The truth

A few minutes after Vann entered the forest, he heard a bush rustling in the area alerting him of a potential monster.

Turning to it's direction, Vann waited for it to strike as he placed his shield in front of him.

A few seconds passed and a blue figure shot out from the bush, revealing itself to be a blue wolf a bit bigger than the dog in the fields.

Seeing the wolf charge at him, Vann waited until the wolf is close enough before driving his rear leg into ground, giving him an explosive force and he transferred that force into his left hand, smashing the shield against the dog's face causing the two to stagger backwards.

-4

The damage to the wolf was much lower compared to the dog, showing the clear difference between a tutorial monster to a real authentic one.

Meanwhile, Vann suffered the same damage as he goes back to his stance after staggering for a second and glared at the wolf with a serious gaze.

[Teen blue wolf (Normal, Common)]

Level: 2

Health: 60

Seeing the wolf eyeing him warily, Vann took the initiative to dash towards it causing the wolf to growl as it copied Vann.

Vann smirked when he saw that as he promptly used the same tactic he used on the dog earlier.

The two collided and since Vann has more forward momentum this time, he only flinched for a second before dashing right back in and used Enhanced Attack.

At that moment Vann felt a weird sensation in his arm again which reminded him of the same thing happening earlier. But because he was too preoccupied earlier, he forgot about it and in his current situation, he is forced to put it aside one more time to deal with the wolf quickly. That said, he is making tabs on it occasionally so that he won't forget about it a second time.

Right now, the wolf's hp has dropped down to a little over half. So Vann only needed to attack a few more times to take it down.

Knowing that, Vann didn't hesitate into going full offensive, not giving any time for the wolf to prepare itself to attack with it's full strength.

With Vann sticking so close to it and enduring attacks after attacks from both sword and shield, it took less than half a minute for the wolf to cry out and turn into particles.

From killing the wolf, Vann gained two exp, a copper coin and one blue wolf's hide. After putting them in his inventory, Vann is finally free to spend his time thinking about the situation that keeps bugging him.

"I wonder just what is that feeling." Vann thought as he open and closed his fists repeatedly, trying to invoke that sensation again but to no avail.

He then remembered that it only happens when using his Enhanced Attack so he promptly used it at the empty air and to no surprise, it happened again.

"Just what the hell is happening here? This never happened in any game before, even in the games made by Maxima themselves." Vann said with a frown.

Despite the fact that the weird sensation is not painful nor uncomfortable, something about it unsettles him to no end. It was like if he ever got to know the truth behind him, it will be so shocking that it might affect the entire world.

That's when a sudden thought entered his mind but that thought only made him frown harder.

With a heavy heart, Vann continued moving deeper into the forest with two intentions, to grind exp and to find out the truth behind the strange effect when using skills.

Time quickly passed by as an hour passed and Vann has already killed a few dozen of those wolves and other new monsters, bringing him to just a mere 3 exp away from leveling up to 2.

Along the way, he encountered many players that are hunting in the forest as well. Most of the players he saw were in a party of three or more.

Thankfully, Vann avoided talking to any of them and it looks like all of the players were busy grinding as well that's why he didn't encounter any players trying to make trouble with him.

He did see some parties arguing with each other but he didn't care and just moved on with his life.

However, out of all the players he saw, there where some players making weird expressions, almost worried in fact. Though they were in the minority, Vann have a feeling that they were also troubled by the same thing that's been bugging him. However even though he knew that, he didn't bother doing a thing and just continued going his way.

Since he was only 4 exp away from leveling, he intends to do it first before going back to the village. He already ate one of his bread so he was now left with just two. So to be safe, he decided to resupply back in the village and organize his inventory a bit.

Despite the troubling situation, Vann still wants to continue playing the game until it's proven to be dangerous.

There's no doubt that the current situation is enough to make one worry about the game and make one quit. Vann even saw posts starting to appear in the forum about the strange effect of the skills and have expressed their intentions to quit unless Maxima told the truth behind it.

As for Vann he was also thinking about it but in the end he still decided to wait and see first before making a decision to stop playing the game. He has already tested the log out function of the game and it worked perfectly so at the least, he can say that the game won't trap him inside forever.

But what really pushed him to continue playing the game is that he can't help but feel curious about what is Maxima thinking for them to create this situation. Especially after he finally learned something about the weird sensation after an hour of effort.

Everytime he uses his skills, Vann made sure to always keep track of that sensation in order to know more about it. Fortunately, after using his skills for dozens of time and paying all his attention to it, he realized something.

In the first half an hour of grinding, he learned that the sensation doesn't start immediately at his right arm. Instead, it begins in every part of his body and then moves up his right arm at the end. It's just that the sensation was so miniscule during the brief starting motion of the skill that it was so hard to notice.

If not for Vann carefully paying all of his attention to his whole body, he would've most likely missed it.

And with that discovery, Vann tried to concentrate his focus on his whole body whenever he is not fighting monsters. With his interest in martial arts, Vann has also delved deep into the act of meditation. It was precisely because he often meditates that his mind is sharper and stronger than normal.

So with his experience and another half an hour of effort, he was able to sense it. A mysterious foreign thing flowing around his whole body that made him feel stronger and better which he guessed is mana, the most common term for magical energy.

But as far as he can remember, Vann has never felt this energy in real life and never has he encountered a news of someone else experiencing this.

Of course it can be attributed to the fact that he just learned of this truth at this very moment or it doesn't even exist in real life and it's just a feauture of the game. Though whatever the case may be, the truth will be enough to shock the whole world.

"Fuck... is this mana? Maxima created mana that can be sensed?" Vann cursed when he guessed the truth behind the mysterious energy.

And when he remembered the feeling of growing stronger whenever he spent his points, Vann frowned as his previous thoughts that would be considered crazy and delusional can finally be seen as something logical.

But that very fact made him feel utterly suspicious and at the same time curious at the ones behind the game.

"Just what the hell are you planning... Maxima?"