12. Next Step

12. Next Step

Matteo had just made his first kill and awakened a unique talent in the process, this caused him to revive a big boost and level up.

Unlocking a unique talent was another mysterious function of the game, a talent could be obtained or learned but a unique talent was specific to one character. In a way it could be said to have been born by the wielders personality. But why did he have the talent "killer instinct"?

After killing the boar and taking parts of its meat he walked away from the spot to somewhere more secluded. The girl in the mask followed him in silence but as she suspected that he would not be doing any hunting any time soon she lost interest in him and took a detour.

Matteo owed her for opening his eyes to the dangers of the world, not many players could be able to accept killing a creature and that would result in them being killed.

Matteo wanted to rest and kill one more beast before returning back to the town, if he stayed till dark things would be much worse.

Initially there was a training simulation at the start of the game to help players get the feeling of the game but this function was restricted to a limited number of people. Matteo had reason to believe that the game maker designed it so that it would only open after a number of players had died. This meant that the initial five member party that would number at one hundred had been significantly reduced.

Matteo only focused on his own path now, watching out for others would get him killed at his level. He made his way to a cluster of huge white rocks, there were spots of grass growing on them and a small space at an angle.

He crawled into it. Inside was spacious enough to keep ten people hidden, this was one of the spots he used to rest up in the game. Matteo had a suspicion that he would not be able to self heal himself without having a potion, the skill self heal would have to be learned.

Safe in the space within the cluster of rocks he opened his system to see his stats and the newest development. As he sat awkwardly he groaned slightly at the pain still throbbing in his body. The player stats soon came on.

[Player stats]

[Name: Matteo]

[Title: 2 (Inactive)]

[Class: Swordsman]

[Level: 2]

[Health: 8/15]

[Stamina: 6/11]

Matteo thought of the titles and the words representing it glowed and extended out two lines that revealed new words.

[Title:

Party Leader- Has the authority to form and lead a party (Status: Inactive)

First Marker- You are the first to awaken a talent. Increases success rate and efficiency of talent by 1% (Status: inactive)]

"Oh, this is new." Matteo rubbed his chin, having a title was a boost even if some of its abilities were significantly weaker than some skills. At his level he would only be able to use one title at a time and it would cost no mana.

He activated his first marker title and focused on his main stats panel. It came up in a second.

[Stats: Strength- 6, Dexterity- 6, Agility- 6, Intelligence- 6, Mana- 6]

[Stats Point: 1]

[Skills: Basic Swordmanship lv1]

[Talent: Killer's Instinct]

[Inventory: 4/15]

Matteo sighed as he prepared to crawl out of the small space, there was still something he had to find and the only problem being he was soon weak and physically inexperienced. He chose his best course of action to be to return back to the town and start swordsmanship tutorial.

He did not feel confident going up against a beast even if it was a normal one, without the help of the masked archer he would have died surely.

He looked at the two martial arts book he had acquired from the secret room under the martial arts building.

[Leaf Style swordsmanship

Needed: Basic swordsmanship lv 2]

[Feather step technique

Needed: Stamina-10, Agility-10]

Matteo had no time for idle thoughts, he climbed out of the cluster of rocks and made his way back in the direction of the town. He stopped by to pick up any herb he found and put it into his inventory, some interesting material he found lying around and ores if he found any.

On his way back he heard a scream of a woman nearby, he proceeded there with caution. On his way he tried to avoided the uneven terrain in some areas, he was not an outdoor person so it a while to adjust to the terrain every few meters.

He soon reached the spot where the noise came from, he could hear a stuffed sob of a young woman.

He looked behind the huge oak tree he hid behind to see a few meters away, a woman on the ground whimpering and trying to suppress her tears. She was bloody and missing an arm, Matteo knew whatever it was had to to bea predator.

He saw her eyes set on what stood from her, it was a huge mass of fur on all fours. It growled and bore it's fangs at her, in it's month was a chunk of her ripped out arm.

Matteo shook his head at her poor luck. "It's a black hound wolf, that's bad."