A deadly dance of blades was currently occurring between three groups of adventurers and an oversized centipede.
Each time the centipede prepared to strike, an adventurer would step forward to receive its attack, only to be either disarmed or sent flying, crashing dangerously against the ground.
It was hard to coordinate a group attack, since the centipede moved far faster than they could. It also had movement pattern of constantly wriggling and twisting around in strange ways, which made it's attacks all the more unpredictable.
A pole wielding girl ran forward to stop the centipede this time as it sprung forwards, blocking it from targeting the non-physical fighters behind.
She held the pole out horizontally as the insect slashed forwards, hoping to deflect its attack, however she felt the great strength from the bug send her weapon flying right out of her hands. She didn't even have time to feel the pain in her wrists as she looked up to the bug who was now propped up on its tail end, towering over her.
The centipede opened a wide mouth on its underside, bordered by intensely sharp mandibles, as it rushed down to take a fatal bite out of the poor girl.
She thought about how she had finally just gotten used to fighting and killing monsters. Her desperate plan to become an adventurer in order to survive and provide for herself had finally started working out, but was it going to end here? Just like that?
FWOOOSH- BOOOM!
The centipede halted, and whipped its body around due to a loud explosion occurring directly behind it.
The centipede, however, couldn't find anything. The space behind it was completely empty, and there was no apparent source to the noise.
It twisted and turned to scan its rear, but could not find even a single abnormality aside from a burnt patch of grass.
Meanwhile, I soared through the air above!
This was my (completely safe and well tested) plan: to run up behind the centipede, charge up a decently powerful fireball, and jump into the air while detonating it directly below myself.
The resulting explosion launched me into the sky just as planned, the acceleration occurring so fast and unexpectedly that I almost lost consciousness from the G-Forces.
The momentum I had built up from the sprint carried me forwards through the air even as I climbed higher into the sky. I didn't know exactly how high I was but if I had to guess it was around 35 feet.
I began to fall, now directly above the monster, as I started gathering a large quantity of my arcane energy.
Angling myself so I was falling face first, I held out my right hand towards the earth and held it steady with my left, an intensely flickering ball of flames appearing in my grasp.
[Fireball]
...
Below, only a few seconds had passed since I went up, and the centipede was still effectively stunned from the confusion. Two sword wielding warriors who hadn't noticed my ascent charged forward to take advantage of this opportunity, but were immediately stopped in their tracks by an alarming bellow coming from Brad.
"EVERYONE, GET BACK AS FAST AS YOU CAN... DO IT NOW!!!"
As all of the adventurers were now running away, the centipede escaped its stupor and prepared to charge again, however it suddenly noticed something.
It felt heat from above.
As it looked up however, the normally blue sky was split by a large ball of flame directly above its head.
'SCREEE!!!'
BANG!
A wall of wind immediately blew out, shoving those closest to the blast into the grass, the explosion itself completely shrouding the centipede in a sphere of red-hot incineration.
The shockwave from the fireball had almost completely negated my descending momentum, and I began to fall once again as gravity regained its hold on me, finally reaching the ground at a much reduced speed.
On contact it still hurt like hell and I felt like I might have sprained one of my ankles... or both, but I was hyper-focused on the dissipating flames in front of me, waiting to see the result of my plan.
No kill confirmation from the system... uh oh.
'SCREEE!!!'
A blackened and burnt, but still very much alive centipede revealed itself, and I instantly lifted my hands again as I charged up a quick fireball.
[Fireball]!
bang!
the centipede's head was shifted back.
[Fireball]!
Bang!
[Fireball], [Fireball], [Fireball]!
BANG!
A short barrage of small fist-sized fireballs slammed into the centipede's head repeatedly, I could feel my body protesting against the energy consumption but I ignored it.
The fried bug crawled sluggishly at me, before stopping completely and staying still. What felt like an hour passing as I continued to stare at it, the Stone Rankers from before returning to my side.
...
[User Slayed Level 32 Entity - Bladed Centipede]
[Accumulated Experience Has Reached The Required Threshold]
[Level Up]
[Level Up]
[Level Up]
[Level Up]
[Level Up]
[Level Up]
[Level Up]
[Level Up]
[Level Up]
"OOOOOH!!"
"Is it dead??"
"It is dead!?"
"Its DEAD!!"
Various Stone Rankers began celebrating their victory/survival, while Brad and co. walked over to me.
'Hmm, I want to check this real quick before anyone talks to me.'
'Status, Stats,' I mentally called for the System panel.
-
[User: Einer]
[Rank: Stone]
[Level: 13]
[Stats: >]
[Skills: >]
[Unique: >]
-
Stats:
AP: 15 [+]
Force: 10 -Locked-
Agility: 10 -Locked-
Vitality: 10 -Locked-
Wisdom: 10 -Locked-
Sorcery: 14 -Enhanced-
[Hidden Stats...]
-
'I leveled up 9 times, from 4 to 13, so what's up with my AP?'
Brad was waving enthusiastically at me,
"Hey! Einer! You really went and did it huh! I can't believ-"
"Yeah I know, it worked out and that's great. I have a question though, I just leveled up 9 times from level 4 to level 13, so why did I gain 15 AP?"
"Hmm? That? Every 10 levels your AP gain multiplies by 3, so from levels 5 to 10 you gained 6 AP, and from levels 11 to 13 you gained 9 AP for a total of 15 AP. Can't believe you didn't know that... anyways I guess you truly were that low of a level, I still can't fathom how a level 4 pulled that off... A Geode Rank monster huh, that's absolutely insane you know that right?"
If that's correct, that meant my 14x10 Sorcery points were equivalent to if a level 20 mage had put every single stat point into Sorcery. However, that probably wasn't the case for most mages due to needing other stats, so my firepower itself could be rated a few levels above that.
Me in the lower 20's against a monster at level 32... despite my unique curse [Ultimate Minmax]'s buff, that fight was still incredibly risky. That centipede was as much as three times more powerful than me, yet I still attained the victory.
That's rather terrifying now that I'm aware of it...
if that plan had even a single hiccup I'd probably be bug food by now.
…
On a more important note, this things corpse was perfectly intact wasn't it?
The reward for that was 125 Dali right?
"hehe... HEHEH... AHAHAHHAHAHA!!!"
"wha- what's wrong with him?" Philip looked at me strangely as I started laughing like I was insane.
"WITH THIS! THREE FULL MEALS A DAY, SEVEN DAYS A WEEK!"
"He probably got smacked in the head by that creepy bug," Aisha commented.
Danger? Where? All I see is a feast and a fluffy bed!
Onwards! To Greatness!