024

My punch landed straight on the face of the hideous creature.

[600 EXP gained.]

[Level up.]

Lv.8 [410/12500]

HP: 250/315

MP: 0/0

BA: 0/0

QI: 450/509 [0.4/sec]

DEF: 120

Skills:

[Unique]

A Mortal’s Tenacity

[General]

Sprint Lv.5

- Quick Dash Lv.-

Qi Manipulation Lv.5

Cold Resistance Lv.3

Qi Regeneration Lv.4

Awareness Lv.3

Magic Resistance Lv.1

Stone Skin Lv.3

Weight Control Lv.2

[Blessings]

Blessing of Understanding

“Finally!”

This has proven to be a very fruitful trip, I’ve not only gained a level but also increased the levels of the two new skills.

With my HP far from being low and with my QI continuously regenerating, I don’t see any reason to stop now.

These things are easy to hunt and there’s a fuck-ton of them. This already being the second group that I encountered, I can even sense more around me the deeper I go.

Although I don’t want to go too far in, with the help of [Awareness] I should be able to keep my distance and get away if I find something dangerous.

“Let’s see if I can get to level 9 today itself.”

With a smile on my face, confidence in my steps and anticipation in my heart, I made my way deeper in the woods and continued my hunt.

…

“Haah!..Haaah….”

Heaving sounds echoed throughout the forest as the young girl continued to run through the trees despite the bleeding pain in her legs.

Through the sweat that had covered her eyes despite the bone chilling cold, she kept looking back towards the huge group of trolls that were continuously following right behind her. Even if she didn’t want to believe it, they would catch up with her sooner or later.

GRAAA!!

She heard the troll’s shout, it scared her to her bones as her body kept ignoring the pain as she continued her stride. She wanted to use [Swift Movement] again but the skill was on cool down, and since she had used the skill three times now, the cool down was especially longer.

She raised her hands and aimed it at the back.

[Ice Flow]!

A powerful gust of icy cold wind blew from her hand towards the 10 or so Ice Trolls.

A skill of such measly level couldn’t do anything fatal to the trolls, all it did was slow down her enemies for a step or two.

She wanted to fire off another one, but she was already out of MP. With her regeneration being 0.3/sec, it will take a while before it reaches a level where it will regenerate 60 MP required to fire off another one of them.

She couldn’t hope to do so. She wanted to use another skill that would be useful here, she would’ve, if she had any.

Normally in a town like East Green, where the monster population was constantly being kept in check, it was pretty easy to level up and gain skills.

But it was for people who were born with great skills, not for her. Someone like her, who was born with a pretty useless innate skill, the most she could hope for was to get by without starving.

A useless skill was bad, but a useless buff skill was even worse. Usually buff skills would be a lot in demand no matter how low the buff is, so every party usually has a member who can at least use some kind of buff skill.

Silvia didn’t have time to wallow in her self-pity so she kept her mind towards escaping. But luck didn’t seem to be on her side as her leg got stuck between some exposed roots and she tumbled down falling.

She immediately tried getting up but her leg had stuck itself between two of them hurt like hell and she couldn’t get it out, her fatigue wasn’t helping her out either.

Panicking, she looked back and saw that the distance she gained after using [Ice Flow] was totally wasted. As she gave up hope finally seeing her pursuers getting only a few feet away from her, her life flashed before her eyes and she couldn’t help but feel full of regret.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

She instinctively closed her eyes, but then.

THUD! THUD! THUD!

She heard the thundering sounds of loud stomps coming towards her. They grew louder with each passing second. She opened her eyes in fright of another monster finding her but she was pleasantly surprised when she saw a man about her age running through the trees breaking everything that stood in his path.

The Ice Trolls following her even slowed down looking at him.

She finally saw a ray of hope as she looked on towards the youth running towards her. But the hope instantly turned into despair as she realized that she didn’t feel any energy from this man.

“Wait! Don-”

She wanted to stop him, but the most incredible scene happened as the man, despite the immense weight he was carrying jumped towards the trolls.

His jump was higher than anyone she had seen jump before using his own physical force. His jump immediately landed him in front of the trolls with a landing that shook the ground she was sitting on.

With a punch straight to the face, she watched in awe as with only one punch, the creature lost its life.

He then moved towards the next one, and the next, and this continued until he finished off all of the ten trolls following her in only a minute.

He had used nothing but punches and kicks, and while he still took hits, those didn’t even manage to move him an inch, he was like a mountain, strong, unmoving and proud.

Only after he finished all of this, he looked at her. She realized that she may have been staring at him for a good while now. Trying to hide her embarrassment, she wanted to say something, the thought of thanking him crossed her mind, but then she remembered something terrifying.

“Listen-”

…

[3250 EXP gained.]

Lv.8 [7860/12500]

“No skills levelled up? Damn.”

Since I defeated the ten relatively quickly, I gained even less EXP than the eight that I hunted before coming here. Nothing can be done about it as it was an emergency.

I look towards the girl stuck in between the roots. Thank goodness, I was here. The girl really wouldn’t have made it if I hadn’t sensed her around this area.

After I decided to head in deeper, I encountered a few more of those smaller group of creatures, in total there were 8 of them, but they were too easy to hunt as they were busy carrying their prey somewhere and I could easily ambush them and get the kill as long as I was sneaking up on them.

I totally didn’t expect that one of the reactions from [Awareness] that I would get would be from a human.

I was able to tell the difference because of the high level of [Awareness] as well the vast difference between this presence and those that I’ve been hunting. Thankfully I came to check.

I saw her staring at me, so I wiped my hands clean and went towards her to help her up only to hear.

“Listen! We can’t stay here, we need to run, quick! They aren’t the only one-”

ROOOAAARRR!!

Her words were cut off immediately by a loud roar.

I look back and I see a creature. I wasn’t surprised as I had already sensed it coming towards us when I engaged the other ten.

It was more than double the height of the other creatures and also twice as thick. It was holding a huge tree trunk in one hand like a club as it walked towards us.

As I was about to go engage the creature, I felt the girl struggling to get out of the roots. I see back and I see a look of utter terror on her face as she fumbles around with her hands trying to break through them.

I finally see how bad of a condition she is in. I think I should first help her then deal with the creature as it was still quite a fair distance away.

I go up to her and take hold of her hands, which have gone completely cold, due to fear or the cold, I don’t know.

She is surprised but she calms down for a second as she looks at me. Hopefully I’m not scaring her, I can’t tell because of the expression on her face.

“Please, let me.”

Saying that much, I use my other hand to tear the roots from the base of the tree using [Qi Manipulation]. Then gently lifting her leg from there, I help her out. She stumbles herself up and her face said she wanted to say something but her eyes had locked themselves onto the creature on the back.

“Stay back.”

Saying this, I run towards the creature who was only a few metres ahead of me. Seeing me approach, it swings the huge trunk that it is holding using both hands.

Unfortunately for it, the speed is quite slow so I easily avoid it by ducking down as the log passes over my head. With my fist full of Qi, I punch directly towards the creature’s stomach.

It is caught by surprise as it stumbles a little backwards. I don’t give it time to stabilize itself before I jump again by loading my legs with Qi and using [Stone Skin] while in mid-air, my body which probably weighs around 285 kg drops down with my right legs smashing on its head.

The huge impact leaves the creature falling face down on the ground. I cancel [Stone Skin] before landing on the ground myself. I see that the creature has yet to die, so before it got up I once again activated [Stone Skin] and using the weight of my fists combined with the Qi moving with full strength in them, I slam down my hand on its head.

The head doesn’t stand this much pressure as it splits open like a watermelon. With a prompt immediately signalling my victory.

[1160 EXP gained.]

Lv.8 [9020/12500]

Stuff like this has stopped grossing me out. It was unbearable at first, but I can somewhat manage now.

If I were to guess the tier of this creature then it would be around the beginning of tier two, so level 21 or 22 or something. Seeing my hand covered in its blood, I can say that I’ve gotten pretty strong.

I wiped my hands of the corrosive blood before I cancelled [Stone Skin].

“Are you okay?”

I asked walking back towards her.

“Ar-are you a blood artist?” she asked still having that terrified look on her face.

I can see she is still little wary of me so I stop at a distance as I don’t want to scare her anymore.

“Yes, I am. My name’s Grant, I’m a volunteer. Please don’t be scared, I’m here to help you. Where is the rest of your party?”

I flashed her my card without showing her the back of it.

She didn’t say anything after hearing that, but looked at me from top to bottom. I also took this time to take a better look at her. A short, about 5’ 5” petite girl around my age, she was wearing a pretty cheap beaten down blue mage’s robe, her blonde hair and her pale white face were a mess covered in sweat and a little bit of blood.

She was also wearing an accessory belt around her waist. But the crystals around hers were a lot less than Rachael as she only had two. A black storage crystal and a light crystal. It was apparent by looking at her that her financial situation wasn’t great. Seeing as she hadn’t answered the question about her party, it was also obvious that she was here alone. A volunteer but a lone volunteer like myself.

I don’t get it though, if she can’t even handle this many creatures together, why was she so deep in here?

Wait.

“Are you lost?”

Listening to my sudden question, she was surprised, but her surprise soon turned into embarrassment as she put her eyes down and nodded slowly.

So it was like that.

She put down her guard a little, so I talked to her.

“Don’t worry, I also came here to hunt, if you want, I can help you get out.”

Although it’s quite a shame that I can’t hunt any more, but now that I have seen her and helped her, I can’t just leave her alone in this place.

She thought about it and nodded slowly. Only after she agreed that I made my way towards her.

“Silvia. My name is Silvia.”

She said in a barely audible voice. I smiled and together as I supported her, we slowly started moving towards the direction I came from. But it was then that I realized something.

As sweat dripped down my forehead, only one thought crossed my mind.

‘Where am I?’