Chapter 3

[Name: Charles Green]

[Title: -none-]

[Level: 2 – EXP: 10/25]

[Health: 19/25]

[Magic: 10/10]

[Strength: 5(+)]

[Agility: 5(+)]

[Vitality: 5(+)]

[Intelligence: 5(+)]

[Wisdom: 5(+)]

[Dexterity: 5(+)]

[Luck: 5(+)]

[Stats points: 3]

Nina passed out in my arms after she got tired form crying, so I let her sleep next to me. Meanwhile, looking at my status I got 5 experience points after killing one of the dogs, which pushed me to level 2 and 3 stats points to add as I please. There was no experience for damaging the one killed by Nina, experience goes to the person who gets the last hit.

'The question is, which stats should I add points to?'

I feel like I'm more of a close combat person, so I should discard wisdom and intelligence as an option. Luck also sounds like an unreliable stat, so no points going there. The problem is the other options, strength is a must as I need to increase my damage output, at least 1 point will go there.

'Agility or Vitality? Should I focus on speed over resilience?'

I will discard dexterity, either I'm going to be quick enough to deal a lot of hits or I'm going to be a tank who can handle enough hits while counterattacking.

It is a hard choice to make, I don't know if it will be possible to make changes to the distribution later on and I don't have enough information about the system, besides the points per level seems to be few.

"AGH, what to do?"

Speed sounds good if I need to flee, but it also sounds like I could die after being hit just once. You never know when something or someone might attack you by surprise.

'Vitality it is then.'

I put 1 point on vitality and I notice my maximum health going up from 25 to 30. That is convincing, so I add my last point to vitality leaving my max health at 35 points.

From the previous battles, I have noticed that my health recovers around 1 point per minute, meaning I should rest at least 15 minutes to fully recover. Besides, I don't want to wake Nina.

'Let's look at the items I got from killing that dog.'

[Dog Meat x 2]

[Dog Bone x 1]

[Dog Skin x 1]

[Rank F - Skill Card x 1]

'Skill Card? That is new.'

I check its description.

[Rank F - Skill Card]

[Description: Allows user to learn a Rank F skill]

[Option 1: Learn a random Rank F skill]

[Option 2: Learn a Rank F skill from the store (computer access required)]

[Option 3: Synthetize with another item for unexpected results]

'More choices…'

Learning a random skill could help me right now, but I'm not sure how hard to obtain are these skill cards. The computer access means that at some point I should be able to reach one, not knowing how long that will take is problematic.

For the time being I will ignore the synthetizing option, as I clearly need more information.

'I am not a very patient person, let's just get a random skill, that's better than none, right?'

Just as I'm about to pick the random skill option I feel a shiver travelling through my body, I have this feeling that I'm going to regret picking a skill randomly.

'Is it intuition or something like that? I should wait, I have to plan long term if I want to survive. Besides, it would not be funny to receive some useless skill.'

'Yes, that's for the better.'

Even though a little voice in my head keeps telling me to get a random skill, I have to be strong and resist the temptation.

After that I let the minutes pass by while my body healed. Once my health was fully restored I got up from the ground and looked at Nina. I pick her up and carry her in my arms, I guess it's okay to let her rest for a little while.

Walking through the forest is mostly a monotonous task, almost all the trees look the same to me and it doesn't feel like I'm advancing at all, if not for checking my progress on the map I would have stopped a long time ago.

I don't know exactly how much time passed, but Nina woke up at some point and started walking on her own while holding my hand. She seems really attached to me, it's understandable considering our current situation but I can´t help wondering what's going to happen with her later on, will I keep her with me or will I leave her behind when we find a safe place? I honestly can't answer with certainty. I rather like the idea of having someone covering my back, I'm just not sure about that person being a little girl.

I look at Nina next to me, she locks her eyes with mine while smiling.

'For now I just have to make sure to keep her safe.'

I'd rather like to find some of those dogs right now so I can't stop having these useless thoughts in my mind. Sadly, we just keep walking and the time just passes by.

Nina is just happy walking by my side, so far she isn't much of a conversationalist and neither am I.

Sounds of howling dogs are followed by voices shouting.

"Should we take a look?"

"Nina goes wherever Charlie goes."

I was expecting for her to refuse or start trembling, maybe killing one of those dogs made her grow up a little. At least I hope that is it.

We started walking faster towards the sound of battle, once we got close enough we hid behind some trees to watch the situation.

Three people are fighting against five dogs, it doesn't look good for the people.

A frail woman with red hair is hiding behind a tall black man who is covered in injuries, he is barely keeping three of the creatures at bay thanks to his height. The other two dogs are distracted by a beautiful blonde woman with very nice curves.

'Get it together man, this isn't the time to be appreciating her plentiful figure.'

"Ouch"

Nina pinched my arm while glaring at me.

'Did that take 1 point from my health? I could swear it did.'

"Should I help them?"

She ignored my gaze and didn't reply.

"I will go help them, I trust you will have my back, right?"

Her face quickly turned towards me while nodding.

"HEY YOU DAMN DOGS COME AND GET ME"

I shouted while running towards the closest of the creatures with the knife in my hand.

Two of the creatures turned towards me and started running, leaving the black man to deal with two while blondie managed the last one.

At some point Nina disappeared, I can't tell where she is neither do I have the time to look for her.

I stab the knife towards the first dog to reach me, it barely manages to dodge my attack but I felt my weapon grazing against its body.

The second dog reached soon after with a jumping right to my neck, I'm not sure if they attack by instinct or they know where to attack to deal the most damage, but I've fought these creatures before and I'm prepared, I grab its neck with my left hand and push the creature towards the ground.

Somehow, I notice the difference in my strength, just the one point I added makes my grip feel way stronger than before, I guess there are few points per level but their effect is noticeable.

Then, I stab the creature until it disappears and look for the other one. It was attacked by Nina, who is holding it back from attacking me.

One of the creatures attacking the black man noticed its fallen comrade and turned towards me, the one attacking blondie seems to hesitate between leaving her current prey or come to attack me.

"Nina, how long can you hold that dog?"

"Don't worry, Nina strong, Nina kills bad dog."

I can't help but worry, the two of them are coming towards me and I have no time to help her.

Dashing towards them I push my arm towards the mouth of the first dog allowing it to bite me, being prepared for the pain I seize the moment to pin the dog to the ground using the weight of my body.

I look in front of me directly staring at the second dog, who stops on its tracks when it meets my gaze, with my right hand I use the knife to stab the creature biting my arm while keeping my eyes on the threat in front of me. It hesitates for a couple of seconds, giving me the time to finish with its brethren.

Then I throw myself towards the creature, my knife disappearing, allowing me to grab the dog with both my hands and pin it to the ground with my body, I keep holding onto its neck with one hand while punching with the other, until it disappears from my sight.

I look around my surroundings, four people are staring at me, three of them showing clear signs of fear.

'Looks like I have that effect on people, do I really look that scary? At least Nina has a smile on her face.'

At some point she managed to kill the dog, she isn't unscathed, one of her arms is bleeding but it doesn't seem like a serious injury. Apparently, the black man dealt with the remaining dog with blondie's help.

I notice the girl with red hair is trying to hide behind the tall figure of the man, she seems to be really afraid of me.

'I need a mirror.'