Chapter 2: Better attempt
"Hah... I'm a regressor Yukana."
His mind felt clearer now, sitting beside the wall while looking at the only exit. Yukana was a fan of these sorts of time-loop regressor stories and spoke a lot about it to Rei. He decided to read some for a bit before getting a little hooked on it too.
"Having a regressor ability in this situation... Balances it, I guess."
Regression is a powerful ability, but he still had to try hard and use it smartly. It's all about information, knowledge of the past runs of the future. And most importantly, the mother of all learning.
Repetition.
An iron will is needed for this ability if, of course, it activates by dying.
"Hopefully that's not fully the case..."
Rei didn't exactly like to experience the pain of dying, if he needed to endure that to repeat, he probably won't be able to do it. Dying goes against the basic instinct of all living beings.
He viewed his status once again while standing up. It was still all the same, nothing new.
'The important thing to take note of is this message.'
[???]
[Has recorded your first death]
[You have been taken back to the start]
And another thing, it wasn't an ability, but a rune. But what exactly is a rune? He couldn't find any markings on his skin.
Before he could go deep into his thoughts again, three familiar goblins walked into the room. Once they saw Rei, they all charged at him.
'Damnit, do I have to deal with these three every run?'
He gritted his teeth, it was a good way to get started yes, he could take all of their weapons and get EXP from killing them, but even getting cut by them, would result in death without an antidote.
Goblin A was the first one to try and kill him, swinging its sword vertically. Rei dodged to the side like before, but this time, he punched it hard in the face.
"Fuck you!"
He adjusted his glasses before dashing off with the other goblins chasing him, he was kiting the two.
Since Gobby A didn't drop the sword, and the two were just behind him, he couldn't act fast enough to do anything lethal.
And Goblin B came, with another punch, and a fast grab of the dagger, Rei faced Goblin C, he swung horizontally making Rei back away, and continued to swing wildly.
'I can't get close if he keeps swinging the sword like that.'
Rei grits his teeth, should he just run and avoid this encounter, or try his very best to get the goblin anyways?
Rei decided to run to the exit and choose the right path.
But he didn't fully run away, he waited for one of them to show up, he was faster, perhaps because of agility or due to his larger body.
And there, the goblin appeared, with the other two also following, I hid beside the exit of the right tunnel and stabbed the last one when they exited.
"Kreh!"
Rei felt the fleshy feeling, the warmth of its blood on his hands, he placed a hand on the goblin's head and pulled his dagger out of its head.
Before turning to the other two goblins.
'These are monsters, no need for sympathy, no need to feel weird. Isn't it normal to want to survive?'
And if he has to learn to kill, which is certain with a world of monsters. He'll do so.
Rei ran back, with the goblins speaking goblinerish, bad pun.
He took the time to look at the notification logs.
[Goblin LV0 killed: +25% EXP]
It was a dagger-wielding goblin he killed earlier, and now he has to deal with the two sword-wielders
'Goblins are stupid, but they aren't fools.'
They must be smart enough to not fall for that trick again, so he tries to do something else, heading back to the wide room, he was carrying a pebble on his other hand.
'A surprise item for my next trick.'
He then heard footsteps behind him and turned quickly, using that momentum to throw.
'Come on. Hit it!'
And he did! Goblin A stumbled after being hit, and that was enough time for him to lunge in with his dagger, and with both hands, the dagger pierced through its flesh, a stab to the neck.
[Goblin LV1 killed: +50% EXP]
The other goblin seemed shocked, but it soon started charging at Rei.
Rei took the short sword from the dead goblin and pointed it at the last one.
So far he was doing well, and he wasn't willing to risk it, so he waited for it to attack, and well...
'Wildly swinging again!'
He didn't want to get close, one cut was all it took for him to die, but that made him wonder.
He threw the dagger toward the goblin, he took a look and it still had some sort of faint green liquid that may be the toxin. The throw, however, didn't succeed, but like last time it distracted the goblin and it dodged out of the way.
This was still an opportunity, Rei thrusts the sword toward the goblin, it was quick to react, and moved to avoid it.
But just one cut was enough, and Rei managed to indeed, cut the goblin.
'Now it's a waiting game.'
The goblin continued to slash wildly, but Rei simply ran away away, he was faster than this goblin, which was presumably LV0.
'That other goblin was faster than it.'
And so he waited while running around, it wasn't all he did, however, he tried to sneakily attack it once again. It reacted however he inflicted another cut, he threw a pebble, but that didn't stop it.
The two were running out of breath soon, and with its smaller body, and with those wild swinging, the other goblin gave in to fatigue and Rei managed to stab the sword through its chest.
"Finally..."
He wasn't as tired as the last run, but, this was sure the workout and he worked quite a sweat.
[Goblin LV0 killed: +25% EXP]
[You have leveled up! +3 Stat Points to distribute]
"No healing huh..."
Well, he was somewhat expecting that result. But, what to do with the three stat points? He doesn't know how much a +1 would help him, so for now, he'll hold those off and look around, and most importantly...
"Tch... They weren't even carrying antidotes."
Rei took whatever he could find, one was the other sword, and he was going to dual-wield, one is better than two. Although a little heavy carrying the two.
Next was the bracer, which wasn't a piece of equipment that granted him any stat boost unsurprisingly, or surprisingly.
'Guess It'll only protect my wrist.'
He placed the dagger underneath his belt behind him, better to have more weapons than none. And other than that, it was time to see, what was on the other two sides...
So far, this has been a better attempt.
[Records of 'Rei Anamada']
<Race: Human>
<Age 17>
<Level: 1 [0%]>
(3 Stat Points to distribute)
[Might: 5]
[Agility: 7]
[Toughness: 5]
[Physical Tier: Mortal]
•Mana: 0•
•Mana Tier: Dormant•
•Abilities: None
•Skills: None
•Spells: None
•Runes: [???]
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone