Hmmm… I gotta approach the nest carefully. If I misstep, Eeek!
For some rank F’s, these roaches have a stupidly high amount of perception! Not that it really matters. I lure out four roaches, making sure to slow down my pace so they think I’m an easy target. I even start limping around.
These roaches are too weak.
I hop away, pretending to be some poor, injured soul. The roaches follow in pursuit, scuttling as fast as they can. Oblivious to the shadow of death looming over them.
Once I get a safe distance from the main nest, I slowly snick my head. I feel an insatiable, creepy grin crawl up my lips.
The roach’s recoil in fear.
Their instincts are probably screaming for them to run, but logically, all they see is a weak, easy picking of a target,
Bemused, a dazed roach decides to leap at me. I purposefully get hit.
Ow! That stings!
Although I got bit directly, only a small cut appears on my arm.
The taunting clicks and screeches give away the roaches' inner thoughts.
We can win this!
The four of them form a pincer attack, flanking me from all directions. They leave me with no room to escape.
Nowhere but up.
I leap upwards, before using my daggers to cut down a roach with swift incisions.
The exoskeleton tears open, navy blue blood spurting out.
The remaining roaches simultaneously charge at me.
Unable to react in time, all three of them land point-blank chomps on my body – or so they think – In reality, I’m just tricking the system into thinking this battle is even-sided.
You see, after all the battles I’ve fought, I’ve come to realise something. Skills grow exponentially faster when both parties are fighting with their lives on the line.
By purposefully taking significant amounts of damage, I can essentially gaslight the system into thinking I’m going all out.
However, there are also downsides to this system-cheating loophole.
Purposefully getting hit is a risky move and can lead to unprecedented situations.
Which is exactly why I moved a safe distance from the main nest before going on the offensive. Another downside, obviously, is that it hurts like hell to get hit a bunch of times. No normal person would willingly subject themselves to this type of borderline torture just to get a little bit stronger.
Think of it as cutting yourself with a pocketknife. Sure, it’s not life-threatening after the first few slashes, but it stings and hurts. After more cuts, it starts to get very painful and possibly dangerous.
Proficiency has reached required level.
Skill [Pain Resistance Lv4] has become [Pain Resistance Lv5]
Well, whaddaya know? Speak of the devil.
I got the skill level up, and my body is fairly battered up. In fact, just then, while I was explaining the purpose of this self-harm, I've already lost quite a lot of blood. There are a ton of minuscule holes sprawled all over my body.
Yikes, bite-mark injuries look creepy. Wasn't there a phobia for this or something?
Tropophobia, I think?
Oh well. I should finish this soon. I can't be too cocky and reckless.
I kill off one of the scourges instantaneously. With the pincer formation ruined, I bolt out and backstab another roach, leaving sublime crevices in its outer shell.
I turn and face the final remaining roach, our eyes locked together.
Rena Shinohara has acquired skill [Menace Lv1]> With a final swift slash, I finish off the roach. Rena Shinohara has acquired skill [Slash Lv1]> All basic attributes increased. Level up proficiency acquired Proficiency has reached required level. Skill [Reparation Lv3] has become [Reparation Lv4] Skill points acquired. Combat points acquired. 50% of max health has been healed> Uh… That was unexpected. Sure, I predicted a level-up to occur soon, but I didn't think it would happen so suddenly. Experience needed for levelling is cumulative, isn't it? Not that I'm gonna complain anyway. The main reason I sustained damage (apart from cheating the system) was to try levelling up my [Reparation] skill I'm pretty sure it passively regenerates health and mana. I can't use magic, but passive healing is nice. I was gonna wait for [Reparation] to close my wounds, and farm proficiency, but that level-up did both of those for me. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to test out the healing capabilities of [Reparation], but I think I can hypothesise it to be roughly 1hp every 5-10 minutes. It is a low levelled skill, after all. Er, so… .. Rinse and repeat, I guess? This strategy worked far better than I expected. My skills practically took a MASSIVE jump forward! … Hopefully they weren't near max proficiency, and I just happened to get lucky. Hopefully I really am gaslighting the system. But even in my legit fight or die battles, I didn't progress that fast. Unreal… my skills really were about to level up, weren't they? Next time, I probably won't be able to advance that fast. Bah! 'Tis fine, 'tins fine. I'm still growing stronger as a faster pace. Just not as fast as I hoped. But nonetheless, fast. Fast is still fast. What am I waffling on about? Forget it. Welp, time to allocate my combat points! Which attributes do you wish to increase? Health: 34 Damage: 33 Mana: 11 Defence: 19 Speed: 36> Hmm… My attack grew a lot. Second up is speed. Then health. And defence. Mana? That only grew the default +1. I guess that means these roaches can't use magic? Thank God for that. Fire spewing mutant roaches flying around is something straight out of a horror movie. My defence is actually marginally low compared to my other stats. Then how come I took basically no damage from those prior attacks? Maybe because I invested more combat poi- gee, it's a mouthful to say that every time. I'll just call combat points CP and skill points SP - Maybe because I invested more CP into health, I take less damage? Think about it like this. If Figure A has 2 HP and they take 1 damage, 50% of their health has already been drained. On the other hand, say Figure B has 100 HP. If they take 1 damage, only 1% of their health is gone. Visually, one guy would be missing their torso. The other, maybe a bruise or something. Wait. That means health is multi-sided just like speed. Speed can be used offensively and defensively. Health can increase both survivability and defence. I should take this into consideration when spending my CP. I already insta-KO these roaches, and my base attack increases the most after killing roaches. Mana, I can't use. Defence seems alright, since I can resist attacks and all, but… ...Health is simply superior to defence, as it does its main purpose - increase my max HP - while also giving me additional defence. Speed is still my top priority, but it won't really have synergy with my guerilla warfare strategy. I'm already fast enough. If I have more health, I can take more damage without dying. And I can heal that with [Reparation] to farm proficiency. [Reparation] is my strongest card if I want to slowly chip down the number of roaches, which means gaining proficiency to level it up isa necessity. Speed: 36 +2 Confirm?> Yeah. Boosting health is merely situational, but, as I mentioned before, speed is still top on my list overall. Speed 36 ---> Speed: 38> Remaining combat points: 0> I whistle in admiration. Damn. It sure feels good to get stronger. Well, as I stated before I got distracted, time to rinse and repeat! I pile up the corpses and return to the nest. I feel like I could take on a lot more than four roaches. I'll lure eight in this time. Staying near the boundaries of the nest, I fake-limp around again. This awkward hopping catches the attention of a group of roaches. I hear a cacophony of clicks and screeching. If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it. "NONONONO!" I half whisper, half scream, "KEEP QUIET! DON'T ATTRACT ANY ATTENTION!" The roaches seem to be discussing something. Then, a wave of heads ripple towards me. A gang of … one moment, lemme [Appraise] them… er… ah! - A gang of TWENTY-THREE ROACHES?!?! What? I was being careful!! For just nuisances, these roaches have an unnecessary number of perceptive abilities! Okay, okay… Calm down. I can still take on 23 roaches, as long as I don’t willingly get hit! However, I still limp away, half hopping, half foot-dragging. I need these guys to think they stand a chance against me, or they might retreat and call for backup. I really don’t want a stampede of reinforcements overwhelming me. If they think they can win, hopefully the roaches get cocky and chase after me without backing up. The roaches seem hesitant. A lot more reluctant than the first wave I lured away. Do I smell like dead roach blood or something? Dammit, I might have to overboard with the acting. As I slowly pace away, I 'trip and tumble' on the floor, before ‘struggling’ to get up. … Arrg! They aren't buying it. I didn't want to do this, but I guess I have to. Using one of my makeshift daggers, I slice my arm. A cut instantly forms, and blood starts oozing out. Shit, that hurts like hell! No… they still aren't buying it. I force myself to stab even deeper. GYAHAH! Holy crap, that huurts!! This time, crimson blood bursts out from my arm, as if a floodgate got opened. I - I can heal later! Seeing my morbid suffering, the roaches finally take initiative and begin chasing after me. Finally! Took long enough for them to go on the offensive. I steadily lead the roaches away from their nest. Can’t risk getting overwhelmed by the entirety of the roaches, y’know? Also, the Queens are bad news. Sure, they’re rank D – something I’ve dealt with before – but seriously? Level 20-ish? That’s a whole 100 CP! Slowly limping away, I eventually get a safe distance from the nest. It should be safe now. Time to get serious. I sidestep and swivel backwards, facing the roaches with a murderous gleam. No holding back! I dash forwards. I grip my daggers tightly in my hands, and slash the roaches in front of me. The momentum from my run up allows me to slice down three roaches all at once, all in a single slice. Hawt damn, this is easier than I thought! 20 roaches left. The roaches scutter around me, trying to swarm me from all sides. Nope, not happening! I sprint past them, slashing up two roaches in the process. Exploiting the break in formation, I slide through the gap. Some roaches get duked, and bite into thin air. I keep on repeating this for a while until there are only 14 roaches left. It seems they’re smarter than I thought, because they start grouping up. Grr! Now if I go in and attack, I'll get bitten a bunch. I've got a few bite marks on my legs and arms, but [Reparation] is much more useful than I expected. The multitude of pencil sized wounds have been reduced to measly needle sized marks. And the I notice a loud, ear-piercing screech. Not from my rear, but from the front. Not from the roaches that were chasing me, but some newfound menace. A screech would be an inaccurate representation. More like a howl. Something far, far more corrugated, something unseen. A juxtaposition to the primitive roaches that were chasing me, this wail is intelligent. And hostile. In front of me, stands another type of roach. This one stands tall, almost as if it had broad shoulders. Its legs are longer, with a lack of serrated spikes. Instead, they seem lean and profound, like scythes. Its exoskeleton is encrusted with jagged spikes, making it impossible to break through. It snarls at me, revealing an unsanctimonious set of horrid fangs. I [Appraise] it. Unnamed Level: 2 Rank: C Class: Guard> Just as I thought, this guy is bad news. Rank C? This guy is even stronger than the Queens! I can tell this guy is no small fry. An aura of death perpetually looms over it. What are you? A harbinger of death? I gotta choose to fight either the 14 roaches or the Guard Roach. This guy even has a class! I have to face the facts. There is no way, no way in hell I can beat the guard. I swallow my pride, turn back and pace away. The roaches try to swarm me. MOVE IT! I slash away, killing another three roaches. Skill [Slash Lv1] has become [Slash Lv2]> I keep on attacking. On and on and on. Wounds start to form around my body, but I push past the pain. I keep on slashing and stabbing, until only two roaches remain. Yes! I can break through! My arm comes flying down, about to kill of the final baby roach, before it gets instantly ripped off. S-SHIT! I forgot about the guard! I have to get away! I really should have poured more CP into speed! I run. Against a beast like this, it's the only thing I really can do. I can’t win. For sure. Skill [Rationality Lv1] has become [Rationality Lv2]> I scamper away at my maximum speed. I hear loud thuds thumping behind me. Stupid legs! Move faster! If I keep on going like this, I'll eventually reach the nest again. Wait… there was a fork in the road, wasn't there? Yes! I can keep on going! I keep on sprinting. I ignore the burning in my lungs. The aching in my legs. The guard roach lurks behind me. Not faster, not slower, as if matching me pace… ...Is the roach purposefully matching my pace? Is this roach really trying to toy with me? "Life isn't something you should play with. Despite my hatred for your kind, I still kill you all swiftly." I doubt the guard understands me, but I just had to say it. Clearly, even if I wanted to run, I wouldn't be able to get away. I should use the guards ego against it. I keep on running. Scanning my surroundings, I see a roach corpse. Aha! I’ve made it! I keep on scurrying away, but this time, I count the steps I take. One, two, three, four, FIVE. Now! I lunge forwards, diving into a small corridor. I slip in without much effort, but the roach struggles to squeeze in. In this cramped corridor, the guard's movements are heavily restricted. I need to level up from this battle, because I'm not sure if [Reparation] can heal an entire arm. Unable to bite freely in a confined area, the roach does all it can; swings its scythe-like legs at me. However, that act itself can do some serious damage. As the scythe hacks down, the air around me whooshes down. I feel a light breeze of air hit me, despite this dungeon having no ventilation. Those scythes might be more dangerous than the bite! A single cleave from those legs did sever an arm instantly. The roach swings its legs again. I feel a shudder sprawl up my spine. Instinctively, a spasm backwards. Moments later, I see strands of hair float down. Yikes. Who knows what would have happened if that attack hit me? Why did I bring daggers? A spear or sword would be much more helpful right now. If I wanna use my daggers, I need to get close to the damn guard! If only I salvaged some more makeshift weapons and stored them in my inventory… Well, I clearly can't get close to his guy. One step forward, and shiing!, head just fell off, dead. What can I do? A lightbulb pops up. Aha! Got it! Because the guard roach is wider than it is taller, it can't actually fit in here. Only two of its six legs can squeeze in. And when it stretches its scythe legs to try cut me up, it can't do anything else. I slowly lurch forwards, carefully and steadily. I have to bait out a slash. I stare intently at the scythe. The moment it sweeps down, I inch backwards. Using this momentary incapacitation, I furiously slash at the ligaments connecting the scythe area to the rest of the leg. The guard roars in pain and tries to pull its leg away. Using its perpetual momentum against it, I thrust down. The ligament cracks, and the gaunt scythe part of the legs flings off. Skill [Slash Lv2] has become [Slash Lv3]> The roach reflexively flinches its leg up in pain. I took that opportunity and used its stats against it. Now the guard pays the price. One of its frontal scythes are gone, meaning it can only attack me with its other scythe. Things should be looking good now. I can also use the scythe I obtained against the roach. Meticulously cutting off any sharp shards or residue from the scythe, I slice off a piece of cloth and wrap it around the ligament section, making a pretty decent chakram. It's essentially a dagger, but slightly slanted like a katana and roughly twice the length. With only one scythe aimed at me, the guards attacks are apparent and predictable. Huh? The roach tilts itself, and starts climbing into the corridor sideways. Gah! Damn it, even a cornered rat bites back! But aren't I the rat in this scenario? … Er… Hah! Don't you know a cornered rat fights back?! Still, the roach is seriously disadvantaged right now. All it can do is primitively charge toward me. I prod the roach with my chakram fencing style. The guard wails, and spits something at me. Guh? ACID? What? W-what the hell? Are you a roach or not? I feel my good arm burn hot. Flesh starts to peel off. Something yellow; possibly pus starts to seep out of the wound, followed by a gush of blood. The roach opens its mouth again. No! NO way in HELL will I let you fire that again! The roach slowly opens its mouth. It shoots out a second volley of spit - or at least it tries to. I stabbed the chakram right through the jaw of the roach, clamping its mouth down tightly. Azure blood drips out from its eyes. With nowhere to go, the acid must of melted the inside of the guards mouth. The roach, temporarily blinded, chaotically slashes around itself, making it impossible to get close. Looks like I can't utilise the opportunity. But I have to finish this off quickly. One of my arms are lopped off, and the other is slowly deteriorating to poison. In fact, my muscles already feel numb. I raise my arm up and try to cut the roach, but my arm starts convulsing mid-swing. I scream in pain, and roll up on the ground. The roach, looking equally pained, locks eyes with me. Green pus seeps out of its mouth, and I can see it shivering in pain. I try to run. But I can't. My whole body cramps up and spasms. All I can do is accept my death. Slowly, the roach staggers forwards, one step at a time. The guard stares intently at me. I see a pair of marble eyes ignited with hatred glaring at me. The roach brings down its scythe. If it were fated to happen, I believe I put up a fair fight against destiny. I await my imminent death. Hello, Reaper… Then, just like me, the roach shakes feverishly. Although its mouth is clamped shut, blood still leaks out from the roach's thin, musty lips. It drops dead, froth building up and leaking out of its eyes. All basic attributes increased. Level-up proficiency acquired. Proficiency has reached required level. Proficiency has reached required level. Skill [Slash Lv3] has become [Slash Lv4]. Skill points acquired. Combat points acquired. 50% of max health recovered> All basic attributes increased. Level-up proficiency acquired. Proficiency has reached required level. Skill [Stab Lv5] has become [Stab Lv6]. Skill points acquired. Combat points acquired. 50% of max health recovered> All basic attributes increased. Level-up proficiency acquired. Proficiency has reached required level. Skill [Reparation Lv4] has become [Reparation Lv5]. Proficiency has reached required level. Skill [Menace Lv1] has become [Menace Lv2] Skill points acquired. Combat points acquired. 50% of max health recovered> As my wounds close and as the numbing pain dissipates, I quietly lie down, absorbing the information. Then, two unexpected messages pop up. Rena Shinohara has been gifted the [Underdog] title!> Rena Shinohara has acquired skill [Melee Lv1]. Skill [Stab Lv6] has been fused into [Melee Lv1] Skill [Slash Lv4] has been fused into [Melee Lv1] Proficiency has reached required level. Skill [Melee Lv1] has become [Melee Lv9]> I was about to die heroically just then. To be honest, I'm traumatised. It wouldn't of even been a bad way to die; fighting all out and perishing without regret. Buut, because I'm still alive, I'm going to pretend that didn't happen. I'll take this nice and slow and go through everything that just happened. So first of all, I levelled up a whole THREE times! Woohoo! That means I can allocate an entire 15 CP. I also got 60 SP, meaning I have 120 SP; enough to get another skill. First things first, CP! Which attributes do you wish to increase? Health: 69 Damage: 72 Mana: 21 Defence: 61 Speed: 73> Holy… My stats took a massive leap forward! Now my top three stats (Health, Damage and Speed) average at 70! Defence also went up quite a bit. To my surprise, even my mana increased. Not just +3 from levelling up, but +8 in total, meaning I got 5 mana from the guard roach. Maybe the spit attack was magic? I mean - if it wasn't a skill - why would it friendly fire? If the roach passively produced acid in its mouth, why would it harm the roach so much? It must have been some sort of magic. Well, I still cant produce fireballs or whatever, so mana makes no difference to me. All 15 into speed? … … Yeah, why not. Better one strong suit than multiple half-assed abilities. Confirm?> Yeah. Confirmed. Remaining combat points: 0> What am I now, I speed demon? Technically speaking, I'm a Unique Demon. Or am I a Satanic Demon? Eh. I don't really care about something so trivial. Besides, I've got some SP to allocate as well. I check the skill shop. No good offers come up. Maybe I should save up and see if any of the more expensive skills are worth my time. Haha… my SP excitement was short-lived. Well, next up, I got some [Underdog] title. I have no idea what it does, so I [Appraise] it. <[Underdog] (title) The weak prey on the strong. Effect: Deals extra damage based on the difference in Rank.> Hmm. If difference in level was included, this would seem useful, but it doesn't seem that good. Most of my enemies will be rank F. The highest would be rank D, the Queens. I probably don't deal extra damage to same ranked enemies, but I insta-KO the baby roaches anyway, so that doesn't make a big difference. For the Queens, I doubt a rank gap of 1 will lead to major extra damage. What about the rank C guard roach lying dead right in front of me? Well, I won't be encountering those anymore. If I were to put it in an analogy, this dungeon would kind of like a castle. The sub-nests are the castles defences - moats, archers, knights, whatever. Usually, it would be suuper hard to break through. But when I entered this instantaneous dungeon, I practically spawned in the royal chambers. The king (or in this case, queens) certainly aren't as strong as well trained, toned soldiers. I just ventured too far from the royal chambers and walked into a guard. If I just stay near the king’s room unnoticed, I can quickly kill him before he calls for help. So [Underdog] is useless right now. In fact, I am definitely far stronger than those baby roaches, yet we're still ranked the same. Do I have to go to a town or something to rank up? Because I feel like eventually I'll hit the maximum stat cap, and I won't be able to grow stronger. Alright! New goal: FIND CIVILISTION! Finally, I got [Melee]. For some reason, both [Stab] and [Slash] were integrated into [Melee], so I feel this is a superior version of the former skills. They're totally compatible. The proficiency from [Stab] and [Slash] boosted [Melee] all the way to level 9. <[Melee] (Passive): Adds bonus damage to any melee-based attacks. Also slows down stamina reduction in melee battles. Bonus damage and stamina loss negation increase as skill levels up.> Well, if [Underdog] wasn't good, this sure is! Another massive boost to my offensive capabilities. Stamina reduction reems fairly useful as well. There is no stamina stat, so this might be one of the rare opportunities where I can improve my endurance. Alright, I've finished absorbing all that level-up information. I guess I'll see if I can salvage better weapons from the guard roach. Nameless Level: 2 Rank: D Class: Guard> Nice, this guy's corpse if D ranked! It should be of much better quality than the corpses I rummaged before. I yank off all the remaining scythe-like legs. Hmm… the two front scythes are shaped more like chakrams, while the four other scythes are straight and slightly shorter. I definitely see weapon potential. If the front scythes were chakrams, I guess these would be...long daggers? Just normal daggers, but with around double the range. Yeah. I want those. I cut off the roaches two antennas and wrap them around the long-dagger-scythes. It creates a pretty comfortable grip. Looking proudly at my makeshift long bladed daggers, I [Appraise] them. Damage: 100 Durability: 700 Resistance: 200 Specials: The user gains a miniscule aura of menace.> Whoaa… ...My craftsmanship was so good that I made a legit, bona-fine weapon?!?! Hell yeah! ONE HUNDRED FREAKING DAMAGE! These daggers are overpowered as heck! I guess these are the rewards I should savour for beating an enemy that I shouldn't have been able to defeat. I admit, it was a stroke of luck, but still managed to kill a rank C monster! I see what else I can salvage, but… I don't want to go near that horrid face. A pile of blood, pus and froth formed a large puddle over there, you know? No way am I touching that shit. I'd say I have the right to get cocky. Imma head straight to the main nest and cause a mess genocide! Here comes the bug exterminator!