Fights to Five
1905 Words
I am supposed to start my own journey today, but Marcus advised me to reach level five and decide on a class before journeying. He says it is safer for me as monsters beyond Croverre plains are more vile and stronger. And so after treating me to breakfast, Marcus accompanied me to the edges of the plains where monsters are stronger than the usual slimes of the middle parts. He got his sword, while I relied on my fists as I did not really know how to use any weapon. Surprisingly, Alyssa’s fists were firm and strong. I could feel every ounce of great strength that she had in her arms. It feels strange praising a girl whom I hate, but I’m just glad that she was a student athlete.
“Aren’t you going to wield anything?” Marcus asked.
“No, I don’t need to. I defeated slimes with my bare hands,” I boastfully replied. “I’m sure I will be able to defeat any monster that comes on my way.”
As we went a distance straight south, trees appeared marking the end of the plain. As we got closer to the edge, I began to hear some strange noises. I looked around for any monstrous presence, but there was none. The sounds kept on which eventually annoyed me.
“You hear that sound too, right?” I turned to Marcus.
“Yes, that sound is created by nharmoles when they feel threatened.”
“Nhar…what?”
“Nharmoles,” he suddenly jumped in front of me and stabbed his sword at the ground. “And you should be careful because they strike pre-emptively underground.” When he lifted his sword blood dripped from its edge. Afterwards, a message in front of his face appeared a message similar to what I have.
“Nharmole defeated, gained 6 experience. 5,052 experiences needed for level 62.”
Suddenly, as I was examining the deceased monster, nharmoles jumped off the ground. They looked like moles with unicorn horns. They keep jumping out of the ground pointing their horns towards me. When I dodge one, another comes out of the ground and manages to hit me. There are a lot of them continuously attacking not letting me counter. I keep dodging, but I also kept getting hit. Their horn attacks don’t deal much damage but I can feel them piercing through my skin. I thought Marcus was also attacked but, the nharmoles seemed to ignore him.
“I thought you could defeat any monster with just your bare hands?” He smirked at me as I turned to him. “Do you need any help?”
“What a rude old man,” I thought. “If I just get the chance to counter, I’ll show him!” As I kept on dodging, I finally noticed a pattern on the nharmoles’ movements. When I dodge to the right, I get attacked at my back. When I dodge to the left, I get horned from the front. The easiest way to defeat them with my bare hands is to catch the attacking nharmoles one by one.
When a nharmole jumped to attack me, I jumped to the left so that the next one would attack me up front. When the next one did, I grabbed on to its horn and gripped its head as hard as I could.
“Got you!” I shouted as I caught the annoying thing.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Marcus said with another annoying grimace.
“What?” as I was looking at Marcus, I felt spikes piercing my hands. The nharmole had hidden spikes on its body. I quickly let go of it as my hands started to bleed. I started to feel nauseous. My knees weakened. I lost all my strength to stand up. I was falling. I thought that I would hit the cold hard ground, but someone held me to prevent me from falling. I felt the wind blowing through my legs as if I was flying. I finally close my eyes to escape this pain that I feel.
“Where am I?” I heavily gasp while forcing my eyes to open. I was lying on the green fields unscathed. There wasn’t a single injury left on me, not a single scar on my skin. The only sign of the last battle that I had was my torn uniform, or rather, Alyssa’s torn uniform. The injury from my hands disappeared.
“Did that old man help me again?” I annoyingly thought. I looked around and I see him from a distance just looking up at the azure sky. “Have you gone senile?” I yell at him. I stand up and approach him.
“Have you now learned your lesson that not all monsters could be defeated with just bare hands?” He gave that annoying smirk again. Seriously, his bushy beard does not cover his mouth every time he does that.
“Yeah right, but what do you expect? I don’t have anything that I could use. I don’t have a sword like you do. I just came to this world with this uniform as my stuff.”
“You could have borrowed from me.”
“You’re lending me your sword?”
“Of course not, you would break it plus you would not be able to equip it with your current level. Take this,” he grabbed something from his shabby bag. He pulled it out. It was a large club.
“How was this inside your bag?”
“It’s magic, now go and raise your level to five. You will be fine with that club.”
I set off to get my revenge on those nharmoles. With this club, perhaps defeating them would be easier. But still, I am so annoyed whenever that old man lectures and orders me around.
I arrive at the place where I fainted. As soon as I heard that sound again, the sound which nharmoles make. I struck the ground using my club and the nharmoles again began attacking. As one tried to attack me, I swung the club and hit it like a baseball. These monsters are quick but they are not that tough. Another attacked and I did the same. I feel more powerful in this body than my older one. After moments of swinging this club, I defeated all of the nharmoles.
“Nharmole horde defeated, gained 42 experience. Congratulations! You are now level 3. HP increased by 4, MP increased by 4, Strength increased by 1, Agility increased by 2, Vitality increased by 2, Intelligence increased by 0, Mentality increased by 2. 40 experience points needed for level four.”
It seems I now have 34 HP, 26 MP, 8 Strength, 7 Agility, 8 Vitality, 3 Intelligence, and 5 Mentality. Not bad, I think, not that I understand how these numbers affect how I fight..
I’m on level three now, just have to defeat more monsters to level up to five. I ventured the edges of the plains close to the southern forests. I fought another nharmole horde and got 24 experience points, now I only need 16 experience points to level up. The more I looked for monsters, the more I did not encounter them. “Is this similar to what happened to Marcus before? The nharmoles did not attack him because he was too strong for them? Have I also gotten stronger?”
As I was strolling to find more monsters, I suddenly stumbled on a flower that I have never seen before. Its outer petals were orange, while the inner ones closer to the receptacle were blue. It resembled an orchid but had features like a rose. It had two leaves and its stem had thorns. As I was about to touch it, Marcus suddenly arrived shouting something that I was not able to hear. I touched the flower then suddenly, I felt faint again. Suddenly, vines started protruding out of the ground from where I was. The vines began to bind me and the exquisite flower that I touched turned out to be the thorax of a hideous monster plant.
I screamed as hard as I could. I beat the vines that surrounded me and even struck at the thorax of the plant monster. Its head looked like a Venus flytrap with extra thorns protruding from its back head. Its body had thorns and the vines were rough and painful. As I was in berserk mode, wildly swinging my weapon incessantly, the beast revealed its fiercest weapon, blade-sharp roots that were poised to strike me at any moment. They shimmered under the sunlight like a well-sharpened blades from the smith. In a blink of an eye, a flash of light temporarily blinded my sight. I thought it was the end and that the roots already pierced at my being. However, I felt the vines binding me becoming loose. The plant monster was sliced to infinitesimal pieces. Its remains soiled the ground where I stood. From a distance, I saw Marcus with his sword extended to his side.
"Slice of a thousand blades!" he shouted as he sheathed his sword back to its scabbard. It was at that moment that my pride diminished into mere self-awareness. He saved me. For the first time, I respected someone because of their strength and ability. The illusion in my head that I could do everything by myself obliterated. I was thankful and I was glad.
"Are you alright?" Marcus gave me his hand helping me. He took of his cloak and made me wear it. The experience from the plant monster that Marcus single-handedly vanquished provided enough experience for me to reach level five.
"Vineresk defeated, gained 100 experience points. Congratulations! You are now level 5, HP increased by 9, MP increased by 11, Strength increased by 4, Agility increased by 5, Vitality increased by 6, Intelligence increased by 5, Mentality increased by 4. 84 experience points needed for level 6."
"You can now choose a class!" a message appeared. "Recruit, Pupil, Apprentice, and Outsider."
The classes are what Marcus has outlined them, except for the Outsider class. I inquired Marcus about the Outsider class, but he doesn't seem to know anything about it. I was very curious what Outsider meant and wanted to choose it, but after today's events, I want to play it safe. I choose Recruit, but nothing happened. The message did not disappeared but remained.
"You can now choose a class! Recruit, Pupil, Apprentice, and Outsider." It remained. I picked Pupil, but the nothing also happened. I opt for Apprentice but still nothing. Impossible! I finally chose Outsider, then suddenly, a flash of light from the azure sky beamed on me. I could feel power surging inside.
HP - 43 + 7
MP - 37 + 5
Strength - 12 + 3
Agility - 12 + 4
Vitality - 14 + 1
Intelligence - 8 + 4
Mentality - 9 + 3
Luck - 0 + 25
What does this class have in store for me? Now I have a status for fortune? Could things get any weirder?
- Writer
