The Only Thing I Can Upgrade is Strength chapter 16

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Sgar took me aside after the discussion about the attack ended. “So, you’re at least level 4 now… right?”

“Ah… not yet.” I scratched the back of my head, “Am I slow at leveling?”

Sgar sighed, “Not really but… you’re too strong. When we first met your Strength was… surprisingly in the low 100’s, even though it looked more like… 0. Now you’re low 200’s without levels.”

His numbers were quite precise. Had I been found out? Was it okay to tell him I was from another world? I didn’t remember the sign saying if there was a stigma about that or not… just that it happened. “Ah, well… I have a unique skill that gives me more Strength, and Father Thomas cured my sickness so I’m growing rapidly…” That was all true, if not quite the way I intended it to be taken.

“If you were sick with that much Strength, what are you, some kind of tiny giant?” Sgar shook his head, “You don’t have to tell me. If your other stats are similarly good, you can fight wolves without any problem.”

I shook my head, “I’m afraid not. Everything else is pretty… normal.”

We still did a training session that day, though it was a little bit shorter than normal because of the delayed start. Sgar still had things to do after all… theoretically. I’m sure he did something.

—–

When I looked at my stats later, I was surprised by the increase. Not by the fact that Strength had gone up more- that was normal. Instead, Luck had gone up again. Two points, even. That wasn’t as amazing, but since it normally didn’t go up at all… well, it was nice.

It made me wonder how Luck went up. I certainly couldn’t train it. I thought of the circumstances involved… and the only answer I could come to was Kantrilla. Both times I met her my Luck had gone up afterwards, and not at any other time. With the amount of emphasis she placed on Luck… it probably wasn’t a coincidence. I wasn’t sure how my Luck grew from that, but it was possible that it… literally rubbed off on me? Could that even happen? Had her Luck gone down? I didn’t like that idea at all. Though if my Luck went up just from being around her with no downsides… I did like that idea. Spending time with her had been interesting, even if both times had been brief.

—–

As time went on, I was glad I came to this world when I did. It started getting colder, and while it wasn’t too much of a problem… if I had to survive in the wilderness I would have run into some problems. A thin layer of snow covered the ground, but it was actually pleasantly cool when out hunting rabbits. I still ended up sweating from exertion, even in the cold. It was about a month after I entered Trona, and a bit more than a month and a half since I had come to this world.

As it got colder, horned rabbits grew a bit more scarce, and I found myself roaming a bit further than normal to try to find them. It was still well out of the forest, and thus the wolves’ territory. I could probably fight one or maybe two of them, but the problem was that they hunted in packs. They would also work better together in a tactical sense than the horned rabbits. If I could quickly kill them, it wouldn’t be a problem, but I wasn’t going to test it out with my life on the line. Killing horned rabbits was fine.

*Crunch* came the ever familiar sound of a horned rabbit dying. I stooped down to put it in my bag. If I had red clothing and was fat, I would be like Santa Claus, carrying a sack over my shoulder. As it was… I was just a skinny dude with a sack. I was still skinny, but at least my bones weren’t so… visible. I wasn’t sickly anymore, and it was pretty great.

I thought I had probably gathered enough rabbits for the day, so I turned around to head back. That was when I saw the wolf. It blended into the snowy landscape… not perfectly, but just enough to make things difficult. I quickly dropped my sack and backed away. It would be a shame to lose a day’s work, and my bag, but I liked being alive. The wolf looked like it was alone… but it also clearly had very big teeth.

It growled and walked toward my bag, sniffing at the air with its teeth bare. I kept slowly backing away. When it got to my bag it… stepped past it. It was still coming toward me. I wasn’t sure exactly what its intentions were, but it wasn’t to become my friend. I considered running… but I only had two legs. In a sprint, I definitely couldn’t outrun a wolf. Especially not an oversized wolf like this one. It felt even bigger to me, since I was small, but it was most assuredly bigger than the size of a normal wolf from Earth.

I held my club ready. The most important thing was to stay calm. Otherwise, any training and ability I had would be pointless. I was sweating just from the thought of the battle. Maybe the wolf smelled that and thought it was fear. Maybe it was fear. Regardless, he continued toward me. It became clear it wasn’t going to leave me alone, even after separating me from my bag… so I stood my ground. If I had to fight, I would fight. I just hoped it wouldn’t be my last fight.

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