Author Note:

Finally, this is where it truly begins! >:D

——-

I was back at the plains.

After my journey to the forest a lot of things that had to be cleared appeared.

I quickly began checking through the menu.

---

Name: Youma Hiromi

Age: 21                Gender: Male

Class: Double Edge           Race: Human

Alignment: None              Guild: None

Lvl: 14

Stamina: 340/340

Mana: 154/154

Stats:

Strength: 10

Dexterity: 70

Vitality: 80

Magic: 27

Luck: 41

---

“Wow, what is going on?!” I unconsciously shout. There is no helping it, what was in front of me was that unbelievable.

Where did all my strength go?!

I rub my eyes and check again confirming it wasn’t just my eyes playing me a prank.

Every single stat received a major boost, with the exception of magic. Yet, the strength one degraded to starting point.

I thought about when this happened.

In the fight with the Granite Deer I am sure I got a notification right at the end, but since I had to concentrate on recovering my body I totally ignored it. That notification was most likely a level up one because it appeared just as the fight ended. But in the fight with the Blood Bear a crazy amount of notifications appeared right in the middle of the fight, of course in that situation it was even less likely for me to check them out so this is quite troublesome.

I know that something happened in the middle of that Blood Bear fight that made my strength stat be in its current state.

Also the Villager class was changed to Double Edge. I have never heard of such class before, I have to look that up too.

Checking through the menu I try to find a way to check on previous notifications. It’s crazy if they think I can pay attention to those when they pop up whenever they feel like.

Finally in my profile information I find a really small tab at the bottom saying [Recent activity], I open that and a list appears.

“This is what I have been looking for”

I skim through the list and saw that everything that I did was summarized here. [Slayed Horned Mice] [Received Corpse of Horned Mouse] I skip all those things and go to the most recent ones and see the details. Selecting the one where I level up after slaying the Horned Deer.

[Level up: Extra Stats received for reaching level 10! +20]

This explains the sudden boost of my stats. If I count the other 4 levels then I can see how they look like they are now.

Now I go to the important ones. The ones that appeared right in the middle of the Blood Bear fight.

[Congratulations, you have entered a new class!]

I select that tab to see the details of it.

---

Double Edge class has been unlocked

All stats have raised in relation to the pertaining class.

Strength +50                      Dexterity +20                     Vitality +30                         Luck +10

Skills related to the class have been unlocked:

<Active>

[Heavy Blow] uses the limits of your arm strength to inflict heavy damage to your enemy

[Speed Burst] Increases the speed by 100% for 30min, while the skill is in effect stamina will reduce 0.5 times faster. After effect is over your legs will give out and will reduce your speed by 50% for 15min

[Limit break] Increases your strength by 75% for 30min after effect is over fatigue takes over reducing your arm strength by 30%, your total stamina by 25% and regen for 15 min.

<Passive>

[Fit for injuries] Your regeneration rate is increased by 3 when outside combat. All potions can trigger this effect for a 0.5 increase when in combat. Only regeneration ones apply.

[Weak feed the Strong] When in battle, if your opponent is weaker than you its stamina consumption will be 0.3 times higher. The stamina taken will be regenerated to your own.

[Calm voice] Your words carry certain power.

Restriction: When outside combat your strength will be reduced to 10. In order to enter combat mode you will have to use an active combat skill.

---

The culprit is here! The culprit for EVERYTHING is right here!

From the fast recovery to my unbelievable increase in power at the middle of the fight, even the stats I have and why my strength is low. Every reason is here!

But I can’t help but be amazed by this. All the skills here are incredibly powerful. If it weren’t for the active skill restriction just the raw amount of stat increase would make me fearsome.

I don’t know about the stats of people in this world, but I would definitely be able to hold my ground in the forest.

With happy humming I decide to enter the forest.

***

“HUUUUUHH…. HIUUUUUH”

I gasp for dear life.

A number of Granite Deer were now searching for me. I am inside a cave, trying my best to hide from them.

How did this happen?

I tried using [Speed Burst] to activate my combat mode at the same time as I try to increase my speed of search.

It was a breeze. The Granite Deer that gave me problems to deal with the first time I entered, were falling like leaves. With a single stroke of my sword the fight was already over. The Granite Deer couldn’t even react. The sword that I received also helped a lot in this, it was light and the blade sliced easily through my targets.

I slayed various mana beasts on the run and stuffed them up in my inventory. I didn’t have time to skin them right now as I’m on a 30 minute buff. It was an easy run.

But I soon realized the error of my thoughts.

My legs began to scream even before the buff ran out, my body was sweating like an untapped faucet and my lungs were demanding replenishment for the high energy burn. Worst of all, I aggroed the attention of a herd of Granite Deer.

They were incredibly fast even with my speed buff. With only close to 1 minute of buff remaining I had to look for shelter before the buff ran out and hence my current situation.

I wipe my sweat off and take a bottle of water out of my inventory. My dry throat was jumping in pleasure as the liquid flows down. I decide to make this cave a save point and began preparations but-

‘Ding’ a sound notifying me the buff was over rang out in my mind, accompanying that sound…

“Guh-nnnngg…!” A terrifying pain surges through my legs, it felt as if someone just chopped my legs with an axe. I fell to the ground and began squirming, trying my best to avoid my voice from leaking out.

This wasn’t on the level of “your legs will give out and will reduce your speed by 50%” it was on the level of “Now we will cut off your legs”, this wasn’t related to speed anymore!

The pain continued for a whole 15 minutes. When it was over, I imagined the lumberman with his giant axe waving at me with a refreshing smile. I flip him off.

Trying to get up I notice the pain was now completely gone as if a lie, but the cold sweat still lingered telling me it was all real.

“That [Speed Burst] was worse than I thought it would be”

At first I was planning on using just the buffs to train because the [heavy blow] was definitely the skill I used on the Blood Bear that broke both of my arms with 2 uses.

But with this I am not even sure which one is better now. I still had [Limit Break] but just the word break was enough to spell bad news.

“The recoil I get on using skills is terrifying”

The reality of this class was hitting me hard now. The restriction in this class seemed even worse than before. Every time I fight I have to activate one of the active skills obligatorily, if I use [Heavy Blow] my arms will turn to dust, if I use buffs it will be 15 minutes of torture in which I will be completely open. Those 15 minutes were an extremely dangerous time.

This class was indeed worth of its name, Double Edge. A class that was strong but bit the user back just as harshly.

“There is no other choice” I resign myself to destiny. I don’t know a way to change classes so I just have to grit my teeth and continue walking this path for now.

With all that set, I go out the cave. My first plan was to look for herbs.

I avoid confronting any mana beast, stealthily foraging all the herbs I find. Every now and then they discover me and am forced to fight. At those times I activate [Speed Burst] and enter grinding mode while noting down the places I see herbs. When the effect is running out I return to the cave and “rest” there.

The whole day was gone in a flash and it was now night in the forest. My mind was at its point of collapse. My body can have as much regeneration as it can have but my psych would not be able to handle those constant bursts of pain that were transmitted.

The normal course of action was to rest for the day, but in my current situation I still had a lot of things I had to prepare. In the night I already planned on taking all the dead mana beasts I hunted and collect all the materials I could get.

Carapace and bones for armor, hide for clothes, meat for food. Extracting the materials of animals was kind of a second nature to me already.

Munching at a Granite Deer meat with light seasoning I sat in front of the bonfire, pondering my future plans. I curse at my first Horned Mouse I ate while I was at that.

With the dry skin I prepared at the morning I made cover for the night.

The next day, I equip the armor I made from the materials.

Anyone who saw me would be laughing at me right now. It was a total mish-mash of things from mana beasts in this forest. The carapace from Turtle Munchers working as shoulder protectors. The hide of Granite Deers as gloves and working as chest armor were a set of bones made from various mana beasts. My body was covered by the best material I had, the fur of the Blood Bear. I haven’t encountered another one yet but out of all the mana beasts in the forest, this one was indeed the toughest of them all.

Aesthetics aside, the armors performance was indeed enough for mana beasts in this forest. My lack of sleep was, in a sense, worth it.

My days in the forest passed without any problems. The pain was already a part of the routine and something I got used to, though that didn’t make it less painful. I still writhed in pain and there were times I just outright passed out if I didn’t take care of not over using my stamina in the middle of the buff. There were dangerous times.

Truth be spoken, if I hadn’t learned how to concoct potions I wouldn’t have been able to sail so smoothly in this training. Every time I fell from the backlash I quickly drunk a potion to mitigate even if a little, the pain it gave.

In one of those moments when the backlash of the buff ends. ‘Ding’ a notification pops up. I open it up and check the contents.

---

Your proficiency in [Speed Burst] has increased and is now in rank D!

[Speed Burst] Increases the speed by 100% (+20%) for 30min, while the skill is in effect stamina will reduce 0.7 (-0.1) times faster. After effect is over your legs will give out and will reduce your speed by 50% (-5%) for 15min (-2min)                      Mana: 60 (+20)

---

“T-This is iiiiiiittttttt!!” I shout and jump in joy.

There was a proficiency stat too! There are ranks in your skills too!

I was using my skills in hope I would get used to the pain somehow, but the solution literally pops in front of me.

This was indeed a life saver. Now I had an actual reason to continuously use the skills. Now there was a ray of hope of actually being a normal powerful character!

Maybe there will be a day where I won’t writhe in pain after using a skill. I was in cloud seven now just from thinking that.

With that said, I double up my schedule.

“This time I will train [Limit Break] along with [Speed Burst]!”

That way I would be able to train the proficiency of both of them and I will be able to become stronger 2 times faster.

…

I drop dead the moment both buffs ended. A whole day passed before I regained consciousness.

I decide not to be so stupid anymore and ban the use of 2 buffs at the same time.

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