Chapter 22: Round Two

Renan opened the front door to his house, and the very first thing he noticed when coming inside was the fragrance and delicious aroma of cooked food. He took a good sniff then traced the aroma all the way to the dining room, and there he saw both his parents setting up the table for dinner.

"Good evening folks, I'm home." Renan said to make his presence known in the room.

At the same time, his father and mother's eyes were naturally drawn towards him, and when they saw that it was their son they immediately put on happy expressions.

"Welcome home, honey. I hope the train wasn't too crowded when you got here."

While still holding a stack of plates in her hands, his mother kindly regarded him with a tender loving smile on her face. On the other hand, his father, who was helping his wife like a good-natured husband, also acknowledged his son with a wide grin on his face.

"Yo kiddo, how's the day been for you?" He asked merrily.

Every time he saw this scene when he got home, he would always subconsciously feel a warm bliss welling up inside of him.

These parents of his were truly awesome, to say the least, and for as long as he could remember they had been there all the time to support the family first and foremost. Although he couldn't honestly say that his family was great in every way, especially when it comes to his siblings, never once in his life would he ever feel that he was wronged by God when he brought him up in this family.

Renan chose to approach his Mom first and slowly took the stack of plates off her hands. Then, he placed them on the table and started distributing the plates in each one of the seats, but his mother quickly stopped him by putting a hand on the plates.

"That's no good honey, you should go to your room first and change out of your school uniform. Leave this task to me and your father, for now, okay?" She gently said and removed the plate he was holding in his hand.

Renan didn't argue with her this time and simply put on a smile while saying, "If that's what you want then I guess I have no other choice."

But before leaving them, he couldn't forget to pay his respects to his parents. He grasped the back of his mother's free hand and brought it over to his forehead. Next, he moved his head to directly touch the back of her hand—this was the traditional way of greeting your elders in the country. After doing the same thing to his father, he finally decided to leave the room.

"By the way Renan, don't forget to call your siblings down on your way back here."

"I got it."

And so, he went to the second floor and into his bedroom, changed into a new set of home clothes, and subsequently knocked on the doors of his three siblings. After calling everyone down for dinner, the whole family gathered in the dining room and ate. Nothing of particular interest happened while they were dining, so Renan left when he was finished and immediately went back to his bedroom.

"It's time to log in the game again…" Renan muttered to himself as he approached the Gaming Capsule.

Just as he arrived in front of it, the sliding door opened up with a 'Psh' sound, as the air pressure inside of it was released from its confines. Renan quickly took everything off except for his boxers, and entered the capsule with his bare feet. The capsule automatically closed on its own while sleeping gas and other kinds of drugs seeped out of the ventilation.

[Portal is starting… Fatal Fantasy launching…]

A mechanical voice resounded right next to his ears while his consciousness gradually darkened. This marks the second time he enters the virtual world of Fatal Fantasy.

…

Renan soon regained his state of mind and when he opened up his eyes, he found himself back to where he previously left off—the Adventurers Guild. Unfortunately, he didn't see Ars anywhere waiting for him. But he didn't worry too much about it because her current whereabouts could easily be found if he just checked his friends list.

More importantly though, he wanted to see what his stats were like right now since coming to this game. He held his index finger in the air for a couple of seconds and swiped it down, thus materializing the menu window. Pressing the slot box that read [Character Page], he briefly scrolled through its contents before stopping where his stats were shown.

Health: 400/400

Mana: 200/200

Armor: 5

Magic Resistance: 0

Physical Damage: 9-13

Magic Damage: 5-9

Attack Speed: 7

Movement Speed: 6

Strength: 0

Intelligence: 0

Vitality: 0

Wisdom: 0

Dexterity: 3 (+3)

Agility: 2 (+3)

Luck: 0

Charisma: 0

[Available Attribute Points: 10]

N/A

[Available Elemental Points: 1]

(Fury Swipes, Active Lv. 1)

[Available Skill Points: 1]

"Oh? I guess I have some unspent attribute points from leveling up."

Lobo, which was the name of his character in the game, was currently standing at level 3, and from what he knew every consecutive level up grants the player 5 AP each time. Additionally, whenever the players hit the threshold of five levels like 5, 10, 15, 20, and so on; they will be given one precious point by the system for Elemental Affinities and Skill Masteries respectively.

Renan had prior knowledge of this leveling information already, and he also didn't linger too long on the decision of allotment for his Attribute Points. He simply put five points in strength and divided the rest between dexterity and agility. As a result, his physical damage saw a sharp increase in numbers, and the same went for his attack speed and movement speed, albeit not as distinguishable since it was only two to three points.

Now he had a base damage of 15 for physical attacks, and coupled with his weapon it went up to a drastic 22-26 points of physical damage. Comparatively, he could now kill those small fry goblins he encountered in the Dark Forest in 40 seconds or less from the former minute and a half. It was a huge improvement that made him smile from ear to ear.

'Now this is the sort of power that I wanted. And boy does it feel good!' He thought as he clenched his fist tightly, clearly feeling the strength and fire surging inside of him that was ready to be unleashed.

For now, he turned his gaze away from his balled fist and looked up at the direction in front of him.

"It's finally time to set out on another epic adventure with my new teammates!" So, he marched on with unsurpassing confidence in himself and great anticipation for what fate has in store for him.