8 - Surrounded from every corner

[Damn, my day couldn't get any worse!]

He sighed, "Aaah, here we go again!" looking at the herd of trolls rushing towards him, a mix of level 5 and 6 trolls either holding a large barbed wire wooden bat or a metal axe. As Mickaila saw the trolls coming towards him at a high speed, he quickly stood up on his two feet feeling a bit tired but not to the point that he was too exhausted that he couldn't move. As the trolls are closing in on him, he swiftly turned around, running away in the opposite direction of them where there was no foes in sight and ran in that direction trying to once again escape from their view.

~After 22 minutes~

[God, this is the longest workout I've done in my life!] Mickaila complained to himself as he was getting really tired and quite out of breath with his speed and stamina decreasing by the second but not to the point that he was about to be caught, [I mean if I am this tired, those trolls chasing me must also feel tired]. He took in a few more deep breath, attempting to regain enough energy to do another sprint so that he could finally escape from their grasps or at least last for another 8 minute before he could get out of this whole ordeal.

He then concentrated, taking a few more deep breaths and held his gaze to the path ahead and whizzed forward leaving the trolls in his dust, the path ahead of him was clear with nothing blocking his way, he believed that he has finally escaped however just as he was getting his hopes up, his expression turned a 180 degrees. Just as he was about to reach another corner of the maze like temple, he sees a figure of the slimy green troll appearing, however he wasn't going to give up this easily, he then sees there is enough gap for him to squeeze through especially seeing how there was only that one troll, so with that idea in mind he took another deep breath and sprinted with the best of his abilities but luck wasn't on his side. Just when he was about to reach what seems like a close exit was suddenly blocked off with another herd of trolls in front of him.

By that moment Mickaila quickly stopped, not wanting to confront them, quickly spinning around trying to search for another potential way out of this however the trolls he left behind has quickly gained upon him, now he is truly surrounded at all corners, 'system how long do I have left?' Mickaila asked in a desperate manner, '4 minutes and 30 seconds' Mickaila nodded, seeing how all the trolls have now got him surrounded with no way of escape.

And with the system doing the countdown for him, he has no other choice than to try and survive the next 4 minutes and 30 seconds until it's over.

With that in mind, he then fully equipped himself with the weapons in both hands whilst the trolls have shortened their distance from him with a 5 second countdown until they reach his position and without any further ado, shooting down the trolls that was the closest to him and luckily for Mickaila, it was a straight bull eyes to the head and bang on in between the eyes, a one hit kill.

By the time his gun was out of bullets, he quickly switched to using his dagger, fighting the trolls head on with his life on the line.

'1 minute and 32 seconds...' Mickaila slashed down the slimy green troll in front of him, '1 minute and 23 second...' he dodged the attack from 3 of the trolls, '1 minute and 5 second' another troll was put down.

With the amount of trolls not decreasing, as if they were coming in waves, Mickaila was depleting his energy at an exponential rate but he didn't want to give up and become the feast of these filthy creatures so he kept on fighting. Cutting one troll after another without fail.

'45 seconds...' Mickaila kicked down another troll but just within that split second that he was occupied with the trolls in front of him, one has unconsciously sneaked behind him. And just as Mickaila sensed it, it was already too late, "slash" the sound of the metal hammer cut through Mickaila's back leaving a deep wound but still he didn't collapse, '26 seconds...' he immediately turned around with a deathly glare staring at the troll that inflicted a deep wound upon him and "slash" he repaid the debt.

'15 seconds...' the overwhelming amount of monsters engulfed him even when he tried to stand on his ground, he was evidently pushed back with the amount of kills decreasing. '9 seconds...' he cut down another troll but fell, '5 seconds...' the trolls surrounded him, destroying the light in front of him, darkness invading him and no matter how much Mickaila tried to escape from the crowd of trolls that has now got a hold of him, looking down upon him with drooling saliva dripping down their jaws, [I don't want to die yet!] he screamed out to himself whilst being evidently grossed out.

'3 seconds...' he was now grabbed by the trolls that were about eat him alive and just within that split second that their mouth got in contact with Mickaila's skin, about to bite down into his flesh, "poof..." he disappeared from their grasp leaving the trolls all dumbfounded and Mickaila was luckily saved!

Now he was back in his room, laying on the floorboard, sweating immensely from all the action that he went through along with blood that was dripping from his backside soaking itself into the red carpet. Whilst several notification from the screen popped up in front of him all congratulations of levelling up which he didn't pay attention to since he was all exhausted.

"Hey, Mickaila. Why haven't you answered?", as she opened the door to his bedroom, she was then faced with an exhausted looking Mickaila who was breathing heavily laying on the floor as if he was going to die due to lack of oxygen, she couldn't help but wondered what he has been doing during the time she was out that caused him to become like this, his body was all sweaty as if he has done a massive workout but from the looks of the room, it wasn't as stuffy, it was as if he just came back but that wouldn't be right since Rosalia has been calling him from downstairs for quite a while and there wasn't any movement from the room until now.

"Hi..." he said breathlessly, "...sis" trying to catch his breath. "What happened to you?" Rosalia asked quite concerned, "I mean if you wanted to workout you didn't have to push yourself so hard that you are going to die. It's as if you just fought a long war or something!" She exclaimed.

Well, to be exact he has, a war against trolls. "I'm fine" Mickaila said as he slowly regained his composure and breathing but still didn't sit up as he did not want his sister to see his injury, "Are you sure?" Rosalia asked double checking whether her brother was truly alright since she never seen her brother in such a messed up state making her quite concerned.

"Yes, I'm certain." Mickaila answered with a forced smile that seems to be believable.

Rosalia then crossed her arms knowing that he was hiding something, and with his actions being totally different than usual, it was quite suspicious as well.

"Fine... you should take a shower first then come downstairs and we should talk." She sternly said as she went out closing the door behind her whilst her footsteps slowly faded away.

And just as his sister asked, he sat up from his position still feeling fatigued along with numbness everywhere which may be the result of blood loss. His body felt out of balance, along with feeling sticky and uncomfortable from all the sweating, with everything being a bit dizzy, he slowly stood up onto his 2 feet, itching his way towards his closet to get some spare comfy clothes along with his towel and headed straight into the shower. As soon as he felt the water hit his body, he felt much more relaxed.

After taking about 10 minutes in the shower, he comes back out into his room, taking a sip of the healing liquid and his wounds immediately healed up along with his fatigue all gone, drying up his hair with the towel, feeling fully refreshed, he then swiftly made his way downstairs.

Seeing his sister preparing some food for them. He sat down next to the table awaiting for his sister to finish. And during that time he called out his status page:

Name: Mickaila Hades

Species: Human

Level: 9

Job: None

Titles: Troll slayer

HP : 610/ 610

MP: 0/0

Strength: 45

Intelligence: 45

Vitality: 30

Agility: 35

Sense: 20

Luck: 5

Skills: Dagger slasher

Basic points: 168

Coins: 245

| title: troll slayer

A title given to a hunter/ player who is proficient in fights against trolls.

30% increased experience against beast-type monsters|

|skill: dagger slasher

Level: 8

Description: slashes the foe down with 40% more damage and 10% more accuracy|

[with my HP and level increased, I now have to decide what way is best to distribute my basic points and what's this coin thing about?] he questioned himself.

[wait, what's this?] as Mickaila looked at the side of the screen where a new tab has been located there that he has never seen before.

|congratulations, you can now use the "store" feature|

As he went onto store, he sees several things being sold but sadly there wasn't any food. Despite that he searched around it, all the high ranking equipments and materials are at a very high price even with the amount of trolls he killed, he doesn't have enough. He sighed, looking at the weapons section, however all the ones he can afford doesn't have any specific trait or usefulness which kind of let him down a bit.

[ I guess I should just store up the coins for future use and get some weapons elsewhere] he sighed once again and just as he was in his train of thought, his sister has already finished making food and put it on the table in front of them, "so then, are you going to tell me what happened?" Rosalia questioned with a serious look whilst sitting on the opposite seat facing each other.

He sighed another time not really wanting to tell her of the embarrassment he had suffered but nevertheless he doesn't want to make his sister worry.

And after he has given her the whole detail of what happened, his sister started bursting out into laughters, "that's what you get for not waking up early!" She exclaimed holding tightly onto her stomach as if she was going to die from laughter, "hey, it's not that funny!" He said loudly.

"Ok...ok!" As Rosalia tried regaining her composure.

"However, that is also a good thing. As you said becoming stronger is a priority and from how many trolls you've killed you must have gained quite a lot of benefits" which Mickaila couldn't deny since his level has risen quite a lot along with his skill and experience.

"Oh yes sis, I was going to ask, do you have any useful weapons I could use?"