William and his mother Joyce had gone for a drive to the local mall in order to get him some new clothes, as the ones he currently wore were obviously becoming too tight to function properly in.
"SLAM!"
The doors to the car slammed shut as they headed into the store.
Almost immediately upon entering, the staff and a crowd of customers took notice of
William's abs poking from his midriff, causing a few women's faces to turn red in embarrassment while a few men became irate in response.
William awkwardly scratched the back of his head as he walked into the store. The constant, thirsty glares sent the occasional shiver down his spine.
It felt like he was walking straight into a den of lions.
It was not long before a particularly brave young woman approached him in an attempt to flirt, but before she could get close enough to get a word out, his mother Joyce intercepted her like a bouncer at a nightclub. Calm and smiling but a fire in her eyes that said: Try it, bitch!
No matter what the young girl tried, Joyce managed to cut her off before she could get close.
William glanced back and saw his mom still locked in a battle of wills with the girl from before, he didn't notice the salesclerk approaching until a sweet scent hit his nose as William was eyeing a somewhat worn-looking sweater he turned his head to come face to face with a dark-skinned beauty with sharp green eyes fixed on him in a way he could not quite place.
"That one is nice, but I think you will look better in something that fits just right... want a second opinion?"
William was taken aback and could only stand there and blink for a moment before stammering in his words.
"I... I was just uh... checking the size!" he said, tugging at his shirt to hide his exposed midriff.
"Why does she smell so nice?" he thought internally.
She gave a soft laugh, eyes twinkling like stars as she looked him over.
"Looks like your shirt gave up trying a long time ago, lucky for you, finding the perfect fit is my specialty!"
She puffed her chest before leaning closer and grabbing William's hand with a playful smile on her face before pulling him into a dressing room.
William followed half in a daze, wondering how things had escalated so fast, however, a certain part of him was hardly complaining.
She brought William into the dressing room and closed the door. She turned around towards him and began examining his body.
Suddenly, she moved closer and began taking measurements of his body with a small measuring tape she had in a pocket while making sure to press her bountiful chest into William's muscular chest and back every chance she got.
William held himself rigid, afraid that even the slightest movement might cause an accidental touch or worse, a reaction he could not hide. However, no amount of self-control could stop the heat pooling in his gut. He prayed she would not notice the reaction brewing below, but before he could hide the sudden bulge before she bumped into it with her thigh.
Their eyes went wide in shock for different reasons, hers went wide due to the girth he was packing under his trousers, his went wide out of sheer embarrassment.
"I... I... I am so sorry!" William said as he hid his face behind his hands, but after a few seconds, all he heard was a chuckle before he looked down and saw her giving him a look that caused his blood pressure to increase.
"Well... someone's eager" she said with a smirk, "Cute, but I don't really skip to dessert!" She teased before rising to meet his gaze and kissing him on the cheek and blowing air into his ear.
This action of hers did not exactly help his situation and in fact made it worse but she remained professional if not flirty while she took his measurements, she leaned in close, her chest pressing tight against her shirt causing the fabric to strain.
While she was doing this through a walkie talkie, she had another worker bring the two a set of clothing in William's size and after they were done, he was dressed in a dark blue shirt which hugged his muscles but did not constrict and some tight-fitting black pants she picked because she liked the way his print looked in them.
The whole time she was taking measurement she was feeling him up as well and she was more than impressed so before they both left the dressing room, she slipped him her number and was about to leave when he grabbed her by her hand and spun her back around before staring her down in a way that left a shiver down her spine.
"I should leave first, if my mother saw you leaving first, there is no telling what she would do to you!"
He explained, and she nodded quickly, but the blush rising from her cheeks betrayed the sudden shift in her confidence.
William soon walked out of the dressing room with several pieces of clothing all measured to fit, and found his mom still watching that girl from before like a hawk.
"Mom, I am ready!"
He said as he approached her from behind, but the distraction is enough for the woman she was currently blocking to be able to slip past and approach him with a blatantly seductive tone to her voice attempting to hit him with the damsel in distress by faking a tripping fall.
"OH NO I TRIPPED, HELP!"
She attempted, but was met with Joyce's palm to her face before she could pretend to fall on her son!
As the duo was leaving the store, one of the angry men whose date was formerly fawning over William had finally snapped!
He quickly walked out of the store following the duo and soon tossed Joyce aside while cocking back a punch to throw a punch towards William who had only just reacted to his mom being tossed by looking in her direction with concern, before seeing the incoming threat from his peripheral vision and turning his head to meet the man with an infuriated glare.
"Crack!"
The rather large fist of the young, arrogant man who attacked him struck true on William's cheek, but unfortunately for him, that was all it did.
William neither moved backward nor winced in pain as his eyes were locked the man in front of him, his anger practically oozed from him like an aura and his shadow seemed to roil like living darkness before with a grip like iron pincers, he grabs the man's wrist and squeezes!
"CRUNCH!"
The bones in the man's wrist broke like a twig, and the man leaped backward and fell to the ground while screaming.
A crowd began to form around the guy as he tried to pin assault on William; however, luckily for him, a passerby had been recording at the time, forcing the man to flee with an evil look in his eye as he drove off.
After a second of watching the man leave William turns to his mother and looks her over to see if she is injured before helping her to her feet and suddenly the two are surrounded by the crowd who were equally concerned and impressed.
As William was guiding his mother back to the car to go back home, they were both unaware of the person within the crowd who had a phone to her ear, "Hey boss I think I found your next recruit!" after saying this into the microphone she sent him a video of the event that occurred outside the mall.
"Interesting... good job!" The caller hangs up after saying this, and she hangs up as well.
The dark-skinned store clerk hung up her phone, looking pleased that she was going to get paid again before returning to her job.
As William and Joyce returned home, they spent some time trying on the clothes and picking good combinations before she began working on dinner, and after eating with his sister Shelby, who went on to talk about her day during the meal, William decided to go to bed and rest.
He woke once again in the strange world and got up before performing some mild stretches to get rid of the remaining sleepiness in his body.
William spent some time after stretching, gathering some loose wood, and building a small fire.
After completing the fire, a prompt showing his Handicrafts skills experience had increased ever closer to leveling up, and he decided he should probably do some grinding, if this was truly a game-like world, it would naturally have exploits as well.
He rubbed his hands together as he imagined how powerful he could become, from leaping over tall buildings with a single bound to atomizing a mountain with the power of his punch.
Using the axe from the goblins he slew before he began chopping down some tree's and due to his somewhat extraordinary strength, it only took a solid ten swings before the tree no longer had the ability to stand upright and fell in front of William.
DING
He once again gained experience in handicrafts, although not as much this time, which confused William to the point he tried another tree to see if it would happen again.
DING
He received an exact amount of experience again and was 78% of the way to leveling up the skill.
With an excited look in his eye, William began madly chopping down trees.
DING
DING
DING
DING
DING
DING
He had already leveled up the Handicrafts and was now nearing the halfway point to the next level when he stopped chopping and whipped the sweat from his brow with his own shirt.
He opened his system menu and selected skills before opening the Handicraft skill.
Handicraft Lvl - 3 Exp - 122/300 (Common -> Upgradeable) skill gained - Effects
(Passive) +14% Improved Item Durability.
+8% Faster Crafting Speed.
+19% Aesthetic Enhancement to crafted items.
(Active) Cost: 10 Mana per Activation.
8% chance for items to create a perfect item. (Zero Defects)
28% Chance to create a superior-grade item
It had definitely improved, not by a huge margin but by with a steady amount of effort this skill could become great.
He took a goblin blade from his pack and began removing the bark with surprising ease, as the bark came off like he was cutting through butter.
However, he looked over and saw a prompt with a steadily increasing exp bar and was astonished to find that this counted as a Handicraft, so it would affect and be affected by the skill.
It took less time than he thought before he had a stack of good wood ready to be cut into planks, but he decided to go with logs instead for now to save time.
In a few hours that to him felt like minutes, he had successfully built a rudimentary cabin that had its own running water source, thanks to the river, however, the insides were mostly bare as he had yet to craft any furniture, not that he had any materials that would work for comfort anyways.
DING
Handicraft Lvl - 4 Exp - 354/400 (Common -> Upgradeable) skill gained - Effects
(Passive) +16% Improved Item Durability.
+10% Faster Crafting Speed.
+20% Aesthetic Enhancement to crafted items.
(Active) Cost: 10 Mana per Activation.
9% chance for items to create a perfect item. (Zero Defects)
29% Chance to create a superior-grade item
William was shocked, not only had he leveled up his Handicraft skill once, but he nearly leveled it twice.
He pondered over the cause and could only come to a single conclusion.
"Big things are worth more points!"
He shouted in glee before entering his new cabin in the woods.
After putting away some of his tools, he equipped himself with a full set of gear that he was able to use with great effect, namely the spear, which he put on his back after building a rudimentary strap for it, the short bow along with 17 useable arrows, and the pair of daggers at his waist.
He smiled as he looked back at his handiwork before turning back around and dashing into the woods.
It took him about half an hour at his speed before he found a roaming trio of goblins with two on the ground and one riding a strange wolf/hyena hybrid.
He activated his Sneakskill and moved to a higher position where he had a clear shot of the mounted goblin who was barking some incoherent orders to the two on the ground.
As he did so, the exp bar for the skill continued to rise, but his stamina bar was also dropping so before the skill could drain him, he fired upon the goblin ride and as the goblin was ranting an arrow suddenly stuck out from the back of his neck before the goblin fell over the beast he was riding.
It had appeared William had severed the poor creature's spinal cord.
DING
He heard the system prompt but ignored it in favor of activating his Focus skill, causing his stamina to once again drop, he grasped the spear on his back and leaped from the tree he was standing on his heart racing as the blade of the spear slowly approached the confused beast who had only just realized its master had died.
"ROOOOOAAAAA...."
The beast's roar was cut off mid-sentence as a spear pierced its brain.
DING
The focus skill deactivated just as he was pulling his daggers free from their straps on his waist, and the goblins were suddenly aware of his presence.
He rushes the smaller of the two goblins and managed to sink his dagger into its neck before it could put up its guard and the creature spat up black blood as it fought for life however it was all for naught as the light eventually left its eyes and the creature collapsed to the ground with the occasional twitch.
DING
He spun around to see the other goblin in the middle of a downward swing of a strange heavy headed axe which he was forced to reactivate focus to barely dodge just in time for the blade to slice a few hairs slightly on his head slightly shorter than before.
The surprising dodge of the axe causes it to become lodged in a tree and unable to be pulled free before the goblin felt cold iron pressed against its neck and suddenly it was gurgling out mouthfuls of blood as he has slit the creature's throat.
DING
As there were no goblins left in the group, William decided to open the system menu to check his gains and was pleasantly surprised.
Focus - Level 3 (50/300 EXP) Attained - Uncommon -> Upgradeable - Active Effects - Use 15 Stamina to slow down your perspective of time by 22%, allowing you to plan ahead in times of need.
Sneak - Level 4 (125/300) Attained - Uncommon -> Upgradeable - Passive Effects: Become 24% harder to see and hear in the shadows.
William ran off into the distance unaware that a goblin with what appeared to be old, poorly handled telescope was watching him the entire time.
Soon, they would discover where he lives, and then they would have their vengeance.
Meanwhile, in a nearby kingdom!
"Your majesty, we have received reports that goblin invasions leaving the forest of death have ceased for several weeks, as this is unheard of given how quickly these abominable creatures breed, we should send a team to investigate at once to make sure something bigger isn't afoot."
The man sitting on the throne, who could only be the king or emperor, stared at his brave generals and back at the messenger before nodding.
"Send a small team to investigate at once and send the third princess with them, it's about time she had some time outside these damned walls anyways!"
The messenger pressed his fist to his chest and bowed.
"At once, your majesty!"