New Skill
With no money to use, Ki Shin needed to find a different way to get weapons. As a beginner, everyone would start off with ten spirit fragments which would allow them to purchase a weapon from the market. He didn't know how much one started with, and since he lost all of his spirit fragments, all that was left was to find a way to hunt monsters. Since Universe was a game that incorporated countless features and even added in the realistic affect, he could try hunting with his bear hands.
Ki Shin looked towards his left and opened up the tab menu once more. He selected the {Player Information} tab to see his stats.
{Player Information}
{Level 1: Human Sage}
{Experience: 0/100}
{Strength: 15}
{Agility: 10}
{Defence: 12}
{Intelligence: 10}
This was the information for his player. Everyone started off with different stats, these would usually depend on ones body in real life. Although at first this would seem like a bad system, however if one took a deeper look then they could tell that this was ingenius. If the stats were affected by real life situations, then would people begin to get healthier and try to maintain a more fit body? Of course. They would try different ways to increase their own stats, and if they could workout and become healthy, then they would. This was also another big reason that Universe became such a popular game.
His stats were above average because of his well built body in real life. The present information was limited because he hadn't started to do anything leveling or upgrading. Different things would appear as one grew stronger in the game.
After knowing his stats, he decided to check the skill tab to see if there were any skills that he knew already.
{Skills}
{No Skills Available}
Ki Shin sighed when he saw this. This game was supposed to make the players develop themselves from scratch. If a player wanted a skill, they could learn from a teacher, self-make one, or buy a skill book. There were many ways to get a skill, so many that it was actually quite surprising. Another good point about Universe was that the amount of skills were innumerable. It really depended on ones creativity. This was how Universe became known as the greatest game. Plus, it was still being worked on every second. New things were added, rules were changed, bugs were fixed, and many more. Ki Shin felt his head become soar just thinking about it.
"Since I don't have any money, let's begin by hinting some monsters before anything else. Maybe I can sell some things and get something out of that." Ki Shin decided to go on a large hunting spree. He didn't know how much any sold for, so he decided to grind for a bit and hopefully level up a little as well.
He pulled out the {Map} tab and began to figure out where he should go. The map said that he beginning spawn was called Everhollow. It was a small town with a market on the top left, residentials areas on the top right while the bottom had all of the different guilds. There were four exits outside the town, but they weren't aligned towards the middle, they were randomly placed, however the closest one was not too far from him.
Ki Shin walked towards the exit of the town and finally stepped outside. Although Everhollow was not enclosed from the top, there were many people surrounding him. Stepping out the town, he found a wall surrounding it. The walled looked to be made out of wooden pikes that stood tall. They didn't look to be too strong, but for a beginning town, they were more than enough.
He casually walked towards the exit of the wall. It was a large hole that looked to be made by a bomb or something alike. It wasn't smooth or even symmetrical, it looked extremely unprofessional. As he approached the wall, he noticed different people gathering in front of the large hole. They were standing in lines, waiting to be let out.
"What's happening? Can't we just walk out?" He felt that a line was a dumb thing to have. If one was coming into the town and there was a line, then he would understand because Everhollow was a place that was meant to be safe so they wouldn't want evil people coming in, however for leaving the place, a line was unnecessary.
The person Ki Shin asked was a man who was at the back of the line. He had green hair with light brown eyes. H also had a sharp gotie which was also a emerald colour. He looked at Ki Shin with scorn and displeasure.
"You don't even know this? Well, yes you don't have to wait in line to leave, however there is a level 20 player ahead who is trying to make a large party. He is going to take some people to a dungeon and so we are all lining to participate." Ki Shin nodded his head but wasn't interested in the dungeon. He knew that he wasn't read for it and that he had no skills whatsoever. He planned to grind for a day or two before doing anything like that.
Ki Shin waved his hand and moved out the line. He began to head towards the front of the gate.
"Hey, what are you doing? You can't cut in line! Get to the back!" The man he was talking to quickly pulled him from the collar. This caused Ki Shin to become extremely displeased.
"What are you doing? I am not trying to cut in line. I am heading out to hunt for monsters. I don't want to join this dungeon hunt or whatever." Ki Shin knocked the man's hand away before proceeding forward. The goatee man was shocked towards Ki Shin. Everyone was willing to wait in long lines to participate in such an event.
'Is his head a screw loose or something? This is a chance in a lifetime!' The man grumbled because of Ki Shin.
As a shy person, Ki Shin would usually just go with what others would say. However, he wanted to change in Universe. Since his goal was to be the bad guy, he couldn't have others pushing him around.
He slowly progressed forward, quickly reaching the exit. People in the line locked at him with surprise and mockery. Some were even angry, which made no sense to Ki Shin.
'What the heck is wrong with these people? I am just trying to leave the town, do they have to stare at me like that?' Ki Shin felt that he was being wronged. Sure he wanted to be the bad guy, and he expected such stares in the future, however he wasn't the bad guy yet, so why were they staring at him like that now?
He felt that he finally saw how people were. As long as one was different, others would dislike that and try to make the unique person feel bad. He wasn't doing anything abnormal, he just didn't want to participate.
Ki Shin finally reached the front of the gates, however he quickly looked at the guards who were standing by. He saw their levels and couldn't help but be surprised.
{Everhollow Guard: Level ??}
A question mark for a level? What did that mean? Since this was his first time playing a video game, he could be considered a noob. So, many of the things he saw were very new to him. He assumed that it was something that he probably couldn't see because he wasn't strong enough, which was actually true. A question mark for a player's or NPC's level could be because of different reasons, however the most common reason was because the NPCs level was too high for the payer currently. They would only be able to see it in the future., when they became stronger.
As Ki Shin bypassed the gates, he found that the line took a right. It kept going pretty far which caused him to gape. He couldn't help but feel that people were a little too interested in this. Although a small amount of interest grew inside of him as well, he decided to not go and figure out who the level 20 player was. He just wanted to grin his way to an ok level and make some Spirit Fragments.
Ki Shin approached the forest and suddenly he got a notification.
{Discovered: Hollow Forest}
{+30 Experience}
Ki Shin wa surprised that he got so much experience just for discovering a new place. He needed a total of 100 Exp to level up, but he got a less than half of that already.
"Seems like leveling early won't be that difficult." Knowing that Ki Shin walked into Hollow Forest.
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Ki Shin had been jogging through the forest for a while, however he hadn't run into anything as of yet. He began to feel somewhat displeased that there were no monsters. Although the forest was for beginners he felt that there should still be some monsters that he could kill. After running for another a minute or so, Ki Shin decided to take a break.
Around him were large trees that looked like skyscrapers. The thick green leaves that covered the branches swayed slightly under the pressure of the wind. Suddenly a thought hit Ki Shin.
"How the heck am I going to fight monsters without any moves? Should I practice some fist moves and see if that can create a skill?" It was commonly known that certain movements in the game could create skills. A person that practiced a large amount of kicking movements would eventually be able to create a kick skill. Ki Shin had to come up with a small attack skill before finding a monster because if he didn't then he wouldn't know how to attack the monsters.
Ki Shin waked up to one of the trees and stood in front. He got into a attack position where his dominant foot was behind him and his knees were bent. He took a deep breath before…
"Hah! Hah! Hah!" He kept punching the tree with his fists.
{-1 Health}
{-1 Health}
{-1 Health}
{Skill Acquired: Self-Harming Fist Level: 1}
Ki Shin saw that his health was slowly decreasing as he hit the tree, however a sudden message popped up. He was thrilled that a skill was created but he felt dumbfounded because of the name.
"Self-Harming Fist? Well, it's not my fault that I was losing health while trying to create a skill." Ki Shin felt that the game was being unfair. He sighed before quickly reading the skill description.
{Self-Harming Fist: Deal large amounts of damage to low level creatures. Take 10% of the damage dealt to the enemy as recoil.}
Ki Shin couldn't help but rub his forehead. Although he could deal high damage to monsters, he would take a huge recoil just for that. Plus,. He didn't even know how much damage he would deal exactly.
'This game really needs a better description system. This is absolute crap!' He couldn't help but curse the game for their lack of description.
Although he was feeling that the game was trying to troll him, Ki Shin decided to move deeper into the forest. He finally had a attack skill so he would fair well against low leveled monsters.
Slowly, he progressed through the forest. As he ran through, he practiced his skill on the trees. His health was slowly decreasing, however with a small resting period he would recover it all back.
Half an hour passed Ki Shin finally ran into his first monster. He looked at the name of the creature and couldn't help but release a sigh of relief.
[Level 1 Green Slime! Health 20/20]
It was one of the weakest creatures in the game. Although he himself was level one, his health was still five times that of the slime. Feeling confident, Ki Shin walked out from behind the trees with a large.
"Little slime, today is your lucky day. You will the first monster I kill on my path to being a great evil player. Haha!" Not thinking about anything else, Ki Shin jumped towards the slime. His face carried a wicked smile that looked somewhat intoxicated. He quickly got in front of the slime and swung his fist.
"Self-harming Fist!" He screamed loudly.
{Slime has taken 5 damage. You have lost 0.5 health.}
Ki Shin was stunned. His attack took a full twenty-five percent of the slimes health. He smiled brightly before another notice came out of nowhere.
{Slime has been angered. Evolving into large Red Slime.}
The small, sute slime transformed into a large red slime that almost resembled a blob of blood. Ki Shin was dumbfounded and looked at the new slime with wide eyes.
[Level 5 Large Red Slime! Health: 95/100]
'What the heck just happened!?'