System Change

Derek got up the next morning after a restful night of meditation. With the sun finally out, he could make sense of all that had happened. First, he did a quick once over of his chest to see if there was any residual damage remaining. Fortunately for him, it seemed that either his multiple Rejuvenations or his Greater Meditation had been able to completely heal him without allowing any scarring to occur.

In fact, as he looked over his chest, he realized that there was actually less scarring there than there used to be. I guess the acid ate through the original scars and when the healing fixed my chest, it went ahead and put me together anew. Damn, I actually like having the scars. I’ll definitely have to watch out for creatures that use acid from now on.

Next, Derek decided that he had to do what he had been dreading since last night. He had to see the damage caused to his chest armor. With a shake of his hand, his chest piece was on the ground beside him. With his hand, he flipped it over to view the front side.

Dammit! He cursed internally. Not only was the chest piece terribly damaged, but the acid was still on it, eating through. If he could not think of something to do, the armor would become an irreparable piece of scrap metal. For the time being, all he could do was store the armor again to prevent further damage. Derek grabbed the shoulder of the armor and it vanished back into his bracelet.

Derek thought about and looked at different things stored inside his bracelet. He needed to know if he had something that could help. He had some rags, bedding, and clothes, but he knew based on his shirt from the previous night that trying to wipe the acid off with cloth would have next to no effect on it.

Eventually, he decided that he would wait until he could find a stream to try to wash the acid off. With his armor taken care of for now, he pulled a new shirt out of his storage and wore it. It was another solid black, cheap cotton shirt, one that he used to be able to buy for just a few dollars at any supermarket. I wish I would have bought more of these. Derek imagined himself in the same style tunic that Thomas was wearing and shuddered.

Now it’s time to reap my rewards. Derek began going through all the notifications he had received after killing the Acidic Ghoul.

You have killed level 115 Acidic Ghoul.

Level Up

Level Up

Level Up

Level Up

Level Up

680/965 Experience to Next Level

Wow, that was a quick five levels. I could probably hit level 80 in no time there. Derek really wanted to stay under level 25 so he could enter those dungeons. He shook his head and checked his next notification.

Congratulations! You have slain a creature 100 levels above your own.

Award Updated

Derek looked at his newly updated award.

Greater Giant Slayer

By slaying a creature 100 levels above your own, you have shown courage beyond comparison. Your current Award has been upgraded. You have received the following:

1 Skill Point

1 Skill Upgrade Point

Oh? I thought I was only supposed to get the one extra skill point. Another upgrade point is a big surprise. Derek was starting to think that possibly losing his armor was not going to be worth the reward, but with the extra skill upgrade point, it made the blow hurt much less.

Hmm? Why do I have more notifications? Derek was confused. He could not think of a reason that he would have more notifications other than maybe a skill leveling, but he could still see multiple messages waiting for him to read. He opened the first one.

You have assisted in killing a level 84 Forest Wolf (Diseased).

1509 Experience Gained

Level Up

Level Up

163/1170 Experience to Next Level

What… The… Fuck… Derek was speechless. He thought back to everything that he remembered happening. Finally, it hit him. The fucking wash cloth. Of course, Derek was thinking about the wolf he picked up and used as a makeshift wet wipe. Holy shit! I’m glad the shirt I threw didn’t land on a monster. How come it’s hard to get levels when you need them, but easy when you don’t want them?

Finally, Derek opened up the last notification.

Congratulations

Greater Meditation has reached level 2

Now that is nice. He still could not help but imagine a time when he would be able to fight with Greater Meditation active.

Overall, I would say it was a very profitable trip. Derek was still sad about his armor, but when he thought about how it was made by a level 125 Blacksmith from some planet in the other system, it made sense that the acid would damage it. Hell, I’m lucky that it held up against that Void Beast. It had to have been around level 150 or something. Now that he had fought a true level 115 beast, he could finally compare something to the Void Beast.

Finally, it was time to return to the village. But, in order to return, Derek had to make his way back to the dungeon so he could recognize the way he came from. He trudged slowly towards the more diseased part of the forest. The same as he did when he was initially going in.

Soon, he found the grey orb again. He checked his surroundings, looking at the damage he had caused the night before. He chuckled. Looks like a tornado hit the place. The area was destroyed worse than it had been previously. The damage was all in a circular pattern from when he used his ‘farming mobs’ strategy.

He had wondered why he had not seen anyone other than him implement this strategy yet. It was a well-known method in RPGs to gather and kite around as many monsters as possible before killing them all at once. It saved a ton of time, and he had been using the same method since he first received the system. Of course, the Wide Sweep skill had a great part in the strategy actually working for him. I guess everyone doesn’t have a good area of effect skill, or the speed to make it work.

While looking at the damage, he saw something in the distance. Oh, is that the ghoul? It was odd because, while it seemed to be at the right distance, there seemed to be more than the ghoul there. He went over to see what happened.

To his surprise, there were at least a dozen dead beasts laying at or around the body of the Acidic Ghoul. Derek trembled with horror at the amount of experience that could have very well went to him. I dodged a bullet on that. It seemed like the beasts had run over the acid covered corpse while chasing Derek after he dispatched the ghoul. He would have tried to dismantle some of the corpses, but the potent acid had made the hides unsalvageable.

Derek stopped thinking about it and walked back over to the dungeon entrance. From there, he looked around and got a good idea of where he had come from. Then he began his long trek back. I wonder if that damned bunny is still hanging around here.

He still decided that there was no need to hurry because there was plenty of time remaining before the boy’s birthday. He traveled leisurely, still making sure to use Identify every chance he got. The higher the level his Identify skillwas, the less he had to worry about anyone discovering his secret.

Hours later, he found one of the fire pits he had made the night before he found the dungeon. Not seeing a reason to waste it, he gathered wood and started up another fire. Derek took a flask out of his bracelet to relieve his thirst, then closed his eyes and entered meditation. Halfway through the night, a slight smile appeared in the corner of his mouth.

In the morning, he opened his eyes and looked at the sun beaming through the trees. Then he looked past the dead fire to see a little bunny snoozing on the ground. “Hey! Wake up!” He yelled at the stupid rabbit. The bunny shot at least 3 meters into the air before landing and looking over at Derek.

He could see that the rabbit did not find his antics funny. After staring at him for a moment, the bunny shot over the fire pit directly into Derek. This time, instead of Derek dodging, the bunny hit him in the chest and bounced off. “You better cut that shit out. I need a level 50 monster to take back with me, and right now you’re looking like the prime candidate.” Derek warned the little rabbit.

He did not know if the bunny understood or not, but it hopped a couple meters away and waited. “Now, you can stay with me while I’m in the forest, but when I leave the edge, you will have to stay in the forest.” Derek told the bunny, but the bunny just stared back at him dumbly. “Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?” It just stared at him.

Derek let out a sigh. “Well, I’m tired of calling you bunny, rabbit, and dumbass. Let’s give you a new name. What do you think?” Silence. Derek shook his head and thought about a name. “Hmm, we can call you Snowball, or Bella.” Derek laughed at the names. “Yeah, I know, there is no way I would give anything such a generic pet name. Let’s see. You’re stupid, have silver gray fur, and are always trying to kill me… Ding Bat? No…” Suddenly, a light bulb went off in Derek’s head. “I got it, the perfect name. From henceforth the bunny known as dumbass will now be referred to as… Silvi.”

With that, Derek stood up and began walking through the forest. “Come on, Silvi, there are things that need head-butting.”

The man and beast continued their journey in the forest.