Atlas felt his body jostle slightly, and he blinked blearily, sitting up.
He found himself in a wooden cage. Surrounded by large green men with tusks protruding from his face. He glanced at the tags above their heads, trying to stay calm.
Orc warrior
Level 40
He was pretty confident that he could take out a couple of them easily, but there were a couple dozen of them, and he didn’t know if he could take that many on.
Atlas tried to figure out exactly what was happening.
It seemed like he was on some sort of wagon, and it was being pulled by two dread boars. The orcs were walking alongside it, acting like guards.
Were they protecting him, or making sure that he couldn’t get out? It was hard to tell, but Atlas was betting on the latter. He wouldn’t be in a cage if he was an honored guest.
A gust of wind hit him in the back, and he realized he was only wearing a simple loincloth.
Where had his clothes gone?
Looking around, he found the answer, one of the orcs was dressed like a professional businessman, wearing Atlas’s clothes.
They were ripped in places as the orc was considerably bigger than Atlas. Which was saying something, cause Atlas was a tall man.
Standing at 6’3”, Atlas towered over most people, and the only people taller than him were practically giants.
These orcs looked to be around 7 feet tall, if not taller.
He stood up, walking over to the wooden bars and gripping them tightly.
He felt the wood give as his herculean strength overwhelmed the weak material. After making sure he could break out without too much trouble, he sat back down, observing his surroundings.
They were going down a well worn path, but they were still going through the forest, as apparent from the towering trees on all sides.
“HEY! HUMAN!” a deep voice growled at him. Atlas whirled, finding an orc staring at him, a displeased expression on his face. “Oh good, you awake.” it said, walking up beside the cage.
“Who are you?” Atlas blurted out, before he could think about what to say more. He winced, hoping that the orc wouldn’t take offense.
The orc just snorted at him. “I orc chief. I bringing you to orc village, we having a celebration!” it said, grinning and exposing its pointy teeth at him.
Atlas was weary. “Oh? What are you celebrating?” He asked, relaxing back down against the cold floor of the cage.
“We is celebrating the system! We was brought here from orc home, and we get to be tutorial! We are sacrificing human to please the system!” It said, lifting its arms and smiling at him as though Atlas should be happy.
“I feel the need to defend myself. I helped bring them here, yes, but I did not expect them to do this, so please just act like they are just more monsters blocking your path.” -System of Stats
Atlas furrowed his brow at the message. Why was the system pretending to be nice to him? It was as though it was trying to get on his good side for some reason.
From all of the books he had read from the LitRPG genre, he had expected a snarky system that hated him.
“Ah no, that's my brother, he is in charge of giving out classes, you have already met him.” -System of Stats
Atlas just blinked. Could it read his thoughts?
“Um… no? That would be ridiculous…” -System of Stats
Atlas just grumbled to himself. Whatever, it was time to get out of this place.
Just as he was standing up, there was a lurch, and everything jolted. The orcs grabbed sticks from a bag, lighting them and creating torches.
Why were they lighting torches? Was it some sort of cultural thing? As he looked around. He realized they were underground. The only reason he could see was because of his Moonwalker title. He really liked that title, it had been so helpful for him recently.
The orc continued to walk deeper down, until they reached an opening in the earth.
They walked through, and Atlas gawked.
There was a giant orc village down here, and it was made completely of…
“Welcome human, to crystal village.” The orc chieftain said, with not a little pride in its voice.
It was an apt name. Everything was made out of crystals. Blue crystals, pink crystals, purple crystals. There were crystals of almost any color that Atlas could imagine, and they were beautiful.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
He stared in awe at the beauty that surrounded him, briefly forgetting about his plan to escape.
He shook it off though, as they went down the steep incline, slowly getting closer to the village.
Atlas walked over towards the bars opposite from the chief, grabbing the bars and ripping them off in one clean motion, jumping through and tackling the nearest orc warrior.
The orc yelled, collapsing to the ground. Atlas rolled standing up and raising his fists, he had never gotten his spear back from the snake, so it was just him and his fist again.
That was fine with him, they were more reliable than any weapon.
He took off, running back up the path that they had come from, wanting to be anywhere but the village full of orcs anxious to eat him.
“Well, I wouldn’t say anxious…” -System of Stats
“Shut up.” Atlas snapped, not wanting to be distracted.
He could practically feel the system sulking at him.
Atlas just rolled his eyes running faster and focusing on the movement of his legs trying to create a movement skill somehow.
Skill gained! Sprint! D grade. You can run faster when using this skill.
Atlas’s face fell. That was it? He had expected something… better somehow.
As he continued to run, another message hit him.
You have leveled up your skill Sprint (D) to level 2!
Already? Did the 1000% effect leveling speed as well?
Atlas tried to be more specific about where he placed his feet, trying to make everything more intentional so it would level up faster.
You have leveled up your skill Sprint (D) to level 3!
Atlas continued like that, not even paying attention to his pursuers as he focused on making every step intentional.
You have leveled up your skill Sprint (D) to level 4!
You have leveled up your skill Sprint (D) to level 5!
You have leveled up your skill Sprint (D) to level 6!
You have leveled up your skill Sprint (D) to level 7!
You have leveled up your skill Sprint (D) to level 8!
His skill rose rapidly in levels, but started to slow the further he ran.
He glanced up realizing that he had already ran past where he had woken up and realized he was underground, but the path continued to go up.
Glancing back, he saw over a hundred orcs in hot pursuit of him.
He paled, turning and activating Sprint continuing to step in only the places he wanted to.
You have leveled up your skill Sprint (D) to level 9!
He was so close! He hyper focused, running in an erratic way, trying to make his steps more somehow.
After a few more seconds of running, his odd behavior paid off.
You have leveled up your skill Sprinting (D) to level 10!
Sprint has reached level 10! Upgrading…
Sprint (D) is now Zoom (C)
Skill gained! Zoom! C grade. You can run a lot faster when using this skill.
Atlas’s legs sped up, going almost twice as fast as he was before, steadily widening the distance between him and the orcs.
Glancing back, he saw one orc starting to close the distance, gaining on Atlas with every step. He glanced at its tag.
Orc Speedster
Level 60
It was running about twice as fast as Atlas, gaining on him at a frightening pace.
Atlas grit his teeth, doubling down on trying to upgrade his skill.
You have leveled up your skill Zoom (C) to level 2!
You have leveled up your skill Zoom (C) to level 3!
You have leveled up your skill Zoom (C) to level 4!
You have leveled up your skill Zoom (C) to level 5!
You have leveled up your skill Zoom (C) to level 6!
He was improving at a ridiculous speed, but it wasn’t enough.
He could now hear the orcs breath behind him, it was only a couple dozen feet away from him.
Atlas channeled everything he had into the skill.
You have leveled up your skill Zoom (C) to level 7!
You have leveled up your skill Zoom (C) to level 8!
The orc was now only 10 feet away from him, and it was still gaining.
Atlas clenched his fists, activating Full Might in a last, desperate measure.
You have leveled up your skill Zoom (C) to level 9!
You have leveled up your skill Zoom (C) to level 10!
You have leveled up your skill Zoom (C) to level 11!
You have leveled up your skill Zoom (C) to level 12!
You have leveled up your skill Zoom (C) to level 13!
You have leveled up your skill Zoom (C) to level 14!
You have leveled up your skill Zoom (C) to level 15!
You have leveled up your skill Zoom (C) to level 16!
You have leveled up your skill Zoom (C) to level 17!
You have leveled up your skill Zoom (C) to level 18!
You have leveled up your skill Zoom (C) to level 19!
You have leveled up your skill Zoom (C) to level 20!
Atlas blasted through the air, going so fast that his eyes were forced closed. He grit his teeth, waiting to impact the ground and get messed up.
Zoom has reached level 10! Upgrading…
Zoom has reached level 20! Upgrading…
ERROR
Processing…
Skill is low rank…
Player has Title: Skiller…
Zoom has leveled beyond the cap, upgrading twice!
Zoom (C) is now Blur (A)
Atlas activated the new skill, arms pinwheeling.
He yelled as he fell, hitting the ground and rolling, trying to spread the force evenly through his body.
He lay there, body groaning in pain. He had pushed his body beyond its normal limits.
Too bad this wasn’t the first time he had done this.
He felt hands grab his shoulders, and looked up and saw the orc that had been chasing him. How had it caught up so fast?
Blackness encroached upon vision, but Atlas struggled, he didn’t want to black out again.
Just as he was starting to blink it back, the orc slammed his head against the ground, and everything went white.