In school, around a month has passed since David started playing New Reality, and it's now time to start taking tests. David has been looking forward to this day. Normally, David couldn't care less about tests, but now there is an annoying person that keeps bothering him trying to compete with him. Of course, that annoying person is Cecile Vincent, Honors Society Vice President.

David is thinking, 'Now I'll just get some answer wrong and then, Ce... Ci?... That Honor's Society VP will finally leave me alone.'

David doesn't need to study for 3 of his tests. When it comes to Mathematics, Chemistry, and Physics, David is already above Bachelor's level. Besides, he already solved all the problems in his Math, Chem, and Physics books just to see if he could.

When it comes to history, David wrote a program to find the answers for him. David finds humanity's history frustrating. When he reads human history, he thinks, 'It's the same pattern. Humanity finds or discovers something, be it an idea, territory, invention, or resource, humanity groups together into teams and fight over it, humanity resolves to never do that again, humanity forgets, repeat. Such a disgusting species.'

In English, he puts in just enough effort so that he doesn't fail. It's the same with the other subjects that aren't math, chemistry, or physics. He finds biology pretty interesting, but there's too much wrote memorization for his liking.

David uses the tests to see if there is anything that he needs to relearn or review over. If there is nothing, he throws the test away. Good grades, being the best, those things are meaningless to David. Everything he does is just to surpass his past self. He thinks doing things this way will have the best chance of defending himself against what he detests, humanity.

**********************************************

In the 3 subjects he's good at, during his tests, he deliberately got a few questions wrong.

'I miss being ignored. Have fun being the best.' He left school satisfied. After going to the gym and work, he logs back on to New Reality.

He checks over himself to make sure everything's there while going to a blacksmith to repair his supplies and buy new arrows. Null then sets out to hunt. 'Bunnies are now too easy and don't give that much experience now that I'm level 4. Time to hunt boars.'

Boars are a lot easier to Null than bunnies. They may be in a range of levels 4 to 9, but they just charge at you in a straight line. They may take half or more of Null's health if they hit, but they are easily avoided. Null just jumps in the air and preforms an ax kick on their heads when they get close enough.

*********************************************

2 days later in game of continuous hunting, Null sees that his pack is full of different meats and leathers from bunnies and boars. He is now level 8. His satiety has gone down a lot because he hasn't eaten in a while. If a person's satiety goes below 30%, you become a little sluggish. If it goes below 10%, the person starts losing health, is hit with the starving condition, and is barely able to move. 0% means you die from starvation. 

Luckily, Null's satiety hasn't gone down to that extent. He sits down to cook when he realizes he doesn't know how to start a fire. Starting fires is one of the skills you have with the camping skill. It's usually one of the first skills people get. Null goes to the beginner's guild to get the camping skill.

“I've seen you around sometimes kid. You've just now realized you can get this skill? What have you been doing all this time?”

Null ignores her smart remark and leaves. He checks out the skill. 

CampingSkill typePassiveSkill ProficiencyCannot level upCan now set up small tents to recover health 5% faster while inside it. 

Can start small fires more easily by rubbing 2 dry sticks together.

Null goes back into the forest and gets some firewood and kindling. He sparks a fire by rubbing 2 sticks together, and started roasting some of the bunny meat. 'Now that I think about it, I could have refilled my health a little faster by resting in a tent. I should have gotten the camping skill sooner. Once again, I am reminded how dumb I am in this game. Well at least I don't have to go back to town as much as I used to. I have food and shelter now.'

While he was eating, the smell of his food attracted some wolves. Null looks at them, and sees that they look familiar. They're the 3 level 11 wolves that had chased Null that other day. While Null was level 4, he wouldn't have dared fought the wolves, but now that he's level 8, and can now use more of the techniques he uses in real life, he decided to go for it.

He once again ran to the wolves. The wolves look like they scoff at him as if saying they're not falling for that again. The wolves run in to attack him. When a wolf was about to pounce on Null, Null went low and did a spinning back kick. This made the wolf airborne.

The other two wolves were about to attack him at the same time from his left and his right. Null starting moving his feet in semi circles, twisting his body along with it, and started dodging the wolves while pushing them back with an open palm strike. They were grazing him with their claws and kept shaving off Null's health little by little, while Null was doing the same to them. When the wolf that he kicked fell from the air, he elbowed the wolf in his eye while another wolf bit him on the shoulder from behind. That didn't bother Null as that was what he had wanted.

He then slammed the wolf into a tree with all his might by jumping back into it. While the wolf was dazed from being slammed into a tree, Null threw a flurry of punches at it until that particular wolf's health was brought down to red. The other wolves weren't standing idly. They were running towards Null as soon as he starting punching the wolf. 

Null jumped in the air and performed a double kick. He kicked those two wolves on their heads at the same time. When he kicked them away, Null landed on his butt, quickly got off the ground and drop kicked the wolf he slammed against a tree in its balls as hard as he could and kept kicking it there.

If that wolf could talk, it would say, “He keeps kicking me in the balls. Why? Why does he keep kicking me in the balls?” These ball kicking maneuvers caused the wolf's health to drop to zero and disappear.

The other 2 wolves didn't take their comrade dying well. They jumped high into the air trying to attack Null from above. What surprised them was while they were falling, Null jumped into the air just before they were about to land on him, and he kneed one of the wolves in the gut. Null repeatedly struck the wolf in the head with his elbow and fist, and it died before it even hit the ground.

Null barely had any health and endurance left, so he decided to end this quickly. The final wolf saw what Null did to its brethren, and it tried to run away, but Null took out his bow and fired arrows at it, killing it. When he defeated the 3 wolves, he grew to level 9. He distributed his stat points into strength and dexterity. David grumpily thinks, 'After all this trouble, all I got was 5 arrows and a wolf pelt as a drop.'

For fighting without holding a weapon continuously, you have unlocked the skill Hand to Hand Combat.

Hand to Hand CombatSkill typePassiveSkill ProficiencyBeginner level 1+5% Strength +3% Dexterity +2% Vitality when fighting while not holding a handheld weapon.

 '...After all this trouble, I still don't have 500 gold...' Nothing happens. 'Well, it was worth a shot.'

A normal person wouldn't attempt to go after 3 level 11 wolves while only being at level 8, but Null has his martial arts to help him and his inflated stats. He didn't even use a sword. The problem with this is that he let this victory go to his head. If this were real life, Null would be nowhere near this dimwitted.

Null thinks, 'Man I'm ready for the dungeon now. I just defeated 3 level 11 wolves by myself. 3 times 11 is 33. This means I can fight a level 33 monster. The average level of monster for that dungeon is 40. The wolves plus me together are level 42. That means I am practically level 42!'

Just to let you know, that's not how it works.

***************************************************

Null goes to a tailor and sells all his leathers, then goes to a blacksmith to stock on arrows. When he's done, he goes towards the dungeon. While Null on his way to dungeon, he fights other creatures. One new creature that fought him is a level 9 squirrel that does flying kicks. He had a lot of fun with that one. The dungeon was 7 miles away from the town.

When Null saw the dungeon, he looked excited and ran inside. Null looked around and saw a huge wide cave with huge stalactites, stalagmites, and a tall ledge on the wall. There were patches of sunlight going through the cave. What grossed out Null the most was that throughout the cave, there were leech like creatures almost everywhere. He did Identify on them. 

?????Level 1

It didn't give any more information. 'There's no worms on the places with patches of sunlight, so those must be safe areas.'

When he goes into the dungeon, a 3 foot long level 14 armadillo comes up to him. Null knows that the armadillo's weakness is its stomach. The armadillo is slow, but it has high health and defense. After 40 minutes of punching it in the stomach and stepping back from its swipe, he finally kills it. They are incredibly easy to kill, just very tedious. After killing many armadillos, he levels up to level 11. 

Null is getting pretty big headed thinking, 'Man! This dungeon is so easy! I'll probably beat it in the next day or two!'

If Null had been paying attention, he would've noticed that the leeches on the ground have gradually been building up in number and heading towards his location, but he was too focused on getting the easy experience from the armadillos. All of a sudden, a new enemy appears.

It's a 6 ft tall bear like creature with spiky armor on its back. Null uses identify on the creature. 

?????Level 35

The level was all Null could read from it.

'No biggie, I defeated 3 level 11 wolves which means I'm practically level 42. Here we go!' 

Null goes to punch it. It immediately rolled up into a ball. 

'Wow. This one is nothing like the armadillos from before. Very fast reflexes.' More bearlike monsters came. They all went into ball form started to roll. Null was trying to dodge them as best as he could, but one hit Null and shaved off 90% of his health. “Dammit!” That wasn't all though. The leeches attracted by the scent of Null's blood immediately started clinging onto Null and sucking his blood. 'Huh? When did I get surrounded by so many leeches!?' The rolling monsters starts rolling over to him again. “To hell with this!” Null attempts to run away, but he is far too slow. The rolling monsters hit Null and he dies.

****************************************

While Null is in his space as a ghost, he sighs and starts thinking. The good part about this space is that he has his original intelligence and strength from the real world.

'Okay, I was too arrogant. Now that I think about it, charging in head first into the dungeon with creatures 30 levels higher than me is incredibly stupid. Even if I were a warrior class, I would've scoped out the dungeon first before charging in. And seriously? “I'm practically level 42?” What the shit?

Okay. Now's the time to form my plan while I'm still relatively smarter. First, research the leeches. Even if I were 30 levels stronger, they would still pose a huge problem. Next, find out the weakness of that rolling monster. It's most likely when it's not in ball form. My identify didn't work fully on the monsters in the dungeon. I should go to the library.

Next, I have the skill that I unlocked when I reached beginner level 5 in art, Art is Feeling. I could use that skill to decrease the monsters' morale. There is a decrease in 5% of skill efficiency from some random skills that I have because I have died. Hopefully I'll still have the techniques unlocked. Since I don't know the names of those creatures, I'll just draw a rough sketch of them when I respawn, and use the Information Finder technique.

And seriously, no more stupidity. From now on, I'm placing all my stat points into intelligence and wisdom. My class is librarian anyway, so it would be better in the long run to do it this way.'

Now having a plan of action, Null chooses to respawn when the option shows up. First he checks his stats. “Stats Screen.”

Status WindowNameNullFame0Level9Infamy0RaceHumanSatiety100%GenderMaleEndurance21/21Main ClassLibrarianSub ClassesCalligrapher, PainterTitlesNoneHealth360/360Health Regen0.1 / secMana780/780Mana Regen0.23 / secStrength33Dexterity33Vitality16Charisma1Intelligence30Wisdom30Luck1Knowledge57Attack17Defense7Magic DefenseNone

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

'Looks like only my most recently added stats took a hit. I lost two levels.' He respawns next to a water fountain in Holdendale, and heads straight to the library. 

'Okay. First things first, draw a rough sketch of the enemy, then use Information Finder to locate information on it.' Null drew the bear like being that killed him as best as he could. When he finished, something surprising happened.

The Illustration Mastery which had gone down to level 4 95% due to dying, rose up to level 5 with 1% proficiency. Null had never gone above level 5 0% before. Null ponders this. 'Now that I think about it, I've always drew and painted the same pictures over and over again. I assumed that drawing and painting increasingly beautiful pictures would break the level 5 bottleneck, but that wasn't the case. I needed to draw something new!

This means the same must be true for the calligraphy skill. What about the librarian skill? I've always read to raise that stat. Something new, something new. What if I try making books instead of reading them? But didn't I already make a skill book? What if I tried making a normal book and see how that turns out? Well no, I'll worry about that later. Right now I have to find information on those monsters.'

Because of his low intelligence, Null doesn't remember that the reason he went into the dungeon in the first place was to find a way to get past the level 5 bottleneck.

Null had drawn the picture of the creature and used the information finder skill to locate which books had something similar to that picture. He didn't need to draw the picture to use information finder, but he needed a clear thought in his mind instead of something vague, and would end up having to look through books holding creatures similar to the bear like beast. Using Information Finder, Null found 2 books. He looks at the pictures to see if its right. One of the books is a bear-like being with stalagmites on its rocky back that fire like projectiles. That's not what he's looking for.

He puts it away and goes to the second book. There's a bear-like being with spikes on its back and rolls. Yes, this is what he's looking for. 'Apparently this thing is called a Deathroll. Wow, that sounds terrifying. I hope the names don't get much worse than this, because I don't think I have the courage to fight something named Murderthon 9000 or Slaughterkillfest. Okay, it looks like Deathrolls travel in packs and hate weakness. They will immediately turn on something they think is showing weakness. Their weak spots are not only the stomach but the inside of the leg facing the stomach. I can use that. Now for the leeches.'

Relying on his memory, he draws the leeches. This one was a lot harder than the other one, as the worms didn't have too distinct features. When he used the information finder skill, he gathered up tens of books and had to sort through them all. He finally found it after reading through all the books. 

'Okay, these leeches are called Night Crawlers. They are weak, but what they lack in strength they make up for in sheer numbers. They really hate the sun obviously.

There is a material of a plant called Daibuktu that they hate. Luckily for me, they grow in this region. Night Crawlers wait until you get deep in their territory before they attack to ensure there is no chance of escape. They also can't resist open wounds and the smell of blood. I can also use that.'

Null gathered all the important information and compiled it into a booklet because he knows he'll forget. He also wrote down the methods of dealing with all the enemies in the dungeon he fought so far. He wrote it in a font he has never used before which made his calligraphy mastery gain proficiency to beginner level 5 at 2%. When he finished making the book, the librarian mastery also went above level 5 at 4% proficiency. 

'So I do need to make books in order for my librarian mastery to increase. Good. Now I have a plan to further increase all my masteries.' 

Due to figuring out how to get past level 5 for all your classes, your knowledge stat has increased by 2.

 'Heh. I still don't know what it does.'

He goes to the blacksmith to buy a buttload of arrows and to get his equipment repaired, and also goes to an alchemist to buy some health and mana potions. He leaves town and fights enemies along the way to the dungeon, but he doesn't fire any arrows because he's trying to conserve them.

His path to the dungeon is a lot more wild than before. Null is looking for a plant. It's the Daibuktu plant that the night crawlers hate. 'If I even get a scratch on me, the worms will devour me, and there would be nothing I could do about it. I have to find that plant.'

He saw what the plant looked like in the library and drew a picture for himself. After a while of walking he finds a bunch of plants that could be what he's looking for. 

'This looks like it could be it!'

He was about to take it until his instincts told him something was off. “Identify.” 

Dobuktu Causes festering blisters if contacted with skin

'Oh my god, that was close. This Universal Identify is very useful. The librarian class is far more useful than I thought.'

Along the way of searching, he sees some high level monsters and avoids them. One of them looks like a panther. He did Identify on one of them and saw that it was level 28. 

'I am not going to fight that. They would kill me faster than I could say “Ah!”' He gives it a wide berth. After a while, he finally finds what he's looking for.

“Identify.” 

DaibuktuEmits a foul smelling chemical that interrupts digestion. Deadly to night crawlers

The problem is that there were a group of panthers surrounding the plant.

'Of course, my luck has never been that good, so this is expected. Fighting them is out of the question.' 

Null had written on his palm that he's a squishy librarian to remind himself to not Leroy Jenkins into a group of enemies.

'Okay, think. What can I do to remedy this situation? What do I have on me? I have some of the meats that I got from hunting, arrows, my folded up tent, and my clothes. Huh. Maybe that could work. I hope my low intelligence isn't giving me a stupid idea.'

****************************************************

The panthers were lazing around a tree. One of the panthers started sniffing the air. He smelled food! The other panthers, curious to why he ran off like that, smelled the air as well. They ran and what they saw made them all excited. It was a pile of meat, and they were hungry. One of them started running towards the meat. The others not wanting to be left hungry, jumped towards the meat as well. When they all jumped on it, the ground shook and they all fell into a hole.

The hole was covered by a tent cover, which was covered by leaves and twigs. Null had made it that it would only fall when it crossed a certain weight threshold. Null chuckled to himself. 

'Team Rocket, that's the only idea I had at the time that could work with my limited intelligence. Looks like it worked.' 

Null ran towards the tree and pulled as many leaves as he could. He knew that the trap wouldn't hold the panthers for long. When he pretty much stripped the plant of all his leaves, he ran towards the dungeon.

******************************************

Null arrives at the dungeon. Before he goes, he takes some of the leaves and rubs it all over his body. 

'And now for a test.'

 Null takes an arrow and punctures his skin enough to make him bleed. When he enters, none of the worms attack him. 

'Good. Looks like it works!' Null waits a few minutes for his wound to heal and enters the dungeon.

Null for some reason grabbed a lot of Night Crawlers and put them in his inventory. He then goes up on the ledge on the side of the dungeon, ignores the highly armored armadillos, and continues into the cave until he sees Deathrolls. When he does, he takes out his paper and draws a particular Deathroll. It has an X shaped scar on his head. It looked to be the most powerful of the group. Null did identify on it and saw it was level 45. Instead of drawing like it was, Null drew it like it was super depressed. It was lazing around and even the spikes on its back were drooping. He then paints it while making the background black and blue. He makes it as dreary as possible.

Null activates the Art is Feeling skill. He is left with only 380 mana. It will take him over an hour to refill. It usually takes 2 hours to completely refill a health bar or mana bar from empty. He has mana potions, but he decides that he doesn't need to take it. The effect is apparent. The Deathroll was resisting at first, but it slowed down, and started bellowing sadly. Around 7 minutes had passed until the skill fully took effect.

The Deathrolls sensing weakness attacked the sad Deathroll. The head Deathroll was still too powerful for them even in its depressed state. 

'Let me help them out.' 

Null took out an arrow and attached the night crawlers to them with string. He missed a lot of shots, but he finally hit it in the stomach. The effects were apparent immediately. The worms attached to the arrow burrowed inside its flesh. The open wound attracted more worms to attack it.

The Deathroll was attacked from 2 fronts: One from the Deathrolls and the other from the worms. The Deathrolls attacked it causing more wounds, which in turn caused more worms to attack it. After 15 minutes of struggling, it finally dies. Null only got a little experience because the other creatures did most of the work. Monsters and NPCs in New Reality can level up just like players.

Null repeated this strategy until there was only one Deathroll left. It was tired from fighting the other Deathrolls. He had numerous wounds on him and the worms were already burrowing inside him. Null decided to take care of him personally before the worms got all the experience. Null grabbed an arrow, jumped from the ledge and stabbed the arrow in its eyes.

It screamed while the worms were burrowing inside it. Null kept punching it while it was attacked by the worms. It had forgotten to roll up into a ball. The Deathroll finally died. Null had gained 8 levels for taking out that group of Deathrolls. It isn't surprising. He was level 9 while they were 30 or more levels above him. Null put all his points into intelligence and wisdom, and continued further into the cave.

****************************************

A month passes. Null had to repeatedly go back and forth to town because he was constantly running low on supplies. His archery upgraded to level 2, which enabled him to not waste as many arrows as before. At level 2, his accuracy is 3% more accurate and he can shoot 5% farther. His intelligence and wisdom have finally surpassed what he is capable of in real life, which means he can make more intricate plans, and more importantly, less dumbass plans. He has leveled up to 43.

The Deathrolls are no longer that much of a threat. Thanks to his class skill of adding damage the more you know about the opponent, he went all the way up to 10% extra damage. Weakness of the Deathrolls are now marked in red. He uses the cave to do most of the killing for him. Null drops the stalactites on enemies, impales them on stalagmites, and make them fall into pits where he can kill them at his leisure.

Null finally makes it to the boss room and looks at his stats before his enters. “Stat Screen.”

Status WindowNameNullFame0Level43Infamy0RaceHumanSatiety52%GenderMaleEndurance14/33Main ClassLibrarianSub ClassesCalligrapher, PainterTitlesNoneHealth532/880Health Regen0.26 / secMana2640/3520Mana Regen0.99 / secStrength33Dexterity37Vitality22Charisma1Intelligence110Wisdom110Luck1Knowledge62Attack16Defense7Magic DefenseNone

'Okay. Here we go. What was it those librarian books were trying to tell me?' He opens the door.