As he walked inside of this castle he noticed that there were actual flickering blue lights along the walls of the castle as he entered past the broken castle door. The place opened up again after a few minutes of walking. Passing the castle door opened up to a large courtyard filled with what looked like dozens of Shamblers in various states of decay. He looked around and as they creaked and moaned they turned to face him and shambled over to him quickly as he rushed towards him. There was no fear in him, he felt…. excitement.
Bring it.
As the first three came towards him he ducked behind the broken castle door trying to create a funnel and seal off the areas of attack. The broken door had a large crack in it that a wagon and a half could possibly fit through but not dozens of people. As more Shamblers came through he repositioned and chased him to the front of the castle he went to work.
He dropped the torch behind him and pulled out his spear and shield. As the first one leapt towards him he did a small sidestep and stabbed it in the head twice. As he finished the second stab the two closest to him were in melee range he turned a powerful class strike into a glancing blow as he blocked with his shield and spun with the attack and took a backstep and unleashed two powerful headshots as it collapsed to the ground.
Level 5
STR: 13
DEX: 6
CON: 15
INT: 5
WIS: 5
STA: 11
Attunement: 80/120
As he ignored the level up notification as more of them joined the fight but the castle door was doing a great job. As he continued to sidestep and back up he unleashed a volley of Splashes aiming at the feet of the Shamblers near the door as they quickly collapsed and tripped as they got tangled up against each other completely blocking the door.
Jackpot.
As he cut the battlefield in half he knew he did not have too much time as there were still at least 25 of the Shamblers in the area with him still looking to make him dinner. It didn’t matter with how cheap Splash was and its ability to knock someone on their ass he used it to devastating effect. As soon as one got too close he would launch a volleyball sized burst of water in the shin of a Shambler making it fall face first into the dirt. But before it could even stand up he would stab it twice and sidestep again.
As he killed more and more of the Shamblers he was starting to realize just how much of a difference maker leveling was. As he killed almost all of the Shamblers in the area the door finally broke down, some of the Shamblers collapsed and crushed some of the ones underneath as he still gained kill experience from them.
I didn’t kill them but I got experience from them dying? Is it because of the Splash and the potential trap I potentially set up?
Either way he did not care as he got the 30 kills to reach level 6.
Level 6 - 27 Kills to Level 7
STR: 15
DEX: 9
CON: 15
INT: 5
WIS: 5
STA: 12
Attunement: 80/125
As he adjusted to his new increased dexterity he felt himself become much more loose and fluid as he moved around the battlefield towards the destroyed gate as thundering steps appeared from behind the Shamblers as an 8 foot tall Undead Minotaur rushed passed the Shamblers and crushed most of the as the experience from the killed Shamblers flowed into him. As the Minotaur made way through the Shamblers several ghouls with rust weapons appeared behind him as well. As Marcus looked over at the undead monstrosity
It had a massive stone like pillar held over his shoulder and despite its size it was agile and strong. Unlike the ghouls and Shamblers it did not move unsteadily but with fluid movements. Although clearly dead as he could see one of its eyes missing along with large gauges that would have bled out or been healed by now if it was alive. He had no doubt in his mind that this thing was most likely stronger and faster than him but he wondered how it would handle water.
As the undead minotaur rushed over to him he used Splash from his spear and launched a glob of water at its face as it stumbled and tried to shake his head. Marcus strafed to the right and went for its leg as he stabbed in quick succession trying to limit its explosive speed.
He felt a rock bounce off his leather armor as he was hit in the head with a large rock that also dazed him for a second as he noticed that the ghouls were launching rocks at him from a distance.
A ranged attack? I gotta be careful and take down this monster so I can move on to the ghouls.
Both the Minotaur and Marcus shook off their dazes and sprang into action. Marcus darted towards the ghouls while the Minotaur charged behind him. With quick reflexes, Marcus dodged out of the way as the Minotaur impaled one of the ghouls on its horn. Taking advantage of its distraction, Marcus circled around and focused his attacks on its legs, stabbing it with his spear three times. Despite its immense strength, he could tell that in life this creature had a much higher fortitude than it did now. However, he also noticed a significant decrease in its speed due to his attacks. Still, the ghouls continued to hurl large rocks at him as he battled the monstrous beast.
He could not win this War of Attrition; he had to end it quickly. As the minotaur rushed him again he used his superior agility to dodge and decided to take a rule from the ghouls playbook. The ground was covered in loose rock and debris as Marcus decided to start pelting the legs and knees of the undead minotaur.
The minotaur charges were noticeably more sloppy as he was able to combat roll and throw a rock at speeds that put major league pitchers to shame. As he was continuing to stick and move the ghouls had a little chance to accurately hit him. With his improved body and stats he was able to roll almost 20 to 30 feet at a time in a moment's notice. It wasn’t long until the Minotaur fell to his bombardment of rocks as it collapsed on the ground.
+10 Kills
The rock throwing ghouls quickly were killed by Marcus rushing them with an unrelenting rush of spear strikes. As the heavy hitters fell the remaining shamblers that were almost knocking each other over trying to get a read on the combat rolling Marcus was blasted with water and slain as he leveled up.
+25 Kills
As he cleared the courtyard he went back and grabbed his torch and bag as he followed the large tracks of the Minotaur. As he rushed toward the opening where the minotaur came from. The interior of the castle was dirty and covered in broken humanoid bodies of what he imagined were Shamblers that it killed just by existing. It was a large stone tunnel slightly lit by blue wall lights as he moved to the interior of the castle he set up where he assumed the minotaur would sleep or rest .
As he entered he checked his HUD to see how he was doing.
Level 7 - 29 more kills till level 8
Health: Orange
Energy: Red
STR: 15
DEX: 10
CON: 17
INT: 5
WIS: 5
STA: 15
Attunement: 80/130
Guin entered his mind again as he began to process his situation. He needed to not be halfway to death if he wanted to continue, especially if the minotaur was something akin to an elite and not even a boss. He needed more options.
“You should try and open loot crates and see if you can find a weapon box with an aspect you can use while you recover. With your constitution now around 15 your regen can do serious work. Give it sometime and you should be able to go from Orange to Light Yellow in no time. “
He grunted in approval as he pulled out a Loot Coin and activated it as it said Standard again.
15 Food
15 Beverage
1 Weapon
1 Equipment
1 Tool
6 Resource
He pulled out the weapon box and looked at it before Guin spoke up.
Aspect of Soul
Marcus smiled before saying “OK, let's open more and see if I can find something more compatible.”
He pulled out another coin and activated it before another standard lootcrate appeared in front of him with the same amount of items from before.
He reached inside and pulled out the weapon box and as notification appeared in his mind.
Aspect of Luck.
“I don’t have that kind of time to lab that out.” as he pulled out another coin and activated it.
Aspect of Teleportation
“I CAN WORK WITH THIS! FINALLY!” As the idea immediately came to him as activated the box and closed his ideas as he began to quickly form a Boomerang and put the Teleportation aspect on it
Standard Boomerang of Returning[Poorly Made]
Base Efficiency Bonus: 12%
Skill Tree: Dance of the Ethereal Hawk
Base Ability: Recall
Trigger: Mentally Activating the weaponEnergy Drain: Negligible
Description: Allows the user to mentally activate the boomerang and immediately teleport the boomerang from within a distance based on Mastery level of the item and the user’s Wisdom to the user's hand. Base Level is 60 feet.
Attunement Slots: 40
With this new item it had pushed him to his attunement to 120/130 but now he had a ranged weapon he could use. With Guin slowly raising his dexterity it would not be hard to hit his targets he imagined. He was not the same guy he was on Earth. He sucked at baseball but with his newfound abilities he hit moving monsters in dim light from 50 feet away with ease.
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
He decided he would drop off his bag here and go as light as possible. There were hundreds of these TV dinner boxes of gear that would slow him down.
Lets go light and lethal here. My armor sucks. I don't think I can make platemail from memory and I can’t stay here for much longer. I can always come back to it and if I lose it I should be able to level again and get more loot coins.
He grabbed his Spear, shield, shortsword and boomerang, making sure to extinguish the flickering flame on his active torch. He took a moment to mentally prepare himself for using the Boomerang as
a weapon.
He had little experience with boomerangs but he had played several games and remembered the basic throwing motions as he Health went slow from Light Yellow to Light Green as he took time and wondered why no one had come to check on the large racket. But the castle itself was far from quiet as the sounds of dead and the damned.
The boomerang was able to be thrown and completely return back to his hand instantly if he mentally activated it. Even if it was on the ground he could still summon it back to his hand. The big benefit was that he could use his shield with the Boomerang. he had no doubt that some of the ghouls would have stuff like bows and crossbows.
As he practiced he did realize that the way the minotaur came from did have stars that went up to from the courtyard to what he assumed was the actual main floor. After a long while he actually waited until his Health reached Green and felt like he could accurately throw it and hit stationary targets before he climbed those steps.
The main floor was apparently a long wide tunnel not some grand open floor plan but he didn’t complain. He was not sure how castles worked but he figured as long as it went up that he could find the dude controlling the tower and take him out.
As he got to the main floor or the tunnel he noticed there were much more lights as he continued forward. As he made his way forward through the tunnel he turned a corner and further down the tunnel where what looked like a patrol of Ghouls in rusty breastplates and leg greaves. It also seemed as if their decomposition was much much lower before he heard it speak.
“Kill the Intruder.”
The ghouls bared their rotting teeth in twisted grins, brandishing their jagged blades as they lunged towards him. Without hesitation, he hurled his boomerang with precise aim, slicing through the arm of one of the ghouls and rendering its sword useless. With a swift motion, he unsheathed his spear and
charged towards the remaining ghouls, determined to eliminate them all.
He rushed over and said Splash he launched a thick glob of water at the faces of the creatures as they struggled to clear the water from their faces he rushed forward and drove his spear through the eye socket of one of the ghouls before he had to leap back.
Now there were two standing and one on the ground struggling to stand. He rushed forward and behind his shield simply pushed forward and used his high strength to impose his will and shatter bone as they tried to push away before falling back and peppering them with spear shots before they collapsed and his leather armor finally gave way into strips as it ripped apart.
With that he looked over at his ripped leather chest armor and grabbed an old breastplate off of one and strapped it on along with arm bracers and greaves over his leather armor. With his increased strength he could easily handle the additional weight as he pressed on.
As he continued right stepping over the bodies he saw a tunnel open up into a well lit hall with a Skeletal Figure dressed in robes holding a staff with well over two dozen ghouls and an undead minotaur on each side of it. It chuckled a sickening cackle as it spoke.
“Well, well, well. What do we have here? What is a living Hume doing so far down under the earth in my castle? –”
“Hey Guin, what’s my chances of victory?”
“With your increased stats? Somewhere between 2-20 percent based on the strength of the robed figure. I would suggest trying to interrupt his monologue and attack or flee” While in life he was a construction worker, with his gear and stats he felt a feeling that he had lost as a child. The dream to be someone who could defy the odds and push beyond. With this he took off his shield and went spear and boomerang and rushed forward.
Fight or Die.
With a laugh erupting deep down his core he rushed forward as he threw his boomerang at the robed figure before a ghoul jumped in from of the robed figure before the Skeleton launched a bolt of fire energy that hit him square in the chest as it knocked it off his feet and pushed his health down from Green to Light Yellow. Before he collapsed against the wall of the castle he smiled and began to chuckle and laugh.
___________
The Skeleton looked at the human strangely, not only had he killed well over half of his forces in the castle before he was able to gather and marshal his undead but this man had to be well into level 20 or even 30 with constitution that high to shrug off his Incinerating Ray. Outside of the Minotaurs it killed most other things instantly. He had killed plenty of Ume over the years of bandits, travelers and caravans that rested near and his scouts summoned his undead and killed them and brought them back to be reanimated. But this was different.
Who was this Ume?
———————
A yell erupted from his core so such primal might that he felt that his throat would tear as he summoned the boomerang again.
As the boomerang appeared back in his hand as he threw it again with deadly accuracy at the skeleton figure as another ghoul jumped in front of it.
Jackpot.
“You think you run shit here!? You just live here! I am gonna send all of your punk ass bitches to the cemetery. You will be playing patty cake with the worms when I get done with you.”
As the ghoul jumped in front of the Skeleton he ran at the ghoul with a speed he never felt before as he shoulder checked the ghoul and Skeleton sending them both flying into a stone wall. As they crashed into the stone wall he stabbed the spear through the ghouls eye socket and punched the Skeleton in the face as he pulled him off the wall and slammed him on the ground. Once the skeleton was in melee and on the ground it was over. He went into full mount and began to unleash a flurry of blows so fast even he was struggling to see his fists as he screamed at the Skeleton mage.
This was violence, pure and undeterred violence.
Maybe knocking him against the wall made him lose his mind or make him crazy but at this point it did not matter. This thing hurt him badly. It had to die. That’s all that mattered to him. As he ripped the skull off the mage and held the skull and crushed it in his hand he felt a hard stone pillar swing from one of the Minotaur hit him and send him flying again into another wall with a bone shatter crunch as he felt his spear arm break.
+30 Kills
Level 8 - 44 more kills till level 9
STR: 17
DEX: 10
CON: 20
INT: 5
WIS: 6
STA: 15
Attunement: 120/135
As he coughed up blood he rolled out of the way.
Health: Light Yellow to Light Red
He looked around and noticed that his spear was still in the skull of the ghoul as his health was now Light Red. He could not stop laughing as he summoned his Boomerang again. as Guin appeared in his head.
“Marcus, need to escape, you are going to die! Please!” As he looked around after taking stock of the situation. There were well over 20 ghouls and there were still two minotaurs he had to deal with. With a broken arm.
There was no going back. He would either fight and win or fight and die here.
“Either we dine with heroes or we drink with the angels.” He looked up into the ceiling and screamed again before laughing.
He felt alive. He was bloodied, but he was laughing and smiling. He had never felt like this before in his life. This was better than sex.
As he was yelling, each other two minotaur were running behind each other in perfect unison preparing a gore and if he rolled to either direction for the second one to gore him mid roll.
As he rushed forward towards the minotaur he threw the boomerang at its hoof as it cracked the hoof and planted it in place as the second one rushed behind it the first minotaur has its foot caught in the stone by the boomerang as the the second one crashed into the first as its horns pierced the back of the first minotaur he pulled out his short sword and sliced the head of the Minotaur clean off before he kicked off the monster. As the still Undead Minotaur was struggling to stand up as its horns were trapped in the chest of its friend.
+10 Kills
As the ghouls began to surround him he quickly began to dodge and evade arrows and spears.
They are too slow.
These ghouls were comparable to a normal human at worst or a someone capable at the very best. Yet, with his physical stats he was three times that of a peak human. They could not pin him down. Their best chance was the Minotaurs and the Mage and that ship had sailed.
He summoned his boomerang back to his hand from the hoof of the Minotaur and began to dance with the ghouls dodging a strike and throwing his boomerang at the head of the still functional Minotaur and dodge again. This loop continued again and again until the Minotaur finally collapsed.
+10 Kills
With the twisted smile he turned his head to face the rest of the Ghouls as he summoned his boomerang in his hand again.
A twisted smile erupted across his face as the slaughter began.
Level up!
Level 9 - 35 more kills till level 10
STR: 20
DEX: 10
CON: 22
INT: 7
WIS: 5
STA: 15
Attunement: 120/140
This was intoxicating.