Chapter 10 - Energy

Chapter 10 – Energy

*Rustle* *Rustle*

"Hmm?" Adrian looked at a bush at his side and he stopped eating the roasted rabbit meat. He picked up the farming sickle at his side and prepared for battle.

It was common knowledge that there would be many dangerous nocturnal beasts lurking around at night. Thus, it was advisable to light a fire to drive them away because they were afraid of the light.

However, once in a while, it would not work. More so if the beasts were hungry and the smell of food attract them more then the fire deflected them.

Adrian prepared for battle as he was not sure what kind of monsters would appear. If it was real-life, a tiger or bear would appear. Even so, he was in a fantasy game where monsters were stronger than a tiger and a bear.

Suddenly, a pair of fluffy white long ears poked out of the bush. "White Rabbit?" Adrian mumbled and a white rabbit indeed came out of the bush.

"Sigh~ I thought it is a strong monster," Adrian felt relieved. A white rabbit was not a problem to him. The white rabbits he hunted throughout the day all did not fight back. They were all trying to run away.

Adrian looked at the white rabbit and saw it stared at the roasted rabbit meat Adrian had.

"… Why is it staring at my meat?" Adrian wondered. "Isn't rabbit herbivore?" He was confused at the rabbit and the confusion increased as the white rabbit started drooling from looking at the meat.

"!!!" Adrian felt a sense of crisis because he was in a fantasy game. He forgot about this for a moment because what appeared in front of him was a rabbit.

The white rabbit suddenly smiled with its saliva drooping out of its mouth and its pointy sharp teeth were shown.

"Monster!!!" Adrian was shocked.

The rabbit suddenly dashed towards the meat at a speed faster than the white rabbit Adrian fought during the day. Adrian slashed at the incoming white rabbit but the white rabbit calmly stepped on the sickle's blade and leaped toward the roasted rabbit meat.

"!!!" Adrian was surprised.

The rabbit bit on the roasted meat and Adrian let the meat go. "Appraised!" he decided to check on the rabbit's name. He was 100% sure that this was not a normal rabbit. Everyone with common sense would be able to figure it out too.

Name: Sharp Teeth White Rabbit

Species: Rabbit

Grade: D

Level: 1

"A Grade D!" Adrian was surprised for a bit but he did not stay idle and immediately strike on the new rabbit while it was eating the rabbit meat.

Adrian swung the farming sickle to kill the rabbit but the rabbit managed to dodge with the roasted meat in its mouth.

"Grr!!!" the Sharp Teeth White Rabbit was growling at Adrian because he disturbed its eating time. The rabbit's legs shone lightly and suddenly, it dashed at a high speed towards Adrian. The rabbit tackled Adrian and he was thrown away backward for a few meters. Adrian wanted to dodge but he was too slow.

[Adrian's Health -18. Health remaining: 92]

The rabbit landed on the tree and once again darted towards Adrian. Adrian rolled over to evade and he did it but the rabbit continued dashing on another tree and once again attacked Adrian.

The attack landed and Adrian was once again thrown by the attack.

[Adrian's Health -18. Health remaining: 74]

'A few more attacks and I am out!' Adrian in crisis. He tried to get up but the rabbit once again hit him. All of its legs were on Adrian's stomach and he fell on his back with the rabbit on top of his stomach.

[Critical Hit! Adrian's Health -36. Health Remaining: 38]

[Warning, Health below 50%. If your health reaches 0%, you will be forced to log out and need to wait for a few hours before you can log in again. You will also lose some of the items, materials, or anything you have in your storage]

"!!!" Adrian was shocked.

The rabbit's legs shone again and Adrian felt a weird sensation to his body. At the same time, his Energy stat decreased and increased back by one. The rabbit dashed away from Adrian to a nearby tree and wanted to continue attacking Adrian.

'I need to do something! Speed is this guy's main strength,' Adrian racked his brain to get out of this predicament. He was too slow to attack the speedy rabbit and he was too slow to run away too. He needed to think of a method to survive this battle.

"!!!" An idea appeared on his mind. Adrian pulled out his other rabbit meat and threw it away. The rabbit wanted to continue attacking but when it saw the meat, its attention diverted from Adrian.

'It works!' Adrian was happy and he did not waste his time and escaped from that place. Adrian did not want to provoke the rabbit. He continued running as fast as he could and when he felt that the rabbit did not chase after him, he stopped.

"Hah! Hah! Hah!" Adrian breathed heavily. "I thought I will get ousted again." He took a deep breath to calm himself and he felt relieved that he succeeded in escaping but he lost his two portions of rabbit meats.

"It is too dangerous staying on the ground," Adrian climbed on a tree he felt tall enough to escape from any dangerous monsters and decided to stay there for the night.

"How long will it take to restore my Health?" Adrian wondered. His Health was low and his Energy had depleted for a bit from running just now.

[It will take one hour to restore one Health point] Future answered his question even though Adrian did not ask him.

"One hour?!" Adrian was shocked. How long would it take to restore all of his Health?

[One hour in Progress' time not real-time. If you want faster healing, eat] Future replied.

Adrian decided to eat the fruits he collected throughout the day. He needed to restore his Health point of he would be in trouble again. He thought that after raising his stats, he would be fine against the monsters but he was wrong.

"I can defeat a normal rabbit but that rabbit monster is too strong for me," Adrian mumbled while munching on an apple. He needed to finish the whole apple to heal one Health.

"A Grade D creature is still too dangerous for me. A Grade C creature like the slime is further away from that. I cannot injure the slime even a bit and I cannot touch the rabbit even once," Adrian sighed. "Even normal rat is too hard to hunt."

"Without skills and good equipment, I cannot fight anything other than the herbivore rabbit," Adrian mumbled. "How can I create skill? Getting better equipment in the middle of the forest is impossible but learning skill is possible… I think?"

[You can create a skill in real-life and improve them in the game. However, you can only improve the skill once you learn the most important skill. A skill creates in real-life is not effective against monsters in Progress. Only the improved version will work well]

"Any tip?" Adrian asked. Since his Authority Level was considered high, he might get a clue from Future.

[You need to learn how to use your Energy. For now, you use the Energy passively like for walking, running, and working. An effective skill against the monster needs to use Energy actively. You will learn this when you arrive at the settlement] Future replied. He told Adrian quite a lot of things.

"I always thought this Energy point is my stamina but it can be used for skills too," Adrian understood and he remembered when the Sharp Teeth White Rabbit dashed earlier, its body shone a bit and maybe that was the Energy Future spoke about.

"If only I can use it, is it possible to even damage the slime?" Adrian mumbled.

[Obviously. Slime's weakness is not only the core but also the Energy-based attack] Future replied to Adrian's mumbling.

"Can you teach me how to use the Energy?" Adrian asked.

[No. That will be cheating. You can learn it at the settlement. If you want to learn it faster, reach the settlement as fast as you can] Future replied. Adrian pursed his lip.

'So, Future can only give a tip and will not help the Player to cheat,' Adrian nodded and he continued eating his apple. A few minutes later, he finished an apple, and his Health and Energy restored by one.

'Sigh… do I need to eat 70+ apples to fully restore my Health?' Adrian felt tired. 'I really need to reach the settlement fast. They may sell potions or foods to restore Health and Energy better.'

Adrian closed his eyes and continued munching the apple. While he was eating, he reviewed back of his battle against the Sharp Teeth White Rabbit. It was unsightly but he could learn a lot of things from that battle.

While Adrian was reviewing the battle, he remembered the part where he received the critical hit. He also remembered the weird feeling he got when the rabbit wanted to dash away from him.

"…" Adrian was silent and he tried to recall that memory back. Then, he opened his eyes. "…That feeling is the Energy. Can I learn to use the Energy with that feeling?" Adrian wondered and he decided to give it a try.

Adrian focused himself and tried to induce that feeling he felt from the rabbit. He sat silently on the tree branch and did his best to feel that feeling again.

One minute.

Two minutes.

Three minutes.

Ten minutes.

Twenty minutes.

Adrian did not move and continued focusing on inducing the feeling of the Energy. Slowly and steadily, he started to feel a hint of that feeling. An hour later, Adrian opened his eyes and he smiled.

"I can feel it!" He was excited. Adrian opened his status menu and looked at his stats. He had 109 Energy points and tried to induce that feeling again.

When he felt that feeling in his stomach, his Energy points decreased by one to 108. "This feeling is indeed the Energy!" Adrian confirmed it and he tested to see how long the feeling lasted for one point of energy.

"One minute for one Energy point. What if with two points?" Adrian used two points of Energy.

"Same duration but stronger feeling and wider range," Adrian smiled. Then, he continued training using Energy.

[…] Future was silently spectating this scene. [His focus is a bit too much… He will be able to create skills much earlier than others]