21 Misfortune

Immobilized and with with all odds against him, Asper groaned out a single word as the roller was simply a few meters away.

"Check…Mate-"

*BOOM!*

A loud bang followed up by a flaming explosion resounded ahead of Asper. A cloud of dust followed right after as Asper felt the wind pressure slam against his face.

For a moment, he couldn't help but grin in Ecstasy as everything had gone according to plan. That was until he realized-

'Why hasn't the notification gone off yet…?' Asper wondered

Cold sweat flowed down asper's face as he realized it.

'The ground's still vibrating-'

With his remaining strength, Asper quickly looked up, only to see the figure of a large ball, rolling right at him.

In that moment only one thought could reach his mind.

'I'll die-'

*Thump* *Thump*

Asper's heart began to beat faster and faster as the thought continued to sink in, it was as if he was observing the process In slow motion.

But rather than feeling scared, he felt an blooming hatred and anger. Hatred and anger at his own powerlessness.

However, such emotions only ignited the burning will to survive inside of him. The system took notice of this will and acted on it's own.

'CONFIRM!'

*BANG*

***

The corpse of a roller, could be seen in the run down streets of the old ruin. Asper was nowhere to be in sight.

*Splash*

A pool of green blood came gushing out of the corpse of the roller as Asper emerged from it, panting heavily as he did so. A glowing black and green orb could be seen in his left hand while a blood stained knife could be seen on his right. His clothes were covered in fresh blood and his eyes had dark circles beneath them.

"Fucking finally…" Asper muttered as he let out a sigh

It was a close call.

——————————

During the outbreak of impacts the roller was causing while circling through Asper, Asper was able to distinguish the sounds. It didn't sound like the impacts were being caused by one roller alone but rather two to disorientate him.

It was hard to notice tactic which they had used. Thankfully Asper noticed in time, and grabbed one of the energy grenades he had bought before placing it right before the second roller could kill him.

He knew he only had one shot at it and risked it all.

——————————

'As long as it worked out… That's all that matters.

He quickly got out of the roller before being overcome by a surge of shivers going down his spine as he looked at the main body of a roller.

The inside resembled some sort of weird mixture between a cockroach and some sort of other weird giant insect. It was disgusting to look at.

The only good thing about it is that it proved his theory correct. It was a monster with a strong shell on it's outside but weak and soft on the inside.

'Now for the stats…' Asper thought to himself excitedly

The instant he thought of the screen and mentioned the word stats, his status screen popped up right in front of him.

<Name: Asper Antes>

<Race: Human>

<720/1600 exp>

<Class: Adapter>

<Title: None>

[Stats]

HP: 20/110

MP: 65/155

---------------------

VIT: 9

SEN: 7

STR: 5

AGI: 21

INT: 31

<6 Stat points Available>

[Skills]

<Adapt LV.1> (Passive)

Asper quickly inspected the screen as his eyes scrolled through them. His main interested was his level, health and the amount of stat points he had available.

'I grew three levels so I should have gotten six more stat points on top of the four I already had… So there should be ten points, so why is there only six?' Asper wondered

His eyes then widened as he remembered that he ended up using all his remaining stat points to increase his vitality to survive the impact of the roller's body landing on him. his vitality had increased from 5 to 9 and so had his health.

'Only 20… Meaning if I hadn't increased my vitality at the last second and used the knife… I would have died from being crushed to-'

Asper was interrupted by the system notification which suddenly played on the inside of his head.

<Warning, multiple injuries detected on body.>

Asper looked to the left, his scarlet eyes adjusting and seemingly glowing as they stared at the corpse of the other monster.

'I could probably skin their shell and sell it but it's time consuming and I have no means of carrying it. Too risky.' Asper thought to himself.

"Guess I'll just take it's core-"

*Grrrrr*

Asper was interrupted by the sound of a growl and a system notification. The growl was enough for the hair on his neck to stand as he was riddled with goosebumps.

His vision had been hazy from the recent events so he hadn't yet noticed it, but now that it was finally starting to sink back in, he was able to both hear and see it.

A starving growl was being let out from a monster, walking at him from across the road.

*Clang* *Clang*

"Give me a break…" Asper muttered with a nervous grin.

Asper looked down the road, only to see another monster heading towards him. A single glance, a single glance was all Asper needed to be able to tell he was no match for it.

Another strange mutated monster, a sort of mixture between a wolf and a pit bull being three times his size. It's size wasn't the issue however, but the machine guns on each side stuck to the plate of Armour blended in and mixed with it's outside skin.

A bio-engineered monster. Asper didn't know much about them aside from the fact that they were both biological and mechanical, meaning they contained mechanical properties such as weaponry, engines. The same was for any other kinds of monsters he could encounter.

Another thing he knew about them is that they were highly intelligent. Despite his injuries, Asper could move. This was probably thanks to having placed his points in vitality and having levelled up, but it hadn't eliminated the root of the cause.

'My bones are still broken, Even if I run there's no way I'm outrunning that…'

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