〈 [Mental Fortitude] went from LV5 → LV6 through skill usage 〉

"Hunger really does that to you doesn't it?"

Felix said to himself as he was getting ' prepared ' to continue his journey, it is now been a bit more than a week since he got into the outskirts of Tempestad, currently, he is trying to find a way to wash with the water from the fountain while tolerating the constant pain from hunger and thirst he is feeling.

' I guess I could use the flask? '

He was used to bathing in places without showers of any kind, just the old way of simply putting water in a bucket and using a container to our it on top of him, so this method wasn't exactly that different from that with the exception that the flask barely contained half a liter of water, so it would an extremely slow process.

But he had to do it anyways, it was also a bit disheartening how he just didn'0t have any soap, his hair was already somewhat greasy and it was starting to become dry and kinda brittle, his smell was the worst part of it since the amount of time it was gone after a bath didn't even reach the hour.

' I guess I underestimated scented soap huh? '

Felix sighed as he got to simply walk away from the fountain, since the water evaporated almost instantly once he was a certain distance from the fountain unless it was on the flask it became a method to simply dry himself. He proceeded to put his equipment on himself, simple brown pants? they looked like that but they had leather on some places like the sides, it seemed like they were supposed to offer protection.

The ' sleeveless shirt ' was made of some tough white cloth, it had on the shoulders and collar a bit of leather, it could be also for protection but Felix wasn't sure it was going to be effective against any weapon, the green cloak that he put over that was already a bit stained with blood on the edges, so he guessed that it would protect the inner clothes from some dust and liquids.

The boots he actually recognized were black steel toes construction boots, if he remembers correctly they were actually insulated on the soles so the electric current would not pass through them, he used them while he was on some colleague practice with an electric company and they were his favorite since they offered some degree of protection.

The spear that he carried was still sharp even when he used it against 9 husks already, it was still colored silver and it was definitely light but still hard as heck, he accidentally slammed the spear against a wooden table and broke the table, the spear was fine but it did vibrate out of his hands, he was surprised against the backlash of that hit.

And lastly, a ring with a small blue gem on it, it had some runes inscribed with gold, according to his status this should be the [Ring of Feather Falling] it also said that it was at (0%) durability, but technically it wasn't broken yet, in the game, things got broken forever once they went under 0%, so it probably will break once it gets used again, the name does make it easy to understand what it does but Felix thought about having it repaired later on so he put it on one of his pockets.

"Very well then... gotta continue!!!"

As he tried to hype himself up, Felix got up from his inspection of items and went to the door, or where one was supposed to be.

---

 

Felix got a good look at the environment, he wasn't planning on dying yet but the next obstacle was a big enough one that it was a good possibility that it could happen, it was a simple place with an open ceiling, the fountain was placed in the middle, it had a checkered pattern that had dust on it since on the left it had an open view to the outside hill.

This part was elevated high above the ground, so the left had railings, this is where Felix climbed and almost died when trying to get here, to the right was another pair of railings but these ones overlooked the inside of the capital city, from one, could tell this was designed so the players could see how grandiose the game was.

In an expansive city, where walls and towers were raised with colors that had some technology to illuminate the streets, there were fake rivers flowing from up the mountain to the slums to distribute water, the houses were close to one another almost making them a single building.

The mountain that the city was built upon gave great shade and it was covered in vegetation, giving the air a refreshing chill that could not be replicated anywhere else. the city itself was built on this mountain since it was closer to the sky, where water rained, the city of water was prosperous as one of the centers of the commercial world

Or that was how it was supposed to be.

The broken-down buildings left and right, bricks piled up one after another, towers that looked like they could topple over with a mere touch, and empty rivers, vegetation like moss and weeds covering the city. Husk roaming the city from left to right without a course, and of course the sensation of dreadfulness that comes with such a massive city being half-destroyed nor occupied.

It was a cool view in the game, here it's just a grim reminder of how the powerful fall.

In front of the room was the entrance to a mausoleum, a peasant one, where the bones of wealthy peasants rest, the city supposedly had enough room to have everyone buried 20 times and with space to spare, but now there are no remains of the citizen of this city, the only remanents are the ones in mausoleums peppered trough the city.

On this site, aside from the rooms that could live in, which he could guess where for guards to watch over the mausoleum, there was a corridor that led to a staircase that descended, that was his next destination, so with a deep breath, he walked the corridor.

The corridor had arches on the right giving the impression of windows, you could see the hills from here and even the river from where you could fish, those fishes that could be cooked and tasted like something, and water that surely got rid of the this that...

*Slap*

"Be strong! you have an objective!!!"

Felix said to himself, he whipped out his drool and continued trying not to take a peek at the river, he failed a lot of times.

Eventually, he found a ' wall ' at the front and a staircase at the side, the wall was there since the mountain would swallow the corridor if it went ahead without raising itself, there was supposedly a ladder here, but it was not reachable, since this was not a game he could climb this 10 m wall but he decided against it since up there only stronger enemies would await him.

The staircase lead down the wall and arrived at a room, there was an armed husk with a sword, Felix immediately tried [Appraisal] on the husk and he got noticed.

"Well this was going to happen eventually"

a sword clumsily started to arch in his direction, he immediately rolled to the side, and with thrust, he stuck it in the husk's chest, he missed the hearth by a lot but it still staggered the husk, Felix loosened his grip on the spear and ran towards the husk and kicked it onto the ground, then he pulled out the spear and stomped onto the hand that had the sword.

"GHaAaaa"

Felix plunged with his two hands into the eye of the husk and started wriggling the spear to simply destroy its brain, or whatever it was in there, after a few seconds of the husk convulsing it stopped moving, Felix sighed and pulled out his spear.

"I still feel disgusted wherever I had to kill one of these things"

They looked a bit too human for his paladar, and they were not something that was ignorable, Felix simply swung his spear to get rid of the blood on the tip and continued his way onto the exit of the room.

"So there it is..."

The room lead to a garden, it was an extremely well-kept garden, the grass was uniform, and the flowers that were at the borders of the walls were blooming beautifully, Felix looked back to where he came from and saw that the room was on the wall where he was, it made the garden have not a lot of sunlight which made him ponder how it was still in a good condition.

Similarly, they were walls on the left and right, enclosing the garden in a square box, even though it was the outside it looked more like a room that just happened to not have a roof, on the other side there was a simple black metal fence, it had some decorations resembling teardrops and had spikes on top of it.

In the middle of the garden, there were 4 stone statues, they were a bit cracked but they had not even a stain on them, these 4 statues depicted 4 figures. A young man with a sword and shield, a middle-aged man with a witch hat that had a pom-pom on the end and ragged clothes, was holding a book with some weird lettering on them. a woman with long hair and a stern face, she was holding two swords, a single edge one, and a sword breaker. and lastly a man with a frown, his musculature was visible even through his heavy armor, he was holding a halbert while he was looking at the sky.

If one looked at the way the statues were placed, one could discern that there was supposed to be a fight one, but that it was simply missing from the statue collection.

Felix approached the statue with his guard up, and then he read the text that was engraved on a sign on the floor.

"The 5 heroes who once saved the capital city against the invaders that made the mistake of taking Nerodia as their enemy in the faithful 5 months that it took to repel the invaders.

 

[The Peasant Knight]

[The King's Jester]

[The Lady of the Moonlight Tower]

[The Coward Commander]

[The Unbeaten]

 

This statue is in their honor and in hopes that they could recuperate their souls after shouldering the entire kingdom on their weary shoulders"

 

"Half of these names sound like jokes at first glance don't they?"

Felix said to himself, he himself remembers the names of these bosses on the game, but also because these bosses kicked his ass hundreds of times is that he could shiver a bit when hearing them, having them as enemies surely would be a mistake that no one would want.

"And here I am, trying to explore the capital"

He must be insane for trying this, so he simply touched the sign and took a few steps back, and waited, it did not take long before the sound of rocks sliding along the floor was heard.

The statue of the young man with a  shield and a sword, better known as [The Peasant Knight] started moving, his hands slowly made a scraping sound as it moved, he took a step forward and blended his sword towards Felix and looked at him. Felix himself took a posture as he slowly moved to the side, his spear gripped with both hands and ready to attack.

The statue did not take his blank eyes from Felix, Felix started sweating a bit against the grey humanoid that now was going to attack him at any moment and simply murmured.

"I wonder if I can beat the Tutorial boss"