"Okay..." Midas exhaled, grounding himself. "How did I open that Kingdom or whatever system it was last time? I just looked at the line on my arm, right?"
As he said this, Midas stared at the blue line on his arm. Just like he predicted, a blue panel appeared in front of his retina again.
He examined it for a second, noticing that it was slightly transparent. It also seemed to move in any direction that his eyes moved, but whenever he made rapid movements, it minimized and went to the side of his vision.
Whenever he would stop moving his head and eyes again, it would return to its large size.
[Welcome to the Kingdom Core]
'Kingdom Core huh...'
This was all that was written on the panel.
However, at the very top, there was another tab.
[Status]
He gazed at it, activating it subconsciously.
The panel changed, showing a new, longer tab of several numbers and stats.
┏━━━Status━━━┓
Name: Midas Kyrios Stars
Bloodline: ????
Age: 18
Level: 5
Vitality: 6/6
Strength: 8
Stamina: 7/7
Speed: 5
Stats remaining: 8
Tier: Core
[Skills]
> Status
[Techniques]
> None
[Titles]
> None
[Blessings]
> None
[Evolutions]
> None
┗━━━━━━━━━┛
At first, he was surprised. His eyes widened. His attention was immediately drawn to the first stat, his name.
"Kyrios Stars?" He mumbled out loud, "What kind of name is that? Sounds way too baller compared to my name on earth... Midas Smith."
(Author Note: Sorry to all the Smith's out there...)
After that, he inspected each stat one by one. Strength seemed to be his highest, while speed was his lowest.
'I want to balance them, if possible.' He mused, noticing he had 8 remaining stat points. 'But I also want to get stronger quick...'
Without much more thinking, he began to input the stats.
[Vitality: 6/6 --> 8]
[Strength: 8 --> 10]
[Stamina: 7/7 --> 8]
[Speed: 5 --> 8]
He smiled slightly as he locked these stats in. At once, he felt his entire body tingle with warmth.
A familiar feeling of rejuvenation came over his body, just like when he consumed the ripe eloqi fruit earlier.
As he squeezed his fist, he could feel his grip several times stronger than before.
All of his muscles became slightly more striated, as if his body fat had decreased. The increase in muscle had also pushed out his veins, making his arms much more vascular.
His body felt much lighter, his calves not feeling any stress as he hopped in the air a couple times.
'Wow... this system is strong. To think I can upgrade myself so easily...' He was shocked. But this was still the early days. Things were bound to get harder.
'Atleast thats what I will assume for now. I don't want to get overly cocky. Sure, I got a lot stronger today, but I also nearly died. I need to get even stronger than this if I really want to thrive here... much stronger.'
With these final thoughts in his head, Midas approached the corpse of the mosquito.
He grabbed a small, thin rock to use as a saw and carved out the front mandible of the mosquito.
'This could be used as some sort of straw...' He mused as he salvaged the beast's corpse for potential materials.
In the end, he gathered a long, straw-like mandible made of chitin that was very durable, a few sheets of thick chitin, and also a glowing orb that existed deep within the center of the bug's belly.
It was about three times the size of a marble and shone in a glittery rainbow aura, similar to the ripe eloqi fruit.
*Ding*
[You have obtained your first crafting materials.]
[Congratulations! You have unlocked a new tab: Crafting Station.]
[You can now craft various items and structures via crafting recipes in your Crafting Station tab.]
[You will unlock more crafting recipes as you level up your Kingdom Core.]
*Ding*
[Bonus Objective: "Claim First Beast Core" has been achieved!]
[Congratulations! You have received a mystery box as a reward.]
A blue light shone in front of his eyes. It quickly evaporated into the air as a small box the size of an apple fell into Midas' hands.
He wrapped up all of these materials in a makeshift carrying band and threw it over his shoulder before beginning to head back towards the coastline.
[Timer remaining: 3 hours, 46 minutes]
'I'll check the mystery box when I have time. For now, I need to quickly make this shelter before it's too late.'
It took him a bit longer to find a suitable area for his home base.
'I want to choose an area that I won't want to leave for a while. There's no use in wasting energy building new bases all the time, so I have to make this first attempt count.'
Midas had arrived at his base location.
It was an area under the canopy near the shoreline. The coast was about 200 feet away but still visible from where Midas stood.
However, since Midas' basecamp was inside the thick and covered jungle, one couldn't see him if they were standing on the shore.
Right past the thin layer of bushes, tree branches, and vines that protected Midas from the tidal winds, there was a small area of land clear of any trees.
Midas spent half an hour clearing up all the bushes and shrubbery in the area, wanting a clean working space.
The dry branches he had gathered, he stored in one place.
With daylight quickly escaping, Midas decided now was the time to make a fire.
He grabbed the hollow needle he retrieved from the bug and used tree sap to glue it to the edge of a log.
He inserted a slightly smaller, straight stick. After spitting on his hands, he began to spin the stick back and forth.
He had seen this tactic used before to make fire. The main issue was always holding the spindle stick in one place to retain the friction it created.
Many used bow drills to help them with this, but even that had its chances to fail.
This method, however, would pretty much guarantee that Midas would not fail.
He would rub the stick against the edge of the log, and since it was on the edge, it would quickly burn a hole small enough on the side of the log that would allow any ember to escape and be collected.
He would use the hollow mandible of the mosquito as a guide to where his stick placement would go, and also use it as a constant reminder that his drill was still in the center.
If it happened to sway, it would simply hit the mandible, and Midas would return it to the middle, never losing friction.
The method was surefire.
Midas began to spin, and without too much effort or time, he got an ember.
Smoke began to rise from the mandible, but no hole had been created in the log yet.
His plan on that aspect didn't seem to work, no matter how much he spun the hand drill.
After 15 minutes of trying, Midas decided to change plans.
He instead tipped the mandible over, hitting it with the drill stick lightly.
This risked the ember from going out, but it was much easier to do.
Sure enough, a small piece of ash and coal fell out and into a tinder bundle Midas had pre-made from the shrubbery he had cleared earlier.
An ember was alive inside. Midas quickly began to meticulously blow away at it, letting it breathe, but also not die.
With a woosh, a small flame erupted.
Midas' eyes lit up, a smile growing on his face as he chuckled with joy.
He quickly placed the fire under a pile of sticks, quickly beginning to catch on fire and expand.
After this, he took two steps back. He took a few breaths, taking in what he had accomplished.
In that wholesome moment, Midas' resolve came back to him only for a moment.
He could feel the strength to continue in his limbs.
'Surviving out here...' He continued staring at the glowing fire. The flame echoed in his eyes.
"No... thriving... right?" He muttered, the line on his arm glowing slightly in the light.
He smirked, "Creating a kingdom... and eventually conquering this very land. I think I can do it..."
He paused, his smile growing larger. Then, it disappeared. A frown appeared on his face.
"No..."
.
.
.
"I have no other choice than to." An almost demented look shadowed his pupils. "Victory is what I deserve. I will not accept anything less." He said, almost unlike himself.
Out of nowhere, the fire spread to a few nearby bushes and sticks.
This instantly snapped Midas out of his daze as he hurried like a chicken to put out the fire around camp.
"Shit! Shit! Get out! Get! Ge--yeeowwch! Damn you, fire!" He jumped around, getting burnt and sizzling here and there.
In the end, though, he sighed, laughing to himself.
"Just you and me!" He yelled into the sky. After a few seconds, he lowered his gaze to the floor, "It's just you and me now, victory... or should I say,' He faced the sky as the bright full moon peaked around a massive cloud.
His eyes stared at the moon as he spoke, as if he was talking to the lunar rock floating in space: "It's just you and me now, Victory."