Grind

Calvin panted for breath and sweat dripped down his face as he looked at the puddle of goo where the slime died.

As he cooled down from the heat of excitement from the battle, the pain and exhaustion coming from his body made him groan. He sat down on the ground and while taking deep breaths, he looked at the system message he received.

"The fuck is this bullshit?"

Calvin cursed as he saw the amount of exp points he earned from that one fight.

"Only 5? Ain't this game too stingy?" Calvin grumbled to himself.

Its quite common in games that it would take a lot longer to level up the more you are late into the game.

Even if Genesis has destroyed some of these common tropes in games, this one rule should remain true here.

That's why when Calvin imagined how hellish it would be just to level up in the future, his face scrunched up in pain and annoyance.

He sighed and a smile appeared on his face as he said to himself. "Whatever. At least this game is more fun compared to other games. If this is even a game in the first place."

He couldn't help but mutter to himself the last part as the doubt in him grew. The fight felt so real to him. Even the other VR games that he played which uses the same concept of connecting a person's mind to the game like what NDO did to Genesis as well couldn't compare to it at all. It was like comparing a fake and copycat product to the original one.

Before his thoughts got out of hand, Calvin shook his head. 'I'm over thinking things again. I'll just have fun and think about it later.'

Thinking up to this point, he smiled bitterly at his health bar showing his 10 remaining HP. "Damn that slime is strong. It almost killed me. Not to mention, I'm quite tired from this one fight. Though I'm sure that I could fight one more if I push it, I might die because of my low HP."

Calvin started thinking on what to do. In the end, he decided to wait a bit before he started going at a slime again.

'In any case, there are more slimes than players. Wait... now that I look at it.' Calvin looked around and saw many players screaming in pain as they struggle to fight the slimes. A majority of them turned into flashes of white light, a sign of them dying.

A lot of the players dying were the ones who are solo. There were also others who are in groups who unfortunately died, but they were only in minority.

Looking at this scene, he couldn't help but exclaim to himself. "Sheesh. It looks like I'm quite lucky compared to others. Wow I didn't expect to actually be one of the rare ones to solo kill a slime. HAHA this makes me happy actually. Though compared to them..."

Speaking up to this point, he couldn't help but look at some of the few players who were fighting the slimes. They moved quickly and efficiently and they looked like they were toying with the slimes.

Calvin thought inwardly as he observed them while resting. 'They must have been practicing in real life. Well considering the present age, its not that really rare.'

In today's age, the fighting industry have become prosperous again. This is due to the rise of not just games but also the other things like the medical science.

That's why practicing in a kind of martial arts or even weapons have become commonplace around the world. Many competitions were even held that were about fighting.

Calvin's eyes blazed in fighting spirit as he continued to observe those players as he muttered to himself. "Someday, I will make it so that I can do those kind of things as well. I'll be stronger!"

As he waited for his health, mana and stamina to recover, he started to think of the fight he had. He took this time to think and understand how the game works.

'The slimes are easy to kill. The only thing that's annoying is how they move a lot. Especially that spit of theirs. It must be a skill...'

'Even punching and kicking works as well. This game really is too amazing compared to others.'

'It looks like the health and mana recovery are 1% per second during battle. When outside, I don't know yet. It looks like the battle status is 15 seconds long. I'll have to wait and see. Oh I'm out of battle now. So it's 2% per second. I'm not sure if it's capped at 2 or its twice the recovery during battle.'

'The activation of skills feels weird. In other games, I just need to say it and it will activate. Even though its the same here, I always briefly felt something moving inside me when I use a skill. Could that be mana. Come to think of it, Narasha also said something about skills. She said that learning skills is one way to grow stronger.'

His eyes lit up in realisation. 'Ohh now that I remember, the system said "You acquired". Which might mean that I gained the qualifications of using the skills but I didn't actually learn how to use it properly. Its just like the difference between copying and learning. In this case, Im probably copying from the system. I'm curious what would happen if I actually learn it.'

When he thought up to this point, he sat cross legged and closed his eyes as he tried to meditate and focus his mind on feeling the sensation of that thing moving inside him.

Minutes pass by without anything happening. He opened his eyes and sighed in disappointment. "Fuck. Its a lot harder than I thought."

He stood up and saw that his health and mana is full. He's also full of energy after resting. At the same time, he also noticed some players looking at him with a weird gaze.

Calvin felt his face heat up in embarrassment. He quickly jogged away from that place and looked for a relatively secluded spot while thinking to himself. 'Shit that was embarrassing.'

He laughed for a bit as he remembered his actions. Shaking his head to remove those thoughts, he finally saw a place where there were only a few players around.

He distanced himself as he approached a slime.

While walking towards it, he thought to himself with an excited smile on his face. 'Since I can't do it for now, then I'll learn how to by copying from the system!'

He wasted no time as he immediately used Camouflage and walked carefully towards the slime.

'Time for grinding!'