In the joyful morning, Aiban is still on his bed, sleeping with his saliva leaking on his mouth and snoring like a giant. While in the other room, Eichi has already woken up and is watching reels from his favorite social media app.
While he is watching some random videos, his mind is wandering around. His heart is full of envious based on the media he consumed online.
When would I get some muscles? I’m 17 years old but still no girls are proposing to me! My body looks like a twig compared to online influencers I’m following.
He puts his phone down and closed his eyes to rest for a while. He memorized some moments in his life.
Cringe Memories
4 YEARS AGO, INSIDE OF THE LOCAL GYM ON PAOMBONG BULACAN
In the gym, it’s full of bodybuilders with a ripped muscle. Whether it’s a man or woman, they are lifting weights. The whole place is being surrounded by the smell of a sweat.
While in the corner of the gym, Eichi is being surrounded by his four school bullies.
“Urgh... M... My body cannot handle 5kg weight for 5 minutes!” Eichi stumbled on the floor and he threw out the dumbbell. His body trembles as he fell.
Every bully in front of him laugh at him, pointing their fingers. “Is that a real guy? Your body cannot even handle 5kg dumbbell?!”
“I think a mild typhoon is enough to get your body threw by the nature! You’re such a loser!”
“Why you should not cut your hanging bangs that covering your left eye? It blinds you from the reality! Haha!”
Every bully laughs at him. Most of novice body builders in the gym also make fun of Eichi while ripped off guys keep silent.
I wish... I was born with a perfect genetic! Even I eat the whole protein in the world, my body is still like this.
As his poor body is lying on the floor, his tears are dropping to the ground. One of the bully grabs a scissor from his body bag. That bully names Warren.
Warren approaches Eichi with a sharp lip, holding a scissor. His face is a few inches from Eichi’s bangs. “This shouldn’t hurt if I cut your precious hair.”
His tears flow faster when he feels the hot breath from Warren’s words. “E... Everything but for my bangs. That thing who tells who I am!”
Within a second he talked, the bully swayed his scissor that aimed at Eichi’s bangs.
Eichi got an adrenaline boost, despite of his tired body, he managed to dodge his head. The bully damaged his bangs, just a bit.
As he is closing his eyes, daydreaming about his body weakness, he woke up from it with his heart pounding like a drum. His face is full of despair, a tear soaked his pillow.
I’m stuck on this body. A body that everyone humiliates!
After some moments, he heard his room’s door is opening.
“Just another sleepover to my friend. It’s such a pleasant experience!” Aiban tells his friend while he is yawning.
“We’ve just reached lv. 10 grinding 3 hours straight! Those goats are so monotonous to beat,” Eichi replied.
“But we’ve already reached the level capping where we must complete this ascension domain or else our earned XPs are useless!”
“Wait... Did you already distribute your skill points? As far... As I... Know, the system gives us 3 skill points every time we level up.”
Aiban’s Stats
< Elemental Mastery: 25 >
< Alpine DMG Bonus: 4>
< Elemental Recharge: 1 >
Eichi’s Stats
< Magic: 20 >
< Elemental Recharge: 5 >
< Forest DMG Bonus: 5>
“What should we do now, Aiban? Complete the ascension domain to get further on our grinding journey?”
Aiban nods to his friend. He opens the handbook interface and chooses the ascension domain to teleport to it.
Teleports
The two boys got teleported to a strange location. Turns out that they are inside of a domain and they are standing on the round platform with a barrier to avoid accidental fall to the ground.
, In the center of the platform is a big orange holographic padlock.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
“Again?” Aiban Scratched his head.
He activates the padlock, and a system pops up.
< This domain needs four player team to start. Do you want to start matchmaking for vacant team slots and start the battle? >
He clicks the confirmation button, and the matchmaking begins.
< Cairelle Joined the Game >
< Kuni Joined the Game >
The two players spawn in front of them. A player named Cairelle is a girl who have a long orange hair and a curtain bangs. She has an average body build. Her weapon is a bow and an element of desert.
Her cosplay costume is from his favorite childhood cartoon wearing a skirt with a non-revealing but feminine torso clothes.
While Kuni is a boy who has a classic clean haircut and a brown hair, representing his simplistic lifestyle. He has a semi-muscular build. He has a weapon of sword with a shield and an element of the ocean.
His costume is his original character that’s loves to protect. He has a white resilience armor covering his entire body.
“I’m so excited about this thrilling battle!” Cairelle tells everyone with a smile on his lips.
Stage 1/2: Defeat 1 Elite Opponent
Enemy: Tree Giant
Element: Forest
HP: 34,000/34,000
Forest Element Applied to Opponent’s Body
A tree spawned in front of them. A smell of stinky smoke goes thru their nostril, putting an unpleasant reaction to their face. Everyone puts their finger to their own nose.
After a while, a humanoid giant beast with a hair on their body spawned. The beast has a big ripped body that makes everyone in the battlefield stepped back.
A loud cracking noise from the tree and giant makes their sweat drops like a waterfall.
“Roar!” the tree giant shouts, the ears of the cosplayers inside of this domain stand out.
Eichi grabs his tome. He steps back further from the frontline and opens the book. Eichi holds the open tome in his left hand and points his right hand at the enemy. “Second Elemental Skill: Academic Support!”
Kuni goes forward to the giant, holding his white shield with a symbol of protection sign and activates his third elemental skill. “Defense for All!”
During this time, Aiban and Cairelle are in between of the two supports. They holding their weapons, aimed at the head of the giant.
“Cairelle, we should trigger the alpine, forest and ocean elemental reaction!”
“Understood, my comrade!”
Aiban rushed to the enemy with a full confidence. His sword is on his hands with a full grip.
“Elemental Burst!” His sword formed a circle-shaped slice to the opponent, cutting its limbs off. The cut limbs turn to a glitched holograph and disappeared in a digital way.
Aerotree
After the elemental reaction, an animation of sparkling small leaves beside of the opponent’s body appeared. The enemy dealt a 50HP/s continuous damage for 20 seconds.
“I’m so glad this system doesn’t have gore, or it would scare me to death,” Kuni shouts with a doubt.
HP: 19,000/34,000
“I would never let you win, mortals!” The giant shouts and punched his own chest.
“The Wrath of Trees!” The tree monster raised his two hands, aimed at Kuni. The creature’s fist closed up, smiling at him.
“Tch!” Kuni’s jaw drops at what he saw. His sweat is soaking his body armor. He is staring at the elite opponent, watching its fist going to hit his face.
His eyes widened out as he stares. A feeling of emptiness consumed his confidence to protect.
“Charged Attack: Scholar’s Willpower!” Eichi launched a five small elemental particles from his right fingers. It flies toward to the opponent’s body and a shield appears in front of Kuni, negating the giant’s buffed attack.
Passive Skill: When launched a direct attack skill, summon a shield if the ally team is under attack.
Kuni steps back to plan his next action.
The opponent bow his head, it stops from attacking.
Cairelle disarm his bow. “Aiban, you should trigger the specified reaction first before I attack. Do it better now, before the desert element that Kuni applied before runs out.”
My burst is still on cooldown. I hope this skill will be enough!
He rushed forward, gripping on his sword with his two hands. He leaps out, his blade going to slice the enemy in half.
AeroTree
“Academic Support Switch Healing!” Eichi shouts, holding his glowing tome that activates his 4th elemental skill.
A few minutes later, the platform shakes, making every person in it panicked. They put their both hands on the top of their head to protect themselves.
The shaking of the platform stops. They look in the front, turns out that a new boss has appeared. It’s a holographic exclamation mark with a text besides of it.
During the boss fight generation progress, Kuni goes to the back line where Eichi is staying.
“It would be alright, Kuni!” He smiled to his teammate, encouraging him to face his fear.
Kuni was shocked at how Eichi behaves in front of him. He had a strong urge to ask a question. “Why are you such a jerk before and now? You’re so kind to your comrades?”
“That’s not your problem. As much as my time and money are sufficient, I will do anything to help others.”
Enemy Name: Moon-Eating Serpent
Element: Physical/Element-less
HP: 50,000/50,000
Everyone goes back when they saw a serpent spawning from the ground. It has a thick tooth that can pierce any skin in an instant. Its eyes are gold and the body is blue.
Kuni hugs Eichi’s body in an instant. Despite of its awkwardness, his fear pushed him to do it so. “Oh, our support. I’m so scared! T... Th... The teeth are so creepy! I think my heart would explode out of fear.”
His tears are dropping to the ground. While Eichi is patting the shoulder of his teammate.
Just be careful about touching my costume. I would kick you out of the party if you ruined it.
How disgusting! Why I hug such a jerk person? This is how my phobia ruined my life! Gross!
As Kuni is hugging, Eichi holds his tome and put his hand above Kuni’s back. “You should think out of the box. Staying in your comfort zone will make you helpless.”
“Elemental Skill: Academic Encouragement!” His cosplay costume glows a green light
Those lights pierce on Kuni’s body. A surge of confidence to fight his fears flow through his veins.
Confidence (CFD): +30%
Kuni’s fist clenching without his consciousness noticing it. His eyes are sharp, looking at the serpent. He rushed forward with a shield in front of him.
“Now, fight me! I’m here to shield my team. Fear is just a piece of chemical reaction on my brain. Therefore, I won’t let a piece of biological stuffs take me down!”