Universe Bloodline

Eli viewed the screen in front of him and was delighted to see the results of his life threatening effort.

[Status:

Name: Eli Merlin

Level: 1 | 0/10 exp

Titles: -

Race: Human (0 Ascensions)

Physique: Unknown (Select for more information)

Bloodline: (Merlin) Black - Stage 9

Vitality: 8 - 143/160

Mana: 0

Strength: 6

Agility: 8

Stamina: 9

Willpower: 9

Perception: 7

Free stats: 1

]

Eli was delighted with the results. He didn't gain any additional stats in Mana or Willpower, but he assumed that was because they were not a physical aspect of his being. His strength had increased, but the increase seemed pretty minor. Well, as minor as a superpower leveling system went. If his strength originally allowed him to lift 45 kilograms, with this new stat point, he could lift 54 kilograms. This growth was obviously quite shocking considering the speed. If this existed in the real world, every gym around the world would go out of business.

Eli took another moment to appreciate the stat increase before shifting his attention to the one free stat point at the bottom of his status screen.

'What should I do? I want to put it into mana and see what happens, but I probably couldn't use it even if I had it. I don't think that I need to put this stat point into anything right now. If I just keep fighting the same kind of fox, this tutorial should pass pretty easily,' Eli thought. With the spirit of precaution, Eli decided to save his status point for now instead of indulging in the feeling of getting stronger. That way, if an unexpected situation occurred, he could boost the stats that he needed at the time.

Eli also realized that, while it was slow, his wounds were already healing. 'Maybe because of the level-up? Or maybe it's an effect of this place,' thought Eli. He hadn't paid much attention to his body or his surroundings when the fight ended because he was only interested in his level-up.

With even greater determination, Eli jumped to his feet and made his way towards the other clearing, where he saw a similar barrier. He came around a tree, and there in the middle of the clearing was another (common) fox, just resting peacefully. Suddenly, Eli felt a little guilty about killing the creature, but when he took another step forward and the little devil jumped up to tear him to shreds, he left all his sympathy behind him.

Maybe that was Eli's greatest talent. He could learn and adapt quickly, but could also still maintain his original personality. 

He pushed himself forward into the oncoming charge of the fox once again. He struck this fox square in the face with his kick and sent it flying. Before the fox was able to get up, Eli was already upon it. 

After less than a minute of fighting, the notification of his kill popped up.

You have killed [Generated monster (common) Fox]; Experience earned.

Eli dry heaved as he collapsed on the ground. 'This is brutal,' he said to himself. When Eli made his first kill, he felt success and joy, but this kill felt much more... empty. He had enjoyed leveling up and getting stronger, but the experience of killing a living being, even a generated one, was not something that he enjoyed.

From the ground, Eli once again viewed his status screen and saw that he had gained another five points of experience and was halfway to leveling up again. Eli closed his eyes and continued to recover. This experience had taken a lot out of him, and now he was ready for another rest.

___________________________

In another familiar forest, a young man in a suit and tie was also battling the foxes in his zone. Senator Mathew Richard was the youngest ever elected Senator in his country. He had graduated from the top college in his country with two master's degrees—one in political science and one in law. And now... he was committing mass murder among the foxes.

"Ugh, that makes ten," said Mathew with calm breaths. Like Eli, his first time killing a fox took quite some time, and Mathew probably sustained more injuries during that first fight, but now his system counter displayed his tenth kill. With a huge grin on his face, Mathew looked at his status screen. He could already feel the level up, but he wanted to see it anyway. Something about seeing your progress just feels right to most humans.

"Level three sure took a while," said Senator Richard. He flexed his muscles for fun. He had never been very athletic, but that didn't keep him out of the gym. He trained his body every morning to improve his health and physical appearance. Public image was important for people like him after all. "Haha, if only Mick could see me now. He'd be so jealous, Lol. Though maybe he is here too. I guess I'll have to get out of here and see. No more time for fun." Mathew let his feet carry him further into the forest to hunt more foxes. Who knows what kind of terror he would deal out to them in the future.

___________________________

Eli's eyes flitted open to see the beautiful sunny canopy above. As it turns out, an artificial forest full of murderous foxes makes for a pretty good sleeping spot. Eli was refreshed and ready to take on the rest of this tutorial.

"Heh, I guess this proves that that wasn't a dream," said Eli out loud. He turned around to look at the trees. Through the dense foliage, he saw a yellow glimmer of what he assumed was another fox challenge, so he started his way over. Eventually, he made it to his next fox and took a minute to reform his previous plan in his head. He made a few tweaks to how he planned to approach this fight due to the experience he gained before.

After solidifying his plan, he took a calm breath and stepped into the clearing.

After about an hour of more brutal wrestling, choking, and killing...

You have killed [Generated monster (common) Fox]; Experience earned.

Level up - (Classless)! [Status points distributed: +1 Free Stat Point.]

Eli celebrated as he had just killed his tenth fox and leveled up to level three. After reaching level two, Eli noticed that his experience gain had started to decrease, but that didn't bother him because the foxes were easier to kill now. This victory may have seemed small, but to Eli, it was a sign that he was growing beyond the standard of a normal human. Already, he knew that with these stats, he would be considered a top athlete in his school and probably even in college. He once again checked his status to see the changes.

[Status:

Name: Eli Merlin

Level: 3 | 3/60 exp

Titles: -

Race: Human (0 Ascensions)

Physique: Unknown (Select for more information)

Bloodline: (Merlin) Black - Stage 9

Vitality: 10 - 197/200

Mana: 0

Strength: 8

Agility: 10

Stamina: 11

Willpower: 9

Perception: 9

Free stats: 3

]

Eli looked longing at the free stat points in the system screen and then at the mana stat. After a few seconds, Eli just thought, 'I've got to know.' So he put just one free stat point into the mana stat and watched the number on the screen change from a 0 to a 1.

Suddenly, he felt like his body had become a river bed for some invisible stream. He couldn't describe how he felt more than just saying that his body felt more open. Like his pores had all opened wide and were bringing sweat in rather than expelling it. But this process felt good and clean. Eventually, the feeling left him, and he closed his eyes, trying to feel if he had any new powers, but unfortunately, he couldn't even tell that he was to much different. Just more free and a part of the world. 

With the prospect of getting both power and positive attention from his school for the first time all year, he didn't take very long to rest up and start searching the woods for more foxes to kill. Eli went on a rampage with his new stats and killed eight more foxes until a new system message popped up.

[Trial 1 - Time Remaining: 1:00.00]

Eli stared at the screen as it began counting down to the end of his tutorial round. It made sense. If he had just lain around the forest, would he have stayed here forever? Of course not. Why had he never thought to ask if this trial had a time limit? He had gotten so swept up by his fear at the beginning of the trial that he didn't think to check how much time he had.

Now that he knew that there was a definite time limit and that it was approaching fast, Eli moved faster through the trees, trying to locate the last foxes. He ended up losing four more minutes before he found the next one. It was once again in the middle of the clearing. Eli charged in and met the fox only shortly after he stepped past the barrier. 

The fight ended quickly, and Eli celebrated, gaining more experience points. He was nearly halfway to leveling up again. Eli started jogging through the woods once again. He had lost a little over six minutes finding the fox and killing it. 

Eli figured that finding the foxes would get harder the less there were, so he sped up to find the next one. Luckily, it wasn't even two minutes before Eli saw another yellow barrier through the foliage. 

Eli spent another minute or so killing the fox before getting a new system notification.

[Congratulations! You have killed 20/25 foxes.]

[All barriers in the forest will now be released, and the foxes will roam the forest in search of you.]

[Good luck.]

Eli stared at the screen in front of him. "Shit," he cursed and took off running through the forest. 'Damn it! I can't find the foxes without the barrier. Oh, what's that?' thought Eli as he came to a stop. As he had been running, he came to an empty clearing. There was no fox in it, unfortunately. He didn't even know if this was a clearing he had fought in before, though he did doubt it by looking at the clean landscape. 

Getting slightly more panicked, Eli started running through the woods again. 'What should my next course of action be? What's the next right thing? Ugh, this tutorial is so stupid. It gives no information, and that fights aren't even cool,' Eli complained in his mind. 'Maybe, I can just try to make as much noise as possible to attract the foxes to me. They are probably forced to be vicious by the system and will come to attack me. Yeah, that should work,' he thought. 

With this new plan, Eli started stomping on all the brush he could and yelled at the top of his lungs until, after twenty seconds in, he realized... 'Well, this is stupid. Am I really trying to attract all five foxes toward myself at the same time?' 

However, Eli realized the problem with his plan a few seconds too late. Two foxes came running around a tree just five meters away. 'There's no chance of a safety net now,' he told himself. 

Eli charged at the incoming pair of beasts and kicked at the closest one before completely falling on the second one. He had pinned it to the ground with his chest. He grabbed around the squirming fox and put his hands around its neck and rolled over. With a great deal of effort, Eli squeezed the fox's neck like never before, and he felt the fox go limp in seconds. 

"Ahg!" Before he could catch his breath, a sharp pain filled his mind. This was his first dangerous injury. The first fox had recovered quicker than usual and started to chew on his neck.