The Road To Power
As Kary was crying, she thought, maybe her pod malfunctioned and she lost connection. Maybe she's still alive stuck in her pod. She rubbed the tears off her face and decided to stay strong until she could see her mother again.
Since she had already finished her trial, she could just go ahead and keep playing while she waited to be rescued. Since the lockdown procedure on the pods could only be stopped from the outside, she would be inside the game as long as no-one found the pod and stopped the procedure. Only the government could stop it, so she had to wait for the rescue missions. She thought to herself " Might as well get stronger in the meantime "
She then remembered she had still not opened her rewards package from her 'Beginner Trial Mission'. She opened her inventory and there it was. A little gift box with 'Special Rewards' written on it. She wondered what would be in it.
" Open Special Rewards " she commanded to the interface.
" Command received, confirming command, do you wish to open ' Special Rewards' gift box? "
" Yes " Kary resolutely answered.
The gift box disappeared from her inventory, appeared in front of her and then turned to white light. It then changed into a letter, a book, a sword, and a full set of equipment. She started by opening the letter. The letter said " Congratulations on completing 'Beginner Trial Mission' and side quest ' Rise of the Phoenix'. Your normal rewards have been upgraded into special rewards and an EXP book has been added. Good luck on your future endeavors player 'Wandering Hero'.
She then checked the book out.
~Exp Book~
Gives the player a set quantity of experience points. Open to know how much you get.
P.S. Luck stat has a chance to boost reward.
Kary immediately used it. The book turned to white light and enveloped her. She felt her body grow stronger while the light shone.
" System notification, player's luck has affected EXP book. More experience points have been earned. Congratulations player "
When the light dimmed, she quickly opened up her stat page.
~Wandering Hero~
Class: Swordmaster
Level: 10
Strength: 17
Dexterity: 14
Intelligence: 7
Wisdom: 7
Toughness: 14
Charm: 3/10
Luck: 7/10
Armor: 13
Attack: 3-5
~Talents~
Chosen of Fire: Player has been chosen by a spirit Phoenix and has acquired a part of its power. This gives the player a chance to resist burns and the ability 'Rise from the ashes'. This talent can be cultivated to upgrade.
~Abilities~
Rise from the ashes (One time use): Player can die and come back to life without penalties.
She was stunned. The book had Given her 8 levels, boosting her to level 10 in an instant. The gain in her stats was also really good, although she was wondering why her Intelligence and Wisdom stat had not risen as much as the others. She guessed that since only her body got stronger, she could probably do something else to increase her mind related stats.
Next thing she did was check the gear she had received, to see how lucky she had been this time. She started with the sword.
~Schweizerdegen des Phönix~
Rarity: Unique
Attack: 5-15
Durability: 40
Swiss short sword which has been attuned to your hidden talent 'Chosen of Fire'. If imbued with inner strength, has a possibility of igniting, dealing more damage.
Seeing those stats, Kary immediately equipped it and looked at the other equipment she received.
~Good Leather Chestguard~
Rarity: Common/Good
Defense: 8
Durability: 20
~Good Leather Pants~
Rarity: Common/Good
Defense: 8
Durability: 20
~Good Leather Boots~
Rarity: Common/Good
Defense: 5
Durability: 15
~Exquisite Swordsman Shawl~
Rarity: Uncommon
Durability: 40
Bonus Attribute: 5% increase in training and cultivation speed
This Shawl gives you no protection at all. But it is very pretty. It also lets you focus more when you train and cultivate.
Kary equipped all her new gear and checked her stats again.
~Wandering Hero~
Class: Swordmaster
Level: 10
Strength: 17
Dexterity: 14
Intelligence: 7
Wisdom: 7
Toughness: 14
Charm: 3/10
Luck: 7/10
Armor: 21
Attack: 5-15
Bonus Attribute: 5% increase in training and cultivation speed
~Talents~
Chosen of Fire: Player has been chosen by a spirit Phoenix and has acquired a part of its power. This gives the player a chance to resist burns and the ability 'Rise from the ashes'. This talent can be cultivated to upgrade.
~Abilities~
Rise from the ashes (One time use): Player can die and come back to life without penalties.
She really liked all she had received. She was getting stronger fast and she liked that. Her next move was to learn how to cultivate. She had no idea what it even did.
" System, what does cultivation do and how do I do it? "
" When the player cultivates, it strengthens his control on the body and lets them become stronger through it. Like the saying goes ' Mind over matter', the cultivation lets player really grasp all his potential through inner exploration"
" So basically it would increase my Intelligence and Wisdom stats along with my other stats? "
" Indeed. As for how it's done. All the player has to do is focus on his own body to see all the potential strength it has to offer "
Hearing this, Kary thought it was really simple. She walked towards a little hill in the plain, sat down, and closed her eyes. She then focused to see inside herself. After a while, she started to feel the inside of her body. She saw a little red thread going around her body, rotating through her heart and brain, before flowing to the rest of her body. When she focused on it, she saw the thread more clearly and realized that it was more like a stream of fire than a thread. Focusing on that stream, she tried to force it to get bigger. After a few minutes of nothing happening, she changed methods. Instead of getting bigger, she tried making rotate faster.
Soon enough, it began accelerating. By going faster it also started burning hotter. If one looked at her right now, they could see that Kary had a little red glow around herself. What no-one would ever know, was that inside the pod, in the real world, she had the same faint glow on her body. After almost an hour of pushing the stream faster, it stopped accelerating. Not long after, her body felt like it was burning from the inside. With the pain become unbearable, Kary stopped focusing and opened her eyes. The glow had disappeared before she opened her eyes, so she never saw it.
Kary was sweating like crazy. Her whole equipment felt like it had been dropped into a kiln and put back on her. As for herself, she felt like she had the strength to lift a mountain. Only she was so tired at the moment, she could barely move. She decided to take a nap right where she was.
She woke up 3 hours later, feeling revitalized. She got up and decided it was time to find a place with civilization. She looked towards the setting sun and started walking. Night was going to fall soon, and she would prefer being in a town or city before that happened. Only things would not go as she wished.
After 2 hours of walking, there was still no sign of any other human beings. The sun had just set over the horizon and it was getting dark. Soon the moon was up and all she could hear was the wind blowing through the tall grass. She barely saw 50 feet away, and it made her nervous.
A few minutes later, her unease proved to be reasonable. She started hearing ruffling sounds around her. Something was going around in the grass just outside her vision circle. Kary drew out her new sword and got into fighting position. She refused to be caught off guard. A second later, she saw the tall grass to her left move. Something was going for her in a straight line from the cover of the grass.
Once it was 5 feet away from her, the creature jumped out of cover, flying straight towards her chest, claws all out. The creature had a feline-like body, but she could not clearly guess what it was, as it was too dark. Kary had just enough time to parry the blow and knock the enemy away with her sword. No blood was drawn. Without letting time to breathe, another creature bee-lined for her from the right. She prepared for the hit and blocked this one too. She decided she couldn't stay here, the grass blocked her vision and she needed to see what she was fighting if she wished to have any chance at fighting back.
She decided to run away as fast as she could, hoping to enter a plain with shorter grass. She could see lines in the tall grass following her. There were 3 different lines she could see, so at least as much creatures, maybe more.
After running for almost 1km, she finally saw before her a spot where the grass seemed lower, she headed right towards it. Once she got there, she could see a tall circle around her with about 15 meters all around of short grass. As soon as she turned over, Kary saw the creatures clearly for the first time as they were slowly leaving the tall grass.
There were 4 creatures, one twice the size of the other 3. She looked at their stats.
~Moonlight Crazed Lionness~
Race: Feline (Crazed by the moonlight)
Level: 4 (+2 boost from pack leader/enraged)
Strength: 7 (+4)
Dexterity: 5 (+3)
Intelligence: 4 (-3)
Wisdom: 2 (-1)
Toughness: 5 (+2)
~Moonlight Crazed Lionness~
Race: Feline (Crazed by the moonlight)
Level: 3 (+2 boost from pack leader/enraged)
Strength: 6 (+4)
Dexterity: 4 (+3)
Intelligence: 3 (-2)
Wisdom: 1 (-0)
Toughness: 4 (+2)
~Moonlight Crazed Lionness~
Race: Feline (Crazed by the moonlight)
Level: 4 (+3 boost from pack leader/enraged)
Strength: 7 (+4)
Dexterity: 5 (+3)
Intelligence: 4 (-3)
Wisdom: 2 (-1)
Toughness: 5 (+2)
~Moonlight Crazed Packleader Lion~
Race: Feline (Crazed by the moonlight)
Level: 6 (+1 enraged bonus)
Strength: 10 (+2)
Dexterity: 8 (+2)
Intelligence: 6 (-4)
Wisdom: 4 (-3)
Toughness: 10 (+1)
Kary instantly knew this was going to be a tough fight. That lion pack leader was like a small boss at this point. If only she had friends or party members to help her, she'd feel a lot more confident. being alone, she would have to be vigilant to not get cornered. If she was, it would be over.
As she got into position, she decided she would focus on killing one lioness at a time. She would need to defend until a mistake was made and an opening happened. The 3 lionesses started spreading out in front of her. They then started to attack one at a time, without leaving any breathing room to Kary. They sometimes went 2 at the same time, while the third tried to go around her. She kept pushing them back from the brink of catastrophe.
After 30 minutes of intense fighting, Kary was already showing signs of weakening. She knew she would not even have made it that long without her new gear, levels, and cultivation. She prayed to God that her opponents would make a mistake soon, otherwise, she'd be done-in shortly. Kary could also hear wolf howls for a while now. She could hear them getting closer, but she hoped they would simply pass by, scared by the lions. She kept fighting the lionesses on the back foot, but soon, they made a mistake.
All three of them decided to pounce at the same time, giving Kary enough room to shift aside and slash at one of them. She was happy, she was going to kill one of them right here, reducing her burden. Unfortunately, as the slash was going to hit its target, The Lion PackLeader pounced out and rammed her. She tumbled to the ground, pain pulsing from her ribs. There was definitely a broken rib.
Getting back to her feet, she understood why the pack leader hadn't joined in yet. He was just making sure she couldn't harm the three lionesses. He already knew she would soon be too tired to fight. Kary quickly understood how smart and vicious her opponents were.
" I guess being enraged doesn't make you dumb " she said, grimacing from her broken rib.
To that, the lion just roared in her direction, showing he could understand her.
Kary was going to just charge at the pack leader to remove him from the equation, but something at the corner of her eye caught her attention. From out of nowhere, a giant wolf ran towards her and the lions. Its pelt was shinning in the moonlight. It stopped running when it noticed the obstacle before him. It growled at the lions and Kary. They were now stuck in a triangle.