2 LRRH
After a blinding light, I find myself a bit disoriented and on the outskirts of a small medieval village. I'm facing a stone house with a wooden walls and a straw roof. It seems to be early Autumn and at this moment I realize my clothes not only look out of place, but are not created for this kind of terrain. Thankfully, I don't feel cold, my trusty brown fake leather jacket keeps the warm in.
The next moment the door of the house opens and a 7 to 8-year-old girl, wearing a red hoody and holding a basket exits it. After a few words with, I presume, her mother, she heads off towards the woods.
'Amazing, the teleportation placed me right in front of her house.'
Looking at the little girl vanish between the trees, I wonder to myself how to approach this. Considering the woods are infested with dangerous animals, should I just trail behind her, let her meet the wolf and try to take care of it, or think of a lie, probably by saying I'm going to pick berries, and join her. With my presence, I could make her take a wrong turn and complete the "kidnap" quest, then by following my map we could bypass the wolf and arrive at her grandma's house. The only issue with the second option is that this way I wouldn't take care of the wolf. So with no other options, I choose both, I move towards the path leading to the forest and move to the bushes, creeping a good 30 meters behind her.
'Damn from an outside perspective this would look so bad.'
Slowly following her, I keep my attention on my feet and try to keep the noise to a minimum. As time passes the soundless walking becomes easier and easier, it almost felt like something was guiding me on how to make less noise. For the heck of it, I check my system and notice 2 skills [Sneak], [Muted Steps]. Cursing under my breath for not realizing it earlier.
'Yea, the next thing I get will be the Notification System. It was dirt cheap, but I had other priorities.'
Focusing on the skills I'm greeted with their general descriptions. And that reminds me about the other systems I'll have to get asap: The Skill and Spell Leveling systems. I grumble as I check the messages.
[Sneak LVL:1/100 (Cannot Level)]
- Decreases the chance of being spotted by 1%/LVL
[Muted Steps LVL:1/100 (Cannot Level)]
- Decreases the chance of being heard while sneaking by 1%/LVL
Now that doesn't seem like a lot, but it is still better than nothing, I almost feel like a stalker right now. With that thought, I check if I miraculously gained a stealth-related title, but I was not so lucky.
After following the girl for about ten minutes, we get to a clearing. Not far away the bushes shake and a wolf slowly moves out of them. The girl frozen in place by fear stands barely a few meters away from him. I circle around and move towards the wolf's back, while still hiding behind random shrubbery. My heart is pounding as crazy I try to keep my breathing steady, but failing at it horribly.
'Why did I think attacking a wolf was a good idea?' I mentally ask myself while slightly panicking as I slowly creep on it from behind. My steps freeze just a moment before I step out of the bush, and the wolf starts talking in heavily accented German.
"What are you doing out here, little girl?" Asked the wolf.
"Eeek!!" Startled by the gruff voice of the beast, starts violently shaking, her eyes go wide as she replies. "I-I-I'm on...on... on my way to my g-g-grandma." She answers him while barely forming a coherent sentence. Then she realizes her mother told her not to talk to strangers and hurriedly steps backwards. "I should be going. My grandma is waiting." She turns around and was about to walk away, but this is not a fairy tale, turning your back on a hungry wild animal, especially an intelligent one, is never a good idea. The wolf's leg bent and with surprising swiftness jumped on her back, knocking her off her legs. A scream follows, waking me up from my stupor. Just as the wolf was about to bite into her neck, I jump out of the bush, and scream. The wolf now alerted of my presence jumps off the girls back and takes up a defensive stance. It growls at me, baring its fangs, and prepares another lunge, but this time with me as its target.
'Shit. Why did I think this was a good idea?' I stand before the beast with my knees trembling, and the knife resting in my hands.
It lunges, and I rise the knife. Sharp claws dig into my shoulders, and an open maw closes towards my face, I lose my footing as the knife enters the wolfs neck. A yelp of pain could be heard from the wolf, and the weight on me, vanishes. I quickly roll to the side, and stand up, keeping my eyes glued to the bleeding wolf.
"Awhoo!" It howls, just before lunging at me again, its claws extended in an attempt to shred me to pieces. I surprise myself with an unexpected dodge and a swift counter attack. As the wolf flies by, my arm with a knife swings to the side, opening a large gash on the wolfs side. It hits the ground hard, then attempts to stand up, but ultimately fails. My last cut must have severed an important muscle or a ligament. Stinging pain assaults me from my right hand, almost making me drop the knife.
Growling at me the wolf tried to stand, only to drag itself backwards, drawing a line of blood on the ground. Carefully creeping up to it, keeping away from its biting jaw, I plunge my knife into its head, and breaking it the process. The wolf's movements suddenly stop. Grimacing in pain, I look at my hand, my torn up jacket hides three parallel gashes from me. I carefully, pull up my sleeve and check my wounds, but thankfully they are not too deep. My focus is on my favorite, now, torn-up jacket.
'You will be missed.' I sigh and say a prayer to my trusty old friend.
I turn around to look at the girl still lying on the ground. Quickly running up to her, I check her vitals and find her still alive. Her red hoody and shirt were torn from the back, she has soiled herself and fainted, but she only suffered light scratches.
Picking up the girl in a princess carry I walk around the woods aimlessly, trying to complete the kidnapping quest. I laugh to myself, then proceed back and search for the road towards her grandma's house. To be honest, it wasn't hard to find and a few minutes later I find myself on a clear heavily walked path. At the end of it stood an old stone house, with smoke coming out of its chimney. Walking up to the door I lightly knock on it.
"Oh thank goodness dear! Come in, come in! I was worried sick that something had happened to you in the forest." said the Grandma before opening the door. But what she saw was not what she expected.
"Oh my god, what happened! Quickly bring her in!" Hurriedly she moved out of the way and let me in.
"She has a few scratches on her back, but she's alright. Thankfully, I was nearby when she was attacked by a wolf."
"There is a bed in the room to the left! Place her down there!" She said as I move into the room and place her down. "Now get out and stay in the hallway!" I bring my hand up defensively and walk out of the room. She slams the door and proceeds to check Little Red, while taking off her clothes.
A few minutes pass and the door opens, out comes the granny sizing me up.
"Okay mister, start explaining. Who are you and what happened to little Red?"
"Well, my name is Andrew, Andrew Thompson. While exploring the woods I heard a scream and ran towards it. There I found a wolf about to munch on a little girl. So I jumped in and saved her."
"With your bare hands?" she looks at me strangely.
"Of course not." I take out my broken, blood-covered knife and show it to her. "I used this, but unfortunately it broke in the fight. The attack happened not far away from here and I don't know the girl, so my only option was to try to find someone who knew her, I'd seen smoke not far away, so thinking I would find someone here, I carried her over." I lie to her
"Not a lot of people would jump in to save someone from a wolf." Still looking at me strangely. "You have a strange accent and your clothes are strange. Where are you from and what were you doing in the woods?"
"Oh, I'm an explorer, trying to find forgotten ruins all over the world. I'm from Britain, my team got attacked by bandits and I've been separated from them for a few hours now." I bullshit my way.
"Sure you did..." She rolls her eyes not believing my story. "Whoever you are and whatever you do doesn't matter to me, you saved my grandchild and I'll be forever in your debt."
"Oh, you're her granny? No need for all of that, I just did what I had to do. On a side note, some warm water to clean my wounds and a meal would be appreciated." I said with a smile.
"Sure no problem, I was already preparing lunch for Red and me, one more won't be a problem. Let me heat you some water."
She heads over to the kitchen and after a few minutes, she comes back with a cloth and some hot water. I start cleaning the wound on my hand and ask.
"So granny what's your name?" I say granny but she appears to be in her late thirties.
"Larisa... but everyone just calls me Granny." The last part was only murmured out.
"Ok Larisa, I've noticed you don't have a lot of firewood for winter and I don't like getting a free meal, so if you have an axe or a saw around, I'll get you some wood. Deal?"
"Too bad I don't, and you're not getting a free meal, you saved Red and that's enough to pay for meals for the rest of your life, but for that, you'll need to stay." She said with a wink.
"Haha, that sounds nice, but I'm needed somewhere else. You know, other fair maidens to save, dragons to slay, and other similar things." I say with a smile while cursing myself for rejecting an obvious invite.
"Pff... Yeah right." She turns away and heads back to the kitchen while swaying her hips. "Maybe my cooking will change your mind." She says while looking back and winking.
Accepting that I won't be finishing the wood-chopping quest, I have a lunch with the nice lady. We exchange some stories and I prepare to leave.
"While staying and enjoying your company sounds wonderful, I need to head out. Have a nice day Larisa." I say while walking towards the door.
"You can come by anytime you're around Andrew." She says while leaning on the frame of the door.
"Oh, you can expect me shortly." I wink and head out. "See you later!"
After walking for a few minutes, I jump into a bush look at the sky and mentally say 'Eject'.
The five-minute wait was pretty uneventful, I was cloud gazing and listening to the sounds of the forest. With a bright flash, I find myself in the library, still holding the Little Red Riding Hood book. Opening the system, I check my balance.
System Info:
Name: Andrew Thompson | Titles: None | Race: Human | Tier: 0
[Global LVL: 3 XP: 250/331]
[Class: Rogue LVL: 3/25 XP: 250/331]
Stats:
STR: 4
DEX: 8 => 11
AGI: 4 => 7
INT: 7
WIS: 9
Other:
Spells: [None]
Skills: *[Sneak 1] *[Muted Steps 1] *[Dodge 1] *[Small Blade Mastery 1] *[Deception 1]
[WP: 3,400]
Now that's strange I got two and a half levels and two skills for fighting the wolf. Then probably from lying to Larisa, I got the [Deception], and from fighting with the wolf I go [Small Blade Mastery] and [Dodge]. Focusing on the skills I'm greeted with a new window.
[Dodge LVL:1/100]
- Increases chances of dodging an attack by 0.3%/LVL
[Small Blade Mastery LVL:1/100]
- Increases damage done by small-bladed weapons by 5%/LVL
[Deception LVL:1/100]
- Increases the chance your lies will not be doubted by 0.5%/LVL
Not bad, but how did I end up with 3,400 WP, that's double what I was supposed to gain. Opening the book, I look at the quests again, three quests are now grayed out.
[Escort Red] Reward: 450 WP (2x)
[Get rid of the wolf] Reward: 750 WP (2x)
[Be the wolf] Reward: 500 WP (2x)
{Quest rewards doubled for completing them in a world a tier above you.}
'Cool, so it seems entering higher tier worlds grants me double the WP or at least a tier above worlds do. Wonder if the worlds two tiers higher grant four times more or is it the same? Would have been good to know beforehand. Okay, lets' go on a spending spree.'
The first one I bought was the Base from the Questing System tab.
[Quest System | Upgrade Name: Base| Description: Displays the World Quests and tracks their completion inside of a world. | Price: 150 WP]
It would allow me to track quest progression while inside the world. The next thing pretty high on my list is the Notification system from the System Tools tab and while I was there I got the System Log upgrade.
[System Tools | Upgrade Name: Notifications| Description: The user is notified whenever changes happen within the system. Fully customizable sound, actions, and display. | Price: 150 WP]
[System Tools | Upgrade Name: System Log| Description: Grants user the ability to look back at any changes to the system or himself. Logs everything the user wants from the moment the system is turned on. | Price: 100 WP]
That was followed by the Spell and Skill leveling systems.
[Spell System | Upgrade Name: Spell Leveling | Description: Allows the user's spells to accumulate additional power after continuous usage. | Price: 650 WP]
[Skill System| Upgrade Name: Skill Leveling| Description: Allows the user's skills to accumulate additional power after continuous usage. | Price: 650 WP]
With 1,700 still in my pocket, I made up my mind and bought these two upgrades.
[System Tools | Upgrade Name: Detection, Integration, Reproduction| Description: After detecting another system your current world, the user's system becomes undetectable. Any system element not found on the system upgrade list gets analyzed and added to the shop. Any attributes, skills, spells, abilities, classes, races, and titles gained from the other system are copied over to the main one and the user gains most of their benefits. The reproduction is not 1 to 1. | Price: 950 WP]
[System Tools | Upgrade Name: Language Comprehension| Description: Languages change from country to country, and the user is not expected to know them all, especially in a different world. With a few exceptions, namely, runic and other magical languages, the user gains the ability, after hearing people speak it, to talk, read and write said language. | Price: 600 WP]
They might not have a huge impact right now. But depending on the next world I choose they could help out. My only regret is not being able to buy an inventory. But as limited as my stats currently are, I would max get a single inventory slot from it. I'm planning on heading over to High School of the Dead but before that, I would love to get another system.
[System Tools | Upgrade Name: Immune System System| Description: The Multiverse is vast, and so are the types of diseases. After this purchase, your immune system blocks all types of viruses, bacteria, parasites, and other micro-organisms that are not native to the user's world. Doesn't block the effects of poison. | Price: 1,000 WP]
This one should probably stop me from zombifying. I have all my shots, so getting ill would be quite hard. That said, those shots are not for someone who's world-hopping. I really don't want to collect some kind of space, slash, multiversal HIV from breathing the same air as a random passerby. My Vitality stat would probably fight off any infection, but currently, it's not even unlocked... Sighing I start staring at the Index.
"I need a relatively easy world, where I could collect a few thousand WP and would not be in constant danger."
{Hmm} The book displays the texts and starts flipping itself going back and forth.
'Is it alive?' I wonder.
{By your definition of life, I'm not. I'm an artificial magical construct and before you ask yes, I can read your thoughts. Here, check this world out.} It suddenly stops flipping and shows me a world.
Sunny Day
World Tier: 1 (Low)
World Language: Garmsian
World Systems: None
Doomed: After a magical accident the mana of the world was changed and allows the birth of ordinary slimes anywhere on the surface of the planet without an end. As slimes can consume anything, the civilization of the planet fought a losing war against them. Without a source of water and food, 99.9% of the population of the planet died off in the first six months of the slimepocalipse.
"I don't recognize this world. Is it from another world's literature?"
{Yes. One of Garmsa Prime's literature.} Index replies.
"Still I only have a knife, that's broken in half, I don't think I can really kill slimes."
{These slimes can be killed in one hit. You shouldn't have a problem with them.}
"Ok, can the environment sustain me?"
{Atmosphere composition almost completely matches Earth Prime's atmosphere. The world currently doesn't have any water and flora and fauna were stripped from the planet. The planet is currently in mid-spring. Temperature varies from location to location.}
"Okay, get me the book. I want to check the quests."
With a plop, a book materializes on the pedestal. Opening it I find the quest page. Surprisingly it's not all killing quests.
Optional Quests:
[Kill Quest 1 | Description: Kill 0/1 slime. | Reward: 10 WP]
[Kill Quest 2 | Description: Kill 0/10 slime. | Reward: 40 WP]
[Kill Quest 3 | Description: Kill 0/100 slime. | Reward: 100 WP]
[Kill Quest 4 | Description: Kill 0/1,000 slime. | Reward: 220 WP]
[Kill Quest 5 | Description: Kill 0/10,000 slime. | Reward: 360 WP]
[Kill Quest 6 | Description: Kill 0/100,000 slime. | Reward: 520 WP]
[Kill Quest 7 | Description: Kill 0/1,000,000 slime. | Reward: 715 WP]
[Kill Quest 8 | Description: Kill 0/10,000,000 slime. | Reward: 950 WP]
[Kill Quest 9 | Description: Kill 0/100,000,000 slime. | Reward: 1,250 WP]
[Kill Quest 10 | Description: Kill 0/1,000,000,000 slime. | Reward: 1,600 WP]
[Fix the World | Description: Find the location of the magical experiment and fix the world. | Reward: 3,000 WP]
[Save the Population | Description: Find and save the remaining 0.01% of the population | Reward: 2,000 WP]
[Morph the Mana | Description: Slimes are weak creatures, force the world to summon stronger monsters. | Reward: 3,000 WP]
[Exterminate | Description: What a beautiful barren world. It would be a shame anything lived on it. | Reward: 5,000 WP]
"Again what's with those dark quests, it's like they want us to destroy worlds." Thinking about it, Rob did say we can do whatever we want in these worlds and no one would bat an eye at it. Sighing, I'll try to kill 1 million slimes. Considering this is a tier 1 world I'll get double the reward. First thing first, I'll head upstairs get a water bottle and pack some lunch.
