The sunlight entering through a hole in the tent woke me up. I rubbed my eyes with my hands, and as I began to see clearly, I finally remembered what happened yesterday. I wanted it to be a dream. But to my dismay, I looked outside the tent to see the cyclops Alto, holding in his hands a bundle of fish tied by a thread.
'I see you're awake, mister.'
'Yeah, good morning, Alto.' I said
'Good morning.' Alto replied. 'Well, now that you're awake, we should get moving, Mister. Let's pack up the tent and all our stuff now.'
I nodded. It took only a few minutes for Alto to pack up the tent as he used his wind magic.
With all our belongings and the tent packed. We began moving further south.
The sun was only getting up in the sky at this point. The area had a sweet hay-like smell to it. The grass was tall, it reached around my waist and Alto's neck. The grasslands were vast, and there was nothing else in sight. There was only grass. The whole scenery was just a blend of green and yellow, contrasting with the blue sky. The wind was strong; it moved around the grass here and there, flailing the blades in every direction. The grass was wet from the dew, as I brushed my hand on the grass, feeling the moisture on my palm and fingers, the cool gave me a sense of relief I hadn't felt since coming to this world
'The environment in this world is not so different than those of mine,' I told Alto
'Is that so? I would love to visit your world, mister.' Alto said, looking up at me. Followed by, 'It sounds much safer than mine.'
'Yeah? If we can figure out what this Interworld exploration experience is, then maybe we can visit my world together.'
'That sure would be nice'
Over the distance, Alto spotted something and stopped in his tracks
'What happened?' I asked
'Mister over there,' He pointed. 'That's a wyvern.'
As I tried looking into it, I could only see a tiny black blur. It was very far away
'I can't see anything'
'You have bad eyes, mister, or maybe cyclops have better eyesight'
'Maybe' I replied.
'A wyvern is like a smaller dragon, right?' I asked.
'Yes' Alto answered
'What do we do?' I asked again.
'We steer clear of it, of course. But this is strange, the wyvern should have smelled our scent way before we saw it.' He said
'Maybe it's dead,' I said
'Do you want to risk and check it?' He asked
'No' I replied
'Then let's steer past it, and get out of here as soon as possible'
Me and Alto were starting to figure out a route. Suddenly, two more figures appeared near the Wyvern. They were approaching it. Alto spotted them first, and told me to look.
'Alto, I can't see properly, tell me what's happening,' I said
'Two people on horses are approaching the wyvern, they seem to be soldiers. They've got a golden eagle crest on their armor. That means they're Kluxian.' Alto stated
'What do we do?' I asked
'We should stay put for now, at this distance, they shouldn't be able to see us,' He suggested
Suddenly, I heard a loud and terrible scream [SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH]
The sound came from the direction of the two soldiers and the wyvern.
'They're... They're poking holes In the wyvern's wings' Alto stammered
'GET DOWN, mister, make sure they don't see us,' He yelled.
Alto dove into the ground and started crawling to an area with taller, denser grass. I followed after him. We both held our breath underneath the shelter of the grasses. After a few minutes, during what felt like an eternity to me, the screaming of the wyvern ended. Alto poked his head up.
'They are loading the wyvern onto their horse.' He said.
'They should be gone soon,' I said.
I raised my head above the grass. As I saw the two figures disappear in the distance, a sense of relief flushed over me.
'We should wait a bit and get moving,' said Alto
'Yeah, definitely,' I agreed.
I looked at Alto's face. His face was pale from fear. His forehead wrinkled above his large eyebrow. It looked like his mouth was barely hanging above his chin. His arms seemed to be trembling.
'Take your time, Alto,' I said. 'I don't think they're gonna come back anytime soon'
After things had settled down. Me and Alto started to move further south, towards the direction those soldiers had come from. The pleasure I had felt from watching the grassland's scenery had disappeared. The dew had already evaporated in the sun. The grass was now dry.
I decided to look further into the 'Status window' as we walked through the grass.
'Summon'
[Ping!]
{Menu}--> {Stats}
{WELCOME TO THE STATS SECTION. HERE YOU CAN ALTER YOUR PHYSICAL, MENTAL, OR MAGICAL ABILITIES. YOU CAN DO SO BY ADDING STAT POINTS TO THE SLOTS. TO GET STAT POINTS, YOU MUST LEVEL UP. EACH TIME YOU LEVEL UP, YOU WILL BE REWARDED 4 STAT POINTS. IN ORDER TO LEVEL UP, YOU MUST CLEAR OBJECTIVES. BELOW ARE THE SLOTS}
HP: 100/100 MP: 0/0 SP: 50/50
(Offense) (Defense)
STR: 5 DEF: 10
MAG: 0 AGI: 7
DEX: 9 LUK: X
INT: 4
CRT: 20
'Why is my Luck stat hidden?' I wondered.
{AUTO-HELP FUNCTION ENABLED. YOUR LUCK STAT IS VERY HIGH BECAUSE OF YOUR SKILL: 'LUCK'. PLEASE CHECK ON IT IN THE SKILL SECTION}
'I don't even know what a skill is,' I thought
{Menu}-- > {Skill}
{WELCOME TO THE SKILLS SECTION. SKILLS ARE ABILITIES GIVEN TO THE CANDIDATES OF PLANET EARTH SO THAT THEY CAN FULFILL THEIR OBJECTIVES. SKILLS CAN BE CALLED UPON BY THE PLAYER (Active) OR RUN IN THE BACKGROUND (Passive). YOUR SKILLS CAN BE SEEN IN THE SLOTS BELOW}
1) Luck (Passive) [Rank:???]: You will be able to escape dangerous situations without much effort. While collecting monster loot, you are more likely to find valuable materials or what you are looking for. You will have more luck in your interactions with other people and have a higher chance of finding 'Candidate Gifts'. You will be more likely to be successful in your endeavours.
This left me with more questions than answers. I didn't fully understand how this skill worked. I had no idea what a Candidate Gift was or how I could take materials from monsters.
In the end, I figured I'd let time tell me how this skill worked.
'Mister, you've been so quiet for a long time,' Alto said
'Yeah, I had a lot of stuff going on in my mind'
'Those soldiers from before?'
'Yeah, that and a lot of other stuff,' I lied.