The Idle System 3 The Mee

'It tripled again… but with two Idlers here, the total time should be just over an hour.'

John carefully moved a branch out of the way, peeking through to see if the bats were gone.

There were now two bats perched on top of the single rabbit. Because of the distance, he couldn't quite make out was what going on, but he could only a.s.sume that the bats were feeding off of the creature's blood. If they continued on like this, the rabbit was most likely going to die. Albeit a bit grim, John was looking forward to the fresh, bloodless meat that the bats would leave behind.

Despite never having set a fire in the wilderness before, John figured he could do it. He'd seen a few survival shows before, and the contestants on the shows always managed to figure it out. It's just a matter of putting the knowledge into practice. 'How hard can it be?'

Amidst his optimism, a thought struck him. How was he going to skin the animal? Without any knives or tools, it might be a challenge. 'Maybe it's like chickens and pheasants, and I can just pluck the fur out like feathers. I'll still need tools though, for removing the organs… Even though the blood will be drained, there's still a lot I have to figure out before I can eat this thing!'

Still muddling over the roadblocks between him and his feast, John's attention was once more wrenched away by the sound of a 'ding!' from his system. Opening up the display, he found the indicators read that 3/7 Idlers were free, and that his Maximum Idlers was now Level 6.

Thinking about his close call with the vicious bat, John thought it was about time to level up another skill. After all, the system was keeping track of that data for a reason. He might have to fight other beasts. Grimacing at the thought of another encounter, John placed one Idler into the Maximum Idlers category again, causing the countdown to spring up as 6h 4m 30s. The remaining two Idlers, he placed them into the category marked as 'Flesh Strength', thinking about the sharpness of bat's teeth. He wanted to raise his Defence skill level in case he had to confront those teeth again.

Tool Tip - To view more information about a skill, look at the skill in question for 5 seconds.

The notification appeared just as John finished placing his Idlers into the Flesh Strength skill slot. He bit back a curse as he read the text.

"Why don't you tell me these things BEFORE I f.u.c.king do something?!" He hissed under his breath. "What, do you think I need the learning experience or something, huh? Well? Can you hear me?"

John let his frustration sizzle as he sat in silence, the system obviously not responding to his anguish.

"I'm beginning to think I've got a defective system." He rubbed his temples. "Or maybe, the AI is just trying to p.i.s.s me off. Either way, I wish I could give it a good smack and set it right. That always worked with the old TVs, so why not an advanced AI System, right?"

With a resigned sigh, John redirected his attention to the display. The time needed to complete the Flesh Strength skill read as 4m 24s. John guessed the total time to be around 5 minutes, making up for the time he spent ranting at the system. Eyes resting on the Flesh Strength skill, he counted to five. Almost instantly, a line of text appeared beneath the skill.

Flesh Strength:

Regeneration: Heals the skin much faster than normal.

Bonus for maxing all skill levels: The skin and muscle just under the skin are tightened at a cellular level to become more robust, increasing Defence. The fat under the skin is skimmed off but not removed, you will feel lighter and able to run longer distances with the same stamina.

Level 10 = 10 points, Level 25 = 40 points, Level 50 = 75 points, level 100 = 150 points

Reading through the description, he could understand the actual skill. But, what about the points? What were those about? Was there a way to search the system for more information? Since the text mentioned the skin's defence, maybe he could get more information from the Defence category. He laid his eyes on the text and counted to five.

'Eureka!'

Defence:

The ability to endure and survive attacks from anything. Effects: HP. Rating from H to SSS.

H = 100 Points, G = 200 points, F = 300 points, E = 400 points, D = 500 points, C = 600 points, B = 700 points, A = 800 points, S = 1,000 points, SS = 5,000 points, SSS = 10,000 points

After thoroughly reading the description, his eyes travelled to the Attack category.

Attack:

Tear the skin, rupture organs, smash bones and kill. Effects: Stamina. Rating from H to SSS.

H = 100 Points, G = 200 points, F = 300 points, E = 400 points, D = 500 points, C = 600 points, B = 700 points, A = 800 points, S = 1,000 points, SS = 5,000 points, SSS = 10,000 points

"So, you got lazy and decided to use the same system for both," John snickered at the supposedly advanced system. "Just change a few words around and bam, same description."

As if trying to protest, the system once more chimed with the familiar 'ding!' sound. John was beginning to like this sound.

Skimming back through the system's list, he took note that his HP count now sat at 11HP, one point more than what he had before. The Flesh Strength skill now read Level 1/100, to his delight. The Idlers marker told him he had two free idlers remaining.

John went ahead and placed both of his free Idlers back into the Flesh Strength skill slot again, estimating a fifteen-minute wait time. After all, that's how much the Maximum Idlers skill increased each level. Much to his chagrin, the countdown came up as twenty-five minutes—an increase of a full five times more per level.

His brain a little fried because of all the mental math, John sat blank-faced and stared at the display. A little light bulb went off in his head as he figured out his error. The Flesh Strength skill only had one hundred levels, as opposed to the two-thousand levels that the Maximum Idler skill had. It made sense that the skills with fewer levels would take more time.

He closed the system and peeked back through the bushes. The bats were gone, and the jumbo-sized rabbit corpse was abandoned like he expected. After a quick check to make sure the coast was clear, John climbed down the rocks and headed toward the rabbit. Glancing all around him for signs of nearby predators, he slowly made his way to the corpse.

No sign of any bats. John took in his surroundings a little better. The rabbit laid about thirty feet away, among some trees that towered above him, higher than any buildings he was familiar with. If he had to put a number to their heights, he would have guessed over a hundred feet at the bare minimum.

The branches of the trees spread out, reaching out to one another and entangling, like a miraculously woven piece of art. The entire sky was coated by a sea of leaves, with patches of sunlight streaming in through the gaps. He would have admired it longer, if not for the free meal that awaited him. Tearing his eyes away from the beauty of the forest, he redirected his attention onto his goal.

Ten feet away from the rabbit, he paused. The creature showed no signs of life. It was now just a carca.s.s.

'It's darker down here.' Something in the back of John's mind stirred his sense of danger. He noted that the temperature was also cooler, and the atmosphere was heavy with antic.i.p.ation. A s.h.i.+ver crept down his spine.

As one final test, John stretched a leg out and nudged the corpse of the rabbit. No movement. A sigh of relief escaped the man, and he reached down to move the carca.s.s. As he did, however, he froze. Just beyond the tree in front of him, he could make out distant shouting. The voices got closer, and as they did, they grew louder. John could feel his heartbeat racing faster and faster as the sounds approached him.

Suddenly, his eyes could make out the source of the noise. A small group of three people who were being pursued by two bats. And they were headed right towards him!

There was no time to hide. In the midst of his panic, John surprised himself by relating his current situation to some light novels he enjoyed before his death.

"What a cliche beginning," he mumbled under his breath. 'Adventurers run into trouble and meet the reincarnated protagonist. From there, it always bubbles down to one of four possible scenarios.' He took a deep breath and went over the options in his head.

'One- the reincarnated character gets dragged into the said party's problem, fights, wins, and then befriends the party.

Two- the reincarnated character gets dragged into the said party's problem, realises he's no match for their enemy, runs with the party to safety thus befriending the party.

Three- the party IS the trouble, and they pick on the newbie. The newbie beats the s.h.i.+t out of said party, takes their stuff, and gets information about the surrounding area and nearest towns.

Four- the party deals with the trouble themselves and then takes notice of the newbie, striking up a conversation with them. They exchange information and, if they're generous, they share some food and a place to sleep, sometimes even escorting the newbie back to town.'

With a pause, John wondered which option it would be.

With his brain still mulling over all the possible scenarios, at some point the three adventurers ceased their running and turned to face the bats. Two of them fired crossbows at their foes, while the third charged directly at them. John's attention snapped back to the group as both of the bolts. .h.i.t the wings of the bats, causing them to tumble out of the air. There was a flash of steel as the third adventurer drew his blade and brought his long sword down onto the body of one of the bats.

The creature's head rolled across the ground.

Still in motion, the man spun around in a half circle whilst raising his sword once more. He sidestepped to the right and lined himself up with the second bat's body, which was still plummeting downward. With a fluid-like stroke, he swung his sword and cleanly beheaded the second bat.

With the immediate threat dealt with, the party relaxed their stances. The man with the sword wiped his weapon on the body of the bat to clean the blood off. He sheathed the blade and turned to address his party members, but his attention was drawn by something else. Just beyond his group members stood a young man alongside the corpse of a rabbit. The adventurer's jaw dropped and his face twisted into a look of utter shock.

The other adventurers followed his gaze, drawing their weapons at the thought of a new threat. However, they too were shocked at what they saw. They lowered their weapons, expressions twisting to match their fellow adventurer's.

John was roughly twenty feet away from the group. He was just close enough to make out their absolute shock. Confused, he looked around to see if there was anything out of the ordinary. The rabbit's body seemed fairly normal and non-frightening, definitely nothing to gawk at. Up above, there were tree branches and leaves, which were also very standard to find in a forest. They couldn't be gawking at him… could they?

"Is my face really that good-looking or what?" John called out to the group.

At the sound of John's voice, the adventurer with the sword came back to his senses. He shook his head a little then approached John with a steady and precise pace. The man's posture was cold and authoritative, one hand placed pre-emptively over the hilt of his sword.

"Why the f.u.c.k are you naked?"

Now, it was John's turn to be stunned.

He slowly lowered his head to look down at himself and found he was stark naked.

The whole time during his little adventure from the cliff to where he was now, from the life and death encounter with the bat to scaling down the side of the mountain as quickly as possible, he'd only really focused his gaze on his surroundings. Through the endlessly resurging panic, he never really stopped to think about his appearance. It was warm out, so it never occurred to him to even check.

The only thing on his body was a pair of leather boots.