He slowly began to wake up to the sound of small claws scratching against wood. As beams of light filtered through the darkness, he made a great effort to open his eyelids while his blurry vision gradually cleared. Fighting against the throbbing in his head, he touched his temples with trembling fingers.
"My head..."
Looking at the body lying on the ground, he saw the Alpha Wolf crushed under large stones. The massive column pieces had crushed what was once the most terrifying creature in the forest. By chance, the falling stones had missed Boran's leg by inches - if they had fallen slightly more to the right, he would have shared the same fate as the Wolf. Trembling and struggling, he supported himself by holding onto the surrounding rocks. When he tried to stand up, his legs were still weak, his balance unsteady. After taking a few steps, he stumbled, almost falling again.
"I'm alive... I won!" he shouted, raising his trembling hands into the air. "I feel like all my bones are broken, but I'm still alive!"
He leaned against the wall he had built, which was scratched by the rats. Looking down at the ground, he saw a notification.
[Level up.]
He smirked slightly and pressed "Continue." A new window opened.
[New Level: 2]
[+20 Maximum Health]
[+10 Maximum Mana]
[Remaining Skill Points: 1]
[Remaining Stat Points: 3]
"Great, I can choose a new skill."
He thoroughly examined the skills and chose what would be most useful to him.
[Arrow Deflection]
Type: Passive - Physical Reflection
Cooldown: 60 seconds
Description: Once every 60 seconds, completely blocks an incoming ranged arrow attack.
"Overall, this is what will work best for me. I haven't seen anyone who can make ranged attacks yet, but I'm almost certain they'll appear in later dungeons. Ranged creatures were always the most troublesome in games. Now, let's get to the stat points."
"I don't want to put points into anything except Endurance. None of my other stats have a good effect on my abilities except Endurance. Strength barely has any effect. I don't want to put points into Charisma since I don't know the limits of my taunt ability."
[Strength*] : 2
[Agility*] : 2
[Endurance**] : 23
[Focus] : 0
[Perception*] : 2
[Charisma*] : 2
After distributing the points, a new notification appeared.
[Passive ability gained]
[Fear Resistance]
Type: Passive - Debuff Negation
Level: 1
Description: Provides complete immunity to level 1 fear effects.
[Earned Title: Big Bad Wolf]
[Properties:
+10 Endurance -10% damage taken from Bosses +1 Taunt ability
[Reason: Kill the Alpha Wolf in the Misty Ruins alone. You cannot earn this again if you've already killed the Alpha Wolf.]
[Description: "Monsters travel in packs, humans in groups. But some... walk alone. You are one of those rare walkers.]
"So I earned a title for killing the Alpha Wolf alone. And Fear Resistance must have come from killing the Wolf too. I should equip the title, its properties look very powerful," he said and pressed "Equip."
[System Update Completed.]
[System has been updated based on your settings, bugs have been fixed.]
["Show Character Panel" command will give you access to the Character Panel.]
"Show character panel."
He sighed as a screen opened before him.
"Finally I can access everything! My stats, abilities, inventory, health points, mana... everything's here."
He opened his inventory and looked at his shield, the only equipped item.
[Wooden Shield]
[Durability 0]
[SAP 10]
"What is this? It's completely worthless... Now I understand what Kowalski meant when he said 'make do with it.'"
There was another item next to the shield. When he pressed on it, he saw it read "Boss Chest."
"So a chest dropped from the Alpha Wolf too. If it gives me a good shield, that would be really helpful."
He pressed on the chest and said "Open." As soon as he pressed it, a chest appeared in front of his feet. He bent down and opened the chest. He saw two items inside, picked up the first one.
[Starter Bracers]
[Durability 5]
[Maximum HP 5]
[Bracers piece of the Starter Set]
He looked at his left arm where the Wolf had bitten him. Although the wound appeared almost completely healed, the scar was still there. He lightly touched it with his fingers.
"Every scar on my body will be an achievement, a reminder. It will show me what I've been through and how far I've come."
When he pressed the Equip button, the bracers instantly materialized on his arms. He bent down and took out the other item. It looked like a triangular piece of metal. He turned it around but couldn't figure out what it was. Then a notification appeared.
[Shield] [Evolution Points Remaining: 1]
"A shield and evolution points? Let's see what this is about."
When he pressed the "Evolve" button, a holographic window appeared before him. Hundreds of small nodes emerged from the large central node, connecting to form a complex network. He pressed the only node that was unlocked in the center.
[Wooden Shield]
[Durability 15]
[Maximum HP +20]
"Still a wooden shield but much better than the previous one. I guess I can evolve it as I level up. This means it will get even stronger... What a great feature! If I only need to develop this shield, that would be perfect. I won't have to worry about constantly searching for new shields. I hope the same applies to armor later on."
[Maximum HP: 152(+78)]
[Maximum Mana: 70 (+10)]
[Physical Resistance: 0]
[Magical Resistance: 0]
[Slow Resistance: 20%]
"Why are my resistances 0? Shouldn't they be higher since I'm a tank? Well, they'll surely increase later."
[Level 2]
[XP needed for next level: 120]
"So I need to kill 12 more rats to reach level 3... I wonder how much XP the Alpha Wolf gave?" He looked at the bottom right of the screen. The "Emergency Exit" button was there. But he shook his head. "I'll leave after reaching level 3. That way I'll be completely done with this dungeon."