Ch10. Ready to fight
I sat down at a bench in the park where I completed part of my daily quest, and looked at my holowatch.
It was 4:15PM, and the streets were not as crowded as they would be in a few hours, with all the regulars going home from work.
*Ronc
My stomach growled, but I couldn't care less about eating.
I was too excited and eager about everything, to think about eating. Even though I knew I had to, so I set myself up to finish checking what I had acquired from my earlier quests, then I would go to a cafe and grab a bite.
At least to wait until dinner.
If it was a game-based, leveling up system, it had to be something like an inventory or anything, so I thought of the word 'inventory', and the window popped up immediately.
[INVENTORY]
[Hidden Nest key x1
Armory key x1
Full recovery x1]
There it was, the little treasure I wanted to take a look at.
One by one, I checked the items description.
[HIDDEN NEST KEY]
[DESCRIPTION: Item – Grants the player access to a special Nest; Defeating the Nest's boss grants the player a special reward; The player can use the key anywhere.]
[ARMORY KEY]
[DESCRIPTION: Item – Grants the player access to the armory; Upon entering, the player can choose 03 special items; The player can use the key anywhere; After exiting, the key is destroyed, and the armory will be closed off.]
[FULL RECOVERY]
[DESCRIPTION: Item – A Potion that allows the player to recover HP, MP, and Stamina to its fullest.]
I studied a bit about guilds and wielders in my previous life, but I never came across information about any items like these.
My mind wandered about the raids that guilds usually did into Nests.
Many wielders died in raids, due to lack of power, of teamwork, or even carelessness.
Greater guilds had more money, so they could afford better equipment and supplies, such as potions and buff items.
But I never heard or read about any item that gave access to a special Nest or a place as an armory.
The Wielder's market and the Auction House existed for that purpose.
Much less have I heard of an item that recovered energy like that.
Even if not the keys, if only I could craft some of that potion...
I could even start a company and quit depending on the family's money.
But I couldn't live on fantasies, so I threw that idea to the back of my head, closed the inventory, and opened the skills window.
[SKILLS]
[Steal LVL 1]
[Prying eyes LVL 1]
[Invisible hand LVL 1]
I already knew what [STEAL] was capable of at level one, and I already used [INVISIBLE HAND] once, but I knew nothing about [PRYING EYES], so I jumped straight to the description.
[PRYING EYES LVL 1]
[DESCRIPTION: Active skill – Allows the player to see another person's information in form of a status window; The amount of information shown varies according to the player's level.]
I felt a grin growing on my lips as I read the description.
I had the feeling that it would make [STEAL] way easier to use.
As I checked the holowatch, I saw that it was already 5PM, but I didn't want to go home yet, so I thought a little bit about what I could do next.
And when I was about to decide, my stomach growled again, way harder than before.
"Okay, okay. I'll give you something to eat."
It wasn't as if I could go on leveling up with an empty stomach.
"Leveling up..."
As I got up from the bench, I finally decided what to do.
First, I was going to eat something, and then check that armory, because I didn't want to go to a Nest empty-handed.
My goal was already set.
I was going to level up.
And after having a full meal in the nearest cafe, I went back to the park, and straight to the woods.
The system said I could use the keys anywhere, so I was about to find out if it really meant it.
When I found myself the deepest in the park woods, I took the [ARMORY KEY] out of the inventory, and tried placing it into a random tree.
To my surprise, the tree looked like opening from inside out, as if a door made from a rift in space had just been opened.
"Whoa..."
I couldn't believe my eyes, but I stepped forward, walking into the rift-like opening, and when I arrived at the other side, I believed my eyes even less.
"What the hell... Awesome..."
What the system named [ARMORY], was literally an armory, just like in those old history books about medieval times.
But way fancier than anything I had already seen in this life, or the previous.
Shelves upon shelves of very fine crafted gears and very fine crafted weapons.
I tried taking a sword out of one of the shelves, and immediately regretted it.
I felt a painful electric wave flowing from the blade to my hand as the system accused.
[WARNING]
[THE PLAYER'S CLASS CANNOT MAKE USE OF THE WEAPON CLASS]
Shit, so I had limitations to what weapons I could use...
I tried remembering what I had learned of my favorite RPG game, about classes and stuff.
"So... Rogues are like assassin-inclined thieves. They're stealthy, light, and deadly. Which means..."
Light weapons.
Heavy weapons were meant to deal as much damage as it gets, but they didn't allow one to move as silently as a rogue needed to, so I walked around to see if I could find anything light enough.
And after some search, I found a glass encased display that caught my attention.
Inside the glass encasing, laid four items.
A light-looking sword, black from handle to tip, about one meter-long. A pair of black daggers, so finely crafted, one could say that the elves of a famous fantasy movie had forged them.
And a silver ring, with a black gem ornating it.
I opened the case, and tested the daggers.
They were light as a breeze, and they seemed to fit my hands perfectly, so I checked on the item description.
[MIDNIGHT SISTERS]
[DESCRIPTION: WEAPON – Daggers forged from the blood of a thousand beasts; Used by the dark hero Orkas, during the first Calamity.]
[AGILITY +10]
[DEXTERITY +10]
I couldn't wait to see the other items, but even though I wasn't sure about the sword, I checked them all anyways.
[MIDNIGHT'S EMBRACE]
[DESCRIPTION: Item – Ring forged from a silvery beast core, embedded with a rune stone that grants the player a skill; Used by the dark hero Orkas, during the first Calamity.]
[MIDNIGHT BALLAD]
[DESCRIPTION: Weapon – Sword forged from the blood of a thousand beasts; Used by the dark hero Orkas, during the first Calamity.]
[STRENGTH +10]
[AGILITY +10]
[DEXTERITY +10]
I tried to take the sword first, since it looked like it was all part of the same set, and to my amazement, I could lift it.
No shock, no pain, just the faint sensation of the metal's mana coursing through my skin.
[WARNING]
[MIDNIGHT SET IS SOUL BOUND TO THE USER ONCE EQUIPPED]
[03 ITEMS AVAILABLE]
[EQUIP THE ITEMS?]
[YES] [NO]
The system didn't even need to ask.
There were a few things I wanted to know about the set's history, like who was this dark hero Orkas, and what was that about the first Calamity, but I didn't think I would be getting the answers in the armory.
So I took all the items, pleased to know that the pair of daggers was a single item, and equipped them.
As soon as I thought "yes", the items vanished into thin air, followed by a message from the system.
[MIDNIGHT SET IS NOW BOUND TO THE PLAYER]
[THE PLAYER CAN SUMMON THE EQUIPMENT AT WILL]
Awesome!
[THE ITEM SELECTION AT THE ARMORY HAS ENDED]
[ARMORY WILL NOW CLOSE OFF]
As soon as the system said it, I was back in the park woods.
And it was already night.
I checked the hour in my holowatch, it was 7:26PM.
"Dinner or duty?"
But I already had the answer in my heart.
I didn't want to see my brother's face after what he told me in the guild's building, and I was apprehensive about father, so I took the [HIDDEN NEST KEY] from the inventory, doing the same thing I did with the [ARMORY KEY].
Another door made of light appeared in the tree. But different from last time, the system announced with a blaring beep that almost gave me a headache.
[WARNING]
[ONCE YOU ENTER THE HIDDEN NEST, YOU CAN ONLY EXIT UPON DEFEATING THE BOSS]
[DO YOU STILL WISH TO PROCEED?]
[YES] [NO]
You don't even have to ask.
"Yes."
And I stepped forward.
The Nest's walls seemed to be made of stone, lit by torches with black fire in it.
And in front of me, there were dozens upon dozens of Lizard men, looking straight at me.
I summoned the [MIDNIGHT SISTERS] and prepared to sprint towards them.
"Let's fucking go!"
Ch11. Into the Nest
One thing I can say, for sure.
Fighting holograms in a simulation to test my fighting abilities was one thing.
But fighting real beasts inside a Nest...
It was a whole new deal.
Luckily, I had some thief's skills from my past life, that were useful in a Nest, such as dodging, jumping, sprinting.
And all of these capabilities were basically maxed out because of the system.
As I lunged, stabbed, slashed and pierced, the Lizard men kept rushing towards me, but I dodged, moved, counterattacked and evaded their approach.
It was exhilarating.
[LEVEL UP]
[LEVEL UP]
[LEVEL UP]
The system announced.
But the stone corridor where I had arrived seemed to have no end, so I decided to conserve my strength.
I knew there were many enemies ahead, but there were also many corpses behind me, and I was already at level five.
After some more fighting, I cleared that section of the floor, and hid in the shadows between one torch and another to catch my breath.
'Okay, let's see what's new.' I thought, opening the status window.
NAME: KURT BLAKE
LVL: 05
AGE: 16
CLASS: Rogue
STAMINA: 90/175
HP: 97/140
MP: 95/95
BASIC STATS
Undistributed stat points: 5
Strength: 16 (+10)
Dexterity: 27 (+20)
Agility: 27 (+20)
Perception: 20
Intelligence: 14
Vigor: 30
INVENTORY
***
CONSUMABLES
Full recovery x1
EQUIPMENT
Midnight Ballad
Midnight's embrace
***
SKILLS
Steal LVL 1
Invisible hand LVL 1
Prying eyes LVL 1
I needed to cool my head off, there were so many things I had forgotten about my whole new situation, and I needed to take them into account.
First of all, it wasn't a game.
The system could look like something out of a console, but it wasn't a game at all.
I did feel tired, and I had taken some damage. My mouth was bleeding, and I had a few cuts.
Even though it wasn't anything critical, my status window was there to show me that My HP and my stamina were decreasing, and I didn't know what would happen if my stamina got to zero.
But I remember quite well what happens if my life drops down to zero, and I didn't want it happening again.
Ever.
So I took a deep breath, and weighed my possibilities.
I checked the update on my basic stats, and it made sense, why it was seemingly easier for me to deal with the Lizard men.
I gained one stat point for each basic stat, every time I leveled up. That made me feel a bit more reassured.
I went into the Nest so eager to test everything I just acquired, depending solely on my basic stats, that I even forgot the most basic principle that I read from one of the books that Nikolai sold me in my past life.
Gear up.
And still had one untested item that I needed to check, so I took the [MIDNIGHT'S EMBRACE] from the inventory, and wore it in my ring finger.
It automatically adjusted to perfectly fit my finger.
[A DORMANT SKILL IS READY TO BE AWAKENED]
[DO YOU WISH TO RECEIVE THE SKILL?]
[YES] [NO]
I had a feeling that this system would always be giving me options.
"Yes." I whispered.
[ACQUIRING SKILL]
[SHADOW WALK LVL 1]
[DESCRIPTION: Active skill – Allows the player to become completely unnoticeable by anyone; Enemies of higher power will be able to notice you at the current skill's level.]
[COST: 10M per minute]
It was a cool skill, but I still wasn't good enough on MP to use it at will.
I also had to find out which basic stat influenced on my MP.
It was pretty obvious that strength made me physically stronger, agility and dexterity affected my speed and reaction time.
And ever since I awakened to that system, I was able to slightly feel things that usually are invisible to the human eye, so I imagine it was due to the perception stat.
I assumed that vigor had something to do with my stamina, so I was left with intelligence.
And after some consideration, I got up and prepared to go on.
I wasn't going to use [FULL RECOVERY] just yet, because I would probably need it in the boss room, and I wanted to test my luck with my stats and equipment, now that I had cooled off, without distributing the stat points I still had as a reward from my daily quest.
If I needed to, I would do so before the boss room, but I didn't need to rush it.
All I needed to do, was take things steady and level headed, like when picked a lock, or a pocket.
So I exhaled a deep sigh, slapped my cheeks, and started walking again.
After a sharp turn without a single beast to be seen, the corridor felt like getting wider, brighter, despite the dark torches.
I tried focusing my senses to what laid ahead of me, and was able to feel a presence, not far ahead.
It wasn't so strong, so I activated [SHADOW WALK], and ran towards it, in hopes to kill any Lizard men that waited for me on the way, without getting caught.
Strangely, though, after one minute of running, I found none, so deactivated the skill, and found myself in a vast stone chamber, lit by countless torches of a vibrant, red fire, different from the hallways that led me to that chamber.
In the middle of the chamber was a throne twice my size.
But the most impressive thing was what sat on the throne.
It was a Lizard man, bigger than the throne itself, carrying a massive battle axe, and dressed in what looked like barbarian clothing, full of fur and leather.
And the remaining Lizard men laid prostrated around him, growling and screeching, probably talking to him.
'So I scared you guys away, and you ran straight back to your papa?' I thought, hiding in a piece of shadow on the wall.
I wanted to test my new light sword, so I drew [MIDNIGHT BALLAD] from the inventory, and held it tightly.
I wasn't used to swords, but its blade felt incredibly familiar to my hand.
Almost as if it was forged by commission.
So I inhaled, exhaled, and took a pebble from the floor, to drag their attention somewhere else.
If I was going to do it right, I had to take the minions down first, then go after the big guy.
I focused my strength on my hand, and shot the pebble right at the wall behind the throne.
All Lizard men stood up at the same time, even the big one, growling and drawing their weapons.
And all of them looked in the direction of the sound.
'Time to get the job done...'
And I sprinted towards them with all I had.
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