Wind rustling the trees. Small animals running through the brush. Chirping. Loud exhaling behind, with the sound of something being swung. Footsteps.
"Shit!" Klay yelled out as he instinctively threw himself out of the way. Taking a moment to look back, he saw a teenager around the same age as him holding a stick in the air, clearly having intended to smash it into Klay's back.
"Woah, you managed to avoid that? Haha! Elias didn't say you were that good!" The boy spoke excitedly, holding the stick and looking at Klay on the ground.
Elias? Wasn't that the bully from yesterday? Did he get this guy to come after me now?
Klay's thoughts were slightly scattered as he quickly returned to his feet, keeping a wary distance away from the teen. Klay wore an uncertain expression on his face as he faced this newcomer, as he had no true experience in handling someone with a weapon.
I can't get too close, otherwise he could just start beating me with the stick, so I have to either disarm him or avoid it entirely. When he swings, I'll use Observation to look for any hints that will help me.
Quickly, Klay decided on a course of action and stood in a defensive stance, waiting for the teen to become impatient enough to attack him first. He had the system wait to activate Observation the moment an attack was started. After a few more seconds of waiting, this preparation proved most useful as the boy quickly leapt forward and swung the branch over his head at Klay.
Unskilled stance, untrained. Young, around 14, average build. Impulsive. Red pants, from Copper High. Unguarded swing, leaning into the swing.
Noticing the information he needed, Klay quickly started moving. He slipped to the side, narrowly avoiding the stick before aiming a kick down towards the teen's foot.
PA!
With a groan, the teen grimaced as his foot was stomped on by Klay. He reached out and pushed Klay away, creating several steps of space between them as Klay steadied himself once more.
His swings should be less powerful now, I can probably take them and let my body regenerate on its own.
Following this thought, Klay took a deep breath in and glared at the young boy. "I didn't want to get into any fights today, so why'd you have to attack me? Don't you know how badly you could've hurt me?" Klay's voice was annoyed, and the boy glared back at Klay before yelling at him.
"You're not strong at all, I can win this easily!"
With a yell, the teen lunged at Klay, swinging the stick horizontally with as much force as he could muster. His attack quickly wavered as he put his weight on his right foot, which was bruised after the kick from Klay.
PA!
The soft impact stung against Klay, but he noticed the soft buzzing of his body regenerating fill in the pain and managed to ignore it. Taking a short step forward, he sent his fist forward and punched the boy in the chest before backing away again.
Due to the adrenaline of fighting, the young teen barely felt the punch and began swinging the stick at Klay again, forcing some distance between them as Klay backed up to dodge.
That stick is really annoying! It freaking hurts to get hit by it, even if it's weak!
Suddenly, Klay charged at the boy, surprising him and closing the distance between them rapidly. Unable to swing the branch, the teen instead kicked at Klay, pushing him back and on to the ground.
The boy stepped over and quickly started to swing down the stick at Klay, cutting his skin slightly with the many swings.
Stop hitting me, what did I ever do to you! What can I do to get out of this? I startled him by throwing myself at him before, maybe it will work again.
Pushing himself off the ground slightly, Klay popped up quickly as he jammed his shoulder into the boy's stomach, causing him to cough as he was pushed back. Acting quickly to follow up the advantage, Klay tackled the teen, sending them both to the ground with Klay managing to land above the boy.
Having pinned the boy's arm with the stick down, Klay grinned at the moment of relief before the boy struggled beneath him, swinging his free hand up into Klay's face.
[Dental injury detected. Activating Level 2 Regen Focus]
His lip bleeding, Klay spit a clump of blood onto the ground before raining several hits down into the boy's face. The teen punched Klay's face and body a few times as Klay continuously hit him, but didn't manage to get Klay off of him before he passed out.
"[Congratulations! Your opponent has been knocked unconscious. Rewards for defeating Armed Student Bully: +5 Exp. You have leveled up to level 2!]"
Winded, Klay got off the boy and sat down against a nearby tree as he caught his breath over the next minute.
I just came to the trails to work out, not fight off a kid with a stick! I think he's a year below me, since he looks so young but still has the Copper High uniform. He mentioned Elias earlier too, so I'm guessing he's in that bully circle.
He walked over to the boy, who had fully been knocked out, and checked his pockets for his phone. Finding it, he unlocked it using their fingerprint and started searching his texts for a group chat.
Aha! Found it. I wonder if… yep. Alp is on here too.
Thinking for a bit, Klay realized Alp had likely sent this student after Klay since Elias had only gotten beat up the day before.
I wonder if there is a way for me to get Alp off my back now. He's already had two people come after me and both have failed, so he should get the hint now.
Sighing, Klay decided to try something. He opened the camera on the phone and took a picture of the bruised and unconscious bully on the ground, then sent it to the group chat with a text, 'Stop trying to beat me up'.
I should probably make sure nothing happens to him since he's in the woods. Hopefully he'll wake up soon.
Klay let his body heal for several minutes, enjoying the rejuvenation of the slight buzzing he felt where he had been hit. After around 15 minutes, Klay figured he had healed enough and was just waiting for the tooth to return, so he decided to start working out.
Having never done a self-guided workout, he was unsure where to start, but decided to sort out the system first.
[Name: Klay Wynne (Martial Student)
Rank: Drudge (Low tier)
Exp: Level 2, 0/7
Stat Points: 1
Stats:
[Strength: 10 (10.1)
Dexterity: 12 (12.4)
Flexibility: 11 (10.8)
Senses: 10 (10)
Intellect: 17 (16.9)
Stability: 13 (13.1)
Regeneration: 1.7]
Abilities: [Observation Level 1], [Regen Focus (Passive) Level 2]
Additional Pages: Titles]
At least I got a fairly easy level for my troubles. System, add the free stat point to Regeneration.
[Adding 1 free stat point to Regeneration hidden stat. 1.7 → 2.7]
I'm sure it'd be nice to improve my other stats like that, but considering both the name of this system power and Simon's idea for how to use such an ability, it's still the best stat to improve for now.
Ultimately satisfied, Klay felt his body healing more of the cuts and bruises he received from the fight before he began to exercise.
He started by climbing some of the trees nearby, trying to increase his physical stats through whatever method he could. After climbing up different trees several times, Klay began pushing against a tree heavily.
The likely method to increase my strength stat is using as much force as I can. If I just imagine that I'm moving this tree, I'll be able to do that. My dexterity should increase a bit if I keep climbing these trees, and my flexibility will probably be increased through different stretches. I have a good setup for this experiment, and depending on how many stats I gain tomorrow morning, I'll know how well my experiment turned out.
Whenever he felt too tired, Klay sat down and stretched before returning to either tree climbing or pushing. After repeating this cycle for around half an hour, the boy that had been knocked out by Klay had finally woken up, and quickly ran away from the area after not immediately seeing Klay. Unknowingly, he left his phone with Klay, who had decided to check the group chat once more and found it full of curses and threats towards him.
Sulking, Klay continued working out for another hour before finally stopping, too exhausted to continue. He got rid of the boy's phone by throwing it into a public trash can on his way home, hoping that it won't come back to bite him later.
I hope there is enough food at home for me to not feel hungry later. This new required calorie thing will take a while to get used to, especially if it hurts so much.