The bonfire crackled and flickered, casting a warm, reassuring light in the dark world Stark found himself in.
[Entered safe space, enjoy the safety while it lasts =)]
The silver fog wall loomed right in front of him (only a few meters away), a barrier separating him from whatever awaited on the other side: the boss of the [City Ruins].
But for now... all he wanted to do was rest.
He sat on the ground around the bonfire, enjoying the feeling of slowly regaining his HP and the curse of the Black Sun going down.
'No... I can't rest now...' he thought after sitting down for a minute, and then got up.
[Experience: 65960/75000]
'I'll get to level 10, then I can rest as much as I want,' he nodded before getting up, he had retrieved some of his life back, plus he was confident he would have no issue dealing with enemies nearby.
There were some monsters he had never seen roaming nearby, and so he decided to do something... quite strange.
He went to the border of the 'safe zone', and then put half of his body outside, allowing the monsters to see him.
Some immediately rushed to kill the human, while others just looked, waiting to see what would happen.
And so as some monsters were about to hit Stark... he took a step back and went inside the safe zone again.
And then...
"Let's see if that works!" he laughed then tried to punch the monsters while still in the safe zone, giving him an almost impossible to break shield while still being able to hit them as his fist traversed the 'barrier'.
"-2719!"
"-3162!"
"-2913!"
The monsters outside the safe zone roared in frustration as Stark's punches connected through the barrier, dealing damage without putting himself at risk.
'I'm actually cheating the system, how has nobody thought of that before,' he laughed, trying to punch yet another monster.
But...
~ZAP~
"-100!"
A lightning strike that came from the sky hit his body and dealt 100 points of damage to him, luckily he had allowed his HP to go up with the bonfire, or else it would have been bad.
[No cheating]
This panel appeared in front of him.
"..." Stark groaned before leaving the safe zone and killed the last monster that was in front of the barrier, "this was the last one anyway, I wasn't gonna abuse it," he shouted to whoever (or whatever) was watching him, but of course, no response.
[You have slain 'City Beast lv15', gained 3000 EXP!]
[You have slain two 'Mouthless Figures lv15', gained 5800 EXP!]
[You have slain 'Owl Cultist lv15', gained 2750 EXP!]
And of course, eliminating those foes resulted in the reappearance of the golden aura, once again enveloping him.
[Your level has increased to level 10, granting you one skill point and boost in stats]
[Experience: 2510/85000]
'Finally... damn it!' Stark smiled and sat beside the bonfire again, enjoying the feeling of finally reaching level 10, meaning he could now equip the necklace he had acquired.
And also...
[Level 10 Reached: please pick a skill card]
Just like last time, three cards materialized in front of him out of thin air, this time their color was blue.
'Oh yeah... that thing,' this had been how he acquired [Aura Smash], it seemed like he would be able to choose a new skill every 5 levels.
Stark gazed at the three blue cards in front of him, pondering his choice carefully.
"Oh well, it's not like I can decide what skill i'll get," he shrugged and picked the middle card at random.
The other two disappeared once he did that, and so he turned the card he picked to see an image of... himself?
...
[Name: Clone Frenzy]
[Type: Rare]
[Level: 1]
[Description: Summons a clone of yourself that acts and fights just like you do, giving you a temporary additional character to control in battle, the clone does damage based on how much aura you give it, but its stats are extremely reduced, and its HP is set to 1, cooldown period of 30 minutes between each clone]
...
And yet again, below the description was some sort of low-budget animation showing how the skill worked: a stickman that was supposed to be Stark used aura to summon another stickman that looked exactly like him, and he was able to control it to fight enemies.
'I guess it's good...' Stark would need to see it in battle to judge, but this was his first 'rare' type skill, meaning that it MUST be good, right?
[Clone Frenzy has been added to your skill list]
[You have upgraded 'Clone Frenzy' to level 2!]
After reaching level 10 and acquiring this skill, Stark just sighed and looked at the sky while sitting beside the bonfire, its darkness was mesmerizing for some strange reason.
'Spatial Inventory,' he mumbled after five minutes, and the small void appeared beside him.
He hesitated for a few seconds, but then put his arm inside while thinking of the "Soulbearer's Embrace" necklace.
Suddenly, he could feel his fingers brushing against the cool metal of the necklace, and so he pulled out his hand, just to see that the necklace was in fact inside it.
'I guess that's pretty cool and convenient.'
Without wasting time, he put the necklace around his neck.
["Soulbearer's Embrace" Equipped]
If he remembered correctly, that necklace was supposed to give him +20 strength, +100 HP, and also...
[Special Perk:] Grants the wearer the ability to absorb a very small percentage of damage dealt back as health.
If there was a way to gain health through damage, then he sure as hell was gonna take it.
'I guess that's all for now, isn't it?' he lay on the cold ground, maybe it was dirty, but even sitting down left him uncomfortable, so this was his best option.
He needed to be full of energy before attempting to kill the boss after all since he would do it alone and only at level 10 while it was probably recommended to do it with a party of level 15 classifiers.
'I hope that new skill helps... it would be great if it truly worked just as I envisioned it to be...'
Stark kept thinking about the future for a bit... and then... before he even realized it, the ground became strangely comfortable.
And so he closed his eyes.