A day passed while Matthew ran around on his errands after finding out the Equipment function in the System. The next item on the list was the perma portal. He would get there in the morning.

Matthew laid down in his bed and got to thinking about the current situation, staring at his open status window. 

‘Right, the skills have levels. Maybe I should just spam mana pulse to try and upgrade it? Since it has no effect, I guess it would be fine. But how do I do that? Just by thinking about it, like I do to pull stuff in and out of the inventory?’

As he thought that, he felt the skill activate. Not because it had an effect on his surroundings, but because he felt his energy decrease.

‘Right, mana is a resource, so using skills drains it? It would definitely be more practical to have gauges or something, showing how much I have, like in video games, and knowing how much the skills consume. Stupid system.’

Matthew waited a bit and felt the lost energy slowly recover.

‘So mana also regenerates, like in games. Good, I should try and estimate how much mana I have and the skill consumption. Let’s just mindlessly spam and count how many times I can use it in a rapid succession.’

‘1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, …’

…

Matthew opened his eyes. It was morning.

‘What happened? I was testing the skill, did I pass out? How many times did I use it? Damn! I didn’t expect to pass out, was it mana exhaustion or something? That’s a common feature, I guess it could be it. I’ll have to write the count down next time instead of mentally counting.’

Ring

‘Huh? I was just about to check for changes in the status window?’

[You have earned a new achievement: Lessons learned.]

[Achievement: Lessons learned]
You realized your mistakes repeatedly and prepared to avoid them in the future. It is an important part of development.

- Bonus stats -
INT: 2

‘I can’t tell if the system is making fun of me or helping me… Let’s check if my skill somehow was upgraded yesterday. Status window.’

[Status window]
Name: Matthew Carter
Level: 4
Achievements: 4

- Stats -
STR: 20
AGI: 21
END: 20
INT: 22
ATK: 81 [+2]
DEF: 60 [+28]
MGK: 66
RES: 64
(Available stat points: 2)

- Skills -
Mana pulse (Lv.1)
Set traps (Lv.2)

‘Nothing… Shame. The stats are how I left them yesterday except for intelligence. That's 19 from yesterday plus 2 from the achievement… Huh? There is one more? I have 4 achievements! There is another new one? Let's check for missed notifications from yesterday…’

[You have earned a new achievement: Where is the limit?]

[Achievement: Where is the limit?]
You passed out due to exhaustion. In your bed. Safe. There is no better place for that. Enjoy your beauty sleep.

- Bonus stats -
INT: 1

“...”

“It’s making fun of me. Has to be.”

Matthew quickly prepared and got out, headed for a level 2 Perma Portal on the other side of the city. He would have to ride his motorcycle there. 

Portals can be distinguished in levels depending on the energy they emit. The lowest level is level 1, like the one with the chicken humanoids, and the highest level to date is 6. Level 6 portals only started appearing this year. It would be a while until Matthew could start aiming for them. 

The level 2 Perma portal was in a residential area, in a corner of a side street. Matthew left his motorcycle close by and looked around. There was nobody there. He made his way to the gate quickly and disappeared into it. 

This Perma portal was a cave type, with different types of monsters. Matthew pulled an oil lantern from his inventory and lit it up. 

'Alright, if I remember correctly, the first thing that I have to look for is…' 

Squeak. 

As he was thinking that, a cauldron of bats came flying toward him. He quickly pulled a tennis racket he had prepared especially for this moment, and put the lantern on the ground. 

From his research, the bats were fast but particularly weak, so he could easily one shot them with anything, as long as he touched them. 

As the cauldron made its way to him, he started swinging the racket in all directions, hitting the bats dozens at a time, projecting them into the rock walls around him, the ground, or the ceiling of the cave.

Ring 

[You have gained a level] 

Ring 

[You have gained a level]

He could barely see anything from the low luminosity of the lantern and because of the speed of the bats, but their number swiftly decreased to less than ten. 

However, they were getting harder and harder to hit, and the number of bite marks on his skin only grew higher. It took him several minutes until he finally managed to smash the last one. 

Ring 

[You have gained a level] 

'Nice! With the level up, it seems my wounds close and my fatigue disappears, perfect! Swinging a racket around like a mad man is really exhausting, a break would have been much needed to recover stamina and patch the bite marks. I would have been in big trouble during the fight as well without level ups.' he thought, thankful for that aspect of the system. 

'The difficulty really is higher than the last portal. I'll have to be extra careful. Next… If I go towards the cave entrance and wait a bit, the wolf pack should be coming soon. I'll go there, set up some traps, and then ambush them.' 

He quickly made his way toward the entrance of the cave and set up a few traps. There was not much time. Once done, he retreated and put the lantern back in the inventory and got in position.

He watched the entrance when a large wolf came into view, followed by the rest of the pack. Matthew counted 10 of them in total, just like the database said. 

The pack spread out a bit when the Alpha at the front sniffed and growled, before spotting Matthew.

Matthew’s heart stopped. When his gaze met the Alpha’s, he was reminded of his first battle in the workshop and could not get a single breath in.

“E-E-E-Exit! Exit portal!” he yelled.