He pulled out his spear and shield and couldn’t stifle the moan that he felt of being able to easily hold his weaponry without having to rely on the weapon rings. He grinned and turned, then paused. You know what… just… This was his time, so he pulled out his tonfa instead and turned back, ready for a day of grinding.
He then began searching the ground until he found his favorite tool: a stick. He tossed it at the nearest goblin and utterly slaughtered it when it came with a single block against its strike and used the same strike from this morning: a rapid haymaker punching the end of his tonfa into the temple of the goblin. The goblin instantly dropped dead. Joe breathed a sigh and settled back, a grin on his face. He spun the two tonfa a couple times, did a couple flourishes, then stretched. It felt… normal again. Nice…
He picked up the stick to pull the next goblin but then paused. Should probably check. He flipped open his status and took a look at his current level for leveling his all weapons skill. When he noticed it, his grin grew. Five percent! That’s… real nice! Joe turned to the next goblin and flung the stick at it, grinning. This will be easy! Oops… off to the side. He didn’t turn off his status, but simply slid it off to the side
The goblin shrieked when it was struck, picking up the stick and charging straight for Joe and doing the exact same attack. Joe’s happiness soured, even as he returned the exact same block and strike to the temple. Right gotta ... practice against better opponents… this is just dumb.
This goblin, too, collapsed after the strike to the temple and Joe looked towards his status and it smoothly slid into his line of sight. Five percent…? His smile froze. What? Joe paused for a bit, then pulled another goblin, killing it quickly only to see it unchanged, still at five percent. Joe’s frown deepened. Is it… only a new weapon? Maybe? That might… but … just a couple more… uh… five more? Ten… maybe ten… just to be safe.
He pulled up the stick again and tossed it at the nearest goblin, and ended it as soon as it stepped in range. Again, his status showed five percent without changing and Joe’s frown began morphing to disgust tinged with frustration. Three goblins… well, four with the first… three since the first five percent…
The stick flew through the air and struck the goblin before it charged at him maniacally. Joe was so frustrated this time that he simply stepped into the goblins strike and punched it directly in the nose with the end of the tonfa, taking the stick strike on his left tonfa. His anger defeated his defense and the stick was able to angle enough to strike him in the side. A worthless strike since it only hit his armor and he felt nothing. The goblin, however, had its head snap back so hard its neck snapped even as its nose was crushed. It collapsed backward, dead. Joe huffed, then turned back to his status. Finally, there was a change, and he grin, then his grin soured.
A quarter of a percent now… so … if I change weapons… will I get the… ooh! My light armor skill went up a percent! That’s… not bad. Heh! Or…oh… that…
Joe’s grin vanished and he pulled the next goblin using the stick again and this time didn’t take it out when it arrived, only angling his body to take strikes on his armor. The goblin was frenzied and uncontrolled in its strikes, simply swinging wildly at him. The stick landed every second or so and nothing changed on his screen, his light armor skill still showing only a single percent. The goblin continued striking and Joe began counting a bit belatedly. Wait… that was… five? Six… donno…just… He counted close to eighteen when his skill went up a single percent and he diligently counted again. This time, he got to thirty before it ticked up again and while he’d intended to end the fight there, he waited a third time and counted close to forty five before his armor ticked up again. Right… so diminishing returns… but… why? He’s not hurting me? Not a dangerous situation? Abusing it? What…
Joe glanced around, then looked down at his tonfa and grinned. OK. Easy enough. He left his favorite goblin retrieval device behind and marched up to the nearest goblin, getting to it before it could really react. It screeched when he got to close, but before it could choose a weapon from the ground, he tossed his off-hand tonfa at it. The creature caught it inexpertly, but immediately wielded it like a master. It took two steps to close with Joe and swung at Joe. Joe blinked in shocked surprised when it performed an expert jigoku gururma. The goblin swung its fist wide to the right, an obvious strike too wide to hit him. He then suddenly swung the fist inwards rapidly but way too short to actually hit Joe while loosening the grasp of its fist so that the tonfa swung out and away from the body. The quick jerk in swung the tonfa around powerfully before it slammed into Joe’s side. Joe grimaced, barely removing the arm to allow his hardened leather to take the strike high up by his chest. Oooh… ok… that… hurts!
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
He didn’t give the goblin time to react and simply slammed the short butt end of the tonfa into its nose and dropped it almost immediately once again. He stood and took a deep breath even as it hitched in sympathetic response to the strike. There was no pain, of course. His HP proved sufficient to immediately heal the bruise, but that had been a shocking reminder at the competence of these goblins. There were no tonfas on the floor, but this goblin wielded it even better than he did, the strike reminding him of his Okinawan master who trained him in the more esoteric weaponry his teacher had mastered. Glad HP works on bruises. He stretched then turned to look at his status.
So… HP… lost… about what… ten percent… not bad… but that’s… well… I guess I could alternate focusing on the weapon skill and armor skill? Let my HP recover before letting them whale on me some more? How about… hmm… Joe frowned with disappointment even if he expected there to be no change to his weapons skill, but then smiled when he saw the light armor skill had increased by another two percent. So… take a hit… maybe danger… maybe different weapon… maybe both? Hmm…
Joe took a look at the floor and found a half-staff. He picked it up and headed back to the corner and tossed it at the next goblin. The goblin took the staff hit to the skull and Joe winced at that but it reacted rather quickly, picking up the staff before charging at him. For this weapon, Joe was able to easily counter it. The goblin used its first strike to charge him like a lancer. Joe quirked his eyebrow at that, attempting not to laugh and simply prepared to take the strike.
When the goblin came in, he angled his chest left just slightly and raised his left arm. The staff hit his chest and slid off to the left, spent. The goblin stumbled and then corrected itself, leaping back. Joe allowed it to flee and waited. The goblin took the staff and gripped it more like a baseball bat and took a swing. Joe took the strike across his left side again, slightly lower than the tonfa hit, but made sure to step in close so most of the power of the strike was wasted behind him, and he had an easy time taking it. Joe let the goblin hit him another half a dozen times before he ended the fight with a quick one two punch to the face with his tonfa. He stepped back, breathing deeply, then looked at his status again.
He frowned. His all weapons skill still hadn’t leveled, missing a half percent to go up another percent and his light armor skill was only at four percent. Hmm… so… different weapons? Is that it? Everything is different weapons? But… Joe paused, considering how his bow and club had leveled and wondered. He paused to think a bit, then dismissed it and decided it was time to just grind. He turned to pull the next goblin but then paused in thought. Wait… let me make sure with the all weapons skill first…
He went back to his backpack and pulled out his spear and went back out, pulling his next goblin. Might as well still work on armor, too. He looked around for another item different from the stick, staff, and tonfa before tossing that out at the goblin. It came screeching in, as normal, and Joe made sure to take a hit or two on his armor before thrusting his spear directly through the right breast of the goblin, dropping it quickly. He frowned when he struggled to pull his spear back out of the goblin’s chest, but worked at it until it was finally out before sighing. He then turned to look at his status again and found that his weapons skill had gone up another five percent while his armor skill went up another two percent.
Right… swap weapons for both me and the goblin… about twenty weapons for the weapons skill… easy… got seven… eight back in my back… ooh! Wait… system sees sword different from sword and shield… so that gives me … hm… twelve… thirteen? Then… Joe glanced around at the floor and saw a bunch of other weapons before grinning. OK… this could work… even use some random crap… got the parachute cord… can garrote once… yeah… think I can do this… ooh… spoon spear!
Finding twenty weapons seemed relatively easy enough, but fifty weapons for the goblin made him a bit worried. Despite that, he plowed head first into it and quickly got his all weapons skill up to ninety five percent and he made sure the goblins had different weapons, which got his light armor skill up to forty two percent. Joe noted that, and realized that while differing weapons seemed to greatly increase his skill, repetition was still viable, just much less effective, since nineteen different weapons should have gotten him thirty eight percent, which meant the extra four percent was from just simple repetition from duplicate weapons. That disappointed him greatly, but he rolled his eyes and just accepted it.
As he struggled to figure out his next weapon to finish off his all weapons skill, he looked around the room before looking back and noticing his spoon spear. Ha! Right… that’ll work!
He took the spoon spear and pulled his next goblin with another random piece of detritus on the dungeon floor. He took a couple hits then struggled to put the goblin down, the spoon spear unsurprisingly not well built to pierce solid objects. He’d ended up just beating it like a staff and when it finally went down. He stepped back with satisfaction. Nice… no more leaping weapons! Joe flipped open his status, desiring the hit of seeing another number rise and then quickly frowned in anger. It hadn’t moved.
Joe growled, “Seriously? I’m using a spoon… spear! How is that not a weapon. I kill things with it and it…”
Joe blinked, the status suddenly updating and showing his all weapons skill now at one. He grinned.
“Right! That’s what I’m talking about! Sweet. See! You need to work with me, system. Not too hard. It’s great against slimes and anyone can use… oooooh…. Crap!”