Eerily quiet
Food and drink packed into his storage space along with his pouch he only had his weapons out and on him, today was all about fighting, resources come later. He jogged through the slime fields all the way to the fog bank which so unnaturally highlighted the border between biomes and stepped inside.
Immediately he felt the cold fog start to dampen his thin clothes and shivered, he let out a short burst of Flame from his hand to try to encourage any surrounding zombies over and stamped a couple of times in case they were sensitive to ground vibrations or something.
"Come get it guys! I'm in a hurry here"
Preparing himself as he heard slight movements coming from the fog ahead he reflected on how much more dangerous this was with the limited visibility and wondered if he could use some kind of bait to draw them out of the fog bank next time.
As the first zombie approached he stabbed forward with his spear and then took a back step while pulling it back. The monster didn't seem to suffer much from this but it did get pushed backwards with each stab. After a couple of minutes and 30 stabs with the spear the zombie fell forwards and turned into light particles.
[14 exp]
"That is not efficient, I'm exhausted"
The constant back stepping had taken him back into the slime fields and the repetitive actions with the spear were just too inefficient and labour intensive.
"It was quicker beating them to death with the sword, this doesn't even feel safer"
He was surprised only one had come to him so far and after gathering the few coins it dropped he drew his sword and put his spear away.
"Anyone else in there!"
After a minute of no more movement from the fog he just accepted he'd have to go deeper.
"Come on, where are you all?"
After five minutes of walking and shouting in the fog he finally heard some scuffling ahead.
"Finally! I thought I was going to have to go back to hunting slimes"
Then some from behind and more from his right.
"They can control themselves enough to ambush?"
He moved to the left and tried to get some space while half expecting to be cut off and fully encircled, when he wasn't he circled round to the now rushing zombies, they weren't able to jog but this was more than a shamble, unfortunately for them they had basically ended up all coming from the same direction after all by the time Daniel was within reach and he was able to immediately set to work on the front runner with his club like sword.
Knocking it to the ground and getting another couple of hits in he had to back off as the few behind tried to reach him, he counted a total of five and was contemplating running when he heard another shuffling closer to join the commotion from the side.
"No, this can be a good thing, I just have to take it steady"
Kiting the group of them and laying in to the front runner every half a minute he was able to do a good deal of damage to each of them without using any flame magic; as the first one turned to particles he moved forward and used a combination of his flame magic and his sword to finish off the rest, he had already attracted a couple more during the whole process so he was eager to finish this batch off and collect the loot drops before any more wandered over.
[13 exp]
[14 exp]
[16 exp]
[12 exp]
[15 exp]
[12 exp]
[14 exp]
[11 exp]
"Profit!"
The odd selection of items and coins scattered around were quickly scooped up into his storage space, as more shuffling could be heard approaching from multiple directions.
"I think they're more attracted to the fire than the noise, or maybe it's the death of their friends that attracts them?"
Looking at his almost bottomed out MP he headed towards the nearest sound and began his work again, now that he'd spent long enough in the fog and caused such continuous commotion the zombies didn't seem to be using any self-restraint or tactics against him and he could continue to happily beat them to death one after another
[15 exp]
[14 exp]
[15 exp]
[12 exp]
[11 exp]
[Congratulations Hermes, you are now level 4]
"Nice! Time for lunch"
The automatic refill of his mana let him almost casually work his way out of the fog bank and make a head start on his next level as he quickly dispatched the few zombies he couldn't be bothered to side step.
Back in the relative safety of the Slime fields he cleaned himself up as best he could and sat down to have lunch, resting a spears nearby to poke any slimes that got close, eating the boar he'd brought with him he looked through his gains as an appetiser to checking out his new stats.
Large wooden spoon
Travellers pepper
Rough wire mesh
Copper fork
Milk jug
Baking parchment
"They're obsessed! This mesh is for cooking on isn't it? Who knew they were such gourmets"
Before he could check on his stats he heard the familiar scuffling noises from inside the fog and put his haul away; as he prepared to meet the latest additions to his exp pool the noise got louder and more fervent.
"What the hell?!?"
As they burst through the fog on mass at an increasing pace Daniel made a break further into the slime fields.
"It's a damn horde of them! I kicked the beehive!"
At least 30 zombies were chasing him growling and groaning as they went, he was easily able to keep ahead of them but there was no way he could risk fighting such a large group, if he slowed down they'd be on him and having wasted half his mana he didn't want to risk anything.
They were moving faster out of the fog bank but he couldn't understand why, as he was thinking his best bet was to hold up in the dome he noticed the stragglers from the crowd heading towards the unfortunate slimes wobbling innocently in the field.
Noticing this he realised how ideal the situation could be, as more and more lost their focus and began jumping from slime to slime. The horde's speed reduced as more and more of their numbers were spread throughout the fields and Daniel was finally able to begin the clean-up.
Spraying the small group still doggedly tailing him with an arch of flame he was soon picking up coins and cooking gear as he slowly destroyed the scattered zombies one by one.
When he'd finally finished cleaning up the remaining zombies he once again sat down to go through his stats and rest up. He couldn't be bothered to go through all his loot again and was sure he'd just be more infuriated by their uselessness, he had long since had to use his cloth pouch as his storage space was filled.
"What would they possibly have a whisk for for God's sake? What the hell am I going to do with a whisk when all I ever eat is meat?"
Shaking his head he opened the status panel and was pleasantly surprised
Hermes: Level 4
Exp: 389/400
HP: 145/145
MP: 3/25
Strength - 5
Endurance - 5
Agility - 5
Intelligence - 5
Wisdom – 5
Free Attribute points: 1
Free Skill points: 1
*Transfer energy – 295
Skills:
Dimensional Transfer LV 2
Storage space LV 0
Flame LV 1
"I'm almost level 5! Right, one more point in to Intelligence and I'm triggering another horde, if I can get to level 6 today I can level up Dimensional Transfer to level 3 and go home for a shower"
Jogging further north and straight into the fog he soon attracted his first zombie and burnt it with his last MPs worth of flame getting the notification.
[15 exp]
[Congratulations Hermes, you are now level 5]
[Congratulations Hermes, new Beachhead functionality unlocked]
[Congratulations Hermes, new bonuses unlocked]
[Congratulations Hermes, Unique skills enhanced]
The notices appearing one after another kept trilling in his mind as he tried to make sense of this new gift he'd just received; he was going to rush out of the fog bank immediately and then saw the small wooden box at his feet.
"An actual loot chest too! Is this the bonus it mentioned, anything metal to fight with please!"
Lifting the box he carried it into the slime fields and burnt the only zombie who came close with his free hand as he excitedly went to open his new present.
As he lifted the lid a faint light coalesced within and fog spilled from inside like dry ice. As he waved the fog away and reached inside he pulled out a pure white scroll tied with a dark purple ribbon.
Opening the scroll he read the contents
{Grim Touch – Level 1}
The scroll immediately turned to particles in his hand and dissipated in the air.
Hermes: Level 5
Exp: 15/500
HP: 190/190
MP: 29/35
Strength - 6
Endurance - 6
Agility - 6
Intelligence - 7
Wisdom – 6
Free Attribute points: 3
Free Skill points: 4
*Transfer energy – 302
Skills:
Dimensional Transfer LV 3
Storage space LV 1
Flame LV 1
Grim touch – LV1
"It actually gave me a new spell, and those stats, ok, first things first"
{Grim touch – LV 1}
[Causes instant necrotic damage and potential stun effect – damage and stun chance increased by level]
[Contact – must be touching target with bare hand to cast]
"I'd rather anything I need to magic to death doesn't get that close but free is free, ok now why is Dimensional transfer flashing"
{Dimensional Transfer – lv 3}
[Able to transfer himself from Eden to Earth freely using the world's own mana to achieve the transfer, due to the relative sizes of the two planets transfer locations are unpredictable]
[Able to transfer himself from Earth to Eden freely at a fixed transfer energy cost of 945, due to the relative sizes of the two planets transfer locations are unpredictable]
[Able to transfer anything from Earth to Eden at a cost of transfer energy based on the relative value of the item (Combined perceived, physical, data intensive and compatibility) all items from any location will arrive at the Beachhead and be placed in storage]
[All humans transferred will receive the System interface and arrive through the Beachheads primary column]
{Abundant vitality} – [When HP is full, transfer energy will accumulate faster reflecting the HP regeneration rate.]
{Mana overflow} – [When MP is full transfer energy will accumulate faster reflecting the MP regeneration rate.]
"I can transfer for cheaper and my transfer energy is linked to my HP and MP now, this is incredible! Ok stats first, it gave me extra points to spend and increased my HP by a chunk, I have to spend this properly"
As he was lost in looking at his status panel he realised something was wrong, his head whipped around to the fog expecting to see more zombies and then back towards the north west expecting to see goblins, seeing neither he realised what it was and looked down at the slime on his foot, slowly burning away at his sock shoe.
"I never learn"
One quick stamp remedying the situation he decided to head back to the beachhead so he could take his time with his decisions, picking up the wooden chest which hadn't disappeared and would make a small but serviceable seat he jogged back with a smile on his face.