I always loved when the music got intense and louder during my walkthrough in horror games. For some reason, it didn't scare me. Rather, it pumped my excitement. I felt like running. Running to release the excitement, the tension building up, or maybe my fear of the damn protagonists.

At this moment, I couldn't think of a better symbolization than that. Funny how I was being sieged by man-eating monsters, and what came to my mind was some horror games.

As the hilts of my swords pulsated, you guessed it, I abruptly wanted to run. Not the escape kind of run, but the killing-spree kind of run.

The pulses vibrated against my palm. Crawling on my skin, they made their way to my ears. A magnificent song paired with an adrenaline rush. Such a refreshing feeling.

I couldn't help but laugh. Madness must be reflected in my face. I actually knew better. I shouldn't have laughed. Four heads of people I knew were rolling to my feet just some moments ago. As a proper human, I must at least show some condolences. Yet I laughed anyway, wholeheartedly in fact. I even intensified the high-spec cognition so that I can enjoy the thrill a little longer.

It was Lian who scooped me out of the distraction. 'My lady, you can use 'Spectre Step' for that move. It will be a lot more effective.'

Ah! You're right.

The laugh was still trailing in my voice when I said to the boss, "You owe me one there." We shared a glance.

The boss in his usual all-mighty attitude pointed his shotgun. "I don't owe anybody anything." Shooting a bullet, he blasted a small ant-like eater running to me from behind. The bullet was so close, I could feel the force tailing behind it when it flew past me.

"Now we're even. But-" I swayed my swords, sending 4 glowing-red slashes. 2 slashes landed on an eater to his right, and the other 2 slashes landed on an eater to his left. They dropped to the floor, lifeless as I severed their neck, almost brushing the boss’s legs.

He was aware of those eaters running to him. Yet he didn't budge, as if he knew I would not let them touch him.

"Sorry. Not anymore."

Eyes still fixed on me, the boss threw his shotgun. It slid on the floor's smooth surface before it run out of kinetic energy.

"It's everyone's job to keep me save." He said. His tone was business-like. With the content, naturally, one would expect a tone of an entitled young master that bossed around people because his father was rich, but no. It was said with dignity. I didn't even feel like complaining.

Yes. That's how it is. A man with high status must maintain his superiority.

Smiling, I used ‘Spectre Step’ 10 times, beheading 10 eaters that wriggled so close to us. It took me, more or less, 30 seconds in total to pull the moves. 10 seconds for the cooldown, 10 seconds for the attacks, and the rest for the struggle of adapting to the skill. I wouldn’t lie. My body was a little clumsy there.

Blue letters flickered on my eyes, indicating my EXP gains.

At last, I blinked before the boss's face. There was about 1 meter distance between us. Under the warm light of torches, I couldn't read his expression. Now, I could see him better. His striking face was as defined as ever.

"Excuse my amnesia. What should I call you, sir? You haven't answered my question."

"How impudence. Introduce yourself before you ask someone else to."

"Sorry. I'm Sheena. Nice to meet you." I stretched my hand for a handshake.

"Daniel. Daniel Yugenheim." He pulled out his two handguns from their holsters. "The son of the Great Orion, and the next ruler of Orrienterra Imperium. Next time you're there, let it be known. It's my empire, my land, and my people to rule." A declaration of power.

Daniel Yugenheim. The Crown Prince himself. I should have known. No wonder this man is using guns. He has no magic.

Why do you want me to marry him, nobody? Nobody’s annoying smile flashed into my mind, only to vanish.

"Your Majesty is the only way to address me." He pointed his guns behind me. He needed only a second to aim. Then blasts of projectiles pierced the air followed by sounds of eaters in agony.

My gaze dropped to my stretching hand. How awkward it seemed to look. Feeling funny, I retrieved it back. His hands must be busy with the guns. I assumed he wouldn’t fancy a handshake at this point.

“Don’t push yourself, Your Majesty. Save your ammo.” Sounding reliable, I gave a faint smile. But this Prince must be the cockiest man alive. With neither a response nor a glance, he strode past me.

Guess you’re on that side then.

I took a good look around the area. My eyes marked the dappled figures of eaters before me. Checking my vitality, the stamina aspect had dropped by 3%. Only then that I moved again to end some more eaters.

It was when Lian decided to announce me, ‘Master. You have gained 34 EXP.’

My attributes window popped up.

‘So?’

‘You can increase your attributes with your EXP. The attributes that can be added are HP, MP, Physical ATK, Magic ATK, Physical Resistance P., and Magic Resistance P.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Let us try. What do you want to increase?’

‘Hmmm, my HP.’

‘You have 35 EXP. How much do you want to use it?’

‘All of it?’

Just like that the numbers in my attributes window changed.

Attributes

Statistics

Health P.

1.235 (+330.000)/1.235

Mana P.

560 (+9.250) /560

Physical ATK P.

≤200 (+10.000)

Magic ATK P.

≤0

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Physical Resistance P.

≤9 (+600)

Magic Resistance P.

≤0 (+600)

Attack Speed

≥1.2/s = (0.9/s)

Projectile

≤0

Agility

≥2.7778 m/s = (8.333 m/s)

Range

≤86 cm

Vitality

Stamina

27% / 30%

Organ

50%

Mental

20%

Total:

100%

EXP

Available

Cumulative

0

35

Color

RED

‘Well. That’s something.’

‘DSF does not adopt a levelling system.’ She explained. ‘It is not fond of the idea of levelling rewards. Rather, it wants to give holders the freedom to build their own attributes. Thus, this EXP exchanging system is used. Holders can manage their attributes based on their desired categories or roles. For example, a tanker will likely increase his HP first: A fighter will likely increase his Physical ATK first: And a mage will likely increase his Magic ATK first.’

‘Meaning, as a fighter, I should consider my Physical ATK first?’

‘It is what most holders do.’

‘What about the other parts like vitality and all?’

‘As for your vitality, it will increase in accordance with your class. Considering the buildable attributes, the class system is adopted. Therefore, the higher the amount of your first six aspects of attributes, the higher your class will be.’

‘So… Basically, I need to grind EXP to grow stronger?’

‘Technically, Yes.’

I didn’t know why, but, once again, my mind travelled to a silly topic. I got reminded of my all-nighters in front of a computer screen, grinding sources in a certain game. You probably know what game it was, that famous sandbox game. I remembered how I started with those lame wooden tools for the longest time until I got a hold of some diamonds. I chuckled at the idea. Currently, I was in the wooden tools phase. No doubt about it.

‘Does this exchange thing have a limit then?’

‘It does. But it’s subjective. It depends on the person itself. Take for example, the Individual: Daniel Yugenheim. His limit may reach Mythical Class.’

I chuckled bitterly at the idea of how powerful a Mythical Class holder would get. ‘What a downer if he can’t use magic.’ I complained.

Mind you, I was actually in mid-air, thrusting my way to a massive elephant-looking eater. I had intensified ‘High-Spec Cognition’ every time I talked to Lian. The eater looked too big to ignore. Like a slow-motion scene, the eater raised its trunk to me. It felt like forever until I witnessed a laser-like light shoot out of the trunk.

‘It is null. A long-ranged attack exclusive for eaters of A class and above.’

I moved sideways to avoid the attack head-on. Once again, in slow motion.

‘What?’

‘Just before, it did not hit Master directly. However, null is a complex power in which the origin is unknown. For some reason, being too close to a null will decrease your HP a little bit. From what it seems like, that elephant may inflict 5000 to 7000 damage if its null hit, critically wounding a C class holder.’

I blinked above the elephant's head and attacked its neck. But this time, I didn’t cut it clean. It only left a big wound. Seeing this, I dashed below its belly, slashing it open. Optimizing my stamina and maximizing my agility, I inflicted several slashes. The eater then dropped to the floor, guts spilling out.

“Ugh!” I gave a disgusted groan. The smell of fresh blood never bothered me. It was the view that I despised.

‘This eater has 13.500 HP in total. Master has only inflicted 9000 damage in the first attack. Therefore, insufficient to cut its head clean.’

‘Eh?’

‘Master has been inflicting 9000 damage every attack constantly. You actually can control how much damage to inflict in a certain attack. Inflicting high damage constantly will decrease your stamina faster.’

This started to sound more like a strategy thing. I needed to pay attention to my every attack if I didn’t want to exhaust myself for nothing. I had to say, I was never the strategist type of guy. I used my gut feeling and instinct most of the time. Maybe that was why I never got to be promoted to a major in my previous life as Agent Ichinose. Apparently, I was not good with an organized team attack.

As I frowned and let out a puff of warm vapor into the frigid air, I saw the lifeless elephant’s body evaporating into bits of blackness. Like a mountain of dry leaves smouldering in fire, the ashes flew away, dancing their way up before stronger winds break them apart. Only this time, it was a lump of flesh.

‘Bigger eaters will decay faster. Unlike normal flesh, eaters will decay into ashes.’

‘That’s convenient. Wait! What’s that?’ My gaze was fixed on a floating orb above the eaters. It was purple and shiny.

‘I have been waiting until Maser realizes it. It is an energy orb, a remnant of the eater’s life force. Look around.’

I kicked the ground and shot myself up. Suddenly in a high-flying bird's view, I saw beads of purple glowing.

‘Every eater will drop a single energy orb. Unlike EXP, energy orbs cannot directly be accessible to the killer. They need to be gathered. In this current time, orbs are used as fuel to operate magical contraptions and electricity generators.’

‘WHAT?’

‘Holders are not paid by how many eaters they kill. They are paid based on how many orbs they gather. An orb from an F-class eater will be sold for 5 copper coins in Orienterra Imperium. The price increases based on its class.’

‘So those are basically money?’ I grinned. That was what I wanted to know all this time, money.

‘In a way, yes.’

As speed as a hungry lion, I sprinted to gather all orbs without a single care for the world. I just needed to touch them, and they were automatically saved in my inventory.

Some moments later, “Hey!” Daniel screamed from wherever he was.

I jerked my head fast in his direction.

“It’s enough. We can escape now.” He spoke with a bite of exhaustion in his tone.

Escape? I tilted my head all confused.

“Look up!”

Instinctively, I looked up.

“Let’s jump our way up to the first floor.”

I quickly shook my head before I blinked to him.

“Easy money, easy EXP. Why the rush?” I reappeared before him, bringing some red smoke with me.

Hearing my response, his usual flat, uncurious eyes stared at me in a new light. Had I sparked his interest? I wondered.

“How stupid can you be?”

Never mind, that response cleared up my misunderstanding.

“Stu- Hold up. I know we will need to fight that man from before again. But we can kill all these eaters before then. They’re only a few of them left.” I almost snapped, but quickly controlled my tone.

“A few?” He asked back, eyes clearly dumbfounded.

I wanted to nod my head, but instead, I froze. Slowly, I raised my gaze. I must have been too busy picking orbs that I didn’t notice it. My heart sank as I registered the fact that each floor was now loaded with eaters. From all directions, distance growling of eaters filled the building.

“What the hell?” I murmured, barely audible.

“It’s Akasha. He had spawned more of them. At this rate, we will run out of stamina before we reach the top. I’ll jump my way up. If you want to die here with your EXP, then suit yourself.”

Daniel skidded himself to pick up his shotgun from the floor, barely catching it. Skilfully stopping his momentum, he took a sharp turn before jumping to the railing of the upper floor. Not sparing a glance in my direction. This man, he didn’t give a shit about anybody.

…