***
{CRITICAL HIT!}
{Your enemy used a skill on you: Might Punch!]
{You have received +2.2 damage!}
{HP: 0.3/3}
***
Clinton was rattled to the very depths of his being.
‘0.3 HP remaining?!!!’
‘What the f*ck!’
Clinton abandoned his weapons, running for his life without shame but even this was not enough as his enemy went in pursuit.
The Stone Ogre was adamant in taking his life.
“F*cking Christ!” Clinton cursed.
“I swear I’m going to kill you!”
Despite his words of bravado at this moment though, Clinton felt like his heart was right in his throat if he had one, beating rapidly in crazy rhythms.
At this moment, Clinton felt the threat of death again vividly just like he felt during his first encounter after reincarnating into this world against the Holy Knights. He felt like a pig on the slaughterhouse before the Butcher.
And at this moment, the Stone Ogre was the Butcher.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The Stone Ogre pursued relentlessly.
And for a moment, Clinton finally started regretting past decisions that he took while assigning his free attribute points.
Perhaps, if he assigned some to his speed attribute, he would not be so helpless at this moment because despite the fact that he was on a race against a Stone Ogre almost twice as tall as he was, he was still flipping losing ground!
“What in the flippin hell!” Clinton felt like he was going crazy.
“When did the King of the court become so slow?!”
At this moment, he wanted nothing more than some quiet despite the pursuit so that he won’t attract the attention of more monsters in this decaying forest but he was not mentally stable enough to stay silent.
Clinton was on the verge of panic already but luckily for him, he had just the passive skill to combat heightened emotions.
Once his passive skill, Calma set in, Clinton finally calmed down.
And with calm, his brain or whatever substituted for it in his skeleton body finally started working on overdrive to arrive at a plan to save his life.
Of course, the first thing that Clinton thought of was his HP regeneration.
But once he thought of it and remembered, he grimaced.
His skeleton body’s natural HP regeneration was limited to regenerating +0.1 HP every 15 minutes, every 15 flippin minutes!
How on earth was that useful in his situation?!
Clinton managed to still stay calm.
Trying to outrun the Stone Ogre was out of the question, it was faster than him, and this also ruled out trying to evade and lose it.
He could only lose the Stone Ogre if his speed was higher even if it was by a tiny margin but unfortunately, it was the opposite.
Trying to use the fire strategy that he used on Undead Trees would also not work on this monster. Who knew if the fire would simply quench after coming into contact with its thick flesh since it had no foundation to kindle its flames?
Clinton thought of so many scenarios at this moment but none of them was viable and in the end, he had to come back to the one idea that he dreaded of thinking about since.
‘I have to fight’. He thought; Clinton felt like he was just subjected to the death sentence by a judge.
With 0.3 HP remaining of his original 3 HP, to survive, Clinton just discovered that he had no choice but to fight against this Stone Ogre.
Clinton didn’t think about it much though despite his feeling of indignance. This was because he knew that every other idea guaranteed death, fighting was the only idea where even if it was an illusion, his life was back in his hands.
At least by fighting, he was taking hold of his life as the captain.
It was the only idea that gave him a chance of surviving and was why at this moment, he grasped at it tightly.
Of course, the idea of running into another Ogre or a pack of Green Goblins crossed his head but having noticed a pattern of this decaying forest already, Clinton had no doubts that with a foreigner like him here, they would attack him and kill him first before settling their feud.
This was why left with no choice, he had to settle for fighting the Stone Ogre.
He had only two thoughts about this idea though. ‘Why is my life so miserable?’
‘Is this karma for living such a fortunate and profligate past life?’
Clinton sighed but without wasting a moment further, the skeleton took a sharp turn after running past another decaying tree the next moment as he started charging in the direction of his hideout.
The Stone Ogre who remained snarling angrily followed its prey, its thick legs eating yards of space with no remorse.
A minute of this race later, Clinton finally saw his hideout.
Right ahead of the decaying tree whose roots he made his hideout, there was a slight mound of sand. Under this mound of sand was where his weapons were hidden.
By now, the distance between him and the Stone Ogre was closer than ever before as the monster abused its superior speed.
Whoosh!
At some point, it finally swung one of its giant blue arms to attack but reacting fast enough, Clinton ducked to dodge the deadly attack that would have definitely taken his life.
At this point, he no longer had any margin for error.
Any casual attack from the Stone Ogre was capable of wiping off his remaining 0.3 health points.
To survive today, Clinton needed to be perfect in the resulting battle.
He needed to kill the Stone Ogre without letting it touch him once.
This was Clinton’s hardest task in both of his lives by far.
Not even when he represented Landmark Academy in the nationals in his previous life, going toe to toe against professional track racers did he feel like he had such a hard task like a literal mountain to climb.
At this moment, to Clinton, it was do or die and nothing else.
Clinton didn’t just duck though, he ducked and used the opportunity to slide forward, pushing his right skeleton hand into the sand mound in the process.
Clinton felt a wooden touch the next moment, and then he pulled.
Without turning round with his skeleton back still facing the ground, as soon as he pulled the Wooden Spear, Clinton stabbed backward with it.
This time, the Wooden Spear struck the Ogre’s blue bloated belly.
CREAK!
And instead of the loud collision like that of clashing metals that resounded when he attacked the Ogre’s chest previously, this time, amid the grating sounds was the sound of something sharp stabbing into flesh.
This was not necessarily because the Stone Ogre’s belly was less thick than its chest, rather it was because of something else.
…sharpness!
Clinton finally felt the effectiveness of the imbued skills of his crafted weapons for the first time.
The Wooden Spear that he picked was one of those imbued with the sharpness passive skill and at this moment, its tip stabbed with incredible sharpness, drawing dark blue blood from the Stone Ogre finally.
The Stone Ogre snarled in pain even as a notification lit up before Clinton.
***
{You have dealt +0.6 damage to your enemy!}
{HP: 7.4/8.1}
***
Compared to the +0.1 damage that he dealt the first time, Clinton was able to deal 6 times more damage this time in a single attack all because of the imbued passive skill of this weapon, sharpness.
This was ridiculous improvement that left Clinton giddy in joy but his ecstasy did not last for long though.
Even as the Stone Ogre snarled angrily in pain, it suddenly raised both of its arms, clasped them together to form a fist before bringing them down with incredible force.
Clinton read the danger, retreating on time but as he pulled on the wooden spear, it refused to budge.
“…!” Clinton was shocked.
The Wooden Spear was stuck on the Stone Ogre’s thick belly muscles!
Clinton had less than a second to make the decision but he was able to make the right one, prioritizing his life over his crafted weapon as he let go of the Wooden Spear, diving back at the last moment.
That quick decision making saved his life, but what of the Wooden Spear?
Crack!
The Wooden Spear was smashed to pieces by the tyrannical smack of the Stone Ogre’s powerful blue arms.
And then, Clinton received a new notification.
***
{Your crafted weapon, Wooden Spear has been destroyed!}
***
Clinton felt a sharp pang of pain in his chest. ‘F*ck!’
***{Your crafted weapon, Wooden Spear has been destroyed!}***‘F*ck!’Despite the sharp pang of pain that Clinton felt in his skeleton chest and despite cursing, he did not waste a single moment as that Wooden Spear was smashed into pieces by the Stone Ogre.Despite just losing a weapon that he spent so much time and love crafting, at this moment, his 0.3 health points were what dominated Clinton’s mind.Saving his life was what dominated his mind.This was why as the Stone Ogre smashed the wooden spear to pieces with its powerful arms, its red eyes glowing with fury, Clinton finally saw a weakness.He saw a weakness because he was perceptive enough.During his preparations to go for his raid across the decaying forest, Clinton crafted 19 weapons; 10 Wooden Spears and 9 Wooden Daggers.For his first hunt, he took 2 Wooden Daggers and 3 Wooden Spears with him.The deadly encounter against this Stone Ogre though made him lose all his weapons that he originally took out for his hunt an
Badump! Badump!Clinton was a skeleton; he was supposed to have no heart.But at this moment, as he finally got a moment of reprieve for the first time in like forever as reward for his efforts and determination, he hallucinated.Clinton could hear something like a heart rapidly beating in his mind.If he was still a human, at this moment, he would be hyperventilating.This feeling made him remember one of the closest competitive races of his life in the track in his previous life when he went up against one of his fastest opponents ever, a prodigy who once represented an opponent school.‘D-did I do it?!’ Clinton thought incredulously, unable to believe it, but then…Thud!The Stone Ogre collapsed; it was dead.This was all the evidence that he needed.He killed it.Somehow, against all odds that were against him, Clinton managed to rise from the ashes of death to kill this formidable level 3 monster.0.1 HP…, that was how much of his vitality was left at the end.That low, even a me
***{0.6 free attribute points have been assigned to the speed attribute!}{0.5 free attribute points have been assigned to the vitality attribute!}{0.9 free attribute points have been assigned to the strength attribute!}{You have 0 free attribute points remaining!}…Attributes:STR- 2.3VIT- 2.1SPE- 1.1MIN- 0.6***In one go, Clinton made his strength attribute his strongest attribute.After the intense battle against the Stone Ogre, Clinton learned a few things.First was the importance of the speed attribute. Against the much larger Stone Ogre, it was exposed to him how glaringly lacking his speed attribute was and how much it could contribute to victory in battle.By now, he already confirmed that the speed attribute did not just affect his running speed but his body coordination and reaction speed in battle.A high speed attribute was vital for him to win battles.If he had all the strength in the world but without the speed to hit his opponents accurately, it would inevitab
***{You have killed a level 4 Stone Ogre!}{You gained XP!}***Clinton managed to kill his first level 4 monster and soon enough, he learned one of the major differences between high-leveled monsters and lower-leveled ones in the decaying forest.Unlike the level 3 monsters and lower-leveled monsters that would respawn into this forest after mere hours of being killed, it took a full day, 24 hours for a level 4 monster to be respawned.Apart from the Gate Guardian of this level of the dungeon, after his exploration, Clinton was able to establish the number of high-leveled monsters.In the decaying forest, apart from the Gate Guardian, there were five level 5 monsters. A single level 5 Green Goblin, another level 5 Undead Tree, but three different level 5 Stone Ogres.Only in the highest level of this part of the dungeon did the Stone Ogres have the numbers superiority.This was likely because of their bloodline superiority.Compared to the other monster species, the Stone Ogres had
Somewhere in the decaying forest, a pack of 6 Undead Trees wandered, two of them being level 4 Undead Trees.Suddenly, this pack of Undead Trees stopped.They stopped because they stared at a handless skeleton.Right on their path, this handless skeleton stood, it’s hand from the elbow gone like they were never there.The skeleton had a big grin on its body skull as it stared at them.The Undead Trees were bewildered, until it spoke.“F*ck you”. Clinton taunted.“F*ck all of you!”And that was it.The Undead Trees may not know what f*ck you meant but they subtly understood emotion in words, and they knew that the emotion being portrayed by those words were clearly not friendly.This was a provocation!Whoosh!The Undead Trees immediately went after the skeleton angrily who on seeing their reaction turned around and shamelessly started running in the opposite direction.Even as he ran, he taunted. “Catch me if you can, f*ckers!”That was it, these Undead Trees were determined all of a
***{You have dealt +1.2 damage to your enemy!}{You have dealt +1.3 damage to your enemy!}…{Undead Tree!}Level: 4HP: 8.1/10.7…{Undead Tree!}Level: 3HP: 5.4/7.0…{Undead Tree…}…{Undead Tree…}…{Undead Tree…}…{Undead Tree!}Level: 4HP: 9.3/10.1***Clinton’s 2 daggers only affected one of the two level 4 Undead Trees, yet at this moment, all the Undead Trees’ HP was lower than their peak.This was because his plan was already in motion.The fire was already spreading its vengeful wrath.Immediately after throwing the wooden daggers, Clinton dug his hands into the ground and retrieved 2 sharp wooden spears from the soft soil.And then, he set his sight on the second level 4 Undead Tree that triggered the fire that was now burning.He grinned. “You first!”He pounced!His battle against a level 4 Green Goblin was in no way a work over. Taking the fight to an even stronger monster in the form of an Undead Tree was a bigger risk but Clinton had reasons for his confidence.He
5 days later…***{You have leveled up!}{You are now a level 5 high-tier skeleton!}{HP regeneration has been upgraded!}>You naturally regenerate +0.1 HP every 10 minutesWhile fighting with a Dagger in hand, your body movement will be as fluid as water, enabling you to exert the greatest threat with your daggerTraining with a dagger and getting stronger to learn powerful techniques have never been easier, you are on track to become a skeleton impressively skillful and deadly with a dagger or multiple daggers in handWhen activated, your killing intent is par
***{You have crafted a low-tier utility tool: Wooden Mask!}***Before embarking on his journey, Clinton did one last thing which was crafting his first utility tool.Despite the fact that for the past few days, the only things dominating in his skull were the decaying forest and its 3 different monsters, Clinton still had something else at the back of his mind, the world of light.He never forgot the world of light where he reincarnated into this world.That sensation of seeing nothing due to the overly bright light, it was traumatizing and when he conjoined it with his encounter against the Holy Knights, it only left him with more mental wounds.Despite his mental wounds though, Clinton was not deterred.He was determined to get stronger and to get stronger, he needed to beat the Gate Guardian which to him was directly proportional to going to that pile of bones to get a new weapon for himself.As for the reason why he took his time to craft a wooden mask?First, it was that sensat