-What are These Boxes?-

“Kehum!! Kehum!! Ouch!”

Muto Kenshin coughed hoarsely as he leaned over one of the walls on the dungeon.

“Looks like I'm done for this time,” he muttered with his voice breaking due to breathlessness. He was bleeding profusely from a large wound on his abdomen. His every breath was becoming a chore to him, and his body was numbing ever so slowly. He knew his end was near, there was no other way around it, people don’t just survive a such a wound. He turned his head and looked towards the heap of meat laying not far from him.

A green colored three-eyed monkey, dead, with its head separated from its body laid near him. His eyes became expressionless when he saw it, a brief second fury was displayed on his visage. It was the reason behind his current status after all. With each passing second, Kenshin could feel his life slipping away from him.

While leaning, He reminisced about his life. He looked back on his memories, the people he met and the future he would miss. For a brief second, the images of two girls flashed in his eyes. He held them both very close to his heart, sharing many memories with them.

“Mom... Dad... It seems I couldn’t fulfill my promise to you. I hope you will forgive me...” Kenshin thought, entirely resigned to his fate.

Kenshin lived in a very conflicting world, a world where Dungeons and Monsters exist. A world that had technologically advanced with swords and shields still commonplace. A world where although science was prevalent, magic still exists. A very unique amalgamation of both medieval and advanced society.

The most Kenshin could achieve in his life was becoming a low leveled hunter, one who could only challenge Level 1 and Level 2 dungeons. He neither had the talent nor the resources to advance any further. His parents were also low leveled hunters at their prime, as he was now. They were professional hunters, although low leveled ones, who would venture into the dungeon to sustain their lifestyle.

But they died long ago.

When he was 15, a beast tide, a group formed from various monsters with the purpose of ganging up on humans, struck the dungeon they were in, resulting in their deaths. This event left him and his sister, who was only nine, as orphans. His sister was very young, making him the primary provider for their family. Although some relatives tried to offer their help, he didn’t allow that to happen.

From that day on he was forced to mature early.

Muto Kenshin did everything in his power to support his sister, who had a chance to reach greater heights than him. He dropped out of high school and became a hunter. At an age where he should be hanging out with friends, he risked his life in a dungeon daily.

Alas, like his parents, his potential was not that great. In the end, he only managed to get a low-level hunter license.

Even so, Kenshin never complained about it. After all, it provided him with a way to support his sister.

Unlike him, his sister was a model student, awakening a powerful ability at a young age and later selected by the government to join a special task force. For that, she received a scholarship to the Hunter’s Academy and was now living in the school's dormitory. She was also very talented in all aspects of study, unlike him who struggled even while doing homework.

After their parent’s death, Kenshin has done everything he could to make sure that she never felt inferior to others. He worked day and night with his life on the line to earn enough money for her. To this day he had never failed his sister in any way.

He was proud of that fact.

In this new age, people lived in constant fear of monsters. As such, the government set up many schools and universities to teach students how to fight the monsters under strict environments and strenuous conditions.

In this blight filled time, humanity needs as many skilled hunters as it could produce.

But a Hunter’s Academy didn’t just allow anyone to study there. It had criteria that could only be fulfilled by a special group of people. These people were born with an inherent ‘skill’ which distinguishes them from other hunters. The ability of ‘skill’ is what classifies the potential of a hunter. This so-called skill is a type of supernatural ability that a person was born with. Although some people were born with it, there was also a chance of developing one at some point in the future.

His sister was born with a very powerful skill, making her potential very high. Kenshin, who didn’t want to hinder his sister on her way to greatness, always supported her wholeheartedly.

__________________________________________

In the beginning, he was so poor that he was barely able to scrape enough money for Akari's annual school fees before she received the scholarship. A few days ago, her class teacher called to inform him that Akari was in desperate need of a new set of battle gear as her old ones were severely damaged, hindering her abilities significantly. For the first time in his life, he felt like he would be disappointing her.

On an online forum, the minimum cost of a full set gear was around 3000 to 5000 gold. For a moment Kenshin felt as if a thunderbolt had struck him in the head. That much gold was not something a simple low-leveled hunter like him could afford instantly. Even while working as a hunter day and night, at most he makes around 500 G a month. It will take him around a year to gather that much money, he can’t make her wait for that long for new gear!

The standard unit used to buy or sell dungeon related material was Gold. It was universally accepted. Every country had their own currency except when it comes to dungeon related materials. Gold was the primary currency used everywhere.

The conversion rate for Gold was also astronomically high, at a staggering amount of $50 per gold coin.

It was impossible for him to earn that many gold coins from a level 2 dungeon, even if he tries for a month straight. The only way left was challenging a higher tier dungeon. With no other way left, Kenshin dived into a level 3 dungeon despite knowing that it was way beyond his current capabilities.

At first, everything went smoothly. With his rich fighting experience, he was able to avoid catastrophes to himself while killing low-level monsters and looting item drops. Although he had a skill, it was terrible to the point where it was like he didn't have one.

Those with skills had a high chance of becoming strong, but it also depended on the ability itself. A hunter’s future wasn’t very bright if the ability wasn’t very strong.

Kenshin was one of those who had a crappy skill, or at least he thought it was one. All he knew was its name, but he didn’t know how to use it, making him assume that it’s a useless skill.

In the end, Kenshin’s luck finally ran out while he was busy with killing low-level monsters and collecting their drops. Although he was loitering around the first floor, not daring to go any further, a powerful monster on the first floor ambushed him.

It was a level 7 three-eyed ape. This monster was no threat to strong hunters; for they could insta-kill it. Unfortunately, to the low-level hunters, this monster was an absolute horror. These monkeys were extremely difficult to kill because they had rock hard skin and high vitality.

They also had a skill called Passive Regeneration, causing their stamina to refill almost instantly.

But the most horrifying thing about this monster who attacked Kenshin was its partially awakened intelligence.

The monkey had attacked Kenshin when he was resting after finishing off a goblin archer, fatally wounding him with a single claw strike. Kenshin, desperate and angry, used his rich fighting experience and gave a the monkey a sword in the neck.

Even though it had a stone like skin and high vitality, the monkey couldn’t stop itself from dying from that critical strike. With that one strike, Kenshin had severed its spinal cord. It was a desperate retaliation from Kenshin, but luckily it had succeeded.

Regrettably, it didn’t change the fact that Kenshin was going to die. That claw strike had damaged almost all his internal organs around his stomach.

His blood was showing no sign of stopping and was flowing like a fountain. Slowly he started feeling light headed as his vision swam.

‘This is it... I've met my end,’ thinking so, Kenshin closed his eyes, waiting for the cold embrace of death. But it seems fate had other plans. He suddenly heard three bell-like chimes ringing inside his head.

[Congratulations! You have leveled up]

[Skill Replicate leveled up to Level 1]

[You can now replicate any one skill of an opponent]

Kenshin’s head jerked as his eyes opened wide like saucers. Three blue colored, rectangular boxes were floating in front of him with words written on them.

“The hell? Is this some kind of near death hallucination?” Kenshin asked aloud. Kenshin thought the boxes were hallucinations due to extensive blood loss.

[Please select any one skill of the following]

[1. Stone Skin]

[2. Passive Regeneration]

‘What the hell is going on here? What are these blue boxes? Am I dead?’

Unable to comprehend the situation happening in front of him, Kenshin suspiciously poked his wound and then screamed as a wave of pain passed through his body. Waiting for the waves of agony to weaken, Kenshin lied there for a few moments.

‘I'm still alive and not hallucinating. What are these boxes then?’ Kenshin extended his right hand and touched one of the floating boxes. He was then surprised to find that it had solid texture despite looking like mirages.

[Warning* Health has fallen below 5%]

[Skill* Passive Regeneration was automatically selected]

[Passive Regeneration Lv 1]

[Regenerates 1 point of Stamina and 2 points of HP every ten seconds]

[Current Status*]

[Muto Kenshin][Human]

[Level 5][1900 Exp until next Level Up]

[HP 6/150][MP 19/19]

[ATK: 25; DEF: 19; AGI: 31; PHY: 15; LUK: 9]

[Unassigned Attribute points: 4][Unassigned skill points: 0]

[Lives: 0]

[Skills]

Replication Lv1[2000 EXP to next Level Up]

Passive Regeneration Lv1[2000 EXP to next Level Up]

[Equipment]

Common Iron sword (+10 ATK)

Kenshin became speechless after seeing so many weird descriptions appear inside a blue box in front of him. The boxes had many familiar worlds written, quite resembling an RPG status screen.

Unable to make head or tails of the situation, he passed out after staring at the screen for some time.