After he crushed the head of the ugly goblin, Wolfram turned his attention to the first goblin. Blood was gushing unceasingly from the wound he had just inflicted to it; it was quite a serious one, even his kicks caused some of its bones to break.
"Mhmm a frail body, you guys are no fun at all."
He approached the terrified goblin, which fearfully crawled away to a corner and stared at him with dread. Wolfram unceremoniously threw the bloodied knife straight at the goblin's head, which penetrated its skull and killed it on the spot, ending it from any further pain or suffering.
When he killed the first goblin, the red card from earlier appeared in front of him, but he chose to ignore it so it disappeared from his view thereafter. Only when the fight ended and the two monsters died did he remember the red card, and as if it knew his thoughts, it reappeared instantly.
[You have killed Goblin lv1; +0.1CP]
[You have killed Goblin Lv1; +0.12CP]
"They give me CP whenever I kill and there's a 50% chance that a stat card will drop. It truly is killing two birds with one stone."
Wolfram chuckled and proceeded to search the two monster corpses for any Stat Cards. Alas, the result was a single Speed Card(0,2).
Wolfram Sakimoto
--
Race: No Race
Class: 1 Star Trickster
--
Cards Control : 1
Cards Sharpness : 1
Cards Speed : 1
--
Strength : 2
Vitality : 1.4
Speed : 1.7
Perception : 2.3
Magic : 2
Magic Control : 1
Magic Resistance : 1
--
Card Points : 0.42
---
Skills: Sneaking Lv1, Dagger Mastery Lv1.
--
'Huh? Isn't leveling supposed to be easy at first?'
The System was undoubtedly similar to the one generally found in games, so to speak. Therefore, if one were to follow the 'custom', then it would have been natural for levelling up to be quick and easy.
Upon further inspection, he found where his experience bar, it was barely noticeable: Very- almost purposely- well-hidden at the top of the main stats card.
As he saw the required experience to reach the next level, the man was momentarily stunned. He stood there, speechless as he gawked at the ludicrously long bar with an unrealistic number, which would dishearten all 'beginners'.
'Whatever... ups and downs, stats matter more anyway.'
By killing a goblin, he had gained 25Exp, and it was displayed that he needed another 975Exp to reach Lv2. He had never heard of a game where one needed to kill 40 Lv1 monsters to level up from 1 to 2, but since this was reality and not a game, the logic of games might not work here, nor would it be wise to rely on it.
His primary goal was to get out of this facility and then get stronger, after that, he would sort his plans and slowly think of what to do next.
Currently, he didn't even know how far below the ground he was. Wolfram assumed there were a couple of floors above him, at the very least, and that was while excluding what awaited him at the surface.
He was an international criminal so he must be in one of the deepest floors, thus, what he needed to do was reach the ground floor while killing all the soldiers and monsters on his way. Simply rushing upwards was a bad move as he was eager to increase his stats and loot those enticing stat cards.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
For Wolfram, every moving thing was an enemy, it just depended on how to kill it: a bullet to the head, a knife in the throat, or snap of the neck.
Previously, he restrained from using the handgun or the rifle to not attract any attention by causing loud noises. The rifles had no silencers, unfortunately, so he would only use them if absolutely necessary.
With his Perception and Strength along with his experience as an assassin, taking care of the soldiers or the weak goblins was easily doable. They were a source of Experience and Stats, not to be missed if the opportunity presented itself.
Wolfram picked his rifle and proceeded down the corridor, he limited his movements as to not cause any noise and cautiously advanced. He found three rooms similar to his but the entrance was collapsed with no way of entry, and at the fourth room, he found a corpse of a soldier, which had a stat card under it.
He enthusiastically picked the card, which was a Magic Card! He crushed it and shifted his attention to a nearby entrance of a room, though this one lacked the thick metal door that used to imprison criminals within.
He held the rifle and readied himself as he kept his back glued to the wall and slowly approached the room, he heard no sound coming from there, but he somehow felt that it wasn't empty. The flickering lamps kept making it particularly hard to see clearly, nevertheless, Wolfram narrowed his eyes and readied himself.
Even with his empowered senses and augmented Strength, Wolfram wasn't someone foolish enough to walk in there without a care in the world.
Just as he was confident in his skills, he also suspected-no... he was certain of the existence of powerful monsters roaming about. Horrifying creatures more frightening than the frail and hideous goblins.
Before he could check what was inside the room, a red card yet again appeared before him.
*[Light Steps] Lv1 acquired! +0.1 Card Points.*
He ignored the card and leaned forward, trying to see who was inside the room while keeping a check on the surroundings lest a goblin were to pop out of nowhere.
As he glanced at the wrecked room, he found no signs of goblins or lifeless corpses, there was only a wooden chair with a figure sitting on it, totally motionless.
This room was wider than the rest, it was approximately 20x20 meters and there were even some materials used for experiments like syringes and pills scattered all over the floor.
Wolfram did a thorough check of the room and even waited a couple of minutes to see if the breathing of the prisoner was constant or not. It was not surprising to see a prisoner feigning unconsciousness to trick whoever entered.
Any of those prisoners held inside of here were experts at controlling their breathing and make it seem as if they were unconscious, asleep, or dead. It was a commonly used trick to fool careless enemies.
Once he was certain that it wasn't a trick, he raised his rifle and pointed at the unconscious woman while approaching her slowly and steadily.
Even after knowing she wasn't awake, he couldn't afford to risk it. She could have gained access to a System and obtained great powers.
With the fully loaded rifle pointed at her head, which was lowered thus making unable to see her facial features, he came to stop right in front of her and pressed the firearm's muzzle against her forehead. He applied a little force and pushed her head back.
As her head was slightly lifted, he saw that she had an ugly scar that covered more than half of her face. She would be a natural beauty if not for her tortured body. She was currently naked but Wolfram didn't care about that, he gazed at her fluttering eyelids, which indicated that she was most likely about to wake up.
'She's very reactive to the changes occurring to her despite being in this state... ain't this an interesting seed.'
He glanced at her naked body and sighed, the experiments affected her a lot; She was even missing a breast and part of her body had small chunks of flesh missing.
He lowered his rifle and started inspecting the room and picking those syringes and pills, trying to figure out their purpose. It didn't seem she was going to wake up immediately.
"These are powerful sedatives... even an elephant would fall."
All the syringes were sedatives, and strong ones at that, though they were all empty, which only meant they were used on this prisoner. As for pills, Wolfram wasn't able to discover their origins. They were probably produced in this facility.
Either way, for them to conduct such experiments, they must have wanted to achieve something but were unable to continue their work when the earthquake occurred.
"They tinkered with my body too... wait until I find one of those scientists."
A soft grunt originated from where the woman was, so he turned around and saw her was looking around cautiously. Her eyes flashed with a cold light which was soon hidden away when she noticed that the door was gone.
When he approached her again, she took notice of him and stared at him without hiding her murderous and cold glare. Since he wore a soldier's outfit and had a rifle, anyone would mistake him for one of them, including the prisoners.
He put the assault rifle away and chuckled,
"Wow! No need to be so cold. I ain't one of them, just 'borrowing' their clothes since mine were dirty."
The woman clearly didn't believe him as she kept giving him the same menacing look.
"I don't care if you believe me or not. You must have noticed the changes inside of your body. The earthquake was followed by a series of strange things, favorable for us, to say the least. Anyw-"
Before he could finish, gunshot sounds could be heard from far away, a battle was happening and the sound would only attract more monsters. Wolfram, wanting to escape and become stronger at the same time, surely wouldn't miss a golden chance such as this one. It could be one of two cases; One, soldiers were fighting lucky prisoners that luckily escaped, and two, soldiers were fighting against monsters. Whatever was happening, Wolfram wanted to be part of it and not miss the fun.
He glanced at the entrance then shifted his attention back to the woman, whose gaze didn't leave him.
"It seems duty calls. If fate decides it then we shall meet again... if you survive, that is."
He turned around to leave then halted suddenly as if he forgot something. He took out his handgun and threw it next to the woman while adding
"A farewell gift, Ah... and wear something before you leave."
With those last words, Wolfram held the rifle and headed toward the source of the gunshots, eager to slay whatever was there. The battle was about fifty meters away, in a circular intersection; which resembled the central room for this floor. There were even vending machines and two desks, which were broken, of course.
Two soldiers were fighting six goblins, the goblins had varied weapons, ranging from 1-meter tall rusted swords to weirdly shaped bows. The soldiers held the advantage with their rifles as they fired accurately at the limbs of the goblins, not wanting to finish them off using their guns for some reason.
Wolfram hid on the side and watched the battle occur with silent but rapid breathing, which showcased his rising excitement.
'So many enemies. Oh this is going to be so much fun!'