The clang of metal rang out as his spear snapped left then right parrying the two scythe-like limbs. Again he managed a shallow stab before being pushed back by a flurry of attacks. His enemy was an Antger, at least that is what he was told it was. It walked on six human-like legs supporting its dumpy body. Its head looked like someone took an alligator and smushed its face in to look like a pug. Then added giant serrated mandibles before attaching two thin multi-jointed arms protruding from the base of its neck that ended in scythe-like blades. This particular one was the smallest of its kind, or at least of those that he had found which meant it was only a head taller than his own six-foot height.
His breath was ragged, his clothes bloody and torn. But his target was bleeding from nearly a dozen stab wounds, a sickly yellow-green pus-colored blood flowing down its green lizard-like hide. But, his spear was in rough shape too. After all, it was just a sharpened and fire-hardened stick he had carved out himself with the knife he had been provided.
The Antger slashed its two claws viciously once again towards him and he managed to block the blows although his arms burned with the effort. For a month now he had been stuck in this world, something he had originally been thrilled about. Waking up in a small village located in a strange fantasy-like world it was something nearly any nerd would have liked. When he became the only warrior amongst the eight new arrivals he had been even more thrilled and more than a little cocky. Sure he was a nerd but he wasn't in horrible shape to start with. In fact, he'd been in decent enough shape. But then he was given his first quest:
[Become Blooded]
Become blooded as a warrior. Kill an Antger in single combat.
[Rewards: Skill access, attribute access, and class equipment.]
This message had filled his mind on that day and had all but haunted him for the last month. The Antger monster tended to travel in small packs and turned out to be far stronger than he expected. Plus they had only provided him a utility knife designed more as a tool than a weapon. No special powers, no increased abilities, no nothing. Just a mid-twenties nerd who had a few martial arts classes when he was younger tossed out to fight monsters alone.
Now a month later he had finally found one solo and was so close to winning. Gritting his teeth he charged forward thrusting his spear with all the strength his burning arms could muster right into the creature's chest. It let out a horrendous rattling cry before chopping down cleaving his crude spear in half. Stumbling forward as the spear suddenly shortened he managed to roll to the side taking only a small glancing blow. His prey backed up, shuffling its six legs making ready to flee.
"Oh no… you're not going anywhere!" he gasped out pushing himself woozily to his feet. Gritting his teeth he gave in to anger boiling just below the surface. He let all the setbacks, injuries, even the most petty inconvenience fill his mind and feed his rage. Anger burned away his dizziness and filled him with one last surge of strength. Charging forward he swung the remains of his spear like a club. Wood splintered then shattered but still managed to push his opponent's bladed arms out to the side as he stumbled forward again. He stared up into the hideous face as it lunged forwards mandibles wide. Reaching up he snarled back before gripping each of its mandibles ignoring the pain of them cutting into his fingers and pulled himself up curling his knees up against his chest as he did.
The extra weight combined with his pulling caused the monster to stagger forward its balance unsteady. With his legs pulled up against his chest he kicked out with both feet slamming his heels into the monster. Or more specifically one heel as the other slammed into the shaft of his spear thrusting it deeper into the creature's chest. Its beady eyes widened as a spray of pus-colored blood left its mouth. A watery rattle escaped its throat as it swung its arms down raking its bladed limbs across his back.
For a moment his head went woozy and he thought he would pass out. But with one final grunt of frustration, he coiled his body up again and kicked out a second time intentionally snapping his right heel into the spear with all the strength he had left. The Antger went wild thrashing in its death throes sending him crashing down to the ground before collapsing back.
His body trembled and his breath was short ragged pants as he sat on the ground looking down at his ruined hands resting in his lap. The world spun and he tried to focus on something… anything to make it stop spinning. What he ended up finding was his fingers cut down to the bone bleeding and shaking in his lap.
[Congratulations! You've completed your class initiation!]
That was the last thing he saw before the world went black.
**********
Opening his eyes he gazed up at the early afternoon sky through the tree branches above. Either he hadn't been out long or he had been out at least a day. It was hard to tell. Gritting his teeth he carefully sat up expecting his body to cry out in agony from his wounds. To his surprise he felt fine, glancing down at his hands he found them healed through bearing some interesting new scars.
He focused on his message screen. It had taken him a while to get the hang of focusing on something in his mind instead of with his eyes but he more or less had it now.
[Congratulations! You've completed your class initiation!]
Antger (Runt) slain! 3 Experience gained (-2 Experience Runt)
Attributes unlocked!
Skilled unlocked!
Equipment reward: Warrior's Spear
Unique Trait gained: [Underdog]
Unique Trait gained: [Weakest of the Weak]
New tabs were located within his view labeled attributes, skills, and inventory as well as a new red bar floating just on the peripheral of his vision. When he focused on it he saw:
Health: 130/130
He chuckled to himself for a while as he took it all in "It really is just like a game? I did it…I did it…"
Focusing on the tabs the first he looked at was the attributes.
Strength: 12
Agility: 8
Dexterity: 9
Vitality: 13
Intelligence: 14
Unallocated points: 3
Frowning a bit while looking over the stats he thought to himself 'Why is intelligence my highest stat if I am supposed to be a warrior class.' Chewing on his lip for a while he shrugged 'Perhaps these were my stats before? 10 is normally average in games, right? So that wouldn't be too far off. He eyeballed his stats thinking he couldn't really argue with them representing who he had been. Then his eyes fell on the unallocated points. Instantly he thought of the low agility and almost assigned them then, before deciding to hold off. He didn't have enough information just yet.
Next, he looked at his skills tab. Under active skills he had just one:
[Thrust] [Level 1]
A basic spear attack that performs a quick piercing attack. Weapon damage x 1.1
Yep… You don't get more basic than that. But it was better than nothing.
Under passives, he had just two skills.
[Spear Proficiency] [Level 1]
Your skill with the spear. Levels increase ease of handling and provide more complex attack patterns.
[Recovery] [Level 1]
Your body possesses an increased recovery rate when out of combat. This passive is multiplied by 500% during sleep.
Then there was another section labeled Traits.
[Underdog]
[Requirements: Unclassed]
Everyone loves an underdog.
You won a fight with less than 10% of your health remaining.
Effect: Explosive growth when fighting opponents stronger than yourself. The growth rate is proportional to the difference in power.
[Weakest of the Weak]
[Requirements: Unbloodied Warrior, Underdog]
As a warrior, you barely survived being bloodied against a weak enemy.
You are the weakest of the weak with nowhere to go but up.
Effect: Attributes uncapped.
As a gamer, he thought both traits actually seemed awfully powerful, though he had little to compare them to. So when trying to compare them to how this world normally worked he came up short. And while he didn't mind the Underdog trait's name he couldn't help but feel a little insulted by the second trait. With a sigh and a bit of an angry mental glare at the [Weakest of the Weak] trait, he focused on his inventory tab.
There were two things inside his inventory. First, was his new spear and second was his utility knife. Patting the sheath on his side he found his knife was actually gone. Focusing on his knife for a moment it appeared in his hand, it still looked like a small folding buck knife. Pushing himself up, he walked over to the corpse of the Antger. Staring down at the rather large corpse he cursed out under his breath "Runt…" before making a slashing motion with the knife. A message rolled through his mind:
Antger (Runt) butchered!
Acquired one ruined Antger hide!
Acquired one Antger arm scythe!
Checking his inventory he found the new items added and with little more than a thought his knife returned as well.
"Well… That was easier than I thought it would be. Guess the old coot wasn't pulling my leg." The old coot he was referring to was the person who claimed to be their guide. He had been there when they all arrived and had sorted their group.
Summoning his spear he gave it a quick once over. Polished wood wrapped with a tightly woven leather binding and what looked like a bronze spearhead seemed a huge step up from what he was using before. "Odd… Did I get a spear because I was using one before? I got the skill too…" Once again he felt a pang of sadness at the lack of walkthrough, guides, and wikis. "As a gamer, I never realized how spoiled I'd become." Shaking his head he debated on returning to town. His battle with the Antger runt had been hard-fought. In fact, he had barely survived but right now he didn't really feel tired. Nor did he have any wounds. But he did have a full health bar and several skills he was dying to try out.
Walking away with a skip in his step one wouldn't have expected from someone that just survived a life or death struggle he headed off to find new prey.
**********
Battered, bloody, and exhausted he made his way back into the small town he had called home for the last month. While the new spear and skills had helped raise his combat potential a lot it hadn't been enough to handle the roving packs of three to four Antger. On top of that normal Antgers felt as if they were multitudes stronger than the runt he had faced. After spending the rest of the afternoon battling a three monster pack he hadn't managed to kill a single one. Still, he had managed to raise both his spear and recovery skill while unlocking a few others including a block, parry, and an unarmed skill. The last being gained when he had kicked one of the creatures in an act of desperation. There was one other perk as well. His raw attributes had gone up some. In fact other than intelligence all his stats had gone up at least one point.
"Jesus… you look worse every time you come back. I'd say give it up but how am I to raise my skills as an armorer if you don't bring back any materials?" Leaning over the railing outside her shop was Beth who as her statements implied had the class Armorer. Five two and mousey-haired she was dressed in what she called her uniform consisting of simple breeches and tunic with a heavy apron on. He always saw her in uniform despite the fact she hadn't really done any work in the month they had been here. Like himself, she awoke in the town square to be greeted by the old coot. Unlike him who went to bed the night before and woke up here. She had been waiting for the bus for work and then just… here. Neither of them had died as far as they knew, no out-of-control box truck to send them on the isekai adventure. It kind of felt wrong but he wasn't in charge of this isekai style adventure so it wasn't his place to complain.
Walking towards her he held out his hand and with a few thoughts summoned in the ruined hide and scythe blade. Pushing them into her shocked hands he couldn't help but grin despite how meager his bounty was "Now I expect top of the line gear with this! Legendary! Five Star! Fully enhanced! Oh and with a fancy flashy Aura too! Chop Chop!"
"No way, you actually killed something?" she examined the hide before making a rather disgusted face "It's full of holes and a single hide… What do you expect me to make with this? A sock?" She glanced up at his dirt and blood-smeared face. In the last month, his skin had grown bronze in color. While his black hair was now past his shoulders making him look a bit wild and disheveled but his brown eyes were brighter than she had seen in a while.
"Pppphhhh" he blew out before grinning "Not my problem, you're the armorer, right? Do your best!" He chuckled before heading towards the barracks he called home.
Behind him, Beth called out "Get me enough decent hides and I'll make you a whole set of armor…. I expect better than scraps next time!" He waved back to her without looking then stopped raising a single eyebrow. A new message had rolled through his mind.
[Quest Received: Collect ten pristine Antger hides.]
**********
The barracks he called home were pretty Spartan as far as decorations went. Other than the two bunk beds and a small table with four chairs it was empty. Still, since he had it to himself it wasn't like he was crowded. Which was good as he performed his thrust skill repeatedly. He had been exhausted but when he tried to sleep it just wouldn't come. So now he was busy running through the different moves that felt so completely natural now that he had unlocked his spear proficiency. But after nearly an hour straight of performing thrust, he hadn't skilled up even once. "I guess it won't raise outside of combat. Bleh, I was hoping to grind it out before I had to try and fight the Antgers again. Maybe if I made a training dummy…"
Flopping back into the straw mattress he stretched out before rolling over to hug his new spear. "I did it… I finally started making progress. He checked his stats and skills one last time before his eyes stopped on his trait [Weakest of the Weak]. "Damn it…. I'll get rid of you one way or another…"