Ch11. Into the Nest
One thing I can say, for sure.
Fighting holograms in a simulation to test my fighting abilities was one thing.
But fighting real beasts inside a Nest...
It was a whole new deal.
Luckily, I had some thief's skills from my past life, that were useful in a Nest, such as dodging, jumping, sprinting.
And all of these capabilities were basically maxed out because of the system.
As I lunged, stabbed, slashed and pierced, the Lizard men kept rushing towards me, but I dodged, moved, counterattacked and evaded their approach.
It was exhilarating.
[LEVEL UP]
[LEVEL UP]
[LEVEL UP]
The system announced.
But the stone corridor where I had arrived seemed to have no end, so I decided to conserve my strength.
I knew there were many enemies ahead, but there were also many corpses behind me, and I was already at level five.
After some more fighting, I cleared that section of the floor, and hid in the shadows between one torch and another to catch my breath.
'Okay, let's see what's new.' I thought, opening the status window.
NAME: KURT BLAKE
LVL: 05
AGE: 16
CLASS: Rogue
STAMINA: 90/175
HP: 97/140
MP: 95/95
BASIC STATS
Undistributed stat points: 5
Strength: 16 (+10)
Dexterity: 27 (+20)
Agility: 27 (+20)
Perception: 20
Intelligence: 14
Vigor: 30
INVENTORY
***
CONSUMABLES
Full recovery x1
EQUIPMENT
Midnight Ballad
Midnight's embrace
***
SKILLS
Steal LVL 1
Invisible hand LVL 1
Prying eyes LVL 1
I needed to cool my head off, there were so many things I had forgotten about my whole new situation, and I needed to take them into account.
First of all, it wasn't a game.
The system could look like something out of a console, but it wasn't a game at all.
I did feel tired, and I had taken some damage. My mouth was bleeding, and I had a few cuts.
Even though it wasn't anything critical, my status window was there to show me that My HP and my stamina were decreasing, and I didn't know what would happen if my stamina got to zero.
But I remember quite well what happens if my life drops down to zero, and I didn't want it happening again.
Ever.
So I took a deep breath, and weighed my possibilities.
I checked the update on my basic stats, and it made sense, why it was seemingly easier for me to deal with the Lizard men.
I gained one stat point for each basic stat, every time I leveled up. That made me feel a bit more reassured.
I went into the Nest so eager to test everything I just acquired, depending solely on my basic stats, that I even forgot the most basic principle that I read from one of the books that Nikolai sold me in my past life.
Gear up.
And still had one untested item that I needed to check, so I took the [MIDNIGHT'S EMBRACE] from the inventory, and wore it in my ring finger.
It automatically adjusted to perfectly fit my finger.
[A DORMANT SKILL IS READY TO BE AWAKENED]
[DO YOU WISH TO RECEIVE THE SKILL?]
[YES] [NO]
I had a feeling that this system would always be giving me options.
"Yes." I whispered.
[ACQUIRING SKILL]
[SHADOW WALK LVL 1]
[DESCRIPTION: Active skill – Allows the player to become completely unnoticeable by anyone; Enemies of higher power will be able to notice you at the current skill's level.]
[COST: 10M per minute]
It was a cool skill, but I still wasn't good enough on MP to use it at will.
I also had to find out which basic stat influenced on my MP.
It was pretty obvious that strength made me physically stronger, agility and dexterity affected my speed and reaction time.
And ever since I awakened to that system, I was able to slightly feel things that usually are invisible to the human eye, so I imagine it was due to the perception stat.
I assumed that vigor had something to do with my stamina, so I was left with intelligence.
And after some consideration, I got up and prepared to go on.
I wasn't going to use [FULL RECOVERY] just yet, because I would probably need it in the boss room, and I wanted to test my luck with my stats and equipment, now that I had cooled off, without distributing the stat points I still had as a reward from my daily quest.
If I needed to, I would do so before the boss room, but I didn't need to rush it.
All I needed to do, was take things steady and level headed, like when picked a lock, or a pocket.
So I exhaled a deep sigh, slapped my cheeks, and started walking again.
After a sharp turn without a single beast to be seen, the corridor felt like getting wider, brighter, despite the dark torches.
I tried focusing my senses to what laid ahead of me, and was able to feel a presence, not far ahead.
It wasn't so strong, so I activated [SHADOW WALK], and ran towards it, in hopes to kill any Lizard men that waited for me on the way, without getting caught.
Strangely, though, after one minute of running, I found none, so deactivated the skill, and found myself in a vast stone chamber, lit by countless torches of a vibrant, red fire, different from the hallways that led me to that chamber.
In the middle of the chamber was a throne twice my size.
But the most impressive thing was what sat on the throne.
It was a Lizard man, bigger than the throne itself, carrying a massive battle axe, and dressed in what looked like barbarian clothing, full of fur and leather.
And the remaining Lizard men laid prostrated around him, growling and screeching, probably talking to him.
'So I scared you guys away, and you ran straight back to your papa?' I thought, hiding in a piece of shadow on the wall.
I wanted to test my new light sword, so I drew [MIDNIGHT BALLAD] from the inventory, and held it tightly.
I wasn't used to swords, but its blade felt incredibly familiar to my hand.
Almost as if it was forged by commission.
So I inhaled, exhaled, and took a pebble from the floor, to drag their attention somewhere else.
If I was going to do it right, I had to take the minions down first, then go after the big guy.
I focused my strength on my hand, and shot the pebble right at the wall behind the throne.
All Lizard men stood up at the same time, even the big one, growling and drawing their weapons.
And all of them looked in the direction of the sound.
'Time to get the job done...'
And I sprinted towards them with all I had.