Anomaly

The smoke and dust unleashed by the Unstable Mine started to settle down. Debris was strewn all over the forest bed. At the epicenter, a small crater had formed as a result of the earlier explosion.

Oddly enough, no monster remains or blood smeared the surroundings. The hogs had simply vanished in streaks of light once their HP had fallen to zero, similar to the mage that got wiped off the board earlier.

Evan spotted several loot drops decorating the area. He approached the crater his mine had formed and collected his first couple of loots.

The items would travel toward him once he arrived within a certain proximity.

[2x Lough Leather!]

[1x Rough Meat!]

"This saves me time, I guess. Glad I don't have to pick up stuff by hand every time I kill a mob," he expressed.

He then proceeded a little ahead to collect the remaining drops.

[1x Rough Leather!]

[1x Refined Tusk!]

The Refined Tusk had a green tint, while the Rough items had gray tints.

'Green should be good – Will probably fetch me more than the gray ones," Evan guessed.

He had played enough RPGs in his life to know about item drop rarities.

More importantly, he opened his status window to get an idea of how his character leveling had progressed.

—

—Player Description—

Ricochet weapons (D-rank) – Static explosives (D-rank) – Ranged Explosives (E-rank) – Heightened Reflexes (E-rank) – First Aid (E-rank) – Resilience (E-rank)>

'Rest In Pieces' mastery (D-rank)>

——Combat Stats——

————Other——–—

—

'Hmm. So I gain 10 HP for each level-up or are there other factors?' Evan pondered. 'There's also the Soul-Meter to consider. It seems killing six mobs filled it up more than halfway.'

Other than that, Evan took note of the fact that his combat stats had remained static, but he had gained three points that he could distribute as he wished.

'There's also these Aerth coins that I gained. They must've automatically entered my inventory.'

He wasn't sure about this detail since the battle earlier had made him complacent when it came to matters outside of combat. He took a mental note of the experience before exploring deeper parts of the forest.

—

—

"What? A Hidden Quest? Aren't those supposed to be rare or something?" Evan voiced out loud.

He regretted not coming better prepared. He didn't like the idea of spending Aerth coins on consumables like HP potions this early in the game. He cursed at his own stupidity and pride.

Before moving on, he decided to distribute one stat point each into STR, SPC, and AGI.

The system description had clarified that the Strength stat was purely physical in nature. Like most other games, raising STR would allow players to employ a higher physical damage output.

Each STR point distributed provided him with added resistance against physical ailments such as Concussion or Paralyze but also added 1 HP to his maximum HP.

While the STR was necessary for tanky builds or frontline warriors, Evan also had to consider his ranged capabilities. His main weapon relied on high precision and accuracy after all.

Not only would the Agility stat increase his ranged prowess, but it would also heighten his overall senses, such as his evasion reaction speed, acceleration and flexibility.

From the information the system had provided, Evan deemed that STR combined with AGI had a very good synergy when using his boomerang attacks.

Lastly, Evan chose to upgrade his Special stat since it directly enhanced the attack power of both physical and magical utility items or other special weapons that didn't require Strength or Intelligence.

At its core, the Special stat was essential for his specialization route as a Soul Demolitionist that relied heavily on consumable items like bombs and mines.

At least Evan thought this made sense: 'An engineer probably can't hit hard, but can make bombs that do.'

He basically thought of SPC as a profession stat of sorts.

What mattered now was to test out his improved capabilities and try to find the Anomaly hiding somewhere in the forest.

Once Evan stood up after resting and distributing his stats, he noticed something had changed. He felt both lighter and stronger than before - the difference was palpable.

While he flexed his muscles to get a sense of his new strength, he soon gathered that he had been followed.

"Come out, I know someone is hiding behind the bushes." Evan calmly declared while steadying his boomerang.

He waited for several seconds but no one came out.

"Suit yourself," Evan said before dashing away, leaving behind whoever was hiding behind the trees or bushes.

After the strange event, Evan paid it no further mind and focused on leveling up and exploring the forest.

Minutes turned into hours and Evan had already killed several dozens of monsters, leveling him up to level 4.

Though fewer than before, Evan occasionally ran into other players and parties in the area. Most of these players were heavy grinders and mostly wanted to be left alone. They didn't want 'noobs' to ruin their farming efficiency, which suited Evan just fine since he had a similar mentality.

Since he had turned off the item aura effects, people wouldn't know that he possessed better items than most players anymore.

Although some parties offered him to join, he was satisfied with leveling up alone. Largely after witnessing how inefficiently most players killed a single group of level 1 to level 3 slimes or level 2 to level 4 hogs.

Later on, a female player hurriedly approached from the thick of forest treelines ahead.

Evan was about to defend himself and throw his weapon at the assailant when she unexpectedly shouted: "Run!"

"Run?" Evan repeated.

"Yes. RUN!"

The girl, seemingly around his actual age, was chased by a pack of menacing wolves looking to score dinner for the first time in weeks.

—

Level: 6

HP: 52/52>

—

"Oh, shit." Evan blurted out in alarm.

While the system censored his last syllable, he trod back and began to run the hell away.

The two players currently playing cat and mouse with the wolves introduced themselves to each other by asking the relevant questions.

"How many?!" Evan frantically asked.

"I don't know! Look for yourself!" The girl responded.

"Take a guess!" He followed up.

"Seven? Eight? Bah, I'm not sure! In any case, too many!"

"Tsk." Evan's head spun like a washing machine on its fastest setting, trying to figure a way out of the dangerous situation.

The wolves were slowly getting closer by the minute.

"You're a mage, right? Can't you cast some spells?"

"I'm a priest class – A healer to exact! I don't have any useful offensive spells or they take too long to cast!"

Evan was dumbstruck. "What are you doing out here by yourself then?!"

Since the girl was running in front of him, a tree branch she had pushed aside snapped back to its original position, slapping Evan's face like a whip.

[-1 HP]

He cursed inside. 'That's possible too?'

Then another branch hit him.

[-1 HP]

Then another.

[-1 HP]

Though it didn't hurt, he still flinched every time he got smacked, forcing him somewhat off-balance.

"Hey, stop running! We need to fight back!"

In her confusion, she turned around, "Fight back? What do you mean fight ba-"

That's when she fell into a gaping hole she had just overlooked, or more accurately, never seen.

Seeing that he was alone now, Evan knew the odds of winning a fight against the wolves had just been halved.

The choices were simple. Get slaughtered and eaten by the wolves or jump into the hole, not knowing how deep it possibly could be.

Surrounded by wolves in every direction, Evan decided to join Alice down the proverbial rabbit hole.