Endless Rewards.
[You have received:]
[20 EXP]
The notification blinked before Winston's eyes, cutting through the silence like a drumbeat. He blinked a few times, half-expecting it to disappear. But it didn't.
He opened the system.
[EXP: 20/20]
Then came the next one:
[Congratulations, you have leveled up!] [Level: 2]
[EXP: 0/40]
[All stats +1]
Winston felt it instantly. Not a transformation, not a power-up montage—just a shift. Subtle. His limbs ached a bit less, his lungs didn't burn quite as much. He wasn't suddenly strong, but the exhaustion no longer felt like a chokehold.
[2 Free Stat Points Obtained.]
He stared at the message.
"So... I can just slap these into anything?" he mumbled.
He hadn't seen the full stat list yet. The system hadn't exactly handed him a tutorial. But agility? That one he knew. And he needed more of it. If it wasn't for Noah he would have long become monster food.
If he needed to survive in this world he needs to be fast, faster than his attackers.
Without hesitation, he dumped both points into Agility.
[Current Stats:]
Strength: 5
Agility: 9
Stamina: 6
Fortitude: 2
He let out a breath.
"Still squishy as a wet napkin... but at least I'm a faster wet napkin."
It wasn't a lot, but it was progress. Fast progress. Just one kill—technically Noah's kill—and he was already feeling different. But this world didn't hand out freebies.
"Curse anyone who thinks this is easy," he muttered.
He had this habit of imagining some cosmic audience watching him like a reality show character. Putting him in different conditions just to have a laugh or treating him as a test subject.
Then the next alert snapped into view.
[Intermediate Beast Blade Obtained: Blue Fang]
That was the blade he was expecting, now atleast he will have a weapon.
A crackle surged in the air, and a blade materialized in front of him—just like that. Like magic.
The weapon hovered, waiting.
He grabbed the hilt. It was cold, pulsing faintly, like a dormant storm trapped inside steel.
The blade was midnight blue, double-edged, with streaks of lightning etched down its length. Alive. Intimidating.
[Weapon Bonuses (When Equipped):]
+2 Strength
+3 Speed
[Active Skill: Voltstrike]
[Description :Releases a lightning arc that paralyzes enemies for 2 seconds. Reduced effect on higher-tier beasts. Cooldown: 10 minutes]
"Okay... okay, now this is cool," he whispered.
He swung it once and from that alone one could guess he had never held a sword in his life.
"Who even learns a sword in modern times, not my fault", he complained.
Noah, now sitting beside him, gave a low grunt of approval through their link.
The notifications weren't done.
[Bonus Rewards for First Kill:]
First Kill Bonus: 10 SP
First Time Killing a Muddrag: 20 EXP
[SP: 10/10]
[System Upgrade Available. Upgrade now?]
Winston blinked, " Oh, the system can be upgraded? So SP must mean system points, will I get SP on every kill?".
With some thought he selected yes.
Ding!
[Pendragon System Upgraded to Level: 2] [New Feature Unlocked: Dimensional Storage - Level 1]
[Dimensional Storage - Lv.1]
[Holds up to 10 items. Time is frozen for stored objects. Living beings cannot be stored.]
[SP: 0/20 to upgrade further.]
Winston's jaw dropped.
"Yes! Now I don't have to carry this mud-dog corpse around like a barbarian."
He pointed the system's interface at the dead beast, focused, and—whoosh—it vanished. Tucked neatly into a glowing slot inside the storage.
He half-expected a loading bar. Instead, it was instant.
Then the final screen hit him.
[Passive Skill Unlocked: Sixth Sense] [Allows user to instinctively detect incoming danger.]
Winston read it twice. That was a survival skill if he'd ever seen one. Not flashy. But when you were one wrong move away from being dinner, instincts meant everything.
The weight of it all finally hit him. He looked at the messages again. The sword in his grip. The power humming just under his skin.
He wanted to jump, scream, maybe do a victory pose like those cheesy anime protagonists. But instead, he just let the grin stretch across his face.
"Alright," he muttered, lowering Blue Fang and glancing at Noah. "Let's not die before level three."
Noah flicked his tail and gave him that wolfy stare that probably meant: Don't get cocky.
He practiced a few more swings then tired the dimensional storage, placing in rocks, leaves and broken tree branches.
He even tried putting some of the lake water inside it but it didn't work.
He noticed that the system could only store things that Winston was in contact of. He also noticed that that it could not store big rocks or tree trucks that Winston could not lift or things that were firmly rooted in place like small bushes which could not be removed from hand.
He also experimented on what counts as a single object, he tired placing in multiple leaves as one and it worked but only the amount Winston could carry at a time. It also had to be of same type.
Winston named it the slot capacity, so the slot capacity was linked to the strength of Winston. It meant that in future as his strength grows the weight or the amount of stuff that could be stored in a single slot would also increase.
For instance he could only store object that weighed less than 70 kgs which is the limit of how much he can lift.
While for stuff like leaves it was far less , only the amount he could carry in both hands but when the leaves were compressed, more of them could be stored.
Similarly for water,only the amount that his hands could hold was stored, but when water was first stored in a large leaf then placed in the storage, more if it could be stored in a single slot.
It was all a lot strange as if the system had it's own rule but yet it made sense in a weird way.
Winston tucked the sword across his back so it could be ready to use at any point, although putting the things in system was instantaneous, getting them back took some time, just a second but in an attack that's all it takes to lose your head.