That’s true, I chuckled to myself silently.
“You have proved yourself a worthy ally of the forest, and for this brave act of yours, I reward you with a special gift.”
A screen opened in front of her and she tapped on it a few timws.
DING!
A prompt screen opened in front of me as well.
You have obtained new equipment: Forest Scimitars. Would you like to transfer this weapon to your Equipment Inventory?
Nice, I grinned as I tapped ‘Yes’.
“Is there anything else you require?”
“One thing,” I said almost immediately, already thinking of the obvious question. “I came to these woods hoping to find the closest city. Do you know of any such place?”
“Langsdale city,” she nodded. “It is a large city that is far off on the other side of these woods. I can assure you that you are on the right path to reach it.”
“Thank you,” I said.
Wait, my mind snapped. Maybe she can help me with my lost memory as well?
“What is it, Zoran?” she asked. “You seem to have something else you wish to ask of me.”
I paused for a moment, surprised that she’d caught that so quickly. For a second I wondered if this was actually a good idea, but decided to go along with it. “I do have an issue I could use assistance with,” I said. “I recently discovered that I have lost memory of who I used to be.”
“Ah,” she said, the inflection in her voice showing she was curious.
“I still retain my knowledge of the world, and yet have no knowledge of myself,” I said. “Is there anyway you can aid me in finding these lost memories of mine?”
“I shall take a look, if that is okay.”
“Certainly,” I said.
The nymph mother raised her staff, and a white hue radiated from it. I felt a gentle heat surround me for a second, disappearing as fast as it had arrived. She looked at me, a look of confusion on her face.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“There is a mysterious aura around you, Zoran,” she said. “I do not know what it is, but I am not comforted by it.”
What does that mean? I wondered. “Does it have something to do with my lost memories?” I asked, trying to gain as much information as I could.
“I am unsure,” she sighed. “As far as your memories go, I do not know what caused them to disappear,” she said. “We nymphs are good with healing magic, but whatever it is that caused this amnesia in you, it is not something that I can cure.”
“Ah,” I said, a little dejected.
“However,” she said. “Langsdale city will definitely have answers for you, whether it is about your memories, or the aura that I sensed. It has been many years since I set foot into that city, but I can assure you, it is a place that can help.”
“That is good to hear,” I said, feeling a little comforted that the answers to my questions were still possible to obtain.
“Is there anything else you require?” she asked.
“That is all the help I needed. I shall take your leave now.”
“It was a pleasure,” she smiled. “Be well, Zoran the human.”
I bowed. “Thank you, Mother.”
DING!
Congratulations! Your relationship with the Mother Nymph has changed from ‘Stranger’ to ‘Ally’. She will fight beside you with her life for as long as your visions and motivations align with each other.
Well that was unexpected, I chuckled.
The nymphs silently headed deeper into the forest, in the direction quite a ways from where I had to go. I smiled, a little amused that we were parting like this, but I knew it was natural for it to be so.
I thought about what the Mother had said, about this mysterious aura she sensed around me. I wondered what that could mean, my curiosity gaining hold of my thoughts and shaping them through.
DING!
You have obtained a quest: The mysteries of the Self! The Nymph mother has discovered a mysterious aura around you. Visit Langsdale City and see if you can find someone to help gain answers as to what it could be. Rewards: Unknown.
That’s an interesting quest, I thought, not really thinking too much about it otherwise. I knew the Ga’em gave away quests based on what one desired so this wasn’t really that big a surprise.
A sigh left my lips as I closed the screen and headed out my own way. The skies above me were still overcast, and the drizzle let on and off irregularly. The trees around me seemed much less scary now. It wasn’t like they’d been hostile before, but now that I’d spent some time in the nymphs’ presence, it almost felt like I was at ease within this forest.
Edge of the woods, I mentally plotted my destination and began walking.
I opened my Ga’em menu as I travelled and went into my Player menu. I tapped the Stats option, and my screen opened up. I immediately noticed a new entry below my stats data.
Unassigned Stat points: 24.
I grinned to myself. Twenty-four points was a hell lot of stat points. That battle with the Ogre had given me a ton of XP, mainly because of the level difference between me and the beast. I doubt I’d have gotten more than 8000 or 9000XP if I’d been around Level 10 or so when I took that monster down.
Then again, the only reason I even defeated that ogre was because of that spell I’d managed to summon, with no clue of how or why.
Maybe I can cast it again, I raised my hand into the air. “Levieris,” I said, wincing a bit in anticipation of the attack.
But nothing happened.
I stretched my hand out more. “Levieris,” I yelled, louder this time.
The only thing that replied was the wind.
Nothing, I sighed. That move worked before, when I was fighting the Ogre. Was it by pure chance? Was it maybe a one-time spell?
I should check my skills, I thought.
I navigated through my Player menu, shifting to my Skills sub-menu instead. The screen had the title ‘Skills’ at the top but below it was a table of data.
Skill Name
Level
Buffs
Analyze
Level 1 (9% to next level)
None
Tracking
Level 1 (5% to next level)
None
Ugh, I sighed. None of this helps explain that spell I cast.
A few seconds later, I decided to move on from that question and so opened my Stats screen again. I moved my gaze up to my stat numbers and noticed that there was now an arrow on the right side of all my stats except for Health, Mana and Stamina. I quickly recalled that those arrows were what one used to update a stat with their unassigned stat points.
I looked at my numbers, wondering what stat I should choose to invest my points into. I had to be careful though, because once a stat point was used, it was used permanently. There was no reassigning points or anything like that. I only had one shot at this.
I looked at all the different sections, thinking about the various possibilities before me. I felt like I knew what each stat was for, but I was a little uncertain whether my knowledge was right or not. I looked to the small icon in the bottom-right corner, a small circle with a tiny ‘i’ inside it.
An information icon, I thought to myself and tapped on it. A new screen popped up in front of me, this one populated with text.
Strength - Improves damage with all weapons. Affects anything that requires brawn. Other unknown effects to be discovered.
Agility - Improves accuracy with all weapons. Determines movement speed and evasion ability. Other unknown effects to be discovered.
Dexterity - Determines attack speed. Improves damage with all weapons. Improves accuracy of all weapons. Improves chances of landing a critical hit during battle. Other unknown effects to be discovered.
Constitution - Determines Health. Each point increases Health by 10 points. Affects Stamina regeneration. Other unknown effects to be discovered.
Endurance - Determines Stamina. Each point increa
ses Stamina by 10 points. Affects Health regeneration. Other unknown effects to be discovered.
Intelligence - Determines Mana. Each point increases Mana by 10 points. Affects strength of certain skills. Determines resistance to mental attacks. Other unknown effects to be discovered.
Wisdom - Determines Mana regeneration. Affects magical resistance. Determines strength of certain skills. Other unknown effects to be discovered.
Charisma - Determines the likelihood others will like you or want to interact with you. A high score may open certain quests that would otherwise be locked. Other unknown effects to be discovered.
Luck - Determines the likelihood of landing a critical hit during battle. Increases the likelihood of getting rarer item drops. Increases chance of a randomized event resulting in your favor. Other unknown effects to be discovered.
I realized immediately that the Health, Mana, and Stamina stats weren’t directly upgradable since their numbers were all determined by other stats. That was why they didn’t have any arrows next to their values either.
All these stats do exactly what I’d thought, I realized, feeling good that that part of my memory had proven itself to be dependable. I looked at all my numbers, thinking about what stats I needed to increase. I was a little confused on whether to go the mage path or the warrior path.
The warrior path seemed the safer one to pick at the moment since it was easier to start off as a warrior, and since I had a really good weapon in the Forest Scimitars that I could use as a warrior. My attacking options were murky if I tried to be a mage since I didn’t really know any magical Arts or spells for that matter. There was of course the one spell I used against the ogre, but that was as good as useless since I couldn’t replicate it.
I thought for another minute or two and decided to start off as a warrior. I was still pretty low levelled, so I could always switch the path I wanted to develop later one. Plus, it was always good to have a certain mix of possibilities as well, so that I could diverge paths later on depending on what I wanted.
I tapped on the arrows next to my stats and updated my warriors-centric stats, adding 5 to Constitution, 4 to Endurance, 8 to Strength and 7 to Agility.
Name
Zoran
Level
8 (27% to next level)
Health
10 →60
Mana
10
Stamina
10 → 50
Strength
3→11
Agility
4→11
Dexterity
2
Wisdom
3
Constitution
1→6
Intelligence
1
Endurance
1→5
Charisma
4
Luck
9
That felt good, I grinned to myself.
I tapped on the Health stat and a mini prompt opened up on top of the Stats screen.
Health Regeneration
0.2% per minute
That’s not too bad, I thought. I could regenerate 0.2% of my Health per minute on a regular basis, which meant that I could regain full health in about eight and a half hours. But if my health fully ran out though, I’d have to depend on just my Resurrection ability. That didn’t seem too bad a defensive strategy to fall on.
A drop of rain hit my face, and I looked up, noticing that the sky had now darkened to an ominous grey.
Yeah, it’s definitely going to pour now, I realized. The wind picked up as well, slithering through the forest with its chilling presence.
I turned back to my screen and opened up my Equipment Inventory, almost immediately noticing that the design of the screen had changed. There wasn’t an ‘Empty’ message written on it like before. Instead the section below the title was now split into a grid of small boxes. Miniature icons of my new equipment showed up on the grid, occupying the first three boxes.
I tapped on the club icon, and the weapon’s stat screen spawned next to it.
Title
Ogre Club
Grade
Zero Star
Damage
15-17 ATK
Rarity
Uncommon
Durability
30/30
Quality
Great
Special Effects
None
Value
800 Sol
There were two buttons at the bottom of the screen, with the words ‘Equip’ and ‘Close’ written in them.
I read through the screen’s data and was a tad confused about what any of the terms meant. I tried to focus and recall what each equipment stat referred to.
Name, damage and rarity were straightforward of course. Durability determined how long the weapon would last before it broke or needed to be repaired. Quality told one how well the weapon had been made in the first place.
Grade was a pretty complex thing though. All weapons and armor were split into different grades, from Zero Star all the way to Five Star. For each Star that a piece of equipment had, it would possess an added special effect that would activate during its use, like status afflictions and stat buffs.
Based on all of that the Ogre Club was pretty bad, but it was still better than having no weapon at all so I was fine with what I’d gotten.
I closed the screen and tapped on the Scimitars instead.
Title
Forest Scimitars
Grade
Two Stars
Damage
100-174 ATK
Rarity
Rare
Durability
10/10
Quality
Great
Special Effects
+5% chance of evading enemy attack
+50% attack in forest or woods
Value
120,000 Sol
WHOA, my eyes widened. I’d already expected the Scimitars to be valuable, but these things were crazy good! An evasion special ability was a hard thing to find in equipment and getting a 50% attack boost in forests and woods was amazing!
That worked out much better than I’d expected, I grinned, glad that I’d bargained with the nymph mother the way I had.
I hit ‘Accept’ on the weapon stat screen, agreeing to equip the weapon. A stream of glowing lights emerged from the prompt and floated over to my shoulders. The lights condensed and the weapon formed, two scabbards forming a cross on my back, a Scimitar held tight in each. I reached out to the handles and pulled out the blades.
The whoosh of metal sounded through the air as I brought the weapons forward. They were about the length of my arm and had strong silver blades with a certain bluish hue to them. Vines of green metal emerged from the top of their earth-brown hilts, wrapping around a small section of the bottom of the blade, as though a creeper was growing on the weapon base.
I smiled to myself, in awe of the craftsmanship of the weapon. The nymphs sure know what they’re doing, I thought as I put the Scimitars away, sliding them back into the scabbards on my back. I could feel their weight a bit, but it wasn’t anything that would hinder me in anyway.
A clap of thunder echoed through the sky, and I heard a river of rain pour down onto the trees. The branches and leaves above me however were extremely dense, so even though it was raining heavily, all I felt was a misty spray on my skin.
The scent of earth and mud spread through the air, sending a sense of calm radiating through me. A few minutes passed and I kept walking, not too keen on finding someplace to take shelter from the weather. My path soon began to incline and I trudged up it, excitement building within me. Am I near the edge? I wondered.
Half a minute later I looked up and noticed the route break off abruptly, ending in a plateau-like flatness. My feet picked up the pace and I climbed up to the very top, anticipation in my breath.
The wind rushed past me as I finally reached the top, my clothes fluttering in its wake. My eyes darted around, looking at
the landscape. This end of the forest was a wild cliff that dropped about two hundred yards below. I looked ahead, through the torrential rain that blocked my sight. I could make out the faint outline of a city on the horizon, probably about forty miles away or so.
Langsdale, I thought.
It was much farther than I’d expected, but at least I was in the right direction. I looked down and saw another patch of forest below me, this one more brown than green.
I took a few steps back and sat myself down, my back resting against a tree. Drops of rain shot down from the sky, like bullets of water. I closed my eyes and breathed in the air, feeling the life that flowed within it. The cold drops sprayed against my face, lacing my skin with their chilling touch.
I smiled to myself. There were still a ton of things left for me to do, and plenty of questions that’d been left unanswered. But at that very moment, in that cold rain, it felt like nothing else mattered, like I could simply lay back and let my problems go. And so, I just stayed still, living that very moment for as long as it would last.
***
CHAPTER FIVE
The rain finally broke hours later, when the sky began to darken and the Sun made its way back to the horizon. And as the cold droplets of water took their leave, the mysteries of my identity pricked my mind yet again. They nagged my thoughts, as if they were a parasitic virus hidden in my head.
The Eternal: Awakening - A LitRPG Saga (World of Ga'em Book 1) Page 4