News about monsters and murderers increased which caused a military hour to be introduced. More and more ships were disappearing, panic spread once one of the Aircraft Carriers was lost. Aircraft Carriers never traveled alone so an entire group of warships had to perish. I swore to never come close to the sea, or the ocean, or even the lakes. Who knew what horrors hid beneath the calm water.
There was still no one that completed [Path of Running], or at least didn’t share it, but I decided to finish it no matter what. Ability to run away triumphs the ability to fight back, so I put five path points that I earned the day before while running away.
[Path of Running 15/25] Small leap for a human, an even smaller one for mankind. Endurance Increased by 1.
Endurance was always useful.
Stamina 157/170 Stamina Regeneration 18,7 per hour
My regeneration doubled since the arrival of the System, though it was still far away from sustaining constant practice. 19 stamina allowed me to run for less than a minute. I needed a plan to progress faster, and yesterday a possibility came, [Pain Resistance]. It was something that used a third resource, Health Regeneration to improve skill level, though depending on the pain and not damage. Although it didn’t decrease damage taken it was still useful to level it, only if for path points. Did I want to do it though? No, cutting myself just for path points was stupid, my psychic would break If I were to hurt myself on daily basis. I would not stay sane if I went that path.
[Running] is now level 12. You have gained 1 Path point. Passively Increases running speed by 12% and decreases stamina used while running by 12%.
Stamina regeneration and mana regeneration were the only two resources that I had, though skills like [Meditation] counted more as a ‘time resource’ since all it used was time. Were there other skills like that I could use?
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There aren’t, or at least I couldn’t find them. As I was searching, disturbing information appeared.
Nuclear weapons were used, two exactly. The information traveled throughout the world in a matter of ten minutes. It was used far to the north on the frozen wastelands; allegedly. The foreign nation’s military was incapable of destroying the monster so a nuclear weapon was used. One was not enough so they used the second one to kill it.
Panic jumped to an entirely different level after the message was spread, most people imagined monsters as weird hares, rats and dogs, not something that could survive a nuclear explosion.
I wonder whenever the person that pressed a button was granted ranged mastery. If I could I would up my training, but I was limited by stamina and mana recovery, with the rest of my time spent on [Meditation]. It was a shame that using weapons used stamina as well. Allegedly guns used a very small amount of stamina and leveled [Ranged Weapon Mastery] quickly. The cost of sustained fire to train by shooting a gun would bankrupt me in a matter of minutes. Not to mention guns were illegal in my nation.
[Running] is now level 16. You have gained 1 Path point. Passively Increases running speed by 16% and decreases stamina used while running by 16%.
[Meditation] is now level 11. You have gained 1 Path point. Increases mana regeneration by 11% while the skill is active.
[Ranged Weapon Mastery] is now level 8. You have gained 1 Path point. Increases handling of the ranged weapons. Increases Dexterity while using ranged weapons by 8%.
Once it got too dark to go outside I practiced throwing my knives, I preferred to stay inside once it got dark after what happened. With the 10 path points gained over the last five days of grind I finished the next path.
[Path of Running 20/25] Leap after leap, only to sometimes fall back. Strength increased by 1.
[Path of Running 25/25] A child finally learns to walk. Endurance increased by 1. [Second Breath] perk gained. Stamina use is reduced by 20% while running.
I hoped for a movement skill rather than that, but it would be useful to level up [Running] faster. Speed is always useful.
There were riots in my city, the reason was the aggression of military personnel. I knew what they meant, the man that attacked me was killed without a question. There wasn’t even a question why the fight started, the person that attacked was just killed.
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One of the people that maxed [Running] shared that it has a max level of 20 and [Path of Performance] is opened. I wanted that, so I decided to postpone [Path of Intelligence] which increased mana regeneration and decided to save path points until I maxed out [Running].
More news tickled in from the local media, the army started evacuation of rural villages into nearby towns. There were many attacks of smaller monsters and people started dying, the monsters the size of boars and small bears started spawning close by. Government said that people from the countryside running away to towns caused an increase in monsters and that they are working on a solution.
Some monsters started appearing outside of the city itself, though smaller ones. City decided to start the construction of the wall around the city. More of a mesh fence really, though it is supposed to be four meters tall. With many construction companies having no work due to the stopped construction of many buildings it was easy for the city hall to quickly find enough manpower.
The world has accepted that there are no non-fighting skills such as cooking, brewing, constructing etcetera. The system seemed to care only about fighting prowess, which didn’t bode well for the world.
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One of the smaller island nations was attacked by monsters from the ocean, most people died despite help from all global superpowers. Many ships were lost as well. Almost half a million lives were lost in a matter of a few days. Most of the island nations declared a national emergency and asked for a foreign military force to be stationed at their islands, but there were simply too many of them and even the global powers wished to keep their soldiers close to their mainland. Talks about evacuating whole island populations to continents started soon after. Even I panicked a bit when I heard the news.
Another seven days passed until I maxed out [Running].
[Running] is now level 20 (maxed). You have gained 1 Path point. [Path of Performance] opened. Passively Increases running speed by 20% and decreases stamina used while running by 20%.
[Meditation] is now level 14. You have gained 1 Path point. Increases mana regeneration by 14% while the skill is active.
[Ranged Weapon Mastery] is now level 11. You have gained 1 Path point. Increases handling of the ranged weapons. Increases Dexterity while using ranged weapons by 11%.
[Path of Performance 5/10] Better and faster. Dexterity increased by 2. Endurance increased by 1.
[Path of Performance 10/10] Better and stronger. Strength increased by 2. Endurance increased by 1.
6 attribute points for 10 path points is a good trade, though It made me feel somewhat disappointed since I got no perks or skills. There was no other skill that I knew about that could increase speed, forums were quiet about it as well. Weapon masteries were said to level ten times faster during combat, I suppose it’s true since leveling [Ranged Weapon Mastery] since level 5 was awfully slow.
I also had another problem, my money was running out. In order to sustain my body I had to eat a lot more than usual just to make sure that I don't get [Malnourished] debuff which decreased stamina, health and mana regeneration. There was also the fact that the prices increased a lot in the last month. Yet, I didn’t want to go back to dead-end jobs. The world was ending if some people were to be believed, and I had no intention of spending most of my time working.
Monster Hunting Association was a possibility, with a branch recruiting in the city that I am in. They were paying for each slain monster, allegedly they had weird metals inside of them which were quite useful. With good running speed and some ranged weapons, preferably throwing knives I could easily survive, even if the rest of the team would die. Or perhaps everyone already maxed out [Running] and it was already a staple for people.
It is something that I would rather avoid, but I don’t have a more sensible option. I left the apartment at noon and headed towards the Association branch. I took no knives, since the ones I used were meant for cutting bread. Not to mention that it was forbidden to carry a weapon in public, even a knife.
I arrived at the building half an hour later and walked inside. The building was given to the Association by the city hall and was once a school, though most rooms were still allegedly unused. At the desk in the main hall sat a woman with a stack of papers that she was looking through.
“How may I help you?” She asked as she noticed me coming closer.
“I wish to join the Monster Hunting Association.” I said simply. She nodded to that, not really surprised since 90% of people coming to her asked the same. Though I was the only one here willing to register at the moment.
“Can I see your ID card?” She nodded as I showed her my card, she wrote my name and address on the form. “What skills do you have?” Since everyone had almost the same skills there was no need to hide like some fugitive. I smiled at the memory of 99% of stories having the MC have some special power that they need to hide from the entire world to create some suspense. “That will be all from me. Take this and head to room number 123, go upstairs and then head left.”
“Thank you.” I responded and followed the woman’s direction. It didn’t take me long to arrive at the door. I knocked two times. “Come in.” An older man responded, which I did.
“Ah, to be young again. Please sit.” The man was in a military outfit which was a bit weird. “Form.” The man said holding his hand expectantly, I didn’t make him wait for long.
“At least you took some time to gain some skills.” He said as he looked through the lists of my skills, I found that the only reason to hide one’s skills was either greed or paranoia. I liked to think that none of these were words that could be used to describe myself. “What is the reason for you to join?”
“Skills and money.” I answered quickly, I wasn’t one for long speeches. The man nodded as he continued looking through the form.
“We could use someone like you to act as a scout for the military. You would work in a team with two others of similar skill sets, which are already tested on the field.” I nodded, but decided to ask a question.
“If I might, sir.” The man looked at me expectantly. “What connection does the military have to the Association?”
“Association acts as a mercenary company for the military.” Makes sense. “Since we are to act as scouts, is fighting expected from us, and if not then how could I raise my skills higher?”
“Fighting is expected from you, you kill the weak monsters, and you run away from the bigger ones and notify the military, for which you gain a cut. For the first week you will be treated as a green boy and nothing much will be expected from you. Anything else?” The man asked, to which I nodded. I needed more information.
“What about the pay?” The man smiled at that, before responding. “I cannot really tell, it all depends on the monsters you kill. If you kill a lot of small ones or get lucky to kill a bigger monster then you will get rich quickly. Even if you manage to kill a few smaller ones you will find your pay satisfying. There are not many people willing to go far into the forests surrounding the city.” I thought for a while, I disliked forests but what can weak monsters really do?
“I accept.” The man stood up from his desk and headed to the nearby shelf. He took a few documents and handed them to me.
“All you need is in the documents here, report back in two days. You are dismissed.” I nodded, left the building and headed back to my apartment.