He who fights with monsters 1-10

Ability: [Astral Affinity]

Increased resistance to the dimension effects and astral forces. Dimension abilities have increased effect and transcendent damage is increased.
[ASTRAL AFFINITY INCREASES RESISTANCE TO DIMENSIONAL AND ASTRAL FORCES, AS WELL AS INCREASED DIMENSIONAL ABILITY]
- CHAPTER 1
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Ability: [Mysterious Stranger]

Language adaptation.
Essence, awakening stone and skill-book absorption.
Immunity to identification and tracking effects.
[HAS IMMUNITY TO TRACKING EFFECTS]
- CHAPTER 1
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Jason read the screen again.

Would you like to loot [Potent Hamster]?
“Yes?”

The body of the dead creature made a fizzing sound, like a rapid chemical reaction. The body started rapidly melting, first the flesh, then even the skeleton, dissolving into rainbow-coloured smoke. It seemed pretty until it hit Jason with a stench thick as cheese, like burned hair and rotting meat. He scrambled away to escape the rancid smell, dry heaving on all fours. Looking over as he hacked out coughs, he saw the creature’s body had vanished, as if never existing at all. He ignored the window that popped up, dropping onto his back in the soft grass.

“I hate this,” he told the sky. “I’m naked, bleeding, and have no idea where I am. I can’t think of any better explanation for what’s happening than I’ve lost my bloody mind. Worst of all, I’m going to get sunburnt in places that don’t see a lot of outdoor activity.”

He sat up with a groan, reading the screen waiting for him.

[Monster Core (Lesser)] has been added to your inventory.
[Healing Unguent (Iron)] has been added to your inventory.
10 [Lesser Spirit Coins] have been added to your inventory.
“Oh, straight into the inventory. That place that lets me make things appear and disappear. I’ve definitely gone insane.”
[CAN LOOT MONSTERS BY BREAKING THEM DOWN WITH MAGIC BUT IT FUCKIN STINKS]
- CHAPTER 2
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He took a closer look at the tin in his hand.

Item: [Healing Unguent (Iron)] (iron rank, common)

Topical healing ointment. Inexpensive concoction ideal for superficial injuries (consumable, healing).

Effect: Apply directly to injuries to heal. Effect reduced on bronze-rank or higher individuals.
Uses remaining: 5/5.
Unlike the tablet, the magic screens had no problem identifying the tin. Jason pulled off the lid to discover it really did look and smell like the ointment under Nanna’s laundry sink. There was a sharp, medical smell that cut through even the lingering stench of the dead creature. As for the contents, it was an oily substance that looked like butterscotch sauce made from dubiously-sourced ingredients.

“How did I get ointment from a hamster? How did it come in a tin?”

With an exploratory finger he gently prodded the wound on his head.

“Ow.”

The oversized hamster teeth had dug into his scalp. The blood was still running down the front and side of his head.

“Can’t hurt to try, I guess. At least there’s no hair to get in the way.”

He took some of the ointment and smeared it carefully onto the wound, which immediately started to sting.

You have used [Healing Unguent (iron)].
Uses remaining: 4/5.
The stinging faded away rapidly, the pain from the wound itself quickly following. Jason delicately poked the affected area, but while it was still wet with blood and ointment, he could find no trace of the injury.
[LOOTING MONSTERS GIVES HIM HEALING OINTMENT THAT INSTANTLY HEALS SUPERFICIAL WOUNDS]
- CHAPTER 2
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When the slippery creature latched its teeth onto his inner thigh, Jason yelled as much out of panic as pain. He still had no pants and that was much too close to the danger zone. He grabbed the long, slippery body, gripping down hard and yanking it off his leg. He screamed again as it took a chunk of thigh with it but kept his grip and started flailing the creature into the prickly hedge.

You have defeated [Flying Eel].
Defeat lesser monsters 9/10.
Jason dropped to the ground, pulled out a jar of healing unguent and started rubbing it on the wound, ignored the blood coming out of it.

“Why can an eel fly?”

He looked down at the wound, high up the inside of his thigh. The eel had taken a decent gouge out of him, so the stinging lingered as the wound slowly closed. Even so, the ability to watch an injury vanish in front of his eyes was amazing. After nine encounters with different creatures, Jason had plenty of chances to see it, going through almost three full tins of the unguent. He used a full tin from one fight alone, against something called a malicious hedgehog.

One pleasant discovery was that he didn’t have to stand in the stinking smoke that came off them after they were looted. So long as he touched the creature he could back away before accepting. Even as he was far away from the dissolving creature, the loot went straight into his inventory. The only problem was that any of the creature’s blood that got onto him would dissolve away as well, giving Jason a full dose of the stink.
[HEALING OINTMENT HEALING A DECENT WOUND ON HIS LEG]
- CHAPTER 2
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You have defeated [Umbral Mountain Snake].
Would you like to loot [Umbral Mountain Snake]?
“Sure,” he said wearily, then froze. Belatedly remembered that monsters dissolved into stinking smoke when they were looted, but to his relief and surprise, that didn’t happen. All he felt was the snake shift a little under his feet. He looked over the list of items he got from the snake.
[LOOTING ANIMALS ISN'T ALWAYS STINKY]
- CHAPTER 6
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Item: [Night Fang] (iron rank, epic)

A dagger made from the fang of an umbral mountain snake. The magic of the blade allows it to retain the power of the snake’s poison (weapon, knife).

Effect: Inflicts [Umbral Snake Venom].
Effect: Attacks ignore bronze rank damage reduction and poison resistance.
[Umbral Snake Venom] (damage-over-time, poison, stacking): Inflicts ongoing necrotic damage until poison is cleansed. Additional instances have a cumulative effect.
The knife even came with a belt of the same leather but there were no loops for it on Jason’s drawstring pants. He put it back into his inventory, along with the dark quintessence gems and the roll of snakeskin.
[HAS MAGICALLY POISONED KNIFE]
- CHAPTER 7
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The smoke coming off the cube was rising up in narrow streaks, like black streamers. They twisted in the air, heading in Jason’s direction. He backed away further, but was quickly moving out of the light coming from the lamp he had left on the table. The smoke followed him into the shadows where he could no longer see it.

“Sure, just get the dark magic powers. Good choice, idiot.”

He felt the smoke reach him because of the same scalding heat he had felt from the cube. He screamed as the black steam forced its way over his face, invading his mouth, nose and eyes. At some point he passed out from the pain, his next sensation being waking up on the floor.

Sitting up, he probed his face with his hands. The sensation of pain was completely gone and nothing was sensitive to the touch. His eyes seemed fine and he realised he could see the room as if it weren’t dark at all. The colours were a little washed out, but he could clearly see into the parts of the room previously cast in shadow.

You have absorbed [Dark Essence]. You have absorbed 1 of 4 essences.
Progress to iron rank: 25% (1/4 essences ).
[Dark Essence] has bonded to your [Speed] attribute, changing your [Speed] from normal to [Iron 0]. Master all dark essence abilities to increase your [Speed] attribute.
You have awakened the dark essence ability [Midnight Eyes]. You have awakened 1 of 5 dark essence abilities.
[JASON CAN SEE PERFECTLY IN PITCH BLACK DARKNESS]
- CHAPTER 8
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He stood up and moved back to the mirror before using his new power. It responded immediately, as easy and natural as lifting his hand. Dark energy suddenly engulfed his body, hiding his visage in the mirror. It wasn’t disturbing at all, feeling cool and refreshing. The energy coalesced into the form of a voluminous cloak, enshrouding his body and hiding his head within a deep, impenetrable hood. The cloak seemed more like an object of living darkness than fabric, dotted with tiny points of light. They shifted and twinkled, tiny stars in the night sky of the shadowy garb.

Jason could feel the cloak, not like a piece of clothing, but like one of his limbs. He could feel its power. With a thought, the stars grew brighter to the point that they outshone the lamp. They dimmed until he couldn’t even see himself in the mirror, disappearing into the shadows.

Ability: [Cloak of Night] (Dark)

Conjuration (darkness, light, dimension).
Base cost: Moderate mana to conjure.
Current rank: Iron 0 (00%).
Cooldown: None.
Effect (iron): Conjures a magical cloak that can alter the wearer. Offers limited physical protection. Can generate light, or blend into shadows. Cloak can reduce the weight of the wearer for a low mana-per-second cost, allowing reduced falling speed and water walking. Cannot be given or taken away, although effects can be extended to others in very close proximity.
“Water walking,” Jason read. “Now that’s a magic power.”

He looked around the room.

“That I can’t try out right now.”

He instinctively understood how to use the weight reducing aspect of the ability and hopped lightly into the air. He went up much higher than he normally would and dropped back down much slower.

“It’s like being on the moon.”

He bounced around the room with a goofy grin on his face until he remembered the dead body.

“Not the time to be having fun,” he scolded himself.

He experimented further with the magical cloak. He could see through it as if it wasn’t there, so even with his head covered it didn’t obstruct his vision. He could make any or all of it lose physical substance, so if he wanted to grab it he could, or his hand could pass through, unobstructed.

“Nifty.”

He could make it vanish with a thought and pull it out again, which he tried several times. After the third attempt he suddenly felt woozy and had to sit down. He went back to the armchair and fell into it.
[CLOAK OF NIGHT LETS HIM TURN EFFECTIVELY INVISIBLE, BECOME A FLASHBANG, WATER WALK, OR MOON GRAVITY HIMSELF]
- CHAPTER 8
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Jason took out a second silver-ranked coin and put it in his mouth. This time, as the sensation of power came over him, he placed his feet against the cage door, easily bracing himself in the tight confines. His feet pushed out with the temporary surge of strength, the hinges on the cage door immediately starting to warp. He pushed harder and the door fell away just as the strength drained out of him again.

He crawled out of the cage and stood up. Waves of dizziness washed over him and he gripped the cage to stay upright. His body felt weak, even more than it had when he woke up.
[SILVER COINS BRIEFLY AMPS JASON'S STRENGTH TO THE POINT THAT HE CAN FORCE METAL CAGE BARS TO BREAK]
- CHAPTER 9
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He took a deep breath, focusing on the coin in his hand. He thought the silver coin had flooded him with strength, but compared to the gold, that had been a meagre trickle. It was like having a hurricane inside him and he lashed out with his feet, hoping it was enough to burst open the cage door.

Instead of opening, the door shot off its hinges like it was fired from a cannon, metal screeching as the whole front of the cage was warped. The door moved almost too fast to see, barely deflecting as it slammed into one of the cultists, sending them flipping off the edge of the platform. They didn’t even scream, dead the moment the cage door crushed the top half of their body.

You have defeated [Blood Cultist].
Startled, Jason crawled from the ruined front of the cage and to his feet. The other cultist reacted quickly, turning and rushing Jason. The coin’s power was fading quickly and Jason threw out a fist with the lingering strength of the coin behind it. To his horror, his fist buried itself in the cultist’s chest cavity. The cultist let out a gurgling sound and died, dropping off Jason’s fist as the strength from the coin left him. Jason looked in horror at his own bloody fist.

You have defeated [Blood Cultist].
It wasn’t just his newfound strength that left him as the power of the coin faded. The strain of the coin’s power left him feeling enervated, barely staying on his feet. His eyes wanted to close, his body urging him just to lay down and sleep. He was jolted back to wakefulness by a powerful, roaring voice.
[A GOLD COIN BRIEFLY AMPS JASON ENOUGH TO KICK A THICK METAL GATE OFF ITS HINGES AT FTE SPEEDS AND PUNCH A HOLE THROUGH SOMEONE'S CHEST]
- CHAPTER 10
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Jason’s head snapped up and saw multiple cultists coming back down the stairs. Looking around, the pair from below were coming up as well. Peering over the edge, he spotted the door below, on the far side of the blood-red pool. He had a terrible idea.

“Magic power, you’d better work.”

As he backed up, the starlight cloak formed around his body, shrouding him in light-speckled darkness. After a steeling breath, he ran to the edge, leaping out as he urged the cloak’s power to reduce his weight. He sailed through the air, shadow cloak sweeping out behind him like a trail of stars. Floating over the bloody pool, he landed almost perfectly in front of the huge stone doors, still open.

“That went startlingly well.”

He looked up at the stairs, spotting the cultists bolting down them in pursuit. He ran through the doors and into the tunnel, then stopped.
[FLOATS A LONG WAY THROUGH A 25 METRE CHAMBER]
- CHAPTER 10
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