I continued to grumble angrily as I took a bite out of tough bug meat. The giant locust I had fought recently sat over the fire I had made about an hour ago. The thing was only Level 2, meaning I only got 6 EXP from it, and it hadn't even been thoughtful enough to drop an item I could use.
But, the last thing I ate was a young jackrabbit the day before, which hadn't given me anything except 2 "Rabbit Legs."
It was not a great meal.
With a groan, I flopped onto my back. My stats had gone through leaps and bounds, and yet I was covered in small scratches as I still somehow managed to trip and fall in ways that completely baffled me. I mean, there was even one time I lifted my leg a bit higher to make sure I didn't trip on a tree root, and instead, I tripped on air.
I laughed; a tinge of madness sat in it. "I mean, how do I even trip on air??"
Realizing I was, again, talking to myself, I shoved another bite of the oddly flavored gray meat into my mouth before tossing the exoskeleton of the leg away. I hopped to my feet and held my hand over the cooked bug.
"Inventory."
The bug disappeared as a screen opened over it and swallowed the remains whole. This trick still made me feel pretty cool, proven by the 6 random sticks I had picked up to practice my new stats and skill with. I originally had 8, but I broke one against a tree — or rather, put too much of a dent in the tree, overextended, and then proceeded to tumble and crush the stick — and the other had snapped while fighting the locust. The irritation was evident by the dent in the skull of the locust, as out of anger I had simply held it down and punched it to death while yelling curse words at the tutorial.
I returned to laying on the ground, pulling up my Statscreen. It had already been two days, and the majority of my growth had been in the first day I awoke in this world. At first, it had felt like it was one thing after another, but now that things had begun stagnating I found myself looking around trees a little too earnestly, expecting a Boar to jump out at me.
"Oh, whatever," I groaned, pulling my arm under my head as I rolled onto my side. "Just let me find some humans or something. I need a bath."
I didn't lay on my side for long, and soon I returned to my back to look at the setting sun. While the sun was the same color and size as the one back on Earth, this planet called Puria had a much larger moon than the former. It bathed everything around me in a gentle glow as it slowly rose past the horizon, chasing after the quickly disappearing sun. As I stared at the moon, my lips parted and words slipped out of my mouth. I was still talking to myself, yet this time it was in a much calmer manner.
"I wonder, if magic and skills and all that are real here, are things like werewolves and vampires real too?"
The thought made me shudder. As bad as I was longing for a fight, I would fight 10 Boars before I would want to fight one vampire. That pulled my attention back to my earlier thought, though.
After all, my clumsiness annoyingly persisted even with 5 DEX now, causing me a load of minor inconveniences as I traveled. Yet, whenever I got into a fight with something, it was almost like that disappeared.
It had been much the same for Luke, the me of a past life. As a kid, I had tried almost every sport there was. And, funny enough, I was good at them. But, no matter what sport it was, I always, always hit a wall. I couldn't train to get better, because suddenly my body acted as if it didn't know who I was anymore, and I would always fall on my face with the simplest movements.
I didn't have a condition, but my body sure acted like it did.
The worst part was, it had followed me here.
"And that goddamn useless skill," I complained, pulling up the stats on Klum's Reincarnation.
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[Klum's Reincarnation (Unfound Autoskill)]
[Cooldown remaining: 1 day, 16 hours…]
I shouldn't call it useless. I had seen firsthand how much it could literally save my life. Yet, I couldn't stop thinking about the 'bad luck.' What happens if I'm fighting something like a Boar and my DEX suddenly drops to one?
I'm dead, that's what.
My mind lingered on that thought before I realized something else. 'When did I become so accustomed to fighting? In my past life, I couldn't get into fights because I'd end up hurting myself more than they did, much less hurting them at all.'
Ever since that fight with the Boar, it felt like fighting things had become much more natural than just a 'fight for survival' type of thing.
"Maybe it's due to my main skill being so suited for combat?"
I called up Critical Eye to look over it, musing at the evolution requirements.
[Critical Eye (Rare Passive Skill): When engaging in battle, the attacking enemy or target(s) will be randomly marked with a 'Critical Mark.' Upon striking the 'Critical Mark,' damage will deal 350% of attack. (Max targets: 2 — Max 'Critical Mark' per target: 1)
Cost: None — Cooldown: 3 seconds
Evolution Requirements:
15 ACC
Land a hit on a 'Critical Mark' 10x (6/10)]
[Note: Some Stat Effects are changed by this skill.
"Two on the Boar, three on the goblins, and one on the locust," I counted out the 5 Critical Hits I had so far obtained. Even if I got 5 more…
"I still need 9 more Accuracy," I sighed, a slight whine to my voice. "The curiosity is killing me."
Comically, it was right then that a wave of exhaustion slammed into my brain, over my sore muscles, and into my eyes. "Of course that's my luck."
I couldn't blame my body; the amount of hours of rest I had gotten since I had first awoken could be counted on one hand. I closed my eyes gently, as if doing so too fast would shatter my aching body.
- - -
With a jolt, I sat upright in my office chair.
"Huh? Wh-wha?"
I looked around my surroundings despairingly, as reality seemed to sink in.
I was back.
Back in my office cubicle, where I had slaved away for 3 years, with nothing to show for it.
"No…"
It was a dream?
That was too good to be a dream.
Shooting to stand upright in my chair, a wheel catches itself against something on the floor — I can't see what — and causes my knees to buckle. I flop to the floor helplessly, bruising my elbow.
"Ow!"
Ow?
If I was feeling pain, too… then this wasn't a dream?
'No.'
I stumbled to my feet, dashing towards the end of the cubicle. It feels like it takes so many steps, but as soon as I make it to the end—
"Hey there, knucklehead!"
From right behind the cubicle wall, a short, fat balding man pops out. My boss. His ugly toothy grin flashes before he drops it just as quickly.
"How ya doin'? Good? Good. I need those three reports I sent ya pronto. Need to stay late if you can't finish it by closing time. Usually I'm lenient, but… you're pretty far behind. No slacking off now, ya hear?" He gives his usual short, fake ass laugh before reaching up to pat my shoulder, then gives me a little shove as if to say "back to work now."
I wait until he rounds the corner, then beeline it for a group of cubicles near the windows of the boring floor. I walk past three of them, tripping and falling in front of the opening to the fourth. A loud groan escapes my mouth, and…
"Well, what's that make the score? 0/4?"
A bright, cheery voice calls out from the cubicle, and I can't suppress the water from filling my eyes upon hearing it. I drag myself up to one knee, raising my head to look at the bony woman sitting with her legs crossed in her chair.
"Christy… you're here," I mumble, a few tears falling down my cheeks as I dropped my head back down.
"Of course I am! Who else would bother to babysit you. I mean, look at you, a crying mess."
"I'm sorry…"
"Sorry? Why?"
"I… left you behind, didn't I? Heh… Well, I guess not. It was just a dream." Hastily, I wiped my tears away.
"No, it wasn't. We always knew you were gonna get isekai'ed one day. It's like you were made for it."
I froze. "Wh-what did you say?"
Christy laughs, hopping out of her chair to come kneel in front of me. "You heard me. And look, you didn't leave me behind, okay? I'm always right here." She poked my chest, a serious expression taking over her face.
My head began to spin. "Huh?"
"Hooo boy, you're not taking it as well as I thought, huh? Didn't even call me out for that corny ass line." Christy stood, pulling me up by the arm. "Anyways, it's time to stop feeling sorry for me and yourself. You gotta wake up."
I blinked, feeling a bit dizzy. "The hell are you talking about…"
My eyes only closed for an instant, but once they reopened, Christy's face had been replaced by a blank Statscreen.
"Get the fuck up."
- - -
I didn't have time to process the small crackles that suggested the fire had nearly died out. I didn't have time to process the rays of light penetrating my eyelids, suggesting the sun was just starting to rise. I didn't even have time to process the horrible, putrid smell that had suddenly appeared.
Every single alarm I could possibly think of was going off inside my body, getting louder and louder to near-unbearable levels. If the Boar's attack had been my body telling me 'MOVE,' this was more like screaming it 20 times a second, and trying to force me to do so even in unconsciousness.
But why?
Finally, I had enough cognition to open my eyes, and my eyelids slowly fluttered apart to view the scene. Squinting against the bright sunlight, two beady black eyes met with my own, accompanied by an upside-down ugly face that had unrealistically long fangs jutting out from its upper lip. On instinct, I activated Analyze.
[Fanged Ogre]
[Age:10]
[Lv: 6]
[Health: 63/63]
[Mana: 40/40]
[Stamina: 60/60]
STR: 10 MAG: 5
AGI: 2 DEX: 3
VIT: 10 INT: 8
ACC: 2
DEF: 10
POW: 6
[Skills: Skewer Bite (Super Rare), Heavy Bite (Super Rare), Berserk (Rare), Predator's Sight (Rare), Roar (Uncommon), Bash (Common)]
"Oh f-"
Seeing movement, the Fanged Ogre opened its extensive unhygienic mouth and let out an incredible roar.
[Fanged Ogre used the Skill Roar.]
[Note: Roar is the evolved form of Screech.]
Oh… Fuck.