Defeat of the Burst Panther

"Damn bro, you just had to remove that much EXP." Agnar sighed as he faced the bewildered Burst Panther. "Hey, how about we make a deal. You add 1,000 mana/energy in exchange for some of my EXP?" Agnar asked hopefully.

"Host is already in the negative EXP range, going into any more EXP deficit will result in punishments. Are you willing to accept? Yes/No." The system's robotic voice sounded in Agnar's head.

"Yeah, yeah, hurry up bro, I ain't got all day." Agnar said.

"Performing hosts request…Complete. Removing 3,000 EXP."

"Damn, that's a whole lotta EXP right there." Agnar was disgruntled but immediately shook it off. "1,000 mana points, this should be enough for me to defeat this thing." Agnar's current mana pool looked something like this: 1,000/30.

The Burst Panther quickly noticed how abnormal the current situation was and quickly rushed in for a surprise attack. Agnar, however, activated a tier 4 invisibility spell and completely disappeared. Energy: 950/30.

The monster was bewildered and flinched for a second, but that was all the time needed for Agnar to rush in for an ultimate attack. "Ultimate Jeta Style: Jade of Destruction + Tier 4 spell: Wyvern's Breath + Tier 5 spell: Absolute Frost!!" Energy: 17/30

A whirlwind with extremely razor sharp jade pieces swirling around in it suddenly erupted from Agnar's palm. The next moment, a streak of bright red and orange flames combined with the whirlwind. Almost the next instant, freezing cold ice shards started to appear in the blast, freezing the surrounding vicinity into a tundra. The Burst Panther widened its eyes in fear as the incoming attack completely devoured it.

A few moments later, the dust and debris from the attack finally started to clear up. A dead and motionless body appeared in the middle of a crater. Its body was frozen by a block of solid ice, while residual flames still burned on its flesh. Jade shards could be seen embedded deep inside the monster's flesh, it no longer looked like the beast it used to be.

"Phew, that was exhausting." Agnar plopped down on the ground and wanted to get some rest. However, system notifications started to buzz in Agnar's ears and he was forced to check what was going on.

"Due to the immense deficit in EXP. Host's punishment has been decided: All stats are 1 for the next 2 days. All Blessings and Skills are disabled for the next 2 days. All daily missions are doubled in difficulty, while receiving half the rewards for the next 2 days."

"NOOOOOO, THESE PUNISHMENTS ARE TOO HARSH!! PLEASE HAVE MERCY ON ME!!" Agnar yelled as he slumped his shoulders forward and his consciousness slowly started to drift away.

BEEP, BEEP, BEEP! The system once again had a notification.

"New System Function Unlocked: Inventory."

Agnar, who was already very exhausted, suddenly had a huge smile on his face. "This should be extremely useful. The first thing I store in the inventory: the corpse of the Burst Panther."

He walked up to the bloodied corpse of the Burst Panther and touched the ice block it was enveloped in. A dim, blue light appeared and the corpse of the beast suddenly disappeared.

"I better head back before any other beasts attack me. I'm extremely vulnerable right now; let me check my stats real quick." Agnar sighed as he opened up his stats window.

Strength: 1 Mana: 1 Level 2: -4,500/150 EXP Health: 5/10 Mana: 17/10

Agility: 1 Mentality: 1 Rank: Middle D tier Champion / Middle 2nd tier mage.

Defense: 1 Health: 1 Attribute Points: 5

"Looks like the system ain't playin' around." Agnar chuckled as he dashed through the forest. He tried to activate wind burst, but he was unable to use any skill or ability.

Around 45 minutes later, Agnar finally arrived at the front door of his apartment. It was currently around 7 pm and the sun was starting to set. He walked in through the front door and noticed that there wasn't anybody home. He quickly checked his phone and saw the message that Nevia sent him: "I took little Kai to the playground, we should be back at around sunset."

Agnar went straight to his room and pulled up the Missions window. He needed to complete the rest of his daily quest, which would consist of him meditating for 2 hours. However, due to the punishment Agnar received, he would need to meditate for 4 hours and he would only receive half the rewards.

Agnar sat cross-legged on his bed and took some deep breaths. He envisioned his mana heart in the center of his chest absorbing the mana particles around him. The environmental mana particles would purify his mana channels and discrete impurities inside of them.

4 hours quickly passed and it was already almost midnight. His body reeked of body odor and he was in dire need of a bath. Agnar was one step away from breaking into a 3rd tier mage, so he decided he would break through tomorrow.

"Daily Mission Complete: Meditate for 4 hours (4/4) Rewards: 500 EXP." The robotic voice of the systeme once again sounded in Agnar's head.

Agnar sighed and went to take a quick bath. He checked up on Nevia and Kai; both of them were fast asleep. He decided that he would get some sleep as well, considering how exhausting his day was.

…

The next morning, Agnar woke up as usual. He and Nevia walked to school together and nothing out of the ordinary happened during the school day. During Agnar's classes, he looked at the daily missions that were given to him; he let out a sigh of relief.

{Daily Missions}

- Run 10 km (0/10)

- Meditate for 6 hours (0/6)

- Do 200 pushups (0/200)

Rewards: 500 EXP. 1,000 EXP. 500 EXP.

The difficulty of these missions were ramped up due to the punishment but they were still achievable. If the daily missions were something like killing a monster, it would be practically impossible in his current state.

After the school day had ended, Agnar and Nevia walked to the preschool to pick up Kai, then proceeded to walk home together. When Agnar arrived home, he went into his room and started to meditate; he needed to break into the 3rd tier today.

6 hours later, Agnar had finished his first mission and received 1,000 EXP. During his meditation, he had broken into the 3rd tier mage. It was now currently around 9 pm and he was running out of time to do his other missions. He quickly went outside and ran 10 km as fast as he could. It took him around 1 hour to complete it and by that time, he was already completely exhausted due to his low stats. He immediately went into his room and started to do his 200 pushups. It felt like an eternity for Agnar, and he was finished with his missions by 11:00 pm.

"Phew, I'm exhausted. I'll go take a bath and head to sleep." Agnar huffed in exhaustion as he went to the bathroom. After he finished, he went straight to his bedroom and collapsed on the bed.

The next day was extremely similar to yesterday. An ordinary day at school and completing his quests during the evening. Agnar was extremely grateful that the missions issued to him were relatively achievable. As the day ended, he slowly drifted away in a deep slumber.

Ding! "Host punishment has ended. Lifting up all restrictions placed on the host." The system voiced out.

"Finally, let me check my stats real quick." Agnar opened up his stats window.

Strength: 7 Mana: 20 Level 2:-1,000/150 EXP Health: 30/30 Mana: 100/100

Agility: 6 Mentality: 5 Rank: High D tier Champion / Low 3rd tier mage.

Defense: 5 Health: 5 Attribute Points: 5

Stamina: 4

"Huh? Did my strength stat just increase? Also I don't think I've seen the Stamina stat before. Was it because of the endurance training the missions made me do?" Agnar noticed some slight differences in his stat window.

"Today is the day I complete this mission: Hunt down 20 monsters (1/20) Reward: Blessing (Soul Extraction, Montaq rank, Upgradable)." Agnar cracked his knuckles as he got ready to head out. There was no school today because it was a weekend, so Agnar had the entire day to hunt down monsters as well as complete his daily missions.

Agnar walked out the front door of his apartment and activated wind burst. He dashed from rooftop to rooftop, and a few minutes later he arrived at the forest near the border again.

"This time, these monsters are gonna drop like flies." Agnar chuckled as he slowly disappeared into the darkness of the forest.