The blade pierced through his stomach, slicing through cloth and skin, forcing a sharp breath out of him as he stumbled backward. He tried to recover, to reset his position, but the imp didn't give him the space. It pressed forward relentlessly, its next strike driving into his side, shallow but enough to send another wave of burning pain through him.
[Warning! Health below 50%]
Kael saw the pop up and his thoughts churned. His grip faltered. The trident slipped from his hand and clattered to the ground.
Kael dropped to one knee and finally dropped down on his back, his body finally showing the strain it had been pushed under, his breathing rough, uneven, his eyes closing slightly as if the fight had already been decided.
The imp slowed. It watched him, its head tilting, that same twisted grin spreading across its face as it stepped closer, cautious but confident now.
Kael remained still. His breathing quieter now, almost fading. From the outside, it looked like he was done.
The imp stood above Kael. It raised its weapon slightly, leaning forward—
And in that instant, Kael moved.
His hand shot out, gripping the creature's ankle with everything he had left, fingers digging in hard enough to stop it mid-step. The imp shrieked in surprise, its balance breaking as Kael yanked it toward him, dragging it off-center just long enough.
His other hand clenched the fallen trident.
Without hesitation, he drove it upward.
The trident punched through the imp's eye with brutal force, the resistance giving way as the weapon tore through its skull and out the other side. The creature convulsed violently, its body jerking in his grip, but Kael didn't stop. He forced the weapon deeper, twisting it as his burned palm screamed in protest, his entire body shaking from the effort.
"Stay… down…" he growled under his breath.
The imp's movements weakened, then stuttered, then stopped entirely.
Still, Kael held on for a moment longer, as if making sure it wouldn't get back up again, before finally letting go.
The body collapsed beside him, and just like before, it didn't stay that way for long. A faint green glow spread across the imp's form before it began to break apart, dissolving into fine particles that lifted into the air, rushed straight toward him and merged into his body.
A sharp chime echoed in his head.
[Level Up!]
[Level 1 → Level 2]
Kael blinked, caught off guard, but the surprise didn't end there. A soft glow spread across his own body, subtle at first, then stronger, wrapping around him like a second skin. The pain that had been tearing through him just moments ago began to disappear.
He looked down.
The wound in his thigh was gone.
The gash across his side, the hole in his stomach, the burn in his palm, even the lingering ache in his shoulder, everything was healing in real time, skin knitting back together as if the damage had never existed.
Within seconds, it was over.
Kael pushed himself up immediately, his hands moving to his thigh, then his side, checking for any trace of injury. There was nothing. Not even a mark.
"This is… crazy," he muttered under his breath.
He rolled his shoulders, stretched his arms, then took a small jump, testing his balance. No pain. No weakness. If anything, he felt… better.
As if his body had been reset.
Before he could dwell on it further, another blue window appeared in front of him.
[Status]
—----------------------------------------------
Name: Kael Williams
Rank: E
Level: Level 2
Class: N/A
Trait: N/A
Titles: First Blood (Earth)
Stats:
Strength: 6
Agility: 8
Vitality: 8
Perception: 7
Intelligence: 9
Unused points: 0-> 5
—----------------------------------------------
"Wow," he let out a quiet chuckle, more out of disbelief than amusement. The level-up had unlocked a status screen, and as his eyes moved across it, the structure felt surprisingly intuitive. Names, numbers, categories, everything was laid out in a way that didn't require much effort to understand, as if it had been designed to be read at a glance.
His attention settled on the attributes first.
The numbers were… small.
Kael frowned slightly, tilting his head as he studied them. "Maybe ten is the upper limit," he murmured, rubbing his chin as he thought it through. "That would make this make sense."
His gaze shifted between the values, quickly forming a rough comparison in his mind. "Which means my strength is… average at best," he continued, almost casually, before a faint smirk appeared. "But intelligence?" He let out a soft breath. "Yeah… that tracks. I wouldn't expect anything less."
There was no hesitation in the way he said it. His narcissistic tendencies showed up despite just going through a life and death battle.
After a moment, his eyes moved down to the next section.
Rank: E
He paused there, curiosity flickering in his expression. As he focused on it, a smaller window appeared beside it, expanding automatically as if responding to his attention.
Rank List:
E : 0 - 50 Levels
D : 51 - 100 Levels
C : 101 - 150 Levels
B : 151 - 200 Levels
A : 201 - 250 Levels
"Nice and simple," Kael said with a small nod. There was a 50 level range for each rank and currently he was ranked E.
His gaze shifted to the next section.
Class and it was empty. That was interesting.
But what caught his attention more was the section just below it.
Title.
As he focused on it, another window opened instantly.
[First Blood (Earth): First to kill a monster among the Champions of Earth.
Effect: All Attributes +1.]
"Oh," Kael murmured, his eyes flicking back up to his stats, recalculating almost immediately. "So my strength was five to begin with."
He exhaled lightly, the thought already losing importance as quickly as it came. It didn't matter what he had been. What mattered was what he could become.
Still, the implication settled in.
"So titles can increase stats too…" he said under his breath, a faint smile forming. That meant achievements weren't just recognition, they were power. The system rewarded action, and more importantly, it rewarded being first.
That was something he could work with.
His attention moved on.
Unused Stat Points: 5
Kael stared at it for a moment, then nodded slightly. "Five per level," he muttered, more to confirm the pattern than anything else. It fit cleanly with everything else he had seen so far.
His eyes moved across the attributes again, weighing them quickly.
Then he made his choice. He focused on Intelligence. The moment he willed it, one point flowed into the stat.
The number shifted.
9 → 10
And instantly, something broke.
A sharp wave of nausea hit him out of nowhere, violent enough to drop him to his knees before he could even react. His stomach twisted, and in the next moment he was vomiting, his body rejecting the sudden change as if it couldn't process it fast enough.
"What—"
Another wave followed immediately.
Stronger.
Kael groaned, one hand gripping the ground while the other pressed against his head as if trying to hold it together. His vision blurred, thoughts scattering and reforming too quickly to track, like his mind was being forced to operate at a level it hadn't adapted to yet.
Time stretched or maybe it didn't. He couldn't tell. It felt like an eternity before the sensation finally began to fade.
A full minute passed before his breathing steadied, before the spinning slowed, before his body stopped fighting itself. Kael stayed there for a few seconds longer, gathering himself, then slowly lifted his head.
A new window had appeared.
[Attribute Pioneer (Intelligence) (Earth): You are the first among Earth's residents to reach 10 Intelligence.
Effect: +5% Intelligence Efficiency]
Kael stared at it, then let out a quiet breath.
"…So that's what that was."
The nausea. The overload. His body adjusting to a threshold it hadn't crossed before. And more importantly no one else had reached it.
When he focused on efficiency another small pop up opened.
[Efficiency = how effectively that stat is used in real situations]
[Intelligence efficiency → faster processing + decision accuracy]
That alone told him something.
"Guess ten isn't the limit," he said softly, a faint smirk returning. "Just the first wall."
His gaze drifted back to his status. Four points remained.
His expression shifted slightly.
"So…" he murmured, thinking it through. "Do I get one of these titles for every attribute?"