Chapter 12: Life Is A Struggle

Chapter 12: Chapter 12: Life Is A Struggle

It PIERCED the boy’s skull, and Victor had no choice but to watch the disapproving sorrowful eye go dark.

[You have killed a Barbarian +1 Exp]

This was it. This was the free Exp those forums talked about when playing using the Barbarian skin.

In the game, after the fall of the Southern Bloodline Barbarian tribe, two survivors were left; The Player, and Kiki.

According to barbarian traditions, the Player and Kiki must work together to send the souls of the damaged to the ancestors.

Victor remembered the first time he saw the alert in the game after killing a barbarian. He had been so excited.

Such farmable free Exp was not easy to come by. But now, after seeing the life die from the eyes of that child, he began questioning if this was really the right thing. After all, he had the morals of another world.

They were also some insects that had been trapped underneath the corpses, or had not heeded to the instruction of the swarm.

Those were killed on sight. Without their leader giving orders and their huge numbers, even these giant bugs were no match for the surviving babarians.

These ones, Victor was glad to kill. Also, they made for good practice with the spear.

He made clumsy mistakes from time to time, but Kiki’s eyes, closely judged him. And he found himself adjusting and correcting his posture and striking stance.

Luckily, most had ate to their fill and could not exactly attack with full force or with precision.

Victor was a gamer. His gamer honed mind told him that even their attack patterns must have been communicated from the Queen of the swarm.

Again, it was all to his advantage.

A rustle came from behind a slumped corpse.

Victor spun the spear around just as it launched itself at him. This one was one of the larger ones, easily the size of a flying teenage human.

At least that’s how Victor sized it.

Its wings were a blur of black translucent membrane. Its legs were folded like sickles beneath a bloated segmented body still dripping with whatever it had last fed on.

It hit him head-on, jaws snapping for his throat.

Victor’s arms buckled under the weight, his spear caught crosswise. It was the only thing keeping those mandibles from closing around his neck.

He could smell it.

Shit it’s worse than the corpses, worse than the Basalt Dragonic Lizard’s throat.

It gave a stench like rot mixed with something acidic that literally made his eyes water on contact.

"Get it off, get it off, GET IT OFF—"

Unfortunately no one came to help him. The arena was huge, and they were spread across the place.

All except Kiki. But there was no way she would lend a hand. Simply watching. Observing.

The insect’s four remaining legs scrabbled against Victor’s chest, tearing through what was left of his cloths, drawing thin lines of blood that would hurt like hell later.

Its head twisted, trying to angle around the crossed spear shaft for an opening.

Instantly, Victor’s Battle Sense skill flared.

It was just instinct arriving a half-second before his thought, and Victor let his back leg buckle on purpose, rolling with the creature’s weight instead of against it.

They hit the ground together. The insect shrieked, wings screaming against dirt, as it was momentarily thrown off balance.

This was the opening Victor needed.

He drove the spear up with both hands, putting every ounce of weight his unfamiliar new body carried behind it.

The pointy spear caught the soft joint where the thorax and abdomen met.

Yes. That one gap in the exoskeleton he’d noticed.

The spear sank deep. All the way in to the crossbar.

The insect convulsed, as it wings buzzed into a frenzy, and then slowly went rigid. Its legs curled inward like a dying spider, before collapsing fully still atop him.

Victor shoved it off, gagging, ichor and the smell of it clinging to his hands.

[You have killed a Swarm minion +3 Exp]

He stared at the notification, chest heaving, and for the second time, he didn’t feel the small thrill he used to get from an Exp Ping

He just felt tired.

"You attacked the joint at the thorax," Kiki said from somewhere behind him, not even glancing over. "Good."

It wasn’t praise, not really. Just an observation. As if saying ’you might still be useful with that quick brain of yours, don’t go below that.’

But Victor found, despite everything, that it still mattered to him.

In his ears, it was still praise. And a different praise from the Basalt Dragonic lizard he had brought down.

That one was an exercise on his game knowledge. This one had been a real struggle for his life.

After this, Victor hunted more. He brought down a total of 10 giant bugs.

Everyone he fought, he learned, making it easier to fight the next one.

Aside from the first kill that gave him 3 Exp, the others did not grant him much on points.

That was the way it usually worked. The strength of the creature in relation to the player was the determining factor for Exp.

And so they continued. Sending the souls of those in pain back to the ancestors as they killed the roaming insects.

They were those that by some unknown miracle were not at the point of death due to injury. Those were separated, six of them. Some were missing a limb or two, and some untouched.

A lot were not so fortunate. They had been poisoned by the insects.

Black veins spread from the point of exposure like cobwebs all around their bodies. Even their ash skin shade could not hide it.

Hundreds dead. The entire stand that had been filled with the cheers of a hungry crowd was now silent.

This was a very haunting sight. If not that Victor kept forcing his mind to believe it was a video game even though he felt differently, he would have fainted a long time ago.

Of course, such a cowardly act would have spelt his end.

Up until night time, they were engaged in searching for survivors.

After which by Popo’s orders, fire was set on the corpses. The whole arena burnt bright through the night.

The air was filled with the choking smell of burning flesh.

Victor watched. Cursing in his mind. After all, this was just the beginning...

(Author’s note: Enjoying the book, feel free to add comments and joke around)