Chapter 4 – First Real Fight

Sam jogged for half an hour, but yet the village of Willow was nowhere in sight. 

So he decided to walk instead, since running with a pendulum between his legs was not any more comfortable than running with two pendulums on his chest.

At least he felt more balanced now overall.

“I might as well give my other spells a try” he thought.

He pointed to a tree and yelled [Magic Missile]

*Whoosh* a silent glowing bolt shot from his hand and pierced through the tree, leaving a small hole but no remnant of the bolt.

He walked up to and touched the small hole in the tree. There wasn’t even any heat emanating from the hole. 

It was as if he shot a glowing bolt of air that does its damage, then vanishes without a trace.

“Hmmm. I remember the Magic Missile spell having auto-aim” he thought.

He walked back again and pointed his finger and yelled [Magic Missile] again. This time, he pointed somewhere else while concentrating on the same tree.

A bolt shot from his finger and curved in the air, landing back onto the same tree.

“A hah! Auto-aim!” he yelled in excitement.

“Nexus! How much manna does the spell use?” he asked.

[Manna? Unable to understand question]

“Unable to understand questions? You mean the spells don’t require manna, energy, chi or whatever?” he asked.

[Terms manna and chi does not compute. Spells are magic and thus require no energy]

“Huh? That means…..” he pondered, pointing at the tree.

[Magic Missile] he yelled and pointed both pointer fingers of both hands at the tree.

Numerous energy bolts shot out from both hands like roman candles at the tree and in seconds, the tree was destroyed.

“Fuck yeah!” he yelled. He looked at another tree and opened his hands out wide and extended all 5 fingers of each hand yelling [Magic Missile]

Bolts flew out of every finger endlessly in half second bursts that all curved in the air and landed on the second tree, completely shredding it to splinters.

“No manna usage. Unlimited magic! No wonder the [Heal] spell didn’t spend anything as well!” he said, his face grinning from ear to ear.

“Now what about my summoning familiar spell?” he asked the Nexus.

[Recommended that summoning be done after Level 2]

“Why?” he asked

[Summoning a new familiar will require you to drop one level. If you drop back to zero, you will be left with no spells again]

Stunned for a while, he nodded. “Finally, a spell with a cost. Can't get something for nothing. I suppose not everything is a hack. I can live with that”

“How many points till the next level?” he asked again

[Level 2 will require another 1365 points]

"Hmm. Extra 2000 points from previous per level up, correct?" he asked, remembering the cost to level up to level 1.

[Affirmative. The scale goes 2000 points for first level, 4000 points second level until 20000 points for level 10. Then it doubles. 24000 points level 11, 28000 points level 12 till 60000 points level 20. Then it's 72000 points for level 21...] 

"Ok. I get the picture. I'll focus on low level grinding first. I will worry about higher levelling up when I have more abilities" he said. 

Sam looked at the decimated tree and smiled. “This should be easy”

He continued down the road merrily killing rabbits and chickens, another wild boar and even a level 1 goblin. As they were low levelled creatures, one [Magic Missile] bolt was all that was required to kill them.

Though each of them only gave him a few points, they were all he could find, so he simply continued grinding out the points.

Soon it was dusk again, and still he hadn’t seen any sign of any villages yet, let alone Willow, which he was supposed to be close to.

Not only was it getting dark, the path led into a dense forest.

Suddenly a voice called out “Halt!” as an arrow landed several feet in front of him.

Sam stopped and looked into the dense forest with curiosity. 

He was less afraid now that he had a few spells and hacks he could use. 

He was confident he would be able to get out of this with all his hacks.

Shadows moved in the forest and a group of 7 burly men walked out of the forest.

“Nexus, scan” he whispered. This was a trick he learned along the path today.

Immediately the levels and stats appeared above each man’s head. All their strengths and weaknesses, skills and weapons, armor and even stats on each weapon each of them wielded.

“Fuck, too much info. Nexus scan levels only” he whispered.

The levels of each man appeared on each of their heads, and only now he noticed that there were moving words and level numbers indicating the levels of the people still hidden in the forest, revealing them to Sam.

“Level 11, Level 15. Level 22…. Fuck! They are all much higher level than me” he thought.

“Leave all your possessions on the floor!” grunted the first bandit.

“Leave all your clothes on the floor too!” rasped another bandit who was licking his lips, looking at Sam.

The other bandits laughed.

“Such a pretty man. Why don’t you join us. We’ll take care of you” sneered another bandit.

“Let boss open him up first. Boss will stretch his hole nicely!” said another crudely.

“I want his pretty… pretty mouth” said the closest one, reaching his hand towards Sam’s handsome face.

“Fuck you!” Sam suddenly yelled, throwing a punch at the first bandit.

Unfortunately, Sam has never done any martial arts before, and neither had Sharon. 

They had no experience in even throwing a punch, and had only watched people do it on movies and TV.

The fist missed badly as the bandit ducked and grabbed him, pinning his arms to his back. His other hand grabbed his dick under his skirt and squeezed it hard.

“Delicious. I will enjoy playing with this” the bandit slobbered as a breath of stinky air nearly made Sam vomit.

[Magic Missile] whispered Sam with his hands behind his back pointing at the bandit’s body. 

The bandit actually rubbed himself on Sam’s hands.

Instantly 10 streams of energy bolts appeared from behind his back penetrated the bandit’s body puncturing holes in the bandit’s groin. 

The bandit was already dead from the first few bolts, the rest just turned his body into swiss cheese.

As Sam shrugged off the first bandit’s body which was now leaking blood everywhere, the other bandits sprang into action.

“PRETTY BOY'S A MAGE! ATTACK!” yelled the boss from the back.

Suddenly Sam felt pain in his shoulder, his thigh and waist.

The bandits were experienced fighters. When Sam killed the first bandit, the next closest one charged in with two daggers, slashing his thigh and stabbing his waist as he was tackled to the ground.

Another closed in and slashed him on the shoulder. He was clearly aiming for Sam's neck, but the fact that he was tackled to the ground caused the dagger to miss and slash him on the shoulder instead.

The first bandit was on his body holding him down with his weight, twisting the dagger in his waist and stabbed the other dagger into his chest while the other one was about to slice his throat.

“Nexus Safe zone!!” Sam yelled and everything turned transparent as he entered the Nexus.

The bandit on him suddenly sat on the floor as he phased through Sam, his dagger stabbing the air while the other bandit similarly slashed at nothing. 

Sam quickly pulled out the dagger from his waist, using [Heal] on himself instantly. 

Then he got up and started running away. Just then, he hit the edge of what seemed to be an invisible wall.

“What…why can’t I go any further?” he asked. He intended to run far far away from the fight.

[Nexus only extends to the maximum range of your eyesight from location of entering Nexus]

“Fuck, so I can’t use this cheat to travel safely indefinitely” he said, understanding the limitation of this cheat.

Furthermore, he only now realised that his [Magic Missile] spell, though powerful and seemingly unlimited, he can only shoot at one target at a time.

“Fuck, all the hacks have a down side after all” he thought.

He looked around and saw the bandits still looking for him.

“Nexus, how many points for the kill?”

[Bandit level 11. Points 5500]

“How much will I level up?”

[You will be able to level up to Level 4]

“Level me up! I think I need a familiar to help me now” he said, looking nervously at the bandits who had still not given up on finding him.

With a glow of light around him, he found himself feeling stronger and fully healed.

“Ok, how do I summon a familiar?” he asked…