"HRRK hrr--" said the wolf, a guard's spear through its neck. The wolf finally choked on the spear and died.

Markus stepped on a fox's head, clamping its jaw shut before the same guard pierced through its skull. The guard grunted as thanks and got back to the battle.

Most of the time, the guards were the ones to kill monsters. After all, it would be unreasonable for a single level 1 player to kill off half the horde, let alone a single monster at least 4-5 levels higher with shit equipment.

While Markus couldn't do much against the monsters, he could help stun them, if only for a second or two. Besides, monsters weren't the only things in the horde to drop EXP. There were animals like insects and rabbits that gave EXP as well.

At least they gave lots of EXP for his level. When he had come here in his previous life he was a full level ahead of these monsters and so they barely gave him any EXP, compared to now where he was already a quarter of the way to Lvl 2 after getting an assist on just 2 monsters.

No other players showed up while they were fighting, though Markus could see shapes that looked distinctly human in the woods. For some reason, the monsters kept running at the town, not even caring about the humans in the woods even as they were massacred. Due to the high-leveled guards, the monsters were 1-shotted and the horde began to thin out, leaving only a couple of animals left and the demonized monsters.

That's weird. Why is there a golem? Was there a war going on before I came here in my past life? Markus thought.

When regular monsters, like goblins, wolves, foxes, etc. were killed by players or NPCs, they just died, leaving a corpse.

But when they were killed by demons, they would demonize and evolve into a different kind of monster. Goblins became hobgoblins while slimes became golems, and so on.

The thing was, slimes didn't spawn near this city. They spawned in the plains, away from the forest surrounding this city. Which meant that a war was going on between one of the demon cities and this place.

When a war happened, demons would send demonized monsters to attack cities and those cities would defend. Demons and NPCs could not leave their cities most of the time so NPCs would enlist the help of either unbound monsters or players. This is one of the reasons why most NPCs were generally so welcoming towards players.

The golem appeared to be made of rocks, with a slight metallic covering over its semi-visible core. The hobgoblins were like regular goblins but with blackened limbs and long, sharp claws.

The hobgoblins rushed forward, screeching loudly. Unlike regular monsters, they could see the city so they could attack NPCs more easily.

Markus pushed one away with his foot, smacking away the other. They were easily pierced by arrows and spears. A quick thrust from another guard's spear shattered the golem's core, destroying it.

It was as Markus expected. When monsters evolved they returned to Lvl 1, and each of the guards was at least Lvl 30, so it made sense that there would be no trouble with the monsters. The golem may have been unexpected but even if the core was poked just slightly by a feather it would take massive damage.

You have leveled up! Gained +1 CONS, +1 AGI, +1 STR,

After checking his status, he noticed that his DEX had also gone up by a level. Another blue box came up, displaying his quest completion.

The Grand Hunt (Completed) Kill as many monsters as you can in the daily wave

Rewards: +10 EXP, +70 Credits

(+50 for assists on normal monsters, +20 for assists on demonized monsters)

Unlocked System Shop!

He stretched his hand outward and a pile of coins fell into it. He opened up the system shop calmly and looked at his options:

Health Potion

150 Credits

Mana Potion

200 Credits

Stamina Potion

100 Credits

Ganbea Leaf

2 Credits

Birch Stick

1 Credit

Zabra Berry

3 Credits

Iron Spear

500 Credits

Iron Arrow

50 Credits

Iron Chestplate

650 Credits

Holly Bow

350 Credits

Iron Gauntlets

400 Credits

Iron Boots

500 Credits

Iron Helm

600 Credits

Iron Sword

600 Credits

Cotton Shirt

10 Credits

Cotton Pants

10 Credits

Rubber Shoes

15 Credits

Hard Bread

2 Credits

Bottle of Water

2 Credits

The system shop would only sell you the necessities as well as anything you had encountered so far. Markus tapped the bread and water options, and 4 of his credits disappeared. A clear bottle of water with a brown roll on top of it appeared on the ground in front of him.

He picked them both up, taking a bite out of the bread before unscrewing the bottle cap and drinking some water to wash down the bread.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a large number of people near the gates. One of them fumbled at the barrier before tapping on the gates. His eyes then widened after seeing Vaja and motioned at the others to do so.

A commotion happened within the crowd as they bickered among each other to get in. Vaja's calm voice could be heard among the crowd, but Markus didn't stick around. Instead, he went back into the guild to train some more.

He had seen the extent of his power in the fight. His arms and legs still throbbed from the power behind the hobgoblins' charges. Markus stretched his body first before doing a different training regime since he had no weights. He did pushups, situps, squats, planks, and after roughly 45 minutes had passed, he practiced martial arts on the dummy.

A few minutes later his stomach growled, and he sighed before opening up the shop to get some more food and water. Having a bigger body meant having to eat more than normal but at least the food was cheap.

After he checked the time, he left the guild. His STR had increased by 1 while his CONS by 2, and his Punch and Examine skills by 1. He had 2 hours before night, so he had to move quickly. He went outside of the town into the woods, looking for an easy animal to practice on. Training dummies would not help him much because most of the monsters near the city were on 4 legs, not 2 like the dummies.

Markus crept through the woods, walking beneath the height of the bushes. If he noticed an animal like a wolf or fox he crept backward, keeping eye contact so it wouldn't chase after him. He tried sneaking up on a squirrel but it noticed him and ran up a tree. Markus then modified his approach, sneaking up on a rabbit a little slower, and pausing if it turned its head. He didn't want to make the rabbit too aware of his presence, so he stopped using Examine.

When he got close enough for kicking distance, he lifted his leg slowly, before bringing it down on the rabbit's head. Markus followed up by stepping on the rabbit, smashing it into the ground repeatedly. When it looked like enough damage had been done, he lifted his foot back and punted it into a tree. The rabbit twitched but then stopped moving. Markus didn't stop kicking it until he was completely sure the rabbit was dead. He heard the sound of bones snapping but he kept going. He bent down and checked the pulse of the rabbit: nothing. Lifting the animal by its ears, he left the forest and went back into the village, knocking on the gate so Vaja could let him in.

When he got back to the village he noticed several things: there were still some humans walking around near the entrance, with a couple inside the guild and others just wandering around. A small amount was arguing with the guards about something he did not hear and did not give a shit about. And lastly, when he reentered the village, a couple of people snapped their gazes over to him and began walking over to him...

"He-" one of the people he recognized as the man that first tapped on the gate from the group before walked over to him, but Markus left without a word and went into the guild. The man followed him from behind and watched as Markus brought the corpse to the guild counter and sold it for 5 credits.

"Hey man, it's a little rude to ignore people when they're trying to talk to you." the man said.

Markus sighed before turning around to face the man. "What the hell do you want?"

"Jeez, someone needs a chill pill."

Markus turned to leave.

"Hey, wait! I got a couple of things that I need help with, so could you help me?"

Markus turned back around. "Well? You gonna say it?"

"Do you have any tips on getting stronger? I saw you fighting with those goblins against that horde and you went out alone and got that dead rabbit."

"Which stats did you unlock so far?"

"What do you mean?"

"Do you even have the status yet?"

"If you mean if I tried saying status yet, yeah."

Markus sighed. "Think about yourself and write down your information somewhere."

The man began writing things down on his finger, muttering about himself and about how crazy this shit was. A minute later, 2 blue boxes appeared.

The man's eyes widened- "Say 'Status'" Markus cut in.

The man complied and a medium blue box popped up. "What the-okay, okay. So this is the status? Okay, so I got a level, a name, a health and EXP bar, and that's fucking it?"

"Now go outside, take a random stick or something, and bash it against a tree."

The man did so, and the appropriate message appeared.

"Alright, so you unlocked what are called stats. They're things that measure qualities about you on a numerical scale. For example, strength is the percent of your body weight that you can lift with one hand. The rest of the stats can be unlocked in similar ways, by doing things that demonstrate that you have those qualities. Like for INT, you gotta show that you can learn things, for WIS, that you can use the knowledge you have, and so on."

"Now when you unlocked the status, you got a thing called Classes. Now say it."

"H-Hold on. Let me process this first..." The man held his head with his hand before complying.

A blue box appeared in front of the man, whose eyes again widened at the choices.

"Choose a class. They go up to Lvl 10 and then you choose another class. Unlock more stats to unlock more classes." Markus said bluntly.

He then turned to leave.

"Hey, wait! My name's Bill, what's yours?"

Bill wasn't a name that he remembered from his previous life, so Markus strolled off with no response and entered a building labeled Zelroba Hotel. A blue screen popped up in front of him, asking him to choose his hotel plan. He chose the daily option and paid for the current night, costing him 30 credits.

After checking the time, there were just a few minutes before the night cycle. Not wasting any time, he went back to the guild to train. He needed to get stronger, and fast. One of the other disadvantages that humans were given by the system was that their starting stats were slightly lowered because of the large amount of them. According to the rules of the game, the power of the players, monsters, and demons depended on the number of players.

Instead of more exercises like pushups and situps, he focused on breathing exercises. By leveling his breathing skill he could evolve it into a skill that restored HP and later MP. He sat in a cross-legged position, hands by his sides as he breathed in, then slowly out. He sat calmly, trying to focus on keeping good posture while breathing slower and slower. Some time passed before he checked his status, finding that Breathing went up to Lvl 9 and Training to Lvl 5.

Quest Received! Breathing Skill Evolution:

Max out your Breathing skill and evolve it with the following requirements:

1. Hold your breath for longer than 3 minutes.

2. Run for 1 minute after your SP has run out.

3. Regenerate your SP 100 times after it has run out.

4. Kill 10 monsters with less than 10% SP remaining.

5. Regenerate your SP from 0 to full in 10 minutes.

Rewards: + 500 EXP, Controlled Breathing Lvl 1, Meditation Lvl 1

Whenever a skill got to Lvl 9, a quest would be given to max it out. Once it was maxed out, it would usually evolve, with this example being the two skills Controlled Breathing and Meditation. According to the Vampire NPCs, it used to be two different things, with a quest to get it to Lvl 10 and then a quest to evolve it but it changed later on because it was a pain in the ass and was too hard.

He waited until his SP was full before attempting the first option. He took a deep breath in, one out, and then took a large one.

After what seemed like forever he finally let go of his breath.

Quest Received! Breathing Skill Evolution:

Max out your Breathing skill and evolve it with the following requirements:

1. Hold your breath for longer than 3 minutes: 1 minute 12 seconds/ 3 minutes

2. Run for 1 minute after your SP has run out.

3. Regenerate your SP 100 times after it has run out.

4. Kill 10 monsters with less than 10% SP remaining.

5. Regenerate your SP from 0 to full in 10 minutes.

Rewards: + 500 EXP, Controlled Breathing Lvl 1, Meditation Lvl 1

...I should have expected this...

Back when he had gotten the quest it had taken him a full 6 months to finish it. It wasn't too hard because he didn't actually focus on doing it and just focused on other things. He had finished the first one after desperately swimming away from a Water Drake in an underwater cave. He wouldn't be able to do the same thing here, considering that he had been Lvl 18 when he had gotten the quest and Water Drakes were at least Lvl 40.

I'll just work on the other ones for now. Just put it in the back of your mind and forget about it. thought Markus.

Suddenly, Markus remembered what he should have been working on. He got back into position, this time focusing on his mana core, trying to push it throughout his body.

It was mostly the same as before, as the progress reset a little. He had more time on his hands this time and would not be interrupted by anyone, he thought.

He heard a knocking on the door. Markus got up, walked to the door, and looked out the window. It was one of the people following Bill. The knocking ceased when he had looked at the person outside the window. He pressed the "silence" button next to the door and went back to his spot and sat down.

It took a whole 30 minutes to get back to the position he had left from. His mind focused solely on manipulating that single wisp and his shirt was drenched with sweat. Inside of his core, a little thread of mana was slowly drawn out of the center, and into the mana veins. Markus then focused on getting that thread into his right arm, then hand. Time ticked away but eventually, he was able to do it.

When he reopened his eyes, a blue box congratulated him:

Learned Mana Circulation Lvl 1!

He grinned before opening up his skill list. Now, just below the label Mana Skills, the skill Mana Circulation could be found. With this skill now, he would be able to channel mana to the outside of his body as energy and as power.

Markus then left the training room and the guild. A person got up from the ground upon seeing him and walked over. He quickly walked away and headed to the hotel, ignoring the voice of the woman. They could just ask the NPCs for help, so why were they coming to him? Anyway, it was time for a well-deserved rest. He checked in, went to his room, took a shower, and cleaned his clothes in the magic washing machine, before lying down on the wooden bed. The mattress was thin and the covers were more like blankets, but he didn't mind. Just before he fell asleep, he reminded himself of his plan, his goals, and lastly, of his family.