3 Chapter Three
I was not pouting.
You could prove nothing!
I swung my blade. A short, single-edged dagger in the air... Again, again, and again. I wasn't doing this for no reason, because let's be honest, swinging a deadly weapon in the air like a dumbass wasn't a smart idea.
[New skill created: Dagger mastery.]
I sighed and held the dagger to my side for a second, opening the skills page.
[Passive skills:
Gamers Mind.
Gamers Body.
Detect Bloodlust.
Dagger mastery: Lvl 1.
Active skills:
Create ID.
Escape ID.]
So, The dagger mastery could level up, that's logical. You can't be an expert as soon as you pick up any weapon.
Opening my status with a thought, I sighed and looked over my stat distribution. There go my points.
[Name: Adam Taurus
Race: Bull Faunus (50% Purity.)
Level: 7
HP: 290
AP: 350 (Locked)
Semblance: Moonslice (Locked)
STR: 24
END: 23
INT: 30
AGI: 10
Free Points: 17.]
Adding 13 points to my intelligence was the logical decision. It would unlock my AP, which I could use to get stronger and leave enslavement.
I looked at the screen and waited... Do I have to do something specific?
I pressed the "AP" tab again, just like I did the first time to figure out how to unlock it, and watched as a new box opened up.
[To unlock "AP", 30 INT is required.]
[Would you like to unlock "AP"?]
I pressed yes and glowed. Seriously, I glowed red. I felt kind of weird, and stronger, too.
[New skill created: Aura shield.]
[New skill created: Aura Mend.]
[New skill created: Aura Regeneration.]
[New skill created: Aura manipulation.]
...Now that was really neat.
I looked over to my status and raised an eyebrow. Looks like a few new skills weren't the only thing this thing granted me.
[Name: Adam Taurus
Race: Bull Faunus (50% Purity.)
Level: 7
HP: 290
AP: 350
Semblance: Moonslice (Locked)
STR: 24 (+40%)
END: 23 (+40%)
INT: 30 (+40%)
AGI: 10 (+40%)
Free Points: 17.]
This was a huge boost... If I managed to get my strength, for example, to 100, that's basically free 40 points in addition.
I held up my dagger and stared at it intensely for a moment... nothing happened. Looks like this is turning out to be a pattern. A few moments of staring later, in addition to a few mental commands, my "Aura" started spreading along the blade of my dagger.
I kept concentrating, trying to keep the red glow on the blade as long as I could.
[New skill created: Weapon enhancement.]
So, if that was possible, then so should be this.
The red glow abruptly stopped coming from my sword, and slowly spread down my legs, and it only took a few moments for the blue box that represented the results of my hard work to appear.
[New skill created: Body Reinforcement.]
[Aura manipulation has leveled up.]
Quickly opening my skill menu, I looked at my new skills description and nodded in appreciation.
Aura mend and manipulation were both at level one, the first one allowed me to regenerate my health passively and it regenerated 0.3% per second, nothing much now, but If I stayed here, stabbing myself until I maxed it out, which would let me regenerate 30 Hp per second.
And that was considering that 100 was the maximum level, if it wasn't, or if it had no limit, I would be pretty hard to kill if I brought it up to a high enough level.
Aura manipulation would aid me in, well, manipulating my aura, allowing me to use it faster and would drain less, and regeneration would regenerate my AP with 0.3% per second.
The aura shield was like a forcefield, and it had an on-and-off option, much like the aura mend. It would block any physical damage but I would still feel the pain and it would drain my AP, approximately to damage.
The weapon enhancement and body reinforcement were self-explanatory too. One would boost the damage my weapon did at the cost of AP and the second would reinforce my body at the same cost.
I sat down, crossed my legs, and did the only thing reasonable when you were a gamer, the real-world time was paused, and in a clear dungeon...
I stabbed myself.
My health went down by 15 but it started regenerating as soon as I removed the blade from my leg. There was no wound, thanks to the gamer's body.
I stabbed myself again.
[Aura mend has leveled up.]
[Aura regeneration leveled up.]
This was my life now.
-A few weeks later-
I have been here for... five weeks?
I looked over at the lines I made in a tree, counting how many times the sun passed over me.
Four and a half.
It was boring, extremely so, but my gamers mind pulled through, suppressing my developing insanity and possible additional personalities.
Thankfully my determination to not suck early on granted me good levels and stats.
[Name: Adam Taurus
Race: Bull Faunus (50% Purity.)
Level: 7
HP: 290
AP: 350
Semblance: Moonslice (Locked)
STR: 24 (+40%)
END: 57 (+40%)
INT: 30 (+40%)
AGI: 10 (+40%)
Free Points: 17.]
This was not fair. To others. But when was the world fair to anyone? I was just a normal seventeen-year-old, interested in guns and working out. then a second later I was a kid, a new race, and a slave...
Life wasn't fair to me, so I shouldn't be fair to it. If it tries to fuck me over, I would fuck it sideways.
[Passive skills:
Gamers Mind.
Gamers Body.
Detect Bloodlust.
Dagger mastery: Lvl:23
Aura Mend: Lvl:38
Aura Regeneration: Lvl:44
Aura Manipulation: Lvl:42
Active skills:
Create ID.
Escape ID.
Aura Shield: Lvl:41 On/Off.
Weapon Enhancement.
Body Reinforcement.]
I smirked at the levels. These were good, even though I had to get more and more intensive with damaging myself, it paid off.
I practiced with my dagger occasionally, but I mainly focused on my aura abilities.
I was so abusing this every chance I get...
Hell, I was going to abuse it now, but my dagger mastery wouldn't go up anymore, and I'd been swinging for a day and a half.
So, I was guessing that everything else needed experience, you know, like in fighting, but that would come as soon as I would get out of here and into another dungeon and slash at more black wolf monsters.
[Your INT has increased by 1.]
And yeah, there was that. When I had been here, stabbing myself like a madman, I wasn't really thinking much. There were a few things like how to get out of the mines, where the hell I actually was, like an anime I watched and couldn't remember, but nothing much came of it.
I couldn't remember any anime where there were animal people, with black creatures with red eyes wanting to kill people.
Sighing, looked over my stats and pressed the "Moonslice". It was my "Semblance", even though I had no idea what that was.
[Level 55 required to unlock Moonslice.]
There wasn't even a description.
Stretching my arms and getting a satisfying pop in response, I took a deep breath and finally left the empty ID... not going to the real world, yet though. Not yet.
I wasn't strong enough to break out.
"Open ID: Beowulf."
This time, the world wasn't drained of color like before, the world was drained, replaced by a black void with no end in sight. My eyebrows furrowed and before I could even question what was happening, the world returned from the point where I was standing.
Unlike before when I was in the clearing, I found myself in a deep forest with trees everywhere, no clearing in sight.
My body tensed and I readied my dagger.
[Bloodlust detected.]
I turned slightly to the left, staring straight into the red glowing eyes of what I was now somewhat familiar with.
Eight more sets of red orbs emerged from the darkness and I took a step back.
[Quest alert: The Alpha!]
[Eliminate the enemies: 0/8, 0/1.]
[Reward: EXP, Lien, Random weapon.]
Another random weapon? Neat, but what was Lien?
I didn't have much time to wonder as a howl reverberated in the forest. Focusing back on the monsters in front of me, I swung my sword at the one that decided that jumping me was a good idea.
Now that I think about it, these things patters were simple. Bite, swipe, lunge. So far, that's the only thing they did.
They were, by no means smart.
My aura rushed to my dagger and reached the part where the point of contact was going to be made. The blade sunk into the beast, slicing its claw in half vertically like a hot knife through butter.
The beast roared in pain and I took the opening that was presented and capitalised on it. swiveling my blade in my hand, I held it in a reverse grip and sliced at its neck.
[You have killed a Beowulf! EXP rewarded!]
That was easier than I thought it would be.
I look at the remaining nine and instead of charging at me with reckless abandon, they were watching...
That was the scout, wasn't it? One was sent to see how I would fare.
[Your INT has increased by 1.]
For fucks sake.
Slowly, with a growl to boot, the rest walk out circling me. My eye fell on the one that came out last. The two eyes that were on the relevantly same level as the others, rose up and a giant claw slowly came out of the shadows, The hand that followed was longer than the normal ones I'd fought before this one and the snout of the thing was longer.
Giant spikes that adorned its back was another thing different about it.
Taking a deep breath, I look around one last time. Yup, the other beasts were waiting for something. And it didn't take long for me to figure out.
As another howl sounded, four of the eight minions charged at me, one from each side and I reinforced my body. Taking out a fire dust crystal from my inventory, I jumped as the four were close enough that none of them would manage to dodge, or turn in time.
As the beasts collided with each other, I threw the crystal in my hand toward them. It collided with one of the masks, exploding on impact due to my strength.
[You have killed a Beowulf! EXP rewarded!]
[You have killed a Beowulf! EXP rewarded!]
Two of the four died in the explosion as I lost momentum as started falling. Angeling myself right, I landed on one of the survivor's shoulders, or what passed for them, and jabbed my dagger into its neck.
[You have killed a Beowulf! EXP rewarded!]
I looked at the last one of the bunch and did the only thing that came to mind. I threw my dagger at it. The blade cut through the air, slicing into the skull mask of the Beowulf.
[You have killed a Beowulf! EXP rewarded!]
Great.
As the monster turned to dust, I walked forward and grabbed the weapon that dropped to the ground.
I looked at the four remaining minions and their boss.
They were still waiting, but that didn't last long as the giant one howled and the five of them rushed toward me in a rage. Narrowing my eyes, I rolled to the side, the simple-minded ones running into each other like the last ones, the bigger one, however, jumped over them and rushed me.
Oh, yeah, this was going to be troublesome.
