Chapter 12. War*

I ducked, crouching down as fast as possible before I even knew where I had been teleported two. My instincts were screaming that if I did not protect myself, it would not be good.

Air was cut just above my head as the surrounding sounds that I was not able to hear just a second earlier fell upon my ears, it was loud, deafening, and comforting. Something within me was happy being in a such place, a part of me enjoying the smell of iron and rust floating in the air.

War.

I looked up to see a man clad in armor with a metal sword who had just finished his swing, leaving a wide opening to the right. Without even thinking the axe in my hand flashed upwards digging into the man's guts. Blood poured down, some pieces of organs too, as I pulled back the axe that was now covered in the red liquid.

Another tingle on the back of my neck made me spin around to block another incoming sword. The other axe rushed to the neck and sliced it cleanly, separating it from the body it was a part of.

I couldn't tell who was my friend or foe, everyone projected hostility towards each other. It was a dog fight, to be honest, every man for himself.

I was wearing a leather armor that protected my chest and underneath was a chain mail for some extra protection. Leather pants on my legs and my arms exposed, two latches that were probably there to hang my axes when not in combat.

An easy-to-move armor that protected enough to not fatally injure if I missed to dodge or block one of the incoming attacks. The only thing that did not feel like my own body was the long hair that reached my back.

'Are these mine? They feel like mine but-', I stopped my musings to block another sword which I parried and kicked its wielder on the calf to make him lose his balance as my axe right in the middle of his skull, releasing a red fountain.

'Not now, I thought and went on full alert.'

I continued to fight on for hours or had it been days, I had no idea as people kept and bodies kept piling around me, and at some point, no one came. I looked around to see some people still standing but no one moved, they stood there breathing heavily like me.

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The fact that I had killed people, humans like me was something that I had realized along the line. And it did not affect me, nor did I try to justify the action.

I looked over to see the skill level-ups but surprisingly I had not gained even a single class level after killing so many people. Amidst all this, the system responded, not with answers that stated how I got here but with another round of confusing messages.

[Part 1 completed]

[Moving onto part 2]

And again a pull on my body. "Really, we just did this, is there no other way of transportation?" Even though this was what came out, I was slowly getting used to teleporting, and for the next one or two, I might not even feel the side effects.

This time the thing waiting for me was not a sword but a blanket of arrows. I kneeled and tried to block the arrows using a corpse that lay beside me, a couple hit me but my Vitality was high enough to ignore it.

"Or maybe it's adrenaline,"

I wish I could deflect those incoming projectiles with Thirst, short for [Bloodthirster], like in movies and shit but I knew that was impossible for now. The pain was unbearable but I held on and when the arrows stopped there was a war cry.

People rushed towards me with swords and shields, the intent to erase my existence visible in their eyes. I would die if my body was pushed even a tiny bit more than it already had been.

Even though it hurt because of the arrows that hit me, even though I had just fought for days and my mental strength was exhausted to its utter limit, I smiled as I brought my axes forward, ready to fight some more.

Ready to crush everything beneath me, even if it meant death.

The moment the weapons clashed everything went dark. I did not die, that was something that I was sure of, and this was further reinforced by what happened next.

[Part 2 completed]

[Cleared the First floor]

[Experience gained]

[Level up x2]

[Class skill available]

[Time left before moving on to the second floor]

[23:59:57]

I stood in a dark room, my body showed no injuries. It was confusing, was it all an illusion, a play created by this 'Record'? I didn't know.

There were changes with this level up and one of them was that class skills were finally available.

There were two columns before me, one column consisted of hundred 'active' skills, while the other consisted of a hundred 'passive' skills. There were a lot of skills, but most of them did not even seem useful.

Like [Spin], what do I spin? Myself, or the axe, and what was its use?

But as I read more, I understood that this list was not something that was tailored to fit me. Unlike games where you were given skills based upon your class, here you were given every basic skill in the game and you had to select from them.

It was a good thing in a way because if it just gave skills out and I got stuck with something that I could not use, that skill would become completely useless. I preferred to use a weak skill instead of a powerful skill that could not be used.

And the level-up, now in place of two free points, it provided five of them. It was after a long time that I saw my status and a problem made itself known right after the panel popped up.

Strength: 20

Agility: 20

Endurance: 20

Vitality: 20

Dexterity: 20

Intelligence: 15

Wisdom: 15

Perception: 25

Bonus point remaining: 10

"How the fuck am I going to distribute these points?"