Chapter 6: Safe Zone.

Cave. Night.

The cave was about the size of a small three-room apartment. Blue light emanated from the walls and floor of the cave. There were only two tunnels in the cave: one in front and one behind.

Against the cave wall stood a statue of a strange man wearing a clown mask. It looked quite eerie. The mask itself was completely white, with a barely noticeable smile frozen on its lips. The nose was so long that it almost covered half of the mask's face, but the most terrifying aspect of the clown's face were his eyes, which were absent. In their place were two eye-shaped slits, within which darkness lurked.

The clown stood on one leg, with his left leg bent and raised. In one hand, he held a flat metal ring - a throwing weapon called a Chakram. On his head, the clown wore a red and blue hat with jingles. His torso and the clown himself leaned to the right, although his gaze and head were directed straight ahead at the bonfire.

In the center of the cave, a bonfire burned. The twigs crackled comfortably within it. Logs were arranged on the ground in the shape of a star, and narrow hot flames emanated from them and rose upwards. This very flame illuminated the body of a young dark-haired man lying face down on the ground. At first glance, it might have seemed that the man was dead, but upon closer listening, one could hear his steady and calm breathing.

Suddenly, the man's body twitched slightly. He began to wake up.

Daniel slowly and calmly opened his eyes and, with an unflappable expression on his face, rolled onto his back and met the gaze of the clown statue.

'Huh? What the hell!? My heart nearly stopped. What the hell is this screamer?' Daniel thought to himself, and immediately a new message popped up in front of him.

[Statue of Magnus IV.]

"Very informative, system." Daniel said calmly and quickly looked around. Besides the statue and the bonfire, there was nothing else in this cave, but Daniel was glad to have at least the bonfire. Immediately, Daniel decided to check his status and the messages that appeared before him after he defeated the Mountain Macaque.

[You earned 10 experience.]

[You earned 10 points.]

[You received an item.]

[You received an item.]

"Hmm?" Opening his status, Daniel immediately noticed that he had three new lines: an inventory line, points, and experience.

Status window.

Name: Daniel Grey

Age: 19

Level: 1

Experience: [10/100]

Points: 10

Class: Undetermined

Health: 50

Energy: 100

Strength: 9

Constitution: 9

Agility: 11

Reflexes: 12

Mastery: 16

Intelligence: 10

Accuracy: 10

Luck: 12

Wisdom: 11

Willpower: 9

Skills:

Active: ___

Passive: [Cheater]

Inventory:

[Small stone], [Raw Mountain Macaque meat]

Condition: [Mask]

Fetish: [CBT]

Sense of Hunger: 65%

Sense of Thirst: 70%

Sense of Desire: 40%

Sense of Cold: 0%

Sense of Heat: 30%

Bleeding: 10%

Daniel had received a lot of news, and almost all of it was good. Firstly, during his sleep, his health had increased to fifty. His energy had fully recovered, the feeling of coldness had decreased to zero thanks to the bonfire, and in addition, he had obtained two items by killing the mountain macaque.

The only bad news was that the bleeding had not stopped, as Daniel could still feel the intense pain on his face. His face was completely covered in scratches and small wounds. Something needed to be done about it.

He also felt hungry and thirsty. The feeling of thirst had reached 70%, and most likely, when it reached 80%, just like with the feeling of coldness, he would start experiencing unpleasant effects that would affect his body. Last time he didn't have time to check, but most likely, when any of the sensations reached 80%, he would start receiving debuffs to some of his attributes, although again, these were just guesses.

Daniel now had many other questions that he wanted answers to. Firstly...

"Safe Zone... What is it?" Daniel tried asking the system, and strangely enough, it immediately provided an answer.

[Safe zone - a place where monsters cannot enter and where players can rest and replenish their strength and health. Each safe zone has a bonfire. The bonfire is not dangerous for players and cannot harm them in any way. Players can quickly cook food for themselves and quickly reduce the feeling of coldness at the bonfire.]

[Players can use fast travel between all the bonfires they have touched. Players can also place their items in the bonfire. Each bonfire has a separate inventory with ten slots.]

[Warning: the inventory is shared among all players. If one player decides to place an item in the bonfire, any other player can take the item by touching the bonfire! Be careful when placing valuable items in the bonfire!']

'Ha. That's actually a very useful thing,' Daniel calmly said and cautiously touched the bonfire. The bonfire instantly ignited and several messages appeared in front of Daniel.

[Player Daniel Grey has touched the bonfire of the Cave of Sorrow.]

[A new fast travel point has been unlocked!]

[Total unlocked fast travel points: 1/50.]

"Raw Mountain Macaque meat." Daniel calmly said, and a small piece of meat on a bone appeared in his hand.

Item: [Raw Mountain Macaque meat]

Item Type: Food

Item Description: [Reduces hunger by 10 to 20%. Many creatures living on Paradise Island consider eating mountain macaque meat to be a sin. Monsters of the same species as the macaque, if they catch you consuming this meat, may fly into a wild rage and be ready to kill you at the cost of their own lives.]

It wasn't enough to fill him up, but it was better than nothing. Daniel shifted his indifferent gaze from the description to the bonfire and brought the raw meat closer to it. As the system had said, he didn't feel as though he was holding his hand over a bonfire, but rather a warm battery. However, the meat slowly began to develop a barely noticeable crust.

While the meat was cooking, Daniel decided to find out what the points were for. Experience was obvious, but points were something new for Daniel.

"Maybe I can use them to buy skills or something similar? System, what are the points for?" Daniel asked the system, and instantly received an answer.

[Points - assigned to the player based on their performance in each battle with enemies, their style, technique, and resourcefulness. The minimum number of points per battle is 10, and the maximum is 100.]

[With points, players can purchase crafting materials, techniques, increase or decrease a random stat point, obtain random weapons, change conditions, and acquire random skills! To open the menu with the shop and crafting, the player needs to say: 'Menu'.]

"Menu." Daniel calmly said. He wasn't surprised at all by everything that had been mentioned. The only thing that surprised and slightly disappointed him was that he had received the minimum number of points for the battle, even though he thought he deserved at least 20 points. However, it seemed that the system had a different opinion on the matter. As for everything else, it was within Daniel's expectations, except for crafting. That aspect confused him a little.

A menu appeared in front of him, divided into three sections: crafting, materials, and a section called "test your luck."

Daniel was most interested in crafting, so he opened that section. However, there were only three icons with three images and names.

The first icon had an image of a knife.

[Stone knife]

[Crafting cost: 50 points]

[Required material: 1/3 small stone, 0/1 piece of stick]

The second icon had an image of a short sword.

[Stone short sword]

[Crafting cost: 100 points]

[Required material: 1/10 small stone, 0/3 piece of stick or 0/3 stone, 0/3 piece of stick]

The third icon had an image of a regular-sized sword.

[Stone sword]

[Crafting cost: 200 points]

[Required material: 1/20 small stone, 0/5 piece stick or 0/6 stone, 0/5 piece of stick]

Daniel shook his head.

"Not only do I not know where to find this piece of stick you're talking about, but I also need to kill at least two of these small creatures. It all sounds... very difficult. And I need to earn at least 40 more points somehow. Although I've never learned how to fight with a knife, so if I'm being objective, I need to kill nine small creatures, earn 90 points, and somehow find these three sticks. Clear. Wonderful. And how am I supposed to do that, I wonder..."

Daniel took a deep breath. The piece of meat in his hand was finally cooked. He brought it closer to his mouth and took a careful bite. The meat tasted like tasteless rabbit. Daniel always hated the taste of rabbit because his father always cooked it without any spices or intentionally left them out, which made the rabbit taste too bland and tough.

But it could have been worse. Daniel quickly finished eating the raw Mountain Macaque meat and looked at his status again. The feeling of hunger had decreased to 50%, but the feeling of thirst had increased by 3%. Daniel's health had also increased from 50 to 60.

Daniel expected the bone in his hand to disappear immediately after he finished eating, but instead, only the name of the item changed. Now, instead of "Raw Mountain Macaque meat," the item was called "Gnawed bone of a Mountain Macaque."

Daniel immediately opened the description of the item.

Item: [Gnawed bone of a Mountain Macaque]

Item Type: Trash

Item Description: [You can use this item to attract the attention of monster-primates. This item incites wild anger and a desire to kill the bearer of this item in monster-primates, regardless of other obstacles. Players need to be very careful when pulling this item in front of monster-primates.]

Daniel shrugged his shoulders.

"Maybe it will come in handy. Put it in the inventory." The bone in Daniel's hand disappeared instantly. He looked into his inventory and saw that two out of five slots were occupied.

"Hmm. Not as much space as I expected... Material." Daniel continued to explore the shop with its three sections. He switched from 'crafting' to 'materials'. Only one icon with a small stone image appeared in front of Daniel.

[Small stone]

[Cost: 10 points]

"What? Is that it? What a scam system…"

[Players can only buy materials that they have discovered themselves.]

Daniel shook his head and summoned the small stone in his hand.

Item: [Small stone]

Item Type: Material.

Daniel didn't even bother reading the description and quickly put the stone back. Now everything made sense to him. Items were divided into different types. Material items that he discovered would appear in his shop, both in the material section and the crafting section, as the crafting section showed what he could craft with the materials he had. Maybe it wasn't so bad after all. At least now Daniel knew that if he found two sticks and killed three or four macaques, he could buy himself a short sword.

"Or maybe I won't be able to. I still have to spend points separately to craft all of this. What a troublesome system. Menu. Test your luck."

Another panel appeared in front of Daniel, which looked even more hopeless than the others.

[Random increase or decrease in stats]

[Cost: 100 points]

[Description: Any of the player's stats can increase or decrease by up to +10 points or -5 points.]

"How desperate do you have to be to spend your points on this?"

[Random weapon]

[Cost: 100,000 points]

[Description: The player may receive a random weapon ranging from class F- to class S+.]

"A scam."

[Random skill]

[Cost: 1,000,000 points]

[Description: The player may receive a random skill ranging from class F- to class S+.]

"One million for F-? Another scam. Now I understand how lucky I was with my skill." Daniel said calmly.

"Is that it? Didn't the system mention something about techniques and conditions?"

[To access techniques and change conditions, the player needs to obtain a class. To obtain a class, the player needs to reach level twenty.]

Daniel took a deep breath and stood up abruptly.

"Alright. So it seems I have enough goals now. All that's left is to survive." Daniel glanced at the clown, who seemed to be looking at him now instead of the campfire. With a cold expression on his face, Daniel waved his hand at him and finally left the cave.