A lesson in tennis that he usually taught his students when starting out: followed through all the way with the swing until the racket was high and over the shoulder. Never finished halfway in front of the body, or the opponent would just press the advantage of the loose ball.
He didn’t know how much it influenced his decision, but with the branch in hand, he confronted the pooch with confidence. After all, even though it was bigger than the previous one, it was still only at his knees, and it was clearly wounded from the recent battle, so what was there to be afraid of?
He slammed the branch down in an overhead motion using both hands, and as expected, the beast dodged to the side, but the weapon followed right after with a swipe and pap! flung the pooch about two meters away. Tsk! Didn’t hit the fur-missing area.
The orange dog swirled back up and rushed to him again, saliva and the silver liquid sprinkled around. He pressed his feet firmly on the ground and swung the branch to hinder the beast. No slipped up this time.
He could do this. Though this one was bigger, its speed and reflex was the same compared to the one he had killed. He slapped it to the side when it jumped up, with one landing squarely on the open wound, making it curl up after falling down. This battle was already his.
Pressing the advantage, Zalanir continued to target the wounded area. His carefulness in using the branch to distance himself, coupled with the pooch’s wobbling movement left it no chance to approach him.
Uu uu u! The beast hiccuped and folded its head after he pierced its flank. Silver liquid oozed out of the torn skin and wet the branch’s tip.
You have slain [Orangefur Pooch — Level 6]
Level advances to 3
After pulling out the branch, Zalanir let his body fall freely to the ground. There was no big rocks or something around, so no need to worry about bumping his head onto one. Then he burst out laughing and huffed at the same time.
He had never been in real danger in the fight just now, but still, swinging the branch constantly and moving around all the time still took quite a bit of air out of his lungs. Now that was real exertion. He had just survived a forty-shot rally and won. Best feeling ever.
It was a weird notion, as he had just killed another dog, so why did he want to laugh? Even he wasn’t sure himself. Perhaps because it was a steal, since he just took advantage of a gassed out and injured beast after its battle. Could be because of the level, as he had just handled a foe 4 levels higher with ease.
But if anything, deep down, he was certain freedom was the main culprit. Instead of reading novels or playing games, he was living this world with his own body. Every sensation struck true and real. He could feel them, not by imagination or through a screen, his mind, muscles, heart, and every other part were experiencing them simultaneously. No longer had he needed to wait for the next book, search for the next game, or ask for a recommendation of a new story. No hangover now, as he was basically and literally crafting each sequence one at a time, with no end in sight.
While resting, Zalanir opened the screen again. He had just gained a new level, so …
What? Why didn’t he gain any stat or free point? The “Free Points: 0” line in the General tab indicated there were points to gain, and it should come with a new level, but why didn’t he get anything? Did this feature lock behind a particular action or a quest, if there was any at all?
After tinkering with the System for ten minutes or so, he gave up. Didn’t look like there was anything new. There had to be a reason for the level gain. Either he was missing something, or maybe it would come at a predetermined milestone, like level 5 or 10?
Whatever. Zalanir was back to his feet. He had a forest to explore, and an adventure to answer.
The purple hamster-like creature fell after having its head cracked open by a sturdy branch, its claw bent under its own body weight.
Zalanir pressed his hand on the two scratches on his left thigh but was unable to suppress the red blood from slipping through his fingers. Mimicking what he had seen in movies, Zalanir tried to tear apart the hem of his now amalgamation of color shirt, but still, it took him about five minutes to net a small piece of cloth with the help of the nearby brown tree bark. He braced himself, gritted his teeth, and endured the pain from the cloth tightening up around the wounds, but at least, it stopped the outflow of blood.
This had been his seventh kill already, and also the hardest fight to date. A fresh and full-powered beast, not one with injuries, and he won fair and square.
He wouldn’t be able to battle another beast for the rest of the day — not only the two big scratches that he had just tended to, his body was also full of bruises — but not that he cared too much, because his attention was now firmly on the new notification. Finally, after the seventh kill, he had gotten the notification that he had been looking forward to. “Please let level 5 be a special one,” Zalanir muttered.
You have slain [Blackpaw Mouse — Level 6]
Level advances to 5
You have unlocked the first mastery. Choose wisely, as it will have profound effects on your path and future choices.
Hurray! Looked like the fun part had begun.
After mentally clicking on the notification, the translucent screen brought him to the Mastery and Skill tab, where four options were present.
[Mastery: Light Warrior] — Common: Proficiency in melee combat and light-weight weapons. Focuses on the balance of strength and speed.
On level-up: +3 Strength, +3 Dexterity, +2 Constitution, +1 Endurance, +1 Awareness, +1 Free Point.
Just a typical melee warrior route that focused on light-weight weapons. Small and medium-sized weapons? Light-weight was such a vague term, though. Could be anything ranging from a dagger to a one-handed sword. The common tag meant this was just a basic option. Nothing too exciting here.
[Mastery: Magical Apprentice] — Common: Every great mage started somewhere. Practices magical affinities, hones your chants, and climbs the magical ladder.
On level-up: +3 Intelligence, +3 Mystique, +2 Spirit, +1 Constitution, +1 Awareness, +1 Free Point.
A similar option to the first one, though it was for the casting line. Seemed like a flexible starting class based on the mention of magical affinities. He was still unsure of what affinity meant. However, another common tag. Nothing much to do here except moving on.
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[Mastery: Novice Brawler] — Uncommon: Only a few understand the importance of tenacity. While some focus on powerful attack, the brawler’s ultimate goal is to be the last one standing.
On level-up: +2 Endurance, +2 Constitution, +2 Awareness, +2 Spirit, +2 Strength, +2 Intelligence, +1 Free Points.
The first uncommon option. Zalanir doubled check again and confirmed that every stat gained on level-up for this mastery added either health or defense. Dexterity and Mystique were left out completely, unless he spent the only free point on it. This one was mainly a defensive class, which was good if one wished to be the tank for the team. The only problem was that right now he had no party. His opinion remained neutral at best for now, so he moved on to the last option to see if he had a better choice.
[Mastery: Novice Assassin] — Uncommon: The first strike is great for taking the initiative and dictating the flow of battle. It is even deadlier if such strike came unnoticed. Focuses on a stealthy approach.
On level up: +3 Dexterity, +2 Strength, +2 Mystique, +2 Awareness, +1 Constitution, +1 Endurance, +2 Free Points.
The assassin class reminded him of his teenager, where he spent probably hundreds of hours on the Assassin’s Creed franchise. Sneaking around, hiding weapons all over his body, and stealing stuff would be a fun way to enjoy his life. However, getting caught would be troublesome. One could restart at checkpoints in a game to replay the scenes, but was such an option available here? As if there was. There was no such thing in life.
Zalanir had no idea how many rarities were there. The System offered no information on this. The only point of reference was the unique rarity from Pure Magical Energy. Unique had to be rarer than uncommon. That was only his guess based on the wording, but he was confident in the interpretation. After all, who would put unique below uncommon? He would create a new rarity, maybe beginner or something, to use in that situation instead of wasting the unique tag.
Usually, the rarer the tag, the better the options were. But in this case, after thinking it through, he had to remove the Novice Assassin mastery. If this were a game, he would jump right in without a second thought. However, he had to play safe here. This world was still full of the unknown to him. Even though he was excited to explore what it had to offer, adding another risky element on top of all the unknowns seemed unwise.
As for the other uncommon option, while defense was good, he was an attacking player in tennis through and through. Moon balls or lobs were effective shots in the right circumstances, but he couldn’t imagine playing these shots repeatedly in a whole match. That would take the joy out of him and for sure destroy his love for the sport.
The same principle applied here. It might be too extreme, but he would hate being a punching bag, enduring and absorbing all attacks and then winning out only because of the exhaustion of the enemies. That was too passive to his liking.
It sucked to disregard both of the uncommon options, as they provided two higher attributes per level. But he would weigh the characteristics of a mastery heavier compared to the numerical aspect.
When it came down to the two last options, the choice became quite easy. Even with only two days under his belt, he was sure that this was a fantasy world, thus he expected to encounter more interesting and out-of-the-norm creatures in the upcoming time, such as the likes of dragons, phoenixes, or hydras. It would betray his childhood dream if he didn’t go the magical route. Maybe a battlemage would be the best of both worlds, as he already had a good amount of agility, reflexes, and strength thanks to tennis and a couple of gym sessions per week. A badass mage raining meteors or glaciers upon the enemies, or riding the wind to travel around would be so cool.
There was also the small connection between the magical affinity and attunement stuff and the mastery that he found to be intriguing. Picking a mastery with innate synergy and a possibility to help him understand more of an existing skill seemed like a wise choice.
You have chosen [Mastery: Magical Apprentice]. Is this your final choice?
A confirmation warning. Nice! But he didn’t need it. He had already done the talking-himself-into-picking-it kind of work already. He affirmed his choice with another mental touch. Following that was a flood of notifications.
Congratulations! You have successfully acquired [Mastery: Magical Apprentice]
You have gained the skill [Identify] — Common
You have gained the skill [Meditate] — Common
[Mastery: Magical Apprentice] skills available
Warning: You can delay choosing a new skill only until the next batch of skill offering; otherwise, you lose that option permanently.
An inflow of energy refreshed his state. It coursed through every nook and cranny of his body and then faded away after completing a circle.
Unable to suppress the excitement, he spammed the notification about new skills available until a new screen popped up.
[Energy explosion] — Common: Channels pure energy inside your body for a duration (minor scaling with Level), then unleashes it onto the world (small scaling with Intelligence) in a small radius.
Essence: 7
Mana cost: Low
An AoE skill right off the bat. It could be useful when dealing with more than one enemy. However, his attention was on the scaling wording of the skill. Seemed like different skills would have different scaling, depicted by the prefix. “Minor” didn’t excite him, though.
Wait. Where … here they are.
Scaling (skills): Corresponding user attributes affect skills based on the given prefix. In ascending order, the scaling starts from minor, small, medium, major, and massive.
Scaling (weapons): Corresponding user’s attributes affect weapons based on the given prefix. In ascending order, the scaling starts from minuscule, tiny, minor, small, medium, big, major, enormous, and massive.
Once again, the System only gave the description in the shortest form possible. Fortunately, it was still clear in this case what the scaling was. Both of the scaling in this skill weren’t good, though. Why weren’t they major or massive? It would make the skill much better. Stingy.
[Adaptability Bolt] — Common: Absorbs the affinity of the target area to fire a magical bolt of the same type (minor scaling with Intelligence and Mystique).
Essence: 8
Mana cost: Very low
Oh, now he got it. Affinity was the magic type.
Not sure how the targeting and taking affinity worked, but this skill was quite flexible. It could be anything he needed at any given moment. It was also spammable, probably, because of the cheap mana cost.
[Energy Barrier] — Common: Conjures a pure energy barrier (small scaling with Spirit) to block enemy attacks. After expiring or being destroyed, the barrier releases an energy wave (small scaling with Intelligence) in a small radius based on the power of the blocked attacks.
Essence: 8
Mana cost: Low
A defensive skill with a potential upside for offense if done correctly. A solid skill overall. What would the shape of the barrier be, though? A sphere, a plane, or any?
Both Adaptability Bolt and Energy Barrier were great, while Energy Explosion wasn’t that appealing to Zalanir. Having to channel a skill sounded like a major drawback.
After consideration, he picked Adaptability Bolt for its flexibility and proactivity. As the very first skill, it gave him more options. Starting out with a defensive skill might be useless if the enemies didn’t attack him. Energy Barrier would do nothing there.
An inflow of knowledge pooled into his mind, staggering him on the spot. It was like reading a manual guidance on how the skill was supposed to work, only that it was almost instant. If he was still unsure about all the affinity referencing things before picking the skill, then now he knew what he needed to—
A force to his back jerked him out of the assessment. With it also came pain, as something had penetrated his skin. Something pointy. Bracing himself and swirling around, Zalanir’s attention was fully on the approaching arrow. Shit! By instinct alone, he twisted his body to the right, but the arrow still grazed his left arm, leaving yet another scratch on his battered body.
With no care for this world, Zalanir threw the branch to the front, turned back and ran. His left thigh protested the action by flaring the pain from the two scratches, but he paid it no heed. As if this was the time for that.
