4- The Encyclopedia

'You've unlocked the 'Encyclopedia''

'New monster discovered'

'Type: Beast'

'Name: Crystal tusk boar'

'Location: Peaceful forest, ???, ???'

The Encyclopedia, Aiden had read about it from the books written by the returning awakened. It was literally an encyclopedia who remembered the new stuff found in the New world ; monsters, minerals, biome, crafts, skills, even new things people built here like cities and villages. It was one of the best perk of being an awakened and really useful tool used by every experienced adventurers.

Aiden now learned two things. First, the Encyclopedia was an innate ability and not a skill like he feared, so he could use it like the best system user. Second, he now knew he was in Peaceful forest. He remembered reading it was a good beginner zone and that the most dangerous creature here was the crystal tusk boar, who he was able to beat, but he didn't know where Peaceful forest was compared to the other zones.

"Grrourbgh"

Aiden's belly made a weird noise and started to feel the hunger rise. He has drifted in the sea for multiple days, climbed a mountain and fought a monster without eating, so he turned around to face the boat, thinking about roasting him, but he only found two pieces of meat and one crystal tusk lying on the ground.

One of the defining trait of the New world, other than the system and danger, was that monsters, trees, rocks and other natural resources wouldn't come out as usual. Chopping a tree would make most of it disappear while leaving only a couple of logs based on luck, mining a mineral or a rock would get you a piece of it without leaving small debris or pebble around. The same thing happened to monsters but with a bigger range ; you could get it's meat, fur, scale, tongue, any body parts as well as stats points, skills and other utilities.

So, Aiden went to the boar's loot and went back to his bonfire. Surprisingly, it was still intact. Aiden took one of the pieces of meat by the bone and started roasting it. When it was done, he took a mouthful of it and felt refreshed. And he was, indeed. He was sitting at 7/10 hp because of the fight and after he ate he was at 8/11.

Aiden never read about this kind of event, but he had a theory he wanted to test out later.

Aiden finished eating and looked up at the starry sky. He closed his eyes and went to sleep.

....

"Aiden, hurry! We'll be late for your grandparents' fifty years anniversary together."

A tall man peeked at Aiden's room from the door frame. He had whitish hair and a muscular frame. He was probably in his thirties but looked more old than he was because of his hair.

"Why do we even go there? They don't even appreciate seeing their son and even less his wife and kid."

"Aiden, we talked about this. They need me and you and mom to be there even if they don't say it."

Aiden closed the book he was reading opened a drawer and shoved it in there. He walked closer to the man and said "Dad, if they insult you or mom a single time I'm leaving."

"Alright, I'll leave too if they insult us, but only if there's no reason to."

"What reason would there be?"

"Well, first off, your attitude young man."

Aiden sighted.

"Okay, let's go, we'll be late."

Aiden and his father left his bedroom, and went outside where Aiden's mother was waiting.

"You two took your time!"

"Well, you know how he is..." let out Aiden's father before being interrupted midway.

"No excuse. Next time both of you, on time."

Aiden's vision became blurry and he screamed.

....

Aiden woke up in distress, a pearl of sweat dripping from his temple.

"A bad dream, eh?"

The sun was rising, the birds were chirping and the wind was blowing. The bonfire didn't survive the night but it did his job while it was alive.

Aiden stood up and searched for his silex. He walked to the other side of the bonfire and took the silex to restart the fire. After he did so, he took the other piece of meat who was waiting for him in a set of leaves to keep it fresh.

Aiden did the same as last night and roasted the meat. He started to munch at it while opening his info card.

*

Name: Aiden Gambetta

Level: 5

Title: none

Class: Thief

Stats

Hp: 8/11

Mp: 5/5

Str: 7

Con: 5

Int: 4

Agl: 4

Luk: 10 + (2)

Unused stat points: 1

Skills

Active - Sticky fingers (S)

Passive - Quick thinker (B)

Passive - Lucky star (C)

Aiden had two thing he wanted to do now. First one was to think of the best place to put his points. He knew he would need strength and constitution to survive but he also wanted to invest in the other stats. Intelligence would help him empower most of his skills and magic attack while agility would help him chase or run away from enemies. There was also the luck stat he felt would be good for him, considering two of his abilities were affected by it.

Aiden didn't feel like he would need to be that much stronger for now so he just forgot it and chose to use them later, if he needs them.

Second was about the theory he had about food in the New world. He thought he would gain more health if he ate the other meat stick, but he didn't get any this time. His theory was wrong but he still thought eating food here would gain him health one way or another. He just needed time to confirm.

Aiden finished eating and stood up. He had received another quest to hunt more crystal tusk boars and he only had five days. The time wasn't a challenge because it took time to kill the boar but because he had to find them.

Aiden took the crystal tusk he had earned from the first boar he had killed and the horn from the abyss demon and went out in the forest to find more monsters.

Aiden followed a path he found in the forest where they were less trees to block him and searched his surrounding while doing so.

As he advanced in the forest, Aiden saw two shiny crystal tusk peek out of a bush and chose to sneak around toward it.

Aiden made sure to make the less sound possible and when he was close to the beast he launched himself forward with his horn and poked outcome of the beast's eye.

Aiden, then, quickly move out of the way. He had learned what these monster would do when struck by surprise.

Aiden let the beast deal with the shock while always staying on the monster's left side, where he poked its eye out. Like that, he was almost invisible to the beast and it couldn't guess correctly where Aiden was.

Aiden didn't lose a beat and used the crystal tusk from his previous kill to launch one final attack at the boar and ended its life.

Boom!

The boar fell on his side and disappeared as the loot appeared. This time there was only one piece of meat. Aiden took it since it would be tonight's dinner.

'Crystal tusk boar killed'

'You gained 23 exp'

Aiden, almost out of breath, thoughts to himself

'Those monster really are fierce. If only I had a real weapon I could probably deal with them in one hit.'

The quest card flashed in front of Aiden's eyes to show his progress.

'Kill five crystal tusk boars: 1/5.'

Aiden continued hunting the boars for the next three day and got either a piece of meat or a tusk or both everytime.

'Kill five crystal tusk boar: 4/5'

'Crystal tusk boar killed'

'You earned 23 exp'

'You leveled up, you are now level 6'

'You gained 3 unused stat points.'

He only had one boar left to kill and had one day left. He didn't get anymore health point from eating either but he leveled him so he had four unused points to use if needed.

Aiden are today's meat piece and chose to sleep to have all the energy he would need to fight the last boar.

Next morning.

Aiden woke up and started his hunting.

He followed an other trail he found yesterday, trying to spot a boar. He walked for a couple of hours until he finally found one. Aiden was now accostumed to the the crystal tusk boars acted and he didn't need that much effort to kill this one. 'Kill five crystal tusk boars: 5/5'

'Quest completed'

'You earned 2 stat points and a hunting quest'

'Quest received: kill one jade tusk boar. Rewards: 3 stat points and an 'inventory'. Failure: you won't be able to get the 'inventory' and you will lose all unused stat points.'

Aiden was flabbergasted, he read about those lucky system user who would get an inventory, which was a kind of magical bag where the user could place his loot and gears or other item he would need. What's more, there wasn't a defined time limit which meant he could use all the time he wanted to get stronger before fighting the jade crystal boar. And, as Aiden thought about his luck he heard his encyclopedia updating with new information in it.

'New monster discovered'

'Type: Beast'

'Name: Jade tusk boar'

'Location: Blood cliff's cavern'