Chapter Six: Is it haha funny or Hehe funny?

Drake had started to weakly limp away from the scene of the fight, two items richer, and able to use his spell now. He looked up again at his health and what looked like a Mana and Stamina bar below it. His Health was still in the red, and had continued to drop slightly as he continued to bleed. But once the bleeding stopped his Health ceased to fall as well.

It was very close, as Drake sighed in relief as it stopped at a mere 2%. Drake praised that he hadn't blacked out from pain or blood loss. His Mana bar looked like it was dipping a bit below half around 30%. His Stamina looked just as bad.

Now still limping but having a desperate need to get through his stats before he was ambushed again, recovering and getting stronger was his priority right now.

He quickly went through his notifications so he could go to his stats as he continued to limp forward, not able to rest in fear of being chased down by possibly more Apes sniffing out the bloody mess that were his clothes and shoulder.

[You have defeated Vampiric Ape level 2] [150 Experience Points and 15 Tutorial Points have been rewarded]

[You have defeated Vampiric Ape level 1] [100 Experience Points and 10 Tutorial Points have been rewarded]

[Congratulations! You have increased to Mage level 3] [14 Free points have been awarded]

[3 of 20 Vampiric Apes Subjugated]

Drake looked excitedly at the notifications. He had leveled up again. Looking at how much it took for level 1 and level 2 it seemed like the amount needed doubled every level. He was also happy to find out that his Basic Mana Bolt was strong enough to one shot a monster of his level. Looking back at his Mana bar he could say that he had one more Mana Bolt left in his reserves.

Drake was disappointed to find out that leveling up did not refill his health and other resources like in games, further showing that this place may have game elements but wasn't a game.

Finished with his notifications he commanded his status to finally open, still exhaustingly limping forward aimlessly with no shelter in sight yet.

[Drake Wallen]

[Race: Human]

Tutorial Alias [Shot]

[Race: Human]

[Base Class: Mage] Level 3

[Vitality] 24

[Strength] 10

[Dexterity] 26

[Intelligence] 40

[Wisdom] 31

[Endurance] 9

[Free Points] 28

[Skills] Basic Mana Bolt [Level NA]

[Titles] First Blood, Two versus One, Living on the Edge.

Drake looked at the new line of text showing his free points. It must have shown up now that he had leveled, he thought. And he now had three new titles? They hadn't been a part of the notifications and he wondered why. He pushed his question to the back of his mind for now though, as he had more pressing troubles.

Drake was dangerously low to kicking the good ol' bucket. And though it hurt him as a Mage to do so, he had to put his free points into Vitality. It was the clear choice, as he wanted to ya know, live and all.

Drake didn't dump all his free points into his Vitality right away though, as he wanted to only put as much as he needed to get himself out of danger. He knew from before that he was able to endure two bites from the low level Ape's, so he hoped to put in enough that he could handle at least that much.

He placed 1 point into his Vitality, looking at his Health as he did looking for changes. Unfortunately for him the needle didn't move, so he reluctantly put another point. Again the needle didn't move immediately, but after a second he saw it move upward.

"Oh hell no, are you serious?!" He winced.

He could only laugh sadly at how the stat worked. He looked at his Health again, doing his best not to trip over anything as he was looking up, while also doing his best to listen for more Apes.

Again the bar ticked upward ever so slightly. That confirmed that there was some sort of passive regeneration, but he wasn't sure if he received the regeneration in combat as well, it was something he would have to test later. He looked at the bar longingly as he reached the conclusion that when he put points into Vitality he would not receive the difference immediately but only the increased regeneration. Which seemed to be 1% every minute at his current stats of 25 Vitality.

Reluctantly he had no choice but to dump his whole remainder of 26 points into Vitality for the regeneration, shooting it up to 52 overall making it his highest overall stat.

All the Mages in the world are crying right now. A Mage with more Vitality than Intelligence. He chuckled inwardly, as he admonished his decision.

His health started to tick up steadily now, looking as if it had increased to 3%. This made Drake spit on the ground in sorrow though. He knew it was most likely because of his increased total Health pool but to see only a measly 3% every minute after dumping a nearly 30 points was painful.

It would take him over 30 minutes to recover his health fully. His Mana seemed to recover similarly and would need around 20 minutes to become full. He couldn't gauge his Stamina as he was forced to continue to walk, not allowing it to recover very much.

After 10 minutes of aimless roaming, Drake could walk without his staff as a crutch, but only slowly. Looking over his stats quickly again, Drake noticed that some of them had gone up without him putting any free stats into them. He assumed this was because there were base stats that went into them from his Mage class every time he leveled.

This is good. That means I can get my health to a decent level for now so I don't die right away and still be able to hit a little harder each level. He thought. Mentally scrolling through his status again he stopped at the titles portion where there were the new three titles.

Before he tried to look at them closer though he looked around briefly to make sure there weren't any more apes in his immediate vicinity. When he listened quietly for a minute and heard no abrupt rustling of branches or bushes he was satisfied and sat down to look at the titles and recover some of his stamina. He was sure he would need more sooner rather than later.

He hoped it would work on the titles the same way it had on the items in his inventory with the system's identify. Focusing on the first title he was elated to be prompted with flavor text.

[First Blood]

[Kill your first monster solo. +1 to all stats]

Ohhhh! So titles give stat points huh? It's only one but if i get more these could start to add up! I wonder if there's a cap to how many you can have? Drake mused, going on to the next title.

[Two versus One]

[Fight and defeat two enemies alone. +1 to all stats]

Nice! Anotha one! Drake excitedly screamed inward. Now looking at the last and final title he had gotten.

[Living on the Edge]

[Drop below 5% Health and survive. +5 to Vitality]

Drake's face scrunched up looking at the last title, not sure if he should be happy about the stats or sad that he had allowed himself to drop so low in health. He tried to forget about the near death experience as he wondered why this title gave more stats. Was it because it only applied to Vitality, or because it was harder and more dangerous to get?

Drake paused for a moment while thinking about the titles, he knew now that he could look more into things on his status screen with the system's identify so he was curious. He began going down the lines of his status one by one, getting mostly what he expected.

When he looked at his name and alias it gave nothing. His race surprisingly told him that his racial bonuses were locked, and offered no other information.

Going from there, his Class had just given him the same flavor text that the introduction had when he picked it. The various stats afforded the same, giving the exact explanation that the construct had given him.

Finally he reached his Skill, the only line he hadn't identified yet.

[Basic Mana Bolt] [Level NA]

[Basic Mana Bolt can be casted by reciting, 'Manifest my Power, Mana Bolt.'.]

[Cost: Small Amount of Mana.]

[Cast Time: Very Short]

[Damage: 1 to 1 ratio based on Intelligence.]

Drake stared at the text hovering in the window in front of him silently for a moment. Unblinking and unmoving.

And with a sudden scream he roared into the air. "IS THIS A JOKEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!"