AN: Alright. This is the last of my prepared chapters. I cannot call them perfect written as they are still a rough draft, but at least they feel decent enough to release. I won't be updating this story for a few days, but the releases will be regular until the rest of the first volume is released. Afterward we'll see, as I need to see what people think of the first completed volume before I put more time into it. :)

Chapter 3: Battle Tactics and Simple Truths

It was a strange, terrible, thing to wait in that house while who knew what wandered around outside. Scott leaned against an interior wall for a while as the ghouls continued to take their turns. After what must have been a few dozen turns passed, he started to feel a little better. He had not bothered before but he checked his stats out of curiosity. He was intrigued to notice that his stamina had completely recovered, though his health and mana had only regained a single point.

The light remained yellow for several more turns. Scott decided to simply stay where he was while the ghouls did their thing. Every so often he checked his stats and noticed that another hit point had been restored. From what he could tell, it seemed like he regained a hit point every few minutes while he was in the combat zone. It was a much slower rate of regeneration than when he was outside of a fight. If he survived this situation it would be a good thing to keep in mind.

Eventually, his mana and hit points reached full once more. Heavy cracking sounds came from the door in front not long after. The ghouls were close to breaking through the door. It was only slightly surprising that they had not decided to move toward the side of the house in order to break through the windows.

Scott opted to head out the back and leave the combat area rather than stay inside. Either choice was a risk, but it was no longer safe to remain inside the house. He was not certain, but it was a good possibility that seven ghouls was a number of opponents that would be too high to deal with at the moment. At least they were too many to deal with if he fought all of them directly.

Three of the rotting bastards had put him near death. Seven together would increase their powers by thirty-five percent, and reduce his by seven percent. Those were not the sort of odds that made him happy. He would not risk it unless he had to do so.

Once out the back door, he closed it behind him then moved to a point just outside the yellow area. Unlike the blue light that faded once he escaped the battle, the yellow light continued to persist. The ghouls still thought that he was inside the house. The yellow light was a cautionary light as far as Scott was concerned now. It denoted the fact that something was hunting for something else, and had a strong reason to suspect it was close by.

Scott used that to his advantage and moved toward a low wall behind the house. Once he passed by it, he crouched down and waited for a moment. He peaked around the side of the wall and noticed that the light was still up. He could no longer hear any noise, but he knew that the monsters were trying to get into the house. The yellow light kept the noise that escaped to the outside to a minimum.

He waited there for a time, and was rewarded with the sight of the yellow light fading away. The ghouls had gotten inside, but found nothing. He could hear them now as they loudly shuffled around. The occasional sound of breaking glass or the clatter of something hitting the floor echoed through the area. Less than a minute after the light faded away.

Scott began to move, but to his horror something unexpected happened once again. A brilliant fanfare erupted from his position and a column of light rose up around him. Energy raced throughout his body and he felt a profound strength rise up within himself. A blue screen appeared that explained the situation.

Level-Up!!

Hit Points: + 7

Mana: + 5

Stamina Points: + 9

Speed: + 1

Counters: + 1

Movement: + 1

Load = 30

His growth was decent, certainly higher than recent training methods, but recent events made it obvious that he needed to train harder to handle the situations that would happen in the future. He checked his status to see what it looked like now.

Scott Keen

Age: 20

[Level: 2]

[HP: 12][22/22]

[MP: 5[6][26/26]

[SP: 45][55/55]

COMBAT

[Attack: 1[5][Arcane Attack: 0[1][5]

[Defense: 1[3][Arcane Defense: 0[1][3]

[Evasion: 1][Arcane Evasion: 0[1][2]

ABILITIES

[Strength: 3][Agility: 1][Vitality: 3]

[Durability: 1][Reflexes: 1][Arcane: 0][1]

[Intellect: 3][Charisma: 1][Luck: 1]

MANEUVERING

[Speed: 2]

[Counter: 2]

[Movement: 2]

[Jump: 1]

[Load: 30]

Most of his stats had not increased at all, though increasing strength and vitality had helped with several of them. He did not voice his thoughts aloud, but he did wonder what increased speed and movement would mean for him in the future.

It would not take long to find out. While he had been busy with his level-up a ghoul he had not seen previously staggered around the corner. A yellow light flared outward. It sensed his presence, but did not know where he was.

Scott tried to get away by slowly moving forward, but it was too late. It spotted him. The yellow light turned blue immediately thereafter and the battle music returned. "Scott Keen versus Hungry Ghoul! Fight-O!"

"Shit." snapped Scott as he turned toward the beast. He took a step away from the ghoul and moved further along the wall. He blinked when he noticed that he could take another step as well. He could now take two steps in a battle!

Scott froze long enough for the ghoul to step toward him. Afterward Scott stepped away two more steps, one away and the other to the right to give himself room to fight. The ghoul continued its slow approach. Only one more step was taken to the right while he waited for the battle to truly commence.

When the ghoul was within striking distance, Scott struck out with a hard overhand strike even as he stepped back out of range of the beast's counter-attack.

-3

Thus began the battle of attrition. Scott would strike as the ghoul moved into place, his speed and movement capacity allowed him to strike once and then step back. Between his new maneuverability, and the length of his weapon, he no longer had anything to worry about when facing a single ghoul if he was careful.

The battle waltz continued for several turns, forward and back, forward and back. Scott whittled the ghoul down to nothing with his weak strikes. Eventually, it dropped to the earth defeated.

Unfortunately, the growling of the monster prior to the battle had alerted other nearby ghouls. A few of them trickled around the corner. It was not long before Scott realized that the ones in the house had left it in search of prey as well.

The three ghouls trotted toward him, one a little faster than the rest. It reached a space roughly one dozen steps from Scott. The customary blue light flared out. "Scott Keen versus Dead Trio. Fight-O!"

He received a message citing the fact that the monsters would be fifteen percent stronger and that he had been weakened by three percent. "Well, ain't that just neat."

The lead ghoul took two steps toward him. Scott immediately tightened his grip on his weapon. It was a stronger ghoul; that much was certain.

Whatever the case, Scott took a deep breath then prepared. Running would be pointless. The ghouls knew where he was.

He waited out his turns until the lead ghoul was three steps away then unleashed his burning soul attack. A few seconds later the ghoul rushed forward two steps.

Scott did not even pretend to hold back. He immediately unleashed a brutal [Power Cleave] against his opponent.

The ghoul was not only stronger, but a little more agile than its compatriots as well. The attack Scott unleashed was easy to read, even for an undead monstrosity. The beast leapt sideways a little and mitigated some of the damage while taking the brunt of it with its outer shoulder. Too bad for it, Scott was able to follow up with a reverse strike across its torso. Improved speed was definitely interesting. The second strike was more effective since the monster was in the midst of its first defensive maneuver.

- 34

- 25

Scott was greatly surprised that the monster was not killed by such fierce attacks. It was badly hurt, that much was obvious. The second strike had torn a massive gouge across its chest, but that was still not quite enough to bring it down.

His turn ended and the monsters made their moves. The other two ghouls moved in the background while the stronger ghoul attacked viciously. Scott managed to redirect the first attack slightly, but the ghoul followed up with a second clawing strike that came at an angle that he was not quite prepared for at the time. He was able to reduce less of the damage from that second strike than the first.

-6

-7

Scott's already badly torn coat was shredded further along with his flesh. Bright red blood spurted outward as more than half of his hit points were torn from him in a single exchange. He cried out in agony just as his turn came around. His next strike tore through the ghoul's neck and neatly popped it off the beast's shoulders.

-25

Scott panted heavily then took a step back before his turn ended. The other ghouls made their move while the background music blared on. Afterward he received several rapid fire blue screen notices.

[Status Affliction]

Moderate Injury

You have taken repeated heavy injuries to your body in a short period of time. Your maximum hit points are reduced temporarily.

Status Affliction

Physical Strain

You have forced your body through several stressful situations over the course of twenty-four hours. Your ability to heal from your injuries is reduced for the duration of the affliction.

Status Affliction

Mental Strain

You have dealt with several near death experiences and undergone mental trauma over the course of twenty-four hours. Your ability to restore mana and to deal with mental status effects is reduced for the duration of the affliction.

Status Affliction Exacerbation

The effects of the status affliction [Fear of Death] have increased due to your [Mental Strain].

"Damn, when it rains it pours!" exclaimed Scott as he felt the effects of the afflictions. Just a moment before he had felt only the pain of his wounds. Now he felt like his body was going to fall apart, and he had developed a severe headache.

Burning Soul ended after his next double step backward. Now he waited. He had but nine hit points remaining. There was no choice but to use his back step strategy in the hopes that he would be able to kill the monsters before their comrades joined them.

Several turns passed as the monsters made their way forward. Scott groaned in annoyance when two more ghouls joined the fray. They now had a twenty percent boost to their capacity. If it became higher it would be difficult to survive.

He reactivated burning soul as one of the ghouls reached his position, and then used his second move to attack with power cleave. Unlike the first ghoul, he neatly cleaved the monster's head from its shoulders. Even as the monster hit the dirt, one of its companions moved into position. A blue screen message alerted him to a worsening situation.

Status Affliction Exacerbation

Your Physical Strain has worsened due to a heavily draining physical activity.

Scott seethed inwardly as he saw the message. His body felt like it was on fire now, and quite sore.

The ghoul seemed ready to pounce on him, but it was not fast enough to attack after moving. It was no longer his turn.

Scott did not dare use power cleave again unless he had to do so. Instead, he unleashed two swift strikes that the ghoul had trouble trying to avoid. The first one had been easy enough to twist away from to some degree, but it left the ghoul in a bad position. Its life was torn away just as its friend's life had been taken.

Ghouls continued to come for him. It seemed for a time that for every ghoul that he felled, another joined the battle. No more of the higher grade ghouls appeared, but the numbers of the ghouls rarely fell below three for a time.

Scott was forced to continually back around the battle field and use his attack and retreat pattern for most of the battle. He saved his mana, and also as much stamina as possible for combat maneuvering and last ditch special attacks.

A ghoul stepped into position received a brutal slash from Scott’s bush axe for its trouble. Unable to prevent him from retreating, it could only watch as its meal stepped back out of its reach.

In the next exchange it was knocked back and fell hard to the ground. That same scenario played itself out several times as Scott used the system of battle to his advantage as a means to keep the number of oncoming monsters that he had to face down to a minimum.

It was a great strategy. However, it was also loud and a lengthy process as it took many hard strikes to bring even one of the beasts down without his magic.

Scott began to grow tired, even as more of the beasts started to appear. He had overstayed his welcome, that much was certain. Three monsters became five, and then over time became fourteen. The battle continued unabated, as more and more of them appeared.

Of the fourteen ghouls he had fought so far, he had finished off nine. The battle continued as a few started to stagger toward the battle zone. He finished off two more, and dropped the number of current opponents to three. However, the new arrivals chose that moment to enter the battle. His opponents doubled to six. The combat potential of the ghouls increased, at least as far as the damage that they could take mattered. The system and Scott's maneuvering kept them from being too dangerous at the moment when it came to actual attacks.

The fight continued on. Ghouls fell, and more appeared. Scott panted heavily and started to simply walk away from the monsters one step at a time in order to try and recuperate stamina. He had only a little mana left, enough for two rounds of burning soul since he had regained a small amount over time. He put it to use immediately.

The ghouls were staggered out in such a way that he would be able to finish most of them off before his mana was lowered to the point that he would be unable to use his attack. Burning soul activated, he moved his way across the battle field like fiery death. Because of the boost to the ghouls from their comrades, he had to always attack twice for the first three encounters.

He had to change his movement patterns after that group so that he could draw the others close enough together to finish them off safely. It took a few minutes, but he managed to defeat the last of the beasts.

A mass of broken ghouls littered the battle field when Scott could finally call it quits. Sweat poured down the side of his face. He felt as though he would pass out at any moment. He had lost count of how many ghouls he had killed or crippled, but he needed to take a moment to breathe.

He could not take long, however. He was tired of being outside in the disgusting hell-hole that the world had become. At a glance, he guessed that over two dozen ghouls met their grisly demise on the business end of his bush axe from the beginning to the end of the battle. Thankfully, no more monsters popped up to assault him. That had been exhausting mentally and physically. He briefly wondered if he had just killed everyone who had lived on his street.

After the corpses finished with their death ripples and the black blood stopped flowing, another surprising thing occurred. A column of light appeared above five of the bodies. Within each column of light something floated. Three of the floating items were copper coins. One item was a plain looking ring, and the last one was a shiny red treasure chest similar to the one from earlier in the day. “Is, is this loot?”

Scott stepped among the corpses and collected the items that he found there. He was on the edge of exhaustion when he made it back inside his reinforced home. He immediately went to the bathroom to see if the shower still worked. The electricity and the water were two separate utilities after all. He was overjoyed to see that he had cold water at least. He used it to rinse off his bush axe. Thick viscous blood spiraled down the drain for a while before he was satisfied.

After his weapon was clean, he took his pants off and checked his wounds. He had a trio of angry red gashes on his leg, and his pants had been torn apart in the same place. His chest and shoulders looked as though he had fought with a wood chipper and lost. Those things hit hard. If he had not increased his level just before facing them, they would have torn him apart.

All across his body he saw angry yellow and blue bruises that made no sense. At least, they made no sense till he recalled his status afflictions. "Stress bruises?" he asked the empty bathroom.

He cleaned his wounds then poured rubbing alcohol on them before bandaging them with gauze. He had no idea if that would do anything for him, but he had to do at least that much. It seemed like something that should be done even if his hit points would regenerate on their own over time.

On the way back to the living room, a status menu popped up to announce that his level had increased. He mused that the things seemed to show up whenever they wanted to, as it had been some time since the battle ended.

Level-Up

Hit Points: + 14

Mana: + 10

Stamina Points: + 18

Speed: + 2

Counters: + 2

Movement + 2

Load = 30

Scott Keen

Age: 20

[Level: 4]

[HP: 28[17]][8/27]

[MP: 15[14][4/34]

[SP: 63[57]][13/67]

COMBAT

[Attack: 2[6][Arcane Attack: 0[1][5]

[Defense: 1[3][Arcane Defense: 0[1][3]

[Evasion: 1][Arcane Evasion: 0[1][2]

ABILITIES

[Strength: 3][Agility: 1][Vitality: 3]

[Durability: 1][Reflexes: 1][Arcane: 0][1]

[Intellect: 3][Charisma: 1][Luck: 1]

MANEUVERING

[Speed: 4]

[Counter: 4]

[Movement: 4]

[Jump: 1]

[Load: 30]

[Mental Strain – 37:36][Physical Strain – 45:15][Moderate Injuries]

“Hell yeah, level four.” The amount of development seemed great, though he definitely wanted to train more in order to see what would happen.

Scott thought about the battle that he’d just faced. He could fight against two dozen of the things in a prolonged battle, but he’d been exhausted and ended up with a painful wound in the process. Hell, he had negative status effects from what he could tell.

He guessed that there were probably a couple of ghouls in the mix that had been a level or two higher than the others, but most of them had probably been level one. He needed to be able to do more damage to them, more quickly.

He rubbed his chin. Did that mean that he needed more attack power or more speed? The more he swung his weapon, the more tired he became. Would increasing his strength make it easier to swing his weapon and keep him from getting tired as quickly? There was a lot to consider for the future.

There was nothing else to see as far as his status went. Though, he did notice that his attack stat had increased by one point. That no doubt meant that actions taken in battle could increase combat stats.

He finished up in the bathroom then went to check the peep holes in the front and back doors of the house. There were a few lesser ghouls meandering about at a distance but none of them seemed to realize that he was in the house. He hoped that it stayed that way.

Now, it was time to check the loot! Scott picked up the plain looking ring first.

[Accessory]

Plain Iron Band

A simple ring designed to grant the wearer improved capacity to withstand the rigors of battle.

Defense +2

Vitality +1

Value: 40 Copper Daemons

[--]

Scott wasted no time in putting it on his finger. Extra stats were always welcome. He was surprised it was worth so much, however. His bush axe was not worth much at all. Maybe something that dropped as loot was simply more valuable?

Next was the treasure chest. Scott flipped open the lid and saw two items. One was a small bag. He opened it up and found six copper daemons and a new type of coin. It had a silvery sheen to it. He assumed that it was a silver daemon.

The other item was miniature book. It reminded him of the tiny little thumb-sized bibles that some novelty stores sold like keychains. He took the thumb-book out of the little chest and it shimmered in his hands. It was now the size of a normal book. He blinked at twice, but decided not to worry about the strangeness of an expanding book. It was honestly the least strange thing that he had seen that day.

“Big Book of Professions.” Scott read the title aloud. Well, it was bigger than before, but still sort of small. What an oddly named book. Inside the book, he found only a quick blurb that referenced basic professions, such as fighters and mages.

“Well, that’s certainly useful.” said Scott in a deadpan manner. One particular part of the blurb irritated him greatly, however.

Profession Notice: You have been granted the right to accept a profession. Profession rights are randomized based on your current attributes and initial weapon choice.

You are unable to specifically choose what you will become at start. It is best to accept professional assignment early in order to minimize poor decision making during development. You will be unable to develop stronger abilities or learn more than your basic staring skills until you do so.

Choose to begin professional assignment by holding up the [Big Book of Professions] and firmly requesting professional assignment.

“So, the world has turned into some sort of horrible videogame, and I can’t even choose my own profession?” Scott snorted. Well, whatever. He had a chance to survive, but given the way the world was now it was still going to be a serious difficulty to do so.

Scott held up the [Big Book of Professions] and said, “I request professional assignment.”

The book flared brightly with a soft green light then transformed into arcs of electrical energy that raced up Scott’s arms. He started to cry out, but there was no pain, only the awakening of new knowledge.

His body began to glow with the green light of professional knowledge, or whatever it was supposed to be. When it died down, he patted his chest and twisted left and right. He felt no different. Though his ring did glow brightly for a moment as well.

Scott Keen

Age: 20

Profession: Arcane Slayer

[Level: 4]

[HP: 48[37][16/47]

[MP: 55[54][6/74]

[SP: 83[78]][23/88]

COMBAT

[Attack: 6[10][Arcane Attack: 10[14]

[Defense: 4[8][Arcane Defense: 7[9]

[Evasion: 3][Arcane Evasion: 5[7]

ABILITIES

[Strength: 7][Agility: 4][Vitality: 7]

[Durability: 6][Reflexes: 4][Arcane: 10]

[Intellect: 7][Charisma: 4][Luck: 4]

MANEUVERING

[Speed: 6]

[Counter: 4]

[Movement: 7]

[Jump: 2]

[Load: 40]

[Mental Strain – 35:24][Physical Strain – 43:12][Moderate Injuries]

“Arcane Slayer? My stats rose a lot.” He said. What kind of profession was that anyway? Did he slay the arcane, or did he use arcane abilities to slay things? It was probably the latter, but he might be some sort of witch hunter or something.

Curious, he checked his skills. Five more skills were available now.

[Skills]

[Arcane Strike][Blizzard Strike][Lightning Strike][Flame Strike][Gale Strike]

[--]

“Seems like an attack oriented profession… Makes sense with a name like slayer, I guess.” Scott checked the individual skills then nodded. Each of them had a specific usage.

The [Arcane Strike] was a skill that had no elemental affinity but could use mana to increase attack damage. The other skills added elemental effects to attacks and allowed increased effectiveness against specific types of opponents. From what he could tell, he would need to develop his elemental affinities for the other elements to use them to their fullest potential. Currently, he only had an affinity to fire. Using burning soul and then flame strike would increase the damage of the attack.

The [Blizzard Strike] was good against monsters weak to water and ice. If he faced a water or machine monster the [Lightning Strike] skill would do extra damage. The same sort of thing was true of [Flame Strike] and [Gale Strike]. Fire was good against plants and the undead. The wind based attack was good against flying monsters among other things.

Part of him wanted to run out and test his new skills on the monsters outside. A more sensible part of him remembered that he was exhausted and injured. Rest was in order. He could try things out later. Right now, he needed a nap.