A/N: Please Respond to the note at the bottom in comments.
With all his skills and equipment in order, Faust moved to challenge [Mind's Forest].
Reaching the forest was easy with his minimap in the corner of his eye. His cloak's movement skill "Journey's Wind" also made him slighter faster when travelling. And with his ridiculous Constitution and Agility, an all out sprint for almost ten minutes didn't tire him out.
It was actually jarring.
Standing at the edge of the forest, Faust flexed his calves and rubbed his glutes but didn't feel even the faintest sign of soreness. If he had this all those years he tried juggle running track and playing football his life would have been so much better.
He stretched a bit before he casually walked into the forest.
Then froze when the world transformed around him.
Morning instantly died into night. An army of stars dotted the sky and Faust found them strangely menacing.
Son of a…. That's so weird. But it's not all bad I guess.
His white cloak didn't stand out as much as he expected in the sudden darkness. The material seemed to absorb the black.
And Stealth was at home in this place. The forest floor was instantly highlighted cleanly, showing Faust how to move to avoid detection.
With a small smile, he dove into the forest. His body was light and incredibly fast. His causal jumps carried him across meters, allowing him to climb trees and jump between branches like a squirrel.
It didn't take long for Stealth to highlight something in his vision. A red arrow blinked on his left. Faust reached out and grabbed a branch, spinning off it to launch himself back to the ground for style points.
Staying low he circled the enemy and waited for it to arrive.
It was a dark furred creature well hidden in the darkness, short and dog-like, and wielding a crude cutlass.
A kobold?
[Kobold]
[Level: 3]
[Combat Power: 211]
[Details: Fast, deadly and smart. They have no special skills but they love collecting rare minerals which they throw at enemies.]
Hmmm… not very scary. Kobold's are cool though, nice to see them. They're like my third favourite monsters after Basiliks and Death Knights.
Okay that's fake love, but Kobolds are cool.
Faust waited for his beloved monster to get closer before pouring acid over its face.
"KREEI!"
The monster lashed out in pain swinging its cutlass recklessly as it stumbled backward. Faust lipped behind it and put the monster in a full nelson, before activating Attribute Drain.
[You have gained 2 point of Strength]
[You have gained 2 points of agility]
The monster drove the back of its head into his nose and escaped his lock. Heat rushed through his nose, but it was dull and weaker than he expected. Faust had to quickly drop down as it blindly slashed at him.
He pushed from that low position and stabbed the Kobold's throat.
[You have killed "Small Kobold" and gained 15 experience points.]
[Rewards have been placed in your equipped Spatial Bag.]
He glanced at the rewards but it was just Origin Coins and a core. The good loot didn't come till he killed more.
Fifteen exp was good though. He did some quick math and he only needed to kill thirteen more enemies to reach level 4.
Faust turned deeper into the forest, blending into the shadows and moving quickly.
Kobolds were interesting. Each of them was surprisingly smart, fast as hell and decent at fighting. They exploited the surroundings and even sensed Faust first on some occasions, dodging his acid shot.
But Faust wasn't a newcomer to fighting. He had participated in every combat sport provided in his school by the time he was thirteen, and travelled around the world to participate in prestigious tournaments afterwards.
A Kobold dashed between the trees to confuse him, so fast its figure blurred slightly. It lashed out with its cutlass, but Faust chuckled.
He deflected the cutlass and threw a side kick that cracked the Kobold's ribs. The creature gasped, blood pouring from its mouth.
His dagger flashed twice; faster than the Kobold could react. The attacks slashed through the tendons in its sword arm and ripped a blood gash across its already broken ribs.
He cut a vein so the Kobold was bleeding out fast. Faust crouched down and activated both Blood Regeneration and Attribute Drain. He sank his teeth into the Kobold's neck and drew the realism out of its body. The two skills worked together to increase their absorption speed.
[You have gained 2 points of Strength]
[You have gained 2 points of Agility]
[You have gained 1 point of Constitution]
[You have killed "Small Kobold" and gained 15 experience points.]
[Rewards have been placed in your equipped Spatial Bag.]
His blood stores had been rejuvenated and Faust rose to return to the hunt the system suddenly chimed.
Ding!
[Agility: 98 > 100 (+15)]
[You have gained a new skill "Dash Lv1."]
"Wait! we gain skills when an attribute passes 100? Why didn't I get anything for Constitution then?!"
[Dash Lv1 (Bronze): Increase speed by 50% for five seconds. Cooldown: 5 seconds.]
Holy shit, this is so good. I can basically just speed blitz anything too slow. Why did I not get anything for Constitution? A skill that buffs my already insane defences would be generational.
Annoyance aside, Faust guessed this might be a random thing, you either get it or don't. He glanced at his status and winced.
Maybe it was time to start focusing on Strength and Spirit. Spirit was lacking behind a lot, but Strength was around 50 points away from 100. If he got a skill for either of them it was amazing, but he definitely wanted a skill for Spirit. Projectile magic would improve his options.
He returned to the forest to hunt new enemies. Small fast creatures ruled the dark.
But he found a particularly terrifying enemy not long after. They came at Faust so quickly and in such great numbers that he jumped up a tree instinctively.
Are those spiders?!
They were made from black rock-like material with eight blood red glowing eyes. Each was a bit bigger than his hand, but there were so many the forest floor turned into a writhing black mass.
They swarmed the tree he escaped up, chasing after him with chittering sounds.
[Rock spider]
[Level: 3]
[Combat Power: 150]
[Details: They come in swarms controlled by a single Velvet Arachne. Deady but fragile.]
Right now the only wide range attack he had was Acid Shot and the stone like nature of the monsters made Faust doubt the skill would be able to hurt these creatures.
That didn't stop him from trying though.
Mid-climb, he turned and released a jet of blue vaporous acid into the air, blanketing the rapidly approaching spiders.
It didn't destroy them, but it made the tree slippery, slowing them down while Faust ascended.
With that he extended his Tether, sticking it to the top of the tree and retracted it. He was pulled up the tree quickly, leaving the spiders behind.
Swinging from tree to tree, Faust felt the tension fade for excitement. He felt like a certain friendly neighborhood hero. He was alive for now.
The fact of the matter was still that he couldn't beat those spiders without a large area of effect attack. Or by finding and killing the Velvet Arachne.
A/N: I need your opinion for choosing the Mc's game name.
My ideas now are:
A. Red_God (based on Mars the Roman god of war)
B. Cheerful_Challenger (Just a simpler pick)
C. 2EZ (Faust's favorite game ID)
D. Suggestions from readers
Please drop an answer in the comments. I need it before he reaches level 5.