The Mountains

The bright morning light swept over the mountains, leaving dark shadows on the ground. The melodious sound of chirping birds filled the small valley.

It was now the third day of Roland's departure and he found himself in a vast mountain range, surrounded by lush trees and abundant wildlife. He could hear the chirping of birds, and the rustle of leaves overhead.

The door had lead straight to another path on the other side of the mountain. He had followed the path, which led to this valley. Looking around, he found a small cave nearby. Within, he found what seemed like a small, furry family of creatures. They were all shaped like a ball, the soft-looking fur covering their bodies.

Though they were cute, Roland decided not to let his guard down. No matter how adorable they looked, he was still wary. That level 4 cat could've easily hurt him, and if these things were any higher than level ten, Roland wasn't sure how he would deal with them. Just as he got within a close enough distance to them, every single one of them turned towards him at the same time.

'Ahhh!'

Now that they had turned around, he was immediately less fond of them. They had their backs to him earlier, so he couldn't see their faces, but now, he regretted getting closer. At this distance, he could easily see a giant eyeball practically covered in a layer of skin and fur. As he rolled away, he could see them open their mouths, the entire eye opening up to show their tiny, sharp teeth. Just as he thought it couldn't get any worse, the hair on all their bodies straightened, before being shot at him!

Faced with a literal barrage of hair, Roland immediately tried to fly out of the way, making most of the hairs miss.

"Tink!"

"Tink!"

"Tink!"

Although he was hit by the hairs, Roland found they didn't do any damage to him! They were sharp, but they couldn't pierce through the hard rock on his body! To make a metaphor, it was like throwing needles at a steel wall! It's not that the needles weren't sharp enough, the wall was just too solid!

Looking at them, he noticed the hairs on their bodies were gone, leaving them temporarily unable to defend themselves.

Making use of the opportunity, he tried out wind Blade. Creating three blades of wind, one for each of them, he sent them flying towards the creatures.

"Thud!"

Surprisingly, the wind blade wasn't sharp enough to pierce through their hides. He could see a part of their body caving in slightly though before they were sent flying into the air.

He noticed that a layer of fur had formed on their bodies while he had been charging up wind blade, allowing them to reduce the impact.

Knowing the fur increased their defenses, Roland changed his target to their eyes. It was the only part of their body that was left defenseless.

Flying towards them to get some better aim, he shot out another wind blade, using a third of his mana while he was at it. He could feel pure mana jump into effect, quickly recovering his mana. Moreover, he could feel the wind blade becoming more compressed and much sharper than before.

Splat!

This time, the attack hit the creature just as it finished blinking. The entire eye was split in half, falling out of the layer of skin covering it.

Just looking at it almost made Roland barf. The insides of the creature were falling from the sky along with a shower of blood.

Looking away, Roland turned towards the other two of its kind.

'Huh? Where did they go?'

While he was fighting the creature, the other two had taken the opportunity to escape.

He had been planning to them as well so he could get some more system points.

'Oh well' At the very least, those things weren't chasing after him anymore.

"Ding!"

[You have slain Vicious Eye Lv. 9]

[60 System Points Obtained]

[You have leveled up]

[You have 3 bonus stat points]

[You have leveled up]

[You have 6 bonus stat points]

'I leveled up again!' Roland thought excitedly. He decided to focus on the system points later. Now with 6 stat points to spare, Roland decided to spend one on mana. He wanted to test out its effect first to find out what it did.

Pressing the plus sign next to mana on the status screen, he immediately felt a torrent of mana gush towards him like a tsunami.

He could sense his body absorbing the mana greedily, sucking it all in. As he absorbed the mana, he could feel an invigorating sensation all over his body. Moreover, he had a sense of boundless strength, making him feel invincible.

'Huh?'

Suddenly, the sensation was gone. He found that the effect of the upgrade had subsided. Realizing this, he checked his status page to see what had changed.

[Form: Rock (Unidentified)] [Lv. 6]

[EXP: 100/500]

[System Points] [66]

[Stat Points] [5]

[HP: 20/20]

[Def] [11] +

[Mana] [2] +

[Skills]

[Spirit Sense Lv.2] [Basic Mind Magic Lv.4] [Pure Mana Lv.1] [Wind Blade Lv.4]

Continuing forwards, he rolled along the dirt path. It was quite nice seeing the trees and flowers alongside the road. He had never gone outside much in his past life. Slowly, he followed the route, slowly heading up the mountain.

"Ding!"

[Chained Quest: Hidden Mana Source]

[Part One]

[Requirements for completion:]

[Reach the mountaintop]

[Rewards:]

[25 SP]

'Another quest?' He noticed that this was a Chained Quest. This meant that after he completed part one, he would move on to part two, and so on until there were no more parts to the quest. This also meant that the tasks would progressively get harder, and have greater rewards. Since this was a Chained Quest, this also meant that each of the parts would be connected to each other. The first task was to reach the mountaintop, so the second one might be to fight monsters on the mountain or something else.

The path was already leading to the top of the mountain, so all he had to do was follow it. As he was traveling, he thought it might be a good idea to review what he knew about the system and this world. His system had achievements he could do, giving him system points and allowing him to buy things from the shop. They might have other purposes, but that was all he knew right now.

The system also had repeatable achievements, that reset every day. These gave fewer rewards but gave him a clear goal to work towards compared to normal achievements, for which the requirements were unknown until he completed it. He could level up by defeating things and gained stat points to put into defense and mana. Defense increased his ability to take damage, and mana would give him a higher mana capacity. There might b.e a few other effects. but those were currently unknown.

As for the world itself, he had discovered a few things. First of all, the trees and flowers were a lot bigger. He assumed this was due to the presence of mana, which may have stimulated their growth. Besides that, the creatures in this world were extremely attracted to mana. Although he wasn't sure why, it might have been due to their levels. His theory was that mana would help them grow, increasing their level. He knew that there was likely a different way the people living here used to classify them though. They couldn't all have a system, right?

However, the reason why the monsters kept chasing him was likely due to the mana in his body. Occasionally, he would see two creatures fighting over a source of mana. It could be a flower, a blade of grass, or even a rock like him. He just walked by and they didn't notice him. The good thing about this area was that the mana was abundant, so they didn't notice him since the mana in his body was less than that of mana-rich objects and closer to that of the normal objects in the mountains. Luckily, he hadn't used all his stat points on mana, or else he likely would have been chased all over the place, like when he was in the dark forest.

Eventually, the sun started to set. Unlike the moons, it was just like the one in his past life, burning a bright red as it sunk past the horizon.

Just as he decided to get a rest and replenish his mana, he noticed something strange; There were no sounds in the forest. It was far too quiet.