5

Mana moved slowly through the main pipeline. I was able to do one revolution per pushup. It was a painfully slow process. I wouldn't stop though. Mana was the stat I'd come to rely on the most. 

I used it constantly. Mainly charging mana up so objects would explode. I smirked to myself as I worked out. I stopped smirking when the burn set in. I remembered then just how much I hated exercising. 

It was a chore. I treated it like a job. It needed to be done. I couldn't procrastinate any longer, and I knew the system would stop me from starving to death so I didn't even need to eat. I just had to keep working. 

I stopped counting my mana revolutions as I focused on doing pushups. I needed to do three thousand pushups per stat point now. That meant I had to do fifteen thousand in a day to get my five stat points. Adding weight reduced the number. Doing it one handed also reduced the number. 

My strength was high enough that my body alone didn't take much effort so it made sense that adding weight helped my count go up faster. When my arms could no longer bare my effort I switched to leg exercises. I kept going until I was exhausted beyond words. I managed to hit my numbers, and increase my stamina in the process. I rested for a few hours allowing my vitality to restore my damaged muscles before jumping back into my exercises.

Switching to sprinting this time. I couldn't hide in the alley while sprinting. I kept up my mana revolutions the whole time. By now the sun was falling, and there weren't many people around to see me. Not that people would really care. 

The added weight helped with my sprinting as well. Each stride counted for twice as much. It was only a matter of time before before I'd get the number I needed. I kept on sprinting well beyond what I my body wanted me to. By the time I stopped I was starving, and exhausted. 

It was time for me to go to sleep. Just three hours to spare before seven am. I flopped down on the cot, and passed out right away. Stamina was near impossible to improve quickly. I couldn't do much about it. 

Strenuous battle was the best way to improve that particular statistic. Even my battle with that monster hadn't been enough to increase my stamina. If the other monster had stayed to fight it might have been enough. I woke with a start. Something had disturbed my sleep. 

It was quiet here though so what could it be? I got off my cot quietly grumbling to myself. I'd only been asleep an hour or two. Something was wrong. I got off my cot, and straightened. 

Grabbing my bow, and dagger as I walked out of the makeshift barracks. I shifted my quiver from my back to a waist position. It was easier to move through tight spaces that way. I'd gotten my arrows caught a few times when I had the quiver on my back. Tighter spaces meant less room to draw an arrow from over my shoulder. 

Add on the fact that I'm used to being naturally short, and the quiver quickly became an annoying hindrance. I drew an arrow, and loosely nocked it. Not drawing the bow or fully preparing for anything yet. Then I heard it. The clicking. 

It was so familiar, and so dangerous at the same time. I dropped my arrow back into my quiver before running to the wall. The first glimpses of sunlight were peeking over the horizon, but I was more concerned about the fact that no one was firing. I hung my bow on my arm, and rushed up the ladder to the top of the wall only to find there was no one at the top of the wall. Even at night there were at least five people on the wall at all times. 

I didn't know if there were more people on the other side of the wall since my line of sight was limited by the poor lighting. I nocked an arrow, and fired at something that was moving at the base of the wall. It's dark coloration made it hard for me to see. I nocked another arrow. I heard a wish sound, and dropped. 

I was actually dropping before I heard the sound. A tentacle of some sort missed me by a hair. It snapped against the stone wall. Leaving a deep gash in the stone before withdrawing. I stood back up quickly. 

I charged an arrow with fire mana, and fired it out above the settlement. It exploded above the settlement. Lighting up the whole camp in a single moment. I ducked again as the tentacle snapped at me again. I turned, and aimed the direction the tentacle was coming from. 

I had managed to grab one of my few poison arrows. Launching it at my enemy with ease. It was a motion I'd practiced a lot since this had began. I nocked two arrows at once next. Firing both in the general direction of the movement on the ground. 

The clicking rose to clicking roars. They were moving quickly now that the town was awake. I ran along the wall. Only stopping to fire the occasional arrow as I ran. I slipped in some blood along the top of the wall. 

I couldn't tell how many of them were surrounding the town. It didn't matter. It seemed as if the only reason they hadn't crossed into the walls just yet was because most of them couldn't climb. One of the tentacle monsters stabbed it's tentacles into the wall, and yanked itself up on top of the wall. It was the same kind of monster I'd fought just a few short days ago only it had tentacles along it's back as well as longer claws.