Nova was looking at a dummy approaching him.
It was the day after he realized he was stuck in this world.
Yesterday, after talking to the vendor, he went ahead and found the inn in the city. Since he started this game more than a hundred times, he knew everything like the back of his hand. So, he rented a room.
***
Inside the room, Nova started creating a new route to play the game.
First of all, this wasn't a game anymore. If he died, there was a high possibility that he wouldn't wake up in the real world. Still, he needed to take certain risks even if they were dangerous.
Secondly, time skips didn't seem to be working. He would need to enter the academy himself. But, for that, he needed to check his combat.
I wish I had chosen a swordsman. Well, it could be worse. At least I am safer as a mage.
He knew that a swordsman was a better choice when playing the game since it was balanced. But, since he was inside the game now, he wasn't that sure. A mage didn't need to approach the monsters.
He would probably also need to learn the skills by himself instead of learning them automatically in the academy. The same was true for his level.
He got up and left his room. He would come back for the night, but now, he had other things to do.
---
Nova left the city through the door he entered. The guards didn't seem to mind the ones leaving, but the ones entering.
After leaving the city, he opened his inventory first. There were two things there. The first one was the staff he chose while in the shack, and the second one was the ID badge every player had.
Normally, no one took it out after realising it didn't do anything. Some even threw it into the trash as soon as they started a new game.
Nova never did that. Yes, it wasn't needed for the time being, but he could pass the fourth stage any time, and it could be needed afterward. So, he would keep it at the corner of his inventory.
Does it have anything to do with me being stuck in this game, I wonder...
Since it would help him have a real ID now, he was happy that he didn't throw it out.
While thinking that, he also opened his status window. The same square panel opened in front of his eyes. There was nothing different from before.
He changed the page and opened the skills tab. There was only one skill there, Fireball (S). It was the simple fireball skill that didn't even hurt zombies. He was in urgent need to develop it.
The skills in GAP also leveled up as the player used them. And he knew the best place to train. The Eastern Forest.
It was a forest that hosted many monsters. These monsters were similar to the ones that would invade this world on the second stage. But they weren't the same, so cleaning them now didn't help in the future.
Still, he needed to go there to level up now.
The forest was around half an hour away from the city. The monsters near the edge of the forest were killed periodically to prevent overpopulation. If they were to reproduce too much, they could leave the forest and attack the citizens.
Nova also had to choose this forest since he didn't have much time. There were many places that were much better than the Eastern Forest, but he had a test tomorrow.
After walking for half an hour, he reached it. Since the monsters in the forest had their own zones, Nova wouldn't be in danger if he just roamed barely inside the forest.
So, he passed between the two closest trees to enter. The trees weren't too tall, around the height of two humans.
Still, this was a forest, so he couldn't see everything around well. But he was used to this. Since he had played GAP many times before, he had also tried other strategies.
Those who started their careers at the age of 19 would generally choose this place as their first destination instead of the academy.
Even though this forest wasn't fit for level ones, there were ways they managed to level up here without getting injured.
And that was when they were playing swordsman. Nova believed that he would easily level up as a mage.
Before moving forward, he realized that he had one more thing to do. He didn't know if the magic skills worked the same as when he was playing the game.
Sh*t! This could be dangerous.
Normally, he would just want to use the skill or tell its name to use it. But now, when he wanted to throw a fireball and extended his hand, nothing happened.
So, he tried shouting, "Fireball!" This time, a small fire formed in front of his hand and shot forward. Unfortunately, it sizzled even before going a meter.
Do I need to learn these spells? He wondered. He still wasn't sure if he entered the game or if he transmigrated into this real world that was the same as the game.
If he had transmigrated into a real world, there would be a lot of variables, and the future might change. But even before that, he would need to really kill monsters and sometimes even other NPCs, who might be human.
The spells could also be real with them. But he had an idea. He shouted "Fireball!" once again. Even though the same thing happened, Nova felt the mana going through his veins.
Well, maybe not veins, but it felt similar. It was probably the mana channels the mages had. And he shouted for the third time:
"Fireball!"
This time, though, he supported the magic by guiding the mana in his mana channels by himself. It started from his dantian, probably where the mana heart was, and flowed to his hand.
And a real fireball, the one he had seen in his gameplays before, showed up. Well, it still wasn't the strongest. But he knew the reason why.
Without waiting, he took out his staff from his inventory. Just when he was about to attack, he heard a voice.
"Kkkggh!"
It was a monster.