Armed with a myriad of pebbles, Michael felt that they wouldn’t be very effective when the rain was obscuring his view, and the wind-speeds were so high. He continued to wander aimlessly, across the seemingly endless, muddy, grasslands, until he felt a sharp pain in his right leg and fell to the ground.

As he yelled “Shit, fuck, damn it, arg!” he noticed that from the knee down was completely mutilated. There were several sharp bones sticking out of his skin, and a massive amount of blood was being lost: along with fifteen Health-points.

Then he saw the tiny, brown, armadillo that had rammed into him. It had a ridiculous Health-pool of thirty, and was a level-three, rank ‘F’ monster; he had accidentally entered a more dangerous zone.

Michael threw a pebble at the creature, while laying on the ground, but it only did a single point of damage. He started laughing hysterically, and promptly bled to death; when the little critter cracked his skull open and devoured his mana-core, nothing happened.

It didn’t level up or evolve, which caused him to wonder “I suppose humans are probably considered rank ‘F’ then, huh? Heh, I guess that means I need to find a rank ‘E’ monster to evolve…” He had to wait for twenty minutes, before the armadillo finished nibbling at his corpse, so that he could respawn.

However, the moment his new body formed, he received a notification: “Title Earned: The Immortal. You have died seven times, and your spirit still hasn’t dissipated: Willpower and Luck have each increased by seven.” Both of those stats could not be improved using stat-points, and considering that he was up to fourteen in each, he had reached a realm that surpassed what the majority of beings in that world could achieve.

Michael snickered and muttered “It says that luck affects RNG, but does that make mine really high or ridiculously low? Willpower influences my magic resistance, but it doesn’t tell me how much… speaking of magic, I wonder how that works?” Typically, learning or creating spells requires extensive research, plenty of training, and a calm, safe environment to practice in; he didn’t have any of those things, because if he stayed in one place for too long, a group of ferocious animals would be attracted to his mana-core.

He reached down and shoved his half-eaten corpse into bag-slot one, then started to carefully walk to the north: though he himself had no idea where he was going. During the storm, most of the rabbits and other critters that he was trying to find, were a lot less active; it took him nearly an hour to just find two brown field-mice and three white-bunnies.

Michael didn’t receive any injuries, because he made sure to use his high-pitched, deafening spell, whenever he suspected that there were enemies near him. Then, when he finally found another level-one rat, the moment he stomped on its head, he received a message that said “Congratulations, you have reached level three.” in a monotonous feminine voice.

His status-screen automatically opened up, as he shoved the carcass into his inventory. Just like the time before, he placed a stat-point in Vitality and Endurance, to increase his survivability.

[Player Information

Name: Michael
Titles: The Nudist, The Noob, The Immortal
Level: 3
Experience: 0/30
Age: Adult
Class: None
Specialization: None
Profession: Unemployed]

[Stats

Health: 30/30
Mana: 15/15
Stamina: 15/15
Mana Regen per minute: 20
Health Regen per hour: 30

Strength: 3
Vitality: 3
Endurance: 3
Dexterity: 3
Agility: 1.5
Intelligence: 3
Wisdom: 2
Perception: 1
Charisma: 1

Willpower: 14
Luck: 14
Aura: 1.1

Attack Rating: 15
Defense Rating: 1.5]

[Passives

Resist Paralysis Level 1: Resists level-one paralysis spells and abilities.

Immune System Boost Level 1: Resists level-one infectious diseases and illnesses.]

Aside from the numerical difference, he didn’t actually feel much of a change in his body; his muscles didn’t get any bulkier, and even his skin-tone remained an extraordinarily pale white. To test whether or not he was actually any more durable than before, Michael allowed himself to be headbutted in the chest by a level-one, white-rabbit.

Since he was prepared for it, and even flexed his relatively large pectoral muscles, the attack actually did more damage to the bunny, than to him. Its neck was broken, and it had a paralyzed status, as it lifelessly fell to the ground, but all that happened to him, was a light bruise; his health dropped to 27/30, and he did cough a few times, before picking up the dying critter.

Without waiting for it to lose the remaining hit-point, Michael quickly tried to shove it into bag-slot four. However, nothing happened, so he tried number six and received a red message: “Unable to store creatures with active mana-cores in the extra-dimensional bag-space; would you like to utilize the extra-dimensional prison?”

Unfortunately, before he could answer, the rabbit succumbed to its injuries, and he wasn’t able to test it out. Sighing dramatically, he placed it along with the other carcasses, and continued walking northward at a slow, but steady pace.

After a few minutes, he noticed that the storm was almost completely gone. Although, since it was nighttime, and still very cloudy, the visibility wasn’t any better than before. Michael also realized that he couldn’t see or hear any more monsters; as he continued in the same direction, the grass was getting a lot shorter.

Every now and then, he would step on a sharp rock and yell “Oh for fuck’s sake!” or “Damn it, arg, ugh, ow!” before picking them up and shoving them into his bag indiscriminately. Unlike the corpses and carcasses, which were organized individually and could be specifically removed, slot-six just said “Small Jagged Rocks: 21 lbs.” without any other information.

He kept walking until his health and stamina were both less than ten percent, but finally collapsed onto the muddy ground and lost consciousness. Since he was laying sideways, he didn’t suffocate, and there weren’t even any carnivorous rabbits in the vicinity to devour his defenseless body; for the first time since being brought into that mysterious world, Michael had finally fallen asleep.

A pitch-black wisp separated from his corporeal form, and started freely flying into the sky. Once it reached a height of about two-miles, a thin wire appeared, and glowed bright-white; he could no longer move any farther away from his ‘active’ mana-core.

Instead of dreaming, he could only float around, experiencing time as if it was passing several times faster than normal. When the clouds were gone, a beautiful, blue, crescent moon could be easily seen.

Compared to his physical body, as a spirit, Michael’s vision was far greater. With such a ridiculous altitude, it was easy for him to scan most of the massive grassland around him, and he even saw forests, rivers, lakes, and mountains in the distance.

There were also colossal monstrous creatures, most of which were fighting against each-other. He snickered, while muttering “I guess those must be Bosses, huh? Since they aren’t that far away from the level-one zone, they probably aren’t that powerful though. It seems like… a couple thousand little horned rabbits are fighting against a gigantic snake, and actually winning. That thing has to be at least a twenty-meters long, so it’s gotta be ‘D’ or ‘C’ rank… probably. Sigh, I guess I can only see their names and other information when I’m up close.”

Since he didn’t have anything better to do, Michael casually watched the chaotic battles. Then he heard a distant, high-pitched voice, saying “Oi, Human… guess he’s a heavy sleeper. Okay, quickly tie the fucker up; even if he’s unarmed and naked, don’t take any chances.”

By the time he returned to his body, he saw a group of three, four-foot tall, dark-green skinned people; each of them was wearing a set of roughly-made, hide and leather armor. One was a woman, with a slender figure, very large, bright-blue eyes, and short, but pointed, elven ears; the other two were men, with a decent amount of facial hair, and similarly small frames.

He snickered and murmured “Goblins, huh? Guess they aren’t the ugly, semi-intelligent, serial-rapist kind… that girl is kinda cute too. Although, judging by how vicious the bunnies were…” All three of them had daggers attached to their belts, and small satchels on their backs.

As soon as they finished using strips of leather to bind his hands and feet, the woman smirked and commanded “Carry him back to the village carefully! He needs to be alive!” Then she whispered “It seems like I’ll finally be able to evolve…”

Next Chapter!