Beyond The Dream: Priggish God Damn!

Between Dream And Reality

I immediately go downstairs to check the demon ape that I have just attacked in its vital area.

"He's dead, right?" I mutter as I press my Iron Knife on the demon ape corpse while keeping my distance, afraid that the demon ape is still alive and pretending to be dead to deliver a surprise attack like the first time.

“Pyuh...”

Stroking my chest before I checked the status screen, I get a notification about my level increase.

“Whoa… I go up two levels at once?!”

After I checked, it turns out that the demon ape that had just attacked me was level 5, while I was still level 1 before. Surprisingly, the status points I got are an odd number. Getting two levels up at once should get me an even number of status points for sure. Except for one thing to be sure of, there is the addition of status points as a bonus from what I had done.

As you know, I just defeated a demon ape that was several levels higher. It could be, that's why I got one extra status point.

Feeling quite curious about the agility increase, I put one point on the agility to make it even worth 20 points. And as expected, I get a chance to choose a new skill.

“To think, my guess was right…” I mutter in awe before starting to choose one of the available skills.

As before, there are six more skills that I can choose from. However, the skill selection is not the same as the first time. “Perhaps, every time I get a chance to choose a skill, the skill that appears will be randomly selected...” I mutter while holding my chin.

I re-read one by one the description of the six skills.

“Apparently, the skills that appear will be related to which part of the character's status that has reached the point value that has qualified for the opportunity to choose a skill. Those conditions, of course when the character's status has reached or passed the value of 10, 20, and so on..." I explain again after coming to a conclusion.

This time, I choose a passive skill. Skills are divided into two, namely active skills that are activated consciously, while passive skills can be activated automatically when a condition is met.

The skill I chose was Agility Master. According to the description, this Agility Master can double agility points. The condition that must be met is that after moving at a certain speed, this Agility Master will automatically activate.

One of the things that can make an Agility Master active is by activating Swift Movement because it can certainly be qualified to make an Agility Master active.

In other words, this Agility Master seems to deliberately strengthen Swift Movement.

Turning to the remaining status points, I choose a power that required three more points to reach 10 points. And once again, I get the chance to choose a skill. The difference is, this time I get a skill that is definitely related to strength.

Slash, Knock-Down Kick, Confusing Slap, Paralyze-Hook Punch, Powerful Stab, and Strengthening Muscle.

When I see the skill I got from the strength section's character status component, I am stunned. Because, the skills obtained really don't match what I'm deepening.

Slash is advised to use a sword. The Knock-Down Kick requires quality shoes specifically for martial artists. Confusing Slap is usually used by women. The Paralyze-Hook Punch is similar to the Knock-Down Kick, except that it requires boxing gloves. Then, the Powerful Stab will be effectively used when the skill user uses a spear.

Only Strengthening Muscle is quite common. Strengthening Muscle which is able to strengthen muscles, can be said to be a support skill. In many ways, this Strengthening Muscle was able to amplify the use of other skills. Like, Slash which will make the impact of damage received by the enemy as much as half of the impact of the attack given as additional damage.

“Perhaps, this Strengthening Muscle is able to make my basic attacks stronger...” I muttered before I decide to choose Strengthening Muscle as the third skill I got.

Strengthening Muscle is an active skill that requires manual activation by me. To prevent me from getting any bad effects from using Strengthening Muscle, a second time appears if you want to use it in a row or call it Cooldown.

Even though the skill can be used during Cooldown, the body will get bad effects from excessive use. For example, Swift Movement, if I use it during Cooldown it will make me feel tired quickly.

Excessive use of Strengthening Muscle will make the muscles break which is of course worse than Swift Movement.

"As for passive skills, it seems safer. Since it's only active at a certain time, so it doesn't have a second usage time...” I mutter after observing the two types of skills, coming to a conclusion.

There's only one unused status point left, but I'm ignoring it for now. I prefer to use it later when I level up again and gain status points. For that, I have to defeat a lot of demon apes.

I looked around, there was no sign of the demon ape appearing. Having just jumped on one of the supports, I slip helplessly and fall which the mud covers me. I forgot that the shoes I am wearing are muddy, which of course caused me to fall.

Physically, I don't feel any pain. However, it's a shame that you know it gives a shock to the heart. Luckily, it's quiet here. So, no one watches my embarrassing act.

Pretending nothing happened, I choose to be more careful when climbing the stilts. Because my body is covered in mud, it makes this quite difficult for me to even get into a sitting position on the stilts.

“Sigh… How can I be seen by people at this rate. I have to find a river to clean myself…” I lament at my clothes with concern.

The sunlight which blocked by the shadows from the dense trees makes the mud that clinging on me becomes slow to dry. I purposely wait for it to dry, because I don't want something similar to happen.

Waiting while leaning against the tree trunk without moving from the previous supporting roots, I finally fall asleep.

...

In the darkness, the light begins to appear from what is initially small, slowly growing until it dazzle me. With the hand blocking the blinding light, I wake up.

When I look at the familiar ceiling and the warm feeling of the blanket and the softness of the mattress that make me flinch, I immediately sit up.

"What the hell? Turns out, the strange incident was just a dream. But, why does everything feel so real. All those feelings that I felt…” I wince while stroking my chin before finally ruffling my hair.

Forgot the dream, I immediately get up from my bed to the bathroom to do the routine after waking up. Namely, cleaning and tidying up for a sunny day. After that, I have breakfast in solitude.

"Ugh... Sore..." I move the joints of my arms that felt heavy.

Just woke up and had a shower, but somehow I'm still sleepy. The proof, just opened the exit, I yawn so wide. My body feels sore, I just felt it after finishing my morning routine.

'Looks like I caught a cold...'

I go to the office like any other office worker. Living mediocre makes me feel comfortable, I haven't even thought about finding a lover.

Walking on the sidewalk, smiling while greeting a few passers-by, then occasionally I help people who need a helping hand as I walk towards Kyoto Station to get to my work.

As a bachelor's degree in informatics, I, who was a fresh graduate at that time, had the good fortune of being accepted by a large company. My salary is still low until now, but that's because I haven't worked there for half a year. Other than that, I don't really attract the attention of my superiors and work as I should.

After returning from work, I stop by the shop as usual to buy ingredients for cooking tonight.

Dinner is only by myself, everyday seems boring.

Then, in the end I go back to the bed early to be able to wake up earlier.

However, that's what I imagined. Because indeed, all of that is my daily life. Since finishing college and starting my career, my daily activities are the same and only slightly different. A monotonous life. In fact, events like last night had happened again.

I wake up where I fell asleep while in a dream!