After I ran out the village I ran for a while making sure I wasn't followed. I found myself in a forest. My SP had gone down quite a lot and I was feeling hungry, so I sat on a rock and looked at my inventory once again. As Trichia had said, there were a few pieces of bread, so I took one out and ate it. As for the person herself, she disappeared when I met the guards and reappeared just now right next to me and was leaning against me.

"Where did you go?"

She looked up at me and tilted her head.

"During the stuff at the village." I continued.

"Hihihihihi." She giggled again, "not being able to see doesn't mean I'm not there. In fact, this form is more unnatural for me. I only have it so you can feel the interactions directly.'

I just patted her head.

(Better not to dwell on complicated stuff.)

I smiled at my stupidity.

After a while of resting, my SP had finally gone up. I got up and stretched my back.

"Ready for levelling up?" Trichia asked with a smile, "though I was hoping you could get some EXP at the village by doing some quests, it can't be helped."

"Alright." I gave a vague reply.

I took out the dagger from my inventory and practised a bit. The dagger was crude, but still better than nothing.

"Shall we?" Said Trichia after she finished.

I gave Trichia my hand and we started walking in a random direction. I had already enabled a few things in my settings while I was resting and now my view had the HP, SP and MP bars at the top left corner, the amount of money I have in the top right corner and a minimap in the bottom right corner. Now it really felt like a game. The money I had was 10 urz, urz being this world's currency. The minimap displayed a 10 metre radius around me with any enemies in range marked by a red dot.

Soon, a single red dot enter my minimap and I got ready. Trichia disappeared again with a "call me if you need anything". I took out the dagger and moved slowly towards my target.

Rabbit LVL 3

It was munching on some grass nonchalantly. I quietly circled towards its back to make a sneak attack. Just as I came out from the bushes to attack it, another predator came out from hiding. A snake came out from right under the rabbit and swallowed it in one swoop. And now that I was out of hiding, it's gaze fell on me.

Snake LVL 12

It was a normal snake but it was pretty high levelled and it didn't look like it'd let me run away.

(So the minimap doesn't show hidden enemies. Gotta be careful with that.)

I readied my stance. Seeing my will to fight, the snake hissed at me but it waited. I moved a step backward and it moved a bit forward. I was clearly disadvantaged so I looked for a plan. It was probably useless to hide since snakes have thermal vision. I don't know if it's the same in the game, but knowing Yuko, he'd probably make it as close to the original as possible.

(So maybe, if I can produce a fire.....)

But I had nothing to light with. And it wasn't like the snake was simply going to wait as I lighted a fire.

(Hell with this shit!)

I dashed to the side. Seeing my sudden movement the snake quickly jumped at me with its mouth wide open.

(Fast!)

It was fast. I barely managed to dodge by dropping to the ground and rolling. It was too fast for hit and run tactics. I had to face it head on.

As I got up, the snake was already up and vigilant, as it probably didn't expect me to be able to dodge. I again dashed to the side but a bit slower to have a better control. The snake got low and also started moving in the same direction just a little bit more towards me. It was coming closer and closer.

When it was pretty close I went for my simple plan. Going around a tree to the snake's front, I prepared to attack. Suddenly seeing me in front of it, it raised its head to attack. But I was quicker due to the element of surprise. With the dagger, I slashed anywhere I could hit and continued running. I was now at it back. A health bar appeared over the snake and was about a quarter down. I made another slash at its head. I instinctively knew it was a critical hit and its health bar disappeared.

*ding*

*ding*

*ding*

I won. Frankly, it wasn't that hard. I only lost a little HP and that too only because of random actions like hitting a branch while running or falling to the ground.

I looked to the snake and it had disappeared. In its place was an item. I looked at it. Carefully. From different angles. But no matter what I tried, it still resembled a spoon. It WAS a spoon.

(Why the hell does a monster drop a spoon!?)

I sighed and picked it up. It's color was silver but I wasn't sure what it was made of. I didn't have the appraisal skill either to check. I put it in my inventory. Maybe sell it later, or use it myself?

"Hey Trichia, how do you get the appraisal skill?" I said into the air.

Trichia appeared next to me and said, "You can learn it from a person who already has it. Most merchants have it. But it will cost a lot."

"Hmm..." There wasn't anything I could do about it if that was the case. Trichia could probably manage something but I already decided to not rely on her too much.

"Status."

Name : RotaSTR : 10LVL : 4HP : 94/100AGI : 10Race : HumanSP : 23/100INT : 10Title :MP : 100/100LUC : 10Points Remaining : 30

I levelled up to 4. I remember hearing a sound after I defeated the snake.

(So that sound was to indicate I levelled up.)

Also I had 30 points remaining. That meant I received 10 points every level.

I made some changes and my status looked something like this.

Name : RotaSTR : 20LVL : 4HP : 196/200AGI : 30Race : HumanSP : 230/300INT : 10Title :MP : 100/100LUC : 10Points Remaining : 0

Some HP and SP already regenerated while doing this and that.

"That was a good fight. Are you going to continue?" Trichia asked.

"Umm.. Do you know what time it is outside?"

"At your time zone? Let me check." She stood still for a moment, "Its almost 9 O' clock."

"Ahh. In that case, I'll go grab dinner. Don't worry, I'll be back in a jiffy. But time sure does flow fast in here. If I remember correctly, Yuko told me that it was 3.5 times faster."

"That is correct." She confirmed.

"Alright. One last thing. Do I need to find a safe spot for log out or I can do it anywhere?" I asked.

"You can do it anywhere and anytime, as long you're not restricted to. For example when in a fight, you cannot logout to escape. Also, some special places like the inn, give recovery speed bonuses after you log out." She explained.

"An inn's a bit too much to ask for in the middle of the forest. Not that I have much to spend either. Well, I guess I'll see you after sometime. Bye Trichia." I patted her head and said "Log out."

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The table was a real pain in the ass. Like it? It didn't come out like I originally intended but I felt it was good enough. :)

Thanks in advance!