Martial Destiny

It was almost dusk on the plains, and Julius had only managed to kill 5 more rabbits, adding 5 more points to his stats.

"Even after killing 20 rabbits, I haven't received any EXP notifications." Despite hunting a significant amount of rabbits, nothing happened and no information about leveling up appeared.

Until now, Julius had no idea how to level up.

At the moment, the only thing he could think of was that rabbits didn't give enough EXP to even level up from level 0 to level 1.

But still, it made no sense.

If that was the case and rabbit do not give enough EXP to level up, then make them one of the first 'Enemies' to players not make any sense. 

Once again, Julius turned his thoughts to his biggest enemy so far…

"Damn developers."

It was always easier to blame the creators of the game. After all, the next possible culprit would be Julius's own stupidity.

And no one likes to admit their own mistakes…

Julius was far from the other players, as he had been so focused on hunting rabbits that he didn't even notice he was getting closer to the forest.

Even being close to it not make Julius able to see almost anything inside of it. The giants trees make impossible to sun light enter in the florest, making the visibility practically none.

"AWOOO" Julius, who was looking to the florest trying to see anything inside heared a chilling howl dangerously close to him.

"It looks like I found the wolves the old man mentioned earlier." Julius, with attributes three times stronger than any other swordsman, was the strongest swordsman in the world at the moment, considering no one had figured out how to level up yet.

Because of this, he was one of the most powerful beings in the game and has a incredible confidence in himself at that momento. 

'even I am not capable of killing a wolf right now, no one else is either.'

"Truly an extraordinary physique." Even without understanding the rank divisions of the game, Julius had the feeling that his physique was a really great rank.

He didn't understand why the game gave to some players such better start if compared to others, but somehow he started the game with an overwhelming advantage over everyone else.

"ARGHHHH" A sudden growl snapped Julius out of his reverie.

A wolf was approaching at high speed from the forest. As he was too immersed in his thoughts, he didn't notice the wolf sneaking through the trees nearby.

The wolf had already gotten incredibly close and lunged at Julius.

With impressive reflexes, boosted by his great stats, Julius managed to put his sword in front of him, halting the wolf, which was forced to bite the blade

The wolf, looking unnervingly wise, began moving its head from side to side, trying to disarm Julius.

"Arhahhsdhadsh" The sound of the animal's teeth clashing against the sword was unbearably loud.

Even with his 30 points in strength, Julius was struggling to hold his sword and maintain his guard against another attack from the wolf.

"Arghhh" The wolf increased its pressure and tried to pull Julius closer. If not for his caution, Julius would likely have been bitten at that moment.

Realizing he might lose the strength battle with the wolf, Julius knew he had to do something.

"[Body Reinforcement]"

For the first time, Julius activated one of his swordsman abilities. A strange sensation filled his entire body, and he felt stronger.

[Body Reinforcement: Enhances all primary attributes by 50%, all secondary attributes by 25%, and tertiary attributes by 10%. Cost: 3 MANA per second.]

A whitish energy began circulating through Julius's body. The wolf noticed the change and was about to back off, sensing imminent danger.

RIP

Unfortunately for the wolf, before it could retreat far enough, Julius struck it in the jaw, breaking its lower jaw.

Several sharp teeth flew from the wolf's mouth along with blood.

CRY

The animal let out a sound that would pity anyone, except for Julius, who had just seen how aggressive the creature was.

At the same time, the wolf distanced itself from Julius as much as it could, as if trying to escape, but never took its eyes off the swordsman.

To make sure the wolf wouldn't return to attack, since even with its jaw broken, the wolf still had very sharp claws, Julius acted quickly.

"[Charge]"

Julius ran toward the wolf with abnormal speed, reaching the animal, which was almost 9 meters away, in less than a second.

[Charge: Uses [Universal Energy] to propel the user's feet, granting them extraordinary acceleration in a straight line. The speed will depend on the amount of [Universal Energy] used. Cost: 1-10 Mana]

Facing the animal, which couldn't even react to the swordsman's explosive speed, Julius struck the wolf's head with a final blow.

He killed the wolf.

The sword, now stained with rabbit blood and scratched by the wolf's teeth, was heavily worn, and its sharpness was no longer the same.

As a result, when Julius's sword met the wolf's skull, it didn't cut but rather crushed it.

A mess of blood and bones was spread in front of Julius.

Back in his army days, Julius had to hunt and prepare his own food at camp, so handling dead animals wasn't too complicated for him. Still, he was feeling a little nauseous from the scene.

"This is a bit too realistic!" He thought while looking at the wolf's eye near his foot.

"Hm? What's that?" The bloody mess had prevented Julius from noticing before, but now that he stopped and paid more attention, he noticed something amidst the blood, bones, and brain matter.

"A stone?" The multicolored glow of the object made it clear it wasn't an ordinary stone. "It can't be a coincidence that it's so close to the wolf…"

[Destiny Core: Absorbs the fate of other creatures to strengthen your own.]

[Absorb enough cores and ignite your own fate, or become the target of a hunt and have your fate used to empower another being.]

The polished stone Julius took from the creature's body shone like a rainbow, but as soon as he held it in his hand, it began to shrink until there was nothing left.

'I feel stronger.'

"Status"

[Player: Tyrant

Level: Mortal

Path: Swordsman (Common);

Physique: Tyrant Divine Physique (Absolute);

Artifact: None

Equipment: Defective Sword (Common), Light Leather Chestplate (Common), Light Leather Anklets (Common), Light Leather Bracelets (Common).

Skills: Pursuit, Body Reinforcement, Energy slash

Primary Attributes:

STR: 12 (+21) (2 points from destiny core/ 1 point from physique)

AGI: 9 (+21) (2 points from destiny core/ 1 point from physique)

STA: 13 (+21) (2 points from destiny core/ 1 point from physique)

Secondary Attributes:

END: 7 (+11) (1 points from destiny core/ 0.5 from physique)

SPD: 7 (+11) (1 points from destiny core/ 0.5 from physique)

Tertiary Attributes:

WIS: 4.5 (+5.1) (0.5 from destiny core/ 0.3 from physique)

VIS: 3.5 (+5.1) (0.5 from destiny core/ 0.3 from physique)

UA: 4.5 (+5.1) (0.5 from destiny core/ 0.3 from physique)

Health: 150/150 (END * 10)

MANA: 75/96 (UA * 10)

]

"Wait. Is this how you level up in this game!?" Unlike what Julius expected, he didn't feel happy for finally knowing how to level up.

"The damn developers really expect players to figure everything out on their own!? Not even a tiny tutorial to make things easier!?" In the last few hours, the developers of [The Gates] had become Julius's number one enemy.

************

"So, did he injure the wolf enough?" A dark-skinned muscular man asked a hooded figure.

"No... He killed the wolf by himself." The archer replied, his eyes glowing bright gold.

"What!?"

"You've got to be kidding!"

The other two men in the group couldn't believe that a single person had done what their entire team had needed to do together by himsel!

"..." The only girl in the group remained silent. She just sat on a fallen log nearby, waiting until it was time to return to hunting.

"He's quite strong..." The shield man, who had spoken first, frowned. "Should we invite him to join our team? He'd be a valuable asset for the guild."

"I think it's better to observe for a while longer. We don't know what he's like," said the short man with two daggers at his waist.

"I agree." The archer was the first to agree. He didn't tell the others, but Julius's performance had impressed him more than he expected.

Even though the five of them could kill a wolf, he didn't think they could do it as fast as Julius did…

It was worth noting that only a few seconds had passed since the beginning of the fight between the wolf and Julius.

In the end, he only spent 25 mana.

Which was the magical energy of this world.

So, he could still handle 2 to 3 wolves without any problem, as he was already more accustomed to using his mana abilities.

"I can mark him if you want. That way we'll know where he's going." The girl spoke, still seated, wanting to resolve this as quickly as possible and get back to leveling up.

"You can do that too!? Your [path] is really useful!" The shield man complimented her, and everyone agreed, even though they didn't speak aloud.

"Yes, no problem." She stood up, her slender body moving gracefully, and extended her hands in front of her.

[Black] A shadowy figure appeared from the ground in the direction the girl was pointing.

The figure was very small, resembling a small bird, and didn't stay long. As soon as it fully formed, [Black] flew away.

***************

"Should I keep hunting or go back to the village?" Julius thought, wondering if any of the rabbit carcasses he had hunted earlier were still around. He decided to head back soon.

Night was falling, meaning that 12 hours had passed in the game world since Julius logged into the system.

But only 3 hours had passed in the real world!

"What incredible technology." Julius began to understand why so many countries had joined forces to create [The Gates].

As he returned, he gathered some of the rabbits he had killed earlier. Unfortunately, most of them had already disappeared.

'It seems that I am not the only player who knows about the Destiny Core' he thought while return to the village.

[Player: Tyrant

Level: Mortal

Path: Swordsman (Common);

Physique: Tyrant Divine Physique (Absolute);

Artifact: None

Equipment: Defective Sword (Common), Light Leather Chestplate (Common), Light Leather Anklets (Common), Light Leather Bracelets (Common).

Skills: Charge, Body Reinforcement, Energy slash

Primary Attributes:

STR: 28 (+21) (2 points from core/ 1 point from physique)

AGI: 25 (+21) (2 points from core/ 1 point from physique)

STA: 29 (+21) (2 points from core/ 1 point from physique)

Secondary Attributes:

END: 15 (+11) (1 point from core/ 0.5 from physique)

SPD: 15 (+11) (1 point from core/ 0.5 from physique)

Tertiary Attributes:

WIS: 7.5 (+5.1) (0.5 from core/ 0.3 from physique)

VIS: 6.5 (+5.1) (0.5 from core]

UA: 7.5 (+5.1) (0.5 from the core / 0.3 from physical)

Health: 230 (END * 10)

MANA: 180 (UA * 10)]

Even though he was only able to recover 8 of the 20 rabbits he killed, Julius experienced a surprising growth in his stats