.....EIGHTY NINE
Suddenly, Graham could hear the sounds of something scurrying towards him at an amazing speed. As he turned the beast was now in full sight.
It was the same size as a large dog with the head of a rodent. Black in color and running on all fours. He would have said it looked like a giant rat however its body parts were muscular around its arms, while its body remained incredibly thin. So much so that the outline of its ribs could be seen.
When the creature was a few feet away it leapt in the air and claws appeared from the creatures two front limbs.
Graham almost out of instinct swiped his hand letting out a blood swipe. The attack managed to hit the beast and sent it flying back. The attack had caused a large cut to appear on the creature's stomach and black blood started to leak from the wound.
While the beast was taking the time to recover, Quinn decided to use his inspect skill.
[ Name: Rattaclaw ]
[ Basic tier beast ]
[ HP ? ]
[ ? ]
Unlike with humans, when Graham used the status screen it would show the HP and blood type, but in this case, he had only received a name and the level of the beast.
Seeing the tier of the beast though, Graham started to feel a little less frightened. He was in an unknown place and just because the beast was small in size, didn't mean it was a low tier and vice-versa. However, something like the Rattaclaw even Graham should be able to deal with it.
The Rattaclaw had recovered and charged straight for Graham once again, seeing how the blood swipe was effective he waited for the beast to get close once again.
"Blood swipe."
But Graham had underestimated the speed and the responsiveness of the Rattaclaw. It had learnt from last time what to look out for and jumped to the side avoiding the attack.
Then it dashed forward increasing its speed and jumped out at Graham.
Just in time, Graham had managed to shove his gauntlet into the mouth of the beast, as it's two big teeth clomped down onto the gauntlet, he heard a creaking noise.
[ Defense 1 ]
[ Durability of weapon has decreased by 50 percent ]
[ Strength has fallen 2 (3) ]
"You little crap, get off me!" Graham shouted as he started swinging his arm, trying to shake the beast off but the beast had clomped down hard refusing to let go.
With the beast stuck to his arm, it was too dangerous for him to use blood swipe and too close for him to perform a hammer strike. All that was left, was to do it the old-fashioned way.
Graham then started to repeatedly pound the beast on its head with his other hand. With each blow, black blood would gush out of the beast. The blows were powerful and damaging to the beast and with each strike the grip started to loosen.
"If you had just stayed away, you could have lived!" Graham shouted as he continued to punch the beast, until finally, its grip had come loose and it had fallen to the ground.
Graham looked like he had just come off the movie off a horror set, his arm and clothes were now completely covered in black blood but he didn't care, for a message had appeared bearing great news.
[ Basic tier beast (Rattaclaw) has been defeated ]
[ 100 exp points gained ]
[ First basic tier beast killed, bonus Exp awarded, 200 Exp ]
[ First time killing (Rattaclaw) bonus Exp awarded 100 Exp ]
[ 880/800 Exp ]
Multiple notifications had been received at once and everything came as quite a shock to him. Not only did he receive more Exp for killing a beast compared to fighting against a human but he also received bonus points too.
Similar to when he faced a new power level for the first time, he had gained bonus points for killing a basic tier, as well as bonus points for killing this specific beast for the first time as well.
In a way to beasts were a gold mine for his system.
[ Congratulations, you are now Level 5 ]
[ Race: Halfling ]
[ HP 90/90 ]
[ 40/1600 Exp]
[ Strength 13 (2) ]
[ Agility 15 ]
[ Stamina 12 ]
Levelling up had given Graham one extra stat point. Looking at his stats now he decided to put the stat point into strength.
[ Strength 14 (2)]
The reason for this was the skill Hammer strike, it needed a total of 15 strength to perform, while he had the gauntlets on they gave him an extra bonus of three strength but when the Rattaclaw had damaged the gauntlets the strength dropped to two.
If his gauntlets were to be destroyed, then he would no longer be able to perform Hammer strike correctly. So first Graham decided he would get his strength up to fifteen before focusing on stamina and agility.
But the system still had one more surprise for him.
[New skill unlocked ]
[ Blood spray ]
[ Blood spray: The user's palm must be open to perform this skill. From the user's palm, a spray of blood pellets will be realized spreading out covering a wide range. The closer the attack is to its target the more damage it will do]
[Cost -5 HP ]
The skill reminded Graham of a shotgun he used to watch form the old movies. Where the small pellets would spread out hitting multiple targets. The problem was the cost of the skill.
5 HP was a huge amount and even with his blood bank Graham would have to be careful when using it. The plus side was that it was a skill designed to hit more than one opponent.
If Graham had Layla around, he would like to test the Blood spray out but he didn't know how long he would be stuck here, so it was best to reserve his HP and as much blood as possible.
Graham then walked up to the dead beast on the ground. He had punched the creature so hard in the skull it was indented and blood was leaking everywhere.
Looking at the black blood it didn't seem appetizing at all. He wasn't drawn to it like regular human blood and it didn't give off a sweet fragrance either.
Still, there might come a time were Graham was required to drink it so he needed to test it out.
"Inspect."
[ Rattaclaw blood ]
[ Blood is poisonous to the body, if consumed – 1 HP for every millimeter of blood consumed ]
It was expected. The signs were a giveaway that his body was telling him to stay away.
"I wonder why does my body only accepts human blood."
The system had been oddly specific when his body started to require blood, this made Graham think that even the blood of animals wouldn't work, even though some were red in color just like humans.
Of course, there was one person who did know the answers behind everything, and that was the blonde man in the video.
The last thing he needed to do was rip or cut the body open and look for the beast core inside. It was a small crystal located in a different part of the body depending on the beast.
This could be used to either create more beast weapon and armor or even be sold for credits. Both of these would be a big bonus for him.
Suddenly though, the sound of something running was heard again, as Graham looked up, the sight of ten Rattaclaws were running in his direction.
Although Basic tier creatures were weak, it was odd for them to travel alone and Graham had just gotten 'lucky'.
After struggling to face just against one, he knew he had no chance against ten. All he could do was run. He ran down the empty street not knowing where he was heading.
But the Rattaclaws were fast and would soon catch up. That's when Graham spotted a building, one that was far less damaged than the others. He went inside but the space was still too large, he then spotted a stairway to his right nearby.
After quickly running up the stairway and reaching the first platform he stopped and turned. He knew he had no choice but to fight back. The staircase was narrower than the rooms and he had the high ground.
With his palm open facing downward he was ready.
"Time to test you out."
Standing on top of the platform Graham had a clear view of the giant Rat like creatures coming towards him. He aimed carefully and then when they were about halfway up the stairs, he activated his skill.
"Blood spray!"
[ 85/90 HP ]
His arm jerked back as the skill activated and a strong force of blood left his hands spreading out. The five Rat's out in front were sent flying back and toppling down the stairs. However, the shot had only hit the ones in front and the Rat's behind quickly climbed over their fallen comrades.
Graham decided to head further up the stairs to create more distance between him and the Rats, but then, he could see there was a huge problem in front of him. Part of the ceiling from the floor above had crumbled and collapsed onto the staircase blocking his way.
There was no longer any space for Graham to go up. He turned around and the Rats were just starting to ascend the second set of stairs. The Rats from before were quick to make a recovery and were behind them as well.
This time Graham held out both hands with his palm wide open.
[Blood spray]
The first spray of blood left his hands and knocked the Rat's over, then when the group behind them started to ascend he cast blood spray again with his other hand.
[ 80/90 HP ]
[ 75/90 HP ]
The Rat's had fallen over and were badly hurt by the attack, but knew they would soon recover. There were several small holes over their body where blood would leak from but they just weren't deep enough to cause any serious damage.
He made sure to keep his distance away from them and stayed on top of the stairs. Although Blood spray was good at hitting multiple targets it wasn't as strong as blood swipe. Only the force of knocking them back was powerful.
If Graham was to get close, he was afraid that the rats might recover and surround him, so there was only one thing he could do. He started swinging his hands out rapidly aiming carefully at each Rat.
[ Blood swipe ]
[ Blood Swipe ]
[ Blood swipe ]
…..
As the red claw-like lines left his hands, at the same time he could hear multiple messages ding in his head.
[ Rattaclaw has been defeated, 100 exp ]
[ 74/ 90 HP ]
[ Rattaclaw has been defeated, 100 exp ]
[ 73/ 90 HP ]
....
The messages continued onward until eventually, all of the Rat's had been killed. Graham then fell to the floor on his knees gasping for air. The continues use of the Blood swipes along with his new skill Blood spray had tired him out.
[ 65/90 HP ]
[ 1040/1600 Exp]
[ Congratulations, Blood swipe has reached Lv. 2 ]
After sitting down for a few minutes and recovering his stamina Graham was finally be able to stand, he took a moment to take in all of the messages he had received.
If he got into a situation where he needed to fight, he needed to use his fists, and only rely on his Blood skills in an emergency like in this scenario.
Who knew if there was another human being on this planet?
There were only two good things that had come out of the whole situation, the fact that his blood swipe skill had levelled up. There was no change in the description on how it worked, but assuming it had now levelled up, he hoped it was now stronger.
If the system was like a game, then it meant the more he used the skill the quicker it would level up. The only thing Graham was unsure about was whether or not using the blood swipe in the game had helped it level up quicker. There was no way for him to tell as there was no experience bar for his skills.
The second good thing that had come out of this, was the EXP he had gained. To gain the same amount of experience points as he had just gained at this moment, he would have had to play the game for days.
Graham then walked up to the dead beasts on the floor. Before when he had killed the first Rattaclaw he didn't have time to extract the beast crystal from its body but inside the building, it seemed like he was safe from other creatures.
Using the tip of his gauntlets he tore open the beasts, he searched around inside the chest looking for a glowing crystal. Usually, someone doing this for the first time it would affect them. Maybe they would have even thrown up a few times searching around inside the organs of the beast.
But for some reason, Graham felt like he was unaffected and it didn't bother him at all. He couldn't help but think ever since he had become a Halfling his view on what was normal and what wasn't was changing.
After searching around for a while Graham finally found it. It was a small round crystal ball with tiny little bumps all over, and around the same size as an adult's fist.
[ Basic tier Beast crystal obtained ]
[Would you like to store it in your inventory?]
Then another message had appeared.
"Inventory?" Graham thought, "You mean I had one this whole time!"
Graham selected the yes option and suddenly, the crystal in his hand slowly started to vanish away and finally, it had completely disappeared.
He then opened up his status screen and now there was a tab for inventory, as he selected the tab he could see the single beast crystal stored inside.
"I wonder if I can put anything else in there?"
Graham then tried using his mind to store his gauntlets into the inventory, if he could store weapons and other things it would be really handy for future trips. He tried and tried but nothing appeared from the system.
Whenever he wanted to do something with the system in the past, all he had to do was think about it and it would work, but even taking off the gauntlets and touching them, thinking about the inventory while wearing them, nothing seemed to work.
Although he was able to make the crystal he had obtained, appear into his hand and back into the inventory at will.
Graham then went to extract the crystals from the remaining nine Rat's. Each time he did he found it easier than the last to locate it inside the body and every time he held a crystal in his hand, the system message would appear.
[ Basic tier beast crystal (10) ]
He had collected all ten and couldn't help but feel pleased with himself. The beast crystals could be used to turn into beast weapons or beast armor but looking at the rat-like creature Graham had no idea what it could be used for.
Every beast crystal depending what beast it had come from had a different use and you could try to figure it out from what the beast was like.
For example, if a beast crystal was obtained from a large turtle-like creature then it would most likely a defensive item could be crafted. Maybe it could be turned into a shield or even a good piece of chest armor.
But regardless, even if the item created Graham had no use for, the least he could do was sell the basic tier beast crystals. Each crystal sold would sell for a total of ten credits. Which meant he could either use the money to purchase beast gear himself or he could use it to spend more time in the game.
After tinkering around in his system and his stamina fully recovered, Graham decided to try to climb up to the roof of the building. Even though the building he was in was safe, he was on a strict time scale and needed to find the portal back fast.
He walked around and looked for any cracks and gaps he could see in the stairs. Eventually, after making a few detours he had reached the top of the building.
The building was about three stories high and wasn't the biggest but at least he now had a better view of where he was. As he looked around all he could see were buildings that resembled human structures.
That's when he spotted something, one of the buildings without a doubt had the same crest as the school he attended.
"So this really is a human shelter, but then why is it all ruined and destroyed?"
The building was large in size and square-like but only two stories high, out of all the buildings around it, it was in better shape than all the others.
Graham had recognized the building as they had one in the city, he was currently in. It was the military storage room. It was where they kept all their high-end equipment, ability books, skill books and beast weapons.
"There's a good chance the portal might be located in there?" Graham then started to smile, "Even if there isn't, I can't waste this opportunity."