Chapter 4: Futility

Before I analyze my latest fight(trashing) with the asylum demon I have something to do. Getting up from the bonfire I walked up to the nearest wall and used my straight sword hilt to scratch three tally marks into the wall. To keep track of how many times I fought the Asylum Demon.

Now my current problem when facing him is my lack of experience. It may be obvious but I am not used to getting a giant hammer swung at me. And believe it or not, it's very hard to concentrate on something when you see an imminent painful death being swung toward you. It doesn't matter if I know how to jump backward properly if I cant apply it in reality.

But how the hell do you not panic with several tons of crushing force coming at you!? I'm not an experienced soldier who can retain his rationality in front of danger. I'm just a guy like any other... But, I know how I can do it. But the thing is can I do it?

I know, I know that if I challenge the Asylum Demon enough I will eventually get used to performing under danger. But, how long would that take? How times do I need to challenge the Asylum Demon? How many times do I need to experience the agonizing pain of being crushed to death before I even manage to stop panicking? 10? 20? 30?

Only one way to find out.

Determined, I walked over to my execution grounds and pushed open the heavy set of doors to my agonizing death once again. The Asylum Demon, already expecting me, jumped down, ready to deliver me my cruel death sentence for the 4th time. And redied his horizontal swing. Seeing his great hammer come toward me, I tried suppressing my instinct to flinch and jumped backward.

And I managed to dodge the blow without completely losing my balance. Albeit it wasn't the cleanest jump. But I was still in the game. The demon seeing me dodge his move raised his hammer above his head and lept forward, bringing his hammer down on me.

Seeing the giant brutal hammer coming down on me I miraculously managed to jump back again. But as I narrowly dodged the hammer, the shockwave it produced as it hit the ground threw me to the ground. The Demon seeing his prey on the ground did not relent as he charged forth with the hammer still firmly on the ground. Driving the hammer in my direction like a bulldozer.

/Crash!!!/

Getting hit by the hammer felt like getting hit by the truck all over again. But instead of dying instantly, however, I was painfully launched against the thick iron doors. However, I couldn't even scream as the hammer had completely crushed my lungs. As I painfully laid against the doors unable to utter even a dying whimper I saw the all too familiar sight of the Asylum Demon raising his great hammer and bringing it down on me.

/SPLAT/

[YOU DIED]

<{Curse of Undeath} has activated>

I woke up in front of the bonfire. Feeling the familiar crushing agony again, but without even waiting for the pain to fade, I stumbled my way to the wall and added another tally mark to my death counter. Done scratching the wall I slid down against it and waited for the lingering pain to fade.

Although I managed to dodge the first hit, I did a sloppy job of dodging the second one. Instead of dodging his lunging slam backwards, I should have dodged to either side to not get knocked on my ass and wait like a sitting duck for the Asylum Demon to wind up another move.

If you knew that was the wrong move then why did you jump backward?

Why thank you for the question, me. It's because my stupid self once again panicked. And I did the real-life equivalent of a panic roll. But instead of losing a portion of my health, I lost my life, again. For the fourth time.

Alright, this time try not to panic. The worst thing that can happen is death, and remember death is temporary. Ready, I went up to the double doors for my fifth attempt at the Asylum Demon. Opening the doors and entering his arena I readied myself for his descent. And on queue, he jumped down to put me back on the bonfire.

This time, however, I did not retreat backward, and instead, I stood still and observed the Asylum Demon's movements. Landing in front of me 10 meters away the Asylum Demon glared at me with his bulbous face and open maw. Although I felt a slight shiver of fear go down my back I stamped it out. If I wanted to be able to survive his onslaught for even a bit, then I had to focus.

And focus I did, observing every movement of his as he readied his great hammer above his head and prepared to lunge at me. Seeing him ready himself I did too, preparing for the moment he lunges at me. And the moment his feet left the ground and he lunged forward bringing his hammer I leaped to the side, successfully evading his first strike.

As he was staggered from hitting the ground so hard, I got up and tensed myself again for his next move. He recovered and went for a right horizontal swing. And I jump backward, or well, I would have if I did not bump into a pillar and ate the full swing.

''Augh!!!''

But this time instead of being launched into the wall and laying limply. I instead hit the ground headfirst, breaking my neck and killing me instantly.

/crunch/

[YOU DIED]

<{Curse of Undeath} has activated>

As always I woke up back at the bonfire. With crushing pain and a severely aching neck. But unlike before I saw an unread notification popup. But before opening it I first went up to the wall and put another tally mark there making it 5. After waiting for a bit for the paint to subside I viewed the notification.

Right!? How could I forget!? I actually had a system! Why did I forget that? And it seems that I can learn skills through repeated actions too.

Then, maybe, maybe with this I have a chance against that fat, ugly, cruel

sadistic bastard. And I'm kinda tired from suffering deaths so let us properly test the functions of my system, shall we? First up let's see what acrobatics does.

____

<Pain Tolerance lv.1>(Passive)

Increases your tolerance to physical pain

___

Nice, that will be really helpful in keeping me sane with these repeated deaths. Now, since it seems that I can get skills by myself I want to test that, and I need a break from getting popped like a water balloon by the Asylum Demon.

The first skill I can try getting is boxing. After all, I was decent at boxing on earth, so it should be relatively simple getting. And I know some very great unretaliating punching bags who would be very enthusiastic about helping me.

With learning the boxing skill in mind I headed toward the octagonal room with the ladder inside it and descended down into the waterlogged room with the hollow sitting in a cowering position inside it. Approaching the Hollow I knelt down and grabbed the hollow by the shoulders and put him in a standing position.

After putting the hollow in a comfortable position(for me). I started to stretch and tried to remember the basics of boxing. After that, I did some shadow boxing as preparation. And finally done with my preparations I started throwing some light jabs at the hollow while he stood there and took them.

/thud, thud, thud.../

Although at first, my jabs were a bit sloppy, they got better over time as I shook off the rust. Every few minutes, after getting tired from throwing jabs non-stop I took a break. But after a few cycles of nonstop jabs and rests the hollow hit the ground like a piece of tenderized meat.

Though the hollow went down I still hadn't learned the boxing skill, interesting... Well, no matter it's not like that guy is the only hollow down here. I still got, 2 more guys I think. Eager to continue sparring I went down the stairs to fetch my next victi- I mean sparring partner, of course.

I arrived at the Stray Demons hallway and fetched the hollow cowering against the wall and dragged him to the waterlogged room. I wasn't going to practice boxing within eyeshot of the Asylum Demon lest he notices me and uses his magic to explode me.

With this victim I didn't just use jabs I also mixed in some straights and hooks too. And just like his predecessor, he fell down like a wet rag after a few rounds of me pummeling him to kingdom come. Still, no boxing skill but that's ok, I have nothing but time, the Asylum Demon can wait.

After waiting a bit to catch my breath and ease the pain of my bruised knuckles I went down once again to fetch my hollow-shaped punching back and brought him back to my makeshift waterlogged boxing ring.

After putting him into position I pummeled him until I got tired and needed to take a break. And after 3 breaks he collapsed too.

Come on, still no boxing skill? fine, what's one more loop? I can always try again. With that, I headed back to the bonfire and rested. The bonfire mysteriously healed my injuries. After my rest, I headed back down and started my boxing training regime yet again.

but this time instead of just pummeling the hollow I tried to improve my movements and punches every time. And when one hollow dropped? I moved on to the next. When all three died? I rested at the bonfire to reset them. And I repeated that relentlessly until...

< You have killed 42x Hollow's (+840 souls) >

< Found 1x Broken Straight Sword >

< You have acquired the skill {Boxing lv.1} >

After several hours of non-stop undead tenderizing, I had managed to not only get the skill {Boxing}. But I also found a broken straight sword. Which is quite a lucky find if I do say so myself as I remember their drop rate being quite low. But now let's check my spoils shall we.

___

< Boxing lv.1 >

A martial art that is mainly focused on attacking and defending primarily with one's fists.

___

< Broken Straight Sword >

-A dull, chipped, and rusted sword with half of its blade missing. Barely qualifies as scrap metal let alone a proper sword.

___

Along with this, I also discovered something when I got the boxing skill. My skills aren't just a simple display of my current capabilities. Whenever I level up a skill the skill itself gets stronger, more potent, or whatever you call it. For example, when I got the boxing skill I immediately felt myself overcome a nonexistent wall and got better at boxing. My punches were slightly stronger and faster after I got the skill. While I don't completely understand how it works it is a huge boon regardless.

And another thing I acquired through my efforts is the broken straight sword my replacement in case I break my straight sword hilt.

But the boxing skill was a test to see if I could acquire skills through practice. Because honestly? I don't think knowing how to throw hands will help against the asylum demon who is 3 times taller than me. Gwyn knows how many times heavier than me. And is wielding a giant hammer bigger than me.

Having finally acquired the boxing skill I noticed that it had become night. And let me tell you that the asylum is really eerie at night. There are no birds or anything. No noise other than the distant footsteps of the Stray Demon downstairs. But if there is one thing good about the night here it's the night sky without the pollution of the modern world giving me a good view of the stars.

Feeling completely exhausted I decided to call it a night. So I laid down next to the bonfire and its comforting warmth and fell asleep.

Next chapter