Growing

'Mmm... Each slow swing takes me about 5seconds. So if I shoot for 100 straight slow sword swings, that would be a set of 500 seconds so between eight to nine minutes of sword swinging. Alright, let's go for 6 of them this time.'

Adam kept going that way. Always trying to do a bit more slow sword swings than he did the time before. Alternating between swinging his greatsword and resting.

Two hours later, he finally achieved his goal.

"98....99....100." His sword fell to the ground and he too collapsed.

He was too tired to continue. He immediately fell asleep.

Adam woke up 30 minutes later. He felt refreshed and he felt his endurance was completely recovered and he felt no soreness from his muscles. Obviously, his Sleeping Beauty skill was to be thanked for that.

[A Certain Evil says that sloth is a deadly sin.]

Adam answered in his mind 'Shut up! Do you think I'll answer whenever you send a message? I can ignore you too! And I was recovering. Sleeping for recovery doesn't make me lazy!'.

He got up and stretched his arms and neck for a bit.

"Performing 100 slow sword swings was pretty brutal. Should I really go to the next phase when I passed out right after completing the prior one? Stats."

The window appeared in front of him.

[ Stats: Strength: 32(+17)

Agility: 20(+2)

Sense: 23

Vigor & Endurance: 20(+2)

Unused stat points: 12

]

'Yep, so I didn't lose count. 7 Strength Points gained during the whole holding the fighting stance phase. And then 10 Strength Points gained by doing slow sword swings. And then some endurance since I was driving myself to exhaustion before resting and doing it again. And finally, some Agility Points, probably since I need to stabilize my whole body in order to swing the greatsword so that I do not fall forward of backward .'

Adam's Strength Stat had basically doubled from the rigorous training he had been following. Although he won no Experience Points from training, it was still very much worthwhile.

"All right. Let's give swinging the greatsword a go once again."

He took his stance, lifted the weapon, and carefully swung it in front of him. To his surprise, it didn't fall out of his hands.

It finally happened.

[Current number of times you have swung your greatsword: 1/250.]

Adam let go of the greatsword. He felt very happy. His efforts were not in vain. He was much stronger now than he was before.

'If Mika and Mina were here, they would probably be jumping around everywhere cheering me on.' Thinking that, Adam smiled.

For a moment, he felt lonely.

[A Certain Evil congratulates you on your minuscule victory.]

"Haha, sure. Thank you." Adam smiled genuinely.

Adam proceeded to take the greatsword once again in his hands.

He swung it with all his strength. It still didn't fall off. He felt ecstatic.

Adam swung the sword three times before putting it down.

'Alright, only 247 times left...'

He looked at the window in front of him.

[Current number of times you have swung your greatsword: 3/250.]

[A Certain Evil chuckles at your weakness.]

Adam was annoyed by that.

He was still far from the goal.

But he also was pretty happy about it.

He kind of liked this training he was going through. It was a bit fun, he thought.

Adam thought about pouring his unused stat points into strength. But he was only getting stronger for the challenge and for fun really. The stat points would be used for the other stats that he felt were more important such as Sense or Agility. He welcomed the increase in his Strength stat. But that didn't mean he would become some kind of tank. Plus, training to increase his strength and pouring his stat points into it was overkill. He wanted a balance between the four stats he had.

Adam resumed his training. He kept swinging his greatsword again and again.

It took him another three hours to swing the greatsword 250 times.

He swung the sword for 1hour, slept for one hour and resumed his training for one more hour before hitting his goal.

[You have cleared the challenge issued by A Certain Evil. Your reward is being chosen.]

[A Certain Evil is slightly pleased by your progress.]

'Wonder what the reward will be...'

[A Certain Evil had decided to use its authority to award you a skill.]

'Yes!! I am in desperate need of some good skills.'

[A Certain Evil has used its authority to give you the skill "Crumbling Touch".]

[Congratulations! You have received a skill. Would you like to view its information?]

Adam was very excited and answered energetically "Of course!"

[ Magic Skill: Crumbling Touch [B]

When activated, whatever your hand touches shall start to crumble into dust, whether what is touched is organic matter or inorganic matter. The skill's power and precision depend greatly on how high your Magic Affinity stat is. The skill will use the user's Endurance Points, if none are left, it will user Health Points.]

Adam talked after reading the information about the skill "Mmm...It's pretty ominous. I thought we had a happy time together though. A skill of rank B? Isn't that super strong... Wait, MagicAffinity? System can I use this skill without the Magic Affinity stat?"

[As you do not possess the Magic Affinity, you cannot use Magic Skills, even if you possess a Magic Skill.]

"What kind of bullshit is this?"

[A Certain Evil chuckles at you.]

"Yeah yeah keep laughing. System, allocate all stat points to Sense! You'll see I'll get that damn stat in no time."

[ 12 unused stat points have been allocated to the Sense stat.]

[ Your Sense stat has gone above 30.]

[Your Sense stat gives birth to a new stat.]

[You have unlocked the stat Magic Affinity.]

[ Your Sense stat has reached 35.]

[Your Sense stat gives birth to a new stat.]

[You have unlocked the stat Stealth.]

"Two new stats at once? Wait Magic Affinity? System can I use the skill Crumbling Touch now?"

[The skill "Crumbling Touch" can be used as long as the user has enough endurance. Once your endurance points hit 0, the "Crumbling Touch" skill will start tapping into your Health Points to stay activated.]

Adam couldn't help but scratch his head. "Did you know I was going to unlock the stat by using my stat points?" He asked, waiting for a response. But none came. Instead,

[The challenge has ended. Other deities and gods can now watch your actions.]

[Many Deities and Gods are curious as to who issued a challenge so soon in the First Phase.]

'All right let's try this.'

Adam got down on his knees and touched the ground with his right arm.

He thought about activating the skill in his head, and the ground under his hand started to break.

After about five seconds, a hole could be seen. The rocky floor under his hand was turned into dirt.

Adam thought for a bit, before advancing towards the Goblin Chief's corpse.

He touched the Chief's chest and as soon as he thought about using the skill, half of the corpse was turned into dust. A second later, the whole body was no longer there. Only dirt and dust remained.

'This is...amazing, and scary, very scary.' Adam felt sleepy right after that. He didn't know that, but his control of the skill was as low as it could be. His endurance was currently at 5/160.

When activating the skill, it would directly activate to its maximum capacity. Only by increasing his control over it, will Adam be able to use it freely.

Therefore, too tired to do anything, Adam moved away from the dirt and dust before lying down to sleep. He slept much more peacefully than he did before. Although he always slept peacefully thanks to the Sleeping Beauty skill.

He woke up 2hours later, his endurance was at the maximum, 160/160.

"Stats" Adam said, while rubbing his eyes.

[ Stats: Strength: 40(+8)

Agility: 24(+4)

Sense: 35(+12)

Vigor & Endurance: 25(+5)

Magic Affinity: 5

Stealth: 5

Unused stat points: 0(-12)

]

'Mmm so new stats start at 5.'

"How long before am expelled from the dungeon?"

[ Exactly 13hours and 25minutes.]

"Did the monsters disappear?"

[No. The inhabitants of the dungeon are still in it.]

Adam took his greatsword and planted it into the floor once again. He kneeled and prayed for his family for 10minutes before getting up. He put the greatsword back into his storage and picked up the Old Assassin's Dagger that he had thrown. It was still at the center of the room.

"All right. Let's clean up this dungeon before closing time then."