Cole was doing fine with his hunt. He had been fighting the Frenzy Rabbit Guards non stop. He was lucky no powerful monsters appeared to intercept his hunt.
Cole stabbed the last rabbit to death and wiped his sweaty face. Wondering how long he had been hunting, he looked up. The sky beyond tree leaves was still white, meaning he still had time to hunt, but he decided to rest.
After gathering cards, Cole sat under a tree. He felt physically tired, but his mind was at peace. Killing was the only thing he was best at, and killing monsters was more fun than killing humans. When he killed monsters, there were achievements like leveling up and getting skills too. In this world, Cole had a better purpose. Life wasn’t so bad anymore.
Cole suddenly thought of his gladiator brothers. He hoped they were free and enjoyed life like himself. They were the same as him. They all only knew how to fight and kill.
Cole gripped his fist as he suddenly found a new purpose. “I hope I can meet them again, so we can hunt together and laugh at our rest time.”
Having purposes in life was important, but he had a more important thing to do first, and that was to get stronger. Cole counted the cards he had gotten from the hunt. In his hands, there were five usable low-grade experience cards, three point cards, two consumable healing cards, and ten loot cards. He put the loot cards in the sling bag and absorbed the rest.
Name: Cole Xander (Level: 5 [250/625])
Currency Point: 130
Race: Human (Bronze)
Class: -
Strength: 12
Vitality: 11
Agility: 11
Intelligent: 10
Wisdom: 10
Free Points: 1
Active Skills: 0
Passive Skills: 2
Blessings: 1
Debuff: 1
Cole had one free point, but he only planned to use it in a dangerous situation, depending on the situation. He could need more strength to strike a stronger monster, vitality to survive, or agility to escape. He wouldn’t know what would happen to him, so it was a smart idea to save the free point.
Cole thought his situation was in control, except for one problem. He was midway to level six, but he didn’t have any skill cards yet. He needed to hunt for a passive skill card.
Cole knew nothing about monsters’ drops, but he guessed skill card drops depended on the type of monsters. Snakes could drop venom-related skills, and ants could drop strength-related skills. This was just a hunch, and that was why he would keep hunting Frenzy Rabbit Guards. They were durable, and their grip strength was deadly. He hoped to get passive skills related to defense and strength.
“Haha, found you!” said a familiar voice from behind. Cole was about to turn back, but his body suddenly jolted as electricity struck his body. His HP kept decreasing, activating his [Injury Transmutation]. His skin reddened, and he suddenly gained the strength to turn back and leap back.
In front of Cole, a skinny man stood with an evil grin. He wore torn outfit and dried blood covered his skin. The man was none other than the lightning user he had encountered.
“Give me back my staff and my teammates’ belongings!” the man demanded.
“You are still alive?” Cole asked coldly.
The man laughed manically, and his gaze became empty. “I sacrificed them to save myself. However, those ants managed to disarm me, but that’s alright. I come back stronger. Give me back my wand and my teammates’ items. If you do that, I will let you join my team.”
Cole didn’t understand why this skinny man was so full of himself until he saw his information.
Name: ???
Level: 6
Cole put a serious expression. When someone reached level six, they would open one skill slot. The man probably had three skills, and that was why he was confident about facing him. “I am sorry, but I have had enough of working under someone, especially those who sacrifice his own teammates.”
“I see. Too bad. You are a tanker. Our dynamic would be great. Die!”
The skinny man emitted electricity currents from his hands, but too bad Cole had known his intention. Cole had jumped to a nearby tree before the man cast his skill, and the lightning currents hit the ground, charring it black.
The skinny man startled. “Impossible. How did you evade lightning?”
Cole didn’t care to reply to him. He rushed to the skinny man, but the latter only stared at him with a blank expression. Looking at his expression, Cole confirmed active skills had cooldown time. That was why his enemy was desperate to find teammates.
Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.
His suspicion was right, but Cole forgot the man was level six, meaning he had more skill slots.
As he got closer, the skinny man grinned and shouted, “[Lightning Ring]!” An electricity ring surrounded his body and expanded its size, passing through Cole.
Cole’s body jolted as the ring hit him, but he could move again after a while. He was about to take another step forward, but his enemy suddenly jumped back, pulling the lightning ring. The lightning ring passed through Cole’s body again, stiffening his body.
“Hahaha! How is that? This ability doesn’t deal plenty of damage, but it is enough to stall time to do this! [Lightning Strike]!” The skinny man emitted electricity currents from his hands and hit Cole.
Cole knelt and bit his lower lip to endure the pain. His HP kept decreasing, and he decided to spend a point to increase his vitality.
Vitality: 11 -> 12
Cole was lucky the electricity stopped, but the skinny man didn’t give up and hit him with the electricity ring. His HP had already decreased to the quarter of the bar, and his skin was as red as blood. As his HP bar reached low, he suddenly found standing easier. He leaped forward and slashed the skinny man in half.
The skinny man’s upper body crashed against a tree, and he looked in horror at his standing lower-half bursted blood like a fountain. “No! I can’t die here! I want to live!” He anguished for the unfairness of the world as his life flashed in his eyes.
Joseph was his name, a pitiful high school student. His father had abandoned him when he was a kid, and his mom had raised him to be weak.
Joseph would’ve stayed as a weak man if he hadn’t watched a deathmatch in a certain underground arena somewhere in the Hell’s Kitchen. A friend had invited him there to watch a deathmatch. Normal people would feel freaked out, and he would have felt the same, but he had come to challenge his courage. Unexpectedly, the first deathmatch he had watched was so wonderful.
Casey Howard VS Barrack Trump. After witnessing Casey’s fight and victory, the event forever inspired him to become a better person in the wrong way. He wanted to be like Casey, a beautiful, powerful fighter. His way to do that was through violences. He had got a lot of fights with bullies and never once he had won.
In the end, Joseph had had enough of everything. He had given up, but suddenly miracle had happened. That day, there was a rain of golden cards. He had reached out and grabbed one card. The next moment, he had woken up in an unfamiliar building.
After hearing an explanation from the immortals’ messenger, Joseph had once again found hope to become a better person. However, this world was tough.
In the end, he lay under a tree with an empty expression, and the broad shoulders of his enemy were the last thing he had seen. “I see. You are strong.” With that, he let out his last breath.
Cole knelt beside him and clasped his hands together in prayer. The skinny man might have been a bad person, but he was still a human and deserved a prayer. “May you live a glorious life as the soldier of immortals.”
Cole cast a glance at the skinny man, turned his back, and walked away. He held an active skill card in his hand. After killing the man, the card had floated out of his corpse. This was ironic. If evil people found out they could get immortal cards from human corpses, they would take advantage of it.
Cole wasn’t against killing people, but he would only do that if the situation forced him to. If else, he would just hunt monsters. Killing humans always left a sour feeling in his heart.
……
Cole continued his journey, walking on a pathway. He didn’t know where this natural pathway would lead him to, but he suspected it was the path designed for newbies. Those immortals wanted to save humanity, or so he wanted to believe, so they wouldn’t wipe out humans from the start.
Cole only met Frenzy Rabbit Guard so far and occasionally the Armored Tiger. If he met a tiger, Cole would lure it to a group of rabbits, and let them fight. After that, he would kill the survivors and harvest the cards from their corpses. At the end of the day, he managed to level up.
Name: Cole Xander (Level: 6 [25/750])
Currency Point: 200
Race: Human (Bronze)
Class: -
Strength: 14
Vitality: 14
Agility: 13
Intelligent: 12
Wisdom: 12
Free Points: 1
Active Skills: 0
Passive Skills: 2
Blessings: 1
Debuff: 1
As usual, Cole planned to save his free point in case of an emergency. He could fill one skill slot too, but he didn’t have any passive card yet. He had been doing well so far, so there was no need to rush things.
Cole was right to follow the path as it led him out of the forest. As he looked ahead, there was a large river and a bridge. Beyond the bridge, he could see a small island with a similar building as the one on the first prairie.
The sun almost sank, and the horizon turned orange. The idea of resting on a tree wasn’t bad, but he found a better place to rest, so he traversed the bridge. On the way to the building, he encountered many giant rabbit monsters, and their heights were the same as him.
Cole stopped and inspected them first. As he thought, his system could inspect them because they were the cousin of Frenzy Rabbits. More precisely, they were the giant version of them. After reading their information, he dared to approach them.
Name: Frenzy Rabbit
Title: Ace
Level: 15
Docile creatures. They only will go berserk if you kill one of them.
The monster entered his monsterpedia. After killing various monsters, his monsterpedia gave him another knowledge, and that was about monsters’ titles. Monsters had various titles, but he only knew the lowest of those titles: Ace. Titled monsters were in an entirely different realm than normal monsters. They became more durable and stronger.
These rabbits were docile unless someone attacked them. Thinking of that, Cole rushed to the building, and he arrived in front of it. This building didn’t have doors, but there was a transparent blue wall in front of the entrance. He thrust his hand inside, and nothing happened, so he stepped into the building.
Inside the building, he saw a counter, and he approached him. As he arrived, a blonde woman with a pair of wings welcomed him with a sweet smile. “Welcome to the Beginner Island’s base. You are the first person to arrive, so you will get a reward.”
“Reward? You have wings. Are you the emissary of immortals too?”
“Correct.” She put a grey point card on the table. “Would you like to know about this building?”
Cole took the card with a sigh. He expected a special reward than a point card, but getting something was better than nothing. “Please.” While the lady explained about this building, he read the card.
Name: Point Card
Grade: High
Increases points by 1000
Cole didn’t know how valuable points were, so he absorbed them without care. His points increased to 1200. After that, he listened to the lady.
“This is a safe place. Monsters, except void monsters, can’t enter here. Here, you can use your points to buy various things. There are several shops, and you can see them on the screens above me.”
There were four screens in a row above the lady. Equipment Dealer, Consumable Card Dealer, Skill Dealer, and Bank Dealer. “Those screens are up there. Should I jump to use the shop?” Cole asked.
The lady giggled. “You can summon your system and point it at a screen.”
Cole nodded and tried it on the Skill Dealer screen. His system screen showed the shop. There were lists of skill cards and even the option to sell things. He had many trash cards in his sling bag, so he sold them first.
Cole opened his bag and took out all cards. The lady told him to show those cards in front of his screen, and his screen system emitted a flashlight to scan. After that, those cards disappeared and reappeared on the sell list.
Are you sure you want to sell these cards? You can deselect cards to cancel selling.