I think I've gotten a decent schedule down, so I should be able to keep releasing often like I have. It might slow down to once every two weeks if I get busy.
I have no connection and own nothing related to The Gamer
Chapter 7
Kain and Murkuro met up the next morning. They were standing outside of the time illusion room. "So basically, you're going to create another illusion barrier inside the room?" asked Kain.
"Yep. It's kind of confusing, but it works. I'm going to make the zombie illusion barrier again," replied Murkuro.
"Okay." They walked into the familiar building. Murkuro led them to one side of it where the lights continued to get dimmer until they were nearly completely gone. "We chose to alter part of the barrier so we could have training for low visibility. The zombie illusion barrier I make requires it to be dark, so this works well for us. I reserved the area, so no one should bother us." He raised his hand, and not long after, the sounds of zombies surrounded them.
Kain got prepared for the incoming army of zombies. He was nervous, since last time he had gotten overrun and had nearly died. As the first one neared him, he lashed out and struck it in it's chin. It was immediately defeated. "Whoa! They're a lot weaker than they seemed last time."
"Of course, you worked on your basic strength, right? They aren't really all that tough," Murkuro responded, destroying a zombie as he spoke.
"This is a lot different though, I didn't expect it to change this much," Kain responded. To test his strength, he attacked a group of zombies and defeated them extremely quickly again. "This is such easy experience!"
At that moment, Kain activated his outer ki. He got into a martial arts stance and prepared. "Let's do this."
Murkuro grinned. "Sure thing."
They slaughtered them.
Level Up! Level Up! Level Up!
Level Up! Level Up! Level Up!
"So why do you train against these, Murkuro? You don't have to fight such low level things, and you don't have an ability like me that relies on experience points," Kain asked as they took a break. They had been at it for a few hours.
"They're good for training to fight groups. It helps you get an awareness of who is near you," Murkuro replied, wiping off some sweat. "Hey, you've gotten a lot stronger. You said you leveled up six times, right? If you used the points, you could get pretty close to some of the lower members of the clan."
"Yeah, I'd be a lot stronger, but by not using them, it makes it easier to grind the stat points," Kain replied. "The stronger I am, the harder it is to gain a point in strength. Same for my vitality and dexterity. I've been debating on putting them into my intelligence or wisdom, since it's a lot harder to raise those quickly. I was also thinking of luck, but I'm not sure yet. I'm just gonna hold off for now."
"Makes sense." Murkuro started thinking of something. "Hey, we could try something later for wisdom if you want. Intelligence is harder, but wisdom is basically applying what you know, right? We have a 'game' our clan plays that tests our strategy in fighting. It's a board game, basically you control an army and attempt to conquer the other. It's kind of like chess."
"Yeah we can do that later," Kain replied, standing back up. "Hey what's that?" He pointed at something lying on the ground nearby.
Murkuro walked up to it and picked it up. It looked like a small red stone. "I'm not sure, but it has a small power coming from it."
Kain walked over to him. "Observe."
Low Grade Soul Stone
A crystal created by integrating many souls
Useful for many things
"A zombie must have dropped something," Kain stated. "Useful for many things? That's nice and vague." Kain rolled his eyes.
"A zombie shouldn't be able to drop items, it's a spirit. Your ability must be affecting them," Murkuro said. "Then if you fight better opponents..."
"Then I get better items," grinned Kain. "My ability is awesome."
"Let's see if we can't get anymore items from them today," said Murkuro.
Level Up! Level Up!
After fighting for a significantly long time, Kain had leveled up a total of eight times. Kain smirked. "If it keeps up like this, I'll catch up to you in no time, Murkuro."
"I guess you will," agreed Murkuro. "Hey, so that observe skill used on that item, what does it say about me?" They had received four more of the soul stones, and they also got some creepy drops that said they were for crafting, such as a few ribs and some stray teeth. All of it was stored in Kain's inventory.
"Observe." Kain looked at the stats of Murkuro. "Well, you're significantly stronger than your level suggests. I guess martial arts really does boost your strength by a lot. Oh! It has an experience percentage. It says you're only 3% away from a level up."
"Really? But I can't gain experience like you can," responded Murkuro.
"Well let me try something. Games have a party system, right? Let's see if it works for me, too. Create Party." A window popped up, asking him to name the party. "It worked!" Another screen popped up asking if he wanted to call the party 'It worked!' Shrugging, he pressed the accept option. "Okay, let's try the last part then. Invite Murkuro."
A pop up appeared in front of Murkuro, shocking him. "This is what you see constantly?! It's so weird."
Kain shrugged. "You get used to it. Press the button to accept."
Murkuro pressed the button. "So now we go beat a few more and try to level me up?"
"Yep." It took a little bit of time, but they completed it. Kain was getting near another level up as well. "Now just say 'Status' and you'll be able to put the points wherever you want," instructed Kain.
Murkuro did so. Looking at his stats, he hit some points and exited off. "So what did you put them in?" asked Kain.
"Luck. It's the one thing I can't change by myself. I figured that I'm used to training everything else, so I'm in no rush to level that up. But I can't do anything about my luck. If I stick with you and get some more level ups, I might just spread them evenly."
Kain nodded. "That makes sense. So what should we do for the rest of the time we have? I could go level up some more."
"Nah, I'll show you that game we have." They walked out of the time warping room and Murkuro led him towards another area. It was still some time in the afternoon. The building they walked into afterward had several tables with large boards on top of them. Murkuro described the rules to him. It was fairly complex, where certain pieces would defeat others, but if conditions were satisfied, they could win. Kain was lost the first match.
"I win," Murkuro said after about three minutes into the match.
"Huh?" Kain stood up, trying to look at the pieces to see where he messed up. "How?"
Murkuro pointed out how some of his pieces had Kain's cornered, leaving him with no way to escape. "A good match lasts at least thirty minutes, so we'll keep playing until you can match that."
It was hell for Kain. He kept trying to think of new methods, but they always failed. After about an hour, he finally got a little farther into the match, but was crushed a moment later.
Due to increasing use of strategy, your Wis increased by 1
"Finally, it went up!" Kain yelled out in exhaustion.
"Good," Murkuro smiled. "Maybe by the time we're done, you can take a few more pieces."
By the time he was planning on leaving, Kain had gained four more points into his Wis. While he was happy about that, he still hadn't gotten close to defeating Murkuro except for his last match. The last time he played, Kain had nearly corned Murkuro's pieces, but Murkuro was able to maneuver out and hit his from behind.
Before he left, Murkuro shook his hand. "Good try man, maybe next time you can win."
"Thanks. I guess I'll see you at the meeting with the head," replied Kain.
"Wanna train afterward?"
"Sure," grinned Kain. So he headed on home, happy with the how the day went.
The Next Day
"You've gotten much stronger," Nagato commented. "Much stronger. I think you'll be as strong as the lower members within a month."
"Actually, Murkuro said that I should already be able to match them. All I have to do is use my stat points, but I'm waiting to use them," replied Kain.
"You haven't used those yet? Then I was wrong, by the end of the month, you should be much stronger than that. You should be stronger than Murkuro by then. If you keep this up, you could get a much higher position in the clan in a fairly short amount of time."
"What do you mean by that, sir?" asked Kain.
"Basically, you get more pull the stronger you are. We can only have the ones that can hold our clan up as the ones to run it. But I wouldn't worry about that too much, we'll come to that later. Right now, I need to start thinking of what position you'd best run at the moment. We have some that do jobs that get us revenue, others that help fight against other clans, and a bunch of others. I'll have to think of your ability and try to find the best place for you."
"Okay sir. Anything else you need of me?"
"Nope. Thanks for coming in. I'll send for you when I finally get around to figuring out what you can do to help us first." Nagato smiled. "Which I'm sure you'll be able to do plenty. See you later."
Since he was dismissed, Kain waved goodbye and walked out. He was happy that the clan head was such a casual person to talk to. He was obviously strong, but he didn't try to show it. He was modest. Kain decided that today he would take off from training. He had been working on it non stop since he discovered that he could raise his stats and felt he deserved it.
He walked out of the clan property, waving good bye to the usual guard, who recognized Kain as a clan member now. He was walking calmly and then turned down a small alleyway, a shortcut he had found that brought him home quicker.
After a few steps, he felt a searing pain on the right side of his body, right below his ribs. His body flew across the ground, bouncing several times.
"I finally found you, you brat! There was no way I was attacking when all of those old fuckers were around, that clan isn't to be messed with."
Kain struggled for a second before his Gamer's Body let him recover. His HP had dropped dramatically from that since he hadn't had on his outer ki. Looking up, he saw his attacker. It was a large burly man with long brown hair. He was holding a large club, nearly the same size as him. Kain assumed that was what had hit him in his side.
Dameron Kitchki Lv 35
Seeing the level, Kain froze. He knew he could take down monsters of that same level, but that was because his stats were much higher than his actual level, and their levels corresponded with their stat points. But most humans were different, especially those with any sort of ki. "Observe." Comparing the stats to his own, he began debating running, which is exactly what he would have done if the burly man hadn't begun his charge at Kain for his second attack.
"Shit, Outer Ki activate!" It was nowhere near enough. Kain tried to dodge, but he was still hit with the edge of the weapon, damaging him again. Breathing hard, Kain tried his own attack, but Dameron blocked it with ease, as if fighting a child.
"That's weak, man. You need to level up more."
Kain took a step back. "How do you know I have an ability that lets me level up?"
The man grinned. "It's not hard to find out anything when you have enough money. Have you never been approached by the Abyss Auction?"
"Abyss Auction?" asked Kain. He didn't like the idea of anyone selling information on him.
"Yep. It sells everything you can think of... Including human lives." Dameron sneered at that, preparing for his next attack.
The Gamer of Crimson Rain
Kain Rockbear Lv 13 Exp 86.59%
Health: 290/290
Mana: 460/460
Vit: 29 + 12% + 11%
Str: 34 + 12% + 11%
Dex: 30 + 11% + 12% + 11%
Int: 20 + 12%
Wis: 12 + 12%
Luk: 2
Points: 55
Money: 33,500 Won