The serpent's head slowly lifted from the sand—higher and higher—its pitch-black scales shining under the sun. Its yellow eyes locked onto Mike, and it hissed sharply.
Shit… that thing is HUGE.
Mike thought as he looked at the giant black serpent; it was thrice as big as him, easily the size of a bus.
Its tongue flicked out as it hissed. A loud, echoing hiss vibrated across the dunes.
Mike swallowed, tightening his grip on the steel sword as he shifted into a fighting stance.
"Okay, so you are my first opponent," Mike mumbled as he got ready. "Time to see if my training paid off." He looked fully focused now.
The sand beneath the serpent trembled.
Then—
FWOOOSH!
The giant black serpent lunged at Mike, but Mike blinked as it was slow in his eyes, and Mike stepped right, dodging with perfect timing.
"Okay… it's doable," he muttered, watching the serpent closely.
The earlier attack had looked slow to him—meaning the serpent was weaker than he initially thought.
Still, he wasn't taking any chances.
He activated his skill.
Valor Surge.
A faint red aura burst around him—doubling his attack power.
The serpent, missing his prey once again, lunged at him, mouth fully opened, aiming to swallow Mike in one bite.
Mike leaned forward, eyes narrowing.
This time… he didn't dodge.
He stepped in.
As the serpent closed on him, Mike thrust his sword upward with full force—
SHHK!
The blade pierced straight through the serpent's open mouth and tore out the top of its skull. Its momentum carried forward, and Mike gripped the sword firmly, twisting his body to guide the motion.
The sword sliced through the serpent's maw, splitting its upper jaw cleanly into two.
The huge serpent flailed around, but eventually it dropped dead, dark blood soaking into the burning sand.
Then—
Ding!
[You killed an uncommon LV 7 Black Serpent.]
[You've gained 140 Experience Points.]
[You killed a monster six levels higher than your own, earning a 7x experience multiplier.]
[You've gained 1,260 experience points.]
[Level Up!]
[You have leveled up to Level 4!]
[New skill learned: Cut]
[Cut: Increasing the slashing power of the weapon by 50%]
[ Cooldown: 10 seconds ]
Mike looked at the notifications and then at the serpent.
"Hmm… it looked strong, but it was just a low-rank serpent," he muttered, bending down.
(A/N:
Low Rank—Level 1–25
Mid Rank—Level 26–50
High Rank—Level 51–75
Peak Rank—Lvl 76–100)
He placed a hand over the corpse and mumbled, "Inventory."
The body dissolved into particles and vanished into his inventory.
Mike stood again, scanning the desert as he thought, "Serpents aren't exactly herd-type beasts unless it's mating season… And given its size, it probably had a big territory. Let's find its lair—maybe I can get some loot there."
He muttered to himself as he began walking around, mainly looking for the serpent's tracks.
But the constantly shifting black sand made him run around the dunes multiple times before he finally found it. The lair was underground, and when Mike crawled in, he found a bunch of serpent eggs—a total of six.
"So, it was after mating season. Lucky me," Mike smiled.
These eggs would sell for quite a nice price, since black-scaled serpents were uncommon-rank monsters. Many beast tamers would definitely want to buy them.
He gently picked them up, placing them carefully into his inventory.
"Hm… beginner inventory gets 30 slots, with each slot able to hold up to 99 items of the same type," he muttered as he checked it.
His ten slots were now full, with food and other necessary supplies taking up eight slots, and the serpent corpse and eggs occupying the remaining two.
He dusted the sand off his hands and exhaled.
Crawling back out of the underground lair, he looked up at the sky. It was growing dark, the sun dipping beneath the horizon.
"Gotta keep moving," he mumbled, walking north while his senses stayed sharp.
Over the next few days, Mike fought nonstop—dealing with many desert monsters: scorpions, giant ants, and even more serpents like the one he had first killed.
Now, sitting beside the corpse of another serpent he had just slain, Mike opened his status screen.
[ Status ]
Name: Mike Vester
Race: Human
Class: Knight Apprentice
Potential: F
Level: 29
EXP: 456/2900
Strength: 48.8(^29)
Agility: 30.2 (^14.5)
Constitution: 47.1(^29)
Intelligence: 16.5(^14.5)
Attribute Points: 29
Talent: Infinite SSS Gacha
Weekly Talent:
Temporary: Reversal Engine
Permanent Slot: Reversal Engine
Skills:
– Basic Swordsmanship (Mastery)
– Weapon Mastery (Adept)
– Valor Surge (Adept)
– Knight's Mount
- Cut (Adept Rank)
- Iron Skin (new): Increase body defense by 20%.
- Quick step (new): Momentarily increase agility by 30%.
- Recovery (new): Increase stamina regeneration by 30%.
[ Titles: Prodigy ]
Over the last three days his level advanced to Level 29, and all his stats have grown too. Each class levels up differently. While each level-up in Rank 1 gives 1 free attribute point, his Knight-class growth gives:
+1 Strength and +1 Constitution per level-up
+0.5 Agility and +0.5 Intelligence per level-up
With that, his physical aspect power increased greatly:
Strength affects his physical power and defense.
Constitution affects stamina, health, and his immunity to various status effects.
Agility affects movement speed, reaction speed, casting speed, and dexterity.
Intelligence affects his comprehension power and the amount of mana he has.
Each stat also needs to be balanced. One can't just put too much focus on one stat and ignore the others.
If one stat is raised too high compared to the rest, the body becomes unbalanced. For example:
Too much mana with low constitution will make the body collapse under its own mana pressure.
Too much agility can make someone run faster than their body can handle, risking injury.
The stats give strong passive effects, but they still need to be raised with balance.
Also, every 30 points in a stat unlocks a new skill.
Mike unlocked Iron Skin when his Strength reached 30, Quick Step for Agility, and Recovery for Constitution.
But he still has no new skill for Intelligence, since it is only at 16.5 points.