"Uuugh."
Feeling a strange sensation, Dan instinctively staggered backward.
It wasn’t pain, exactly. It was more like a pressure building somewhere deep within his body; a peculiar sensation that seemed to originate from his very existence as a living creature.
Some sort of change was occurring within him.
He could only describe it as "something" expanding inside his body. For instance, if his body was a container and water was steadily pouring inside, his body was slowly expanding in order to accommodate the increasing volume.
The more he focused on it, the more apparent it became. His body wasn’t actually growing larger, of course. There was no visible change to his physical form. Yet somewhere beneath his flesh, something intangible was steadily expanding, stretching beyond the limits it had previously possessed.
He had experienced the sensation of leveling up before. But this one was different.
Usually, the process was almost instantaneous. A notification would appear, his Spirit would increase, and that would be the end of it.
This time, however, he could actually feel the change taking place.
His Spirit was expanding.
It was as though his body had been a vessel with a fixed capacity until now, and something had suddenly begun forcing that vessel to become larger. Dan remained still for several moments, allowing the sensation to wash over him.
A few moments later, he returned back to normal and could move his body more freely.
He quickly summoned the Interface and checked his Attributes:
[Strength: 11]
[Dexterity: 11]
[Constitution: 10]
[Perception: 10]
[Spirit: 22]
[Allocatable Stats: 2]
Unsurprisingly, there was a massive gap between his Spirit and the rest of his Attributes.
’Twenty-two...’
Dan stared at the numbers for a long time, deep in thought. It was difficult to believe that his Spirit had already reached such a level.
Previously, his Spirit had been barely enough to use [Darkness] a handful of times before exhaustion set in. Since then, every increase had gradually made the ability easier to control. Yet the difference between "then" and "now" had become so pronounced that it felt almost surreal, like someone witnessing their future suddenly becoming the present and realizing just how far they had come.
It was enough for the lowly Dan to feel emotional, his eyes trembling like a pauper who had discovered a mountain of gold in his backyard.
’Ah. What to do now.’
Gaining some of his wits back, he returned from his reverie and wondered about his allocatable stats. He could increase his spirit values even further, but he saw little point in doing so right now.
His other Attributes were severely lagging behind, and even though Spirit was undoubtedly his most important Attribute, there was a limit to how much he could neglect the rest.
’...Tch. Look at them. They’re all pathetic.’
The rest of his Attributes looked almost pitiful.
His Spirit had reached a point where it could support increasingly powerful uses of [Darkness], but his body was still that of an ordinary human. If he encountered a monster that could overwhelm him physically, having a few extra Spirit points wouldn’t save him.
...But what he failed to realize was that at [Level 1], he was already ten times stronger than the average person!
Dan thought about it carefully. In the end, he decided to distribute the two points rather than hoard them, investing them in a particular stats.
[Dexterity: 11 → 13.]
The moment the allocation was confirmed, Dan felt a subtle change ripple through his body.
It wasn’t nearly as dramatic as the sensation that accompanied his increase in spiritual power. Instead, it was as though a layer of sluggishness had simply been peeled away from his body.
Moving his body, Dan felt some noticeable changes here and there, leading him to a conclusion.
Dexterity.
He had initially expected it to simply make him faster. But if the changes he was feeling were any indication, Dexterity seemed to affect much more than raw speed such as coordination, balance, reaction time and perhaps even his ability to control his body overall.
Was it possible for him to become a speedster in the distant future?
Come to think of it, some players would probably invest heavily into Dexterity for precisely that reason.
After all, if the Attribute truly governed every aspect of physical movement, then sufficiently high Dexterity could potentially turn an ordinary person into something like the Flash!
Imagine being able to move faster than the eye could follow.
To react before an opponent even finished moving and changed direction instantaneously without losing balance. At sufficiently high levels, perhaps even something like running across walls wouldn’t be impossible.
’Shit. That sounds pretty cool, damnit!’
Unfortunately, he had no idea whether Dexterity actually worked that way. For all he knew, the Attribute might have a hard limit on how much it could improve his physical capabilities.
Still, the possibilities were interesting enough to keep in mind.
Dan let out an exhausted and sat on the dirty floor, deciding to take a breather. He had been walking in circles the entire time, not knowing whether he was going the right way or not.
Most people wouldn’t possess the tolerance for this kind of journey, and even Dan was beginning to reach his limit.
’...Huh?’
Suddenly, alarm bells started ringing in his head.
It was an abrupt sense of danger erupting from within, so intense that every instinct was screaming at him to move and flee from his position.
Without giving himself much time to think, he quickly leaped away just as something slammed into the ground where he had been sitting.
Landing several meters away, Dan immediately turned around. A cloud of dust erupted from the impact site, obscuring his vision.
But that wasn’t the end of it, as the sudden feeling of danger reacted again.
He instinctively activated [Darkness] and materialized a sword, swinging it to his side. Accompanied by an eerie shrill, there was the distinct feeling of something being cut by the blade.
"What the—?!"
Dan’s eyes widened. He hadn’t seen anything. But his sword had clearly struck something.
He immediately retreated several steps back. The dust was still settling, making it difficult to see what was happening around him.
Drip–! Drip–!
A drop of dark liquid landed on the ground, followed by another slow drop. He looked toward the sword in his hand and found an almost transparent substance was clinging to its edge.
"...Blood?"
Dan’s expression became solemn.
It seemed whatever had attacked him was invisible.
Or, at the very least, difficult to see.
Nevertheless, the fact that some kind of creature had gone out of its way to attack him hadn’t changed. He usually did the attacking, so when finding himself in a situation where he was the prey and the other was the hunter, he couldn’t help but feel he had been wronged.
Was this how all his victims had felt when he suddenly caught them lacking and ambushed them?
Well... this wasn’t the worst that could have happened.
If this fellow had attacked him while he was taking a shit or easing himself, then it would have been a problem since he couldn’t even see it!
Dan shuddered at the thought.
That would have been a truly humiliating way to die.
’Damnit! Focus!’
The situation was becoming increasingly troublesome. His opponent was difficult to see, incredibly fast, and apparently capable of launching attacks without making a sound.
How was he supposed to fight, defend against, or run from such a bizarre opponent?
And the bastard itself didn’t seem like it was going to make this easy.