ART Of Survival - Chapter 15

“Yosshh! I should head back to my cave and then drink this potion” Mal was very excited to use the awakening potion so without wasting any time, he ran back to the cave.

“Huh?! Did that guy leave?” Mal looked around but he wasn’t able to find the person who was sleeping in the bushes. ‘What a shame, I was planning on treating him to some meat’ Mal shook his head as walked towards his cave.

After eating a small meal and drinking the energy drink he got from before, he was finally ready to awaken a second skill. Mal sat down on a flat rock somewhat in the inner side of the cave and took a deep breath. “Here goes nothing” saying this he gulped down the entire vial.

“…”

“…” (A few inches later) [Auth:- I had to, I am sorry]

“Why is nothing happening? Did she scam me?…No that shouldn’t be possible because of the contract, so why? Is it because I have no potential? Do I have to live my life with this shitty skill?” Countless thoughts were running inside Mal’s head.

*Boooomm!!* ” An explosion occurred inside his brain, Mal’s mind went blank and he fainted.

-30 minutes later-

“Wh…What happened to me? Did that potion do this to me? I will sue the potion-making company! Not only did I didn’t get a single new ability, I nearly lost my life after taking this stupid potion.” Mal was fuming in anger not only because the portion didn’t work but also because that 100 high-grade shards went to waste.

“100 fuckin high-grade shards” Mal couldn’t help but curse, 100 high-grade shards or a million normal shards that were normally used on the Earth, that was enough to buy a mansion, in the middle of the city.

*Beep* [The host has awakened the next level of ‘Can Paint’ unique skill congratulations]

“New level of ‘Can Paint’? What would that be? ‘Cannot Paint’?” Mal joked as he opened his info panel and below his unique skill there was another skill…

[Can Erase- Now you are able to erase the things you will draw.]

“…”

“I am sorry mom, dad I am coming to you guys, I cannot live any longer in this world,” Mal said as ran towards the river, “I can just drown to death, wouldn’t that be painful? Or should I go and jump from a building or something? Nah, I should just die in the hands of a monster…” Mal started to think about 101 ways to die after looking at his new skill.

“Are The Gods Jealous Of My Handsome Face Or Something?!!!!” Mal howled and he started to cry right after.

*sobs* “They could have just told me that I won’t be able to get a skill, why are they bullying a weak heartened man like me?” *sob*

After 5 hours of constant crying, Mal stood up and walked towards the exit. “I should go and fight some monsters, then probably I would feel better.” Mal finally calmed down a bit,*Sigh* “Who am I kidding…I deep inside knew that I wouldn’t be getting a skill or something useful, well now at least I have a somewhat complete skill ‘paint and erase?’ huh…” Mal smiled bitterly.

*Awooooo!!* The moment Mal stepped outside, he saw the setting sun and heard the howling of the wolves. “Nevermind, I will go out tomorrow morning” Mal nodded his head and ran back inside his cave.

“Get some rest Mal, tomorrow you have something important to do.” He said as he dozed off.

-The Next Day-

It was very early in the morning, but Mal had already woken up, he was reading the survival guide he had bought from Natalia earlier while munching on a nutrition bar-looking thing.

“Oh! So this herb can be used for this? Wow! the sun-moon herb is insane!! I can use this herb to cure wounds, that’s useful. Mal was looking at all the herbs that were available in the secret garden and also he was going through some of the level 0 monsters, that he was most likely to find inside the jungle.

After getting his bag ready, he wore his battle suit and tied the spear to his back. Also, he was not planning to go and hunt the monsters in the mountain he was residing in as the mountain was a high-level danger zone that basically meant that the mountain was bad news for low levels, let alone Mal who was Lv 0.

“I should go to the ‘Palgan* Forest’, that would be the best possible place for me to hunt.” Palgan forest or the ‘Red Forest’ was situated to the East of the city. It was the home to many low-level monsters and thus was the ideal place for beginners to hunt and raise their level.

“But that is like the opposite to where I am staying!” The Palgan forest was situated in the east whereas, Mal was at the west most area of the city. “I guess I have to call for a cab.” Mal didn’t wanted to get unwanted attention because of his flashy equipment, so he decided to call for a cab.

After 10 minutes of waiting, the cab finally arrived.

“Where would you like to go, sir?” The cab driver asked with a smile after looking at his equipment.

“Ah…I want to go to the Palgan forest.” Mal answered flatly, he just wanted to go and hunt monsters and set stronger as soon as possible, therefore he didn’t wanted to waste his time and energy talking to a stranger.

“The cab driver was constantly talking while he was driving, but Mal was not interested in his talk so he only replied with a “hmm” “Okay” and “Oh”. Looking at the ‘Dont approach me’ attitude and aura of Mal, the driver finally gave up which made the rest of the journey was smooth sailing for Mal.

“We are here” After almost 40 minutes of traveling they arrived at the palgan forest.

Mal looked out of the window and to his surprise, he saw around 20 people standing in front of the forest’s entrance. “Are they hunters?” Mal paid the driver 100 low-level shards while thinking and got out of the car. His arrival made everyone look at him.

After thinking for a while, Mal cautiously looked towards the group and approached.

“This brother, which faction are you from?” A man with a decent build and red colored hair called out to him, he was holding a greatsword which he was resting on his neck.

“You are stating the obvious brother Gan, look at his hands, he is holding a spear, he must be a Morpher like us,” the other person said.

“You never know! Maybe he is like Ron here and also knows martial arts along with being an Elementalist” A person from the other side barged in, he had deep blue flowing hair and a slim figure.

So tell us which faction you belong to? Elementalists? Or the Morphers? the Gan guy asked again.

“I…”

-The End-

*Ppalgan:- means read in Korean, I made it palgan because that would make it easy for me and also you all the readers

1 perfect grade shard or An ether crystal = 1000 high-grade ether shards.

1 high-grade ether shard = 100 middle-grade shard.

1 middle-grade shard = 100 low-level shard.

This means a whole ether crystal has way more value than the shards.