Brackish water swirled around as strangely shaped fish swam in circles above a large three-eyed snake. Occasionally a fish fell out of sync, and the snake lazily struck out and caught the fish before devouring it. Then, another fish joined the whirlpool adding new energy to the action. Many animals knew better than to get too close to a three-eyed snake’s trap, but Silas was full of plans. That’s why at the outermost edge of the whirlpool, he swam against the current.

Training had taken over his life in short order, and he strived to find new ways to boost his stats before he hit level 25. While the guts of rank 1 monsters could serve as resistance training, they weren’t good at increasing his stamina or speed. As a leech, he had gills and normally needed some water to breathe. When water wasn’t available, he could get oxygen from the blood he drank. Feeding his gluttony skill didn’t just give him bonus health up to 10 times his max; it also gave him bonus time on land without oxygen. That let him get to the enchantments that attacked him.

Whoever put up those enchantments gave him the best gift ever. They didn’t only cause mind-shattering pain; they also increased his mana, health, and regeneration stats, respectively.

+2 Stamina

Stamina 16

+1 Speed

Speed 9

New Skill

Swimming: Beginner 3% - Use 10% less stamina while swimming.

Initiate Threshold: Swim 1 Mile.

Silas closed the window and felt a little better. Swimming was much easier with the decreased stamina drain, and he could focus on slowly raising his stats with resistance training.

+1 STR

STR 20

He waited for something to happen, but nothing did. Apparently, 20 STR hadn’t upped his letter rank. Swimming had made him overly hungry, so he broke free of the whirlpool to look for something that wouldn’t chew him. Acid resistance wouldn’t mean a thing if a predator chewed him into bits. Every stat but speed and skill had reached F+, and he had figured out when the letter rank-up happened. For health, mana, and stamina, they ranked up at 25. While all other stats ranked up at 10. The next rank-up he could look forward two was 50 for the 3 consumable stats and 25 for the hard stats.

Silas's stamina was weird when he moved; he felt like a smartphone battery with the brightness adjusted depending on his activity. His stamina didn’t drain quickly like running in video games; instead, it slowly decreased until he had to rest or pass out. There were things he knew about the stat, like how sleep would affect it. He hadn’t slept for four days, and the lack of sleep was getting to him. It’s a dangerous world, and he didn’t like being caught in the open.

To that end, he broke away from the whirlpool and watched his stamina slowly return. When he didn’t sleep, his stamina recovery took a hit. That hit was stacked every day until he was forced to rest. Unfortunately, the world was terrifying.

He tried training his stats to see if he could put off the need for sleep but that only worsened his problem. When his stamina was full, he didn’t feel tired at all. Silas knew it was misleading, so he traveled down to the depths where the bog floor became rocky. A graveyard of old shells covered the ground, where he saw a small opening. The opening itself was only a little larger than his body, giving him an idea. He suctioned on a shell, backed into the hole, and suctioned himself to the wall with his rear suction cup. Once he was sure he was safe, he fell asleep.

…

When he woke up, his mind was much clearer. Gluttony had overclocked his blood supply which allowed him to refill his stamina. That kept him going even though his stamina regen had been cut to a sixteenth over 4 days.  

“Do you know why my level hasn’t increased beyond 20?” Silas asked more for conversation than anything.

He heard a chuckle in his head. “You’ve hit your first bottleneck. The only way past it is to rank up a skill to initiate. Too bad, too, it looks like you won’t get a class after all.”

“To rank up a skill to initiate, I have to accept the prompt. So, I can grind everything to E rank and beyond before selecting a class. Then, I’m going to have all the skills.”

Silas focused on the mana in his body and tried to force it out. But, while he did have mana, he didn’t know how to control it or what he needed to know to produce spells. To that end, the only thing he could do was raise his mana and hope it turned into something useful.

Not everything was steak and blowjobs for Silas. On the way to the enchantment, there was a wasp nest, and the day before, he found a caterpillar with wasp larvae eating their way out of it. That wasn’t a pleasant sight, and he didn’t look too different from a caterpillar. That was especially true after he upgraded his charisma. His jet-black leech body with a single yellow eye was shiny. The bugs would paralyze him and inject their eggs into him if he was unlucky.

That’s why after draining his fill every morning, he made his way to the cattle ranch’s fence and let the enchantment work its crazy magic. It hurt even with his beyond maximum health, but it shoved stat points into him in exchange.

After the latest harsh session of struggling against a will of utter annihilation, he left for the bog. Before he could dive back into the brackish waters of his home and return to his hole in the ground, something sharp stung his back. He saw the orange carapace of his adversary while he felt the venom take hold. Then he felt the winged monster lift him off the ground and carry him towards the hive.