“Haa… Haa… Haa...” 

‘What the fuck was that? I-I should definitely be dead…’ He thought as cold sweat ran down his brow. 

Patting his abdomen area he also came to a new revelation.

His previously grave wound had completely healed itself, not even leaving behind a scar.

Realizing this, he also noticed he felt rather...invigorated.

‘This makes no sense,’ he thought, ‘but neither does any of the recent events I’ve seen so far...So I’ll just try to accept this for now.’

Successfully calming himself down, Julius attempted to appraise his surroundings.

‘Okay, it doesn’t seem as though anyone is nearby, since they either would have helped me, run off, or killed me for my possessions.’

Brushing off his pants as he stood up, Julius noticed he felt taller.

‘I definitely grew a bit. I mean, this is actually the first positive of this so-called reincarnation thus far.’

Prior to his sudden reincarnation, Julius stood at a pretty average height of 5’10. But now, as he fully stretched his legs and back, he definitely made the guess that he was at least 4-5 inches taller. Which would make him around...6’2? 6’3?

‘Not bad, actually, if I was too tall it’d be a disadvantage, but with this much I’ll still possess a pretty good reach.’ He reasoned with himself.

In all actuality, he quite enjoyed his new height. Prior to his untimely death, when Julius still went to school, he received a good amount of bullying due to his height, which was rather short in the collective ecosystem that was his school.

‘Okay let’s see…’ Julius did a once-over of his current attire and equipment. The ash colored cloak remained rather clean as opposed to his surroundings, which were covered in wolf blood. Pulling up the hood of his cloak, he suddenly felt his blood grow warm. Not being a complete recluse while on Earth, Julius made the reasonable assumption of the cloak having some sort of enchantment applied to it.

‘What do those main characters usually do in this situation...Oh yeah! An inspect skill usually pops up and allows them to view the details of an object!’

Staring intensely at the cloak that was now hanging upon the tree, Julius began to earnestly obtain the legendary ‘Identify’ skill.

5 minutes…

10 minutes…

15 minutes…

As time continued to pass, Julius began to think that maybe, just maybe, skills were more complicated to obtain than he previously thought.

‘If only that damned god let me ask him how skills were obtained…’

Giving up on his journey to acquire the fabled 'Identify', Julius decided to inspect the previously impaled wolf.

‘I was wrong...This guy would have towered over me, he’s at least 2m tall…’

Continuing his analysis, ‘I should probably take his hide, I’m pretty broke after all.’

Julius retrieved the dagger that previously laid beside him and attempted to harvest the wolf's hide. Unfortunately, he was met with a wall pretty fast.

‘What in the actual fuck is this thing made of?!’

His dagger could penetrate the hide, but the toughness of it coupled with his complete lack of experience made the harvesting near impossible.

‘If only I was stronger...Oh wait, I leveled up some didn’t I?’

Slapping himself for not checking sooner, Julius pulled up his notifications.

⌈ You have slain a Level 63 Dire Wolf! ⌉

 

⌈ Calculating experience... ⌉

 

⌈ Applying boosts... ⌉

 

⌈ 828 XP Gained! ⌉

 

⌈ Leveled up! ⌉

 

⌈ Leveled up! ⌉

 

⌈ Leveled up! ⌉

 

⌈ 9 Stat Points Gained! ⌉

 

⌈ Skill Received: Fast leveler! ⌉

 

⌈ Skill Received: Blood Magicks! ⌉

 

‘Damn, that monster was level 63? I-I have no idea how strong that is…’

Quickly changing emotions, Julius continued to look over the list, ‘Okay, so 800 XP gave me 3 levels. Each level gives me 3 points to use, so I have 9 points to spend.’

Continuing to look down the list, Julius finally landed upon the skills he acquired.

‘Fast Leveler? Blood Magicks? What do these do?’

Deciding to check, Julius pulled up his skill menu.

 

 

Realizing he hadn’t actually viewed his skills until now, Julius decided to look over all of them.

‘So I get more XP in dangerous situations...that explains why I leveled up so much from one kill. ‘Coolheaded’ sounds pretty broken, but looking back on it, it didn’t really help me. Maybe being the prey of an animal 62 levels higher than yourself isn’t included in “most situations” aspect of it...’

‘A lot of these skills have roman numerals near them, so I guess that means they can level up. Wow, a 30% reduction to damage? Isn’t that broken? And it’s levelable? Maybe that god was kinder than I thought…’Unremarkable’ is honestly rude, but sounds extremely helpful, so I’ll try to look at it positively.

Reaching his 3rd to last skill, Julius froze.

‘Blessing of Dorviir’? Is that another goddamn God? But it comes with damage resistance to magic and an absurd XP boost. The only problem is that I have no idea what that boost applies to. If it was applied just now against the wolf, doesn’t that mean I would’ve leveled up only once? Wouldn’t that make the wolf a beginner level monster?’

Frustrated at his predicament, Julius decided to continue down the list.

‘‘Fast Leveler’, that’s the one I just gained. This helps with my question earlier, since I doubt this is a common skill. Even though it’s only a 5% bonus, that’ll add up to some crazy amounts of free XP as I level up more. Unfortunately it seems as though it can't level up, which is a shame, but I can’t be too greedy right?’

Finally reaching the end of the list, Julius looked at the most concerning skill.

‘‘Blood Magicks’ huh. The description really doesn’t elaborate much, does it? I mean, no shit right? Thanks for that Mr. Menu-san, really helpful.’

Shaking his head, he continued, ‘Now I’m going crazy, who am I even talking to? Do I need to see a psychiatrist now? Do they even have psychiatrists here? Whatever…’

Attempting to rationalize his sporadic thoughts, Julius concentrated on the skill.

‘This must be what killed the wolf...Although I doubt people randomly gain the ability to control magic at desperate times. Was it that Dorviir guy? He did bless me, although maybe that assumption is too far-fetched. Anyways, learning to control this will be extremely helpful, it did kill that fucking Great Dane wannabe after all…’

Putting away his skill menu, Julius returned to his prior objective: distributing his skill points.

‘I definitely should take that guy's hide. So I’ll deposit 4 points into Strength, if that doesn’t let me skin the fucker then it won’t be too much of a waste, since strength is one of the most basic stats to raise.’

Having 5 points left, Julius quietly pondered his options.

‘Vitality is definitely my health related stat, so having some points in it won’t hurt. Intelligence is usually associated with magic, but it seems too risky to invest any points right now, since I’m currently in a winter hellhole. Using that logic, Endurance should be pretty safe to invest in, since it usually pertains to stamina and constitution. Getting a cold would make this situation unnecessarily shittier after all…’

Deciding the remaining stats of Dexterity, Faith, and Luck were in the same boat as Intelligence, Julius invested his remaining 5 points into Vitality and Endurance.

‘I’ll do 2 in Vitality and 3 in Endurance, since having more stamina means getting out of this forest faster. Not to mention the more I rest the more likely I get attacked…’

Viewing his newly upgraded stats, Julius could only be satisfied.

 

 

‘I can definitely feel the difference, my muscles feel tighter, and I feel better overall, which must be the workings of my Vitality and Endurance.’

Finished viewing his stats, Julius put his cloak back on, letting the warmth it provided soak deep into his body.

‘My skin seems to have regained some of its color, which makes sense, now that a quarter of my blood isn’t flowing out of my stomach.’

Luckily, after a quick look, his bow and dagger seem to both be in a usable state. He also found a pouch of coins in his left pocket, which disproves his theory of being broke.

‘I’m still taking that damn wolf’s hide, maybe his canines too...that’s pretty common in fantasy games…’

Making the complete opposite of what could be called “quick and clean work”, Julius threw the hide over his shoulder and wiped his hands off in the snow.

‘Guess it's finally time for me to find a way out of this damn forest...I knew I should have taken that survival class in High School…’