body aching like hell, I managed to climb my way up a different
apartment building—one with a fire escape ladder that was far more
climbable than the last. With that, the second wave officially began.
And yet… I didn’t feel anything rumbling beneath the ground, nor could I
see anything past the orange-lit sky.
“The portal must be far from here. Unlike before…” I muttered,
remembering how absurdly unlucky I’d been during the first wave—when the
damn thing spawned right on top of me.
The moment I reached the rooftop, I collapsed onto it, letting my
legs dangle limply over the ladder. I exhaled, then opened the list of
achievements I’d accumulated during my fight with the now-dead Baekhel. I
read them one by one.
[(A-Tier Achievement) You Reckless Mofo!]
Not only did you willingly wander
through a boss monster’s domain ALONE, you also willingly entered into
combat with them! You’re either crazy, stupid, or both at the same time.
Reward: I’ll be thinking of you
when you die or escape. Statistics show 90% of noobs who receive this
achievement die before they even get the chance to read this.
I quickly swiped that useless achievement away and claimed the quip
as a non-existent reward, just to make sure I wouldn’t be reading that
ever again. I did the same for all other achievements were similar to
it, until I got to the ones that offered me something useful. Oh—and
before I forget—controlling the System panels with my mind already felt
natural. It was no different from using a voice-controlled phone, except
I wasn’t speaking out loud.
[(C-Tier Achievement) Goblin Slayer]
You killed 25 goblins like I told you to. Good boy! You're now following my advice like an obedient little bitch. I sure hope you haven’t developed a raging hatred for goblins at this point, because I’m giving you a reward specially by goblins.
Reward: (C-Tier Armor) Crude Multi-shifting Magical Breastplate
I claimed my Goblin Slayer achievement and watched the new armor plop
onto my chest. I sat up this time, my legs still dangling over the
edge.
The Crude Multi-shifting Magical Breastplate looked like the leather
armor worn by goblin pack leaders—except it was transparent and sized
like it was meant for a child under six. I could barely tell it existed
at all, save for the faint auric-white outline tracing its shape. When I
tried to wear it like how I would put on a shirt, the armor resized
itself to fit my torso perfectly. And even after wearing it… I couldn’t
feel a thing.
I opened the info panel for my new armor.
[(C-Tier Armor) Crude Multi-shifting Magical Breastplate]
Goblin sorcery and craftmanship at
its finest! This breastplate automatically adjusts itself to the size
of its wearer, and once worn, it disappears. When inflicted by an
attack, the armor will automatically appear to block it. The total
damage this armor can block is influenced by 80% of your CON stat plus
20% of your SKL.
My Skill Power (SKL) didn’t change much from when I last viewed it,
as it was still sitting at a mere stat of five compared to my seven
Constitution (CON). I still had no concrete idea how those numbers
translated to my actual body, but I accepted them for what they were.
Next.
[(D-Tier) Bossfucker]
You beat a boss monster’s ass and
showed them that humans are the superior race. What a bloody excellent
job. Just make sure to be consistent because feats like that aren’t
interesting if you die anyway!
Reward: (D-Tier Potion) Potion of Energy Drink
This achievement gave me two potions which were somehow a higher tier
than my armor. As I claimed them, they dropped in front of me. I barely
caught one before it fell off five stories down the building. I took
that as my cue to fully reposition myself on the rooftop, now sitting
cross-legged.
The Potion of Energy Drink was… literally an Earth-brand energy
drink. A familiar can from a brand that started with an “M” and ended
with “Energy.” It had a special effect that wouldn’t be useful now, so I
set it aside for later.
(E-Tier) Horde Master
Monster hordes are meant to be
feared but not for you, little guy! You killed FIFTY of them without an
ounce of remorse on your face. Since you like monsters so much, I will
give you something that will make you more popular with monsters.
Reward: (E-Tier Skill Scroll) Beast Attractor
E-Tier. Aside from my V-Tier afterlife achievement, this was the
rarest one I’d received so far. As I claimed it, the papyrus scroll that
rolled closed between my legs looked almost no different than the
B-Tier Skill Scroll I used to get [Goblin Mania]. The only difference
being that the rods were made of metal rather than old wood.
I inspected the skill embedded within the scroll.
[(E-Tier Skill) Beast Attractor]
Cooldown: Activatable
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
A hunter would never want its prey
to notice them until it’s dead. What do you call someone who wants
monsters to __ them, instead…? It’s called a tank, get your head out of
the gutter. Upon activation of this skill, you will get a +5 STR and CON
stat bonus but you now constantly emit extremely narrow sound waves
that make mindless monsters hungry for your flesh and blood. This works
within a radius of 100 meters from you.
Hmm, I gave myself some time to
think where I should get this skill or not. Then again, I had no bearing
on what an additional five points to my strength and constitution
meant. I had to assume it was a lot though, because when I used [Overpower] earlier, just two extra points into all of my stats made me feel significantly stronger and sharper.
But this skill also had a massive drawback. Using this skill meant
attracting monsters from such a long range—something I definitely didn’t
want, especially when I had no idea what the second wave consisted of
yet. In the end, I used the scroll and added the skill to my growing
catalogue of skills. It was activatable anyway, so I could turn it on
and off at will unlike my passive [Forced Casting].
After claiming my achievements, I moved to the inbox icon still
flashing that red notification dot. It must’ve been the “selectively
awarded” part.
I opened it.
From: GREED System Neutrality Committee
To: Devon Crocus
Subject: Rewards for your monumental feat!
Congratulation! You are the first participant in this EVENT to clear
an entire wave without yielding a kill to other participants. Because
this achievement has not been drafted yet by the GREED System, we have
taken liberty to giving you your rewards.
[This is an automated message. Please do not reply.]
Attachments:
- (J-Tier Consumable) Homing Bullet
- (J-Tier Potion) Potion of Permanent Buff
My eyes widened upon seeing the contents of the message. I remember
that tutorial moderator saying to treat the GREED System as our “god,”
and if so, does that make the GREED System Neutrality Committee its
church? Its government? Maybe both? Regardless of what role they played,
I knew they were a level above us participants if they could give us
bestow rewards in this way.
I wasn’t complaining, though! They sent me rewards that equated this
to a J-Tier Achievement! I inspected the two items I received. The
bullet was, well—just a bullet. A copper-plated 9mm with a glowing blue
outline across the casing.
[(J-Tier Consumable) Homing Bullet]
Once activated, point out the most
hated or least funniest person in the room and this bullet will embed
itself into their head, without even knowing it came from you!
That was disturbingly playful. I immediately stored it in my inventory.
The Potion of Permanent Buff resembled my healing potions, except that the spherical glass bottle was completely empty.
[(J-Tier Potion) Potion of Permanent Buff]
(Unique) Upon use, you can never use this item again.
This potion will open a menu that
will allow you to choose a buff and turn it into a permanent buff! This
is from a selection of 500+ buffs lower than or equal to J-Tier, so
don’t even think about getting that immortality buff.
“Jesus Christ,” I mouthed out. Over five hundred buffs to select
from? How the hell am I going to choose the best one among all of them?
Even though I needed every ounce of advantage I can muster right now for
this ongoing EVENT, this was something better saved as a long-term
investment. I sighed, and kept it into my inventory.
All right! Now with my achievements and rewards out of the way, it
was time to address my last power-up after that first wave: my levels. I
had gone from Level 2 to Level 5 in rapid succession, resulting in
three separate panels confirming me to either hold my level or level up.
I condensed them into one. Upon leveling up, I summarized them into a
single, neat panel:
Your level has been increased to Level 2 -> Level 5.
- You can now bring up the info panel for mutant-type monsters to view their official name, level, and description.
- +3 to all stats.
That was it. Each level simply gave me an additional +1 to all stats,
and after leveling three times in a row, I got +3 instead. It meant I
was now roughly as strong as my [Overpower]-buffed self from earlier.
All in all, my entire intermission lasted about seven minutes in
total. My newly increased stats helped me manage the lingering pain from
the drawback of Agony.
I was ready to fight when suddenly, I heard a high-pitched roar
coming from the road adjacent to the building I was on the rooftop of.
I could see a pack of what looked like five quadrupedal monsters
sprinting across the road. They had black flesh-like tendrils covering
their entire body, operating entirely without any indication of eyes or
focal features.
I tested out my newly unlocked info feature on the pack of monsters.
An info panel corresponding to the type of monster I just saw showed up.
[Shadow Fleshwolves]
[LVL. 3]
Coming from the dark forests of
the continent of Raven Noth, these silent predators travel in packs of
five and hunt like they haven’t eaten for a year. They’re blind as fuck,
so they use their heightened sense of smell and hearing to locate their
prey. They don’t care if they heard a bird chirp or a rat squeak—if
they hear something move and that something smells like flesh and blood,
they’ll try mauling on it no matter what.
“Shit. That doesn’t sound good.”
I only knew how to deal with goblins because I used to read novels
depicting how goblins were like. Small, unintelligent, and brittle,
which was depicted the same in this world. Most of the time, they moved
in predictable manners that made them no different to a practice dummy.
This was different. Fighting mindless monsters that are extremely
agile, travel in groups, and are and sensitive to sound would throw me
off. That goes without saying that activating [Beast Attractor] was
already off the table. To gauge how strong one of these wave two
monsters were, I wanted to see how fighting a single wolf would feel
like first.
Then, I remembered about my feat from the earlier wave. I looked at
the panel for Wave Tutorial, still anchored at the top edge of my
vision.
[EVENT: Wave Tutorial (2/5)]
00:52:22 Remaining
75/50 Monsters Killed
I already deduced the mechanics of this Wave Tutorial despite not
explicitly hearing it yet. My kill count implied one thing: you can kill
more than the required number of monsters per wave, and it’ll carry on
to the next wave. This implication meant that I can take it easy from
the safety of this rooftop without partaking into some needless risk.
This increases my chance of survival from “unsure” to “extremely
likely.”
And yet, a part of me felt frustrated. I didn’t want to miss out on
the rewards offered this wave, as they were potentially rarer and better
than the previous one. Also, if the later waves come and I need to slay
monsters to get my kill count back up, my current loadout might not be
strong enough to handle them anymore. I muttered to myself, “I need to
get stronger. I don’t want to fuck up again.”
And so, with that, I stood up from the ground and took a deep breath.
The timer was now counting down from fifty minutes, and as I started
climbing back down the ladder—
A man’s visceral scream tore through the entire block, then an
explosion. It didn’t sound faint nor did it sound quiet. My grip
tightened on the ladder as the echo of those two distinct sounds faded
into silence. It concerned me, because whatever that man’s fate was, It
was happening nearby.