The days had been terribly long. Waking up, training, working, beating up monsters until he was sick of it, everything had suddenly become boring.
Killing goblins turned into an automatic task, practically a second instinct.
He lost count of how many greenish heads had rolled through the mirror dimension before crumbling into a pile of floating digits.
The weekend — or rather, Sunday — arrived, and the system screen stared at him, offering a new bone-grinding training quest.
The only reason he hadn't done it right away was laziness. Might as well do it later and catch a few extra hours of sleep if he wanted to.
Either way, he needed to take advantage of his only free day from the cursed 9-to-5 grind, he preferred to spend it the best way he knew how: playing video games.
Unfortunately, the over-20-year-old virgin didn't know any other form of fun besides that. Painful as always, his body had gotten used to the routine.
The sun hit his greasy face and dragged him out of bed. It was early in the morning, maybe 7 or 8, and the smell of coffee and fresh bread filled the house.
Lucas flew towards the aroma of his mom's coffee, following it like an animal about to be slaughtered, but when he entered the kitchen, something was off.
He saw an unexpected guest chatting with his mother at the table.
A guy younger than Lucas, skinny and very talkative. His polar opposite, also known as the family's youngest son.
"Luquinhas, finally out of that pigsty!" His mom looked at him and smiled. "See, Levi? I told you your brother's changed!"
"No way."
The boy stood up from his chair and approached. His jaw dropped, which only made things more confusing for his older brother.
"Dude, are you seriously working out and eating right now?"
"I am. Started last week."
"Who are you and what did you do with my brother, you imposter?!"
Lucas scowled and gave him a knock on the head. After getting properly dressed, he joined the conversation at the table.
Levi usually visited on weekends, so this was a good chance to catch up.
The first and most unexpected news: he'd gotten himself a girlfriend.
"Oooh, and what's she like?", their mom asked while serving lunch. "Is she studious? Smart? Pretty?"
"Mom, she's normal." He stifled a laugh at her impatience. "Her name's Nataly, she's kinda hot-tempered, but really cool and interesting. We met last year on campus, and I only confessed to her a few weeks ago. It worked out..."
'Nataly? Vivian's apprentice? Nah, Nataly's a super common name, no way it's the same girl', thought Lucas, taking the opportunity to mess up his little brother's hair. "I'm jealous of you. I never doubted because of your looks, stud, but I gotta admit you caught me off guard."
"Not more than I was when I found out you started trying to get healthy, bro!"
A wave of laughter and lunch rounded out the family reunion. The two brothers headed to the bedroom to play whatever game, especially Road Fighter.
Occasionally, one would cheat by smacking the other's controller and ruining a combo, nothing that ruined the fun, but it did earn a punch or head smack.
"Hey bro, I've been thinking about something for a while now."
"What is it?"
"I think I wanna become a Raider."
That made Lucas uncomfortable, enough to lose the first round. His character hit the ground with a weird groan.
Even without knowing much about the things around you, was more than obvious that Raiders worked by throwing themselves into danger to save innocent people.
The role could be similar to that of a police officer, but instead of facing gunfire, you dealt with monsters the size of buildings.
"Why'd you decide to tell me this now?"
"Because I'm sure I can pass the tests, both the private companies and the state ones." Levi lost the second round. "So I wanted to know your opinion. You think it's worth it?"
"Honestly? Not for you."
He won the final round and paused on the character select screen. He dropped the controller on the Polystation console and locked eyes with Levi.
"I'm sure you're doing this for the money, but I'm telling you: you don't need to." He smiled, ruffling Levi's hair. "You're in the college you wanted, you've got a girlfriend, and in two years you'll graduate. Why risk all that?"
A light slap on the back of the head made the younger brother's nerves shoot up. Lucas showed his anger with a fake scowl.
As much as he understood the reason Levi felt that way, he didn't like seeing him belittle himself because of a kind gesture from family.
"Remember, it's not your fault."
That sentence ended the conversation. They went back to gaming like nothing had happened, just like in childhood when they could spend the entire day sunk into the couch doing nothing.
It was a good memory, but far too distant from their current reality.
When night fell, Levi said goodbye and left, but Lucas insisted on walking him to the bus stop. The two hugged one last time.
He watched the blue bus blend into traffic and sighed. He had already expected his brother to come up with that idea, after all, the Raider business brought in a lot of money.
But he would never let Levi be put at such risk, not while he was alive.
His first experience entering a portal replayed in his mind, when he couldn't even find that child and nearly died after getting hit by a barrage of arrows.
He fought in desperation, ran in desperation, and came face to face with death due to a reckless action.
If that woman hadn't been there, his corpse would've been returned to a mother full of tears.
'I don't want to even imagine what I'd do if that happened to you…'
A breath left his lungs. He turned around and headed back home, spending the rest of the day as he pleased, and of course, didn't forget to train to claim his rewards.
By night, the moon had risen. A dreadful funk track blared from outside, trying to rip off his ears and any focus he had left beyond the game on the screen.
Annoyed, he grabbed a hidden bag from the wardrobe. He slung it over his shoulder and slowly walked toward the door, passing through the kitchen.
"Mom, I'm gonna drop off some stuff at a friend's place. I'll be right back, okay?"
"Okay, honey." She stopped washing dishes and saw the bag. "Jesus, looks like you're carrying a body. Be careful so nobody stops you with that thing."
"Pfft… it's not a body, relax."
He left with a few laughs. After stepping out the door, a shiver ran through his body.
There wasn't a soul in sight on the sidewalk, in fact, it would've been easier to find one of those tumbleweeds rolling by in a western movie.
After some negotiation with the system,he was able to change the position of the transport line to any point in the house, which made his life easier when he had to disappear.
Lucas went down the remaining stairs and dropped the bag on the ground. Inside were the two katanas he'd received from missions, along with a bunch of other replicas.
He thanked the Almighty Guy Above for suddenly gaining the strength to carry them out of the house, because it hurt like hell hauling all that weight on his back.
"System, show me my level."
Level: 8
"Yeah, just as I thought. I'm leveling up slower and slower... Is there a way to gain experience faster?"
You can find other monsters outside the starting area. The city has been taken over by the alternate dimension, so the further from a safe zone, the more likely you'll encounter stronger enemies.
Warning: Since the only creature the user has fought so far is goblins, only new goblins with color variations will be generated.
"Got it… and I bet they'd beat the crap out of me. I can kill those 'tutorial' monsters, but I don't know about the others. Ah, screw it. Spend my skill point and give me that forge thing."
He had considered boosting his Intellect stat further, but it was incredibly slow and constantly required researching new stuff to increase it.
Lucas could've seen it as a waste of his first point, until he thought about how he might be killed by his own mom if his secret stash of weapons were discovered.
Didn't even need to be a revolver, just a bunch of Japanese swords would be enough to make her scream in fury.
The system "ate" the skill point and responded:
Skill point used. Forcing mechanic unlock…
The screen displayed several rings, swinging from side to side until forming a custom interface in front of him.
It was stupidly simple, with three separate slots and one large one in the middle.
"Damn, not even a decent design? Could've done way better."
Ignoring the player's offense.
Please insert the item you wish to improve with love. ~
With a huge expression of disgust, Lucas touched one of the katanas to the screen, which absorbed the object and added its image to one of the smaller squares.
Then, he simply placed the other one and clicked a large button below labeled "reforge." One blink later, a new message appeared.
Training Katana +1 created.
Items can be upgraded up to +10, but two replicas of identical levels are required for the action to be performed.
A second reforging screen appeared beside it, and just like last time, Lucas recreated another Katana +1.
He placed it in a small square along with the first one, and upon pressing the button, another blink lit up the screen.
Training Katana +2 created.
Once made, the action cannot be undone — the object will retain this form permanently. However, it is possible to fuse it with magic stones or specific items to add extra effects. This forge can be dismantled at any time.
Lucas mentally noted the information and wasted no time using the rest of his weapons, successfully creating a beautiful and sharp Katana +3.
Even the weapon he had used the most — which was about to fall apart completely — served as material for the upgrade.
On the other hand, the blade didn't look much different from before, so he decided to test it out by walking around the area and looking for a victim.
It didn't take long to spot a goblin scratching its ass near a Shell gas station, the perfect distracted target to test the katana's power.
Lucas lunged, and to the misfortune of the socially unaware goblin, he cleaved the poor thing in two with a clean cut.
Even the young man was startled by the scene. Before, he could at most cut through part of a monster's skull or its neck, but never the whole creature.
"Holy shit… Now I really think spending that point was worth it!"
His mind made a quick mental calculation. It had been over a week since he'd been stockpiling basic missions.
'To generate a +1 takes two days, so a +2 takes four and a +3 eight, so a +4 would be sixteen and a +5 thirty-two?'
He wasn't sure of the math, since he had failed in basic arithmetic at school. In any case, some smartass would figure it out, so he didn't give a damn.
The result mattered more. While the poor ass-scratching goblin vanished into digital data, Lucas looked toward the distant buildings.
The system had told him about the possibility of stronger monsters out there, much better than the green-headed ones he'd been hunting lately.
He walked, trying to get as far from home as possible, his slightly enhanced physique now allowing him to survive walking two blocks.
As he got closer, he noticed a thin orange line on the ground, dividing the area into two different perimeters.
When he stepped on it, a warning popped up:
Entering Danger Zone 1.
Monsters have become stronger due to the distance from the safe zone.
Proceed with caution.
He rested the katana on his shoulder and gave a huge smile. Now his objective was clear in his mind, and he intended to level up by doing what he liked most: killing things.