A Novel Concept

Claire was panting. Priam was moving fast, and keeping up with him was no easy task. Meanwhile, the young man was trying to pierce the mist with his eyes, when he heard exclamations to his left. He slowed down and motioned to the girl to be quiet.

"Noise on our left. I'll go first. Follow me."

Claire nodded her head in agreement.

Priam quietly approached the clamor. Quickly, the opaque mist cleared up, revealing shadows twirling around. Priam stopped in front of the spectacle that was offered to him. Three men armed with swords were fighting massive boars in a surreal scene. Humanity is impressive. Nine days ago, the majority of humans had a sedentary lifestyle. Except at the zoo, a man could go his whole life without seeing a dangerous animal. Today, I see three people with sabers fighting rabid boars.

The three strangers were no strangers to violence. Unfortunately, despite their dexterity and coordination, the animals were too numerous and resistant. A herd of eight boars was continuously charging them. The sabers' wounds inflicted on the animals seemed to drive them mad. They were charging blindly at the individuals, seeking to take them with them to the next world. None of the men were injured, but Priam guessed the situation could quickly change. The mammals' canines were half a meter long. One mistake would mean death.

No sooner had he had this thought that one of the boars scratched the thigh of one of the fighters with its tusk - a lower canine. The wound seemed superficial, but it disturbed the warrior. It could be the beginning of the end. I have to intervene now if I want to help them! Priam had questions, and only living men could answer them. Announcing himself with a shout to distract the boars, Priam leaped into the fray.

His agility and kinetic energy control skills were particularly well suited to fighting heavy, slow, powerful monsters. Priam put his hand on the snout of a male and absorbed some of the energy from the charge. The animal slowed down, and Priam took advantage of the situation to throw a titanic punch. Using his strength combined with the energy he had just stolen, the blow broke the beast's neck.

Lvl Up: [Strike] lvl 7
STR + 1

The cracking sounded like the announcement of a brutal death. The sound was so horrible that Priam was afraid for his hand. It's a great way to break bones. My bones too. The other boars snarled and, in one motion, tried to attack Priam. Their massive size prevented them from attacking as a group. The animals were getting in each other's way as they tried to run in the same direction. Priam spun around to find an exit, his senses alert. There! With a leap, he found himself balancing on the head of a boar its comrades had pushed. [Art of Movement] allowed him to regain his balance in a split second. Priam slid down the boar's side and grabbed its tusk. As soon as his feet hit the ground, he slowed the beast by absorbing its kinetic energy and planted his feet on the ground. Exercising his thigh and back muscles like never before, he lifted the animal and threw it to the ground in one motion. Without giving it time to get up, Priam finished off the stunned beast with a spear to the head. Only six more to go.

"Never again will I fight a pathetic battle," he encouraged himself.

Priam felt his [Focus] skill activate as his mind focused on the fight. The skill allowed him to forget the pain in his side. He looked back at the rest of the animals. The herd was disorganized, and the beasts had lost sight of him as he jumped. Priam retrieved his spear as one of the boars finally caught sight of him. Seeing the corpse at the young man's feet, it charged, blinded by rage. Priam drove his spear into the ground and prepared to absorb the kinetic energy of the assault. There was something terrifying about seeing a hundred-kilogram monster charging at you. The collision was brutal, but Priam absorbed the energy of the movement while closing his eyes. The beast's violent stop raised a cloud of dust. Mentally, Priam admonished himself: depriving himself of vision during a fight was madness.

Fortunately, he had not been attacked at that time. Opening his eyes, Priam could see the animal's open jaw and spear piercing its brain. He could feel the warm blood of the wild animal splashing on his face. Only five left.

Priam stood up and pressed his foot against the beast's head to try to free his spear. Shit, it's blocked. The rest of the group charged him before he could recover his spear.

"Do you know how to do anything other than charge stupidly?!"

The boars' cry seemed to indicate a negative response. As they came within five meters of him, Priam took off and jumped over them. Once behind the beasts, he laughed and went after them. I'm playing leapfrog with bloodthirsty boars.

[Focus] helped him choose his next victim: the rightmost boar, a little more isolated than the others. As the warthog's charge ran out of steam, Priam caught up with his target and slapped it on the rump. [Kinetic Control]. The animal braked in surprise and Priam took advantage. Planting his left leg on the ground, he kicked the beast in the mouth with a circular kick. Mobilizing all of his kinetic charges in the blow, the beast was nearly decapitated. Four more to go.

By the time the rest of the herd figured out what had happened, Priam went back for his spear. He finally released it under the stunned eyes of his audience. Focusing on the fight, he didn't notice the men's amazement or the concern in Claire's eyes.

Priam's eyes were clear. [Focus] was influencing his thoughts and he was no longer worried. The men, Claire, the Reunion, and even his family were in the background. Only the fight mattered, and his mind was totally focused on his victory. He would win and he knew it. The boars had to die and he would be their executioner.

The survivors had stopped. They were reluctant to attack, and rage had given way to fear. When the rest of the boars were indecisive, Priam provoked them with a wave of his hand. Time stood still for a silent second, before the biggest male got angry. He charged first, before his family followed. Priam swung his spear in the air to save kinetic energy. The other three boars were far behind, and the duel would be the last.

The monster was getting closer and was soon only a few meters away from Priam. He prepared to dodge it, standing firm on his feet. At the last second, Priam shifted his weight and evaded the beast with one lightning step. The canines brushed against him as Priam prepared his piercing attack. All his bodily and kinetic energies were concentrated in the attack. The animal didn't have time to move a step away as the spear's tip pierced its skull. The inertia of the charge took the animal and the spear with it.

Priam turned around just in time to catch the tusk of one of the boars planning to skewer him. With a pelvis twist, he turned the beast's momentum into a spin. He managed a half-turn on himself while lifting the beast. When he let go, it was as if the boar had jumped off a merry-go-round. It was thrown back several feet. [Focus] and [Kinetic Control] gave Priam a great deal of freedom to counter the boar's brutal and basic approach. He felt like a great judo master taking on eight children. The boars were heavy, but that was their only advantage. They could have smashed through a one-centimeter-thick metal door but could not hit Priam.

As he approached the beast, Priam realized that one of its tusks had gotten stuck in a root when it fell and lodged its head in place. Its inertia had broken its neck as the rest of its body continued. I have to be careful with the terrain. If I get my foot stuck in a root, it will be the end.

The last two warthogs were coming back, too stupid to understand that their foolish tactics would have no impact today. One of the two warthogs was faster and outpaced its comrade. This decision proved fatal when Priam grabbed one of its tusks and threw it at the last member of the herd. Both beasts rolled to the ground, and Priam jumped on one of them to finish it off. Grabbing a canine tooth with one hand to steady himself, he used his other hand to pummel the animal. His palm repeatedly struck the skull of the enraged monster.

The last boar came charging back, and Priam got up before finishing his work. He was back in the air a second later, jumping to dodge the attack. Fights were swift when the stats were high. Time seemed to slow down when Priam focused - certainly the combination of [Focus] and his exceptional mental attributes.

Falling back to the ground, Priam sat astride the grounded boar. The boar was trying to get up and looked terrified. It was facing a predator and knew it was going to die. Grabbing the canines, Priam had to use all his considerable strength to twist the boar's neck. Observing the corpse for a moment, Priam was startled. Right now, he was six times stronger than a full-grown man and had still struggled to break the animal's neck.

The last boar hesitated, then turned on its heels. Under Priam's stunned eyes, it fled. Stunned, he did not think directly of pursuing it.

"It must not run away! This monster will find other humans to kill!" shouted one of the men.

Priam's eyes hardened. He didn't want to decimate a species but refused to stand by while humans fought and died. Indifference was sometimes the worst crime. He dashed toward the runaway. Sprinting and releasing the energy stolen during the fight, he painfully caught up with the animal after about twenty seconds. The animal ran incredibly fast and had a natural advantage as a quadruped.

When he reached its height, he absorbed the animal's energy to slow down its run. Kinetic energy being proportional to the square of the speed, even if he took half of it, the animal was still running away quickly. Priam painfully overtook it. Planting his foot on the ground to stabilize himself, he delivered a titanic knee strike to the animal's temple.

Out of breath despite the short duration of the fight, his heart beating fast, Priam allowed himself a little rest. The difference between a real fight and a training session was colossal. He had not succeeded in optimizing his stamina, and he felt tiredness coming on despite his vitality. His eyes focused on the corpse as he massaged a spot on his side.

"Nine days ago, I was revising for a fundamental physics competition. Today I killed eight giant, rabid boars with my hands in a few seconds. I guess my life will never be the same again..."

A growl shook the ground. Priam turned just in time to see the mist ripple. A gigantic mass appeared, hurtling at high speed. The boar wasn't running away, it was looking for its mother. I was fighting boarlets!

Priam mustered every ounce of his energy to dodge the oncoming death. The beast's tusk passed so close to his arm that the repulsed air scratched him. He landed in a roll, before looking at his new opponent.

A wild sow did not normally have a tusk. This one was an exception to that rule and others. The monster measured at least two meters at the withers and three meters long. Two thousand kilograms of muscle and fat, thrown at full throttle. It was an abomination that Priam had no desire to face. But in the beast's intelligent eyes, he read hatred. The mother knew who had slaughtered its children. One of them had to die. And it would be you.

Priam was annoyed because he had not recovered his spear. Killing the monster would be difficult without making it bleed. Unless...

He positioned himself with his back to a young tree. If the monster charged foolishly, it would hit the tree. The mother boar charged at him, and Priam only avoided it at the last second. A cataclysmic crack was heard. The tree had shattered at the point of impact. The stump was half out of the ground, and the top of the trunk was rolling a few feet away. The animal stopped fifty meters away to observe the result of its charge. Priam saw the disappointment in its eyes when it saw that he was still alive. But there was another feeling. Perhaps he was imagining it, but he thought he saw a kind of schadenfreude in the beast's eyes. It said, 'You'll end up pulverized like this tree. I hope you're scared.’

Priam was scared. The splintered trunk was about thirty centimeters in diameter. He wasn't that strong. Plan B.

The wild sow charged, and so did Priam. A split second before contact, Priam jumped over the animal and stroked its back with one hand. Instantly, the beast lost speed. One.

Another charge, another acrobatics. The beast was relentless but predictable. Priam's quick thinking, agility, dexterity, and skill made dodging easy. In particular, [Focus] kept him focused, which drastically reduced the risk of error on his part. After three more trips, Priam was ready. He had stored the equivalent of four kinetic saves.

The two adversaries looked at each other, and Priam knew it would be the last time. The beast, whose majesty was eclipsed by anger, dashed forward. Priam prepared himself firmly on his feet. It was no longer a question of dodging. At twenty meters from Priam, the wild sow lowered its head to impale him, but the young man threw himself backward on his back. The attack came within a millimeter of his legs, and the female continued on its way, hoping to crush the murderer of its children.

Lying down with his back to the ground, Priam put his hands on either side of his body and propelled his body, legs first, in the air. When his feet hit the beast's head, the warrior released all his accumulated energy. The effect was immediate. The animal flew away, its head twisted by the brutal acceleration. An abomination close to two tons found itself ten meters high. But boars don't have wings. Gravity pulled the animal back, and the fall was brutal. Thirty meters behind Priam, the colossus crashed to the ground, causing a jolt and a cloud of dust.

Lvl Up: [Kinetic Control] lvl 5
VIVA + 2
DEXT + 3
META (FOCUS) +4

Getting up slowly, Priam blew out his breath. His idea hadn't been brilliant, and one mistake could have sent him to the club of heroes who died in a stupid way. A club with far too many members.

He moved closer to the animal's body. It was breathing hard. Its ribs must have punctured the lungs. Glassy-eyed and badly wounded, the wild sow was on its way to join its children. Priam sat down to wait by its side. He couldn't easily put her out of her misery without his spear and didn't want to leave before it died. He needed to make sure this monster would die. It took ten minutes before the beast took its last breath. As he stood up, he took one last look at the corpse. Did I manage to kill this? I can't believe it...

"Well, I'm going to leave before Dad gets here. Sorry, Pumbaa."

On the way back, Priam thought about the fight. He had plenty of room for improvement, but the attitude of the three men bothered him. They hadn't helped at all. Maybe not to get in his way, but the more he thought, the more he doubted. He started to run.

When the mass grave came into view, Priam stopped short. One of the men was dissecting the boar corpses. Another was keeping watch, spear in hand, and immediately warned his companions of the young man's return. The last man was holding Claire at bay with his saber.

When he saw Priam unharmed, he threatened Claire with his blade. "Not another step."

Status : (Average value for a Homo sapiens male before integration: PHY 10 / MEN 10 / META 0)

PHYSICAL:
Strength 59
Constitution 77
Agility 90
Vitality 112
Perception 66

MENTAL:
Vivacity 77
Dexterity 49
Memory 29
Willpower 44
Charisma 36

META:
Meta-affinity 8
Meta-focus 20

Potential: 144

Tier 0

Priam

Dungeon Diver: Stealing A Monster’s Power

A story following a young hunter named Jay. He has grown up in a world where dungeons, monsters, and humans with leveling systems are a cultural norm. At the age of 20, he awakens a skill that allows him to steal the abilities of monsters. While others are stuck with a specific skill set, he continues to grow stronger after every battle.

Follow Jay's journey as he learns more about his unique situation in a world that's grown blind to the real dangers of modern-day dungeon diving.