William held his hand to his chest as he sprinted back to the area devoid of animals. The damned rabbits went into a frenzy whenever they caught sight of it.
He glanced quickly behind him and still saw the sea of Sky Hares hopping leisurely after him, just fast enough to keep pace. As for how he knew this wasn’t as fast as they could hop, it was his hand. They were easily able to close the gap with it in their sight.
[-5 HP]
“Fuck!” William yelled as he grabbed the Sky Hare that had somehow sunk its teeth into his hand with his free hand and ruthlessly crushed its skull.
[+410 XP]
[Level up! | 5 Stat Points Added]
William didn’t blink at the added gore to his person and threw the mangled body of the dead Sky Hare back into the mob chasing him. As expected, the additional death of one of their brethren enraged them. He could hear the increased activity behind him.
He quickly resigned himself to the fact that this may as well be another situation where he was forced to use his points. Since it was already unlikely that his current Stamina would last long enough for him to get back to the theorized safe zone, William decided to go down with a fight. Besides, he might get lucky and take out enough of these Sky Hares to get to level ten before they bit him to that level of desperation.
Name: Wei Liang (William Davis)
Age: 13
Level: 6
Experience: 105/750
Cultivation: N/A
Health: 139/145
Strength: 20
Stamina: 3
Agility: 4
Luck: 1
Points: 21
William was a little more confident of getting out of this situation by being able to take twenty bites from these little shits before dying. Of course, he was not too confident, but more than it had been before he saw his upgraded health.
“Alright then! Let’s fight!” William roared as he turned around and stood his ground, almost immediately regretting his decision at seeing the fluffy horde hopping toward him. He knew the road to immortality was filled with death, but he wished the threats to his life weren’t mostly embarrassing.
Excluding the demonic cultivator at the start, William had almost died by a speeding wagon, and now a damned hoard of bunnies was trying to kill him.
[-5 HP] x 2
“What the-” William was more startled than pained when seeing two Sky Hares on his hands, hanging onto him by their teeth. The rest of the mob was still a reasonable distance away from him. He shivered when the thought of them being too fast to be able to see entered his mind.
William grabbed each Sky Hare by the head with his opposing hands to rip them off him and figured this might work as a distraction. He didn’t crush them in his hands this time. Instead, he pulled his arm back like he would throw a ball and launched it as hard as possible at the hopping mob.
[+375 XP]
“… What the fuck,” William’s jaw dropped as the Sky Hares swarmed around their newly splattered brethren before they quickly went back to hopping toward him. The exploded Sky Hare had disappeared. Even the blood was gone.
These things ate their own dead.
William moved the remaining Sky Hare struggling to take another bite of his gore-covered skin to his throwing hand before launching it to a tree, decorating the trunk with its body parts.
[+375 XP]
[Level up! | 5 Stat Points Added]
William pulled up his status screen as he watched the horde rush to devour the flesh of its dead.
Name: Wei Liang (William Davis)
Age: 13
Level: 7
Experience: 105/875
Cultivation: N/A
Health: 219/235
Strength: 20
Stamina: 3
Agility: 4
Luck: 1
Points: 26
He kept the HUD at the corner of his vision, ready to dump his points into Agility and Stamina at a moment’s notice. With how much experience he was getting with each kill, even though it was reduced as he leveled up, William figured he would reach level ten in no time.
After that, he could use his stat points to his heart's content and escape the situation.
William noticed one Sky Hare had lost interest in following the mob and was twitching its nose at him. It made a hop toward him before the same thing happened as before.
[-4 HP]
[+300 XP]
William stared at the blood-covered grass as he rubbed his hand. It looked like the Sky Hare quite literally teleported from its spot to attach itself to his hand. If they actually had a teleportation-like skill, it would be terrifying. However, he suspected the skill needed specific requirements to activate.
He took a deep breath and prepared himself for the wave of attacks that would soon follow. He preferred not to be a teething object for these little shits, and observing how the Sky Hares never climbed the tree to eat their dead brethren gave him an idea. He could use his surroundings to his advantage.
[-4 HP]
[+300 XP]
William used the horde’s distraction with the newly dead Sky Hare to rush to a nearby tree and clamber to the thickest branch before taking a seat on it. The practice of tree climbing to pluck Lightning Berries already had practical use.
While the mob climbed on top of each other to reach the higher spots on the tree to eat their dead brethren, he hoped that they would continue their odd behavior of attacking him in small numbers.
William chuckled when the mob hopped in place uselessly underneath him. They were strange creatures. It almost seemed like they didn’t have many thoughts other than following him and eating the Sky Hares he killed.
After seeing them hop in place for a minute, William held out his hand to motivate them.
[-4 HP] x 3
“Shit!” William cursed when three of the little fucks attached themselves to his hand. He quickly ignored the pain and grabbed one of the Sky Hares, wondering how to kill it. Crushing it might cause the mob to go into a frenzy and start climbing over each other, not something he was keen on causing.
With a grunt, he launched it as hard as he could against a nearby tree, making the Sky Hare explode on its trunk safely away from him.
[+300 XP]
[Level up! | 5 Stat Points Added]
William ignored the swarm heading to that tree and repeated the same action to the Sky Hares still biting into his hand.
[+225 XP] x 2
He frowned at the reduced experience points and looked at his stats.
Name: Wei Liang (William Davis)
Age: 13
Level: 8
Experience: 580/1000
Cultivation: N/A
Health: 334/370
Strength: 20
Stamina: 3
Agility: 4
Luck: 1
Points: 31
William's eyes gleamed at the points remaining to get to the next level. It would need only two more kills. Even with another reduction in the experience points received after a kill, he would guess ten more kills at level nine would be enough to complete his main quest.
Main Quests:
Restore your Soul! (Reach Level 10 to enable the system to restore your soul to a more complete state)
With most of the horde busy trying to get morsels of the dead Sky Hares, William stared at the couple dozen still hopping underneath him with a greedy look. With their weak attacks and his massive upgrade in health, there was no need to be as careful. He didn’t dawdle and jumped off the branch to crush a couple under his feet.
[-10 HP]
[+225 XP] x 2
[Level up! | 5 Stat Points Added]
William winced at the sharp pain shooting up his legs from the ill-advised landing before yelping at the multiple bites to his gore-covered legs.
[-3 HP] x 19
He stomped on the heads of the Sky Hares like a child throwing a tantrum, creating a horrific, bloody mess under his feet, but didn’t let up until he leveled up to ten.
[+150 XP] x 8
[Level up! | 5 Stat Points Added]
[COMPLETED | Restore your Soul!: 1000 XP]
[Trait Modified | Soul Damage (Minor) - 20% Attribute Reduction]
[Main Quest Added | Perfect your Soul! (Reach Level 100 to enable the system to upgrade your soul to the peak state)]
[Main Quest Added | Learn a Cultivation Technique]
[+ 1 XP] x 11
William didn’t even care that killing these little shits now only gained him one experience point. And he didn’t care that he still had some sort of soul damage. All that mattered was that using his stat points no longer had a chance to be disastrous.
He noticed that the mob of Sky Hares was staring at his feet with drool dripping out their mouths. He laughed mockingly and said, “Thanks for the points, you cannibalistic shits!”
[+8 Agility]
[+3 Stamina]
William used his stat points for the first time without concern and started to sprint away, fully confident that he was now safe. With a wide grin as he left the horde behind, he rechecked his stats.
Name: Wei Liang (William Davis)
Age: 13
Level: 10
Experience: 1116/1250
Cultivation: N/A
Health: 767/870
Strength: 20 (16)
Stamina: 6 (5)
Agility: 11 (9)
Luck: 1 (1)
Points: 30
Traits:
Soul Damage (Minor) - 20% Attribute Reduction
Main Quests (2):
. Perfect your Soul! (Reach Level 100 to enable the system to upgrade your soul to the peak state)
. Learn a Cultivation Technique
Side Quests (3):
Visit Jade Healing Clinic 2-3 times a week (Repeatable)
William cackled when he saw that he was almost at the next level. Things were finally looking up for him.