Chapter 21
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I knew that such a skill would be highly impractical. It's just… my dreams.
I sighed deeply and then finally said. "Alright I would buy that Skill book."
Just as he'd suggested, before doing anything else, I used 180 white coins and the 8 crystals in my possession to increase my strength and Mana to 2.0 points.
After that ,I asked Lily to buy the skill book as I was too busy to do it myself.
I looked the description of the Skill book in my Hologram.
Advanced Vision:- Allows the user to see 2 times further in a clear way. Exhausts 0.1 point of the User's mana for every 10 minutes of usage.
Cost- 300 White Coins
Level- Tier 1
I put the Skill book in the slot and then used some mana to activate the skill.
Despite it being my first time doing so, I didn't face any problem and was able to activate the skill without any problem.
Suddenly the world around me seemed to have become much brighter and colorful.
'Wow! This is awesome.' I thought in my mind and then tried to focus on a tree in the distance.
The tree in my vision suddenly became larger, as if I was looking at it through a magnifying lens.
I looked at Rahul and freaked out when his enlarged face came in my view.
"Calm down. It'll take you some time to get used to this skill. But I promise you that it'll be very helpful to you in the future." He said as he also used his hologram and bought a similar book.
"Don't deactivate the skill book. The faster it upgrades, the better for us." He reminded me once more.
"I understand. But, aren't we going to sleep right now? Will our skills remain active even when we sleep? And what about the mana. The description said that this skill consumes 0.1 points of mana per 10 minutes. Wouldn't all of my mana only last 3 hours and 20 minutes this way."
"It will remain active even when you sleep. Don't worry about that. As for the mana. Well, let me explain how the mana system works to you once and for all."
"First of all, you need to know that 10% of your mana will be recovered every moment. So that means that you'll regain 0.2 points of mana every hour." He said
"But even at this rate, I'll still lose 0.4 points of mana every hour. So even with taking the restoration into action, my mana will only last 5 hours." I said.
"That's why we'll have to increase your Mana stat by 2 more points."
"Really?" I asked. "Shouldn't I increase stamina or perception before that?"
"No." Rahul declined directly "Increase your Mana. Later in the future, you'll use even more skills, so the faster you increase your mana, the better it'll be for you."
"Well, alright then."
Taking his advice, I bought 4 small pills for 400 white coins and gulped them down at once.
After the warm feeling faded away, I opened the hologram and looked at the interface
User name:- Ashok Singh Rana
Stats:-
Strength - 2.0 (1.4)
Agility - 4.0
Endurance - 2.0
Perception - 2.0
Mana - 2.0 (2.0)
Skills:-
Agility Booster (2nd tier), Advanced Vision (1st tier)
Equipments:-
Basic Sword (1st tier), Clipping Glove (1st tier)
Wealth:-
848 White Coins
I sucked in a deep breath when I realized how fast my wealth was being used up.
"Brother. I still have 848 White Coins left. Any more suggestions." I asked.
"Yes. First of all. Upgrade your Basic Sword to the 2nd tier." He said.
"Alright." I had already seen how Rahul had upgraded his sword and followed the same pattern.
Buy one more Basic Sword. Put the two swords in the two slots and pay 1/3 of the equipment's price, I.e 10 white coins to merge them together and get a better weapon.
After the bright light faded away, I had a 2nd tier weapon of my own.
I quickly took the sword and ran outside to find a tree that was a thick as a person's waist. I swung the sword with all my might and with a whoosing sound, the sword entered the tree…
But it never came out on the other side. After slashing through 1/10 of the trunk, it got stuck in there.
My excited face scrunched up at once.
"Oi! Brother. I think my weapon is defected. It's not as sharp as yours."
'The sword does not have any problems you dummy.' Lily said.
'Huh! Then why is my sword stuck here like this.' I pulled back my sword but found that it was not able to budge even an inch.
'Urghhh.' I used all of my strength and after a long struggle, the sword finally came out of the trunk.
'Your sword does not have any problems. But you're not able to cut through the truck. Do you still not understand where the problems lie.'
'Huh!' I thought for a while before I timidly asked 'Does the problem lie with me.'
'Yes.' Lily said 'Frankly, the fact even compare sword skills with that of Rahul is ridiculous in itself. He's a second timer after all. How can the two of you be in equals.'
'Huh! What does that mean?' I asked in confusion.
'Oh! Just a slip of tongue. Don't mind it.' Lily said the quickly added 'But the point is that your sword is not defective, but you're just not skilled enough.'
'Well… you could have put that in a nicer way you know.' I said as I clutched my poor heart.
'Hmph! Whatever.' She said and went silent once again.
"Come back. We still have a few more things to do." At that point, Rahul shouted from inside the hut.
"Coming." I carried the sword and went back inside the hut and sat down in front of him. "What next?" I asked.
'I did not wanted to think too much about it anymore.'
"A Basic Defensive suit." He said and showed a Pitch Black Streamline Suit in the hologram.
The suit was showed in as a 3d model and was rotating at a slow speed so that I can get the full view of the product.
After looking at the suit for a while, I only had one word for it.
Sexy.
'How the hell is this even a defensive suit. This is clearly something that the hottest bike riders could be seen wearing in magazines and TV shows.'
'This is so awesome.' I thought as it then turned to look at it's Description.
Basic Defensive Suit:- Protects the user from the piercing and slashing attacks of any 1st tier Abnormal. Absorbs a bit of blunt damages as well. But user is still advice to take caution.
Cost- 200 White Coins
Level- Tier 1
"Buy two of these." Rahul said.
"Alright." I said and purchased two of them after which, I paid 68 black coins to merge the two of them together.
After getting upgraded, I didn't see any particular change in the suit's appearance so I had to check it's description to make sure that I didn't make some kind of mistake.
Basic Defensive Suit:- Protects the user from the piercing and slashing attacks of any 2nd tier Abnormal. Absorbs a bit of blunt damages as well. But user is still advice to take caution.
Level- Tier 2
So it's not that different from the 1st tier suit. Just that it's defensive capabilities has increased.
"Go and wear it." Rahul said.
"Now?" I asked.
"Yes."
"What about my clothes?"
"You can wear them on top of it. That is, if you still want to." He said with a smile.
"Alright then."
After I wore the Basic Defensive Suit, I did not felt even the least bit uncomfortable. In fact, I realized that it was the most comfortable thing I've ever worn in my life.
And just like he said, I didn't wanted to wear any clothes on top of it.
Although wearing only the defensive suit made me look like a cosplay artist, I didn't mind.
Why you ask.
Because it was fucking cool. That's why.
After I wore the defensive suit, I realized that there was something that this awesome suit didn't covered.
And that was my head.
If I suffer an injury in my head, then it didn't matter whether the rest of my body was protected or not, I would die anyway.
But I realized that Ashok must have taken that into account when he asked me to buy this suit so I looked at him with an expectant gaze.
"Here." He said and showed me the 3D model of a helmet.
True, this one didn't let me down either.
The helmet had a sleek and smooth design and just like the Defensive suit, it was also Pitch black in color, just like the Basic Defensive suit..
I could swear that I had seen something similar in some sort of futuristic game.
I had decided to buy it even without looking at the prize. But then again, I had to look at it's description to know whether it's as useful as it is beautiful.
Basic Helmet:- Protects the user's head from the piercing, slashing and blunt attacks of any 1st tier Abnormal.
Cost- 100 White Coins
Level- Tier 1
'Hmm… Well it's a bit pricey but not in the range that I can't afford. But why is it's description so similar to the Basic Defensive Suit. Are they supposed to form a set, or does every defensive equipment have a similar description.'
'Well. Who cares.'
After I bought two Basic Helmets, I paid 33 white coins to merge the two and upgrade it by a tier before wearing it proudly.
Just like the Basic Defensive Suit, the Basic helmet fit in my head perfectly and gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling.
After I wore the helmet, my whole view changed.
Except for the world around me, I could see the a whole set of words in front of myself clearly.
It gave me the feeling that I was inside some kind of game.
I focused on the words.
'Initiating scan. Scan Complete. Starting Basic Helmet Functions. Loading Files. Loading Complete'
'The User can now access all of the Dimensional Circlet's functions directly in his helmet.'
As the words entered my mind, the view in front of me changed once again.
I looked at the view in front of me in shock and realized that it was the interface of the Black watch.
'Wow! Now I understand why this helmet was priced at 100 white coins. If it only protected my head then that would not justify it's cost. But if you add a system which make it easier for me to access the interface of the black watch, then I would say that I got this thing for a cheap price.'
'Lily. Are you there.'
'Yes.'
'Show me the homepage. The one with my stats.'
'Sure'
The interface in front of me suddenly changed and showed me what I wanted to see.
User name:- Ashok Singh Rana
Stats:-
Strength - 2.0
Agility - 4.0
Endurance - 2.0
Perception - 2.0
Mana - 3.9 (4.0) - Skill being used.
Skills:-
Agility Booster (2nd tier), Advanced Vision (1st tier)
Equipments:-
Basic Sword (2nd tier), Clipping Glove (1st tier), Basic Defensive Suit (2nd tier), Basic Helmet (2nd tier)
Wealth:-
107 White Coins
'Well, I still have 107 white coins. What should I buy with that?' I thought and realized how much my thinking had changed in the last few minutes.
Before this, I would value 107 white coins very highly, but at this moment, it felt more like Chump change to me.
But still. I knew that 107 white coins was not a sum that I could simply ignore.
I looked at Rahul and told him about the situation.
"Give me the 107 white coins." He simply said. "I want to buy something for the team."
"What?" I asked in curiosity.
"It's this thing." Rahul said and showed me his 3d hologram.
In it, the 3D model of a small ring was rotating at a slight speed.
It was a silver colored ring. But even though it seemed to be quite beautiful, I couldn't understand why Rahul would buy an accessory.
That was until I looked at the description.
Spatial Ring:- Ring with a 1 cubic meter space inside it.
Cost- 1000 White Coins
Level- Tier 1
The simple description and the high price of the equipment both blew my mind.
'This.. This. Isn't this too…' At this moment I realized that I really had no words about how to describe this piece of equipment.
"We can put our stuff inside this thing and then we won't have to carry such big bag packs in the middle of the forest anymore." Rahul explained "I currently have 328 white coins left on me. With your 107 white coins. We have 435 white coins. We still need 565 white coins before we can purchase this thing."
"Hmm." I calmed myself down and nodded. If we could buy this thing then that would be of great help to us.
Even if we just fill it with water and food, that would still be enough to justify it's cost as those things will only become even harder to find in this Apocalyptic world.
"Well, you should go and sleep now. With such an amazing defensive suit, even if we get attacked by mutant beasts while we sleep, we won't suffer much harm." Rahul laughed and then went on to wear his own defensive suit.
"Well, he's not wrong in that aspect." I thought and decided to call Neha once before sleeping.
I wanted to reassure her that we'll get back home tomorrow but when I tried to call her, the operator told me that her phone was switched off.
I instantly panicked.
'What happened? Why is her phone switched off? Did something happened to her? Oh God!' Flurries of question started to pop up in my head.
'Damn it! Calm down you idiot. Why are you panicking so much?' I cursed at myself for panicking like that once more. Then I quickly turned to Rahul and told him the situation.
His face scrunched up for a moment before it regain it's calmness.
"Don't worry. The cause is most likely not something bad." He said.
"What do you mean?"
"You see. At this moment, there is no one who's maintaining the power grid anymore. Without proper maintenance, it was bound to be to stop working sooner or later."
"There's not much to think about it. Most likely, the power back in our town must have been cut and she would not have been able to recharge her phone. That's it. Don't think too much about it."
Then he laid on his blanket and said "Anyway, it's not like we can provide any help from here, even if we wanted to. Go to sleep. We'll get up early at night."
Although when he said that, I would feel a tinge of worry in his tone.
'His words are true you know. You should get some rest now. Don't think about things that are not in your control, alright.' Lily said.
'Huuu!' I exhaled and sighed. 'You're right. I understand.' And the reluctantly went to bed.
But this time, it took me a long while to fall asleep.
—————
We woke up from our sleep at dusk, and found a few mutant beasts gnawing on the Abnormals' corpses.
They were all small mutant beats like squirrels, rabbits, rats, etc. After we killed a few, the rest scurried off in different directions.
Rahul took out a bit of flammable oil from one of the huts and burned all those bodies together.
The Cores we got from killing the few little mutant beasts went to the group treasury which will be used to buy the Spatial ring.
"Well. With that taken care of, let's make plans for the rest of the journey." Rahul said and spread out the Map on the ground.
Although it was already dusk, we're still using the Advanced Vision skill and thus, were able to see everything more clearly.
"We're here." Rahul said and pointed at one part of the map covered with forests. Then he pointed to the South and said "30 Kilometers to our South is the Alampur Village. We'll stop there for some time to see if we can get any crystals from there. If we can, then we collect as many as we could. If we can't then we'll just move on."
"But remember one more thing. This village, had a few farm animals in it as well. Although they were not many in numbers and there's a huge chance that the village is still the territory of Abnormals, we should still be careful when approaching this area." He said.
"I understand." I said and eagerly waited for his next words.
"10 kilometers to the south of Alampur Village is our home town. Zakopur." He said "Regardless of whether Alampur Village is a mutant beasts' domain or not, we need to get back to our home town by tomorrow morning. We made a promise to Neha after all."
"I understand." I said 'This time, I also have no plans of breaking my promise.'
"Well. All that needed to be said had already been said. Let's start moving." He said.
And with that, two pitch black silhouettes went out of the Hamlet at lightening fast speed and merged with the dark forest.
Please report us if you find any errors so we can fix it asap!
I knew that such a skill would be highly impractical. It's just… my dreams.
I sighed deeply and then finally said. "Alright I would buy that Skill book."
Just as he'd suggested, before doing anything else, I used 180 white coins and the 8 crystals in my possession to increase my strength and Mana to 2.0 points.
After that ,I asked Lily to buy the skill book as I was too busy to do it myself.
I looked the description of the Skill book in my Hologram.
Advanced Vision:- Allows the user to see 2 times further in a clear way. Exhausts 0.1 point of the User's mana for every 10 minutes of usage.
Cost- 300 White Coins
Level- Tier 1
I put the Skill book in the slot and then used some mana to activate the skill.
Despite it being my first time doing so, I didn't face any problem and was able to activate the skill without any problem.
Suddenly the world around me seemed to have become much brighter and colorful.
'Wow! This is awesome.' I thought in my mind and then tried to focus on a tree in the distance.
The tree in my vision suddenly became larger, as if I was looking at it through a magnifying lens.
I looked at Rahul and freaked out when his enlarged face came in my view.
"Calm down. It'll take you some time to get used to this skill. But I promise you that it'll be very helpful to you in the future." He said as he also used his hologram and bought a similar book.
"Don't deactivate the skill book. The faster it upgrades, the better for us." He reminded me once more.
"I understand. But, aren't we going to sleep right now? Will our skills remain active even when we sleep? And what about the mana. The description said that this skill consumes 0.1 points of mana per 10 minutes. Wouldn't all of my mana only last 3 hours and 20 minutes this way."
"It will remain active even when you sleep. Don't worry about that. As for the mana. Well, let me explain how the mana system works to you once and for all."
"First of all, you need to know that 10% of your mana will be recovered every moment. So that means that you'll regain 0.2 points of mana every hour." He said
"But even at this rate, I'll still lose 0.4 points of mana every hour. So even with taking the restoration into action, my mana will only last 5 hours." I said.
"That's why we'll have to increase your Mana stat by 2 more points."
"Really?" I asked. "Shouldn't I increase stamina or perception before that?"
"No." Rahul declined directly "Increase your Mana. Later in the future, you'll use even more skills, so the faster you increase your mana, the better it'll be for you."
"Well, alright then."
Taking his advice, I bought 4 small pills for 400 white coins and gulped them down at once.
After the warm feeling faded away, I opened the hologram and looked at the interface
User name:- Ashok Singh Rana
Stats:-
Strength - 2.0 (1.4)
Agility - 4.0
Endurance - 2.0
Perception - 2.0
Mana - 2.0 (2.0)
Skills:-
Agility Booster (2nd tier), Advanced Vision (1st tier)
Equipments:-
Basic Sword (1st tier), Clipping Glove (1st tier)
Wealth:-
848 White Coins
I sucked in a deep breath when I realized how fast my wealth was being used up.
"Brother. I still have 848 White Coins left. Any more suggestions." I asked.
"Yes. First of all. Upgrade your Basic Sword to the 2nd tier." He said.
"Alright." I had already seen how Rahul had upgraded his sword and followed the same pattern.
Buy one more Basic Sword. Put the two swords in the two slots and pay 1/3 of the equipment's price, I.e 10 white coins to merge them together and get a better weapon.
After the bright light faded away, I had a 2nd tier weapon of my own.
I quickly took the sword and ran outside to find a tree that was a thick as a person's waist. I swung the sword with all my might and with a whoosing sound, the sword entered the tree…
But it never came out on the other side. After slashing through 1/10 of the trunk, it got stuck in there.
My excited face scrunched up at once.
"Oi! Brother. I think my weapon is defected. It's not as sharp as yours."
'The sword does not have any problems you dummy.' Lily said.
'Huh! Then why is my sword stuck here like this.' I pulled back my sword but found that it was not able to budge even an inch.
'Urghhh.' I used all of my strength and after a long struggle, the sword finally came out of the trunk.
'Your sword does not have any problems. But you're not able to cut through the truck. Do you still not understand where the problems lie.'
'Huh!' I thought for a while before I timidly asked 'Does the problem lie with me.'
'Yes.' Lily said 'Frankly, the fact even compare sword skills with that of Rahul is ridiculous in itself. He's a second timer after all. How can the two of you be in equals.'
'Huh! What does that mean?' I asked in confusion.
'Oh! Just a slip of tongue. Don't mind it.' Lily said the quickly added 'But the point is that your sword is not defective, but you're just not skilled enough.'
'Well… you could have put that in a nicer way you know.' I said as I clutched my poor heart.
'Hmph! Whatever.' She said and went silent once again.
"Come back. We still have a few more things to do." At that point, Rahul shouted from inside the hut.
"Coming." I carried the sword and went back inside the hut and sat down in front of him. "What next?" I asked.
'I did not wanted to think too much about it anymore.'
"A Basic Defensive suit." He said and showed a Pitch Black Streamline Suit in the hologram.
The suit was showed in as a 3d model and was rotating at a slow speed so that I can get the full view of the product.
After looking at the suit for a while, I only had one word for it.
Sexy.
'How the hell is this even a defensive suit. This is clearly something that the hottest bike riders could be seen wearing in magazines and TV shows.'
'This is so awesome.' I thought as it then turned to look at it's Description.
Basic Defensive Suit:- Protects the user from the piercing and slashing attacks of any 1st tier Abnormal. Absorbs a bit of blunt damages as well. But user is still advice to take caution.
Cost- 200 White Coins
Level- Tier 1
"Buy two of these." Rahul said.
"Alright." I said and purchased two of them after which, I paid 68 black coins to merge the two of them together.
After getting upgraded, I didn't see any particular change in the suit's appearance so I had to check it's description to make sure that I didn't make some kind of mistake.
Basic Defensive Suit:- Protects the user from the piercing and slashing attacks of any 2nd tier Abnormal. Absorbs a bit of blunt damages as well. But user is still advice to take caution.
Level- Tier 2
So it's not that different from the 1st tier suit. Just that it's defensive capabilities has increased.
"Go and wear it." Rahul said.
"Now?" I asked.
"Yes."
"What about my clothes?"
"You can wear them on top of it. That is, if you still want to." He said with a smile.
"Alright then."
After I wore the Basic Defensive Suit, I did not felt even the least bit uncomfortable. In fact, I realized that it was the most comfortable thing I've ever worn in my life.
And just like he said, I didn't wanted to wear any clothes on top of it.
Although wearing only the defensive suit made me look like a cosplay artist, I didn't mind.
Why you ask.
Because it was fucking cool. That's why.
After I wore the defensive suit, I realized that there was something that this awesome suit didn't covered.
And that was my head.
If I suffer an injury in my head, then it didn't matter whether the rest of my body was protected or not, I would die anyway.
But I realized that Ashok must have taken that into account when he asked me to buy this suit so I looked at him with an expectant gaze.
"Here." He said and showed me the 3D model of a helmet.
True, this one didn't let me down either.
The helmet had a sleek and smooth design and just like the Defensive suit, it was also Pitch black in color, just like the Basic Defensive suit..
I could swear that I had seen something similar in some sort of futuristic game.
I had decided to buy it even without looking at the prize. But then again, I had to look at it's description to know whether it's as useful as it is beautiful.
Basic Helmet:- Protects the user's head from the piercing, slashing and blunt attacks of any 1st tier Abnormal.
Cost- 100 White Coins
Level- Tier 1
'Hmm… Well it's a bit pricey but not in the range that I can't afford. But why is it's description so similar to the Basic Defensive Suit. Are they supposed to form a set, or does every defensive equipment have a similar description.'
'Well. Who cares.'
After I bought two Basic Helmets, I paid 33 white coins to merge the two and upgrade it by a tier before wearing it proudly.
Just like the Basic Defensive Suit, the Basic helmet fit in my head perfectly and gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling.
After I wore the helmet, my whole view changed.
Except for the world around me, I could see the a whole set of words in front of myself clearly.
It gave me the feeling that I was inside some kind of game.
I focused on the words.
'Initiating scan. Scan Complete. Starting Basic Helmet Functions. Loading Files. Loading Complete'
'The User can now access all of the Dimensional Circlet's functions directly in his helmet.'
As the words entered my mind, the view in front of me changed once again.
I looked at the view in front of me in shock and realized that it was the interface of the Black watch.
'Wow! Now I understand why this helmet was priced at 100 white coins. If it only protected my head then that would not justify it's cost. But if you add a system which make it easier for me to access the interface of the black watch, then I would say that I got this thing for a cheap price.'
'Lily. Are you there.'
'Yes.'
'Show me the homepage. The one with my stats.'
'Sure'
The interface in front of me suddenly changed and showed me what I wanted to see.
User name:- Ashok Singh Rana
Stats:-
Strength - 2.0
Agility - 4.0
Endurance - 2.0
Perception - 2.0
Mana - 3.9 (4.0) - Skill being used.
Skills:-
Agility Booster (2nd tier), Advanced Vision (1st tier)
Equipments:-
Basic Sword (2nd tier), Clipping Glove (1st tier), Basic Defensive Suit (2nd tier), Basic Helmet (2nd tier)
Wealth:-
107 White Coins
'Well, I still have 107 white coins. What should I buy with that?' I thought and realized how much my thinking had changed in the last few minutes.
Before this, I would value 107 white coins very highly, but at this moment, it felt more like Chump change to me.
But still. I knew that 107 white coins was not a sum that I could simply ignore.
I looked at Rahul and told him about the situation.
"Give me the 107 white coins." He simply said. "I want to buy something for the team."
"What?" I asked in curiosity.
"It's this thing." Rahul said and showed me his 3d hologram.
In it, the 3D model of a small ring was rotating at a slight speed.
It was a silver colored ring. But even though it seemed to be quite beautiful, I couldn't understand why Rahul would buy an accessory.
That was until I looked at the description.
Spatial Ring:- Ring with a 1 cubic meter space inside it.
Cost- 1000 White Coins
Level- Tier 1
The simple description and the high price of the equipment both blew my mind.
'This.. This. Isn't this too…' At this moment I realized that I really had no words about how to describe this piece of equipment.
"We can put our stuff inside this thing and then we won't have to carry such big bag packs in the middle of the forest anymore." Rahul explained "I currently have 328 white coins left on me. With your 107 white coins. We have 435 white coins. We still need 565 white coins before we can purchase this thing."
"Hmm." I calmed myself down and nodded. If we could buy this thing then that would be of great help to us.
Even if we just fill it with water and food, that would still be enough to justify it's cost as those things will only become even harder to find in this Apocalyptic world.
"Well, you should go and sleep now. With such an amazing defensive suit, even if we get attacked by mutant beasts while we sleep, we won't suffer much harm." Rahul laughed and then went on to wear his own defensive suit.
"Well, he's not wrong in that aspect." I thought and decided to call Neha once before sleeping.
I wanted to reassure her that we'll get back home tomorrow but when I tried to call her, the operator told me that her phone was switched off.
I instantly panicked.
'What happened? Why is her phone switched off? Did something happened to her? Oh God!' Flurries of question started to pop up in my head.
'Damn it! Calm down you idiot. Why are you panicking so much?' I cursed at myself for panicking like that once more. Then I quickly turned to Rahul and told him the situation.
His face scrunched up for a moment before it regain it's calmness.
"Don't worry. The cause is most likely not something bad." He said.
"What do you mean?"
"You see. At this moment, there is no one who's maintaining the power grid anymore. Without proper maintenance, it was bound to be to stop working sooner or later."
"There's not much to think about it. Most likely, the power back in our town must have been cut and she would not have been able to recharge her phone. That's it. Don't think too much about it."
Then he laid on his blanket and said "Anyway, it's not like we can provide any help from here, even if we wanted to. Go to sleep. We'll get up early at night."
Although when he said that, I would feel a tinge of worry in his tone.
'His words are true you know. You should get some rest now. Don't think about things that are not in your control, alright.' Lily said.
'Huuu!' I exhaled and sighed. 'You're right. I understand.' And the reluctantly went to bed.
But this time, it took me a long while to fall asleep.
—————
We woke up from our sleep at dusk, and found a few mutant beasts gnawing on the Abnormals' corpses.
They were all small mutant beats like squirrels, rabbits, rats, etc. After we killed a few, the rest scurried off in different directions.
Rahul took out a bit of flammable oil from one of the huts and burned all those bodies together.
The Cores we got from killing the few little mutant beasts went to the group treasury which will be used to buy the Spatial ring.
"Well. With that taken care of, let's make plans for the rest of the journey." Rahul said and spread out the Map on the ground.
Although it was already dusk, we're still using the Advanced Vision skill and thus, were able to see everything more clearly.
"We're here." Rahul said and pointed at one part of the map covered with forests. Then he pointed to the South and said "30 Kilometers to our South is the Alampur Village. We'll stop there for some time to see if we can get any crystals from there. If we can, then we collect as many as we could. If we can't then we'll just move on."
"But remember one more thing. This village, had a few farm animals in it as well. Although they were not many in numbers and there's a huge chance that the village is still the territory of Abnormals, we should still be careful when approaching this area." He said.
"I understand." I said and eagerly waited for his next words.
"10 kilometers to the south of Alampur Village is our home town. Zakopur." He said "Regardless of whether Alampur Village is a mutant beasts' domain or not, we need to get back to our home town by tomorrow morning. We made a promise to Neha after all."
"I understand." I said 'This time, I also have no plans of breaking my promise.'
"Well. All that needed to be said had already been said. Let's start moving." He said.
And with that, two pitch black silhouettes went out of the Hamlet at lightening fast speed and merged with the dark forest.
I knew that such a skill would be highly impractical. It's just my dreams.I sighed deeply and then finally said. "Alright I would buy that Skill book."Just as he'd suggested, before doing anything else, I used 180 white coins and the 8 crystals in my possession to increase my strength and Mana to 2.0 points.After that ,I asked Lily to buy the skill book as I was too busy to do it myself.I looked the description of the Skill book in my Hologram.Advanced Vision:- Allows the user to see 2 times further in a clear way. Exhausts 0.1 point of the User's mana for every 10 minutes of usage.Cost- 300 White CoinsLevel- Tier 1I put the Skill book in the slot and then used some mana to activate the skill.Despite it being my first time doing so, I didn't face any problem and was able to activate the skill without any problem.Suddenly the world around me seemed to have become much brighter and colorful.'Wow! This is awesome.' I thought in my mind and then tried to focus on a tree in the distance.The tree in my vision suddenly became larger, as if I was looking at it through a magnifying lens.I looked at Rahul and freaked out when his enlarged face came in my view."Calm down. It'll take you some time to get used to this skill. But I promise you that it'll be very helpful to you in the future." He said as he also used his hologram and bought a similar book."Don't deactivate the skill book. The faster it upgrades, the better for us." He reminded me once more."I understand. But, aren't we going to sleep right now? Will our skills remain active even when we sleep? And what about the mana. The description said that this skill consumes 0.1 points of mana per 10 minutes. Wouldn't all of my mana only last 3 hours and 20 minutes this way.""It will remain active even when you sleep. Don't worry about that. As for the mana. Well, let me explain how the mana system works to you once and for all.""First of all, you need to know that 10% of your mana will be recovered every moment. So that means that you'll regain 0.2 points of mana every hour." He said"But even at this rate, I'll still lose 0.4 points of mana every hour. So even with taking the restoration into action, my mana will only last 5 hours." I said."That's why we'll have to increase your Mana stat by 2 more points.""Really?" I asked. "Shouldn't I increase stamina or perception before that?""No." Rahul declined directly "Increase your Mana. Later in the future, you'll use even more skills, so the faster you increase your mana, the better it'll be for you.""Well, alright then."Taking his advice, I bought 4 small pills for 400 white coins and gulped them down at once.After the warm feeling faded away, I opened the hologram and looked at the interfaceUser name:- Ashok Singh RanaStats:-Strength - 2.0 1.4Agility - 4.0Endurance - 2.0Perception - 2.0Mana - 2.0 2.0Skills:-Agility Booster 2nd tier, Advanced Vision 1st tierEquipments:-Basic Sword 1st tier, Clipping Glove 1st tierWealth:-848 White CoinsI sucked in a deep breath when I realized how fast my wealth was being used up."Brother. I still have 848 White Coins left. Any more suggestions." I asked."Yes. First of all. Upgrade your Basic Sword to the 2nd tier." He said."Alright." I had already seen how Rahul had upgraded his sword and followed the same pattern.Buy one more Basic Sword. Put the two swords in the two slots and pay 1/3 of the equipment's price, I.e 10 white coins to merge them together and get a better weapon.After the bright light faded away, I had a 2nd tier weapon of my own.I quickly took the sword and ran outside to find a tree that was a thick as a person's waist. I swung the sword with all my might and with a whoosing sound, the sword entered the treeBut it never came out on the other side. After slashing through 1/10 of the trunk, it got stuck in there.My excited face scrunched up at once."Oi! Brother. I think my weapon is defected. It's not as sharp as yours."'The sword does not have any problems you dummy.' Lily said.'Huh! Then why is my sword stuck here like this.' I pulled back my sword but found that it was not able to budge even an inch.'Urghhh.' I used all of my strength and after a long struggle, the sword finally came out of the trunk.'Your sword does not have any problems. But you're not able to cut through the truck. Do you still not understand where the problems lie.''Huh!' I thought for a while before I timidly asked 'Does the problem lie with me.''Yes.' Lily said 'Frankly, the fact even compare sword skills with that of Rahul is ridiculous in itself. He's a second timer after all. How can the two of you be in equals.''Huh! What does that mean?' I asked in confusion.'Oh! Just a slip of tongue. Don't mind it.' Lily said the quickly added 'But the point is that your sword is not defective, but you're just not skilled enough.''Well you could have put that in a nicer way you know.' I said as I clutched my poor heart.'Hmph! Whatever.' She said and went silent once again."Come back. We still have a few more things to do." At that point, Rahul shouted from inside the hut."Coming." I carried the sword and went back inside the hut and sat down in front of him. "What next?" I asked.'I did not wanted to think too much about it anymore.'"A Basic Defensive suit." He said and showed a Pitch Black Streamline Suit in the hologram.The suit was showed in as a 3d model and was rotating at a slow speed so that I can get the full view of the product.After looking at the suit for a while, I only had one word for it.Sexy.'How the hell is this even a defensive suit. This is clearly something that the hottest bike riders could be seen wearing in magazines and TV shows.''This is so awesome.' I thought as it then turned to look at it's Description.Basic Defensive Suit:- Protects the user from the piercing and slashing attacks of any 1st tier Abnormal. Absorbs a bit of blunt damages as well. But user is still advice to take caution.Cost- 200 White CoinsLevel- Tier 1"Buy two of these." Rahul said."Alright." I said and purchased two of them after which, I paid 68 black coins to merge the two of them together.After getting upgraded, I didn't see any particular change in the suit's appearance so I had to check it's description to make sure that I didn't make some kind of mistake.Basic Defensive Suit:- Protects the user from the piercing and slashing attacks of any 2nd tier Abnormal. Absorbs a bit of blunt damages as well. But user is still advice to take caution.Level- Tier 2So it's not that different from the 1st tier suit. Just that it's defensive capabilities has increased."Go and wear it." Rahul said."Now?" I asked."Yes.""What about my clothes?""You can wear them on top of it. That is, if you still want to." He said with a smile."Alright then."After I wore the Basic Defensive Suit, I did not felt even the least bit uncomfortable. In fact, I realized that it was the most comfortable thing I've ever worn in my life.And just like he said, I didn't wanted to wear any clothes on top of it.Although wearing only the defensive suit made me look like a cosplay artist, I didn't mind.Why you ask.Because it was fucking cool. That's why.After I wore the defensive suit, I realized that there was something that this awesome suit didn't covered.And that was my head.If I suffer an injury in my head, then it didn't matter whether the rest of my body was protected or not, I would die anyway.But I realized that Ashok must have taken that into account when he asked me to buy this suit so I looked at him with an expectant gaze."Here." He said and showed me the 3D model of a helmet.True, this one didn't let me down either.The helmet had a sleek and smooth design and just like the Defensive suit, it was also Pitch black in color, just like the Basic Defensive suit..I could swear that I had seen something similar in some sort of futuristic game.I had decided to buy it even without looking at the prize. But then again, I had to look at it's description to know whether it's as useful as it is beautiful.Basic Helmet:- Protects the user's head from the piercing, slashing and blunt attacks of any 1st tier Abnormal.Cost- 100 White CoinsLevel- Tier 1'Hmm Well it's a bit pricey but not in the range that I can't afford. But why is it's description so similar to the Basic Defensive Suit. Are they supposed to form a set, or does every defensive equipment have a similar description.''Well. Who cares.'After I bought two Basic Helmets, I paid 33 white coins to merge the two and upgrade it by a tier before wearing it proudly.Just like the Basic Defensive Suit, the Basic helmet fit in my head perfectly and gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling.After I wore the helmet, my whole view changed.Except for the world around me, I could see the a whole set of words in front of myself clearly.It gave me the feeling that I was inside some kind of game.I focused on the words.'Initiating scan. Scan Complete. Starting Basic Helmet Functions. Loading Files. Loading Complete''The User can now access all of the Dimensional Circlet's functions directly in his helmet.'As the words entered my mind, the view in front of me changed once again.I looked at the view in front of me in shock and realized that it was the interface of the Black watch.'Wow! Now I understand why this helmet was priced at 100 white coins. If it only protected my head then that would not justify it's cost. But if you add a system which make it easier for me to access the interface of the black watch, then I would say that I got this thing for a cheap price.''Lily. Are you there.''Yes.''Show me the homepage. The one with my stats.''Sure'The interface in front of me suddenly changed and showed me what I wanted to see.User name:- Ashok Singh RanaStats:-Strength - 2.0Agility - 4.0Endurance - 2.0Perception - 2.0Mana - 3.9 4.0 - Skill being used.Skills:-Agility Booster 2nd tier, Advanced Vision 1st tierEquipments:-Basic Sword 2nd tier, Clipping Glove 1st tier, Basic Defensive Suit 2nd tier, Basic Helmet 2nd tierWealth:-107 White Coins'Well, I still have 107 white coins. What should I buy with that?' I thought and realized how much my thinking had changed in the last few minutes.Before this, I would value 107 white coins very highly, but at this moment, it felt more like Chump change to me.But still. I knew that 107 white coins was not a sum that I could simply ignore.I looked at Rahul and told him about the situation."Give me the 107 white coins." He simply said. "I want to buy something for the team.""What?" I asked in curiosity."It's this thing." Rahul said and showed me his 3d hologram.In it, the 3D model of a small ring was rotating at a slight speed.It was a silver colored ring. But even though it seemed to be quite beautiful, I couldn't understand why Rahul would buy an accessory.That was until I looked at the description.Spatial Ring:- Ring with a 1 cubic meter space inside it.Cost- 1000 White CoinsLevel- Tier 1The simple description and the high price of the equipment both blew my mind.'This.. This. Isn't this too' At this moment I realized that I really had no words about how to describe this piece of equipment."We can put our stuff inside this thing and then we won't have to carry such big bag packs in the middle of the forest anymore." Rahul explained "I currently have 328 white coins left on me. With your 107 white coins. We have 435 white coins. We still need 565 white coins before we can purchase this thing.""Hmm." I calmed myself down and nodded. If we could buy this thing then that would be of great help to us.Even if we just fill it with water and food, that would still be enough to justify it's cost as those things will only become even harder to find in this Apocalyptic world."Well, you should go and sleep now. With such an amazing defensive suit, even if we get attacked by mutant beasts while we sleep, we won't suffer much harm." Rahul laughed and then went on to wear his own defensive suit."Well, he's not wrong in that aspect." I thought and decided to call Neha once before sleeping.I wanted to reassure her that we'll get back home tomorrow but when I tried to call her, the operator told me that her phone was switched off.I instantly panicked.'What happened? Why is her phone switched off? Did something happened to her? Oh God!' Flurries of question started to pop up in my head.'Damn it! Calm down you idiot. Why are you panicking so much?' I cursed at myself for panicking like that once more. Then I quickly turned to Rahul and told him the situation.His face scrunched up for a moment before it regain it's calmness."Don't worry. The cause is most likely not something bad." He said."What do you mean?""You see. At this moment, there is no one who's maintaining the power grid anymore. Without proper maintenance, it was bound to be to stop working sooner or later.""There's not much to think about it. Most likely, the power back in our town must have been cut and she would not have been able to recharge her phone. That's it. Don't think too much about it."Then he laid on his blanket and said "Anyway, it's not like we can provide any help from here, even if we wanted to. Go to sleep. We'll get up early at night."Although when he said that, I would feel a tinge of worry in his tone.'His words are true you know. You should get some rest now. Don't think about things that are not in your control, alright.' Lily said.'Huuu!' I exhaled and sighed. 'You're right. I understand.' And the reluctantly went to bed.But this time, it took me a long while to fall asleep.We woke up from our sleep at dusk, and found a few mutant beasts gnawing on the Abnormals' corpses.They were all small mutant beats like squirrels, rabbits, rats, etc. After we killed a few, the rest scurried off in different directions.Rahul took out a bit of flammable oil from one of the huts and burned all those bodies together.The Cores we got from killing the few little mutant beasts went to the group treasury which will be used to buy the Spatial ring."Well. With that taken care of, let's make plans for the rest of the journey." Rahul said and spread out the Map on the ground.Although it was already dusk, we're still using the Advanced Vision skill and thus, were able to see everything more clearly."We're here." Rahul said and pointed at one part of the map covered with forests. Then he pointed to the South and said "30 Kilometers to our South is the Alampur Village. We'll stop there for some time to see if we can get any crystals from there. If we can, then we collect as many as we could. If we can't then we'll just move on.""But remember one more thing. This village, had a few farm animals in it as well. Although they were not many in numbers and there's a huge chance that the village is still the territory of Abnormals, we should still be careful when approaching this area." He said."I understand." I said and eagerly waited for his next words."10 kilometers to the south of Alampur Village is our home town. Zakopur." He said "Regardless of whether Alampur Village is a mutant beasts' domain or not, we need to get back to our home town by tomorrow morning. We made a promise to Neha after all.""I understand." I said 'This time, I also have no plans of breaking my promise.'"Well. All that needed to be said had already been said. Let's start moving." He said.And with that, two pitch black silhouettes went out of the Hamlet at lightening fast speed and merged with the dark forest.
