Chapter 5

[Congratulations! You have unlocked the Class Cultivator!]

Zach opened his eyes with a smile on his face and uttered, "It worked!

He stood up and shouted in excitement: "I can't believe it actually worked!"

"I was unable to cultivate in the real world, but I can cultivate in this game!"

Zach couldn't stop smiling. However, his smile vanished when a thought crossed his mind: 'What exactly am I cultivating?'

He opened his stats menu to see if anything had changed, but everything was the same.

"Hmm~" he hummed as he looked through his stats.

"My EXP points didn't increase, and my stats definitely won't increase. So what am I cultivating?"

'My soul strength and defense haven't increased either… or rather, they are zero. Nonexistent.'

Zach suddenly gasped in realization as though he had figured out what he was cultivating. He immediately opened his inventory and glanced at the coins, but they were still the same.

"Not money either."

Without giving any deep thought to the matter, Zach focused on his main priority, which was the clear first five floors.

He entered the blue portal and proceeded to the 4th floor.

"30 goblins… sigh!"

Thirty goblins spawned in front of Zach, and not only were they different colors, but their size was big compared to the level 10 rogue goblins.

They were red-colored goblins, and their size was the same as a normal adult human.

They were carrying swords in their hands.

[Level 15. High Goblins! HP- 500/500.]

Zach thought there was no point in planning his attack if he was going to attack them anyway. Instead, he improvised.

Now, his plan was to cut everything he saw. However, there was something else he wanted to try.

'Let's see if this works,' he thought to himself.

He looked into the eyes of one goblin and uttered, "Die."

"... It's not working," he muttered with a disappointed look on his face.

"Father told me that I would be able to use it if I can cultivate, but I guess… I truly am a failure."

'Failure, you say? There is nothing like a failure in this world. You are our greatest success.' Zach recalled what his father used to tell him whenever Zach was feeling down.

"That's right. Father told me never to give and keep trying," Zach uttered to himself.

He gripped his sword tightly and dashed at the goblins.

He swung his sword and cleaved the heads of the first two goblins. Then, he ran past a few goblins without attacking them. After that, he turned around and stabbed three goblins at once by piercing his sword right through their bodies.

He kicked the goblins in front of him and stabbed one in the head, one in the eye, one in the mouth, one in the chest, and one in the sacred spot.

The remaining 20 goblins attacked him at once from all sides. However, Zach simply spun around and slashed the eight goblins who were in the front.

'Is it just me, or is this getting really boring? Like, this game isn't challenging at all.' Zach wondered as he cut and killed six goblins.

Zach had no idea that he was going to eat those words in the near future.

'And they even die in one hit, like come on!'

Zach was indeed killing the goblins in one hit, but it wasn't as though the goblins were weak. He hadn't realized that each and every attack of his was a critical hit that instantly killed the goblins; it was the benefits of his celestial physique.

Zach jumped to the higher ground to catch his breath.

"If this game had something like 'Stamina', I would be forked up."

There was indeed stamina in the game, but as this game was using real-life skills and talents to let players play more freely and realistically, the players had the stamina they had in the real world.

Of course, as they trained harder and powered up in the game, their body was growing stronger in the real world. But unfortunately, Zach wasn't an athletic person, or at least, that's what he always thought. He was the type of person who avoided and ignored things that either didn't matter to him or he didn't find it worth it enough.

He wasn't a social person either. Not an introvert nor an extrovert. He was neutral.

He wouldn't do things that he did not want to, but he would do it if he had to.

Because of his troublesome childhood, Zach's mentality was different from the other kids with the same age as him, in a good way.

That was one of the reasons why he was such a miser whenever it came to spending money.

Zach killed all the goblins but left one. He severed the goblin's hands and placed his hand on its head.

He looked into the goblin's eyes and uttered, "Die."

He waited for a while, but nothing happened. He frowned his face and crushed the goblin's head with his bare hands.

"Why is it not working?" He muttered with a hint of frustration and annoyance in his voice.

[Received 300 EXP]

[Leveled Up!]

[Congratulations! You have received 25 accessible points!]

[Floor 4 has been cleared!]

"Accessible points?" Zach muttered. "I am guessing I can use this to increase my stats?"

Zach opened his stats menu and noticed some changes.

Level-2

HP- 200.

ATK- 100.

Physical Strength- 100.

Mental Strength- 333

Soul Strength- 0

Physical DEF- 100.

Mental DEF- 696

Soul DEF- 0

AGILITY- 10.

MP- Locked (can be unlocked after reaching level 5.)

EXP- 150/1500 (to level up.)

Physique- Celestial- Maxed.

Class- Cultivator. (Maxed.)

Accessible points- 25

"My health capacity automatically increased. That's good."

Zach glanced down at his stats and read further.

"Everything else is the same. No change— the level up EXP capacity also increased!" He exclaimed. "But that's given."

He then looked at the 25 accessible points and thought of using them.

"What should I use them on?" He wondered.

His gaze fell on his stats showing his soul strength and defense, and he smirked widely.

"If I don't get them, so what? I can simply use the accessible points on them to increase it."

Feeling victorious, Zach used ten accessible points on 'Soul Strength'. However, a prompt appeared on his screen saying, [No Soul power detected. Unable to use accessible points.]

Zach sighed and murmured, "I should have guessed it wouldn't be that easy."

He used 8 points on ATK, 8 points on Physical strength, and 9 points on AGILITY.

"I don't need to increase my defense," he asserted in a solemn voice.

Zach was normal and ordinary in everything except his dodging skills.

After training with his father ever since he was only two years old, he had realized that if he didn't get a chance to attack or couldn't block the attack, then all he needed to do was dodge and keep dodging.

However, that was when he was against his father. The skills he considered 'normal' were extraordinary for the rest of the world.

"Now that my agility has been increased, I should be able to clear the 5th floor with ease."

Zach entered the blue portal and proceeded to the 5th floor.

****

Total players in the game 46399

15 new players logged in.

6 players died.

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Author's note- You might have noticed the EXP gain is broken. But it's not. It's all part of the gods' plan and it will be explained in the following chapters.

Thanks for reading.