Chapter 4 - Calm

"… Oh, crap… I have to calm down," Ryan muttered. "I can't get excited in this kind of situation since probably thousand of people are dying at this very moment… Maybe this new beginning is becoming more exciting than I thought it would be, but I can't get ahead of myself even though the idea of learning skills and obtaining status points seems very exciting…"

After taking a deep breath to calm down, Ryan finally cooled his head. He would be lying by saying that he hadn't wished for something like that could happen at least once or twice when he was a teenager, but he wasn't a kid anymore. Besides, massive dragons appeared in the sky, and slimes had the power to destroy cars with ease… so his new life wouldn't be as convenient as the delusions he had when he was just a teen.

"I have to leave this place and hide… and then understand the system. Maybe I have to change the order the things a little bit, but… I have to use the status points I obtained," Ryan said and then opened his status screen after checking that there was no other slime around. "I bet dexterity, and perhaps control will help me use with the use of my bow… I thought my skills have grown rusty, but since my dexterity is quite high, perhaps that isn't the case."

Although it was weird that Ryan couldn't see something like his own level, he quickly forgot about it because he understood that the right way to obtain status points would be by using skills and leveling them up. He was quite curious about why he suddenly could see things like that, but instead of worrying about such things, it would better for him to understand the system and its effects.

Ryan could imagine how Class and Race would change himself, Rank was a bit more complicated, but since those were in a blank, his sole option was to study the other status. However, it looked like he would have to be quick because he could hear some noise down the mountain, and the noise was getting closer quite quickly.

"Let's see... it will be a bit dangerous, but I will use all my status points in dexterity," Ryan muttered. "I don't have a melee weapon, nor do I have any offensive skill, so my only choice is to rely on my bow."

Maybe it wasn't a good idea to rely on his game knowledge, but Ryan didn't know anything aside from games that he could use as a reference at that moment. In all games he played and knew, dexterity would increase his power and ability with long-ranged weapons, so possibly that would apply in reality now that he could see and interact with a game-like system.

Regardless, after allocating his points, Ryan retrieved the two arrows he used to attack the slime. As expected, the arrows were still fine since the enemy was weak. Besides, those were the arrows his father had crafted to hunt bears… even though he never had the chance to take a vacation where he could find them.

"Now then, I just have to… seriously?" Ryan asked, shocked when he saw another slime approaching.

The road to the mountain base was a bit steep, so the slime was having a hard time approaching. Ryan would have a few seconds to prepare himself for the next fight, but instead of that, he began to sweat cold when he saw that something had happened on the road. Three hundred meters away from where he was, a cave had appeared. Ryan didn't know how or why, but the cave was blocking his path to the base of the mountain… he wouldn't be able to use his car anymore.

"I guess this is punishment for getting carried away in this situation…" Ryan said while watching the region and seeing the number of places on fire increasing every second.

Ryan took a deep breath again and then aimed at the slime that was approaching. The creature was just thirty meters away from him, but for some reason, the slime still wanted to approach more instead of using some magic. Ryan didn't lose that chance and fired. His arrow hit the slime, but only the spot five centimeters on the right side of the core.

"Obviously, that second shot was just a fluke," Ryan said while he was nocking another arrow.

He didn't have time to aim perfectly. Instead of that, Ryan focused on hitting the slime with every shot. The second also hit the target, but it barely hit the center of the creature's body. Before Ryan could nock the third arrow, the slime shot an Earth Arrow. Ryan jumped to his left side and avoided the damage, but he felt the projectile cutting the wind… it wasn't fast as a bullet, but it wasn't something that he could follow with his eyes…

"Come on, come on…" Ryan muttered while he was adjusting his aim after he got up.

The slimes had enough fuel to fire five Earth Arrows. Even though it would be safer to wait for the monster to run out of energy, Ryan didn't want to see that thing getting close. Fortunately, the slime wasn't that smart. Once Ryan was within his range, the creature stopped moving, and that gave him the idea to walk backward to buy time.

As expected, that did work. The slime began to follow Ryan, and that brought him enough time to attack without worrying about having his head exploded after being hit by an Earth Arrow. His third attack also hit the slime, and the creature finally trembled a little. That was a sign that it was dying, but then when Ryan was preparing the fourth arrow… the slime fire an Earth Arrow even though Ryan was twenty-five meters away from it… the projectile flew straight to his head.