AN: Chapter 8, levels, skills and a new pet.

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One of the little fuckers was about to slash Diane's arm when her spear bruttaly came into contact with its head. Its eye got crushed as its cranium was fractured. The power of the blow reached the brain, causing lethal damage. The neck didn't resist and snaped to the side as its body was flung against its companion. Both of them skidded on the ground 3m away from Diane. The others ugly creatures were surprised by the sudden development, and gave an opening noone of the 4 humans missed.

David pierced the throat of the one in front of him and kicked the head of the guy who tried to retaliate, albeit a little to late. He was pushed backward and impaled against the spear of the one behind him. Greg slashed the 2 in front of him at the ankles with a sweep, crippling them. However, his makeshift spear broke. Erwin slashed at the face of the one who tried to stab him while he dodged the attack. The cut was on the forehead, and the amount of dark blood flowing out of the wound would blind him.

Sadira stabbed the chest of one of the monster and bit the neck of the other. But the one who was fealing the most damage to the enemy was Diane. She was emitting an aura that intimidated the ugly creature. Her agility and strenght had slightly increased, and it was enough to give her a complete advantage over the little fuckers. And she went on a bloody rampage against them. She looked at them like absolute filth and didn't hesitate to stomp on their balls and stab their dicks.

Her 3 male teammates froze in horror at that sight, but she didn't register it, she was solely focused on the ugly monsters. They had started to become hesitant, and Erwin, David and Greg pressed the attack. David, who was supposed to be the tank, was now acting as an attacker since most of the ugly bastards had their attention on the deadly woman they wanted to fuck earlier. However, instead of lustfull gazes, they had anxious, almost scared look in their eyes. Their end was a brutal one.

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Once all the monsters got killed, Diane turned toward Erwin with an angry glint in her eyes. Erwin paled, and remembering what she did to the little ugly things he didn't waste time to explain his actions.

“I saw you were starting to panic because you knew they wanted to rape you. Your movement were becoming wild and inefficient. However, I didn't know what to say to calm you down or cheer you up in those conditions. Anger is more usefull than fear or so they say, so I decided to make you angry.”

“Anger is more usefull than fear? Didn't you take this from Schwarzenegger in Terminator 3?”

“Nope! But now that I think about it, I wonder how action movies actors are doing, especially those who played in supernatural or fantasy movies... I digress, sorry.”

“... Well, thank you!”

Her expression turned from angry to satisfied, though Erwin wasn't sure if she had really calmed down.

“I gained the skill 'Furious will'. When in danger and angry, it raise my strenght and agility, and reduce my stamina consumption and pain perception. I can intimidate opponents with lower levels or lower spirit. I also gained the spear mastery skill.”

“Whoa!! 2 new battle skills well suited for an attacker! Congratulation!”

“I got 1 of them thanks to you, so yeah, thank you.”

“Actually, I also gained 2 skills, spear mastery and physical resistance, and just like the name suggest, it reduced damage from physical attacks.”

“And here we have someone who gained skills suited for a tank... I guess the 2 of us will have to suffer a lot every evening for a little while. What about you Greg?”

“... Nothing. But I gained 1 level!”

“I gained 2 levels!” said Diane

“... I got 1 level.” added David.

“... 1 level for me too. Sadira also gained a level. Well, we were buffed, they were cursed, and yet we could barely keep up. They were strong. Good thing their equipments and skills were rather poor. And I'm sure they weren't the strongest of their race. Same with the spiders, I don't think we've seen the strongest ones.”

“Aren't you too pessimistic? … The worst part is that it's probably not wrong” said David.

“It's still morning, not even 9. Let's rest a bit, then we will hunt spiders until the end of the afternoon. They are the weakest monsters, but they should be able to give us 2 or maybe 3 more levels today.”

After putting Sadira's bonus points in intelligence, Erwin started to decapitate the ugly monsters.

“What the fuck are you doing?”

“If you're moving somewhere and you see human heads on a spike, would you still move forward or go in another direction? Of course you would go in another direction. And I want these little fuckers to do the same. I don't want them near this part of the forest where we get our water, I don't want them to ambush us here. So I'm going to do something barbaric to scare them away from here.”

“That's just crazy” said Greg.

“Young man, I think everything that happened to us these past few days is getting to your head. There is no need to do something like that, we are not monsters.”

“No, we aren't. But we are surrounded by monsters. And this is something monsters understand best. These little fuckers are probably the most dangerous creatures for us here, and I want them to think twice before trying to mess with us again, I want them to fear us. At least that will buy us time to get stronger before they decide to go after the ones who killed nearly 30 of their kins. If you don't like it, don't do it and don't watch.”

“It will protect my pussy from those filthy creatures, so I'll help.”

David and Greg couldn't do anything to change their minds so they stayed at a distance. After finishing the gruesome task, they rested for 20min before going toward the area where they first came in the forest. Both Erwin and Diane gained a title from their gruesome work.

Title gained: Barbarian

Attacks with primitive weapons deal more damage, slight increase in chances to intimidate an opponent of similar or lower level

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They spent several hours hunting the spiders. At a certain moment, as Erwin gave the final strike to a spider, he felt his makeshift blade touch something hard, something which reminded him of the rainbow crystal flower. He cut open the corpse of the spider, under the disaproving and disgusted face of David and Greg, and pulled out something. It was a small, dark green crystalin orb, and after observing it for a bit, he noticed the tiny amount of mana present in it.

“What is this thing?” asked Greg.

“... It's a monster core...”

“A monster core?”

“Yes. In some fantasy settings, monsters are magical creatures who live thanks to their core. The core is like a mana battery that sustain them, a vital part of their bodies just like the heart and the brain. I killed the crystal flower by breaking its core. Monster cores contain mana, the stronger the monster is, the more mana the core contains. They are used to power up enchanted weapons, armors or other various tools, or used in alchemy. I'll collect them, they might be usefull later.”

They continued to hunt spiders, and Erwin would collect the cores after each battle. They took a break at noon, and continued to hunt in the afternoon, also going after the carnivorous plants they would find. Halfway through the hunt, Greg gained the spear mastery skill.

They went back to their base near the end of the afternoon. Since they had hunted a lot of monsters, despite the little experience they gave, everyone was able to gain 2 levels, 3 for Greg. But they also had to search for preys a lot, so at the end of the day they were all quite tired.

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Still, Erwin decided to leave the base for a bit alone, under the pretext of a serious call of nature. The true reason was to bait one of those red panthers and tame it. Since himself and Sadira had leveled up, he was worried the panthers would avoid him if he wasn't alone. He cut himself to bleed a bit and wandered cautiously in the ruin filled area. Within 30min,, he effectively attracted a beast, and thanks to his preparadness he avoided death.

He was moving around with his armored arm on the back of his neck, thus, when the beast attackd him from behind it didn't manage to go after his neck. Beside, he regulary casted agility and strenght enhancement on himself, so he wasn't overpowered by the beast. After the initial attack, Erwin quickly turned o the side while repulsing the beast with his now injured arm, and casted the strenght and agility decrease on it.

Then he attacked with his functional arm and occasional kicks, his injured arm used for defense. He first attacked the neck and the head, to suddenly go after the legs. The beast was too surprised to dodge, and with it's front leg injured it couldn't move fast enough to prevent Erwin from moving to its back and striking the rear legs as well. Once the beast got down, Erwin released his weapon and beat it up before activating his contractor skill.

Thanks to his experience with Sadira he knew he had to impose his will on it. That was why he beat it up before, and using his determination to survive and reach his home, he managed to make the red beast submit to him.

Contract successful

Scarlet Wildcat has become your faithfull servant

NAME:-RACE:Scarlet wildcatAGE:3GENDER:MaleLEVEL:14BONUS POINTS:00Titles-LIFE:128 / 327REGEN RATE:43%STAMINA:278 / 322REGEN RATE:69%MANA:180 / 180REGEN RATE:87%STRENGHT:40CONSTITUTION:50AGILITY:57DEXTERITY:55INTELLIGENCE:23SPIRIT:27WISDOM:15CHARISMA:23FIRE:08/10WATER:00/00EARTH:06/00AIR:02/00LIGHT:03/00DARKNESS:03/03ARCANE:00/00CHAOS:00/00RESISTANCES:Poison(11%) - Illness(7%)-

TRAITS-SKILLSTYPELEVELTrackingPassive16SoutingPassive12SneakingPassive17SurvivalPassive18SPECIAL ABILITIESTYPELEVEL---

“A guy eh... and a scarlet wildcat, with affinity to fire... I know, from now on your name will be Ras, like the red giant from Hercules constellation.”

Same as for Sadira, his status changed when he was given that name.

'You have some very interesting skills, they will be very usefull for our travel. It's getting late and I'm very tired, better get back.'

After healing the both of them, they went back to the base. On the way, he briefly stopped and looked toward where the center of the town should be. He had the feeling that there was something there.

Skill aquired: Perception

Raise your sensitivity, your chances to notice particulr things and detect danger

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NAME:Erwin RusselRACE:HumanAGE:18GENDER:MaleLEVEL:19BONUS POINTS:00Titles“Boss killer”, "Healer", "Barbarian"LIFE:266/ 266REGEN RATE:100%STAMINA:263/ 263REGEN RATE:100%MANA:422/ 422REGEN RATE:100%STRENGHT:38CONSTITUTION:44AGILITY:48DEXTERITY:57INTELLIGENCE:70SPIRIT:65WISDOM:44CHARISMA:47FIRE:15/00WATER:15/20EARTH:15/20AIR:15/00LIGHT:15/00DARKNESS:15/00ARCANE:15/00CHAOS:15/00RESISTANCES:Poison(0%) - Illness(2%)-CONTRACTED SERVANTSTYPELEVELSadiraSpider17RasWildcat14TRAITSRainbow magicSKILLSTYPELEVELHealingActive03DetoxificationActive01Enhance: strenghtActive05Enhance: agilityActive05Decrease: strenghtActive07Decrease: agilityActive07Mana sensePassive04Crude equipment craftingPassive01ParkourPassive03LinguisticPassive14SPECIAL ABILITIESTYPELEVELContractorActive02

NAME:SadiraRACE:Gamora spiderAGE:2GENDER:FemaleLEVEL:17BONUS POINTS:00Titles“Erwin Russel's first servant”LIFE:228/ 228REGEN RATE:83%STAMINA:160 / 223REGEN RATE:69%MANA:100 / 100REGEN RATE:47%STRENGHT:31CONSTITUTION:43AGILITY:70DEXTERITY:62INTELLIGENCE:32SPIRIT:18WISDOM:17CHARISMA:13FIRE:00/-15WATER:13/00EARTH:09/00AIR:00/00LIGHT:00/00DARKNESS:07/11ARCANE:00/00CHAOS:00/00RESISTANCES:Poison(31%) - Illness(18%)-TRAITS-SKILLSTYPELEVELPoisonous biteActive07Thread generationActive08SneakingPassive01SurvivalPassive14SPECIAL ABILITIESTYPELEVEL---

NAME:Diane BeaumontRACE:HumanAGE:20GENDER:FemaleLEVEL:16BONUS POINTS:00Titles"Barbarian"LIFE:304/304REGEN RATE:100%STAMINA:308/308REGEN RATE:100%MANA:222/222REGEN RATE:100%STRENGHT:65CONSTITUTION:53AGILITY:61DEXTERITY:51INTELLIGENCE:47SPIRIT:39WISDOM:38CHARISMA:37FIRE:01/00WATER:00/00EARTH:00/00AIR:00/00LIGHT:03/00DARKNESS:00/00ARCANE:00/00CHAOS:00/00RESISTANCES:Poison(0%) - Illness(0%)-TRAITS-SKILLSTYPELEVELFurious willActive01Spear masteryPassive02AthletismPassive07ClimbingPassive01NursingPassive01SPECIAL ABILITIESTYPELEVEL---

NAME:David GeraultRACE:HumanAGE:29GENDER:MaleLEVEL:14BONUS POINTS:00Titles-LIFE:299/299REGEN RATE:100%STAMINA:296/296REGEN RATE:100%MANA:201/201REGEN RATE:100%STRENGHT:58CONSTITUTION:67AGILITY:43DEXTERITY:42INTELLIGENCE:37SPIRIT:46WISDOM:41CHARISMA:33FIRE:00/00WATER:02/00EARTH:03/02AIR:00/00LIGHT:00/00DARKNESS:00/00ARCANE:00/00CHAOS:00/00RESISTANCES:Poison(7%) - Illness(5%)-TRAITS-SKILLSTYPELEVELSpear masteryPassive02Physical resistancePassive01ClimbingPassive01OrientationPassive05SPECIAL ABILITIESTYPELEVEL---

NAME:Greg MoutonRACE:HumanAGE:25GENDER:MaleLEVEL:14BONUS POINTS:00Titles-LIFE:225/225REGEN RATE:100%STAMINA:225/225REGEN RATE:100%MANA:202/202REGEN RATE:100%STRENGHT:47CONSTITUTION:49AGILITY:49DEXTERITY:46INTELLIGENCE:50SPIRIT:40WISDOM:42CHARISMA:48FIRE:00/00WATER:00/00EARTH:00/00AIR:00/00LIGHT:00/00DARKNESS:00/00ARCANE:00/00CHAOS:00/00RESISTANCES:Poison(3%) - Illness(11%)-TRAITS-SKILLSTYPELEVELSpear masteryPassive02ClimbingPassive01SPECIAL ABILITIESTYPELEVEL---

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AN: What lies at the center of the ruined town? Find out... some time in the future... ...