Without a second thought, I rushed out of bed, doing my best to steady myself against the shaking building. I quickly pulled out the knife I always kept under my bed. I hadn't been able to get the bloodstain off it, but it was still sharp.
BANG!!
A loud thud echoed against my room door, as if someone were trying to bust in. My visibility was poor, with only one candle flickering in the darkness. That bastard hadn't even paid the electricity bill, so I had no choice but to rely on candles.
BANG!!
A hand burst through the door. It was scaled and had claws on the fingers.
A monster.
BANG!!
The next attack tore down the door completely. I readied myself with the knife in hand. The creature that stood before me was short, with green skin and sharp claws. There was more than one of them—three, to be exact.
I recognized them immediately from my textbooks—goblins.
A menacing smile spread across their faces, and I heard what sounded like chuckling. One of them charged at me with unparalleled speed, slashing its sharp claws toward my feet. I dodged the attack, stumbling awkwardly.
My broken arm limited my movements significantly, but I still swung the knife at it, aiming for its oversized head. The blade bounced off as if it were nothing. Seizing the opportunity, it clawed at my stomach. I blocked the attack just in time with my broken arm.
At least it good for something.
With its claws lodged in my broken arm, I kicked it to the ground, but immediately another one jumped in to attack. I barely managed to evade it; its claws were inches away from gouging out my eyes.
I clasped the wound on my broken arm as I was backed into a corner. The wound wasn't very deep since their claws weren't particularly long.
"HELP!!"
A horrified voice came from the other room.
"Dad?"
Immediately, more goblins poured into my room, surrounding me. My eyes darted back and forth as I searched for something—anything—that could help me out of this situation. Then…
[DING!]
[YOU HAVE AWAKENED YOUR BLACKSMITH SYSTEM]
[DING]
[YOU HAVE UNLOCKED SKILL: ENHANCEMENT]
[DING!!]
[YOU HAVE BEEN GIVEN 15 SKILL POINTS]
[WOULD YOU LIKE TO ENHANCE YOUR WEAPON] [Y/N]
My weapon? Does it mean my knife?
"Yes"
[OPENING WEAPON'S STATS]
+-----+
LEVEL: BASIC GRADE
SHARPNESS: 5
DURABILTIY: 3
WEIGHT: 30
[WITH YOUR LEVEL, YOU CAN ONLY ENHANCE THREE PROPERTIES:]
[PLEASE CHOOSE HOW YOU WOULD WISH TO SPEND YOUR POINTS]
+-----+
What do these stats even mean? What metric are they measuring? I'll have to worry about that later; right now, I need to focus on killing these things.
[ENHANCEMENT]
+-----+
SHARPNESS 5->11
DURABILITY 3->7
WEIGHT 10->5
+-----+
The weapon began to emit a yellow glow, and sparks started flying off the blade. At that moment, one of the creatures lunged at me, and in mid-air, I plunged my knife into its chest. A pungent purple liquid seeped onto my hand.
Wasting no time, the others charged at me, but I cut them down with ease. Reducing the weight of the knife made my movements even faster. I only spent five points, but it felt like the weight was cut in half.
The sharpness had increased drastically, allowing me to penetrate their thick skin with ease. I managed to kill all of them without much trouble; they were weak and quite slow. By the time I was finished, I collapsed to the floor in exhaustion, my room covered in their purple blood.
I managed to awaken, huh?
[DING!]
[YOU HAVE GAINED 30 SKILL POINTS]
Huh, so killing the goblins gave me skill points. I killed six of them so that means I got five points each.
"Status."
It actually worked! Immediately, a holographic screen appeared in front of me, just as the teachers had said.
Status
+-----+
System: Blacksmith System
Name: Liam Morningstar
Age: 14
Height: 5'9
Weight: 45 kg
Health: D
----Skills
+Enhancement
++Skill Level: Apprentice
[System Vision: A jack of all trades is a master of none]
[Note: To unlock more skills, you must master the previous skill]
+-----+
It seems I don't have any stats for physical abilities like strength and agility. The teachers said those are usually included, but some systems don't have them. The trembling was beginning to die down; the heroes must have closed the dungeon.
Though I was still exhausted, I pried myself off the ground and left the room. The front door was busted open, as was the door to my father's room. I steadied my grip on my knife as I approached the entrance.
As I entered, I stepped into a pool of liquid. I glanced up to see my father—what remained of him. He had been ripped to shreds while tied down, and pieces of his flesh littered the entire room. His face was ripped off. The sight was barbaric, to say the least.
But there was only one thing I needed to do: untie him and clean up the mess he left behind. The hero association would find it suspicious if they came here and saw him tied up since they were responsible for all dungeon-related incidents.
As for the mess, I meant the bucket I had placed beside his bed. I dumped it in the toilet. There were commotions going on in the hallway as people cried in despair. I didn't bother to look; instead, I barricaded the entryway with a couch.
After a couple of hours, the alarm echoing throughout the city stopped, and not long after, a hero from the hero association arrived. He was dressed in all black and wore goggles over his face.
I recognized him from the hero codex. I didn't remember his rank, but I thought his name was 'Clairvoyance.'
"Are you okay?" he asked, noticing me standing in the middle of the room holding a knife.
"My dad… he's dead."
He walked over to me and placed his hands on my shoulders. "It's okay, buddy. Everything will be alright." He embraced me in a hug. "What happened to the monsters?"
"I killed them. I had an awakening, and I also broke my arm."
"Let me see." I lifted my arm to show him, and he closely inspected it. "Yup, it's definitely broken. Don't worry; we have a healer outside. The dungeon has been closed. For now, we need to evacuate the building."
Following the hero's lead, I exited the building. He tried to shield me from the bodies piled up in the hallway, but it was a fruitless effort; it was too hard to miss.
As I exited the building, I saw about a dozen heroes. The only thing that outnumbered them was the news reporters, who they were desperately fighting off. Apparently, the dungeon had opened right outside my apartment building, which was evident since it was still open.
It looked like they were looting it for whatever valuable resources were inside. The gate to the dungeon resembled a spiral of blue energy. I could feel the mana emanating from it—maybe it was because of my awakening.
The hero brought me over to one of the tents where the healers were. Inside was a single female hero wearing a yellow spandex suit that clung to her curves nicely. She also wore a yellow mask that covered the eye portion of her face.
I recognized her from the hero codex; if I wasn't mistaken, her hero name was 'Miss All Monday.'
"I've got a 14-year-old boy here. It looks like he's broken his hand," Clairvoyance told her.
She turned to me and smiled, and that's when I recognized her. It was the same girl who had given me the mana injection.