Here is the next installment of Gamer Arc.


Chapter 2

The next few months of training were uneventful other than the intense amount of work I had to do daily. Through everything I did, I got only two more level, just by completing all the tasks that Bic gave to me. Little errands that I leapt on for a break in my agonizing training. My skills had gone up a great deal, enough for me to almost be at my little sister's level, at most. I was a terrible trainee in the end. I showed improvement and I really did try as hard as I could, but the results were nothing special for three straight months of work.

Name: Jaune Arc

Level: 8

Next level: 80%

Title: The Disgrace

HP: 1380

MP: 500

STR: 25

VIT: 60

DEX: 30

INT: 16

WIS: 12

LUK: 20

Points:

Money:

Skills: (Range 1-Max)

Gamer's Body (Passive) – Max

Gamer's Mind (Passive) – Max

Analyze (Active): level 5 - Observing objects, situations, and persons allows the user to quickly gather information. The higher the skill, the greater the data obtained!

Vitality Affiliation (Passive): Level 5 - +50% stamina, +50% stamina regeneration

Physical Endurance (Passive): level 15 - Ability to endure and negate physical damage. 30% less physical damage

Dish Washing (Passive): level 3 - Fight the stains with the might of your hands! +15% speed at dishes

Cooking (Passive): level 2 - Cook the food with great strength . +7% better quality food

Firearms:

Pistol Mastery (Passive): level 5 - Use of a pistol - +25% damage and accuracy

Rifle Mastery (Passive): level 5 - Use of Rifle - +25% damage and accuracy

Sniper Mastery (Passive): level 2 - Use of scoped weapons - +10% damage and accuracy. +6% steadiness

Sense Danger (Passive/ Active): level 6 - Allows user to sense when something bad might happen! Gives location of the danger up to fifty meters. Active: 1 mp every 5 seconds, increases range by two hundred meters, more direct location of danger

Sword Mastery (Passive): level 19 - The ability to effectively use cutting swords in combat. + 95% damage with swords, +95% speed with swords

Hand to Hand (Passive): level 3 - Fighting without weapons. +15% damage with body, +15% speed with body in combat. Augments all aspects of combat.

Dodge (Passive): level 7 – Ability to get out of the way

Block (Passive): level 3 – The ability to block a hit. -6% force from blocked strikes to shield.

Sprint (Active): level 10 – Sprinting, 3 MP per 5 seconds, 40% increase to speed

Parry (Passive): level 7 – The ability to redirect a strike

Gymnastics (Passive): level 5 - The ability to make leaps, somersaults and other such moves. +25% Jumping height and coordination

Overdo (Active): level 3 - The ability to go past your normal limits in desperate situations, + 30% to physical stats, 1% of MP every second

Scavenge (Passive): level 3 - The ability to find food and supplies in the wild or trash

Bic escorted me to Shardis at the end of the last month, his face set in a grim vintage. My body felt like one big bruise from that final fight I had with Bic that acted as my final grade to see if I was up for the privilege of fighting for Luka. I had failed at the spar, so I was probably not going to get the job though.

"Captain Shardis, sir!" Bic announced as we came into the office of the captain. We both gave a salute to the captain until the man waved his hand to let us be at ease. "Private Arc is ready to defend our wall. He is well over proficient with the blade and his marksmen ship is to our standard. Remarkable that he is this far along in only three months. Sadly, the boy can't match any guards here due to his age, size and strength, but his stamina reminds me of a beowolf and his tenacity matches."

I could only widen my eyes and fight my face from giving away any more of my shock at his words. 'I made it?!' I cried in my head with confusion.

Shardis nodded and opened up a drawer from his desk. "Well Private. You will report to Sergeant Pierce for your assignment for the next three weeks. Your pay will be one hundred liens a week until you leave. If you decide to stay however, you will be paid five hundred lien a week. Your training is being taken out of your pay at the moment. Welcome to Luka's defense force." The captain tossed a badge at me which had the mark of Luka on it. I fumblingly caught it and saluted the man. Once I was dismissed, I left the office to go find Sargent Pierce for my assignment.

The Sergeant was rather easy to find as he was eating in his office. He gave me guard duty for the east wall and told me to kill any Grimm that showed themselves in the clearing, not that it happened that often since the town was known to the grimms as a place to die. If a bandit was spotted, don't shoot, but raise an alarm. This would cut down on innocents being killed on accident. I was given a pass to get a sword, pistol and scoped rifle from the armory once my duties were outlined.

The first week on duty was mind-numbingly boring, but I passed the time by analyzing everything I could see. The trees, the leaves, the grass, that one farmer that went out to go pick berries, or that guy that would go chops some trees down bordering the woods for resources.

I gained levels in the skill quickly until I reached level ten. At ten, it seems to double the needed points to level up which was why I only had nineteen levels in swords after using it for so long, three hours every day for my entire training. I also figured out that battling with the skills to the death makes them increase about three times as fast. Hitting a tree or sparring had nothing on killing Grimms. Nothing compared to the heart-stopping fear of death or the satisfaction of being the one who came out on top of a battle to the death. I gained a bit of experience with little quests here and there as everyday gave me a quest to do my job, but they were small rewards that really didn't do much to level me up. It was about three percent of my experience a day and since I was such a low level, at ten or something, I would probably stick with the level for months if I didn't do dangerous things.

Week two followed the course of week one while on the job, but a lot of things happened during my down time. Most of which was under the peer pressure of my fellow guards. With my pay, I bought myself my own pistol near the beginning of the week so I could keep it on me during downtime in case anything happened. A simple metal tool that was mass produced before weapons became too complicated. Ancient by the standards now, the pistol still had bullet drop due to using gunpowder and heavy bullets instead of dust with grain size projectiles. It had a seven round magazine and was of the .45 caliber variety. The durability was much more than my standard issue dust pistol that I replaced it with due to the use of complete metal instead of a plastic mixed with a light alloy, so that it may fold into a smaller form. It packed a much greater punch and the ammo could be locally crafted which was why it was used out here, but making the ammo took time due to lack of mass production.

My comrades thought that since I was going to be leaving them soon, I should have something to remember them all by. The squad got together and dragged me to a house in the middle of town and told the man inside, "Give him a Luka parting gift." I was immediately fighting the moment they grabbed me, but I redoubled my efforts as they dragged me into a room where there was a few needles on a table along with a box and a steel bed in the middle. The crew picked me up and put me on the table before holding me down.

I was relaxing at the time they took me, so I was without a shirt on which apparently made their job easier as the man that we came in with took a needle to my back that was vibrating and started to do something to me. I stopped resisting as the man had a sharp tool against my flesh and I didn't want to make that get stabbed into me. I glared at my comrades and they all looked sheepish, but the shit-eating grins told me all I needed to know on their feelings.

The needle gave a soft buzz as it glided along the flesh of my back in seemingly random patterns. It didn't hurt much due to my skill, but I would have liked to have known I was getting a tattoo today instead of kidnapped from my bunk.

After three hours, the man was finally done giving me a tattoo which I had almost fallen asleep during. I could tell it was the town's crest by the feel of the outline that the dull ache gave me. The man took the needle away from my back and placed it on the table it was on. The man opened his toolbox and asked, "Do you want this to be permanent and not able to be warped? While I will help my former comrades mark a member, this is a step that I need your consent for."

I pressed my face against the steel before looking up, "What do you do?"

The man pulled out a little pouch and explained, "I use a special dust concoction to make the ink infused with your very soul. When you get hurt, be it a bullet to the back or even having the entirety of the flesh melted off your very body, the tattoo will always return using some of your life force that is generated every beat of your heart. The cons are that it will never go away and can never be altered."

I bounced my head off the table before saying, "What does the tattoo look like first?" The man pulled out a mirror from the side which I hadn't noticed apparently and turned it around to show me on the table. I hopped off the steel bed and turned around.

The crest was covering three-fourth of my back, from my shoulder blades to a few inches above my pants line. The crest of Luka was a large snarling timber wolf flanked by an octagon wall that bordered it to represent our wall's layout. Above the wall had "Luka" written in what the artist told me was called the Beyond Wonderland font, not sure why he told me, but I guessed it was to fill the time it took to make the rather large tattoo.

Below that, it had our towns motto in ancient Mystian, a language that went by the name of Latin in my native tongue, "Vivant et maledictæ vigilem" Long live the cursed sentry. The history behind that, to my knowledge, was that Luka was founded during a time of strafe by guards that were disillusioned by all the war and deserted their posts to start a new life with their families. The timber wolf was their symbol due to how fiercely they wanted to protect their families from the wars. Hence the hardcore training everyone in the guard undergoes to protect the town.

An added bonus to the design of the tattoo was the wolf's eyes were ruby red and fur was realistically filled in. The hair was easy to see in a gray format to make it look like an emblem. All around, it was a masterpiece in my eyes. I rubbed my face before nodding, "Yeah... This is too good of a work to have it be ruined by a stray bullet."

I laid back down on the bed and the man painted the dust onto my skin where it burned along the ink lines for a few agonizing seconds until it evened out. The men in the room that were watching all cheered and laughed while slapping me on the shoulder. The tattoo artist made them stop to give him time to put the bandage on my back. "While the ink will always be fine thanks to the dust, I did just stab you more than a few thousand times and we don't want you to get an infection," the artist said with a smirk as my squad picked me up over their heads and carried me out of the room, cheering and generally having a good time.

I noticed a window that said I now had a Dust-Tattoo and it told me what the good artist just informed me of. It also gave me a bonus affiliation with anyone from Luka.

The rest of the week finished quickly after that and I earned enough money to buy a reloading bench with my next pay check. They were cheap as I got a used piece of shit that was going to be replaced by the fighting force here. They had gotten a better shipment of them from Vale the week before I arrived and I got to the bench just before they were going to be recycled into the town, so I got a deal on one at thirty lien.

I kept it in my inventory which didn't seem to have any weight behind it, but did have a weight limit on what it could hold. With my strength at the moment, it allowed one hundred pounds of shit to be stored before it wouldn't except anything. The bench being fifty pounds total as the table part was just a small desk that was littered with supply containers. I was so happy and disappointed when I found out about the inventory in training. Happy due to the usefulness and disappointed that I hadn't found it earlier. I could have saved a ton of food in there if I had found it.

On the final week, I once more saw nothing during my entire shift. I sighed as my replacement came in and I walked down the stairs to go grab a good meal. As I took the first step, I heard a crack and a thump. I look back to check out what that sound was and saw the replacement without the back of his head.

The man's brain was visible through the hole as it began to leak out onto the stonework in a burst of crimson. The blood flooded out quickly until there was nothing left. As if a puppet cut his strings, the man jerked forward and hit the stone ground with a meaty and wet thud. This brought more blood out of the hole in his skull, coating the ground with his life-giving fluid.

I was about to panic at the sight of my dead comrade before my Gamer Mind skill calmed me down. I needed to raise the alarm, not run around like a fool. I saw a window appear, but I quickly exited out of it as I moved forward.

I ducked behind cover on the wall and pulled my radio from my belt, "I'm taking fire in sector 5, guard down. Repeat, I'm taking fire in sector 5, guard down." I got a confirmation and an alarm raised itself around the town, telling the citizens to stay indoors and guards to get ready.

I pulled my sniper of my inventory and looked through the scope around the clearing. I saw a bush rattle and like a flood, fifty bandits dashed out, firing at the wall. I ducked behind cover as the rounds peppered my position. All around me, I heard my comrades that were already along the wall return fire. A quest screen came up before my eyes as I waited for the fire on me to die down.

Quest:

Defend against bandit assault

Reward – 3000 experience and closeness with town of Luka

Failure – Death

Denial – Luka thinks of you as a deserter

I accepted the quest and popped out of cover. I lined up a shot and put a bullet into a bandit's skull near the front of the charge. In my haste to kill the attacking force, I saw that they were all around level twelve, but they had number and surprise on their side. I almost froze when I saw the blood of the man I killed, but my mind calmed itself and my body had already readied the next shot by pulling the bolt smoothly back and pushing home a new round into the chamber. I was trained to fire then move on to the next target and that was what my body wanted to do, so I let it happen.

I fired once more and another man fell to the bullet. All around the field the bandits died due to having no cover whatsoever. My small number of comrades, six in total, and I made short work of the advancing bandits before they even touched our wall. I personally took out ten of the fifty with my quick shooting and thanks to my comrades drawing all the fire. The attack was over before reinforcement had their gear on.

I felt sick from killing, but then I saw Robert's, my replacement, dead body. It was a terrible thing to happen, but they killed an innocent man with a family for no real reason and with no results to show for that action. When that thought took root in my mind, I found myself accepting that I killed people yes, but they did the same. I was surprised by my lackluster response to my first kill, but I didn't really care about it as I didn't care that I killed those bastards. Overall, three of our own died from the assault because of the sheer number of guns they had on us.

I spent the rest of the day helping clear up the clearing and looting the dead for supplies. I found a bunch of lien that I pocketed into my inventory's wallet, many bullets for dust weaponry along with simple things like dice or card sets, which I took one of each as well. I also put one of the assault rifles that used standard dust rounds into my inventory when no one was looking along with a few thousand rounds of ammo for it which came from many of the people that I had to drag into a pile. These bandits were ready for the long haul when they attacked. Didn't mean they meant for it to be a long haul, but if they had reached the wall, they wouldn't have run out of ammo anytime soon.

We burned the bodies in the blood-covered field and had a funeral for our fallen comrades near town hall. Shardis gave a moving speech and the bodies were buried in the town's graveyard. It boiled down to that we will show strength in this time of tragedy and the bandits will never have the pleasure to see us suffer due to their actions.

I went to sleep late into that night once everything was done. My dreams were plagued with the image of my dead comrade. I woke up early, spooked awake by the sound of gunfire from the dream. With a sigh, I washed my face in the bathroom, ready to put this place behind me for a time, get away from battle for a bit.

I loved this place, but I couldn't stay here as I missed my sisters far too much and I had to finish my schooling. I did want to be a hunter, even if the idea to start was due to wanting to be a hero like in the stories. I had since changed that idea into wanting to fight and help keep people like my sisters safe. I also had the power to do so and it would be a waste to let my life be normal when I could make myself into a legend.

I was so eager to just get out, I barely noticed I had leveled up that frantic fight. I was so upset about losing a comrade that I had deleted the message before I could read them. I only noticed thanks to checking if I had gained any strength from moving the bodies which I didn't.

While I waited for the supply runners to come, I opened up my stats to see I had leveled up three times. I am at the proud level of eleven, not even close to the ranks of my comrades. I just pumped all fifteen points into my intelligence to get it near my other combat skills, so I'm not a vapid moron. My mind felt more ready to learn the moment I finalized it. I found it easier to remember everything and felt that if I read a book, I could learn it all in only three reads.

The supplies came in around nine in the morning and I even helped them unload, so it goes quicker. It took a total of five hours to get everything unloaded and packed away. Due to my persistent nature, I gained two strength and vitality points. I do believe I was close with them both though, so I really only got one. I was happy about the strength as my training really didn't focus on power, mostly just endurance and to fight for long-lasting battles.

Shardis came over as the convoy was about to leave. I saluted and he waved his hand, "You're no longer a guard under me. You don't have to salute. Now, saying this, if you ever come back... All you have to do is a refresher course, which is a condensed three month course that is about half as hard as what you did, and I would be glad to have you back on the force. You handled yourself excellently in the attack and I wouldn't mind a guard like you under my command." The man reached out and I shook his hand firmly.

Shardis gave a final nod before heading back to do the paperwork that came with a raid like that. The leader of the convoy shouted, "Boy, you coming or not?!" I looked over and saw everyone was ready to pull out, so I jumped in the back of one of the supply trucks and off they went.

I stayed in the back, cleaning my dust rifle and checking it over. Just by looking at it, the thing was old and battle-scarred, but didn't look to be missing any pieces like some of the weapons I saw on that field.

Standard issue concussive dust assault rifle – Mass produced dust rifle used in the Faunus war. Uses Dust Assault Rifle rounds

200/350

30 ballistic

4 rounds/second

It was a good weapon to begin with and had a decent damage output even though my pistol did forty per round, it didn't have the amount of bullets that could be laid down in it like this thing did. It was also cool that this thing had seen battle in a war and made it through.

The ride to Vale only took three hours. Three hours was all it took and I was gone for four months. I didn't know rather to laugh or cry, so I did neither, I punched the side of the truck as hard as I could and let it go. The only evidence of my emotional turmoil was the five inch dent in the side of the alloy haul and my broken fist.

The supply runners dropped me off thirty miles from my house and told me good luck. It was better than nothing, so I flipped up the hood on my oversized guard's casual hoodie, that had the logo of Luka on the back, and began the journey back to my house. The hoodie was a gift to me from Bic, but the man thought I had to grow into it, so he got me an extra-large one that went down to just above my knees. My sidearm was strapped to the inside of the large pocket in front, and my sword, which I got a sheath for, was on the other side for my left hand draw. My gun will take priority over my blade until the target reached me. Priority didn't really matter with this thing on though. I hopefully did not have to fight in it, but if I did, I could pull out the pistol easily.

I made it back to the house around seven. When I saw my front door, I was overcome with a sense of rage that even my skill couldn't break me out of. I stomped up to the door and rang the bell twice, hard enough to slightly crack the buzzer. I heard light footsteps and the door opened to show Susie. My rage washed away like water down a river when I saw my little sister. "Hey Susie. I'm back."

The girl stared up at me, blinking for a second."Brother!" Susie cried as she jumped onto me, legs wrapping around me like a sloth. I laughed and kept her from falling as I walked into the house, kicking the door closed behind me as the ten year old had my arms pinned to my side. "Papa said you were dead!"

"Did he now? I almost was, but I was able to fight off those nasty little grimms and I came back to my adorable little sisters," I replied in a false confident voice for the amusement of the little girl. I barely killed those things and if I fought one now, I might be able to kill one, but two would end my life. Susie gave me a harder hug that would have hurt if it wasn't for all my training.

I carried the girl into the kitchen and set her down on the counter so she'd like go of me. At the stove was my mother who seemed surprise I was here. "Run along Susie, I need to talk with Mom alone," I told my little sister with a smile on my face. Susie looked between us before nodding. She jumped off the counter and was out of the room quickly. Once the girl was around the corner, my smile dropped off my face as if it was never there. "Your husband tried and almost succeeded in killing me. Are you aware of this?"

Mom's eyes grew wide and I analyzed her with the intent to see if she was faking. A box appeared. "Skill acquired! Insight (Active): level 1 – Find the true motives of people" and after I made that go away, the next one was, "The target is surprised that her husband would do such a thing."

With my low level, I could barely see mom lunge forward and pick me up in a bear hug. "Oh my lord, are you alright?!" The hug was hard, but it felt so nice to be hugged by my mom again. She hadn't hugged me since I was eight when I started my combat training, if getting the shit beat out of me with a warhammer was considered training.

I reluctantly freed myself from her grasp before I answered, "I'm fine mom. I found a town two hundred miles north of here and joined their guard until they got a runner to bring me back. I'm better than when I got abandoned." except for the mental trauma of seeing a comrade get his head blown off, the image of an exploding skull between crosshairs burned into my head, and the unending fear of being devoured by the darkness in my sleep during my stay in the forest. All that coupled with the mental scarring of ending over ten people's lives in a battle for a town.

Mom looked me up and down and her gaze lingered on the covered weapon at my waist. My pocket was big enough to hide my pistol from her eyes, but the sheath of my blade stuck out the back of my shirt to my knee. "I learned a lot of sword work and was trained in the use of many firearms. I could probably beat Susie in a fight, but I'm three years older so... That's not all that great."

I felt mom pat me on the head and heard her say, "I'm sure you're great at using the weapons. I think signal tryouts are still open if you want to sign up later. Not today because you just got home and I will NOT let my baby out of my sight!" We talked some more, but when the twins caught wind of me being back, our conversation stopped after I got tackled into a wall by the to be hunters-in-training. I found that Mom was a lot warmer towards me than normal which I put down as her missing me in my four months of absences.

The rest of the day was me playing catch-up with mom and when that was over, I went to bed before Mom's husband came home. That man is no father to me. I got woken up to the two arguing and after an hour, the front door slammed and I heard Thomas Arc's car start-up and drive away. Whatever.

The next week, I didn't do too much of anything other than grind out my skills. I went to Signal and signed up for the tryouts that are to be held a week before school started for the ones denied to get a chance to prove themselves to the instructors.

After that, I didn't stay at home much. I went to the woods and trained my skills as well as hunted down the stray Grimm to fight for the experience. I ended up finding a pack of Beowolves that were all level sevens that I destroyed with only a little difficulty, a few deep gashes along my arms. That however gave me enough experience coupled with my other kills to get me to level twelve. I put some of the points I had in my strength to make it thirty and some in my vitality to make that a good seventy. If I'm going to be a hunter, I'll need to have great fighting stats. The training in Luka was what made my VIT really high. I had to push myself everyday through the pain unless I wanted a sound punishment from Bic. Every day I'd get a message talking about my Vitality. Even with that, I still could not slack off as there were always tougher things out there. I may have been good for my level, but no grimm was weaker than level seven and that was a pack creature, a pathetic pack creature at that, which seemed to have no combat experience. A solo alpha was bound to be in the upper forties. I was nothing compared to true grimm or warriors.

All I did was hunt for the rest of the week's days, but thanks to being so close to Vale, the grimm population was puny and I only killed a few more boars, but not enough to level up. They were all weak too since they were mostly newborns from the darkness, not old enough to know any primal strategy to be all that dangerous. When I had to give up on hunting for the day, I would train my skills up by grinding them using trees.

I eventually gave up on the hunting altogether by the middle of week two and focused on trying to increase my sword mastery. I got it to level twenty-five in the skill by the end of the week and I still had one more week until my try-outs for Signal.

The few fights I was able to get in helped my blade skills along far more than the trees did, but while I got a bunch of experience with every set of skills equal to ten hours of grinding my blade against a tree, there wasn't enough grimm to boost my level enough so I had to put in the time to get the skill up which was fine as it got me more and more familiar with my weapon of choice.

My level may not have gone up once in the week it took for the tryouts, but I got one more in swords and four in hand to hand. The blade felt natural in my hand, like it was just another finger and I had complete control over it. It felt great to just swing the sword and watch the blade go exactly how I wanted it to move, at the exact angle and degree. I had more control over the blade than I did with my toes.

Due to my persistence over the three weeks, I gained a few points in my vitality, what little I really could and two more in strength . The point gain was spread out, but when I got the message that I had increased my skill by working out, I felt so much more accomplished now.

Mom and my sisters worried about me with my constant training, but I just told them I was training for the tryouts and they left me alone mostly, lucky mom's husband didn't come home as much and when he did, he would try to pick a fight with me, but mom would always drive him away. Mom and my sisters still asked about my health once in a while, but I always gave that answer. I did say I enjoyed training too, which I do, so I was also doing my hobby. I grew to love training in Luka as I could literally see my progress as I worked at it. Every number I got and the feeling of fluidity I was slowly getting was the best thing I had ever felt in my short life.

I just had to be back before dark and then I would spend all my time in my room, working out until I couldn't feel my body. I would recover and then do it again before I could no longer go and fall asleep. My workout was basically sprinting around the forest at a steady pace, much like what I did on my first week away from the house. I would run until I truly could do no more, than I would rest. After I could feel my legs again, I picked a tree and went through my fighting style at the poor chunk of wood.

I would beat the hell out of the thing with my longsword, which I had to sharpen every once in a while, netting me the "Sharpening" skill. It was useful as the more levels I got in the skill, the less I had to sharpen my blade.

Once I fell a tree if I had it in me, I would go back to running a few dozen miles in two hours and repeat the sword work again. It would have been truly boring if I hadn't been reading a book at the time of running. I found with my Vitality as good as it was, I could mostly ignore the fatigue until it came to be too much and split my attention between a book and the path.

I even gained a few points in my INT for this as well as WIS for my studying of material and "good use of time." Wisdom really only mattered to me because of its problem solving skills that it brought. I made me think better, not smarter like Intelligence did. I had enough intelligence already to get by, so I think I'll focus on increasing my wisdom to forty, then I'll work on my stats. I had decided to level up my WIS and Int using the methods of practice, saving my points for when I started having a lot of trouble leveling up my combat ability. I only had an finite amount of points, so I couldn't just spend them to do something that I could do with a little effort. That would be stupid and a stupid hunter is more likely to die than a weak hunter, which was also why I was starting to increase my knowledge of things.

On the day before my try-outs, I was out in the forest to train extra hard for the last boost I could get before I had to fight for my position in Signal. I had started the day with some sword work, but I figured that I would need more speed and endurance if I wanted to fight for my place and not use the skill I had such a large level in.

I continued to sprint when a window suddenly popped up in my face. I stumbled over the log I was leaping over and barely got my shoulder down to roll out of the fall. "Free-Running skill acquired! By leveling Sprint and Gymnastics to level 10, the skill Free-Running that now replaces the two!" I read the message again before exclaiming, "Fuck!" Did I just lose my fifteen levels in sprint?!

I opened the skills menu and found my fear were true. Instead of having the two skills, I had "Free-Running (Passive/Active): Level 1 - Ability to move with greater speed and agility over and on obstacles, +50% movement speed while active 10 MP every 10 seconds, +10% base movement speed." That... Sounded pretty nice actually. I was sad to see my Sprint skill go as it had so much time put into it, but this sounds more like a hunter skill.

I jumped up from my standing position to find I did not lose any height from my jumps and I felt that I could climb any tree in this forest with only a bit of trouble. So I did just that. I ran at a tree and propelled myself two steps up the bark before launching my body upwards further. I caught a branch and used my high amount of strength to pull myself up onto the tree limb.

I glanced down and saw that I was ten feet off the ground just by that one action. I checked the skill and found that I had ten percent more in it due to my actions without the skill being active. I could only grin as I jumped down from the tree.

My legs buckled under the impact and flew out from beneath me, having me land on my rear with a thud. "Ow!" I moaned as I sat on the ground in pain. 'Note to self, roll from falls like that.' A blue screen popped out and said I had gained a Wisdom point for adapting old ideas to new challenges.

I began climbing the tree once more without the skill activated and jumped around to another branch. As my feet hit the tree limb, the wood buckled under my weight and snapped. I felt weightless as I plummeted the twenty feet to the ground and I only just got my bearings as I was about to slam into the dirt.

My feet hit first and I let them collapse, sending me forward where I rolled along my upper back to come to my feet. The straight impact to the ground had hurt, even taken off some health points, but I survived with only a little bit of an ache in my ankles instead of the shattered bones I would have had.

'Well... Back to work I guess,' I thought to myself with a little sigh. A little pain wasn't going to stop me, especially since I would get better after a night's sleep. I climbed back up my tree using the same method and jumped back down. I repeated this for ten minutes until I got a third level in the skill. 'Well... this is boring as hell,' I observed, so I decided that my old training would be of better use to me. I did a few stretches and then took off like I would with my sprint, but I started to see if I could vault myself over the downed trees that I couldn't just jump to try and get my free-running up.

I worked and by the time the day was over, I had six levels in my new skill, mostly due to me almost flying up and down groups of rocks and small mountains that litter the north of the forest and I didn't activate the skill more than once to see how fast I moved. I was about three-fourth my sprint speed, but the adaptability made up for the loss.

Night began to fall as I continued to train up my skills. I had even taken my hoodie off so that I could train my physical endurance up if I had to bust through branches. The limbs no longer damaged my skin thanks to the reduction in damage, only causing blunt force trauma as I broke through the thicker set. I made my way back to my house which took a few hours due to the distance I made in my training. I was closer to Luka than I was to Vale by the end of my training.

To make sure I had six hours of sleep, I activated my free-running skill and started to pound across the forest floor. I pushed myself to go faster and faster, my vision slowly tunneling as my legs kicked up dirt behind me as I dashed towards my house.

I barely had enough stamina and mana to get back to Vale by two in the morning. I had sprinted a hundred miles in seven hours and I was dead tired. My legs felt like they were forged out of cold iron as I trudged up the stairs to the door. I reached into my inventory and pulled out my keys, not even bothering to get my hoodie back on even though I was running around topless.

Unlike before when I wouldn't let anyone see me without a shirt, I didn't mind going without a top. This stemmed mostly from how I usually never had time to dress before I was thrown out into the field for a bout of training. A little came from the small amount of pride that I had rather defined muscles, even to the point where I had my anterior muscles highlighted. My pride was small as I've seen men like Bic and some of the rookie guards without shirts and they made me look like an obese kid.

It took a few tries, but I got the key in the slot with my shaking hands and turned it. The door swung open quietly and I pocketed the key before locking the door behind me. Making sure not to make any noise, I stalked up the stairs to my small bedroom and collapsed on my mattress. I didn't even have the energy to cover myself before I fell asleep. My last thought was, 'I can't believe I can run that far!' Followed by, 'Why the hell did I run that far?'