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The Apocalypse Grinder - Chapter 47
🕑 Added 2025-06-18 10:55:27 +0000 UTC<< Chapter 46 | Index | Chapter 48 >>
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Good luck, challenger!
Nah, fuck that. Who needs honour when your opponents are vile green bastards the size of a prepubescent teen? Ronan decided that just because he was a knight in name, didn’t mean he had to be one by nature.
There were plenty of knights in Earth’s history who were assholes anyway. Actually, most of them were probably less than honourable.
Besides, I’m not cruel, I just despise goblins. He was so caught up in thinking about the upcoming battle against Magriz’al the Crazed that he barely noticed himself being dragged through the void.
Ronan was glad he’d taken the time to egg Keith on in his last few runs. It meant he had avoided the worst case scenario of surviving with a spoiled little shit. Instead, he was growing into a courageous fighter.
Or half of one, anyway. Baby steps.
This time when he landed on the small slope that led towards the goblin tunnel, he was filled with excitement. He was forced to temper that a little, remembering he still needed to get pain and stamina mastery to tier I before trying to slaughter the boss monster.
Keith stumbled a little and he reached out to catch him before he fell down the slope and over the ledge.
“Thanks. Damn that’s a steep drop,” Keith chuckled dryly.
“All good mate,” Ronan replied, waving at Terry and Jackson who’d just landed a little way down the hill. “Let’s say hi to our new friends.”
“Hey, glad to see more human faces around here. I was getting tired of the ugly green ones,” Ronan joked as the father-son duo walked over.
“I feel bad for them,” Terry replied. “I doubt they wanted to be forced to fight to the death with us big scary humans. I’m Terry by the way and this is my kid, Jackson.”
“Nice to meet you both,” Ronan said with a friendly smile, reaching out to shake the gentle giant’s hand. “This is Keith and I’m Ronan.”
There was a clatter as a few pebbles tumbled down the slope from above. “What are you boys up to?” called a familiar voice. “I’m pretty sure we’re supposed to go in here.”
Ronan looked up to see Dana standing with one hand on her hip and the other resting against her fiery red hair. “You heard her lads, let’s get a move on.”
“What’s your name then?” he asked as the four approached. He knew of course, but if there was a possibility of defeating Magriz’al, he had to make sure he did everything properly this time.
“I’m Dana,” she replied. “And I’m a quick hand with this whip of mine, so you lot better keep your hands and wandering eyes to yourself.”
Jackson lowered his head as his face went bright red. His reaction was understandable—he was that age where teenage boys were a raging ball of hormones and arrogance.
The kid wasn’t half bad though. Ronan appreciated anyone who could burst a goblin’s head from twenty-five metres away with a mana bolt.
“Before we head in we should share some information about our classes and fighting styles. It will make it easier to coordinate against whatever is waiting in there,” Ronan suggested to the group.
They then took turns explaining everything. All of them were exactly the same as usual, except for Ronan himself who was wielding his spear this time around and Terry, who this time had ended up picking tinker.
When Ronan heard that he had an odd feeling of deja vu. With some minor differences, this was the same composition they’d had the first time he’d challenged stage 4 of the tutorial.
Although the one difference was that even though Terry had chosen Tinker, he’d created some sort of double bladed sword rather than a bow. It had a short staff in the middle to grip with a shortsword blade on each end.
He was basically a medieval version of darth maul, but about twice as muscular and a lot less red and spiky. The goblins were doomed.
Is it a sign that we’re about to succeed? Or will that vicious hobgoblin bastard tear us to pieces again, he wondered to himself. The only way to find out was to head inside.
“Alright that makes sense,” he said, tapping a finger against his chin. “So me and Terry will fight in front, with Keith and Dana supporting us from the middle and Jackson in the back going wild with his mana bolts. Seems like a solid plan.”
“Works for me,” Terry replied with a nod.
“Try to leave some of the little green monsters for me,” Dana said with a devious smirk.
Jackson and Keith nodded their assent as well. With that sorted they entered the tunnel, preparing to conquer stage 4.
Ronan pulled up his status as they walked through the first tunnel. They had a few twists and turns until they encountered the first group of goblins and he wanted to see the difference in his stats now he had an uncommon class compared to before.
Ronan was startled by his stats. He suddenly stopped in the middle of the tunnel and burst into dazed laughter.
“What’s up? Laughing like that is creepy, you know,” Dana asked, nearly bumping into his back when he froze on the spot.
“Sorry, it’s nothing. Let’s keep going,” Ronan replied. I completely forgot to spend my free stat points, but it didn’t seem to hold me back until now, he realised with shock.
However, he definitely felt far stronger than his first run through the tutorial, when his stats were at a similar level. And it wasn’t just because of his masteries and improved combat senses.
Ronan was forced to reassess the steadily increasing number beside the stat section. I know it’s boosting my experience, but is it also multiplying my stats…? he wondered with a furrowed brow. That’s crazy.
It was only a hypothesis, but it was the simplest reasonable explanation he could find. The simplest explanation was often the correct one, so until he saw evidence otherwise he’d work on the assumption he was correct.
Now, how to spend those 20 free points in the best way? If this life is going to stick, then I have to think ahead instead of simply choosing what will help me master pain and stamina the fastest.
In the end, Ronan spread the stats fairly evenly. He put 1 point into endurance to bring it up to 30, which gave him a second bonus point from excessive endurance.
Then he added 4 points to wisdom. He wasn’t a mage this time, but having a decently sized mana pool would allow him to use magic strike when he really needed the extra power. 100 mana seemed perfect.
I should reach around level 27 by the time we get to the boss fight. That means I don’t need to put too many free points into strength, but I’ll add a few, since the knight class focuses on it.
So 4 points went into strength, leaving him with 11 more. Unlike fighter, knight didn’t grow his agility whatsoever. Ronan felt that would start to hold him back, especially with a weapon such as a spear.
He allocated 6 of the remaining 11 to agility and then 3 into dexterity, to ensure his control would keep up with his strength and speed.
With 2 points left, he tossed them into luck. He could use a little bit of good fortune. Once that was done, he looked over his status with an approving nod.
[Status]
Name: Ronan Steele
Race: Human (G)
Heritage: ERROR: Unreadable (Analysis attempted: Results unreadable. DNA matches: 0. Recognised characters: ‘6’)
Level: 15 (26)
Class: Knight [Uncommon] (Fighter (Common))
Fortune: 561 Copper Credits (7,148c)
[Stats (1.097)]
Health: 210/210
Stamina: 320/320
Mana: 100/100
Vitality: 21
Endurance: 30 (+2)
Wisdom: 9 (+1)
Regeneration: 3
Resistance: 11 (+1)
Strength: 20 (+1)
Agility: 13
Intelligence: 8
Dexterity: 8
Acuity: 7
Tenacity: 17
Luck: 4
Charisma: 9 (+1)
Available Points: 0
[Traits]
Personal: Inevitable (Epic)
[Skills]
Unified Language Adaptation (Universal)
Relentless Training (Common)
Magic Strike (Common)
Vital Surge (Common)
Mighty Strength (Common)
Critical Experience (Common)
Double Strike (Common)
Magic Money (Common)
Excessive Endurance (Common)
Breaking Charge (Uncommon) (Class)
Lionheart (Uncommon) (Class)
[Mastery]
Pugilist I 2/100
Mana I 0/100
Sword I 0/100
Shield I 0/100
Staff I 1/100
Spear I 8/100
Stamina 24/100
Pain 22/100
[Cultivation]
Mind: None
Body: None
Energy: None
Soul: None
His status was a far cry from the empty analysis it had been the first time he’d seen it. Ronan was proud of his accomplishments.
He’d become proficient in a small variety of weapons, improved his control over magic of all things, and acquired a list of skills as long as his arm. Of those skills, there were a couple of deadly combinations that could turn monsters into a bloody mist in an instant.
Ronan had yet to try mixing every single one of his offensive skills into a single strike, but he planned to do so when facing the hobgoblin champion. If that couldn’t kill the bastard—or lethally wound him at least—then he would have to lodge a complaint with the system for its absurd difficulty scaling.
The party of five turned a corner. Terry was the first to walk out and was immediately assaulted by a screeching goblin.
Ronan followed shortly after, with two more crazed monsters throwing themselves at him. He gripped his spear in both hands and planted his feet. I’ll miss you, you ugly little shits, he chuckled to himself as he pierced holes in their heads one after another.
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