3 Chapter 3: The Dark Forest

"Okay system, so you said that I have to say: Status, for me to be able to open my status window and for me to view my stats ?" asked Keith to make sure that he was not making a mistake.

[Yes. The host just has to say: Status, for your status window to show up.] - said the system in a bored tone.

"Okay, Status !" said Keith as he saw a panel appear in front of him displaying the words "Status" on the top and two other panels with the words "Items" and "Skills" on each panel respectively.

-------{Status}-------

[Name: Keith Selves]

[Age: 15]

[Race: ???]

[Level: 1]

[Experience: 0/150]

[Class: Apprentice Swordsman] (Tier 3)

[Health Point: 132/132]

[Mana: 100/100]

[Magical Affinity: Lightning (Rank F)]

[Strength: 13]

[Dexterity: 8]

[Endurance: 7]

[Intelligence: 15]

[Charm: 18]

[Bonus Points: 0]

-------{Skills}-------

{Devour} (Active)

[This skill allows the user to devour other people's stats and skills.]

{Rapid Sword's Strike} (level 1)

[This skill allows the user to release a flurry of sword strike attacks which can deal a lot of damage to his opponents.]

-------{Items}-------

{Spell Book Of The Great Sage}

[This book contains all of the magical spells regarding any of the different types of magical affinities in this world.]

{The Sword Of The Devourer} (level 1) (0%)

[This sword allows the user to devour and absorb the stats and skills of the opponents that have fallen to his blade. ???]

-------{End of Status}-------

"Well ... I guess that, that is good for now," said Keith as he looked at his status window with a satisfied expression.

"Wait a minute, Jerry did you use the [Stats Booster] to increase my stats ?" asked Keith to make sure that his status was at its highest right now.

[Nope. I still have not activated host's [Stats Booster] yet.] - replied the system in a calm manner.

"Well then, can you please activate the [Stats Booster] then ?" asked Keith in a sarcastic voice.

[Okay then. Evaluating the host's new stats ...] - said the system as it activated the [Stats Booster] to increase Keith's stats.

[Displaying new stats ...]

-------{New Stats}-------

[Strength: 13 --> 15]

[Dexterity: 8 --> 10]

[Endurance: 7 --> 9]

[Intelligence: 15 --> 17]

[Charm: 18 --> 20]

[Bonus Points: 0]

-------{End of New Stats}-------

"Hmm ... good," said Keith as he looked at his new stats and an even more bright smile flashed on his face.

"Hey Jerry, what is the average for the charm attribute ?" asked Keith in a curious tone as he pondered for the answer to the question himself.

[Uhh ... hold on a minute and let me check.] - said the system with an equally curious tone.

[Calculating ... Got it ! The average for the charm attribute in this world is 35.] - said the system in a manner that made it seem like he was telling the truth.

Even though Keith had read the entire novel, there had never been any mention of the average for the charm attribute because the protagonist was considered good looking with his charm attribute at 43 when the second Arc began. So when Keith heard the system, he had actually believed in it not knowing that it was lying to him.

'Oh, so I am not good looking,' thought Keith as he went to the bathroom to go and take a shower.

Not hearing the young boy's thoughts, the system just watched on as Keith made his way to the bathroom.

After an hour, Keith came out of the bathroom after dealing with his emotions.

He had more important things to worry about than to waste his time sulking over not being good looking.

He was going to die soon, and he had to prevent that at all costs.

Keith decided while he was taking a shower that he was going to use all the information he knew about the novel to his advantage so that he could survive his impending death.

One of the information he was going to utilize was that there was two skills as well as a weapon hidden in [The Dark Forest] capable of great destruction.

The protagonist was meant to stumble upon them by mistake before the final battle between him and the villain.

Keith had already formulated a plan to go and retrieve the skills as well as the weapon after getting ready.

All he had to do was avoid powerful monsters so that he does not get killed until he got to the skills and the weapon after that he would retrieve them and use them to get out of the forest safely.

He still has a lot of time on his hands as the [The Royal Academy Of Delmontria] was only going to be reopened in three months. But he decided to go today so that by the time the academy reopened, then he would have already mastered the skills as well as using the weapon.

And another reason he did not want to postpone this trip was because his birthday was coming up within the next two weeks.

So after getting ready, Keith set off for the [The Dark Forest] in hopes of getting his hands on the skills as well as the weapon that were hidden there.

He did not even have anything for breakfast, that is how desperate and determined the young boy was on getting his hands on those items !

He exited his house and got out of his yard. He then looked at the scenery. Despite the destroyed architecture here and there, the city still looked beautiful.

He stared to walk towards the city's exit gates so that he could go to [The Dark Forest].

He walked past food stalls, restaurants, cafe's, clothes stores, the guild, the blacksmith's store as well as the alchemist's store.

He then decided to stop at one food stall to get something to eat before heading to the city's exit gates which were close by.

He walked towards the food stall and greeted the old man who was cooking the food there.

"Good morning sir," said Keith respectfully as he gazed at the the old man who was busy cooking.

"Oh, good morning young man," replied the old man to Keith's greeting.

"How can I help you ?" asked the old man while he was still cooking.

"Uhh ... I would like to buy some of the grilled chicken please," replied Keith as he looked at the different types of food that were being sold and finally decided to take the grilled chicken.

"Oh sure, that will be five copper coins," said the old man as he turned his head upwards to look at the young boy and then he stopped cooking so that he could pack the grilled chicken for the young boy.

The system had also told him about the currency of the new world. The system had also given him ten gold coins as a gift so that it could boast about its greatness to Keith again.

***

100 copper coins = 1 silver coin

100 silver coins = 1 gold coin

And finally, last but not least:

100 gold coins = 1 platinum coin

***

Keith had also found some coins which the previous owner of his body had saved up so he used some of these coins to pay for the grilled chicken.

"Oh right, here you go," said Keith as he took out five copper coins from his pouch and then he handed it to the old man.

After paying the old man five copper coins for the grilled chicken, Keith took the piece of meat and ate it right then and there before he continued to walk towards the city's exit gates.

He reached there only after a few minutes of walking. He saw a couple of guards at the gate and greeted them before he exited the city and made his way towards [The Dark Forest].

He continued to walk for a couple of hours before he came face to face with the forest's entrance.

He saw talk dark trees which has a very hard if not indestructible tree trunks. The trees also has small dark green leaves which were shaped like a strawberry plant's leaves.

He then entered the dark and gloomy forest and made his way to the location at which the skills and the weapon were hidden.

While he was walking, he came across a few level 2 Imp's which he took care of easily despite having a smaller level compared to the Imps.

He was still a bit far off from reaching the next level but he was still a bit pleased by the fact that he had not came across any powerful monster from the time he had entered the forest.

After walking for a while, he finally reached the location of the hidden skills as well as the hidden weapon.

It was eerily silent as Keith made his way towards the exact location.

He saw a huge tree there implying that the items were hidden inside of the indestructible tree trunk.

But there was a way in which he would be able to extract the items from the indestructible tree trunk.

He pulled out his sword from his Item Box and then used it to cut his finger using it.

He then placed his bleeding finger onto the tree trunk and the tree started to glow before it pulled Keith's soul into it so that it could judge whether or not if he was worthy for the items hidden inside of it.

Darkness enveloped Keith as he lost his consciousness after his soul got sucked out of his body and into the tree trunk.