Thankfully while his brain had accepted it fucked around, his body did not accept finding out. The wooden stake shattered against his face, chunks flying through the air. Leo took a second to regain his composure as he wiped the wooden shards off him, unharmed despite the mess.
He decided to go and see who or what just shot him in the face, something Leo didn’t quite appreciate. He approached the tall grass in the direction the attack came from, discovering a makeshift ballista that was rigged to fire once the jewel was lifted. Leo couldn’t find any evidence of who left it here, so he decided to simply destroy the trap with a light tap.
Leo decided to accept this encounter as a win, and moved forward on his journey while he tried to keep alert for any other traps that may be set on the path ahead.
While he continued his walk through the beautiful nature of Kalpania, Leo had begun to notice something was amiss with his newfound treasure. He held it up to the light, noting that the refraction seemed to be accurate with actual diamonds. This information being entirely incorrect thankfully wasn’t enough to stop Leo from discovering the truth, as he noted that the fact it started melting in his hand was a bad sign.
With state of the art taste testing, Leo noted that this diamond was in fact candy and not a valuable jewel. He felt embarrassed having not only walked head first into a trap, but for something that ended up just being a fancy block of candy.
While walking, he crunched his way through the candy as a snack while growing more annoyed at having fallen for a fake jewel. Being strong enough to survive any trap wasn’t as useful as avoiding any trap in Leo’s eyes. With how close to death he was while David, he didn’t want to just rely on strength alone. This was compounded by the fact that if he was anywhere near civilization, he would struggle to fight a skilled opponent with his limitations.
There was a lot on his plate, to learn how to control his strength, to learn his class, and to get smarter. Leo felt overwhelmed thinking about it, but also knew if he were to help people he would need to figure it out.
He’d walked for the better part of a day, having found mostly plants that were either as boring as grass or unappealing to try eating. Koram had told him that the forests between Irontree and the desert had sparse wildlife, but Leo hoped to have encountered at least something that interested him.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Well, something that interested him that wasn’t a shitty trap or a fruit that he would regret eating. Leo decided that if he was going to just keep walking to the desert, he should do something more productive than staring at trees and getting more annoyed at the jewel trap.
“System,” Leo called out, seeing the familiar blue screen open before him.
[Leo Eule - Human][Health: 99,999/99,999]
[Class: Barbarian of Chains][EXP: 0 ]
[Strength: 2,147,483,647] {Currently 429,496,729}
[Dexterity: 7]
[Intelligence: 5]
[Charisma: 6]
[Abilities]
[Curse of the Withered King: Your Strength was permanently set to -2 of current Strength.]
[Conserve Power: You can limit yourself to only 20% of your full Strength.]
He hadn’t changed since he last checked, his stats all being abysmal in comparison to his strength. Though he didn’t like just how low his numbers seemed, he also realized he didn’t exactly have any context for what they meant. No one he had talked to made any mention of stats, let alone specifics such as health.
Leo wondered if he was the only person with this ability, able to see their existence organized in a neat form. This could be a useful tool for him in a lot of situations if he could just learn a bit more about what exactly stats means. He wondered if he could find a baseline to compare himself against.
“System, show me the stats of an average human,” called out Leo.
He held his breath in anticipation for a second, though right before disappointment set in the system popped up with a new window.
[Human][Health: 10/10]
[Strength: 7]
[Dexterity: 8]
[Intelligence: 6]
[Charisma: 8]
Leo looked at the average stats in comparison to his own, and he couldn’t help but feel disappointed that despite his growth he still was below average in comparison to the average person. While of course his strength was incomparable, he didn’t feel as if that mattered in this situation. He hadn’t earned his strength, he merely happened upon it, as it has become his greatest curse and greatest blessing.
Leo knew his old self, even if just a few days ago, would have felt resigned to hopelessness upon seeing the comparison. He had gone through a lot, and while he has grown, he had hoped that the change would have been larger. Though even if he was behind in all stats but one, that wasn’t enough for Leo to give up anymore.
He was no longer his old self, he had been given an opportunity no one else had and he would not let it go to waste. He declared to himself that this power will not be wasted on him, that he would do whatever it takes to be the hero this world needs. He would train to control his strength, learn more about the world around him, and work tirelessly to be the better version of him he knew possible.
Leo Eule was an exceptionally ordinary person during his first life, and now he would become an exceptional person in his new life.