Surviving in my Own Unpublished Failed Novel

Drip... Drip...

Red blood was gushing out of Ken Raven's severed right limb. What was attached to it flew a few meters from him due to something he had no idea about.

Forcing himself to bear the pain by biting his lower lip intensely as blood drips out of it, he quickly vanished from his spot using the Smoke Blink skill, grabbing his right arm that was cut away by something. Then he quickly took a Mid-Grade Health Potion from his Dimensional Inventory and poured it down on his severed limb as he attached his right arm. After a few seconds, a red aura that came from Health Potion ingredients emanated from the point it was poured, completely healing the severed limb.

Ken Raven used one of the Health Potions that was given to each participant.

"Oi... Oi... Are you done?"

Ken took a defensive stance, ready for any possible attacks, as he looked at the grinning Dexter, standing a few meters away from him — his weapon, Sky Smasher on his right shoulder.

...

'I see...'

Russell — who was watching the battle just now — realized what happened.

'Is his mallet made from the Lightning Flamingo?'

Lighting Flamingo — a B Rank Boss Monster from a High Dungeon Tower called Blue Avian Lair — can make its body turn into lightning.

Based on his observation, the mallet turned into lightning itself, then flew quickly, not visible to some prying eyes, before cutting Ken's limb.

The Intrinsic Effect of equipment — weapon or armor — can be achieved by using the Monster Core of the Boss Monster or any monster as an ingredient. Then, it was up to the person with the Artisan profession what to do based on the client's request.

Russell recalled the Portable Tent he bought from Player General Store that has an Intrinsic Effect of one-sided Transparency that allowed him to view from inside the tent the view outside when he went to Armageddon Mountain to seek the hidden dungeon, 'Oldest Root of Yggdrasil.'

'I believe it was made from Bubble Lizardmen.'

He thought randomly before continuing to watch what was happening in the middle of the arena.

...

Ken Raven — who recovered instantly with the help of a Mid-Grade Health Potion — finally saw what hit him earlier as he kept dodging the attack. The mallet called 'Sky Smasher' turned into lightning itself, stretching its body out, and started to wriggle at Dexter's will. It's like it became a whip made from lightning, but the difference was it still resembled a mallet, its body just became longer.

'I need to aim for his arms.'

Boom-!

Ken thought as the end point of the lightning with a shape of a mallet hit his previous location, smashing the ground as rocks flew everywhere, creating a small crater.

'I don't know if he's stupid or what by letting me drink a potion earlier because clearly, he could reach me that moment, but this is my chance.'

[Activating Skill: Smoke Bomb (E)]

Soon, five circular bombs appeared in one of his hands as he quickly stored one of his daggers inside the Dimensional Inventory, he jumped a meter or two high and then threw the circular bombs.

Boom-! Boom-! Boom-!

As he exerted more force into throwing it, the bombs reached the ground in a second and exploded, causing gray smoke to spread everywhere. Only people with high perception or vision-related skills could see through the thick gray smoke that came from explosions.

Without waiting for his opponent that became alert and started to swing his lightning mallet in random directions, Ken activated another skill.

[Activating Skill: Smoke Clone (D+)]

As Ken activated the skill, two bodies resembling his appeared from the thick smoke.

Being a player with the Smoke Assassin profession, one of its downsides was that some of his skills needed the existence of smoke in the surroundings before it can be activated, but thankfully, Smoke Bomb (E) complements that condition.

"Coward!!!"

Dexter Orbelle — who was swinging his mallet in a lightning form haphazardly — screamed out of his mind as he felt like getting played for some reason by his opponent who was jumping around in the smoke.

As a Barbarian who's not even at the one-eight of his profession's true potential, he didn't know his next course of action as he haphazardly swung his mallet causing booms in every direction. Then, after some time, he jumped from his position as if the weapon he was holding doesn't have weight, but he failed to still see Ken, or in other words, he failed to discern where's the real Ken as the three figures were jumping back and forth in different locations, causing him mental fatigue and confusion.

[Activating Skill: Lightning Stomp]

The real reason why he jumped was that it was the precursor to using one of his Barbarian-related skills, 'Lightning Stomp.' Although this skill can be used without jumping in the air — that he can just stomp one of his feet on the ground — he jumped to maximize the power and impact, hoping to blast away Ken's body and his two clones away to the thinning smoke.

But, at that moment, before his feet reach the ground where blue electrical charges are charging, he heard his opponent speak in a relaxed manner.

"Stop screaming, won't you?"

Slash-!

Slash-!

"Argh-!!!"

Ken Raven cut both Dexter's hands, his lightning mallet reverted back to its solid state.

He only managed to take the opportunity to launch an attack because Dexter wouldn't be able to dodge midair. Even though he didn't know anything about his opponent's profession, he took a gamble based on his opponent's weapon of use... That Dexter doesn't have a maneuvering skill that could let him dodge while in the air.

Bam-!

Dexter's body fell to the ground with his face facing the arena floor. Then, after a few seconds, the scene came into view as the thinning smoke completely dissipated, gathering various reactions from the audience.

"What!? Dexter lost?"

"What just happened?"

"A rank 211 beat the Rank 40!"

'Well, he's not surrendering or knocked out yet.'

Russell said inwardly, observing the situation. But for him, Ken already won because Dexter didn't have the means to take out the Health Potion from his Dimensional Inventory.

'He's not dying anytime, though.'

Because of the Mana that became abundant throughout the world — the human physique grew into something unimaginable in the past four decades — that even cutting an arm or two wouldn't kill a bleeding person for quite a long time, especially with Tanker kind of profession.

"Ken Raven wins!"

After a few seconds, Dexter couldn't even stand up with his hands cut off, causing the referee to announce the match winner! Then, the staff in charge of healing not only in the physical aspect brought Dexter out of the arena.

"Woah-!!!"

"Congrats!"

"Ken, don't forget us!"

Some of his classmates shouted different kinds of praises wearing different expressions, but mostly proud that one of their classmates manage to beat an A-1 student. He gazes at them, smiling, as he waved his hand.

'Sigh... he's strong... If he didn't jump in the air, I don't know what my next move would be. That gamble wouldn't work next time.'

Ken was glad that he caught his opponent off-guard midair because he was increasingly becoming worried at that point in time as his Smoke Clones were vanishing with the thinning air. He also underestimated the lightning mallet multidirectional attacks as he thought he could bypass it, but he was wrong because if he could, he wouldn't wait for Dexter to jump in the air, catching him off-guard.

- Ding-!

He was snapped out of his thoughts, gaining back a sense of reality when a sound from his smartwatch that he just wears after the fight entered his ears. As he walked back to the seats where his classmates are, some of them extended their hands to do a high-five with him, even though he will be leaving the A-3 class because he won, no hint of jealousy was painted in their faces, but rather proud, happy, resolve, and determination to be stronger instead.

[DCO Notice]

You have won the 'Challenge of Exchange' against the Rank 40 of the A-1 class, Dexter Orbelle.

The opponent's privileges as an A-1 student will be transferred to you effective immediately.

These are the following benefits of winning the Challenge of Exchange:

1. You will be swapping classes with your opponent except for Electives.

2. You will be transferred to the Rigel Building Room 40.

2. The Obelisk Academy will give you the right to choose if you want to have a butler and two maidservants of your choice or recommended by the academy or just do everything on your own.

4. A Virtual Capsule of the highest quality will be given to you, as well as your own personal training room.

5. As an A-1 student, you will have a monthly allowance of 10,000 Obel for daily necessities.

Take note:

These rewards are different from the sponsored rewards by Obelisk's investors.

Sender: Aisha, DCO Secretary.

...

Even though he knew already some of the benefits, it exceeded his expectations by a lot of margins, then after a few seconds, he received again another email.

[DCO Notice]

As per the Obelisk Player Treasury's notice, 50,000 O has been sent to your Personal Obelisk Account, the additional reward for beating a Rank 40.

Congratulations on your winning! Keep striving for the sake of humanity.

Sender: Aisha, DCO Secretary.

'That's a lot of money... but that's not enough to buy another weapon.'

Ken thought poignantly but he was still grateful for everything he received as he restrained himself from tearing up considering being a commoner and making great progress.

...

"Are you alright man?"

A man with a fitted build, short brown hair, and brown eyes sitting on a stool in the infirmary. In the hospital bed, Dexter Orbelle is lying with one of his forearms covering his eyes, seemingly in deep thought before saying without looking to the man who talked.

"Do you think I'm okay huh, Daven?"

His tone was something a bullied person wouldn't expect to hear because it was soft and tired as if the world had left him alone.

"Sigh... I don't know anymore, I lost, that's it I guess. Good luck man, I want to be alone for now."

"Okay man, by the way, do you remember Freya's brother that sometimes visits our classroom? That bastard challenged Bailey. Haha, it's on the fourth day of the event. Alright, I'm leaving, I have a match coming up, too. Just watch later or whatever."

Daven Belrose said before leaving the infirmary. Bailey wasn't with them right now.

Dexter just listened to what Daven said without answering.

...

In Room 06, Rigel Building.

Without any interest in watching whatever was happening at the Obelisk Grand Stadium, Leon was using the personal training room provided to A-1 students.

"Hup-!"

He jumped and cleaved down using a training sword before hitting the wooden but sturdy training dummy.

Bam-!

He recalled the Virtual War that Professor Murak arranged for them, how he lost to Anya... Then after an unknown period of time, he recalled Han Jiho... For some reason and unknown criteria, managed to be Ranked 5 in class, surpassing him. Although, it's the Magic Power stat and their Entrance Exam score was the determiner of the class assigned to them... When it comes to rankings, there are unknown criteria.

Leon's fists clenched as he sat down on the floor, thinking about the last day of the event where an A-1 student can challenge another A-1 student of the same year with no concessions, thus, win or lose, their ranks wouldn't change.

'Time to challenge him this time...'

He let out a exhale as he's regulating his Mana in his body before another thought formed in his mind.

'That bastard wanted to fight Samantha...'

For Leon, ranking is a very important thing and he doesn't want to fight a double rank higher than him if he can't manage to win against someone who's only a rank higher. He wanted to take a staircase, step by step to being the strongest.

"That would be interesting to watch."