Matt was distracted, but not completely zoned out. He felt a slight shiver and a cold sweat, causing him to immediately turn his head upwards.
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It was diving. Fast. Too fast, the sun behind it, covering its descent.
Matt did the only thing he could think of and ducked while rolling off of the buggy.
The vulture hissed as its talons grabbed onto nothing, missing Matt’s head.
Matt dropped behind the dune buggy, using it as cover while watching the vulture as it circled around, preparing for another strike. He was frantically looking around for anything to use as a weapon, or at least to scare the scavenging bird away. He still had the wooden stick from the old man, but the vulture was almost his size, and the stick looked weak and held no weight to it. If it failed to injure the bird or stop its attack, he'd be as good as dead.
The vulture dove once more for a second attack, seemingly displeased that its first one had grabbed onto nothing.
Matt sprinted towards Izzy’s dune buggy, the vulture gaining on him, and in the last second he jumped into a combat roll, hearing the snap of the aggressive bird’s beak where his neck had been less than a second ago.
The vulture started to ascend and circle back, no doubt getting in position for its next strike.
Matt got up and rushed to Izzy’s backpack. She had always been the most prepared, so she must have something in her bag.
The vulture was coming for him again, a guttural hiss coming out of its throat as it seemed adamant not to miss for a third time. It was flying in a vertical line straight at him. A direct attack, not a flyby like the previous two attempts.
Matt quickly dumped the contents of Izzy’s bag on the sand, desperately searching for something, anything… He could hear the angry bird getting closer, ready to tear him to shreds.
His eyes fell on the flare gun box. Not wasting time, he quickly grabbed it, opened it and prayed to all deities that it was loaded.
He immediately fell on his back and fired the flare gun upwards, not waiting for visual confirmation, there was just no time, choosing instead to trust his hearing and his instincts.
A grunt and a thud sounded as a direct hit caused the vulture to hit the sand.
Matt quickly got up and rushed towards the downed bird before it could get back up, wrapping his arms around its neck, attempting to snap the damn thing off, or at least choke the bird to death.
It thrashed and flailed around in desperation as it tried to break free, blood dripping from its head where the flare had hit it, the smell of burnt flesh filling Matt’s nose.
“Fucking die already!” Matt cried as he kept holding on, tightening his hold as tight as he possibly could around the long neck of the bird in an attempt to crush it, but it was surprisingly way more durable than he would've thought
Matt was struggling more and more to keep the hold, the bird’s glancing blows making it all the more difficult.
Seconds felt like minutes until with one final twist, a snap could be heard, before everything came to a standstill.
Quiet serenity returned to the arid desert, as the only sound remaining was the flare that hadn't yet burned out.
Matt heaved as he attempted to catch his breath, the heavy bird atop of him not helping. He pushed the vulture off before collapsing on the sand, arms wide open, taking in deeper and deeper breaths as he tried to calm his frayed nerves. He debated catching a couple of hours of shuteye, it had been a day full of surprises, and right now he couldn’t wait for the day to end, but he knew that if another vulture showed up, the only thing going to end was him.
“What the fuck was wrong with that thing? I thought vultures didn't attack humans,” Matt grunted as he attempted to get up to his feet using the buggy for leverage. He noticed a long gash on his forearm and a few cuts on his thighs, blood covering his clothes.
“Great,” he muttered before wincing slightly, the pain much more prominent now with adrenaline fading. He walked to the buggy, and took out the first-aid bag, disinfected the injury and bandaged it tightly. The other cuts didn’t need bandaging but definitely had to be disinfected, so he did that.
I need to get out of here, the noise and smell of blood must’ve caught the attention of other scavengers, he thought to himself as he considered his next move. He grabbed the gas canisters from the other three buggies and started filling the tank of the buggy Izzy had been using—the one that had the most gas left—before pouring the rest into the buggy’s gas canister. He then got on the buggy, turned it on and started heading east. Amir had been sure of the direction, and Matt trusted the native man.
Something was still bugging him, though. While the vulture was way too fast for its size, he was somehow able to keep up with its movements. His body felt lighter than it had ever been, and the cut on his forearm didn’t hurt anywhere near as much as it should’ve. Was it the adrenaline? He wondered, trying to figure out if anything else felt odd or unusual as he drove through the endless desert.
An hour later, feeling he had made enough distance between himself and the location of the fight, he stopped the buggy and took a look around. It was still an arid desert as far as the eye could see, no objects, manmade or otherwise, no water, no nothing, only sand could be seen. He sighed and decided this was as good a spot as any for a break.
Dropping to the sand, he leaned against the buggy, he needed a change of seating, the one in the buggy was slowly becoming his nemesis from how stiff it felt.
He brought up his status screen again, he hadn’t finished reading it, and it was crucial to know what he was capable of, especially if vultures started randomly attacking him now.
Before the status screen appeared, some notifications popped up, filling his vision.
You have defeated Desert Vulture (level 10)
Moderate feat of power performed.
Title unlocked!
Hunter (Tier 10)
Defeat a target 10 or more levels higher than you while at tier 10.
+2 all stats
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
+5% all stats
(only one hunter title per tier)
Level up!
Level up!
Level up!
Level up!
You are now level 4
You have 8 free stat points to distribute
Okay, so apparently a level 10 vulture had decided to attack him.
Fucking bully, serves you right, bet you didn’t see that coming, ass kicked by a level 0, he thought, an excited smile on his face. As scary as it had been, it was also thrilling. For the first time, his destiny was his own, his achievements his own. If he made it through, it was because he was strong and smart enough, if not, then he just couldn’t cut it. It was like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders.
For the last four years, he had always wondered if he had really escaped or was still dancing to his parents’ tune. They had controlled every aspect of his life since the day he was born, and accepting that they no longer had any control over him took a lot of time and effort. He even thought that they had sent Izzy and Jackson to keep an eye on him and was extremely cautious around them for the longest time. That level of paranoia was almost his downfall, being distrustful in a job where working in teams was mandatory had cost him a lot. Thankfully, he hadn’t messed things up enough since he still had a job and they were still his friends.
Now though, he didn’t need to worry about any of that. He had an entire planet to himself, and so for the next six months he was going to train, he was going to grind, and he was going to prove to himself that he was his own man. His accomplishments his own, his strength his own, and his weakness his own. “In a world where power reigns supreme, the shackles are finally off. Let’s see how far I can go,” Matt promised as he smiled to himself, looking forward to the days to come.
But first things first, back to his status.
Status
Name: Matthew Ashfield
Level: 4 (Tier 10)
Class: NA
Race: Human (Tier 10)
Titles
Initiated(Unknown)
Spirited Soul
The Sole Reject
Hunter (Tier 10)
Stats
Strength - 4(20)
Agility - 4(20)
Spirit - 10(35)
Intelligence - 7(24)
Wisdom - 8(25)
Willpower - 8(25)
Vitality - 5(21)
Endurance - 5(21)
8 stat points available to distribute.
Skills
[Universal Tongues](unique)
[Identify](common)
Hmm, my new title got added and my stats are higher now. I guess the number before the brackets is the base? That’s ugly to see though, can’t I just see my total? Matt contemplated, and just like that, it was adjusted.
Stats
Strength - 20
Agility - 20
Spirit - 35
Intelligence - 24
Wisdom - 23
Willpower - 25
Vitality - 21
Endurance - 21
8 stat points available to distribute.
The only increase to the stats was from the title. Did that mean the only stats he got per level were the 2 free points? That was extremely low, especially since right now he had 189 total stats, 2 per level was like a drop in the bucket. There had to be more to it. Whether he would regret the delay it took to get to that information was the real question.
He tried inspecting the stats but there was no description for any of them, the only information shown was that the starting average for humans was 5 per stat, so he was below average in Strength and Agility, but had really good starting Intelligence, Wisdom and Willpower, and somehow had 10 points in Spirit. “What the fuck is spirit even? Isn’t that a healing stat?” he muttered to himself, getting more and more frustrated by the lack of information.
He could guess what each stat, or attribute depending on what you wanna call them, did, or represented, but knowing exactly was crucial, like was Strength purely offensive or did it provide physical defense too? What about Intelligence and Wisdom? They were similar in nature, so for each of them to be its own stat meant that they provided different things even if they should in theory complement each other.
And then came Spirit… if the average was 5 and he had a starting of 10, that's double the average. And if he takes into account his grand total of 35, that meant he had seven times what other people had, which was insane at level 4, especially since he had no fucking clue what it did. For all he knew, it could be a stat that helped him better flavor soup, or made him a kick ass brewer. “Guess I missed my true calling,” he chuckled to himself.
He didn’t know what was in store for him, but he was optimistic about the future. He did hope though that he could find some information soon, he really didn’t want to manually check what each stat did, it would be a waste of a resource that was scarce to begin with. “I really wish Jackson and Izzy were here, they are so much better at this than me,” he muttered, raising his eyes to the sky.
Jackson had been playing RPGs since he was a kid. Even if he looked like a lumberjack, he was a gamer at heart, and Izzy was somehow a genius at exploiting bugs. He knew this wasn’t a game, but he couldn’t help but compare the two. The similarities were just too… jarring.
Guess it’s gonna take some getting used to. I hope they’re doing okay though, he thought to himself before smiling and chuckling a little, “Who am I kidding, Jackson is probably having a blast.”
Jackson was not having a blast.
Okay, saying he wasn’t having a blast was a bit misleading, but he definitely could be having more of a blast if those so-called instructors would stop pestering him about his class.
After a hectic first day of fear and confusion, and their hosts introducing themselves as Al-Haan family, leaders of planet Hedar, part of the Kanaz Empire, and trying to calm everyone down and explain to them their new reality, things had started to settle down a bit. People were still in a state of shock and disbelief, but humans were nothing if not adaptable, and it seemed their hosts weren’t new to any of this and had ways to help people better deal with the changes. In reality though, magic being flung around as if it was all a big Hollywood production tended to drive the point home. Life was different. Reality was different. And the only thing that remained was to learn to accept it, or live with it, because fighting it wasn't possible anymore.
Speaking of their hosts, they had really wanted to leave an impression and for names to be remembered, even going as far as introducing the planet’s permanent leader, Moaaz Al-Haan, and making a big deal of how he was a Tier 6, a Guardian. Jackson didn’t care much for politics or whatever these guys were doing, he just wanted to get started and learn some magic. Izzy was worried sick about Matt, but he knew Matt well, and he knew that whatever happened, he wouldn't let it stop him, so Jackson did the same and went to the instructors to find out about classes.
When they saw his frame and his starting attributes, they were beaming with joy and excitement and wanted him to be a tank of some kind or some form of heavy armor warrior right away because of how high his Strength and Vitality were. He adamantly refused. They insisted. He didn’t care. In the end they all agreed that he would be doing what he wanted anyway, and they could fuck right off.
They probably thought he wanted to be light or medium armor warrior or something of the like, so when he later that day, after browsing through some books and tomes in the library, told them he was going to be a mage, they lost their collective minds, they even had him meet some high tier from the city to try to talk him out of it, but he wasn’t budging. He was going to be a mage, and he was going to cast a goddamn fireball.
Casting a fireball was simply the dream, and not just fireball, there was also meteor, flamewall, earthspikes, entomb, and many, many more.
So what if he had 10 starting points in Vitality and only 3 in wisdom? That hadn’t stopped him before, and it sure as hell wasn’t gonna start now. I’m gonna mage the shit out of this tutorial. 12 y/o Jackson, this one’s for you! He thought to himself, grinning from ear to ear at the endless possibilities at hand.
