7 Defending Acrine (1)

Thousands of monsters were surrounding Acrine, preparing to attack.

It wouldn't be much longer, until the fight that would decide the fate of Acrine started.

The people that had survived the initial crisis, were scattered around the town center. The women, children, wounded and elderly were all inside the barrier. All the capable men would be outside, preparing for the stampede.

Inside the barrier, surrounded by those ineligible to fight, a man named Steve was present as well.

"What are you doing in here, you weakling?! Don't you want to protect our town?" a little girl asked Steve.

"Ah, I hurt my leg earlier. I can't fight right now," he answered, trying to sound remorseful.

"Liar! I can't see a wound! You just smudged some dried blood on it!" she said as she poked his 'hurt' leg.

"I got clawed by a huge monster! I wouldn't lie ab-... Eh... Has my leg healed already? What kind of wonder medicine did that old man give me..." Steve said as he looked at his own leg.

"Liar! Go and fight!" she said.

"Yeah, go and fight! Go and fight!" a few of the surrounding people said.

"..."

'These people are going to be the death of me... ' he thought, 'literally!'

As he was forced out of the barrier, he went to find someone in charge. He needed to get a weapon or some armor. If he didn't, he would just be a sitting duck, waiting to get slaughtered.

Steve spotted a man commanding quite a few other people. He walked towards him.

"Sir, do you have any weapons left?" he asked the man that radiated leadership.

"You're too late, we weren't prepared for this attack. Look at those monster's corpses and see if you can find something useful," he said as he pointed towards a bunch of corpses.

"..."

"Can't I just go back inside the barrier? I'm just a trav-," Steve tried to say, as he got interrupted.

"What kind of man are you? Look behind you. Look at those kids and women! Then look back at yourself. A grown-up man, and you'd rather sit by those poor souls... watching others fight for you?! Even a 5-year-old kid has more vigor than you," he said with a disdainful look.

[Ding! Shamelessness +1]

[Ding! Charisma -1]

'I actually lost a charisma point? This system is awful...' he dejectedly thought.

Although he had lost a point, he did get some insight about charisma points. It seemed like they affected how much influence he had on other people.

Steve went towards the corpses of the monsters & men that had already fallen in the earlier fight. As he came closer and saw them clearly, he couldn't help but puke.

Although he had seen some corpses earlier, walking on top of guts, while having that pungent smell in his nose, was just too much to handle for him right now.

While death was something he hadn't encountered a lot yet, it was omnipresent in Elea. He would get used to it someday.

He went closer to a gigantic corpse. It must have been over 5 meters tall when it was alive! The monster looked like a transformed boar. It had a pair of huge, sharp tusks on the sides of its mouth. Steve wanted to take one of them! But as he had no tools to take it out, he could only try and kick it off with his feet.

A few kicks later, he managed to get it off.

[Obtained 'Monster Boar Tusk'.

You can use this to craft a weapon.]

'How do I craft a weapon out of this though? You're still not helping me out, you f***ing useless system!' Steve thought as he blamed his system for the misery he was in.

As he carried the tusk back towards the barrier, while hoping to find a way to weaponize it, he stopped in his tracks. He could hear something breathing faintly.

Steve took a closer look and found a small monster... It was still alive! Seeing the below average size of the monster, he figured must have been a cub!

Although it was still breathing, it seemed as every breath could be his last. Steve decided to help it and end its misery.

He took the tusk, held it strongly, and used all his force to pierce the monster through its skull! The monster let out its last breath.

[Ding! 60 experience gained]

[Ding! Congratulations, you have advanced to level 2!]

[Ding! Congratulations, you have advanced to level 3!]

[Ding! Title gained: 'Rookie Monster Hunter']

[Level 2 reward: gained 2 attribute points.]

[Level 3 reward: gained 2 attribute points.]

['Rookie Monster Hunter'

Applying this title gives you a 5% damage boost against monsters. Since you don't have any titles yet, it was automatically applied.]

'...System! I lied! I love you after all!' Steve happily thought as he looked at messages.

"Profile," he said.

[Name: Steve Monroe

Age: 31

Race: Human

Status: Not even worth calling trash

Title: 'Rookie Monster Hunter'

Level : 3

Experience: 2/200

Abilities: 0

Attributes: 4 available points

Strength - 3

Dexterity – 6

Stamina – 8

Intelligence – 4

Wisdom – 2

Charisma – 5

Shamelessness - 3

Note: You didn't even kill that monster yourself, you just patted it on its head and it died... ]

'I just patted it on the head?! I used my full strength...' sobbed Steve.

After seeing his profile, he had to make one of those typical hard decisions every MMORPG player has had to make.

'Should I spend my attribute points already? I feel like I should save them until I have difficulties leveling up my attributes by training... but there's a fight coming up! Spending half of them might be my safest option...' Steve thought.

"System, put 2 of my points into dexterity!" he said.

Steve figured that putting points in dexterity was the smartest decision right now. This wasn't a game where dying would revive him! No, this was the real world. He needed to be able to dodge monsters! What would strength, stamina or intelligence mean if he couldn't even survive a single hit!

He promised himself that as long as he could survive today... he would start training all his attributes earnestly.

Steve arrived at the barrier and looked around for materials to make a weapon out of his fang. Just holding it in his hand wouldn't allow him to exert much force. On top of that, it was way too short-ranged!

After searching around for a bit, he had found a broken handle on the ground. Fitting the fang on the handle would be quite challenging though!

He struggled for a while, after all... Elea didn't have any superglue like Earth had.

As Steve was struggling to put the handle and the fang together, a mage had noticed him.

"Weld!" the mage softly said as he pointed towards both materials Steve held in his hands.

The two materials quickly merged together, creating a dagger-like weapon. The mage smirked, content with his small, hidden, achievement.

---

"Huh?!" Steve said as he suddenly held a complete dagger.

'It... suddenly merged? I'm a genius!' Steve smiled.

'System, why don't you give me an update on what I just crafted though... USELESS... USELESS!!!'

He didn't think about it for too long though, as he was just too happy with his first real weapon. Steve thought he should try and get experienced with the weapon first though.

If he encountered a monster right now, he wouldn't be able to use his weapon efficiently. As such, he tried practicing his skills by attacking the air in front of him!

After he practiced half an hour, swinging around with his new dagger, a new message popped up.

[Ding! Dagger mastery 1/100]

'If every half an hour of practice only gives me 1 experience... How long will it take me to master this skill?! Any other protagonist with a system would have already mastered something by now... Crappy, CRAPPY system!' he thought.

He continued practicing, but halted as he heard the commander speak once more.

"Get ready! It's starting..." the commander shouted!

"... The stampede!"