Skill EXP Increases 100x

"I'm starting to get hungry. And it's getting dark."

The urge to try out the skill I'd received upon hitting Level 5 faded in an instant as the cabin and the yard plunged into darkness.

My mind snapped wide awake.

It had felt like a game, but this was not a game. The sun had dropped, and a chill wind came with it, leaving even the inside of the cabin laced with cold.

Was I supposed to just lie down and sleep in this empty cabin?

I didn't want that. My small but cozy room back home. The thought of sleeping in a house full of warmth brought Mom's cooking with it.

"Log out!!"

I tried shouting the magic words. Thankfully, the basics worked.

The problem was I couldn't use it right now.

In the darkness, the thing stretching toward the sky beside the bathroom like a long pillar was the Server Connection Device.

Was this what let me connect to the server? I didn't know the exact details, but one thing was certain.

"...I'll have to stay until tomorrow, then."

Assuming a single connection dropped it to 0% and I'd need to fill it to 100%, that meant 38% had accumulated over the half-day I'd already been here. Even if coins could charge it faster, I didn't have a single coin to my name.

One way or another, I had to spend the night here.

"Ah."

As the dopamine flooding my body cooled off, a wave of hard, practical helplessness washed in behind it, and the strength drained straight out of my limbs. I was hungry and cold. The thin cloth shirt and pants I'd been changed into against my will upon entering the server were long-sleeved and long-legged, sure, but they didn't look like they had any function whatsoever for holding onto body heat.

"I'm not exactly the industrious type."

Just clearing the weeds in front of the door so I could level up and pick a card was already one of the hardest I'd ever worked in my entire life. And now they wanted me to pull a night shift too?

Laziness took over my whole body. Sure, I was cold and hungry — but for one night, if I just shut the door tight and lay down, I could probably tough it out, right?

"...Haah."

Even through the inner argument, I eventually stepped out into the densely darkened yard. It wasn't simply because I wanted to sleep somewhere warm.

"I should at least find out what a coin is."

The quest reward. The Rare-grade Survival Sleeping Bag bundled in with it. If I wasn't planning to log out after a single day and never come back, I'd be living in this 100x server for the long haul — and that reward felt like something I was definitely going to need.

"If only I had my phone."

In a darkness without even moonlight, I rummaged through the toolbox with pupils that had barely adjusted and pulled out the fire steel. I'd never used one, of course. But I'd seen plenty of them on YouTube.

With trembling hands I scraped together the weeds scattered all over the ground, piled them in a hurry in front of the door, and struck the steel the way I vaguely remembered from the videos.

Scritch. Scritch.

It looked as worn-out as the sickle, but it did its job better than expected, sending sparks flying. A tiny flame caught in an instant, swallowing the weeds and slowly spreading light.

"Oh."

The small red blaze flickering in the pitch-black darkness was like a single point stamped onto the world. I had made that point.

Stillness sat inside the light spreading in every direction. Add the warmth of the burning flames, and it felt like I was sitting around a campfire. The sensation soothed a heart that had been running in circles.

Maybe that's why I found the courage. I dug through the weeds — who knew what might be lurking in there — searching the spots I'd already cleared a little, looking for the red berries.

"There's more than I thought."

I hadn't noticed when I was cutting them down, but at the heads of the weeds, about one in every three or four had a fist-sized red fruit hanging from it. Including the ones crushed against the ground when the weeds fell, I gathered about ten in all. They ranged from fist-sized down to a bit smaller. They had a slightly peach-like quality to them.

It was a fruit I'd never seen before, in a place I'd never been, so I hesitated — but I decided to trust what the quest said.

"If I eat this and get food poisoning, I'm fucked."

Then again, connecting to the 100x server without knowing a damn thing had already been a gamble. If I couldn't trust the system guiding me here, what else was I supposed to trust?

I gave one a rough rinse under the water from the sink and took a big bite. The skin was neither too hard nor too soft, and the fruit filled my mouth.

Along with a description that didn't look particularly dangerous, the sweet juice spreading through my mouth slid down my throat in an instant and filled me with satiety.

"Oof?"

Could eating fruit even feel like this? My body, exhausted from swinging a sickle all day, and the strength I'd lost to a growling stomach, surged back in an instant.

"Wow. Rare fruit really is on another level."

If a plant was packing fruit like this, could you even call it a weed? Just looking at them, all the weeds covering the area around the house seemed to be the same Life Grass.

One thing was certain.

"Ugh, I'm stuffed."

The fullness from a single fist-sized fruit. Even if I just cleared all the weeds and stockpiled Fruit of Life, at the very least I wouldn't starve to death before I could go home.

I finished Tutorial Quest (2) more easily than expected. I still hadn't even gotten through half of Quest 1.

A fairly large sleeping bag popped out in front of me. It was a plain gray thing, puffy enough that crawling inside looked like it would be snug and warm. But it wouldn't be ordinary. I'd only been here half a day, and I'd already gotten a pretty good feel for the performance difference based on grade in this server. At least on the level of the Fruit of Life!

"...Huh?"

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

The problem was that before I could even inspect the sleeping bag, a hundredfold of coins spilled onto the floor first. I immediately went over to the Server Connection Device and checked. It was enough to log out.

I could go back.

"..."

But looking at the sleeping bag sitting on the empty floor, I fell into thought.

"I've got a fire, food, and even a sleeping bag. Do I really need to go back?"

I'd come to a camping ground this romantic, the kind you couldn't visit even if you paid for it. It wasn't that I couldn't go back — now that I'd found a way, my heart felt at ease.

"Ahh. This is comfortable."

I couldn't feel the hard floor beneath the sleeping bag at all. It was like ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠lying on a zero-gravity mattress. There was even a pillow that cradled my neck just right. Gazing through the window at the campfire burning outside the door, I was thinking it was a little scary when my eyes slipped shut.

The next day, I slept until the sun was high in the sky, then immediately started my routine.

The B-class skill I hadn't even checked yesterday. I figured I'd test it out while continuing the weed-clearing work on the partially cleaned stretch in front of the door.

First awakening. First skill. It wasn't difficult. Using a skill was simple, after all.

First, you pictured the skill.

Hunters normally saw skill descriptions like this, so there was no need ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to imagine anything specific.

Second, you manifested the will to use that skill.

I hadn't really understood the "manifest the will" part. You'd have to actually become a hunter to know. I'd never even had a skill — I'd given up on the will to study altogether and lived as someone who'd bailed on the college entrance exam.

But the moment I pictured using Double Attack, I understood.

"This is easy?"

Whoosh—

The sickle cut through the weeds.

Crack!

It didn't quite match the sound of cutting, but through the impact I felt something strike a second time, traveling up through my fingertips. These were the same weeds that used to shatter in one hit when I punched and stomped them with my increased strength, but now they just snapped and toppled to the ground from a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠simple swing of the sickle.

"Huh."

As the skill activated, I felt something flow from around my heart out through my hand.

"So this is MP."

Fascinating. This was the sensation hunters lived with. I actually felt like a hunter.

With this piece-of-shit sickle, I'd barely been able to snap these vigorously grown weeds over the course of half a day. Now I was knocking them over with casual taps. The existential why am I even doing this feeling didn't even occur to me.

"This is the GOAT server for feeling your growth."

For a thirty-year-old bum who'd never improved at anything, it felt like I'd accomplished in half a day what I hadn't managed in an entire lifetime.

"This is great."

I didn't have much MP, so I couldn't spam it, but that didn't matter.

"Let's power-level again today."

With levels shooting up from the 100x EXP, I just needed to pick a Mana Card and I'd be set.

Flash!

"Oh! Already?"

After using Double Attack a few more times, I cheerfully greeted the burst of light. But this time, the light wasn't coming from my body. A new form of light, emanating from the sickle I'd swung.

Looks like I wasn't crawling out of the card swamp today, either.