Returning to Takeru's side, compared to the more traditional Miracle World, the NewWorld Online World offered much higher freedom and had no inherent skills… they could only be discovered independently or purchased...
As the little sparrow continued its attack, many people along the way looked curiously at Takeru, but seeing that he had no intention of acknowledging them, they left him alone.
Finally, when an hour had passed, Takeru, leaning against the tree, suddenly received a system notification...
[Absolute Defense Acquired]
Opening the skill description and taking a look, Takeru instantly broke into a happy smile.
[Absolute Defense: With this skill, Defense is doubled! Acquisition Condition: Continuously receive enemy attacks for one hour without taking damage, and without dealing magic or weapon damage]!
With this skill, Takeru's Defense instantly became 256, which was truly terrifying.
After acquiring this skill, Takeru did not kill the little sparrow. Instead, he remained seated in place, allowing the sparrow to continue attacking him...
And so, another two hours passed, and at this moment, the system notification came again.
[Meditation Acquired]
[Meditation: When used, restores 1% of Max HP per 10 seconds. Effect duration: 10 minutes. No mana cost. Cannot perform any attacking actions while meditating! Cooldown: 30 minutes! Acquisition Condition: Continuously receive attacks for three hours without counterattacking]!
"Thank you for your persistence. But now, your task is complete." Looking at the little sparrow still attacking him, Takeru showed a faint smile. Then, seizing the opportunity, as it charged at him, he slammed his shield into it fiercely.
Struck by Takeru's shield, the little sparrow was sent flying...
This time, the little sparrow was hit so hard by the shield that it turned into data and disappeared on the spot.
The experience provided by the little sparrow even leveled Takeru up to Lv.2.
Seeing that he could allocate points again, Takeru unhesitatingly added all five points to his Defense.
Besides experience, it also gave Takeru 50G, which was 50 units of this world's currency. And most importantly, it granted Takeru a god-tier skill!
[Giant Killing: When four or more attributes (besides HP/MP) are lower than the opponent's, all attributes besides HP/MP are doubled! Acquisition Condition: A player with all attributes (besides HP/MP) at least half the opponent's solo defeats a monster.]
Looking at this skill, Takeru smiled. Although the Meditation skill seemed average early on, percentage-based recovery abilities were godly in the later stages.
After killing the little sparrow, Takeru headed deeper into the forest. Soon, he encountered many more monsters. Facing these monsters, Takeru did not use his short sword… he killed them all with his shield. As a result, he gained another skill… Shield Bash.
[Shield Bash: Power scales with Defense value. Knockback effect (Minor).]
Additionally, Takeru's level rose to Lv. 6! He also now had 1500G.
During this time, all attribute points gained from leveling up were directly added to Defense. Since attribute points were given every two levels (5 points each), Takeru had gained a total of 15 points from leveling so far.
Combined with the shield's 28 points, Takeru's base Defense attribute was now 143 points. With Absolute Defense and Giant Killing active, his Defense could effectively reach 572 points when facing certain monsters normally.
Soon, Takeru encountered a large centipede larva that spewed poison attacks. Looking at the large centipede larva, Takeru did not attack this time but waited for its assault.
After a series of attacks that caused Takeru no harm, the large centipede larva spat a glob of poison at him. Quickly, Takeru was poisoned, and his HP dropped by a sliver...
Watching his HP slowly decrease, Takeru remained calm. He simply sat down on the spot and activated his Meditation skill...
He didn't have to wait long before acquiring [Poison Resistance (Minor)]. Seeing this skill, Takeru smiled again.
In this game, Takeru felt the most broken aspect was that continuously receiving attacks could grant resistances, almost like having a hyper-adaptive ability...
After acquiring Poison Resistance (Minor), Takeru's HP loss slowed even further, though it was still gradually decreasing.
As time slowly passed, Takeru was delighted to find his Poison Resistance had evolved into [Intermediate Poison Resistance]. At this level, the large centipede larva's poison could no longer harm Takeru at all. Having lost its utility, it was promptly harvested by Takeru for experience...
With its sacrifice, Takeru leveled up another two times, gaining 5 more attribute points. Adding these to Defense as well, his Defense reached 148 points...
After doing all this, Takeru did not rest. He chose to continue deeper into the forest.
As time passed, Takeru had now been in this world for seven hours. Excluding the first three hours spent acquiring special skills, that meant he had been battling monsters for four hours...