The lush canopy of gleaming leaves greeted his sight. Ropy vines snaking down from the tall trees looked like snakes coming for a strike. Close by, the chirps of exotic birds reached his ears, with monkeys hooting from the distance. Even the smell was different from his cubicle office. The air was thick with growth and rotting vegetation, mingling with the various scents of different floras.

“Snap out of it,” Ken said, snapping his fingers at the dazed Leo.

“Sorry, it just feels unworldly,” Leo said.

“What? You’ve never been to a jungle before?” Ken asked. “Thailand? Hawaii? Florida?”

Leo shook his head.

“I guess today’s your lucky day,” Ken grinned and took the lead in paving a path.

Leo trailed from behind and for some reason felt the need to check his phone. ‘There’s no signal,’ the full cell phone bars on the top screen were no longer there. ‘Yup, this is definitely a whole new world,’ with that thought he stayed close behind Ken. Trudging through the jungle floor was ten times more difficult when compared to the woods near San Francisco. The air was humid, and the heat was unlike he had ever felt. It was barely a short trek and Leo was sweating bullets.

His own breath started to drown his ears as the jungle was not a simple place to be for an outdoor newbie like Leo. ‘Shit, this is hard,’ Leo thought as he took off his shirt leaving him in his light gray undershirt. His hand rummaged inside his bag and found the thing he was looking for. He uncapped the pet bottle and chugged it down until half was left. Looking at the front, Ken cut through the greenery with the cleaver he got from the kitchen. Leo had to admit, he was pretty impressed by the guy’s capability.

“Leo!” Ken called.

Leo pushed himself and reached Ken after a few feet. He wanted to ask, but his eyes found the thing Ken was staring at. “Fuck!” Leo said, scrambling all over the place. He even almost stumbled on his own feet.

“Calm down. It’s just a boa python,” Ken said. His eyes never left the sight of that coiling reptile that was readied to strike.

‘Get a grip, Leo, you can’t just jump like this every time something scary pops out,’ Leo soothed his nerves and tried to get a grip over his jumpy self. Being like that would be a liability in the long run, and he had to change if he want to survive.

“So what do we do? Do we walk around it or do we take a different path?” Leo asked.

“We kill it,” Ken said.

“Oh,” the answer wasn’t what Leo expected. “But do we have to? It’s just sitting there, protecting itself. We should be warier about monsters or goblins or something.”

“Don’t be an idiot, and just kill it,” Ken ordered.

“Wait, why me again?” Leo was all up for vanquishing monsters and such, but killing animals randomly was not his cup of tea.

“Cuz you have the axe,” Ken showed Leo his short cleaver. And glancing between those two weapons was enough to make Leo understand.

“But I can give it to you and you—”

“Just do it,” Ken didn’t wait for the excuse and pulled Leo to the front.

Leo balanced himself on his feet as he almost stumbled into the python’s range. “Woah,” his arms spread wide with his center of gravity lowered. His eyes focused on the coiling reptile which was flickering its tongue as if sensing the growing fear in him. If he could glare at Ken right now he would have done it by now. But the snake had his fullest attention.

Then he noticed the python’s head retreating deeper into its coil. ‘Shit,’ within that split second, he knew it was bad news. The python went for the strike, lunging itself with the full force of a coiled-up spring. Its fangs craved for Leo’s flesh, and yet the bladed edge of a fire axe thwarted the python’s attempt. By luck, Leo moved from instinct alone after noticing that slight change in the python’s movement. He cleaved the snake right at the head and nailed it down right through the ground.

Leo stared at what he had done. Dark crimson blood pooled underneath the head of the python as Leo was slowly tuning out of everything. He fell into a daze as he couldn’t believe he just killed a python. Yet what came next brought him back to reality.

[You have reached level 1]

[5 stat points have been given]

[In commemoration of taking your first step, please choose your free reward]

[3 stat points]

[Random equipment]

[Random weapon]

[Skill: Identify]

[Skill: Throw]

[Skill: Dash]

“You good?” Ken asked, looking over to Leo who kept staring at the empty air.

“Shush,” Leo shushed. His mind was pondering between these options as he never expected to receive a reward this early in this real-life role-playing game. ‘So which is it? Stat points seem tempting. But having a proper weapon also sounds good. Perhaps it would even have additional effects or something.’ His eyes trailed down, finding his first encounter with a set of skills. ‘Now it’s getting interesting. All three have their own use, Throw can distract an opponent or be used as an attacking method. Dash can be used both in and out of combat. But in the long run, I’m definitely sure Identify will be the most useful.’ He made his decision and he chose…

[You have gained a new Skill: Identify]

Leo smiled and it tugged Ken’s curiosity. “You’re going to share or you’re going to keep it to yourself?” Ken asked.

“You’re not going to believe this…” yet before Leo could end his word, something new caught his eye.

[Statistic Inheritor activated; +1 Agility]

Leo’s mind went blank. If what he was seeing was the truth, then this trait of his would-be his biggest advantage in surviving through all of this.

“Hey,” Ken turned Leo by the shoulder towards him. “What’s going on? What happened?”

“I leveled up,” Leo said.

“Yea, I know that, but what’s with the blank look?” Ken asked.

“Wait, what do you mean you know?” Leo narrowed his eyes. Ken was a bit suspicious in wording his sentence.

“The gift I got is Identify, and I’m assuming you know what it does,” Ken said with a straight face.

“You could have told me, man,” Leo said with a frown. “We’re like two people out here, and not having trust between us two is going to be a big issue.”

“Fine. I’m sorry then,” Ken said. “We cool?”

“Can I trust you with my back?” Leo asked, handing out his open palm at Ken.

“This is fucking cringy, do you know that?” Ken shook Leo’s hand. “But I guess there’s always a first.”

Leo then explained to him what had happened, but he excluded the part involving his trait’s effect. He knew better, something like his trait shouldn’t be shared with others that easily.

“Next snake will be mine,” Ken said.

“Sure. But aren’t you wondering why simple animals like these could give us experience to level up?” it was something that had been bugging Leo for a while now after gaining his new level.

“I don’t know, but I’m assuming it’s how the game system eases us up before dealing with the real monsters,” Ken answered. “Logically speaking, I don’t think we can fight a boar the size of an elephant right off the bat. But if we have guns that would be a different story.”

“Yea and I doubt the guards will easily hand out their guns to us,” Leo replied.

“You got that right, and I think it’s better if we adapt with using weapons like these. Six rounds of bullets aren’t enough to go through a jungle like this,” Ken said.

Rather than going further, the two of them went around near the perimeter of the company building. Getting lost here would be disastrous, not without any tracking skill or a compass.

“Got it,” Ken removed his cleaver from the ground after chopping a frog into two. Luckily, he spotted the little amphibian jumping on the jungle floor.

“So how is it?” Leo asked.

“Nothing,” Ken swiped off the blood on the cleaver using the large leaf by his side.

“So at least now we know not all animals can give us experience,” Leo said. The two of them had tried killing everything from insects to amphibians, yet none of them yielded a result.

“As long as their level is zero we can’t get any experience,” Ken said. He told Leo when he used identify on the python, and it came up describing the reptile as level two.

“Let’s go further,” Leo said, while drenched in his sweat yet the prospect of getting stronger fueled his will to go through the hellish jungle.

“Good, you’re not getting cold feet anymore,” Ken smirked, and the two of them went further. With Ken’s suggestion, they also left markings on trees that they passed through, hoping it was enough to backtrack their path.

“Watch out,” Leo grabbed Ken by the shoulder and pulled him back. The moment he did so, a light green snake missed its mark.

“Fuck, it almost got me,” Ken said, staring at the tree snake that almost sunk its fang on his flesh. Leo used Identify on it, and a new window popped up.

[Green Tree Snake][Lv.1]

[Non-venomous. Agile and slender and can grow up to two meters in length.]

“It’s level one, go for it,” to Leo’s words, Ken made a quick swing of his cleaver right at the dangling snake on a tree branch. Metal met scales, and the reptile was chopped into two. The part with the head squirmed on the ground, refusing to die that easily. And Ken saw through it to the end, he swung his cleaver one more time, and the head was cut off.

“How is it?” Leo asked.

“Never felt better,” Ken took his time, choosing the first reward, and what he picked astonished Leo. Out of nowhere, a brown cuirass adorned Ken’s body. It looked like simple leather armor, and yet Leo’s curiosity got the better of him. Identify was used, and he couldn’t help but be green in envy.

[Vulk Leather Cuirass]

[A piece of armor that covers the whole torso. An early creation of Vulk during his beginning days.]

[Defense: +5]

[Effect: 4% Stamina Regeneration]

“It’s pretty nice,” Ken gazed at Leo, patting his new armor in elation.

“You got lucky,” Leo replied.

“True, but my luck is still zero. So whatever this is, I call it fate,” Ken bragged.

“You feel any different?” Leo wondered, considering there was an additional effect on the cuirass.

“I don’t know, but it does feel super comfortable,” Ken was more than just satisfied. The cuirass fit him just right like it was custom-made by a tailor. “Have you distributed your points yet?” Ken asked.

“No, not yet,” Leo replied. His first intention of putting all of them in strength was put on hold. “It would be a waste if I dump it all on a stat that wasn’t going to be useful for my future class.”

“I agree with that, but I still think you should use your points. It won’t be useful if you’re dead, you know,” Ken said.

‘Ken’s right. I’m taking this way too lightly considering we’re just fighting against normal animals,’ Leo thought. He turned to Ken who already continued paving a path through the thick jungle floor. “Hey, you know what kind of class you will pick?” Leo asked.

Ken stopped swinging his cleaver and turned to Leo. “I’m going for close-combat. With this system, I ain’t going to stay at the back and just watch,” Ken replied.

“So all strength?” Leo asked.

“That sounds good on paper, but I’m not an idiot. Three to strength, one to vitality, and the last one to fortitude,” Ken said. The man with the cleaver turned back and did his job, cutting through the undergrowth with his eyes searching for new prey.

‘What should I do? All to strength or should I balance it out? And the Statistic Inheritor does help a lot in giving free points, but I still don’t know how frequent it could give me. There’s a need to test it a few times before I can be totally confident with it…’ in the end, Leo followed his first intention. He dumped four points to strength and the last point to vitality just for the sake of alleviating this fatigue he was feeling. And it worked. The heavy breathing settled down quite a bit as the sores on his muscles also started to lessen.

He opened his status window and a sense of gratification made him smile. ‘No more four in strength.’

[Name][Leonardo Hart][Human]

[Level][1]

[Class][-]

[HP][60/60]

[SP][38/60]

[MP][Locked]

[Strength][8]

[Vitality][6]

[Fortitude][0]

[Dexterity][6]

[Agility][7]

[Perception][5]

[Intellect][7]

[Spirit][5]

[Charisma][6]

[Luck][0]

[Available Points][0]