The door started to creak open, and in a split second, Jacob had to make a choice. Either sit back and wait, putting himself at the mercy of whatever entity was entering the room, or strike. The choice was obvious to Jacob, as the chances of him winning in a fair fight were exceptionally low.

So, using every bit of strength his crippled body could muster up, Jacob struck with whatever item was in his hand.

Critical hit!

Human has taken 34 damage!

You have slain Human Lv. 0

+150 EXP!

Level up!

Level up!

Level up!

+15 attribute points

Gained Title: [Murderer]

Gained Title: [Monster]

'...'

'Why don't I feel bad? I just killed somebody. I should feel something, right?'

But Jacob didn't. He felt no remorse, nor regret. Why should he? He didn't know that another person was behind the door, so it wasn't his fault. Yeah, he felt a tad irresponsible for not even checking if they were human or not, but what was he supposed to do? Let them have time to react to his ambush?

Jacob was thinking much clearer now for some reason. It's as if the entire right half of his brain turned off, and let the left brain take over.

Jacob took a good look at the crime scene in front of him and had multiple things catch his eye. First, the person whom he had assaulted and ultimately murdered had been a petite-looking middle-aged woman, currently adorned in a previously blue, now red sweater, and a pair of equally bloodied jeans. Multiple wounds were visible, including bite marks, which made it obvious that the woman was already injured before entering. Another thing he noticed, was the murder weapon.

'Did I seriously forget that I had that damn mop in my hand? What would I have done if the thing that had come in was a monster and not an injured girl?'

Still, Jacob admitted that the idea of him committing murder with a Swiffer was hilarious. He then opened his status screen.

Name: Jacob Bates

Level: 3

Exp: 15/250

Class: N/A Race: Human Health: 90/90 Mana: 200/200 Strength: 8 Endurance: 5 Dexterity: 10 Agility: 9 Intelligence: 16 Wisdom:

12

Attribute Points:

15

Skills: N/A

Titles:

[Cool Headed] [Murderer] [Monster]

'Guess I'd better find out what my shiny new titles do.' Jacob thought.

[Murderer] is a title obtained from killing another member of your species, unprovoked.

Effect #1: 10% increase to all stats when against another member of your species.

Effect #2: Increase in friendliness with those of your species with lower intelligence.

Effect #3: Decrease in friendliness with those of your species with similar or higher intelligence.

'Huh, that's weird. I figured the system would punish me for murdering other people, but I'm getting rewarded? And what's with the increase and decrease in friendliness thing? Is it saying to avoid me if you know what's good for you? I mean, it's probably not wrong.'

Jacob ended his rant and continued on.

[Monster] is a title obtained by having your first kill of the tutorial be a human.

Effect #1: Nullifies emotion, allowing one to think more like the monster they are.

Effect #2: Unlocks potential monster species upgrades. (Level 10)

'That first one explains why I didn't feel any guilt for killing that girl, but what about that second effect? I mean, it makes sense that any human being that kills another person would be called a monster, but the possibility to become an actual monster?'

With his curiosity sated, Jacob decided to look into his stats to see what they did. He felt that he already knew, but they might be different from the games he's used to playing.

Getting a rundown of each stat by the system, Jacob had now gotten the basics of it down.

Strength increases your physical damage output with melee weapons and gives you an additional 5 health points.

Endurance gives you an additional 10 health points and increases damage resistance.

Dexterity is like strength, but it applies to light weapons especially. It also increases accuracy.

Agility increases your overall speed, as well as the flexibility that the body is able to demonstrate.

Intelligence increases max mana by 5 points, and also increases the effects of magic.

Wisdom increases max mana by 10 points and increases mana regeneration speed.

With his understanding of each attribute down, Jacob had to make a decision. What would he put his points into?

Increasing strength seemed like a solid choice. It would both increase his health a little, and give him the pure destructive power necessary for combat, thus increasing survivability.

He could also pick endurance, making up for his main weakness right now, being his frail body.

He decided to skip over dexterity, as he already had it at an "okay" place right now, and he was unsure of how useful it would be.

Agility would be nice to have in any case, as speed is very important, whether it be chasing after weak enemies, or running away from strong ones.

Intelligence and wisdom were the hard ones. These stats may be much higher than his physical ones, but that didn't mean he knew how to use them.

With his options considered, Jacob brought up his status page and distributed his points.

Name: Jacob Bates

Level: 3

Exp: 15/250

Class: N/A Race: Human Health: 165/165 Mana: 210/210 Strength: 13 Endurance: 10 Dexterity: 10 Agility: 12 Intelligence: 18 Wisdom:

12

Attribute Points:

0

Skills: N/A

Titles:

[Cool Headed] [Murderer] [Monster]

He had ended up adding 5 points to both endurance and strength while adding 3 to agility, and 2 to intelligence. This would have to suffice for physical stats, as he was going to attempt to capitalize on his high base mental stats, being his reasoning for adding 2 of his precious points into intelligence.

After confirming his choice, Jacob felt a unique sense of euphoria, unlike any other, flowing through his entire being. He could feel his muscles getting stronger and his bones getting denser. But that's not all! He also felt a foreign sensation enter his bloodstream. No...it was something completely different. This was mana!

Jacob already had fairly high mental stats from before the level-ups, but he couldn't feel anything close to this type of energy that's currently flowing through him. It seems all it took was a few points of intelligence to unlock this strange feeling. He didn't feel any smarter, so he could only assume that the points were going straight to his ability to use mana. He would only find out with time.

With that being sorted out, Jacob decided to finally head out of the staff room and complete his quest.

'Let's go fuck up some goblins.'