... ... ...
Death Valley, Eastern Part of the Caladium Empire.
When expecting flowers, sometimes God gives a cactus full of thorns.
But time after time goes by, the cactus will grow beautiful flowers beyond the flower plants requested.
That's God's way of showing that everything will be beautiful in its time.
I conclude the saying; that everything good, always comes at its best, as well as efforts that will not betray the results.
But for me it's different.
At least for the situation, I'm in right now.
*BAM!
"Huh…What kind of damn place is this!?"
My anger which I had been holding back for a long time, I finally dared to pour it out by hitting a tree trunk hard.
Even though I feel pain, I don't have time to care.
At first, all I did was wander to where it was shown on the map.
However-
"Three days…ugh..damn it."
Yes. Three days have passed since I entered Death Valley. At last, I was far enough into this valley.
From here on out, wild beasts and monsters would appear now and then.
This sucks.
I forced my body to stay in alert mode, and as a result, I haven't slept for the past three days.
*ROAR!
*Caw! Caw!
Startled by a distant roar, I quickly fell to the ground and covered my whole body in dirty mud.
Even though the feeling of reluctance enveloped me, I was forced to do it sincerely.
On the other hand-
A tattered robe, black trousers torn in several places, and a white shirt that was soaked all over. A face as pale as a cold corpse, a gloomy expression, and disheveled hair.
This is how I looked for three days without a good night's sleep.
If it wasn't for the healing potions, I don't know how I would have fared.
In addition, I deliberately soiled my clothes and sweat with mud.
This is the trick I always do if I encounter monsters or wild animals that I can't kill.
That's because the kind of wild beasts here have instincts and a keen sense of smell, it's troublesome.
To trick him, I did many ways, namely by eliminating my body odor and mixing it with odors from the natural surroundings.
All this for my safety.
Maybe to fight back, but—
If I force myself to fight against him, I'll eventually become minced meat to fill his stomach.
What should I do to fight monsters I've never seen in the real world?
Even I, who incidentally am a native of the earth, have never seen such a disgusting monster.
After all, this is what life is like for the weak in this cruel world.
'I need to stay calm...sigh...'
I can feel the presence of crows perched on a tree branch, starting to move away from here.
Before long the valley was quiet, cold, and sinister.
The Light descended from the throne of heaven, and slowly began to stop illuminating the world. That indicated that early evening had come.
I noticed that it was getting dark, and quietly surveyed the surroundings.
'It seems this situation feels Dejavu.'
After a while, my ears picked up the sound of footsteps.
*Step. Step. Step.
'What? Two pairs of footsteps? No, no....'
I immediately pressed my ear to the ground and covered the other side of the ear. It was to confirm the footsteps.
After a few minutes.
–GRHH...
What I saw, was a huge shadowy figure with four legs, snarling, brown fur, and a purple crystal shining on its back like a flashlight, illuminating the surroundings.
In its mouth was the corpse of the goblin it was biting. Making blood splatter to form a trail of blood from his footsteps.
The creature looked around warily as if it wouldn't let its prey get snatched away.
Without any hesitation, I activated the skill 'Eye of Gluttony'.
__________________
[Status Target]
–Name: Roro
–Race: Giant Bear
–Age: 27 years
–Gender: Male
–Profession: None
–Title: Ancestral beings
[Statistics]
[Strength: 39] [Agility : 10] [Vitality : 5] [Mana : 23] [Health : 9/50]
[Traits and abilities]
–Unique Ability : [Splitting claws(B+)]
–Skill : [Mana Devouring(D)]
– Traits : [Lust] [Excited] [Careful]
_________________
'The big bear is seriously injured, judging by its body, it fought fiercely against a group of goblins a while ago.'
I studied his body from a distance and saw that there were arrows and scratch marks stuck to his body.
As well as his unsteady gait at any time.
After finding the traces of the battle, without thinking I invested 2 SP on the Agility stat.
[Your agility has increased+]
[Your agility has increased+]
Close my eyes and slowly feel the changes that occur in my body.
The feeling of a gentle breeze surrounds all the external and internal organs inside me.
'This is much better.'
Unknowingly, my mood calmed down a bit and my anger subsided.
Nodding in satisfaction as if he liked it.
Then I idly moved my finger randomly, and somehow I entered a different feeling than before.
It feels like my body has begun to follow my thoughts, in other words, mind and body are a bit more in sync than before.
And-
After that, I started observing the behavior of the Giant Bear that was right in front of me. Approximately the distance between me and him is about six meters from here.
Suddenly the Giant Bear opened its mouth and dropped the goblin corpse onto the ground. To my surprise, he started dissecting the corpse with his sharp claws.
I waited patiently and saw what he would do with the corpse.
After dissecting and removing the contents of the viscera, he stretched his finger toward the inside of the organ.
As soon as he pulled it away, a spark of blue light caught my attention.
Something glistening, shaped like apatite, was held between its pointy claws. It is 16 centimeters long and 9 centimeters wide.
Even someone like me who can't handle mana, can sense the faint energy from that object.
It didn't take a few seconds for me to recognize the identity of the item being held.
"manastones."
The core can be called the heart of the monster.
The people of this world called it the weakest point of a monster's part of the body's command center that gave strength to beasts that had been contaminated with natural spiritual energy.
The concept is like a car key that is removed from the ignition, then the entire car engine will die.
Or a human heart that stops beating, causing all the nervous system and organs to stop working and become a carcass.
Adventurers usually never dared to hit that part. Because in their eyes, manastones are something of value to those who are the backbone of the family.
For example, it's like an item drop that often comes out when RPG game players hunt and kill monsters.
By exchanging it for the NPC in charge of the Adventurer's Guild. Players receive rewards such as coins, which are used to buy equipment or gacha tickets.
This knowledge is the basics of RPG games which are quite popular in the world.
Especially among men and young boys. Including me who is one of the lovers of RPG games, which I have played in a previous life.
I immediately snapped out of my reverie and shook my head, looking ahead.
*LICK~ LICK~
The Giant Bear licked the mana stone with a perverted face as if it was aroused. His breathing was heavy and the dripping saliva was reflected in my sacred eyes.
"I feel my eyes getting stained looking at it."
I was presented with a disgusting sight, who was wearing a disgusted expression. The feeling of wanting to punch him and spit in his face burned in my soul.
'What was the name of that brown bastard just now, Roro? I imagine his mother had a strange fetish when she gave birth to him.'
Bluntly clicked my tongue thinking of a hypothesis that could be considered a joke.
All I want is to get out of this situation, and quickly find a place to rest.
Just as I was thinking that I glanced at the three daggers that were on my waist.
My lips pursed and spoke.
"Only three daggers left heh..."
Of the twelve daggers that I bought 3 days ago, there are now three left that are worth using.
Tightly gripping the two daggers in hand, and preparing to attack.
'Sigh...Let's do it.'
Lift my body and get ready to throw.
My vision is dark because it is already night. So I looked for good terrain to shoot.
The principle of a sniper is that, as far as you can from your opponent, your chances of winning will be even greater.
Since I was using a dagger instead of a bow, I inevitably had to abandon that principle and was forced to change my attacks to melee.
I speculate, if I attack by simply throwing daggers, then the risk I bear will be even higher.
In addition, the lighting of the surrounding area is only on the crystal-like lantern, which is attached to the Giant Bear's back.
Nonetheless, it could be said to be sufficient for the current crisis.
I tried to keep the footsteps down as little as possible so that the Giant Bear would not notice.
My knowledge of the various monsters in this world is minimal. I only know certain monsters in this world, and that's information from the novels I've read.
I don't know if the bear is like a dog or an annoying animal that has a very sharp sense of hearing.
However, the only way is to pray to God damn it no matter what.
Because he's the one who didn't grant my request to meet my girlfriend.
My distance from the Giant Bear is getting closer, no sign of him reacting to his footsteps so far.
The relief should be grateful.
About a few meters—
Come to think of it, the closer I got to it, the more I realized that the Giant Bear's body was enormous.
Honestly, the lingering feeling of uneasiness still haunts me.
I don't know if I can survive this situation.
What's more, my body's current condition doesn't allow it.
Hence, I waited for the right moment to launch an attack.
Start counting backward to perform the movement.
'Three…'
Seeing the Giant Bear open its jaws wide and prepare to devour the manastones.
I don't know what happens to him if he manages to devour it, but I have a bad feeling about it.
'...Two.'
I tightly clenched my grip on the daggers in both hands.
I could feel drops of sweat falling from my chin to the ground.
'...One.'
The distance between the mana stone and the bear's mouth was no more than two centimeters.
'Zero.'
Without thinking I kicked the rocks around my feet with all my might, for diversion.
*TOCK!
Giant Bear caught the sound with his ears, and in anticipation of me, he turned towards the rock I kicked.
That gave me a few seconds to dig into that gap.
'It is time…!'
"Attack."
A low murmur flowed from my mouth.
All sorts of tactics swirled in my head, my heart pounding.
I rushed toward the Giant Bear with all my might.
Rotating the dagger in my right hand, and putting strength into the arm.
*SWOOSH—!
I throw the dagger toward the sight vision section.
"Please hit…"
Biting my lip until it bleeds, hoping the attack will hit him.
But illusions spread in this situation.
Immediately the Giant Bear felt something strange, he quickly turned his head around and glared at the white blade shining from the darkness, which was hurtling towards him.
The corners of the mouth raised in mockery.
Standing arrogantly while tilting his head, as if it was a trivial matter.
However, at that moment—
[ Your Vitality decreased -1 ]
*WOSH. WOSH.
As soon as the hologram board appeared in the air, a gentle split-second wind swept through and changed the trajectory of the dagger in an instant.
Seeing the unreasonable phenomenon, Giant Bear stiffened.
_______________
[ Silk Wind(F) ]
—Rank : F
—Details : Gains 1% of the available wind mastery on the current battlefield.
—Cost : -1 Vitality Point Reduction.
______________
[Because the user does not have mana in the body, all usage options will be paid for with one of the available stats]
It was a skill that I got from physical contact with Mr. Carl, I took some spare time to copy it using "Ring of Imitation" .
Even though it was a relatively low-level skill, it was a little different for me.
I'd argue even that's quite useful, rather than having none of the skills to attack.
Thus, the trajectory distance was changed towards that arrogant-looking sense of sight.
"Kukukuku…"
Observing the bastard's reaction, a strange laugh escaped my mouth.
No matter how great an animal's instincts were, he was still a stupid and gullible animal in the end.
Once again.
It reminds me of the money craze I fell victim to when I was a swindler.
*BUMP!
–ROOARRM...!
As soon as the dagger was stabbed in its right eye, the Giant Bear writhed in pain.
So panicked that the balance of the body collapsed.
Spontaneously the mana stone he held fell and rolled on the ground.
'Nice.'
So far the plan I've devised is going smoothly.
It felt like pleasure was overflowing inside of me.
Is that hard enough?
Even so, I did not let down my guard.
This is not an RPG game, but a reality.
What happened right now was a gamble between life and death.
Because he has a very large body, it will be quite difficult to kill him in one hit.
Without thinking, I kicked off the ground and ran around the Giant bear.
Under these circumstances, I once again entered into an environment not illuminated by that flashlight-like crystal.
In other words, walking amidst the area of darkness.
My goal in doing this was to find—
Gap.
I have to find a loophole to end this fight.
If not, then the injured party is mine.
Because my stamina will run out if I prolong this situation.
The statistical disparity was vast, like heaven and earth.
If I fight with pure strength, then it's obvious what happens next.
Plus, I'm currently enduring the ordeal of "Coward" annoying traits in this body.
The giant bear grabbed its aching eye and forced the other eye to roll to follow my movements.
It looked like he was having a hard time because of the pain he was experiencing.
What a troublesome obscene bastard.
—|—
"Gasp…gasp…gasp..."
Unknowingly, cold sweat ran down my back.
While running in circles looking for an opening, something like an idea crossed my mind.
'If you're having a hard time finding loopholes, then you just have to create one.'
I narrowed my eyes and once again thought about the idea.
Then make decisions at the same time.
Very suddenly, I reversed my steps and dashed toward the Giant Bear's back that wasn't covered by crystals.
Biting my lips to endure a scream at the leg bones, I swung my remaining two daggers.
*SLASH—! SLASH—!
The giant bear felt the sharp and cold blade of the dagger on his back.
As a predatory monster living in this valley. Brutally he swung his claws and activated his skill.
There was a distortion in the surrounding wind surrounding its sharp claws.
The energy that spontaneously gathered around the claws, condensed and formed a ferocious aura that disrupted the airflow around them.
–ROOR
My intuition said, get as far away from the attack range of the monsters rampaging in front of me as possible, right now.
*SRINGH—!
Just as my hair stood on end, my survival instincts kicked in, and reflexively jumped to the side as if away.
*EXPLOSION—! —!
*THUD!
"Hah..hah…That was close."
Earth dust scattered everywhere.
Causing my vision to be obstructed, allowing me to patiently wait for the wind to sweep it away.
After a few minutes, the blurred vision returned to clarity.
Turning my gaze toward the attack that was shown earlier.
*GULP.
Swallowing hard looked at the trail of dirt that was torn apart.
Only one word came to my mind seeing this.
Does not make sense.
Yes. Imagine that, just one swing can cause a scene that sends chills down my spine.
As my thoughts were disrupted, I stared at the dying Giant Bear.
And.
As I stared into the Giant Bear's pupils, I realized that the expression I was wearing was one of fear of death.
Once again, I'm stuck on feeling intimidated.
Not long ago, I still remember the sensation of death.
If it wasn't for the 2 SP I invested, then it would be impossible to avoid something as scary as that.
I breathed a sigh of relief and said.
"Increasing agility was the right decision."
Agility.
In short, it determines the frequency with which one dodges normal attacks.
Generally, someone with higher agility would dodge more attacks.
If there was a large enough gap in agility between two people facing each other, then the one with the lower agility would mostly lose all their attacks.
So, if I plan to attack an opponent with much higher agility than myself, I have to make sure that I have other options, such as; could use a spell scroll instead.
On the other hand, If my Agility is higher than the opponent's, then I will have a higher chance of performing a normal weapon attack than using a spell scroll.
Even so, it's a shame.
Of the two statements, I am not one of them.
Too slow to compete for agility.
Too weak to rely on strength.
Too poor to buy magic spell scrolls.
In other words, I don't meet the requirements.
"Sigh~ I thought I would die one more time this time."
Tottering towards the Giant Bear who was lying dying on the ground.
–Grrhh.
Seeing him growl softly with his eyes half closed, made me suspect he was on the verge of death.
Then shifted my gaze towards the two daggers whose blades were broken.
"Damn it…!"
I kicked the broken dagger and grumbled in exasperation at the thought of the money I used to buy it.
As I thought, the quality and durability couldn't last much longer.
I didn't expect the skills of the blacksmiths in that village.
"Hah…"
Sighing resignedly and forced myself to take a stone that has a sharp tip, around here.
Then I raised it high with both hands while directing it towards the Gian bear's head.
–Grrhh.
Baring his fangs, like a warning not to approach him.
Glancing at the angry face and glaring at me.
I said casually.
"I'm sorry buddy, I'll make sure you're accepted in heaven again."
After saying that, I squeezed out the strength of my remaining arm and swung down.
*BANG!
[ You gain +EXP ]
Confirmed the Giant Bear who had stopped breathing. I relaxed my stiff legs, I voluntarily dropped my body to the ground.
*THUD
"Bastard, I swear never to get involved with this crazy act again."
While looking at the stars in the night sky, I cursed to myself.
Realizing the pain was not going away, I reached my hand into the [space bag] and took out the remaining bottles of healing potions.
"Gulp...gulp...gulp..hah...!"
After drinking the healing potion, I sighed with satisfaction.
It felt like all my nerves could let go of the tension.
"Shit, I messed up."
I started looking all over my body, along with my clothes in tatters. Boots whose soles are off, to robes that are not worth wearing.
Biting my nails thinking about the cost of buying spare clothes later.
Suddenly-
Crystals shone on the Giant Bear's corpse's back.
From purple light to yellow.
It lit up the surroundings with its warm yellow light.
I widen my eyes seeing that.
I distinctly remember that just now it stopped emitting light after its owner died.
Unexpected things happened now.
I was wondering if it was dangerous but after waiting a few minutes, I saw no signs of danger.
My heart is relieved to think the bad wishful thinking didn't happen this time.
I forced my body towards the source of the light and frowned.
"What the hell?"
My gaze fell on the strange pattern engraved right in the center of the crystal.
And the center was in the shape of a vague sword hilt.
Around it, five small circle patterns were about the size of an adult human's finger.
Looking closely, apparently, it was indeed someone's fingerprints.
It was smooth and large, which made me suspect these fingers were slender.
"It's a kind of puzzle, the corners are slim. I don't know if it's a woman or a man, but you can say it's beautiful. And the vague hilt emblems in between made it even more complicated. I don't know his identity for sure, but most importantly, he didn't make this sign for some kind of joke."
Continuing my sentence while talking to myself.
"If so, he must have made the mark for some ulterior motive or wish. Let's think deeply, if the creators of this wanted us to put our hands down and match the existing marks, it's impossible."
In this world, everyone's fingerprints were different.
For example; a smartphone lock screen that is on earth has a feature to unlock it by matching the original fingerprint.
However.
"If that theory doesn't apply to this world, then…."
Hesitantly I slowly put my five fingers into the five patterns.
In unison, the faint hilt pattern of the blade gave off a glow that blinded my eyes.
*CLINK—!
"Aaahhhhh—!"
My reflex screamed covering my eyes with my hands.
"Damn it, what now!?"
I didn't even notice the weirdness going on, right above my head were shining some kind of magic patterns I've seen in movies.
'Is it Harry Potter's turn to show up this time?'
It felt like a windstorm was created sweeping around that making my bangs fly.
I have a prejudice against the surrounding wind as if it makes me float above the ground.
As soon as the incident shocked me, I was pressed into a position of not being able to do anything.
And just then—
Instantly my vision darkened and my consciousness finally blurred.
"Fuck this world."
Those were the last words that I took out from my last memory before I lost consciousness.