I collapsed onto the ground, breathing heavily and desperately, blood pumping violently after such a hard-fought battle.
Patting my chest, just to make sure nothing had been broken during the clash, I then sat back up and took several greedy gulps of the miraculous purified water.
Only then could I focus on the prompts that have appeared after clearing the wave.
[Wave Cleared! You have received a Skill Book! You have 5 minutes before the final wave! Warning! Failing this wave will incur the following punishment:
As soon as I finished reading, another white tome materialized in front of me. A little less excited than before, having seen and used one of those before, I grabbed it and took a moment to study the exquisite book in my hands.
Not rushing to pry it open, I noticed it had a title written in bold golden letters on the front: "Heavy Stab." So, I appraised it.
A consumable that teaches its user the class-exclusive skill Heavy Stab.
Special Properties:
-
-
-
'Hmm... not much different from Sword Wave...' — At most, it was just a little more decorated than the last skill book. Without wasting time, I motioned to open it.
[Do you want to learn 'Heavy Stab'?]
(Yes) (No)
A no-brainer. Of course I accepted.
[You have learned 'Heavy Stab'!]
Class-exclusive skill learned from a skill book. Concentrates arcana on the tip of the blade for a devastating strike capable of partially ignoring the target's defenses.
Reading the description got me excited. Not only did I have a strong splash-damage skill, now I even had a powerful single-target strike? Had Christmas arrived early this year?
'Oh, right! Christmas probably doesn't exist anymore, since we're in a different world and all… Do they have any holidays here?' — My mind wandered.
Either way… should I stay for the final wave?
I could feel it would be dangerous — maybe even recklessly so. My brain told me this was probably too much, considering how steep the difficulty curve suddenly became. If it spiked again, I might as well be screwed.
And honestly, with all the absurd things happening, I wasn't treating this world — or its dangers — seriously enough. Part of me still thought this was just a game. A giant, elaborately cruel prank.
But my gut told me: if I quit now, I'd regret it for the rest of my life. Honestly? My gut seemed more and more like a greedy loot gremlin.
'Fuck it, we ball!' — I thought, watching the final countdown tick away while my arcana recovered and my injuries healed under the miraculous care of purified water.
With nothing more to prepare, I checked my status screen — and blinked at the increases.
[Stats]:
- VIT: 20 F
- STG: 24 F
- AGI: 24 F
- DEX: 20 F (3.0x) (60)
- SPI: 15 F (5.0x) (75)
- ARC: 13 F
Overall: F
[Special]:
- LUK: 2 (2.0x) (4)
[Masteries]:
-
[Skills]:
-
-
-
From what I've seen — using myself as reference — a healthy adult human male should average around 10 in each physical stat. So gaining +4 in a single stat from a fight? That's insane.
'Were we, the ones brought from another world, really that weak?' — The question bothered me, and I had no answer.
I was already more than twice as strong as a normal human, yet I was still F-rank. Maybe rank only changed when advancing tiers?
If so, that would be lame. Why bother with tiers if strength is measured by letter ranks?
Unless letters measure progress *within* the tier… which would be scary. That would mean someone twice as strong as a normal human still doesn't even qualify to leave the weakest rank of the weakest tier.
I just hoped that after F came E, and not something cursed like F+.
And that wasn't even all the changes, my mastery had increased by around 5% and Sword Wave had reached 11%.
After gulping down nearly half the water, I felt fully recovered as the countdown hit zero.
[Final wave starting! You can no longer leave the trial at will.]
A massive light sphere appeared ahead — at least twice the size of the goblin brawler's.
Now, I have some good and bad news. Which do you want first?
Oh, good news? Well, there's only one sphere of light — which means only one enemy.
Bad news? This one enemy is supposed to be stronger than all previous waves combined.
Now, if this ginormous thing turns out to not even be an E rank enemy, I fear the moment I meet the real deal.
I instinctively backed away, putting more distance between us so I'd have time to appraise the emerging monstrosity.
The light barrier around it dissipated soon after spawning — the same cheap protection that have kept me from spawn-killing the goblin brawler.
You can't even spawn-camp nowadays. Tragic. I honestly felt like filling a complaint to whomever was willing to listen.
This thing was huge — nearly twice my height, with light gray skin and massive bulk. Its arms were as thick as my torso. A gigantic head, pale white eyes staring directly at me, and a mouth full of jagged teeth that could probably tear me apart with ease. It also smelled awfully. If not ugly goblin levels of bad, at least it should be worse than a public transportation bus.
I may have overreached a little bit…
Note to self: do not act like a loot gremlin ever again.
The weakest type of Ogre. Born with a congenital disease that left its stone-like skin brittle and weakened its immense physical atributes. Even so, it is still strong enough to flatten you into a pancake.
[Tier]: 0
Overall: E
Threat Level: Very High
'Oh... So this is what an E rank enemy looks like? Yeah. I'm screwed.'