The moment he saw the kill notification, Mikael collapsed to the ground, too exhausted to even read the rest of the notifications. The mental strain of staying on guard, knowing that a single mistake could cost him his life, had taken a huge toll. Not to mention the pain he endured during the fight, which now felt even worse as the adrenaline faded.

He took a deep breath out of exhaustion but instantly regretted it when a sharp pain shot through his ribs. "That orc really messed me up. I'm so injured that even breathing hurts," he thought, glancing at the orc chief's lifeless body. "But at least I'm in better shape than him," he mused, still shaken by how close he had come to death.

Sigh

"I didn't expect things to get this dangerous when I accepted the Record’s offer. It’s only been, what, 3 or 4 days? And I'm already this badly injured," he reflected. "But then again, in just 3 or 4 days, I've become what some might call a superhuman. So, I guess it balances out."

Mikael felt a pit in his stomach as he thought, "No, seriously, that was way too dangerous. If that orc had been a speed type instead of just strong, I’d be 100% dead right now."

"Maybe I should leave this world? It’s honestly too dangerous—what if I find an easier one?"

He mulled over the idea for a while, trying to push through the pain, but remained undecided. "I could leave, but how can I be sure my progress won’t slow down if I ‘escape’?"

The uncertainty gnawed at him, and the pain certainly wasn’t helping him think clearly. "I’ll leave, get some healing in the Records, and then decide whether or not to come back," he finally resolved.

"Records, I want to leave this world."

[Ejection from the current world is impossible due to the host's grave injuries. However, do not lose hope. You can use a Force Leave to exit a world under any circumstances, depending on the world’s strength. For this world, the cost is only 10K LP.]

[Do you wish to pay?: Yes / No]

[Note: If you do not have enough LP, you may take on a debt with a ‘low’ interest rate.]

When he saw the notifications, Mikael was speechless, with only one thought running through his mind: "Fuck you, Records." Even someone as generally calm and calculated as him couldn’t help but feel rage at the opportunistic message from the Records.

Internally seething, Mikael still tried to keep a clear head. "Leaving this world is clearly impossible right now, so my only option is to get some healing in a city. But maybe... maybe I don’t even need to get medical help. With all the orcs I’ve killed, I should have leveled up enough to raise my vitality to the point where I could recover from these broken bones in just a few days. Plus, I don’t know if the people here even have the same regeneration ability. If I’m ‘unique,’ I definitely don’t want to end up on an operating table."

"There are only two reasonable options: 1) Go to a city hospital and get treated quickly for a price, or 2) Stay at an inn and let myself heal naturally. It’ll take longer and hurt more, but it’s probably safer."

"Honestly, I’m too paranoid to just walk into a hospital and hope for the best. The worst part is that my healing factor probably isn’t even that rare, but I’m not willing to risk it."

After making his decision, Mikael returned to the orc chief's corpse to retrieve its core. Even in death, the orc's body remained tough, but after some effort, he managed to extract the core and placed it in his backpack. He then made his way to the spot where he had been ambushed earlier, took the core from that orc, and cut off its two ears. This brought the total tally of his orc hunt to: 1 orc chief and 31 normal orcs.

He began his slow, painful journey through the forest toward Onissa City. The walk was anything but relaxing. Each step was a struggle due to his injuries, but at least the pain wasn’t getting worse. ‘That must mean my injuries aren’t worsening either,’ Mikael thought, trying to find some comfort in the situation.

After several long hours of walking, he finally caught sight of Onissa City at the dusk. As he approached the gates, he noticed the many stares he received. He couldn’t blame them—he was quite the sight. His left arm was dangling uselessly, his leather armor looked like it had been through a war zone, and to top it all off, he was covered in blood. And this time, it wasn’t just orc blood.

When Mikael was about to pass the city gate, he was interrupted by one of them. 'Excuse me, do you need help finding the hospital?' the guard asked politely.

Mikael, still catching his breath, quickly replied, 'No, I’m fine. It looks worse than it really is. I just got roughed up while hunting,' he lied through his teeth.

The guard accepted his answer and returned to his post. Mikael didn’t give the interaction much thought as he entered the city. He noticed a few glances in his direction but, fortunately, no one else stopped him.

He soon arrived at a two-story stone and wood medieval inn, it's the place where he rented a room for 10 days. Upon entering the lively building, he was greeted by the innkeeper, a gentle middle-aged woman named Carol. She fussed over him as soon as she saw his injuries and, to be honest, his currently terrible appearance.

It took Mikael a few minutes to calm her down, promising that he would take care of his injuries, which seemed to ease her worries.

Normally, he would have been annoyed at having to spend time reassuring her, given that they were essentially strangers. But he saw that she was simply a kind soul, and, for some reason, he felt a strange warmth from being 'taken care of'—a feeling almost unknown to him. After all, he had always been alone and had to fight to survive since he was young.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

He was kicked out of the orphanage at the age of 8. After that, he tried to make money legally, but it didn’t work out, so he turned to stealing. At first, he was terrible at it and often got caught, which usually earned him a beating. But over time, he got better at it even formed a gang at the age of 14, thinking it would be better to work in a group than solo.

One thing that remained constant was that he was always on guard and surrounded by people society wouldn’t consider ‘good.’ This certainly didn’t help him develop a positive view of the world. So, seeing that kind souls existed did him some good, but it wasn’t something he was used to. It made him smile for a few seconds before he stopped thinking about it and went to his room.

Once inside, he entered the water basin in his chamber. The water was replaced every morning, making it cold. Mikael removed his bloody clothes and washed himself with difficulty. Once clean, he put on the spare clothes he kept in his room in case he needed to change between his casual outfit and his hunting gear without having to leave the world juft for that.

He then lay down on the bed, where he quickly tried to fall asleep, or at least he would have if his body wasn’t hurting too much to let him rest. 'I’m so tired, but now I can’t even sleep!? Seriously, what do I do now? I’m not a doctor, so I don’t know how to heal my injuries either. My only hope is that my vitality stat will help with the healing, and I just need to stay still so I don’t make things worse. Now there’s nothing to do but wait.'

Mikael lay there, lost in thought for a while, until he suddenly remembered, 'Wasn’t there a notification about my skills after the fight?'

He then checked the system logs, added by the System Tools Upgrades, and found the notification.

[Because of the life-and-death battle, your skills have greatly progressed: Unarmed Martial Arts Mastery +12%, Footwork Mastery +30%, 6th Sense +18%, Swordsmanship Mastery +60%]

[Your skill Footwork Mastery has reached the required proficiency. Do you want to evolve it to the next level for 20 LP? Yes No]

Mikael accepted, feeling a warm sensation in his body for a moment before it faded. 'It’s the same feeling I got when I upgraded my swordsmanship skill, but I wonder what it actually is.'

Mikael thought about it for a while, since he had time to kill. 'I KNOW, or at least I think so. I remember the System said I couldn’t deactivate my skills because they’re linked to my soul. So it would makes sense that upgrading my skills would affect my soul. That warm feeling must be my soul—or something related to it.'

'Now, what should I do to pass the time? Hmm, I could check out the new effects of my skills and my status window. There should be some changes. Yeah, let’s do that.'

[Footwork Mastery: Tier 0, Level 2 Skill

Description: This skill represents the user’s knowledge, experience, and mastery of footwork.

Benefits: Allows the user to learn and apply all knowledge related to footwork more quickly.

30% → 37.5% faster movement speed when not in combat.

15% → 18.75% faster movement speed when in combat.

Current progress: 22%]

Mikael was pleased with the skill upgrade. Even though it wasn’t a huge boost, it still increased his combat power. Afterward, he checked his status window and found something surprising.

[Name: Mikael Angelini

Race: Human (Earth-Origin World)

Lifespan: 21/99

Overall Power: Tier 1

Military Rank: Recruit 0/10 MP

Global Level: 25

Experience: 39.7K/39.7K XP (MAX)

Class: Sword Master

Level: 26/50

Experience: 17K/18.2K XP

Stats:

Strength: 63 → 88

Agility: 91 → 100 (MAX)

Endurance: 64 → 89

Vitality: 63 → 100 (MAX)

Perception: 62 → 100 (MAX)

Active Skills: None

Active/Passive Skills:

Body Refining Technique: Tier 0, Level 3

Passive Skills:

Unarmed Martial Arts Mastery: Tier 0, Level 1

Footwork Mastery: Tier 0, Level 1 → 2

6th Sense: Tier 0, Level 1

Swordsmanship Mastery: Tier 0, Level 1 → 3

Life Points (LP): (-30) 110]

"Hey, System, why is there a 'MAX' after my global level and three of my stats?"

[For your global level, it’s because your race (Human, Earth-Origin) is a Tier 0 race, which can only reach level 25 before maxing out. If you want to continue leveling up, you will need to change to a Tier 1 race.]

[Note: When you change races, you will lose all the stats and bonuses provided by your current race. In exchange, all the XP used to reach level 25, along with any extra accumulated XP, will be transferred to your new race.]

[The 'MAX' after your stats is caused by stat limits. Stat limits refer to the maximum number of stats allowed by a race. For example, your current race has a maximum stat limit of 100 for the five physical stats and 30 for the INT and SPI stats. Your energy stat is also unusable.]

[Note: Any extra stats are not lost and will be transferred once you acquire a race with a higher stat limit.]

"Can I still upgrade my skills and use body refining techniques to improve the quality of my stats after reaching 100 in a stat?"

[Yes, all skills are not limited by your stats and can continue to be used and leveled up. The same applies to body refining techniques.]

'That changes things. Now that my stats have reached 100, which is the current max, I can’t get stronger as quickly as I have in the past few days. This means I should probably focus on unlocking the Race Gain System instead of the Training System. I’d get more immediate benefits from upgrading my race. Or maybe I could focus on improving my skills and start refining the quality of my stats through body refining.'

Mikael considered different scenarios before making a decision. 'I’ll just focus on my skills. Even if I get a better race with, let’s say, a stat limit of 500, I’ll eventually hit that cap and stop progressing again. But skills don’t have a limit, as the system mentioned. It will just get harder to progress if I’m too weak.'