[Stats]
{Hp: 90 | Mp: 42 | Ess: 18}
Str: 40
End: 19
Int: 10
Agi: 31
Dex: 10
[Home]
With 23 stat points, Sage decided that focusing the majority of them into strength and agility would be the wisest decision; he was far too slow in that battle and not nearly strong enough. Even without a clear understanding of how the stats functioned, he felt spreading them out would be unwise; a jack of all trades would never best a master of one.
He then checked his inventory.
[Items] {9/50} {0 gold | 13 silver | 45 bronze}
Fall Boots | Lvl 1o Footwear Skill Gem | Consumable
Kings Gloves | Lvl 10 Gloves Vial of Corruption | Crafting | Consumable
Kings Chest | Consumable Serrated Tusk | Crafting
10x Boar Tusk | Crafting 2x Healing Potions | Consumable
5x Boar Hide | Crafting
[Home]
The drops he got from the regular boars were written off as negligible, but all the items he got from defeating the king sounded grand. He decided to check them in the order of his menu.
{Kings Gloves} Lvl 10 Gloves | Def: 7
Melee damage increased by 20%
[Home]
Those needed to be equipped right away. If only he had defense while fighting the king, perhaps he would’ve stood a better chance. No, it wasn’t the equipment’s fault. If he had been smarter about the way he fought, he would’ve done better.
{Kings Chest} Consumable | Locked
The treasures of a king are greatly coveted items; protect your prize with great care lest they vanish from beneath your nose.
[Home]
It was an actual chest. It required a key, however. A key that he did not have. How fantastic, a locked chest with no clue on how to obtain its key; he wouldn’t be seeing its contents anytime soon. However, his mood couldn’t be worsened, so he pressed on. The regular boar items were passed over for a lack of care, and he moved onto the gem.
{Skill Gem} Consumable
This gem contains the skill ‘Thrust’. Assimilate with the gem to learn the skill. Only one skill gem can be used at a time.
[Home]
Felix had mentioned these earlier; they seemed to go for quite the hefty price. Selling wasn’t on his mind, though. Unless this skill also required essence to be cast, Sage would finally have a fighting move. Another piece to the puzzle that may have allowed him to put up a better fight. Whatever that woman used, contact point, was surely a skill.
Sage reached into the screen and took the skill gem from it. It was red and glowed with a pulsating light; it reminded him of a fortune teller's orb, swirling with a mysterious power hidden inside. Sage quite understood how things in this world worked; everything centered around the cards.
With the gem clenched in his hands, Sage said, “Merge.”
The gem glowed with that same blue light everything seemed to glow with. It turned into light and rose out of his hand, darting into his head.
[Thrust Skill Learned]
A smile threatened to form on his face, but he stifled it. If he allowed himself to get overconfident again, he’d only suffer a repeat of what had just occurred. Despite himself, he needed to contain his excitement whenever possible. He couldn’t allow it to snowball out of control again. He checked the skill tab.
{Thrust: Lvl 1} Swordsman | Novice Skill | Active
Cost: 5 Mp
From a balanced position, pierce your foe quickly with one precise blow. Deals 30 physical damage. Scales off of strength.
[Home]
It was simple and didn’t seem very strong, but four of these attacks would kill him; considering the boar couldn’t finish him in one attack, he was confident in the skill. With the bonus from the gloves, although math was not his strong suit, the damage would increase to 36, making it a three-shot kill on him.
Reading the last bit of the skill, one usage of the stats became clear: the higher the stat is that correlates with the skill, the higher that skill's damage will be. How much of the damage came from calculations and how much from his own physical strength? Those were numbers he truly had no desire to see.
He decided to wait to test it out until after checking all of the items and equipment.
{Vial of Corruption} Crafting | Consumable
The blood of an animal tainted by the wisps of The Corruption. It is highly volatile and toxic. Can power up both weapons and yourself, at a cost.
[Home]
Regardless of what power it said it would grant, Sage had no plans on consuming tainted blood. What was this corruption thing though? It seemed to be something powerful; simply by tainting a boar, it created the Boar King. The scorpion in the isles must’ve been tainted as well. The corruption, whatever it may be, was clearly something to steer clear of. For now, at least.
The serrated tusk was another item that Sage had no idea what to do with, but as it came from the king, he was sure its uses would present themselves soon enough. With so many crafting materials, though, it prompted the question of if this world too had a crafting system like many of the games he had played. It seemed reasonable, and if there were a fanciful crafting system, it was surely one of those card add-ons he had heard about. He would ask Felix about it. Last were the healing potions. Despite the redundancy of it, as the name surely implied all one needed to know, he checked their menu regardless.
{Healing Potion} x2 | Consumable
Restore 50 hp.
[Home]
As figured. Better safe than sorry, though; knowing how much they healed him was beneficial nonetheless. With everything done, Sage went to equip his two pieces of armor. It felt like it had been so long since he obtained the boots, but it was only earlier today. He grabbed them from his inventory and put them on, followed soon after by the gloves. The gloves were a black darker than the night and seemed to be made out of the Boar King’s fur. Finally donning proper equipment, he allowed himself to feel a slight inkling of pride.
[Quest Accepted]
What? Sage’s eyes were wide and in disbelief. Would he not be allowed home again? Before even checking what quest he had obtained, Sage tried exiting the game, and, much to his relief, it gave him the option to leave. The quest was different than the other in some way.
[Quests]
{The Kings of The Forest: D}
[Home]
A D-rank quest was far above what his class was capable of, and if kings referred to creatures like the Boar, this quest came to him far too soon.
{The Kings of The Forest: D} {⅕}
In the forest’s around the Outer Ring lay creatures of grand power; tainted by the corruption, they roam our land, spreading fear in their wake. Beneath their ink colored blood lies the first pieces of the True King’s gear. Retrieve them all from the bellies of the beasts.
[Home]
There that word was again, Outer Ring. This place was clearly more than just some city or province; Felix was going to be no help on that, however. He’d have to seek answers elsewhere. There were other creatures like the Boar King, and according to the quest, there were other pieces of equipment similar to the gloves— and they were only the first pieces of something grander. This was it, this was the power he needed. A smirk tugged at his upper lip.
Before testing the skill, Sage checked his equipment.
[Equipment] {Track Suit Set Active | No boosts} Total Def: 11 | Total Atk: 3
Track Jacket | Level 1
Track Pants | Level 1
Fall Boots | Level 10
Kings Gloves| Level 10
Rusted Shortsword | Level 3
[Home]
Progress. That’s what Sage saw when he gazed at his increased defense. The steps he was taking were small, but foundations were always necessary, and he believed that would hold true here.
Sage drew his sword from its sheath and gripped it with his black gloves. Like how the woman did it, and how he did when he first arrived here, to activate his skill, he simply needed to call its name. Holding his blade flat in front of his face, Sage closed his eyes and slowed his breathing. He stood there, calm, still, silent.
“Thrust,” he said.
His body moved unbiddenly; he felt as though he were being moved like a character in a video game— his body reacted on instinct at the naming of the skill. He pulled his arm back, bending it and holding his sword parallel to the ground; as he moved his arm, blue light coated his blade with a faint sheen. He then thrust it forward while taking a step and opening up his body. The gathered light burst outward when he reached the end of his movement.
His breathing was unsteady and sweat dripped from his brow. Returning to the same position, he repeated the same words, and his body followed the same pattern. He needed to get used to this skill so that he could use it whenever he desired, in whatever stance he desired.
With each cast costing 4 mana, and him already casting two, he had eight strikes left before he’d run out of mana. Hopefully, it regenerated.
<3
I’m glad you enjoy my writing Mun! I have some cool ideas for where I’ll take the story