Aggro Litrpg || Progression Fantasy

So, that was... a lot.

On the plus side, the giant murder nightmare from beyond the Veil hadn't immediately turned me into wet wallpaper paste. Which, no matter how 'glass-half-empty' you were, was always a win. And the big guy'd even gifted me a real weapon, which was an actual, honest-to-God massive upgrade from the stick. Another big tick.

On the other hand, he'd also casually dropped the fact that keeping the Veil intact wasn't just a job for me now. He'd made it clear that it was a significant obligation and that he'd be keeping tabs on whether I was keeping to my side of the bargain. Loving the ratcheting up of the stakes there.

I felt its weight of the handle of the morningstar settle into my palm like it belonged there. On the whole, considering everything else that had happened in the last day or so, I thought I might – just – have come out ahead there.

Then I laughed, trying to picture Aunt M standing where I was. Facing that... that thing. And not just facing it. Talking with it. Earning its respect. Maybe even being the only reason it hadn't torn this clearing apart. Margaret bloody Meddings. I could almost hear her now: "Duty's only heavy if you pick it up late, Elijah."

Well. Here I was. Late to the party, duty everywhere, and with absolutely no chance of putting it back down.

I gave the morningstar a slow, experimental swing. It whistled through the air with a sound that suggested someone else's day was about to get considerably worse.

Funny enough, this was one weapon I'd never actually had much training in. I know, right? You'd be amazed how often swinging around a spiked ball of iron wasn't viewed as the 'stealthy' thing to do. Some people could be so judgmental.

Still. I figured the basics couldn't be too tricky to master.

First of all, the weight was all wrong if you were planning on trying anything subtle. The weapons centre of mass shifted way out past the hand, and the inertia dragging the weapon's arc was far wider and much heavier than anything I'd usually wield. Using this would be all about momentum and commitment. I'd not be politely fencing my opponents. I'd have to pick my shot and follow through like my life depended on it.

I ran the grip through my hand a few times, feeling the roughness of the haft, the weight tugging insistently at my wrist. Interesting. It wasn't about constant motion either, was it? Tactically, I thought this would make my fights much slower, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing. I'd need to control the range and make sure I was close enough to make it impossible to dodge once the swing started, but not so close that I'd get tied up before I could bring the mass to bear.

Break stance. Break balance. Keep moving. Keep the weapon heavy in the other guy's mind, and not just in his ribs.

I guessed I had the size, the reach and the strength - if not quite the Strength stat yet - to make it pretty ugly for anything that got inside my radius. Which was good, because ugly worked just fine for me.

I shifted the morningstar in my grip again, feeling the heft of it pulling slightly at my shoulder, and then curiosity got the better of me. Might as well find out if this thing handled the way it looked like it should. I could almost hear Griff in the back of my head: "Always test the hammer before you swing it at the anvil, lad."

I picked one of the nearby trees that my labourers hadn't gone near yet. It was a thin-barked thing with a slight lean to it and offered me all sorts of backchat when I squared up to it. Well, no. Obviously, it didn't, but I'm getting myself into a mindset here.

I didn't try any sort of fancy wind-up, I just brought the morningstar back with both hands, aligning my hips and shoulders, and swung through like I was attacking the world's biggest piñata.

The head hit with a meaty impact that rattled back up through my arms. Bark and splinters exploded outward as the whole tree shivered. The blow hadn't cut into the trunk the way an axe might have, but that wasn't the point of this thing, was it? A morningstar wasn't meant for slicing. It was a, quite literally, wrecking ball. A significant force delivered through plenty of mass combined with a small, nasty point of contact. And Robert was the brother of your mother.

I stepped back and checked out the damage. I hadn't made a deep gouge, but the tree now sported an epically compressed dent in its wood. If that had been a ribcage or a skull, I imagine being in the proximity of my Rage Debuff would no longer be the biggest issue in a foe's world.

> [Skill Level Up: Weighted Argument – Lvl 4]

> [Bonus Applied: +15% Impact Force | +10% Stagger Chance]

And then another notification blinked up.

> [Weapon Synergy Detected: Threshold-Warped Morningstar]

> Affinity: Iron Provocateur — Confirmed

> Bonuses Upgraded:

> – +10% Stagger Chance (doubled)

> – +10% Impact Force (doubled)

> – Rage Strike: Striking a target under Rage Debuff applies [Unbalance] (5s duration)

> System Advisory:

> The right hand wields more than just a weapon.

> It wields consequence.

Awesome. I'd take that any day of the week.

I let the morningstar settle across my shoulders and stood there for a moment, feeling the weight of it press down, not just on my muscles but somewhere deeper. I pulled open my Core Sheet to get a clearer sense of where I stood now.

[System Character Sheet]

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Name: Elijah Meddings

Class: Iron Provocateur

Level: 3

Title Pathway: [Warden Channel]

Subclass: Read-Only

Threshold Anchor: [Halfway Hold - Well of Ascension]

System Integration: Sanctuary Status: Pending Stabilisation

Core Vitality Metrics

Health: 42

↳ [Base: 22 | Class Bonus: +8 | Set bonus: +12]

Health Regeneration: 6/hour

↳ Stubborn Constitution (Lvl 3) effect applied]

Stamina: 40

↳ [Base: 18 | Class Bonus: +10 | Set bonus: +12]

Stamina Regeneration: 4/hour

↳ [Resilience trait synergy applied]

Mana: 10

Mana Regeneration: 1/hour

↳ [Origin trait detected. Purpose: Unknown.]

Primary Attributes

Strength: 6

Agility: 3

Speed: 2

Endurance: 12

Intelligence: 4

Wisdom: 3

Charisma: -1

Luck: 2

Unassigned Progress Points: 0

Abilities

Aggro Magnetism – Lvl 3 (Active Aura)

Effect Radius: +7 metres (base range)

Duration: +3 seconds (base duration)

Activation Cooldown: 30 seconds

- Rage Debuff (Lvl 2)

-20% Dodge

-20% Endurance

+10% Stamina drain per action

25% chance to misapply Abilities

Cannot voluntarily disengage from target during effect duration

Synergy Detected: Lineholder's Instinct

Enemies under Rage Debuff suffer -5% Attack Speed

Initial pull effect applies mild stagger to nearby targets (1 sec recovery)

Unwelcome Mat - Level 1

Passive: Gain +5% mitigation against all damage taken while guarding, taunting, or defending others.

Active (Cooldown: 10 minutes): when an ally within 5 metres would take lethal damage, you may choose to take it instead.

Bonus: If you survive this transfer, you immediately recover 10% Health and Stamina.

Traits

Stubborn Constitution – Lvl 3 (Passive)

Resistance to knockback, stagger, and panic effects

Enhanced pain tolerance

Minor bleeding and fatigue effects suppressed

Lineholder's Instinct – Lvl 1 (Passive)

+5% Mitigation when within 5m of an enemy with no other allies present

Immune to first [Fear] or [Terror] effect per encounter

Enemies under Rage Debuff suffer -5% Attack Speed

Shadow Marked – Lvl 1 (Passive)

+20% Resistance to [Poison], [Corruption], and [Infection] effects

First [Venom], [Toxin], or [Paralytic] effect per encounter is nullified automatically

Shadow-aligned entities no longer register you as entirely "Other"

Magical detection returns "Unstable" alignment

Suppressed side effects: internal temperature variance, dream leakage, minor hallucinations

Advisory: Repeated exposure to Shadow may accelerate alignment shift

Current Drift: [Shadow Tolerance 3%] ← Monitored

Skills

Closed Circle (Combat | Hand-to-Hand) Lvl 3

Bonus to grapples, disarms, and improvised restraint techniques

Increased control in confined or uneven terrain

+10% Damage with fists, elbows, knees, or wielded detritus within 2m

Enemies struck while engaged in grapple gain [Off-Balance] (temporary debuff)

Weighted Argument [Combat | Blunt Weapons] Lvl 4

Bonus damage when wielding branches, clubs, staves, or other persuasive planks.

Bonus Applied: +15% Impact Force +10% Stagger Chance +10% Impact Force (doubled)

Improvised Javelin [Combat | Thrown Weapons] Lvl 2

Bonus accuracy when throwing spears, staves, or similarly balanced items

Critical hit chance increased against [Distracted], [Staggered], or [Unaware] targets

Passive: Instinctive trajectory compensation upgraded

New effect: +10% Impact Force when target is within 15m

Inventory Modifiers: Expanded Inventory Slots: +12

↳ [Class Modifier: Durable Backbone | Item Carry Bonus]

I stared a little longer at the "Shadow Marked" entry. 3% didn't sound like much, but then again, neither did a crack in a dam.

Weighted Argument ticking up to Level 4, though? That made me smile. I had an actual weapon now. A proper one. And if the System wanted to make me better at smashing things, well, who was I to argue?

The clearing was quiet again. Nothing was moving apart from the rain falling in slow needles through the trees. The workers kept working on the Village Hall without wanting any sort of direction from me.

And me?

I guess I was stuck... waiting for a bit. I'd cleared the Environmental Hostility away, so my minimap was clear. Lia was still stable – not noticeably better, but not worse, either. And I was a good few hours away from having a Village Hall and being able to make progress there.

So, yeah. Hurry up and wait.

The funny thing was, when I thought about it, most of my previous life had actually been all about waiting, too, hadn't it? Waiting for marks to make mistakes. Waiting for a pick-up to appear at a crossroad that felt like it hadn't seen life in a hundred years. Waiting for a guard to look away, or for an alarm to misfire, or for a door to creak open just wide enough for me to slide through.

Looking back, I reckoned if you stacked up all the hours I'd spent doing nothing but waiting... God. How much of my so-called life had I wasted like that?

And now? Here I was again. Waiting. Different world. Different stakes. Same old instinct.

I thought about the Shadow-Ogrin's words. Was I really the last true one left to hold the breaches closed? Aunt M certainly hadn't wasted her life waiting, had she? She'd not only been able to make the best hot chocolate in the world, but – secretly – she'd been fighting creatures from the netherworld.

She hadn't hidden. She hadn't slipped through the cracks. She had stood. And when she'd died, she'd called me here to do the same.

That was a lot to think about.

So I did.

While waiting.