The Hero stands up for himself III

Elijah wasn't too sure what the skill description meant. He didn't realize it, but his pain reduction levels have gone up during his fights.

Maybe fighting was asking for pain because it meant risking getting hurt. In that case, if he was getting tortured, his pain reduction wouldn't be increasing.

Elijah was glad he got this skill because he didn't get hurt this badly when playing a video game.

He wasn't smart or a good multi-tasker, so he needed this skill to stay calm and strategize mid-battles. If he was acting slow because of pain during a fight with lethal weapons, he would be dead.

'Hmm? Did I get this skill from punching myself?' Elijah thought of that time when he pinched and hit himself to see if he was dreaming or not.

The description gave a hint to how he got the skill.

Elijah expanded the show info tab of the last skill he gained.

Arbitrary threat level detector

-Arbitrarily detects the threat level of beings relative to the Player's current level within a range of five. (-) denotes one level less than the Player's level. (+) denotes one level greater than the Player's level. 0 denotes neutrality.

(๏ᆺ๏υ) denotes 5 levels less than the Player's level.

There was a cute bunny emoji displayed. It was comical looking.

💀 denotes 5 levels greater than the Player's level.

There was a creepy-looking black skull. It was ominous and gave Elijah the shivers just by looking at it.

He needed the skill to see what levels the enemies were. This wasn't a feature that came free like with typical RPG games.

Elijah assessed the threat level of Hachi.

Threat level: - -

Two red dashes overlaid in the center of Hachi.

Since Elijah's level was 3, that meant Hachi was level 1.

'So I was fighting someone one level stronger than me at the start. Talk about an uphill battle.'

Elijah then realized that he had leveled up before finishing the quest.

'Does that mean I can get exp from fighting? Then would kill an enemy give me more exp?'

"System, do you get more exp from killing an enemy?"

"…"

"I guess I'll just find out later."

Elijah had no thoughts of killing people. He was thinking of when he was fighting monsters.

Elijah assessed Hachiro with his skill.

Threat level: 0

'So he was one level higher than me? He's pretty tough.'

Indeed, Hachiro was physically a level 2, but his amateur boxing skills made him a level 3.

'But I beat him though. Shouldn't it be harder…'

The difference was that Elijah had the Hero class and the System. There were also many other factors involved including luck. A level 1 warrior wasn't the same as a level 1 priest neither is a level 1 human equivalent to a level 1 elf.

'Huh, this is more useful than I thought.'

Although he wanted to see their exact levels, all he needed to know was their relative strength.

If the enemy was much stronger or had a skull, he would run. It was that simple.

*Screech*

A set of wheels scraped against the road as it came to a sudden stop.

An enormous man got out of a four-wheel-drive mini truck. He was driving home from his delivery job. He wore a blue short-sleeved shirt with white stripes across the front and back with black pants.

He was 1.9 m tall and had a gigantic frame. Likewise, he wasn't strong because of heavy lifting; he was just born big.

The average height of the Japanese was lower than that of their western counterparts. A height of 1.9 meters was already very tall in the US, it was monstrous by Japan's standards.

Elijah's threat detection measured +

Elijah gave out a sigh.

"Hachi! Hachiro!" Hachirou called out angrily.

[New quest is available]

Elijah used this time to add 2 points to vitality and 3 to strength.

Hachirou walked over and flipped his oldest son over with his foot. He saw the bruises on his son's face and narrowed his eyes.

"No one lays a finger on them! Except for me…" Hachirou growled.

He stared at Elijah with his bulging eyes and was seething maddening bloodlust.

The subtle hint that the father hurts his sons shocked Elijah.

It disturbed him that Hachirou didn't feel hurt about his kids being knocked out but was angry that someone else broke his "possessions".

He could understand how they had grown up to be delinquents because of the giant standing in front of him.

When Hachirou walked over his son's body, Elijah charged at him.

The giant thought the kid was so small that he'd just bounce off his belly. He didn't stop to think about how a kid who was smaller than both his sons could take them down.

He tried grabbing Elijah but felt like he got tackled by a Rugby player in the stomach. The air got knocked out of him, and he fell. Elijah kneeled on Hachirou's arms and threw a series of hits. It was like he was cheating by mashing the buttons on the controller.

However, he got easily pushed off. No matter how strong Elijah was, he still weighed 55 kilos.

Instinctively noticing his weight weakness, Hachirou picked him up like a twig over his head and swung him down on top of a low stone wall.

Elijah felt a rock smashing into his back.

"Agghh!"

-36 HP

This kind of hit would have broken the back of a teen of the same age. Elijah was spared because of his extra vitality.

Hachirou lifted him again and swung down.

Elijah landed his feet on the stone wall which caused his legs to absorb the momentum by bending his knees. He then used the wall to jump and push Hachirou backward, causing his head to smash into the driver's window of his truck.

The glass shattered everywhere.

Elijah didn't hesitate to punch his undefended front.

'Feels like… father hitting me!'

The strength of the punches reminded Hachirou of his abusive father who was even more gigantic than himself.

His dad was 2 meters tall and was born with an enormous skull, so he had a menacing-looking head. He hated his father who had abused his mother until she died from sickness.

One day he ran away from home. Eventually, his father died from a genetic illness. Hachirou thought he would feel good about it, but there wasn't any closure. He went out to find himself his current wife and had kids, but he still had nightmares.

It wasn't until he became the nightmare that they stopped haunting him.