Chapter 5: First Warning from the System

"Mom... daddy." A scared little boy was hiding in a hole in a tree in the middle of the forest. The child wanted to scream, but if he screamed, then there was a possibility that his position would be discovered.

The child could only cover his mouth with his hand to prevent himself from screaming.

Outside the tree were a few goblins looking around for something.

Elio finally arrived, not far from the location. But he still hasn't seen the human presence referred to by the System.

"Heyy, system, is that really the place you're talking about? All I saw was a bunch of goblins who seemed to be looking for something." Elio asked the System because he saw nothing but a bunch of goblins.

[Host, that human is actually hiding in the biggest tree over there]

"Hhhmm... it seems a bunch of goblins chased that person." Elio gestured his hands over his eyes to look into the distance.

"Aren't goblins generally only level 15, right? Why doesn't that person fight back?" Elio rushed over to the biggest tree.

"Are the level of humans in this world not so high after all?" Elio wondered in his heart as he continued heading towards the largest tree.

When he arrived near the biggest tree, Elio raised his hand. He let out his blue flames to scare the goblins.

"Ugh... hurry up and leave already." Elio released his flame while grumbling. "Your level is too low for me now."

The goblins who saw this immediately fled from that place.

After the goblins left, Elio checked the biggest tree before him. It turned out that the tree had a hole in a relatively hidden place covered by slightly tall grass.

The hole in the tree is a little small. An adult person wouldn't be able to fit through it.

As soon as Elio looked into the hole, it turned out a boy was there. The boy looked scared with the position of his right hand supporting his head and sitting down.

Meanwhile, the boy's left hand covered his mouth, probably trying to keep him from making a noise.

"Hey kid, are you okay?" Elio asked the young child.

The little boy keeping his head down, began to raise his head. He felt like seeing a god and still with teary eyes holding back tears when he saw Elio's figure from the tree hole.

"Huuaa.. big brother." The child cried instead. He thought he would meet the terrible fate of being captured by monsters.

"Yosshh... it's okay." Elio tried to calm the boy down. "Come out quickly."

Elio helped the boy out of the hole by pulling his hand gently.

When he came out, Elio immediately checked the young boy's information with the System.

[System Window]

[Name: Drest]

[Ages: 11]

[Race: Human]

[Level: 11]

"Hey, kid, what's your name?" Elio said to the boy,

"My name is Drest, big brother." The child slowly began to wipe his tears

"Okay, Drest, what are you doing in a forest full of monsters like this?" Elio asked again with a soft voice.

"Drest was looking for firewood around the entrance of the forest." Drest began to recount his experience. "But I don't know why a group of goblins was at the forest's entrance. In the end, Drest tried to escape and got lost here."

Elio began to think for a moment. "In the entrance of the forest? Since I came to this world, I don't know where the forest entrance was?"

"Maybe I'll try to check tomorrow." Elio thought in his heart

"Okay, it's getting dark, so why doesn't Drest stay at big brother's?" Elio got on his knees and pat Drest's head.

"Uhm..." Drest said in agreement

Elio led Drest to his place in the forest.

It was already quite dark when they reached Elio's place. Elio prepared an old lamp and quickly lit it with his blue flame.

Drest, who saw that, was astonished. "Big brother, are you an adventurer?"

Elio immediately hung up his old lamp and responded. "Adventurer?" He looked at Drest with a somewhat puzzled face.

"Yes, since big brother can use magic, big brother must be an adventurer," Drest explained.

"Big brother Hakan told me," Drest said with a proud look.

"Oh yeah, I don't know big brother's name yet." Drest continued and asked.

"Just call me Elio," He replied

"'Aye, big brother Elio." With a hand gesture showing a saluted posture, Drest answered Elio.

"Gruug.."

"Ehehe.. big brother Elio does big brother have anything to eat?" Drest was a little embarrassed after he saluted, but instead, his stomach made a hungry sound.

"Here's some spare meat I had for lunch earlier." Elio picked up a food bowl from the wooden table near him.

"Yaayy, thanks, big brother." Drest immediately ate the meat.

"Alright, time to check the system status. System window open" Elio immediately opened the system information. "I haven't had a chance to look at it in detail before."

[System Window]

[System Level: 0]

[Host: Elio Vukan]

[Age: 15]

[Race: Human]

[Level: 105]

[Skill: One Heart Flame]

[Magic Item: Ring of Aura Concealment.

[System Points: 92]

"Oh, it turns out that my level has reached 105. Earlier, I only saw the notif reaching level 100." Elio, who was paying close attention to his status in the System, suddenly remembered something.

"Oh yeah, I got a notification about Item Mall," Elio immediately asked the System. "System, what is Item Mall?"

[Item Mall is a menu for hosts if you want to buy equipment or weapons using the point system]

"Oh, that sounds like a marketplace to buy and sell things, right? Elio's response,

"System open Item Mall." Elio immediately opened the Item Mall menu to see what weapons were there.

Once the Item Mall was opened, several pieces of equipment and weapons were inside. There are swords, spears, daggers, and many other kinds. But once you look at the price, it turns out that the cheapest item in the Item Mall is 25 system points.

"Damn, it's quite expensive. Well, maybe tomorrow I'll try further new features of this System." Elio decided not to buy it now because of the hefty price.

Elio left the Item Mall menu, and this time his attention was drawn to the bottom of the system panel.

"Is this box a collection of notifications?" Elio saw a menu labeled notifications at the bottom of the system screen.

Elio tapped on that menu, and there were several notifications that he still needed to view.

[Congratulations, Host, for killing an exotic monster, rewarded 10 system points]

"Huh... 10 points? Exotic monsters?" said Elio wonderingly. "Heyy, System, what does this mean?"

[Exotic monsters are types of monsters that have the bloodline of an ancient monster]

[Every exotic monster killed by the Host will be awarded 10 system points]

"Oh, I see," Elio responded

[Ding]

[Host received a Path Mission]

[Kill 4 exotic monsters of different monster species 1/4]

"Oh, it's a new mission from the System. Then I'll try to check the details tomorrow." Elio tried to ignore the mission box notification from the System and tried to check other notification messages that he had not opened.

[Host obtained Swordsmanship skill for killing exotic monsters]

"Oh yeah, finally, a skill related to martial arts!" Elio was happy that he finally had another skill besides One Heart Flame.

In his view, One Heart Flame's skill was too flashy with its blue-colored flames and not ideal enough for close combat with a fast and agile opponent. At least for now, One Heart Flame can only become his trump card.

After checking all the notifications that he had not opened in the System, Elio looked at Drest, who had fallen asleep after he had eaten earlier. The boy seemed to run out of energy after a hard day.

After that, Elio also prepared to rest the next day to accompany Drest to the forest entrance.

…

….

*The next day

The System showed a strange message when Elio wanted to leave the Black Forest.

[Warning!]

[The Host shouldn't get out of the Black Forest, or the Host will die!]

"What...?" Suddenly the System's transparent screen appeared in front of Elio. Instead of blue, this time, the System's transparent screen was red!