[Reaching a new level]

▽▽▽

-Booom!!!-

With a heavy kick to the ground, Ryu propelled himself several meters above the vulture and skillfully clicked on several parts of one of the screens floating in front of him before he started falling.

-Shiiiiiiiing!!-

Suddenly from one moment to another, his only hand was abruptly enveloped in a white shine as soon a black-colored metal gauntlet covered his hand completely. However, the matter didn't end there, as soon another thing appeared on top of his palm.

However, contrary to the gauntlet, this item was much much smaller than that, and it was instead a small pill of orange color that seemed to ooze a mystical feeling inside it.

Ryu didn't appreciate for long the mystical feeling that these items seemed to ooze naturally, as he soon directly ate the pill in his palm and readied his armored fist to punch for once and for all at his enemy.

From one moment to another, Ryu's stamina replenished and all tiredness and exhaustion from his muscles went away as if it had never existed.

Ryu felt like he had been drowning in an endless abyss until now, and just now had he finally been able to escape from that abyss and breath fresh air. Despite the pain on his amputated arm, the invigorating feeling that was filling his entire body because of his recovery and increase in strength was enough to make him completely ignore the pain and solely concentrate on how strong he was becoming in just a short moment.

On the other hand, the vulture was watching Ryu perform all these acts while falling towards it with a confused gaze in his eyes. However, it wasn't long before it abandoned its curiosity and focused solely on finishing the prey in front of it.

-Gyaoooooo!!-

The vulture roared furiously before he immediately moved its long neck at an incredible speed towards Ryu and tried to devour his small body in one go while it was still in mid-air. It was tired of having to deal with Ryu as any other prey would have died long ago and wanted to finish everything for once and for all. Furthermore, now that Ryu had been weakened from the vulture's previous attacks, having even lost an arm in the process, and was somewhere where it couldn't be able to escape from its attack, it didn't listen too much to its own instinct and attacked Ryu either way.

No creature should be able to recover so rapidly or become so strong in just one moment... Or so it believed.

-BOOOOOOOONG!!!!-

Like metal hitting an enormous piece of iron, an incredibly loud sound spread across the whole area as soon as Ryu's armored fist impacted the face of the vulture, who could only see shockingly how the strength of its prey had increased so much in just one second compared to before. Soon, the body of the vulture was sent flying away several meters, as an incredibly terrifying shockwave was created from the zone where the vulture's face and Ryu's first had clashed, making the whole ground tremble on the process because of the energy behind that punch.

-Tack!-

Ryu fell to the ground and looked at his own fist in amazement, still not believing that this incredible strength was really his.

Ryu gasped in excitement seeing the beast that had eaten his arm just a few seconds was now sent flying away so easily by one of his punches. Soon, a vicious grin blossomed on his face, as a screen from the system appeared in front of him once again... Most specifically, the screen of the Z Shop.

"Yeah, this is how it should be... Me beating the fucking shit out of you...! Though, just in case..."

Ryu's finger rapidly moved towards the "Skills" category, as he eyed a certain product that he had been planning on buying as soon as he could since he had been training inside that cave.

"I'll fucking blow your head away with this..."

▽

▽

▽

-A few days ago, after Ryu successfully escaped from the bear and made it back to the cave...

...

"Shit, I still haven't recovered even after so much time... Just how powerful is that bear that not even hitting me directly can cause me this much damage...?!"

Ryu was resting in the ground of the cave while lying his back towards the wall. His legs were still injured like before, and it was a wonder how he was able to reach the cave safely. Thankfully, thanks to the medicinal liquid, it couldn't be long before he could be finally able to walk normally and recover from his most recent ordeal.

-Sigh...-

Releasing a profound sigh after finally realizing that all danger had disappeared, Ryu stretched as much as he could without causing more pain and then opened the Z shop.

'There shouldn't be any monster coming here anymore... So, let's check the last category of this shop... Skills... This one seems to be the most interesting one so far...'

With one tap of his finger, Ryu opened the last and most interesting category of the Z shop and started looking through all the list of products with a curious expression on his face. However, immediately after that, his expression started changing several times as his eyebrows raised in disbelief.

'I already knew that there could be amazing skills, so I'm not so surprised... but... What the hell are these names?'

▽

[System note: The skills listed in this category cannot be obtained in any way unless you buy them from this shop as they are specially made by the system. You can obtain additional skills that are not listed within the shop by training your abilities and expanding your knowledge, or acquiring them by completing Side/Main missions.]

▽▽

▽

-I can't hear youuu~! [★☆☆☆☆☆☆]: [Ƶ: 300]

-Faster than a turtle! [★☆☆☆☆☆☆]: [Ƶ: 400]

-Stronger than a mouse! [★☆☆☆☆☆☆]: [Ƶ: 400]

-Nobler than a lettuce! [★☆☆☆☆☆☆]: [Ƶ: 400]

-My shield is my heart! [★☆☆☆☆☆☆]: [Ƶ:  600]

-Inmortal as a cockroach [★★☆☆☆☆☆]: [Ƶ: 1,000]

-World ending punch [★★☆☆☆☆☆]: [Ƶ: 2,500]

-It's not a phase mom, it's a lifestyle! [★★☆☆☆☆☆]: [Ƶ: 3,000]

-The mage did it again [★★★☆☆☆☆]: [Ƶ: 7,000]

-It was ME all this time [★★★☆☆☆☆]: [Ƶ: 9,000]

-I wanna go home... [★★★☆☆☆☆]: [Ƶ: 10,000 ]

-Legends never die (Maybe...) [★★★★☆☆☆]: [Ƶ: 50,000]

-He is almost as handsome as me![★★★★☆☆☆]: [Ƶ: 70,000]

-This isn't even my final form! [★★★★☆☆☆]: [Ƶ: 100,000]

-Za pranetto! [★★★★☆☆☆]: [Ƶ: 100,000]

-Sneaky sneaky... [★★★★☆☆☆]: [Ƶ: 200,000]

-Catch me... If you can...! [★★★★★☆☆]: [Ƶ: 250,000]

-That gave me tickles... [★★★★★☆☆]: [Ƶ: 500,000]

-Great Judge [★★★★★☆☆]: [Ƶ: 1,000,000]

-I'll let you taste my full power! [★★★★★☆☆]: [Ƶ: 10,000,000]

-One punch is all I need... [★★★★★★★] [Ƶ: 50,000,000]

-I was joking, This... is my real full power!! [★★★★★★★]: [Ƶ: 100,000,000]

-I've never been hit before, not even by my own dad! [★★★★★★★]: [Ƶ: 1,000,000,000]

-You have been fooled once again, This is really my truly real power!!! [★★★★★★★]: [Ƶ: 1,000,000,000]

-This is my truly full real ultimate super ultra mega max transcendental godly power!!!! [★★★★★★★]: [Ƶ: 10,000,000,000]

▽

Every skill's name in the list was so... strange. Ryu couldn't help but cringe when he saw some of them, he wasn't expecting the last category of the Z shop to be so different compared to the others... But even then, he couldn't help but exclaim in wonder as he read the descriptions of each skill.

Some of them increased your strength depending on the situation, others functioned as trump cards for him to use in the worst situations, and others were practical skills that weren't made for any specific situation, but were still enormously useful. There was a lot of variety in the list, and it excited him to think in which way the skills could be used together to make them even more amazing.

However, seeing how poor he currently was, he decided to stop daydreaming and started checking the cheapest ones to see if there was anything worth buying there.

One of them caught his eye the most, as it would be enormously useful at fighting beasts as strong as the ones outside. Especially if he wanted to be able to cope with their strength.

▽

-Stronger than a mouse! [★☆☆☆☆☆☆]: [Ƶ: 400]

Effects: Increases the resistance of your body and your strength by 50% for a short amount of time.

▽

The skill that would allow him to fight with the titanic creatures out there. He wanted the skill immediately, but he was pretty poor at the moment, so it would need to be postponed to a later date... Even then, his eyes would shine whenever he imagined himself fighting hand to hand with a giant King kong or even a giant bird!

Soon, a chill passed through Ryu's body, and a bad feeling started to spread across his mind.

'There's no way that will happen... Right?'

Suppressing the dreadful feeling in his chest, Ryu continued looking through the numerous skills in the shop, completely unaware of what was going to happen to him in a few days.

▽

▽

▽

-Back to the present.

Tapping the skill he had noticed a few days ago, Ryu grinned and looked at the confused vulture that was just starting to recover from his previous attack.

-Gyaooo...?-

The vulture couldn't understand what had happened, from one moment to another the prey it had been hunting became incredibly stronger and punched it senseless. Confusion was everything that was overflowing the mind of the vulture at the moment, but even then, Ryu couldn't allow it to rest, just like the vulture hadn't allowed him to take even one rest.

'I'll fucking roast you after I'm done with you, stupid chicken...!'

▽

≡[ New Skill!]

-Stronger than a mouse! [★☆☆☆☆☆☆] (Active)

▸Increases the resistance of your body and your strength by 50% for a short amount of time.

▽

'Activate it' Ryu thought in his mind, and soon, a red aura started surrounding his body as the veins all over his body started bulging out, giving him a pretty scary appearance. Nevertheless, unlike its appearance, Ryu was feeling better than ever... Stronger than ever.

As if by instinct, Ryu looked at his power level one more time, and then at his newly acquired gauntlets, just to make sure nothing was wrong.

▽

≡[System bearer: Ryu Kain]

-Power Level: 268 [199+69] (Temporary)

-Z Points: 1825

▽

-Strengthening gloves [★☆☆☆☆☆☆]

Effects: Powerful gloves covered in a thin layer of Kacchin-kō, the hardest material in the universe. When you wear these gloves, your brute strength is increased by 50%. (The effect of this object applies even if your strength is being multiplied already by other sources)

▽

His power level was 268. However, he presumed that his current physical strength was a lot bigger than that, as he deduced that the system didn't add the bonus of the gauntlets to his display of power level, as it was an object he was wearing and not a part of him. Making a quick calculation, his real brute strength should be similar to a being of 400 of power level if he wasn't mistaken, making the vulture in front of him look like a small chicken instead of the enormous beast that it was.

-Gyaooooo!-

On the other side of the battlefield, the vulture rapidly stood up from its place and started running furiously towards Ryu, murderous intent filling its eyes whenever he looked at the little prey that it thought could be free food in a beginning. However, now it recognized him as a threat, and it was ready to fight to the death if necessary.

Even if it meant losing a few limbs, the vulture was ready to take down Ryu and survive.

However, unfortunately for it, it was far too late to kill Ryu now.

-Thomp!-

-Thomp!-

-Thomp!-

Like a cornered beast, the vulture gave up any instinct inside it and ran towards Ryu ready to lung at him and kill him by whatever means necessary.

Unfortunately, the battle ended even before it could reach Ryu.

-Boooom!!-

During the vulture's last few milliseconds of life, the last thing it heard was the booming sound of the earth breaking apart and something flying in its direction... And the last thing it saw... Was the face of the prey it had been pursuing for hours aiming a fist directly towards its face.

-Gyao?-

-Bammm!!!-

-Creaaaaak!!!-

As Ryu's fist impacted the vulture's forehead with a violent force behind it, the sound of something shattering soon reached his ears. The skull of the vulture had broken apart from his punch, and it smashed its brain alongside it, creating an enormous shockwave all across the zone, blowing away several of the already scarce trees in the surroundings.

Soon, Ryu was knocked away by the recoil of his own strength, and landed several meters away from the lifeless body of the vulture that was now falling to the ground similar to a puppet that had its strings cut out.

-Boooom!-

Soon the corpse fell, and an enormous dust cloud erected from the ground and covered completely Ryu and the corpse from the outside.

"It's finally dead..." Muttered Ryu as he looked at the immobile body of the vulture sink in the ground due to its weight, making him sigh in relief.

Suddenly, two screens appeared on the corner of his vision and made him smile widely.

▽

≡[You completed a Side Quest‼]

▸The monster in front of you has been hunting you for quite a while... It's time for payback! Kill the monster in front of you and successfully survive once again!

[Rewards for completing the quest successfully:]

▸+800 Ƶ Points.

▸ Receive the "Intimidation[★☆☆☆☆☆☆]" Skill.

▽

≡[You completed a Side Quest‼]

▸Defeat your first enemy, and escape safely!

[Rewards for completing the quest successfully:]

▸+350 Ƶ Points

▸+30 of power level

▸+1 Bottle of enhanced healing liquid

▽

'I did it... I fucking did it... With this, I can finally survive properly in this horrible world...'

Ryu was finally seeing a light of hope since he had been thrown into that horrific world where the stronger eats the weaker every day, and quite literally at that.

He had finally reached a new level.

...

-End of the Chapter-

A/N: And we reached 15k words! Don't forget to comment on this story, as comments cheer me up a lot for writing more chapters for this!

I also corrected something from the previous chapter, as his masteries over magic and martial arts were still null, even though he had received basic knowledge from the system after completing the main mission.

Also, here's the status of the Mc at the end of the chapter. This is his base power though, with no skills nor objects enhancing him.

▽▽▽

≡[System bearer: Ryu Kain]

-Power Level: 229

-Z Points: 2975

≡[Abilities]

-Ki mastery(F): 86%

-Martial arts (F): 0%

-Magical arts (F) 0%

≡[Skills]

▷Journey of the traveler (Passive)

▸Fate will bend against you.

▷Power level scan (Active)

▸Scans the power level of any being that is within your eyesight. Please note that Gods cannot be scanned unless the host possesses divine Ki.

▷Taiyoken/Solar Flare (Active)

▸Emits an incredibly dazzling beam of light that can blind the enemy due to its intensity.

[Advice: Please note that if the user emits the Taiyoken from a part of the body that is in the user's field of view, it is very probable that the user will be blinded too.]

▷Stronger than a mouse! [★☆☆☆☆☆☆] (Active)

▸Increases the resistance of your body and your strength by 50% for a short amount of time.

▷Intimidation [★☆☆☆☆☆☆] (Active)

▸Releases a wave of killing intent that can scare multiple opponents with a lower power level than you, and slightly decrease their strength. You can also use it simply to scare your enemies and make them run away, depending on you. [Please note that intimidation does not work with beings with a higher power level than you]

≡[Inventory]

▸Bottle of enhanced medicinal liquid. [2]

▸Nutritional paste [1]

▽▽▽

Have a good day or night, whatever hour it is where you live. As for me, I'm going to sleep.