Progression of a Magic Fighter Ch. 3

Ch. 3: Crazy Stunts and Loot

The reason for the Game’s existence was a mystery to Jor. Yes, he’d done some research and heard the propaganda plenty of times.

The apostles pushed the angle of the Sovereign God creating the Game. It was his whim to test humanity’s servitude through trials and monsters.

Jor was unsure about that angle. But he did know the creator of the Game had a mind for escalation of challenge, like a true game master. Thus, Jor started a new day lunging from a tree branch to ambush an ape.

The little human thrust his knee forward as he dropped on his target. Magic water condensed on his joint, leaving twinkling droplets in his wake like a passing comet.

“Ooh?” was the last thing the ape voiced before taking a flying knee to the dome. The water burst. The ape buckled. Jor landed feet first and bounced back into the offensive, not waiting to let the monster recollect itself.

Mana circulated rapidly around Jor’s sphere of magic. It flowed up his arms as requested and conjured glistening water around his knuckles. With each savage punch and magical blast, the mana replenished Jor’s water sorcery.

Straight punch!

Straight punch!

Straight punch!

The furious combo stumbled the ape backward and peeled its face from its skull. Its teeth fell from its mouth. Blood and water rained in gory showers. Once the middle of its face became a dent, Jor side-stepped and rushed up the hill.

A quick check with the Game saying <You’ve slain a Mundane Darkened Ape, Tier 4.> confirmed his fourth monster kill ever. He had three more apes to kill in a literal uphill battle.

He’d watched the latest monster batch for a whole day and night. They wouldn’t come down from the rocky hill that was clear of tall vegetation.

Only the first ape would get close to the forest line before turning back. So Jor had slain the first before starting his rise to slaughter the rest.

“Ooh! Ooh! Motherfuckers,” Jor taunted.

The apes whooped and bellowed in rage. The next rockhill ape lunged downhill like a boulder.

Little rocks bounced and scattered in the wake of its stomps. Before reaching Jor, the monster went airborne and swung its clawed foot at the little human’s head.

Jor suspected the apes would have kicks. Facing it for the first time was still a little intimidating. Thankfully, he had instincts honed from years of thrill-seeking to guide him.

He shuffled around the kick and ducked right afterward, too. The deadly wind of a missing hand swipe blew above his head, whipping about his dreadlocks.

The ape landed heavily, forced to stabilize its footing or fall down the rocky hill. Even while being faster, stronger, and bigger, the monster had to adhere to some physics.

Jor took advantage, planting a hand down while swinging out a water crescent kick. He hamstrung the monster, felling it in one move.

No time to finish that one just yet. Get to the others and– whoa! Jor rolled to the side and skidded back with some falling rocks.

A boulder the size of his chest smashed the spot he’d rolled away from. Little rocks scattered everywhere, beating on Jor in the fallout.

“Ooh! Ooh!” whooped the apes, picking up and hurling more boulders.

Jor clenched his jaw and got back to his feet. He fought for every inch up the hill, outrunning and side-stepping falling boulders. Once he closed in on the third rockhill ape, it stopped throwing boulders and lunged into a direct melee.

The difficulty heightened for Jor even more. He sidestepped a swipe, ducked a boulder throw from the fourth ape, and scrambled on all fours to avoid a kick from the third ape.

The room for error was tiny. The window to attack was even smaller. Jor pulled out the best plan from his ass, putting himself between both apes and timing his next dodge by the millisecond.

Another boulder hurtled down and scraped by Jor’s shoulder, nearly throwing him off his feet. The boulder kept going and smashed the third ape in the chest, a ribcage-shattering blow. The creature fell back.

Jor whipped around. He faced the fourth ape with his fists raised and a feral smile on his face. The monster recognized the little human’s challenge and met him head-on. Relentless. Fearless. The creature swiped, kicked, and howled with rage.

Jor silenced its howl with a magical uppercut. Before another shower of blood and water hit the rocky hill, Jor shuffled around and took the high ground. The creature turned to follow, swiping and missing.

Finding a gap in the monster’s offense, Jor lunged downhill and into the ape’s face. He brought with him a magical flying elbow and shattered the monster’s jaw. He sent it reeling backward and falling downhill with a heavy rock slide.

Thanks to the recoil, Jor stopped most of his momentum and landed at the very spot the ape had been standing on. He pointed his thumb at himself and asked, “Whose king of the hill now?”

Ignoring his trembling body, bloodied shoulder, heavy fatigue, and overtaxed mind, Jor came out better in this battle compared to the last. For now, at least. He still had to finish killing the remaining apes.

The chore of killing injured monsters turned out more dangerous than the direct conflict. They lashed out with random bursts of aggression even while in the throes of death. It nearly cost Jor an arm and a leg. Too bad he didn’t have the body to lift and toss boulders to smash in their heads.

In the end, he took the time to practice his water crescent kick and mana recovery meditation. He sliced the monsters to death in between short breaks.

It was around then Jor figured out a name for his magical fist strikes: water blast punch. He then realized he could blast water from any attack unlike the water crescent kick. The crescents came out better with kicks.

The water blast move should be a flexible name. Water blast knee. Water blast elbow. Water blast uppercut. Those should work for now.

<You’ve slain three Mundane Darkened Apes, Tier 4s.>

<You’ve gained a Mundane Loot Orb.>

Jor’s eyes widened with surprise as he limped away from the rocky hill. He retreated into the forest just in the nick of time.

Back on the hill, a big group of apes howled angrily after finding their dead brethren. Jor hurried, ignoring the discomfort radiating from his ankle.

He fled down a winding forest trail, moved past the rock clearing occupying three rotting corpses, and reached the creek. He slipped his legs into the water and focused on his inflamed left ankle. I must’ve sprained it. The adrenaline kept me from noticing until now.

While having 12 Body made him feel a significant bump in his speed and strength, he was still within the realm of the mundane. Fighting four Tier 4 monsters in a literal uphill battle on shifty footing was not something most men could accomplish. Jor’s abnormal focus had seen him through that challenge, but he still paid the price.

The sprained ankle was not the worst injury. But it could take days for the swelling to go down normally.

Jor breathed deeply and pressed his hand on his ankle. He thought about his mom’s hands glowing with a pale light and remembered the feeling of comfort and ease.

Without trying too hard, he coaxed his sorcery to reflect that moment. His mana circulated calmly in response.

The creek water glowed around his ankle. The inflammation and throbbing settled, and over the course of an hour, his sprained ankle healed back to one hundred percent.

Jor blinked in disbelief.

“Incredible.”

The healing art was a prized one. It didn’t come up often among humans.

Now that he thought about it, if Jor exposed his healing power to the public, he might get hounded aggressively by the sovereign apostles. They would tip off the imperial army officers, no doubt. I’ll have to hide this. I might have to hide a lot until I get somewhere outside of the empire’s control.

Jor had long thought of leaving his hometown behind. He could’ve done that with his life savings. But the journey to escape the Sovereign Empire was known to be dangerous. Leaving his hometown as a Mundane Rank could get him killed.

Ascending to an Adept Rank could lead to some higher paying work while staying out of the way of the apostles and imperials. He could acquire funds way quicker than before and pay for the voyage to freedom.

“I can do that twice as fast. No, maybe five times as fast. Especially if I sell the orb.” Jor extended his hand, palm up, and concentrated. The loot orb phased up from his palm, making his hand tingle with warmth. Like a miniature sun, the baseball-sized orb floated above Jor’s hand while remaining as part of his profile.

This one thing could sell for a lot. Granted, it came from a Tier 4 mundane, so it wouldn’t amount to the biggest of earnings. It was still an incredible find, nonetheless. Cerintain rewards could be passed down from a mighty one to a mundane, a practice followed by the elites with their offspring.

<Do you wish to open the Mundane Loot Orb?>

“Not yet,” Jor answered, letting the message fade. The orb remained above his palm as he stared at it, wondering what could be inside.

Loot orbs worked like loot boxes, a concept Jor could remember from Earth. They might offer new gear. Or it could give extra stats. Most of them gave considerable progression to a Gamer’s Experience, helping them level up.

There were probably more secrets hidden in loot orbs Jor didn’t know. Some scholars compared them to having the blessing of a minor deity, but randomized. The only certain thing was a loot orb coming from a certain rank giving a reward based on that rank.

Could I win this challenge without using the loot orbs? Jor grimaced and looked in the direction where more apes waited. Winning the challenge mattered more than saving up orbs to sell.

However, Jor figured clearing the warm up phase before using the loot orbs might work out better for him. He had more levels to gain from the Tier 4s before he risked using the orbs.

Jor healed his scraped up shoulder, refreshened, ate, and rested for the day. The next day, he journeyed further into ape territory.

After the rocky hill, it took an hour before he found the next batch of ape monsters. Jor frowned while observing from the bushes. The Game really loves to escalate.

Ahead of Jor was a deep ravine with a jagged rocky bottom. Between one edge and the other lay two fallen trees with thick trunks.

There was a considerable gap between the fallen trees serving as bridges. The gap was small enough for Jor to jump from bridge to bridge. But the gap was also large enough for a deadly fall into the deep and rocky ravine.

Jor was alone on his side of the ravine. On the other side were eight Tier 4 apes going about their day. There was no other way around. The trail led here purposefully.

Jor retreated into the forest without going away too far. He talked to himself to hype up his resolve. He even gave himself a few light punches to the face. From an outsider’s perspective, he looked like a mad man.

He’d been called mad and weird and different by other children. Jor figured he had to be this way. It was the only way to overcome the unfairness of life, and Jor believed himself to have suffered this unfairness from both worlds. So he had double the reason to be this way.

Once he steeled his resolve, Jor returned to the ravine and stepped out of hiding.

“Ooh?” sounded an ape, warning its brethren of the human.

“Yeah, yeah, come on and meet me in the middle,” Jor drawled, stepping onto the left tree bridge. “I’m here to bless you with some water, you heinous beasts.”

Another fight sprang up. The apes rushed onto both bridges, but most of them ran down the one Jor occupied.

The first ape raised its clawed hand for a swipe at Jor’s head. The human seemed like an easy target until he broke into a sudden sprint and lunged at the first ape.

The swipe hit nothing but air while Jor sailed to his right and kicked off the ape’s side. Unlike the past kicks, this one ended with a water blast.

“Ooooh!” howled the ape, falling right off the bridge. It served well as a launch pad for Jor to twist around, water droplets glistening in his wake, and land a flying kick on an ape occupying the right bridge.

He connected on the jaw, fracturing it, and sent the beast stumbling off the bridge. Just like the last ape, it served as another water blast launchpad.

In an instance, Jor became an insane aerial daredevil. He moved like pinball between both bridges, blasting apes off one kick at a time

The apes had relentless aggression and fearlessness down pat.  However, they were stuck in their ways. Jor had learned the timing of their reactions and strikes.

The human should be an easy target while remaining in the air. But he used every aerial twist to readjust the timing of his kicks, slipping in water blasts before or after the monsters swiped at him. At the same time, the constant water shower blinded the apes to Jor’s tricky movements.

In a blur of action, Jor ended up landing on the right bridge after felling seven apes in a row. Weariness couldn’t begin to describe how drained his body felt, how burnt out his mind felt.

Yet, Jor stood to his feet and sneered at the last ape as if this was all easy for him. The ape howled and jumped over the gap between them.

Jor stepped aside, spun, and whipped out a low water crescent kick to the nearest leg. The ape buckled before it could settle down on the bridge.

Carried by the momentum of its jump, the monster fell off the bridge and howled to its death. Jor watched it fall and hit the bottom with a wet and crunchy smack.

Ignoring his fatigue and the shakes traveling through his body, Jor sat down on the bridge and soak in the moment. He replayed the outrageously dangerous maneuver and factored how easily things could’ve gone wrong.

“Did I really pull that off?”

Yes, indeed, he’d pulled off a seemingly impossible stunt. However, with some thought, Jor realized his focus was the key. It was abnormally high.

Additionally, he was an athletic person in both lives. Martial arts had been a gateway for him to practice multiple things outside of prized fighting. He could vaguely remember parkour, swordsmanship, shooting, and living a life of extremes back on Earth. It was as if his past life was preparing him for this.

A combination of abnormal focus, water sorcery, and a comfort for dangerous stunts led to his victory over the ravine apes. And the Game recognized that.

<You’ve slain eight Mundane Darkened Apes, Tier 4s.>

<You’ve gained a Mundane Loot Orb. You now have two Loot Orbs.>

<Your Experience progresses, Gamer. You’ve leveled up from 2 to 4.>

<You’ve gained +4 Life, +4 Body, +4 Magic, +4 Focus.>

Jor gasped and felt the growth pass through him in a wave. His life became sturdier. His body became greater. His magic flowed with more power, and his focus sharpened further.

On the outside, he looked no different. The changes of a Gamer were more internal and magical. And these changes felt good. They felt really, really good.

Jor wanted more changes. More levels, stats, and power. More progression.