Detesting The System: Sundering Fate

Completely uncaring of the number of monster cores I left behind, I once more carved a bloody path through the Dungeon's first three floors. With evident ease, I even made it through the fourth floor, over to where the stairs to the fifth floor were located. Feeling pretty good about myself, having not sustained even a scratched so far and knowing that my armor and health potion had yet to even need use, I thought, 'to hell with it,' and descended to the fifth floor.

There, I delighted in the act of wanton slaughter as my chain sickle would often engage in battle for lengthy periods of time before monsters would stop spawning. Unlike in the upper floors, it was now common for groups of monsters to appear before me even as I was in the middle of dealing with a different group.

However, because no new monsters spawned and those that did were just barely strengthened versions of the monsters I saw on the preceding floors, I continued fighting without sustaining damage. Though, to be honest, my stamina was being consumed much faster than before as I would often go on fighting for minutes with no end in sight.

Still, I couldn't find it in myself to complain as my Status was growing like crazy under the stress of perpetual battle. Even if I was barely harvesting herbs as I rarely offered the chance, I was content in knowing that the next time I came with an updated status, things would be much, much different…

Time pressed on and the fighting never stopped, I think I lost my sense of time as I couldn't tell whether it had been an hour since I reached the stairs that would lead to the sixth floor, or two or even three hours. Yet, for some ungodly reason my body had grown heated with bloodl.u.s.t and with enemies still in sight, the groans of my empty stomach weren't enough to pull me out of battle as I dove into the action at the slightest chance.

I could have sworn that several alert notifications from my system had flashed through my consciousness several times, but fighting was just so fun… I couldn't b.a.r.e but ignore them for just a while longer. Like this, I was pulled into a sort of trance where even my purpose in making money had eluded me; for a while now, I had even stopped picking up monster cores from the ground…

I don't know when it started or for how long it lasted as only the thought of getting stronger seemed to stabilize in my train of thought. Only when the sickle end of my Chain Sickle chipped off, did I wake up to see what I had done. And if I'm being honest, it was pretty disturbing having just come out of my stupor and finding a trail of blood that coated everything from myself to the Dungeon walls, floor, and even the ceiling.

As my Chain Sickle had broken obviously in the middle of a fight, though I didn't realize it immediately there was enemy before me; one that had been hurt and was currently raging. It must have attacked as I took in the sight of my bloody rampage as I once more woke up having been pushed with such force as to skip the ground a couple times. Yet for some reason, I hardly registered any pain.

Like clockwork, the instincts of the murderous demon that had reigned supreme under my stupor reacted to the incoming assault as I quickly pushed off from the ground to stand up once more, having saved myself from an attack in the process. I looked back and saw a greyish black humanoid with a single eye that glared at me whilst pulsing out a crimson light and immediately thought, 'A War Shadow? Shit! I'm on the sixth floor!'

With the sickle end of my Chain Sickle not useless, I subconsciously started winding up the weight that hung attached to my left hand and after the War Shadow darted over to attack me, I released the spinning weight just in time for it to go flying right into the War Shadow's jaw. With a sickening crack and the collapse of its eye, the War Shadow vaporized into dust indicating that I had killed it and I just stood there unable to understand what had just happened.

Reeling in the weight I had thrown with my chains, I found to my surprise that the weight was actually coated with my Light Flameling. Then as I stood there thinking about my predicament the memories of the past couple hours started returning to me like a bottle being filled with water. Hurriedly I pulled up my Status and almost fell on my backside from the hilarious over-exaggeration that was my progress.

[Status

Name: Nathanial Keter

Level: 1

Power: C 633 (A 811)

Endurance: C 639 (A 825)

Dexterity: C 645 (A 820)

Agility: C 632 (A 835)

Magic: A 877 (SS 1050)

Name: Gold Star Killer Constitution (Skin Section)

Level: A

Effect: The user's skin has reached a tempered completion rate of 100%. Passive/Innate Ability: Iron Skin Unlocked.

Name: Gold Star Killer Constitution (Muscle Section)

Level: D

Effect: The user's muscles have reached a tempered completion rate of 20%. Reach 100% completion to unlock a new passive ability.

Name: Light Flameling

Level: H → E

Effect: Light Flameling's effects are completely stable while under the direct influence of the User's Magic. Now capable of being useful in combat, the user may attack directly with the power of the Light Flameling or disperse its effect onto his weapon.

Name: Chain Sickle Basic Mastery

Level: G → E

Effect: If this were karate you'd be a blue belt. Both basic and intermediate level moves can be performed both intuitively and with seamless fluidity. An attempt at advanced level moves is now possible with the risk of self-harm.

Name: Harvesting

Level: I → H

Effect: Success rate of harvesting herbs you've harvested before rise by 10%. Monster cores extracted from familiar monsters lose about 10% less mass provide you aim correctly and drop rates increase by the same margin under the same conditions.

New Innate Skill Unlocked!

Name: Iron Skin

Description: Having completed the Skin section of the Goldstar Killer technique, your skin has reached the peak of saturation with regards to Magic. Now becoming like Iron, you are that much more resistant to blunt force attacks and partially resistance to cutting attacks.

Effect: Among those that are Level 1, few, if any, will be able to get past the defenses of your skin. Though you should still be mindful of weapons as even a non-adventurer with a divine sword can kill a god…

New Innate Skill Unlocked!

Name: Delirious Inclination

Description: Having aroused the disturbed obsession you possess for the things that interest you — this time, training — entering that… state of mind will result in the accelerated growth of any such activity you happened to be working on at the time.

Effect: Concentration on any activity has a chance of activating this skill's effect. The longer you focus on a task, the more likely you are to activate this skill. Upon activation, every hour of additional concentration on the task at hand will yield a 50% increase in growth; this effect can be stacked, a theoretically infinite number of times.]