3 A Hunter Is Born (3)
[Congratulations mortal! You have been selected to be humanity's champion!]
[There are unclaimed items in your inventory. Claim them to get briefed on your first task. You can access the inventory just by thinking about it.]
Zaen stood there rubbing his eyes. He even pinched himself to check if he was dreaming or something.
"Oww! This is definitely not a dream. But if it's not a dream then what's going on here? Humanity's champion? Inventory? The heck?" Zaen mumbled.
Before he could think much about it though, a blue flash covered the room. Zaen's instinct kicked in and he covered his eyes to protect them from the bright flash. After a couple of seconds, the flash died down and Zaen slowly opened in eyes to see a transparent bluish holographic screen was floating in front of him. Then there was another notification on the mysterious artifact.
[Congratulations for accessing the inventory. We understand you may not have any weapons or armours to carry out your task. Hence you've been provided with suitable equipment. Press the item icons on the holographic screen to view the stats of that item.]
Zaen was still confused about it all, but he did as the smartphone told him to do. The blue screen was divided into about a hundred slots, but only nine of them were filled. Zaen pressed the first icon which resembled a black masquerade mask and a new page opened up on the screen.
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Item: Mask of secrecy.
Type: Armour
Armour: +35
Rarity: Rare armour
Durability: 500/500
Effect(s):
• Hides your presence from nearby enemies: increases Stealth by 20 points (Ineffective on Elite monsters and boss monsters).
• Grants the user a passive skill <Fake Smile>.
Fake Smile: Striking an enemy has a 5% chance of inflicting confusion upon them. Lasts for 3 seconds. Has a cooldown period of 10 seconds.
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"Is this some kind of game?" Zaen asked wishing for the empty air around him to answer his question, when nothing happened he selected the icon resembling a plain black hoodie which was next to the mask.
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Item: Hooligan's Hoodie
Type: Armour
Armour: +60
Rarity: Uncommon armour
Provides additional two slots to equip consumables/healing items/accessories.
Durability: 300/300
Effect(s):
• This item doesn't have an individual effect, instead, it has a 'Set effect'.
Smooth Walker: When three pieces of Hooligan's armour are equipped, the user gains an additional 10% movement speed.
Iron Wall: When all five pieces of the hooligan's armour set are equipped, the user gains an additional defence buff, increasing 10% of total armour. The effect Smooth Walker is also applied to the user.
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Zaen immediately guessed what the rest of the icons were. Whatever the smartphone was, it had provided him with the entire 5 pieces set of Hooligan's armour. Namely, they were called: Hooligan's Hoodie, Hooligan's Jersey, Hooligan's Jeans, Hooligan's sneakers and Hooligan's Skullcap. The entire set was black and had a total of 260 armour. But if Zaen equipped the entire set, the total armour would increase to 286 and if he takes the armour granted by the Mask of secrecy into the mix, then the total armour would be around 324.
Apart from the armour and mask, he had two icons that resembled a knife and one had an icon of bandages. Zaen quickly checked these icons as well.
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Item: Corrosive Dagger
Type: Weapon
Damage: 200/hit
Attack speed: 1.5/second
DPS: 300
Rarity: Rare weapon
Durability: 500/500
Effect(s):
• Corrosion: Has a 5% chance of dealing acid damage to the enemy. Reduces 1% of enemies maximum HP for the next 5 seconds. Has a cooldown period of 3 seconds. The effect can be stacked a maximum of 3 times.
• Grants the user a passive skill <Twin Blade>.
Twin Blade: Striking an enemy has a 3% chance of inflicting twice the damage. Has a cooldown period of 10 seconds.
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"It's totally like some kind of game..." Zaen didn't know why he was getting so excited every time he viewed a piece of equipment in his 'inventory'.
The next icon had multiple knives in it. These were called Throwing knives and he had a stack of twenty knives in one slot. Each of the knives could deal damage anywhere between 80-120. However, he couldn't use them continuously as after throwing one knife there was a cooldown period of 2 seconds.
The last icon, however, wasn't quite interesting as the others in his opinion. Zaen could immediately guess what it was.
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Item: Bandages
Type: Consumable/Healing item
Heal: 260 health points/bandage
Rarity: Common consumable
Has a cooldown period of 2 seconds
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"Judging from the type of equipment I've been given, it looks like some kind of survival game. At least that's my guess." Zaen mumbled while scratching his chin, "It still feels unrealistic though. I mean I can touch and do things as the smartphone wants me to do but is it even possible to do what I'm doing right now? It still feels like a dream."
[To equip the desired equipment, double-tap the icon.]
Yet another notification popped up on the smartphone. Zaen once again did as he was told and quickly equipped the entire Hooligan's set along with Mask of secrecy and Corrosive Dagger. Thanks to the hoodie, two quickslots were unlocked and the bandages and throwing knives were now occupying those slots.
[Beginning analysis of users physique to generate skills and stats. Please wait patiently while scanning takes place.]
The next moment, Zaen once again felt a jolt of electricity pass through him but this time it wasn't painful. It felt more as if the smartphone was scanning his body like an x-ray machine. It took about a minute for the scanning to end and as soon as it was done, another screen popped up in front of Zaen replacing the previous one.
This screen had a photograph of him along with his name. It was also showing the equipment he was wearing as well as the empty slots in his inventory. Below his name, a bunch of numbers were mentioned which Zaen thought to be his 'stats'.
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Basic Information:
Name: Zaen Sapphirus
Age: 19
Gender: Male
Stats:
HP: 1500/1500
Damage: 200
Armour: 325
Stealth: 65
Stamina: 150
Agility: 110
Accuracy: 67%
Mana: <Locked> (New stats can be unlocked at higher levels)
Active Buffs/Skills:
• Corrosion
• Twin Blade
• Smooth Walker
• Iron Wall
• Fake Smile
Abilities:
• Tough love (Level 1): Boosts Stamina and Agility by 20 points each.
• Scare Tactics (Level 1): Weaker enemies have a 2% chance of fleeing from battle.
• Powerhouse (Level 1): Attacks against Elite monsters and boss monsters deal 5% more damage.
• Novice Slasher (Level 1): Increases damaged dealt when using daggers by 5%
• Veracity (Level 1): Increases the accuracy and damage dealt by throwing weapons by 2%
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After reading the information on this new screen, Zaen felt a familiar bubbly feeling inside him. It was the same feeling that he felt whenever he started playing a new game. Especially, survival ones.
[Tutorial complete! Generating the first mission for the champion. Please wait patiently.]
[Task complete]
[Mission 1: RECLAIMER.]
[Introduction: There have been mysterious disappearances in your area. Find and eliminate the cause of the disappearances.]
[Task: Kill the Charred Ghoul hiding in the local park.]
[Rewards:
• Rare skill
• Charred Ghoul's loot box
• Everyone swallowed by the mist around your area would return to your world.]
[Failure to complete the task would result in the death of all the disappeared humans.]
[Time Limit: 2 days.]
[Press YES to start the mission. Please note: In the event of non-acceptance, the disappeared souls would die after 2 days.]
The purple dagger dropped from Zaen's hand and fell with a loud thud. His eyes were fixed on one sentence: Everyone swallowed by the mist around your area would return to your world.
"Aeron... would come back? I can bring him back? I CAN BRING HIM BACK!!!" Zaen started jumping with joy as tears flowed down from his sapphire eyes.
He didn't hesitate even for a moment and quickly grabbed the dagger before pressing the glowing yes button on the screen. Barely a second had passed after that when a weird greenish mist surrounded him, soon after he was nowhere to be found. He had disappeared just like the others.
