After a day of walking, the three still failed to see another person alive. They avoided several groups of the insect creatures and carefully threaded their path. After all the fighting, Honoka was now awed by Shin's strength. She doesn't know why Shin was so strong even though his movement doesn't looked too polished. She was familiar with different fighting style, she noticed how experienced Shin was in fighting and probably even more experienced than her. But his movements doesn't even show signs of proper martial arts training. Even Kaori now looked at Shin in different light. Even though Shin did not save her back then, she still thinks that Shin is a good person for even allowing them to stick behind, and cleared the way for them. When the night came, Shin chose a place in a open area with roof deck to stay. This time, he wished to fully observe the movement of the creatures. Honoka and Kaori stayed at a distance and sleep in turns. With what happened with Hideki, they have now less trust with men and would need to be extremely wary even of Shin. However, Shin didn't even bother with them, but instead, focused on the creatures moving below the two story commercial establishment they were staying. Half of it already crumbled, but half still stood strong, and access to the the roof deck of the building was hard, so Shin chose it as the place to spend the night. Below them, as they glance further, they saw more and more of those creatures. This made it more dangerous to stay at a place which was easily accessible. The creatures below kept feeding on dead bodies. Sometimes, Shin would provoke then and throw a can of half open food towards them, but the creatures ignored it which made Shin realize that it only probably eats humans. Also, it doesn't seem to be sensitive to sounds and simply relied on sight to hunt for prey. However, in the night, it moved with ease which proved its ability to see at the dark. It also doesn't show sign of sleeping which Shin was looking forward to. If these creatures does sleep, then killing them would be easier, and gaining a level would be a walk in the park. After observing for several hours, and not getting any more useful information, Shin decided to sleep. .... The next day, when Shin woke up, he frowned as he saw more of the creatures. It was as if their number increased by ten percent, it wasn't much, but for someone like Shin who kept observing them from above for a long time, it was a big change. "Seems like theses guys are actually increasing, which means I need to get stronger as soon as possible." Quickly, he tied a rope in the side of the two story building, and which barely reached the ground. Then afterwards, he went down which scared Honoka. "Where is he going? Is he leaving?" With haste, Honoka looked below and found out that Shin was fighting with the few creatures. He did not stay far away from the building but simply stood near the rope waiting for any opponent. This time, he activated his skill Luck!!! and it increased his agility tremendously. 'Agility +15 for 3 hours' Also, with many creatures rushing towards him, he activated his skill Absolute Defense. Quickly, he started killing the creatures. Even they were fast, Shin with his current agility evaded their attacks. One by one, Shin started to kill them, his blunt metal bat could easily easily throw them meters away with one hit, but it could not easily kill them. "I need a sword or spear!" Shin thought while hitting any creature that came towards him nonstop. After five minutes when the effect of absolute defense was almost over. He quickly ran and climbed up the rope to seek safety. He wasn't confident enough to fight them without absolute defense. Actually, he hasn't been hit even once by these creatures, so he wasn't sure if Absolute Defense could stop their attack. But still, simply having an additional means of safety, was a great boost in his confidence in fighting a swarm of unknown creatures who have unknown effects. In that single exchange, he have killed more than he imagined which actually increased his level to 4. Without hesitation, he added the new stat point to luck making his luck raise to 28. After climbing up, he saw Honoka's shocked expression. "So you're up. We will stay here for the day and observe this creatures more. Tomorrow we will leave." Shin said in a flat tone. Honoka did not reply, but instead went back to Kaori's side who was still sleeping. Time passed, and every after some time, Shin would go down and kill some of the creatures, then would go back up again to rest for a few minutes. After 3 hours, the effect of the Luck!!! disappeared and his agility came back to normal. Since, he wanted to grind as much as possible, he used the skill again and gained, a boost of 17 points in strength. This time that his strength was more than doubled. One hit could cause the creature to be severely damaged, and another hit could instantly kill it. Two hits was all it takes to kill one with his current strength. Actually without his special skill, it was impossible to get such results. If he placed everything into strength, he would only have a total of 18 strength which was far from his current 27 strength. After a whole day of grinding, Shin's level went up to 6. When he reached level five, it became extremely hard to gain a level. It seemed like, the higher he goes, the harder it gets just like in games. Also, he placed all of the stat points on his luck, which was now 32. With his special skill Luck!!! already used twice, he had no choice but to simply wait for the next day and observe the creatures below. This time, Honoka could not resist to ask. "How are you able to fight those monsters without getting even hit once. I have been observing you for days now, and sometimes your strength would be terrifying or your speed would be unbelievable. "And why do you keep killing those monsters randomly, what are you trying to accomplish?" Shin stared at Honoka for a moment then sighed. "Tomorrow I will tell you, but I will look for a weapon first." With Honoka's care for Kaori, and Kaori's timid nature, Shin could not help but pity them. He thought that maybe he could somehow use Honoka in the process and learn what title she will obtain if she level's up. "Do you know where I could get a sword here?" Honoka have already seen Shin fight, so getting a sword would increase his fighting potential exponentially. So she answered. "Yes, I have been training marital arts, and about 500 meters from here, there is a samurai dojo where we could get one. But, I will only teach you the way if you allow me and Koari to use and carry one." Shin looked at her then smiled. "Alright. You will need it anyway." Honoka didn't mind Shin's words. What she wanted was to carry a blade for herself so that if Shin left them, she could protect herself and Kaori. ... The next day, Kaori woke up before everyone else and prepared food. When Shin woke up, Kaori handed him bread and some opened can of tuna. "Thank you for protecting us." With that single line. Kaori then went back to Honoka's side and silently looked at the sky. "Even though she was violated and knew that I did nothing to stop it, she still went through her way to say that. "It seems like this Koari has some strong will, even with a frail looking body." After that, they quickly ate their fill and went down using the rope that goes down to the building. This time, they avoided the creatures as much as possible, and since Shin have already killed several creatures below the building there were not much left. Which gave them the chance to flee. Quickly, they ran nonstop entering various streets to avoid any creature. Shin was not confident that he could fight a swarm of those things so they decided to stick into hiding. On the way, Shin was forced to activate his special skill and gained a boost of 20 vitality. His body felt tougher, it also revitalized, and he can feel that if he ever get a wound it would heal faster. "Shit. Why vitality." Shin frowned. For him, gaining the additional points in vitality was useless. It would not give him much fighting power. And he wasn't even sure if absolute defense could actually block an attack from those creatures. But when he activated his Absolute Defense skill, he felt that it was slightly better than before. He realized that if a skill is paired with a high stat, it would increase in effect. In front of him were ten enemies which crawled at fast speed. Behind Shin were Honoka and Koari both slightly scared of the numerous creatures. With his added vitality, Shin was like a tank that rushed through the creatures. Honoka noticed that he was slightly slower, but instead, even with his average body frame, he seemed to feel like a sturdy person. This time, Shin fought hard, to kill the enemies. It was not as easy as having high strength and high agility, so in the end he became surrounded. Many attacks came at him at once which scared Honoka and Koari even at a distance. Shin's pupils constricted. He could do nothing to evade. So he simply gritted his teeth and tried to block the attacks with his metal bat and extremities! When the attacks landed, to Shin's shock, the scythe like legs of the insect failed to pierce through Shin's skin and failed to even make a scratch. "So with this much vitality and with the Absolute Defense, I am invulnerable to these small creatures! "So it wasn't really bad luck that I got vitality!" With his toughness, Shin became more aggressive and attacked any creature close to him and even ignored dodging! Only after a mere four minutes, he was breathing ruggedly while surrounded by corpses of the creatures he slayed. Honoka and Koari were now staring at him differently. It was like he was no longer human from their perspective. Shin ignored them and said. "Let's go. Is that dojo now near here?" Honoka regained her senses from shock and replied. "Yes It's only a block away." Shin then quickly proceeded to the direction Honoka was referring to. Luckily, no more of those insect looking creatures were on the way. So with haste, Shin entered the wrecked dojo and glanced around. In a corner almost covered by the collapsed ceiling, he saw swords lined in a wall as ornament. They were japanese swords which seemed slightly ancient. Without waiting for Honoka and Koari, he quickly grabbed the swords and checked them. It was his first time actually wielding a sword so it felt heavy for him. But he knew that with its extremely sharp edge it could cut the creatures easily. The color of the two swords were different, one was red and one was black, he wasn't knowledgeable about swords and it looked all similar for him. So he only chose based on color and picked the black one. Then gave the other one to Honoka and said. "Now you're ready. Do you know how to use swords? Shin asked." Honoka nodded then checked the sword. A trace of reminiscence flashed in her eyes. Shin didn't mind it much and started explaining. "Once you kill a good amount of those creatures, you will gain a level. If you ever played RPG games, you will understand easier. "Once you gain a level, you will have stats which are represented in number and you will probably have a skill. "That is the reason why I survived earlier and was even able to wipe out the enemies. "Explaining won't do much, you should kill one of those creatures first." Honoka's eyes showed eagerness as she held the sword tightly. Along with Shin, they went out to gain a level. Kaori silently followed behind them close to Honoka. Not far away, they saw four of the creature crawling towards them. Shin quickly activated his Absolute Defense skill and lured the creatures. "Now! Attack them one by one." Honoka's figure quickly flashed, her movement was remarkable for a woman. With a slash of her sword, it went in the creature, however, it did not kill it and only damaged it. Before the creature could jump towards her, she quickly slashed in succession killing it in the process. Shin could not believe that with such thin arms Honoka was able to cut the creature and successively threw quick slashes. The flow of movement was beautiful even for Shin who has no background in martial arts. Honoka's beauty also blossomed during the fight. It was as if she was simply performing a beautiful dance. After killing all four, Honoka gained a level. Light emitted from her body and quickly faded away, motes of blue light also appeared everywhere which she could now see. An orb similar to that of Shin appeared in his thoughts, and sudden information flowed through her. Level 1 : Special Title: Swift Sword Doyen Strength = 10 Agility = 23 Vitality = 10 Spirit = 10 Luck = 7 Mana : 100 Unused stat points : 2 Special Skill : Sword Flash