NOVEL NEXT Chapter 4: Kind 'Donation'
In the middle of the night, Adam was woken up by a nudge on his arms. After opening his eyes, and looking at the person before him, he saw a thin-looking young man standing proudly.
Behind the young man was other three thin-looking young men, but only slightly shorter than the first who was seemingly the leader.
'Is it a child's gang?', Adam mumbles as he saw them looking so proud and dignified. Also, they were giving Adam a look as if they were superior and Adam was just a little puppy before them, waiting to get beaten.
Adam got a bit annoyed at first but upon observing their proud looks, he started chuckling softly, and of course, the 'gangster' heard this.
"Hey, you, what are you laughing at?!", said the leader of the gang while situating his fist before his chest, making a cracking sound as if he was about to throw a punch.
Still, Adam was not provoked nor annoyed, in fact, he can't control his laughter anymore upon seeing the boy's gesture.
"pfft, muahahaha, what are you? A Ga...gangster?", Adam said while laughing so loudly and holding his stomach as he really can't control his laughter...
The boy's faces turned red at Adam's word and were about to charge at Adam when the voice of the leader interrupted them…
"Since when did you get here?", the leader said calmly as he already composed himself
Adam trying to hold back his laughter, answer the leader's question…
"Since 12 am I guess..."
Shocked can be seen on the leader's face as he heard this, as he thought of a possibility of the boys' existence, so to validate his thought, he asked Adam again directly...
"Were you part of the fourth batch of Chosen?", the leader asked directly and nervously, which then answered Adam honestly.
"Yes"
'Thud'
After hearing Adam's reply, the four boys immediately kowtowed before Adam.
"Please forgive us for what we did earlier!", the 'gangster' said simultaneously
Adam got a bit stunned by the sudden change in the boys' attitude. Earlier, they were doing their best to 'threaten' Adam, and now, in only a matter of seconds, they are kowtowing before him.
Of course, there's only one efficient way to find the reason why, and that is to ask them.
"Why changed so suddenly? I thought you're a gangster?", Adam asked confusedly
Immediately, as if waiting for Adam's words, the leader replied…
"We are not a gangster, we are merely trash on Chosen's eyes, so please forgive us for what we did earlier! If we know that you're a chosen, we won't even dare to threaten you!"
Adam now knew the reason why, 'So it was because I'm a chosen!
"Hmmm, why are you so afraid of Chosen?", Adam asked again bewilderedly as they can just gang on to kill Adam easily?..
"Chosen can resurrect, so we are afraid of even touching nor provoking them! As death was not feasible on them!", the leader replied again without raising his head
As Adam gives it a thought, that was highly plausible, since Chosen can resurrect, they can easily take revenge on whoever kills them, so not provoking Chosen was a smart choice indeed.
Seeing the shaking bodies of the four boys, Adam thought of a sudden idea…
"But I just got 'threatened' by you, my feelings were hurt, and I expend all of my energy on laughing earlier, so I feel hungry right now, what should I do then? Hmmm", Adam mutters softly with his finger pointing on his chin and seemingly thinking…
As the gangster heard this, their expressions turned gloomy, with sweat dripping from their faces.
Of course, they knew that what Adam said was a lie, cause how would his energy be drained just from laughing?
Additionally, isn't he the one who laughs on his own accord? So why would it be their fault?
Though knowing that, they don't have the urge to retaliate as the person before them was a chosen! So all they can do right now was to submit to Adams' taking advantage of them.
"If that's the case, we are willing to give you our hunt for tonight!", the leader said while taking something out of his mediocre bag
As soon as Adam saw what's inside the bag, he nearly lost his composure as he was so familiar with it!
'It's that rabbit!', Adam thought profoundly as he recalled the scheme done by the rabbit that he encountered on the trial
"Okay then, since you are sincere with your apology, I am willing to forgive you for now.", Adam mutters full of confidence while taking the dead rabbit from the leader's hand…
The leader was somehow hesitant but soon give up and handed the rabbit to Adam…
Drool starts to form on Adam's mouth, his eyes flickered with lights as he thought of eating the rabbit!
Soon, the gangster also 'donated' a matchstick, woods, and some salt to Adam, then immediately leave without looking back.
Adam then started a fire, roasted the rabbit that was now peeled of its hard skin, before adding some salts to it. The gangster doesn't have any seasoning except salt, so he had to put up with it.
After a while, before the rabbit was completely roasted, the gangsters return with a gloomy face.
"ahmm, can we stay the night here? As you can see, this is the only slum here, and we are not allowed to go outside the city as it is already too late at night...", the leader said hesitatingly as he was not sure whether Adam would accept or not, or even worst got provoked somehow.
"Ohhh, that's fine!", Adam replied instantly, contrary to the leader's expectation…
"ehh? Really", the leader asked again.
"Yep! It's fine, there's enough 'bed' for us anyway so why not?"
"Thank you for your kindness, we will never forget this! ", the gangsters replied simultaneously with their head bowed down
Adam just chuckled at the scene then returned on roasting his rabbit, after the rabbit was cooked, he saw the gazes of the gangsters.
'Crave!' Haven't they ate yet?', Adam thought.
Soon, Adam asked them and Adam got a bit guilty at their reply, they haven't eaten for the whole day and this rabbit was the only food that they had which they reserved for dinner. But alas, who would expect that they would meet Adam who would steal their only food?
Upon knowing this, Adam divides the rabbit into five then gives each of the gang members a piece of it.
Since he knew how it feels to not eat for a whole day, and besides, he is not that cold-hearted not to share 'his own food' with these gangsters.
The gangster was so grateful for it then started eating while talking and laughing together.
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When midnight comes, Adam and the 'gangsters' are now laying inside their 'bed'. There are three bins on the slum, with Adam being on one, and gangsters sharing the remaining two with two members per bin.
They are looking at the starry sky and talking with each other. Of course, Adams' main priority right now was to learn more about this world and the area he was in.
After a while of continuous asking, Adam learned that he was currently in Batangas City, one of the five largest cities in the Luzon Kingdom.
There are three kingdoms here on World of Luck, namely, Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, with each having five large cities and dozens of small ones.
Once again, Adam learned that since four years ago, Chosen starts to appear and build their own guilds. And after years of continuous struggle, they managed to earn name for themselves and be given a right to various boons.
Common people here don't have the power to fight back with chosen, only those like royalty and such who have an affinity with magic can do so. So for common people, chosen was like an incarnation of Death God himself.
In regards to Chosens' guilds, they are divided into three ranks, namely small, mid, and large guilds.
Currently, there are only five large guilds, 16 mid-sized guilds, and dozens of small guilds.
Though the number was few, Adam thought that it was highly plausible since it was only four years since Chosen appeared.
Lastly, Adam learned the hunting grounds near Batangas City. There was an area for the low level like Adam, among them, one hunting ground caught Adam's attention the most, it was the one-horned rabbit habitat!
-----
Soon, when it was too late at night, the gangsters began to sleep.
Adam does not feel sleepy at all so all he did was plan his next course of action.
'Firstly, let's see my status.'
As soon as Adam thought of the word 'status' a transparent holographic-like screen appeared before him.
[ Status ]
[ Name: Adam Wights Age: 15 years old
Occupation: None. Title: None
Level: 1. Exp: 0/1000
HP: 1000/1000 MP: 1000/1000
Unique skill: Extreme Luck (SSS-Grade)
Skill: None
Attributes:
Strength: 10 Agility: 10
Stamina: 10 Intelligence: 10
Remaining Attribute points: 10
Remaining skill points: 10 ]
Adam was stunned at his status window as the number it displays was so high!
Normally, an E-grade unique skill attainer would have their Hp and Mana at 100 only, with starter attributes at 1 and remaining attribute and skill points at 1!
The D-grade unique skill attainer would then have twice of that of E-rank attainer, then C-rank with thrice, B-rank with quadrupled, and finally, A-rank with five times the amount of the E-rank!
Of course, there's also a drawback in here, which is the simultaneous increase in experience needed to level up!
E-rank only needed 100 Exp, while D-rank 200 Exp and so on…
Now, Adam needed 1000 Exp just to level up to Level 2!
Still, though the experience needed had increased, it was still advantageous in the long run, considering the other benefits.
Of course, there's another way to lessen the gap between Hp, Mp, and attributes, such as wearing high-grade equipment, acquiring titles, and so on...
After contemplating, Adam then checked his acquired unique skill.
[ Extreme Luck (SSS-Grade): Upon activation, extreme luck would descend on the Chosen within 1 second
Cooldown time: 5 days ]
'Ehh?'
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Author's Note: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao are three island groups in the Philippines, my home country.
Ps. I prefer using these names as I am more familiar with them.