Chapter 3

I made a miscalculation. Meditation is really, really hard when you were the type of person who, in their entire life, hasn't had the need to sit completely still for a long period of time. This is a fact I learned the hard way when I spent at least two hours trying, and failing, to create a skill like that. I even tried manipulating my aura around my body during the process, that didn't work out and I'm surprised I didn't get some weird skill for that one. I did create Energy Bolt just for the hell of it, a useful knock-down spell that increases in attack alongside my INT, it only has a range of ten meters though. But yeah, I needed to go to a library so I can learn this stupid thing the easy way. As luck may have it one is only a couple of blocks into the commercial district and is still open.

So, I made my way out of the empty instant dungeon I created and began my short journey to the library. I decided to use my time walking there wisely and continuously made and left instant dungeons. At the very least I leveled that up two more times before I got to the entrance to the library. As it stands, the lowest leveled dungeon is predictably a Beowolf one, followed by Boarbatusks, then Creeps, Ursa, Nevermores, then Griffins. Though the skill's description lists each one as basic, meaning that Alphas probably aren't in each dungeon unless it's a boss. I'd wager that if I level the dungeon skill more I'd eventually unlock dungeons consisting of only Alphas.

Sounds fun, right?

I entered the library and there wasn't much to note about it. If you can think of rows of bookshelves and the occasional tables, tables with computers on them, and chairs for reading then you have a pretty good idea of what this place looked like. I made my way over to the help desk and asked the young, pretty librarian where I could find books about meditation and fighting.

Turns out there are lots of stuff centered around those kinds of things and that section of the library was pretty big. As I made my way around the shelves I was constantly using my observe skill on each and every book, a few popped up as a skill book and I checked to see which was which. I managed to find a meditation skill book, a few crafting books centered around weapons making, I only took one as I didn't need more than that, and a hunter book describing how to use your aura as a projectile slash. Luckily enough I also found a book describing how to use aura to heal, although it apparently needs dust as a sort of catalyst, and I stuffed all of those books into my inventory. I didn't find anything else that would have been useful to me, probably because most hunters learn stuff like this in hunter school and I'm at a public library.

I quickly left the library after stealing the books and made my way back to the warehouse, still constantly creating and leaving dungeons. Once I was back in another empty dungeon at the warehouse I took the meditation skill book out of my inventory and absorbed it.

[Hunter's Meditation (Passive/Active) Lv1 EXP: 0.0%]

Throughout time trained Hunters have used this technique to recover quickly after a battle. By reaching into themselves they can tap into their soul to calm their raging battle spirit and allow their soul to rest. Masters of this skill have even come to have a true understanding of themselves, increasing their own abilities.

-Passively increases STR by 10%

-Passively increases DEX by 10%

-Passively increases VIT by 10%

-Passively increases INT by 10%

-Passively increases WIS by 10%

-When active, allows user to go into meditation to restore lost HP and MP

-When active HP recovery is increased by 10%/min

-When active MP recovery is increased by 10%/min

-If attacked and meditation is forcibly disrupted, the status "Aura imbalance" is placed on the user and is unable to use MP for five minutes.

I laughed, that was a wonderful skill to have found. I shook my head, once I start putting stat points into my status I can expect to have a huge growth in power. But for now let's put that to the side, I have a healing skill to learn. I pulled up my inventory and yanked the "Aura Mend" skill book out. I tapped "yes" to confirm learning the ability, but was cockblocked.

[You can not learn this skill. INT of 50 is required.]

Damn… oh well, I can get it later. I put the book back into my inventory and took out the crafting one. I was able to learn that one at least. And like I expected it was kinda universal, at the very least it keeps things simple.

[Craft (Active) Lv1 EXP: 0.0%]

The people of Remnant would have died out to the Grimm long ago if they couldn't make anything. So honor your ancestors by honing your ability to make something out of seemingly useless stuff!

Crafted objects become better in quality as mastery rises.

Known blueprints: 0

Chance to fail when crafting - 50%

Now, I just need to see if I can do that aura far striking thing. I brought the book out in the open and tapped on learn.

[You can not learn this skill. 40 INT and 25 WIS is required.]

I grunted in annoyance but accepted that I couldn't learn the skill just yet.

With that out of the way, I rose my hand into the air and left the empty dungeon, quickly creating a new Beowolf dungeon. This time there was a noticeable shift in the atmosphere, things felt evil. I looked around and even the shadows seemed longer and more dark I could tell by the slight lack of light coming in through the warehouse windows that even the sun was a tad dimmer looking, I heard howling far in the distance. As I was about to make my way outside I stopped short as a black puddle began forming on the warehouse's ground, a young Beowolf clawing itself out of it.

Even I shivered, it was one thing to see it crawl out of the puddle on the computer but in real life? Fucking scary.

As if sensing my discomfort at seeing it crawling out of whatever hell created it, the Beowolf sniffed the air before turning its head to look at me. It growled and stomped forward, I reacted calmly and yanked my weapons out of my inventory. This was going to be my first ever taste of combat, but I was confident I was going to win.

Lv10 Newly-Spawned Beowolf

"Observe!"

[Newly-Spawned Beowolf Lv10]

One of the most common enemies of man and this one was just born! While they are individually weak, in large enough groups they can be dangerous to the unsuspecting hunter. Or, well… if that hunter is stupidly weak.

HP: 750

MP: 0

STR: 20

VIT: 25

DEX: 10

INT: 3

WIS: 1

LUK: 5

Status: Grimm (Unable to have or use MP)

It charged me without another moment's hesitation, I took a quick hop back and let its claws slam into the ground. I quickly swung my mace down onto its head, slamming its head into its own impaled claws. It roared at me for that, despite my attack taking a good third of its health off. Ripping its claws out of the ground it tried another swing.

But once more I just leaped out of the way, it seemed that despite its impressive showing of strength by cracking the hard concrete floor of the warehouse it did not have much in the way of planning. I could easily just dodge around its attacks and smack it without taking any damage whatsoever. So I just raised my pistol and aimed for the head, in just two critical shots the beowolf died.

"That was somewhat lackluster," I remarked to myself.

[You received 280XP!]

I closed the XP message and looked at where the beowolf died, hoping for loot. It did drop a Beowolf fang, which was a crafting item apparently, but no money. I shrugged and stuck the fang into my inventory, maybe I'll find Lien in other kills. And so with that small combat tutorial out of the way I strutted out of the warehouse, casually twirling my mace around.

The second I stepped out of the broken doorway I heard three howls to my right, it seemed some Beowolves just so happened to be walking around nearby and saw me. They began their charge to me but this time I didn't stand around to see how they fought, I had a vague understanding from the previous one.

Lv9 Newly-Spawned Beowolf

Lv10 Newly-Spawned Beowolf

Lv9 Newly-Spawned Beowolf

My charge was much faster than theirs, probably because my dexterity was a little more than three times higher than theirs. The leading Beowolf swung its claws down, intending to slam me into the ground so its brethren could rip me apart, I wasn't having that. I jumped over the claw, watching as its comrades come to a skidding halt to try as their mediocre plan fell apart. I swung down as hard as I could at the head of the Beowolf who tried to smash me, adding a little bit of MP into the mix.

As a result, I managed to create "Power Strike", a skill I had completely forgotten about. It increases the critical hit rating of my strikes by fifteen percent and adds a fifty percent increase in damage at level one. I suddenly felt that I was an incredibly stupid person, I didn't create this obvious and very helpful skill from the get-go after all.

[By understanding a part of yourself better, mastery of "Hunter's Meditation" has risen by 10%]

Oh, kiss my ass…

The Beowolf I slammed a power strike into died immediately, the armor penetration from my mace plus a good critical hit from the power strike to the head made sure of that. I landed lightly on my feet and fired my pistol at the other two Beowolves just as they renewed their charge. The pistol didn't seem to do as much damage at one time like my mace, but it made getting criticals from striking the head so much easier. And while the basic hits on the body don't do a ton of damage, the criticals on the head do a lot of damage as quickly as I could pull the trigger.

[Blunt Weapon Mastery has gained a level]

[Firearm Mastery has gained a level]

[You have gained 820 XP]

As you can see, resolving easy fights like this went by quickly. And it seems that actual combat increases combat related skills much quicker and getting criticals probably gives bonuses to XP in skill gains. I brought my pistol down and examined the battlefield, I found another fang and a few vials of random Dust. No money though.

I frowned and furrowed my brow. I killed four Beowolves, surely money is not a rare drop. That would be silly.

I needed to test this out some more…

[You have gained 3 levels!]

[Blunt Weapon Mastery has risen by 2 levels!]

[Firearm Mastery has risen by 2 levels!]

[Power Strike has risen by 3 levels!]

[Aura has increased by 1 level!]

I did a lot of grinding this past couple of hours, and during that grinding, I have learned a lot. The first is that the Grimm do not drop Lien. I have killed a lot of Grimm, a little over seventy, in fact, I even got an "Apprentice Grimm Slayer" title that I had quickly equipped. I also managed to learn the "Sense Danger" and "Detect Bloodlust" skills from fighting the Grimm, two useful skills on their own that should get better the more I fight in this place. But not a single card of Lien, just Dust, and fangs, and while the Dust was helpful it still worried me a lot. Not because it would be difficult to gain Lien, after all, I could just steal it, but because I would have to use perfectly good training time to go and steal the Lien in the first place.

The second is that Aura also increases by spending MP, it could be on anything, even getting hit. That makes it easy to level up, but also tedious as hell because since it was so easy to level it up it takes a long time to do so. Everything that does level it up only does so in small amounts. Probably as some sort of balancing system.

"Shit," I eloquently put it as I thought about what I had learned. "Shit! Shit! Shit!" I slammed my mace into the ground in frustration to punctuate each swear word, breathing heavily despite not having an actual intense workout.

[Blunt Weapons Mastery has risen by 1 level!]

I sighed and let my anger dissipate when I saw the random pop-up and lifted my mace back up, closing the text.

I pulled out my scroll and checked the time, it was around seven in the evening. I made my decision since I have a lot of food I stuffed into my inventory from a few random stops I had in the mall I'll just eat dinner now and train for the rest of the night. It's not like I have someone waiting for me at home right now and I can make the two grand I'll need to pay for my new weapon tomorrow.

[You have gained 2 levels!]

[Blunt Weapon Mastery has risen by 4 levels!]

[Firearm Mastery has risen by 1 levels!]

[Power Strike has risen by 5 levels!]

[Sense Danger has risen by 3 levels!]

[Detect Bloodlust has risen by 3 levels!]

I spent the next few hours until midnight just killing Beowolves, I didn't get another Aura level, but I have come pretty close to it by applying liberal use of Power Strike. I also decided to spend most of this training session leveling up Blunt Weapon Mastery before Firearm Mastery. I still had to kill Beowolves with the pistol, but only when there were just a bit too many for me to take on comfortably in melee. I was surprised there wasn't a boss Beowolf coming out, I have killed a lot of them after all. I shrugged, thinking that maybe it'll come out if I get stronger.

"You know what? I'd say that tonight was pretty productive," I thought to myself even despite a few hiccups and bad realizations I had just a few hours ago. Gaining five levels in such a short time has put me in a good mood, so I left the dungeon and walked to a nearby motel with just a bit of a skip in my step.

Ding! Ding! Ding!

[You have slept in a bed. HP and MP have been fully restored and all negative status effects have been cured.]

I jumped and flailed out of bed in surprise. That was the sound of obnoxious dinging that woke me up exactly eight hours after I fell asleep. It seems that my newfound power wants me to have a full eight hours of a good night's rest, but no more. I didn't mind really, it made resting a bit more efficient and was just a glorified alarm clock that way.

"Still," I mumbled to myself over a granola bar. "That scared the hell out of me," I said as I glared at the message I purposely left floating there while throwing the granola wrapper away.

But anyway, I have a big day today and I need to get started now. But first I need to allocate my stat points, and since I gained five levels I have thirty-five stat points to spend if I included the ones I got from the tutorial.

"Status."

"Let's see," I said to myself as I tapped a finger to my chin. "I know that far striking skill needs twenty-five wisdom, so I should definitely put fourteen points there. That means I have twenty-one more to spend… how should I spend them?"

I don't need the vitality right now, or the strength, I could get the two of those stats up with passive bonuses and some general training for the free stat points. I'll have to go and get some weights sometime. My dexterity is pretty high already, my highest stat right at this moment, and I could probably still get some free stat points in that if I worked hard enough. And since I don't want to rely on luck the only logical choice would be to raise my intelligence.

I nodded to myself and set fourteen points into wisdom before placing every remaining one into intelligence. I could feel myself get smarter and my MP pool grow even bigger, I knew I made the right choice. I just had to raise my level three more times to get my intelligence to fifty, I'll have both of my new skills by tonight. I took a nice, long glance at my new stats screen and grinned in pride.

Name: Roman Torchwick

Class: The Gamer

Level: 15 (Next Level: 3680/12,000)

Title: Apprentice Grimm Slayer

Bounty: 0 Lien

HP: 1,030

MP: 1,296

STR: 19.6 [Base 14 + 4.2(30%) + 1.4(10%)]

VIT: 28 [Base 20 + 6(30%) + 2(10%)]

DEX: 34.1 [Base 22 + 3.3(15%) + 6.6(30%) + 2.2(10%)]

INT: 54.6 [Base 39 + 11.7(30%) + 3.9(10%)]

WIS: 35 [Base 25 + 7.5(30%) + 2.5(10%)]

LUK: 11

Elemental Affinity: None

Attribute Points: 0

Lien: 1180

Status Effects: None

After I changed my title to Apprentice Pickpocket I tapped the screen closed it and wandered out of the motel room, hands in the pockets of some random street clothes I bought yesterday. I eyed the people on the sidewalks around me, already going into pickpocket mode. Since I met the random main cast members in the mall yesterday I decided to avoid going there for a little while, lest I somehow bump horns into Adam Fucking Taurus or something like that.

Nonetheless, I just walked around Vale and pickpocketed random strangers until noon. Thanks to the benefits of my new title, a little more dexterity, and a few extra levels in the pickpocket skill, I was able to take people's money way more often and much faster than before. By the time lunch was to come around I made double what I was supposed to make.

As I sat down at A Simple Wok and slurped up some really awesome noodles I couldn't help but ponder how incredibly inefficient I was being by just trying to get by on pickpocketing alone. Sure, I could make more money in a few hours than one person could in a day, but in the grand scheme of things, it was practically extremely light spending money. I needed either an instant larger cash income or at the very least a consistent one. I could try starting my own gang and have them start working on making money and building up a reputation, but that would take a lot of time and effort to get it to any sort of respectable size.

Plus, I'd have to constantly manage the people under my command which, along with the management of the gang itself, would seriously cut into my training time. I simply could not waste time and effort trying to sort of a gang and prepare myself for the next few years. I set my bowl down and drank from my glass of water, "So, pickpocketing is out for long term problems, starting a gang is out because of time constraints and difficulty. Smuggling?"

I could do smuggling, in fact, smuggling would be trivially easy with my power. Stuffing the merchandise into my inventory and flying first class across the continents with no problems whatsoever would net me a quick and easy reputation as a reliable smuggler. Problem was that I'd be constantly moving around in airships, and I wouldn't want to try and create a dungeon in one, only to fall into the ocean once I left it. So no smuggling, as much as it sucks.

I could be a gun for hire, with my potential for growth I can be a strong bodyguard for anyone. The problem with that is that I'd be working for someone else, on their time and their schedule. While I am not prideful and would be willing to actually work for someone else, for now, I needed things to be on my schedule and not someone else's.

I suppose my standards and needs don't leave much open for management, travel, or hired work of any kind. If I had enough money on me right now I could probably hire some people from another shady individual and do some high profile robberies. But since I don't have too much in the way of money, for now, I could do some smaller robberies on my own and sell any merchandise I get to a black market broker. I should perhaps actually steal from a store before I try and approach anyone, I need to look legit. Maybe something high profile like Dust. I'm certain Junior could point me in the right direction of a black market broker for a fee, a fee I'd be happy to pay for.

I set my water down and left the old man a generous tip, I was going to rob someone who looks like him in five years anyway. He could think of it as an apology in advance. I needed to find a place to break into tonight, leveling could wait just a little bit longer.

(A/N) And now our protagonist starts his descent into real crime. The day to day chapter updates will be slowed, the only reason I could do it was because I had a free day and could write two chapters in a day.

Name: Roman Torchwick

Class: The Gamer

Level: 15 (Next Level: 3680/12,000)

Title: Apprentice Pickpocket

Bounty: 0 Lien

HP: 1,030

MP: 1,296

STR: 19.6 [Base 14 + 4.2(30%) + 1.4(10%)]

VIT: 28 [Base 20 + 6(30%) + 2(10%)]

DEX: 34.1 [Base 22 + 3.3(15%) + 6.6(30%) + 2.2(10%)]

INT: 54.6 [Base 39 + 11.7(30%) + 3.9(10%)]

WIS: 35 [Base 25 + 7.5(30%) + 2.5(10%)]

LUK: 11

Elemental Affinity: None

Attribute Points: 0

Lien: 5160

Status Effects: Inactive Aura(Toggled Off)