Chương 8: Multi-Level Outlaw: Bandit Abomination

LANCE dropped to his knees and panted. Sweat coated his face and dropped to the ground like rain.

"Shit!" He cursed and couldn't stop cursing. It had been a close battle. He didn't know how many bandits he had killed but they kept coming at him. And coming. The battle had been a blur. He exhausted his mana grenades. Frenzied killers had charged him without any regard for their own lives and taken literal chunks out of him. Fun fact: when chunks of him were missing, it was a lot harder, and slower, for him to heal. [You Have Reached Level 8!] [Boon Points Earned: 7] [Unllocated Boon Points: 30] He fought to catch his breath. He huffed, puffed, but couldn't catch his breathe. He activated [Search]: his System told him that a group of armored bandits was coming and they had with them... something evil. Something the System identified as an 'abomination.' As if a 'bandit,' a cutthroat, wasn't bad enough.

If he was going to survive this without getting hacked to literal pieces, which to him, was as good as dying since it would take ages for his healing factor to restore him, he needed to take the kid gloves off. His father had wanted him to be circumspect about how he used his points in relation to fighting. That was all well and good — normally. When an abomination entered the picture, though?

'Normal' and 'well and good' left consideration. Having maybe ten minutes, if that, before the next wave of bandits arrived, he dumped ten whole points into Stamina. He was going to need it. Lance felt his stamina threshold be pushed back: if his wall had been against the wall a moment ago, it was now a good half mile from the wall. His breath finally 'caught,' he felt alive again, like his body could heal faster since his energy levels were no longer as depleted as a liquor bar at a peasant's festival.

While he was dumping points into his stats, he figured he should go all in on his Martial Prowess. He had heard stories about what an 'abomination' could do, from lift trees, destroy villages, and raise the dead. Many abominations existed and since he had no idea what he was coming up against, he had to be ready for anything; he took a deep breath and added another ten points to his Martial Prowess. Right away, he felt the Boon Points boost his physical stature, his muscles, his endurance.

He felt stronger, knew he was stronger. Lance intrinsically understood he would now be able to take a beating to rival that of a whole regiment of men. Which was exactly what he needed to do if he wanted to be more than a head on a spike after the next battle. He still had ten Boon Points left. He considered dividing them into Martial Prowess and Stamina. And was about to, when the enemy arrived on scene and shoved aside a tree like it was nothing.

The abomination was big, hairy, and ugly like his great-grandfather twice removed. Unlike his great-grandfather (twice removed), however, this creature had the decency to stop roaring after three mighty bellows. Some people who looked upon the abomination might mistake it for a troll, due to its pasty, scaly flesh.

But unlike that majestic beast, this abomination wasn't anything like a troll; for, upon closer inspection, one saw that the abomination's skin wasn't tough and leather-like, but a putrid formation made from desecrated corpses. Lance gave the foul demon-spawn no quarter and activated [Power Charge] as he jumped forward. He slammed into the creature's head sword-first. Before he yanked his sword out and fell to the ground, he used his free hand to punch into the creature's neck.

Red liquid gushed from the monstrous wound, but Lance held on tight. He ignored the fetid blood squirting, then used all of his mana, what little he had, to generate a large [Flame] attack as his hand remained inside the beast. The fire roiled inside the creature and caused its skin to turn a shade pinker. No more mana, he pulled himself from the creature's head and fell to the ground, not peacefully, but with a smack at the abomination smacked him down.

The abomination thrashed and roared in the wake of his assault. So terrifying was the beast's cries, the bandits surrounding it fled to the wind. Despite everything he had thrown at it, the misbegotten lump of sin still drew breath. Fine by him, as he still had plenty up his sleeve. Lance took advantage of the creature's agony and sliced its legs, stabbed its feet, anything to put the troll-like creature off its balance. His mighty hacks, each like several swings of an axe, took their damage bit by bit.

This beast's scaled skin, tough and thick like a layer of hard rock withered under his assault. Despite his best efforts, the beast remained standing, despite the white hunks of bleached bone which jutted out like rocks upon a red shore. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. About to charge the beast again, Lance's focus waned, and the abomination smacked him with its tree-club. He flew back and smashed through one tree and into another.

Agony wrecked his body. Multiple bones were broken. Sensitive bits of muscle torn. He cried to his father for help, but no aid came. the beast lumbered toward him, his only saving grace was the creature's slowed gait from its many wounds. Coughing blood, Lance saw a heaping avalanche of pain coming upon him, its steps like that of a small earthquake. He willed his body to heal faster. His skin slowly patched itself together. His internal organs shifted into place, stitched themselves together.

It wasn't fast enough! Stomp, stomp... the creature came closer to him. What could he do? He had no choice. He had to use his Stamina Potion. Lance willed his arms toward his utility belt. Despite the hurtful lashes which struck his body like barbs at his every movement, he pulled the potion from his pocket. Groaning, he lifted the tonic to his lips, uncorking and spitting out the vial's plug with his teeth, and guzzled the remedy. Stamina Potions were rare and expensive commodities.

Feeling his entire being refresh as if he had just been in an air-conditioned room where he drank tropical hemp beverages, his healing factor emboldened itself by a factor of ten. His internals, bones, muscles, and the like, fitted themselves into the proper place. It made him feel weird, going from one-half to one hundred in a matter of seconds, but, hey, feeling weird was better than death!

Because the abomination had the intelligence of a dim-witted child under the best of circumstances, it did not understand what happened. When Lance activated [Power Charge] again and stabbed it through its neck, then used all his strength to cleave and tear off the abomination's head, his sword acting as an extension of his arm, his will. The beast's head fell to the forest floor with a plod. A spray of acrid, blotchy blood followed which coated Lance in its disgusting visage.

Like a hammer to the floor, the rest of the beast's body crashed to the ground. The rumble causing many birds to scatter. Thank the Gods, all was silent. Lance panted like a dog in the summer's heat. Although his stamina was great, many times that above a normal human's, heck, a normal Deity Champion, dispatching an abomination all by himself, that was a feat his academy instructors would have deemed impossible for all but the most seasoned of Champions. Such took its toll on a man.

A toll he couldn't afford to bear if the bandits should return. He cast [Search] but found his next closest enemy was over half-a-mile away. with him covered in an abomination's blood, he doubted many bandit cutthroats would dare take him on... he had a moment to rest.

[Abomination: Lesser: Killed: XP Gained] [You Have Reached Level 9] [Boon Points Earned: 4] [You have Reached Level 10] [Boon Points Earned: 6] [You Have Reached Level 11] [Boon Points Earned: 3] [You Have Reached Level 12] [Boon Points Earned: 9] Lance stared in disbelief at his notifications, not the least of which because the notifications continued to materialize!

[You Have Reached Level 13] [Boon Points Earned: 1] [You Have Reached Level 14] [Boon Points Earned: 7] [You have Reached Level 15] [Boon Points Earned: 4] [Unallocated Boon Points: 44] [Accomplishment Sub-System Unlocked] And, finally, [Holy Shop Unlocked]. Lance had to take a second look at his notifications just to confirm them all... it was insane. He was beginning to see how his father could accumulate such power over the course of his long life.

If this was his status after just a single day of fighting bandits on Murder Island, then he could only imagine the gains his father made over the course of his storied career. Holy Shop? An Accomplishment Sub-System? He had heard about the Holy Shop from his academy instructors. He was somewhat aware of the 'accomplishment' system, which rewarded Champions for specific feats. He thought it was only for those Champions which proved themselves over years... Then again, had he not just slain an abomination?

Because of his 'hacking' of the System, had he not the accumulated 'experience' of years of practice under his belt? Yeah, he had 'proved' himself already, he reminded himself.

"System: Open Holy Shop," he commanded. [Negative: Holy Shop Cannot Be Activated Without Prayer Interaction] He gritted his teeth. Fine. [Accomplishment Unlocked: Abomination Slayer: "You've killed your first beast of the dark and proven yourself as a holy knight! Good. Only a million and more to go!" REWARD: 1 Boon Point] A boon point for an accomplishment? Well, all right! That was something he could get behind!

When he checked out the Accomplishment sub-system on his HUD, it listed [1/10 Accomplishments Unlocked: Murder Island Suite]. He tried to pry more information out of the system about the details of the other Accomplishments, but the system played coy and refused to show him the details. Playing coy with him seemed counter-productive, but hey, who was he to argue with the Gods and their holy system? Lance used a chunk of his stamina to rush away from the battlefield and from any bandits who were close.

Alone on the edge of the island, secluded in a small grove of trees, Lance created a basic shrine. He knelt down, clasped his hands together, and closed his eyes to offer a small prayer to his patron deity, Cannabus. Having offered prayer, he saw a new notification: [Would You Like to Open the Holy Shop?].

'Ah, so that's how this works!' he thought.

'The System will give me the offer after I pray. Good to know!'

"Yes, open the Holy Shop, please," he mouthed. His eyes still closed, Lance saw several golden rectangles open in his mind's eye. The options were wonderous. All of them had to do with reinforcing his body or mana in some way. That, or they granted him access to a new spell, new physical ability. He scanned his options... there were so many. How would he ever pick? Lance pushed his options away. He let the darkness of his mind, peaceful and quaint, lead him to the options which would best suit his campaign.

As the Gods intended.