章 13: Dual Wield, Lvl 21

Five minutes later, at the outer rims of the Ghost Town, Romulus stood in still motion. In his hands were two Pearlescent Cleavers, with greenish red blood dripping down both of them. Around him, however, were dozens of monster corpses, all varying in size and level.

[Ding! |Dual Wield| has leveled up from 'Lvl 2' → 'Lvl 3']

[Ding! You have killed a Lvl 25 Mountain Crawler and received 9,700 EXP!]

[Ding! You have leveled up!]

[You obtained 3 Stat Points in all of your main attributes!]

[You obtained 3 BP!]

Romulus's brows furrowed a little. "I got my B-Rank Dual Wield Skill to Lvl 3," he said evenly, his eyes scanning his surroundings. "I should now be able to venture into the Inner Layer of the Ghost Town and encounter far stronger foes."

As he peered into the depths of the fog, he saw hundreds of different system tags, with very few of them being green-tagged, while the vast majority of them were yellow-tagged. There were even several red-tagged and… black-tagged pop-ups…

"To have a black tag," Romulus said with a sharp gleam in his gaze. "That surely means extreme danger, or in a more likely scenario, certain death."

The sticky, misty air hung low, sticking to his skin. His expression hardened as he realized that, for the first time since arriving in this world, there could be some actual danger to his life. From what happened when he fought a red-tagged monster, it was made abundantly clear that even with a 10,000% all damage reduction booster, his defenses were brought to the verge of being shattered. It was only through pure luck and a bit of ingenuity that he managed to take down a red-tagged monster. If he were to go at it again, it was entirely possible that he would… die…

"Death," Romulus muttered. "Am I truly willing to bet my life on the chance of obtaining more power? If my goal is to survive, then why must I have to throw my life away? Is that not contradictory…?"

His thoughts churned as blood drizzled down his face and body, leaking into all of his crevices and then eventually onto the cobblestoned ground. He had a decision to make, and it was one that would most assuredly ignite another series of changes within him. If he went through with it, then he would likely never return to the way he once was. But if he didn't go through with it…

Suddenly, his eyes glowed with a fierce shade of black. "No, I refuse to fade into insignificance because of some useless sense of cowardice. Now that I have come this far, I must follow through with it and dig out a better life for myself," he said, his irises burning as bright as a fire. "I must become stronger — I must survive."

With no way to leave the Ghost Town and enemies in every direction, if Romulus did not become stronger, then he would die. All would be for naught, and his escape from that chained life of his would be deemed obsolete. For him, that was simply unacceptable.

It was with a newfound fire within his soul and a transformed will to strive that Romulus left the wartorn battlefield of strewn out monster corpses. His mind was focused on one thing, and one thing only — to survive and make it out of here.

The Minimap clearly indicated that the Ghost Town was not the entire world. There was more out there, possibly a world not filled to the brim with terrifying flesh-eating monsters. But to discover whether that was the truth or not, he had to keep moving forward. He had to keep killing, to keep adapting, to keep evolving. Suffering brings forth growth, and there was one ability of his that he had yet to try out.

[EX-Rank Romulus's Retribution]

[For all damage that the user receives, an appropriate amount of BP will be given out in return. The damage dealt to the user must exceed a certain threshold, and pain must be felt. It is recommended that the user fight monsters far stronger than him. Only this way can the maximum amount of BP be acquired.]

After reading over this brief Skill description, a cold gleam emerged in the depths of Romulus's ascendant eyes. He knew what he had to do, and though it would be painful, if it could help him escape this place, then so be it.

While his resolve was put to the test, the system interface popped up, showing him all that had changed thus far.

BLING!

—-------------

[Name: Romulus] — [Level: 21]

[Job: None]

[Title: None]

[MP: 280]

[BP: 26]

|Strength: 45 (220) | Defense: 44 (440)|

|Intelligence: 38 (190) | Agility: 48 (240)|

{[Skills: [EX-Rank Truck-kun's Retribution], [S-Rank Magical Eye (Lvl 2)], [S-Rank Minimap (Lvl 2)], [B-Rank Lightning Burst (Lvl 3)], [B-Rank Dual Wield (Lvl 3)], [D-Rank Pearlescent Cleaver (Lvl 4)], [E-Rank Frost (Lvl 4)].....]}

—-------------

After seeing that his BP counter had improved by a significant amount, Romulus dumped 20 points of it into his Strength and Agility, splitting it evenly across the two. His stat part of the system interface then looked like:

|Strength: 55 (275) | Defense: 44 (440)|

|Intelligence: 38 (190) | Agility: 58 (290)|

Following the most optimal allotment of his BP, Romulus resumed his trot deeper into the fog. Almost immediately, he noticed the temperature drop by a few dozen degrees. This made him wish for it to be warmer.

OOOM!

…