Level Up!

As he dispatched the final ant of the group, the now familiar tone rang out accompanied by that message.

This time, there had been 5 ants. It seemed as if this arena was getting harder proportional to his own increase in ability, but Austin had no idea where it would cut off, and he had no idea how long he’d been inside the arena.

He opened up his stats window to check his progress in the lull that always seemed to occur between groups of ants.

Austin McKenna, Level 20

Title: None

Class: None

HP: 200

The amount of vitality within you, if it drops to 0, you will cease living.

Stamina: 250

The ability to act, most skills require stamina to use or maintain.

Strength: 38

Intelligence: 30

Agility: 35

Abilities:

Quick Learner:

Predecessor’s Guidance:

Ant Slayer (NEW):

Passive Skill: Born from slaying a large number of ants. Damage against insectoid creatures increased by 50%, Damage received from insectoid creatures reduced by 50%

Bonus points: 3

“Hm.” Austin spoke aloud after reading his new skill. “I guess I’ve killed enough of these stupid bugs to be an expert.”

After Austin had finished reading his new ability, he thought he heard the sound of the gate rumbling open once again, and when he turned, this time it wasn’t ants crawling through.

The robotic voice Austin hadn’t heard since it announced his entrance to this place suddenly rang out.

“Daniel’s Final Test has begun.”

"Final test, huh?" Austin thought, getting a bit excited at the prospect of fighting something other than an ant.

Out of the gate stepped quite possibly the ugliest existence Austin had ever seen. Standing about seven feet tall, with dark green skin, long arms gripped over a pot belly, and a face not even its mother could love.

As soon as the orc caught sight of Austin it roared in what seemed like delight, and began charging forward, unsheathing the long, iron sword from its back.

"Think, Austin. I’m a lot stronger thanks to those ants, but if I take that bastard head on I’m done for." the ideas and the orc were both racing. He wondered, which would strike first; a plan, or a blade.

When the orc got within range of its longsword, it reared back for a clumsy downwards slash. Seeing this, Austin stepped to the side, knowing it would be futile to take its strength on with the puny dagger in his hands.

After sidestepping the orc’s swing, the momentum of the sword embedded it in the ground of the arena, where it stayed. As the orc struggled to yank it from the dirt with a dumb look on its face, Austin charged.

His strength couldn’t be compared to what it was before. His speed couldn’t be compared to what it was before. He couldn’t be compared to what he was before.

With grace he would not have considered possible only hours beforehand, his dagger collided with the orc’s torso, the point left most exposed by his hunched form over the sword in the ground.

CRACK

The dagger impacted against the orc’s belly, but it didn’t plunge through like Austin expected it to, rather, instead it shattered, leaving him holding only the hilt.

"Damn, too many ant exoskeletons for this thing to handle."

Austin silently cursed to himself, and quickly switched to a backup plan.

He slid to the ground beneath the orc, still desperately trying to tug his sword from the earth, and used his hands to launch himself upwards in a donkey kick.

With his newfound strength behind the blow, the orc was sent flying backwards and crashed hard in the dirt. Not wanting to give him a second to recover, Austin rushed towards the slumped form of the orc, and with complete disregard for his shoe’s wellbeing, began stomping on the creature’s head.

With each stomp, the orc’s body recoiled, but it wasn’t as if it was going to simply lie there and take it.

As Austin brought his foot down for another stomp, the orc reached up and grabbed his leg. Unprepared for the sudden yank by his opponent, Austin soon found himself on the ground next to the orc.

The orc was still dazed from the beating it had just received, so it was still a bit slow on the uptake, and Austin used this time to roll away from his opponent. He sprang up and ran to where the sword was still planted firmly in the dirt, the orc not far behind him. He put both of his hands on the hilt and pulled with all of his strength, and the sword finally gave and came loose.

With no time to spare, Austin whipped around with a wild swing, and bisected the orc looming behind him.

Level Up! Level Up! Level Up! Level up!

He was bombarded by level up messages, and as he closed each one of them, another message caught his eye.

You have found a suitable weapon, would you like to slot it into Avatar of the Champion?

“Yes?” he ventured, wondering what that message meant.

The iron longsword in his hands suddenly disappeared, and he was greeted with another message.

You have unlocked the Avatar of the Champion active state. Please choose your activation phrase (It can be changed at any time)

“Umm, activation phrase?” Austin said, bewildered.

Phrase accepted.

“Umm wait, no!” Austin called out.

“Oh well. May as well try it out.” He spoke softly.

“Umm, activation phrase!” he shouted out, thoughts of old cartoons running through his mind.

Austin was suddenly surrounded by a blinding golden light, just like Daniel had been when he fought the Ant Queen, and when his sight cleared, he was once again holding the iron sword he had taken from the orc.

Please choose a release phrase.

Austin thought ahead this time, deciding to copy Daniel’s phrase from the cave.

“Avatar of the Champion, I release you.” he said.

Phrase accepted.

As he said it, he once again heard the strange sound of a chain snapping, and the sword was no longer in his hand.

“This is a pretty convenient way to carry weapons, I bet I can also put armor and clothes in, based on Daniel... “ Austin muttered.

He opened his stats window to investigate, ignoring his newly increased stats, he looked straight to the abilities section.

Abilities:

Sword Mastery NEW (Level 0):

Demonstrates the wielder’s mastery of the sword. Affects all bladed weapons, from daggers to greatswords.

Avatar of the Champion NEW:

With use of an activation phrase, summons whatever the user has designated as their Set to them. When active, boosts all stats by 100%. Whatever slots are not assigned in the Set will remain unchanged. Cannot be maintained once the user falls to their original Max HP. Set can be managed by the phrase: “Champion’s Inventory”

Austin closed the stats window.

‘Swordsmanship is nice, but holy crap, doubling all my stats! That’s insane!’

Realizing just how strong he could potentially become, Austin was getting more excited.

“Champion’s Inventory!” he called out.

A screen that he had never seen before popped up in front of him, showing a slots for gear all over his body, and one for a weapon. The only occupied slot, however, was the one taken up by the iron sword. He looked at the description of the orc’s former weapon.

Iron Longsword

A standard, well made longsword that gets the job done.

Damage: +5

"I guess it would be too much to ask for Daniel to have left his gear behind…" Austin thought reluctantly.

Still, he was extremely excited at the possibilities posed by his new ability.

"First thing’s first," Austin mused, "Since no more monsters are coming out, I have to figure out how to get out of here."

No sooner had he thought it, the robotic voice rang out.

“You have completed Daniel’s Dream, would you like to exit?”

“Yes.” Austin called out.

The gap in space that brought him here once again formed in front of him, and he stepped back into his world almost a new person. The difference in strength between just level 11 and level 25 was staggering. Austin could only imagine what it would be like at even higher levels.

He stepped back onto the pavement in front of his apartment building and looked around.

Austin was bewildered, ‘Judging from where the sun is, no time at all has passed since I left, how weird…’

Austin went back into the building and upstairs to his residence, but as he sat down on his bed to take a well earned rest, one thought ran through his head.

"I’m not tired…"

This was contrary to everything that Austin expected, he had just spent what felt like hours fighting wave after wave of ants, but he wasn’t tired.

"Maybe it’s some effect of leveling up? My stamina hasn't gone down..." He pondered any possible causes.

"I guess if I can’t sleep, I should head over to the crawler’s association to get my rank re-evaluated, that way I can participate in dungeon clears to get stronger." He thought.

“The money would be nice too…” He said aloud as he looked at the one bedroom apartment he called home.

He got up and changed out of the wrecked clothes he was wearing, and had a thought.

He went to his closet and grabbed an old halloween mask. It was like the mask worn by the Phantom of the Opera, but this one covered the whole face.

“Champion’s Inventory” He called out.

"Just in case I need to activate it in public, I don’t want people to know about this weird power I’ve gotten." he reasoned, as he placed the mask in the head slot of his Avatar.

After he had finished showering and changing, he left his apartment and began walking towards the Crawler’s Association building at the center of town. He wondered if he should show his full power to get ranked higher immediately, or if he should be patient and avoid suspicion.

"Definitely avoid suspicion" He chuckled to himself.