A New World, an immersive game experience

It took Eldrian a few minutes to calm down from his massive jump in strength. 'Now all I need is just some decent armor.'

Eldrian didn't like the idea of wasting money on armor, but now more than ever before, he had to start protecting himself. The fact that damage from the game would be transferred, even if temporary, was not a pleasant thought. 

Looking at his free attributes Eldrian felt highly inclined to throw them into agility or constitution. He hesitated on this, his agility was already extremely high. He did not think spending points in strength was worth it. 

In all his fights, he had never found himself doing too little damage. Rather, it was always a case of who was faster and who had better techniques. The latter coming in more in his PVP duels, he always relied on magic to bridge the gap in the game.

He was hanging around rank 30 in the individual matches. A decent ranking he felt, considering that there were more than 10 million players. Sure it was limited to one weapon type, but Eldrian was still quite happy with it. Especially when he recognized that most of them were being properly trained by the empires, or had real-life experience.

Eldrian also did not wish to invest more into intelligence even though this attribute seemed like one of the best, possibly increasing his actual intelligence. It would not help him right now, he also did not feel like he was lacking in that regard. 

Spirit was the attribute Eldrian understood the least about, and that made him inclined to skip it. However, the resistance it gave sounded extremely important. Especially now that he was encountering more dangerous foes.

Eldrian's thoughts were disrupted by a system message, informing him that the quest Unknown Danger had a twist. Luckily this did not cause it to be a failure. Its completion bringing him up to level 28 and his free attributes to 55, an amount Eldrian felt he had to spend. 

[Quest Completed:  Unkown danger (Unique) - Solo]

[Quest Giver: Thesolis]

[Quest Rank: S]

[Quest Reward: 3 Levels & Steel Emblem & Unkown]

[Talk with quest giver for the physical rewards.]

[Quest Description: A ghoul was being controlled by a lich, named Xidrel, to hunt down people moving into his range of activities. Using information from the ghoul, the lich decided if they should be food or experiments.]

[You have slain the ghoul with the help of Kydone at great cost to you both. The lich has been dealt with through an unknown source and one of its experiments has escaped.]

[Quest Continuation: Awakening Undead (Hidden Quest)]

[Quest Giver: None |  Quest Rewarder: Adventurer's Guild]

[Quest Rank: SSS]

[Quest Rewards: 5 Levels & Unkown]

[Quest Description: A flaming Reanimate has been created through special means by Xidrel, causing it to start the awakening process. Talk to Pelaros for more information.]

[Primary Task: Kill the awakening undead before it succeeds in evolving.]

[Secondary Task: Locate the awakening undead and relay this information to the nearest guild.]

[Tertiary Task: Find information about the awakening and evolving process.]

[Each goal will result in a different payout, while not managing any will cause the quest to be considered failed. Managing all will give you leverage to ask for an extreme reward.]

[Warning: The undead is Tier 7 and is evolving into a being capable of damaging souls. Possibly inflicting true death to your avatar. Please proceed with caution.]

"Isn't that something," Eldrian mumbled upon finishing reading the quest information. He surely felt like just ignoring the quest, it was not something he was strong enough to deal with. More worryingly was the warning, making him even less inclined to find the undead. 

'Maybe Pelaros will deal with it.' Eldrian thought, not realizing why the text told him to talk with him, not convince him. 

He was slightly intrigued by the mention of an extreme reward, but the risk seemed far too much for something unknown.

Finally, feeling up to trying to stand again, Eldrian slowly climbed to his feet. Using the beds as supports. Heaving from the exhaustion, Eldrian took a minute to calm down. Realizing he would not be able to leave for now. 

Lying back down onto his bed, he continued to meditate. Not trying to change anything more, but rather to recover. The calming state of looking into oneself enabling his fatigue to leave far faster. Eldrian did this for two hours, opening his eyes slowly as he realized that Kydone was stirring. 

"W-what... Wh-what happened?" She asked in barely a whisper. Back to her normal self with almost no fur present, outside of her ears and tail.

"You save me, thank you," Eldrian said, jumping off his bed feeling refreshed. His body was still battered and tired, but now it felt more like he had just pushed himself too far in training. 

Turning her head to look at him, Kydone smiled. "I'm glad..." She fell unconscious with those words causing Eldrian to panick. His instinct was to use Observe, however, when he thought of that his sight suddenly changed. 

Not only did her attributes and stats enter his mind, Eldrian also saw her mana and the surrounding mana. The latter being what informed him that she was alright, not the former. 

Unlike Eldrian, Kydone's mana was mainly two colors. Like other NPCs, it was mostly all located at her diaphragm, black and light green with a bit of white spreading from her mana pool to the rest of her body. 

Eldrian was unsure if her mana spreading out a little was unusual or not, however, the mana flow was unimpeded and that was what he was worried about. Her stats confirmed that she was alright and healing, as there was no debuff nor injury mentioned. 

[Kydone - Nychtagata Demihuman(Feline)]

[Tier 6 | Level 32]

[HP: 3.8K/4.4K]

[Mana: 880/1.8K]

[Stamina: 152/2.8K]

Her stats seemed low compared to their max, however, they were recovering gradually. Confirming that she was recovering, most likely just extremely tired.

Eldrian was impressed by how much higher hers were than his. He knew that the increase was more and more for each Tier, still, seeing numbers in the thousands was shocking. 

"But, this at least means the ghoul was not that much stronger than her. No... If I recall correctly, it was actually weaker." Eldrian mumbled, Kydone not having an attack value, but her agility was shocking to say the least. 

A solid 913 points in agility. This meant that she was at least four times faster than Eldrian, slightly more than that in fact. Gulping upon realizing this, Eldrian felt agility would indeed be a good location for his free points. 

No matter what. If he could not react, then he would die. 

With that thought, and not wanting to back down later, Eldrian pushed all his free attributes into agility. Bringing it up to 256, meaning he should now be 2,5 times faster than a normal person. 

The sudden increase actually disorientated Eldrian. His mind taking a few minutes to cope with the change. His movements were faster than he was used to, his mind taking in more detail in less time. 

Laughing, Eldrian suddenly felt like he should have put them into intelligence. The increase was far more than he had thought it would be. Though that thought only stayed for a little moment, the increase in speed was far more than just that. 

His perception, reaction, and even his thoughts had been quickened. 

'Still, I would rather not use my points as I get them.' Eldrian felt that it was smarter to keep them for when he needed to boost an attribute due to attribute requirements. For example, Maiden's Purity, the sword they had used to kill the ghoul, had requirements in the 300's.

Eldrian felt he should reach them simply by reaching higher Tiers, but having 20 or so points left for if he got a new weapon or even armor was a smart move. 'Right, let's use them once they get over 20.'

...

"How's the situation?" Pelaros asked, standing on three legs. He looked battered, his clothes and armor in tatters. Many new burnt scars covering him. The awaking Flaming Reanimate, while lower Tier than him, was actually faster than him. 

Luckily Pelaros had experience and his strength to back him, yet his fight had been extremely hard. As was evident by his condition. 

It would not have been a problem if not for the undead's nearly endless supply of mana and stamina. Unlike other Flaming Reanimate, this one somehow could even use magic outside of its abilities. 

The first time it had used it had cost Pelaros his leg. From there it had gone downhill, with him just barely managing to survive and escape. 

His escape was not because of anything he did, but rather the flaming reanimate suddenly losing interest. It had suddenly stopped mid-attack, turned around, and disappeared into the trees. Pelaros having never felt so relieved in his life. 

He had already sent news to the king, having ordered Katania to care for Kydone and Eldrian first, while the less skilled healers made sure his stump of a leg would be healable. 

"It has been sighted by many groups, however, none of them seemed to interest it. The... The flames were all they reported seeing. It was moving so fast that most failed to even realize what they had seen."

"That makes sense, it was even faster than me," Pelaros replied, rubbing his stump of a leg to ease the phantom pain assaulting him. "What direction was it going?"

"It seemed to be going for Kyno Lake, its final destination is unclear."

Pelaros sighed in relief hearing this, "Good, it is not going for any civilized areas. But..." Pelaros kept his words to himself, not wishing to cause panic. Not more than there already was. 

Him being unable to contend with the enemies in the forest did not bode well for them.