Chapter 43: How do you increase grinding effectiveness?

Johnny stood nervously in front of Brian and stared at him in fear. He was shocked.

“You think he’s gonna end up like that Mexican guy? the one who got his head chopped off,” Lucas said.

“I dunno. Maybe? I don’t think these stupid balloons can do much damage. Maybe bite a little flesh off if you’re an idiot,” Jack said.

Jack, Lucas, and Brian wrapped their assault rifles to their backs, ready to be used. They then pulled out their machetes. They had decided to grind with melee weapons now after getting shot in the back.

“Maybe we should have made him a pack mule instead?” Lucas said.

“Maybe. But I don’t trust him behind my back. And I’m not buying expensive ass kevlar for him. He can pull his own weight,” Jack said.

“What the fuck are you looking at! Scram! You have a daily quota of one skill crystal. If you come back without the crystal,” Brian said and pulled out his pistol and pointed it at Johnny’s head, “you know what I’ll do.”

Johnny nodded, turned around, and quickly walked off.

He was lost for words. Many things were running through his brain. He was terrified of those monsters and eyed the exit button. But he was also too scared to exit.

“I’ve seen enough times what happens to snitches. Ugh… what should I do? I need to skip town. They let me keep the 800. Fuck!”

He couldn’t think rationally and a balloon monster was bouncing towards him.

He put his back against a nearby tree and grabbed the combat knife with both arms. His hands were shaking. Partly from fear, but also from how skinny his arms were and that the combat knife was too heavy for him.

Johnny had always been a passive person who followed orders. The reason Brian thought he was a good target was because he knew in detail about what the English teacher did to him and saw that he was an easy victim who didn’t disobey.

The balloon monster slowly bounced towards him. When it lunged forward, Johnny closed his eyes while stabbing in front.

He heard the pop sound.

Challenge: Kill 100 Balloon Monsters. Reward: 1 unfixed skill point.

002/100

…

Grinding was hard. It was a good thing they hadn’t asked him to also pick up all the dropped leather as well, because he was absolutely exhausted.

Eventually, he fell into a rhythm of walking very slowly with frequent breaks. And when he would stab at the balloon monsters, he would do a kind of weird volleyball underhand movement where he held the knife in both hands while stabbing up. If Jack saw the pathetic form he would have yelled at him.

The Balloon Monster dropped a skill crystal.

Johnny looked at the crystal with hesitation. He was scared of it exploding.

“They’ll kill me if I leave it here,” he said to himself, and very carefully put it in the small bag filled with ripped paper he had been given.

He was extra careful with this bag now.

“Hey, whassup bro, I haven’t seen you here before. Are you new? My name is Eugene, nice to meet you,” Eugene said.

A man in a football uniform appeared. He looked like a quarterback.

“Ehm… hey. Yes! I’m new, nice to meet you. Thank you for saying hi. My name is Johnny,” he said.

“Which group are you part of?” Eugene said.

“Ehm… I’m just grinding on my own. You know, haha,” Johnny said.

His social anxiety was kicking in.

A Balloon Monster started bouncing towards them and Johnny’s adrenaline spiked again. He felt like crying.

“Uhh, lemme take care of this one. Just a sec,” Eugene said.

He casually threw his spear like a javelin. The monster popped.

“Holy crap, that was so cool! Thank you,” Johnny said.

“You’re welcome. Look, I have to run, but come see me in the butterfly zone when you have time,” Eugene said, and ran away.

…

Now that he had gotten the crystal, he turned around and tried to find the three men in black. It took him a few hours to find them again and he had to fight a lot of balloons. His defense finally slipped a few times, and he had a few bite marks on his arms and legs, but nothing too serious. It looked like a dog had bitten him many times.

Challenge completed: Kill 100 Balloon Monsters

Reward: 1 skill point

Johnny sighed. He didn’t even get the idea of spending it for himself or lying to the trio about the skill. He lacked any initiative.

He finally found the trio and handed over his skill crystal and said he had gotten a skill.

“Fuck yeah! I fucking told you it was worth it,” Brian yelled.

“Three skill crystals and one skill point. Fuck yeah!”

They each grabbed a crystal and crushed it.

Johnny flinched and covered his face with his arms.

Nothing happened.

He looked at the trio and saw yellow energy absorbing into their arms.

Jack got:

Lethal Strike: Rank 1

Brian got:

Verbal conjugations Spanish: Rank 1

Lucas got:

Engineering diagram waterwheel: Rank 1

“Okay, now let’s spend Johnny’s skill point. Hey Johnny, I want you to say…”

///////

Jack:

Knife Fighting: Rank 1

Knife Fighting: Rank 2

Python (programming language): Rank 1

Mana Generation: Rank 1

Sand to Glass Conversion Mana Blueprint: Rank 1

Healing Mana Blueprint: Rank 1

Origami: Rank 1

Enhanced Bodily Recovery: Rank 1

Speed Counting: Rank 1

Enemy Weakness Identification: Rank 1

Poetry: Rank 2

Blueprint visualizer: Rank 1

Mana Sense: Rank 1

Blunt Force Resistance: Rank 1

Pool: Rank 1

Mana Manipulation: Rank 1

Specialized Mental Sacrifice Ritual Focus Borrow: Rank 1

Typography: Rank 1

Enhanced Healing: Rank 1

Throwing: Rank 1

Acrobatics: Rank 1

INT: +1

Missions Menu unlocked.

Sewing: Rank 1

Ninja techniques: Rank 1

Lethal Strike: Rank 1

Brian:

Shield Defending: Rank 1

Marksmanship (pistol): Rank 1

Right Arm Increased Strength: Rank 1

Mana manipulation: Rank 1

Mana Sense: Rank 1

Enhanced Propriosense in Toes: Rank 1

Enhanced Bodily Recovery: Rank 1

Flame Shield Dispel: Rank 1

Cryptography: Rank 1

Enemy Pattern Recognition: Rank 1

Airplane Pilot: Rank 1

Mana Generation: Rank 1

Enhanced Vision: Rank 1

Blunt Force Resistance: Rank 1

Finnish: Rank 1

French oil painting technique: Rank 1

Throwing: Rank 1

Acrobatics: Rank 1

Vision Upgrade: ⅕ until Rank 1

Ninja techniques: Rank 1

Verbal conjugations Spanish: Rank 1

Lucas:

Insect Movement Control: Rank 1

Enlarged Penis: Rank 1

Mana sense: Rank 1

Mana Manipulation: Rank 1

Surfing: Rank 1

Arithmetic: Rank 1

Chess: Rank 1

Human Interpersonal Non-verbal Bodily Social  Behaviors Enhanced Perception: Rank 1

Blunt Force Resistance: Rank 1

Changing car tires: Rank 1

Water Mana Affinity: Rank 1

Walking: Rank 1

Mana Generation: Rank 1

Juggling: Rank 1

Throwing: Rank 1

Acrobatics: Rank 1

Enhanced General Nervous System Reaction Time: Rank 1

Diesel Motors Piston System: Rank 1

Ninja techniques: Rank 1

Engineering diagram waterwheel: Rank 1