Just a few moments later and Jack was out of the room, a cold morning air greeting his face and lungs as he stepped out. It felt like a chilly, though otherwise pleasant spring day, still carrying a slight reminiscence of the recently passed winter and snow that covered the land, or at least that was how Jack felt at this moment. 'Snow huh? haven't seen that in a long, long time.' he smirked to himself as moved out of the way should anyone else decide to leave through the same exit he had just moments before.

  He looked up and off into the distance, his eyes searching for that familiar sight he had chased all the way back the first time around after a particularly unlucky hunt. He had run into a group of hobs as he had hunted on his lonesome- not what he could have dealt with at the time, resulting in quite a few bruises regardless of the hasty retreat he had performed. Due to said party having a tracker of their own, he was also forced to pick some sort of a landmark to follow, lest he walks in circles and gets caught up to by said group.

  "There you are." jack smiled as he noticed what he was looking for, just barely recognizing the old, half dead tree top, it's branches like some sort of monster claws spread out as if awaiting it's pray to just stumble upon it, signing their own death warrant. Wasting no more time, he started to move in the very same direction, pulling out his slicing spear he had chosen as his weapon. It looked like most normal spears if one were to look at it from afar, the obviously elongated shaft providing plenty of reach and a sharp, point tip for proper and deadly stabbing. What seperated the slicing spear from a normal one was its elongated metal tip and the sharp, sword like edges to the sides, allowing the spear to be used for slicing as well, though one had to have some understanding and skill to use the duality of the weapon to its fullest potential, and Jack, he had plenty of skill this go around.

  As he moved forward, he also did what he knew he had to do, though was unwilling do in the presence of the angel, thus, as he moved forward towards his goal, he willed his status screen to appear.

  Jack Raja(?)

  Age- 27

  Species- human(?)

  Class- none

  Level- 0

  Stats unassigned: 0

  Attributes:

  Strength- 7

  Vitality- 7

  Dexterity- 5

  Intelligence-7

  Spirit- 20

  Skills- none

  Spells- temporary spatial storage (shrinking)

  'As expected for the most part, though my spirit is way above what humans can hope to achieve and totally off when compared to the last time. Then again, how could it not be? Who I was then and who I was right before the regression, the two cant even be considered the same species, let alone the same person. Also would explain why system is not sure I am even human now, or sure about the family name. It's been a few decades since I last used it, to the point I don't even believe it to be a part of my identity.' he mused as he moved forward still, in the very corner of his eye noticing movement.

  "Already here? Ain't that a bit too close to the starting area?" he wondered out loud as he dashed towards the movement, moments later coming into the view of the cause of said movement. A relatively small, around a meter or so tall, child like, green skinned and ugly looking creature with a club in hand was there, staring at him for a short moment as it charged forward, a shrill shriek leaving it's mouth, sharp teeth revealed as it did so. Goblins- not the smartest, or strongest, or most agile of the creatures, but what they lacked in attributes they more than made up for in viciousness and straight up vile nature. Not a single sapient race would ever advocate for sparing a single of these creatures, not that jack would anyhow, he had heard plenty of horror stories about large goblin parties razing smaller villages to the ground, leaving not a single body behind, dragged along with them to either devour or worse if one happened to be captured alive.

  See, the goblins were extremely cruel and sadistic beings in nature, preferring to elongate someone's suffering as much as possible if at all able. Did not matter if you were a bloke unlucky enough to survive the encounter, kept alive for some time longer as an emergency food source that would not spoil so fast, or a woman whose fate was guaranteed to be worse than just death and torture.

  With precise movement, jack closed the distance and utilised the reach advantage he had due to his spear, impaling the creatures throat as it was charging towards him as well, ending the fight in mere moments.

  "Too feral. Something's off." he quickly concluded as he sensed and ignored the notification about earning experience. He went even further as he willed for all other experience notifications to be muted and kept in the background as it would be slightly irritating over a long periods of time to hear a metaphorical ping in your mind after every kill achieved. 'Those little shits behave like this in two cases only. A horde has recently formed or there was more than one group with overabundant supply of food, prey and breeding stock and had grown too large, followed by said supply rapidly dwindling, as a result the weakest are pushed out of their 'groups' and grow feral and desperate. Whichever the case, neither is good for the people entering this zone. Was it the same the last time around? Or has something drastically changed?' he thought to himself as he kept on moving ahead.

  As he passed through the forest, he encountered a few more stray and just as feral goblins that he dispatched just as easily as the first one, until he ran into something he actually recognized. A fairly familiar group of hobs he would never forget, especially the one with a crude, yet still functioning bow and another one with a spiked helmet that had one broken horn. Hobs, or as they were otherwise called- hobgoblins, were an evolved form of goblins, reaching the size of humans, though much stockier than your average person.

  "Hello there little shits." he grinned, remembering how he had to run away last time. "Let's have ourselves another go then, shall we?" he twirled his spear as he calmly approached them, deflecting a couple of arrows shot in his direction by the single archer of the hob group.

  "Nu-ah. That is not how we play the game this time around. This time, it's me who is doing the killing, and you- the running!" the grin on Jack's face turned downright predatorial as the first of the hobbs came into his reach and immediately regretted it. A quick stab and a howl of pain escaped the hobbs mouth, one of it's legs pierced, the muscle on one side of the bone entirely cut as well with just the slightest pull of the sear to the side, leaving the hob on the ground and squealing in pain.

  "Just wait there patiently while I deal with the rest here. It won't take too long after all." Jack laughed as he moved slightly to the side, avoiding another arrow shot at him as he was using the bodies of the remaining Hobbs that came in melee as a makeshift fence that hid most of his body from the last of their group. Then, using the experience he had engraved in his being, he utilized the slicing spear to its utmost potential, piercing and slicing the attacking Hobs with every opening that he was given and since he was dealing with just hobgoblins, there were plenty of such openings for him to exploit. A sidestep, followed by a quick stab, followed by a quick backstep while pulling the spear further back as well, followed by another sidestep and yet another thrust, wounding yet another of the hobs. In such a manner Jack quite quickly only had the archer left to deal with.

  Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  As it turned out, being the last one standing was what finally caused the cowardly shit to turn and try to run away, only to be greeted by by a sickly sound and yet anther shriek as it was pierced through it's back, the tip of Jack's spear that he had thrown just now poking through the hobs chest, causing it to drop to it's knees as it wheezed for air.

  " It's game over for you." Jack spoke emotionlessly as he pulled back the spear, the hob falling on the ground dead. Next, Jack moved towards the remaining hobs and quickly finished them off too, then grabbing the bow and the remaining arrows that were still in the archers quiver and leaving the spot of massacre behind. The fight did not last too long, a few minutes tops, but he was sure that soon enough more goblins would be swarming the area, those screams of pain no doubt having reached more than just a single other party in the vicinity and Jack, he would prefer to be at his destination at the very least by the time they reach here.

  -------------------

  An hour or so later, Jack was sitting on a rather large boulder, his spear pressed against his shoulder as he seemed to be deep in thought. The sound of water falling and crashing against the relatively small pond at the waterfalls feet overwhelming any and all other sounds in the vicinity. Jack though was not bothered by it one bit, a slight smile on his face as he both took in the example of nature's might and unyielding form, as well as checking out the notifications he had received.

  Jack Raja(?)

  Age- 27

  Species- human(?)

  Class- none

  Level- 2

  Stats unassigned: +2

  Attributes:

  Strength- 7+4

  Vitality- 7+4

  Dexterity- 5+4

  Intelligence-7

  Spirit- 20

  Skills- none

  Spells- temporary spatial storage (shrinking)

  Titles(unlocked): The real Monster, Big Game Hunter.

  He knew that titles are awarded if one fulfilled special conditions and that there were certain titles that granted permanent boost to ones stats, thus being no doubt quite the lucrative thing to pursue, assuming the conditions to achieve them were known. It was important to note that only for the first ten levels were there any guaranteed stat points awarded, with the same happening relatively rare after that point, forcing people to depend on either elixirs that were insanely rare and astronomically expensive, or the good old training to grow stronger. One might then ask -what's the point of leveling past level ten then? The answer was also quite simple in turn- to raise ones upper limits ever higher, for without doing so no matter how much you trained, you would plateau quite quickly in whatever training one had chosen to do, be it lifting weights or reading books.

  Was it any wonder then that attribute increasing titles and the condition to acquire them would also cost insane amounts, assuming the person in the know was willing to sell said knowledge. Why would they would want for a possible enemy to grow stronger on their dime as well? No, most of such titles and the conditions to unlock them if known were kept close to ones chest, only rarely shared with the closest friends and confidantes.

  "Let's see what we have here." he spoke in a rather quiet voice, focusing on the titles one after another.

  The real Monster- Who is the real monster here? Taking down a group of another species second advancement while having none of your own? Keep this up and everyone around you will realise the same. Strength + 3, Vitality +3, Dexterity +3.

  Big Game Hunter- Only real hunters start off big straight away. Awarded for killing a creature with more than five level gap at level zero. Strength +1, Vitality +1. Dexterity +1.

  "Nice indeed." he hummed as he inspected his gains for a moment. The plus four to his three physical attributes was a massive gain, pushing him above peak human capabilities. He could now even afford to keep his two free attributes in reserve for the moment as his gaze returned to the small lake in front of him, it's surface chaotic from the waves created by the never ending water falling down the waterfall.

  As he looked at the chaotic surface, a slightly blurry, yet still vivid memory in it's own right resurfaced in his mind, not by the fault of his lacking mental capacity mind you. No, the memory was from a time far in the past, one could actually argue that it was a memory from the future as well, since jack would not have arrived at this for a few more hours at the very least in his previous go around. In the memory, wounded and exhausted Jack stumbled upon the lake, still in a panicked escape from the same group of hobs he had already slaughtered. As he approached the lake his leg slipped and he tumbled forward, falling into the water, only for something unexpected to happen- instead of getting soaked, he found himself in a dimly lit cave, the only source of light were crystals embedded into the cave walls.

  "Hello old friend." He smiled lightly as he rose to his feet, the spear held in his hand as he walked up to the lake, confidently stepping into it, only for the same thing to happen again, with him standing in the same, dimly lit cave.

  Luminous cave dungeon event found. Clear it fro mall monsters and slay the creature protecting the core. Rewards calculated upon completion based on contribution.

  System message unformed him as the slight smile on his face was replaced by a ferocious and battle hungry grin, a habit he had picked up in his previous go around.

  He inhaled deeply, the slightly stale underground air that was filled with just the faintest smell of blood filled his lungs "Just as beautiful and twisted as I remember. Let's create some new, magnificent memories together, shall we old friend?" he laughed almost demonically, heading deeper inside. A few minutes later he encountered the first monster group, consisting of five entities. Frogmops. A rather weird creature growing up to one and a half meter height that resembled green tree frogs that walked on two legs just like humans, though the frog like back leg structure made their gait seem incredibly awkward. The creatures were also notoriously short sighted and had lost the most signature thing of frogs- they had no tongue that could be used like frogs used theirs. Armed with simple, meter long corral spears they nonetheless reacted to jack's approach, quickly turning his way and sauntering over, their movement as awkward as one would expect, their real advantage lay in water combat after all, their webbed feet and slimy body serving as quite the tool to maneuver inside water.

  Unfortunately, the battle would take place on land, making them quite the easy picking for Jack. Unlike the hobs he had fought before, he could simply stat check these creatures and so, deftly parrying the stabs coming his way he used the opening he created with said parries to deliver deadly stabs in vital areas of the frogmops, quickly dispatching them with relative ease. When the group was dealt with, he did stop this time, cutting off the legs of this quarry. He needed some rations since this cave system was a job of days, for the previous him of course, but why waste a perfectly good chicken legs, for the frogmops tasted like one when you did not have to. And he would surely grow hungry soon enough.

  "Now then, what path should we walk this time around?" he mused as he advanced, encountering another group of frogmops every ten or so minutes, earning enough time in between packs to catch some breath and recover what little energy he spent. He could do little but shake his head in disappointment at his own lack of experience the first time around as every encounter kept him on edge and was quite exhausting back then. Not anymore, the abundance of experience and skill with his chosen weapon, as well as the weapon itself served him greatly to trivialize every encounter. Add to it the superior stats he already possessed thanks to the two titles he received and his new path was promising to be smooth sailing.

  "I already did the warrior/berserker style previously, so that is a no go." he talked to himself, dispatching yet another group of frogmops. "Wait, I have the experience and skill with me regardless, so could I just not pick some crafting profession and go with that? There will be a liter metric tons of stuff to use as crafting materials in the endless abyss after all. Fucking hell, that sounds like some scarily good shit. I was always in need of some new stuff. Those traders at the safe zones charged an arm and a leg after all."

  The next few hours were spent in a similar manner as Jack advanced further and further along the tunnel, his weapons amassing more and more blood as some had even stained his clothes as well.

  "I knew it was not supposed to be done for days." he grinned as he stood before an expansion of the cave, before him a rather large area with very shallow, ankle deep water pond of sorts. In the very center of the pond, a naga lay, as though resting and waiting for something. Nagas were a creatures with snakes lover half and reptilian like, humanoid upper bodies, covered in scales and a few fins on their backs. They were much stronger than frogmops, often enslaving the latter to perform menial tasks for them or serve as an emergency food if necessary. A rather beautifully crafted coral halberd lied at its side, indicating both the skill of it's wielder and the might it had to wield such large weapon.

  "Hm?" jack furrowed his brow at the sight. "I don't remember you being here. And where is the entrance to the abyss?"

  Jack Raja(?)

  Age- 27

  Species- human(?)

  Class- selection available

  Level- 5

  Stats unassigned: +5

  Attributes:

  Strength- 7+4

  Vitality- 7+4

  Dexterity- 5+4

  Intelligence-7

  Spirit- 20

  Skills- none

  Spells- temporary spatial storage (shrinking)

  Titles(unlocked): The real Monster, Big Game Hunter.