Chapter 4: Item Extraction in the Forest

Only a few players had actually gone far enough to reach the forest, or at least reach the forest with the required level (2-3).

Anyone that would dare step foot inside of it would be met by some powerful monsters that didn't die as easily as the rats.

And it was also the case with Alex, as even he struggled a bit.

Fireball! Boom!

-26!

He was being followed by two [Blood Rabbits].

[Blood Rabbits]

Level: 2

HP: 60

These monsters had high speed, at around 16 and high spirit as well, being at 12.

They were completely white, with crimson eyes, and a small black horn at the top of their head, which they use to cast the [Red Crystal] skill, creating a small shard that could pretty much one shot most players at their current level.

Alex though had been fighting for 10 years, so he rolled away each time, his techniques even though they didn't match with his current physique still holding strong.

Fireball! Boom!

-26!

His spirit attribute now having reached 16 meant that he did much more damage, and so the two [Blood Rabbits] died after a few fireballs were sent toward them.

"Phew…"

[Please select something to extract!]

'Nice!' he was ecstatic, as it meant better loot.

[Blood Rabbit Fur (Common)

Horned Staff (Uncommon)

'Red Crystal' Skill (Rare)]

"…!" Alex's eyes widened.

A skill? And a [Rare] one to extract at that!

In the world of Universal Descent, items/skills were scattered across eight categories: Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Legendary, Mythical, Divine and Artifact.

Which meant that Alex just got the opportunity to get a skill from the third category! And the chance to get it was already enough of a warning as to how rare it was!

"Extraction!" he instinctively placed his hand against the rabbit and mumbled those words.

Ding!

[You have gained the 'Red Crystal' skill!]

[Red Crystal Level 1; Deals exactly 40 damage to target; consumes 15 mana; 5-second cooldown.]

He had actually managed to gain a skill!

The fact that monsters could have their skills as extraction drops also meant that Alex could select them if he had the chance to!

"…" he couldn't suppress his excitement after knowing that, this meant the ability to become so much stronger than before, and didn't the other panel from before says that attributes and talents were possible too?

He was probably the only person in the entire world to have a second skill after all!

But this wasn't all the notifications!

Ding!

[Fireball has increased to Level 2, damage increased from 10 to 20!]

In this world, there are ways to level up your skills other than [Skill Points]: you also have the option to keep constantly using them, thus making your spell casting and mastery better, which will eventually level it up.

Once a skill, no matter how powerful or rare it is, reaches level 10, you can then use [Skill Points] to upgrade it to its next tier.

For example, once Fireball reached level 10, Alex would have to use a determined amount of skill points to upgrade it to its next and stronger form, which is why he needed to keep his skill points in check as using them all to max its level wasn't a good idea for now.

But until then, he needed to keep going.

Fireball! Boom!

-36!

It now only took two fireballs to get rid of a [Blood Rabbit], and even those that tried to ambush him were easily slain.

Red Crystal!

He would cast the skill, creating a small crimson shard the size of his palm at the tip of his low-level staff, then sending it toward the rabbits, piercing their heads and almost immediately killing them because of the high damage.

The cooldowns also meant that Alex could pretty much spam his skill one after the other, not allowing any of the rabbits to get close to him.

This kept going for two hours, and in the meantime, Alex acquired all five [Rabbit Fur] he needed, but also a [Horned Staff], which he immediately equipped as it gave him +6 spirit.

[You have leveled up to level 3, all attribute points have been raised by 5, and you have 4 free attribute points to assign as well as 1 skill point!]

[Experience: 45/300]

Yet again, the points went on his spirit, since putting the maximum amount of damage possible was his priority.

"I guess that's already enough," he mumbled as he put all the [Rabbit Fur] in his [Beginner Backpack], "I still need money though."

The currency of Universal Descent was as follows: 1 gold coin = 100 silver coin = 10000 copper coins.

One copper coin in this game equates to around one dollar in the real world, and so it makes it much easier for those that are rich and have been selected to be at a much bigger advantage.

And so if Alex really wanted to break free from his fate like in his previous life, money would be a very important part of it all.

After around ten minutes, Alex left the forest and arrived in the [Farmlands] again, but this time, instead of heading directly toward the village, he instead decided to stop: he wanted to get some loot from the rats before.

It was significantly easier now, as a single one of his fireballs dealt EXACTLY 40 points of damage, and of course, the [Red Crystal] also killed them in one shot since it did 40 damage too.

Getting rid of the [Demonized Rats] was now a piece of cake thanks to the [Horned Staff] too, the new staff he got from extracting.

Soon enough, the prompt that asked him to select something to extract appeared, and he selected another [Beginner Backpack] to increase his inventory slots to 10.

Then he continued, slaying over 18 rats before finally filling his second backpack with five [Black Rat Helmets (Common)].

"Good," he smiled as he packed everything, going back to the silver-skinned alchemist and showing what he found to him.

"Oh!" he seemed pleased, "Very good!" he nodded, "Well then, you can have three of my potions as thanks."

The silver-skinned alchemist handed Alex three potions, each one labeled with a different color: green, blue and red.

The green was a low-level [Health Potion], used to recover 150 heath at once, the blue was a low-level [Mana Potion] to recover 150 mana at once.

And finally, the most interesting of all, the red potion was a [Poison Potion].

"Oh?" if he made someone or something drink this potion, they would immediately be poisoned, and if their health is too low, it was immediate death.

"Thanks for your service," the Alchemist bowed as he took the [Rabbit Fur] to the back of his store.

"No… problem?" Alex titled his head as he also put the potions in his backpack and left.

But right as he left, he immediately smiled again.

"It's time," he mumbled as he headed toward the main square of the novice village, meaning the place with the most people of all, "Time to open up shop!"

Alex sat on the ground, attracting the attention of some of the players, then he pulled out the five [Black Rat Helmets (Common)], as well as the [Health Potion] and [Mana Potion] alongside one of his [Beginner Backpack], placing them on the ground in front of him.

And then, he shouted.

"Cheap items! Cheap Items! Useful for beginners!"

Yes, Alex was planning to sell his items.