Chapter 8: Ah shit, here we go again
"What the heck?! Why the hell did you make me pick a name if you are not going to use it?!"
A boy with disheveled grey hair stared at the digital screen with his dark circled eyes, cursing at the game "Adventure Beckons" that he was currently playing… or at least spectating.
The game gave him very little chances to take control after wandering around in the forest and battling with a grossly overpowered mob… well, either that or his character was just absolute shit in combat. The latter was probably true since an NPC swooped in and took care of the vermin in an instant.
'Still, being weak means there's room for improvement.'
Looking at himself, Sean nodded in approval. One more thing to take note of was that as he played the game more and more, he could feel the warm feeling take root inside of him more firmly. Since it meant no harm and even provided comfort, he paid it no mind. Heck, it could even be just something so simple as a reaction from certain hormones like Dopamine… not that Sean was well-versed in medical stuff.
'At least they used "Bobb" in the title for the character. Not that I know what a title does. Scratch that, I don't even know what anything does in this game. Man, I wish there was a tutorial.'
Indeed, the game did not have any tutorial whatsoever… nothing visual, of course. The tutorial could have been mentioned in the parts he skipped. Ignoring that, he just pushed the blame onto the game. Well, to be fair, who wouldn't skip through mountains of text? It's an ingrained instinct of every human, after all.
'Yep, I'm not at fault.'
After convincing himself that he was innocent, Sean looked at the clock on the wall. To his surprise, it was almost time for school. He had pulled an all-nighter again.
'What's wrong with these games and their addictability? Addictivity? Whatever. And the birds… They didn't even chirp at all today! What happened to birds being nature's alarm clocks? I better just buy an actual alarm clock… Anyway, I'm late! I gotta hurry up or else the gate's gonna close on me.'
He even somewhat wished that someone would go and disappear so that he could get another free day… No, that's not right. Chasing his sinful thoughts away, Sean prepared to go to school in a hurry. He put on his uniform, shoved down some breakfast, and left the room.
However, he forgot to do one thing. He had forgotten to turn off the game. The game screen lit up the dark room as it was the only light source around. On the screen, aside from the scene being played out, was a single sentence.
[Stat unlock: reach level 1]
*****
Phew!
A young man wiped his sweat away as he stood in a massive farm field. Holding a dirty hoe in his hand and wearing a typical farming attire which was soaked with sweat, he looked like a seasoned farmer. However, a true seasoned farmer would probably say that the young man still had countless things to learn.
And, it was true. After all, it had only been a few days since Ken arrived at the elf village. It took him only a short while to adjust to the daily life in the village. Well, instead of adjusting, it was straight up just a new life for him since he had no memory of his previous life.
Sitting on a tree stump, he looked at his status screen. Nothing had really changed. His level was still zero. He still had the [None] for Job, and he had no idea how to activate the [Hero] job. The system refused to give him a hint no matter how much he begged for it.
'So petty.'
The only changes were his skills. Ken gained a few skills during these few days. From his farming activities and training with Serina, he was bound to get some.
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Skill: [Runner's high] (lvl 1), [Low-farming] (lvl 2), [Low-martial arts] (lvl 1), [Low-dagger arts] (lvl 2), [Low-endurance] (lvl 3)
- - - - - - - - - -
He was still unsure how to activate a skill, but he was now sure that repetitive action can help level up a skill. Of course, just simply repeating the same actions was pointless. Ken also needed to arrive at a new understanding or discover a way for more efficiency to successfully level up.
Well, that was what Serina taught him. At low levels, simply repeating the actions seemed to level up the skills just fine.
According to Serina, skills usually had ranks such as low, mid, and high. Each rank had ten levels and one could break through the current rank after achieving a revelation of some kind… or doing a specific task.
After maxing out the level for the high rank, one could be considered to have achieved full mastery of that particular skill. However, there were exceptions to this rule. A perfect example would be Ken's [Runner's high] skill. It had no rank. For such skills, leveling up was usually harder but the payout was also higher in return.
He still had no idea what unique skills were since he missed out on the opportunity to ask Serina about it. At least he knew that the small status-like screens were the effect of [Unravel].
These days, he barely had time to breathe during training sessions. Not that he was able to even land a hit on Serina, he was busy being beaten up. There was a reason why the level of his endurance skill was higher than other skills, after all.
He also learned some interesting things about the effects of the memory stone. Although the previously incomprehensible words were now as familiar to him as his native language, the translations did not exactly convey the actual meaning. For example, a cool word like "Senecio" would just mean "Old Man" when translated.
Some words couldn't be translated at all due to the vocabulary differences between the two languages and sometimes, the words were just translated literally. The name of the rabbit with a horn- his nemesis- was literally translated as "horned rabbit".
He also figured out that he was actually speaking the native language instead of his words being magically translated. How was he able to speak so fluently in the other world's language when he didn't even properly understand it? He did not know…
'Magic, I guess…'
Closing the status screen, he went back to farming. However, an excited grin appeared on his face. Why? Because today was the day for hunters to go out into the deep parts of the Eldergreen forest- the name of the forest that Ken woke up in.
Of course, Ken had been out and about the forest areas near the village for herb gathering. It was one of his chores. However, today was different. He was going to venture farther into the forest along with the hunters. Maybe, he would even get to exact revenge on the accursed rabbit that almost killed him before… Well, probably not on that one since Serina had already taken care of it.
'One from the same species will do.'
With sweet revenge on his mind, Ken quickly finished up his work and prepared himself for the event.
***
"Sorry, Ken. You can't follow us this time. The little ones are having their first herb gathering session, so you are gonna be their instructor for today. We'll bring you along next time, for sure."
Hearing Serina's words, Ken immediately felt disheartened. With a dejected face, Ken hesitantly nodded and saw the hunters off. Then, he took a glance at himself and let out a sigh.
With a leather armor and a dagger hanging on his belt, he was well-prepared to set out on an adventure.
'Well, I'll get to go next time…'
After getting the details of the plan from the village chief, he quickly put on a smile and went to the area where young elven children would be doing the herb collection. There, he was met with the children's warm greetings, adorned with their adorable smiles.
"Hello, instructor Ken!"
'Hmm, instructor Ken, huh? Nice, I like it.'
He greeted the children back and stood right next to another instructor. Of course, he exchanged pleasantries with her too.
"That's great, children! Glad to see that everyone is energetic. Now that Instructor Ken is here, let's go gather the herbs!"
The instructor encouraged the children. Seeing how confident she looked, she must have been an instructor for quite some time. Her name was Mira. She was a plain-looking elf- compared to Serina- and wore a simple dress that would not interfere with her movement.
She looked gleefully at the elated children with her clear grey eyes... or was it blue? Ken was not quite sure.
In front of her lay many small baskets, one for each child and two large baskets for her and Ken. There were also tools needed for extracting the herbs placed inside each basket.
"The hunters are doing their best. So, we should also give it our all!"
Ken riled up the children as he picked up his basket. Now, with everyone equipped properly, he and Mira led the kids to a bountiful herb-laden area.
Ken carefully picked some herbs as he gave pointers to the kids. Even an expert like Mira was flabbergasted by his knowledge of the herbaceous plants. Well, all of that was thanks to his [Unravel] skill, which helped him identify each herb and its effects.
Suddenly, he heard a rustling sound coming from the bushes nearby. Reminded of the last time he heard such a sound, he quickly ordered the children to get behind him.
"Stay quiet, kids."
Whispering as quietly as he could, he looked at Mira.
"Mira… if something happens, go get help from the hunters. They should be on their way back to the village by now."
Taking out his dagger from its sheath, Ken took a battle stance.
'Good thing, I did not change my clo-'
Before he could finish his thoughts, a beast suddenly leaped out of the bushes. Sure enough, it was a horned rabbit. It seemed that his wish for revenge had come true.
'Here we go again.'
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