Chapter 5

It took around an hour and half for his health to regenerate back to full, even with the bonuses of this room. It made Randidly realize about the different uses of End and Vit even more. He resolved to put a few more points into Vit when he had the chance.

But at the same time, he needed to get his Agi and Per even higher, and without more points in Int, his magic was useless…

But during that time, he had been grinding his Stamina skills, including Iron Skin.

Iron Skin: Concentrate on your skin, increasing your defense. Higher mastery means quicker activation and localized application. Costs 10 stamina per second. Defensive boost based on level of the skill.

Although the cost meant it was more of a one time use thing in battle, rather than a constant buff, the quickness of the recovery still meant that Randidly could keep it on for 6 seconds, wait two minutes for his stamina to recharge, and then do it again.

Through this method, he already pushed Iron Skin to Lvl 3, allowing him to put another point in Control and one in Per. This room really was designed to be an area that allowed one to grind stamina skills incredibly efficiently. The regeneration tripling made Stamina fill up within minutes.

But he was unable to rely on this for much longer. The berry bushes inside the same room were growing, and much faster than was natural, but it wouldn’t be quick enough to save him from hunger.

He needed to go out once more for food.

As his hand gripped the doorknob, it trembled, and Randidly closed his eyes.

But then he opened them. ‘I’m not just Randidly… I’m also the Ghosthound. And I will make these damn frogs pay.’

And with that thought, he pushed his way outward.

Much to his surprise, he immediately saw frogs, although they didn’t see him. As he watched their movements in the trees, it seemed as though… as though they were searching. Randidly felt another chill, but this one was even more quickly smothered. Instead, he turned and crept away along the wall, moving away from the frogs. He even earned another point in Sneak, raising it to 3.

After moving some distance away, Randidly quickly cut towards the treeline. Much farther, and he would reach the area of the Howler Monkeys, which were also outside his ability to deal with. When he moved past the ferns and into the trees, he was disappointed to find no berry tries, but there were several other trees within sight that seemed to have fruit or nuts. But that would require going even deeper into the rainforest area…

But he needed food, so he headed towards a tall, slender tree that was the closest, around which was what appeared to be tan walnuts. After peering carefully around, he knocked one against the tree until it cracked, and inspected the insides. Seemed like a nut.

He nibbled on it, and was delighted to discover that it had a savory, almost smoky flavor. He quickly cracked open several others, taking the edge off of his hunger. Satisfied, Randidly was preparing to gather more in his shirt to take back, when he caught a whiff of death.

Moving very carefully, he looked through the treeline to a small clearing he saw earlier, but had ruled out as too far in. But still his eyes had been dragged there, to what appeared to be glowing red crystals hanging in the tree.

Now his eyes went to the ground, where he saw a long, scaly green body, lying still in the clearing.

His eyes flickered, and then, once more against his better judgement, he approached, letting his intuition guide him. His Sneak increased to Lvl 4, as he quickly circled the area, moving on light feet. The entire area was silent, and Randidly was finally able to see why.

A strange creature with pointed ears was waist deep in the large snake’s mouth. But at the same time, that creature had managed to drive a blade through the top of the snake’s skull, where apparently the snake had died, either from brain damage or blood loss. They were both caked in dried black blood.

But Randidly couldn’t take his eyes away from the dagger, the handle long and slender, wrapped in leather, with a simple amethyst set into the hilt.

A weapon would certainly make this much easier…

Deciding to go for the speedy route, Randidly sprinted out into the clearing, grabbing the dagger, pulling, and then turning to go.

But then he lurched to a stop, the dagger stuck fast in the skull. Freezing, Randidly waited for his impending doom. Nothing happened.

So, slightly reassured, Randidly began pressed back and forth, beginning the laborious process of grinding the dagger outside of the snake’s skull. Thankfully, everything in the area seemed quite dead.

The process took so long that at one point, Randidly had to taken several minutes as a break and allow his stamina to recover.

Eventually, with a sickening pop, the dagger came free, and Randidly admired the slightly carved blade with a wickedly sharp edge. The notification was even more interesting.

Congratulations! You have learned the active skill Equip Lvl 1.

“Equip,” Randidly said outloud, curious.

Equip: Allows you to inspect and equip weapons and armor. Skill level must be greater than or equal to weapon level to utilize the bonuses seen with equip. Utilizing a Weapon of higher level will raise skill level.

“Inspect.”

Item Quality too high to inspect.

Item Quality, huh…? Randidly had expected not being able to utilize the dagger for its benefits, which he suspected would be stat gains, but the fact that item quality blocked him from even examining it was strange. Still it still was an interesting mixture of disappointment and excitement. Disappointment because he didn’t know what it was or how it could help him, excitement because it was a rare weapon.

Although, if it suddenly revealed himself to him when was only Level 2 in Equip, that would be its own disappointment. But Randidly suspected it wouldn’t be that simple.

Pleased with his haul, Randidly gave the pointy eared fellow a once over before he spotted the satchel hanging over his shoulder. It was pressed against the ground beneath his back. Feeling slightly embarrassed to be stealing from the dead, Randidly tried to be gentle, but quickly realized that if he did, this would take forever. So he began wrestling with the dead body.

Within minutes, Randidly’s more irreverent approach had yielded the satchel, which Randidly opened to reveal a swirling darkness. Frowning, he prodded it with the dagger, which instantly vanished, sucked into it. Gasping, he grabbed after it, perhaps foolishly sticking his hand into the darkness.

But as he did so, a strange knowledge entered into his mind. Inside the bag, in a strange 1 cubic meter space, floated several items. Some dried rations, it looked like. A map. Some weird coins, a book in a language he couldn’t understand. 15 empty vials. A bedroll of some kind. Some stuff that looked like campfire tools. And the dagger.

And with but a thought, the dagger reappeared in his hand. Randidly gazed at the bag in wonder.

***

20 minutes later, Randidly left the clearing. With his newfound dagger and bag, he cleaned out everything he could find. The strange glowing red crystals in the giant tree, as well as the blue ones that studded the roots. All the nuts from the first tree. Several green, banana shaped fruits from nearby.

He even used the dagger to carve out one of the snake’s long fangs, which was as thick as Randidly’s wrist, and was just about to start on the second when a rustling from the bushes spooked him, sending him dashing back to the safe room. His little series of sprints also raised the Sprinting level to 3.

Upon arriving back at the room, the first thing Randidly did was have a fine meal of nuts and banana things. The glowing crystals he was a little wary of and decided to wait until later. Afterwards, he considered the area.

Then, using the dagger, Randidly carved out nine holes, spaced several feet apart in a line, and buried three nuts, three of the bananas, and finally one of the red crystals, one of the blue crystals, and one with both of them together, to see if he could grow a tree like the one outside.

While he was doing so, he even had the pleasing notification that his Equip skill increased to Lvl 2. Fortunately or unfortunately, it was still unable to inspect the dagger.

Satisfied, Randidly lay down for a nap, laying out his new bedroll, the lights dimming on cue, leaving the rest of it for after he had some rest.