The mist got thicker again, this time the shadows came faster and were bigger. From high up the tree, a voice girly gave of a warning: “There’s five opponents. Looks like some kind of little humans. Be careful.” Goblins was the first enemy that came in Jin’s head when he heard her vague description. As they got closer he saw that his assumption was correct. Five little green monsters ran at the hut. They had a pretty dark green skin with a crooked nose and pointy ears. The little monsters who didn’t even reach Jin’s hips were charging at him in a V-formation. In the middle was the leader, easily to notice. He was the only one with a leather shoulder pat and a big kitchen knife. The others had rough bats from wood.
Jin grabbed one of the nails and placed it between his two fingers as if it was a cigarette. With a deadly precision he exerted the right amount of pressure on the metal object. It pierced through the air opening up a small vortex in the mist. The leader goblin fell to the ground without making a sound. The remaining four didn’t even seem to notice. As the biggest threat was gone Jin now charged in himself. With two hand-sized teeth from the previous enemies, one in each hand he attacked.
Lea could see him from up the tree slaughtering the little human shaped figures like it was nothing. In her head Lea was certain that they were humans but she couldn’t see it because of the mist. She thought about what he had gone through for him to kill those humans things without even feeling anything. It only took him a couple of seconds before he cleared the wave.
“Wave 2 completed. 1:30 time remaining for wave 3/10 to start.” Lea could see him spreading the bodies over the grass. “This might become a problem.” Jin shouted to her. “Why?” she answered. He looked up and began explaining: “If we compare wave 1 and 2 and keep up that level of increasing in difficulty, wave 7 and onward would be equal to a low ranked demon. Maybe 10 would already be a low rank section boss.” What the actual fuck does that mean? Lea thought. “That doesn’t sound very good. When do you think I’ll have to use the lantern?” “Maybe the sixth one. I don’t want to risk it.”
The new wave started. Lea scanned the shadows and reported to Jin: “10 entities, two groups, five front five back. Same things like last round.” Jin heard her and embraced himself. The front group stepped inside his vision. This time all of them were equipped with knives and leather armor. Before they could even see Jin in the hut three of them already lost their life by a rusted nail right in the eyeballs. The last two of the frontal attack died bye a kitchen knife. It was the exact same type as they held. One of them still managed to twist its head around to look how his throat had been opened up. There stood a man with glowing, blue eyes. His face was covered in blood.
Five more goblins arrived from behind the hut. A fire was burning in their eyes, adrenaline mixed with revenge. Jin slowly picked up the five knives and sat down looking at the little monsters. He then started to darts with moving targets. “Game on”, Jin murmured to himself. He placed his hands in front of his eyes and started his attack. Five projectiles flew through the night. Scream of pain marked his points. They all fell to the ground. “180, maximum. The winner is… Jin.” He shouted with a smile. The message of the wave being cleared came up again. “Whoa, that was intense! Remind me to never challenge you to a game of darts. But seriously, where did you even learn to throw like that. It was pretty disgusting though.” A bit flustered by receiving a compliment he searched for an excuse: “Oh just picked it up from some friends.” “Really?” she said, “That’s amazing, can you teach me later?” “Sure, but lets focus on what’s important right now.”
Wave five had started. It opened its three eyes and looked around. Kill! Kill! Kill! The words echoed through every corner of its mind. It swallowed its common sense and made him go into a state of rampage. He could smell blood from nearby. The scent was extremely strong. Without any control over its body he stormed towards the source of the scent. Behind the woods he had just passed through a little hut with corpses spread around it unveiled itself. In hopes of finding a creature to satisfy his thirst for killing it scanned the place.
There it was, a human, sitting on the ground leaning against the small building with a pile of knives next to him. Kill! Kill! Kill! The voice repeated. The man looked at him with his eyes half-closed. “What do we have here?” he whispered to himself, “A mutated orc? This better be a bug because this is not a relevant image of how monsters in the tower function for the kids.” He got up and grabbed two knives from the pile next to him. It couldn’t handle the urge anymore and charged in. With big and fast footsteps it ran at the little human in front of him. It balled its hands into fists as strong as rocks and attacked. “Missed!” the man said. He was right, he had missed. In that fraction of a second the man had moved exactly enough distance to get out of his range. Rage filled it as he started to launch attack after attack.
Stolen story; please report.
“Wow, you’re quite a useless one aren’t you? I bet you couldn’t even toss a coin into a fountain and actually make a wish!” Kill! Kill! Kill! Once again the words took over his existence. He could feel the power surge through his veins. He tried to hit the man again. His fist flew with twice the amount of strength and speed. Even if it was only for a split second it saw the change.
Inside the man’s eyes two little lights flickered, then he disappeared. His fist didn’t hit anything. “That’s enough. You’re not supposed to have mana. Something’s wrong with this program.” It could feel two feet on its shoulders. All of a sudden he felt something cold and his vision started to rotate. The last thing it saw was the misty moonlight shining into its eyes before landing on the ground. Jin looked how the head of the mutated enemy flew of its neck and fell on the ground.
The thing had used mana on his last blow to strengthen it. This shouldn’t have been possible as it would be harmful to the soul of the enemy and might’ve actually killed him in real life. In rare cases monsters would mutate, they would kill everything they saw and gain additional power the more they did that. Luckily it was an orc and hadn’t killed anything yet.
“Wave 5/10 cleared”, the message said. Jin looked at his teammate again and shouted: “Lea use the fire next wave okay? I think something is wrong with the system. After you throw it down and the wave is cleared climb down okay? I can’t promise you anything but this might actually become dangerous.” “Alright, I got this!” she shouted back to him.
A while passed by before wave 6 started. Ten normal orcs charged at the hut thinking there was an enemy inside. When all of them had entered the hut, Jin closed the door. They started to drum against the door with full force but Jin held on. “Now Lea!” A ball of light fell from ten meters high right on top of the roof. Flames started to spreading a circular pattern. Jin had sprinkled his hair in a strategic way so that it would burn down the entire thing and trap the enemies under the infrastructure. He placed several planks against the door and hammered them into the ground with his wounded hand, then he sat down at a nearby tree.
“Damn , that looks extremely cruel. You really planned all of this in such a short period of time”, Lea said. She had climbed down from her spot and was now sitting next to Jin with a wide smile on her face. She continued, now teasing him: “You look disgusting with all that blood covering your face.” Jin saw the opportunity and got back at her: “Well even with all of that I’m not as scary as someone. The first time I saw you in the hospital I almost went back into a coma because you’re that scary. I also almost mistook you for one of the monsters when you came here.” She looked at him with a faked mad expression, then she busted out in laughter. “Fuck man, you’re actually making me doubt myself. At least I’m not in a wheelchair in real life unlike someone”, she said. Jin gave her a little smile before he focused back on the scene.
Big flames had started to eat away the structure. From inside you could hear the screams of the orcs. Lea looked at Jin who was staring at the hut with a smile. There was this feeling she wanted to get rid of. Whenever she looked at him she noticed how much she admired him. He was like an idol. She had done absolutely nothing for him but he had helped her out so much. She wished she could be more useful to him in some way. “You’re amazing and you should know that,” she said, “ is there any possibility you could train me? I just want to repay the favors I owe you but I’m to weak. When I came to this school I expected to be one of the strongest but after watching you I realized I’m lacking. Please teach me how to work with that weapon you recommended me before.” “Return the favor?” he said, “You don’t own me any favors though and if you want me to help you with training in the art of the jian I’ll have apologize. You’ll have to find your own way through that. The only thing I can teach you is how to control the steel and how to think. Becoming stronger begins with knowing how.”
Lea looked at him with a sad expression. “That sounds alright. By the way, why are you in a wheelchair in the real realm?” Jin explained the plain crash and that both his legs’ bones were shattered into splinters. They talked on for a while until the screams faded. “Wave 6 completed. Because of the administrator’s command: *PUNISHMENT* wave 7, 8, 9 and 10 will be merged into one. Wave X will start in 10:00 minutes”, the message said. “What the fuck is this?!” Lea shouted after reading it.
After taking a deep breath Jin focused on Lea who was flipping: “We don’t have time to panic. Get up and go collect every usable weapon we have. The thing we’re about to faze will be a complete monster. Go!” Lea got up and sprinted around the little field surrounded by woods, gathering all knives and nails she could find.
Fuck, if we look at the strength growth every wave from wave 1 to 6 and add that 4 times on 10 orcs. This is also a punishment so if I’m right they’ll add the growth up to each other. That would be the same as a wave 16. 16 would mean it’s the same as the tutorial boss of the tower. What was that again? Who guarded the 10th floor? I don’t remember. Jin took a deep breath and calmed down. Fuck it, just focus and think. We still have the fire, we can use it. Something explosive, we need something explosive. Saltpeter? If I use that with other chemicals it’ll make a great explosion. How did you get saltpeter again? Leach decomposed soil into water collecting the liquid and evaporating it. If I than add garlic for sulfur and charcoal from the burning hut it should create a gunpowder.
“Lea quickly go gather decomposed soil and leach it in water!” She looked over her shoulder and nodded before leaving into the misty forest. Jin also got up and started to go search for wild garlic.