Ancient Ruins of Dholtirm Part 3

Sam spun around, seeing nothing. He hurriedly gathered what he needed and went to the workbench. He placed his hand over it, as his crafting window appeared. Unlike Minecraft, it was a vantablack two-dimensional box with gold embossing around the edges. Inside was a shifting black mirth in the form of a whirlpool.

Sam first tossed the tools into the crafting box. He looked around, as he then got an idea. He walked over to the Grinding stone. He tried to lift it, noticing how easy it was. He tossed the Grindstone into his crafting whirlpool, and then did so with one of the spare workbenches as well.

{Systemic Crafting Unlocked. Trait Gained: Aspirant}

Sam immediately tossed the Axe and the ingredients in, looking over his shoulder. He almost jumped out of his skin when he saw. There was a big bipedal lizard walking through the doorway with a spear in hand. It cocked its head to the side to get a better look at him with its sickly yellow eye.

Sam forcibly calmed himself, as he heard the system notification say that the item was done crafting. He noticed that the whirlpool didn't disappear, but had flecks of gold sparks coming out of it. The Lizard hunched its back slightly, watching him closely as it gripped its spear tighter.

Sam came up with an idea, as he lifted his arms slightly above him to the left and shouted for help while backing up. The Lizardman coupled with the fact that he didn't have a weapon in hand took this as a sign of weakness. It made clicking sounds as it leveled its spear and charged Sam.

After the Lizardman took three running steps and built momentum, Sam suddenly jumped forward slightly to the right while an Axe materialized in his hands. The wood spear glanced off the side of his Leather Maille as he forced himself inside the lizards guard and buried the Axehead into its clavicle.

The Lizardman's pain filled croak and Sam's cry for blood echoed through the empty barracks as they grappled each other. Sam gained the upperhand, bashing the lizard in the face with his elbow. With Sam throwing his whole weight into the strike, he knocked the Lizardman over and went tumbling with them.

The Lizardman, dazed from the pain, tried to scramble to his feet for a few moments. Just as it began standing up, it heard something whistling through the air and then it knew no more. Sam breathed in and out deeply as he wrenched the Steel Dagger from the Lizardman's thick skull. He then collected his Axe after being sure that it was dead.

He waited for a few moments to see if anymore Lizardmen walked into the workshop before he cleaned off his bloody dagger and Axe in one of the water barrels in the small workshop. He then walked out of the barracks, admiring his Axe. It's Axehead has lost most of the rust, and has a new handle, but it can't be said to be in perfect condition.

Sam stopped, checking his 'Status' as he then heard the system talk to him with mild surprise.

{What? Expecting a pat on the back or a reward after simply using your brain to kill a thick skulled Troglodyte? Pfft.}

Sam replied with a deadpan expression, "Yes."

{Well, you're right. Congratulations on your first level up.}

Sam tried to remain calm, but lost it.

"YEAAAH!!" Sam shouted as he turned around and punched the air. Sam examined his status while the system explained how leveling up works.

[A/N: Here it is, the dreaded Info Dump.]

{Leveling up with this system is based on Attribute points. The maximum level per Rank is twenty, with every level up granting five attribute points for a total of one hundred attribute points per Rank. At the end of each Rank, you will gain a special trait. How powerful the trait will be along with what the trait will be depends on how much you have grown, your attribute point distribution, and your choices so far.}

{Be aware that Traits will be ranked from one to five stars just like Titles.}

{Unlike most systems, traits or skills are rarely given out and cannot be exchanged for. Any traits or skills that you wish to gain must be earned on your own or unlocked through completing certain achievements. An example is the Monster Hunter achievement that granted two attribute points, or opening your inventory. The rewards granted are proportional to how difficult it is to achieve that feat.}

{For Attribute points, 1 attribute point is the average for Humans. A human with say, five attributes in Strength would be five times as strong as the average Human. A human with five points in intelligence would think five times as fast as a normal human, but each point of Intelligence increased IQ by only twenty so they would have 180 IQ. EQ increases slightly each point as well.}

{A human with five points in Endurance has five times the stamina of an average Human. They will heal 20% faster, gain stamina back 20% faster per point, but will not have damage directly reduced. Instead, their body will simply become more resistant to damage or injury with each point.}

{Each point in agility makes you move and react faster. At 5 points you react and are faster than the average Human. They will also have greater motor functions and finesse, making actions like pickpocketing or artisan's work easier.}

{Upon reaching a new Rank, the value of each attribute triples. There is no limit to how many times your rank can increase. With each level up, the experience required increased by two. With each rank up, the amount needed increased by 100.}

{There are no special traits given for reaching a certain number in a stat, but increasing a stat that a trait concerning a base state such as [Hardy Constitution] will eventually improve that trait's effect or upgrade it up to rating of 4 Stars.}

{On to Skills. Skills are at a max level of five, with some special or unique skills having ranks to them that will allow you to reset them to Level 1 in exchange for upgrading the skill's effects.}

{Skills will not grant knowledge or instinct to the user but instead are just a representation of your personal knowledge and instinct. Any skills granted by the system will start at Level 0, where you must practice and learn about it yourself with only a basic description or knowledge given.}

{Please remember host, that your journey will still be arduous. At a certain level of strength, it becomes impossible to measure it appropriately which leads many system users to have an inflated ego.}

{I shall tell you of an example of one such individual. A foolish system host that I was assigned to went to cause havoc in the DC Universe on a whim. Superman showed up and beat them to death endlessly until they chose to unbind with the system thus dying in both body and soul.}

{The System user will take longer to grow into a true Powerhouse than most system users, because you are able to revive endlessly. Otherwise, you'd be tossed into the nearest void by a omnipotent presence for 'breaking the balance' or some other inane reason.}

Sam listened quietly and thought a bit before speaking, "I'll keep that in mind."

-★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★-

[Status]

{Name: Samuel Howard}

{Class: None}

{Titles: Novice(★ |2% Faster Skill Gain)}

{Rank: 0}

-Level: 1-

-Experience: 2/12-

-Attribute Points: 0-

{Health: 118/120}

- Bone Deep Laceration(Left Arm - Bandaged! | 45 Days until healed}

- Bruising (Left Mid-Torso | 8 days until healed}

{Mana: 10/10}

{Stamina: 120/120}

-Fatigue: 65/120-

-Hunger: 79/100-

-Thirst: 86/100-

{Attributes: Strength 2 | Agility 1 | Endurance 3 | Intelligence 1}

{Traits:}

- Hardy Constitution(★ |+1 to Endurance, +10 to Stamina, effects of poison/heat/cold/disease are slightly reduced)

- Aspirant(★★ | 15% More Durabiltity to equipped items | Crafted items are slightly stronger | 5% Chance when crafting an item for it to be upgraded by a whole tier up to Purple)

{Skills:} [...]

{Inventory:}

- [Equipped Items:]

- Armor: Captain's Leather Maille(Green)

- Right Hand: Rusty Trusty Axe(White)

- Left Hand: N/A

- Pants: Denim Jeans(Grey)

- Shirt: Plaid Shirt(Grey)

- Socks: Hanes White Socks(Grey)

- Shoes: Old Leather Boots(White)

- Accessories(1/10): Dholtirm Guard's Ring(White)

{Hidden Stats: Luck 1, Willpower 3, Charisma 2}

-★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★-

Sam considered his choices, and assigned his stats as follows:

{Attributes: Strength 4 | Agility 3 | Endurance 4 | Intelligence 1}

He then ate some bread and drank some water, as he prepared to spend the night inside the Dholtirm Gatehouse's barracks. Sam went back inside the barracks to throw the Lizardman's corpse outside, but stopped and he thought about it a bit more. Food is scarce in this situation, as well as materials. Skinning and eating monsters is practically a staple for any fantasy world, after all. Sam put the corpse into his inventory, being surprised that a name appeared for it.

{Troglodyte Corpse(152 Pounds)}

Sam then put the Troglodyte into the Crafting Whirlpool.

The corpse was broken down into 48 pounds of meat, Troglodyte Skin(White), bones(Grey) and claws(White). He looked at the meat, wondering why much of the monster's meat seemed to be discarded.

{Troglodyte Meat x48(Grey | Uncooked! | Desc: The meat of many monsters is considered vile and distasteful. Monstrosities and aberrations, in particular, may have tainted blood or rancid tasting meat.}

Although it didn't answer his question directly, he just assumed that the rest of the meat was inedible and was automatically discarded. It's shame since he'd be able to use it in traps.

After completing all this, he decided to spend the day tomorrow fixing the barracks as a temporary living space as there was only one entrance and the door itself seemed to be in good shape. As it happens, Sam was actually a construction worker in his last life. He spent his days at job sites putting together houses for government contracts. He also did work repairing homes at times when he couldn't find work. He'd like to think he was skilled at it.

The thought of his past brought mood down slightly, as he closed the door to the barracks and locked it with the deadbolt. Sam put all but his underwear in his inventory and settled down to sleep for the night.

[A/N: He has the ability to equip items like in Minecraft, where they just appear on him. He doesn't have to sleep in his armor like Goblin Slayer either since he's in a safe-ish dwelling. Also, the Troglodyte couldn't see the Crafting Whirlpool, because Samuel wrote down in his wishes that he wanted his system to be completely undetectable(vision, instruments, sight, touch, smell, whatever plot device gets pulled out of Dragon Ball Z Bulma's cleavage, etc) which Sam took advantage of here.]