The Grimwolf was three times as large as the Direwolves. Blood dripped from its long, wicked fangs while it huffed slowly. Its powerful muscles were tensed and ready to attack. The fur was black and unkempt and the eyes were a dark blood-red. It growled and looked directly at Ezra.
Adrenaline shot through Ezra’s veins. His body began to shake. A night attack, a monster in front of him. His mind couldn’t help but run back to when he’d seen that monstrosity.
No, no. He was better than this. He’d killed so many mobs. He’d leveled up. Come on! He needed to calm down. Yes, he needed to [Calm] down.
The skill activated and his brain cleared away. He quickly popped open his menu and hit the [Calm] skill.
Amplification: 9x
Mana Consumption: 21 mp/s
Timer: 5 minutes 37 seconds
Cooldown: 5 hours
Wait, he had skill points. Could he level it up—?
[Skills in the process of being used must run out their timer and cooldown before they can be upgraded with Skill Points.]
Oh, son of a—
He had 5 minutes to finish this fight before he’d be overwhelmed. Maybe he could get a bit more time if he was very careful about how he did things.
He flipped off [Calm] with a mental command.
His heart rate spiked. Droplets of sweat formed on the back of his neck and his limbs felt like they were about to fall off.
He flipped [Calm] back on.
Pathetic. He had to rely so much on this damn skill. Even Charles was better than him.
Ezra looked around. Only a few seconds had passed. Most of the students had already fled into the forest.
Great, less people in the way.
The people who’d stayed had surrounded the monster, even Pete and Yuki. Lackey 2 was in there as well, though it seemed like he was about ready to bail.
Ezra dashed forward, pushing one of the people to the side.
Charles growled. “I’m going in! Ranged fighters, give ‘em a barrage, now!”
Rather than the synchronized attack Charles was hoping for, the shots arrived in a random cluster of shots. Some arrived early, some arrived later, and most of them missed. Charles cursed and dashed in, his straight razor gleaming in the sunlight. He leaped into the air and aimed his body at the creature’s jugular. For a moment, it seemed like he’d hit it. Then the creature dodged. It opened its jaw wide.
Charles was going to get eaten.
Yuki screamed and shut her eyes.
Pete couldn’t look away.
Dorian opened her mouth to say something.
“[Restrain]!” Ezra said.
Yellow threads wrapped around the creature, pulling it to the ground. Charles flopped to the earth but quickly pushed himself up. He shot a glare at Ezra before he rushed forward and stabbed the creature in the stomach. The razor bounced off. He clicked his tongue.
“[Cut]!” Charles said.
His straight razor glowed a bright blue, he sliced at its stomach, and the knife dug into the its skin and went in. The Grimwolf cried in pain. Charles pulled back his razor. Then the creature flexed its muscles and broke past Ezra’s restraints like they were wet paper.
Charles jumped back and turned his head from side to side. “Damn it! Where the hell is everyone else!?”
Ezra glanced at the enemy’s health bar. Only a twentieth. Shit. He needed a way to restrain it for longer and let the entire group wale on that thing. Could he just pump [Restrain] up using his ability points? But the question then became whether he could rely on the others to do enough damage. He glanced around. The only two who looked like him—like they were willing to do whatever it took to kill this thing—were Dorian and Charles.
They needed more offense.
The monster stared at them. Who would be its next victim?
It wouldn’t be Ezra, that was for sure.
Ezra popped open his abilities menu.
There it was. The Robin constellation.
[Needle Mastery: A skill governing all physical combat with a needle.]
[Use 1 skill point and learn?]
[Yes] [No]
Wait, it was a skill? Right, it wasn’t technically an ability of the needle, so that made sense. Next.
[Polymorphism: Allows you to temporarily increase the size of the needle.]
[Use 1 ability point and learn?]
[Yes] [No]
Ezra’s eyes lit up. His weapon was too small to be offensive right now. But what if it was a bit bigger? He went back to his System menu.
Personal Skills:
[Calm] - Lv. 2
[Inspect] - Lv. MAX
[Canefighting] - Lv. 1
[Needle Mastery] - Lv. 1
Abilities:
[Bind] - Lv. 1
[Spirit Weapon Storage] - Lv. MAX
[Spirit Weapon Recall] - Lv. MAX
[Restrain] - Lv. 4
[Web Trap] - Lv. 1
[Entangle] - Lv. 1
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[Polymorphism] - Lv. 1
Skill points: 11
Stat points: 12
Ability points: 8
He pounded the points he had in mind, leveling up [Needle Mastery] and [Polymorphism].
Personal Skills:
[Calm] - Lv. 2
[Inspect] - Lv. MAX
[Canefighting] - Lv. 1
[Needle Mastery] - Lv. 12
Abilities:
[Bind] - Lv. 1
[Spirit Weapon Storage] - Lv. MAX
[Spirit Weapon Recall] - Lv. MAX
[Restrain] - Lv. 4
[Web Trap] - Lv. 1
[Entangle] - Lv. 5
[Polymorphism] - Lv. 5
Skill points: 0
Stat points: 0
Ability points: 0
His Dexterity had increased by an entire 12 points. For a moment, he almost fell over from how suddenly his sense of balance shifted. On top of that, the needle in his hand suddenly felt more comfortable than it used to be.
His eyes shot toward the enemy.
“[Entangle]! [Restrain]!”
Two thick and large threads exploded out of the ground and wrapped around the Grimwolf. A moment later, four thinner threads appeared and did the same thing.
Ezra dashed forward. He felt like the wind itself with how quickly he could move.
“[Polymorphism]!”
His needle increased to the size of a small dagger.
Potential weak spots abounded. The jugular. The brain. The eyes. Ah, this was what Wisdom could do for him.
He reached forward and stabbed into its heart.
Critical hit! 110 damage!
201/310
In one swoop, a third of its health vanished. It screeched and broke the bonds tying it down. Ezra leaped back, leaving his weapon embedded inside the animal.
He held out his hand and Filamenta teleported back into his grip
Polymorphism wore off and it shrunk down. Ezra was sure it would be another couple of minutes before it was ready again.
He was about to check when the animal bounded at him. It was faster. Maybe it was being fueled by desperation?
Damn.
Ezra barely managed to dodge, a combination of Dexterity and Wisdom to see a safe spot protecting him.
It was just him and this animal. There was no one else.
He couldn’t make his weapon bigger again. Could he try to find a smaller pressure point? No, if Wisdom was what was helping him decide the best target, he didn’t have it high enough to pull that off.
Had he made the wrong decision? Should he have just invested everything into his restraining abilities? No, no, he dealt substantial damage. He was on the right track. He needed more. He needed more damage.
Canefighting.
He picked up a stick from the ground and launched forward.
No, his stats weren’t well suited to blunt weaponry, but he had a plan in mind.
The Grimwolf lined up an attack and rushed forward, snapping its jaws at him. Ezra let the stick fly forward and it was snapped in half and created something far sharper. It was still technically a cane, right?
He dodged the follow-up attack, luring it in—
“[Entangle]!”
Those familiar thick yellow threads enfolded the animal, preparing to bring it low. In the split second before it was pushed to the ground, Ezra lined up the stick right below its chest. [Entangle] did its job and forced the animal down. The sharpened club drove itself into the creature’s heart and expanded the hole in its chest.
Critical hit! 40 damage!
153/310
Another chunk. One more good hit will do the trick.
He swiped through his menus. Come on, come on.
[Polymorphism] - Lv. 5
[Allows the needle to change its size, creating an equivalent increase or decrease in damage. Further level-ups increase the possible size difference and/or length of effect.]
Effect Length: 20 seconds
Cooldown time: 1 minute 30 seconds
Cooldown Timer: 0 seconds
Ready to go. Can’t waste any more time.
“[Polymorphism].”
The needle morphed in size. Twenty seconds to pull off a similar effect to what he did before.
“[Restrain].”
5 threads shot out of the ground and wrapped around the Grimwolf.
Ezra pulled out his needle and dashed forward. It would be simple. One more good strike would finish it off—
The Grimwolf made a primal cry of rage and broke its bonds in one fell swoop.
Ezra slammed his heels into the ground, coming to a hard stop right in front of the beast.
A single drop of sweat poured down his back. He wasn’t scared. [Calm] was taking care of that. But he would be, relatively soon. He checked the timer.
Timer: 1 minute 2 seconds
Mana Consumption: 21 mp/s
Cooldown: 5 hours
He glanced at his mana.
76/245 (20 mp/s) - (21 mp/s)
His needle shook in his hand before the tension was washed away by [Calm]. Shit. Shit shit shit shit. He needed to finish this. Now. And he needed to finish it without expending more of his mana.
But what did he have? Polymorphism was out. Come on, think, think, think!
The Grimwolf shot out its jaw in Ezra’s direction. Its powerful fangs seemed to glint in the sunlight. The sound of its body moving the air around it filled Ezra’s ears.
Ezra leaped to the side.
Then it stopped, digging its paws into the ground.
“[Web Trap]!”
The [Web Trap] formed and was instantly destroyed. It was only a level 1 ability, after all.
Ezra was wishing that he’d thought things out.
His eyes glanced around. Come on, come on. There had to be something he was missing.
Some trick, some ability. He was out of points, so the only thing left at this point was the environment.
Ezra’s eyes honed in on a massive dead tree lying on the ground.
Oh, this would be such bullshit if this worked.
“[Entangle]!”
This time, he tried his best to force where the ability would sprout from. He focused every bit of his will, every bit of the little knowledge he had on controlling the source of the ability.
And it worked. The two thick yellow threads ruptured out of the sides of the dead tree and flew toward the Grimwolf. To its credit, it tried to dodge—but the threads were too fast. The dead tree and the Grimwolf were forced together at Mach speed, the tip of the log pointed at its stomach. The tree burst through the other side of the Grimwolf and its internals exploded out. Blood and flesh splattered Ezra from top to bottom.
Not a single person said a thing. Not an animal stirred.
Ezra spat out a drop of blood that had gotten in his mouth. He looked down at himself, picked up a stray piece of meat, and threw it to the ground
“Gross.”
[You have leveled up!]
[You have leveled up!]
[You have leveled up!]
[You have leveled up!]
[You have leveled up!]
[You have leveled up!]
Okay, well, that wasn’t such a bad reward.
“I thought he was supposed to be weak?!” someone said.
“Didn’t he say he killed a slime earlier!?”
“What the hell was that?”
Ezra turned over. Oh, yeah, there were other people. Charles was glaring at him. His fingers were digging into his palms tightly and around him, more than a few people were looking at him with green faces or quivering hands. As soon as Ezra washed his gaze over them, they looked away, turning their looks to the ground.
“What on earth is your level!? How did you do that!?” Charles said.
Ezra shrugged. “What’s your level?”
Charles’s hands stiffened before they loosened and dropped toward the ground.
“Seven.”
“Same as I was. How many abilities did you pick up?”
“I… Four, ignoring the default Spirit Weapon skills.”
Ezra marched up to Charles.
“You had all the same skills. All the same stats. All the same potential. You were just sitting on your ass for some reason instead of doing something.”
Charles gaped. His face turned bright red and he looked down, digging his nails into his palms.
“Honestly,” Ezra turned his gaze on all the people surrounding him. “You jackasses can all go die in a pit for all I care. I saved your lives, and this is my payment—?”
[Calm] will wear off in five seconds. Please prepare to receive your stored emotions.
Shit. Did the warning get shorter?
Five. Four.
Three.
Two.
One.
Ezra grabbed his heart and clenched his hands, digging grooves into his skin through his shirt. His chest began to pound, pound, pound, faster and faster. His breathing sped up in a desperate attempt to get more air. But it wasn’t working. Nothing was working.
“Ezra?” Yuki said. “Are you okay?”
Ezra fell to the ground. This was even worse than last time, somehow. Wasn’t the amplification supposed to have gone down from when he leveled up?
“Screw off!” He took a deep and heavy breath. “I-I’m fine.”
Pete looked at him, worry written on his brow.
“A-are you sure?”
Ezra gritted his teeth together and stood to his feet.
“I’m f-fine.”
Last time he’d been okay. What was different? What the hell had changed?
A flash of realization hit him.
Last time, he was asleep. Of course. Now, his body had adapted a bit to the heightened stress. He wouldn’t be lucky enough to faint.
Damn it.
Charles’s straight razor had appeared in his hand at some point.
Sweat broke out across Ezra’s face.
No, he wouldn’t attack him. Not here, not in this context. But what if he did? What if Charles attacked him? Ezra could beat him in a fight, right? There was no way. Charles was a coward. Charles ran away and froze.
Charles was like Ezra without the [Calm] skill.
Ezra pushed the thought away. He had better things to do. Like walking. His legs started to move in the direction of the castle.
One.
Two.
His legs almost buckled. Just had to keep going. A little longer. A few more steps.
A few more steps.
A few more steps.