"Status." Wang Lei muttered under his breath.
---
[Name: Wang Lei]
[LV. 7]
[Health: 34/160]
[Stamina: 11/50]
[Mana: 60/60]
[Strength: 20] [Agility: 6] [Defense: 16] [Stamina: 5] [Magic: 7] [Mana: 6]
[Status Points: 12]
…
---
"…My health points is so low. I'm that close to death huh?"
Wang Lei stared at his stats screen as he wrapped his injured right arm with a torn strip of his shirt. The cloth was unclean, and he knew it, there was a real risk of infection. But he didn't have much of a choice.
There was no clean water to wash the wound, and he couldn't afford to keep bleeding. He could only hope his high Defense attribute would be enough to fend off any infection.
How does Defense help with that, you ask? Well, Wang Lei was able to find out firsthand.
Apparently, the Defense stat didn't just measure how much damage his body could take, it also reflected his overall health and even boosted his self-regeneration.
Wang Lei had first noticed it when, every ten minutes, his health ticked up by a single point. And it wasn't just numbers; he could actually feel his wounds slowly healing.
I guess this is what happens when your regeneration's three times that of an average person, he thought. At this rate, I should be fully healed in about a day.
That was truly unbelievable to him. A wound of this severity shouldn't heal for at least a week, yet thanks to his high Defense attribute, it had been reduced to just a single day!
Well, aside from that… there was another strange matter he needed to deal with...
[Do you wish to use or consume the orb?]
Wang Lei stared at the floating screen, the red orb glowing faintly in his left hand.
He narrowed his eyes, carefully considering the message.
Consume... it must mean eating the orb. That would probably raise my stats significantly, he thought.
Wang Lei could feel the immense power radiating from it, unlike anything he had encountered before.
Normally, Wang Lei wouldn't hesitate to consume the orb, especially if it meant becoming stronger. Strength was the only way he could survive… and escape this mountain.
With the sheer energy this orb was giving off, it might even be enough to push all his attributes into double digits. That kind of boost would make a massive difference.
But he couldn't ignore the other option either: Use.
The problem was, he had no idea what would happen if he chose that instead.
Wang Lei stood in silence, clearly torn.
"...Fine," he muttered at last. "I can always boost my stats with minerals anyway. So even if this doesn't work out, it's not much of a loss."
He tightened his grip around the red orb; eyes firm with resolve.
"Maybe I'll get lucky and gain something even more useful."
With a hopeful mindset, he chose to use the Common Orb instead of consuming it.
The moment he made up his mind to use the orb, his body moved on its own.
Before he even realized it, his hand clenched tightly around the orb, crushing it in his grip.
A puff of red smoke burst forth, rising into the air and swirling around. Slowly, it began to take shape, forming into some kind of object.
In the meantime, the red smoke thickened and began to solidify, allowing Wang Lei to finally make out its form.
"A… pair of shoes?" he muttered in confusion.
Sure enough, as the transformation completed, a pair of black leather boots materialized before him, resembling something straight out of western medieval times.
What the… heck…?
Wang Lei stared in disbelief. He rubbed his eyes, half-expecting the vision to vanish like an illusion, but it remained, solid and real.
How… How could something just appear out of nowhere?
Though part of him suspected this had something to do with the orb, the sight was still beyond reason. No normal person wouldn't be stunned to see an object materialize out of thin air.
Furthermore, if his hunch was correct, this thing could be something that would greatly aid him in escaping the mountain.
To test it, he reached out and lightly brushed his fingers across the surface of the leather boots.
A floating screen popped out.
[Worn Black Leather Boots] [Common Treasure]
[Description: Boots once worn by a white knight. Though weathered and worn from constant use, they still retain their durability and can serve their wearer well for a long time.]
[Effects: Agility 20+]
"Ohh… As I thought, it's a gear item!" Wang Lei exclaimed in surprise.
He had spent a good chunk of his teenage years playing games especially RPGs, which were his favorite. Those games often featured gear and item systems, so he had a hunch about what was going to appear the moment he used the orb.
Without further hesitation, he quickly took off his old shoes and replaced them with the black leather boots.
[Agility: 26 (+20)]
"It really increased my Agility!"
His Agility had even risen high enough to surpass his Strength attribute. Currently, all of his basic combat attributes mainly Strength, Agility, and Defense, had reached double digits, averaging roughly three times that of a regular person.
Actually, his Agility attribute had been bothering him for quite some time, ever since his first encounter with a cave ant.
His below-average Agility made it impossible for him to keep up with the creature's movements.
He could only stand there, taking hit after hit, until he was forced to resort to an underhanded trick just to survive.
Well, Wang Lei didn't exactly regret what he had done, but he knew that if he continued fighting like that, he wouldn't last long. It didn't help that he hadn't been able to find any metals or ores that could boost his Agility.
But now, with this gear item enhancing his speed, raising his Agility to more than five times that of an average person, he felt almost invincible. There wasn't a single creature he thought could beat him now.
"Wa-ha-ha-ha!" Wang Lei laughed, practically oozing confidence.
.
…
...
Okay, let's stop before I get carried away and end up getting myself killed.
He took a deep breath, snapping himself back to reality.
Wang Lei continued walking deeper into the cave. Staying in one place wasn't an option—he had no idea if the ants he had just fought were able to communicate with their nest.
Their attack had been too scattered for him to observe their behavior closely.
He wasn't about to take any chances. This was a matter of survival.
Even with his increased stats, he knew he still wouldn't stand a chance against an entire swarm of cave ants.
Up ahead, there should be a fork in the path, Wang Lei remembered that one of the paths led to a safe spot where he could rest for the night.
It didn't take long before he arrived at the fork in the tunnel.
Wang Lei stood before two paths, one to the left, which led to the mining house, and one to the right, which opened into a large, cavernous space.
Naturally, he chose the left path. There was no way he'd ever willingly take the right, not even as a last resort.
That direction likely led straight to the ant nest.
If Wang Lei remembered correctly, the left path passed through an area filled with toxic gas, but it didn't open into any large spaces like a cavern. Given how massive the ants were, he doubted they could have built a nest there.
So why was he heading down a path filled with deadly gas? Simple, he had no other choice. This was the only route that could possibly lead to another exit.
Well, the toxic gas wasn't actually much of a concern for him. As long as that was still intact at the mining house, he'd be able to cross the toxic zone without much trouble.
As Wang Lei slowly disappeared into the darkness, venturing deeper down the left path, something stirred on the right, where he suspected the ant nest to be.
A pair of ominous red eyes emerged from the shadows, formed not of a single eye but of countless smaller ones clustered together. Only its gleaming white mandibles were clearly visible, opening and closing rhythmically. Then, with a bone-chilling screech, a swarm of cave ants began pouring out of the darkness.
Yet, despite their terrifying size, each already three times as strong as a normal adult. They seemed utterly insignificant before the presence of the creature with the red eyes.
Even though the cave ants surged forth in a massive swarm, not a single one dared to brush against the red-eyed creature. It was as if even the slightest contact might provoke its wrath.
The creature stood still, towering over the others, its many crimson eyes gleaming with anticipation. It didn't move, but its mandibles twitched ever so slightly, hungry, eager.
It was waiting.
Waiting for the moment it could hunt down the man who had slain its kin.