Adventuresse
patreon
The Apocalypse Grinder - Chapter 20
🕑 Added 2025-06-18 09:15:51 +0000 UTC<< Chapter 19 | Index | Chapter 21 >>
Ronan didn’t falter when the shaman slammed its heavy bone staff into his side. The blow was weak, stunted by the shaman’s awkward positioning.
Even so, the system felt it necessary to shove a jarring message in his face right as he stepped into striking range.
You have been hit by [Goblin Shaman Lv.12]!
-11 Health [Smashing]
You are [Bleeding]!
-2 Health / second
Ignoring it, he smashed his fist into the shaman’s chin. Its head snapped back with a crunch and it staggered as it saw stars.
Ronan didn’t let up. He unleashed punch after punch. The shaman swatted at him weakly with its staff, but he brushed it aside as if it were a feather duster.
The extra point in strength and agility had breathed new life into his body and he moved like a man possessed. In the grand scheme of things it wasn’t an enormous boost, but at this low level each point was a qualitative shift.
He hadn’t used magic strike immediately, worried the devious monster might have a trick or two up its sleeves to avoid his finishing blow. Now it could barely stand.
Blood dripped from a mouth with half the teeth missing and its already crooked nose was even more misshapen and bent. The shaman snarled and raised its staff to the sky, barely managing to lift its arms halfway up its torso.
Ronan heard it mutter under its breath while blood dripped from the corner of its cracked lips. He didn’t let it finish what it was saying.
Mana crackled down his arm as he smashed a clenched fist into its crooked jaw. His punch shattered the rest of its rotting teeth and the blast of magic that followed burst its head from the inside out.
The shaman slumped to the ground in a clatter of bone charms and a squelch of gore.
Ronan picked half a tooth from between two knuckles, wincing at the sharp pain that followed. That can’t be sanitary.
You have killed [Goblin Shaman Lv.12]!
+22 Copper Credits
+4 [Pugilist] Mastery
+1 [Mana] Mastery
+1 [Shield] Mastery
+Goblin Toes (Common)
You have leveled up to Lv.9!
You have been restored!
+1 Vitality
+1 Endurance
+1 Free Stat Point
Ronan had already turned away from the dead shaman when the notification appeared.
Level 9.
He hadn’t reached the same point as he had the first time he did this shitty tutorial, but he had progressed further in his own strength. Whether that was because Keith hadn’t done as much killing this time or simply because of the oddities that followed him here, Ronan didn’t really give a crap.
All that mattered was that he had another point to dump into strength. Speed was great, but against the rippling mountain of fat, pus, and corrosive acid, all he needed was raw power.
Every additional point in strength went an extra mile, too. More punching power meant a bigger multiplier when he used magic strike.
Killing the shaman had only drained 8 mana. That left him with 31 points to use against the fleshbeast.
Depending on how much he controlled the skill, he could use magic strike three or four times before he ran out. That should be enough to kill it.
However, he’d struggled against the first of these monstrosities he faced. He had the addition of a powerful skill now, but that didn’t guarantee anything.
He couldn’t see Keith past the width of the monster, so he had to move fast. It stomped down hard, making the entire room shake from the force it sent through the ground.
Ronan reached it in seconds, darting around its hulking mass to see it swinging a swollen lump of flesh that barely qualified as an arm at a prone Keith. The man seemed to have given up on escape, lying limp as a starfish. His eyes were closed and he was whimpering like a kicked puppy.
“Keith! Move, you lazy piece of crap,” Ronan roared.
Honestly, it didn’t seem as though Keith suddenly regained a burning desire to live. Rather, the shock of Ronan’s shout had startled the pathetic lout into dodging as the fleshbeast’s arm cracked the stone tiles where he’d lain an instant earlier.
“Ronan? You-” he muttered, sitting up and pointing with a trembling finger towards Ronan. “How are you still alive? This is like a fucking zombie movie. I don’t-”
“Shut up and stay alive. I thought you were a real man, but I was wrong,” Ronan retorted.
The fleshbeast was still focused on Keith despite Ronan’s very loud yells. Staring at Keith slobbering and whimpering on the ground, lacking a hint of fighting spirit, gave Ronan a sobering realisation.
This wasn’t the same Keith who’d found his courage at the moment before Ronan’s death, saving him from the jaws of defeat by slaughtering the lesser goblin archer. This pathetic sack of flesh was a different man. One who’d not experienced the same things.
Ronan had returned from the dead, memories intact, to live the same torture for a second time. However, the world around him was not the same.
The image of Keith’s corpse flashed into his mind once more and he clenched his fist so tight his knuckles went white as a sheet. Was he allowing guilt to control his actions?
Keith wasn’t evil. An annoying, snot-nosed, privileged little shit, yes—but he wasn’t evil. However, Ronan realised that he didn’t actually care about the man’s ultimate fate.
The Keith who’d taken his fate into his own hands and fought against the monsters was one thing, but this snivelling bastard who gave up when death came knocking? He was on his own from now on.
A cold shaft of hard bone slipped into Ronan’s hand as he drew it from his inventory. He would put everything into this opening strike. To test how strong he really was.
To weigh the limits of his skill against the defenses of the gigantic corpse-formed abomination. It still hadn’t looked at him once. It didn’t even register Ronan as a threat.
That would be its final mistake.
Ronan had 39 mana. He’d been trying to improve his control over the faint sparks he felt travelling from his heart to his fists each time he used magic strike.
He was far from an expert, but he felt confident enough in what he was about to do. He stepped up to the fleshbeast, unafraid of the putrid, hulking monster after going toe to toe with another one in his first life.
His arm tingled. Then it began to tremble as a sharp stream of mana rushed through it. He’d tested giving less mana to magic strike, but now he was attempting to do the opposite.
Ronan hefted the shaman’s bone staff back over his shoulder, planting his feet firmly into the stone. He had all the time in the world. The ignorant monster still hadn’t looked his way.
The tingle turned to a burn and he realised he might have made a mistake. But his swing had already begun.
The burn intensified as his pelvis twisted, but Ronan could only grit his teeth and bear it. Compared to getting stabbed over and over by the archers, it was only a tickle.
Oh fuck.
A gnarled hunk of bone smashed into the lumbering fleshbeast. Ronan’s arm burst. A dozen thick lacerations striated his skin, pouring rivers of blood onto the ground.
Dozens more small ones followed, but even as his arm fell back limply, he could only grin. No matter how fucked up his arm was, the monster fared far worse.
The moment the staff smacked into its pudgy, rotting flesh, it burst like an overblown balloon. Cadaverous flesh parted in layers. Rippling rolls of fetid fat splattered across the ground. Putrid sacs of corrosive pus sprayed into the room.
And that was Ronan’s own strength at play. He spared a glance at his mana.
Mana: 0/120
Ronan was blasted into the wall as the zombified monstrosity exploded. The walls trembled and the braziers rattled, casting dancing shadows across his shaking vision.
He imagined this was how it felt to have a bomb explode above your head. His vision blurred. His ears rang.
Through it all, he managed to stay conscious by focusing on the only thing he could: the wall of text hovering in front of his face.
You have killed [Zombified Goblin Fleshbeast Lv.16]!
+46 Copper Credits
+5 [Staff] Mastery
+2 [Mana] Mastery
+1 [Anti-Magic] Mastery
+Fleshbeast Pus Sac (Uncommon)
You have leveled up to Lv.10!
You have leveled up to Lv.11!
You have been restored!
+2 Vitality
+2 Endurance
+2 Free Stat Points
There was also a hell of a ruckus in Keith’s direction. The man had started screaming at some point.
What’s his problem? Ronan sighed to himself. I killed the damn thing. He should be crawling over to thank me.
Congratulations, you have cleared Stage 3 of the tutorial!
+150 Copper Credits
You will be awarded your personal trait based on all your accomplished merit th-
&£@#$!+.
Stage 4 will begin in 1 minute!
An eldritch screech cut through the system’s drone. Ronan felt something warm flowing into the depths of his abdomen, but it was hard to tell whether that was just the restoration of levelling up or if it was connected to his strange heritage.
He blacked out when it started clicking his arm bones back into place and knitting together the ravaged flesh.
<< Chapter 19 | Index | Chapter 21 >>
