-Overdoing It!-

The notification from the system gave Kenshin a massive headache. Just what was his system thinking? Issuing such a difficult quest, that too a compulsory one, right off the bat! Does it think that I am superman? Although, he was raging and raving; Kenshin was sure of one fact, that was the system’s calculative ability.

It's already been four days since he got the system, but till now it hadn't assigned a quest which he doesn't have the qualification to complete. The fact that it assigned the quest right now only meant he held the capability to complete the quest.

Ignoring Maria who was getting battle ready while shaking from nervousness, he opened his UI, specifically his attribute panel.

[ATK: 39(+60); DEF: 30(+60); AGI: 40(+4)(-5); PHY: 39(+10); INT: 31(+2); WIS: 13; WIL: 11; LUK: 14]

[Unassigned Attribute points: 8] [Unassigned Skill points: 14]

All the stats, excluding WIS and WIL, were above 30. This amount of stats was enough to handle someone who was several levels higher than him. Nodding his head, he stealthily checked the monster’s stats, afraid of alerting it.

[Zombie Guardian Lv 40]

[HP: 1000/1000]

[ATK: 100(+50 Sword ATK); DEF: 50(+400 Shield Defense); AGI: 50]

[Skills]

Poison Breath Lv 9[Deals 100 Poison damage to all target for 9 seconds] Poison Touch Lv 9 [Deals 100 poison damage and a 30% chance of becoming a zombie after death] Shield Bash Lv 5[Deals extra 20% shield damage] Bloody Stab Lv 5[Deals 50% bleeding damage for 15 seconds] Summon Zombies Lv 5[Summons a zombie with half of its stats to aid in battle]

Kenshin does a double take after seeing the nightmarish stats of this monster. While its base ATK and DEF are nothing special, it had an extra AGI stat that was above 50. It also held a sword and shield in its hands. While the sword wasn’t anything special, the shield provides a despair-inducing DEF of 400. With it’s above 50 AGI; despite being a zombie, it’s reaction time must be huge.

Kenshin half gave up on defeating it after seeing its stats.

“Maria, this one is really out of our league” Kenshin whispered, afraid of attracting the monster.

“I think so too. The radiation level of this monster is way off the charts. I estimate it’s level to be around 40 ~ 50” Maria also whispered for the same reason. In fact, this monster’s stats are so overwhelming that even if they both combine their force and work as a single individual, still they may not be able to kill it.

The main problem was its shield and agility. With the shield, it can defend all the physical ATK while with agility, it can escape most of the magic ATKs. It’s stats perfectly countered both Kenshin and Maria’s strong points. And let’s not start about its skills, each one of them was enough to kill or restrict them.

Conclusion, their luck was really bad.

It made Kenshin wonder if someone was aware of their fighting style and tailor-made this monster to counter them. But, he didn’t have the luxury to ponder on it right now.

“What’s the plan?” Kenshin asked. He was trying his hardest not to show his nervousness on his face.

“Run!!” she said and backed away step by step. She knew very well that fighting this monster was not her cup of tea; running was the only option. Seeing her slowly backing up, a frown appeared on Kenshin’s face. The mission he had just received was a compulsory one, as such, he couldn’t abandon it. With Maria, Kenshin had the confidence to survive but without her, it was difficult to predict the outcome. Even so, he had no right to demand her presence. He could only grit his teeth and hope for the best, in the worst case scenario, he had his extra life.

Seeing Kenshin was making not making his move, Maria had a puzzled look on her face.

“What happened? Why are you not running?” she asked him.

But Kenshin didn’t give her a verbal answer, he simply withdrew his sword from its sheath and took a battle stance. Seeing this, Maria couldn’t help but stare at him dumbly.

“Oi! Don’t tell me you are going to fight that thing!” Kenshin remained silent about her question.

“Have you gone you mad?! You are really planning to fight that thing! You will be killed” she raved at him; tried to force him to understand the situation they were in. But, Kenshin was in no position to listen to her advice. He also wanted to run but with the appearance of the compulsory mission, that possibility had dashed from his grasp.

But his heart was very warm. This lady, whom he had only met today; her concern for him was very heart touching.

“Maria-san, do you think this monster will let us go now that it had seen us?”

“What?” Maria’s brain short-circuited.

“This monster is clearly intelligent. It understood its strength and our weakness well. Maybe it wants to divide us and then kill us one by one! That’s why I have decided to fight it to the bitter end; maybe I will get lucky and kill it?”

“You…” Maria was speechless. She couldn’t fathom what Kenshin was thinking anymore. She had never thought of him as a self-sacrificing sort.

In fact, Kenshin was far from a self-sacrificing goody-two-shoes. If it not for that compulsory mission, he would have been running faster than Maria. To him, those self-sacrificing ones who would give their life for just anyone were nothing but an eyesore.

“That’s why you must survive and run! Give the message to the outside world of what had happened here. They must know about this” eloquent speeches poured out of his mouth as he pictured himself as a hero who was about to sacrifice himself for the world. A shiver ran through his spines as he received these words. But he had to do it for the sake of looking cool in front of a girl.

In the end, Men will be Men. They will always be ready to woo a girl despite the situation. Kenshin was never a serious sort. During his school days; he was very mischievous and would often get punished by their class teacher. He was the type who would mix with anyone no matter the barrier. He was very popular during those days.

But after his parent’s death, he had to change.

In the end, he was successful in painting a grandiose picture of himself in the heart of Maria. Maria tears at the thought of Kenshin sacrificing himself for her sake. In her emotional state, she had thrown her commonsense out of the window. If she would stop and think about this a little deeper, she would have realized that Kenshin had no reasons to sacrifice himself for her sake. But she was on an emotional high so it would be a miracle if she thinks about this later, let alone now.

“I…I will also fight with you. I refuse to let you sacrifice on your own” she said resolutely while wiping away her tears.

Her sudden discission made Kenshin speechless.

‘…Maybe I have overdone it a little…!’ Kenshin thought in his heart while looking at a redfaced Maria.