Chapter 12: New Skill

The wild dogs sniffed the air smelling Jake's scent the two zeroed in on him. The two mungrels growled in excitement as they rushed toward Jake. As they closed in the two dogs slowed and began to circle their prey the two didn't seem to fear the sword in Jake's hands. But they had enough hunting experience to know that this prey would fight back and so the two looked for an opening.

It was not hard to find an opening in Jake's defense and soon one of the two dogs launched at Jake's left leg with its vicious teeth.

Jake though a beginner when it came to fighting was still able to react fast enough, with an awkward diagonal swing he caused the first dog to back off. But the weight of the sword had caused him to lose balance which opened his flank to an attack.

The second dog without hesitation pounced on Jake's back and sunk his teeth into his shoulder.

"Agghh!"

The pain caused Jake to fall to a knee as he screamed out and agony. Jake had a flash of darkness cover his eyes thankfully it had come and gone in but a second.

Jake fell to the ground trying to knock the dog off his back as he rolled around haphazardly. His arms flailed around which kept the other dog at bay. Blood dripped down his back coating his skin with a cold and sticky feeling, fear began to creep into his thoughts.

"Am I going to die on my first quest?" While this thought floated within his mind Jake began to thrash hard in a struggle for survival.

The dog though had no desire to let go instead it suck its teeth in deeper enjoying the warm blood that coated its mouth.

Unable to handle the pain that coursed through him Jake's mind started to blank, at that moment a single thought appeared.

"I want to live!" This thought started out as a whisper but then it spread like a wildfire as it grew.

With this thought, Jake pushed himself up from the ground with the dog still strapped to his back. The pain continued to shoot through his body but now it only fed his desire to live. Without thinking, Jake swung his sword up and down onto the shoulder the dog was biting.

The next second a soft whimper was heard before his body began to feel lighter. Pulling his sword back it now glistened with blood, though there was no time to enjoy his first kill. Seeing its friend killed the other dog grew crazy as it pounced at Jake with wild abandonment.

Unable to even catch his breath let alone think Jake placed the sword in front of him in defense. The dog's jaws were blocked yet it still was able to dig its claws into his body. The two fell to the ground and struggled to kill each other, Jake continued to block the dog as best he could while he tried to figure out his next move.

Moments passed yet it felt like hours as the two groped around for the final kill. Blood continued to leak from Jake as the seconds passed. With his strength starting to wane Jake began to panic a bit he could not lift the sword since it was his only defense.

As desperation kicked in a crazy idea appeared if he screwed this up then today would be the end. But if he could not even survive this than he had no right to be an adventurer and so with all his strength Jake tilted his body. The next second Jake pulled his sword to the side which allowed the dog's jaws easy access. The two movements happened almost at the same time which caused the teeth that should have bit into the soft flesh of the neck to miss and bite the wounded shoulder instead.

Pain coursed through his body once again setting his nerves on fire. However, Jake had used all his strength on ending this and so his focus was unperturbed by this sudden pain. With madness in his own eyes, Jake plunged the tip of the sword with all his strength into the side of the dog.

"Die you damn dog!" Screamed Jake as he continued to push the sword through the dog. His hand soon stopped when it no longer could push the sword further. The hilt of the blade was pressed up against the fur of the dog while blood began to soak his hand.

With that, the pressure on his shoulder disappeared as the light in the dog's eyes began to fade. Jake pushed the dog of his body and laid there exhausted, the fight only lasted for a few minutes but it was the most exhausting task he had ever done.

Jake opened his stats window while he laid there and saw his hundred health points now show only fifteen left. Though tired this scared the hell out of him and with the last bit of strength he pulled a small health potion out.

{Small Health Potion}

[Common alchemy potion with minor effects. Able to heal 50hp over thirty seconds, the potion is only good for those below level 10.]

Jake gulped the potion down and then closed his eyes as he felt his body heat up. A smile appeared as the warmth covered his body like a blanket, along with it he could feel the injuries he sustained start to itch. thirty seconds passed and the feeling left him with it disappeared the pain.

No longer bleeding Jake sat up as he waited for his health to reach back up to hundred, his hp regen was only .1 per second and so Jake contemplated his first fight while he waited.

Therwereas many things he needed to improve on but now at least he had a rough idea of where to start. Once his strength returned jake picked up the loot that fell and caused him to smile since this felt too much like a video game.

{Quest Item}

[Rabid Fang x 3]

Jake was disappointed that nothing else seemed to drop. But thinking about it made sense since it was just some wild dogs. Instead, he moved on and pulled out his skinning knife most games had the need for professions and an easy one was skinny. Jake liked this one in games since he could level it and gather materials while he fought. Unlike other professions that required you to sidetrack and hunt for materials this one did not require you to stop your questing. Unless of course, you were grinding out a certain material but even then your experience gain would not be affected.

The only issue was that this was all in a video game and never had he actually tried to skin an animal in real life. But it didn't matter since it was inexpensive to practice. With that in mind, Jake began his first ever skinning

{Items}

[Destroyed Rabbid dog pelt x 2]

[Damaged bones x 4]

[Animal fat x 2]

[Rabbid dog meat x 10]

Though his first skinning was not a major success he at least learned from his mistakes and gained some items. Distributing them into his space bag Jake looked toward the distance for his next prey.

0-0-0-0-0-0

Breathing slowly Jake sensed the changes in his body as the energy coursed from his soul. The warmth flowed out from his soul touching and enhancing each part of his body. There was a slight itching feeling that accompanied the changes that took place yet they were enjoyable instead of annoying.

His muscles bulged a bit more than before as they grew while his heart seemed to slow down along with his breathing. But with each breath more air surged into his lungs while his blood pumped stronger than he ever thought possible. The world around him became slightly more enhanced as noises he had not noticed teased his ears. While the objects around grew a bit clearer and the motion of things seemed to slow a bit in his sight.

This was an amazing experience one Jake could get addicted to just from the first time. As the upgrade ended, the feeling died down a bit. Though most of it still lingered and Jake could tell it would take him some time to get himself accustomed to his body.

Like that his first level up came and went in what was only a moment though during the experience he could have sworn a long time had passed.

Opening up his status window Jake excitedly checked his new stats after a week out in the wild.

{Status Window}

[Name: Jake] [Home World: Earth]

[Age: 16 Years] [Soul Gems: 0]

[Race: Human] [Soul Energy: 125/125]

[Class: None] [Gold: 0 / Silver:5 / Copper:68]

[Job: F-Rank: Adventurer (Contract Member)]

[????????]

[Level: 2] [Experience: 0/3500]

[Titles: None]

[Guild Reputation: Tier 0 - 10/100]

[Abilities: None]

Looking through his status window Jake first noted a few things. First of all the experience needed for the next level would be a dreadful climb. It fracking tripled and this was just to reach level three no wonder those who did not become adventures took so long to reach higher levels. Even those who became adventures would be considered strong here at level five through ten, which would be a joke back on Earth in any normal game.

But this was not a game this was life or something on those lines, to be honest, Jake sometimes had a hard time remembering that he was dead. Since he still needed to breathe and had a heart and even though he would not die from not eating or drinking he still needed both. Otherwise, his soul energy would deplete faster plus his stats would decrease such as his stamina.

Regardless if he understood how this world worked or not didn't really concern Jake as far as he was concerned this was his second and truly last life. Thinking up to here Jake moved on to the next thing that caught his attention which was his soul energy. He had used his last soul gem the other day due to his month coming close to an end, he had around five points left which was not a lot and would disappear fast. He did not want to wait until he had a single point left since if something unexpected happened and he ran out of time to use the soul gem he would be screwed. Most people would not wait till the last point though usually, they would wait until they had around three points to get the max use out of each gem.

With Jake being out on a quest he wanted to play it bit safe but the issue was that after using it he had leveled up shortly later. Which before he had leveled he had around ninety-five points since a few days had passed from the time he recharged his soul.

"If only that my soul energy would be replenished and even increased..." An ache had stabbed him in the heart when he had realized that his soul gem had been wasted. But it was only a small feeling of regret since who knew if something would have had happened. Shaking his head clear of useless thoughts of things that could not be changed Jake moved on to his stats window. Pulling the window up Jake could not help but frown at what he saw.

{Stats Window}

[Health: 115/115] [Health Regen: .25 HP/s]

[Mana: 0] [Mana Regen: 0 MP/s]

[Strength: 7] [Agility: 8]

[Vitality: 1] [Intelligence: 8]

[Luck: 10] [Spirit: 1.5]

[Attack: 5] [Defense: 7]

{Elemental Affinities}

[Fire: N/A] [Water: N/A]

[Wind: N/A] [Earth: N/A]

[Light: N/A] [Darkness: N/A]

Seeing his stats Jake felt his spirit dwindle a bit after a week of fighting the trash mobs. During the week he had gotten roughed up a bit from the monsters but due to the fact that these beasts were low levels and not very smart, he as a noob was able to persevere.

The upgrade in level gave his stats an increase but the meager increase only caused Jake to frown. His attack had only gained four points. Though it would give him a bit of a boost in his fights it was not going to make him a killing machine. Whereas his defense had risen a bit more it still was not enough to make the fights easy. Though it was not a big deal since after a week of killing these dogs Jake had grown accustomed to their attacks and started to clean up his openings. He could not say that he had become an expert but he was now at least a beginner.

Looking at the rest of his stats he noted that most of them had upgraded by one, these stats where also the ones he had used. This meant that for now, he was unable to increase his mana stat from zero, but this was understandable plus even if it had gained a point he had no way of using it.

The only difference was his health points that increased by fifteen this was both good and easily ignorable. The increase in health would only make a real difference when it reached over a thousand points then he could ignore most damage unless he was attacked by someone who was twice as strong as him. Though for the time being none of those thoughts mattered since it would be a while till he reached that realm. For now, he just looked forward to the day he reached a hp of two hundred.

The biggest surprise actually was his hp regen it had surprisingly jumped from a pathetic .1 to now a staggering .25p/s. Now every second he would gain a quarter of a health point back a second. The measly .01 had about made him grow crazy as he struggled through his fights with the need to rest for a long period of time between fights.

The last bit of happy news was that his spirit had risen by half a point. Though this was a small increase it was still something to be happy about. This was the stat that allowed his soul energy to grow rising it from its initial starting point of a hundred points. Plus on top of the extra points, this stat would cause the drain on the soul energy to decrease the stronger the stat became. That was the best news any soul in this world could receive since with a longer duration of soul energy the less use of soul gems would be required.

It was understandable that everyone only had a month of time before their soul needed recharging, but now with the half a point increase he would be able to last a bit longer than a month before needing to use a soul gem. This, of course, was a double edge sword since from what he had learned as his spirit stat increased more the need for a stronger soul gem would become needed. But this was an issue for a later time, for now, it was not an issue since his soul was still pretty weak.

Pulling out of his stats window Jake looked at his quest log.

{Quest: Rabid Dogs}

[Description: The area around the FOB has always had an infestation of rabid dogs these low-level beasts repopulate at an alarming rate if unchecked. Due to this, they are kept as a constant quest for low-level adventurers. If unkept though weak their numbers can become a threat. They are a nuisance to the farmlands out of the city limits and must be kept to low numbers to decrease their danger level. ]

[Traits: Slightly larger than house pets with a bite that can cause poison effects to targets. They are pack oriented and usually roam in groups of 3-5. Their teeth can be used in many concoctions and are a common material sought after.]

[Tasks: Kill 50 stray dogs within two weeks. These beast repopulate very fast. In order to keep them from overflowing the farms and villages, they need to be weeded down in a short amount of time. Collect 25 infected canine fangs. ]

[Progress: 12/25 Fangs]

[Progress: 35/50 stray dogs]

{Reward:}

[On completion of the quest, a single soul gem will be given, with a total net gain of seventy-five silver. Completion of the loot portion of the quest will reward you an additional soul gem. ]

"Still got a ways to go." Thought Jake as he revied his quest. "Anyways now that I have leveled I should be able to get my first skill."

With that, Jake returned to the FOB and after selling off his items he headed toward guild outpost. Skills were a unique item in this world. No one had a clue where the skills originated from but since the beginning of time in this reality, there have always been skills. Though instead of a scroll or from an NPC that taught you the skills, instead they were gained through interaction with a certain object. These objects were called skill orbs they were pretty cheap since they manifested throughout the world. Jake had one wanted to buy one earlier but since he could not use it till he leveled he decided to wait.

Though he could buy one at the general store he had a discount for it at the guild and so that was his destination. At the FOB there was only a guild outpost but it still had most of the items adventures needed.

Reaching the guild outpost Jake made his way to skill orb vendor.

"Hi, dear customer are you a member of the guild if so please show me identification." The vendor was a pretty young lady who had a warm smile.

Looking at the woman made Jake's heart beat fast, he was not unaccustomed to talking to women. But since he was still young he had a shyness when it came to older women. They had a mature charm about them that he found attractive, thankfully he was not some weirdo and was able to straighten himself out fast.

Pulling out a metal card Jake showed his identification.

{Guild Identification Card}

[Name: Jake]

[Guild Home: Spiritborn's Adventures Guild]

[Membership: Contract (Rank F)]

[Class: None]

The vendor started to frown as she looked over the ID after a moment she looked up at Jake with a complicated look.

"Dear customer thank you for showing me your ID. Your discount is three percent, here is the copper level skill orb list. Please take your time and let me know what I can get for you."

Jake didn't need to ask why she looked at him like that, never the less he could not help but sigh at his situation. Three percent was the lowest discount available those that were at the copper level which was one level higher than him could get a five percent discount. Though it was only two percent more it still mattered to the poor right now every penny mattered to him.

Grabbing the list Jake skimmed through the multiple pages. There was at least a few hundred pages filled with many pictures and descriptions of the skills available. Thankfully they were separated by type of skill so it was easy enough for him to find the attack skills he wanted.

Jake could only learn one skill at level two and so this skill would be the most important ability he would use to stay alive. He contemplated getting a defensive skill though it would help survive for a few seconds longer. In the end, he would still tire down and die if he could use a killing move.

During his fights so far he noticed the lack of his killing ability most the time he was able to land a lucky attack that was ugly. Usually, it would take him a few hits to even kill the dogs, only on rare occasions was he able to land a killing strike.

During the week he had watched the other low-level adventures as they fought and one thing he noticed was their skills.

Other than magic the warriors all had skills that delivered tons of damage. They were able to easily kill rabid dogs like they were cutting grass. Jake had yet to decide on his desired class but as it stood so far he was not heading in the magic direction.

All the magic skills required mana first before you could learn them and he had yet to figure out how to get mana. Of course, that was fine with him since it was pretty awesome to fight up close and personal.

The problem was deciding what skill would be the best to start off with. All of them looked so awesome and he wished he could take them all.

{Rend}

[Unleash a powerful downward swing, like a bolt of lightning crashing into the earth. Your sword will cut your enemy into two.]

[Required level 2]

[Required Attack Power 4]

[Cost 1 silver 5 copper]

{Cyclone Slash}

[360 AOE skill! Regardless of direction, all foes will fall beneath this circular slash.]

[Required level 2]

[Required Attack 5]

[Required Agility 10]

[Cost 3 silver 30 copper]

{Impaling Thrust}

[A simple thrust attack that will critically hit any enemy. Can attack the enemy from 2 meters away. ]

[Required Level 3 ]

[Required Attack 9 ]

[Required Agility 15 ]

[Cost 4 silver]

Jake could imagine himself using any of these awesome skills especially impaling thrust and cyclone slash he could imagine doing a sick combo with them. Flying in and killing one opponent before bursting out with three-sixty slash killing the rest around him.

However, many of the skills were a bit out of his reach some were a level or two higher than he was. While others required better stats than he had.

After flipping through a few more pages Jake's eyes lit up there was a skill that was perfect for him.

Looking at the skill Jake made his decision.

"Ma'am I would like this one." Said, Jake, as he pointed at one of the pricer skills available to him. Thankfully he gained a couple of extra silver right before coming here. Plus his discount would help from going broke else he would be going hungry the next couple of days.

Seeing the orb Jake choose the lady smiled before retrieving the book and pulling out a red orb.

"That will be with your discount 4 silver and 85 copper." Said the vendor as she handed the orb to Jake. The three percent discount hardly made a dent in the price. But with only seven silver to his name at the moment every cent he could keep the better off he would be. Without hesitating, Jake paid the lady and left he headed toward the training field to check out his new move.

The training field was right behind the guild outpost and so it only took Jake a moment to reach his destination. With his new skill, Jake felt invigorated and ready to take on the world. Thankfully the training field was free to use if you were part of the guild. So it only took a second for him to receive a training room, once inside his room Jake pulled the new skill out of his space bag.

{Elusive Strike}

[Using fluid movements unleash multiple unblockable strikes. The better your agility the harder for those you attack to block.]

[Required level 2]

[Required Attack 5]

[Required Agility 8]

[Cost 5 silver]

Grasping the orb Jake closed his eyes as he focused his thoughts on the orb in his hands. A moment later the red crystal orb faded to a grey color before crumbling into a heap of dust.

Jake's closed eyes began to twitch as the knowledge of the skill entered his mind. After about a minute Jake slowly opened his eyes with a twinkle in them he smiled as he grasped his sword.