Dawn found both Arthur and Lucas up and about, with Arthur once again reminding Lucas of the promise that he’d made only hours previously. The older man planned on them being out hunting all day, which meant he needed to be able to trust the boy to listen to what he was going to say otherwise the risks of the boy fighting monsters would be too high to allow.
The boy kept reassuring Arthur that he’d listen, with his responses being a mix of excited, “Yes grandpa,” and “I promise to be good,” all of which did very little to soothe Arthur’s nerves despite their authenticity. However, after the 100th reassurance, he finally realised he was just getting himself stressed out, and took a deep breath, before he guided Lucas out of the dormitory and towards the gates of the military base.
The morning breeze was cold, and very few people walked the alien streets. The scene reminded him of the Earthly city he’d lived in only a month or so ago, and how it had looked after the system had arrived. He’d asked Oscar about other survivors from the city, but the octoid was not privy to that kind of intelligence, so Arthur hadn’t learned much about the state of his fellow Earthlings.
As Arthur walked out the gate, an unfamiliar guard looked at him and Lucas sceptically before asking tentatively, “If you’ll be hunting monsters as you said, won't you both be in need of a weapon?”
Arthur blinked before realising that he’d been a complete idiot. He had completely forgotten that Lucas was definitely not going to be able to finish off any monsters with his fists alone, the monsters now were far too strong for that. This meant, ultimately, that the only way for the boy to do any damage to monsters was to provide him with the aid of a sharp weapon, or any force multiplier really.
The only issue with that was that Arthur was not quite sure where to get one. So, he asked the guard, “Ah yes, you're right. Do you happen to know where it is that I can get a decent weapon for my grandson?”
The guard smiled nervously before replying, “Oh, it's no problem. Uhm if you need a weapon for the boy, I recommend just buying one from the system coin shop. The shop doesn’t sell anything particularly incredible, obviously, but any of their wares will serve as great starting weapons for the kid.”
Arthur nodded thankfully. He now felt like a bit of an idiot for not thinking of the system coin shop as a potential source of weapons up till now, but he guessed it was better he was reminded of it right now rather than thinking about it in the middle of an encounter with a deadly monster. So, he brought up the system coin shop with a glance and selected the Weaponry shop, A new system prompt appeared, and he focused on its contents.
General (Weaponry) Coin Shop:
Balance: £61,590
Discount Due to Membership Tier (Gold): 40%
[F] Iron Sword (1) - Cost: £115 -> £69
[F] Iron Spear (1) - Cost: £85 -> £51
[F] Iron Dagger (1) – Cost: £56 -> £34
[E] Steel Sword (1) - Cost: £380 -> £228
[E] Steel Spear (1) – Cost: £310 -> £186
[E] Steel Dagger (1) – Cost: £285 -> £171
[D] Enhanced Steel Sword (1) - Cost: £1,960 -> £1,176
[D] Enhanced Steel Spear (1) – Cost: £1820 -> £1,092
[D] Enhanced Steel Dagger (1) – Cost: £1500 -> £900
[C] Spirit Weapon (Any Type) (1) – Cost: £35,950 -> £21570
Arthur looked at Lucas quizzically before asking, “Say, my boy, what kind of weapon would you want?”
The boy seemed to think about it for a second, before he excitedly said, “Machine gun!”
Arthur chuckled before saying, “Unfortunately my boy, you are limited to choose between a Spear, Sword, and Dagger.”
The boy seemed a bit dejected upon that answer, but eventually decided, “Spear please, Grandpa.”
Arthur nodded then purchased the Enhanced Steel Spear, figuring that it was probably best to kit Lucas out the best he reasonably could without breaking the bank.
A second later, a swooshing sound made Arthur step back, and soon a wooden pole tipped off with a very sharp-looking steel point dropped from the sky and thudded against the dirt ground.
Lucas excitedly reached down and picked it up, holding it in his hands with his signature childish awe and amazement. And Arthur too was quite impressed, as the spear looked rather sharp and high-quality, so much so that even he, as a layman, understood the weapon was very good for its value.
“Remember to be careful with the spear my boy. I don’t want you cutting either yourself, me, or anyone else, Is that understood?” Arthur said sternly, seeing the potential for many such accidents in the future thanks to the blade’s high sharpness.
“Yes, Grandpa.”
And, with that, the two set off into the forest. Arthur had Lucas follow very closely behind him, and fortunately, or perhaps not, it didn’t take too long until they encountered a monster.
The creature, which looked to be a flaming stag, stood proudly over a hundred metres in front of the two. Arthur gestured to Lucas for him to stay where he was, and the boy complied.
Arthur then rushed towards the flaming stag, alerting it to his presence. However, the monster didn’t run upon noticing him, instead, its antlers lit red before it then fired a large fireball at the approaching Arthur.
Arthur dodged the fireball and was on the stag in less than 2 seconds. Once he was close enough, he delivered a full-powered punch to the side of the monster after deflecting an attempt at a slash from the stag with its antlers.
The stag staggered backwards, before falling, Arthur’s punch having seemingly created a crater in its side. Arthur called out, “Lucas, please come here and finish off the monster.”
Lucas carefully meandered over, a smile on his face, but internally he was somewhat disappointed. Sure, he was looking forward to levelling up and being power levelled was certainly less risky, but really, he was kind of looking forward to doing a bit of real fighting today. Something deep within him demanded the adrenaline rush of a real fight, the painful but rewarding dance with death, and the incredible thrill and release of finally being able to unleash all of his pent-up emotions and strength.
However, that didn’t stop him from happily plunging his new spear into the throat of the stag and easily getting his first kill prompt.
You have aided in killing a [Pest] Fire Elemental Stag (Lvl:39)!
Reward: 6,490 EXP
You have levelled up! (x3)!
Stat Point(s) awarded: 9.
New Level: 3
Progress to Next Level: 490/4,000
“So did you level up?” Arthur asked a distracted and distant Lucas, bringing his attention back to the real world.
“Oh yes, 3 times, Grandpa.” Lucas finally replied, his focus still on the incredible rush of a strange ethereal power entering him. The feeling of it coursing through his veins was almost indescribable in terms of just how foreign but at the same time incredible it felt. Though, he was slightly confused as to what this strange new energy was but guessed it could be the feeling of levelling up, or perhaps it was related to how he'd felt after he'd fought and killed that zombie the first time.
“Very good. How about you distribute your newly gained stat points and we can move on to the next monster, hmm?”
Lucas nodded, though his eyes were squarely focused on the prompt he had just received.
You have reached the 2nd step of the [Lesser Devil] realm!
Reward: +1 Spiritual Point
Lucas couldn’t help but feel slightly proud at his advancement in cultivation, but then realised his grandfather was waiting for him so he did as the man said and distributed his stat points. 5 points going into his physical stat and 4 into his Spiritual stat.
He then brought up both his physical and spiritual point shop and smiled. He first decided to distribute his 5 physical points, 2 points going into his Muscle Strength, 2 points going into his Bone Strength, and the last point going into improving his Organ function. His physical perks ended up looking pretty good.
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Bone Strength (Lvl:6 -> Lvl:7) | Cost: 1 Physical Point
Organ Function (Lvl:5 -> Lvl:6) | Cost: 1 Physical Point
Muscle Strength (Lvl:7 -> Lvl:8) | Cost: 1 Physical Point
Tough Skin (Lvl:3->Lvl:4) | Cost: 7 Physical Points
Then, he shifted his eyes over to the spiritual point shop and he was far less confident as to what to do. He felt like asking his grandfather would not be possible as he doubted that non-demonic cultivators had the perk “Qi Corruption”, so to keep his secret he was going to just have to trust his instincts and do a little experimenting. After a minute or so of consideration, he decided to use his 5 points to raise all of his 3 basic Spiritual perks to level 2 and smiled as he looked at his list of perks.
Qi Absorption (Lvl:2 -> Lvl:3) | Cost: 1 Spiritual Point
Qi Corruption (Lvl:2 -> Lvl:3) | Cost: 1 Spiritual Point
Qi Condensing (Lvl:2 -> Lvl:3) | Cost: 1 Spiritual Point
Veil of Anonymity (Lvl:1->Lvl:2) | Cost: 35 Spiritual Points
“All finished Grandpa,” Lucas said, genuinely smiling up at the man.
Arthur smiled back at him, and said, “Alright then, let’s find you your next monster.”
Lucas shifted nervously before asking, “Can we perhaps find a weaker monster so that I can do some of the fighting? I know it's dangerous but I'll be careful and I think being able to fight monsters well will help me.”
Arthur froze for a moment, before sighing and responding, “Perhaps. Though I do not suspect there will be many weak monsters nearby, if we see some, I’ll think about letting you fight them without so much of my assistance.”
Lucas’ mind heard that as a yes and, in his happiness, he ran over to his grandfather and hugged him tightly.
Arthur felt his heart melt as he returned the hug with his grandson. For just a moment, the world was normal. Arthur was just your everyday grandfather taking care of his grandson, with nothing else on his mind. Of course, the time quickly passed, as the good moments in and amongst the chaos of this new world always did, but Arthur swore to himself that he’d never forget this moment, for it was truly one of the best moments in recent memory.
Lucas unlatched himself from his grandfather, a slight look of embarrassment on his face, but also happiness. The boy had needed a hug and it looked like he had gotten what he needed, which Arthur could not have been more pleased to see. He smiled down at the boy and said, “Alright, let’s get moving then.”
The two walked for another half an hour before they spotted another monster off in the distance. This one was a wolf, but it was almost 10x the size of the average wolf. Its four was mostly pitch black with streaks of blood-red fur running across its body, and its rotten-looking teeth were dripping with what looked to be some kind of acid that sizzled all that it fell onto.
Arthur quickly adopted a defensive stance, his body and mind vividly recalling his first few hours after unlocking the system. Yet, even so, the monster in front of them was far larger than even the alpha he had fought back then, which indicated it would also be more powerful and thus even more deadly.
The wolf had already picked up on their scent prior to their spotting of it as it was running towards them at a meteoric speed.
“Stay far back!” Arthur shouted to Lucas, as he prepared to face the monster in melee – which he very well knew wasn’t a good idea. However, he didn't have much of a choice, so readied himself to take the monster head-on - hoping his recent boosts to not only his physical state but also to his cultivation would help keep him on an even footing with this new threat.
The wolf leapt at Arthur upon reaching a close enough distance, and Arthur didn’t hesitate to flood his body with Qi and deliver two punches to the side of the wolf’s head. He had been practising his qi channelling ever since he came to understand its presence all around him, and he'd discovered quite quickly that by channelling his qi he could momentarily boost the power of his attacks.
The effects of channelling his qi showed as his blows sent the wolf off flying course and crashing into the dirt next to Arthur. Arthur rushed to keep the wolf’s attention on him by delivering a series of debilitating blows, trying to keep the wolf unable to resist his attacks. However, a claw swipe that dug deep into his flesh made Arthur stumble back, and the wolf just about managed to scramble to its feet.
Yet, Arthur had definitely got the monster’s attention to focus solely on him as the wolf monster’s eyes were now full of fury and killing intent that screamed at Arthur that his running away at this point would be pointless. This monster wanted to kill him, it was almost written on the monster's soul, visible through its eyes, and there was nothing the monster wouldn’t do to achieve that goal, which meant Arthur needed to kill it otherwise he would end up being the one killed.
The wolf charged at him again, its disgusting salivating maw gnashing its sharp teeth as it approached. Though Arthur’s mobility was severely restricted by the gashes across his legs, his willpower and strength certainly weren’t, so after once again filling his body with Qi, he began a perhaps ill-advised wrestling competition with the giant wolf creature.
However, to both his and the monster’s surprise, the tactic worked, and the wolf creature was unable to overpower him. The battle then became a life and death scrum with both sides trying to push the other backwards, however, with neither seeming able to get the edge on the other. The whole spectacle would have looked incredibly unreal if seen by the average person before the system, but to Arthur, this was very real, in the sense that he was both living it and he could feel the bones in the wolf’s paws as he held them out in front of him and kept them from harming him.
The wolf tried using its mouth to bite at Arthur’s arms and thus escape, but Arthur was always countered by moving its legs in front of its mouth – daring it to bite down into its own appendages. However, the monster didn’t seem to be that stupid, and so now was desperately trying to break free of the man’s grasp using sheer force, but Arthur was equally desperately trying to maintain his grip. After all, the stalemate was far better in his mind than risking either he or Lucas getting more viciously wounded.
The stalemate was soon broken, however, as a small figure appeared in between the two, and before either one could move, Lucas thrust his spear up and into the wolf’s gullet – the sharpness of the spear’s point combined with the boy’s strength allowing it to penetrate through the monster’s thick skin.
Blood spurted all over Lucas as he kept making slashes in the monster’s neck. Soon enough, Arthur felt the strength of the monster entirely dissipate as it collapsed to the side. However, he brushed all thoughts of the fight with the monster aside as he looked down at the boy in front of him, drenched in wolf’s blood, back burning with acid and feeling sheer and utter horror.
Arthur picked the boy up and quickly placed him back down again far away from the wolf’s dead body.
“I told you to stay far back! Did you not remember your promise?!” Arthur said, and though he very much tried to modulate his tone towards calm and authoritative, failing this, it very much came out like angry and authoritative.
Lucas sniffled, before replying in a kiddish cry, “I know, I just wanted to help. And it worked, didn’t it?”
Arthur sighed, his resolve being dissolved by the painful whimpering of the boy in front of him, and he said calmly and softly, “It doesn’t matter to me whether it worked or not my boy. The goal of today is not to make you into some prime monster hunter but to give you the skills and levels you need to survive, because surviving this whole mess is the only thing that this grandpa of yours cares about. Hence my instructions. Is that understood?”
The boy nodded. Arthur sighed, before bringing up the General medicine store and bought a load of [F] grade healing pills and fed one to Lucas. He took one himself, even though he knew that his incredible bodily healing perk would probably soon have him healed up in no time regardless. However, the pills were far more worthwhile for Lucas, and Arthur couldn’t help but feel relieved as he saw the wounds on Lucas’ back vanish.
Once both of them healed they soon both looked at their system prompts. Arthur skimmed over his prompts with a raised eyebrow, concern growing in his mind.
You have aided in killing a [Pest] Acid-Elemental Wolf Alpha (Lvl:59)!
(Note from User Manual: Aiding in killing a monster is not the same as killing a monster by yourself, as such, the exp and other rewards are distributed proportionate to how much you contributed to the downfall of the monster in question.)
Reward: 14,490 EXP & +1 Stat Point
You have levelled up!
Stat Point(s) Awarded: 6.
Skill Point(s) awarded: 4.
New Level: 45
Progress to Next Level: 2,112/130,000
Arthur was certain that the wolf he had just fought was the highest-level monster he’d faced so far, with very few monsters even coming close to the creature’s level. This was concerning as he wondered just how high the monsters’ levels would grow over time and whether or not soon, they would plateau.
He hoped for the sake of Earth that the time of the plateau was coming, but his conversation with Oliver had informed him that it was technically possible for monsters to grow beyond level 1000, so it seemed at least possible that monsters could technically grow more and more powerful ad infinitum as time passed if there wasn’t any intervention to stop it. The thought was just terrifying to Arthur.
While Arthur pondered the future of Earth, Lucas was just trying to keep himself from screaming as the flood of energy that had started pouring into him after he’d helped kill the wolf kept on ramping up in intensity. He had barely been able to focus on reading his system prompts, as he felt something within him ravenously feast on this flood energy – releasing the pressure on him somewhat, but it was nowhere near fast enough.
It must have been 6 minutes before the energy finally stopped and Lucas finally relaxed, unknowingly panting heavily due to the exertion he’d put his body through to try and contain all of the energy. However, after finally reading the system messages that he had received minutes earlier, he started to figure out answers to the question of what the hell was that – though he had already had his suspicions.
You have aided in killing a [Pest] Acid-Elemental Wolf Alpha (Lvl:59)!
Reward: 34,651 EXP
You have levelled up! (x5) Quintuple Level up Special!
Stat Point(s) awarded: 25.
New Level: 8
Progress to Next Level: 6,241/9,000
You have REACHED the FIRST Level Milestone [Lvl:5]!
Reward: +5 Stat Points
You have acquired a skill: [Basic] Spear Mastery (Lvl:1)!
Your skill: [Basic] Spear Mastery, has levelled up!
Your skill: [Basic] Spear Mastery, has levelled up!
You have reached the 3rd step of the [Lesser Devil] realm!
You have reached the 7th step of the [Lesser Devil] realm!
Reward: +5 Spiritual Point
(Metamorphosis 0.1% Complete)
Lucas now guessed that the energy that had surged through him must have been Qi and the thing that had been eating away at it, his core. It seemed that when he killed a monster, he then absorbed their Qi, as indicated by the Qi absorption perk. Then he corrupted it, as indicated by the Qi corruption perk. Then he condensed it via the condensing perk. Regardless of the process, however, he knew he was getting stronger. He could feel the effects of his increased cultivation within his very bones.
Yet, before he could freak out about the metamorphosis thing, or think about what he was going to do with his 30 freely assignable stat points, a giant system prompt appeared to him, and judging by his grandfather’s face, to him also.
A DUNGEON HAS SPAWNED NEARBY!
Information:
Name: UNKOWN
Level: UNKNOWN
Rewards: UNKNOWN
Distance from User: 10 Kilometres North West