Chapter 2.

This should be the right route to avoid that thing. 

Amber slowly went down the stairwell, reaching the floor as she carefully avoided a slightly cracked tile on the ground. She turned only to see an unassuming hallway, much like the one she had been living in. Though this floor was much different. She took slow and methodical steps, careful of what she was stepping on⁠. And just when she was about to get to an intersection, she took another step— and the ground clicked.

Amber hurriedly retraced her steps back as a volley of spears hit the wall she had just been standing next to, impaling it and leaving an echoing sizzling sound. 

So not all the plates are cracked. She frowned and then tensed feeling the vibrations on the floor. She immediately turned and a wall behind her exploded, she caught a glance at the gargantuan beast that had just entered. Dozens of spears flew at it but bounced off its rugged skin. It resembled a bulky animal, akin to a rhinoceros but it had numerous horns on its head. 

 

[Lesser Horned Juggernaut. Lvl. 27] 

 

It’s back. 

Without hesitation, Amber bolted for her escape as the monster unleashed a roar and chased after her. Each of its meaty steps made the ground and walls reverberate. Amber didn’t care for traps as she triggered all of the spears in the hall⁠. The monster was faster than her and Amber was going to get caught, but she quickly used one of her skills she had learned in her time here⁠— Body Bash!

She felt a burst of speed as she reached the stairs and immediately rushed up the steps⁠— the Lesser Horned Juggernaut hit. The side wall of the tower nearly exploded from the impact. The monster tried to chase up the stairwell but thankfully it was stuck down there. 

Amber stood at the top of the stairs, looking at the Lesser Horned Juggernaut who was roaring at her. Then she sighed and turned around, beginning to make her way back to the floor where she rested. Right now, she was at the edges of the frog floor. According to her phone she had been here for close to two weeks, though considering she hadn’t turned on her phone since then, she was definitely past the two weeks mark. 

While she did miss her home, strangely enough she didn’t feel that lonely or even bored. Sometimes she wondered about that quite a lot, but now wasn’t the time. 

Shaking her head, she stood under the sunlight of a window, feeling the warmth of the sun. At times she’d admire the landscape outside. It was a nice motivator for her to leave this place.

That said, she hadn’t spent the entire time relaxing, instead she had figured out how the System worked, or game system as she first called it. 

She had grown much stronger since her first day here. Obtaining Two General Skills and another Core Skill. First was the Core Skill. 

 

[New Core Skill! For reaching level 10 as a Warrior you have learned Body Bash ⁠— level 1.

You’ve grown used to evading your foes! And now, you can charge at them, with your shoulder, with a shield, hell even your body will suffice!]

 

The skill looked lame at first sight, but she quickly figured out that she could just use it to either charge, or actually bash, though neither of the actions needed to be against something. So the movement it provided had proven to be invaluable for her. It however, had a small cooldown window⁠, just like Heavy Swing did. The former had a slightly longer window than the latter between uses. Though both were short. 

Then, there were the two General Skills she had attained. 

 

[New General Skill! You have learned Keen Senses⁠ — level 1. 

You’ve barely survived the traps around you and the deadly golems. You are now more aware of potential dangers and attacks.] 

 

The skill was self explanatory, but it had helped with her survival as much as the other General Skill she had gotten. 

 

[New General Skill! You have learned Fast Recovery⁠ — level 1. 

You’re barely surviving sleep deprivation, the worst of all your bodily injuries. You now recover faster, whether it is from poison, illness, injuries, or even tiredness.] 

 

Of course, her skills had also leveled up during her exploits⁠. Amber smiled to herself before a croaking sound got her attention, she turned only to see about six Scraper Frogs charging at her with ominous and terrifying hops⁠. Well, the sight would’ve terrified her two weeks ago, now though… 

 

[Scraper Frog. Lvl. 7]

[Scraper Frog. Lvl. 6]

[Scraper Frog. Lvl. 4]

…

 

It just made her smile. She immediately rushed at the frogs and with a kick, one went flying, hitting the wall and instantly dying with a small splatter. Then, she stomped at another frog, her now increased strength pulverizing half of its body. Two of the monsters jumped at her but she caught them mid air ⁠— one in each hand ⁠— and slammed them against each other. She turned to the other two frogs only to see them hopping away. Though, given how relentless their chase was in the past… 

Amber smiled and ran after them, kicking one of them and grabbing the other one before slamming it against a wall near a broken statue. 

A myriad of notifications came which she almost ignored, but one in particular caught her attention. 

 

[You have defeated a [Scraper Frog. Lvl. 7].]

[You have defeated a [Scraper Frog. Lvl. 6].]

[You have defeated a [Scraper Frog. Lvl. 6].]

… 

 

[You have reached level 14. 5 stat points awarded.] 

 

Level 14, that means a new skill soon. She smiled. Every 5 levels she seemed to get a Warrior Core Skill, so she expected the pattern to follow. 

She turned to the dead frogs and sighed, beginning to remove their legs with an angled stone she found nearby. It was her food. Her raw and gross food she had been surviving on. 

She sighed. “I never expected to be this collected in a situation like this.”

She was sure a normal person would be depressed, they would cry and feel helpless, but Amber didn’t feel that way. The lack of human interaction surprisingly didn’t bother her much either. She did feel a bit depressed at the start, but now all she wanted was to get out. 

Unfortunately, the Lesser Horned Juggernaut was an absolute fucking menace, and incredibly territorial. It was the only monster on that floor and she didn’t know when she’d be able to kill it, going past it was not an option. 

“Still, it’d be nice if I could use a weapon against it,” Amber idly commented as she approached the broken statue nearby, or more importantly the weapon next to it. 

There, on the ground, a sword laid. Her finger touched the handle and she was immediately cut, blood instantly dripping. She clicked her tongue and shook her head before wiping her hands with a dirty cloth she had found a while back. After giving the sword a longing look, she took the frog legs back to her hideout. All she could do right now was take things one step at a time. 

And so, now back in her hideout and seated on her chair, she distributed the five stat points she had been given. In the end, she gave two to strength, and the other three went into vitality, dexterity and endurance. 

Amber looked at her status. 

 

[Name: Amber | Level: 14

Class: Warrior | Unspent Stat Points: 0

Stats: 

Vitality: 40

Strength: 30

Dexterity: 30

Endurance: 26

Intelligence: 15

Wisdom: 15

Free Core Skill Slots: 8 | Core Skills: 

[Heavy Swing - Lvl. 6], [Body Bash - Lvl. 4] 

General Skills: 

[Identify - Lvl. 1], [Toxin Resistance ⁠- Lvl. 2], [Keen Senses - Lvl. 3], [Fast Recovery - Lvl. 4].] 

 

Some of her stats had almost tripled or in the case of Vitality quadrupled since she had come to this world. She had done the math to figure out her base stats sometime ago. Almost all of them were 10 or above, except for Vitality which started at 9. In the end, the way she decided to invest her attributes was to favor Vitality. Mainly because she didn’t want to die, but she had also found out it helped injuries recover faster even before obtaining Fast Recovery, so it hadn’t been a bad investment.

Aside from that, she leveled her physical attributes, barely touching Intelligence and Wisdom, she did put some points in order to not leave them behind in case she needed them. But aside from magic she wasn’t sure how they helped her. 

Maybe if they are high enough I can nullify whatever curse is on the weapons of the tower? she wondered. 

Well, in the end, she wouldn’t know ⁠— she was a Warrior not a Mage or whatever. And so, Amber ate her daily meal, intending to go terrify the frogs down below to get water from their floor after. 

 

* * *

 

Now satiated, Amber made her way to the floor above her hideout. The floor of rocky-friends, as she had named it. She wandered through the spacious halls, light was plentiful on the floor with numerous windows to the outside and light fixtures, there were also a lot of piles of rubble. About thirty seconds after stepping on the floor, one of the piles moved and she smiled. 

 

[Stone Golem. Lvl. 12]

 

“Highest level of the floor, eh?” The golems seemed to be anywhere from level 5 to now level 12. The sight made her smile and she immediately rushed the golem.

An insane person would think twice about punching rock, but she⁠ didn’t⁠— Heavy Swing⁠— her fist collided with the torso of the golem and cracked it. She dodged a strike from the golem and a short second later, used Heavy Swing again⁠. The torso of rock began to crumble but it wasn’t enough as the golem tried to slam both of its hands onto her. 

Amber side-stepped and delivered a final Heavy Swing⁠— shattering the rock for good. The monster fell on the ground split into two, and Amber began to punch its two halves. 

This floor had been nothing less of a miracle for her, it was how she had gotten so strong⁠— though while she said that now, she nearly almost died a couple of times in the past. Still, at present time, it was just great. 

She continued pummeling the golem and about ten seconds later she got the notification. 

 

[You have defeated a [Stone Golem. Lvl. 12].]

 

Before, the floor had had a lot more golems but now they weren’t so plentiful. 

Amber shook her head and carried on. 

 

* * * 

 

Amber wandered and killed golem after golem. And finally, she arrived at a room with three golems, all three attacked her at the same time but with some clever usage of her Body Bash skill she took out all of them. One had its leg broken in a single hit, the other two proved to be much more durable as it took multiple minutes for her to render them immobile, but now…

She looked at the writhing masses of rocks and got to work to finish the job. She was mostly unscathed, only having a bruise on her arm. 

Finally, after almost half an hour since entering the room, she had defeated all three golems

 

[You have defeated a [Stone Golem. Lvl. 10].]

[You have defeated a [Stone Golem. Lvl. 7].]

[You have defeated a [Stone Golem. Lvl. 9].]

 

And to her surprise she leveled up. Though the surprise didn’t last long as she realized that the new Core Skill she had acquired was… useless at the moment. At least her other Core Skills had leveled up. 

 

[You have reached level 15. 5 stat points awarded.] 

[New Core Skill! For reaching level 15 as a Warrior you have learned General Weapon Mastery ⁠— level 1.

You’ve grown used to touching weapons! And now, you can use them with some proficiency, if they aren’t cursed anyway!]

[Heavy Swing has leveled up from level 6 to 7.]

[Body Bash has leveled up from level 4 to 5.]

 

Amber sighed and looked around the room, but just before she went to search for more golems she realized she was bored. It was… odd. She should’ve been focused on her survival, on what the safest route was, but the thought of doing that made her slightly apathetic. And so she had a change of plans, she wouldn’t continue hunting down the golems, but instead hunt down whatever was on the floor above.

If she could anyway. 

And so she headed to the floor above. 

 

* * *

 

It’s empty. 

Or it was mostly empty, she had gone through the outer part of the floor, now she was at the center where a large circular area resided. Four statues were placed, one in each of the cardinal directions. They looked like warriors and yet only a single one had a weapon, a long sword that seemed to have an extra guard on the blade itself, near the handle.

The weapon looked fancier than the ones she had seen previously, but aside from that the room looked very unassuming. 

Amber took a step forward and shivered. 

 

[Keen Senses has leveled up from level 3 to 4.] 

 

In a single moment the room was enveloped by a translucent dome⁠. Amber tried touching it only to be cut. She clicked her tongue, it was just like when she tried to hold any weapon in this place. Then, the shifting of stone made her turn as she saw all four statues begin moving. 

 

[Stone Guardian. Lvl. 16]

[Stone Guardian. Lvl. 18]

[Stone Guardian. Lvl. 17]

[Imperial Stone Guardian. Lvl. 20] 

 

This is a lot more serious than I thought.

Amber raised her arms to fight, a bead of sweat going down her forehead. She wasn’t stupid, it was a trap. And this one was probably going to kill her unlike all the other ones. One of the Stone Guardians rushed her, it was fast but not as fast as her⁠. 

Here goes nothing⁠— It punched and she ducked before hitting its chin with a Heavy Swing enhanced uppercut⁠— Amber winced in pain as the statue stumbled back. 

It was hard. 

Still she didn’t falter and took the window of opportunity, punching the statue again on the torso, and following up with another Heavy Swing hit⁠— the stone cracked slightly as the three guardians arrived, forcing her to use Body Bash to get out of the way before she was cut down by the sword. 

The Imperial Stone Guardian seemed to be leading the charge. Which was troublesome because it had a weapon. Still, she couldn’t give up. 

She took whatever chances she could get to hit the other Stone Guardians, slowly figuring out their weaknesses as she fought back. Gaining several bruises and a cut on her arm in the process and finding the head to be the most vulnerable.

She ducked and punched a Stone Guardian in the face, the cracks on its head spreading further making the monster back off⁠— and she ducked. A sword swing barely missed her.

Amber gritted her teeth. If my level 15 Core Skill was actually useful⁠— The Imperial Stone Guardian attacked again and she had to roll away, the ground shattered behind her from the strike. She stared at it wide-eyed for a moment. The strength of the monster did not match the result. Is the sword that strong? 

She looked at the Imperial Stone Guardian preparing its sword in a stance. It had been trying to kill her this entire time but it was the first time she saw its full capabilities.

If she got her hands on its sword then… 

She dodged another sword swing, it struck one of the Stone Guardians for the first time and nearly cleaved its arm. Amber quickly saw opportunity and with a hit of Heavy Swing, the arm snapped off, flying across the room. She bashed away from danger and grabbed the arm. It was a much better weapon than her fists. 

She turned only to side-step as a slash from the charging Imperial Stone Guardian barely missed her. She took a step back as the monster slashed again, nicking her shoulder. She grunted but backed off again as it did yet another follow up slash, this time it completely missed and she swung the stone arm using Heavy Swing. 

The attack hit and the Imperial Stone Guardian nearly lost balance, Amber charged, pushing it into another guardian. The two fell like dominos and she took the chance⁠— slamming the arm against the monster’s fingers using Heavy Swing⁠— the first hit cracked them and the second completely broke the sword off the monster. 

She lunged for the sword and barely grabbed it as a stone guardian rammed into her. 

The air was pushed out of her lungs and she flew across the room. She yelped in pain hitting the barrier as her back was cut. Amber took a few deep breaths then slowly stood up, sword in hand as a constant pain spread through her hands. She was bleeding all over and yet she couldn’t help but smile. 

She could keep going. And her plan had succeeded. She couldn’t ask for something better. 

Two Stone Guardians came at her and she swung at one⁠— the sword carved part of the stone and she was forced to dodge. She clearly lacked the strength. Amber swung again, the pain on her hands getting worse in the process, shallow cuts were beginning to appear at her forearms seemingly from holding it. 

For many it would’ve been the end of the road, but Amber felt like she could still do more. 

She shifted the grip on the sword, choosing to grab it by the blade. She had seen a video on the internet a long time ago. One of the guardians charged in her direction.  

How did swords deal with that they couldn’t cut? They used the guard⁠—

She swung with a Heavy Swing, the sword’s guard pierced into the Stone Guardian's head, and dug part of rock when coming out. The monster stumbled numerous steps back. 

Amber smiled. It was infinitely easier than using her fists. 

She charged, swinging again and again until the guardian went down. Each of her strikes hit the head in deadly manners, the Weapon Mastery she had gained instinctually guiding her. 

She moved to her next target but paused when she noticed a glow enveloping the Imperial Stone Guardian, and two Stone Guardians appeared out of spell circles. 

So I have to kill the Imperial Stone Guardian first? 

Amber immediately switched targets and rushed to kill the strongest monster. The Imperial Stone Guardian managed to block hits, but it still got slowly worn down. Amber also killed the guardians that came her way, her blood filling the room. At first it took thirty seconds, but it grew faster as she began to use the cross-guard of the weapon and even the blade. All the injured Imperial Stone Guardian could do was watch and try to summon more monsters. 

Her Heavy Swing leveled up, and she became more and more focused as everything that was a distraction was tuned out. Whenever she leveled she’d distribute her points. Amber was grinning the entire time. 

This was it⁠. 

Now, she was glad she had leveled up her Vitality so much, lest she would’ve died long ago. No⁠— she was glad the entire place existed, the entire tower pushed her to do better, to grow and be more efficient⁠— better, faster, stronger. 

She broke the arm of the Imperial Stone Guardian then shattered its leg and it fell down before her as she smiled wildly. Then she used Heavy Swing upon its head, shattering it at once with the sword. Thuds came from all across the room as the Imperial Stone Guardian died, and Amber let out a deep breath before she collapsed on the ground, notifications flashing before her. 

 

[You have defeated a [Stone Guardian. Lvl. 16].]

[You have defeated a [Stone Guardian. Lvl. 17].]

[You have defeated a [Stone Guardian. Lvl. 18].]

… 

 

Was she dying? She couldn’t even tell as her body grew numb, but she still continued going through all her notifications. 

 

[You have reached level 16. 5 stat points awarded.] 

…

 

[You have reached level 20. 5 stat points awarded.] 

 

[New Class! You have now met the requirements for three classes.]

 

Classes? Prompted by her thoughts, three windows appeared, however her eyes quickly skimmed through all of them and landed on a single one.

 

[You have met the requirements for the class ‘Cursed Berserker’ ⁠⁠⁠— Surpassed your limits time and time again, all under the effects of a curse. Against all odds, you survived. 

A Cursed Berserker is a Berserker that stands ahead of all, fighting on even against the supernatural. They will not stop until their target is dead, they will not stop until they have surpassed their limits time and time again. The Cursed Berserker is a class that is only seen once a century. 

You may change class if requirements for a better class are met. 

Would you like to acquire this class? Bonuses to stats will be applied, Cursed Berserker skills will become available on future level ups. Current Skills may see change.] 

 

Amber inwardly beamed reading what she was seeing, barely managing to accept the class just before she passed out.