Level One

I looked around trying to get my barings after falling on my head. I was in a clearing with giant trees surounding the area. The trees had humongous red trunks and leaves the colors of a sunset. The grass at my feet was the normal green that I expected (even though I had to experience to base this assumption off of.) and the sky was still blue so that was good. While I was looking around I noticed that my vision had changed since the room of character creation. There wasn't just a cursor any more but also small plus signs in each corner of my vision.

I used the cursor to click on the plus sign in the upper left hand corner of my vision, a drop down box opened from it revealing my inventory and equipped items to me. The inventory was empty aside from an item with the title "Ram Tips." I checked the status of them to see if I could equip them and unfortunately they were a level 10 Item so I'd have to get to level ten before I would be able to wear them. I then looked over to my equipped items which was almost equally as bare. There were spots for a top, pants, shoes, headgear, two rings, two bracelets, a necklace, two weapons, and a book. There was one more spot but it was locked and couldn't be seen until level 45. The only slot that was filled was the one for my weapon which was lable. "First Hammer."

I went ahead and clicked on the weapon with the cursor. It appeared in my hand immediately so I could handle and look at it more clearly. It was flat on one side with a spike on the other. The metal part was made of what looked like copper and there was some loose cloth wrapped around the hilt probably to keep the wielder from injuring themselves while using it. He looked at the hammers stats and was fairly dissapointed.

DMG: 5 DUR: 5

There were nothing special about this weak hammer. I was fairly dissapointed yet again, but I decided to think about the future instead and said that I would buy a better one the first chance I got. A buzzing sound suddenly caught my ear. From the far side of the clearing I could see a beetle about the size of my head flying towards me.It was green all over and had what looked like a horn that curved up on it's face. I looked at it's status quickly to determine it's strength.

FLYING BEETLE LV:2

ST:1 DX:9 INT:0 CHA:0 HP:100/100 MP:0/0

"It seems pretty weak." I said aloud to noone in particular. The Flying Beetle was getting closer I decided to check out this worlds combat system. I didn't know if it would be turn based or skill based, I just wanted to see so I prepared my fighting stance waiting for some type of prompt. I was still waiting when the Beetle was only 20 meters from me. It was steadily getting closer making a threating sound as if to tell me that this was his area and I was trespassing on it.

Without warning the Beetle flew up 10 feet into the air and then dived at me aiming his horn at my face. I tried to dodge but the Beetle was faster than I expected it didn't hit my head but it did clip my shoulder. I felt a searing pain as my shoulder cracked under the force of the Flying Beetle. It slumped to my side unable to move. I looked up at the upper right hand corner of my vision for my health bar that had suddenly appeared when I saw the Beetle the first time. My HP went down by 10 points from 200 to 190.

I looked back at the Beetle and thought about what I had just learned. For one damage to the body has an actual response as well as a point response. My arm is actually injured so if that happened to my leg I would be unable to run away. The Beetle shot straight back up into the sky ready to dive attack me again. "I cant afford to get hit in the head." I thought to myself. Then I stopped, remembering the horns that were sprouted out of my head. "God you're such an idiot!" I exclaimed.

The Beetle reached the apex of his flight and started it's decent. I was ready for it this time though. I lowered my head lining up my horns with the Beatles falling path. The Beetle rammed straight into my head. I didn't take any damage thanks to my inate skill Helmet Head (which I seemed to be getting a lot of use out of.) Instead it caused the beatle to become dizzy falling to the ground. I pounced upon it and swung my hammer getting two licks in before the Beetle regained itself and flew into the air once more. Looking at the beatles status however it's HP had fallen to 90/100.

"I guess since my hammer does 5 damage it's 5 per hit." I thought. The Beetle came down again, and again I lowered my head and it slammed into me giving it a dizzy affect and falling to the ground. I was upon it again in a second I hit it once, and watched it's HP go down another 5 points just to confirm what I had thought it was now at 85/100. I missed the opportunity to swing again though because I was looking at this. It sprang into the air again this time bringing the tip of it's sharp horn up into a jerking motion. It stabbed me in the stomach causing a huge amount of pain. I threw up as it was flying towards the sky once more.

My HP went to 180/200. "How is that possible?" I wondered. I didn't have much time to think though as the Beetle was on it's way back down again aiming for my head. Once more I used Helmet Head, and once more the Beetle fell to the ground. "If I have a physical affect applied when I take damage the same should be true for the monsters." At that I flipped my hammer around to the side with the spike I aimed to the center of the Beetles back to the crack where it shielded it's wings.

My hammer came down seperating the shielding and piercing the wings. The Beetles HP went down to 75/100. "I guess it's what is called a critical hit." I thought. With it's wings crippled it was unable to fly away so I kept hitting it over and over again with my hammer. The HP was trickling away, 70, 65, 60, 55, 50/100. I kept going and going until it was at 5/100. My hammer fell once more killing the beatle. A notification appeared across my vision. "LEVEL UP!" It said showing that I was now level 2. My health leveled up too and was now 205/205 "so I guess I heal when I level up." There were also monster drops including Flying Beetle wing fragments, shell pieces, and a Beetle horn.

"Score!" I yelled. I looked at each drop item individually and the shell pieces had the option to absorb, so I did so to see what absorb did. As soon as I absorbed the pieces. "NEW SKILL LEARNED!" Appeared. So I looked at the skill which was called Rear Defense lvl 1. I activated it and a green pair of Beetle shells made of light appeared behind me for a second then dissapeared. I read the discription for the skill. "Once activated defends against light attacks from behind you for 5 seconds. MP cost 5. I looked up at the upper right hand corner where my HP bar was and sure enough my MP bar had gone down 5 points.

"This seems like it will be pretty useful if I can time it's use right." I thought. I placed all the items in my inventory and went about checking everything else that needed to be checked. I started with my base stats. They still hadn't changed unfortunately but the stats window did reveal more. The HP and MP were directly tied into the base stats of ST and INT, however there was more too it. Your DX directly tied into your damage and speed so right now my base damage was 45 and my speed was 25. "ACHIEVMENT UNLOCKED!" It took me by surprise again. "Achievment title: Knowledge is power." He looked at that confused.

"What does that mean?" System help kicked in after that question. "By reading your stats in this world you have learned how to become stronger when you get status points every 10 levels. Knowing this has allowed you to access the power hidden in your stats, so you no longer have to rely on just the damage of the weapon or defense of your armor." I found it interesting of course, but unfortunately all that told me was that I wasn't using any strength when I fought the beatle and that I could have died because I didn't read my stats first thing when I arrived.

I decided to go ahead and move on from this area to see if I could find some type of town or some place to stay. As I started to move in a random direction a mini map opened in the lower right hand field of my vision. I interacted with it using the cursor and it opened into a bigger map showing everything within a 1000 meter circumference of myself. I kept walking in the direction I was going and as I did more of the map revealed itself to me. I walked just a few steps more and I heard that familiar buzzing yet again.

Sure enough another Fying Beetle was on it's way towards me. I readied myself for battle once more expecting a rather difficult fight. The Beetle flew into the air and dove towards me, I knew the attack pattern already though so I quickly countered with Helmet Head. The Beetle dropped to the ground I hit it once, then twice, and it died. I was confused for a good minute there when I remembered that I just gained access to my higher stats. These Beetles were no longer much of a threat to me.

I kept heading in the direction I was going, more of the map opened to me as I traveled. I occasionally had to stop to kill a beatle, which I had figured out that this must be a spawning ground for such creatures. I had gained up to level 5 when the first town appeared on the map. I was so excited I could finally sell a bunch of these beatle parts and get a new weapon and equipment. The towns name on the map was Eichenville. I strode up to the gate and was about to go in when I was stopped by the gaurds standing watch outside the town.

"Where do you think you're going you little BIP?" The man was gruff and big and wore low grade armor. He wielded a spear at me.

"Into the town?" I responded weakly. The man laughed at that.

"BIPs aren't allowed in Eichenville and you damn well know that." The other gaurd said to him. I didn't know what he was talking about so I had to ask.

"What's a BIP?" The men glared at me thinking I was making fun of them.

"A low piece of scum sub human. Bispecies are called BIPs and they aren't allowed in this town." The first gaurd said matter of factly.

"You'll have to go to BIP town where all the other freaks are. It's about half a days journey to the west of here." The second gaurd said. I quickly looked at their statuses to see if I could take them down and enter the city anyway, but they were both level 30 there was no way. So I trudged off in the direction that they told me. "Maybe this BIP town will still have what I need." I said dejectedly.