Owen couldn’t hide his excitement or disappointment as he looked over his new Items. Chuckling to himself as he sat on his MRE box, he inspected the loot he got from his Random Items.
Looking over the items, most were mundane, so he just stored them away. He kept out the smokes, beer, and anything magical. After smacking the top of the smokes a few times, he removed the thin string holding the top on before putting one in his mouth. Summoning his lighter, he lit in and took a deep inhale. “Yup, still tastes like shit. What about our wonderful generic MCX branded beer.” Reaching over, Owen grabbed one of the cans and ripped it free of its housing. Popping the top, Owen took a deep gulp of lukewarm swill. “Oh, yeah. Ugh, nasty ass stuff.”
Owen said as he chugged the rest of the contents. Returning to his last couple of items, he grabbed the glow stick. Giving it a quick shake, it gave off a soft green glow. The sunglasses were just that, tinted glasses. “I wonder if Boulder knows how enchanting works; I’ll ask when I return.” Finally, he picked up the deck of cards, looking through them, each suit was an element. The aces had a woman with six wings, and the face cards had six other figures. Owen was about to store the deck away until he got to the final two cards. The big and little Joker. They were tinted black and red, almost exactly like the system screen’s he got from Dea.
“So deck of cards with the Gods on it, and Dea’s the Joker. Totally not ominous. Alright, I got about 100 mana now. Let's go hunting.” Storing away all the extra items, Owen walked out of his new base camp. Making his way into the woods, Owen glanced up to check his Map. There was now a tiny blue dot approximately where his F.O.B. should be. Owen did his best to make as little noise as possible as he made his way into the forest. A few notifications confirmed that he wasn’t wasting his time.
It didn't take long for Owen to stumble upon another pack of monsters. Hiding behind a nearby tree, Owen observed the pack. This one had two warriors and a new type he hadn't seen before. It wore loose cloth and wielded a gnawed stick.
While he studied the creatures, he began to see a pattern. The two warriors would corner a rabbit, and the Ardent would then skewer it with a stone spike from underneath it. As Owen followed, he kept to the shadows of the trees until he spotted an opportunity. The two warriors had just left, too, and began cornering another animal. Owen raised his weapon and used his Air enchantment for his next shot. Owen slowly squeezed the trigger, and the Gobbo fell to the ground without any flash of mana or recoil. Without missing a beat, Owen rushed the confused warriors; leveling his pistol, he fired off a regular controlled pair, taking one warrior down. With the last of his mana, he used Mana Edge.
Trading blows with the Warrior, Owen noticed how its blade developed a crack after their exchanges. Owen could still feel the mana that coated his blade, just like when he formed his pistol. A thought occurred to him as he swung down with an overhead slash: if he could still feel the mana, could he also apply his affinity to it. While he had that thought in mind, he could feel his mana change; it felt more solid than before, with its color going from a light blue to a deep green. As his sword connected with the Gobbos, it sheared right through the blade, carrying on and bisecting the creature. Taking in his surroundings, Owen began to retreat back to cover while he went through his new notifications.
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Four packs later, Owen had finally Leveled up again. Throwing his free point in luck, he couldn't help but grin when looking at his stats.
“Yes,” Owen pumped his fist, “Almost to some normal fucking luck, just another 700 Exp, then I can hopefully evolve my class.” Looking up, Owen could still see the Sun high in the sky. “So it looks like I get a flat plus one to everything every three levels. I wonder if that’s just the Class. Does Marine just give me one to everything since we're more of a Jack of All Trades regarding warfare? Eh, I’ll worry about that later. I've got monsters to grind.” With an evil grin, Owen continued his hunt; with each new pack he killed, he tried something different. Sometimes going in with just his sword and shield, he even brought the axe back out, which rewarded him with another skill increase for his axemanship. He also tested out his other affinities, whether they were used with his pistol or Mana Edge. Although he couldn’t bring himself to try shooting himself with the light bullets. Instead, he shot a Gobbo in the leg, then shot it again with the Light mana. The monster was very confused at why it suddenly didn’t hurt anymore, but Owen quickly put it out of its misery with a Death-infused shot soon after. The death mana was by far the most dangerous. These creatures have always leaked some mist, but when cut or shot with the Death mana, they bleed a dark, viscous ichor.
Owen continued on his slaughter, taking rests anytime his mana dropped below halfway. While he wanted to train all his Skills, it was best to do his mana ones when he didn’t have to worry about another fight. Only once did he run into someone else out hunting monsters, a young boy armed with a bow. Owen had noticed him stalking a deer and simply chose to head somewhere else instead of interrupting his hunt. Owen was glad he changed course as a few minutes later, a large cluster of red dots appeared on his map. Moving towards them, Owen came across what he could only describe as a camp. There were shoddy lean-tos made of sticks, with all the Gobbos gathered together. A quick headcount gave about fifteen to twenty of them, all gathered around one in particular. It seemed to be standing on a wooden stump, hissing and making more strange noises to the others. Their enthusiastic response sent a chill down Owen’s spine. What are they doing? Are they planning an attack? Is that one leading them?
“Shit,” Owen cursed internally, “So it's almost as strong as the Orcus that I killed in the Dungeon. What the hell is it doing?” Before Owen could think about it too much, a notification appeared.
“Well fuck, I can’t say no to that. I need to save up to get ARMS fully kitted out. Just so happens that a nice big sack of coin is right in front of me.” Owen said while smirking.
