"Damn it," Jack cursed. The orc warrior was the toughest opponent he was facing since the assassin kobold.
Jack figured that even if he used the same tactic of setting up the spears, the orc would just smash them to bits with a single swing of his massive club. He figured the orc must weigh around 200 to 300 kilograms and its speed was faster than his.
Jack picked up a spear and went out facing the orc and ran towards it trying to poke it into its leg. He did manage to his its leg before he got smashed, but the sensation before Jack reappeared was like he hit a rock instead of flesh.
Jack decided it was meaningless right now to fight the orc and started exercising. He needed to raise his strength and speed. Speed was his primary concern since he currently could not even outrun the orc if it decided to attack him.
He repeated all the exercises he could do without equipment and went to lower levels to make some weights from rocks, spears, and vegetation.
It looked like Fred Flinstone's outside gym in level 4. He made wicker baskets from the bushes and put stones in them. Then connected them with three spears, which were joined together, since one flimsy spear broke very fast.
Every time, he would feel tired he went to greet the orc and offer it the middle finger before being smashed. He made a wicker basket with shoulder straps and ran around level 4.
His father's "Do it yourself" books proved to be worthy of absorbing them. He learned to make all sort of things from natural materials that surrounded him.
Jack repeated this routine for what seemed like ages.
He ignored the messages of his raised strength, endurance and speed and didn't check his status at all. Every time this event happened, he just added a bit more rocks to his weights.
Jack exercised his dagger skills on a tree for a couple of deaths since he had no ax and the spears could no longer support the weights. As he finally managed to fell the tree after destroying two of daggers, he got from kobolds Jack got thick branches and also a massive log for lifting.
Jack didn't forget to practice the moves he got from judo, krav maga, and karate every time he went to show the middle finger to the orc, but since by the time Jack was mostly dead tired he could not last long. He sometimes persisted for three or four swings from the orc before the orc smashed him into oblivion.
The quantity certainly made up for the quality of training since his stats were improving after every three or four deaths at first but they gradually slowed down even with the raised weights.
Currently, he was at fifty death per an attribute rise notification, so he gradually lost the will to continue. Jack finally checked his stats.
Name: Jack "Doggie" Russel
Strength: 10
Constitution:8
Endurance:10
Speed:8
Dexterity:7
Perception:7
Intelligence:9
Wisdom:9
Willpower:9
Charisma:7
Luck: ???
When he saw his stats, the joy Jack felt was immediately replaced by fear of the synchronization process. He knew the pain would be much higher since the improvement was massive compared to last time. It was unavoidable though if he wanted to beat the orc warrior.
By now visiting the warrior orc to Jack was like going to church, offering his middle finger to receive the blessing of the mighty club.
As Jack reappeared again in the metallic room of level five, he checked out his inventory. He had an abundance of spears and daggers in the chamber and was too lazy to count them. He noticed the black garment he got from the assassin kobold and voiced inspect in his head.
Kobold assassin garbs
Quality: Superb
Raise speed stat to 10
Raise strength by 4
Raise dexterity by 4
Invisible while stationary
Jack noticed an equip button, and he tried pressing it without much hope. The garment in his hands disappeared and appeared on him while his green sportswear appeared in his hands.
Jack immediately checked his status.
Name: Jack "Doggie" Russel
Strength: 14 (10+4)
Constitution:8
Endurance:10
Speed:10 (8+2)
Dexterity:11 (7+4)
Perception:7
Intelligence:9
Wisdom:9
Willpower:9
Charisma:7
Luck: ???
Jack looked at his new stats with amazement. He got this gear after level two, and he didn't use it until now which felt somewhat bitter. He thought about it and considered himself lucky he didn't use it because he would get complacent if he did and not invest as much time and energy into his training.
Jack considered using it on the orc but eventually decided against it. After all the hard work he put into training he wanted to use his own power to kill it.
Jack inspected his green sportswear and equipped it. The black garment was neatly in his hand again, and he put it back in the corner of the chamber.
He took two daggers and walked out. As the orc came from the bushes, he ran towards it. When it swung its massive club to hit Jack like a baseball, Jack threw himself on the ground and skidded on the grass between its massive legs. The orc missed by a couple of decimeters but Jack swung both of his daggers at its crutch with all the force and momentum he could muster. There was not like hitting a rock rebound effect just the feeling of tearing flesh, followed by a massive roar.
Jack slid all the way through between the orc's legs by the time the orc roared. By the time Jack turned around the orc had already let go of his club and was falling to its knees. Orc's hands were moving towards his crotch. Jack reverse gripped his daggers, jumped after he turned around and with the help of gravity plunged his two daggers into the orc's neck just above the clavicle in the opening of its armor. The orc let out another roar and tried to get up as Jack used his knees as support on its back. He ripped out the daggers with a slicing motion towards both sides of the orc's neck as he was falling backward he kicked the orc in its back and almost did a somersault.
Jack fell two meters behind the orc on his knees. He was still tightly gripping the daggers in the reverse grip. He turned the daggers around and watched the orc.
The orc warrior was genuinely miserable. It could not decide if he should try to stop the bleeding from his crotch or his neck first. The amount of blood loss was staggering. It just went up and down with its two arms until finally it just fell forward like a log.
Jack made this attack pattern many deaths ago in his mind, and he pulled it off without a hitch. He cut the main arteries of a humanoid being. Jack used his limited knowledge of human anatomy to his advantage and hopped it would work. Even if it didn't, he would just reappear in the chamber again, so Jack basically had nothing to lose.
He was used to seeing green blood, but this orc was bleeding red, and Jack could hardly stand seeing it anymore. He was reminded of Stanley Kubrick's elevator scene from The Shining, and he quickly left the scene and went to the level 6 chamber.
As he moved through the thickets and between the trees and walked along the cliffside, Jack already dreaded the pain that awaited him. Jack could only hope it would be painful enough for him to pass out and not like last time when he could feel every inch of his body in pain including his bones.
As he reached the chamber, the usual notifications appeared.
"Congratulations for passing level 5."
"Inspect Details awarded."
"Exiting in 60 seconds."
"Level 6 starts in 24 hours."
"Yadda, Yadda, Yadda, get it over with," Jack thought as he was awaiting the greatest misery in his life.