Chapter 4: A Perilous Situation (2)
SLASH! THUD!
The sound of a katana slicing cleanly echoed as it followed with a satisfying click, the sword was sheathed again. The tail of the chimera beast dropped with a thud.
ROOAAARR!!
A middle aged man with a katana sheathed by his waist, eyed the beast.
"You got blood on my new suit. What a drag." The man huffed in annoyance, flicking the blood off his katana. He took a puff out of a cigarette in his other hand, before throwing it on the floor.
The large Chimera beast rushed towards the peasant that had cut off its tail, gnashing with its sharp fangs. The man lept back with agility, slicing twice with his katana, both of the beast's wings were dismembered, only leaving a large sized lion.
"Quiet down. You're just a rowdy cat." The old man scoffed, slashing one more time, causing the body of the large beast to split in two.
"Sir, we've secured the young miss. She is safe. What are your orders?" Another young lady appeared in front of the man, kneeling in front of him.
"Take the boy to a hospital, and send the young miss back," The man ordered with a gruff voice, causing the shuffling of feet to ensue.
Arthur felt two pairs of hands picking his body up and placing it on a stretcher, then his consciousness blacked out completely.
**
'Arrghh! My head! Was my body hit by a truck?!' Arthur groaned, opening his eyes to see a white ceiling. He slowly got up observing the room he was in.
The room was plain and functional. White walls stretched upward to meet a ceiling fitted with bright, fluorescent lights. A single window allowed a glimpse of the outside world, letting in bright sunlight. The people Sarah had called must have made it to him in time.
['Physique' has increased 11 >>> 12]
['Strength' has increased 10 >>> 11]
Arthur thanked the lord he was alive, then looked at the new notifications. It seems pushing your body to the limits increases your stats. Arthur peeked down at his body, through his hospital gown, seeing a huge circular scar at the centre of his chest where the chimera had punctured a hole through.
'I'm alive! Woopwoop!' Arthur sighed in relief falling back into the soft embrace of his hospital bed. The Hospital he was in was probably for Hunters, they had special medicines and potions capable of even regenerating limbs.
'I really messed up this time, even 'they' had to help me. I really have to get stronger. To protect Sarah and myself, there are no rewards where there are no risks as grandfather used to say. Crap! I've become complacent.' Arthur's eyes showed a resolute fire in them, he sighed deeply, his mind shifting back to the attack.
Arthur's attention was suddenly averted towards the door, where 2 men in black suits came into the room.
"Good Morning, we are agents from the Hunter association. We would like to ask you some questions." The lanky man on the right asked, holding a tablet in hand.
Arthur nodded, waiting for the man to start. Both the men sat in front of him, whilst he remained seated on his hospital bed.
"Firstly, we would like to ask about your awakening. Did you encounter any issues during the awakening? An expert at the scene observed your movements and had reported that you were an F Rank Hunter, but you are not on our database." The man with the tablet queried.
"No sir, there were no issues during my awakening. It was reported I had failed the awakening but I have a status panel. I must have minute amounts of mana, which probably didn't get picked up." Arthur spoke solemnly, pretending to show some sadness too, as if he was gutted about having close to zero mana.
He had to put on a facade. He knew who these two were. He had read about stories like these from the Worldnet. They were recruiters for Military academies!
Arthur knew if he said he wasn't an awakened they would just ask him basic questions and leave. If he said something good, there was a chance he could get recruited, and that's exactly what he wanted.
He could get stronger in the academy and escape his library duties. Two birds with one stone!
"Okay, we would like to test you once more, just to update our database to ensure there were no mistakes. This device will just sense if there are any mana waves being emitted from your body; this won't be like an awakening." The other man spoke this time, putting a Black orb in front of Arthur.
"Please place your hands on the orb."
Arthur followed the man's instructions placing both his hands on the orb, but nothing happened.
There were no changes even after a few minutes.
'Mmh. It shows the mana is extremely minute, almost non-existent. We've seen cases like these, where the mana core that is redundant suddenly goes from being inactive to active. Extremely rare my foot. This is our second case in a single day.' The man with the black sun glasses jotted down the result of the test on his tablet, whilst the other man took the orb away.
The duo asked some questions about the events of the previous day's dungeon break then decided to leave.
"Thank you for your time. Get well soon, The people that brought you here paid for all the medical costs. We will be in touch." The two men nodded, getting up and exiting the room.
Arthur sighed, leaning back against his pillow again, "I better get recruited."
'Status Menu Open.'
[Name: Arthur Grimm]
[Class: Peerless Librarian]
[Physique - 12]
[Mana - 0]
[Strength - 11]
[Bookmarks - 0]
[Skill(s) - Mental Library (D), Librarian's Gift (S)]
Arthur scanned the books in his Mental Library finally stumbling on the book that he decided to check the conditions for.
[Book Name: Rise of the Nobody Soldier]
[Difficulty: ★★☆☆☆]
[Quest Conditions: The land of Terandor has been trapped in a seemingly never-ending war, with nations locked in bitter struggles for territory, power, and resources. The reasons for the conflict have long been forgotten, and the lines between right and wrong have blurred. You will take up the role as the main character Damian Lorde, a mere soldier. Follow the plot of the story and complete all the events till Chapter 3 of the book.]
[Quest requirements:
'Physique' Stat - 10+'Strength' Stat - 10+]
[Rewards:
C Rank Skill: 'Sword Qi' - An ancient martial skill that uses one's profficiency in the sword to manipulate and control the very essence of the blade. Practitioners of this skill are able to imbue their sword strikes with intense, focused energy of mana. This increases the cutting power and accuracy of each swing, making it a deadly option on offense and defense. The wielder of the 'Sword Qi' is able to project this energy beyond the physical screen, extending their range and allowing for ranged attacks. This skill can be raised in rank by increasing one's understanding of the path of the sword.+10 'Physique' stat+10 'Mana' Stat+10 'Strength' Stat
[Penalties: Failure to complete this Quest will make you unable to retry this quest again.]
[Disclaimer - Dying in this transmigrated world will not return you to your world!]
'This is a good story to conquer as my first story. It's in a medieval setting with no mana, so I won't be hindered. I should at least increase my stats to 15 before I attempt this.' Arthur made up his mind jumping out of the comfortable hospital bed. He would utilise every opportunity he had, and being scared to use his own S rank skill was just cowardly. This wasn't him.
Sometimes one had to step out of their comfort zone to grow.
200 Push-ups
200 Sit-ups
200 Squats
20 Km Run
That was the routine he would follow these next 2 weeks. Physical training allowed one to raise their stats and Arthur would start with this, this would ensure he was pushing his physical capabilities, to help raise his stats.
'Let's just hope I don't start losing hair.' Arthur smiled getting started with his push-ups.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
TofSpades
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