Growth

Inside the Twin Forest. Within a special secluded location in its outskirts were two children sparring. One wielded a sword with great expertise while the other one clumsily fought using a staff.

And the one using a staff was me... Dominic.

"You're wide open!" Ray laughed.

What the!

Snap!

And my staff broke again.

Damn!

Angry... Pissed? Stressed? I'm frustrated! I could feel my muscles twitching. Wanting to desperately land a hit on Ray but this kid...

I can't touch her.

Literally.

I would attack with the staff. And she would easily hit it to the side or break the staff.

And every attempt at attacking would be punished with a painful strike. I can feel my bones... Getting bruised.

[HP: 73/100] And I'm actually dying here!

If I didn't have my heals then I would've died easily.

Mind you... Ray's using a wooden sword... A wooden sword that can cut through stone and trees.

I looked around me at the destruction caused by the two of us.

Trees riddled with deep gashes. The ground cracked or filled with potholes.

This is bullshit...

"Ray be honest with me... How high is your level?"

"Seventeen!" Ray raised ten fingers before subtracting six with a cheeky smile.

Seventeen... SEVENTEEN???

Leveling up... Humans level up faster compared to other races. It's part of our racial gift. [Inborn Talent]

20% chance to be born with a rare skill or higher. And exp required for level ups are reduced.

Humans... Have shitty base attributes. All 10. Be it magic or physique related. And that was when they grow up as an adult or finally reach lvl 2.

For some reason. Even a child would have the max attributes of an adult upon reaching lvl 2.

Back to the main point... Isn't Ray leveling up too fast?

It would take a few months to reach lvl 5 if you take your time safely fighting and killing slimes.

And it would take half a year at minimum to reach lvl 10. From there onwards, the exp requirement would've increased by a ton.

Ray's just seven years old... And she had only awakened her class at six. So she's been training for one whole year now.

Darn... She's halfway through. Only 13 levels more and she would reach the max level for a tier 1 class before advancing said class.

Pressing a finger up to her lips. Ray pondered out loud as she looked at me with her hands clasped behind her back. "You're probably wondering why my level is so high..."

No... I'm over that. Main characters cannot be defined by logic.

"Since I like you... I'll tell you!" She smiled brightly again. Ugh... That smile.

Why do I feel like I'm going to grow blind seeing that? For some reason, Ray glows under the sun a little when she smiles.

What are you? A sparkling vampire?

"I go inside goblin caves and take on all of them by myself! I admit... The first try was hard and I nearly got pinned to the ground by five of them. But in the end, I won!"

Dear god no... Goblins!

They're fucking perverts!

I gripped the remnants of my staff and quickly slammed the base onto Ray's head.

[Critical Hit!] System lady whispered into my ears. A single trail of damage text popped up above Ray.

Ray only frowned.

-1

Even with a crit...

She only took 1 damage...

But that's not the point!

"Ray you're an idiot! A huge idiot!"

"No I'm not!"

"Yes you are! Goblins! Even seasoned fighters struggle against a group of them. And you went in! Inside a Den!"

"Yeah so?"

This kid! One day she's going to suffer from that recklessness!

"If you go inside a goblin cave again. You're no longer my friend." Hissing. I crossed my arms and glared at Ray.

She shivered. Put on an aggrieved expression before rushing up to me and holding my arm.

"Dominic, you don't mean that do you?"

I continued glaring at her. Shooting a "You are dead to me" scowl.

This idiot... I'm pissed...

Pissed...

Just because you are strong does not mean you can just go in and solve everything with muscles.

I admit... I would solve problems with muscles if I have them. But only do that when there's no real threat or if my plans require them.

"Dominic I'm sorry..." Ray hung her head low.

I snickered a little.

"But the exp! They give good exp!" And she rose her head again while looking at me with puppy dog eyes.

I felt my heart beat faster suddenly.

Ray... Why do you look like a cute puppy?

...

How cute...

But that won't work on me.

[Your Willpower has deflected [Charm] ]

What the... She actually cast a charming skill on me?

This little shit!

Deepening my scowl. I proceeded to ignore Ray who was trying her best to reason with me. I checked my stats and so far. My growth has been faster than I anticipated.

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l (Dominic Remington l lvl 1 Enabler ( Uncommon [I] )

HP: 100/100

MP: 200/200

Stamina: 111/160

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Variable Attributes

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Str: 34

Ten: 32

Dex: 26

Agi: 30

MI: 15

Spirit: 18

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Non-Variable Attributes

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Charm: 6/10 (Above Average)

Intelligence: 5/10 (Average)

Will: 7/10 (Above Average)

Luck: -1/10 (Abysmal)

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Skills

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[ lvl 2 Mana Control]( Common ) [ lvl 4 Lesser Heal ] (Common) [ lvl 1 Battle-Staff Proficiency] (Common)

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En... The staff proficiency came from hitting slimes and fighting desperately against Ray who's a damned cheater. I may not be able to best him but I can easily finish off normal slimes now. Goblins are no problem too if there's only two of them.

At first... It was hard to believe that the loophole could easily increase my attributes like that. But it wasn't without side effects.

My body feels sore or aching at times. Usually every few hours or so. And it requires healing magic to make sure that feeling goes away. Sometimes I even wake up dead middle of the night full of sweat with my body full of pain.

Second thing, my appetite increased. Probably in order to cope with the growth of this absurd body. I made sure to abuse the healing exercise loophole I found. And it went well. My min-maxing path of a muscular supporter seems to grow brighter every day.

Three weeks... 21 days had already passed and these physical attributes of mine are now stronger than your common low leveled lizardman...

And I grew taller! I'm just six years old but I'm already 4'3 tall.

I'll probably turn into a muscular giant after I reach full maturity. That... Sounds nice.

I can formally apply as a pillar man if I grew buff enough.

21 days... My 60 days have dwindled down to 39... The bandits are only a month away from coming...

I should start making preparations for leaving Cain Village. And Ray...

Screw it. I'll drug her and her mom into deep sleep. Tie them up and take them with me as I pull a whole damn carriage towards the Cloud Cap mountains.

I don't care about the villagers. I only care about a few people. And only those few are the ones that I could save.

But before leaving...

I'll set fire to the village. And make it look like that bandits did it.

That should send everyone into enough panic to scare them to migrate.

I'm selfish? Sorry but I don't care.

I can't save everyone after all.

I am no saint.

"Dominic I'm sorry..." Ray hugged me and wept a little. You know... That's not gonna work on me.

But meh... I feel that you're sincere enough.

Anyways it's lunchtime now. I'm hungry. And Ray's mom cooks a better dish than what I can manage.

Plus I heard she's good looking from what Ray's been spouting about her.

I'm curious...

"I'll forgive you. Only if you stop going into the caves and if you make your mom cook lunch for me."

"Dominic you're evil!"

"Do it or I'll tell your mom you nearly got pinned down by goblins. Oh I wonder how she would feel. And I wonder how many days you'll get stuck in the house."

Ray's eyes dimmed. She bit her lip and hollowly nodded.

Heh... Against Good old Dominic's shamelessness. Even a main character can only bow down and follow my bidding.

Say...

"Ray have you seen Pillow?"

"No..."

I wonder where he could've gone to? No matter. Pillow is actually a little smart. He can easily avoid troubles.

For now... Time to eat Lunch!

-----

Time was not kind to this place.

Marble composed primarily of the surrounding structures. Bricks, pillars, marble paths. All of it was made out of clear white marble. Marble which lost its previous luster. Turning dull, dirty, and aged as green moss climbed all over them.

Fallen pillars. Collapsed buildings and breached walls.

This place was once a monastery. Broken murals depicting tales of an abandoned past could no longer be read nor properly gazed at.

From the ground popped up a blue slime. A large blue semi-transparent slime that had no presence of a core inside it. An elite slime was hard to kill and elusive. Due to the lack of cores, theoretically, these slimes could just about squeeze into any crevice and travel undetected.

The small slime shook. From being the size of a small dog. It's gelatinous body quadrupled inside. Reaching up to a size able to swallow a calf whole.

Shu! Shu! SHu! Arrows whistled through the air.

Piercing the slime's flesh. Only for said projectiles to suffer the fate of losing all momentum and being digested into the slimes insides.

Kuek! KWek! KWek! Alarmed grunts alerted the slime.

Goblins rushed at it with bone spears. Thrusting. Sweeping. And even jumping up to stab downwards. The slime seemingly looked at the goblins before splitting into numerous pieces.

Each piece adhering to a goblin. Burning their green flesh.

Pained cries filled the ruins. Yet the slime was just getting started.

It traveled deeper. Further into the decrepit location. Killing everything smaller than itself. Goblins, other slimes... Kobolds.

All were engulfed and devoured clean.

It entered a room. Toppled, rotten wooden chairs and tables lay silently on the ground. Aged marble tiles lined the floor. Reflecting direct sunlight shining on it.

The room was quiet. Anyone would become careless due to this peace. And all attention would be grabbed one thing silently sitting at the middle of the room.

The slime stopped before an altar. In there sat a chest. A small golden chest that glistened under the bright rays of sunlight peering from a broken ceiling. Upon entering this room. A person's thoughts would be drawn to this golden chest.

Allured by greed or prospects of loot. They would open it.

Unaware of the skeletons nor broken armor pieces polluting the room's floor.

Crack Crack Crack~ The chest silently shifted. As if locks inside it was moving.

The slime wiggled. Multiplied in size even further. Reaching a size that can easily absorb into itself a whole carriage complete with a horse.

Silence continued...

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! The chest snapped. Grew larger as two ungodly, large dark hands jutted out of its interior. Smashing themselves onto the ground. The bulky, dark demonic hands lifted the golden chest into the air. Revealing an open interior full of remarkably sharp teeth. Red saliva dripped off the chest as it stared at the slime with that lone eye inside it.

There was no need for any battle cries or preparations.

Inside the Twin Forest. A slime and a powerful mimic were duking it out.

The marble ruins shook under their contest of power.