Chapter 6 – Understanding the system

Two hours later, after killing another 20+ bandits, Sam and Mindy were hiding in a bush as the whole jungle seemed to be full of activity.

Sam realized by now that they may have bitten off more than they could chew. 

They thought that they were just attacking a small bandit band.

Instead, it would seem that the bandits were just a cover on the outskirts of the jungle, hiding a mini criminal empire.

After Mindy interrogated and badly tortured a bandit they captured, they found out that this forest was called the Darkwood Forest, and that they were the Demonhead Mercenary Gang.

This gang was an infamous gang of 500+ strong bandits and other criminals that are involved in all kinds of criminal activities including human slavery, smuggling, robbery and assassination.

Right now, after killing in total of over 30 bandits, the gang were now scouring the forest in organized groups, searching for them. 

The level of bandits were now in the level 30-40 range and were more competent and experienced than the low level bandits at the forest entrance. 

Sam’s magic missiles were by and large easily dealt with by the higher level mercenaries who have had enough experiences dealing with low level magicians of his calibre and low level spells like his magic missile.

He didn’t know what level Mindy was, but she could only face 3-4 mercenaries at once before being forced to flee after more joined the fight.

Sam was trying his best to pull out an arrow from Mindy’s shoulder, while another was still stuck through her thigh.

“Pull in one strong, fast motion! Don’t jerk it!” Mindy growled through gritted teeth.

Sam was trying his hardest, but his body didn’t have sufficient strength and appeared to be making the injuries worse.

“I can’t. It won’t budge” Sam grunted incompetently moving the arrow in and out. Tears rolled down from Mindy’s eyes as she bit down on a piece of cloth.

“Can you level up your strength or something?” she asked

“Shit! Sorry, I completely forgot. We rushed immediately into battle since I... uh.... summoned you..” Sam muttered softly.

He blushed remembering the summoning scene. She on the other hand looked at him with murder in her eyes.

“Nexus, we’ve killed many bandits. How high can I level up now?” he asked

[Total points gathered, minus one level for summoning Mindy will enable you to level up to Level 9]

“Fine… level up to level 9”

A bright glow covered his body as his body leveled up, illuminating the area they were hiding in.

“Look! Over there! I saw something” yelled someone from afar

“A light! I saw it too” yelled another voice. Movement came from several directions towards them.

“Damn it! Run” Mindy said as she got up and pulled Sam along.

“Nexus. Exit!” Sam yelled and everything around him turned transparent. Tens of bandits and mercenaries suddenly appeared, looking around and at each other. But they could not find any traces of Sam or Mindy.

“Look… blood!” said a mercenary, but he followed the trail where it suddenly stopped, confusing the bandits.

Sam and Mindy were right in front of them, but they were invisible and intangible in the Nexus.

“You… you could have done this all along?” Mindy asked, looking accusingly at Sam.

“Er.. yes. I forgot” he answered sheepishly.

“Idiot!” Mindy scolded.

Sam looked at her apologetically, then concentrated on his stats.

“Hey, I could have increased by stats a lot earlier” he realized.

He had enough points to level up his other stats when he hit Level 4 earlier, but Mindy rushed off to battle immediately and he rushed off after her without leveling up his states. 

He had since been trailing Mindy through the forest, unable to catch up with her speed.

This caused her to fly into battle without cover of his magic missiles, and caused her several injuries as she escaped to find him.

"Computer, what are my stats?" Sam asked

[Strength = 5, Dexterity = 5, Constitution = 5, Intelligence = 15, Wisdom = 15, Charisma = 35]

"Hmmm, typical D&D attributes" he thought. 

[Not exactly. The stats are arranged for you in that format because it's the format understood by you]

"What do you mean? Please give me a compressed version so I can see the whole picture" he asked

[For example, the stats that you have are considered very low. Unlike your D&D games that you've played before, the limits of the statistics in this world go up to 100 each. Each level you level up, you get 5 points to level up.

Furthermore, each 10 Levels are considered a Rank. So Levels 1-10 is considered Rank 1, Levels 11-20 are Rank 2 all the way up to Rank 10.

Rank 1 are usually beginner level like yourself, new recruits in armies and academies or new acolytes in sects.

Rank 2 are considered experts with some experience like those mercenaries you are facing, students in top academies or inner disciples in sects.

Rank 3 are masters of their art, which can include high ranking captains of armies, leaders of mercenary bands, instructors in academies or core disciples in sects.

Rank 4 are masters which are top level fighters such as high ranking soldiers like generals in armies, deans in academies or elders in sects.

Rank 5 are grandmaster level fighters, which usually are sect leaders or patriarchs, headmasters in academies, or grand marshals of armies. 

Rank 6 are sages which include ancient founders of sects and academies, and old monsters who are protectors of kingdoms or sects. 

Rank 7 are immortals who cannot die by old age. 

Rank 8 are Demi-gods

Rank 9 are Gods

Every time you level up, you will get a choice of your class. You are currently a Level 1 mage. Each time you level up, if you continue to level up your class, you will get an additional 1 spell for each level.

Each spell will be selected from a list of spells on the AD&D spell list. For example, while still in Rank 1, every spell you select will be Level 1 spells from the AD&D spell list gleaned from your mind.

Similarly, if you chose another class, each class will give you a skill, with 3 skills on your first class level of that class]

"Hmm, my charisma is high, probably because of Sharon's good looks I based my appearance on. My intelligence and wisdom are higher than the basics too, which probably signifies my current intelligence and wisdom. Right now I need strength to pull out those arrows and dexterity to try to catch up when Mindy runs" he thought to himself.

"Nexus, level up Strength and Dexterity to 20. I'll save the rest for later" he said. 

[Affirmative] 

He felt himself strengthening, so he walked over to Mindy, who looked at him with suspicious eyes, and in one pull, he pulled out the first arrow and cast [Heal]

Then he pulled out the other arrow in her thigh and cast [Heal] there too, completely healing her up. 

She smiled and thanked him. 

Then he turned his attention back to the Nexus. 

"Nexus, let me have a look at all the skills of the other classes" Sam asked. Immediately, several lists appeared before him.

Several minutes later, he smiled. "The list makes no differentiation between classes of mages, nor classes of fighters. This is, I guess another glitch in the system that I can use" he thought to himself. 

He thought for a long time, mumbling that level 1 spells were not very exciting, then finally decided on his course of action. 

"I would like to level up to level 1 Thief. The first 3 skills are [Backstab], [Pickpocket] and [Sneak]" he said thinking that he would be excellent as a thief, since he could enter and exit the Nexus at will. 

"Then I would like to level up 1 level of Warrior. The first 3 skills I want are [Unarmed Combat], [Sword Mastery Level 1] and [Dodge]"

"Ok, level me up from Level 1 Mage to Level 4 Mage. And for the 3 spells, I want [Charm], [Shield] and [Create Water]"

Instantly, he leveled up to Mage L4 and Warrior and Thief L1.

"Shit, I should have added archery as one of my warrior skills. My Magic Missiles attract to much attention" he mumbled to himself. 

[Why don't you summon a archer as your familiar]

"Huh? I thought my familiar is Mindy?" he blurted

[Is there supposed to be a limit? It's unclear in your memories]

"Of... of course not! I can summon as many familiars as I want" Sam quickly replied, covering up his glee at finding our he can summon an army if he had enough points. 

As each Familiar reduced his level by 1 level and used 1 spell spot, he still had 3 level ups to play with. 

Since Mindy was healed and they were still being hunted and needed help, Sam thought it was probably a good time to summon another familiar.

"Nexus, I would like to summon a familiar with Archery skills!" he said

The images in his mind started rotating and he looked with interest as he saw Katniss Everdeen from Hunger Games, Serafina Pekkala from the Golden Compass, Guinevere from King Arthur, Abigail Whistler from Blade:Trinity.

All good choices, whom he would be happy to join him in this adventure together with Mindy. 

Of course, as the characters were from his memories, they looked like the actresses who played them, namely Jennifer Lawrence, Eva Green, Keira Knightly and Jessica Biel respectively. So having a naked version running around with him gave him great pleasure in the bottom of his... uh... heart. 

Just as the screens rotated past those characters, it finally stopped.

Sam screamed excitedly "Holy shit. That's............."

"