Chapter 3: Failure
Atlas rushed through the trees, dodging and weaving around each of them. He went as fast as he could without running into any trees to maximize efficiency.
It wasn't too far away since he got the notification almost immediately after the tusked boar left. He could still make it in time.
In a few seconds Atlas ran into a clearing which was also where the boar died however, Amara was nowhere to be found. She completely disappeared, left no traces other than some blood on the ground. Still, Atlas searched the area desperate to find his sister and he found a trail of blood that led to a cave. Atlas looked inside and he found another fleshripper.
It was a different one since the one he fought was still looking for him back in the clearing, he made sure of that. Continuing to look into the cave from a distance he spotted bones on the cold hard ground and his heart dropped. He couldn't tell if it was his sister's from the distance he was from it but he had a bad feeling about it.
Atlas fired twin umbra bolts in the direction of the fleshripper injecting it with the darkness effect in separate area decreasing the time required for its body to corrode.
[Mana 30>0]
Luckily, Mana wasn't considered stamina or he'd be on the ground from that alone. However he could no longer cast spells so he ran forward using his new Immortal Undead body to get close enough.
Using agility he had never displayed before Atlas dodged each and every one of the deviants attacks even with its high agility. Atlas moved past the fleshripper and into the cave. It was small enough so the fleshripper couldn't move too well while he could move perfectly.
Using his newfound advantage, Atlas punched the side of the Fleshripper causing a crack to appear in its scales.
His arm broke due to that, the strength he used combined with the fleshrippers defensive scales made it hard to get in to wound it.
However, there was an opening for a single second where Atlas slid underneath the beast, taking off his hand entirely revealing what looks like a sharp bone and stabbed it in the creatures belly getting a shriek of pain from it.
Moving quickly, Atlas made a giant slashing motion multiple times making what looked to be a giant X on the deviants belly. Quickly, he rolled out from underneath before it fell on him.
The system gave him lots of exp as a reward for killing it
[Killed D-rank Fleshripper, +200 exp]
[Level increased 1>3]
[Exp 0/200]
[10 Stat Points Gained]
[Health And Mana Recharged]
[Current Stats
Agility:20
Magic:6
Health:10
Strength:7
Spirit:14
Stamina:15
Defence:10
Necromancy:1]
Atlas looked at them with interest, Stamina was already quite high along with Spirit and agility. Stamina reflected how long you can fight and the speed of Mana and health Regeneration through resting.
Spirit was the amount of Summons one could have so its an exclusive Stat to necromancers, you start with 5 slots and every 5 additional Spirit after that gives an extra 1 slot.
Strength is physical damage and defense is resistance to physical damage, Health is quite obvious and Magic increases your Mana pool size along with spell damage. Agility was the speed at which you could move increasing both movement speed and attack speed.
All of these were normal, however the Necromancy Stat wasn't. It was never there in the game so it shouldn't exist in reality, the only conclusion Atlas come come up with was that some things about the game have changed entirely.
He wanted to see what the stats did but he had to find out where his sister was first, looking around the cave he spotted multiple sets of human bones.
No wonder this deviant was getting so big, someone or something was feeding it people in order for it to grow. The only question is who was feeding it?
Atlas continued looking around through the bones, around the exterior of the cave, and even a small area set aside for the fleshripper to eat at.
He did not find his sister but he did find something that made him angrier beyond reason and along with that anger, sorrow.
His sisters bracelet that he had given her as a gift years ago was lying in the feeding area, and most likely if the blood all over the ground is an indication. She was gone.
Atlas cried harder than he ever had before, the only things he found dear to him, his friends, his sister, both gone. All that came left, was revenge.
Atlas became a stone cold killing machine, he had nothing left to lose and that's the most dangerous type of enemy.
Looking towards the forest where he had come from, Atlas heard the distant roars of the fleshripper as it smelled blood in the direction of its den.
Quickly hiding behind a nearby bush Atlas watched the fleshripper move into the cave, it started giving out low growls before it roared furiously and started tracking the prey by smell.
Of course, by then It was too late. With its head looking down Atlas jumped up from his hiding spot and landed right next to the fleshripper blinding its eye before it could react.
The fleshripper reeled back in pain trying to stomp Atlas into the ground but, using his martial arts, he managed to use his newly reformed hand to punch its belly and fracturing its ribs with pure strength.
While in the bushes Aldrich had put 4 points into Necromancy which strengthened his Minions by 2% for every Stat increase and every 5 levels its increased by 10% plus the 2% that originally comes with it.
So with the 4 added and the 1 already there Atlas's Minions have a 20% increase in all attributes.
The remaining 6 points were split into 3 different stats, 1 in Spirit, 3 in physical, and 2 in Magic.
[Current Stats]
Agility:20
Magic:8
Health10
Strength:10
Spirit:15
Defense:10
Necromancy:5
With the increase in physical he was now strong enough to punch a dent into the fleshrippers armory scales.
His mana pool increased from 60 to 80 and he can now summon a total of 8 Minions to help him in battles.
Using not only his superior speed and strength but also intelligence he managed to best the beast before him.
[Killed D-rank Fleshripper, +200 Exp
[Level increased 3>4]
[Exp 0/300
[5 Stat Point Gained]
[Health And Mana Recharged]
Atlas looked at his stays panel in his system interface, looking through all the options he decided the best for survival would be to put all 5 points into necromancy and then summon the two fleshrippers as undead. This would not only increase their attributes by 40% but he would have 2 of them making it easier to get levels than before.
Kneeling down he dragged the bodies closer together as it would make things easier on his mana if he did one spell instead of two since it remains the same cost.
He put both hands on the two fleshrippers foreheads and commanded "obey" and just like with the tusked boar, both fleshrippers rose from the ground looking straight at him for a command. He sent them off running to kill more deviants for exp, he would need all the power he could get if he wanted to take revenge on Liam and his group.
While the fleshrippers hunted their prey, Atlas sag on the top of a nearby Boulder thinking about what to do next. Even though he didn't want to summon the fleshrippers for what they did he had no choice if he wants to survive.
A single blow from them could've killed him easily, now that his damage his higher up he can start working on health without issues.
Atlas looked over towards the feeding ground once again, he picked up thr bracelet of his deceased sister and decided to make a grave for her.
She always loved nature so she went to parks all the time, she dreamed of the forest. It's what Atlas believes brought her there to bury him along with the group of Jerks who manipulated her into doing so.
Atlas noticed there hasn't been any notifications coming in for awhile and wondered about that, he activated the system interface by thinking about activating it.
That's When he got the notifications, he was leveling up at a crazy speed. F-ranks gave 20 exp, E-ranks gave 50 exp but the D-ranks were supposed to give 200 exp not 100 like what was happening now.
His Minions ganged up on a D-rank and killed it but it gave only 100 exp. His level was level 1 and then 3 while fighting them, the system gauged their level around 7 so it could be a double experience boost from the level difference.
Scrolling through the list of notifications to check if he indeed got double because of the level difference, he found a notification stating
[Double experience awarded for killing an enemy who is double your level]
Now he understands, he must've missed the notification somehow. This means he must have his Minions target deviants at least double his current level for the maximum efficiency.
All that he had to do now was to sit back and relax as his level slowly starts to go up.