Alternate Route 1

Despite my good hopes, we end up parting ways.

Our views differed on how things supposed to work.

I had a bottom line: never interrupt my own pace, no matter what it takes. I had always been that kind of person and I wouldn't change for their sake.

You guys do whatever you want, while I'd do the same. Whenever we had something coming up, we'd plan accordingly to meet up. Nobody should be forced to sacrifice their precious time from a collective standpoint.

The moment they actually agreed in unison, to put the group's well being above all else—I knew it wasn't a place to belong.

"You may not understand it—since you're rich." the way Fiona said it tugged on my heart-strings, especially since I teased her before.

"...we won't be as shameless to use up your cash for our needs, but it'd be great if you could lend a hand," Horace added.

Their main term was to help on making money. They'd be handing the materials they got from Adventuring and let me handle everything.

While it wasn't a hard job...and it's nice to have some company—didn't it feel like they're taking advantage of me too much?

Most of all, I don't plan on being dragged into their pace. It'd be a hassle to break free, once I joined in.

"There's no go if I only need you guys to accompany me doing Quests—and I'd pay extra?"

"I don't think we're on the term to trust each other yet..." Liese added.

Considering their ragged state from doing Quests--presumably--they must've been desperate since I was a walking money machine.

"Then our discussion ends here."

It was followed by a bit of sigh and I could hear them speaking some hurtful words.

"He'd get back eventually. When I adventured with him—he's pretty weak. His stamina and abilities were decent though."

Nah.

I don't think I'd join them. The way they treat one of their team-mates like that, even as a joke—it's not funny.

The moment I stepped outta the Adventurer's Guild, there's a bad aftertaste in my mouth. Well, not like it's the first time 'round, if you count my old life. I got used to it somehow.

[Acquired Passive – Lone Wolf!

Boost stats (minor) for the duration of the battle. Active while fighting alone.]

That makes two.

This passive made me refrain about hiring an adventurer to carry me while leveling.

With the glistening rays of morning sun cheering me up, my mind focused back on the ways to get stronger.

First of all, I felt like going to a store where they sold fun gadgets.

Stopping a full-plate Paladin along the way, I asked for a Toy Store and he marked it on my map right away. Along with it, I also asked about leaving the city. Apparently, I need a Permit. It's just the regulation for my own safety since I possess an ID, so when I went missing, the Holy Order members can investigate my trail and rescue me when things went South.

One of the common ways: applying via the Adventurers' Guild, when you're doing Quests. I'd get to them later on.

Not that I plan to rely on their help, but it's nice to know.

The toy store was a bit far off to the shops catering adventurers; using [Go to] I made a fast trip.

Spent few gold coins to buy few heavy-fire BB-guns with loads of toy ammo. It's a pity they hadn't got any smartphone but they sold gaming consoles. There's a phone but their only feature were calls and text messaging.

Not that I ever needed those, since I plan on going solo.

You might be asking—why don't buy actual guns?

Remember when I described how things were treated as a weapon?

When you could seriously injure or even kill a normal adult, the thing you held, is a weapon.

This toy gun, however, only fired off harmless toy bullets. Holding this in the battlefield wouldn't change the current ones equipped. I also tried and it didn't register in my equipment slot.

The old geezer at the Weapons / Armor store laughed at me when I held the toy gun, but whatever.

Let the results speak for themselves.

The toy gun has infinite reload capability.

As long I put it inside the inventory and pulled it out again—it would refill its ammunition. There's a fuckton you could fire all the way due to its large chamber.

Plus, unlike actual guns, this one had no significant recoil.

While I didn't manage to inspect Horace's guns in detail--since the geezer was familiar with him, he told me: Horace's gun was custom made and you could only fire six times before reloading. It had no rapid fire capabilities though.

When I tested my toy gun against the training dummy, there's a load of damage numbers popping, with bold ones appearing frequently.

The streams of critical hits came flooding in.

The amount I could fire until the gun chambers emptied out was five hundred. There's the hit counter on the menu, whose display could be toggled.

A good number of them were critical.

While other adventurers could only get one hit per attack, mine would go on five hundred times.

The glitchy toy gun manages to reduce a great chunk of the training dummy's health, which was already enormous as it was. Obliterating approximately 48k HP from the total damage.

[Gained passive 'Demolition Man' from accumulating so much damage in one attack!]

[The passive will increase Critical Damage by a small amount.]

Since I equipped the Bronze War Hammer in the slot--it sure packed a punch despite being a low-leveled gear.

In RPG games I play, the gun weapons' total damage was based on the accumulated burst fire, only registered as one hit--unless it's an Overdrive skill which lets you fire several times at max.

With the exploit, each bullet was counted as a hit, with strikes powerful as war hammer swinging at full metal. Best of all, you could just stand in one place and bring death to your enemies without moving!

Works wonders due to those ninnies' hobby of standing still.

...even if they're moving, they'd just go in a linear path towards you. Plenty of windows to shoot.

Plus, the bullet physics and the hitbox were ridiculously large. Probably since the attack was treated the same as it was swung by a War Hammer.

As long as I pointed at the enemy's general direction, it's a hit.

The rest was about finding something that buffs the accuracy to counter the enemies' innate evasion...oh wait, I forgot my glasses. I wore them the entire time, I forgot it's a piece of equipment.

It'd be hell as well if I dealt zero damage due to their tyrannical defense. An ability to ignore defense while attacking would be great.

...

The main reason why I picked the toy gun—it's due to less hassle on grinding.

It's tiring to go back and forth to where the enemies stood just to deal damage. With this, I could quickly deal punishment.

One of the issues was AGI. If the enemy turn came first...it'd be a pain waiting for them to move back-forth. Except if I could kill them by shooting from my position, even if it's not my turn.

Well, there's [Counter] abilities which let you deal damage on enemy's turn, maybe it'd count as that?

Still, I had one qualm...

When I got stronger, there'd be a time when the toy gun was treated as a weapon. In that case, I'd be screwed if I didn't have powerful stuff on the equip slot before the battle, oh wait...

Even if I screwed up—hopefully, at that time—just my raw stats alone were enough to overwhelm all enemies.

There also the crit chance and recently, crit damage bonus. Not to mention, the other passives that may come in the future.

I'd feel like testing my theory on normal enemies, especially if I could annihilate them all in just a round of firing.

Since I need a permit to leave the city, I went back to the Adventurer's Guild.

The afternoon's sun hung high above me and I could feel droplets of sweat pouring down. While the others also sweated like hell—they seem fine.

The guild felt a bit pungent from all the sweaty Adventurers, but there seems to be a magic tool lessening it, like an exhaust fan. I wasn't bothered that much, actually.

Didn't see any sign of Fiona's party. Seeing they'd given up so fast, it raised my opinion of them.

Taking the Quest to slay horned rabbits, immediately the System also gave out its rewards. The amount from the Bulletin papers was blurred out though.

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Currently, only request up to E-rank were available. As I rank up, there'd be more Quests available. There's also a rank-up examination when I was about to become C-rank. It seems, in backwater cities like this, C-rank were considered Elite adventurers?

Certainly, Fiona was strong enough, from her stats and skills...dunno about the others though.

...well, I don't plan on being with them anyway.

That aside, it was convenient I don't have to directly apply with the receptionist, while others had to wait in line.

[Side Quest]

Slay 15 Horned Rabbits – Grade E.

Reward: 100 Gold Coins

Time limit : 3 days.

...

Pretty generous stuff. Plus, I got to keep all the drops.

Normally, in Isekai stories, you'd want to raise your guild rank for more benefits. As for me? Nah, It'd just mean more hassle I have to deal with. From what I've read on the bulletin, there's nothing like Job quota to fulfill per a set amount of time.

Probably since I was a Player, all the irrelevant information wasn't unavailable, like the one with non-combat classes.

Still, this world was so limiting. What's the matter if I want to pick the non-combat ones, like crafting? Blacksmithing—wait, scratch that.

Those jobs were a pain. A lazy person like me wasn't cut out for labor-heavy stuff...

Eh, the System was spot on this time.

Before the hunt, I went for lunch at the Monkey island Cymbals.

A bit on the light side, consisting of Caesar salad, chicken soup, rice, and fruit juice. I also packed the snack and lots of mineral water for the grind.

...

[Critical hit!]

[Critical hit!]

[Critical...]

[Acquired rabbit's meat!]

[Acquired rabbit's fur!]

[Acquired rabbit's...huh?]

[You have gained... XP!]

[You have gained ... Job Point!]

[You have gained... Gold!]

[You are now level 10!]

[Adventurer is now level 3!]

"Err..."

When I think of myself getting stronger, I didn't mean this strong.

How the fuck am I supposed to feel when the enemies got rekt--from just a few bullets?

This almost gave me the illusion that this gun was the real overpowered weapon here and not my own abilities on figuring it out.

Before that, let's check my status again.

[Takeshi]

Level : 5->10

Race: Human

(Adventurer lv 3, Godslayer lv 1)

Hp: 100/100 -> 250/250

Mp: 45/45 -> 160/160

Str: 10->25

Vit : 10->20

Dex : 10->30

Agi : 10->15

Int : 10->40

Spi : 10->25

Luk : 10->50

[Gear]

Bronze War Hammer

Bronze Hauberk

Glasses

Comfortable Shoes

[Skills]

Flee -> Escape battle with a higher probability

Tent (NEW) -> Use mana to create a temporary tent.

Passive

Item Usage Plus (NEW) -> Increase item's effect (small)

God of Heroes Blessing (NEW) -> Increase Crit Chance (small) + other stuff.

Lone Wolf (NEW) -> Boost stats (small) while going to battle alone.

Demolition Man (NEW) --> Increase Crit Damage (small)

...

I was wondering if it has anything to do with the blessing or my Godslayer sub-class. Although my stats were definitely much higher, I don't feel like my body's all different-somehow.

Maybe I should run a lot more to increase my AGI...I really hate how it's the lowest of all.

Nevertheless, it mattered less since I could just gun down every monster regardless of the turn. I don't have to wait for their attack animation to end, yay.

It may seem unfair but survival comes first. This isn't a game anymore.

Gathering the monsters didn't take long since all I had to do was to engage [Battle] over and over until the quota was satisfied. Just by mentally triggering the command or using the menu would work—as long it's outside the city. Each battle was quite short due to this glitchy gun anyway.

The moment the 15th Horned Rabbit vanished into the ground, the message box popped up.

[Quest Completed]

[Progress to the next Adventurer rank ..%]

As the System told me I no longer need to clarify with the guild, I won't go the extra mile.

I'd feel like checking out some other things.

Outside of the battle mode, I felt my running speed was the same, despite the rise of AGI.

With the high increase of INT, I didn't feel I was any smarter.

If my theory was correct...then regardless how much I level up, my body would just stay the same.

In other words, unless I triggered the [Battle Mode]--all those stats would be useless. No matter how high the numbers are, I would still be that weak-ass guy if I confronted someone physically.

...now that's troubling.

Seeing as I was stuck with your average person from Earth limitations—what can I do? The moment someone could bypass my [Battle Mode], I'm basically dead meat.

Though...I was fully conscious and fine, even if there's a gaping hole in my chest. No such pain at all.

Wait...it's probably since the injuries were from [Battle Mode]. When I tried punching my palm a bit, the pain's still there.

...ugh, it gave me the chills.

I don't feel like stirring up trouble with others just to test the triggers of that mode.

...or maybe, my stat would show its splendor after a good night's rest? Since mine went up significantly, some significant changes should show up—if that's actually the case.

When my stats were below 10, I didn't feel any weaker though? Hmm...

Either way, I'd better go to the Adventurer's guild and change my class—hopefully there's something with a better growth rate.

Plus, even if my body would still be weak--I could keep abusing the toy gun forever.

Exercise? Training?

Ain't got enough time for that.

For what I feared, those bad guys might be gunning for me anytime soon. Better get ready to retaliate ASAP.

...and they sure took some sweet, sweet time.

Maybe at first, they think I was a threat due to my [Godslayer], but as they deem me an easy target, they sent their goons; those 'expendable' Death Eaters to test the waters.

I was attacked as soon I was completely alone, the moment I attained that sub-class. When I first created a [Save Game] in my own room, it was all good—probably since I hadn't gotten my class yet.

Was there a conspiracy somewhere? They might be forming plans to get rid of me.

The only thing I could infer from their first attack—they may not attack when I'm with someone else. That includes all the NPC who actually had nothing to do with me, even while I was walking down the street.

I had moments when I was alone, like when I went outside the gatekeeper's field of view, for a walk in the forest. Not that far from the city, though.

Yet, they hadn't made their moves.

The reason probably was—they're still figuring out how my [Godslayer] ability works and the way to counter it.

...and before that happened, I had all the time I want.

Seeing as they couldn't bug me relentlessly to figure it out, means the loss of even mere goons would be a heavy blow.

...or, more plausibly, there's an even greater threat going on.

Whether it'd be another Godslayer, or...maybe I was just thinking 'bout it too much.

They're simply a part of the game, as a part of the 'main plot'. I had that notion going upon hearing the message from God of Heroes.

Still, if I need exploits to win the battle...wait...

Did that mean I could win the battle through normal means? I still wouldn't risk it either way.

With that in mind, I'd trust that God's words for now. I'm not a fan of getting assaulted whenever the 'plot' deems it convenient. So I'd max out my skills and stats, and beat whoever behind all this—Evil God or whatever.

All for living in peace and quiet—doing whatever I want.

...but it's pretty dilemmatic. If I defeated the Evil God, I don't wanna go back to my old life. It fucking sucks having to go to work almost every day and working long hours.

Anyways...

For my next step, I'd think of ways to unlock the [Hero] class due to its growth.

Or if there's no clue, I'd ask God of Heroes again via Church—or like...can I just pray right here and now?

[Unable to contact God of Heroes at this location.]

Oh well.

...maybe I should just hit the library as well since the System itself isn't much of a help.