- Except from the textbook "The Science and Methodology Of The System", quote by Director Jonathan Ryan of The United New Earth Armed Forces.
Waking up in a forest isn't something one commonly does, which makes John doing it twice in a day some sort of achievement in John's mind. Luckily not being gnawed on, John awoke to a sunset. Or at least he assumed it was a sunset, and considering he didn't feel particularly well rested, he was probably correct on that count. He also noted that the direction he was walking was not north as long as the sun was still setting in the west.
Brushing himself off, he first noted that the previously bleeding arm had seemingly healed much faster than was possible. It was still clearly damaged, but sounds like that don't just scab over in an afternoon as his did. 'Did the healing from the mana have some kind of residual effect or do wounds just… do that now?' he thought to himself. He pulled up his status screen to see if it has any clues
'Well that isn't very useful in this particular situation. Could I get some more in-depth information?'
'Well that's definitely better. Thanks, incompatible neural network. You're very welcome, incompatible neural network.' John thought to himself. Cutting the self-aggrandizement short, he studied his stat sheet for something to explain why he would have healed so quickly, and soon found his answer.
That explained why he had healed so quickly as well as the missing pain in his abdomen that he just noticed. The slash on his side had healed almost fully in the time he had been asleep. 'I had better use this buff while I have the chance. At the very least use it to make some sort of progress in surviving'
John quickly settled on trying to find some people in this forest before the buff was up. He walked while yelling out for people in the vicinity, and he got a response relatively quickly. Walking towards the person who responded to his shouts, the sound seemed to only get farther away even though he swore he heard the person getting closer. Pushing on, he nearly bumped into the horrible being - the monster - he had apparently been walking towards.
A demonic bat looking man had rounded a tree directly in front of John, letting out a horrible screech, mirroring John's own horrified scream. John immediately attempted to get away to little success, as the wakwak appeared just as bloodthirsty as the gremlin before it. Deciding he was getting nowhere, and seeing no other way out of it, John came up with a plan. It wasn't the most complicated plan, but there was beauty in simplicity.
Stolen story; please report.
Running between trees to throw off the wakwak's rhythm, John increased the distance between him and his enemy slowly. Once he decided he had enough of a lead, he entered the first clearing he saw and made his stand. Planting his feet and looking for a weak point on the wakwak as it approached, John sent a portion of mana into his fist and readied to punch the demon in the eye, a presumed weak point, using its momentum against it. Yes, it was the same strategy he used on the gremlin, there's not a lot of strategies an unarmed man can do, but at least this time he had titles to enhance this particular strategy. The punch landed with a small shockwave, destroying the eye, the brain behind it, and a couple of bones in his hand. Not that it mattered, as the now brainless wakwak wasn't going to be doing much fighting.
'Man, I'm getting good at this. I didn't even flinch at the blue screens this time! Kinda shitty conversion from charged Attack, but it'll probably get better.' John thought as he surveyed the scene. The now-dead wakwak was a hideous creature, some man bat hybrid from the bowels of hell, and yet here it was in the flesh. 'Wait, hell? Where did I see something like that recently… the first notifications!' With a thought, he brought up the notification from when he first woke up and focused in on the section about the tutorial.
'Well shit. Why did I have to be flung into a literal hell difficulty tutorial? I didn't sign up for main character shit, system!' John thought, directing his anger at the blue box ahead of him. Letting the anger pass, John brought up his status again, and, sure enough, there were 48 free points there, waiting for his assignment.
'Okay that spread seems good to me. Even foundation to build on, can't really go wrong with that.'
Yes'
'Yes, damn it!'
The moment John finished thinking his second confirmation, his mind and body felt flooded with power. So much power, than he fell to his knees in a combination of agony and pleasure. His muscles, bones, the very fibers of his being felt like it was getting an upgrade, like going from flesh to steel. The process simultaneously felt horrible and wonderful. Then, all at once, it stopped. On his knees, John inspected his gains. His flesh, which had felt like steel during the process, once again felt like flesh. An attempt to bite his cuticles, however, revealed a different story. It felt like trying to bite through a particularly hardy piece of well done meat, not wanting to be split. He expected this to be the case for all of his skin, though he couldn't be sure without testing it, which he wasn't exactly thrilled to attempt as that required taking hits. Assuming 10 is base human, he definitely feels like he could be twice that, especially in thinking speed. John felt like he could do almost anything in the confines of his mind.
Returning to his previous mission of trying to find people, he continued his walk through the forest, yelling for anyone nearby.