With the wealth of options around me and my current attire being a little bloodier than I’d like, I decided to do some shopping. Thanks to the weather, these fine gentlemen that tried to kill me were all wearing some sick furs, so I just had to find the pair I liked best.
The big spearman wasn’t my first choice on account of there being bits of skull and brain matter scattered over his clothes. Also they were just too big for me. Not that his clothes wouldn’t fit, but I liked a tighter fit when I was running around punching shit. The other three were better options, especially the regular swordsman. That guy had some really cool looking fur armor thing going on. Odds were good that it would be somewhat resistant to the ridiculous levels of abuse I tend to put my clothes through. In fact, with that in mind, I went ahead and grabbed the other two outfits in my size range as well. None of them were exactly spot free after the fight, but a little blood never hurt anybody. Assuming these people didn’t have HIV or something.
So now I had a bundle of furs along with my big crystal and huge carapace. This was getting a little cumbersome. I really needed a house or something that I could drop all my stuff off at or at least a storage unit. Sadly, these muggers were too poor to really add to my retirement fund, adding less than five silver to my pants wallet.
No wonder they resorted to crime. They were broke! It really was a shame that the people throwing themselves at me couldn’t at least have the decency to pay me for my time, but what could you do? Some people just had no manners.
That actually made me think of something else. As I sat on the nice grass, looking over my bundle of clothes and crab related bounty, I wondered if people gave experience. I hadn't killed any monsters since my most recent levels, so it should be pretty easy to check. Pulling out the crystal from its hard travel case, I placed my hands on it expectantly.
Nothing happened.
I then tried standing it up, since maybe orientation was really important for it to work. Still nothing.
How weird. I knew it worked after tearing it from the ground, but maybe it needed something special? I was still in its dungeon when I did that, but the alliance had a crystal that worked just fine. Maybe this one would only work when it was in a dungeon?
That was easy enough to check. On the off chance that the big spearman had more bandit friends looking for me, I decided to take my happy ass to the forest instead. Once I had the trees as a backdrop, I made my way towards my gym and, more importantly, my spawn point in this world.
Nobody ever went to the flesh caves. There wasn’t anything there besides their namesake, so it would be pretty safe to assume I’d be alone once inside. The perfect place for somebody that may or may not need to lay low for a little bit.
Still recovering from the fight, I decided to leave most of my stuff at the gym when I got there. I still had some arrows in me and only one functioning hand, so I could afford to slow down. Put differently, I couldn’t really afford to not slow down. I’d managed to change my clothes, but it hurt. A lot. After that, I just used my armpit to carry the bundle of furs while using my other to transport my real prizes, but that was also painful as hell.
These arrows still being in me while my right hand was a charbroiled mess was really far from ideal. In fact, I was getting the distinct feeling that I needed to take a long break to recover. How annoying. Could I even sleep if I wanted to? Not that the murder forest inspired great confidence or coziness, but it was something to consider when I wasn’t potentially being investigated for murder. Did they even have police in this world? Jim didn’t really feel like a cop to me.
No matter the case, I needed to pass the time, but I was once again reminded just how bad I was at that. There were many things that the great Law could do, but nothing wasn’t really one of them. Sadly, I already suspected that no amount of exercise would increase my strength anymore. I did it anyway, since there really wasn’t anything better to do.
Something about moving heavy things repeatedly was so soothing in a cave man kind of way. Even if I knew that it wasn’t giving me any practical benefit, it still helped me calm down a little which was incredibly needed.
I was pretty confident that my hand would make a full recovery, but I didn’t expect the maddening sensation that would accompany it. I’d lost fingers in the past and I’d broken bones, but I’d never had my hand burnt to a crisp before. The feeling of my skin replacing itself along with the associated nerve endings was just agony. The best way to describe it was like a million fire ants were crawling and biting inside my hand for hours.
Thankfully, I had heavy things to move and distract myself with. Once the misery of that hell was behind me, I plucked the arrows out and waited for that to get better too. I even had my old spandex outfit already covered in blood and ready to absorb some more. Yea, I really needed to buy some proper bandages.
After a day of working out for no stat gains, I was past half health and feeling mostly normal. The fact that I could just walk off the kind of damage I’d taken was really encouraging but also a little worrying. After all, I was still missing over a third of my health. Just what did my insides even look like right now? Good thing I didn’t need to drink or eat things so my organs were mostly for show. That was probably the real source of my tankiness.
With my body mostly recovered, I grabbed my crab covered crystal and headed out to the flesh caves, ready to test my theory. It was starting to get dark which was handy, making it nice and easy to spot any people heading back to town following a busy work day of monster hunting. I waited a little bit, letting one such group get halfway to town before crossing the rest of the distance to my destination.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
I really couldn’t afford another fight like the last one, especially if they had magic. Based on those blue torches that the stabilizers out this way always carried, it would be a stupid bet for me to make. If a hybrid magic swordsman could take out half my health with one move, then I’d be toast against a proper caster. Better to not chance it at all.
My old stomping grounds were just as I remembered, almost compelling me to go fight some bees. Almost. I had a mission to accomplish and no amount of buzzing flies would distract me.
I stepped into the flesh caves, took in the pink scenery, and then stepped around and behind the portal. Just in case, I waited a little bit to see if any tiny bugs felt like crawling towards me. A minute went by, and I got to the business at hand. Planting the crystal into the floor, I placed my hand on the surface. Words bubbled to the surface, confirming both of my theories.
Calculating experience…
You have reached Brawler level 32!
+2 strength, +2 agility, +2 resilience!
Calculating experience…
You have reached Pugilist level 22!
+4 strength, +4 agility, +4 resilience!
Calculating experience…
You have reached Wrestler level 12!
+4 strength, +4 agility, +4 resilience!
Calculating experience…
You have reached Boxer level 3!
+4 strength, +4 agility, +4 resilience!
Lawrence Schlager
Classes
Brawler: 32
Pugilist: 22
Wrestler: 12
Boxer: 3
Professions
N/A
Ability Scores
Health: 1689/2570
Strength: 283
Agility: 301
Resilience: 258
Magic: 0
Spirit:0
Awareness: 67
Passive Skills
Infinite Scaling
Unarmed Combat: 34
Pain Tolerance: 22
Masochist: 12
Lumberjacking: 5
Wrestling: 18
Active Skills
Dimension Tearing: 7
Jab: 23
Straight: 16
Cross: 11
Mount: 11
Uppercut: 2
Boons
Dungeon Blessing
Looks like I managed to grind one more stat point in resilience before crossing the 250 threshold, but now it was all level ups moving forward. Also, that was a lot of experience for just four dudes. Maybe being a murder hobo was more profitable than I thought, even if it wasn’t with money. That was something to consider. For now, I was satisfied with having confirmed both of my running theories.
Not sure what this changed though. Obviously, I’d be carrying this little crystal around with me for the foreseeable future. No reason to step foot in an alliance building or pay those extortionate prices if I didn’t have to. Aside from that though, it was awfully tempting to change professions. If murder was this good for levels, then that was more than a little worrying. Were soldiers the most powerful things ever? Did the average grunt have a level in the hundreds? That was definitely a frightening concept considering how close I apparently was to two different forts. Those were now firmly in my mind as areas to avoid at all costs. If a magic swordsman could do such an insane amount of damage to me, then a dedicated combat mage posted in a tower somewhere could probably kill me with a thought. I’d still really rather not die.
Grabbing my crystal, I headed out and made my way back to the gym. As empowering as it was to kill a bunch of bandits, I was finding myself feeling weaker than before. It really was uncomfortably close, and even then I would be dead if not for survival mode being off. There was just no way around the obvious conclusion.
I needed to be way stronger, and now I couldn’t just do push-ups in the woods to get there. The bees were way too weak to challenge me and my awareness was still barely budging from its comfortable position, so the dark caves were also out. If I didn’t want to show myself at the alliance and risk getting arrested for questioning, then that also meant I couldn’t easily find higher leveled dungeons either.
Really, that only left me with one choice. It was a stupid one too. Honestly, I’d have to be a complete fucking idiot to return to the scene of the crime, to go right back to the place where my would-be assassins found me in the first place.
Leaving all of my nice loot at the gym, I slowly made my way back to the crab caves. I was many things, and stubborn was right at the top of that list. If Maine was dead now, I just had to know what he was guarding. With any luck, it’d be an even tougher crab for me to fight.