Arthur descended down like a meteor with his sword aimed down at the monster. He didn’t hesitate to put his full weight into his sword, turning it into a human arrow. His speed increased quickly as he reached his target in a split second.
*BANG*
His sword pierced the monster’s back with a powerful impact, bursting its spine into small pieces. The monster howled one last time in pain before it fell to the ground dead.
[Ding!]
[You have killed…]
Arthur quickly deleted the notification as he jumped off the monster’s body, drawing out a fountain of blood.
*Crack*
“You bastards surely like to charge at people and use those large twigs to attack. That won’t work with me.” He said as he cracked his neck and glared coldly at the rest of the surviving deer.
He could see hints of fear starting to show in their eyes, indicating that they were realizing Arthur wasn’t a pushover or someone they could kill easily. But, seeing their fellow monsters dead on the ground fueled their rage even further and blinded their fight-or-flight instincts.
Arthur saw that anger and simply grinned. That was exactly what he wanted. These monsters were perfect target practices for his sword and skills. After not fighting for almost a week, he felt quite rusty and thrilled to be finally back in battle.
“Come at me all at once, let’s get this over with, bastards.”
The monsters immediately howled as they charged at him all at once. Their speed and aggression are way higher than ever before.
But, all Arthur did was take a fighting stance as he looked at the monsters. Then, he dashed forward like a ghost, channeling every point of strength and agility he had. Then, he jumped into the fray without a second of hesitation.
What ensued after that was truly a work of horror. The battle turned very bloody very quickly as Arthur used all his abilities while rampaging through the group of deer. His sword was lethal and fast, dealing deadly damage every time he swung it.
It didn’t take long for the ‘Swift Swordsmanship’ skill to start leveling up due to the intense work Arthur was going through.
[Ding!]
[Swift Swordsmanship had leveled up!]
‘Interesting!’
As he was fighting, Arthur felt a rush of new knowledge assault his brain, fueling his technique even further. He noticed his style change in real time as the new level opened new doors for him. When he first acquired the skill, he started seeing the sword differently and his body started moving in a different way with a sword in his hand. However, with the second level, his understanding shifted again as he quickly adapted to the situation.
*Swish* *Swish*
[Ding!] [Ding!]
Like a ghost, Arthur sliced through two more deer, killing them with ease before he lunged on the last two.
For a second there, all the two monsters could see was a terrifying, bloody devil aiming to kill them, and finally, the fear kicked in. After seeing all the other deer die, the realization that there was simply no way they could defeat this monster settled in and their first option became to escape as soon as possible.
However, by that time, it was far too late.
*Swish* *Swish*
With two swift attacks, Arthur dismantled the two monsters, killing them on the spot.
[Ding!]
[You have killed 2 Level 23 Blue Deer.]
“Fuuuh…” The boy exhaled a long breath before he slowly stood up and looked behind him. The entire area was now covered in corpses and blood with the smell of death slowly filling the place.
Arthur examined the scene for a moment before he nodded satisfiedly. “Good. I didn’t lose my touch after a week of no fighting. I’m feeling even stronger than ever before!” He grinned.
This fight, while considerably easy, gave him an idea of how strong he had become in the last week even though he hadn’t really leveled up or killed any monsters. However, Arthur had acquired something arguably as important as levels which is knowledge.
Training his sword was a very good decision as after one single week of training, he was now almost a different kind of beast. A monster of pure power, speed, and immense technique.
‘However, I made so many mistakes even during this fight and was hit by one of the deer. I need to keep working even harder. I can’t let weaker monsters deal damage to me.’ He mused.
The second thing Arthur realized was that the best way to train was always real battles. Going into a training realm was good, but feeling the thrill of real fights and dealing with actual enemies was completely different.
‘If I continue killing stronger and stronger monsters… I could evolve… No, I will evolve!’ He said to himself. After that, Arthur approached the monsters and used Blood Eater, absorbing all their blood and gaining 2 points of agility and 2 points of Presence, a stat that hadn’t evolved much ever since the start of his journey.
At that very moment, Arthur heard loud roars echo in his ears. Looking up and over his shoulder, Arthur’s eyes flashed with a weird glint.
‘I’m not alone at all, huh… Well, time to see how far I can push myself.’
With that in mind, Arthur turned around and dashed into the distance, heading toward his targets.
***
For the next several minutes, Arthur hunted down deer non-stop. Surprisingly, there were large numbers of these creatures roaming the area in groups of 10 or more. He couldn’t walk for a few minutes before finding another group.
[Ding!]
[You have killed…]
[Ding!]
[You have killed 3…]
[You have killed 2…]
[You have killed 3…]
[Ding!]
[You have leveled up]
[+2 Bonus Points!]
Notifications rained down on him non-stop as Arthur continued to fight like a machine of complete destruction. He killed and killed, to the point where he couldn’t remember how many deer he hunted down.
Stats kept rising on their own and with the help of Blood Eater and the bonus from his class, Arthur steadily grew in strength, gaining points slower than before but still at a very rapid pace compared to the rest of the player base.
In a matter of an hour or so, Arthur had killed 60 deer on his own. At the same time, he was still cutting his path toward the lake as that was his initial goal.
*Roar*
Arthur stabbed the deer in front of him, piercing its heart. Seeing the monster drop dead to the ground, he exhaled a small breath as he wiped the blood off his face.
“This is the last one… I think…” He muttered as he looked all around him. This was the sixth or seventh group of deer he stumbled upon so he had already lost count. All he had as a compass was his stats which kept rising every now and then on their own.
‘I gained some good stats and a couple of levels… My skills and classes have also leveled up once or twice… This is pretty good…’ He thought to himself. Popping out a bottle of stamina potion, he sat down and started sipping on it while reading his stats and what progress he made.
[Name: Arthur]
[Gender: Male]
[Level: 26]
[Main Class: Blood Monarch (Locked) 4/10]
[Rank: SSS]
[Secondary Classes: Battle Specialist/ Berserker Of The New World/Bearer Of The Broken Oath]
[Main Abilities: Blood Eater (Level 5)/ Blood Claw (Level 5)/ Swift Swordsmanship (Level 3)]
[Secondary Abilities: Blood Arrows (Level 5)/ Soul Fear (level 4)/ Wretched Crawler’s Eye (Level 3)/ Lonesome Warrior’s Howl (Level 4)/ Mortal Slash (Level 2)/ Frost Flame (Level 3)]
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[Stats:
Health: 43
Strength: 48
Agility: 49
Stamina: 41
Mind: 40
Presence: 38]
[Bonus Points: 18]
A//N: 200 Chapters!! Thank you all for sticking around! To the 1000 chapters we go!