignore on all messages" and he could finally look at all the messages, he got.

% You have been hit. Life reduced by 25. %

% Critical hit. Damage increases 40%. %

% Your actions increase your strength. Strength increases by 1. %

% You have been hit. Life reduced by 19. %

% You have been hit. Life reduced by 30. %

.......

......

% Your actions increase your agility. Agility increases by 1. %

% You have killed a horned rabbit. %

.....

and so on so forth. He read all the messages till the end where...

% Critical hit. Damage increases 40%. %

% You have been hit. Life reduced by 15. Life goes into critical. %

% Your life has entered the critical zone. Blessing effect active. All stats increased by 1. %

And the last one...which read,

% Bloodlust increases 70%. Animals from farther away are attracted here. Frenzy increases. %

"Shit!!" was the second time he said today. Why the hell had he stopped to read bullshit messages and not gotten to the road. And as he turned around to get out of here, he heard growling. Lots of growling all around him. And two joined wolf heads peeked from the bushes and around trees. He was surrounded by two-headed wolves. Just then,

% Your life is still in the critical zone. You have encountered a stronger enemy. Blessing effect changes. All stats increased by 3. %

Raka laughed at the irony! He still wasn't tired thanks to his increased stamina. And the huge endurance dulled his pain that he could still move without any after effects.

"Come" he said, as he readied himself for another round.

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Raka took a stance. The blessing had increased his Life by just a little bit though it was still in the red zone, comparatively. His mana had increased just a little bit as well but he did not know how much it would last. He did not know how much damage the wolves could do but he had no intention of taking a hit. Ofcourse that was what he hoped, rather than planned but he had already decided. 'Strength and Agility were raised while fighting. So the more I fight, the more I will be able to raise my stats. Atleast these two.' So he simply wanted to raise them. If he was going to die anyway, offset his loss by gaining just a little bit, that was his plan.

The two headed wolves attacked. Unlike the rabbits, wolves were more intelligent and used to hunting in packs. Raka expected a hard fight. But the increased frenzy actually came to his help. If these wolves were hunting as usual, they would have attacked more cleverly, but because of the frenzy, they attacked fiercely but haphazardly. Also they were just a bit slower than the rabbits. It was a chance to kill some more.

Raka dodged the first incoming wolf as one of its heads snapped at him. He turned his staff around and butted its stomach with one end. He swung sideways and got the staff to connect with another one on his side. It created a gap. He ran. Soon the wolves caught up to him again. He moved and hit the one closest to him. He got close to a tree and as soon as a wolf jumped to attack, he jumped sideways falling down but avoiding. The wolf went smack, head first hitting the tree. It was a chance while it was still dazed. Raka swung his staff down hard on one of its head. The head split open, but it was not dead. In the meantime other wolves had caught up and attacked him. He swung his staff around like a helicopter. A couple got hit and were thrown backwards and sideways and hit the trees. They stayed still.

% Your actions increase agility. Agility increases by 1. %

% You have depleted your Mana. Magic related effects are removed. %

"Hehehe" Raka laughed while dodging another attack. But he had just backed up to a tree. 'Damn' he had just made a mistake while being distracted by the message. Three wolves attacked him simultaneously, from the front and the sides. He could only hold the staff from its end now. It increased the range but it made moving it slower. Raka predicted the incoming attack and moved the stick in the wolf's way. It hit the wolf just as it was trying to slow down and it fell down dazed. He swung one way and got one of the wolves. But one of them made it to him. In pure desperation and not thinking, he tried one of the moves he had seen Lady Verina do, to dodge. He quickly shuffled his feet and rotated. The wolf flew past him and now was standing between him and the tree. Raka quickly corrected his grip and smashed that wolf straight in the tree. It stopped moving. Just then,

%

Stat Wisdom has been generated. Wisdom acts to support your learning with experience but it requires that you realize your learning can be experienced in more ways than one.

Based on your efforts you get 10 points to Wisdom. This stat increases based on your actions.

%

%

Dancing skill has increased by 10%.

You have now learned Dance of the Fighter.

%

Raka was happy seeing he had gained something new. But in killing the last wolf, he had shown his back to the enemy, literally. He simply extended his staff backwards hoping to kill one more. And then a wolf bit him and he started bleeding.

%

You have been hit. 12 Life lost.

You are bleeding. Life will reduce by 1 every second till the bleeding is stopped.

%

Raka was still alive, fortunately. He ran forward again to the next tree and positioned himself. Somehow following Lady Verina's movements had helped him. He intended to follow them some more. A wolf reached him and attacked, Raka shuffled his feet and rotated in the other direction this time, but his staff remained meeting the wolf head on. Applying all his strength, Raka buried his staff in its head.

%

Dance of the Fighter effects applied. Damage increased by 1%. 1% Mana has been recovered. 1% Life has been recovered.

%

"Holy Shit!! That's awesome!" Somehow Raka had managed to get an awesome skill which increased Life and Mana while in combat. Ofcourse he would read the details later but it seemed linked to the steps he was doing. 'This could work!' Raka thought happily.

Another attack while he was distracted and he lost the little life he had gained. Plus he got a bleed effect which combined with his previous bleed and increased the bleed effect to 2 life per second. He did not care. He simply dodged the next attack while hitting one of the wolf's head and then dodged another attack repeating the process. The number of wolves were decreasing. But,

% Bloodlust increased to 100%. More animals are attracted. Frenzy increases. %

Was this thing designed to kill you. Raka dodged another attack while a fresh wave made of wolves and rabbits appeared. Maybe he was lucky, but some of the wolves and rabbits had started fighting among themselves. Maybe it was the effect of the increased frenzy. But a lot of them still attacked Raka.

"Shit!" he said aloud. Wonder how many times had he said that already. 'Should I log out?!' Raka had given up by now. He tried to logout but,

% Combat status is active. You can only log out when you come out of combat or you die. %

He had no choice. It was either death or....death! Raka kept dodging and counter attacking and dodging and hitting and getting hit, almost losing his life so many times but he always seemed to survive. His Life had not moved away from the red zone this entire time. It had not disappeared either.

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Raka had continued fighting for how long, even he didn't know. But he had gotten tired.

%

Satiety reduces to 10%. You are very hungry.

Till Satiety is recovered movement speed reduces by 20%. If Satiety reduces further, more negative effects will be applied.

You are tired. Movement speed reduces 50%.

%.

He had kept on dodging and killing and it seemed more rabbits and more wolves had kept on coming, for hours on end and now he was in such a state. Just then,