jack of all trades

As he guessed, after stepping onto the first step of the stairs that took him from the 20th stage to the 21st, the physical pressure he felt on the 10th staircase came back, but this time almost triple in power.

Alex literally had to crawl after reaching the middle of the stairs. When he reached the top, he could feel his intestine and other organs pressing against his stomach, wanting to burst out.

He was being pressured both externally and internally. But he didn't have any choice but to greet his teeth and bear with it.

"huh, huh, huh," Alex was panting so hard, trying to get air into his lungs.

When the light covered and reset his condition to his top shape, he could feel the improvements in his body once more.

It wasn't like the improvements after his stats went up; it was more like every fabric of his being was transforming.

Now, after passing the second physical pressure, he could feel his skin and muscles changing.

"I really wish I could bring these stairs with me," Alex said one more time.

If he could bring these stairs to the SR and let the others practice with them, he was sure that their overall power would go to another level completely.

"sigh, let's see what's my next opponent like."

He really hoped that he wouldn't be fighting against an epic beast so soon. Even if he had to fight one that was lower in level than him, he wasn't sure he could take it on.

As he was thinking about what his next opponent might be, a human figure appeared five meters in front of him out of nowhere.

He was only wearing tattered shorts. His skin was green, and his ears were pointy. He had a wooden club with thorns coming out of its body in his hand.

"what the hell??? A goblin??" Alex shouted in disbelief.

In his previous life, monsters and other intelligent races didn't show up until a year or so after the nanobots started infecting the world.

They were intelligent, powerful, and very good fighters. Usually.

They had their own civilizations around the world, and sometimes they even traded with humans.

Goblins were among the weakest monsters, but they were still more challenging to kill than beasts.

The races were categorized into three different categories. 1) beast races 2) monster races, like goblins, orcs, ogres, and … 3) high races, like humans, elves, dwarves, merpeople, and ….

If they were to appear at this stage of the game, it was very possible for them to enslave humans and not even acknowledge them as a high race. And if that was to happen, it was game over for the humans.

"Nano, are other races starting to appear now??" Alex asked out loud, but no answer came, "I guess I can't communicate with her from here. Whatever, let's ask her after I'm done here."

Right now, Alex didn't have much of a choice but to fight, so he did that and attacked the goblin before the goblin had the chance to attack him.

The goblin didn't stand still and also dashed towards Alex at a fast speed and met him halfway.

Their weapons collided with each other, and a booming sound was released.

"so you are only rare grade."

Alex was relieved that he had only encountered one rare monster. Otherwise, he might have died without even having a chance to fight.

They both jumped back at the same time, and the goblin looked at Alex carefully and said, "you will die here, human; my race's freedom depends on it. I won't let them down."

"Sorry, not interested in your reasons; I just want to kill you and go up," Alex answered him and, with a powerful diagonal slash, sent a wind blade his way.

The goblin scoffed and raised his club in front of him in response.

When the wind blade hit the club, the goblin was pushed back two steps, leaving a deep mark on his club.

The goblin was clearly surprised by the wind blade's power. How could such a weak human have such a powerful skill?

"I won't lose here," the goblin screamed and smashed the ground in front of him with his club.

Alex almost lost his balance. He grabbed his sword firmly and screamed back while running to the goblin.

When they collided for the second time, Alex could feel the power behind the goblin's blow was much more powerful than before.

Alex pushed back with more force and was finally able to dominate the goblin and make him kneel on one knee.

The goblin gathered all his power and, with a sudden burst, pushed Alex's sword away before it completely cut through his club and rolled on the ground to the side.

He looked at the now useless weapon in his hand, cursed in goblin language, and threw it away.

"let's fight with our fists, like men," the goblin said.

"don't make me laugh; I'm not going to fall for that," said Alex and charged at him again.

The goblin, who was now without any weapons, could only dodge and try to flee and wait for an opportunity to strike back.

But alas, Alex was more experience than the goblin could ever imagine, and with his new, improved body, he was able to act fast.

He grabbed the sword with his other hand and slashed while turning around.

The goblin had nothing to defend against the sword coming his way and could only look in horror as the sharp and deadly blade came his way.

"noooo," he shouted.

The sword cut through the goblin's throat and decapitated him in one go.

DING

"Congratulations on being the first person to kill a monster."

"100,000,000 INBs have been added to your account."

Alex saw the familiar notification in front of him and said, "I didn't know it could work here."

He had done so many first things since he started the quest, such as killing a rare grade beast, one hit killing a rare grade beast, killing a rare grade beast without using a weapon, and …. But he got no such notification in return, so he thought it didn't work here.

"uh, whatever, it's not like I need the money anyway," Alex shrugged his shoulders and embraced the feeling of relief the golden light injected into his body every time he finished a stage.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Inside her separate space, Nano was sitting on a couch with popcorn in hand, looking at the large tv in front of her with interest.

Every time Alex defeated an enemy, Nano cheered and would throw the bucket of popcorn into the air, and each time he was in a near-death situation, she would chew her nails like a scared little kid.

When Alex passed the 20th stage and climbed the stairs, she was ready to see another new kind of beast appear but what appeared instead, made her so surprised that she screamed at the system with anger, "you dirty little shit, what are you planning to do by releasing other races so soon into the game."

She was so angry that she forgot that the system couldn't even answer her and only continued cursing.

She ran to the control room, went behind the main computer, typed something, and scrolled down before stopping.

"holly shit, are you that desperate??" Nano screamed again.

The system had planned the rank-up quest in a way that Alex would encounter a new monster race with each subsequent stage after the 20th stage, and each time, not only did the race change but their power and level also increased.

And that wasn't all. The system had used Alex's rank-up quest as an accelerator for its own plans.

If Alex lost to any of those "champions," the said champion's race would be released into the game and could start slaughtering the humans and, in turn, make the system gain more nanobots with each human kill.

The humans were a weak race by nature and couldn't handle other races in their current state. They needed time to get more powerful to stand a chance against the superior monster race and also negotiate with higher races for a seat around the table.

Like when people say humans are animals, higher races are basically monsters.

The difference is that they are so powerful that they decided to form their own race group.

Each one of these "higher races" had a specialty that made them unique.

For example, dwarves had their forging; elves had their superior magic, and …. In the middle of all these races, what made humans so special to get a seat around the high race table was that they were the jack of all trades.

They didn't have a specific specialty as a whole, but they had the potential to thrive in anything they chose. And that was why all higher races hated them. But they couldn't do anything about it since by the time they came into existence, most humans had already passed their first rank-up quest.