Chapter 2: Chapter 2. The First Mission

[Ding! The first mission is received!]

Description: In the original story, Arno Mann survived. His sister Elia found a second farewell note left at home. Using her powers, she went back in time and prevented his death.

Task: Find the note at home and prevent Elia or Sophia from seeing it.

Reward: 350 experience

2 attribute points.

Penalty: If you fail, time will be rewound and your consciousness will disappear.

Time remaining: 2h 37 minutes.

Arthur blinked a couple of times. He couldn't quite comprehend what was written here.

- Um... what do you mean my consciousness will disappear?  Will I go back to Earth?

[No. The host's consciousness has already been transferred to the world of Eridanus. Return is impossible. Therefore, failure means death.]

- That's just great.  How lucky his sister is to have this divine lineage.

The world of Eridanus described in the book was inhabited by 2 different kinds of people.

The first species, the "original" inhabitants or, in another way, simply "natives" were called Eridanus. These people were physically strong but weak in magic.

Since Eridan had no mana of their own, the people of this world were born without a mana core and could not make magic themselves.

To replace their own mana, they mostly used mana stones. Arno's advanced level [Manipulation of Mana] meant that he could control the mana released from these stones well.

The mana stones were represented by 4 elements: fire, water, wind, and earth.  And two advanced ones: light and darkness.

However, the Eridanians found their own way to obtain the mana core. To do so, they hunted demons, took their kernels from them, and implanted them in themselves. Depending on the level of the demon's core, their subsequent developmental potential depended on it.

The second kind of human was the Arboreans.  They were aliens who came from another world.  In fact, they were not invaders of any kind, but rather simple refugees.  Their world had been destroyed about a hundred years ago by countless hordes of demons.

Unlike the Eridanians, the Arboreans lived in a mana-saturated world, and so were born already with a mana core. They were skilled in magic and possessed various bloodlines.

Over the centuries of the development of magic, a certain division emerged depending on the difference in the resources used. The richer and more powerful families had better bloodlines.

They were divided into bronze, silver, gold, and divine

The last bloodline was the most unique and powerful.  It manifested only in those whose ancestor was one of the many gods.

The mother of Erik, Arno, and Elia was an Arborian. And the father was a common Eridan.

Though they were of mixed blood, Elia and Erik possessed powerful divine bloodlines.

So Sister Arno's bloodline abilities had to do with manipulating time.  She could speed it up or slow it down, or even go back in time.

That's why there was such a strange task in the mission. If Arthur didn't make it in time, Elia would simply go back in time before he got to this world. And obviously, that would be the end of him.

-Darn it, I have to hurry. Where am I supposed to run to? There is only woods around here.

A cool breeze blew in, and an unpleasant, musty odor wafted up to his nose. Arthur winced and clamped his hand over his nose.

After a few seconds, there was a rustling in the bushes and Arthur turned distractedly toward the source of the noise.

Still clutching his nose, he peered apprehensively into the bushes. He didn't want to admit that he was afraid. But his legs treacherously began to tremble.

And not without reason. A row of sharp teeth emerged from the bushes. Arthur did not hesitate to wait for the unknown creature to fully appear before his eyes. He quickly ran in and hid behind a rather wide tree behind him.

The creature's entire muzzle was added to the row of teeth. It was a small beast, shorter than Arthur's knees. It was completely covered in gray fur with black stripes. It stood on four paws and looked like the hyena from his past life, but the front two paws were disproportionately large and had long, intimidating claws on them.

"How is it even capable of walking?"

Arthur, even in this state, could ask himself such silly questions.

But it was the creature's muzzle that attracted the most attention. Besides a mouth full of teeth, which reminded Arthur of a shark, the beast had no eyes at all. But the creature's nose kept twitching up and down.

"It is blind, but it determines the direction by smell" - Arthur decided for sure.

The beast came out into the small open clearing where Arthur had stood before. It paced from side to side, sniffing.

"Should I run? Or should I just stay where I am, not moving? Hell, it detects everything by smell."

Arthur clicked his tongue. Hoping the beast wouldn't smell him and just pass him by was utter folly. But there was no point in running either. The unknown creature could be very fast. And what's more, Arthur didn't know where to run either. It was a dead end.

Arthur knew he had to make a decision as quickly as possible, or he would probably be able to appreciate how sharp his teeth were on his own body.

"Status," Arthur mentally commanded, and the strange virtual screen reappeared before his eyes.

[Status.]

Name: Arno Mann

Overall Rank: G-

Experience: 0/870

Mana Core: -

Bloodline Grade: -

Strength: 1.2

Agility: 1.1

Stamina: 0.8

Perception: 1.7

Luck: 0.5

Charisma: 0.1

Skills:

[Manipulation of Mana]: Advanced.

Note: There is no mana in your body. However, your level of control of external mana has reached a high level.

"Dammit...Am I sure I got into a book and not a video game? Why does this status look like I chose the hardcore difficulty mode at the beginning of the game..."

Although the unknown creature was able to frighten Arthur at first, his thoughts were already in order. He was able to assess the situation with a cool and sober head.

In high school, Arthur gave the impression of a classic "tough" guy. He was tall, well-built, and never had a problem communicating. Many people were even instinctively afraid of him, seeing him as someone who was definitely better not to mess with.

This was not always the case. As a child, Arthur himself was often bullied. He was a rather weak child, about the same as the body he was now in. The reason was simple: his family.

Besides his mother, he had no one. They lived poor, very poor. And Arthur couldn't even afford to eat properly at times. Because of that, he was targeted as an easy target for bullying. Well, or so it seemed to everyone...

He was not one of those novella heroes who endlessly endure bullying, come home, and suffer the injustice of the world. Arthur always resisted and always retaliated.

For example, during one of the group bullying sessions, when 3 high school students caught him in a secluded area during recess, he clawed his teeth into the cheek of one of his attackers. He clenched his teeth so hard and so tightly that despite all attempts to get him to let go until a teacher came, he never gave up. The bully ended up getting several stitches in the hospital because he tore out a piece of his cheek.

On another occasion, Arthur took severe revenge on his oldest bully. It was a big, fat guy, twice his size. Arthur wasn't going to just put up with the beatings and started following him, waiting for the right moment.

The chance suddenly arose two weeks later. Even though this boy was only 15 years old, he was already actively drinking alcohol. Arthur caught him when he was returning home drunk. He had brought an iron crowbar he had found in an abandoned landfill.

It was hard to even call it a fight. The drunk guy put up almost no resistance. That night Arthur broke both his legs and left his bloody body lying in an alley.

Arthur left no trace of himself. So even though the cops even joined the case, he ended up getting away with it quietly.

Over the years of such a struggle, Arthur had learned one simple truth.

"You can't always run away. Sometimes you have to hit first."

And now, in his opinion, that was exactly the case.

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"The bag. There might be something useful in there."

Arthur remembered the bag he had found near that "suicide tree." It probably belonged to Arno himself.

Without a second's hesitation, Arthur rushed to the bag. On the move, without stopping, he grabbed it and slung it over his shoulder. His target was a tall tree with conveniently placed branches.

Arthur made his bet that the beast was incapable of climbing the tree. Although it had claws, their size did not seem suitable for tree climbing.

At that moment, either paying attention to the sound of a man running or because the scent of his prey had finally reached him, the beast looked in Arthur's direction with hungry eyes.

A chill ran down Arthur's back, and he sensed in his sixth sense that death was coming. By some miracle, given the body's level of perception, he still managed to jerk to his right side at the last moment. And just in time. At the same second, something flew past him and crashed into the ground ahead of him.

"That's the speed. I just started running."

As luck would have it, the unknown beast's jump was very fast, causing it to land incorrectly and flip over several times. This gave Arthur a few precious seconds to run to the tree.

Gathering all the strength he had, he jumped to the nearest branch.

He pulled himself up and climbed up with great difficulty.

-God, I'm tired already. What's wrong with this body. - he cursed his fate bitterly.

But this was not the end. It was too soon to relax. Arthur needed to climb even higher.

The beast let out a terrifying roar as it saw its prey fleeing.

-Come on...Please.

Arthur jumped to the next branch, but when he tried to pull himself up, he realized he had no strength left. His hands were shaking as if he had spent half a day in the gym.

Sweat ran down his forehead. Shouting, Arthur gave himself the strength and was finally able to climb.

The beast leaped toward the tree and, with sharp claws, jabbed at the spot where Arthur had previously stood. One of its claws struck the tree, leaving a deep mark on its bark.

- If it had been my body. I'd have lost half my organs for sure by now. - Arthur muttered, wiping away the sweat.

He was breathing fast, his heart racing with the adrenaline rush.

Arthur sat on a wide branch and dreamed of rest...or a good night's sleep. But there was no time to relax.

[Remaining Time: 2h 28 min]

Opening his bag, he began to quickly examine the contents.

- A laptop, some kind of device, some kind of device... Shit, are there any weapons in here? Oh, I found it! - Arthur shrieked happily, swinging on a branch. He fell backward but caught hold of the tree trunk in time to keep his footing.

- Hoo...calm down, Arthur. It would have been the most ridiculous death...

The beast even resembled a shark in its behavior. Realizing it couldn't jump or climb a tree, it began circling around, greedy eyes watching for its food. Arthur was ready to swear he saw the beast lick what looked like lips.

Arthur found two weapons-appropriate items. The first was a small knife in a plastic sheath. To test its sharpness, Arthur stabbed it once on the trunk of a tree. And he was satisfied with the result, a deep cut was left on the bark.

The second object was even more incredible.

- Arno, I could kiss you...if you were alive, of course.

It was a grenade. A real grenade.

In addition to standard weapons like swords, spears, and bows, there were also modern rifles and grenades in the novel. However, modern weapons had a significant drawback. They were incapable of conducting a person's mana. That is, you couldn't put your mana to enhance a shot or an explosion because they worked on mana stones.

But Arthur didn't need to. He couldn't use his mana anyway, since he didn't have a mana core in his body.

Inside each grenade were different mana stones. If Arthur remembered correctly from the contents of the novel, there were usually 3 different stones used. Activating the grenade caused a mana reaction where different energies collided with each other, thereby causing an explosion.

And now Arthur had one of these grenades in his hands. It was engraved in small letters.

[Model White CX].

Unfortunately, there was only one grenade. And there was no chance to test how good it was against such a monster.

Arthur needed resolve to attack. Because of the time limit, he didn't have such an incredible opportunity to just sit back and wait for help.

Arthur closed his eyes and took a deep breath, gathering more air into his lungs. He gathered his thoughts into one.

Finally, after a few moments, he opened them again. But the look reflected an internal change in the guy. There was now a fire blazing in his eyes. A flame of determination. Now Arthur was looking at the beast, like a predator at its prey.

As if sensing the murderous intent, the monster instinctively took a step back in fear. But when he came to his senses, he trembled with anger. Weak prey dares to look at him like that? Then he would show her his place.

The two stared at each other (though one of them had no eyes!) for some time. Finally, the beast opened its jaw wide, as if smiling and began to move away from the tree.

But Arthur did not believe his luck at all.

And he was right. The creature, stepping back a couple of meters, took off and jumped up at full speed.

Arthur couldn't keep track of the monster's movements. The terrifying creature was too fast. So the only thing left was to hope that his calculations were correct.

In a split second, realizing the monster's actions, Arthur pushed his feet off a tree branch and jumped backward.

He calculated the trajectory of the beast's jump and, in flight, threw a grenade in its direction with one hand.

The monster drew closer and closer to its victim, and in-flight, it struck with its paw. Sharp claws flew toward Arthur, but a small round ball appeared in their path. One of the claws snagged a grenade and...

Bang!

Even though Arthur was not at the epicenter of the explosion, the shockwave reached him. His body was tossed violently to the ground. He fell backward and rolled for a few meters until his body rolled over and hit his face on the ground.

Fortunately, Arthur did not lose consciousness. Though he felt pain all over his body. He landed badly and clearly broke his right arm.

Arthur didn't dare get up for a few minutes, trying to regain his strength. Then grunting, he leaned on his left arm and lifted his body with an incredible effort, a jerk.

- I think I broke all the physical records of this body today.

He forced himself to stand up, experiencing intense pain throughout his body. His right arm was just hanging, Arthur couldn't feel it.

Behind him, there was the sound of a branch breaking. Arthur turned around anxiously in his heart, hoping to see there not what he thought it was.

The beast, all fur covered in blood now, which had lost one of its front paws, rose from the ground. Its head turned toward Arthur.

The two looked at each other again. Both wounded. Both weak.

The terrifying beast finally recognized that the man before it was no prey, but a worthy foe. But it was not ready to give up. The monster was ready to do whatever it took to take its adversary with it.

Arthur reached for his belt, where he had hung his knife in advance. With his only working hand, after some effort, he managed to pull it from its sheath.

This time the man didn't want to give the monster a chance to attack first. Arthur, forgetting the pain, forgetting the fatigue, rushed toward the beast.

The beast, let out a growl, stood up on two paws, and prepared to take the attack. It threw its remaining front paw forward. The attack was heading straight for its target.

But the monster was wounded and exhausted. The speed of the attack was no longer the same as before. It was more like a doomed man's blow.

Arthur, this time discerning a rather slow movement, ducked and took a small step to the side. The beast's blow split the air, missing Arthur by a few inches from his head.

The beast was now completely defenseless.

-Die - Arthur shouted and blew to where he thought the heart was.

The monster couldn't take it and tumbled backward with the man. The blow hit exactly the right spot. The beast jerked its body several times and let out its breath.

Arthur was still lying on top of the creature's bloody fur. The fur was, surprisingly, very soft. Rolling over onto his back, he used the creature's body as a bed. He didn't care about the blood. All that mattered was that it was warm and comfortable.

Arthur's eyes began to close with fatigue. He knew he couldn't sleep, his strength was leaving him.

But a sudden message brought him back to reality.

[Rank G Glyfeiger killed! 100 experience points gained!]

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