Familiar brunette

William awoke from the subtle bit of pain which spread across his arm, it poked the boy's conscience until he eventually woke up.

Yet although he was somewhat conscious now, he still felt too battered and bruised, not to mention, otherworldly tired. 

Likewise, he had it difficult to understand what went on around here. It took him well over a couple of minutes until he caught up.

Eventually, he noticed that a stunning woman treated one of the bruises on his right arm.

But these wounds weren't too important right now. He focused more on the fact that this lady seemed familiar, and William managed to figure out where he had seen her before.

In short words, she was one of the first random faces he saw when he entered this new world. Her soft beauty was memorable, not to mention, her short brunette hair were astonishingly fluffy.

That aside, her skin was beyond pale, even while she was in this human-like form. There truly was a lot to remember about her.

The newcomer's hands seemed skilled as well, she treated those numerous wounds with so much care! 

But yet the young snakezoid had too many cuts and bruises, so this healer made him flinch quite a few times before his arm was dressed with a dry, clean cloth.

"General Hakoon said that you've slept through the whole night, must have been a heck of a first day ha?" The lady finally broke this deafening silence.

William felt too uncomfortable to speak, but he eventually managed to chirp out a couple of words.

"I'm lucky to be alive, honestly." He muttered.

After she pointed towards the tunnel ceiling which was high above their heads, the brunette followed along swiftly and had a heap of enthusiasm!

With a slightly loud tone, she revealed. "You're more than lucky, someone saw you fall from up there!" 

"Oh... so people are laughing about that now, ha?" He questioned after a deep breath.

"No, not at all!" The other assured.

Afterwards she revealed, "Everyone's calling you the angry angel, you fell from up there and killed a bunch of bugs with your wrath!"

This lady seemed genuinely excited, her tone was beyond adorable throughout the process too! In short words, she portrayed herself as a sweet soothing melody after a night of tears.

William felt a bunch of emotions at once thanks to the other's joy, but he could not process half of these emotions.

For once, a creature proved herself attractive to him, this lady did not seem like just another bag of walking flesh.

These feelings conflicted the boy in more ways than he could count, but he decided to push them aside for now.

Instead he tried to extend the conversation, as it would be uncomfortable if this silence awkwardly stretched.

"Bug angel ha...? Wait no, angry bug... what?" He mumbled through those few words swiftly.

William acknowledged the struggle he had through that sentence, it certainly came unexpected. Unlike what his wordplay suggested, that stutter was not caused by any bug.

"Angry angel..." The lady stretched those couple of words, she wanted to help.

That and she genuinely had it difficult to hold in her laughter, a few giggles escaped too.

"Right," The young snakezoid agreed, he felt defeated.

Afterwards he wiped a bunch of sweat from his forehead, but then he was given a sharp reminder that his body was still battered.

"Ouch!" He slightly shouted.

In an instant, the lady encouraged. "Careful, you need to rest!"

Afterwards she slowly forced the boy to lay down, and then recited. "You've been roughed up pretty bad, it was really stupid for you to fight those dragon saplings, you had no armour."

"No one gave me any armour," William instantly complained.

With a soft nod, the other explained.

"I know that, the general told me why. He was just in a rush to kill these nasty things."

And then she explained, "It was a bad plan, so the general called for back up after that one hunt. He had to bring a bunch of healers here as well."

"You're one of the healers, right?" The boy swiftly asked.

He couldn't care less about the platoon, on the contrary he just wanted to reap more information about this lady.

With a soft smile, she briefly described. "Yes I'm one of the healers, my name's Olivia by the way."

"Hmm..." William mumbled.

He genuinely felt satisfied that these healers will tag along with the platoon, they would likely cooperate for a long while as well.

However, after that awkward conversation met an end, Olivia was eager to chirp out more helpful information.

The general apparently claimed that the battle had met an end swiftly. Or more specifically, just a few minutes after the youngest snakezoid's rescue.

But although that battle favoured the army's side, the aftermath begged to differ.

The first example was that ten men had died in the midst of this hunt, and that fact had baffled everyone. Each of those men had trained their whole life to be soldiers, a category of knights to be more exact.

Due to that matter, it had been unexpected for so many men to die. In a metaphorical term, their whole decade of training had been disregarded as nothing!

These deaths had scared the general a little bit, so he made a plan to expand and heal the platoon.

It was almost easy to achieve that plan, he only had to send one healthy man back to the city. A hundred soldiers had been brought here just through a few commands.

Although all of this effort seemed minimalistic to a certain extent, everything still worked beyond the platoon's favour.

One hundred more similarly trained soldiers were a force to be reckoned with, they wouldn't let another flock of enemies take advantage!

Likewise, twenty healers would help keep this bigger group in a better shape.

They would help, but it had become apparent that these healers weren't extraordinarily good at what they do. The prime example around that matter, was that a total of five more men have died after the healers had arrived!

That and eight more men were in a dire shape, the chances of survival seemed slim for them!

These ladies have magical powers of some sort, but their healing procedures took a few hours until they were effective enough.

Not to mention, some of the men have foot-wide holes in their bodies, even magic wouldn't be able to lend a miracle under those circumstances.

However, with all of these events considered, the original group of soldiers had been weakened and slaughtered off enough for a day!

So number-wise, the current platoon only had one-hundred and thirty-five men in total, with the newcomers included. Fifteen had been killed off.

Obviously, a lot had happened while William was in deep slumber. This hunting session had been practically pushed towards a new era, just over night!

Surely this trip would become a bit more interesting after this point. However, the boy did not want to think too much about all of that.

Right now, he decided to focus towards self improvement. His memory was a bit blurry due to how hectic last night was, but he did remember that the system mentioned a good quantity of system points.

Before he could even think of a question around that matter, the system chirped some relative information in his ear.

She described, [You have a total of eight-hundred and fifty system points to your disposal.]

"Uh, and what can I buy with that?" William questioned.

[Your only available option is to purchase the visual charts and maps,]

Through a thought the boy pressured, "Why can't I buy anything else? You mentioned something about magic, why can't I try out any of those?" 

He made an excellent point, such a question was swiftly built up, but yet it was beyond insightful. Even at such a foul body-state the young man's critique was sharp.

But the system was smart as well, she described. [These upgrades have been perfectly aligned to aid survival, they work to your favour]

Within an instant she decided to remind, [Primary skills are essential, that's why they are put up first, but you understood that already.]

And then she repeated, [Secondary upgrades, as I described before, are used to fill gaps. They aid both in terms of survival and through your everyday life, you'll see more examples in the future.]

William regretted his curiosity at this point, the system had obviously more to say. It sounded like she went through this topic over and over before, perhaps with other guests?

Her sentences were expansive and punctual, and she had dictator-like expressions to meet her attitude as well.

The system unapologetically continued, [Intelligence would be the next category you'd tinker with. These upgrades will help you use all of your arsenal efficiently, you'll figure out how that works.] 

Unwilling to stop, she also added. [Arcana upgrades, or magic as these people call it, come in last in the upgrade list.]

Eager to slow the lady's chatter down, William interrupted. "But why? Magic sounds very useful here, I mean come on, some strange-ass bugs almost killed me... I really need some magic to fight shit off!"

[You do need it,] The other confirmed.

And then she continued, [But the arcana arts are complex, you need to get used to the simpler purchases before you try out magic; you must trust my lead.]

"Guess I have no other choice either way," The snakezoid thought.

Without much hesitancy, the system confirmed. [You don't, at least you have that fact figured out]

And then she weighed in, [So please enjoy these carefully picked out upgrades, you'll live longer. If I gave you access to the hundreds of purchases now, you wouldn't even know what to buy.]

Now, in aims to give the boy some motivation, the system softly added. [These four categories of upgrades are in a constant loop, so you'll be introduced to many upgrades!]