Leveling Up With My Deviant System

Not The Boy I Once Was

The sky looked redder than normal. A scorching wind blew past, stirring up debris and other toxic substances. Next to a half-collapsed pillar was a heap of corpses. At first glance, the corpses seemed like they belonged to everyday animals. Upon closer inspection, however, one would begin to notice strange details like extra limbs, protruding organs, and so on.

A teenage boy sat atop the pile of corpses. His brown eyes stared into the distance with a bleak expression. His clothes–if they could still be called that–were tattered and drenched in blackened blood.

His face was similarly stained with dirt and mud.

“Ah, how long has it been now?” Micheal sighed and brandished the gleaming blade in his hand.

With a thought, he summoned his profile tab and glanced at the new additions:

{{Profile Tab}}

[Name: Micheal Baker]

[Titles: Decimator Of Profanities, The Lone-walker]

[Class: Pariah]

[Rank: Forged]

[Progress: 4/80]

[Skills: Outcast’s Law (Passive), Divide (Active),]

[Inventory: Sharia’s Blade, 12x Basic Sword, 2x Rare Armour, Water Pouch, x3 Rune of Restoration, x2 Rune of Vitality, x2 Enchantment Rune, x142 Profane Core]

{{Mission Tab}}

[Quest of Power: Defeat all the creatures of Profanity in the area.]

[Reward: ???]

Staring at his system’s interface, Micheal pursed his lips in thought.

I’ve attained a new rank. From ‘Initiate’, to ‘Marked’, to ‘Adept’, and now, ‘Forged’.

Similarly, my progress bar has reset and I now have to kill a total of 80 Profane creatures to level up.

Micheal felt like it was just yesterday when he arrived in this strange place and attained this so-called system. That day, he had been a mere Initiate and almost died to the horde of Profane creatures that attacked him. He still believed it was a miracle that he survived.

He was wounded over and over again. But, if there was one thing about Micheal, it was that he never gave up. And so he fought– till his limbs felt like they were on fire. Till his knuckles tore and his bone bent.

The thought of returning to his sister kept him going.

Eventually, he killed 20 Profanities and attained a new rank. When that happened, it came with a class, his first skill and title, as well as a bunch of item drops from the creatures.

He wasn’t surprised to see that his class was ‘Pariah’. After all, Micheal had been an outcast his entire life. The class description read; “One who has been rejected by his kind.”

Micheal wondered if that meant he wasn’t human anymore.

As for his first skill, it was ‘Outcast’s law’, and it was a passive skill that doubled Micheal’s physical prowess whenever he was fighting without allies. As he was alone in this place, that skill had been a great help in killing the creatures that attacked him.

Micheal also learned a few other things like how the Profanities dropped a core into his inventory whenever he killed them. However, he hadn’t found a use for them so far. It was also possible for them to drop all sorts of items like weapons, armour, runes, and utility items.

“Still, It’s troubling that I don’t know how many creatures I’m supposed to kill to leave this place.” Micheal groaned in frustration. The mission simply mentioned killing every Profanity in the area, and he had been doing that for so long, he had lost track of days. It could’ve been weeks… or perhaps a month even.

Micheal calculated the progress bar he had completed for the previous three ranks.

“Initiate was 20 Profanities, Marked was 40, Adept was 60. Plus my current four kills… That makes a total of 124 creatures I’ve defeated. Just how many do they want me to kill?”

“Really! I’m tired of surviving on dry roots and water!” Micheal complained to no one in particular. The pile of Profanities beneath him had long lost their lives.

At that moment, Micheal felt the ground tremble. A deep vibration ran throughout the soil as his makeshift tent shook violently.

Something’s coming… He narrowed his eyes and jumped down.

Ahead, a giant fin sliced through the ground as an unseen creature rapidly ‘swam’ towards Micheal’s location. The boy sighed and returned Sharia’s blade to his inventory.

“It’s bigger than the Vile Worms I fought. Their queen, maybe?”

Micheal clenched his palm into tight fists. Every rank upgrade had added to his physical might, and he was so strong now, that he could definitely lift a vehicle with ease.

As the Vile Worm neared him, Micheal rushed forward too. His tattered shirt swayed in the wind as he cocked his hand backward for a powerful strike.

And when the creature emerged from below, Micheal punched as hard as he could.

A loud boom tore through the air, followed by an explosive splat. The giant worm burst apart instantly, staining the scene with black blood.

The system’s melodious voice sang in his ear:

[YOU HAVE KILLED A PROFANITY: WRETCHED QUEEN WORM. +4 PROFANE CORE!]

Before Micheal could complain about the bloodstains on his face, the voice continued,

[YOU HAVE COMPLETED MISSION: QUEST OF POWER! DO YOU WISH TO CLAIM YOUR REWARDS?]

“What?!” Micheal’s head throbbed. He almost couldn’t believe his ears. Almost.

“I really did it? After so long?”

He swallowed the lump in his throat and quickly nodded. “Yes! I wish to claim my rewards.”

The system was silent for a moment, as though calculating something, before announcing:

[SUCCESS RATE: ASTOUNDING! REWARDS WILL BE DOUBLED!]

[YOU HAVE RECEIVED: 10x RUNE OF RESTORATION, 10x RUNE OF VITALITY, 10x RUNE OF RESILIENCE, 10x MOONSTONE BAGS, MALLIAD’S GREATSWORD, 1x RETURN KEY, SPECIAL ABILITY SEED!]

“Woah…” Micheal was stunned at the amount of rewards he’d received. He had never gotten more than two runes at a time before.

Still, his immediate focus was on the Return Key the system had announced. He wasted no time reaching into his inventory and retrieving the weighty bronze key.

[DO YOU WISH TO USE THE RETURN KEY? YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO RETURN TO THIS PLACE AFTER USE.]

“...That sounds ominous,” Micheal’s excitement was temporarily curbed. He briefly looked around, wondering if there was anything he was forgetting.

After finding nothing, he nodded firmly and answered, “Yes.”

He had missed the taste of good food, a warm bed, as well as his sister.

Micheal briefly wondered how she was doing. Was she faring better against the illness? Were the neighbors helping out? How would she react if he suddenly showed up at their house? How would everyone react after learning he’d returned from the dead?

Would his enemies try to apprehend him for questioning? Would they try to turn him into a lab experiment?

He was about to receive the answers to those questions. Still, Micheal wasn’t the weak teenage boy he once was. He believed he could handle anything thrown his way.

The bronze key suddenly shimmered and cracked, before shattering into specks of stardust that gathered to form a similar door as the one that brought him here.

Micheal sucked in a deep breath. He looked around once more, before stepping through the door.

…And when he did, Micheal discovered a horrifying truth.