It was the beginning of fall, the leaves were starting to turn shades of red and gold, and the summer heat was slowly fading away. School had just started, and this meant for me, 18 year old Dendrus Cell, that I would be starting my first year at Korman University in the northern part of Texas.

I was majoring in mechanical engineering, because from birth I had shown an aptitude for figuring out how things worked, and adapting to new and unexpected situations, which often happened when one worked with machines.

I was a relatively tall, spare person, being just over 6 feet tall, with an average build. I had semi-long, messy, jet black hair that I never could do anything with. I had extremely pale skin and muddy green eyes that always looked tired. I was always sort of a loner, never really interacting with those around me. It wasn’t that I was antisocial, or didn’t like people, it’s that I just had one of those personalities that liked being alone more often than not.

It was the second week of school, and I was heading to my, unfortunately, required, literature class. The building my class was in was massive, capable of holding up to 5000 people in its many classrooms. There were vast auditoriums, a huge, fully stocked cafeteria, and three hallways that connected to three massive dorm buildings that surrounded the superstructure. It was from one of these dorm buildings, Dorm Building A, to be exact, that I was headed from.

It was relatively empty at the time, for most people were in their afternoon classes, as very few people wished to get up early in the morning. I was one of those people, and was, as usual, alone, heading towards my first and only class for that day of Wednesday. I neared the lounge, which was the only coed section of the building, anyone caught in the opposite genders section of the building would be severely punished.

I neared the lounge area, needed to head through it because the skyway connecting the dorm to the huge classroom building was located there. I pushed the door open and made my way through the interior, which was a 50 by 50 area filled with couches, TV’s, tables, and generally anything that was relatively cheap that aided, however slightly, in the activity of relaxation and comfort. It was fairly neat, well as neat as a college lounge can be, and I passed through it, winding my way through the maze of couches towards the doors leading to the skyway.

As I neared the doors, I heard a strange sound behind me, an almost…warping noise akin to something I had heard in a movie.

Naturally, I turned around, for, as a human being, I unconsciously needed to find the sources of unexpected sounds. This intrinsic action saved my life, for what I saw made me gasp. It was a small, brown creature, unlike anything I had seen before. It was squat and thickly built, and only came up to my mid-thigh. It held a club proportionate to its size in its hands and its beady, black eyes swiveled in my direction as soon as I turned around.

It had a strange blue box over its head, something that looked…well…vaguely familiar is all I could think at the time.

Gnoll Lvl 7Health 30/30

I tried to place where I had seen something like it before, but such thoughts flew out of my head as it gave an evil grin and advanced towards me, beating its club into its opposite hand in a slightly menacing fashion.

It dashed at me all of a sudden. It was not very fast, however considering my surprise and the fact it was only a few feet away from me, it came upon me quickly. The gnoll swung at me with its club and I frantically dove to the left out of the way. I tried to roll and spring to my feet, but was largely unsuccessful and only ended up sprawling rather humiliatingly on the ground. I untangled myself and spun around on the ground, only for the gnoll to smash its club into my right shin.

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Pain exploded throughout the lower part of my leg, though with it came an unexpected blessing, adrenaline rushed my system, and flooded away the shock of the situation I was in and gave me focus. Well, as much focus as one can have when a fantasy creature appears from nowhere and attacks you.

I grabbed the gnoll, using my superior height and weight against it and threw it back as far as I could. I noticed with grim satisfaction that the gnoll lost two points of health when it landed. I staggered to my feet and grabbed a nearby lamp and a large textbook that was laying on a nearby and hobbled towards the creature that was sprawled on the ground.

I threw the textbook at the gnoll when I was about 3 feet away from it. The textbook, which was about a third of the size of the gnoll and certainly a good percentage of its weight, struck the gnoll right smack dab in the middle of its chest. The gnoll, which had just risen to its feet when I neared it, fell back down heavily, losing 7 points of health. It screeched in pain and glared at me in hatred.

I swung the lamp heavily and the gnoll blocked it with its club, producing a dull *thump* sound. It swiped at the same spot on my right leg again, but I jumped backwards just in time, the club whooshing just under a foot away from my shin. It seemed that my longer reach, and greater strength would be the tipping point in this fight, for if I was any shorter, or weaker, that club would have it me and I most likely would have fallen and been killed.

Upon realizing this fact, I decided to use it to my advantage. I swung the lamp again as fast and as hard as I could, utilizing my long arms to bridge the gap that had been created by my frantic jump backwards. The gnoll did not have any time to react and the lamp struck it heavily in the head, sending it sprawling backwards. I got a notification from another one of those mysterious blue boxes that I had inflicted a [Stun Debuff] on the gnoll for 3 seconds.

Inflicted Stun Debuff for 3 seconds.

The gnoll now had only 5 points of health left, and I quickly rushed forward to finish it before the stun effect could wear off. Instead of using the lamp, I picked up the club that had dropped from its limp right hand and smashed it into its skull, caving it in and ending its life. Green blood sprayed every which way, staining the floor around it, the nearby couches, and my clothes and myself.

I sat back heavily, stunned from the recent conflict and the throbbing in my right shin from where the gnoll had struck me, hit me full on. I looked at my shin and saw a deep cut from where a slightly jagged edge of the club as well as a deep bruise forming over a large portion of skin.

As I reflected on the events of the past couple of minutes, wondering what the implications were and what the heck that little bugger had been, a blue box sprung up in front of me, similar to the one that had floated just above the head of the monster…the gnoll.

Congratulations!

For being the first to kill the monster [Gnoll] as well as

killing the first monster on the New Earth, you will

receive some rewards!

I hope you enjoy what you receive and that you don't die

too quick! That would be disappointing. Good luck!

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