ã€ŠHeroes and Ancientsã€‹


 Prologue: New Patch

    *OOOOOOOOHHHHHHMMMMMMM*

    The world shook as what seemed to be the sound of battle horns reverberated that it was impossible for anyone to not hear it. Those who were inside their homes and those who were inside buildings dashed outside to see what was going on and they were greeted with the sight of the appearance of a huge formation of white clouds in the sky that seemed to be moving too fast. What made this even more bizarre is that in the other half of the world where it¡¯s still nighttime, the huge white clouds can still be seen clearly.

    ¡°Look! Something seems to be coming out in the middle of the clouds!¡± people pointed out

    As people from all over the world were staring at the cloud formation in curiosity and fear, a silhouette was suddenly slowly fading in.It didn''t take long for people to clearly see the figure and althoughonly the upper half of its body was visibly, it was clearly a giant blue frog! It was wearing a white shirt while the ''fingers'' on it''s two front legs were constantly touching teaching while its eyes looked so shifty. Everyone couldn''t help but believe that the frog was scheming something!

    ¡°What the hell? He reminds me of that scammer last year who sold me those tickets to that shitshow in Shanghai!" a young chinese man commented after seeing the frog''s appearance.

    It wasn¡¯t just the young man, people from everywhere were alsosaying how the frog seemed to be up to no good with how it looked!

    The frog was indefferent of their remarks as it roared loud enough that nobody couldn''t possibly not hear him. ¡°MORTALS! YOUR GOD HAS ARRIVED! KAKAKKAKAKAKAKAKAKA!¡±

    ¡°¡­.¡± The whole world was in silence that even if someone would drop a pin they would still hear the sound as it reaches the floor.

    ¡°ah.. ahem.. anyway, I have come bringing good news to all of you! The new patch is here! I told you guys I¡¯d deliver it on time! Kakakaka!¡± it laughed as it stood up, revealing the lower part of his body

    "What the hell! I never thought that clothes on frogs wouldn''t really matter but this frog definitely needs to wear some pants!"

    "You damn frog! Children are watching you! Such indecency!"

    "At least wear some slacks! You look so digusting wearing nothing down there!"

    If anyone looked closely at the frog, they would noticed a vein bulging on its forehead with how furious it was of what everyone was saying. "Fuck Slacks! Who needs them?! I definitely don''t!"

    The older people gasped at the cussing frog as they covered the children''s ears. "Watch you language you nasty frog!"

    The frog shrugged them off when he noticed that there was a few hundred thousands of people that seemed to have an idea of the patch.

    "Hey, we were just complaining online about the new patch not released yet. Is the frog talking about that?"

    "Hey! Isn''t the name of the game''s lead developer something like a frog?!"

    The frog nodded in content at the fact that not everybody were clueless of what he just announced, some even seemed to have an idea of who he was! Elated, he chortled and addressed those people even if the rest of the world wouldn''t understand, ¡°kakakakaka! I¡¯m a God that listens to your prayers and I tell you, this patch is gonna be so awesome, but not as awesome as the new Mercedes-Benz E400 Sedan *cough* you know the rest¡±

    ¡°what the hell is this frog talking about?¡± a middle aged man murmured as he truly didn¡¯t understand what the so-called ''patch'' the frog was talking about is and he was even more confused when the frog mentioned the Mercedes Benz E400 Sedan that he was planning on buying for some time now.

    The frog couldn''t help but sigh at how the majority of the people in the world didn''t understand him and said, "I¡¯m a benevolent God, I shall answer your question! Kakakakaka! My followers have been asking for months for an update and I¡¯ve also seen the excitement everyone had for virtual reality so I thought, Heck! Why not bring the game to the world itself! Kakakakakaka! Aren¡¯t I a great God! Praise me you mortals! Kakakakaka!¡±Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    ¡°what¡­ is he talking about a game? Bringing a game to this world? What does he mean?¡± a young man murmured in shock.

    "A game? Is this frog a child? From the beginning he was actually talking about a game?! We don''t have time for those! We still have work to do in the office!" An office worker in London reproached the frog as he acted upright to show off to his boss beside him how he treated his work.

    Even though there were millions of voices that the frog heard, he had the ability to pick out every single one of them! And obviously, he heard what the office worker said! His face clearly twisted and he suddenly called out a name, "Marcus Middleton!"

    Thousands of people named ''Marcus Middleton'' from all over the world couldn''t help but feel a chill down their spine after hearing the frog call their name out and they couldn''t help but answer "Yes!".

    Hearing the replies, the frog then said with a threatening voice, "You like your job, don''t you? You sacrificed a lot for your consultancy group, right? Would you do anything to keep your job? Annie, your little girl, would get worried if you lose your job. tsk tsk."

    The Marcus Middletons who replied a while ago were confused for a moment as they visibly relaxed and realized that the frog meant someone else, but there was one who was in terror at that moment! It was the boss beside the office worker in London who called the frog a child! He was also named Marcus Middleton, and the frog''s words hit him like a lightning bolt and he replied with a shaking voice, "Y-YES SIR!".

    The frog laughed boisterously at Marcus'' reply and said, "Good, Good! Then fire that man beside you for being an ass!"

    Marcus couldn''t help but stare at the office worker beside him who gazed back at himwith his eyes wide in shock.

    "Y-you''re fired, go grab your things and leave the company right now." the boss decisively told him.

    The office worker couldn''t help but shiver and want to curse at himself for saying those remarks earlier as he silently left to grab his things.

    "I''m sorry, James" The boss said after the office worker, James, left.

    The frog''s mood immediately lifted up after seeing the man get fired as he said. ¡°Now without further ado, I¡¯ll be installing the update now! Buckle your seatbelts boys and girls! There might be an earthquake or two!¡±

    Immediately after he said so, the world suddenly started to shake although it wasn¡¯t at a dangerous level but everyone definitely felt that the light earthquake is not that simple.

    As the earthquake shook the world, unbeknownst to everyone, huge lands started rising in inhabited places all over the world and if scientists would have witnessed it, they would definitely be baffled. Trees suddenly sprouted on the land that rose and there was even a river that formed diagonally on the land that equally divided the land into two opposite sides.

    Buildings started growing out of nowhere on the two corners of the land and in the middle of the two corners arose a structure bigger than the other buildings. Three roads can be seen that connected the two sides and on each road 3 tower-like structures can be seen. Lands like this arose in each county, clearly showing how it waspurposely assigned there.

    After all the structures appeared, the earthquake also stopped and everyone finally relaxed but they suddenly realized that something felt off. They couldn¡¯t point it out but they suddenly all felt that the air was different and that they had more energy than earlier. They didn¡¯t think it was a bad thing so they didn¡¯t have any complains but nonetheless everyone thought this was odd since they after all just experienced an earthquake so they should¡¯ve been shaken but instead they felt even better than before the earthquake.

    ¡°Kakakaka! Everyone probably felt it right? Something in the air seems to be different and it¡¯s like your body seemed to have gotten excited for a moment? Kakakaka! Praise me for I¡¯ve brought mana to this puny planet of yours!"

    "MANA?! Like those in games?!" People exclaimed after the frog''s words.

    It wasn''t just in games, religious groups also know the existence of mana and of its function. So people truly found it absurd that all of a sudden, everyone on earth could feel the excistence of mana! Those who have felt it even before the frog arrived were ecstatic of how easy it has become to access mana!

    "Besides mana, your world is now filled with treasure and power that are waiting for their rightful owners! Of course, along with it comes the risk of danger. After I leave, monsters would appear all over the world! So go on an adventure! Search for treasures and take for yourselves the powers I''ve hidden. Strengthen yourselves and become a hero! For the battle for the Ancients would soon be upon you!" the frog solemnly said as he faded out of existence and disappeared from the sky along with the cloud formation.

    "..."

    The world was in silence once again after the frog''s outrageous announcement when all of a sudden the cloud formation returned along with the reappearance of the frog. "I almost forgot to mention! You don''t have to worry about the monsters too much! They won''t attack you unless you provoke them! And don''t forget to visit my blog from time to time! Bye!"

    And just as he abruptly appeared, he disappeared the same way as everyone was speechless of what just happened. Nobody would have thought thatthe appearance of the frog would bring tremendous changes in the world that would last for centuries to come.

 Chapter 1: Wolf Trouble

    While everybody else were still in shock at what just happened, in one certain Mountain on the southern island of the Philippines, a young man was furiously cursing the frog that just disappeared.

    ¡°THAT FUCKING FROOOOOOOOOOG! WHY THE HELL DID HE PLACE A GROUP OF WOLVES LITERALLY A METER IN FRONT OF ME!¡±

    As what anyone can guess, he is currently being chased by three giant wolves with one of them of themthat seemed to be the alpha with its bigger size.

    Luke, the young man running away from the wolves, is actually quite athletic but no matter how athletic he is, he definitely didn¡¯t have a chance of outrunning 3 wolves. Realizing the situation, he immediatelysearced for a cave or perhaps a crevicenearby that he could go to so that he could use its narrow area to fight a wolf one-on-one instead of fighting head on against the three of them.

    Luck was on his side as not far from his was a cliff clearly with a crevice perfect for his size, he quicklysprinted towards it but as if life was playing a joke on him, he actually tripped on a root of a tree and immediately stumbled on the ground while the wolves were already three metersbehind him.

    ¡°Fuck!¡± hecursed as he quickly sprung back to face the wolves that were already pouncing on him.

    Feeling the rush of adrenaline he grabbed the hammer on the side of his backpack and immediately swung towards the closest wolf. The wolf that got hit immediately whined in pain as it stepped back but the two other wolves continued pouncing on Luke and he didn¡¯t have any chance of dodging it so he immediately turned around and the two wolves bit his backpack instead of his body.

    Quickly letting go of his backpack, he immediately tried to run towards the crevice while still carrying his hammer. The two wolves only got delayed for less than a second as they both immediately chased after Luke and the alpha wolf that was clearly seething in anger immediately pounced and bit on Luke¡¯s left shoulder while the other one bit his right leg.

    ¡°You damn mutt! Let go of me!¡± he roared as he struggled to escape and swung his hammer towards the face of the alpha wolfmaking it let go of his shoulder as it whined in pain. This further enraged the alpha wolf as it tackled Luke to the ground, giving him no chance to escape.

    ¡°FUUUUUCK!¡±Lukescreamed in pain as he realized he truly can¡¯t do anything else but accept his fate. He closed his eyes with tears clearly falling from it,clenching his teeth to endure the pain and just accepted the fact that he¡¯s going to be these wolves¡¯early breakfast.

    After the alpha wolf mounted him, it swiftly bit his shoulder again and attacked him with its claws, lacerating his chest. It was clearly a really deep cut, making Luke hiss in pain, but what he didn''t expect but after these attacks from the alpha wolf, it actually left along with the two other wolves!

    ¡®What the hell! Don¡¯t play with your food dammit! You wounded me this much, yet you just all of a sudden lost interest?! You might as well kill me already!¡¯, he complainedinwardly since he didn¡¯t have the strength to actually talk anymore. Breathing roughly, he tried to move a bit but even the smallest movement made him wince in pain. Losing so much blood in such a short time, he immediately fell unconscious on the ground.

    *****

    *cough* *cough* *cough*

    ¡°what.. the.. hell.. I¡¯m actually alive?¡± after coughing some blood Luke opened his eyes and realized that he actually didn¡¯t die yet. Looking around him, he realized that he was laying on the ground in the open as if he was asking to be eaten by perhaps other monsters in the mountain.

    He tried to move his legs and to his surprise, he can actually move a bit! He thought that he was just unconscious for at least about half an hour, so why can he move already even though he can barely move earlier with all his wounds?

    Even though he can move already, he couldn¡¯t stand up especially with that big wound on his right leg so he crawled towards the crevice he found earlier in case the wolves come back. With a trail of blood behind him, he was able to enter the crevice with some difficulty and then tried to sit down. Upon sitting down he suddenly realized there was a bump on the left back pocket of his pants.

    ¡°That¡¯s strange.. I never put anything on my back pockets¡± Confused, he reached his pocket and took out what was inside and it turned out to be 5 green balls placed on a leaf that seemed to be glowing.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    He immediately shook in surprise after seeing them. "Holy shit! Are these tangos?!" answering his question a small window just like the ones he saw on Sword Art Online appeared beside the tangos

    <table>

    <tbody>

    <tr>

    <td style="text-align: center">Tango</td>

    </tr>

    <tr>

    <td>

    Consume a target tree to restore 115 health over 16 seconds. Consuming a ward or Ironwood Tree doubles the heal amount.

    Comes with 5 charges. Can be used on an allied hero to give them one Tango.

    How to use: Eat 1 tango and place your hand on the tree/ward/Ironwood Tree you wish to consume

    </td>

    </tr>

    </tbody>

    </table>

    "HOLY ICEFROG! I''M SAVED! Hmph! At leastthe damn frog still has some conscience after actually placing those wolves in front of me!" He grumbled but was nonetheless still smiling since he was atleast definitely not going to die today thanks to these tangos! But after thinking it through, he was truly quite speechless.

    "Did that crazy frog actually bring DotA in real-life? so this is the newest patch? what the fuck, yeah we complained about the new patch taking so long but we didn''t ask him to fucking bring the game in real life" he complained but then he realized that life might actually not be as dull as it was before.

    He tried to look at the window again and to his surprise it was gone, after looking at the tangos again, the window then appeared. ''Looks like it works only when I look at an item from the game!'' he concluded.

    Remembering his wounds, he immediately grabbed one of the green balls and ate it in one bite. ''Huh It''s actually quite sweet'', he thought.

    Since he was still inside the crevice, he crawled back outside and went towards the nearest tree. Placing his left hand on the tree''s trunk, the tree visibly shook upon his touch and then the tree suddenly turned gray and suddenly shriveled as if it aged so quickly and lost all its nutrients. It then shook once again and as if it was cutby a lumberjack, it fell to one side with the bottom of the log shown to be cleanly cut by something.

    "Woah, besides the shriveling part, it''s basically like in the game" he thought as he then sat down and immediately rejoiced as he felt the rush of energy as warmth spread all over his body and when he looked closely at his wounds, they were visibly closing up.

    After the 16 seconds of healing thanks to the Tango, all his wounds had closed up and he was now no longer in danger of dying from blood loss. He sighed in relief thinking how he actually almost met up with the grim reaper earlier than he should have. Standing up, he patted the dirt off his pants andfelt that he was so energetic.

    "The tango probably made up for the blood I lost, if not I should be suffering from anemia right now" He couldn''t help but believe so.

    "Wait, where am I?" He asked as he suddenly realized he was lost.

    Looking around him, he thought of how after the wolves showed up, he quickly ran towards a random direction without any thought so he has no idea where he currently was. He wenttowards where he dropped his backpack earlier and luckily, besides biting it once, the wolves didn''t bother with it so it was still right there.

    Picking it up, he saw how just a single bite from those wolves basically destroyed it already. The things inside were crumpled as if it was paper, even the metal pan he brought with him! He shivered thinking how he actually survived an attack from those wolves.

    Since nothing from inside were of any use to him now, he shrugged and walked towards a random direction while carrying his trusty hammer since he''s lost anyway.

    "Since there are tangos now, does that mean there are also other items from the game? So we''re supposed to look for them? Wait... If he brought the game to life, doesn''t that also mean we can also get the abilities that DotA heroes have?!?" He shouted in excitement as he realized that the last line the frog said mentioned how they should venture around the world and become heroes.

    "So I can also become a hero?!? Sweet!" Feeling excited he started fist-pumping in the air and then the reality of the situation hit him.

    "So... I... I have to fight the monsters, right?" he felt as if he was splashed with cold water after realizing that he needed to fight so that he would gain abilities. But remembering the fact that he also had tangos, he felt excited again thinking he at least didn''t have to fear getting wounded for a while so he should at least get a good item or perhaps get an ability before he uses up all his tangos!

    Carefully walking around the woods, he spotted different groups of monsters that were just standing around just like in the game. Since the damn frog mentioned that the monsters won''t attack unless provoked, he obviously didn''t even try attackingthem and especially not get near one since he figured that just being near themwould provoke them.

    After about an hour of trekking, he saw how he was actually about to leave the mountain and that there was a valley in front, but he stopped in his tracks the moment he saw what was in the valley. Right in front of him was a camp! It would be great if it was a camp filled with people but from where he was standing, he can clearly see how the camp was filled with Kobolds! Unlike the game where there were about 5 kobolds in a camp, this one clearly had about 20 or 30 Kobolds! No matter how weak Kobolds are in the game, he himself is also incredibly weak!

    He was about to slowly back off and go back where he came from when he spotted right in the center of the camp seemed to be some sort of an altar. If it was just an altar, he would have continued backing off, but floating on top of it was a crystal ball with a purple glow!

    It didn''t take a genius to think that that ball is clearly something from the game!

    "With it''s color, that''s definitely not one of the orbs or boosters that can be bought in the game. If it isn''t an item, then, is it... an ability?!"

 Chapter 2: First Ability

    Scoutingthe kobold camp from higher ground, Luke started studying the formation of the kobolds in the camp. He could see that the camp was actually divided into 6 groups of 5 kobolds that were composed of 3 ordinary kobolds, 1 kobold soldier and 1 kobold foreman.

    "My fighting ability is too low at the moment so I should probably fool the kobolds instead and bring them here in the woods. Then while they look for me, should I make a dash for the item?", he considered.

    "But if these are the same creeps from DotA then they''re definitely smart enough to know where I am and even if I hide they''ll know the general direction I went to... Should I slowly kill them off instead? like those noob junglers in DotA?"

    Jungling in DotA is where players kill the neutral creeps in the jungle for gold and experience instead of doing so in one of the three lanes where they would be up against enemy players and their creeps. Not any hero could handle jungling while being in the early level, they need abilities that can ensure that they can handle fighting in the jungle and not go back to the base to heal up. Abilities like lifesteal or summoning helpers in fighting are what the typical junglers need, and at this moment Luke had 0 abilities!

    "The problem here is that even if I target just one group, I would still be fighting against 5 kobolds, even if they are weak compared to other creeps, I''m basically almost at the same level as they are. There''s also the fact that this is the real world so after I provoke them they might chase me ''til I die, unlike the game they''ll never leave--- AH!" all of a sudden, Luke remembered how the wolves earlier just left all of a sudden. "Maybe... Maybe they left since they were already at a far distance from where they were assigned to stay in?"

    In DotA, when you attack a jungle creep, the whole group would immediately try to fight you and when you run far enough, they would simply turn their backs and go back to where they were standing at before. Luke figured that if the Kobolds would react the same, he''ll have the chance to attack them one by one once they turn their backs!

    With motivation, Luke decided to test it out so he grabbed a few rocks at the side that he''ll throw at the kobolds then cautiously approachethe camp. When he was about 20 meters from the camp,he caught the kobolds'' attention but theymerely took a single glance at him and continued with whatever they were doing.

    ''Looks like the frog didn''t lie about how they wouldn''t attack unless provoked, I just got unlucky at the start when the wolves got summoned right in front of me'', he complained in his mind.

    Judging that 15 m. away from the camp was just about right, he did a baseball pitcher stance and with a strong throw he hit one kobold foreman that was just sitting in front of a campfire on the headas heran away quickly.

    Infuriated, the foreman did a shrill cry and alerted everyone of the invader. Together with the other kobolds, they immediatelychased after Luke.

    If anybody asked Luke what would be one thing he is really good at, it would be running away fast! Before this, he was quite confident that even if he couldn''t outrun the wolves earlier, he could definitely outrun the kobolds this time! But Luke''s confidence was splashed by cold water again as the moment Luke glanced at the kobolds behind him, he saw how they were actually gaining on him!

    Behind the group were the foremen that were actually constantly whipping the kobolds! Luke immediately paled as he remembered that kobold foremen actually had a passive ability called ''Speed Aura'' that was brought up by their cruelty to their subordinates!

    Luke immediately regretted not thinking things through before he actually put the test to action and could only bet on his luck that the kobolds would turn their backs before they could catch him!

    Taking bigger steps while running, Luke didn''tcare that he''d run out of breath faster with the way he was runningas he ran as fast as he could. He did so since he''s only going to check whether the kobolds would truly turn their backs after running a certain distance.

    As if fate was playing a joke on him again, Luke once again tripped while running and rolled on the ground! He was now facing the kobolds and in fear, he tried to quickly crawl backwards and just as the kobolds were about to reach him, their eyes that were filled with anger earlier suddenly cleared up! As if by clockwork, they all turned around and sauntered back to their camp leaving Luke whose heart was already trying to leap out of his chest.

    "FUCK! That was too close!" Luke cried out as he wiped his cold sweat. Seeing how the test was successful, he immediately fist pumped the air then made a giant mark on where the kobolds stopped.

    After resting for a bit, he then made his way back to the camp and after hitting another kobold with a rock, made a dash towards the mark he made earlier. He had a confident expression as soon as he reached the mark and turned back to face the kobolds.

    Just like what happened earlier, the kobolds suddenly calmed down and turned their backs but this time, Luke didn''tmiss his chance as he immediatelyswung his hammer at the head of a kobold foreman who was at the back of the group.

    The kobold immediately cried out in pain but Luke immediately followed up with two more swings atits head again which made the kobold immediately collapse on the ground.

    Luke suddenly felt a rush of energy after the kobold collapsed and he felt like he needed to fight some more but a shrill cry broke him off his stupor and he realized that he''ll be surrounded if he won''t run now so he immediately made his way to the woods.

    Upon entering the woods and hiding behind a tree, the kobolds then turned around again to go back to their camp. Luke tried to remember the state he was in earlier after the kobold collapsed and thought how it actually felt great! Perhaps it was because of the adrenaline, but he honestly wanted to fight again! Walking towards where the kobold collapsed earlier he realized that there wasn''t a body anymore, ''I guess his buddies carried him back to the camp'', he deduced.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

    He was about to make his way back to the camp to hit another kobold when he saw something shine on the ground, upon closer look he realized what it was. "GOLD COINS! And there are probably about two dozen of them! I''m rich! HAHAHAHAHA!" he celebrated but thinking it through he realized something, "If there are gold coins here... Did the kobold foreman actually die?! Is that why there isn''t a body here anymore?!" He realized in shock.

    "But... I just hit it three times? Does that mean I''m actually quite strong?" he asked himself but shook his head as he knew his own strength very well "No, I hit the kobold in the head... wait... Holy shit... I kept thinking that this was going to be like the game where the damage I deal would always be at a specific range.. This means that if I hit them on fatal spots I could do more damage that I should have!", he trembled in excitement as he thought of how he could easily wipe out those kobolds now.

    Taking a deep breath, he calmed himself down as he made his way again to the camp, reminding himself to gather the gold coins once he retrieved the crystal ball. Feeling much more confident after succeedingonce, he again pulled the kobolds to the mark he made.He once again hit the back of the head of a kobold foreman and hit it twice more at the head then immediately run towards the woods again without bothering to look if the kobold died or not.

    The kobolds chased after him again but as soon as he entered the woods they turned around again. Luke followed them back and when the kobolds reached the mark he made, he attacked another foreman again and after hitting it twice more, he dashed towards the woods again.

    Repeating these actions, in half an hour the group of kobolds already lost about 3/4 of their group including all the kobold foremen who were killed first which also meant that the group no longer had a speed aura!

    After the group visibly slowed down, Luke became much more efficient in taking down the kobolds. He was finally able to attack another kobold after killing one, unlike the beginning where he had to retreat after killing a single kobold.

    Luke played whatever sports his friends played so his endurance was quite good but he himself was shocked at his current endurance. He wasn''t playing but instead killing living creatures while constantly running away! before today, he would have collapsed on the ground already!

    He didn''t understand why, but after each kill he made, he kept on feeling that constant rush of energy inside his body. And hecurrently felt that the energy on his body was getting too excited as if it was about to blow up. Thinking that he should continue using up his energy since it seemed to be endless anyway, he didn''t bother resting as he made his way towards the 7 remaining kobolds and continued with his hit and run tactic.

    Eventually, there was only one kobold soldier remaining but he still didn''t dare fight it head on since he knew that he might have killed those kobolds but if he fought against them head on, he wouldn''t even last a minute with the weapons the kobolds had.

    The moment the kobold soldier turned around, Luke didn''t bother hitting the kobold at the head but instead kicked its back.The cluelesskobold face-planted the ground and before it could even try to stand up, Luke struck his hammer at its head and did so as many times as he could. He had a bit of a crazed look while hitting the kobold''s head but he suddenly broke off it when a sense of euphoria invaded his body and all of a sudden he was surrounded by a golden glow!

    Shocked with the golden glow, he also realized that the feeling of his energy blowing up earlier was gone now! But he felt even more invigorated than earlier! He was sure that after that golden glow, he actually became stronger!

    "Holy shit... Did I perhaps level up just now?" he said in astonishment.

    When he thought of the game, he thought of how they could choose an ability to level up but here in the real world, he didn''t have any ability to choose! The moment he thought so, he remembered why he even killed the kobolds in the first place! Isn''t it to get that crystal ball that most probably contains an ability? He excitedly ran in the direction of the camp but not even 2 seconds after he ran, when he saw the ground he remembered the gold coins he left behind.

    "Where will I put all these gold coins?" he knew that every group of kobolds in the game would give around 75 coins so since he killed 6 groups, he should have about 450 gold coins now. These are gold coins! no matter how strong he is now, how could he actually carry 450 gold coins with him when he doesn''t even have a bag now?! saddened by this, he decided that he should just pocket a few gold coins and hide the rest somewhere for him to retrieve at a later time.

    Hejust picked up one gold coin when to his surprise a window appeared in front of him.

    <table>

    <tbody>

    <tr>

    <td style="text-align: center">You have garnered 443 gold coins in the battle. Do you want to transfer the coins to your coin storage?</td>

    </tr>

    <tr>

    <td style="text-align: center">Yes</td>

    </tr>

    </tbody>

    </table>

    "YEESSS!" Luke jumped in joy after reading what the window said and quicklypressed ''Yes''.

    Immediately after he pressed it, the gold coins that littered the ground faded and another window followed up.

    <table>

    <tbody>

    <tr>

    <td>Congratulations! You have unlocked the coin storage feature after taking the spoils of your battle! To take the gold coins out, just say the amount of gold coins you need and a bag filled with the number of coins you wanted will appear in your hands.</td>

    </tr>

    </tbody>

    </table>

    "That''s pretty useful, that damn frog actually thought things through huh", he complimented the frog.

    While playing around with the coin storage, he made his way towards the camp and as soon as he saw the crystal ball he could help but run towards it as if he was a wolf that saw a weak prey.

    He wanted to immediately grab the crystal to check whether he could gain an ability when he saw that there were some inscribed words on the altar it was floating on.

    "RAH! Show your worth! Rest is for the dead! The enemies need killing! Let them taste your blade!"

    Reading it, Luke became even more excited! He felt that it was a bit familiar but didn''t mind it. Perhaps this is an ability that''s related to a blade? Maybe it''s Juggernaut''s Blade dance? That would be awesome! I would be able to kill the creeps faster!

    While he was daydreaming about how he would look so awesome waving a blade and killing creepsas easy as harvesting wheat,he grabbed the crystal ball and 2 new windows showed up in front of him.

    <table>

    <tbody>

    <tr>

    <td style="text-align: center">Congratulations! You have learned your first ability, Counter Helix!</td>

    </tr>

    </tbody>

    </table>

    <table>

    <tbody>

    <tr>

    <td style="text-align: center">Counter Helix</td>

    </tr>

    <tr>

    <td>

    When attacked, you suddenly perform a helix counter attack, dealing pure damage to all nearby enemies.

    Radius: 1 meter around you.

    Proc Chance: 20%

    Damage: 75/110/145/180

    </td>

    </tr>

    </tbody>

    </table>

    Luke immediately slumped to the ground after reading what skill he received. With a pale face he felt like he would vomit blood at that moment and he immediately cursed.

    "WHAT THE FUCK! I DID THE HIT AND RUN TACTIC AGAINST THE KOBOLDS EXACTLY BECAUSE I DIDN''T WANT TO GET HIT, NOW YOU''RE TELLING ME THAT I HAVE TO GET HIT JUST SO THE ABILITY I WORKED HARD TO OBTAINWOULD WORK?! FUUUUUUCK"

 Chapter 3: Brewing Trouble

    With a dazed look on his face, Luke was slowly walking down the mountain. He just realized how the inscription on the altar was familiar when he read it; they were lines of the hero in DotA that had the ability ''Counter Helix'', Axe!

    Axe was a member of the Oglodi race that is very well known for their physical toughness, and their respect for strength. Being the Red Mist General, Axe is well known for his carnage in battle and for the fact that while he grew stronger in each war, his comrades slowly dwindled until on one night of victory in battle, Axe realized that all his comrades were already dead but it didn''t matter to him as he believed that a one-man army is the best.

    By physical appearance alone, Luke is a far cry to Axe! With his small build and height, he clearly didn''t fit the bill for having an ability like Counter Helix where he has to get attacked!

    Luke shivered while imagining himself fighting like Axe, it''s too horrible to imagine! Although he played sports, he can''t really call himself to be good on any one of them! He considers himself to be average at best. And although he can handle a bit of pain, he can''t possibly be like Axe who willingly allows his enemies to just hit him with their weapons! That would be too absurd!

    In the game, besides items that greatly increased Axe''s HP regeneration, you should also have HP boosting items! Just from the fact that he quickly recovered in top condition after using a tango even though he almost died before, Luke figured that his HP was obviously so small! 1 charge of tango can heal about 112 HP so his total HP should be just around that too! To be willing to get hit with just that amount of HP is simply asking for his death!

    Cursing his bad luck, he wanted to leave the mountain immediately; he didn''t have any plans on trying out his newly obtained ability at all! Even if he still has 4 tangos on him, he didn''t want to put himself in any form of pain and torture just so he could witness his ability at work.

    While walking down a man-made path he found earlier, he suddenly noticed how there seemed to be a commotion nearby that seemed to be of people fighting.

    Rushing towards where the noise was coming from; he gradually heard the voices of people shouting at each other.He was slowly inching towards the area whenhe suddenly felt the temperature around him suddenly drop sharply as snow suddenly quickly fell, covering everything in the area in white, and he instantly felt himself slowing down as he''s walking.

    This greatly surprised him as this is after all a tropical country!It was obvious that this was man-made, so it could only be someone that most probably obtained an ability like him!

    ''Did someone perhaps manage to take a crystal ball that contained Frozen Sigil?'' he speculated, as besides Freezing Field that could also cause a snowstorm, Frozen Sigil seemed to be the most probable cause of this since if this was caused by a Freezing Field, the snowstorm would be much fiercer than it is now and most importantly, he''s not receiving damage! Frozen Sigils were typically used in chasing or in running away as it would slow down the movement speed of the enemies.

    Trekking over the snow slowly, he finally saw the people that were shouting and saw that there were 6 people in the area, 5 men and 1 woman with one man isolated in a corner who was a bit wounded.

    What he also noticed was that besides the wounded man, the other 5 people were besides looking a bit disorderly were obviously shivering from the cold and just as he thought earlier, floating above them was a sigil made of ice. ''The isolated man seems to have taken the crystal ball'' he surmised.

    "You ungrateful bastards! I can''t believe you actually tried to kill me even after how good I treated all of you all these years!" grievously shouted the wounded man.

    "Hehe... You can''t blame us for this Roy, who asked you to have such a beautiful slut of a wife? Us, brothers have been having so much fun with her the past few months so we decided to get rid of you when we had a chance, what can you do about it?" a tall buff man snickered at Roy although he didn''t dare approach him because of how Roy made it snow suddenly.

    Hearing the two, Luke had a basic idea of what happened here and though he doesn''t really have a good temperament and he curses a whole lot, he still considered himself a man that sides with justice so he immediately chose to help Roy.

    "Dude, run while you can! Your Frozen Sigil won''t last that long! they won''t be able to catch up to you if you run now!" Luke shouted while he himself run away too. He''s a man of justice but he''s not dumb enough to fight a disadvantageous fight so he thought that the least he could do is warn the wounded man to run while he had the chance.

    Roy''s eyes brightened after hearing Luke and remembered the window a while ago that informed him that the Frozen Sigil would only last for 30 Seconds. Thanking Luke in his heart, he immediately made a dash down the mountain as he controlled the Sigil to always stay above the 5 people to slow them down.

    Even though he was a bit wounded, the frozen sigil made him unaffected by the snow and like a fish in waters, he was able to quickly leave the area. A frozen sigil could actually be destroyed but unfortunately for the 5 people, they didn''t have any weapon to hit the sigil with so all could they do was to grit their teeth as they tried to chase after Roy.

    "Motherfucker! we should have killed him after we killed all thoseghosts earlier! Now we can''t go back to the city where he might hunt us down with the police! Where''s that asshole that shouted earlier?!? We''ll fucking kill you when we have the chance!" roared the angry buff man while the people with him stayed silent in fear.

    Luke wasn''t even able to hear the man''s roars as he was even faster than Roy at leaving the area. Though the Frozen Sigil affected him, he hadalways beem a fast runner so thethe sigil didn''t affect him that much. Luke chortled thinking how those 5 people were probably vomiting blood as their prey was able to run away thanks to him.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

    He didn''t really think much about what just happened since nobody really saw what he looked like so he was confident that even if he''ll meet any one of them, they won''t be able to recognize him unless they hear his voice.

    Continuing his way down the man-made path, he eventually reached the foot of the mountain where there were stores and cabins available. Arriving there, he felt like a panda in the zoo as everyone stared at him as his clothing were clearlytattered with holes and dirt on them.

    "Boy, did you encounter monsters??" An old man asked him in surprise

    "Yeah.. There were a pack of giant wolves near the peak.. Got attacked by them after the frog in the sky disappeared" Luke answered embarrassedly as he scratched his head.

    "Oh God, there are giant wolves out there? How big are they?" asked a young woman with a plain face who covered her mouth in shock.

    "The biggest wolf should be about the size of that SUV over there" he answered while pointing at an SUV parked in the corner and immediately headed towards a restaurant, not minding the astonishedfaces of the people around him.

    Entering a small Chinese restaurant, he quickly made his order and seeing a television, quickly chose to sit near it to listen to the news.

    "...Thousands of deaths have been reported just from this hour alone after the appearance of monsters that people only see in games and movies. The numbers are quickly increasing and all these deaths have one thing in common and that is they all happened in rural areas especially in the wilderness so people living in such places are advised to evacuate to the nearest city or town as the government is trying to control the situation..."

    Listening to the report made Luke lose a bit of his appetite realizing that the situations worse than he thought. He earlier thought that he''s the only one unlucky enough to have a group of monsters appear in front of him. But then he also realized one thing, ''The government doesn''t seem to know yet that these monsters come from a game''.

    Shaking his head, the meal he ordered arrived but before he could take a bite, another news made him pause.

    "A man inLosBa?os saved a group of biologists who were working in Mt. Makiling, the group of biologist reported that after the frog in the sky disappeared they continued looking for samples and accidentally stumbled upon a group ofgiant monsters identified as ''ogres''that immediately attacked them. They immediately ran for their lives but as they were about to be caught by the ogres, a man suddenly appeared at the sidelines. After the man saw the situation, he apparently jumped and punched the ground, but upon impact, the landsuddenly and a ridge of stone rose from the ground that formed a line from where the man punched, blocking the ogres from catching the biologists...."

    "Looks like someone learned Fissure, I guess there are many like us around the world that found crystal balls and managed to kill the monsters around it" he commented.

    "What did you say, young man?" a hoarse voice suddenly asked behind him.

    Looking behind him, he realized that a group of men around 30-40 years old by their appearance were looking at him with curiosity and a man with long hair tied in a ponytail seemed to have asked the question as he was looking at him at him intently, waiting for his answer.

    "Oh.. uhmm.. you see there was a camp in the valley next to the Mountain here where 30 kobolds were staying in, in the middle of the camp was an altar with a crystal ball floating on top of it. The ball contained an ability like that man on the news that caused a fissure on the ground after just punching it" he honestly answered, believing that news about it would eventually be released anyway.

    "Kobolds? what''s a kobold?" asked a lanky man with an eye tatoo on his neck beside the man with the ponytail.

    "Oh they''re humanoid monsters that look like lizards, they''re quite agile and some of them had weapons" Luke quickly replied as he ate.

    "Hmmm... so how did you know the crystal ball contained an ability?" asked the man with the ponytail.

    "Oh.. uhmm.. well..." Unsure whether he should divulge the fact that he received an ability he tried to show that he was quite unwilling to answer.

    "Hoho.. Don''t worry now, we''re just wondering, all these events happening around the world and nobody around here seems to have an answer to any questions of ours" The man replied to show that he didn''t have any bad intentions.

    Seeing how theyseemed to be telling the truth, he answered them honestly "Well I managed to get my hands on it and I really obtained an ability. But of course, I had to kill my way towards it so i wiped out all the kobolds before I managed to get my hands on the ball" he specifically mentioned how he killed monsters to show that he wasn''t a pushover.

    "Huh... Is that so... I''ll have to inform my other friends about these crystal balls if they can give us abilities, thanksboy, we''ll have to go now" said the ponytailedwho immediately left the restaurant with the other men.

    Looking at the backs of these men, Luke felt a bit uncomfortable but brushed it off immediately as he was about to finish his meal and wanted to go back to the city as soon as possible..

    After paying and leaving the restaurant, he went around thearea and asked whether the roads to the city are safe since perhaps a group of monsters may have spawned on or near the road. Fortunately for him, everyone told him how the roads are still safe so after hailing a taxi nearby, he was now on his way to the city.

    ***

    "So you''re saying that if we manage to get our hands on these crystal balls, we''ll get powers like the ones we saw on the news?" A handsome young man who was sitting while drinking tea asked the man in front of him.

    "Yes, sir. My brothers and I were eating in a restaurant when we heard a young man murmuring about how the man on the news encountered the same situation he did so we immediately asked him about it and he told us about the kobold camp" The middle aged man with the ponytail that was talking to Luke a while ago answered the young man.

    "Hmmm... How sure are you that he truly obtained an ability?" the young man asked without any hint of a surprise on his face.

    "Sir, that young man we asked had an incredibly dirty appearance and we noticed thatthere was dried blood on his clothes, the only thing i''m confused about is that he didn''t have any wounds as he was moving around quite well."

    Hearing that his clothes had dried blood but had no wounds, the young man immediatelyperked up ininterest "That man is eitheran expert at fighting that he wasn''t even injured and the blood on his clothes were the kobolds'' or he got injured but he somehow hasableto heal his wounds, and I strongly believe it''s the latter" his eyes brightened at the possibility so he quickly ordered the man.

    "Go capture and interrogate him whether he has a healing item, you can also check whether he has a crystal ball on him. Get rid of him immediately once he''s of no use."

    "Yes, sir" the middle aged man bowed his head and quickly left the room to call his men.

    The young man on the other hand continued drinking his tea as if there wasn''t anything bad about what he just ordered, "The world''s become much more interesting after that frog appeared" he said while the corners of his mouth rose in a smile.

    Luke on the other hand was fast asleep in a taxi, without any idea of the trouble he brought upon himself.

 Chapter 4: Brawl With The Gangsters

    Deep in his sleep, Luke was rudely woken up as the taxi he was riding suddenly did a sharp stopand his head hit the back of the driver''s seat.

    "What the hell was that about?" Luke groggily complained as he rubbed his head.

    "B-b-boy, just who did you offend?" the driver said anxiously without bothering to answer Luke''s question.

    "What are you talki-" Just as he wanted to ask the driver what he meant, he noticed that in front of them were 3 black cars blocking the road and men in black suits were standing beside them.

    "That can''t be, as much as I like being mischievous, I know my limits and I don''t thinking I did anything that could actually make someone hire some goons just to beat me up" he frowned while looking at the men who were clearlynot here to be friendly.

    "I''m just a measly driver that''s working hard to feed my family boy, please step out of the taxi and don''t implicate me in your troubles" pleaded the driver.

    As much as he didn''t want to get out of the car, he had to admit that a group that didn''t seem to be lacking in money couldn''t possibly be chasing after a simple driver. ''Is this possibly related to the ability I obtained?'' he thought as he grabbed the few bills he had on him to pay the driver then got out of the car.

    Quickly thanking and wishing him luck, the driver quickly turned his taxi around and left the vicinity in a hurry.

    Luke may have killed 30 kobolds earlier but he knew that was only able to do so because the kobolds were programmed to turn around after running a certain distance! These are real life people he''s about to face and to say that he''s worried would be a huge understatement.

    As scared as he was right now, he quickly calmed himself down as his father has always told him to calm down in any situation he''s in as getting anxious would just make things worse.

    "So, what do you people want from me?" he asked while rubbing the handle of the hammer he was hiding behind him.

    A bald man with thick eyebrows, flat nose and light complexion then stepped forward with a warm smile on his face as he greeted Luke.

    "Hello there, you probably met a few associates of ours a while ago and they''ve informed us of how you actually managed to kill a few monsters in the mountain, is the information we received correct?"

    Luke frowned as he immediately had a bad feeling after hearing the bald man and thought that the man''s smileis definitely hidinga vicious personality.

    "It is.. what does that have to do with you?" he carefully asked the man.

    The bald man clapped in joy and said "Great! So you did obtain a crystal ball, yes?"

    Luke immediately cursed himself while remembering the middle aged man he was talking to in the restaurant earlier as they were definitely the ones who informed these men about the crystal ball and lying to this bald man at this point would be useless.

    "I did, I immediately grabbed it after I managed to wipe out all the kobolds" He answered with a sigh as he knew that these men would definitely not let him off easy.

    "Good! If you could just kindly give it to me, I may let you continue on your way to the city, how about that?" the bald man said as if he was already being magnanimous to Luke.

    "I.. I don''t have the crystal ball anymore"

    Frowning at Luke''s reply, the warm smile on the bald man''s face immediately became crooked as he stared at Luke coldly. "Choose your next words carefully, young man. You don''t have to keep the crystal ball for yourself, we''ll just provide you a compensation for it so leave the crystal ball to those who can use it better"

    ''Fuck. these people are being unreasonable.'' Luke complained in his mind. "As you can see, I don''t even have a bag on me so where would I even place the crystal ball when it was the size of a basketball. Besides, I''m pretty sure that the middle aged man I talked to earlier informed you that I currently have the ability that was inside the crystal ball. I''m sorry but, after I obtained the ability, the crystal ball disappeared."

    Seeing that Luke had a point, the bald man decided to verify later on whether Luke may have hidden the crystal ball before he left for the city, "Alright then, I won''t be unreasonable since you do have a point". Hearing this made Luke immediately sigh in relief as he thank the Gods that he just may make it out of this without getting hurt but the bald man''s following words quickly splashed his thoughts in cold water.

    "How about this, since I don''t want to waste our time in coming here, how about you spar a bit with my men? You have after all killed 30 of them monsters, right? You won''t mind showing my men the strength of someone who managed to wipe out a whole camp of those vicious monsters, right? Go on boys, let''s see what this boy has up his sleeves, and don''t bother going in one by one since he fought against 30 monsters alone anyway. Hehehe" The bald man said without giving Luke a chance to say no to the fight and calmly watched as his men slowly inched towards Luke.

    ''This son of a bitch. You''re all clearly used to fighting! why are you bullying a young man like me?!?'' he furiously complained in his mind as he took out his trusty hammer.

    "Woah! the boy has a hammer! Kakakaka, better watch out boys!"

    "What the hell? Did he kill those monsters with just a hammer?! I guess those monsters weren''t that strong after all! Hahahaha!"

    "Oh no, I didn''t realize this boy is quite cute, let me have some fun with him afterwards, okay?~"

    "HAHAHAHA! We can book a hotel for you two if you want!"

    Hearing the jeers of the men in suits made himfeel a shiver down his spine, especially after one of them mentioned how he wanted to have some ''fun'' with him. ''I''m still a virgin dammit! I don''t want a man to be my first partner!'' he shouted in protest in his mind. Readying his hammer, he became even more resolved to escape here no matter how.

    A lanky man was the first to attack as he threwa punch at Luke,the stance of the man startled him as it was clearly the stance of a seasoned boxer. Dodging the punch, he wanted to swing his hammer in retaliation but the man followed up with a hook to the side of his body that cleanly hit him.

    Luke wheezed after he was hit and dropped on his knees as he held with his hands where he was hit and the boxer coldly looked down at him.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

    "HAHAHAHA! What killing 30 monsters?! He can''t even handle one of us! The boy is clearly an amateur!" scoffed a man behind the boxer.

    "Well, let''s not waste our time on him now. Let''s just beat him up and be done with this" a calm bald man said as he looked at Luke pitifully.

    Meanwhile Luke felt the impending doom he''ll soon be suffering in as the pain brought by the punch slowly subsided. He clearly had no chances in defeating all these men that were obviously experienced in fighting. He could only pin his hopes on one thing at this moment as he tried to stand up: Counter Helix!

    He didn''t want to see how his ability worked that he even ignored all those monsters back in the mountain. But it looks like fate wouldn''t have any of that as it especially put him in a situation where he''s surrounded on all corners by enemies and Counter Helix would definitely activate at some point!

    Knowing that Counter Helix would be the only way for him to fight back, he decided to just defend his body and pray that Counter Helix would quickly activate.

    Seeing that Luke stood up even though he was clearly shaken up, the boxer quickly pressured him with a flurry of punches as Luke lowered his head with his hands defending his face and his arms defending his torso all the while he was stepping back to lower the damage the punches could do.

    The boxer didn''t mind it and mixed up a few hooks that Luke tried his best to dodge but a few of them still hit him. The other men, seeing how the boxer was having all the fun, quickly joined up as one went to Luke''s side and kicked his back prompting him to stop stepping back from the boxer''s punches.

    With his movement stopped and his attention at the man that kicked him, another man surprised him with a punch to the side of his face that drew the first blood out of him.

    Feeling dizzy after the punch, thoughts gathered at Luke''s mind as he felt depressed at his luck, he didn''t even directly offend these people yet they came to cause some trouble with him! He didn''t have the crystal ball with him yet they still wanted him to fight with them saying it''s just a ''spar'' since he defeated some monsters anyway. He felt so wronged and wanted to curse the heavens and especially that frog that caused all of the changes in the world to happen!

    But the men in suits didn''t care what Luke was feeling at the moment as all of them tried to hit him any way they can and Luke grieved as counter Helix didn''t activate even once no matter how many times he already got hit!

    While all of these was going on, the bald man who was calmly watching earlier was trembling in excitement!

    ''The young boss is right! This boy definitely has an item that can heal him of his wounds! He clearly doesn''t know how to fight! If he doesn''t have one, then how could he kill a group of monsters without suffering from any wounds or bruises? It''s not like the monsters just let him hit them, right?''

    Little did he know, what he thought was truly spot on since the monsters indeed basically let Luke hit them as they after all turned their backs even though they could have easily beat him! But the bald man would never have known this! and also the fact that Luke''s messy appearance was caused by a group of wolves, but the fact still remained that Luke truly got wounded and he did managed to heal himself.

    The bald man was about to stop his men from beating Luke even further as he still needed him to hand over the healing items when one of his men that was bigger than the rest grabbed Luke''s collars and planned on pulling him to the ground.

    Luke was already quite calm at that point as he felt that he should just let the men beat him up since he couldn''t do anything about it, he even smiled with blood at thecorner of his mouth as the man grabbed him his collar. He felt the man''s massive strength as the men tried to pull him down when all of a sudden he felt his surroundings stopped for a moment and that there was a tug in his chest as if a force from inside him were about to burst out. With a hammer on his right hand he felt the force in his chest spread all over his body.

    The man who was holding his collar suddenly felt danger as he unconsciously let go of Luke but as soon as he did so, all he saw was a blur as a hammer hit him righton his jaw,putting him out his consciousness.

    Luke felt his surroundings blur as he didn''t realize that he actually spun around once and his hammer hit whatever was in its path as he spun. After the blur, he suddenly realized that everything around him turned quiet. Looking around him, he saw how 6 men who were surrounding him earlier were all unconscious on the ground. Stupefied, he suddenly remembered the feeling he felt earlier and realized what just happened, ''Counter Helix activated!''

    The other men were even more stupefied than Luke, they knew how tough the men who were knocked unconscious were! how could they be knocked out with just one hit? Did they turn soft after not fighting for a long time? If the big man who grabbed Luke''s collar knew what they were thinking he''d immediately shout in protest, "We don''t even knowwhat the hell happened! He suddenly turned into a blur, okay?!? Before I knew it, a hammer cleanly hit my jaw, okay?!? Why won''t you try to defend against it!"

    The bald man, though also stupefied felt a bit anxious at that moment.

    "Was that perhaps the ability he obtained from the crystal ball? but what the heck was that? I couldn''t even see it properly. And why didn''t he use it from the start and instead opted to get beat up, is.. is he perhaps a pervert that likes pain?" he murmured to himself.

    Luke would have vomited blood if he heard the bald man''s statement and shouted, "You''re the pervert! If It was possible, then I would have used it at the start! The fucking ability I obtained has the requirement of me getting attacked before it activates, okay?!?"

    Although he felt incredibly weak at that moment, seeing how 6 grown men were knocked out after getting hit by counter helix just once made him exhilarated that he would jump in joy at that moment if he could. He couldn''t help but laugh and taunt the men in suits.

    "Heh.. Hehehehe.. Come on! Fight me if you dare!" he roared while waving his hammer around.

    The men were obviously feeling quite fearful after seeing those men knocked out all of a sudden so they all turned to their leader who was currently frowning.

    "This..." The leader was also at a loss in what to do, he didn''t want to fight the unknown as he didn''t have any information on the ability Luke obtained. So believing that he didn''t have any other choice, he coldly ordered his men "Take out your guns, I''ll explain it to the young boss afterwards"

    Luke''s courage evaporated in an instant afterseeing the menpull out guns and he immediately wanted to plead for mercy when a sudden shout disrupted the situation.

    "Kill him if u dare! And I, Roy Roxas would swear that all of you would suffer the consequences!"

    Everyone turned their heads and stared at the handsome man who just shouted. Behind the man were a line of cars and a group of men that exuded an aura that screamed danger as they were all pointing their pistols at the men in suits.

    The bald man felt cold sweat pouring at his back as he cursed himself for not noticing the people that just arrived, he was terrified not because those men were pointing their guns at them but because the man who just shouted was Roy Roxas! He has been working in the underworld for a long time and he knew about all the people in the country that he should be careful of, and the man in front of him right now is a good example of it!

    Roy Roxas himself didn''t have that much power but the family backing him up did! He was the youngest son of one of the senators in the country! And that family isn''t simple at all as they didn''t mind using force in dealing with their enemies as they could easily hide any traces that could connect it to them!

    "Aha.. hahaha.. of course we wouldn''t dare! This lowly one greets you, Sir Roy, I hope we didn''t offend you and let us go" the bald man said trying to be as respectful as he can.

    "Piss off!" Roy coldly shouted.

    "Thank you for your mercy sir! Men! Let''s go before we disturb Sir Roy!" the bald man ordered as he immediately entered his car and his men quickly carried the 6 unconscious men on the ground and they all left in a hurry with their tails between their legs.

    Seeing the men in suits leave like mice running away from a cat, Luke didn''t know whether to laugh or cry as he felt that the damage he did to those men weren''t enough compared to how much he suffered from their beating. With a sigh, he shrugged it off as nothing could be done about it nowwhen he suddenly felt the pain from the beating earlier just burst out all over his body as he collapsed on the ground and lost his consciousness.

    Surprised at Luke''s sudden collapse, Roy ordered his men to bring him to his car and take him to a hospital. Even though he didn''t see what Luke looked like when he warned him before that Frozen Sigil would disappear soon, he easily recognized his shout when he taunted the men in suits to fight him. He didn''t plan on helping him at first as it was truly none of his business but as soon as he realized that he was the man who helped him, he didn''t think twice in saving his life as he already treated Luke as someone worthy to be his friend.

    Luke would never have thought that his small act of helping a stranger out ended up saving his life!

 Chapter 5: Meeting With The Frog

    "Where the hell am I?" Luke asked nobody in particular.

    Where he currently was could be what anyone would think paradise would look like: a place flush with green, trees bearing lots of fruits, animals happily playing around and a waterfall in the background flowing towards alarge pool.

    "Did... Did I die? Is this perhaps heaven?" he once again asked to nobody as he couldn''t figure out why he was in this place as the last thing he remembered was collapsing after the men in suits ran away.

    "Yo kid" someone suddenly called him.

    Startled by the voice that came out of nowhere, he looked all around him but didn''t find anybody which puzzled him even more as he definitely heard someone call him out.

    "Look above you kid" the voice called out again.

    Looking above him, Luke immediately wanted to curse as what he saw was actually the same large blue frog that appeared in the sky earlier today!

    "Fuck! Why is it you?!" he shouted.

    "What the hell? What did I ever do to you?" said thefrowning frog.

    "What did you do to me? OHOHOHO. Okay first of all, after you disappeared, a pack of wolves appeared literally a meter in front of me! Before you left you said that they won''t attack unless provoke right? THEN HOW THE HELL WAS I NOT SUPPOSE TO PROVOKE THEM WHEN THEY APPEARED RIGHT IN MY FACE? HUH?! I ALMOST DIED BECAUSE OF THAT!" shouted Luke as he released his grievances to the frog.

    "Geez. You didn''t die, right? Then that''s what matters, besides, I sent all those who were attacked as soon as I left some tangos" the frog nonchalantly replied as if what happened to Luke wasn''t a big deal.

    Luke truly felt like strangling the frog at that moment but knowing that he couldn''t possibly do that, he couldn''t help but sigh at how unlucky the world is for having this irresponsible frog be the one to cause big changes to the world.

    "Anyway, since you showed up, that means you managed to obtain an ability today, right?" asked the frog, not minding the fact that Luke was fuming inside.

    Remembering that he was suddenly brought to an unknown place, Luke calmed himself down and asked the frog "Oh yeah, where exactly are we? I collapsed after a fight before I suddenly appeared here so I have no idea. And yes, I did manage to gain an ability"

    "Oh wow. You''ve been working hard, huh? Well to answer your question, you''re not exactly at some other place in earth right now"

    "WHAT THE HELL, DID I REALLY DIE? AM I IN HEAVEN THEN?" Luke asked in panic.

    "Calm down, you buffoon, you''re asleep right now so you''re obviously dreaming" answered the frog as if it was obvious.

    "Fuck?! So you''re just something my brain made up?! What the hell you''re as haughty as you were when you showed up in the real world" Luke complained after sighing in relief at the fact that he isn''t dead yet

    "You foolish mortal! I wanted to reward everyone who managed to obtain an ability on the very first day of the patch so those who were able to do so would meet me in their dream once they fall asleep!" the frog chided.

    "Oh. Hehehehehe. Sorry, oh great God, please don''t renounce the reward I''m about to receive" Luke immediately replied in respect after hearing about the reward. "Oh btw I''ve been thinking of this after you left, you''re Icefrog, right? DotA''s main developer?" he asked in curiosity

    "Hmph. At least you know how much of a great God I am. Yeah, I''m the main developer of Dota, I made it a few years back when I was bored and have brought to life games similar to it in a few other worlds and now it''s your world''s turn" Icefrog proudly said.

    Luke immediately trembled after hearing what the frog said and he couldn''t help but ask in a shaky voice, "Wh-wha-what?!? What do you mean you brought to life games similar to it in other worlds?! There''s truly alien life out there?!?"

    "Hmph. Truly a self-centered species, of course there''s life in other worlds besides yours, in fact, some of them are much more advanced than yours!" Icefrog berated.

    "And then those worlds have been fighting for years because of the game you brought to life in their worlds? So that definitely means that they''ve received power from you that''s way beyound ours right?!?" He asked in fear.

    "Of course! That''s why I even bothered bringing the game to your world since at some point in the near future, your planet would also be in conflict withthoseworlds. Better prepare your world before they come here and surprise you all. Aren''t I a thoughtful God? Kekekekekeke!" Icefrog guffawed as he praised himself

    ''What?!'' Luke shouted in his mind after what Icefrog just said. He then realized that Icefrogtruly did help everyone on earth get stronger so he decided to treat the frog perhaps a bit better and said, "Ah.. Ye-yes Sir! You''re very thoughtful sir! We''re very lucky to be in your care! But sir, if you don''t mind me asking, when do you suppose will they arrive here?" He carefully asked.

    "Maybe in about 5-10 years? I dunno about them, that''s just my rough estimate since there might be factors that would delay them" Icefrog replied.

    "Oh. That''ll give us some time to strengthen ourselves, not bad" Luke told himself.

    Hearing Luke, Icefrog immediately chided with a laugh "Hah! Don''t forget that those worlds have been strengthening themselves for many years already and while you earthlings are getting stronger, they''re also not just lazying themselves but are getting stronger too! Hmph! If I wasn''t such a merciful God and made the mana here much more dense than those in other worlds then your planet would definitely suffer terribly in the hands of those from other worlds!"

    Most of the anger that Luke felt for Icefrog vanished at this point as he truly felt thankful for what Icefrog did in consideration for those from Earth, "Thank you oh majestic Icefrog! We are in your debt!" he praised him.

    "Hmm. hmm. Not bad not bad. Kakakakakaka! Enough of your questions, I should give you your reward now" Icefrog said in a contented tone.

    Hearing the word ''reward'' immediately made Luke''s eyes shine brightly as he truly felt that he deserved on after everything that happened today and he excitedly said, "Yes, sir! What would I be receiving?"

    "Hmmm. Since i''m quite satisfied with you, I''ll let you have three choices: first would be a random basic attribute item, second would be a random weapon of a hero in Dota, do note that the weapon won''t give you any stats, and the last reward would be where you can spin a roulette where you''d either get a dud or be able to choose from a list of 5 randomly generated basic abilities. Now, what do you choose, kid?" solemnly answered Icefrog.The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    Luke was clearly shocked hearing the reward. All three rewards could greatly help him! A basic attribute item could increase his stats in Intelligence, Strength and Agility. These stats represented some things too, once he receives a basic attribute item, his HP, HP regeneration, Mana, Mana regeneration, Movement Speed, Attack Speed, Physical Defense and Magical Defense would all increase depending on what stat would increase! This choice is clearly the safest one as although he might receive an item that would only give a little stats but at least it''s already assured that his stats would grow!

    A weapon, although it won''t give him any stat increase, would still be of great help to him especially right now that he only had a small claw hammer as a weapon! If he had a better weapon, he could kill creeps faster! His claw hammer couldn''t possibly be compared to a weapon like a sword! But what he was worried about is what if the weapon he''ll receive would be something like Meepo''s shovel! That would be horrible for him.

    As for the last option, he wasn''t sure whether it would be a great idea since it greatly depended on his luck. It would be amazing if he managed to obtain an ability that would work well with Counter Helix like Axe''s Berserker''s Call that would greatly decrease the physical damage he''d receive from his enemies after taunting them. But If he does spin the roulette and manage to land on the chance to pick another ability, what if the abilities he obtains wouldn''t be of much help for him? He knew that his HP is so low so he didn''t have much hope for the amount of mana he had either so if all 5 abilities he''ll be choosing from would require huge amounts of mana, wouldn''t he be in a loss? And since the roulette depended on his luck, he felt that this is definitely something that he shouldn''t choose since he has been having shitty luck so far today!

    Luke was at a loss in what reward he''d choose. Should he perhaps play it safe and choose the first option? or perhaps get a weapon since even if the weapon he''d be getting is shitty, it at least should be better than his little hammer right? Or should he take a gamble and push his luck to its limits to grab the chance in getting a new ability?

    Closing his eyes in contemplation, he felt that he should be decisive in what he truly wanted. And what did he truly want right now? An ability other than counter helix! He was seriously hoping of getting an ability that didn''t need him getting hurt. He didn''t mind if it wouldn''t work well with Counter Helix as long as he had one life-saving ability he would be truly happy!

    Opening his eyes, he was resolutely said, "I''ll choose the 3rd reward!""

    The frog was taken aback by the look on his face and said "Quite brave, aren''t ya? I like that. If you would have chosen the first or second option, there would have been a high probability of you getting a low-quality reward. At least with the 3rd option you''ll have a higher chance of getting a good ability. Kakakaka. Anyhow, go on and spin the roulette" then with a snap of his fingers, a roulette appeared in front of Luke and on the roulette were 20 slots, and alternating on them were either a dud or an ability.

    Praying to all Gods he could think of to make up for all the shitty luck he had today, he then mustered his courage and spun the roulette.

    The roulette was spinning quite silently as it spun quite fast. He was still praying in his mind that if he''ll get an ability, he''ll be praying much more frequently and be a better person that would treat people well. But of course, he was only saying it for the sake of getting better luck.

    As the roulette gradually slowed down, cold sweat gathered on his back as he closed his eyes in fear of getting a dud while in his mind, he kept on saying "Please, please, please, please, please....".

    "Well i''ll be damned, you got lucky kid. You actually managed to land on an ability slot." Icefrog said in surprise.

    Opening his eyes to confirm what Icefrog just said, he immediately saw that the marker on the roulette clearly landed on an ability slot and so he fist pumped the air in joy and shouted "FUCK YEAH! I WON''T BE STUCK WITH JUST COUNTER HELIX NOW! I DON''T NEED TO GET ATTACKED NOW JUST SO MY ABILITY WOULD ACTIVATE! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

    Luke didn''t notice that after his celebration, Icefrog actually had a sly look on his face which he quickly replaced with his bored look as if he was worried that Luke would notice.

    "Now, now. I still have to randomly generate 5 basic abilities for you to choose from" Icefrog calmly said so and with another snap of his fingers, what looked like a slot machine appeared in front of Luke and he patiently explained "Well the machine would generate the abilities so just pull its lever at the side".

    Taking a deep breath and doing his second round of praying to the Gods for better luck, he then grabbed the lever and pulled it down.

    The reels on the machine were quickly spinning as Luke saw the symbols of Dota 2 abilities on them. It didn''t take long for the first reel to slow down and when it stopped, he saw that the first ability is ''Aftershock''.

    "Dammit! This ability is useless for me since I need to have an active ability for it to work, and Counter Helix is a passive ability. Hopefully the other 4 abilities would be better" he complained at first but quickly thought positively.

    Soon followed the second reel, and after it stopped, he saw that the second ability is ''Arcane Aura''.

    "Oh come on?! Another passive ability? And it had to be Arcane Aura of all things, why would I need my mana regeneration to increase when I don''t even have any use for my mana?!" he complained but he still had hope since there were 3 more abilities so he didn''t complain furtherl.

    After the third reel stopped, he then saw that the third ability is ''Tether''.

    Luke didn''t know whether he should laugh or cry. Tether is a great ability for a support as long as you have an item that can quickly regenerate your HP or mana since whoever you chose the Tether to attach to would receive 1.5x the amount of HP and mana you would regenerate. But right now, he only had 4 tangos! What use is the 1.5x regeneration if he uses up his 4 tangos?!

    Praying to God that at least one of the last two abilities would be a good one, he waited for the 4th reel to stop. And after it did so, he really wanted to cry as the 4th ability is ''Mana Drain''.

    "FOR FUCK''S SAKE, WHY MANA DRAIN?!? I have no use for mana so i really don''t need this ability!" He complained tearfully while glaring at the machine.

    He failed to notice how, above him, Icefrog was actually holding his laughter! If he saw it, he would definitely have suspected that the generated abilities weren''t actually random but rather were chosen by Icefrog!

    While Luke was still lamenting his shit luck, he then realized that the fifth reel has actually stopped and as soon as he saw what ability it was he immediately felt like fainting. The fifth ability is ''Reactive Armor''.

    Among the 5 abilities, Reactive Armor was actually the only one that would be useful for him. But the requirements for Reactive Armor are actually closely the same as Counter Helix, he needed to get hit! That''s why Luke truly felt like fainting at that moment. Reactive Armor is actually quite a good ability in coordination with Counter Helix, how it works is that for every time Luke gets hit, his physical defense and HP regeneration would increase. It would have been a great ability in the game, but here in the real world, he didn''t want it! There are other abilities that could heal him up without the need to get hit for it to activate, so why would he deliberately choose it if there were better choices?

    Disregarding Luke''s grieving, Icefrog asked him still with a bored look on his face, "So which ability do you choose?"

    Luke then depressingly answered in a low voice "... Reactive Armor"

    "Brilliant! Congratulations in your ability! You''ll receive it once you wake up! Off you go then, sleepy head!" Icefrog then rushingly snapped his fingers and Luke''s figure faded and as soon as he disappeared, Icefrog started rolling in the clouds as he boisterously laughed at what he just did.

    He was always quite mischievous, and seeing that Luke hated being subjected to pain, he tweaked the machine he just summoned and made sure that that first 4 abilities that comes out would be something Luke would have no use for and the last ability was something he specificially chose for Luke. He didn''t want Luke to lose out since it''s still his reward after all so he chose Reactive Armor since it can both suffice the requirement of subjecting Luke to some pain and also protecting Luke from danger.

    "Kakakakakakakakakaka! I should watch him from time to time to see how he''s forced to always look for enemies to attack him. Kakakakaka!" he cackled while imagining the look on Luke''s face.

    If Luke would have known all these, he would definitely vomit blood and curse his loud mouth for mentioning how he wanted an ability that didn''t need for him to get attacked. But little did he know, these two abilities of his are actually what would catapult him to fame in the days to come.

 Chapter 6: Waking Up To A Beauty! Second Ability!

    Luke abruptly woke up after Icefrog made him leave the dream and what greeted him when he woke up was a young woman sitting beside the bed he was lying in.

    He has seen his fair share of beautiful women but this young woman truly astounded him especially the woman''s beautiful blue eyes that seemed to be staring straight at his soul.

    She had a delicate face with rosy cheeks as her long sleek back hair reached just below her shoulders. With her body that would make any man gocrazy, she stood there like a goddess blessing the world with her appearance.

    He couldn''t find the words to say as he couldn''t take his eyes off her but the woman simply smiled at him and silently stood up then left the room.

    Looking around the room, he thought that he''s most probably in Roy''s home as he was currently in a quite luxurious bedroom that couldn''t possibly be compared to his own.

    Trying to sit down, he realized that his body was badly aching and he remembered the beating he experienced thanks to the men in suits. He wanted to grab a tango in his pocket but he could hardly move any part of his body, feeling helpless, he had no choice but wait for someone to enter the room so he could ask him or her to grab the tango for him.

    While waiting for someone to enter the room, he suddenly remembered the dream he just had and couldn''t help but sigh at his luck with abilities.

    "Icefrog said that I''ll receive the ability once I wake up, how will he send it to me?" he asked and as soon as he said so, a text window appeared in front of him.

    <table>

    <tbody>

    <tr>

    <td style="text-align: center">Icefrog sent you 1 Crystal Ball. Will you accept?</td>

    </tr>

    <tr>

    <td style="text-align: center">Yes</td>

    </tr>

    </tbody>

    </table>

    "Well, that''s convenient. But, dammit, looks like I can''t receive it yet" Luke wryly smiled as he stared at his aching arms.

    "Seeing this window, it seems we can send items to each other. Oh yeah, Icefrog did mention that we should check out his blog from time to time, maybe he''ll post about it." he figured.

    It didn''t take long before the beautiful woman returned and just like earlier, he couldn''t help but stare at her that he even failed to notice the man following behind her.

    "You finally woke up, my friend. Fortunately, I arrived before you got done in by those gangsters."The man said with a knowing smile as he gazed athim and the woman he entered with.

    The man seemed to be in his late twenties by looking at his face, he was quite fair to the point that anyone would think that he probably never leaves the house. With a straight nose, he looked like a foreigner and overall, his looks could definitely be on the same level as those famous handsome actors. Looking at him now, he realized he looked like the beautiful woman beside him.

    "O-Oh Roy, didn''t see you there. hehehehe." Luke repliedas he scratched his head in embarrassment after seeing the man he helped on a whim who also ended up saving him from those gangsters.

    "Hehehe. You seem to be energetic even though you just woke up" Roy teased "I''d like you to meet my younger sister, Sunny. She had been taking care of you ever since you arrived here".

    "Oh you didn''t have to do that" Luke blushed as he said so, "My body is quite sturdy so a little rest is all I needed and i would be fine. But still, thank you Sunny" he said as he nodded at Sunny in appreciation.

    Sunny gave a warm smile that showed her dimples which elevated her beauty even further and said, "Don''t mention it, my older brother told me how you actually saved his life in the mountain today, so for me to take care of you should be expected"

    Luke already knew that Roy recognized him as the one who warned him back in the mountain so he wasn''t surprised anymore. Since Roy basically returned the favor of saving his life, he simply turned his head at him with a smile and nodded in thanks which Roy replied with a nod too.

    "By the way, I need your help" Luke asked.

    Roy frowned for as he didn''t expect Luke to ask for help as soon as he woke up, and for a moment he thought that he misjudged Luke that he would be the same as those people who befriended him just because of his money and power. He still didn''t even have any idea what his name is but he''s asking for his help already. But since Luke did indeed save his life, he thought that he could help him one last time and then send him to a doctor then their paths would never cross again.

    "Sure. What do you want? Money? I''d gladly send you at most a million Pesos or so" he said with a solemn expression.

    Sensing that Roy seemed to have misunderstood him, Luke immediately tried to explain in a panic, "Oh no no no, I don''t need any money! It''s just that..."

    "Stop your dilly dallying and say it immediately" Roy replied with a hint of dissatisfaction.

    "I''m not asking for anything big really, just that, I can barely move my body and there''s something in my front pocket that I need to get" Said Luke as he blushed a deep shade of red.

    "Jesus Christ, my friend. You made it sound like it''s such a big of a deal but it turned out to be something simple like that. Hahaha!" Roy laughed as he was satisfied that he after all didn''t misjudge the man in front of him "Why didn''t you say so earlier! Which pocket are we talking about here?"

    "Hey you''re the one who misunderstood me!" Luke rebuked with a smile "By the way, I''ve been quite rude for a while now, we''ve been talking for a while now and you guys even took care of me while I was unconscious yet I never even introduced myself, I''m Luke Rivera, just a normal college student, pleased to meet you" he said so with a bow.

    "Hahahaha! if you''re a normal college student then I''m also a normal man that can casually summon snow from time to time!" Roy teased.

    Luke once again blushed at the teasing as he looked from time to time at Sunny at the side who was trying to hold her laughter and said "I''m not that strong, brother. My ability doesn''t work all the time unlike yours which is actually quite useful. But enough of that, I really need something in my left pocket, if you don''t mind getting it for me, I''d be thankful"

    "Let me take it for you, Luke" Sunny suddenly interjected as she pulled the blanket to the side andbefore Luke could say that Roy should take the tango instead, she already reached out for his left pocket and his small hand squirmed inside it.

    Luke was a normal young man who''s interested in the opposite sex, but unlike mostboys in his generation who already had girlfriends since high school, he never had one in the 21 years of his life. So it was to no surprise that Sunny''s touch even if it was over his jeans, made him feel electrocuted that he felt his body go numb as Luke Jr. had a bit of a reaction in his pants.

    Sunny didn''t seem to mind Luke''s panic as she swiftly pulled the tangos out of his pocket and was soon puzzled after seeing the 4glowing green balls covered by a leaf.

    Tilting her head in curiosity as she couldn''t figure out what it was, she asked, "What is this? What are they for?" then passed them to Luke who had an eager look on his face.

    "These right here are called tangos and they''re something the frog in the sky gave me" he answered in an excited voice as he held the tangos in his hand.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    To say that the Roxas siblings were surprised would be an understatement; the whole world still didn''t understand who that frog was and why it appeared but this seemingly normal young man you in front of them actually received something from it! Anybody would be bewildered if they heard what Luke just said!

    "W-what do you mean? Do you know that frog? what are those tangos used for?" Roy questioned in a shaking voice as he grabbed Luke''s shoulders. He was already quite baffled when that text window appeared after he grabbed a crystal ball and all of a sudden he could make it snow when he wanted to. He had so many questions which nobody could answer but Luke seemed to be someone that personally met the frog and even received something from it! Of course he''d be shaking in excitement.

    "Calm your tits, Roy" Luke quipped in surprise to Roy''s sudden actions but the words he said made both Sunny and Roy turn red in embarrassment which prompted him to explain himself "Ah. Sorry, I heard that term on the internet!"

    "Sorry about that, but seriously, what are these ''tangos'' for?" said Roy after calming himself down.

    "I think it would be better for me to show you what it''s for" Luke replied in a mysterious smile. "Are there any trees around here?"

    "Huh? Yeah there are loads of trees nearby. But what do you need a tree for?" Roy asked with a puzzled look.

    "You''ll understand it later, come on, let me ask another favor from you, hehehe. Help me walk towards the nearest tree around here, come on, come on, don''t tarry" Luke said as he laughed at Roy''s funny face.

    Since he knew that Luke knew more things than him concerning what has been happening in the world that he even knew how Frozen Sigil worked, Roy stopped asking more questions and helped Luke get out of bed as they left the house with Sunny quietly following behind them.

    Upon seeing Roy''s house, Luke was awed seeing how rich these siblings truly are since they had such a big house all to themselves. As soon as he stepped out the house, he realized that the house was actually surrounded by so many trees, ''Is this like a hidden villa in the mountain?'' he thought to himself.

    "Here you go, Luke, what now?" Roy asked as he had this impatient look on his face afterbringing Luke in front of a huge tree that probably needed 3 people to hug its trunk. And although Sunny was being silent, her eyes were obviously shining, waiting for something amazing to happen.

    Luke gave the siblings a sly smile as he took one of the tangos and munched on it.

    "Ah?! That was edible?" the shy Sunny yelped in surprise.

    Luke didn''t reply but instead just smiled at her which made the girl blush as he saton the ground and placed his palm on the tree.

    "You two better step back a bit" he warned the two.

    Before the siblings could ask why, they suddenly noticed how the big tree that was standing mightily a while ago turned gray as it suddenly shriveled up and to their amazement, the tree suddenly looked like it was chopped around its trunk as it fell on the ground.

    The siblings'' jaws dropped after seeing that display as they truly couldn''t understand how and why that happened.

    Seeing their confused faces, Luke laughed as he patted the dirt on his pants and stood up then explained "These tangos are used to heal both internal and external wounds"

    It didn''t take long before the siblings realized that Luke was actually standing up on his own even though he could barely move a muscle a while ago! They looked in amazement at the green balls while more and more questions popped up on their minds and Roy seemed to be gazing at them in yearning.

    Noticing Roy''s expression, Luke suddenly remembered that he was wounded back in the mountain. "Take this, I''m sure you haven''t recovered of your wounds" he said as he passed a tango at Roy.

    Roy didn''t stand on ceremony as he happily accepted the tango to try it out himself. After following what Luke did a while ago he felt a warm sensation covering his wounds as he lifted his shirt and Luke nodded seeing how he was covered in bandages. Roy excitedly removed the bandages and just as he expected, his wounds are gone!

    "I know you two have so many questions, shall we enter the house? I''m quite famished" said Luke as he strolled towards the house as if he owned it.

    The siblings watched in disbelief as the young man entered the house and they couldn''t help but laugh at how funny he was.

    ***

    "Ah! That was a great meal! Definitely tasted better than those prepared by well-known chefs! I should come back here from time to time just to eat Sunny''s cooking!" Luke praised as he truly haven''t tasted anything better than what he just ate.

    Embarrassed, Sunny shyly hit Luke''s shoulders and said "Geez, I thought you were a pretty nice guy but a wile ago you acted so pompously, asking for food and now you''re showing off that glib tongue of yours! Hmph! I''ll think about it when you get here!"

    "Hehehe. I''ll take that as a yes, thanks in advance!" Luke shamelessly said so while Sunny pouted at him but you could see that the corners of her lips were actually upturned to a smile.

    Looking at the two''s interaction, Roy wryly smiled as he didn''t think that they would actually hit it off quite well this fast even though her sister was usually quite reserved and barely interacted with anyone especially boys.

    "Anyway, Luke, as you were saying earlier, that frog-I mean Icefrog, he brought this game to this world?" he carefully asked as he truly found it unconceivable.

    "Basically yep, and I know the game very well, that''s why I know about your ability, Frozen Sigil, and warned you that it would soon disappear" Luke replied with a solemn face.

    Roy nodded in understanding as the question he had on his mind was finally answered.

    "What''s the game called, again?" he asked

    "It''s DotA 2, i''m pretty sure that the people playing it would be coming out soon to explain what''s going on in the world. I bet I''m not the only player who recognized those monsters from the game and could connect the frog in the sky to DotA''s lead developer, Icefrog." Luke replied.

    "This is pretty amazing, Icefrog must be truly powerful for him to be able to do this, I suddenly feel like going on an adventure now! Hahahaha!" he laughed but stopped after seeing Luke frowning.

    "Yeah it''s pretty amazing but it''s not really all fun and games, I almost died more than once today you know. Before you saved me from those gangsters, I killed kobolds and even before that I was chased til I almost died by three giant wolves" Luke said with a wry smile.

    The siblings, especially Sunny, shook after hearing what he said. They didn''t think that he actually experienced so many life-and-death situations today with how jovial he had been a while ago.

    Roy felt a bit awkward and wanted to ease the situation so he asked, "If you don''t mind me asking, what ability did you receive"

    Roy felt even more awkward after seeing Luke frown deeper at his question".

    "Bah! it''s quite a strong ability once it activates but it requires for me to get hit first! What if I die while I let my enemies hit me before it even activates?! maybe if I have an armor to lessen the damage then maybe---" Luke complained but after saying that he needed an armor, he suddenly remembered: He hasn''t received his reward yet! The ability, Reactive Armor!

    Wasn''t he complaining that he needed armor so that he wouldn''t be that hurt? His new ability perfectly synergizes with Counter Helix!

    While thinking that he had to accept his reward now, the text window promptly appeared in front of him again and he quickly pressed ''Yes''.

    The siblings were confused seeing the array of emotions on Luke''s face when he suddenly raised his arm and clicked on something in the air. Sunny didn''t understand his actions but Roy knew what he was doing, ''A text window appeared in front of him! I wonder what it''s about?'' he thought.

    Roy''s question was immediately answered as a crystal ball suddenly appeared out of thin air and landed on Luke''s hands. ''Didn''t he say that he already had an ability? is he getting another one?!'' he thought as he stared incredulously at the crystal ball.

    Sunny on the other hand was also surprised but from what Roy told her after he arrived, she figured that the crystal ball is most probably the one that contained an ability and thought that if Luke wanted to share about his ability, he''d tell them immediately.

    Promptly after the crystal ball landed on Luke''s hands, it suddenly shattered but the shards from the ball just disappeared as if it was just air and two new windows appeared in front of him

    <table>

    <tbody>

    <tr>

    <td style="text-align: center">Congratulations! You have learned the ability, Reactive Armor!</td>

    </tr>

    </tbody>

    </table>

    <table>

    <tbody>

    <tr>

    <td style="text-align: center">Reactive Armor</td>

    </tr>

    <tr>

    <td>

    Each time you are attacked you gain increased health regen and armor.

    Max Stacks:5/10/15/20

    Armor Bonus per Stack:1/1.2/1.4/1.6

    Health Regen Bonus per Stack:1/1.15/1.3/1.45

    Stack Duration:10 s./13 s./16 s./19 s.

    </td>

    </tr>

    </tbody>

    </table>

    As much as he hated the fact that he should be attacked just so his two abilities would activate, Luke knew that he had no choice but to embrace the fact that these abilities truly work well together and that he needed them to grow stronger.

    Icefrog wanted the people on Earth to be able to fight back when those from other worlds would invade the planet a few years from now. If he won''t use his abilities then he would stay weak until those aliens arrive. Gritting his teeth, he felt helpless as he sighed as he could imagine the pain and torture he would have to suffer just to get strong.

    The siblings had no idea what Luke was struggling with when all of a sudden, a man slammed the entrance door open and rushed towards Roy.

    "We have to evacuate sir! There are monsters outside the villa and some of my brothers are currently engaged in battle with them!" the man reported.

    Hearing him, a glint of excitement shone in Luke''s eyes as he decided to test his new ability and before the siblings could react, he rushed outside with his voice trailing behind him.

    "Let me play with those monsters!"

 Chapter 7: Dancing With The Trolls

    As soon as Luke stepped outside the house, the sound of battle could be clearly heard nearby and he immediately rushed towards its direction.

    He then saw Roy''s men fighting a group of trolls. Fortunately for the men, they were fighting against the weaker troll camp composed of a hill troll priest and two hill troll berserkers. If they were fighting against the stronger group of trolls composed of two hill trolls and a dark troll summoner then they won''t even last a minute before they get wiped out.

    Roy seemed to have connections to the police as some of his men were defending using riot shields as they tried their best to hold the trolls'' advance and hit them with police batons from time to time while the rest were shooting with their pistols at the trolls to no avail as the troll priests kept on healing those who were shot.

    Luke could see that there were three groups of trolls seeing the three priests actively healing the berserkers.

    The men were obviously in a tight spot as they were getting tired and running out of bullets while the trolls still had the same vigor they had earlier and received almost no damage.

    Luke was about to rush towards the trolls when he realized something important, he didn''t have his hammer on him! how careless!

    Seeing Luke staring dumbly at the trolls while so close to them, the leader of Roy''s men felt like puking blood as he recogized him! ''Dammit wasn''t he beaten up sommuch that his body went black and blue?!? Then what the hell is this fool doing here?!?''

    As much as he wanted to say it out loud, he didn''t dare to, remembering how his young boss actually saved this idiot''s life and even took him to his sister''s house to take care of him! Calming himself down, he instead grabbed his shoulder and told him "This place isn''t safe sir, please leave immediately with the young boss and miss, I already sent a group of men to guide your escape"

    Luke was about to ignore him but when he looked at the weapon the man was holding, his eyes immediately brightened up as he grabbed it and said "Oh sweet, you have a fire axe! Let me borrow this for a while!" and without waiting for the man''s reaction, quickly ran towards the trolls.

    The leader wasn''t the only dumbfounded one as his men also saw how he was foolishly charging towards the trolls without wearing a single piece of protection. As if this wasn''t enough, seeing his small build, they all believed that the young man was running towards his death!

    "Damn it Luke! Wait up!"

    The leader couldn''t help but look behind him and saw his boss just arriving with his sister right behind him and he couldn''t help but get anxious, "What are you doing here sir?! You should run before these monsters overwhelm me and my men!"

    Roy didn''t have any of it as he continued running as if he didn''t hear anything and said "Stay here, Sunny. Luke and I will take care of these pests"

    Sunny nodded at his brother and obediently stood beside the leader while the man currently felt like fainting. ''Boss! Please don''t kill me when we meet later! Your son is obviously the one being unreasonable!'' he thought while imagining his fateonce Roy''s father finds out what happened here.

    Seeing Roy behind him, Luke had a huge grin on his face as he said, "Roy! Order your men to leave right now then cast Frozen Sigil immediately!" then picked up small rocks on the ground and placed them on his pocket.

    Roy complied without further thought and shouted to his men, "You heard the man! stay back!"

    Roy then felt his connection with the sigil tattooed on his right wrist and with a single thought it shone brightly for a moment as it disappeared on his wrist and reappeared as a frozen sigil in front of him as it floated in the air. The temperature around them sharply dropped as it suddenly started to snow and it quickly felt like a snowstorm was happening right in that area.

    Roy''s men were tongue tied seeing their young boss'' ability, they all saw on the news those people who suddenly started having powers and felt how powerful those people were but now their young boss also has one!

    They didn''t dare disobey his orders after that as they promptly retreated and as they gazed upon Luke, they suddenly thought that most probably, this seemingly reckless young man might have powers too!

    The leader also felt like he was in a roller coaster as his emotions were going up and down and the moment he saw his young boss actually cause a snowstorm he truly felt like he was about to faint! But thinking it deeper afterwards, he then felt so elated! ''Our young boss is going to be well known all over the world! Those people on the news can breathe fire for a bit or cause a small fissure? HAH! Our young boss can make it snow in our tropical country! Hahahahaha!'' he was already planning on sharing the good news to his boss and imagined the reward he might give him and his men for taking care of his son as he watched Luke and the trolls about to clash with each other.

    Seeing the men retreating, the trolls rejoiced as they became even more aggressive in chasing after them but as soon as they saw Luke confronting them all alone, they roared in anger thinking ''Those puny humans actually let this smaller human fight us all alone?! Do they think we are easily bullied?!''.

    Roy''s men were all anticipating to see how strong Luke was as they imagined what power he probably possess, ''will he breathe fire at the monsters? maybe he''s so strong that he can easily knock them all out alone? or maybe he has a similar power to the boss that turns the monsters into blocks of ice?''

    Reaching 1 meter away from the closest troll, Luke suddenly jumped in the air and raised the axe above his head.

    Everybody who saw the scene were quite awed seeing how brave the young man actually was! How manly! He dared facing them head on! The men felt quite ashamed seeing this but the next scene made them almost fall to the ground.

    Luke felt that he was quite cool while he was in the air; he obviously did that to impress the beauty, Sunny! Why else would he do something like that? What he didn''t expect was that before he could even smash the axe to the troll''s head, a troll at the side actually tackled his waist!

    This resulted to the current scene where Luke was lying on the ground as the troll that tackled him was sitting on his waist! It was like a scene in a UFC ring with the troll on top of Luke punching him repeatedly while other trolls stayed back and cheered on him!

    Everyone felt like vomiting blood at that moment!, ''This son of a-! Can you not act so cool?!? You actually got tackled before you even managed to land a single attack? You''re even about to get beat up UFC style by a troll while his friends are laughing at you! Tap out already dammit!''

    Roy was about to order his men to rescue Luke when he suddenly felt that something was strange, instead of the shouts of pain and asking for help he expected, Luke was laughing instead!

    "HAHAHAHAHA! You''ll have to hit me harder than that!" Luke shouted as he realized how amazing Reactive Armor was at work!

    When he was tackled, he felt a sharp pain in his chest at the impact especially because of how heavy the troll was, but after the first few punches from the troll that truly hurt him, he felt that the strength behind the punches visibly decrease each time!

    Reactive Armor at level 1 increases his armor 1 by point every time he gets hit, but this stacks up 5 times! 5 armor actually shouldn''t be underestimated as it may actually save his life!

    Many people who play DotA don''t understand the mechanics behind armor but Luke understood it fully well! Every increase in armor actually increases his Effective HP. Effective HP is the total amount of HP that a unit has to lose before he/she dies and every point increased in armor increases ones Effective HP by 6%. Since every hit Luke receives increases his armor by 1 point, then after he gets hit 5 times, his Effective HP increases by 30%.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    An increase of 30% in his Effective HP means that he needs to receive 30% more physical damage besides his total HP before he dies. Let''s say, before Reactive Armor activated he had 0 armor and 100 HP, this means that his Effective HP is simply 100, but if his armor increases to 5 then his Effective HP increases by 30% and becomes 130 HP!

    What this also means is that the damage he receives is significantly decreased every time his armor increases!

    Luke could just imagine how awesome it would be once he levels Reactive Armor up and it would stack up20 times, then by that time it would be like he had to be beat up more than twice as much before he truly dies!

    What''s more is that Reactive Armor doesn''t just give armor, but also increases his HP regeneration by 1 each time he gets hit too! So once he gets hit 5 times, he regenerates 5 HP per second! This is a big help for Luke especially once he''s fighting against more than a single monster. If he had Reactive Armor back when he was fighting those kobolds then he may have let them hit freely hit him while he casually wipes them out like a walk in the park.

    Reaching for his pocket, he grabbed the few rocks he picked up earlier.He didn''t pick up the rocks to try and pull the trolls like what he did to the kobolds but rather to test something out. In DotA, if you hit a hill troll priest, it won''t attack you but will heal itself instead. The priest''s healing ability is quite pesky so he wanted to see if this priest in real life will prioritize healing itself or the berserkers!

    After he wiped out the kobold camp, he clearly felt that he grew stronger and it actually proved to be true when he threw a rock at a priest! The rock perfectly hit a priest on the head and it staggered for a second and started healing itself! The two other priests also helped healing him too! after a single cast of healing from each one of them, they still casted for another round before they stopped which meant that the damage Luke dealt needed 6 casts of healing!

    He didn''t bother saving on rocks as he then continuously threw them all at the same priest while aiming at its head again! The priest''s head was bleeding after the barrage of rocks as its face was quite bloodied and wounded by hits.

    While he was doing so, everyone else watching didn''t know what to do! They thought of helping him but he didn''t seem to be in any danger! ''What the hell, this idiot was beat up by gangsters earlier til his body was black and blue yet here he is now gladly taking shots from this monster! Is it his ability?! Does he have an iron body now or something?!''

    Actually, after Luke ran out of rocks to throw, he was quite worn out from receiving the troll''s punches. After all, he didn''t become invincible after receiving his 5 armor! He just became harder to kill than before. The troll was also quite confused since after it fought other people a while ago, it figured that humans were quite weak, but this puny human could actually take a flurry of punches from him with no problem!

    Luke felt that his HP was deducted to half at that point as even though this troll might be one of the weakest creeps in the game, it still had a better physique than him here in the real world! He had to escape from this troll as soon as possible.

    Thinking so, Luke grasped some dirt from the ground and directly threw it at the troll''s eyes. Shrieking in pain, the troll immediately stood up and seeing his chance of escape, Luke stood up and ran to the side.

    Seeing Luke escape, the other trolls didn''t bother about letting him fight one on one with a troll now and tried to gang up on him. Luke knew that he definitely had to make sure that he wouldn''t get tackled anymore as he wasn''t even sure how Counter Helix would work once he''s lying on the ground.

    Seeing the trolls want to surround him, he immediately ran around the area as even though the trolls were obviously stronger than him, they were also visibly slower than him and the snow from Frozen Sigil helped slow the trolls down! His HP was rapidly regenerating as he was running around the trolls and once he felt that his stacks of Reactive Armor was disappearing, he let some attacks from the trolls hit him and regained stacks of Reactive Armor.

    Using this tactic, Luke''s HP filled up in no time as if he didn''t even receive any damage from the trolls! Everyone watching him were truly amazed seeing this! They couldn''t imagine taking one punch from a troll themselves yet here he was letting the trolls hit him by his own free will! What a freak!

    His HP back to 100% again, he realized that the priest he threw all the rocks at earlier was almost fully healed up too! Thus he dashed towards the priests and with a huge swing of his fire axe, hit the priest right on its chest!

    This directly resulted to a huge splash of blood as the hit obviously did massive damage to the troll as it was clearly dying now. But Luke didn''t end its life but instead hit another priest! If he killed that dying priest, then the other 2 priest''s attention would be fully on him and attack him along with the other trolls. As the 2 priests didn''t seem to care about him and continued healing the dying troll, Luke hacked another priest''s shoulder this time!

    The troll was in obvious pain, as blood were pouring out of its shoulder but the troll still continued healing the dying troll on the ground! ''Jesus Christ their program is honestly creeping me out now. At least try to heal yourself first? Geez'' Luke thought as he shivered.

    Since he was successful in making sure that the priests won''t be bothering him now, he dashed back to the other trolls again. The trolls were obviously angry now with their eyes turning red clearly showing how they hate Luke to the core. ''These damn human isn''t human at all! he''s a monkey! Why is he so agile! and there''s this bloody snowstorm slowing us down too!''

    Luke then ran to the center of the group where he would hit all the berserkers once his Counter Helix activates. The trolls seemed to have learned their lesson as they didn''t dare tackle him anymore, but tried to hit him with their weapons instead. Berserkers carry both a stone axe and a shield, but with how fast Luke is, he could easily make the shield useless and target the troll''s blind spots. Even if they had shields, they didn''t wear any good armor at all! They were wearing ragged brown tunics that couldn''t lessen the damage they receive at all.

    Luke''s tactic was sort of like a hit and run but this time, he dared to stay in close proximity with the troll as he didn''t mind getting hit once or twice. He prioritized hacking the trolls'' legs to lessen their mobility and once he hit one, he directly moves to the next target, not giving them any chance to retaliate.

    He would get hit a few times but he didn''t mind it as it''s keeping his Reactive Armor activated. It only took about 2 minutes and the 6 berserker trolls couldn''t move around anymore as their legs were hacked so much that they couldn''t help but kneel on the ground.

    He did amazingly well but Luke couldn''t help but curse at his luck as even though he already got hit quite a few times, Counter Helix didn''t activate even once! Since he wanted to activate, he didn''t bother with hit and run anymore and attacked the trolls head on now. The trolls were walking with their knees to surround Luke but he didn''t mind as he believed that once Counter Helix activates, these trolls are definitely finished!

    Surrounded by 6 trolls who kept on hacking at him, he grit his teeth to withstand the pain as his wounds kept increasing while he hacked back at the trolls.

    "ARE YOU INSANE?! YOU WERE DOING FINE EARLIER! WHY ARE YOU TRADING BLOWS WITH THEM?!" Roy couldn''t help but shout seeing Luke crazily trade hits with the trolls.

    Luke didn''t bother with him and continued fighting and his wish was granted in no time as just like the first time, he felt a tug on his chest and that familiar force swelled up inside him again as it spread all over his body and a feeling of excitement welled up inside Luke as he couldn''t help but shout just like Axe in DotA.

    "RAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" and while he shouted, he blurred for a moment as he once again spun in place with the fire axe slicing with no resistance the 6 trolls'' necks.

    Luke was covered in blood after that attack as the wounds on the trolls'' necks spurted blood like a fountain.

    Silence covered the area besides the priests on the side who were desperately healing the dying troll in the ground. Sunny covered his mouth as he stared wide-eyed at Luke. ''I... I didn''t think he was this strong... He looks nowhere like the silly guy that he was a while ago at the house'' she thought as she stared at Luke with a bit of fear seeing him all covered in blood.

    Roy''s men felt a line of cold sweat on their backs as they stared at Luke, they actually thought he was being reckless and believed he was weak! They couldn''t help but thank the Gods that they didn''t insult him a while ago after seeing how much of a battle freak he seemed to be. Who would want to fight against someone who didn''t mind getting wounded as long as his enemy gets wounded too?!

    Roy on the other hand felt speechless seeing this new friend of his, he didn''t think he was actually this strong! ''What the hell. If I fought against him, all I could do is run away!''

    Luke took a deep breath to calm himself down as he felt excitement all over his body after killing those 6 trolls. He then casually sauntered towards the 3 priests and without further thought, beheaded the 3 of them.

    This time, the whole area was truly in silence as the trolls that Roy''s men had a hard time even defending against were wiped out by Luke alone.

    Luke felt quite tired, Both physically and mentally as he truly still didn''t like being all covered in blood and even if he didn''t kill people, killing a living being still bothered him a tad bit. He didn''t mind everyone staring at him as he made his way back towards the house and said in a taunting tone, "What a nice exercise"

    Roy''s men felt like vomiting blood hearing his words and remembering how they barely damaged the trolls earlier! ''You monster! Don''t compare us to you, okay?!? We''re just normal human beings, you freak of nature!''

 Chapter 8: Ability Upgrade!

    "Brother, can you beat Luke if you fought against him?" Sunny asked with an innocent look on her face as she sat on the couch.

    "That... well he can definitely not beat me but I also can''t beat him at the moment" Roy replied while scratching his head.

    "What do you mean? Don''t you have an ability too?" Sunny asked again.

    Roy''s men perked up with what he just said as they listened in to the conversation between the siblings. They were overjoyed when they found out that their young boss obtained an ability but the battle earlier between Luke and the trolls truly opened their eyes in what an ability can do so they wondered how their young boss would do in a match against Luke.

    "Well I don''t really know what his abilities are called but from the battle earlier, I can tell that it''s only effective in close combat. My ability is perfect for 2 things, escaping from my enemies and catching up to enemies. You see, my ability doesn''t really deal any damage to anyone, but what it does is it restricts everyone but mine''s movement. So Luke can''t get close to me so his abilities become useless but I can''t get close to him either so I can''t really beat him in a head on fight, unless of course I can hit him from a distance but he might also be able to find a way to cover that weakness of his"

    Sunny and the other men had a look of understanding on their faces as they realized that Luke wasn''t actually that invincible in a fight as they thought. Disrupting their talk, Luke entered the room with his hair wet from the shower.

    "Yo. Were you guys talking about me? I''m amazing eh?" Luke asked with a cheeky smile.

    Sunny rolled her eyes at him and said, "Oh please, my brother just said that you can''t beat him in a fight"

    Luke had a look of surprise for a moment but smiled soon afterwards then sat beside Sunny on the couch and said "Well yeah, his Frozen Sigil can truly stop me from landing a single hit on him but what if I manage to get myself a range weapon? Yeah he can keep me at a certain distance but it won''t really be that large that I won''t be able to hit him with a range weapon"

    "Hmph! Then my brother could also get himself a range weapon!" Sunny replied with a pout.

    Luke shrugged at her and said "Well anyway, even if I don''t manage to get myself a range weapon, my body is gradually getting stronger the more monsters I kill so eventually his Frozen Sigil would be useless against me"

    Roy''s eyes widened hearing what Luke said and shouted, "WHAT?! What do you mean?!".

    "Jesus Christ Roy, lower your voice down a notch will ya? Anyhow It''s not like I didn''t plan on telling you guys about it. By the way, can we get some food around here? I''m hungry again after the fight earlier" Luke said so as if he owned the place.

    Roy signaled his men to grab some food and inquired again about what Luke said a while ago as he sat back down, "Sorry about that, but seriously though, we get stronger the more monsters we kill?" If it was true, he''d be heading out to hunt some monsters as soon possible! He''ll also let his men kill along with him so that he''ll have a strong force of his own that could be helpful to his family.

    Luke had a smirk on his face and said, "Look at you getting all excited as if it''s Christmas, well yeah you do get stronger after killing a certain amount of monsters. It won''t be a significant increase in strength but you can definitely sense the improvemnts in your body. In DotA, you level up after killing some creeps, which by the way is what we call the monsters, or after killing enemy heroes. Leveling up means an increase in stats like Agility, Strength and Intelligence, it also means that you can upgrade a skill of -- wait"

    Luke suddenly realized something; he wasn''t able to upgrade an ability of his after leveling up once he wiped out those kobolds! He was wondering how he''s supposed to do that when a window appeared in front of him.

    <table width="514">

    <tbody>

    <tr>

    <td style="text-align: center">You have 1 ability point available, would you like to assign it now?</td>

    </tr>

    <tr>

    <td style="text-align: center">Yes</td>

    </tr>

    </tbody>

    </table>

    Luke felt like fainting after the window appeared, ''Dammit! So this window apppears only when I look for it? Why won''t you appear after I level up?! People forget things sometimes you know!'' he complained in his mind as he frowned but he still clicked ''Yes'' anyway and a new window appeared after the first one disappeared.

    <table cellpadding="2">

    <tbody>

    <tr>

    <td style="text-align: center">lvl. 1 Counter Helix</td>

    </tr>

    <tr>

    <td style="text-align: center">lvl. 1 Reactive Armor</td>

    </tr>

    </tbody>

    </table>

    Sunny was puzzled and was about to scold Luke for stopping in the middle of his explanation when her brother stopped her from doing so. Roy saw Luke staring at something in front of him with a frown so he figured that a window appeared.

    Luke was contemplating on which ability to upgrade as both of them are important for him. With Counter Helix as his offensive ability and Reactive Armor as his defensive ability, he was contemplating whether he should prioritize upgrading his offense or defense!

    If he chose Counter Helix then he''ll be able to kill off creeps faster and thus level up faster but if he chose Reactive Armor, he''ll be able to fight against more creeps while all alone and his life won''t be in any form of danger while fighting against level of creeps he has been fighting.

    As much as he wanted to grow stronger, he''s quite a coward at heart and he sure as hell didn''t want to die anytime soon! ''So what if It''ll take me longer to level up? Since i''m low-levelled at the moment then I don''t need to kill that many creeps before I level up again! Only then will I upgrade Counter Helix, so Reactive Armor it is!'' he decided in his mind as he clicked on ''Reactive Armor'' and 2 windows appeared, replacing the other one.

    <table>

    <tbody>

    <tr>

    <td style="text-align: center">You have upgraded Reactive Armor to lvl. 2!</td>

    </tr>

    </tbody>

    </table>

    <table>

    <tbody>

    <tr>

    <td>

    Max Stacks: 5 -> 10

    Armor Bonus per Stack: 1 -> 1.2

    Health Regen Bonus per Stack: 1 -> 1.15

    Stack Duration: 10 -> 13

    </td>

    </tr>

    </tbody>

    </table>

    Luke had a satisfied look on his face as he sat down and admired his newly upgraded ability but hearing a light cough beside him, he turned and saw Sunny glaring at him with a pout and he couldn''t help but think about how she still looked so pretty even when she''s angry!

    "Ah - Sorry about that. hehehe. Got sidetracked for a while. Earlier, I was about to say that every level up meant an upgrade to one of your abilities when I realized that I haven''t upgraded any ability of mine yet" he said with a foolish grin on his face.

    "Is that so? Then what were you doing a while ago was upgrading an ability of yours? what ability did you upgrade?" Sunny asked to which Roy got worried since he himself never even asked Luke about his abilities.

    Luke didn''t mind the question at all since DotA abilities would soon be known by everyone anyway and he always noticed how Roy seemed to be always holding himself back in asking about his abilities so he answered truthfully. "Well I have two abilities, the first ability I obtained after wiping out a kobold camp in Mt. Agad-Agad is called Counter Helix, do you both remember in the fight earlier when I suddenly turned into a blur then the trolls surrounding me suddenly all died? That was Counter Helix"

    The siblings'' eyes shone brightly after remembering what Luke did earlier in the battle, Counter Helix is such a strong ability! They began staring at Luke as if he was some sort of War God when Luke embarrassedly stopped them.

    "You guys, Counter Helix may be strong but it has a requirement where I need to be taking hits from enemies and there''s only a 20% chance of it activating too, do you wanna be a punching bag for monsters to know what it feels like? and its damage isn''t exactly that big, the reason I managed to kill those trolls immediately was because I sliced their necks, if I only hit their body, they would have still been able to fight a bit more since the only damage I did to them was to their legs"

    "Still, it looked amazing! and your enemy would never see it coming as you yourself wouldn''t know too. So what''s your 2nd ability?" Sunny asked excitedly.

    Luke chuckled seeing Sunny''s excited appearance that looked like a kid getting told that they''ll go to Disneyland and so he promptly replied, "My 2nd ability is called Reactive Armor, I got it from Icefrog himself as a reward for being so active in fighting on the first day of ''the patch''. It''s basically a defensive ability that works incredibly well with Counter Helix, what it does is it increases my armor or physical defense and my HP regeneration. That''s the ability I upgraded a while ago by the way, since it''s much better for me to be assured that I won''t be in any danger while taking all those hits just so Counter Helix would activate."The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

    Sunny and Roy had a look of understanding as they agree with Luke''s choice, they weren''t surprised that Luke received an ability from Icefrog himself since he already told them about the fact that he met Icefrog. But they were still amazed at how Luke''s abilities were quite strong and the two of them worked perfectly well together, though they probably wouldn''t want to take those abilities, especially Sunny, after Luke told them how Counter Helix doesn''t work all the time and that he would have to take some hits for it. What if she''ll get a horrible scar because of it! No way would she like that.

    Roy on the other hand was excited in getting another ability in the near future and asked, "So Luke, what ability would work well with Frozen Sigil?"

    Luke crossed his arms and seriously thought about it for a while then said, "Well It''s not like there''s a perfect ability that would work well with Frozen Sigil but in my opinion you just need an offensive ability and you''ll be fine. But I think It''ll be amazing if you manage to obtain an ability from Viper or Venomancer that could poison whoever you hit them with. Their poison abilities slows your target and also deals damage over time. With such abilities along with your Frozen Sigil, it would be hard for your targets to escape from you, but it''s not like you can choose your abilities, so you need to have good luck too."

    Roy nodded in agreement and looked at her sister that seemed to be deep in her thoughts so he shook her arms and asked, "Hey what are you thinking about?"

    Sunny glared at her brother for interrupting her thoughts and said, "You and Luke both have abilities and the idiot even has two abilities while I don''t even have a single one! You have to help me get one, brother!"

    "Hey! Who are you calling an idiot?" Luke protested which Sunny ignored.

    Roy thought for a while as he stared at the two when he suddenly smiled and said, "I think I have a way for you to get an ability, sis"

    Sunny''s eyes lit up as she didn''t think her request could be fulfilled so soon, "Really, brother? What should I do?" she asked while excitedly shaking Roy''s arms.

    Roy had a broad smile on his face as he looked at Luke that seemed to mean ''you''ll have to thank me later'' and said, "Well, the idiot here could help you get one, After all, he is the strongest person we know"

    Sunny''s jaws dropped as she realized that her brother was right! This guy single-handedly killed all those trolls earlier and yet he just called it an ''exercise''! If he can''t help her get an ability then who else can?!?

    She had a big smile on her face with her eyes turning into slits as she stared at Luke. Luke tried to ignore her like how she ignored him a while ago as he was looking somewhere else but Sunny had nothing of it and continued smiling that way at him!

    Luke finally felt so uncomfortable with a beauty staring at her that deeply for a long time and so he said, "Geez, okay okay! I''ll help you get an ability! So will you please stop staring at me like that? It''s making me feel uncomfortable since a beauty never stared at me like that" to which Sunny blushed at his last line as she glared at him for a moment.

    But she managed to make Luke agree in helping her! She shouted in joy as she felt that it''s already assured that she''ll be getting an ability so she grabbed Luke''s arm and hugged it, that''s the least she could do, right?

    Aftershe didso, both of them immediately blushed a deep shade of red as they both were never in a relationship before. If it wasn''t for Roy being around, the situation would have been so awkward!

    "Well... there you go little sis! With him helping you, there''s no way you won''t be getting an ability" he said with a proud look on his face.

    Luke glared at him for a while but remembering that the guy gave him a chance to hang out with Sunny, he then relaxed as he smiled at Roy in thanks.

    "Hmmm. She would also be safer with me around than being with you" Luke showed off and didn''t forget to make fun of Roy "But still, we have to find a big camp of creeps as that''s where I found the crystal ball, which makes me wonder, how did you get your ability, Roy? And how come you were the one who obtained the ability and not one of those morons who weren''t friendly with you at all?"

    Roy''s face twisted as he remembered those people and said, "Well you could say it was thanks to my luck. Those men who were with me were actually my best guards, we were going down the mountain when we saw a camp full of ghosts! It was so creepy, I tell you! The ghosts were just floating on the air as if they were waiting for something. I wanted to make a detour as soon as I saw them but one of my men, the tall buff man you saw on the mountain, saw the crystal ball on the pedestal and so filled with greed, he wanted to grab it"

    "Yeah that''s a ghost camp, so your men wanted to grab the crystal ball and ended up fighting with the ghosts?" Luke deduced.

    "Exactly, but my men were good fighters, and although at first they thought that they wouldn''t be able to hurt the ghosts but after realizing that their punches and kicksactually work against them, they managed to obliterate every ghost in the camp in a short time. But while the ghosts were preoccupied with my men, I let my wife hide as I went towards the crystal ball. I just wanted to see it closely! I didn''t think that It would disappear upon my touch, then that window appeared in front of me. My men obviously didn''t believe me afterwards when they asked me about it! so they attacked me and ended up revealing the affair they had with my wife, so in anger I remembered that window that appeared and managed to activate Frozen Sigil and then you appeared afterwards."

    Luke simply nodded as he didn''t want Roy to think about what happened and said, "That explains everything, I was confused for a while about how you managed to obtain an ability with how weak you are, no offense, and especially after seeing how the people you were with that time were against you. Anyhow, I guess we have to find another big camp of creeps for Sunny to get an ability. By the way Sunny, you don''t mind whatever abiliy you''ll get right? I didn''t choose my ability either."

    Sunny had a resolute look on her face as she nodded and said, "Un! I won''t mind what skill i''ll get, as long as I can also help you!"

    Luke laughed at how cute Sunny looked and Roy''s disgruntled expression and said, "Hahaha! Think about helping your brother first, okay? Look at how he''s glaring at me for taking his spot. Hahaha!"

    Realizing what she just said, Sunny''s face turned as red as a tomato as she ran outside the room with her voice trailing behind her, "Idiot!"

    Roy smiled wryly at her Sister and couldn''t help but sigh, "I don''t know what the hell you did but my sister is acting so childish with you around, she has always been so mature around everyone else but me, and even when I''m around but as long as I''m with someone else, she''ll act mature. You better treat her well" he seriously said as he stared at Luke in the eye.

    Luke couldn''t help but choke at Roy''s words and said, "Come on now, I''m just being myself. I don''t really know what I feel about your sister anyway, for Christ''s sake I just met her today, I just think she''s pretty but who knows what the future holds"

    Roy sighed in relief at his words but Luke added, "I''ll probably have to practice calling you brother-in-law in the future, *sigh* why did I get such a sissy looking brother-in-law, good thing his sister''s a perfect 10" he said as he nodded at how he graded Sunny''s beauty.

    Roy was about to cuss at Luke but realized that doing so wouldn''t be of any help as the bastard would still continue anyway so he just asked him, "Anyhow, what are your plans now? We''ll be leaving after you get your food, where will you go?"

    Luke then realized that he''s been busy fighting monsters that he forgot about how his family is doing in the current situation, "I''ll probably go meet my brothers and sister to check how they''re doing, my parents are just at home which is safer than where my siblings are. You mind taking me to the City Hospital?"

    "You might not want to go to the City Hospital" Roy replied as he shook his head.

    "What do you mean?" Luke answered with a frown.

    "I received news that the area around the hospital is swarmed by monsters, I planned on taking you there after you got beat up by the gangsters when I received the news, that''s why I brought you here instead."

    Luke frowned even further at the news; he needed to go to the hospital! His brother is a nurse at the hospital!

    He didn''t exactly have a great relationship with that brother of his but it''s not like they hated each other either, but he''s still his brother and their parents wouldn''t be happy with any of them getting hurt.

    "The military didn''t deal with the monsters yet?" he couldn''t help but ask Roy

    "It''s not like the military didn''t try to deal with them, but you see, no matter how many monsters they kill, many more replace them. Monsters from the surrounding area all gather around the hospital so the area is off-limits now."

    "I see, that is quite troublesome. What about the people inside the hospital?"

    "I don''t know if there''ll be a rescue for them any time soon, there seemed to be flying monsters so a helicopter can''t rescue them either"

    Luke truly felt troubled at this moment, he needed to make sure that his brother was safe. Although it wasn''t obvious with how mischievous he is, he is actually quite a family-oriented man and during the times his mother is sick or travelling, he''s considered the substitute mother around the house, as funny as that may sound. He wanted to rush towards the hospital right now just to check if his brother is inside and if he''s alright.

    Luke had a resolute look on his face as he decided to deal with the monsters around the hospital, with his Reactive Armor now at level 2, he definitely felt assured now that he''ll be far from any danger. But of course, he didn''t plan on just recklessly fighting the monsters so he asked Roy''s help.

    "Hey buddy, can I ask you for another favor? Treat it as the payment for helping Sunny obtain an ability"

    Roy couldn''t help but smile at this as he was worried a while ago about how he could repay Luke for helping Sunny out so he gladly said, "Sure! Anything as long as it''s within my capabilities!"

    "Great, let''s go to the City Hospital later, my brother''s a nurse there so I really need to check if he''s inside the hospital or not"

    "But what about the monsters? You''re not asking me to help you kill the monsters right? you already saw how we even struggled with those trolls, didn''t you? I heard that the monsters around the hospital are quite large and ferocious" Roy said with a frown.

    "Oh you don''t have to worry about that, let me deal with the monsters, besides, the military would be nearby right? We could cooperate with them too, anyway, you have connections to the police right?" he asked as he remembered the riot shields and batons Roy''s men were using.

    "Well yeah, we can ask for their cooperation, with our abilities I don''t think they would decline such an offer to help rescue the people in the hospital anyway"

    "Then good, I''ll deal with the monsters with the soldiers then you go to the hospital and look for my brother" Luke said so as he got pumped up while thinking about levelling up again after killing those monsters.

    "Okay... But I feel like there''s more to that place than just a gathering place for monsters" Roy said his thoughts as he felt quite uncomfortable about the plan.

    "No worries! With your Frozen Sigil, you can easily run away, so you''ll be safe. Besides, with me around, the monsters can be basically counted as dead now! Hahahaha!" Luke said so to ease Roy''s worries as he showed off.

    What they didn''t know was that Roy''s worries turned out to be true after all! They wouldn''t have imagined that the fight they''ll soon be facing would become well known all around the world!

 Chapter 9: Showing Off Their Abilities

    It was about 2 pm when they reached the city as the sun was shining quite brightly above them.

    Reaching the city, Luke couldn''t help getting confused looking at everyone they passed by.

    "I thought there were monsters around the City Hospital? Why isn''t everyone in as much panic as I thought they would be right now?" he asked Roy.

    Roy shook his head as he also had no idea. "I''m as clueless as you are, man. Do you know what''s going on, Dax?"

    Dax was a young man with a crew cut and sharp eyes who was responsible for getting all the information about the situation for Roy and basically his secretary.

    "Sir, everyone was truly in panic a few hours ago when the monsters were marching across the city and attacked anyone in their path. But once people were at a certain distance, they realized that the monsters wouldn''t mind them even if they can see them so the military in cooperation with the police immediately set a restriction line to keep people safe." the young man answered.

    Roy felt even more confused at Dax''s report and asked. "The monsters didn''t attack those they saw as long as they''re at a certain distance? Is that a joke?"

    Before Dax could answer him, Luke interjected.

    "It''s true. Don''t forget that these monsters are from DotA, neutral creeps to be exact. Neutral creeps truly won''t attack you even if they saw you as long as you keep yourself at a certain distance. That''s how they''re programmed;I also tested this out with the kobolds I fought a few hours ago."

    Everyone on the car had a look of understanding on their faces as they remembered how these monsters were from a game as they told themselves to study this game well later on.

    Roy had a wry smile as he felt that he needed to know the game better to grow stronger. "You really need to teach me how the game works, man"

    "Hahaha! You don''t really need me to teach you, just look it up on youtube. I recommend PurgeGamer''s videos;his videos are great for teaching new players"

    "Take note of that Dax"

    "Yes, sir."

    The car got quiet after that exchange as they travelled through the city, passing by devastation that the monsters caused.

    "Sir, there are soldiers, should we ask them to take us to their superiors?" Dax asked after seeing soldiers nearby.

    "Let''s meet them then" Roy decided as he promptly exited the car followed by everyone else but the driver.

    Seeing a group of people getting closer to the restricted line, the soldiers also aproached Roy''s group but after recognizing Roy, they assumed a respectful position.

    "Sir, what would you be doing in the area? Do you require any assistance?" one soldier asked.

    Roy nodded with a pleased look on his face and said, "Take us to your superiors, we need to go to the City Hospital"

    The soldiers were taken aback at this Senator''s son''s plan and were worried. "Sir, you do know that the City Hospital is surrounded by a crowd of monsters, right?"

    "I am aware" Roy replied as if it wasn''t anything to be worried about. "You don''t have to worry about us, we know what we''re doing. Just take us to your superiors and they''ll understand"

    The soldiers stared at each other as they felt helpless and so agreed to Roy''s request, leading them to a sports complexnearby.

    Enteringa building in the complex, Luke saw soldiers were getting in and out as everyone was busy doing their own work but some of them stared at Luke''s group for a moment in curiosity then continued with whatever they''re doing afterwards.

    The soldiers leading them then stopped in front of an office as one of them entered to report to their superiors. After the soldiers exited the room, he then gestured to Roy that they could enter the room now. Patting the soldier in thanks, Roy then nodded at Luke as they both entered the room.

    Inside the room were soldiers and police officers with high ranks staring at Luke and Roy as they entered the room. One of the Police officers stood up and bear hugged Roy, lifting him off the ground.

    "Hahaha! Look at you! You''ve grown some balls now eh? Heard you wanna go to the hospital? Is there a hot nurse you wanna rescue? Gahahahaha!" the middle aged police officer guffawed as Roy''s face turned into a deep shade of red in shame.

    One of the soldiers face-palmed seeing the police officer''s actions and said, "Jesus Christ, Webster. You''re the goddamn Police Commisioner of the city so act like one. Now sit down and listen to what these young men have to say"

    Webster quickly made himself look formal as he obediently went back to his seat with a silly grin on his face, prompting some sighs from the other officers in the room.

    Roy straightened his jacket and coughed as if nothing just happened. "Well as the soldier reported earlier, we need to go to the hospital, well this guy here does" he said as he pointed at Luke.

    The officers were curious ever since the duo entered about who Luke was. Roy had a big background and he was well-known for not having that many friends so such a situation where Roy actually asked for help from them just so this young man could go to the hospital quite surprised them.

    "And who is this young man?" the middle aged soldier who scolded the police commisioner earlier asked.

    "He''s a friend I met today, General, his name''s Luke. I strongly believe that all of you would like to be his friend too" Roy answered with a slight grin.

    "Oh?" the general raised his eyebrows in surprise as this young man was actually someone Roy only met today and he actually said that they would like to be his friend too. He couldn''t help but laugh in his mind thinking how this average-looking young man would be of any worth to them. "And why would that be the case?"

    "You''ve all seen the news right?" said Roy with a mysterious tone.

    "News about what?"

    "About those people with powers"

    Everyone in the room opened their eyes wide hearing those words as they stared at Luke. Luke couldn''t help but turn red in embarrassment as everyone''s attention went to him.

    Webster couldn''t help but raise his voice. "You... you mean this friend of yours has powers?!" He asked Roy as he was trembling.

    "I actually have powers too but Luke''s is way stronger than mine" said Roy nonchalantly so as if their powers were nothing to be surprised about.

    Silence filled the room as everyone gaped at the young men in front of them. Even Webster who was known for being the noisiest of the bunch couldn''t even retort.

    Roy couldn''t help but laugh in his mind at the situation as he felt that he was some sort of superhero being stared in adoration by the citizens, he thought that he could get used to such a feeling. "Anyhow, us going to the hospital will help you rescue those trapped inside so how about we help each other out?"This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

    The general pulled himself together and coughed in embarrassment. "We''ll gladly take you up on that offer, but if you don''t mind me asking, what powers do you two have?"

    The other officers were obviously also curious to know what their powers were as their eyes shone brightly while they were visibly trembling in excitement.

    "Well I can show you my power but we should probably go to a bigger space since my power would affect our surroundings" Roy pointed out.

    The officers agreed so they went outside followed by Sunny and Roy''s mento the field.Everyone who saw them were truly surprised seeing the gathering of high-ranked soldiers along with the Senator''s son, curious of what they were up to.

    Seeing the officers that couldn''t wait to see his powers, Roy didn''t wait for their signal as he raised his hand and a frozen sigil promptly appeared floating above it after his wrist shone for a moment as it continued rising to the air.

    The officers were like kids seeing a magician as waves of "Oohs" and "Aahs" can be heard from them. Then suddenly to their big surprise, it started snowing! The area they were in was quickly filled up with snow and it wasn''t soft at all as it seemed to be like those snowstorms they saw on foreign news.

    Shivering in the cold, they couldn''t help butstare at Roy in both fear and reverence; he could actually produce a snowstorm! But they also noticed with confusionthat tens of meters away from them weren''t filled with snow at all but what happened next wipedaway their confusion. The sigil they saw that rose in the sky suddenly moved towards another area and moving along with it was the snowstorm! They realized that wherever the sigil went, the storm would also follow!

    30 seconds after Roy used Frozen Sigil, the sigil then disappeared along with all the snow as if it was just everyone''s imagination.

    "You don''t have to look at me like i''m some sort of God, the snowstorm would only last for 30 seconds at most. And as you all saw, the area my sigil can affect is limited althoughI can decide where I want the storm to go. My Power is perfect for catching targets or running away from them as those inside the area of the storm would be significantly restricted in their movement"

    "Still, your ability would be incredibly useful in many situations! You should continue working together with us from now on, Roy!" Police Commissioner Webster said so as his eyes glistened like stars while he imagined how amazing their force would be like with Roy helping them.

    "I''ll have to pass on that, I plan on working with Luke here in killing off as many monsters as we can anyway so you could consider that as my service for the people" Roy quickly declined and explained to the commissioner.

    "Well at least you''re gonna put that power of yours to good use, how about this friend of yours? Let''s see his powers now, shall we?"the commissioner asked with curiosity as he stared at Luke.

    "Well uhhhh..." Roy was at a loss remembering Luke killing off those kobolds after Counter Helix just activated once. "I think it would be better for him to show his powers in battle, let''s just say that his body is sturdy and whoever dared to engage in melee with him wouldn''t end up well"

    The officers were taken aback and couldn''t help but stare at Luke incredulously. Looking at Luke''s physique, they could see that he was quitefit but he definitely didn''t have a fighter''s body. The only thing they could point out was that his eyes looked likethose of apredator, but besides that, he looked harmless.

    "How about you let some of your best fighters fight me, about 5 of them should suffice" Luke suggested, seeing how none of them believed he was strong.

    "Luke..." Roy called as he was worried that he would hurt the soldiers.

    "Don''t worry Roy, I won''t be using a weapon so they would at most just fall unconscious. Those soldiers can handle that" Luke nonchalantly replied.

    The high ranked soldiers were especially angered at Luke''s words. He has powers but fighting in melee against a group of their best fighters? They definitely didn''t believe he can handle it. So they immediately called some of their men and told them of the situation which also angered the men very much seeing how the lanky young man wanted to fight against all of themat onceand even claimed that they would fall unconscious at most since he wouldn''t use a weapon.

    Seeing 5 robust soldiers wearing tank tops and camo pants, Luke wanted to taunt them a bit. "Don''t bother going one by one, hit me with everything you guys got and I''ll just retaliate once"

    The angry men looked at each other and mentally agreed that they would be beating the shit out of Luke and so they immediately tried to surround him.

    A sigh escaped from Roy''s mouth as he lamented the fate of the soldiers. Hearing him sigh, the officers couldn''t help but be puzzled.

    "Is he really that strong? These are veteran soldiers we''re talking about here that he''s going up against, even if he has powers, how could he handle attacks from all of them?" one officer couldn''t help but ask.

    "You don''t understand, the more attacks Luke receives, the sturdier his body becomes. That''s his power. Just look" Roy replied with a wry smile.

    The soldiers have just surrounded Luke at that momentand a soldier initiated with a low kickat Luke''s left legwhile another soldier threw a punch at Luke''s right side.

    Luke unconsciously dodged the kick to his left leg and met with the strong punch to his right side. He couldn''t help but draw a deep breath after that punch as he clenched his teeth and grabbed the area that got punched.

    "What the hell? I thought he had a sturdy body?" One of the officers clamored. It couldn''t be helped, Luke was so arrogant a while ago but looking at how he''s in pain after just a single punch, they all doubted that he even has powers now!

    "Shhhh. Just look" Roy patiently said so with a solemn look on his face.

    The soldiers surrounding Luke were just as surprised as the officers but with how angry they were at Luke''s words and actions earlier, they continued with their barrage of kicks and punches not giving him any chance to rest. But as they continued doing so, they felt their knuckles sting more and more after every punch. What felt likepunchinga hard pillow earlier felt like a steel sheet now! They also realized that even though Luke was clearly in pain at the beginning, he was actually so relaxed now! As if their punches did barely any damage to him! He wasjust standing there taking all their punches and kicks!

    They obviously got so pissed and so theyput even more force to their hits but it still barely hurt Luke. Suddenly, Luke mysteriously smiled and while they were wondering what he was smiling for, they lost their vision and just like what Luke claimed, they fell unconscious, unable to figure out what just happened.

    The officers who saw what happened were stupefied, they saw how the soldiers got knocked out but they only saw a blur! They couldn''t see clearly how Luke knocked them all out. They couldn''t help but imagine if Luke was armed with a weapon and he did that swift action again, wouldn''t those soldiers be dead by now? They all felta chill down their spines as they stared incredulously at the young man who they thought was a sheep actually turned out to be a savage wolf!

    "I forgot to mention, Luke actualy has 2 powers, the first one was what I told you about a while ago where his body gets sturdier the more he gets hit. The second one was that blur you saw a while agowhere he swiftly attacks everyonearoundhim. That''s why he asked the soldiers to attack him at the same time; with all the attacks hereceived, his defense roserapidly then because he was surrounded, all 5 of them were hit by his attack." Roy explained to the shocked gazes of the officers.

    Luke smirked at the soldiers on the ground as he calmly walked back to Roy and the officers."Are you all pleased now?" heasked with a wide smile on his face.

    The officers were all veterans but they felt some fearseeing Luke''s seemingly harmless smile. ''He''s smiling right now but behind that face is a demon! Good thing he''s willing to work with us, I wouldn''t want to fight against such an enemy''

    "Of course we''re pleased! Ahahahaha! Roy, you found yourself a great friend here! Rescuing everyone in the hospital with be easier with you two helping us! So what are your plans?" Police Commissioner Webster asked Roy as he was the only officer here who was close to him.

    "Well the plan is for Luke to handle the monsters around the hospital, pulling them away so we could enter the hospital. Of course, your forces would help him in doing so. But he would take the brunt of the force so you can all just relax and shoot with ease. Meanwhile, I would enter the hospital with some of your forces to rescue the people inside, I can only use my powers twicein the operationso before we enter the hospital I''ll use it in case some of the monsters would notice us and try to chase us then once we leave I''ll cast it again to make sure none of the monsters would be able to catch us off-guard."

    The officers deliberated with each other for a while and eventually agreed to the plan as theywent back to theconference room to further discuss the details of the operation. Only Luke, Roy, Sunny and Roy''s men were left in the fields as Sunny approached the two.

    "Geez Luke, you didn''t have to put those poor soldiers to sleep" she chided Luke with a pout.

    "Hey! They were asking for it! They actually doubted my strength! Hmph! Roy already told them I have powers but they still treated me like a weakling, they deserved it" Luke answered like a child who got wronged.

    Roy could only wryly smile at Luke''s behavior as he felt that this young man is truly quite childish, wrong him once and he''ll definitely make you pay for it.

    "Let''s go now, I''m sure the army has somemeleeweapons that may be of some use to you Luke, like a sword~" Roy said so to calm Luke down.

    And it worked like a charm as Luke''s eyes immediatelylit up, "Let''s go! It would be awesome if they have some swords I could use!" he cheered as he ran towards the building they came from.

 Chapter 10: Medium Creeps

    Luke was glaring at Roy while they were inside a tent full of weapons.

    "Hey I didn''t promise you there would truly be swords, it''s the 21st century, who would use swords in the Philippine army?" Roy defended himself.

    "Hmph. Of Course I know that, but because of what you said I thought you knew someone who has one. Good thing theydohave some close combat weapons I could use"

    Luke was currently choosing among the many knives linedup on a table. From Swiss knives to US knives, there were a wide variety of knives that he had no idea which oneto choose.

    "Excuse me, do you perhaps have a knife that''s also used by foreign elite forces?" Luke asked the soldier who accompanied them in the tent.

    He thought that since he didn''t have any knowledge about knives, he might as well use one that elite forces use.

    "Well if you want one used by elite forces, you''ll probably like this one." The soldier said as he picked up a 6-inch knife with a plastic sheath and handle. "This is the Mark 3 Knife used by the US Navy SEALs, wanna test it out?"

    Luke got excited hearing that Navy SEALs used the knife but as soon as he got hold of it, he felt a bit uncomfortable with the grip so he put it back on the table. He noticed another knife with a hole on it''s handle and asked what knife it was.

    "Oh that''s the M9 Bayonet that can be attached to an M16 or M4 gun. Wouldn''t recommend that if you just purely want a knife as a weapon."

    Luke nodded and then tried to pick upthe knives one by one to see which one would feel comfortable in his hands. ''They''re all sharp anyway'' he figured.

    He picked up more than a dozen kinds of knives but nothing seemed to work for him when he noticed a knife on a shelf with a red leather sheath and he couldn''t help but be curious.

    "How about that one? What knife is that?"

    "Oh that''s the KA-BAR knife used by the US Marine Corps. KA-BAR knives actually originated in World War II so they''re definitely proven to be good knives, you interested in it? We don''t really use it much so you can take that one if you like" the soldier said as he took the knife out of the shelf and handed it to Luke.

    As soon as Luke felt the leather handle of the knife, his eyes immediately widened at how comfortable it actually felt. He took offits sheath,revealing the 7-inch dark blade of the knife.

    "This is it" He said with no hesitation. Besides the fact that the knife felt comfortable in his hands, the colors of the knife resonated well with him. He was a gamer at heart, he''s just like those players on RPG''s onlinewho would rather choose to wear armor on his character that matches well with his weapon even if there''s another armor with better stats. Since he liked wearing dark clothes, the KA-BAR knife definitely matched him well.

    Asking for a pouch to put the KA-BAR knife in from the soldier, he then placed it on his waist as he left the tent with Roy with a satisfied look on his face.

    An hour after he chose his knife,Luke was now wearingakevlar body armor usually worn by the police since he felt that the armor used by soldiers were too much and it would compromise his speed; he had Reactive Armor anyway so light armor would be best for him.

    At the side, Roy was wearing the same uniform as the soldiers as he didn''t have the same defense as Luke. He was comforting the pouting Sunny who complained that she felt useless.

    "Don''t worry, as soon as you get yourself an ability, you can immediately join us then" he said as he patted his sister''s head.

    "Everyone is readyboy, you should proceed to your assigned vehicle. Your sister would be safe here with me." Police Commissioner Webster spoke as he approached them.

    Royshared a look with Luke who noddedat himas they left after thanking the commissioner.

    ***

    Luke and Roy were riding an army truck together with Roy''s men and some veteran soldiers assigned to assure Roy''s safety.

    The ride towards the hospital was especially quiet with Luke looking troubled the wholetime.He suddenly had a bad feeling about the operation; he always had a knack for sensing trouble ever since he was a kid so he didn''t dare relax on the way.

    Meanwhile the soldiers were warily looking at Luke as if he was some panda at the zoo, they managed to witness his display of strength earlier so they didn''t dare find any trouble with him.

    The area they were in was already void of people, making the place look like a ghost town.Sitting on the driver''s seat, Luke noticed the tracks and damages doneto the road, showing how the monsters passed through there.

    The hospital was still at a fair distance when the trucks in front of the one they''re riding suddenly halted.

    "Monsters in sight, proceed by foot" Luke heard on the radio.

    Getting off the car, Luke proceeded to check the tracks and jby the size of the foot prints, he could tell that thecreeps they''ll be facingarefrom Medium Camps that are significantly stronger and bigger than the ones he had killed so far; the same level as the wolves that almost killed him in the mountain.

    They then carefully travelled with Luke in the lead and after meeting up with the soldiers in front, he asked where the monsters were as a soldier pointed at the direction.

    Proceeding to where the soldier pointed, he asked the soldiers to stay back as he wanted to check what they''re about to face. Luke walked carefully as he pulled out his new Ka-Bar knife, making sure that he wouldn''t make too much noise as he wasn''t sure if making noises would provoke the creeps.

    At the end ofthe block, Luke stuck close to the wall of the store on the corner as he peeked at thecreeps at the next turn. What he saw immediately stunned him, there were different kinds ofcreeps gathered in a group!

    ''What the hell! Did someone stack monsters here or something? why are there different kinds of creeps here?!'' heexclaimed inwardly. There were 3 different groups of creeps on the road; centaurs, ogres and golems.

    Ogres and golems aren''t a big deal for him with the current level of his Reactive Armor but with the centaurs added in the mix, it immediately became problematic. The HP and damage dealt by the ogres and golems aren''t that big compared to the centaurs so with his Reactive Armor, he can easily handle taking the damage.

    Jungle creeps are actually divided into three types; Small creeps like the kobolds and trolls Luke has killed, medium creeps like the ones in front of him and large creeps which he hasn''t encountered yet. The three types are divided according to their strength. Among all medium creeps, the strongest one is the Centaur Conqueror. There are actually both medium and large centaur camps, with both having Centaur Conquerors as the leader and their only differencebeing the number of Centaur Coursers the Conqueror is accompanied by.Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

    A Centaur Conqueror boasts the largest HP among all jungle creeps so killing one will obviously be harder, added by it''s damage that''s only 2nd to Wildwing Rippers, Luke wasn''t sure if his Reactive Armor can heal him fast enough before the centaur would kill him.

    Counting the number of creeps on the road, he saw that it was composed of 3 medium centaur camps, 2 ogre camps and 2 golem camps.

    A medium centaur camp is composed of 1 Conqueror and 1 Courser with the Courser having the 3rd lowest HP among the medium creeps.

    An ogre camp on the other hand is composed of 2 Bruisers and 1 Frostmage with the bruisers using giant clubs and the frostmage using a giant staff that it uses as a blunt weapon and sometimes cast Ice Armor on itself or its allies that increases its armor while slowing whoever attacks them.

    Meanwhile, a golem camp is mainly composed of 2 mud golems, once a mud golem dies its remains turns into 2 shard golems that have the lowest HP among medium creeps. So basically, to wipe out a golem camp, you have to kill 6 golems.

    Luke also noticed thattens meters from the first group of creeps was another group of creeps significantly larger than the first group, so he had to make sure thatthey wouldn''t aggro that group while they''re in battle with the first group.

    Another problem that he thought was whether his knife could even damage those golems, so he figured that he''ll just deal with the other creeps and let the soldiers deal with the golems. The soldiers brought a tank but he first had to check whether noise would attract the other groups, he didn''t know how many monsters there are surrounding the hospital but he was sure that he wouldn''t be able to handle it once they get swarmed by all of them.

    Getting back to the group, he informed Roy and the soldiers about what he saw and decided the course of their action. He let the officers decide their formation as long as he led the group and Roy would stay at the back and would only act if they get swarmed by other groups of creeps.

    He let the soldiers stay where they were as he went back to the first group of creeps; he decided to pull the creeps towards the soldiers where there would be no other creeps nearby that might join the fight. But first, he decided to check whether making noises at a distance would provoke the creeps.

    He stood in the middle ofthe road where the creeps could see him, and theydid notice him but they simply treated him like an insect and didn''t bother with him. Shouting curses at the creeps, they still didn''t bother with him although they continued staring at him as if wondering whether he was a crazy insect.

    Rejoicing the fact that noise wouldn''t provoke them, Luke went back and informed the soldiers about it.

    After instructing them on how they''re supposed to deal with the creeps and constantly reminding them not to accidentally hit him, Luke went back and just like a raging bull, hecharged towards the right side of the group of creeps where the ogres were standing in.

    He first needed to generate stacks of Reactive Armor so he chose the ogres that deal low damage. Luke bravely faced the tall ogres as hestabbeda bruiser on its chest.

    The ogres got riled up immediately and the bruiser that got hit dropped its club and pushed Luke awaythat led to a Frostmage hitting Luke on his back. The first hit is always most painful since he''ll feel the full brunt of the force so Luke grimaced in pain after getting hit as he tried his best tostay standing.

    Following it were 2 more hits from other ogres that dealt large damage to Luke as he felt like getting hit by a truck.

    Reactive Armor immediately activated as the parts on Luke''s body that got hit clearly healed up as his physical defense also grew. After feeling less pain, Luke then tried to move around the ogresby slipping between them as he could easily do so with how large the ogres were as he sliced their legs with his knife.

    The knife didn''t slice too deep but it still did the job of slowing their movement. Luke was constantly getting peppered by blows from the ogres as he was moving around and he generated 10 stacks of Reactive Armor in no time.

    With 12 additional armor that increased his effective HP by 72% and an HP regeneration of 11.5 HP per second, he still felt the pain of the attacks but it visibly lessened and he could handle it better now.

    He then ran back to where the others were waiting as his bruises visibly disappeared and he felt his strength quickly return.

    As soon as he reached the soldiers, he dropped to the ground and the soldiers immediately fired a round of bullets. The bullets did tremendous damage especially to the Conquerors that Luke especially instructed to be targetted as they were filled with wounds although they were still standing.

    With his Reactive Armor still on, Luke didn''t waste time and went back to attack the creeps. He only asked the soldiers to fire a single round as he didn''t want them to waste their bullets. It was still the first group so they had to conserve as much bullets as they could in case there are more creeps than expected.

    This time, Luke ran towards the centaurs as he wanted to get rid of the conquerors as soon as possible. The creeps'' movement became sluggish so it became so much easier to dodge their attacks.

    Dodging the attacks of the conquerors while allowing those from the weak coursers to hit him for his Reactive Armor to stay activated, he managed to continue slashing at the conquerors withoutputting himself in any danger.

    Once he saw that the conquerors were on the verge of dying, he stopped moving around and stabbed the nearest conqueror as he stood where he was. The centaurs immediately took the chance to surround Luke and after receiving 4 hits at the same time from them, Luke felt that familiar tug in his chest again and in a blink of an eye, the centaurs around him dropped to the ground and a hugegash can be seen on each of their chests.

    1 courser managed to survive asit wasn''t in the range of Counter Helix. Luke immediately tackled the surprised centaur and made it drop its weapon as hefollowed it up by stabbing its neckthrice, killing it immediately.

    As he was doing so, the ogres who were the angriest of the bunch surrounded Luke and hit him again with their clubs and wands pushing him off the dead courser as he quickly pulled himself up.

    This time, luck was on Luke''s side as Counter Helix activated immediately after he was attacked again after he stood up and just like the centaurs, the ogres dropped on the ground leaving 2 ogres standing who were not in range of Counter Helix.

    Besides the 2 ogres, there were also 4 mud golems left in the group. Relaxed, Luke didn''t bother dodging any attacks anymore as he faced the remaining ogres head on.

    He definitely wasn''t a good fighter but trading blows was no problem for him as every attack from the ogres barely did any damage to him with how fast his wounds heal up. The soldiers who were watching him felt like he was some sort offeral beastwith how barbaric he looked as he fought the monsters. Nobody among them would dare fight the monsters without a careabout getting wounded.

    Quickly killing off the remaining ogres, Luke then faced the 4 mud golems. He still didn''t know whether his attacks would work on the golems hard body. With his Reactive Armor still having 10 stacks, he closed in on the golems as he stabbed a golem on its side and to its surprise, it seemed to havereceived damage with how it was flailing around in anger.

    With a smile, Luke then stayed still as he let the golems freely hit him as he focused on one golem.There were chunks of rocks on the gound so the gunshots must have dealtquite some damage to them earlier.

    With 4 golems attacking him at the same time, Counter Helix took no time in activating and after it activated once, he managed to kill the golem he focused on attacking while the other 3 golems looked like they were about to fall apart. The golem that just died then turned into 2 shard golems which meant that 5 golems were now attacking Luke. Counter Helix seemed to be working in Luke''s favor as it kept on activatingtwice more until the last golem died.

    Roy stared at his new friend in shock even though he already saw him in action before,he couldn''t get used to howwildhe looked in battle.

    The soldiers couldn''t help but swallow their salivas after Luke wiped the group of monsters in about3 minutes. Although they did manage to deal tremendous damage after a round of gunshots, Luke still received the whole brunt of attacks from the whole group by himself.

    Luke on the other hand was currently smiling and it looked like a manic smile to the soldiers. After Counter Helix activated and killed those 4 ogres, he actually leveled up! As soon as he thought of upgrading an ability, a window immediately appeared in front of him.

    <table style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto">

    <tbody>

    <tr>

    <td style="text-align: center">You have 1 ability point available, would you like to assign it now?</td>

    </tr>

    <tr style="text-align: center">

    <td>Yes</td>

    </tr>

    </tbody>

    </table>

    After clicking ''Yes'', the window then got replaced by another window.

    <table>

    <tbody>

    <tr>

    <td style="text-align: center">lvl. 1 Counter Helix</td>

    </tr>

    <tr>

    <td style="text-align: center">lvl.2 Reactive Armor</td>

    </tr>

    </tbody>

    </table>

    He then decisively clicked on Reactive Armor as his survival is the most important right now, and with how the groups he''s about to face are getting larger each time, upgrading Reactive Armor would bea big help to him.

    <table style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto">

    <tbody>

    <tr>

    <td style="text-align: center">You have upgraded Reactive Armor to lvl. 3!</td>

    </tr>

    <tr style="text-align: center">

    <td>

    Max Stacks: 10 -> 15

    Armor Bonus per Stack: 1.2 -> 1.4

    Health Regen Bonus per Stack: 1.15 -> 1.3

    Stack Duration: 13 -> 16

    </td>

    </tr>

    </tbody>

    </table>

 Chapter 11: Change Of Plans

    Luke''s clothes were quite ripped and bloodied by the time the first group was wiped out. The soldiers couldn''t have imagined that a single man managed to do such a feat, making them yearn for powers even more.

    The soldiers then noticed the mountain of coins on the ground and they couldn''t help but pick them up especially after the officers ordered them to do so. Luke was still in bliss after upgrading Reactive Armor so he was too late to notice the soldiers picking up gold. A soldier passed a few pieces to Luke who worked the hardest in the fight, but after Luke received it, a windowsuddenly appeared in front of him.

    <table>

    <tbody>

    <tr>

    <td style="text-align: center">You have garnered 1,093 gold coins in the battle. Do you want to transfer the coins to your coin storage?</td>

    </tr>

    <tr>

    <td style="text-align: center">Yes</td>

    </tr>

    </tbody>

    </table>

    He couldn''t help but smirk as he watched the soldiers happily picking up the gold coins as he secretly clicked ''Yes''. As soon as he did so, all the gold coins on the ground along with the ones picked up by the soldiers vanished to thin air to the Soldiers'' surprise and anger. He didn''t bother with them as he was the one who killed the creeps anyway so he was the rightful owner of the coins.

    Luke shrugged at the Soldiers and happily sauntered towards the next group of creeps; he wanted to see how much damage he could take now.

    Roy and the officers then helplessly shook their heads at Luke''s behavior as he seemed to be the only one having fun fighting the monsters.

    While Luke was upgrading his ability, his stacks of Reactive Armor disappeared so he had to repeat the same process he did earlier.

    The second group of creeps was basically the same as the first one, the only difference being the additional camp of ogres.

    With a smile on his face, Luke once again charged towards the ogres first. Not bothering to dodge the club of a bruiser, he received the hit to his chest that immediately made him want to vomit blood as the force pushed him two meters back.

    Clenching his teeth, he retaliated immediately as he rushed back towards the ogre''s side and after lowering himself, slashed at its ankles. Compared to the cuts he did to the ogres in the first group, the ones this time were visibly deeper after leveling up. He didn''t know how much his stats increased but he was sure that his agility was the one that increased the most as he was always agile ever since he was a kid.

    He dodged the next few hits for a while as the damage to his chest healed up. When he felt that it was safe to take hits again, he once again charged towards another ogre. 2 clubs were about to reach him so he once again clenched his teeth as he received it and roared while slashing an ogre''s thigh.

    The other creeps wanted to hit him too but with how many ogres were surrounding him and with how he was constantly moving around, they were unable to hit him especially with how large they were.

    With Luke''s small build, he moved between the ogres as he constantly slashed at their ankles and legs while allowing a few hits to reach him. Reactive Armor was now level 3 so he could now get 15 stacks of Reactive Armor that gave him 21 armor; increasing his effective HP by 126%, effectively more than doubling his HP! At the same time his HP regeneration increased to 19.5 HP per second!

    Since the other creeps couldn''t reach him while he was in the middle of the ogres, he decided on finishing off the ogres. He didn''t focus on one ogre but rather he did his best to do the same damage to each one of them so that he''ll kill them off at the same time. He could focus on one creep but that wouldn''t be efficient for him, which is what he learned in playing DotA for many years.

    Hedared to do so since his Reactive Armor is lvl. 3 now, with the additional 21 armor, the damagethe ogres did to him was basically negligible now.

    Being surrounded by the ogres, Counter Helix activated twice and in no time the ogres were all killed. As soon as the last ogre dropped, he then charged towards the mud golems as he stabbed the one closest to him.

    With his Reactive Armor still at 15 stacks, Luke felt that he still hadalmost full HP; so he didn''t see why he had to go back to the soldiers now when he could still handle the golems by himself.

    Killing off the golems proved to be harder than he thought as there were only 4 golems, the centaurs could slip in and hit him. Even though he had high armor now and high HP regeneration, he wouldn''t dare underestimate the damage the giant centaur conqueror could do which was more than twice the damage an ogre bruiser does.

    Playing it safe, he quickly rolls away every time a centaur tries to even get close to him. Due to the giant size of the conquerors, itwas easier for Luke to dodge them as he could clearly see the attacks coming at him.

    While rolling on the ground and stabbing or hackingat the golems, the mud golems eventually died after Counter Helix activateda few times and got replaced by shard golems that were even easier to kill off.

    With the centaurs being the only creeps left, Luke then ran back to where the impatient soldiers were waiting. They didn''t know what took Luke so long but upon seeing that behind Luke were only 6 centaurs, they became even more confused since Luke told them that the 2nd group was larger than the first one.

    Then it hit them, ''This guy probably killed off the rest by himself''. They all drew their breaths thinking that Luke probably grew stronger after the fight earlier since he was now able to take on the monsters except the centaurs without their help. ''His clothes are clearly ripped and bloodied yet he still looks so energetic, doesn''t he feel pain? or get tired? what the hell is up with this guy?'' they couldn''t help but think.

    Reaching the group, Luke then dropped to the ground and the soldiers immediately fired a round of gunshots again, immediately killing off all centaurs, to Luke''s dismay.

    Luke comforted himself with the fact that the medium centaur camp gave one of the least experience points among the medium camps anyway since it only consisted of two centaurs.

    "Hey, did you level up again?" Roy asked with a sour expression as he pattedLuke''s back.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    Luke didn''t reply but simply had a wide smile on his face, to Roy''s annoyance.

    "You mind if I punch your face just once?" Roy asked as he smiled back at Luke.

    "Sure, if you let me punch you back"

    Roy grumbled at Luke''s pettiness as he stepped back.

    The soldiers wanted to pick up the gold coins the centaurs dropped but after remembering what happened earlier, they didn''t bother anymore. Laughing at the soldiers in his mind, Luke was about to head back to where the 2nd group of creeps were at earlier since his gold coins was gathered over there when he suddenly felt that something seemed off.

    Roy and the officers noticed Luke stop in the middle of walking and wondered whether anything was wrong.

    "Can you feel that?" Luke asked.

    "Feel what?" A frowning officer asked.

    "The ground. It''s shaking. As if..." Luke wasn''t able to finish his sentence when he widened his eyes in horror as he looked behind their group.

    Nobody was there but the broken concrete on the ground were obviously shaking and the magnitude was visibly getting stronger.

    The soldiers then also noticed the ground shaking and they all drew their breaths as they realized that monsterswere coming.

    "TAKE YOUR POSITIONS! PREPARE FOR COMBAT!" an officer shouted as the soldiers shuffled around to prepare themselves for the monsters that are about to arrive.

    "This doesn''t make any sense" Luke mumbled to himself.

    "Why doesn''t it make sense, Luke?" Roy asked as he was getting worried.

    "In the game, jungle creeps are supposed tospawn where they''re assigned to stay in. I mean, the creeps I killed earlier were standing over there on the road so after they got killed, they''re supposed to only appear there. Why are the newcreeps coming from behind us?"

    Roy couldn''t answer his question as he knew almost nothing concerning the game as he smiled wryly.

    Luke was getting worried, two groups of creeps just got killed, does that mean they''re about to face 2 groups of creeps at the same time now? Sure, he''ll definitely survive but as the number of creeps that would focus on him would be limited, some of them might attack the soldiers. Sure they still have tanks and lots of ammo for their guns, but they only killed off two groups of creeps so far and there are still hundreds more they have to kill, doesn''t it mean that once they kill off these 2 coming groups, it would eventually be replaced by another 2 groups?

    Even with their tanks and guns, it would definitely run out of ammo in no time and they would get nowhere near the hospital.

    Luke racked his brain to think of a solution to the problem but the monsters didn''t give him the chance to do so, on the road in front of them were large creeps! Luke had a face of horror after seeing the creeps, there were obviously from large creep camps!

    The first creep he saw was a wildwing ripper! A giant pink and white bird that can call on the spirit of the wind to create a tornado, it can control that and could cause havoc to its enemies! It was the creep that can deal the highest damage among all jungle creeps. Beside each wildwing ripper were 2 wildwings that have the strength of an ogre.

    Besides the wildwings were trolls! It isn''t the same as the trolls he hadkilledbefore as this camp has a dark troll summoner that''s almost as strong as a wildwing ripper. Besides that, a dark troll summoner also has the ability to ensnare its enemies so even if you try to run, you''ll definitely find it hard to do so!

    There were only these 2 types of camps but they were the replacement of the ones that got killed earlier, meaning, the 15 medium camps they killed earlier were now replaced by 15 large camps now! They have a huge difference with how strong they were! Luke wouldn''t dare tank the damage from all those creeps with how small his HP is.

    ''Should we leave after killing them?'' Luke couldn''t help but think.

    They can definitely kill them now but once they run out of ammo, they''ll be like sheep in a lion''s den. He may be able to escape but what about the soldiers? how about Roy? He can''t possibly face Sunny and tell her that he ran off leaving her brother behind.

    From where they were in right now, they had to run about 500 meters before they reach the hospital. Who knows how many creeps they''ll have to pass through before reaching the hospital.

    With a resolved look on his face, Luke grabbed Roy and told him his idea.

    "ARE YOU INSANE?" Roy immediately shouted after hearing the plan. The soldiers stared at the two men and wondered what''s wrong.

    "Sir, I''ll leave the incoming monsters to you, they''ll be coming in waves so please do your best to last before we come back" Luke told the highest ranked soldier.

    The officer stared at Luke in the eye and after seeing the decisive look on his eyes, he nodded and said, "Don''t worry and just rescue everyone inside the hospital"

    "It would be better to inform HQ to check where these monsters are coming from and thin them out before they reach our location"

    The officer agreed and asked for a radio from his men to inform HQ.

    Luke then gazed at Roy who wasfrowning at him. "Maybe I am insane, but this is the only way for us to reach the hospital. No matter what, two groups of creeps would be constantly rushing towards here, so we can''t kill any more creeps from now on. The only way for us to reach the hospital would be for me to attract the attention of all the creeps on the way and lure them away from the road as you and a few men enter the hospital"

    Roy stayed silent and pondered on the plan. He knew that it was the only thing they can do but Luke had a very dangerous job and he felt a bit uncomfortable with that.

    *Ratatatatatat* Luke and Roy werestartled by the gunshots as they watched the soldiers deal with the charging creeps.

    "You don''t have to worry that I might get killed, After chasing me for a while, the creeps would eventually go back to where they were originally standing in, so the pressure on me wouldn''t me that big. You and probably two other men would have to pass through before the creeps go back to their positions. Once you enter the hospital, I''ll be staying outside and make sure that none of them will also enter" Luke assured.

    "I don''t think these creeps are of the same level as the ones you have killed so far" Roy said in a low tone.

    "Good eye, these are the strongest jungle creeps in the game" Luke admitted.

    "Then how the hell are you supposed to survive being chased by these strong creeps?"

    "I''m not sure. My Reactive Armor is currently level 3 so I can handle taking a few hits from them so I''ll just hit and run. Don''t worry, I killed 30 kobolds back in the mountain with just a hammer even when I was so weak and had no abilities. I don''t think these creeps can kill me now that I have my abilities"

    Roy shook his head and sighed helplessly "Goddammit, you better not kill yourself. My sister would definitely hate me for letting her new friend get himself killed"

    Luke grinned at his words as he thought of Sunny. "Don''t worry, I haven''t had enough time hitting onyour sister yet so I sure as hell have to survive this. Get two of your strongest men to follow you, we have to leave now"

    After Glaring at Luke, Roy then left to choose who''ll follow him.

    Luke was preparing to leave when the officer he talked to earlier approached him and handed him a small axe. "You''ll probably need this one, with how many monsters you''ll have to kill, you might need a second weapon" he said and immediately went back to deal with the incoming creeps without waiting for Luke''s reply.

    The axe had a dark green handle and a black blade, looking a bitghastly with the scratches on its surface as it clearly has been used for a long time.

    Roy returned with two fit men behind him. "They''re one of my fastest men too so I think they''re the best choice"

    Luke nodded and led them to the direction of the hospital.

    "I probably won''t have the time to tell you when to leave, just make sure to pass through before the creeps come back. I''ll do my best to clear the road of creeps as you pass through, but if there would be some creeps that I don''t manage to pull then don''t think twice and use Frozen Sigil and run as fast as you can towards the hospital. I''ll do my best to enter the hospital if I can."

    Roy and his men solemnly nodded as they mentally prepared themselves for whatever might happen on the way.

    It didn''t take long for them to see the 3rd group of medium creeps composed of 3 centaur camps, 3 ogre camps and 3 golem camps. Charging at them, Luke roared to attract all of their attention.

    "LEEEEEEERROOOOOOOY JENKINS!"

 Chapter 12: Reaching The Hospital

    Luke charged at the closest golem that immediately stepped backwards after their bodies hit each other. Wasting no time, he quickly looked for his next target whichturned out to bea centaur conqueror. There was a centaur courser close to him but a conqueror was larger thuseasier to hit.

    A mud golem behind him managed to smacked his back which pushed him further forward as he stumbled towards the conqueror. Losing his balance, he rolled on the ground and landed right beside the conqueror who was about to stomp at him.

    He then rolled to his side to dodge the centaur''s hooves and immediatelypulled himself up before the other centaurs surround him. Seeing all the creeps in the group riled up, Luke then dashed towards the next turn on the road; pulling the creeps away from the main road.

    After the last creep in the group left, Roy and his two men quickly passed through the area the creeps were in and stopped tens of meters from the next group of creeps.

    Almost half a minuteafterwards, the creeps that chased after Luke came back and although they saw Roy and his two men, they didn''t bother with them.

    Since he couldn''t go through the road he went through earlier with creeps back at their positions, Luke climbed over the wall of the house on the corner and exited through the gate, meeting up with the other three again.

    "You have a great future as a thief" Roy complimented with a smirk.

    "I got locked out of the house most of the time back in high school so I''m used to climbing walls" Luke replied with a laugh as he rushed towards the next group of creeps.

    A fire hydrant got busted up near the creeps, flooding the road. Rushing up to a huge centaur conqueror, he dodged to his side, avoiding the conqueror''s mace as he slid on the ground to slash its ankles.

    Infuriated, the conqueror roared as he waved its mace, prompting Luke to duck. The other creeps were riled up along with the centaurs after the conqueror roared in anger, Luke quickly slipped in between the monsters, avoiding some of the attacks but receiving most of them as he got surrounded.

    There wasn''t another road he can pull the monsters to that would let Roy and his men safely pass through so he shouted as loud as he can at Roy.

    "Climb the gate I exited through earlier! I''m pulling these creeps to where I pulled the first group!"

    Nodding at Luke, Roy quickly ran towards the gate and with the help of his men, climbed over it, and watched as Luke was being chased by the creeps.

    The other group immediately noticed Luke but stayed still until Luke got closer where they also joined in the chase. With two groups of creeps chasing after him, Luke ran as fast as he could to pull them away from the main road.

    With the last creep leaving the main road, Roy and his men rushed in climbing the gate again and entered the main road again as they passed through the area the 2nd group of creeps were at earlier.

    Half a minute later, the 2nd group of creeps returned to their area and stared at Roy and his two men for a moment before leaving them alone.

    Once again, Luke climbed over the wall of the house earlier but this time he continued climbing the wall to the next house until he passed by the area where the 2nd group of creeps were staying in.

    They repeated the process again and passed through a few more groups of creeps, by then they were about 100 m. from the hospital, but the sight that greeted them truly troubled them.The road 100 m. from the hospital were filled with a crowd of creeps unlike the previous groups of creeps they''ve passed through. The number of creeps in the areaclearly exceededthe number of creeps they''ve already passed through before.

    Luke saw that every single type of medium creep were on the road! Centaurs, satyrs, wolves, ogres and golems! He couldn''t help but draw his breath with how scary they looked while guarding the road.

    It reminded him of the mall a few hours before Christmas, crowded with people with barely any space between each person. Only this time, the area was filled with crowds of creeps!

    "For fuck''s sake, how am I supposed to pull all of these creeps?" he cursed after seeing how many creeps there were.

    "What should we do, Luke? Should we give up now?" Roy asked

    "Let me think for a bit" Luke replied as he racked his brains for an idea.

    As he was doing so, the sound of gunshots and the firing of tanks could be heard in the background. They had a time limit in rescuing everyone in the hospital so they had to act as soon as possible.

    "Everyone in the hospital were said to be gathered together, right?" he suddenly asked Roy

    "Yeah, the army told them to gather up so that when rescue arrives, they''ll be able to leave immediately"

    Luke stared at the mob of creeps for a moment andpondered for a moment. ''Why are these creeps gathered like these, surely Icefrog placed something around here. Is it a crystal ball again? If it is then the ability inside might be an ultimate ability since that''s the only ability that warrants this much trouble just to obtain it. Or perhaps there''s an item around here? Anyhow I have no way of getting it with how full of creeps the area is''

    He checked the area out for a while when he spotted a few coconut trees nearby. With his eyes lit up, he asked Roy to wait for him as he approached the tree. Fortunately for him, the tree had steps that were cut perhaps by its owner as he was able to climb easily thanks to it.

    Once he was on top, he saw how many creeps there truly were, ''It''s like the inauguration of the president'' he couldn''t help but think with how the area was packed. He also saw harpies flying around the hospital, perhaps watching out for helicopters.

    It didn''t take long for him to notice an area right in front of the City Hospital that was different. There was an altar similar to the one he saw in the mountain right in the middle of the road in front of the hospital. Floating on top of the altar seemed to be a hammer or an axe with its shape and it was surrounded by a golden glow.He thought that it was perhaps a mithril hammer that was sold in the shop in the game that would boost one''s attack damage.

    Seeing how the creeps were closely guarding it that some creeps kept turning their heads to check for any movements in the area, they seemed to treasure the item more than their lives. His eyes then lit up as he had an idea on how to distract the creeps. He then climbed down the tree as he went back to Roy.

    "I know what to do now" he said with a proud smile.

    "Don''t tell me some bullshit like you charging straight at the creeps while we follow behind you" Roy said as he glared at Luke.

    "No worries, it would still be safe for you three" he assured "There''s an item in front of the hospital that the creeps are closely guarding. I''ll target that and I assure you that every single one of those creeps will closely chase me that they would barely notice you."

    "And what makes you think that they would barely notice us?"

    "Intuition"

    "..."

    Roy facepalmed at Luke''s dumb idea but since the man himself felt that he can handle it, he helplessly agreed to it.

    "But how are you supposed to go through all these creeps all the way to where that item you saw is?" Roy couldn''t help but ask.

    "The harpies are flying around the hospital but none of them are flying over the road so you should cast Frozen Sigil and let it float right over these creeps on the road and let it stop in front of the hospital. With how strong the snowstorm created by the Sigil is, the creeps would definitely move towards it and try to destroy it As they''re distracted by it, I''ll slip between them and run towards the item and perhaps try to grab it. There''s a crossroad near the hospital, I''ll pull them towards that direction, so same as usual, once you have a chance, quickly run and enter the hospital. You have guns right? You can handle the harpies yourselves, right?"

    Roy smiled wryly and replied, "If we say no, would you make another plan?"Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

    "Nope" Luke cheekily replied.

    "You asshole" Roy smirked "Fine, let''s go with your plan"

    "Good. I''ll call you later once the creeps I pull go back to the hospital. By the way, my brother''s name is Lyndon. Taller than me, great skin complexion, looks like a model, hard to miss him."

    Roy nodded as he raised his left hand and prepared to cast Frozen Sigil.

    The sigil quickly appeared floating above his hand and rose to the sky, followed by the snow whose intensity rapidly grew as it fell. Controlling it with his mind, the sigil then floated towards the creeps.

    The creeps immediately perked up as their attention went towards the approaching sigil.As the sigil went above their heads, they tried to jump around to hit it but with how high it was, they were unable to do so. In DotA both melee and range creeps canhit and destroy the sigil, but with how this was in reality, the melee creeps couldn''t possibly destroy the sigil.

    Luke''s eyes lit up with how his idea worked as he saw all the creeps moving towards the sigil. Not missing the chance, he immediately dashed towards theside of the road that was clear of creeps. Unfortunately for him, his plan didn''t work fully well as a few creeps immediately noticed him.

    Good thing for him, the number of creeps he had to face was significantly reduced thanks to the distraction of the sigil.

    With his axe on his left hand and the Ka-Bar knife on his right hand, he charged towards a satyr mindstealer that roared at him. He sidestepped to dodge the satyr''s claws as he hacked at its stomach with his axe resulting to a deep cut making the satyr wince loudly in pain, making the other creeps who were distracted by the sigil to notice Luke. Luke didn''t bother killing the satyr as he pulled back his axe and rolled on the ground to dodge a few centaurs waving their maces.

    Luke hasn''t taken a hit yet so he''d prefer that the first hit he''ll receive would be from a creep that doesn''t have a weapon. He received hits from clubs but the giant maces of the centaurs that was filled with sharp points definitely scared him; he might get disfigured after a single hit from those!

    He found a golem in front of himthat he immediately tackled so that the other golems around it would be the one surrounding him, with how weak the golems are, he would gladly stay still and let them freely hit him. Mounting the golem he tackled, he continually hit its chest with his two weapons. Meanwhile, the other golems kept on hitting his body with their rocky arms; increasing the stacks of Reactive Armor on his body.

    With how many golems were hitting him at the same time, it only took a few seconds for him to have 15 stacks of Reactive Armor. He immediately slipped between the legs of a golem as he headed towards the entrance of the hospital.

    He estimated in his mind that he had about 10 seconds before Frozen Sigil would disappear and all the creeps'' focus would be on him. He rushed just like a train as he ran straight in front of him,ramming into every creep with his body as he put his weapons to the side.The bruises on his body quickly healed up as a warm sensation spread all over his body.

    Just as the sigil disappeared, Luke finally reached the entrance of the hospital and saw the creeps start to get back to their positions earlier. Not missing his chance as there was an opening, he pressed further and saw the item the creeps were guarding. It was a huge red and bronze hammer, although dismayed that it wasn''t an item that gave stats or buffs, he immediately grabbed it and as soon as he touched its handle, the eyes of all the creeps turned red as they all roared and howled at him.

    "OH SHIT!" he couldn''t help but curse.

    He was immediately surrounded by all sorts of creeps and once he got hit by them, he turned into a blur as those creeps dropped to the floor.

    His eyes widened as he stared at the hammer he just grabbed. He didn''t notice it a while ago but it actually felt almost weightless! Staring at the creeps that collapsed, their headsactually caved in! Obviously, the force caused by the hammer was tremendously huge! ''Maybe whosoever is using this weapon wouldn''t feel the weight?'' he excitedly thought as although the weapon didn''t give him any stats, it had its own perks as well.

    But he couldn''t help but worry as he killed a few creeps, the creeps that the soldiers would be facing would increase! He thus decided to be careful once Counter Helix activates and make sure thathe should just incapacitate the creeps.

    The creeps didn''t even care that the first group of their allies that surrounded him immediately died, they continued rushing at Luke to surround him again as he also tried to leave and pull everycreep away from the area.

    After getting hit from all sides, Counter Helix once again activated and this time he made sure to control himself to just hit their bodies, but he still had a hard time doing so and ended up killing most of them.

    Cursing at how hard it was to control Counter Helix, he then continued running and prayed that the soldiers could handle the additional creeps they have to deal with.

    With how strong his new weapon was, he easily dealt with all the creeps that rushed at him. Although he did manage to incapacitate some, he still ended up killing most of the creeps.

    He managed to reach the end of the block and turned to the right, following behind him was the mob of creeps. What Luke didn''t expect was that, taking the hammer from the altar actually made EVERY single creepin the area chase after him! These included those groups of creeps that he passed through with Roy and his men!

    Roy and his men couldn''t help but swallow their salivas seeing all those creeps chasing after Luke.They were currently at the side of the road, a while ago those creeps behind them suddenly went berserk and charged at their direction and so they ran towards a wall of a house to try and climb it, but to their surprise, the creeps didn''t even spare them a look but just charged straight through!

    Roy didn''t want to waste time after seeing all those creeps leaving the area as he immediately made his way towards the hospital. Following behind him, his men made sure that there wasn''t any creep nearby that stayed behind as they pulled their guns out.

    Entering the area of the hospital, they saw that the windows that could be seen from outside were closed and blocked from the inside and as they approached the entrance of the hospital, it actually turned out to be locked!

    They kept knocking loudly at the entrance but nobody seemed to want to open it.

    "Sir, they probably think someone''s being chased by a monster and wants to enter. They wouldn''t want the monster to enter too" one of his men told him.

    Roy looked surprised as he stared at the man and couldn''t help but think he was right. He then had the idea of slowly knocking on the door in a beat. After he did so, just as expected, someone opened the door!

    "For goodness sake, I thought you brought along some monsters with you. How the bloody hell did you get here? Aren''t there monsters on the road outside?" A man around his thirties said after he opened the door, by what he was wearing he seemed to be a security guard.

    "Thanks for opening! The road''s clear for now, but don''t tell anyone yet or they might leave the building in panic. Where are the leaders of the hospital?" Roy quickly asked.

    "Oh. Follow me" theguard said as he brought him inside where a crowd of people were gathered.

    Everyone inside the hospital were staring at Roy and his men as they didn''t expect that someone managed to reach the hospital without getting themselves killed.

    "Joshua, who are these men that just arrived?" adoctor that seemed to be around his forties asked. With his bearing, he seemed to be someone of high position. Behind him were a few other doctors older than him.

    "I don''t know either sir, but they have some news for you" Joshuaexcitedly replied.

    The man nodded and said, "Very well, you may go back and guard the entrance again. You three follow me to the conference room"

    Joshua was about to leave when Roy stopped him and whispered. "Wait, you know that it''s pointless to guard the entrance now. Can you help me look for a nurse named Lyndon Rivera? He''s one of the reasons why we came here"

    "Sure! I''ll bring him to the entrance after I find him!" the guard immediately agreed.

    "Thanks! Just tell him that his brother, Luke, sent us here. And oh, he apparently looks like a model, that might help you in looking for him" Roy saidthen proceeded to follow the doctors.

    They were inside a conference roomwith the doctors sitting down and Roy and his men standing in front of them.

    "You three managed to get here even though there were monsters on the road that killed whoever got close to them. So, how did you do that?" the man who talked to them earlier asked.

    "The road is clear of monsters now" Roy calmly replied.

    The doctors were pleasantly surprised as they stood up in excitement. "Excellent! Did the army wipe them all? Wait... We didn''t hear any gunshots or whatnot, how is the road clear of monsters?" a man asked, suspicious of Roy''s claim.

    Roy smiled at the doctor and said, "We did kill monsters along the way, but the monsters outside the hospital weren''t totally killed. A friend of mine acted as a bait, the monsters are currently chasing him as these two men and I entered after the monsters left"

    One of the doctors suddenlystood up in angerand shouted "Useless! The army tried to rescue us before and killed off the monsters outside! But soon afterwards, new monsters quickly replaced them! We still can''t escape!"

    Roy coldly looked at the angry doctor and said, "We are currently working with the army, they''re currently killing off each new monster that arrives. Are you satisfied now?"

    The doctor went silent as he sneered at Roy and sat back down.

    The doctor Roy initially spoke to that seemed to be the leader then spoke, "You mentionedthat your friend acted as a bait, doesn''t that mean that there would be some monsters left outside? He can''t possibly get all the monsters outside to chase him, right?"

    "Oh every monster chased after him, you don''t have to know how he was able to do that."

    The doctor stared at Roy for a moment then solemnly nodded.

    "But those monsters would eventually come back" Roy then added.

    The angry doctor earlier got agitated again and shouted, "Then how the hell are we supposed to leave? You''re now trapped here with---!"

    Before he was able to finish his sentence, he abruptly stopped as a gun was pointed at his head. Roy''s men were both pointing their guns at the poor doctor who was now sweating profusely.

    "Calm down" Roy stopped his men but nonetheless he stared at the angry doctor coldly "My friend can pull them away from here once, and he can do it again. I don''t know if you saw the news about people with powers appearing all over the world but I have to tell you, my friend and I both have powers and if you don''t want to live any longer, I can help you understand how our powers work.

    The trembling doctor then sat back down as he bit his lower lip, lowering his head, not daring to look straight at Roy.

    The other doctors were both worried after the two men pulled out guns and at the same time astonished especially after Roy mentioned that he and his friend has powers. Although they were trapped in the hospital, they were still connected to the internet and there they saw all those people with powers, two such people helping them escape is definitely a big assurance!

    As Roy and the doctors were discussing, Luke on the other hand was still being chased by the creeps!

    "WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU ALL STILL CHASING ME?!? I''VE BEEN RUNNING FOR 5 MINUTES NOW! WHY AREN''T YOU GOING BACK?!" he cursed as he continued running away from the creeps right behind him.

 Chapter 13: Evacuation

    Being chased by creeps many times today, Luke was confident that he could outrun the crowd of creeps that he just pulled before they go back to the hospital road. But the situation went against his expectations! The creeps didn''t seem to have any plans on retreating!

    "For fuck''s sake! Why are you all so adamant in chasing after me?!?" he loudly cursed as he felt that he was getting tired.

    Reactive Armor didn''t just regenerate HP or heal his wounds and bruises, it actually also rejuvenated his whole body that he would have endless energy even if he was fighting all day just as long as he has stacks of it.

    Being chased by the creeps, he tried to outrun them so he didn''t have a stack of Reactive Armor on him; thus he was currently losing strength on his legs and felt like he was about to collapse.

    He could stop running and let the creeps hit him so that he''d gain stacks of Reactive Armor but leading the creeps behind him was a pack of wolves! Ever since he received the ability, he has always been taking blunt attacks from creeps. He has constantly been dodging attacks from the maces of centaurs, the claws of satyrs and the sharp teeth of the wolves!

    He couldn''t help but imagine his neck getting bitten by a wolf, how would Reactive Armor even help? Before he could heal up, he''d already be dead! He also wasn''t sure if Reactive Armor could even grow any body parts of his that he may lose so he didn''t dare test it out!

    He was getting frantic andhad no idea what to do, he was regretting picking up the hammer! He didn''t know if dropping the hammer now would stop the creeps from chasing him, if he did drop it and they still chased after him, wouldn''t he be easy picking for them? He thus decided that he might as well make his final hurrah and kill as many creeps as he can before he drops!

    But before he did so, he should call Roy and tell him to immediately leave the hospital!

    He took out his phone and because he still had to look for Roy''s nameon his phonebook, he slowed down and the creeps were able to lessen the distance between them.

    It didn''t take long for Roy to answer his call.

    "You finally called! What the hell took you so long to pull the--" said Roy but Luke immediately cut him off.

    "No motherfucker! These beasts are still chasing me!" Luke shouted on the phone

    Roy frowned as it had already been a few minutes since he entered the hospital, it should take around a minute to pull creeps before they go back to where they came from as he had witnessed before. "What do you mean? Why are they still chasing you?" he asked in a serious tone.

    "I have no clue! God knows how far I''ve ran and I seriously feel like collapsing Soon, so please, leave the hospital RIGHT NOW!" said Luke in a strained voice.

    Hearing that, Roy was surprised at how Luke''s voice seemed a bit tragic "Why do you have to sound so overly dramatic, you have Reactive Armor, you won''t die from getting surrounded"

    "You asshole! I don''t have an iron body! There are wolves right behind me! These animals would aim for my neck and limbs! I don''t think my ability can heal me before I die after these beasts maim me!" Luke angrily shouted.

    Roy then finally understood the gravity of the situation and realized that this might be the last time he''d hear from Luke. "You.. Can''t you do anything to escape from the creeps?"

    "Bullshit! I was only able to escape from creeps every time because they were programmed to turn their backs, now that they''re insisting on chasing me, how am I supposed to compete with a wolf in running long distances?!How do you think I can escape from that?!? Please, I''m hanging up now! Leave before these monsters come back! Tell Sunny and my family that I''m sorry!" said Luke who immediately ended the call.

    Luke then threw his phone away then took out his weapons as he abruptly turned around, facing the wolves who were about 3 meters from him.

    "You bastards are gonna fucking regret chasing after me this far!" he shouted as he raised his axe and bashed it at the head of the closest wolf.

    ***

    Roy fell silent for a moment as he listened to the beeping sound after Luke ended the call. His mind was currently in turmoil with how the situation escalated.

    Being a son of a senator, he was expected to keep his emotions in check and always stay calm but the current situation was too much for him! He took a deep breath as he didn''t want Luke to waste his sacrifice as he gazed at the doctors behind him. "Prepare to leave! We don''t have much time before the monsters come back!"

    The doctors were in shock with how Roy changed after a single phone call that seemed to be from his friend who acted as a bait.

    The doctor who shouted at him a while ago suddenly laughed mockingly and sneered as he said, "Weren''t you so arrogant a while ago? Look at you panicking now! Hahahaha!"

    Roy''s men quickly raised their guns, silencing the doctor once again though he still sneered at Roy.

    Roy shook his head and ordered his men to lower their guns. "Let''s go" he said in an indefferent voice.

    The other doctors were glaring at the doctor who just shouted who quickly defended himself, "What are you looking at me for?! That brat acted as if he was some big shot! If it wasn''t for those men with guns, I wouldn''t even bother with him!"

    One of the doctors who was silent the whole time suddenly said in a low voice, "I... I think I know who that young man is"

    "So what if he has some background?! What can that do to us in our situation?!" the angry doctor shouted.

    "He.. I think he''s Senator Roxas'' eldest son.. I remember him back when the senator was campaigning for the election"

    The conference room fell in silence after what the doctor said. The angry doctor suddenly felt chills downhis spine as cold sweat gathered on his back. ''WHAT HAVE I DONE?!?'' he shouted in his mind.

    The doctors quickly stood up one after another as they tried to chase after Roy, leaving the dazed doctor behind.

    As soon as they left the room, they saw that everybody was in panic! People were quickly leaving the hospital, some of which could be seen carrying medicine with them.

    "Doctor! People are looting the pharmacy!" A crying nurse said as she seemed to have gotten hurt after stopping people from looting.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    The doctors felt their chests tighten after what the nurse said as they realized that those people they saw leaving the hospital with medicine actually stole it! But they can''t do anything now! They have to quickly leave the hospital before the monsters come back!

    Some of the doctors made their way outside along with the crowd, with no plans on keeping order around. The head doctor shook his head seeing that as he ordered the few nurses who stayed behind to help people safely leave, and not bother anymore with those looting the pharmacy.

    "Doctor Torres, what about the patients who can''t leave the hospital?" a nurse worriedly asked Doctor Torres, the head doctor.

    Doctor Torres closed his eyes as he shook his head as if he was making a hard decision. "They''ll have to stay"

    Everyone shook their heads after they heard the decision, some of them started to sob, feeling sorry for those who are about to get left behind.

    Doctor Torres then opened his eyes as he gazed at the nurses, "I''m staying here, so you all don''t have to worry about the patients. For those patients who can leave, please help them in doing so and when you reach the army, please make sure to still accompany the patients and take care of their well-being"

    The nurses and doctors stared wide-eyed at their head doctor, he had a family to go back to yet he chose to stay behind and do his duty as a doctor! They felt ashamed as they couldn''t make the same situation as him as they all nodded their heads and left to make sure that everybody who can leave would leave immediately.

    Doctor Torres then watched as everybody else left and sighed as he grabbed a chair at the side and sat on it, not realizing that someone was approaching him.

    "I saw what you just did, doctor" he heard.

    He raised his head and saw Roy smiling at him. "I didn''t do it for fame or to be called some sort of a hero, I''m just doing my job"

    "Don''t you have a family, doctor? What about them?" Roy asked.

    "I do, I have two daughters in high school and a son in the 6th grade. My wife should be at home right now, worrying about me." he said as he smiled bitterly "I just hope they''ll understand my choice and be proud that after everyone left the dying patients here, I still stayed behind and did my duty as a doctor"

    Roy nodded and smiled "The world needs more people like you, doctor. I hope you''ll survive" he said as he left.

    Outside, the people were rushing to leave as they pushed those who were in front of them, some of which fell to the ground and got stepped on. Even though there were nurses and other civilians who tried to maintain order, it barely stopped people from panicking.

    Roy then met up with his men who were pointing out where everybody should head to. Behind them was the security guard, Joshua, and a handsome young man that seemed to be around his late twenties by his appearance. Roy then approached Roy, who was a bit worriedwhen he was told to stay behind before Roy arrived.

    "Can I please go now?" the young man asked.

    "Are you perhaps Luke''s brother?" Roy asked as he couldn''t help but get nervous as he didn''t know how to explain Luke''s situation.

    The young man then glared at Roy and said, "Are you their boss?" he asked as he pointed at Roy''s men. "I''ve been telling them that Luke is indeed my brother and that I am indeed Lyndon Rivera! So please, let me leave before those monsters come back!"

    Roy guiltily shook his head and said, "Your brother came here with us and acted as a bait to make all the monsters here leave the area"

    Lyndon''s eyes widened hearing Roy''s words and just as he was about to say anything, Roy cut him off.

    "He called me a while ago to inform me that he''s facing the monsters and that everyone in the hospital should leave before the monsters come back... so he... he..." Roy choked as he couldn''t finish his words.

    "Stop" said Lyndon as he shook his head. "What other words did he leave behind" he solemnly asked.

    "He just wanted to tell his family that he''s sorry" Roy answered as his eyes got a bit watery.

    Lyndon nodded as he was furrowing his brows and bit his lips. "I understand"

    "He''s a brave man, the main reason we''re here was to rescue you.. I.. I''m sorry for your loss" said Roy as he deeply bowed his head in remorse. "I won''t hold you up here anymore"

    Lyndon then left in slow steps, clearly shaken by the news he just received.

    Roy couldn''t stopa bit of histears from falling after seeing Lyndon slowly leave, Roy didn''t have many friends so Luke''s death truly affected him. He stared at the ground and said to his men "Let''s leave" as he left along with the crowd.

    His men then nodded at him and followed after him.

    They didn''t notice that behind them, there were 5 men studying the altar the hammer was floating on earlier.

    "Look! It''s definitely made of ivory! And it''s also inlaid with gold! We''re rich!" A middle aged man exclaimed.

    The men who were with him immediately got excited at his words as they all mentally agreed that they''re taking the altar with them.

    They quickly surrounded it and tried to lift it, and although it was indeed quite heavy they could still handle the weight. What they didn''t know was their act of moving the altar alerted all the creeps in the area!

    ***

    Luke was currently lying on the ground with every inch of his body covered by blood, both his and the creeps''. His hands were a mangled mess, along with his arms and legs full of bite marks and some parts clearly bitten off. Barely breathing, he didn''t understand why the monsters who were about to finish him off suddenly perked up and just left.

    All sorts of thoughts were on his mind as he felt that he was about to die.

    ''Was it worth it to come here? Yeah, definitely. My family would berelieved with me dying instead of my brother. My old friends barely remember me, so they won''t really miss me. Maybe some of them truly will, Like Shy or maybe Reza and Ni?a? Hahaha. At least before I died I managed to do something good, right?'' he thought as he quickly fell unconscious.

    ***

    "Sir, there aren''t any monsters appearing anymore!" A soldier reported to his officer.

    The officer solemnly stared at the road where a seemingly endless amount of monsters kept appearing and the people from the hospital who kept on coming.

    "Assist in the evaciation of the hospital! Jeric, I want you and your men to stay behind to help keep order here, inform HQ about the situation! We need more trucks to send all these people away from here and we definitely need more reinforcements, I have a bad feeling something happened over there in the hospital!" he ordered.

    After his men left he couldn''t help but think that something must have happened for the monsters to stop appearing "What did those two young men do?" he couldn''t help but ask himself.

    ***

    Roy just arrived at wherethe soldierswere gathered at. He had a blank look on his face as he stared at the ground when the officer leading the soldiers approached him. "You did a good job, boy. But where''s that Luke kid?"

    Roy had a bitter look on his face as he replied. "He sacrificed himself... Giving everyone time to escape and evacuate the hospital"

    The officer shook his head andlamented that the country lost a brave young man. He could have made great contributions to the country with how strong he was.

    He was about to console Roy when a soldier was frantically runningtowards him.

    "Sir! Sir! The monsters are back! And we still haven''t finished evacuation! The soldiers there are already doing their best to hold them back but the monsters seemed to have gotten berserk, not caring how about much they got shot! The soldiers can''t handle the pressure!" the soldier reported.

    The officer frowned while Roy on the other hand stood up and without saying anything, ran towards the direction of the hospital.

    "Kid! Don''t! Shit! Send every soldier here to assist our men over there!" he barked his orders.

    As soon as Roy arrived at the crossroad where he last saw Luke being chased by creeps, he saw the creeps about to reach the soldiers as they stepped over a pile of corpses of other creeps. A soldier was eventually taken down as a civilian shrieked in horror.

    "We''re gonna die!" the young woman shouted as she saw a centaur stepping on a soldier with its body filled with wounds.

    Everyone around her was in panic seeing the situation as they were one of the last ones to leave the hospital and the monsters coincidentally also arrived.

    The people saw the other soldiers getting overwhelmed and the monsters about to reach them when all of a sudden; they saw a young man run in front of them and raised his left hand.

    They saw something shine on his wrist and noticed that a symbol of some sort that was made of ice appearedabove his hand and they couldn''t help but think, ''Superpower!''. They saw the symbolfly to the sky and all of a sudden, it started to snow.

    They were all flabbergasted seeing how it suddenly snowed since they were after all in a tropical country! ''It must be his power!'' they thought. The intensity of the snowfall quickly grew into a storm, with strong winds and the snow quickly piling on the gound when the young man suddenly shouted. "LEAVE RIGHT NOW! WE CAN HANDLE THIS!"

    Everyone stared at the young man as if he was some sort of a god that came to save them, some of them couldn''t help but snap pictures of him to remember this moment as they left while saying thanks to the young man and the soldiers who arrived with him.

 Chapter 14: Revelation

    "Yo kiddo"

    "..."

    "Hey"

    Luke carefully opened his eyes and was greeted by the sight of a human-sized blue frog holding his laughter while sitting on what seemed to be a throne. He saw himself back in the paradise-like place he was in the last time he met Icefrog. Looking at himself, he realized that his clothes wear clean with no holes or tears and no blood in sight. He couldn''t spot any wounds on himself and he couldn''t help but stare at Icefrog.

    Luke: "..."

    "Did the creeps'' mauling turn you dumb or something?" said Icefrog as he snickered.

    "Why the hell do I keep seeing you almost every time I think I died? This time my body was in a wreck, so does this mean I actually survived that?" Luke incredulously asked, skeptical of how he managed to live.

    "Of course you survived. Why? you prefer dying?" Icefrog teased.

    "I think I still prefer living, thank you very much" Luke replied as he rolled his eyes "But seriously though, how the hell did I survive all that? When I wake up, will I look the same as right now?" he couldn''t help but ask.

    "Basically the same, I guess? Of course, besides your clothes, your Reactive Armor can''t possibly restore your clothes too" Icefrog replied as he bit on an apple he pulled out of nowhere.

    Luke''s jaws gaped in astonishment and asked, "So, Reactive Armor can restore my body even if I lose my limbs?"

    "It definitely can, just make sure that you don''t receive a fatal attack at once like getting your head cut off, other than such fatal attacks, you can basically survive almost anything. Just that you''ll feel all the pain, and let me tell you, the process of regrowing lost limbs is not comfortable at all." Icefrog nonchalantly replied.

    Luke couldn''t help but feel a chill down his spine as he unconcsciously touched his neck, imagining it getting sliced.

    "So, why am I in here again? Do I get another reward?!" Luke asked excitedly and forgot the fact that he almost died.

    "No way. I''m not that generous. Can''t I just want to talk to you? You''re unconscious anyway, so you might as well spend your time here. Here, take this apple" said Icefrog who tossed his half-eaten apple at Luke.

    Luke caught the apple with a disgusted expression seeing the drool all around it.

    He was about to curse at Icefrog that he didn''t want to talk with him but once he thought about it deeper, it''s actually great for him to be here and get some information from Icefrog!

    Throwing the apple aside, he smiled brightly and said, "I''ll take you up on that offer then! You mind if I ask you some questions about the ''patch''?"

    Icefrog stared at Luke for a moment, suspicious of how he suddenly got excited but nonetheless agreed. "As long as It''s something I''ll tell everyone else then, sure, I won''t mind"

    Thrilled at how Icefrog agreed, Luke immediately started his barrage of questions. "Great! So, since you brought the abilities, items and creeps from the game, Is there a way for us in the future to fight 5v5 like in DotA?"

    Icefrog relaxed at Luke''s question and replied, "I was about to post about it in my blog tonight, but anyway; yes, everyone can find matches and fight each other 5v5 just like in DotA starting tonight"

    Luke''s jaws dropped in amazement and he looked like a child in an amusement park. "That''s so sick! How would it work then?"

    Icefrog contemplated it for a while and answered, "There are two ways for your people to fight through DotA, the first one is where you can fight anyone from around the world sort of like the pub matches in Dota. The second one on the other hand is sort of likean Olympic LAN tournament style where each country can choose 5 players to represent them and these players can visit other countries and challenge them. You probably don''t know this yet but I made life-sized dota map replicas in each country, that''s where the LAN matches would be held in."

    Luke was puzzled and couldn''t help but ask, "Why is it Olympic style though? The best professional DotA 2 teams are composed of players of different nationalities"

    Icefrog chuckled at Luke''s question and answered, "You have no idea how much man can improve because of pride. Sure, people might still improve themselves if it wouldn''t be olympic style, but because it is, they''d want to try harderfor the recognition of their peopleand to show the other nations thatthe people of their nation are stronger. Those popstars,sports stars and movie stars should step aside, DotA stars are going to take over. And this way, there would be a ranking of strength among all nations. Instead of large-scale wars where millions of innocents are killed, the governments would focus on producing experts in DotA to show their power, isn''t it a great idea? Kukukuku"

    Luke was flabbergasted at Icefrog''s words, he couldn''t help but agree to it! After these DotA stars would pop up one after another, the average people would then realize the potential they all have and as long as they work hard enough, they''ll gain recognition for it!Perhaps in the future, everyone in the world would have abilities! He felt a chilldown his spine, realizing how Icefrog could easily manipulate people to easily accept the changes on Earth.

    But, he also felt thankful of Icefrog. Clearly, Icefrog was trying to make sure that everyone''s strength would vastly improve before those from other worlds would invade the planet.

    Luke went silent for a moment then asked his next question, "But, how would these matches work?will we fight through something like virtual reality?"

    Icefrog perked up with his question as his eyes lit up. "Great question! you''re almost there! It is indeed like virtual reality, but I''ll be using your souls instead. I believe youknow that once youthink in your mind aboutupgrading your abilities, the window for it would appear, right?"

    Luke nodded and said, "Yeah, so you''re saying I just have to think that I want to find a match then a window for it would appear?"

    "Bingo! And just like in Dota 2, players would be grouped up with those of similar strength, or ranking." said Icefrog.

    Luke then suddenly remembered a post he seen online a few days before and asked, "I remember that there was supposed to be a new ranking system in DotA. Can you explain that, first?"

    Icefrog seemed to be enjoying the conversation as he got excited and said, "Sure! There''s a Medal System now, the medals being Herald, Guardian, Crusader, Archon, Legend, Ancient and Divine. Note that that was in increasing order, the weakest being the Heralds and Divine the strongest. And each medal has 6 Divisions which are: Divine, Divine 1, Divine 2, Divine 3, Divine 4 and Divine 5. Of course, there would also be leaderboards for each medal to make sure that everyone knows how strong they are compared to the rest of the world."

    Luke stared in awe at how Icefrog always made sure that everyone would know strong they are, inspiring them to work harder and couldn''t help but compliment him, "Wow, you did a great job"

    Icefrog was pleased as he had a cocky experssion, "Of course, I''m not a God for nothing"

    Luke couldn''t help but laugh at how Icefrog acted like a child who just got praised. "Anyway, back to how we''llfight using our souls. How would that work?"If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    "I made it so that you''ll be using your souls not just because it would be safer but because it would also be of great benefit to you. Once you''re able to find a match, your soul would basically leave your body and gets sent to another dimension I prepared, so make sure that your body would be safe before you find a match, It won''t be my fault if your body gets attacked while you''re in the middle of the match. In that dimension, you''ll basically feel as if you were physically there so you''ll still experience the pain when you get attacked. What I meant when I said that it''s also beneficial for you is that your soul would also get stronger the more you fight in matches, especially if you win, this would improve both your mind and body" Icefrog explained.

    "Amazing, so we can start finding matches tonight?" Lukeasked and didn''t forget to praise Icefrog.

    Icefrog still had the same cocky expression but the corners of his mouth clearly rose in a small smile. "Yes, I''ll be posting on my blog tonight. You know, DotA''s blog"

    Luke immediately got excited but remembering his two abilities, he couldn''t help but ask, "Hey, I don''t think there would be anyone with 4 abilities yet, do you mean we''ll have to fight with what abilities we have for now?"

    "Of course, it''s not my fault that you only have two abilities. That''s already your advantage since most people don''t even have an ability, and for those who did manage to obtain them, they only have 1. You sure are ungrateful, hmph." Icefrog replied as he contemptuously stared at Luke.

    "Geez, I''m just asking. I''m already thankful that my abilities saved my life, no need to be such a grouch" Luke couldn''t help but refute. "Which reminds me, can I obtain more than 4 abilities?"

    Icefrog had an unconcernedlook on his face as he continueddevouring the fruits he pulled out of nowhere, not bothering with Luke''s question as if telling him that he already told him enough information.

    Luke couldn''t help but curse inwardly at Icefrog but realizing that he already gave him a headstartwith the information he gave him, he then grudgingly thanked him in his mind.

    "Hey, give me some food too. Ones that you didn''t take a bite of, please" Luke asked, getting hungry seeing how Icefrog was feasting by himself.

    Icefrog granted his request and gave him food he wanted but the whole time they were eating, he didn''t answer any of Luke''s questions anymore and after some time, Luke''s vision went bright as if a flashbang blew up in front of him.

    ***

    Roy was currently in a medical tent back in the army''s HQ getting his wounds treated. He was guilty of how Luke sacrificed himself for everyone so after he heard how the creeps were about to reach the civilians, he didn''t think twice to defend the people and make sure that Luke''s sacrifice wouldn''t be for nothing.

    He heard someone flap the tent''s entrance open as he raised his head to see who it was and saw that it was Sunny.

    "Brother!" Sunny shouted as she immediately ran towards him in worry and you could see the anxiousness on her face.

    "Don''t worry about me, these are just some superficial wounds; these will heal eventually" said Roy to ease Sunny of her worries.

    Sunny nodded but suddenly asked, "Where''s Luke?" as she looked around the tent but was still unable to see him.

    Roy immediately went silent as he stared at the ground making Sunny frown when a thought passed on her mind and she said, "Oh! Is it because of his ability? So he doesn''t have to get treated right? Hahaha. I was worried for nothing. He''s just around here, right?"

    But, she was once again answered by Roy''s silence and this time you can see her eyes turn a bit watery as she was obviously getting anxious.

    "He''s right around here right? Tell me, brother!" Sunny begged as tears can be seen on her delicate face.

    Roy couldn''t help but get a bit teary eyed seeing his sister as he wiped his tears with his hands and said, "I''m sorry, he couldn''t come back with us"

    Sunny had a look of horror on her face as tears kept falling yet she didn''t make a sound when she asked, "Please tell me he simply went home with his brother"

    Roy shook his head as he bit his lips. "No Sun, he... he''s dead" he said as he choked on the last two words.

    Sunny had a look of despair on her face as she stood up, tears continually falling as her lips were quivering. "Liar! He told me he had to eat more of my cooking! He still has to help me obtain an ability! I won''t believe it until I see his body myself!" She shouted as she ranout of the tent.

    Roy shook his head and felt heartbroken seeing Sunny''s reaction, the other patients and nurses in the tent on the other hand were silent ever since Sunny entered the tent.

    "Excuse me, is Roy Roxas in here? The press is waiting for him" A soldier who just arrived asked.

    ***

    "Fuck" Luke immediately cursed as soon as he regained his consciousness and groaned.

    He sat on the ground and checked his body and couldn''t help but amazed seeing how he was completely healed up even though Icefrog already told him that it would be the case. "Holy shit, Reactive Armor is so overpowered"

    He stood up but as soon as he did so he plopped down to the ground as he lost his strength on his legs. "My legs are in static" he couldn''t help but wryly smile remembering the awkward position of his body when he fell unconscious a few hours ago.

    The army actually patrolled around the area but simply passed by where he was because he entered someone''s property. When he decided to take a last stand against the creeps he realized that the road was a bad place to do it thus he decided to find a place narrow enough that the creeps wouldn''t be able to easily surround him.

    But of course with the creeps already in front of him, he still had to fight his way before he managed to find the appropriate place and he was so wounded in the process and the bloody road and mangled flesh was all the soldiers saw in the area, making them believe that Luke already died.

    It was already evening by the time Luke regained his unconscious and he was greeted by the dark neighborhood lacking of the usual noise of people.

    A few minutes later, he eventually managed to stand by himself as he picked up his hammer beside him. Seeing his tattered clothes, he bashed the door of the house open as he silently said sorry to the owner.

    The owner was obviously quite well off with how luxurious everything inside the house was. Entering the bedroom, he opened the closet and saw that it was the walk-in kind. Filled with clothes, he saw that they were all branded and he couldn''t help but want to grab everything.

    His own closet is filled with clothes that his brothers didn''t want to wear anymore. It''s not that hecouldn''t afford buying clothesbut rather he didn''t want to spend his money on clothes instead of food or other things like electronics or decoration for his small apartment. He figured that he didn''t leave the house much anyway, so he might as well not spend much on clothes.

    He ended up choosing a navy blue blazer with a white shirt for his top and dark jeans for his bottom along with brown leather shoes. He saw celebrities wearing such clothes so he thought that he''d try it out since he decided that he won''t be fighting anymore for today so it would be alright to wear them.

    Looking at himself in the mirror he couldn''t help but think hownice he looked. "I could get used to this" he couldn''t help but blurt out as he laughed at himself.

    Before he''d go back and meet up with the army, he decided to go and check the situation in the hospital.

    After a half-hour walk, he reached the crossroad before the hospital and saw that he couldn''t see any creep from where he was standing. He carefully inched closer and after reaching the corner, he took a peek and saw there also weren''t any creeps in front of the hospital!

    "What the hell happened here?" he couldn''t help but ask as he saw the devastated area filled with the familiar metallic smell of blood. "I definitely did not cause any of these" he mumbled as he stared at his hammer which obviously did not createsuch bloodshed.

    "The altar''s also gone, is this related to why the creeps are gone?" he mumbled to himself as he approached the hospital.

    Carefully checking his surroundings in case there are any creeps nearby, he reached the entrance of the hospital and noticed that it waslocked and saw a snoring security guard inside.

    After knocking on the door a few times, the security guard, Joshua, was roused from his sleep as he quickly stood up in attention and opened the door.

    "Hehe. Sorry about that. It''s been a long day, you see" said Joshua who embarrassedly scratched his cheeks.

    "It''s okay, I understand" said Luke as he smiled at the silly guard. "But what exactly happened out here? Where are the creeps?"

    "Creeps?" Joshua puzzledly asked as he tilted his head when his eyes lit up in understanding "Ah yes! There were young men on the news around your age who called the monsters ''creeps''. Anyway, the monsters who were here are all dead now. Soldiers killed them all butwhat was amazing was the man accompanying the soldiers! He had superpowers like those in movies and comics! You should have seen it! That man made it snow here! Hahaha! All my life i wished that I could go outside the country to know what snowfelt like, then it turned out I would actually experience it here in the Philippines! Hahaha!"

    Luke smiled as he thought, ''looks like Roy managed to show off eh?''.

    "That does sound amazing, do you know where he is right now?" He asked.

    Joshua shrugged and said, "I don''t know, last time I saw him was when he wasinterviewed on the news. Oh! I forgot to mention, that man is actually Senator Roxas'' son! So maybe he went back to Manila? I don''t really know"

    "Oh" was all Luke could reply as he was just too terribly shocked at the moment. ''What the fuck?! He''s a senator''s son?! I knew he had some background but i didn''t think he had such a deep one! Shit! I hit on a senator''s daughter!'' He cursed inwardly.

    Shaking his mind off the Roxas siblings for the moment, he asked Joshua, "Do you perhaps know a nurse here named Lyndon Rivera?"

    "Oh you''re also looking for him? The Roxas kid was also looking for him when he came here. Last time I saw him was when he left with the Roxas kid''s men, so he''s probably safe if you''re wondering" Said Joshua.

    Luke then thanked Joshua and left the hospital still in shock of the revelation of Roy and Sunny''s identity. Since there were no cars in the area, he had no choice but to walk towards the army''s HQ as he wondered how he should treat his new friends the next time he sees them.

 Heroes and Ancients Status

    Hello.

    I''ve written Heroes and Ancients last year while I was suffering from depression just so I could keep myself busy. Now that I''m done with University, I finally have so much free time to write </img> I''ve decided to start writing properly, but unfortunately for this story (which i know quite sucks), I''ll have to put this aside and write a better one. I''m sorry for those who had some (even a tiny bit) expectations for my story, but maybe I''ll rewrite this in the future. </img> But for now, I''ve started to write a story that''s quite similar to Heroes and Ancients which I believe is a whole lot better. Hope the new story will have more readers!Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

    It''s Title btw is "The Vanguard"

    -Liu Cang