“Arggggg”

I started to wake up, I looked around trying to get my vision to focus, I was definitely concussed, I looked at my clothes to see them covered in my own blood, I punched the ground in rage.

“Where the hell am I!? Am I in another world!? Am I in my stupid VR world!? No, I hadn’t even completed the first step of that. Am I dead!? Is this Heaven!? Hell..... Yes, that’s it! I’m in some Otaku style hell! The scenario is a fantasy world, fantasy styled species with the promise and picture of joining a guild and completing quests but then they tell you no and kick you out! And then when you think you’ve found someone that might help, you learn it’s all a trick! They just used you to do the quest and then beat you up and take it! Damn it! Why are humans all like this! Even the slightest bit of humanity in you makes you pure shit!”

I cursed myself lying beaten and bloodied on the ground. Why am I going through this shit again! Damn it!

“No, no! I will not go through the same shit! I need to stop complaining all the time! If they mess with me I’ll make sure they pay, I’ll give back double what they give me! Even if that means I have to kill them!”

I shouted out pushing myself up off the ground, and leaning against the thick Dark Oak Tree. I felt my head and the rest of my body to feel the cuts and bruises that should have been there.

“Huh? They’re all gone? What the? My cuts have completely healed, and I have no bruising, how is that possible…That new skill, Gradual Healing was it?”

I took out my skill menu and saw the three new skills I had, I focused on the gradual healing skill.

Gradual Healing: 2/10 Mastery-Upgraded Rare Skill, Unlocked: Gradually heals any injuries over time, works well with healing potions but cannot heal curses.

“So it was that skill, but my Mastery is 2/10, did they beat me up that much that the gradual recovery skill gain 2 mastery points? I probably would have died without this skill, I should use it more to master it, it did say Upgraded skill, maybe when you master a skill it upgrades into a better one. How do I use this skill without actually getting hurt?”

I leaned against the thick Dark Oak Tree and thought how I could master this skill.

“Maybe if I cut myself every now and then, it might gradually heal me and cause it to Master?”

I grabbed a sharp rock that was at the base of the tree and cut my forearm a little. The cut appeared with a slight drip of blood coming out, I saw the cut heal itself, it took maybe 10 minutes for the cut to completely heal.

“Ok, lets see if anything happened”

I pulled out my Gradual Healing display and saw it was now Gradual Healing: 3/10 Mastery, surly that one cut wasn’t a whole point? It must have been close to levelling up its Mastery and that pushed it over the line.

“I need to get stronger, I’ll level myself up out here and gather some materials before I go back to town and kill those pieces of shit!”

I ripped off a branch from the tree I was leaning on and tied the sharp rock to it with the vines coming down off the tree. I now have a weapon, I could defend myself at the very least.

*weapon acquired

“Huh?”

I pulled up my Player Evaluation menu and saw my weapon mastery tab highlighted, I focused on the tab and saw what had been added.

Weapon Mastery ▼

Stone-Stick Spear: 0/10 Mastery, Power: low, Enhancements: none, Magic: none.

“Don’t know if I needed that information but at least I know what Weapon Mastery is now.”

I went deeper into the forest picking up herbs and medicines along the way until I levelled up.

Level up!

You are now level 2.

Gem Imbued Skill conditions met [Locked] 1 SP Required >

Basic Engineering Skill conditions met [Locked] 3 SP Required >

Attributes boosted

*20 Skill Points Acquired

“Finally, the amount of medicinal herbs I have picked is insane, and I have no where to put them.”

I looked at the pile of medicinal herbs at my feet, most of them were the Aloe Vera Herbs but I also had Chamomile Flower, Echinacea root and some Feverfew leaves. I should make a bag but I need a trade skill for that or it’ll fail. I pulled up my skill menu and selected the weaving skill tree.

Weaving [Locked] ▼

-Basic Weaving: Level 1 Skill, 1 SP Required: Weave small bags and water pouches along with small bandages.

“That seems like it will help, and its only 1 SP, I’ll unlock that.”

“Skill unlocked-Basic Weaving (C)”

Basic Weaving: 0/10 Mastery-Level 1 Common Skill, Unlocked: Weave small bags and water pouches along with small bandages.

Recipes:

Small Hemp Bag

Small Hemp Water Pouch

Hemp Bandages

“Ok, so it says to create a small hemp bag I need 10 plant fibres, which can be any plant, so I can use the Aloe Vera Herbs? Nope, has to be a plant not herbs hmmm”

I searched around the forest and managed to find a whole haul of Flax.

“So, I have the plant fibre, now what?”

I asked wondering what I do now as I just looked at the plant Fibre.

*Recipe for Small Hemp Bag:

Acquire 10 plant Fibre then weave the fibres together, following the digram

“Well, thats quite useful, so if I just follow this diagram I can see in my vision then I’ll have created the bag.”

I followed the instructions that appeared before me and not to long after I had created my first Hemp Bag.

Small Hemp Bag successfully created!

Small Hemp Bag: quality: poor, stores small items in bag.

“I guess more practice will bring up the quality, at least I have something to carry these herbs in though, I should be able to sell them when I get back to town.”

I slung the hemp bag over my left shoulder and decided to pick some more flux and create the small hemp water pouch and hemp bandages.

Small Hemp Water Pouch successfully created!

Small Hemp Water Pouch: quality: fair, stores a small amount of water.

Hemp Bandages successfully created!

Hemp Bandages: quality: poor, helps bandage small wounds and speeds up the healing process, although not very effective on serious wounds.

“That’ll do for now, I’ve managed to gain 1 mastery point as well. I’ll fill up my water pouch and make camp somewhere.”

Now that I think about it, the squirrel Demi-Human said we were in a dungeon, how is there light that feels like its from the sun and how is it getting dark with what looks like stars appearing. This is a world which I had so many questions about but the more I thought about it the more I really didn’t care, it’s a world for survival of the fittest, small stuff like that doesn’t matter, at least at the moment. I walked over to the lake opening, it had a waterfall in the middle but when I tried to see the top of the waterfall, it seemed to just keep going and going, I filled up my water pouch and sat down next to the lake as I looked into my skills.

“There has to be a skill that will allow me to build a shelter.”

I scrolled through the skills that I hadn’t unlocked and clicked on the engineering skill.

Engineering [Locked] ▼

-Basic Engineering: Level 2 Skill, 3 SP Required: Grants basic engineering recipes for small survival shelters and weak tools.

“Ok, thats the one I need, 3 SP, hmm, a little more than I’d like, but I do need a shelter.”

“Skill unlocked-Basic Engineering (C)”

Basic Engineering: 0/10 Mastery-Level 2 Common Skill, Unlocked: Grants basic engineering recipes for small survival shelters and weak tools.

Recipes:

Small Survival Tent

Weak Stone Hammer

Weak Stone Axe

Weak Stone Pickaxe

Weak Stone Shovel

Weak Stone Hoe

“To build a Small Survival Tent I need 20 plant Fibre and 4 thick branches, thats easy.”

I grabbed 4 thick branches from one of the Dark Oak Trees nearby and used some of the Plant Fibres I gathered earlier.

Small Survival Tent successfully created!

Small Survival Tent: quality: somewhat fair, protects from simple weather and maintains a mild temperature.

“I better start to get some sleep, it’s already quite dark, I wonder what time it is.”

I mumbled to myself as I lied down in the tent and drifted off to sleep.

“Good Morning Players and Non-Players, in todays News, The Zeus Faction Party has cleared Floor 176, a new Hero Weapon has been found, the Electric Hammer has been found on Floor 71 and for those on Floor 1, there has been a breach and low-level monsters have appeared, if you are around that Floor please go to your Guild and accept the quest to clear them out.”

“Huh!”

I woke up to a loud voice coming out of my pocket, I pulled out my Gem to hear that announcement coming from it.

“Was that some morning announcement? That takes me back to that hole in a wall middle school. This world gets weirder and weirder every second.”

I put the Gem back in my pocket and pulled out my skill menu again. I was looking for a skill that would help me create one of the Guild Bracelets so I didn’t have to keep pulling the Gem out when I needed to ask it a question.

“Ahh, here we go, Jeweller Skill.”

Jeweller [Locked] ▼

-Basic Jeweller: Level 6 Skill, 7 SP Required: Create small accessories and imbue Gems into them. Create weapon accessories and magic capes. Can also create a basic Guild Bracelet.

“That’s more expensive then the other two skills, I’ll only have 9 SP after, and it says Level 6 skill, I’m only a level 2. Theres no harm in trying it.”

I focused on the basic Jeweller skill to try and unlock it. I felt some pressure from inside my body, like my gravity had just become denser, it was uncomfortable by didn’t really hurt.

“Skill forcibly unlocked-Basic Jeweller (C)”

“That worked but, damn it! I guess forcing a skill to unlock uses more SP, that took 12 SP to unlock, I only have 4 SP left.”

I looked up at the recipes that were listed, there were quite a few, I only needed one for now, I focused on the Guild Gem Bracelet and found I needed some better materials.

“I wonder if I followed the exact recipe but used different materials”

I picked up some twigs, stones and vines and followed the instructions to create a guild bracelet. What I ended up creating wouldn’t win any beauty contests thats for sure.

Twig and Stone Guild Bracelet successfully created!

Twig and Stone Guild Bracelet: quality: poor, holds the Guild Gem in place and placed on the users wrist.

“It works at least,”

The bracelet was a flexible circular bracelet that had a little gap behind it so one could bend it to fit around their wrist, the inside was padded with soft leaves, so it wouldn’t give me scratches, the outside was a combination of stones, twigs and vines, it held the bracelet in place quite stubbornly and right in the centre of the front was a little carved out circle with flattened stones around it to keep the Guild Gem in place.

“Now that’s sorted, the announcer mentioned some monsters on Floor 1, I should go look for them and gain some exp points, I still haven’t seen any animals on this floor either, I’m quite hungry.”

I picked up my Stone-Stick Spear and left my small tent there and headed out to find some of the monsters.