The first stretch part 3

Mark closed his eyes as he waited for the inevitable to happen and pain to overcome all his senses. The water made contact with him just as he shielded his face with his arms.

It hurt and it hurt bad but it did not burn like an acid burn and he knew how that felt since he had dealt with them before. It launched him back a few steps as he felt water drip down his back.

His left arm landed in something a little denser than water and it burned bad but nothing else really did. It felt like he had crashed into something rather than water.

He slowly opened up his eyes and saw a portion of his arm in the acid the monster had previously spewed but he himself was attacked with water. He had gotten lucky not to have an acid attack.

The monster was calmer now that it had gotten an attack in and Mark made use of this time to fire all the power his gun had. With a blank state of mind, he fired the shot at the monster. It made contact with the monster and it exploded into light particles.

It had already been near the end of its life by the way the attack pattern described but it did not go down without a fight in return. Mark could feel the burn in his arm throb now and he knew he needed to be fast.

He needed to wash off the area and fast. Thankfully, there was a river just in front of him and defeating the hidden boss granted him leeway with the monsters for a few minutes. He checked his system, just to make sure.

______________________________

Hidden boss: Cleared

Reward: 1 hour of relaxation time

Current mission statue: 5 days 10 hours left

______________________________

That was enough time to get out of here if he made haste.

He carefully cleaned up his wound to get all the traces of acid out of there. Ideally, it would be good if he had at least 20 minutes to do so, but he had to make do with five before bandaging the area.

Already, he was wasting precious time with this. The time he could use to get out of the forest fast since he had relaxation time available to him.

Looking at the map and finding out the shortest area available had been easy enough for him to figure out and it did not take long before he was out on the other side of the forest mostly intact.

The area was mostly abandoned with nothing much to show for it. The buildings were old and abandoned but they were sheltering. And this was a safe area.

He decided to stay here to figure out the rest of the game plan for the future and how to get to the base. First, he would need to find some kind of transport to get to the base. And he would also need to restock on his supplies for he had no idea how long the current ones would last for.

The nearest town was just a few 500 metres away which would be a good starting point to make yourself acquainted with the current state of the world. And maybe checking the system would also be a good idea.

He had felt a little faster in the last fight and his jump had definitely been inhuman for his own physique.

The guide had the answers for him. It was a buff that players got when they entered the boss fights and would give them a chance of succeeding. He was not sure how much it affected the actual fighting but it definitely had saved him back there.

It made him realise just how little he actually knew about the whole thing. He had read the manual but only paid attention to the parts that felt important to him. Maybe that had been a mistake on his part after all.

These little things seemed much more important all of a sudden. Now that he had a taste in the field, he felt as if knowing all this was much more important than knowing what a symbol meant and he needed to use all this if he were to survive.

So he gave the next few hours to the manual again and once he was finished he felt much more enlightened.

Also, something must have changed because there was much more contact this time. It had expanded further beyond and opened up about powers and classes. Standard gaming stuff if you were familiar enough with them.

He wondered which class he should choose. Healer seemed easiest to him since he was already in the field profession but it also made him hesitate.

Healers were not strong enough to protect themselves usually and it made him worried for his future should he choose that. What if he was abandoned again? Just like he had been this time?

But melee did not sound good too because he could not imagine himself in a pure fight. Shooter sounded good but he was not sure he would be able to endure the strain of the post. The others just sounded useless to him at this point for he did not know what their purpose was.

They were all special talents provided by the system to their users and generally regulated by a lot. He was not sure he liked any of them enough to go for it directly.

He would give it more thought once he was at the base then.

Once he had enough of the abandoned place, Mark left toward the town. It was a relatively short walk and he felt nostalgia hit him in full-wave as he saw the hustle and bustle of the town. It had been mere days since he had last seen this scene but it felt like years had passed.

The city was going on through its normal routine and nothing seemed to be the problem that made him happy to see. It seemed peaceful as if nothing in the world would ever change.

But Mark knew the truth that this all was not to last for long. He made his way toward a nearby hotel for the night was about to come. He would not risk moving in low visibility even if he had a vehicle with him.

Also, for another thing - he needed to find a rental shop where he could rent a car for a week at least. He would need it to get to his destination but he essentially had no papers with him currently.

He would need to find someplace where he could get them printed and get the paperwork in order. Looked like he would be staying in this town tonight after all.

So, Mark quickly found a nearby hotel and made his reservation. Once he was in the room, he made his way toward the bathroom for it was the only secure place. Unknown to most people, generally hotel rooms had a security function installed.

However, he was betting that they would not go as far as to install one in the bathroom because it would be too creepy to comprehend otherwise. He opened the system panel once he secured the lock on the bathroom door and looked at the map first.

The base location was still pretty far away, a whole canyon in between here and there. Did it always exist there? He did not remember but it must have. Mark was not one to go out of his way to learn if the topic did not interest him so he might have missed it before.

But now that posed an issue for him. He had to get through there to finally reach his destination which would be a problem.

Then he checked his inventory to change his clothes. These ones were as good as ruined but it was not like anyone commented. They totally bypassed it all and treated him as if he was not even there most of the time.

People here were really like a computer program, responding only when he called out to them. Had he been like that before he broke away from the central system's control?

He still could not believe him but everything was so new nowadays.

Once he had checked everything he could think of, he opened the bathroom door to make his way out. He switched on the TV just to see what was going on in the world currently.

There were some vague reports of the monster's sighting but nothing overly big right now. People would not take it seriously right at the moment but they were being informed at least. This was good.

He switched it off, seeing that he was gaining nothing of importance, he switched it off.

There was a light scratching at the window which drew his attention as soon as he switched off the TV. It sounded vaguely familiar but also not. It drew his attention at a single hear and he made his way toward the window to check it out.

He carefully opened the window and looked outside. He could not find anything of significance at first look but then he heard the voice again and he looked down.

Just a little down the window still, there was a little cat, black in colour. No, not even a cat but a kitten who had somehow made its way so high up.

Mark wondered what he should do. It would be dangerous to keep the kitten for it could very easily mutate anytime.

But then it meowed again and Mark felt his heart melt. Ever since his parent's death, animals had been his constant companions and he had a soft spot for them. Now that one needed help, he could not help but reach out.

And so he pulled the kitten inside his room carefully and realised something - The kitten had some very noticeable spots on its black body.