She took about 6 to 7 spikes out of its body. And the rest of its body looked like there was some meat left. Xia Mo looked at it, and without thinking, she put the meat into her mouth and started tearing the meat.

"You found a hard spike, Wisdom increases by 1 point." The game system announces in her ears.

It was true that it was always better to do some actions before the rest. Even performing some actions had rewarded her. If there was a second person to do it, there would not be such reward.

In DUST, all players have an inventory space of 20 slots, and weight was not an issue. If the slots were full, the player must find another way to carry other objects.

Xia Mo filled up her inventory and felt that the spikes were too little. She decided to kill more porcupines.

She had no problems killing more porcupines and she collected about 50 spikes. However, continuously killing had caused her stamina to drop. After she took care of the last porcupine, she sat on the grass and started panting heavily.

There were still other porcupines around her. But because their intelligence was low, they were still lazing around Xia Mo even though she had killed many of its brothers and sisters. She saw these creatures and felt that she would never have such luxury in higher level maps. Then she noticed a lot of wild fruits on the ground which was the reason why the porcupines had gathered here.

When a new player started the game, if he or she followed the steps properly and finished the quests, the NPCs will give some food as reward to relieve your hunger and replenish your energy. However, Xia Mo had no intention to get these rewards so she had to find a way to replenish the energy.

She stretched out her hand to take a fruit near to her and wiped it on her clothes. She stared at the fruits that the porcupines were eating, she felt that maybe some fruits might be poisonous. Xia Mo walked up to the fruits which the porcupines were eating and chased them away. And then, she picked the fruits that had a few bites on it and started eating them.

She only had one life. It's always better to err on the safe side. The fruits were not delicious, and its sour and bitter, the flesh was also quite dry. She was not too affected by the taste as she knew the intention of the game.

If she could take such simple hardship, even if she did survive till the end and became one of the new human generations on Earth, she would still be unable to adapt to the harsh reality. All these hardships at the beginning of the game was just a foreplay only.

Xia Mo ate a fruit and realize gradually that her stamina was slowly recovering. Although the fruit was hard to swallow, but it did have an effect. She continued eating a few more fruits until she felt that she did not feel any hunger. Although her stamina was not fully recovered, it did recover by half. Her hands and feets were still quite tired, and after some rest, she stood up and used her tree branch to kill some porcupines. She had an intention to leave after she collected 100 spikes.

Although her stamina was being drained due to using a similar posture after a period of time, Xia Mo felt that her thrust techniques was getting more refined and precise. Just before her stamina was fully depleted, she heard the system rang: "Due to your multiples practices, you have gained the Thrust skill, and your Agility has increased by 2."

"You have also learnt the Thrust skill due to your own effort, Saviness has increased by 2."

After hearing the system messages, Xia Mo was relieved that after experiences, she was assured that if you were the first person to discover certain things, the system will double your rewards. To Xia Mo, who only had ordinary attributes from the start, it was a good news to her. 1 to 2 points of attributes did not matter to a player in the long run, but in the early stage, it did have an impact. The more attribute points she attained, the higher the chances of her surviving.

While she was resting, she checked her status on the game menu:

Endurance: 5

Wisdom: 2

Strength: 1

Savviness: 4

Total Attributes: 20

In DUST, there were no levels in the game character, but the total attributes were an important factor. When two players with a total attribute of more than 50 met each other, the player with higher total attributes cannot initiate an attack on the weaker player. But if the weaker player attacked the stronger one, then the latter had a choice to retaliate. Well, the game parameters did not care if the weaker player could overpower the stronger player in this case.

The current attributes were not too ideal, as her Endurance and Stamina were too low. If she did raise these two attributes through the normal ways of completing quests in the starter village, it would have increased to 20 points. For now, she had to think of another way.

After resting and eating more fruits, and her stamina had recovered by half, Xia Mo stood up and attacked the porcupines again. Because she had the Thrust skill, she was able to kill the porcupines in one hit. With 2 extra points in Agility, she was able to attack faster. She picked up the spikes and after a rough estimation, she felt that she needed 4 more spikes to hit her 100 spikes quota. When Xia Mo was ready to secure her remaining spikes, she heard a sound and started to tremble all over.