Day 29
When Ruto woke up that day, I felt a familiar sense of deja vu. Last time I had this feeling, I had recently been given a quest ...
I paled.
The mission. [Becoming Stronger: Part 1].
I only had one day left.
Forget about the new one, I had to complete the old one!
I shot up from the bed of leaves that I had made the other day, right next to the fire I had made -something that I was able to craft immediately thanks to the [Crafting]- and ran off into the woods. I still had a level to make up, and I didn't know how much EXP I needed!
Oh, wait, I could just check.
[EXP: 15/100]
[LvLing Hint: Primary Evolution and wild animals of no significant importance or power give you only 1 EXP per kill]
... Well, shit.
So I sat where I first saw the bullywug village last time. I sat upon the tree and watched the camouflaged bipedal frogs.
Bullywugs were very odd.
Oh, but a reminder to myself about [Observe]. Apparently, I had been using them so much that the skill's level actually exceeded my own. Currently, it sat at a high LvL 26, and it allowed me to look rather deep into things.
I wonder how it will compare to Structural Analysis.
Anyway, the reason why I mentioned [Observe] was because of how useful it had become. At LvL 10, it allowed me to see detailed information like a character sheet. At LvL 20, it allowed me to increase the distance that I could use [Observe] to five kilometers, which was sufficient enough for me to see the bullywugs' villages dotted at the base of the mountain, aka the valleys.
In fact, because there are so many of them, I decided to call this mountain range region the Bullywug Valleys.
And ... They were all around LvL 20's.
I grinned.
A perfect hunt, if I could manage it.
But I knew I could do it. Why? Because I had an advantage they did not have.
Crockak was the warchief of the Village of Crikiki. His village was built at the crossroad of three swampy valleys and a single broad forested one. He had built up his power by attracting younger bullywugs into joining his force by offering them raids on human villages that lived at the ends of the valley.
Within seven years of his reign, he had gathered more than a thousand bullywugs and built himself a bullywug city that reigned supreme in the swamps of his region. With more than two thousand total bullywugs under his command, with a thousand more having sworn vassalage to him.
And it was because of such that ... He hadn't expected this.
It was early night when the sun had just set. He was taking a walk through his domain as he usually does to look over the pitiful peasants and things that call themselves his warriors...
When it happened.
A single arrow flew from the darkness and struck him in the chest.
Now he lay there on his own domain, his life pooling around him.
He smirked. Perhaps it was better this way. He wouldn't die like his craven brothers and sisters. He would die with a smile on his face...
I whistled as I heard that beautiful, beautiful sound of EXP rolling in like gold coins into a vault. I nocked another arrow and fired.
And I missed.
Truth be told, that was the fifth arrow, and I'm just randomly shooting into the city. But I imagine that from the amount of EXP I gained from that fourth shot, I must've hit something really, really important.
...Oh, they noticed me.
Time to run!
It took me an hour of constant LvL 7 [Running] to reach my imp colony, but by that time, EXP was trickling in constantly.
This was how I did it.
Ever since morning, I set up trap after trap with the express intent to force the bullywugs into them. That was the first advantage I held.
I didn't have to fight them directly.
Which led to advantage number 2.
They may be the masters of swamps, as their racial traits had stated to me, they weren't the king of the mountain. They may live around mountains, but because they were so focused on the swamps -thank you, LvL 26 [Observe]!- their knowledge of forest -and forested mountains even less- was minimal. Also, on top of that, they weren't the species with the greatest of intelligence. Their average INT so far hovered around 30's, which wasn't bad unless you took into account their average WIS of ... 5.
They were pretty bad.
Oh, but they were strong cannon fodder. Average STR that was only a bit lower than the orc grunts that I saw with END that matched the deer of all things.
Detecting traps and knowing when to retreat?
Not so much.
So I watched my character sheet as EXP trickled in by the 5's and 6's until I LvLed Up ... and LvLed Up ... and LvLed Up...and died off.
Yup, thanks to dumb idiots and a few traps, I was now LvL 24 with enough points to fulfill the requirements of the [Becoming Stronger: Part 1] quest!
...Man, that was easy. Why was I ever scared of that thing?
Well, now, I was hungry.
And had a second mission to confront, but that could wait until [Becoming Stronger: Part 1] quest was completed, and gave me its rewards.
Day 30:
[Becoming Stronger: Part 1] Quest completed!
Reward:
+2 LvL Up!
+New Trait: Power Overwhelming
+New Title: Survivalist
+Dungeon Generation
Trait: Power Overwhelming
Magic, Ki, chakra ... no, the best of them all is physical strength. In the face of an army, even wizards shall, and ninjas must hide.
*+1 point to STR for every point invested into STR and END
Boo-yah. Hell, that trait is actually pretty overpowered.
+1 strength for every point in two stats? If I had trained myself with hunting only, then instead of getting five or six points from each LvL, it would have been possible for me to get 7 or even 8 points per LvL! Well, that's if he wanted to restrain himself to only physical fighting.
...Meh, overpowered or not, it would do me good.
So now that the first quest was complete, I could focus on the second.
Which was convincing Shirou to teach him [Structural Analysis] skill. As far as I can tell, though, the tricky part would be talking to Shirou without making Shirou feel threatened.
Maybe I could bring it up during one of our meals...
Nope, it was a bad idea. Why? Because right now, Shirou is staring at me with wide eyes, and his muscles are tense as hell, as if I were going to attack him at any moment.
"Invite Emiya Shirou to the party."
Shirou looked at me confusedly for a second before a blue screen popped up right in front of him. He twitched, seeing it.
"As I was saying, I only got to learn about you because my [Observe] skill had increased to rather high LvLs, which comes to the point that I possess an ability called the Gamer."
"And what do you want...?"
I smacked the back of his head. "Calm down, you idiot. You act like I'm going to kill you or something!" I hissed. "We're friends, baka."
Shirou reoriented himself before rapidly blinking.
"Good. While it is necessary, I need you to teach me how to use something called [Structural Analysis] and [Projection]. It's part of a quest that I got through the ability, you see."
Shirou blinked. "Was becoming a friend of mine a ...?" He didn't need to finish it, because I knew what he was talking about. Man, did he have paranoia as his trait? No, I don't remember seeing it.
"Nope. I actually got 'kill more rabbits' rather than that. Must mean that you rank below rabbits, huh?"
Implication: the ability to think you were worth less than killing a few rabbits to give me a quest to kill more rabbits over becoming his friend.
And he seemed to get it, because he was glaring at me.
I shrugged. "So can you teach me? I won't take offense if you don't."
"..."
"..."
"Are you going to finish that meat by the way? I don't feel like hunting today."
"No, this is mine."
"Alright."
"..."
"..."
"Fine, I'll teach it to you."
I grinned. "Sweet."
"But in exchange, I want you to build me a forge. It doesn't have to be as good as true blacksmith's forge, but good enough to smelt ores," Shirou proposed.
New Quest!
Build A Forge (Shirou's Quest)
Requirement:
*Build a forge with a minimum LvL of 20 (Keep in mind that a forge's LvL determines the LvL of the forged goods made there).
Reward:
*Shirou agrees to teach you [Structural Analysis] and [Projection].
"Huh, fancy that," Shriou said as he stared at the screen in front of me. "It actually does give you quests."
I accepted the quest. "And where would you want it, by the way?" I asked him.
Shirou seemed to ponder for a moment before he looked around. "Well, I would have to evolve first."
"I know. That's why I was taking you along on my hunts."
He looked at me funny.
"What? Everyone aside from me is super weak, we're surrounded by possibly and probably hostile forces, and we're without good shelter. I do need others to help me soon, or we're all dead."
Shriou shrugged this time. "I guess that makes sense..." he smirked slowly towards the end. "I just hope I don't become ugly like you."
"Oi! I ain't ugly!" I retorted.
Day 31:
Shriou and I had decided that they would work on a schedule. In the morning, he and I would train by hunting in the mountains, and in the afternoon, we would build the forge and teach me how to use [Structural Analysis] and [Projection]. In turn, it was agreed amicably that we would continue to share skills and tools as both of our interests lay within crafting.
The training involved me stationing myself as a guard of sorts while he and I separated a single high LvL monster or animal for Shirou to fight against. I decided that I would try to help him by using [Observe] to point out which targets should be within his range of combat, but would reward him a great amount of EXP.
Day 34:
We just woke up, a few days after our agreement, and found Shirou had evolved.
He looked pretty much like a regular human except for a single horn that came out of his forehead. He had long red hair that came down just to the sides of his jaw. His body tone was that of a soldier; it was lean and flexible. It kind of made me wonder what Shirou had been in his previous life.
"[Observe]."
Emiya Shirou
Pale Oni (Humanoid Demon Lineage)
LvL: 21
HP: 58
MP: 700
STR: 30
DEX: 23
AGI: 30
END: 20
INT: 34
WIS: 20 + 87 (Reincarnation) = 107
CHA: 30
Power: 20
Magic: 35
Spirit: 27
"Well, it seems like you got it."
Shirou looked over himself while I watched. "And you might need a pair of pants to hide your junk." I cackled afterwards as Shirou glared at me. I opened up my inventory and pulled out a pair of deer leather pants. "Here. I prepped this few days ago for this reason."
"Thanks," he said in acknowledgement before he took the pants and pulled them on.
"Unfortunately, I couldn't guess your size, so I had to make do with adjusting strings."
And the pants showed. It was very baggy. He shrugged. "Well, you can make me another one, right?" he asked me.
I nodded. "But now that you're evolved, we're going to have to separate our roles."
"What do you mean?"
"Remember when I said that we weren't safe? That we would have to increase our numbers?"
Shirou nodded as the realization dawned on his face. "You have to train the others."
I nodded. Hopefully, now that I know for sure that LvL 20 is when we evolve, along with other info, I can increase the number of imps I can train at a time. You, on the other hand, will need to start chopping down the trees."
"What about my training?" he asked with a frown.
I shrugged. "It's only in the morning, and once there are more of us to do the heavy work, you can go back to working on the furnace with me, if your mornings are not tiring, that is."
Shirou thought about it for a while before he nodded.
"But before all that, we're gonna have a spar to see just how good you are."
Shirou looked at me for a second before he grinned.
"Trace On."
I simply drew out my dagger and shortsword.
Both of us had similar bloodlust smiles.
The imps were gathering at the edge of what was now going to be the boundary of this spar.
We charged.
My sword met Shirou's white blade with a resounding clang. My hand vibrated from the sheer impact, and I saw Shirou get pushed back, just a little. I was about to press the advantage, but he swung his black blade at me. I jumped back and realized he had forced me to disengage.
He looked unhappy, though.
"What's wrong? Am I too strong for you?" I taunted.
"No, one of the skills I know can't be used. There isn't enough ... circuit in this body."
I gave him a semi-sympathetic look. "Well, your loss," I said.
He took up his swords, holding them up.
I threw my dagger at his legs without a thought, but he deflected it as easily as it could appear. The dagger deflected off the swords and flew behind Shirou.
I growled. Well, there goes half of my weapons.
Then, surprisingly, he charged at me.
He swung at me when he came in close, but I brought my sword down with all my strength on his head.
Seeing the obvious danger, he aborted his strike to bring both of his blades up. He brought them together just in time to block my strike, but his legs strained under the pressure.
I kicked him in the stomach.
He tumbled backward, but got up quickly in succession with the tumble. That was an obvious sign of having been trained in martial arts, if I ever saw one.
Then he threw his black blade at me.
I swatted the sword from the underside, taking a dip in my HP, and sped forward. I then came to an abrupt stop just two meters in front of him, dodging the sword strike from my left.
I then charged forward again with a spin of my entire body, pouring all of that centripetal force on my sword for a single strike.
He jumped back, but for some reason, had his left hand outstretched. My strike missed by a hair's breadth, but it was strange. That hand... Like it was waiting for a boomerang?
I looked back and saw the black blade coming back at me. I held up my shortsword and deflected it long before it could get too close.
That's when I felt a blade tip on my back.
"I win."
I looked over my shoulder and then grinned. "I guess so."
"You're suicidal."
Shirou grumbled. "You're the one to talk. You just tanked my sword throw!" he wheezed.
Truth be told, I was actually surprised that I could invest points into my HP. I had done it just shortly before asking him for a spar, dumping more than 20 points. But unlike what I had expected -a 1 point for 1 point HP- the system had instead given me 3 points of HP per point I invested. So I had nearly triple Shirou's own HP with double the strength.
Regardless, when I struck that flying sword with my hand, I still took 7 HP dip. So I could take a few hits in the end.
But he was just slightly faster than me.
He was able to create swords out of nothing, which I guessed were [Projection] swords. They were easily far ahead in ranks than what my dagger and shortsword could be. They were so much more. When I [Observed]the black and white blades, I was given a history that stretched longer than I had been alive and will be.
And then there were his suicidal martial skills. He created openings that could be so easily exploited, except that they were traps. He held his swords at shoulder level, leaving his abdomen and legs open to strikes from any longer ranged weapons. I even threw my dagger, but he saw it before it reached his eyes, and with a single spin of both of his shortswords, he deflected it.
Openings that existed to lure the enemy into striking there. Suicidal, but effective.
Ping!
New Skill!
Physical Durability (LvL 1)
Withstand the battlefield with your iron skin.
*+0.5% reduction to physical damage per LvL
"Nice, new skill."
Shirou looked at me, turning his head to me from where he lay on the ground. "What kind?"
"[Physical Durability], it's called. Gives me a 0.5% reduction to all physical damage per LvL," I replied. "So I have to get ... LvL 100 to remove half of any physical damage. Damn. Do skill LvLs even go that high?"
LvL Up!
+2 STR
+2 DEX
+2 AGI
"I LvLed Up, too."
Shirou glared at me. "How do you grow so fast?" he complained. "This is completely unfair."
I shrugged. "You got your god swords. I got my growth."
He shrugged. "Guess I can't complain."
"Alright, let's get back to work."
Character Status by the end of Day 34
Naruto [Imp Ruto] [Troll Ruto]
LvL 28
The Gamer
HP: 148.5 (+1.5 HP per hour regen)
Mana: 590 (+5.9 per minute regen)
STR: 57
DEX: 30
AGI: 26
END: 28
INT: 48
WIS: 55
CHA: 11
Unused Points: 126
Spirit: 35
Magic: 24
Power: 24
Traits Taken + Earned:
Ambitious, Quick, Genius, Weak, Cynical, Stressed, Content, Teacher[Neutral] (Unavailable), Power Overwhelming
Focus:
Growing
Racial Traits:
Beast Slaying (max)
Troll Blood (max)
Skills:
Ambush (LvL 4)
Baiting (LvL 16)
Blade Mastery (LvL 2)
Charging (LvL 4)
Clairvoyance (LvL 1)
Crafting (LvL 1)
Fishing (LvL 2)
Intimidation (LvL 3)
Leadership (LvL 2)
Listening (LvL 7)
Physical Durability (LvL 1)
Running (LvL 7)
Throwing (LvL 8)
Trapping (LvL 17)
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