I'm getting too familiar with the taste of burnt blood.

When I spotted the first flicker of flame, I threw my sword away and covered my face with my arms before trying to ball up on the ground.

My limbs are replaceable, but my head is not.

Unfortunately, I only got far enough to cover my head before the room exploded. My eardrums are again shattered, and my lungs burn like I've been inhaling lighter fluid while smoking a cigarette.

My prosthetic arm is alright, but my other arm is scorched horribly. The smell of cooked meat is overwhelmed by the burning. It's like it lodged itself into my brain via my nose.

The glass floor slightly melts, making my bare feet sink a quarter of an inch into the heated ground.

Every inch of my exposed skin has charred black, and every inch of covered skin is just charred. My eyes are bloodshot, and my vision is shaky.

It feels like half my organs turned to soup, and the other half died from shock.

-2034

[Resistance: Fire 333 > 370]

[Resistance: Force 200 > 250]

I spend over half my mana to repair any damage to my organs before sending the leftover healing to my flesh.

[Resistance: Exhaustion 21 > 22]

The strain on my body makes me keel over. I start vomiting bile before almost passing out.

With shaky legs, I stand.

The [Runic Antlion] accidentally killed itself with its inadvertent bomb. It was cooked from the inside like boiling a crab. Its carapace is strangely untouched.

[Status].

Name / Nickname

Ellis Vincere / The Last Winner

Race

Human

Class

Unique Master (Rank C)

Level

100 (MAX)

Titles

Proud Owner of a Rock, Fell the Mighty, Indulger…

~

~

Health Points

2400/2400 (+140% bonus)

Mana Points

525/1005

Armor Points 0

Might

200 (195 + 5)

Agility

100 (85 + 10 + 5)

Vigor

200 (165 + 20 + 15 )

Mind

201 (126 + 75)

Spirit

220 (160 > 210 + 10)

Perception

40

Charisma

20 (5 + 15)

Luck

2

Unused

44 > 244

Oh, did the explosion give me brain damage, or did I reach my level cap?

"..."

I check the logs.

[Congratulations! The user killed a creature over one hundred levels higher than the user!]

[Upgrading Fell the Mighty!]

I look at the experience needed to level up from 75 to 100, and it's a lot.

Almost two billion experience. That's two thousand million.

Did the system credit me the kill? Do indirect deaths count, or did my previous damage secure the kill?

What is experience anyways? I can get it by killing things or "training" my class, but is it a tangible resource? Levels are a numerical indicator of strength, the same with stats.

Our bodies can't handle mana well. That's the entire point of why the system was created, so is experience mana? That doesn't sound right...

If we kill a creature, are we taking their experience for ourselves? If that's the case, we definitely aren't taking all of it since leveling would be a breeze if that were the case. Since if you kill anything higher level than you, you would instantly match that level.

This doesn't seem like something that would be manually decided. This is more like a natural process of life being altered by the system.

I have no proof, but that's my theory.

What is indirect killing? If I let go of a rope connected to an anvil being held up by a pulley, and it lands on someone, would that be indirect?

I'm not trying to differentiate between murder and manslaughter.

A better example would be deactivating life support rather than humanely euthanizing a patient. They both have the same motive, but one is actively doing the deed.

I caused the gas to fill the room in the first place. And if I triggered the fire shield to automatically cast itself thanks to a premade rune, it would be my actions indirectly causing the explosion.

I don't know enough about runes to come to any solid conclusions, but since the runes didn't trigger the thorns on my ring, and the only other time that didn't happen was when I took indirect damage, I can make an assumption.

If the runes themselves count as a source of damage and not an extension of the caster, then I can see how I got the kill credit rather than the [Runic Antlion].

Does suicide count? If it died at all after I significantly hurt it, would I get experience? How close to a game is this? I want to leave this fucking fracture.

Maybe the carapace is worth something...

I harvested the [Runic Antlion]. The meat inside was horribly overcooked and burnt. I isolate the back section of the shell, where the antlion kept most of its runes. I kept the head on it, so I could drag it around by pulling in its antenna.

I spotted another way to go deeper into the nest. Another tunnel at the back of the room leads into another chamber.

I stealthily creep over. I'll just see what's over there, then I'll leave. It isn't another tunnel but another chamber with only one thing inside.

Inside is a tiny antlion, asleep or unconscious. It's about the size of a grapefruit.

[Adolecent Antlion Queen C lv5]

"..."

Killing it wouldn't give any experience. It doesn't look like it has any valuable parts, either.

I activated [Unique Servitude] and tried to tame the creature, but it failed. It's not unique.

Fuck it. I don't care what the system says. I'm keeping this queen, and there is nothing that can stop me.

I pluck the adolescent from its slumber and start heading out. It wakes up with a startle and immediately starts biting the shit out of me. I purposely let the thorns, not* trigger, keeping this thing from killing itself.

*Chomp Chomp*

Honestly, this thing is kind of cute. It has big round eyes and dinky little wings that are crystal clear. Her mandibles are too big for her head, so her head is constantly tilting.

Her carapace is golden, and her joints are jade green. I think. It's hard to tell exactly with the lack of light. I wonder if I put all my unused stat points into perception, I could see spirits.

What do baby antlions eat? Technically it's not a baby since it's not an egg, larvae, or pupae. So does it eat smaller portions of things antlions eat?

Meat? Glass? Probably meat.

Because of that forbidden fruit, my blood is supposedly nutritious, so maybe that's a good substitute? I'd preferably just feed it meat. Other creatures, not mine.

I breach the surface and look around. The surrounding sands have just cooled from the glass storm, but molten glass is everywhere. It hardened into a semi-solid state and coated the land, letting the sun's rays bounce off of them, giving the impression that it somehow got even brighter.

I get a running start and jump as high as I can, startling the antlion cradled in my arm.

I jump well over fifty feet into the air and look around, trying to spot a landmark or something I can make my way to.

I strain my eyes against the horizon and the great blue sky. I spot another antlion nest, miles away with swarms of antlions harvesting glass and fighting off [Desert Hulks].

It looks like the [Desert Hulks] see the antlions as a food source, and it seems the antlions share the same sentiment. Mini battles are happening all across the sands in a bid for survival.

The antlions need the glass to create their nests, and the hulks use this opportunity to get a meal.

~

I checked the new classes I have available to me.

[Field Scholar C]

[Torturer C]

[Pugilist C]

[Unique Master+ C]

I only have four this time, I think that's higher than average, but just by looking at it, only one of those is a tamer class. Maybe I should pick my classes another time. It's rare, but more choices could come up if I wait.

[Field Scholar CA Field Scholar is a vocational-type class focused on hands-on research in dangerous environments. These scholars have learned many tricks to stay alive.]

[Torturer CA Torturer is a warrior-type class that focuses on inflicting maximum pain for multitudes of benefits. The more suffering they bring to others, the stronger they get.]

[Pugilist CA Pugilist is a warrior-type class that focuses on fistfighting and footwork. They have one of the best brawling potentials for their rank but heavily suffer when outnumbered.

[Unique Master CA Unique Master is a utility-type class that utilizes strange and unusual creatures. These specialized tamers can only have specific beings subjugated under them, but their servants gain great bonuses.

Retaking this class may or may not bring additional benefits.]

"..."

I'll get my [Agility] up to two hundred like I wanted and keep the rest for later.

~

It's been half a day since I left the nest, and the little antlion has given up. It helps that I've been feeding with meat from the [Desert Hulks].

The desert is much more lively now. Chitinous monstrosities roam around, eating each other or laying in ambush among the dunes.

I honestly can't stomach the meat from these things, but food isn't a worry right now. I'll need a better source of water than my own blood.

[Adolecent Antlion Queen C lv6]

The little queen managed to get a level somehow. Maybe since she's growing, she can gain experience from eating. Do untamed monsters level the same way I do?

Maybe I should actually learn how to be a tamer.

~

I've lost track of time.

It shouldn't have been a day since the little antlion first leveled up in my care.

[Adolecent Antlion Queen C lv11]

I just kept feeding it monster meat, and she kept eating it. She ballooned up to almost double her previous size, shedding her carapace and gaining a new one.

I was going to keep the carapace, but she ate it. Now that she can't eat anymore, I'm going to make this thing fight.

I can't tame this thing using the system, so I'll try and do it manually. Teaching it how to fight is probably not the best place to start, but if I can't take it with me out of the fracture for unforeseen reasons or inconvenience, I want this antlion to survive this place.

So when the next [Desert Hulk] attacked me, I removed its eyes, legs, and claws and made it fight my tiny antlion for its life. Obviously, a lv11 adolescent can't win against something five times its level, but with [Martyr], the little antlion has a safety net.

But there was a bigger problem. The little antlion couldn't break through the hulk's armor.

The hulk is constantly trying to dig away, but without its claws, I can stop it before it slinks into the sand. During one of its attempts to escape, the hulk exposed his wounds from where I removed its legs, and the little antlion decided to dig in.

After the antlion is finished, we continue, stopping when a [Desert Hulk] decided that we were a target for an ambush.

Long story short, after twenty minutes, the little antlion is not so little anymore.

She's around the size of a shopping cart now, and I regret making her fight and eat all the time. She grew into her mandibles, so she doesn't tilt her head cutely anymore, and the tiny wings are now proportional to her body.

I don't need to carry her around anymore. She follows me of her own volition. Although she is extremely slow, I piggyback her on my back when we travel.

Then a week passes by excruciatingly slow.