“Orion, nice to meet you,”

“Nice to meet you too,”

This guy is pretty chill…

I got out of my seat, and as I had an hour and a half of free time, I decided to use it for hunting in the dungeon as I had nothing else to do.

…

“HUFF HUFF HUFF HUFF… This is so annoying,” I muttered to myself as I fell back onto the rocky ground and stared up at my status.

『Status』

[Name: Orion]

[Race: Human]

[Level: 9/10] (28/100) XP Needed

[HP: 10/10 MP: 5/5 SP: 5/5] – Normal Human

[Strength: 9] – Normal Human

[Defense: 9] – Normal Human

[Magic: 8] – Normal Human

[Speed: 9] – Normal Human

[Skills: [Tangible Bloodlust]

…

“This is so painfully boring,”

“Then why don’t you make it a bit fun?” I hear a low voice ask from within my head.

It didn’t come from anywhere but my mind.

“Oh, whats up,”

The massive crystal tortoise which was the boss of the dungeon revealed himself behind me, before yawning from boredom.

The inside of his massive mouth looked like an abyss, ready to suck in anything, even the world itself.

“How many years has it been since I was last awake?” The giant tortoise asks.

“About one day… Ummmm… Well, that’s in the outside world, so maybe like three days. Anyway, what do I have to do to make it fun?” I ask.

“Are you really that dumb?”

“…”

“…”

Ugh, so he wants me to do that…

“I guess I could try it,” I respond and let my body, mana, and stamina recover.

I was back to normal in only a few minutes and used my spear to support me upwards.

I glanced at the roaming tortoises around me and activated [Tangible Bloodlust].

[Your lust of blood slowly increases]

[The solidified bloodlust strengthens your body]

My body became much stronger, and it felt as if I was as light as a feather.

Such a cheat…

First, I walked up to the tortoise a few feet ahead of me, and axe kicked its shell.

It deflected my kick off of its spiky shell, and the tortoise groaned after noticing it was being attacked.

p The groan alerted the surrounding tortoises, and upon seeing them all sprint at an ungodly speed towards me, I already began to regret my decision.

“They’re not that fast,” The old tortoise says, but I didn’t care about his opinion.

The first turtle tried to nip at the back of my knee, but I side-stepped out of the way before spinning my spear downwards and hooking the tortoise’s face.

“That’s the first,” I mutter through gritted teeth before sprinting towards the only open direction and putting some space between myself and the targets.

Only groans came out of their mouths as they charged towards me.

Swoosh

I readied my spear in front of me, ready to kill at least one of them before walking away, but all of a sudden, a new notification popped up in front of me.

[Next Side Quest has been revealed]

.

[Side Quest: Become Proficient with Your Only Skill]

[Description: This side quest has been revealed because you are in a tight spot and need the motivation to continue the fight. No running away here…]

[Reward: [Skill Book – Spear Coating]

[Penalty Upon Failure: Death]

[Time Left: 10 Minutes]

.

“Tch… This fucking system,” I muttered through gritted teeth and swung my spear upwards, hooking the first tortoise in front of me, but the ones from beside all opened their beaked jaws.

I jumped up, dodging the first two but another one just barely managed to nip off my shoe, leaving me to fight barefoot for the rest of the match.

I tucked my body in to go into a dive roll in order to recover easily without losing mobility.

My hands tapped against the ground, and the roll was successful as I ran in a U-shaped direction, right back towards the tortoises.

SHING

My spear tore through the face of another tortoise, but the others were so close to biting me that they even stepped on my left foot, completely breaking it.

I gritted my teeth through the pain before jumping back and landing on my right leg.

“Good thing it’s your dominant leg,” The old tortoise comments.

Once again, I ignored him before swinging up, tearing through the face of another turtle.

But, I could feel my mana and stamina quickly draining.

“Do I really have to master this?” I muttered as I counted eight more tortoises.

The blood-red aura around me began to wane, so I racked my brain of any ideas.

But even as I hopped around on one leg and racked my brain of any possible idea of how to master this skill…. The blood-red aura continued to wane but in a wave formation.

The aura on my spear got thicker, and then it shrank, thickening the aura on my body.

“Ah, I see,” I mutter before controlling the bloodlust wrapped around my body to the spear I held tightly within my hands.

The process of ripping the aura off my body left cuts all over me, but eventually, I managed to thicken the aura on my spear.

“Then I’ll… create more blades,”

It felt as if I was moving the eleventh finger as the blood-red aura split into two more scythe-like blades right next to the original.

SHING

I swung up, killing three tortoises but what I didn’t expect was for my blades to rip all the way through their heads, splitting them in half.

“You’re quite good, human,”

I dashed to the side again and swung up, killing two more tortoises, leaving only three left.

It was the perfect amount.

SHING

Upon side-stepping, all of them snapped their heads towards me without even thinking of the consequences.

“HUFF HUFF…”

The blood-red aura around my spear withdrew back into my body, but the fight was over, and a few panels appeared before me.

.

[You have completed the Side Quest: Become Proficient with Your Only Skill]

[Reward has been granted]

[The next Side Quest will be revealed once ready]

.

But, I also got a few notifications of XP.

I was so close to maxing out my level, but when I went to go check the time, I noticed I only had about 10 minutes until my next class.

“You’re going already?”

“Yeah, I got class,”

“Bring me some tasty treats the next time you come. I might even teach you something,” The old tortoise says, and as I was running towards the exit, I gave him a thumbs up.

…

“Mr. Orion… It is the first day, and you are already late? Also, why is your hair so wet?” The teacher says, crossing his arms firmly.

“I took a shower,”

“*sigh*… Geez. Next time come to class on time, but for your punishment today, you’ll be sitting out as we go over the basics,”

Well, I don’t need to review the basics, so I guess I’ll just scope out the class… Actually, I should study up on that girl’s family, shouldn’t I?

The classroom was a pretty small stadium with one of the walls having bleachers against it so I sat down there and took out my phone.

“Let’s see… Red hair families in Amlas… There we go…”

I was pretty content with the information I found, but just as I was about to go watch the class, a familiar face appeared before me.

“Oh, searching me up, are you?”

Annoying little shit…