Before Serin knew it, he was staring at the edge of a cliff, where dozens of small ponds of water lay below — filled with greenery as far as he could see, with plants and creatures he would never see in his world.
Turning around, he found the road that he was about to move, different from it.
Unlike what's below the cliff, the one before him was a deserted land.
Where barely any greens were growing, with some tiny bits of sticks, branches, and some dead bushes.
"Status," he called out, checking his only title.
[Title: Otherworlder.
— Given to those who don't belong to this world.
Effect: You are not fully controlled or bound by the system rules.]
[Additional Effect: Language Comprehension.]
"Not bad?" he said, pulling out a sack bag from his back.
Opening it and putting down all the things within, he checked them one by one.
"Shit— no weapon to use," Serin said out loud, seeing how the bag only had food, clothes, a water pouch, a lighter, and a money bag.
There was not a single blade among them. Checking more closely, he found a small paper box. He opened it and placed the contents in his palm.
"Are these… condoms?" he said, looking at the neatly prepared five pieces of thin, stretchy pouches of pink plastic fabric in his palm.
"Did the Goddess prepare this for me…? Because of what I said…?" he muttered, thinking back on the conversation topic he had earlier.
Seeing how he was given such an item, he couldn't help but feel embarrassed about it.
Thinking that acting like this wouldn't help him, he packed his things and started moving away from the sole tree he had been transferred to.
"Status," he called out once more, seeing how he still had twenty status points.
He placed ten of them into his stamina and five into his agility, leaving only five status points left.
With the increase in his stats, he felt his running speed had gone up a bit, and his stamina lasted longer than before.
Before he knew it, a day had passed, with darkness covering the sky entirely.
Thankfully, he wasn't an idiot.
While moving, he picked up some dry sticks and branches along the road, allowing him to make a small campfire.
Sitting near the campfire, he opened his sack bag and took out the canned food within it and some bread.
There were a total of five cans and seven breads; for tonight, he only needed one bread to keep the hunger away.
With this, he took out the other two pairs of clothes he had and put them on, allowing him to have thicker clothing to fight against the chill of the night.
"Status," he called out, staring at the stat names within.
Within it, the following classification of stats was shown: Strength, Agility, Defense, Mana, Vitality, and finally, Stamina.
Looking at it, Serin started thinking about what these words could truly mean.
"Strength should signify my lifting ability, the amount of force I can carry within my punch," he murmured, staring at the numbers within.
'Agility… this one should be movement speed, evasion ability, reflexes, and finally, body coordination.' He thought about, recalling how assassin-type class characters usually invest their points in agility.
"For defense…" Serin thought for a while.
Although he had played many RPG-type games and read many System-genre series, he never thought hard about it.
To him, defense was a stat he needed to increase. If his strength stat was ten points ahead of it.
In the end, the conclusion he came up with was:
"Damage reduction… physical toughness…" These were the things he could think of regarding this stat.
Finally, after dealing with the three main physical abilities, Serin moved on to the energy-type ones.
"Vitality — max HP, health regeneration, and finally resistance to diseases… I think?"
"Stamina — physical energy, fatigue resistance. In some series, skills like strike, dash, and other physical-based skills use stamina instead of mana. So… a skill-usage stat too?"
"Mana should be the energy being consumed when using magical skills."
Thinking about it more, Serin remembered the other existing stats that he didn't have yet.
For example: the intelligence and Luck stats, Bai Yi had unlocked within the white space — along with the other stat called; Endurance.
With all the questions in his mind, Serin felt like he was punishing himself just by thinking about it.
In the end, he took out his water pouch, drank his fill, and went to sleep.
Next morning. Two hours into his journey to the nearest town.
Looking around, he noticed the earth on the west side of his position kicking up a thick layer of dust.
Narrowing his eyes, he saw a woman within it, running away from some green-colored humanoid beings riding hogs, each carrying long sticks.
"Please!!!" A loud cry for help echoed in Serin's ears. "Help me!!! I can't run anymore!"
Seeing this, Serin dropped his sack bag and took out the string within it.
He placed the contents of the sack in the ground and placed multiple rocks into the bag.
Gripping the bag tightly, he wrapped the string around his right hand, making sure the sack filled with rocks wouldn't slip from his grip.
"Keep running!" he screamed at the woman running toward him. "I'll deal with them!"
With this, Serin's first fight against the monsters of this world began.
Thump thump thump.
Serin could hear his beating heart pumping, having to fight another creature for the first time, along with fighting multiple of them, and in two different races.
Breathing out, he checked the number of the enemy, making sure he could count them all together.
"Three hogs, two goblins riding the front, and the second one wielding a spear. While the one in the back only had one."
Narrowing his eyes at the last one, he noted. "Goblin archer." As the last rider had a bow with it.
"Good," he muttered, digging his feet in the ground, and racing towards the running woman.
[The skill: Basic information, has activated.]
A prompt appears, making Serin agitated for a bit, before passing by the woman.
Raising his right hand, with a sack filled with rocks, he screamed: "Fireball!"