I get up and move around until I get used to my body and once I’m done I sit down and look in front of me.
Open Status
A semi-transparent screen appears in front of me.
Name: None
Race: Human
Level: 2
Titles:
None
HP: 120/120
Strength: 12
Constitution: 12
Agility: 12
Intelligence: 12
Skills:
Basic Spearmanship Lv 1/10
Huh, level 2. That’s pretty low but at least I'm not starting out at 0, that would suck. Well, time to do something.
Wanting to test something, I get up and begin practicing my spearmanship, following the movements detailed in my mind. Moving like this feels natural, just like breathing but more intense. As I’m practicing, I get my first look at the spear I was so satisfied with. The shaft is wooden and smooth whilst the tip is metal and shaped like an arrowhead. Inspecting it causes information to pop up in front of my eyes that somehow doesn't obstruct my vision.
Spear (Common)
Required Lv 0
Durability 10/10
Attack 3-5
A spear given to aetherborn who choose the path of spearmanship
That’s convenient. Come to think of it, where am I? I look around and see nothing but grey brick walls, empty space, and two doorways opposite each other. The doorways have a thin layer of white mist obscuring my view of what’s behind them and I somehow know that I won’t be able to pass through them. Looks like I’ll be in this room for a while. How long do I reckon? 30 days? That seems about right. I stop to think about why that number came to me and why it feels right. I continue practicing when I don’t get an immediate answer, pushing the thought to the back of my mind. I’m sure their are greater minds than me who have set their minds to it anyway, I’ll just ask them if I happen to meet them.
A few minutes pass with the only sound being my spear as it cuts and stabs through the air before I notice a faint outline appearing near me. It looks vaguely human and is in a lying position. A couple more minutes pass as the outline becomes more solid and defined, finally taking shape as a young man lying on the floor with a katana strapped to his waist. Once he is completely materialized his eyes snap open and he shoots up from his spot.
“W-what’s going on? W-where am I?”
He seems to talk to himself before looking around and seeing me practicing.
“Hello sir. Do you know what’s happening?”
That ones directed at me. I look over at him whilst continuing to practice.
Human Lv 2
[Otherworlder]
I wonder what that otherworlder title means.
“Sir?”
Oh yeah, he’s looking at me. What should I say? Hm, let’s stick with the basic stuff for now.
“Yeah, we’re in a dungeon waiting for invaders.”
How did I know that? Oh well, just go with it.
“If we defend the dungeon for 30 days then we'll be released and we can go out into the world.”
The man sits down and tries to process what I just said. I just focus on following the movements in my head. A ding wakes me out of my trance.
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Basic Spearmanship is now Lv 2/10
More information on spearmanship flows into my mind, where to move, how to move, how to stab with more power or block attacks better. I pause my actions for a few moments to digest this new information before beginning again, my movements and attacks now being a slight bit more complex and efficient.
"Sir, is there um... something like a status I can see?"
The man speaks up again.
"Just think open status."
"Yeah, um... thanks."
My practice continues for another few hours, only stopping when I get a prompt.
Basic Spearmanship is now Lv 3/10
At some point the man had joined me, swinging his katana. Maybe its my higher skill level, but his swings look amature. However, I can tell that his swings had more power behind them than my stabs so I decide to ask him why, he seems nice enough.
"Hey."
"Sir?"
"We're both level 2 humans but your strength stat is higher than mine, do you know why that is?"
"Well um, I have a title you see and um... it gives me +1 to all stats."
"Otherworlder?"
"Yeah, that's it."
"Cool."
"Thanks."
And silence returns. I go over to the wall and sit against it, resting my spear against my shoulder and closing my eyes. Time drags on and I slowly drift off to sleep.
...
I wake a while later, feeling refreshed. I grab my spear, get up, and stretch. I notice the otherworlder guy slumped against the opposite wall, asleep. Quietly, as to not disturb the sleeping man, I once again practice my spearmanship. Time passes by quickly.
By the time the man wakes up, I've gained another spearmanship level, more information than before flowing into my mind. It seems that the difference between levels increases as the levels get higher, but so does the effort needed to level the skill.
After getting up the young man greets me.
"Good morning sir."
I don't know why he keeps calling me sir, according to my estimates I should look younger than him, plus I was only born a few minutes before him?
"Morning."
He picks up his katana and unsheathes it before seeming to remember something.
"I never caught your name."
He says in a weird mix between a statement and a question.
"My name, hm?"
I say. Wait, what is my name? I have to decide by myself? Fine then, from now on I shall be called Aeron.
"Aeron, that's my name."
Do you want to set your name as [Aeron]?
A message appears in front of my with a ding and I mentally reply with a yes. The message disappears and I'm filled with a new sensation, a feeling of belonging, a sense of identity. This is my name, and no one can take it away from me.
Whoa, where did that come from? Nevermind. I focus back on the man in front of me.
"What about yours?"
I ask.
"Yūsha."
He replies.
"Well nice to meet you Yūsha, I hope we can get along."
"Me too." says Yūsha, "sorry about yesterday, I was a little confused."
"Its ok. By the way, what's that otherworlder title about?"
"Ah, that! I think it's something to do with me being from another world."
"Yeah, that makes sense... wait, what!?"
"Another world, you know, Earth?"
"No, I don't know, and what does soil have to do with this?"
"Nevermind, it was lost in translation."
"Oh ok."
Silence falls once again and the only sound is the cutting and slashing if the air as we practice. I find solace in the almost rhythmic swings and thrusts of my spear, pushing all other thoughts away. I don't need to think about other worlds or how the things I know got into my head, I just need to practice, nothing more. I'll leave the thinking to the thinkers and they can just leave the fighting to me.
...
A week passes by like this, practicing my spearmanship, talking with Yūsha, and sleeping. He once asked me about something called food but I had no idea what he was talking about. He then asked me about if we needed to drink water and I of course responded with 'we're not fish!'
It seems like this other world he's from was a lot different to this one. He seems to miss it but is excited about living life here as well. A strange contradiction if you ask me.
We incorporated sparing into our daily routine at one point but stopped when my spear's durability dropped by one.
My basic spearmanship has reached Lv 8/10 but seems to be stuck there as it hasn't increased for the past two days.
Anyways, today something different is happening. The veil of mist blocking one of the doorways disappeared! This happened about a minute ago and we're just about to investigate. And by 'we' I mean 'me'. Yūsha was cautious and opted to stay back.
I creep closer to the doorway, spear in hand, and ready myself for anything that could happen but before I can peer into the room beyond, two short humanoids walk through. I back away as they spot me and screech something unintelligible to each other before raising their scimitars and flailing them as they run towards me.
Yūsha backs farther away, muttering something under his breath as he shivers in fear or revulsion, or possibly both, at the vile, little horrors. I barely have time to inspect one of them before they are upon me.
Goblin Lv 4
[Scavenger]
Does everyone except me have titles? I lament as I thrust my spear into one of the many openings that one of these... things leaves open. My spear easily brakes past its shoddy attempt of a block before piercing its shoulder. It opens its mouth and lets loose a scream so ghastly that I let go of my weapon and stumble backwards.
Taking advantage of my moment if weakness, the uninjured goblin hacks at me with its blade and damn does it hurt. I lash out with a foot, catching the thing's chin and sending it flying. I'm consumed by rage and pain as I fall atop it and begin raining down blow after blow upon its face until a cut to my back sends me sprawling to the ground. I roll to the side on instinct and hear the clash if metal on stone as a scimitar strikes where I was a second ago.
Vision dulled by pain, I can barley see anything but a green blur of what I assume is the goblin that struck me. I scramble backwards as the blur advances until my back hits a wall. I look over at Yūsha for help but he is too busy trembling in a corner.
"Coward."
I manage to spit out at the huddle in the corner before shakily standing up. I look towards the advancing blur and blink away the flashing notification HP 63/120.
This doesn't seem too bad, I have over half my health left, its just the pain that's dulling my senses so I'll have to ignore the pain. I grit my teeth as a flash of rusted silver swings forth from the blur's uninjured side and I charge straight past it into the goblin's body. I tackle the blur right in its centre and we fly towards the other goblin who is just now getting to its feet.
We roll on the floor, a tangled mess if limbs, weapons forgotten as we flail out our arms, hoping to hit our opponent(s). I manage to grab a hold of one little monster and shove it towards the other and they both start hitting each other, eyes closed in fear and pain and not recognizing the other as their ally. I have scratches and cuts all over my body from those damned sharp nails the little buggers seem to have. I see my spear within arms reach of me so I reach out and grab it and use it as a crutch to stand up.
I hobble over to where the goblins are entangles, nothing but one large writhing blur to my eyes and I lift my spear up above my head with both hands and stab down. Again and again and again and again and again I stab sown, until there has long since been no movement from below me. I fall back panting, and let the slew of notifications wash over me.
Basic Spearmanship has become Lv 9/10
You have learned Basic Fist Fighting Lv 1/10
You have learned Pain Resistance Lv 1/20
Basic Fist Fighting has become Lv 3/10
Pain Resistance has become Lv 2/20
You have killed a Lv 4 Goblin, + 200 exp
You have killed a Lv 4 Goblin, +200 exp
You have leveled up to Lv 3
I grin a victors grin at the two corpses before me as they return to the Aether and a wave of power flows through me as part if it flows into me. The rest of the motes of darkness either fade away into nothingness or gather together to make two items. I want to reach out and grab them but my body protests and I am forced to lean back and rest, smiling up at the same grey brick ceiling I woke up to just over a week ago. I won. I won. I WON!