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I'm fed up with the lack of APs. I'll hunt monsters until I'm over level twenty.
"Skills like?"
Peter's eyes shone with hope. "Will I be able to throw Fireballs? Wind blades? Creating water inside a monster to choke it? Lightning, like that Culti—"
"Is Sonic loud?"
Nodding, Peter entered the woods. Now that he knew better, it was a vast place. Many forested places in North America were infested by monsters, the towns islands and the roads the bridges between. With his movement ability, he could cover a lot of terrain, so he profited, and improvised. Warping up, he transported himself forward until he saw the moon reflected in the water. Newfound Lake. A place where the second-stage students went to hunt.
Uncertain about his ability to land safely from a few hundred feet height, he activated the skill to get to a lesser altitude. He missed the shore and splashed into the lake. It was cold and unpleasant, but to his enhanced body, just a mild uncomfortable sensation. He swam to the shore, near a former pier, now abandoned.
"You mean that if I stand still when I engage Warp, I don't move forward when I arrive?"
Amazing... Now let's find some monsters, Peter thought, approaching the tree line. That was easier said than done. There was no lack of monsters, but the normal jackalopes and wargs ran away from him, filling the woods with rustling noises.
"I am harmless, dummy, I'm going only for the crazed beasts."
Acting in concert, a pack of about twenty jackalopes and a dozen wargs surrounded Peter, the first ones squealing, the latter growling. The Jackalopes attacked with the same strategy as Redroar's cubs, grabbing his arms and hands. Shooting was not an option, there were too many and too close. Instead of rolling on the ground like when fighting the cubs, he Warped into the lake, thirty feet deep.
The monsters tried to run now, but the depths disoriented them, and one after another, kill notifications appeared. The System dismissed them to help Peter focus. Warping up, directly on the shore, Peter charged at the wargs, intending to bring the fight to them instead of letting the enemy have the initiative.
Electric Impulse.
Blue tendrils of sparkling electricity ran over his hands. A first fist, also enhanced with a Kinetic Impulse caved in a warg's skull, a second finished inside a monster's mouth instead of the aimed spot, but fried the warg's brains before it could close its jaws, and then Peter Warped laterally, a hundred feet, where the last monsters stood. Three of them. Two jumped for Peter's arms, but he slammed his hands together, and their bodies in the process, breaking their thoracic cage. The third went for the throat, but he headbutted it, reducing the monster's head to a pulp. On the other hand, his visor's visibility to almost zero.
Tectonic+Electric Impulse.
The electricity made the crazed animals freeze in place, and then the earth trembled, making them fall to the ground, where spikes erupted, impaling and killing them. The fight was over. Peter fell on all fours, heaving, a sign his Mana was very low. The only thing to do was to go over his nausea and swallow a Mana pill.
+25% MP. You are regenerating 1% MPs/second for 30 seconds.
"Why ahead of schedule?" Peter hissed, angry that the System hid such a good skill from him.
"How many more monsters do I need to reach my goal?" That's so strange to hear it from someone who pushed me to do more and more at every step. "OK, just a few more and I'll go home," Peter said, finally satisfied with the state of his visor. "Just one more thing… how come monsters have levels, without a System?" No more monsters were willing to die in that area, and Peter Warped to the other side of the lake. The situation was even worse, not a monster in sight. However, loud noises came from an abandoned summer camp nearby, including barks. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. To avoid jumping directly into trouble, Peter ran instead of Warping, it was a matter of a hundred yards anyway. Inside the camp, two girls were running and screaming for help, taking cover behind the abandoned structures, while a giant bear chased them. Its eyes shone red, it was a crazed beast and a dangerous one. Each swipe of his claws was cutting deep into the wooden logs, destroying the walls in seconds. A tiny dog ran around the bear, barking loudly and biting the crazed creature when it raised itself on its hind legs to use its claws. "That's Shredder," Peter hissed. I shouldn't have trusted her with my pet. However, a misuse of trust wasn't worth letting the two and the pup die. Peter gathered his courage and prepared to jump into the fray. "On the first floor?" "Fuck, they're going to be killed!" Lost in chat, they had forgotten about the damsels in distress, now behind the last building standing. "Run into the forest, I'll stall!" Shadow yelled, throwing a flurry of magical bolts at the monster. "I won't let you alone, Ari!" Naomi screamed back, also shooting qi-bolts, her powers so pathetic they disintegrated in the air before reaching the target. Fuck! Ari was Ariana's short name. Jerking from the surprise, Peter missed his first shot, the second hitting the bear in the chest. Blood sprayed out, but the hit was not enough to stop the crazed monster, now dead set to get revenge on the one who wounded it. Warping behind the bear, Peter let out two more shots. There was a lot of blood, but when the monster turned to attack again, Peter discovered in horror that the wound in the chest was all but closed. "Shredder, go away!" Petter yelled because activating Tectonic with the pup in the AoE range was going to kill him. "Come to me, boy, come here!" Ariana shouted, clapping her hands to attract the warg's attention. Shredder obeyed. Peter Warped back thirty feet, waiting for the monster to charge. A second before it arrived at him, he knelt and slammed his left fist into the ground, thinking about the attack, to get more power out of it. Tectonic+Electric Impulse At the same, he fired the gun once. The bullet's impact stopped the bear for a moment, then came the quake, with the spikes and the electric shock. The two-foot-tall spikes managed only to wound the monster's hind legs and the shock froze him for a couple of seconds, but that was enough time for Peter to take the gun into both hands and fire at point blank into the bear's head, thrice. You have slain Elite Crazed Mutated Bear, level 42. You have reached level 20. Barking and wagging his tail, Shredder arrived to manifest his joy. He let Peter scratch his head for a second, then growled at the bear, insulting the downed foe in his puppyish way. "Thank you!" Naomi yelled, coming forward. "I thought we were goners." "What's my pet doing in a monster-infested forest?" Peter yelled. "This is how you take care of him?" "You didn't pick him up!" Ariana shouted back. "What was I supposed to do? I had to help a friend, and we didn't expect to find an Elite. Wait! Shredder? The pup all the Campus talks about?" "Woof!" the pup barked, changing color to his default bluish-gray. "No way! You're shitting me!" she screamed, pulling off her mask. Peter raised his visor, trying to throw lightning from his eyes. The feat remained in the wishful area. "You're talking about bullshitting, ARI?" "P-peter?" Naomi gasped, taking a step back. "Take a seat," Peter pointed his free hand toward a fallen tree. "We have to talk." Naomi opened her mouth to say something, but Ariana pulled her by the elbow, whispering something in her ear, and they obeyed. Keeping his eyes on them, Peter holstered his weapon and Looted the carcass. There were claws, fangs, pieces of meat, a huge core the size of a baseball, and a pelt skin, skull attached, that was described as a fifty-inches trophy. All went into storage. The girls gasped, then retched while the bear was reduced to a pile of deformed remains. "Why did you come here?" Peter asked the two young women. "I'm very weak…" Naomi lowered her head. "I was afraid I would be expelled, and asked Ari to help me farm some monsters… hoping for a breakthrough." "They won't expel the bad students, they have worse plans," Peter said deadpanned, making them shiver by the tone of his voice. "What would you do if I'd told you there's an alternate Earth out there, with doppelgangers—" "I knew it! You're not Peter!" Ariana bellowed. "Peter's a pussy, Jack's doormat!" "Sorry to disappoint you, but I am. My doppelganger is a hyper-active five-foot-tall half-baked nazi jerk." "They were also invaded by the Cultivators. And soon, there will be a culling. The stronger doppelganger will have to kill the weaker. Yours, Naomi, will kill you and your parents. You, Ari, will have to murder your unawaked double—" "What? This sounds crazy." "Or be killed, along with all your family. That's how some Cultivators work… the higher-ranked ones." "Do you have proof?" Ariana sneered. "I don't believe you're Peter… I think you'll murder us and—" "Please, don't give him ideas," Naomi begged, grabbing her friend's arm. "I do have proof. Have you seen my new powers?" "You've Awakened?" Naomi asked. "He's too advanced for having a late Awakening," Ariana objected. "He must be a wild magic user." "Neither. I have a System. And hopefully, so will you. That will be proof enough." Can you offer them a class? Naomi knows Ari's Resistance, so she's OK with that, and if they get you, they'll be obliged to keep their mouths shut, and maybe join our cause. We can use more people, don't we? Naomi cleared her voice, to get Peter's attention; he had phased out speaking with the System. "You're not crazy, Petey, right? You won't hurt us, right? I have known you for a while now and you're a nice person." "He blew off a guy's brains, with that gun," Ariana pointed. "A bad guy," Peter said. "With a System, Naomi will be safe. Her powers will grow, mimicking a breakthrough, and she'll not be culled. The choice is simple. As for you, Ari," he paused, and she jerked, "if you don't cooperate, I'll tie and move you to the alternate Earth, asking my double to keep you prisoner until we put up a proper Resistance and chase the tyrants away. And that might take some time." "OK, I'll do it…" she grimaced. "Better than being shot or kidnapped…" The look Ariana gave to Naomi, though, meant: 'He's crazy, we'll make a run for it as soon as possible.' "And you'll keep the secret from Regina. I don't want to put her in danger… I'll tell her myself when I'm ready. Now, let's do business. There will be a notification, press or say yes." He kept silent for a few minutes, looking at them gasping, gesturing, talking with each other or with the System, in whispers or their minds. Naomi was happy and smiling, in contrast with her normal Goth attitude, and Ariana looked depressed. Is she OK? Did it work? "I'm a Scholar!" Naomi announced. "I got a bit of retroactive experience for the fight with the bear, and I started level three." "Same," Ariana whispered, lowering her head. "I'm a Tamer…" "Cheer up, imagine how easy will be to save the poor cubs, kits, and pups." "And hatchlings," Naomi chirped. "I'll be back," Peter said, Warping to the other side of the lake. A minute later, he returned with a warg's corpse. "Here, you can say you killed it and had a breakthrough in the process. System, stay with them tonight, teach them the ropes, tell them the full story. Maybe help them hunt some beasts to level up a bit, in a safer part of the forest." "Woof!" Shredder interjected. "You want to stay, boy? Hunt some more jackalopes?" "Woof!" "I'll take it as a yes. Listen to the System, and don't take unnecessary risks. Here." Searching in his backpack, he took out two of the javelins he had stored from the first day, two of the revolvers bought for bartering, and a few Health and Mana pills. "Don't throw the javelins, use them to keep the foes at bay. You have six bullets each, use them sparingly. You either return the guns tomorrow or pay for them. The pills are for healing and restoring Mana… Good luck." Without more words, he returned to the western shore and looted the rest of the wargs he killed earlier. The jackalopes floated on the water, and he thought of giving up, but in the end, he found an old canoe and went for it, to train his resolve and get every drop of advantage he could. Leaving the forest, he stopped in Lebanon, leaving the meat at the Black Market, to be processed and sold. It was one of the most in-demand contraband, with rich people paying a premium. The cook and Peter agreed to a fifty-fifty split, plus Peter's transport fee if he was the one to deliver the merchandise. Arriving home at midnight, exhausted, he made an effort to call up his Character Menu, to check on his stats. There was no change there and the System didn't reply when he tried to ask why. Only one thing was left to do, and he embraced sleep like his best friend, sinking into the soft mattress of the bed.