Ethan slowly opened his eyes and groaned. The headache he had been feeling for hours had not disappeared, but at least he had regained consciousness.
He tried to sit up, but a sharp pain ran through his back and he lay back down on the cold, damp cave floor.
He remembered the fight with the drake and how it nearly killed him. But he had prevailed in the end, thanks to his quick thinking and his fighting skills. After another 20 minutes, Ethan took a deep breath and got up on his feet, wincing as he did so. He looked at his body, covered in blood and dirt, and knew that he needed to get back to the city to clean himself up.
Ethan trudged out of the cave and walked back to the city. He had to carry the bodies of the monsters he had killed, but he didn't mind. He knew he could sell them at a good price at the market. Ethan reached the gates of the city and showed his personal id card to the guards. They let him in, and he went straight to the market. The merchants looked at him suspiciously, but when he showed them the corpses, they eagerly offered to buy them.
Ethan bargained with them and eventually sold them for a decent sum of silver and copper. After selling the monsters, Ethan made his way to his small house on the outskirts of the city. He entered the house and immediately went to the shower to clean himself up. The hot water was a relief to his sore muscles, and he let out a sigh of contentment.
After he had cleaned himself up, he got dressed and headed to the market to buy some food. He had enough money so he bought some meat, bread, potatoes noodles, vegetables and some fruits for 1 silver and 15 copper coins. The meat alone costed him 80 copper coins but he didn’t mind it too much as he had 8 silver and 85 copper coins left.
Ethan returned to his house and ate his hearty meal in silence which was a nice meaty soup with potatoes and vegetables and bread on the side. He had been alone for a long time, and he was used to it. But he knew that he needed to do something with his life. He had been surviving as a normal citizen for a while now, but he wanted more. He wanted to be recognized as a skilled adventurer and earn more money.
So, he decided to go to the adventurers guild and register himself. When he arrived at the guild, he was greeted by a young woman with brown hair and eyes who asked him if he wanted to become an adventurer. Ethan nodded and gave her his name and some basic information like how old he was or where he lives.
She then took his picture with a mana recorder and gave him an adventurer ID card. He felt proud to be an official adventurer now. He looked at his ID card and saw his name and his new rank, "Bronze rank". It wasn't much, but it was a start.
Ethan then walked over to the mission board to see if there were any subjugation missions available. He saw a mission that caught his eye - it was a monster subjugation mission that required him to go to the river a few kilometers away and kill some vicious alligators, all below level 20. He decided to take the mission, and he headed out of the guild.
Ethan walked to the river and searched for the alligators. He found them near the bank, and he engaged them in battle. They were a good warmup as they weren’t first advancement monsters but Ethan didn’t underestimated them as they were all above level 15. It took him some time as there were 6 of them but after he had killed them all, another alligator appeared. This one was different - it was larger and more ferocious than the others. Ethan knew that it was the boss monster of the alligators, a first advancement monster. He prepared himself for a long and difficult fight.
The alligator attacked him with ferocity, but Ethan dodged with his greater reflexes and parried its blows with his blade. He got a few hits in but none were a great deal to the big monster.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Ethan ran around the gator, constantly slashing at it with his katana while narrowly dodging its attacks. The first advancement monster grew irritated and angry when it noticed that none of its attacks landed on the small human before him.
It started to attack Ethan in a frenzy with disregard for its own life. The alligator attacked with more speed and strength which took Ethan off guard as a blow of the monsters claws grasped at his right shoulder. He groaned in pain from the two deep gashes but gritted his teeth and ignored the pain. Ethan's arms were starting to shake from the strength each blow had and he knew that he needed to end the fight quickly.
He focused all of his strength and mana and used mana blade and downward slash on the alligator as he ran and jumped around it. After 10 whole minutes he managed to land a critical blow to its neck with his strongest attack. The alligator let out a deafening roar and fell to the ground, motionless.
Ethan let out a sigh of relief and looked at his injuries. He had a few minor cuts and bruises, but he could feel two larger claw marks on his right shoulder. He knew that it hurt and looked worse than it actually is. As long as one had mana the wounds would very slowly heal themselves but it would still be better to clean and bandage it.
Ethan took a deep breath and began to cut the eyes off the six alligators he had killed earlier. He then turned his attention to the first advancement alligator, which was eight meters long and weighed several hundred kilograms.
He knew that he could sell its corpse for a lot of money, but he needed to get it back to the city first. He dragged the alligator's body for several hours, the sun had already set by the time he reached the gates of the city.
He showed his adventurer ID card to the guards and asked them if they knew any merchants who would be interested in buying the corpse. The guards were amazed at the size of the alligator and told Ethan that they would inform some merchants about it. Ethan thanked them and headed to his house while the gator remained outside. He wasn’t worried about the gator getting robbed off of him because only very few people who lived in the outskirts of the city were over level 20. Most would live deeper in the city but Ethan didn’t have the need to.
He cleaned and bandaged his wounds, then sat down to rest. He was exhausted, but he felt proud of what he had accomplished. He had defeated yet another first advancement monster and would make a decent amount of money from selling its corpse.
The next day, Ethan went back to the adventurers guild to report his mission. He showed the eyes of the alligators as proof of his success and received 5 whole silver coins from the guild. He then went to the market and sold the alligator's corpse to a wealthy merchant who paid him 1 gold and 10 silver coins.
Ethan was happy - he had never seen so much money before. He knew that he had made the right decision in becoming an adventurer. Ethan spent the next week taking on more missions and honing his skills. He went on missions to the mountains where he fought some mountain trolls which were known about for their stone skin, the forests where he killed goblins, wolves and even another dark elf. He fought a lot of different monsters and gained experience and confidence with each battle. He had also killed another two first advancement monsters with one being an alpha wolve and the other a hobgoblin. The corpses of them were obviously sold too which gave him 2 gold and 45 silver coins.
After he finished his fifth mission he went to the adventures guild and got promoted to Bronze+ rank. In the past week his class and skills levelled up quite a bit which made Ethan stronger and stronger with each monster he killed.
He went back to his cozy home where he ate delicious food and took a shower.
After the shower he went to his drawer and noticed that he only got one shirt and pants left. The other clothes got all tattered up in his fights so he threw them away. „Seems like i will have to buy some new clothes.“ said Ethan as he laid down on his bed and slowly drifted away into sleep.
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[ Ethans system ]
Class: Samurai lvl 28
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Skills: Downward slash lvl 11, mana blade lvl 9
Passive skills: Sword mastery 15, greater reflexes lvl 12
Stats:
Strength: 55
Agility: 54
Intelligence: 52
Vitality: 54
Mana: 453/520
Stamina: 416/540
Hp: 892/1080