The Apex Predator Returns
From burning in a fire to taking over a body.
Truly an interesting experience.
Okay, maybe some context is needed.
Kazu was just like your everyday teenager, going to school, hanging out with friends, and playing games. But, he wasn't exactly your average player, he was the best of the best. The absolute apex predator, which was fitting for him considering the name he always used in games was simply 'Apex'.
That name couldn't describe him any better as he was always on the top of the leader board in any game he played, no matter how simple or complex. He had a reputation to uphold as the greatest gamer of all time, after all. What is the greatest gamer if they weren't the absolute best?
But, he had unfortunately met his end, and you could have guessed, it was by being burned alive. Yeah, let's move on from that topic, it wasn't a good experience. But, it seemed that he had fortunately been given a second chance, having awoken in a body that wasn't his own.
He had heard of this phenomenon in stories, but they were just that, stories. To actually be experiencing such a possibility first hand was shocking at first, though he did make sure to stay calm and composed. Panicking and questioning his sanity wasn't exactly going to help.
In all honesty, he should be happy, he got a second chance. So, there was no way he was going to waste it!
On top of that, the body he had been reborn into was that of a young male around the same age as himself when he died, that being fifteen. But, it was also added to the fact that this dude was living in the future, a few decades ahead in fact.
He had managed to find out based on a few things, first being that the room he had woken up in was way too futuristic looking with the white walls, holographic television, and more. The computer was also highly-advanced, though they seemed to function pretty much the same aside from the fact that you could interact with it as a hologram.
From what he had found out, the current date was January 20th in the year 2120.
That was literally an entire century ahead in the future, and that completely shocked him. Just what could he have possibility missed out on in all those years? Just what games had he missed playing? Well, it wasn't like he could complain about it, those years had already gone by.
However, there was one very exciting piece of news that he had found online. Apparently there was this brand new game that had been released for around a month now, a game that apparently had rose in popularity so fast that it now had millions of players on daily across the entire world.
It was a game called Boundless Realm, and from the description, it was a self-evolving game that held infinite possibilities and mystery that even the administrators don't know all about. It utilised a highly-advanced system to continuously build on the world automatically in response to all the player's actions.
Just the idea of such a game made his brain go haywire. Such a game could never had been possible a century ago, and he was going to be playing this game no matter what! It was a VRMMO to boot, a concept that was put into consideration, but to think that it actually came into fruition.
As of right now, he could be seen sitting on the computer looking through all the recent news about the world. He needed to catch up as much as he could, he had the knowledge of the previous century after all. Thankfully, not too much had changed except for the introduction of new technology and a few major events, no wars thankfully.
"Bro, Youtube is dead..."
Youtube was probably the most famous video-sharing website he had ever known, and the fact that it no longer existed now was crazy. It had been replaced with a thing he found out to be called Vrazz, which was pretty much just the same thing as Youtube with a few more features.
In fact, pretty much every social media and website he had ever visited was now completely non-existent from the few simple searches he had done. It was as if they were completely wiped off the face of the planet, though it had been a century, so it wasn't too surprising they had kicked the bucket at some point in the past few decades.
"Man, the world sure has changed. Though, some things have become rather pathetic..." He couldn't help but frown as he scrolled through a few things on the Boundless Realm webpage. He was looking at the leader board. "So, these are the current top ten players across the servers, huh?"
On the leader board were the names of the top ten players who were at the highest levels across all the servers of the game, he looked at each name with interest and made sure to memorise them. Each name had their level stated next to them, as well as the realm they were from.
Realms were basically the different parallel worlds of sorts that made up the entire game, and each realm had a certain number of players as their players could choose which to start in. In other words, they were simply servers.
"We'll see how long that lasts..."
"Zion, your package has arrived!"
"Thanks, mum!" Zion, the new name belonging to Kazu ever since being reincarnated into this body, had been called out to by the voice of his mother. Well, the mother of the actual person who this body belonged to before.
It seemed that over the years, names had gotten even stranger. Zion was not a name that you would find anyone having a century ago, but it seemed pretty normal in this era. He probably shouldn't be surprised, things evolve, either for the better or worse.
Anyway, brushing aside his silver hair, he grew a sharp smile on his face as his orange eyes widened before quickly getting out of his seat and rushing out of the room and down the stairs. The reason for his excitement was the fact that his virtual dive equipment had just arrived.
Upon hearing about Boundless Realm a day ago, he immediately put in an online purchase. The delivery was only a day too, he was definitely not complaining. It wasn't even that expensive, if this were the past, a single one of them would cost an absolute fortune. Though, they were probably much more common now.
He had also already bought the game in advance after making his order for the virtual dive equipment, and now that the gear was here, he could finally start playing! Thankfully, the currency of the world remained the same, so he still understood that at least.
Thank god for that.
----------------------------------------------------
After quickly setting everything up at a speed that he was surprised he could even move, Zion had booted up the game immediately. The more time he didn't get playing, the more time he was letting the current players get ahead of him.
It was true that they were all a month ahead of him in the game, but that didn't mean anything to him. He wasn't going to complain that they had a head start, that was just making excuses. He was going to rise to the very top if it's the last thing he does!
Upon activating it, he had found himself seemingly transported somewhere else, mentally at least. The place he was now at appeared to be what looked to be a futuristic black and white platform that was suspended in a black void that resembled the star-filled night sky.
『Please fill out the following information』
Before Zion's eyes appeared a holographic screen that displayed the previous words, no voice spoke them out though. Soon after, those words disappeared and a new screen appeared in front of him, and from the looks of it, it was asking for some basic information.
.
『Character Name: ________』
『Class: ________』
『Realm: ________』
.
The first thing that game asked him to input was his name, and without any hesitation whatsoever, Zion immediately inputted the name he always used back when he was still alive. Back in his previous life that is. The name he wrote done was 'Apex', a simple term used to define that you stand at the top.
The next thing on the agenda was the Class, in other words, the job. This was a common concept in games, especially RPGs. When Zion tapped his finger onto the empty space, he was greeted by a screen displaying numerous different possible Classes for him to choose from.
.
『Choose A Class』
● Warrior - [A crucial member on the battlefield, known for their impressive power and overall defensive capabilities] [+10 STR] [+5 AGI] [+10 VIT] [+5 DEX] [+6 INT] [+2 LUC]
● Archer - [Known for their speed and incredible ranged combat capabilities, they are veterans of traversing the battlefield and attacking from a distance] [+4 STR] [+12 AGI] [+5 VIT] [+15 DEX] [+8 INT] [+4 LUC]
● Assassin - [Famous for their speed and incredible acrobatics, they are legends within the shadows. They specialise in silently and quickly taking down their enemies] [+4 STR] [+15 AGI] [+2 VIT] [+12 DEX] [+6 INT] [+8 LUC]
● Mage - [Workers of the mystic arts, they specialise in the casting of various different spells. Ranging from support capabilities to damage dealing] [+2 STR] [+5 AGI] [+5 VIT] [+8 DEX] [+20 INT] [+2 LUC]
● Berserker - [The beasts on the battlefield, warriors fuelled by their unrestrained rage. They are feared for their immense power in sacrifice of their sanity] [+20 STR] [+15 AGI] [+15 VIT] [+1 DEX] [+1 INT] [+5 LUC]
.
Zion had already done some research regarding the different status attributes, they would prove extremely useful as it's important to keep in mind what you want to increase and place as your most important. For him, he had already discarded the Berserker despite its overwhelming power.
The Strength attribute was simple, it determined the amount of damage one could do with physical weapons. Agility was just as simple, it determined how fast someone could move. Vitality determined how much damage one could take, basically it determined the amount of health someone had.
Next up was Dexterity, and in Zion's opinion, this was one of the most important of the attributes. It determined the chance of your attacks hitting their mark, as well as how well you can move around. In other words, this attribute determined how well you could manipulate your own damn limbs.
Boundless Realm did allow the players to utilise their own real-world skills to fight, but if their Dexterity was horrendous in the game, it would severely cripple your ability to fight even if you were a master martial artist in the real-world.
The next status was Intellect, which was also one of the most important of them all. Intellect allowed you to raise your Skill Points, basically stamina in a sense. This was most crucial for those who focused on magic as spells cost Skill Points, but they were also important to other Classes as well since they have skills they can learn that cost the same thing.
Last thing was Luck, and it was as simple as it sounded. It determined the chance of landing critical strikes on your enemies. He wasn't entirely sure if increasing it had any other effects, there wasn't much information given on the forums of the game regarding it.
After having thought about it, Zion decided to go with Warrior. It was the simplest and safest option, and from what he understood, he could always end up evolving the Class or getting a new one at some point during the game.
The final part was selecting which realm he was going to start in.
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『Choose A Realm』
● Volkaine [Players: 37,650,867]
● Triamus [Players: 24,452,810]
● Everoar [Players: 26,230,247]
● Xervaces [Players: 11,578,114]
● Alcora [Players: 22,762,778]
.
After only staring at the selections for a few seconds, Zion didn't hesitate for long before he hit onto the realm known as 'Xervaces', despite it significantly being less popular than the other servers. In fact, that was the whole reason he chose it.
He had learnt from the forums that each server was basic just a replicate of one another, so the only real difference was that they had different names, but were just fundamentally and aesthetically the same overall.
The only reason the other servers were incredibly popular was because those there the servers people would be able to by chance meet and gain assistance from the already powerful players, which they could ask them to help them get a head start in the game.
People flock to servers that their supposed video game idols reside in, and considering these more popular realms were where the more powerful and famous guilds were from, the realm would obviously gain a massive boost in players since those players would wish to join said guilds.
Zion was always more of the lone-wolf when it came to playing games, though he did work with others if he had to or had a good relationship with. By joining the less popular servers, he could get access to materials that haven't already been claimed.
If a player was willing to just go solo, then joining a server where they could quickly become stronger on their own was the smart choice. Which was exactly what Zion was doing, he'd have a better chance of getting good equipment.
.
『Character Name: Apex』
『Class: Warrior』
『Realm: Xervaces』
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『Please change your appearance to how you see fit』
『Loading template now...』
After inputting his information, Zion was soon greeted by another message which was soon joined by a holographic projection of his own real-world self. Zion held his chin in thought for a second, he obviously wasn't going to keep his appearance exactly the same. That was too risky.
He wasn't going to change too much either, so he opted to just changing the colour of his features. So, he changed the colour of his hair to a pure pitch black, along with changing his eyes so that they became an intimidating crimson-red. He also made his character a bit paler compared to his actual self, he honestly looked like your generic vampire now.
After he was happy with it all, he tapped onto the finish button he was presented.
『Character creation complete』
『Starting equipment established』
『Requesting character authorisation by administrators』
『Please standby』
『...』
『...』
『...』
『Authorisation granted』
『Welcome to Boundless Realm』
Before Zion had the chance to even utter a single sound, the entire void he was in suddenly collapsed as if it were some kind of net of a cube. He then found himself free falling down towards who knows where, his heart beating faster due to the sudden change in atmosphere.
"Holy shit...!" Zion honestly hated the feeling of free falling, not that he feared sky diving or anything, he just hated the feeling of falling through the air without any form of safety equipment. 'I swear, if this game starts me off with killing me by making me a pancake, I'm suing someone!'
It took Zion a moment to calm down as he regained a calm and composed expression, watching as he quickly approached the land below. He soon noticed that what he was heading towards wasn't land, but was actually a lake of sorts, so he obviously change his mid-air position to a diving position, he did not want to experience belly-flopping at this altitude.
It took a few more seconds of high-speed descent, but Zion soon found himself hitting the water, his fingers slicing through the surface like a knife through butter. Fortunately, the lake was way deeper than he initially would have thought, allowing the water to slow him down significantly to the point he could change his direction and start swimming up.
Once he broke through the surface, Zion took a big breath of air. "Jeez, wasn't expecting my first virtual dive to start with a free fall..."
Zion wiped his face of the water running down his face before quickly making his way over towards the edge of the lake, and as he walked out of the water, streams of water ran down from his body and fell to the ground, wetting the dirt beneath his shoes.
"This feels real as hell, to think technology has come this far..." Zion couldn't help but marvel as he looked at his own body, along with using his fingers to touch the ground beneath him. If he didn't know this was a game, he'd think this was the real world. "Guess this is my starting armour..."
Unlike the casual clothing he was wearing in the real-world, he was now wearing your typical starting equipment when it came to RPGs. He had strapped on iron-armour from the looks of it, nothing heavy-duty though as he only had a few iron plates strapped to what looked to be smooth leather flexible armour.
Looking around, Zion took notice of the place he was dropped. From what he read on the forums, when a player starts playing for the first time, they'd be dropped somewhere random in the world. There was no starting position for players, it was completely random.
That meant that sometimes new players would find themselves dropped somewhere that hasn't even been explored yet, and that could be both a good or bad thing. The monsters in the world aren't separated due to level, you could find a low level monsters anywhere, and a high level monster anywhere and everywhere.
"Let's see here..."
『Status』
『Current Quests』
『Inventory』
『Skills』
『Log Out』
The first thing Zion did was open up his menu, and from the looks of things, there wasn't much for him to see here. There was obviously the 'Log Out' option, this thankfully wasn't an SAO situation, and pretty much everything else you'd expect from an RPG menu.
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『Status』
● Name: Apex
● Level: 1
● Gold: 0
● Health Points: 500/500 [Without Equipment - 100/100]
● Skill Points: 120/120 [Without Equipment - 120/120]
● Attribute Points: 0
● Class: Warrior [Rank: 1]
● Guild: [None]
● Equipment: [Iron Padded Chestplate] [Iron Padded Leggings] [Iron Padded Boots]
● Attributes: [Strength: 10] [Agility: 5] [Vitality: 10 (+40)] [Dexterity: 5] [Intellect: 6] [Luck: 2]
.
(A/N: Zion will now be referred to as Apex while playing the game)
There wasn't anything too special about the Status menu, just everything that you'd expect. The additional number next to his Vitality value was most likely due to his armour, the amount of defence that it provided for him since he had it equipped.
Apex then moved onto the other menu options, he wasn't surprised to see that the Current Quests menu was empty, followed by his Skills being empty as well. All he found in the Inventory was his weapon, which was a basic iron sword.
"Is there no map function?" Apex frowned a bit when he looked around and couldn't find any option to see a GUI for a map. He understood that the game removed some things to add more realism, but not having a map was quite disadvantageous. "That means I need to keep my guard up in case I get sneak attacked."
It wasn't other players he was worried about getting sneaked up on, it was the monsters and other enemies in the game. Players couldn't hurt one another in the game unless a duel is issued between them, that way experienced players can't just keep killing newbies for the fun of it.
"Let' see..." Apex summoned forth his sword from the Inventory, inspecting and swinging it around for a bit before nodding his head. "Alright, not too heavy and not too light, feels pretty comfortable in my hand too. Not too bad of a starting weapon."
*Clang*
"Shit...!" Apex felt his instincts suddenly flare as he unconsciously turned his body around and raised his sword up just in time to block something that attacked him. When he did, a loud sound of metal colliding sounded as Apex found himself skidding a few feet across the ground.
"Not bad, kid. You have good instincts." Apex narrowed his eyes as he turned his gaze up to see who had attacked him. The person was revealed to be a figure donning a black cloak that covered up everything but their face, though hard to see, Apex could see something white and metallic beneath the hood. "However, you need more strength. If I attacked any harder, than you'd be dead."
'This guy... he's an NPC.'
As explained before, players couldn't attack other players. If they did, the player being attacked wouldn't even budge. The only time a player could hurt another was during a dungeon, a duel, or in areas made specifically to allow PVP.
The fact that this guy's attack had caused him to be pushed back was evidence enough to say that he wasn't a player, and the only logical conclusions was that this was an NPC, or an intelligent monster. It could be either of the two, so Apex needed to remain vigilant.
Aside from that though, Apex had to say it was pretty shocking to see how life-like this NPC spoke and moved. Though, he did find it strange that he wasn't given any information regarding them. Usually, there'd be a name as well as a health bar showing the person's basic information.
"Who are you?"
"My name isn't important, all you need to know is that you need to get stronger or you won't last long. I'm sure you're smart enough to know that." The NPC spoke with a hint of amusement, Apex just scoffed at that as he narrowed his eyes. "Cautious too, you'll go far. How about this, I can help you out."
"Yeah?" Apex decided to play along for now. "What help?"
"I'll help you get stronger, kid. Of course, I won't be doing it out of the goodness of my heart." The NPC then reached into a bag that they had swung over their shoulder, grabbing something and tossing it over to Apex who caught it easily. "That's a Arcadium Ring, soak it in the blood of the beast that killed the villagers and bring it back to me. I'll reward you after you do this."
Apex looked at the ring in his hand, appearing to be a simple silver ring with a beautiful transparent gem attached to the top of it.
.
『Arcadium Ring』
● Information: A ring given to you by an unknown entity
● Rarity: Quest Item
.
'Not much information there...' Apex deadpanned a bit before looking at the person who had moved over towards the lake and sat down, calmly looking out towards the lake. If the guy had a fishing rod, this guy would no doubt be using it right now. "So, where's this village."
"Keep heading in the direction behind me, you'll eventually arrive." The NPC responded without turning away from the lake. The NPC didn't even move an inch now as he continued watching the lake like some weirdo. "I'll be waiting here, don't make me wait for too long."
"Okay then, Soul of Cinder rip off."
"What?"
"Going now." Apex started heading in the direction that the NPC said, not even bothering to explain what his words meant. They obviously confused the NPC, but he didn't care enough to give an explanation. Seriously, that guy was sitting as if he was the Soul of Cinder from Dark Souls sitting in front of the bonfire.
.
『New Quest Acquired』
Objective: Slay the beast that resides within Kallow Village and drench the Arcadium Ring in its blood
Difficulty Rating: D
Time Limit: 1 Day
Rewards:
● 10,000 EXP
● 5,000 Class EXP
● 12,000 Gold
● 50 Attribute Points
.
Looking at the quest, Apex narrowed his eyes a bit. While the difficulty rating didn't sound high, a D-Rank quest was not something to be taken lightly, especially considering he was only level one. From what he read, people just starting out would try and look for quests of the F-Rank.
'Oh well, no pain no gain.' Apex smirked despite it though, it won't be any fun if there isn't a challenge. Plus, he wanted to get strong fast. It wasn't like there was a penalty to dying at the current stage he was at, that only came into consideration when someone reached level fifteen.
If he happened to fail this quest, then he didn't have anyone to blame but himself.
----------------------------------------------------
It took around one hour for Apex to arrive at the village told to him by that NPC, and when he arrived, he looked around to see that the entire place was nothing more than a remnant of what it once was. The village was now destroyed, and there wasn't any sign of life anywhere.
Apex made sure to keep his guard up as he walked around the village, the eery silence of the place really made him feel uneasy though. There were also dried up puddles of blood on the ground wherever he went, probably from the villagers that were most likely eaten by whatever he was hunting.
"What's that sound...?" Apex's ears twitched when the sound of what he could identify as some form of grunting could be heard. It was faint, but he could still hear it. 'Either someone in this game is having a good time, or it might be my target...'
Apex silently headed towards where he could hear the grunting, and as he got closer, the sound of slow footsteps could also be heard. Once he made it next to one of the few still-standing building, he peeked out from the corner of the building to see if anything was there.
'Holy shit...' Apex blinked in surprise as what looked to be a large grotesque beast suddenly entered his view. He almost shouted a bit since the beast was closer than he thought, though it thankfully didn't notice him just yet despite facing his direction. 'Looks to be eating right now...'
The beast in front of him looked like a mutated version of a horse of sorts, it's body was a lot fatter than a normal horse though, and its back had lumps similar to that of a camel. It looked to be slowly eating a corpse, taking heavy breaths and grunting a few times after each bite.
Honestly, it was a miracle that this game was even marketed for players fifteen and up, these grotesque scenes would definitely be rated for those over eighteen if he was back in his own time. Nonetheless, Apex stared at the scene with no small amount of disgust.
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『Beast of Kallow Village - Level 15』
● Health Points: 1,000/1,000
.
'Level fifteen, huh?' Apex narrowed his eyes before retracting his head. He looked at the building before nodding, he then approached the wall and began climbing up using anything he could properly grab onto. The beast was distracted, so he could use the opportunity to sneak attack.
Information given regarding other entities, including players, were not nearly as detailed compared to his own. The most a player could see regarding another thing's stats were their name, level and amount of health they had. The exception being you could see the amount of Skill Points another player had.
Apex leaned over the side of the building and saw that the beast was still eating, completely unaware of his presence. With a small smirk, he summoned forth his sword before bending his legs. His target was the head of this beast, it would make the most sense to strike there if he wanted the most damage.
Perhaps if he managed to completely slice through its head, the monster would die instantly. If that happened, then that would make this job much easier. However, if that wasn't the case, he'd have to be prepared to fight back.
'Here we go!' Apex shouted mentally to himself as he jumped up as high as he could before holding the sword above himself with both hands. His gaze locked onto the top of the beast's head, and once he dropped down, he swung downwards with all his might, his blade having been aimed directly downwards. 'Direct hit, motherfucker!'
『- 860』
Since he didn't slash his blade when he swung, the attack pierced through the monster's skull. However, since the blade didn't seem to completely pierce through the brain, the monster was still alive, but heavily damage as a result.
The difference between normal RPGs and this game was that you could properly aim and deal damage much higher than you normally would be able to with your stats and equipment, and you could imagine how much damage a sword through the skull could deal.
Apex put all his strength into his legs as he pressed against the back of the beast, to which he was soon able to pull his sword out from the skull of this hideous thing. He then quickly jumped off of the beast and began backing away quickly.
The monster flailed around in its position in agony as it gave off loud and painful cries, Apex didn't waste this chance as the beast began to stumble before tripping to the ground with a crash. Apex quickly rushed around the beast's body towards the head, holding his sword already in a position to deliver a powerful swing.
Apex saw the monster glance at him when he appeared in front of him, but he completely ignored it as he swung his blade down onto its head as hard as he could. All Apex heard was a cry of pain as his blade pierced straight down through the monster.
『-920』
『Killed - Beast of Kallow Village』
『+6,200 EXP』
『Level Up - 2』
『Level Up - 3』
『Level Up - 4』
『Level Up - 5』
『Level Up - 6』
Apex stared at his blade, which was still pierced into the skull of the creature, as an idea popped up in his mind. Soon enough, the blade turned into particles and returned to his inventory. "I see, so even if my sword is inside an enemy, I can still return it to the inventory. This could be a useful little tactic."
Smiling at the notifications that appeared, Apex then looked down at the monster that laid motionlessly on the ground. "Alright, let's see here. I'm supposed to dip this in this thing's blood, right?"
Apex closed down his menu before taking out the ring he was given, bending down next to the monster's head as he held the ring under a small stream of blood that was shooting out from the hole that he initially made with his sword the first time when he jumped down.
'This is fucking disgusting...' Apex's eyebrow twitched as the blood was dripping onto his own hand as he held the ring. If he didn't have the strong mentality that he did, he would have no doubt thrown up at everything around him.
Fortunately, Apex was able to remove his hand from the blood as the ring suddenly let off a strong glow. He didn't look away from it though as he stood back up, his eyes trained on the ring. Once the light faded, Apex widened his eyes when the ring suddenly gained glowing red runes that gave off a constant yet faint glow.
The gem was also glowing constantly as well.
.
『Quest Completed』
Objective: Slay the beast that resides within Kallow Village and drench the Arcadium Ring in its blood
Difficulty Rating: D
Time Limit: 1 Day
Rewards:
● 10,000 EXP
● 5,000 Class EXP
● 12,000 Gold
● 50 Attribute Points
.
『Level Up - 7』
『Level Up - 8』
『Level Up - 9』
『Class Rank Up - 2』
『Class Rank Up - 3』
『Warrior Skill Learnt: Quick Slash』
Apex smiled as he saw the string of notification popped up, definitely a very decent start to his journey in this game. Anyone would call him stupid if they heard he challenged a D-Rank quest as a level one, but he only completely since he went about killing the beast smartly. He wasn't certain how difficult it would have been if he charged at the thing headfirst.
He then proceeded to open up his Status.
.
『Status』
● Name: Apex
● Level: 9
● Gold: 12,000
● Health Points: 660/660 [Without Equipment - 260/260]
● Skill Points: 440/440 [Without Equipment - 440/440]
● Attribute Points: 82
● Class: Warrior [Rank: 3]
● Guild: [None]
● Equipment: [Iron Padded Chestplate] [Iron Padded Leggings] [Iron Padded Boots]
● Attributes: [Strength: 26] [Agility: 21] [Vitality: 26 (+40)] [Dexterity: 21] [Intellect: 22] [Luck: 18]
.
Apex nodded as he saw the information, it was as he had read. For each level that he gained, the system would give the player four attribute points for them to distribute however they liked. The extra fifty were from him completing the quest.
Along with that, each time a player levelled up in the game, each of their stats would rise by a total of two each time. That meant that fundamentally, all players that are the same level were practically the same in stats if you disregard the attribute points they distributed and the equipment they wore.
After looking at the screen for a bit, Apex knew what he wanted to place his points into. He only placed a small amount into Vitality though, his armour right now was compensating for it if he placed most of his points into the other categories.
.
● Attributes: [Strength: 56] [Agility: 41] [Vitality: 35 (+40)] [Dexterity: 30] [Intellect: 29] [Luck: 25]
.
With his current stats, if Apex's basic calculations were correct, then the amount of damage he should be able to do without considering different factors such as weak spots and more should be 284, which included the sixty plus damage that his sword provided.
The way physical damage in this world worked was that the player's damage output was equal to their Strength attribute multiplied by four, and whatever addition value for Strength their weapons provided multiplied by the same amount. Since his iron sword gave him plus fifteen Strength, it gave him sixty plus damage.
Moving on from that, Apex quickly went to his Skills tab to see what his new skill did.
.
『Skills』
● Quick Slash - [A powerful and quick slash attack, a skill primarily learnt by those who have begun their journey into swordsmanship] [Damage: 150] [Cost: 80]
.
The skill was very basic, but it was indeed useful. From what Apex understood about Skills, they obviously cost Skill Points to use, but also had a fixed amount of damage. Obviously, the amount of damage the skill did considered different factors in the environment and situation. If what he knew was right, if he used this Skill, the base amount of damage should be 434.
That being the Skill damage plus his own damage output.
This was a very basic skill for beginners, so it wasn't at all an amazing Skill. This was why players sought after stronger Classes, each Class provided different Skills, and stronger Classes obviously provided stronger Skills.
If what he read was truly accurate, each Class only went up to Rank 10, meaning once a player manages to reach the maximum rank, they will naturally seek after another Class so that they can learn more Skills to use. Thankfully, changing Classes doesn't take anything away.
Obviously, players would seek after Classes that tailor specifically for their stats, a close-range fighter wouldn't really want to seek a Class tailored towards magic casters. Of course, that didn't mean they couldn't, just that they generally wouldn't want to.
Closing down the menu, Apex gave the ring one final look before he began walking away from the monster. The NPC that initially gave him the ring should still be waiting for him, the quest was complete, but he doubted that meant that the NPC would just sit by the lake forever until he returned.
The quest had a time limit, and that most likely was still in effect despite the quest's completion.
"I need to clean my hand..."