Chapter 50: Iron Stomach

[Name: –]

[Profession: (Adventurer)]

[Stats:

[Strength: E]

[Agility: F]

[Fortitude: E]

[Mana: –]

[Spirit: F]

[Skills:

[Strong Body]

[Pain Tolerance: E]

[Poison Resistance: E]

[Keen Senses: F]

[Iron Stomach: G]

Ackster looked at his Nomi with satisfaction that could rival the satiety he felt after eating even the bone marrow of the deers he had killed. He had tried gnawing on the bones as well, in a desperate attempt to train his teeth and jaws, but he had to give up since they were too hard.

But he had eaten practically everything else on the two animals. And it wasn't for nothing. He had finally gotten Iron Stomach, and while it was still G-ranked, having it was a world of difference from not having it.

And Iron Stomach wasn't the only thing he had gotten out of his suffering the last day. He had also bumped up most of his stats, Pain tolerance, and Poison Resistance. It was almost unbelievably rapid growth considering how weak he had been when he left the Phileam Estate.

But it was just the beginning, and it took exponentially more effort to reach every new rank, even with the Adventurer profession, which had probably played a big part in his growth.

Well, since he took down a couple of beasts, a Hunter would probably have gotten a little more. But since the two deers were stronger than him, just a little less versatile and vulnerable to sneak attacks, Acskter had still gotten a significant amount of existential power from his prey.

The fact that it was two against one had probably helped as well. Or, well, one against two since Ackster had initiated the fight.

The results on his Nomi and the conclusion that killing the two deers had helped him grow his stats made Ackster realize that he didn't just have to torture and abuse himself. Sharing that experience with others by killing a bunch of beasts and monsters would be one of the quickest ways for him to grow at the moment.

It might also lead to him getting a rarer skill, which wouldn't be as basic as Pain Tolerance or the others he had aside from Strong Body. They were still fundamental skills that made sure Ackster had a solid and strong base he could build an impregnable fortress on. But they wouldn't be the skills to make the fortress the best defense and offense. For that, he would need something more impactful.

However, skills like those had tricky acquisition conditions. Some were even so close to impossible that it wasn't even worth trying. But with the knowledge of a transmigrator, Ackster felt like anything was possible.

And, after digesting most of the food, making his stomach bulge through his partly torn and bloody shirt, he got up to continue moving.

Just thinking about it made Ackster motivated to get going again.

He sat up with a groan and grabbed his bag with the failed Doppelganger Slime and the sharp antlers of the Sharp-horned deer.

"Oh, shit. I forgot to ask if you were hungry, little guy."

Ackster opened the bag and looked at the mostly unmoving slime.

"Well, you don't look that hungry. But I'll give you some next time I catch anything, alright?"

Ackster wasn't sure, but he felt like the slime rumbled slightly as a way to respond to his question. He had no idea whether to tell if it was the rumbling of a slime's hypothetical stomach or if it was a yes, or if it was a no.

So, he just shrugged and kept moving. Since he couldn't tell if the slime communicated with him, he decided that it had and that it had said yes, it could wait.

But he still kept his eyes out for tracks of other monsters and beasts. Although chewing poison fingers was a decent way to train his skills, he still needed good stats to get far. And at the moment, they would be the most helpful.

At least, that's what he had confirmed after fighting with the two Sharp-horned deer.

Poison Resistance would be good if he got poisoned. His stats would be useful in any and every situation he could find himself in.

And since he was an Adventurer, he would naturally grow faster by killing monsters and beasts. It would also provide him with some much-needed combat experience.

With that mindset in place, Ackster went looking for trouble as soon as he found it.

His next victim was a pack of goblins.

Their tracks were easy to spot, and Ackster followed them for a while until he could confirm that they didn't belong to a goblin settlement. If they did, he would have found even more trouble and the existential power that would come with it if he managed to kill them all.

He would have to fight smart since he was up against so many, and he would have had to fight even smarter if there had been a settlement. But it was relatively easy work, nonetheless.

Wild goblins were pretty stupid, and Ackster didn't have any trouble getting them to separate from the rest of the pack, one by one, by throwing things that only one of them noticed or got hit by.

He once again felt unlucky that his encounter with the poison goblin was his first encounter with a monster of Millmeria. But at the same time, it was also thanks to it that he had gotten Poison Resistance and Iron Stomach so easily.

And, although he almost died, he wouldn't have fared any better against a pack of goblins.

When there were only five of the dozen or so large pack left, Ackster decided he had been careful enough. He had managed to lure the others away one at a time and killed them with ambushes.

But now… Now it was time for a proper brawl that would put his senses, reflexes, muscles, and skills to the test.

At least there weren't any poison goblins that could surprise him and incapacitate him. But even if there were, Ackster wouldn't go down without a fight now that he had his Poison Resistance at E.

As he stepped out of the bushes where he had been hiding, Ackster was almost looking forward to the fight. It had been far too long since he smelled the scent of blood from his fight with the deers.

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