Beginning of the end

Looking back down at the reflection of his soul in the river, Kai did some mental calculations of how possible it would be to move his stat points.

The reason he even thought it was possible in the first place is that he can only see the dots in his own soul, meaning he definitely can't do it for anyone else.

It also means that it's something special about his own soul. Be it his class or maybe something about his bloodline, it could be possible.

The other reason is that he doesn't think it would be that hard to take a pinch of the much bigger golden dot of Luck and combine it with his extremely lacking Dexterity. If this plan works, Kai could be a walking, well, anything.

The possibilities that open up by being able to increase or decrease any stat seems almost limitless, but that's only if it works.

Sitting down on the damp grass, Kai looked into the river at his silhouette and slowly reached out a hand for the golden dot in his bleak soul.

His hand passes effortlessly through the silhouette, nothing happening at the movement. Trying again, Kai does the same but with only a single finger.

The result is still the same.

Not wanting to give up, Kai tried everything he could think of in an attempt to make his incredible idea work.

Fingers, nails, squinting, even using his toungue which The Ever-changing warned him not to do.

None of it worked.

Maybe its because my stats are lacking...

With the idea that the failures are because of his stats, Kai activated his partial transformation. With his right arm now covered in hair with claws growing from his fingernails, he tenderly reached out towards the golden dot, attempting to slice it with a claw.

His claw passed through the reflection of his soul, but a shiver ran up Kai's spine at the same time.

It... it worked!

He felt something when his claw passed through his soul. It wasn't an unpleasant feeling, just strange.

This was a really weird experience. His soul, which he could only see in his silhouette in the water, just got touched by him. He shouldn't even be able to, it' not like his soul was even in the water.

He wasn't going to complain though.

A mad grin grew on Kai's face as he once again thought about all the possibilities of being able to transfer his stats himself. About to be hit, bulk up your Constitution. Want to dodge? Stack your Dexterity. Want to hit hard? Reinforce your Strength. The possibilities are endless.

On a timer because partial transformation costs Mana, Kai got back to work at trying to figure out how to actually make this work.

Continuously, he swiped a single claw through the golden dot that represented his Luck, and with each swipe he felt as if he was getting closer and closer to a breakthrough.

After what felt like hours, it finally happened.

-1 Luck

A miniscule golden dot split off from the much larger one. The dot was floating freely through Kai's soul, the miniscule spark moving incredibly slow.

Using his claw again, Kai tenderly touched the golden spark and guided it over towards the blue dot which wasn't much bigger.

What happened next was one of the most beautiful things Kai had ever seen

+1 Dexterity

I did it!

The small blue dot representing Dexterity grew slightly bigger after it combined with the golden spark. There was an almost unnoticeable flash of light as they fused.

Rushing to open his status, Kai looks down at his stat section and saw that it really did work.

Stats: (105 unassigned stat points)

Dexterity: 5

...

Luck: 60

His Luck had changed, literally. If he can change his Luck into Dexterity, what else can he change?

With a few hours left until his meet up with Wa'rak, Kai got back to work.

*****

"Godammit!"

Kai cursed as he kicked the water, sending it splashing up onto the side of the stream.

It's been hours since he first  attempted to switch his stats. So far he has only managed to successfully swap two stats, both being Luck into Dexterity.

No other stat seemed to work, and he couldn't even put the Dexterity back into Luck. He still had his one hundred and five stat points, but Kai decided to save those for a rainy day.

Not like it actually rains in this place.

Sighing, Kai stood up and checked how long was left in the tutorial.

Time remaining in stage 3 - 294: 33: 12

Quickly doing the maths, Kai calculated there was about twelve days left in this forest. The fact that he's already been there for nearly three is still shocking.

So it's five days until the supposed duel between Aldred and The Demon.

The deadline day was soon approaching, and Kai would either be dead, in a new tutorial, or free of this hell by the end.

A few ideas of what he could do to kill the time pop into his head, but there's on that really sticks out to him as he let's out a yawn.

I guess I'll sleep.

*****

"Oof"

Waking up to something kicking his stomach, Kai's eyes dart open as he looks up at who or what hit him.

Towering above the tired boy is a pitch black wolf, yellow eyes, sharp teeth and even sharper claws.

Activating Telepathy, Kai spoke to Wa'rak.

"Is it time already?

The wolf growled before starting to hurry away, as if in a rush.

"No, but the abominations have started their ambush. They're flooding in through the tunnel entrance."

Kai's eyes widened in shock as he quickly pushed himself off the ground, catching up to the wolf who is nearly running back towards the entrance of The Dome.

"I thought we still had a few days?"

Another growl.

"The Demon and The Elder fight in a few days, the other abominations are free to attack whenever."

Worry set into Kai's heart as he remembered what happened the last time the abominations got into The Dome.

"Do they have the bombs attached to them"

"Not this bunch, but I think this wave is just to weaken our front line forces so they can get deeper and deeper into the tunnel. If the reach the actual Dome I don't know how much destruction they could cause."

Wa'rak then broke into a sprint, meaning Kai had to pick up the pace just to keep up. Still, he was much slower than the quater moon wolf.

In the distance, Kai spotted a variety of moon beasts standing outside the tunnel which the abominations are forcing their way through.

Countless shrieks and cries erupted from the darkness of the tunnel, but the beasts guarding it did not flinch nor panic.

Failure's speech seems to have done a lot.

Reaching the mismatched crowd of beasts, Kai approached the stag he recognised from Wa'rak and Noelle's duel and spoke to it.

"What's going to happen?"

The stag looked down at the red haired boy, it's brown eyes radiating kindness and warmth.

"The first line of defence, consisting of boars and traps laid by the monkeys, are currently holding back the abominations. But for how long they can manage, who knows?"

Over the next few hours, more and more moon beasts rushed into the tunnel to engage the abominations which were so ferociously trying to get through.

Sadly, even though countless beasts went to defend their home, the cries started getting louder and louder.

Wa'rak spent the time during the calm before the storm doing all he can to set up defensive bulwarks surrounding the tunnel, though he wasn't that useful. Boars reinforced the dirt, the monkeys which hadn't gone into the tunnel filled the ground with strange-looking landmines and other contraptions.

Tensions were high, but the beasts did not back down. The front line valiantly protected The Dome. Failure even came by time to time to give speeches about how great they were doing and how they were going to win.

Yet, with all the preparations, speeches and pre-placed traps, the limited number of beasts could only do so much against the nearly unlimited number of abominations.

The only consolation was that majority of the abominations seemed to be only crescent moon, with the odd quater moon mixed in. The moon beasts had the advantage in rank, but if Kai was to go off what Failure said previously.

If there's enough crescent moons, even a quater moon would fall.

And that's what happened.

Kai had to watch, unable to do anything, as the heroic beasts of The Dome charged their way to their deaths. Even though they knew they would most likely perish in the dark and dreary tunnel, they all wore proud looks on their faces as they held back the swarm of abominations.

It's sickening.

They were like crazed fanatics. Failure called the abominations mindless, suicidal followers, but was this any different?

The only difference was that while the abominations did their jobs mindlessly, Failure had manipulated these beasts into giving their lives for the sake of The Dome.

The thing is, Kai didn't know if he was happy or sad about it.

On the one hand, the only reason The Dome hasn't been blown to bits yet is because of the sacrifices of the various moon beasts. The abominations would have long made it into The Dome if not for them.

On the other hand, could Failure not do something?

From what Kai had seen so far, Failure had to be someone extremely powerful. The fact he's even older than Aldred attests to that fact. If what The Ever-changing said about aging being different after the tutorial, then how old is Failure really if he still looks about thirty.

Hundreds? Thousands of years old?

Sadly, such thoughts were useless in the current situation.

A day passed since the abominations first wave, their forces only growing the whole time while the beast's side dwindled.

In a battle of attrition, the beasts below the trees were clearly losing.

Wa'rak paced around Kai, murderous intent clearly visible in his eyes. He had been prohibited from entering the tunnel by Aldred, saying that he was too important for that mission.

It seemed even Aldred thought that fighting in the tunnel was akin to suicide, but Wa'rak did not care. For someone with his personality, someone who would do anything for their family.

Watching them get slaughtered was a fate worse than death.

John, Sofia and Noelle were nowhere to be seen. They were all probably off training somewhere.

They didn't care about the moons beasts who were giving up their lives to protect their ungrateful behinds. They didn't have the Telepathy skill, so only Kai knew.

Kai knew that each of the beasts who died were their own person. They had thoughts, dreams, ambitions, families, emotions, anything a normal human would have. Meanwhile they must have just saw them as deranged animals who just so happened to be useful.

Honestly, Kai was a bit shocked he even put up with them. The previous thoughts about him overreacting about his squabble with Failure and Noelle were no more.

It was the right reaction.

Noelle was an angry woman who had too many problems to actually be a good person or care about anyone other than herself.

Failure was a cunning, manipulative bastard who seemed to have nothing to lose yet everything to gain. Everything seemed to be going in the charismatic man's favour.

The ones that Kai thought were the worst in the beginning, turned out to be the kindest and best of the bunch.

Wa'rak may have been a bully, but that's only because he wanted the best for his kin. For them to be strong, to be powerful, to stand on their own feet.

Aldred, who seemed like an idiot follower of Failure, turned out to even wiser than that brown-haired bastard. Even thought the wolf had a shorter lifespan than the man, he seemed to truly know much more about people and their personalities.

Another group of beasts made their way into the tunnel, meanwhile Kai watched from the sidelines with bleak eyes.

Everything is just so...

Wrong.

Then, after one day and four hours of resisting the siege.

The first abomination made it inside The Dome.