Waking up in front of the bonfire’s flames caused Noah to sigh. A battle for survival daily would be hell for him to get used to. He didn’t even get the ego boost of having an ability to show he could do this—just constant representations of why he was destined to die. Moving back to a sitting position, Noah opened his menu to see his rewards from the fight.
His stats had the simple powerup option since that goblin gave enough power for one improvement, he could even boost his energy now that he knew about it. But now he had two new skills added to his list:
[survival-minimum: To live is to overcome adversity]
[Death defying-minimum: for someone who comes close to death on a regular basis. They learn how to persist through conditions that would end the lives of lesser men.]
Death defying was an interesting thing. Was that because he managed to keep himself from dying when his guts were about to fall out of his body? Despite how he got that skill, it seemed that skills didn’t seem to give any bonus, just from what the system deigned to be a skill. From the fact that none of his skills that had no abstract connection to combat became skills, the god had designed the world’s system to entirely revolve around combat.
“Shitty god set up a world to glorify combat. If he didn’t bring monsters for the humans to fight. He definitely caused constant wars.” Adam griped as he activated the prompt to turn his unspent power into energy storage. Immediately he felt something inside himself solidify into a container.
[ambient energy available: 100]
That was a new prompt. But it showed that he had a limited amount of energy to work with. He wished the tutorial was a little more forgiving. Since one power could store ten energy. He expected he couldn’t do much with the hundred he was given.
“Stingy bastard. Fine. let’s see what I can do with it.” Noah muttered seeing if he could instinctually draw the ambient energy that the prompt identified. He closed his eyes as did everyone who tried to focus and soon began to feel the energy around him. Like the power that persisted on him after a fight, but weaker. But this time he guided the energy into the container that he recently forged and it quickly filled up.
Holding the sword that was his only path to power in front of him he focused, imagining the energy as streams of light moving down his arm and into the weapon. Even with this minimal amount, he felt his sword light up in his new sensory vision? Thinking about how he could visualize the energy was going to confuse him if he thought too long on it. But as his side tangent died, he opened his eyes to find a new rune on the sword.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
[Greater parry inscribed: when you need to change the result of one strike, your sword will aid you in creating opportunity.]
Well from what greater parry was described, it either parried for him or would manipulate his own ability to deflect an attack with his sword to get a better outcome. It wasn’t too bad, but without good sword skills, it would be limited. Especially since he needed power.
“Damnit. Well, I need to head out again in order to keep surviving. If I stay here long enough all I’d do is go insane.” Noah announced, getting up and holding his sword in his right hand. The shield was still barely holding together, but since he had nothing else to put in his left hand, he only grumbled and walked out of the room.
Seeing the goblin waiting for him like it had the last three times caused him to think, if he could bait out a lunge, he could probably use his treater parry to throw the goblin off. He would have his shield protecting his vitals so if his idea failed spectacularly (which was more likely than he’d like to admit), he would only at most severely damage his arm.
He acted cautious, advancing toward the goblin. As always, it was looking at him with pure hatred, his curse making sure he would face the enemy at their most dangerous. His sword was raised in preparation for the goblin’s advance, and when it launched at him, he swung at its hatchet. With his greater parry activating, he was guided to twist his wrist and swing his blade straight down at the last moment, forcing the hatchet to hit the ground and chip from the force.
Noah didn’t stop there however, with the goblin overextended and surprised at the damage of its weapon, he swung back up and left a large gash in the creature’s body. Not wanting to let it recover, he punched the goblin with his shield, stunning it enough for him to stab the wretched thing for a final blow.
Looking at it, he realized how weak the goblin truly was now. With one attack he had managed to have the gobline reeling long enough to both stagger it and finish it off without it reacting. “To think I’m such a weakling that I almost lost my life to one of these.” he mused out loud. As the thing stared in horror as he pulled his sword out, blood gushing everywhere as it quickly died, he noticed that his attention was drawn to the hatchet shard as his sword began to vibrate.
“Another achievement” Noah quickly pitched up the fragment of the hatchet and placed it up to his sword, where it was absorbed into the sword like the goblin ear.
[First perfect kill recorded: weapon power boost available. Grant energy to the sword to increase it’s effectiveness]
Seeing the notification, he headed back to the bonfire room to rest. He felt giddiness from the fact he had killed an enemy without taking a hit. Even if it was a fluke it meant he could get stronger. “I’ll make it out of here yet you bastard.”