“Ow, shit, damn-it, argh! Just die already, you fucking bastard!” Shortly after his deadly encounter with the cobra, Michael stumbled upon an earthworm.

It was only a rank-G, level-one magical-beast, so he figured that it would be an easy target for him to acquire the single point of experience that he needed to level-up. Unfortunately, it wasn’t nearly as defenseless as it appeared.

Every time he tried to stomp on it, the slimy creature managed to wiggle out of the way, if he threw a rock, he missed or did less than two points of damage, and whenever he was almost about to kill it, the beast burrowed underground and escaped. He had been wandering through the northwestern part of the grasslands for over an hour, but the only monsters he found were worm-related.

The sun was setting, and it was getting harder for him to even see the snake-like magical-beasts that would cut at his ankles and calves with sharp barbs. The ‘Blood Worms’ were rank-F and even had a health-stealing, blood-sucking attack; when the thick, mucus-covered, crimson monster wrapped its body around his right leg, Michael immediately attempted to use a small and jagged rock to stab at the creature, but did no damage.

While pointlessly attacking and cursing at the vicious enemy, his life was steadily draining away. However, as he was approaching death for the eleventh time, the naked man gathered mana into the palms of his hands and pressed them against the slimy demon’s ‘head.’

Michael began laughing hysterically, as he yelled “Lightning Bolt!” while imagining that horrible feeling he had experienced when Inari died. The ‘Blood Worm’ suddenly started spasming uncontrollably as its flesh was becoming crispy, and the lower half of its body even exploded.

Even though he properly cast the spell, he ended up using his entire mana-pool in the process, and was down to 2/35 HP, until a warm light enveloped his body, and he received the “You have reached level-four.” notification. Upon leveling-up, all Health, Mana, and Stamina was restored to full, and all debuffs would be removed instantly.

[Player Information

Name: Michael

Titles: The Nudist, The Noob, The Immortal

Level: 4

Experience: 3/40

Age: Adult

Race: Human

Rank: F

Class: None

Specialization: None

Profession: Unemployed]

[Stats

Health: 40/40

Mana: 15/15

Stamina: 20/20

Mana Regen per minute: 20

Health Regen per hour: 40

Strength: 4

Vitality: 4

Endurance: 4

Dexterity: 3

Agility: 4

Intelligence: 3

Wisdom: 2

Perception: 1

Charisma: 1

Willpower: 14

Luck: 14

Aura: 1.8

Attack Rating: 20

Defense Rating: 2]

He chose to increase his Strength and Endurance by one each, which raised his Stamina, Health, and ability to deal physical damage by a decent amount. Michael grumbled “Damn it, I should probably stop this shit now… Ugh, I’m so tired of dying. Thirty seven level-one rabbits would be way easier than fucking around with worms. All that trouble, and I only got four experience from it. Also, what the hell’s up with this damn spell anyway? Even if it doesn’t damage my own Health, it still feels like I’m getting tasered…”

[Spellbook

Deafening Noise Level 2: Create a high-pitched and extremely loud sound, infused with mana. Every point of mana is equivalent to one meter of range. Potency is dependent on the Aura stat.

Scan Level 2: Identifies the object and gives detailed information. Only effective on items below the uncommon quality and the caster’s current Level.

Intimidation Level 1: Instill fear into the target by releasing killing intent and using threatening language, infused with mana. Effectiveness is dependent on the Level difference between the caster and the target. Potency is dependent on the Charisma stat.

Enthrall Level 1: Charm the target by speaking in a calm and gentle voice, infused with mana. Effectiveness is dependent on the Level difference between the caster and the target. Potency is dependent on the Charisma stat.

Telekinesis Level 1: Manipulate objects by infusing them with mana. Potency is dependent on the Aura stat.

Electrocution Level 1: Transforms mana directly into alternating current and channels it through the caster’s body, dealing lightning damage to enemies that are in physical contact with the caster’s skin. Potency is dependent on the Willpower stat.]

After storing the Blood Worm’s corpse in bag-slot number ten, he finally decided “Damn it, I might as well go to that shitty starting-village and turn in my quest… I’ll probably make more money from selling all these carcasses though. Sigh, hopefully I won’t get arrested for indecent exposure.”

He didn’t want his inventory to become completely full and have to get rid of something: Even though, four of the spots were just taken up by rocks, water, and six leather-strips. On his way out of the grasslands, he didn’t encounter any rabbits or other low-leveled magical-beasts, because they desperately tried to avoid him.

It wasn’t like a videogame, where the mindless monsters would even attack maximum-leveled players, without a hint of hesitation. Humanoids were able to gauge their enemies strength by using information gathering magic, which allowed them to see what players would, and magical-beasts would only attack an enemy that they sensed was weaker than them.

Unlike Michael, no one would risk their life, fighting bare-handed, alone, and completely naked against enemies that were stronger than themselves. Adventurers formed parties, even if they were only hunting prey that they could solo, because the biggest danger wasn’t from the monsters.

While the naked man was slowly walking towards ‘Riverside Village,’ he was constantly moaning, groaning and complaining about all the sharp rocks. His injuries would heal fairly quickly, but the pain and discomfort wouldn’t dull.

Typically, there would be some sort of resistance to cope with just about anything terrible that could happen to a person, but the requirements were never easy. In fact, since he had only been ‘playing’ in that world for less than forty-eight hours, it was impressive that he managed to make so much progress. Although, most of the NPCs had been ‘living’ there for years, so he was still relatively weak as far as skills went.

In regard to stats however, Michael had gained quite a lot of them. The majority of adventurers were rank-G, and most of the differences came from their levels. Very few people would be reckless enough to consume mana-cores to gain an advantage, and equipment was the true key to power.

Since he was just mindlessly walking, Michael decided to switch to third-person PoV. The most interesting thing that he discovered, was that he could consciously unlock his wisp-form and fly around wherever he wanted, while his body was still semi-consciously moving in the same direction.

He couldn’t help but wonder “Am I still controlling it, or has some sort of AI taken over in my absence?” Aside from sight and hearing, all of his senses were still coming from the naked Human, but the floating ball of darkness could view and listen to things that were up to two miles away: even underground.

In the middle of the moonlit night, a strange man was singing incredibly loudly, while slowly approaching a peaceful village by the Archean River. There were only a total of seventeen small single-story buildings, made out of straw and dried mud.

While Michael’s body was half a mile away and making lots of noise, his eyes and ears were actually already in the destination, scouting it out. His first thought was “Wow, they might as well be living in caves… I think that would actually be an improvement. Well, there’s nothing but plains and grassland for miles, so it’s not like they could get lumber. Hmm, it seems like they’re pretty casual huh, they don’t even have someone on guard-duty?”

Then he felt a sharp pain in his lower-back, followed by a dull throbbing, as he yelled “Ow, shit, seriously!? What the hell’s your problem?!” Upon receiving damage, his sight and hearing immediately returned to his eyes and ears.

Standing around him were five, relatively small, green-skinned humanoids, three females and two males. Each of them were wearing crudely made leather armor and had either daggers or bows, but even though they were all around level three-to-five, only one of them had a rank.

Michael had fallen to his knees, while receiving a ‘paralyzed’ debuff, so he had to look upward to see their faces. However, he smirked at the Goblin-girl that he actually recognized, and casually said “Oh hey, it’s been awhile, Sarah.”