Ascension: Online

As the army of Tianyin city got pushed back, the spectating civilians fled for their lives. That was probably the smarter decision to make in this situation, if I had to be honest. That being said, unlike the natives of this Reality Plane, I held the status of a player. That meant I had an infinite amount of respawns, an infinite amount of lives. Still, it wasn't as if I wanted to just throw my life away. Dying hurt - a lot, as I have experienced first-hand.

I gripped my dagger in my hand as the vicious lion-like beasts got closer to where I was standing, bulldozing straight through anyone in their way of destruction. I was waiting. Waiting for them to get closer, so that...this could happen.

[NEW SPECIES ENTRY]

[Name: Sabertooth]

[Type: Magic Beast (Mammal)]

[Weakness: None]

[Resistance: Physical Attacks]

...Are you kidding me?

NO weaknesses? And it's resistant against the only type of attack I currently had?

...I kept reading, slowly getting more desperate by the second.

[Description: Sabertooths are a type of Magic Beast in the Mammal subcategory. They have no distinct attack-type weaknesses, but do possess resistance against physical attacks. Both their attack and defense stats are extremely high, making them a difficult foe to defeat. However, they do have a single weakness - the inside of their mouths.]

There! Finally, some useful information!

So, the inside of their mouths was their weakness. I assumed this was because they didn't have their tough outer hide protecting them there. If I could land a good upwards strike from the inside of their mouths and pierce their brain...that should kill them instantly. But then I saw the next line of the new species entry.

[WARNING: Your current level is too low to combat this species. Escape is recommended.]

Disregarding this warning, I looked around and saw that many of the other players were also busy reading the new information that had just appeared to them, some shaking with horror. One kid, who was right beside me, looked like he was about to piss his pants from fear. However, the beasts were already practically on top of us - there was no time left. But I didn't panic, having already experienced death once.

The ability to remain calm in situations like this was the deciding factor between fool and fighter.

One of the sabertooths leaped towards me, knocking away several other guards in the process and sending them crashing into the walls of the nearby buildings that had already been destroyed enough. Luckily, thanks to my high AGI stat, I was able to jump up with incredible reaction time, just barely dodging out of the way of the creature's immensely powerful swipe. Its paw struck a structure instead, and cracks appeared on the brick wall of the building.

"Geez...with that kind of strength, if I get hit even once, I'm as good as dead," I muttered under my breath, before landing solidly back on the ground.

The sabertooth was slightly surprised that I managed to dodge its attack when no one else had before, so it paused momentarily.

That slight pause was all I needed.

I instantly dashed towards the beast, making good use of my AGI stat. The beast's momentary surprise quickly turned into fury, as he tried hitting me with its powerful paws once again. I immediately 'pulled the breaks' and leaned backwards, narrowly managed to avoid being smashed to pulp, but the tip of its claws still scratched me. I was left with a massive cut on my face, just barely missing my eyes.

It hurt. It hurt so much. But I could handle this. This was nothing, compared to back when I first experienced death in this game after jumping off that cliff. All pain was the same - all I had to do was grit my teeth, and bear it.

With two large strides, I reached the sabertooth's head. Our eyes met, and despite the massive gash carved into the flesh of my face, I smiled.

"Die."

With one hand, I unleashed the most powerful uppercut I could manage, knocking the beast's head straight up. Had my STR stat been a bit higher, I may have been able to send it flying with that strike - but even with my current strength, this was enough. The interior of the beast's mouth was hanging wide open, like an open target.

I leapt forwards, propelling my body towards the sabertooth's, and whipped out my dagger with my other hand, which had been underneath my right foot all this time, ever since that encounter with Ichigo. I hadn't taken it out, even while showering. I even kept it on top of my sandal when I was sleeping - all in preparation for a time like this.

The sabertooth was surprised by the sudden appearance of a weapon, but it was too late. As its eyes widened in shock, I drove the cold steel straight up the roof of its mouth with all my strength. It pierced through with ease, and the animal froze.

Time appeared to stop, to the beast and I.

Despite the raging chaos rampaging all around us, it was as if we were in a separate world of our own. I held the beast's entire body up with my dagger alone, not even bothering to use my other hand to help. The creature's powerful arms fell to its sides, its body limp.

I pulled out my dagger at last, and let the sabertooth's corpse fall to the concrete ground.

I glanced at my bloodstained dagger. I had done it. The sabertooth may have already been slightly weakened from the other - albeit minor - injuries it had suffered from all the other guards it bulldozed through, but even so, I had done it. I had slayed a Magic Beast far beyond my current level, one way or another.

"Heh...I wonder how much XP I'll get off th...huh?"

As a hologram appeared in front of me, I attempted to read it. But then, suddenly, I felt my vision getting hazy, and my world beginning to spin. My eyes clouded over, and slowly but surely, they closed.

I fell to the ground, and faded to darkness.

*****

"What...where am I....?" I murmured to myself. I attempted to slowly get up from the stone-cold floor, but then winced in agony.

There was nothing but blackness everywhere, all around me. I felt unbearable pain all over my body, and quite frankly, wanted to die, right then and there. But this feeling...this place...it was all too familiar. I had been here once before - when I jumped off the cliff of Mount Valgan upon first arriving in this game.

[You did better than I thought you would, human.]

"Huh...A.R.X.A...?" I looked around, but once again, could only see endless darkness. "Am I...dead? Again?"

[Yes. You died of blood loss.]

"Blood loss? Oh...I see. From the massive cut that sabertooth gave me..." I muttered in frustration.

[It was well worth dying, if you ask me.]

"Hm? How so? This sucks, you know? Computers can't feel pain, so you wouldn't understand, but...ugh, I regret listening to you."

[Slaying that sabertooth below the recommended level gave you plenty of rewards. You will thank me soon enough.]

"Hmph...thank you? Nah, I don't think I will...just, get me out of here already, will you? Please."

*****

"Thank you. I love you, A.R.X.A.!"

I was currently busy prostrating myself in front of my System, with A.R.X.A.'s emotionless, robotic face displayed on it. We were inside my inn room, where I had been teleported to after A.R.X.A. 'revived' me. According to her, sleeping inside an inn was akin to saving it manually. Ascension: Online did have auto-save, but saving manually at inns gave you spawn points, essentially. Whenever you died, you would be brought back to your spawn point - so manually saving was always a good idea, unless you wanted to use up all your Fast Travel Packs or just do a ton of unnecessary walking.

The sun was beginning to rise outside. When A.R.X.A. woke me up, it had been around 4 AM or so - I asked her. Now was about 5, only an hour later, so it seemed that my temporary death didn't cause me to lose any valuable time or anything.

Now...why was I kneeling in front of her in gratitude, exactly? Let us rewind time a bit to find out.

The first thing I did after being teleported back was open up my System. And the first thing that I noticed when I did, was my level on the left hand side of my screen and my stats on the right hand side. It currently read:

[Level: 10]

STR: 30

AGI: 25

INT: 5

DEX: 5

MAG: 10

LUC: 10

For the record, before fighting the sabertooth, my stats looked like this:

[Level: 5]

STR: 15

AGI: 15

INT: 5

DEX: 5

MAG: 10

LUC: 6

So, to sum it up, I gained 5 whole levels, my STR stat doubled, my AGI stat increased by 10, and my LUC stat increased by 4. All from fighting one Magic Beast. Of course, I believe the mild skirmish I had with Ichigo earlier contributed to the increase in my AGI stat a little, since I had dodged his attacks fairly well, but the majority of these benefits came from slaying the sabertooth.

Not only this, but I also received 50 SP and 5 AP for leveling up, along with some great item drops from the sabertooth itself. I discovered this by switching to the Inventory tab of my screen. Immediately, multiple pop-ups appeared.

[Obtained: Sabertooth Fang x1.]

[Obtained: Sabertooth Hide x1.]

[Obtained: Sabertooth Meat x1.]

[Obtained: Bone x1.]

Undoubtedly, the quality of these materials were exponentially higher than that of the sickleboar ones I had until now. The bones were more or less the same, but I had a feeling that the other three, especially sabertooth hide, would come in very useful in the near future. All I needed was a crafting recipe. I didn't want to risk losing these materials as I only had 1 of each, so I wasn't about to just try my luck in the crafting tab again.

"Hey, A.R.X.A..." I said, slowly getting back up from my prostration position. "...Why did you inform me of this opportunity?"

[For my own amusement. Nothing more, nothing less.]

She answered in a brutally honest manner, tone as cold and emotionless as ever.

I chuckled. "Right...but even if that's the case, you've really helped me out. I now have a bigger chance of catching up to the current top players."

A.R.X.A. paused. [I thought your goal was merely to Ascend and return to your old Reality Plane.]

I shrugged. "Well, yeah, but I never said I disliked this world. While I'm here, I might as well treat this as if it were really just a video game, and try to reach the top, y'know? I've never really been good at anything, unlike my sister, so my dream, ever since I was young, was to try being first - being the best at something - for once in my life. So...thanks. For giving me an opportunity to realize this selfish dream of mine."

Through this experience, I felt like I grew closer to A.R.X.A., somehow. I knew she was a supercomputer, an AI with no emotions. But even then, I felt like I now could - just barely - call her a friend. I didn't know if she regarded me the same way, but for some reason, this conversation we were having right now seemed to be a lot more 'personal', rather than business-like.

[...You did end up thanking me after all. My calculations were precise, as always.]

...And she just had to go and destroy it.

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah yeah...you kind of ruined the moment there, but sure. I lose against you this time, I guess."

[There is always tomorrow, human.]

I smirked triumphantly. "Took the words right out of my mouth."