Before the battle began, John checked his status window.
Name: John Smith
Level: 6
Unique Skill: Regressing
Stats:
Strength: 125
Agility: 100
Endurance: 100
Mana: 100
Intelligence: 100
Luck: -984561316
Skills:
Lv.1: Regeneration
Lv.2: Spear Mastery, Mana Gun Mastery, Pain Tolerance
John looked at the ghoul he wanted to kill — but it seemed different this time. It was… weaker. John knew this would happen because of the Berserk effect; he'd only guessed it might, and it had actually happened. The ghoul's power had dropped to the upper limit of a level-20 ghoul.
Still, the rage in the monster's eyes remained. It wanted to kill John. The murderous intent it projected now felt completely different than before and rooted John in place.
"Come on! A killing intent at this level can't do anything to me!"
Ding! You have gained [Resistance Lv.1].
The ghoul moved toward John more slowly than previous times. John had become somewhat used to that pattern. When it got close, he fired mana shots at its eyes again — four shots hit its body and two hit both eyes! This time, it could not enter Berserk mode; it had just used it. This gave John a golden opportunity to strike before the ghoul's eyes healed. Ghouls enjoyed terrifying regeneration: even if you severed an arm, it could regrow in a few days, and eyes recovered in a few hours — when not in Berserk.
"I must use light, quick attacks so my spear won't get stuck in its muscles like last time." John struck at its weak points: eyes, tendons, nose, mouth, and ear. The wounds were minor individually, but they accumulated fast and became serious, even for a fast-healing ghoul.
The ghoul screamed and made one last desperate flurry of random blows that nearly hit John. He dodged most, but one punch landed hard.
"Damn it! Just die already! You know this is your last stand — why won't you die?!" John thought, keeping his voice low so the monster wouldn't learn his position.
John moved quickly toward one of the ghoul's eyes to deliver a final blow. The spear pierced the eye, but the ghoul stopped it at the crucial moment.
"You're still clinging to life?! Hah — I knew you would." A few minutes passed while John recovered all his mana. He fired all his mana shots at the ghoul's face.
"Die!!" Every shot hit the ghoul's face, and finally, the spear drove into its brain!
Level Up ×15!
Regeneration increased!
Spear Mastery increased!
Although the ghoul had been reduced to the strength of a level-20 ghoul, it had originally been level 30, so killing it granted John an immense boost of experience.
"I'm level 21 at last. I can kill most monsters in this area now, unless I run into huge packs. I should allocate the stat points I just gained — I'll split them between Strength, Agility, and Mana."
Name: John Smith
Level: 21
Unique Skill: Regressing
Stats:-
Strength: 150
Agility: 125
Endurance: 100
Mana: 125
Intelligence: 100
Luck: -984561316
Skills:-
Lv.1: Resistance
Lv.2: Mana Gun Mastery, Pain Tolerance, Regeneration
Lv.3: Spear Mastery
"Even though I beat that ghoul, I need to rest a bit. My wounds aren't trivial — I should find a hiding place first."
So John hid for a few hours inside a residential building until his injuries fully healed.
"Strange — why hasn't any authority sent forces to rescue us from this wave? Anyway, I'll clear the monsters here first, then I'll know what's outside." The monster waves had disrupted the networks, so John couldn't tell what was happening in the world. In truth, John was the cause: when his ability awakened, his awful luck didn't only affect him — it affected the entire planet. Now monster waves were appearing everywhere.
John killed the remaining monsters. He struggled a little with groups of level-30 ghouls, but managed to escape and pick them off one by one.
"Only the wave boss remains… What? The wave's disappearing already — did I kill the boss? Was it that berserk ghoul? No wonder it was so strong." He'd leveled up only four times after killing the whole wave; it seemed experience efficiency decreased as his level rose. John assigned the 20 newly gained points to Intelligence to increase his mana recovery to 1.2 mana per second.
Spear Mastery and Mana Gun Mastery each rose by one level as well. John had gotten used to the spear and could now kill all the monsters in the wave with it, but he still used the mana gun to keep improving his proficiency. When John left the wave zone, he saw what had happened to the world.
"What is this?! Monsters have always existed, but this is the first global wave on this scale! Could this really be because of my damned luck? Could it affect the whole planet?!"
John thought it over and could not dismiss the idea. Before awakening, he rarely kept a job — whenever he did, he eventually lost it; businesses closed. When he hung out with friends, strange things happened: car collisions, food poisoning after eating at a restaurant, and so on. Once he realized this, he withdrew from the world to avoid harming others with his bad luck. He'd hoped that when his powers awakened, he'd become a hero and save everyone. Instead, he had become a disaster threatening the world.
"What should I do? If I kill myself, would this loop end? But how can I — I have the regressing ability. I can't even do that? Is my unique skill tied to my cursed luck, too?!"
John sank into thought about what to do. After much deliberation, he made his decision.
"I'll kill every monster until it ends, or until I die when my power breaks. I must increase my strength if I want to save the world. I can raise strength by mastering skills or by killing monsters and leveling up. I've heard of methods to raise stats without leveling, but I don't know if it's true, and it'd probably take a very long time."
After considering the options, John chose to focus on mastering skills for several reasons. First, wave zones become safe areas. Second, because of his luck, the monsters he'd face would be tougher than those he'd encountered before. The reason he'd fought relatively weak monsters earlier was that he had been level 1 — level-30 monsters could easily kill him, and he'd already died 12 times to them. Were it not for his unique ability Regressing, he would already be dead. So he repeatedly trained skill mastery.
"My current skills are as follows:"
Lv.1: Resistance
Lv.2: Pain Tolerance, Regeneration
Lv.3: Mana Gun Mastery
Lv.4: Spear Mastery
"Spear Mastery depends on how well I understand spear combat. Fortunately, the internet still works. I'll watch spear-fighting techniques and imitate them until my mastery improves. Mana Gun Mastery depends on aiming — I'll practice rapid long-distance targets to raise it. Pain Tolerance and Regeneration will be raised by injuring myself to build tolerance. As for Resistance… I don't know how to raise it yet; I'll leave it for now."
Thus, John's training routine began: watch spear fighting videos and practice until exhausted; then inflict minor self-harm to raise Pain Tolerance and Regeneration; when he recovered, practice the mana gun; then search for new skills to master. John mastered new skills, including meditation, which doubles mana recovery when practiced, and learned Detection to sense nearby enemies, as well as beginner magic to wield elemental forces.
John continued training for 100 years.
"I trained here for 100 years, and the safe zone never vanished. I only went out to fetch food and drink. Now at 120 years old, I can't hold the mana gun like before, and I can't even lift the spear. Looks like I have to change my training focus to magic."
So he trained for another fifty years.
"Wow — this 'Realization' skill is amazing. If I stare at any skill long enough, I can master it. Anyway, I think the time has come." John cast a fire spell on himself — he died.
Activating [regressing].
"I'm back to day one."