Single Stat System

Gasp! Gasp! Gasp!

"What happened?" Sakim opened his eyes and found himself having shortness of breath. The scene that just transpired a moment ago was just too horrifying that he was more than sure that he really died.

But what was going on now? Did he just reborn that fast? Was he in the next life already? No more strange witch that would explain what kind of next life he would go into?

But amidst his confusion and fright that still lingering in his mind, he was taken aback when he suddenly found himself in the same place he was in before he suffered the attack of the Wrathful Rat.

Didn't he die? Sakim had this question floating over his head. But how in the world was he still alive now?

Sakim hurriedly checked his Status window to see if he was just dreaming but his eyes only widened in wonder before realization finally dawned upon him. And a strange smile then crept up on his lips.

Couldn't take the happiness, Sakim let out a mild laugh. But not long after, his laugh became even louder as it even lasted for a good while. Even he himself didn't know if he was still the always calm and nonchalant Sakim that he knew.

So that was the case... After calming himself down for some time, Sakim shook his head slowly upon realizing what had just happened. He then turned back his gaze at the hologram screen to see again his Status window only to smile again upon seeing it. It appeared that he was still yet to recover from his happiness.

HP: 1 | 8,360

MP: 310 | 1,100

With this amount of HP, Sakim was certain that he really died from the attack of that Wrathful Rat. However, he had the item [Ring Of Immortality] under his sleeve. With this item, and with its special attribute: Second Chance, he could be revived once a day. That being said, he really died from the last attack of the Wrathful Rat but was revived by the [Ring Of Immortality] leaving him 1 precious HP.

But Sakim couldn't be complacent just because he escaped death once. He hurriedly used his remaining 37 [Cave Rat HP] to fill his HP bar as soon as possible. As if he was afraid that an ant might bite him all of a sudden and then cause him his real death.

After which was done, and seeing that it wasn't enough, Sakim used as well the 4 [Wrathful Rat HP] he had stolen from the Wrathful Rat using his Go Die skill. With this item, he could recover 418 HP each. That being said, with the four of them in his Stolen Inventory, 1,672 HP was added to his HP bar.

So as of now, with the 37 [Cave Rat HP] and 4 [Wrathful Rat HP] he used, he had recovered a total of 5,372 HP. Adding the 1% HP recovery he had, his HP was now 5,402.

It would be much better if the HP recovery stat was based on the max HP. But sadly for him, the HP recovery stat only recovers a certain percentage of his lost HP and not his max HP. Since that was the case, and because he currently had 2,987 lost HP, he had only recovered 29 HP because of the 1% HP recovery he had. If only the former was the case, if only he could recover 1% of his max HP, then surely, he could recover a much greater amount of HP.

In any case, other than the [Devil Tree HP] in his Stolen Inventory, his many hard-earned healing items had burst like a bubble as he had only 1 healing item left in his Inventory available for use. And that was the great amount of HP that he had stolen from the Wrathful Rat using his passive skill: Greed that made its HP plummet heavily. And this [Wrathful Rat HP] item could heal him 7,094 HP.

But Sakim only needed three thousand or so HP to fill his HP bar fully. That being said, it would only be a huge waste if he used this item now. Thus, he didn't use the item and waited for the right moment instead. After all, he had many ways to recover his HP other than using this life-saving item. He could just steal the HP of the monster around if he wished to.

But then, as he was busy doing his things and planning what to do next, he seemed to recall something as he frantically swept his gaze around. Only now did he remember that he was still yet to defeat the Hidden Dungeon Boss.

However, Sakim found no Hidden Dungeon Boss in the area at all. Not until when his gaze landed down below as he found a big corpse lying on the ground that was now slowly turning into ashes.

Sakim's eyes had gotten bigger as he failed to fathom what was going on now. He walked closer to the corpse lying on the ground as he finally took a clearer view of it.

"D-dead?" Sakim was now more than certain that this was the Wrathful Rat he fought before. Why did it suddenly die now? He didn't even do anything against it.

Sakim could see that there were five deep cuts on its body as if it was clawed to death. Just what in the world had really happened to this monster boss? What kind of unfortunate encounter put it in such a state?

Sakim couldn't help but frown as he pondered about it. But thankfully, after a good while of deep thought, his lips had then again formed a grin when realization dawned upon him.

There were five cuts on the body of the Wrathful Rat that were very likely made by sharp claws. And to what he recalled, Sakim also received five claws from that Wrathful Rat that caused him his death. And then, if one would look at the wound of the Wrathful Rat more carefully, one would notice that the attack that might cause it was almost the same as what he received.

Reflect. Sakim deduced that it was because of this attribute why did the Wrathful Rat suddenly die. And from the looks of it, it was highly likely to be correct.

With Sakim's current Vitality stat, his Reflect had a 6.6% chance. Adding the 1% Reflect chance from his [Ring of Immortality], he had a total of 7.6% Reflect chance.

What a dumb luck! Sakim was really delighted at what had just happened. He knew that when he was fighting the many Cave Rats before, this Reflect chance was triggering from time to time. But he never expected that it would be triggered in the most critical moment. Nothing was really more delightful than this at the moment.

With this Reflect chance, he could send back 50% damage from the attacker. And since the one that attacked him, the Wrathful Rat, caused him so much damage to the point that he suffered a One Hit Delete, this Wrathful Rat with only a pitiful amount of thousand HP, failed to survive such treatment. Sakim really wondered what could the other party's reaction right now in its afterlife. Just by the thought of it could only make Sakim chuckle.

***

Meanwhile...

Boom!

"Daaaamnnnn it!!!!"

Somewhere who knew how far away, an angry bellowed caused a terrifying tremor to rocky surroundings. The supposedly tall boulders turned into rubbles accompanied by a loud boom.

Amidst the rubbles that splattered on the ground, a muscular man in his thirties was being revealed. His upper body was clad in nothing while the lower part was covered in beast skin. There were many scars on his browny body but the most noticeable was the scars on his right chest down to the left belly that probably caused by three claws.

"Damn reflect!" His gnashing teeth and his sharp eyes were telling how angry he was. "I was so close! So close! Why the heck did I trigger that damn reflect! Daaaammnn iitttt!!!"

Kaboom!

Another punch was released and the boulders ahead couldn't help but turn into rubbles and be sent flying.