NOVEL WEB Chapter 15: Desire to Live
Keng!
The sword in Ryoshu's hand fell to the ground along with his collapse. His body was now covered with fresh, messy blood stains.
But this time... those blood stains were his own, not from something else.
Ryoshu's leg bones were also broken. Currently, he could hardly stand up anymore. Ryoshu used his blood-covered arm to shield his abdomen. It seemed his internal organs had been crushed as well.
Ryoshu's face was completely lifeless. Pain beyond endurance had killed his emotions.
The flying performance Ryoshu just displayed was merely due to adrenaline pumping through his body. That's why he could run and jump so energetically and dodge its acid attacks.
"Unbelievable..." - Ryoshu recalled the scene that had just occurred. Everything happened so quickly that he couldn't react in time.
While Ryoshu was sleeping deeply, suddenly the Death Sense skill activated. He immediately woke up and saw his tent collapsing in slow motion.
But because the large, fat Slime came in from the main entrance, Ryoshu couldn't escape outside. However, he didn't lose his composure because of that.
Ryoshu waited calmly.
Really calmly.
He was just waiting for an opportunity... or rather, the right moment to act.
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[Death Sense] (New!)
Can sense sudden death before it happens, increasing the "Intuition" stat by 20 units for 1.5 seconds.
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It should have only increased by exactly 20 units, but because Ryoshu was still in a situation where he could "die suddenly," his Intuition stat continued to increase steadily... at least until he escaped... or died.
'It must have reached SSS+ rank by now. I can sense things I've... never experienced before...' - Ryoshu couldn't help but be amazed that even his thoughts were still flowing at normal speed.
Ryoshu immediately absorbed Mana into his body at the speed of light and surrounded himself densely with it. This was the first time he had created something so dense, which surprised even himself.
But that wasn't all. He continued to channel Mana into the surrounding air while simultaneously absorbing Mana.
That Mana armor grew increasingly dense, gradually becoming a virtual shield surrounding his body.
But at the same time, the Slime was getting closer to him. Ryoshu took a deep breath. Then he rushed through the gap between the wooden bars that the Slime had crushed.
Despite being covered with such thick Mana, when the Slime accidentally touched his leg lightly, the force that seemed very gentle immediately shattered his left leg like a crushed butterfly. Along with his leg, some of Ryoshu's important internal organs like his liver and lungs were also crushed by the Slime.
His tears welled up instead of screams. Ryoshu felt his limbs grow cold, becoming paralyzed. If not for his survival instinct, he would have passed out long ago.
But fortunately, Ryoshu had managed to squeeze outside... just in time. So when he hit the Slime, he bounced outside instead of being flattened into a pile of internal organs.
Ryoshu rolled for a while, but this time much longer than before.
'The difference between Unranked and rank... F? Or is this Slime rank E...?' - Ryoshu's mind wasn't clear at all right now. His worldview continuously flipped back and forth, up and down.
And then Ryoshu's two legs instinctively stood up while his body trembled violently, as if just a child's push could make him fall and die right there.
The Intuition stat had returned to normal, so the Mana in the air that he had sensed earlier had now disappeared. But at least thanks to it, Ryoshu had understood more about how Mana works, if only a little bit.
The "Nearly Cannot Forget" skill from his Super Memory talent helped Ryoshu engrave this knowledge deeply into his brain and body.
And that included the terrible pain currently enveloping his body.
[Skill "Mana Focus"...]
[Skill "Mana Transmission"...]
Ryoshu could barely hear any sound anymore. Instead, there was a buzzing and popping noise.
Beep.
The amount of oxygen in his lungs was leaking out uncontrollably.
At this very moment, Ryoshu was using all his strength just to keep his body standing like this.
The slimy monster didn't spare him and continued shooting acid balls.
Each acid ball fired was as large as his body.
[Acquired trait "Resist..."]
The Death Sense skill operated at full capacity again. Ryoshu immediately repeated his previous action. But this time, he surrounded his body with Mana to increase his physical strength to the maximum possible.
Ryoshu jumped to the side to dodge the huge Acid ball hurtling toward him like a moth to a flame.
Sizzle.
When the ball hit the ground, it created a pool of acid that dissolved even the soil and rocks. If this thing fell on him, his weak body would certainly melt away completely.
But Ryoshu wasn't afraid at all.
His body still moved according to his survival instinct.
[Skill...]
Despite his legs desperately begging him to stop moving, he moved even more forcefully, almost causing his nerve fibers to crack open.
But the monster didn't know that this was just one of fourteen all-out jumps it had to endure.
Ryoshu rushed forward and couldn't hear any sound anymore. Whether it was the sound of his body being torn apart from the pressure of the Mana-filled jumps. Or even the cold sound with the monotone voice of the entity called the System.
[Skill...]
The more he moved, the more Ryoshu's body gave up protesting. And instead, they began to transform into a series of desperate screams.
[Ski...]
At first, he could still faintly hear the System's sound. However, now Ryoshu's ears had completely lost their normal hearing ability. He could only hear a beeping sound like when sitting on an airplane.
[...]
And after a while when Ryoshu could no longer hear anything, he had unconsciously stood close enough to that damn Slime without realizing it.
The slimy monster, no less determined, began to gather its strength and charged at him. This time it charged with an abnormally fast speed. If one wasn't focused, they would completely lose track of it.
The moment the Slime charged in, it had fallen into the young boy's trap.
Ryoshu pulled out his sword, which was now extremely powerful, filled with an enormous flow of Mana. He gained momentum and thrust the sword into the giant Slime's body while shouting his least-used skill.
"STAAAAAAAAB!!"
Ryoshu screamed while simultaneously his exhausted muscle fibers produced a horrific sound. If someone could hear that sound right now, they would think they had just heard the song of the ninth level of hell.
When the sword pierced the monster's body, it was pushed back under the enormous pressure of the Slime's strength.
But immediately after that, the rusty sword accomplished something that even they couldn't have anticipated. And now Ryoshu could hear the sounds of everything around him. And the first thing he heard was the sound of the System.
[You have dealt a Critical Hit!]
[Damage dealt increased by half!]
The blade suddenly became miraculously sharp. It advanced slowly into the core of that fat Slime as if cutting a juicy apple.
[You have killed a normal E-rank Slime!]
The Slime exploded into a mess of slime all around instead of blood, announcing his victory.
[You have accomplished something impossible with your current strength!]
[Acquired Title "One Who Desires to Survive"!]
----0w0----
Currently, Ryoshu was hiding temporarily on top of a fairly tall tree somewhere in the middle of the forest.
He was wrapping cloth around a wooden stick placed on his leg. The raggedly torn pieces of fabric were taken from his spatial ring.
After securing it, Ryoshu absorbed Mana and channeled it directly into his almost deformed legs.
Since it was Holy type Mana, it wouldn't help recover quickly in a short time. But at least he felt somewhat less pain.
"I... I'm still alive... somehow?"
His body was exhausted with no vitality left at all. But Ryoshu always had to remain vigilant because he knew that the gate of that Temple had been broken. Outside, hundreds of monsters had been released freely with nothing to control them.
'This is completely unreasonable. In the game, was it still normal?! I didn't do anything to affect it... most importantly... the main storyline hasn't even begun yet.'
Ryoshu looked around and decided not to use Mana anymore. He tried to temporarily close his Mana Core so it wouldn't let Mana into his body anymore.
'Closing it feels itchy. It'll take a while to get used to the feeling from before.'
Earlier, Ryoshu had forgotten the fact that Slimes don't have eyes or other senses. Therefore, they can only sense Mana and sound waves around them.
Now things would be safer because they wouldn't be able to detect him anymore. But if they decided to wreck this place... even if they couldn't see him, he would still be collateral damage.
Ryoshu recalled the battle earlier and tried to draw lessons from it.
'Death Sense is a perfect skill for fighting enemies stronger than oneself...'
But if that monster decided to beat him to a pulp before killing him, then... things would have turned out completely differently.
So this time Ryoshu won entirely based on luck... because the opponent was a not-too-intelligent monster.
'But... saying that, I'm badly battered too. If I don't do something soon, I'll die for sure. Oh, there were quite a few notifications earlier, right? Nothing can really surpass Super Memory.' - Ryoshu tried not to think about negative things anymore and shifted his attention elsewhere.
"System, show me my status..."
He didn't expect too much from what he had just received.
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[Magic] (F+) (!)
-Mana Focus (Level III → VI) (!)
Increase 11 → 22.5% effectiveness of your Mana focusing ability.
-Mana Transmission (Level I → V) (!)
Increase 1 → 10% effectiveness of your Mana transmission ability.
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"One battle worth ten supplements? No wonder I felt using Mana was smoother and faster." - Ryoshu recalled using Mana skillfully.
And among those things was the scene where Mana flow appeared everywhere as if watching the aurora borealis from the world's highest peak.
'That must be how... 5-star class mages see things, right?' - Ryoshu grew increasingly eager.
"Oh, and there was also a Title, wasn't there? System, can you show me that too?"
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[Title] One Who Desires to Survive (Growth)
Rank: Excellent
Description: You have done something that no one has ever done in the world! You survived in the state closest to death and even defeated a monster of higher rank than you! Just one rank higher would be difficult enough, but it was two ranks higher than you! Although we don't know how you did it, thanks to your intense desire to survive, you're still here. ▯▮▮▮▯▯ sends congratulations to you!
-▯▮▯ (New!)
▯▮▯▮▯▯
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"The System likes to tease people too? Why is it covering so much?!"
In the game, Ryoshu had fought monsters three or four ranks above him, but he had never received any Titles.
"Oh, I forgot, Titles are Unique items."
Unique items are things that only the first Player to discover them can possess. Although Rainfall Disorder is a single-player game, once a Unique item permanently belongs to a Player, that item will automatically be permanently deleted from the worlds of other Players.
Even if that account is deleted, it will still be in that Person's inventory.
There are many types of Unique items, from Titles like he just achieved to equipment or tools. But Unique items also have various characteristics.
And what Ryoshu received was one of the extremely rare ones, to the extent that these types of items when possessed almost break the game balance. That is a growth-type Unique item, a number known to be countable on the fingers of one hand.
'Excellent right away? Probably because I eliminated a monster two ranks above me and was ambushed by it first, so I received Excellent instead of just Impressive.'
After analyzing for a while, he realized something was off. Rainfall Disorder is a hardcore game, and all mechanisms in the game had been planned, fine-tuned, and balanced perfectly by the developers.
What he just accomplished was indeed almost impossible.
Because the strength gap between ranks gets increasingly larger. Meaning the distance between Unranked and rank F is already very far. And furthermore, the distance from rank F to rank E is even farther than the previous two ranks... almost double.
"Wait, so shouldn't I have received the Phenomenal rank?! This is too unreasonable!"
After saying that, Ryoshu quickly covered his mouth. He had momentarily forgotten about the existence of Slimes around here. Another frightening thing about Slimes is that they can sense sound waves in the air, like bats.
Although he knew quite a bit already, in his last play, Ryoshu still nearly died almost a hundred times before he could defeat the super difficult final bosses.
In the entire world, very few people had completed 100% of the Main Story without dying once without using any exploits. However, only one person hadn't lost a single drop of blood in an entire playthrough.
Even the game developers were amazed by this fact. Ryoshu still remembered clearly what the founding director of Rainfall Disorder said at the press conference:
"Completing this game without losing a single drop of blood is almost impossible. I would like to send my congratulations to the Player who accomplished that." - He paused to catch his breath before continuing, but his mouth was grinning broadly.
"And that is also why we have added a new mode. Much more difficult than the normal mode. You can only unlock this mode when you have completed the game for the first time-"
That was three years ago, and by the time Ryoshu entered this virtual reality version, no one had done the same in that difficult mode.
'I've played it too but haven't completed it, let alone attempt that challenge.' - He sighed but then unconsciously smiled when remembering that period.
'Back then I was still at my peak... Ah.. that was really fun.'
Ryoshu looked at the blue panel floating in front of him.
'Thinking about it, these rewards aren't the most important thing. It's what I learned from them.'
Ryoshu suddenly remembered a quote from a favorite web novel character:
'A real battle is more important than a thousand hours of practice.'
But it couldn't be denied that the original plan had been completely destroyed.
Initially, Ryoshu just intended to sneak attack them and use tricks only. Because when entering the challenge, he would have two advantages: the linearity of the Temple and initiative.
All Ryoshu needed to do was follow an almost straight path to the destination. And on the way, no monster could attack from behind. That would help him shoot them with arrows from a distance.
Not to mention Ryoshu already knew the entire map of this Temple. Therefore, he could snipe all the Slimes from appropriate positions.
Besides, his goal wasn't the main reward of the Temple but the hidden treasure chests within it. So if Ryoshu took the items he needed, he could just leave without having to complete the challenge.
But when the Temple's time limit expired and the monsters came out, his plan had completely failed. Because now Ryoshu would have to fight the Slimes while monsters from outside could sneak in and ambush him.
'...Should I give up?'
In Ryoshu's hand now was the last Teleportation scroll. He could leave here anytime. Because no one forced him to stay here and no one forbade him from running away, everything was just his choice.
Now Ryoshu was surrounded by Slimes, so he was in a passive position.
'I have two choices: stay and raid the Temple as originally planned in the worst condition, or leave here like a coward.'
Thinking so, he had already started writing the coordinates of Distinct City on it. When finished, Ryoshu stared at it, about to recite the spell to activate the teleportation magic, but he stopped immediately.
'High risk comes with high reward... Now I don't have much money and I don't have any power or strength at all. Continuing like this at the academy, I'll certainly get expelled...'
Ryoshu gripped the scroll tightly and put it aside, trying not to think about it anymore.
'Alright, I'll stay here for two more days. If anything dangerous happens, I'll use it later. I still have the advantage of being able to leave anytime I feel in danger. Or... I could try to enter that Temple... at least I should get the Reward Chest, right?' - Ryoshu kept hesitating about his decision while his heart screamed that this was a terrible decision.
And it kept urging his hand to grab the teleportation scroll as quickly as possible.
But Ryoshu tried to think about the benefits he would gain by staying to fight a little more and collecting more materials for the future.
'Think about it, just because of that near-death experience, I've gained so many things already?'
Thanks to that Title reward, all of Ryoshu's wounds had passed the critical stage. Now with the Recovery stat at rank C-, it would help him heal quite quickly.
'With rank C-, I just need to rest until morning and the bones will heal. But what about my internal organs?'
Ryoshu's body was exhausted after the difficult battle earlier, so after just a moment, his eyelids were already prepared to close completely.
'Damn it, so sleepy...! I want to sleep... but... if I'm attacked, I'll die.'
Though wanting to escape his ordinary instincts, this time sleepiness had defeated the young boy.