In a forest full of plants, a man runs through trees while howling sounds come behind him.
The more he runs, the more blood drips from his right arm. Of course, this man was none other than Leon. Five days? Or one week? Leon has no idea because in that white world called hub there is no day nor night. But the one thing he is sure of is that he is getting stronger. After completing his sixth trial, he reached level 5. And now he is completing the seventh trial. He thought he would fight with goblins like he used to, but this time the light didn't take goblin shape. Rather, it took an animal form.
In his seventh trial, he encountered these four-pawed friends, whose only purpose is to kill him. Wolves really look similar to the ones on the Earth, except being much bigger and muscular. However, the problem is not their power. Considering Leon's level five stats, he can take them on 1v1. But the real problem is their overwhelming number and teamwork. Whenever he gets close to killing one, others get in his way. It's 15 versus 1, and this put Leon into a really hard situation. Also, since Leon had always fought against goblins before, he was weak against the wolves' attack style. Because of these circumstances, he got wounded. But with help of [PARALYZING STRIKES], he managed to kill 5 of them.
And now what he is trying to do is to gain time until the cooldown of his skill ends.
"System, show me my status," as Leon commanded, a panel appeared in front of him.
[LEVEL: 5 (10/500)]
[HP: 70/150]
[MP: 60/80]
[STRENGTH: 12]
[AGILITY: 10]
[VITALITY: 15]
[INTELLIGENCE: 8]
[ATTRIBUTE POINTS: 0]
[SKILL POINTS: 3]
[INVENTORY: (TUTORIAL BOOK), (RUSTED SWORD x2)]
[SKILLS: (PARALYZING STRIKES-Level: 2/5)]
[CURRENT TRIAL-7 ]
As the howling sounds get closer and closer, Leon understands he can't outrun them.
"Fuck, I have to deal with them," accepting there is no other way, Leon stopped and turned back to welcome his enemies with his sword.
"I shouldn't have left my spear on one of them," said in a half-remorseful tone.
After a few seconds of waiting, his followers came out of the bush. To analyze and find the weaknesses of their prey, they did a circle around Leon.
"Ugh, hello guys, you know I had a dog in my past life? I really love doggies. So what do you say? Let's be friends?"
*Grrr*
*Grrr*
"...No, I guess"
While both sides observed the other, one of the wolves couldn't resist and started running to Leon. As the wolf approached Leon and jumped, Leon stepped aside slightly, leaving a deep cut in its torso with his sword. After the cut, the wolf's inner organs started gushing out together with its blood.
"Now come puppies!" Leon shouted as adrenaline pumped into his bloodlines.
Seeing their friend's corpse lying on the ground, wolves started running angrily to Leon.
'Oh fuck, I meant to scare them, not trying to anger them.'
"Activate [PARALYZING STRIKES]"
[ACTIVATED, REMAINING TIME <60> SECONDS]
Struggling to evade their attacks, Leon tried to reduce their numbers as much as possible. Unfortunately, this is impossible to do without taking damage.
With each wolf taken down, Leon got more wounded as he fights for his life. Well, he knows he won't die, but it doesn't mean he likes to experience. The wolves bit him with their jaws as Leon cut them with his sword. When his sword broke he used its remaining part like a knife to stab them. As the seconds passed, blood spread on the grass.
A minute later, the fight has nearly ended. With the bodies of nine wolves lying on the ground, only Leon and a wounded wolf remained. Both of them were tired and wounded.
*Pant*
*Pant*
[HP: 5/150]
[MP: 40/80]
"E-even *Pant* if I die here, I will take your soul with me," said Leon, as he panted from the tiring, intense fight in full of his body and wolves' blood. After a few seconds, to end this job, he used the last of his power to stand up. Lifting with difficulty his sword, Leon prepared himself for his last enemy.
"Come here, if you dare, damn dog!" Leon shouted as he took his position. Wolf started running to him while bleeding from sword cuts. Leon's heartbeat increased as it got closer to him. Just as Leon blew his strike, the wolf suddenly fell to the ground while running. To his luck, paralyzing strikes ended its job instead of Leon.
"Hahaha, guess this is my win."
[(PARALYZING STRIKES) DEACTIVATED, REMAINING TIME <0> SECONDS]
[TRIAL 7 HAS BEEN COMPLETED]
[YOU'VE GAINED 450 EXP] [LEVEL: 5 (460/500)]
Having no left power in his body, Leon let his body fall, feeling relief.
"H-heaven?" murmured Leon with half-awake eyelids. Opening his eyes fully "Uh yes, of course not heaven. Just my lively white world overflowing with fun..." deridingly said.
After waking up in the hub, Leon stood there and looked at his body.
Leon thought about having some kind of hobby. So he started reviewing options he has here.
First, he can train with his sword or do some sports. After all, he has unlimited time here. But eventually he will get bored with doing these things. He should also have some kind of mind-relaxing hobby to not to go crazy cause clearly he can't look at this white eternity forever.
"Reading books? Nah, I don't even have a book"
After thinking a while, "Hmm, yes actually writing diary should do the job too," Leon said to himself.
"But to where, ground? I can't write there. Ah, I forgot about that. The tutorial book has so many pages even though it's very thin. I can write there."
With this, he created his little schedule.
-------------------------------------------
"360"...
"449".....
In the middle of an endless white, Leon is training with his sword by swinging it like an enemy is in front of him as sweat drips from all over his body.
"600"... In his 600th swing, he dropped his sword as his arms trembled from overusing them.
Lying on the white floor, "*PANT* Huff, this is really tiring. Weren't there any other things to replace this?"
Talking to himself, "No shut up weak Leon, you will not deceive me!"
"I really am losing my mind, HAHAHA! " Leon thought to himself before warmness spread through his body.
[YOU'VE GAINED 1 STRENGTH POINT]
[STRENGTH: 12>13]
Feeling like he has been scammed, "... Wait, I can gain points by training! Why isn't this written in the tutorial book!" Leon cursed the creator of the system.
Calming down after a minute, 'Whatever, it is actually a good thing. Now I don't have to complete the trials to get stronger. Plus, with training I can go to the next trials better prepared. But training has a disadvantage too, and that is it takes too much time. And also I don't know how to improve my other attributes except strength. The only way for me is still trials.' Leon argued with his own self the disadvantages and advantages of this new found training way.
"Well, the path I take doesn't matter as long as I get stronger in the end," confirmed himself.
-CHAPTER 4 END-