I took being stabbed surprisingly well, all things considered. It hurt less than you would think. Well, it was obviously painful but it didn't hurt nearly as much as being hit by a fireball.

Before the Cuspilem could pull the spike out of my stomach, I grabbed it by the throat and slashed it across the chest with my blade, twice.

Hissing, it slammed me backward with its freehand and stepped away, staggering.

We both gently touched our wounds, checking for damage. I eyed it warily, unnerved at exactly how human-like its movements were.

After that stab, I saw that I only had 2 hp left. If it got in another hit like that I would be dead, and I still didn't know how it had moved so quickly.

I noticed that my blade was covered in around three inches of blood. Looks like I had also dealt good damage to it.

The demon stared at me quietly. I saw streams of dark ichor dripping down its chest, over the other injuries. That thing was on its last legs.

I saw the Cuspilem tense and knew it was coming.

It dashed forwards, though not as fast as before, and swung its arms at me.

I blocked the first spike and ducked below the second, giving it a shallow cut on the leg before stepping away.

Though not sure why, I was totally stable and hyper-focused. My body reacted perfectly to my thoughts and my feet were moving quickly yet controlled. I felt like I was walking on air.

The demon stabbed at me with one arm but I saw how weak it was. I batted the spike away and it stumbled, giving me an opening.

I took it.

My blade went through a shoulder, nearly severing the whole limb, and the Cuspilem threw itself back.

Its arm hung limp, almost totally separated from the rest of the body. Its chest was riddled with deep slashes, and one of its sides was covered in dry blood from a previous fight.

One of the arm-spikes suddenly glowed with a dark light, and the demon slashed at me again. The air seemed to resonate as the claw passed through, and I knew it would be a bad idea to touch that.

Even though I dodged, the skin of my cheek blistered and twitched just by being near the spike.

The demon overextended, though. It put all of its weight behind that special attack and stumbled forward, completely defenseless.

My claw went through the Cuspilem's chest, and I kicked it to the ground. Before it could move I repeatedly stabbed it again and again.

Although I kept stabbing it in the chest, stomach, and head, it still didn't die!

My arms were covered in gore before the message came up.

You Have Slain: Cuspilem, Level 11

+110 XP Acquired

Slayer: Level 3 Acquired

Reflexes: Level 2 Acquired

Quick Feet: Level 2 Acquired

Basic Swordfighting: Level 1 Acquired

Double Hit: Level 1 Acquired

Block: Level 1 Acquired

Counter: Level 1 Acquired

Level 3 Acquired! Please See Your Character Profile To Level Up

Holy shit, that was intense.

I just dueled a mantis-demon-wolverine thing. It had spikes coming out of its arms that it used like swords! How crazy can this situation get?

I got four new skills, a whopping 110 XP, and I leveled up. A good haul, although I wasn't sure if it was totally worth it. That was really stressful.

And I got stabbed.

After the adrenaline started to wear off, I was appreciating just how much that hurt.

It was surprising how I was able to move around so fluidly while fighting that Cuspilem, now that the fight was over it was really painful to walk.

I managed to limp into the cave and collapsed next to the wall, overlooking the pool of mystery liquid.

....

At that moment, I realized that something was happening inside me.

In the center of my body, I felt a heat building up. At first, it was a little confusing, and then it started getting scary. The feeling kept getting hotter and eventually got to the point where it felt like a red-hot iron was in my core.

I gasped and started hitting my chest while breathing heavily.

There were two feelings inside of myself that were creating the burning heat. Two things, one large and unfathomable, the other smaller and simpler. They started to congregate together and the burning got even more intense.

Skill: Abyss Sanctum; Mastery of Death will absorb Skill: Basic Swordfighting

Initializing...

I was in too much pain to register the messages popping in front of me, only focused on my inside feelings.

Initializing...

The pain and heat reached a new level, with the two forces swirling together in a frenzy.

Initializing...

And suddenly, the large force completely overwhelmed the smaller one and they both became undetectable.

Skill: Abyss Sanctum; Mastery of Death has absorbed Skill: Basic Swordfighting

Basic Swordfighting has been incorporated into Abyss Sanctum; Mastery of Death

....

The pain stopped.

What the hell was that?

One of my skills ate another one? How does that even happen?

What even is Abyss Sanctum; Mastery of Death? It sounds incredibly edgy.

I patted myself on the chest, feeling for any remnants of the weird struggle that had just occurred within me.

Not finding anything, I shrugged to myself and decided to just get level 3 and forget about it. I didn't have enough information to know anything yet, so it would be better not to worry.

"Character profile."

Level Up

+6 Random Base Stats

+3 Selected Base Stats

I poked the green text and sighed in relief as that beautiful golden light enveloped me.

The wet blood soaking my tattered clothes evaporated as the various wounds around my body disappeared into the light. This time I could actually feel my strength increasing as my stats rose. I felt my skin become brighter and healthier, my muscles getting tighter and thicker, and my excess fat vanishing. My mind didn't feel much clearer though, so I probably only got my physical stats increased.

By the end of it, I was standing and breathing heavily, wanting more. That really was like a drug. I should probably be careful, I didn't want to actually get addicted to that. I could see myself trying to pick a fight with some super-demon all for the sake of getting a quicker level up.

Even if it doesn't seem like it, I'm actually quite averse to suicidal actions.

Yes, I know I ate dubious demon-crab meat, but there was no other choice and I was in a bad mood.

I looked over my character profile to see what had changed.

Lake Rogers

Age: 19

Level: 3 (51/300)

HP: 16 (Regen/Day: 7)

SP: 14 (Regen/Day: 28)

MP: 0 (Regen/Day: 0)

Power: 13

Endurance: 15

Agility: 15

Vitality: 14

Manipulation: 11

Concentration: 10

Willpower: 16

Skills:

Perception - 3, Foresight - 2, Climbing - 1, Contemplation - 1, Punching - 3, Kicking - 3, Jumping - 1, Stomping - 2, Analyze - 1, Demon Killer - 3, Abyss Sanctum; Mastery of Death - 1, Demonic Envelopment - 1, Sprint - 1, Explosive Artist - 1, Grappler - 1, Slayer - 3, Persistence - 1, Stealth - 1, Reflexes - 2, Time Dilation - 1, Deception - 1, Blood Rush - 1, Scavenging - 1, Tracking - 1, Taunt - 1, Regenerate - 1, Quick Feet - 2, Tenacity - 1, Iron Stomach - 1, Double Hit - 1, Block - 1, Counter - 1

Fear Resistance - 1, Heat Resistance - 5, Bludgeoning Resistance - 1, Pain Resistance - 3, Slashing Resistance - 2

Skill Acquisition Period: 29 Minutes Remaining

+3 Base Stats

It looked like the new stat points went mostly into Agility, with some going into Vitality and Willpower. My health also increased by two points, and the regeneration rates of my health and stamina both went up.

I wasn't sure if my health and those other points were tied to my stats or just my level, but I knew I should figure that out quickly. It would probably be good to know which stats are best for raising my hp and regen and then dump points into them. I didn't exactly love the idea of playing as a tank, but it would raise my survivability by a lot.

Well, thinking about it, would it be smarter to try and boost my agility so I could just run from things instead of fighting them? I wasn't sure how reliable being a tank was when everything around me has much higher levels.

Take an Abitsimus for example, it doesn't matter how much defense I have compared to my level, that thing would still be able to crush me. The smartest option while fighting one of those gorillas is to run away.

And I still didn't know what the bottom three stats did, but it's likely they're related to mp and magic, which means they're useless to me.

Should I just try and balance power, endurance, agility, and vitality while forgetting about the others? Or should I be even more specific with my stats?

Damn it! I really want to min/max but I still don't know how the system works! What do I do?

I spent a while agonizing about my stats before deciding to put two points into Agility and one into Power. That way, I would be able to get in a good few hits and still be able to run away if needed. I knew there were probably better strategies, but I wanted good mobility and needed at least some offensive power in order to fight and level up. As I added the bonus points, my health also went up by one.

After my stats increased, I started perusing my skill list. My highest level skill was Heat Resistance, at level 5, but the others were all level 3 or below. Most still hadn't leveled up at all, which made some sense considering a lot sounded totally useless.

I mean, Taunt looks funny at first, but then you realize that it's actually horrible. I got it from making the Abitsimus colony mad, but how often will making people angry be helpful? Even worse, what if I can't turn it off?

I still didn't have in-depth descriptions of these skills, so I had no idea how to use most of them. I took a gamble with Regeneration by saying the word out-loud with the intent to use the skill, but it was a desperate idea. I had also already tried doing that with a few others and it didn't work. I tried to use the Foresight skill by saying it out loud, but nothing happened!

It would be so useful if I could actually see descriptions of some of them, though. If all were just as handy as Regenerate I would be golden. For example, the Time Dilation skill sounded great. If only I could figure out what it does...

My eyes focused on the word in my skill list, wondering what it could specifically do.

In that instant, a new window popped up in front of the skill!

Time Dilation [Very Rare]

For a short period of time, perceive your surroundings faster than normal. Uses 1SP per 1/5 second. - Level 1 (Active)

What! How did I do that!

All it takes is me focusing on the skill and thinking about what it does? That can't be right, I've done that plenty of times before! How come it only worked then?

I focused on a different skill, and the same thing happened.

Reflexes [Uncommon]

Decreases the time it takes for the body to react to things. - Level 2 (Passive)

Why is it only working now! I'm so confused yet happy!

It didn't matter. I was now able to see descriptions of all my skills.

I was about to start going down the whole list when one of them caught my eye.

Abyss Sanctum; Mastery of Death.

The troublemaker.

Time to see what you actually do.