A Haven for the Oppressed - Part 3

I fell to the floor as my body was really running out of energy. I could hardly move any of my muscles. I just lied on the floor, looking up towards the infinitely sunny sky. Without the monster, just the general area of Haven had quite a nice atmosphere, it was a good spot to just lay down and relax.

As I looked up at the sky, I opened my missions menu and looked at how much experience I gained from killing the boar.

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<Haven Missions>

Once you accept a mission, the monster or substance will spawn.

1. Kill a Cave Goblin [Difficulty: F-]

2. Complete the Beginner Dungeon [Difficulty: F]

3. Kill a Treeforce Boar [Difficulty: F] - COMPLETED [+290 experience]

-

<Haven Missions>

Once you accept a mission, the monster or substance will spawn.

1. Kill a Cave Goblin [Difficulty: F-]

2. Complete the Beginner Dungeon [Difficulty: F]

3. Kill a Treeforce Boar [Difficulty: F]

-

Well there were diminishing returns once again. I needed only 68 more experience before I levelled up. I opened my original mission menu and had a quick look.

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<Missions>

1. Do 150 hundred pull-ups (Difficulty: 6)

2. Defeat a level-2 Esper or above [Difficulty: 13]

3. Drink one litre of blood [Difficulty 9]

-

I could either drink a litre of blood or do 150 pull ups to gain my remaining experience. My arms were extremely sore and my left palm was still bleeding, my best bet was to head to the local butcher and purchase some blood.

I had never drank blood before but I assumed that it wouldn't taste very good.

Whatever the case was, I decided to travel back to my original world. With a sudden flash of light, I was back in my room, sitting on my bed. The cold walls, lonely furniture and rubbish littered around my room, I was once again reminded of my current situation. My life was far from better even with my newfound power.

I still had no friends, no people to talk to, no future, no prospects, no work, no love and no happiness. They say that even just one close friend is enough to make your life infinitely better, but I have yet to be able to experience such a sensation. It wasn't like I never had a friend ever, it was just that having 'friends' never made me less lonely, less sad.

It was a peculiar situation, sometimes I think that I have a mental illness.

But what can I do, am I right?

*

I walked into the cold local butcher. My nostrils were filled by the smell of raw meat and the very light flavour of spices. However, I was not here to purchase either of those things. I had never bought blood from a butcher before so I wasn't sure if they even kept it in stock, but I guess if any place was going to sell blood, it would be a butcher.

I didn't want the worker to think I was some sort of crazed psychopath—although I guess that wouldn't have been too far from the truth. I tried to think of some sort of excuse but I resolved to just ask the worker.

'Hi, do you have any animal blood I could purchase?'

'Animal blood? I think we have some at the back but I don't know what price to sell it for, I'll have to ask the boss.'

'Okay.'

He walked into the back and I could here some light chatter.

'Alright, how much are you after?'

'Just one litre.'

'Boss says you can just have it for free, we were going to dump it out anyways.'

'Oh, are you sure?'

'Yeah.'

'Well, if I may.'

He walked into the back once again and brought out a the lush scarlet-coloured blood in a little bottle.

'Well, here you go I guess.'

'Thanks.'

'I was just wondering, what were you using it for?'

This was awkward, but they had just given me some free things so I felt as if I should answer them.

'Uh, we're making a sculpture.'

'Interesting, like modern art?'

'Yeah...'

The conversation was getting dry so he went to serve the next customer and I made my way back outside. It was going to look somewhat awkward with me just holding a random bottle of blood in my hands but there wasn't exactly anything I could do about it.

I uncomfortably walked home and placed the bottle of blood on the kitchen counter. I just sat and looked at it for a little while.

Do I just like drink it?

I unscrewed the top and took a little sip of the slight-viscous bright red liquid.

It's surprisingly good, like really good...

What on earth? Was blood always this tasty? There's no way right? It tasted like some very rich and elegant blood-orange juice with a slightly metallic aftertaste. I was expecting to struggle much more with drinking this but this was surprisingly easy. In a few seconds, I chugged down the entire bottle of blood and placed the empty bottle back onto the counter.

Well, that should be enough for the level up now.

I looked at my missions menu.

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<Missions>

1. Do 150 hundred pull-ups (Difficulty: 6)

2. Defeat a level-2 Esper or above [Difficulty: 13]

3. Drink one litre of blood [Difficulty 9] - COMPLETED [+90 experience]

-

<Missions>

1. Do 150 hundred pull-ups (Difficulty: 6)

2. Defeat a level-2 Esper or above [Difficulty: 13]

3. Do a 10km run [Difficulty: 7]

-

It was another relatively easy and straight forward mission although it would take a little time. Anyways I continued on and had a look at my rewards for levelling up.

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<Experience>

1022 [1000 needed to level up] - READY

-

<LEVEL UP>

Rank 2 -> Rank 3

Rewards:

- Unlocked! [Haven Shop]

- Upgrade! [Increased Difficulty and Rewards for <Haven Missions>]

- 1 stat point

- 29 vampire tokens

~

<Experience>

22 [3000 needed to level up]

-

The experience requirement for levelling up was rising quite steeply. However, it looked like this level up came with quite a decent amount of rewards. I was getting more Vampire tokens each time and it appears I have unlocked the [Haven Shop] which was somewhat interesting. I assumed I would have to enter Haven in order to access it because I couldn't see a menu for it.

It was getting pretty late so I'll go back to Haven to check it out tomorrow. In the meantime I decided to use my stat point. After a little consideration, I decided to just put it into strength again since I was already doing that a significant amount.

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<Attributes>

Strength: 3+1/100

Speed: 1/100

Agility: 1/100

Spatial Awareness: 1/100

-

There were quite a few things I wanted to do tomorrow.