As it was currently munching on some grass, now was the opportune time to strike. As quietly as he could, Faust crept forward and slowly began to unsheathe his saber from his back. When he was only a few metres away, the rabbit stopped eating and looked around warily. Faust froze, doing his best to remain still. After a few seconds, the rabbit seemed to not sense any threat and it continued eating its meal. Faust struck moments after. As quick as lightning, he sprinted forward and sliced downwards towards the rabbit while muttering under his breath.

“Strike.”

[You have dealt 41 damage. You have killed a Brown Rabbit. Awarding 5 XP.]

“Only 5 XP, despite being awakened? Maybe it takes into account their status and how strong I am compared to it? If I beat opponents stronger than me, will I get more XP? Only one way to find out.” Faust didn’t realise that he had started to talk aloud to himself instead of talking in his head.

Faust spent the next few hours hunting any prey he could find. Unfortunately, he could only seem to find Brown Rabbits. He stayed mainly in the areas around the path so he could find his way back but the XP had started to slow down. While he levelled up at the start, it wasn’t cutting it anymore. He had to go deeper into the forest.

“Worst case, I’ll just die and lose 10% of my XP to get respawned back at town. Until then, though, it’s time for me to let loose a little.”

Traipsing through the woods, Faust went deeper and deeper. He eventually found something that wasn’t a rabbit.

“Examine.”

[Examine skill activated! Target: Beast]

Name: Fanged Boar

Level: 4

HP: 450/450

Strength: 12 / Agility: 10 / Constitution: 18 / Intelligence: 2 / Faith: 0 / Luck: 0

[Skills: Charge, Trample, Detection]

[No further information is available]

He tried to analyse the detection skill.

[Detection]

A passive skill that allows the user to feel threats in a radius around them.

[No further information is available.]

Faust hadn’t assigned his status points and he was currently level 4. He had levelled up 3 times hunting the rabbits, but hadn’t needed to increase anything. He decided to do so now. Investing 5 in strength, 10 in agility and 5 in constitution, his status looked a bit different now. Unfortunately, it seemed like he couldn’t allocate points into the Fury stat, so he could only look on and hope it grew naturally. Faust’s stats now outstripped the boars by a large margin. They were both awakened beings, so why did he have such an advantage? Were humans overpowered? Or were magical beasts weak to begin with? He didn’t know, and he didn’t care. All he wanted to do was become stronger.

This magical beast didn’t seem like the kind to run away from a fight. Faust charged openly since he knew he wouldn’t be able to sneak up on the beast. As he charged, Faust activated his Strike skill.

The beast noticed him when he was around 5 metres away. Faust’s agility was high, however, and he closed that distance in the blink of an eye. Bringing his saber down in a vertical chop, it struck the back of the boar’s hide and created a wound. He saw a notification in his vision as well as a small red damage number floating above where he had struck.

[You have dealt 31 damage. Target is slightly bleeding.]

‘So it normally tells you in detail. I was just too focussed when I fought against the wolves. I’ll go find them once I get my first class change.’ His desire for revenge never left him.

The boar squealed and retreated for a moment, before its hooves began to emit a soft glow. It began to paw at the ground as it breathed heavily.

‘It’s using a skill!’ This was the first time Faust had seen a magical beast use a skill. He had to thank his years of gaming experience for being able to recognize it quickly. The boar rushed forward in a headlong charge, directly at Faust.

Faust lowered his posture, putting strength into his legs. While the boar was faster in its charge than before, he could still easily keep up with it. Right before the boar rammed him, he dodged to the left and brought his saber down on the same place he had struck before. The blade deepened the wound.

[Concentrated Hit activated! Critical strike! You have dealt 47 damage! Bleeding has increased!]

The boar huffed after being struck again without retaliating. Its desire to kill this human intensified. It would be disappointed, however, as Faust was able to dodge the rest of it's attacks with his high agility before delivering the finishing blow.

[You have killed a Level 4 Fanged Boar. Awarding 40XP. Ding! Player has levelled up.]

"I've been at this for a few hours now, but I've only just hit level 5. My levelling speed is too slow… " Faust was thinking aloud again. "It seems like you get more XP the stronger the opponent. I guess this is their way of discouraging mob farming."

Faust took a moment after collecting the boar remains into his inventory to glance deeper into the forest. Touching the dead boar and willing the carcass into his inventory, it took up multiple spaces. He didn’t have much room left. He quickly ate one of the Bread Loves and drank some water. While he knew that there were stronger monsters further into the forest, he wasn't sure if he was skilled enough to take them on without dying. His health wasn't restored upon levelling up, so he had to fight while taking as little damage as possible.

He took a moment to check his status window.

Name: Faust

Level: 5

XP: 5/200

Realm: Ravendun

HP: 150/150 / Mana: 150/150

Bloodline: Human (100%)

Alignment: True Neutral

Class: Adventurer

Strength: 14 / Agility: 23 / Constitution: 10 / Intelligence: 10 / Faith: 0 / Luck: 0 / Fury: 1

[Unspent status points: 5]

[Skills: Examine (Level 1), Strike (Level 1), Concentrated Hit (Passive, Level 1) ]

“I have to negate as much damage as possible, and I think investing in agility is more worthwhile than constitution.” Holding his hand to his chin as he spoke, he was deep in thought.

“I’ll invest into agility and go as deep into the forest as I can. I’ll just keep levelling until I die. Should I look for strong mobs, or groups of weak ones? Hmmm…” He was indecisive. While he gleaned from Dominion that single, stronger mobs or ‘Elites’ gave generous rewards, it was also incredibly risky. The boar he had just fought was barely a pseudo-elite at best mainly due to its high health pool. But Faust had just kited it the entire time. He wouldn’t be so lucky if he came across an agility-focussed elite.

“I don’t really care about death at this point in the game, but later on it will definitely impose a big penalty. I should use this opportunity to explore the forest as deep as I can and take note of the stronger monsters.” Investing his 5 points into agility and bringing it up to a total of 28, he began to make his way through the forest.

It wasn’t long before he instinctively felt a pair of eyes watching him. It seemed as though he was the prey this time.

‘Now would be a really good time to have that detection skill… I need to look for it when I go back.’

Faust continued to walk as before, but he had begun to concentrate on his senses. His hearing, vision and smell all seemed to enhance as he focussed on the area around him. Suddenly, he heard the sound of a branch snapping from above him! He instinctively rolled to the side, dodging his would-be assailant. Finally, he saw what had been watching him.

“Examine.”

[Examine skill activated! Target: Beast]

Name: Red-Eyed Viper

Level: 10

HP: 250 / 250

Strength: 12 / Agility: 30 / Constitution: 13 / Intelligence: 5 / Faith: 0 / Luck: 0

[Skills: Poison Spit, Poison Bite, Camouflage]

[No further information is available]

This fight would be alot harder than the boar.